Successful Anglesey companies.

At Holyhead is a success story that provides vital employment in a deprived area. We speak of no other than Holyhead Marine.

Holyhead Marine has one of the most modern and up to date yards of its size in the UK. The range of services available coupled with a skilled and permanent workforce means they can offer an efficient and effective service to their customers when it comes to refit and repair work.



They have an abundance of experience in refit/repair of a wide range of vessels for a number of prestigious clients including the RNLI, Ministry of Defence, Irish Ferries, SMIT, Bay Towage & Salvage and Stena Line.




For more information see Holyhead Marine
Support the Lifeboats

Is this the best example of empowerment for women?

The Daily Post today has an article seeking island contestants for the BBC ‘Weakest Link’ programme. The ‘Queen of Mean’ Anne Robinson we are told is planning a special edition of the BBC quiz, featuring contestants who live on islands.

This is a person who regularly makes fun of those, who dare not fit her image of the ideal world - the overweight, the different, and occasionally, in case you missed it, us the welsh. I personally do not habitually watch the programme, but if this is a reflection of society today, we might as well, all not bother.

‘Oh come on’ you may say, it’s a bit of harmless fun, but that’s the problem it’s not, it’s poking fun at the weaker elements of society, those we should be encouraging to believe in themselves. It glorifies the bully at the expense of the weak, it’s the ‘freak show’ of the worst kind, its not big and its not clever, and it should have no place in today’s society.

Anglesey and GVA - Part II

The following is an edited version of a briefing note from VONNE. To see complete document please follow this link: VONNE

Gross Value Added (GVA) is important measure in the estimation of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is the preferred measure of Government in assessing the overall economic well-being of an area. Both GVA and GDP are measures of output, however GDP is a key indicator of the state of the whole economy. To estimate GDP there are theoretical approaches of ‘production’. ‘income’ and ‘expenditure’. When using the production or income approaches, the contribution to the economy of each industry or sector is measured using GVA.

There is though known problems with the GVA measure. To get an accurate reflection of the GVA of a geographic area (sometimes referred to as GVA per head) you have to understand where each resident works, as assigning GVA to specific areas is often more complicated, and less reliable, by commuting. Hence areas of high workplace numbers (town and city centres) will show disproportionately high GVA, despite having a potentially small residential population. Conversely, high residential areas will have low GVA compared to the resident population numbers. This therefore creates difficulties in comparing areas and is why, when GVA per head is used, it is often accompanied with a note warning the effects of commuting can distort the figures supplied.

However, although GVA has a number of weaknesses, its calculations is fairly straightforward, it is based on information readily available, and it remains the dominant measure of economic activity globally.

Finest foods from Anglesey.

Today we praise another successful Ynys Môn food producer. So whether it’s for their famous Morello Cherry with Kirsch Preserve, or their large selection of marmalades, lemon curd chutneys and local honeys, we highly recommend

Beehive Preserves.

You can visit their website here. Either buy at their shop or by mail order, go on Christmas is not far away.

Picture from

Anglesey and GVA – Part I.

Albert Owen MP caused a bit of a stir when he wrote a recent letter to the Daily Post making some claims about Ynys Môn and the GVA (Gross Value Added) statistics.

Now, we are not about to defend what he said, that’s a matter for him, instead we thought we would consider some of issues that contribute to why the GVA of Ynys Môn is low in comparison to the national average.

First, we can look at the population as recorded by the census of 2001.

For details see Office of National Statistics

Things of note are the islands ageing populations in comparison to the national average, and the disappearing youth from age 19 upwards. We think they went to college or found permanent jobs across the bridge.

Then we can look at the economic inactive. According to a report by Ynys Mon County Council (see full report here) one of the main concerns is the high level of long term unemployed (more than 12 months), in comparison with national average. In March 2007 it was 28% of those claiming job seekers allowance in comparison to the national average of 13%.

To finish on the GVA statistics themselves, and we have no reason to doubt them, we only mention that they where adjusted for Ynys Môn for the pre 2001 data, and are as shown below:

For full report see here

Will temporary jobs lead to permanent recovery?

According to the Office of National Statistics, the UK GDP grew by 0.8 per cent in quarter three 2010. Read full report here.

The 0.8 per cent growth stemmed from:

• Service sector (0.4 per cent)
• Construction sector (0.2 per cent)
• Production sector (0.1 per cent)
• Growth in the Service sector was driven by the ‘business’, ‘health’ and ‘other’ sectors.

During the last two quarters the job market also showed reliance with employment levels growing by 184,000 jobs in quarter two 2010. However, and not widely reported, this masks differing situations between types of workers.

In the three quarters of labour market recovery from the recent recession, quarter three 2009 to quarter two 2010, total employment rose by 0.4 per cent (120,000). This was driven by part-time and temporary workers:

• Part-time jobs grew by 2.3 per cent (178,000)
• Full-time jobs fell by 0.3 per cent (59,000)

and

• Temporary employees grew by 10.4 per cent (149,000)
• Permanent employees fell by 0.4 per cent (101,000)

Which raises an important question, if the private sector is to provide the jobs to replace those lost in the public sector, are temporary or part time jobs the answer. A suggestion, we should be removing the barriers that stop the private sector from employing more of its workforce on a permanent basis. Doing so to the benefit of both employee and employer is the challenge

In praise of the local butcher

We on Ynys Môn are lucky; you do not need to travel far to find an excellent local butcher. Anybody that buys meat at a supermarket, please stop, and buy from your local butcher. Of course, not everyone can afford best cuts of meat these days, but you would be surprised at the range of reasonably priced meats a good local butcher will have.

So we give praise to the local butchers of the island, to name just a few – Owen Roberts of Amlwch (Corwas), Valley Butchers of Valley, J. Raymond Jones of Holyhead, E T Jones Sons and Daughter of Bodedern (Lamia), whom is one of the last remaining butchers that slaughter their own locally sourced livestock.

viva le france

On Tuesday, 2 November 2010 David Cameroon, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, signed two historic military agreements each lasting 50 years with the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Hopefully this will end the phoney war, that some pretend exists between Britain and France, or more specifically England and France. Some commentators still talk about ‘Waterloo’ as if it were yesterday; it was 1815, not long after the war of 1812 between Britain and the USA. Strangely this is not mentioned when that ‘special’ relationship is talked about.

France and Britain have cooperated military for sometime, it makes sense that as NATO allies, and neighbours; which together spend most on defence in Europe, that we work closer together. As we did in 1905, and the ‘Triple Entente’ (an alliance between the United Kingdom, the French Third Republic, and Russia), not forgetting the first and second world wars, and more recently as we did in Bosnia.

As for a joint military force, well France and Wales have been there already, when back in 1405 French soldiers landed at Milford Haven. They and the army of Owain Glyndwr marched towards England in the hope that the English followers of Richard II would join them and raise against Henry IV.

Finally, some are concerned that the agreements are the first steps towards an European Army, rather forgeting that on 11 August 1950, the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a motion tabled by Winston Churchill which called for the immediate establishment of a European Army so as to form a bulwark against Communism.

Never trust history

Ynys Môn is heaped in history and tradition, or so we are told, but not everything is a straight forward as you think.

Ynys Môn like many other parts of Wales it seems has many Celtic Saints; one meaning of Llan is a parish that surrounds the Church of a Saint. However, when you look closer at the dates, when many of the islands Saints where canonized, you will see they where around the 7th Century, which coincides with the Catholic revival of the period.

It reminds me of a time, after visiting Lourdes in France, we stumbled across a quiet and rather non descript French village and the start of a running joke - “What this place needs is a miracle!”.

We all know of a modern age Druid, that is fighting for the island, however the Druids may have not been here in the first place, even if one has returned, it was sadly the mistaken invention of Henry Rowlands.

Henry Rowlands (1655-1723) was born on Anglesey at Llanedwen and became rector of Llanidan Old Church. He wrote about farming practice in Idea Agriculturæ and in 1710 produced, in Latin, Antiquitates Parochiales about the ancient monuments of the locality. His best known work was Mona Antiqua Restaurata (1723)—literally ‘Ancient

Anglesey restored’—in which he mistakenly linked the island’s Bronze Age sites with the Druids, the priests and lawgivers of the ancient Celts. This fanciful anachronism, compounded by the English antiquarian William Stukeley, was seized upon in Victorian times and still persists today. However Rowlands does deserve credit for focussing attention on the island’s ancient sites.

Lord Walker

Do you remember the Thatcher era, when London governed Wales without a majority in Wales, how things have changed?

We do, and we fondly remember certain Conservative 'Secretary of State for Wales', of that period, namely Peter Walker and later David Hunt.

Above all we pay tribute to Lord Peter Walker.



Things are different these days due to devolution, and we can’t, in the most blame ‘London’ anymore, even the current 'Secretary of State for Wales'.

However sadly , we rather think that Cheryl Gillan (the current 'Secretary of State for Wales') is no substitute for these great conservative political icons of the past.

Lord Walker died at St Richard's Hospice on June 23, 2010 after suffering from cancer.