TV REPORTER Kate Adie has quashed any idea that she will be following fellow BBC journalist Martin Bell into politics.

Ms Adie, chief news correspondent with the BBC, and a familiar face with her reports from hot spots like Bosnia and Sierra Leone, says politics is not her style.

She was guest speaker at the ELWa (Education and Learning Wales) Corporate Club lunch at the Celtic Manor Resort, Newport, yesterday.

Having been on "duty" in the Gulf, Northern Ireland and Yugoslavia, she gave a graphic portrayal of her varied "jobs" and the deprivations she has had to endure.

Perhaps best known as a "disaster" journalist on our screens and who describes herself as "just a hack", she kept the audience spellbound with her tales of near- death reporting while living in a pig "byre" with other journalists, and at other times eking out an existence in war-damaged hotel "rooms" with just three walls.

Questioned after her talk on a possible future for her in politics in view of Mr Bell's success in Tatton last time, Ms Adie said: "I admire Martin Bell greatly as an absolutely brilliant journalist who has both integrity and knowledge and I wish him well. I admire these kind of people and feel there should be more independent people in politics, but I shall not be standing at the General Election; it is not for me exactly."

The South Wales Argus is the main sponsor of the Corporate Club, and Newport county borough council were sponsors of yesterday's event.