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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
21:30 UK time, Monday, 8 October 2012
The man from the Institute of Fiscal Studies called it 'Local Government Expenditure in Wales: recent trends and future pressures'.
Those watching his presentation on Friday referred to it as 'the slides of doom'.
14:01 UK time, Friday, 5 October 2012
Just how dead are David Cameron's plans to change parliamentary boundaries? Are they restin' or bleedin demised?
I'm assuming, I have to say, that they are a gonner. Once Nick Clegg withdrew his party's support and votes, Mr Cameron was bound to keep saying out loud that he is pressing ahead with the vote but in private? Surely even he accepts that they are ex-plans?
19:08 UK time, Tuesday, 2 October 2012
Budget for Growth and Jobs - ring any bells? It should.
This time last year the headline was identical. The Welsh government's spending plans then were all about creating growth and jobs, jobs and grwoth. A year on, the commitment and the headline from Finance Minister Jane Hutt, remain the same. A sign of focus, consistency, a lack of imagination, add your own suggestion.
12:30 UK time, Tuesday, 2 October 2012
Betsan added analysis to:
There are difficult decisions ahead for Finance Minister Jane Hutt.
Add the squeeze on what the government has to spend to the fact that Labour holds only 30 of the 60 seats in the Assembly and it's clear a deal will have to be struck.
19:17 UK time, Monday, 1 October 2012
Tomorrow the Finance Minister Jane Hutt will reveal her first stab at dividing just under £15bn of spending between Welsh government departments. That is the size of the block grant from Westminster for 2013-14 - a fall in cash terms from this year, a squeeze that's made to feel even tighter thanks to inflation pressures.
Bear in mind that Labour hold only 30 of the 60 seats in the Assembly and there you have it: a tough few weeks for Ms Hutt, a deal that must be struck with at least one of the opposition parties. The talking has already started, with all three groups we're told but negotiations will, as they say, get underway in earnest once the Finance Minister has delivered her statement tomorrow afternoon.
12:08 UK time, Wednesday, 26 September 2012
Update: Wednesday 11am
A great deal of response to Johann Lamont's speech - this is one take from the Spectator blog:
18:58 UK time, Monday, 24 September 2012
The man they call Tarzan was the star turn at the Welsh Government's Council for Economic Renewal at their Cathays Park HQ today.
Lord Heseltine wasn't keen on doing media interviews during his visit but his presence was a flamboyant example of what seems, on the face of it at least, to be a new spirit of co-operation on the economy between the Welsh and UK administrations.
18:02 UK time, Monday, 17 September 2012
The two lawyers who run Wales met this morning in Cardiff and according to David Jones, peace reigned. His meeting with Carwyn Jones was "business-like and cordial" (direct quotes from both Joneses as it happens) with the two men getting on "extremely well" on a personal level.
Not only that, on behalf fo the two governments they agreed to put the Welsh economy first and adopt the 'Team Wales' approach inward investors want to see - and that has been conspicuous by its absence over the past two years.
19:13 UK time, Tuesday, 11 September 2012
Betsan added analysis to:
The jagged edges of devolution have rarely felt more pointed. The exam board in Wales, the WJEC, is saying hang on, earlier in the summer both regulators in England and Wales told us to change grade boundaries. Now one of you has changed their mind, the other hasn't. This puts us in an impossible situation. This not the way to do business.
The head of Ofqual has virtually accused Leighton Andrews of hiding Labour's blushes by fiddling the figures. He, in turn, has made a very strong statement tonight calling her a political stooge and accusing her of being dishonest in her evidence to MPs.
17:34 UK time, Tuesday, 11 September 2012
The jagged edges of devolution have rarely seemed so pointed.
For the Welsh examining board, the WJEC, those jagged edges look very much today like the horns of a dilemma. They've made clear that they made a grade C "more severe" because both the English regulator, Ofqual and the Welsh regulator, the government - jointly - asked them to. They may be based in Wales but in fact, more pupils in England sit their exams than Welsh pupils. They are therefore accountable to both.
20:54 UK time, Monday, 10 September 2012
How did you get on in your English GCSE this summer? Not great?
And how hot are you on your geography - and politics?
18:22 UK time, Thursday, 6 September 2012
If you had any doubt about the priorities facing the Welsh government during the next Assembly term and beyond, then the Director of the Royal College of Nursing in Wales has spelt them out pretty starkly.
You will put "creating economic growth" right at the top and few would disagree. But Tina Donnelly is clear that there is another urgent priority in the health minister's in-tray, a problem that unless it's tackled, will engulf Lesley Griffiths.
18:35 UK time, Wednesday, 5 September 2012
Do political anoraks come up with all the best jokes? I'll let you decide that one based on this evidence: "Stephen Crabb number two in the Wales Office? That makes sense. Crabs always make sideways moves."
Mmm. Maybe not quite time for open mic night yet and maybe not entirely accurate either.
12:03 UK time, Tuesday, 4 September 2012
How many lawyers named Jones does it take to run Wales? The answer, from now on, is two.
David Jones is the new Secretary of State for Wales. He is the first Jones to do the job, rather more significantly, the first Conservative representing a Welsh constituency since Nicholas Edwards in the 1980s. Cheryl Gillan got to avoid the walk of shame out of Number 10, sharing the news she'd been ousted on twitter instead. It was Mr Jones, her former deputy, who enjoyed the walk of fame.
19:06 UK time, Wednesday, 29 August 2012
If scientists ever have reason to test Paul Flynn's DNA, then I'm fairly certain they'll find proof in his genetic make-up that the MP for Newport West is officially more dragon than poodle.
Like most dragons I know, he's been around for a very long time, long enough to have seen a succession of Prime Ministers grappling with the honours system. He's sat on more than one committee that has been asked to take on that very task. The latest attempt is that of the Public Administration Select Committee, published today.
10:37 UK time, Friday, 17 August 2012
The fourth and final instalment of our summer reading on the state of play for the four main political parties in Wales from @TobyMasonBBC
For years, Welsh Labour's headquarters was an apt metaphor for the party itself. The grim, grey concrete edifice dominates the road west out of the centre of Cardiff. Shared with several Welsh trade unions, in the final unhappy few years of the party's time in office in Westminster, work began on a makeover - but proceeded at a snail's pace.
09:05 UK time, Thursday, 16 August 2012
Here's the third instalment of our look at the state of play for each of the four main parties in Wales with @TobyMasonBBC.
The Liberal Democrats had a traumatic start to this Assembly. Although they lost just one of their six seats, two of the remaining five quickly became embroiled in a controversy about their election so arcane that even seasoned hacks struggled to add a 'gate' suffix to it.
09:02 UK time, Wednesday, 15 August 2012
@TobyMasonBBC here again, with the second of our detailed looks at the state of play for the four main political parties to keep you in reading over the summer break.
Today it's Plaid Cymru - a party with the newest leader on the block in Leanne Wood, and the party that's done the most thinking about its future over the past year.
09:29 UK time, Tuesday, 14 August 2012
Hello all - it's @TobyMasonBBC here with some summer political reading, and a chance for a look in detail at the fortunes of the four main parties in Wales. What's the current state of play, what might the next year or so hold for them - and how might their strategies unfold?
First up, let's examine the Welsh Conservatives. It would not be an understatement to say that the party in Wales is close to a state of civil war. Tensions between Cardiff and Westminster, whose origins date back years, are coming to a head. What was a fracture has become a fissure and is approaching a chasm.
17:52 UK time, Tuesday, 31 July 2012
After a week in the Tenby sunshine what do you get? A list of unfinished business.
1. Now that Plaid Cymru have called off the (disciplinary) dogs against former leader and Presiding Officer Dafydd Elis-Thomas, who had accused his party of behaving like Tory (lap) dogs, will peace break out for good? I doubt it.
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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