Blogging from the Highlands of Scotland
'From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step' - Diderot

Saturday 30 April 2005

Question Time Leaders' Special - Scotland and Wales

Alex Salmond appeared last evening in a Scotland-only version of Question Time, hosted for the event by Iain Macwhirter.

You can see links to his performance below:
Alex Salmond - video, BBC text report (part of programme only).

I am no supporter of the SNP (surprise, surprise!), but I thought Alex Salmond performed pretty well, although at the same time I don't think the questions were as hard-hitting as those to the UK party leaders in the programme the previous evening; I think the questions to Salmond were of a similar intensity to those lobbed at Kennedy, probably reflecting the real likelihood (or lack of it) that he and the SNP will have much more influence after the election than at present.

In Wales, the leader of Plaid Cymru (The Party of Wales), appeared in a similar programme, hosted by David Williams, and you can see links to his performance below;
Elfyn Llwyd - video, BBC text report (*).
(*) - I haven't been able to trace a text report for the Wales programme, but as the video is available anyone who views it can make up their own minds.

Obviously I am not so familiar (or, in reality, engaged) with Welsh politics as I am with UK and Scottish events, but Elfyn Llwyd seemd to hold his own pretty well, before a rather polite audience - some of the questions were 'barbed', it is true, but the whole event seemed to be conducted with calmness on all sides. How it might affect Welsh voting patterns is way beyond my competence to judge. One interesting thing, though, is that the marvels of the internet and video streaming allow me (living in Scotland - or Timbuctoo for that matter) to watch a programme from another region of the UK which in earlier times I would have been unable to see.

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