Gaz Ceidiog

05/11/2023

Whatever happens in Vegas can stay there as far as I’m concerned…

Whatever happens there is welcome to stay there as far as I’m concerned

18/08/2023

Have written about being unable to write ✍️📝

On writer’s block

14/08/2023

Idealists might actually be the real realists

Idealism has something of a bad name. But should it?

11/08/2023

Not every push to return to the old pre-Covid norm is necessarily a positive one.

Not every push to return to the old pre-Covid norm is necessarily a good one.

29/07/2023

Wrote something about the most wrongheaded piece of PR advice I’ve ever received 🙄

You can read it here 👇

Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash

24/07/2023

Have written something about why I rarely enjoy my birthday all that much 🎉 🎂 🥳

Photo by Liza Pooor on Unsplash

23/07/2023

Writing press releases is a bad idea ✍️

Here’s why:👇

The humble press release forms the basis of the PR strategy of many a comms professional.

13/11/2022

Wholesome Welsh content 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿😍

16/12/2021

Westminster treats Wales with contempt

Gareth Ceidiog Hughes The UK Government is taking us for a bunch of mugs. If you want an example of Westminster’s sheer distain for Wales, and its disregard for its people, you don’t need to look much further than how it has dealt with calls for a St David’s Day bank holiday. The Scottish and ...

11/11/2021

England and Man Utd star Marcus Rashford has backed the parents in a row over school meals at a Gwynedd secondary.

Manchester United football star Marcus Rashford has intervened after a headteacher in the north of Wales wrote to parents to tell them children wouldn’t be fed in they were more than a penny in debt. In a letter to parents, Neil Foden, the strategic head of Ysgol Dyffryn Nantlle in Penygroes, Gwyn...

11/11/2021

A Tory MP, who wants the Senedd to be scrapped, is facing a ban from the Westminster Parliament for an “insincere” apology after he was found guilty of bullying by a sleaze watchdog.

An anti-Senedd Tory MP is facing a ban from Parliament for an “insincere” apology after he was found guilty of bullying by a sleaze watchdog. Daniel Kawczynski, who has called for the Senedd to be scrapped, was ordered to say sorry by Standards Commissioner Kathryn Stone after he was found to ha...

27/10/2021

If Wales is such a burden, why doesn’t Westminster get rid?

Gareth Ceidiog Hughes The First Minister has recently suggested that successive UK Government have viewed Wales as “ungrateful and ever-demanding subsidy junkies”. If Mark Drakeford’s analysis is correct, and I suspect that it very much is, then it raises an interesting question, which is why ...

01/10/2021

"It does appear as if relations between Mark Drakeford and Keir Starmer are not entirely harmonious."

Gareth Ceidiog Hughes Politicians often talk in code. It can be impolitic for them to be quite as direct as they like, and therefore they opt for a more indirect approach. Sometimes they wish to communicate dissent while presenting their party as a united front. Sometimes they don’t want to get in...

02/09/2021

"At worst it would put Drakeford under Starmer’s thumb and ensure that the Welsh Government dances to the tune of what suits Labour at Westminster, not what benefits the people of Wales."

Gareth Ceidiog Hughes Keir Starmer is not the most senior Labour politician in the UK. The most senior Labour politician in the UK is currently the First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford. Starmer is the leader of the official opposition in Westminster, which is ostensibly a powerful position. But t...

27/08/2021

There was a time when the world had two Welsh speaking Prime Ministers.

There was a time when the world had two Welsh speaking Prime Ministers. British PM David Lloyd George had a companion on the world stage in the form of Billy Hughes, Australia’s then Prime Minister who was raised in Llandudno. It is exactly a century since Hughes, known affectionately Down Under a...

26/08/2021

Not a way to win over Welsh hearts and minds I would suggest

A GB News presenter has suggested that the English are being “exploited” by Wales. Former Brexit Party MEP Alex Phillips made the suggestion during her take on saving the union on the ‘anti-woke’ channel. She said the English were “wearying perhaps” that their “prosperity” was being ...

04/08/2021

I despise people who view us like this

Yn casau pobl sy’n edrych arnom fel hyn

A Belfast-based academic has compared the Welsh language movement to N***s. Dr James Dingley, a sociologist who has researched nationalism at Queen’s University Belfast, accused the movement that campaigns for the rights of Welsh speakers of fostering a “sectarian divide”. He also claimed that...

04/08/2021

Why the title of First Minister should be ditched

By Gareth Ceidiog Hughes The title of First Minster isn’t a great one. Indeed, it is so bad, it is questionable whether Wales should have a First Minister at all. Now, by this I don’t mean that we get rid of the post for leader of our democratically elected government – far from it. No, […]

14/07/2021

Wedi sgwennu’r erthygl yma

Have written this article

Gareth Ceidiog Hughes Should the people running Wales have a basic understanding of the country in which they live? The Welsh Government has recently come to the view that the answer to that question is yes, they should. It has moved to ensure that ‘basic Welsh skills’ are a requirement for civi...

07/07/2021

Wedi sgwennu’r erthygl yma

Gareth Ceidiog Hughes Even when you play international football for another country, your success is ultimately all about England. That was the assumption behind the peculiar, yet entirely typical question from an English journalist to the Danish goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel. The expression on the i...

14/04/2021

Wedi sgwennu’r erthygl yma

Have written this article

Gareth Ceidiog Hughes Being a travel writer does not necessarily make someone open-minded or worldly-wise. Indeed, it seems you can travel all over the globe and take your ignorance and prejudices with you, along with the shirts, socks and boxers you’ve packed in your suitcase. Nobody exemplifies ...

21/03/2021

Have written this article

Wedi sgwennu’r erthygl yma

Gareth Ceidiog Hughes Welsh is a British language, but you wouldn’t know that from how it is treated at Westminster. At best it is treated with a casual disregard, and at worst it is treated with sheer contempt. It was recently described as a ‘foreign language’ in the House of …

08/03/2021

Have written this article on Welsh Labour’s electoral success

Gareth Ceidiog Hughes Labour has been the dominant political force in Wales for around a century. Since the advent of devolution 22 years ago, it has handily won every election to our national parliament and therefore led every Welsh Government. A slew of polls for the Senedd election have projected...

31/01/2021

They just don’t get it

Gareth Ceidiog Hughes Senedd abolitionists would have you believe that once upon a time there was a happy and wonderful place called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Well, that is until a New Labour government led by Tony Blair got bored one day and decided, just …

28/12/2020

This is something we need to start thinking about

Gareth Ceidiog Hughes Sometimes you can get a gauge of where an independence movement is at from what its critics say about it. For example, in Scotland, unionists start crowing when a poll shows support for independence at 52 per cent instead of 58 per cent. If that is a …

21/12/2020

If the independence movement is going to be successful we need to build and maintain a broad church, whether we lik it or not

Gareth Ceidiog Hughes YesCymru came in for a bit of stick recently for having the temerity to reach out to conservatives. In a tweet, they said that it was unionism not conservatism they took umbrage with. Oh boy, did the pitchforks come out when it was suggested that you don’t …

19/12/2020

https://nation.cymru/news/wales-to-go-into-lockdown-at-midnight-and-christmas-relaxation-reduced-to-one-day/

Wales will go into lockdown at midnight tonight and the Christmas relaxation has dropped to just one day. The rules which allow two households to come together to form a Christmas bubble over a five-day period will apply on Christmas Day only. It comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson put …

08/12/2020

Wedi sgwennu’r erthygl yma. Da iawn I’m a Celeb

Gareth Ceidiog Hughes As a Welsh speaker, you’re often on the receiving end of a fair few slings and arrows. So, when the news broke that I’m a Celeb was coming to Wales because the covid pandemic meant the programme couldn’t be filmed in Australia, a fair few Welsh speakers …

30/11/2020

Devolution is dying. It’s now independence or bust

Gareth Ceidiog Hughes We keep being told that independence is not the only option. Yes, plenty of Welsh unionists are prepared to admit that the current system is complete and utter garbage. They say they understand why we would want independence, but that it is not the answer to our …

24/11/2020

Have written this article about the Abolish clown show 🤡

Gareth Ceidiog Hughes You just have to laugh, don’t you? Well, you don’t have to – but you might as well, because let’s face it, the Abolish the Welsh Assembly clown show is objectively hilarious. Don’t get me wrong, I would very much prefer that the forces dedicated to the …