Welsh Blog Round Up, General Election Week 2

Same old English, always cheating...

WEEK two. The week It All Changed. The campaign came to life as the much-criticised and still-contentious first Prime Ministerial debate surprised us all by a) holding the attention of  voters b) being any good and c) featuring some chap called Nick Clegg (the rumour is he’s even an MP). The blogosphere, as is often the case for live and unfolding events, played second fiddle to the Twittersphere. Here, the massed ranks of Plaidwr somewhat undid their party’s “am I bothered?” stance by tweeting it incessantly. Top twitterer Bethan Jenkins may have been absent from the Manchester Spin Room, but it didn’t stop her claiming a victory of sorts, suggesting “Had a few messages already telling me they are voting Plaid after watching #leadersdebate. Good news!”. The ever forthright Al Iguana, meanwhile, kept the invective up before, during and after.

Then the blogosphere kicked in. Betsan established a few facts, chief of which was that Wales notched up a similar audience share to the UK as a whole. Heledd Fychan looked forward to the Wales debates. Benny Austwick detected a Tory favouring Lib Dem surge. Leanne Wood kicked off the promised renewed scrutiny of Lib Dem policy by questioning Nick Clegg’s statements on Trident and immigration. Alwyn ap Huw gave the debate to Alex Salmond in absentia. David Raybould wished he’d stayed down the pub – despite watching it the following morning. It wasn’t, truth be told, the blogosphere at its finest, with immediate post-event reaction trumping more reflective analysis. But it added to the colour of what was a big event – regardless on your view about it.

But last week wasn’t all debate. It had a hinterland, even though it all seems a little distant now, in the form of the manifesto launches. Even in devolved Wales it’s still legitimate to follow the UK launches as well as the Welsh ones, resulting in six documents to go through in a week.  David Jones took Plaid’s “flexible manifesto” to task, a criticism presumably easier when in possession of a hardback Conservative equivalent. Welsh Ramblings went for understatement (and a commendable lack of shrillness) in his/her “Problems with Labour’s manifesto” analysis. Marcus Warner reckoned the whole manifesto thing was a dead duck, but that didn’t stop him analysing Tory, Plaid and Labour documents later in the week.

Away from the set pieces, there was still action to cover. Who would have possibly predicted something a bit odd and murky would turn up on Anglesey? Fortunately, the island has the ever impressive Druid to wade through it all. If only every Welsh seat had a Druid. Dylan Jones-Evans took a moment out from Labour economic philippics to match the scandal of Cardiff’s drunken nightlife to the parties’ relevant promises. More of this, please.

This can’t be an exhaustive review. Click On Wales, the IWA’s new online vehicle, continues to impress, despite Jon Osmond‘s questionable assertion that “Welsh liberal democracy…only started in 1999″. Finally, who this week could possibly deny Peter Black his moment? Derided along with his party from all sides for so long, it may now be those critics who appear flat-footed and marginal. Good on you, Peter.