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This is where you can find my take on South West politics, high and low, from Portland to Penzance
17:08 UK time, Wednesday, 21 November 2012
Like a good fugue the recent parliamentary debate on regional pay in the NHS had more than one major subject.
Its principal theme was stated by Labour: the move towards regional pay deals by a consortium of NHS trusts in the South West was a thoroughly bad thing.
15:58 UK time, Friday, 9 November 2012
Few would immediately associate Britain's most westerly police force, Devon and Cornwall, with an excess of either crime or controversy.
Which makes some of the facts surrounding the force in the run-up to the police and crime commissioner elections particularly eye-opening.
11:08 UK time, Wednesday, 31 October 2012
Until next summer at least, badgers - and those engaged in seemingly endless wrangling over whether the animals should be culled - live to fight another day.
The Environment Secretary Owen Paterson is adamant that his eleventh hour postponement of the cull is just that and it will still go ahead - albeit a year later than originally planned.
09:09 UK time, Friday, 26 October 2012
"These are the zombie proposals. They are the walking dead proposals which will never see the light of day".
This verdict on the Prime Minister's mission to change constituency boundaries - theoretically moved forward by the Boundary Commission last week - has been delivered by a South West MP.
17:47 UK time, Monday, 15 October 2012
A Cornish council leader is threatened with a vote of no confidence.
He stands accused of "paddling his own canoe" - that is, pursuing his own agenda in defiance of the majority view of his fellow councillors.
19:03 UK time, Wednesday, 10 October 2012
Martyn added analysis to:
There's been an enormous row over the fact that Mr Robertson and his cabinet decided to push ahead with the plans despite that fact that the council as a whole had voted to postpone them.
That's clearly perfectly legal but I think a lot of people were very surprised to find it was possible.
12:00 UK time, Tuesday, 9 October 2012
A Somerset councillor claims badgers could be shot in public car parks when the pilot culls get underway.
The comments were made by Councillor Eddie Gaines, an Independent on Taunton Deane Borough Council.
14:34 UK time, Saturday, 6 October 2012
On the eve of the Conservative Party conference I caught up with the Prime Minister at Downing Street.
We talked about regional pay in the NHS and Serco's shortcomings in providing out-of-hours GP services in Cornwall.
18:39 UK time, Monday, 1 October 2012
In an interview with me to mark the Labour party conference, Ed Miliband admitted the last Labour government had been too late in tackling the affordable housing crisis.
He stopped short, though, of spilling the beans on the party's latest big idea for housing, unveiled shortly afterwards by the Shadow Chancellor.
11:54 UK time, Thursday, 27 September 2012
North Devon MP and recently-sacked Defence Minister Nick Harvey has described one of his party's flagship policies in government as "cack-handed".
He claims the pupil premium - extra financial support aimed at the poorest school children - is actually widening the funding gap between the richest and poorest local education authorities.
11:32 UK time, Tuesday, 25 September 2012
Nick Clegg was in bullish form when I spoke to him about his latest choice of ministers and the searing criticism he has been receiving from some members of his own party.
At the end of our brief exchange I was left in no doubt as to who wears the trousers when it comes to Liberal Democrat ministerial appointments.
10:37 UK time, Monday, 24 September 2012
I caught up with UKIP's leader Nigel Farage just before he headed off to the party's annual conference.
We talked about the party's strategy to finally make a breakthrough in domestic elections and the merits of European funding (like Cornwall's Objective One).
16:58 UK time, Tuesday, 17 July 2012
A revamp of the school funding formula in favour of rural schools may never happen.
That's the bleak assessment of the f40 group of local authorities which has campaigned vigorously for change under this government and the last.
17:10 UK time, Friday, 15 June 2012
The potential for children to buy alcohol online dominated press coverage of a report into underage drinking by Plymouth University's Dr Adrian Barton this week.
It centres on the ease with which it is possible to avoid giving proof of age when buying booze on the internet.
08:17 UK time, Friday, 4 May 2012
Martyn added analysis to:
Labour has swept back to power in both of Devon's cities after yesterday's local elections.
Plymouth - as usual - was a straight fight with the Conservatives, while in Exeter Labour took seats from both the Tories and the Liberal Democrats.
19:30 UK time, Monday, 30 April 2012
We can't really avoid breaking the classic social taboo of talking about politics at midday on BBC One every Sunday.
But we rarely compound the faux pas by throwing religion into the mix as well.
18:36 UK time, Tuesday, 27 March 2012
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond's visit to Devonport Naval Base gave me the opportunity to quiz him on a range of naval matters.
He was there to announce the £350 million contract for Babcock to refit the Vanguard Class submarine, HMS Vengeance.
11:10 UK time, Tuesday, 13 March 2012
The Labour peer and QC Baroness Mallalieu dropped in to join us on the Sunday Politics this week.
I'm pretty sure Ann Mallalieu is my only Sunday Politics guest so far who's also featured on Desert Island Discs (where she chose Twist and Shout as her first record).
17:40 UK time, Friday, 2 March 2012
Rural motorists on the British mainland hoping for a slice of the government's fuel rebate - launched this week on the Isles of Scilly and a group of Scottish Islands - probably shouldn't hold their breath.
This week's announcement is the latest update on the pledge to "investigate measures to help with fuel costs in remote rural areas, starting with pilot schemes" in the coalition's Programme for Government of May 2010.
13:09 UK time, Sunday, 19 February 2012
Tory council leaders have long been privately voicing their exasperation - and that's putting it politely - with Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles and his handy hints and tips as to how they should be doing their jobs.
This centres on what they would see as - and again I err on the side of politeness - his overly optimistic view of their ability to maintain essential public services in the face of dwindling finances.
Martyn has worked at the BBC for 10 years.
Born and went to school in Cornwall - working back in the South West for the last 13 years.
Read history at Oxford University.
Started his career in newspapers and worked as Business Editor.
Leads political coverage for BBC news in the South West and presents Sunday Politics.
Covering politics since the early years of the Blair government. Appointed political editor in 2008 and clocked up his first election and prime ministerial interview within a fortnight. Recently interviewed Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband in the same morning; he's now aiming for the hat trick of grilling all three party leaders before lunch.
Paul Barltrop
Political editor, West of England
Thoughts and analysis on politics in the West of England
Peter Henley
Political editor, South of England
Analysis and thoughts on politics in the south of England
Andrew Neil
Daily and Sunday Politics
People and policies that make Westminster tick
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