the welsh + Richard Wyn Jones Devolution’s unfinished business John Osmond Theodore Huckle and a Welsh jurisdiction Emrys Roberts Elystan Morgan’s tryst with Wales John Borkowski and Angus Walker Wales should join with West on airport Cynog Dafis Sacred landscape and sustainable development Zoë Harcombe The obesity epidemic Katie Harris Human trafficking on our streets Peter Jones Why a barrage is a step too far Gareth Rees Edging Cultural apartheid on the airwaves Karen Owen When Caernarfon was the print the estuary capital of Wales Trevor Fishlock A hole in our national trouser Nigel Jenkins In the footsteps of Y Gododdin www.iwa.org.uk | Spring 2013 | No. 49 | £8.99 The Institute of Welsh Affairs gratefully acknowledges funding support from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Waterloo Foundation. 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Our main motorway passes through Anna Karenin “All happy families are alike a pinch point at the Brynglas tunnels where Literary Editor: Peter Finch but an unhappy family is unhappy after its in recent years we have more than once own fashion” could equally apply to the experienced an incident that has brought the Administration: Helen Sims-Coomber lives of nations. “All successful economies entire southern economy to a shuddering halt. are alike but an unsuccessful economy is As for air travel, most of us have no option but Design: [email protected] unsuccessful after its own fashion,” we might to travel to farflung Heathrow and Gatwick for say. The modern Welsh economy is certainly our long haul connections. To advertise, tel: 029 2066 0820 unsuccessful. Not only are we the worst It is apposite, therefore, that this issue The publisher acknowledges the performing economic region within the UK of highlights two schemes financial support of the Welsh the welsh agenda Books Council. in terms of GVA per head, but we are close to being promoted by the IWA that have Institute of Welsh Affairs the bottom of the EU prosperity league tables. the potential to transform this picture of a 4 Cathedral Road What is distinctive about us that can provide languishing back water. At first sight both Cardiff CF11 9LJ an explanation? might seem so big and ambitious as to be Tel: 029 2066 0820 A number of reasons come to mind. unattainable. Our latest offering, explored Email: [email protected] www.iwa.org.uk Nearly 200 years ago we were at the cutting on page 36, is for a new international airport edge of the world’s first industrial revolution to serve the whole of southwest Britain, but The IWA is a non-aligned independent think-tank and research institute. and in a profound sense have never got over located along the Severn between Newport Members (annual subscription £40) it. The inheritance of that pioneering growth and Chepstow. It might seem churlish to be receive agenda three times a year, can purchase reports at a 25 per cent of coal mining and iron and steelmaking is putting forward such a notion at the very time reduction, and receive discounts when still with us, but in largely negative ways. The the Welsh Government is in the process of attending IWA events. wealth was removed and all we have left, acquiring ownership of Cardiff airport. Yet, Branches apart from Port Talbot, are a few heritage sites, as the authors of the proposal point out, the North Wales Secretariat albeit that some are world-class. The zenith of two are perfectly compatible. Indeed, public c/o Huw Lewis 6 Maes yr Haul, Mold, Welsh prosperity occurred a century ago in ownership of Cardiff airport makes a new Flintshire CH7 1NS the Edwardian years leading to World War 1. airport on Severnside more feasible. Tel: 01352 758311 It is no coincidence that the period also saw Elsewhere we devote a good deal of Gwent Secretariat the creation of Cathays Park and our first era attention to another scheme which has the c/o Chris O’Malley University of Wales, Newport, of nation building, with the founding of the potential to transform the prospects of the Caerleon Campus National Museum, National Library, and the Welsh economy, a Metro for the Cardiff PO Box 179, Newport NP18 3YG University of Wales. City region. We first published detailed Tel: 01633 432005 What was also distinctive about Wales in proposals for this enterprise two years ago West Wales Secretariat c/o Margaret Davies those times was how connected it was, both and it is remarkable how swiftly it has entered Principal’s Office, internally and with the wider world. In 1913 mainstream thinking. It is the subject of a task Trinity University College, it was possible to travel from any substantial force that will shortly report to Economics Carmarthen SA31 3EP settlement within Wales to any other by the Minister Edwina Hart who has recently, and Tel: 01267 237971 appropriately, had transport responsibilities Swansea Bay Secretariat most importance mode of travel of the day, c/o Delith Thorpe the railways. As far as the outside world was added to her portfolio. At Welsh Labour’s 38 Southlands Drive, concerned Cardiff was linked to every other Spring conference in Llandudno she Swansea SA3 5RA major coastal city by ships that carried Welsh pronounced that the scheme was receiving Tel: 01792 404315 her positive attention. Cardiff and Valleys Secretariat steam coal across the globe. c/o Emma Bremman Since then, however, the decline in our In our featured articles on this topic (pages 4 Cathedral Road, communications has been so steep that we 10-16) Professor Calvin Jones, of Cardiff Cardiff CF11 9LJ can make claim to be the most disconnected Business School, says that achieving a Cardiff Tel: 029 2066 0820 Metro will not be a panacea for the Welsh IWA Women part of the British Isles. It takes four hours to c/o Kirsty Davies travel from north to south Wales by a train economy. But as he also says, “If we build it, [email protected] that passes through England for much of the and build it well, we will tell the world we Tel: 07900 692898 journey. By road it takes nearer five hours. care about things. About the climate, yes, but Wales in London also about the importance of distinctive place, c/o Robert John As for our links to the outside world they are First Base, 22 Ganton Street, precarious. Our main railway in the south about our less advantaged residents and London W1F 7BY passes through a tunnel that is prone to about actively planning for a positive future.” Tel: 020 7851 5521 the welsh agenda spring 2013—issue 49 | 1 Contents 32. Economic opportunity rather than rights Agenda 49 1 critical for language 4 Spring 2013 Changing Union survival Education Cover: Penarth Head seen from the Harold Carter and John Cardiff Bay Barrage. Photo: Peter Finch 18. Welsh devolution’s Aitchison find there are now 48. Heads of the Valleys unfinished business more Welsh speakers in education poverty gap Richard Wyn Jones Cardiff than in the whole of Lizzie Swaffield, David gives an overview of the Ceredigion, Gwynedd and Egan and Danny Saunders Changing Union project’s Ynys Môn report on an initiative to evidence to the Silk improve school attainment Commission in Merthyr and Blaenau Gwent 21.