MP recalls 7/7 bombings

Susan Elan Jones MP has been recalling the 7/7 London bombings that took place exactly 10 years ago today.

The Clwyd South MP worked in London at the time and her office was just down the road from Edgeware Road Tube Station where six people were killed out of a total of 52 in the combined attacks on the day.

Susan Elan Jones MP said: "Unusually, on that day, I wasn't in the office as I was working at home on a research project. But right across London, there was the same eerie ambience - sounds of sirens, but virtually no vehicles moving.

"The thing that brought events home to me most was speaking to a work colleague, who had come out of the tube exit about 15 minutes before the bomb attack had taken place.

"In my view, every time politicians debate issues relating to civil liberties and surveillance, we need to do it through the prism of 7/7 and the need for proper security.

"I also believe we need to remember that people of many different nationalities. faiths and backgrounds were killed on 7/7 - and that our quest to understand people of different cultures is vital.

"This quest affects us every bit as much in North Wales as it does in London, and every other part of our country and our world."

Skates to write Labour's 2016 manifesto

Clwyd South AM Ken Skates said he was ‘honoured’ to be chosen to write the Welsh Labour manifesto for next year’s Assembly election.

First Minister Carwyn Jones asked the Wrexham-born Assembly Member to pen the party’s
pitch for May 2016 – and Mr Skates wants the public to help.

The pair will tour the country over the next few months asking people what they want to see and asking for help to shape the Wales of tomorrow.

Mr Skates said the manifesto would ‘bear the fingerprints and contain the hopes of three
million people’ from all parts of the country.

He added: “I’m both honoured and humbled to have been asked to write next year’s Welsh
Labour manifesto. It will be the boldest and most positive that any party has presented since
devolution, because it will contain the very best ideas from across the country.

“I am determined to present a visionary manifesto next year for Clwyd South, for North
Wales and for the whole of the country.  I intend to do so by calling on the creativity, ideas,
innovation and ambitions of people in every community and by travelling the length of
breadth of Wales to listen to as many as possible.”

Mr Skates will start his nationwide tour with an event in North East Wales later this month,
with details to be announced soon.

He said: “I have trust and confidence in the values of the people of Wales being the same as
those of Welsh Labour.  I want those values to underpin our future, so they should also flow
through the veins of my party's manifesto next year.

“This is an unprecedented opportunity for us in North Wales to influence the Wales we
want. It's an opportunity I hope people will embrace.”

Mr Skates was elected as AM for Clwyd South with 42.4% of the vote in May 2011, following
in the footsteps of Karen Sinclair as the constituency's representative in the Assembly. He is
now the Welsh Government’s deputy minister for culture, sport and tourism.

In December he won the ‘Member to Watch’ award  at the Politician of the Year event in
Cardiff after steering the Welsh Government's  hugely successful youth employment scheme
Jobs Growth Wales and overseeing Europe’s most ambitious broadband scheme, Superfast
Cymru, in his previous role as deputy minister for skills and technology.

Global appeal launched for Eisteddfod

 

* The Eisteddfod attracts competitors and visitors from across the world.

 

An urgent global appeal is being launched secure the future of the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod.

 

Organisers are hoping to raise £70,000 because this year's event is heading for a financial loss as a result of disappointing ticket sales.

 

With the 70th anniversary on the horizon, they are confident the event has a bright long-term future but say they need the cash to get over their short-term difficulties.

 

Supporters wishing to make a donation will be able to do so online via the Eisteddfod's website or by using Gift Aid envelopes that will be available at all the concerts during the week.

 

This year will be the 69th year the festival will have been held consecutively since it was founded in the aftermath of the Second World War to promote peace and harmony.

 

The iconic event has now grown into one of Europe's premier music and dance events, where "Wales meets the world" and the town of Llangollen is turned into a cultural melting pot.

 

Over the years it has attracted cultural icons like Luciano Pavarotti, who first took to the Eisteddfod stage as part of his father's choir from Modena in Italy in 1955 before making a triumphant return in 1995 when he was a global superstar.

 

This year competitors are expected from as far afield as Ghana, China, Hungary, India, Jamaica, Morocco, Nepal, Slovakia and Holland as well as from across the UK and Ireland.

 

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall will be there tomorrow (Tuesday) when they will meet competitors taking part in the colourful Parade of Nations.

 

The appeal was announced by long-serving Eisteddfod chairman Gethin Davies who first attended the event as a young boy in 1951.

 

He said: "The Eisteddfod is an expensive festival to put on, and, like many other festivals, we have been walking a financial tight-rope for some time.

 

"By making swingeing economies in our expenditure, we managed a small surplus in 2014. 

 

"Sadly, although the economies set in motion in 2014 have continued in 2015, the disappointing sale of tickets for the concerts of this year’s Eisteddfod means that we are looking at a deficit of around £70,000 for 2015. 

 

"We are working with the Welsh Government regarding short-term assistance, but as yet they can give us no assurance of help. 

 

"Their advice was to make strenuous efforts to raise funds from our supporters in order to meet what is essentially a short-term problem. 

 

"The Eisteddfod board has submitted a three-year business plan to the Arts Council of Wales and is confident that if we can weather the present difficulties we can move into profit. 

 

"The Music Director has set out an extremely attractive concert programme for 2016 - including a household name - which we are confident will attract larger audiences, and the preliminary budget for 2016 shows a reasonable surplus.

 

Mr Davies added: "The International Eisteddfod has been a very important part of my life since 1951, when, as a small boy, I sold programmes for the Eisteddfod. 

 

"Over that period of 65 years, I have built up a treasury of happy memories of the wonderful competitors I have seen, the amazing concerts I have attended, and the incredible warmth, knowledgeability, friendliness and good will of the audience. 

 

"My children have also shared many of those experiences, and I would like my grandchildren, likewise to be able to enjoy this unique festival, and I am confident they will have that opportunity."

 

People who wish to make a donation can do so via the Llangollen International Eisteddfod's website: www.international-eisteddfod.co.uk

Artist recreates Plas Newydd in fabric

 
 
 
Llangollen-based artist Jan Wallis currently has a novel exhibition of her work at the Willow Gallery in Oswestry.

Entitled Quilt Built, it’s a representation of some of the internal features at Plas Newydd – home of the Ladies of Llangollen – including wooden wall carvings and even a four poster bed, entirely in fabric and thread.

 

Memorial Hall refreshments

Members of Llangollen Methodist Church are inviting people to join them for morning coffee, light lunches and afternoon tea at the Memorial Hall, opposite the car park in Market Street, between 10am and 4pm, from July 6-11.

The hall will be open until 5.30pm tomorrow (Tuesday) and closed on Wednesday.

Llan scientist appears in government film

* Dr Davies as she appears in the film.

A Llangollen woman features in a film promoting the importance of science in Wales.

Science For Wales, produced by the Welsh Government, promotes the country's scientific achievements.

In one sequence there's an appearance by Dr Charlotte Eve Davies, who was educated at Ysgol Bryn Collen and then Ysgol Dinas Bran before earning a PhD in biology from Swansea University at the age of 24.

The daughter of Llangollen county councillor Stuart Davies, she has had six papers published and has travelled extensively around the world giving speeches on her speciality which involves lobsters.

In the film she is seen aboard a boat holding up a lobster.

Cllr Davies said: "I'd like to thank all the people from Denbighshire County Council who were involved in her education and helped to make this happen.

"As can be seen from the film, we deliver a world class education system."

An example of Dr Davies’ work can be seen at: http://theconversation.com/competitive-lobsters-are-fighting-it-out-in-uks-first-marine-park-35830

Methodist Church's festival of praise

Llangollen Methodist Church is hosting a Festival of Praise on Monday, July 6, starting at 7.30pm.

It includes favourite hymns by guest performers and will be led by the Rev Philip Poole.

A collection will be held in aid of Llangollen Cancer Research UK.