the welsh

+ Peter Stead Dylan at 100 Richard Wyn Jones and Roger Scully Do we need another referendum? John Osmond Learning from Mondragon Stuart Cole A railway co-op for Wales David Williams Sliding into poverty James Stewart A lost broadcasting service Peter Finch Wales sees too Talking to India Trevor Fishlock The virtues of left handednesss much through Osi Rhys Osmond Two lives in art Ned Thomas Scottish eyes Interconnected European stories M. Wynne Thomas The best sort of crank

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Wasn’t 2008 enough? democracy itself is held. First Base, 22 Ganton Street, London W1F 7BY Tel: 020 7851 5521 the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 1 Contents

Agenda 47 Summer 2012 1 3 Mel Gibson in the film Braveheart Changing Union 30. Valleys can cut it Education (1995) playing William Wallace, a commoner, who unites the 13th in engineering Century Scots in their battle to COVER STORY Rhys David reports on the 40. We need to end second overthrow English rule. 18. Following Scotland GE aircraft maintenance rate vocational culture has run its course plant at Nantgarw, one Jim Bennett argues that Gerald Holtham argues that of Wales’ most successful competition between schools building the economy must enterprises and colleges is impeding the now precede more political reputation and delivery of autonomy for Wales CO-OP SPECIAL work-related technical subjects

21. Will Britain turn 43. More theory than into England? understanding in Robin McAlpine says that teaching reading whatever the result of the Geraldine Barry says ‘not invented Scottish independence here’ is the attitude of many Welsh referendum Yes or No schools when confronted with culture wars will continue new literacy ideas north of the border 46. Wales is sitting on a bilingual gold mine 33. Learning from Lisa Jones describes her efforts Mondragon to teach the language to parents John Osmond joined a whose children are attending delegation from Wales to Welsh-medium schools a the Basque Country in April to discover why one 24. How to damage of the world’s largest co- 4.  Essay public confidence in operative groups has been He was happy all the devolution so successful 4 time Richard Wyn Jones and Social Policy Peter Stead on why the Roger Scully reject the 36. Could a co-op run world of Wales’s most arguments for a referendum our trains? 48. Building on the famous poet continues to on devolving taxes to the Stuart Cole examines Ombudsman’s casebook fascinate not only us but National Assembly the options facing the Peter Tyndall explains much of the rest of the Welsh Government when why we should extend the planet as well it considers the future landscape of redress in Wales ownership and control of 8.  News our railway network 50. Sliding silently into poverty 10. Outlook 2 David Williams discovers Future of rural Wales Economy 38. Feedback vital for that we are at risk of losing –Paul Milbourne effective Welsh public a generation of young –Nerys Owens and 28. Nurturing our procurement people in Wales Jonathan Radcliffe entrepreneurs Dermot Cahill and Ceri –Lawrence Kitchen Walter May makes the case Evans investigate the 54. Why we need a strategy –Peter Midmore for a new organisation experience of Welsh for young carers –Terry Marsden to lead new thinking on companies when tendering Vanessa Webb examines the an all-Wales strategy for for public sector contracts problems of the more than indigenous business growth 11,000 Welsh children who look after family members

2 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org

Newsflash

Coming Up Darlith yr Eisteddfod Lecture / Bro Morgannwg/ Vale of Glamorgan 7 Awst/August 2011, 11 to 12 y.b. / noon – Pabell y Cymdeithasau 5 8 Yr Arthro/ Professor Thomas Watkin Environment Culture O Ddadleuon Dichellgar at Ddatganoli: Hanes Ymgyrchion am Awdurdodaeth Gymreig. From Devious Debates to Devolution: the History of Campaigns for a Welsh Jurisdiction 56. Our central 70.  Fishlock’s File Darperir cyfeithu ar y prydd / Simultaneous translation provided organising principle The virtues of left- Elin Royles believes the handedness Trafodaeth IWA Debate un yr Eisteddfod Welsh Government’s Trevor Fishlock muses on Bro Morgannwg/ Vale of Glamorgan Sefydliad Materion Cymreig 1987-2012 - Cymru: Ystyried ein dyfodol forthcoming Sustainable the sinister meanings of Institute of Welsh Affairs 1987-2012 – Wales: Thinking our Future Development Bill has small things ground breaking potential A glimpse into the world of glass manufacturing Swansea Bay Branch event Thursday 12.30pm 6 September 2012 72. Two lives in art Lunch and tour of AB Glass with Managing Director Alan Brayley, Clifford House, Osi Rhys Osmond is captured Felinfach, Swansea West Industrial Estate, SA5 4HF Entry free but places limited by a study of John and Glyndwr Day Lecture Myfanwy Piper who reshaped 6 Sun 16 September 2012, 7.00pm, Galeri, Caernarfon perceptions of Englishness in Mererid Hopwood – Ein gwrol rhyfelwyr, gwladgarwyr of fri (Our brave warriors Communications the mid 20th Century and fine patriots) £8.00 to include wine reception (£6.00 IWA members) Darperir cyfeithu ar y prydd / Simultaneous translation provided 60. A lost model for 76. We have a real Welsh public service country now 25/25 Vision: Celebrating the IWA’s 25th birthday broadcasting Richard Davies reflects Thurs 27 September 2012 6.00pm, Old Library and St David’s Hall, Cardiff James Stewart looks back at on 20 years of bleakness Reception and Dinner: Launch of exhibition and volume of essays by 25 leading writers Speaker: Professor Dai Smith, Chair, Arts Council of Wales what might have been in the counterpointed by hope in £50+VAT (£40+VAT IWA members). Table of ten £450+VAT (£360+VAT IWA provision of an equivalent to a Welsh publishing members) Welsh Press Association service Blue plaques for Swansea 80. Reviews Swansea Branch event. 5.30pm registration to 8pm 62. The inaugural Welsh vook A warning against National Waterfront Museum Colin Thomas describes dominant narratives in Peter Stead on Swansea’s greats Entry free the production he has in recent Welsh history Alternative finance for Welsh micro-businesses hand for our first ebook, Geraint Talfan Davies In association with FSB a combination of text and  Tues 23 October 2012, 9.00am – 4.30pm, Novotel, Cardiff video, on Wales and America ‘The best sort of crank’ Micro-businesses employing fewer than 9 people account for the vast majority of M. Wynn Thomas businesses in Wales – 193,010 in 2011, or 94.5 per cent. Yet these businesses – the main growth engine of the Welsh economy – are experiencing severe problems 66. Talking to India in obtaining finance from conventional banks. Peter Finch delves into the Our shared web Keynote speakers: Professor Richard Werner, Director of Centre for Banking, opaque world of accessing the of interconnected Southampton University; Graheme Fisher, head of Policy, FSB. £70 (£56 IWA Members) next generation of broadband European lives Ned Thomas IWA/ Western Mail Business Awards In association with PwC Friday 9 November 2012 Wide-eyed love of Award ceremony and dinner to honour the best in Welsh business £78 (£72 IWA member); table of ten £720 (£660 IWA members) a Welsh pilgrim for Armenia North Wales IWA 25th Anniversary Dinner 7 Mike Joseph Thursday 6 December 7.00pm, St George’s Hotel, Llandudno Guest Speaker: Education Minister Leighton Andrews AM Heritage £39.50 (£32 IWA member); table of ten £375 (IWA member £300)

68. Farming and food 88. Last Word: in Abergavenny Wandering around a Just Published Andris Taurins says planners national conversation Growing our woodlands in Wales – the 100,000 are playing fast and loose Peter Stead hectare challenge By John Osmond and Stevie Upton £10 with the heritage of one of Leading the Dragon – Lessons for Wales from the Basque Mondragon co-operative our oldest market towns Edited by John Osmond £10 Wales Central Organising Principle – All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval Legislating for sustainable development system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recorded or Edited by Anna Nicholl and John Osmond £10 otherwise without the permission of the publisher, the Institute of Welsh Affairs. ISSN 1464-7613 More information: www.iwa.org.uk Essay —Essay He was happy all the time Peter Stead on why the world of Wales’s most famous poet continues a to fascinate not only us but much of the rest of the planet as well

The idea of an international literary prize straight whiskies’ and an accompanying based in Wales came to me as I strolled on smirk. The time had come to make crystal the beach at Viareggio in Tuscany. To liven clear the extent of his poetic achievement up its quiet winter season the fashionable and the enormous inspiration his poems resort had instituted a literary prize which had provided around the world. invited all the short-listed writers to come Secondly the Prize would allow the city to the town to give readings and talks. of Swansea to give coherence and added Walking on the beach it occurred to me literary depth to its association with its most that the Viareggio Prize probably owed famous son. Much had been achieved Articles much to the English poet Shelley. As I by the Dylan Thomas Festival, the Dylan visited the towns of Tuscany that summer Thomas Centre, Dylan’s Bookshop and the Essay: I had spotted countless blue plaques restored Dylan’s Home. Yet the Kingsley commemorating the residency of Shelley Amis satire of the small-town ‘Brydan’ He was happy all and Byron. In August 1822 Shelley was industry was still far too fresh in the mind. the time drowned off Viareggio and subsequently The new Prize would allow Swansea to cremated on the beach: a small monument celebrate the extent to which its culture News stands near the spot. had inspired Dylan whilst indicating a I began to think of my home city and continuing commitment to encouraging Outlook: whether a literary prize would enliven its young writers. The whole literary world Future of winters. I thought, too, of whether the spirit would realise that Swansea and Wales rural Wales of Shelley could be reflected in it being cared about exciting new writing in English. a prize for young writers, for Shelley had I had long been fascinated by the sharp Paul Milbourne died at the age of 30. The notion of young contrast between the public recognition Nerys Owens writers led me inevitably to the remarkable given to great writers and the struggle and Jonathan career of that essentially youthful writer of young writers to be published at all. Radcliffe Dylan Thomas whose spirit should also Literary prizes are an absolutely established Lawrence be incorporated into any new prize. As I part of the publishing industry. Every time Kitchen recalled that Shelley had lived in Wales I pick up a new novel by my favourite I remembered the detail that he had novelist Philip Roth I re-read the list of the Peter Midmore hurriedly left the country after locals had almost twenty major literary prizes he has Terry Marsden fired shots at him. As it happened 133 years accumulated. I then recall how as a young later and some sixty miles to the south, shots student I was greatly affected by Jack were fired at Dylan Thomas. One hesitates London’s autobiographical novel Martin to generalise but Cardigan Bay would seem Eden. The young Martin badly wanted to to be a dangerous spot for young poets. give up working on boats and to become a It was obvious that an international writer but there were many difficulties. He prize for young writers based in Wales wanted to be a poet: ‘He ached with desire should carry the name of the poet who to express, and could but jibber prosaically’. was by far the country’s best known Meanwhile, he settled for sending stories writer. The aim of the Prize would be to to the press but rejection slip followed discover and encourage young writers. rejection slip. He re-read the rejected At the same time, the use of Dylan’s name stories in puzzlement. And then London would clear up two matters. In spite of writes a sentence that brought a tear to my three excellent biographies and other eye: “One day he read in a newspaper that critical works, the name of Dylan still manuscripts should always be typewritten”. tended to invite mention of ‘the eighteen Ruth, his girlfriend and muse, explains that,

4 | Essay

“writing must be a trade, like anything else. You couldn’t hope to be a blacksmith without spending three years at learning the trade – or is it five years”. Another painful memory from my American reading was the story of John Kennedy Toole, born in New Orleans in 1937, dead in 1969 having killed himself as a consequence of his failure to find a publisher for his novel. A Confederacy of Dunces was eventually published (winning a Pulitzer) in 1980 following a sustained campaign by the author’s mother who was convinced of its ‘greatness’. Crucially she had enlisted the support of the novelist Walker Percy who was teaching at Tulane University and who recalled his initial reluctance to deal with a persistent mother handling a “badly smeared, scarcely readable carbon”. As it happened, the Toole who could not find a publisher not only had Masters in English but had also been a university teacher. My attention was more usually paid to those remarkable American writers Dylan Thomas photographed in 1941 in the Salisbury pub in St Martin’s Lane, London. Photo: Bill Brandt. who had experienced all the rawness of their country’s job market. The knowledge It was precisely the contemplation of not need to be an analyst to see that there that Jack London had captained his own those years that led me to consider the were no giant steps from her panacea for sloop at the age of 15 and had been known career of Dylan Thomas and the utter all ills, “hot milk with broken up bread and as ‘the Prince of the Oyster Pirates’ drew logic of naming a literary prize for writers a good dollop of salt”, to Dylan’s life-long one to his writing. Dashiell Hammett under the age of thirty in his honour. Dylan passion for hot baths accompanied by had been a messenger boy, stevedore, himself had drifted out of his grammar books, boiled sweets, pickled onions, nuts, Pinkerton operative and soldier. All these school, never went to college or attended and fizzy drinks, then a love of beer and careers had given an authenticity to writing classes and passed relatively cigarettes and, finally, that combination of American literature whilst the sad stories straightforwardly from writing for the injected drugs and whisky that contributed of Martin Eden and John Kennedy Toole school magazine and the local paper to a to his death at the age of 39. served as direct inspiration for The Dylan literary career. When he was 19 his poems His wife Caitlin’s 1997 book Double Thomas Prize. were in national magazines and on the Drink Story remains the most revealing With the exception of Dickens and BBC. His first book appeared when he psychological portrait of Dylan. She George Gissing British literary lives was 20 and that same year he won his first emphasised that everything that was seemed more mundane. Gissing certainly prize. His second book appeared when he warm, cosy and lovable about the son (and made me think long and hard about was 22. as Andrew Lycett has made clear most undiscovered young writers. In his spoof Dylan’s biographers have been people who knew Dylan appreciated these autobiography, The Private Papers of Henry fascinated by the family that lived on qualities) came from his mother. Dylan, Ryecroft, the ageing writer recalls his life Cwmdonkin Drive in Swansea’s Uplands. says Caitlin, was “a professional baby. He “in the garret and cellar” and reflects on They all concede that the cherubic, even would never grow up. He had made up his “the waste of energy, of zeal, of youth” angelic, child was indulged to an extent mind not to. He knew exactly what he was and of “rare vitality condemned to sordid that stunted his efforts to mature. His doing”. Describing his appearance when strife”. He reflects, “I suppose not one in schoolteacher father appreciated that his they first met, Caitlin explains that, “I never a thousand uses half the possibilities of son would become the acclaimed writer quite thought of him as a man. It must have natural joy and delightful effort which lie that he had failed to be. His mother, who been his little-boy lost demeanour that in those years between seventeen and was destined to outlive him by five years, attracted me to Dylan. He became my very seven-and-twenty”. spoilt him something rotten. One does own newborn baby. But underneath that

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 5 Essay seeming innocence and helplessness lay a hotbed of cunning and scheming”. Classically then, Dylan was ‘spoilt’. And, of course, there was an attractive side to that spoiling. There was that sense that the world of books and words was both natural and fulfilling. More or less from the start it was assumed that Dylan’s day would consist of a morning reading by the fire, to be followed by an afternoon by the fire reading and writing “to let the words and ideas tumble on to the sheets of paper” or, of course, into those notebooks that were to be the basis of nearly all his published poems. He was ‘spoilt’ at home but what has always fascinated and delighted me was the Dylan with Caitlin who described him as “a professional baby. He would never grow up. extent to which the young Dylan was ‘spoilt’ He had made up his mind not to.” by the town in which he grew up. The cherubic wordsmith could so easily have international politics and subsequently coterie in which poet Vernon Watkins and become a hopeless eccentric, shunned, distilled into their own poems, essays, artist Alfred Janes were the key friends. mocked and even abused by other children. word-games and plans for new journals Dylan’s world was, in effect, as complete as Instead we see a precocious child who had and broadcasts. it was ever to be. no difficulty in finding intellectual friends From that world the young Dylan went So much was implied by Caitlin when who shared his love of ideas and words as straight into a career as a cub reporter she virtually implied that Dylan essentially well as his sense that there was a fair degree on the ‘local rag’. At the local court and took the spirit of the Kardomah and of absurdity in the world at large. Few poets, morgue he would turn up in the required his favourite Swansea pubs, the Three said Bill Read, have been so lucky in the Hollywood uniform of trench coat, pork- Lamps and the Mermaid, around with places they have lived. pie hat and fag in the corner of the mouth. him. Wherever the poet found himself he Everyone will be familiar with those He penned portraits of local authors, most always set about replicating his beloved memorable quotations in which Dylan notably of the early 19th Century writer ‘Swansea world’. At the same time Caitlin evoked his Swansea. The one I cherish Llewellyn Pritchard, the creator of Twm was of the view that for Dylan home was most is his claim that, “This sea town was Shon Catti. Pritchard had lost his nose in a always best. She reported that he “had no my world – Never was there such a town duel, replaced it with a wax substitute and urge to travel, though he liked to fantasise as ours”. Surely Dylan’s sense of Swansea’s then died in a fire after knocking over a about us travelling to exotic, faraway self-sufficiency stemmed from the way in candle. Of him the young Dylan wrote: places… No man was less of an adventurer which at every stage of his development in foreign climes than Dylan… And no man there had been friends and supporters who “No one can deny that the most or woman can change their inborn insular appreciated and encouraged his talent. attractive figures in literature are mentality. It was precisely that - his inborn It was Swansea’s quite unaffected and always those around whom a insularity – that gave him the compact natural nurturing of Dylan that led me to world of lies and legends have punch of his poems”. believe that the time was ripe for the city been woven… Prichard stands These are fascinating insights from the and Wales as a whole to show that it could out flaming and aloof against the cosmopolitan Anglo-Irish, Francophile extend a helping hand to a new generation horizon. He failed to be great, but and ultimately Sicilian Caitlin, but they of youthful writers. he failed with genius.” only tell half the story. In fact, the Dylan It was the grammar school (where his who cropped up in Iran, Italy, Ireland and father taught) that legitimised his passions Meanwhile, Dylan had walked through the California saw more of the world than we as he acted in plays and edited the school Uplands to show his unpublished poems might have thought. More to the point, magazine. Far more important was his to the Marxist grocer Bert Trick and there however, is that the world took an interest extraordinary friendship with the future the encouragement came for him to aim in Dylan to such an extent that half a polymath and composer Daniel Jones. high. Soon Dylan was mixing with local century after his death it would be entirely Together they constructed a remarkable intellectuals at the Little Theatre and at appropriate to name an international mental landscape fuelled by words and the Kardomah restaurant. Nigel Jenkins’s literary prize after him. Dylan might well images from Hollywood, detective fiction, television programme The Kardomah Boys have felt most at home in the Kardomah classic and contemporary poetry and memorably evoked Dylan’s scintillating and Mermaid but throughout his short

6 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org Essay Dylan at 100 In June it was announced that £750,000 had been found to celebrate the 100th adult life an increasingly cosmopolitan and anniversary of Dylan Thomas’s birth, on 27 October 2014. The money, from the sophisticated audience were clamouring to Welsh Government, the Arts Council of Wales, Swansea and Carmarthenshire hear his words. Councils, will be used for a year of celebrations, to be known as the Dylan Thomas Initially Dylan found a more 100 Festival. Events during the year will be organised around four themes, based on responsive audience internationally than the poet’s works: he did in Wales. Both in his lifetime and for several decades after his death he • Between the Covers of Books – education and learning was shunned by the Welsh language and • To Wales in My Arms – tourism. Anglo-Welsh literary establishments, not • Sailed and Set Dazzling – international least for his indiscipline. More recently, • High Hill and Green Fuse – festival activity individual scholars have placed Dylan more firmly in the context of Celtic, The Dylan Thomas 100 fund will be split into three sections with £300,000 available bardic, Welsh language and Christian for three or four signature events of international quality, £225,000 for up to 10 traditions as far as language, style, medium scale events, and £25,000 for smaller community events. imagery and theology are concerned. Following Andrew Lycett’s outstanding 2003 biography of Dylan we can no longer be the real thing. Herbert Read thought his The troubled world of the mid 20th doubt that the poet consciously worked on work “contains the most absolute Poetry Century needed a poet to entertain, the notion of himself as a Welsh writer. The that has been written in our time”. thrill and above all to remind writers scholarly debate on his verse is fascinating, This view of Dylan was clinched for of the legitimacy and spiritual worth of but meanwhile general readers in Wales posterity by the nine months he spent on their different take on things. Nowhere have never ceased to regard his prose four separate visits to the USA between was this need so clearly expressed as in works and Under Milk Wood as the apogee February 1950 and his death in New Saul Bellow’s 1973 novel Humboldt’s Gift of what we used to call the Anglo-Welsh York in November 1953. The cynical where we are told that “The USA was a mind set. He knew our follies and foibles (and ultimately wronged) Caitlin later big operation, very big. The more it, the better than anyone and we readily quote commented that Dylan “had an unfailing less we”. Poets are needed: “They exist to him to prove that. But what then do we sense of dramatic timing; had he not light up the enormity of the awful tangle”. make of his international reception? died alone on his last visit to America, his And so it is that “poets are loved, but loved In what were only the two decades of great poet’s legend would not have been because they just can’t make it here”. It is his post-Swansea career Dylan achieved a half so dramatic”. the world that lets us down not poets. remarkable degree of fame and support. Caitlin had no doubt that her husband In 2014 the people of Swansea and My own feeling is that for both his fellow had opted to play out the part of the great Wales will ask the people of the world to writers and middlebrow readers generally, Poet, come what may, to maintain that use the occasion of Dylan’s centenary to Dylan’s fame owed much to the fact that image of the poet as seer that both the celebrate the written word and both the he conformed to what was the desired masses and intellectuals seemed to require. inspiration and perspiration that goes into image of the poet. They thought that ideally In New York he was feverishly completing its creation. We will all be inspired by the genuine poetry should be the product of his play Under Milk Wood so that it could be legacy of a man who thrilled huge New brilliantly wordy, undisciplined, declaiming publically read for the first time, but more York audiences with “his bravado” and and doomed youths searching for the importantly he was giving his own readings “the almost sacred sense of his approach meaning of life and death. It was an image before vast audiences. Singlehandedly to language” as well as by his greatest gift, Dylan seemed to confirm when reporting, he had reinvented the notion of poetry the most wonderful evocation of a blissful “I hold a beast, an angel, and a madman in performance. His appearance, his Welsh childhood. In his magnificentReturn in me, and my problem is their subjugation voice, and his imagery were all of a piece. Journey the Cwmdonkin park-keeper and victory, downthrow and upheaval, and But more was at stake than first-class remembered the naughty lad who pelted my effort is their self-expression”. entertainment. Whilst in the States most of the Swans and carved words on the Dylan had burst onto the metropolitan the country’s leading poets came to play benches: “Oh yes, I knew him well. I think scene at a time when extreme economic court. “If Dylan passed away, poetry would he was happy all the time. I’ve known him and political crises had forced intellectuals die with him,” said John Berryman who by the thousands”. He teaches us, still, that and artists into a realistic confrontation was then actually to be with Dylan when language is the greatest transport of delight. with actuality. Suddenly Dylan induced a he died. “He was one of the great ones, sense of guilt and the hope of escape with there can be no doubt of that,” argued his suggestion that truth may lie in lyrical Theodore Roethke, “and he drank his own imagery rather than mundane versions of blood, ate his own marrow, to get at some Peter Stead is a cultural historian of 20th reality. The feeling was that he could well of that material.” Century Wales.

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 7 Henry Kroch News

poet, and musician; Grahame Davies, IWA marks its poet and novelist; Rhian Edwards, poet 25th anniversary and performer; Menna Elfyn, poet and playwright; Trevor Fishlock, author, broadcaster and foreign correspondent; Professor Dai Smith, Chair of the Arts Jon Gower, author, broadcaster and Council of Wales, will launch 25/25 Vision, performer; Angela Graham, a tutor in a book of essays by 25 Welsh writers, at a documentary film-making; Bethan Gwanas, dinner in St David’s Hall on 27 September, travel writer, novelist, and broadcaster; to mark the IWA’s 25th birthday. Earlier Tessa Hadley, novelist and short story IWA Chair Geraint Talfan Davies will writer; Nigel Jenkins, poet, essayist and unveil an exhibition of photographs of the travel writer; Patrick McGuinness, poet contributors by John Briggs, at a pre- and novelist. Osi Rhys Osmond, writer dinner reception at the Old Library in the and painter; Mike Parker, travel writer; neighbouring Hayes. Adam Price, former Plaid Cymru MP for The project 25/25 Vision: Welsh horizons Carmarthen East and Dinefwr; Owen across 50 years, is being undertaken in Sheers, poet and novelist; Zoë Skoulding association with Literature Wales. The poet and Editor of Poetry Wales; Owen writers involved cast their mind back over Smith, Labour MP for Pontypridd; Ifor Professor Dai Smith their experience of the past quarter-of-a- Thomas, performance poet and architect; century in Wales and reflect on what this Rachel Trezise, novelist and short story Affairs, which, since its inception in 1987, inspires them to hope for in the next 25 writer; John Williams, journalist and has attempted to be at the forefront of years. IWA Director John Osmond who novelist; Charlotte Williams, Professor of new thinking about future prospects for is editing the collection together with Social Work at Keele University; and Daniel the country.” writer Peter Finch, said, “The aim is that, G. Williams, a literary critic. taken together, the accounts will provide John Osmond said, “We have chosen a profound and revealing commentary on the authors because of their facility as a half century in which Wales is emerging writers and because we judge that they from the shadows to occupy a place of have something to say about how their Tickets for the reception and dinner on 27 greater clarity in the world.” own lives relate to the wider collective September are available from the IWA at Among the leading Welsh writers experience of the nation as a whole. £50+VAT - £40+VAT to IWA members. A contributing to the project are Jane We hope, too, that they will reflect the table of ten can be purchased at £450+VAT Aaron, a literary critic; Catrin Dafydd, aspirations of the Institute of Welsh (£360+VAT for members). Devious devolution debates From devious debates to deviously - to frustrate Welsh Law at Pembroke College, devolution: the history of ambitions. For instance, The Oxford, where he was Oades campaigns for a Welsh jurisdiction absence of a separate Welsh and Stafford Scholar, 1971- is the title of this year’s IWA jurisdiction was repeatedly 1974. In 2007 he become the National Eisteddfod lecture, used to deny to Wales its own first Welsh Legislative Counsel, being delivered in the Pabell Secretary of State. Today it is still the legal officer principally y Cymdeithasau at 11am on being used to justify the smaller responsible for drafting the Tuesday 4 August, by Thomas measure of legislative devolution Welsh Government’s legislative Watkin, Honorary Professor Law given to Wales when compared programme under the new At Bangor University. with Scotland. powers conferred on the In his lecture Professor Professor Watkin was born National Assembly by the Thomas Watkin will examine in the village of Cwmparc and Government of Wales Act 2006. how the multiple meanings was educated at the Rhondda of the word jurisdiction have County Grammar School for enabled it to be used – at times Boys in Porth, before studying Professor Thomas Watkin

8 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org News

Co-operatives should be at heart of Welsh economy

In February 1981 a Wales TUC delegation visited Mondragon in the Basque Country and came away inspired to found the Wales Co-operative Centre. This is now 30 years old and over the past three decades has had a substantial impact on the Welsh economy. In April this year, another Welsh group, including Derek Walker, Chief Executive of the Wales Co-operative Centre; Alex Bird Executive Chair of Co-operatives and Mutuals Wales; Mark Drakeford, AM for Cardiff West; John Osmond, Director of the IWA; Liz Moyle an elected Member, and Ashley Drake, Membership Manager with the Co-operative Group Cymru/ Wales returned to Mondragon to assess the progress it has made and to see what new directions might be possible. The Welsh delegation came away convinced that we can learn from the Mondragon Corporation’s hard-headed, strategic approach to co-operative development. It has a four-year planning cycle whereby a structured, bottom-up approach is used to involve the member businesses in developing a strategy for the federation. One of the results is to identify sectors where new co-operatives can be established based on the potential for job creation as well as the surpluses that can be made. Current priorities include ICT, new materials, health and food, renewable energy and care services for older people.

Leading the Dragon – Lessons for Wales from the Basque Mondragon Co-operative is available from the IWA at £10 (£7.50 to members). John Osmond reports on the visit, page 33.

Growing the woodlands of Wales

Farmers will need to be persuaded that woodland creation and management is a mainstream part of what they do if the Welsh Government’s ambitious target to substantially increase the woodland cover of Wales is to be achieved. This is a major recommendation in a new report from the IWA Growing our Woodlands in Wales: the 100,000 hectare challenge. The Welsh Government wants to increase the woodland cover of Wales from today’s 14 per cent to 20 per cent over the next 20 years, mainly to achieve a net increase in carbon capture to combat climate change. This will entail planting an average of 5,000 hectares of woodland a year, a rate that has been achieved only once since the Second World War, in 1960. If the target is to be achieved much of the planting will have to be carried out by farmers who are likely to be reluctant to increase the tree cover on their land. Many farmers do not see themselves as woodland managers or foresters. Moreover, there are lower returns on using land for growing trees rather than for grazing or as arable land. The report says that woodlands expansion will need to take place in the ffridd areas of rural Wales, the habitats that occur on the slopes between the uplands and the lowlands of the country.

Growing our Woodlands in Wales: the 100,000 hectare challenge is available from the IWA at£10 (£7.50 for members).

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 9 Outlook Future of rural Wales

Commuting will integrate In recent decades the rural economy the growth of Community Supported the country and the city has expanded and diversified and its Agriculture in rural areas, is also creating Paul Milbourne rate of growth has been higher than new local food systems across Wales. that in other parts of Wales. This has A broad range of essential key concentrated on particular employment facilities and services have been cut sectors, initially manufacturing and more back across rural Wales during recent recently services, with the agricultural years. This has created real problems workforce continuing to decline. for rural residents without access to cars The public sector is a significant and led to the adoption of elaborate provider of employment in rural Wales coping tactics to deal with the realities although spending cuts are beginning of everyday rural life. Moreover, the to reduce its impact. Generally scale of the retraction of key services has So far as the Welsh language, culture speaking, and as was the case for meant that rural living in the smaller and and landscape are concerned rural much of the second half of the 20th remoter settlements is now only possible Wales is associated with tradition, Century, many local labour markets in for those who are able to travel between belonging and stability. In other respects, rural Wales are dominated by low-skill rural and urban places on a regular however, it is subject to dynamic and low-paid employment. In turn this basis, calling into question the social change, especially in terms of economic prevents many young people gaining sustainability of these places. development and migration. access to local housing markets and It is likely that further cuts in Although we still await the latest leads to their moving away from rural services will follow as the Westminster statistics from the 2010 Census, it is towns and villages. and Welsh Governments work within clear that the rural population has The Welsh Government’s transition more constrained budgets. There is a continued to grow over the last decade. from a sector-based to system- danger that, with their higher delivery Migration remains a major force shaping rural demographics, with the relocation of large numbers of outside A broad range of essential key facilities and groups to the Welsh countryside being services have been cut back across rural accompanied by net out-movements of younger people from many rural Wales during recent years. This has created areas. Within both processes England real problems for rural residents without continues to play an important role as the origin and destination of significant access to cars and led to the adoption of numbers of movers. More recently, rural Wales has elaborate coping tactics to deal with the witnessed the in-migration of groups realities of everyday rural life. from beyond the UK, as large numbers of migrant workers from Central and Eastern European countries have based approach has created new costs, rural services will be particularly moved to rural towns in search of connections between food production vulnerable to the austerity agenda. A employment opportunities. The impacts and consumption, as well as between partial solution may lie in the realm of such population movements include: the food and other rural policy areas. of virtual mobility, as the roll-out of In addition, it is likely that European high speed Broadband to the smaller • Welsh-speaking communities rural policy in the post-2013 period and more remote places of rural struggling to cope with the influx of will broaden rural development and Wales opens up new possibilities for outside groups. agri-environmental goals, creating new small businesses, home working and • The rural population ageing at a faster relationships between farming, the shopping. Nonetheless, the future rate than in other parts of Wales. economy, society and the environment. of service provision in rural Wales • A rapid expansion of the larger The increasing significance of remains bleak. settlements to house new rural community growing projects in the It is likely, too, that rural spaces will residents. Valleys and urban areas, together with become increasingly drawn into debates

10 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org Outlook about policy responses to climate change, Where a car is a part of a community. for example on the effects of rising sea necessary possession A number of communities also levels and increased risks of flooding Nerys Owens and Jon Radcliffe noted that it was through the provision in riverside and seaside localities, the of such services that communities contribution of forests to carbon storage were sustained, as they represented in the uplands, and the linkages between focal points, not only geographically, transport and domestic fuel costs and but through shared interests and day- rural poverty. It is also probable that to-day interactions. In communities the visual aesthetics and environmental where service provision had remained conditions of rural spaces will be further broadly the same since 2004, there were altered by the expansion of renewable concerns over reduced opening hours, energy production in rural areas. higher prices and limited choice. Whether in terms of solar panels on the A second and related issue roofs of domestic properties or increasing Just over 989,300 people live in towns, concerned mobility and accessibility. numbers of wind turbines, the climate villages and remote areas across rural These included discussions about prices, change agenda will introduce new sets of Wales, a third of the Welsh population. frequency of services, and accessibility scalar tensions between national energy Moreover, the service sector represents for particular groups within rural requirements and the traditional values a dominant part of the rural economy, communities. The findings indicated attached to Welsh rural landscapes. currently employing 77 per cent of the that as services were lost or withdrawn It needs to be recognised there is working population. A vibrant service from rural communities, the main issue not one rural Wales. When we look sector is therefore vital for a prosperous faced by residents was their access to across the Welsh countryside it is local economy and for meeting the distant services. Although 39 per cent clear that it is a heterogeneous space. needs of the rural population. of the communities that responded to At one level, it is possible to identify Evidence gathered through the the survey in 2010-11 had a daily bus an east – west differential in relation Wales Rural Observatory’s research service, it was noted that they were to demographic change, economic programme since 2004 has informed either too infrequent or ran at times structure, income levels and language. a deeper understanding of the key that did not allow the communities to The remoter western, and particularly challenges facing the delivery of services depend upon it. Ownership of a car was north-western parts of rural Wales have to rural communities across Wales. The viewed as a necessity of rural life. the lowest levels of population growth, triennial Rural Services Survey, carried Communities emphasised that highest rates of unemployed, greatest out in 2004, 2007 and most recently there was no realistic choice between low income households, and largest in 2010-11, has looked in detail at the cars and public transport in rural numbers of Welsh speakers. provision of rural services at town and areas. As public transport decreased Looking below this regional community council level and offers a the perceived need for it diminished. level, individual local authority areas good source of data on experiences and For rural residents without access to are themselves characterised by levels of satisfaction. By comparing the private transport due to age, income, considerable internal differentiation, results from the most recent survey with illness or disability, accessing services particularly in relation to differences those of the previous surveys, a number became increasingly problematic and, between towns and smaller villages. of consistent messages emerged. in some cases, could lead to real issues Moreover, we need to remain sensitive First, was the issue of declining of isolation. It was argued that the cost to important relationships between rural services. Information provided by of fuel and the overriding need to own and non-rural spaces in Wales. In future town and community clerks indicated a car made living in rural areas much we can expect greater commuting of that there had been a real decline in more expensive than urban areas. people between rural and urban Wales levels of provision across a range of At the same time there was an as people travel ever greater distances key services, most notably post offices, acceptance of the limitations of service to find work. schools, pubs, petrol stations, libraries provision in rural areas, including the and public transport. The loss of such long distances involved, low population services from rural areas affected the densities and, because of that, the fabric of community life in ways that relatively small budgets available to Paul Milbourne is Professor of Human were far more invasive than might be service providers such as county councils. Geography and Director of the Wales expected. For example, schools, post To a certain extent, communities were Rural Observatory at Cardiff University. offices and facilities such as a village hall prepared to accept lower levels of service He is Editor of Rural Wales in the Twenty were frequently described as community provision in exchange for a quality of life First Century, published by the Wales ‘hubs’, and made the difference perceived to be superior to that available University Press in 2011. between living in isolation and being in towns and cities.

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 11 Outlook

The positive aspects of quality of life Businesses seek way out factor for the survey, as this respondent, in rural areas that were mentioned of the recession paraphrasing US President Bill Clinton’s included attractive environments, Lawrence Kitchen famous remark concerning the economy, close community networks, low levels declared: “It’s the recession, stupid!” of crime, and a slower pace of life. In Another said, “We were starting to soar those areas where access to services was prior to it hitting”. A third added, “The particularly problematic, there appeared tough economic downturn is demanding to be a strong sense of community to a huge increase in productivity just to stay compensate. Neighbours, friends or in business.” family form a key part of the ‘coping Some businesses had been forced strategies’ that were employed by rural to take on different types of work. For residents, with people reliant on others instance, one building firm that used to for lifts, or for collecting necessities. only undertake new building projects There was also a marked appreciation The latest 2010-11 triennial survey of had been forced by the housing market of the importance of individuals who more than 1,300 businesses in rural Wales, were prepared to offer services beyond carried out for the Welsh Government by Business owners identified the call of duty, whether that was the the Wales Rural Observatory, revealed local postman or local shop-owner. It some positive indicators despite the a range of advantages and is in situations like this that a local shop, recession. The rate of businesses with disadvantages for locating post office or GP surgery can make a internet connections increased from 67 in rural Wales. Advantages difference between someone remaining per cent in 2007 to 85 per cent in 2010-11, in their local area or being forced to while 76 per cent had broadband. A few tended to focus on the move to a an area with better facilities. respondents complained that broadband better quality of life, the An important issue raised time and enabled some companies to avoid beautiful scenery and time again by participants was their business rates by operating from ‘front- inability to access communication rooms and garages’, but many others landscape, and good technologies. Broadband availability embraced the flexibility it offered. community spirit and was highlighted as particularly poor in And there were signs that rural close networks. rural Wales. As an increasing number businesses were becoming more of services became available online, environmentally friendly. In 2007 61 per such as those provided by the post cent were recycling compared with 81 downturn to undertake renovation work. office, banks and food shopping from per cent in 2010-11. However, concerns Other comments revealed problems with the large supermarkets, the physical were expressed about the costs to money supply, customer demand and isolation of living in a rural area could business of environmental regulation payments. As this respondent said: be further accentuated by lack of access and compliance. to broadband. Business owners identified a range of ‘The impact of the credit crunch is The need to address these challenges advantages and disadvantages for locating causing less spending by customers confronting the delivery of rural in rural Wales. Advantages tended to and larger customers cancelling services has never been greater. It will focus on the better quality of life, the contracts. The banks are being very require cross-sectoral coordination at beautiful scenery and landscape, good restrictive with lending.” national, regional and local levels, while community spirit and close networks. also taking into account the views of At the same time the relative isolation of Another said: communities on the ground. Only then rural locations was seen as a disadvantage will our rural communities have, as the for business, with higher fuel costs, poor “Customers are not paying so there Welsh Government’s 2011 Programme services, and inadequate roads and is a decrease in turnover. We’re for Government promises, “an excellent transport. In addition, business owners afraid to attract new customers as quality of life with access to high quality argued that the Welsh Government the payment risk increases. There’s employment, affordable housing and tended to focus on Cardiff and that, more a downturn in the construction public services”. broadly, rural businesses, particularly industry due to worldwide SMEs, lacked institutional support. Taken banking problems.” together, these adverse factors were Nerys Owens and Jonathan Radcliffe perceived to exacerbate the effects of the Perversely, a few businesses identified work for the Wales Rural Observatory at recession. potential benefits from the recession, Cardiff University. The recession was the dominating saying they had become leaner, more

12 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org Outlook efficient, and more profitable. Others How the new CAP will for cattle, sheep and arable crops and a observed that business rivals had gone impact on Wales range of other special interest payments into liquidation, leaving the field open Peter Midmore has been rolled up into a Single Farm for them. More generally, however, the Payment. Controversially, this is paid survey’s economic performance data regardless of how much or how little is reflected the recession’s detrimental actually produced. There were three effects and all compared unfavourably options for calculation of this payment: with the 2007 survey findings: • An equal average payment for each • 34 per cent of business had expanded hectare of farmland. • 25 per cent had contracted • A payment to individual farmers based • 36 per cent had increased turnover on their historic receipts. • 34 per cent had experienced a • A mixture of the two to provide a decrease in demand Once a decade or so, the EU’s Common smoother eventual transition to • 26 per cent had increased profits while Agricultural Policy, or CAP for short, the former. 41 per cent reported decreased profits undergoes a major reform. Partly, this • 48 per cent reported difficulties stems from the fact that European Because of the wide diversity of types obtaining investment policies operate on a fixed budgetary of agriculture in Wales, an equal area programming cycle. That means that payment would have redistributed But some performance data revealed a when the opportunity arises – as it does payments from intensive producers trend that predated the recession. This in 2013 – policymakers across Europe struggling with high costs and low was the persistence of a low-skills, low- seek to incline the framework of support margins, such as Pembrokeshire dairy wage economy, previously identified in a little more in their own favour. farmers, to extensive hill farmers the 2004 and 2007 surveys. Evidence The current vogue is to address producing on highly marginal land. from the 2010-11 survey confirmed the issues such as global food demand Hence Carwyn Jones, Minster for Rural continuance of this trend: and price spikes, the binding nature of Affairs at the time, opted for a pure greenhouse gas emission controls, and historic reference period system, even • Low educational attainment. the effect of austerity policies on a larger though it, too, has had a fair share of • Perceived shortage of skilled job and more diverse group of member anomalies to contend with. applicants. states than existed in 2003, when the last Nevertheless, in general terms • Lack of business training. major reform took place. How, and why inequity is the hallmark of the farm • Disregard for the usefulness of business reforms take place is important to Wales, support régime. It pays more to larger plans because of its large share of agricultural farmers since, famously, the Queen • A trend towards parochialism in terms land compared to the UK as a whole, the and the Duke of Westminster receive of employees, customer and suppliers. relatively small size of its farms, and the £500,000 or so annually, whereas very • A preference for the use of local scattering of large numbers of small-sized small farmers are entirely excluded from networks, particularly for recruitment. communities in the rural Canolbarth. claiming payments. The 2003 reforms included an Within countries there is also wide Arguably, the effects of the recession, especially radical innovation, the spatial variation, with more peripheral, especially an increase in people ‘decoupling’ of direct farm support marginal livestock farming areas looking for work, will exacerbate these payments. Until then, payments had receiving far less than the cereal baronies problems. Rural business owners been made on the basis of the level of of East Anglia, Central and Northern felt they lacked institutional support, output produced. For example, in 2004 France and most of the German plains. investment and training. These are within certain limits each breeding The effect on land prices is such that important views which should influence ewe qualified for an annual premium new, young entrants to farming face business policy for rural Wales. of £15.52 in the lowlands, increased to impossible borrowing requirements £20.43 in hill and upland areas. Under to establish a foothold in the industry. World Trade rules, this subsidy on More importantly, in political terms production makes the export of food payments vary across member states, into the EU from other countries more particularly to the detriment of most of difficult. To make progress in achieving the countries which joined in 2004 and Lawrence Kitchen works with the a trade deal (while at the same time 2006. Because they had no votes at the Wales Rural Observatory at Cardiff considering the lobbying power of time of the 2003 reform, these receive University. farming interests) all previous support considerably less than half of the average

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 13 Outlook value of Single Farm Payments made in So far, none of these proposals diminish basis, with the issues which motivated the EU as a whole. Now, acting together, the reputation of the EU farm support for the reform festering all the time in the they can forma blocking minority in Kafkaesque complexity, but there is more! background, means that some kind of the decision-making process, ensuring At the same time, the other arm of the messy compromise, loosely conforming that their interests will be fundamental CAP, its Rural Development Programme, to the Commission’s current suggestions, to any overall compromise. And lastly, or RDP, is also being reformed. It has is more likely. although good agricultural practice is a a smaller share of resources, also With that in mind, the effects on precondition for payment, this effectively unevenly distributed by member state. Wales could be, at worst, more or less means that unless environmental In Wales it is predominantly spent on neutral overall. At best they could make regulations concerning pollution and the supporting farmers to improve their a significant contribution to an improved like are not broken, farmers receive the environmental performance through the economic performance, since the related cash: there is a social inequality because Tir Gofal scheme and latterly the recently food and tourism sectors, combined with no other group in society receives introduced Glastir successor scheme. Only their linkages to other sectors, form such payments for doing what they would 13 per cent of the overall total RDP in the a large element of aggregate employment have done anyway. EU is spent on what could be recognised and activity. The pragmatic response of the as measures supporting the development On any sensible criteria, a European Commission seeks to address of non-farm rural communities, and the redistribution of the RDP resources across all of these issues in a comprehensive amount is even less in Wales. the EU would at least double the spend package of reforms: The reform proposals continue a in Wales. With the so-called ‘greening’ broad focus on improved agricultural of the direct payment system, a more 1. An accelerated redistribution of competitiveness, better environmental refined and less costly programme of payments between member states, performance - especially carbon agri-environment support might be prioritised for those receiving less management and climate change required, particularly targeting such than 90 per cent of the current resilience - and promoting socio- things as reducing greenhouse gas average, with the overall objective economic development in more emissions and more specific biodiversity to equalise direct payments to peripheral rural areas. However, two new objectives. Then, a wise distribution of farmers by 2020. relevant elements have emerged, which the extra resources would concentrate 2. Direct payments based on historic are greater flexibility in choosing how on providing infrastructure (physical, reference criteria, such as those paid support is targeted, and more objective social, virtual and expertise-based) to in Wales, may no longer be made: criteria for the distribution of the overall support the rural assets where Wales has equal area payments will become budget. At present, it is mired in further emerging competitive advantages. These universal. historic precedent – in the UK’s case, include the recreational potential of our 3. Only 70 per cent of the new much distorted by the Fontainebleau widely appreciated landscapes, and the payment will be received rebate consequences, making its RDP acknowledged recent and continuing automatically, with the remaining one of the smallest proportionate spends quality improvement of food and 30 per cent being conditional on in the whole of the EU. gastronomy. meeting simpler, clearer conditions Determining how all of these There will be obstacles on the for social environmental benefit. proposals will affect Wales is not an easy road to transforming Welsh rural These include more diverse crop task. It is made more difficult since the prospects. However, where these can rotations, or keeping livestock on detail of past reforms actually enacted be transformed into opportunities, their permanent pastures, or adopting an has always diverged, significantly, impact can be less damaging. The first organic farming system. from the initial European Commission is that while on balance the amount 4. Only active farmers will receive proposals. In 2013 there is even more of direct support for farming will stay payments, and these will be tapered, scope for variation, with 27 rather than more or less level, there will be the from €150,000 up to a maximum 15 countries seeking agreement. A adverse individual consequences of total annual payment of €300,000, further complication is that this is the first the redistribution of payments between with some remission to reflect wages CAP reform to be subject to co-decision, farms of different types, mentioned paid to employees. by the European Council representing earlier. Here, there is a clear case for 5. Young entrants to agriculture will member state governments, and the public intervention through the Rural receive a 25 per cent enhancement directly elected European Parliament. Development Plan. of payments, for the first five years The possibility of a complete impasse To offset the negative consequences after the establishment of their new cannot be ruled out. However, the for the more intensive part of the farm businesses. alternative of simply rolling over the agricultural sector, development of old regime payments on a temporary stronger branding, processing and

14 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org Outlook marketing support can enhance the by the Welsh Government as part of This third group is spearheading the new product prices its farmers receive. its sustainable development agenda. rural paradigm in Wales. Their numbers However, the nature of that support There are concerns among some are roughly in line with what we have will be crucial. Despite the downturn it commentators about the creation of the witnessed in extensive comparative should be focused on high-end niche new environmental body, the result of surveys across rural Europe. There will products that contribute to the generally merging the work of the Environmental be a continuing role for the increasingly positive cues among consumers and Agency with the Countryside Council for scale-dependent intensive and specialised visitors to the countryside of Wales and its Wales and Forestry Commission for Wales. producer. However, in my view, these image for environmental quality. However, in my view, it is providing an will be very few and far between as we Ambitious vision, creative use of opportunity to reposition Welsh farming progress through the coming decade. the new flexibility and resources, and as central to delivering a wider range of Witness what has been going on in the thoughtful and effective application environmental goods and services, which intensive dairy sector in Wales and we see will all be essential for the future Rural are inextricably linked to the development a ‘race to the bottom’ numerical decline Development Plan. With deep cuts in of the rural eco-economy. in dairy farms chasing ever more retailer- public spending about to affect rural Wales This is, by the way, far more innovative led price setting. The future must lie in disproportionally seriously compared than the approach adopted by the UK value -added and more networked forms with almost anywhere else, and with a government in England where much of the of multi-functionality that can meet urban significant proportion of jobs dependent strategic planning, regional development as well as wider rural development needs. on the food, tourism and agriculture and environmental agency infrastructure A central question is how the farming complex, the stakes are very high. has been dismantled. In Wales there is community can adapt in ways that create a chance that we can integrate the new greater resilience and less vulnerability. Peter Midmore is Professor of Economics Common Agricultural Policy post 2013 In short we must deliver a more holistic at Aberystwyth University. with the objectives of our domestic policy green economy in rural Wales. In the developments, and deliver them through process we will need to rely on innovation the Welsh Agri-food Strategy: ‘Food for rather than subsidy dependence. Wales, Food from Wales’. We must build on existing advice Farming needs to embrace How will farmers in Wales respond mechanisms such as farming connect, the green economy to the revised incentive systems but also develop other farmer and Terry Marsden that are about to be implemented? rural community groups as learning Surveys carried out at the Wales Rural organisations. We need to breakdown Observatory have found that the Welsh the barriers between farming and the farming population can be broadly wider rural community by making it a divided into three types of approximately more attractive, progressive and inclusive equal proportions: activity, especially for the young. This means more ‘bottom-up’ sustainable 1. Those whose approach is ‘business place-making which connects with as usual’ in which they are heavily what hopefully will be more joined up Rural areas across Europe are dependent on subsidies. This group European Common Agricultural policies. experiencing major changes involving is likely to be highly vulnerable to There should also be more emphasis closer ties between the rural and urban policy and market changes in the on connecting town and country, economies. Key elements include: near future. between urban dwellers keen to enhance 2. Those in a worse condition who their quality of life by greater contact with • The re-valuing of local assets. might be called the ‘strugglers’. They the countryside, and rural communities • A shift from subsidy-driven display higher levels of vulnerability as producers of high value, eco-economy development to investments that build and may exit farming in the near goods and services. In the process we social capital. future, especially if they are close can strengthen both rural and urban • Exploitation of hitherto unused to retirement and have no clear Wales for future generations. resources. succession plans. • Diversification of farming into niche 3. Those marketing value-added, high markets linked to food, tourism and end niche foods, diversifying on farm craft activities to create a new ‘eco- businesses like tourism, equine and Terry Marsden is Director of the economy’. renewable energy; or expanding their Sustainable Places Research Institute family income through non–farm and co-Director of the Wales Rural In Wales these objectives are pursued sources. Observatory at Cardiff University.

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 15 1 Changing Union

The firstForum on the Changing Union, part • The Welsh Government should have the Articles of a major project being undertaken by the power to set the income tax rate separately Following IWA in association with the Wales Governance in each of the tax bands. Reduction in the Scotland has run Centre at Cardiff University and Cymru Yfory/ rate in the higher bands should be limited its course Tomorrow’s Wales, will be held over two days by national concordat to 3p in the pound. in September. The theme will be federalism Thresholds and allowances should not Will Britain turn as a basis for a new relationship between the be devolved. into England? different parts of the United Kingdom. How to The Forum, the first of six that will be • Business rates should be devolved to damage public held over three years, will bring together the Welsh Government, so that a clear confidence in around 20 ‘opinion formers’ to contribute responsibility in this area is established, devolution new thinking on the changing shape of increasing the Welsh Government’s focus constitutional relationships within the British on the economy. Isles. The themes of future Forums will be finance, the welfare state and the social • The Welsh Government should be union, England, central UK institutions, and granted borrowing powers at least the future of the islands. The final Forum commensurate with those granted to will be held in the wake of the Scottish the Scottish Government in the Scotland independence referendum, expected to be Act 2012. These powers should not in held in autumn 2014. future be confined to loans from the Debt Meanwhile the Changing Union project, Management Office, but also include a which is being funded by the Joseph Rowntree capacity to issue bonds. Borrowing should Charitable Trust and the Nuffield Foundation, be applied primarily to capital spending. has established three working groups to collate evidence to present to the Silk Commission on • To avoid a ‘race to the bottom’ any the future of Welsh devolution. proposals for devolving corporation tax A detailed paper on taxation powers within the UK should be placed within was presented to the Commission in July an overall framework that would both by the Finance and Funding Work Group, limit the quantum of change and be chaired by former Finance Minister, Professor proportionate to economic need, as Andrew Davies. It includes the following measured by relative GVA. recommendations: • Cash management of the Welsh • All income tax revenue in Wales (excluding Government’s funds should be devolved in that on savings) should be devolved to the order to encourage their efficient use, and Welsh Government so that not less than one avoid unnecessary repeated friction around third of its income is derived from this source. year-end adjustments.

16 | 1/Changing Union

• To respond to the devolution of these • A presumption against a further chaired by former Ceredigion AM powers the Welsh Government should referendum to be reconsidered only Cynog Dafis, has commissioned take urgent steps to transform its if a public petition for one were to research papers on the following topics: current Finance department into a garner more than 500,000 votes, or policing, civil service, the political robust Treasury function. one fifth of the electorate. parties, energy powers, transport, broadcasting, Assembly capacity, and • The granting of tax-varying powers A second Work Group on the Welsh the role of civil society. to the National Assembly / Welsh Legal System, chaired by Emyr Lewis, These two Work Groups will submit Government does not involve change Senior Fellow in Welsh Law at Cardiff evidence to the second part of the Silk to a fundamental constitutional University, is examining the case for Commission’s inquiry, on the operation principle. There is, therefore, no in a distinctive Welsh jurisdiction and of the Welsh devolution, early next year. principle need for a referendum. a reserved powers model for the Assembly rather than the current • Wales is in danger of referendum conferred powers model. As part of the fatigue. An unnecessary referendum Group’s work programme a study visit that focuses solely on the question is being organised to Northern Ireland of taxation powers is not likely to to examine the workings of its separate More information on the Changing galvanise a coherent campaign, risking legal jurisdiction. Union project can be accessed from the even lower turnouts than have been The third Work Group on the website: www.ukchangingunion.org.uk seen in previous polls. Scrutiny, Accountability, Capacity, and where all reports and papers produced Devolved Powers of the Assembly, by the project are published. 1/Changing Union

Following Scotland has run its course Gerald Holtham argues that building the economy must now precede more political autonomy for Wales

There is little doubt that political and Indeed the main impetus from Scotland per head in Scotland far exceeds the UK constitutional developments in Wales in influencing the Welsh situation average. Right now Scotland is running over the past couple of decades have may now be peaking. The odds are a very large deficit but, given oil, it is been driven by Scotland. Would that in future Scottish and Welsh proportionately not bigger than that of Wales have been offered devolved developments will become more the UK as a whole. democratic government in the 1990s detached. The Silk Commission, set up Scotland would no doubt find it if the Scots had not been pushing hard to review the Welsh constitution and rather harder to finance its deficit outside for it? And would the Welsh public finances, was the UK government’s the UK and might well pay higher interest have voted for it if the Scots had not response to the Calman Commission rates, depending on how it managed its done so first? Both may be doubted. for Scotland, which gave rise to the monetary affairs. If it appealed to remain I have developed a defence when Scotland Act. Whatever Silk concludes in a currency union with the UK whereby Scottish friends tease me about Wales’ could result in legislation but probably the Bank of England continued to act as follower status and, as they see it, in the next Parliament. And wherever lender of last resort to Scottish financial reluctance to stand up for itself. I point Scotland goes after 2015, I much doubt institutions, it could probably limit out that the only reason that Edward that there will be a Silk mark 2. additional borrowing costs. However, 1st did not conquer Scotland, and left it Whatever the Silk settlement results it would have to sacrifice some of its to his incompetent son to fail to do so, in could last for a very long time. Ron ‘independence’ to do that, certainly over was because he was bankrupted by the Davies’ remark, which became a cliché, domestic bank regulation and possibly conquest of Wales. All those castles in that devolution is a process not an even over its fiscal policy and the extent north Wales cost a staggering percentage event, may be true but processes are not of its borrowing. of medieval GDP and were financed with necessarily enduring. Like clockwork, I believe on balance an independent loans from Lombardy bankers, leaving they can run down. Scotland would be rather worse off no money for an adequate army to take The key difference between Scotland than it is at present but it would not face on the Scots. So, I assert, if Scotland is and Wales is not historical, cultural or an enormous gulf in its budget greatly helping Wales now (which some would psychological, though such differences exceeding that of the UK as a whole. no doubt dispute) it is simply repaying an patently exist. It is economic. The brute Neither Wales not Northern Ireland historic debt. facts of pounds and pence are what will can say as much. The Welsh devolved Be that as it may, many people in limit Welsh devolution now, whatever the government has an annual budget just Wales are looking for this process to Scots do. under £15 billion. Total government continue. They believe that as Scotland To a close approximation, Scotland spending in Wales including social pushes on to greater autonomy, just is in budgetary balance with the rest of security payments is somewhere around possibly to ‘independence’, however the UK. If once you concede that the £25 billion. Wales’ share, on a population defined, that will increase the scope for North Sea oilfields’ tax revenue should be basis, of general UK expenditures like Wales too. Some think it may even lead allocated according to their geographical defence, foreign embassies and aid and to a federal UK. location, then that revenue very roughly debt servicing costs would add a good However, that is far from clear. balances out the fact that public spending £5 billion more. That is total spending

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fiscal autonomy inside the UK, is a rather silly idea since it gives up the benefit of a shared social security system with its greater robustness and the prospect of continued transfers to Scotland. But for Wales, ‘Devomax’ would entail a reduction in government spending of over third and a commensurate cut in public services and welfare benefits. There is no sign that the Welsh public would entertain such a proposition. The various schemes for ‘Devoplus’ in Scotland all depend on Scotland keeping more of some tax revenues in place of some proportion of the block grant. As we have seen, at the limit Scotland The Silk Commission: standing, from left, Eurfyl ap Gwilym (Plaid), Sue Essex (Labour), Robert Humphreys (Liberal could just about forego any grant if it Democrat), and Nick Bourne (Conservative); seated, independent members, from left, Professor Noel Lloyd, Paul Silk (Chair), and Dyfrig John. kept all its tax revenues, including oil. On the other hand, even if it kept all its tax of over £30 billion a year. Meanwhile of Cambridge University shows the revenue, Wales could not come close Welsh tax revenues are in the £18-19 estimated budget deficit in per capita to financing its expenditure. It depends billion range. A deficit of some £12 terms for the countries of the UK in 2010. on a substantial transfer from the rest of billion is fully 25 per cent of Welsh GDP, While England and Scotland had a deficit the UK and therefore has to consider the proportionately more than double the of over £2000 for every resident, in Wales collective interest of the UK. It cannot UK deficit. and Northern Ireland the deficit per head expect to follow beggar-my-neighbour The table below, developed is over £6000. policies like cutting corporation tax and from official data by Bob Rowthorn For Scotland ‘Devomax’, involving continue to receive a large subsidy.

Per Capita Expenditure and Income by Country: 2009-10 (North Sea Revenue geographic basis)

England Wales Scotland NI UK Expenditure Identifiable 8,514 9,705 9,927 10,549 8,749 Defence* 609 609 609 609 609 Public Sector Interest* 506 506 506 506 506 Other ** 949 949 949 949 949 Total Expenditure 10,578 11,769 11,991 12,613 10,813

Revenue Non-North Sea*** 8,417 5,750 8,059 5,970 8,187 North Sea**** 10 10 1140 10 105 Total Revenue 8427 5760 9199 5980 8292

Balance -2151 -6008 -2791 -6633 -2521

**** Assigned to Scotland on a geographical basis. The residual is assigned within the rest of the UK on a per capita basis. * Assigned on a per capita basis. ** Includes other non-identifiable expenditures plus expenditure outside the UK and accounting adjustment. Assigned on a per capita basis. *** Assigned on the basis of gross value-added (GVA) for NI and Wales(reduced by 4.5%); Scotland and UK GERS;

Identifiable expenditure for each country is from PESA2011. UK expenditure on other items is from PESA2011 and is assigned to countries as indicated above.

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Moreover, the Welsh appeal for a better so the block grant would still account for grant settlement is based explicitly Federation holds two-thirds. on an appeal to fairness, which itself I cannot see there is much scope presupposes a political union. In a no financial to go further, whatever Scotland does. union, taxes are pooled and distributed Nationalists, or even simple patriots, who according to need. On that basis Wales charms for Wales. find this position limiting or even rather gets less than it needs, as that is normally humiliating have to face up to a stark fact. assessed in England. Once you move to The immediate requirements for further a federal system, there is a tendency for Welsh progress to self determination taxes to be considered as belonging to are not constitutional or legal, they that part of the federation where they are economic. We have to rebuild our were generated. The focus moves from economy. Only then will we have the relative need to the size of inter-regional capacity, and perhaps the public appetite transfers. That shift suits the Scots, who for greater autonomy get more than they should on the basis Commission on Finance and Funding of relative need but are not receiving a for Wales, which I chaired. We very large net transfer. It does not suit recommended that Wales take a half Wales, which gets less than it needs but share of the income tax revenues Gerald Holtham chaired the Welsh is receiving proportionately a massive generated here and the block grant Government’s Independent Commission transfer payment. Federation holds no be reduced accordingly. I now believe on Funding and Finance for Wales and is financial charms for Wales. Wales could take all of its income tax a trustee of the IWA. The Commission’s Naturally, I hope that the Silk revenues, which amount to just under report is available at Commission proposals resemble the £5 billion a year. That is no more than a http://wales.gov uk/funding/ recommendations of the Independent third of Welsh government expenditure financereform/report/fundingsettlement 1/Changing Union Will Britain turn into England?

Robin McAlpine says that whatever the result of the Scottish Independence referendum Yes or No culture wars will continue north of the border

When things collapse they collapse from happy UK, a unified UK population or the weakest point first. This makes their even a UK with a strong shared identity; collapse uneven and chaotic and it is this it just needs its UK assets protected. It that makes the debris uncontrollable and will continue to adapt itself in any way potentially damaging to others. If it is a necessary to protect those assets and it tower block that is to be brought down is doing this by offering ‘unionism lite’. coordination is the key. This emerging formulation proposes that Unfortunately, it is very difficult to each of us can hyphenate our identity coordinate the collapse of a nation-state. indefinitely so long as we put ‘British’ at Where the concrete and girders that the end of the list. hold up a building can be weakened Of course in Scotland this is ironic simultaneously by the application of because it is almost exactly what some explosive, the materials that hold up a unionists are accusing the SNP of nation are not instantaneously malleable. advocating. Up here misguided attempts Any collapse is therefore almost certain by the SNP to ‘take the fear out’ of to send debris in unintended directions. independence by suggesting nothing Is the UK collapsing? Through much will change have been derided the lens of the British State and with as ‘independence lite’, an intentional opinion polls predicting a two-to-one obfuscation of what independence is vote against Scottish independence, as a means of conning the public into the current answer is an unequivocal voting Yes. No. But the British State doesn’t need a However, ‘unionism lite’ and ‘independence lite’ are both presentational tricks designed to cover ‘Unionism lite’ and over cracks, not address them. For ‘independence lite’ are the Unionists it simply redraws and both presentational tricks expands the lines of Britishness neatly to encompass where people have already designed to cover over shifted. For Nationalists it simply redefines cracks, not address them. a future Scotland as being as much like the status quo as possible, as if voting for independence isn’t really a shift at all. Both fail, for the single simple reason that they don’t engage with the material One meaning of ‘Independence-lite’ is that the Queen will remain Head of State in Scotland, whatever which holds up a nation – identity, the outcome of the referendum. Illustration: Nadia identification and inclination. Identity is Lucchesi, from Scottish Left Review No. 70

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market-based politics. I grow weary of commentators who twist this reality in any way possible to make it ‘not true’, stating categorically that Scotland is not ‘any more left wing than England’. But the evidence for this argument is tangential and it seeks patronisingly to dismiss the only solid evidence (voting patterns) as simply habitual. What appears to be an increasingly problem for the British State is identification. In post-Jubilee Scotland it is not uncommon to hear the argument that because Scotland has no more of a republican movement than England this shows no political difference when it comes to the Monarchy. But this ignores the fact that when polled across Britain, The body language says it all. Despite lukewarm attitudes to the monarchy north of the border, First Minister Alex 80 per cent of the English claim to be Salmond gets on famously with the Queen, with whom he shares a passion for horse racing.

The problem for the UK is that England (and indeed many Scottish unionists) seem unable to get beyond the identity question, believing the crisis of Britishness is a question about ‘who am I’.

an element of how we define ourselves, year since the SNP gained an overall proud of the Monarchy while only 40 per identification is a sense of who we trust majority in the Scottish Parliament is cent of Scots say the same thing. And try and who we align ourselves with, and much more interesting. Increasingly as you might (the BBC really, really tried) inclination is about what we hope for and (outside party politics) we find a process you would have found very little fervent our aspiration. I am, I am like, I want. of de-nationalisation of independence. interest for the Jubilee on the Scots side The problem for the UK is that The cry is, ‘I’m not a nationalist but...’. of the border. England (and indeed many Scottish This is about the other two elements – The ‘inclination deniers’ define unionists) seem unable to get beyond identification and inclination. national sentiment in terms of formalised the identity question, believing the crisis Inclination is more straightforward to participation. But this doesn’t address of Britishness is a question about ‘who understand. London still thinks Scotland the question of ‘who do I trust, who is am I’. This is the traditional territory of ‘hasn’t got over the Thatcher thing’. It like me?’. It is here that the UK faces the ‘cultural nationalist’, but it is a long is wrong. We still haven’t got over the its biggest problem. The south east of time since this was a dominant strand in Thatcher-Major-Blair-Brown-Cameron England seems to continue to hold firmly Scottish politics. thing. Scotland – like much of Britain to identifiers of the British State and the What has emerged in the last – does not incline towards neoliberal British Establishment – the Monarchy, the

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In fact, the debris will be spread even if collapse isn’t completed. If Scotland But Britain isn’t desperately good at votes No, it seems inconceivable that ideological nationalism. When British it will resign itself to the status quo. Indeed, almost everyone accepts that nationalism is threatened from within ‘devo-max’ would win if it was on the ballot paper. In particular, Labour will it is Britain that cedes ground, not the be punished if the outcome of a No part posing the threat. Britain without campaign is another five years of Tory rule with no concession to Scotland. Scotland is likely either to become Even Cameron recognises the fact. This momentum is also likely to give the UK lite-er or to turn into England. a shove gradually towards some form of federal solution as England watches Scotland become more powerful. If Scotland votes Yes, then it is London that will be hit by the debris. Not only will it feel weakened and vulnerable, it will have no option but to reinvent its national story and reorganise itself. It may look to reel Wales in or just possibly it might forget it is there for a spell. But Britain isn’t desperately good armed forces, the City of London – in a dislike bankers’. This simplification looks at ideological nationalism. When British way that seems alien to many Scots. This, at identification and inclination in the nationalism is threatened from within much more than any love of tartan or narrowest possible way. Scots don’t like it is Britain that cedes ground, not the hatred of Thatcher, is the real problem for public-school-boy City bankers and nor part posing the threat. Britain without the UK, at least on its northern fault line. do many of the English. But many of the Scotland is likely either to become lite-er We simply don’t feel particularly English dislike German bankers more, or to turn into England. British on a day-to-day basis and we while Scots barely even notice them. This In my view, both scenarios offer Wales don’t particularly miss it because its is a category difference in both identity more opportunity than threat – but with primary identifiers do not resonate and identification. a condition. Scotland has staggered to with us. I’m sure that there was some Likewise, the North of England where it is now in random steps over a sentiment in Scotland that felt elated by may vote to the left of the South long period and despite a lack of serious Cameron’s nationalist justification for a (a different inclination) and feel a political debate during much of that banker-driven veto of Europe, but it was different identification with the British journey. If Wales collectively fails to react damn-near invisible. Few things could Establishment, but it shares cultural until an outcome is known, then the have seemed more peripheral to events identifiers that Scotland doesn’t. This window for creating opportunities will in Scotland. inhibits drivers towards a differential be brief. The more urgent and the more In 2014, Scotland may well vote political framework. open the debate, the better the chance. against independence, although there is a A different set of cultural identifiers, And so, among the debris, it very long way to go. However, a No vote a diverging sense of identification with seems to me the questions are fairly will not resolve this problem. The weak the British State and a different political straightforward. Who are you? Who are point isn’t Scottish hostility to Britain, inclination have created a critical you like? What do you want? but Scottish ambivalence to identifiers weakness in the UK at the Scottish of Britain allied to hostility to parts of the border. It seems to me now that the British Establishment. And, as with any outcome of the referendum depends of relationship, arguing is much less of a whether these factors result in simmering problem than when the partners can’t discontent or the confidence of action. really be bothered arguing any more. But either way a No vote will not resolve The usual response to this is more the weakness, and collapse is a process Robin McAlpine is Director of the denial – ‘but people all over Britain and not an outcome. Jimmy Reid Foundation.

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 23 1/Changing Union The four party leaders and Yes for Wales Chair Roger Lewis applaud the result referendum on legislative powers, announced in the Senedd on 4 March 2011 Would they be able to respond similarly to a referendum on taxation powers for the Assembly?

How to damage public confidence in devolution

Richard Wyn Jones and Roger Scully reject the arguments for a referendum on devolving taxes to the National Assembly

In our recent book Wales says Yes: was another major factor. True, the Yes within its own tiny ranks. Devolution and the 2011 Welsh Referendum side were stymied by the inadequacies As we demonstrate in our book, pretty (University of Wales Press, 2012), we of the legal framework under which much the only positive aspect of the entire demonstrate that the vote last March referendums in the UK are now 2011 referendum experience was that the was a prime example of an unnecessary conducted. But that does not explain why final result did reflect the broad views of referendum. Devolutionists of a certain Yes for Wales was so slow to get off the the Welsh electorate on how they wish to generation – those scarred by the 1979 ground. This was a national campaign that be governed. This is cause for cheer, given experience – may have revelled in the did not even have a bank account until that referendums are often high-jacked by result. But a more sober analysis surely four months before voting day. issues other than those ostensibly on the leads to the conclusion that the exercise Yet compared to their opponents, ballot paper. But the fact that Wales got, came very close to dragging the whole the Yes campaign was positively Obama- in this sense, the ‘right’ result in 2011 had democratic process into disrepute. esque in competence and efficiency. Has very little to do with how the referendum As the issue ostensibly at stake in there ever been a political campaign quite was conducted. Instead, it had much the referendum was so narrow and as shambolic and inadequate as that of more to do with the fact that devolution technical – a choice between two systems True Wales? Despite enjoying sustained has been discussed for so long that of primary law making – the efforts of attention due to the requirement for media most people in Wales have been able to campaigners and commentators to balance – or, perhaps, because of that develop, in very general terms at least, a explain the choice failed to cut through to attention – True Wales failed to mobilise settled view on the matter. most people, who remained disengaged more than a handful of supporters for its After such a patently unsatisfactory and apathetic. This alone does much to so-called grassroots campaign. It failed to experience as March 2011, one might explain why the turnout was so low. raise more than £4,500 across the whole have thought that politicians, and the But the weakness of the campaigns of Wales; and failed to maintain unity even Welsh political class more generally, would

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have learned enough to avoid future 1997 Scottish precedent is particularly granting of tax-varying powers to the unnecessary referendums on devolution. curious, as it wilfully ignores a more National Assembly constitute another Indeed, one might have hoped that recent, and arguably more pertinent, such fundamental issue? Would it, as we might have developed some clear precedent from the same country. some suggest, change the nature of the and well thought out ideas about the The two Yes votes in Scotland’s 1997 relationship between the citizen and the circumstances in which referendums are referendum created a Parliament with the devolved level of government? appropriate democratic devices to use, option to vary the basic rate of income Part of the problem with this and when they are less appropriate. But it tax. This taxation power was never argument is the manner in which it appears that this is not so. used. Indeed, many experts believe that has been advanced. Thus, transferring Rather, as the Silk Commission the power was in practice more-or-less income tax powers would, it is approaches completion of the first part of unusable. Contrast this with the 2012 suggested, require a referendum but its mandate – reporting on the financing Scotland Act, which compels the Scottish transferring powers over ‘minor taxes’ of devolved government – it seems that a referendum on tax-varying powers is likely. This is, to put it mildly, unfortunate. In September 1997, two questions were We can already predict with a very high degree of confidence that any such put before the Scottish electorate: one referendum will witness very low levels on the principle of establishing a Scottish of public interest; a lack of vibrant public debate; pitifully lacklustre campaigns; Parliament, the second on whether or not and low voter turnout. It will, in short, almost certainly be a deeply inadequate any such Parliament should have powers referendum that will be far more likely to to vary the basic rate of income tax by damage public confidence in devolution and the political process than to enhance 3p in the pound. Some apparently believe it. It would also be an unnecessary referendum – as shown by the weakness that this precedent means that any move of the arguments advanced in support to devolve tax-varying powers to Wales of the idea. Three main arguments have emerged: these may be summarised could only legitimately take place following as precedent, principle, and popular expectation. a referendum. In September 1997, two questions were put before the Scottish electorate: one on the principle of establishing a Scottish Parliament, the second on Parliament to exercise substantial powers would not. But if there is a principle at whether or not any such Parliament over taxation. The latter provides for a far stake about the relationship between should have powers to vary the basic more fundamental shift in responsibility citizen and devolved institutions, why rate of income tax by 3p in the pound. over tax, and it has taken place without a it should matter that a tax is ‘major’ Some apparently believe that this referendum. It is far from clear to us why or ‘minor’? Should not a referendum precedent means that any move to the 1997 Scottish precedent should be be required whatever the perceived devolve tax-varying powers to Wales privileged above the 2012 precedent. status of a tax? In any case, the Welsh could only legitimately take place In 2010, the House of Lords Government already has (indirect but following a referendum. Select Committee on the Constitution substantial) influence over council tax Those schooled in British constitutional recommended that referendums are levels. So what principle would really history will tend to be immediately most appropriately used for deciding be invoked by any transfer of further tax suspicious of such an argument ‘fundamental constitutional issues’. powers to the Assembly? from precedent. Precedents exist for And it gave abolition of the monarchy, A more relevant point of principle is doing almost anything. All manner of independence for part of the state, surely the inconsistency now threatened constitutional changes – major and minor and the abolition of one of the houses between Scotland and Wales. The 2012 – have occurred without recourse to of the UK parliament as pertinent Scotland Act, supported by each of the referendums. But the flourishing of the examples of such issues. Would the three main unionist parties there, was

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Attitudes towards referendums in Wales

Preamble Whether or not… “Some people think that it is a good idea to give people the chance • The Welsh Government should be given the power to borrow to decide important political issues themselves by a vote in a money to spend on capital projects such as building roads and referendum. hospitals. Other people think that it is the job of the politicians we elect to • Shops should be required to charge 5p for carrier bags. decide major political issues. • The Welsh Government should be given the power to change Holding a referendum takes more time and costs more money. But levels of landfill tax and air passenger duty in Wales. those in favour of referendums believe that it is important for people • The Welsh Government should be given the power to raise or to have a direct say. lower the basic rate of income tax in Wales by up to 3p in the £. If decisions had to be made about each of the following issues, please • Whether or not the Welsh Government should be given complete indicate whether you think that those decisions should be made by control over all taxes paid in Wales. elected politicians, or by the people in a referendum” • Whether or not Wales should become an independent country. • Whether or not the Monarchy should be abolished.

DECIDE BY REFERENDUM POLITICANS DECIDE NET DECIDE BY REFERENDUM Borrowing powers 37 48 -11 5p carrier bag charge 31 56 -25 Landfill Tax/APD 27 56 -29 Vary basic rate of income tax by 3p 41 44 -3 Complete tax devolution 53 32 +21 Independence for Wales 80 8 +72 Abolish monarchy 70 12 +58 Number of respondents = 1,039

grounded in a fundamental premise wish to argue that the Welsh Government in April 2012 by YouGov and the Wales outlined by the preceding Calman and National Assembly for Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University. Commission report, that the devolved should be less accountable than their We explored whether people differentiate Scottish Government and Scottish Scottish equivalents? between fundamental and relatively Parliament can only be truly accountable Would the Welsh electorate expect trivial issues in terms of whether decisions if made fiscally responsible (that is, to be consulted in a referendum before should be taken via referendums. forced to wield substantial powers over tax powers were transferred to Cardiff? Respondents were asked to consider a taxation). If this argument is accepted – as In general, when people are asked if they range of subjects, ranging from a 5 pence it has been by all three major UK parties wish to have a say on something, they charge on carrier bags at one end of the – for the elected, law-making devolved tend to reply ‘Yes’ – even if they often fail spectrum, to independence and abolition institutions in Scotland, it is difficult to subsequently to take the opportunity to of the monarchy at the other, and asked see why it should not be for the elected, do so. But is there any specific evidence in whether the decision should be left to law-making devolved institutions of this case? elected politicians or put to a referendum. Wales. Given this, why should powers The Silk Commission has conducted Three things stand out from the results over taxation in Wales – and thereby research into public attitudes, including in the table above. First, a substantial true accountability – be regarded as an – somewhat crudely – attitudes towards proportion of the electorate – around ‘optional extra’, subject to the outcome referendums. The most detailed a third – seem to favour referendums of a referendum. Does anyone seriously research into this issue was undertaken for pretty much everything. If they had

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Former First Minister Rhodri Morgan takes a call in the Senedd while waiting for the March 2011 referendum result. On his left yes for Wales Chair Roger Lewis, and on his right his successor First Minister Carwyn Jones. their way, Welsh life would be an endless survey. But, at a minimum, our findings would vote to do so on the basis of a series of visits to the polling booth. do undermine any claim that there is a considered view as to whether or not the But beyond this group – and this is the clear public expectation of a referendum National Assembly should have powers in second key point – we find that most on tax powers. the area of taxation. voters do indeed differentiate between The arguments from precedent, fundamental and relatively trivial matters, principle or popular expectation that Surely we’re not really going to do this, believing that while the former should be a referendum must be held on the are we? the subject of referendums the latter can Silk taxation recommendations do not be left to the ordinary political process. withstand critical scrutiny. Indeed, all Finally, and most germane to our three can quite easily be reframed into present discussion, when voters are better arguments for not holding any probed about the policy that was the such referendum. Having a taxation subject of Scotland’s second referendum referendum would mean spending several question in 1997 – that is that the million pounds to conduct an event devolved level in Wales should have the whose most likely main accomplishment power to vary the basic rate of income would be to make the 35.6 percent tax by 3 pence – a small plurality believe turnout achieved in March 2011 appear Professor Richard Wyn Jones is that the decision can be left to elected relatively high. And given the lack of years Director and Roger Scully is Professor politicians. One must, of course, avoid of preceding public debate, we cannot of Political Science at the Wales over-interpreting the findings of one even expect the eccentric minority who Governance Centre, Cardiff University.

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 27 Nurturing our 2 Economy entrepreneurs

Walter May makes the case for a new organisation to lead new thinking on an all-Wales strategy for indigenous business growth

At a time when Wales needs to see are the key challenges facing ‘Welsh growth in its entrepreneurial activity we Entrepreneurs’ and how can they be Articles are experiencing low levels of business overcome? Most entrepreneurs are Nurturing our start-ups and a permanent loss of some looking for three things in developing entrepreneurs of our most talented and experienced their business:- They want to: Valleys can cut it entrepreneurs. We tend to focus too in engineering much on the specifics of business ideas • Minimise the need to borrow or give and traditional ways of gaining financial up equity. support. In spite of being told repeatedly • Be in a position to negotiate favourable CO-OP SPECIAL that investors back the entrepreneur, not terms. Learning from his or her idea, we fail to nurture our best • Develop a supportive long-term Mondragon entrepreneurial talent especially when relationship with their investors. Could a co-op they experience failure. The end result run our trains? is that either they become reluctant However, most companies fail because employees or we lose them to other parts of their inability to generate quality

of the UK. revenues. This is often compounded Feedback vital To counter these problems we need by young businesses being reactive for effective a new institution - a promotional body rather than pro-active in their pursuit Welsh public or think tank - to help define an all-Wales of customers. In The Feasibility of procurement strategy for indigenous business growth. Establishing a Knowledge Network for This could include establishing Centres Wales-based Entrepreneurs, research of Excellence for lean business processes, I undertook with Professor Robert promoting entrepreneur mentoring, and Huggins of Cardiff University, we providing advice on finance with a focus revealed that they: on reducing dependency on borrowing. Entrepreneurs are practitioners • Appear to have low levels of aspiration of change. They identify and exploit or confidence. opportunities and lead the transformation • Waste their cash and time resources on process. More than ever Wales needs inappropriate activities and processes. their creativity and energy to build • Experience severe difficulty accessing indigenous businesses that will provide finance. knowledge-based jobs in the future. • See little or no value in being Welsh entrepreneurs are a minority mentored. group whose view of the world is • Strongly support entrepreneur dramatically different from the rest of us. networks. While the barriers to entrepreneurial • See value in accessing a wide success are high, Wales should be spectrum of knowledge sources. great place to start a business. So what

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Unfortunately, those companies that when it comes to finance. There are framework that is nurturing in the good have the least resources waste the two basic ways of bringing cash into times and can provide proactive crisis most, through lack of knowledge and a business, loan finance and revenue. management when the going gets tough. experience. Meanwhile, investors tend to Young Welsh businesses have been too The new organisation I am put entrepreneurs through the proverbial dependent on the former for too long advocating would provide the ringer when it comes to agreeing to and many fail because of this. Smart following advice or services to budding fund their ideas. The temptation is ways exist to fund young businesses and entrepreneurs. It would have the capacity to impose onerous conditions that dramatically reduce ‘time to revenue’. to help: can stifle rather than encourage risk However, few understand these taking, often reducing their chances ‘lean sales’ methodologies. Which is • Test and re-test the market for products of success. While all entrepreneurial not surprising, since it takes a career and services that entrepreneurs are activity is welcome, some possess to acquire this level of knowledge and seeking to develop. greater economical potential, so are we it cannot be found in any text book. • Improve ‘soft skills’, especially those that relate to networking, building customer relationships and trust Smart ways exist to fund young businesses • Expand and improve their and dramatically reduce ‘time to revenue’. knowledge base. • Increase their ‘sense of ‘urgency’. • Instil greater confidence. effectively segmenting entrepreneurial Shortening ‘time to revenue’, reduces the • Set targets to drive creative thinking. activity? Often due to their funding terms, need to borrow. However, when growth • Acquire a mentors with varied we precipitate failure of our stars of the finance is required the entrepreneur is experience and knowledge. future usually at an inflection point or in a much stronger position to achieve • Emphasies the need for businesses to setback in their development. favourable terms from our reluctant become ‘sales led’. At a more strategic level, all the banking or venture capital institutions. • Adopt ‘lean’ methods and processes. high status professions, notably law, So how are the interests of the • Build relationships with academia to banking, and medicine, have their entrepreneur best represented to ensure exploit knowledge and expertise. own think tanks and institutions. Yet we create and sustain the environment arguably, the most important of them for them to succeed? How can we There is no reason why Wales couldn’t all, entrepreneurship or wealth creation, nurture young talent and bring the be the best place to start a business has no Welsh voice lobbying to create smartest, leanest and most effective in the UK. Certainly, we have many an environment where enterprise and business practices to them, leveraging of the necessary features as well as innovation can flourish. the collective knowledge of those that an autonomous Welsh Government Imagine a situation where the focus went before? How can we ensure that with expanding powers. Only through was on the talent and potential of the every leader of a potentially ‘game empathy for our entrepreneurs will we entrepreneur, and where rather than changing’ or disruptive technology develop the insights necessary to create being stigmatised, failure was seen as business understands the ‘technology the environment for them and Wales a ‘right of passage’. Imagine a situation adoption cycle’ prior to defining their to succeed. That process would be well where the private sector was able to go-to-market strategy? served by creating a national body to offer gainful employment to our best This is where we need to create a act as a voice and focus for our entrepreneurial talent which had representative body that can influence wealth creators. experienced failure and needed a period the development of a coherent strategy of respite to develop ideas for their next for Welsh entrepreneurs. The key venture. This could be compared with requirement is to find ways to leverage what happened prior to rugby becoming the knowledge and ‘best practice’ professional, when first class players needed to build entrepreneurial success. worked for sympathetic companies A supportive and empathetic financial within the community that the player environment is essential to developing represented. Such nurturing companies and nurturing entrepreneurs to create and their communities could potentially successful growth businesses. To counter Walter May is involved in benefit from supporting and developing the inherent optimism of the entrepreneur research, lecturing and pratitioner- talent, by sharing in their future success. and lower the risk to the investor, we based mentoring on a range of Equally we must shift our thinking should create a practitioner-based entrepreneurship initiatives in Wales.

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A GE90 engine being serviced at the Nantgarw aircraft maintenance plant – the biggest aero-engine in use world-wide, developed exclusively for the Boeing 777. Valleys can cut it in engineering

Rhys David reports on the GE equipment on the site. “It’s no longer possible to simply put an aircraft maintenance plant at GE’s 1.2 million square feet plant advertisement in the paper and recruit at Nantgarw, north of Cardiff, is an the people we need,” says Button. Nantgarw, one of Wales’ most illustration that the Valleys can cut it With a turnover of more than £1.2 successful enterprises with large, competitive engineering billion a year, GE’s Welsh plant is a operations. Employing more than 1,000 big cog in the wheel that keeps the highly skilled people, the plant, was world’s aircraft flying. At any one time winner of the Company of the Year it is looking after 90 power plants. This Mention Nantgarw to Weng Jiabao, the trophy in the most recent IWA Business year it will be sending back to airlines Chinese premier, and his eyes will light Awards. In the words of its Welsh 500 good-as-new engines that can then up. The second most powerful man managing director, Adrian Button, it is stay on wing for a period of five to six in the world’s most populous nation harder to get into than Oxbridge. years and last up to 40 years. Engines is one of a stream of dignitaries who It recruits from a ten-mile radius are trucked into Nantgarw from many have visited the giant GE aero-engine for its 25 annual apprenticeships, and parts of the world and inspected by maintenance plant and come away received more than 900 applications in borescope (a flexible telescope for highly impressed. Indeed, on a visit to the latest search. After an initial three looking into inaccessible locations) so London several years later he made sure years apprentices spend another two that engineers can determine what work the former Welsh Development Agency training on the job before becoming fully needs to be done. chairman, Lord Rowe-Beddoe, received productive, a five-year investment by the Some may need to be completely an invitation to one of the occasion’s company in its staff. There are a further disassembled into as many as 20,000 formal dinners. There he sought him out 50 graduate or sandwich course interns pieces, which will then be cleaned, to tell him he would never forget the who join for a year across a range of non-destructively tested, and x-rayed, to hospitality he had received, including management and engineering disciplines guauge the serviceability of each part. the opportunity to press some of the and are then taken on if they and the They are then repaired, or replaced and buttons on the huge pieces of test company decide they like each other. put back together, firstly as modules.

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Some will be sent to other GE centres among the world’s top ten companies, helped to fund 100 posts being created of excellence as far away as the US or with products ranging across financial to service the GE90 - has been strong. Singapore for specialist repair. Nantgarw services, healthcare, imaging and power Close links have also been established itself carries out such work on large generation as well as aero-engines. Today with local universities, including, a engine cases on behalf of the group. it has aviation division plants at several few miles further north along the After repair every engine is put through locations in Britain, in Prague, Singapore, A470, Glamorgan, which has its own further tests that typically last six hours, Malaysia, Brazil, and across the US. The aeronautical department. Then a final test replicates conditions CFM56, and the other engines Nantgarw To continue to offer high quality, encountered in flying, especially take- works on, is maintained in a number of well-paid jobs the plant must continue off when maximum strain is placed on these plants and they could either win to win business to work on the latest GE aircraft engines. or be allocated work the Welsh plant engines. The Boeing 777’s new triple The Nantgarw plant looks after currently handles in negotiations the composite engine is a target. “We would several different engine types but parent has with the airlines. like to have the investment to offer that,” principally the CFM56. This is the Nonetheless, Nantgarw has says Button. world’s most popular engine with managed to thrive, generating profits Nurturing good customer 20,000 currently in service worldwide for its owner. “We always run the relationships is vital for the business. The on narrow body aircraft. The plant also risk of losing to competitors,” Button Nantgarw team has to make sure that has other engine work, notably the acknowledges. “We are never the airlines from as far afield as China that GE90, the biggest aero-engine in service, lowest on cost. Others will have currently entrust it with their aircraft are developed exclusively for the Boeing rates of labour that are much lower. willing to continue to do so. 777. “We are lucky here that the engines However, we win work based on the As a good corporate citizen, GE has we have the capability for are leading quality of what we produce here in reciprocated Welsh Government and edge, new technology products,” says Button. “All airlines are looking to buy aircraft powered by the most efficient engines.” He is a Llantrisant native who joined GE as a quality engineer. Later he went off to run a GE ignition plant in Jacksonville in the US before returning to manage Nantgarw. Nantgarw competes both internally and externally with around 25 plants that share at least some of its competencies across the globe. Some airlines, such as Air France/KLM and Delta in the US, have their own maintenance operations. GE’s Welsh plant derives from a previous British Airways facility set up after World War II. British Airways remains a big customer along with Emirates and several Chinese airlines. The low cost airlines - big narrow body airline operators relying heavily on the CFM56 The GE team that picked up the Corporate Social Responsibility category first prize in the IWA’s Wales Business – also figure prominently in the order Awards, at Cardiff City Hall in November 2011. book, as they prefer not to undertake their own maintenance. Easyjet, Ryanair, Tui and Thomson among others all send Wales and on our turnaround times. local support. Its social responsibility their engines to Nantgarw. Our workforce is highly skilled with a programme has won a number of However, such business has to technical background second to none.” awards, including at another IWA be won, not just in competition with Another advantage, he asserts, is that as ceremony, the Inspire Wales Awards other big maintenance organisations a small country Wales has the capacity 2012, for its work with Llamau, a charity but against other GE plants. The parent to move quickly. Support from the helping socially excluded, homeless GE company has long held a position Welsh Government - which last year young people in south Wales. It has

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 31 2/Economy strong relationships with a number of in those territories. At the same time it schools in the area and has recently means there is a bigger world market for broken through the £1m mark of Nantgarw to chase. support for children’s hospice, Ty Hafan. Button believes more could be done It has also made efforts to attract more to improve Welsh competitiveness. GE girls on to its apprenticeship schemes would like to bring freight into Cardiff but finds itself up against the choices Airport but finds it has to use London girls tend to make at 13. If they not able Heathrow, or Manchester. Nantgarw to offer maths and sciences at GCSE reports to GE Aviation’s headquarters they are unlikely to secure places. in Cincinnati, so a direct flight from As far as possible purchases are Cardiff to the US would be helpful - a made locally, though much of the plant’s priority other Welsh business people requirements have to be obtained from have identified. international suppliers. Nevertheless, The key, however, is to stay at the some £20 million a year is spent locally forefront of GE Aviation’s business. “The on support and other purchases, and plant currently has the capability to items such as tools are also obtained work on engines that have a potential locally if possible. life of 40 years so we have that market

Complacency would be dangerous. A CFM56 engine being tested at Nantgarw. It is in front of us,” Button says. “We have to The aviation business is already growing the world’s most popular aero-engine, with 20,000 maintain that position. We are not going much faster in developing markets such currently in service worldwide. to sit back. We must go out and grow.”. as China, India, Brazil and the Middle East than in Europe where a greater degree of saturation has been achieved. Rhys David writes on finance and It is inevitable that aero-engine business affairs and is a trustee of maintenance will grow just as rapidly the IWA.

“The IWA occupies a unique “In a time of transition for “The IWA is a quite place in welsh public life. Its wales, politically, the Institute extraordinarily valuable analysis of current issues of Welsh Affairs provides a body, and I am very proud is always professional and vital forum for all sides to to be a member of it.” extremely helpful.” come together over both Lord (Kenneth) Morgan Lord Richard of Ammanford strategically important and One of Wales’s leading historians Chairman of the Richard Commission contentious issues.” Baroness Ilora Finlay of Llandaff Professor of Palliative Medicine, Join the IWA and Cardiff University support our work.

The work of the IWA depends I wish to become a member Please send me details about on the support and contribution and enclose a cheque for £40. becoming an IWA Fellow. of individual members across Wales and beyond who share I wish to become a member Name: and pay by credit/debit card our determination to mobilise Title: the sum of £ the nation’s human and social Address: resources in order to face the Account Number challenges ahead. By bringing _ _ _ _ /_ _ _ _ /_ _ _ _ /_ _ _ _ Post Code: together partners in business, Tel: Fax: academia, and the public and Expiry date _ _ /_ _ voluntary sectors, the IWA is E-mail: helping to shape economic, social, I wish to pay by Direct Debit educational, environmental and (This will help us keep our costs down) Return to: Freepost cultural policy across Wales. INSTITUTE OF WELSH AFFAIRS Please send me a Direct Debit Institute of Welsh Affairs, 4 Cathedral application form. Road, Cardiff CF11 9LJ 2/Economy A view of the Mondragon valley and the ‘Dragon Mountain’ that towers over it. Many of the buildings CO-OP SPECIAL in the foreground house member co-operatives of the Mondragon Co-operative Corporation.

John Osmond joined a delegation from Wales to the Basque Country in April Learning from to discover why one of the world’s largest co-operative groups has been so successful Mondragon

The Mondragon Corporation is a federation of worker co-operatives based in the Basque Country in northern Spain. Founded in the town of Mondragon and inspired by a Catholic priest José Ma Arizmendiarrieta, its origins were modest. It began with a small technical college in 1943 and later, the first co-op, a small workshop producing paraffin heaters. However, over the next five decades the group expanded to become a major economic player. Today it is the leading business group in the Basque Country. It is in the top ten of Spanish companies in terms of turnover, comprises 120 co-operatives, employs more than 83,000 people, has a turnover of €14 billion, has a bank and numerous research institutes, and a university with some 3,600 students. In February 1981 a Wales TUC delegation visited Mondragon and came away inspired to found the Wales Co- operative Centre. This is now 30 years proposal for introducing a co-operative put into effective practice. old and over the past three decades approach to the delivery of public ‘Humanity at work’ is the has had a substantial impact on the services, especially those that currently Mondragon Corporation’s guiding Welsh economy. It has assisted in the involve sub-contracting care for the slogan. “This means we are the owners start-up of new co-operative businesses, elderly to private sector providers. of our enterprises, and we are the promoted credit unions and social Of course, the circumstances of participants in their management,” enterprises, and run campaigns for Mondragon and those of the wider we were told by Mikel Lezamiz, the digital inclusion and fair trade in some of Basque Country are highly distinctive Corporation’s Communications Director, our most disadvantaged communities. and cannot easily be emulated. who was our guide at Mondragon: In the 2010-11 financial year the Centre Nonetheless, there are powerful lessons supported more than 200 co-operatives in the underlying principles that have “Our humanity comes first. We want and helped set up 56 new businesses. guided the development and growth of to have successful and profitable In April 2012, another Welsh group, the Mondragon initiative. Perhaps most businesses and see them grow, but this time including today’s Director important are what might be described they are subordinate to us, not the of the Wales Co-operative Centre, as the cultural characteristics of the other way around.” returned to Mondragon to witness the Mondragon co-operatives. Certainly, progress it has made and to see what it was instructive to see at first hand, The slogan is followed by the words new directions might be possible. These different ways of working and relating finance, industry, retail, knowledge include a potentially transformative with one another in the workplace being which refers to the scope of the

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 33 2/Economy cooperatives. Of the 120 workplaces, out in 1956. Spain was still under a role in the expansion of Mondragon 87 are industrial factories, making fascist dictatorship. During the Spanish by facilitating access to capital and everything from kitchen appliances to Civil War the Basques, an independent also providing business management automotive components, computers, people with their own language and training. In the 1980s, the 150 co-ops and machine tools. Others are a bank culture, took the side of the Republicans then in existence banded together as the Caja Laboral, the University, the large against Franco’s coup d’état. When Mondragon Co-operative Corporation Eroski retail network that extends to Franco captured the rest of Spain and which was established in its current legal the whole of Spain, four agricultural advanced against the Basque country, form in 1991. Today it lays claim to being co-operatives, 14 research and the Basques put up a spirited defence. the world’s largest worker co operative. development centres, and six social However, they suffered greatly as a Its supermarket arm, Eroski, is the largest service agencies managing health care, result, with Franco throwing the weight Spanish-owned retail food chain. The pensions, and other insurance matters. of his army against them, destroying Corporation also runs co-operative Most are entirely worker owned. their towns and imposing a punitive schools for the children of the workers, Others are hybrids of worker-owners regime. Many Basques ended up a modern technological university, an and other co-op owners, so-called in concentration camps. Some fled independent research and development ‘second-degree co-operatives’. All to France. Others were summarily arm, and more recently has developed have their management selected by executed. The region’s highly developed residential and domiciliary social care co-op governing boards. All have industry, which dated back to the days of for its workers beyond retirement. yearly assemblies where the workers set the Spanish empire, was destroyed. In 1981 the Welsh delegation, funded strategies, make or change policies, and Serving in the Republican forces by a Welsh Development Agency study elect their governing boards on the basis was a young priest, Fr. José Marìa grant, was led by George Wright, the of one member, one vote. Arizmendiarrieta. Born in 1915 into Wales TUC general secretary, and Les Mondragon, Spanish for Dragon a farming family thirty miles from Paul, its vice-chairman. Other trade Mountain (and in Euskara, the Basque Mondragon, he joined a Catholic unionists included Viv Balmont, a Cardiff language, Arrasate), lies deep in the seminary aged 13. He was captured member of TASS who had recently mountains of the province of Guipúzcoa, by the fascists, put in a concentration lost his job; Gwyn Jenkins an AUEW in northern Spain. In the wake of the camp, and narrowly escaped execution. member from Aberystwyth, who was Spanish Civil War Mondragon was an After his release in 1941 he was sent as a seeking to launch a co-operative, impoverished town about the same size curate to the small town of Mondragon, Aberystwyth Engineering, out of the as Blaenau Ffestiniog, Ystradgynlais, or some 30 miles inland from Guernica. Two ashes of a recent casualty in the town, Aberdare. Today, despite the ongoing years later he became a religious instructor Brockhouse Engineering; Jim Ryan, recession, it is a prosperous area and at a small training school in the town president of West Glamorgan trade boasts one of the lowest unemployment operated by a local steel company. This councils, and a former Port Talbot rates in Spain. This transformation prompted him to start an independent steelworker; Joyce Schutt, a TGWU is wholly due to the impact of the community-run training school for young shop steward and member of the Mondragon Corporation on the town apprentices in October 1943. Bargoed Blouse Co-operative; and Barry and its surrounding area. This school was self-governed and Scragg, chairman of UCATT’s Shotton In the wake of Franco’s death in self-financed, and laid the ground work branch and a member of the Wales TUC 1975, and following a referendum for what would become the Mondragon general council. In addition they were in 1979, an autonomous Basque Co-operative Corporation’s schools that joined by Robin Reeves, then Welsh Government was established which is would eventually educate more than Correspondent with the Financial Times notable in being responsible for its entire 45,000 students. In 1954, five students The 2012 delegation comprised tax base as well as having full legislative from the school bought a small bankrupt Derek Walker, chief executive of the powers. This new regime has provided factory that manufactured paraffin Wales Co-operative Centre, Alex Bird a supportive business environment cooking stoves. To buy the company, Executive Chair of Co-operatives and for the Mondragon Corporation in they asked one hundred members of the Mutuals Wales; Mark Drakeford, AM recent decades, though to a large Mondragon community to contribute for Cardiff West; Liz Moyle an elected extent the Corporation has developed to a £60,000 loan. The men used their Member, and Ashley Drake, Membership independently of Government policy. initials to name this first co-operative Manager with the Co-operative Group There are many reasons for this Ulgor, and by 1958 it was employing 148 Cymru/Wales; and myself. independence, but undoubtedly members of the Mondragon community. An important aspect of the the most influential was the political In 1959 Arizmendiarrieta helped to foundation of the Mondragon co- situation that faced the Mondragon establish a co-operative bank, the Caja operatives, was the impact of Basque co-operative pioneers when they set Laboral Popular, which played a key nationalism. Although the main impetus

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The 2012 delegation from Wales to Mondragon – from left to right, Derek Walker, Chief Executive of the Wales Co-operative Centre; Mark Drakeford, Labour AM for Cardiff West; Liz Moyle, an elected member of the Co-operative Group in Wales; Mikel Lezamiz, Communications Director with the Mondragon Corporation; Alex Bird, Executive Chair of Co-operatives and Mutuals Wales; John Osmond, Director of the IWA; and Ashley Drake, Wales Membership Manager with the Co-operative Group. and inspiration for their formation “It could be said, therefore, that especially in the histories of our mining came from the town’s parish priest José the intellectual foundations for the and slate quarrying communities. Ma Arizmendiarrieta, the structure development of the Mondragon Surely, therefore, this holds out some of workers’ control that evolved also co-operative movement were laid hope that the Mondragon co-operative reflected the ideological debates that before the dark age of Franco’s approach, certainly in terms of the took place within the trade union arm of fascism descended on the Basques cultural values it espouses, will be the Basque National Party in the 1920s in 1937; and that the development attractive to the Welsh temperament. and early 1930s. As Robin Reeves put it of the movement provided an outlet in a report he produced in the wake of for Basque nationalist expression at the 1981 visit: a time when normal political activity was forbidden.” “The Basque workers rejected both capitalism and communism as On one level this reflection only serves alien to and irreconcilable with, to further underline the particularity Basque culture and social traditions. of the Basque experience and to They sought a form of economic emphasise again that it is exceedingly organisation which, while achieving difficult to envisage the Mondragon social and political advance for co-operative model working in other workers, would also maintain the settings. At the same time, however, John Osmond is Director of the IWA. tradition of communal obligation it is possible to trace a comparable Learning from the Dragon – Lessons for and commitment which had always “tradition of communal obligation Wales from the Mondragon Co-operative, been a feature of Basque society. and commitment” in Welsh life, and is published by the IWA at £10.

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 35 2/Economy An Arriva train on the Cambrian Coast line alongside the Dyfi estuary, heading west towards Aberdyfi and Towyn.

CO-OP SPECIAL Could a co-op run our trains?

Stuart Cole examines the options facing the Welsh Government when it considers the future ownership and control of our railway network

Six years may seem a long time before 2006 following a budget transfer in the 1. A conventional franchise from the the renewal of the Wales and Borders block grant, which amounted to £140 Welsh Government alone, rather rail franchise takes place, but the key million in 2011-12. However, should than the present joint arrangement investment and contractual decisions the Welsh Government take such a with the Department of Transport. will have to be made long before that, in far-reaching departure as creating In this scenario the operator would 2015. So the Welsh Government should a co-operative out of the Welsh rail be a listed company, such as Arriva, already be considering its options. network it will have to negotiate new First, Stagecoach or National There are broadly four ways to arrangements with London. Express. There would be no capital run Wales’ railways. Three of them Apart from running the railways investment risk as all the assets - involve continuing with a franchise as a franchise operation the Welsh rolling stock, stations and track from arrangement along present lines, with Government could own and run the Network Rail – would be leased for varying degrees of radical adjustment. system itself as a not for dividend the life of the franchise. The revenue The most far-reaching option would be company, probably operated at arms and operating cost risk would lie with to set up the Welsh rail operation as a length by a National Rail Transport the private company franchisee. co-operative owned by the employees Authority. Some have argued that this or the passengers or a combination would amount to nationalisation by 2. A not for dividend company of the two. This would have many the back door. Others have pointed operated as a franchise from the advantages, and would certainly place to the current Network Rail position, Welsh Government. This would Wales on the world stage in railway responsible for the rail track throughout require the appearance in the terms, though it might be difficult for Britain, as offering a precedent for direct market of new not for dividend the Welsh Government to persuade the government involvement. Network companies bidding for the franchise Department of Transport in London to Rail has a close relationship with in order to achieve meet European go down this route. the Department of Transport while competition rules, unless it could be Under present arrangements the remaining a not for dividend private shown that a single such company new franchise in 2018 will be awarded sector company. was not obtaining competitive by the Department for Transport with If the Welsh Government wished advantage. It has been suggested input from the Welsh Government as to continue a franchise arrangement, that Glas Cymru (upon which co-signatory. The Welsh Government but not as a co-operative then it has Network Rail was largely based) became responsible for the funding and two choices: could be the model for a Welsh performance of Arriva Trains Wales in Train Operating Company with a

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guaranteed revenue stream and a from one operator to another and commuter routes to meet expected highly capitalised registered asset any phased changes required in demand increases? base. This model only has the connection with rail electrification. • Reduced journey times through faster revenue stream guaranteed for the • Subsidy forecasting can be more trains? subsidy element and a buoyant accurate. • More modern, more comfortable and expanding market for the • It allows for integrated bus and rail trains? fare-paying element. Under this branding. • Higher levels of infrastructure scenario the revenue and cost risk • Increase integration of timetable, investment at stations and on track would again lie with the Company. ticketing, and inter train operating and signals? To succeed it would have to match company discounts. • Improved services and capacity for a public sector ethos with private the same cost? sector commercial discipline. The successful existence of the Co- operative shops and building societies What then will be the main drivers Against these options a franchised co- suggests that any business with a large towards a new rail management? operative company would be owned number of customers could be a mutual. Reduction in cost has to be one primary by the employees (as with the John This certainly includes a train operating reason but not necessarily at the Lewis Partnership) or the passengers company. Other advantages with the co- expense of service quality. In all business (as with the Co-op) or, more likely operative approach might include: restructuring the principles are: some combination of the two - as is the case, for example with the Mondragon • A co-operative business could be • Reduce costs, through detailed Eroski supermarket chain that operates expected to give a greater sense of examination of each model. through much of Spain. In this scenario collective ethos, which would help • Increase revenue, through improved the revenue and cost risk would lie the industry though difficult times. marketing. with the employees and passengers. If • Staff absences could be expected to • Maintain or improve the service the company mirrors the present retail be lower than other forms of business quality, through the passenger companies the extent of the risk would structures, as is claimed by the John experience be on the same basis. Lewis Partnership. There would significant benefits from • Many of the complaints about rail In the Welsh context, alongside these the franchising system whether it was companies might disappear if the considerations the Welsh Government the current Wales and Borders franchise passenger felt a direct ownership. needs to explore with the Department arrangement (plus the Swansea – Bristol Of course, the last time the railways for Transport where the responsibility electric trains), a not for dividend were in public ownership that didn’t will finally stop in deciding the funding, company, or a co-operative supplier: happen though that might have ownership, control and organisation been because, in effect, the British of the Welsh railway system following • It allows competition in terms of Rail model was no different from a the end of the current franchise period service provision and funding levels. conventional private company. in 2018. If the Welsh Government • It provides a more secure train market • Persuading travellers that the railway wishes to explore the advantages of and service not entirely dependent on really was being run for their benefit far-reaching changes, such as moving the commercial market. might move remove the ‘them and towards co-operative ownership, then • It allows other economic, us’ perception. the balance of control is going to need environmental and social factors to be to slant towards Wales and away from taken into account. Whatever change in the form of Whitehall. Have we the vision to move • It prevents market instability through ownership is adopted, a key justification in this direction? an operator of the last resort, that needs to be enhanced benefits for is the Welsh Government (see the the passengers, the economy, the parallel in South Central and the east environment and society in general in Coast Main Line). Wales. These are some of the questions • It retains network benefits such as any new structure will need to address. integration of services within the Will there be: Welsh operation and in relation to Professor Stuart Cole is Emeritus Great Britain rail operations. • Increases in train frequency? Professor of Transport, Wales Transport • It gives value for money. • Increased capacity, hopefully with Research Centre, University of • It can provide for the transfer new electric trains, and especially on Glamorgan.

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 37 2/Economy Feedback vital for effective Welsh public procurement

Dermot Cahill and Ceri Evans investigate the experience of Welsh companies when tendering for public sector contracts

A large majority of supplier organisations order to get a response. • The practice of systematically responding unsuccessfully to public Wider participation in public providing good feedback drives procurement tenders in Wales are not procurement is vital for the future of the improvements in tender processes provided with feedback following the Welsh economy and the growth and because it helps public purchasers to outcome, according to our research. This sustainability of private and third sector identify areas where suppliers need contrasts with bids for larger contracts organisations in Wales. It accounts for to make their future tenders fit-for- that have to be advertised across the some £4 billion, approaching a quarter purpose. This has benefits for both European Union. In these instances of Welsh public sector spending, and purchasers and suppliers. suppliers must by law be automatically has the potential to provide a substantial provided with feedback. boost to indigenous enterprise in Wales. It is important to state that some However, because the majority of Feedback for companies that organisations received commendations Welsh companies are too small to bid have been unsuccessful in bidding for from suppliers concerning the quality for most EU size threshold contracts, this contracts is important for at least the and care that they took in order to give means the contracts that they typically following reasons: effective feedback. The reality is that apply for are the ones where they there can be considerable differences tend not to automatically receive any • It promotes integrity and confidence in the quality of feedback provision feedback. Overall, Welsh suppliers are in the public procurement process, within each public sector organisation dissatisfied with the level and quality of because it give suppliers confidence – for example, between centralised feedback they receive from the Welsh that the process has been conducted procurement units where there has been public sector. with integrity, even when the adequate training, and decentralised We carried out an in-depth survey at feedback they receive demonstrates departments where individuals are Bangor University involving several days that their tender had fatal flaws. often purchasing on a part-time basis. of interviews with 40 Welsh companies However, in general, suppliers in Wales in transport, printing and publishing, • It helps the supplier to identify appear dissatisfied with public sector engineering, environmental, consultancy, what skills deficiencies, or other purchasers when it comes to feedback. business services, education, training, deficiencies, they possess, and allows Moreover, in situations where energy and manufacturing. The results them to identify their weaknesses, so suppliers did receive some ‘feedback’ showed a negative experience of that they can do something about it all that most were given was merely tendering to the public sector in terms of for the next time that they intend to a statement of their overall score, the feedback element. enter a public procurement exercise. in comparison with the winner’s In the survey 85 per cent said they score. Only a minority (10 per cent) were not provided with automatic • Suppliers expect comprehensive and received an explanation describing the feedback when they were notified of meaningful feedback given the effort weaknesses in their submissions. the results of their tenders. Even more and time they devote to tendering Of the suppliers we interviewed worrying is they said that they usually and because of the opportunity costs who had received written feedback, had to request feedback, and sometimes incurred. 44 per cent found that it was not useful had to make such requests repeatedly in at all, with a further 33 per cent giving

38 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 2/Economy written feedback a rating of only 2 out equipped to win contracts outside Wales. have an opportunity to recognise there of a possible 5. Generally, the feedback A number of public sector is a problem, and more importantly, do companies get fails to give them organisations have made improvements something about it. Meaningful feedback guidance so they can improve their to feedback provision in recent years. to a supplier involves much more than tendering capabilities in future. However, this seems to have been numerical ranking against the successful This lack of adequate feedback driven more by a desire to comply tender. To be effective it should openly: means suppliers are discouraged from with the requirements of the new EU applying for contracts again and many Remedies Directive, rather than a desire • Explain how the evaluation process will not even consider doing so with to assist the SME sector with effective was carried out. the particular public sector organisation feedback. Implementing good practice • Detail how the scoring method was with which they have been dealing. In because one is forced to do so by legal applied in a transparent way. response to our survey: obligation, rather than by organisational • Provide guidance as to what the aspiration, is not a good way to proceed. evaluators were looking for in • 10 per cent wondered whether We have also observed that submissions. the tender process was carried suppliers’ public procurement • State how many organisations out properly and according to experience is much better when they competed. procurement rules and regulations. deal with trained procurers. So we need • State who won the tender. more effective professional training for • Provide the suppliers’ score for each • 25 per cent stated they were put procurement officials within the public evaluation factor in comparison to the off ever bidding for public sector sector. Bangor University is helping winners’ score and average score; contracts again. meet this need with its new Masters in Procurement Law and Strategy, Most importantly, feedback should • 35 per cent said the lack of feedback a programme welcomed by John provide detailed, meaningful and meant they were prevented from McClelland who has recently conducted prescriptive explanations why the improving their tendering skills. reviews of public sector procurement in supplier was not successful according both Wales and Scotland. to each evaluation criteria. Suppliers do It is clear that Welsh public procurers This acute training need was not want high-level generic comments. face difficulties in delivering effective acknowledged in Influencing the They want to know what they need to feedback, in terms of resources but also Modernisation of EU procurement do to improve, with indicative guidance their organisational culture. However, Policy, a task and finish group report by on their strengths and weaknesses, and this must be tackled if we are to develop members of the National Assembly’s suggested corrective actions. strong indigenous businesses with the Enterprise and Business Committee in The new sustainable development skills to sell to the public sector. May. They referred to what has become White Paper being prepared by the If Welsh SMEs are to grow known as the ‘McClelland benchmark’, Welsh Government for publication this employment, and help regenerate the following his review of procurement autumn offers an opportunity to legislate economy, winning more public sector in Scotland in which he states there on feedback requirements along contracts has to be a priority. We are should be one skilled professional for these lines. Sustainable communities not saying that contracts should always every £15 million of spend. According to need employment and economic be awarded to local companies – that recent data, Wales has 106 procurement regeneration. Providing effective would be a recipe for short-term gain officers with a Chartered Institute of feedback to Welsh SMEs when they lose and long-term disaster. What we Purchasing and Supply qualification. a tender would better equip them the need is an improvement in the public Applying the McClelland benchmark next time they seek a public contract, procurement feedback system to be would mean that Wales should have 174 whether in Wales or further afield. embedded in the procurement practice professionals. In our view, there should of all public purchasers in Wales. be even more than this – 174 is the If public sector tender offers were absolute minimum. Professor Dermot Cahill is Director made clearer and fit for purpose, the We have been conducting public and Ceri Evans a Senior Supplier effort currently spent on evaluating procurement research in Wales and and Procurement specialist at Bangor tender offers could be reduced and the Ireland since 2004 and, repeatedly, the University’s Institute for Competition time saved used to give more effective question of feedback has arisen as an and Procurement Studies. Their Winning feedback. This would have the added issue. However, this is the first time that in Tendering project reported on here is benefits of helping Welsh SMEs to we have quantitative data to support funded by the European Commission’s become more tender-ready and better our findings. Public sector bodies now Ireland/Wales INTERREG programme.

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 39 We need to end second

rate vocational culture 3 Jim Bennett argues that competition between Education schools and colleges is impeding the reputation and delivery of work-related technical subjects

Vocational education has been offered “… our failure to match the general in some schools for many years. It was a intelligence or technical knowledge major part of the curriculum in secondary of the masters and managers of modern schools from 1944 until industrial establishments on the comprehensive schools were introduced, continent”. and the national curriculum severely Articles curtailed it. It has crept back over the last This was at a time when competition from We need to end 15 years as schools have struggled to keep Germany and the USA was becoming a the dullards all pupils motivated up to the age of 16. worry. Today, after a century of steady culture Some of that has been within the schools, decline, the UK economy is under siege and some in partnership with colleges. from global competition in an increasingly More theory than In recent years relaxation of the technical world. We are recognising once understanding in national curriculum coupled with the again that we must make things to survive, teaching reading strong impetus of league tables and the and to do so we need to make use of all Wales is sitting provision of vocational equivalents to of our collective talent, yet we continue on a bilingual GCSEs have given vocational education to waste much of it. Reasons for offering gold mine a massive boost. Now it has once again vocational options from the age of 14 been curtailed in England to make include the need to: way for a narrower but for some, more rigorous offer. • Improve motivation. All of this shows a lack of consensus • Enhance outcomes through and clarity about the purpose of alternatives and equivalencies. vocational education and training • Provide a different, more adult culture. which impinges on the whole of 14-19 • Widen access. education. Our lack of agreement about • Give an early start on new progression fundamental values is clouding the routes post-16. delivery of vocational subjects. We need that clarity urgently and Improvements over the last decade or in Wales we have an opportunity to so in both schools and colleges have do something about it. The reviews been driven by targets and league tables. of vocational qualifications and the Much of this has been positive, but it has qualifications market might be enough also brought unintended and perverse in themselves, and at the same time consequences, as targets and intense there is renewed interest in tertiary public scrutiny usually do. Schools cannot reform to achieve real transformation in be blamed for introducing attractive 14-19 provision. vocational equivalents under the glare This issue is not remotely new. Anyone of rising expectations and critical public involved in education and training will be evaluation. We have recently witnessed aware of the extent to which our confusion the consequences through the Wolf is rooted in our history and culture. The Report in England. Reports in the popular 1888 Royal commission on Education press were all too familiar, with headlines commented on: such as:

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• Thousands of ‘dead end’ courses axed from school tables • GCSE league tables - bright children failing • Eight in ten teenagers shunning ‘tough’ GCSEs • Shocking waste of talent in state schools

As one newspaper reported, “Of over 3000 qualifications, 70 will now count towards 5 A* to C grades. 56 per cent of pupils in state comprehensives gained 5 A* to C GCSEs - the basic measurement of a good education. But the proportion rocketed to more than 80 per cent when results in ‘equivalent’ qualifications were added”. The message is depressing. Vocational education and training is dead end, second rate and easy. It crowds out more Vocational students at Coleg Gwent. deserving options. Bright young people shouldn’t do it. If you do it and succeed, you are cheating by taking the easy option. • Students in small sixth forms have a Until the age of 16, everyone pursues Whatever the fundamental reasons for limited and narrow choice. GCSEs. Vocational provision is seen as these persistent and damaging beliefs are, for the least able - a powerful stigma we must continue to challenge them. That is a diplomatic way of expressing reinforced by the choice at 16. If schools Estyn have been very clear about some reality. Any FE manager can cite examples select a student to do A Levels, still of the reasons. In their 2006 report on of the impact that competition has on promoted as the gold standard, they will collaboration between further education their relationship with schools. Young typically specialise in three subjects after colleges and schools they state: people are given the message, perhaps 17. We narrow down and reduce the subliminally, that failure to be selected for status of the vocational at the same time. • There is little collaboration between A Levels means being second rate, and by In 2004 The Tomlinson Report schools and FE due to competition implication the institutions and provision recommended replacing GCSEs, A and lack of trust, and a desire to retain left to them are also second rate. Levels and the major general vocational students in the sixth form. Ignorance of colleges and vocational qualifications with a unified diploma at 4 • Competition interferes with clear opportunities generally is often profound. levels, including academic and vocational unbiased information and advice to Rumours abound about a lack of pastoral units. The idea was warmly received by pupils, and many schools don’t give it support in colleges, not following up the whole profession, by schools, colleges, about post-16 options. absences or involving parents. All of this universities and the professional bodies; it • Small sixth forms have limited and is nonsense. There is often total ignorance was an unusual consensus. narrow choice, with few opportunities about the ability to get into university The Labour Government rejected the to mix general and vocational. with vocational qualifications. It is still not proposals, perhaps due to a reluctance possible to compare school and college to lose the ‘academic rigour’ of A Levels, In their 2008 report on 14-19 education results because they are measured in or lose votes in the approaching election. Estyn adds: very different ways. This misinformation The White Paper which followed focused does much to reinforce parental support on making qualifications harder and • Many schools still see vocational provision for school sixth forms and A Levels, and tying them to basic skills. A new 14- as only suitable for the least able. their suspicion of alternatives. As long as 19 Diploma was introduced alongside • Many schools don’t give clear money follows students this will continue. GCSEs and A Levels. This joined a long unbiased information about options Our dual system of qualifications line of unsuccessful post-war attempts to available post-16. demands a choice between an do similar things, including CSE, DoVE, • On their own schools can’t fund the ‘academic’ route through A Levels, CPVE, GNVQ and vocational A levels. wide range needed for the 14-19 or a vocational route, which starkly In the meantime partnerships were entitlement. reinforces old prejudices. developed between schools and colleges

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 41 3/Education to deliver the new qualifications. Schools schools, colleges and work-based everything in colleges. The more adult developed vocational options in affordable learning. Awarding bodies have chased atmosphere in a college is highly valued subjects such as childcare, travel and business in schools and sometimes failed by all students. Large numbers of 14-16 tourism, business, and IT. Colleges offered to secure consistency in quality assurance. year olds can dilute that. As colleges grow a greater range of subjects such as For many years colleges have reported space is limited, even for post-16 students. hairdressing, beauty therapy, child care, that literacy and numeracy skills have not Non-core business crowds out other motor vehicle maintenance, engineering kept pace with successes in GCSEs, and activities and often needs to be limited. and construction. that lower level GCSEs do not prepare And much of what is done in schools is However, mistakes are made at all for some vocational options – an example fine, even if much of it could be better. levels. Colleges sometimes timetable less being maths and engineering. Whatever we can do in Wales to suitable staff. The different cultures of So who should these options be for? turn around this state of affairs we must. schools and colleges are not sufficiently The tacit reply is usually the alienated, If we could end all false distinctions and recognised. Students are not fully involved the underperforming or those of lower snobbery, it would be wonderful. We in the colleges while the schools are often ability. If the equivalencies stack up, have an opportunity to return to the ideas insufficiently engaged. Links with the core perhaps Level 2. The answer must, of in Tomlinson and implement them here in curriculum are seldom well made. course be for everyone if we are to serve Wales, and we should seriously consider Vocational options are rarely made individuals and the economy. But how that. We could do more to dismantle available to everyone, especially in 11-18 can that be done? There are three basic competition, or at least make unacceptable schools. Selection is often limited to Level criteria for high quality vocation and its more damaging manifestations. We 1. Schools can dump problem pupils. educational training: could commit to tertiary education and Selecting a whole group to save teaching end competition once and for all. costs can result in pupils not knowing why • Industrial standard teachers who know In the absence of any of that, we can they were selected. Working with the local the industry, have contacts and total pursue the following for the benefit of all of college until the school is ready to take commitment. These are scarce. our young people and the Welsh economy: things in-house is not uncommon. Pick • Industrial standard workshops, studios, and mix units can lead to young people salons and equipment. These are • Rethink selection for 14-16 not being ready to progress post-16 and expensive. qualifications and make them having to repeat courses. Many vocational • Progression routes in place from Level available for all. equivalents do not provide progression to 1 to at least Level 3 and then HE. - • Improve induction and student the next level. When they don’t colleges These require large numbers. involvement in college-based have to manage the disappointment. 14-16 options. Partnerships seldom coordinate This is not an argument for doing • Improve joint local planning and delivery to coordinate the work of Studying carpentry at Coleg Gwent. schools, colleges and work-based learning. • Plan progression from all options, and stop any provision without it. • Share staffing and training when that helps. • Share facilities when we can. • Share staff for school-based provision. • Develop regional centres of excellence for both schools and colleges.

Whatever we do we must provide brave leadership, which starts by recognising problems and facing up to them together. A competitive free for all will not do that.

Jim Bennett is Principal and Chief Executive of Coleg Gwent.

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More theory than understanding in teaching reading

Geraldine Barry says ‘not Government’s National Literacy and how we can apply this knowledge invented here’ is the attitude Programme, which at its heart states in a classroom context. Without this of many Welsh schools that “all learners should be taught knowledge, structured teaching of when confronted with new well”. However, my experience of phonics and other reading skills is not teaching in schools in Wales is sobering. rigorous enough. literacy ideas One anecdote in particular may give Generally, teachers are efficient Education Minister Leighton Andrews users of the English language but not a flavour of what he is up against. In necessarily good teachers of phonics. I am an experienced literacy teacher one school I identified shortcomings Ask any reader how they learned and having trained and worked in London in the English/literacy scheme which, they usually look a little uncertain and from 1987 and in Wales since 2000 and for writing composition (viewed by the mention names of reading schemes taught in many schools and further school as a separate area of literacy) or talk vaguely about ‘sounding out’. and higher education. However, I involved filling in pages of a workbook I believe the “excellent teachers who left mainstream teaching over three once a week. can deliver phonics” Leighton Andrews years ago disillusioned by the lack of So I created a new scheme that is seeking will be hard to find. For care given to children in terms of their gave the children an experience of example, how do you explain to a learning and the lack of understanding writing (introducing them to and then group of readers how to read the word of the impact that poor teaching of practising writing composition through ‘music’ if this word is not known to literacy can have on learners. modelling and which included sentence them? How would you explain it? What My final teaching post in England construction whilst at the same time would learners need to know before was at a school that received an award embedding spelling and handwriting you could ask them to read the word? from the Department for Education for skills). Once my pupils were engaged That vowels can sometimes be long improving literacy standards, much of in writing as a process, my books and sometimes be short? What makes which attributed to my work, recognised were pulled in by a member of senior them long? What makes them short? as excellent by OFSTED, as a Year 6 management and I was told that Why is that letter s in the middle not teacher. Despite my record of school because they didn’t ‘look the same’ as making the (s) sound but rather a (z) improvement and success in raising the other books in the school, I should and why is that vowel i at the end short? standards I have not managed to secure stop this immediately as an inspection For a seemingly simple word it is all work in Wales as a primary classroom was imminent. Interestingly, when rather complicated. I have come across teacher let alone as a senior manager Estyn identified writing composition qualified teachers with post graduate within a school with opportunities to as an area of weakness, my re-written qualifications from Welsh universities apply my expertise. scheme of work was produced by senior who are unsure how to deal with So I now work as a freelance management as evidence for capacity the deficit in phonic skill exhibited by specialist literacy tutor and for a to improve. The rewritten scheme of learners of all ages. third sector organisation, to improve work was never seen again after the The call for improvement in literacy standards of literacy in leaners who departure of Estyn. teaching by teachers in post is welcome have been let down by the school Further study is an excellent way to and I agree that a systematic approach system. I have also come to the develop literacy teaching skills so The should be used to develop their skills. conclusion that most of the leaners I Masters in Educational Practice is most This is a major shift since I first came to now work with have not been taught welcome. However, my experience Wales. My ‘training’ consisted of being phonics properly. I am also called upon of postgraduate education in Wales told that the local education authority to address literacy problems of leaners has demonstrated a focus which is (LEA) literacy scheme was “the same in schools that have received excellent too heavily based on theory and not as the National Literacy Strategy in Estyn inspection grades. enough on understanding the structure England”. It clearly was not and I was I therefore welcome the Welsh and mechanics of the English language asked not to integrate the successful

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 43

3/Education elements of it into my teaching (see There are clearly good teachers in Wales and there is above). The National Literacy Programme capacity within Welsh education to improve the level guidance states that many existing of literacy in our learners. However, as someone who teachers “need up skilling” by identifying came to Wales to offer what my colleagues in London “outstanding teachers of literacy” who will model best practice and support spoke about as “my special brand of teaching”, the Professional Learning Communities. opportunity to contribute has been denied to me. However, as an experienced, successful teacher of literacy with proven ability in delivering school improvement I would have to teach this sort of thing?” ”I’m will deliver them and what training like to know: here to teach my subject”; and my will be offered so that the assessment two favourites: “I will teach this way process does not end with testing. It is • How will outstanding teachers be because I have taught this way for 20 also important that intervention schemes identified? How will their excellence years”, and “I teach this way because are delivered with care, attention to be measured? A closer look at the it was the way I was taught and it detail and imagination. Many of our timeline shows that guidance has worked for me”. learners who are failing in literacy need been sent out to LEAs and plans from to be taught the same skills many times, consortia of schools should be ready Another main activity outlined in the in many different ways in order to build imminently. It will be interesting to National Literacy Strategy is assessment up their ‘toolbox’ of skills which they see whether the recruitment net for which is a subject after my own heart. can begin to apply in different contexts, ‘outstanding’ teachers will extend I want to know where my learners making learning more accessible. outside existing LEA teachers. are, what strengths they have (so I can There are clearly good teachers build on them and use them to support in Wales and there is capacity within • When will more schools and LEAs problem areas) and where the deficits Welsh education to improve the level recognise excellence in literacy in learning are. It is only then that I can of literacy in our learners. However, as teaching in a form not standard to get going with devising and delivering someone who came to Wales to offer Wales (that is, not someone who a ‘toolkit’ which they can take back to what my colleagues in London spoke has ‘done their time’ for years in their mainstream classrooms and gain about as “my special brand of teaching”, the same school)? Not enough access to what is being taught. This the opportunity to contribute has been schools welcome applications from approach also raises self-esteem and denied to me. A lack of opportunity and prospective teachers who have a confidence, something which learners failure to recognise expertise has meant wide variety of experiences in a with difficulties in literacy lack. that since arriving in Wales I have had number of schools and within other I couldn’t do my job as a literacy to seek work outside the mainstream sectors. A teacher who has moved teacher without assessment so I was education system, keep my skills up to around, refreshed their career, pleased to read about the National date and pay for my own professional taken risks in their own learning, Reading Tests. I am however concerned development (in particular specialist and has tried out new approaches is about the additional, non-statutory post graduate training in literacy, precisely the teacher I want teaching diagnostic test materials. These sound dyslexia and special educational needs, my children. After all, in improving like a great idea. However, as someone accredited by York University) to ensure literacy one size does not fit all. with extensive training in diagnostic that I can meet the needs of my learners. testing I know the pitfalls of assessment. I look forward to seeing how the • How are schools and LEAs going to If teachers assess, they need proper implementation of the National Literacy identify those teachers who need training to deliver assessments correctly Programme progresses in Wales. For me a particular help in ‘upskilling’? My and if they undertake diagnostic measure of its success will be a reduction experience as a freelance specialist assessments, what are they going to do in the number of referrals I receive from teacher in Wales suggests that this is with the results? parents whose children fail to achieve the going to be difficult. There is a limited The National Literacy Strategy standards of which they are capable. awareness in schools of the skills states that the Welsh Government needed to be a good literacy teacher. will “provide guidance to advise on In my various roles I have heard appropriate intervention programmes Geraldine Barry is a qualified specialist many comments including: “It’s not and on their successful implementation.” literacy teacher with experience my job”, “The primary teachers are I wait with interest to find out which in schools, and further and higher getting it wrong”, “Why should we programmes are recommended, who education in London and Wales.

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 45 3/Education

Wales is sitting on a bilingual gold mine

Lisa Jones describes her School simply cannot compete with a carpet today? Did you go to China?” efforts to teach the language parent or grandparent reading the same Or teaching, “Did you make soup in to parents whose children much-loved story over and over again, at school today?” The parents could then are attending Welsh- a child’s individual pace. And no wonder immediately ask their child the relevant they want that same story over and over question for that day. medium schools again. Books aimed at three-year-olds It is difficult to imagine such levels of can be so linguistically rich that even job satisfaction anywhere else. The key Should there be a linguist in every Welsh- A-level Welsh students reach in frustration to giving people the confidence to use medium primary school to help parents for their dictionaries. Yet many parents Welsh is identifying the vocabulary they who want to learn Welsh? I’ve been struggle to get to any regular Welsh need, giving them sufficient practice running classes for parents as a volunteer class at such a busy time of life. Without and eliminating the time gap between since 2005 but it was only in September support from home, children tend to read practising in class and actually using it. 2010 that I started teaching on site at English books for pleasure. Watching parents try out their Welsh Ysgol y Bannau in Brecon during the So, after three years of teaching is just invaluable. A wide variety of day. I now simply can’t imagine teaching one-size-fits-all Welsh classes, I wanted vocabulary is often used and a learner’s Welsh in any other way. The benefits to deliver something much more confidence can be easily shattered when for parents and children of working so tailored to parents’ needs which could they encounter something different from closely with both school and playgroup help them to enjoy their children’s what they’ve practised: are just too striking. bilingualism and give them the support “Oes plant ’da chi (Have you got any In every Welsh-medium school some at home that they wanted to give. children)?” one mum asked the head parents do not speak Welsh. Some feel The classes started in my kitchen, during a class in the library as he walked anxious about not being able to support to raise money for school funds. They past. Having practised they seemed their child as much as they would like. reflected what was happening in pretty confident onI’ve got one son / two Many want to understand the Christmas playgroup, school and the community. sons. Un mab / dau fab. But of course play and class assemblies, their children’s Current songs and children’s books he didn’t know which words we’d reading books and the wonderful were a key focus. Babies and toddlers practised. This was real life. “Oes,” he stories young children write. And some were welcome. replied. “Mae dau fachgen ’da fi. Dau people want to learn the language for The classes evolved a lot over the grwt.” (Yes. I’ve got two boys. Two lads.) themselves. They might be newcomers years as I experimented with all the For a moment, my face fell! to Wales. Or perhaps Welsh is their lost different teaching methods I’d come Tailor-made units, written after linguistic legacy and they long to restore across for different languages in many the class and sent out by e-mail, take it to their homes. My book Welsh for different places. It was a joy to have the time to produce. But their flexibility to Parents was written for them. creative freedom to try things out and adapt to a class’s pace, new vocabulary Having moved to Wales and then hand out my own questionnaire or events in the school makes them anxiously opted for a Welsh-medium to find out what had worked best. By more relevant and rewarding, as the education because my husband wanted far the biggest improvement followed questionnaires show. to put the language back into the family, moving to Ysgol y Bannau. I taught I quizzed the school secretary and I learnt Welsh from scratch and drifted one class a week in the school library staff about how they would respond to into teaching it part-time. However, and another in the Bobl Bach y Bannau requests to buy t-shirts, or phone calls as my first child started secondary building, where sessions for three-year- explaining absence. This made for much school in 2005, I could already see olds and the playgroup are held. more realistic role-plays. Gradually that my anxieties about Welsh-medium The first benefit of being on site at parents gained sufficient confidence to education were unfounded. This had the school was using real props. This switch language. been the best decision we had made for is such a help to people with visual But the main advantage to being our children. memories. Nothing beats pointing on site was that we became visible. I could also see quite clearly just how at the children’s artwork: “I like your Teachers started giving us draft scripts much their love of books had helped their goldfish / crab / yellow starfish!” Or of future assemblies. I turned these into language acquisition. Their English – the swapping classrooms with the reception listening exercises and vocabulary sheets language in which they read for pleasure teacher and holding up the children’s to distribute to parents and grandparents – was still stronger than their Welsh. magic carpet: “Did you go on the magic before the assembly. Just a quick flick

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Parents learning Welsh with their children at Ysgol y Bannau primary school in Brecon. through the English side of that list and are more likely than other students a word-rich, book-rich start to life with a even parents with no Welsh at all, or to be effective learners and perform chance to acquire two languages instead parents who couldn’t go to the assembly, well at school.” of one. can talk about it with their children – in It is a great pity that these classes are English or in Welsh. Did the Romans This didn’t surprise me since, over the not available in all primary schools. There really bleach their clothes in urine? Ugh! years, I’d watched a run of book-loving is no salary available for running tailored The playgroup leader told me what Welsh-stream pupils go into top set Welsh classes and developing language they were doing in playgroup and which English and collect prizes for English support for all parents and grandparents. books they were reading. There is nothing in a predominantly English-speaking But this voluntary work has been by far more satisfying than teaching parents to comprehensive. Brain research the most rewarding Welsh teaching I read the book the playgroup are reading has shown: have done. I firmly believe that this is the and then releasing several copies of it best way to take the language out of our into the PTA library. As Emyr Jones, head “…increased gray matter volume... classrooms and into our communities. teacher of Ysgol y Bannau, put it: in the left inferior parietal cortex of When parents have the confidence to bilinguals relative to monolinguals, speak and read with their children in “Working closely with parents is with greater effects in early Welsh, when children hear parents using a fundamental part of educating bilinguals than in late bilinguals… Welsh on Bonfire Night, at Christmas children. Welsh classes tailored for Thus, we interpret our findings parties and birthday parties - when parents gives this aspect an added in terms of structural plasticity Welsh becomes that integral part of our dimension, strengthening our role in the bilingual brain which is children’s childhood memories - then as a community focused school.” dependent on age of acquisition Welsh can be sure of a real future. and the proficiency attained” Once you have taught with such A tipping point came when a teacher lent (Andrea Mechelli et. al., ‘Voxel- phenomenal support from both us a large pile of reading books. Surely Based Morphometry of the Human school and playgroup, have taught the nothing can be more important than Brain: Methods and Applications’ in language parents need on the day that helping as many children as possible Current Medical Imaging Reviews, they need it and then heard them use it to gain enthusiastic help at home with June 2005). there is no going back. their reading in Welsh, so that teaching staff have more time to focus on those No parent should be in the position where who don’t? An OECD report Do they can’t afford a course where children’s students today read for pleasure? (Pisa in books and school reading books are a key Focus, September 2011) highlights the priority. So the classes were free and units Lisa Jones is the author of Welsh For importance of reading: were available to parents who couldn’t Parents, a 3-CD course and book to give attend regular classes. parents and grandparents the confidence “Students who are highly engaged Wales is sitting on a gold mine. The to use everyday Welsh with children in in a wide range of reading activities very best gift you can give your child is the home.

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 47 Building on the

Ombudsman’s casebook 4 Peter Tyndall explains why we should extend the Social landscape of redress in Wales Policy Phone hacking and faulty breast implants have and not by the state. We have also seen been two big issues dominating headlines in the the development of statutory Ombudsman first half of 2012, but few commentators have schemes for telecommunications and for remarked on one feature they have in common. energy as these industries moved to the private While there has been much talk of regulation, a sector. dimension that complainants about both the press The current redress landscape is a and private health care share is that they don’t complex one. Since the privatisations which Articles have access to independent redress of the kind commenced in the 1980s, it has been necessary Building on the that can be delivered by an Ombudsman. There to make a distinction between the public Ombudsman’s is a need to extend access to redress in these sector and public services. Most public sector casebook sectors, and more widely. delivered services are covered by Ombudsman The Ombudsman concept is more than schemes, either by my office in Wales, or by Sliding silently 200 years old. First introduced in Sweden to the Parliamentary Ombudsman in respect into poverty coincide with the switch to a constitutional of non-devolved areas such as tax, benefits Why we need monarchy, the Ombudsman was initially and immigration. Services commissioned a strategy for intended to give the citizen protection against a from the private sector or from independent young carers return to authoritarian rule. Over the years the organisations by state bodies or local institution has evolved to provide independent government are also covered. consideration of complaints, and offer redress Where public services have been fully to individuals who have suffered an injustice privatised, there is coverage in some sectors through maladministration or the failure to including water, telecoms and power. receive a service to which they were entitled. However, in other areas such as transport, The first such position in the UK was the there is no coverage. This situation has not Parliamentary Ombudsman, created in 1967. arisen due to any policy stance. Rather it is The post of Public Services Ombudsman the product of different decisions being taken for Wales was introduced in 2006, bringing at different times by different administrations together separate jurisdictions covering services with no overriding direction. provided by the Welsh Government and its To complicate matters, some public services sponsored bodies, health, local government provided independently with elements of and housing. This jurisdiction currently includes funding from the state are in the jurisdiction most public services devolved to Wales. There of Ombudsmen. These include housing are exceptions where there is alternative access associations which come within the jurisdiction to redress, for example via a tribunal. of the Welsh Ombudsman, and the universities In the UK there has also been considerable contained wthin the jurisdiction of the development of Ombudsman schemes Independent Adjudicator of Higher Education. covering the wholly private sector. Those The Welsh Government also proposes to bring covering banks, insurance and other parts independent hospices and private care home of the financial world have since been residents within my own remit. consolidated into the Financial Ombudsman As with any area of public policy that has Service. Its existence is founded on statute and developed incrementally over time, there providers must participate. A key distinction, are inevitable anomalies. There is a strong which I will return to later, is that funding argument for saying that all public services, for the service is provided by the industry, whether publicly provided or not, should be

48 | 4/Social Policy in the remit of an Ombudsman. Where pays’ principle so that those bodies there are existing Ombudsman schemes, which generate the largest numbers of this need not be in the remit of my complaints or which consistently fail to own office. However, the principle resolve complaints locally pay more. of independent redress should be As with most schemes, the consistently applied. There is also a presumption would be that the strong argument for creating access to bodies concerned would seek to redress for consumers across the private resolve complaints locally first, and sector, and proposals to this effect that the Ombudsman would only are being actively developed by the investigate where they had failed to do European Commission. so. The office of the Public Services National Ombudsman institutions Ombudsman for Wales already has covering public services are in place access to the necessary medical in 25 of the 27 EU member states. The expertise to investigate complaints Peter Tyndall other two states have Ombudsmen at objectively. Through regular case regional level. In addition, there is a most instances, there will be an existing digests – ‘The Ombudsman’s Casebook’ European Ombudsman who deals with ombudsman scheme able to take on the - and through working with regulators complaints about the Commission itself. new areas of work. and bodies in jurisdiction, one could The European Union has made clear that In Wales, the legislation establishing ensure that lessons from complaints candidate countries will be required to my office is the most modern governing are learned across the relevant sector. have an Ombudsman before they can be any existing UK public sector scheme, Although some complaints are as a admitted. This stipulation was made to and is well regarded in the UK and result of ‘one-off’ occurrences, others Turkey, for example. Ombudsmen have overseas. However, there is now can be indicative of wider failings and played a significant role in defending the an argument for looking at the Ombudsmen are uniquely placed to use rights of citizens in countries in Eastern Ombudsman landscape generally in the evidence from complaints to drive Europe in the transition to democracy, Wales, to establish whether there are improvement in services. mirroring the original role of the areas where there is currently no access While the current concerns amply Ombudsman in Sweden. to redress, which ought to be addressed. justify extending the jurisdiction of the The impact of the financial crisis Access to independent redress Public Service Ombudsman for Wales, has been that privatisation has been for people whose phones are hacked they do highlight the need for a wider advancing in areas of public services by the press is not a devolved matter. review of redress mechanisms in Wales across Europe, mirroring the picture The Ombudsman Association’s view to develop a comprehensive approach in the UK in the 1980s. This has is that an independent, statutory Press to improvement. In many respects, the sparked a debate about continuing Ombudsman would offer individuals Welsh Committee of the Administrative access to independent redress which more reassurance than the current, Justice and Tribunals Council would has prompted the Commission to discredited arrangements ever can. But have been best placed to undertake put forward proposals for Alternative that is a matter for Lord Leveson and the such a task, and its imminent winding Dispute Resolution for consumers. The UK Government. up by the UK Government is a matter responses to the transition from public However, although independent of considerable regret. It may well be sector to public service have varied. healthcare is a relatively small sector that any future Welsh replacement body Some states have opted to create in Wales, it can have a major impact could take this on in its stead. new Ombudsman institutions, such as on the lives of its users, whether they There is a real opportunity for Wales the Energy Ombudsman in Belgium. are receiving replacement hips or to once again forge ahead in this field. Others have extended the jurisdiction breast augmentation. In the short term, Providing a comprehensive, joined-up of existing Ombudsmen to cover the extending the Welsh Ombudsman’s approach to redress for the people of newly privatised services, as is the case in jurisdiction to private healthcare would Wales would be a matter of considerable Catalonia. The Ombudsman Association, offer considerable reassurance to future interest across the UK and beyond. I the organisation which promotes and patients. But there would need to be hope that we can move forward on this safeguards the institution across the UK, changes to legislation to ensure that the basis in the near future. is strongly supportive of this approach, sector met the costs of investigation. The but cautions against a proliferation of taxpayer should not foot the bill. Some new schemes which would only serve element of any charging mechanism Peter Tyndall is Public Services to confuse consumers. It argues that in would need to reflect the ‘polluter Ombudsman for Wales.

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 49 4/Social Policy

Sliding silently into poverty

David Williams (right) with David Williams discovers that we are at risk of losing a Children’s Commissioner Keith Towler, pictured on generation of young people in Wales the Blaenymaes estate in Swansea. We have in Wales today a real cause for is child poverty?” He immediately referred shame, the stigma attached to poverty and, me to the definition to which, at the time, by extension, the damage it inflicts on the everyone paid lip service. A child was classed innocent in our society, our children and as being in poverty if the family’s weekly young people. Those young people can be income fell below 60 per cent of the median forgiven for failing to understand the political or middle income level. In 2009-10 the poverty and statistical arguments which rage around level worked out at around £259 a week for a them, but those so engaged will not be family with two adults and two children. forgiven if they fail to achieve their promised The Children’s Commissioner welcomed targets for eradicating child poverty. the Welsh Government’s aspirations, but was This was my conclusion following a week extremely doubtful that its target to eradicate spent on the road with Keith Towler, the child poverty by 2020 will be met. “I think that Children’s Commissioner for Wales to see for if they continue to say it they will just cheese ourselves the extent of the problem of child people off,” he told me. poverty in Wales. The purpose was to make He’s not the only one who has a documentary for BBC 1 Wales, Playing with questioned the repeated mantra that child Poverty, which was transmitted in April. poverty will be eradicated by 2020. The For me the road trip was a journey respected Institute for Fiscal Studies says of discovery. What we found was an that it remains “inconceivable” that the 2020 uncomfortable truth. More and more families target will be met. are sliding silently into the poverty trap. The Keith Towler questioned whether anecdotal evidence we gathered indicates politicians really understood what working that things are running out of control rather families living in poverty are going through. than getting better. Indeed, the Westminster After visiting one such family which is and Welsh Governments’ shared target to struggling to bring up two children, one eradicate child poverty by the year 2020 has with autism and learning difficulties, he said: little or no chance of being achieved. “These are the people on the front line of One of the first questions I asked Keith poverty struggling to make the right decisions Towler as we set off on our travels was: “What for their children day by day.”

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The family we visited live on the areas as well, but where the worst effects compounded by the constant worry Blaenymaes estate in Swansea, a place are often masked and more difficult over the money needed to hold the with an unenviable statistical label of its to identify. In Cardigan the Children’s family together. A recent report found own. It’s the 19th poorest area in Wales. Commissioner visited a lunchtime food that families with disabled children Sprawling and isolated, it is an island of club run by the children’s charity Jigso and living in poverty experience social, deprivation surrounded by the wealthier which says that, increasingly, their emotional and financial isolation and more affluent areas of Wales’ clients are now adults struggling to feed which causes anxiety, depression and second city. themselves. sometimes breakdown. The family’s father told us that he A few miles up the road Keith Towler At the lowest point in her time as was broke two weeks before his next saw for himself the consequences for mother and carer the Anglesey mother, pay packet was due. Why? Because a young Cardiganshire family when Kerry Page, told us that she considered that month he had been forced to the breadwinner loses his job. A young killing herself and her two children. spend £200 on private dental work couple who have three children and Now, she says, her biggest worry is that for himself because he couldn’t find another on the way, have gone from she will die before one of her children. a dentist to carry out the work free of being relatively affluent to being poor in “I need to live one day longer than they charge on the national health service. the space of just a few months. do,” she told us. It was desperate stuff The consequence: “I have literally taken The family are a typical example of and yet another snapshot of the human food out of the mouths of my children,” Wales’ new poor. Unless job prospects consequences of living in poverty. he told us. improve they risk staying in the poverty Child poverty, of course, transcends The additional and unexpected trap for the foreseeable future. The political frontiers and although the £200 expense for dental treatment Children’s Commissioner said the Welsh Government cannot control tipped the balance between the family current economic difficulties were tax and benefit income going into having money for shopping for food affecting every community in Wales. households it has made a commitment and having nothing left in the kitty. That “This is us,” he told me. “These are our to the children and young people is the reality of how poverty affects communities, these are our people. of Wales in signing up to the United children in Wales and that example falls neatly into the Welsh Government’s area of responsibility. Health is very much a devolved matter. Where are the dentists? It is worth noting that this was a family where the husband was in work and the mother forced to stay home to look after their autistic son. They couldn’t afford child care costs and they do not expect to get out of the poverty trap any time soon. Poverty isn’t confined to families on benefits. There are increasing numbers of working families now struggling to feed their March against child poverty in Cardiff. children in Wales. Of course, for those unable to Every penny counts. ” Nations Convention on the rights of the work circumstances can be even more In Anglesey the Commissioner met child. First Minister Carwyn Jones has difficult. A single mother living on the another mother struggling to pay the said, “There is no greater priority for me Blaenymaes estate and struggling with bills while bringing up two teenage boys or the Welsh Government than ensuring debt and childcare expenses confided with a rare genetic condition called that our children have the best possible to the Commissioner: “I want my son Fragile X. This is the most common start in life.” to grow up to be a decent human cause of learning disabilities. The His government has committed itself being. I feel a failure. I don’t feel like a difficulties it presents for one Anglesey to achieving that improbable eradication good mother.” family takes “your breath away”, target which now hangs over it like a Child poverty is not confined to according to Keith Towler. dark cloud. When I interviewed her Wales’ big urban estates. It is affecting The day-to-day uncertainties for the programme, Gwenda Thomas more and more families living in rural presented by the boy’s condition are AM, the Deputy Minister responsible

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 51 If the IWA and what it represents are important to you, IWA Legacy please consider remembering the IWA in your will. For nearly quarter of Your generosity will allow us to continue promoting the a century the Institute economic, social, environmental and cultural well- being of Wales for our future generations. of Welsh Affairs has helped raise the level Whether large or small, a gift of this kind can have an important practical impact on our work as well as of public debate on motivating others. It is also a way of extending your own issues affecting Wales, generosity beyond your lifetime. If, therefore, you decide by placing quality to remember a charity in your will, please consider us. information in the Naturally, a decision of this kind is one that you will public domain. wish to consider carefully, and even to take professional advice. It is always important for you and your family and for any other recipient that the wording of a will expresses accurately your own wishes.

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If you would like to speak to us about any of the Institute of Welsh Affairs above, please contact our Director, John Osmond 4 Cathedral Road, Cardiff CF11 9LJ [email protected] or our Deputy Director, Tel: 029 2066 0820 Kirsty Davies [email protected]. 4/Social Policy for children, reiterated the Welsh Government’s commitment, However, she had difficulty in distinguishing between what is a commendable aspiration and what is almost certainly an impossible goal. As I sat down to write this article two newspaper stories jumped out at me making me question the statistics we’d used in the documentary. One story in the Western Mail appeared to contradict the thrust of the programme. The headline read: ‘The number of Welsh children in poverty at lowest level for 17 years.’ It was seemingly at odds This explains why those headlines the Coalition Government was running with recent statistics which showed the I mentioned earlier were suggesting away from the problem. Elsewhere some situation worsening, with one in three that things were getting better. But, of charities warned that any drop in the children or 200,000 young people in course, that’s nonsense. Most of us are numbers of children living in poverty Wales living in poverty. getting poorer which means that those would be short lived as cuts to tax credits Based on these statistics I had families who have apparently been lifted and benefits take effect. suggested that Wales had the worst out of poverty are in fact no better off. While politicians continue to dance record for child poverty in the United They’re only statistically better off which on the head of a pin, vying with each Kingdom. Yet here in front of me was a is of no help to them at all. other to maximize political capital newspaper headline apparently saying However, these latest statistics are from soulless statistics, more and more something very different, or was it? important because they clearly show that families find themselves struggling to At the same time as I was digesting the the Labour Government, which set itself bring up their children with less and implications of the apparent sudden drop a target of halving child poverty by 2010, less money coming into the household. in the numbers of children in poverty in has missed it’s goal. That doesn’t mean it Politicians don’t have all the answers, Wales, other headlines were also grabbing didn’t succeed in reducing the numbers, but they’re the ones who have set the my attention. There, on the BBC news which it did, and otherwise things would targets which suggests they have a website, was the announcement that the have been worse. However, by it’s own cunning plan. But do they? UK’s measurement of child poverty was to measure it has failed statistically. The Children’s Commissioner be redefined. Works and Pensions Secretary Ian suggested that politicians should set This was a reference to plans by Duncan Smith, has always believed more realistic targets based on shorter Ian Duncan Smith, the Westminster that classifying child poverty according time cycles rather than endlessly Government’s Works and Pensions to family income creates a perverse chanting their mantra about 2020. Secretary, to change the way that child incentive to lift people just over the 60 However, he doubted whether the poverty is measured in the UK as part per cent mark. It explains, in part, his politicians were “brave enough to face of a new approach to addressing the latest plans to consult on ways to widen the totality of the situation.” It was a problem. Goal posts and moving them the criteria for measuring child poverty. clear summation in the face of political were words that immediately sprang to Into the mix he wants to include parents flim flam and, for me, it spelled out a my mind, but perhaps I was being too employment - code for worklessness - stark message to the political classes hasty and I needed to look more closely debt and family breakdown. in Cardiff Bay and London. Get real or at what was planned. At the same time he made the risk losing a whole generation of young I learned that in 2010-11 the median announcement he reiterated the people to poverty. income level that I quoted earlier had Westminster Government’s commitment dropped. This meant that the £259 a to eradicating child poverty by 2020. week figure had been reduced by £8 a The Welsh Government also broadly week. At a stroke, any child in a family welcomed the latest ‘fall’ in the rates of David Williams is an independent with an income between the two levels child poverty, but saw no virtue in any television producer and presenter. of £259 and £251 a week was technically attempt to redefine the way it is measured. He was formerly the political editor of no longer poor. As a consequence At Westminster the consultation plans BBC Wales. His documentary Playing 300,000 children in the UK were ‘lifted were immediately greeted with howls of with Poverty was a Presentable TV out of poverty’. protest from Labour and accusations that programme for BBC1 Wales.

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 53 4/Social Policy Why we need a strategy for young carers

Vanessa Webb examines the problems of the more than 11,000 Welsh children who look after family members

How many children in Wales are young and out of bed or carry out intimate tasks numbers is the fact that families and the carers? No one knows for sure and such as toileting, washing and cleaning young carers themselves do not always researchers have frequently remarked up. And they often worry about their wish to be identified. In some cases it is on the lack of accurate demographic relative when they are away from them. because they are afraid the family will information. In a press release in 2008, It is obvious that these responsibilities be split up by social services. Sometimes a Welsh Government spokesperson can impact on a child’s concentration, it is fear of the reactions of others, that speculated that there could be 11,000 attendance and life at school, their they will be pitied, derided, or bullied, young carers under 17 in Wales and that health, and on their ability to take part and indeed there is substantial evidence the figure might be higher. Compare in leisure activities. Not only are they of bullying. Young carers feel different this with the number identified by Social losing their childhood, but the effects can because they are not free to take part Services. The latest local authority data carry through to adult life and impact in the activities of their peer group. For submitted to the Assembly gives a total upon their life chances and employment these reasons we can be sure that the of just over a thousand in all 22 counties. prospects. This is why it is so important to actual number falls far short of those However, when 847 young carers have identify young carers and provide them children, young people and young adult been reported in Swansea alone this with support. carers who need attention and support. figure means that there is some serious One reason for the lack of clarity over Most young carers are more than work to do. the number of young carers is the varying willing to take on the work and it is Loughborough University’s Young definitions used in arriving at the statistics. mostly done from love as much as duty. Carers Research Group found evidence Under-16, under-17, under-18 or 1-18 are Some have been quoted as saying that of children under five taking on major some of the variations in criteria used. it has improved their relationship with caring responsibilities. Young carers Are researchers referring to children the cared for parent. It may also help might be looking after a parent, a sibling caring for over 10 hours per week, over them mature in a way that is sometimes or a grandparent. We are not talking here 20 hours per week, or 50 hours a week? slower or lacking in children whose lives about the household chores that a child Do they all refer to carrying out the are free of serious responsibilities. But the might normally take on as a member of same kind of tasks and assume the same Loughborough research, together with the family but sometimes being the main level of responsibility? Are they all sole studies by others, have gathered detailed person doing the family shopping, the carers or are one of two or three family evidence of the damage that young cooking and cleaning. members involved? Calculations are also carers can experience in their physical A child might be supervising their bedevilled by the fact that young carers and mental health. So it is important to parent’s medication or be the one who do not necessarily recognise that that improve the way we identify and assess decides when to call the doctor. Where they fall into this socially constructed them, and then provide the support to the person they are caring for has mental category. I know it took me several years mitigate excessive obligations. It is not health conditions, the child may be the looking after my elderly mother before enough to regard them as ‘children in one who supports them, listening to them I realised that the label applied to me need’ but as people in their own right. and reassuring them. In cases where although I worked in a related field. The crux of the matter is what should there is a physical illness, children are A more significant reason for the we be doing to help meet young carers’ sometimes the ones who help them in continuing under-estimation of the needs? Here we have three sources of

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Young carers from the Swansea Neath Port Talbot Young Carers Young Carers involved in a dance and art session at the Forge Fach Community project enjoy karting at Skidz, the Swansea indoor karting centre. Resource Centre, at Clydach, with Port Talbot-based Tan Dance, the community dance organisation run by Swansea and Neath Port Talbot councils. reinforcing policy recommendations: for respite care. It says young carers the Government has supported the issues should be embedded in generic development of the Young Carers Forum, • An early Study of Young Carers in Wales Children and Young People Plans, the Young Carers’ Project Workers by researchers at Bangor University and calls for a pan-Wales Strategy for Network, and the Carers’ Officers advised raising the awareness of Young Carers. Network. These have been pro-active professionals and encouraging joint in commissioning research and backing working, appropriate assessment Like the Scottish Government, the work by Children in Wales and the third procedures, better access to Welsh Government has made young sector. Yet many recommendations of information, consultation with young carers one of their priorities. With its previous studies remain on the drawing carers and their families and the primary legislative powers from the start, board and funding of Young Carers development of Young Carers Projects. the Scottish Government approved Projects is still quite precarious. an Act entitling carers of all ages to an At a time when the Welsh • The 2007 Young Carers Network’s assessment of their needs independent Government is reviewing its Carers own report listed more awareness of the person they were caring for. Both Strategy, is it too much to hope that it amongst professionals and identified Governments originally decided to might look at what has happened in the following practical steps: ID cards, mainstream young carer issues across Scotland and recognise the impetus a free bus passes, support at school, and several policy fields. This was arguably Young Carers Strategy would give to respite care. an effective way of dealing with it. support the needs of young carers and However, a large-scale research and those who work with them? • The 2010 report Full of care, a survey consultation exercise in Scotland during by the Children’s Commissioner 2004-5 recommended that a Young for Wales, packed with information Carers Strategy be created. Initially the and comments from young carers Scottish Government declined to have themselves, suggests a feasibility one but it is interesting that they changed study into ID cards, and echoes the their mind and in 2010, alongside their Bangor study in advising co-ordinated renewed Carers Strategy, they published working. It recommends that young a Young Carers Strategy Getting it Right Vanessa Webb is a doctoral student carers should be taking on fewer for Young Carers. at Swansea University’s College of inappropriate tasks, and that there In Wales, legislative powers have at Human and Health Sciences and is should be better access to leisure last made possible the Carers Measure. Chair of Swansea Neath Port Talbot activities, which is by implication a call In the way we work best in Wales, Crossroads Care.

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 55 Our central 5 Environment organising principle

Elin Royles says the Welsh Government’s forthcoming Sustainable Development Bill has groundbreaking potential Articles Our central Can a small nation be a global leader Government’s sustainable development organising or an international exemplar? We rarely duty to embrace the wider public sector. principle associate Welsh Government policy This IWA’s new publication Wales’ with such terms. Despite its small nation Central Organising Principle: Legislating status and the multiple constraints faced for Sustainable Development arises during devolution’s first three terms, from a series of conferences that have Wales has achieved an international responded to this process. The volume’s profile on sustainable development. eleven chapters provide wide-ranging Successive Labour-led Welsh academic, civil society and practitioner Governments have engaged perspectives from Wales, complemented internationally through such by comparative approaches. organisations as the network of Highlighting the wider global regional governments for sustainable picture, Gareth Wyn Jones’ development (nrg4SD) and the contribution Overshooting Limits: Climate Group. These opportunities seeking a new paradigm provides a have given Wales international sophisticated, highly readable and recognition and a platform for its comprehensive analysis that critiques sustainable development credentials. the current model of economic The presence of Environment Minister growth. Drawing on scientific, John Griffiths’ at the Rio+20 summit in political-economic, psychological and June is the most recent example. Other sociological analysis, he compellingly initiatives have included the Wales for illustrates our dependence on Africa programme and the Territorial unsustainable growth to the extent that Approaches to Climate Change project we face a ‘limits’ crisis. Reducing our with the Umbale region of Uganda. environmental impact calls for a new At the same time securing paradigm of economic development, meaningful and consistent reforming political and financial systems implementation of sustainable and global cooperation. development across government and Action is required at multiple levels policy areas has been challenging. One of government. For Wales, Wyn Jones response is the Welsh Government’s outlines short-term, urgent actions Sustainable Development Bill which and a longer-term comprehensive will be introduced this autumn. The aim strategy to develop an economy that is is to embed sustainable development sustainable economically, socially and as a ‘central organising principle’ of environmentally. Practical initiatives government and expand the Welsh to make sustainable development a

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‘central organising principle’ include devolving energy, planning and transport powers. In their chapter Susan Baker and Katarina Eckerberg discuss the nature of governance to promote sustainable development in the EU. Based on extensive academic research, they illustrate that while state and supra-state levels are pivotal to the governance of sustainable development, in some EU states, sub-state governments have been more active than the states themselves. Wales is therefore not alone. Another important reminder for Welsh discussions is that close working between government and civil society is key to effective governing for sustainable development. Andrea Ross’ contribution also offers a broader EU and UK context. Wales’ limited progress on sustainable development is reflected by comparisons across the EU. Reflecting on the factors that explain the failures of delivering sustainable development in the UK, Ross argues for a strong institutional and legislative framework similar to the one being advocated for Wales. This entails placing duties on all government bodies. Ross highlights how Welsh Government proposals diverge from what can be viewed as the Size of Wales and Welsh Government ‘One Million trees project’ in Mbale, Uganda. The Size of Wales project UK Government’s poor leadership on is bringing together the people of Wales to help protect an area of tropical forest the size of our nation - sustainable development as it prioritises www.sizeofwales.org.uk short-term challenges. A number of chapters directly focus recommends the following features: precautionary principle. In addition, he on the details of the forthcoming Bill. proposes a statutory system that respects Indeed, there are strong commonalities • A legal framework for the SD strategy planetary boundaries, a Commissioner in the recommendations for the Bill’s with requirements for public bodies; for Sustainable Futures (elected by and content. Former Environment Minister • Audit mechanisms for the delivery of accountable to the Assembly), and a Jane Davidson contextualises the the strategy; and Welsh Charter for Environmental Rights. Bill within current global debates. • A Commissioner for Sustainable Given their links with WWF Her previous ministerial status makes Futures. Cymru, there are there are similarities her well placed to discuss how between Roderick and Anne Meikle’s international engagement has informed From a legal perspective, Peter contribution. Like Wyn Jones, Meikle Wales’ understanding of sustainable Roderick’s chapter calls for a highlights how current economic development and the processes leading comprehensive legislative package. growth is unsustainable and makes to the Bill. She argues that government He proposes that the legislation valuable comments on the limitations realised that “taking sustainability ensures Welsh Ministers make a of the current sustainable development seriously” required stronger legislation sustainable development strategy a legal arrangements. She calls for the Bill to to ensure systemic change. She requirement, including recognising the take a global perspective on developing

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 57 5/Environment an environmentally sustainable future, for instance by strengthening the duty to recognise “living within environmental limits” and to respect planetary boundaries. In addition to advocating a strong Commissioner and a Welsh charter, she proposes that the legislation’s impact on decision-making should include budgetary matters and that it should promote long-term thinking across the public sector. Two chapters inform the discussions Environment Minister John Griffiths at the Rio+20 summit in June, signing a charter agreed between the around establishing a statutory basis Network of Regional Governments for Sustainable Development (nrg4SD). for a Sustainable Development Commissioner. The current, non- Government Association, discusses the for those well-versed in the crises facing statutory Commissioner, Peter Bill’s implications for local authorities. the planet, but more importantly for Davies, reflects on what he calls The chapter’s strength is in raising those who need convincing that action in an implementation gap between a number of detailed and practical Wales is essential. aspirations and outcomes. He draws issues that require consideration if the Many contributors make the attention to linkages between Welsh Bill is to make a substantial difference. connection between global and and global discussions, by calling for They include calling for a community- national challenges clear and the need a Welsh Independent Commissioner centred and participatory approach for changing public attitudes. Gareth alongside a UN Commissioner for and that the bill should be easily Wyn Jones, in particular, argues that Future Generations. understood by the public. we need to address a widespread Davies’ emphasis on the need to Health policy is a significant lack of understanding about the inform current discussions through challenge, particularly given resource issues amongst the general public. examining the arrangements of other constraints and our economic position. Anne Meikle stresses the need for “a Commissioners in Wales and models The contribution of Stephen Palmer, paradigm shift in public service delivery developed in other countries is Professor of Public Health at Cardiff, and leadership from all politicians to particularly important. Consequently, suggests how making sustainable ensure that the public understand and given the value of policy learning development a ‘central organising support the changes, even though there from other cases, Sándor Fülöp’s principle’ could promote joined-up will be hard choices ahead”. contribution is important. Elected to thinking across economic, social and The Sustainable Development become Hungary’s first Parliamentary environmental policy. He recommends Bill will be the first piece of primary Commissioner for Future Generations in that the legislation places a particular legislation specifically relating to 2008, his chapter refers to international emphasis on prioritising children. These sustainable development in the UK. examples of sustainable development policy specific discussions of the Bill’s Consequently, it has the potential to be a world leader. The volume provides Wales’ Central Organising Principle is a highly interesting an impetus to build on Jane Davidson’s and timely volume. It is important in evaluating Welsh optimistic view that the values embedded within Welsh society provide sustainable development policy and should contribute to a basis for the Bill to “lead others to a the production of robust legislation. more sustainable world”.

- especially, of course, in Hungary. implications could have been extended He develops a useful summary of key in the volume to other challenging Elin Royles is a lecturer at the features to be considered in other areas: economic development and the Institute of Welsh Politics, Aberystwyth contexts, thus clearly relevant to impact on Welsh transport policy. University and coordinates the discussions in Wales. Wales’ Central Organising Principle is a Welsh Politics and Society Masters The legislation’s key test will be its highly interesting and timely volume. It is Programme. Wales’ Central Organising direct impact on policy making and important in evaluating Welsh sustainable Principle: Legislating for Sustainable implementation within the Welsh development policy and should Development, edited by Anna Nicholl Government and other public bodies. contribute to the production of robust and John Osmond, is published by the Tim Peppin, of the Welsh Local legislation. It should be required reading IWA at £10.

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A lost model 6 Comms for Welsh public service broadcasting

James Stewart looks back at what might have Articles been in the provision of an equivalent to a Welsh A lost model Press Association service for Welsh public service broadcasting

The inaugural It’s two years since Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt scrapped plans for ‘independently- Welsh vook funded news consortia’ (IFNCs) to provide services in Wales, Scotland and the north- Talking to India east of England on ITV’s channel 3. The process of selecting consortia in the three pilot areas produced some innovative ideas for an alternative supply of public service journalism to compete with the BBC. The plans were widely welcomed in Wales, where there is perceived to be a ‘democratic deficit’ linked to the poor penetration of Welsh-based media. Two years on, we’ve had the announcement of Hunt’s promised alternative of local TV, including Cardiff and Swansea in the first round of proposed licenses. Another change is in the attitude of ITV, which appears to have reversed its 2009 threat to pull out of regional news and other programming - as revealed in a speech by Chief Executive Adam Crozier to the Cardiff Business Club in March. It was that fear that Wales could lose all news and other local programming on Channel 3, which made the idea of an IFNC attractive to many. Though that possibility is off the agenda, it’s worth recalling where it came from and what might have been – for the record and possibly for future reference. Imagine a news service for Wales which went beyond a daily half-hour TV programme, morning and hourly bulletins and a limited web site. The news- gathering operation would be fed by staff in bureaux across Wales and a network of local newspapers and radio stations (the consortium). The service would include a fully-fledged website with opportunities for citizens to contribute and participate. The outputs would include a supply of news, equivalent to a Welsh Press Association service, available to all non-commercial outlets as well as the members of the consortium, including local websites and blogs, community radio and local TV. The blogosphere – such as it is in Wales – could become a central feature of the networked service. One version of this vision can still be viewed on Youtube – WalesLive.tv. Whether this may still be a model for media in the future, we don’t know. Whether designing and supplying it from the top down was the best way is open to question. But there’s no doubt that the investment of £6 million of public money per year in a pilot project to see what could be done in Wales was an interesting possibility. Underlying the case for action was the crisis in the Welsh press and the democratic

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Imagine a news service for Wales which went bid was the closest to this vision, but by the time the winner was announced in beyond a daily half-hour TV programme, March 2010, it was clear that the project was likely to be still-born. Jeremy Hunt morning and hourly bulletins and a limited web did not like the IFNC model and was site. The news-gathering operation would be fed determined to put public money into local TV. by staff in bureaux across Wales and a network Hunt had repeatedly pointed to of local newspapers and radio stations (the the contrast between Birmingham Alabama with eight local TV stations consortium). The service would include a fully- and Birmingham England with none. fledged website with opportunities for citizens to Sceptics pointed to the failure of local TV in Britain – including the examples contribute and participate. which Hunt cited in his announcement. Sly Bailey of Trinity Mirror said they did not see ‘City TV’ as a viable proposition. deficit associated with it – a subject Putting Viewers First. 2009). Their research suggests that the costs which was most recently covered by When the IFNC bidding process were too high and the revenues too low ClickonWales.org (12 May 2012). When was launched, Richard Hooper, who to support a sustainable business model ITV threatened to add to the crisis by chaired the Government panel, set out (Press Gazette, 9 June 2010). withdrawing from Welsh programming, a vision of a new style of public service As the saying goes, only time will Ofcom’s director for Wales, Rhodri broadcasting: tell whether local TV in Swansea, Williams, warned in evidence to the Cardiff and other cities can succeed. Welsh Affairs Committee in the House “Let me be clear about what we are The future of local programming on of Commons, “These are challenging looking for: quality news reporting ITV may be more secure than it once circumstances the like of which we have with a mix of local, regional and seemed. But Wales is likely to regret the not seen in Welsh broadcasting since national (in the case of Wales and lost opportunity of the unfortunately- television first came to Wales”English ( Scotland) audiences firmly in mind; named IFNC. Language Television Broadcasting in genuine innovation, not just business Wales, July 2009). as usual; strong multiplatform The idea for independently-funded applications working together news consortia can be traced as far back across the web, local newspapers, as Ofcom’s review of Public Service local radio and television where James Stewart teaches journalism Broadcasting in 2003-4. In it the idea of appropriate, utilising each different at the University of Glamorgan. This a ‘Public Service Publisher’ was floated. medium’s special characteristics; article is a shortened version of a By the time of the second review, in 2009, and finally, a revenue generation paper, ‘Mission aborted: public service Ofcom had come up with a different – model that aspires to longer term broadcasting in Wales wiuthout an but linked – suggestion for the devolved sustainability” (Department of INFC’, published for the first online nations which “could be based on the Culture, Media and Sport press issue of the Journal of the Association for establishment of independently funded release, 13 January 2010). Journalism Education consortia to provide an alternative http://journalism-education.org/2012/04/ source of news to the BBC” (Ofcom, Hooper and his team decided that UTV’s mission-aborted-pbs-in-wales/

www.clickonwales.org 6/Communications

The inaugural Welsh vook

Baran Congregationalist Chapel near Neath. In 1830 almost the entire congregation, about 50 people, emigrated to join an agricultural community of Welsh settlers in Bradford County, Pennsylvania. The Welsh Settlement, as it became known, established a church in the Pike township in the county, in an area that was later known as Neath. Photo: Hazel Gower.

Colin Thomas Fifty years ago a Welsh friend and I were climbing or Kindle Fire. The video component comes from describes the the steps of the Washington Monument when, to the rich archives of BBC Wales, ITV Wales and S4C, production our surprise and delight, we came across a stone thanks to their invaluable and generous cooperation. inscribed Fy Iaith, Fy Nglwad. Fy Ngendl. WALES. Text and video tell a remarkable yet familiar he has in Cymry Am Byth (One language, One country. Our story. Familiar because Welsh emigrants to America hand for our Birthplace. WALES. Wales For Ever). faced the same dilemma that is encountered by all first ebook, a Bizarrely, at the same moment, we could hear emigrants – how do you hold on to your language combination the tune of God Save the Queen. It was being and culture whilst at the same time becoming good of text and sung to the words My Country Tis of Thee at the citizens of your new country? Remarkable because Lincoln Memorial where we discovered hundreds of the powerful Welsh-Americans I discovered in video, on were gathered to commemorate the centenary telling the story. Wales and of Lincoln’s announcement of the liberation of They included Cadwalader Morgan challenging America America’s slaves. At that time Welsh-Americans his fellow farmers to explain how slave ownership overwhelmingly supported Lincoln and his decision. could be reconciled with their Quaker beliefs, Fifty years later I am just about to produce The Evan Jones standing by the Cherokees when Dragon and the Eagle, a vook on Wales and America. they were expelled from their territory, Margaret A vook or enhanced ebook is a combination of text Roberts campaigning with equal passion against and video downloadable on to a tablet like an iPad alcohol and for suffrage, John L. Lewis doggedly

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defending American miners and the on to say “We need a government report from the Association of American right of unskilled workers to trade union interface with the creative sector which Publishers in August 2011. Penguin representation. is ambitious and entrepreneurial, not plans to release 50 vooks this year, up But not romanticising the story either, risk averse and timid.” from 35 in 2011 (Wall Street Journal, 20 the vook remembers gangsters like John January 2011). Llewellyn Humphries, knoiwn as ‘Murray Some UK publishers have seen the Touch Press has spotted that there is the Hump’, the right hand man of Al way that the wind is blowing, noting a substantial market for highly produced Capone and said to be the organiser of that the revenue from the sale of vooks apps, whether described as vooks or the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. It also or enhanced ebooks grew faster than enhanced e-books. For some customers remembers the Welsh foremen and those from plain text titles in 2010 – by they are becoming the digital equivalent mine managers in America who kept 255 per cent compared with 201 per of coffee table books. Torch Press’s the best jobs for fellow Welshmen, to the cent for standard ebooks, according to a Wasteland, based on T.S. Eliot’s poem, murderous fury of Irish immigrants who arrived later. The vook seems to be an ideal way of telling these stories. However, I have had a problem in convincing Welsh publishers to embrace the new technology, many apparently reluctant to step outside their comfort zone. One of them responded to another proposal for a vook that I had suggested by asking me to rewrite it, dropping out the references to any video content! Fortunately a Welsh television facility company, Gorilla Group TV, has taken a more far-sighted view. Despite the fact that The Dragon and the Eagle did not get funding from the Welsh Government’s Digital Development initiative, Richard Moss, Gorilla’s managing director, appreciated the vook’s potential and provided editing, dubbing and graphics facilities. Cerys Matthews will be recording the voiceover for the video inserts and Evan Dawson, a young Welsh composer, will be writing the background music. Thanks to financial help from the Welsh Books Council, Wales’s first vook will be published in Welsh as well as in English.

“The overarching aim is to get the lion of the economy to lie down with the lamb of culture,” said Professor Ian Hargreaves in a talk he gave to an Institute of Welsh Affairs conference Creativity in Hard Times, in October 2010. Following up on his report The Heart of Digital Wales earlier that year, he stressed the need for “an intense focus being applied to growth sectors Poster advertising passage from Cardigan to New York in the sailing ship Triton in 1841. Subsequently, in the 1880s, the author Colin Thomas’s great, great grandfather, Herbert Davies, captained the Triton. such as digital content”. And he went Source: National Library of Wales.

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 63 Closing Date Friday 21st September 2012 Request an entry form at www.iwa.org.uk/businessawards Awards Ceremony Friday 9th November, Cardiff City Hall Call 029 2066 0820 for tickets

Marc Jennings, Graphic Design.

Branding, design for print & web.

07970 029185 029 2049 9566 [email protected] www.theundercard.co.uk 6/Communications An 1832 painting of a Mandan Indian village on the upper reaches of the Missouri River. For many centuries the Mandan Indians were thought to be descendants of Prince Madoc, said to have discovered America in about 1180.

recovered its substantial investment be held once again in September and touring with an orchestra he formed with within four weeks and, perhaps the Welsh-American newpaper Ninnau/Y his eight talented children. surprisingly, became No. 1 in Apple’s list Drych is still going strong. Not long afterwards, Carnegie sold of best selling book apps. Other successful The day after sinking a few pints Homestead and his vast steel empire products from the press are Solar System with the Welsh-Americans of Pittsburgh to J.P. Morgan, an American of Welsh and The Elements. in a bar adorned with a huge Y Ddraig descent and one of the wealthiest men There would be no shortage of Welsh- Goch, I went down to the riverside in in the world. Did conditions for the American customers for The Dragon and Homestead to the place where one of the Homestead steel workers, many of the Eagle. In September 2011 I spoke to most dramatic incidents in The Dragon whom worked twelve-hour days without the Pittsburgh Saint David’s Society about and the Eagle had happened back in any holidays, improve? Not one iota. It’s putting Welsh history on television and 1893. In the ‘Battle of Homestead’, Welsh important that I don’t oversimplify the was struck by the vitality of the Society. trade unionists had joined a strike of Welsh-American story They had persuaded Pennsylvania State steelworkers and an armed confrontation University to include a Welsh room as one ensued with the Pinkerton guards hired of the national rooms in the Cathedral of by the owners, Frick and Carnegie. This Colin Thomas is a television producer Learning – a miniature Welsh chapel. led to the deaths of three Pinkerton and director and the author of the According to the Americymru website guards and eleven strikers, one of them stage play Mr Stanley’s Magic Lantern, (http://americymru.net} there were 44 Welshman John Elias Jones. Another, the radio play Hiraeth in Hughesovka, celebrations of St David’s Day in the USA John Edwards, was blacklisted when and the book with accompanying DVD this year. An annual Festival of Wales will the strike was defeated and survived by Dreaming A City.

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and then sell their services on. You Talking to India know how it is. You ring up Talk Talk to complain about a break in service and Peter Finch delves into the opaque world of they tell you the problem is with the line. accessing the next generation of broadband That’s run by BT. And BT won’t speak to you because you buy from Talk Talk. There are some services we buy will be yours. Stalemate. Virgin Media keep their cable that are clean and clear. They are “A superfast network will be the network to themselves. value for money, regulated, fulfil an foundation for a new economic But just to complicate things if you economic and cultural need, are dynamism, creating hundreds of live in an area not reached by Virgin’s usually comprehensible, and work thousands of jobs and adding billions cables you may well end up buying when you plug them in. Radio, TV, to our GDP,” said Jeremy Hunt, their broadband as delivered along BT’s electricity, water and gas are like this. Secretary of State for Olympics, Culture, phone line network. Broadband is an But not internet access. Unfortunately, Media and Sport. Geography, still a opaque world. broadband is not one of those things. sticking point for most despite years of In rural areas broadband supply via Since the mid-1980s we’ve been expectation, will at last dissolve. satellite can be installed. Set up costs told by governments, in London and There’s a particular Welsh are high and service delivery can be in Cardiff, and from both side of the requirement for Super-Fast broadband. compromised by rainstorm and heavy political divide, that provision of fast In a country where the economy is at cloud but such systems can get usable broadband is central to our economic the mercy of a dominant public sector internet into those green deserts that fill needs. Without it we will be unable which is addled by difficult and largely Wales’s central heart. to compete with the rest of the world. rural geography, and which operates It is also possible to use UK cell Emboldened by the digital revolution, against a post-industrial backdrop of low phone companies’ 3G mobile internet we have spent time either at the end resource and significant need, effective services to power Wi-Fi set ups which of telephone lines dialling-up and digital communication is an essential. deliver internet browsing to local listening to the squeaks our modems Presented at the highest speed possible personal computers. Speeds are low, emit or putting filters into sockets so Super-Fast Broadband may well be bandwidth fragile, and service subject to that the ADSL can work. We’ve tried. Wales’s future salvation. the location of phone masts. Bandwidth Somehow some of us managed to We need this stuff. And because is the measure of not so much how fast follow the instructions and the stuff has most of us don’t understand it we’ll the data arrives but how many users can leaked through into our computers. need it explained. Broadband is a be coped with simultaneously. The soon Uncomprehendingly and often in awe service that has long suffered from to arrive 4G network will certainly allow we’ve engaged with the modern world. the blandishments of the snake oil things to improve. It’s now thirty years since all this salesman. Service is promised and Meantime Wales has to live with low started and things are once again on then not delivered. Advertised speeds speed and creaky ADSL everywhere a roll. We are to get broadband at are virtually never achieved. Service phone lines run. The top end is miracle speeds hitherto only available breakdowns can’t be fixed. Dispute and unbeatable fibre-delivered broadband if in the scintillating economies of the non-communication exists between you are lucky enough to live in the heart Far East. The stuff will arrive like many of the service providers. Ring up of a city. If you don’t then you survive on free prescriptions or complimentary to complain and you talk to India. promises that things will get better. swimming for the over-60s. What will Most broadband reaches the user They’ve hung in the air for a time we be able to do with it? Possibilities by one of two main methods. It either now, those promises. But now at last include teleconferencing, desk top comes down fibre optic, of the kind laid they appear to being made good. sharing, virtual exhibition attendance, by NTL a decade ago and now operated Aware that if left to the vagaries instant music and video download, by Virgin Media. Or it arrives via the of market forces Wales will never myriad-station on-demand television, copper wire of the telephone cable. get anything like a comprehensive believable 3-D environments, access to BT own that network and via their broadband service, the Welsh telemedicine, government databases, Openreach brand are a major player in Government established its Next distance learning, national services, the field of supply. Regulation requires Generation Broadband for Wales project work sharing, remote operation of BT to allow others to use its telephone in 2011. This seeks “to ensure that all manufacturing facilities, and control of network. Talk Talk, O2, PlusNet, Orange, residential premises and all businesses service industries from armchairs. Wave Sky, AOL and other familiar names all in Wales will have access to Next your arm, touch the world and all of it buy wholesale access to BT’s network Generation Broadband by 2015, with the

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ambition that 50 per cent or more have can deliver – social care, educational access to 100Mbps”. Since most of us get services, all the movies you could ever by on flaky speeds somewhere below 4 want – things will change. Mbps, that will be quite a change. Within the super city provision If you live in an area where your will soon be total. How do I know? regular service provider delivers below It’s what they’ve all told me. BT are 2 Mbs you can already get Welsh enabling exchanges to offer Infinity at Government aid of up to £1,000 to a prodigious rate. They still have some install satellite or other equipment to difficult areas in Penylan, Culverhouse put things right. Hadn’t hear about Cross, Radyr, Roath Lock and Pentyrch. that facility? Neither had I. Check They’ve set themselves their target date the web for details here: http://wales. and conditions that public subsidy for total supply by the end of 2012, gov.uk/topics/businessandeconomy/ will inevitably bring. On the other which sounds reasonable. We’ll see. broadbandandict/broadband/ hand, BT is more open and suggests The City Council have submitted bbss/?lang=en that negotiations with those who their Super City plan to the Department In addition the UK government’s will manage both Cardiff’s Super of Culture, Media and Sport and are Super Cities Urban Broadband Fund, Cities operation and the larger Next now working on the details. These will announced by the Chancellor in his Generation project are inevitable. be submitted by the end of August, Autumn 2011 statement, has selected The Welsh Government has already 2012. The expectation is that an Cardiff as an early beneficiary. The Welsh announced that it is talking to ‘several announcement with a figure attached to capital will become one of ten super- bidders’ to ensure digital access right it, anticipated as somewhere between connected cities across the UK with total across Wales. £7-12 million, will be made by the 80-100Mbps broadband provision. Seeing the future writing on the wall Chancellor in his autumn statement. Suddenly Wales sounds like the both Virgin media and BT are offering Not only will the city then benefit broadband place to be. Up ahead the existing consumers new Super-Fast from total high speed 80 Mbs minimum providers jostle. To date both BT and Broadband boosts at no extra cost. broadband coverage by March 2015, Virgin Media, the two main players, During 2012 Virgin will double their but the central areas will also be have been resolutely commercial in speeds, which in some cases means saturated in accessible Wi-Fi. This is a what they deliver. Supply is made offering consumers 120 Mbs for the far cry from where we came in decades available only where the business case is same monthly sum that once bought ago, sitting and waiting for the image to proven. For Virgin this means no further them 50. BT Infinity (BT’s Super-Fast arrive down the dialled-up phone wire, cable laying and an exploitation of the brand) will offer downloads at 76 Mbs appearing line by tedious line on the tiny network which already exists. The cables with the added benefit of uploads at 19 screens of our PCs. which Virgin inherited snake along the Mbs, a speed Virgin has yet to reach. What has driven this? Governmental close terraces of Wales’s urban areas; This is great if you can get it and economic future modelling is a more they rarely get to the leafy suburbs. many can. But there are still those likely source than consumer demand. BT, whose new Super-Fast fibre whose premises hide behind breaks in In the recent local elections all parties provision is centred around what is Virgin’s cables or whose home is just claimed responsibility, though the ones known as Fibre To The Cabinet, have those few hundred yards further from that shouted the loudest didn’t find that made the decision to supply as much BT’s cabinet, enough to downgrade it gained them that many votes. of Wales as they can, so long as in each traffic along their dedicated cable to In his seminal 1995 set of case their investment can return a profit. mundane levels. Further out there’s still predictions The Road Ahead, Bill Gates, Inevitably there will be cold spots - little, although not for long. former head of Microsoft, postulated a difficult inaccessible rural localities, and Given the future contained in some future in which high-speed Broadband zones in cities behind trees, on hills and of these super speeds it’s surprising was the norm everywhere. Computers, at the end of long roads. that consumer take-up has been as he said, would be like radios. You’d When I spoke to them, both sluggish as it has. The ability to receive turn them on and they’d work. It seems companies told me that to date on line TV, for example, might have we’re almost there. subsidy from public sources was not a been enough to significantly enlarge component of their business models. the consumer base. But it clearly hasn’t. Like Barclays during the banking crisis, “The Killer app has yet to arrive,” Virgin cherishes its independence Virgin told me. But once consumers Peter Finch is a poet, psycho- and will not accept the compromises begin realise what such high speeds geographer and literary entrepreneur.

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 67 Retaining the 7 Heritage link between farming and food in Abergavenny

Andris Taurins says planners are playing fast and loose Articles with the heritage of one of our oldest market towns Farming and food in Abergavenny Visitors approaching Abergavenny are greeted by a sign welcoming them to an ‘historic market town’. However, if Monmouthshire County Council has its way, very soon the sign will have to be changed to something more appropriate like ‘Welcome to the dormitory town of Abergavenny’. Markets have been a main feature of the town for many centuries and are now consolidated into two: the indoor Victorian Town Hall market including the outdoor traders’ market in Brewery Yard, and the livestock market located between Lion Street, Old Hereford Road and Park Road. Located in the centre of the town, both contribute to Abergavenny’s distinctive character. The town still has farming and food at its core, something that the community wants to keep. If ever there was a case to support a Mary Portas type of intervention this would be it. Yet little has been invested in the maintenance of the livestock market over the last few decades. As a result it has fallen into disrepair to the point where the council now asserts that it is uneconomic to bring it up to the standard required. Rather cleverly, they have contrived a situation that neatly fits their argument. The Council says the market, a valuable piece of real estate, is beyond regeneration and can only be sold to private developers. Yet, for more than a decade the site has been surrounded in controversy. In 2009 a £11million scheme to redevelop the site with developer Henry Boot collapsed. The Council has never investigated how the site might be redeveloped as a modern market facility. Instead it claims the market is uneconomic, too small to warrant the investment needed to make it viable. This statement has been repeated so many times that many people have been persuaded that indeed it must be so – that is, until it was challenged by Abergavenny’s Civic Society. In March a feasibility study, commissioned by the Society from civil engineering consultants QuadConsult of Cardiff, said it would be cheaper to redevelop the existing site, at an estimated £2.25 million, compared with the Council’s alternative proposals to build a new market at Bryngwyn near Raglan, which would cost about £5 million. The report also warned that the Council’s plans for a supermarket and library on the present site would be damaging. The consultants recommend modernising and upgrading the buildings to improve services, creating retail and office space and renewing the cafe to serve traders, visitors and promote local farm produce. It says a renovated and vibrant market could generate income for the council and promote the town as a centre of excellence

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An auction underway at Abergavenny’s livestock market, still a lively hub that contributes to the town’s distinctive character.

auctioneers’ rent, are around £35,000 were demolished to make way for today’s a year. Our consultants calculated unedifying concrete cube which is the that the net annual loss to the Council, Post Office. And whilst the Mill Street after writing off the £5 million initial commercial area doubtless provides investment, would be in the order of valuable employment opportunities for £350,000 a year. By comparison, the local people, did the historic houses in regenerated Abergavenny livestock the shadow of Abergavenny Castle really market has the potential to generate need to be destroyed when there were £258,000 a year after development costs other places to build industrial units? have been paid off. Supermarkets can find suitable More important is the fact that the locations elsewhere in the town if indeed existing site, if redeveloped in a sensitive a case can be made to add to the growing way would retain and enhance the links list of central grocery establishments: Tesco, between the town and its hinterland, Farmfoods, B&M, Premier, Iceland and between farmers and the townspeople. In very soon Aldi. Many people consider that contrast Bryngwyn is a relatively isolated the presence of another large supermarket industrial site whose development would will destroy the footfall for the town centre’s break the link between farming and food. independent shops. We are not against The indoor market at Abergavenny’s Victorian town hall. It is not as though the planners have supermarkets as such. However, we are an enviable record in redeveloping the against one being built on a site of immense for rural produce and agriculture. The old medieval part of Abergavenny. In commercial and historical importance to report recommends developing links the 1960s and 1970s they destroyed the Abergavenny which is best suited in its with rest of the town and introducing a important historic built environment in present role as a livestock market. pay and display car park for use on non- Mill Street and Tudor Street. We need market days to serve the town centre. only look at the buildings still existing in The potential earnings from the Nevill Street including The Kings Arms to Andris Taurins is a member of the Council’s alternative Bryngwyn site, from gain some insight in what type of buildings Abergavenny and District Civic Society.

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8 Fishlock’s File Culture The virtues of left-handedness Trevor Fishlock muses on the sinister meanings of small things

I like drawing stories from small things. many parents approved of that, too. Articles In the landslide of complex events a tiny I knew about the Welsh Not, but detail may gleam like a diamond. not about the finger stock or another Fishlock’s File: The virtues of Curiosity makes me an inveterate remedial tool I saw on the teacher’s left-handedness museum-goer. In the museum in desk. This was a posture board, like a Barbados, for example, I saw a signet dairymaid’s yoke, prescribed by teachers Two lives in art ring once owned by a 19th Century to stop children slouching. It belonged We have a real magistrate. It encapsulated a story of to a time when children’s health and country now slavery. The JP heated the ring to burn posture were affected by poor nutrition, his initials into the skins of people he years in which the army was appalled by Book reviews: bought. In the years I reported from the the quality of young recruits who were waning Soviet Union the small details too sick and puny to fight for the empire. A warning of ordinary people’s lives taught me far School practice, then, encouraged against dominant more than Kremlinology. History and children to be straight-backed, English- narratives in geography make Wales a country rich in speaking and right-handed. And the recent Welsh stories; and the people have a keen sense cane, also on the St Fagan’s desk, was history of place and like to hear them. there as a behavioural enforcer; and you ‘The best sort One day at the St Fagans: National can still see, in newspaper letters, that of crank’ History Museum I happened to see, some people mourn its passing. on the teacher’s desk in the Victorian I used the finger stock as the small Our shared web schoolroom, what looked to me like a thing from which to draw a story on of interconnected knuckleduster. It was a piece of wood left-handedness for an ITV Wales European lives pierced by four holes. Victorian teachers programme. I soon found that many Wide-eyed love of called it a finger stock. They slipped it people were intrigued by left-right, but a Welsh pilgrim over the fingers of left-handed children knew little about it. For many centuries a for Armenia to cripple their grip and force them to stigma attached to left-handedness and write with their right hands. existed in some form all over the world; No doubt this was done with good and still does. The Latin word for left is intentions. I can hear teachers saying: sinister, although the word means the “It’s for your own good”, and most pocket of a toga which happened to be parents agreeing with the treatment. It on the left side. In English left originally was a remedial device, a companion in meant weak. In French, gauche, and a way to another small piece of wood on Welsh, chwith, also means awkward. the teacher’s desk, the Welsh Not. This Cack-handed, we might say, or having was given as a corrective to children two left feet. A friend of mine says speaking Welsh: they were encouraged that at school in the north of England to pass it on to any classmate they heard he was called a cuddywifty, Northern using the language. We can suppose that for southpaw.

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Ysgol Mastir Victorian schoolroom at the St Fagans National History Museum, location of the finger stock - a piece of wood with four holes used to prevent children writing with their left hand.

Left-handedness was for years Aggleton, but there’s little or no evidence the Vale of Glamorgan, researches left- associated with the devil. The schoolroom of it. handedness. As a left-hander himself he and parental assault on it was driven by He was also interesting on the remembers how upset he was as a child superstition and the wish for conformity. considerable research into left-handers when forced to write with his right. His John Aggleton, a Cardiff University in sport. The common idea that left- mother intervened. His teacher told Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience - handed tennis players, for example, are her that left-handedness was associated the ways in which the brain works - is actually better than others is not borne with the devil, but let him write the interested in handedness partly because out by research. And no left-handed way he wished. He runs an after-school his two sons, born of right-handed sportsman, cricketer or footballer, has handwriting club and encourages parents, are left-handed. The left-right any advantage in spatial or athletic children to use the hand they find more preference is driven by the brain, he said, skills. The answer is that lefties are useful comfortable. The way they hold a pen and not by the environment. Babies in within the nature of the game. Left- is important. The correct grip of an the womb suck a preferred thumb. And handed bowlers usefully challenge and ergonomic pen, especially shaped for left even identical twins are not the same: upset the concentration of batsmen in a or right, makes them more fluent; and one might prefer the right and the other way that righties do not. Another thing: good handwriting pays a big dividend in the left. many left-handed batsmen are actually classroom confidence. In spite of superstition and correction right-handed. They throw and bowl with The finger stock at St Fagan’s is now, in the past the number of left-handed the right and by all the tests are righties, mercifully, a museum piece. Our well- people in the population remains the simply able to bat left. meaning forerunners used the stock, the same: one in ten. So we have a mystery. Professor Not and the cane for the good of the Having seen The King’s Speech, about Aggleton reasons that if right-handedness children; the cane until quite recently. We George VI’s stammer, aware of Aneurin were superior, nature would have used to send children for resettlement in Bevan’s stammer, and knowing that both eradicated left-handedness by natural Australia for their own good. In Britain were left-handed, I wondered whether selection. There is a right majority and a today we export care home children their stammers stemmed from anxiety stable left minority, and left-handedness from the south to a version of exile in the or persecution over their handedness. survives because it is a useful virtue. north. It is for their own good. Sounds plausible, said Professor Ken East, a teacher at Llansannor in

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The Rise of the Dovey, painted by John Piper in 1943-44: oil on gessoed canvas mounted on board. It is included in The Mountains of Wales exhibition that is touring Wales during 2012, currently at the Oriel y Parc Gallery, St Davids. Piper lived and worked intermittently in north Wales over a period of around 15 years during the 1940s and Two lives in art 1950s. Private collection and copyright of the John Piper Estate.

Osi Rhys In John and Myfanwy Piper – Lives in Art, a young Piper follow him into the family law Osmond is fascinating, deeply researched and wide-ranging firm. Although Piper had always shown a captured by a study by Frances Spalding, recently re-issued in preference for the creative life, an ambition paperback, we are given an extraordinary insight supported by his mother, a career in art was study of John into the creative lives, working methods, cultural considered too risky. and Myfanwy connections and domestic arrangements of two Piper’s instinctive preoccupations were Piper who of the most prolific and influential artistic figures revealed to him very early in his life. He cycled reshaped of mid 20th Century England. Equally interesting extensively as a child, taking photographs and perceptions of is what this portrait tells us – often discretely and compiling drawing books with notes on local sometimes unconsciously - about their times, history, topography and architecture, especially Englishness in and the evolution of their social dynamics and churches. The Piper’s were comfortably off, but the mid 20th cultural values. like many families at the time suffered the loss Century Piper, was born in Epsom, in 1904 the of sons in the First World War. Death in action fourth son (another brother had died shortly of his eldest son affected the father deeply. The after birth) of a solicitor who insisted the number of families similarly bereaved, and the

72 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 8/Culture subsequent effect on family life, is among the profound disclosures that this book discretely reveals. Piper’s father died soon after he had failed his law exams and so he was released to study first at the Epsom School of Art and later at the Royal College. There he quickly made his mark as an artist. He also made an impetuous and immediately unsuccessful marriage to a fellow student, Eileen Holding. As well as painting Piper was writing reviews and articles on art and cultural matters on a regular basis in the Listener, New Statesman, The Saturday Review and other magazines. He never thought a great deal of his early journalism. Myfanwy and John Piper, pictured at their Fawley Bottom farmhouse in the Chilterns. However, his writing caught the attention of a young Oxford graduate, For the rest of their lives together reputations. However, there was always who was making her way in the world the farmhouse became an extraordinary a dichotomy for Piper, particularly in of English avant-garde cultural activism. place creatively, socially and domestically, abstraction. He appreciated modernism, Myfanwy Piper had read English at St. as they brought up their four children. but felt its gospels too keenly preached. Hugh’s College, Oxford, leaving with an Myfanwy established a reputation as He saw the harsh dogma of modernism’s unimpressive degree, a swimming blue an excellent and resourceful gardener leading lights as an obstacle to creative (her athletic figure and aquatic prowess and enthusiastic raiser of chickens and opportunity and to the wonders of the later attracted the interest of John pigs, and they both became generous, observed world. Even before Axis had Betjeman) and a reputation as an original life-enhancing and popular hosts. Their ceased publication he had reverted thinker and writer. Unbeknown to each guests and those who entertained them to his familiar, dramatic and perhaps, other, Piper and Myfanwy had become represent a who’s who of a particular conservative neo-romanticism. friendly with the painter, Ivon Hitchens. kind of quintessentially English artistic John Piper is popularly known for the Piper had recently written the catalogue society. Aspects of a certain kind Shell Guides he produced, wrote and foreword to his Lefevre Gallery exhibition of Englishness were important and illustrated, initially in collaboration with of 1933. He was invited by Hitchens to inspirational to them. Their friends, who John Betjeman, as Britain, particularly spend the weekend on the Kent coast at included Britten, the Sitwells and others, England embraced the concept of Sizewell, and as he was arriving by car celebrated and called forth in their work recreational motoring. That there were he was asked to meet another guest from the beauty and traditions, not simply of sufficient motorists with the time and the train at Leiston. architecture and the landscape, but of money to use the guides to travel the Alighting from the train was Myfanwy the common people and their speech regions they discussed is a surprise to Evans, not beautiful in a conventional and ingrained social mannerisms. someone like me in whose own home sense, but personally dynamic and Prior to meeting Piper, Myfanwy village the mid 1930s meant one thing, attractive. She was petite, snub nosed, had spent time travelling in France and unemployment. If anyone travelled, it with bobbed fair hair and intense, meeting influential modernists. She was to find work, usually in one of those intelligent, pale blue eyes. She and was soon persuaded to begin a radical areas where the Shell Guides became Piper swam together and spent the art magazine that would promote the an important part of the library of the whole weekend in intense conversation. virtues of abstraction. aspiring middle-class. By the end of 1934 they were living Axis magazine, published between The Shell Guides were first published together and Piper and Eileen were 1935-37, was short–lived but highly in 1934, under the editorship of John about to divorce (Ceri Richards played influential. Designed by Piper, it Betjeman. Piper came on board in 1937 a supporting role in that drama). They discussed the work of significant and in view of his childhood passions it set up home in a run-down farmhouse, international modernists, in literature, seemed a very natural thing to do. His Fawley Bottom, in the Chilterns, living painting, architecture and music. involvement illustrates how his ambitions without running water or electricity Myfanwy’s writing was sharp, energetic as an artist were continuously dissipated until well into the late 1950s. and witty, with little regard for by his wide range of interest in other

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 73 8/Culture matters - history, churches, architecture power. His friendship and patronage to the geological notes and terms that and landscape. Although they supported was critical to Piper’s progress. Piper made as he drew and painted. his creative work financially, the task At the time there was real concern that Here we see Piper at his best. His work of researching, writing and illustrating much of England’s architectural heritage in Wales is distinguished by its greater leached time and energy. might be lost to German Air raids. Piper objectivity compared with his studies Myfanwy Piper, nee Evans was from a was among a number of artists who were of English subjects. His examination London Welsh family. Although brought relieved of war duties and commissioned of the landscape is less formulaic than up in London she had spent much of her to make studies of important buildings. At his depictions of buildings, although school holidays in Wales and she and the request of the Queen he also painted Llanthony Abbey, painted in 1941, has Piper developed a strong relationship numerous studies of Windsor Castle - which that typically theatrical look, a quality with the more dramatic areas of north, lay directly under the bomber flight path to that many critics found difficult to central and eventually west Wales. the industrial Midlands – and where the sympathise with, regarding this way of Piper began touring Wales in 1939, King and Queen spent much of the war. working as overly stylised. and later in the early 1940s. In 1943, as George VI’s remark about Piper’s “poor As his painting The Rise of the Dovey a commissioned War artist, he visited luck with the weather” may be a much shows, he was genuinely moved by the Manod Mawr quarry in Gwynedd where more perceptive piece of art criticism than grandeur of Snowdonia. He also wrote the treasures of London’s National the old monarch has been credited with. well about his experiences, often putting Gallery had been stored beyond the Recently National Museum Wales himself at the mercy of the elements in reach of German bombs. He was there staged a major exhibition, John Piper - his exploration of scree, mountain and to draw at the behest of the gallery’s The Mountains of Wales, paintings and moraine. This painting on canvas, like director, Kenneth Clark who had been drawings from a private collection. In it much of his work, is covered with a responsible for Piper’s appointment as Piper explores Wales as a physical mass rough coat of gesso, giving it a pitted and a war artist. Clark was an oleaginous and a geological subject. Included in textured surface that Piper uses to great cultural mandarin, with a refined sense the David Fraser Jenkins and Melissa effect. Additionally, the dense whiteness of who and what turned the wheels of Munro’s catalogue are useful references of the gesso allows him to create a sense 8/Culture

John Piper’s view of Cader Idris, an ink and wash painting completed during 1944. of dramatic illumination that appears the couple, as did Britten and his partner enthusiastically, drinking too much, to originate from below the surface of Peter Pears. The librettos of many of and diving carelessly into the swimming the picture. Britten’s more successful operas, and pool, just as she had dived fearlessly Naturally, England, its architecture much of Hoddinott’s work, were written into the modernism debates of the and landscape, was Piper’s chief by Myfanwy, who was critical to Britten’s 1930s. Most of all Piper and Myfanwy preoccupation, and the bulk of his work in success. He often came to their home, lived rich, fulfilling lives through their painting, printmaking and writing reflects Fawley Bottom, to play the score on the mutual love, their generosity, their that. He is well known for his theatre Piper’s piano. Music was central part to children and their creative endeavours. design, photography, book design, their lives. John could play jazz, popular After all art was their life, and their stained glass, ceramics, and tapestries. and classical music to a high standard. lives were fully lived as Lives in Art. He also created vestments and artefacts This wonderfully rewarding book for the Anglican Church, becoming describes in intense detail the social and a somewhat reluctant convert at the cultural milieu of John and Myfanwy Piper prompting of his friend and collaborator, as their extraordinary fruitful and bountiful Osi Rhys Osmond is an artist, writer the poet John Betjeman. Piper’s stained lives unfolded. Their friendship and and cultural activist. John and Myfanwy glass for the bomb-damaged cathedrals hospitality was a major part of that, as they Piper – Lives in Art is published by Oxford of Coventry and Cardiff are among his entertained royalty and the aristocracy University Press in paperback at £16.99. towering achievements. of the realm and the arts world. John The John Piper - The Mountains of Wales His design for the stage was predeceased Myfanwy by five years in exhibition is currently showing at the frequently for the operas of Benjamin 1992, following a short period of dementia. Oriel y Parc Gallery in St Davids, until Britten, and later for those of Alun Myfanwy continued to live 7 October, after which it moves to the Hoddinott who became a close friend of as she always had, entertaining Mostyn Gallery in Llandudno.

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 75 7/Culture A photo of the author’s daughter Ela Griffiths jumping into the Baltic sea, used on the cover of Parthian’s Grace, Tamar and Laszlo the Beautiful, a short story sequence by Deborah Kay Davies: winner of the We have a real Wales Book of the Year 2009. country now

Richard Davies reflects on 20 years of bleakness counterpointed by hope in Welsh publishing

Lloyd Robson writes to me by email. There’s a party and a poetry reading at the Royal Oak pub at the edge of Splott. It’s a farewell to Cardiff party for Lloyd. He’s got a Green Card. There’s a woman waiting for him in New York, his wife. I rewind six years and I’m sitting with him, Richard Gwyn and Gillian at a café just down from Shakespeare and Company bookshop. It’s May and we have money and a reading waiting for us in the evening. The huge gothic spires of Our Lady soar up into the blue Parisian sky. We are drinking white wine; Richard Gwyn is drinking water. We talk about the possibilities of writing, the need to find an audience, the chance Caption of finding a subject. We are all writers who have at one time established our own publishing concerns: Black Hat for Lloyd, Cranc for Richard, Parthian for me and my partner Gillian. It has become part of the necessity Green Card. He’d written the book, Oh reflection, action, consequence and of writing ourselves into the world, of Dad! A Search for Robert Mitchum, it recovery which leaves the reader with a creating a future. Richard suggests an attracted good reviews but few sales. But few questions to ask the narrator. Maybe idea for Lloyd, Robert Mitchum and a he’d met someone in New York, married I should have asked him while he was still quest to find the truth about the actor her and now he was leaving. Books, they speaking to me on the terrace of that café who was also a poet and maybe the do change you. in Paris. It is six years on from a book he chance to have a drink in some of the In the summer of 2011 Richard published, The Colour of a Dog Running bars Mitchum was known to frequent. published A Vagabond’s Breakfast, an Away which was translated into five An age later we are different people, account of his journey through life and languages and sold over 30,000 copies we’ve all fallen out in different ways and the countries of the north shore of the internationally. They were published by Lloyd is leaving the city that formed his Mediterranean as an itinerant poet, fruit- different publishers but shaped by the work, leaving for the New World on a picker and drinker. It is a good book of same editor, Gwen Davies. Gwen is now

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shaping the New Welsh Review. I wonder staff and good quality authors.” publishing and writing is a part of that about these circles in small worlds. Welsh writing in English: theme. It is hopeless but we will try Looking back at twenty years in the A Review March 2004, chaired by anyway. The Butler report did provide a publishing world, Wales is a different Rosemary Butler framework for change in Welsh publishing place. We have a real country now, and a crucial tranche of investment in the not just one forced upon us. The wider I like this quote, with its bleakness industry through support for publishers political landscape has changed and counterpointed by hope. I think all and writers. It produced books such as closer to the ground writing has changed. Wales is a still a fictional and elementally real place, but the imagination is broader, wider, and more ambitious. In the spring of the current year I send a letter to other Welsh publishers and our funding partners the Welsh Books Council, entitled Where Do We Go From Here? It stirs a few responses. It suggests a way forward in difficult times. We are currently at a crucial point in the development of a Welsh publishing industry able to compete in a national and international market. We are close to a decade on from the Welsh

Looking back at twenty years in the publishing world, Wales is a different place. We have a real country now, not just one forced upon us.

Assembly report into Welsh publishing which resulted in a significant period of investment in publishing in Wales and stimulated a significant increase in output. This was how the report set the scene.

“Publishers are few in number, inadequately resourced, have small profits and sluggish cash flows, and are over dependent on subsidy from public sources…. On a more positive note, Welsh publishing houses have Carousal image used as the cover photo for Parthian’s Love and Other Possibilities, a collection of short stories by ambition, talented and committed Lewis Davies, published in 2009.

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Caption

The Parthian publishing team pictured at Swansea University shortly after moving into new offices there, in February 2011: from left to right Marketing Officer Eluned Gramich; Richard Davies; Financial Director Gillian Griffiths; and Editor Lucy Llewellyn.

Dial M for Merthyr by Rachel Trezise, email screen lights up with excitement in print with Parthian and a thirty-two set Lloyd’s search for Robert Mitchum, and tempting offers. But then, after the Library of Wales series. Each book holds Seren’s endless Mabinogologi, Chris Saturday night of the launch, the writer its own story and journey into print, a Need’s life story, Eddie Butler and his wakes up bleary-eyed on a grey Sunday conversation between writers, editors best ever rugby XV and a few other ones to find the fair packed-up and moved and readers that continues. The company I seem to have forgotten. It also produced on. Your new friends are writing about has been part of a wider conversation the Library of Wales series, and a slew of someone else. Six months on you get a of writing that has emerged in the last marketing initiatives which helped to sell review in the New Welsh Review and a decade. Welsh writers and publishers are books and promote writers. More books, year on a royalty statement that doesn’t now becoming visible on the national more conversation, a carnival of voices. quite cover your advance and you and international stage for the first time. Publishing is a bit like a carnival wonder where all the promises went. Maybe ambition is not always a good of books. They all seem so vital and But as a writer you need to be part thing. But I’m trying to make a claim for immediate when you are publishing of this conversation. Parthian Books Wales to make a claim to become the them but the energy and necessity in the published my first novel in September guest nation at the Frankfurt international pages usually falls away into a silence 1993. I had set up the company with a book-fair. Gastland Wales 2015 anyone? with the world only stirred when one is loan from the Prince’s Youth Business discovered on a shelf at Oxfam, a letter Trust and an Enterprise Allowance grant. from an agent asking about sales or a The business was based on two books, junior lecturer conspires to put something Work, Sex and Rugby and How to Publish new and forgotten on a syllabus. Yourself, a manual on self-publishing For writers it is worse. When your by Peter Finch. I had spent six months book is published it is like the fair arriving researching the business while finishing in town, all flashing lights and rides on the text of the novel. Nineteen years on Richard Davies is a founding partner the waltzer. The phone rings and the and there are over two hundred books of Parthian.

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about what they have slowly realised is questions of identity, or even the politics Reviews their own country. of Wales. Primarily, they describe the The coalition government is bent on changing reality of life in Wales - from tackling the Gordian knot of the West Wales at war through post-war austerity, A warning against Lothian question, while Ed Miliband and the cultural changes of 1960s and dominant narratives in showed just how knotty a problem identity 1970s – moving the dominant colour of recent Welsh history is in a long lecture that, rather limply, tried life and recollection from black and white Geraint Talfan Davies to elevate an array of laudable but wholly Picture Post imagery to full technicolour, ubiquitous personal characteristics into simultaneously with the corresponding distinctive English virtues. The thought move in television itself. seemed to die on the page, and certainly It is exhaustive, almost exhausting, in didn’t survive the first television probing. its factual detail. Johnes reminds us that ‘Worrying the carcass of an old song’ takes the history of the last 70 years is rooted in practice. His only policy response was give the experience of war: 15,000 Welsh war local government more power. dead, 33,000 houses damaged in Cardiff, If the Welsh response to its own 30,000 bombs dropped on Swansea. More circumstances and sense of identity had surprisingly, the statistics also include five been to give more power to Anglesey dying from bombing in Caernarfonshire, County Council, I doubt that Wales 200,000 people moving to Wales from would have been taken very seriously. I England in only the first two years of the recommend that Ed Miliband read Martin war, and 110,000 evacuees received by Johnes’s recent hefty survey of the last 70 Welsh counties. years of Welsh history, Wales since 1939. It Combined with the fact that military is instructive because it attempts to chart organisation no longer tried to keep Wales since 1939 the connections between the changes in soldiers from particular localities together, Martin Johnes the way Welsh people have lived their lives this meant that the war sharply increased Manchester University Press 2012, in this period, the changing way in which Welsh contact with the English. And yet, £16.99 we have thought of ourselves, and the way even during this wartime high point of both have translated into political action. Britishness, a 365,000-signature petition I feel sorry for the English. After centuries Responding to the anglo-centricity led to the Welsh Courts Act in 1942 which of not having to worry about their national of much British history – against which allowed Welsh to be used in some court identity – English? British? what does it his fellow historian Norman Davies was proceedings. matter? – they are now being enjoined by again eloquent at the Hay Festival this Johnes describes how the “post-war an alliance of Welsh and Scots to take the summer – Martin Johnes subscribes to economic and social transformations of fluff out of their navels, do a bit of gazing the view that “understanding Britain British life were further tying Wales into at the revealed part and sort themselves means understanding its margins”. But the British system”. These included the out. All this, they are told, is a precondition a more profound purpose of his book welfare state, the new National Coal Board of sorting out the union. Not content is to emphasise the other side of that in which Wales was at the outset part of a with having to deal with the apparently coin: that “Welshness has existed and still south western division, the record – initially importunate demands of Scots and Welsh, exists within the British state and culture, disappointing - of the 1945 Distribution of and the rather more threatening northern making Britishness not something external Industry Act, grammar schools modelling Irish, they are now being asked to imitate to Wales but part of Wales. A history of themselves on English public schools, and the Celts by developing their own psychosis Wales that does not acknowledge Britain the creation of the NHS. about identity. It must seem tiresome. is deeply misleading”. On the last of these, rather than Worried by the hijacking of the Union In that sense the book is a reminder of emphasising the role of the Welsh hero, Jack by the British National Party and the the gap that often exists between political Aneurin Bevan, Johnes is relentlessly Cross of St George by football fans who rhetoric and the daily lives of those who factual: “Most of the hospitals in Wales treat it with rather less reverence than vote or, increasingly frequently, do not were simply in too poor a condition the American military show to their own vote for them. Indeed, the first six chapters for any serious opposition to their flag, English politicians are getting serious in the book touch relatively lightly on nationalisation”. As on other matters,

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Johnes also adopts the pointilliste did not have mains electricity, although in and politics grew. It is in the second approach: the impact of free dentures on some cases this was, apparently, the result half of the book that issues of identity people’s self-confidence, or the fact that of their own stubborn parsimony. Even and language take centre stage. They miners were the main customers for a as late as 1961, 43 per cent of homes in revolved around the decline of religion Swansea manufacturer’s subsidised wigs. the East Glamorgan and Monmouthshire and the detachment of the language from The 1950s saw the beginnings of valleys had no fixed bath. religious nonconformity, the beginnings affluence. Televisions, irons, vacuum The cultural impact of the 1960s was of language protest and its effective cleaners and washing machines were immense. The introduction in 1961 of deployment, the modernisation of the bought in such profusion that the local referenda on the Sunday closing of image of the language through television, consumption of electricity doubled pubs is well known. However, it is harder the growth of rural nationalism partly as an between 1949 and 1957. The emergence to believe that in 1960 Cardiff Council was expression of class antagonism as inward of supermarkets marked the beginning still refusing to let X-rated films be shown migration increased, and the growth of of the homogenisation of the shopping on Sundays, that the Football Association Welsh medium education. Other critical influences were the Aberfan disaster and the sense of betrayal by the state, the Affluence, consumerism, and a new youth culture failure to plan for an alternative to steel, resulted in the paradox of an individualism and the widely perceived vindictiveness of government in the miners’ strike. that expressed itself in a largely homogenised Johnes concludes: “The irony is that it marketplace. You would be hard-pressed to was a Conservative government that did more than any other before it not just to distinguish any Welsh high street from that in any bolster the official status of Wales and its English town. Johnes strictures about the way language but also to encourage people to think about their nationality in more 1960s planning ignored social needs and sowed political terms. “ the seeds of future calamity could be written about The book is also an implicit warning about the ease with which dominant any place in Britain. narratives become lodged in the mind and exclude uncomfortable or forgotten information. For instance, despite the ‘spirit of the blitz’ indictable crimes rose experience across Britain. But again the of Wales did not allow competitive football by 89 per cent during the war, and violent detail is telling. In 1960 Swansea had 257 on a Sunday until 1968, or that the Welsh crime against property rose by 150 per butchers, but no licensed restaurants. anthem was not played at Twickenham cent. In the early 1950s 40 per cent of The economic signals, too, were until 1968, or in Paris until 1971. grammar school children went into jobs mixed. It was in 1955 that Wales saw its Affluence, consumerism, and a new with limited prospects. In the so-called lowest ever level of unemployment – 1.4 youth culture resulted in the paradox of summer of love in 1969, 93 per cent of per cent – and it is chastening to read an individualism that expressed itself in Welsh births were legitimate. Cardiff was that in 1962 male manual wages were a largely homogenised marketplace. You proposed as capital by the vast majority higher in Wales than in any other part of would be hard-pressed to distinguish any of Welsh local authorities. The village the UK except the south and Midlands. Welsh high street from that in any English defence committee opposing Tryweryn The average weekly wage was 30 shillings town. Johnes strictures about the way was run by outsiders because of a lack of higher than in Scotland. At the same time, 1960s planning ignored social needs and volunteers within the community. More of the 270 branch factories that opened sowed the seeds of future calamity could pits were closed in the 1950s than in the in Wales between 1945 and 196o, 46 per be written about any place in Britain. decade after the 1984 strike. cent had gone by 1965. In the main it was Welsh topography Neither is it a detailed political history. There was also a dark side to the that saved us from the blight of high rise This is not the place to come looking 1950s, the data reminding the reader of developments. for the minutiae of political debate and how much life in Wales has improved in The irony is that a sense of Welsh detail of the dramatis personae. At times it subsequent years. During the decade 823 identity grew in part as a resistance to is frustratingly de-personalised. Mention men were killed in Welsh mines. Rural this homogeneity, and became more is made of “a professor of industrial unemployment was worse than in urban politicised even as public disillusion relations, a school teacher and a naval areas. In 1956 40 per cent of Welsh farms with the effectiveness of government officer” being elected in Cardiff in 1945,

the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 81 8/Culture / reviews without mentioning that they were Hilary ‘The best sort of crank’ snippets, spiky reviews and general aggro, Marquand, George Thomas and James M. Wynn Thomas was always happy to start a textual riot. No Callaghan. Johnes refers to the Archbishop wonder the piece by Dylan Thomas that of Wales pleading with Willie Whitelaw fronted its opening number was entitled over the creation of a Welsh television ‘Prologue to an Adventure’. channel, but not that he went with two Skilled at turning sacred cows into others, Sir Goronwy Daniel and Cledwyn minced meat, Rhys produced marginal Hughes. The most important study of the comments, manifestoes and editorials that first decade of devolution, the Richard still make for entertaining reading. ”British Commission, is nowhere mentioned by culture,” he grandly announces, “is a fact, name, merely referred to obliquely, “In but the English contribution to it is very 2004 one inquiry noted….” small… There is actually no such thing as Martin Johnes has written a ‘English’ culture; a few individuals may be meticulously informed account of our highly cultured but the people as a whole recent history, founded on prodigious are crass.” data, and refreshingly enriched by the An eccentric nationalist, he had a ‘evidence’ of poets and novelists. It is a wicked eye for the wilder reaches of healthy corrective to idealised narratives of anti-Welsh prejudice: “...the Welsh are Welsh progress, although perhaps a milder a nation of toughs, rogues, and poetic one than he may have intended. Johnes humbugs, vivid in their speech, impulsive acknowledges that the National Assembly in behaviour, and riddled with a sly and may have been, in large part, a creation Keidrych Rhys: The Van Pool belligerent tribalism” (V. S. Pritchett, The of Welsh civil society, but it has written Ed. Charles Mundaye New Statesman). itself into the narrative of the lives of Seren, 2012, £12.99 But behind the calculated bombast and Welsh people with remarkable speed and the outrageous assertions lay a shrewd, thoroughness. Yet the British component calculating mind, an ability to spot genuine of Welsh identity is undeniable but still The name William Ronald Rees Jones creative potential, and a readiness to unmeasurable. It is impossible to gauge doesn’t have the swagger of ‘Keidrych encourage it. Hospitable to Dylan Thomas, what balance of emotion and pragmatism Rhys’, and in its prime the career of this Glyn Jones, Rhys Davies, Idris Davies, it encompasses. raffish drifter (1913-1987) was rarely short Vernon Watkins, Lynette Roberts, Margiad You might even say the same about on swagger. Self-promoting, he was an Evans and others, his Wales provided a the crowds in London’s Mall during the impresario of genius, circus barker and platform for the young Emyr Humphreys, Jubilee weekend. Was it a personal tribute ringmaster of a generation of striking talent R. S. Thomas (whose first collection,The to a monarch? Was it a need to party in – the thirties generation of Dylan Thomas Stones of the Field, was published by his the depths of recession? Was it a pavlovian and his contemporaries. His greatest Druid Press) and ‘Davies Aberpennar’. response to an overwhelming media invention proved not to be himself but the Welsh-language writers such as R. and marketing barrage, a high mass of ‘Anglo-Welsh brand’ as he set out to create Williams Parry, Gwenallt, Alun Llywelyn Britishness with the BBC as celebrant, or a modernist aesthetic distinctively Welsh, Williams and Aneirin Talfan Davies were was it a real display of British patriotism? but resolutely anglophone. also featured alongside Hugh MacDiarmid, And if so how deep was it? Could it have Wales, the brash, in-your-face Norman Macleod, George Barker, James been as superficial as the perceived ‘house journal’ he established in 1937 Findlay Hendry – and Kafka. Even ‘republican moment’ at the time of encouraged a group of disparate today, it can seem like a heady mix, a Princess Diana’s death, and as fleeting? writers to establish themselves as a magical crucible of creativity. And Rhys’s Beware people who believe they know. groundbreaking cultural collective. It also exceptional gifts as literary midwife were aggressively ‘sold’ its individual talents also manifest in a number of important to a metropolitan London market that poetic anthologies he proceeded to edit. Rhys affected to despise, even as he Charles Mundaye may well be the frequented the bohemian haunts of Soho first scholar to have patiently untangled and Fitzrovia. Taking its cue both from the skein of Rhys’s self-mythologising. the loudly opinionated Little Magazines Particularly concerned to rehabilitate of the Modernist movement and cutting- his subject’s poetic reputation, Mundaye Geraint Talfan Davies is Chair edge journals like Life and Letters Today, correctly sees the uncovering of new, of the IWA. Wales, with its penchant for controversial accurate biographical facts as contributing

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to the process of taking his life and creative at all.” Alternating with his desultory records of work more seriously. We learn not only of Was Thomas right? Was Rhys only wartime service, the home front poems the bizarre episode when Rhys, short of a wannabe poet, a ‘period’ curiosity? (“Differences between home and bare cash, was arrested for menacing women Mundaye believes not, arguing cogently barrackroom”) are interesting historical with a gun, but also of his probable for the humanity of wartime poems documents (to be set alongside the nervous breakdown and his curious characterised by “clear-sightedness and work of Alun Lewis, Lynette Roberts and relationship with the ‘progressive army journalistic currency”, appreciating his Brenda Chamberlain) of a period when psychiatric hospital’ in south Birmingham. experimentalism, commending “his Wales struggled to resolve its position in a world at war. In grimly no-nonsense poems like Death of a Hurricane Pilot he But what of his poetry? “The best sort of crank,” brutally elegizes mangled young flesh: was Dylan Thomas’s characteristically dismissive “Whole scalp attached to a Comper Piccadilly helmet”. As for his copious verdict on a man he also cruelly characterised as experimentalism, it is altogether too consciously kin to the appreciably superior “a turnip” and as, “consciously queer and talking work of Dylan Thomas, David Jones, little magazines until the air was reeking full of Lynette Roberts and Glyn Jones. Largely deaf, it seems, to rhythm, Rhys was names and nonsense.” inclined to modishly court the obscure and to strain for effect. But while I remain reluctantly And in Rhys’ personal appropriation engagements with myth and legend”, and unpersuaded of Rhys’s notable gifts as a of the name of his natal Carmarthenshire approving of “his committed investment poet, this admirable annotated edition valley (the Ceidrych), Mundaye in the poetry of the natural world”. He of poems published, uncollected, and persuasively perceives an attempt ends by proposing that Rhys significantly unpublished has significantly altered my to ‘ground’ his complex, conflicted “continued a distinct Anglo-Welsh poetic estimation of his career, stimulating a personality on his own terms. Alienated tradition”. wish to explore perspectives unexamined from the stuffy chapel background of Whereas Mundaye is a steady admirer in the introduction – Rhys’s interest in his background, Rhys was nevertheless of Rhys’s poetry, I can summon up only the Welsh-language literary renaissance devoted to the cultural and political an intermittent interest, and that primarily and promotion of inter-cultural relations; liberation of a Wales whose legacy of for verbal collages such as the following, his eccentric nationalist activism and myth excited his modernist, experimental where he assembles phrases to form a admiration for Saunders Lewis (“Fire was imagination and whose economically striking textual landscape: forced on the three” was his verdict on depressed social condition angered him. the 1936 Penyberth episode in The Fire One outcome of Mundaye’s excellent, Long tails sheared; highland blood easy in Sermon or Bureaucracy Burned); and the measured introduction is that it challenges red paint pools. links between Wales and its progressive future scholars of Welsh Writing in The butting dog linked in the barn, old Welsh-language counterpart, Tir Newydd. English to revalue Rhys. He emerges veteran; a bantam pecks In these as well as other respects, from this sympathetic revisionist study as At the big morning fowls’ corn leavings; the his now appears to have been a much a compelling example of the confused, yard’s a little more complex and compelling case than dislocated, but creatively fruitful, cultural Smeared with fluid; I had supposed. Dylan Thomas seems condition of Anglophone Wales in his time. after all to have captured the enigma that But what of his poetry? “The best I also respond to the sharp shards of was Keidrych Rhys very precisely (albeit sort of crank,” was Dylan Thomas’s phrasing – a technique partly borrowed unintentionally) when he described him as characteristically dismissive verdict on a from the Welsh ‘englyn’ – that serve “the best sort of crank”. man he also cruelly characterised as “a to capture the heightened, febrile turnip” and as, “consciously queer and atmosphere of wartime experiences: talking little magazines until the air was Professor M. Wynn Thomas is Director reeking full of names and nonsense.” He’d Sun comes gleaming of the Centre for Research into the English been banned from the Rhys household thru wall window Literature and Language of Wales at by Lynette Roberts (Rhys’s wife), Thomas of ice-barred temple Swansea University and is Chair of the added, “because I tell him bad things punishment enough Welsh Books Council. about poetry, such as that his isn’t poetry

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Our shared web Egyptian antiquities collections now known blood on one side of her family. That is when of interconnected as the Egypt Centre in the university. She was she moved to Britain. In 1938 her cousin Eva European lives the author of novels, short stories and several Monika came home from school to find that Ned Thomas works of non-fiction in Welsh. They had two her mother Eva (Kate’s aunt) had hanged sons, each of whom has left his mark on Welsh herself. She was married to an officer in the society: Heini, the author of this volume, German army who had been told he would through his indefatigable work for the Welsh receive no promotion while he was married schools movement and the teaching of Welsh to a Jew and that their children would be to adults; and Robat, founder of Y Lolfa, the considered Jews unless they divorced. Eva publishers of this volume. Monika believes that her mother killed herself But the present volume, though it provides to save her family. a lively picture of the young Kate after she Kate’s father too lost his job at the hospital arrived in Britain, is mainly concerned with and was invited to divorce his wife, which he the family she left behind in Germany. Its title refused to do. He managed to set up a private translates as ‘the persecution’ and it is a tragic clinic and it seems that the Gestapo were long story, and all the more frightening because it unwilling to move against him because of the shows Nazism at work not only in the monstrous respect he enjoyed in the local community. spectacle of the trains carrying millions to the But their chance came after the unsuccessful camps, but in the seeming normality of the life bomb plot against Hitler in 1944. The Bosse of the small town of Wittenberg. Kate’s father, family had no connection whatsoever with Dr Bosse, was a well-respected doctor in the the plot or with the von Stauffenberg circle, local hospital and became known more widely but the event offered a pretext to arrest Kate’s for his treatment of patients after an accident in parents. Her mother was sent to the notorious Yr Erlid the local explosives factory killed 120 workers women’s prison camp at Ravensbrück where Heini Gruffudd and badly burnt others. Hitler visited the she died in dreadful conditions. Her father Y Lolfa, 2012, £12.95 hospital at that time and accompanied Dr Bosse survived the war but died soon after. on his rounds. There is a photograph of them These are just Kate’s immediate family together in the book. and the most dramatic events. The book This is the story of Kate Bosse and her family. Kate’s mother, however, came from a covers more ground including the story of She came to Britain as a refugee from Jewish family and was Jewish by blood but her mother’s second cousin Kurt Ledien who Nazi Germany in October 1937, a brilliant not by religion. Two generations earlier, was drawn into the student underground young Egyptologist who while working at the family had converted to Lutheran resistance to Hitler, arrested and executed at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford met a Protestantism. Wittenberg, of course, is the the very end of the war. And the story does young Welsh student of the same subject, J. town most closely associated with Martin not end with the war since Wittenberg passed Gwyn Griffiths, the son of a Nonconformist Luther whose sickeningly anti-semitic writings into the Soviet zone which presented surviving minister. Had they not married soon before were used by the Nazis in their campaigns members of the family with new problems. the outbreak of war, Kate, as a German citizen, against Jews. In the 1930s leading Lutheran Heini Gruffudd has handled a far-flung would almost certainly have been interned. bishops joined the National Socialist Party story and a mass of documentation with a Instead, she and her husband moved to and it was during this period that the town proper balance of personal involvement and the Rhondda where she learnt Welsh and was renamed Lutherstadt Wittenberg. Heini objective distance. History is viewed close was soon active, alongside her husband, in Gruffudd makes us aware of all this. Neither up as a complex web of interconnected nationalist, pacifist and literary circles. On the does he overlook the irony that the Welsh individual lives which in this case span evidence of this volume, Kate Bosse-Griffiths Nonconformist culture which welcomed Kate more than one country. It makes us aware was the organising force behind the Cadwgan acknowledged its debt to Luther and sang his of a shared European history in which an literary circle which met in the Rhondda hymns in chapel. experience of terrible loss in one place during the war years, one Kate’s mother’s family were as assimilated nevertheless in time is turned to social gain of whose most celebrated members, into German society as it was possible to be in another. Pennar Davies, in 1943 married another and at quite a high social level. They were German refugee. patriotic Germans during and after the First After a period in Y Bala where Kate World War, but once the Nazi party came to Ned Thomas spent part of his childhood helped German prisoners of war interned power the net began to close around them. In in the ruins of post-war Germany, an there, the couple moved to Swansea where 1937 Kate lost her first job as an Egyptologist experience described in his recent memoir J. Gwyn Griffiths became Professor of at the Berlin State Museum when a colleague Bydoedd, Welsh-language book of the Egyptology, and Kate became curator of the drew the authorities’ attention to the Jewish year 2011.

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Wide-eyed love of a Welsh dissimilar has been exemplified, interpreted Armenian and Welsh. A requiem for the pilgrim for Armenia and parabled in endless ways. This is less a souls of the victims of the Genocide was Mike Joseph matter of credit than shame to humanity. chanted... In the background the Turkish The exhortation is universal because at all genocide-deniers attempted to drown the times and in all places, human empathy beautiful singing by monotonously (and has been severely lacking. In his Welsh shamelessly) shouting ‘Shame on you!’” discovery of Armenia Canon Patrick Thomas A year later on the eve of Holocaust gives us just such a parable of empathy Memorial Day, the khatchkar was attacked between “two small mountainous countries and shattered. What you see today is a at either end of what was once regarded newly-made khatchkar on the original as Christendom”. Bishop Hovhanessian, design, and also – and this is the memorial’s Armenian Primate of Britain and Ireland unique testimony – pieces of the first in his introduction praises “a harmonious shattered khatchkar are set in concrete tale of two thousand years of Christian in the ground, witness to the genocide- testimony and witnessing of these two deniers’ aim to destroy memory. nations”. Alongside, the Archbishop of How this century-old memory has Canterbury Rowan Williams writes of this come to occupy a corner of the Welsh “love affair with Armenia”. capital is a story that even pre-dates the That such a modest and quietly written Armenian Genocide. Thomas relates how book attracts forewords by an Archbishop Armenia, at the crossroads of Europe and a Primate suggests there is perhaps and Asia, has been on the receiving end more here than meets the eye. The result of invasions and occupation from every From Carmarthen to Karabagh - of six years of repeated visits – Thomas direction. In 1878, war between the a Welsh discovery of Armenia calls them pilgrimages – to Armenia and Russian and Ottoman empires had resulted Patrick Thomas the neighbouring Armenian enclave of in Armenians finding themselves under Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2012, £7.50 Nagorno-Karabagh, From Carmarthen Russian protective occupation. to Karabagh delivers in under 200 pages Britain under Disraeli objected to

On 28 August 1963, Rabbi Joachim Prinz addressed a huge civil rights demonstration In a quiet corner of Cathays Park, protected by trees in the heart of Washington: “Our fathers and shrubs from the traffic of North Road, stands taught us thousands of years ago that when God created man, he created him as one of the most eloquent memorials to genocide you everybody’s neighbour. Neighbour is not will find. It is a khatchkar, an Armenian stone cross, a geographic term. It is a moral concept. It means our collective responsibility for the incorporating elements of the Celtic cross. preservation of man’s dignity and integrity”. Stirring as his speech was, Prinz had the misfortune to be instantly upstaged by the a survey and introduction to Armenian Russian expansion, and secretly negotiated next speaker at the podium – the Reverend pre-history and history, myth and legend, with Constantinople to secure Russian Martin Luther King, who delivered one of religion, spirituality and culture, and withdrawal from western Armenia in return the century’s great moments of oratory: “I inevitably and unavoidably, the genocide of for taking control of Cyprus (and hence have a dream”. 1915 whose traumatic consequences echo the Suez Canal) from the Ottoman Empire. But Rabbi Prinz had spoken on his to this day. Armenia would now be at the mercy of theme for many years. Nearly thirty years That might be thought sufficient for one Ottoman rule, and the Sultan was earlier, as a Rabbi in Berlin before a hasty slim volume, but Thomas does more. As emigration to the USA, he had addressed his subtitle announces, this is specifically “…free to act towards his Armenian a Jewish community meeting in Leipzig. a Welsh discovery of Armenia. In that, subjects in whatever way took his Germany wanted the Jews out, and those Thomas follows a well-worn Welsh path. fancy... he instigated the systematic who had thought themselves German were In a quiet corner of Cathays Park, slaughter of Armenians... estimated now forced to realise that they were Jews. protected by trees and shrubs from the at between 100,000 and 200,000. In ten years, he said prophetically, Germany traffic of North Road, stands one of the Gladstone, Disraeli’s old opponent, would have very few Jews. “To live, one most eloquent memorials to genocide you was horrified. The 86-year-old former needs food and water, but also neighbours”. will find. It is a khatchkar, an Armenian Prime Minister gave his last great The exhortation to love thy neighbour stone cross, incorporating elements of the speech in September 1896 eloquently is universal in human religion and culture. Celtic cross. Patrick Thomas describes how condemning the savagery of the The ideal of empathy between the in 2007, “it was dedicated with prayers in ‘Red Sultan’. When Gladstone died

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two years later, grateful Armenian destroy and wipe out of existence the themes that link the two nations. He shares merchants from Manchester paid for Armenians in Turkey”. moments from his travels in Armenia when, his tomb and a stained-glass memorial Nearly a century later, the official far from home, he suddenly finds himself window in St Deiniol’s Church, institution of Holocaust Memorial Day, and feeling powerfully reminded of home. Hawarden.” the British Government’s simultaneous He draws parallels but he also highlights refusal to admit the Armenian Genocide to contrasts. Yr Wyddfa is a symbol of Wales, So began Wales’ active engagement with officially-sanctioned memory, crystallised as Ararat is of Armenia. But although the the politics of Anatolia. Nineteen years later, Welsh responses in a series of acts of Welsh mountain can be a place of hiraeth, it was a Welsh MP, Aneurin Williams (great- recognition: by Members of the Assembly, it is not a sacred icon of global significance, grandson of Iolo Morgannwg) who brought by First Minister Rhodri Morgan and by the as Ararat is to Armenia. concern about new massacres khatchkar on Assembly-owned public land Like Armenia, Wales has survived to parliament: at the Temple of Peace. Thomas writes: against the odds; but the odds against Armenian survival have been on a different “We are in the presence of the greatest “There are many things that make scale of human suffering. Yma o hyd. massacre probably that the world has a person proud to be Welsh... The In the excitement of discovery, it can be ever known. Therefore it behoves Armenian Genocide happened. Even challenging to strike the right note. Canon us… to make every sacrifice and if the British Government is still too Patrick Thomas largely succeeds. This is an put forward every effort to relieve… obsessed by fear of upsetting Turkey to account of the love of a Welsh pilgrim for suffering, and to save some thousands recognise this truth, we in Wales have Armenia, a love which is wide-eyed, rather from death that must still occur…” not shied away from it.” than blind.

Williams brought news and evidence The political agenda that has linked Wales of the genocide to parliament as it was and Armenia for over a century is well- being perpetrated, and secured formal established, but this book is not a political Mike Joseph is a journalist and Ministerial recognition of the Ottoman’s tract. Rather, Thomas gives us a reflective broadcaster, working on a history of “long-considered, deliberate policy to interweaving of spiritual and cultural genocide, memory and denial. Last word

Wandering around a national conversation Peter Stead

An old acquaintance of mine, the historian National Eisteddfod it occurred to me that wondered whether the BBC had set out to Lord Hennessy, was recently a guest on Radio to cater for the entire population of Wales divert us from new realities. I must confess 3’s Essential Classics. When asked how he was we need a festival that takes on features of that there have been days when the progress going to spend the summer he explained that both events and thus become the occasion of the Olympic Torch has brought tears to he would taking the time to promote his latest for a truly national conversation. Such an my eyes but I do not begin to understand its book at various book festivals, adding that he event could only be held in Cardiff. We were significance nor why it has been reported on loved them because of the size and enthusiasm all riled by Reith lecturer Niall Ferguson’s so seriously. Have we been all expecting a of their audiences and the intelligence of their stupid observation that he always thought miracle to happen: the wounded to be made questions. As he put it, “They have become of Wales as ‘Scotland lite’ - to which I whole, a dove to appear? The infamous our national conversation”. replied that I thought of Scotland as ‘Wales Regatta transmission was one long tweet. I’m keenly attracted to this notion of a tight’. Nonetheless, I have always envied For hours this summer we have had to listen ‘national conversation’. We will experience a Scotland’s Edinburgh Festival. To be in to sports pundits. Euro 2012 revealed both version of this phenomenon at the National Edinburgh at Festival time is to experience the mediocrity of British football and British Eisteddfod where, as we all know, the myriad a fabulous festival of music, drama, film, pundits, the broadcasters sticking with the discussions on and around the Maes on books, comedy and art and at the same clichés of former players who speak the political, economic and cultural topics will be time a buzz of debate that allows Scotland language of ordinary fans rather than opting of greater import than anything that happens to deeply inhale international influences. In for meaningful continental analysis. in the competitions. For one vitally important Wales we need to come together to achieve Once again Wimbledon generated section of the population of Wales this will this kind of intensity and urbanity. There hysteria. Typically, the BBC aloofly all add up to a fundamental stock-taking, a is buzz that only cities can produce and a commented on that hysteria as if they were mighty national conversation indeed. national conversation needs every sector playing no part. (‘Let’s have one more shot Earlier in the summer I experienced to be there demonstrating their worth. The of Henman Hill’). Again the foreign pundits a tremendous national conversation of a time has come to concentrate our minds. operated on a different level of analysis. different hue at one of the literary festivals Effective conversations, of course, require There were several evenings as I waited that Peter Hennessy had in mind. Once more concentration. The rise of the electronic to hear of the latest economic bad news at Hay a real sense of occasion loomed. In media has sanctioned aimless chatter. Hours when it occurred to me that the BBC treat the crowded green room one had to make of research has led me to conclude that the Wimbledon with more reverence than any one’s way around Boris Johnson and Salman public users of mobile phones have little other topic. Serena’s serve was discussed in Rushdie. Meanwhile, in the main arena Hilary to say that is important. Once we used to far more detail than anything that went on Mantel responded to excellent questions laugh at published letters from ‘Disgusted at Barclay’s Bank. This tennis tournament from Peter Florence and an audience of Tonbridge Wells’ (‘Disgusted Llandeilo’ in our has become a religious festival in which 1,700, by breathing new life into our British own national paper). Now the disgusted and young East Europeans, appropriately clad in preoccupation with the Tudors. Hay is a even the mildly amused are encouraged to baptismal white, are inducted into the English thrilling but curious creation. The vast bulk express their feelings via countless electronic way of life. At a time when ecclesiastical of the middlebrow audience hails from the means. Meanwhile, the real tragedy is that issues are being aired we could do no better arts supplement-reading suburbs whilst broadcasters and public agencies take their than make Sue Barker the first female bishop. the green room is populated by the literary tone and level of argument from precisely The current debates of the Anglican establishment of Hampstead and Bloomsbury. those messages. Their notion of a national Church constitute a classic instance of idle The Englishness of Hay, however, has conversation is dictated by the model of chatter whilst the boat sinks. So does the recently been infiltrated by our own literary ordinary chat in pubs, at bus stops and on Lib Dem emphasis on Lords Reform and establishment from the suburbs of Cardiff and mobile phones. the dangerous miasma of PR. A national the villages of the cefn gwlad. Accordingly the By any historical standard we are living in conversation needs to tackle fundamental Hay conversation is enriched and made more a dangerous and challenging era, one with issues. Someone needs to clear the throat truly British. which we have not begun to understand. and say, “now to business!” Reflecting on Hay and anticipating the At times during this strange summer I have

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new publications

Growing our woodlands in Wales The 100,000 hectare challenge

By John Osmond and Stevie Upton

This report engages with the Welsh Government’s policy to significantly increase the woodland cover across Wales from the present 14 per cent of the land area to 20 per cent by 2030. Creating new woodland offers many benefits aside from helping mitigate the impact of climate change. The new woodland will consist of mainly native trees and will provide additional wildlife habitat, improve the quality of our landscape and waters and, at the same time, create useful timber products such as fuel and wood as a raw material.

However, increasing Wales’ woodland by 100,000 hectares over 20 years presents a major challenge. It will require farmers to plant mixed deciduous and conifer woodlands across suitable parts of largely upland Wales. This will require establishing a new balance between conservation and sustainable development. We will need to weigh the benefits of maintaining existing habitats against the advantages of creating new £10 ISBN 978 1 904773 63 4 ones. In addition we will need to return to the practices of former times when woodland management was seen as a natural part of farming culture, rather than being separated from it as is generally the case today.

Leading the Dragon Lessons for Wales from the Basque Mondragon co-operative

Edited by John Osmond

The Mondragon Corporation is a federation of worker co-operatives based in the Basque Country in northern Spain. Founded in the town of Mondragon in 1956 and inspired by a Catholic priest José Ma Arizmendiarrieta, its origins were modest, beginning with a small workshop producing paraffin heaters and later a technical college. However, over the next five decades the group expanded to become a major economic player. Today it is the leading business group in the Basque Country. It one of the ten largest Spanish companies in terms of turnover, comprises 120 co-operatives, employs more than 83,000 members, has a turnover of €14 billion, has a bank and numerous research institutes, and has founded a university with some 3,600 students.

In February 1981 a Wales TUC delegation visited Mondragon and came away inspired to found the Wales Co-operative Centre. This is now 30 years old and over the past three decades has had a substantial impact on the Welsh economy. In April 2012, another Welsh group, this time including today’s Director of the Wales Co-operative Centre, returned to Mondragon to witness the progress it has made and to see what new £10 ISBN 978 1 904773 64 1 directions might be possible. Informed by the visit, but focusing on the realities of Welsh experience, this publication suggests some developments that could further embed co- operative ideas in Welsh policy-making.

To order a copy, contact: IWA, 4 Cathedral Road, Cardiff, CF11 9LJ | Tel: 029 2066 0820 or buy online at www.iwa.org.uk (IWA members can purchase publications at a 25 per cent discount)