University leaders agreed to cooperate with proposals for "fewer but stronger" universities in Wales. Higher Education Wales also said that mergers should be a matter for the universities governing bodies to decide. The Welsh Government welcomed HEW's "positive statement".
The Welsh Government is understood to be examining proposals to close four smaller regional offices around Wales. The offices earmarked for closure are believed to be in Newtown,...
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Sunday, 31 July 2011
Wednesday, 27 July 2011
Tunnel Vision - Renewed calls for an M4 Newport bypass
The severity of yesterday's fire shouldn't be underestimated,
however the M4 bypass plan refuses to die.
(Pic : BBC Wales)
For the second time this year, the Brynglas tunnels closed due to a vehicle fire, causing massive disruption in and around Newport and beyond. Yesterday's fire seemed to be far more serious than...
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
Where now for Welsh Rugby League?
Today's (somewhat shocking) announcement of Crusaders withdrawal from Super League won't have surprised those from the M62 corridor who predicted that expanding the top-flight game outside of their "heartland" would be unviable. There'll be plenty of "I told you so's" , though I hope there isn't any schadenfreude.
Crusaders' story sums up the wider Welsh one to a certain extent: impatience, administrative incompetence, not getting the basics...
Sunday, 24 July 2011
The lack of perspective that's crushing Wales
One of the most frustrating things about Wales, is the hyperbole, hysteria and lack of perspective with regard everyday controversies. I can understand media outlets need to make things more dramatic than they are to get attention, but it's incredibly annoying - albeit sometimes hilarious.
Perhaps it's because not a lot...
Saturday, 23 July 2011
Why is everyone avoiding the "T-Word"?
Ties between Wales and Norway go back a long way (Photo:BBC)
Norway is a nation Wales should seek to emulate in many ways.
It has some of the highest standards of living in the World and is near the top of nearly every single measurement of prosperity, freedom and happiness. The careful management of their natural resources...
Wednesday, 20 July 2011
Is Cardiff's housing land shortage harming the economy?
The Western Mail reports that the House Builders Federation Wales believes a shortage of housing land in and around Cardiff is stunting the economy of south east Wales.
The Welsh Government's Joint Housing Land Availability Study apparantly shows that Cardiff has just 2.2 years supply of land for housing available based on previous build rates. Local authorities are supposed to have at least 5 years available.
In neighbouring authorities the situation...
Sunday, 17 July 2011
Welsh Government's Legislative Programme
This week, the First Minister outlined the Welsh Government's legislative programme in more detail for the coming Assembly term in a statement to the Assembly (available here at Click on Wales). In my last post on this a few weeks ago, I was critical of the lack of ambition shown. Although I haven't greatly changed my stance...
Thursday, 14 July 2011
Andrew RT Davies - Right choice for opposition leader
It's been a "well hidden" contest, but the results are finally in. Andrew RT Davies is the new leader of the Welsh Conservatives, beating Nick Ramsey by 53.1% to 46.7% on a 49% turnout.
There have been suggestions that this result would please Carwyn Jones more than anyone else. It's unlikely that Plaid Cymru would ever go into a rainbow coalition in the future with a party led by - as Andrew Davies describes himself - a "proud unionist". I...
Monday, 11 July 2011
The Banana Kingdom - NOTW scandal exposes UK's uncomfortable truths
It's said there are "worse revelations on the way" in the ongoing News of the World scandal, which beggars belief. This is what could be described as a "moral event horizon". The bottom of barrels haven't just been scraped, they've been punched through into the stinking mulch underneath.
The great irony in all this, is that a 168-year old newspaper's closure has been sped-up by the cynicism it - and other tabloids - have fermented in the "British"...
Thursday, 7 July 2011
Poverty of ambition hurts Wales most
Some more feel-good news today from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The Welsh Government's long-held target to eradicate child poverty by 2020 is going to be missed spectacularly if the rate doesn't fall at least four times as fast over the next ten years as it has over the last ten.
In its research, entitled "Monitoring poverty and social exclusion in Wales 2011", the findings conclude that:
Half of children in poverty in Wales belong to working...
