With a full time job, it is only possible to blog either first thing in the morning or when I get home from work.Given the nine hours in-between, I am always fascinated by what the Welsh commentariat have been up to during the day.
In particular, it is worth examining what the mainstream press have, or have not, missed out from their headlines.
Perhaps the most obvious omission is the PoliticsHome/YouGov regional voting intention data from almost 10,000 interviews.
It shows that, in Wales, Labour support has fallen five points since the 2005 election and the Liberal Democrats by four points. Plaid Cymru has increased by one percentage point.
In contrast, the Conservative vote has gone up by a full nine points and, given the overwhelming dominance of Labour at the last general election, this should give Conservative supporters the impetus to go for the final push for votes during the next three weeks.
The second piece of news, which seems to have been missed in the overall launch of the Conservative manifesto, was the promise to extend plans for a high speed rail network to Wales. The party also pledged to build a new fleet of nuclear power stations without government subsidy, and four carbon capture and storage coal power stations, which is excellent news for both North and South Wales.
I am sure there will be more information when the Welsh Conservative manifesto is launched later this week.
The worst and final piece of unreported news of the day is that the BNP, according to UK Polling Report, now has a candidate in Cardiff West.
The fact that this party of hate has decided to put up a candidate in our capital city is a sad day for politics in Cardiff and, indeed, the whole of Wales. The only time I ever lost my cool on the doorstep during the last Assembly elections in Aberconwy was after hearing the intolerance and bigotry of one potential voter.
It is the one occasion where I have ever doubted Voltaire's dictum.
Given that the UK Polling Report website still has Neil McEvoy as the Plaid candidate, one can only hope that this is a mistake, but depressingly, I doubt it.
Comments
Sori Vaughan - syniad i ti cael 'headline' gwell!!!
Wnes i ddarllen am dan y 'lob scows' a dyna ni!
manifestos -they are a joke.only anoraks and press read them and no one sticks to them.
Polls -you can choose to make what ever case you want
Sad thing is that both mainstream parties have done no good for Wales
Lib Dems and Plaid we can only judge from their local impact and that's good in some places like Caerphilly and useless in Swansea.
Talking to people outside of the bubble,they are so disinterested.
Peter Hain - I am still amazed at how much publicity he gets for someone who is all puff and wind
Plenty of other parties spread hatred and fear - just look at Labour's targeting of cancer sufferers
Otherwise, we're down the road of our Labour friends who decide what's acceptable to say and what's not...
Paul
I had no idea the new boundaries had taken such a huge bite out Plaid's former majority here.