First Minister sees ‘new appetite’ for people to find Welsh relevant information but fires warning shot at Westminster press lobby

The First Minister appears satisfied with the strength of Welsh Government messages to the public, despite his office sending London media a note that reminds them ‘the legal and constitutional position’ of Wales.

We asked the First Minister how he expects to take the people of Wales along the lockdown journey, and the subsequent ‘roadmap’ out of the situation if they are not hearing his message.

As we documented on Thursday locally there still remains a split between those who understand who is making the laws in the country and location they live, and others.

Some people who are keen to engage with the Welsh Government message find it difficult due to seeing media from England, with one reader pointing out the long standing problem that they are unable to pick up any non-english TV channels despite being in Wales.

We pointed out to the First Minister that even when he features on english news channels he is often third behind Prime Minister Johnson and First Minister Sturgeon. Sky News even called Mark Drakeford ‘Mike’ recently, and at Friday’s briefing appeared to struggle with the concept of education being devolved with England, Scotland and Wales being different places.

Mike Drakeford pic.twitter.com/RTRTCj7J3s

— Joe Davies (@joedaviesnews) April 29, 2020

We highlighted that the issue is not just with media, with Councils in Wales also pointing people to the Prime Minister announcement later today rather than the First Minister announcement on Friday to find out what is going on.

Locally this has been seen in an update from Wrexham Council, as well as a Labour councillor unaware of the power of the Welsh Labour Government:

Evening Hermitage, further to my tweets please disregard the first tweet where I made reference to 10 Downing Street, the First Minister Mark Drakeford made an announcement that Wales will continue for a further 3 weeks in lock-down (an error on my part). Cheers Graham

— Graham Rogers (@ClrGrahamRogers) May 8, 2020

We asked the First Minister specifically what will be changing in the future to fix the problem.

The First Minister said, “We work hard every day to try and get our message over to people in Wales and hundreds and thousands of people in Wales follow the messages that are provided by the Welsh Government and advertised through our Welsh media.

“We’ve always had the situation in Wales where people live close to the border. They have a choice about where they point their aerials and where they buy their newspapers. I think that what we’re seeing is, is that in the Coronavirus crisis, there is a new appetite amongst people in Wales to make sure that they have the information about what is happening in their own localities.

“It’s why we hold these daily press conferences. It’s why we provide interviews in all parts of Wales.

“It has to be an effort that we lead, and then we rely on others to help us to get that message out. So that the appetite is there for most people to know what’s going on in Wales can be properly satisfied.”

In a move not referenced by the First Minister, The Scotsman reporter Paris Gourtsoyannis tweeted a copy of an email, “Remarkable and genuinely unprecedented: the Office of the First Minister of Wales has written to the Westminster press lobby reminding them that on the lockdown, the Prime Minister only speaks for England”

The text of the apparent message to London based media from the Welsh Government reads:

“We wanted to reiterate the following:
• The decision to impose a UK-wide “lockdown” on 23 March 2020 was made following a meeting of COBRA, based on advice from SAGE. • Implementation of the lockdown is, however, a matter for the UK Government in respect of England only.
• Power to impose the lockdown in Wales rests with the Welsh Government and the Welsh Government has discretion about how it should be implemented.
We would ask that it is made very clear in reporting that any decisions the UK Government take and subsequently announce, relate to England only.
I’ve attached a document explaining the legal and constitutional position in Wales — hope that helps.
We would be very grateful if you could circulate this to the lobby. We would be more than happy to answer any questions they have.
“