Hiraeth - Welsh Politics

Completing our mini-series looking at the cases for and against the development of new nuclear power generation facilities in Wales, we are joined in this podcast by Mabon ap Gwynfor, Member of the Senedd for Dwyfor Meirionnydd and author of new book 'Going Nuclear'. Mabon is a Plaid Cymru MS for a constituency that has a history of nuclear power, with the legendary Trawsfynydd site in its footpri...

The Hiraeth team gather for our regular round up of the most interesting stories in Wales and Welsh politics. This month, the Welsh Labour leadership campaign continues to dominate discussions in Wales but we discuss whether there is much to learn from events so far. We touch on the distressing news from Port Talbot about the future of steelmaking in the town, the imperfections of the Welsh Govern...

This is the first of a two-part series looking at the cases for and against the development of new nuclear power generators in Wales. We are joined to discuss this question by Monmouthshire County Councillor Rachel Garrick, who has worked in the nuclear and electrical distribution industries for 25 years. In this first pod, we discuss the merits of new nuclear generation in Wales, the economic and...

At the Newport Rising Festival this year, we were inspired by the story of the Chartist march on Newport in 1839 and their six-point People's Charter to think about the reforms being made to our national democracy in 2024 via the Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill. Steered by our own Matthew Hexter, our guests discuss the proposed reforms to parliament framed through the six points of the P...

It has been an eventful year in Wales, the UK, and further afield and we all rely on journalists, newsgathering teams, and publishers to create and share news with us. But how healthy is the industry? Are commercial and public service news teams serving up the news in the right way to reach audiences across the nation? Are the business models behind news desks sustainable in their current form? An...

Celebrating its tenth year of work in the field of Welsh policy development this year is the Welsh Centre for Public Policy, a Cardiff-based research centre set up to provide independent advice and high quality evidence to policy-makers and government at every level. Primarily focussed on three key research strands (Tackling Inequalities, Environment and net zero, and Community Wellbeing), and is...

Despite ongoing and deepening issues in public services in Wales, there is only one big story in Welsh politics this week, that being the surprise (or not, discuss...) announcement of Prif Weinidog Mark Drakeford's intention to stand down as Welsh Labour leader and leader of the Welsh Government in March next year. We bring together our top Welsh Labour whisperers to discuss Prof. Drakeford's poli...

The last month has been a very difficult one for politics and policy optimists, with an apparently unrelenting series of bad news stories at local, national, and union level. Your Hiraeth hosts try and navigate the news and pick out some of the most interesting stories from a Welsh perspective. Among other things we cover: Simmering tensions behind the scenes as Welsh Labour gear up for a union-wi...

Barely a week has passed in 2023 without a bad news story about water. Whether it has been flooding, leakage, company debt, failing infrastructure, pollution at sea, or pollution in rivers, it's basically been bad news the whole way. With all that in mind, a deep dive into Welsh water might not seem like the most appealing prospect but that's exactly what we are going to do with this podcast. Our...

There is something different about this week's pod. We're delighted to hand over the reigns to a guest panel to mark the recent women's takeover of the Senedd, organised by the Women's Equality Network Wales. So this week we discuss that women's takeover of the national parliament and many of the issues raised, including questions of access, representation, and the sad passing of Prof. Terry Rees,...

As one of the new intake of Welsh parliamentarians who were elected in the 2021 election, Sam Rowlands MS represents a new generation of Welsh Conservatives in the Senedd and combines his role as regional MS for North Wales with a shadow ministerial brief of local government and the role of policy director for the party. In our first interview with Sam, we discuss everything from the importance of...

For some it’s a sign of Wales leading the way on the international stage, making us the first country in the world to legislate to consider the wellbeing of future generations at all tiers of government. For others it can be seen as a well-intentioned idea that has yet to really deliver or challenge the status quo. As the term of first incumbent of the role, Sophie Howe, has finished and her succe...

We are a month into a new political season like no other. There has been an enormously popular petition against legislation that previously appeared to have wide cross-party support, and resultantly Wales may now be more visible than ever in the next UK-wide election. It has also challenged the concept of democratic legitimacy in our representative democracy as the minister responsible found himse...

Recorded during Adult Learners’ Week, the campaign that seeks to promote learning opportunities for everyone post-compulsory education, we take a deep dive into the state of life-long learning in Wales. We discuss the Welsh Government's recent 'Tertiary Education and Research Act' and the impact it will have on the tertiary education sector. We also discuss the role and priorities for skills train...

As the new parliamentary term begins, we sit down with leader of the Plaid Cymru group in Westminster, Liz Saville Roberts MP to discuss the realities of operating in Westminster as one of the smaller parties, cross-party working, and how well scrutiny of law and government affecting Wales can (or can’t) be done in the union parliament. We also cover the new political map of Wales, the priorities...

Dyma ein podlediad Cymraeg cyntaf erioed, recordiwyd yn fyw ar faes yr Eisteddfod ym Moduan. This is our first ever Welsh language podcast, recorded live at the National Eisteddfod in Boduan. Ysbrydolwyd gan y cerdd ‘Hon’ gan T H Parry Williams ac y llinell enwog ‘Beth yw ots gennyf i am Gymru?’ rydyn ni’n gofyn - ar ôl bron chwarter canrif o ddatganoli a 99 mlynedd o’i bodolaeth - beth yw ots gen...

Recorded live at the 2023 Royal Welsh Show, in partnership with the Farmers' Union of Wales, this podcast takes a look at the challenges facing Wales's agricultural communities. We discuss the UK Government's handling of Brexit, the first tranche of trade deals it signed (in haste) with New Zealand and Australia, the voice of Wales in negotiations, the Welsh Government's farming support scheme (in...

Recorded live from the Senedd (the Welsh Parliament) and sponsored by Mark Drakeford MS in the week that the NHSs of the UK celebrate their 75th anniversary, we partnered with Cardiff University’s Wales Governance Centre to organise a live event to mark the publication of Dr Nye Davies’s new book ‘This is My Truth: Aneurin Bevan in Tribune’, which collates the various contributions this totemic fi...

Just a couple of months ago it looked like the Senedd Member for Ynys Môn, Rhun ap Iorwerth, could be leaving the Welsh Parliament and seeking to dislodge Virginia Crosbie to be the island’s MP in the union parliament in Westminster in 2024. However, in light of the revelations disclosed in Plaid Cymru’s ‘Prosiect Pawb’ report into allegations of bullying, sexual harassment, and misogyny, a vacanc...

As you will have likely heard, the NHS in Wales (and elsewhere across the union) is celebrating its 75th birthday this week. For all the phenomenal work its staff have done over the years and the challenges it has faced, there are those beginning to question whether it's time to retire this institution and consider replacing it with a different model. Others continue to champion its foundational p...

One of our favourite guests return for this podcast where we review the gloomy economic news about inflation and interest rate rises in the UK. Professor Danny Blanchflower is a familiar name to many in economics and to many in Wales in particular, with his longstanding connections to Cardiff. As well as his role at Dartmouth College, he is also known for his time on the Bank of England's Monetary...

After a short break, we are back to catch up on the latest political news from Wales and the UK. There has been a lot! We cover the Plaid Cymru leadership non-election, the fallout of the Westminster chaos of the last few weeks, the suggestions of a 'purge of the left' in UK Labour and the Welsh Liberal Democrat prospects in the borderlands of Powys. We also touch on some of the cultural news of t...

Elected as Plaid Cymru’s youngest ever MP, Ben Lake has represented the seat of Ceredigion in the Westminster parliament since 2017. Despite his relatively short career, he has quickly established himself as a respected spokesperson on a number of key issues such as rural affairs, education, and the constitution against the background of the ‘Brexit Wars’ and the COVID-19 pandemic. In this intervi...

On the pod, we’ve often lamented the lack of coverage of the politics and peoples of the North-East or the border communities in our national media and public discourse. Thankfully the same thing can’t be said for the literary community, where poets and authors are drawn to, and from, these places on the edge, in between, and overlapping the places where Wales and England meet. As perhaps our most...

Town Centre regeneration has been a major part of the Welsh Government remit throughout devolution, a seemingly never ending cycle of policies, action plans and strategies. While there have been some successes and some highlights, the overall picture continues to be one of ongoing gradual decline. Wales is not alone in this challenge but with our long history of regeneration projects, do we have t...