Senedd Watch - August 2013

Plaid Cymru comfortably held Ynys Môn following the August 1st Assembly by-election, with Rhun ap Iorwerth taking 58% of the vote off a 42% turn out. Labour finished second with 16%, and UKIP third with 14%. Former Education Minister, Leighton Andrews AM (Lab, Rhondda), defended his intervention in English language GCSE marking in August 2012, after a former WJEC acting chair described it as “authoritarian and incompetent”. Leighton Andrews said...

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The importance of intellectual property

The UK's Intellectual Property Office is on our doorstep in Newport. Have Welsh universities and businesses been making enough of their own intellectual property? Is it holding back the Welsh economy? (Pic : South Wales Argus) When I first started surfing the Welsh political blogopshere, I noticed this topic popping up...

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"Devo-wuh?" Young attitudes towards Welsh devolution

Last week, Changing Union published a short but sweet report authored by Prof. Roger Scully entitled "Attitudes of Young People towards devolution". You can read it in English here (pdf) and Welsh here (pdf). There's a Click on Wales piece from one of Changing Union's co-ordinators, Lleu Williams, and a post on Cardiff University's...

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Whipperines & Class Clowns

I'm on a "break" of sorts, mainly because there's not much to write about. I still have big posts to come before Assembly returns from recess though. I'm working on a "little something" for September. I think most reading this will be interested, you'll just have to be patient and hope I don't suffer a mental breakdown in...

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Formula One, Motorsports & Wales

Last summer, I focused on Welsh baseball and a Commonwealth Games bid in the 2020s. Earlier this year, I mentioned a Welsh national cricket team - apparantly there's going to be a vote on that when the Assembly returns from recess.With discussions rumbling on about the future of motorsports in Wales - due to the proposal...

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Riches, leave! Detroit's cautionary tale for Wales?

What happens when all that which was built to replace the ruins of post-industrial America is ruined itself? (Pic : detroityes.com) Outside of the US, Detroit is probably famous for four things : cars, Motown, Eminem and Robocop (filmed in Dallas).A few weeks ago, it became famous for another thing – the largest municipal...

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Cry 'Haggett', and let slip the blogs of war

                               I have to apologise first of all. On Monday, I incorrectly described the Ynys Môn by-election as a "contest" and a "two horse race". It was,...

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