Thursday, November 29, 2012
Malcolm Tucker comes to Cardiff Bay
As I was leaving the office for a meeting in Swansea this afternoon, I was delayed by one of the most remarkable stories yet to emerge from the Welsh Government spin machine. It was an unbelievable own goal.
The BBC explains how S4C has rejected a Welsh government call to scrap a repeat of last night's episode of soap opera Pobol y Cwm.
It seems that Ministers complained after a character on the BBC-produced TV series said the Welsh government "doesn't have the backbone" to cull badgers. There was in fact a balancing view expressed on the programme but that is hardly the point.
This is not an issue about the rights and wrongs of a badger cull, it is about freedom of expression and artistic integrity. On the day that Leveson called for independent scrutiny of the press underpinned by statute, the Welsh Government shows why politicians cannot be trusted to be included in such a process.
The Welsh Government are acting like old-style bullies, it is as if Malcolm Tucker from 'The thick of it' has decamped to Cardiff Bay."
The BBC explains how S4C has rejected a Welsh government call to scrap a repeat of last night's episode of soap opera Pobol y Cwm.
It seems that Ministers complained after a character on the BBC-produced TV series said the Welsh government "doesn't have the backbone" to cull badgers. There was in fact a balancing view expressed on the programme but that is hardly the point.
This is not an issue about the rights and wrongs of a badger cull, it is about freedom of expression and artistic integrity. On the day that Leveson called for independent scrutiny of the press underpinned by statute, the Welsh Government shows why politicians cannot be trusted to be included in such a process.
The Welsh Government are acting like old-style bullies, it is as if Malcolm Tucker from 'The thick of it' has decamped to Cardiff Bay."
