I can’t be sure whether the reawakened chorus of support for the launch of a Welsh-language daily is because of rock-bound support for the venture, or because of the sad Welsh (and British) belief that politics consists essentially of demolishing your opponents rather than forwarding policy improvements.
Eleanor Burnham was quick to the anvil in the wake of the appointment of Alun Ffred Jones as replacement culture minister. The failure to fund a Welsh-language daily would be the first thing in his in-box, said the Lib Dems’ language spokesman.
Her boss Mike German had voiced identical thoughts. As had Tory leader Nick Bourne. But messrs German and Bourne had spoken in advance of the departure of the Rev Min – after he had cavalierly dismissed the project as an unrealistic venture.
However, this abrupt and total dismissal by Rhodri Glyn Thomas – who had turned himself by his behaviour, prior to the in-bar cigar, into a truly cavalier minister – went far beyond the financial aspects of the project.
The Rev Min had revealed himself as no friend of the printed word. He had been sucked into an e-world, a land of gross exaggeration which is being grossly over-hyped by those who fail to see the proven virtues of the present and past, and who prefer to live only in the superb successes that a totally-new-style future will, “of course”, bring.
Even worse, the Rev Min put the blackest possible aspect on the report produced by Toni Bianci for the Welsh Books Council. Dr Bianci pointed out the venture was a risk. But so is life; as is everything worth having.
But Dr Bianci is a literary figure; he is hardly an accountant for a profit-and-loss account.
And, where newspapers and magazines are concerned, the most important issue in success is the ability to tap into the spirit of the age.
The very magazine to which this blog is attached – Cambria - believes it has tapped into one of the many spirits of the current Welsh age. Some people (myself among them !) believed it had no hope of a successful launch. Its continuing circulation proves I was wrong.
It can be easily argued that the Western Mail (Llais y Sais of old) is failing to link with the current spirit of the age. The Daily Post has done a much better job (through screaming for the North).
Of English papers, the Daily Mail has obviously doing much better than the Express, representing a new spirit for England – even if it can get a little tiresome sometimes, particularly in its total ignoring of Wales.
So it could be with Y Byd (using the title to denote the idea, rather than a particular project). And part of that spirit is how this nation should be served by its press.
The arrival of Alun Ffred (known to his friends as Ffred, apparently never simply Alun) opens up the (theoretical) chance of a rethink for the project.
But that rethink has to include a decent budget (a 10-fold increase, or perhaps something smaller ?).
Only by a rethink will we perhaps discover the real reason why the report produced by the civil service for the Plaid half of coalition to consider contained such an unrealistic figure.
Perhaps that true but hidden reason was revealed in almost the very last public decision made by Rev Min. He formally reported to AMs the latest terms of the financial arrangement with the Millennium Centre. In other words, of the financial bale-out.
And then there’s the bale-out for National Botanic Garden near Carmarthen.
A week or so ago, did I not catch sight of a financial plea from the Royal Welsh Show ? It was a bit wet last year, and they were worried for their financial position. After how many years of annual profits ?
The Millennium Stadium has tried the same trick.
Our Welsh politicians have to learn to distinguish between genuine good causes, and those seeing the Assembly as a soft touch. It’s now up to the Welsh public to prove that Y Byd (or similar) is a truly good cause.
And for the Tories and Lib Dems to prove that their support is real and not purely political.
What Rhodri Glyn failed to understand is the important role Y Byd would have played in creating the news agenda for Wales. Broadcaster take their lead from the written word . Is Aled Price still willing to edit Y Byd?
When working for so many years on Llais y Sais, I was oft surprised at the news desk comments about the Beeb following the lead that we had set. I thought they were merely blowing their own trumpets (after all, none of them could speak Welsh, and therefore knew nothing of what Llais was missing from that side of the world).
But working as a freelance from the Assembly press gallery, I have witnessed too often the truly-appalling coverage so often by the Beeb.
I believe more in co-operation that competition (no doubt a weakness of my part). But it certainly seems true that the Beeb stands in dire need of a national competitor to remind its milliards of reporters -”billions” to a yank, which explains how that land says is possesses so many “billionaires” – that they’re lots of stories out there they are ignoring.
I am an ‘early adopter“ when it comes to the digital age – those far too old to be a digital native. but I was struck by the shallow thinking concerning the financing of a Welsh newspaper for Wales.
It is a policial, cultural and social imperative for Wales to have a national newspaper in Welsh: if you agree with that, then the rest follows:
- it cannot be subsidy free: the Western Mail only survives because of Assembly and public body support of its extortionately expensive recruitment pages (at double the cost if you have a bilingual ad!)
- the printed word is more inclusive than the internet, itself a divisive factor in Wales where 100% rollout of high speed access is a decade or more away
- a printed newspaper available to every secondary school pupil will do more for the use of the language than any other WAG initiative.
As for risk – given an apropriate budget (probably small compared say to that for the Eisteddfod, WMC or Welsh Opera, say) the risk can be contained. This isn’t, and can never be, a commercial operation: it can however be a powerful part of Wales’ civic life.