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My take on what's really going on in Welsh politics - updates and analysis on the policies and personalities of Cardiff Bay and beyond
17:54 UK time, Thursday, 23 May 2013
What's a girl to do on a Wednesday afternoon in Abertillery? A haircut at Scissorz? A visit to Conqueror Tattoos? Or perhaps a chat about the future of devolution?
You'll be glad to hear (particularly on the tattoo front I suspect) that yesterday I opted for the last of those. It was day two of the Silk Commission's tour of Wales and on behalf of the viewers of Wales Today, I was there.
12:14 UK time, Tuesday, 21 May 2013
UPDATE
A round of opposition party responses:
07:32 UK time, Tuesday, 21 May 2013
Betsan added analysis to:
The commission's already come up with answers to one key question - how should Wales be financed in future?
It's still waiting to find out whether the UK government thinks it got that right.
18:59 UK time, Wednesday, 15 May 2013
What's your definition of Wales in Europe?
If your answer is Bonnie in Malmö, then I'd probably stop reading now. If it's 'net beneficiary' or 'best out' then you're in the right place. Read on.
18:23 UK time, Monday, 13 May 2013
I was there, back in 2010, when the Education Minister Leighton Andrews, took a long, hard look at Wales' standing in world league tables and said that enough is enough. The Programme for International Student Assessment - or PISA tests - had found Wales' fifteen year old pupils wanting.
Everyone involved, he said, should be "alarmed". The figures were "unacceptable". Wales was spending more than countries that were outperforming us. How come? We were sliding down the tables at a speed bright Finnish teenagers could probably work out given the details about time and distance. Many Welsh pupils, sadly, could not ... even with a calculator.
18:38 UK time, Wednesday, 8 May 2013
I'm leaving the reporting on the Queen's Speech to my colleagues in Westminster - but I'll just add two overheard conversations to the debate.
What exactly, came the question first thing this morning, is the status of the draft Wales bill? What's likely to be in it?
12:05 UK time, Wednesday, 8 May 2013
UPDATE Wed 11.30
"Will they stick together and refuse to sink out of sight this time?" was my question yesterday of Anglesey's independent councillors. The answer, by the looks of things at least, is yes. Talks are now well underway to form a council, led by independents, with support from the three Labour members.
18:51 UK time, Thursday, 2 May 2013
Betsan added analysis to:
Lobbyists say that what they do helps improve policy and legislation. Their critics dismiss them as parasites.
But the standards committee in Cardiff Bay has decided that while some rules around contact between AMs and lobbyists need tightening, there is no need for a register.
15:01 UK time, Wednesday, 1 May 2013
I know what you're going to say.
Please can you stop banging on in this blog about the Silk Commission, about who's saying what to whom about constitutional reform and devolving tax and borrowing powers. Can't you go back to writing about missed targets in the health service and pressures on public services and shenanigans about smacking and organ donation, the things we really care about?
13:12 UK time, Tuesday, 30 April 2013
You've heard of George and Mildred, and Gilbert and George perhaps. I give you another partnership - a short-term collaborative duo with a common purpose: George and Carwyn, or Carwyn and George, take your pick.
The common purpose? To help scupper the pro-independence campaign in Scotland.
12:56 UK time, Monday, 29 April 2013
Last year they gave it a miss. This year they gave it some welly.
The Welsh Conservative conference was less short and sweet than brief and brutal.
11:41 UK time, Thursday, 25 April 2013
Back from Anglesey - the mother of Wales, and in the past at least, the naughty child of Welsh local government. I admit I was going to make that metaphor work hard in today's blog entry, weave in naughty steps, slap downs and so on. But you may be relieved to know that there's no need.
The metaphor is strangely apt, but the story that's got AMs hot under the collar is quite different. And yes, you'll argue the GDP figures are much more significant - but you'll read about those elsewhere. You won't read about this.
15:48 UK time, Monday, 22 April 2013
I don't know how closely Welsh Government ministers normally watch Welsh Liberal Democrat conferences. Not very, I suspect. A rare day out in the sun with the family - or stay in and watch a succession of speakers attack your alleged complacency and incompetence from the podium? A no-brainer surely.
Over the weekend, though, the Lib Dems gathering in Cardiff certainly sparked more interest than usual in the new open plan offices of Cathays Park - in particular, the speech from chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander.
09:42 UK time, Friday, 19 April 2013
"Re-org is not where I want to be".
Who said it? The then Local Government Minister Carl Sargeant.
13:55 UK time, Tuesday, 16 April 2013
Instead of questions to the First Minister, this afternoon's session in the chamber will start with tributes to Margaret Thatcher. Only the party leaders have been asked to speak and the list of those who will not be attending is growing.
All four leaders will be there. All four will speak- one in praise of the former Prime Minister, three choosing to concentrate on the impact she had in Wales.
17:46 UK time, Thursday, 11 April 2013
A guest blogpost from @TobyMasonBBC
Let me take you on a journey. One in particular - my morning drive to the Senedd in Cardiff Bay. Why would I want to tell you about my commute? Because I think it's trying to tell me something about the direction politics is moving in - at a local level at least.
19:32 UK time, Tuesday, 9 April 2013
Ron Davies is not about to give up his title.
I'm talking about the former Welsh Secretary, about his unofficial title as 'the architect of devolution' and a suggestion that it could be bestowed on another - on Margaret Thatcher.
16:54 UK time, Monday, 8 April 2013
Betsan added analysis to:
We've heard both from those who admired her but also from those were very much her adversaries: Dr Kim Howells, the former Labour minister and NUM official, called her a divisive but pretty remarkable woman.
Unlike most politicians she had an agenda, and she managed to achieve it, he said.
12:25 UK time, Thursday, 28 March 2013
Nearly every day now, I open my inbox to find an email from someone, somewhere pointing to something that's wrong with the NHS in Wales. A number are from ordinary people whose relatives were in great need and didn't get the sort of emergency care their families still expect, and still believe should be possible to deliver.
Today they can all read the letter, seen by BBC Wales and sent by nearly half of the Wales' A&E consultants jointly to the new Health Minister Mark Drakeford.
18:18 UK time, Wednesday, 27 March 2013
We were on our way home from Labour's conference in Llandudno and let's face it, it wasn't my finest hour as a driver. Or as the man who came to our aid with two big spades put it: "Stick to the politics in future, cariad!"
I'm unashamedly using the blog to say thank you to Mr Annwyl, Roy and the man in the red 4 x 4 for digging, having a rope handy and towing us out of a hole. We will stick to the politics, Mr Annwyl.
Betsan Powys has been BBC Wales' Political Editor since 2006.
Despite her surname, she was born in Cardiff and is a Welsh speaker.
She worked in the newsroom before a stint with flagship Current Affairs series Panorama.
She came back from London, says her predecessor with some feeling, "just as Welsh politics got interesting!"
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