No substitute for our national newspaper

I’D like to thank you for allowing me to announce to the people of Wales, that our tourist attraction, Cardigan Island Coastal Farm Park, near

Cardigan, belatedly opens for the season on July 20.

It left me reflecting the importance of the Western Mail as the national newspaper of Wales. There is no other daily journal carrying stories and important information from all over Wales. Far too many Welsh people seem to buy a London paper, alongside a Welsh evening paper for their local news.

However, both are hopeless at covering the whole of Wales. I buy the popular Daily Mail, but it is woeful at reporting any stories about Wales... unless they are detrimental! Local Welsh papers are just that... local. They don’t report on all of Wales.

When it comes to valuable information regarding Welsh affairs, especially Welsh Government, business and agriculture, there is no other newspaper that comes even close to the Western Mail.

It has also always been by far the best for comprehensive reporting of Welsh sport, especially rugby union. I remember the enthusiastic journalism of the great JBG Thomas in the Seventies Golden Era. JBG loved that era, especially after witnessing far tougher times over the years.

At 73, I still work, running a farm and Cardigan Island Coastal Farm Park. I would be lost without my daily Western Mail – especially the brilliant letters page with some of its opinionated “regulars” (including myself ).

What a wonderful array of opinion one finds there! Left,right, centre, nationalist, royalist, unionist, private sector, public sector... and sometimes even from the Planet Zog! There are even some who think that static wind turbines produce electricity and solar panels work in the dark – marvellous!

Anyway, I’d like to thank your journalists and information compilers for all their immense hard work in gathering valuable stories and business information from across Wales. The business supplements must take ages to compile.

One whinge: I can never get a Western Mail at Bristol Airport, Leigh Delamere Services or even Magor Services when returning from holiday. Please place it there alongside a large sign: “Western Mail for sale here.” I reckon it would sell well. Your newspaper is well worth supporting, both inside and outside Wales.

Finally, thank goodness I’ll never read my own name in that other important daily service of the Western Mail – the obituary column. (Although some would no doubt love to see it there!)

Lyn James Jenkins Cardigan Island Coastal Farm Park, Cardigan, Ceredigion