Pie in The Sky Vanity Projects – Who Do They Actually Benefit?

Wales has a considerable deficit in medical education and does not train the number of medical practitioners or nurses needed for our country. Why were Swansea Academics and a Carmarthenshire Local Government Civil servant planning to sell medical science degrees to middle east students? Its a kick in the teeth for our own youngsters who cannot even get into a medical or nursing school due to shortage of places. Were the “proceeds” ever likely to be used to expand our own medical and nursing schools or just to line the pockets of others? The police are now involved. Read More

The Argument for Staying In

Rolling Chiltern countryside near High Wycombe, a historic Welsh heartland.

It’s sometimes a good exercise to play ‘devil’s advocate’ and try to find compelling arguments against the position that you hold. From time to time over the last few months, I’ve been trying to think of what the best arguments are for Wales remaining part of the UK. Read More

Has Wales Always Been Poor?

A view of Ruthin painted by Edward Pugh around 1796

It is a myth that Wales has always been a poor country needing subsidies from the rest of the UK. As recently as the 1960s, Wales was subsidising the rest of the UK by paying more in taxes than it received, and the ‘fiscal deficit’ we hear about nowadays is the direct result of UK and Welsh government policies which have impoverished the country. Read More