TWO lecturers from Coleg Gwent have become authors of Wales’ first textbook on government and politics since the Welsh Assembly was established almost 20 years ago.

Professor Russell Deacon and Robert Southall, along with Alison Denton, spent three years compiling ‘The Government and Politics of Wales’, published this month by Edinburgh University Press.

Despite numerous textbooks covering the politics of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Westminster, this claims to be the first which explains how the Welsh Assembly and wider Welsh politics works.

Professor Deacon said: "Since 1999 Wales has been becoming more distinct from England and the rest of the UK in a whole host of areas.

"People may find it surprising that there has been no single text to consult or to even understand how ‘government and politics’ operates.

"Before now people would have had to try and piece together for themselves how Wales was governed. Now they can find it all in one book."

As well as teaching history, government and politics at the Blaenau Gwent Learning Zone in Ebbw Vale, professor Deacon is visiting professor in governance and political history at University of South Wales.

Robert Southall lectures in government, politics and sociology at Coleg Gwent’s Crosskeys Campus and is the founder of two community pressure groups ‘Cymdeithas Twmbarlwm Society’ and the ‘Friends of Cwmcarn Forest Drive’.

The book is aimed at students studying GCSEs and A-Levels along with undergraduates and those who want to know more about the subject.

Topics include the political parties in Wales, Welsh law-making, elections, pressure groups, Wales at Westminster, the Welsh Assembly and Government.

Copies of the book can be bought directly from Edinburgh University Press or through internet sites such as Amazon.