Back again

After flirting with blogging last year I have begun to post occasionally on other blogs. I contribute now and again to Our Kingdom, Comment is Free and the Bevan Foundation blog. The purpose of reincarnating Amanwy is to host a repository for my musings.

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Dysgu gwersi

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A note to members of the Llanelli constituency Labour Party There has been a big disagreement within Welsh Labour. There has not been a ‘witch-hunt’ against Vaughan Gething, but there has been a genuine conflict of values. Now there is an appetite to quickly move on, but I think there’s a real danger that in shutting down discussion we will neither understand nor learn the lessons of what has happened.  As uncomfortable as it will be I think we need proper debate about the future direction of Welsh Labour. Circling the wagons around a ‘unity candidate’ may bring some short-term relief, but it will do nothing to address the fundamental need to renew in office. I’ve not given any interview and don’t intent to, but as a way of making sense of it all I’ve written this assessment which looks at what should happen now and an analysis of how we got to this position.  These are offered in the spirit of honest debate and not point-scoring. Edrych ymlaen We’re in a pickle. After 25 year...
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Don't forget the wiring

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The Wales Transport Strategy published in 2021 put modal shift at the heart of our policies. For the first time, we’ve set a target on increasing the number of trips made by sustainable modes of transport from 32% to 45% by 2040. Grand declarations are important to signal system change. However, as we've seen in the past, transport strategies often say all the right things in the narrative but the delivery mechanisms are programmed to deliver business-as-usual. In spite of the new targets the bible for highway engineers, the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges , still prioritises traffic flow; the bible for economists and finance officials, the UK Treasury Green Book, still insists on monetising notional journey time savings when it comes to transport investments; rather than reduce speeds to save lives, orthodoxy suggests we upgrade highway design to increase capacity and allow faster speeds under the guise of road safety.  Unless the system wiring is reconfigured to delive...
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Where there’s a will, there’s a way - Gwersi o Gymru

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As a background note to my keynote address to AITPM National Transport Conference and Speaker Tour in August 2024 I have set out some of the key themes for the reforms that have been carried out in Wales that I had a role in developing as a Minister in the Welsh Government Transport Department, 2019 - 2024. I hope to add to this as I reflect on the conversations I have on my visits to meet policy makers and professional in Perth, Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide and Melbourne. I'd really value any comments or challenge you have to any of the chapters. My thoughts are structured around the following themes (click to open each): 1 INTRODUCTION - Lessons from Wales 2 START AS YOU MEAN TO GO ON 3 SAYING ALL THE RIGHT THINGS 4 …DOING THE RIGHT THINGS 5 DON'T FORGET THE HIDDEN WIRING 6 REWIRE
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