politics
Brexit: a Martian sends a postcard home
My dearest brothers and sisters, It is two years since you did me the honour of despatching me on a voyage across the solar seas to inspect what the Britons call their ‘mother of parliaments’. I must own that, reviewing my previous report to you, I cannot absolve myself of an embarrassing naïveté about this […]
Sport is not the answer
According to the NHS Britain is the most obese nation in western Europe. A quarter of adults are obese. Levels of obesity have risen threefold on thirty years, and if trends continue half the population will be obese by 2050. Diabetes, heart disease and cancer are just a few of the diseases that can follow […]
The Home Rule All Round movement
To get a swift appreciation of the whole sweep of Welsh history for a current project, I’ve been re-reading John Davies’s great Hanes Cymru / A history of Wales (rev. ed. 2007). It’s a big book but the pleasure of reading it is even bigger. Especially when you pause in your reading to remember John […]
Hwyl fawr i’r byd cyhoeddus?
Ar ddydd Mercher nesaf bydd y Canghellor George Osborne yn cyhoeddi’r canlyniadau o’i adolygiad o wariant cyhoeddus. Mae’n argoeli bod yn achlysur tyngedfennol. Fel dywed William Keegan, y newyddiadurwr economaidd, yn gyson, daeth y Ceidwadwyr i rym, yn 2010 ac eto yn 2015, ar sail dau Gelwydd Mawr: taw’r llywodraeth Lafur, yn hytrach na’r bancwyr a’i […]
British values
British values are back in fashion. They were introduced by Gordon Brown during Tony Blair’s Labour government: We can find common qualities and common values that have made Britain the country it is. Our belief in tolerance and liberty which shines through British history. Our commitment to fairness, fair play and civic duty’. They surfaced […]
The value of being open
The adapted text of a response to the award of an honorary doctorate by the Open University in a graduation ceremony held in the Wales Millennium Centre on 12 June 2015. Annwyl gyfeillion, rhaid imi ddweud ar y cychwyn ei bod hi’n anrhydedd anhygoel imi dderbyn y radd hon heddiw. I mi mae’r Brifysgol Agored […]
Atalanta
For International Women’s Day, here’s a Greek woman of formidable talent and power. Since 1935 she’s lived in Swansea, in the collection of the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery. She’s hidden away from public view at the moment while the Gallery’s home is being modernised. She was absent from the big Christopher Williams exhibition curated by […]
Mr Gulliver’s voyage to the island of Lilliput
On Wednesday 25 February the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee invited two bankers from HSBC, Douglas Flint, Group Chairman, and Stuart Gulliver, Group Chief Executive, to give evidence about alleged wrongdoings by their bank. You can read everything they said in response to questions from the MPs on the Parliament website. It won’t take […]
Y broblem o’r cyfoethogion eithafol
Fersiwn o gyflwyniad i aelodau Undeb Myfyrwyr Prifysgol Aberystwyth ar 11 Chwefror 2015. Dyma dri chwestiwn ichi: A oes ots os ydy nifer fach iawn o bobl mewn cymdeithas yn ennill llawer, llawer mwy na’r gweddill ohonom? Ydy’r sefyllfa hon yn ffaith naturiol yn ein heconomi, ac felly does dim modd ei newid? Os oes […]
Books and their readers defend Cardiff libraries
This afternoon hundreds of people from Cardiff and some from beyond came together outside the Central Library in The Hayes to protest against Cardiff Council’s decision to close six of its libraries and further diminish the Central Library. Many speakers, including writers like writers like Gwyneth Lewis, Jo Mazelis, Fran Rhydderch and Labi Siffre, emphasised […]