91Èȱ¬

Hello, I'm Arwyn Jones, a Political Correspondent for 91Èȱ¬ Cymru Wales.

While Betsan tries to make the best of the West Wales weather, I'll be updating her blog every now and again.

Next week, I'll be following the political goings on at the National Eisteddfod in Ebbw Vale, proving it's not all choirs and clogs on the Maes.

But one subject you can bet your pavilion on being on everyone's lips will be S4C.

Betsan has already blogged that the new UK Government may well be looking to cut the channel's funding. There have been reports suggesting cuts of up to 24% over the next 4 years to the £100 million they get from the UK Government.

Wednesday evening, news emerged that after five year's at the helm, Iona Jones, S4C's Chief Executive had left her her job.

A short statement from S4C followed and then hours and hours of radio silence (or should that be TV silence?)Eventually the Chair of S4C, John Walter Jones was thrust in front of a microphone to explain that a long established "due separation" between the S4C Authority (the regulator) and the Executive (the management) is no more.

Instead the S4C will have a hands-on role working with a management team that has been halved to just four members overnight.

Swift stuff you may think and you'd be right -- so swift that no-one in the UK Government's Department of Culture, Media and Sport (they who hold the purse-strings) still had no idea what was going when I spoke to them last night.

Before she left her job, Iona Jones spoke to MediaGuardian. She told them she'd given the S4C Authority a plan of how to deal with the cuts they were expecting which included saying:

"The scale of cuts needed are not going to be addressed by working at the margins, or focusing on costs.

"There is no room to move other than looking at the scale of what we do."

What we don't know is what this means for the future of programming on S4C. Does "looking at the scale of what we do" suggest that Iona Jones wanted fewer programmes, for example?

Well that's the suggestion, at least. She goes on to hint at cutting the numbers, ordering longer runs and dropping some strands of programming from Independent production companies.

So fewer programmes, but that last for longer was part of her plan, it seems.

If you think you have a better plan, S4C say they'll be looking for another Chief Executive in the not too distant future. If the salary stays at Iona Jones' £160,000, you might be tempted to dust off the old CV.

If you do decide to give it a punt, however, please bear this in mind. It's a fair old salary, but open to public scrutiny.

Any MP will tell you that when the public can see your expenses, it's often not the big ticket claims that cause embarrassment, but the little niggling ones.

Iona Jones might now be regretting, then, her claims of 66p, 55p and 33p in mileage. Nothing out of place mind. But when you're talking about cuts, as the supermarket says "every little helps".

See you on the Maes...

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