{"id":15110,"date":"2017-03-23T15:10:08","date_gmt":"2017-03-23T15:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wcpporguk.cf.ac.uk\/how-wales-is-understood-in-the-uk-is-a-problem\/"},"modified":"2025-05-20T15:06:47","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T15:06:47","slug":"how-wales-is-understood-in-the-uk-is-a-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wcpp.org.uk\/cy\/blog-posts\/how-wales-is-understood-in-the-uk-is-a-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"How Wales is Understood in the UK is a Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was recently announced that a new BBC TV channel\u00a0will broadcast<\/a>\u00a0in Scotland from 2018. It will have a budget of \u00a330m, roughly equivalent to that of BBC Four. Alongside that, Scotland will receive more money to make UK-wide programmes. Perhaps the most interesting development is that, included in the new channel\u2019s scheduling is an hour-long news programme, edited and presented from Scotland. This brings with it 80 new journalist posts. Even if viewing figures on the new channel turn out to be low, it will still be a significant boost to Scotland\u2019s journalism.<\/p>\n

This is great news for Scotland, with BBC Scotland\u2019s\u00a0Sarah Smith<\/a>\u00a0arguing that \u2018for those who wanted a news programme reflecting the world from a Scottish perspective, produced and presented from Scotland \u2013 the BBC is now delivering what they asked for\u2019. However, it begs the question: what about Wales?<\/p>\n

Just a day earlier,\u00a0the BBC announced<\/a>\u00a0that an additional \u00a38.5m would be spent in Wales on both news and entertainment English-language programming. While this is still welcome news for Wales \u2013 and it is worth remembering Wales still has\u00a0S4C<\/a>\u00a0and once had\u00a0BBC 2W<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 the Welsh Government, Assembly Members and the Institute for Welsh Affairs requested a\u00a0much larger figure<\/a>\u00a0(\u00a330m). It should be noted too that \u00a39m of efficiency savings have already\u00a0been announced<\/a>. Relative to Scotland, it\u2019s hard to avoid the conclusion that this is a rough deal for Wales.<\/p>\n

Keeping a low profile<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wales\u2019s media profile doesn\u2019t reflect what one might expect given the Welsh Government\u2019s powers, and this can be observed beyond announcements relating to the BBC.<\/p>\n

Since last year\u2019s referendum on Britain\u2019s membership of the European Union, media attention has been focused on the government\u2019s handling of Brexit, and reasonably so. It is one of the most defining issues in British and European politics. However, despite Theresa May\u2019s insistence that the devolved administrations will have a \u2018direct line<\/a>\u2019 to help shape the UK\u2019s Brexit strategy, it increasingly sounds as if the UK government is\u00a0not particularly interested<\/a>\u00a0in picking up the phone. Carwyn Jones has said that Theresa May has a\u00a0\u2018tin ear\u2019<\/a>\u00a0on matters of devolution, while Mark Drakeford\u00a0argues<\/a>\u00a0that the UK Government\u2019s consultative process \u2018has been a vehicle for managing and suppressing difficult issues rather than addressing and engaging with them\u2019.<\/p>\n

And yet, this is not just a problem for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland collectively. This is also a specifically Welsh problem. \u00a0Scotland continues to\u00a0receive a lot<\/a>\u00a0of media coverage on Brexit thanks to its formal and informal power over Brexit negotiations, helped both by effective leadership, and by the Scottish National Party\u2019s joint presence in Holyrood and Westminster. Northern Ireland has also received\u00a0increased coverage<\/a>\u00a0with regard to Brexit. Wales barely gets a mention. See, for example,\u00a0this<\/a>\u00a0New Statesman editorial from the end of January. In the article itself Wales appears only once, following the words \u2018England and\u2026\u2019.<\/p>\n

There are at least two potential reasons for this. First, unlike other devolved territories, Wales does not present any immediate threat to the existence of the United Kingdom.\u00a0Support<\/a>\u00a0for Welsh independence remains very low, and lower than support for returning all devolved powers to Westminster. Second, along with the UK as a whole, Wales voted to leave the European Union. Similar to the UK, the Welsh Government is eager to address the concerns of those who voted to leave, and has adopted a less conflictual approach to negotiations than the Scottish Government. So while the Welsh Government has raised\u00a0fundamental questions<\/a>\u00a0about how the UK operates either as a polity or as a market outside of the European Union, and developed a firm position on the\u00a0role<\/a>\u00a0of Wales and its relationship with the UK within that, such questions remain secondary in a UK context for now.<\/p>\n

Those interested in Northern Irish politics would be right to protest that Northern Ireland is not adequately reported either. Focus more specifically on how Northern Irish politics is understood, and you realise that coverage reflects its destabilising effect on Brexit negotiations much more than it does substantive discussion of Northern Ireland itself. As an example, on Friday 3rd<\/sup>\u00a0March you could have easily browsed the BBC and major newspaper website home pages and not known that significant changes in unionist and separatist representation were taking place at that very moment.<\/p>\n

But it does not discount the underlying problems that are specific to Wales. There is a general problem of how Wales is recognised in the UK. In another example, following the 2016 London mayoral election, various media outlets (see\u00a0The Guardian<\/a>,\u00a0The Daily Record<\/a>,\u00a0Huffington Post<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Daily Mirror<\/a>) generously referred to Sadiq Khan as the Labour Party\u2019s \u2018most powerful politician\u2019 in the UK. Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones, actually the Labour Party\u2019s most powerful politician in the UK, was largely ignored in this proclamation (credit is due to\u00a0Bloomberg<\/a>, who labelled Khan \u2018Labour\u2019s most powerful politician outside of Wales\u2019).<\/p>\n

Recognising Wales<\/strong><\/p>\n

This suggests problems for how Wales is recognised and understood across the UK. In response to criticism that BBC Scotland was receiving a huge funding boost compared to BBC Cymru Wales, a BBC spokeswoman\u00a0said that<\/a>\u00a0\u2018the needs of [the] audience in Scotland are different\u2019. However, it is not the needs that are different, but the demands. It is hard to ignore the consequences of the independence campaign and referendum in these announcements. Scotland is able to shout louder than Wales, and has greater influence in British politics as a consequence.<\/p>\n

Related to this is the dearth of influential Welsh media. While Scotland and Northern Ireland both have a reasonably healthy domestic media, Wales does not. Daniel Evans has written a detailed piece on the Welsh \u2018information deficit<\/a>\u2019. In it, he argues that \u2018Wales suffers the unique problem of invisibility, of no information rather than distorted information\u2019. There is a supply problem in Welsh media that needs to be addressed. This makes it even more important that the UK (or English) media covers Wales properly, or that Wales argues more vociferously for a greater share of funding and recognition.<\/p>\n

It could be argued that Wales\u2019 \u2018low profile\u2019 is both\u00a0a cause and effect<\/a>\u00a0of the wider challenge of a weak civic society: Welsh media is weak because civic society is not able to (or perhaps not keen to) feed it; and civic society is weak because the Welsh media does not (or cannot) shine a light on Wales and Welsh issues. There is evidence of a relationship here: the\u00a0Electoral Commission<\/a>\u00a0conducted research of the 2011 Welsh Assembly elections. More people thought that there was media coverage of the Alternative Vote referendum than the Assembly elections. They argue that this \u2018reflects the more prominent coverage of the UK-wide referendum by London-based media, which is read, viewed or heard in Wales\u2019. This is somewhat less of an issue in Scotland, which has Scottish versions of national newspapers.<\/p>\n

Data collected by BBC Cymru Wales on\u00a0public awareness<\/a>\u00a0of responsibility for key policy areas highlights this issue. Fewer than half of respondents (48%) knew that the Welsh Government is responsible for the NHS in Wales. A similar number (42%) wrongly thought that the Welsh Government is responsible for policing in Wales. A more encouraging 61% knew that the Welsh Government is responsible for education. Roger Scully\u00a0concludes<\/a>\u00a0that \u2018after a decade and a half of devolution\u2026 [the Welsh public] neither knows a great deal about devolution, nor thinks very highly of its impact\u2019.<\/p>\n

In a healthy and effective democratic system, there need to be mechanisms, and robust mechanisms, to engage the public in the functioning of policy and the political process. Strengthening Welsh media could be seen as central to achieving this.<\/p>\n

There is cause for optimism. As Emily St. Denny\u00a0authoritatively argues<\/a>, in recent years Wales has been able to \u2018develop distinctive and place-appropriate responses to the issues\u2019 that it faces. Devolution has greatly aided this objective. However, if this is not combined with a distinctive and place-appropriate platform to report and challenge these issues, then it will continue to limit how Wales is represented and understood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was recently announced that a new BBC TV channel\u00a0will broadcast\u00a0in Scotland from 2018. It will have a budget of \u00a330m, roughly equivalent to that of BBC Four. Alongside that, Scotland will receive more money to make UK-wide programmes. Perhaps the most interesting development is that, included in the new channel\u2019s scheduling is an hour-long […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[71],"research-and-impact":[94],"class_list":["post-15110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-local-government","research-and-impact-methods-and-approaches"],"meta_box":{"project":"","lead_author":11935,"authors":[],"image":[{"width":744,"height":418,"file":"Welsh-Flag-2715-x-1805-scaled.jpg","filesize":522486,"sizes":{"medium":{"file":"Welsh-Flag-2715-x-1805-744x495.jpg","width":744,"height":495,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":55597,"url":"https:\/\/wcpp.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Welsh-Flag-2715-x-1805-744x495.jpg"},"large":{"file":"Welsh-Flag-2715-x-1805-1200x798.jpg","width":1200,"height":798,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":126654,"url":"https:\/\/wcpp.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Welsh-Flag-2715-x-1805-1200x798.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"Welsh-Flag-2715-x-1805-744x418.jpg","width":744,"height":418,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":51154,"url":"https:\/\/wcpp.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Welsh-Flag-2715-x-1805-744x418.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"Welsh-Flag-2715-x-1805-768x511.jpg","width":768,"height":511,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":58438,"url":"https:\/\/wcpp.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Welsh-Flag-2715-x-1805-768x511.jpg"},"1536x1536":{"file":"Welsh-Flag-2715-x-1805-1536x1021.jpg","width":1536,"height":1021,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":198503,"url":"https:\/\/wcpp.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Welsh-Flag-2715-x-1805-1536x1021.jpg"},"2048x2048":{"file":"Welsh-Flag-2715-x-1805-2048x1362.jpg","width":2048,"height":1362,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":340665,"url":"https:\/\/wcpp.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Welsh-Flag-2715-x-1805-2048x1362.jpg"},"reykjavik-intro":{"file":"Welsh-Flag-2715-x-1805-1920x1080.jpg","width":1920,"height":1080,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":266342,"url":"https:\/\/wcpp.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Welsh-Flag-2715-x-1805-1920x1080.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0","keywords":[]},"original_image":"Welsh-Flag-2715-x-1805.jpg","ID":"9808","name":"Welsh-Flag-2715-x-1805-scaled.jpg","path":"\/infotree\/sites\/wcpp.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Welsh-Flag-2715-x-1805-scaled.jpg","url":"https:\/\/wcpp.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Welsh-Flag-2715-x-1805-744x418.jpg","full_url":"https:\/\/wcpp.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Welsh-Flag-2715-x-1805-scaled.jpg","title":"Welsh-Flag-2715-x-1805.jpg","caption":"","description":"","alt":"","srcset":"https:\/\/wcpp.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Welsh-Flag-2715-x-1805-744x418.jpg 744w, https:\/\/wcpp.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Welsh-Flag-2715-x-1805-1920x1080.jpg 1920w"}],"files":[],"disable_related_content":"0"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wcpp.org.uk\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wcpp.org.uk\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wcpp.org.uk\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wcpp.org.uk\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wcpp.org.uk\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wcpp.org.uk\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15568,"href":"https:\/\/wcpp.org.uk\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15110\/revisions\/15568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wcpp.org.uk\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wcpp.org.uk\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wcpp.org.uk\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15110"},{"taxonomy":"research-and-impact","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wcpp.org.uk\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-and-impact?post=15110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}