Geoff Cripps

It isn't the best pic but it captures my final concert with @AllanYnYFan a year ago today. Bowing out after 22 years, 6 albums, gigs all over Europe bringing #Welshmusic to new audiences....diolch am bopeth!

Here are 3 ways that the current system screws over Wales. If politicians are not talking about these issues, they are not serious about fixing Wales' problems. ---------- 1. The Welsh Gov has less borrowing powers than a council. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿Wales can only borrow £150m a year (and £1bn in total). That is the equivalent of just 0.57% of our budget. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Scotland can borrow £450m a year (and £3bn in total). This makes it really hard for Wales to make big investments like building hospitals and schools unless we use super expensive funding models like PFI. The worst thing is, Scotland's borrowing rates have increased with inflation every year since 2016 whereas Wales' have been frozen! ---------- 2. Wales’ can’t even spend its own money If Wales makes good financial decisions and has money left at the end of the year, it is only allowed to carry over a very small amount. The total the Welsh Government can have in the reserve is £350m. While that might sound like a lot, it really isn’t in a government context. The Welsh Government’s budget is £27bn. This means that the Welsh reserve is just 1.35% of its budget. And that £350m isn’t per year, that is the total it can carry. This means that if the Welsh Government reserve is full, then any money that isn’t spent is just taken back by the Treasury in Westminster. What makes this system even worse is that the UK Treasury has imposed limits on how much of its own reserves Wales can even use! Of the £350m Wales can only access £175m a year. Scotland has a reserve of £700m AND it has no limit on how much of that it can spend. Plus yet again, Scotland’s was linked to inflation whereas Wales’ wasn’t. There is simply no justification for Wales being treated differently to Scotland. The UK Government isn’t able to get away with treating Scotland like Wales because the Scots wouldn’t stand for it. ---------- 3. Rail Because rail is devolved in Scotland, when the UK Government spends money in England on rail, Scotland gets extra cash. Scotland gets billions of pounds in extra funding because of HS2 (which is only in England). But because rail isn’t devolved to Wales, the Treasury can class HS2 as an “England and Wales project” meaning Wales gets nothing. It is worse than that. Because HS2 is counted as a Welsh project, it stops Wales getting extra money in the future because on the spreadsheet it looks like Wales has already had investment (even though it all went to England). ---------- You could have the best politicians in the world in Cardiff Bay but they still couldn’t fix Wales’ problems because the tools at their disposal are not fit for purpose. The challenges Wales faces are not because of immigrants, they are because the system of funding we have is set up so that we can’t fail to fail.

Chips fried in beef dripping were a different object to what passes for a chip today. Walk into a Whitby chippy in 1978. The fryer has been on since 11am. The fat in it is beef dripping, held at 180 degrees by a man in a white apron who has been frying chips since he was fifteen. There are no seed oils in the building. The idea would not occur to anyone. Thick-cut Maris Pipers, ninety seconds in the dripping. Dark gold at the edges, fluffy inside, crisp in a way that sets your teeth against them. Salt. Vinegar. Paper. Two bob. You eat them walking home along the harbour wall. The chip tastes of the chip and also of something underneath the chip, something deeper, something you don't have a name for because you are nine and nobody names it, it is just what chips taste like. That taste was beef dripping. By 2002, 90% of British chippies had switched to rapeseed, palm, or sunflower oil, on the advice of public health officials citing research since quietly retracted. A stable saturated fat used for ten thousand years, swapped for an industrial oil invented in 1911, oxidised at fryer temperatures for twelve hours a day. A seed-oil chip is lighter, flatter. The crust doesn't hold. The flavour stops at the potato. No deeper note. No roast beef on a Friday. Ask a British person under thirty what chips are supposed to taste like and they will describe, with complete sincerity, the chip they have always eaten. A chip their great-grandfather would have considered a practical joke. They cannot miss it, because the reference point was removed from the national palate before they were born. A handful of chippies still fry in dripping. The Magpie in Whitby. A few survivors in Yorkshire, Lancashire, the Black Country. Go. Drive. Queue. Eat them standing up, out of the paper. You will understand, in one bite, what was taken. The cow is still in the field. The suet is still at the butcher. The fryer could be switched back tomorrow. A whole country forgot what a chip was.

The future of an event billed as the largest free outdoor arts festival in Wales is uncertain after its most recent bid for Arts Council Wales (ACW) funding was rejected. artsprofessional.co.uk/news/welsh-art…

Sad news always interesting contributions on history, the present and what makes Wales what it is #RIP bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

“Blue changed songwriting forever…” As part of the 20-page celebration of @jonimitchell in the latest issue of MOJO, friend, collaborator, and Joni Jams organiser Brandi Carlile discusses the enduring power of Mitchell’s work. READ: shorturl.at/De2MO

“Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone?” Celebrating Earth Day with a ride on a “Big Yellow Taxi,” performed live at the BBC Television Centre in 1970.

Travel on well Mr Dave Mason. I hope Steve Winwood plays The Hole In My Shoe as a tribute at his next show.

Dave Mason, the Traffic guitarist who wrote the classic rock standard "Feelin' Alright?” and jammed with The Rolling Stones, George Harrison, and Jimi Hendrix, has died at age 79 rollingstone.com/music/music-ne…

Book ahead - its a win win for everyone involved!!

Professor Peter Stead - a tribute swansea.ac.uk/press-office/n…

If this is Reform’s idea of manifesto material, it tells you everything. A party that chooses its own version of history isn’t fit to lead - it’s controlling the narrative. This isn’t cultural policy, it’s culture-war bollocks. We’re better than this 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

Tomorrow is the deadline for registering to vote. Voting is the single best way to drive change and create the Wales you want. Register now or let other people decide your future.

NEW The Gerry Rafferty Songbook - Right Down The Line - mailchi.mp/acapela/new-th…

Joni on the cover of MOJO!

Just when you think you’ve read it all this comes along. Totally brilliant, insightful and very moving.

Sadly Andy Kershaw has died When I was starting out he was v kind to me .I remember being invited to one of his parties, where he cooked a big pot of veg chilli & the Bhundu Boys were playing ! He introduced a generation to music from all over the world. That's a great legacy❤️

Former Radio 1 DJ and Live Aid presenter Andy Kershaw dies aged 66 bbc.in/3On8407

Moya Brennan: A True Icon of Irish Music Hot Press editor Niall Stokes pays tribute to the Moya he knew and loved hotpress.com/opinion/moya-b…

“There is so much music that deserves our support and we cannot wait to get back to it. It is hard enough for those pursuing music without the avenues for sharing and discovering music being closed.“ Exclusive news on Iain Anderson’s comeback plans: heraldscotland.com/news/26028781.…