Leighton Andrews

Education Questions November 3rd

Strategaeth Addysg Cyfrwng Cymraeg

Ten years of devolution?

The National Assembly is celebrating ten years of devolution today: the tenth anniversary of the first sitting of the Assembly.

I welcome the official celebrations, though as I wasn't in the first Assembly,  there are other ten year anniversaries that seem more personally relevant: the tenth anniversary of the elections, which happened last week, which was when I published my book on the referendum campaign, for example. In 2007, we obviously celebrated the anniversary of the yes-vote, which was a much more emotional celebration for me.

Learning and Skills (Wales) Measure

As a Minister I can't take part in this debate but I will comment on the debate on Twitter from my seat in the Chamber.

The BBC has a summary of the legislation here.

Miners' Strike

I met up with Dr Hywel Francis MP last week in the House of Commons. Hywel, who wrote the definitive history of the South Wales Miners' Federation with Rhondda-born Professor Dai Smith, and founded the South Wales Miners' Library, has now written a book on his memories of the Miners' Strike which of course began 25 years ago this last week. I read the book on the train back last week and can thoroughly recommend it.

BBC Trust review

If the BBC Trust is serious about reviewing coverage of the devolved nations on the BBC's UK news network then I welcome it.

The dominance of a metropolitan agenda is the problem rather than an English bias. But it means that the BBC fails to reflect the real diversity of the UK. Too often coverage of Wales is about 'quirky' issues rather than a real engagement of life in post-devolution Britain.

ITN is worse. And the London newspapers are as bad, of course. All of them, without exception.

But the BBC should be the benchmark. It has invested internally in training its journalists at regular intervals about the differences in the UK - eg in health and education - but the reality that appears on screen in the context of breaking news takes England as the norm - eg primary care trusts not local health boards - and too often fails to clarify when Whitehall initiatives apply only to England.

I have written before about this of course - not least on Blogging the Beeb, the blog I set up when I was starting the research for the book on the BBC and Britishness I am still writing....slowly.

Ten Years On (5)

The Western Mail today has an article marking the tenth anniversary of the referendum vote.

Ten years on #2

Ten years ago, the referendum campaign was getting into gear. July 16th saw Ryan Giggs coming out in favour of devolution for Wales, saying 'I'm fed up of seeing Welsh people treated like a bunch of Sunday reserves. Wales cannot afford to stay on the touchline a moment longer'. A day or so later, Tony Blair made his first visit to Wales as Prime Minister to support the campaign for a yes-vote. He said 'the way is open for a new start and a new voice for Wales'.

You can read more in the book Wales Says Yes. (Seren, 1999, £9.95)

Which I can thoroughly recommend.

Not least because I wrote it....