Hiraeth - Welsh Politics

A simple introduction on Plaid Cymru's website reads: "In December 2022, Plaid Cymru’s National Executive Committee asked Nerys Evans to chair a working group whose remit it was to understand the culture within the party and issue recommendations on how to lead change." The Prosiect Pawb report, as it has since been named, has been completed and a full summary published. Its conclusions were were...

Although the social security system is not formally devolved to Wales as it is in Northern Ireland, or even partially devolved as it is in Scotland, the Welsh Government and Welsh local authorities are responsible for a huge range of benefits that are delivered locally or where policy is decided nationally in the Senedd. Can the systems and benefits be improved in Wales? Can the complexity of appl...

With the party conference beginning this weekend at the ICC in Newport, discussions about the party's Welsh wing and the relationship between the Senedd group and the UK Parliamentary group are bound to be top of the agenda, an agenda which is pretty full of other big items like the looming UK general election, local elections in England and Northern Ireland, and ongoing turbulence in the UK Gover...

Sarah Dickins and Mark Hutchings are well known faces and voices in households in Wales and across the union after their decades of reporting on economics and Welsh affairs for the BBC. Both have recently put their BBC staff cards away for one last time and are pursuing both old and new interests in the fields of journalism, economics, and sustainability. We speak to Sarah and Mark about the chang...

Wales's transport infrastructure and services are rarely (if ever) renowned for their world-leading design or operation but even by historical standards, the last few years have been notably challenging. However, with a new and energetic deputy minister holding the brief and the pandemic receding into history, is the Welsh Government starting to turn the corner or are the people of Wales condemned...

The Hiraeth team catch up on a busy March, including discussion of the SNP Leadership result and what it means for the unionist and independence campaigns. We also cover the highlights of the Welsh party conference season, including Welsh Labour, Plaid Cymru, and Welsh Lib Dems and discuss whether the cooperation agreement is in trouble. UK Government has delivered both a budget and a Welsh freepo...

Recorded live at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, in this podcast we are joined by screenwriter Roger Williams, actor Dewi Rhys Williams, and former Plaid Cymru Senedd Member Bethan Sayed, to discuss the new film Y Sŵn and the future of broadcasting in Wales more widely. Y Sŵn (trailer here: https://youtu.be/iKgexU9mtgw ) tells the story of the political battle between Welsh language campaigners and...

2007 was the year that everything changed for the governments of the UK. In England, Tony Blair stepped down as Prime Minister after an unprecedented series of electoral wins for Labour, in Scotland the SNP were forming their first government as a minority in Holyrood, in Northern Ireland the institutional 'moderate' unionists were being supplanted by the DUP, and in Wales the traditions of nation...

As one of the new Welsh Conservative Senedd Members following the 2021 election, Tom Giffard has quickly established himself as an effective parliamentarian and scrutineer and is currently Shadow Minister for Culture, Tourism & Sport as well as a member of the Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport and International Relations Committee. We speak to Tom about the ongoing catastrophe that is...

There is no city on earth outside of Wales with such a longstanding, influential, and thriving Welsh community as London. Alongside the well known religious, academic, and sporting footprints, there is a vibrant community built around government, the professions, culture, and business. Each year, around St David's Day, Wales Week London acts as a focal point to platform talent, make connections, a...

This week we speak to Dr Dan Evans, a researcher at the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data (WISERD) and a prominent and critical voice of political culture in Wales and the UK through his writing and popular podcast Desolation Radio. Dan's recently published book "A Nation of Shopkeepers: The Unstoppable Rise of the Petty Bourgeoisie" brings a fresh approach to thinking about...

Continuing our series of interviews with politicians from Wales and beyond, this time we travel to Gwent to speak to Member of the Senedd for Newport East, John Griffiths. As one of the original ‘Class of 1999’, John has represented the constituency for Welsh Labour for nearly 25 years and we catch up with him just after his completion of his 150th ParkRun at Newport Parkrun on alongside the River...

This live recording of the Hiraeth podcast with Wales TUC's Shavanah Taj and Welsh Labour's Sarah Murphy (Member of the Senedd for Bridgend) followed our event with Mick Lynch of the RMT Union, interviewed by Siriol Griffiths (Wales Editor, The Conversation UK), which you can watch here: https://youtu.be/DB-phtcvv5A This panel discuss industrial action, public services in Wales, the relationship b...

This recording of our live event, hosted at Little Man Coffee, Cardiff in conjunction with the Wales Trades Union Congress, features RMT Union General Secretary Mick Lynch and Siriol Griffiths (Wales Editor, The Conversation UK) guest hosting from the chair. We discuss public services, trade unions, and the UK and Welsh Labour Parties, as well as taking some questions from our audience. Follow us...

We're all aware of the need to de-carbonise energy production across the planet and it is a priority for the Welsh Government and the other governments on Britain. So how can we do it? How quickly can we do it? And what technologies are crucial to getting there? We speak to two experts in the field of renewable energy generation to discuss. Our guests: Sarah Merrick: https://twitter.com/SpeakSarah...

In this podcast, the Hiraeth team (Matthew Hexter, Ceri Davies, and Richard Martin) recap the highlights and lowlights of 2022 and look forward to the issues that are on the horizon in Wales and elsewhere across Britain and Northern Ireland in 2023. Your hosts: Matthew Hexter: https://twitter.com/hexter101 Ceri Davies: https://twitter.com/ceritheviking Richard Martin: https://twitter.com/mimosacym...

In this pod, our first live podcast recording, we discuss the state of the relationships between UK and Welsh/Scottish governments and the effect Brexit and the personalities of successive UK administrations has had on the effectiveness of government. We hosted this live event on the week that Gordon Brown produced his proposals for reforming the governance of the UK, so we discuss those proposals...

From time to time we run live events to debate important aspects of politics, policy, or current affairs from a Welsh perspective. This podcast is a recording of an event co-hosted with our friends at the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University, discussing the independence campaigns both north and west of the border with England, with Jess Blair of the Electoral Reform Society Cymru in the C...

Wales has the highest imprisonment rate in Western Europe for men and the third highest for women but until recently we simply didn't know about it. Unlike Northern Ireland and Scotland, Wales doesn't have control over its own justice and policing system and instead it is part of the 'England and Wales' system. Many would argue that this is de facto an 'England, including Wales' system as Wales is...

From joining the Conservative Party in Wales in the 1980s, winning his first local government election in Llanelli in 1993 to holding some of the highest offices of state in the UK Government in the cabinets of PMs Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, Sir Robert Buckland's political career has spanned some extraordinary political times and subverts a number of stereotypes about Welsh politicians. Sir Robe...

Vaughan Gething is one of the most well-known faces in Welsh Government, not least due to his role as Minister for Health during the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw the profile of the Welsh Government and devolution itself thrust into the public consciousness as the four nations of the UK each defined their own response to the crisis. Now Minister for the Economy, Vaughan is once more dealing with a...

Considering how close links are between Wales and Ireland in terms of history, trade, and culture, the low levels of knowledge about our respective political parties and their traditions is, perhaps, surprising. In this episode we speak with Cardiff-based researcher and journalist Lila Haines about her new book 'Radicals and Realists: Political Parties in Ireland' and try to explore the similariti...

For some time there have been discussions about what would happen in the event of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II with regards the role of the Prince of Wales. Would it automatically pass to Prince William? Would he, like Charles before him, participate in an extravagant & controversial Investiture ceremony? How would the modern cultural landscape and civic institutions across the country respon...

Ahead of the FIFA World Cup, we discuss the huge cultural and political (with a small 'p') power of football with Noel Mooney, Chief Executive of the Football Association of Wales. We discuss Qatar, the relationship with Welsh Government, the domestic game, *that* World Cup song & video, the women's and girls game, and relations between Ireland and Wales. You can find Noel on Twitter here: https:/...

As one of the most senior members of the Welsh Government after just 6 years in the Senedd, Jeremy Miles now holds one of the toughest ministerial briefs as the recovery from the twin crises of Covid-19 and subsequent economic turmoil leave the education sector battling for resources while trying to recover from the impact of the pandemic on learners across the country. We speak with Jeremy about...