Sunday 19 May 2013

Wales need the News to cover Leighton Andrews not Michael Gove.


On the part that of today's the Sunday Politics which the BBC graciously  "cuts to news from where you are" and provide us with some news of Wales, Assembly presiding Officer  Rosemary Butler  will  she was worried that people in Wales were not hearing or reading enough about matters in their own country.

She said:
We are sleepwalking into this area in 10 years' time where people are not going to be able to access news about what's happening in Wales”

"My concern is that the majority of people in Wales don't get their news from Wales, they get their news from across the English border and therefore it tends to be English-centric,"

Ms Butler said she believed that this was damaging for democracy.

"Very few people relatively watch BBC Wales or ITV Wales compared with UK news and Sky television. Therefore they are not getting a full flavour of what's happening here in the National Assembly.
"It's the same with newspapers here in Wales, we don't have a major national newspaper and the number of people reading Welsh newspapers is actually reducing.
"It's very important that the people of Wales have plurality of where they can get information about what's happening at the assembly.

"My concern is that we are sleepwalking into this area in 10 years' time where people are not going to be able to access news about what's happening in Wales."

One way would be that help.  Would be for  BBC Wales  to run its own  main news  at six combining Wales Today with UK and International News.

S4C already do this and BBC can use the same clips as the London Broadcast but choosing to comment on areas devolved to Wales eg: Health and Education.

This Week much time has been given to Michael Gove the Westminster Education Secretary clashing with the National Association of Head Teachers. But Gove  is only responsible with Education in England 

For Instance 


At a Rally for Education was the third of a series of gatherings held across England and Wales jointly by the Nasuwt and NUT unions in the hope of “defending” the education of children and young people. and Two leading teachers' unions called on the Welsh Government to tackle the problems facing the education sector in Wales. and called "Welsh solutions for Welsh schools”.




 Nasuwt General Secretary Chris Keate said more than 50% of teachers in Wales have considered leaving the profession all together, 81% feel professionally disempowered and 99% have no confidence in the government’s educational policy.

“You’ve got a profession in crisis and the [education] minister has got to start to listen and he has got to look for Welsh solutions for Welsh schools,” Mrs Keates said.
“We want change so that teachers can get on with the job of teaching.”

Speaking to an audience in Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena, Mrs Keates  said that during a time when “savage” austerity measures were taking their toll on the education system, Wales should be “celebrating the positive difference” that comes from having devolved powers.

But instead, she said, the country remains subservient to Westminster and while policies in Wales “may have different names on the tin, there is a frightening degree of commonality behind the manner of their introduction and their impact on the workforce and children and young people”.


Westminster’s coalition government was also heavily criticised as Mrs Keates claimed nothing good had come from there since May 2010, the month it came into power.

But she also criticised home grown Welsh policies, blasting the new school banding system, a shift toward the Pisa assessment system and the national pay framework that she said was being “hacked to pieces”.

“Pay has been frozen, pensions raided, jobs lost,” she said.
“Teacher morale is at an all-time low. The profession is in crisis. What the Westminster coalition chooses to ignore is that teachers’ pay and conditions are inextricably linked to the entitlement of children and young people to be taught by those who are recognised and rewarded as highly skilled professionals and who have working conditions which enable them to work effectively and focus on teaching and learning.”

In a message to Wales’ education minister, Mrs Keates said: 

If Leighton Andrews fails to seize the political opportunity we are offering him and the rolling programme of strike action spreads in the Autumn term to Wales, then he will have to take responsibility alongside Michael Gove.
“It will be the failure of Leighton Andrews and Michael Gove – not the failure of the teachers.”


We need this to have been the major focus on Education in Wales not Gove being hecked by the NAHT.

We need Welsh Solutions to Welsh problems but we need a media to report  and analyse it. 

Having a report on the BBC on education which simply sees thinks can add "in England" makes it clears this does not apply to Wales, Northern Ireland, or Scotland that this does not affect them it is snmal wonder that our Assembly is not held up to the scrutiny and criticism that it needs.

When people vote in Assembly elections voters need to consider amongst  other factors how Schools  have fared under Leighton Andrews in Cardiff, not how English Schools have fared under Michael Gove at Westminster


2 comments:

maen_tramgwydd said...

"We need Welsh Solutions to Welsh problems but we need a media to report and analyse it"

Unfortunately we live in a nation state dominated by England. It's always been that way, and always will be, as long as the people of Wales put up with it - that includes voting Labour.

The BBC is in reality the English BC, and there is no prospect of it ever changing.

Independence is the only solution with any prospect of a better future for Wales and its people, but the media are determined to hide that fact from us through lies and distortions -"You're a bunch of wallies, who are too stupid to run your own affairs, you couldn't survive without England to look after you"


Britnot said...

Totally agree with you Glyn. We have always had this problem and it seems to be getting worse. We should push to have control over the Welsh TV chanels at Cardiff rather than London. Only then will we get any kind of Welsh perspective discussed.

We should also be pushing to get a truly Welsh National newspaper as the "Wasting Mule" is a complete joke.