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+ Philip Pullman Growing up in Ardudwy John Osmond Where stand the parties now Inspiring Gerald Holtham Time to be bold on the economy Ned Thomas Cultural corridor to the east Sarah Jenkinson A forest the size of Gareth Rees The PISA moral panic Virginia Isaac Small is still beautiful Mari Beynon Owen Wales at the Venice Biennale Trevor Fishlock Memories are made of this Peter Finch Joining a thousand literary flowers together Peter Stead The Burton global phenomenon

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Editor: John Osmond First Minister ’ announcement the has commendable Associate Editors: on 12 July of his legislative programme for aspirations. Who could quarrel with the Talfan Davies Rhys David the fourth Assembly was another milestone First Minister’s aim “to ensure that Wales in Wales’ devolution journey. Without has increasingly resilient and diverse Administration: Helen Sims-Coomber the resounding Yes vote in the March ecosystems that deliver economic, referendum this occasion could not have environmental and social benefits”? There Design: [email protected] happened. For the first time in our history was a widespread welcome, too, for the we can see the outlines of a parliamentary proposed Heritage Bill. The First Minister To advertise, tel: 029 2066 0820 nation beginning to take the measure of its agreed in debate that the proposed Institute of Welsh Affairs legislative aspirations. In Putting Wales in the Highways and Transport (Wales) Bill could 4 Cathedral Road Driving Seat, a report the IWA prepared for be widened to embrace the need for an Cardiff CF11 9LJ the all-Wales Convention in April 2009, we integrated public transport system rather Tel: 029 2066 0820 looked forward to this day. We argued that than being just limited to placing a duty on Email: [email protected] www.iwa.org.uk the great virtue of the National Assembly local authorities to provide and maintain being able to enact primary legislation cycle paths, laudable though that is. The IWA is a non-aligned independent without first seeking permission from It was in this last policy area that the think-tank and research institute. Westminster via Legislative Competence First Minister came closest to describing Members (annual subscription £40) receive agenda three times a year, Orders, would be to allow it to develop a an over-arching theme for his programme. can purchase reports at a 25 per cent strategic vision. It would enable the Welsh As he put it, “We will legislate to embed reduction, and receive discounts when Government to adopt a holistic approach, sustainable development as the central attending IWA events. dealing with policy in such fields as health, organising principle in all of our actions Branches education, and the environment in a wide- across Government.” Again, few would ranging and connected way. quarrel with that. But like much of what North Wales Secretariat c/o How does the Welsh Government’s successive Welsh Governments have sought 6 Maes yr Haul, Mold, inaugural legislative programme measure to achieve in the first decade of devolution, Flintshire CH7 1NS up on this score? The opportunity certainly the objective is general and declaratory Tel: 01352 758311 appears to have been taken in education. and provides little comfort that concrete Gwent Secretariat The Schools and Standards (Wales) Bill gains will be made in practice. Institutional c/o Chris O’Malley will enshrine the 20 action points that change may be important in this area, but it University of Wales, Newport, Campus have been set out by Education Minister is by outcomes that the Welsh Government PO Box 179, Newport NP18 3YG in a series of speeches has asked to be judged. Tel: 01633 432005 over the past six months and hopefully will This first legislative programme West Wales Secretariat succeed in improving performance in our is a welcome beginning and marks a c/o Margaret Davies schools. In higher and , significant moment in the maturing Principal’s Office, Trinity University too, legislation may also result in significant of Wales as a political nation. Much College, Carmarthen SA31 3EP institutional change as a result of far- responsibility will now fall on the shoulders Tel: 01267 237971 reaching recent reviews. of the Opposition parties to scrutinise Swansea Bay Secretariat The social policy agenda is also pretty and improve what is being proposed. c/o Beti Williams substantial. The Social Service (Wales) Bill Their collective performance in the Department of Computer Science, will provide, for the first time, a coherent wake of the First Minister’s statement Swansea University, Swansea SA2 8PP Welsh legal framework for social services was unimpressive. But overall, we still Tel: 01792 295625 based on social democratic principles, lack a convincing narrative as to how though as ever the devil will be in the the proposed 21 Bills across such a wide Cardiff and Valleys Secretariat c/o Llio Ellis financial detail. The proposed Housing range of subject matters hang together 3 De Clare Drive, Bill will do the same, as well as tackling as a programme for a full term. There , Cardiff CF15 8FY homelessness which is bound to increase is a striking contrast with the One Wales Tel: 07971 246116 in the coming years as a result of the agreement that was put together, in the IWA Women Westminster Government’s assault on wake of the 2007 election, in about the c/o Kirsty Davies benefits. There are also related Domestic same time period. There are more benefits [email protected] Abuse, Youth Offending, and Children and to coalitions than maximising votes. It was Tel: 07900 692898 Young Persons Bills. Aneurin Bevan who once said that it is the Wales in The environment is another area where politician’s job to find the words. c/o Robert John First Base, 22 Ganton Street, London W1F 7BY Tel: 020 7851 5521 agenda summer 2011—issue 44 | 1 Contents

Cover photograph: Statue dedicated to the women of Y Wladfa at – a see page 45. Photo: Llinos Dafis 4 25. Challenging a culture Education of mediocrity 4.  Essay says Wales can 50. Wales’ vocational Growing up in Ardudwy no longer afford to be the attainment gap Philip Pullman looks back with land of the pulled punch Gareth Rees questions a nostalgia on one corner of moral panic over the recent Wales in the 1950s and 1960s 28. Why we should control PISA scores of our school the courts and the police performance 8.  News Eurfyl ap Gwilym finds Inspire Wales Awards devolution of criminal justice Agenda 44 cannot be opposed on Summer 2011 10. Outlook financial grounds Priorities for the fourth term –Brian Morgan –Stuart Cole –David Reynolds 2 3 –Marcus Longley Economy International 53. Y Coleg Cymraeg –Anne Meikle with PricewaterhouseCoopers provides critical 40. Cultural corridor mass for intellectual 30. Time to be bold to the east engagement Gerald Holtham urges there Ned Thomas revises his view Merfyn Jones argues we could not be a better moment of Turkey following cross need to be able to write, 1 to borrow and invest in border events organised by reason and calculate in Wales’ infrastructure Aberystwyth University’s Welsh as well as simply Politics Mercator Institute speaking it 32. Falling in and out 16. Where stand the of love with inward PATAGONIA SPECIAL parties now investment 43. Tenacious settlers John Osmond on why all Ken Poole says the Welsh Gerald Holtham discovers a the parties have their work Government urgently needs compelling example of what cut out to be ready for the to refocus on overseas ordinary Welsh people can do 5 next election in 2016 opportunities Social Policy 45. Y Wladfa today REFERENDUM SPECIAL 33. Bring back the Wales Cynog Dafis welcomes the 56. Regeneration 19. Welcome to the Tourist Board growing connections between and the economy legalities of law Terry Stevens presses the Wales and Patagonia Mark Lang and David making powers Welsh Government to Leech argue that the Alan Trench says the address a malaise in our successor programme to referendum marks the tourism industry Communities First will need beginning of the National to engage more actvely Assembly’s entanglement 36. Charting our progress with local businesses with judicial process in and out of recession Michael Artis and Marianne 47. A forest the size 58. City region strategy 22. Delivering the Yes vote Sensier argue the Welsh of Wales needed to integrate Daran Hill describes how the Government should Sarah Jenkinson describes policy parties collaborated in the respond to timing variations how Wales is taking a lead Roger Tanner calls for referendum campaign system across the economic cycle in rainforest protection and a unified regeneration for Wales’ second city climate change programme to tackle poverty

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Newsflash

Coming Up • Darlith yr Lecture | Wrecsam / Wrexham 2 Awst/August 2011, 11 to 12 y.. /noon –Pabell y 6 8 Cymdeithasau Environment Culture Aled R. Roberts, AS Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol Cymru, Gogledd Cymru a Cyn Arweinydd Cyngor Bwrdeistref Sirol Wrecsam / Welsh Liberal Democrat AM for North Wales and former Leader, 62. Two wheels good 72. Fishlock’s File Wrexam County Borough Council Jane Lorimer reports that Memories are made Gwleidyddiaeth y Gororau yng Ngogledd Ddwyrain Cymru 60,000 Cardiff households of this Border Politics in North East Wales are being contacted in an Trevor Fishlock says we Darperir cyfieithu ar y pryd / Simultaneous translation provided effort to change their should have more stories • Trafodaeth IWA Debate yn yr Eisteddfod travel habits about Welsh lives Wrecsam / Wrexham 4 Awst/August 2011, 11 to 12 y.b. /noon –Pabell y Cymdeithasau 64. Small is still beautiful 74. Joining a thousand Argyfwng darlledu yng Nghymru / Virginia Isaac reflects on the literary flowers The crisis in Welsh broadcasting Huw Jones, Cadeirydd/Chair S4C; Geraint Talfan Davies, legacy of Fritz Schumacher together Cadeirydd/Chair IWA Peter Finch describes the emergence of Literature • Coffee Shop Debate Wales, a new agency for Unsolved Mysteries of Wales with Rev. Lionel Fanthorpe, author, teacher, television personality and martial arts instructor the word Tuesday 6 Sept 2011 6.30pm-7.30pm, 7 , Cardiff (Entry free) Science • Rethinking environmental management in Wales Monday 26 Sept 2011 9.30am – 5.00pm, Park Plaza Hotel, Cardiff 66. Going back in time Conference on the projected merger between the Environment 13.5 billion years Agency Wales, the Countryside Council for Wales and the Forestry Rhys David meets the Commission Wales Keynote speakers: John Griffiths, Minister for Environment and Welshman behind the Sustainability, Welsh Government; Terry A’Hearn, former Chief 17-mile nuclei Collider Executive, Victoria Environmental Protection Authority, Australia; at Cern 79. Lighting up Chris Mills, chief executive, Environment Agency Wales; Jon Owen the nations Jones, Chair, Forestry Commission Wales; and Morgan Parry, Chair Countryside Council for Wales. Mari Beynon Owen reports £65 (£52 IWA members) from the Venice Biennale • Getting Ahead Together: Connecting Cardiff and the Valleys Friday 4 Nov 2011 9.30am – 5.00pm, City Hall, Cardiff 82. Reviews Conference on the prospects for creating a city region in south east Wales Everything was better In association with the Cardiff and Co and Cardiff University after a few drinks Keynote speakers: professor Kevin Morgan, Cardiff University, Peter Stead Professor Alan Harding, Manchester University, Thomas Kiwitt,  Stuttgart Business Partnership, David Stevens, Cardiff Business Partnership 70. High performance An intertwining of Welsh £65 (£52 IWA members) computing and British politics David Craddock on a J. Graham Jones • IWA / Business Awards £40 million project which In association with PwC Friday 25 November 2011: 7.00pm Exchange, will provide Wales with Nine Centuries of Welsh £65 (£60 IWA members) a world-class super Contact with Islam Table of 10 - £600 (£550 IWA members) computing network Harri Pritchard Jones

Just Published 88. Last Word Peter Stead Accelerating History – the 1979, 1997 and 2011 referendums in Wales By John Osmond £5.00

Welsh Perspectives on Ageing All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval £7.50 (£5.00 IWA members) system or transmitted in any form or by any means, 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 Growing up in Ardudwy

Philip Pullman looks back with nostalgia on one corner of Wales a in the 1950s and 1960s

My family moved to north Wales when I What I remember best was the road was ten or eleven in the mid 1950s. My up from the village, which led through stepfather was a pilot in the RAF, and he woods and along the river and through was posted to a little airfield in , a little hamlet called Gwynfryn, where near . He’d been trained in there was a tiny shop that sold those Woomera, the RAF establishment in Curiously Strong Peppermints among Australia, to fly pilotless drones called many other things such as leather Jindiviks. What they did with the bootlaces to string your conkers on. Jindivik at Llanbedr was to pull a target There was also a chapel in Gwynfryn. I Articles for the fighters from Valley, in Anglesey, can’t remember the denomination, but to shoot at. As a Jindivik expert, he it had a handsomely varnished door that Essay: came to Llanbedr and the family used to shine exactly like toffee in the naturally followed. evening sunlight. Growing up When we first moved there my Going home on winter nights, on in Ardudwy parents hadn’t found a house to live in, that road under the trees towards so we camped in a couple of caravans Gwynfryn, I used to gaze across the News: on parts of the RAF establishment that river at the light on a farmyard wall Inspire Wales weren’t within the main airfield but down below and across the river. For Awards 2011 scattered around the village. I think some reason I thought it was intensely the place had been quite busy during romantic. It was on that road, one the war, because there were a lot of winter afternoon coming back from Outlook: decaying buildings lying empty. The hit school, that I saw a dead body. I was Priorities for the song at the time was a skiffle tune by about eleven or twelve. I was walking fourth term Johnny Duncan and the Bluegrass Boys, home on my own, looking forward to Brian Morgan called ‘Last Train to San Fernando’: the farmyard light so I could pretend Stuart Cole again that there was a beautiful girl there Last traaaiiin to San Fernando who’d been kidnapped and was waiting David Reynolds Last traaaiiin to San Fernando-o-o for me to rescue her, and I was about Marcus Longley And if you miss to go into gathering darkness under the This one trees where the road sloped up a bit. A Anne Meikle You’ll never get another one man on a motorbike went past me, and Beedy beedy bum bum a couple of minutes later he came back To San Fernando. down again and stopped.

That is a chorus of genius. Once heard, “Listen,” he said, “I don’t want you to never forgotten. So my first genuine be scared, but there’s a dead man 24-carat memory of being in Wales is on the road up there. I’m going singing that song at the top of my voice down to call the police. But if you in one of the old empty RAF buildings, don’t want to see him, right, you beside the road from into better wait or find another way.” Llanbedr, because the echo was perfect. Pretty soon my parents found a It was good of him to stop and tell me. house for us to rent about a mile above And as it happened there was another Llanbedr, right where the two rivers, the way I could have taken, because a path Artro and the Nantcol, joined together. led away from the road and up through

4 | Essay

I fully believe, about a bad boy in one of her classes who was being cheeky or fooling about or something. She told him to come out to the front and bring his chair. He thought he was going to be made to sit on it, and came out with a swagger and put his chair down. “Now help me up,” she said, and he helped her up to stand on the chair. Then she hit him. I liked Latin, but I do regret not doing art. With the aid of a book about the history of painting that I bought with a book token I got for my fifteenth birthday, I was falling in love with the visual arts, and becoming obsessed with the difficulty and the delight of making marks on paper with pencil or charcoal that sort of corresponded with what you could see out there. There was a field opposite our house with a ragged and untended fence going up the hill. I tried that field over and over with pencil and Philip Pullman in February 2011 in Cardiff at the 50th anniversary dinner of Yr Academi Gymreig/The Welsh with charcoal, and still I couldn’t get it Academy - now Llenyddiaeth Cymru/Literature Wales –at which an Honorary Fellowship was bestowed on him. right. A little later, when we moved to This article is based on what he had to say on that occasion. , where we could see the sea, I found myself in a landscape of utter the trees and behind the grand house roof and watch them come running out. delight which I wrote about many years called Plas Gwynfryn, where lived a rich That was immensely enjoyable. later in a book called The Broken Bridge. man with a Sir in front of his name. Derek was an enterprising boy. I gave my passion for drawing to the So I could have taken that way and Before his family moved to Llanbedr heroine, Ginny. In this passage I describe avoided the dead man. But I thought, they lived in Barmouth, and one winter exactly the place we lived in: well, the light’s going, it’s getting darker, evening he and I and a couple of others and I’ve never seen a dead body, and went down to the shelters along the sea “Inland, on the far side of the main it would be a pity to miss it; so I went front, where the loving couples went road, a range of great grass-covered up the road and walked past. The poor to snog privately. We crept along till we hills, not quite mountains but chap had just been walking along and found a couple at it, and then we’d just as high as hills could get, rolled had a heart attack and died on the spot. go and stand in front and watch them till endlessly away out of sight; but on When I got home and told my mother they chased us away. this side, the seaward side, there she was so shocked she had to have a When I was about fifteen, I started was a space of magic and beauty, glass of brandy, and she thought I was learning to draw. I didn’t do art at Ginny’s realm. cold-blooded for not being in a state of school because it was timetabled shock as well. against Latin, and I had to do Latin It was a mile wide: all the land That road up from Llanbedr saw a because … well, the clever kids got between the main road and the lot of mischief. You might remember directed towards Latin and art was left sea. There was a grassy field below those little fireworks called bangers you to the others, which was a bad thing in the road, then the lane with her could buy for a penny. All they did was very many ways. house in, then more fields, then a go bang. Well, one year, Derek Dobney So I did Latin, which was taught railway line, then another field and and I bought a dozen bangers and hid in by Miss Lewis. She was very small, the sand dunes and the beach. To the trees beside the pub car park, where very small indeed. She was known the left was an estuary where a little there was a public lavatory. We waited as Ma Lew, though never to her face. river, which only a few miles back in till we saw someone go in, and then She was intensely fierce and highly the hills had been tumbling swiftly we’d light a banger and chuck it on the dangerous. There was a story, in which among rocks, spread itself out wide

agenda summer 2011—issue 44 | 5 Essay

and slow through a tidal lagoon. Beyond that there were new to me, I don’t understand it. I feel a longing that’s full of more dunes and, at the very edge of the horizon, an desire, but now it’s a delight, and now it’s death! I freeze, and airfield from which tiny silver planes occasionally took off then I feel my soul burst into flame, and in a moment I go to skim over the sea and vanish. Everything from the main back to freezing again; I search for a blessing outside of me, road to the sea was Ginny’s. but I don’t know who holds it, I don’t know what it is …

She owned it because she’d drawn it, from the insects on And so on. Every word is true. the dry-stone walls to the crumbling church half-buried in Rhyddid Williams, the music teacher, had no idea that the sand-dunes, to the little bridge that carried the railway that would happen to me. Why would he? It was private line over the estuary …” and secret, and I would never have confessed it to a soul. Nevertheless, that unplanned lesson in how to fall in love My sentimental education took place when I was least was one of the three or four most important things that ever expecting it. One autumn afternoon when I was in the first happened to me in my youth. And that in turn taught me or second year at Ysgol Ardudwy my class had to skip our that we must give our children, our pupils, our students, the normal lesson because the teacher was away and there wasn’t chance to encounter all kinds of things unexpectedly, and we a supply. We had to go to the hall with a book and sit quietly must never ask them what they think it means. while the music teacher dealt with another class. So we all I’ve written and spoken before about my English teacher, trooped in, and I imagine we were pretty languid because my dear friend Miss Enid Jones. One of the great things she it was one of those warm afternoons when the autumn sun did was to produce the school play every year, and that seems to hang in the sky for ever. Certainly the sunlight was was always something I was set on being part of. I realized coming through the big windows and warming us all. something then that I have never seen contradicted: for every And because of that sort of warm languid golden light, play that is produced, love will be fallen in by someone. The and because I was in that sort of mood, and because the intensity of feelings that are evoked all round, the glamour of sunlight caught the hair of a girl from the other class called the costumes, the power of the language – it all stirs the soul. Carol Powell, and because she was pretty, and because my And the heart. And the body. romantic mind was always running that way, and because The most soul-stirring thing for many an adolescent in the the music teacher was playing one particular tune, which years when I was one was the existence of Bob Dylan. He I’d never heard before and which struck me suddenly as the called himself after the Welsh poet, and of course the Welsh most beautiful melody I’d ever heard, almost as if it had been pronunciation of that name does not rhyme the first syllable written especially for me, especially for this mood and for this with Jill. Dylan Thomas himself said that the name rhymed occasion… Anyway, this is the music that I heard for the very with chillen, as in all God’s chillen got wings. He was probably first time, not knowing what on earth it could be: trying to prevent Americans from calling him Dai-lan. Anyway, Bob Dylan or Dillen came upon us like a Voi che sapete revelation. I took off the nylon strings from my old guitar and Che cosa è amor, fitted it with steel strings instead. I sat in our garden bashing Donne vedete away at chord after chord, and I still remember where I was S’io l’ho nel cor … sitting when I realized why there was such a thing as a seventh chord, and what it does in relation to the tonic. When you And the result of hearing that astonishing, lovely, discover it for yourself, it’s amazing. heartbreaking melody for the first time, in adolescence, when My great friend Merfyn Jones, who later became a you’re not expecting it and you’re just sitting around and the distinguished historian and academic, was going through a sun is warm and glowing on the hair of Carol Powell – well, highly political phase then, and that aspect of Bob Dylan’s music it hit me like a thunderbolt of golden perfume. I fell in love. appealed to him greatly. Merfyn had about as much musical There and then. At once. In love with that beautiful tune, and ability as … well, he had none. But that didn’t stop us. One in love with Carol Powell. summer – it must have been 1965 – he and I decided to give I didn’t understand the words, and it didn’t matter. The the world the benefit of our genius, and we set off to Pwllheli. melody did it all by itself. But when much later I discovered You have to start somewhere. I had my guitar, and I also had my what the singer is singing about, I was even more astonished harmonica holder. Now the big difference between Bob Dylan at the utter genius of Mozart, in giving such a melody to words and me – the only difference, really, the reason for his greater in the voice of an adolescent singing about love: musical success – is that his harmonica holder was better than mine. I’d made mine out of a wire coat hanger, and tied my You ladies, who know what love is, see if that’s what I have slippery chrome-covered harmonica on with string. in my heart; I’ll tell you about the feeling I experience, for it’s Well, Merfyn and I decided on the Seashell Café as the

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“I’ll never forget the evening light – those long calm summer evenings that you thought would never end, when you’ve had your tea and done your homework and there’s nothing to do but play or wander along the beach with the sea quietly folding its neat little waves over on the sand one after the other. That light that fills the world, from the far horizon of the still sea to the estuary and the dunes of Llandanwg, of Mochras, of Morfa Dyffryn, all the way to the slopes of Moelfre, that perfect round green dome of a hill, and all the great hills beyond.” stage for our first performance, and we went in and asked the But that was too much for the owner.“Go on, get out,” she lady behind the counter if we could sing. “Well, all right,” she said, “the pair of you, go on, clear off.” said dubiously. So I struck up with When the ship comes in: So we cleared off and had an ice cream. It felt like a victory. We’d been suppressed by the tyrannical forces of Oh the time will come up reaction. That was something to be proud of. When the wind will stop There is so much I could say about the debt my soul owes And the breeze will cease to be breathin’ to that part of north Wales, and the chance that brought me Like the stillness in the wind there, and gave me these experiences and many, many more. ‘Fore the hurricane begins I’ll write about them at greater length one day. But as long The hour that the ship comes in. as I live, I’ll never forget the evening light – those long calm And the seas will split summer evenings that you thought would never end, when And the ship will hit you’ve had your tea and done your homework and there’s And the sands on the shoreline will be shaking nothing to do but play or wander along the beach with the sea Then the tide will sound quietly folding its neat little waves over on the sand one after And the wind will pound the other. That light that fills the world, from the far horizon And the morning will be breaking … of the still sea to the estuary and the dunes of Llandanwg, of Mochras, of Morfa Dyffryn, all the way to the slopes of Moelfre, I was going great guns, bellowing away at the words, and Merfyn that perfect round green dome of a hill, and all the great hills was clapping somewhere approximately close to the beat. Then beyond. I remember it with a warm benevolent clarity in came the harmonica bit. I blew and sucked like crazy, and which every detail is precise and calm and perfectly placed, as then I realised to my horror that the harmonica was becoming if it had been destined to be there from the beginning of time. detached. Out of the corner of my eye I saw it slipping out of the I owe that to Wales. I owe the education of my feelings to right-hand piece of string. So I tried to grip it with my teeth, and that landscape, and to every kind of music I listened to, and to it shot out and dangled contemptuously just out of reach. There all my friends, and to those teachers who taught me whether was a certain element of ignominy in the way I finished the song. they knew they were teaching me or not. Then it was Merfyn’s turn. He was going to make a speech. He began in fine style. Philip Pullman is a best-selling author, most notably a trilogy of fantasy novels His Dark Materials (1995-2000), the first book “You people, you holiday makers, with your cups of tea of which was turned into the filmThe Golden Compass. More and your buckets and spades – it’s all very well for you. recently and controversially he has written a fictionalised Enjoy your holidays, go on. But in the jungles of South- biography of Jesus, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel East Asia the poor people of Vietnam are fighting for their Christ (2010). Born in Norwich in 1946, he was educated from lives against the US imperialists. They haven’t got cups of 1957 at Ysgol Ardudwy, Harlech. In 2007 he was made an tea. They haven’t got buckets and spades …” Honorary Professor of Creative Writing at Bangor University.

agenda summer 2011—issue 44 | 7 Life stories that inspire Wales A fascinating range of life stories and inspiring again a remarkable set of contributions that are achievements were revealed in June when the being made to Welsh civic life. IWA’s Inspire Wales awards were unveiled at a The awards categories are business, glittering ceremony in Cardiff’s City Hall. This education, science, arts and media, the was the second year of the awards, organised environment and sport, as well as seeking by the Institute in association with the Western champions in citizenship and young achievers. Mail. This year’s achievers demonstrated yet The winners, in each of the categories were:

Tegan Morgan language learners across the globe – so Young Achiever they co-founded SaySomethinginWelsh. Sponsored by Wales and West Utilities com, a website containing a total of 60 Eighteen-year-old volunteer Tegan lessons, accessed by over 14,000 Welsh Morgan, from , has been working learners from all over the world. tirelessly in youth centres for the past two years. She cites the mantra “would you like the same lifestyle for your children?” Constance Nzeneu as the motivation driving her work. Her Citizen’s Voice inspirational initiatives this year includes Sponsored by Working Links Wales encouraging young people in Having faced numerous challenges when to practise safe sex in a bid to tackle the she arrived in the UK from Cameroon in county’s STI and teenage pregnancy rates. 2005, Constance Nzeneu was determined to provide support to vulnerable women in similar situations. A single mother-of-two, David Williams she founded Women Seeking Sanctuary Environmentalist Advocacy Group Wales in Cardiff two years Sponsored by Viridor ago to support women fleeing human rights A serial energy entrepreneur, David abuses, persecutions, isolation, destitution, Williams has dedicated 34 years of his threats of deportation and other dangers. working life to developing renewable She has worked almost single-handedly to energy technologies from their infancy. lobby decision makers, secure funding and As founder and chief executive of arrange counselling and support for the Cardiff-based Eco2 and through his work women who come to her – all balanced as Generation Projects Manager for with her family life. Renewables at Swalec and at Energy Power Resources, he has been at the forefront of commercialising new technologies. Projects Kelly Davies he has helped bring to fruition have saved Sport 3 million tonnes of CO2 – which was 10 Sponsored by Sport Wales per cent of the Welsh Government’s 2010 Kelly Davies is a prime example of how emissions target. hard work can translate into tangible results. A former Arsenal and Ladies player, Kelly gave up the Aran Jones and professional game to establish Abergele- Iestyn ap Dafydd based social enterprise VI-Ability, which Global Wales offers footballing work apprenticeships for Sponsored by the University of Wales economically-inactive people and training In a joint result, Aran Jones and Iestyn ap for those looking to work in the industry. Dafydd picked up the Global Wales award The programme has grown in turnover for their online resource for learning to more than £1 million, and has secured Welsh. Former English teacher Aran Jones contracts to deliver programmes to a and former civil engineer Iestyn ap Dafydd further 180 economically-inactive people wanted to increase the number of Welsh- in the Conwy area.

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

Gail Griffiths Kevin Crofton Educator Business Leader Sponsored by the University of Wales Sponsored by Leadership & Management In a context of high unemployment among Wales young people in the , A former military man, Kevin Crofton has eight years ago Gail launched a music used his keen organisational discipline magazine run entirely by volunteers, using to help transform Newport-based her experience of more than 20 years in global semiconductor firm SPP Process the media industry. As managing editor of Technology Systems into an even more -based social enterprise Plugged profitable company. With 400 employees, In, she runs free workshops to tutor operating across 11 countries, his disadvantaged young people in the Valleys collaborative approach has helped foster and give young people a rare chance to team spirit, and change a previously- create a portfolio of music-related work to demotivated workforce into a united one. help land employment.

Julie Owens - Fire and Rescue Phil George Service Arts, Media & Creative Industries Welsh at Work (large businesses) Sponsored by Orchard Sponsored by Cad Centre Mid and West In a career spanning nearly 30 years, Mid and West Fire and Rescue Service -born Phil George has left a has made Welsh a core of its approach to significant and lasting imprint on Welsh engaging with its staff and with the local broadcasting. As a former producer communities it serves. As well as appointing and head of arts, music and features at a Officer, it has cultivated BBC Wales and founder of his own TV a supportive institutional culture for Welsh production company Green Bay Media, speaking employees, including Welsh- Phil has helped create scores of Bafta-award language training, ‘Working Welsh’ badges winning shows. He has combined this with to identify Welsh-speaking employees and his work as the founding chair of National the issuing of a bilingual staff magazine, Theatre Wales, which in its first year has Calon Tan. garnered unprecedented national and international attention. Dafydd Hardy - Dafydd Hardy Estate Agents Professor Anthony Campbell Welsh at Work (small businesses) Science & Technology Sponsored by CAD Centre Sponsored by the University of Wales From its inception in 1992, Caernarfon- In a career spanning more than 40 years, based estate agent Dafydd Hardy has Anthony Campbell has contributed a huge worked to incorporate Welsh into the heart amount to the bioluminescence research of what it does. The company introduced field of animals and microbes that make a bilingual policy for communication with their own light. His work has led to three customers, tracking the policies of the major inventions, with one – the discovery Welsh Language Scheme, which allows of the effectiveness of flashes of light, rather a choice of either Welsh and English for than glows – leading to a method that is customers, and encouraging its staff to learn used in hundreds of millions of clinical tests or improve their Welsh language skills. worldwide. This invention has brought in £20 million to Wales from patent royalties, spin-out sales and grant income, and has won a slew of awards.

agenda summer 2011—issue 44 | 9 Outlook Priorities for the fourth term investment levels in these key areas than displacement, that is the problem of Policies exist to close it is now. Similarly, although FS4B was firms closing in one part of a city and productivity gap abandoned, there have been no moves reinvesting in another part. Brian Morgan to create an arms length delivery model. To avert this problem the zones So in 2011 the economic priorities could be linked to the development for Wales remain roughly the same – of city-regions. The Department increase investment in infrastructure and could use enterprise zones to build skills, coupled with a focus on raising up the institutional capacity of areas business investment in the private sector surrounding Cardiff, Newport, Swansea and increasing productivity in both the and Wrexham. The Heads of the Valleys private and public sectors. region would be a good start. The aim Potentially the biggest economic would be to enable these regions to driver is increased capital investment in implement wider regional economic transport and the built environment. But strategies in sectors that offer the most Despite the recent global recession, transport has now been taken out of the opportunities for harnessing economies the economic priorities for the new portfolio of the Department of Business. of scale, such as waste management, Welsh Government’s fourth term Indeed, transport does not appear in integrated transport facilities and housing remain remarkably similar to the ones any ministerial title. With a projected policy. There could be an important role that were highlighted in the IWA’s shortfall of 41 per cent in capital spend here for the social enterprise sector in 2006 publication Time to Deliver prior over the next few years, an important supporting this policy. to the Assembly’s Third Term - or policy option would be to increase the The main driver for skills indeed, to many of the economic amount of investment raised through development is the public education recommendations made in 1999 at the public private partnerships (PPPs). system, but again, this is largely outside start of the Welsh Assembly. The Business Department could the remit of the Department for In 2006 it was emphasised that encourage investment in areas which Business. However, the Department the main economic priorities were: would add specific value to Welsh could seek to highlight the fact that (i) investment in infrastructure; and infrastructure, especially where there business issues are not being effectively (ii) investment in skills development. is an immediate investment need. addressed by schools and colleges. To ensure these investments actually Examples include social housing, energy, And, outside the traditional education stimulated higher economic growth in integrated transport networks and system, the Business Minister should be Wales, they needed to be supplemented broadband. In addition, the Severn seeking to raise investment in work- by a third element, mobilising business Barrage and other renewable energy based learning. Firms that invest in investment in the private sector. investments offer unique opportunities upskilling their workforce should be In 2010 the Economic Renewal for PPP schemes in Wales - schemes given priority in accessing other areas of debate extended this list to include that would support the move to a low business support, such as soft loans and the abandonment of the overly carbon economy. consultancy support. bureaucratic business support model, With limited resources the Business A related area would be the Funding Support for Business (FS4B), in Department could immediately identify development of a pool of business favour of an arms-length, private sector- areas for new investment to be targeted. mentors. As Sir Terry Matthews led, delivery model. It also called for These would include enterprise zones stated recently, “Seasoned business improvements in delivery mechanisms and city regions. The government people need to get involved in across the public sector and for progress will need to be quick off the mark on young companies and help them be on local procurement. enterprise zones. Bristol and areas successful”. The new Department for Unfortunately, these calls for a major near the Welsh Borders are already Business should be building links with re-focus on key economic development investing in these new opportunities to Welsh entrepreneurial talent aged 30 priorities in 2006 and 2010 fell on deaf stimulate regional growth. Zones are and over, and involving them in business ears. Instead, the Welsh Government not a panacea for the Welsh economy support networks. The focus should be proceeded along the path of ‘business but Wales will be at a disadvantage if on mobilising entrepreneurship and as usual’. That is disappointing because we ignore this option. Enterprise zones supporting our young companies. the funding package available in 2006 will need to be implemented across a A crucial business skill that really was much more favourable to raising fairly wide geographic area to avoid needs honing is finance. New and

10 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org Outlook existing businesses in Wales should be introduce any new regulation – whether averse nature of the civil servants in her supported to become ‘investor ready’ from Cardiff, Whitehall or Brussels - until Department and placing an emphasis through being in a position to successfully her Department has identified and on timely decision making would help apply for loans and equity finance to abolished an existing directive. There raise productivity across the public sector. assist business growth. The demand is scope for this approach to be fast- These changes would also help the and supply of finance is critical and this tracked in any new Enterprise Zones. Department to become better at using brings us to the final pillar of any growth Successful businesses in Wales can then procurement to foster sustainable growth programme - private sector investment. invest more time and resource into and increase investment in the private Although there are few policy finding, winning and keeping customers sector, especially in terms of green levers available in this area there are - which should be the main objective of public procurement. some important things the Department the new Department for Business. Despite some successful policies of Business needs to do. The first is In addition to business investment, like ProAct, the experience of the first to stick to a broad sectoral strategy. infrastructure and skills, the other three terms of devolved government Certain technology areas, such as IT, important ingredient of productivity highlights how difficult it is to raise GVA biotechnology, and environmental services, are likely to experience higher growth rates than the mainstream A dynamic and expanded role economy. Tourism is also an important sector in Wales and, along with the strong for Finance Wales will be a critical creative sector, has a major role to play in the design, marketing and branding driver for business growth. of successful products. The Business Department could be radical here and support business clusters by promoting the privatisation of Finance Wales and growth is innovation. This requires per head in Wales relative to the UK tasking it with improving the supply of investment in skills or new processes average. The productivity gap is a key seed capital in these targeted sectors. that streamline and simplify production component of the shortfall in prosperity, A dynamic and expanded role for systems and encourage the adoption but imaginative policies exist to address Finance Wales will be a critical driver of new techniques. Greater use of it. During the fourth term, economic for business growth. Finance Wales innovation vouchers would be a policy should focus on providing the has become one of the success stories useful start for raising productivity skills and financial resources that of government intervention. But first in the private sector and improving businesses need to become more it needs to become more proactive in competitiveness. In addition, the positive competitive and expand. It should developing a Venture Capital Trust and spillovers from inward investment can further support business growth by better at matching fledgling companies be an important source of competitive targeting investment in hard and soft to specialist funding houses. It should advantage and increased productivity infrastructure through enterprise zones be tasked with coordinating regular in the host country. So a successful and city regions. investor road-shows of Welsh companies strategy to attract global investors to However, many of the economic in the major financial centres. The Wales will be a necessary component challenges facing Wales will continue far benefits of a spin-out for Finance Wales for raising the growth rate. Poor beyond the next term and initiatives to would be to reduce the chances of performance in this area since 2004 improve infrastructure, raise skills and political interference. It would also suggests that an arms length delivery boost business investment will take time incentivise the partners to produce model will be needed to implement to impact on the economy. Therefore sustainable returns on investment. this strategy successfully. The Business it is important that the Minister takes a One very important low-cost action Department could focus on working long term view and invests for the future to raise business growth would be for closely with this institution to maximise – and not simply focuses on issues that the Business Minister the economic impact of inward will influence the next election. to reduce red tape by introducing a investment by promoting local sourcing more flexible, risk-based approach to and embedding the inward investor into regulation. That is, well-behaved firms the local economy. should be inspected less often than Finally, public service reform will be a Professor Brian Morgan is Director of those which have a record of breaking vital ingredient to ensure that economic the Creative Leadership And Enterprise the rules. She could also announce that, priorities are delivered during the fourth Centre at the University of Wales where the issue is devolved, she will not term. To this end, reducing the risk Institute, Cardiff.

agenda summer 2011—issue 44 | 11 Outlook

Prioritise electrification train service – rolling stock is therefore introduction of Bwcabus, a radical method to Swansea and the Valleys awaited. Doubling the tracks between of rural bus service improvement which Stuart Cole Llanelli and Gowerton and Wrexham and has transformed travel opportunities Chester (the latter reduces north–south and service quality. These will be further journey times by 20 minutes) has been improved by integrating the new Traws agreed by the Welsh Government and Cymru coach service into the national rail Network Rail. Rail electrification from network later in 2011. Wrexham to Bidston linking into the Cerdyn Cymru, the All Wales Public Merseyrail service would attract more Transport Entitlement Card referred to commuters into Liverpool and thus in the 2009 National Transport Plan will reduce the road capacity increases once provide multi ride travel for all. Some The most challenging transport priorities planned for the A55 / A494 near Ewloe. cards will be free (for those over 60) and confronting the new Welsh Government is The new Network Rail–Cymru some will be paid for; they can be local to ensure that electrification of the South Wales operating region will be an regional or national and will be smart Wales Main Line extends to Swansea. attractive proposition but it must be cards similar to the London Oyster and Following that it should be aiming to adequately funded Cardiff Iff cards. electrify the Valleys Metro network. The Government’s national roads A new direct rail link to Cardiff This means the lines from forward programme has more, but lower Airport will give it a more attractive land to Maesteg via Bridgend, Cardiff and cost, schemes along the A470 north-west to side connection than Bristol. However, Newport, creating a south east Wales high south-east trunk road. Thought also should this investment has to be included in frequency train service - the south Wales be given to the other A483 national trunk the Network Rail 2014–19 investment Metro. The estimated total track cost will north-south road link from Wrexham to plan alongside a considerable increase be £500 million plus reasonably priced Newtown. These two roads provide a key in destinations and point of origin for refurbished cascaded trains. link into central Wales from the A55 in the inward travellers, especially tourists For the UK Government to be north, and the M4 in the south. and those attending major sport and persuaded to fund this high level of However, spending has to be conference events. investment the Welsh Government has prioritised on the east-west strategic road Wales’ ports have also a considerable to provide a robust business case. This connections between Wales and our potential. The development at Blackbridge analysis has to be completed by October manufacturing and tourism customers pier, Milford Haven will result in containers if it is to be included in the Office of Rail which are keys to economic regeneration. loaded with biofuel being moved by eight Regulation investment plan for the 2014 Improvements to the A 465 Heads of the trains per day. Although not obvious at – 2019 Network Rail financial period Valleys road at Hirwaun and Clydach first, this requires integrated transport and funded by the UK Department for George will be expensive but necessary. planning for train paths at Cardiff. Transport. The business case for Swansea The A55 Expressway at Ewloe and an The potential to transfer cruise is just as urgent to justify a cost of £64 imaginative development of the existing business away from the Baltic Sea to the million, though European convergence A48 south of Newport to double the Celtic Sea is not moving anything like funding would reduce the capital cost and capacity of the M4 are also key route fast enough. As we have two deep water give a better rate of return. improvements. But, of course, these have ports for big cruise ships and tidal ports for The current Welsh rail franchise that to be prioritised in the context of the need the smaller, often more exclusive (that is, was agreed in 2003 was for a no growth, for significant expenditure to resurface more expensive) ships, the development low investment railway operating over a roads badly damaged by two periods of of piers at Milford haven and Holyhead fifteen year period. That would not have freezing conditions in 2010. should be seen as vital tools for economic satisfied a growth of demand over 8 per This emphasises the importance of regeneration. The economic benefits to cent per annum without considerable following an integrated transport plan north west Wales and to Pembrokeshire additional financial input from the Welsh where it may not be road solutions that and Carmarthenshire would be significant. Government. Now preparation of the are required to reduce road congestion. As cruise lines have a four year lead time specification for a new franchise (or not- The development of rail or bus (with in planning their destinations these should for-dividend company) has to begin soon traffic priority) Park and Ride around have already been built and no further to be on time for a 2018 start. But this time Cardiff, Swansea, Newport and Wrexham delay should occur. we need to ensure that the planned track will have a significant impact and the and rolling stock investment matches the integrated public transport hub will help Stuart Cole is Professor Emeritus anticipated growth in demand. facilitate the Cardiff Sustainability City plan. in Transport at the Wales Transport In other parts of Wales, the Cambrian On the buses, Ceredigion and north Research Centre, University of coast line now has capacity for an hourly Carmarthenshire have benefited from the Glamorgan Business School.

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

An education cent) is axiomatic. machine that is needed. Perhaps one mountain to climb It may be said that this is ‘fiddling of Wales’ most sacred taboos – about David Reynolds the results’. However, most other the employment of private sector countries of the world are already companies in State-provided services ‘fiddling’. And if schools were to turn – needs to be challenged. And if their noses up at such blatant ‘gaming’ policies are to be ‘scaled up’ through then they need reminding that they the winning of hearts and minds, then themselves have been ‘gaming’ their a much better communications strategy predicted GCSE Grade ‘D’ children to needs to be employed, with perhaps a achieve ‘C’ grades for a decade. softer emotional tone. Secondly, somehow in Wales Paradoxically, it is within Wales we also need to rid ourselves of our itself that the solution to our massive It would be difficult to imagine a more historical Welsh curses. There is the educational problems may lie. That Herculean task than that confronting curse that teachers produce their own is, in the programmes and national Education Minister Leighton Andrews teaching practices – whereas virtually policies used to help the Welsh in attempting to improve on Wales’ every other country on the planet language. No nation in the world disastrous performance in last year’s brings to their teachers the evidence on except Wales has successfully used its PISA tests. The facts are well known. ‘what works’. State education system to rescue a Wales’ performance is well below that And there is the curse that somehow the minority language as we have done in of the other ‘home nations’ and on Wales. How was it done? There was a par with educationally lightweight an international search for language countries such as Greece and Croatia. Paradoxically, it is within programmes that worked – in this case His reaction to these facts is also Wales itself that the finding immersion techniques from well known. They were presented in solution to our massive Israeli schools. Dedicated funding was his landmark speech in February with found for Special Programmes and its spine chilling phrase of ‘systemic educational problems special training on a scale far above failure’, followed by his speech to the may lie. That is, in the that now being attempted. IWA in June, both outlining a 20 point Mainstreaming of policies about programme of what can only be called programmes and national the language through all public sector national renewal. policies used to help the bodies was put into effect. The concern Virtually everything that can be about the effects of all policies upon the done is being done. Welsh policy Welsh language. language was a part of the legislative amounts to the agreed international process for all proposed legislation. recipe for systemic educational change. educational system needs to retain its There was a fierce commitment to the Can we truly improve on the disastrous historic focus upon what can loosely be language being a part of our national 2010 showing when PISA 2013 reports, called a ‘progressive’ educational mission. political discussion, and a concern and reach the top 20 of countries On the other hand, virtually every other that language policies ran through internationally by 2016? It is a big ask of country on the planet, whether socialist or all policies about the families and our schools. Will it work? capitalist, has moved on. Interestingly, the communities of Wales. Firstly, we need to recognise that loudest applause at the Leighton Andrews How many of these characteristics many of the initiatives are only likely June 2011 lecture was reserved for the of Welsh Language policies exist to have effects in the medium term, of questioner who wondered whether the in our educational policies at the say two to three years. Welsh children educational reforms would drive out the moment? Probably none. It would be sitting the PISA tests in November 2012 children’s capacity to be inspirational in extraordinarily symbolic if the policy have already had two of their three what they do. Serendipity favours the area of greatest success post devolution years of school experience that will be mind prepared for it – inspiration likewise were the solution and model in the reflected in their 2012 performance, happens or not in the paths prepared area of greatest policy failure – the which predisposes us to do poorly. for it. educational system. Direct action about PISA is essential. Thirdly, the emphasis, as Leighton We need to make sure schools know Andrews is fond of suggesting, needs to David Reynolds is Professor of and teach the new ‘skills based’ shift towards delivery. The Education Educational Effectiveness at the approach that PISA tests measure. Department is itself shedding staff and University of Southampton and a Policy ‘Playing’ the tests to exclude potentially reorganising, but it is unclear if that is Adviser to the Welsh Government. low scoring children (around 15 per generating the lean, mean educational NHS must do more

agenda summer 2011—issue 44 | 13 Outlook

with less the one hand, to teenage pregnancy and of how one makes such a great lumbering Marcus Longley substance misuse on the other. beast as the NHS embrace painful change. Can deliver? Any one Notions like ‘choice’, ‘competition’ and of these three challenges would be a ‘responsibility’ have been commandeered tall order. All three at once will make for by English propagandists, and they interesting times. now almost sound like dirty concepts in The worst case scenario sees the NHS Wales. Nevertheless choice is a defining Who would be scrabbling to survive over the next few characteristic of any civilised health care the new Minister for Health and Social years by salami-slicing any service that system, competition is a powerful agent Care? Lesley Griffiths inherits a system isn’t strong enough to resist, regardless of improvement, while responsibility was under almost daily criticism, generally of effectiveness, popularity or strategic a concept well known to Bevan. The acknowledged to be unsustainable fit. Staff vacancies will remained unfilled, challenge is to seize these concepts back, without major reform, and facing real whatever the importance of the post. And define them to suit our needs, and set terms funding cuts of about 20 per cent waiting times, workloads and new services them free in Wales. over the next three years. will all take a hit. It’s a pretty grim picture Finally, the Minister has the prime Her agenda essentially falls into whose only redeeming feature being that responsibility for the politics. Previous three parts. By far the most urgent is the NHS would actually survive. attempts to make the sort of changes to save money. The usual euphemism The best case scenario is one in which described here floundered when Welsh – ‘improving efficiency’ – is no longer a fury of innovation, service re-design citizens rejected what they regarded as adequate. Doing more with the same and partnership is unleashed, making ill-conceived and deceitful changes to amount of money, the usual definition the leap to a better and cheaper service. their local health services. People need of efficiency, is not going to reduce As we know, no health care system has to be persuaded, not just that change is expenditure by the almost 20 per cent ever made such a change so quickly, and unavoidable, but that it’s brilliant! People that real budgets will be cut over the next against such odds. should be marching to demand that three years. In other words, cuts means If Lesley Griffiths is to have any their local hospital is closed, where care cuts. Very few NHS managers yet know chance of success, there are three is substandard. Such pressures will be where they are going to be found. key arenas to focus on. The first is difficult to manage for an administration The second objective must be to force the opportunity afforded by the NHS without an overall majority, and where the NHS to implement a new model of reorganisation carried out by her many of the professions and trades unions care. To achieve it the Minister needs predecessor. This created seven Health will be more focused on defending the to move simultaneously in opposite Boards which brought together all the status quo than in arguing for change. The directions. She needs to transfer services services in a locality, ending the nonsense only advantage the Minister has is that out of hospital into the community, to of the ineffective commissioner/provider perhaps people have now been prepared support more people at home. At the divide, and bringing primary, community for the worst. Maybe they will accept that same time she should centralise other and secondary care (the hospitals) painful change really is inevitable this time. specialised services into fewer hospitals, all together in one whole. So far, the The Minister inherits all the unsolved where better quality care can be more change hasn’t gone much beyond problems of her predecessors, at the easily assured. One of the most visible the organisational chart on the Chief toughest time for the NHS since the mid- and contentious aspects of this will be Executive’s office wall. Now is the time to 1970s. Just as the NHS survived that IMF- delivering Labour’s manifesto promise to make it a reality, because this is the way inspired pain, so it will survive the current extend opening hours for GP surgeries. to stop inappropriate hospital admissions banker-induced crisis. But will it limp out More profound will be the aspiration to and to help people to manage their own of the ring as a tired and battered 20th transfer ten per cent of resources out of conditions. In themselves each are game- Century model, or stride out as a leaner, hospitals and into the community. changing innovations. fitter, 21st Century NHS? Never waste In the longer term the third objective Paradoxically, the second opportunity a good crisis, was the advice given to is both the most important and the most comes from across the border in England. President Obama. Lesley Griffiths should difficult. This is to find a way – or, more There the NHS is in such a mess that heed that advice as well. probably, dozens of different ways – of Wales can now make clear its own helping people preserve their health, alternative vision of the NHS. We no Marcus Longley is Director of the Welsh and to cope much better with the longer need to apologise for perceived Institute for Health and Social Care and consequences of long-term ill health. The failure – we are clearly doing better than Professor of Applied Health Policy at the challenges range from the very different England. In particular, we need our own . problems of obesity and dementia on clear, consistent and compelling narrative Wales’

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

‘One Planet’ development is the central organising oil resources dwindle and other countries aspiration principle of government, which explicitly compete for fossil fuels. To avoid more Anne Meikle includes living within environmental limits. people falling into fuel poverty, it is The ‘One Planet Wales’ goal needs crucial the Government scales up retro- to be embedded in the purposes and fitting to make buildings more energy functions of the public sector, and efficient. The Welsh Government must especially any new single environmental also promote and support any Green The next nine years – to 2020 - are delivery organisation resulting from the Deal from the UK government. critical if we are to live sustainably projected merger of the Countryside Another significant challenge for on this planet. The global population Council for Wales, the Environment the new Welsh administration will be is consuming the earth’s resources Agency Wales, and the Forestry managing our natural environment. The at a faster rate than they can be Commission Wales. previous Government had begun to replenished. If Welsh lifestyles were On climate change, the United radically change the way we manage and replicated around the world, we would Nations Environment Programme has protect our natural environment through need around two and a half planets issued a stark warning. It says that global A Living Wales, the natural environment worth of resources. So we are fortunate emissions of greenhouse gases must have framework. This looks at the environment that, in its sustainable development peaked by the middle of this decade and at an ecosystem level, of which humans scheme One Wales: One Planet, the be on a steep downward path by 2020 are a part. It will be a major challenge last Government aimed for Wales to if we are to have a reasonable prospect for Government to change our mindset, live within its fair share of the earth’s of keeping the rise in global warming to planning and regulation systems to resources. This would mean reducing less than 2°C and avoiding catastrophic achieve sustainable development in the area of biologically productive land climate change. relation to pollution, soil formation and needed to support our lifestyles, our Fortunately, all political parties in the fresh water. ‘ecological footprint’, by 75 per cent, Assembly are committed to cutting our Despite the difficulties we should within the ‘lifetime of a generation’. It territorial emissions by 40 per cent by see these challenges as an exciting set Wales on an ambitious path. 2020. However, that’s only nine years opportunity. We must ensure that people’s By 2020, we must have made away and although our emissions have expectation of a healthy productive significant progress on this goal. been falling, the Welsh Government environment is not let down by any Therefore this agenda must be central will need to ensure that recovery from drive to ‘deregulation’, accidentally or to the work of the First Minister’s new economic recession is done without deliberately removing protection of the Delivery Unit. WWF Cymru’s recent increasing emissions. WWF Cymru is environment. We failed to meet the report Progress in embedding the ‘One urging the new Minister for Business, agreed targets for biodiversity protection Planet’ aspiration in Welsh Government Enterprise, Technology and Science, by 2010 and we must do better in future. suggests that the Welsh Government has Edwina Hart, to review economic Wales now has a golden opportunity made a promising start but has much development plans and ensure they are on this agenda. Carwyn Jones leads a new more to do. more focussed on a low carbon economy. government with a strong mandate and Ahead of the forthcoming review of The Welsh Government will also new powers, and the last administration its Sustainable Development Scheme, need to meet its share of the European has laid the foundations for change. the report sets out lessons and priorities requirement on the UK that 15 per cent Let’s go to next year’s Rio+20 global for the Government. A key finding is that of energy used is from renewable sources sustainability summit with something not all policies and departments have by 2020. That is a major challenge for tangible to show the world – an recognised the ‘One Planet’ goal. Yet as the First Minister himself. Before the exemplary Sustainable Development Act the Sustainable Development Commission election he said that Wales needs to and a country actually delivering the One said: “Living within ecological limits is the “do a lot more” to make the most of Planet Nation ideal. This will be achieved non-negotiable basis for our social and its renewable energy resources. There by supporting sustainable, low carbon economic development”. must be a clear delivery plan with a businesses, and delivering sustainable Carwyn Jones has already announced commitment of how much electricity and procurement. In the process we can that there will be a Sustainable heat will be generated from renewable make a radical step change towards a Development Bill, so there is an sources by 2020. This should be the low carbon, sustainable Wales. opportunity to clarify and strengthen framework against which the future of the Welsh Government’s sustainable the planning system and decisions on development duty. Legislation should grid infrastructure are made. Anne Meikle is Head of WWF Cymru. make it absolutely clear that sustainable Energy prices will continue to rise as

agenda summer 2011—issue 44 | 15 Where stand 1 Politics the parties now

John Osmond on why all the parties have their work cut out to be ready for the next election in 2016

Articles Where stand the In the wake of the May election all the parties, he had no wish to run a minority administration. parties now regardless of their relative performance, If he had won 29 or 31 seats his position would confront acute dilemmas as they face the have been more clear-cut. If he had won the coming five years of the National Assembly’s former he would have immediately started Referendum fourth term. negotiations with the other parties, seeking a Special At first sight emerged from coalition. If the latter, he would at least have Welcome to the the election the clear winner, increasing their had a majority. legalities of law votes and seats compared with 2007. With The actual result has placed him in a kind of making powers the other parties all in disarray in one way or no-man’s land. Will he try and create his own Delivering the another, Labour eased almost effortlessly into political weather or wait for events to dictate Yes vote unopposed control of the government. his options? The question was prompted by the Challenging But how long can this last? For the first fourth term’s exceedingly slow start, with two a culture of few months Labour’s majority was assured months elapsing before the First Minister got mediocrity by the absence from the chamber of two List around to announcing his detailed legislative Liberal Democrat AMs, barred because at the programme for the coming year. time they were elected they were members Meanwhile, he was placed on the back foot Why we should of prohibited bodies. Labour AMs may by the momentum of events that were powering control the come to regret the intransigent attitude they the demands for greater fiscal autonomy for courts and adopted towards their plight. If they had been both Northern Ireland and Scotland. Wales’ the police more magnanimous at the start, and used legitimate demand for a fairer needs-based Assembly procedures to absolve the Liberal formula for allocating the block grant was Democrat AMs’ undoubtedly unintentional occluded by Northern Ireland’s case for misdemeanour, then they would have built devolution of corporation tax, and Scotland’s up a good deal of credit for a future coalition wish, partially already conceded, for income deal, or perhaps an arrangement short of that tax devolution, large-scale borrowing powers, to secure a majority on key votes, such as for and control over Crown-estate lands. Carwyn the budget. Jones is playing catch-up from the side-lines As it is, Labour will undoubtedly struggle on these issues. to get vital elements of its programme through He won May’s election on the basis at some point in the coming year, and it is now of wrapping himself in Y Dddraig Goch – unlikely to find a sympathetic response from “standing up for Wales” – to fight an essentially the Liberal Democrats. With just 30 seats First British campaign that was focused on opposing Minister Carwyn Jones is in a place he did not the Conservative Liberal Democrat coalition in want to be. Before the election he made it clear London. In the short term this worked brilliantly

16 | 1/Politics

Results of the 5 May 2011 Welsh General Election

Constituencies

Party Seats +/- Votes % % Change Labour 28 +4 401,677 42.3 +10.1 Conservative 6 +1 236,916 25 +2.6 5 -2 182,907 19.3 -3.1 Liberal Democrat 1 -2 100,731 10.6 -4.2 Other 0 -1 27,021 2.8 -5.4

Regions

Party Seats +/- Votes % % Change Labour 2 0 349,935 36.9 +7.2 Conservative 8 +1 213,773 22.5 +1.1 Plaid Cymru 6 -2 169,799 17.9 -3.1 Liberal Democrat 4 +1 76,349 8 -3.7 Other 0 0 139,532 14.7 -1.5 Turnout 949,388 42.2 -1.1 well, especially in terms of wrong-footing of State Cheryl Gillan, who overruled sign of a willingness to participate in the Plaid Cymru which saw the tactic coming other voices on the Welsh Conservative’s wider debate about how constitutional but did nothing to counter it. On the other Management Board. These had pressed relationships within Britain are to hand, Labour’s failure to focus on Welsh the case for letting the dust settle, and be shaped in response to Scotland’s issues and think them through in terms giving the Conservative Group in the independence referendum. of its promised delivery in government Assembly time to get the measure of a If any party has to ask the question what on key policy areas such as health and wider range of personalities who might it is for it is the . economic development may well prove have competed for the leadership. They still have to recover from their failure a hostage to fortune – though Leighton The precipitate election exposed for to seize the opportunity of participating Andrews has a more sustained grip on all to see the paucity of the contenders’ in a Rainbow coalition with Plaid Cymru his Education portfolio. ideas for taking their party forward. and the Conservatives following the The other clear winner of the election Beyond continuing to pursue Nick 2007 election. As the decisive voice in was the Conservatives. They increased Bourne’s successful campaign to detoxify that decision their leader their share of the vote and their number the Conservative brand by enthusiastic sounded implausible in the run-up to of seats. However, this very success proved an Achilles heel. The vagaries of the electoral system meant that in the The result was that the were, process they lost both their King and their ill-advisedly, plunged into an immediate leadership Dauphin - in the form of Nick Bourne, election they did not want with candidates that had from the List in Mid and West Wales, and his heir apparent, Jonathan Morgan, in not been seriously thought of as potential leaders Cardiff North. prior to the election. The result was that the Welsh Conservatives were, ill-advisedly, plunged into an immediate leadership election identification with all things Welsh, what the 2011 election when she claimed to they did not want with candidates that do Welsh Conservatives want to do with be open-minded about coalition politics. had not been seriously thought of as devolution? There was no real answer to Of all the parties the Liberal Democrat’s potential leaders prior to the election. how they can get into government in any manifesto was the weakest, while The ill-advice came from the Secretary foreseeable future. Nor was there any the predicament of their barred AMs

agenda summer 2011—issue 44 | 17 1/Politics

immediately following the election only then being instrumental in delivering the captures attention and admiration added to a sense of amateurism. Yes vote. across the political spectrum, who is But the real Liberal Democrat dilemma However, this effort exhausted the articulate and can communicate in is about the identity of their political base party in creating a convincing narrative terms that people readily understand is and the absence of a sense of momentum to take itself and Wales beyond that worth ten percentage points electorally. around what their political objectives are. staging post, and also in putting together Alex Salmond has demonstrated this Ask the question about either of these and an effective policy programme it could in Scotland, as have , there is no clear answer. Electorally, they implement in government. Plaid Cymru followed by Carwyn Jones in Wales. Until now seem to be merely a safe alternative has faltered on three fronts: developing a Plaid Cymru finds such a leader who can when Labour is unpopular in urban Wales, unity of purpose on wishing to represent also help it iron out ambiguities about while in much of rural Wales their vote is communities across the whole of Wales; who it appeals to as a party, about being being stolen by either the Conservatives secondly, on clearly wanting to be a a serious force in politics as a party of or Plaid Cymru. In terms of numbers of party of government and accepting that government, and about its constitutional AMs their bacon was saved in 2011 by the this necessarily entails coalition politics; objectives it will struggle. List vote. In the process, however, their and, thirdly, stating unambiguously its The coming fourth term will be a identity has been dissipated. political, constitutional objective and crucial period for the parties in providing For the party that has for the last half- sustaining a narrative about how that can space and time to re-shape themselves in century been most closely associated with be achieved. addressing all these isues ahead of the 2016 devolution Plaid Cymru has adapted to These shortcomings are reflected election. The success of the devolution its reality least well. To be fair, it secured in Paid Cymru’s ongoing leadership process depends on how far they are able a good dividend from the One Wales crisis, that began in the Assembly’s first to overcome their difficulties. coalition with Labour in the third term, term when it so ill-advisedly dismissed in particular the commitment to holding its now elder statesman, Lord Dafydd the referendum on further powers and Wigley. In today’s politics a leader who John Osmond is Director of the IWA. 1/Politics REFERENDUM SPECIAL Welcome to the legalities of law making powers

Alan Trench says the referendum marks the beginning of the National Assembly’s entanglement with judicial process

The legislative powers conferred on the issues of purely domestic law, not the to two. The majority took a particularly National Assembly thanks to the Yes vote application of the European Convention broad-brush approach and concluded in the March 2011 referendum are much on Human Rights, and raise wide- the legislation was within devolved more ample, much clearer and much ranging questions of principle about how powers. The minority took an ‘analytical’ more legally certain than those it had devolution works. approach, and found it was not. before. Part 4 of the Government of Wales One case, Martin and Miller v. Lord So, while the legislation was upheld, Act 2006 is a much better foundation for Advocate, decided in the summer of the Supreme Court set a two-pronged law-making than Part 3. However, the Yes 2010, asked the Supreme Court to problem. On one hand, a differently vote is by no means the end of the story consider how it should approach the task composed court – and this was just five of Wales’s constitutional development. of judging whether devolved legislation judges out of its 12 members – could Part 4 also has some serious legal flaws, was within the powers of the Scottish easily have reached a different view. and making it work is not going to be a Parliament. The issue here was not On the other, the minority’s proposed smooth ride. directly relevant to Wales. It was about solution – for the Scottish Government Some of the reasons have little to do the sentencing powers of a Sheriff sitting to have negotiated and obtained wider with Wales. The main one is the fact that alone on summary business (not with powers from Westminster to cover the devolved legislation is increasingly finding a jury), when dealing with a driving legislation it proposed to make, using its way into the courts. Today the question offence. Criminal justice, including the order-making powers in the Scotland of how courts approach devolved laws is organisation of the courts and sentencing Act 1998 – would, for many practical important in a way it was not in the first policy, is a devolved matter in Scotland, purposes, turn the Scottish settlement decade of devolution. but road traffic offences are reserved to into something very like Part 3 of the Unsurprisingly, it is Scottish legislation Westminster. What’s important is the way Government of Wales Act 2006. that has been in the lead here. While the the court looked at the question. There has not yet been a judgment in bulk of the devolution cases considered Should the courts look at the general the second major Supreme Court case, by the Judicial Committee of the Privy purpose of the legislative provision to Axa General Insurance v. Lord Advocate. Council or the UK Supreme Court in the decide whether it was within devolved This was heard by the court in June 2011, first decade of devolution concerned competence? Or should they establish and the Welsh Government formally human rights issues and the treatment this by means of detailed verbal analysis, intervened in proceedings both on of those charged with a criminal offence the traditional way of understanding appeal in Scotland and at the Middlesex or in prison, that is now changing. Most what statute law means? In the Martin Guildhall. It concerns legislation passed cases before the courts now involve and Miller case, the judges split by three by the Scottish Parliament (and the

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Northern Ireland Assembly) to allow a devolved legislature, and the Supreme ophthalmic, pharmaceutical and claims for damages for ‘pleural plaques’, Court is unlikely to encourage further ancillary services and facilities. a condition caused by exposure to challenges, but we must wait for the Clinical governance and standards of asbestos, common in areas where there Supreme Court judgment to see what health care. Organisation and funding used to be heavy industry. it says. of the national health service. In 2004 the decided The question for Wales is how that this condition (which doesn’t directly devolved Welsh law-making will be That looks comprehensive, but is it? affect the lives of those who have it) able to operate in this environment. Do these powers include the power to did not found a claim in damages. The How well would Acts of the National set up a system of settling potential claims Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Assembly be able to stand up to the sort against the NHS in such a way as to limit Executive considered this unacceptable, of scrutiny that the courts are subjecting complainants’ access to the courts? and proposed legislation to reinstate claims to Scottish legislation? After all, there are That is what the NHS Redress Measure, for damages. A number of insurance some big differences in how Scottish and passed in 2008, does. It’s clearly not to companies, led by Axa, challenged this Welsh devolution work – in particular do with promoting health or treating or preventing disease. Such legislation probably falls within the general category of “Organisation and funding of the How well would Acts of the National national health service”, but one cannot be certain. The issue is not whether Assembly be able to stand up to the readers think this, or even AMs think it, but ultimately whether a court does. sort of scrutiny that the courts are That is where the real difficulties may arise. Scottish legislation may face serious subjecting to Scottish legislation? problems if the courts take an ‘analytical’ approach to considering it, but Welsh legislation would be in much greater difficulties. The idea that every clause of every Welsh bill should be subject to legislation. Central to their arguments is the difference between the ‘reserved detailed scrutiny, to ensure that it directly the view that devolved legislation cannot powers’ and ‘defined powers’ model. relates to the powers set out in Schedule exceed certain common-law limits of The Scottish Parliament can pass any laws 7 of the 2006 Act, could make legislating rationality, and that by overturning it wishes, unless they concern matters very difficult indeed. Certainly, it would a decision of the House of Lords this reserved to Westminster. The National run against the current of what people legislation was irrational. Assembly can only pass laws on subjects thought they were voting for at the March It is hard in principle to question the where it expressly has powers. referendum, as well as creating a good idea that devolved legislatures – which So, for example, the fact that the deal of practical difficulty. legally are creatures of Westminster, even Assembly has powers over ‘health and Making the ‘Part 4’ system work will if they were endorsed by referendums health services’ doesn’t mean it can call for give and take in a number of and have their own electoral mandates do anything it likes that affects health. quarters. The Welsh Government and – are subject to some such limit. The Legislation must fall within the definition the Assembly are going to have to be real question is how that is applied. Even set out in the 2006 Wales Act in canny in deciding how far their powers local authorities benefit from what is relation to health, which (with some go. Even then, those powers may need known as the ‘Wednesbury’ test, which exceptions) covers: to be tweaked before legislation can be holds that a decision is only unlawful if it  passed. Schedule 7, setting out those is “so unreasonable that no reasonable Promotion of health. Prevention, detailed law-making powers, has already authority could have reached it”. That treatment and alleviation of disease, been amended twice, before it even sounds tautological (though it isn’t), illness, injury, disability and mental comes into use. It is likely to require and it creates a pretty high threshold for disorder. Control of disease. Family further amendment in the coming years, unreasonableness to be proved. The planning. Provision of health to ensure that the National Assembly threshold should be higher than that for services, including medical, dental, is able to legislate properly on the 20

20 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 1/Politics

subject areas devolved to it. This isn’t a case of ‘creeping devolution’, so much as simply making it work. If Schedule 7 is regarded as being set in stone, that is likely to hamstring the Assembly, to no-one’s real benefit – most certainly not that of the Welsh public. So Welsh law-making will in turn need

The Welsh Government and the Assembly are going to have to be canny in deciding how far their powers go. Even then, those powers may need to be tweaked before legislation can be passed.

ongoing cooperation between the Welsh The four party leaders in the on 4 March as the referendum results were announced – Ieuan Wyn Jones (Plaid), Nick Bourne (Welsh Conservatives), Carwyn Jones (Welsh Labour) and Kirsty Williams (Welsh Liberal Government and the Wales Office, and Democrats). On the right is Roger Lewis, Chair of the Yes for Wales campaign. Photo: Natasha Hirst between the National Assembly and UK Parliament. There’s nothing new about this. The number of orders made a much more powerful legislature than powers are far from the end of the Welsh under the Scotland Act 1998, to adjust Wales has known since before the Middle devolution. Instead, they are merely the law either side of the border following Ages, but that legislature remains part start of a new chapter. legislation made at Holyrood, is pretty of a complicated system of devolved large. About half the Acts of the Scottish governance. Making this new system Parliament necessitate some sort of work in the interests of the people of tweak somewhere. The much greater Wales will be a complex task, and there Alan Trench is a solicitor and an entanglement of government and public will be some rough patches on the way. academic, associated with the University services between England and Wales only Managing the complex relationship will of Edinburgh and the Constitution Unit increases the need for that for Wales. be central to making the new phase of at University College London. He writes March’s referendum result may create Welsh devolution work. Law-making regularly on his blog Devolution Matters.

agenda summer 2011—issue 44 | 21 1/Politics The four party leaders and Yes for Wales Chair Roger Lewis applaud the result of the referendum, announced in the Senedd on 4 March. Photo: Natasha Hirst.

Delivering the Yes vote

Daran Hill “The cross-party Yes campaign, in the run-up claim the credit for victory. Perhaps cross party describes how to the referendum earlier this year, proves we campaigns are always likely to produce outcomes in can be innovative in our approach to modern which one or other of the participants believes they the parties politics, when it comes to the best interests of did the heavy lifting. Back in 1997, Carmarthen was collaborated Wales. We worked well together to deliver a the critical county that delivered last and sealed the in the new Assembly, with a new framework and now narrow victory for Yes for Wales. In the following referendum the onus is on us all to work together again, months both Labour and Plaid told me they had campaign to make good that trust shown in us, and to not seen campaigners from the other party out deliver for the people of Wales.” there on polling day. It is a half truth both persist in repeating to this day. Knowing both were present – So said First Minister Carwyn Jones on 11 May, and present in significant numbers – it can only be the day he confirmed that Welsh Labour would put down to Carmarthenshire being such a large form a single party administration in the National county that they didn’t stumble across each other. Assembly. In doing so he cast his mind back further Surely there’s no other explanation? than his most recent experience of campaigning in Cross party respect is critical during referendums, the Assembly election. He took us back to the colder even if it can be dispensed with afterward. When I days of January and February when people from all was appointed Campaign Director of Yes for Wales parties and none aligned together to produce a Yes it was very much an interdependent post which vote in the Assembly powers referendum. Yet those would never have worked without a talented same party political allies have also been quick to team of core strategists alongside me. One of the suggest that their own role was somewhat different things which I pledged at interview was to make to being equal partners. sure that the cross party coalition which had been In doing so they mirror the same attitudes from assembled would not be allowed to fall apart. 1997, when different parties were also quick to Naturally this was not solely my doing, but it was

22 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 1/Politics REFERENDUM SPECIAL my main priority throughout. The literature during the campaign period he managed to take the overwhelming unique coalition of four party leaders, which drew on Yes for Wales themes but majority of his party with him. That followed by the thinking parts of their were clearly their own communications. was a crucial difference. Of course, the respective parties, was hugely significant As in 1997, Labour went further. They presence of different governments at in shaping and delivering the final vote. viewed that in some places their own both ends of the M4 helped him do so, It was a carefully constructed platform clearly branded literature with their own but at the same time it can’t be denied of progressives which had been years in clearly stated views on the UK coalition that Welsh Labour was energized to the making. Both Roger Lewis as Chair and Wales as a buttress against neo- win. The proximity of the referendum and Leighton Andrews as Convenor of Thatcherite excesses was the right way campaign to the Assembly election the Steering Group also saw this clearly. to proceed. two months later undoubtedly helped. Indeed, to have Nick Bourne, leader The core steering group of Yes But ultimately politics comes down to of Just Say No in 1997, now advocating for Wales agreed. Frankly, we were people and – in stark contrast to 1997 a Yes vote was a testament both to pragmatic and realistic enough to – the vast majority of Labour elected how common sense underpinned the realise that we could control our own members were out in force this time. proposition of Yes for Wales, but also message but had no say over what Without Welsh Labour’s energy, much the journey the Welsh Conservatives parties and other organisations might of which was directed through their had made. That the whole Welsh say in support of the central case we own campaign rather than through Yes Conservative Assembly group followed were making. To my mind there was for Wales, the win on 3 March would Bourne on that journey demonstrated no difference between Welsh Labour not have been so conclusive. the appeal even more. It was a path tilting at the Conservative bogeyman Anyone who disputes this need only for the brave and alongside Nick his compared to Cymru Yfory, another key look to Flintshire, where the Yes for Wales colleagues , stakeholder in the campaign, arguing for activity was at its most minimal but which and were especially visible more Assembly Members. Both were off saw the biggest swing from No to Yes of in championing the Yes cause – all of message to Yes for Wales, but equally any county in Wales. In Flintshire it was them in areas not naturally favourable both had nothing to do with us. Labour that counted, and especially the to devolution. What is clear to me in comparing leadership of , the AM for Of course, all of this was not without its challenges to other parties as well. Several voices in Labour indicated to me early on that the campaign would be much easier without Conservative involvement since it could be more clearly fought on an anti-UK government agenda. In light of the way they fought the 2011 Assembly election, this was not surprising and to a point I agreed with them, recognising the powerful simplicity of such an appeal. At the same time several of us made it crystal clear that such an approach was not going to be one which Yes for Wales took. Our messages would be based on the question in hand, complicated as it was, and would not play to the gallery. To our collective minds, the Conservatives were as integral to delivering the Yes vote across the whole of Wales as any other party. We were, First Minister Carwyn Jones shares a word with Yes for Wales vice-chair Lee Waters (to his left) and Education indeed, all in this together. Minister Leighton Andrews. Photo: Natasha Hirst That did not mean that everything a political party did had to be done 1997 and 2011, is that Welsh Labour Alyn and Deeside. We discussed the way through the auspices of Yes for Wales. was more united and purposeful this the campaign should be run there on Both Plaid and the Liberal Democrats time around. Carwyn Jones led from the several occasions and the local boy was produced some of their own party front throughout and, unlike Ron Davies, right that Labour should be pretty much

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left alone to deliver for Wales, so and wholeheartedly, but the hegemonic was their presence in achievement of Yes for Wales was population centres in the county. a sum of many parts and parties. Yes for Wales was mostly irrelevant This included, of course, those who in delivering the vote on the ground operated outside the party political in the county which changed its structure, most notably the Wales mind most emphatically. That is TUC and Cymru Yfory, both of not to say that Yes for Wales did not which provided valuable funds and contribute to the overall victory. support. The latter organisation Rather, we recognised that in also contributed greatly to the certain population pockets we were ground campaign. Figures like not the best placed organisation to Hywel Ceri Jones and Cynog Dafis deliver. need proper appreciation for the Indeed, there was no single solution sterling and consistent work they to campaigning across Wales. It did. After all, things may have been was the sheer flexibility of the way managed from the centre, but they the parties approached things were delivered by the thousands of that enabled local solutions to be volunteers across Wales who gave delivered. For example, where the so much time, effort and love to Liberal Democrats were strong, such the vote we had to win. as Powys and Cardiff, they were key Being at the centre of a deliverers of votes and leaflets. campaign which truly united Wales One equally important factor, will be one of the high points of my though, was the omnipresence life. However, standing on a high of Plaid Cymru in Yes for Wales. point means that although you There was no local or national can see far, you cannot always Yes for Wales group across Wales see everything clearly. My view on which did not rely on Plaid to the coalition of the willing which do the heavy lifting. That fact is won for Wales is not definitive indisputable, regardless of how you and nor is it intended to be. But look back on the Yes campaign. having fought at the centre twice Key Plaid organisers like then Chief for my country’s democracy, Executive Gwenllian Landsdown perhaps others may extend to me and the formidable Caryl Wyn a little charity when they read my Jones were true heroes of the interpretation. My hope is that they campaign and, as people, to me will also extend that same charity symbolised the total dedication of in remembering the roles of those the party to achieving the size of they fought alongside. We did it the Yes vote that was delivered. together. That can never be taken away from them, although it undoubtedly left their grassroots troops more beleaguered than their opponents when one campaign was over and Daran Hill is a political another began. commentator and manages But in recognising the immense Positif Politics, a public affairs contribution Plaid made, that firm he founded in 2006. In the party should not kid itself it was the 1997 referendum he was National only one working through Yes for Organiser of Yes for Wales and in Wales. It may have been the party 2011 Campaign Director of Yes that worked most consistently for Wales.

24 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 1/Politics REFERENDUM SPECIAL

The No campaign’s main spokesperson Rachel Banner speaking at a referendum debate at Cardiff University a few days before the vote, with former First Minister Rhodri Morgan in the foreground – “there was more than a grain of truth in some of her central charges.”

satisfaction of a well fought campaign. disinterested in developments that do Challenging But it is incumbent on us now to examine not fit into a Westminster narrative, the weaknesses in the case that we made the telling of our own story very presented and seek solutions, however difficult. The frustration was only added a culture of uncomfortable they may be. Though to by having the disengagement played non-governmental organisations have back to us as evidence of a disinterest mediocrity grown significantly in Wales since in the devolution project amongst the 1999 they remain a weak force. Most people of Wales. proved themselves either unwilling or There’s no use railing against it, incapable of persuading their UK head it’s a reality. And that reality presents Lee Waters says Wales can offices of the merits of engaging in the enormous challenges to the future no longer afford to be the referendum campaign. Otherwise, they viability of Welsh politics. As Rachel land of the pulled punch were too reliant on Welsh Government Banner herself said, in an essay on the grant-in-aid to risk taking sides. Of Wales Home website: course, as individuals most of the people Much as I disagreed with the arguments engaged in Welsh civil society supported “The serious lack of plurality in the Rachel Banner marshalled to make her the reforms, in some cases actively. Welsh press means that it is much case for a No vote in the devolution However, the small civil society to which more difficult for a unicameral referendum, there was more than a grain they belong has developed a culture of Assembly with greatly enhanced of truth in some of her central charges. risk aversion when it comes to political law-making power... to be held As depressing and hypocritical as I found engagement. The rules of the Charity accountable”. her anti-politics tone, there is no denying Commission do not help, although they that there was much in her analysis of the are too often a convenient excuse to fall She’s right, but of course her solution was challenges we face. The No campaign’s back on to justify the new credo: don’t to campaign against improving Wales’ law assaults struck a nerve in three areas: upset anyone! making powers. So how do we address capacity, scrutiny, and quality. Of course, it is difficult to run a the problem of accountability and scrutiny It is only human for those of us campaign in which few are taking much in a more autonomous Wales? who campaigned for a Yes vote to notice. A declining Welsh media, allied Cymru Yfory have an answer to this have basked for a brief moment in the to a metropolitan corps of journalists question, and they’ve been perfectly

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an increasingly narrow political class. A small country such as ours with its democracy still in its infancy needs to draw on as wide a talent pool as possible to prove the naysayers wrong. One way forward was floated three years ago by the former Welsh Government Minister Jane Davidson. She suggested bringing ‘talented non- politicians’ into the Assembly via the PR top-up lists. She argued there were many people of ability with a passion for Wales who did not want to enter formal politics, but would be willing to serve for a defined period. However, her call for political parties to reserve a third of the Assembly seats for outsiders and to Yes for Wales Chair Roger Lewis: “Now is time for us all to take responsibility. Let us not be afraid to make put tribalism to one side came unstuck decisions, or make mistakes. The real failure is if we do not try. The culture of blame and excuse is behind us.” because of, well, tribalism. Photo: Natasha Hirst Nonetheless, the spirit of her consistent in making the case of the (from 40 to 30). The precise calibration suggestion is surely right. Laura Richard Commission. They say the of how many politicians we need at each McAllister has pointed to examples of number of Assembly Members needs level of government is a question that Scandinavian and Commonwealth to be increased from 60 to 80. Their will come up again when the time comes states like Norway, Iceland, Canada and position has support from unexpected to re-examine the number of Welsh New Zealand where outsiders are co- quarters. In a letter to the Western Mail councils. By then we will have had some opted onto parliamentary committees. in the aftermath of the vote the former experience of operating a legislative By ‘outsourcing’ some of the scrutiny Labour leader of Bridgend Council, Jeff Parliament with 60 AMs. At that point function their parliaments have increased Jones, wrote that “one of the problems it may be possible to recalibrate and their ability to hold their Governments with our Assembly is that it is actually increase the number of AMs, providing to account and simultaneously quite a tiny institution with not much the total number of politicians in Wales strengthened civil society. depth of talent”. He drew the comparison does not rise overall. It is a model that should be considered between the size of the Assembly with In the meantime, how do we by the Assembly Commission. After the Parliaments of Estonia (which has 101 strengthen the Assembly’s ability to all, it was adopted by the business MPs with a population of 1.3 million), and scrutinise the Welsh Government? community long ago in the form of non- Ireland (166 TDs and a population of 4.5 Professor Laura McAllister of Liverpool executive directors to challenge the million). He might have added that it is also University has analysed the devolved executive, look after the interests of the smaller than the House of Representatives legislatures across the UK and believes company’s share-holders, and bring a in the US states of North Dakota (94), and there is a weakness in scrutiny capacity range of experiences to the board table. Vermont (148) – all of which have smaller in general, and in Wales in particular. The particular advantage of adapting populations than Wales. She points to the small scale of the the model to fit into the context of the Yet, while there may be an intellectual Assembly and the weakness of civil Assembly is that it would bolster its case for increasing the number of AMs, society as the main causes, and argues capacity to scrutinise, without increasing it is politically difficult to justify in the that the coming of primary powers is the number of AMs. aftermath of a referendum campaign likely to stretch ever further our capacity Yet the main challenge we face is not that was fought on the premise that the to scrutinise. simply about the number or quality of number didn’t need to rise. As Jeff Jones suggested, there is our politicians. Rather, it is about about That said, the question of how we a need to draw on a greater ‘depth of developing a more mature political apportion elected representatives to talent’, and even if the number of AMs culture. In short, we’ve got some our various levels of Government has was to increase, the question of ‘depth’ growing up to do. During the referendum been reopened by the decision of the would still remain a moot one. The campaign Roger Lewis, Chair of Yes for Westminster coalition to reduce the dedication and drive required to gain Wales, made it his mantra that in order number of MPs from Wales by a quarter entry into formal politics is resulting in to gain respect Wales first needed to

26 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 1/Politics REFERENDUM SPECIAL build self-respect. And, as he said, the leading up to the referendum, but we establish itself, today there is a need to first step on that journey was to take don’t have one on the direction beyond take a longer term view. Of course, it is responsibility for our own problems. it. We did well on the rhetoric, but Ministers that must decide but they also The theme was echoed just days after didn’t think much beyond 3 March. should respond positively to robust and the result by Charlie Jeffery of Edinbrugh That’s where Rachel Banner was really challenging advice. University, one of the few academics to right. Of course, we’d have never held It has to work both ways. To take an interest in the development of a four party campaign together had we achieve the new focus on outcomes devolution across the UK. In a sobering tried to do so. and ‘delivery’ that we are told will be lecture to the However, there’s now no escaping the hallmark of the fourth Assembly, he deflated the rhetoric of the campaign the need for hard headed assessments on Ministers must make greater demands of with an assessment of the cold realities what our real priorities as a nation are. bodies that receive public funding. Until we now face. Professor Jeffery argued While anti-Tory rhetoric is seductive to now politicians who have demanded that “the political logic of the UK’s our political leaders, it doesn’t address the an explanation for a culture of poor multi-level state” suggests that Wales scale of the challenges we face. Neither performance have been resented as will become even more marginal to does the constant search for more powers interfering micro-managers. Indeed, the considerations at the centre. “Expect to to devolve to Wales. Both preoccupations response of the teaching profession to hear refrains to the effect of, ‘Well done seem like displacement activity. Education Minister Leighton Andrews’ on the referendum, but you’re on your If we want the vibrant and prosperous robust demands that they raise their own now, hope it goes well’”, he told his country we talk about, then we need to game proves Corporal Jones’ famous audience at the Pierhead: accept the stark reality of our situation. We dictum: “they don’t like it up ‘em”. are poor, we are small and we are bound If we are to meet the challenges “Westminster will from time to time together into a dependency culture. To before us we must confront the culture of do things – like the near wholesale become more self-reliant we must first mediocrity. We have to shake ourselves withdrawal of state funding for encourage a culture of self-criticism. “Our out of our cosy, ‘we all know each other’ tuition in English universities – that critics are our friends,” Benjamin Franklin culture, and encourage a more testing have tremendous knock-on effects once said. “They show us our faults”. Well, environment. These are considerable in Wales, without feeling a need to there’s not much evidence of that attitude challenges, but exciting ones nonetheless. consult anyone in Wales about the in modern Wales – the land of the pulled We should be under no illusions. policy and its effects. Get used to it.” punch. That has to change. The ‘project’ of making Wales a more So how do we encourage more self-reliant country is one that will take He suggested we can forget about people to speak truth unto power? many generations to achieve. There demanding fair funding from the UK As an early sign of intent the First are no quick fixes. Though some of her Government without first accepting Minister should make a statement that analysis struck a cord, ultimately Rachel responsibility for raising some of our own no organisation receiving public funds Banner was profoundly wrong. The revenue. But the flip side was that if the should fear criticising a policy or action optimism of the Yes for Wales campaign new logic is embraced and politicians of the Welsh Government. Indeed, he won through. As Roger Lewis put it in his and interest groups understand that should demand that any that come speech at the declaration on 4 March: they can’t have it all ways, then under pressure for doing so should bring Wales has the opportunity to fashion it to his attention. Though not a panacea “Our country has great potential. Welsh answers to Welsh questions. As it would be a useful symbol. Yes, it faces great challenges. Professor Jeffery concluded: The same should go for the so- But now is time for us all to take called sponsored bodies. Ministers responsibility. Let us not be afraid “It is an opportunity for the people must encourage arms length agencies to make decisions, or make of Wales and their representatives to challenge official thinking. Since mistakes. The real failure is if we do to define just what kind of political the ‘bonfire of the quangos’ the trend not try. The culture of blame and system Wales should have, what for seeing sponsored bodies as mere excuse is behind us. Today we have values it should embody, and what delivery arms of the Welsh Government found our voice.” outcomes it should pursue”. has intensified. Civil servants have been actively discouraging chief executives Of course he’s right. To govern is to and Boards from any ‘political’ role. Lee Waters was Vice-Chair of the choose. However, translate that into real Though that might have been an Yes for Wales campaign, Labour’s world politics and the going gets tough. understandable instinct a decade ago as representative on its steering group, A problem is that we built a consensus the new Welsh Government sought to and led on communications.

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of Chief Police Officers and the Police Authorities of Wales. In April 2011 a Why we should Western Mail poll indicated that 56 per cent of respondents favoured the devolution of police and the criminal control the courts justice system. On the other hand Wales remains in the unsatisfactory position of and the police having five prisons, all for men, with the most northerly institution being in , 16 miles from Cardiff. Nonetheless, momentum is building for the devolution of the justice system. What is the position of the four political Eurfyl ap Gwilym finds devolution of criminal justice parties? In its 2011 manifesto Plaid Cymru cannot be opposed on financial grounds called for the transfer of responsibility and funding for the police and criminal justice system to the National Assembly. Many have argued that a logical responsibility for the administration The Conservatives promised “to publish consequence of having devolved of justice would be dysfunctional, a White Paper on the legal jurisdiction primary law making powers is the need constitutionally unsound and of Wales”. The Liberal Democrats to devolve the justice system to Wales. demeaning to Wales’s developing undertook to continue “to press for the In evidence to the Richard Commission constitutional status”. devolution of policing and justice”. The Mr Justice Roderick Evans and Professor Labour manifesto was silent on the Iwan Davies noted that there are three Some of the building blocks for subject except for the modest proposal commonly accepted characteristics of a devolution of justice and policing in that, “In time we want to be able to jurisdiction: a defined territory, a distinct Wales are already in place: manage all of our youth justice services body of law, and a separate structure of in Wales ourselves”. courts and legal institutions. • An Administrative Court for Wales During the election campaign First Minister Carwyn Jones is on was established in Cardiff in 2000. Labour’s principal contribution to this record as pointing out in a series of • Both the civil and criminal division of subject was to claim that Plaid Cymru’s speeches over the past few years that the the Court of Appeal now sit regularly policy would leave a “£600 million black steady development of these criteria are in Cardiff. hole” in the National Assembly’s budget. pointing to the inevitability of creating • Most judicial review cases involving This begs the question of what was their a distinctive jurisdiction. For example, decisions of Welsh public authorities policy. It is not clear whether or not in Setember 2007 at a Legal Wales are heard in Wales. Labour is against a Welsh jurisdiction in conference in Cardiff he stated: • Employment Appeals Tribunals now principle or simply concerned about the sit regularly in Wales. financial consequences. “If you’ve got two parliaments • The Chancery Court in Wales sits in What are the likely financial which have primary powers, I think Wales and is no longer shared with implications if the administration of it makes it very difficult to have Bristol. justice, including policing and prisons, one jurisdiction. I’m not aware of • Welsh judges have established their were devolved to Wales? The most anywhere in the world where you own association. reliable source of financial information have that”. • A single unit of Her Majesty’s Court is the Treasury’s Public Expenditure Services was established in Wales Statistical Analyses reports, the latest The case was made in much bolder with a Director for Wales in 2006. of which was published in April 2011. terms by Winston Roddick QC in the • The ‘Wales and Cheshire’ circuit for ‘Public Order and Safety’ is classified by Lloyd George lecture he delivered in the administration of justice became the Treasury and ONS as encompassing Criccieth when he expressed his view Wales-only in April 2007. police services, fire protection services, that: law courts, and prisons. The four Welsh police forces have In 2009-10, the latest year for which “… a devolution settlement by demonstrated a commitment towards information is available, total identifiable which the Assembly is given full collaboration and have established public expenditure in Wales on these legislative competence but not the national bodies such as the Association functions was as follows:

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• Police Services not, in the first instance, be determined Organised Crime Agency. In the case of £763m by the Barnett formula. It would be a Wales no Home Office or Justice and • Fire protection services one-off initial transfer of funding from Law Officers’ functions are devolved £195m the UK Government to the Welsh and this is reflected in comparability • Law Courts Government’s block grant. Subsequent factors of zero. £325m changes in spending on public order As can be seen, public order and • Prisons and safety in England would have an safety is already substantially devolved £228m impact on changes to the Welsh block in the case of Scotland with the division • Other grant through application of the Barnett of spending between layers of £16m formula. This would put Wales on a government being: par with Scotland. There need be little • Total concern that such expenditure would • Scottish Government £1,527m suffer from ‘Barnett convergence’ £1,133 million because Welsh identifiable spending per • Local Government Source: HM Treasury PESA 2011. head is lower than in England. £1,234 million A useful financial measure of the • UK Government This spending was divided three ways degree of devolution is the comparability only £156 million between : factor employed in applying the Barnett formula to any departmental function. • Welsh Government If a departmental function is wholly Thus a mere 6 per cent of expenditure £34 million devolved the comparability factor is 100 on public order and safety is spent by the • Local government per cent. That is to say, the power in UK Government in Scotland compared £843 million Wales or Scotland is on a par with that of with 42 per cent in Wales. It is worth • UK Government the Whitehall department in the case of noting that Treasury figures show that in £650 million England. If the departmental function is Scotland identifiable public expenditure centralised in London and not devolved on Public Order and Safety in 2009-10 the comparability factor is 0 per cent, was £486 per head, compared with In 2009-10 total public expenditure where there is no corresponding power £509 per head in Wales. Thus Scotland on Public Order and Safety in the UK devolved to Scotland or Wales and it is appears able to manage public order was £32.5 billion, of which £2.2 billion entirely controlled from London. In the and safety in a slightly more cost was non-identifiable. That is, it was case of some departments some functions effective way than the same functions not allocated on a territorial basis but are devolved and others are not and this are managed in Wales. deemed to be for the benefit of the UK leads to a comparability factor which This analysis of public spending on as a whole. The Treasury’s definition of reflects the weighted average. justice and the police shows there are identifiable expenditure is that expenditure Under the current arrangements no sound financial reasons for opposing which is spent in a geographical area for according to Treasury figures the the devolution of these functions to the benefit of people living in that area. relevant comparability factors for Wales the National Assembly - provided Thus the identifiable expenditure of and Scotland are: expenditure by the UK Government £1,527 million reported by the Treasury already recognised as being indefinable and quoted here was spent in Wales for were transferred. The constitutional the benefit of the people of Wales. The Wales Scotland and practical reasons for devolution relative level of identifiable spending Home Office 0% 76.0% are compelling. It is to be hoped that per capita in Wales on public order and Justice 0% 99.7% the new Welsh Government will both safety was 97 per cent of the UK average. Law Officers 0% 100.0% accept the principle of devolving these If responsibility for public order and important functions to Wales and also safety were devolved to Wales then that Source: HM Treasury, Statement of Funding Policy, actively press the UK Government for October 2010. identifiable funding which is currently this to happen. undertaken directly by UK Government in Wales would be devolved to the In the case of Scotland the major, non- National Assembly. This would follow devolved Home Office functions are: the practice in the case of Scotland. immigration and nationality, organised Eurfyl ap Gwilym is Paid Cymru’s Such devolution of funding would and international crime, and the Serious economics adviser.

agenda summer 2011—issue 44 | 29 Time to be bold Gerald Holtham urges there could not be a better moment to borrow and invest in Wales’ infrastructure 2 Wales needs a bold policy to promote than creating castles in the air. Such an Economy faster economic growth. Currently the UK initiative could take the form of a national faces a period of slow growth as the central infrastructure plan, which would include a government and households retrench and few large, detailed projects in the areas of reduce debt. As a peripheral economy broadband roll-out, railway electrification, Wales is unlikely to do better than the UK selected port development and strategic average without a strong initiative of its road development. own. It faces the risk of continuing high, The plan could have a central perhaps rising, levels of unemployment element: a concordat between the Welsh and economic inactivity. Government and local authorities. The In the long run, Welsh prosperity Welsh Government is currently seeking Articles will depend on the level of skills and borrowing powers from Westminster. Time to be bold resourcefulness of the Welsh people, so Even if those are not forthcoming, local Falling in and education and training policy will be authorities have so-called prudential out of love critical to success over coming decades. borrowing powers. Borrowing costs with inward In the shorter run, the consensus view is currently faced by local authorities, along investment that development can be promoted by with gilt yields, are extremely low by provision of good infrastructure that only historical standards. Loans of 20 years or Bring back the the state can provide, such as roads, or that more can be obtained from the Public Wales Tourist large corporations will provide only with Works Loan Board for around 4 per cent. Board state aid, such as telecommunications, Moreover, the construction and civil Charting our high-speed broad band, and rail. engineering industries are at a low ebb progress in and In addition, factors that make for a with plenty of spare capacity. There could out of recession positive business climate and thereby not be a better time to borrow and invest. encourage investment include: a It will never be as cheap again. predictable and rapid planning system, Local authorities are well inside the accessible business advice and liaison borrowing envelop the Public Works Loan services and attractive places for senior Board operates. However, they cannot executives to live. There is a role for prudently contemplate expanding their provision of concessionary finance or borrowing on the scale required without tax advantages. The Welsh Government the active support and underpinning of has a budget for aiding companies and the Welsh Government. The plan would European funds are also available. The require the Government to decide on a general impression is that the returns to this range of projects, then for each project to expenditure have been disappointing in agree a share of the cost among itself, local the past and it is questionable whether the authorities and users of the infrastructure. best means have been found to maximise Local authorities could then borrow for those returns. Moreover, the scope for tax projects in their area, against guarantees In association with concessions is currently limited to granting that agreed shares of the cost of servicing allowances against business rates and the and repaying the debt (perhaps all of it) Welsh Government has made relatively would be met by the other parties. little use of this instrument. Some institutional innovation would While improvements in those policy be required to make this work. An areas should be pursued, at times like the example would be a liaison body or present there is a role for bold initiatives council between the Welsh Government that create a sense of momentum, even and local authorities and then particular excitement. In line with the times, any working groups or institutions for each such initiative should entail delivery rather project. The Welsh Government would

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billion, perhaps by a substantial amount. Tackling underdevelopment: constraint tree If there were an investment Problem: Low levels of private investment and entrepreneurship programme of over £3 billion into the Welsh economy, over and above the capital budget, over a period of five Low return to economic activity High cost of finance years, that could amount to a stimulus to the Welsh economy of about 1 per cent of GVA a year - Welsh GVA is about £60 Low social returns Low appropriablility bad international bad local finance finance billion. Even before we consider the long- run and supply side effects, this could push the Welsh growth rate from, say 1.5 market failures government per cent a year to nearer 2.5 per cent. failures Unless and until the Welsh Government poor bad information coordination acquires its own borrowing powers, the geography infrastructure * externalities: externalities actual borrowing would have to be carried “self-discovery” low human out by local authorities. Serious questions capital * low poor micro risks: macro risks: domestic intermediation then arise over the means whereby the property rights, financial, monetary, saving corruption, fiscal instability Welsh Government would pay its share of taxes planning * costs by servicing the local authority debt. There are various possibilities and one has Harvard academics have set up this decision tree as a guide to promoting economic development. The three to be found in every case that gives the orange asterisks show where Wales has problems that the Welsh Government is in a position to tackle. Wales has some of the other problems, too, but they are less susceptible to devolved public policy. local authorities security and complies with UK Treasury rules. That should certainly also need a planning and evaluation cost the project in detail. The detailed be possible., While significant for Wales, bureau to carry out cost-benefit analysis plans would go back to the planning and the sums involved are negligible in the UK of projects that were thrown up by the evaluation unit for re-examination and re- context where the annual government liaison council and to rank them. There ranking if necessary. The decision on go- deficit is around £140 billion. would also be a strong case for pulling ahead for the final plan would be political, Such a programme would require co- together expertise in procurement into taken at Cabinet level. operation between the Welsh Government a single body, which would serve all the The Welsh Government would and local authorities of different political projects. Its primary aim would be getting presumably not want to see its servicing of colours. It would crystallise a sense of value for money but it would also look to past projects, in effect its debt service, rise national purpose and be visible evidence foster and promote local suppliers as far very high while its only revenue source is of the Government’s determination to as possible. the Barnett grant. Still, just one per cent of deliver economic prosperity. It could help There is no shortage of candidate the annual budget is £150 million. If loans to build administrative, technical and projects. Wales needs to equip two were at 4 per cent with a maturity of 30 industrial capacity and provide a boost to ports to service offshore wind and wave years, that would imply an annuity rate business in both the short and long term. It developments, Holyhead and Milford of 6 per cent and the sum would service would leave the Welsh public with a legacy Haven. It needs to electrify the Valley debts of nearly £3 billion. of debt, but a very small one, just one per lines into Cardiff and Newport, and However, the government would not cent of its current budget and a proportion perhaps Swansea. Road developments be meeting the full cost of debt servicing. that will fall over time as the budget grows. are required in all parts of Wales as well In the case of ports, railways or toll roads, It should also be serviced at fixed rates of as high-speed broadband roll-out. The the users would service some of the interest. Families who have done well by candidates emerging from consultations debt through charges. Local authorities taking out a mortgage to buy their home between Government, local authorities might also service some part themselves, will easily understand and appreciate and the business sector should be assessed especially if allowed to keep additions to the plan. by a technical body, the planning and their business rates flowing from projects. evaluation unit, and ranked. The Welsh Government money would After political sign-off, working bodies therefore be used to service that part of would be set up for the top projects the debt for which it was paying, plus Gerald Holtham chaired the to hammer out the cost sharing and some contingency reserve, so the full Commission on Funding and Finance institutional framework then specify and amount of investment could exceed £3 of the National Assembly.

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services were becoming uncompetitive. Falling in and out of love They required lower cost locations with many choosing Eastern Europe as new investment locations. with inward investment The same trend was occurring in Ken Poole advises the Welsh Government to refocus on Ireland and Scotland, yet they continued overseas opportunities to refine their inward investment strategy and reinforced their inward investment presence globally in the face of market changes. In Wales we continued to The debate on the merits of inward delivered what the market required promote Wales with the same proposition investment over the past 30 years has efficiently. The then effectiveTeam Wales and failed to recognise that these been more vitriolic and passionate in approach was recognised by companies emerging pressures could not be halted. Wales than elsewhere in the UK. While and competitors as a compelling unique Whilst there were some successes, they competitor regions such as Scotland and selling point. were certainly not enough. Ireland have had a consistent positive During the 1970s and early 1980s Not only was Wales losing existing approach to inward investment, Wales inward investors were employing large investors, we were also failing to capture has fallen in and out of love with it in numbers of people and assisting in the new opportunities from a new inward ways which have confused potential diversification of the economy away investment market. This was one in which and existing investors, to the benefit of from steel and coal. Inward investment high level skills, innovation, linkages, our competitor regions. was seen as a solution to diversification and access to knowledge were the key In the early 1970s Wales was one and mobilisation of under-utilised drivers rather than low cost buildings of the first economic regions in Europe labour resources, both male and female. and labour. to recognise the potential of inward There was no question of investors By 2008-09 Wales was securing just investment. A succession of dedicated being targeted for innovation or their over 6 per cent of all new jobs created by organisations was established to respond contribution to the emerging knowledge foreign inward investment projects in the to the market. The Development economy. Rather, they were creating the UK, well below the earlier peak of 15 per Corporation for Wales was followed large number of jobs that Wales needed. cent. This figure fell to 4 per cent during by Winvest and then the Welsh During the early 1990s, the volume of 2009-10, and Wales was now trailing Development Agency. We recognised inward investment projects flowing into our main traditional competitor regions. the emerging sector market opportunities The love affair with inward investment began to sour in automotive, electronics and the originator markets of Japan, Korea, USA, between 1998 and 2008 when there were 171 foreign Germany and France. owned site closures Wales was regarded as a market Wales peaked at around 15 per cent of In 2010-11 Wales secured just 38 out of leader and exemplar of best practice. the UK total, in terms of project value the UK’s 1,434 foreign direct investment Global household names like Panasonic, and employment creation. However, projects, which was 2.6% of the total. Sony, Aiwa, LG, Ford and Bosch over the following 20 years, Wales’ share This compared with 6.4% in 2009-10 and established significant manufacturing of UK inward investment has steadily 6.2% in 2008-09. investment across Wales. At that time fallen away. In terms of project mix, a large Wales demonstrated a well developed The love affair with inward proportion of projects coming into Wales understanding of the market and its investment began to sour between continue to be in manufacturing, followed drivers. It provided a powerful low cost 1998 and 2008 during which time 171 by services, with a relative lack of higher proposition built around a competitive foreign owned site closures occurred value investments in knowledge and offer and a location offering a springboard in Wales with the loss of 31,000 jobs, R&D fields and headquarters projects. into the European Community. Wales’ mainly in manufacturing. Many of these The 2011 Welsh Labour manifesto offer consisted of grants, low cost companies were heavily criticised and the signalled a renewed interest in inward serviced land, plenty of readily available value of inward investment questioned. investment with a declaration that Wales high quality advanced buildings, and However, job losses in sectors such as is “open for business... whether they are a competitively priced labour force electronics, automotive components, Wales based or an inward investor”. supported by pragmatic trade unions. textiles and call centres were predictable This is a welcome positive approach. Wales understood the market and as the companies and their products or However, there is a lot to do if we are to

32 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 2/Economy Produced in association with PricewaterhouseCoopers

Bring back the Wales Tourist Board Terry Stevens presses the Welsh Government to address a malaise in our tourism industry Secretary of State for Wales Cheryl Gillan visiting the Japanese Panasonic factory at , Cardiff in June. Meeting her is Tim Onoe, Managing Director of Panasonic UK, which has been operating at the site since 1976. Today it employs employs 520 staff Overnight in July 2004 Wales was placed in the unenviable position of in four business units involved in microwave oven being amongst a small minority of countries around the world without a manufacture, laptop computer configuration, disc encryption, and television research and development. national tourism organisation. At the time I wrote: be in a position to secure companies in “When the UN World Tourism Organization is stressing the some of the globally competitive sectors importance of having strong national tourist boards, along with that Wales requires. competent local delivery systems, Welsh politicians have ignored One of the first priorities for the international best practice”. new Government is to get the message into the inward investment market that In so doing they neutered an essential vehicle for tourism development. Wales is hungry for new investment. Five years on and the results are telling. They reflect an economic sector This is important as 2010 saw a revival struggling to be competitive in a global marketplace. in the global inward investment market Read in isolation the headline statistics about tourism in Wales appear for the first time since the credit crisis to be impressive. As of March 2011 Visit Wales – the Welsh Government’s two years previously. Ireland’s long tourism department - announced that the industry was worth over £3 term commitment to securing inward billion. It constituted 6.1 per cent of all economic activity, 13.3 per cent investment has seen it secure a top of GVA in mid Wales and 3.9 per cent in south east Wales, and supported ten place amongst European locations 104,000 jobs, 8.7 per cent of all full-time equivalent jobs in Wales. despite its current fiscal weaknesses. However, at the same time the Welsh Government’s Official Statistics Hopefully, Welsh Labour’s manifesto Wales website was painting a somewhat different picture. In the period and recent statements by the First Minister 2005–09 expenditure by UK domestic visitors to Wales had declined from will be the beginning of a new love affair £1.73 billion in 2005 to £1.41 billion five years later, a decrease of £317 with inward investment for Wales. If so million or 18.3 per cent (3.7 per cent a year). This was at a time when we need a new strategy, a new focus and tourism was growing in Europe at between 2.5-3 per cent. In 2009 the a long term commitment to this vitally value accrued by UK domestic tourist trips and bed nights spent in Wales important source of future investment. was significantly less than in 2000. On the other hand, international tourism has shown marginal growth. In 2005 Wales attracted 333,000 international tourists who spent £312 million. Five years later the numbers had increased to 394,000, (that is 3.5 Ken Poole is Director, inward per year and 18 per cent overall), and spend by £20 million (6.5 per cent investment, economic development and or 1.3 per cent a year) to £332 million. incentives with PwC in Wales. The demise of the Wales Tourist Board may go some way to explain

agenda summer 2011—issue 44 | 33 2/Economy Historic port of Rovinj, Istria, a vibrant Croatian destination.

or excuse this disappointing downturn in as in countries like Slovenia and Croatia destinations around the world. our tourism economy. However, it is not that have had to reinvent themselves 3. We do not benchmark against primarily the fault of Visit Wales. There due to civil strife. Ten years ago even in leading destinations. are more fundamental issues. Longer Switzerland tourism was stagnating and term analysis of figures for UK domestic changes had to be made. Today it tops all At the heart of the problem is a failure to tourism activity in Wales shows that global performance benchmarks. understand the principles of destination tourism has been static and, arguably, Similarly, in 1990 Barcelona set about development and to create the successfully transforming its tourism appropriate type of strategically focused Ten years ago even in economy, leveraging the 1992 Olympics. organisations that drive tourism at the Switzerland tourism was Twenty years later it has reinvented its destination level. stagnating and changes tourism brand and organisation, causing A destination is what visitors had to be made. Today the UN World Tourism Organisation understand. It is a relatively small it tops all global to state that it has amongst the best geographic area that is the place of performance benchmarks. destination management structures in consumption of most tourists’ activities the world. and spending. The destination, therefore, So, if others can get it right it suggests has to be well managed and marketed. under-performing for 20 years. The that there is something more substantially The UN World Tourism Organisation value of tourism has only grown by £513 and structurally wrong with the way has recently stated that there is a direct million since 1990 – that’s approximately tourism is organised in Wales. What correlation between tourism success £26 million a year, the equivalent impact restricts our ability to respond to the and the existence of effective destination of hosting two FA Cup Finals or three dynamics and growth in the marketplace management organisations. majorrugby internationals in the Wales in a competitive way? There are three This requires a private sector led, Millennium Stadium. main answers: and public sector supported approach. This 20-year period has seen The World Economic Forum’s Tourism significant growth in international 1. The organisation of our tourism Competitive Index highlights the crucial tourism and up to 6 per cent growth a industry remains wedded to a way role played by private sector led year in some regions of Europe. This of working forged by a piece of destination organisations in the world’s level of growth has been recorded in legislation 40 years old. most successful and, hence, competitive countries with a mature tourism industry 2. We continue to ignore the lessons destinations. such as Switzerland and Austria, as well learnt by successful, competitor In association with the University of

34 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 2/Economy Produced in association with PricewaterhouseCoopers

Calgary, in 2006 my company Stevens & Associates analysed 22 countries and 16 destinations which were outperforming other places in the world in tourism. The conclusions showed that from Istria in Croatia to Summit County in Utah, and from Gorenjska in Slovenia to Turku in Finland, they all had a similar organisational structures. They focused on specific destinations within their countries or regions, such as Swansea Bay, or Ceredigion in Wales. Further, they ensured that the industry at this level was business-led and worked to achieve the following:

• Creation of unambiguous destination brand positioning .

• Critical mass, so that around 20 per Jackson Hole, Wyoming, one of the world’s leading year round destinations. Despite over 90 per cent of the land cent of the destination’s tourism firms being in public ownership, destination management is a private sector led initiative. delivered around 80 per cent of the business. wouldn’t rise each night”. “Britain has the worst performing • Strategy led by a Board responsive to At present our tourism organisations tourism economy of the expanded the market drivers of tourism in the are dominated by risk averse, non Europe of 27 countries other than destination. market focused public bodies with Romania”. • Respect community interests. local authorities often ‘leading’ tourism • Emphasise innovation and creativity. strategies. As a result, the industry is We need a new way of working. In his characterised by a lack of innovation new Cabinet following the May elections, Three anecdotal comments from and creativity in its product development First Minister Carwyn Jones moved leaders in these and marketing. The industry is over responsibility for tourism from the successful destinations stand out as reliant upon subsidies and handouts Heritage to the Economic Development tenets we should seriously reflect upon: which prevents innovation. Small voices portfolio, handing responsibility to Edwina continue to shout loudly and, worse, Hart. A key question now is whether the • Ignore anyone who says are all too often heard at the expense of new Minister has the appetite to deliver I do it this way. those whose businesses can make a real a fresh, dynamic and competitive future • Ignore anyone who speaks in a past difference. for tourism in Wales. tense, for example saying We tried We need to shift to a culture If she chooses to do so Edwina that, or We used to do it this way. where icons and drivers of tourism Hart has an opportunity to make a real • Don’t ask what the organisation can lead and receptors or beneficiaries of difference. Her first step should be do for you; rather, ask what you can successful tourism take a back seat. to move responsibility for providing do for the destination. As uncomfortable as this may sound it national leadership for Welsh tourism is how others approach the way their to a new arms-length private-sector led Myles Rademan, inspirational former industry is led and organised. Often, this organisation, outside the civil service. Director of PR and Leadership for tourism means leadership by people outside the This should be charged with ensuring in Utah’s Summit County, acknowledges tourism industry. that entrepreneurial values percolate to that these ‘principles’ can be difficult for Do we have the appetite and the every level of tourism’s organisation and many who have enjoyed a comfortable hunger to do things differently? If we leadership in Wales. but ineffectual role in tourism in the past. don’t more of the same will simply take us However, he is adamant that strategically to the place that the British Association focused leadership is essential if often of Chambers of Commerce defined in its Professor Terry Stevens is Managing unpalatable. As he puts it, “If the moon August 2009 report: Director of the international tourism listened to all the dogs that barked it consultancy Stevens & Associates.

agenda summer 2011—issue 44 | 35 2/Economy

We date turning points in the have commenced for Wales. Charting our economic cycle using a mathematical Welsh employment entered the progress in and model and compare Welsh employment current recession in June 2008, one and unemployment claimant count month later than the rest of the UK. The out of recession cycles to England, Scotland, Northern ProAct scheme introduced by the Welsh Ireland and the UK as a whole. Monthly Government in 2009, part-financed Michael Artis and Marianne employment data are reported in the by the European Social Fund, offered Sensier argue the Welsh Labour Force survey which starts in April subsidised training places to companies Government should respond 1992 and ends in February 2011. The facing redundancies. In May 2010 the to timing variations across the claimant count records the number of Welsh Government reported that this economic cycle people claiming Job Seeker’s Allowance had helped 10,000 people keep their and this is analysed from January 1988 to jobs during the recession. As seen from The economic cycle is of interest to the August 2010. the last two rows of Table 1, the most Welsh Government as it tries to use the Table 1 lists the dates for the turning recent recession lasted 15 months in economic levers at its disposal to mitigate points in the employment cycle for the Wales and from peak to trough there was the impact of any economic downturn. UK and its component nations. Wales, a fall in employment of 4.78 per cent. If Here we analyse the employment cycle Scotland and Northern Ireland have we subtract a further 10,000 employees at the Welsh and local authority level experienced five recessions since the early at the trough, the percentage of the to assess how the economy has fared in 1990s compared with two in England. employment lost would have risen to 5.5 the recent recession. Welsh employment The Welsh employment cycle is per cent. emerged from recession in the second half shown in Figure 1 along with peak and Northern Ireland’s employment of 2009. All unitary authorities emerged trough turning points in the cycle. The emerged from the current recession first from recession by February 2010. The vertical axis notes the minimum amount in May 2009, followed by Wales in August recovery has been led by areas with of employment from the trough of the 2009, England in February 2010 and then greater concentrations of employment 1990s recession in May 1993 to the most Scotland in April 2010. in the service sector and particularly in recent maximum of the peak in May 2008 Table 2 lists the turning points dates tourism related industries. after which the latest recession is dated to for the claimant count cycle with three

Table 1: Cycle Turning Points for UK Employment

Turning Point UK Wales Scotland England Northern Ireland Peak 1990m6 1990m6 Trough 1993m3 1993m5 1993m1 1993m3 1993m7 Peak 1995m2 Trough 1996m2 Peak 1997m6 1997m12 1997m10 Trough 1998m6 1998m8 1998m8 Peak 2000m11 2000m12 1999m8 Trough 2001m8 2001m12 2000m3 Peak 2004m4 2003m2 Trough 2005m4 2003m11 Peak 2008m4 2008m5 2008m4 2008m4 2008m4 Trough 2010m1 2009m7 2010m3 2010m1 2009m4 Duration of last cycle in months 21 15 23 21 12 Peak to Trough % of employment lost 2.54% 4.78% 5.15% 2.35% 6.76%

36 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 2/Economy Produced in association with PricewaterhouseCoopers

recessions in this data for most and two emerged from recession at the same added to the peak amount, the 10,000 recessions for Northern Ireland. By this time as England, in November 2009, but employees saved by the ProAct scheme measure the Welsh claims cycle, seen Scotland and Northern Ireland’s claims then the claims increase would have risen in Figure 2, now entered the current are still increasing. to 140 per cent unemployed. recession in February 2008 - earlier than We have shown the percentage We applied the cycle dating most of the UK, in April 2008, apart amount of increase in claims between algorithm to 22 Welsh unitary authority from Northern Ireland which entered in recession peak and trough in the last row level claims data and obtained peak and September 2007 (it also earlier than the of Table 2. Here we can see that claims trough cycle turning points. Here we general employment cycle). increased by 114 per cent during the find a greater occurrence of recessions The Welsh claimant count cycle has recession in Wales, However, if it was than at the national level. We dated:

Figure 1: Figure 2: Turning Points for Welsh Employment Turning Points for Welsh Claimant Count

Note: The figures for the other countries can be found in the fuller Note: The figures for the other countries can be found in the fuller discussion paper version on the web-site of the Spatial Economic Research discussion paper version on the web-site of the Spatial Economic Research Centre at the London School of Economics (http://rlab.lse.ac.uk/_new/ Centre at the London School of Economics (http://rlab.lse.ac.uk/_new/ publications/abstract.asp?index=3808). publications/abstract.asp?index=3808).

Table 2: Cycle Turning Points for UK Claimant Count

Turning Point UK Wales Scotland England Northern Ireland Peak 1990m5 1990m5 1990m8 1990m4 1990m8 Trough 1992m12 1992m12 1992m12 1992m12 1993m2 Peak 2005m2 2005m2 2005m7 2005m2 Trough 2006m10 2006m4 2006m7 2006m10 Peak 2008m3 2008m1 2008m3 2008m3 2007m8 Trough 2009m10 2009m10 2009m10 Duration of last cycle in months 19 21 19 Peak to Trough % of claims gained 108.84% 113.95% 109.16%

Note: we date peaks in claimant count data at local minima and troughs at the local maxima as unemployment is inversely related to output and movements in it are a contra-cyclical measure of the business cycle.

agenda summer 2011—issue 44 | 37 2/Economy

Figure 3: Geographical Progression of Welsh Unitary Authorities into Recession (maps courtesy of Tim Fearnside)

38 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 2/Economy Produced in association with PricewaterhouseCoopers

• Three recessions for claimants proportions of people employed in the Island, has the highest unemployment in , Flintshire, manufacturing sector with Flintshire rate in Wales. , Rhondda being the highest in Wales at 34 per cent. We estimated a Spearman Rank Cynon Taf, Torfaen, and the By early 2008 the rest of the southern correlation coefficient to test if the Vale of Glamorgan. authorities had entered recession, until order in which the authorities entered • Four recessions for claimants in the last authority, Carmarthenshire, or exited recession was correlated Anglesey, Blaenau Gwent, Cardiff, Ceredigion, Conwy, Gwynedd, The economy of Blaenau Gwent has mirrored that of Newport, Pembrokeshire, Swansea much of industrial south Wales. As late as the 1970s and Wrexham. coal and steel were seen as the backbone of industrial • Five recessions for claimants economy. The decline of these industries has given rise to in Bridgend, Carmarthenshire, Denbighshire, , Neath the incessant search for replacement jobs. Port Talbot and Powys.

Regional policy should target the authorities more prone to recessions entered in May 2008. with the share of employment in each and help ease labour market frictions Our mathematical model now finds sector. We found some weak evidence in those areas. In Figure 3 we chart that all unitary authorities have emerged that authorities with a higher share the geographical progression of the from the current recession. The first was of construction employment entered recession in Wales over time in a Neath Port Talbot which emerged in recession earlier (with 0.32 estimated sequence of maps. We begin in June June 2009, possibly helped by the car correlation coefficient, significant at the 2007 when Blaenau Gwent entered scrappage scheme stimulating output 15 per cent level). recession. at the Port Talbot steel plant. It was Authorities with a higher share of The economy of Blaenau Gwent has followed by: services (0.38, significant at 10 per cent mirrored that of much of industrial south level), or tourism (0.32, significant at Wales. As late as the 1970s coal and steel • July 2009: Monmouthshire and 15 per cent level) were earlier to leave were seen as the backbone of its industrial Powys. the recession. However, those with economy. The decline of these industries • August 2009: Bridgend and Torfaen. a higher proportion of employees in has given rise to the incessant search for • October 2009: Flintshire, Swansea manufacturing (-0.45, significant at 5 per replacement jobs. However, the area and Wrexham. cent level), or finance (-0.42, significant struggled more than many other areas to • November 2009: Blaenau Gwent, at 5 per cent level) were late leaving modernise and restructure its economy Caerphilly, Carmarthenshire, recession. and currently has the lowest employment Conwy, Merthyr Tydfil, Newport, The story that this recession rate of the 22 Unitary Authorities in Wales. Pembrokeshire, Rhondda Cynon Taf, was finance-led is not upheld in It also has the lowest level of weekly and the Vale of Glamorgan. Wales. It appears that areas with earnings, £361.60 per week, £83.80 • December 2009: Cardiff and higher proportions of employees in below the Welsh average. In 2008 28 Denbighshire. manufacturing were actually later to per cent of Blaenau Gwent’s workforce • January 2010: Ceredigion. emerge from recession. was employed in manufacturing, the • February 2010: Anglesey second highest in Wales and well above and Gwynedd. the Welsh average at 14 per cent. The recession started with a banking crisis but Anglesey was one of the last unitary it was a relatively deprived area strongly authorities to emerge from the recession dependant on manufacturing which was and it has the lowest GVA per capita in first to enter recession in Wales. the whole of the UK. It has seen major Michael Artis is a former Welsh In October 2007 Conwy and Vale job losses, across a number of industries, Government visiting Professor of of Glamorgan entered recession and during the recession, including more Economics at Swansea University. Cardiff entered in November 2007. By than 400 at Anglesey Aluminium, 250 at Marianne Sensier is a Research December 2007 a number of northern the electronics plant at Eaton and 180 Fellow at the Institute of Political and authorities had also entered recession. at the Gaerwen meat processing plant. Economic Governance at the University It is noteworthy that these have high Holyhead, the largest town on the of Manchester.

agenda summer 2011—issue 44 | 39 Cultural corridor to the east

Ned Thomas revises his view of Turkey following cross 3 border events organised by Aberystwyth University’s International Mercator Institute

The June elections in Turkey stayed at the Over the last year that good reason top of the Western news agenda for two has arrived. Literature across , the whole days, which is unprecedented. This largest of the programmes currently run was no doubt due to the increased interest by the Mercator Institute at Aberystwyth in the Middle East generally following University, though overwhelmingly the Arab Spring, but it also reflected the European in its focus, has increasingly Articles growing recognition of Turkey as a rising been drawn into a trans-Mediterranean Cultural corridor economic and political power. dialogue with Arabic-speaking and other to the east Sometimes Turkey is placed in the Middle-Eastern countries. Our field is same league as the BRIC countries (Brazil, literary translation which is now seen as Russia, India, China) which is probably contributing to conflict-resolution. I hardly Patagonia overdoing it given Turkey’s population need say that the conflicts in that region Special of 73 million. Nonetheless, like them it are intense. Writers from Arab countries Tenacious settlers is a fast expanding, export-led economy will often withdraw from events if a single Y Wladfa today whose problems are mainly those of Israeli is to be present, even if that Israeli overheating. Exports increased four- has strong pro-Palestinian credentials. fold in 2009. From 2002-2008 growth And because we are who we are, an A forest the size averaged six per cent, and after a setback international programme headquartered of Wales in 2009 rebounded to seven per cent in in Wales, we cannot ignore the minorities, 2010. In the first half of this year it has hit including the Kurds in Turkey. 11 per cent, outpacing China. If Turkey Turkey has offered something ever enters the European Union, those approaching neutral territory within the 73 millions will form the second largest region and been willing to cooperate national grouping, behind Germany but at governmental level even when we well ahead of Britain, France and Italy. touched on the question of minorities. Until last year I had never been to Last autumn we ran a session at the Turkey. I have no knowledge of the Istanbul Book Fair on publishing and language, and I see that as a severe translation in minority languages. We had handicap for anyone who takes their originally been scheduled to stage the political and cultural interests with them event in Diyarkibir, the unofficial capital when travelling. But I was reasonably of the Kurdish area in the south, but well-informed about the recent history of were advised that we needed to move to the Kurds in Turkey and that also had kept Istanbul. And just as well perhaps, since me away. As always there is a complex the dates overlapped with the opening of argument to be had as to whether foreign a mass show trial of 120 Kurdish activists tourism serves to moderate or legitimise and elected mayors in Diyarkibir, an event the activities of repressive regimes. which Plaid Cymru’s Arfon MP Hywel However, I found it hard, without good Williams reported on as one of a number reason, to visit a country whose military of international observers. had in the mid 1990s razed 3000 Kurdish Nor was the event held under the villages to the ground in south-east most auspicious of circumstances in Turkey and which continues to deny the Istanbul. A bomb exploded the day before Kurds fundamental cultural rights. our meeting in one of the central squares,

40 | 3/International

Ned Thomas speaking at a session on publishing and translation at the Istanbul Book Fair last November. To his right are Robyn Marsack, Director of the Scottish Poetry Library, and Amaia Gabantxo, a literary translator and writer from the Basque Country. some 200 yards from where many of our on literary translation which crossed all So far as its foreign policy goes we participants were staying. CNN and BBC kinds of boundaries of language, religion have got used to Turkey as a loyal member World (on which I had to rely) immediately and culture while concentrating on more of NATO and ally of the US. But while took it for granted that the Kurdish PKK technical matters such as the training keeping these alliances, the government were responsible, since a formal truce of translators and the subsidizing of now returned to power for a third term, signed with the Government had run out literary translation. is pursuing an increasingly independent the night before. However, conversations Talking of subsidies, many of us from foreign policy and looking for friends in the following day revealed that the truce Western Europe, including those from several directions. The official rhetoric between the Government and the PKK Wales Literature Exchange, gasped when is ‘zero problems with neighbours’ and had been renewed a week previously. a Turkish official, asked about the total citizens of neighbouring countries do not The likelihood was that the bomb was an annual sum available to support translation need visas to enter Turkey as citizens of the attempt to undermine the renewed truce, from Turkish into other languages, replied UK do. The EU is no longer Turkey’s only either by a break-away faction of the PKK that the fund was limitless. I think what he or exclusive option. It takes half of Turkey’s or by a Turkish nationalist group. This really meant was that the money available exports but that proportion is declining. revealed the limitations of Western media far outstripped the demand. Yet even Each of these new directions offers coverage. Turkologists are so few and far this was indicative of the economic and opportunities, particularly opportunities between that you may not even have cultural self-confidence now to be found for trade (including cultural exports) and come across the word! in Turkey. inward-bound tourism. Turkish-made But when all is said and done our event I had come to both our events soap operas are popular across wide areas was held, which would not have been thinking that the wish to promote Turkish of the Middle East and Istanbul is a major conceivable even five years ago. One or literature abroad, the cooperation we destination for Middle Eastern tourists who two Kurdish writers turned up as well as were receiving and the desire at least to find it congenial because it is more relaxed some supportive Turks - one should never appear more conciliatory towards the than their home cultures, though still forget that several prominent Turkish Kurds, were to be understood entirely within a Muslim cultural environment. writers, editors and publishers have been in the context of Turkey’s candidacy for At the same time relations with prosecuted and imprisoned for their EU membership. That is undoubtedly a neighbouring countries also impose support of Kurdish rights. What is more, factor, but following a number of those constraints. Iran is an important trading we were able to return to Istanbul shortly private conversations which are the real partner, but closer ties with Iran alarm the before this year’s election and hold a justification for conferences, I now think United States and NATO. The collapse much larger international conference that is too eurocentric a view. of the Soviet Union has allowed Turkey

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It speaks volumes that they had to field independent Gaza, but this same event has enhanced candidates for fear that a Kurdish party would, as on Turkey’s status in the Arab world. previous occasions, be banned. Critics of the present Turkish government sometimes accuse it of Neo- to look east for the first time since the with a total of, at the very least, 14 million Ottomanism, not in the sense of having Bolshevik revolution, an opportunity Turkish Kurds. Like the Alawites in Syria to territorial ambitions to re-establish the brought home as you watch the ships whom President Assad belongs, the Alevi Ottoman empire, but in terms of world heading east through the Bosphorous to minority strongly supports a secular state view. A Turkish historian defended that the Black Sea countries of the Ukraine for what might be called religious reasons, world-view very persuasively to me, and Georgia. Beyond those are the Turkic seeing secularism and a Turkish rather arguing that modern Turkey was a country republics of Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. than Islamic identity as a bulwark against without a knowledge of its own history. Relations with Azerbaijan are domination by the majority Sunni. Alevis Part of the re-invention of the country particularly close and the Azeri language can be seen as more in the Shia and Sufi as a European-type centralised secular is readily intelligible to speakers of Turkish. traditions, though that is a gross over- state by Kemal Atatürk at the end of the The Armenian genocide of 1915 remains simplification. The leader of the opposition First World War was the abandonment a taboo subject for Turkish nationalists, CHP (Republican People’s Party) Kemal of Arabic script for Latin script. The although the first few hesitant steps have Kiliçdaroglu is an Alevi, though he does consequence is that only a small band of been taken towards a normalisation of not advertise that fact. specialized historians now have access relations with neighbouring Armenia. The Western preference would to the documents of previous centuries. That initiative had to be put on hold undoubtedly be for a democratically He saw the re-evaluation of the Ottoman because Azerbaijan, which supplies elected staunchly secularist government period as fundamental to Turkey’s future Turkey’s oil, opposes a rapprochement in Turkey which could be contrasted with because it necessarily involved looking while the future of the disputed territory of a conservative religious and authoritarian at relations with all its neighbours and Nagorno-Karabakh remains unresolved. alternative. But that is not the choice on their cultures, the peoples that had The Kurdish question, too, has an offer. The fault-lines in Turkish society are once formed its empire. This complex international dimension and has to take more complicated. The secularist party view of the region may also be marginally account of an autonomous Kurdish is still the party closest to the military, more accommodating to the Kurds region and government over the border though it tries to distance itself in public. within Turkey. in northern Iraq. The Turkish Government It is also associated by some with the I have not become a Turkologist has established a (severely controlled) Alevi minority. The AKP (Justice and overnight nor am likely to become one, Kurdish-language TV channel, aware that Development Party) under Prime Minister but the few glimpses of modern Turkey otherwise its Kurdish- speaking citizens will Recep Erdogan is widely believed to obtained through cultural contacts were be receiving their news from Iraqi Kurdistan support (or perhaps it reflects?) the enough to convince me that I have or from a Kurdish satellite channel based growing Islamization of Turkish society, hitherto seen Turkey not as it sees itself in Europe. Under the present government though still within the parameters of a but too exclusively in terms of our own some small concessions have been made formally secular state; but its democratic European concerns: its relation to the to the Kurds, starting from a very low level mandate is undisputed, now that it has EU, the Cyprus question, and Islam. And and in the face of strong opposition from just been re-elected to government for the in case you should ask, yes, Mrs Erdogan, the Turkish military. However, two steps third time running. I find it interesting that the Prime Minister’s wife, wears the hijab forward were followed by one step back the main opposition to President Assad in public as did a minority of female as the governing party played the Turkish in neighbouring Syria has also adopted students I observed on one Istanbul Nationalist card before the recent elections the term “Justice and Development” in campus which we visited. This form of to ward off opposition criticism. This its title which suggests that it wishes to headscarf, which does not cover the face, backfired as the number of independents follow something like the Turkish model. is controversial in Turkey, but reminded in Parliament supported by the Kurdish In Syria too, democracy would bring a me of nothing so much as what our own party surged. It speaks volumes that they Sunni majority to power. dear Queen might wear when off-duty had to field independent candidates for The AKP government has brought and inspecting her racehorses. I had to fear that a Kurdish party would, as on Turkey closer to the Arab world than wait to get back to Reading station to see previous occasions, be banned. in the days when the country was a woman in a full burka. A quite different kind of minority are governed by the secularist heirs of Kemal the Alevi, a religious rather than a linguistic Atatürk backed by the military. Relations minority that even includes some Kurds. with Israel, which were friendly, have The Alevi make up an estimated ten million deteriorated sharply following the Israeli Ned Thomas is President of Mercator of the Turkish population as compared assault on the Turkish ship bound for Cymru/Wales.

42 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 3/International Patagonia speciaL

Tenacious settlers Gerald Holtham discovers a compelling example of what ordinary Welsh people can do

Everyone in Wales knows there was a Welsh Aires to get help from the Argentine government. settlement in Patagonia and there are still a few Meanwhile, the settlers scraped a living by trading people there who speak Welsh. Yet very few seem to with the local Tehuelche Indians getting meat and know the real story. The survival of the language in a hides from them in exchange for bread. few families is the least of it. The Argentinians were keen to keep the Welsh The people who went out, starting in 1865, in the empty lands of Patagonia to prevent them A typical irrigation canal were from all over Wales and they were very being claimed by or the British in the Falkland in the Chubut valley – local tradition has it that ordinary people for the most part. There were Islands. They sent back with supplies the idea first occurred to Ministers of religion among them but no gentry, no and a surveyor who mapped out the lower Chubut a woman from Mountain Ash. “The Israelis were doctor, few professional people. There were some valley into 100-hectare farms. The Welsh drew called in a few years ago smallholders but most were miners or small trades lots for the farms and moved in. They carved the to improve the system but shrugged and said it people. The biggest single contingent on the first valley into districts. Every ten kilometres they built was fine, nothing to be boat came from Mountain Ash, some six families. In a chapel that served as place of worship, school and done.” those days, Mountain Ash, like most of Wales was community centre for the district. Everyone over 18 overwhelmingly Welsh-speaking. had the vote, men and women. This was probably The settlers arrived in a stony desert where the first place in the world to give young women of annual rainfall averages just 100 millimetres, but 18 the vote. They elected a Llywydd (president) and some years it doesn’t rain at all. There were no began to irrigate the valley. Local tradition has it that trees to make dwellings. They carved temporary the idea of irrigation canals first occurred to one of shelters out of the soft rock of the cliff face where the women from Mountain Ash. they landed. Then they had to trek 50 kilometres to Slowly the settlement began to thrive and more the Chubut valley, the river being the only reliable Welsh people emigrated. They grew wheat that source of fresh water. Some died on the way. won international prizes, built a railway from the Reliable is perhaps the wrong word. The valley to the landing place at Porth Madryn so they Chubut is fed by melting snow where it rises in the could export. They formed a trading company – a mountains 600 kilometres to the west, and co-operative – and a water company. Uniquely sometimes it flooded. Flash floods wiped out the early among settlers in the Americas, they remained on settlement more than once. Disgusted the settlers good terms with the Indians, trading with them banished their leader Lewis Jones who had misled and playing games with them – riding and shooting them about conditions and he went off to Buenos competitions. They didn’t sell them alcohol or cheat

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Left: The arid scrub that is typical of the Chubut Valley, contrasting with the green irrigated land in the distance. Right: The monument in Trefelin to the 1885 expeditionary column led by Luis Fontana, the first governor of Chubut, that opened up the Andes valleys. There were six Argentinians, 20 Welshmen (Galeses), two Germans and one North American.

them. Later the Argentine sent its army further north. Eventually, after the Second the main road towards the Andes. On into Patagonia to wipe the Indians out World War they nationalised the water the right is a moonscape of dessicated prior to more European settlement. company – without compensation. scrub, a stony desert that looks like the The Welsh interceded on behalf of the One or two Welsh chapels are backdrop to a Western. On your left is Tehuelche. They felt fellowship with a still in use and cymanfeydd canu and the green strip of the Chubut valley with people who were being dispossessed eisteddfodau (singing and poetry poplar and willow trees. The irrigation and whose way of life was endangered. festivals) are still held but the towns system the Welsh built still works. I was It was in vain. While some people in of Welsh settlement - Puerto Madryn, told that the Israelis were called in a few still speak Welsh, no-one now Gaiman, and Trevelin - are now years ago to improve it but shrugged and speaks Tehuelche. wholly Argentinian towns. The staff in said it was fine, nothing to be done. For two generations the Welsh the local museums and even in the Welsh Looking at that green valley it is governed themselves in the Welsh teashops seldom speak Welsh. Perhaps a impossible for a Welsh heart not to feel pride. language. They manned an expedition couple of thousand people speak it in a These were ordinary people. They suffered to the Andes foothills and founded more population of 300,000. appalling hardships but fought through settlements in the area of Esquel and Yet in every town there is a 28th July them to make the desert bloom. They were Trevelin. There the rainfall was plentiful Street – the date the first Welsh landed. enterprising but often in a co-operative and they grew wheat, built flour mills and There are imposing monuments to the way. They founded a perfectly democratic founded a thriving community. In 1916 they Welsh pioneers. If you have a Welsh name society and treated the indigenous people even started a local telephone company. in Patagonia, you are aristocracy. Tens of with fairness and respect. In the end they But eventually their very success was their thousands of people claim some Welsh were not numerous enough to fulfil their undoing. The Argentinian state arrived in ancestry, with pride. As one Argentinian dream of an autonomous Welsh-speaking force and from the beginning of the 20th woman said to me: “No-one could settle province. But, backs against the wall, Century there were tens of thousands here. The Spaniards tried first in theth 16 relying on themselves, they demonstrated of other immigrants, often Italian. The Century but it was too hard. The Welsh to the ages what ordinary Welsh people Welsh had never numbered more than were the first to do it. They were very…” she could do. about 5,000 and they were swamped. groped for the English word but relapsed The Argentinian state abolished schooling into Spanish, “...tenaz”. Tough, stubborn, in Welsh, compelling everyone to attend tenacious. “And they worked hard and Gerald Holtham chaired the Spanish schools. They also undermined were clever with their irrigation”. Commission on Funding and Finance the wheat trade by subsidising production Today you can drive from Trelew up of the National Assembly.

44 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 3/International Patagonia speciaL Y Wladfa today

Cynog Dafis welcomes the growing connections between Wales and Patagonia

Gerry Holtham’s account of the Welsh settlement in Patagonia (‘Y Wladfa’) reflects the inspirational effect that the story of its establishment and growth has on those who come across it, in literature or, better still, in the flesh. Like many other Welsh-speakers I had been fascinated by the works of R. Bryn Williams, including his magisterial Y Wladfa, his eisteddfodic ode ‘Patagonia’ and his searchingly honest drama Cariad Creulon. Yet nothing had quite prepared me for the experience of seeing it for myself: the extensive network of irrigation canals in the Camwy valley; the caves in the rock face at Porth Madryn; the fine statues of Lewis Jones and in Trelew and Porth Madryn; the streets named after the Welsh pioneers; staying in a hotel called Y Tyˆ Gwyn and eating This statue on the promenade at Puerto Madryn (Porth Madryn), where the Welsh settlers first landed, is dedicated in restaurants called Gwalia Lân and to the women of Y Wladfa. The figure, also shown as this issue’s cover photo, is said to represent Eluned Morgan, Cornel Wini; finding the glorious Cwm daughter of the founder Lewis Jones. She was born on the ship Myfanwy en route to Patagonia in 1870 (hence her name Morgan, an abbreviation of ‘mor ganed’, born at sea). She became a significant figure in the life of the colony, Hyfryd at the foot of the Andes. But more authoring Dringo’r Andes (1904) and Plant yr Haul (1915). Photo: Llinos Dafis. than anything else I didn’t expect such a warm welcome from third- and fourth- generation Argentinians who speak international flight, there has been an route of the Welsh in Patagonia by Sergio Welsh as naturally as I do, as well as many enormous increase in traffic between Sepiurka and Jorge Miglioli (details on others who have become competent yr hen wlad and the colony. The Wales- www.rockytrip.com). second-language speakers. Argentina Society has been crucial in this Wales-Patagonia relations were Elvey Macdonald, a Welsh Patagonian process. formalised in March 2007 when Rhodri who settled in Wales in the 1960s is the Naturally, these have focussed on Morgan signed a Memorandum of author of Yr Hirdaith (The Long Trek), Welsh-speakers who also have the benefit Understanding between the Welsh a history of the Wladfa based on the of access to a growing corpus of literature Government and life of one the founders Edwin Cynrig about the Wladfa. For those among them Roberts. Elvey organises regular trips to wanting to learn, an excellent starting- “… to encourage the development the Wladfa and reports that visitors are point would be Mari Emlyn’s Stori’r of links between cultural institutions invariably fascinated, often intensely Wladfa (Gomer), which also contains ... build on the existing work to moved, by the experience. Since the a useful reading list. For those who develop the knowledge and use of centenary celebrations in 1965, which cannot read Welsh there in the lavishly the Welsh language in Chubut… and seem to have revitalised Welsh life in illustrated and thoroughly researched to promote links through contacts, Patagonia, and the advent of long-haul bilingual English-Spanish Rocky Trip: the information and joint initiatives

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“… the glorious Cwm Hyfryd at the foot of the Andes.”

for the benefit of participating news is that there is already an impressive the Welsh settlers is constantly informed communities in Wales and Chubut”. steering committee, chaired by Dafydd by the author’s affection and admiration Wigley. The range of proposed activities of the Tehuelche and her horror at the The Welsh Government has committed include film, television and drama, persecutions they endured. Two chapters £54,000 a year for 2009-2012 and there music (the choir tradition is alive and are particularly powerful. ‘The Natives of are further contributions for various prospering in the Wladfa), the erection Patagonia’ has an agonised account of the projects from the British Council, of memorial plaques, reprinting of key genocide perpetrated by the Argentinian Welsh Language Board and the Wales- publications, a bilingual New Testament authorities from 1880 onwards. ‘The Place Argentina Society. Voluntary contributions and international rugby and soccer. of Graves’ describes the killing, during and assistance from the Chubut It is particularly gratifying that this period of persecution, of three Welsh Government enabled the establishment discussions are under way with the Welsh adventurers in search of gold, the near- of a Welsh-medium school in Trelew and Government’s Education Department miraculous escape of one, the search- a new nursery unit is being built next about the preparation of curricular party that found the mutilated bodies door to the beautiful and atmospheric materials for schools. Here there is and (to acknowledge the truth) sought to Moriah Chapel where Lewis Jones is something really significant to be done. It take violent revenge before singing ‘Bydd buried. There are Welsh-medium nursery is to be hoped that it goes beyond mere myrdd o ryfeddodau’ at the gravesides. units at Gaiman and Esquel with plans presentation of the narrative, colourful Eluned Morgan interprets thus: for a school in the former, easily the most and thrilling as it is. Welsh of the Wladfa communities. In a truly national curriculum the “The slaughter had been appalling, In a recent presentation to the Welsh colonial experience (not just that demonic in its barbarism and London-Welsh community Jeremy of Patagonia) could and should loom bestiality. The dear simple, peace- Wood, an ardent supporter of the Wladfa large. It must steer clear of sentimentalism loving pagans transformed through who lives in Esquel, set out a percipient and recognise the extent to which the cruelties of civilization into analysis of the current arrangements, the Welsh were (one presumes) often rapacious bandits! Their thirst for which are both fragmented and complicit in the darker aspects of British blood become the dominating fragile (available from jeremywood@ imperialism. But if what we read of the passion of their lives!” welshpatagonia.com). There is a clear Welsh Patagonians’ relationship with the need for the various initiatives to be indigenous Tehuelche people is anything There are more reasons than one why, coordinated and placed on a firmer near the truth, there is also something as Gerry Holtham puts it, “it is impossible footing and the new Welsh Government which could be a source of pride as well for a Welsh heart not to feel pride” in needs take a lead in this. as illumination for our young people. meditating on the Welsh Patagonian The forthcoming centenary-and-a- Nowhere is this better expressed than epic. We should all know about it. half celebrations in 2015, orchestrated in the stunning prose of Eluned Morgan in by the Wales-Argentina Society, provide Dringo’r Andes (Climbing the Andes). In a promising context for strengthening this little classic the passionate evocation Cynog Dafis is a former AM and MP for Welsh-Patagonian relations. The good of the Patagonian landscape and the life of Ceredigion.

46 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 3/International A forest the size of Wales

Sarah Jenkinson describes how Wales is taking a lead in rainforest protection and climate change

After a long history of deforestation in Wales, we years ago, the surrounding landscape had been Youths delivering wood for use in village are now gradually increasing our forest cover and densely forested. Sitting beside her traditional construction in Mbale, protecting our existing woodland. However, in grass hut, with her daughters and their children, Uganda. Along with the collecting of firewood for terms of climate change and poverty reduction, she desperately waved her arms out towards the cooking the expanding it is the destruction of forests in the tropics which surrounding bare hillsides where trees had once population’s demand for building wood is one truly threatens the world’s climate, as well as the stood. The women of Busiu village wanted their of the main reasons for basic needs of food, shelter and livelihoods for the forest back. Surprisingly, the hills looked quite the deforestation of the region. people living there. similar to the ones near my home in mid Wales, How often have we heard the alarming news except for the families living in this region the loss that an area of rainforest the size of Wales is being of trees is impacting on their ability to survive. cut down? The Size of Wales initiative is turning a In this highly populated region, Mbale’s tropical disempowering deforestation measurement on forests have disappeared at an alarming rate as a its head by inspiring a whole nation to protect an result of the demand for wood for cooking and area of tropical forest the size of Wales, as part of a construction, as well as the need for agricultural national response to climate change. land. As with the other villages I visited, the women A practical, people-led initiative, Size of Wales of Busiu spoke of the increasing difficulties they aims to protect two million hectares of rainforest face in sourcing firewood for cooking. However, and forge lasting links with forest communities in it became apparent that they were even more some of the world’s poorest countries. worried about the unpredictable weather patterns, A few months ago in Mbale, in south eastern which they attributed to the loss of forest cover. As Uganda, I met an elderly woman living on the subsistence farmers in one of the world’s poorest fertile land that surrounds Mount Elgon, an old countries, the changing climate is already impacting volcanic mountain. She told me that just twenty on their ability to grow food.

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Today Uganda in East Africa has a population of Wales to New York and population of over 32 million people. back, twice, and make fewer emissions From just four million in 1986, its than occurs every day as a result of population is predicted to grow to rainforest destruction. 100 million by 2030. The impact on Protecting tropical forests is a ‘no natural resources will be considerable, brainer’ for climate change action. In especially the forests. Between 1990 fact, it is the cheapest and fastest way to and 2005, Uganda lost 26.3 per cent cut carbon emissions. It will cost $10-$15 of its forest cover, and deforestation billion per year to tackle deforestation continues today at a rate of 2.2 per globally. This is only a fraction of cent per year, mostly due to subsistence the overall costs of stabilising global farming, cutting for fuel wood, and the temperatures at the two-degree danger burgeoning population. threshold. The Stern Review calculates A global temperature rise to the this will cost $650 billion per year, or 1 danger threshold of 2 degrees Celsius will per cent of GDP. result in a 10 degree Celsius temperature Working closely with Leeds University, rise in Uganda. According to Oxfam, 70 the Size of Wales project has selected over per cent of disasters in Uganda are now 1,600 families in 30 villages. It is co- twenty-five forest schemes ranging from related to climate change. Increasingly ordinated by three local non government community tree planting to protecting unpredictable and extreme weather organisations, and the Gumutindo existing forests in high biodiversity hotspots conditions destroy 800,000 hectares of Coffee Co-operative social enterprise and helping regenerate damaged forests. crops a year at the cost of £120 billion to group. My visit came at an early stage Whether you are a company, charity, local Uganda’s economy. of the tree planting. Women’s groups, council, school or individual, you can Every day during my visit to Uganda coffee farmers, child-centred groups and help put Wales on the map by showing I was told that climate change was many others, were all busy developing what one small nation can do to sustain happening now. Increased droughts, tree nurseries and helping people learn an area of rainforest by working with soil degradation and the expansion about planting and raising trees. these forest communities on the ground. of disease zones, such as malaria, are Communities have now received From elephant sanctuaries in Nigeria to effecting communities high on the slopes seeds and all the necessary equipment a chimpanzee forest reserve in Tanzania, of Mount Elgon for the first time. Last such a water tanks, wheelbarrows, spades, you can directly assist the sustainable year, the people of Bumasikye suffered rakes, watering cans and potting bags. management of forest resources, via a landslide which killed more than 300 The funding is also supporting training a project of your choice, and make a people. The disaster was attributed to and awareness raising activities, such as significant contribution to reducing global deforestation and unseasonable rain. community drama groups. A wide variety carbon emissions. On a more positive note, I was visiting of trees have been planted to meet the Whether it is a ‘mega city’ being built in Mbale with Welsh Government Minister needs for firewood, construction, shade China twice the size of Wales or a disaster John Griffiths to launch the planting of for crops such as coffee, and food such area of flooding in Queensland Australia, a million trees across the district. The as nut and fruit trees. our small nation is a scale of measurement project is being led by the Ugandan Trees in the tropics hold the key to frequently used across the world. Size of and Welsh Governments with support slowing down climate change. Annually Wales is an opportunity for the people of from the UN Development Programme. they absorb nearly a fifth of the world’s Wales to reclaim this measurement for What started as a grass roots community man-made CO2 emissions. They are ourselves, and show that as a nation we link between Mbale and Pontypridd has crucial for storing water, regulating can save an area of rainforest equivalent paved the way for a major three-year rainfall, and preventing floods, droughts to the size of Wales, At the same time we project on climate change. It aims to and erosion, as well as producing much can support some of the world’s poorest not only increase forest cover, but also of the oxygen we all need to breathe. people in our shared fight to reduce the to provide the rest of the country with When you simply fell or burn a tree, impact of climate change. examples of how the effects of climate it releases carbon dioxide into the change can be mitigated in ways that atmosphere. It is the destruction of the also contribute to economic growth. rainforest that accounts for a quarter Sarah Jenkinson is Development Funded by the Cardiff-based of the world’s carbon emissions. This is and Communications Director Waterloo Foundation, the One Million more than the entire world’s transport with the Size of Wales project: Trees planting programme is involving put together. In fact, we could fly the www.sizeofwales.org.uk

agenda summer 2011—issue 44 | 49 Wales’ vocational 4 Education attainment gap

Gareth Rees questions a moral panic over the recent PISA scores of our school performance

Something peculiar seems to have happened Wales’ results in the 2009 PISA round have to education in Wales. Not long ago, there not only been roundly criticised in the British was widespread consensus that parliamentary media, but have also been highlighted by Articles devolution had allowed successive Welsh Leighton Andrews, the Welsh Government’s Wales’ vocational Governments to develop important and Minister for Education and Skills, as attainment gap imaginative policies across the whole range of demonstrating the need for a major overhaul educational provision, from early years to the of Welsh schools. As in many other countries, Y Coleg Cymraeg universities. These policies were celebrated not the PISA results for Wales are claimed to provides merely because they were distinctive from those provide incontrovertible proof of educational critical mass in other parts of the UK, but rather because failure and the need for fundamental change, for intellectual they were seen to be tailored specifically to the irrespective of any local opposition. engagement needs and aspirations of Welsh citizens. It is undoubtedly the case that the PISA However, more recently popular perception scores do tell an important story about the has shifted dramatically. Now, the emphasis state of Welsh education. However, as with is on the failure of Welsh schools – and any measurement of educational attainment, increasingly other educational institutions – to the PISA scores have to be interpreted carefully. provide adequate educational opportunities Certainly, the public debate in Wales gives for our children and young people. It is no indication that there is a very substantial said educational attainment is not reaching technical literature which is critical of the appropriate standards, to the detriment of analytical approach on which PISA is based. individuals’ prospects, as well as those of the This is not to argue that all the criticisms Welsh economy more widely. are correct, but rather to suggest that PISA It is unlikely that this change in the terms results should not be seen as unambiguously of the public debate reflects actual changes in definitive. educational provision or even in educational PISA’s strength is in providing a snap-shot attainment. Indeed, levels of attainment have of educational attainment and its correlations been rising year-on-year. What has happened with selected aspects of a national educational is that political priorities in relation to education system. It can tell you that you probably have have shifted. Now the emphasis now is on a problem. However, because of the kind of what the post-devolution education system is survey that it is, it cannot tell you what the actually delivering to Wales, and rightly so. causes of the problem are nor how to solve it. In this context it is instructive that the To address these questions requires exploring bench-marks against which Welsh educational other sources of data and analysis. performance have been judged are external As one of the UK’s most eminent ones. In particular, attention has been drawn statisticians of education Professor Harvey to the OECD’s Programme for International Goldstein argues, rather than using PISA Student Assessment (PISA), an international results to construct what are, in reality, dubious measurement of 15-year-olds’ performance on ‘league tables’ of educational performance, tests in reading, mathematics and science. they should be seen “as a way of exploring

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country differences in terms of cultures, curricula and school organization”. In the Welsh context, then, there should be no debate that educational performance could – and should – be much improved. However, the much remarked decline in PISA scores between 2006, when Wales first entered the Programme, and 2009 should not be taken to indicate an actual deterioration in the performance of Welsh schools. Given that each round of PISA assessment involves different groups of 15-year-olds, at least part of the – rather small - difference between the two measurement dates is attributable to differences between the two groups of pupils. This is especially the case since a larger number of schools and a wider cross-section of pupils agreed to participate in 2009. Moreover, the PISA results need to be interpreted in the light of Wales’s very recent entry into the Programme. Unlike in most other countries, Welsh schools and their teachers have had little incentive to learn how to approach the PISA tests and, hence, to instruct their pupils how to do so. This will almost certainly change now that schools are being required to prepare young people specifically for these tests. But what will this really mean in terms of young people’s attainment and future prospects? The crucial issue here is the extent of the ‘fit’ between what PISA requires and the GCSE curriculum. PISA seeks Top : Access to industry-standard machinery gives trainees the experience needed for work. to measure qualities in pupils, especially Bottom: Catering students gain experience of a working kitchen environment. capacities to interpret and apply information, which are different from those that are emphasised in GCSEs, where demonstrating the acquisition The critics of Welsh education will, has been used to question the quality of of knowledge is prioritised. And it is of course, point out that schools in Welsh schools and to criticise particular important to remember that it is on Wales do not fare much better if GCSE policies, such as the abolition of Standard GCSE performance that schools have performance is taken as the basis of Assessment Tests. hitherto been judged and for which comparison with other parts of the UK It is true that, since the early part of pupils actually acquire qualifications. and, in particular, England. This sort of the present decade, there has been a What this highlights is the need for ‘home international’ analysis is useful, as progressive widening of the shortfall serious debate about what the school it not only avoids many of the technical between Wales and England in terms of curriculum in Wales ought to be aiming difficulties associated with PISA, but also the standard measure of attainment at the for. Yet this is a debate that is in danger of depends on qualifications which schools, minimum school-leaving age, now known being pre-empted because of the current teachers and pupils undoubtedly take as the Level 2 Threshold. The latter is preoccupation with PISA. seriously. Indeed, this sort of evidence frequently described as the achievement

agenda summer 2011—issue 44 | 51 4/Education Presently, the danger is that simplistic readings of PISA and other external bench-marking of Welsh educational performance are serving to close off debate, rather than open up new avenues for educational development.

An apprenticeship scheme for building work in south Wales of 5 A* to C grade GCSEs. In fact, its full Historically, as access to secondary basic reading and mathematical literacy definition is 5 A* to C grade GCSEs or education has been widened – right back of young people. Moreover, reducing equivalents. That is to say, the measure to the Intermediate Schools established the numbers of low-achievers should includes not only GCSEs, but also a wide in the 1890s – Welsh schools have not be seen as somehow restricting range of vocational qualifications, the been far more effective in providing an the development of high-achievers. best known of which are BTECs. academic curriculum than they have in Indeed, as societies as diverse as This detail is significant because if we making available opportunities to pursue Finland and South Korea demonstrate, look at GCSEs alone then, on the basis vocational options. Currently, it may well achieving the highest attainment levels of the Welsh Government’s data, the be that the lower levels of funding that go is wholly consistent with relatively weak proportion of young people in Wales to Welsh schools compared with those relationships between social background achieving the Level 2 Threshold is almost in England are accentuating difficulties and educational achievement. exactly equivalent to that in England. here, as vocational provision is more Public concern about Wales’s In 2009-10 it was 56 per cent in Wales expensive than the academic equivalent. education system is entirely legitimate. compared with 56.3 per cent in England. This relative failure of vocational However, evidence and analysis need Whilst there is an overall shortfall between provision is likely to have the greatest to be approached in an open and Wales and England of some 12 percentage impact on pupils from more educationally enquiring way. Presently, the danger points, this is wholly accounted for by the disadvantaged backgrounds, who are far is that simplistic readings of PISA and fact that more young people in England less likely to be motivated by the academic other external bench-marking of Welsh attain the Level 2 Threshold through curriculum. Indeed, it may be that this educational performance are serving to vocational qualifications. goes some way towards explaining the close off debate, rather than open up new These statistics put the performance significant under-performance in Wales’s avenues for educational development. of Welsh schools in a somewhat different PISA scores at the lower end of the light. On this evidence, it would appear attainment range that was recorded in that there is a problem of educational 2006, and again in 2009. attainment in Wales. But it is a problem In this context, too, improving Gareth Rees is a Professor in the School which relates very specifically to the motivation through the imaginative of Social Sciences at Cardiff University provision of opportunities to pursue development of vocational options may and Director of the Wales Institute of vocational qualifications. That this contribute significantly to the Welsh Social and Economic Research, Data should be so is not entirely surprising. Government’s objective of improving the and Methods (WISERD).

52 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 4/Education

Y Coleg Cymraeg provides critical mass for intellectual engagement

Merfyn Jones argues we need to be able to write, reason and calculate in Welsh as well as simply speaking it

The result of years of campaigning and debate has the potential to transform the extent and quality the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, a commitment of Welsh-medium higher education. in the One Wales coalition agreement, was finally Hand in hand with this investment the Coleg established in April this year. It is important to will continue with its research scholarship scheme understand that the Coleg is not an institution which has so far enabled over fifty young scholars to of bricks and mortar like other higher education complete Ph.D. programmes, thus equipping them bodies – although it has a small number of core staff with the research and academic skills necessary for based in Carmarthen. Its purpose is to work through a career in higher education. Ten new scholarships existing institutions to achieve a national framework will continue to be available annually. and growth for Welsh-medium higher education. Key to the success of these developments will The Coleg is a company limited by guarantee and be the attitude of students, both part-time and full- will also register as a charity. It therefore has a Board time. Student choice is critical and the Coleg is very of Directors, which I chair, and which has so far met aware of the challenge it faces in this regard. But twice to plan for the Coleg becoming fully operational we are confident of meeting it by ensuring that the at the start of the new academic year in September. quality of Welsh-medium higher education is of the The Board consists of six directors representing the highest possible and that the student experience is higher education sector in Wales and five independent rich and fulfilling. Mantais (Advantage) has been members (including the Chair). In addition there established as a campaign to excite future students is a member representing all the staff who teach about the promise and potential of Welsh-medium through the medium of Welsh in our universities and study. Scholarships for undergraduates studying another representing that most important of groups, a required number of Welsh modules are also the students. The Chief Executive, responsible for available and Y Porth (Gateway www.porth.ac.uk) the operation of the Coleg is Dr Ioan Matthews. The is an innovative platform for sharing resources and Coleg is funded by the Welsh Government through facilitating joint provision across institutions. the Higher Education Funding Council although it The Coleg does not over-estimate the demand will also seek additional sources of revenue. nor underestimate the challenge of stimulating The Coleg has hit the ground running in the last student interest. Potential students need to be few months and its plans are ambitious. Perhaps encouraged and developed. Welsh-speaking the most significant development has been the students will sometimes choose to study in English investment in new academic staff. £1 million a year and post-16 Welsh-medium provision in our schools will become available every year for the next five and Further Education Colleges is much more years for universities to employ Welsh-medium patchy than is sometimes assumed. Increasing academics. Twenty seven new staff are presently the number of students studying in Welsh is a key being appointed and we envisage that number rising strategic target for the Coleg. to at least 60 new academic posts within three years, The Coleg is active therefore in appointing new and to at least 100 in five years. Such an investment staff, encouraging Welsh-medium research and

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4/Education scholarship and in working with students to provide the best quality education. Y Coleg Cymraeg’s Board of Directors The Coleg is also funding a whole range Chair Student representative Director of Strategic Development projects across • Professor Merfyn Jones • Katie Dalton, President NUS Wales Wales. All this will be achieved by working with institutions to an agreed national Directors from higher education Staff representative Director strategy and by the careful monitoring of institutions • Dr Hefin Jones, Senior Lecturer, performance and achievement. Following • Jacqui Hare, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Cardiff University consultation the Coleg’s first Strategic Plan University of Wales Institute, Cardiff will be published in the Autumn. • Professor Medwin Hughes, Vice- Independent Directors The Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol Chancellor, University of Wales, • Geraint James, Director of Finance, is a highly significant development on Trinity Saint David Cyfle Housing Trust the Welsh Higher Education scene and • Professor Aled Jones, Pro Vice- • Gareth Pierce, Chief Executive, WJEC a major development for the Welsh Chancellor, Aberystwyth University • Dr Ian Rees, Deputy Principal, Coleg language. It exists primarily because • Helen Marshall, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Llandrillo Cymru; Vice-chair, Arts many students over the years have University of Glamorgan Council of Wales expressed dissatisfaction with the extent • Professor Hywel Thomas, Pro Vice- • Linda Wyn, Deputy Principal, and availability of Welsh-medium Chancellor, Cardiff University Coleg Menai courses. In turn this led to the campaign • Wyn Thomas, Pro Vice-Chancellor, for a Coleg Ffederal. Bangor University The growth in Welsh-medium primary and secondary education universities with little present provision many science subjects (and increasingly is one of the more spectacular and located in areas where the language in the social sciences) across the world developments in recent Welsh history. is not prevalent will allow students who English has become the international There was a need for higher education choose those institutions to continue language for scholarly publication. That institutions to ensure that progression to their usage of the language. has to be acknowledged, but that is no Speaking a language is a valuable reason why Welsh should abandon this Speaking a language is a skill. It is even more valuable should an terrain entirely. valuable skill. It is even more individual be able to read, write, reason There was a time when the churches valuable should an individual and calculate in that language. It is clear and chapels fulfilled the role of sustaining be able to read, write, reason that in the job market in Wales expertise in Welsh-medium intellectual discourse. and calculate in that language. Welsh will prove to be a valuable asset for The media has succeeded in continuing job-seekers. That should encourage much that to some degree but in a diluted undergraduate courses was available to greater use of the language in the public and increasingly marginal fashion. Our students whose education to that point sector and in commerce and industry. auto-didacts and organic intellectuals had been largely or entirely in Welsh. Welsh-medium higher education across are disappearing with their generation. The sector had responded by creating a range of subjects will therefore meet Ensuring that there is a critical mass the Centre for Welsh Medium Higher employer need and at the same time lead of academics – across a wide field of Education. However, it remained true to new fields for the language. disciplines – who are able to teach and that Welsh-medium courses were largely All these are important considerations. debate in Welsh and moreover that restricted to a few academic specialisms But for me perhaps the most valuable there is a substantial number of students and that provision was largely restricted contribution which the Coleg can graduating every year with the skills to to three institutions. A national plan and make is to provide the intellectual reason and express themselves in Welsh focussed funding was necessary. critical mass which can allow the Welsh should surely guarantee that people These developments are critical language to flourish as a language not will continue to be able to conduct for the future of the Welsh language. only of literature but of those intellectual the necessary national conversation in Provision will continue to be extensive concerns which span and transcend Welsh. We cannot allow the language to in those institutions located in areas academic disciplines. If the Welsh abandon this critical domain. where the Welsh language remains language is to survive it cannot concede strong allowing students to nurture the its ability to conduct reasoned debate language in their communities whilst and discussion to another language. Merfyn Jones, former vice chancellor also studying at university. The planned Welsh needs intellectuals and those who of Bangor University is Chair of Y Coleg growth of Welsh-medium courses in will read, listen and interact with them. In Cymraeg Cenedlaethol.

agenda summer 2011—issue 44 | 55 Regeneration 5 and the economy Social Policy Mark Lang and David Leech argue that the successor programme to Communities First will need to engage more actvely with local businesses

The Welsh Government’s decade-long flagship market in the process. regeneration programme, Communities This does not mean that communities have First, is due to end in 2012. Following a no power over their economic future. Action Articles short consultation through the summer the can be taken at community level to stimulate Regeneration Government will announce a successor a diverse and vibrant business base, which and the economy programme in the Autumn. interacts with and reflects the community in When Communities First was launched which it is located. Proactive community-led City region in 2001 there was great optimism that it economic development should seek to develop strategy needed represented a new approach to regeneration. stronger connections between the business to integrate Wales’ most deprived communities would community, local residents, and regional and policy be empowered to provide local solutions to local political actors. the challenges facing their area, whether this Stronger links with the business community meant tackling environmental degradation, should be particularly encouraged. As strengthening social cohesion, or improving commercial organisations, businesses residents’ ability to engage with the local can offer valuable advice to community and regional economy. Most Communities partnerships as well as being key drivers of First partnerships have proved quite adept local economies. The sharing of their skills, at improving environmental quality. Some knowledge and best practice can help other have begun to tackle the challenge of social local entrepreneurs overcome the barriers exclusion, particularly through their work with inhibiting their establishment or growth. By young groups and the elderly. supporting local economic development in However, partnerships have been less this way, existing businesses will benefit from effective in addressing local economic a stronger market for local goods and services development. The successor to Communities and a better skilled workforce. First needs to actively encourage communities Communities First partnerships should have to grapple with the biggest challenge that been well placed to deliver this institutional most of them currently face, the challenge of environment. According to the their philosophy, sustainable local economic development. To the entire community – residents, the public be successful it will need to engage with local sector, and local business organisations businesses in a far more effective ways than – should be involved in developing and has been the case over the past ten years delivering solutions in partnership. In practice, The recent recession has served as a potent community partnerships have not always reminder of the susceptibility of deprived developed in line with the aspirations of policy- communities to global economic events. One makers despite investment to strengthen the of the most common economic problems ‘capacity’ of partnerships. Capacity building facing deprived communities is an over- has encouraged more residents to become reliance on a single major employer. During involved in community regeneration, and economic downturns there is always a risk that in itself is a highly positive result. Yet that such employers will downsize or relocate Communities First partnerships have not their operations, devastating the local labour tended to prioritise engagement with the

56 | 5/Social Policy business sector. The successor to the by presenting themselves as a united and more inclusive role for local businesses Communities First programme will consistent organisation, will it be possible than has been the case with Communities need to appeal to, and engage with, the to galvanise support from the business First Partnerships to date. To achieve “community” in its broadest sense. This community. this they need to strengthen their brand will require a larger role for local business There should also be an opportunity identity and disseminate their message communities. to engage larger businesses at a regional clearly and effectively. One of the reasons why Communities level. Measures should be put in place The progression from community First partnerships have struggled to to facilitate the integration of larger capacity building to a much fuller role in engage with the business community is businesses into the successor community- local economic development shoud be their limited success in creating a strong led economic development programme. a seamless one. The broadening of local local brand identity. In the commercial One potential mechanism might be the partnerships to include local business environment time is an invaluable development of the Communities First communities should be seen as a logical resource. Businesses need to see that Network. At present, the Network exists and highly beneficial development. they can engage with a partnership in as a forum for sharing good practice. a relatively simple, purposeful way and However, with an expanded remit it that their involvement will yield results. might also provide an opportunity for Mark Lang is Chief Executive of Each local Partnership needs to develop Partnerships to engage businesses at the Mark Lang Communications. He is a a coherent brand, one which emphasises regional level. former member of the Welsh Labour the Partnership as a single entity with its At the end of the ten-year Executive and former political advisor own independent strategic vision, rather Communities First Programme there to AM in the National than as a loosely connected coalition of are undoubted successes, particularly Assembly. David Leech is Director of interests, in which each member has their in community capacity building and Business Development at Mark Lang own priorities. Partnerships need to convey community integration. But to take Communications and was a researcher this vision to local businesses through forward community-led economic with when she was MP effective external communications. Only development, there needs to be a far for Cardiff North. 5/Social Policy

City region strategy needed to integrate policy

Roger Tanner calls for a unified regeneration programme to tackle poverty

The Welsh Government faces a huge challenge own different spatial priorities, grant funding criteria in regenerating our poorer communities in the and bureaucratic procedures. wake of the recession and the 41 per cent cut in its Moreover, there are a plethora of ad hoc capital budget over the next three years. It needs to regeneration programmes, sponsored by different co-ordinate its existing programmes for economic, ministries and created at different times with scant social and environmental renewal more effectively co-ordination between them, including: so that they complement each other rather than pulling in different directions. It should also seek to • Communities First, Local Government and integrate these programmes with spatial planning Communities – based on empowering the most and housing policies to create the most effective use deprived 10 per cent of Welsh communities of the Government’s limited resources. In short, the identified originally in the 2001 Welsh Index of Welsh Government needs a unified regeneration Multiple Deprivation. These initiatives are at programme. ward level or smaller. In many areas they exist In the past, regeneration initiatives in Wales alongside Community Councils with similar have suffered from being sponsored by separate objectives. ministries with different spatial priorities. Alas this looks set to continue. First Minister Carwyn Jones’ • Regeneration Areas, formerly Strategic new ministerial portfolios split responsibility for Regeneration Areas, following the model of regeneration policy between no less than seven the Heads of the Valleys programme initiated Ministers: in 2005. There are now eight Regeneration Areas divided into two distinct types – large • Huw Lewis – Housing, Regeneration sub-regional initiatives such as the Heads of the and Heritage. Valleys area (population 250,000), and much • Carl Sargeant – Local Government smaller single town target areas such as Barry and Communities. and Aberystwyth. • Edwina Hart – Business, Enterprise, Technology and Science. • The European Union’s Convergence • John Griffiths – Environment Programme identifies 44 priority deprived • Leighton Andrews – Education and Skills. areas, varying in size from Swansea to small • Alun Davies – Agriculture, Food, Fisheries villages. The basis for assessing their deprivation and European Programmes (which, bizarrely, is different from that used for Communities First includes the administration of European and the Regeneration Areas, even though all structural funds in urban areas). three use the flawed Welsh Index of Multiple • Jane Hutt – Finance. Deprivation data. Most physical Convergence projects also have to obtain match funding from This means that a typical town centre improvement the Finance Ministry’s Targetted Match Funding scheme may have to apply separately to the Minister pot, whose panel has different criteria to those for Agriculture for European grant aid, the Minister used by Wales European Funding Office. for Finance for funding, and the Minister for Housing for additional match funding if it is fortunate enough These three initiatives are all targetted at areas to be in a Regeneration Area. All of these have their believed to be of greatest deprivation. However,

58 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org Key features: 5/Social Policy Ebbw —Mix of electrified heavy rail, Hirwaun Merthyr RhymneyTredegar Vale light rail and bus rapid transit

—Max 40 minute travel from Maerdy Abertillery periphery to Cardi or Newport —Max 15 minute wait at network Treherbert periphery —Max 5 minute wait at network core —Other transport modes fully integrated with regard to timetables and ticketing Newbridge Pontllanfraith —Economic “regeneration” focussed on Cwmbran Cardi Central & key interchanges Pontypridd Ystrad Mynach/ Porth Hengoed Cross Maesteg Beddau Keys Caerphilly Coryton Cardi Gate

Bridgend Cardiff Queen Newport Central Street

St Mellons Severn The IWA’s detailed plan for a rapid Culverhouse Tunnel transit ‘Metro’Major system, Station/Int outlined in itser change Cross Junction 2011 report A Metro for Wales’ Capital City RegionEnhanc – Connecting,ed & Cardiff, Electrified Heavy Rail Basin Newport and the Valleys, could form the starting pointNew for Trrealam/Bus regional planning Rapid in Transit Cardi Barry south-east Wales. Airport

the Wales Spatial Plan identifies a for Wales, which recently emerged emerging set of unitary authority different set of ‘key settlements’ that from the EU’s Joint European Local Development Plans. Yet these could be centres for economic growth. Support for Sustainable Investment are of great importance in that they Here there is further confusion since the in City Areas (JESSICA). This has identify areas where private sector hierarchies of key settlements used in the potential for an innovative development will be encouraged. South East Wales and Pembrokeshire public/private sector approach to regions identified in the Spatial Pan development opportunities across • Directly contradicting each other differ from those in the four other Wales. However, it offers loans rather are the Regional Transport Plans regions. In practice the Spatial Plan is than grants, and there are doubts which generally seek to promote largely ignored by Welsh Government about its relevance in regeneration public transport improvements and ministries. Rumours abound that it will areas characterised by low land and discourage the growth of trips by be superseded by a proposed National property prices. private car and the now dated Wales Infrastructure Strategy. Property Strategy which clung to Meanwhile, there are a raft of further • The Strategic Capital Investment the idea of promoting business parks initiatives, all of which have some Fund established in 2008. This has at motorway junctions. purchase on implementing regeneration been anything but strategic, since policy. These include: it has had to make sense of the • In the background is the Stock disparate spatial strategies listed Transfer process, which has created • Newport Unlimited which is Wales’ above. It has ended up pepper powerful new municipal mutual only Urban Regeneration Company potting considerable sums of money housing associations which have -there are several dozen in England. into a wide variety of schemes of great potential as regeneration questionable regeneration value. agencies, for example in Rhondda • Visit Wales the remnants of the Since 2010 it has had no fresh funds Cynon Taf and Torfaen. Wales Tourist Board, with its own to distribute. spatial agenda. How could this plethora of initiatives be • Of largely unrecognised importance better co-ordinated? Despite the almost • The Regeneration Investment Fund in the regeneration field is the universal derision that has been heaped

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“Cardiff, Swansea, Newport and Wrexham for the communities they represent. Yet as presently organised they are largely should be prioritised in city-region strategies as irrelevant to people’s lives. Meanwhile, locations for employment growth. In south Wales the Communities First Partnerships are self-selected but are charged with associated new housing developments should be creating and implementing regeneration concentrated in the increasingly attractive Valley plans. It would make sense to merge communities to the north of the coastal cities, the the two into partly elected, partly co- opted local bodies, with the power to two linked by enhanced public transport.” levy a local rate but only if they have an approved improvement plan in place. Crucially, the interconnectedness upon it, the Wales Spatial Plan has the legislative powers should be used between housing, employment and potential to be an overarching and to create a Welsh Planning Act that transport needs to be identified at a truly strategic document. Among other would provide for an effective regional strategic level. Areas of deprivation things, it could ensure that the many planning system to give a context for should be identified in the Wales Spatial initiatives in train could fit together local authority Local Development Plan, linked to potential growth points in a complementary and mutually Plans. In turn this could be used to and areas of opportunity, with relevant supportive way. However, it would need promote city-region initiatives such as public transport links specified. The to be re-written with specific, joined up the Metro proposal. boundaries of Regeneration Areas should proposals rather than its present vague Scotland provides a precedent for this acknowledge these requirements. They wish list of unconnected desirables. approach. Above their system of local should include areas of opportunity For example, the potential for authority plans the Scots have regional that serve areas of deprivation, so that Swansea, Cardiff and Newport to plans centred on the country’s four main investment can be targetted in the most generate jobs should be recognised cities - Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen efficient and effective way. and linked to regeneration initiatives and Dundee. Whether or not regional In all of this planning and policy in more deprived areas. One of the planning would also be desirable in the interventions should be at the most planning tragedies of the past decade more rural areas is a debate to be had appropriate level. So Communities First has been the squandering of the vast in both countries. However, the case for Partnerships should focus on building public investment in Cardiff Bay in the integrated planning in the urban areas the self-confidence of deprived areas, 1990s. At a cost of £500 million plus, of Wales, including north-east Wales, tackling local community safety and the Bay was transformed into what should be self-evident environmental issues. Transport plans could have been a uniquely attractive Cardiff, Swansea, Newport and will usually have a regional focus and business environment. Instead, it was Wrexham should be prioritised in concentrate on linking areas of housing overrun in the subsequent decade by city-region strategies as locations for and employment growth. Major retail sheds and speculative apartment employment growth. In south Wales challenges such as addressing child developments. Wales abounds with new housing developments should poverty and economic inactivity should expensive infrastructure projects that fail be concentrated in the increasingly be tackled at the all-Wales level. to exploit their regeneration potential. attractive Valley communities to the Above all, we need a new sense of In February 2011 the IWA organised north of the coastal cities, the two linked urgency in moving this agenda forward a conference to launch a new report by by enhanced public transport. at a time when, in the face of severely Mark Barry A Metro for Wales’ Capital City At the other end of the spectrum there constrained budgets, the need for an Region – Connecting, Cardiff, Newport are pressures to respond to the ‘Localism’ effective regeneration strategy is more and the Valleys. This detailed plan for agenda being pursued in England by pressing than ever. a rapid transit ‘Metro’ system could the UK coalition government. In Wales form the starting point for real regional it could be argued that we already have planning in south-east Wales. Similar a surfeit of localism, some would say proposals for a rapid transit system to parochialism. For example, do we need serve the Swansea city-region were put Community Councils and Communities forward by Mike Smith in the Spring First Partnerships in the same areas? Roger Tanner is Strategic Planning 2011 edition of Agenda. Community Councils are elected and and Urban Renewal Manager with The Welsh Government’s new therefore have some legitimacy to speak Caerphilly County Borough Council.

agenda summer 2011—issue 44 | 61 Two wheels good Jane Lorimer reports that 60,000 Cardiff households are being 6 contacted in an effort to change their travel habits Environment Dealing with road congestion has been with alternatives. vexing policy makers for decades. Using the ‘smarter choices’ approach to The traditional approach, new roads transport planning that has been gaining and by-passes, have been the staple currency in recent years, a range of ‘soft’ feature of transport strategies since interventions will be promoted, such as the 1960s. However, significant cuts car sharing, car clubs, travel planning, to capital spending budgets allied to tele-working, cycling and walking. new carbon reduction targets mean A large trial in English towns has these are increasingly off limits for provided a robust evidence base of the Articles transport planners. efficacy and cost-effectiveness of this The new fashion is to ‘manage approach. For every £1 spent on ‘smarter Two wheels good demand’ using infrastructure and choices’ interventions, there are savings technology. In the face of increasing of £4 from falling congestion. This figure Small is still number of cars on the road, park and becomes much higher if you take into beautiful ride, closing off junctions and variable account health benefits, and compares speed limits have been the favoured favourably with road spending which alternatives to road building. Now for often fails to show a return of £1 for every the first time in Wales a new approach is £1 invested. being trialled. From September the UK’s largest Instead of simply managing demand programme of Smarter Choices is being the Welsh Government will try to reduce rolled out in Cardiff, building on the demand by influencing travel behaviour. work already underway as part of the With some two-thirds of all journeys Sustainable Travel Centre project. Co- Cycling along National being under five miles, there is significant ordinated by the sustainable transport Cycle Route 8, the , in central Cardiff with potential to ease pressure on the road charity Sustrans Cymru, the ambitious £4 the Millennium Stadium in network by encouraging drivers to million programme will target schools, the background. replace some of their local car journeys workplaces and households. Working with a consortium of organisations including public transport operators, the Welsh Government, and , it will organise a range of interventions to raise awareness of the alternatives to using the car for everyday journeys. The research which underpins this approach shows that people are swayed in their travel choice by a lack of information about alternatives to the car. For example, the study of three large English towns published by the Department of Transport found that in around half of journeys a viable public transport alternative already existed for a local journey made by car, but people did not know about it. The research showed that a further barrier to people leaving their car at home

62 | 6/Environment Family crossing the new Pont-y-Werin bridge that links Penarth with Cardiff Bay.

was a severe misperception about relative Last year Sustrans projects in Exeter, recognise the business benefits of their travel times. For example, in Darlington, Lowestoft and Watford helped cut the staff travelling to work and within the Peterborough and Worcester people on number of car trips by around 13 per working day by sustainable travel modes. average over-estimated travel time by cent across targeted populations. At the The University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, public transport by around two thirds, and same time the number of trips on foot, is an example of an employer that has for cars they under-estimated travel time bike and public transport increased by cut car use amongst its staff and students by one fifth. In other words because of 33 per cent, 37 per cent and 33 per cent by promoting public transport, walking habitual car use and lack of familiarity with respectively. and cycling. By promoting greater public transport, people think jumping in The project will be rolled out in three levels of physical activity the University the car, rather than going by bus or bike, phases in Cardiff, starting in the north of has succeeded in reducing the number is quicker than it actually is. the city before progressing to the west and of days lost to sickness by 32 per cent Increasing awareness and encouraging Penarth in early spring 2012, and then to as a direct result of implementing an people to change their habits has the east Cardiff, coinciding with investment in ambitious travel plan. potential to change travel behaviour. the cycling network into the capital along Our experience in Cardiff will Personalised Travel Planning works by Newport Road. The approach works allow us to trial new approaches and targeting information at people who are particularly well when delivered alongside consolidate best practice which can then interested in using their car less. Over visible improvements to services, although be applied across Wales. After delivering the next two years Sustrans will be using it is not dependent on new infrastructure. Personalised Travel Planning in the this approach with 60,000 households in Indeed, the entire premise of Personalised capital we will then tackle the areas of Cardiff – the largest project of its kind in Travel Planning is that improvements in greatest commuter inflow into Cardiff. the UK to date. infrastructure on their own are not enough. Over the next four years the project will The project works directly with people People need information and motivation to extend to Pontypridd, Caerphilly, Barry, in their homes, offering free advice, change their travel habits too. Bangor and Ynys Mon, Haverfordwest, incentives, and motivation on walking, For the first time in the UK the Carmarthen and Aberystwyth . cycling and using public transport for Personalised Travel Planning element is The work will provide invaluable data more of their local, everyday journeys. being delivered alongside travel planning about the way we travel and, crucially, to Households will be given a menu of assistance for some of the greatest trip enable us to better understand transport options, including sessions with a travel generators. As well as having detailed patterns in Welsh towns and cities. advisor and maps of local walking and conversations with households we will Above all, the project will allow us to cycling routes, bus and train timetables. be assisting workplaces and schools to demonstrate that change is possible, not Following a model used extensively improve the support they give employees through coercion but simply by giving in Australia, Personalised Travel Planning and parents around travel decision making. people information about the choices has been delivered in more than 20 Often a householder may tell us that they that they have. towns and cities in England, Scotland would try cycling to work if their employer and Northern Ireland. More than 250,000 had secure cycle parking facilities. With this households have been encouraged to project we can close the loop by working Jane Lorimer is deputy director of change their travel behaviour. with employers to improve facilities. Sustrans Cymru, and is co-ordinating The results have been remarkable. We will be helping employers the Smarter Choices work in Wales.

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Small is still beautiful

Virginia Isaac reflects on the legacy of Fritz Schumacher

2011 sees the centenary of the birth of E. F. (Fritz) they often became inefficient as a result of being Schumacher (1911-1977). Often seen as ‘a prophet impersonal and unresponsive to human needs who stood against the tide’ Schumacher pioneered and aspirations. Individuals who feel alienated the ideas of environmental awareness, sustainable and powerless become less engaged and less development, and human scale organisation and productive, with direct economic consequences. technology in the 1960s and 1970s. He was an As Schumacher advanced his ideas on economist and philosopher who rose to fame development economics he saw that this thinking with his ground breaking 1973 publication Small applied as much, if not more so, to western is Beautiful – a study of economics as if people economies. He questioned the obsession with mattered. Schumacher’s warnings regarding GDP and the logic - and sustainability - of the rampant consumerism and the ever increasing rate continuous pursuit of growth not least in a world of global consumption made a strong impression of finite resources. He supported the diminution on world leaders and counter culture activists alike. of centralised political and economic structures in However, despite widespread acclaim at the time, favour of local responsibility and control. his thinking never became part of the mainstream If Schumacher was at all political he leaned, or was translated into significant political action. certainly in his early years, towards democratic In the first instance Schumacher was mainly socialism. But as his thinking developed he took known for his philosophy – encapsulated in a a far more holistic approach. In his view big piece that he wrote called Buddhist Economics – on government was not the answer. Equally, the helping developing nations. A key interest was how pursuit of greed and private profit encouraged to help developing countries ‘help themselves’ by free market capitalism was not necessarily the rather than being massively reliant on overseas most economic way of doing things. Certainly, aid. Influenced by Leopold Kohr, a professor at the it did little to contribute to the sum of human University of Aberystwyth (known for his publication happiness or well being. Schumacher recognised The Breakdown of Nations), Schumacher promoted the vital importance of putting people first and that the concept of human scale and appropriate it was not only activity that could be measured in technology as both healthy and viable economic financial terms that had a value. As he wrote in alternatives to the aid philosophy of the time. He Small is Beautiful: set up a world-wide charity – The Intermediate Technology Development Group, now named “The modern economist is used to measuring Practical Action, and argued that simply transferring the standard of living by the amount of large scale western technology to poorer nations annual consumption, assuming all the time stifled local initiative and participation. that a man who consumes more is ‘better off’ While not against ‘large scale as such, than a man who consumes less … [But] it is Schumacher was against the assumption of ‘big is now reasonable to believe that despite the better’. He advocated that large organisations often abundance of man made goods produced needed to be broken down into smaller, human by continued economic growth, its net effect scale units, in order to function in the most effective on human health and happiness could be way. He argued, quite simply, that when political, adverse and possibly disastrous”. economic or social organisations were too large,

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A new focus is being given to the importance of valuing things that cannot be measured in financial terms, for instance the input of ‘stay at home’ parents, the importance of education and skills, and of family and friends.

Schumacher’s “ideas As we approach the much heralded ‘age of in terms of satisfaction and wellbeing as a result. are taking on a new resonance” austerity’, Schumacher’s ideas are taking on a The decision to continue to help fund students new resonance and are more relevant than ever. embarking on university life underlines the belief Global warming, the recent financial crash and that matters such as the education of young the recognition that oil (upon which so much of people are too important be left to market forces. modern civilisation depends ) is a finite resource, Developments in higher and further education have made people, many for the first time, question – not least the imaginative dual sector approach the way society is organising itself. (bringing together the vocational and the It may seem ironic to many on the left, that much academic) now being pioneered by the new Trinity of Schumacher’s thinking – on localism, employee Saint David University – are indicating a far more ownership, the importance of non renewable holistic approach to post secondary learning. It is resources, alternative energy and micro-generation hoped that activities planned around Schumacher’s – now appears to form part of the UK government’s centenary year will help to give a greater focus to ‘Big Society’ and ‘Wellbeing’ agendas. It is important, the importance of the ideas promulgated all those though, to consider these initiatives for what they are, years ago but which now seem more pertinent what they are trying to achieve, and to assess them than ever. His books, including A Guide for the without party political prejudice. Perplexed, are being republished with updated A new focus is being given to the importance of forewords referencing the modern context. Events valuing things that cannot be measured in financial and conferences celebrating his thinking are terms, for instance the input of ‘stay at home’ being planned by many organisations throughout parents, the importance of education and skills, the UK and overseas. Above all, it is hoped that and of family and friends. It is recognised that far young people across the globe are made aware more credit should be given for involvement in the of Schumacher’s ideas and that they can have the community as well as the whole host of activities opportunity to reflect and incorporate them in the and hobbies that do not feature in GDP but that world in which we live today. nevertheless improve the quality of life. For the first time sectors of society are beginning to explore the concept of ‘enoughness’ – recognising that we do not continually need more and that there are Virginia Isaac is the second daughter of E. F. limits on what money can deliver and the ultimate Schumacher. Until recently she was a Director of satisfaction it can bring. the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service Initiatives that are taking place in Wales both UCAS. She now runs Alter Via Ltd, a company reflect this philosophy and are ahead of the curve. that promotes public sector entrepreneurship. She Smaller structures enable greater ownership and spends half her time in Wales and is a governor of self determination with demonstrable rewards Trinity Saint David University.

agenda summer 2011—issue 44 | 65 Lyn Evans, pictured alongside his life’s work, the Large Hadron Collider at the Cern international physics laboratory.

7 Science

Articles Going back in time 13.5 billion years High performance computing Going back in time 13.5 billion years

Rhys David When the £6 billion Large Hadron Collider at the Cern meets the international physics laboratory in Geneva was switched on in the autumn of 2008, the unmistakeable Aberdare tones of Welshman its director, Dr Lyn Evans, were heard around the world. Over behind the the next few years the Collider, the world’s biggest scientific 17-mile experiment, is set to answer some of the most fundamental nuclei Collider questions about the nature of the universe (or the multiverse, if at Cern the theory of multiple universes is correct). Lyn Evans, who had spent most of his life at Cern, retired two years later. Meanwhile, his project did not result in a meltdown of planet Earth as some scientists forewarned. And it survived an embarrassing month long shutdown, nine days after it was turned on when a short circuit blew a hole in the 17 mile long, five mile diameter vacuum pipe buried up to 600 feet underground. Today it is running at high power and turning out an estimated 100,000 DVDs worth of data a year. For Lyn Evans the project represents the crowning achievement of a career which started in the science laboratories at Aberdare Grammar School in the 1950s. The teaching of science there was good, he recalls, and the teachers were highly respected. “The school offered a level of education you would

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only get nowadays in public schools,” he said. University College, Swansea, where he did his first “Europe needs more scientifically trained degree followed by a PhD in plasma physics cultivated people or it will be in trouble in 20 years time. his interest in a scientific career. The college was an Not everyone can be a research scientist but early collaborator among British universities with modern industry needs scientifically educated Cern, sending a stream of talented graduates and people. This applies particularly in Wales post-grads to Geneva, starting with the late because we have to attract high technology Jones, to co-operate on experiments there. Indeed, industries.” Swansea scientists have played a big role in Cern experiments into anti-matter, one of the constituent Visits to India and a number of other developing elements in the universe. countries have convinced him their levels of education The Large Hadron Collider was built to send two simultaneous accelerated beams of hydrogen nuclei in opposite directions around the 17 miles. They are The resultant explosion then directed by magnets to crash into each other. recreates conditions a pica The resultant explosions recreate conditions a pica second – one hundredth of a billionth of a second to second – one hundredth of be precise - after the earth’s creation 13.5 billion years a billionth of a second to be ago. The debris from these can then be analysed. In contrast optical systems – high powered telescopes precise – after the earth’s and the like - can only take us back 1 billion years. creation 13.5 billion years ago. The outcome is not going to be a sudden ‘find’ in the middle of all this activity. Instead the scientists at Cern will be looking through all those DVDs worth of data for statistical patterns that current are increasingly high. Wales, he says must have a physics knowledge cannot explain. The prize that highly educated population to match. In this respect has been most publicly identified is the Higgs Boson he sees the Welsh Government’s recognition of the – a hypothetical particle of existence - which Lyn importance of scientific education and its appointment Evans believes could take two years to recognise. of a Science Adviser as important steps. At present scientists only really understand atoms These days much of his work is in ecncouraging which account for roughly 4 per cent of matter. young people in Welsh schools. He is involved in a Dark energy, which comprises 73 per cent, and dark major educational project in Bangor and, through matter, about 25 per cent, are still a mystery. If and video-conferencing in which he has found the Welsh when it is proved to exist, Higgs Boson could explain education system to be well-equipped, he has been how matter acquires mass. able to talk to as many as 30 schools at a time. Much Another important scientific theory the Collider of his focus is on how to motivate teachers, whom he could help verify is supersymmetry, the idea that sees as the key to inculcate in pupils a love of science. for every fundamental particle a far heavier super Another educational project will explore the frontiers particle can exist. This is the main candidate to make between physics and biology. up most of dark matter. Cern itself is an expensive operation. As one of Though no longer officially in charge, Lyn Evans the founder members, Britain contributes 12-13 per has continued to live near Cern and takes part in two cent to the £1 billion annual running costs. Can this important research exercises there. He has also found be justified when cuts are being made across virtually more time to involve himself in educational activities. all areas of Government spending? Dr Evans is, A visiting professor at Imperial College, London, understandably, in no doubt. He points to important he is passionate about getting more young people spin-offs, especially medical advances. The University interested in science as a career. Lack of interest is Hospital of Wales in Cardiff is one of a number of not just a British problem, he observes. In Europe hospitals across the world that has a Positron Emission generally the number of young people interested in Tomography scanner (costing £16 million) that arose science is going down. As he says: from Cern’s work. It enables doctors to see regions

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On 30 March 2010 the Large Hadron Collider successfully smashed two proton particle beams travelling with 3.5 TeV (trillion electron volts) of energy, resulting in a 7 TeV event, described as like “firing two needles from either side of the Atlantic and getting them to hit each other”. However this was just the start of a long road towards the expected discovery of the Higgs boson, a hypothetical elementary particle, a form of matter we never knew existed…

of high metabolic activity in the body, helping to end up in particle physics. Many take up other high- establish the malignity or otherwise of tumours. Cern, powered careers where the analytical skills they which was crucial to the original development of the have honed at Cern can be put to good use. Cern world wide web is also behind a more advanced grid itself shares its results with collaborating institutions for sharing data. around the world, which help to analyse the data. “It is becoming much more difficult to prise out the last secrets of nature,” Lyn Evans says. “That’s why we “It is becoming much have to co-operate”. His passion for collaboration may be a more difficult to prise distinctively Welsh contribution to the UK’s out the last secrets of leading role in the Cern project. “That is one of my attributes,” Lyn Evans agrees. “I have been good at nature… that’s why we getting people to work together”. It is an ability he hopes he can now bring to giving science a higher have to co-operate.” profile in Welsh education.

Beyond these direct benefits there is a wider educational role. Cern has 2,300 staff, 783 fellows and 9,534 users – mainly post doctoral students, learning to work at the frontiers of knowledge. Not all of them Rhys David is a trustee of the IWA.

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Pwllheli firm Motion Blur uses high performance computers to produce animation sequences, including these images for the BBC’s online Dr Who comicmaker www..co.uk/ doctorwho/comicmaker

High performance computing

David Craddock on a £40 The contract is worth £15 million build up in estuaries or airflows over million project which will over four years to Fujitsu, which will aircraft wings. We have already identified more than 100 projects in Wales which provide Wales with a world- provide infrastructure and services along with subcontractors Microsoft and Intel. need high performance computing. Of class super computing network High Performance Computing Wales will these projects, more than 80 per cent give us the most advanced and evolving have business partners or potential computing technology available. commercial applications. We’re not just a big black box. High So what is a social scientist and performance computing refers to any A growing number of Welsh examples businessman from the chemical industry computational activity requiring more illustrate how high performance doing running a high technology that a single computer to execute a task. computing technology can make a vital computing organisation? What attracted Supercomputers and computer clusters contribution: me to High Performance Computing are used to solve advanced computation Wales a couple of years ago was the problems and are employed for • In Swansea, we have Calon Cardio- desire of our University researchers to specialised applications. These include Technology Ltd developing the next transfer their knowledge and intellectual generation of implantable micro- property into the market place where it • Data storage and analysis pumps for the treatment of heart might do some good. High performance • Data mining failure. computing would help them speed up • Simulations knowledge transfer. • Modelling • In Pwllheli Alan Moult, director of High Performance Computing Wales • Software development Motion Blur, needs the firepower is about innovation and getting new • Visualisation of complex data of high performance computers to products and services to the market • Rapid mathematical calculations supply the creative industries with quicker, and training researchers in digital art and computer 2D and getting the most out of computing to For example, weather forecasting 3D animation. achieve this. The project is now in a requires a supercomputer. Other key phase following the announcement uses include animated graphics, fluid • At the University of Glamorgan in that global technology giant Fujitsu is dynamic calculations, nuclear energy Pontypridd, Steven Wilcox, the partnering the universities in Wales to research, petroleum exploration, wheel University’s Professor of Intelligent create the project. chair crash simulations, modelling silt Systems Engineering, is using high

70 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 7/Science

performance computers to study industrial furnaces and boilers in collaboration with industrial partners such as Tata Steel and EDF Energy.

• At Bangor University, Dr Simon Neill sees great potential in using high performance computers to enable the modelling of the long-term impact of the construction of marine tidal turbines.

• Meanwhile, at the OpTIC Glyndwˆr business innovation centre in , Professor David Walker, an expert in Ultra-Precision Optical Polishing Technology, is working

on developing state-of-the-art Swansea-based Calon Cardio-Technology is developing the next generation of implantable micro-pumps for mirrors for the European Southern the treatment of heart failure. The aim is to make heart assist pumps the routine method of treating heart failure. “We make extensive use of computer modelling in our research, which is significantly reducing our product Observatory. This will be the biggest development phase,” says managing director Kevin Fernquest. “Access to high performance computing is a major optical telescope in the world. boost for a business like ours.”

We are building on expertise at Cardiff and Swansea universities to take Wales into the global Premier League when it comes to supercomputing firepower. High Performance Computing Wales made by the Welsh Government The main computer hubs will be in is a unique collaborative venture. The and the university sector in Wales- Cardiff and Pembroke Dock, linked to universities, with support from the Welsh wide research institutes. spokes at Swansea, Aberystwyth, Bangor Government, Welsh European Funding and the University of Glamorgan. There Office and UK Government, have joined • Supporting research and will be further links to University of forces to establish a charitable company development, fitting in with the Wales Alliance Universities and business that will deliver the project over the next priorities of the Welsh Government innovation centres throughout Wales. four years. and capitalising on other relevant We are now in the process of The challenge over that period will be European-funded initiatives. recruiting our management and to deliver economic and skills benefits, service team, establishing our customer and to establish a sustainability plan that If we can do this successfully, we will processes and installing the kit. We are takes us beyond the funding period. make Welsh businesses more competitive already engaging with businesses to get High Performance Computing Wales will in global markets and, hopefully, help to their input and ideas. We aim to be open provide an interface between academic grow the knowledge economy. There for business by the end of 2012. research and business development by: are three main strands to the work: • Providing a fully distributed, open access computing facility which will 1. Investing in new equipment, be available to researchers, product accessible from centres around and service developers across Wales. Wales. 2. Establishing a training academy • Investing heavily in training, skills to develop high performance and outreach programmes which computing skills among researchers. will enable the take up and use of 3. Creating an institute to provide high our facilities. level technical services to support David Craddock is Chief Executive research and economic activities. Officer of High Performance Computing • Building on previous investments Wales: www.hpcwales.co.uk

agenda summer 2011—issue 44 | 71

8 Fishlock’s File Culture Memories are made of this

Trevor Fishlock says we should have more stories about Welsh lives

Articles My mother’s devotion to television history part of the process of according dignity and programmes is easily explained. Most of respect to a life. Fishlock’s File: Memories are them deal with events that were part of her I liked talking to veterans of all kinds for the made of this experience. Two world wars, the talkies, the humanity they added to history. The gunner jazz age, the wireless, the great depression, who fired the first shell at the battle of Jutland Joining a votes for women, the abdication, the blitz, air enthralled me with his story. Bertrand Russell, thousand literary travel, mass motoring, space travel, television in his eighties and CND heyday, gave me tea at flowers together itself, computers, four monarchs and twenty- his holiday hideaway and talked of the pleasure Lighting up the three prime ministers - she was there. An of dipping deeply into the distant past through nations appetite for the morning papers complements the memories of the elderly: his grandmother her enjoyment of history television. told him of her friendship with the widow of Book reviews: As it happens she falls within the scope of a Bonnie Prince Charlie. proposition made by an editor I once worked One of my regrets is that I did not talk to Everything was for. He used to say that “Nobody born after my father in greater depth, though he did better after a few 1914 is worth listening to”. leave me with an image of my grandfather, a drinks That was some years ago and he liked to Rhondda miner, who in 1914 marched off to An intertwining of provoke. But his point was that the lives of war from Pontypridd. His children watched Welsh and British others are a raw material of journalism and him eat his farewell breakfast, so special it had politics that the stories and recollections of the elderly two eggs not one. His death in Flanders a few are invaluable. As a reporter by trade I would weeks later cast a shadow of which I was well Nine Centuries have failed in my duty had I not interviewed aware as I grew up. My maternal grandfather of Welsh Contact my mother about her life. We spent absorbing survived the war, though wounded, and I with Islam hours going through the albums and her remember him standing by the mantelpiece - reminiscences. I wrote a words-and-pictures standing, my mother explained, because of the booklet of twenty-eight pages and a designer shrapnel in his backside. and printer made it presentable, so that More than seventy years after the war I went when she turned a hundred recently there to the battlefields of Ypres and Passchendaele were copies for her family and friends and in the company of the last of the old boys who especially for her grandchildren and great- had fought there, men of ninety-nine and a grandchildren. hundred. It was the last chance to hear their The journalists who taught me reporting on stories. Their eyes had once looked through a busy evening newspaper were always clear rifle-sights across the swamps. They were thin about the importance of human stories. People and bony. Their medals shone. In an immense came first. I overcame nervousness about cemetery one of them picked out the names talking to the bereaved families of servicemen on the white stones of men he had known. because the relatives themselves saw me as Remembrance, he said, did not necessarily

72 | 8/Culture / Fishlock’s File

mean mourning. He thought of his friends as they were, “young, full of life and laughter”. In Wales, Saunders Lewis, a veteran of the trenches, talked to me of his nationalism, having hospitably poured us a morning sherry. Around that time I interviewed a woman in Llyˆn, a nonagenarian remnant of another time, who spoke no English. The poet Michael Burn, who lived in north Wales, was in his nineties when I got to know him. He once met Hitler in Munich, fought in the raid on Saint Nazaire and endured Colditz. On the north-west of Pakistan I went to the home of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, then almost ninety, who had been for half a century the outstanding leader of the Pathans. He was still an imposing figure. The British jailed him for his part in the struggle for Indian independence, and Pakistan jailed him after Partition. He always tried to knit the Pathans together and told me, “I wish I could have done more”. Mrs Bhandari was in her nineties, too. I used to stay at her oasis of peace, Mrs Bhandari’s guest house, in Amritsar. She had witnessed most of the city’s 20th Century history and as a schoolgirl in 1919 heard the roar of gunfire as General Dyer ruthlessly slaughtered hundreds of people gathered in a walled garden. Ada, a Russian I met in Moscow, was also ninety. She married an Englishman and lived in London before returning to Moscow to teach English. One of her pupils was Nikita Khrushchev. He couldn’t remember the difference between lower-case b and d in the English alphabet, she said, and would put his hand on his hip and stick out his elbow as an aide- reporter, foreign correspondent and television writer. Bertrand Russell: “His grandmother told him memoire. Stalin’s police arrested her in 1938 and Stories show us constantly what we have in common of her friendship with she spent nine years in the Siberian gulag, cutting and how extraordinary life can be. Obituaries, too, the widow of Bonnie wood. She spent another seven years in Siberian are stories that reveal the remarkable. I wish we Prince Charlie.” exile. One thing she remembered about England published more of them in Wales. Something is was the politeness of schoolboys offering her their missing from our hinterland and our reading. seat on a bus. It is a pity that there is no counterpart in Wales In Hiroshima I talked with survivors of the to the obituary columns of The Times, The Daily atomic bomb who related their extraordinary and Telegraph, and . harrowing experiences without bitterness. In Papua They dominate this particular market in stories New Guinea a tribal chief showed me his arrow of interesting and sometimes amazing lives. They scars and told me that the first white man he saw often include a welcome portion of humour. The was the pilot of a plane that reached his remote modern habit of readers adding piquant footnotes home in 1933. The first wheels he saw were the to obituaries is commendable. More and more- aircraft’s undercarriage. rounded accounts of Welsh lives, not just of the Wherever possible I have drawn on human great and good, should be written and published in stories to illustrate and give meaning to my work as a Wales. We like stories.

agenda summer 2011—issue 44 | 73 8/Culture

clarify the term. The Academi was simply instructed to take the lead. The train was leaving the station Joining a thousand and literature needed to be on it, said Chairman Dai Smith. Press ahead, instructed chief executive Nick Capaldi. But against a background of rumour literary flowers and bureaucratic fog it was not easy. It took the Arts Council a full six months to get round to formally together instructing its clients to merge. Academi was given the task of leading on the creation of the new organisation. I would become Chief Executive. There would be a new Peter Finch How do you merge three organisations? Two up apparatus of governance. Loose ends would be describes the for total merger and with the third semi-detached? tied together. Literature in Wales would become emergence Do you bang heads, bribe, threaten, cajole, insist, whole. Providers, producers and public would be plead, persevere, finally agree, or bury your head wrapped in literary joy and the sky would become of Literature in the sand? All of those, as it turns out. Although full of cultural sparks. That was certainly a future Wales, a new maybe not the last one. We have reputations to worth having. agency for the uphold. Significantly the Hay Festival was to be excluded word In its Investment Review wisdom the Arts from the new arrangements. Given its substantial Council of Wales came to the conclusion that its increase in funding for 2011-2012, from £40,000 to arrangements for the funding of literature were, to more than £100,000, it is hard to see why. But that quote the document, untidy. Its major client, the elephantine anomaly is for others to argue about. And national player, Academi, literature promotion given a fair wind and a deal of co-operation there agency par excellence, deliverer of schemes and may end up being nothing to argue about at all. activity the length and breadth of the country, In the late 1990s when Academi, the Literature needed to be formally combined with the Council’s Promoter, was created out of a reformed Welsh other literary clients: Tyˆ Newydd, the writers centre Academy/Yr Academi Gymreig, the society for in Gwynedd, and Welsh Literature Exchange, writers, its trading name was chosen because it could the international provider. Neither of those two shape shift. Academi: a word that is easy to say , has descriptors are quite accurate. Tyˆ Newydd is more resonance in two languages and, moreover, comes than just a centre for writers, while Welsh Literature early in any listing. Its precise meaning depends on Exchange engages in a plethora of activity beyond where you stand. The Welsh Academy trading as simple provision. Academi. Yr Academi Gymreig dan yr un faner. At When I thought about it, untidy was a difficult an early giving of evidence to the Assembly’s Culture word to precisely understand. The Arts Council’s Committee then AM Cynog Dafis had it in one. Investment Review recommendations did little to “Great work Academi”, he said. “But your name is dreadful. No one knows what it means.” I considered this. He might be right. It took more than a decade for the opportunity to arise but the Arts Council’s Investment Review provided it. Academi put it in its business plan. All arts organisations have these now. This is a professional 21st Century world. Academi would rebrand. We would become Literature Wales / Llenyddiaeth Cymru. Says what we do. Easy to understand. In the event the whole deal has turned out to be considerably more than a simple name change. A new and much larger organisation has emerged. Literature Wales is a true literature development agency with national status and support to match. The Welsh Academy and Tyˆ Newydd inside, Welsh Literature Exchange at arm’s length.

74 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 8/Culture National Poet Gillian Clarke, who has published 14 collections since 1971, the latest A Recipe for Water in 2009. She says: “Poets write instinctively, and don’t always see every possible meaning in the words they choose. If you find something, and prove it with quotations, then it’s there, and you’re right, and don’t believe anyone who tells you otherwise.”

Writers write, don’t they? And readers they need something against which society, heal it, remove its conflicts and read. Do they really need support? They to be measured. This need to make its devastations. do. Were support to be withdrawn in our authors professional continues to How did the Academi evolve into a bi-lingual country such as ours then be at the centre of Literature Wales. Literature Wales? The answer depends literature as we know it would all but Rates may not have gone up much in a on precisely where you begin. For me it collapse. Without aid there’d be scant decade but opportunity and perception was a 1997 conversation in a quiet corner Welsh-medium publishing, no school certainly have. Those among us who get of the Friary-sited Oriel Bookshop. It was author visits, few festivals or readings, by on income derived from their skill owned at that time by The Stationery fewer courses or workshops or prizes, with words – Gwyneth Lewis, Owen Office, a group of venture capitalist little book razzmatazz, negligible writing Sheers, Menna Elfyn, Nigel Jenkins, backed operators who were later to in prisons, no work with the health Robert Minhinnick, and Gillian Clarke abandon the shop’s Welsh-cultural service, no literary engagement with the among them – struggled in the nineties. content and then close it as a loss maker. disadvantaged nor the deprived. There I’m sure that they still struggle today. Twenty years of building culture down the would be very little opportunity, for No Rolls Royces. No pension schemes. pan. I was the manager. The conversation anyone. Welsh cultural life would fade. Hard, still, to get from one month to the was with John Pikoulis who, with the The situation for Welsh writing next. But better than it once was. backing of M Wynn Thomas, Gerwyn in English, pretty invisible at the best Literature Wales will put writers into Wiliam, John Osmond, Ned Thomas of times, would be worse. It would schools, run competitions for fiction, and Harri Pritchard Jones, wanted to be totally compromised by the noise verse and the art of poetry performance, save the threatened Welsh Academy by coming from over the border. Wales offer bursaries for authors to take time bidding for the Arts Council franchise to would vanish. We would be depleted. out from other employment in order to run a new literature promotion agency. Totally. When we read, if we read at all, write. It will manage festivals, organise Would I like to front it? Too right I would. it would be about America or England. tours, run courses for writers at the truly In the face of at least 14 other credible Marvellous, say a small minority but I splendid former Lloyd George mansion bids we won. don’t think the rest of us would agree. of Tyˆ Newydd in Gwynedd, and in co- What I discovered inside the run- Ever since I was appointed to lead operation with partners across Wales down, carpetless it in 1997, the Academi has pressed for take literature to places it rarely visits. offices was not One Wales. Far from it. the professionalisation of writers. Given It will work with the Health Service, The Welsh and English sections of the the opportunity, and paid appropriately, local authorities, the Prison Service, and august Society for Writers (founded 1959) they would deliver the goods. Amateurs social services to increase the number might have shared a kettle but that was in Wales have a very real place but of ways in which literature can help our pretty much all. They ran unconnected

agenda summer 2011—issue 44 | 75 8/Culture phone systems, had separate financial accounts, used different , kept different hours, and sat on unmatching chairs in separate offices. Even their computers did not communicate – Macs on one side, PCs on the other. The internet then was just being born. Down the road at Crickhowell House (later to become today’s Tyˆ Hywel) the brand new National Assembly was getting into gear. Companies across the country were rebranding themselves with Wales in mind: Dragon Cabs, Dragon Security, Dragon Couriers, Dragon Rescue, even Dragon Pies. was ironing her red dragon dress. Make Wales one. Show it as it is. End the linguistic, social, economic, and cultural divisions. That’s what the new Academi would do. Bring our literature together in one place and make it swing. Owen Sheers, among a handful of Welsh writers “who get by on income derived from their skill with words”.

“What do you think I should do first?” I asked John Osmond, IWA director and at that time an live in a world obsessed with the collection Funding bodies should believe more Academi Board member. “Make a of data, action plans, compacts, targets, in their clients and allow them to take lot of noise”, he replied. “I’ve done visions, memos of understanding and risks. Regulate them less and trust them my best.” tabulated projections. In my time behind to deliver. Let them spend more on arts the wheel I’ve seen, year on year, that and less on filing. When I suggested Where are the enemies? Not everyone vociferous data monster grow and grow. this at a conference a few years ago loves you, even with something as all- I estimate a tenfold increase in ten everyone applauded. But that was then embracing and ultimately satisfying as years. For arts administrators the coalface and to date, despite decreasing financial literature. There are writers out there who moves ever further back. File your returns waistlines, little has changed. are forever uncovering conspiracies to quarterly rather than annually. Provide What next? Set things on fire. What keep them away from success. There are attendance data on increasingly obscure Literature Wales isn’t going to do is merely those who, in the face of uncontroversial population demographics. Demonstrate continue the existing programmes of Tyˆ evidence to the contrary, still insist that adherence to regulation. Prove that you Newydd and Academi with a new logo they’ve been ignored. Those who cannot have policies on everything including on top and some economies of scale understand that where more people live policies themselves. As I write the Welsh underneath. It will do that, of course, there is often a greater occurrence of Government has told its Assembly but there will a whole lot more. activity. Those who think that despite us Sponsored Public Bodies to reduce their What makes up Wales is its separate pouring £100s into their literary activities running costs by 12 per cent over three parts. What Literature Wales is now that at bottom we really doubt their talent. years. Do more for less. going to do is join them together. Writers Those who imagine others are stealing In response it seems as if the burden are intimately connected with the places their plot ideas and masquerading them is merely being passed down the line. they occupy and the places they originally as their own. And those who somehow Forget the quality of the activity and came from. Expect to see cross media just don’t like what we do because, what it does. Instead tell us the ages of all literary ventures that wrap writers and perhaps, it is us that’s doing it and not those in the audience, how far they have readers together in co-operation with them. It’s an unfair world. Although I travelled, the Welsh Index of Multiple our heritage infrastructure: Cadw, The have spent these past thirteen or so years Deprivation analysis for their postcode, National Trust, The National Museum, the desperately trying to iron out the bumps. if they used public transport, how many National Parks, and that often overlooked Perhaps the biggest problem is not were vegetarians and how many of them resource, the . the writers nor their audience but the wore a dress. I’m inventing some of this Work with young people will increase. bureaucracy that surrounds them. We but you get the general idea. They are the future. There’ll be more

76 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org 8/Culture festivals, peripatetic ones, roaming the and spend some extra time writing. In But now I need space to create something country to reach places we never knew the event that has proved impossible. a little longer. I leave Literature Wales in we had. Expect to see a lot more glitter as Politics, policy, provision, vision, risk landscape-changing form. John Pikoulis writers the non-literary world recognises analysis, administration and dealing and Harri Pritchard Jones are joint appear at venues not known for their with the difficult rapidly fill any space chairs. Lleucu Siencyn is Acting Chief cultural values. There will be endless you give them. I did manage a series Executive and Sally Baker is at the helm opportunity to take part, as amateur of appropriately tiny poems, Haiku for in Tyˆ Newydd. There is a great staff writer, as newcomer, as interested party, the Academi, which are included in my team, north and south. In Wales the as someone who simply wants to have a collection Food (Seren Books, 2001): A470 is no longer the only thing that go. People who never thought about it  joins us together. before will be in action turning out verses Annwyl Syr, my last book appeared and finding that it’s uplifting, fulfilling, in 1965 and fun. And where you don’t expect to but I have a backyard full of cherry encounter writing – in hospitals, sports blossom grounds, train stations, and supermarkets can I join? – take note because soon you will. Internationally expect Rio to come here looked up cherry blossom in and for there again to be a Welsh feel to the dictionary LA. Wales will make its mark. not there As for me, I’ve now been with my head in an administrative bucket for rather big new Wales a thousand flowers too long. When I joined the Academi as hope and money Peter Finch, chief executive of Academi, Chief Executive in 1998 I had this vague still as hard as ever now Literature Wales, since 1997, is idea that after five years of changing the currently on a writing sabbatical and landscape I might reduce my office hours leaves his post at the end of the year.

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

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

8/Culture Hans op de Beeck’s Location 7 is a ‘total’ sculptural installation, an immersive environment made of grey concrete, part of the One of a Thousand Ways to Beat Entropy exhibition. Lighting up the nations

Mari Beynon Owen reports from the Venice Art Biennale

IllumiNations – IllumiNazioni is the theme of this year’s world view hardly plays well with this other declaration 54th Venice Art Biennale, showing between June and from the curator: November and orchestrated by the internationally renowned Zurich curator Bice Curiger. As she puts it: “Far removed from culturally conservative constructs of ‘nation’, art offers the potential to “The exhibition aspires literally to shed light explore new forms of community and negotiate on the institution itself, drawing attention differences and affinities that might serve as models to dormant and unrecognised opportunities, as for the future”. well as to conventions that need to be challenged.” Behind the rather too clever word combination are ensconced some fundamental arguments. Can there be This also explained her rationale for including three art which is simply pure creative expression? Can the paintings by the old master Tintoretto in the Central artist exist in isolation from current events and political Pavilion: realities? What is the role of the artist - Zeitgeist or political activist? And will there be new ‘old masters’ in “Tintoretto is the painter of light. In many respects the 21st Century? his art is unorthodox and experimental, but instead While artists selected to represent their nations for of seeking to trace superficial formal analogies the Biennale often go for the ‘brash new, iconoclastic between Tintoretto and the art of the present, the option’, this time, several chose to re-master previous aim is to concern a form of pictorial energy that works and re-present work, re-framing their reflections is altogether ‘anticlassical’.” on universal themes. They remind us of the importance of rigour, and the diligent refinement of skills and ideas. Yet, in continuing to provide sumptuous permanent Even though they work in very different media, in their pavilions for the ‘old’ nation-states, the Biennale constant search for intense perfection they are following administration ignores many emerging nations. Those in the tradition of the ‘old masters’. that are not recognised by the Italian Government are In Chance the French artist Christian Boltanski re-creates relegated to the Collateral Events section, as is the case an industrial-scale photo printing plant to reveal the timeless with Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Meanwhile, themes of death and absence. The constant repetition of the Britain continues to occupy the imposing classical industrial process, with images whizzing along a production porticoed pavilion atop a prominent hill in the main line, re-inforce the inevitability of death. Giardini site. The continuing expression of a confined English artist Mike Nelson has re-configuredMagazin:

agenda summer 2011—issue 44 | 79 8/Culture

Queuing for the British pavilion Tim Davies’ Wales in Venice location

Büyük Valide Han, a work previously the world’s curators, museum directors, they deserve. created for the Istanbul Biennale in 2008, gallerists and art critics speed from one This has resulted in a huge gap in within the walls of the British Pavilion. show to another. the art history of Wales available to the Given the confines of the space, the Within this pressurised environment public. Hopefully, the newly created sculptural installation is a triumph of it is extremely difficult to have time to National Museum of Art will provide a construction. It is interesting that the simply stand and view the work as a much needed platform for contemporary artist chose to re-build and re-imagine pure art experience. Of the many shows artists. It should be possible to host major the original work. He is revisiting his I saw, one stood out for its sensory international contemporary art shows, artistic practice within a completely and emotional intensity. Hans op de allowing artists more opportunities to different physical context and re-realising Beeck’s Location 7 is a ‘total’ sculptural engage with international art practice. It his relationship with the work. installation, an immersive environment should also contribute to the debate in Likewise Welsh artist Tim Davies made of grey concrete. It is part of the Wales about contemporary art and the chose to re-present two of his 2010 One of a Thousand Ways to Beat Entropy role of artists in shaping the new Wales – films, Cadet (Parade at Cardiff), and exhibition, featuring four artists. In and even beat entropy! Cadet (Running at Cardiff), a 2006 film curator Alexander Ponomarev words, As at this year’s Biennale, now Cadet (Standing at Aberystwyth), with his they are allowed to sail: is the right time to shed light on our series of 2009-11 Bridges drawings, and art institutions and challenge the two new films shot in Venice, Drift and “…in the expanding cosmos of conventions of our museums and Frari. One gets a sense that the artist is the imagination... leaving behind collections. As Bice Curiger puts it: using this unique opportunity to re-hone works in space that allow us… to his ideas through meditation and reflect doubt the inevitable domination “If one trusts in art it indeed has the upon the important themes which run of entropy”. capacity to stimulate our horizon through his work which provides a with far-sightedness and complexity commentary on current events. The The context in which such work is beyond the stupefying redundancy Cadet films are a reflection on the futility presented is particularly relevant in usually attendant on current events”. of war and loss of life. However, there view of the recent opening of the new is no sense here of the artist as political contemporary art galleries at National campaigner. Museum Cardiff. Until Llandudno’s Mari Beynon Owen is Creative The context in which work is viewed Mostyn gallery re-opened last year, Director of the rural art space Melin at the Venice Art Biennale is quite the lack of large scale exhibition space Inc., and Co-Chair, of the Rhôd Artists’ different from any other. The opening dedicated to contemporary art denied Group. She organized RHODIO, an Vernissage days are totally frenetic and many artists the opportunity to show intervention during the opening week overwhelming, a critical whirl in which their work and receive the critical status of the Venice Art Biennale.

80 | www.iwa.org.uk www.clickonwales.org Marc Jennings, Graphic Design.

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there is a Burton cycle path. His great what all that glitter, jetting to-and-fro and Reviews friend Robert Hardy suggests that there is champagne actually meant. a fair chance that Burton will haunt the This is precisely the question that Tom new theatre at the Royal Welsh College of Rubython’s latest mammoth biography of Music and Drama in Cardiff that bears his Burton raises. The book comes to us with Everything was better name. All we want now are rumours of the publishers, the Myrtle Press, firing on after a few drinks miraculous healings by people who have all cylinders. Forget for the moment Edith Peter Stead taken the Afon waters and the Burton and Dick Jenkins of Pontrhydyfen, for the legend will be secure. title directly declares And God Created Of course, in Wales we like to look Burton. Staring out at us is a swarthy, after our own and the legendary mode is slightly unrealistically blue-eyed face that a favoured option. ‘Milk it for all its worth’ belongs either to a criminal on death row is an established Welsh commandment. or a saint exhausted by forty days and But as it happens we do not have to face nights of communicating with his maker in any charge of parochialism as far as Burton the wilderness. But then comes the dust- is concerned, for the fascination with the jacket blurb that henceforth should be a legend seems to be a global phenomenon compulsory extract for analysis in every every bit as much as a Welsh one. The examination set by the Media and Cultural Burton-Taylor affair, veritably a modern Studies departments in Welsh Universities. playing out of the ancient Marc Antony Comment on the following, time allowed: and Cleopatra story was used in the 1960s three hours. by the gossip columnists and the paparazzi to launch a new celebrity culture. A sweeping saga spanning 1898 to Although every year brings new stars 1984, stretching from the mining And God Created Burton and scandals, the international media fields of South Wales to the film sets of Tom Rubython have retained their affection for their Hollywood, and from the playhouses The Myrtle Press, £20.00 founding couple. Their great drama of Cardiff to the grand theatres of involving arguments, fights, marriages, Broadway - this new and far reaching betrayals, divorces, family conventions, biography rakes over the of the life Richard Burton died in 1984 but you diamonds, tragedies, clinics, private jets, of Britain’s greatest ever actor, Richard would be excused if that fact has eluded presidents, royalty and endless parties Burton. And God Created Burton is the you. It could be argued that the actor still provides excellent posthumous copy. first complete biography of the greatest is playing a fuller role in Welsh life than There always seem to be new letters, Welshman who ever lived. at any other time since his birth in diaries, albums, recollections and, indeed, Pontrhydyfen in 1925. Most weeks we photographs - all confirming that there was These are enormous claims and, of course, hear his name in news bulletins and our inherently more drama, much of it almost they are not true. Scattered throughout national daily paper regularly likes to Shakespearean, and vitality in their private his 61 chapters Rubython has quotations remind us of what he looked like. It is and public lives than in anything they were aplenty from both critics and biographers almost impossible to avoid him. actually paid to do on stage or screen. that illustrate that there were always A bust is unveiled, a theatre is named, Every week the international press reservations about nearly all of Burton’s a research centre is established, lectures brings news that there are more Burton/ stage and screen performances. Burton are given, actors attempt to convey Taylor books and revelations on the way. himself was well aware that he was an his charisma and imitate his voice, For those of us who, almost in spite of untrained stage actor with a limited campaigns are launched to secure further ourselves, are interested in the Burton range who relied on his voice and animal commemoration, Where Eagles Dare is phenomenon, our only response is to magnetism to carry him through. He was given another airing, yet another disc of wonder yet again whether the new also aware that his formality and stiffness his Fernhill is sent to the Desert Island and material will merely be an embellishment was unsuited to film. The Hollywood in Port Talbot (which will probably become of what is undoubtedly a good story. Or moguls hired him for his name and paid Burtonville in time for the centenary) will there be some attempt to explain him millions, but those who understood

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the movies knew he was not a natural. knowing full-well that individual family and then eventually became a sad figure. Burton’s contempt for the movies has members will not always agree or accept Clare Bloom, one of his great loves, sharply never been forgiven by those who treasure his version. Inevitably, in time there will be commented on how in his booze he had the greatness of Hollywood. refutations and even some corrections. But become both a rogue and a bore. And yet meanwhile it must be confessed that many in Wales we are reluctant to give up on The excessive claims made in that cover of these chapters make for compelling him. With a passion for theatre and film I blurb need to be analysed in a cultural reading. once set out to discover whether Burton context. Remarkably, given the initial If nothing else one should read the first had taken something of Wales into his rhetoric, this is something Rubython never and last chapters that deal with Burton’s professional work. I was disappointed in attempts. He is happy to leave that task death and funeral at Celigny. This is that respect and yet I continued to cherish to the other biographers; we are listed family drama of Ibsenesque proportions, both the voice and the degree to which and thanked. His aim is to tell the story of crying out for a movie directed by Robert he had transported a Welsh confidence Burton and to tell it in great detail. Almost Altman. Go on then to read of how and style into a wider cosmopolitan world. inevitably much of the detail pertains to Richard Jenkins became Richard Burton. In recent months I have listened to Chris sex. Readers will be exhausted both by the Did his father ask for and receive £50? Williams of Swansea University, who is effort of holding this 800 page blockbuster I would not be surprised: that kind of editing the Burton Diaries, admiring the and by the sheer contemplation of our deal was not unusual in the Depression way in which he is ignoring the hullabaloo hero’s athleticism: his true greatness could when Welsh working-class families often and just concentrating on what is best only have been recognised in some Sexual improvised arrangements for dealing in Burton’s reflections on the cultures in Olympics. In a chapter entitled Blazing with large families at a time of hardship. which he operated. Magnetism we read Read about Burton and Baker, two Welsh Williams has focussed on a wartime lads on the loose in the big city, of Susan diary in which Burton recorded his “Of all the men that have ever walked Strasberg coming to Stratford to see her everyday life in Port Talbot, a routine of the planet, it is probably true to say lover Richard at a time when he was work, cafes, chapel, Hollywood movies, that Richard Burton, between the already sleeping with three other women. rugby and friends. It evokes a culture that years of 1948 and 1962, was the most Crisis follows crisis, and in all honesty was familiar to all of us who grew up in attractive. Burton’s success rate with Welsh towns and villages in the 1950s, women in his younger years was before the coming of television and around 95 per cent. In his heyday, suburbia. Perhaps it was the last time that between 1947 and 1975, on average Wales felt really comfortable with itself. he slept with at least one new woman There was no pathetic identity crisis as every other day. It’s hard to estimate experienced by a subsequent Port Talbot the number of women he slept with, product, and there were schools, chapels but the best guess is 2,500.” and youth clubs specifically groomed to allow talented individuals to fulfil Research like this puts Welsh universities themselves. This was the world of Dylan to shame. One hopes that the New Welsh Thomas, Bleddyn Williams, Cliff Morgan, Encyclopaedia is at this very moment being Aneurin Bevan and Gwyn Thomas. We amended. Rubython could well argue cherish the memory of Burton primarily that, with a story like this to tell, cultural because his every world takes us straight considerations could best be left to others. back to that world with all its possibilities. And he does have a point for once again Of course, Burton walked away from we are reminded of how just enthralling it, just as he was to walk away from Oxford the Burton saga was. Rubython has read University, Stratford and the Old Vic, all the books and diaries, spoken to some Broadway and Hollywood. He walked Burton and Taylor – “a global phenomenon”. surviving friends and received particular away in the sense of never fully accepting help from Burton’s niece Rhianon Trowell. it is difficult to put down this weighty their cultural obligations and disciplines. He then sets out to tell the story year tome as marriages fall apart and above He always worked (for huge amounts of by year. He settles a score by criticising all as brother Ivor is injured and dies. money) but invariably regularly retreated Swansea University, both for refusing Undeniably this is a life lived as no other into his own world. The anecdotes access to a document and for their general Welsh life has ever been lived. were better than the texts, the friends handling of their Burton material. He But does it all matter? The man went gathered around at lunch or late at night puts his best interpretation on events off into a stratosphere well beyond our ken were better company than the paying

agenda summer 2011—issue 44 | 83 8/Culture / reviews audiences, and everything was better after An intertwining of Welsh two distinct sections: eight contributions a few drinks. He could always slip into and British politics on the Whigs or the Liberals, followed a Hamlet or Dylan recital or talk about J. Graham Jones by eleven on Socialism and the Labour playing for Wales. In the company of the Party, Morgan’s forté in more recent years. Kennedys or Tito he could reflect on how Although discrete and disparate, the he should perhaps have progressed from pieces hang together quite well within a playing Prince Hal to being President, or single volume with a long time-span. It is rather Generalissimo, of Wales. He was a unfortunate, however, that whereas most Prince of a Kingdom from which he had contributions have full endnote references, moved away and which was in the process a few have none at all. of moving away from itself. The contents ranges from an analysis of Burton’s charisma was real enough the importance of the Great Reform Act of as thousands of women and men could 1832 to a consideration of and testify. But our Welsh fascination with him the . In a compelling discussion and use of him as a cultural reference of the 1832 act (which really represents point are rooted in what has become pre-history in the Morgan chronology), the a fantasy. In exile he talked himself out author rightly points up its severe limitations and we will talk ourselves out if we think and its importance mainly as a prequel of him as a great figure in the history of to the further, much more far-reaching the theatre, the movies or of Wales itself. enactments of 1867 and 1884 which He was both fascinating and unfulfilled. Ages of Reform: Dawns and Downfalls brought about a much more extensive Therefore we must now look elsewhere for of the British Left increase in the British male electorate heroes if we want to create a culture that Kenneth O. Morgan (women, of course, remained excluded will allow fulfilment for a new and very I.B. Tauris, £27.50 until 1918 and 1928). different generation. The volume then jumps to Gladstone Let’s leave our Rich in Sardinia where and Keir Hardie on both of whom Morgan he was filmingBoom , a version of a Kenneth O. Morgan is one of our most is an acknowledged authority. Predictably, Tennesse Williams play that inevitably the distinguished and prolific modern political there is much to savour here on Lloyd critics hated but which I rather enjoy. This historians, the author of some thirty George. Especially stimulating is the was the time of the Red Brigade scares and scholarly monographs and an array compelling analysis of LG’s developing Rubython conjures up an image which will of contributions to various academic attitudes towards Germany, including always stay with me, not least because of journals and edited collections. His during the First World War and some its strange familiarity: publishing career began with the ground- consideration of the famous (or infamous) breaking, pioneering work Wales in British visits to take tea with Hitler at his mountain “One night Burton disappeared and Politics, 1868-1922 (Cardiff, 1963), now in retreat at Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian the worst was feared. The police its fourth edition, and extends to the well Alps in September 1936. Here the former were called in and an island-wide received biography Michael Foot: a Life prime minister was accompanied by “a search was mounted. At 10 o’clock, (London, 2007). highly selective and national grouping” he was found with Bob Wilson, his The present volume is Morgan’s third which included his son Gwilym and his valet, outside a bar, standing on a collection of historical essays, following daughter Megan, the latter apparently most table reciting Shakespeare. He was on from his Labour People (London, 1987) reluctant to meet the Fuehrer. apparently holding a competition for and Modern Wales: Politics, Places and Equally compelling is the study of an audience of bemused Italians, with People (Cardiff, 1995), which he published the complex relationship between Lloyd the prize of a drink to the person who on his retirement as Vice-Chancellor of George and his near contemporary French could tell him which of Shakespeare’s the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. The leader Georges Clemenceau. Although plays his recitals came from.” present volume comprises 19 essays, 15 their lengthy inter-relationship was generally of them previously published in various one of mutual antagonism, the two leaders volumes and journals. Some have been apparently respected and admired one revised by their author somewhat prior to another’s qualities and virtues as well. It is their re-publication within this volume. unfortunate that this essay has no footnote Peter Stead is the author of Richard A quick glance at the references reveals references to guide the interested reader to Burton: So Much, So Little (1991) and at once the rich array of sources employed further related material. Acting Wales (2002) by the author. The book is divided into As for the essays on Socialism and the

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Labour Party, especially thought-provoking pragmatic a politician was he”. On the Nine Centuries of Welsh is one on the attitudes of the Labour final page of the book the author observes, Contact with Islam Party, and its successive leaders, towards “It grieves me to see the haemorrhaging Harri Pritchard Jones republicanism and the monarchy, a piece of good members from our party” at the which includes some interesting reflections beginning of the 21st Century. on the role of the monarchy more generally. The author’s personal hobby-horses Other essays underline Kenneth Morgan’s are much apparent. Witness the bold intimate knowledge of the minutiae of the assertion that David Lloyd George was political careers of Aneurin Bevan, Hugh “almost single-handedly responsible for Gaitskell and Michael Foot. The case for a the progressive social thrust of the New new revisionist biography of Bevan comes Liberalism”. Provision for the introduction through strongly here, while the article of old age pensions, for example, had been on Foot was written very shortly after his devised by Asquith before LG took over as death, at the age of 96 years, in March Chancellor of the Exchequer in April 1908. 2010. Curiously, the introduction to the Is there any firm evidence, rather than book is dated several months earlier in hearsay, for the assertion that “Elizabeth October 2009. II had by far her worst relationship with a Conservative Prime Minister, Margaret Kenneth Morgan Thatcher”? Morgan further speculates that really has it in for Tony the Queen’s relationship with Thatcher’s notorious bête noir Edward Heath “cannot Blair for the end of have been the greatest of fun”. The Dragon and the Crescent whose premiership he Not everyone would agree that Grahame Davies the contentious decision to hold the Seren, £12.99 yearned with increasing Investiture ceremony of Charles, Prince desperation in 2006-07. of Wales at Caernarfon castle in July 1969 “had the effect of helping to stifle Grahame Davies has already written a the growing nationalist movement in ground-breaking study of Welsh contact Wales” in the late 1960s, or that the with Judaism. Now he turns to our Queen made “a bland response” to the relationship with Islam for over nearly There is a strong personal dimension to fire at Windsor Castle in 1992 and reacted a millennium. As the author says, “To many of the more recent articles. We are initially “coldly” to the death of Princess involve oneself with the study of Islam and told of the author’s only meeting with the Diana five years later. Was the Labour Western society in the early 21st Century present Queen in 1981 when both were Party really considered ‘unelectable’ from is to enter a field charged with tension, apparently stunned into near-silence by 1951 right through to the 1990s when the preconception and unease.” Morgan’s confession that he had toured impact of ‘New Labour’, we are informed, There is nothing in this erudite volume the country to deliver a series of lectures apparently reversed the trend for good. which can offend any disciple of Islam, any on ‘Socialism’. The Queen nobly observed After all, between October 1964 and Western religion or philosophy or, indeed, that Britain’s early Socialist fathers “must October 1974 the party won no fewer than any ism. It is an excellently researched, have been highly motivated”, a curious four out of five general elections! academic and objective contribution to remark to which Morgan responded by But these are minor, carping criticisms. the history of Wales, and raises parallels for underlining “the strong Christian beliefs of Overall the volume is a stimulating, the Islamic reader with other situations he the founding fathers”. absorbing read, certain to add to its can identify with. In Davies’s words: Kenneth Morgan really has it in author’s very well-deserved reputation for Tony Blair for the end of whose as one of the most respected authors on “It seeks to inform the wider premiership he yearned with increasing the left-wing tradition in British and Welsh contemporary debate about Islam desperation in 2006-07. The invasion of political life. and the West by taking as its field Iraq in 2003 was “undertaken amazingly the literature of one small European by a Labour government”, he remarks. nation, one whose own relationship Indeed, it was clear as early as 1994 that Dr J. Graham Jones is Senior Archivist with the dominant culture and Blair was “manifestly non-Socialist”, the and Head of the Welsh Political Archive language of the West has itself been first such Labour leader. Morgan admits at the National Library of Wales, complex and ambivalent.” to finding Blair “harder to assess, so Aberystwyth.

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Grahame Davies asserts that the Welsh were generally Charles and his friend Simon Lloyd. It must be also be said that amongst the in favour of the missions but more specifically used them educated Nonconformist ministers, sheer to further Welsh national aspirations whilst the enemy, ignorance of Islam was quite rare, though the English Crown forces were otherwise engaged. aversion to it was very common. An exemption was Samuel Evans (1859-1935), The golden age of ended with the who lived in Alexandria. He wrote a long closure of the Crusades. article Y Gwr o Fecca a’i Grefydd in which he attempted to refute the prejudices of his The first chapter deals with the notorious The common name for Islamists in this fellow Christians towards Islam: crusades, though there are references to period was ‘Turks’. Edwards’ remarks Islam in Welsh sources before that period. about them explain the erroneous ‘Virtually everything vile and One of the finest resources for historians of assumptions which were the motivation unpleasant that Christian writers that period in Welsh and European history for the previous crusades: could devise has been said about is Geraldus Cambrensis’ Journey through him [Muhammad]”. Wales in 1191. He was accompanying “God allowed them [the ‘Turks’] to be Archbishop Baldwin recruiting for the a constant scourge to his disobedient Davies adds that Evans, “goes on to list Third Crusade. Grahame Davies asserts people. Scarcely is there a city or the libels of Muhammad from writers that the Welsh were generally in favour town in Asia, Africa and a large as diverse as Martin Luther (who called of the missions but more specifically used part of Europe that these rough Muhammad “first-born of Satan”) … and them to further Welsh national aspirations infidels have not made flow with the Charles Wesley (who called him “that Arab whilst the enemy, the English Crown forces blood of Christians. And those who thief”).” Indeed, Evans asserts that were otherwise engaged. The golden age are spared the sword are sold like of Welsh independence ended with the animals from market to market, to “… since the day of Jesus of Nazareth closure of the Crusades. pull in place of oxen, or to carry out no-one greater has arisen among the In the following chapter we have a some other hardships.” children of men than Mahommed the review of the often fascinating beliefs and founder of Islam... The Moslems beat attitudes of the Welsh towards Islam. The Famous authors such as Ellis Wynne the whole world in this [alms-giving] consensus among medieval Christendom (1671-1734) and William Williams, without exception. which inspired the Crusades is shattered Pantycelyn (1717-91), the hymn-writer and by the Protestant Reformation. Welsh commentator on religious themes, have Two important figures in the last half of the Protestants were somewhat favourable a deal to say about Islam, again noting 19th Century and the first half of the 20th to Judaism. The return of the Jews to some favourable features, but generally Century were Sir John Morris-Jones, poet Palestine was seen as a requirement for being condemnatory. And, as usual, the and professor of Welsh in the university the salvation of the world, but Islam and negativity is largely based on ignorance. in Bangor and Owen Morgan Edwards, Roman Catholicism were henceforward One turns with relief to the work of academic, educator and first Chief the anti-Christ forces in the world. Sir William Jones (1746-94), a renowned Inspector of Schools in Wales. Charles Edwards (c.1628-91), the mathematician and orientalist from Morris-Jones translated the famous Puritan Denbighshire author, who had Anglesey. A gifted polyglot and translator, Persian poem by Omar Khayyám The studied at Oxford, wrote a history of widely-travelled in Asia, and who spoke Rubáiyát, seemly using it to counterpoint the Christian faith, Y Ffydd-Ddi-Ffuant, Arabic, he introduced the English-speaking the sensuous world of the poem with the in which he also commented on the world to Indian literature, was dedicated philistine sanctimony of Welsh language Islamic faith. He had studied the Qur’an to comparative religious studies and literature of the period. The poem reveals a and summarises it in his book. He notes founded the Asiatic Society. He was known Khayyám who is a rebel against the stricter some good features about it, but is fairly as Persian Jones and as ‘the greatest versions of Islam which were prevalent, dismissive of it in general. He concludes: oriental scholar in Europe’. He asserted and was trustful of God’s ultimate mercy to that if the doctrines of different faiths all creatures. Edwards, on the other hand “And now, reader, you can see that the could be represented objectively, then it wrote warmly about Islam: true religion was among men long would be possible to achieve widespread before this bungler stitched together agreement as to their essentials. “To these Arabs belonged a love his patchwork of deception and led Alas, the old prejudices came back of learning and invention. From himself astray in many of to the fore in the work of 18th Century them came governors like Harun his principles.” Calvinistic Methodists such as Thomas al Rasschid, the patron of science,

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and the learned Al Mamun. It was feature Islam in their work. Gwenallt frequent encounters during the wars, and they who preserved the learning tends to see the Muhammadans with in Cardiff’s . of Ancient Greece for the new Western eyes, as to their “utility to the Grahame Davies’ book is a treasury world; it was they who were the project of European enlightenment”. of knowledge about its subject. The teachers of the new dawn of science, Roberts, a Marxist, set his remarkable final chapter has a fascinating listing mathematics and geometry.” novel Y Pla (translated as The Pestilence) of Dragon-Crescent encounters within during the Black Death, in the aftermath Wales, with mixed consequences. One The chapter on Welsh seafarers in their of the Crusades. A Muslim assassin is sent omission, I feel, is the contribution of the encounters with Islam is more anecdotal, from Cairo to kill the King of France in late Archbishop David Mathews, who was spanning the centuries after the crusades, revenge. The novel challenges European from an old Radyr family but had served as through piracy and the slave trade, to preconceptions, depicting Christian a missionary in Ethiopia, Mombasa, Sudan shared experiences of being part of crews conventions as hollow and corrupt, whilst and Somalia, and had spent a deal of time who were of different faiths on the same the assassin is representative of a humane, in Africa. His novel The Prince of Wales’s side in times of war. Though there were learned, inquisitive society. The assiduous Feathers (1953) contains an anatomy exceptions, the general picture is akin to courses of study and preparation in Cairo, of the old Tiger Bay, and has detailed that of British–Islamist contacts. a centre of Islamic learning, is described descriptions of Moslem practice in prayer Another group of Welsh men and in detail and extolled. This was a society and the keeping of Ramadan. It should be women who encountered Islam were which had a duty to send missionaries to reprinted in the Library of Wales series. the Christian missionaries. They were the semi-heathen Europeans. more learned and attuned to theological Lloyd George was a key figure in But Grahame Davies has certainly given us arguments. We are given an amazing the relationship of Wales and Islam, a priceless tome. amount of material which includes insights as he favoured the Jews and a Jewish and blind spots as to the nature of Islam. homeland in the Balfour Declaration, Modern authors such as the poet which discriminated against the mainly Harri Pritchard Jones is co-Chair of Gwenallt and Wiliam Owen Roberts Muslim Palestinians. And there have been Literature Wales. Last word

Our history should catch up with the present

Peter Stead

The spring and early summer of 2011 have claimed that central place in the obligation has to be to us. saw a curious lull in the public life of culture that beckoned. They have opted In recent years there have been Wales. We had our new powers, Labour to fight easily won skirmishes rather than some noteworthy developments in was in sole control but not rushing going for the great battle. terms of public history as academics into any barnstorming reforms, Plaid It seems to me that the basic have worked with museums, digital were clearly in need of a sabbatical, elements of Welsh history are very experts and local authorities to make the and the general air was one of waiting simple. We are the people of the past more vivid. But the Americans are apprehensively to see whether a real Western hills. It is our singular and streets ahead in terms of signposting and winter of discontent lay ahead. It was in stunning landscape that dictated so presenting the past. Visitors to Merthyr, this context that BBC Wales announced much of our history, including our Swansea and the Rhondda need to be the details of their new six-part History age-old poverty compared with the swept off their feet, or at least told where of Wales to be made in conjunction with affluence of southern England. People to walk. Green Bay. fought for control of these hills and that In his novel Ilustrado the Filipino Ever since the BBC had indicated makes for a grand story. The wonderful writer Miguel Syjuco contemplates his that they were commissioning such narrative of those early centuries should own culture and reflects that, a series there had been a buzz of be told in broad strokes and then, of excitement in media and academic course, put into the movies. “… as a nation we’re overly circles in expectation that our age, in The Welsh language is a great gift concerned with the past. Even which the economy flags, education and its miraculous survival owes much engaged in the present we lean struggles to escape mediocrity and to the hills and to the Bible-based faith slightly backward as time forces us political ideologies gather dust, was which prospered and lingered in the forward. Before saying anything, about to be given some guidance. In Valleys. Then, of course, it was saved we form in our heads the things favoured watering holes there was by the coming of industry. Industry was we’re sure we’ve learned in class. perceptible nostalgia for the days of the making of modern Wales but I’m We’ve written one book, and it’s Wynford Vaughan Thomas, Gwyn Alf afraid that our historians have not begun been rebound again and again. Williams and Dai Smith. Could history to explain its importance. All too often Perhaps we have stopped ourselves once again provide inspiration? the Welsh have been encouraged to from being invented, from self- This time of waiting for Huw see themselves as victims of industry realisation, by blaming others for Edwards (yes, you guessed correctly) to whereas it was the best thing that ever our wordlessness.” appear, launching us into six hours of happened to us. bold claims, helicopter shots, stunning Where are the books that will explain Syjuco would fully appreciate the extent landscapes, talking heads and of men to today’s readers why Merthyr, Swansea to which Welsh historians have been and women being plucked out of and Cardiff were once amongst the most cramped by academic and cultural anonymity, is a good time to take stock important places in the world? Can we conventions and actually held back of what history and historians have explain to the Valleys that they were once the progress of Welsh people towards done for us in recent decades. There is a as vibrant and modern as anywhere in political adulthood. As I’m sure the talent case for arguing that, as with literature, Europe and the USA? Are there handy at the BBC and Green Bay appreciate, film and possibly even television itself, books that will explain to the young and there is more to the telling of history than the hype has far exceeded the level of visitors why there are statues of Lloyd taking out old family snaps, even if you’ve achievement. We have had a generation George, Nye Bevan and Dylan Thomas found a few new ones of some aunties in of excellent history teachers and of in our cities? And why, of course did a back draw. All history is really about the hard-working varsity scholars but, stifled our industries disappear? All too often present. So why take five programmes by political correctness and academic historians write inside mythologies and to get there? True surprises come from bureaucracy, I’m not sure whether they for themselves. However, their first within: not from the past.

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new publications

Accelerating History – the 1979, 1997 and 2011 referendums in Wales By John Osmond £5.00 ISBN 978 1 904773 59 7

Referendums are often regarded as conservative devices designed to frustrate progressive initiatives, especially where constitutional change is concerned. In the case of Wales, however, this essay argues that the three referendums of 1979, 1997 and 2011 had the opposite effect. The experience of living through them had a galvanising impact on the Welsh people. It changed their view of themselves and their country. It made them more Welsh in outlook and identity and more willing to contemplate radical constitutional options. The referendums have accelerated Welsh progress towards autonomy. For example, the tiny 6,721 vote majority in the 1997 referendum had the effect of concentrating the minds of the people of Wales. There is no doubt that their attitudes to possible constitutional futures for their country underwent profound changes as a direct result of living through the 1997 referendum.

Less than a decade later the 2006 Wales Act accepted that the National Assembly could become a fully-fledged legislature, but only following a referendum. Further, the referendum could only be put into effect following a two-thirds majority vote by Assembly Members and subsequent approval by the Westminster Parliament. These hurdles were obstacles placed in the path of the Assembly’s development to mollify Welsh MPs hostile to the devolution process. In the event they had the opposite effect. The holding of the referendum, and the experience of the campaign in the early months of 2011, only served to whet the electorate’s appetite for even more powers. Once again, the experience of a constitutional referendum proved an accelerator in Welsh political history

Welsh Perspectives on Ageing IWA Research Report £7.50 ISBN 978 1 904773 60 3

This study undertaken by the IWA on behalf of the Older People’s Commissioner for Wales, reports on focus group interviews undertaken during 2010 amongst people of all ages, from primary school children in the Rhondda to chapel goers in their seventies and eighties in Mold. Each focus group considered the following questions:

• When does older age begin? • What do we feel about retirement and when do we expect to ‘retire’? • What are the challenges, opportunities and difficulties of old age? • How are older people treated in society today? • What do we think about care and nursing homes for older people? • How aware are we of other generations?

The study is the second phase of a project that began with the report Adding life to years – Welsh approaches to ageing policy published by the IWA in 2010. Drawing on the expertise of a range of academics and policy practitioners in Wales, this explored demographic shifts that are underway within Welsh society and the implications for Welsh Government policy and the role of the Older People’s Commissioner.

To order a copy, contact: IWA, 4 Cathedral Road, Cardiff CF11 97J 029 2066 0820 or buy online at www.iwa.org.uk IWA Members can purchase publications at a 25 per cent discount