plu s… Peter Stead 2010: Year Zero Simon Brooks Ethnic cleansing in civic Wales Roger Scully Double coalition land Stevie Upton and Brian Morgan Jury out on Ieuan’s new direction Elin Jones Food strategy for the 21st Century Katie-jo Luxton Profes sor Economic growth’s collateral damage John Osmond Wales’s university revolution Williams’ Jane Redfern Jones Border wars in Mererid Hopwood fight against Cynghanedd gives life to Welsh verse Prys Morgan Ancient Britons and Aborigines Alzheimer ’s

www.iwa.org.uk Summer 2 01 0 No. 41 | £10

summer 2 010

Editor: John Osmond Associate Editors: Falling out Geraint Talfan Davies Rhys David over money Administration: Helen Sims-Coomber Two weeks following the May election the new Prime Minister David Cameron Design: visited the National Assembly and declared he wanted his relationship with it to marc @th eundercard.co.uk be based on “mutual respect”. He said he regarded the nations of the UK as a To advertise family which he wanted to keep together. And he added, “I don’t want our family Tel: 029 2066 0820 to fall out over money”. However, unless things change pretty soon, and they show little sign of doing so, Bay and Westminster will be doing just that. Institute of Welsh Affairs In the Con-Lib 30-page document The Coalition: our programme for government , 4 Cathedral Road published in May, Wales gets just one specific mention, and it’s not encouraging. It Cardiff CF11 9LJ comes under the heading ‘Political Reform’ and states: “We recognise the concerns Tel: 029 2066 0820 expressed by the Holtham Commission on the system of devolution funding. Email: [email protected] However, at this time, the priority must be to reduce the deficit and therefore any www.iwa.org.uk change to the system must await the stabilisation of the public finances. Depending The IWA is a non-aligned independent think- on the outcome of the forthcoming referendum, we will establish a process similar tank and research institute. Members (annual to the Calman Commission for the Welsh Assembly” . subscription £40) receive agenda three times Gerald Holtham, Chair of the ’s Independent Commission a year, can purchase reports at a 25 per cent on Funding and Finance for Wales, described this statement as “surreal”. Why? reduction, and receive discounts when attending Because he has calculated that if the Treasury were to reform the way devolution IWA events. is funded so that it relates to a needs-based formula rather than the present one that relies on a population count, it would save around £3.5 billion. So if the Branches Westminster’s priority is, as it says, to reduce the deficit, that would make a Secretariat significant contribution. c/o Huw Lewis But this is where politics intervenes. That £3.5 billion saving would come 6 Maes yr Haul, Mold, CH7 1NS almost entirely from a reduction in Scotland’s block grant. Scotland has benefited Tel: 01352 758311 enormously since the Barnett formula was introduced back in 1979 because its Gwent Secretariat population has declined. However, with the Scottish Parliament elections looming c/o Chris O’Malley next May, the Westminster government is leery about touching its budget. Indeed, University of Wales, Newport, Caerleon Campus the Scottish threat in the form of the SNP has been the major reason why no PO Box 179, Newport NP18 3YG Westminster government has been anxious to tamper with the Barnett formula. Tel: 01633 432005 Meanwhile, as Gerald Holtham’s Commission has definitively demonstrated, West Wales Secretariat Wales has been losing out by at least £300 million a year. This is the extra c/o Margaret Davies money we would be entitled to if devolution was funded on a needs-based system Principal’s Office, Trinity University College, analogous to the one used by the Treasury to distribute money to the English SA31 3EP regions. Wales would receive at least 114 per cent of average English expenditure Tel: 01267 237971 per head compared with the 112 per cent it actually receives. This should be taken into account before any budget cuts are directed at Wales. Swansea Bay Secretariat An analysis of Treasury figures by Holtham showed that between 1999-2000 c/o Beti Williams and 2010-2011 Wales’s relative expenditure per head on programmes covered Department of Computer Science, by the Barnett formula declined from 125 per cent to 112 per cent of the , Swansea SA2 8PP Tel: 01792 295625 corresponding level in England. Had expenditure growth in Wales kept pace with England, it would have meant an additional £1.82 billion, or 11.6 per cent Cardiff and Valleys Secretariat of the block grant, being available to the Welsh Government this year. The c/o Llio Ellis Holtham Commission showed that Scotland is actually over funded on that scale, 3 De Clare Drive, receiving 120 per cent of English expenditure per head, when needs formulae , Cardiff CF15 8FY indicate the appropriate number is nearer 105 per cent – an excess approaching Tel: 07971 246116 £4 billion a year. Wales in London When she addressed the National Assembly for the first time in June the c/o Robert John Secretary of State for Wales Cheryl Gillan declared that the Barnett formula “was First Base, 22 Ganton Street, London W1F 7BY coming to the end of its existence”. Whether the end is sooner or later expect Tel: 020 7851 5521 some family rows across the UK. contents opinion news outlook

Summer 2010 No. 41

opi nion politics 27 How to capitalise on 37 How we could run our the payroll own rail service 4 Wales 2010: year zero 17 Double coalition land Chris Jones says we should Stuart Cole explores the Peter Stead says that, at the Roger Scully anticipates emulate American-style opportunities that might start of a new century for the outcome of next Credit Unions to kick-start arise from Germany’s our country, we need a May’s Assembly election business finance in Wales acquisition of new politics when all the parties will be in government Food in the City news social policy 19 Back to drawing board 29 Whole food system 8 Latest news from the on social care Elin Jones explains the 39 Dual sector revolution IWA and beyond Joseph Carter urges the thinking behind her comes to Wales Welsh Government to emerging food strategy John Osmond reports on a examine the tools at its for Wales transformation of the Welsh disposal for reforming education system social care funding 31 The political economy of food 40 Innovate or decline 22 Legislating between Kevin Morgan argues that Marcus Longley explains why equals food planning is one of the to survive the Welsh NHS Iwan Davies says London most important new social must speed up change cannot continue treating movements of the early the Welsh Government as 21st Century 42 Adding life to years though it were another Odette Parry agrees with a Whitehall department 34 Market garden new IWA study that we venture reduces need to change the way we outlook carbon footprint think about ageing economy Steve Garrett describes the 11 Simon Brooks creation of an organic Ethnic cleansing in 25 Jury out on Ieuan’s food-growing cooperative environment civic Wales new direction outside Cardiff 12 Mark Rendell Stevie Upton and Brian 44 Economic growth’s Time for the Morgan assess the Welsh collateral damage to bloom Government’s response to Katie-jo Luxton bemoans 13 Judith Kaufman private sector views on the loss of our biodiversity Subtleties in Translation economic renewal hard drive 15 Carl Cooper Powys tries combining cultures and the back office 46 Tackling coastal culture coming up… flooding without Darlith Eisteddfod Lecture Entry free relying on concrete 64 Thinking About History 3 August 2010, 1.00pm — National Eisteddfod, Pagoda, Ebbw Vale Richard Ellis describes Colin Thomas says the Daniel G. Williams, Swansea University how the National Trust is makers of a BBC Wales Aneurin Bevan a Paul Robeson: Sosialaeth, Dosbarth a Hunaniaeth coping with sea incursion landmark series should Aneurin Bevan and Paul Robeson: Socialism, Class and Identity at Freshwater West in avoid paying safe Simultaneous translation provided Coffee Shop Debate Entry free 66 Art of the world Tuesday 7 September, 6.30pm-7.30pm — Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff Tessa Jackson reflects on Ifor Thomas, performance poet, declares Stieg Larsson is the Tolstoy of our age. science eight years at the helm of Artes Mundi Where is Wales Going Next? Entry free Cover story Thursday 23 September, 5.30pm — Ty Hywel, 48 Alzheimer break- 70 Sydney Harbour comes Lecture by Rt Hon Rhodri Morgan AM. In association with the Cymmrodorion. through in Cardiff to Julie Williams asks why Stephen Knight describes Creativity in Hard Times £65 (£60 IWA members) mental health remains the how a voluntary group of Conference to launch Cardiff Design Fortnight. Friday 1 October 2010 poor relation in medical enthusiasts are putting 10.00am to 3.30pm — Pierhead Building, Cardiff Bay research funding the pavilion back Keynote speaker: Peter Lord, Wales’s leading art historian into Cardiff Design Fortnight launch, , 4pm - 6pm 50 Wales needs a science museum History, Heritage and Urban Regeneration £45 (£40 IWA members) IWA Swansea Branch conference, Thursday 14 October 10.00am-5.00pm John Tucker says our National Waterfront Museum, Swansea scientific heritage should be collected and celebrated Regeneration in an Age of Austerity £95 (£90 IWA members) Wednesday -Thursday 20-21 October — St David’s Hall, Cardiff Keynote speakers: Jocelyn Davies AM, Deputy Minister for Housing and North east Wales Regeneration; Nick Bennett, Chief Executive, Community Housing Cymru; Professor Dave Adamson, Director, Centre for Regeneration Excellence, Wales; and Professor Kevin Morgan, Regeneration Institute, . 52 Banality of the border In association with the Welsh Government, Welsh Local Government Association, Simon Gwyn Roberts the Regeneration Skills Collective, and the Centre for Regeneration Excellence Wales. investigates the annonymity of north-east Coffee Shop Debate Entry free Tuesday 2 November, 6.30pm-7.30pm — Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff Wales’ psychogeography 73 Cynghanedd gives life to Welsh verse Sustrans Director Lee Waters asks whether the time has come to get rid of the car. 55 Border wars Mererid Hopwood discovers Jane Redfern Jones makes enticing connections Opportunities for a Confederal University in South West Wales a plea for the identity of between Die Meistersingers £65 (£60 IWA members) Wrexham and our bardic traditions Thursday 18 November 10.00am-3.30pm University of Wales Trinity St David, Carmarthen 57 Mold’s sense of place 77 Ancient Britons and Keynote speakers: Dr Medwin Hughes, Vice-Chancellor, University of Derek Jones casts an eye London Aborigines Wales Trinity Saint David; Professor David Warner, Principal and Vice Chancellor Swansea University; Dr Catrin Thomas, Pro Vice over a town that is slowly Prys Morgan ponders the Chancellor Research, University of Wales Trinity Saint David. changing long history and continuing role of the Cymmrodorion Adding Life to Years £45 (£40 IWA members) Wednesday 10 November, 10.00am-1.30pm — Catrin Finch Centre, commuications Glynd wˆr University, Wrexham last word Keynote speakers: Ruth Marks, Older People’s Commissioner for Wales; 60 Flying the Welsh flag Professor Odette Parry, Director Social Inclusion Unit, Glynd wˆr University; John Osmond, Director IWA. Rhys David interviews Alan 80 The Canadian Edmunds, editor of Wales’s soft option Just published sole national newspaper Peter Stead Creating a Positive Business Environment for Wales IWA Economy and Finance Group £5.00

Adding Life to Years By John Osmond £10.00 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval 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 For more information: www.iwa.or g.uk contents opinion news outlook

Wales 2 010: year zero

Peter Stead says that, at the start of a new century for our country, we should break clear of our default position of whinging

The late Professor Emrys Bowen and went back to England to redo his vital and more participation and one man was one of our greatest lecturers measurements. The story ends happily, the bravely promised to protect the working precisely because he had the gift of blast furnace is successfully constructed, class. After an excruciating weekend of bringing both the landscape and and Merthyr never looked back. horse-trading, Labour inevitably and history of Wales alive. My memory As soon as the recent General deservedly lost office and an unholy of him always prompts the thought Election was announced I realised that alliance of those representing southern that all our best academics and an era was ending. In fact, more than an England and wanting change came into politicians have first and foremost era, a century was ending and more being. Where, one wondered, did this been romantics. You shouldn’t significantly a new one, the 21 st Century leave Wales? Presumably, on the bother meddling in the affairs of was only now truly about to unfold. Just barricades resisting cuts, cuts so savage Wales unless you feel the thrill of the as the so-called Edwardian era was one began to feel that the country as a land and the sheer narrative power essentially a celebratory postscript to whole might be obliterated. ‘Let’s do of the events that have unfolded in everything that was Victorian, with the away with Wales’ somebody is bound these western hills. 20 th Century proper only beginning in to say, ‘that’ll save a few bob’. 1914, so from the perspective of May Inevitably, in Wales itself the To hear Professor Bowen wax eloquent 2010, we seem to have been suddenly Cameron-Clegg era has been dominated about the Cistercian monks tending their cut off from our past and plunged into a by the debates on funding levels and the sheep gave one a fuller sense of Wales new dispensation. The landscape is so referendum. These are major issues and than any text-book. Above all though it strange that quite simply we have to provide useful rallying cries to enthuse was the Industrial Revolution that came begin working everything out, our the troops in the heartland. They help to to life in what can only be called his bearings, our language and possibly our cement that sense of a united front that promotion of the Welsh past. The coming values, from first principles. The old we are going to need even as they serve of industry was, of course, the most rhetoric and shibboleths suddenly seem to highlight the notion that Wales is important event in our history. It allowed hollow and irrelevant. altogether a different entity to England. a mushrooming of our population, it gave Two thoughts came to my mind. This is no time for petty party them a considerably higher standard of First the title and description that politics in Wales: we must speak as one. housing and income, a much richer director Roberto Rossellini gave to his All of this, however, should not blind pattern of associational and cultural life 1945 movie about : he just called us to the fact that, to a degree, we are and made them more fully global citizens. it Germania, Anno Zero . I am in no using these issues of funding and the By way of introducing the great and doubt that for Wales, 2010 is best constitution to disguise our lack of exciting story of the industrial and thought of as Year Zero. But my other thinking on more fundamental issues. technological revolution that would take the thought was of John Guest for whose The whinge mode is the default position name of Wales around the world, Professor descendents my family were to work. in Welsh politics. In the current Bowen would tell the story of how in 1767 As I consider the Wales of today, I just dispensation it is a particularly useful John Guest travelled from the Midlands to hope that somebody is riding into my mode for the Labour Party. We need Merthyr with a bundle of sticks which he country with a few technological and never doubt Labour’s commitment to had cut to the dimensions of the blast political blueprints. defending the needs of its own people, furnace he intended to build. Staying The 2010 Election itself was almost but I see little signs of apology for having overnight at an inn, a servant had entirely a matter of three debates in taken us into this mess. mistakenly used his sticks to light an early which most of the fundamental issues Read Christopher Harvie’s morning fire. Guest mounted his horse were avoided. Two men wanted change Broonland and John Lanchester’s

4 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org “The coming of industry was the most important event in our history…” Pictured is a scene from the cradle of the industrial revolution, George Childs’s 1840 painting, Dowlais Works, Merthyr Tydfil .

Whoops and consider the extent to dynamic urban culture. However, for a be the natural order of things. It is a which Blair and Brown fully conspired complex number of reasons our industry social perspective remarkable for its in sustaining the Thatcher legacy of has largely disappeared. History is like degree of separation from business and closing down manufacturing, permitting that. One day there is coal and steel, the industry. Of course, our leaders pride casino banking, encouraging unbridled next day rust. It is Year Zero. We must themselves on having friends and consumerism, drinking, gambling and start again. contacts in the private sector but it the pop celebrity culture. I have little We start out with one great asset, for usually transpires that these friends work doubt as to where the bills now arriving we have in place a class of prominent for legal, public relations, marketing and should be sent. For the time being we leaders with a considerable degree of consultancy companies that exist to need no lessons on either economics or political homogeneity. It is traditional in service the public sector. ethics from Labour at Westminster. Wales to talk of a divided leadership and We have all now realised that, as Quite simply we need a new politics certainly it is easy to separate the instructed by the First Minister, this in Wales and thank goodness we have respective admirers of Bevan and public sector has to be rolled back. We the structures and the individuals in Gwynfor, or Gwyn Thomas and Emyr need to completely redefine the nature of place that allow us to make a start. We Humphreys. The fact is, however, that public life in Wales so that people are have all the information that reveals how our leaders basically share the same doing things other than administering the relatively poor and underdeveloped we values. They readily accept that Wales is lives of others or, as is more often the are as a society and economy. We need a distinct entity and that it is a bilingual case, recommending ways in which lives to confront those hard unforgiving facts country. At the centre of their frame of should be administered. After several and broadcast them openly. We should mind and reference, and invariably decades in which the leadership élite in then explain them and to do this we thought of as a good thing, is what we Wales has done very well out of need objective historians who have no call the public sector. This is the public incredibly high salaries and excellent time for either Nationalist or Marxist life of Wales dominated by state pension schemes (cradle to the grave mythology. Wales had always been administered or regulated institutions, indeed) they now owe it to the people to relatively poor compared to England: hill including the educational system, the come up with a new model. farming is tougher than that in open health service, the civil service and local It was this élite that persuaded voters country. Industry brought us a well-paid government, quangos and the BBC. that Wales was a distinct political and socially mobile labour force and a Our leaders take this public sector to identity. They now have to prove that

summ er 2 01 0 | 5 contents opinion news outlook

their Wales can fulfil the expectations of Political correctness is invariably an our very accomplished communicators to three million people. Early on they will excuse for avoiding tough decisions and direct their industry towards servicing need to devise a much slimmer system the so-called social sciences have done the young people of Wales in a more of local government services and a little for the quality of life in Wales. structured way. We should aim for much less monolithic National Health Quite simply the time has now come for regular daily courses of on-line Service. And all the while they will have Wales to devise an educational system educational programmes. to be stimulating economic growth and and curriculum that serves its needs. Leighton Andrews has already a new range of creative job Education Minister Leighton challenged our myriad universities (a new opportunities. In the first instance those Andrews has already indicated how one is probably being created as I write) jobs will have to come from industries much has been achieved and offered a to collectively address the needs of Wales. relating to food production, tourism, vision for the future. It is reassuring to Clearly we need to rethink the role of transport and energy. To an see a Minister going on the offensive and universities in Wales. At school and unprecedented extent we will need to giving the country a wake-up call. He is college level the trick is to balance the exploit the fact that there are large surely right to stress that we have every teaching of science, technology and English centres of population living just right to expect educationalists to think business with courses in the humanities over the border. We are now here to first of what they can do for their and arts. At university level the emphasis service them. Meanwhile country. We should respond to his has to shift far more decisively in the has never fully cashed in on its challenge by ensuring that everyone now direction of wealth-creating subjects. proximity to London and its high-tech accepts that schools and colleges are at In a brilliant analysis of the UK’s western extension. the heart of Project Wales. All our plight, Sir John Rose of Rolls Royce As our politicians begin to plan this efforts, and I would say funds, must be argued that the country was not getting revolution in the Welsh mind-set, it has focused on these institutions. sufficient return for the millions it has quite clearly already occurred to them We must once again create a Wales invested in science. He called for a focus on technologies that could be commercially exploited. And he cited the “It is reassuring to see a Minister going on the case of MIT in the States whose graduates have established more than offensive and giving the country a wake-up 25,000 companies with annual sales now call. He is surely right to stress that we have estimated to be worth $2 trillion, the every right to expect educationalists to think equivalent of the 11th largest economy in the world. first of what they can do for their country.” As from Year Zero our universities have to be at the forefront of regeneration. Arguably, no other sector in Wales is changing so quickly. that the place to start is the educational where qualified teachers are regarded However, as we aim for new kinds of system. ‘The Knowledge Economy’ has with more respect than consultants and courses, institutions and partnerships, we become a catch phrase. It now has to where schools are fully integrated into must avoid both excessive bureaucracy become a massive reality. Education, of the lives of their communities. Wales and the excessive jargon so-beloved by course, has been fundamental in shaping should pioneer schemes to ensure that educationalists. Above all, we should be modern Wales. It was the early 20th school and college premises are open 24 unafraid of ensuring that that there are Century devolution of education and the hours a day for seven days a week with fewer Chiefs than Indians. excellence of our grammar schools in the pools, gyms, labs, libraries, studios, As in local government and health first half of that century that engendered computers and canteens always available. there are too many institutional a real air of distinction in Wales and We have just lived through an era that hierarchies. In the past Wales has been guaranteed the democratic and humane gave up chapels and youth clubs and moulded by landowners, coalowners liberalism of our ruling élite. opted for pubs. It is time to restructure and Labour councillors. As of Year We have since squandered a the lives of young people. Private Zero power should be passing into the substantial amount of that distinction, sponsors should be invited to participate hands of entrepreneurial academics, on partly because of economic decline but in this 24/7 revolution. the one hand responding to democratic also because of political correctness and We have become a nation of politicians and on the other prompting a profusion of misguided educationalists. broadcasters. We should now encourage manufacturers and sales departments.

6 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org Inevitably, there will be howls of that politicians are there to do everything protest. These are difficult waters. has encouraged the rest of us to avoid Academic freedom and academic responsibilities and to live lives in which excellence are treasured concepts that we take the soft options. I believe that need to be clearly understood and there are reservoirs of untapped talent, defended. Yet the USA has conclusively energy and idealism amongst all age demonstrated that it is possible to groups waiting for effective means of devise a dynamic higher education local communal expression. system that combines choice, social I began by saying that basically one’s mobility and academic excellence even love of Wales is a matter of romance. as it promotes economic transformation. For me it is also quite unashamedly a For our leaders then it is pay-back matter of nostalgia. In the great age of time. Wales has nourished you, now you steam one would alight at any railway have to ensure that you can carry the station, however humble, and once one country as a whole with you. This brings had negotiated a way through the smoke us to our second great asset - the and baskets of chicks and racing pigeons communities of Wales of which, over the on the platform one would spot the well- years, we have made so much. We are tended flower-beds and sense the porters all products of villages or small towns pride in the state of their kingdom. which, in our hearts, we know to be Today one alights at some stations uniquely blessed by the creator and and immediately assumes that there has vastly superior to the place five miles been a recent air-raid. Apart from down the Valley. In truth our vaunting Rachel Trezise has written “the first draft of our anything else one has to look hard to of our home patches has sounded a little contemporary history”. Born in Cwmparc in the find the small gimcrack sign indicating Rhondda in 1978 she studied Journalism and hollow in recent years. Many of us have English at Glamorgan University and Geography that you have arrived at the right place. sat idly by or just gone for holidays in and History at Limerick University. She published In the old days the sign, the flowers and her semi-autobiographical novel In and Out of the Spain as chapels, shops, pubs and Goldfish Bowl soon after she graduated in 2000. the uniforms left you in no doubt that cinemas have closed and satellite dishes Described as “A child’s Christmas in Wales where you had arrived at the most important the only present you can hope for is that your vie with For Sale notices as forms of Mam really does kill your Dad with the bread- place in the world. street decoration. As communities they knife this time”, it won a place on the Orange Of too many places in Wales it can Futures List. In 2003, Harpers & Queen magazine have seemingly only been saved by voted her their 'new face of literature’. Her short now truly be said that ‘there is no place satellite television, cheap pub meals, story collection Fresh Apples , describing life in the there’. We are not often there ourselves. Valleys, was published in 2005 and won the supermarkets and take-away restaurants. inaugural Dylan Thomas Prize the following year. We sleep there but otherwise that The Rhondda writer Rachel Trezise has Screenwriter and judge of the prize Andrew beloved village of ours with its great Davies described the book as “easily compared to been here to write the first draft of our James Joyce's Dubliners”. Her third book Dial M choirs, boxers and outside-halves exists contemporary history. for Merthyr , published in 2007, is an account of only in our minds and in that array of her time on tour with the Welsh alternative rock In the General Election David band Midasuno . books of our place ‘in old photographs’. Cameron one minute enthused and then If we could only reinvent our the next remained silent about his idea speakers for next year’s programme) and communities I venture to suggest (and of the Big Society. In Wales it was choirs. All these groups will profess a this is not David Cameron speaking: or perhaps rightly ridiculed as sounding great love and concern for the state of perhaps it is?) that we will begin to see hopelessly utopian, vague and fashioned their community whilst for the most part problem issues such as youth discontent, exclusively for the Home Counties. On feeling alienated from its formal politics, family breakdowns, people needing care reflection, however, it is a vision that whether local or national. and company and homelessness in a could be effectively transformed into a Quite simply what we must do in different light. There is no escaping the Welsh idiom. Of course, our ‘deserted Wales is reactivate our communities so fact that as from Year Zero we will all villages’ in Wales are not quite as that local pride and concern are have to do more for ourselves and that is moronic and moribund as our own effectively channelled into action. This no bad thing. You never know we might music-hall stereotype would suggest. sounds like Cameronesque do-goodery just reinvent Wales (again) and in the There are still countless gatherings such but I think it is taking us near to some process save it. as charity events, coffee mornings, social truths that have been buried history societies, exercise sessions, during our decades of resting smugly in — Professor Peter Stead is a cultural contact clubs (desperately seeking the bosom of the nanny state. Our sense historian based in Swansea.

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IWA awards recognise Global the life of the school, for her Wales: contribution to community life active citizenship Angela in Blaenau Gwent, and in Gorman representing the community The winners of the first Inspire Wales Awards on the European stage. The latter include representing the were unveiled at a ceremony in Cardiff’s City Hall Sponsored by the University Wales at Youth Camps across of Wales in June attended by nearly 400 people. The Europe as part of Blaenau awards, run by the IWA in association with the Gwent’s twinning programme, Cardiff nurse Angela Gorman , recognise the achievements of visiting Germany, Italy, France was one of the founding and Belgium. in encouraging active citizenship members of the charity Hope and in promoting their communities on a local, for Grace Kodindo which was She represented the Blaenau national and global scale. In all there were ten set-up following a BBC Gwent Youth Forum at the Panorama programme called winners who received their awards from TUC Conference in north Dead Mums Don't Cry . presenter Angharad Mair. Wales where she delivered an The episode shadowed address on child poverty. All obstetrician Dr Grace The awards acknowledge excellence across the fields of 10 GCSEs she is due to take Kodindo at work in The business, education, science, arts and media, the this year are predicted at Hôpital Général de Référence environment and sport, as well as seeking champions in grade A or above. She is also in N'Djamena in Chad. The citizenship and young achievers. The winners range from studying for grades six in risk of childbirth-related the founder of the internet company gocompare.com to the singing and piano and grades death at the hospital was one man behind a community market in Cardiff, and from a five in flute and violin. charity worker who has raised funds to save 13,000 lives in eleven compared to the in Africa, to a police force that has embraced bilingualism. UK risk of one in 8,200. IWA Chair Geraint Talfan Davies, said, “We have Sport: always believed at the IWA that if we want Wales to be a Through her work with Hope Lucy strong, confident and progressive society, it has got to be for Grace Kodindo Angela Powell one that doesn’t leave everything to government, but one Gorman saw deaths from that takes action as a civil society. The terrific response these eclampsia fall from 14 per awards have received proves that we have tapped into a cent to 2.3 per cent while deep reservoir of agreement about that across the whole newborn deaths fell from 23 of Welsh life.” per cent to 7.3 per cent. The As community sports United Nations Population development officer for Fund asked the charity to Newport City Council Lucy extend its support to Liberia Powell is charged with and Sierra Leone. As a result providing opportunities for Business assemble their own desks, to of all the charity's work in thousands of residents. These Leader: a company of 84 employees. supplying medication, around encourage at risk children and Hayley 13,000 women are estimated Parsons young people to take part in Hayley Parsons knows what to have lived as a result. sport. One of her projects has it takes to succeed despite seen anti-social behaviour not having any formal Sponsored by Leadership drop by 48 percent. training and having learnt Young and Management Wales Achiever: most of her skills on the job. She set up the Friday Night Since day one of Jessica As founder of internet Project , which gets young gocompare.com she has Griffiths comparison website people to attend a workshop attempted to instil an open gocompare.com Hayley in exchange for an hour of and honest culture with Parsons has proved businesses Sponsored by Wales & free sport. Many of the every one of her employees can thrive even during a West Utilities young people who have and has created a thriving recession. In just three-and-a- participated in the project and relaxed environment. half years the former office Jessica Griffiths was have since become gocompare.com is the only clerk has seen her website nominated by her head community volunteers and comparison site recognised develop from an idea teacher at Glyncoed others paid workers. Lucy by the British Insurance conceived around a kitchen Comprehensive School in has also undertaken training Brokers’ Association. table, to a small business Blaenau Gwent for her to help her deliver education where new starters had to outstanding achievements in about substance abuse.

8 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org Active Cardiff in 1998 after being training, and this now applies Cardiff, which is developing Citizen: involved in similar initiatives to all other employees . new technologies to improve Adam in Canada. Aimed at bringing the identification of genetic Rees small sellers to city The aim of making the force abnormalities associated with customers, the association has bilingual – as of 2005 all inherited disorders. grown rapidly and several employees have to have Sponsored by UnLtd Wales markets now operate in both courtesy As well as her research, Cardiff and Newport. As well skills before appointment – is Meena helps organise and For the past six months Adam as providing fresh produce to establish a strong chair national and Rees has co-ordinated Step they reduce the food miles relationship with the Welsh international scientific and Up Cymru, a political travelled by local producers, speaking public. The force medical meetings. Despite mentoring scheme. The minimising packaging and has worked closely with the the death of her husband in project, sponsored by the helping to ensure the Welsh Language Board and India, Professor Upadhyaya National Assembly, the Welsh financial security and viability Llysfasi College in producing chose to stay in Wales to Local Government Association of small-scale producers. tailor-made courses. finish her PhD. It was a and the Welsh Government, decision made more difficult paired politicians with an Steve, who sits on the Welsh because it meant she had to individual from an under- Government’s Agrifood Arts, Media bring up their daughter represented group in Wales. Partnership Forum and the and Creative single-handedly away from Food Standard Agency’s Industries: her extended family. As well as providing advisory committee on Olwen mentoring experiences Adam community engagement, Moseley also designed and facilitated wants the initiative to make Educator: a training suite about the Sponsored by Active consumers more aware of Professor Welsh political landscape. As Music Services local food and its role in Judy a direct result of the scheme enhancing the sustainability of Hutchings 15 of the 34 participants As director of enterprise at Wales. The original Riverside from under-represented Cardiff School of Art and Market, which started out groups are now seeking an Design Olwen Moseley Sponsored by ClickonWales with just 10 stalls twelve years opportunity to stand in next launched the Cardiff Design ago, has grown so much it is year's Assembly elections, Festival. Over six years the Professor Judy Hutchings, a now the largest farmers’ and local elections in 2012. festival has received much researcher at Bangor market in Wales. praise for its impact on the University, studies children Step Up Cymru has also arts community. It has who are at risk of anti-social achieved so much positive persuaded eight other Welsh behaviour. A trained child participants to set-up at Work: publicity that Design Week psychologist Judy has charitable organisations on North magazine listed her as one of developed effective ways of issues of concern to their Wales the ‘Hot 50’ most influential teaching anger management communities. Another ten are Police people in the UK in 2005 and problem-solving skills. applying for boards and and again in 2009. She has been instrumental in public appointments with Sponsored by the CADCentre researching and delivering the organisations such as Welsh UK Ltd Incredible Years parent, child Women's Aid, the Design Science and and teacher programmes Award received by Meic Raymant, Council, and the Adjudication Head of Welsh Language Services, Technology: across Wales through her panel for Wales. and Sue Jones, Bilingaul Workplace Professor Centre at Co-ordinator Meena and her Incredible Years Upadhyaya Cymru Charity . North Wales Police have been steadily enhancing the Sponsored by ISG Pearce bilingual capacity of the force. It first appointed a In her role as Professor of Welsh Language advisor in Medical Genetics at Cardiff Environmentalist: 2000, introducing officer and University, Professor Steve Garrett employee badges stating Upadhyaya carries out Sponsored by WRAP Cymru whether they are learning or research into a number of and South Wales Shredding are fluent in Welsh. Since life-threatening genetic 2004 police officer recruits conditions. She is head of the Steve Garrett established the have received mandatory NHS research and Riverside Community Market Welsh language lessons as part development laboratory at the Association in his native of their two-year probationary University Hospital of Wales,

summ er 2 01 0 | 9 contents opinion news outlook New s seeking inward investment Other key recommendations Creating a positive opportunities in the UK. include: focusing the Welsh • Lobbying for Welsh Government’s own resources business environment interests at the UK level. on infrastructure and skills, and specifically on developing The private sector should It says that the Welsh The report concludes that high-speed east-west rail play a far greater part in Government's ambivalence “creation of one or more infrastructure and ensuring the delivery of economic about the role of the private arm's length bodies, combined that all school leavers achieve development programmes sector is preventing the with outsourcing of certain adequate basic skills; and if Wales is to rise from the effective application of delivery functions to private using the £5 billion annual bottom of the UK business expertise. Central to sector-led organisations, is public procurement budget competitiveness rankings, a new approach should be the central to the effective to prompt indigenous private says the IWA in its creation of a ‘Welsh business implementation of economic sector growth. response to the Welsh embassy’ in London. development strategies”. This response draws on Government's Economic According to the report, the extensive experience of the Renewal consultation. “Establishing a business The Institute proposes the IWA’s Economy and Finance embassy would provide an development of a ‘hub and Study Group, as well as on the ongoing Welsh presence close spoke’ model to replace the views of providers of business to the heart of UK current structure of the support, business representative Government”. It would serve Department for the Economy organisations and academics. Welsh business interests by: and Transport. A slimmed down civil service hub should Creating a Positive Business • Acting as a visible focus for focus on policy creation, Environment for Wales is Wales in a world capital. monitoring and evaluation, available from the IWA at £5. • Promoting Wales to with delivery undertaken by The Welsh Government’s policy venture capitalists as an a limited number of Economic Renewal - A New investment location. independent public and Direction , published on 5 July, is discussed by Stevie Upton • Promoting Welsh exports. private sector organisations. and Brian Morgan on page 25. • Targeting businesses

attitude to life.” Gwanwyn spring festival in Resilient personality May which celebrates Among other suggestions put creativity in older age. answer to ageing forward in the report are : The report says the The Older People’s Director John Osmond, said: • Providing timely advice for establishment of the Older Commissioner in Wales older people. For instance, it People’s Commissioner is should combine with the “Researchers at Bangor is estimated that as much as presenting a huge Children’s Commissioner University have been £293 million worth of opportunity for developing a in advocating greater inter- investigating the concept of ‘the means-tested benefits are distinctive Welsh agenda on generational awareness in resilient personality’ whose unclaimed in Wales each year. ageing policy. “The role is schools across the country. ability to cope with difficulties • Finding ways to promote unique within the United This is one suggestion in a and overcome problems is seen more positive attitudes Kingdom and is attracting a new IWA report Adding as being central to successful towards ageing, for good deal of attention Life to Years which surveys ageing. The question arises instance by publicising around the world,” said John Welsh policy approaches whether resilience can be the contribution and Osmond. “It reflects a to ageing. learned or developed in young achievements of older people. determination on the part of people in relation to their • Promoting thinking on how the Welsh Government to By 2030, 32 per cent of the understanding of what life will future housing developments devote more attention, and population will be over 65, be like in their older age. In can incorporate design potentially more resources to compared with 24 per cent studying resilient children and features more attuned to the the needs of older people.” today, and 5 per cent will be their families, researchers have needs of an ageing population. over 85 compared with just identified protective processes • Encouraging a national debate 2 per cent today. One in and resources that make some on the problems around Adding Life to Years is four children born today can young people more stress paying for care homes for available from the IWA at expect to live beyond 100. resistant and help them develop those who need them. £10. It is reviewed by Odette The report’s author, IWA strength, courage and a positive • Expanding the annual Parry, page 42

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multicultural school’. This then invites ethnic ‘Other’ in Welsh-language unspoken comparisons with the Welsh- culture, this is a significant form of medium sector, which is subsequently multicultural commitment. But none of constructed as being somehow mono- this shows up in UK-centric diversity cultural, mon-ethnic and, in a favourite monitoring forms which subsume piece of terminology reserved for the English and Welsh ethnic identities Welsh language, ‘exclusive’. under the category of ‘British’. This is Playing to the gallery during her bid not to say that Welsh-medium schools for the Wales Labour Party leadership are not multicultural. Rather, the last year, Cabinet Minister Edwina Hart argument is that they do not conform stated controversially: to British models of multiculturalism in which language and sub-State identities “I want Welsh medium education to be like ‘Welsh’ and ‘English’ are deemed to genuinely available to all who want it be unimportant. and Welsh medium schools to be But the discourse connecting the genuinely open to all who wish to Welsh language with ethnic exclusivity Simon Brooks attend. I worry that some schools do reflects a deeper malaise, and one which Ethnic cleansing not properly reflect the communities in is in large part a product of post- in civic Wales which they are located. Why do some devolution Wales. Welsh politicians like Welsh medium schools in the centres to present themselves as purveyors of a of our biggest cities – Newport, Cardiff purely civic form of nationalism. The Obscure and unworldly as political and Swansea – have so few black faces binary division of nationalism into theory can be, it does sometimes in their classrooms? The worst thing ‘civic’ and ‘ethnic’ categories has meant have policy consequences. A good that can happen to the language is that that while devolution is lauded as a example is the recent row about the it becomes the exclusive preserve of a civic project, and hence good, language, expansion of Welsh-medium self-appointed minority”. with its link to national identity, is education in west Cardiff. This erroneously seen as ethnic and viewed followed ’s The tone employed here raises questions more suspiciously. This false dichotomy controversial decision to block the about how genuine the stated desire to has enabled the Welsh Government to Council’s plans to relieve school make Welsh-medium education more ignore the problems of Welsh-speaking overcrowding by relocating Ysgol ethnically diverse is. The ‘exclusive’ communities (an ‘ethnic’ problem in a Gymraeg Treganna to the site of an nature of Welsh education is blamed on ‘civic’ Wales), and now undermines the undersubscribed nearby English- ‘a self-appointed minority’. Furthermore, development of Welsh-medium medium school. I must declare an there is a suggestion that an unnamed education in urban south Wales. interest as my daughter attends élite regards the language as a screen for This placing of various languages in Ysgol Treganna. However, I will not the maintenance of ethnic purity. Yet civic and ethnic camps has been repeat familiar arguments ESTYN, the schools inspectorate, extensively criticised by academics who condemning the First Minister’s reports that 13 per cent of pupils at claim that the civic is often merely the decision, but will explore issues Ysgol Pwll Coch in south Cardiff come ethnic in disguise. Civic nationalism is surrounding the Welsh language from visible ethnic minorities, and merely a situation in which the values and multiculturalism . although this figure could be higher it is of the majority group have become so nevertheless significant. normalised and hegemonic that people Although Canton Labour Councillor In addition to their black and Asian forget that the majority, too, has ethnic Ramesh Patel went out on a limb in his pupils, Welsh-medium schools contain roots. The English language is the notorious description of Cardiff’s school other forms of diversity. Only a default language of civic identity in reorganisation as “ethnic cleansing”, the minority of pupils come from what we Britain – and thus imagined as basic tenet of his argument has been might call their ‘ethnolinguistic core’ – multicultural and inclusive – because echoed by other Labour politicians, but that is to say, from Welsh-speaking the British State requires everyone to in more subtle ways. English-medium homes. As well as children with learn it. It is exactly because the Welsh schools in inner-city Cardiff are English-speaking Welsh parents, a large language has been marginalised and routinely described as ‘multicultural’, as percentage of pupils in Welsh-medium minoritised that it can be seen as in the oft quoted phrase that a schools are of English background. exclusive and ethnic. particular school is ‘a successful Given the role of the English as the Obtruse theory indeed! But as the

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school row in Cardiff shows, it has real competition could be uploaded onto a consequences. What can be done to gallery page on the Eisteddfod website, prevent this dangerous new racialisation providing a valuable showcase for all the of the language debate? In the first place, garden designers and teams involved. it would help if the Welsh language were The second element of this proposal to become more ‘civic’. Moves to would be to identify a number of normalise Welsh – such as strong Welsh suitable outdoor spaces on the Maes that language measures which make it a could be offered to designers and language of the State – take the language sponsors. These would include the into the realm of the civic. It is by entrance area to the Maes, processional making the Welsh language stronger that spaces, a central ‘breathing space’ to rest one can make it more inclusive. and reflect, a play or fun space, and an Secondly, there needs to be a interactive educational space. project which draws attention to the Planning the entrance to the Maes evidence for multicultural and provides an insight into how this multiethnic diversity in the Welsh proposal might work in practice. The language community. The Welsh space sets the scene for the Eisteddfod language has always been a language of Mark Rendell experience immediately beyond the ticket the non-Welsh as well as the Welsh in Time for the office. It is a greeting and meeting space Wales. The Welsh-speaking descendants and an ideal location to influence the of English settlers in the Middle Ages, Eisteddfod to bloom mood and expectations of visitors. ethnic communities in the industrialising Details of the space (size, soil, access Valleys of the 19 th Century, as well too Wandering around the Eisteddfod and so on) could be made available on as the Roma of rural north Wales in the Maes in Bala last year it struck me the Eisteddfod website immediately after 20 th Century, are all examples of non- that the event provides a wonderful the layout had been agreed, with an Welsh groups which became in part, or opportunity to showcase the best invitation for sponsorship and garden in whole, Welsh-speaking. No language work of gardeners and garden design proposals. is of and in itself more multicultural designers across Wales. A ‘green An Adjudication Panel would select than any other, and the tendency to be pavilion’, along the lines of the Arts the winning design, according to criteria ‘multicultural’ often means little more and Crafts Pavilion, could showcase agreed beforehand. As this is possibly than the possession of enough cultural creative garden designs and provide weight to assimilate others. a focus for horticultural enterprises “Planning the entrance to the In Cardiff, developing a multi- and craftspeople. Maes provides an insight into ethnic Welsh-language community is how this proposal might work best achieved by expanding Welsh- A national garden design competition in practice.” medium education. Hard to get into, culminating in a winning design chosen taught in cramped and unsuitable at the Eisteddfod would be held. buildings, and at the centre of endless County-wide competitions would be the most prominent outdoor space on political rows, it is hardly surprising open to anyone, according to an agreed the Maes - everybody has to pass it at that Welsh-medium education is less theme. The leading three designs in each least twice - it could also be an attractive to ethnic minority parents county could be selected via a county opportunity for the Eisteddfod’s host than it could be. The most effective panel. These finalists could then attract a county to provide a welcome and way of addressing any ethnic imbalance small seed-grant to work up their ideas greeting statement expressed through the in the intake of Welsh-medium schools and explore sponsorship. medium of flowers, shrubs, artwork and is to make them more easily available The next stage would require an other garden features. in places like inner-city Cardiff . Adjudication Panel to select the final set, Alongside the final set of gardens perhaps one per county, that would be selected from across the country, a built and shown at the Eisteddfod. ‘green pavilion’ could comprise stands — Simon Brooks is a Lecturer at the Week-long voting at the event by visitors representing garden design and School of Welsh, Cardiff University and and via the web and television would horticultural professions in Wales and is currently writing a book about result in the selection of the winning related businesses and organisations multiculturalism and the Welsh language. garden. All submissions in the such as outdoor leisure and furniture

12 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org companies, garden art suppliers and become obvious in meetings where the makers, hard landscaping materials and services of an interpreter are sought. tools stockists, plant stockists, nurseries People tend to speak more Welsh when and garden centres, garden groups and the Chair of the meeting does as well. societies, training schemes, college People tend to ask their questions and courses and scholarships, garden visitor discuss a presentation or contribution in attractions, outdoor play equipment and the language the contribution or sensory gardens, school and community presentation was made in. And the gardens, books and guides, to name but smaller and the more personal and a few. familiar a meeting, the likelier it is that The August timing of the Eisteddfod people address English speakers in means that a national horticutural event English in order not to lose direct of this kind would not clash with other communication with each other. UK-wide gardening shows. Meanwhile, Interpreting can be an opportunity the intiative would result in many to question those norms. International benefits for the Eisteddfod including: studies of translation and interpreting internationally have examined how • A promotional tool for the Eisteddfod, dominant languages and cultures with sponsorship opportunities and Judith Kaufman assimilate lesser-used languages (or new income streams, with a new Subtleties languages considered to be subordinate) constituency of visitors. in translation into their own ideological principles. • Connect the Eisteddfod with the land, They have also shown that translation via gardens and development of and interpreting can be a focus for outdoor spaces on the Maes. Recent developments in the law resisting such ideologies. • Provide a high profile platform for courts show that simultaneous It is an interesting question how garden organisations, garden designers interpreting has been accepted as interpreting could make a stronger case and horticultural industries to a central part of language policies for the use of Welsh. No-one should be demonstrate their work, products and in Wales. New court centres like afraid of losing out here. At its best services in Wales. the one in have state-of- interpreting is an inclusive activity. By • Strengthen the garden design and the-art interpreting booths and establishing new norms for Welsh in a horticultural sectors by providing a equipment incorporated in their number of social contexts, this is about valuable opportunity to network, chambers. The ongoing consultation improving the participation of Welsh collaborate, market and promote on bilingual juries in criminal court speakers rather than reducing the input their work. cases is also a sign that the use of of English speakers. • Provide an opportunity for articulating Welsh in trials is being taken Interpreting (and translation) needs ideas around our national identity. seriously, and that interpreting is a to be looked at from the point of view of resource people should be able to rely democracy and ownership, not only in Bringing gardens to the Eisteddfod, and on. Nonetheless, it is a resource that terms of financial cost. If the suggestion showcasing innovative work of the best should only be used when no better to stop translating the Assembly’s Record that Wales has to offer, would be an ways of conducting a trial in Welsh of Proceedings last summer was entirely natural development in the are available. acceptable to some, this shows that the evolution of the National Eisteddfod. close involvement of translation in Populating the event’s outdoor spaces These developments bring us a step improving a democratic society has not with horticultural excellence would closer to recognising an important part yet been understood. provide another means for articulating of the identity of Welsh speakers. But if For interpreting to be successful in our relationship with the place we call we want to get even closer to our ideal that respect, it is not enough to have ‘home’, with the wider landscape and, of Welsh and English being treated accomplished interpreters in all the ultimately, with each other . equally we might have to accept that meetings where potentially someone English needs to be de-normalised in might be speaking Welsh. We need to some situations. Interpreting can play a make sure that people who can speak — Mark Rendell is a gardener role in doing this which means that those Welsh will do so. With the symbolic and garden designer, based in who happen not to be able to speak and value attached to the National Assembly, Garndolbenmaen, , understand Welsh are not excluded. that is the first place where Welsh www.thegrowingcompany.co.uk A number of linguistic norms speakers should be expected to use the

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language, as a sign of the vision of a that inhibits frank discussion. With the language policies of recent bilingual Wales. Organisers and Chairs This underlines the importance of decades it has become possible and must be made aware of the requirements the overall atmosphere in a group. The desirable to give more room to the of interpreters in terms of preparation atmosphere of a discussion can be Welsh-speaking part of our identities, and room layout for instance. But even influenced by the use of Welsh/bilingual and this is why more meetings are held more important than that, they need to documentation, but more even by with the use of an interpreter. It is more be aware of their own role in making people’s habit of using Welsh in other democratic to allow Welsh speakers to meetings more bilingual. contexts. Where people know each other express themselves in Welsh. But this is The best encouragement to speak in Welsh, they will find it easier to only one side of the coin! In Welsh areas Welsh in a meeting is a Chair who continue talking in Welsh in a meeting, the interpreting services are provided not even if there are English speakers to give a majority of Welsh speakers the “Talking of ‘language choice’ does present. On the other hand, in work- right to speak Welsh, but to give those not seem to take into account of related meetings where Welsh speakers without fluency in Welsh the opportunity the way that relationships grow have got used to discussing their work in to take part in meetings and events. and develop.” English, then English will tend to be part Every area’s linguistic reality is different. of their work-related comfort zones (and Interpretation not only makes people speaks Welsh as much as possible, thus of their identities relating to their position aware of this reality, but it is also a indicating that an interpreter is at work). Speaking Welsh in a work means of coming to terms with it. trustworthy, that bilingual meetings are meeting will be much more of an effort Translators’ and interpreters’ nothing to be scared of, and that Welsh for them, especially if their close experiences must be taken on board in is a language of communication for colleagues are in the meeting too. designing language policies. For centuries business and politics. However, to give Of course, these are not conscious they have been specialists involved not this message more effect guest speakers mental processes. The confidence to only in the creation of standard forms of and persons holding a role within the speak Welsh publicly is not only a languages and of new terminology, but group should be encouraged to speak question of fluency in different registers also in observing relationships between Welsh. This is not always easy. Many of the language or familiarity with the people and cultures. By the nature of Welsh speakers feel it to be a matter of appropriate terminology. Much more their job they have a wealth of social and courtesy to ask questions and discuss a than that, it is a matter of the intercultural insights. Yet too often, point in the language in which that point relationships we form with others when translation is a bone of contention within was made (of course, monolinguals do the language we speak is an essential language policies, and its cost is often not have to think about courtesy). If component. Talking of ‘language choice’ seen as a safe argument for dismissing more speakers spoke Welsh, it would does not seem to take into account of it as an undesirable side-effect of then be regarded as polite to respond to the way that relationships grow and bilingual policies. them in Welsh. develop. In some cases choosing to speak When people argue that translation The relative formality or informality Welsh might profoundly disturb a should be cut in favour of spending on of a meeting might be an indicator of relationship. Even the thought of having stronger second language teaching, they how much Welsh will be spoken. It is to choose a language each time we do not realise that without translation generally assumed that interpreting works communicate can bring a lot of pressure and interpreting, professionals would better in relatively formal meetings, to bear on all but the most assertive find it difficult to get used to new where interchange is not too much Welsh speakers. terminology, to writing in Welsh disturbed by translation. Such meetings, It is evident, therefore, that (because translators are also often it is assumed, allow forms of discussion simultaneous translation is about more proofreaders and correctors), and to where repetition, rephrasing and than ‘merely’ transporting meaning from develop the use of different registers in generally informal speech are not seen as one language to the other. It is a the language. We need to make sure that an obstacles to the flow of discussion. crossroads where the two cultures of the new strategy for a bilingual Wales On the other hand, it can be argued Wales come into direct contact with each takes the translating and interpreting that the more formal a meeting the more other, and where her people are reminded profession seriously . difficult it is to rely on the interpreter. of the fact that language and identity form When every word had to be weighed and a close relationship. This relationship is — Judith Kaufmann works at every sentence put together carefully, an not necessarily one-to-one. We all behave Cymdeithas Cyfieithwyr Cymru interpreter can constitute an additional and speak differently according to the (the Association of Welsh Translators layer between one speaker and another different contexts of our lives. and Interpreters) in Bangor.

14 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org opted to explore the most ambitious significant third sector in Wales. It is option. Yet, as everyone foresaw, the the second highest employer in the devil would be in the detail. Moreover, county, deploys in excess of 52,000 excitement began to wane as potential volunteers and generates an annual innovation gave way to a bureaucratic, income of over £57 million. statutory sector-led reorganisation that There are major issues facing the prioritised organisational need over local authority and the health authority citizen focussed services. as they contemplate merger. It is It had been hoped that the process undeniable that efficiency savings will would begin with a holistic assessment result as a consequence of sharing of need, involving all sectors and all premises, back office services and posts. sections of society. The emphasis would The integration of front line services, have been on collaboration and particularly within health and social integration of service delivery, bringing care, can only mean improved and together different parts of the statutory more cost effective services for the and voluntary sectors. citizens of Powys. Nonetheless, a merger board was However, significant hurdles need established to take forward the process. to be overcome before any of these Carl Cooper At first, it was mooted that it would be benefits can be accrued, particularly in Powys tries open to the input and contribution of the spheres of governance and finance. combining cultures non-statutory partners and stakeholders. As its name indicates, a local authority and the back office It was of particular interest that the board is a locally elected body accountable to would include third sector membership. the electorate and responsible for the This was seen as an opportunity to throw delivery of certain statutory In early 2009 a set of circumstances open statutory doors to the creativity and responsibilities. It has tax raising came together that made it ingenuity of others. powers, can invest and borrow money, opportune for Powys County It was hoped that space would be but is required to balance the books. Council and the Powys Health Board to consider the feasibility of merger. Co-terminosity of both “It was hoped that space would be bodies, together with a developing cooperation between the two secured for new thinking and fresh prompted consideration of greater collaboration. ideas, that experimentation would

There was much excitement in Powys, be encouraged and that risks would not least among third sector be taken.” organisations, at the possibility of developing a public service organisation that was truly innovative, resulting from creative thinking and ingenious ideas. In July 2009 an option appraisal report was produced. This outlined the secured for new thinking and fresh It can neither budget for a deficit nor difficulties both bodies were facing and ideas, that experimentation would be negotiate a deficit position. three options for greater collaboration: encouraged and that risks would be On the other hand, a health board is taken. Hopes were dashed as statutory an appointed body accountable to the • Full merger. partners decided to close their doors to government. It too has certain statutory • Shared structures, functions and others and restrict membership of the requirements placed upon it. However, services. merger board to their own kith and it has no tax raising powers and it is • Increased cooperation and certain kin. The result is that the third sector, not allowed to borrow or invest money. shared appointments. along with others, now looks on with In the event of an over spend, a health interest but from afar. board can agree a financial recovery It is to the credit of the governing This is particularly poignant plan with central government. Powys bodies of both organisations that they considering that Powys boasts the most teaching Health Board operates an

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underlying deficit of £11m. of a participative process that agrees a planning for a smaller state and a bigger Some might conclude that the suite of integrated, collaborative services civil society. The third sector is being reconciliation of such divergent systems responsive to the need of citizens and looked to play a bigger role in the delivery is akin to mixing oil and water. From communities. Why not try to imagine a of statutory and discretionary services. the council’s perspective, the risk of public service organisation that is neither Powys has a great opportunity to merger with an organisation that has statutory, private nor voluntary? It would break new ground and to rise to the significant debt is substantial. Throw be unique, ground-breaking and, in the challenge of post recession Britain. For into the mix the ubiquitous and true sense of the word, innovative. this to be achieved, the public sector pervasive resistance to change and It would need new and primary needs to let go of public services and defensive nature of all human legislation. However, if it is possible to fling open its doors to inclusive organisations, and one could be legislate for collaboration between local participation. It’s not too late to forgiven for thinking that all is lost authorities and between statutory bodies, rekindle the excitement that the early before it begins. is it too much to imagine an extension stages of the merger process Nonetheless, local authority of this legislation to include non- engendered and realise a shared dream . members in Powys, together with health statutory partners? I can already hear board colleagues exhibit a genuine and third sector colleagues argue that this impressive commitment to the would threaten our independence. This realisation of merger and surmounting may be true, but ingenuity will be stifled obstacles. Powys county council and the by protectionism from whichever quarter health board have recently it originates. commissioned consultants KPMG to Meanwhile, central government is report on progress thus far and chart a preparing us for a public spending — Carl Cooper is Chief Executive way ahead for the proposed merger. squeeze. In their slightly different ways, Officer with the Powys Association The third sector is eager to be part governments and administrations are of Voluntary Organisations. Join the IWA and support our work.

“The IWA occupies a unique place in Welsh public life. Its analysis of current issues is always professional and extremely helpful. ” Lord Richard of Ammanford Double Chairman of the Richard Commission “The IWA is a quite extraordinarily valuable body, and I am very proud to be a member coalition land of it. ” Lord (Kenneth) Morgan One of Wales’s leading historians Roger Scully anticipates the outcome of next May’s Assembly election when all the parties will be in government “In a time of transition for Wales, politically, the Institute of Welsh Affairs provides a vital forum for all sides to come together Noel Coward’s classic There are a business as long-range weather over both strategically important and bad times just around the corner, forecasting. We are in wholly uncharted contentious issues. ” and the outlook is absolutely vile territory in ways that take us beyond Baroness Ilora Finlay of seems appropriate for Wales in the the usual uncertainties of politics. Professor of Palliative Medicine, Cardiff University wake of George Osborne’s first Devolved elections have never budget. Our large public sector and previously occurred during a period of The work of the IWA depends on the support weak entrepreneurial traditions cuts and austerity. They have never and contribution of individual members make his cuts agenda likely to hit occurred with anything other than a across Wales and beyond who share our us disproportionately hard. Labour government in London. And determination to mobilise the nation’s human and social resources in order to face the Devolution gives us some flexibility we have never had a devolved election challenges ahead. By bringing together partners to decide where and how the cuts where all the major parties competed in business, academia, and the public and are implemented. However, there as parties of government. voluntary sectors, the IWA is helping to shape seems little escape from the pain However, the last of these factors economic, social, educational, environmental that lies ahead. may give us some clues as to what we and cultural policy across Wales. should expect to transpire in the I wish to become a member The age of austerity raises many election. In ‘double coalition land’, as and enclose a cheque for £40. questions for analysts of politics and BBC Wales political editor Betsan I wish to become a member government. One of the more Powys has appropriately termed Wales, and pay by credit/debit card immediate ones is how the onset of both Labour and will be the sum of £ serious cuts will affect the May 2011 compelled to fight the election at least Account Number National Assembly election. How will a partly on their record as the One Wales _ _ _ _ /_ _ _ _ /_ _ _ _ /_ _ _ _ relentless diet of bad news shape the Cardiff coalition. Likewise the Expiry date _ _ /_ _ way people think about the election, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats and how they cast their ballots, or at will doubtless be called on to answer for I wish to pay by Direct Debit least those who bother to vote? the performance of the UK governing (This will help us keep our costs down) It is difficult to say, and not simply coalition. In a situation where there is Please send me a Direct Debit application form. for the usual reasons which make long- unlikely to be much good news around, Please send me details about becoming range election predictions as hazardous to whom will most blame be directed? an IWA Fellow.

Name: Title: Table 1: Address: Public Perceptions of Change, 2005-10 (%) Post Code: Health Education Standard of Living Law and Order Improvement 41 24 18 20 Tel: Fax: No Difference 27 28 31 34 E-mail: Decline 22 20 43 32 Don’t Know 11 28 9 14 Return to: Freepost INSTITUTE OF WELSH AFFAIRS Institute of Welsh Affairs, 4 Cathedral Road, Cardiff CF11 9LJ politics economy social policy environment science NE Wales communications culture

Evidence from the 2010 Welsh with regard to the Economy, while the one in London. This can be seen in Election Survey shows an important opinion leans to the negative on Law Figure 1, which shows results for the pattern in public attitudes that is and Order (Table 1). NHS. This might seem fairly logical directly relevant to answering this Most important, however, are the since most responsibility for the Welsh question. Among the many questions results from a follow up question. For NHS is now wielded in Cardiff. And asked in this survey were several each policy area, anyone who thought yet among those who think standards enquiring into respondents’ perceptions that things had changed either for better have declined, far more blame the UK of changes in key policy areas since the or worse over the previous five years than the Welsh government. previous general election in 2005. was also asked about where they Moreover, this disparity in People were asked about Education and attributed credit or blame. Was it attributions of credit and blame not only Health, largely devolved areas of policy, mainly down to the policies of the occurs for devolved matters like health, and Standard of Living and Law and UK government, those of the Welsh and also education where we see an Order, ones where most responsibility Government, both equally, or some almost identical pattern. We see very remains with the UK government. In other reason? We found a clear and much the same pattern of attributions line with other recent surveys, the consistent pattern. Among those who on the largely non-devolved functions balance of opinion is generally positive perceive improvement, far more people Standard of Living and Law and Order. about the record on the NHS, less so credit the government in Cardiff than Welsh people are more willing to give credit for any improvements to their own level of government. However, Figure 1: when there is blame to be attributed, it Attributions of Policy Credit/Blame: NHS tends to be directed at the government in London, as demonstrated in Figure 2. The implications of these findings do not look good for any prospective Conservative or Liberal Democrat candidates next year. At a time when there will be plenty of blame flying around, it seems that most voters will be inclined to pin it on the level of government that their parties control. And there will doubtless be plenty of Labour and Plaid politicians and activists encouraging people to see it this way. For the One Wales coalition partners, bad times may at least reap Figure 2: an electoral reward. Attributions of Policy Credit/Blame: Standard of Living — Professor Roger Scully is Director of the Institute of Welsh Politics at University. The statistics are taken from the 2010 Welsh Election Survey, conducted by YouGov for the Institute of Welsh Politics and the at Cardiff University. A representative sample of 1,475 respondents were interviewed via the internet in the period immediately after the May 2010 UK general election. Further details about the survey are available from the author [email protected]

18 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org Back to drawing board on social care Joseph Carter urges the Welsh Government to examine the tools at its disposal for reforming paying for social care

Radical reform of the social care extremely difficult to know what you are partnership model where the state would system in Wales could be one of entitled to. Each local authority has pay a percentage of the costs, if the the first casualties of there now different charges and a different individual paid the rest. being different governments in assessment. Someone could be judged to However, this Green Paper only Westminster and Cardiff Bay. have moderate care needs and be given a applied to England. When the Welsh Andrew Lansley, the new care package in one local authority, whilst Government began to consult on its own Conservative Secretary of State for in another the same person might not be Green Paper in November 2009, the Health, has a completely different given anything. In Wales 82,000 people message from Ministers was that they view on social care and the role of receive local authority funded social care. wished to link in very closely with what the state to the Deputy Minister for In Summer 2009 the UK was being proposed in England. The Social Services in Wales, Gwenda Government Green Paper on reforming Welsh Green Paper states: Thomas. This could pull the social care in England ruled out using rug from under the Welsh general taxation to fund free personal “Whilst the Welsh Government is Government’s Green Paper on care. Instead, it considered voluntary responsible for the social care system reforming the funding of social care. insurance, compulsory insurance and a in Wales, the levers to change the Does it have to be this way? system for paying for care are largely the responsibility of the Westminster Social care is poorly understood, Government, and the existing legal undervalued and under funded. If you framework covers England as well were involved in a sudden accident or as Wales.” developed a serious condition, you would expect the NHS to look after you and The Green Paper only considered the nurse you back to health. Regardless of funding options already being put whether you were living in Bangor or forward by the UK Government. There Barry, Pembrokeshire or , your was no attempt to explore any specific assumptions about the health service Welsh ideas. It also proposed that a new would be the same. You would expect it social care system should be an England to be free and for professionals to do and Wales model. everything they could to make you better. The future of social care in Wales But, what if you are not going to was therefore tied to the success of recover? What if you develop a long term proposals in England. While they were chronic condition or are elderly and need supported by the outgoing Labour help at home? In these circumstances a Gwenda Thomas, Deputy Minister for Social Government, in the run-up to the local authority can provide you with a Services in Wales, has a completely different view election the Conservatives branded the from Andrew Lansley, the new Conservative package of care. However, it can be Secretary of State for Health in London. compulsory insurance option a ‘Death

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Time to go back to the drawing board on social care reform in Wales.

Tax’. Instead they suggested giving the tools at its disposal to reform the would be collected by local authorities. people the option of insuring themselves funding of social care. There are broadly Households could be charged a uniform against the costs of residential care by two options: rate or the precept could incorporate paying £8,000 on retirement. council tax bands with people in larger Where does that leave social care • Insurance houses paying more. reform in Wales? It is time to go back The Welsh Government could pursue to the drawing board. In the first the voluntary insurance option The Welsh Government’s own advisory instance we should unpack the considered in the Green Paper. It could group reported in June 2009 in favour of statement from the Welsh Green Paper encourage multi-national insurance the second option. As it stated: about the ‘levers of change’ in the companies to develop specific social system resting with Westminster. Social care insurance packages for Wales, “Our strong preference for a new model Care is a devolved area, with ‘Social perhaps with a degree of subsidy or of paying for care is one which is Welfare’ one of the 20 devolved fields underwriting from the state. As long as funded by payments from everyone in in which the National Assembly has the insurance industry was supportive, society, according to their ability to pay, competence. In order to exercise these this could work. primarily over the course of their powers the Government would have to working life. We recognise that the introduce a Legislative Competency • Social Care Precept main options for achieving this would Order or legislate directly following a Although the Welsh Government is not be increasing general taxation, or Yes vote in the forthcoming permitted to raise its own taxes, it could establishing a new social insurance fund referendum. Nonetheless, if it wants to, introduce legislation to reform Local or National Care Fund to which most the Welsh Government can make laws Authority finance, and introduce a people would be expected to pay.” in this area. ‘Social Care Precept’ on top of the If significant reform is not going to normal council tax bill to fund social If it went down the line of a social care be developed on a UK basis, then it is care. Such a precept would operate in precept on council tax, the Welsh time the Welsh Government examined the same way as the Police Precept and Government would need to establish a

20 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org National Social Care Authority , own care packages with personal budgets defend the diverging social care agenda independent from Government, to was a major priority for the last UK in Wales and work with the Law manage the spending of the funds raised Government. However, in Wales the vast Commission to implement a separate by the precept. The Authority would be majority of people let their Local social care statute for Wales, rather than tasked with funding the social care needs Authority manage their care package. one for England and Wales. The of the population. It would manage the At the same time the Law prospect of a single Welsh piece of level of the precept, raising it if social Commission for England and Wales has legislation, passed by the Assembly, that care needs increase and lowering it if been consulting on proposals for a new would encompass previous Acts and costs go down. Based on council tax statute codifying decades of overlapping Measures would greatly improve a figures from 2009 a 10-15 per cent pieces of legislation. The resulting draft complicated system setting out the role precept on council tax would raise bill could make the social care system less of service users, carers and the state. between £100 and £150 million to fund complex for service users, local The Law Commission has failed to free personal care for everyone who authorities and private agencies, and take into the account the fact that both needed it, regardless of age. recognise the important role of carers. governments are committed to a Whereas at the moment individuals However, desirable though these referendum on primary law making are assessed by their individual local proposals may be, they do not take into powers next year, and if successful, the authorities for support, in this model, account diverging social care policy in National Assembly will have the power it would the National Social Care Wales. In its Review of social care the to make laws in every area covered by Authority that was responsible for Law Commission argues: its Review. Following a referendum the assessing and funding social care, Welsh Government should take on leaving individuals to purchase services “We provisionally consider that the board the recommendation by Professor from their local authority, the voluntary vehicle for our reform should be a John Williams of sector or private sector. unified adult social care statute of establishing a separate Law Such a move would be controversial. covering both England and Wales. Commission for Wales set out in the However, if politicians are serious in their Whilst there are difference in the law Spring 2009 edition of Agenda . aspirations to give free personal care to that applies in England and Wales, Whilst many people would broadly everyone in Wales, then there has to be a we do not believe they are currently accept the recommendations of the Law cost. If the scheme were funded out of such as to require separate statutes Commission, it is essential that the the Welsh block grant, substantial savings for each country.” outcome is a single statute for Wales resulting from a Measure passed by the Assembly, rather than an English statute “While they were supported by the with Wales ‘bolted on’. Schedule 7 of the Government of outgoing Labour Government, in the Wales Act 2006 allows the Welsh run-up to the election the Conservatives Government to reform both the funding and the structure of social branded the compulsory insurance care. The solutions we need will require politicians to take bold steps option a ‘Death Tax’. ” that some will find controversial. But it Wales wants to see the state fund social care then the money would have to across existing Government programmes This simply ignores that social care come from either a reformed council would have to be found. The only is a devolved field and the Welsh tax or through substantial savings alternative is to bring additional funding Government has already started to elsewhere in the Welsh block grant. A into the system. In the absence of powers reshape the law in this area through the precept on the council tax is surely the to raise income tax, VAT or Corporation Social Care Charges (Wales) Measure best way forward . Tax, a Social Care Precept would be the 2010 and the Proposed Carers Strategies only realistic way of bringing new money (Wales) Measure . The Law into the system. Commission’s Social Care Statute Over the last 11 years the social care would simply overwrite Welsh Laws systems in Wales and England have and replace it with a unified system — Joseph Carter is the Policy, gradually diverged. Personalisation, for England and Wales. Press and Campaigns Manager with encouraging individuals to manage their The Welsh Government needs to the MS Society Cymru.

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Legislating between equals Iwan Davies says London cannot continue treating the Welsh Government as though it were another Whitehall department

In the dying days of the last Rhodri Morgan put it in evidence, understanding generally of the Westminster Parliament the Welsh Scotland is always accepted as another devolution settlement and also its Affairs Committee published a country whereas the problem for Wales complex nature. Raising awareness report on Wales’s relationship with is that it is not seen as another country within Whitehall is a particularly thorny Whitehall which showed how at all. issue and there are recommendations on devolution has dramatically changed The Wales and Whitehall Inquiry is training for all senior civil servants as the political landscape of the UK. significant because of the wide scope of well as on secondments of civil service its terms of reference. The report has staff between Cardiff and London and The asymmetrical nature of the sections dealing with the following: vice versa. In turn this suggests that devolutionary settlements in the UK has • Awareness of the devolution devolution should be incorporated as been commented upon in all the recent settlement within the Civil Service. part of the civil service code the next reports examining devolution and the • Role of the (then) Wales Office and time it is reviewed. Welsh Affairs Committee’s Wales and the Ministry of Justice. Much emphasis was laid within the Whitehall Inquiry is no exception. A • Extent of communication between Inquiry on the need for structural major contrast is that while the powers Whitehall, the Welsh Government, the changes to promote knowledge and of the Scottish and Northern Ireland National Assembly and Welsh MPs. understanding between elected politicians, Ministers, civil servants and “What we have now is a period of cohabitation between officials and the two legislatures. The focus over the next few months of the the UK Government and devolved administrations. new Parliament should be on promoting As a result, inter-Governmental relations are at greater such inter-Governmental relations. The risk of coming under strain. ” structures for inter-Governmental relations between Wales and Whitehall were developed during a period when the same political party was in power in legislatures were defined by exclusion, in • Whitehall guidance on devolution. both places. What we have now is a Wales the opposite is the case. That is • Impact of the findings of the Justice period of cohabitation between the UK to say, everything is devolved to Select Committee in its report Government and devolved Scotland and Northern Ireland except Devolution: a Decade On . administrations. As a result inter- certain defined functions like defense Governmental relations are at greater and foreign affairs, while all of Wales’s The Report’s transcript of evidence is risk of coming under strain. It is not functions are specified on the legislation. important, too, because it includes a enough to rely solely on the strength of It is little wonder, therefore, that Wales large number of the principal political informal relations. Machinery must be has a different rleationship with and other personalities involved in the developed to enable extensive Whitehall than the other nations within recent devolution story in Wales. The negotiation and conciliation to occur the UK. As the former First Minister, Inquiry demonstrates the lack of between Wales and Whitehall.

22 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org as if they were another set of Whitehall departments. This is an important finding because it will touch upon the time it takes for the National Assembly’s Legislative Competence Orders to receive Whitehall clearance. There is a need to ensure absolute clarity of the role of the Secretary of State for Wales in this regard. In addition we need a mechanism to track the progress of proposed orders within Whitehall Departments to improve the practical delivery of the current constitutional arrangements set out in the Government of Wales Act 2006. There are many issues in the Wales and Whitehall Inquiry which are left unanswered. For example, what is the relationship of the Welsh Affairs Committee with Welsh civil society? There are relational and leadership issues arising out of the role of MPs and AMs and how Assembly Committees deal with Parliamentary issues. There are also legislative questions which need early consideration. One example is the possibility of applying the Scottish Sewel Convention to Wales. Under this Convention it was agreed that the Westminster Parliament will not normally legislate on a devolved matter (which it retains the power to do) unless it has obtained the consent of the Scottish Parliament. The means At the Senedd in Cardiff Bay soon after the May general election, by which the Scottish Parliament Prime Minister David Cameron and First Minister Carwyn Jones discuss the ‘mutual respect’ agenda. But “awareness of the devolution signifies its consent is the passing of a settlement is patchy across different departments within Whitehall.” legislative consent motion. In a 2006 Report on the operation of the The approach of the Welsh Affairs and Whitehall. Convention, the Scottish Affairs Committee was that a broad review of Awareness of the devolution Committee recommended that it should inter-Governmental relations was settlement is patchy across different be endorsed by the House. The necessary and that an updated departments within Whitehall. There Commission of Scottish Devolution Memorandum of Understanding between needs to be a strong centre in relation recommended in its Report in 2009 that the UK and devolved administrations was to devolution within the UK a Convention should be entrenched in long overdue. As part of this process the Government to coordinate activity more the standing orders of the Commons. status of Devolution Guidance Notes effectively instead of lines of At that time it was considered that, need to be strengthened and they should communication being spread across because of the quite different nature of be clearly established as bilateral three departments, as was the case for the devolution settlement in Wales, there agreements. This is necessary if cohesion example in the last Parliament. was no need for a Convention along between the two legislatures is to be A critical finding of the Inquiry was similar lines. However, the Legislative maintained. It should be a priority for the need for Whitehall civil Servants to Competence Order process and the building up understanding between Wales avoid treating devolved administrations granting of powers in primary legislation

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through framework powers have of the National Assembly for Wales. impacting on Wales, important issues similarities to the position in Scotland. This approach could then be still remain. These include: In this regard it would be entirely contextualised by the issuance of a appropriate for the National Assembly to statement by the Secretary of State for • Development of Legal Wales such seek the consent of Westminster to a Wales that the UK Government will not as the Court Structure in Wales. request for powers without depending on normally legislate on a matter devolved • Revision of Welsh legislation through the Welsh Government to put forward to the National Assembly without its a review body such as a such a request. It is not appropriate for consent. In many respects the adoption Commission. two legislatures to be entirely dependent of a Sewel-type Convention would be • Further development of the Public upon their executives in order to an immediate practical response to the Service Ombudsman service in converse formally. The National legislative status of Wales, not least promoting standards in public life Assembly for Wales should have the because the devolution settlement now in Wales. opportunity to signal its consent to any needs to work better. proposal to legislate at Westminster in While the Wales and Whitehall These are important issues which have relation to devolved matters. Inquiry did recommend a number of implications for the development of The adoption of such a structural changes to improve the policy and legislation in Wales. Convention for Wales should be administrative relationship between relatively straightforward and could take Park and and Whitehall, the the form of amending the standing implications for the two legislatures is orders of the House of Commons to only touched upon. So, while the provide for the Speaker to lay before it Inquiry makes reference to the need for any form of communication from the the law in Wales to be accessible and — Professor Iwan Davies is Pro-Vice- National Assembly for Wales conveyed supports the creation of a single Chancellor and Hodge Chair in Law at to the Speaker by the Presiding Officer comprehensive reference of legislation Swansea University. Jury out on Ieuan’s new direction Stevie Upton and Brian Morgan Davidson, Minister for Environment, high on vision but low on action points. assess the Welsh Government’s Sustainability and Housing and Lesley – not to mention hard facts and figures. response to private sector views on Griffiths, Deputy Minister for Science, It does not provide sufficient detail for economic renewal Innovation and Skills. Ieuan Wyn Jones firm conclusions to be drawn about the also categorically stated that the potential of the Government’s intended “culture of direct business support has new direction. As a result, at this stage The private sector response to the run its course”. However, he was not it is only possible to make a number of direction the Welsh Government’s so fortcoming on the third point. A headline comparisons. economic policy should take New Direction is clear that “this is not a The call to radically improve demonstrated remarkable unanimity. task that can simply be delegated to an procurement practices reflects Wales’s CBI Wales, the Institute of Directors, arms-length agency”. reputation as the most difficult place in Venture Wales, the South Wales Chamber and the IWA all sang from a very similar hymn sheet in their views. Following the launch of Welsh Government's new policy in early July Economic Renewal: A New Direction , to what extent has it listened?

The foremost demand was for the Government to start focusing its efforts on policies and objectives that drive economic development. There was widespread agreement that the business Deputy First Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones at the launch of his Economic support function, delivered until now Renewal strategy at Cardiff’s Panasonic factory in early July. He is flanked by Deputy Minister for Science, Innovation and Skills Lesley by FS4B, the so-called ‘flexible support Griffiths (left), and Environment Minister Jane Davidson for business’, should be drastically slimmed down and its main services Private sector responses to the the UK for public procurement. To delivered by an arm's-length, private consultation also emphasised the need make it more effective, and to support sector-led, delivery model. Why? for a focus on: the private sector, procurement should Because the private sector genuinely be integrated into other business believes that a focus on economic • Streamlining procurement and support functions with the aim of growth offers the only solution for planning and reducing regulation. capturing long-term benefits and Wales’s social problems. And it remains • Providing more resources for supporting small companies in Wales. unconvinced that FS4B’s overly education and skills. But to make headway, and to more bureaucratic business support model • Investing in infrastructure. effectively support small companies, the will be able to deliver the step change • Developing important sectors like the Welsh Government will need to raise the in competitiveness that Wales needs to creative industries and renewables. skills of staff working in this area. There improve prosperity levels. is a suggestion that the Government’s In answer to the first two points, Here again the Welsh Government Transforming Procurement through Home- the Welsh Government is certainly claims to have listened, with chapters grown Talent project will act to increase making encouraging noises: a devoted to each of these important capacity and skills in both the private commitment to a “whole-Government areas. But how does A New Direction and public sectors, including through role” in relation to economic renewal match up in detail with the private an increase in the numbers of trained was underpinned at the new policy’s sector’s recommendations? The short procurement professionals. launch by the presence of Jane answer is that it is too early to tell. It is Another crucial area is education

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and skills. Calls have been made for abolition of the £100 million Single been spent on ‘economic development’ the Education Department to be Investment Fund, half of which will be but with no discernible improvement in streamlined and given a new objective reinvested in infrastructure. economic performance. The lack of to allow businesses direct access to The remaining half of the Fund will evidence produced by the Welsh funding for skills development. There be allocated to six priority sectors – a Government on the allocation of has been a lack of innovative thinking reduction from the 14 previously economic development expenditure, on skills development, while supported – identified as offering and even less produced on the independent evaluations of previous particular potential for competitive effectiveness of this spend, has long policies are almost non-existent. Where advantage in Wales. These are: been a cause for concern (see Agenda evaluations have been undertaken the for Summer 2005 and Spring 2010). results have often been unduly • Information and communcations Internal performance measures used ‘influenced’ by the Government or not technology so far have too often been been made available to outside scrutiny. • Energy and environment undemanding. Moreover, they were The Welsh Government therefore • Advanced materials and used to assess activities rather than needs to involve private firms in manufacturing outcomes. If the new direction for determining investment spending on • Creative industries economic renewal is to represent the skills for their areas and sectors. Such a • Life sciences step change that is promised, the Welsh partnership is proposed in A New • Financial and professional services Government will need to be both Direction . However, there is a rigorous and reflective in its assessment disappointing failure to foreground the One immediate cause for concern is of outcomes. It is therefore a welcome urgent need to raise basic literacy and that the Government will also provide development that, at the launch of A numeracy for school leavers, over half support on a case-by-case basis for New Direction , Ieuan Wyn Jones of whom fail to achieve 5A*-C grades additional ‘anchor companies’ that fall anticipated the announcement of including English or Welsh and outside these key sectors but are of further detail on accountability mathematics at GCSE. regional importance. This risks a measures in the autumn. Finally, every organisation is dilution of focus against which the IWA In summary, business advice was to pleading for the Government to invest counselled in its consultation response, eschew the usual lengthy strategy in 21st Century infrastructure and Creating a positive business environment document that strives to be all things to transport networks. Extensive research for Wales . all people and to produce instead a by the OECD and World Bank has How this sector-based approach will short sharp action plan. This should highlighted the direct impact that play out in practice will depend largely encourages us to stick to the knitting, infrastructure investment has on on the outcome of the restructuring of to stop inventing new things on which economic growth. The cancellation or the Department for the Economy and to spend money, and to make growing postponement of major projects like the Transport, which is due for completion the economy the overarching aim of new M4 relief road around Newport by the end of 2010. International the economic renewal programme. means that devolution is failing to Business Wales will be abolished, with It is this action plan that is now create the competitive business its functions subsumed within new needed. In Economic Renewal: A New environment that Wales desperately sector-based groups. A reduction in Direction , the Welsh Government has needs. Even more worrying is that employee numbers is expected, but taken an important first step in current transport plans have not unlikley to be close to the 150 presently acknowledging the priorities of private focused on connecting Welsh employed. Less certain is the extent to sector organisations in Wales. It must companies to their major markets. which private sector bodies will be now follow through with real detail on While the Government has made a involved in the planning and/or delivery how its new vision will be delivered. firm commitment to improve access to of policy, although A New Direction Much of this is promised before the high speed broadband – so-called ‘next implies that input might be more end of the year. Until then, the jury generation’ broadband should be welcome in the former than the latter. will remain out. available to all businesses by 2016 and Conspicuous by its absence is any to all homes by 2020 – the future for reference to ensuring accountability in — Dr Stevie Upton is Research Officer transport infrastructure is less clear. It the delivery of this new strategy. This at the Institute of Welsh Affairs and is not certain to what extent transport is particularly concerning. In the Professor Brian Morgan is Director will benefit from the promised increase decade since the National Assembly of the Creative Leadership and in resources that will result from the was established, about £5 billion has Enterprise Centre at UWIC.

26 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org Entrance to the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, an initiative which, built up over 30 years, now generates a GDP equivalent to the , and seeded by money channelled through America’s credit union model.

How to capitalise on the payroll

Chris Jones says we should emulate American-style Credit Unions union managers have more knowledge to kick-start business finance in Wales of local economic situations and much more responsibility and discretion about Capitalism is built on the flow of suitable finance models are there for how they manage their lending. money, as Karl Marx acknowledged. the businesses of Wales? I believe Critically, a highly beneficial aspect In turn, this puts the ‘levers of that a better model exists in the USA of US credit union lending to business power’ in the hands of the bankers where business is routinely financed is that it is generally tied some form of who are in a position to control the by Credit Unions. flow. How money is used, and how During the Great Depression in it flows is key to unlocking our America Credit Unions were established “I believe that a better economy and enabling the social to act as conduits for New Deal federal business finance model and public service agenda to which funds used to build dams, roads, already exists in the USA we aspire. electrification and other forms of basic where business is infrastructure. Some of these have An over-riding constraint on the Welsh flourished and still survive. The basic fact routinely financed by economy is the inability of money to is that many businesses in the USA get Credit Unions.” flow to business, the so-called ‘credit their finance, not from high street banks, squeeze’. This lack of ‘business finance’ but from various types of Credit Unions. turnover model of repayment. This is due to business’s over reliance on A crucial dimension of American- means that repayments are geared to globalised high street banks such as style Credit Unions is that they are the performance of the business. At its Lloyds TSB, HSBC, Barclays and the ‘locality’, or regionally based. They are most basic, if there is no turnover there like. Nobody in their right mind should professionally managed, and often is no loan repayment. For example, a consider banks to be ‘business friendly’. capitalised by Federal and State payroll business may have a bad month of They may spout the fine words but, in money flow. Although their interest rates trading where its turnover goes below the last two years, their actions - and and credit scoring are comparable to an agreed threshold that would normally inactions - have spoken volumes. those of high street banks, the difference trigger a loan repayment. In this case, So what can business do? What is that, being regionally based, credit the loan payment is rescheduled

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automatically until the agreed threshold scale, let us look at the following - touting residents who wouldn’t have is reached. Alternatively, the loan term highly simplified - example. In America, been out of place in the cast of the period is extended. A variety of penalty- it is often a ‘condition of employment’ movie Deliverance . free agreements can be negotiated. for federal or state employees to have a Today, this small area generates In contrast, UK businesses that Credit Union account in addition to more wealth and GDP than the entire borrow from a high street bank have to their ordinary high street bank account. economy of Wales. We should study this meet their monthly repayments come A large institution, such as a health model. Federal and State governments what may, regardless of their economic authority or police force, will have a ‘seeded’ the area with their institutions, situation. In addition, the penalties for monthly payroll amounting to many channelling payrolls through the local default are often sufficiently onerous to millions of dollars. This payroll is paid Credit Unions. Roads and basic cause business failure. into an employee’s Credit Union account. infrastructure were built across the Of course, the Credit Unions we are Before the employee can withdraw it the swamp. A business environment was familiar with in Wales bear no Union has ‘sight’ and nominal use of this created that has led to a transformation comparison with US-style Credit money. As a result it has funds to the from wilderness to economic Unions. Welsh Credit Unions are fine tune of hundreds of millions of dollars powerhouse in just three decades. for the purposes for which they have regularly channelled through its systems All it needs is for just one Welsh been set up, to provide small loans and each and every month. Money earned County Council to pass its payroll act as a savings’ vehicle for a local from this ‘money flow’ contributes to the through one properly constituted US- populace. However, they are not Credit Union’s lending fund availability. Style Credit Union to initiate a designed for a business finance role as Over the past year 14 per cent of fundamental and beneficial change in they are in the US. Americans have moved their bank Welsh business financing at the local It is the case that national business accounts to credt unions. level. Wales could be part of the quiet support organisations such as the The other side of the coin is the ‘Move your Money’ revolution Federation of Small Business, the turnover-based model for business currently sweeping America. Instead National Farmers Union, and even the lending. Assuming that a Credit Union is of stringing the bankers up, Americans Post Office have a Credit Union entity sufficiently ‘capitalised’ by money flow are bypassing Wall Street and Main associated with their organisation. from institutional payrolls, it then has a Street and returning to financial However, the fact remains that very few fund to lend to businesses. The business systems that survived the Great businesses are aware of their existence or asks for a loan for whatever a business Depression and are far more suited use their services in the same way as is purposes (in rural areas for instance it to their individual localities. Here is a done routinely in the US. Yet, there are may be a farmer buying seed against a model for Wales to follow . no legal or constitutional impediments to future crop). A condition of the loan is converting an existing Credit Union or that the business turnover must be passed — Chris Jones manages the those attached to organisations like the through the Credit Union. This Llandeilo-based e-commerce firm Federation of Small Business into one requirement enables the borrower to ClickBridge Solutions. that uses the more ‘business friendly’ benefit from favourable and structured American model. repayment agreements geared to The main barrier to be overcome is turnover. Meanwhile, the lender can the scale of capitalisation. In order to monitor the financial performance of the lend to business, a Credit Union needs business and the day-to-day risk involved. to have a capital base that is much The financial model provided by US Agenda has a readership of larger than currently available to small Credit Unions has made an important 5000+ amongst which are the Welsh-style Credit Unions. How can contribution to the astounding success majority of Wales’ decision this be achieved? This is where the of the area in North Carolina known as makers, movers and shakers. Welsh and local government needs to the Research Triangle Park. play a part and where the concept of Some 30 years ago, this area, Would you like to reach our ‘money flow’ needs to be understood. incidentally the size of Carmarthenshire, audience? Advertising in Agenda To illustrate how a Credit Union was a huge snake-ridden swamp is more reasonable that you might can be ‘capitalised’ so that it can afford containing legions of insects, flotillas of expect and is completely FREE of to be managed professionally and have monster large-mouthed bass and charge to our corporate members. sufficient funds to lend on a business populated by a few banjo playing gun To advertise here or to become corporate members of the IWA, please call Kirsty Davies on 28 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org 029 2066 0820 Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones pictured near Aberystwyth in her Ceredigion constituency.

1 Food in the City

Whole food system

Elin Jones explains the thinking behind her emerging food strategy for Wales

Food is an issue on everyone’s lips. with our Food and Drink Advisory why the Welsh Government is Whether it’s health gurus, celebrity Partnership, academics in Cardiff developing a new food strategy. gardeners or TV chefs, our lives are University and others, to identify what One of the challenges that this new permeated by advice on what to eat, this means for future public policy. approach to food policy poses for cook and grow. If we want to support Wales needs a radical new approach government is collective working across the local economy or to save the to food policy. We need to consider 'food' departments. Officials in my department planet, we’re urged to make a in the round, from production right have not only been working with a difference through the food we choose through to consumption. For the first range of external partners, but internally to buy. Food marketing tantalises us time, we’re understanding the need to set across all the relevant government whilst rising prices put pressure on a policy direction not just on food from departments as well. already squeezed family budgets. Wales, but also food for Wales. We need If we are to develop a radical new to consider not only implications for our approach to food policy in Wales, we It’s not just in our personal lives that food sector, but also our food system. need to understand what Welsh society food is gaining a more prominent place. How our food system works goes far wants from its food system. Answering It’s also an important area of debate for beyond government, but government this question has been part of the work public policy. Whether it’s about health also has an important role to play. If we that we’ve been doing with the Food and well-being or climate change, our are to achieve the food system we all and Drink Advisory Partnership and economy or our biodiversity, our local want, we need a strong government, Cardiff University to develop the communities or our international role, strong industries and a strong civil strategy and something on which we food is now very much at the heart of it. society with each playing their distinctive want to consult widely. Since becoming Minister, food policy part. As Minister, it’s my role to set a Competitive and profitable businesses has been one of my priorities. In order clear direction and steer public funds to throughout the food sector are vital for a to respond to the complex and changing ensure there is a national framework strong food system. Government can’t context for our food system today, within which we can all achieve a do this for business and we wouldn’t government has been working closely positive food system for Wales. That’s want to, but we can provide an

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environment that does more to enable this resilient food system. food they eat. Transforming our food businesses to be innovative, to add value Sustainability cuts across all our system will demand improved market to products as well as develop new ones, policy work and should also be at the development, a more efficient supply to make the best use of new technologies heart of our work on food. We need chain, developing a more discerning food and to reach new markets. This is as to provide food that is healthy, safe culture, integrating food policy with true for co-operatives, mutuals and and affordable. We also want a strong other policy areas and of course, community enterprises as it is for other food economy at its centre and we ensuring that all of this is economically, business models. must achieve all of this whilst reducing socially and environmentally sustainable. We also need a framework that builds our environmental footprint and our With the UK government already resilience into our food system. I will carbon emissions. slashing public budgets, it’s not an easy always remember the Fuel Blockade in We have identified a number of key time to be developing ambitious strategies. 2000. Not only were our ambulances in drivers that will take us towards a more However, tight public finances make it danger of not being able to run, but our sustainable, resilient, competitive and even more important that we have the food shelves were within hours of being profitable food system. These will again right policies in place so we target public completely empty. An extra 24 hours be subject to full consultation and I hope resources to best effect. I hope the would have exposed the vulnerability of that as many people as possible will consultation on our new national food our food supplies. We need to plan for a engage in the debate so we have a shared strategy will provide a space for all those system that is resilient to increasing global understanding of these key drivers. with an interest to contribute to a shared uncertainties as well as the threats that I believe our work should focus on vision for our food system. climate change brings. Maintaining food strengthening relationships across production in Wales, developing local different parts of the food system, — Elin Jones is Minister for Rural economies, and encouraging a more whether it’s between producers and Affairs. She spoke on the themes diverse agricultural base, including consumers, rural and urban areas, addressed in this article at the IWA’s horticulture and community and urban different parts of the food sector or Food in the City conference in Cardiff food production, is all part of developing simply reconnecting people with the in June. 2 Food in Kevin Morgan argues that food planning is one of the most the City important new social movements of the early 21 st Century The political economy of food

Among the basic essentials for life – air, water, shelter and food – planners have traditionally addressed them all with the conspicuous exception of food. This was the ‘puzzling omission’ that provoked the American Planning Association to produce its seminal Policy Guide on Community and Regional Food Planning in 2007. It was a belated attempt to make amends for the fact that the planning community, academics and professionals alike, had signally failed to engage with the food system.

Urban planners might justify this neglect Customers at the Riverside Farmers’ Market in Cardiff. of food policy by claiming that it is largely a rural issue and therefore beyond developing countries alike. Planners now done least to cause the problem of the scope of the urban planning agenda. find themselves addressing food policy global warming. There are two reasons why this argument because of the new food equation . This fails to provide a convincing explanation. refers to a number of new and highly 4. Land conflicts are escalating as rich Firstly, the multifunctional character complex developments, the most but food-stressed countries (like Saudi of the food system means that it has important of which are the following: Arabia and South Korea) seek to buy profound effects on a host of other up fertile land in Africa and Asia to sectors, including public health, social 1. The food price surge of 2007-08 , ensure their own food security, justice, energy, water, land, transport and when global wheat prices nearly fuelling charges of a new colonialism. economic development. These are all doubled and rice prices nearly tripled, sectors in which planners are deemed to forcing hitherto secure social classes 5. Rapid urbanisation means that cities have a legitimate interest. into food insecurity, a condition which are becoming more conscious about Secondly, the notion that food already afflicts some 2 billion people. how they feed themselves because, production is an exclusively rural activity given their sensitivity to food fails to appreciate the significance of 2. Food security has become a shortages, they are the most politically urban agriculture , an activity that never national security issue after the food combustible areas in every country. disappeared in the hungry cities of the price surge triggered food riots in global south. Today it is re-appearing in more than 60 countries around the If food planning is on the rise, who the more sustainable cities of the global world, forcing the G8 leaders to are the food planners? They are a north, where urban designers are re- convene their first ever food summit profoundly diverse and multi- imagining ‘the city as a farm’. in 2009. dimensional community, composed of Whatever the reasons for it, this every profession which has a food-related ‘puzzling omission’ is now a matter of 3. Climate change effects , in the form interest as well as NGOs that focus on purely historical interest. For the of water and heat stress, damaged social justice, public health, food security foreseeable future, food planning is set to eco-systems and rising sea-levels, are and ecological causes. All are striving to become an important and legitimate part expected to be worse in the poorest make food policy-making a more open of the planning agenda in developed and countries, the very countries that have and democratic process.

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Once confined to a narrow range of all local policies which is being addressed lends itself to, a wide range of producer interests – like agri-business, through three core themes: community campaigns. Indeed, such is farmers and the state – food policy is • Caring and supportive environments the convening power of food that Rob slowly but surely being prised open by • Healthy living Hopkins, founder of the Transition food planners in the broadest sense of • Healthy urban design Towns movement, advises new the term. Although people come to food campaigners to focus their efforts on planning from a bewildering array of As a global movement promoted in all local food issues if they want to garner backgrounds, straddling professional six WHO regions, Healthy Cities provides interest and mobilise support. associations, consumer protection an ideal opportunity to get city Another sign of the popular groups and citizen-based organizations, governments all over the world to include resonance of food planning is the growth it appears that public health, social a food policy dimension in their urban of Food Policy Councils in North justice and ecological integrity are the plans, especially if they want to secure America, where there are now more than principal concerns. In other words, food the imprimatur of ‘healthy city’ status. 100 in various cities and counties. policy morphs into these wider causes Though they may not be aware of it, In Europe, too, the food planning because food has a unique status in our urban planners are arguably the key movement is beginning to register its lives. Far from being just another players in the campaign for healthy presence. While small municipalities have ‘industry’, like autos, steel or software, cities. For instance, modern diseases like been the real pioneers in getting high the agri-food sector is unique because obesity will not be solved by the medical quality food into schools and hospitals, we ingest its products. For this reason profession, which is largely geared to larger city authorities have recently the sector is critically important to treating illness rather than promoting produced urban food strategies under human health and well-being. This is health. On the contrary, long term the banners of public health, social why it is intrinsically significant to solutions to such conditions are more justice and sustainability. Two of the human functioning rather than being likely to be found in health-promoting most prominent examples are London, merely instrumentally significant. planning measures. These include which launched a sustainable food It is one thing to recognise the creating more sustainable urban strategy in 2006, and Amsterdam, where significance of food to health and well- environments where people feel safe to the food strategy has multiple objectives, being, especially in crowded urban walk, run and cycle; public spaces where one of which is to help the city to re- planning agendas, it is quite another healthy food is readily accessible and connect to its regional hinterland for thing to give it political effect. To affordable by everyone, especially in both economic and ecological reasons. overcome this problem, smart food poor neighbourhoods; and where However, the greatest food planning planners in cities as diverse as Toronto, citizens are actively involved in shaping challenges are to be found in sub- Amsterdam and Kampala have woven a their built environment. In short, the Saharan Africa and South Asia, where food policy dimension into existing healthy city agenda creates two least progress has been made in urban plans - for example, health, important opportunities: combating the problem of chronic education, transport and climate change hunger. Significantly, the locus of the - to illustrate how it can help city • It gives urban planners the chance to problem is changing fast. With the governments to fashion more sustainable play a more innovative role in burgeoning of African cities, we are communities. Among other things, this nurturing sustainable cities. witnessing the urbanisation of poverty strategy requires urban planners to reach • It creates political space for the and hunger to such a degree that cities out to, and build alliances with, like- broader food planning community to will increasingly be in the forefront of minded people in the city, not just in put food on the policy agendas of the food planning challenge. local government but in local civil every department in the municipal Paradoxically, urban planners in society too. government. Africa have been part of the problem of Such alliances could help the food food insecurity. Until recently they saw it planning movement to connect to some Weaving food into local planning policy as their professional duty to rid the city of the most important campaigns is well underway in North America and of urban agriculture. The rationale for underway in cities today, not least the the rest of Europe. So much so that in ridding the city of urban farmers and World Health Organization’s Healthy its broadest sense food planning is one street food vendors varied from country Cities programme, which addresses a set of the most important social movements to country, but it was often animated by of core themes every five years. The of the early 21 st Century in the global a combination of sound concerns about overarching goal of the 2009-2013 Phase north. The multifunctional character of public health and less than sound V of the programme is health equity in food means that it connects with, and notions of urban modernity. Thanks to

32 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org produce should be treated as a legitimate component of a sustainable food system. What this means is that the food planning movement needs to embrace a cosmopolitan conception of sustainability Volunteers at the Riverside Community Allotment project in Pontcanna Fields, Cardiff. in which locally-produced seasonal food and fairly traded global food are given the pioneering efforts of the food – that is to say, being small enough to parity of esteem. Otherwise this new planning community in cities like Dar es control locally, yet being part of social movement could degenerate into Salaam and Kampala, urban planners are something big enough to make a a parochial form of green localism. now trying to integrate local food difference beyond the locality. The Welsh Government strives to do production into the fabric of the city, The second concerns the equation justice to the local and the global in its helping the African city to foster rather of local food with sustainable food, a new food strategy because, as well as than frustrate urban food security. problem that some critics have labelled calling for more locally-produced food, The growth of the food planning ‘the local trap’. In highly localized it also champions more fairly-traded movement in developed and developing conceptions, the reasoning tends to run produce. Indeed, Wales is a good countries has undoubtedly helped to as follows: locally produced food is the example of cosmopolitan localism in humanise and localise the food system. most ecologically sustainable because it action because it is the world’s first Fair The stress is on such quality control has lower food miles and the latter are Trade Nation. mechanisms as provenance, traceability assumed to be an index of a product’s If food can help to build bridges and trust, all of which have been carbon footprint. between developed and developing debased by the ‘placeless landscapes’ of However, the truth of the matter is countries around the world, it can also the agri-business sector. Yet, however that product lifecycle analysis is the only help cities re-connect with their rural laudable it may seem, localisation creates rigorous way to measure the carbon hinterlands at home. Cardiff, Swansea, two big political problems for the food footprint of a product, and transport is Newport and Wrexham ought to planning community. just one factor in the total carbon count. seriously consider forming food policy The first concerns the localism of If carbon is the metric of sustainability, councils to help them design and deliver the movement. If local focus is one of then local food may not be as sustainable food strategies. It would the strengths of the food planning ‘sustainable’ as food imported from afar. enable these cities to create new markets community, it is also one of its Being a more capacious concept than for the produce of their rural hinterlands. weaknesses. In terms of the politics of some green activists would have us Food planning should be seen as helping power, highly localised campaigns cannot believe, sustainability cannot be reduced to transform the image of the city’s leverage political support at national level to a carbon metric because it has social relationship with the countryside from as their influence is too fragmented and and economic as well as environmental parasite to partner. thus too diffuse to register. To overcome dimensions. Indeed, the social justice this problem, local food planning dimension of sustainability suggests that — Kevin Morgan is Professor of movements need to orchestrate our greatest moral obligation today is to Governance and Development in the themselves in such a way as to secure the poor and hungry of the world. This School of City and Regional Planning the twin benefits of a federal organisation is why globally-sourced fairly traded at Cardiff University.

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3 Food in the City

Market garden venture reduces carbon footprint First ploughing takes place at the Coed Hills Market Garden project near St Hilary in the . Steve Garrett describes the creation of an organic food-growing cooperative outside Cardiff

Riverside Community Market, which allotment to develop their skills, and to and the each Sunday runs the largest farmers’ learn how to produce more significant vulnerability resulting from an over- market in Wales across the road from amounts of fresh produce for themselves dependence on -based activities. the National Stadium, is creating its and their community. Demand for fresh Small scale entrepreneurship is also a own ten-acre market garden at Coed local food is increasing against a key economic development and Hills near St Hilary in the Vale of backdrop of statutory requirements that regeneration tool. Glamorgan. The project has arisen food be purchased from sustainable The Coed Hills Market Garden fits from concern that Wales may soon sources. As a result there is increasing well with all these aspirations, with its face a real challenge in accessing interest amongst public sector focus on education, training and the enough food. Over the next decade procurement managers in schools, development of a sustainable business our food systems will need to adapt hospitals, and prisons in sourcing more model in horticulture. We hope that as a to become more resilient to climate fresh food locally. pilot project it will inspire other small- change. Meanwhile, we’ll be less able Increasing demand and supply for scale social food enterprises across Wales. to rely on imported food as fuel prices locally produced food will help reduce According to the business plan, within rise. Most importantly Wales needs to produce more fruit and vegetables to “Increasing demand and supply for locally produced meet local demand. food will help reduce the carbon footprint of food Horticultural and growing skills need shopping in Cardiff .” to be nurtured and our countryside managed carefully if our children are to enjoy eating fresh healthy food produced locally. We need new models for small food producing enterprises which are the carbon footprint of food shopping five years the Riverside Market Garden controlled and owned by local people, in Cardiff. It will also support the will become a self-financing community- keep money in the local economy, have development of local food businesses, owned business producing a modest a low carbon footprint, and minimise particularly in the horticultural and profit. The site will produce a wide range packaging and other waste. sustainable food-processing sectors. of organic vegetables, with a focus on The new venture will enable This is particularly relevant in view higher value crops such as salads and members of our existing community of the current decline in conventional fruit. Some of this produce will be

34 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org First fruits from Coed Hills in Spring 2010. processed into soups, sauces and other through a community share offer. It has • Environment: managing land products. Polytunnels will also allow us to a democratic structure in which all according to organic principles; grow Asian vegetables to meet the needs members have one vote irrespective of conserving and improving the of Cardiff’s diverse communities. the size of shareholding. Shareholders distinctive features of the rural Most of the produce from the project will be welcome to visit the site, and will landscape; saving energy and the will be sold at farmers’ markets or as receive invitations to special events and requirement for external horticultural ‘veg boxes’ delivered direct to local activities, including picking their own inputs; minimising waste through on- consumers. Some higher value salads will fresh produce, according to the season. site recycling and re-usable packaging. be sold to local restaurants. We also plan Individuals and families will be able to to make links with the local food work on the site and to support the Prospective shareholders can invest cooperatives which are emerging in some project in any other way they choose. anything from £50 to £20,000. For the of the poorer communities in south We have established a best practice first five years we will offer no financial Wales, and be part of a move to model for how we will measure and return and shares may not be returned. encouraging them to source more of record our progress in this respect, and After that we anticipate offering a their produce locally. Overall a key aim aim to generate ‘social returns’ in the modest interest rate and the option to is to try and ensure that fresh local following areas: withdraw shares. However, we hope that produce is available to everybody, and people will support us for more than not just seen as the prerogative of a • Community: involving local people as just financial reasons. This is an small number of well-heeled ‘foodies’ owners and participants; building a investment which is primarily geared to who have the inclination to attend stronger community through events offering a ‘social dividend’ in the sense farmers markets. and informal networking; encouraging that investors’ money is helping make a We will also offer training and care healthy diets through easy access to socially useful project happen. placements, with educational visits for fresh organic produce; and offering schools and colleges, and fun days out informal and formal training for community supporters. The social opportunities in organic horticulture. — Steve Garrett is Chair and enterprise will initially employ one full- Founder of the Riverside Community time and two part-time growers plus • Economy: creating up to three new Market Association. Shares in the education and training staff, and will jobs; building a supply chain which Riverside Market Garden can be bought on the website: collaborate with other local food keeps money in the local economy; www.riversidemarketgarden.org.uk producers on marketing and delivery. offering the structure of the project as The new company has been set up a model for others, with mentoring as an Industrial and Provident Society support; and collaborating with other for Community Benefit. This legal small rural businesses. model offers a simple way to raise capital

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How we could run our own rail service Stuart Cole explores the opportunities that might arise from Germany’s acquisition of Arriva

What could the £1.62 billion take in December 2003. There was complete Berlin Hauptbhanhof and airline code over of Arriva trains by the German disregard for expansion of capacity, the sharing within Germany. But this has state railway (DB) need for new trains or increased begun to suffer with under investment in May mean for bus and train services. Consequently the £104.6m and elderly, ‘tired’ rolling stock requiring services in Wales? The takeover planned for the current financial year refurbishment on its regional services. makes DB owner of a large part of will cost an extra £36m in service Even its ICE tilting trains have suffered Wales’ public transport network. In contract and subsidy payments alone, from technical problems and replacing addition to the Wales and Borders with additional sums in capital them with older trains has meant rail franchise, Arriva’s cross country expenditure spread over several years. timetable unreliability and extended franchise between Cardiff, The franchise was negotiated to the journey times. Birmingham and Nottingham will end of 2018 and during that period DB Regio takes over the Welsh rail become a part of DB Regio which Arriva will receive over £2 billion from contract and cannot change the train already own the successful the Welsh Government, including provision Arriva has agreed with the Wrexham, Shropshire and payments for enhanced new services, Department of Transport and Marylebone Railway open access longer trains and increased frequency subsequently with the Welsh service (that is non franchised, following the inadequate deal brokered Government. The new parent has also non subsidy) into London’s in 2003. In the short to medium term, indicated that it expects to leave Arriva’s Marylebone station. therefore, DB could just bank the cash. existing management in charge of the However, it might take the view that British operations as it has done with On the buses side Arriva Buses Wales such an approach would damage its other recent franchise acquisitions dominates the bus market in north Wales global image as a high investment including the London Overground and and is one of the oldest, through its company. So is there an opportunity to the Tyne and Wear Metro where there antecedent, Crosville. On the rail freight persuade a big player to invest heavily in has been no sign of change in side readers may have noticed the DB the railways of Wales as part of an investment or management policy. Schenker brand on rolling stock following investment agreement with the Welsh Looking also at the DB Regio attitude to EWS Railways takeover by DB. Government? and Wrexham and Shropshire, little change can be expected “But might the issue of branding give the Welsh on the railways in the short term. Government an opportunity to move forward on But might the issue of branding give the Welsh Government an opportunity developing its own brand on the Wales and Borders to move forward on developing its own franchise to indicate which services and tickets are brand on the Wales and Borders part of an integrated whole ?” franchise to indicate which services and tickets are part of an integrated whole? Apparently DB has indicated that it The Wales and Borders rail franchise DB has an impressive public image wishes to retain the Arriva brand in was poorly negotiated by the English through its high speed ICE train Wales, as with the Wrexham and Department for Transport with Arriva investment, grand new stations such as Shropshire and Chiltern Railways

36 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org brands. Although DB’s chief executive, Cambria long distance bus services. So long as Arriva is seen by DB as a Dr Rudiger Grube, claims the Arriva These are features of other countries key part of its expansion strategy then brand is “very, very valuable”, he might where the company operates and it short term change is unlikely. But there be persuaded of the benefit to Welsh has franchise contracts with Transport are opportunities for the Welsh public transport users of joint branding. for London. Government to explore changes in the Perhaps DB might not want to As the management is to remain national train and coach networks rather continue a franchise into which it is then it is unlikely that DB will become than the local operations. locked for another eight years. Although involved in micro management, so long it provides a guaranteed income, it as profit margins remain at the norm of — Professor Stuart Cole is Director reduces its flexibility. So rather than pay about 15 per cent. So, little change is of the Wales Transport Research Centre large sums to the operator there may be expected there. at the University of Glamorgan an opportunity to buy out DB from the Business School. Wales and Borders franchise and create

“One also wonders the extent which DB will allow to put forward its proposed Aberystwyth to London Euston open access, no subsidy service .”

a management contract similar to the UK Government’s East Coast Directly Operated Railways. The Welsh Government has procurement powers under the Transport (Wales) Act to do this. One also wonders the extent to which DB will allow Arriva Trains Wales to put forward its proposed Aberystwyth to London Euston open access, no subsidy service. Wrexham and Shropshire objected to the new service, claiming it would take away customers in a small mid Wales and borders rail market, and lead them to closing down their service to London Marylebone. One of Deutsche Bahn’s high On the buses, the largest contracts speed ICE trains negotiating financially are the Welsh Government’s the Black Forest in Baden Wurttemberg. Could we see national bus pass and county tendered something similar one day on services together with the three Traws the Valley lines?

summ er 2 01 0 | 37 politics economy social policy environment science NE Wales communications culture Dual sector revolution comes to Wales John Osmond reports on a transformation of the Welsh education system

A revolution is underway in the organisation of universities and further education colleges across Wales that will transform the whole of the country’s learning system within five years. The aim is to radically reduce the number of institutions, promote collaboration, increase subject choice, give greater emphasis to vocational qualifications, enhance Welsh medium education, and put more of the education budget into frontline delivery. What is happening is the realisation of the objectives set out in the Welsh Government’s policy document For our Future, the 21 st Century Higher Education Strategy and Plan for Wales published last November .

A two-tier university system is Education Minister Leighton Andrews emerging. Some universities, no more has announced he wants to see fewer than four – Cardiff, Swansea, but larger Universities in Wales. Aberystwyth, and Bangor – will concentrate on being academic, being resisted by institutions anxious to template for the rest of the country, is research-led institutions, although some cling on to their autonomy and identity. in south west Wales. Here a confederal will also extend their links into futher However, the ‘transformation agenda’, ‘dual sector’ university is being created, education. The remainder will become as it is known, is being driven led by the newly merged Trinity St ‘dual sector’ universities and will vigorously by Education Minister David University that has brought connect in new ways with further Leighton Andrews. In a remarkable together Lampeter and Trinity College, education colleges and schools in speech delivered at Cardiff University in Carmarthen. In June it announced that delivering courses more related to June he made it clear that unless it would be merging with Swansea vocational skills and engaging with their progress was speeded up he would seek Metropolitan University and forming local economies. more powers to direct universities to an alliance with Coleg Sir Gâr in Three new regions are emerging for move in the direction he wants. He Carmarthen, the dual sector universities: south west hinted that, if necessary, legislation and . This will bring Wales, the Heads of the Valleys and could be sought to bring the Higher together more than 170,000 students north and mid Wales. It is likely that Education Funding Council within the (although not all will be full-time rationalisation will also take place in control of the Government as happened equivalent) making it the fourth largest Swansea Bay, and the south-east Wales to the Welsh Development Agency (see higher education institution in Wales. coastal belt involving Glamorgan www.clickonwales.org, 1 June). Meanwhile, a new University of the University, University of Wales Institute, Even so, remarkable changes are Heads of the Valleys is being established Cardiff, and University of Wales, already happening. The most advanced as a result of collaboration between the Newport. In some places change is and one which is providing a potential University of Wales, Newport and

38 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org Glamorgan University to focus on the National Assembly’s Enterprising and College of Horticulture in needs of economically inactive and Learning Committee at the end of merged in August unemployed learners. The Welsh April reporting on progress with the • College and Coleg Llysfai Government is providing £10 million ‘transformation agenda’. It says that by will merge in August this year. over the next three years which will 2012 all 14-year-old pupils in Wales • A new campus, part of a city complement European Social Fund should be able to choose from a regeneration project is planned for funds to deliver new foundation and minimum of 30 subjects, including at Swansea and Gorseinon Colleges work-based Higher Education routes. least five vocational courses. There which will merge and become Gower The new University will have two will be minimum course requirements College in August. purpose built main campuses, the for learners at post 16. • A merger between Barry College and Merthyr Tydfil Learning Quarter and a The Welsh Baccalaureate, it says, Coleg Glanhafren in Cardiff will Learning Zone on the site of the former combines the personal and generic begin this summer and is planned to Corus steelworks at Ebbw Vale. Each be completed by 2013. will also involve a rationalisation of “Overall the objective is the • Blaenau Gwent, and post-16 tertiary education, entailing creation of a learning Newport University are working on collaboration between secondary schools network that puts the plans to deliver integrated tertiary and further and higher education. interest of learners before education in the new Learning Zone A longer-term prospect is a the institutions.” in Ebbw Vale. confederal dual sector university for • The Workers Educational Association north and mid Wales, including Bangor skills with vocational or academic in south Wales and Coleg Harlech University, Aberystwyth University, qualifications and learning: it “helps (WEA North) have undertaken a Glynd wˆ r University, learners achieve more, be better feasibility study and are planning to Cymru and Coleg Meirion Dwyfor equipped for further study and the merge next year. which merged in April, and other world of work and to be better • Mergers between Glynd wˆ r University further education institutions and informed, more active citizens”. This and Yale College in Wrexham, and schools in the region. September 80 per cent of schools and between Ystrad Mynach College and A dual sector university is defined FE colleges in Wales will be offering Coleg Gwent are being considered. in the Transforming Education the Welsh Baccalaureate, to some Transforming Lives mission document 53,000 learners in 217 centres. One way or another such enhanced that launched the south west Wales The Government is establishing collaboration, often leading to mergers, initiative in June as, “a group structure three regional forums to facilitate cross- is being pursued in every corner of which brings together both further and county border co-operation for Wales. Overall the objective is the higher education institutions within a delivering Welsh-medium and bilingual creation of a learning network that puts geographical region. It establishes a 14-19 education in north, south west, the interests of learners before the dual sector configuration to take and south Wales. It is also establishing institutions. The aim is a more forward shared resources, planning, a framework for co-operation between integrated and flexible higher education academic and research activity and Higher Education and post-16 provision system to allow access by a wider range single management structures to deliver to enhance progression pathways into of people. As For our Future puts it, tangible benefits for learners”. post-19 education and training. “We expect to see more visibility and Research continues to be part of a Underpinning these developments choice of ways to access higher dual sector university’s mission, but the is a remarkable programme of mergers education, including through systematic activities are vocationally orientated and of institutions across Wales designed to progression pathways from post-16 closely linked to the needs of the local reduce overheads and release money learning and the workplace. We want economy. So, for example, in the south for frontline education: many more people in Wales to west Wales region the following experience higher education, and be research priorities have been identified: • Coeg Llandrillo Cymru and Coleg equipped with higher level skills. For professional development for those Meirion-Dwyfor merged in April many this will mean an experience of working in the public sector, heritage creating a combined budget of £45 higher learning which will be shorter, and tourism, rural health and social million budget, and delivering more timely, and fitted more flexibly care, the creative industries, rural education and training to 45,000 around their lives and livelihoods” . sustainability and landscape students. The intention is that the management, and education. new organisation will eventually also All this chimes with a Welsh merge with . — John Osmond is Director Government statement presented to the • and the Welsh of the IWA.

summ er 2 01 0 | 39 politics economy social policy environment science NE Wales communications culture Innovate or decline Marcus Longley explains why to survive the Welsh NHS must speed up change

As we all know by now, the public Welsh NHS, which must mean that still does not stimulate, support, evaluate sector will soon face its most serious some patients are not getting the best and adopt big changes in a sufficiently and protracted squeeze on spending. possible care. Making improvements in determined and rigorous way. Before we become blasé about this, these areas is self-evidently desirable, but What would such a system look like? and assume that the doom and gloom requires new thinking and new There is a Virtuous Circle of Innovation has been over-hyped, consider what approaches. Marginal change simply to be created here (see Figure 1 ). it will mean for the NHS in Wales. takes too long and is insufficient given Projections range from a best-case the scale of the challenge. Paradoxically, Five elements need more attention: scenario of annual real increases of a harsh financial climate may just help. 2 per cent for the next three years, Improved quality of care usually saves • National policy-making needs to be followed by 3 per cent for the money as well as lives. clear that innovation really is essential, following three, to a worst case of Looking at the history of innovation and to make it happen consistently. annual real reductions of 2 per cent in the Welsh NHS reveals lots of change • Clinical leaders are often the key for three years followed by 1 per cent and improvement, often triggered by catalysts and champions of innovation: reductions for the following three. individual experts and enthusiasts. It also NHS Wales needs more of them, and The best case perhaps doesn’t sound reveals innovation which has not been a clear place for them in the too bad, until you realise it’s just a widely adopted, and innovation which managerial hierarchy. third of what the NHS has had for has initially flourished but then withered, • Collaboration in change is vital, if the last decade. The worst case is a leaving little trace a few years down the unacceptable local variations in more prolonged and deeper cut than line. The current 1000 Lives Campaign , practice are to end, and we need to the NHS has ever faced. to save 1,000 lives in Wales by resolve the age-old tension between eradicating health care associated individual clinicians’ freedom to do How can the NHS in Wales emerge infections, and the work of the National what they think is best for their from the next few years, not just still Leadership and Innovation Agency, are patients, with society’s interest in intact, but actually healthier than it is excellent, but not sufficient. The problem stopping sub-optimal practice. now? Certainly, it will not emerge seems to lie mainly with a system which • Clinicians need to share and learn stronger if it just hunkers down and talks of trimming ‘waste’. Survival requires Figure 1: The Virtuous Circle of Innovation change, not digging in and defending. Let me highlight two of the key areas where big change is needed. First, the Reconcile objectives ‘outcomes’ of the NHS in Wales do not always bear comparison with the best in Transparency Policy the world. We sometimes fail to prevent unnecessary and premature death, and Performance Clinical Welsh patients sometimes suffer Management Leadership avoidable adverse consequences of their illness. For example, of the four most Reconcile clinical common cancers, Wales has the lowest and corporate survival rates for two and amongst the worst for the other two, when compared Learning Collaboration with the other countries of the UK. and Sharing Wales also has the highest death rate for Reconcile central coronary heart disease and stroke. Want to direction and local Second, there is unjustifiable freedom variation in performance across the

40 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org from each other. The sharing sometimes notoriously hierarchical and fragmented wants to be second rate, or part of a works well, but often people seem into various silos. The power and second rate team? Third, do we help the unwilling to learn and act differently. territorial tensions that create such best get better, or waste time trying to • Finally, all of this needs to be divisions are manifest when the tribe of coax improvement from the worst? managed , in a way which is sensitive managers talks of targets and maximum Finally, the greatest lever of change to the complexities of service gain for the maximum number, and the should be the patient. Who, after all, has improvement, but intolerant of change tribe of clinicians talks of effectiveness the greatest stake in success? But are at the pace of the slowest. We should and the best for the individual patient. they being encouraged to demand the be clear about what good practice There is actually a lot of potential best possible? For many Welsh citizens, looks like in key areas, and how well common ground between the two – for there’s a yawning gulf between the local services are performing against example, patient safety is a rallying cry promises of their politicians and public that standard. that should appeal to all – but there is services, and the every-day reality of the decades of history yet to overcome. service they experience. If wards are All of this throws up some interesting paradoxes: “For many Welsh citizens, there’s a yawning gulf between the promises of their politicians and public services, and We don’t gather the evidence the every-day reality of the service they experience.” We advocate basing practice on evidence of effectiveness, but we seldom gather the necessary evidence about what works, and Doing better sometimes means dirty, receptionists rude, and medical whether best practice is being followed. It doing less records lost, the ‘jam tomorrow’ has been estimated, for example, that only The biggest gains often come from doing promises of innovation will ring rather about 20 per cent of what the NHS less, not more by stopping unnecessary hollow. The result: a poverty of routinely does is of proven effectiveness. and ineffective processes. Unfortunately, expectation. Instead, why don’t we the practice of defensive medicine (‘do routinely collect patients’ views on the We take the horse to water that extra test just in case we might be outcomes of their treatment – all Quite a lot of time and effort is spent sued’) is entrenched; but there are patients, not just an occasional few - disseminating good practice, but there promising examples of people (managers and build that into future performance? always seem to be good reasons why ‘it and clinicians together) redesigning During the 1930s, a campaigner couldn’t be adopted here’, and we need ‘patient pathways’ and cutting out was canvassing against German re- to invent another solution. Thus we see tranches of unnecessary activity. armament on a housing estate in lots of useful innovations springing up all London. One man opened the door and the time in the NHS, but rather less Innovation doesn’t always depend asked him: ‘Did you come up in the lift? copying of other people’s good ideas. on new ideas Did it smell of pee?’ The visitor replied It’s often just about doing sensible things that it did. “Can you stop people peeing We need to cure ‘Pilotitis’ consistently and universally. The use of in our lift?” He admitted he couldn’t. We’ve got lots of innovative pilot very simple checklists in operations, for “Then how are you going to stop schemes, but when the money runs out example, ensures that supplies are Germany re-arming?” the case for continued funding just available when they are needed and that The NHS in Wales doesn’t need any doesn’t seem to be compelling enough. all the routine checks have been carried more excellent strategies and fine- There are examples of this in every part out. Ticking the box can save lives. sounding intentions. Rather, it needs to of Wales – ranging from initiatives to help concentrate on making some simple people manage their long-term conditions, Many people in the NHS in Wales – improvements to routine practice. to interventions to tackle health from the Welsh Government down – are Thankfully, the current leadership of inequalities. It is a case of severe ‘pilotitis’. seriously addressing these issues. Let’s the service is on the case. hope they succeed. If they do, it will We want managers and innovators probably be because we get four key — Marcus Longley is Director of the on the same side things right. First, we need to focus Welsh Institute for Health and Social Clinical staff with bright ideas, and unflinchingly on what matters most. Is Care and Professor of Applied Health others in the Third Sector and the NHS preventing premature death and Policy, University of Glamorgan. This elsewhere, don’t always seem to be well- avoidable harm at least as well as the best article draws on a seminar organised by connected to the people who make in the world? Second, are we harnessing the Institute of Welsh Affairs and Health decisions. The world of healthcare is professional pride to best effect? No-one Academy Wales.

summ er 2 01 0 | 41 politics economy social policy environment science NE Wales communications culture Adding life to years

Theatre dance company Striking Attitudes performing during the making of their film Remains To Be Seen at Dunraven Bay, Odette Parry agrees with a new IWA study that we Southerndown, in the Vale of Glamorgan. The short film need to change the way we think about ageing celebrates the grace, vitality, inner strength, spiritual poise and experienced physique of the older dancer.

Many of the issues highlighted in the as a problem. Ageing is regarded as pounds, as the report points out. Adding Life To Years study by IWA adding just more pressure on health and So how can they be realised? The Director John Osmond resonate well social services already financially over- main issues, identified by services with a Voices of Older People survey stretched by demands on their dwindling themselves, are accommodation and our Social Inclusion Research team resources. This, in turn, filters down to care. Unsurprisingly, the majority of older at Glynd wˆr University carried out older people, who unsurprisingly pick up people want to remain independent and last year. While our sample of the regrettable message that they are a in their own homes. Indeed, some older respondents comprised older people burden on society. people who find themselves in hospital themselves, the Adding Life to Years The report explores Welsh policy or residential homes could be more report draws on the experiences and responses to the aging population, since appropriately treated and cared for in knowledge of a broader range of the launch of the Welsh Government’s their own homes by community-based experts, including academics and ten year Strategy for Older People in services. However, to achieve this a representatives from the voluntary 2003. In its first phase, to 2008, it led fundamental shift in the balance towards and statutory services. The report to the formation of a National Older more care in the community is required. forms part of a wider project for the People’s Partnership Forum for Wales, It will also need more multi-agency Older People’s Commission for the appointment of a Minister for seamless provision, particularly between Wales, which is exploring inter- Older People, and most notably a the NHS and social services. An generational attitudes to ageing and Commissioner for Older People. important message is that, rather than how they might shape appropriate In the second phase (2008-13) treating them as an homogenous group, policy responses. the strategy is concentrating on we need to understand and addresses the mainstreaming policy. Key indicators physical, social and psychological needs The crux of the IWA report is that and targets have been identified around of older people as individuals. For those changes to the demographic profile of inclusion, material wellbeing, active unable to stay in their own homes, the the population in Wales reflect the fact aging, social care, health care and health need is to provide accommodation and that most people are living longer. This and wellbeing. While progress on older care which enables older people with a surely should be good news. However, people’s policy in Wales during the first dignified existence as well as realising as the report points out, rather than decade of devolution is commendable, their full potential. perceiving this as a matter for future targets are highly ambitious, given Of course, the major problem is celebration, services tend to construct it a budget allocation of only £12 million funding. On top of pensions, which as

42 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org the report points out many people in going to pay, and how much, misses the respond differently to the different stages Wales are under-provided for, there is main point. As it convincingly argues, of aging, the fundamental importance of the issue of services for those in the the sheer magnitude of the demographic the promotion of their respect and community, and accommodation for changes we are about to experience in dignity, quality of life and opportunities those older people where needed. the coming decades are changing the for fulfillment remain paramount. To Here, policy appears to focus more terms of the issue. Currently, we are achieve the changes in thinking and responsibility for management of care, underestimating the scale of the approaches we need, the barriers between whether its local authorities or people demographic shift and consequently the generations will need to be broken down. themselves. extent of the resources that will be This will entail innovative engagement Payment is a thorny problem, not needed to tackle it. To deal effectively of younger people to counter-act the least of all to those owning their own with the increase in older population in overwhelmingly negative images homes, or with savings. They regard Wales we must therefore fundamentally associated with ageing. themselves as being punished, or victims change our thinking about aging, older This task necessarily requires a of their own thriftiness. While currently people and our responses to them. champion. Given the financial constraints the Welsh Government appears to favour First, we must stop seeing older people on the Welsh Government, particularly in provision based on pooling risks across as a problem, or aging as a negative respect of benefits and pension provision lifespans, the report urges a new process. We must promote more positive and the funding of long-term care, the approach in which care is funded by images of ageing, which must be grasped report urges that the Older People’s payments from everyone in society, as an opportunity to add to the Commissioner could most usefully according to their ability to pay, primarily fulfillment of life. We must also stop emphasise her advocacy role in over the course of their working life. seeing, or responding to, older people as highlighting the concerns of older people, However, this would necessarily entail an homogenous group. Older people are and take a lead in changing the attitudes increases in general taxes, or a new social not all the same. They differ, for example of the people of Wales towards ageing. insurance/care fund to which most in terms of their gender, health, financial people would be expected to pay. circumstances, social support and — Professor Odette Parry is Director The message of the report, is that psychological needs. of the Social Inclusion Research Unit at focusing overly on the issue of who is Moreover, while older people may Glynd wˆr University. politics economy social policy environment science NE Wales communications culture Economic growth’s collateral damage

Katie-jo Luxton bemoans the loss of our biodiversity hard drive

Gwent Levels Futurescape The Gwent Levels are an extensive area of coastal floodplain, salt marsh and inter-tidal mudflats. For many years, they were seen primarily as flat land ripe for development. Yet the area is of huge importance to south Wales, particularly for its rare and special wildlife, water quality, flood risk management and quality of life. Here there is enormous potential to create a Futurescape that local people can enjoy, which also supports sustainable farming and natural flood protection. This in turn will help species such as bittern, lapwing, water vole, and otter survive in the face of “Does it really matter if lapwings go our biodiversity has been likened to climate change. extinct in Wales?” someone once wiping nature’s hard drive, even before A partnership between RSPB asked following a presentation on we know what data it contains. Cymru, the Countryside Council and the failure of agri-environment It would appear there is an intention Newport City Council has been schemes to halt declines in wild bird to address the problem. We have more working to protect and improve the populations in Wales. There has been than a decade of commitments from Levels. So far this partnership has: more than an 80 per cent decline in every level of government - from the Rio the last twenty years. Johannesburg World Summits of 1992 • Created of 153 hectares of lowland and 2002, to the meeting of the wet grassland. Lapwings are part of the landscape of European Heads of State in Gothenburg • Restored 50 hectares of reedbed. my upbringing and I feel deeply in 2001. Meanwhile, Wales launched its • Built a £2.8m Environmental saddened by their disappearance from own Environment Strategy in 2006, Education and Visitor Centre at most parts of rural Wales. My children which not only committed to halting the Newport Wetlands National will not grow up, as I did, inspired by biodiversity loss by 2010 but also to seek Nature Reserve. the graceful flight of these beautiful its recovery by 2026. • Produced 60 volunteer creatures, or write poems about their But this year, when we should have opportunities at Newport Wetlands clever strategies against predators. I feel been celebrating, not only have these • Increased the number of visitors to both a cultural loss and a sense of failure commitments failed to produce Newport Wetlands from 18,000 to in our moral duty, as a nation, to protect anywhere near the action needed to halt 59,000 - more than 7,000 school our wildlife. biodiversity loss, the dream itself seems children visits to Newport Wetlands Of course, the wider answer to the to be lost. Like all other countries, since 2008. question is that biodiversity represents Wales has not only failed to reach its • Defended the Gwent Levels the natural wealth of our planet and target but has also failed to lessen the against development, including provides the basis for all life, including decline of most species placed on the airstrips and the new M4. our prosperity. The alarming decline of biodiversity action list.

44 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org So why has it been so hard to halt Now a major new study being the decline in wildlife? It boils down to published this summer, The Economics of the simple fact that the exploitation of Ecosystems and Biodiversity , based on the our natural world – the land, water, air, thinking of leading economist Pavan and mineral resources – is part of our Sukdev, is aiming to do for biodiversity economic rationale. Wildlife is the what the Stern report did for climate collateral damage. We are living as change (www.teebweb.org). The Welsh though there is no limit to our resources, Government has also made tentative when in fact the economy is a wholly steps to address the perversities of our owned subsidiary of the environment. agricultural subsidies and it is hoped that One example, which has cost our Glastir , the new better-funded, agri- wallets and lapwings dear, is agricultural environment scheme, will encourage a subsidies. These have driven more focused suite of wildlife measures. intensification and specialisation of our However, all this could be too little farmland to produce more and more too late, certainly for birds like the food from even the most marginal land. lapwing, which now only breed on a Only a few years ago these subsidies paid handful of sites outside nature reserves. our farmers to ‘improve land’, meaning For even despite more than doubling the to drain and fertilise it, without thought resources available to the Glastir scheme, for the value of the hills and blanket bogs the investment is still small in as a sponge, or the likelihood of flooding governmental terms. At £90 million a down stream. year, it is still less than a third of the Our failure to factor the wider public overall farm subsidy coming to Wales. goods and environmental services To halt biodiversity loss we need to provided by habitats into the economic tackle the root cause of the problem. equation has cost us. We have paid for Rather than seeing the environment as an Young bird watchers at the Newport the food the Welsh mountains have ‘add-on’, to be managed after the real Wetlands National Nature Reserve. produced three times over – in the business, we need to invest in our natural supermarket, through taxes that paid the world and use it to drive economic more resilient wildlife populations outside subsidy, and through water rates to clean regeneration. The Welsh Government reserves and protected areas, in a more the water rushing off the mountain should test this approach in areas that are connected and restored landscape and unfiltered and full of suspended soil. facing the greatest challenges caused by ecosystem. They will make space for Moreover, our hill farmers have been the failure of our current economic wildlife especially helping it to adapt to left with depleted land dependant on model. It needs to find ways to harness a changing climate. They will also help subsidies, our water resources are and align its existing resources from all people to reconnect with nature, boost increasingly precarious, and the public sectors. It should be investing in high our quality of life and offer rewarding, finds it harder to understand or engage quality management of our protected highly skilled jobs in the environmental with the systems that produce and landscapes to create a ‘green management sector. control food. infrastructure’. We should improve the ‘Futurescapes’ can only work as The need to work with nature rather quality of upland bogs and lowland flood partnerships between people and than against it was the rationale for the lands to retain water, and provide organisations, bringing the public, private duty to promote sustainable development improved visitor access and engagement and voluntary sectors together to pool that was placed within the founding so that people can enjoy wildlife as part resources. The shared aim is to create legislation of the National Assembly. of a healthy, high quality life. landscapes where people and nature co- However, we are far from living within The Welsh Government should pay exist to mutual benefit. This is the true the capacity of our ecosystems. Birds, for this new approach with receipts from meaning of sustainable development. We such as lapwing are, quite literally, the wind farms on government land, and by must strive to achieve it if we are to keep canaries in the coalmine, indicating all is extending the ‘polluter pays’ principle so lapwings, our biodiversity and safeguard not well with the environmental systems that the biodiversity impacts of our children’s future. underpinning our society. We have developments are fully captured. continued with the same economic Conservation charities are creating model, which has failed to account for these ‘green infrastructures’ by working many of the services nature provides and at a landscape scale, what RSPB Cymru — Katie-jo Luxton is the Director of has depleted and degraded these services. calls ‘Futurescapes’. They aim to create RSPB Cymru.

summ er 2 01 0 | 45 politics economy social policy environment science NE Wales communications culture

View of Castlemartin Corse, Mean high water spring tides as looking upstream to the east. measured at Milford Haven are Photo: Richard Ellis currently 3.29 metres above sea level. Only the culvert and bridge structures and the dunes - which in the area around the culvert and outfall are 7-8 metres above sea level - stand in the way of inundation of the basin by high spring tides. As it is, the basin is subject to extensive flooding, as high tides and the limited capacity of the culvert prevent fresh water escaping through the outfall. One current farming enterprise Coastal flooding upstream runs 500 cattle on 550 acres, up to 80 acres of which are subject to prevention without flooding and therefore unsuitable for grazing for weeks at a time. relying on concrete In 2005 the National Trust began to develop a vision for the future of Richard Ellis describes how the National Castlemartin Corse which would Trust is coping with sea incursion at accommodate sea level rise and climate Freshwater West in Pembrokeshire change. This was always going to be complex because of the divided ownership of the site post-1976 and the Freshwater West has long been subjected to a land drainage scheme, multiplicity of stakeholders. Most of the known as one of Wales’s premier carried out by Dutch engineers, to beach above mean high water and the surfing beaches, and more recently improve the land for agriculture. The foredunes are in the ownership of the as a location for two Hollywood result was a system of channels and Angle Estate. The National Trust owns blockbusters Robin Hood and Harry ditches which drained the land the remainder of the dunes and the Potter and the Deathly Hallows . It is sufficiently for the lowest part of the catchment for about one mile inland, the rather less famous as a focus for the basin to be used for pasturage for much distance of the lowest part of the basin National Trust’s plans for adapting of the year. The drainage was maintained from the beach. The land subject to to rises in sea level caused by by the Environment Agency until the flooding is divided between three farms, climate change. 1990s. So, while the Castlemartin Corse with the intensive dairy operation Site of Special Scientific Interest is the upstream being most affected. Freshwater West lies at the seaward end best example of a calcareous fen in Our first step was to commission of a narrow catchment reaching six Pembrokeshire, it is but a 20 hectare a study and stakeholder engagement miles inland to the hamlet of St Petrox. relic of a once mighty wetland. exercise by Halcrow Group. This The catchment is drained by the stream Another man-made obstacle to the included a technical geomorphological, and wetland of Castlemartin Corse, and natural functioning of both the hydrological and ecological study, as is barely more than a mile wide for most hydrology and the geomorphology of well as individual consultations with the of its length. Ridges to north and south the site is the B4319 road, which cuts farming stakeholders to ensure their carry B roads connecting the villages of through the foredunes and principal views were fully taken on board. An Castlemartin and Angle to Pembroke. dune slacks, in places just metres away important part of the study was the The beach is backed by a magnificent from the top of the shingle beach. LiDAR map which indicated the area dune system, with the Corse draining Climate change and rising sea level likely to be tidal by the end of the through a man-made channel and culvert present a challenge to the status quo. century, which corresponds to the one onto the beach. Castlemartin Corse, with The lowest part of the valley landward that is currently subject to flooding by its tenanted farms, was part of the vast of the dunes is a mere 3.5 to 4.5 metres fresh water. Cawdor Estate until it was broken up in above sea level, in places level with the The process ended with a report, 1976. In the early 19 th Century it was shingle ridge at the top of the beach. a degree of agreement about what was

46 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org likely to happen in the future, and one for restoring the mobility of ten of Road closure would also allow the important action – the immediate Wales’s finest dune systems, including extension of current grazing regimes demolition of the outfall structure on the Broomhill and Kilpaison Burrows, the onto the seaward dunes, currently beach, which was both a maintenance dunes along the northern flank of the confined to the area east of the road. nightmare and a serious health and Corse. In response to the Council’s Grazing is critical to the maintenance safety hazard. This was undertaken by proposals for mechanical disturbance, of a diverse dune flora and insect the National Trust and Environment our suggestion was that the biggest fauna. Our plan would also see the Agency in April 2009. The culvert obstacle to dune mobility was the northernmost car park closed and under the road and shingle beach B4319, which severs the beach and restored to dune, with a replacement remains, but removal of the outfall pipe foredunes from their hinterland, cutting just up the hill past the war memorial, was the first step towards a reversion to off opportunities for the transport of out of line of sight of the beach, on the natural hydrological processes. wind-blown sand and the maintenance field used as a unit base by Harry Potter . In the meantime initiatives from of the bare sand so critical to dune Addressing the parking, congestion other quarters began to focus wider invertebrate and plant species. and camping issues which currently attention on Freshwater West. The best way to reconnect the bedevil the area in the summer months Consultation for the Shoreline dunes and at the same time restore their form an important part of our vision, Management Plan 2 for the Lavernock natural dynamics was, we suggested, the and underline the importance of Point to St Anne’s Head coastline closure of this section of the B4319. working closely with our neighbours (which includes Freshwater West) This is not as drastic as it sounds, as and partner agencies. These include the began in 2008. The Plan will set out a our proposal would still enable the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park 100 year policy for planning coastal beach to be accessed from north and Authority which is also the planning flood and erosion risk management south. Most journeys are to Freshwater authority, and Pembrokeshire County Council which is responsible for the road. Together with the Countryside Council, who have responsibility for the SSSI, and the Environment Agency, we are all partners in the shoreline planning process. Our vision is to revive a once-great dune and wetland system by restoring the natural hydrology and dune processes to Freshwater West and Castlemartin Corse. The prospect of sea level rise heightens the need for a new approach to managing coastal flooding which does not rely on building more and more concrete defences. There is a need for a new toolkit of innovative adaptation approaches. We believe that our approach of understanding risk and planning its management should be Aerial view of Freshwater West. applied to all of Wales’s coast, allied Photo: Sid Howells with work to fully engage the public and coastal communities. along this stretch of coast. Our detailed West rather than through it. It would work on this section was able to form add slightly over three miles to a part of the consultation. With its journey between Castlemartin and emphasis on policies for the short, Angle villages, but make no difference — Richard Ellis is National Trust medium and long-term, the Plan offers to journeys from either to Pembroke. Head Warden for Pembrokeshire. More the ideal vehicle for a staged approach Indeed it was the temporary road information on managing coastal change to coastal adaptation here. closure during the filming of Robin can be found in Shifting Shores: Living In 2009 the Countryside Council for Hood in June 2009 which showed just with a changing coastline downloaded at Wales circulated ideas for consultation how well this could work. www.nationaltrust.org.uk

summ er 2 01 0 | 47 politics economy social policy environment science NE Wales communications culture

Alzheimer’s break-through in Cardiff

Julie Williams asks why mental health remains the poor relation in medical research funding

Ignored and misunderstood, mental elderly, mental illness will surely affect us, we’ve secured widespread recognition for illness remains one of the key health our family or friends during our lifetime. the largest-ever joint Alzheimer's disease questions yet to be answered. Poor Improving care and treatment for genome-wide association study (see mental health affects some 16.7 people with mental health problems Panel) involving 16,000 individuals. million people in the UK today. And, requires the same rigorous research as The study, published in Nature Genetics , according to a report prepared for the demanded for tackling physical illness. uncovered two new genes associated All-Wales Mental Health Promotion Yet, despite the huge burden that poor with Alzheimer's disease. Network the total annual cost to the mental health represents to society, Previously only one gene, APOE4, had the Welsh economy is a staggering mental health research remains been shown to be a risk factor for £7.2 billion. In this new ‘age of incredibly underfunded. Only 5 per cent Alzheimer's disease. The study revealed, austerity’ is it really an illness that of medical research in the UK is into for the first time, that two further genes, we can continue to ignore? mental health, despite 15 per cent of CLU and PICALM, are related to disability resulting from disease being Alzheimer's disease. More recently, as As a society we draw inspiration from due to mental illness. part of an international collaboration of the achievements of medical science in However, Wales is playing its part. scientists, we’ve uncovered evidence for tackling diseases like cancer and heart Welsh universities are key players with four additional susceptibility genes for disease. However, when it comes to our my own, Cardiff University, already Alzheimer’s, opening up new avenues understanding and treatment of diseases recognised as a world-leader in for research into the disease. of the brain we lag behind. identifying the genetic origins of such Two of the new susceptibility genes Covering the full lifespan - from diseases as schizophrenia, bipolar regulate how large molecules are taken autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and Alzheimer’s Disease. into and are transported within cells. disorder in children, to psychiatric At the last Research Assessment Exercise, Together they highlight a process that disorders such as schizophrenia and Cardiff University ranked among the was not previously known to be involved bipolar disorder in adults, to neuro- very best in the UK for Psychology, in Alzheimer’s disease. Others support degenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s, Psychiatry and Neurology and Clinical the involvement of cholesterol processing Huntington’s and Parkinson’s in the Psychology. In my own area of research, and inflammation in the brain, as triggers

48 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org of disease. This is exciting news as it from medicine, psychology, biosciences as relevant today as they were when he gives us new lines of enquiry. and optometry to take new discoveries first uttered them all those years ago. This research provides valuable new and translate them into greater Austere times require us to identify leads in the race to find treatments and understanding and diagnosis of our priorities, to direct our finite possibly cures for the devastating mental illness. resources at what will help us achieve conditions. We have a responsibility to Under the Directorship of Professor the most. Research funding is no do more – but, this can only be Mike Owen, who also leads Wales' first different and must mean targeting achieved if we are given the opportunity Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics research at what is most likely to help. and more importantly, the funding necessary to take our research to the next level. Last month, a review by the “Many other areas of research are important, Medical Research Council, the UK’s yet in the medical field mental health research major research funder, showed that UK- is last in the queue.” funded mental health research is world- class and that we are well-placed to lead the way in this area. and Genomics, this means putting the Many other areas of research are The review concludes that there breakthroughs I’ve desxcribed to work to important, yet in the medical field are several opportunities to fund more help establish Cardiff University and mental health research is last in the research that would help accelerate Wales among the very best of the queue. Can this be justified when an progress in developing new treatments, world’s universities in this field. estimated one in four people will or lead to better ways of preventing Finding better ways to treat - or experience a mental health problem this mental illness in the first place. We at preferably prevent - poor mental health year? That is substantially more people Cardiff University are committed to as early as possible will bring enormous than will have a heart attack. Yet twice this challenge . benefits to individuals, their families and as much research goes into heart disease In June we launched the new society as a whole. It was the Welsh than is carried out in mental health. Neuroscience and Mental Health icon Aneurin Bevan who talked of the Over the coming months, Cardiff Research Institute draws together “language of priorities”. When it comes University’s new Research Institute expertise from across the University – to mental health research, his words are will develop new projects to help build on our existing work. The strength and success of our research and Genome-wide association study activities will be rightly judged on what impact it has on people’s lives. This is an examination of genetic variation across a given genome, designed Our aim is extremely ambitious: to to identify genetic associations with observable traits. In human studies, this translate the breakthroughs in might include traits such as blood pressure or weight, or why some people get fundamental science into improved a disease or condition. diagnosis and treatment of brain The completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 made it possible to diseases affecting people from find the genetic contributions to common diseases and analyse whole-genome childhood to old age . samples for genetic variations that contribute to their onset. The Neuroscience and Mental These studies normally require two groups of participants: people with the Health Research Institute will help disease (cases) and similar people without (controls). After genotyping each consolidate Cardiff University’s position participant, the set of markers, or DNA sequence variations, are scanned into as an international leader in the field of computers. Then bioinformatics (the application of statistics and computer neuroscience and mental health research. science to molecular biology) is applied to survey participants' genomes for However, in an ever increasing age of markers of genetic variation. priorities and dwindling resources is our If genetic variations are more frequent in people with the disease, the work a priority that our decision makers variations are said to be ‘associated’ with the disease. The associated genetic and funders will share? variations are then considered as pointers to the region of the human genome where the disease-causing problem is likely to reside. Since the entire genome is analysed for the genetic associations of a particular disease, this technique allows the genetics of a disease to be investigated in a non- — Julie Williams is Professor hypothesis-driven manner. of Neuropsychological Genetics at Cardiff University.

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The Deutsche Museum at Munich in Bavaria, arguably the most illustrious science museum in the world – something for Wales to aspire to. Wales needs a science museum John Tucker says our scientific heritage should be collected and celebrated

Ideas of national identity, heritage History is a part of the culture of community into local histories. and history are intellectually difficult, working scientists. Earlier ideas, technical Surprisingly, national histories expand the hugely influential and very practical. milestones and even biographies form scale and complexity of our conception Who do we say we are? What do we part of scientific explanations and are of the scientific enterprise. In particular, know about ourselves? What might essential in the education of scientists. such detailed rooted histories are closer to we become? In Wales since the 1960s, For example, GCSE science draws the experience of today’s scientists. There historians and museum curators have attention to the emergence of ideas and are four simple reasons why the subject is lavished attention upon a few past difficulties, such as Einstein’s 1905 fundamental and relevant to pressing dominant themes, including: solution to the 1827 problem of contemporary issues in Wales: medieval and early modern history; explaining Reverend Thomas Brown’s folk history in the west and north; observations of the motion of pollen on 1. For scientists and science teachers, a industrialisation and urbanisation in the surface of water. This established deeper understanding of the nature of south; the making of the working atomic theory in the modern age. science leads to improved scientific class. But there are neglected themes: However, for scientists, history tends to practice, better science education and global copper and Welsh industries be international, heroic and Whiggish. better public engagement and trust other than coal and steel - power, Unlike most scientists I have long in science. chemical, automotive, computing; been interested in the history of science 2. Science is a source of inspiration business and finance; military and Wales . It has been a difficult and a practical driving force in the history; the middle class; arts, leisure, hobby to pursue, mainly because creation of European modernity shopping and sport. And there is knowledgeable people and literature are from the 17 th Century. Science needs probably the most neglected theme scarce. It took years to gather names to be rediscovered as a fundamental of all: Wales and science. and to understand and appreciate component in the heritage of achievements. Fortunately, there is modern Wales. The late Professor Phil Williams plenty to know and there is something 3. Science is essential for the economic proclaimed that Wales was a nation of addictive about collecting. competitiveness and sustainability scientists. In a terrific speech during a Thinking about Welsh science and its of Wales, especially for small National Assembly debate on Science in place in our history and cultural heritage companies and organisations. Wales , in May 2001, he surveyed Wales’ is rewarding. The very nature of a Invention, innovation and change scientific heritage, naming 15 people national history of science challenges the is inherently historical. together with a short comment on their scientists’ orthodox views. It introduces 4. Science is essential in policy and achievements. He was the first person I large doses of intellectual and historical decision making in contemporary heard celebrating Wales’ scientific heritage context by mapping the social networks Wales, which is infected with dogma as if it was big and as if it mattered. of scientists, recovering the purpose of and received opinions, especially I am a scientist. Like most scientists investigations, and embedding the ideas, about technological and energy issues. I am interested in the history of science. achievements and failures of the scientific There are dozens of policy areas and

50 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org £100 millions of investments in of Welsh science. We should mark anniversaries. For projects where science and technology • Grow the number of learned papers example, 2010 is 500 years since the are prominent. The historical record is and scholarly books. death of Tenby-born Robert Recorde a vast storehouse of useful insight and • Organise conferences and publish who invented the equals sign. It is also hindsight, and cautionary and proceedings. 200 years since the birth of John Dillwyn inspirational tales, of great value to • Write monographs on topics in the Llewellyn, Swansea born botanist and contemporary Wales. history of Welsh science that improves pioneer photographer. It is encouraging that National our understanding of its origins. We should put up statues, like the one Museum Wales has also been thinking • Write a popular introductory book on of Swansea’s William Grove in energy about our scientific heritage. It has the history of Welsh science that conscious Woking. We could also start excellent credentials in research, shows the subject exists. local museum collections and archives of collecting and exhibiting natural history and geology and plans to improve upon them. However, there is little to be seen of the rest of science. Of course, in its storerooms there are all kinds of items to be found that would belong in a science museum. One example is their Stantec- Zebra. This is a wonderful old computer made by STC in Corporation Road, Newport in the 1950s, an object that brings alive the early days of a great revolution. More pressingly, across Wales there must be all kinds of scientific items worthy of collection, or in desperate need of rescue. What’s out there? What stories are there to be told about them? If only we knew. What Wales needs is a Science Museum. A problem is that ignorance The Robert Recorde Memorial, at the Department of Computer Science, Swansea University, was of Welsh scientific history and heritage designed by the artist John Howes and carved by the calligrapher Ieuan Rees in 2001. Born in Tenby is wide and deep. We need researchers Robert Recorde (c.1510-1558) wrote the first books on arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and algebra in English. He introduced the Hindu-Arabic numbers, the ideas of Copernicus and invented the equals to discover our history: sign “=”. He espoused a philosophy of knowledge firmly based upon quantification and practicality that was to become the characteristic of modern science a century later. • Historians who know about periods, places, events, people, networks, and National Museum Wales should documents, ephemera, interviews, and historical methods. • Convince themselves that science is antiques. We should certainly mount • Scientists and engineers who know all around them in their collections. hundreds of blue plaques. There are great about the theory and the practice • Create an inventory of artifacts in Wales. possibilities for websites, documentaries of their subject and are interested in • Make a new classification of scientific and dramas and simply making available its history. objects available in collections. what the media has already created. • Keepers and friends of industrial • Collect internationally. Virtually all the great institutional heritage who have a rounded picture • Create local networks of collections are based upon private amateur of developments at a particular time knowledgeable people. collections. A fundamental requirement will or place. • Start collecting the oral history be to avoid the paralysis and hypnotic blight of science. of public spending cuts. The true strength Such research thrives on the amateur and of amateurs is the freshness and freedom professional. To construct Wales’ scientific In short we should be integrating the that comes from doing something one heritage, we have to share knowledge and history of science into the study of wants to do and knows is worth doing. educate one another. What would help to Wales and Welsh history. We should be get things moving? Academics across the connecting professionals and amateurs — John Tucker is professor of Universities of Wales should: from the historical and scientific Computer Science at Swansea communities with museum curators, University and Chair of the IWA’s • Initiate a lecture course on the history collectors and archivists. Swansea Bay Branch.

summ er 2 01 0 | 51 politics economy social policy environment science NE Wales communications culture Banality of the border Simon Gwyn Roberts investigates the annonymity of north-east Wales’ psychogeography

A decorative ‘Welcome to Wales’ sign devolution: it is no longer merely an vote. Only 35.5 per cent of the Alyn and once marked the border outside the ‘administrative’ border. And herein lies Deeside electorate bothered to turn out Anchor pub in the Flintshire town of a fascinating political conundrum. For in the 2007 Assembly elections, though , where the suburbs devolution to succeed, there is an this was a substantial increase on the spill over into the industrial inevitable tendency to accentuate the 25.9 per cent turn-out in 2003. landscape of Deeside. Not any more. most coherent and identifiable national Although misused and occasionally Now, the confidence of upwardly narratives as the devolved nation takes ridiculed over the years, the term mobile Wales is celebrated by a the opportunity to define itself more 'psychogeography' strikes me as apt and utilitarian grey pole topped with the clearly, both culturally and politically. ripe for application here. Coined by Guy corporate ‘Flintshire’ logo. Which all means, equally inevitably, Debord in the 1950s, it refers to the that those areas on the geographical effects that landscape and geographical Without the sign, there is nothing to fringes of the nation, which singularly context can have on human emotion and mark any kind of meaningful boundary. lack the stereotypical Welsh identities of behaviour. Debord attempted to No welcome, indeed not even a mention the industrial south or rural north-west, articulate the nascent ‘discipline’ thus: of Wales. It seems a perfect metaphor are marginalised. for the anonymity of the Welsh border in The geographical reality of the “The sudden change of ambiance in the industrialised north-east. For the border here cannot be divorced from the a street within the space of a few motorist, cyclist or pedestrian - wider political picture. It is my metres; the evident division of a city disorientated by this dreary landscape of contention that the suburban nature of into zones of distinct psychic marshy fields, wasteland and industrial the border landscape in the north-east atmospheres; the path of least estates - it is often impossible to know contributes to, and accentuates, the resistance which is automatically where England ends and Wales begins. political reality of disengagement from followed in aimless strolls (and which Yet the peculiar banality of this the processes of devolution - and has no relation to the physical contour area, which lacks any defining physical arguably feeds an alienation with of the ground); the appealing or characteristics, has been invested with devolved Wales itself. This expresses repelling character of certain places - a new significance by the advent of itself most clearly in an unwillingness to all this seems to be neglected.”

52 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org Consider, then, the implications of of the area (it was originally ‘Foundary and crosses the border further upstream. the north-eastern border of Wales in Lane’ until someone with a map realised Almost entirely treeless, the foreground is terms of contemporary devolved - yes, realised - that it followed the a wilderness of agrobusiness - hedgeless politics. Is it far-fetched to suggest that border between England and Wales). fields and indeterminate crops. Early the anonymity of the landscape feeds Just a road, and yet, consider the experiments with genetically-modified into a more general ennui with the increasingly stark implications: one side food took place here, and the setting processes of devolution and of the road retains the traditional social seems appropriate. The horizons stretch disengagement with Welsh politics in democratic model of public service out into the distance, lit by the distant what is surely the very definition of delivery with its free prescriptions, industry of Deeside. The ambience is Denis Balsom’s ‘British Wales’? cheaper residential care and university that of Eastern England - Humberside Recently I made a short journey tuition fees. The other side of the road perhaps - although the Clwydian hills along the border in an effort to come to doesn't. But despite this widening wink on the horizon as a beckoning terms with the reality of this landscape. I political gulf, there is no visible sign that reminder of a different world. walked from the boggy fields marking there is any kind of border here, let The River Dee, perhaps the most the extreme south-western edge of alone an internal UK border that has tangible symbol of a physical border Chester (known, rather mysteriously, as recently been invested with more between England and Wales in these the Lache Eyes) north and west to the significance that at any time since the parts, is here engineered into straight-as- extraordinarily bleak mudflats of the Acts of Union in the 16 th Century. a-dye artificiality. It’s been that way for , where Wales meets the Tracing the border beyond Boundary centuries, an illustration of the effort Wirral peninsula. Lane requires an OS map. It is a made to keep Chester functioning as a Like much of the landscape here, the geographical reality only in the mind of port as the Dee gradually silted up and Lache Eyes was reclaimed in medieval the walker equipped with the knowledge the water ebbed further and further times from an earlier (and more natural) of its location. Moving north, this away. That post-industrial artificiality hybrid zone of water and marsh. The invisible boundary crosses the River Dee seems entirely in keeping with the River Dee was canalised centuries ago, before penetrating an industrial/retail landscape, a blend of flat arable and the floodplain reclaimed, Dutch- complex of the kind that blights the farmland, a few housing estates, office style, from sodden obscurity into outskirts of so many historic cities, where buildings and mini-industrial parks. After reasonably productive farmland. But the Chester loses its identity and its touristic a mile or two, a sign welcomes you to ensuing flat functionality renders the ‘USP’ in a morass of malls, park-and- Wales. It has been attacked with paint landscape deeply dull and anonymous. ride car parks, housing developments and, by the look of it, some kind of The border passes through these fields - and cavernous garages. vehicle or earth-moving equipment. It is frisian cows grazing on one side, horses The border marks the edge of on the other, both species oblivious to Chester City's football ground (‘pitch in “The River Dee, perhaps the significance of the drainage ditch that Wales, office in England’), and runs the most tangible symbol marks the border - before dissecting the right through the ‘Chester West business western suburbs of Chester, where it park’, marking the outside edge of a of a physical border runs down the middle of Saltney’s road with offices and small industry on between England and Boundary Lane. either side. An uglier landscape would Wales in these parts, is And it is here that the implications of be hard to imagine. But it transcends here engineered into devolution get really interesting. But you mere ugliness. It is also entirely without straight-as-a-dye could be forgiven for not grasping those character, without an identity of its own. implications, as the context and the Hard to imagine that this point will ever artificiality.” ambience is entirely suburban. The be celebrated as a border between two border is marked by the white lines and countries: it will continue to seep bent over and defaced, and sits perfectly cat's eyes in the middle of a small road without fanfare into the flat post- in the landscape. through a nondescript housing estate, industrial landscape. Further north, you can trace the with Barrett-home boxes on both sides. Although the border runs north west exact line of the border as it runs There could hardly be a less from here, skirting and delineating the through more featureless farmland. prepossessing gateway to a dynamic isolated compound of Blacon (‘Chester’s Another village, Sealand, marks the devolved Wales. It is instructive to note most deprived suburb’), I chose to head Welsh side of the border. It looks and that the name, Boundary Lane, is a south along Ferry Lane via a cycle path feels like an ironic pastiche of a gated recent construct, and a very rare nod to which leads towards the open community, echoes of nearby Blacon, the geographical and political significance countryside surrounding the River Dee another council estate compound with

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engage with the newly devolved Welsh political system and which looks to north-west England for its cultural cues. It is, quintessentially, border country, awkwardly defined by the ambiguity that typifies such regions. The political implications of these issues should perhaps be considered in the light of the statistics released by the Welsh Government which confirmed that Alyn and Deeside was the Welsh constituency where the lowest percentage of school pupils consider their national identity to be Welsh – 20.5 per cent, while 27 per cent consider themselves English. Given the decline in an all- encompassing 'British' identity, an Boundary Lane in Saltney - the border runs down optimistic prognosis in terms of likely the middle of the road. civic and political engagement with Welsh devolution is difficult. serious social problems. The ruins of The area’s marginalisation from the As Chris Williams argues, a Wales Shotwick castle represent a tangible, rest of Wales is rooted in its geographical that does not take proper account of the tranquil contrast on the English side. location, particularly its proximity to the ambiguities and complexities that render Unexpectedly, jarringly, a Welsh place English border and the large urban areas the national project problematic will only name occurs - Maes Gwyn - right next of north-west England, where suburbs generate a future embraced by a minority to the border and the Sealand RAF base. straddle an invisible frontier with barely of its citizens. In Flintshire, these issues The A494 intervenes, a ‘key artery’ a nod to its significance. This is far are compounded by a weak sense of local which has recently expanded to become removed from the empty moorland of identity that has implications in terms of a six-lane mega-highway serving day- the Anglo-Scottish border, let alone the broader civic engagement on a local level. trippers and Irish juggernauts. The historic physical boundaries of the Residents seem less able to mobilise a border continues across the Dee's Pyrenees or the Rio Grande. I would form of localism as a means of dealing floodplain, literally at sea level. Here argue that this fundamental geographical with the mixed identity markers many there is another real contrast. On the reality does have real political implications of them send out. Welsh side is the vast sprawl of industrial as devolution moves forward. Yet that ambiguity might yet be Deeside with its chimney stacks and There is an inevitable blurring of celebrated by the residents, in the same enormous warehouses. On the English socio-cultural boundaries which gives the way that the people of Berwick-upon- side are the chocolate box villages of region a more ambiguous identity than Tweed on the Anglo-Scottish border Burton, Puddington and Shotwick. both the rest of Wales and neighbouring celebrate their hybridity. They are Within a mile or two the border enters a parts of north-west England. The area is neither Scottish nor English, and feel ‘danger area’ of marsh and quicksand as far removed, geographically and enriched by that rather attractive and it continues out into the Dee estuary culturally, from the centres of Welsh unusual status. Celebrating that itself, where it becomes just a nominal political life, particularly if one accepts ambiguity might engender an increased line on the Ordnance Survey map. that the two dominant national narratives sense of civic pride and local identity in Denis Balsom famously divided in post-devolution Wales echo Balsom's north-east Wales, and thereby perhaps Wales into three in the 1980s, in an ‘Welsh Wales’ of the south Wales Valleys encourage democratic participation. And attempt to explain voting patterns and and ‘Y Fro Cymraeg’ of the rural north- in the post-devolution climate, there cultural allegiences: Welsh Wales, Y Fro west and west. Both narratives are might be wider lessons here about civic Cymraeg, and British Wales. Flintshire, coherent in terms of identity markers engagement and civic forms of identity tucked away in the north-eastern corner and stereotypical Welsh characteristics. as the project progresses and matures. of Wales, is where ‘British Wales’ reaches And both contrast sharply with the its apotheosis, particularly this urbanised unusually nebulous cultural identity of — Simon Gwyn Roberts is a senior and industrialised eastern fringe along Flintshire, which expresses itself lecturer in journalism at the University the English border. politically in a marked reluctance to of Chester.

54 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org English counties. It was created by the Mersey Dee Alliance, a partnership Border Wars which includes the local authorities of Cheshire West, Chester, , Ellesmere Port, Neston, Flintshire, the Wirral and Wrexham. Those opposing the plan feel that north east Wales is being prepped for an influx of workers from across the border, workers who are keen to find affordable housing at much more reasonable prices than those found in Cheshire’s leafy suburbs. The passion local people feel about this topic was demonstrated in February 2010 when one of the largest petitions in the history of the National Assembly was debated at Glynd wˆ r University in Wrexham. Most representations to the Petitions Committee at the National Assembly come in with less than 50 signatures. The one in Wrexham had around 15,000 signatures on it (it now totals over 22,000). To put this extraordinary figure in context, it is estimated that, in comparison, only 20,000 Wrexham people turned out to vote in the Jane Redfern Jones makes a plea for the identity of Wrexham Assembly elections of 2007. What is even more significant is that the As a child I loved visiting my great parks and miles of rolling countryside. signatures were gathered in just three aunt at her home in the Ceiriog This is what we should be promoting, not months. The presentation of a petition Valley in the County of Wrexham. pushing Wrexham as an under-confident of this size to the National Assembly I loved the local craft businesses piece of the English commuter belt. makes a clear but non-too-subtle point. and the heritage they represented. Town planners need to give the town It is an issue people greatly care about However the opening of the more structure and landmark. Former There have also been a number of A483/A5 Chirk Bypass hit the Wrexham resident Jamie Harris, an smaller debates surrounding what Janet economy of the Ceiriog Valley and architectural stonemason, commented Ryder AM calls the “creeping sadly, like Wrexham town itself, all that he would love to see a great deal of Chesterfication” of north east Wales, but a few of the area’s potential new-build projects being decorated with pointing to the re-branding of a Flintshire tourists now speed westwards. traditional patterns calling on our history hotel formerly known as ‘The Gateway and culture, Celtic knotwork, Owain to Wales’ to ‘Days Hotel – Chester I moved to the town of Wrexham 14 Glynd wˆ r, and scenes from the North’. As she said, the re-branding was, years ago. It is a wonderful place full of Mabinogion. In short, we should be “One of the unforeseen consequences of excellent people but it has suffered from promoting an architecture that is very councils like Flintshire signing up to a being ignored both culturally and different from our English neighbours. long term plan called the West economically for too long. Towns like One apparent threat to Wrexham’s Cheshire/North East Wales strategy”. and in Denbighshire identity is the West Cheshire / North The project is described as a successfully market themselves. However, East Wales Sub-Regional Plan. This comprehensive housing, employment, comparatively little has been done in strategy, which has received strong recreation and retail strategy for a wide Wrexham to promote its history and opposition from the People’s Council of area. Except that when one considers heritage. Outside of the town we have two North Wales, proposes tightening the what is planned on the Welsh side of major National Trust properties, country links between adjoining Welsh and the border one finds only housing.

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Going back in history, towards the Welsh identity is identified in draft Council lobbying for city status and end of the Second World War, a lack of versions of the plan as being a “threat”. It inserting in our advertisements ‘Wrexham affordable housing meant many problems is seen as a barrier to the implementation - Capital of North Wales’”. for the Roman City of Chester. Large of the plan. Draft versions of the plan The idea of creating an identity and areas of farmland on the outskirts of the also make reference to the fact that people vision for Wrexham has been discussed city were developed as residential areas in north east Wales are very ‘attached’ to before. Back in November 2006 I in the 1950s and early 1960s. In 1964, a their Welsh identity and heritage. This is attended a seminar called ‘Sense of Place’ bypass was built through and around the not conducive to the economic expansion which was organised by the council as town centre to combat traffic congestion. that is planned and explains why it is part of Wrexham Business Week. It was These new developments caused local identified as a ‘threat’. followed by publication of the study in concern that the physicality and therefore A newcomer to Wrexham February 2007. It was a much more the feel of the city was being dramatically businesswoman and television celebrity positive and locally distinct vision which is altered. In 1969 the City Conservation Stephanie Booth agrees that Wrexham still languishing on a shelf. It advised a Area was designated. lacks an identity. She says, “During our branding vision based on the town and its The sub-regional strategy is seemingly research prior to buying the Wynnstay people. However, it was dropped and a new vision was commissioned in line with the West Cheshire plan. The original work focuses on Wrexham’s Welsh identity, character and uniqueness. These are assets the Mersey Dee Alliance and the cross- border sub-regional strategy apparently do not consider useful to market. This strategy is wrong. As an English person living in Wales I know what first attracted me to this beautiful place, which is why I started a campaign to preserve Wrexham’s Welsh identity. This prompted a huge debate and incredible support. The council has never before tried to market Wrexham as a prosperous Welsh town. Perhaps this is intentional so as to make things easier for the West Cheshire/North East Wales Sub Regional Strategy to slip into place. Though now with Stephanie Booth in town and a new Wrexham Chamber of Trade and Tourism being formed, our council will have to sit up and take notice. Perhaps soon we will see our town receiving the Businesswoman and television celebrity Stephanie recognition it deserves. Let’s hope so. Booth, outside Wrexham’s Wynnstay Arms Hotel which she has bought. She says Wrexham has the image of being an ‘English’ town but should be seen as the capital of north Wales. — Jane Redfern Jones is a freelance journalist. The Sense of Place study, aimed at the expansion of Cheshire and Arms Hotel in Wrexham we undertook a prepared by Angharad Wynne marketing Merseyside into north east Wales. The survey in southern England where many and communications can accessed at http://www.wrexham.gov.uk/assets/pdfs/ expansion of Cheshire and Merseyside is of our hotel guests originate and to our tourism/wtf/sense_of_place_report.pdf limited due to building restrictions and this dismay and surprise the bulk of desire to preserve their green belt. In respondents thought Wrexham was a The West Cheshire/North East Wales Wales there is no green belt and the ‘town in England near Chester’. Hence sub-regional strategy can be found at: strategists identify north Wales as the our campaign to forge a new identity for http://www.merseydeealliance.org.uk/ subregion.htm answer to their expansion limitations. the town via

56 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org Mold on a busy market day.

Mold’s sense of place Derek Jones casts an eye over a town that has joined the Slow Food Movement

Fred Boneham, the town clerk, just because a place looks lively does commissioned a study of the sense of would not thank me for saying that not mean that individual shopkeepers place in the town from the Deganwy- everything in the Mold garden is are not suffering hardship. Nevertheless, based firm Heritage Initiatives, to lovely. Not given to hyperbole, he he is obviously pleased that Mold include attention to building fabric responds only cautiously when I ask appears to be weathering the storm. and public space. him how the town has managed to Of course, successful shops and The town centre is coherent. The remain lively and economically active markets are not the only measure of High Street climbs gradually to a when so many other places are urban health. Issues of townscape, handsome parish church which closes talking in terms of urban decline. heritage and culture are also important. the view. Two cross streets allow the A town needs leaders and opinion high street to be closed to traffic It is Wednesday, one of Mold’s two formers who are ready to think about allowing the market to take over. To market days, and by 10am it is difficult all the issues in the round, and to come the west, an embryonic town square to find a space in the town’s main car up with practical ideas for and a shopping precinct bearing the park. Market stalls spill out into side improvement, to be shared with fellow name of the Mold tailor and novelist streets, and the High Street is thronged citizens, and acted upon. Mold again Daniel Owen makes a useful link with shoppers and the cafés with tea scores high marks. It is the first town in between two parts of the town. To the and coffee drinkers. I have visited Mold Wales to have been accepted into the east, between the two crossing streets, on ordinary weekdays, when there is no Cittaslow movement (cittaslow.org.uk), stands, perhaps surprisingly, a livestock market, and noted that only a few, a committed to encouraging diversity, market from which permeate pungent very few, of the shops are empty or sustainability, and healthy living. agricultural sounds and smells every boarded up. There’s probably more Cittaslow Mold, the town council and Monday and Friday. than you think, says Mr Boneham, and Flintshire County Council have The bus station is nearby. The train

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station, a little further down, was closed council feels strong enough to be physical disaster as well. The space is by Dr Beeching in the early 1960s, considering fining traders who book a largely unoccupied and the shopfronts, prematurely, it turns out, in the light of space on a particular day and fail to boarded up with silvery corrugated Mold’s subsequent growth in show up. metal, have the appearance of a population. At each end of the town Visitors to the livestock and street stockade. A telephone exchange, centre are no less than four markets help sustain the shops and, relatively recently built, which looks supermarkets - Somerfield and Iceland there are a great many of them, some empty (but isn’t), is gathering dust, and to the West, Aldi and Tesco to the East. long standing. Diane Johnson, chair of is in danger of creeping towards Residential areas, most of them post- Mold Civic Society, thought that dereliction. Some people would like the war, surround the centre, and across the perhaps the warm relationship and sheds near the cattle market removed. town and up the hill stand Flintshire banter between shoppers and However, I rather think they add to the County Hall, the Magistrates Court and shopkeepers was not as strong as it used character of the town, which might Theatr Cymru. to be. Nonetheless, despite the presence otherwise seem too neat. Similarly there The population of Mold is still of four supermarkets, a Homebase is a rather ramshackle group of under 10,000, but its hinterland emporium, and a limited number of buildings above Tesco. contains up to 40,000. The market is high street multiples (Argos, Peacocks, Culturally also, Mold is not quite very long established and people from Shoe Zone, Smiths, Boots) the town is perfect. The Library and Museum do not exactly make their presence felt, Mold’s High Street, closed although the museum is beautifully to traffic on market day. laid out to celebrate the Mold Cape (a replica of the age garment discovered here in 1831, the original in the ), the Mold Riots (1869), and the work of Daniel Owen (1836-1895). The potential of Daniel Owen Square awaits imaginative exploitation. St Mary’s Church, one of the great 15 th Century Beaufort churches has been locked whenever I have tried to look inside. And, perhaps most disappointing, there is, I gather, very little formal contact between the town and Clwyd Theatr Cymru, the marvellous maison de la culture , less than a mile away, which houses two auditoria, a cinema, two art galleries, as far away as the Wirral, Chester and said to retain a generally friendly a shop, a bar and restaurant. Many Shrewsbury visit it. There is a wider atmosphere. This is noted in a number people in north Wales (and Merseyside, range of goods for sale in Mold than in of recent surveys and is all the more Cheshire and Shropshire for that many other similar markets. The usual impressive because, as the housing matter) will testify that some of the best crockery, ornaments, garden plants and estates indicate, Mold is a commuter evenings of their lives have been spent clothing are on display, but also there town attracting incomers from Cheshire, at Clwyd Theatr Cymru. So, there is are fruit and vegetables, locally the Wirral and Merseyside, many of some unfinished local business to make produced cheese, and even a stall whom still work there. better connections between the town devoted to food and artwork from So far, then, so positive. There are, and the arts centre. This could be a South Africa. Cittaslow Mold sets up as you might expect, some black spots. project for Cittaslow Mold which, I am shop once a month to keep people up A small shopping precinct linking sure, would acknowledge the vital to date with its activities and recruit Somerfield to the rest of the town contributions of art, film and theatre to new supporters. Mold Market is an appears to have been a complete urban wellbeing. It might begin by urban experience. It is striking the financial disaster, and is now set to be a setting up a stall in the bar or restaurant.

58 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org Cittaslow UK developed from the • The Local Produce and Community Slow Food Movement - in that respect sub-group is creating a directory of it is both ironical and amusing that local produce and producers, and Mold has one of the few drive-through hosts a forum to debate topical issues McDonalds in north east Wales. ‘Slow’ related to food. is now shorthand for a whole range of attitudes and policies concerned with Some might argue that a sense of place food, hospitality, the environment, is way down the list of priorities when it energy, and the urban fabric. To comes to the survival of the planet. Not qualify for membership the Mold so Cittislow Mold, which obtained funds enthusiasts had to assess the extent to from Cadwyn Clwyd, the local rural which the town met some 45 criteria development agency, to study how far covering all these areas. They the town is distinctive and how that submitted their application before the might be enriched. Sensibly, they Flintshire Eisteddfod in 2007 and were concluded that ‘man does not live by accepted, joining Aylsham, Berwick bread alone’. Heritage Initiatives took a upon Tweed, Cockermouth, Diss, stall at Mold’s annual food and drink Linlithgow, Ludlow (the pioneer), festival in September 2009 and invited Perth, and Sturminster Newton in a passers-by to complete a questionnaire network of like-minded towns. which would reveal their attitudes to Cittaslow Mold is now supported local townscapes, individual buildings, by many local organisations, and in signposting, and hospitality. I am able to particular the Town Council. It report that interest in these issues is organises itself into working groups considerable. I wouldn’t be at all concerned with environmental matters, surprised to see a plan emerging for the space and place, local produce and town’s history and heritage to be placed community. To this outsider, at least, it nearer the top of the agenda. In Ruthin, Daniel Owen (1836-95), foremost Welsh language is refreshing to encounter an initiative ten miles away across the Clwydians, the novelist of the 19th Century and Mold’s most famous son, dominates the eponymous square which is not just local but is prepared Civic Association has produced a 60- which “awaits imaginative exploitation”. to listen and learn from experiences page illustrated guide Slow Walks Round elsewhere. Go to the website and you Ruthin . Cittaslow Mold, attracted by Cittaslow obtained a Welsh Government find that: that word ‘slow’, might well follow suit. Tidy Towns grant for this. I would not be surprised if another There is much more to be said • One member has attended the annual result of the survey was to focus attention about Mold than space allows, conference of the Soil Association on the considerable potential of Daniel including the food and drink festival, on ‘The Future of Food’ and is Owen Square for al fresco eating and the annual spring clean of the town to reporting back. drinking, performances (also an include not just picking up litter but • Another has visited a ‘transition town’ opportunity, surely, for Clwyd Theatr painting fences and repairing benches, and commends to his colleagues Cymru), and general sitting about. It’s the provision of cycle racks, and a some reading matter to get them the nearest Mold has got to a town campaign to encourage people to refuse thinking about what happens when square and, placed as it is, just outside junk mail. Some months ago I heard a the oil runs out. the library, museum and tourist talk by local historian and Mold Civic • The Environmental Policy sub-group information centre, could make a huge Society archivist David Rowe, who talks ambitiously about Mold going contribution to local conviviality. Of spoke so glowingly about Mold that I carbon-neutral and is surveying how course it would need to be re-fashioned, felt moved to go and see for myself much energy Mold households are but I can’t see Mold making heavy what was going on. Now I know he currently using. weather of that. Meanwhile, in an entirely was not exaggerating. • The Space and Place sub-group, separate initiative, the town’s Norman equally ambitiously, is examining the fortification, Bailey Hill, is to be cleaned town’s future travel needs and will bid up and subjected to archaeological, for Mold to pilot the idea of becoming geophysical and arboriculture study. —Derek Jones is a freelance writer and a North Wales Travel Town. Together with Mold Civic Society, vice chair of the Civic Trust for Wales.

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Flying the Welsh flag

Rhys David interviews Alan Edmunds, editor of Wales’s sole Western Mail editor Alan Edmunds rejects as ‘fantasy’ the image of national newspaper reporters chained to their desks by the pressures of ‘churnalism’.

It is a tough job editing a newspaper have happened when devolution should readers of each issue. More importantly, at any time but when you are in be generating greater interest in Welsh the journalism produced by Media charge of a nation’s sole standard- issues and hence increased demand for Wales, the collective name for all the bearer in a highly competitive overall the only English language daily print Cardiff-based titles, including its south media market, and faced with a medium covering Wales as a nation? Wales weeklies, was seen over the most usually well-intentioned but critical Edmunds, a 46 year old Cardiffian recent six month period by 764,333 audience with high expectations, it and in his own words a passionate unique users, who were responsible for is going to be much harder. Welshman, strongly denies that Trinity 3.85m. page views. Edmunds concludes, Mirror are unconcerned about “With all the work we have done to However, Western Mail editor and circulation or resigned to a long term create WalesOnline, we have Media Wales publishing director Alan rundown in sales. The downward transformed the nature of the Edmunds, a veteran of 23 years with trends, he argues, are UK-wide and the proposition we offer and we are now Trinity Mirror and its predecessors as Western Mail is not faring worse than reaching people we were not reaching owners of the Cardiff title, is resolutely its peers. Indeed, the Birmingham Post before with our content”. calm and sanguine. He views with quiet has moved from daily to weekly Nevertheless, critics insist that satisfaction the progress made and the publication. “Circulation is important to Trinity Mirror’s market-led business direction he and the group have set for us and always will be, and we have a model, with its primary aim of the 141-year-old paper and its print and marketing strategy for all the generating large profits for shareholders online stablemates. “My aim is to make newspapers we publish,” he says. The is the source of its problems. It is sure the Western Mail is constantly re-design will, for example, be backed asserted that highly profitable Welsh changing to reflect the way Wales is by a campaign on billboards, bus sides business, securing annual profit margins changing,” he says, pointing to the new and shelters, and possibly on radio. It of more than 30 per cent over much of look introduced to the paper in June, will also be backed by in-paper readers’ the past 10 years, is propping up a weak including new fonts and page furniture, promotions linked to local retailers and parent company balance sheet. and new content. other suppliers of services. The charge is dismissed by The problem as many critics point The paper likes to stress that it is Edmunds who points to the substantial out, is that since 1974 the Western Mail not just its 30,000 purchasers who get investment Trinity Mirror has made in has lost two out of every three readers it to see it each day but a further (and Wales, including a new print plant in used to have. How, it is asked, can this perhaps rather optimistic) 80,000 Cardiff to produce its dailies and

60 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org weeklies, and a state of the art integrated Journalists? According to some critics, are out and about finding stories. This, newsroom in a £17 million new staff are now virtually tied to their desks, says Edmunds, gives the lie to the image headquarters opened in 2008 in the engaged in what has been termed by of reporters and sub-editors as desk- shadow of the Millennium Stadium. journalist and author Nick Davies bound and passive, reduced to ‘re- “We created the first regional integrated “churnalism”, the regurgitation of public nosing’ press releases into shallow and newsroom in Britain in Cardiff, bringing relations industry delivered news releases. inoffensive stories, or picking up cheap, together print and online operations. We Edmunds admits painful cuts have homogeneous UK national news (often now have the structure to deliver been made in staff numbers and that about celebrities) straight off agency through WalesOnline the best possible journalists may now be having to work wires. He regards his rugby coverage as service to our readers and advertisers,” harder than ever. However, he rejects as equivalent to the best anywhere in the he says. Funds have been deployed, first “fantasy” the picture of a chained-down UK press. And, if some staff with their for the move from broadsheet to tabloid newsroom portrayed by critics. new web-based skills do spend more and to back the latest facelift. At a UK He cites Steve Dubé, his country and time at their desks this is partly because level, Trinity Mirror has decided not to farming editor, as someone who just so much more information is available pay a dividend to shareholders this year, could not do his job without getting out over the internet. citing the need to support the business and about to meet farmers, and chief “When we change the paper we do as a whole during the present tough reporter Martin Shipton who, he says, so on the basis of very scientific research economic climate. generates all his own material through his among our readers, the business Yet has all this not been achieved at contacts and “has broken more stories community and our advertisers,” says the expense of savage staff cuts, very low than any other journalist in Wales”. Edmunds, who worked his way up to wages and in consequence serious His business team, his Senedd and his present position from the Cardiff disputes with the National Union of Westminster correspondents and others Post, through the South Wales Echo and

Vital statistics of Wales’s morning newspapers

The owners of the Western Mail , Trinity The largest regional paper in the UK, the where the pressure to maintain share price Mirror plc, have been subject to much Wolverhampton Express and Star, saw a has intensifed hugely. Trinity Mirror has academic and trade union criticism for drop of 7.6 per cent to 120,344. been operating in a corporate world that squeezing too much profit from their has been driven over recent decades by the regional titles in the years before the In recent years the Media Wales operation ‘shareholder value’ movement, with its recession, and from the Welsh titles in in Cardiff has been required to deliver obsession for short-term profit particular. The company points to a substantial profits, against a backdrop performance. Even so it has seen its share combination of structural changes in continued on page 62 newspaper buying habits and competition from the internet. What are the facts? Falling circulations at the Western Mail and Daily Post (Wales) 2000-2009 Over the last three decades circulation the Western Mail has dropped by two thirds, from 94,000 to 30,000. Since 2004 the Daily Post has dropped from 41,000 to 34,000. This is inline with the fate of the regional press everywhere. In the last six months of 2009 the average fall in circulation in the regional press was 7.2 per cent. The fall for the Western Mail was 10.6 per cent, for the Daily Post 5 per cent, for the South Wales Echo 10.1 per cent. By comparison Bristol’s Western Daily Press was down by 10.7 per cent, the Birmingham Mail down by 14.3 per cent. Source: Trinity Mirror Plc Annual Reports, and ABC

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Wales on Sunday to the Western Mail. “Though readers may notice, the new look paper is intended Research has confirmed that what to offer greater depth, giving increased people value most from a paper like the only gradually notice, coverage to health and education, for Western Mail is information and advice. the new look paper example, and will be bringing in more Consequently this is the core of the is intended to offer columnists to strengthen the analysis it paper’s content. The idea that there offers in crucial areas. Availability on should be much greater coverage of the greater depth, giving news stands, which has been a problem Assembly is not backed by research. increased coverage to in recent times, is also being addressed. Edmunds says there was never any health and education, In Edmunds’ view critics are harking prospect devolution would generate a back to a time that cannot now be demand for more political coverage. for example, and will recreated, given the explosion in digital “It is part of a general be bringing in more media and changes generally in society. disengagement with politics,” he added, columnists to They lack an understanding of the though he points with enthusiasm to the economics of the modern media Western Mail’s very extensive coverage strengthen the industry and offer solutions that would of the 2010 General Election – better he analysis it offers in not work for modern readers. They believes than any other news crucial areas.” also ignore the fact that print is only organisation in Wales. part of the service the public has come Though readers may only gradually to expect from a media group. The

for last year, but the profit margin is expected Profitability at Media Wales 1999-2008 to be in excess of 10 per cent – a more than respectable performance in the worst Year Pre-tax profits (000s) Turnover (000s) Profit Margin (%) advertising recession in living memory. 1999 9,475 44,508 21.30% Critics have argued that these profit 2000 6,374 45,991 13.90% levels were unsustainable and have 2001 13,296 49,966 26.90% mainly been managed by keeping labour 2002 15,707 51,998 30.20% costs extremely low and by shedding 2003 16,241 54,307 29.90% staff. Media Wales alone has experienced 2004 19,624 55,356 35.50% five rounds of job cuts since 2003, along 2005 20,999 54,956 38.21% with delayed recruitment and non- 2006 16,341 45,306 36.07% replacement of staff, although there have been recent exceptions to this. 2007 15,441 50,228 30.74% Journalists’ pay is extremely low and the 2008 18,929 52,102 36.33% group as a whole is going through a pay freeze. The number of editorial and Source: Media Wales Annual Accounts production jobs at Media Wales has fallen by 41 per cent in the last decade. price fall substantially over the past five south Wales titles, consistently posted high Between 1999 and 2005 Trinity repeatedly years, from 600p to 80p. profits, with margins well over 20, and posted healthy group profit margins In the years before the recession Media immediately before the onset of the between 13 and 19 per cent, but in recent Wales, the subsidiary company which owns recession, 30 per cent. At the time of writing years the group has twice seen losses in the Western Mail along with other Cardiff and the company had not published its accounts excess of £73 million. Although it returned

62 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org integrated newsroom offers a ClickonWales , the IWA’s online news have realistic targets that we can reach comprehensive news, sport and business magazine that seeks to provide a platform and we need to continue finding out service, including online interviews and for news and contrasting opinions on how we can deliver value to our readers, film clips, as well as jobs, homes, motors issues of importance to Wales. to business and to our advertisers. We and other advertising, providing readers Edmunds is patient with his critics have to manage the business to ensure with a choice of platforms from which and would prefer to build bridges than this is the case but I have total to gain information. pick fights. He was ruthless, however, in confidence that we have the right “As the biggest commercial news site summarily dismissing then Culture strategy for this business that will give it in Wales, WalesOnline is crucial,” Minister, Alun Pugh as a columnist in the best possible future. This is what we Edmunds said. “Without it there would 2006 after he made disparaging remarks will continue to do.” just be the BBC in a dominant position”. about the paper’s political coverage. He Even so, this still does not amount to a has been firm, too, with other Ministers genuine plurality in Welsh news coverage, because he believes some of their the absence of which is lamented by criticisms are ill-thought out and could many critics, particularly given the be damaging. current threat to ITV’s regional news “I have told the Welsh Government —Rhys David is former Financial service. At the same time Edmunds notes that it is in the interests of Wales to Times journalist and now writes on that some of the gap is being filled by the ensure the Western Mail and Media economic and business issues. He is a large number of blog sites now operating Wales have a thriving future,” he said. trustee of the IWA where he was in Wales. These, of course, include “We are not complacent. We need to development director from 2002-2008.

Staffing Levels at Media Wales, 1999-2008 Profitability at Trinity Mirror, 1999-2008

Year Pre-tax profits (000s)* Turnover (000s) Profit Margin (%) 1999 116,000 596,800 19.46 2000 154,100 1,080,300 14.26 2001 155,500 1,131,100 13.75 2002 155,500 1,092,200 14.24 2003 172,500 1,095,100 15.75 2004 216,800 1,141,700 18.99 2005 209,500 1,122,000 18.67 2006 -73,100 1,053,000 -6.94 2007 21,000 971,300 2.16 2008 -73,500 871,700 -8.43 2009 42.0 763,300 5.5

Source: Trinity Mirror Plc Annual Reports Source: Media Wales Annual Accounts to a £42 million profit in 2009, having sold wider, with national’s profits falling by 30 titles, its regional titles fared worse than 5.9 per cent, against a fall for regionals its handful of UK national titles. Revenue of 47.3 per cent. Operating margins for nationals fell by only 3.2 per cent, were also lower in the regionals – 11.9 against a fall for the regionals of 23.5 per per cent against 18.2 per cent for the cent. The difference in profit was even nationals. Dividends have been

summ er 2 01 0 | 63 politics economy social policy environment science NE Wales communications culture Thinking about history

Colin Thomas says the makers of a BBC Wales landmark series should avoid paying safe

What is history? It seems that Michael study the facts.” experimental, and to try other modes Gove, the new Secretary of State for I would respectfully suggest that of exposition and presentation.” Education, doesn’t find this a difficult whoever makes the new Welsh history question. Inspired by a talk by series that will be broadcast by BBC In his Afterwords chapter Richard Evans defender-of-empire Niall Ferguson, he Wales in 2012 should also look at current writes: has announced his intention to impose thinking about historiography. Post a grand narrative on history teaching modernism has shifted the terms of the “The idea of history as progress has in schools. However, the ‘what is debate. I recommend a reading of History been abandoned. Innovation has come history?’ question was one that much and the Media (2004) edited by David above all from historians writing about preoccupied us during the making of Cannadine and In Defence of History by the marginal, the bizarre, the The Dragon has Two Tongues 25 Richard J. Evans – make sure you get the individual, the small-scale.” years ago. 2000 edition of the latter with its passionate Afterwords defence of history In the far off days when The Dragon was When HTV brought me in as producer against some of the dafter assaults of the commissioned, producers and directors and director of the History of Wales post modernists. were given a comparatively free hand. series that had been commissioned by Two short quotes from these suggest There was an initial battle with Patrick Channel 4, it only had one tongue, that the way in which they can stimulate Dromgoole, then HTV’s Head of of Wynford Vaughan Thomas, who had original approaches to the BBC Wales Programmes, over the two presenter already drafted a structure for the series. commission. Cannadine writes (page 4): approach, but once that was settled the The argument that then began was only degree of intervention was minimal. peripherally about television techniques. “…as written and presented, media Naomi Sergeant, the commissioning Instead, it was much more to do with history is still largely confined to linear editor at Channel Four, made occasional different approaches to history and narrative. It needs to be more visits and helpful suggestions. At HTV historiography. I wanted the series to have two presenters and, although Filming The Dragon Has Two Tongues near the Castlemartin Wynford was implacably opposed to army firing range in Pembrokeshire in the mid-1890s. Facing producer director Colin Thomas are the presenters, bringing feminist historian Angela John Gwyn Alf Williams (left) and Wynford Vaughan Thomas. on board, he was more sympathetic to giving Gwyn Alf Williams the role of a second tongue. I had first encountered Gwyn Williams through the History Workshop movement and we were both influenced by Colin MacArthur’s booklet Television and History , produced by the British Film Institute in 1978. Before a frame was shot, Wynford, Gwyn and I soaked ourselves in what was then the current thinking about historiography – Wynford tending to rely on G.R. Elton’s The Practice of History (1967) and Gwyn on E.H. Carr’s What is History? (1961). I was particularly struck by Carr’s line - “Study the historian before you begin to

64 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org Image and quotation take from the cover of the background document packs that accompanied Wales Geraint Talfan Davies The Dragon Has Two Tongues series. and Huw Davies gave Medwen Roberts, the series booklet, there is reference to a television researcher, and myself producer who admitted that in a support, encouragement and television programme on recent German trust from the beginning to history, he had encountered an issue the end of the project. which, although important historically, However, since the 1980s was difficult to illustrate… so he simply there has been a massive left it out. We determined that we would concentration of decision never allow that to happen in The making in television, both Dragon . Through whatever means was inwards and upwards. At necessary – animation, re-enactment, S4C, C4 and BBC, the crane and helicopter shots - we would prevailing assumption seems find a way of maintaining the visual to be that the centre knows interest. The new series, like ours, will be best. I suspect that whoever transmitted on the network so its makers gets the History of Wales will also have to find a way of making project will have to fight hard their series entertaining and accessible for to stop Martin Davidson, the a UK-wide audience. BBC’s head of history, getting We also aimed to connect past to his hands on it. present and some would claim that The Whatever the weaknesses Dragon - and Dai Smith’s BBC series of The Dragon on issues of Wales? Wales! also transmitted 25 years gender, we were determined ago - helped to shift the Welsh vote in that throughout it would favour of devolution. Aware of the maintain an awareness of the potential significance of the new series, importance of class. Series like the Centre for the Study of Media and Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation in Culture in Small Nations at the the 1970s, and David University of Glamorgan recently Starkey’s Tudor series in more convened a meeting of historians and recent years, all too often television producers to talk over assume that what was possibilities. There was a certain wariness happening to the 5 per cent about giving away too much information top dogs was happening to to potential rival bidders for the the nation. Gwyn’s commission – I felt it myself. However, contributions always ensured there was general agreement that the new that the high drama of political history at C4 – we were also able to set up series represents what was described as did not push to the margin the social nearly 200 discussion groups, many of “a massive opportunity”, especially the history of the same period. This should them outside Wales, which focussed on opportunity to reach younger audiences, also be of crucial importance in the new the key question addressed in each and that it is vital not to play safe. series. programme. There were moments during the We always thought of the 13 Now some of that backup could be making of The Dragon when I was programmes of the C4/HTV series as provided through the BBC’s excellent terrified that the tensions between its two only part of a wider project. If viewers web sites or through a Facebook group, presenters would cause the whole had their interest sparked by the series, but this should be planned from the concept to fall apart. But I am glad that we wanted them to be able to follow up outset, designed to run in parallel with all those involved were prepared to take on that interest. Hence the four the series. The arrival of the Kindle and a risk and hope that, at what looks like document packs that accompanied the the Ipad and what Sue Halpern in the being a very difficult time for our nation, series, containing material from the New York Review of Books (10 June BBC Wales will also prove to be bold primary sources that are so important to 2010) calls the Vook – “a book with and adventurous. good historians. With the help of able embedded video” – suggests all kinds of and energetic education officers – exciting new technological possibilities. — Colin Thomas is a freelance Bethan Eames at HTV and Derek Jones In MacArthur’s Television and History television producer and director.

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A New Silk Road: Algorithm of Survival and Hope , photograph taken in 2007 by Kyrgyzstan artists Muratbek Djumaliev and Gulnara Kasmalieva, shortlisted in this year’s exhibition at National Museum Wales.

Art of the world

Tessa Jackson reflects on eight years at the helm of Artes Mundi

By early 2002 the idea of a “At the start of Artes Mundi the initial theme contemporary visual art prize emanating from Wales had been for the Prize was to have been the human debated by a number of public form but in my view this was too limiting bodies including the Welsh not to say excluding, particlularly when many Government, , Arts Council of Wales, National Museums in the world are not able to represent the Wales and BBC Cymru. Each had human form if they are to remain true to their been encouraged by William Wilkins, culture or religion.” a practicing artist as well as an energetic cultural entrepreneur, to believe that such an initiative could My first knowledge of it came from a team and office were still to be create “a new event on the cultural small single column width advert in the established. Having collaborated calendar of Wales and ensure an UK media, seeking an Artistic Director. previously with the visual arts in Wales enhanced profile for Wales on the Some funding had been pledged but the and lived more than a decade in world stage”. organisation, its charitable status, board, Scotland, I saw the new devolution era as

66 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org providing an exciting challenge and Prize’s theme as the human condition as “From the outset Artes opportunity to establish an utterly much as the human form. It was decided Mundi has been international and thought provoking that Artes Mundi would celebrate artists project from scratch. who had achieved recognition for the unashamedly Of course, over the eight years of quality of their work in their own country international in its Artes Mundi’s development, the world or part of the world and were emerging approach, working with has changed. At the beginning 9/11 was internationally, while simultaneously fresh in everyone’s mind. Human tragedy recognising art that added to our fellow professionals from was laid bare once again following the understanding of humanity. every continent except Boxing Day tsunami in 2004. In 2005 At the start some saw this as too Antarctica. It has given Hurricane Katrina hit and after months universal and imprecise a criterion. the responsibility of of controversy and disagreement, the UK However, over the years the theme of the embarked on war with Iraq. human condition has been one of Artes selecting the shortlisted At the start of Artes Mundi the initial Mundi’s strongest assets. Each selection artists to others, of theme for the Prize was to have been the of artists has provided new insights and choosing the Prize human form but in my view this was too audiences responding positively to limiting not to say excluding, particularly artwork with real content. Funders and winner to a separate when many in the world are not able to sponsors have also expressed their independent panel.” represent the human form if they are to support, keen to connect with an remain true to their culture or religion. initiative which was both contemporary So with the establishment of the and topical. organisation came the decision to set the Many public and private and political

Lida Abdul, Brick Sellers of Kabul , 2006, transferred from 16mm film, and shortlisted in the 2006 competition.

summ er 2 01 0 | 67 Become a Fellow and support our work. issues have been explored, sometimes Through their inclusion on the shortlist have been the benefits for artists in Wales “I appreciate the immense contribution that the with humour highlighting life’s absurdity, we have been privileged to gain an beyond the fact that to date two have Institute has made and is making to the life of Walbeus.t Wmeorweooufldtenbewmituhchseproioouresrcwointhceorunt ifto. ”r understanding of how trade along the been included in the four shortlists. IWAthFeelslowci,eLtiaebsowurePleiveer within. Artists are ancient Silk Road continues today. Those shortlists have comprised artists LordnoGtwjoilyumrnPalriysstsD. Tavhieesy expose the diversity From the outset Artes Mundi has from 28 countries, with 500 nominations “I amanadn acdommimreroonfaltihtye qoufaoliutyr olifvtehsetwhrooruk gh the been unashamedly international in its from about 80 countries for the latest prodpurcisemd boyf tthheeiIrWcAu.ltIutsrarlespeoasrictihoannad nd approach, working with fellow selection. Wales has many good artists. pubelixcpateiroinesncaere. PofoienteicstsimenasbibleilvitaylureeitnofoWrcaeles s professionals from every continent except However, our selectors can only choose and its people. their vision”. Antarctica. It has given the responsibility between six and eight artists from across IWA Fellow, Liberal Democrat Peer, Lord LivIenseAyrotefsTaMlguanrtdh i 4 this year, for of selecting the shortlisted artists to the world. Only a couple of other instance, the inclusion of Muratbek others, of choosing the Prize winner to countries have managed to get two artists “The IWA fulfils a vital role in Welsh civic society. If it Dwejuremnaoltietvhearendit wGouullndahraveKtaosmbeailnievvean,tetdw. ”o a separate independent panel. This has selected in the same period. Moreover, IWAKFyerlgloywz,aRrtt.isHtsonw.hDoafoypdedraWteigalesy a pair as meant we have been able to involve Artes Mundi has brought other and HonwoerallryasPrbeesiindgenht,uPslbaaidndCyamnrdu wife, are a curators, artists, writers, critics, and longer term benefits for Wales, including: “As stoamngeiobnlee wlinhko thoasthbeepnoinlivtioclavledunalrleosftmbyeing museum professionals from across the profpeslasyioendalocuatreienr itnhethirinCkteanktrsa,lreAsesiaarnchcbooudnietsry. globe, many of them visiting Wales for • Young people gaining employment. andIptoilsicay upnairtts,oIfwtohueldwliokerltdo wpahyicthribouttheetrowthise e the first time. It has meant that Wales • Wales-based artists being selected for waywinewmhiigchtthkenIoWwAlihttalse calebaorulytebsutatbwlishhiecd h has has gained a reputation for real cultural residencies and exhibitions elsewhere itself as a leading forum for debate in Welsh politjuicsatl lcifoem. ”e into our news because connections beyond post colonial or in the world. IWAKFyerlgloywzs,tCaonnpserorvvaidtievse Pmeielir tary bases for political expediency. • International artwork being purchased LordboGtrhifftihthesAomf Fefroirceasntsfaacnh d the Russians. There has been comment as to what for our national collections. Fellows of the IWA are able, if they so wish, to become involved in shaping the work programmes of the IWA. In addition Fellows will: Tim Davies, Figures in a landscape , Postcard • Receive special recognition in the IWA’s regular Series III, shortlisted for the inaugural Artes Mundi in 2004. journal Agenda (unless they have chosen to give their support anonymously). • Be invited to special Fellows events each year. • Have access to the IWA for policy advice and briefing. We ask that Fellows subscribe a minimum annual payment of £200 to the Fellows Fund. Life fellowship will be bestowed for a single payment of £1,000. These donations will qualify under GiftAid.

I wish to become a Fellow/Life Fellow and enclose a cheque for £200/£1000. I wish to become a Fellow/Life Fellow and pay by credit/debit card the sum of £ Acct No. _ _ _ _ /_ _ _ _ /_ _ _ _ /_ _ _ _ Expiry date _ _ /_ _ I wish to pay by Direct Debit (This will help us keep our costs down) Please send me a Direct Debit application form. Please send me details about becoming an IWA Fellow.

Name: Title: Address:

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Return to: Freepost INSTITUTE OF WELSH AFFAIRS Institute of Welsh Affairs, 4 Cathedral Road, Cardiff CF11 9LJ Peruvian artist Fernando Bryce, Die Welt (The World), one of a series of 195 ink drawings on paper, shortlisted in the 2008 competition.

• Greater UK and international media 2004, National Museum Cardiff was journey, the enthusiasm and strength coverage. not able to present, on a regular basis, of its audiences and public response • Significant inward investment into modern and contemporary art due to has certainly contributed to the cultural activity from the international shortage of space. Now it will be Museum’s vision. companies which have supported us. opening a new wing in 2011 in order At Artes Mundi we like to think our to do just that. While Artes Mundi activities and brand have made a real At the time of the first Artes Mundi in may have played a small part in that contribution to how Wales sees itself, as much as how it is seen in the world. Over the last eight years news of Artes Mundi, its activities and the debates it has triggered, have been picked up by a growing range of media and people. The internationalism of the Prize has been enormously enhanced by its launch coinciding with the age of the internet. The world has changed so much in these first eight years. Just imagine where we and Wales will be in 2018.

— Tessa Jackson was the first Chief A family workshop underway during the Executive and Artistic Director of second Artes Mundi exhibition in 2006. Artes Mundi.

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Sydney Harbour comes to Glamorgan

Stephen Knight describes how a voluntary group of enthusiasts are putting the pier pavilion back into Penarth

At Penarth there are two 1970s, with an economic pall over furniture store, and then a disco. There remarkable sights, close together. At south Wales and beset by structural was even a proposal for the site to low tide the Pier perches on elegant and safety problems a local authority become a car park. spindly legs, stranded by a famously could not begin to finance, the Pavilion In its wisdom the Vale of high tide. The water floods back basically closed its doors. In the 21 st Glamorgan Council rejected the last every day, but for the Pier Pavilion Century the only users are hardy idea, and provided the capital funding there has been no return of vitality gymnasts, braving the lack of plumbing for a refit as the Washington Gallery. since it dwindled into dark isolation and the missing stairs. The name came from the old cinema, in the 1970s. At the Esplanade end Ultimate decay loomed ahead, and and before that from the adjacent hotel, of the Pier it still silently stands, probably one of those furious fires that aimed to attract American tourists. It aquamarine, white and , a bold haunt salt-drenched British . But had also opened in 1929, when wealthy cross between an Art Deco Masonic there is hope: as in one of the forties US citizens were riding shotgun on hall and a Byzantine cathedral. movies they loved at the Pavilion, the their remaining riches. hoof beats of rescue can be heard over Cardiff artist-designer Keith Munro It was a 1929 public works project, a the horizon. led a redesign which was to delight many Utopian vision of concrete curves, lofty In 1997 a group of seaside art- and won an award. After several years of dormer windows, four minarets, daring shapes and colours to create a people’s palace for and beyond its time. “Old-timers reminisce about The people responded. Old-timers reminisce about the dances, the jazz the dances, the jazz evenings, evenings, the walks, the views, the the walks, the views, the sheer sheer communality of it all. “There”, said a moist-eyed old lady to a community of it all.” researcher, “that’s where Idris first kissed me”. In war-time boats went from here to Dunkirk, and soon the lovers and coffee-drinkers formed many shows of art and craft, mostly place bopped with local girls and Penarth Arts and Crafts, a not-for- from Wales, and running a busy art- American Sea-Bees. Then through the profit company, to refurbish as a education programme, Director Maggie austerity years of amuse-yourself, local café-gallery the disused foyer of the Knight and her cohorts cast their eyes people did just that at the Pavilion. Washington Cinema, an art-deco and minds on the equally derelict and The gathering shadows of edifice curving gracefully around a even more delightful Pavilion. television, supermarkets and inactivity corner opposite Penarth’s grandiose Following discussions with the overwhelmed the building. By the late public library, but sadly declined to a Heritage Lottery Fund, for whom the

70 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org Perching on elegant spindly legs at low tide, Penarth Pier has the potential to become a “beating heart” for regenerating its hinterland.

Gallery had mounted several successful Gallery Trustees, Bryan Alcock and The project team studied redesign programmes – Pinhole Photography Maureen Kelly Owen, basic repair options including a new auditorium had been a winner across south Wales work was identified, a new roof, level for shops. Aesthetic sense and -- and with the Vale of Glamorgan insulation, services and a restoration of economic prescience rejected such Council, owners of the Pavilion, they the once splendid dance floor. There vandalism and the scheme aims to applied for an Project Planning Grant would be space re-division: the huge restore the auditorium for multipurpose in 2006. That came through in 2007 antique toilets have a grand view of the use and refit its large balcony as a and a bid to restore, refurbish and Severn and deserve better use. The smaller hall. These will house meetings, reactivate the Pavilion was submitted auditorium, not huge, but striking has a dances, concerts, conferences, parties for first-round approval in 2008. It round proscenium arch like Radio and, best of all, sea-side weddings. failed narrowly but, with advice from City’s baby sister, a barrel-curved Rooms will be for permanent rent as the Cardiff Heritage Lottery Fund concrete roof, with wonderful clerestory professional offices with a view or office, was resubmitted, this time with a windows affording estuary views from a variegated uses, for example chess, generous £20,000 grant from the Vale. new above-auditorium walkway. bridge and a crèche. In November 2009 it was granted a After enjoying a concert or a meeting Enjoying yourself at the Pavilion first-round pass, which in the funding in the art-deco auditorium, a natural may merge into self-improvement. All trade is regarded as the really important add-on will be drinks and dinner in the parties involved are keen to see the hurdle. These are hard financial times bistro restaurant, with locally-sourced reactivated building a centre for and everyone is cautious, but the bid is food and views across the estuary: community education and curricular up there with a really strong chance. Sydney Harbour comes to Glamorgan. links. Heritage, obviously: standing So what do we have in mind? Those elegantly horn-shaped shops at displays and electronic pods will detail Under the leadership of Conservation the Esplanade front will house a cafe for the exotic past of the building and its Architect Niall Phillips, from Bristol- all-weather take-aways, gelato for region. These will trace the regions based Purcell Miller Triton, and with summer or cheese on toast when the history from the power of the dark age the help of two retired architects-cum- wind blows down the Esplanade. Christian church (visits to Llanilltud

summ er 2 01 0 | 71 politics economy social policy environment science NE Wales communications culture

Fawr), through the early modern pirate Alexandra Gardens. Escaping the weak pound and the coast, to the time of industrial leisure Nobody provides capital funding body-scanners, British home-holidaying from Penarth to Barry and Porthcawl. these days without careful study of a is on the rise, and the Pavilion’s iconic The environment will have equal project’s financial sustainability, and the presence makes it well-placed to be a billing: the wonders of the massively project team sees much of its support ball-carrier for the growing short-break tidal estuary and its rich wild life; the coming from on-site income-generation industry in Wales. A new ferry service fossils and striation of the Glamorgan -- conferences, weddings and above all is being launched during 2010 by an cliffs; local islands will star, with a live the restaurant. There will obviously be enterprising Somerset firm, to dock at feed to the Steep Holm nature reserve business and agency sponsors for what Penarth from Minehead. Passengers and fond memories of the monks who will be a superb refurbishment, and are expected to cross the channel lived there and on Flat Holm. The people in the locality and region have southwards in search of holidays or, Pavilion will also operate a range of already indicated they will be happy in the reverse direction, for Cardiff adult classes, in languages, especially to be, for a modest annual sum, shopping and sport. Welsh, and also in areas such as keep supporting Friends, and so voting Surfing on its own tide of fit, first aid, lean cookery, including Members, of this project to regenerate enthusiasm and innovative practicality, Welsh-medium delivery. an iconic presence as a beating heart the Penarth Pavilion project is offering Such complex use will bring issues of the region. a social enterprise capable of to solve. Parking is limited, but an There is more to imagine. The performing at the highest level in environmentally-aware management will pavilion renovation is nothing if not communally-vibrant local terms and turn that to advantage. We envisage optimistic and expects the recently also on the biggest of national and augmented bus services, taxi-shuttles abandoned Headland Walk from even international stages. up the hill to the town station, and Cardiff Bay to Penarth Pier to re- there are wilder-eyed dreams of electric emerge. Just downstream a massive rickshaws, even a funicular to and from barrage may soon stride across the — Stephen Knight is Professor of Penarth station over the beautiful estuary. Then there is tourism. English at Cardiff University.

Hyfforddiant Cyfryngau a Chyfathrebu Cyngor a hyfforddiant gan dim proffesiynnol ar sut i gyflwyno eich neges yn effeithlon i’r cyfryngau.

Media and Communications Training Training and advice from a professional team on how Marc Jennings, to present your message effectively in the media. Graphic Design. Annabelle Harle, Cyfarwyddwr, Cymdeithas Newid Etholiadol: —Branding, design for print and web. “Roedd yn ddiwrnod ardderchog o hyfforddiant cyfryngau ac er yn waith caled fe gafon ni gyd amser da, rwy’n sicr oherwydd i — Independent graphic designer working chi lwyddo i ddod a thim da o bobol ynghyd.” with a variety of public and private sector clients, based in Cardiff Bay. Annabelle Harle, Director, Electoral Reform Society: “It was an excellent day of media training and despite being arduous we all had a good time too which was I’m sure due New po rtfolio website live August 2010: to your skill in assembling such a good team of people.” www.th eundercar d.co.uk For fu rther details or a portfolio viewing, please call 07970 0 29 185 / 029 2049 956 6 Tel: 029 2056 1192 or email [email protected] Email: [email protected] www.elinwyn.co.uk Cyn ghanedd gives life to Welsh verse Mererid Hopwood discovers enticing connections between the Meistersinger and our bardic traditions

Back in the 6 th Century King to be irresistible for the Welsh. And word for the pit in which cock fighting Maelgwn of Gwynedd gathered where there is competition, there must took place. Each neighbourhood has its together his bards and minstrels and be rules and standards against which own team of poets adept at forming summoned them to perform for him. the participants are assessed. Of course, extemporaneous verse on all kinds of As the poets were his favourites, For song read poetry, too. After all, measures. Between the teams sits the Maelgwn declared that before the there is a close link between these art adjudicator – these days known as proceedings began, both parties forms, and one that is clearly observed Meuryn , after the esteemed Robert John should swim across the river. How in Welsh, where cerdd , the word for Rowlands whose bardic name was did this twist benefit the bards? The poem, forms the stem of the word for Meuryn . In front of them is the poor minstrels had the complication music, cerddoriaeth . audience, ready to colour the Meuryn’s of having to swim with harps From the Punjab to opinion with sometimes genuinely strapped to their backs, an unfair Penrhosgarnedd, it seems that the spontaneous response, and sometimes disadvantage indeed. custom of reciting poems has created more strategically played sighs and frameworks in which the personal, applause to favour their own team. As this early account reveals, it seems exquisite response to the art, once The poets must then respond to that wherever two or three are gathered shared with an audience, becomes a given themes within a short period of together to practice the art of song, the matter for competition and ranking. time, sometimes a fortnight, sometimes temptation to turn the event into a Here in Wales we have the ever-popular five minutes. Today these gatherings competitive, spectator-sport, has proved Talwrn y Beirdd , where talwrn is the reach a climax in two events: the final of the annual Talwrn y Beirdd radio series, Bryn Terfel plays Hans Sachs to and the final of the Ymryson , a week-long Raymond Very’s Walter von Stolzting in Welsh National Opera’s acclaimed play-off held at the National Eisteddfod. production of Wagner’s Die At the Eisteddfod, two entirely different Meistersingers this summer. competitions are open to poets as individuals, where you submit your work anonymously to be considered by three adjudicators. The winners of these earn the right to wear the white robes and laurel crown of the Chief Poets at the , or sessions, of the Bards. Thus it soon becomes apparent that a comparison with the Meistersinger tradition is enticing. One could, for example, draw similarities between the role of the Meuryn and the Merker , though mercifully for the Welsh poets, the Meuryn operates a system of awards where a point is given for merit, even if sometimes begrudgingly. However, the Merker works on a penal system where, rather as with the modern day driving licences, the more

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points you have, the worse things are. by four markers, each concentrating on thus: Disgybl ysbâs heb radd – The practice of composing words different aspects of the work – unqualified apprentice; Disgybl to set forms is also similar in both faithfulness to the often Biblical text, disgyblaidd – qualified apprentice; traditions. But before we turn to the prosody, rhyme and tune. As already Pencerdd – master poet. nitty-gritty of rhyme schemes, syllable mentioned, these markers would listen With a nine-year training period, counting and scansion, perhaps we out for breaches of the rules and the the status of Pen-cerdd , or Master-poet, should pause to ask the basic question: winner was the one who had the fewest was a highly sought after position. who were these Meistersinger , and who marks against his name. However, in Wales, the poets’ are the Welsh bards and what about The Meistersinger claimed lineage to apprenticeship did not happen in the their training? And already the use of the earlier Middle High German context of a circle such as the guilds of the past tense for the German tradition Minnesinger , where Minne is an old the Meistersinger . The aspiring poet and the present for the Welsh suggests word for love. However, the would seek a ‘poetic father’ who would, an important difference. Minnesinger were professionals linked so to speak, adopt him (and it was, The Meistersinger were craftsmen with the nobility, unlike the always, a him), until he had learnt the who probably first came into contact Meistersinger , who had day-jobs as mysteries of the art - I deliberately with poetry and music-making as lay cobblers or builders or bakers. The reject the phrase ‘tricks of the trade’. musicians within the church. They work of the Minnesinger reached a peak In this sense, the Welsh tradition is a grouped themselves together in ‘guilds’ in the 12 th Century when they much more personal affair, and perhaps and ‘schools’, originally in Mainz then in produced lasting and beautiful, lyric here ‘tutelage’ is a better word than Worms and Strasburg. The custom verse. The most famous poet from this ‘apprenticeship’. Furthermore, in the flourished until the 15 th Century, tradition is perhaps Walther von der Welsh model this was a training for a sweeping through Swabia in southern Vogelweide, who has quite possibly lent profession, not a pastime. A tract Germany, then eastwards to Silesia and his name to the Walther of the opera. dating from the early 16 th Century, into Upper Austria. A particularly What about the Welsh bards? The known as Statud Gruffudd ap Cynan , famous guild met in Nuremberg, whose earliest extant examples of our tradition notes to the penny the rates of pay for members are at the heart of Wagner’s extend back to Aneirin and Taliesin, various verse measures, though poets opera. The guilds reflected the traditions who recorded the harsh realities of the were also offered useful tools such as of the tradesmen’s apprenticeship, and life of the Brythonic people in the 6 th swords and axes as payment. poetry was regarded as essentially a Century. By the 10 th Century Hywel Later the poet would be given a craft. You started your career as a Dda, the enlightened king and law- passport, a sort of right-to-roam- Schüler (apprentice), then became a maker, had defined the privileged status certificate, which granted him freedom Schulfreund (journeyman), until finally, a of poets. He codified a bardic order to travel the length and breadth of the few stages further along, you graduated which testifies that in Wales too there is country, while the rest of the Welsh to the rank of the Meister (master). an old tradition of ranking poets. This had to stay put within the confines of To be promoted from one level to system is listed in Simwnt Fychan’s their own home patch. Often the poet the next, your work would be judged Pum Llyfr Cerddwriaeth (circa 1570) would win himself a very welcome place at the patron’s table. Indeed, the Bryn Terfel and Christopher Purves as Beckmesser. tradition of honouring the poet with an elaborate chair lives on to the present day, where the winner of one of the Eisteddfod’s main poetry competitions is given a uniquely crafted, throne-like chair, as well as the title Prifardd , Chief-poet. So much for the similarities and differences in the learning process between the two traditions. What now of the forms and content? To understand the work of the Meistersinger , we must look again at the earlier traditions of the Minnesinger who developed quite intricate verse, the

74 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org the Tabulatur , were almost impossible to bend. At first glance the Welsh forms appear to be even more complex, in that they observe the grammar of the ancient strict metres, where each line depends on a musical interplay of alliteration and rhyme, known as cynghanedd (translated, significantly, as ‘harmony’). Within the cynghanedd discipline, there are four basic line structures: cynghanedd Groes , Draws , Lusg and Sain , where the Groes and Draws depend on alliteration for their music, the Lusg on internal rhyme only, and the Sain on a mixture of both alliteration and internal rhyme. A combination of these four types of cynghanedd then lead to at least 24 Die Meistersingers have an uncanny resemblance to the Gorsedd of Bards. official measures and many more unofficial. Perhaps the three most basis of which is the Liet . This is a Here, another of the Welsh traditions common measures are the englyn , the single strophe containing two groups springs to mind – Cerdd-dant – where cywydd and the hir-a-thoddaid . The of lines followed by a coda. The the art of composing and singing a new englyn is a compact 30 syllabic stanza Minnesinger traditionally kept to set melody while playing a traditional arranged in four lines of cynghanedd themes. The Kreuzliet dealt with melody as harp accompaniment, calls with each line rhyming together. The separation as the knight sets off to fight for a great degree of skill – one for best examples of the englyn can make in the crusades. The Tageliet dealt with which I remember Bryn Terfel winning the haiku seem long-winded. The separation as dawn breaks and two a fair share of prizes as a young cywydd is a series of any number of lovers must part. Another aspect of the Eisteddfod competitor! seven syllabic rhyming couplets, where Minnesang was the Spruch . This form At first, an aspiring Meistersinger each line is written in cynghanedd . The usually contained a moral, and based could only use a set of permitted hir-a thoddaid , generally stretches to a itself on social and political matters, twelve medieval tunes. However, Hans 10 syllabic line, composed in groups of though quite often in a personal Folz, a member of the Meistersinger four or six. context. The Spruch became a favourite guild at Nuremberg, broke this rule and I have already referred to the with the Meistersinger as it allowed them plenty of scope for pontificating. “Later the poet would be given a passport, a sort of The Meistersinger claimed to develop the Minnesinger traditions. right-to-roam-certificate, which granted him freedom However, they seemed to place more to travel the length and breadth of the country, while emphasis on complicating the forms the rest of the Welsh had to stay put within the than on deepening the sentiment, and confines of their own home patch.” the sincerity of the works of the best Minnesinger somehow got lost along the way. The Meistersinger called the wrote a new tune. Thereafter a system of cynghanedd as a ‘grammar’, melody Ton or Weis , and the poems candidate who sought the title of which might explain why I believe that Bar or Gesetz , and took great pride in Meister had to compose an original Ton it only seems to be more restrictive varying the length of these from two or as well as a poem. These tunes were than the German code. After all, a three verses to more than a hundred. given the most fanciful names such as grammar is the machinery that drives a The skill was to write a new poem to The Tone of the Red Bat and The Tone language, its careful engineering leads fit the old tunes, though making them of the Small Striped Bouquet of Saffron to movement. It’s what allows the fit was not always easy, as the poor old Flowers . Despite this development, on words of a language to make sense Beckmesser of the opera finds out. the whole, the rules, as laid down in when spoken. In many ways

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public in both traditions. In Wales, an 18 th Century poet, the legendary Iolo Morganwg, masterminded the Gorsedd y Beirdd ceremonies. He compiled a handbook of the rules of the bardic system under the curiously mysterious title Cyfrinach Beirdd Ynys Prydain (The Secret of the Bards of the Island of Britain). Yet, once written, the poems themselves are no secrets, but rather works of art to be enjoyed by all. In the Meistersinger context, however, no Meisterliede or ‘master-songs’, were allowed to be published. Development was thus further stifled as the closed- shop nature of the guilds made it almost impossible for them to influence, or indeed be influenced by the wider poetry scene. Unsurprisingly, the Meistersinger eventually disappeared. However, in Wales the bardic tradition lives on, and while there have been periods when the art of cynghanedd has been unfashionable, it has never disappeared. Each age seems to produce a poet who picks up the pen and pushes the lines a little further. At present, cynghanedd is enjoying an energy unprecedented for decades. In chapel vestries and pubs, in schools and universities, you can find budding bards huddled together to learn this mesmerising grammar. Some struggle, others take to it with startling ease, and thank goodness, every so often, a Walther will emerge to challenge the

Bryn Terfel in his triumphant status quo, and a Hans Sachs to ensure debut performance as Hans Sachs. that his challenge is given a just hearing. And now and again a poem is cynghanedd is nothing more, nothing and burdened with the dead-weight of captured, so perfect in its beauty that less than the grammar of a language the Tabulatur leaving virtually no room no sport or competition could ever within a language. It is a branch within for the soul to speak, the Welsh poets properly rank it. A poem that is, quite Welsh, which, once mastered, is as composing in cynghanedd are eventually simply, a work of art. flexible and fluid as any other language. liberated, for they are working with an In this sense, its rigidity is only an ever-evolving living language. Although appearance. Indeed it’s the very clear the basic rules of its grammar must be — Mererid Hopwood, a lecturer in rules of the grammar of cynghanedd observed, at time cynghanedd almost Trinity St David University, is a poet that makes it possible for its seems to help the imagination find the who made history in 2001 by becoming practitioners to express anything under expression it needs. the first woman to win the Chair at the the sun. It might also be worth drawing National Eisteddfod. She won the Crown So, while the poor aspiring attention to the difference in the in 2003 and was awarded the Prose Meistersinger find themselves tongue-tied relationship between the poet and the Medal in 2008 for her book O Ran .

76 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org Present day Primrose Hill overlooking central London where in 1792 Iolo Morganwg’s Gorsedd of Bards of the Isle of Britain was inaugurated.

Ancient Britons and London Aborigines

Prys Morgan ponders the long not only a reminder to the English that meaning ‘earliest natives’ or aborigines. history and continuing role of the the Welsh were here first, but it made a It was meant to remind the English that Cymmrodorion clear distinction between Welsh as the the Welsh deserved special respect as real Britons and the new-fangled use the earliest people of Britain. Unless A few weeks ago I visited the of ‘British’ to describe the United the Welsh dimension was acknowledged Cymmrodorion office in central Kingdom parliament, only in existence Britain could not boast any kind of London. E-mails were coming in since 1707. ancient history. from both sides of the Atlantic By 1751 there were growing In 1770 some of the members - asking for information about Wales numbers of Welsh in London and several from Gwynedd - formed an or for permission to reprint articles many of them felt the need for offshoot of the society called the from the society’s publications. I meetings other than for St David’s Gwyneddigion to hold more convivial riffled through the filing cabinets, Day. The idea of founding The meetings with sing-songs. By the 1780s my eye catching correspondence Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion they had developed a more serious with government ministers of the probably came from Lewis Morris, side, adding political debates to their 1950s and 1960s asking for Wales controller of the Royal Mines in meetings, which eventually caused the to be represented on coinage and Cardiganshire, and the leader of the demise of the mother-society around stamps, and for a Welsh television cultural Renaissance of the period. But 1787. In many ways the Gwyneddigion channel. Some of the government the form of its London meetings was was more successful than the replies looked just like the script of probably devised by Lewis’s brother Cymmrodorion because it subsidised ‘Yes, Minister’. Richard, a clerk in the Navy Office, important publications, such as the first Whitehall. It must be his influence edition of the poems of Dafydd ap We were founded in 1751. Several of which added optional verses to the Gwilym, and the holding of the founders were members of the Cymmrodorion Song, cursing the eisteddfodau, such as the three held ‘Most Honourable and Loyal Society of French and Spanish, but only to be in 1789. The ever-growing influx of Antient Britons’ founded by the sung when we were at war with them. Welsh into London caused further London Welsh in 1715. These had The society was to meet for social offshoots to grow, such as the organized St David’s Day Dinners and and benevolent purposes, to discuss Caradogion, the Cymreigyddion, and helped Welsh families in London fallen literary, historical, cultural and even in 1792 Iolo Morganwg’s Gorsedd of on hard times. They also ran a school scientific matters, and it was to give a Bards of the Isle of Britain, inaugurated for their children at Clerkenwell, which lead to people back home in Wales. But on Primrose Hill, London, in 1792. eventually became the St David’s Girls’ why ‘Cymmrodorion’? The word was During the long wars against School at Ashford. The ‘Antient’ was made up, probably by Lewis Morris, France it was difficult, even illegal, to

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hold public meetings, and so Welsh enjoying convivial nights in taverns the Cymmrodorion society. This has had a societies did not blossom again until Welsh were founding chapels and continuous existence since that time. after 1815. The Wales of 1815 was Sunday schools. The result of this From the start the present pattern very different from the Wales of the change was that the Cymmrodorion was laid down of holding regular 1780s, and Cymreigyddion or again declined and disappeared. meetings in London, with an annual ‘Cambrian Societies’ to energize Welsh It is said that the Cambrian meeting in Wales at the National culture emerged in Wales itself. Many Archaeological Association was founded Eisteddfod. Indeed the Cymmrodorion of the leaders of these societies met at in 1846, in Wales itself, as a reaction were instrumental in creating a Lord Dynevor’s London house in to the failure of the Cymmrodorion. National Eisteddfod Association to 1819, demanding the re-foundation Between the 1840s to the 1860s a great regulate that body. In turn that set of the old Cymmrodorion, to give deal of frenzied Welsh activity was another pattern, acting as midwife to leadership to life in Wales. devoted from the to a peculiarly national Welsh organisations, such as W.J. Rees of Cascob spent six Victorian mixture of religious the National Library and the Museum weeks in London in 1820 browbeating revivalism, social improvement and (1907), and the Council for the the London Welsh to re-found the radical political activism. The famous Protection of Rural Wales (1927). society. So the second Cymmrodorion election of 1868 led to a number of The society’s journal Y Cymmrodor arose and lasted until 1843, succeeding self-consciously Welsh MPs being sent first appeared in 1875, supplemented from 1822 in publishing the to Westminster. As a result Welsh by the Transactions which appeared in Transactions , and getting a Welsh educational and cultural movements 1893 and continue to the present day. language Church in London. It is they once again felt the need for the From the 1890s onwards the who adopted our present motto ‘Cared London Welsh to give leadership to Cymmrodorion Record Series was Doeth yr Encilion’, which roughly campaigns back home. In 1873 the published to provide scholarly texts. In translated is ‘Let the wise cultivate journalist John Griffith ‘Y Gohebydd’ the 1930s the society began to organise antiquities’. By 1840 London Welsh life and his friend the civil servant Sir a dictionary of national biography for was much affected by a new kind of Hugh Owen saw an opportunity at the Wales, the first volume appearing in Victorian seriousness, so instead of Mold Eisteddfod to refound the old Welsh as Y Bywgraffiadur in 1953 and in English as the Dictionary of Welsh Biography in 1959. The history of the Cymmrodorion was published in 1951 as a volume of Y Cymmrodor . The quarter millennium was celebrated in 2001 by The Welsh in London , edited by the then President Emrys Jones, and published by the University of Wales Press. The first of the Cymmrodorion Society medals was given to Gwilym Hiraethog in 1883, a tradition continued to this day. Archbishop Rowan Williams received a medal in 2008 and Lord Kenneth O. Morgan another in 2009. Another aspect of our activities over the years is making representation to government bodies about things Welsh, giving evidence to official commissions, or simply writing to ministers to ask for recognition of Welsh opinion. In 1973 Ben Jones, the secretary of the Ceredigion born Lewis Morris, founder of the Cymmrodorion in 1752, was leader Cymmrodorion, was appointed chair of of the cultural Renaissance of the period. the Welsh Language Council as it then

78 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org was. In 1984 we successfully pleaded fresh green oaktree of the National with the government not to remove the Assembly itself. Welsh Plant Breeding Station from Other oak saplings are also springing Aberystwyth to the Thames Valley. up as I write. I have been for a couple of This is a tradition that has continued years a member of a committee to set up right up to the present century. Cymdeithas Ddysgedi Cymru / The Can such a situation continue? The Learned Society of Wales. Its ambitious society has been for so long a midwife aim is to carry out in Wales some of the to so many Welsh devolved bodies, and functions of the Royal Society and the devolution has meant that we find British Academy in London, without ourselves in a position at the end of in any way pretending to be a rival our first quarter millennium very organisation. In the circumstances of 21 st different from our role in the 1880s or Century Wales it will carry out some of even 1950s. Is it likely that government Iolo Morgannwg, paramount mover and the tasks Lewis Morris hoped would be shaker of his time, founded the Gorsedd of will turn to the Cymmrodorion in Bards in 1792. done by the Cymmrodorion in 1751. London for advice, when Cardiff has Morris himself was not only a poet and been the Welsh capital in name since of Welsh people living in London, and administrator, but also a mineralologist 1955, and has a large and growing they will require a focus for meetings, and cartographer. Our printed government and administration there particularly since the old network of constitutions of 1755 show a fine blend of since 1999? Although there are several London Welsh churches and chapels concern for the humanities and sciences. scholarly journals on literature history has declined in recent years. Acting as the core members of the and current affairs in Wales, there will The fact that various London new Learned Society are the Fellows Welsh societies have proliferated of the Royal Society and the British “Is it likely that government recently also shows that there is a great Academy who have a connection with will turn to the Cymmrodorion in deal of vigour in London Welsh life. Wales, and they have given our plans London for advice, when Cardiff has We already cooperate each year with enthusiastic support. Launched in been the Welsh capital in name the Montgomeryshire Society in Cardiff in May the Society already has since 1955, and has such a large and London and the London Welsh a programme of meetings of various growing government and Association in Gray’s Inn Road, and kinds in hand to publicise recent work administration there since 1999?” we need to cooperate further with other in the humanities and the sciences, and London Welsh societies. But we also focus the minds of experts from Wales be always a role for the Cymmrodorion have considerable numbers of members and outside on our problems. Transactions since they uniquely deals all over Wales, and if we could increase The Ancient Britons and the with all those fields under one cover. membership in such areas as Cardiff, Cymmrodorion were provocatively We are trying to meet a growing we would have a firm foundation for named to gain respect for Wales from demand from our members to hold holding meetings regularly there. a wider world. Could I remind all those more meetings in Wales, not merely I am a great believer in the who are well-wishers of Welsh at the Eisteddfod. importance of institutions. They are the institutions that the ancestral oak tree Successful meetings have been held ribcage of nationality. Our history of the Cymmrodorion deserves their in 2009 and 2010 in Ty Hywel in shows that since its foundation in 1751 respect and support? Cardiff Bay, the latter in conjunction the Cymmrodorion has been an acorn with the IWA. We have also had several from which all sorts of other cultural requests to hold meetings in north institutions have grown, out of which — Prys Morgan, Emitus professor Wales and in Liverpool. It is obvious all kinds of sporting, social and political of history at Swansea University, is that there are still an immense number institutions have sprouted, even the President of the Cymmrodorion.

News analysis | Essays and debate | Wales Factfile | Lecture Library | IWA archive last word Peter Stead The Canadian soft option

It all began We began with my argument that the of energy generation. In all these respects with a call I people of Wales had not yet taken on there could be obvious investment and received from board the fact that the granting of technological links between Wales and somebody devolution had indicated that the English the Canadian mainland. The university claiming to had effectively lost all interest in Wales. leaders present reminded us of the represent the As a nation we had just scraped through outstanding university system in Canada, WBSI which A Levels and we were now free to choose a sphere in which many distinguished turned out to be the Wales Black Swan our own path. The failure to pay us a full Welsh scholars have flourished. Institute. Sport always comes first for grant was a straight invitation for us to Our deliberations were going well. me and I assumed that the call had think outside the box. It was then good to We had visions of Canadian money something to do with Swansea’s hear lifelong Europhiles admitting that regenerating Wales - the three million Liberty Stadium. After all when the Europe was a busted flush. We can leave Welsh would make up 12 per cent of the Neath and Swansea clubs came Europe now to sort out its own economic new nation’s population. There would be together to form the regional rugby problems, feeling sorry only for those wonderful university exchange side I had urged the consortium to Welsh families who had set out to programmes and fascinating interchange call their club the Black Swans. colonise the Spanish coast. of populations. Many Welsh people would Even more encouraging was the migrate to Canadian cities while many However, more serious matters were afoot. admission by erstwhile nationalists that in Canadians would choose to winter in The Institute had, of course, taken their the new international dispensation the Wales. Our elected MPs would receive name from Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s notion of ‘independence’ has become a warmer reception in Ottawa than in brilliant 2007 book The Black Swan . problematic. It was good to hear them London and a new swathe of careers Taleb’s subject was randomness and how argue that culture and fulfilment should would open up in Canadian public and to handle it. He had taken his title from come before statehood and that it was no diplomatic life. We were given every the fact that people had once refused to great sacrifice to abandon the thoughts of assurance that Canada could effortlessly believe that there could be such things as all those attractive ambassadorships that and meaningfully become a trilingual black swans. Taleb forcibly argues it is might have accrued. nation. Welsh culture would flourish under more important to find out what a job- We had effectively cleared out the Maple Leaf with the Dragon flag. applicant does not know than what they accumulated baggage and led by I did my best to contribute to the do know. In a person’s library the unread spectacularly successful Welsh-Canadian economic and constitutional debates but it books are more important than those read. businessmen we could turn our thoughts was my views on the cultural implications He defines a nerd as someone who never to the quite simple notion that Wales that they wanted to hear. I pointed out thinks outside the box. should just throw in its lot with Canada. that with a population of 36 million there The WBSI then were Taleb disciples I had remembered reading that following would be a spectacular improvement in who had heard of my passion for his the Wall Street Crash in 1929 many the quality of our rugby, soccer, boxing thinking and who wanted to enlist my Hollywood types had been ruined. The and athletics squads. Wales would host help in developing new ideas with regard comedian Charlie Chaplin was an home games of the world’s best ice- to Wales. Pledging secrecy I was flown to exception since most of his money had hockey team, and the whole status of our a seminar on Prince Edward Island where been invested in Canada. Subsequently film industry, national opera and theatre the sole topic on the agenda was the other investors have found Canada to be companies would be transformed. The proposition that a referendum should the safest option. The recent world crisis Canada/Wales book of the year prize be conducted with a view to Wales in banking left Canada relatively would be a lively affair. I talked a lot immediately becoming a province of untouched as it has the best system of about the time I had spent with the great Canada. Looking around I spotted the bank regulation. As London politicians Welsh/Canadian novelist Robertson usual suspects, a couple of Welsh set out to axe spending and roll back the Davies. And when I admitted that I had Government ministers, the University state their eyes are on the successful seen the ice-hockey star Bobby Orr play of Wales high-command, Welsh TV Canadian model. and that I ranked him up there with only academics, earnest IWA types as well as Canadian wealth has largely been Barry John and John Charles, the the two richest Welshmen in the world. generated by its exploitation of its natural Canadians immediately offered me the Were this lot up for it? I worried, but my resources and in particular its mineral Chairmanship of the Transitional fears were immediately allayed as we all wealth. Meanwhile, the country is well Commission. Montreal, Toronto, plunged into pure Talebesque dimensions. placed to lead the world into a new age Vancouver, here we come. It’s all ours.

80 | www.iwa.org.uk | www.cl ickonwales.org The Institute of Welsh Affairs gratefully acknowledges funding support from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust , the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Waterloo Foundation . The following organisations are corporate members:

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CREATING A POSITIVE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT FOR WALES IWA response to the Welsh Government's economic renewal consultation IWA Economy and Finance Group

The private sector should play a far greater part in the delivery of economic development programmes if Wales is to rise from the bottom of the UK competitiveness rankings. The report recommends that a slimmed down civil service should focus on policy creation, monitoring and evaluation, while delivery should be undertaken by a limited number of independent public and private sector organisations. Central to this approach should be the creation of a ‘Welsh business embassy’ in London which would serve Welsh business interests by:

• Acting as a visible focus for Wales in a world capital. • Promoting Wales to venture capitalists as an investment location; • Promoting Welsh exports; £5.00 • Targeting businesses seeking inward investment opportunities in the UK. ISBN 978 1 904773 52 8 • Lobbying for Welsh interests at the UK level.

Adding life to years Welsh Approaches to Ageing Policy By John Osmond

The Older People’s Commissioner in Wales should combine with the Children’s Commissioner in advocating greater inter-generational awareness in schools across the country. This is one suggestion in a new IWA report Adding Life to Years which surveys Welsh policy approaches to ageing. One in four children born today can expect to live beyond 100. Author, IWA Director John Osmond, said: “Researchers at Bangor University have been investigating the concept of ‘the resilient personality’ whose ability to cope with difficulties and overcome problems is seen as being central to successful ageing. The question arises whether resilience can be learned or developed in young people in relation to their understanding of what life will be like in their older age.” £10.00 ISBN 978 1 904773 51 1

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