Wales (Cymru)

As I grow older, I wonder what legacy I will leave. What have I done, or could I still do, to make things better for those who come after me? When I’m seeking inspiration, all I need to do is think of my friend Esyllt Harker.

Esyllt was a beautiful and respected voice in traditional Welsh song and story, or chwedleua. She passed away 10 years ago, on 31 May 2014, but remains a strong presence in the world of storytelling in Wales.

The First Minister has been caught on camera storming off after being challenged by an ex miner over failings in mental health care in north Wales.

The confrontation took place in Llandudno where Vaughan Gething kicked off the General Election campaign with a speech to the Trade Union Congress at Venue Cymru on Thursday (May 23).

Video footage shows mental health campaigner John Stewart approaching the First Minister outside the Cottage Loaf pub to hand him a copy of a key report by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

The report, which has not yet been made public, looked into the failings of mental health services at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB).

Yr Wyddfa (formerly Snowdon) is the tallest mountain in England and Wales. It’s a phrase that annoys some people. No one ever says Mont Blanc is the tallest mountain in France and Switzerland. Closer to home, we never see England and Scotland paired so frequently, even in the same context. So why are England and Wales so often bundled together?

In this three-part series, I explore some of the historical elements of the relationship between the two neighbours, and their contemporary impacts. We previously looked at the Statute of Rhuddlan of 1284 and its effects on Wales and Welsh society. This time, I examine the two countries being combined into a single jurisdiction. This occurred through the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542, which are sometimes erroneously referred to as acts of union.

Charlotte Church has issued a statement announcing she is pulling out of the Hay Festival while taking aim at the festival’s ‘hypocrisy’ of receiving sponsorship from an investment management company with links to Israel and the fossil fuel industry.

The singer was due to appear in a talk with author Mary Loudon but has now withdrawn from the festival ‘in solidarity with the people of Palestine and in protest of the artwashing and greenwashing that is apparent in this sponsorship.’

The Hay Festival runs from 23 May – 2 June.

Party Leader Rhun ap Iorwerth has kicked off Plaid Cymru’s election campaign with a 310 mile round tour of key seats.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the election on Wednesday May 23) night in a rain-soaked press statement in Downing Street, with the date set for July 4.

He made the economy and combating the global security threats facing the UK the key elements of his pitch to the nation as he announced the election date.

A July election is earlier than many in Westminster had expected, with a contest in October or November widely thought to have been more likely.

A health board is on track to meet its “worst case” planned overspend of £60 million this financial year.

That is based on spending during April, the first month of the current financial year, which was around £5m over its planned budget, described as an “adverse variance”.

Robert Holcombe, the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board’s finance chief, said it is working towards a £48.9m projected deficit – that is the difference between the amount of money it receives and how much it actually spends.

He told the board’s May meeting it has planned on making £40m in savings this year and has a worst case scenario of a £60m deficit and a best case of £48.9m.

I wish to begin this column by utterly condemning the choice of language deployed by the Daily Mail when referring to Vaughan Gething in a recent article. An archaic word was used, surely deliberately given the editorial process there, which provoked a high-click-rate reaction from readers. I believe that behaviour to be unacceptable.

The article prompted a statement from the Labour Party in Wales’ BAME Committee. The statement quite rightly, in my view, took aim at the Daily Mail’s language. It is important to note that the statement was issued the day after an emergency meeting of the Labour Senedd Group. At that meeting, supporters of the First Minister claimed that the ongoing scrutiny of Gething’s scandals by the media was racially driven.

Labour's Vaughan Gething said people across Wales are calling for a change of government as Welsh parties geared up for the general election.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ended speculation on Wednesday, saying voters will go to the polls on 4 July.

His party leader in the Senedd, Conservative Andrew RT Davies, said Labour's record in the Welsh government is a "stark warning to the rest of the United Kingdom".

Meanwhile Plaid Cymru said only it will put Wales first.

All slaughterhouses in Wales will soon be required to fit CCTV cameras after regulations were approved by the Senedd.

It will become mandatory for CCTV to be installed in all slaughterhouse areas where live animals are unloaded, kept, handled, stunned, and killed.

The regulations come into force on 1 June, followed by a six-month period before they are enforced on 1 December, the Welsh government said.

The RSPCA said it was "delighted" by the decision, saying it would "help safeguard animal welfare".

CCTV has been compulsory in every abattoir in England, external in all areas where live animals are present since May 2018.

The Labour Party has announced that the surplus funds from Vaughan Gething's campaign to win the Welsh Labour leadership will not be donated to the party. The announcement follows controversy about the environmental convictions of the company that donated £200,000 to Mr Gething's campaign.

Sources from Mr Gething's campaign had previously said that the money would be given to the party and that the First Minister wanted the money to be used to support diversity programmes. However the £31,000 that remains unspent from the huge war chest of £254,000 the Cardiff South and Penarth MS amassed during the leadership race will now be given to "progressive causes".

A Welsh Labour Party spokesperson said: "As agreed by the Officers of the Welsh Executive Committee, Vaughan Gething is donating surplus funds from his campaign to wider progressive causes."

A divide in Welsh Labour over the leadership of the First Minister appears to have deepened further over the weekend with one senior source declaring, “we can’t carry on like this”.

It comes amid claims by Vaughan Gething’s backers that scrutiny of him is racially driven.

Sources told Nation.Cymru the comments were made during an emergency meeting on Friday evening of Labour politicians following a tumultuous week which saw one member of the First Minister’s Cabinet sacked.

Plaid Cymru announced on Friday it had axed the co-operation agreement with the Welsh Government over concerns about the First Minister’s judgement.

The agreement was not due to end until December this year.

On Easter Saturday I explored Newtown, Powys. I photographed impressive buildings, visited the fascinating Robert Owen Museum, and squeezed in a cheeky pint before heading back to the Valleys on the T4. For the uninitiated, the T4 is the bus route between Cardiff and mid-Wales.

If a route number is prefixed by the letter T it’s a TrawsCymru service, funded by the Welsh Government. It’s a network of long-distance routes designed to connect cities, towns, and villages in much the same way the railways did a century ago. The Transport for Wales website boasts that TrawsCymru buses “provide vital public transport links for many communities across Wales, integrating with rail journey [sic] and also giving visitors an accessible, affordable, and environmentally friendly option for exploring the scenic beauty of our country.” Sounds fantastic, but how true is it?

The Welsh Government has pulled plans to make a major announcement about schools this week. On Tuesday, education minister Lynne Neagle was due to give a 45 minute statement to Senedd members titled "consultation on the school year".

The item has now been withdrawn and delayed until after the recess break for half-term. It is understood that has taken place because the reconfiguration of the school year was part of the cooperation agreement with Plaid Cymru, a deal the party withdrew from on Friday.

The parties entered into the agreement after the 2021 Senedd election and it covered a number of set areas. It was due to end this winter but Plaid leader Rhun ap Iorwerth has opted to end it early citing concerns over new First Minister Vaughan Gething as the reason.

A woman who campaigns for justice for those who died unnecessarily during the pandemic has robustly denied that holding Vaughan Gething to account can be construed as motivated by racism.

Anna-Louise Marsh-Rees was responding to a statement issued by the Welsh Labour BAME [Black and Minority Ethnic] Committee, which said: “For so many BAME people in Wales, the last few weeks will have been disturbing, unsettling and yet very familiar.

“In the Welsh media the treatment of Vaughan Gething has gone well beyond what one can reasonably call fair scrutiny … We fully endorse thorough political scrutiny from a free press and from an active political community. However, we feel that this scrutiny in recent weeks has crossed a line between fair examination and racially influenced attitudes and judgements, with a Black person being held to a higher standard.”

Police in a valleys town have been given extra powers to stop youths as young as 10 from causing anti-social behaviour this weekend. The decision follows recent incidents in the area, including alleged underage drinking, which have caused concern for residents.

The dispersal order, which is granted under the Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014, will apply to those aged 10 and over and is in place until 8pm on Sunday, May 19.

The order covers Treorchy cricket club grounds and associated areas of the park, Treorchy rugby ground, A4061 High Street from the junction of Chapel Street up to the junction of Cemetery Road. It also includes Station Road from High Street to Park Crescent.

Campaigners who believe a new £835m cancer centre for south Wales is being built in the wrong place have called for a public inquiry into First Minister Vaughan Gething’s involvement in the project.

Work on the new Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff is going ahead in the city’s Whitchurch district despite massive opposition from clinicians, neighbouring residents and environmentalists.

Mr Gething has been involved at key stages as plans for the centre progressed, first as Health Minister, then as Economy Minister, and finally as First Minister. He has recently committed huge amounts of public money to the construction of the centre on the site of a much loved green space called the Northern Meadows.

An emergency motion to “provide whatever support is required” for a campaign to stop cuts and redundancies to the Welsh National Opera (WNO) chorus passed unanimously today (19 May) at the Equity conference.

The motion also reiterated that the performing arts trade union “will not accept compulsory redundancies, or the desire by WNO management to have the flexibility of a full-time contract with all the precarity of an unsustainable cut to their basic earnings.”

WNO has signalled it intends to put revised contract proposals on the table for those in the chorus who are members of Equity, the performing arts and entertainment trade union.

The union had previously said it was open to the process and believed that despite the challenging financial situation the company faces, they would protect the chorus as an integral part of what WNO describe as the “musical and artistic backbone of Welsh National Opera”.

The idea that independence for Wales or Scotland must be mandated by a referendum has gained currency and become most people’s assumption, but there’s no legal or historical basis for it. If we want independence, growing the economy matters far more than winning a referendum.

In 1956, Malta voted for full integration into the UK by a margin of 77% to 23%; eight years later it voted for full independence by 54% to 46%. We can’t guarantee the same outcome in Scotland.

When I became leader of Plaid Cymru in June of last year I was clear that I wanted my party to be a home for everyone who shares the ambition of creating a fairer, greener, more prosperous society.

I said that even in my formative years, I had come to understand that our nation wasn’t what it could be. That our voice was muffled, our ambitions held back, our aspirations ignored, and I came to see that Plaid Cymru was the beacon of hope in all of this – the embodiment to me of our determination to be a nation, to demand a distinct voice, to remove the shackles that stunted our potential and growth.

The past year has cemented those thoughts and galvanised a determination within me to set out a different vision for Wales.

Yesterday, I along with elected colleagues and the ruling Plaid Cymru executive came to a decision to end the Co-operation Agreement with the Labour Welsh Government.

Campaigners have warned that the future of policies that affect the Welsh language are “at stake” following the collapse of the Co-operation Agreement between Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Government on Friday.

Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth ended the three-year deal, which was due to expire in December, with immediate effect.

He cited concerns over First Minister Vaughan Gething’s election campaign finances as a factor, claiming the receipt of £200,000 from a company convicted of environmental offences “demonstrates a significant lack of judgment”.

He’s one of Port Talbot’s favourite sons and now he’s been celebrated in his hometown.

A mural by one of Wales’ leading street artists Jenks has appeared in Bridge Street in the town centre.

The striking artwork in the street art capital of Wales brilliantly captures the Hollywood star in his later yeas and features one of his most famous quotes: ‘I love life because what more is there?’

Writing on his Facebook page artist Jenks wrote: “Fancied painting this one for a while and seeing Silence of the Lambs on TV the other night has triggered this. He is alocal legend and I wanted to see what a challenge the face complexion would be. Sir Anthony Hopkins In Bridge Street, Port Talbot.”

Plaid Cymru has ended its co-operation agreement with the Welsh Labour government with immediate effect, party leader Rhun ap Iorwerth has said.

He cited concerns over First Minister Vaughan Gething’s election campaign finances as a factor, claiming the receipt of £200,000 from a company convicted of environmental offences “demonstrates a significant lack of judgment”.

Mr ap Iorweth also said he was worried about the First Minister’s decision to sack his minister for social partnership, Hannah Blythyn, following the leak of a phone message to the media which she insisted she was not behind.

It is "odds on" that a no-confidence motion to force the first minister's resignation, will be brought forward by opposition members in the Senedd following recent events, the Conservative Senedd leader has said.

The comments, by Andrew RT Davies, were in response to Vaughan Gething's sacking of a minister on Thursday alleging she leaked text messages to the media, which she denies.

It also follows months of turmoil in Welsh Labour over controversial donations to Mr Gething's leadership campaign.

Mr Davies said his party "will have conversations with other parties" in Cardiff Bay to see the level of support for a no-confidence motion.

Let’s picture the late 1390s and early 1400s, the years when Owain Glyndŵr was transformed from loyal subject of the English crown to rebel Prince of Wales. People travelled. In Glyndŵr’s time knights, yeomen, and peasants joined crusades against the Baltic pagans, or the Turks threatening Hungary’s borders. Others may have visited the Muslim Emirate of Granada, or the imperial Roman capital of Constantinople.

The world then was far more connected than we often realise – and the centre of wealth and power was Asia. Europe was in decline. By Glyndŵr’s time, the crusader kingdoms in the Holy Land had long since fallen. The thousand-year reign of Constantinople’s Christian emperors would soon be ended by the Ottoman Turks.

In our time, we may succeed where Glyndŵr failed: we may see Cymru become an independent sovereign state. If we do, we will join an international system with parallels to that of his time.

The sacking of Hannah Blythyn as a minister brings closer the tipping point when the Labour Party accepts that keeping Vaughan Gething in office is more damaging than getting rid of him, a senior Welsh Labour source has told us.

Ms Blythyn’s dismissal – for allegedly leaking iMessages to NationCymru that had been deleted by Mr Gething from a ministerial group chat – has created further turmoil within the Senedd Labour group, already in disarray following our earlier revelation that he accepted donations totalling £200k from a businessman convicted of environmental pollution offences.