politics

Why is the Welsh Government at war with culture?

January 5, 2024 12 Comments
Why is the Welsh Government at war with culture?

In December 2023 the Welsh Government published its draft budget for 2024-25, a ‘budget to protect the services which matter most to you’.  As expected, the overall budget is seriously inadequate, thanks to the Westminster Government’s economic incompetence and its determination to impose Austerity Mark II on public services in advance of pre-election tax cuts.  […]

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New Atlantis: the vanishing of Tuvalu

November 24, 2023 0 Comments
New Atlantis: the vanishing of Tuvalu

In the daily TV quiz show Pointless, Tuvalu is a regularly pointless answer in ‘countries of the world’ rounds.  Even people who’ve heard of it would find it difficult to point to where it is with any accuracy on a map of the Pacific (latitude 5°–10° south, longitude 176°–180°).  It consists of three reef islands and […]

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Cymru ar goll yn ‘Union’

October 21, 2023 1 Comment
Cymru ar goll yn ‘Union’

Bûm yn gwylio cyfres ddiwethaf David Olusoga at BBC2, Union, a wnaed ar y cyd â’r Brifysgol Agored.  Rhaid dweud bod y cymhelliad y tu ôl i’r cynllun pedair rhaglen yn un i’w ganmol: i esbonio sut y daeth y ‘Deyrnas Unedig’ i fod, a sut datblygodd y syniad, a’r realiti, dros y canrifoedd.  Y […]

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How to destroy a bus service

October 6, 2023 1 Comment
How to destroy a bus service

Cars and other private vehicles worsen global heating, endanger our bodies and health, poison our air and wreck our neighbourhoods.  Yet, instead of trying to encourage us to make less use of them, governments in the UK are busy doing the very opposite.  The UK government, cynically and absurdly, even declares that it’s fighting a […]

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The 20mph revolt

September 29, 2023 3 Comments
The 20mph revolt

I usually float through the sewage and green algae of political debate in the UK buoyed up by a comforting belief: that here in Wales people are in some way insulated from the worst of the reactionary and cruel madness that now passes for politics in Westminster.  Comforting, but, I fear, quite wrong.  The extreme […]

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Getting angry about politics

July 21, 2023 7 Comments
Getting angry about politics

I’m not sure what other people think, but on the whole I’d say I was a person of fairly equable temper.  But recently I’ve begun to realise that I’ve started having angry conversations about contemporary politics, especially politics as practised in Britain.  This goes beyond just venting exasperation, like growling at the television when BBC […]

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A black hole in green transport?

June 30, 2023 0 Comments
A black hole in green transport?

An anecdote is a dangerous base for an argument, I know, but today that’s not going to stop me from a grouse about public transport.  Yesterday I needed to get from Mumbles to Cardiff Bay.  These days I try to keep the car in the drive, unless there’s no reasonable alternative, and I didn’t think […]

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Ar ôl Abertawe, beth?

June 9, 2023 2 Comments
Ar ôl Abertawe, beth?

Dan yr haul llachar a’r awyr glas daeth miloedd o bobl, o ardal Abertawe ac o bob rhan o Gymru, ynghyd yn Wind Street ddiwedd y bore ar 20 Mai, dan adain y faner Yes Cymru, i alw am annibyniaeth.  Symudodd bandiau, baneri a llu o hetiau coch a melyn ar hyd y strydoedd gwag, […]

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Anti-metropolitanism, 1759

May 19, 2023 0 Comments
Anti-metropolitanism, 1759

In Volume I, Chapter XVIII of Laurence Sterne’s great novel, Tristram Shandy’s mother, as soon as she finds out she’s expecting him, absolutely insists that, when the time comes to give birth, she will be attended by no one but the old midwife who lives in the neighbourhood of Shandy Hall – even though within […]

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Afon ar ei gwely angau

March 10, 2023 0 Comments
Afon ar ei gwely angau

Y peth mwyaf trist am ein taith gerdded llynedd ar hyd Llwybr Afon Gwy, o Gas-gwent i Bumlumon, oedd Afon Gwy.  Hynny yw, cyflwr amgylcheddol Afon Gwy.  Y gwir blaen – gwir na allai neb ei wadu erbyn heddiw – yw bod yr afon yn prysur farw.  Roedd yr arwyddion yn amlwg, hyd yn oed […]

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