Anybody who spends any time at the Hay Literary Festival will appreciate the confusion faced by visitors who think that they are in fact still in England. That is not because the town itself exudes Englishness, it has a distinct Welsh identity in my view, but because for more than a week we are surrounded by the English intelligentsia, none of whom appear to have a clue about devolution or Welshness.
That is reflected in all the coverage, even by the now politically-correct BBC, even though the festival organisers themselves do make an attempt to deal with the issue in the range and diversity of the events they put on. Not surprisingly one of the worse offenders is the Guardian itself, who recently published an article by Homa Khaleeli that suggested that the festival was being taken over by politicians, as if this invasion was unusual and game-changing.
This article has been taken to task in today’s paper by the Director of the Open University in Wales and former Welsh Liberal Democrat Party President, Rob Humphreys. He writes:
Homa Khaleeli’s piece of politician-watching at the Hay festival (Invasion of the politicians!, G2, 1 June), with its listing of some welcome visitors, was woefully (and typically for the Guardian) London-centric. Prominent elected representatives of Wales – where Hay-on-Wye is situated – are frequent attendees and speakers. This year the list of speakers and panellists includes the Welsh environment minister, Jane Davidson, the Welsh heritage minister, Alun Ffred Jones (members, respectively, of Labour and Plaid Cymru – the two parts of the governing coalition), and Kirsty Williams, the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats.
A better-informed glance around the festival site on the first weekend would also have revealed Nick Bourne, the Welsh Conservative group leader in the Welsh assembly, the local MP, Roger Williams, and prominent Labour AM Andrew Davies, to name but three. The former first minister of Wales, Rhodri Morgan, and the presiding officer of the assembly, Dafydd Elis Thomas, have been distinguished speakers in previous years at Hay. The director of the festival, Peter Florence, has brilliantly described Hay as a “free port” of ideas. It is, nonetheless, in and of Wales. Thus politicians of Wales do not have to “invade” the festival – for better or worse they play their natural part in sharing, transmitting and receiving ideas within Wales and, significantly, across a wider international stage.
Of course it is not just journalists who get it wrong. Last week I sat through an enthralling interview in which Rosie Boycott talked to the historian Niall Ferguson. Mr. Ferguson spoke authoratively and passionately about the ‘national curriculum’ and its treatment of history as if it applied to the whole of the UK, rather than just England. He spoke, and the interviewer did not correct him, as if he were in the heart of England and that all of us, Welsh, Scots and Irish included were blighted by the decisions of previous English Education Ministers in the same way.
Then, as if to rub it in Rosie Boycott pointed out that the new Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, was in the audience and invited him to contribute. He spoke as if he were responsible for the education of all of us and never once acknowledged the fact that he is not, in fact, the Minister responsible for the National Curriculum in the area in which he sat, but just England. Nor did he show any awareness of the devolution settlement. It is at times like these that one regrets rushing off to another event leaving no time to correct matters.
To be fair to the BBC, they have fully educated most of their correspondents and news readers as to the subtleties and nuances of the devolution settlement. I think it would be useful if the same course could be laid on for journalists on London-based newspapers and also for those presenting at Hay on relevant matters.
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books are far too overpriced at haye anyway, wheres the good poets, novelists etc giving speech’s? Cannot be bothered, leave it to the polticians to keep praising the festival and the achievements and all this and all that and rattatattat