The Wardman Wire

Via Valleysmam:

Reports tonight point to Rhodri Glyn Thomas (Ed: Minister for Heritage in the Welsh Assembly Government) being asked to leave his post as Culture Minister.

I kid you not. That is what this sign says.

There’s been a bit of discussion about Welsh Political Bloggers who have previously been sacked, mentioning “four cases”, following on from the current conversation about the author of the Christopher Glamorganshire blog.

I’m only aware of three, and among those the Christopher Glamorganshire case is unique because it involves a Civil Servant employed under the Civil Service code.

The other two are Dave Collins and Marcus Warner, both researchers employed by Labour AMs. I think that both of these basically came down to the positions of the individuals being untenable due to their boss’s political embarrassment.

But we are now in a position where there is an opportunity for the “rules” for Civil Service Bloggers in Wales to be made clear, following on from recent clarification spearheaded by Tom Watson.

I think it is quite important to get that clarification in place in case more of the political blogosphere in Wales dissolves into the ether.

Interesting. Person or persons unknown attempted to draw our attention to the fact that Wales Online has the Christopher Glamorgan sacking story first by posting a comment across almost 20 blogs last week.

This is the Comment:

Did you know Christopher Glamorganshire? What’s the gossip?

with this original article on Wales Online linked on some occasions:

Sacked Blogger takes case to Tribunal

These are 16 or so the blogs where I have seen a comment. Does anyone have the ip address?

Miss Wagstaff is reporting that the Welsh blogger, and Welsh Assembly Government employee, Christopher Glamorganshire is going to an Industrial Tribunal after being sacked for blogging during the autumn of 2007. The tribunal is today. I do not have a date for the tribunal.

The greatest value that I can add to this is an English perspective, and one from involvement in the debate that lead to the development of a set of Principles for Online Participation for Civil Servants.

These are my initial thoughts about a significant cultural divide between “us” and “them”.

Sanddef made this comment on Liberal Conspiracy yesterday, in a conversation about blogs getting - or not getting - media attention in Wales:

At least news that spring from blogs get a mention in the English press; in the Welsh media this is not the case, despite the fact that political news and comment is pretty much run by and dependent on the blogosphere here.

A “Welsh Blog Roundup Radio Spot” would help fill that gap.