issue50 th + Peter Stead Six foot nation down under Rosemary Butler Anglo-centric media coverage Kim Howells The 1984-5 strike Richard Wyn Jones Euro pragmatic Wales Hywel Ceri Jones EU catalyst for Welsh recovery Jane Lorimer Missing sounds of street children Thomas Gyn Watkin Our legal personality Alun Michael Devolving the police David Reynolds Leighton’s legacy Julian Tudor Hart Dead end NHS road Trevor Fishlock Senghenydd remembers He needs a Rhys David critical friend Welsh in a globalised world www.iwa.org.uk | Summer 2013 | No. 50 | £4.95 The Institute of Welsh Affairs gratefully acknowledges funding support from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Waterloo Foundation. 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Yet too Helen Sims-Coomber Parliament in 2011 the First Minister often we hold back for fear of causing Design: remarked, “Wales is an old country but a offence and inviting recriminations. We [email protected] young democracy”. It is remarkable to think share a collective responsibility to confront To advertise, tel: 029 2066 0820 that a mere decade and a half ago we were this. Individuals and institutions can The publisher acknowledges the governed from Whitehall, with just three contribute to the creation of a more mature financial support of the Welsh Ministers in the Welsh Office. In that short political culture through the way we all Books Council. period we have made a great leap forward: respond to challenge and criticism. Indeed, Institute of Welsh Affairs a plural politics, a Welsh Government and a it is the only way for it to develop. 4 Cathedral Road body of laws have all developed. The IWA has a particular responsibility Cardiff CF11 9LJ But though our civic institutions have to play a role: it is why we exist. The Institute Tel: 029 2066 0820 grown, our political culture has not kept occupies an almost unique space at the Email: [email protected] www.iwa.org.uk pace. Like any fast growing teenager there nexus of a web of relationships of people is often a lag between physical development from across the spectrum. By bringing The IWA is a non-aligned independent think-tank and research institute. and emotional maturity. people together the IWA can be that ‘safe’ Members (annual subscription £40) Though we have a law-making place where ideas can collide and solutions receive agenda three times a year, can purchase reports at a 25 per cent Parliament, as a democratic society we are can be forged. reduction, and receive discounts when immature. Far from becoming expansive For our part we must develop confidence attending IWA events. and outward looking there are worrying building measures to reassure those that we signs of introspection and parochialism. The challenge that we are a constructive force, Branches scars of generations of tribal politics run offering crticism from a desire to improve North Wales Secretariat deep, and the ingrained learned behaviours and not destroy. In the education profession c/o Huw Lewis of the old politics still contaminate the new. this role is known as being a ‘critical friend’ 6 Maes yr Haul, Mold, Flintshire CH7 1NS It really shouldn’t surprise us. - a trusted person who asks provocative Tel: 01352 758311 Democratic societies take generations to questions, provides data to be examined Gwent Secretariat form, and these are still early days. But through another lens, and offers critiques of a c/o Rob Southall unless we are self-aware there is a danger person’s work as a friend. University of Wales, Newport, that the old habits will remain. That is what the IWA is for. Caerleon Campus Of course, as has been much discussed in The first 25 years of the Institute’s PO Box 179, Newport NP18 3YG these pages, the weakness of Welsh civil society history can be fairly characterised as having Tel: 01633 432005 and the decline of an indigenous media, make helped create the conditions for legislative West Wales Secretariat the task harder. Without these shafts of light devolution for Wales – something hard to c/o Margaret Davies it is more difficult to lift the darkness. And so imagine in 1987. Having done so much Principal’s Office, Trinity University College, this places even greater responsibility on the to deliver devolution, the IWA now has Carmarthen SA31 3EP civic institutions that we have to shape our still a responsibility to ensure our National Tel: 01267 237971 emerging political culture. Assembly and its Government meets the Swansea Bay Secretariat This will not be a comfortable experience. expectations that have been created. c/o Delith Thorpe Devolution may have succeeded in bringing As one of the few bodies in Welsh public 38 Southlands Drive, Government closer to the people, but life not to receive funding from the Welsh Swansea SA3 5RA closeness brings problems of its own. The Government (apart from £8,000 a year from Tel: 01792 404315 growth, in powers and scope, of the Welsh the Welsh Books Council towards the cost IWA Women Government inevitably means that its reach of publishing literary material in the welsh c/o Kirsty Davies in our small country is considerable. There agenda) we are truly independent of party or [email protected] are few who do not rely on its goodwill. As faction. As such are well placed to play the Tel: 07900 692898 a result we have developed an aversion to part of critical friend. But we can’t do it alone, challenge. There is palpable fear of speaking and we certainly can’t do it without members truth unto power. and supporters. We need more of them. However, we’re too small a country to Together we can all help smarten things up. the welsh agenda summer 2013—issue 50 | 1 Contents Agenda 50 Summer 2013 a Caption 3 5 Changing Union Education 4. Essay 36. Our legal personality 52. Leighton’s legacy on Lions that convert us Thomas Glyn Watkin school standards into a six-foot nation explains that law has now David Reynolds says it Peter Stead examines what joined language as a focus should be seen as the need to happens when we take our for national assertion teach teachers to teach well national game on to the world stage 39. Why police and 54. Bigger is better for criminal justice education results 8. News should be devolved David Ellis reveals the Alun Michael argues that findings from research 10. Outlook we need these powers he carried out into the Making Wales a to enable a joined-up performance of primary sustainable food approach to tackling crime schools across Wales nation –-Tom Andrews 42. Welsh Government –-Terry Marsden 2 scrutiny by-pass – Kevin Morgan Marie Navarro and David –-Steve Garrett Wales and Europe Lambert on a bureaucratic –-Eryl Powell grey area where guidance 6 26.