Wales in 1979, when Margaret Thatcher was elected, was a very different place to 1990, when she stood down, let alone to today.   Art Garfunkel was at number 1 in the charts with Bright Eyes, and Blankety Blank as…

  This week’s arguments about welfare reform are some of the most depressing, ill–informed and ill-judged I have ever heard.   Last weekend, various left groups got out their placards after realising that people would be hard hit by the…

  There is a proposition widely circulating Wales that we would be better off with less local government – fewer, larger local authorities with fewer, less significant functions. Wouldn’t it be sensible if the Welsh Government ran schools? Wouldn’t it be good if the…

“Money must no longer be the passport to the best treatment” declared the Labour Party election manifesto in 1945 with crisp clarity. And, as The Spirit of ’45 rises again in cinemas up and down the country, we recall that the birth…

Yesterday’s labour market statistics and budget should give everyone pause for thought. There has been no economic growth for five years, since the financial crash began in early 2008.    GDP has been broadly static, in both Wales and the…