Posts Tagged ‘quangos’

Letter from Wales: Blackballed by the Welsh establishment

12/07/2013, 03:50:53 PM

by Julian Ruck

We live in a democracy and a country that prides itself on freedom of speech, do we not?

Well, Wales it seems has opted out.

Literature Wales – sister quango of the Arts Council of Wales who receives nigh on 1million a year from it – has refused outright to give me a press pass for the Wales book of the year next week (and I do write a regular column for a Welsh newspaper) albeit that all the cosy taxpayer funded Welsh literature websites, Welsh literature mags and periodicals, and all the other Welsh Establishment gravy train literary junkies will all be out in force.

The PA to CEO Lleucu Siencyn (Lucy Jenkins for all you English readers) managed to discover that all press passes had been dished out within seconds of hearing my voice without any reference to seating allocations etc etc. One must further ask how the PA to Ms Siencyn would even know this data anyway, and so quickly?

Orders from on high perhaps?

Have someone there to report on Welsh literati shenanigans who hasn’t joined the gang? And won’t be bought?

Forget it, can’t have Ruck there to spoil our fun now can we? Duw mon, he just might report some inconvenient facts!

I can guarantee a few things though. The works submitted for the Wales Book of the Year will have been written by Welsh writers replete with taxpayer bursary bucks, Welsh publishers will have been paid by the taxpayer to publish them and even the Prizes will be tax-payer funded.

It will be interesting to see what a Nielsen Bookdata printout of sales will reveal in a few months time.

Hard times? Not in Wales, and to cap it all the Welsh government will only communicate with me through their Head of News, Simon Jenkins.

Please read on.

On Tuesday this week, Martin Shipton, Chief Reporter with the Western Mail did a follow up to my Letter on Uncut (28.6.13) on the Arts Council of Wales’ taxpayer funded jolly to the Venice Biennale ie 7 people from the Arts Council going on a 3-4 day promotion of a Welsh artist exhibiting the recording of a man snoring in a telescope.

(more…)

Facebook Twitter Digg Delicious StumbleUpon