Just marked a dissertation on Attlee. A nice reminder that what you do in office ultimately matters far more than public perceptions of your personality or style. Labour's problem isn't that its leader isnt appealing. The problem is the lack of action.

Listening to someone from Reform talk about how he stood for the Senedd because of all the scandals in politics. Pity the interviewer never pointed out a previous Welsh Reform leader is in prison for taking Russian bribes.

Carmarthen result shows stupidity of new system. Plaid 43% means 3 seats. Reform 32% means 3 seats.

8 May 1945 Europe celebrated VE day and the defeat of fascism. They also remembered the millions of lives lost in that war. 81 years on a chunk of the electorate seem to have forgotten what the politics of hate and grievance can lead to.

Rhywbeth i’w ddarllen tra'n aros am y canlyniadau, efallai. @richardwynjones.bsky.social @danieljhartley.bsky.social @jasminedonahaye.bsky.social nationtimecymrusydd.wordpress.com/2026/05/07/i...

The bookies at least are certain.

One way to interpret these data (there are alternative interpretations) is that universities, financially desperate to raise NSS scores & (in England) ditto TEF scores, are so desperate to please students by dropping deadlines & attendance requirements that they are lowering their employability. 1/2

Wrote this a few years ago about election day. (The electoral system is now better but still a bit rubbish.) martinjohnes.com/2019/12/12/i...

Next preview! New ‘Gilded Nightmare’ Shadows Over Cymru: Uncanny Stories of the Welsh Weird. Edited by Aaron Worth. Surely one of the prettiest jackets yet! & check out that contents list. Publishing 26/05.

A new oral history project celebrating Cardiff's live music scene is inviting young people to record their best music memories

Cardiff Waterstones, Thursday at 7pm: I'm interviewing Will Hayward about his new book about the economic and political problems Wales faces. www.waterstones.com/events/who-c...

Nice reminder of pitfalls in the digitisation of historical documents.

Do councils tell people when their application to be on the electoral register has been processed? I've spoken to a number of students who registered but have no idea if they are actually able to vote.

We don't teach as much Welsh history as we should in our schools. This short essay is about why Welsh history matters. martinjohnes.com/2026/04/23/w...

Fully-funded AHRC PhD scholarship at Swansea: the history of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in Wales, 1945-1994. www.swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate...

Just finished this by @willhaycardiff.bsky.social It's passionate, lively, informed and provocative. Wales needs radical change and this book explains why.

Nice 1914 addition to my collection of Welsh history school books.

no one likes historians because every time someone says “oh this is unheard of” historians are all like “well actually” and fundamentally it just doesn’t sound as impressive if you have to say “in these slightly precedented times”

Has anyone written anything on how devolving UKRI funding would work in practice?

Fully-funded AHRC PhD scholarship at Swansea: the history of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in Wales, 1945-1994. www.swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate...

Rhondda Valley, south Wales, 1957, photo by Philip Jones Griffiths.

"Young people leave school knowing little about the story of Wales". Article in the Western Mail by myself and David Eagan calling for a new approach to Welsh history in the Curriculum for Wales. www.walesonline.co.uk/news/educati...

I'm interviewing Will about his new Welsh politics book at Swansea Waterstones on 22 April.

Gutted but at least there's no moral dilemma about whether to visit Trump's America this summer.

Saw the Cross of Conbelin today. A thousand years old and stunning.

Peter was a great historian, great company, and possibly the only person ever to be simultaneously a season-ticket holder at Cardiff City and Swansea City.

Man at a bus stop with a teddy bear, Cardiff, 1973, photo by David Hurn, Magnum agency photographer.

We’re hosting a postgraduate conference on Welsh history with colleagues at Cardiff University. Featuring presentations, workshops, and space to share ideas about researching the Welsh past. 📲 Sign up via the QR code!

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿Meanwhile, if you want to learn about St David's Day, Welsh traditions, how we celebrate our patron saint's day both now and in the past and, of course, about Dewi Sant himself, I wrote this lengthy article last year. nathenamin.substack.com/p/dydd-gwyl-...

A piece by me on why the Curriculum for Wales needs to change if we want more Welsh history to be taight in our schools. nation.cymru/opinion/if-w...

A piece by me on why the Curriculum for Wales needs to change if we want more Welsh history to be taight in our schools. nation.cymru/opinion/if-w...

An event to bring together current, recent and future Welsh History postgrads in Swansea. Any queries just let me know! Signup here: forms.office.com/e/jBcZ05m2TR

Fully-funded AHRC PhD studenship at Swansea on Childhood, Play & Policymaking in Wales, 1945 to the present www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQM758/p...

An event to bring together current, recent and future Welsh History postgrads in Swansea. Any queries just let me know! Signup here: forms.office.com/e/jBcZ05m2TR

I'm speaking at this charity event in Cardiff about how to write history.

Today i examined a brilliant PhD on Welsh fishing heritage, chatted to tutees about skills & their futures, looked over illustrations for a kids book I've written, & plotted research ideas with colleagues. Unis are rubbish places to work at the moment but there are good days.

In the 17th and 18th centuries combing your hair with your hand was called using a Welsh comb, presumably a prejorative reference to Welsh poverty. greensdictofslang.com/entry/v3qaxka

Workers’ Cafe, Salford, 1957, photo by Neil Libbert.

Maliphant Street, Hafod, Swansea (study), 1956-7, painting by George Little, 1927–2017 (Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales).

There are 3 fully-funded AHRC PhD studentships in Welsh History coming up at Swansea. Topics: play since 1945; anti-apartheid movement; Patagonia. All include placements with external bodies. Feel free to contact me if you're interested.

I've signed this, although GCSE isn't the real problem. We need a compulsory "Our Wales" course taken at the old keystage 3 (ages 11-14). It should cover Welsh history, how the Senedd & Welsh democracy works, and key creative writers in both languages.

150 years ago today, 4 men (a solicitor, insurance clerk, stonemason and another) met at the Wynnstay Arms in Wrexham for the first formal committee meeting of the Football Association of Wales. (An earlier plan to call it the Cambrian Football Association was quietly dropped.)

Recycling is probably the only policy area where Welsh Government has been successful and effective. I don't know why this is but there must be some lessons for other policy areas.

A perceptive essay. Well worth a read.

The loss of expertise in Welsh Universities is a blow that our nation cannot afford. It's not only our students that will suffer, but everyone who depends on the research and analysis that these academics produce. I've asked Welsh Gov't to assess the impact of their actions to support universities.

Terry Yorath was a giant of Welsh football and key to my own relationship with it. His picture always jumped out at me in 70s Shoot albums. He was Swansea manager when I first started going to matches. He managed the 1st Wales team I cared about. A real hero.

From a 1902 letter complaining that Welsh choirs are becoming too English in style.

A short essay by me on the history of advent calendars in the UK. martinjohnes.com/2020/12/01/a...

"The Labour-led Welsh Government loves to highlight the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. So why is it so comfortable in underfunding, belittling the staff of, and destroying our world-renowned national institutions?"