Above: Tim Hartley with Guto Harri

London media view of Wales 'not ignorant'

Wales does not get a 'rough deal' from the London media, argued News UK director of communications Guto Harri in the RTS Wales Centre Annual Lecture on the 7th November.  He also held out the prospect that "a Sun office in Swansea or Cardiff is not out of the question".

The former BBC chief political correspondent (and spin doctor for London Mayor Boris Johnson) now has a senior role in Rupert Murdoch's media empire.  He rejected suggestions that the London media is "ignorant, dismissive, hostile or patronising when it comes to Wales".

There is, from personal experience, he admitted, some historical basis to the charge: "I remember being sent back to Wales on a story for the network, the Islwyn by-election when Neil Kinnock stood down.  I was told [by the producer of Radio 4's Today]: 'Get me lots of poor people with strong accents'."

But, he added, "that same programme has as its lead presenter a boy from Splott, John Humphrys.  And BBC News at Ten is presented, as we know, by Huw Edwards - a boy from Llangennech."

Harri argued that political coverage "has to be earned - and generated", adding: "The fact that Wales does some political things differently is not that interesting in itself.  Doing things differently is only interesting if there are lessons that can be drawn for people outside the immediate patch."

"[Wales's first minister] Carwyn Jones is the most senior Labour figure in office in the UK today," he said.  "What he and his team do here could easily be seen as a template for what Britain could be like under a Labour government."

Yet, asked Harri, "Could you really articulate how Number 10 would be different if its inhabitant was more like Carwyn Jones than David Cameron?

"I don't feel - as a Welsh-speaking Cardiff boy and someone who spent more than a decade as a political correspondent - that I could spell out in simple sentences what the current Welsh agenda is."

The lecture, "Wales: not on their radar?", given in the Pierhead Building, Cardiff Bay, was presented in association with the National Assembly for Wales Commission.

Guto has kindly made a copy of his speech available.  (Word doc)
The Welsh Assembly has also made the video of his speech available.