Wales (Cymru)

​Ask someone, “What is defence?” They’ll probably say something along the lines of it being the act of protecting oneself, another person, or some cherished object.

Defending a nation encompasses all of these aspects. As Cymru moves ever closer to regaining its complete independence from the imperial project of the UK, sovereigntists need to begin to address what our nation’s defence forces may look like and how to shape them.

Book-ish in Crickhowell has been crowned Independent Bookshop of the Year at The British Book Awards 2024, held in London last night.

This is the second time Book-ish has scooped the £5,000 award, which is sponsored by Gardners, having previously won in 2020.

Following on from Griffin Books in Penarth’s victory last year, Book-ish’s success means a Welsh bookshop has been declared the best in the UK and Ireland for two years in a row.

Book-ish fought off competition from eight other regional and country winners, selected from a bumper list of 77 finalists from across the UK and Ireland.

The Welsh Government has confirmed that it does not hold a record of the ministerial group chat messages created during the Covid-19 crisis that Vaughan Gething told colleagues he was deleting – suggesting that he did in fact delete them.

This intensifies pressure on the beleaguered First Minister, who is already reeling from double scandals – firstly from NationCymru’s revelation that he accepted donations totalling £200,000 for his Welsh Labour leadership campaign from a company owned by businessman David Neal, who received two suspended prison sentences for environmental pollution; and secondly because he mislead the UK Covid Inquiry by deleting messages, contrary to what he had said in evidence to it.

On May 7 we published a message from a screenshot leaked to us dated August 17 2020 in which Mr Gething – who was Health Minister at the time – wrote: “”I’m deleting the messages in this group. They can be captured in an FOI [freedom of information request] and I think we are all in the right place on the choice being made.”

We have a new Cabinet Secretary in post with responsibility for education, and today, Lynne Neagle will set out her priorities in a statement to the Senedd.

She will have a lot to cover: a widening attainment gap between Wales’s richest and poorest children; poor attendance rates; a teaching workforce crisis; an increase in verbal and physical violence in schools; problems with the rollout of reforms to Additional Learning Needs provision and the curriculum; and the dire financial situation of our schools as well as our further and higher education institutions.

Something needs to change, and fast. After all, our children and young people deserve an education that provides them with the tools they need for their future. And our workforce and institutions that provide that education need to be supported to deliver.

In recent months, we’ve seen headline after headline criticising the state of education in Wales.

The UK Government has faced calls to take over the running of HMP Parc from private firm G4S, amid concerns over a spate of deaths.

Nine adults have died at HMP Parc in Bridgend, South Wales, since the end of February, with four deaths so far linked to substance misuse and another potentially so.

Justice minister Edward Argar argued the contract “continues to perform well” although he acknowledged there is “more to do”.

G4S has managed the establishment since it opened in 1997 and it received a 10-year contract to continue operating it in 2022.

Councillors in Gwynedd have raised concerns over “unacceptable” planned cuts to an “immensely important” Welsh railway line. They say the Cambrian Coast line provides an important service for locals accessing shops, jobs, and services, and is a popular route for tourists.

In April, Transport for Wales announced a “future timetable review”, stating it would be removing four services between Machynlleth and Pwllheli (two in each direction). Two further services would be re-timed and run between March and December 2024. A mooted hourly service would only run between Aberystwyth and Shrewsbury from May to September, beginning in May 2026.

Actor Iwan Rheon has said that Wales does not need a prince after playing the role of Prince William in a TV show.

The Game of Thrones star said he agrees with actor Michael Sheen that the title should be discontinued.

Iwan Rheon took on the role of Prince William in the HBO animated comedy series The Prince, however he told the Telegraph newspaper last year that he felt no closer to the royal family for having done so.

Increasing the number of Senedd members is a "full stop" that will future proof Welsh devolution for the next 100 years, according to its presiding officer.

Members of the Senedd (MSs) voted last week to increase their numbers from 60 to 96 from the next Welsh election, in 2026.

Elin Jones said the reforms which were backed by a cross-party majority of MSs but opposed by the Conservatives, made the Senedd a "fit for purpose" parliament, even if Wales were to become independent.

Speaking to the BBC Walescast podcast, Ms Jones said the vote, which coincided with the 25th anniversary of the first elections to Cardiff Bay, was "hugely significant - and a long time in coming".

Mind Cymru has launched a new drive to highlight the increasing mental health needs of young people in Wales, to mark Mental Health Awareness Week.

Figures show a marked increase in the prevalence of “anxiety” as a presenting issue for counselling in Welsh secondary schools – from 12% in 2015/2016 to 46% in 2022/23.

Monday (May 13) marks the beginning of Mental Health Awareness Week.

Wales has become the first UK nation to launch in the metaverse, giving virtual visitors from across the world a taste of what they can discover here for real.

The immersive experience has been created by Visit Wales to inspire future tourists by showcasing the range of experiences, places and attractions available to explore across Wales in real life.

The number and size of events that Cardiff will have to deal with this summer is “exceptional”, a council official has said.

Head of transport at Cardiff Council, Claire Moggridge, made her comments at a council environmental scrutiny committee meeting on Thursday, May 9, where members were given an insight into how the city is kept moving when major events take place.

Ms Moggridge said this year was probably one of the busiest years for events in the city in her 20 years of working on events at the council.

Over the past few years, crowds have flocked to the city to watch major acts, like Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, and Beyonce.

A Conservative cabinet minister has been accused of breaching the ministerial code after appearing to use his Government office in Whitehall to film an anti-Labour video he then posted on social media.

Welsh Secretary David TC Davies appears in a short film which was shared on X, formerly Twitter, last week.

In it he speaks about plans to expand the size of the Welsh Senedd and highlights the Welsh Conservative Party’s opposition to such a move.

It’s been 25 years since devolution began and self-government returned to Wales. Devolution started with the Welsh Assembly and developed into Wales having its own national parliament, which will be comparable in scale to those of similar-sized countries from 2026 onwards, when it expands to 96 members. Wales took an important step on the road to becoming a sovereign state.

That goal is one of the reasons Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925. But the party’s aims have evolved: the focus was on the Welsh language at first, more so than home rule. Many associate Plaid Cymru with the independence movement, but it was long ambivalent on the issue, and campaigned for the UK to leave the Common Market in 1975. By 2014 the party’s constitution included the aim of securing Welsh independence via a referendum, and it now wants a free Wales to rejoin the EU. Yet its longstanding ambivalence still casts shadows.

David Roberts is an accountant from Port Talbot who began learning Welsh after moving to Birmingham for his studies and missing the ‘Welshness’ of his surroundings.

Having taken night classes for a couple of years, and worked through books and courses with nothing to show at the end of it, he often found himself giving up, but always promising to give it one more go, never actually imagining that he would be confident or proficient enough to speak the language.

But recently, his determination has helped him break through any setbacks and confidence issues he had and he’s back in the saddle and more passionate than ever – and he’s also using his Welsh out in the wild where it belongs.

A campaign aimed at persuading Muslims and others not to vote for Tory or Labour general election candidates who have backed Israel’s invasion of Gaza is having its Welsh launch on Saturday May 11.

The Muslim Vote campaign is calling for candidates to support policies including freedom for Palestine; an end to Islamophobia and discrimination across healthcare, education, media, employment, justice and political systems; and major increases in funding to the NHS, housing and economic regeneration in the poorest constituencies in the UK.

The event, entitled Be the Change We Need, will begin at 5pm in the Temple of Peace in Cathays Park,

Abdul-Azim Ahmed, Secretary General of Muslim Council Wales, said: “Anyone with a heart, Muslim or not, will have been horrified at Israel’s most recent onslaught against Gaza, one which continues to this day. Horrifying too is the defence some politicians have put forward for Israel’s actions, and the reluctance to call – at a bare minimum – for a ceasefire.

It’s the record label that was at the forefront of the grunge movement – releasing peerless era-defining records from the likes of Nirvana, Mudhoney and Soundgarden.

Sub Pop was founded by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman in 1988 – the independent record label based in Seattle.

The label is often associated with ‘grunge’ but in later years has released records from such well-known US artists as Sebadoh, Sunny Day Real Estate, The Shins, Iron and Wine, The Postal Service, Band of Horses, Fleet Foxes, Sleater-Kinney, Beach House, and Father John Misty.

Now you can add to that impressive history and roster The Bug Club – from Caldicot, who as you can see below are chuffed to bits to sign to one of world’s most iconic labels in a worldwide deal which will see the label release new music from the band in 2024 and beyond.

The Cabinet Secretary for North Wales and Transport is urging residents to contact their local councils to let them know which roads should be exempted from the default 20mph introduced last September.

Mr Skates is urging people from across Wales to give their feedback to local authorities to let them know which roads should be exempted so that 20mph is better targeted.

Information on how people can get involved is now available on the Welsh Government website.

Ken Skates has been visiting Buckley today ( 10 May) to get to feedback from local councillors about the feeling about the 20mph limit in and around the town.

In a recent article, Jeremy Brookman argued that Cymru should join NATO. And several articles have been published that attempt to identify the military resources Cymru should have on the basis of comparison to other small European nations.

Such assertions are, in my view, premature and misguided. As Carl von Clausewitz famously observed, war is a tool used to achieve national goals once diplomatic methods have failed. We should plan for an independent Cymru on that basis.

It has been over four years since the coronavirus pandemic first resulted in Wales going into lockdown. A year into the pandemic, and as the vaccine started to roll out, it became evident that while we could beat the pandemic, the virus would be with us for years to come.

Since then, Covid has been treated as a seasonal virus, and often peaks around the same time as the winter flu virus. In March, it appeared that the winter peak had passed, with cases in Welsh hospitals drastically falling.

However, as we enter the month of May, cases in hospitals appear to be on the rise again. In the most recent data published by Public Health Wales, 53 people were admitted to hospital with coronavirus in the seven days up to May 5.

The fate of the Port Talbot steelworks hangs in the balance.

Once regarded as a cornerstone and a beacon of the UK’s industrial prowess, Tata Steel’s ownership now raises serious concerns about the future of the workforce, the environment, and the UK economy.

The recent developments paint a grim picture of muddled thinking: is it really feasible that a UK government investment of £500 million could spell the loss of two-thirds of the workforce, relinquishment of the UK’s sovereign capability in steel production, and a mere transfer of carbon emissions overseas rather than the promised overall reduction.

There is a pretty strong consensus that there is no route out of the housing crisis that doesn’t include building much more social housing, and frankly, much more housing in general.

When head teachers are raising concerns with politicians about their school numbers being significantly impacted by private rental evictions, we should stop and think.

For these children being forced out of their homes and into temporary accommodation, often miles away from their schools, this is a tragedy that could have lifelong consequences. For society as a whole, we are storing up significant problems for the future that could be very expensive to solve.

A singer-songwriter is campaigning for Wales to be allowed to compete at the Eurovision Song Contest.

Sara Davies, from Llandysul in Ceredigion, said it did not "make sense" that Wales was "not allowed to compete as our own nation and that we have to go as part of the UK”.

She said the response to her campaign, Wales4Eurovision, had been "brilliant".

A Eurovision spokesperson said there were "no plans" to change the current arrangement.

The Welsh first minister, Vaughan Gething, has expressed regret over the donations scandal that has beset his first weeks in office but rejected a fresh allegation that he may have committed perjury in statements made to the UK Covid inquiry concerning deleted messages.

In an interview with the Guardian, Gething said it was important not to “get lost” in controversy that drew attention away from the business of running Wales and winning the general election. He vowed to show “resilience” in the face of attacks on him.

Seven weeks into his leadership, Gething continues to face criticism for taking £200,000 from a company whose owner was convicted of environmental crimes, with Labour insiders warning the scandal is critically undermining his authority.

The Senedd will have more politicians and a new voting system from 2026, after the plans cleared their final hurdle in the Welsh Parliament on Wednesday evening.

Senedd members (MSs) voted to increase their numbers from 60 to 96, from the next election to Cardiff Bay.

Welsh government top lawyer Mick Antoniw said it was a chance to "strengthen the very foundations of our parliamentary democracy".

But the legislation was opposed by the Welsh Conservatives - Darren Millar said it was “deeply flawed” and would “only serve to undermine our democracy”.

Serious questions have been raised about multi million pound contracts linking the Welsh Government with Fujitsu following the Post Office scandal.

Issues with the Horizon IT system made by Fujitsu led to hundreds of sub-postmasters being convicted of crimes they didn’t commit including theft, false accounting and fraud.

The Japanese company’s accounting software was eventually found to be faulty in a landmark 2019 court ruling.