2013 and the Welsh football teams

Firstly Swansea City.
First major trophy competed for by English and Welsh clubs and only the second time a major trophy has been won by a Welsh team. A brilliant start in Europe beating Valencia comfortably away followed by just qualifying for the knockout stages of the Europa league. League form in 2013 has been patchy with only 39 points from 37 league games this year. Swansea still sit in mid table and 5 wins and 4 draws should leave them  safe.

Secondly Cardiff City
A very intersting year that has included promotion to the premiership, the sacking of the manager and ending 2013 only 2 points outside the relegation zone. Whilst the sacking of Malky Mackay was expected and whilst he was not the combination of Alex Ferguson, Bob Paisley and Brian Clough that some Cardiff supporters thought he was, he was a good young manager and Cardiff will find it difficult to replace him with a better manager.Would you want to be employed by Vincent Tan?

Thirdly Newport
Promotion back into the football league and currently in the fourth play off place in Division 2 . This is a year to savour for Newport supporters. Could they go on to a second succesive promotion in 2014. They have an excellent manager and team and will look forward to 2014 with confidence.

Wrexham
2013 started brightly and they got to the play off final before losing to Newport. This seaso has been tough and sees them nearer to relegation than promotion as the year end. I along with Wrexham supporters hope for a good run to get into the playoffs with the momentum taking them back into the football league.

Predictions
Swanseas end the Season in Mid table
Cardiff end the season in danger of relegation
Newport go up again via the playoffs
Wrexham to end mid table
Of course predictions are normally wrong!

Malky Mackay

It is slightly strange for a staunch Swansea City fan to write something nice about anyone associated with bitter rivals Cardiff City. I have never met Malky Mackay so all I have to go on is what fellow managers say, the Cardiff fans reaction to his proposed sacking  and his public persona via the media.

On the playing side Malky Mackay has got Cardiff into the Premiership and even Jimy Scoular whose side beat Real Madrid and got to the semi final of the European Cup winers cup and were just a goalkeeping error away from the final didn't achieve top division football.

Malky Mackay comes over as an individual committed to the club he manages and he has shown great restraint despite everything. On  transfer market activity and on results all I can say is so far a job well done.

Perhaps someone should have told Vincent Tan if you want a small fortune after owning a football club you need to start with a large one

A new structure for rugby union

Why can't the current English league and the current Welsh,Scottish, Irish and Italian league. The top half of each league  would form a new premier league and the bottom half a championship. We could have 4 up and 4 down for he first three years so that the leagues would sort themselves out. A pyramid system with playoffs could be created below. This structure I am sure would attract crowds and more importantly a bt and sky bidding war. Of course the above William not happen, too many vested interests

South Wales football

As Swansea city progress to the last 32 of the Europa cup, Cardiff city stay well above the premiership relegation zone and Newport are in one of the play off positions in division 2 (division 4 as was) Welsh club football in south Wales is in good health.
If the second half of the season  follows the first then next season will have two premiership teams for the second successive year and Newport could well progress to division 1.
Each club has taken a different route Swansea via local people and the supporters trust, Cardiff via a very rich foreign owner and Newport have benefitted from a local lottery winner.
The problem of relying on one rich individual is what happens when they lose interest?

Pisa

If Pisa results are the all important results at key stage 3 should we not ensure that schools practice them before the children take the tests
I can think of no test where practice and learning techniques will not improve the result.

Other key questions
How many substitute students were used in Wales as opposed to other countries
How many Welsh schools refused to do the test compared to other countries
How much practice did other countries do pre  test
We're examination conditions identical in all countries
Was the linguistic difficulty the same in each country

Why Scotland cannot keep the Pound

On the question of currency, we have a recent example of an amicable split by two Countries when Slovakia and the Czech Republic split. Initially the old Czechoslovak currency, the Czechoslovak Koruna, was used in both countries following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia on the 31^st December 1992. By the 8^th February 1993, the two new Countries had adopted national currencies in the form of the Czech Koruna and the Slovak Koruna. At the beginning, the currencies had an equal exchange rate, but later on the value of the Slovak Koruna was up to 30% lower than that of the Czech Koruna. For Scotland, the alternatives seem to be to have a Scottish Pound or for Scotland to enter the Euro however, we know that enthusiasm to enter into the Euro has declined since the debt crisis that has occurred in several European nations.

 

Further back in history, we had the split from the rest of the Great Britain by the Republic of Ireland. Ireland had a currency, the Irish Punt, that during the days of fixed exchange rates was pegged to the pound sterling but following the advent of "floating" exchange rates, its value varied against the pound sterling until Ireland entered the Euro in January 2002.

The Czech and Slovak joint currency lasted less than 40 days; why would anyone expect a British and Scottish joint pound to last any longer?

The next question we must ask is would an Independent Scotland want to join the European Community and if accepted what would happen toits currency 

New members also have to join the Euro and adopt tougher European Treaty obligations on border controls, crime and security. Even if Scotland was to join the European Union, it would have to join on the terms offered to new members and not rely on the current agreement reached between the UK and EU.

Swansea AM calls for more 20mph zones outside schools

To coincide with the start of national Road Safety Week, Swansea’s Labour AM Mike Hedges has today repeated his support for the roll out of 20mph zones outside local schools to help improve the safety and wellbeing of children.

The calls from the Swansea East AM follow on from today’s announcement from Transport Minister Edwina Hart that the Welsh Government will be holding a public consultation on introducing new statutory guidance for risk assessing walked routes to school.

The consultation, which opened earlier today as part of Road Safety Week, aims to seek the views of children, parents, teachers and road users on improving the safety of both school walking routes and Welsh roads.   

Earlier this year, Mike Hedges, who is a Chair of governors at both Glyncollen and Ynystawe Primary schools, supported a Senedd debate with other AMs to discuss and highlight the importance on rolling out more 20mph zones outside schools and on roads in built-up areas.

Although the decision to change speed limits is a local council prerogative, the Welsh Government has given local authorities £11.5m this year to introduce more 20mph zones.    

Speaking on the news of a public consultation, local AM Mike Hedges said:

“We have a duty to our young people to ensure that the routes they use to get to and from school are safe and free from harm. That’s why I believe the introduction of more 20mph zones around school routes would go a long way towards creating an environment where children can travel safely. 

“With this new consultation starting today as part of Road Safety Week, I would urge all children, parents, teachers, pedestrians and road users to get involved by having their say on this important issue.”