Royal wedding hits politicians in pocket
It is April 2011. You are a national newspaper editor.
Do you choose to fill your pages with
a) The build-up to the royal wedding;
b) The build-up to the referendum on the alternative vote;
or
c) The devolved elections in Wales and Scotland?
If you answered b) or c) you probably won't last long in Fleet Street but there are that Prince William of Wales and Catherine Middleton's choice of wedding date may disrupt the political process.
Will street parties to celebrate the nuptials interrupt mass campaigning up and down Wales? The First Minister can probably expect an invite to the big day at Westminster Abbey, taking him out of Wales for a day.
may have dismissed the concerns but they are real enough. Media coverage of the death of Prince William's mother was one reason given by pro-devolution campaigners for the narrowness of the victory in the 1997 Welsh referendum.
You could argue that the Welsh and Scottish elections would be unlikely to feature that prominently in newspapers irrespective of royal events. A referendum on parliamentary voting systems is equally unlikely to shift many papers.
You could equally argue that newspapers are not as important as they once were. Back in 1979, the time of the first Welsh devolution referendum, the Western Mail sold 93,000 copies a day. Thirty years on its circulation is less than one third of that.
The internet may help close the gap but is unlikely to reach those with less than a committed interest in constitutional issues. If you're googling different types of voting system there's just a chance you should get out more.
The mood of national euphoria allegedly created by the royal wedding does not appear to have reached everyone. are among those who have complained about the cost of an extra day off for all.
Yet the April 29 bank holiday will save some money in the political world. It means the Welsh assembly will be dissolved one day earlier to allow for the necessary number of working days to elapse between dissolution and polling day.
Assembly members who have announced that they are standing down at the election will therefore lose a day's pay. Before you rush to organise a whip-round I'm told the resettlement grant for which they are eligible should help them keep the wolf from the door.
Hello. I'm David Cornock and I'm parliamentary correspondent for Ö÷²¥´óÐã Wales. This is the blog for the latest news and gossip from the Westminster village - with a Welsh accent.
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