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+ Richard Wyn Jones Devolution’s unfinished business John Osmond Theodore Huckle and a Welsh jurisdiction Emrys Roberts Elystan Morgan’s tryst with John Borkowski and Angus Walker Wales should join with West on airport Sacred landscape and sustainable development Zoë Harcombe The obesity epidemic Katie Harris Human trafficking on our streets Peter Jones Why a barrage is a step too far Gareth Rees Edging Cultural apartheid on the airwaves Karen Owen When was the print the estuary capital of Wales Trevor Fishlock A hole in our national trouser Nigel Jenkins In the footsteps of Y Gododdin

www.iwa.org.uk | Spring 2013 | No. 49 | £8.99 The Institute of Welsh Affairs gratefully acknowledges funding support from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Waterloo Foundation.

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the welsh The Welsh Editor: John Osmond connectivity challenge Associate Editors: Geraint Talfan Davies Rhys David Tolstoy’s famous opening to his novel flooding. Our main motorway passes through Anna Karenin “All happy families are alike a pinch point at the Brynglas tunnels where Literary Editor: Peter Finch but an unhappy family is unhappy after its in recent years we have more than once own fashion” could equally apply to the experienced an incident that has brought the Administration: Helen Sims-Coomber lives of nations. “All successful economies entire southern economy to a shuddering halt. are alike but an unsuccessful economy is As for air travel, most of us have no option but Design: [email protected] unsuccessful after its own fashion,” we might to travel to farflung Heathrow and Gatwick for say. The modern Welsh economy is certainly our long haul connections. To advertise, tel: 029 2066 0820 unsuccessful. Not only are we the worst It is apposite, therefore, that this issue The publisher acknowledges the performing economic region within the UK of highlights two schemes financial support of the Welsh the welsh agenda Books Council. in terms of GVA per head, but we are close to being promoted by the IWA that have Institute of Welsh Affairs the bottom of the EU prosperity league tables. the potential to transform this picture of a 4 Cathedral Road What is distinctive about us that can provide languishing back water. At first sight both Cardiff CF11 9LJ an explanation? might seem so big and ambitious as to be Tel: 029 2066 0820 A number of reasons come to mind. unattainable. Our latest offering, explored Email: [email protected] www.iwa.org.uk Nearly 200 years ago we were at the cutting on page 36, is for a new international airport edge of the world’s first industrial revolution to serve the whole of southwest Britain, but The IWA is a non-aligned independent think-tank and research institute. and in a profound sense have never got over located along the Severn between Newport Members (annual subscription £40) it. The inheritance of that pioneering growth and . It might seem churlish to be receive agenda three times a year, can purchase reports at a 25 per cent of mining and and steelmaking is putting forward such a notion at the very time reduction, and receive discounts when still with us, but in largely negative ways. The the is in the process of attending IWA events. wealth was removed and all we have left, acquiring ownership of Cardiff airport. Yet, Branches apart from , are a few heritage sites, as the authors of the proposal point out, the North Wales Secretariat albeit that some are world-class. The zenith of two are perfectly compatible. Indeed, public c/o Huw Lewis 6 Maes yr Haul, Mold, Welsh prosperity occurred a century ago in ownership of Cardiff airport makes a new Flintshire CH7 1NS the Edwardian years leading to World War 1. airport on Severnside more feasible. Tel: 01352 758311 It is no coincidence that the period also saw Elsewhere we devote a good deal of Secretariat the creation of and our first era attention to another scheme which has the c/o Chris O’Malley University of Wales, Newport, of nation building, with the founding of the potential to transform the prospects of the Campus National Museum, National Library, and the Welsh economy, a Metro for the Cardiff PO Box 179, Newport NP18 3YG University of Wales. City region. We first published detailed Tel: 01633 432005 What was also distinctive about Wales in proposals for this enterprise two years ago West Wales Secretariat c/o Margaret Davies those times was how connected it was, both and it is remarkable how swiftly it has entered Principal’s Office, internally and with the wider world. In 1913 mainstream thinking. It is the subject of a task Trinity University College, it was possible to travel from any substantial force that will shortly report to Economics Carmarthen SA31 3EP settlement within Wales to any other by the Minister Edwina Hart who has recently, and Tel: 01267 237971 appropriately, had transport responsibilities Swansea Bay Secretariat most importance mode of travel of the day, c/o Delith Thorpe the railways. As far as the outside world was added to her portfolio. At Welsh Labour’s 38 Southlands Drive, concerned Cardiff was linked to every other Spring conference in Llandudno she Swansea SA3 5RA coastal city by ships that carried Welsh pronounced that the scheme was receiving Tel: 01792 404315 her positive attention. Cardiff and Valleys Secretariat steam coal across the globe. c/o Emma Bremman Since then, however, the decline in our In our featured articles on this topic (pages 4 Cathedral Road, communications has been so steep that we 10-16) Professor Calvin Jones, of Cardiff Cardiff CF11 9LJ can make claim to be the most disconnected Business School, says that achieving a Cardiff Tel: 029 2066 0820 Metro will not be a panacea for the Welsh IWA Women part of the British Isles. It takes four hours to c/o Kirsty Davies travel from north to by a train economy. But as he also says, “If we build it, [email protected] that passes through England for much of the and build it well, we will tell the world we Tel: 07900 692898 journey. By road it takes nearer five hours. care about things. About the climate, yes, but Wales in also about the importance of distinctive place, c/o Robert John As for our links to the outside world they are First Base, 22 Ganton Street, precarious. Our main railway in the south about our less advantaged residents and London W1F 7BY passes through a tunnel that is prone to about actively planning for a positive future.” Tel: 020 7851 5521

the welsh agenda spring 2013—issue 49 | 1 Contents

32. Economic opportunity rather than rights Agenda 49 1 critical for language 4

Spring 2013 Changing Union survival Education Cover: Head seen from the Harold Carter and John Barrage. Photo: Peter Finch 18. Welsh devolution’s Aitchison find there are now 48. Heads of the Valleys unfinished business more Welsh speakers in education poverty gap Richard Wyn Jones Cardiff than in the whole of Lizzie Swaffield, David gives an overview of the , Gwynedd and Egan and Danny Saunders Changing Union project’s Ynys Môn report on an initiative to evidence to the Silk improve school attainment Commission in Merthyr and 21. Theodore Huckle’s case for a Welsh 3 jurisdiction Economy John Osmond meets a gradualist occupying the 36. Wales and West forward trenches in the should join forces battle for devolution on airport John Borkowski and Angus Walker suggest a radical 50. All we need is English solution to the Welsh air n’est-ce pas? connectivity deficit Ceri James reveals that Wales has the shortest a 2 39. Sacred landscape period of compulsory foreign Politics and Sustainable language learning in Europe Development Cynog Dafis argues that a 24. Making Wales open circle can be squared on for business green growth Geraint Talfan Davies 5 reports on an IWA seminar Capital Focus Health that questioned the Welsh 42. Putting Cardiff at the predilection for public sector heart of the Welsh 52. The obesity epidemic 4.  Essay solutions economy Zoë Harcombe asks how Where minorities meet explains why many more people will in the heart of Europe NATIONALIST POLITICS the centre of the Welsh become overweight before Andy Bevan describes an IN THE 1960s Capital warrants the creation we cut back on processed Alpine journey in search of 27. Elystan Morgan’s of an Enterprise Zone carbohydrate foods high hidden cultures tryst with Wales on fructose Emrys Roberts engages 45. The other side 8. News with the memoirs of a key of the tracks 56. Lifestyle change figure in 20th Century Tony Grist believes the versus medication 10. Outlook Welsh politics future redevelopment of Judy Hutchings says A Metro for the Cardiff Central Station behaviour change Cardiff City region 30. The real story behind could be used to unite a should be a goal for all –Mark Barry Tryweryn and the divided city professionals working with –Jonathan Adams Investiture patterns of behaviour that –Calvin Jones J. Graham Jones praises contribute to illness –James Brown an account of physical-force –Henk Broekema

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

Newsflash

• Wales: a sustainable food nation In association with Cardiff University, Cynnal Cymru, Soil Association, Cardiff County Council, Public health Wales, 6 9 Welsh Local Government Association Tues 4 June 2013, 9am to 4pm, , Social Policy Culture Cardiff University Bringing together representatives from all key sectors, the event 58. Slavery still current in 72. Fishlock’s File will explore the obstacles and opportunities for action, showcase 21st Century Wales Word slingers who can innovation and promote a new level collaboration on healthy and sustainable food, from national policy to local practice. Katie Harris investigates the make a corgi laugh Keynote Speakers: Jonathan Porritt, Forum for the Future; extent of human trafficking Trevor Fishlock says a hole Zoë Harcombe, author The Obesity Epidemic; Professor Kevin on our streets in our national trouser Morgan, Cardiff University; Eryl Powell, Cardiff Food Council; Peter Davies, Sustainable Development Commissioner for Wales; needs mending Tom Andrews, Soil Association. £70 (£56 IWA Members) 74. Edging the estuary Peter Finch reports from a • IWA Coffee Shop Debate @Chapter Tuesday 4 June 2013, 6.30pm to 7.30pm, 7 place where there is enough Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff Environment water to drown us all Restoring Our Wildlife With Katie-jo Luxton, Director, RSPB Cymru (Entry free)

60. Food co-ops tick 78. In the footsteps of • IWA Inspire Wales Awards 2013 right boxes Y Gododdin In association with the Western Mail Richard Reast on a down- Nigel Jenkins looks back at Tuesday 18 June 2013, 7.00pm - Midnight, City Hall, Cardiff to-earth scheme helping to the life of poet, translator and An evening recognizing achievers in the fields of business, education, science and technology, arts, media, and creative put One-Planet Wales’ on literary critic Tony Conran industries, environment, citizenship, Welsh in the work place, the map global Wales, youth activities and sport. £55 (£50 IWA members) 62. Why a barrage is 80. Reviews Table of 10 - £500 (£475 IWA members) Prices exclude VAT. a step too far for A man of superior parts • IWA Coffee Shop Debate @Chapter the Severn Peter Stead Wednesday 19 June 2013, 6.30pm to 7.30pm Peter Jones advocates  Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff Why Fathers should stand up for their daughters How yr Wyddfa enters exploring renewable IWA Women celebrate ‘Fathers’ Day’ (Entry free) projects compatible with the soul the protection of wildlife Bethan Gwanas • Education for a co-operative Wales in the estuary In association with The Co-operative Cymru/Wales Friday 28 June 2013, 9am to 4pm, SWALEC Stadium, Cardiff Lyrics that riddle our This conference explores the benefits that co-operative principles consciousness and practice can bring to the Welsh education system. Co-operative Susie Wild schools in England have more than doubled to 405 over the past year, and many more are considering adopting the co-operative

model. So far, however, the movement has yet to spread to Wales. 8 Stuck in Splott Keynote Speakers: Dave Boston, Chief Executive, Co-operative Communications Peter Finch Schools Society; Hugh Donnelly, Director, the Co-operative Education Trust, Scotland; Professor Andrew Davies, Chair Co-operative Commission; Professor Dave Egan, Heads of the 66. What Wales can do Cultural apartheid Valleys Education Programme. on the airwaves for a poet This conference is free but registration is essential via the Gareth Rees says Radio Angela Graham IWA website. Wales smacks more of a • IWA Coffee Shop Debate @Chapter British regional than a Tuesday 2 July 2013, 6.30pm to 7.30pm Welsh national channel 88. Last Word: Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff Who can pass Why pictures matter 70. When Caernarfon the toga test? With Peter Lord (Entry free) was the print capital Peter Stead of Wales Just Published Karen Owen celebrates the The Big Society in a small country mid 19th Century print and By Dan Boucher £9.99 news revolution A Cardiff City Region Metro: All rights reserved. No part of this publication transform | regeneration | connect may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, By Mark Barry £10.00 electronic, mechanical, recorded or otherwise without the permission of the publisher, the Institute of Welsh Affairs. ISSN 1464-7613 More information: www.iwa.org.uk Essay —Essay Where minorities meet a in the heart of Europe Andy Bevan describes an Alpine journey

in search of hidden cultures

For many years I’ve been interested in station for Liechtenstein. Our circular cultures ‘on the boundaries’ of the big route was completed by a two hour nation states and the major language train ride from Feldkirch, just over divides. From that point of view, the the Liechtenstein border in Austrian map of Europe which shows a simple Vorarlberg, back to Innsbruck. pattern of distinct and separate nations Good weather, glorious scenery Articles falls far short of an accurate depiction and great hospitality accompanied us of cultural and linguistic realities. In throughout. The people we met were Essay: the real world, where people live at invariably interested to spend time with village, town or community level, there this little travelling party from bilingual Where minorities is often a much more complex picture of in west Wales. Usually over meet in the heart cultural and linguistic shading, blending a (culturally specific) meal and a glass, of Europe (or overlapping) as we physically we talked about our common interests approach the politically recognised in autonomy, identity, language rights, News borders. The result is an underlying bilingualism and community-level pattern of long-established minority education policy. Outlook: languages and bilingualism, which Some of these people we had A Metro for often co-exist with complex cultural and met through our work since 1997 the Cardiff City political identities. on the European Voluntary Service region This awareness was the background programme. Others, particularly from Mark Barry to a ten-day journey our family the Ladin-speaking and Romansh undertook to South Tyrol last summer, communities of South Tyrol and Jonathan Adams combining some holiday time and Graubunden, were people I had James Brown a short study visit. Our itinerary was contacted specifically to meet during Calvin Jones Innsbruck-Bolzano-Zernez-Chur- our trip. As always, our short visit was Liechtenstein-Innsbruck. We travelled much more interesting (and the learning Henk Broekema from the Austrian Tyrol over the Brenner curve much steeper) thanks to this kind pass into South Tyrol, recognised in the of expert, well-rooted, local guidance. Italian constitution as an autonomous It may not everyone’s idea of a province. From there we travelled by summer holiday, but the trip combined train to Mals where we took the Swiss the excitement of travelling, the pleasure postbus for the one-and-a-half-hour of great landscapes, new acquaintances journey over the Ofenpass to Zernez and new resonances. And of course, all in the Romansh-speaking Engadine of us - including our ten year-old-son valley of Switzerland. Then we went - enjoyed visiting Ötzi the ice mummy by Rhaetian Railway to Chur, capital in Bolzano, the cable car ride up to of the only officially trilingual Swiss Oberbozen (1,800 metres), the excellent canton, variously called Graubunden hands-on activities at the Parc Naziunal (in German), Grigioni (Italian), and centre in Zernez and a couple of days Grischunsto (Romansh). walking in the mountains high above the From Chur it was a mere 22 Rhine valley in Liechtenstein. minutes fast train ride down the Rhine On our first day out of Innsbruck, valley to Sargans, the border train stepping off the train south from

4 | Essay

Brenner, the border crossing between Austrian Tyrol and South Tyrol, we noticed immediately the bilingual signs in Italian and German at Bolzano/Bozen station. As we strolled across the park to the Tourist Information office on Walther Platz, the place immediately felt much more Tyrolean than Italian (even though the urban area of Bolzano itself is a South Tyrolean exception in having a majority of Italian-speakers). The architecture spoke strongly of Bozen’s past. Until 1918 it was an integral part of the County of Tyrol within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Later we learned that, under Austrian rule, the overwhelmingly Italian-speaking Trentino area, the southernmost part of the old Austrian Crownland of Tyrol, was often referred to as Welschtirol. In one form or another, ‘Welsch’ has been used throughout the Germanic-speaking lands, to describe the Romance-speaking or Celtic ‘other’, just beyond. The First World War is why Bozen finds itself inside the borders of modern Italy. Under the terms of the secret Treaty of London in 1915, Italy had entered the war on the Allies’ side, on Map showing the circular journey undertaken by the Bevan family through Austria, South Tyrol, Switzerland, and the understanding that Italy would gain Liechtenstein last summer. Their journey began and ended in Innsbruck. Trentino and ‘Cisapline Tirol’ in the event of Allied victory. Immediately after the occupying powers in Austria agreed per cent of German-speakers’ votes and the ceasefire of , Italian to an accord safeguarding the rights more than 60 per cent of the Ladins’ in troops occupied the area, as far north of the German-speakers in the newly- every South Tyrol election since 1945. as Innsbruck. Their occupation of Tyrol designated unitary province of Trentino/ Between 1969 and 1972, south of the Brenner pass was confirmed South Tyrol. Widespread dissatisfaction international agreement was reached at the Treaty of St Germain in September among the German-speaking minority on a new Autonomy Statute which 1919. This was despite a petition signed in the unitary province with the way the effectively divided the Region into two in opposition by all the mayors of South accord was implemented quickly led autonomous provinces: Trentino, with Tyrol - so much for the Allies’ declared to unrest and a campaign of bombings. more than 95 per cent Italian-speakers, war aims of ‘self-determination’. After a At first these were directed against and South Tyrol, with two-thirds short period of military rule, Italy formally electricity pylons but in the late fifties German-speakers. This set the seal on annexed Trentino and South Tyrol in cost 21 lives, including four members of the present position where South Tyrol October 1920. the Befreiungsausschuss Südtirol and 15 has a wide measure of autonomy and Significantly, during the Fascist Italian soldiers and police. control over 90 per cent of the taxes period, Hitler and Mussolini agreed The Südtirolischer Volkspartei (SVP), it raises. Today it is Italy’s wealthiest that South Tyrol remain an integral part formed in 1945 by Südtirolers who province, proud of its own institutions of Italy. Mussolini pursued a policy of had specifically rejected the option of and quality of public services, including Italianisation, with significant immigration, leaving Italy to settle in the Reich, took its own rail network. With serious especially to Bolzano. German speakers command of the situation and pressed budget cuts now emanating from the were to move to the Greater Reich or else for autonomy through peaceful means. central government, and affecting all six accept Italianisation. They were helped by the fact that the of Italy’s autonomous provinces, there At the end of World War II, Italy and SVP has consistently won more than 85 is an appreciable increase in political

the welsh agenda spring 2013—issue 49 | 5 Essay friction between Bolzano and Rome. are described as Romansh-medium, South Tyrol has also had the German becomes the medium for most challenge and opportunity of dealing lessons after the primary school stage. fairly with the Ladin-speaking minority We also learnt that two of the main within its own boundaries. In South Romansh idioms, Vallader and Puter, Tyrol, Ladin has official status. Ladin- in the lower and upper Engadine speakers are represented in the respectively, are known collectively by provincial government civil service the local Romansh-speakers as Ladin. in accordance with their numbers This includes the Jauer variant of Vallader as recorded by census and there are which is spoken in the Val Müstair. special departments for Ladin culture, The other idioms, spoken further language and education. to the west, are Surmiran, Surselvan Ladin-speakers are a small minority and Sutselvan. Daniel Telli, who is the within South Tyrol – approximately professional linguist at the offices ofLia 20,000 people which is just 4 per cent Rumantscha in Chur related to us the of the total. In addition, there are complex and changing decisions in recent more than 16,000 in Trentino, where years at cantonal level concerning the Ladin also has legal status, and 7,000 budget available for the provision of in Belluno, where it does not. In a school texts in Romansh. Initial agreement referendum held in 2007 in Ladin- to pay for texts in each of the community speaking Cortina d’Ampezzo, Belluno, Ten-year-old Gethin Bevan seen boarding the postbus at idioms has, unpopularly with many there was an overwhelming majority Mal, for the journey from South Tyrol into Switzerland. Romansh-speakers, been replaced by to leave Veneto and rejoin South Tyrol. a commitment only to provide texts in This issue remains unresolved. Rumantsch Grischun, on grounds of Within the South Tyrol school Ladin Dolimiti, which aims at bridging the cost-effectiveness. system, German-speakers learn Italian, local variants. With Daniel, we reflected on the but often not well. Equally, Italian- After thre days in South Tyrol, we fact that the Bible was translated into a speakers learn German, but in many headed by train and postbus through form of Welsh in 1588 which has been cases unenthusiastically. We heard Mals im Vinschgau across the border accepted as the unified root for a literary/ that school records show that Ladin- into Switzerland’s Val Müstair and over academic standard, while dialects flourish speakers, coming from a minority the Ofenpass into the Engadine Valley. at community level. Debate in Wales language community, are keen and This is part of the canton of Graubunden continues over Cymraeg Byw and local motivated to learn both of the other where the Romansh language has dialects, as opposed to a more bookish official languages of the province and official status, alongside German (the form of standard Welsh (as in most are usually fluently trilingual. majority language) and Italian. In 2000, languages), whereas Romansh does not Ladin, descended in Alpine 36,000 people throughout Switzerland, have a widely accepted ‘standard’ form. isolation from the everyday Latin including 27,000 in Graubunden, We offered the view that the long-standing spoken in the southern Alps at the recorded Romansh as their language of existence of Welsh-medium broadcasting, end of the Roman Empire, is just one ‘best command’, while 62,000 reported publishing and education (from primary of the language communities which it as ‘regularly spoken’. There are some to tertiary level) has helped enormously to are the modern legacy of the Rhaeto- areas where it remains very strong. For address these problems in Wales. Romance language. The others are example, in the Lower Engadine valley, From Chur, we took the train to Romansh (spoken in the Swiss canton of it is ‘regularly spoken’ by 70 per cent, Sargans, on the border with Liechtenstein, Graubunden) and Friulian, which is one while in the Val Müstair it is spoken by which provided another angle on versions of the four official languages in Italy’s more than 85 per cent. of independence and the viability of easternmost and autonomous province Again, Romansh exists as a language extremely small nations. Liechtenstein of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. in five distinct ‘idioms’, with one shares a very close relationship with One of the complications facing overarching ‘created’ average version Switzerland, accepts Swiss representation campaigners who are striving to protect too, known as Rumantsch Grischun. abroad and manages without an army or and develop Ladin-speaking, is that there We discovered many parallels between its own currency. Of course, it combines is a distinct variant of Ladin in each of the the issues around bilingual schooling this with a strange and, from my point of major valleys where the language survives. in the Engadine and schools language view, anachronistic continuation of feudal There is also a relative newcomer since policy in Wales. One of the major practice in the way it designates its Head the 1980s - a ‘synthesised’ idiom, known as differences is that, even in schools which of State - in common, it has to be said,

6 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org Essay with other European states including the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Spain. At Schaan, in Liechtenstein, we had a reunion with three ex-volunteers whose European Voluntary Service placements had been in Wales. We then drove to Feldkirch, just inside Austrian Vorarlberg, to spend an evening with colleagues there. They explained that, just at the time when South Tyrol was assigned to Italy, a referendum in 1918 in Vorarlberg voted overwhelmingly to apply to join the Swiss Confederation. This was rejected by a combination of One of the many meetings the Bevan family had along the way – on this occasion with European Voluntary Service colleagues at Schaan in Liechtenstein. From left to right: Ann Bevan, Andy Bevan, Virginie Meusberger, of the French and Italian-speaking cantons. Liechtenstein National Agency for the European Voluntary Service, Sabrina Wachter, a former volunteer in Cardiff in Swiss high finance feared the costly 2004, and Matthias Bruestle, of the Netz Werk European Voluntary Service organisation. Photo: Gethin Bevan. accession of a poor relation, while the Allies felt that allowing Vorarlberg to and cultural rights, but these do not apply Alps, as the written, formally spoken and leave Austria would be too much on top in Belluno, where action to implement academic standard. Meanwhile, local of the loss of half of Tyrol. So, Vorarlberg, the 2007 referendum decision in the dialects flourish, from thePlattdeutsch with its Alemannic dialect (akin to Cortina d’Ampezzo area to re-join South areas of the north to the Alemannic areas Schwyzerdütsch) remains in Austria. Tyrol is still pending. If this is resolved in of the south. For example, on our journey, Crossing borders and taking part the near future, as Ladins hope, I would we became aware that there are quite in these interesting conversations left then expect a new push for further specificWalser variants of Alemannic me thinking of ‘national’ identity in autonomy from a pretty united South spoken in the highest Alpine valleys quite a much more fluid way. We need a Tyrol. It is interesting to see how closely widely across South Tyrol, Graubunden, broader European tolerance which Ladin communities and their political Liechtenstein and Vorarlberg. values minorities, as well as respecting leaders seek to co-operate - and often to There is, of course, a similar contrast the reality of the big language blocks. participate - in the dominant SVP, as do between standard and regional or local This contrasts starkly with the current many Italian-speaking Tyroleans as well. idioms in French, Italian, English, Welsh fixations in London (and Brussels) with In Switzerland, we encountered some and other languages. In many ways, that Border Agencies, Border Forces and similarities and some important differences. is the norm, especially with the bigger Bundesgrenzschutzen. Here, the efforts of Romansh campaigners language communities. We travelled through very different focus more clearly on linguistic and It all looks more nuanced, shaded, political and cultural landscapes within a cultural issues, within the context of a fairly multi-textured and overlapping than some small geographical area. In the abstract, close identification with Switzerland in agglomeration of separate entities on a Germany and, by extension, German- general and the canton of Graubunden simply drawn political map of Europe. speakers would most often be thought of in particular. A strong tradition of multi- And that map will keep developing, as as a big, strong power-block in European lingualism and the long-established and current events and pressures for further politics. Yet, in South Tyrol German- very developed federalism of Switzerland autonomy in places as far apart as speakers are a small linguistic minority means that Romansh campaigning presents Scotland and Catalonia make clear. within the Italian state – a minority itself differently. that has successfully established, by This trip has also led me to reflect agreement, a wide measure of political, on the relationships between standard Andy Bevan has worked on issues of financial and cultural autonomy. Probably languages and local dialects, not least inter-cultural adaptation for over 20 there is more of this to come. within the big language groups like years. He worked with VSO in London Within Italy, Ladin-speakers are German. After all, it is significant that for nine years, supporting technical an even tinier minority which inhabits Hochdeutsch is pretty universally accepted development projects in Africa and areas with a German-speaking majority throughout the German-speaking lands, providing pre-departure training for (South Tyrol) and with overwhelmingly including Germany, Austria, Alsace, skilled, community-based volunteers. In Italian-speaking majorities (Trentino and Switzerland, South Tyrol, the ‘Eastern 2000 he co-founded ICP Partneriaeth to Belluno). In two of these areas, Ladin- Cantons’ of Belgium (around Eupen) promote European Voluntary Service speakers have established certain legal and the southern slopes of the Julian activity in and from Wales.

the welsh agenda spring 2013—issue 49 | 7 News

John’s continuing resolution in the cause was transformative. In the early 1980s he edited a fortnightly magazine, ARCADE. Three years after the magazine’s demise in 1982, he edited a book of essays, Wales: The national question again - a seminal work that rekindled the devolution debate through its scope and coherence. It was natural, therefore, that he should have wanted to turn Agenda - that the IWA until then had published only fitfully - into the regular, professionally produced journal that the Welsh agenda is today. It reaches its fiftieth edition this Summer. Natural, too, that he should have made our news John Osmond analysis website clickonwales.org into a source of thoughtful and authoritative A powerful engine commentary on Welsh life. When John took on the post in 1996, he stood down from the for Welsh civil society Chairmanship of the Parliament for Wales campaign. But he exercised his influence in other ways. In 1996 Geraint Talfan Davies assesses the contribution of he edited an IWA report on how to the IWA’s first full-time Director conduct the forthcoming devolution referendum that recommended it should be held in Wales a week later than in Scotland. It was a The IWA was nearly eight years old His forceful salesmanship, not least recommendation that was adopted by before it got itself into a position to on the Eisteddfod field, has brought Government and, given the closeness be able to advertise for its first full many people into the IWA’s fold, to the of the result, it may well have been a time director. That was in 1996. The extent that our membership has grown crucial factor in getting Wales across timing was fortuitous, as one of the from around 60 to nearer 1200 during the line. applicants was John Osmond. The job his time. Our branches have extended Thankfully, John’s talents will not be and John seemed made for each other. across Wales. The number and range of lost to the IWA. I am glad to say that he Seventeen years later he is stepping our conferences has expanded, so that will continue to edit the Welsh agenda down from a position in which he has now not a month goes by without one and clickonwales.org and will doubtless made a remarkable contribution to or more IWA events. He has been a continue his trenchant commentary Welsh public life. fountain of ideas. on our public affairs. The IWA’s debt The IWA today is a very different John has always believed in the to him is huge. He has also been a animal from the one he joined, and it power of the written word. He has a powerful engine for the development is a tribute to his work and what he has long list of books to his credit, always of Welsh civil society and, I am sure we built that when the post was advertised consistent in their sense of direction for are all happy that such a contribution is this year the IWA received no less than Wales. Arguably, he has been the most not at an end. Diolch, John. 37 applications. I have to say that his influential editor in Wales over the past achievement is not a surprise to anyone 40 years, even if the circulation of his who knows of his total commitment to publications can never match those of the task and to Wales and, of course, daily newspapers. After the debacle Geraint Talfan Davies is Chair his legendary, prodigious work rate. of the 1979 devolution referendum, of the IWA.

8 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org News New generation takes charge at IWA

The IWA has appointed 37-year-old Correspondent for ITV Wales and BBC excess of £24 million. Lee Waters, currently the Director Wales producer, and since 2007 has In 2011 he was asked by the First of Sustrans Cymru, as Director. He been Director of the influential green Minister, , to be his succeeds John Osmond who is stepping transport organisation, Sustrans Cymru. representative on the cross-party Yes down after 17 years in the post. Significantly, Sustrans is one of the first campaign ahead of the referendum. In Lee Waters the IWA has found civil society organisations in Wales to He became Vice Chair of the campaign someone at the forefront of a new be on the verge of getting a Bill through organisation, led on media and generation of politically engaged the National Assembly – the Active communications, and was responsible people whose lives and careers have for working with all four parties to forge been shaped by devolution. As such his messaging for the campaign. appointment marks a generational shift Lee was brought up in the Amman for the IWA and will be part of a wider Valley and educated at Ammanford process of refreshing the organisation’s Comprehensive School and the mission in the years ahead. University of Wales, Aberystwyth where Lee has already demonstrated a he received a first class degree in powerful capacity to bring practical politics, and authored a prize-winning innovation as well as challenge into the thesis on devolution. He was also policy debate in Wales. His profound selected to be an English Speaking commitment to moving Wales forward, Union Capitol Hill Scholar and worked his understanding of Welsh politics, in the US House of Representatives in coupled with his range of experience, Washington D.C., before working for equip him well not only to continue the politicians in Wales and Westminster. work of the Institute but also to build After graduating he served as a out from the strong foundations that speechwriter and political secretary have been laid over the last quarter to Ron Davies, the Secretary of State century. As he himself says: for Wales before joining BBC Wales as a producer of the flagship breakfast “I am excited to get the opportunity to radio programme, Good Morning lead the IWA. For Wales to achieve Wales, where he helped establish the our potential we need an open and programme’s reputation for breaking self-critical culture. The IWA has political stories. In 2001 he joined a vital role to play in creating a Lee Waters the ITV Wales political unit. Over the space where ideas can collide, and course of five years he presented the solutions can be forged. Having weekly politics programme, Waterfront, played a crucial role in shaping the Travel (Wales) Bill, now going through and reported on the National Assembly creation of a law-making Assembly its committee stage. and House of Commons as a lobby for Wales, the challenge now for At Sustrans he has transformed the correspondent. the IWA is to play the role of critical profile of the organisation in Wales, For the past decade he has also friend in scrutinising the way the doubling its size in the process, and been Chair of Governors of the highly powers are used”. now with overall responsibility for regarded Barry Island Primary school. a portfolio of practical projects to He lives on the island with his wife and Lee is a former Chief Political change travel behaviour worth in two children.

the welsh agenda spring 2013—issue 49 | 9 Outlook A Metro for the Cardiff City region

The need for connectivity and the entire Valleys rail network. be an essential catalyst for a modern city Mark Barry Secondly, the concept of a Valleys Metro region economy in south Wales. has become a mainstream topic of There is now widespread agreement discussion in transport and regeneration that the Metro must be used to stimulate circles in Wales. economic regeneration as well as At last, 15 years into devolution, there improving connectivity. Schemes is an appetite to consider taking on some necessary to create an integrated ambitious infrastructure projects. The one network include: thing that has not changed over this time is the economic challenge and the need • A Valleys Circle Line to transform to stimulate the economy. This is not just the Cardiff city region’s transport A lot has happened in the two years a matter of addressing the poor GVA per geography. This will be achieved by since the IWA and the Cardiff Business capita and economic inactivity in some linking the and Merthyr lines Partnership published A Metro for Valley communities. There is also a need to allow to play a more Wales’ Capital City Region. First, a to help Cardiff compete more effectively pivotal role in the region’s economy. strong business case made by the Welsh with cities across Europe. Meanwhile, • A Cardiff Crossrail, using tram-train Government combined with a powerful the city region debate has progressed technology, to fully connect the city lobby from the business community sufficiently to enable some radical policy to the region and unlock a range of persuaded the Whitehall Department of decisions to be made. Today there is development opportunities. Transport to support the electrification widespread recognition that a modern • A Rapid Bus Transit system to address of the London to Swansea Main line public transport system - a Metro – will poor connectivity between places like

A schematic diagram illustrating the potential reach of the Metro and the connectivity it would bring.

10 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org Outlook

Merthyr and . authorities. Its remit should combine A catalyst for reshaping • A major upgrade of the Newport traditional passenger transport executive the Valley towns to Ebbw Vale line to help the responsibilities with a land and property Jonathan Adams regeneration of both towns. development capability. It would be accountable to elected representatives More generally, the Metro provides an from the National Assembly and local opportunity to rethink the role of some authorities. Its task will be to develop of our towns and communities across the and deliver the Metro. It will need to Valleys. By providing the connectivity, engage the private sector to facilitate Metro stations can themselves development and regeneration at become catalysts for regeneration and locations across the network. development. It is also vital that the Creation of such an organisation unique role contributed by Cardiff and will be critical to the success of the Above all else The Valleys Metro is its city centre is incorporated into Metro Metro project. But success will bring concerned with the future prosperity of thinking. This is the part of the region that great rewards: communities living in the south Wales must attract and nurture the high value coalfield region. Our 15 post-devolution knowledge businesses that are common • Reduction in travel times for years have seen a steady divergence of in successful city regions across the world, commuters, especially in the Heads GVA per head between Wales and the rest but are under-represented in Cardiff. of the Valleys. It will give employers a of the UK. The continuing decline of the Delivery of these ambitious proposals larger pool of labour, reduce churn in economy and of average living standards over 10 to 15 years will require an recruitment and improve staff retention. in the coalfield region vastly occludes investment of around £1.5 billion. Such a • Regeneration through increased any growth south of the motorway. Every programme, aligned with other measures, footfall at stations across the network. conceivable quick fix has been attempted, will have a major impact on the economic Early identification of this impact will and none has changed the trajectory of fortunes and capacity of the region. alert prospective developers and unmanaged change. Aside from the Metro, better links to landowners to the opportunities and Ex-colliery communities have declined Heathrow and London are also required, drive private sector investment. across Britain, but the predicament of the not least to counter the impact of the • Much greater use of public transport, is not replicated High Speed 2 rail link that will bring reducing the number of car journeys elsewhere. In the English Midlands, south places like and Leeds within and pressure on the roads. If it is Yorkshire, Northumberland, Cumbria, 80 minutes of London. Electrification accompanied by road congestion Ayrshire or Fife the disappearance of the must be the first step of a programme charges the Metro has the potential of industry has left small voids. Only in south that turns the Great Western Main Line reducing the number of car journeys Wales has it left a social and economic into a quasi-high speed track so that by up to 50 per cent. chasm. What makes us different is the fact journey times of less than 80 minutes are • Shaking off the legacy of a century that none of the other major coal areas also possible from Cardiff to London and of industrial decline, creating a were ever as dependent as south Wales Heathrow. We need a coherent regional more cohesive city region that can on just one industry. development plan to underpin these compete more effectively on the In England, the coalfields generally investments and help drive the GVA per international stage. spread across densely populated capita of the Cardiff city region on an • A new lease of life for communities and prosperous regions which had a upward trajectory. across the Valleys with stronger multitude of economic drivers. The Visions are important, but they are commuter settlements able to support contrast with Wales was stark. If there the easy part. The biggest challenge a wider range of secondary services. had been no coal, without question the remains mobilising the political will • Reduction of carbon emissions, less Valleys would be a National Park today. In to drive this programme forward. congestion, and an improved quality simple terms, the region is poorly suited Specifically, our elected representatives of life. to human settlement. Until the 18th need to take on board the absolute Century it was as wild and as sparsely requirement to establish an arms-length populated as any other part of upland executive body with the remit and Mark Barry runs an economic and Wales. Taking contemporary Powys as a powers able to convert an ambitious transport policy development consultancy benchmark, without industrialisation the Metro policy into a tangible project that in Cardiff and is founder of the Metro population of the coalfield region would will benefit the entire region. Consortium. His latest report A Cardiff be no more than a tenth of what it is now. We need a Metro delivery authority City Region Metro: transform, regenerate, It is impossible for the region to achieve with sufficient funding from multiple connect was launched by the IWA and the social or economic viability in its current sources, including government and local Metro Consortium in March. form, when the one and only reason for

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Outlook people living there in large numbers has greatest near to the centre, and gradually lines, where the industrial structures have entirely disappeared. decreases towards the edges. Shops, been removed, that an abundance of Inevitably, and despite a huge political social facilities, welfare and civic buildings useful development space is to be found. effort to maintain opportunities, the occupy key locations close to the heart of With carefully judged planning, the coalfield is depopulating. In all of Wales it the settlement. Life flourishes in the places Valley towns of the future can be re- is only the populations of Cynon and spaces between the core buildings. shaped around cores of civic and social Taf, , Blaenau Gwent and Even in economically strained rural areas, amenities and well defined public spaces, Port Talbot that have reduced in settlements of this type continue to be following the pattern of rural towns, and density in the last 30 years. Where similar viable, because each provides a focus not the new rail stations can be the catalyst conditions prevail elsewhere in the world just for the immediate inhabitants, but also that enables the redefinition to begin. only ghost towns remain. Consider the for a large area of rural hinterland. Density New stations might be built in existing coal town of Lynch in the Appalachian of habitation will typically be relatively station locations, but the priority must mountains, where a post-war population high at the centre of a rural town - with be the availability of space around them of 10,000 has fallen to fewer than 900, terraced houses the norm – but measured for the development of new workplaces, or Vindex in Maryland, one of many together with the hinterland overall shops, public amenities and even new Potomac Valley coal towns which have population density will be low. urban housing, rather than the sub-urban vanished completely. It is too easy to If current trends continue, it is forms favoured until now by the volume see the wider economy as the cause of inevitable that the Valleys population as a house-builders. As important as any of change in the . It was whole, and of the upper and mid-Valleys these will be the tightly defined, attractive capital that created their predicament. in particular, will further reduce. Without civic spaces, around which the new But it is the character of the landscape constructive intervention, settlements developments will be concentrated, and that now governs what is possible. in the Valleys will gradually evolve into which will become the centres of gravity Where the Valleys are concerned, ‘It’s the unfocused clusters, coalescing from the of the future Valley towns. topography, stupid’. contiguous strands of contemporary Valley The counterpoint to the creation of The reshaping of coalfield settlements settlement. These changes will not need to these new, close-grained urban centres requires a planned reversal of the original be planned or managed, they will happen will be the separation of the settlement process of industrialisation. Industrial regardless over the course of the next few edges from each other by the removal of development preceded population generations. But with intelligent planning under-utilised housing and the restoration growth, and occupied the more usable and management the changes can be of ‘natural’ landscape in place of existing ground on the Valley floors. The collieries made to happen more quickly. There can terraced streets. This will be a process of were the centres of gravity of the be greater active community participation selective demolition and clearance, and communities, and they occupied the with a good chance of a positive outcome, it can only happen with the committed central spaces. At the height of the coal and with far less collateral social damage participation of local communities, industry civic and social amenities were than will otherwise result. However it every affected household of which must plentiful but they punctuated closely happens, it is essential for the overall demonstrably benefit as a result. packed terraced streets at irregular population of the coalfield region, and There are of course a few coherent, intervals. It was unavoidable that the also for the area of built development, to well-defined Valleys towns that already majority of the settlements would take the be greatly reduced. exist, such as Pontypridd, Merthyr Tydfil, form of strands of housing along steep At the moment there are 12 miles Llantrisant, and Aberdare. These should valley sides, and that few conventionally of unbroken development along the continue to grow as they are at present, defined towns could take shape. Rhondda Fawr between Pontypridd and largely by drawing in new residents from So how could the form of valleys Blaenrhondda. This could be thought of as the fringes. settlements change, to become more one town, but it contains around a dozen The planned expansion of Cardiff will viable? And what part could a greatly settlements whose separate identities are provide a further essential counterpoint improved public transport network play in still linked to the industrial centres they to the restoration of social and economic the transformation? once served. However, the dozen-or-so balance in the Valleys. For the children Part of the answer can be found settlements are distinct in name only. and grandchildren of current Valleys close to hand. Rural settlements of the In their place it is possible to envisage residents, the option of commuting to kind that typify agricultural Wales take a perhaps half that number of small, well- the southern cities must be made an simple characteristic shape, just as they defined, healthy towns, each surrounded attractive one. do the world over. Buildings and homes by fields and forests. For many future residents of viable aggregate around a few small, tightly The existing railway tracks were built Valley communities it will be normal to defined common spaces, in a ‘bulls- to handle coal. They can only be at the travel to work outside the Valleys, and to eye’ pattern. The density of building is base of the Valleys, and it is along those the cities in particular. The Valleys Metro

the welsh agenda spring 2013—issue 49 | 13 Outlook will provide the means of commuting We are part of a state (and of a shocks that are increasing in frequency quickly and regularly throughout the continent) which has had and lost the and severity. As a first principle, Valleys and down to the south. It will be global economic focus. The geographic investment in infrastructure should equally effective in making the re-shaped shifting of this focus is discernable over prioritise the protection of our basic Valley towns attractive for investment thousands of years: from the fertile welfare. As private car ownership in new workplaces. This means that, for valley of the near east through the becomes simply unaffordable for an non-commuting residents, there will be Mediterranean and then Northern ever-greater share of the population, sufficient local work to ensure an average European empires, and on to the New access to key services (not just level of employment can be sustained. Worlds. It is driven by climate and the employment centres) is far from given. In this way the viability and health of the changing importance of land, mineral Multiplicity of transport modes, as community as a whole can be established and human resources. It is irreversible. provided by the Metro, can only help and protected for generations to come. Wales is a small, peripheral country, soften future shocks. and small, peripheral countries cannot The second pointer is: decentralise. Jonathan Adams is Special Projects compete in innovative (or increasingly It is clear that as transport costs increase, Director at Capita Architecture. productive) terms with larger, better- there is a huge opportunity to re- connected places. This is especially the launch properly local and community case when corporate control of global businesses, in sectors as diverse as food, capital depreciates the effectiveness of professional services and entertainment. It will tell us all we need to policy interventions and the geographic Revitalising the economic behaviours know about ourselves ‘embeddedness’ of economic activity. of only forty years ago would capture a Calvin Jones And if we aim to compete our way far higher proportion of wealth in our back to the top, we should remember poorer communities. At the same time our demographic future. By 2050 the it would reduce our reliance on globally UK will have only two workers for spread, increasingly vulnerable supply each dependent economically inactive chains for what have become basic person (mostly aged), which will be necessities. A properly multi-nodal (not down from the current four to one hub-and-radius) Metro system could ratio. This fact alone will massively enable a far higher level of intra-south change the fundamentals of our Wales economic and social interaction. economy away from activities that are A third pointer is: dissensus. This Before we start, let’s get one thing straight. ‘internationally competitive’. means doing things differently across the A Metro for south-east Wales is no In July 2009 Robert Reich, US region, with different places developing economic panacea. It will not result in a Secretary of Labour, suggested the different competencies in entertainment rapid revitalisation of industry, in an influx Great Recession was not V or even U say, or in social care, or in (let’s dream) of high paid or high value adding jobs shaped, but X shaped – with X marking micro-factory manufacturing. We and dozens of company headquarters, the spot where a new economy was would then have the potential for a or of tens of thousands more tourists. In (painfully) born. This new economy is still spread of prosperity amongst a large fact, the debate around a Metro for south of unknown shape, but we know what number of economically distinct and Wales should be contextualised within it will not be. It will not be Euro-centric, complementary towns across the the understanding that it is likely no policy debt and consumption fuelled, easy-oil Valleys, rural uplands and the coastal intervention can make any of the above reliant, globally devouring and climate plain. And all of this would be enabled happen, at least not within anything other ignoring. Ecological and limits by a publically owned, low cost, diffused than a generational timescale. don’t care whether economists believe and efficient integrated transport system. Any debate about appropriate in them or not. The existence of these How to pay for this vision? The investment in transport (and indeed limits is obvious, especially here in the obvious answer is to toll the roads, wider social) infrastructure must most energy dependent (yet poorest) of to accept the potential for short-term recognise that we are a place at the Britain’s economic regions. And these competitive disadvantage in pursuit of wrong end of history. Wales’ last really limits give us some pointers as to what a long-term goal. There are other ways. significant economic contribution is and will become more important in For example, there is roughly £8 billion occurred over a century ago, and our how we conceptualise and then enable of Welsh public sector pension fund greatest innovations over a hundred economic prosperity. money doing not-brilliantly in Tesco, BP years before that. It is important to The first pointer is: resilience. and other corporate investments. That realise this need not be a bad thing and We live in an age characterised by sum could pay for the Metro more than it is not our fault. economic, meteorological and social twice over – and, together with a long-

14 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org Outlook term, guaranteed income stream from comfortably with everyone, it is an Vancouver are continually represented fares, could fund it for decades ahead. undeniable fact that this scale and density in this group, and they all have metro Additionally, the Welsh Government’s first of habitation represents, in numbers systems. Why shouldn’t south-east Wales forays in borrowing are likely to come alone, a City. We may not live in a aspire to join their ranks? soon. Pump priming the next century’s singular and identifiable city with a single If we choose to invest in projects transport infrastructure would be a better governance structure like Glasgow or like major road building programmes, first use than priming the detonators on a Bristol. Yet the scale at which we operate which don’t establish Cardiff as one of half-billion pound populist shoring up of means that south-east Wales should the Europe’s most livable cities, then we the last century at Brynglas Tunnels. operate more like a city region to secure are wasting time, energy, money and I implied at the start that a Metro for the benefits of our size. opportunities. Our inaction, or inability, south Wales wasn’t centrally important, Cardiff, and the 1.48 million people to grasp the opportunities available to us in the sense of not ‘guaranteeing’ that live within its gravitational pull, now will, quite rightly, be judged harshly success (whatever that means) for the need to be capable of functioning as a by the future generations who will inherit region. But the Metro project is centrally cohesive city because the economies a much more diminished city from us. important as emblematic of what we and societies of the 21st Century will be So what will this livable city of think about Wales, and our future. If dominated by cities. For the first time south-east Wales look like? At the local we build it, and build it well, we will tell in human history, more than half of the level there is real potential for the the world we care about things. About global population live in cities and by hubs on the Metro network to become the climate, yes, but also about the 2030 this figure is predicted to be nearly dynamic places around stations. A key importance of distinctive place, about 60 per cent of the world’s eight billion determinant of success will not just our less advantaged residents and about inhabitants. By 2050, it’ll be nearer 70 per be about developing utilitarian and actively planning for a positive future. cent of over nine billion people. functional connections, but making If we don’t build it – if its too difficult or Moreover, 600 urban centres them humane, vibrant and interesting expensive, will take too long, or because currently account for 60 per cent of through sensitive place making as well we just simply like our cars too much – global GDP and this proportion is as good architecture. It is important that that will tell us all we need to know about predicted to be largely the same by 2025. the moment you step off the Metro you ourselves. That we’re content to throw However, by then the membership of are presented with the culture, heritage, public money at the same old failing this group will be very different. This character and distinctiveness of the place elephants; that we are content to live is because by 2025 one third of these rather than an excessively engineered with managing decline; and content to will be from the southern and eastern clone town. The Metro then is much cross our fingers and hope something or hemispheres - China in particular. What more than a functional network of getting someone comes along to sort us out. I this tells us is that those cities that are from Albany Road to Blaenau Gwent, hope and believe that’s not us. able to project themselves positively in but a reason to remake new places national, continental and global terms throughout the network. Calvin Jones is Professor of Economics will give themselves a better chance of The Cardiff Metro proposition makes at Cardiff Business School. capturing economic opportunities. us confront some of the most important The Metro is important to Cardiff questions about the City Region. It forces and south-east Wales because it is an us to consider the future of the Welsh Survival in an age opportunity for our region to cultivate capital itself, the role and identity of other dominated by cities an image of itself to present to the rest towns in the region and the complex James Brown of the world that is positive and forward relationships between them all. It is thinking. It is essential that we embark important that we don’t get distracted with upon a process of simultaneous and what we might lose, but think about the assertive regeneration, development and Metro concept from a global perspective environmental conservation that will result of competitiveness and livability as well in Cardiff and its catchment becoming one as from an extremely local perspective of of the most livable cities in the world. humane place making. There are three main indices which chart the living conditions of urban areas and it isn’t surprising that public Within 20 miles of the centre of Cardiff transportation is measured by two of live 1.48 million people. Although these indexes. Irrespective of how James Brown is a Director with Powell the idea of a Cardiff City Region or livability is measured, cities like Zurich, Dobson Urbanists, a multi-disciplinary even Greater Cardiff does not yet sit Melbourne, Copenhagen, Auckland and built environment consultancy.

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We need a new with a journey by car, the integration of to co-ordinate their activities. Given travelling experience various modes of public transport is a the huge number of people and Henk Broekema pre-requisite. organisations involved, managing the As an example of integration, let me co-ordination between them should share some experiences of travelling in be considered as a project in itself. The the Netherlands (my country of origin). successful delivery of a Cardiff Metro From the moment I put my feet on the should therefore start with orchestrating ground at Schiphol Airport I start using the involvement of stakeholders. public transport and other integrated It is important to recognise that this services. First I may travel by train to should not focus on the business case Amsterdam Central Station. For my for a Metro, nor on the way in which onward journey, I may rent a bicycle or car parking, rail, bus and active travel Three criteria should be used when we a scooter, or I might travel by taxi. The should be integrated. Instead, it should come to judge whether the Cardiff Metro next morning I might take a metro, tram be about assuring proper co-ordination is a success: or bus to one of Amsterdam’s railway and collaboration between the people stations, in order to catch a train to a and organisations that are involved in the 1. The transport system should client elsewhere in the country. When I development of the Cardiff Metro. contribute to the goal of attracting arrive at my final railway station, I may For example, it should be about investments and stimulating cover the final miles to my client’s office the facilitation of creative dialogues economic growth. using a ‘car club’ car - conveniently between stakeholders, ensuring that all located at numerous railway stations. are involved, with their minds focused on 2. The business case for developing the However, perhaps the best example opportunities and success. People across various elements of the infrastructure of integration is what happens by the a wide range of organisations and sectors system – like specific bus services or railway upgrades - should prove sensible. To make travelling a positive 3. Stakeholders across the field should be enthusiastic - ‘success’ is after all in experience, it is particularly important the eye of the beholder. to recognise that people travel from Here I will address two of the stakeholders, the public transport users door-to-door. Establishing fast and of the future, and those involved in the development of Cardiff Metro. frequent railway services is therefore Developing a transport system like the Cardiff Metro is not just about upgrading of limited value if people struggle to a railway or offering a new bus service. Instead, it is about offering an experience. reach their final destinations. Travelling is an experience. Whether a transport system offers a good or a bad experience will make the difference time I fly home to Cardiff. All the legs of should feel inspired to contribute to the between people using it or not. As such, my journey - whether I made them by Cardiff Metro. Therefore, the first tangible the user experience will impact on the train, bus, tram, metro, bicycle, taxi or ‘car objective of the project should be to business case and should be continuously club’ car - are combined on one invoice establish a Metro Delivery Authority that kept in mind. that will be sent to my employer. To enjoys widespread support. To make travelling a positive summarise, an integrated transport system experience, it is particularly important should offer its users a reliable, frequent, to recognise that people travel from fast, cost-effective and comfortable door- door-to-door. Establishing fast and to-door travelling experience. Henk Broekema is a business frequent railway services is therefore To develop a transport system psychologist with the AMI Management of limited value if people struggle to that offers such a good door-to-door Consultancy. He was raised in the reach their final destinations. To offer a experience, numerous people and Netherlands and has lived in Cardiff travelling experience that can compete organisations across sectors will have since 2011.

16 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org

Welsh devolution’s unfinished business Richard Wyn Jones gives an overview of the Changing Union project’s 1 evidence to the Silk Commission The story of Welsh devolution since the This latest move took place far sooner than Changing establishment of the National Assembly in had been originally envisaged, in part due to Union 1999 is, demonstrably, one of increasing the manifest failings of the arrangements that public support for the principle of devolved existed under Part 3 of the Act. Despite all the government. It is also a story of increasingly speeches made and ink spilled trying to argue effective practice by both the legislative and the virtues of the executive model of devolution executive branches of devolved governance. or the LCO system, it is difficult to imagine that Paradoxically, this has been achieved despite any of their then proponents would wish to rather than because of the constitutional return to them, or even be reminded of their arrangements that have underpinned our previous enthusiastic endorsement. democratic institutions. Although only in effect for less than two Articles Thus far, all talk of a Welsh devolution years, there are already strong indications that Welsh ‘settlement’ has been more aspirational rather the latest Part 4 arrangement – a ‘conferred devolution’s than accurate. The reality has been anything powers’ model of legislative devolution – is unfinished but stable. The executive model of devolution proving problematic, prolonging many of business established by the 1998 Government of Wales the faults and flaws that characterised the Act didn’t even last a decade, and had been architecture of devolved government in the Theodore utterly transformed de facto long before it was period from 1999 to 2011. Huckle’s case formally put out of its misery. It was re-shaped This is most obviously demonstrated by for a Welsh by the Government of Wales Act 2006, which the UK Government’s decision to refer the jurisdiction half-opened the door to primary legislative first piece of legislation passed by the National powers through the convoluted Measure Assembly to the . It is widely making procedure – Legislative Competence reported that it was only the intervention of the Orders (LCOs). The door was more fully Attorney General that halted the referral of the opened following the decisive affirmative vote second piece of legislation. Even if the decision in the 2011 referendum that brought into play of the Court to uphold the Local Government Part 4 of the 2006 Act. Byelaws (Wales) Act 2012 may help to clarify the powers of the National Assembly, it has, nonetheless, been demonstrated that the new dispensation can cause significant problems. In addition to being based on a constitutional architecture that expert opinion The Changing Union project is being – almost universally – regards as flawed, the undertaken by the IWA in collaboration new dispensation does not address what might with the Wale Governance Centre at Cardiff be termed the unfinished business of legislative University and Cymru Yfory/Tomorrow’s devolution. Some of this is covered by what are Wales. Funded by the Nuffield Foundation sometimes termed the ‘Richard consequentials’. and the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, Having made the case for legislative the project is tracking and influencing devolution, in 2004 the Richard Commission argued that a 60-seat National Assembly the devolution debate across the UK was not large enough to scrutinise legislation over three years in the run-up to the and hold Ministers to account effectively. It Scottish indepence referendum on 2014. recommended a move to 80 members elected The project’s complete evidence can be by STV. The Richard case for increasing the size downloaded from its website of the legislature remains compelling, and in the www.changingunion.org.uk light of further extensions of competences even conservative. In addition, as pointed out by First Minister Carwyn Jones, the Welsh situation of

18 | 1/Changing Union

Members of the Silk Commission undertaking Part II of its inquiry. From left to right: Rob Humphreys, Director of the Open University in Wales, nominated by the Welsh Liberal Democrats; , Deputy Chairman of Pure Wafer plc, nominated by ; Jane Davidson, former Minister for Environment and Sustainability, nominated by the Welsh Labour Party; Professor Nick Bourne, former Leader of the Conservatives in the National Assembly, nominated by the Welsh Conservative Party; Paul Silk, former Clerk to the National Assembly and Chair of the Commission; Trefor Glyn Jones, former Chairman and Chief Executive of Pilkington Optronics and Lord Lieutenant of Clwyd; Helen Molyneux, founder and Chief executive of NewLaw Solicitors; and Professor Noel Lloyd, former Vice Chancellor of . enjoying legislative devolution without to be overcritical of the actors involved in for consideration of the full range a separate legal jurisdiction is certainly the process of Welsh constitution making. of elements required to establish anomalous and, arguably, problematic. Indeed, it is more appropriate that we an effective system of democratic It would be a mistake to judge too applaud the political commitment, devolved government. harshly the work of the constitutional imagination and courage that have architects whose efforts have thus far underpinned the development of a 2. Those terms of reference have been failed to provide Wales with a stable, democratic tier of Welsh government. But endorsed by all the main political parties sustainable devolution settlement. While neither should we gloss over or minimise in Wales, as well as by the Welsh and all politics may well be the art of the the pathologies of a development UK governments. This is sure to imbue possible, this seems particularly true of the process characterised by constant the Commission’s recommendations politics of Welsh devolution. Devolution change and upheaval, and the triumph with particular authority. has moved forward only at a pace and in of pragmatism over robust constitutional a direction sanctioned by the country’s principles. Countless hours have been 3. Following the referendum result dominant political force. Proponents wasted and considerable reservoirs of in March 2011, the Commission is of democratic reform (in all parties) ingenuity squandered in efforts to make deliberating in a context in which have shown great skill and sensitivity in fundamentally flawed constitutional the question of public consent for ensuring that considerable progress has designs functional. A concern with process devolution has been definitively been made. has (of necessity) diverted time, energy answered. The Rubicon of legislative It is also the case that doubts about and resources away from outcomes. devolution has been crossed, the level of public support for devolution There are at least three reasons for irrevocably. have acted as a constraint on progress. believing that the Silk Commission is Although the weight of survey evidence in an ideal position to map out a stable In its submission to the Silk Commission, amassed after 1997 suggest a very and genuinely sustainable constitutional the UK’s Changing Union project has substantial growth in support for what an settlement worthy of the name: argued that there are three sets of issues earlier generation termed ‘home rule’, that need to be resolved if Wales is to the narrowness of the 1997 referendum 1. Despite the best efforts of the current have the stable and sustainable system result served to call into question the Secretary of State to close the of devolved government it both needs extent to which devolution was the stable door long after the horse has and deserves. ‘settled will’ in Wales. bolted, the Commission’s very wide- Given this context it would be facile ranging terms of reference allow

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A reserved powers model then the case is surely even stronger below the size necessary that would allow Expert opinion is nigh on unanimous in in the more benign circumstances of elected Members to undertake effectively holding that a reserved powers model Wales. In the case of broadcasting, all the necessary functions of a legislature. of devolution provides for greater which is currently a reserved matter in Even if it is politically inconvenient to say certainty and clarity about the boundary Scotland, we believe that our particular so, the case for an increase in the number between devolved and non-devolved linguistic and cultural make up – as well of Assembly Members is unanswerable. issues than the conferred powers model as our heavy dependence on public Capacity is also at the heart of now in operation in Wales. Indeed that broadcasting – means that there is a widespread concerns about the was precisely why the UK government compelling case for going further in civil service in Wales. Our evidence decided to base the powers of the Scottish Wales. Full responsibility for S4C should recommends reforms to the organisation Parliament on the reserved powers model be devolved and there should be shared and culture of the Welsh Government. when it was established in 1999. The short responsibility between the Welsh and UK These reforms range from realigning the Welsh experience of trying to operate a level in the field of public broadcasting. political accountability of the civil service conferred powers model confirms why from Whitehall to the First Minister that was exactly the right decision. Wales A Welsh legal jurisdiction and the rest of the Welsh Government should move to a reserved powers model It seems to be common ground, even executive, to changes in education and establishing the powers of the National among those initially sceptical about training for civil servants. Assembly on the same basis as those of devolution that a distinct Welsh legal A vibrant civil society is not some kind the and, indeed, the jurisdiction will eventually emerge. That of optional extra if Welsh democracy is Assembly. This would being so, we consider it necessary to plan to flourish post-devolution. It is rather a give the Welsh public and their civil society ahead for that development rather than fundamental requirement. Civil society organisations clearer lines of accountability let it emerge in a gradual, ad-hoc and organisations have an all-important role to and place the relationship between Cardiff unmanaged manner. This is not a can to play in policy formulation and delivery, as Bay and Whitehall-Westminster on a more be kicked down the road to be picked up well as more generally in helping to hold equal, adult footing. by some future Commission. It is rather both executive and legislature to account. Moving to a reserved powers model an issue on which the Silk Commission Yet many of those active in Welsh civil naturally raises the question of what could and should take a lead. The goal society are deeply worried about the should be reserved to the UK level. of establishing a stable and sustainable capacity constraints that act as a barrier Our evidence to Silk suggests that we settlement demands nothing less. to their fuller participation in the political should use the now tried and tested process. Again our evidence contains Scottish status quo as a starting point Capacity concrete proposals about how these for that discussion. There’s no need to In developing our evidence for Silk – a capacity constraints might be addressed: reinvent the wheel. In terms of specific process that has encompassed the ideas that we hope will spark continuing policy areas, we believe that there is a commissioning of numerous research debate among civil society organisations compelling case for the devolution of papers and extensive discussions – we have themselves as well as influence the policing. It was, after all, former Prime been asking some hard questions about thinking of the Silk Commissioners. Minister, Gordon Brown, who once asked the quality of Welsh democracy. Getting It is to stimulating wider debate about the Northern Ireland Assembly: the constitutional architecture right is a the constitutional future of Wales that necessary but not a sufficient condition for we now turn our attention. One of the “How can you, as an Assembly, developing in Wales a culture of debate broader lessons offered by the experience address common criminality, low- and scrutiny that is robust, inclusive and of constitutional change elsewhere in the level crime and youth disorder when creative. One consistent theme that we’ve UK is it this is most successful where it is you are responsible for only some encountered in examining the work of the accompanied by a broader public debate, of the levers for change, and when National Assembly and Welsh Government one that extends beyond politicians and you have responsibility for education, as well as the role of civil society is that even the members of official Commissions health and social development but of capacity. to include as many voices as possible. have to rely on Westminster for In the case of the Welsh legislature, policing and justice?” it is clear that the National Assembly is simply too small. In both absolute terms Richard Wyn Jones is Director of the If the argument for devolution is so and relative to the size of the population and chair strong in the context of a society in which it represents, it is one of the smallest of the UK Changing Union project policing has a deeply troubled past, legislatures in the world. Indeed it is steering group.

20 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 1/Changing Union

UK matters ‘reserved’ to Westminster, the devolution of police and criminal justice powers, and the eventual creation of a separate jurisdiction for Wales. Theodore Huckle sees all this as “inevitable” in due time - perhaps in the 2020s. As he puts it, “If you are going to have separate laws then, eventually you’re going to have a separate jurisdiction. But it doesn’t mean that everything has to be completely separate. We have a blank canvass on which to construct our own Welsh solutions. We might want to administer our domestic Magistrates Courts, County Courts and Crown Court, but continue to share the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court with England.” He doesn’t see creating a Welsh jurisdiction as a big deal. After all, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and even Guernsey and Jersey all have their own separate jurisdictions. Theodore Huckle is a gradualist. He is fond of saying that in Wales we tend to drop the ‘d’ from devolution and talk about evolution. Theodore Huckle’s But he acknowledges that there are Theodore Huckle, those who argue repatriating our law- pictured in Alexandra case for a Welsh Gardens in Cathays Park. making powers and building Welsh legal Photo: Doug Nicholls. structures is part of a nation-building jurisdiction project, a precursor to greater Home Rule, even creating an independent John Osmond meets a gradualist occupying the forward trenches country. “It does border on the separatist agenda,” he said, “and that can cloud in the battle for devolution the issue for some people.” But he was quick to add that there is no necessary Being the Welsh Government’s leading in the Supreme Court when the Wales correlation between separatism and a lawyer, known as the Counsel General, Office, with a clunky hand, attempted separate legal jurisdiction. As he puts has a mafia-like ring about it and, in to strike down the National Assembly’s it, “We’re all better together in a United part at least, Theodore Huckle fits the first legislative act, an innocuous Kingdom where we can have our own description. Essentially, he’s a behind- local government byelaws Bill, as separate identities”. the-scenes man, above the fray, and unconstitutional. But what kind of is though a longstanding Labour member Huckle triumphed, though as much it going to turn out to be? It’s not just a determinedly non-political. due to the weakness of Whitehall’s question of devolved legal institutions Nearly two years ago, in June 2011, position in misreading the realities of and a jurisdiction providing the Welsh he was handed a new brief – devolution devolution as anything else. It was a with a more rounded and distinctive and Wales – and he has adopted landmark moment that opened the way sense of citizenship. There’s also the the cause if not the country. Perhaps for the Welsh Government to present impact of the change on the rest of the unwittingly, he has been thrust into its radical presentation to the Silk UK, especially England. For creating forward trenches of nation building, Commission on the National Assembly’s a separate Welsh jurisdiction will though decidedly he does not see it that next steps. These include everything necessarily entail creating a separate way. Late last year he batted for Wales being devolved to the Assembly except English one as well.

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Writing on the IWA’s ClickonWales As our interview warmed to these personal injury cases. website in February, Theodore Huckle themes I sensed Theodore Huckle So it was not the cause of Wales as alluded to this when discussing the becoming uneasy. It was not that he such that drew him back home. But reasons for the Supreme Court’s was unaware of the complex issues and when he came he liked the lifestyle and decision in favour of the Welsh uncertain prospects – to the contrary – but stayed. He met his wife Alison, settled Government. He quoted Justice Lady rather that the discussion was becoming in Cardiff and now they have four girls Hale, a member of the Supreme Court, overtly political. Despite his membership aged eight to 18. In 2008 Huckle’s who last October told the Legal Wales of the Welsh Cabinet, Theodore Huckle Chambers in Park Place split and with conference in Llandudno: emphasises that he is not a politician. First colleagues he founded Civitas as the first

“The important point is that, as “I come from an English-speaking part of Wales. I would long as they keep within the express limits of their powers, have had a lot of sympathy for people in that part of the the devolved Parliaments are to world, mainly an older generation, who felt oppressed be respected as democratically by bilingualism. They couldn’t understand it.” elected legislatures and are not to be treated like ordinary public and foremost he is a lawyer, on hand to specialist civil law chambers in Wales. authorities. The United Kingdom advise, and to stand back when political During these years Theodore Huckle’s has indeed become a federal state judgements are made. outlook on Wales underwent a subtle with a Constitution regulating the So when I asked him about his shift, most evident he says in a change of relationships between the federal enthusiasm for devolution he was happy attitude towards the : centre and the component parts.” to articulate the logic of the present direction of travel, but reluctant to say “I come from an English-speaking Creating a separate Welsh jurisdiction which way he had voted at the start of part of Wales. I would have had a will underscore the distinctiveness of the journey, in the 1997 referendum. lot of sympathy for people in that England as one of these component I sensed a similar ambivalence about part of the world, mainly an older parts, which may be an unwelcome that underlying project – building the generation, who felt oppressed novelty for legislators in Westminster. political nation. by bilingualism. They couldn’t Meanwhile, whatever the outcome of But there’s no denying Theodore understand it. And there are still the Scottish referendum in September Huckle’s allegiance. He would say he’s people who resent the efforts to next year, the balance of relationships indelibly Welsh, though inevitably of maintain the Welsh language. across the UK are bound to change. a specific kind. He was brought up in But now I take a completely Anticipating this, First Minister Carwyn Blaenafon. His mother, a teacher, reared different view. It seems to me that Jones has made repeated calls for a UK- four children on her own. Theo was the politicisation of the language is wide Constitutional Convention. As his third, went to West Mon in completely receding. It should Government’s evidence to Silk put it: in the 1970s when it was still a boys be a matter of celebration that grammar. He did well, becoming the we have this diversity of people “From the Welsh Government’s only boy in his year to gain entry to and languages across the country. perspective, devolution is not about Cambridge where he studied law at We should look at ways we can how each of Wales, Scotland and Jesus College - in those days on a full promote this as a distinctive brand Northern Ireland is separately grant from Gwent County Council. for Wales in the world.” governed. Rather it is about Theodore Huckle has built his how the UK is governed, not by legal career entirely in Wales, which is It is a statement that gives you a sense one but by four administrations, unusual. In 1983 he was admitted to of a journey being made and a border in a relationship which is not Lincoln’s Inn as a Hardwick Entrance crossed. It is hard not to speculate hierarchical.” Scholar and the next year awarded that Theodore Huckle is embarked the Megarry Major Scholarship, worth on a similar journey in relation to Carwyn wants equality within some £3,500. This was enough for him to devolution, Welsh citizenship and kind of federal relationship – a big join chambers in Cardiff, for the first six creating a jurisdiction. ask in a situation where England months as an unpaid pupil. He chose overwhelmingly outweighs the three Cardiff for the pragmatic reason that he devolved territories and, anyway, is not could save money by living at home. over-eager to get involved in this kind of He was called to the Bar in 1985 and John Osmond is Editor of the four-way dialogue. his legal career took off, specializing in welsh agenda.

the welsh agenda spring 2013—issue 49 | 23 Caption Making 2 Politics Wales open for business Geraint Talfan Davies reports on an IWA seminar that questioned the Welsh predilection for public sector solutions

Articles Despite the clamour for the Chancellor competitive approaches? Making Wales of the Exchequer to adopt a Plan B, The IWA has been keen to have such open for business or at least a Plan A+, there is almost matters debated, but we have often no prospect that Britain will desert the run up against the tendency in Wales to Nationalist ruling consensus amongst Western voice concerns in private and not to rock Politics in the governments that favours a firm brake boats publicly. Recently we tested the 1960s on public expenditure for as far ahead water with a seminar on these themes, Elystan Morgan’s as the eye can see. If things seem tough conducted under the Chatham House tryst with Wales in the public sector, most believe that rule. This brought together people drawn worse is to come. Welsh local authorities from the private, public and voluntary The real and health boards are grappling with sectors, as well as government officials story behind sizeable deficits, and it is often asserted and academics. It was also supported Tryweryn and the that ‘we will have to find new ways of by the Office of Fair Trading, part of Investiture doing things’. whose job is to explore the effectiveness Easier said than done. Successive of markets. The OFT’s Chairman, Philip Economic Welsh administrations have explicitly Collins attended. opportunity rejected a competitive, market driven It produced a lively, occasionally rather than reform of public services in favour of a impassioned debate, and a surprising rights critical for ‘citizen-centred’, collaborative approach. level of agreement. It focused on three language survival Following the creation of the National features of the situation in Wales: (i) Assembly in 1999 the Welsh Government economic realities; (ii) the impact of resisted the use of PFI schemes, and cultural attitudes towards business and can claim that its liabilities under such competition; and (iii) public sector schemes are now far less than is the case policies and practice in Wales. in England. First, there is a problem of scale. How open are we to new ways of Wales is a small part of the UK market doing things, especially if that might and doesn’t have a very strong internal involve making use of private sector market. Our corporate sector is small businesses? Is there a tension between and small scale companies predominate. the Welsh Government’s aspirations for There are far too few middle-sized a business friendly Wales and its position companies, and too many of them on private sector involvement in public become the prey rather than the services? If so, what are the effects of that predator. Even in the services sector tension? Where is the debate in Wales Wales is in competition with bigger on the merits of traditional public service centres across the border. Consolidation delivery versus social enterprise and of a number of industries has seen

24 2/Politics control shifting to London and the South East. The net result is that the public sector is more dominant in Wales than in any other UK region except Northern Ireland, and that people feel that the private sector is not the driver of progress. This places a considerable onus on the public sector to drive innovation. There is scepticism about the virtues of the competitive market because it is felt that the market hasn’t delivered for Wales. This feeling arises from the decline in Wales’s economic fortunes in recent decades and from a political culture that sees Wales as more communitarian than England and politics as more overtly social democrat. There are very few The use of private health as a way of inducing greater contestability and choice in service provision is making little private sector representatives amongst headway in Wales. NHS Financial Information reports that private patient income earned by NHS trusts in England elected representatives in the National rose by 5.3 per cent during 2012, and by 15 per cent in London’s specialist hospitals. On the other hand Welsh NHS private practice fell by 8 per cent and Scottish by 18 per cent. Assembly. This is even true of the Conservative group. The financial crisis has sharpened favouring safeness and mediocrity”. and procurement. Several participants interest in social enterprise, mutuals and Innovation and diversity was often referred to the Welsh public sector “doing other not-for-profit models. Although this attacked as producing ‘a post code things it should not be doing”. There was was understandable, some participants lottery’, whereas some thought they a need for a wider public debate about felt it was also a ‘reality avoidance were fundamental to successful public the appropriate role of government. mechanism’. The notion of competition service provision. Some worried that such debate as exists as a driver of innovation, growth and In Wales the supply side rather than is taking place “in a political vacuum consumer satisfaction was largely excluded consumers or users determines what is – an economics-free zone”. Similarly, from policy discourse in Wales. Some felt offered. This, it was argued, would be there is also little debate on public sector that the differences in the political culture an increasing problem, as any idea that productivity, which some thought also between Wales and England might be consumers would be passive in relation applied to a third sector that was largely greater than actual differences in public to public services was wishful thinking. government funded. opinion in the two countries – especially The notion that uniformity is valued more Others felt that the expansion of the in terms of people’s experience as highly than great service or innovation third sector - under the rubric of not- for-profit – raised competition issues. Examples were given of government Even in the services sector Wales is in competition funded third sector agencies competing with bigger centres across the border. Consolidation with private sector companies in of a number of industries has seen control shifting inappropriate ways. The problem, it was said, is that for these kinds to London and the South East. The net result is that of bodies income was often more the public sector is more dominant in Wales than in important than cost or profitability. any other UK region except Northern Ireland, and If we are to develop private sector provision, there is a case for more that people feel that the private sector is not the stringent guidelines for government driver of progress. funded organisations and clear conditions that provide a level playing consumers of public services. for citizens needs to be tested. field for organisations from all sectors. For some a laudable preference for In terms of public sector policies Another issue in this area was the equality translated into “a sad weakness and practice two issues dominated application of EU structural funds. If the for homogeneity in the public sector, the discussion, the appropriate main purpose of the structural funds was resulting in a dull uniformity of provision boundaries for public sector activity, to raise per capita GDP, it had simply

the welsh agenda spring 2013—issue 49 | 25 2/Politics not happened. Priorities and distribution term effects of the design of public account publicly for its implementation. methods had failed. The emphasis had services, with collaboration balanced It remained the case that for most public been on soft outcomes in which “the by the encouragement of competitive sector buyers the key performance private sector didn’t get a look in”. suppliers who would innovate and drive indicator was still price. As one Excessively bureaucratic processes had up quality. Procurement should not be contributor put it, “If you change the KPI, favoured the involvement of public and ‘the only tool in the box’. For long-term you will change the way they buy”. voluntary sector representatives. sustainability and citizen satisfaction, the Performance in this area was being Public procurement – amounting public sector needed a wide range of affected by a lack of procurement skills to £4.3 billion a year in Wales - has suppliers, including some with ambitions – exacerbated by having too many been much discussed and the Welsh to succeed in wider UK, European and local authorities - and the EU Remedies Government has taken several steps to international markets. Directive which increased risk aversion. create procurement policies that are Some also saw evidence of a Others pointed to a tendency within intended to aid economic development. generalised distrust of business, government in Wales to ‘tender for Some academic contributors producing a nervousness amongst innovation’ – that is, going to market with believed that Wales now has excellent public sector officials in dealing with the a call for ideas. procurement policies, in many areas private sector, which some described as At the end of the session many felt better than in England. However, a “a culture of fear”. Others thought that that the seminar had seen a more honest problem is that much of the public public procurement procedures were exchange than is usual in Wales on the sector is not implementing Welsh “costing the private sector a fortune”, place of the private sector in Welsh Government policy. Lack of compliance and that this was a major disincentive for policy thinking. They urged the IWA to is a major issue. many small firms. find ways to develop this debate and to There was a separate tension One view was that compliance with engage the Welsh Government. We will. between the demands of open Welsh Government procurement policy competition and the wish to help Welsh should be made a mandatory duty on business. Several thought greater all public bodies, and that the head of Geraint Talfan Davies is Chair attention should be paid to the long every public sector body should made to of the IWA. 2/Politics Nationalist Politics in the 1960s

Lord Elystan Morgan pictured at an event to mark the launch of his memoirs in Aberystwyth in November 2012. Elystan Morgan’s tryst with Wales Emrys Roberts engages with the memoirs of a key figure in 20th Century Welsh politics

Lord Elystan Morgan likens his ‘Memories Arthur (In the Steps of Arthur) and the of the party, was also the self-appointed of a Lifetime’ to the reminiscences of big impression made on him by the story leader of New Nation, a group he someone looking through a bundle of of how the Czech leader Tomas Masaryk describes as a party-within-a-party. photographs. The format serves him well, had come to realise that his first loyalty Alas, his memory fails him on this proving a more interesting read than a was to his own people, not to Austria. point. New Nation was John Legonna’s strict chronological autobiography would This led Elystan to join Plaid Cymru brainchild after I had been sacked as party have done. while still at school. He later became Secretary. It was a loose group, completely He gives us a lively portrait of rural secretary of the Aberystwyth college outside the party, which published a few life in Cardiganshire in the mid-20th branch and met Plaid leader Gwynfor discussion papers and arranged the first Century. The twinkle was in his eye from Evans. Gwynfor made a huge impression Cilmeri Commemorative Meeting in the start. He was fond of playing tricks on on him as someone totally dedicated to December 1964. his playmates – mostly fairly innocent and the cause of Wales. His admiration for Without defining socialism, Elystan not too much of an embarrassment to a Gwynfor transcended any subsequent claims that he had always held socialist future judge, unless his memory has been disagreements, even after he decided as well as nationalist beliefs. Plaid’s poor diplomatically selective. to join Labour in 1965, having been a showing in the 1964 General Election The biggest wrench in his life came prominent member of Plaid for well over had led him to conclude that there was on moving from the village school to a decade. greater scope for furthering the interests Ysgol Ardwyn Grammar School in At this point, what have thus far been of Wales within the Labour Party rather Aberystwyth where he encountered a a series of ‘snapshot’ reminiscences of than within Plaid. strong English, and even military, element his early life give way to an apparent Whilst this is a perfectly respectable for the first time - in both school and imperative to justify this change of party argument, he seems to forget that he town. He began reading widely, including allegiance. He cites an acrimonious stood for election as Vice-President ’s weekly column in Y atmosphere in Plaid executive meetings of Plaid in 1964. He expected to win Faner. This led him to Saunders’s Canlyn claiming that I, though General Secretary as it was well known that he had

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Gwynfor’s full support. In the event, He also retained the ability to laugh at himself he was beaten by Chris Rees, who had been active in the protests against sometimes. For instance, on being made a judge the drowning of Tryweryn and, like he remarked that, as a , he had had me, had gone to prison rather than join the at a time when “some brilliant acquittals at Newport - especially the majority of Welsh MPs had voted when prosecuting!” against peace-time conscription. Most members of Plaid assumed – rightly or wrongly - that Elystan’s defection reflected his disappointment at losing the election to Chris. I permitted myself a wry smile when had some sinister ulterior objective. I example, was his defence of a farmer and I heard of Elystan’s change of allegiance. can attribute this only to his almost blind his son who had handled a bailiff rather After all, he had complained not long admiration for Gwynfor who wrongly roughly. Their command of English was before that I was more of a socialist perceived that his own position was not great and Elystan argued that they than a nationalist. Yet, in spite of being under threat. had misunderstood the bailiff’s intentions sacked from my job - on the basis of false None of this, however, invalidates because they were virtually monoglot. accusations secretly circulated about me Elystan’s argument that people prepared The Chairman of the Bench had snorted which I had no chance to rebut - I still to promote the national interests that that was nonsense as there were remained a member. of Wales are needed in the Labour no monoglots left in Wales. Elystan I was disappointed that a man of Party. Realising that, I have never held suggested that the Chairman was possibly Elystan’s sharp, analytical mind had Elystan’s decision against him and was one himself – though if he could address swallowed those accusations hook, perhaps the only Plaid member who the court in any language other than line and sinker. Even now he seems to gave him a friendly greeting when he English he would be happy to withdraw believe that my efforts to turn Plaid into ventured onto the Eisteddfod Field the the remark. That quickly got the jury on an effective democratic political party week his defection was announced in his side! 1965. I felt, however, He also retained the ability to laugh that nationalistically at himself sometimes. For instance, on inclined members would being made a judge he remarked that, have little clout within as a barrister, he had had “some brilliant the Labour Party unless acquittals at Newport - especially when Labour’s grip on Wales prosecuting!” He was, of course, a very was threatened from the accomplished orator, which was a key outside as well. This is asset when he set out on a political career why I never felt tempted in the mid 20th Century, though that is not to join Labour myself. so much valued nowadays. Having explained At the time of the 1979 referendum his decision to change he was speaking in a cross-party debate horses, Elystan returns and came up with a stunning put- to ‘snapshot’ mode in down for Neil Kinnock who, of course, relating episodes from was championing the No brigade – in his experiences as a Elystan’s view to promote himself as a backbench MP, then as future leader of the Labour Party. Elystan a Minister in the Home said: “Don’t think that you can trample Office, life in opposition, the life of a nation in the mud of your as a barrister, as a own miserable self-interest”. He does not Member of the House of hide his dislike of the attitude to things Lords and as a Judge. Welsh displayed by others in his party He was a good as well, personalities such as George debater and adept at Thomas and Leo Abse. (I wonder if he turning a situation to his likes to speculate, as I do, on what Abse A Labour poster for the 1966 general election in Ceredigion which Elystan Morgan won by 532 votes. The Liberals had previously held the seat for own advantage. One would have made of his company’s nearly 100 years.

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Welsh language adverts on S4C these The suggestion that local authorities (usually subservient to the US) and for days. How things have changed!). might become little more than the maintaining large forces to back it up And so to what is the most significant local administrative arm of central remain anathema to the Celtic nations. part of the book: Elystan’s reflections on government, rather than local We would not only be drawn into foreign the way devolution has developed and democratic decision-making bodies adventures of which we disapprove, his thoughts about what should be the in their own right, seems to fly directly we would also have to contribute to the next phases in the process. Among his against the arguments he himself cost and that would inhibit our ability to sometimes radical suggestions are: advanced against local authority re- tackle many of our entrenched social and organisation in the mid 1990s. I would economic problems. • That the Assembly be recognised argue that we should be considering In fairness, Elystan would argue that he officially as a Parliament and its powers how to de-centralise power rather had not intended to produce a blue-print extended to include everything not than contemplating a further bout but merely wished to highlight subjects specifically excluded from its remit. of centralisation. that merit in-depth – and, indeed, fairly • That the number of members be The other major difficulty is with urgent – consideration. The history of his increased to 100 and a second Elystan Morgan’s idea of some kind of involvement in politics at many levels, chamber established to ensure effective federal government for the UK. Whatever the contributions he has made and his scrutiny of government. level of sovereignty was retained by the insightful comments will hopefully ensure • Consideration be given to the role of individual nations, the central government that this volume helps give rise to the local authorities. would presumably still be responsible serious debate that these issues merit. • A form of dominion status for the for matters such as foreign policy and nations of Britain with a central the armed forces. In any such federation government having power in a small England would remain the dominant Emrys Roberts was general secretary number of functions of common force and thus in effect would make of Plaid Cymru from 1960 to 1964. interest. decisions in federal matters. The English Atgofion Oes: Elystan is published by penchant for an aggressive foreign policy Y Lolfa at £12.95. 2/Politics

Nationalist Politics in the 1960s

The real story behind Tryweryn and the Investiture

The iconic graffiti maintained by Cymdeithas yr Iaith on a broken down farmhouse wall alongside the A487 near , a few miles south of Aberystwyth. In 2009 Llanrhystud Community Council launched an £80,000 appeal to buy the land to preserve the landmark as a memorial. The appeal was kick started with a £30,000 grant from the Welsh Government, announced at the Bala Eisteddfod that year.

J. Graham Jones praises Defence of Wales. However, as the author the subject of Welsh militant nationalism an account of physical-force is at pains to point out, the links between in the 1960s its due attention and respect. Welsh nationalism them were not anywhere near as close as Both Tryweryn and the Investiture some analysts would have us believe. led to bomb explosions. As the author It is the author’s firmly held conviction is anxious to point out, the explosions Published to mark the 50th anniversary that neither group would have been which occurred at the Tryweryn of the first bombing campaign in Wales, formed had Plaid Cymru reacted more Reservoir site in February 1963 were Hands Off Wales offers a definitive vigorously when the proposal to flood “the first sustained use of explosives as overview of the rise of Welsh nationalist Cwm Tryweryn was first announced in a means of political protest which the militancy in the 1960s and establishes 1955. He accuses the nationalist party of nation had ever witnessed”. Too young the importance of the protests to the lapsing into “little more than sentimental himself to remember the events which he nation’s history and to its cultural loquaciousness” at this crucial juncture chronicles, Wyn Thomas has earned his and political advance. The theme in its post-war development. And he is living in the care industry for more than of this meticulously researched and critical of long-serving party president two decades. This authoritative volume well-crafted, pioneering study is the for not taking a more is an adaptation of his doctoral thesis unprecedented militant campaigns in proactive role at this crisis point in his presented in Swansea University in 2011. Wales at the time of the flooding of party’s evolution. The authority and originality of the Tryweryn in Meirionnydd to provide a Concerned that both the nation’s study derives mainly from the long, and water supply for the people of Liverpool cultural life and environment faced a exhaustive series of interviews Thomas in 1963, and the protests against the grievous threat, other activists were conducted between 2000 and 2012 Investiture of Charles as Prince of Wales consequently prepared to fight to defend with almost all those involved, face- at Caernarfon Castle on 1 July 1969. them, whatever the cost. Wyn Thomas to-face and via correspondence and The two militant groups which deals with themes and groups well-nigh e-mail. Indeed, many were interviewed emerged in Wales during these years ignored by most 20th Century, perhaps on more than one occasions - John were the Free Wales Army and Mudiad more respectable historians. There was Jenkins of Wrexham six times, Emyr Amddiffyn Cymru, the Movement for the a marked reluctance in academia to give Llewelyn Jones of Ffostrasol seven, and

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Owain Williams of Llanllyfni six. The the Beasley family of to receive author’s determination to leave no stone a bilingual rate demand. unturned and to check the accuracy and veracity of his material is impressive. The author also provides a wider The voices of officialdom are heard political backdrop. When setting the as well. They include Lord , Sir scene for the downfall of the Free Tasker Watkins, Sir John Mortimer, and Wales Army during 1968, we are told representatives of the Home Office and of the events of that incredible year in the Ministry of Defence. The information Vietnam, Northern Ireland, Spain, and is further buttressed by archival research the . As Mudiad Amddiffyn at Aberystwyth and Kew, intense Cymru stepped up its campaign of direct newspaper research, and a thorough action, Robert Kennedy and Martin review of the (now steadily growing) Luther King were cruelly assassinated in secondary literature in the field. the USA, Northern Ireland seemed set Throughout the absorbing text the to erupt into unprecedented outbreaks material is placed firmly in its historical of violence, and Enoch Powell delivered and geographical context. Among the his inflammatory ‘Rivers of Blood’ background episodes to the emergence speech in Birmingham. of militancy in the 1960s the following Wyn Thomas strives to be fair and are highlighted: to tell both sides of the story. Although highly critical of Gwynfor Evans, he • The piecemeal concessions to Welsh readily points out that he certainly nationhood grudgingly granted by had his avid apologists and defenders, the centralist Attlee government after among them Elystan Morgan, whom John Jenkins, Secretary General of Mudiad Amddiffyn the war. Evans considered his heir-apparent to Cymru, the Movement for the Defence for Wales, arriving home in Cardiff in 1976, after serving the greater the Plaid Cymru presidency upon his part of a ten-year sentence for his role in the bombing • The ultimately abortive, although eventual retirement. attempt to disrupt the Investiture of the Prince of Wales in Caernarfon Castle on 1 July 1969. still influential Parliament for Wales The author is scrupulously fair to agitation of the period 1950-56 which Julian Cayo Evans, the self-styled leader culminated in the presentation of a of the Free Wales Army. While quoting petition to parliament bearing the police reports that Evans possessed “an police inspector that throughout their names of 240,000 signatories. underdeveloped personality” and “a tortuous dealings Cayo Evans remained mental age of about 12 years”, he readily “approachable and not without charm • The lengthy, tenacious campaign of acknowledges the opinion of a retired and warmth”. Journalist Lyn Ebenezer appreciated Evans’s close friendship, commenting that there was “no one nicer and no one kinder”. The book is both rigorous and respectful in its treatment of Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru. We are told that its Secretary General, John Jenkins, organised a clandestine movement of which any anti-imperialist movement in the world would be proud. Certainly, the reader cannot be left in any doubt about his integrity.

Dr J. Graham Jones is Senior Archivist and Head of the Welsh Political Archive at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth. Hands Off Wales: Nationhood and Militancy by Wyn Thomas is published by Gomer Press Gwynfor Evans seen congratulating David Walters and David Pritchard, two non Welsh-speaking Plaid members from the Monmouthshire Valleys, following their ‘non violent direct action’ sabotage at the Tryweryn reservoir site in September at £25.00. 1962. Looking on is their lawyer Elystan Morgan.

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language loss can be found. In simplest terms the point at which any good Economics rather or service is offered is determined by two controls. The first of these is the threshold population. This is the than rights critical for minimum population required to make the offering economically viable. Put language survival crudely, there is a Marks and Spencer in Cardiff not in Aberystwyth because the capital city can provide the threshold Harold Carter and John Aitchison find there are now more population that Aberystwyth cannot. Welsh speakers in Cardiff than in the whole of Ceredigion, It is possible to make these measures Gwynedd and Ynys Môn much more sophisticated, for example by introducing a multiplier on average earnings to give an estimate of spending power available in the town and region. But for present purposes we can use the simple basis of population. The release of the first returns on the By far the most critical of these areas, The second control is range, or Welsh language at the 2011 census and the one to which most attention the distance over which people are has caused both anguish and dismay. has been directed is the rural heartland. prepared to travel to gain access to The 2001 census was thought to have Of course, it can be argued that the the good or service. At some point the marked a distinctive turning point where results were not unexpected. In A Broken distance becomes either too expensive over a century of decline had been Heartland and a New Beginning, an or too inconvenient. People will refuse transformed into modest gains, a reward analysis of the 1991 census (in Planet to travel and the offering is outranged. it seemed for the investment of effort 97), we drew attention to a serious Again sophistication can be introduced and finance into linguistic regeneration. collapse and fragmentation in Welsh by adding a consideration of time taken But the decade since has failed to build as a community language within these rather than simple physical distance. on that historic turn around and decline parts, especially marked by the decline Leaving aside all the elaborations and fall have again set in. in the number of those communities possible, it remains the case that Between 1991 and 2001 the number where over 70 per cent spoke Welsh threshold population and range remain of speakers increased by just over and where it could therefore be the two essential controls of location. 13 per cent, from roughly 508,000 regarded as a thriving mode of every One modification needs to be added. to around 580,000. Ten years on the day communication. Population numbers are as applicable to picture is surprisingly different. The Those earlier studies were based service as to commercial activities, but surge in numbers has been halted, with on detailed analyses at the community in service terms the interpretation of a decrease to 560,000 people indicating level. However, the cruder 2011 data range must be adjusted to the distance that they can, though not necessarily would suggest that the processes people can be expected to travel. do, speak the language. This represents then operative have continued. The above discussion might seem a decennial fall of 2.2 per cent. Between 2001 and 2011 Ceredigion remote from language issues but Undoubtedly, the most worrying aspect and Carmarthen in particular showed it is fundamental to them. In times of the recent data is the four areas of the significant falls in absolute numbers of economic difficulty the planning country which recorded losses: of over six per cent. It is distressing to response is unequivocally placed on record a fact which is the most telling threshold numbers. Moreover, the • The rural heartland of the north and of all, that for the first time the Welsh- providers of services can ignore range, west, what was once called ‘Y Fro speaking populations within these for the costs and inconveniences of Gymraeg’. authorities are no longer in the majority. travel are not borne by the providers but • Swansea and its hinterland. There are now more Welsh speakers in by the consumers. • The old central coalfield area of Cardiff than in the whole of Ceredigion, The result is that economies of Merthyr Tydfil and the Rhondda. Gwynedd and Ynys Mon. scale and accompanying centralisation • The industrial parts of the north-east, At this point it is appropriate to determine the way services are around Wrexham and Flint. turn from narration of facts to an provided. This has meant widespread interpretation where an explanation of closures of shops, pubs, schools,

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Distribution of Welsh speakers by community council boundaries at the 2001 and 2011 Census. magistrate courts, leisure centres and given the present state of the economy. of Cardiff or Newport. Moreover, it has swimming pools and especially medical In any case, they tend to increase the been one of the bastions of the language services. The removal of such critical immigration of non-Welsh speakers. and there have been significant efforts to services inevitably weakens the viability Small and medium size businesses face a sustain the language both in the city and of rural communities, encourages the formidable range of difficulties, foremost its hinterland. Accordingly there would emigration of the young and active, among them remoteness and a totally be a presumption for growth parallel and hence leads to language loss. It is inadequate transport infrastructure. In to that at Cardiff. Yet whereas Swansea in this context that the struggle for the thinly peopled areas which are losing returned 27.9 per cent speaking Welsh future of the language has to be located services it is difficult to assemble and in 1911 and Cardiff only 6.7, the rather than in campaigns over rights and maintain an effective reservoir of skills. comparative figures one hundred years notions of equality. Some agriculturally based later are 11.4 as against 11.1 (it should Concern has been expressed over enterprises, in dairy and meat products, be noted that the areas of the County the use of Welsh in the National Health have been very successful. But here, Boroughs in 1911 were quite different Service. That is all well and good. But too, there have been problems and from those of the present Unitary to the population of these rural areas the movement of production to larger Authorities). the issue is not the language used but more accessible sites is an all too familiar The reasons for the loss in Swansea the effective provision of crucial hospital story. In short, the economic means for are not easy to elucidate. Maybe the services. The reducto ad absurdam in sustaining rural communities are weak city has not benefited from the influx National Health Service terms is that and seemingly declining. of Welsh speakers associated with the assemblage of the finest group of The loss of Welsh speakers in government and the media which has specialists is of no value whatsoever if I Swansea and its hinterland is equally characterised Cardiff. It is significant am dead on arrival. In language terms it disturbing. In Swansea itself there was that in the age group 3-14 there are translates to the point that the status of only a slight decline between 1991 32.8 per cent speakers in Cardiff, but Welsh will matter little if there is no one and 2001 in the percentage of Welsh only 28.5 per cent in Swansea - an left to speak it. speakers, from 13.3 to 13 .2 per cent. indication perhaps of a lack in Swansea It must be added that measures But it accelerated in the succeeding of the young Welsh-speaking in-migrant to offset these problems face great decade, falling to 11.4 per cent. This families which are associated with the difficulties. Large scale capital projects is not easy to explain for Swansea is a capital’s administrative functions. It (Wylfa excepted) are very unlikely city with apparently all the advantages is possible to maintain that this area,

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Wrexham the changed over that period. The problems percentage of of data reliability in 2011 are surely the speakers fell same as those in 2001. from 14.4 to 12.9 It has also been suggested that per cent and at the data are so unreliable as to be Flint from 14.1 unworthy of analysis. To that there is to 13.2 per cent. really no answer other than that the In an odd way, census is the only survey that does not given what has rely on sampling and rejection leaves been written no room at all for objective enquiry. In earlier about artistic terms there may be room for economic decline, impressionism as against the reality of it is probably the photograph, but in social enquiry economic growth the objective reality of the photograph is which contributed much to be preferred. to these changes. Our core conclusion is that whereas The continuing in the immediate past the growth in the possibly extending westward to include growth of Broughton has been one south and east outbalanced the decline Llanelli and its environs, represents of the real centres of development in the old heartlands that balance a throwback to the conditions which in Wales. Moreover there is a great has now been reversed. Growth in over much of the last century resulted contrast with the equivalent region in those southern and eastern parts now in language loss. Whatever the southern Wales, around Cardiff. There seems to have reached a plateau. The explanation, it is little short of disastrous is no parallel draw for Welsh speakers to number of Welsh speakers in Cardiff that this metropolitan area has to be jobs created by a Welsh administration. advanced by only 0.2 percentage points. added to the rural heartland when the In contrast the area is within the urban Meanwhile, decline in the heartland, decline of the last decade is assessed. hinterland of Chester and, more which was identified at the last census, The third area we noted is Merthyr importantly, of Liverpool, and indeed has now surfaced and been clearly and . Those Manchester. In a sense its loyalties are revealed. To this has to be added the authorities recorded virtual stability. directed across the border. All this failure of the area about Swansea Bay to There was no change in the Rhondda generates a condition where a strong show gains. and Merthyr showed a small decline basis for language increase is unlikely. For policy makers the message from ten per cent to just under nine This analysis is circumscribed by is not an easy one to accept, that all per cent. Here the explanation must lie the coarse level at which the data is the efforts over status and equality in the economic problems which have available. Modification or qualification may be of little ultimate effect if the core areas of the language continue There was no change in the Rhondda and Merthyr showed to show no economic dynamism and a small decline from ten per cent to just under nine per cent. where bureaucracy sees the future as totally conditioned by the exigencies of Here the explanation must lie in the economic problems threshold populations. which have beset the area.

John Aitchison and Harold Carter are both former Gregynog Professors beset the area. There was probably may be necessary when the small area of Human Geography at Aberystwyth very little in-migration of non-Welsh statistics are published. It also should University. They have written extensively speakers to these old industrial regions be noted that, as always with census on the spatial patterns of the Welsh to translate the situation into one with data, questions of reliability have been language including A Geography of the tangible decline in proportion. Nor raised, especially where results do not Welsh Language 1961-1991 (University of does there seem to have been any real fit preconceived ideas and confound Wales Press, 1994), Language, Economy movement in the opposite direction expectations. As with all questionnaire and Society. The changing fortunes of the of locally-based increase. The result surveys, there are legitimate criticisms, Welsh Language in the Twentieth Century is a depressing stalemate with little but this review is based on comparisons (University of Wales Press, 2000) and movement in either direction. over a census decade, and it is unlikely Spreading the Word. The Welsh Language The final area is the north-east. In that any shortcomings would have 2001 (Y Lolfa, 2004).

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The siting of a new airport alongside the Severn estuary near Newport would minimise noise pollution, with planes able to take of and land over water in a 24- hour operation. 3 Economy

Articles Wales and West Wales and West should should join forces on airport Sacred landscape join forces on airport and Sustainable Development

Capital Focus John Borkowski and Angus and Gatwick. The challenge for the Welsh Putting Cardiff at Walker suggest a radical solution to Government is to work closely with South West the heart of the the Welsh air connectivity deficit England to develop a joint approach towards Welsh economy aviation that will result in a major new airport South of the for the whole of south west Britain. tracks The UK Government has established an Airports Commission, under the chairmanship The Welsh Government’s £52 million of Sir Howard Davies, “to examine how the acquisition of Cardiff Airport at the end UK’s status as a leading global aviation hub of March was the right decision in order can be maintained”. As part of its remit the to facilitate future planning for Wales’s air Commission has been asked “to maintain a transport. In the longer-term, however, neither UK perspective, taking appropriate account of the present Cardiff nor Bristol airports are well the national, regional and local implications of placed to satisfy Welsh needs. any proposals.” Over the last few years the number of The last review of airports policy in 2003 passengers using Cardiff airport has halved to a adopted an approach that considered regions little over a million a year. Meanwhile, though separately. By doing so it failed to take account Bristol airport has been much more successful, of the combined needs of south Wales and the with passenger numbers climbing close to West of England. Separating consideration of six million a year, its future development is these two markets led to a sub-optimal strategy constrained by its location, runway limitations for the development of air travel for both and other factors. south Wales and the South West England. Both Southern Wales has too small a population regions need to ensure that this approach is not to base its long-term aviation needs on its followed by the new Airports Commission. own. Indeed, around three-quarters of Wales’ There is a danger that decisions on airport air passengers already travel to English provision in London could mean a serious airports, mainly Heathrow, Manchester, Bristol worsening of the air connectivity of southern

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Wales and the south west of England. nearly ten years to plan and build, but is has to compete with Bristol Airport It would be particularly severe if it is the eventual and coordinated closure which has been much more successful decided to opt for airport development of Cardiff and Bristol Airports would at developing scheduled flights. Bristol on the east side of London. Unless a mean that it would have 10-11 million has scheduled flights to 70 destinations new level of air service provision can be passengers a year from the start. This compared with just 12 at Cardiff. created for south Wales and the West, it is a much higher figure that the British However, Bristol Airport has its own will entail a significant loss of economic Airports Authority was able to deploy problems. It is located on a hill to the competitiveness for both regions. at the opening of Stansted Airport’s first south west of the city and is badly located In a study we have prepared for the major expansion in 1991. in terms of convenient road and rail IWA, Air Connectivity for Wales and the The siting of a new airport between access. The airport site is restricted with West, we argue that the two regions Newport and Chepstow would minimise little space to expand and only a 2,011 should cooperate to promote a state of noise pollution, with planes able to take metre length runway. The airport could the art, 24-hour Severnside passenger off and land over water. This would also probably be expanded to reach around and cargo airport that would serve the allow it to become the UK’s first purpose- 10 million passengers a year, but at this whole of south west Britain. The IWA built, 24-hour cargo airport, reversing the size operations would be very congested will be submitting our report to the relative decline of air cargo in the UK. It in terms of runway movements, taxi way Howard Davies Commission. could become an integrated cargo hub use, and lack of parking stands. A decade ago we made a study of linking all four modes of transport – air, Access to the airport with passenger the concept of a Severnside airport for road, rail and marine. traffic doubling to 10 million per annum Newport Council. We believe there is This large purpose built airport would create substantial nuisance for still an opportunity to build it on the would provide Wales and the west of local residents and would be a significant edge of the estuary between Newport England with a much better set of air local congestion problem. While on and Chepstow, with convenient access services than anything that could be paper the airport could be expanded, to the motorway system and to the new developed separately at Cardiff or Bristol. it would require a large number of electrified rail service. It would take Cardiff Airport’s major problem is that additional remote stands requiring

Pontypool

Newport

Portishead Bristol Site of Severnside Airport

Map showing a potential site for Severnside Airport on the Welsh side of the estuary near Newport. One runway would be on shore with a terminal to the south. A second runway would be offshore parallel to the first. The airport would be be served by road and rail from the M4 and the electrified Great Western Main Line.

the welsh agenda spring 2013—issue 49 | 37 3/Economy

Pilning immediately to the side of the Severn estuary slightly east of the second Severn offshore past the Caldicot Levels. This Bristol 6M Bridge crossing, close to would be far less damaging in terms north Bristol and less than of noise pollution and would allow for 10 miles from the likely 24-hour cargo operation. In addition the Severn estuary airport site. land availability at Pilning is relatively The study showed restricted. This would make it difficult to 5M that, with no new runway have two parallel wide-spaced runways constructed at the English to enable independent operations on

4M What is needed in the long term is a much larger replacement airport for both Cardiff and Bristol on a 3M

Total Passengers Total better located site.

2M South East Airports, each runway, a limitation that would not passenger volume at the apply on the Welsh side of the Severn. new airport would reach We believe our recommendations 33 million passengers per deserve to be taken seriously by 1M Cardiff, Wales annum by 2030 assuming Governments in London and Cardiff and only the closure of the by the business communities of Wales existing Bristol Airport. and the West of England. The Welsh In this scenario it was Government have done absolutely the 0M assumed that Cardiff right thing in seeking to gain greater Airport would continue to control over the future of our air 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 operate. If Cardiff Airport connectivity. This step to preserve the were to close (which would traffic now needs to be coupled with Graph showing the growth of passenger traffic at Cardiff and Bristol airports between 1991 and 2011. be a logical consequence our major new airport concept to take of a decision to build the the thinking a stage further. If the Welsh substantial additional bussing to and from new airport) this would have added economy is to prosper this is the kind of the terminal which would have to be a further 1 to 3 million passengers per big scale, long-term project it needs. significantly expanded on a very confined annum bringing the total at the new site. Operations would not be easy at airport to around 35 million passengers this level of throughput. Fog is also a per annum by 2030. significant issue at the airport at certain While this study is now ten years out times of the year. This leads to significant of date, its principles are still correct, flight diversions and cancellations. although the passenger volume would What is needed in the long term need to be reduced as a result of slower John Borkowski is former Head of is a much larger replacement airport economic growth and the burden Strategy for British Airways and is now for both Cardiff and Bristol on a better of extra taxation on the industry. We Managing Director of MSP Solutions, an located site. Evidence to support the believe that it would be reasonable to aviation and management consultancy. Severn estuary airport was provided by assume a traffic generation potential in Angus Walker is Chairman of MSP the South West England Green Paper the region of 25 to 30 million passengers Solutions. Their report Air Connectivity Consultation Document published in a year by 2050 for the Pilning site, were for Wales and the West was launched at 2002. In this paper the UK Government it to be developed. the IWA’s National Economy Conference published the results of a study of However, rather than Pilning we Making Wales Competitive in Cardiff establishing a new ‘greenfield airport’ at prefer a site further down on the Welsh during March.

38 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 3/Economy Tranquil evening on Traeth Bach, looking across the Porthmeirion peninsula in Gwynedd. Photo: John Briggs.

Sacred landscape and Sustainable Development

Cynog Dafis argues that a circle economic underachievement, including the first couplet there is a complacent, can be squared on green growth unemployment and economic inactivity, sentimental, picture of a pure, tranquil, educational underachievement, and a beloved Wales. In the second, there is the The Welsh economy is seriously range of health and social problems. In alternative, a Wales which seizes the day underachieving. As economist, Gerry addition, and as serious as all of this, is and embraces progress, one of the key Holtham, has demonstrated, Wales’ the continuing haemorrhage of our best concepts of the Victorian age and the public sector deficit, the difference and brightest talents through emigration. industrial revolution. between public expenditure and what In turn this is a drain on our social and The concept of Wales as a beautiful, is raised through taxes, is £12 billion, a cultural confidence and specifically on unspoilt landscape, a marvellous country quarter of Wales’ Gross Added Value the vitality of the Welsh language. for visitors to explore and discover (GVA). Wales’ average GVA is about The promotion of Sustainable its romantic, rocky primitive beauty 75 per cent of the UK average, and the Development is as we have all heard ad is analysed in Peter Lord’s masterly ‘prosperity gap’ is at present widening nauseam, a statutory obligation placed volume Imaging the Nation. It was this rather than closing. on the National Assembly through version of Wales, and of so-called ‘North Compare this with Scotland where the 1998 and 2006 Government of Wales’ in particular, which caused the the deficit is no worse than that of Wales Acts. I played some part in the UK government to designate 20 per the whole United Kingdom. As Gerry process of including this obligation in cent of the land of Wales as national Holtham points out, the reasons for the 1998 Act, and am glad to be able to parks (note the adjective, and bear in the difference are that Wales has say so. However, from the standpoint mind that the nation in question is not neither its own oil field nor a sizeable of constitutional principle, it is wholly Wales), and a further 10 per cent as financial services sector, and that taken unacceptable that Westminster legislation Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. In overall its economy is not in a healthy places such an obligation (and there are both designations there are substantial competitive state. others) on the National Assembly and I limitations on development, including As a result of these economic realities look forward to doing away with such renewable energy, in the name of the positions of Wales and Scotland in obligations in a new Government of conserving the priceless landscape of constitutional debate over the future of Wales Act as soon as possible. pure Wales. Britain are totally different. Scotland can The Welsh Government is committed The rival version is to be found in consider political independence, whether to passing a Sustainable Development the reality of the lives of the majority you think this desirable or not. The next Act and a Bill to take this forward will be of the people in 19th Century Wales, option, fiscal autonomy or ‘Devo-max’, is presented to the Assembly this October. which turned them into an industrialised also credible and a real possibility. It is opportune therefore, and at the risk population in one of the most innovative However, for Wales both these of oversimplification to remind ourselves and enterprising countries in the world. options are out of the question. Not of the two rival visions of a future Wales It was this spectacular transformation only that, but a third option of giving the set out in the iconic englyn of Taliesin o that gave rise to political and religious Assembly the kind of substantial taxation Eifion (Thomas Jones 1820-76): radicalism, social and cultural creativity responsibilities known as ‘Devo-plus’, and ferment. As a result, and unlike remains a considerable challenge. Wales ‘Pure Wales, tranquil Wales – Ireland, we retained a high percentage would still be heavily dependent on fair Wales of our migratory population within financial transfers from the Westminster Wales beloved always the boundaries of Wales which in turn Treasury. In short, and depressingly, the Fairest Wales, seize the day, injected new energy into the Welsh weakness of our economy limits our Land of song, advance and progress.’ language. One by-product of this national aspirations. transformation was, of course, the ‘land of There are other serious effects of Here we have two versions of Wales. In song’ invoked in Taliesin o Eifion’s englyn.

the welsh agenda spring 2013—issue 49 | 39 3/Economy

True, all this came at enormous depopulated, post-industrial areas are pure Wales, tranquil Wales, the sacred human (although not nearly as bad once again contributing to the economy landscape which must be kept inviolate. as that suffered by rural Ireland) and and creating a new and valued product. The irony is that strict environmental environmental cost. It was a perfect Concern for the preservation of a regulation often prevents precisely the example, you might say, of unsustainable priceless landscape was what informed type of development which is essential development. And, in addition to the Welsh Government planning for a sustainable natural environment. injecting new life into the language, did it decisions which led to the failure of the However, we also need to consider not also sow the seeds of its decline? But Cambrian Engineering Company which our attitude towards economic seriously, where would Wales be today constructed wind turbine towers and development that is not sustainable in were it not for what was forged in this employed 80 workers in Gwynedd. It the full sense. The evidence suggests amazing revolutionary cauldron? was the same concern which meant that Wales’s reserves of shale gas along When I walk in the countryside that producing a planning framework with methane from the extensive coal today, what never fails to entrance for renewable energy was such a long- seams remaining under land and me, and what gives meaning to the drawn-out, tortuous process, from which sea, for example in Swansea Bay, are landscape, is the human, social and emerged the infamous TAN 8 planning substantial. Carbon emissions from gas cultural inheritance passed on by document. One consequence of that is are less than from coal and oil, but they past generations. And so much of the ill-informed and negative protests hardly fit a true definition of sustainable that priceless heritage is due to the in Powys today, before which the Welsh development. If these sources were development of industry. Is it not striking, Government retreated with such alacrity. intelligently developed and set within and proper, that the industrial town of When the sawmills at Newbridge the framework of other policies such as Blaenafon has gained UNESCO World on Wye, Powys developed a scheme to workforce development and creating Heritage Site status? generate heat and energy from waste Welsh supply chains, might it be that The other day, I stood on Banc y wood and conifers, increasingly difficult Wales’ natural gas reserves could have a Darren in northern Ceredigion, above to exploit because of the increased transformational effect on our economic , Cwmerfin, Cwmsymlog and recycling of paper, one of the objections fortunes not unlike that of North Sea oil Penrhyncoch. The view was amazing, listed by the Environment Agency was in Scotland? Would it make any kind of while the ground under my feet was a that a rising column of steam from the sense for Wales to reject this opportunity maze of mine workings, lead, silver, and works – steam, not fire or smoke – would in the name of sustainability or in keeping copper. The surrounding villages were as sully the view. In the face of planning with the pure, tranquil Wales mind set? much industrial settlements as Blaenafon objections the scheme, which could Wales then should interpret its and Merthyr Tydfil, Glyn-neath, Tredegar, have helped kick start a Welsh biomass national commitment to promoting Llanberis or Rhosllannerchrugog. These industry, was withdrawn. sustainable development rather by what were among the powerhouses of the At a recent conference on renewable we do than by what we don’t do. We cultural, social and national awakening energy a constant refrain by the companies should regard sustainable development which is responsible for the fact that present was the difficulty of carrying on as an opportunity to surge ahead Wales is today a political nation. their business, and thus competing and rather than as a series of hurdles to be From Banc y Darren I could also see producing profit, in Wales. The contrast surmounted before we can act. Rather wind farms enlivening the view. Erecting with Scotland was mentioned repeatedly. than adopting the role of well-behaved and maintaining them has created jobs There the installed capacity for renewable ecologists we should be pushing the and is pumping tens of thousands of energy has risen from 1,800MW in 2004 boundaries of invention and innovation, pounds a year into the surrounding areas. to 4,360 in 2010 – an increase of 242 per eager to grasp the opportunities when But these developments happened in cent. The corresponding figures for Wales they arise. If that is environmental heresy, the teeth of the fierce opposition from a were 429 and 764, an increase of 56 per it is also simple common sense for a small minority of dedicated people. As often cent. Wales had a target of reaching 4TWh nation whose collective environmental as not their opposition was articulated in for renewable energy by 2010, but only global footprint is tiny, and whose need of terms of the romantic image of Wales as a achieved 1.6TWh. economic transformation is profound. priceless and unsullied landscape which The Scottish Government has So we come at last to the proposed must be preserved from development certain powers which the Welsh Sustainable Development Act. Part and radical change. Government lacks, and which have of the background is the Sustainable Yet when I stand at the summit of enabled Scotland to innovate in tidal Development Charter which according Pumlumon I see not destruction but the and wave technology as well as wind. to the Welsh Government “sets our vision miracle of turning wind into electricity, However, this has as much to do with for a sustainable Wales”. Sustainable the spinning of the blades enlivening political will as with powers. And part development, described as “the central the view, and the fascination that these of the problem is Version 1 Wales - organising principle” of the government’s

40 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 3/Economy policies, has the following elements:

• Living within our environmental means, using only our fair share of the earth’s resources. • Supporting healthy, productive and biological ecosystems. • Building a sustainable and strong economy, and fostering local economies and suppliers. • Enjoying safe, sustainable and attractive communities. • Creating a fair, just and bilingual country.

Wales’s environmental footprint heads the list. However if we were to succeed in Generations of activity at Mynydd Mechell on Anglesey has resulted in a spread of clutter – with wind turbines in the closing the prosperity gap between Wales distance – that now defines its character. Photo: John Briggs. and the rest of the UK, an increase in our environmental footprint would be a well- consideration. • Establish a hierarchy of considerations nigh inevitable consequence. Improving • Accept Wales’ dependence on fiscal which will rank climate change, our primitive road network, for example transfers from Westminster, with all biodiversity and control of pollution within Wales and between north and that implies for our constitutional higher than considerations of south, would in all probability increase aspirations. (subjective) visual aesthetics. our carbon emissions, unless we produce • Develop expertise in predicting new sustainable fuels - and Wales is not Or we can be much more ambitious: and analysing international and likely to manage that on its own. European policy trends so as to help WWF and other environmental • Use sustainable development as set the direction for our economic organisations complain that the Welsh an engine for improving economic development. Government’s legislative proposals place performance and creating a new • Ensure that Welsh businesses are insufficient emphasis on reducing our industrial revolution in Wales. informed about these trends and are global ecological footprint. Here is an • Accept the need for compromise thus able to take advantage of them. excellent example of transferring a UK in conserving the environment, • Ensure that understanding sustainablity policy automatically to the Welsh context, particularly the visual landscape. is a key element in the curriculum at all with no attempt to think creatively about • Over time to wean ourselves off our levels, so as to create a nation well- the specific problems and priorities of dependence on the UK Treasury. versed in the field. Wales. In this mind set the economy • Keep our constitutional options open • Accept that the well-being of the comes third and not first. according to what is advantageous natural environment must be placed What, therefore, should be the for Wales. in the context of the necessity foundations of the new Sustainable of improving Wales’s economic Development Act? In other words, what I favour the second option, and performance. kind of Wales do we wish to see? Here recommend the following underpinning • Set per capita GVA and economic are two options. The first is to commit to principles for the proposed Sustainable growth within a wider framework of our present route: Development Act: sustainable development indicators. • Do everything possible to ensure • Emphasise environmental conservation • Target and support environmental that the result of economic success and living within global limits. sectors which can contribute to is strongly linked to social justice and • Develop a range of locally-based economic growth. community regeneration. enterprises which conform strictly • Create a planning and regulatory to the sustainable development framework which will facilitate and template and gain brownie points from accelerate the sector’s development. Cynog Dafis is the former Plaid MP for environmentalists and within the UN • Develop and sustain our Ceredigion and AM for the Mid and West Network of Regions for Sustainable environmental assets, including water Wales region. This is an edited version Development. and energy, for the economic benefit of a speech he delivered at the National • Reject economic growth as a key of the nation. Eisteddfod ‘Maes Gwyrdd’ last August.

the welsh agenda spring 2013—issue 49 | 41 3/Economy CAPITAL FOCUS Aerial photo of Cardiff’s central area looking south to the Bay. The red line delineates the Enterprise Zone.

Putting Cardiff at the heart of the Welsh economy

Chris Sutton explains why the centre of the Welsh Capital warrants the creation of an Enterprise Zone

Cardiff is a city that punches above its regionally mobile investment projects and muddy waterfront location, but weight. It has a high profile, afforded by that simply would not consider other is now transformed into an exemplar its status as a Capital City and host to the locations. regeneration project. administrative hub of Welsh Government. Business Minister Edwina Hart has Additionally, its economic strength is 2. There is unfinished business in terms of announced a balanced portfolio of seven derived from its ‘City Region’ catchment a missing link between the city centre Enterprise Zones across Wales. Each has a of over 1.4 million people, which is more and Cardiff Bay, with land available for focus upon a designated sector, albeit that than four times the actual population development in close proximity to the these are not exclusive: within the city limits. city centre and central station. So, should an Enterprise Zone • Anglesey – energy. have been created in the heart of the The Enterprise Zone marketing • Central Cardiff - financial and capital, when there are clearly more proposition is based upon improved professional Services. disadvantaged locations across Wales? communications, not least rail • Deeside - advanced manufacturing. My response is an emphatic ‘yes’ for electrification, close proximity to a highly • Ebbw Vale – automotive. two reasons: successful, £1 billion-plus retail centre but • St Athan/Airport – aviation. also access to iconic cultural and sporting • Trawsfynydd - energy, environment, 1. Cardiff is the driver of the Welsh venues. Anyone with reservations should and information technology. economy and can deliver growth and simply look back 25 years to the task • Pembrokeshire’s Haven Waterway – employment for the wider city region. facing the pioneers of Cardiff Bay, which energy. Cardiff has the capability to attract was at that time an isolated, windswept

42 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 3/Economy A view of Callaghan Square just south of the Great Western Main Line, planned to become the heart of the capital’s financial district.

In arriving at these designations, the is a need to deliver enhanced projects of these initiatives should impact Business Minister consulted with business to enable each Enterprise Zone to positively upon the Enterprise Zone. organisations. CBI Wales suggested that generate jobs and growth. Central Enterprise Zone designations could be Cardiff has been given a major • Extra funding justified on the basis of areas of need, boost in this regard through the rail A fund of £20 million was established areas of “genuine economic opportunity”, electrification programme. This will for all Welsh Enterprise Zones for the or to reflect a particular niche. The not only bring London within two financial years 2012-13 through to 2015- resultant list is a balanced portfolio of all hours travel time, but also increase the 16, with a £10 million UK Government three of the above categories. employment catchment through the Barnett consequential supplemented The Central Cardiff Enterprise Zone Valleys rail improvements. There are by £10 million funding from Welsh Board is closely aligned with the Financial also the emerging Metro proposals, Government. Applications for the first and Professional Services Sector Panel. including Cardiff Crossrail and potential round of this funding closed in February This Panel has already undertaken much light transit improvements from the city 2013. The scheme operates under the valuable work in exploring indigenous centre to the Bay. de minimis state aid regulation, allowing growth and inward investment support up to €200,000 over a rolling opportunities. There is a particular focus • Business rates three fiscal year period for SMEs. upon attracting back office and support Task and Finish functions from the London office market, Group, headed by Professor Brian • High speed broadband with competitive employment costs and Morgan, stated that business rates Securing access to next generation a highly regarded workforce being strong are a policy lever that can be broadband is a key commitment of factors in Cardiff’s favour. deployed to incentivise growth and all the Enterprise Zones and Cardiff The Enterprise Zone is intended to jobs. The Group recommended is set to get £11 million from the UK create a focal point for investment and the introduction of a “limited and Government’s ‘super connected cities’ employment through the removal of targeted scheme in Wales based programme. barriers and the provision of incentives upon a capped fund with preference to encourage investment. The Central being given to projects within • Training and skill provision Cardiff Zone does not offer Enhanced the Enterprise Zones and Welsh The focus upon financial and Capital Allowances, as these are directed Government’s priority sectors”. professional services is likely to lead to to capital intensive projects in Assisted The Task and Finish Group also investment projects which are labour Areas. However, what it does offer is a recommended greater retention of intensive and, therefore, training blend of the following policy levers: business rates by local authorities packages may be an attractive option • Infrastructure and a longer period of exemption for potential occupiers. The Zone As highlighted by the 2012 Welsh from empty property rates for new already benefits from the most generous Infrastructure Investment Plan, there speculative development. Both training support for job creation

the welsh agenda spring 2013—issue 49 | 43 23/PoliticsEconomy

The Central Cardiff Enterprise Zone vision is to The Central Cardiff Enterprise Zone vision is to create a financial hub with create a new financial hub with an additional an additional critical mass of new critical mass of new floorspace which could floorspace which could potentially potentially total up to one million square feet. total up to one million square feet. However, the most inspiring visions are redundant without the capacity to available in the UK. The Assisted Area emerging businesses, the Enterprise implement change. In these challenging map will be redrawn in 2014 and there Zone needs to address the shortage market conditions, the focus of Welsh is a case for including the Enterprise of available Grade A offices. The Government should be upon delivery, Zone in the next map. potential is for up to one million square including the provision of incentives feet of new floorspace, which could to attract investment. This will not only • S implified planning accommodate more than 10,000 create, but also safeguard, employment. Secondary legislation can secure a jobs. Certainly, Welsh Government simplified planning system via the use has indicated its desire to support of Local Development Orders. My property development in this regard. impression is that the Council is taking a Its recent acquisition of the Callaghan more proactive approach to the re-use Square site provides the opportunity of secondary office stock, including the of a development capable of conversion of obsolete offices to hotels accommodating up to 500,000 square or student housing. This will generate feet as a financial hub. Prime sites are Chris Sutton is Lead Director, Cardiff indigenous demand within the capital. available to the north and south of the with Jones Lang LaSalle and a member mainline railway providing a range of of the Cardiff Central Enterprise Zone • Provision of new sites and buildings options for potential occupiers. Board and the Business Rates Policy To meet the needs of new and Review Task and Finish Group 3/Economy The obstacles that greet passengers alighting CAPITAL FOCUS at Cardiff Central Railway station – “it’s hard to believe you’ve arrived at a capital city”.

South of the tracks

Tony Grist believes the future redevelopment of Cardiff Central the modern era, the area north of the railway developed from the mudflats Station could be used to unite a divided city left by Brunel’s redirection of the River Taff, into Temperance Town Leaving Cardiff Station, it’s hard to creating a true gateway to Wales. developed by Jacob Matthews in believe that you have arrived at a capital The prospectus issued in 1844 the mid 19th Century to house dock city, one that was ranked sixth in the to build a railway through south workers. Interestingly, this development world in 2011 by National Geographic Wales from a junction in Standish in was demolished in the 1930s at the as an alternative tourist destination. Gloucestershire, to ship coal to London, request of the Great Western Railway The first offering is a rust coloured was the beginning of a division of this to “improve the view” from the Railway fence. Although it protects pedestrians area of Cardiff. The railway that came Station. The creation of Cardiff Arms from buses, it creates a barrier that separated the areas north and the Park in 1881 and the development of forces visitors to the right or left, and south of the Central Station. As in other the bus interchange in 1954 completed bars them moving forward. Behind industrial cities, the coming of many of the current components of the the fence, a series of 1980s designed the railways, in this case to carry coal, area. The rail tracks created a division canopies merge with buses to form took little account of the communities between the city’s retail, commercial another physical barrier. Further they bisected. and entertainment facilities to the north away a series of partially unoccupied At that time, Cardiff was also a city and more industrial uses to the south. 1960s buildings provide a backdrop. of canals, not dissimilar to Utrecht in As the area to the south became Finally, there are queues of black and Holland. They have been described as industrialised and separated from the white cabs jostling for position at the being as important as the M4 and the city by the railway, so the historic links congested taxi ranks. A470 are now to the industry of the between the Valleys and the Bay were Yet we have an opportunity to region, and were also key to delivering broken. The green fingers that reach change all this as part of establishing coal from the Valleys to the docks. down through Bute Park to Cardiff a new vision for Cardiff. Any However, we have seen the gradual Castle diminish as they pass through redevelopment of the Central Station removal of canals that could have this area. However, future development should be about the creation of a pivotal contributed to a sustainable method could help replace this historic green new place that sits within a wider of transport from the city to the docks. connection that is only now apparent in strategy of city connections. That would Meanwhile, we have seen the insertion of the area around Canal Park on the west also stimulate opportunities in other a railway that has had a divisive impact side of Butetown. Here the canal has parts of the city, interacting with the on the way a major city has expanded. been replaced by a linear park, which arts and creative pulse of Cardiff and As the city moved forward into could be continued to Callaghan Square

the welsh agenda spring 2013—issue 49 | 45 3/Economy and then on through St Mary Street, and High Street as a green link to the Castle. In parallel, the banks of the Taff could be planted and provided with cycle and walkways as an additional north-south link that could start to repair this part of the city’s accessibility. As these links are developed, the area to the north and south of central station could develop east-west connections that link in with these new access ways along the river, and from the Castle to Canal Park (see Figure 1). So how can the station be used to create a new central space that stitches together the areas to its north and the south and stimulates opportunities on both sides? Well, you can literally go over or under the station to make these connections and there are many examples around the world where this is currently being done (see Figure 2). In Utrecht again, the new elevated station Figure 1: The potential for making green linear links through the concourse by Benthem Crouwell Architects allows heart of Cardiff, connecting Bute Park with the Bay. passengers to circulate between the old part of the city, the railway, and the new commercial district. The wide structure is reminiscent of a raised plaza, containing shops and amenities. At Napoli Afragola Station, Zaha Hadid Architects have commenced construction of a raised bridge-like structure that connects across the station incorporating services, amenities and access to platforms. At Croydon Station, Studio Egret West Architects have proposed a simple bridge across the tracks that also serve the platforms. There are many ways to bridge over rail infrastructure, but the simple act of elevating people Figure 2: The current north-south connections through Cardiff to an upper level, before crossing the tracks can often station are limited to its ticketed concourse tunnel. If this were expanded, or if more of the fill under the station were removed, then be seen as a barrier to pedestrian and spatial flow. the connectivity both spatially and visually would be substantial. Access across or under tracks at ground level creates a better spatial connection and avoids moving people up to get over obstructions. Examples of this form of connection include public space to the north and south of the station could be Bilmer Station in Amsterdam by Grimshaw, and the Minneapolis immense, opening up new opportunities to the south and new Downtown Interchange by EE&K which actually lowers the connectivity across this part of the city. ground either side of the rail station to increase clearance. In addition to the north-south connections, the east-west The current north-south connections across Cardiff station connectivity can also be improved as part of any improvements are limited to its ticketed concourse tunnel. If this tunnel were to Central Square on the north side. Currently, on leaving the expanded, or if more of the fill under the station were removed, station the majority of pedestrians turn east to the right. The then the connectivity both spatially and visually would be development of the St Davids 2 shopping mall and substantial Of course, economic and engineering viability would has reinforced this movement pattern. As a result, however, the be a vital part of the assessment of this proposal. However, traditional arcades have suffered a decline in patronage. this type of change could make a significant difference to this The development of Central Square at ground level could gateway station and transform it from barrier to ‘connector’. support new ‘sheltered’ movement patterns that draw people Using the recently completed St Pancras Station in London forward and then begin to distribute them equitably back as a model, there is an opportunity for the ground level to be though the existing arcade network. This begins to suggest a replaced with shops and ticketing, with passengers lifted up to guideline for any development around the square and would platforms by escalators, lifts and stairs. introduce a new interpretation of the Cardiff arcade as a There is also an opportunity for direct access to a new method of moving around the city under shelter. river ferry system to the west of the station and ultimately The other major impact on the Central Square development a future Metro link to the east. The impact on potential is the . Dealing with occasional large

46 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 3/Economy

Figure 3: The Etihad Stadium in Melbourne is an example of Figure 4: The to the south of the railway line only a building type that could be emulated in Cardiff, integrating has a few years left on its lease and presents an opportunity for multiple public uses at ground level, including retail and re-development as a creative precinct. cultural spaces, with commercial uses above. movements of people across public space cultural or other spaces, with commercial so opportunities should be explored requires consideration of the types of uses above (see Figure 3). By activating soon. It could be opened up as a tourist spaces being created. The worst scenario these lower levels, adjacent public space is destination surrounded by linked small is a wide-open space that is vacant for also activated. This space can be left open businesses (not unlike the Heineken most of the time – and only busy during an or covered. It helps to create an activated Brewery in Amsterdam), or redeveloped event. The work we have recently carried public area, overlooked by the occupiers as a different type of ‘creative precinct’ out in Melbourne around the Etihad above, thus providing safety and security. offering converted creative incubator Stadium suggests a different scenario, Having laid down a structure for spaces and a centre for start-up creative similar to a shower head, that takes a cross-site access, with laneways and industries in Cardiff (see Figure 4). large flow and divides it into smaller flows. arcades that can cope with occasional There are many stakeholders to be The creation of a series of different scale stadium loading, and defined a building drawn together to make a reality of such lanes between stadium and station allows type that can provide a strategy for a major city re-invention. They include for the creation of spaces more suitable commercial and public uses, the , the Welsh Government, when games are not being played – more proposition for a new vital public square Network Rail, landowners and developers, intimate, occupied, and therefore more falls into place. Surrounded by two or and many specialist advisers and vital. three levels of public activation, the consultants that need to share a vision for In the same project, we have used square would become a dynamic centre reinvention on a city scale. The answer is a new building typology that provided of activity with a year round programme not just about transport strategy, or even for both commercial and public uses. of events. These would be driven by commercial opportunities. Rather, it’s This is a building type increasingly used visitors arriving from the station and about how all these skills can be brought around the world to activate public moving to the city centre, with additional together to heal part of the city that has space at lower levels. There are many activity and surveillance from the higher been neglected for many years. The prize commercial use buildings in cities that levels of the surrounding buildings. The would be to create a new heart for the do not provide any interaction with square also plays a role connecting the Welsh capital that is vital, sustainable, and the public space at ground level. They city to the river and at this location there economically viable now and for the future. may be transparent at ground level or is an opportunity for a different and have accessible private lobbies, but in special type of public space. general they shun the public and public With the definition of the north side Tony Grist is Head of Architecture for interface, sometimes for reasonable of the station and the opportunity to HASSELL, an International Design issues associated with problems like connect spatially and visually under Practice integrating architecture, security, but sadly, often due to issues the tracks, the southern site becomes landscape architecture, interior design associated with secrecy. viable as an extension of this new and urban design within 14 International This new building type integrates public space. The existing Brewery Studios across Australasia, China, SE multiple levels of public uses, retail, only has a few years left on its lease, Asia and now Europe.

the welsh agenda spring 2013—issue 49 | 47 Heads of the Valleys education poverty gap

4 Lizzie Swaffield, David Eganand Danny Saunders report on an initiative to improve school attainment in Merthyr and Blaenau Gwent Education There is an education poverty gap in involvement in order to raise the Heads of the Valleys. The number awareness and deploy the significant of 15-year-old students achieving GCSE resources of nearby universities. A*-C grades in English/Welsh and Mathematics in Blaenau Gwent is 35 2. S trengthening teaching and per cent and in Merthyr Tydfil 39 per leadership cent. This compares with 50 per cent for This is being led by two former head Wales as a whole. teachers with strong reputations for The Heads of the Valleys Education leading successful secondary schools. Articles Programme has an ambitious target They are facilitating a detailed and Heads of the of achieving 70 per cent of students in intensive middle management Valleys education these authorities achieving GCSE A*-C workshop and coaching programme poverty gap grades in the core subjects by 2020. targeting Heads of Departments The Programme is being driven by the of English and Mathematics with All we need is Universities Heads of the Valleys Institute, a continual emphasis on data, tracking, English n’est-ce partnership between the local authorities, early intervention and effective pas? Coleg Gwent and the merged universities approaches to learning and teaching. of Glamorgan and Newport. The aim is to recruit more than 4,000 students by 2014. The success of these initiatives will The focus will be two new lifelong underpin all other Heads of the Valleys learning campuses. Last year the Blaenau Education Programme activity since it Gwent Learning Zone opened. Located is dependent upon an increase in the on the former steel foundry in Ebbw Vale, numbers of learners with appropriate it includes a tertiary campus for all local entry qualifications for higher education post 16 education, an integrated primary and training. The Programme is aiming and secondary school, and new centres to achieve standards that are common in for Leisure, Arts and Energy. more advantaged parts of the country: Twenty miles to the west Coleg Merthyr Tydfil is in the process of being • Every child to be ready to benefit built, alongside a new Arts Centre on from school. the site of the old Town Hall. All local post-16 education in the town will • All students to progress successfully be delivered through the College by from primary to secondary education September 2014. and to fulfil their potential. Two related programmes are being developed to support the targeted • High percentages of 16 to 19-year- student attainment levels: olds gain a good Level 2 qualification including English and mathematics. 1. Enhanced support for student learning • High percentages of 19-year-olds This will be achieved by student to progress into further or higher mentoring systems which target D/C education, training or employment. borderline learners as well as those who have the potential for obtaining • Significant improvements to be A and *A star grades. Mentoring achieved in the skills levels of the will be reinforced by undergraduate adult population.

48 | 4/Education The Blaenau Gwent Learning Zone, opened in September 2012 on the site of the former steel foundry in Ebbw Vale. It combines a tertiary campus for post-16 education with an integrated primary and secondary school, and new centres for leisure, arts, and energy.

Activity is being guided by work streams Mare and Bath in the education of 5,000 both endemic and inter-generational. covering early years, transition between students between the ages of 4 and The experience of the Glyncoch primary and secondary schools, 19 sponsored by local universities and Community Partnership in Pontypridd progression to colleges and universities, employers. These partnerships pioneered is considered invaluable because it adult skills, and support for learning. All radical curriculum re-organisation, views the 8-14 year old as both a learner of this means ensuring that the Heads of with more emphasis being placed on and a community member. Additional the Valleys are provided with excellent skills compared to subject knowledge. educational experiences are being teachers, coaches and advisers. In They also introduced vertical tutoring – provided by out-of-hours provision, turn this means strong leadership and where young people from different year focused on informal learning in relation the creation of learning communities groups learn together - with significant to literacy, numeracy and other skills. that share their successes whilst also improvements in achievement. Above all, the most important within- approaching challenges openly through Developments like this are leading school factor is the quality of teaching that collective action. to more integration and closer planning students experience. This points to the A major challenge is the transition between primary and secondary schools, need for much closer working between of young learners as they move from with common approaches to pedagogy Senior Leadership Teams, including the later part of primary education into and leadership involving shared staff teachers from primary and secondary early secondary education, the 8-14 age development between clusters of primary schools spending time on professional group where the most dramatic decline and secondary schools. Particular development in each others’ institutions. in education attainment takes place in attention is being given to ensure that Local authorities also need to collaborate the Heads of the Valleys, particularly literacy and numeracy are owned by all on making joint appointments, such as among pupils who are in receipt of free subject areas rather than merely regarded a Director of Learning and Teaching for school meals. as an additional responsibility for isolated 8-14 provision to encourage dissemination A task and finish group has been English and Mathematics departments. of effective practice between schools investigating the problems facing this This is being seen as a critically important within the Heads of the Valleys area. group of young people, many of whom whole-school issue that draws upon the move from a smaller school in which experience of Inclusion leaders inside they are well known to their primary and outside schools. class teacher, to a larger secondary In addition to raising standards of institution where they may have 12 or literacy and numeracy there is also a Lizzie Swaffield is Programme Manager more different teachers within a more strong and proactive interest in the early and Professor David Egan is Senior complicated learning environment. development of employability through Policy Advisor with the Heads of the The group has identified models work based learning. This is a priority Valleys Education Programme. Danny of good practice, including the Cabot given the nature of the Heads of the Saunders is Professor Emeritus in Learning Federation involving ten Valleys area where many children grow Lifelong Learning at the University of Academies in Bristol, Weston super up in families where ‘worklessness’ is South Wales.

the welsh agenda spring 2013—issue 49 | 49 4/Education All we need is English n’est-ce pas?

Ceri James reveals Wales language learning in Wales today, talk of up rates for EU mobility schemes such has the shortest period of diversification or expansion is fanciful. as Erasmus and Leonardo are low in compulsory foreign language Consider the facts. The teaching of Wales, as they are in the UK in general modern foreign languages has suffered compared with other EU states. These learning in Europe a notable decline in Welsh schools, schemes bring learners greater fluency colleges and universities over the last 20 in other languages, but also a range of There is a fairly commonly held view years. Unlike in England and, indeed, ‘soft skills’ much valued by employers. that despite the claims of Mandarin throughout the EU, they have never A recent CBI skills survey indicated Chinese, English continues to be the been a compulsory subject beyond Key that a high proportion of businesses are language of business, IT, the Internet Stage 3 (11-14 years) in Wales and at dissatisfied with the levels of foreign and indeed the only tongue we really present there appears to be no plan to language skills amongst new recruits need in order to travel the world and introduce them at primary school level. from the UK. meet people. Even those who do not This is the shortest period of So what is being done? The Welsh dismiss foreign language learning compulsory foreign language learning Government has an action plan entitled entirely claim that we are getting things in Europe. Ironically German, which ‘Making Languages Count’, plus an badly wrong in our schools. is in great demand on websites such ‘International Education Programme’. Three years ago Welsh MP and as multilingualvacancies.com, has It funds the Centre for International former Minister for Europe Chris disappeared from many of our schools. Languages and Teaching Cymru (CILT) Bryant stated that French, still the most From a high of 55 per cent in 1995, to work with schools, local authorities, commonly taught foreign language, foreign language teaching in Welsh businesses and a range of partner was now “useless” and questioned why schools to GCSE level has fallen to organisations to increase the number we weren’t teaching more Mandarin, about 25 per cent of the Welsh cohort. of pupils opting for foreign languages Spanish and Arabic – languages he In areas of high social deprivation such and raise awareness of the benefits claimed were “more useful for business”. as Blaenau Gwent, this percentage is as which language skills bring in terms of Whilst I would disagree strongly low as 11 per cent. A number of schools employability. with the point about French - after all do not run a GCSE class at all, and there In particular CILT Cymru is promoting it is spoken in many countries around are centres where A/AS Level groups the Triple Literacy project which aims to the globe, and has official status in a are no longer viable. improve standards in literacy as well as to number of developing countries - I There is no escaping the fact that boost confidence in language learning. do agree that we need to broaden the supply chain feeding our universities It helps children make connections the range of languages on offer to our and businesses is in a parlous state. between English and Welsh and build schoolchildren. We could also do much Perhaps as a result of this pressure, upon their prior language learning skills more to harness the pool of linguistic modern foreign language departments and strategies to introduce a modern talent that already exists in Wales. have been axed at both Glamorgan foreign language, thereby developing As well as English and Welsh, a and Newport Universities, increasing triple literacy. survey conducted in 2005 found that the perception that they have become For the first time, teachers of modern 98 different languages were spoken subjects for the élite. foreign languages, Welsh and English by pupils in Welsh state schools. With At a time of high youth are collaborating rather than ignoring or about a quarter of our children already unemployment and increasing competing with each other. Pupils at Triple bilingual by virtue of the Welsh-medium mobility of labour, Welsh school and Literacy project schools are less confused system, we have a huge opportunity to college leavers find themselves at by grammatical work as there is now a develop national competence in third a disadvantage, lacking as they do whole-school policy on issues such as and fourth languages. the linguistic skills and intercultural terminology, marking schemes and raising However, given the reality for foreign knowledge to compete for jobs. Take- literacy levels. Learners are becoming

50 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 4/Education much more aware of the similarities Language Ambassadors now delivers In other words, greater numbers of between languages, and are able to use talks to schoolchildren about the joys undergraduates are choosing to take their prior knowledge to decode new of studying foreign languages abroad advantage of EU-funded opportunities words and meanings. Cognates such as as well as within our own universities. to study part of their course at a ‘ffenestr’ and ‘fenêtre’, ‘Bäckerei’ and Collaboration with SeeScience means European university, or to undertake ‘bakery’, ‘puente’ and ‘pont’ may not be that hundreds of science, technology, a work placement abroad. Some have immediately obvious, but once alerted engineering and maths ambassadors been delighted to find that exotic to new reading strategies pupils find that are delivering a similarly upbeat locations such as La Guadeloupe are they can approach challenging texts with message about combining scientific and classed as EU territory! greater confidence. linguistic skills. Professor , Vice- So much for schools, but what is Aberystwyth University is providing Chancellor at Cardiff University, has set happening in higher education? In his language lessons in a range of languages a target of 17 per cent of his students to remit letter to the Higher Education to five centres in Ceredigion offering participate in outward mobility schemes Funding Council for Wales, Education the Welsh Baccalaureate Qualification. by 2017. This bold move will ensure Minister Leighton Andrews has This is giving Welsh Bacc candidates the that students of all disciplines, not just designated modern foreign languages, opportunity to ‘taste’ a new language those studying foreign languages, will along with Science, Technology, such as Italian or Japanese, which they enhance their CVs and ultimately their Engineering and Maths, as ‘Subjects may then wish to pursue as a non- employment prospects. They will also of Broader Importance to Wales’. In specialist subject if they go to university. widen their experience, boost their self- response to this, the Council has funded Higher education ‘ab initio’ courses are confidence and make friends for life. In the ‘Routes into Languages Cymru’ now common, making it possible to pick these straitened times it is easy to forget project, which seeks to increase the up a new language at a later stage. the enormous personal satisfaction number of foreign language students at Despite the inevitable competition for which language-learning can bring. Welsh universities. ‘bums on seats’, there is a growing sense For those that prefer less ‘fluffy’ Managed by CILT Cymru in of shared purpose between university arguments, I leave you with a quotation partnership with all 11 Welsh language departments which has led to from business executive Sarah Grain of universities, Routes Cymru has much sharing of ideas and good practice. Eriez Magnetics, a multinational company generated a wealth of events for young Recent figures provided by the that has a major plant in , “The people, careers-related resources and British Council show that there growth of our business is primarily export- collaborative projects between schools has been an increase in student led and use of foreign languages is vital and universities. A team of Student ‘outward mobility’ in recent years. to this success. Having permanent access to language skills saves considerable time and money.” Perhaps it will be the bottom line that finally convinces us to act by making a serious investment in foreign language skills. If we are swept along by the anti-European bandwagon and fail to address our parochialism, the consequences for Wales and our future economic and cultural well-being could indeed be dire.

Ceri James is Director of Centre for Information and Language Learning Cymru. Information about its Compact, Business Language Champions’ ‘Triple Literacy’ projects can be accessed at www.ciltcymru.org.uk. More information on foreign language Blackwood Comprehensive school pupils taking a NVQ business language course pupils visit Eriez teaching at university level can be Magnetics Europe at Bedwas, winners of the IWA’s 2012 Business Award for best use of foreign languages. They hear how the language skills of the firm’s employees are winning engineering contracts for Wales across accessed at the world. Eriez are offering an apprenticeship to local pupils with language skills. www.routesintolanguages.ac.uk/cymru

the welsh agenda spring 2013—issue 49 | 51 The obesity epidemic Zoë Harcombe asks how many more people will become overweight 5 before we cut back on processed carbohydrate foods high on fructose Health In a study of formerly obese people, sudden and dramatic increase in obesity? researchers at the University of Florida found Yes there was. In 1977 the USA changed that virtually all said that they would rather be its public health diet advice. In 1983 the UK blind, deaf or have a leg amputated than be followed suit. A more accurate description obese again. That is the extent of our desire would be that we did a complete U-turn to be slim. Yet two thirds of people in the UK, in our diet advice from ‘starchy foods are USA, and Australia are overweight and a fattening’ to ‘base your meals on starchy quarter obese. Why? foods’. Obesity has increased up to ten fold To be slim, to achieve the thing we want since – coincidence or cause? more than our sight, hearing, or mobility, In the 1970s, the fact that fewer than Articles we are told that we just need to ‘eat less and six people in one thousand were dying The obesity do more’. The British Dietetic Association’s from heart disease was of great concern to epidemic advice is “One pound of fat contains 3,500 America. American public health advisors calories, so to lose 1lb a week you need a wanted a solution. During the 1950s the Lifestyle deficit of 500 calories a day.” American scientist Ancel Keys attempted change versus So, why don’t we just follow the advice? to prove that cholesterol consumption was medication Why on earth do we have an obesity the cause of heart disease. He failed and he problem, let alone an epidemic, when we acknowledged this. He then tried to prove so desperately want to be slim? I set out to that saturated fat consumption causes heart answer that question in the late 1980s. This disease, despite this having no logic, not least article is a summary of my findings. because saturated fat and cholesterol are In 1972, World Health Organisation found in the same foods. statistics recorded that 2.7 per cent of UK men At the time that Senator McGovern was and women were obese. Fewer than three looking for the firstDietary Goals for the United decades later, in 1999, the same statistics States, the Keys’ theory was not the only idea found 22.6 per cent of men and 25.8 per available for consideration, but it was the best cent of women were obese. Two thirds of promoted. The rest, as they say, is history. UK citizens are now overweight or obese. The USA changed its dietary advice and The USA started from a slightly higher base the UK followed. We told people that fat and displayed a virtually identical trend, was bad and carbohydrate was good, not with 70 per cent of today’s Americans either because we knew either fat to be bad or overweight or obese. carbohydrate to be good. At the time we The starting point for understanding the changed our advice, the only ‘evidence’ obesity epidemic is the question: what changed for fat being bad was a feeble suggestion in the late 1970s and early 1980s? Was there that, in seven handpicked countries, heart one thing that happened that could explain the disease tended to be related to cholesterol

Overweight Wales Wales is the most overweight country within the United Kingdom where obesity has more than doubled in the last 25 years. More than 50 per cent of adults in Wales are overweight and around 27 per cent are obese. The body mass index, a measurement which compares weight and height, defines people as overweight (pre-obese) if the ratio is between 25 and 30 kg/m2, and obese when it is greater than 30 kg/m2. The proportion of classified as either overweight or obese is predicted to increase to 85 per cent by 2020 unless remedial action is taken.

52 | 5/Health

levels, which tended to be related to Journal of Medicine, 1994). American Journal of Bariatric Medicine): saturated fat intake. The inference was that heart disease tended to be related • “The ideal controlled dietary trial for “Fructose consumption (as both high to saturated fat, although cholesterol prevention of heart disease has not fructose corn syrup and sucrose) intake was not intrinsically related. yet been done and it is unlikely ever has increased coincidentally with The association was never proven. to be done.” (Letter from the Food the worldwide epidemics of obesity We had no evidence that carbohydrate Standards Agency to Zoë Harcombe, and metabolic syndrome. Fructose was good – just the admission that, if we 25 September 2009). is a primary contributor to human tell people not to eat fat they must eat disease as it is metabolised in the something. As the National Advisory Without undertaking the definitive liver differently to glucose, and Committee on Nutrition Education’s study, we have nonetheless tried to is more akin to that of ethanol. paper Proposals for nutritional guidelines for post rationalise the U-turn in dietary When consumed in large amounts, health education in Britain put it in 1983: advice. We claim that saturated fat fructose promotes the same directly causes heart disease. We dose-dependent toxic effects as “The previous nutritional advice claim that saturated fat causes heart ethanol, promoting hypertension, in the UK to limit the intake of all disease through cholesterol. We claim hepatic and skeletal muscle insulin carbohydrates as a means of weight that saturated fat is trying to kill us resistance, dyslipidemia and fatty control now runs counter to current and unsaturated fat is trying to save liver disease... Fructose from any thinking and contrary to the present us. We claim that a magic ratio of source should be regarded as proposals for a nutrition education polyunsaturated fat to saturated fat ‘alcohol without the buzz’. Obesity policy for the population as a will save us, despite the fact that it is prevention and treatment is whole… The problem then becomes unachievable with a natural diet. We ineffective in the face of the current one of achieving both a reduction claim that there is such a thing as bad ‘fructose glut’ in our food supply. in fat intake to 30 per cent of total and good cholesterol and that the We must learn from our experiences energy and a fall in saturated fatty former is trying to kill us and the latter is with ethanol and nicotine that acid intake to 10 per cent.” trying to save us. regulation of the food industry, Finally, we claim that food we have along with individual and societal So started the obesity epidemic. There been eating for thousands of years will education, will be necessary to have been no trials to attempt to justify kill us and modern-man-made-spreads combat this fructose epidemic.” the replacing of fat with starch in our will save us. We have claimed some diet, as the following authorities testify: quite extraordinary things since Ancel Lustig charts an inexorable rise in fructose Keys’ Seven Countries Study and we consumption across the Western world. • “There has been no controlled clinical have no more evidence now than we Prior to 1900 Americans consumed trial of the effect of decreasing dietary had then. We still have no consistent approximately 15 grams a day, mainly intake of saturated fatty acids on the association, let alone got anywhere near from fruit and vegetables. By World War incidence of coronary heart disease proven causation. II this had increased to 24 grams per day. nor is it likely that such a trial will As for the possible benefit of By 1977 it was 37 grams a day; by 1994 be undertaken.” (Committee on carbohydrate, we have not even bothered 55 grams a day; and by 2009, when he Medical Aspects of Food Policy, Diet to post rationalise this. To do so would be published his article, 73 grams a day. and Cardiovascular Disease: Report pointless – we have decided that fat is bad, Now it was being mainly consumed in of the Panel on Diet in Relation to so we must eat carbohydrate, so it could fizzy drinks, and processed biscuits, cakes Cardiovascular Disease, 1984). only be unhelpful to find anything wrong and pastries, and especially by children. with carbohydrate. We have forgotten that we eat for • “It has been accepted by experienced The crucial change which took nourishment. We have a vital need for coronary disease researchers that place in the late 1970s in America and nutrition and we have lost this basic the perfect controlled dietary trial in the early 1980s in Britain was the value in our dietary advice. If we had for prevention of coronary heart increase in fructose sugar used in the stayed true to the principle of why we disease has not yet been done manufacture of processed carbohydrate eat, the most nutritious foods would and we are unlikely ever to see it foods. This was due to its cheapness and be evidential in any analysis of fat, done.” (Stewart Truswell, ‘Review relative abundance in maize crops. As protein, vitamins and minerals. They of dietary intervention studies: effect Dr Robert Lustig, of the University of are the liver, sardines, milk, eggs and on coronary events and on total California, put it in his 2009 article ‘The greens favoured by our elders and not mortality’, Australian New Zealand Fructose Epidemic’ (The Bariatrician, the the fortified cereals and margarines

the welsh agenda spring 2013—issue 49 | 53 5/Health

favoured by conglomerates and, high fat and low health in parallel. weight was palpable. The advice that reprehensibly, far too many dietary When people talk about ‘the people were given was the same as advisors alongside. obesogenic environment’, they do so as if the advice that made them overweight An industry originated marketing this were some inexplicable phenomenon in the first place: eat less fat and more campaign, five-a-day, has become the that crept up on the world and made carbohydrate. In other words, eat less leading public health message in tens everyone fat. We created this obesogenic real food and eat more processed food. of countries across three continents. It environment; it did not happen to us. We Eat less/do more became such a is spoken of as if there is overwhelming told people to avoid real food and to eat common mantra that anyone who didn’t evidence behind it, when the reality processed food. We passed legislation to ‘get this’ was declared stupid. What these is that there is none. Worse, if the introduce trans fats and sweeteners into critics didn’t know is that we had evidence proponents of pick-a-number-a-day our food chain. We allowed our children going back to the early 20th Century that knew what Dr Richard Johnson, author to be given toys, cartoon characters and eat less/do more did not work - Francis of The Fat Switch knows, they would junk food by ‘strangers’. G. Benedict, Human vitality and efficiency surely revise their opinion of fructose We have facilitated the comprehensive under prolonged restricted diet, 1919. and never mention fruit juice again. As infiltration of the food and drink industry The level of failure was later quantified Johnson explains: fructose-containing into our dietary advice – nowhere more at 98 per cent – by Albert Stunkard and sugars cause obesity not by calories but so than in the fattest nation on earth, Mavis McLaren-Hume in ‘The results of by turning on the fat switch: America, where we have gone as far as treatment for obesity’, Archives of Internal legislating the relationship, so that only the Medicine, 1959. “Those of us who are obese eat food industry sponsored American Dietetic Another irony could be that we more because of a faulty ‘switch’ Association can advise the unsuspecting ignored the brilliant and unbiased study and exercise less because of a low public. We put cakes, cola and sweets done by Ancel Keys and favoured energy state. If you can learn how on government posters, pyramids and instead the one where he set out to to control the specific ‘switch’ plates of role model healthy eating. prove an already held view. In his The located in the powerhouse of each We welcomed food and drink industry Biology of Human Starvation (1950) of your cells – the mitochondria – funds turning global sporting events into Keys did the definitive study to show you hold the key to fighting obesity.” advertising arenas for their products. We exactly what happens when we manage continue to revere sports and pop stars, to restrict calorie intake and that even The ‘switch’ is triggered by the release who are paid millions of dollars to endorse this can only be achieved ‘in captivity’, of uric acid contained in fructose, products that they likely don’t consume due to the hunger that ensues. We which contributes to insulin resistance themselves. We care more about the know from this Minnesota experiment and obesity. So large portions of food profitability of Kellogg’s and McDonald’s that calorie restriction results in a and too little exercise are not solely than we do the health of our citizens. disproportionate reduction in energy responsible for weight gain. Had we changed our advice for the expenditure and metabolic activity and We have slandered and libelled the wrong reasons and to the wrong advice that the ‘circular reference’ will defeat most nutritious macronutrient – fat and without consequence, we would have the dieter in weeks. we have promoted and praised the least been fortunate. We have not been As we tried to fix a crisis, without nutritious macronutrient – carbohydrate. fortunate. We have paid an enormous making the connection that we started We don’t need to look far to understand price for this change; with a tenfold it, we compounded the challenge why. The most nutritious foods on the increase in obesity. Furthermore, more by proceeding on the basis of flawed planet are those provided by nature. The people are continuing to become obese assumptions, both theoretical and most profitable foods on the planet are and the obese are continuing to become empirical. those provided by food manufacturers. more obese and we have not yet had The theoretical error we made was As the demonisation of real food the first generation born to our most to simplify the application of the laws has gathered pace, fledgling and long- obese generation. It is not unreasonable of the universe to the world of dieting. standing food and drink companies have to say that on the back of one man’s We got the first law wrong and ignored become multi-billion dollar empires. study, first adopted by one American the second law. If we had considered PepsiCo, the world’s largest convenient Governor and then the world, we have both properly, we would have realised food and beverage company, is bigger an obesity epidemic. that obesity is not a simplistic outcome than 60 per cent of the countries in As obesity doubled for UK adults of energy in (overweight people eat the world. An immense and profitable between 1972 and 1982 and then too much) and energy out (overweight industry has grown on the back of the almost doubled again by 1989 and people are too sedentary). We would low fat, high carbohydrate advice that we then almost another time by 1999, have realised that energy in can only invented. Human beings have become the urgency and desperation to lose equal energy out if the body makes no

54 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 5/Health internal adjustment whatsoever. Not 5. As far back as 1956, studies have only is this biochemically impossible, shown low calorie diets to be far less the internal adjustment made by the effective than low carbohydrate diets. body, in response to changes in energy intake and energy requirements, is likely The food that we have been advising to be far greater than any change in fat people to eat more of is the very food reserves that the body will make. that enables fat to be stored and disables Empirically, we got hold of a calorie fat from being utilised. Carbohydrates, formula, we know not from where, not calories, are the critical determinant which we hold to be true and continually of obesity and the epidemic thereof. prove to be untrue. One pound does At the outset I quoted the brilliant not equal 3,500 calories. We will not University of Florida study of how much lose one pound if we create a deficit of people would rather be something else 3,500 calories. The most fundamental than obese (Colleen S.W. Rand and Alex tenet of the diet world fails basic scrutiny. M. C. Macgregor, ‘Successful weight Worse, seven public and obesity health loss following obesity surgery and the authorities the Department of Health, perceived liability of morbid obesity’, NHS, British Dietetic Association, International Journal of Obesity, 1991). Zoë Harcombe, who lives near Newport, is a nutritionist Dieticians in Obesity Management, with Diplomas in Diet and Nutrition and Clinical Weight The precise numbers were that, rather Association for the Study of Obesity, Management. Her book The Obesity Epidemic: What than be obese, 100 per cent of those caused it? How can we stop it? was published in 2010. National Obesity Forum and National researched would rather be deaf, 89 per Institute for Clinical Excellence - all failed cent would rather be blind and 91 per to prove their formula and none knew together we can see that carbohydrates cent would rather have a leg amputated. from whence it came. are uniquely suited to weight gain and Proposed solutions are that we wire the If we carried on teaching children uniquely unsuited to weight loss: jaws, or staple the stomachs, of our fellow that London is the capital of America, humans. The suggestion that we might when we knew this to be wrong, there 1. Obesity is not a simplistic imbalance return to eating the way that we did, would be uproar. Yet when the hopes of of energy in and energy out but a before we needed to invent such drastic 1.5 billion overweight people depend far more complex matter of how, procedures, is instead seen as radical. upon an equally wrong, but vastly more biochemically, the body can store or Our decision to move away from serious, untruth, we continue to lie. utilise fat. Carbohydrate is the unique the diet that we have evolved to eat has We know that any answer to the macronutrient that facilitates fat led to two thirds of the ‘evolved’ world obesity epidemic must explain what storage and prevents fat utilisation. being overweight and a number wishing has changed since around 1980. The 2. Fat and protein calories have jobs to that they were literally anything else, answer, therefore, can not be found in do within the body – they contribute rather than obese. something we have been eating for over to the ‘up to’ 85 per cent of energy As Barry Grove observed, in a one hundred thousand years (real food requirement determined by metabolic presentation to the Weston Price – especially fat). The answer can not be rate. On the other hand, carbohydrate Foundation inaugural European found in anything we have been eating doesn’t - it needs to be burned as fuel conference in London in 2010, “Man is the less of during the past thirty years (real or it will be stored as fat. only chronically sick animal on the planet.” food – especially fat). The answer can 3. Insulin has been called the That’s because man is the only species be found in anything we have not been fattening hormone for good reason. clever enough to make his own food and eating for over one hundred thousand Carbohydrate calories stimulate the the only one stupid enough to eat it. years (processed food – especially release of insulin whereas fat and How many more obese people do we carbohydrate). The answer can be found protein calories do not. plan to produce before we stop feeding in anything we have been eating more 4. Fat and protein calories have them man-made food? Will the man- of during the past thirty years (processed substantial metabolic advantage made obese ever forgive us for what we food – especially carbohydrate). over carbohydrate calories. A low have already done? Will we ever forgive Similarly, the answer can not be found carbohydrate diet can thus simulate ourselves if we make any more? Is it in the other half of the energy in equals a low calorie diet, by as much as if really so preposterous to suggest that we energy out oversimplification. Sedentary a 25 per cent reduction in calorie simply return to eating the real food that behaviour did not cause the obesity intake had been made, but without our planet provides for us? The real food epidemic. Exercise will not cure it. the accompanying desire to eat more that we used to eat, before we got so fat When we put the following factors and do less. we’d rather be blind.

the welsh agenda spring 2013—issue 49 | 55 5/Health Lifestyle versus medication

Judy Hutchings says behaviour interventions are less available than Autism, Dyslexia or other diagnosed change should be a goal for in the UK and surgery and prescribed developmental difficulties. Given the all professionals working with medication are dramatically higher. challenges of their condition it is not patterns of behaviour that However, we are seeing a growing trend surprising that they often develop in the UK in the same direction. challenging behaviour problems. Some contribute to illness Medical diagnoses are particularly parents are told that aggression and non- likely when a problem increases. For compliance are part of the condition. example, in Wales there has been an However, families can be supported to There is little systematic discussion increase from 5.9 to 23.8 per cent of identify and teach new skills whilst still of the challenges to effective service young school aged children rated by acknowledging that their children will delivery for children with behaviour their teachers as inattentive over the always face challenges. Undoubtedly or developmental problems and at risk past 25 years. A medical explanation they are the collateral damage arising of abuse. Despite the many cases that can lead to a diagnosis of Attention from the conditions these children have been highlighted in recent years, Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and the experience. But left untreated they can child protection referrals are increasing. prescribing of stimulant medication. result in a double handicap. Reports from ‘service delivery disasters’ On the other hand, a psycho-social Meanwhile, there is a lack of training such as the deaths of Victoria Climbié approach focuses on teaching the in effective behaviour change. As with highlight the following problems: necessary replacement skills. the examples above, many conditions At least some of this large dealt with by the NHS - such as cancers, • Collaboration on joint record keeping, increase in these behaviours must cardio-vascular problems, diabetes referral processes and information have environmental rather than and other physical and mental health exchange and deciding who can have medical determinants. Nonetheless, difficulties - result from, or are worsened access to information. despite positive evidence from trials by, patient lifestyles. They include of the effectiveness of psycho-social poor diet, lack of exercise, alcohol • Lack of agreement about what interventions, prescribing of medication consumption and smoking. constitutes risk and how to weigh is increasing rapidly. In 2005 the number of deaths competing evidence in the area of The current obesity epidemic attributable to smoking, one of the child protection. For example, in the among children in Wales presents biggest avoidable causes of morbidity case of Shafilea Ahmed the concerns similar challenges. Currently thirty-six and mortality in the UK, was over of school staff were not given sufficient attention. There is a tendency, too, to medicalise problems – to ascribe them to illness – when psycho-social explanations • Lack of managerial systems to detect institutional bad practice, even in are more appropriate. This is particularly prevalent in the residential settings where there are United States where, without a diagnosis that has a medical many staff present, as was identified response, treatment is not covered by insurance. in the North Wales Children’s Home Inquiry or the treatment of patients at Winterbourne View, in Bristol. per cent of children under 16 in Wales 100,000 (19 per cent of all deaths). The There is a tendency, too, to medicalise are overweight or obese, and 19 per direct cost to the NHS in 2005–6 was problems – to ascribe them to illness – cent are obese. We are seeing a growth £5.2 billion. NHS drugs to deal with when psycho-social explanations are of invasive surgery for adults with lifestyle diseases, including obesity, more appropriate. This is particularly obesity but lifestyle explanations suggest diabetes, alcoholism and smoking have prevalent in the United States where, different solutions. been estimated to cost £750m a year, without a diagnosis that has a medical Another example is different with obesity now costing more than any response, treatment is not covered explanations for behaviours among other disease. by insurance. In the US psycho-social children with Aspergers syndrome, The lack of effective classroom

56 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 5/Health management skills training for teachers motivational interviewing, and how • Ensure that staff are adequately is another example. It also applies to to help people engage in a behaviour resourced and skilled to deliver training in social work, nursing and change process. We too often hear that evidence-based programmes medicine, where behaviour change, people are not motivated to change effectively and that all staff are aware weight loss, substance misuse reduction, when, as professionals, it is our job to of what interventions are being and improved parental monitoring of help them to achieve this. delivered and how to avoid mixed children are intervention goals. Too many staff continue to deliver messages to service users. There is a general lack of interventions that have no evidence. understanding of the principles of They believe that what they do works • Ensure that all people involved in encouraging behaviour change that because it seems logical. In some behaviour change interventions, have come from a century of research cases the programme may simply the majority working in the public into human learning. Behaviour change have no effect but in others it can lead sector, are given the underpinning is a goal for all professionals working to worse results that doing nothing. knowledge to achieve this. with lifestyle patterns that contribute This was highlighted by the Scared to a wide range of illnesses, from Straight programme, intended to deter cancer, diabetes, obesity and heart delinquent youth from crime by showing disease to mental and physical health them life in prison. It was logical, but difficulties. Yet it does not form part of unfortunately it increased crime and the curriculum in the core professional there are plenty of other examples. Professor Judy Hutchings is training of doctors and many other All this points to the need to ensure Director of the Centre for Evidence- health professionals. This is despite its that in future we: Based Early Intervention at Bangor relevance to criminology, education, University. Examples of how the Centre health and social care. • Provide better training for health, is tackling some of the problems Instead, we should be introducing education and social care managers in highlighted in this article are available into the mainstream education of interpreting evidence and identifying through its website http://www. professional carers, knowledge about evidence-based programmes. centreforearlyinterventionwales.co.uk Slavery still current in 6 21st Century Wales Social Policy Katie Harris investigates the to the drugs trade. It is estimated to extent of human trafficking on be worth about £20 billion a year and our streets affects every country in the world. Generalisations are difficult to make. It was one o’clock in the morning and a A recent Home Office report pinpointed woman was running through the empty Nigerians, Vietnamese and Romanians streets. Since arriving in the UK a week as the top three nationalities for potential before, she had been deceived, sold and trafficking referrals. But the UK came in raped by 49 men. Terrified, confused at number six, showing that vulnerable Article and unable to speak English, she had UK citizens are as susceptible to be Slavery still taken her life in her hands by escaping trafficked as their foreign counterparts. As current in 21st from the house in which she was being Huw Watkins, an anti-human trafficking Century Wales held captive. consultant and ex-senior detective with Later on, this woman was picked up the Gwent police, says: by the police and then taken to a safe house. Slowly, using Google translate, her “In terms of the make-up of victims, story came out. She had been promised probably the biggest number of a cleaning job in a London hotel to trafficked victims that I’ve had support her husband and children back anything to do with have been home in Lithuania. Instead, she had been white Welsh girls. And for every sold, abused and exploited. case of a girl going missing and The location of the house where being exploited, an equal number she was being held was Blackwood and if not slightly more boys are going the officers who picked her up were missing.” members of the Gwent police. Human trafficking is not confined to developing There is an assumption that trafficking countries or global megacities. It is a is wholly about sexual exploitation. reality in modern-day Wales. However, Daisy Cole points out that it Neither was this an isolated incident. can also involve forced labour, domestic Between April 2009 and May 2011 the servitude and even organ harvesting: UK Human Trafficking Centre logged 34 potential incidents in Wales, 17 of which “Colleagues from a range of agencies were verified. But this may be the tip have reported cases where young of the iceberg. Daisy Cole, of he Welsh boys have been trafficked in the Refugee Council, says: Valleys, cannabis farms have been set up, quite dangerously with “There are many people who aren’t electric fences, and young boys being recognised as victims. We have been bricked in, no windows, know from our work that there doors locked”. are a lot more people who present trafficking indicators which should A well-known case in 2006 involved lead to their formal identification as the death of a Vietnamese immigrant, trafficking victims.” Tran Nguyen, who was beaten and dumped at the Royal Gwent Hospital as Human trafficking is an extremely a result of losing a cannabis crop. With lucrative global business, second only a wife and two children to support back

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home, Nguyen was working illegally and secure at a cannabis plantation in Newport. convictions.” In the wake of his death, Gwent police Indeed, a total discovered over 20 cannabis factories of 165 human in Newport alone, operated by criminal trafficking offences gangs and utilising slave labour. were charged Recent efforts have been made to across England raise the profile of human trafficking and Wales in in Wales. The presence of an all-party 2011-12. Yet in group on the subject within the National 2011 the number Assembly, chaired by Labour AM Joyce of successful Watson, reflects both acceptance that convictions across trafficking does happen and a political England and Wales will to tackle it. was only eight. Last November, an international Moreover, conference on human trafficking was the figures on hosted by the Cardiff-based Black human trafficking Association of Women Step Out convictions can (BAWSO) in partnership with the Welsh be misleading. Government. A number of experts Traffickers brought were brought together to facilitate before the courts policy discussions and explore potential may not end up solutions to the crime. being prosecuted Also announced at the conference for trafficking was the appointment of Stephen offences but may Chapman, former deputy director at the instead be prosecuted for a number of “It’s only by working together that we UK Border Agency, as the second anti- other possible offences, such as rape, will be able to address the issue because human trafficking coordinator for Wales. kidnapping and assisting unlawful everyone’s got a different part of the This post does not exist in England or immigration. jigsaw,” he says. Scotland, causing some to argue that BBC Wales has reported that Welsh For his part, Stephen Chapman is Wales is leading the way in the anti- councils could be breaching UN and adamant that he wants to make Wales a human trafficking initiative. European protocols because 18 out hostile place for traffickers. Stressing the Safeguarding children and vulnerable of the 22 local authorities do not have point that human trafficking is a form of adults has been devolved to the Welsh specific policies to tackle the issue. In modern-day slavery, he is determined Government. However, the transnational addition, the security of border controls to continue raising the agenda. “And nature of human trafficking necessitates at Welsh ports such as Holyhead has that’s my biggest challenge – to get that cross-border cooperation. Stephen been called into question, causing some awareness-raising message out there,” Chapman emphasises that in addition speculation as to whether Wales is a ‘soft he says. to local alliances, he is working with touch’ for traffickers. The Lithuanian woman is now back colleagues across the UK, Europe and the But who are the traffickers? Many with her family and the investigation into rest of the world. As he says, “Partnership operate in huge, cross-border criminal what actually happened is still ongoing. is key – I’m putting out my hand to networks and highly organised gangs. Yet She is very much a survivor, but her anyone who wants to work with me”. families and individuals may also be party exploiters have yet to be brought to Whereas Wales has been praised to it, sometimes out of naivety. As Huw justice. There are many other trafficking for leading the way in the fight against Watkins says, “If you have a situation victims out there whose tales are not human trafficking, some NGOs argue where life is cheap and people think, ‘I being told. that more decisive action needs to can make money doing that’, people will be taken with more traffickers being do it”. brought to justice. Jim Stewart, director of the faith- According to a Home Office report based charity Gweini, emphasises that Katie Harris is a journalism published in May 2012, the “covert the fight against trafficking needs to be a postgraduate student at Cardiff nature of human trafficking makes it multi-agency action with NGOs, health University with a background in English particularly difficult to identify victims authorities, and the police all engaged. Literature and International Politics.

the welsh agenda spring 2013—issue 49 | 59 Gower grower Brian Jefferys enjoys visits from pupils from Saron Primary School near Ammanford who sell his produce. In the process they learn about where food comes from. 7 Environment

Articles Food co-ops tick right boxes Why a barrage is a step too far for the Severn

Food co-ops tick right boxes

Richard Reast on a down-to-earth scheme helping to put One Planet Wales on the map

Delivered by the Welsh Government’s demand. The programme has 75 direct Rural Regeneration Unit, the Community suppliers, including growers, wholesalers Food Co-operative Programme provides and local shops. quality, affordable fruit and vegetables to More than 1,400 volunteers gave up their communities through local food distribution time each week to help run the co-ops. As each networks. Since 2004 it has established more volunteer gives an average of two-and-half- than 300 food co-ops across Wales. hours each week, this equates to over 160,763 They are run from community and volunteer hours per year. The co-ops account school settings by teams of volunteers, for just under £1 million of income to Welsh with support from seven regional Food businesses. For every £1 spent, approximately Development Workers. Some co-ops £1.84p is being generated. In addition the public provide additional produce such as eggs, is making a 33-50 per cent saving compared meat, fish or wholefoods depending on with equivalent produce at the big four

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supermarkets. Food co-ops link local volunteers who run the food co-ops to a local supplier, whether a grower, retailer, or wholesaler. A simple payment and delivery system enables the customers to order and pay weekly in advance for their fruit and vegetable bags. The co-ops run on a not-for-profit basis so all money collected goes directly to the supplier, with the co-ops designed to have no running costs. Customers collect their fruit and vegetables at an agreed venue during food co-op opening times, and at the same time place orders and pay for the following week’s produce. A guaranteed Children from Pandy infants school at Aberkenfig, , visit an older people’s community centre in the village sale on produce in advance reduces which also acts as a food co-op distribution centre, an example of how co-ops can bring communities together and the risk of food being wasted. All co-ops improve cohesion. are provided with reusable bags-for-life sustainable healthy diets more affordable. ‘Rural Sparks’ Champion, the World into which bulk produce is packed, so The project aims to develop and Health Organisation’s ‘Counteracting packaging is minimal. By making the introduce sustainable practices to Obesity’ award and the Public Health supply chain shorter and promoting improve health through collaborative Wales award for ‘Good Practice’. lower carbon produce such as fruit and action to link local farmers and The range of venues and benefits vegetables, food co-ops are doing their wholesalers to consumers. Under this of co-ops are huge. Co-ops in schools bit to further reduce the overall carbon way of buying and distributing food, provide pupils with opportunities to learn footprint of food. produce can be sold before it has left about running a not-for-profit business Although community food co- the ground thereby reducing waste, and satisfy objectives for the healthy operatives have been established improving freshness and helping to schools and eco-school programmes. throughout Wales, priority is given to sustain smaller more traditional growers There are co-ops run by the homeless in deprived communities such as those whose livelihoods are under threat. drop in centres, by people with learning found in Communities First areas. Partnership is a key element of the difficulties. Consumption of fruit and vegetables in programme. Food Development Workers They exist in community centres, Wales is considerably lower than the work with a myriad of local groups and church halls, in work places and virtually UK average and in areas of deprivation agencies to sustain the momentum of any setting you can think of. The food consumption is lower still, which has a food co-ops through offering mutual co-op model we have devised can be knock on impact on the health profile support whilst ensuring that volunteers delivered by anyone. Our youngest and levels of obesity of local people. stay in a leadership role. By empowering volunteers are five years old and our The underlying reasons why people local people to run their own co-ops oldest are in their eighties. living in deprived areas may choose without running costs or paid staff, co-ops Co-op volunteers gain skills and a diet of poor nutritional value are escape from funding dependency. Once confidence through the empowering complex, but there appear to be links they are up and running they only need nature of giving up their time for the between levels of self-esteem, the impact arms length support from their Food benefit of their communities whilst of social problems and choice of food. In Development Worker. helping to promote ‘one planet living’. these areas there is a higher dependency The programme is part of the Welsh We are creating a more sustainable food on high starch, high calorific cheap Government’s local sourcing action system for the future. foods. Access to affordable and fresh plan, encourages the reduction of food fruit and vegetables can also be very low miles and more sustainable practices, particularly in a car dependant culture. If supports local growing and purchasing Richard Reast is a Food Development the fresh produce costs more and is hard of fruit and vegetables, thus creating Worker for the Welsh Rural Regeneration to access, food choices will tend towards greater links between urban and rural Unit. For more information on its work cheap, quick and filling comfort food of areas. It has won numerous awards and the location of your nearest food co- poor nutritional value. Food co-ops make including the Carnegie Trust Welsh op visit www.ruralregeration.org.uk

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The Severn estuary provides a habitat of unique importance for 74,000 wading and water birds as well as migratory fish, and is Why a barrage is a step protected under EU and international legislation. Photo: RSPB. too far for the Severn

Peter Jones advocates In responding to climate change Wales a domestic retrofitting programme to exploring renewable projects needs a three-pronged approach to ensure reduction in consumption and to cutting emissions from fossil fuels: encourage sustainable use. compatible with the protection The second response, a major of wildlife in the estuary • A drive for greater efficiency, programme for micro-generation, requiring behaviour change. will have the added benefits both of • Rapid spread of community and creating possibly thousands of long-term household-based micro-generation installation and maintenance jobs, whilst technologies, especially solar and also increasing public awareness and wind. responsibility of energy use. • Investment in a mix of renewable In responding to the third, tidal technologies. power in the Severn estuary should undoubtedly play a part in the The first response will need to lock into renewables mix. However, there are a more general approach to living more alternatives to a barrage that would sustainably and responsibly. We will have a far lower impact on the special need to increase investment in energy estuary environment. No only that, so efficiency measures and drive forward far as a barrage is concerned we are told

62 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 7/Environment by Hafren Power, the consortium behind much of which would have been lost environment that could result from the latest scheme, that their proposal and destroyed had the original Severn a barrage construction might attract cannot be up and running until around Tidal Power Group scheme gone ahead. common water bird species, such as 2025. However, this will be approaching In the event of an environmentally mallard, but would not be a habitat for ten years too late to deliver the urgent damaging project, adequate and the current internationally important carbon reductions we need. appropriate compensatory habitat assemblage, or a haven for winter We should be pressing ahead now would need to be found for the migrants. with other tidal projects. For instance, disturbed and displaced birds and other This change would be a natural the land-attached tidal lagoon in wildlife. This is unlikely to be easy or disaster – destroying something special and unique - and replacing it with something unremarkable. In addition, Certainly, we need to be careful about how we although a barrage might provide some proceed with any project within the Severn estuary. protection from marine-driven flooding from tidal surge, the real flood threat is A barrage in this unique environment could be in the estuary upstream environment devastating for the 74,000 wading and water birds from the fluvial flooding that results from prolonged heavy rainfall. A barrage of international importance that use this dynamic could actually make this worse. estuary, including Bewick’s swan, dunlin, pintail, It is frustrating that there has been a lack of detail published by Hafren Power ringed plover, shoveler and shelduck. about the scheme at this stage. The detail of the project design, especially of the proposed turbines, has still not been made public. It is therefore Swansea Bay could make a valuable affordable in the context of the Severn. impossible to assess its potential impact, contribution to delivering zero-carbon The Severn Estuary is highly especially on the upstream estuarine electricity, albeit not on the scale of the designated because it is unique. It is a environment, which has been at the proposed barrage. Other tidal lagoon vital link in the Natura 2000 network of heart, hitherto, of environmental locations around the Welsh coast offer protected sites that provide ‘re-fuelling objections. There have been repeated the possibility of delivering emissions stops’ for many thousands of birds that assurances by spokespeople for Hafren reductions without the environmental migrate across Europe. The upstream Power that their new design and mode damage that still remains in prospect from a barrage in the Severn. Tidal stream and wave energy can also be expected to contribute. Certainly, we need to be careful about how we proceed with any project within the Severn estuary. A barrage in this unique environment could be devastating for the 74,000 wading and water birds of international importance that use this dynamic estuary, including Bewick’s swan, dunlin, pintail, ringed plover, shoveler and shelduck. The estuary is also of importance for migratory fish, invertebrates, plants and riverine, estuarine and inter-tidal habitats, as well as for geo- morphological features. Much of the estuary – and its tributary Usk and Wye rivers – is protected under EU and international legislation. These protections are to safeguard the biodiversity and habitats of the estuary, Shelduck in flight along the estuary shore. Photo: RSPB.

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7/Environment

The lighthouse at Newport Wetlands, a nature reserve created in 2000 to mitigate losses of wildlife habitat as a result of the building of the . Photo: Laura Cropper. of operation will meet the objections of frequently go unchallenged. Any criticism development, and its approach to the various environmental organisations to from an environmental perspective is Severn can be considered a test of the the original Tidal Power Group barrage dismissed as relating to the previous project commitment behind this promise. The proposal. If this is indeed the case, when and, of course, not applicable to their own challenge should be to harness energy will these new operational features be improved design. Unless and until Hafren from the Severn in the most sustainable made known? Power can demonstrate that their new way possible. Tidal energy in the Severn may The Welsh Government has promised world- well contribute to making a significant long-term contribution towards meeting leading legislation on sustainable development, and global emissions reduction and the UK’s its approach to the Severn can be considered a test 80 per cent carbon reduction target by 2050. However, a barrage would come of the commitment behind this promise. too late to address the urgent need to tackle emissions now

Assessing the potential environmental proposal can overcome environmental impacts of a project whose design is not objections, we remain sceptical that they known is, to say, the least, difficult. The can address these concerns. secrecy has enabled Hafren Power to The Welsh Government has promised Peter Jones is Conservation with repeat claims on their own behalf that world-leading legislation on sustainable RSPB Cymru

the welsh agenda spring 2013—issue 49 | 65 8 Cultural Comms apartheid on the airwaves Gareth Rees says Radio Wales smacks more of a British regional Articles than a Welsh national channel Cultural apartheid on the airwaves Radio Wales describes itself as “the as with any other listener, I have my When nation’s broadcaster”. According to own cultural and political leanings and Caernarfon was the BBC Trust, the station’s remit “is sensitivities. Nonetheless, much of the the print capital to be an English language speech-led output might as well have been coming of Wales service for listeners seeking programmes from a London-based BBC (Wales) about the life, culture and affairs of rather than from BBC Wales in our own Wales. Programmes should focus on capital city. local and national concerns but also Prominent coverage of the Olympics address matters of UK and international torch journey through Wales was to be significance”. The Trust refers to the expected, as was that of the Diamond , not the English Jubilee, but in both cases it seemed language culture of Wales. out of proportion. On the morning of Last summer Radio Wales scored ten Monday 2nd June there was only brief out of ten on matters of UK significance. coverage by Good Morning Wales of the Its coverage of the Diamond Jubilee, start of the Urdd Eisteddfod, which on a the Olympics and the Paralympics proportional population basis attracted was massive, highly informative and crowds probably well in excess of those enthusiastic. However, the contrast gathering in London for the Jubilee. between its coverage of these events and The Urdd Eisteddfod is one of Europe’s major Welsh language based cultural largest youth cultural events, of which events going on at the same time could the whole Welsh nation, not just Welsh hardly have been more marked. speakers, can justifiably be proud - There is, of course, far more to 15,000 competed, almost as many as in Welsh culture than that which is the Olympics. mediated through or linked in some Most people in Wales would way to the language. Yet, at a national have wanted and expected London’s level the historic, rich and unique Olympics to be featured prominently by eisteddfodic tradition surely should Radio Wales, particularly the 30 Welsh command substantial attention from competitors. Given this, it was perhaps ‘the nation’s broadcaster’. not surprising that the coverage given An individual and intermittent to the National Eisteddfod was probably listener can easily get a false impression even more cursory than in recent years. of overall broadcasting balance and, Just a small fraction of the fervent

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Most people in Wales would have wanted and expected London’s Olympics to be featured prominently by Radio Wales, particularly the 30 Welsh competitors. Given this, it was perhaps not surprising that the coverage given to the National Eisteddfod was probably even more cursory than in recent years. Climber Sir Chris Bonington holding the Olympic Flame aloft on the summit of Snowdon at the end of May 2012 – “Prominent coverage of the Olympics torch journey through Wales was reasonably to be expected, but it became not far short of incessant”. enthusiasm expressed for what was immense personal sacrifices made by newsworthy, but Radio Wales gave it a happening at London’s Olympics might, Trefor and Eileen Beasley in the cause of number one slot and covered it over however, have attracted thousands the bilingualism that is now taken almost three days. more monolingual English speakers to for granted. On the Saturday morning, the third give the Eisteddfod a try. The contrast in Little of this seemed to make its way day of adverse coverage, this item was coverage between the Olympics and the on to the airwaves via Radio Wales. juxtaposed with further coverage of Jade Eisteddfod was huge, both quantitatively Indeed, the impression was of rather more Jones’ gold medal in the taekwondo, and qualitatively. enthusiastic coverage being given to bog including gleeful reporting that, unlike The Olympics is, of course, a snorkelling and wife-carrying in Llanwrtyd some footballers, she had sung ‘God four yearly event of massive global Wells in the last week of August. Save the Queen’. The coverage of the importance which was taking place in Radio Wales appeared to do little Olympics was overwhelmingly positive the United Kingdom for the first time in towards trying to correct common throughout. Their overall financial 64 years, and the Eisteddfod is an annual misconceptions about the Eisteddfod cost to Wales received little if any and uniquely Welsh festival but the which can militate against people attention, though on one estimate it was balance should have been very different. deciding to go for the first time. Many approximately £450 million. The opening concert featured Only are still unaware of the extent to which The station’s apparent difficulty Men Aloud, Only Boys Aloud and a new the Eisteddfod has endeavoured to in relation to the Welsh language choir, Only Vale Kids Aloud (a great reach out to all sections of society in manifests itself in other ways. Poor many of them drawn from local English- Wales, and to become a friendly and pronunciation of place names continues speaking homes). Matthew Rhys took welcoming festival for monolingual to be tolerated. And how many Radio to the stage with the National Youth English speakers. The Radio Wales Wales listeners will have been aware Orchestra of Wales (the first national web-site mentioned the Eisteddfod but that last year saw the 50th anniversary youth orchestra in the world) for the any detailed information could only be of the founding of Cymdeithas yr Iaith? first-ever Welsh narration for Britten’s obtained via Welsh language links. Apart from Frank Hennessy’s excellent Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra; The one Eisteddfod story Radio Celtic Heartbeat programme on a there was the admission to the Wales did cover prominently was the Sunday evening, and Adam Walton’s of John Hartson, Shane Williams and unfortunate collection of paintings by and Bethan Elfyn’s programmes on a Stephen Jones; the UK premiere of Karl a single artist which included graphic Saturday evening, listeners are given Jenkins’ new choral work The Bards references to a fairly recent murder in little exposure to Welsh language of Wales (the libretto being a poem Aberkenfig. Although Eisteddfod officials mediated folk and popular music. which is part of the Hungarian national had not been aware of the nature of What little Welsh language music curriculum) with soloists Dennis O’Neill the references, their response to the is played on Radio Wales would and Rebecca Evans; a Dutchman understandable distress of the murdered appear to be confined to fairly winning the Bass solo; and an almost girl’s mother did, as reported, seem minor representation on dedicated empty stand commemorating the slow and initially inadequate. This was programmes, rather than being a

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Jamie Owen, a regular presenter on Radio Wales with chat shows that have to straddle Folk singer and songwriter Amy Wadge with Frank Hennessy, presenter of the Radio tastes stretching from Radio 2 to 4. Wales’ “excellent” Celtic Heartbeat programme on Saturday evenings. natural, intermittent component of impression of institutional bias in stations, how can this be justified, given random every day listening. Such favour of constitutional conservatism. that they presumably operate under the compartmentalisation effectively shields The contrast between the station’s same editorial guidelines concerning the casual listener from exposure to enthusiasm towards British festivities in balance and even-handedness? Welsh language culture. London and uniquely Welsh festivities Radio Wales has a challenging path Radio Cymru reports extensively on in Wales last summer strengthened the to tread in a quite rapidly changing what goes on in the English speaking suggestion of an unstated mission to country and budgetary constraint world, and has for a long time played portray Wales principally as part of a cannot make its task any easier. It English language music. Indeed, the much greater united kingdom. is difficult for a station intended for listeners seeking programmes about Radio Wales has a challenging path to tread in a quite the life, culture and affairs of Wales rapidly changing country and budgetary constraint cannot to achieve high levels of audience satisfaction when a sizeable percentage make its task any easier. of the population come from outside the country and when only two thirds of the English language has always had far Many Welsh interests, concerns and population identify themselves as Welsh. greater exposure on Radio Cymru than topics unrelated to the language are often There may well be a perceived need to the Welsh language has on Radio Wales. presented well and with appropriate reflect such demographic change. But Monolingual English speakers in Wales enthusiasm, especially when they sit can these pressures justify the station should have access via the nation’s easily within the wider British context. straying from its specific remit? Certainly, broadcaster to rather more information However, there seems to be a reluctance there is a wide range of alternatives for about matters concerning, and events when it comes to showcasing some more listeners looking for something else to and culture mediated through, the distinctive aspects of Welsh national choose from. national language. identity. Apart from its coverage of Radio Wales has strayed from In recent months there has been an international ball games, in which Welsh its remit. It should re-examine its informative and well-balanced phone- nationality has been strongly reflected responsibility as a major public service in programme about S4C on its 30th since the 19th Century, the overall feel broadcaster within a small country with birthday and a wonderful programme on of Radio Wales is often more that of a burgeoning self-government and with Waldo Williams, featuring prominently British regional than a Welsh national a highly distinctive indigenous culture, the recently retired Archbishop of channel. Anglo-American popular music but where the latter is under threat from Canterbury, Rowan Williams. But increasingly dominates, and for Radio both anglicisation and globalisation. The programmes such as these are unusual, Wales the ‘national’ newspapers are nation’s broadcaster should do more and so all the more remarkable when those produced in London. to satisfy listeners seeking programmes they occur. Radio Wales’s influence, Radio Cymru’s approach to coverage about that culture. Much better indicated by the size of its audience, of the political parties appears to be coverage of this year’s National and behoves it to strive for an editorial more equitable. Different parts of the Urdd eisteddfodau would be a start. balance that properly reflects its remit. BBC are keen to preserve independence The station’s cultural leanings from each other, but if there is a are in turn reflected in its political difference in the balance of party Dr Gareth Rees is a consultant coverage. It is difficult to avoid the political coverage between these two oncologist.

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8/Communications When Caernarfon was the print capital of Wales

Karen Owen celebrates the mid 19th Century print and news revolution

In 1811 there was no such thing as a magazines in the two official languages under 15 years of age. Because of the ‘newspaper’ in Wales. There were many of Wales – without Welsh Books Council surge in readers, the first library in reasons for this. They included the or Welsh Government grants. Caernarfon was opened in 1833, in extortionately high price of paper, the And the foremost of these, Pendist above the printing works of taxing of adverts, a William Pitt-led ban labelled the Ink Capital of Wales, was William Potter & Co. on the sharing of ‘dangerous’ information Caernarfon. Those who could and wanted to that could stir the masses, together The business of publishing travel, were able to move about freely with the impracticality of travelling and newspapers – and I use the word by now. In 1812, the Cob in distributing any publications. ‘business’ intentionally – has never was opened. The Menai Bridge followed Two hundred years later, in 2013, existed in a vacuum. The printing in 1826. By 1836, it took only 36 hours the Welsh newspaper industry is not industry has always been hand in glove to travel by horse from Caergybi to just in decline. It’s on its knees. That is with many social and economic factors. London. But what is difficult for us if it can be called a ‘Welsh’ industry at And the same was true in Caernarfon in to comprehend today is that all the all. Again, there are many reasons for the mid 19th Century. businessmen opening print works and this. They include the increase once From 1801-1841, the population of launching newspapers and magazines in again in the price of paper; the multi- Carnarvonshire (sic) nearly doubled Caernarfon in that period, were making national companies and their monopoly from 41,521 to 81,093, when the total money from their initiatives. of the news (from ‘national’ dailies to population of Wales (in 1801) was As well as the financial side of things, our local weeklies), the 24-hour news 587,000. Slate quarries were drawing newspapers and magazines published channels and websites that break stories workers from far and wide, and villages in Caernarfon were political forums. So internationally within minutes, as well were being newly built or expanded in much so that set up as all the new social media that makes order to house them and their families. his own newspaper (with two editions) in everyone a potential ‘journalist’. And in these flourishing villages were order to make sure that he was elected Yet, in the mid 19th Century there the chapels, community hubs where in 1890. Another business which saw the occurred what can only be described a high percentage of the population potential of launching its own magazine, as a print and news revolution in Wales. were drawn nearly every weeknight was Nelson department store on Bridge And it was to last the most part of a to engage in all kinds of entertainment Street. The Nelson was first published on century. It happened as the working and activities, from choirs to drama 1 March, 1888. Its editor was the new class population soared. The number of clubs, from the Band of Hope to prayer part-owner of the shop, Morris T. Morris, readers increased substantially, thanks meetings and literary societies. Sunday who wanted to offer his readers articles mainly to the Sunday Schools of the Schools also became places where the on lifestyle and fashion, rather than the nonconformist chapels. And what’s thinking working classes were able to usual religion and politics. more, the revolution happened through discuss and debate life and death issues, As a direct result of the lowering the medium of Welsh. as well as learn to read Welsh (in order of the taxes on advertising and stamp It’s hard to imagine that up until to be able to read Y Beibl). They were duty to 1d, the first edition ofY Papyr the Second World War, towns such as also taught to sing the sol-fa Modulator Newydd Cymraeg was published on 22 Pwllheli, Dinbych, , and, therefore, became music ‘readers’. September 1836. It branded itself as “the Dolgellau, Y Bala, Caerfyrddin, This led to a surge in number of choirs one and only weekly Welsh newspaper Abertawe, Merthyr Tudful, Caerdydd and brass bands. at the time of its launch”. Its price was and Casnewydd, had thriving printing In 1847, there were 249 Sunday 2½d, but was due to rise to 3d. In 1835, businesses producing weekly, monthly Schools in the county of Caernarfon, the Carnarvon Herald was on sale for and quarterly newspapers and frequented by a total of 14,260 children 7d, and was selling 346 copies a week.

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Caernarfon INC Weekend Over the weekend of 7-9 June Galeri in Caernarfon hosts a series of interviews, exhibitions and walking tours to celebrate the town’s history of printing and publishing. To mark 30 years since the last edition of Sulyn, Gwynedd’s first Sunday newspaper Jan Morris with son Twm, star performers in the forthcoming Caernarfon INC Weekend. to be published in Welsh, Bethan Jones Parry interviews its editor Dylan Iorwerth. Karen Owen interviews the That was the beginning of a In 1874 a row broke out between photographer Arwyn ‘Herald’. Vaughan revolution which we can now only look the owner of the Herald newspapers Hughes talks with editor and poet at in wonder. Between 1836 and 1857 and the Reverend Evan Jones, Minister Meic Stephens. Poet Twm Morys is there was a 70 per cent increase in the of Capel Moriah. It involved the election in conversation with Jan Morris about number of newspapers and periodicals of the owner of Penrhyn Quarry George her ten years as foreign correspondent sold in Caernarfon town itself. Sholto Douglas Pennant as Conservative with and , By 1857 Yr Herald Cymraeg (first MP for Caernarfon over the Liberal culminating in her ‘scoop of the published 19 May 1855) was selling candidate, Love Jones Parry. One result century, her dash down the flank of 9,000 copies a week. By 1869, twelve was the launch of a new ‘working class’ Mount Everest to get the news of years after its launch, it was up to newspaper called Y Genedl Gymreig its first ascent to London in time to 14,000 a week. Meanwhile, the (‘The Welsh Nation’). Later another coincide with the coronation of Queen Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald and version called Y Werin was launched, Elizabeth II. North Wales Chronicle were selling specifically aimed at quarrymen and 1,300 and 900 copies respectively. priced ½d. Between 1886 and1888 Y Between 1811 and 1855 I have counted Genedl Gymreig was selling 23,000 copies there was a general lack of interest in 18 magazines that were published and a week. politics and religion. printed in Caernarfon. In 1889 William Jones Parry, a However, well into the 1950s Such was the power of the Welsh militant from Bethesda began work at Caernarfon continued to be an language press that, in 1857, under Y Genedl Gymreig. He was keen to see important hub for all kinds of printing. ‘Miscellaneous Notices’ in the Carnarvon it combine with Yr Herald Cymraeg to Today, as you wander along Bridge and Denbigh Herald, an anonymous writer form a new Welsh daily newspaper in Street, Pool Street, Y Maes and Eastgate observes: “The Welsh press… There are Caernarfon. Talks took place between Street, Turf Square and High Street, no signs of its demise; on the contrary, it is the two companies, but nothing came there are buildings still standing that now more actively energised than ever… of them. were part of that Welsh, dirty, political when will the language perish?” proved a grim reaper and illustrious inky past. From 1860 it became possible for of newspapers and magazines in Welsh journalists to make a living from Wales. During hard financial times, writing for newspapers. And that was a readers were spending their money on Karen Owen is a freelance journalist major factor in the revolution. essentials. Paper was expensive. And and poet.

the welsh agenda spring 2013—issue 49 | 71 9 Fishlock’s File Culture Word slingers who can make a corgi laugh

Trevor Fishlock says a hole in our national trouser needs mending

Articles Fishlock’s File: Word slingers who can make a A vital piece missing from the national perhaps cranked out in Buffalo Falls, corgi laugh jigsaw of Wales needs to be restored. Idaho, does not tickle the giggle glands Its absence leaves many of us with an of Upper Cwmtwrch and Llandwrog. ineradicable sense of incompleteness. The laugh-quotient is rather low. Books and In these difficult times some Now I have lived in America and writing: scholarship or other prize should be have long admired the star cartoonists Edging the founded to encourage its restoration of the great American newspapers. I estuary to public life. As we turn the pages of have a diploma in American humour. In the footsteps our national newspaper we are aware Also in the humour of India: as a of Y Gododdin of the lacuna. The people’s need is former resident and avid consumer of for a small drawing consisting of a few the Indian press I enjoyed many witty lines and a few words. We want a little and telling brilliant cartoons. Book reviews work of art that is sharp and pertinent, But isn’t there some journalistic A man of to wit a cartoon with its origins in the cliché about horses for courses? A superior parts human life of Wales. It should be funny cartoonist needs to have been steeped and perspicuous enough to dissolve and sharpened in his culture before he How yr Wyddfa the rust on the facial muscles that dips his sharp little pen in the inkpot. I enters the soul detonate a smile. have several waspish cartoons I bought Lyrics that riddle We sympathize. We know this hole at a market in Moscow. The artist who our consciousness in the national trouser is difficult to sold them to me had his nose freshly Stuck in Splott mend. Cartoonists are less common bloodied by thugs who disapproved than the okapi. Surely there must be of his humour. They could never have What Wales can one among our three million people. appeared in Soviet newspapers. do for a poet The Western Mail, I have to say, does Such scorpion stings and bile were a remarkably good job. I read it daily. an intrinsic part of the vigorous history It is our tribal notice board. There are of the British press from the 18th excellent people writing it. The times Century. If some of it makes modern are not easy for producing newspapers; comment look tame, today’s cartoon and cartoonists must be fed, clothed caricature, satire and the barb of and given clean straw to sleep on. ridicule still form the basis of arresting The trouble is that the daily cartoon and controversial editorial pages. is an American job and it’s not the The historian Peter Lord artist’s fault that his brand of humour, demonstrates in his remarkable book

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But isn’t there some journalistic cliche about horses for courses? A cartoonist needs to have been steeped and sharpened in his culture before he dips his sharp little pen in the inkpot.

Words with Pictures that Wales has a large part in the history of malicious, scornful, cynical, vulgar, political and cruel and comic art. Anyone thin- skinned enough today to be ruffled by twperish remarks from east of the border needs to examine the raw, ribald and xenophobic art and verses of the 18th and 19th Centuries - complete with goat-riding Welsh aristocrats. Eyebrows still rise. The cartoonists of Victorian and Edwardian Wales, like the Western Mail’s Joseph M.Staniforth, described their own country and society, the industrial and political unrest, Lloyd George and the fortunes of the rugby teams. Staniforth created the rotund and tall-hatted Dame Wales to comment on behalf of the people. For 38 years the talented Gren A typical take by Gren (Grenfell Jones, 1934-2007) who drew daily cartoons for the South Wales Echo for more than 35 years before retiring in 1999. Jones created his Dai-capped world of Valley Wales in the South Wales Echo. It came complete with the town of Aberflyarff, the rugby ground, wise sheep and terraces winding over precipitous hills. His was an aspect of a distinctive seam of Welsh comedy that included Ryan Davies and Ronnie Williams, and Max Boyce. They and a generation of writers mirrored the life and humour of a world that has largely gone with the mining; though the fly- half factory is still working. In its place a different kind of Wales is emerging. We want humour to help us along, a dash of irreverence, a mirror in which to see ourselves. Buffalo Falls is fine and dandy but it doesn’t make the smile muscles work very much. We need cartooning fit for the time and place, artists with sharp quills, Welsh wordslingers who can make a corgi laugh. Joseph M. Staniforth (1863-1921) worked for the Western Mail, Evening Express and News of the World. Here he has his Dame Wales confronting police at a strikers’ ‘riot’ in 1898. In his The Visual Culture of Wales: Industrial Society (1998) Peter Lord describes Staniforth as “the most important visual commentator on Welsh affairs ever to work in the country.”

the welsh agenda spring 2013—issue 49 | 73 9/Culture Redcliffe Lights lighthouse on Red Cliff overlooking the first Severn crossing at St Pierre Pill. It guards a small harbour, originally much larger and of post-Roman origin associated with legends of St Tewdric, king of the post-Roman Kingdom of Glywysing. Photo: Peter Finch. Edging the estuary

Peter Finch You can’t see it but it is. The land here is sinking. It oceans. The land sinks as the seas rise. reports from has been since the last ice age when the great sheets Coming up the Estuary, a waterway so wide that a place miles thick that pressed the northern parts of these all sense of land containment has vanished, there is islands into the ground began to melt. Freed of their no hint that this ceaseless rippling expanse of grey where there encumbrance the rocks below began to lift. brown sea might be a harbinger of our collective is enough It’s known as post-glacial rebound. Scotland is future. In The Drowned World (Gollanz, 1962) J. G. water to pushing up into the air at the rate of a centimetre Ballard postulates a water-locked, dystopian land, drown us all a year. But at our island’s other extremity, down barracked with silt and entangled with Jurassic plant here where the Cornish peninsular and the fringes life. His drowned future London is a “nightmare of Wales face the withering Atlantic, the land is world of competing organic forms returning rapidly subsiding. It’s descending slowly among its shales, to their Palaeozoic past”. The planet, but not quite as mudstones and limestone sheets. Going down. it is now. I’ve walked it, nearly all of it, along this enormous In The Flood (Gollancz, 2008) Stephen Baxter estuary, at some time or other. It was just land has a different take. Here the waters rise, predictably meeting sea when I first encountered it as a child, at first, and then unaccountably fail to stop. They taken to the pebbles of Penarth to watch the brown drown the towns, the cities and then move on to waves crash on the grey rocks under a sun reluctant the hills. The Welsh mountains and the moors of to shine for too long. Did the ground move? Who the West Country become islands. Tors and peaks could imagine such a thing. emerge from the advancing seas as last bastions for Recent decades, however, have seen the results civilised life. Eventually all that is left are the high of slow irrevocable change. Fiercer seas, higher peaks of Snowdon and the crowning rock outcrop of coastal walls, flood water on the streets, sandbags Scafell Pike, phone masts on top. They bear the flags where there were never sandbags before. The globe of their nations, a last hurrah to who we were. Then warms and the ice caps return their waters to the they vanish under the unrelenting waves.

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Already the Severn has shown what it can do. Four hundred years ago flood waters swamped the levels on both sides, from Carmarthen to Gloucester. Farms, castles and turnpikes went under. There was great loss of life and, among a God fearing Christian population, the idea that this was retribution, the work of the Devil. The land was filled with dread. From out there on the choppy oceans it could come again. The defences we’ve since built along the coastal edges are testament to our continuing fears. Build a wall. Keep the sea out. And we could build and build those walls, a great water-repelling stone and iron fence surrounding our countries. The sea risen a hundred meters, the land surface languishing in the dark swampy shadow a hundred metres below. We could save ourselves and, like Malé, capital of the Indian Ocean Maldives built large, hang on as we were. We could do that. But we probably won’t. Architects, being the visionaries they sometimes are, have proposed Gulls edging the estuary near the sand dunes at Kenfig Pool. Photo: Peter Finch. alternative futures. Already in Holland houses float. They sit on watertight into the skies. Cloud City has already Channel before. Hold the line and where basements and when the waters flood been proposed as an emergency that’s not possible step back. they rise on their tethers to bob on the solution for New York should There’s a future out there of risen water’s surface. When the waters recede Manhattan succumb to rising water and water and steady withdrawal. As the they return to hard land. Each dwelling hurricane. Somehow, though, in the walls are threatened and topped by the has a floating front path and a small boat. Severn Estuary’s prevailing westerlies I sea, first on exceptional days and then There are also proposals out there for can’t see that quite working here. increasingly far more regularly, they are whole retreating cities. Conurbations Beyond architecture the fantasists left as they are. Managed retreat. will be built hard on the coast’s edge but have proposed wild fixes that include the The Severn Estuary, the Severn Sea, sitting on rails. As the waters advance use of anti-grav, of magnetic repulsion, of the waters where Wales runs out and these new retreating villages with their buildings which repel water by chemical where England begins. They are such buildings mounted on concrete skids solution, of structures which encase an attraction to those who live nowhere and iron rails will be dragged back up themselves in air-tight domes and remain near them. Water has such an enormous the coastal plateau to higher ground. where and as they are – cities created pull which is something I, who live right Whole urban complexes will shift inland. below Eden project roofs, safe in their by it, find hard to understand. Back in Architects from the London-based firm bubbles below the waves. the days of the USSR’s communist bid Smout Allen have made proposals which What might be the Estuary’s nearer for world domination my state-allocated suggest that threatened future cities will future? As of 2011, following the collapse female minder took me on a trip south to move as if they were boats being hauled of part of Fontygary Caravan Park onto the Caspian Sea. I was on an exchange from the waves. the beach below, the Welsh Government visit, a young writer the communists And if our Welsh estuarial has put in place a new flood and coastal clearly wanted to influence. conurbations and structures cannot erosion strategy . It calls it that and it’s We’d started from land-locked be hauled away from the sea on rails good politics to be seen to be responding Moscow, where she lived in a regulation then they could be made to hover. to events. In reality, however, it differs tower block among the vodka drinking Structures can be attached to air little from that which held sway on masses and mamushkas with fat bellies balloons and allowed to move upwards both the Welsh and English sides of the and empty baskets hanging on their arms.

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open, the truncated visit less frequently. They don’t have the ships. The whole sense of us as a maritime nation is in retreat. City dwellers and, increasingly, too, those who live further out in the dormitory coastal towns and villages, are losing their sense of being by water. They take no part, they do not look. Seafaring words like offing and anchor no longer litter their language. They do not toe the line. They have never slung their hooks. There are those in Gloucestershire who do not know their county has a coast line. I’ve met students in the centre of Cardiff who do not regard the capital as a port city, are unaware of the true extent of its water front and, in any event, do not recognise the sea for what it is even when standing at water’s edge. Flat Holm and Steep Holm, out there on the real sea, the island beacons and proof that this is a maritime place, are seen as a sort of wallpaper. If they are seen at all. But tell this to the sea fishermen who occupy the difficult to get to coastal rocks Coal now imported (from Poland) at . Photo: Peter Finch. with their rods and their hip flasks and you’ll get a very different answer. So, too, My minder was used to life in the cold and holy moment. For me it was just a visit from the increasing number of coastal land-locked northern cities. It was all she to a distant pond. walkers and those who sail from the knew. We flew south across the great and On the Severn’s coasts I get the honeypot marinas or the muddy pills that endless lands of the Soviet Union. When sense that, despite its omnipresence and dot both English and Welsh coasts. It’s we eventually reached the Caspian, a categorically certain rise, our sense of the not all lost. flat and oil-scummed pool on the sand sea is in retreat. In the city ports of Bristol, French sailors from a port visit by coloured Steppes, with no rock edge nor Cardiff, Newport, Barry, Port Talbot one of their navy’s coastal minesweepers wave action, no seaweed, no wind-blown and Swansea the docklands are being were seen wandering the capital’s nightclub streets. They looked very I’ve met students in the centre of Cardiff who do not French and extremely maritime in their regard the capital as a port city, are unaware of the whites, their bellbottoms and their true extent of its water front and, in any event, do not red bobble topped sailor’s hats. But among the drunken revellers dressed as recognise the sea for what it is even when standing at vampires, schoolgirls, lumberjacks and water’s edge. characters from super hero movies, they came over more as a stag party who’d white horses, no seaside paraphernalia engulfed by gentrification. Apartments spent a bit more than usual on their of donkey rides and whelk stalls, none of for the rich. Places to dine on lobster and costumes. The sea, the sea. Not anymore. that, she rushed forward and on her knees duck with black bean sauce. washed her face in the waters. The Dock traffic is a fraction of what it sea, the sea. She’d never seen it before. once was. There are so few ships at sea. The coast was a place to which she had The dock labour force has shrivelled. Peter Finch’s Edging The Estuary, his never been. Despite the oil derricks Men do not leave port in trawlers looking psychogeographic adventures along the stretching out across the waters and the for fish. The docklands themselves are edge of Wales’ principal waterway, of presence of the ugly smoking city of Baku surrounded by high security fences, the which this is an extract, is published by to our backs, for her this was a revelatory short cuts down port roads are no longer Seren this Spring.

the welsh agenda spring 2013—issue 49 | 77 9/Culture In the footsteps of Y Gododdin

Nigel Jenkins looks back at the life of poet, translator and literary critic Tony Conran

Once in a very rare while, a Welsh history. Certainly, he was the more formally Spring 1995). Though a dispiriting period, writer of English is able, through his or adventurous of the two poets, and the there were compensations. New working- her poetry, to reach beyond the narrow more capacious and generous in his vision. class friends helped broaden and deepen confines of literary Wales to make a Tony was born in 1931 at Kharghpur a political consciousness which was to significant statement to the nation as in Bengal, his father being employed as remain socialist. And in Chelmsford public a whole. This was achieved by Tony a locomotive engineer on the Indian library, with fumbling Welsh but a decent Conran in his magnificentElegy for the railways. Wales, he insisted, had always dictionary, he spent his evenings on the Welsh Dead in the Falklands, written been an imperial country, up to its work that would issue a decade later in in response to Mrs Thatcher’s bloody eyeballs in the British Empire, and in the Penguin Book of Welsh Verse (1967). electioneering in the South Atlantic. dire need of reneging on Britain and all It sold 13,000 copies all over the world I was privileged to be present at that Britain stood for. The wandering and established his reputation as the the poem’s first performance – by Tony Conrans liked to keep a toe-hold in what pre-eminent translator of Welsh-language himself, assisted by his wife Lesley – at a had become their native north Wales, poetry. The book’s long and, eventually, fringe event during the 1982 Pontardawe although Ireland was the clan’s original influential introduction was at once a Music Festival, an annual event at which home. Because of ill health (he was born concise cultural history of Wales and a Tony often camped, being a committed with cerebral palsy), Tony was brought challenging bardic manifesto. Among afficionado of traditional music. There back as an infant to live with loving appreciative readers was the leading were no more than a dozen gathered grandparents, at first in Liverpool and Australian poet Les A. Murray who wrote: around a snooker table in the back bar then in Colwyn Bay. Separated from both of the Victoria Inn, where the poetry parents from 1939 to 1945, and from “I had never seen translations as readings took place. However, it was his father from his sixth to his fourteenth brilliant and immediately convincing clear to everyone present that this year, he missed the sense, in his early as Conran’s... they were poetry of powerful poem, drawing its years, of belonging to a community. In a high order in themselves, and from Aneirin’s great sixth-century comparative isolation, and from an early reflected a tradition that was clearly lament Y Gododdin, was destined to be age, he wrote not only poetry but, ever of major importance.” considered one of the great poems of the the experimenter, all kinds of drama, Les A. Murray, ‘A Tribute to Old 20th Century. The poem was soon being from verse tragedies to bedroom farce. Delight’ in Nigel Jenkins (ed.), Thirteen widely published, and no anthology of From Colwyn Bay Grammar School Ways of Looking at Tony Conran. contemporary ‘anglo-Welsh’ poetry could he progressed to the University College be deemed sufficient to its pretensions of Wales, Bangor, where he took a first His motives, as he explained in the preface without Conran’s elegy. in English and philosophy, and wrote an to the second edition (published as Welsh Tony Conran, who was also an editor, MA thesis on ‘The Social Conscience of Verse by Poetry Wales Press in 1986, and essayist, playwright, storyteller, literary the Romantics’. He became an Anglican frequently republished since then by Seren mentor and a writer of wonderful letters, as he entered college, but turned to Books), were in part political: made a seminal, Modernist contribution Catholicism soon after he left. to the English-language literary culture of It was then, in 1955, as he said later, “My English-speaking countrymen Wales. To many readers and writers, he that “the catastrophe came, I ... found in Wales were being treated as if was no less important than R.S. Thomas, myself with a clerk’s job in Chelmsford – they were immigrants in their own being profoundly influenced by Welsh- darkest England if ever there was one” country, potential Englishmen and language literature and Welsh culture and (interview in Modern Poetry in Translation, women who, if they persevered,

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might well inherit the green and latter is subtitled ‘A symphony in three Dan y canghennau” (one root beneath pleasant meritocracy of England’s movements’), and singing the praises of a our many branches) chimes with nineteen-sixties Jerusalem... If any wide range of poets and artists. Conran’s hiraeth, at the hillfort of Tre’r separate existence was to be possible Although he was reluctant in most Ceiri, for “The warm belonging root of for Wales... then the Welsh past had of his poetry to foreground his own us” (Castles). to be made available for English experience, he broke with that self- As someone bereft of a sense of speakers. They had to be made denying ordinance in his last collection, community in his youth, and as a aware that their own civilisation What Brings You Here So Late? (2008), poet-translator whose imagination was as radically different from the a single autobiographical poem in had held him shivering in the darkness English they were aping as (shall we which he movingly evokes what it was of Cynddylan’s devastated hall, Tony say) Persian or Swahili... Of course, like growing up with cerebral palsy in Conran was moved by a powerful I wanted a Welsh nation created. It wartime Bangor. Representing, as he imperative to define and defend and hasn’t happened very much yet, but wrote in the Western Mail (6 September invent upon this patch of Earth a place you never know.” 2008), “my own ‘coming out’, a public he could call our own. The building acknowledgement of myself as a spastic”, of such a Wales was not something, His Essex exile ended in 1957 when the poem went on to document his of course, that he or any poet could John Danby, chairman of the English struggles for a place in the social world, accomplish individually – nor would he department at Bangor, found him a job against the backdrop of the Thatcher have expected to, seeing himself, like as (officially) research fellow and tutor years, and then his coming to grips with David Jones, as “adding to the deposit” – in practice, as “permanent bard of the death prior to undergoing spinal surgery upon which the desired nation might place”. In 1977, he and his wife Lesley to halt increasing physical paralysis. be realised. For Wales is a country, quite were married. Their eldest daughter Although more intimately acquainted unlike W.H. Auden’s, in which poetry has Marged (later known as Maia) was born with, and influenced by, Welsh poetic made a great deal happen. the same year, followed by Alys in 1981. forms than any other writer of English, Some forty years ago, in an essay in He retired from the University in 1982, Tony Conran was a thoroughgoing Artists in Wales: 2 (1973), Tony Conran to concentrate full-time on his writing. internationalist and shameless ransacker exhorted artists not to demolish, in Formal Poems (1960), the first of of other art forms, particularly music, imitation of the alienated loner of arty some dozen or more books of original dance and painting. Indian ragas, Kathkali individualism, but to honour other poetry (not to mention over two dozen dance, the music of Mozart, the hidden people, strengthen the bonds between pamphlets), declares by title the centrality symphonic structures of Wordsworth, them – and give gifts. All his writing to his vision of poetic form and structure. Japanese haiku (he was, in the 1960s, life, he made a speciality of giving gifts Tony Conran long argued, and his poetry Wales’s very first haiku poet), Chineseshih , – poems to honour a marriage, a visit, sought to demonstrate, that it is a sense the visual revolution of Cubism, to name a parting, a birth; indeed, his entire of Welsh form and bardic purpose, only a few of his delights, were hardly less career has been a gift to our culture of rather than mere Welsh content, that important to his synthesising artistry than inestimable value. will most fully distinguish Welsh poetry cynghanedd, the cywydd, the englyn milwr. in English from the anglicising school of Poetry, for him, was an art that called empiricism and self-expression. A literary for performance, and he drew on a rich Modernist in the line of Pound, Basil fund of musical and dance traditions to Nigel Jenkins, poet, essayist, Bunting, Hugh MacDiarmid and David tour many a roadshow, involving actors, psychogeographer and director of Jones (and perhaps the last), he had dancers, musicians and even visual artists creative writing at Swansea University, no time for the poetry of demure ego, in the interpretation of his poetry. He could edited Thirteen Ways of Looking at Tony whimsical anecdote, genteel suburban see similar potential in the work of other Conran which was presented to its regret and detail-obsessed imagism. He poets, and toured a memorable production subject by the Welsh Union of Writers at saw himself, in the Welsh tradition, as of The Angry Summer, ’s a day-long festival celebrating the work first and foremost a praise poet, praising dramatic poem about the 1926 miners’ of Tony Conran, in Bangor at the end of and elegising not – these days – a prince strike (an edition of which he edited for the the UK Year of Literature 1995. Born in or a regional lord but friends and fellow University of Wales Press in 1993). 1931 Tony Conran died in Bangor on 14 architects of a distinctly Welsh civilisation. Tony Conran had a profound sense January 2013. He was buried at Bangor Two books in particular stand out in this of the interconnection and morality of New Cemetery, following a packed respect, Castles (1993) and All Hallows art. It is characteristic that as a translator funeral service at the church of Our Lady (1995), both of them complex, extended he should have taken with such passion and St James, Bangor. He is survived by works constructed according to a keen to the poetry of Waldo Williams, whose his wife Lesley and their daughters Maia sense of musical pattern (indeed, the recognition that we have “un gwraidd / and Alys.

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for home-grown excellence merely to be This tone is there throughout and fearless Reviews acknowledged by the wider world. The judgement is passed on critics, waiters, syndrome lives on, of course, in the Welsh doctors, colleagues and writers. We know media’s love of celebrity. that a telling, cryptic, entertaining and A man of superior parts If the “you can beat him, Rich” story memorable verdict is always imminent. Peter Stead tells us much about the Welsh cultural In July 1969 Burton reflected that good mindset it also provides a terrific clue to doctors are as rare as good actors –“about explaining the career of . In ten of us – out of ten thousand – are not his intriguing Diaries, handsomely printed by derivative and repetitive”. Two days later Yale University Press and fastidiously edited he picked up on this point and in so doing by Swansea University’s Chris Williams, it takes us to the core of his public and often seems as if the actor is still replying to literary identity: the boys in the pub. Burton never allows us to forget that theatre had always bored “I suppose that deep down, though I him but clearly he always has an eye on the hate to admit it, I am a proper actor work of those seen as his rivals: “I do not and the parts I play do affect me wish to compete with Olivier or Gielgud and slightly. There is always one part of Scofield and Redgrave etc, as they are too me that is looking on and I am aware ‘actory’ for my liking”. that I have become authoritative… Three of this quartet had been I’ve always been like that but playing a knighted and, notwithstanding his King (Henry VIII) has accentuated my distancing himself, Burton provides ample natural assumption of superior means”. The Richard Burton Diaries evidence that he was an avid reader Edited by Chris Williams of the annual honours list. Similarly, in Burton was aware that Olivier had once Yale University Press 2012, £25.00 Hollywood Burton keeps his distance described him as “a natural aristocrat”. but nevertheless is not unprepared for In 1971, trying to understand his own any prizes on offer (“I am now the most confidence, Burton confessed to always One of the most familiar and appealing nominated leading actor in the history having been “an awful academic snob” titbits of Burton lore is the story of how, on of the Academy Awards who has never and that there was “no mind in the one of his early visits home from California, won”). He sees ‘very few films’ but closely film business… that I didn’t despise… the regulars in Pontrhydyfen’s Miners’ Arms studies the form. He admires Brando’s compared to my own”. His mind was challenged him to admit that he was the “extraordinary talent” but, comparing “a mountain peak” on which he “could greatest actor in Hollywood. “Well”, replied their reputations ironically, the diarist asks look down on the despicable ants” in the returning hero, “Marlon Brando isn’t whether anyone has ever “understood his industry. One can speculate too that bad”. “But”, replied the local spokesman, a word he has said”. Evidently he was his sure sense of self was in part both “you can beat him, Rich, can’t you?” keeping this contender within his sights. physically and sexually determined. The popularity of this old chestnut The Burton Diaries have deservedly It is Burton’s confidence and reminds us of how widespread that received critical acclamation. For the condemnation of all that is mediocre that particular trope was in the industrial Daily Telegraph they were “the publishing makes the diaries so entertaining. We Wales of the early and mid 20th Century. sensation of the season”, and for the are always aware that we are in good In every village ‘the favourite son’ (and it Spectator “the most captivating book of hands wherever the film locations, hotels, was sons in those days), whether he was a the year”. For anybody’s printed diaries restaurants or parties are situated. His tenor, middleweight, outside half, centre to work there has to be a consistently honesty always helps and the confessions forward, doctor or preacher, was seen off strong, distinct and intelligent voice. In of ill-temper and over-indulgence come at on the London train by a crowd confident particular, in his passing comments on his regular intervals. Just as common are the that he would return as the equivalent associates we detect the confidence and discussions of his wealth and possessions of world champion. In that crowd there authority that is Burton’s hallmark. Olivier and in this respect it is the total honesty were many who treasured the finer is “practically a dwarf” with a “vulgar and lack of affectation that keeps us on aspects of culture and learning. But the streak”. Franco Zeffirelli is “a ruthless, his side. In 1968 he calculated that he and real common denominator was the need selfish, multi-faced ego-mad coward”. Elizabeth would soon be “worth about

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$12 million between us. About $3 million shall have a Tab instead. Disgusting.” on his own terms. of that is in diamonds, emeralds, property, What guaranteed the publishing Inevitably this highly pleasing book has paintings, (Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet, success of the Diaries was the great stimulated a fascinating debate and that is Utrillo, John etc.) so our annual income surprise experienced by the reviewers how it should be. For decades the Burtons will be in the region of a $million”. The when they discovered that Burton was a have been the property of the gossip purchase of the yacht and the private real writer. It is the literary dimension that columnists and the celebrity boosters but plane are treated as if they were merely gives both body and soul to this book. He the need has always been for a cultural pieces of kitchen equipment. has that need of the compulsive reader to assessment. The point at issue is why a Elizabeth Taylor, of course, is the report on every book whilst nevertheless brilliantly acclaimed actor turned his back co-star of the Diaries and we learn that at appreciating Somerset Maugham’s on one of the most sophisticated theatrical first they were partly written for her: she warning that “reading is a disease”. cultures in the world and then developed was to follow this honing of his intellectual Reading promiscuously was a refuge but a degree of contempt for film, the most persona. He leaves us in no doubt of his he understood that penning his own words popular and satisfying art form of the 20th admiration of her “brilliant” acting and her would be his destiny. He liked Francis Century. In September 1971 he assembled physical beauty and charms. However, Bacon’s remark that “writing maketh… an a lengthy explanation of his career choices from the outset it is the way in which the exact man”. and tackles his critics head-on with what initial Antony and Cleopatra relationship Chris Williams rightly suggests that can only be described as considerable was morphing into a real life ‘Virginia the Diaries were a form of self-review disingenuousness. The profession of acting Woolf’ scenario that holds our interest. and discipline but also an exercise on the is culturally defined and particular cultures Generally Burton’s discussions of sex and way to something substantial. He yearned have every right to analyse in detail the anatomy remind us that he grew up in for “the immortality” and “permanence” careers of individual players. It is for this those decades before the 1960s ‘discovery guaranteed by the published book. reason that the cultural critics of London of sex’. His fascination with Taylor even has Entry after entry carries his own or other and New York have taken the Burton its schoolboy-side: her ‘bum’ could almost people’s suggestions as to what he should Diaries so seriously. have had its own entry in the index. The write. He read countless novels but that At one point in 1969 Burton complains growing list of both their ailments testifies “unreal” and “contrived” form was too of Brando’s “under-articulation” and to their over-indulgence. “tricky”. All the evidence suggests that all confesses how he “longs to take him Burton willingly admits to over- the time it was the great autobiography in my teeth and shake enthusiasm into indulgence, lack of sleep and depression that was there staring him in the face. him”. Well, why didn’t he? And that is but at the same time he keeps the door He was also uniquely qualified to assess the question that one is forced to ask at closed on several areas of private grief. the social mores of Europe, America so many points in Burton’s career.Yes, we Many dark nights of the soul must have and Britain. Now it is the Diaries that will can appreciate the repetitive boredom gone unrecorded or unexplored. In bestow that immortality. of acting and the banality of many films. 1969 he explained that his “muscular Chris Williams begins his book with Yet very rarely does he contemplate the intelligence” prevented him from believing a fascinating quote by the actor William possibilities of the art forms he inhabits and in God and that he suspects that “the last Redfield who worked with Burton on his of how he could play a part in enhancing sound to be heard on this lovely planet will North American Hamlet. Redfield reported their complexity. His aversion to English be a man screaming. In fear and terror. It that he had found Burton to be “a deeply theatrical snobbery and Hollywood might be me”. educated and remarkably unself-conscious crassness justifies for him a quite He begs that, like his father, he would man”, someone who “combines education remarkable alienation from what were go silently or perhaps with “just one with intuition to an unusual degree”. major cultural endeavours. He really has admonitory and despairing ‘Fuck you’”. Clearly, as editor, Williams was confident nothing to say about the medium of Film A decade later the scenario darkens. that this was the interpretation of Burton and the outstanding auteurs (directors and Still appearing live on stage and fighting that his published Diaries would convey. actors working in America). the booze he becomes haunted by a The editor concludes his own beautifully Coming nearer home Burton, for all Kafka letter that suggests that the Day Of balanced introduction by inviting us to his Welsh nostalgia, poetry reciting, avid Judgement will in effect be a summary discover a more varied and complex reading and perusal of honours lists, court in which every person will examine Burton than we might have expected: we ultimately had no cultural dimension, no and judge their own soul in what will be are offered “a Richard Burton who reads, cultural antenna. He loved to think of an “agony of self-examination”. This entry who thinks, who longs to write”. Readers Joyce’s Ulysses: but why didn’t he play ends with a longing for “the panacea of a will duly discover a formidable authorial Bloom? After all Molly was at hand. He drink… a double ice cold vodka martini… presence in these Diaries. Richard Burton berates the crowd at Harlech Television. an hour of sweetly melancholy euphoria. I is back with us and, of course, very much Why didn’t he do something about

the welsh agenda spring 2013—issue 49 | 81 9/Culture / reviews it? apart, he never How yr Wyddfa proved wrong. The amount of research is played a Welshman (there were some enters the soul admirable. If you want to know absolutely feeble initiatives). Of course, Wales was Bethan Gwanas everything (well, almost) about yr Wyddfa, underdeveloped culturally at that time look no further. He has included quotes but why on earth didn’t he try to explore from the likes of George Borrow, Thomas and promote the latent energies of which Pennant, Gerald of Wales and O.M. he was evidence? One can never forgive Edwards, so if you’re too busy or lazy to Burton his cultural chastity. read their whole works, you’ll get some of It was his opting out of culture that their best bits in this information-packed has infuriated reviewers such as Simon hardback volume. Callow for whom Burton “sneered” at There are some fascinating snippets, other actors whilst himself only “intoning like the fact that the first recorded rock narcissistically”. Other reviewers probed climb in the area may well have been more deeply. Frederick Raphael wonders Owain Glyndwˆr’s escape up a chimney why Burton was “driven to scowl so on Moel Hebog back in 1400; and the furiously at a world which did him such fact that the botanist Edward Llwyd’s lavish favours”. He concludes that “in 150 volumes of observations were not telling all, he never quite says enough for accepted by Jesus College, Oxford us to be sure”. because of a quarrel with one of the It is testimony to Burton’s many levels fellows, and that most of his priceless notes that even after reading this weighty tomb Snowdon: The Story were sadly lost in fires after being split up we feel a need to know more. In an of a Welsh Mountain and sold at auction. And that Coleridge intriguing review in the New York Review Jim Perrin could have written a masterpiece about of Books Fintan O’Toole provides one Gomer, 2012, £14.95 his ascent of Snowdon if it hadn’t been of the best descriptions ever of Burton’s bloody raining. stage presence and in the process wonders I especially enjoyed his personal whether “the point about Burton is not I wasn’t sure at first. I love Jim Perrin’s anecdotes and opinions, and loved his that he was a great actor who fell into a shorter prose, his recent article: Wales: rant about the ‘magnificent wild goats’ void. Perhaps the void was always there”. why winter is the time to savour Snowdon which roam these hills, and his outrage O’Toole suggests that “it was precisely the (clickonwales, 2 March) for example, is that the National Park ‘conservationists’ shadow, the darkness, the empty space superb. But I’ve had problems with his are ‘threatening’ and culling these around him that made him such a potent style in the past. It teeters on the brink ‘gorgeous rascals.’ This is happening, presence”. To have taken acting more of being over-flowery and I’ve often felt says Perrin, mainly because they raid seriously might well have taken him out of that it could do with a bit of weeding. “the inappropriate cottage gardens of the security zone that he had put together. That’s just a matter of personal taste, of incomers” (elsewhere referred to as “prissy And so one of the most successful course; many people love it. Anyway, Surrey retirees”) and allegedly eat the and interesting Welshmen of modern having to review “the life story of the rare plants on cliff ledges (although Perrin times was a self-educated, exiled atheist British mainland’s finest mountain ... points out that they they actually go for and alcoholic who comes to the cultures parcelled in Jim Perrin’s ribboned prose” richer grazing elsewhere) and play havoc that created him only courtesy of film, worried me. But I’m relieved to say that I with the Park’s woodland regeneration recordings and now his diaries. It would thoroughly enjoyed this book. It’s quirky schemes. I’m with Perrin on this one. have given Richard Burton an enormous and romantic, as expected (that’s the kind They’ve roamed these hills for 10,000 kick that, almost thirty years after his death, of guy he is), and yes, his style did tend to years, so leave them be. I always become the citizens of Wales, England and the run away with itself at the start. However, childishly excited when I see them. United States are still debating not only the I was soon drawn into his obvious love I’m so very glad that he has a chapter nature of the man but also what his career for mountains, rock-climbing, stories and about the stories and legends of the area, as and personality, both equally fascinating legends, literature and the Welsh language too many visitors arrive and leave knowing and infuriating, have to tell them about - things I also happen to love. absolutely nothing about our wealth of themselves. Richard Burton is not going to Having walked and climbed up folk tales – apart from the one about a dog go away. Snowdon many times myself, and read called Gelert. Nor are they (or most Welsh quite a bit about the early climbers, I people) usually aware of the ancient history Peter Stead is an historian and cultural wasn’t expecting to learn much that of Wales and the fact that the name ‘Wales’ commentator. was new to me, but once again, I was is actually Saxon and means ‘foreigners.’

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Are we the only people in the world who have found room for a striking photograph Lyrics that riddle call themselves foreigners, I wonder? Oh, or two. I also feel very strongly that there our consciousness and if you’re not from Wales and don’t should have been a map in the first Susie Wild know why Edward I is not a king we chapter, where he describes his “eccentric particularly like, read this book. clockwise circumambulation” of the Non-climbers may find the large portion mountain. I became a tad confused there. given to “the vainglorious triviality of Yes, I know I could have studied my OS climbing” rather long, but Perrin is a rock Landranger, but a simple map of the route climber, so what did you expect? I enjoyed he took within the book’s pages would this chapter, but then, I have also done have been so much simpler, especially for a few routes in my time (with no style or any readers who are not familiar with the finesse whatsoever, but what the hell, I was lie of the land. in my element) and I too, have climbed up There are also too many footnotes, Lliwedd in the snow and ice, an experience although their content is often fascinating. which ranks with the best of my life. For example, the old name for Glaslyn Pleasingly, he notes that the locals was Llyn Ffynnon Las, which is so much (especially the copper miners) would prettier. But I would have liked to know certainly have been more competent why it was changed and by whom. climbers than the upper-class English visitors Also ‘’ is apparently “an who came here from the late 1880s onwards invented nonsense” (Ordnance Survey to indulge in “their newly-invented ‘sport’” cartographers strike again). It’s actually Newspaper Taxis: Poetry after the Beatles of rock-climbing. Perrin lets loose here, not Nant Gwynen, a name which was still Edited by Phil Bowen, Damian Furniss even trying to disguise his contempt for the around at the beginning of the 20th and David Woolley snobbery of the “port-raddled ... elect” of Century, so Perrin uses that name faithfully Seren, 2013, £9.99 Geoffrey Winthrop Young, C.E. Mathews throughout the book. Come to think of it, and their Oxbridge ilk. Although, to be fair, it sounds so much better to the Welsh ear he does go on to mention the better aspects than the hard rhyme of Nant Gwynant. Before reading Newspaper Taxis one of the former. Men like Colin Kirkus are given Another footnote points out that the well- would be forgiven for wondering if there deserved attention, and later his fellow- tramped ‘Pyg’ track, should actually be the is anything left to say about the Beatles. Mancunians, Joe Brown, Don Whilans and ‘Pig’ track, as the path and original name By the time you reach The End, however, Ron Moseley, who, between them, took existed long before the Pen-y-Gwryd hotel this thoughtful anthology of 74 poems will rock-climbing to another level and made was built. All very informative, but I do have proved that there is and that poets a rock-climbing Mecca. wish he’d managed to include more of this are the people to write it. Indeed, the book But there’s more to the mountains than information in the actual text itself, and not has plenty to please, please you and me. It pleasing weekend visitors. People need as footnotes. collects together poems that respond to the to be able to make a living here too, and The foreword by R. Merfyn Jones is music and to the influence of the Beatles Perrin does examine the negative effects excellent and the inclusion of part of ‘Bro’, on the way we lived then and now. As the of tourism and sheep-farming. I’m glad a poem by T.H. Parry-Williams (1887-1975) anthology editors write: to say that he is firmly on the side of the in the final chapter was the perfect choice. shepherds, but he used to be one, so he Interestingly, no attempt has been made “Beginning as a beat group setting understands. As for the real carbuncles, here to translate or even paraphrase a boy-meets-girl to rock’n’roll behind a he’s strongly against “abominations like single word, and I applaud that decision. chorus of screams, in the decade of the pipeline”, but he, as do Poetry, after all, gets lost in translation. But their unsurpassed career the Beatles I, appreciates the “sense of the working take my word for it, this eerily beautiful brought together high and low culture, lives” and “the lovely mineral tints and poem captures the way some places just making it ours in an era when popular hues” of the remains of the copper become part of your soul and never let go. culture was defining the times, not just workings around Llyn Llydaw and Glaslyn. Da iawn, Jim. Llyfr gwerth chweil. being defined by them… Fifty years That bit was crying out for a photograph, after their first LP, their influence is still but there is not a single one in this book. felt in every form of music, each field I know only too well the constraints of the arts, every corner of the world.” of publishing, and realise that the power of Perrins’s words are meant to paint the Bethan Gwanas is novelist, dramatist, Their lyrics riddle our consciousness, like pictures, but I do wish the publishers could travel writer and broadcaster. the writing in sticks of rock (’n’roll). There

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07970 029185 029 2049 9566 [email protected] www.theundercard.co.uk 9/Culture / reviews is poetry in Beatles albums – the poetry of life – the casual brilliance of songs capturing the hearts and minds of their times and beyond. This continuing influence resonated at the London Olympics’ closing ceremony, which saw ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ newspaper taxis circling the arena, and then lending their name to this anthology. Many others also lent their name for inclusion. A charity compilation – all royalties are being donated to Claire House Children’s Hospice in Merseyside – the book attracts the Gold Disc stars of always nudging the Poetry World. Among the household someone to say: names included are Carol Ann Duffy, Roger Meanwhile, on “Wake up! You’re McGough and Simon Armitage. Allen another train, in another carriage, Roger missing this! Ginsberg and Philip Larkin also join the McGough is accosted by two Swansea You’re missing the story! You’re missing magical mystery tour through a nostalgic women who ask him: the music!” Britain, voices carrying far, far beyond the streets of Merseyside: Where are you from now? We also see a new generation of poets adding Oh aye, diya know the Beatles then? their voice to the expected canon. Forward “No bankers, fireman, or barbers Liar! Prize shortlisted Rhian Edwards reminisces figured in this Midwestern teenager’s on a girlhood in which she seemed to enjoy microcosm, yet I sang of them again For everybody knows the Beatles, whether “pretending her father is a Beatle” in her and again… Penny Lane lay just they like them or not, as Kenny Knight has poem Parents’ Evening. She and Lizzy Lister around the corner every time I sang” it in Beatlemania: might have had a scuffed-knees fight – “My (Penny Lane, Illinois, Carrie Etter). dad says he was the drummer who left the You were never one of my heroes, Paul Beatles”. I picture my-Dad-was-better-than- The same three co-editors put together The I was into cowboys, and cowboys yours playground wars. Another rising star, Captain’s Tower, another Seren anthology Didn’t play bass guitars Kim Moore’s ‘This Boy’ is a warming pen of poetry which celebrated Bob Dylan’s portrait of the young John Lennon: 70th birthday, whilst Phil Bowen has also From train journeys to rites of passage and edited a previous Beatles anthology, Things coming of age, in the oft-quoted staple He was born We Said Today (Stride, 1994). Here, the key Annus Mirabilis Philip Larkin writes: without brakes, this boy who wouldn’t moments, milestones, strange symmetries wear and missed chances are charted. The Sexual intercourse began his glasses, who dreamt of circling Beatles’ first albumPlease, Please Me was In nineteen sixty-three above Liverpool in a plane, climbing launched in 1963 a year that also saw Sylvia (Which was rather too late for me) – higher Plath’s suicide, so delicately linked in Paul Between the end of the Chatterley ban and higher until the city disappeared Farley’s poem 11th February 1963. Carol And the Beatles’ first LP. from sight.’ Ann Duffy hears the gunshot that killed John Lennon in Liverpool Echo. Jeremy Rupert Loydell and Peter Finch both I cannot conceive that there is a band today Reed writes on the death of Brian Epstein: tackle the mind-altering, life-changing that they’ll be writing poems of in fifty years White Album well. Memories included in which is, perhaps, the point. So when the: ‘The curtains drawn all day at Chapel Newspaper Taxis are young and bold and Street / on the residual blues.” loud, and also quiet, subtle, sad. Seren Newspaper taxis appear on the shore, Poetry Editor Amy Wack’s thoughts are Waiting to take you away. Split into three parts: ‘Younger’, ‘So poignantly drawn back to watching Yellow Climb in the back with your head in Much…’ and ‘Younger Than Today…’ the Submarine in the “flickering dark” with her the clouds. book begins with a poem from Sheenagh late sister: Pugh. In Going to Liverpool a middle-aged And let them. woman travels on business to I sometimes still feel as if you’ve abandoned me to sleep where my youth is preserved. while I’ve had to watch the whole The fashions I’ve followed, outlandish spectacle Susie Wild is the newly-appointed editor the songs I know by heart,’ pass by without you. No wonder I am at Parthian Books

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Stuck in Splott 300 print and negative originals survived. are indistinguishable. This is Pountney’s Peter Finch They were stuffed in drawers and hidden in great achievement. He has almost entirely boxes, untouched as the years went on. By mimicked the older photographer’s style. chance they were discovered by another Together the two photographers have photographer, the young Jon Pountney, revisited the places and where possible who rented the same Warwick Hall space shot again the people shown in Robertson’s for his studio forty years on. originals. Viv Grainger is displayed, v-neck Pountney could see the skill in sweater and 70s shirt standing outside Robertson’s originals and tracked the the then functioning Grosvenor pub. He’s photographer down. Together the two men shown again 40 years on, crisply knotted embarked on the current project – to select tie, glasses, more wrinkles, standing outside the best from Robertson’s older originals the Borough. There are two shots of and retake those shots today, as near as Splott’s main thoroughfare, Carlisle Street, they could. Same subjects, same locations. one full of businesses the other with those Following a few diversions via web sites, enterprises largely closed down. Peter the exhibitions and the involvement of the Barber lounges, full head of hair, inside South Wales Echo - always keen to put the his shop in the 70s. He stands outside it city’s working class history in the spotlight - today, less hair but the same man. Tony the outcome is the present book. Bunce poses beside his Cortina in 1970s Cardiff Before Cardiff The idea of retaking the past is not new Habershon Street. His daughter, Leanne, Photographs by Jon Pountney and and especially not new for Cardiff. The stands beside her Fiesta in the same Keith S. Robertson. American photographer John Briggs has location today. Y Lolfa, 2013, £12.95. covered this ground before. He took a mass You won’t learn that much about of shots of Splott and the Cardiff Docklands the Capital’s cityscape from this book. during the seventies and then revisited his The photographs show faces far more Calling a collection of photographs from subjects again in the new millennium to often than streets. Buildings are in the the 1970s Cardiff Before Cardiff might record the changes. His books, Before The background. Change is discrete. What you not have been the best of ideas. I was Deluge and Taken In Time are both local expecting the place that once sat on the best sellers. capital’s muddy river delta before the city However, what Pountney has done is How much has changed was formed to come leaping out from Jon to attempt a merging. Apart from those in Capital’s great walking Pountney’s new book. detailed in the introductory narrative no suburbs? The blossoming Instead I got the grainy 70s reminding photographs are ascribed in Cardiff Before me of how it was forty years back among Cardiff. There are no notes designating Bay and the burgeoning the working class terraces of Splott. subject,era taken or the name of the centre may now be totally Home ground for many potential readers, photographer who clicked the shutter. transformed but in Splott shots from a time that has not yet faded How can you tell which is a Pountney from consciousness, a place near enough photo and which a Robertson, or which things have stuck. still to touch. come from today and which from 1970? Pountney’s book is a mesh of It’s difficult to tell. And this, I guess, is coincidence and artifice. It centres on precisely Pountney’s point. In some places will see is a detailed social record of how the work of Cardiff street photographer the past and the present do not alter. How a working class residential suburb doesn’t Keith S. Robertson. In the 70s and early much has changed in the Capital’s great alter that much when the planners leave 80s, armed with a Leica Rangefinder, walking suburbs? The blossoming Bay and it alone. Kids play. Men lean on walls. Robertson shot the Splott streets as he the burgeoning centre may now be totally Families gather around open doors. Cardiff saw them – peopled, rich in shadow, transformed but in Splott things have stuck. may be the world’s newest capital and a always in black and white. His pictures If you look hard, however, there are a place of dynamic growth and scintillating were engaging, rich in character, and, as few clues. A sign announces the National change but it still retains a residue of what events proved, transcenders of time. His Lottery. The Western Mail, shown in its it was in the streets where tourists never go. studio was in Warwick Hall, off Whitchurch former broadsheet manifestation, sits Pountney and Robertson before him have Road. He fell behind with the rent and on a newsagents counter. A hoarding ensured we know this. They should be was thrown out by the landlord who told advertises the long gone Leo’s supermarket. celebrated for what they’ve done him that his possessions, including all his A brand new Ford Anglia shines outside photographs, were forfeit and would be a boarded up building. The Tubes and burned. For decades Robertson imagined Pete Tosh play Sophia Gardens. Cranes that this, indeed, is what had happened. sit on the side of the now landlocked East Peter Finch is a poet, pscho-geographer But, amazingly, he was wrong. Somehow Dock. But mostly the past and the present and literary editor of the welsh agenda.

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What Wales can do for a poet It is that many-threaded braid which Jarvis painstakingly Angela Graham follows, by means of individual poems, while also standing back to appreciate the pattern that emerges over a life’s work.

not happen here. The poetry takes pride of able to demonstrate the complex, as in this: place and the life does not overwhelm the work. The reader’s appetite for the poetry is There are days when waves of sharpened, as it should be. unremembered life Ruth Bidgood’s family bought a holiday tumble in, one upon another, almost home in Abergwesyn, north Breconshire, irresistibly. You can feel the thuds in 1964 and after her divorce in 1974 it through the soles of your feet, through became her permanent home. She was blood and bone, already in early middle-age when she all the channels and sluices of the body. focussed on poetry, publishing her first ‘Symbols of Plenty’ from Symbols collection The Given Time in 1972. Jarvis of Plenty: Selected Longer Poems makes a persuasive case for his perception (Canterbury Press, 2006) of Ruth Bidgood’s work as ultimately, “a writerly process of what is called (in certain I almost gave up at the start of the book Ruth Bidgood environmentalist circles) reinhabitation”. because of the author’s unwillingness to Matthew Jarvis This is a willingness to engage with a place paraphrase Ruth Bidgood’s more mundane Writers of Wales series, University of not only as it is in the present but as it was or prosaic remarks. There is a good deal Wales Press, 2012, £16.99. in the past, and not only with the place of this over-careful quotation in Chapter 1 but with its non-human as well as human which makes it a jerky reading experience. inhabitants. In this process Jarvis sees an Matthew Jarvis is Anthony Dyson Fellow In his preface Matthew Jarvis is very clear epic quality because Ruth Bidgood is open in Poetry in the School of Cultural Studies, about what should be expected from to so many facets of her home patch, over a University of Wales Trinity this book. Ruth Bidgood’s noteworthy significant length of time, that her concerns and he properly respects the scholarly writing on local history is considered can be said to be on an epic scale. To quote desiderata. Yet I feel he could relax into only as it relates to analysis of her poetry. Georg Lukács she is engaged with “the expressing Ruth Bidgood’s experience in his Furthermore, this study of her poetry “is extensive totality of life”. own words a little more occasionally for the not intended to be primarily a work of reader’s comfort. biographically based literary criticism... June sun I do not generally seek to prioritise the seemed uncensorious. Today “University was an experience much life as a way of understanding the poetry, all the valley’s imagined words treasured by Bidgood, and she ‘flung’ apart from one very important personal were warm. I sat by the stream herself into it ‘with zest’.” decision: her move to mid-Wales in the and listened. mid-1960s.” On the penultimate page ‘Back’, from Time Being (Seren, 2009) “Indeed, this ‘mixture’ of heritage was he asserts that, “it is the totality of what something that she suggests caused her Bidgood offers up, in terms of her mid- Jarvis’s survey covers Ruth Bidgood’s ‘sorrow’ when she was young.” Wales poetic engagements, which is of twelve collections. It usefully includes an primary significance”. It is not so much this unpublished letter to Poetry Wales from But it is easy to rise above this gripe and be or that poem but “the intertwined richness 1989 in which she considers her radio rewarded by this careful, almost loving, and between poem and poem, over years of poem Hymn to Sant Ffraid. It is stimulating certainly erudite meditation on what one poetic thought”. It is that many-threaded to hear her ‘first-hand’, as it were, as poet has done for a part of Wales and what braid which Jarvis painstakingly follows, she rebuts or accepts a critic’s reading that Wales has done for her, and on what by means of individual poems, while also of her work and poetic intentions. The that relationship has to offer us. It’s there for standing back to appreciate the pattern that select bibliography, list of local history the reading, in the poems. emerges over a life’s work. publications, her miscellaneous writings, This doubly attentive scrutiny he interviews and videos plus critical does well. There is a temptation for those discussions and reviews should leave no who study the work of creative people to one short of material on this poet. In Jarvis’s Angela Graham teaches documentary foreground their own insights too much selections from her work, she comes across film-making at the School of Journalism, so that the reader is dazzled more by the as assured, in possession of herself (not as Media, and Cultural Studies, Cardiff interpretation than the original. That does easy as it sounds), and undemonstratively University.

the welsh agenda spring 2013—issue 49 | 87 Last word

hear Welsh accents on beaches and in bars Meantime Society conquers all. Just around the world. And yet the plain truth consider the list of its triumphs. It has seen is that Wales is a far less interesting country off the churches which mistakenly thought than it was a couple of decades ago. it was a matter they had to confront and The Wales I really knew and cared about endlessly debate. It has undermined health was defined by labour, by work in industry care by insisting on a social context. It has and agriculture. People, too, were defined totally ruined education and disoriented by the work they did and those jobs defined youngsters by making schools laboratories communities and radiated values. In my old for deluded theorists. Society’s master plan Wales that culture of work was buttressed was to convince people that there was such by clear value systems that were infinitely a thing as Social Science and consequently a Who can rewarding and distinctly Welsh. More than whole breed of consultants were licensed to ever I am now aware of how the chapels cloud our sense of reality. and schools of Wales once ensured that a In politics Society’s greatest victim has pass the debate on moral values and an emphasis been the Conservative Party, not least in on intellectual and artistic fulfilment were at the shape of David Cameron. Our Prime toga test? the heart of everyday life. Of course, that old Minister is a classic consultant, an advertising Wales gave rise to a distinct political tradition executive, who somehow senses that Society Peter Stead but our radicalism was always one aspect of is an issue and that tackling it is a guilt- a richer culture. assuaging exercise. It is almost embarrassing In his book Calon, a fascinating take on I willingly concede that my Welsh to see him trying to get an angle on what Welsh rugby, the author Owen Sheers patriotism is defined by a nation that no Society means. But to be fair, perhaps cleverly reveals that, for all the talk of tir longer exists. And yet I still care and want Society has done for party politics in general. and pridd, the truth is that a team of expert once again to be proud, not just of a That is certainly the case in Wales. technicians have turned familiar players constitution but of a culture. Every day I Recently I have enjoyed escaping into into super-human heroes. And yet the great assiduously read the Western Mail and watch the world of classical politics. Excellent paradox remains for, as the poet Keats had the Welsh TV news bulletins and invariably performances of the Royal Shakespeare taught Sheers, “in the very temple of delight have to wait for the reports of sporting Company’s Julius Caesar and Coriolan/us veiled melancholy has her sovereign shrine”. success that will compensate for the dreary by the National . A reading The Grand Slam of 2012 was followed by preceding litany of crimes, accidents, floods, of Ferdinand Mount’s proposition that we a whitewash in Australia. That is the lesson fires, scandals, job losses and disastrous have much to learn from ancient Greece every player and fan has to learn. Perhaps educational reports. It’s not easy being a and Rome has allowed me to appraise it’s the lesson at the heart of the modern Welsh news junkie. The communal orgasm Welsh politics afresh. I now apply classical Welsh experience. that quite naturally accompanied the standards. Our First Minister passes with There are still moments when I have to splendid 30-3 result in March was a reaction flying colours. I have no difficulty in seeing pinch myself just to ensure that I am now both to a great performance and a whole him coming to the Forum in his toga. But actually living in a Wales that has been year of Wales Today. who else passes the toga test? And yet all constitutionally recognised, that there is That old Wales quite readily bestowed a the time the call is for added powers and indeed a Welsh Government, a National political identity and one easily understood additional AMs. In other words what is being Assembly and Welsh Ministers are sworn Nye’s ‘language of priorities’. But who asked for is for more opportunity to debate in by high-court judges. We have travelled would be a politician today? Where do that troublesome matter of Society. a long way very quickly. And yet even as they start? What the Western Mail and Wales Sitting proudly in the Stadium for the the externals of the nation are secured and Today reveal is that there is only one great 30-3 Show I envisaged Carwyn in his toga amended the inner core continues to break problem to be tackled and that problem is stepping forward to address the crowd. up. We have bought expensive wrapping Society. The great irony of Mrs Thatcher’s That is the immediacy we need in Welsh paper but the produce to be wrapped is not most famous remark is that it was made at politics. For too long we have left things to as fresh as it used to be. the very moment when Society was not consultants and politicians, to those who Undeniably there are things happening only proving its existence but taking over accept the sway of almighty Society. The in Wales in which we can take great completely. In the old days it was Work real leaders, the toga wearers, need to stand pride. The new electronic technologies, that called the tune, while Society was a directly before pupils, parents, patients and the creative arts and a bilingual popular spontaneous affair that only needed fine citizens and point to the things that we can culture have empowered many individual tuning. Now Society is all that we have. It do together. We are a people wanting to be youngsters. There is something refreshing demands attention but nobody knows what released and awaiting instruction. We can, about the way in which one is likely to to do with it. all of us, be better than Society.

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