Thursday, May 26, 2011

Too Little Too late

It’s nice to see that the First Minister Carwyn Jones is capable of getting worked up over something; it’s just a pity that his and every other politician’s indignation over the cuts to BBC which could spell the death of the Welsh media is all utterly pointless and far too little to late.

Let’s be reasonably kind and only go back 12 years, Labour has been in power in Cardiff Bay for all that time albeit with others and hasn’t managed to make securing the current media and findings ways of creating the space for other media to flourish in both languages a priority. And we shouldn’t forget Labour was also in power in the UK.

But this shouldn’t make the other parties smug, the Tories are incredible quiet on the changes proposed by current Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, do they agree and if not why aren't they speaking out. What does their silence on the matter to date say?

Plaid Cymru could be making capital out of this mess, but they would be in a much stronger position if they hadn’t hesitated about devolving broadcasting powers to WAG during the last Government after realising they would have to fund S4C out of the block grants.

As for the Lib Dems they may have raised the issue a few times over the past 12 years, but where were the alternative ideas from them or support for proposals that were being put forward by those in the media.

All in all a sorry state for the Welsh Government and what's left of its media to be in – Carwyn calling for meeting with Jeremy Hunt will achieve nothing, but that won’t stop it be portrayed as ‘standing up for Wales’ and Labour getting brownie points and that’s what really gets to me.

Instead of Carwyn and his team taking some action that might help the media this will descend into a slanging match with the UK Government and nothing will be achieved as usual – what a pity.

And the sad thing is I can’t ever see the pattern changing and not just in terms of the Welsh media.Any source

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