The Baroness, her low key lecture and the press

This is my third post in less than a fortnight on the state of the Welsh media, I didn’t plan it but if the Welsh Government are to gain respect and be more accountable we need a stronger media to hold them to account and I won’t get tired of saying so.

Thanks to Syniadau and Welsh Ramblings I found out that Eluned Morgan now a Baroness and former Labour MEP gave the inaugural Patrick Hannan lecture last week on the subject of Labour and Welsh devolution.

The lecture made a few headlines about the need for Labour to engage with business but that’s about it it seems to have passed most people by, but anyone with basic knowledge of Welsh devolution, never mind Patrick Hannan's journalistic instincts could have driven a coach and horses through the rest of the inconsistencies and frankly laughable claims that Eluned Morgan made about Labour and its attitude to devolution in Wales. I never knew she had such a soft spot for Neil Kinnock either.

I also didn't know whether to laugh or cry on her claims about Labour needing to engage with Welsh business and the private sector, there were caveats of course about Trade Union involvement and references to Ed Miliband’s good and bad companies, but why didn’t any journalist ask Eluned what took her so long to come to that conclusion and what would Wales be like now if Labour had come to that conclusion 30 or 40 years ago? At least in the same passage she acknowledged that Labour has been openly hostile and suspicious of the private sector in Wales and Wales is the poorer in many ways as a result.

What’s also striking is that if this type of lecture was at UK or even Scottish level there it would have been on mainstream TV not tucked away on Sunday afternoon radio as was the case with this and the lack of visibility made sure there was no debate and discussion among the politicians, media and commentariat about what it all meant and what impact it would have on day to day politics if any.

But this is no surprise here in Wales where very few are interested in politics, devolution or economic matters in part because there is so little coverage of any of them, nowhere in the paid Welsh media has there been any critique of the lecture, which has big implications for the Labour Party and us whether we vote for them or not, rather than just reporting on it.

And it’s a theme Eluned picked up on when she said that Patrick Hannan and his type of probing journalism is a loss to Wales. She didn’t mention the lack of probing is one of the reasons why Labour keeps getting away with switching positions for electoral gain because no one has the credibility, the reach or guts to call Labour out on it – voters deserve better from the press.Any source