Tag: Welsh Government

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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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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Henry de la Beche defends slavery

December 4, 2020 10 Comments
Henry de la Beche defends slavery

If you were a financial beneficiary of a Caribbean sugar plantation dependent on slave labour, how would you react to the movement to abolish slavery?  Fight the movement aggressively in order to defend your interests?  Keep your head down and wait to collect your government compensation?  Admit the rightness of the movement’s cause, and ‘disinvest’?  […]

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A new Public Libraries Act for Wales

February 8, 2019 4 Comments
A new Public Libraries Act for Wales

One of the saddest features of our age is the rapid decline of the public library.  What was once a crucial and heavily used part of local public provision has become, with some exceptions, a starved, neglected and run-down service. According to the latest CIPFA statistics for the UK, spending on public libraries dropped again, […]

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Wales and Brexit, by Emyr Lewis

March 17, 2018 1 Comment
Wales and Brexit, by Emyr Lewis

In this guest blog the lawyer and poet Emyr Lewis considers some of the complex questions, constitutional and legal, economic and cultural, that arise for Wales from the UK’s decision to leave the European Union.  The text was originally given on 8 March 2018 in Swansea University as the Royal Institution of South Wales’s St […]

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Kicking our legs away

October 1, 2017 0 Comments
Kicking our legs away

‘Infrastructure’ is a Latinate word almost designed to put you to sleep.  But it stands for something that’s crucial to us all.  Spending on infrastructure – sewage systems, transport links, reservoirs, electricity generation, broadband networks and the rest – is critical to how any successful economy and society operates.  The right infrastructure provides the sturdy […]

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Mr Skates’s ring cycle

July 28, 2017 11 Comments
Mr Skates’s ring cycle

The row over the ‘Iron Ring’ proposed for Flint Castle seems to be over, so the time is right to think more calmly about what we’ve learnt. First, a quick summary of what happened (there is an ignominious prequel, which I’ll skip).  Cadw, responsible for safeguarding scheduled historic monuments in Wales, together with Visit Wales, the […]

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Diffyg gwybodaeth, diffyg democratiaeth

June 14, 2014 0 Comments
Diffyg gwybodaeth, diffyg democratiaeth

Am sawl rheswm leiciwn i ddim bod yn sgidiau Mark Drakeford, y Gweinidog Iechyd yng Nghymru. Yr wythnos hon mae ‘na reswm arall: arolwg cyhoeddus a gynhaliwyd gan ICM ar ran y BBC sy’n dangos bod 48% yn unig o oedolion yn y wlad yn gwybod taw e sy’n gyfrifol am y Gwasanaeth Iechyd yma. […]

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MOOCs and other animals: ‘open & online’ report published

April 3, 2014 1 Comment
MOOCs and other animals: ‘open & online’ report published

The Welsh Government today published a major report entitled Open & online: Wales, higher education and emerging modes of learning.  The report covers all aspects of courses and resources freely available online at higher and further education levels in the UK and beyond. It contains the most up-to-date and balanced assessment so far of Massive […]

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MOOCs and other animals in Wales: what do you think?

May 10, 2013 1 Comment
MOOCs and other animals in Wales: what do you think?

Interested in MOOCs and other forms of online learning as they affect Wales?  If so, read on … In February 2013, Leighton Andrews AM, the Welsh Government Minister for Education and Skills , announced the establishment of the Online Digital Learning Resources Working Group. The Working Group is chaired by the former National Librarian of […]

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