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Election 07

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Bon Voyage Mark!

  • Martina Purdy
  • 30 Mar 07, 07:09 PM

I'm afraid I went straight into talking politics and was remiss in wishing Mark Devenport a lovely well deserved rest while I blogsit! I'm starting to think babysitting would have been easier than all this new technology. But I'll be sure and keep an eye on the latest developments in the political process - and the much anticipated meeting of party leaders determined to agree a ministerial line-up.

Super Councils looking weaker!

  • Martina Purdy
  • 30 Mar 07, 06:53 PM

I have been out interviewing Cllr Arnold Hatch, a vice-president of the Northern Ireland Local Government Association and his organisation is gleeful over the prospect of devolution. That's because they're hoping the DUP and the other parties will convince Sinn Fein to scrap the idea of reducing our 26 councils down to seven super councils. No doubt Sinn Fein will extract some concession for this move (a proposal the party only supported belatedly). Cllr Hatch is already suggesting the Local Government Boundary Commissioner Dick Mackenzie's report has become irrelevant. Mr Mackenzie published his proposals for the names and boundaries of the seven new councils last Autumn and after consulting the public over Christmas and New Year published another report today. He only made modest proposals to change boundaries and in the absence of consensus has not suggested any new names for the super councils. Is Mr Mackenzie sensing it'll be back to the drawing board soon?

About this blog

  • Betsan Powys
  • 30 Mar 07, 03:23 PM

The Welsh assembly election is on 3 May, and I'm throwing myself into the blogosphere alongside the 91热爆鈥檚 political editors from Northern Ireland and Scotland.

This will be my chance to tell you about what has caught my attention - and share my thoughts on how the campaign is going.

This blog is also your chance to add your own thoughts or perhaps pose a question.

The main thing which makes blogs different from a newspaper column or even TV or radio broadcast is that it is a conversation between the author and the audience. So, the success of this weblog will depend on your input.

By clicking on the "comments" link below each post you'll be able to contribute your thoughts - and we'll aim to to publish as many as we can.

We cannot guarantee to publish every comment you send. Comments will only be published after we have read them first. Try to keep your comments short and relevant to the blog entry you are commenting on. And as you might expect, we will not publish any which are abusive or offensive.

My colleague, Vaughan Roderick, will be adding his thoughts and observations, in Welsh, in his column 鈥極 Vaughan i Fynwy鈥 on the Welsh language election site .

About the author

  • Betsan Powys
  • 30 Mar 07, 03:01 PM

Betsan has been 91热爆 Wales鈥 political editor since autumn 2006, following a short stint as culture correspondent.
Before that she spent four years in London as a reporter on the current affairs series, Panorama, working on everything from stories about child abuse, the cancer drug, Herceptin to an expose filmed over many months on dodgy chicken.
She started her career with the 91热爆 in London as a news trainee 鈥 and was well and truly hooked while watching live reports of the Berlin Wall coming down. A year later she was sent to the Cardiff newsroom to learn the ropes.
That meant editing other people鈥檚 items in Welsh and English, for radio and television before taking up the chance to become a reporter herself.
In 1992 she spent election night in Scotland where the SNP promised an interview with Alex Salmond 鈥 鈥渢he First Prime Minister of Scotland鈥.
He did turn up 鈥 but the job he鈥檇 hoped for didn鈥檛.
After three years of fighting newsroom producers for more than 1鈥30 to tell her stories, came a move to work in current affairs and the world of half-hour programmes.
Betsan did a stint at ITV Wales鈥 Y Byd ar Bedwar before returning to the 91热爆 to work on Week In Week Out and Taro Naw, making a series of award-winning programmes.
She learned a lot, fast, about tough interviewing and stashing secret cameras in handbags 鈥 the former rather more useful these days than the latter. (honest).
On the night of the yes to devolution vote, Betsan was working with Radio 5 presenter Eddie Mair and at the count, was given a desk in a quiet, unglamorous corner.
Fortunately the fax machine was there too ... the one that spat out the all-important result from Carmarthen. Scoop!
In the past she鈥檚 spent election night sitting comfortably on the sofa, interviewing the politicians.
In May she鈥檒l be in the hot seat next to presenter, Huw Edwards.

About Martina

  • Martina Purdy
  • 30 Mar 07, 02:59 PM

As Mark mentions below, I'll be filling in for him while he takes a well-earned rest over the next few weeks. I've been a 91热爆 correspondent since 1999 and began working on Northern Ireland politics in the spring of 1996, at the start of multi-party talks which led to the Good Friday Agreement.

In 2005, I published a book, Room 21: Stormont Behind Closed Doors, tracing the rise and fall of the power-sharing Executive (1999-2002).

Blogging Holiday

  • Mark Devenport
  • 30 Mar 07, 01:00 PM

I've just recorded an interview with Peter Robinson for this weekend's Inside Politics. I found him intent on accentuating the positive. He was no keener than Gerry Adams on getting into a date for the abolition of the IRA Army Council, nor did he want to crow about whatever progress the DUP is making on a tougher exclusion mechanism.

Questioned about the disquiet of David Simpson, Stephen Moutray and others, he argued that all those who stay in the party should respect the "binding decisions" of the DUP Executive.

On Jim Allister, he shied away from demanding a by-election, acknowledging that the party might stand accused of hypocisy if it called on Mr Allister to stand down, given their readiness to accept 3 UUP MLAs after the 2003 Assembly election.

You can hear the Peter Robinson interview at the usual time, usual place - 91热爆 Radio Ulster at a quarter to one tomorrow.

We've decided to keep this blog going until our new devolution day on May 8th. After that, who knows? However I am off for a fortnight's leave.

This leaves me with a dillemma - should I appoint a baby sitter or a blog sitter? I might persuade Martina Purdy to take my 3 year old daughter to W5, but there is no way she will go in goals so my 5 year old son can take penalties at her. That's settled it - Martina gets the blog, I get the kids. Until the middle of April, cheerio.

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