THE WELSH AGENDA - Summer 2012

Editorial

1980s individualist zeitgeist falls from grace

Essay

He was happy all the time

Peter Stead on why the world of Wales's most famous poet continues to fascinate not only us but much of the rest of the planet as well

Outlook

Future of rural Wales 

• Paul Milbourne 
• Nerys Owens and Jonathan Radcliffe
• Lawrence Kitchen 
• Peter Midmore
• Terry Marsden

Changing Union

Economy

Valleys can cut it in engineering

Co-op Special

Learning from Mondragon

John Osmond joined a delegation from Wales to the Basque Country in April to discover why one of the world's largest co-operative groups has been so successful

Could a co-op run our trains

Stuart Cole examines the options facing the Welsh Government when it considers the future ownership and control of our railway network

Feedback vital for effective Welsh public procurement

Dermot Cahill and Ceri Evans investigate the experience of Welsh companies when tendering for public sector contracts

Education

We need to end second rate vocational culture

Jim Bennett argues that competition between schools and colleges is impending the reputation and delivery of work-related technical subjects

More theory than understanding in teaching reading

Geraldine Barry says 'not invented here' is the attitude of many Welsh schools when confronted with new literacy ideas

Wales is sitting on a bilingual gold mine

Lisa Jones describes her efforts to teach the language to parents whose children are attending Welsh-medium schools

Social Policy

Building the Ombudsman's casebook

Peter Tyndall explains why we should should extend the landscape of redress in Wales

Sliding into poverty

David Williams discovers that we are at risk of losing a generation of young people in Wales

Why we need a strategy for young carers

Vanessa Webb examines the problems of more than 11,000 welsh children who look after family members

Environment

Our central organising principle

Elin Royles believes the Welsh Government's forthcoming Sustainable Development Bill has ground breaking potential

Communications

A lost model for Welsh public service broadcasting

James Stewart looks back at what might have been in the provision of an equivalent to a Welsh Press Association service

The inaugral Welsh vook

Colin Thomas describes the production he has in hand for our first ebook, a combination of text and video, on Wales and America

Talking to India

Peter Finch delves into the opaque world of accessing the next generation of broadband 

Heritage

Farming and food in Abergavenny

Andris Taurins says planners are playing fats and loose with the heritage of one of our oldest market towns

Culture

Fishlock's File

The virtues of left-handedness

Trevor Fishlock muses on the sinister meanings of small things

Two lives in art

Osi Rhys Osmond is caputured by a study of John and Myfanwy Piper qwho reshaped perceptions of Englishness in the mid 20th Century

We have a real country now

Richard Davies reflects on 20 years of bleakness counterpointed by hope in Welsh publishing

Last word:

Wandering around a national conversation

Peter Stead