We should showcase our great Welsh exports
I’VE often admired the way that the Irish manage to spread their culture around the world and calling into EPIC, the Irish Emigration Museum, I saw a celebration of Irish emigres (including to Britain).
It combined with a genealogy centre that provided (for a cost) a chance to use a computer to search various ancestry records and also a meeting with a genealogist.
The areas covered included reasons for leaving (belief, hunger, conflict, state) and areas of influence (music and dance, infamy, story telling, sport, invention, eating and drinking).
The result, a deep respect for the Irish as a nation.
I wasn’t aware for example that the “Flight of the Wild Geese” led to Irishmen founding a large number of reputed wineries in France such as Hennessey.
Why not a similar centre in Wales, where we can showcase our exports including John Charles, Jack Daniels (of Whiskey fame), Julia Gillard (ex-Prime Minster of Australia), Kylie Minogue...
Hywel Williams Penylan, Cardiff
Windsor memory
DURING Prince Harry and Meghan’s four-day tour of New Zealand I just could not remember who she reminded me of now with her new pinned-back hair-style. Then it came to me: she reminded me of – oh, so long ago – Mrs Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor!
Barbara MacArthur Cathays, Cardiff
It will be worth less next year
DAVID Gorton wants Nigel Farage to be on the new 50p Brexit coin (Echo letters, November 2).
Next year and after Brexit the 50p coin will be worth 40p. Just like Ukip the coin will be worth less next year.
Andrew Nutt Bargoed
Removal of tolls is bad news for many
PEOPLE seem to think that the removal of the Severn Bridge tolls will bring many new jobs to south Wales. It won’t.
The history of the last 250 years has repeatedly shown what happens when two adjacent regions become more closely linked.
If one is both richer and more centrally located, then it will gain at the expense of the other.
A recent example is the closure of the large creameries at Carmarthen, Llangadog, Whitland, etc.
Now most west Wales milk is processed in England (and some comes back to homes within sight of the farms it left two days and 300 miles before).
Most of south Wales will then be within the Bristol orbit; distribution jobs will disappear as it will be increasingly serviced from the Bristol side. Retail jobs will go as shoppers flock to Bristol. Newport, Abergavenny, Monmouth and Chepstow will, in effect, become outlying suburbs of Bristol.
There will be other unfortunate results. House prices in Monmouthshire will spiral out of reach for local people (that process is already well
John Charles, Jack Daniels, Julia Gillard, Kylie Minogue... Hywel Williams Penylan, Cardiff
under way). Local roads, already congested, will be unable to cope with the extra traffic; journey times will lengthen, and there’ll be more air pollution. More road traffic accidents means more strain on the local hospitals. The Great Western Railway will lose at least 10% of its passenger income through the Severn Tunnel. Rail passengers will be paying some of the great expense of maintaining the bridge, as well as the tunnel.
So overall, while some toll reduction would be welcome, complete removal is not all gain for the motorist, and bad news for everyone else in South Wales. David Gwyn Watts Milford Haven
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