Putting rural affairs in spotlight
THIS week at Executive Board, councillor Cefin Campbell launched a strategy he has been working on for some time – an overarching plan to regenerate our rural communities.
The Moving Forward in Rural Carmarthenshire plan is a comprehensive look at the issues facing our rural communities, and a focus on what we need to do to ensure we support these towns and villages to sustain and thrive.
Carmarthenshire is unique in that we have several big urban settlements and a beautiful coastline that stretches for miles, but most of our county is rural, and home to more than 60% of our population.
That’s why we were the first local authority in Wales to dedicate an executive board member to rural affairs – it’s something that piqued the interest of the Welsh Government, and I know they are watching closely at what we are doing here in Carmarthenshire.
The challenges we face are many, from the thousands of young people who leave the county to pursue jobs elsewhere, to protecting the Welsh language, to the unpredictability of Brexit.
Mr Campbell has headed a cross party group of councillors, supported by a strong team of officers, to shine a spotlight on these issues and ensure that we do everything in our power to support our rural areas to grow, to thrive, and to become self-sustaining – communities that offer opportunities for all.
CIT’S been an unusual week (for a start, Monday wasn’t a bank holiday!) because I found myself saying “I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous in all my life” twice in as many days.
So, on the second day I said it, I fibbed, because I had heard something so ridiculous in all my life the previous day.
That’s when ITV’s female Head of Comedy (who knew they needed one?) announced that for too many years, the majority of successful sitcoms and comedy dramas had been written by men.
With immediate effect, all comedy scripts written for ITV will be divided 50-50 between male and female writers.
Yes, we’ve had many brilliant male writers like Galton and Simpson; The Pythons; Muir and Norden; Croft and Perry; and the great John Sullivan.
But we’ve also been blessed with many great female comedy writers – including Carla Lane; French and Saunders; Victoria Wood; and Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
If ITV commission comedy scripts based on the writer’s gender rather than whether he/she is capable of creating memorable characters and brilliantly funny lines – and maintaining that quality over many years – what does the future hold for ITV comedy?
Then, the following day, I read an article by writer Daisy
Goodwin who blamed the BBC’s Saturday night repeats of “Dad’s Army” for helping to promote Brexit! Her reasoning?
That the 50-year old sitcom portrayed a “cosy view” of Britain defending itself from foreign invasion.
What’s “cosy” about bombs dropping on your house?
I avoid commenting on Brexit in my articles because it’s very comfortable up here on the fence – and I love the smell of creosote.
But does Ms Goodwin, who created and wrote the ITV series Victoria, really believe that the 17.4 million people who voted for Brexit were influenced by the tiny audience of 2 million who tune into the Dad’s Army repeats?
Answers on a postcard please. Not to me. To the Head of ITV Comedy . . .