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 local government, Senedd reform and regional representation, trying to enact members’ bills in the ...
Oct 22, 2023•49 min
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 successor appointed, the office Future Generations Commissioner is starting a new era. Is this a difficul...
Oct 08, 2023•49 min
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 himself in the unusual position of facing a vote of no confidence because he *had* delivered on a manifes...
Oct 01, 2023•1 hr 5 min
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 training across the country and the reality of university funding for both full-time and part-time studen...
Sep 22, 2023•56 min
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 for Plaid Cymru in the coming year, and the experience of being elected to represent Dwyfor Meiriony...
Sep 18, 2023•55 min
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 gennyf i am Blaid Cymru? Beth yw rôl y blaid yng gwleidyddiaeth Cymru, pa fath o blaid yw e, a beth yw’...
Sep 03, 2023•46 min
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 (including its 10% tree target), and ongoing animal health measures. Our Partners, the FUW: https://twi...
Aug 04, 2023•54 min
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 figure of Welsh and Labour politics made in Tribune. Our panel includes Nye himself (Davies, that is),...
Jul 23, 2023•1 hr 2 min
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 vacancy arose at the top of the party and Rhun was elected leader, unopposed. So what does a change in lea...
Jul 14, 2023•42 min
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 principles as the best way to deliver health and other care across the spectrum of the population. In...
Jul 08, 2023•58 min
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 Policy Committee (MPC), a body within which he was frequently known as a dissenting voice that chal...
Jun 30, 2023•59 min
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 the last few weeks including the debate about bilingualism on the Eisteddfod maes and finish with a p...
Jun 23, 2023•58 min
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 interview we catch up with Ben to discuss the difficult recent period in Plaid Cymru’s history, the upcomin...
Jun 03, 2023•1 hr 1 min
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 famous border event kicks off in Hay, home of Hiraeth member Ceri, we are joined to talk about our ...
May 27, 2023•39 min
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 the answers we need or are we still not asking the right questions? We discuss this tricky subject an...
May 19, 2023•55 min
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 described as "damning" by WalesOnline's Will Hayward and contained no fewer than 82 recommendations ...
May 12, 2023•47 min
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 applying to the same authority for multiple benefits be streamlined? Should the Welsh Government be able...
May 05, 2023•52 min
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 Government after another high-profile ministerial departure. In Wales recent polling has suggested that t...
Apr 28, 2023•41 min
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 changing face of Wales and the Welsh economy during their careers and the ways the business of news is ev...
Apr 21, 2023•59 min
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 to spend another decade in the slow lane? Our panel of experts discuss the recent announcement and ...
Apr 06, 2023•50 min
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 freeports deal so we look at knock-on effects for Wales and return to discussion of the troubled Betsi Cad...
Mar 29, 2023•50 min
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 the Conservative UK Government under Margaret Thatcher to establish a Welsh language television serv...
Mar 21, 2023•43 min
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 nationalism and socialism were about to combine to form the 'One Wales' government of Welsh Labour and Pla...
Mar 10, 2023•46 min
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 the Welsh Rugby Union, Conservative opposition to the Welsh Government's Tourism Levy, thoughts...
Mar 03, 2023•46 min
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, and build up Wales's soft power as the biggest event in a global network of Wales Week centres. Joini...
Feb 23, 2023•47 min
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 social class in the UK, specifically the group sometimes known as 'ordinary working people' or 'Mon...
Feb 17, 2023•1 hr 7 min
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 Usk. As a long-serving Senedd member and former Deputy Minister in Welsh Government, John speaks wi...
Feb 10, 2023•33 min
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 between political parties and trade unions and, of course, the relationship between Welsh and UK Labo...
Feb 02, 2023•56 min
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 on most social platforms to hear about future live events from the Hiraeth team: Hiraeth on Twitter:...
Jan 31, 2023•52 min
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/SpeakSarahSpeak of Ripple Energy: https://twitter.com/RippleEnergy and George Hall of Conrad Energy: https://c...
Jan 23, 2023•43 min
