Thanks to Plaid Cymru for reminding us that there’s just one hundred days until the Assembly Election.
The party marked this milestone with two unveilings, both aimed at positioning Plaid as a modern, technology-savvy party. The first was a shiny new website, the second a pledge that a future government involving Plaid would make Information Technology a core subject in schools.
Politics first and then some geekery for a Tuesday afternoon.
If, as is extremely likely, the next Assembly government is another coalition, whatever any of the four parties pledge over the next few months has to come with a health warning that they may or may not be dropped as part of coalition agreement.
So, I asked, what’s the status of this pledge: absolute commitment, negotiable or droppable?
The answer, from Plaid, is that it will form part of the manifesto which in turn is a plan for government should Plaid win an overall majority.
But some manifesto promises are more equal than others and one of the main tasks over the next few months is to try to establish which pledges from each of the parties are non-negotiable.
A side issue is a question of terminology. At today’s press launch, the term ‘Welsh General Election’ was the favoured description of the vote in May. I wonder what terms the other parties will use?
I promised a bit of geekery. To highlight the techie credentials of today’s launch, there were a number of sleek laptops, smartphones and iPads in evidence.
I’m slightly jealous of iPad owners so asked the AM hosting the launch – rural affairs minister Elin Jones – about her Christmas present. She revealed how much she loves it (iPad owners tend to) and uses it for news, music and games.
She was less impressed when I told her she shares her enthusiasm with the Secretary of State for Wales, Cheryl Gillan.
When I met Mrs Gillan recently, she’d also been proudly displaying her Christmas present and, yes, I was jealous.
I can also reveal that as well as using their hi-tech devices for serious purposes (emails, news, documents), both of these senior politicians admit to having played the ridiculously popular Angry Birds game.
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