Wales Report packs a punch

The Wales Report was back on our screens last night and perhaps it’s the lack of political news over the summer or its new time slot (moved from the Sunday night graveyard slot after the late news) that made the programme pack a real punch last night - long may it continue!

First up was the cancer drug post code lottery investigation and the differences between the Health Boards who offer the drugs followed by an interview with the Chief Medical Officer who struggled to justify some of the decisions, followed by what can only be described as the demolition of Finance Minister Jane Hutt (not a hard job admittedly) over the Welsh Government’s use of EU funds but also about her budget this week. It will be interesting to see if Huw Edwards gets to interview anymore Cabinet Ministers anytime soon. And one again it’s a pity we have to rely on Huw Edwards for a decent political interview instead of Wales's political editors and journalists. 

There was also a poll before Jane Hutt’s interview asking if Welsh voters wanted to be part of the EU and 45% of respondents said no in line with a another survey and one that challenge Welsh politician of all party's. There was one other figure given the highest no rate was in Merthyr Tydfil  at 57%. Perhaps the figure for Merthyr isn’t that surprising the town like many in the valleys has had a lot of EU cash, but a colleague of mine is a primary school governor in Merthyr who told me recently the school has kids who speak 9 languages which obviously puts a strain on the school budget despite help from the local authority.

Perhaps the numbers for Merthyr and the valleys are in part be down to the large influx of Polish, Portugese and other EU migrants over the past 10 years rather than an outright hostility to the EU – but who knows?

Finally there was also a plea to protect arts from the local authority cuts coming down the line but while i agree why stop at arts, Sport Wales published their bi annual school survey about the number and frequency of kids doing sport in an out of school which saw a 50% increase on the 2011 study some good news with all the health scare stories around. But it’s an increase put under threat of reverse by closing leisure centres and parks, but no one gains votes by arguing for arts and leisure do they.

The programme is HERE 

Any source