A growing feeling that 'Cardiff doesn't care' in the north-east could threaten the future of the Senedd

It also doesn't help that quite often on Wales today or itv Wales news any news story from say Colwyn Bay is described as "in North Wales" like its from the moon. North Wales should never be used as a geographical term on Welsh national news. It should be Conwy or in Denbighshire etc. Also bbc radio Wales is actually BBC radio South Wales. I do not know of one person who listens to it as there is everything is M4 centric. Quite often on BBC radio Merseyside they will have callers from Prestatyn etc showing that in their view coverage is relevant to them from the station

Yes it is, the masts serving us are based in England, infuriating, there were BBC Wales programmes I wanted to watch but couldn't, same with S4C

@ Chris Hoyle: As regards TVs being tuned to English stations, it depends where you live. Although we're slightly less than twenty miles from the nearest bit of the English border, being in Dyffryn Clwyd means that we can't get English TV because , being westward of the Bryniau Clwyd, the signal's too poor. But if you live east of the Bryniau in Flintshire, or for quite some way along the coast, I hear that it's pretty easy to pick up English stations. Another factor is sense of identity. My impression is that a fair number of folk native to Deeside - from the border up as far as, say, Flint - are pretty English in sentiment. And you have to factor in the very considerable number of elderly retirees from Merseyside and Greater Manchester who choose to end their days by the seaside from Prestatyn to Llandudno.

Chris Hoyle: If you live in the Maelor Saesneg (the old 'Flintshire Detached') east of Wrecsam, the likelihood is that you will not get a TV signal for BBC Wales, BBC2 Wales, ITV Wales, or S4C. The problem is that the transmitter is situated to the west of Mynydd Yr Hob (Hope Mountain). Hence, a large swathe of Welsh people receive no news about Wales on their telly. There's always BBC Radio Wales, but, as others have pointed out, it's really 'BBC Radio Valleys + Cardiff', and it has little of news value anyway (people should read Dic Mortimer's excellent article on Radio Wales on his blog). There's a local radio station in Wrecsam, but the less said about that, the better. Carrie Harper is right on the money in her analysis of the reasons for North East Walians' frustration with the Senedd. It's a shame, because, paradoxically, the Welsh language is on the rise in Wrexham County Borough, and there's a stronger sense of Welshness despite Westminster's attempts to integrate it economically with NW England. The onus is on the Welsh Government to reach out to NE Wales, because many North East Walians haven't got a clue what's going on in the Bay.

It is not the same in homes. My Mam watches footy on S4c.

A few years back there was an interesting TV programme which explored the sense of identity which people in places like Connah's Quay and Shotton had. These weren't retiree 'blow-ins' from England - Deeside's not pretty enough for that! - but local folk who'd lived there years, quite often all their lives. And my recollection is that quite a lot of 'em - though certainly not all - did primarily define themselves as English, or at least British, rather than Welsh.

Don't forget. We need (and needed) a residency law! You must be born in Wales or have one Welsh parent or have lived here for 10 years. Other than that, people bringing value added given priority. Keep it simple, fair, sensible. And no building on green sites!

Well its understandable that people feel cut off from Cardiff but does anyone really believe that they will feel more connected to London if we got rid of devolution? Or Manchester or Liverpool? People need to get better at running their own affairs and take part in the work of community councils and vote for county councillors. Basically, people everywhere just need to "grow up!"

That reminds me that for many years the Church in Wales's Governing Body used to hold its meetings in Llandrindod: the joke frequently cracked was that though it was inconvenient as a location, it was at least equally inconvenient for everyone! Wales's geography is an abiding and intractable difficulty in the way of building a sense of a 'whole' nation. As for basing things in Cardiff, I think the crucial issue was that Cardiff had been formally declared 'the capital of Wales' quite a long time before devolution was seriously thought if, which gave it a prior claim once it was. But I think you make a valid point: as Australia and Brazil opted to have a capital city nearer the centre of the country even though that meant being at a distance from the main centres of population, there's a valid case for Wales to have done something similar.

If the assembly were set up in Mid-Wales, say Aberystwyth you will still have the same problem. North Wales has no direct rail link there and that is especially true for NE Wales. Then South Wales will also have the same problem as there is still no plan to reopen the Carmarthen - Aberystwyth line. We need a new rail network linking the main centres of population within Wales. We need to bring our country together. On old rail maps there is also a trackbed route from Cardiff into central Wales can this be reopened? Our nation has been cut into 3 parts by the way the railway network has been designed by the British government in London to serve UK imperialism. This is the same as what had happened in the 20th century to the Baltic states which were all linked to Moscow but not with each other. This has been put right by addition rail lines being built when they became independent when the soviet union was no more (with EU grants). Railways are the only realistic way to link this country across mountain ranges where roads are too slow.

Good post.

Spot on. Cardiff voted No to devolution. There was almost a better argument for reinstating Ludlow as the administrative capital of Wales, like it was in Henry VII's time!

Mid Wales is not central though is it? You can get to Cardiff more easily from the north east than you can Aberystwyth. Why choose somewhere that's difficult for most people?

Once again, is Plaid a National Party, or a group of Left Entryists who entered in the sixties and seventies, as the Labour party wouldn't have them? Plaid Wrecsam seem to be a National group. Tell me if I'm wrong, as I don't insist. btw I'm an Adam Price supporter, though a catholic.

Build Nation Cymru, then?

Good point. But Wales's colonial situation means that it needs a fostering of national togetherness that is made virtually impossible by geography, poor transport links, lack of media and and an unmotivated Welsh Government that has only limited powers.

I think you're broadly correct in your diagnosis. In fact in the days before S4C when Welsh transmitters were incorporating Welsh language programmes into their otherwise English language schedules, monoglot English speakers in southern Wales - and, I imagine, in the north too - got into the habit of getting their telly from English transmitters if they could get an adequate signal. That was certainly very common in the '70s in Swansea and in Newport when I was living there. And once that becomes the habit, it doesn't readily change. We can get the north Wales TV channel where I live. Judging from the programmes offered, it's part of the same stable as 'Made in Cardiff'. It certainly shows a fair number of 'Made in Cardiff' programmes! I find a few of 'em quite watchable, but that's because I lived close to Cardiff for years in my younger days. But I somehow doubt they carry much appeal up here in the north-east ... We bought a Youview box some years ago, and found that ironed out quite a few problems. That allowed us to watch S4C when we lived just south of Manchester, which had previously been quite impossible unless you lived on a south-west inclined hill.

In the pre-digital days S4C was a bilingual channel that carried a lot of Channel 4 programmes like Brookside etc and used to have English and other foreign language films on, on a Friday night. Growing up in north east S4C was one of the most popular channel for most people my age growing up. The old bilingual S4C was way better then the modern fully Welsh S4C or the fully English Channel 4. When S4C Digidol came on the scene (which is basically what modern S4C comes from) it seemed like the beginning of the end. The same period some the re marketing of BBC2 Wales as 2W and that became the go to channel for a while, especially for the sport as it had Celtic League rugby, briefly League of Wales football and Welsh Cup football.

Amazed you are on minus for an obviously terrific idea! Adam has also broached such a thing, and I've added Wales international airport.

Let's see them do something about their clock? Though I admire your spirit.

If 'a week is a long time in politics' it's unwise to presume that the political climate in May next year will be the same as the political climate now. But I think that it's reasonable to assume (a) that the Brexit party's on the way out and that after the next Senedd election not only will the last remnant of UKIP be gone, but there'll be no Brexit party AMs either; and (b) that the folk who voted for those two parties will switch their support to the Bunterite Tories. Which at the least may mean a larger than hitherto Conservative presence in the next Senedd, a possibility which for similar reasons dismays me no less than it would dismay you.

Whilst totally agreeing that the WG is Cardiff centric and that tokenistic promises of an occasional meeting in Eg Caernarfon does nothing to resolve the increasing divide across Wales, I am equally concerned about West Wales ‘beyond Swansea’ where services appear to end. As a Pembrokeshire resident and dysgwr Cymraeg, I want to know when prosperity will be spread equally across Wales as opposed to poverty across Wales. That is cultural, economic & environmental prosperity. With job boosts, better social housing offers, a decent health service to include nhs dental treat, for better editorial opportinities and a financial recognition from WG for our contribution to the economy through our tourism offering. West Wales, beyond Swansea is always ignored!