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There used to be quite a good programme about politics on ITV Wales called Waterfront, presented by Jo Kiernan and then Lee Waters. It was replaced a year or so back by a less interesting programme called Sharp End. Now ITV Wales has pulled the plug, meaning that there is even less competition for the BBC in political reporting.This is what we have all feared.You are subscribed to an RSS Feed from Leighton Andrews. You can send your views direct to Leighton via...

BBC Director-General Mark Thompson has made several BBC Wales journalists very cross by suggesting that the BBC Wales newsroom holds back good stories from the network.But maybe he has a point.Yesterday BBC Radio Wales reported in the morning that the Israeli ambassador had said that the Presiding Officer of the National Assembly had 'disgraced himself' by his email last week. No mention of this on Wales Today. Nor on BBC Online. If they don't report significant stories properly themselves, perhaps it's no wonder BBC network news doesn't get told?You are subscribed to an RSS Feed from Leighton Andrews. You can send your views direct to Leighton via...

Looking around the Welsh elections for some positives, obviously the Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend results were outstanding (including Ogmore). It is disappointing that BBC Wales has failed to give appropriate coverage to the recovery in Bridgend. Labour also made 5 gains on Anglesey: before we had no councillors. And I thought given the extraordinary difficulties across Wales, the overall performance in Swansea was good.You are subscribed to an RSS Feed from Leighton Andrews. You can send your views direct to Leighton via...

Last September, I told the story of how the Rhondda Lives project had come about.Today Rhondda Lives has gone live and you can see the output here on the BBC Wales website.The project was launched at Valleys Kids who have run the project in collaboration with BBC Wales's digital story-telling team and the National Library's National Screen and Sound Archive, with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund. I was delighted to see the wonderful films generated by the story-tellers, and also to welcome the National Librarian, Andrew Green and BBC Wales Head of Strategy Cath Allen to the Rhondda.We also opened the refurbished vestry in the Soar Ffrwdamos complex and the writer Elaine Morgan did the honours along with Mrs Parry from the Soar Ffrwdamos congregation.You are subscribed to an RSS Feed...

I was pleased with the coverage given yesterday to the launch of the Consultation on the next phase of Communities First.BBC Wales, fair play, was particularly good.I will post a link to the National Assembly chamber statement later.You are subscribed to an RSS Feed from Leighton Andrews. You can send your views direct to Leighton via...

BBC Wales's AM-PM awards resulted in Chris Bryant MP and myself winning the award for 'best campaigner' for the Burberry Campaign.As I said yesterday, it is a campaign we would rather not have had to run - but I am pleased that it resulted in better redundancy terms for the workforce and the establishment of a long-term community fund for the Rhondda.The award really should be shared with the workforce who provided the energy for the campaign and the unions, particularly the GMB but also Amicus.Tomorrow will see the first meeting of the shadow board for the Rhondda Trust, which was one of the results of the campaign. The Trust will provide funds for education and training for young people in the Rhondda, amongst other things. Chris Bryant has done an excelent job, with the aid of some pro...

BBC Children in Need supports a number of worthwhile projects in Wales, like the Ark Project in the Rhondda, so I hope today goes well. Charity fundraisers in Wales have also chosen to have their conference today, and I will be speaking later.You are subscribed to an RSS Feed from Leighton Andrews. You can send your views direct to Leighton via...

Along with many other people in the Rhondda I have been aware of the sale of the Burberry site for some time, though yesterday was the first occasion on which the developers spoke publicly about it.I hope that the investment by the new developers will be a success in attracting new small and medium enterprises onto the site. Their investment is a vote of confidence in the Upper Rhondda Fawr. I spoke in June to the Managing Director of one company hoping to locate there. It is a successful local construction company.There were very positive statements by the developers in the Western Mail today. The BBC also covered the story, though the tone of the interviewer on Good Evening Wales yesterday reflected the normal negativity of BBC Wales - I am coming to think that their slogan really...

Three years ago, I had a short debate in the Assembly on the subject of Digital Content, when I argued we needed to do more to ensure that Wales Welsh-generated cultural content was more adequately represented on the internet in the broadband world. I called this 'Wales on demand' or 'Cymru yn ol y galw'. I mentioned then the terrific work that was being undertaken by many community organisations in Wales in training people in making digital media, such as Valleys Kids in the Rhondda, and also the pioneering work being undertaken by BBC Wales in digital story-telling and at the National Library in digitising their archives, including at their National Screen and Sound Archive. Shortly afterwards, I discussed with my old friend and former BBC colleague Aled Eirug how we could take this...

The BBC demonstrates how to milk a news story to death by running the Hindu cow story again today. The bullock in question has tested positive for TB. Perhaps BBC Wales will bring their brassy reporters and cameras in a few months time and televise bullocks coughing-up blood should TB take hold in the area. Photo : Screenshot of the BBC Wales online news website today. The BBC has devoted endless hours of coverage to this story during the past few weeks… all very generously funded by you, the TV license-paying public! agriculture, bbc, bbc wales, Politics, Shambo, welsh assembly...

Replies from BBC journalists on their holiday plans have been pouring in. At least they were till Ashok told them not to reply!If I was Rhodri, I would want to know why so many are heading for Mwnt....Arwyn Jones:‘Pounding the streets of Cardiff looking for a house. ‘I might also spoil myself to a few days climbing / camping in Snowdonia. The hills of South Wales don't really compare with the mountains of my beloved North Wales.’Rhuanedd Richards:‘I'm going to Italy and Mwnt.’Phil Parry:‘Taking the kids to Nain and Taid in Penlline for a start and then a campsite somewhere - maybe Brittany.’Adrian Masters:‘I will be spending the summer at home in Newport. The carbon emissions I save from staying in one place may be enough to offset a flight to Anglesey for a friend's...

Glad to see this retired blogger is being given the big jobs in BBC Wales:Hello there,Tempting though it must be to work straight through the summer recess, it appears a number of AMs will end up taking some form of holiday - if only to give us here at the BBC free reign to report on schizophrenic sheep and farting cows.Actually, I think we do that already.Anyway, we did an item on Good Morning Wales this morning on Gordon Brown's summer holiday plans - just a bit of fun - and were wondering if you'd be so kind as to hit reply and let us know where you are planning to escape this summer?Many thanks and kind regards,Ciaran JenkinsBBC Radio Wales Just a bit of fun :-)You are subscribed to an RSS Feed from Leighton Andrews. You can send your views direct to Leighton via...

If BBC Wales can ask us where we holiday, I have decided I can ask them where they are going.More later....You are subscribed to an RSS Feed from Leighton Andrews. You can send your views direct to Leighton via...

I will be replying to the BBC Wales email below later with the details, but meanwhile I have emailed several BBC Wales journalists asking them where they are holidaying. Replies are arriving in a fast trickle.My colleague, Alun Davies AM, thinks that working for BBC Wales is one big holiday in any case....You are subscribed to an RSS Feed from Leighton Andrews. You can send your views direct to Leighton via...

Whatever celebrity BB winner Shilpa Shetty has done for India's image there remain a few basic facts about India:- It is a nuclear power- It has the world's second largest army- It is at war in Kashmir and Assam and in nuclear tension with Pakistan- It is stricken with povertyA new one to add to the list is that increasing numbers of Indian fighter pilots are being trained in Wales.Prime Minister Tony Blair famously courted a huge arms contract with India in 2002, a week after saying he hoped Britain could have a "calming influence" on the conflict between India and Pakistan. At the time, Britain was also supplying arms materials to Pakistan - effectively arming both sides in the battle.Shilpa may be rich and beautiful, but she didn't manage to get across the fact that of its nearly 1...

Like a bitch on heat the BBC in Wales wants a fling… with independence. BBC Wales political editor Betsan Powys is not alone singing the praise of the indy thing. In Wrexham there are BBC personnel working on a project to establish an independent media centre for Wales. The independent media centre aims to be a part of the world-wide Indymedia network. Local Assembly Member John Marek’s party – Forward Wales – is also involved in the project, along with the Wrexham Peace and Justice group, anarchists, socialists, pacifists, and many other “ists” … including our very own endangered species the Welsh journalist. On the eve of the Welsh Assembly election the people of Wales have no independent media network to articulate their political aspirations. The old...

It's not quite 'Save the Pound' in terms of a last minute, jingoistic whip-round, but it's close.Only Labour will preserve the United Kingdom, says Peter Hain today."Our shared values and interests are now under threat as never before from an opportunistic coalition of myopic Tories and the narrow separatists of Plaid Cymru and the Scottish Nationalists. The Tories, despite once priding themselves as 'the party of the Union', now place selfish party advantage ahead of national interest. By trying to whip up and then harness nationalist sentiment in England, they risk unleashing forces which can lead to only one thing: the Balkanisation of Britain."In a bizarre move, the Welsh Secretary also cites the BBC's Doctor Who to back-up his faith in the Union; another case of Wales underselling...

Just spotted this from BBC Wales Westminster correspondent David Cornock:Sounds goodposted by David | 0825 GMT |Ciaran Jenkins, author of Blamerbell Briefs and a rising star of the blogosphere, recently described my efforts as "sound but infrequent".Ciaran may have confused me with someone without a job or a life but at the risk of failing his time and motion study again, I'm taking some time off over Christmas...Not a disciple of the Peter Black school of blogging then - even posting on Christmas eve after being bitten by a dog.Indeed, Mr Black too has kind words about this blog. (If only I could fashion one of those Iain Dale style changing banners of flattery.)And so, as you can see by this meandering 2am trudge through the results of my weekly self-aggrandizing google search, you're...