Cambria launches new political blog

A new political blog has been launched by Cambria Wales' National Magazine.

The main editor and contributor to this blog is Clive Betts who is based daily in the Cardiff Assembly building in the Bay and so is well placed to report on all the news, rumours and gossip.

Clive has been for many years Wales' foremost political journalist. Previously with the Western Mail and now a freelancer, entering the 'blogosphere' gives him much more flexibility and independence from London based editorial interference.

The people of Wales deserve better scrutiny of Assembly politicians, what they get up to with tax payers money and whose 'snouts are in the trough'. We only have to look at the recent example of how Peter Hain's political career was destroyed by bloggers to understand that the Internet and blogs can make or break the political landscape. The so-called 'Dead Trees Press' like the Western Mail are totally reliant on Assembly advertising revenue to survive and so cannot be trusted to provide impartial or investigative reporting or the intelligent scrutiny that is needed to keep people informed.

Visit CAMBRIA POLITICO

Self-styled epithet - insult to Wales

The Editor,The Western Mail,

SIR

Your lack of coverage of the Saturday’s National St David’s Day Parade in the capital is shameful. That you published false information in your Saturday edition about the location and timing of the Parade was even more reprehensible. The largest National St David’s Day Parade ever was held in partnership with Cardiff Council and the National Assembly and was attended by national dignitaries and many thousands of people from all over Wales and beyond. Some 8,000 people including pipe, brass and drum bands processed through the capital’s streets which were thronging with onlookers. The earlier military parade was miniscule by comparison. The St David’s Day Parade was officially received by officials of the Senedd and the Welsh Assembly Government in Cardiff Bay. It was, as Presiding Officer Lord Elis-Thomas said in his address, ‘a significant step in the progress of Welsh history’. Cardiff has never experienced anything like it, yet you chose to ignore it. This can only be construed as willful, discreditable negligence on your part.

An increasing number of people in this country are beginning to see through the now barely hidden agenda of your management and editorial team, doubtless prompted by your London owners, as the lamentable ABC circulation figures published last week show. Tired of being treated with intellectual contempt, Welsh readers are voting with their feet.

Three years ago you threatened, risibly, Cambria magazine and myself as then editor, with actions for criminal libel and defamation over an article by Clive Betts, which suggested that the tabloid version of your paper had dumbed-down, a graph which showed the steady decline of your circulation, and a cartoon showing an ailing mule on its last legs. The threats were, of course, swiftly rebutted by my legal team, but it is satisfying to know that we were absolutely right. You cannot fail to agree that the figure of 35,067 speaks, deafeningly, for itself.

I suggest that you remove the self-styled epithet ‘The National Newspaper of Wales’ from your masthead as it is an insult both to the Welsh nation and the newspaper publishing industry.

Henry Jones-Davies

Publisher

CAMBRIA – The National Magazine of Wales

Bogus National Newspaper of Wales

Sir,

The absence of any coverage ( except 1 photograph of the figure of St David with a strange caption in Wales on Sunday) by your newspaper of the massive and joyous National St David's Day Parade last Saturday through the streets of Cardiff and ending up at the Senedd in the bay, must rate as one of the most blatant pieces of media spin ever to befall this Nation of ours. Add to that your bogus claim to be "The National Newspaper of Wales" and there is a certain lack of credibility starting to creep into your ever declining readership.

That almost 8,000 people walked to the sounds of Brass Bands, Scottish Pipe Bands, Welsh Pipers, Drum Bands and two Breton Bagads (pipes and drums), one from Cardiff's twinned city of Nantes, who played to the thousands of well wishers and shoppers who lined the streets and completely filled St Mary's Street ( that's the one next to your offices) and went completely unnoticed by any of your reporters is unbelievable. Especially as the Rt. Hon.The Lord Mayor of Cardiff led an array of dignitaries including some 40 Town Mayors from all over Wales and the Presiding Officer for the Assembly Government, Lord Dafydd Elis Thomas, who delivered an astounding speech to the assembled Paraders outside the Senedd at the end of the Parade.

Your small notice given to readers to assemble at Sophia Close at 3:0 pm was misleading and on it's own could be construed as a mistake, but in the light of your total avoidance of any coverage can only mean that you have another agenda. One that clearly is not shared by the 8,000 people who did join the Parade.

It is not too late to address this faux pas completely, a series of coloured photographs showing just what a spectacle it was, along with an article mentioning how important this show of National pride is for the Nation of Wales would go some way to redressing the balance of what actually went on in Cardiff, the National City of Wales, on our Patron Saint's Day.

Your readers deserve nothing less.

Yours sincerely,
David Petersen. (One of the Organising Committee).