±«Óătv

can tell you Bridgend has been held by Carwyn.

Vale of Glamorgan on 4th recount as of 0628 on Friday morning.

Your break is well deserved. Not often you have to do an entire 8-hour shift before the camera. Good show, all. I still think you should bring back The Exchange, though.

Da Iawn Betsan! Ti'n blydi gret ar y teledu heno / y bore ma!

Steve & Elin

Well the Vale of Glamorgan count was an interesting one... never the same number twice! I don't mean to get at the staff - they've worked incredibly hard (for what seems like 100 years) and I'm sure we're all grateful to them.

Maybe, for the sake of our sanity if not just the sake of accurate counting, we should consider deferring the counting until the following day. That way we don't have knackered people who have been at work for 22hours straight making mistakes (and therefore 4 recounts). I think its especially relevant when you've got two lots of ballot papers to count. There's basically no hope of completing it at a reasonable hour. I got home and opened my bedroom door just in time to hear the alarm go off!

Anyway, I'm off to lie face-down in my breakfast. Thanks for the blogging Betsan. Hope this feature makes a return in the future.

Erm.. well done to the ethnic minority candidate? BNP nearly got in elsewhere.. ooh dangerous..

Aren't the ±«Óătv meant to stay impartial on these matters?

Just wondered..

Well done Betsan.
Met her this morning at 7am on Good Morning Wales and she looked as fragrant as she did at 10.30pm on election night.

From the Wales 60 Da Bo chwi

You did a sterling job last night and looked pretty hot too, Betsan ;)

The conservatives have gained four constuencies which could be tough to hold on to as they are Wales's third party.

I'm surprised Jane Hutt won in Vale of Glamorgan by 83 votes (for labour).

A well-deserved break indeed.

I have a feeling if I ever met the ±«Óătv Wales politics team we really wouldn't share the same views (I don't have enough Green bunting - or is it yellow these days?), but the coverage was excellent and you guys sweating it in the studio kept things going really well.

I thought Rhuanedd on S4C did a much perkier job of keeping the politicos awake than her ±«Óătv 1 counterpart, but you and Huw were quite the double act on 1!
Although I do think if you and Huw had had an arm-wrestle during those arid fact-free first hours, your ratings could have gone through the roof. And I suspect you'd have beaten him, too :)

When the counters are sent home

Where was this? The Vale of Glamorgan, bless it's little cotton socks, kept on counting until a little after 10am - five counts of the constituency ballot and then the regional papers.

Given that, for obvious reasons, it was also the last constituency in South Wales Central to be counting the regional ballots, the remaining politicians and staff were only too keen not to require another tense recount to find out who would be winning list seats to the new Assembly!

Very good coverage by the ±«Óătv, I enjoyed watching/dozing while the results were returned.

Diolch yn fawr :-)

What's happening in the last regional vote? Why no news yet?

The Viceroy From Penarth.

Huw Lewis may well be counting his political blessings having secured his return to the assembly as the representative for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney constituency. However a closer examination of the figures might well lead one to the conclusion that the electorate have delivered a savage indictment of Huw Lewis as a politician and of Labour as the historic party of the valleys. It is clear even to the casual observer that after 10 years of Labour rule with exceptional levels of growth in the fourth largest economy in the world that the impact of Labour led investment in health education and the economy in the valleys of South Wales has been both inadequate and ineffectual. In effect they are failing the Labour heartlands and this election result reflects that fact. One must question just how serious their commitment is to transforming the Valleys. Health reconfiguration in Merthyr Tydfil seems to consist of removing the asbestos in PCH, a somewhat unsatisfactory refurbishment of the wards followed by the likely transfer of key services in maternity, child care, A&E and intensive care to the coastal belt.

Huw Lewis located his campaign office in New Tredegar a location that will benefit from a new hospital 276 bed all single rooms and en suite. By comparison the refurbishment at PCH will reflect the late C20th pattern of ward bays with a small increase in single rooms.

In this constituency over 61% of the electorate have so little faith in the political process that they did not even bother to vote. Of those that did vote over 63% voted for a candidate other than Huw Lewis with 7722 for and a staggering 12416 against. He may be in power in office but some would say not in mandate. This is the mandate of a failed candidate. Given that he choose to position his campaign office in New Tredegar, admittedly within the constituency, but well away from the main centre of population in Merthyr Tydfil it would not be unreasonable to ask if he was seeking to solidify the Labour vote on the Rhymney side having less confidence in his ability to secure a sufficient vote in the Merthyr Valley. Only a close scrutiny of the actual voting patterns would confirm this one way or the other and of course that is not possible. But it is reasonable to ask that if we assume the Labour vote in the Rhymney Valley held up did Huw Lewis achieve any kind of a mandate to represent the Merthyr Valley ? During the summer evenings when he may walk with his family along the front in Penarth and reflect on his good fortune at gaining a third period in office he might do well to realise that the vast majority of people in his home town have expressed either little or no confidence in him. This “victory” is a savage indictment of his record as a representative of the Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney Constituency by the electorate with a massive swing against of 23.5%. For this to happen in a constituency that has been resolutely Labour since the days of Keir Hardy is of immense political significance. If the media had focused less on the established parties nationally and more on the independents standing locally then one might well have seen a more profound change in the political landscape of Wales one that reflected the disappointments of the voters not the first past the post members we will actually have. Is it unfair to say that the established parties of Wales can thank the media establishment in Cardiff for their continuing positions in power? To people outside Cardiff Bay one might wonder if we have the emergence of a perspective whereby it appears that Wales now has a ruling establishment that is entrenched.

*** the welsh are so boring. SNP wins the day in scotland, wales shuffles 3 seats about.

well done all of you

What strikes me is the calibre of many winners. A ±«Óătv Wales website mentions Irene James. To be fair, she is just one of many. What's more, there seems to be real heavyweights among them - better suited for the canteen than the debating chamber perhaps. How about the Assembly appointing a dietician?

Sadly, proven experienced intellectual heavyweights are out because their parties scored embarrassing own goals by putting them second on the regional lists.