the welsh + Peter Stead Dylan at 100 Richard Wyn Jones and Roger Scully Do we need another referendum? John Osmond Learning from Mondragon Stuart Cole A railway co-op for Wales David Williams Sliding into poverty James Stewart A lost broadcasting service Peter Finch Wales sees too Talking to India Trevor Fishlock The virtues of left handednesss much through Osi Rhys Osmond Two lives in art Ned Thomas Scottish eyes Interconnected European stories M. Wynne Thomas The best sort of crank www.iwa.org.uk | Summer 2012 | No. 47 | £8.99 The Institute of Welsh Affairs gratefully acknowledges funding support from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Waterloo Foundation. 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We have had a knack of absorbing ‘defining moments’. The Administration: Helen Sims-Coomber a celebration of Britishness via the Diamond issues go well beyond Libor: the mis-selling Jubilee at a time when one part of the union of financial products of questionable value Design: [email protected] is contemplating secession. Meanwhile, we or none, proprietary trading (that is, large To advertise, tel: 029 2066 0820 are having a projection of British talent and scale betting with other people’s money), the accomplishment via the Olympic Games at a corrosive mix of retail and investment banking, The publisher acknowledges the financial support of the Welsh time when our reputation for honest dealing the extreme consolidation and centralisation of Books Council. has been trashed by successive scandals the banking system, astronomical salaries that involving the media and the banks. erode social solidarity as well as short-changing Institute of Welsh Affairs 4 Cathedral Road Unless alleviated by a contrasting coup de shareholders, a banking system in which the Cardiff CF11 9LJ theatre, Danny Boyle’s recreation of ‘a green generation of a productive home economy is Tel: 029 2066 0820 and pleasant land’ for the opening ceremony of very secondary interest. The charge sheet is Email: [email protected] of the Olympics will seem like an embodiment long and the effects profound. www.iwa.org.uk of British complacency. It will be the other side A part of this unbalanced kingdom The IWA is a non-aligned independent of the fatalistic stoicism that Ed Miliband sees such as Wales, with a huge deficit in its think-tank and research institute. Members (annual subscription £40) receive agenda as a characteristic English virtue. There is a underlying finances - the political effects of three times a year, can purchase reports at a real danger that these extravaganzas will mask which are described by Gerald Holtham in 25 per cent reduction, and receive discounts when attending IWA events. the deep level of public anger that has been this issue - needs no lessons on some of the simmering since the onset of the recession. consequences. These are issues on which the Branches On the phone hacking scandal, the public are far ahead of our politicians: the North Wales Secretariat Leveson inquiry has at least provided an need for a moral compass in business, the c/o Huw Lewis 6 Maes yr Haul, Mold, outlet - a more genteel version of the stocks - in inadequacy of shareholder value as a sole Flintshire CH7 1NS which Prime Ministers and media moguls have driver of businesses, the need to separate Tel: 01352 758311 been locked for a few uncomfortable hours. retail banking from investment banking, the Gwent Secretariat So far it has performed a cathartic function. need for smaller banks that can be closer c/o Chris O’Malley However, it is symptomatic of the problem to customers, whether they be individuals University of Wales, Newport, Caerleon Campus that resistance to a more robust system of or regional economies. This is not an anti- PO Box 179, Newport NP18 3YG self-regulation is already growing in the Press business agenda. Rather, it is agenda for a Tel: 01633 432005 and among some politicians. No one wants a healthier and more productive capitalism. West Wales Secretariat system that will curb a free press, and robust In the case of both the press and banking c/o Margaret Davies self-regulation is not incompatible with that. Yet a key issue is the interaction with our politics. Principal’s Office, we have to have a system that forces all media The evidence for over-weening influence Trinity University College, Carmarthen SA31 3EP to think much harder about ethical issues and on government is far more persuasive in the Tel: 01267 237971 behaviour as well as the law. After all, some case of the financial community than in the journalists have ended up in jail and some of case of the press - although some will argue Swansea Bay Secretariat c/o Beti Williams their bosses are facing criminal charges. that this is to defy one of the laws of nature. Department of Computer Science, We have yet to see whether an inquiry The equation between money and power is Swansea University, into the banking scandal will perform the same not about to disappear. But it is all the more Swansea SA2 8PP cathartic service as Leveson. The omens are reason why structures and regulation need to Tel: 01792 295625 not good. Select committees lack the forensic be an effective countervailing force. Whatever Cardiff and Valleys Secretariat capabilities of a public inquiry. The initial changes are made to the law, regulation or c/o Emma Bremman 4 Cathedral Road, examination of Bob Diamond the day after he structures of banking or the press, ethics and Cardiff CF11 9LJ had announced his resignation from Barclays behaviour will remain at the heart of things. Tel: 029 2066 0820 was long but limp. And yet, the multi-faceted In recent decades they have been sorely IWA Women deficiencies of our banking system, that may neglected. The truth is that the long-term c/o Kirsty Davies include criminal fraud, are an even more effects of the individualist zeitgeist of the 1980s [email protected] important issue than the state of our press. have come to roost, at an incalculable cost Tel: 07900 692898 The emergence of the Libor issue has been to individual citizens, businesses and society Wales in London described as a defining moment. But haven’t as a whole, as well as to the regard in which c/o Robert John we seen these before? Wasn’t 2008 enough? democracy itself is held. First Base, 22 Ganton Street, London W1F 7BY Tel: 020 7851 5521 the welsh agenda summer 2012—issue 47 | 1 Contents Agenda 47 Summer 2012 1 3 Mel Gibson in the film Braveheart Changing Union 30. Valleys can cut it Education (1995) playing William Wallace, a commoner, who unites the 13th in engineering Century Scots in their battle to COVER STORY Rhys David reports on the 40. We need to end second overthrow English rule. 18.