Language and culture Wales’ big attractions
SOME years ago I wrote an article for Visit Wales magazine, an excellent and wellreceived publication which the Welsh Government, in its wisdom, chose to discontinue on the grounds of cost.
I opened by writing “Crossing the border into Wales, you immediately experience the sense of having arrived somewhere different. Croeso i Gymru proclaims a large sign with the Welsh Dragon symbol – Welcome to Wales.”
Lonely Planet, the world travel guide, enthused about the Wales Coast Path when it opened in 2012: “What a wonderful thing: to walk the entire length of a country coastline, to trace its every nook, cranny, cliff face and estuary. How better to appreciate the shape – and soul – of a nation.”
The Welsh Government, believing it could do a better job from within, abolished the Wales Tourist Board, a body with a proven record of bringing visitors to Wales. The WTB was subsumed, its promotional role left to civil servants.
Destructive nationalist elements and a lack of drive have now conspired to put Wales at a disadvantage in relation to the rest of the UK when it comes to attracting tourists, a key component of the Welsh economy. At times, it almost seems that the Welsh Government is antitourism, making it more and more difficult with its transport policies to make Wales an easy country to visit. A Cosa Nostra (“our thing”) element prevails in some quarters.
It was therefore refreshing to read (Echo, June 16) the views of Zip World Tower entrepreneur Sean Taylor, and others, about the perceived weakness of the Welsh brand. He suggests more use of Cymru, rather than the English version, and putting an emphasis on the Welsh language. “The language needs to be weaponised as an advantage, not a threat,” he said . ... “our international and English visitors love the use of the Welsh language. They love it, they embrace it.” This, and an understanding and appreciation of Welsh culture and history, is precisely what I have advocated for many years.
Peter Duncan
Caerphilly
Who’s been paying for the bin bags?
DOES Cardiff really need the number of councillors it has? After all, it would seem they can’t even afford a photocopier.
On Wednesday the people of Cathays and Roath received letters from the council informing us of changes being made to household waste collections.
The letter came from, not Cardiff, not even Wales, no, it seems the nearest place Cardiff council could find a photocopier is Wakefield.
The letter informs us that from July, ratepayers in these areas will need to purchase bags for household waste. The letter informs us that the council has been providing us with free bags. It would seem that I, along with many other ratepayers, was wrong to assume that we were paying for them via the rates. So I think it’s time for the council to come clean and let us know who the mystery benefactor is, so that we can thank them for their generosity.
So if you are or you know who was so generous over these years please let the people of Cathays and Roath know, maybe they deserve an award.
With so many responsibilities given away to private or not-forprofit groups and others being closed altogether, we should see a reduction in those who used to oversee these functions.
If the council gives away any more of their functions, we could be in danger of having more councillors than employees.
Mr Francis Spragg Cathays, Cardiff
At times, it almost seems that the Welsh Government is anti-tourism...
Fetal sentience is worth considering
J BUCKE (“Animal sentience is a victory all round”, Echo letters, June 16) masterfully outlines reasons for taking greater account of animal suffering.
The Journal of Medical Ethics has a free online article (“Reconsidering fetal pain” by Derbyshire and Bockmann) asking if there might be fetal sentience from as early as 12 weeks. Is the UK abortion limit of 24 weeks barbaric at a number of levels?
I saw a shop stocking an ornamental frame for putting a baby’s first scan into. The standard UK NHS dating scan is taken at around 12 weeks and an image like this might be kept for posterity by parents or grandparents.
It’s great to remember animal suffering, but do we need to think about maternal and infant suffering in abortion?
The BBC website has a harrowing three-minute Radio 4 Woman’s Hour (May 4) interview with the journalist Anne Robinson, which considered what we might label “abortion regret”.
JT Hardy
Belfast
Peter Duncan Caerphilly
Why GP slots are thin on the ground
THE reason why I can’t see a GP or get a hospital appointment is the same reason as why this Westminster government failed to secure our borders after their promise to “take back control on immigration and asylum” made during Brexit talks.
It goes back 12 years, when George Osborne imposed reckless austerity on the UK and strangled growth through spending cuts and tax rises in order to help businesses and banks restore the rate of profit. The result was a decline in access to quality of care, leaving GPs struggling and NHS staff shortages, as well as police shortages.
Reports leaked reveal around 880 UK border officers, around 10%, have also been cut since 2010. Newly released statistics reveal that 48,540 asylum claims were made in 2021, the highest in two decades, with a further 7,955 close dependents. The case numbers awaiting decisions rose by 30,000 to 85,257, 81,978 are still waiting for a final decision. In 2012 there was a backlog of 12,435 cases, this rose to 29,016 by 2019, 43,416 by 2020 and now 85,257 of asylum claims backlogs in 2022.
Further, the Home Office cannot say how many asylum interviews took place last year as these are recorded on paper and not an IT database.
Covid didn’t help, particularly regarding a decade of NHS staff cuts, including border force staff sicknesses, but even before Covid
there was mismanagement by the Westminster government which saw 11 pandemic preparedness exercises carried out by the NHS between 2015 and 2019 testing readiness to cope with Middle East
Respiratory syndrome (MERS), a coronavirus, and no government action taken.
All this has been the true cost British people have to pay for the last two decades of government mismanagement and why I can’t get a GP appointment.
David Wood
Swansea