politics
A new Thrasymachus
What is justice? For the current President of the United States of America, the answer to that question is directly and exclusively linked to another – who holds power over others? In his White House dialogue with Volodymir Zelinskyy on 28 February, Donald Trump told him ‘you don’t have the cards right now’. It follows […]
Welcome back, Benito
On 20 January Donald Trump, having been sworn in at the start of his second term as US President, outlined in his acceptance speech his mission for the next four years. Simply, he would put America first. He blamed ‘the radical and corrupt establishment has extracted power and wealth from our citizens’ for the broken […]
‘Mwy o sgwennwrs na darllenwrs’: yr argyfwng geiriau
Yn ei nofel ddeifiol newydd Hunllef Nadolig Eben Parri mae Arwel Vittle yn anelu ei arfau dychanol at dargedau niferus yn y Gymru gyfoes. Un yw pobl sy’n ysgrifennu a chyhoeddi. Mae bron pob grŵp yn ei chael hi’n arw gan ‘Ysbryd Cymru Sydd’: cofiannau (‘gormod ohonyn nhw’), academyddion (‘digon o ddadansoddi a gor-ddadansoddi ôl-drefedigaethol […]
Dros sbectol Keir Starmer
Beth yw rhodd neu anrheg? Gwrthrych neu wasanaeth y mae person yn ei gynnig i rywun arall, heb dâl. Nid yn unig heb dâl, ond hefyd heb ddisgwyl tâl neu gymwynas yn y dyfodol. Beth yw anrheg, gan unigolyn neu gwmni neu grŵp arall, i wleidydd? Yn syml, y gwrthwyneb: disgwyl y rhoddwr, bron bob […]
The silent election
Has there ever been a general election studded with so many good jokes? From the very start, when Rishi Sunak destroyed his blue suit while standing in the pouring rain to announce the election, to the news that the even more hapless ex-MP Craig Williams had used his insider knowledge to place a £100 bet […]
Build, build, build
It began with an act of destruction, the demolishing of an existing house. Then came the tractors, carting trailer-loads of earth away. Hundreds of loads, over many weeks, if not months. The result: a very large hole in the ground. Next, the concrete. Huge trucks, loaded with long pipes, started arriving. Workers assembled the pipes […]
The problem of Vaughan Gething
The facts are clear enough. Between December 2023 and January 2024 Vaughan Gething, a candidate for the post of First Minister in the Welsh Government, was given a donation of £200,000 towards his campaign. No one in his position had ever before received such a huge sum. The donor was a firm called Dauson Environmental […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]