Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Plaid Cymru and SNP on Newsnight 'Blind Date'

Mabon ap Gwynfor (grandson of the late Gwynfor Evans) was on Newsnight last night. There was a light item where parlimenary candidates for 15 different parties took part in a 'speed dating' evening with members of the public. The candidates were not allowed to disclose which parties they represented and they were judged on how they answered questiones asked by members of the London public in each 3 minute slot. Then each person had to decide whether they'd vote for that person or not based on their answeres, and in the end all the votes were added up. When the results were anounced, it didn'y come as a shock to me as a Welsh nationalist, but I thought it was a pity that none of the people present will have the opportunity to vote for a Plaid or an SNP candidate come the 5th of May Ni ddaeth fel sioc felly i genedlaethlwr fel fi pan gyhoeddwyd y

Congratulations Mabon

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Rhys,

My name is Hamish and I am currently studying a MA in journalism at Cardiff University.

I am writing an article looking at blogs and the influence they have over voters. I was wondering if you could comment on a few questions so that I can quote you. Unfortunately the article will not be published as it is an in-house assignment but may go on to the Internet at some stage.

Questions:

Do you think that blogs will influence votes in this general election?

Do you think, to be affective, blogs should be more candid such as Sandra Howard's Blog for the Conservatives or a little more formal such as Tony Blair's diary, answering questions from voters?

Which have been the most influential political blogs you have come across?

You can email me at: hamwalk@hotmail.com

Please note, I am Australian and don't speak Welsh.

Regards,

Hamish

4/28/2005 5:01 pm  
Blogger Rhys Wynne said...

Llongyfarchiadau (congratulations) Hamish, you are the first poster on Smiling under Buses. You have won a 1988 Lada.

To answer your questions very briefly:

1. Do you think that blogs will influence votes in this general election?
No I don't think so in this election as awareness of blogs in general is still very low in the UK.

2. Do you think, to be affective, blogs should be more candid such as Sandra Howard's Blog for the Conservatives or a little more formal such as Tony Blair's diary, answering questions from voters?
Personally I prfer SH's, although TB's looks good and is a nice idea, but with most things associated with Labour it's probably set up, so I doubt if any 'difficult' questions wouldn't get filtered out.

3. Which have been the most influential political blogs you have come across?
None really, especially as there are none that specifically cover my constituency. I'm probably more interested in blogs by individual politicians as it gives you a better insight of what they think and believe (if they are brave enough to post it) and they are given much more time/space to give their point accross compared to TV and paper interviews. I've enjoyed reading (supposedly) non-biased blogs which commentate on all candidates in a particular seat. See my Blogroll: www.bloglines.com/public/rhyswynne and look in the folder "Gwleidyddion/Gwleidyddiaeth" (Politicians/Politics) to see which ones I read.

5/03/2005 3:56 pm  

Post a Comment

<< Home