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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
09:47 UK time, Thursday, 18 October 2012
I'll keep this short - and it's not at all sweet.
The Wales Audit Office report, published this morning, into the way taxpayers money was given by the Welsh Government to the All Wales Ethnic Minority Association is damning. Turn the pages and you'll find facts, figures, quotes from officials and ministers that point to opportunity after opportunity to stamp out the mismanagement at AWEMA, all missed.
18:24 UK time, Tuesday, 16 October 2012
Is there a so-called drinking culture in Cardiff Bay?
A straw poll of party figures who cross my path this morning says that no, there isn't. A snapshot of comments: "You just can't compare the Assembly with Parliament," "this is a very small bubble in which politicians could put themselves in a vulnerable position," "there's no more, no less drinking here than most people come across in their professional lives."
20:45 UK time, Monday, 15 October 2012
"Whatever happens in 2014, the constitutional status quo is unsustainable."
It's not the first time by any means that Carwyn Jones has looked to big events in Scotland and spelled out that come the referendum, whatever the answer, the questions and implications for Wales will be huge. Scotland is about to determine its own future. Wales will watch, knowing that whatever Scotland decides, the impact on where the UK goes from here, Wales included, will be profound.
16:39 UK time, Monday, 15 October 2012
Betsan added analysis to:
Plaid Cymru have suspended Bethan Jenkins from the group.
That means she remains a member of the assembly but essentially an independent member. She is not accountable to that group and she can't remain a front bench spokeswoman.
18:49 UK time, Thursday, 11 October 2012
Game on. That was the message from the Labour leader Ed Miliband during his campaigning visit to Cardiff South and Penarth this afternoon. But he was looking beyond the likely byelection date of November and beyond the Police Commissioner election to take place on the same d
What came over from his speech to activists was that the two party conferences of the past fortnight - Labour and Conservative - have crystallised the political battleground between the two from now until the next general election in 2015.
13:41 UK time, Thursday, 11 October 2012
UPDATE Wednesday 1600
I hope their lordships are enjoying their role in pinning down the parameters of devolution.
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.
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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