Issue #94 Jack Swan Magazine by Jack Swan

SU E# 94 IS

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O NÔ S E O R C / K C A B ELCOME

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Sioned Williams AS/MS News from your Regional MS

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Local businesses are at the heart of our communities. Last month following a spate of break-ins in Neath town centre I held a meeting with independent business owners, the Police and leaders and officers of NPT Council to discuss how best to tackle an increase in anti-social behaviour and crime which is affecting trade. There are similar issues that affect many of our town centres and high streets across the region and it remains an important focus of my work to ensure our communities are safe and prosperous. If you feel this is an issue in your area or have any ideas about how we can address the problems please get in touch.

Mae busnesau lleol wrth galon ein cymunedau. Y mis hwn yn dilyn cyfres o ddigwyddiadau yng nghanol Castell-nedd cynhaliais gyfarfod gyda pherchnogion busnes annibynnol, yr Heddlu ac arweinwyr a swyddogion Cyngor CNPT i drafod y ffordd orau o fynd i’r afael â chynnydd mewn ymddygiad gwrthgymdeithasol a throseddau sy’n effeithio ar fasnach. Mae materion tebyg yn effeithio ar lawer o’n trefi a’n strydoedd mawr ar draws y rhanbarth ac mae’n parhau i fod yn ffocws pwysig i’m gwaith i sicrhau bod ein cymunedau’n ddiogel ac yn llewyrchus. Os teimlwch fod hwn yn broblem yn eich ardal neu os oes gennych unrhyw syniadau am sut y gallwn fynd i’r afael â’r problemau, cysylltwch â mi.

www.sionedwilliams.wales Sioned.Williams@Senedd.cymru 01639 203204 Talwyd costau’r dudalen hon gan Gomisiwn y Senedd, o gronfeydd cyhoeddus The costs of this page have been met by the Senedd Commission from public funds

LITTLE INTRO I often talk about the difficulty with the timing of sending a magazine to print. This month I’ve had to send it off slightly earlier than usual which means you’ll be reading this after the Rotherham game. So, we will all have a slightly better idea of where we are at when the magazine is printed than I do right now. I’m going to assume that we won 8-0 in style, and we are all in the same mindset- Champions elect!!!! Genuinely, things look good to me. I’m a happy fan. Allen for Downes made sense and was what I thought would happen. The money from the sale has allowed us to keep hold of Obafemi and Piroe (so far) and there aren’t too many better front pairs than them in this league. I wouldn’t say that the back three look solid, but individually I like who we have there and I think our style is always going to put us on pins at the back from time to time. The midfield has a nice balance to it. I’m pleasantly surprised to see Jay Fulton not only remain at the club but involved. He’s not a typical Martin player but he’s a dependable midfielder who offers bite and goals. I’ve always liked him, and our squad looks better with him in it. You feel like a lot of the creativity will be left to Patterson once more. Keeping him fit will be key, however, we have a young and hungry Cam Congreve knocking on the door and I’m excited about him getting more football. I’d be lying if I said that I knew much of our wingbacks. What I will say though is that the Gaffa has chosen them. I liked Bidwell but he obviously couldn’t do what was being asked of him. You always felt that Wolf was a bodged fit. We start the season with a squad and wingbacks that our manager wants here and with a specific style; that must be a good thing. Blackburn will see the home return of Joe Allen and it will be a strange return for him. Joey left us as a young man, in the early stages of his career and in a dressing room packed with big personalities. Tatey, Ashley Williams, Garry Monk, Leon Britton, Angel Rangel and Nathan Dyer have all gone. There is nobody that remains. Kris O’Leary is probably his most recognisable face. And he’s a proper man now. Champions League football, Euros, soon to be World Cup football and he very nearly won the Premier League. He is inevitably going to be a big voice in that dressing room. We need him to be it. He’s got to do that without pissing off club captain Matty Grimes and the experienced Kyle Naughton. I’m sure he will but it must have been a very strange few weeks. Whether we did win 8-0, or we lost 8-0, or anywhere in-between, let’s get behind Russel and the boys because I sense a good season coming!!!

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The Rob Stewart Interview (Swansea Council Leader) Swansea Council have and will continue to play a significant role in the clubs success. This issue I spoke with Council leader Rob Stewart about the club, the stadium and the future of Swansea on a grander scale. I’ve split the interview up into footballing related (which we have here) and less footballing related which we have later in the magazine. How much has the success of Swansea City Football Club over the last 15 years or so helped the city. Does it make any real difference to the city? Yeah, economically the club is massively important. When the club were in the Premier League, the global reach of the swans as a brand and therefore the city, you could not buy that. I remember my previous work was with government, setting up factories etc. in different countries and I’ve been to Brazil a couple of times. Nobody knew Swansea the first time that I went out. When I went back, nobody knew Wales, but everyone knew Swansea because of the football club, and you cannot overestimate how important that is to the city. But does that really matter? When we are getting the arena together or whatever, surely it doesn’t really matter? Of course it does. I think with Premiership status comes a certain awareness and the Premier League is global. It is a status which lifts you above where you would otherwise. In terms of status, when you are talking with people who want to invest or want to create jobs then football is a good leveller, it’s a good opening gambit. That is something which is unquantifiable but there is good evidence to suggest that the economic impact is there to see thanks to the football club and we should all be thankful for that. Obviously as a Swansea lad, you want to see us do better than Cardiff. As leader, I want to see us back in the premiership because the interest that we had from China a few years back, from America obviously, it does give us an awareness which we don’t usually have.

Were you involved at all with the stadium coming into being? I became a politician first in 2003, so the stadium was at the point where it was nearly completed. I know the background as to why the council took the decision to develop the land so that it didn’t fall on taxpayers. The council were right to show the ambition they did because we had the swans at risk of dropping out of the league completely. The council actually stepped in twice to support the club and ensure they continued to be a functioning club and I think they were right to do that. When you are setting out to build something like the stadium, it’s not always clear what the benefit is to the taxpayer but I think the council were really clever because what we did here has been copied across the country in other towns and cities. Essentially, all the development around the stadium and the funding from that was used to pay for the stadium. That was the foundation for the club to set out its ambitions and become a more professional outlet and get to the premier league. I think that if the club was still at the Vetch and I know that emotively the vetch is still a special place and a big part of history, but I don’t think the swans would have got back into the premiership without the stadium. It was the right thing to do. And as you say, it has gone full circle, where the council’s investment in the club has helped the club which has helped the city grow? Yeah, and I’m a believer that we must work together. We have created since 2014 what we call ‘Team Swansea’, it’s not a

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cheesy speech, it’s a real think. I talk regularly to the chief exec of the Swans and the stadium as well as the university and the major organisations across the city to understand their plans and their ambitions and to ensure that we can work collaboratively to bring this city forward and support each other. Obviously, there are strict rules by FIFA and UEFA as to how involved a council or government can be with a football club, if in, 5- or 10-years’ time or whatever, the club wanted to expand the stadium, can the council put any money towards it? The council still own the stadium and obviously it is leased to the club. We have been very clear, that if the club wanted to purchase and own the asset then that is something that we have no issue in principle of doing. There is a whole raft of ways that the asset can be expanded. As owners and landlords of the stadium we could legally expand it ourselves I imagine. However, for the taxpayers, we obviously need to ensure that any deal is right. So really, we wouldn’t rule out putting any money in, but it would need to be in a way that was lawful and was a good deal for the taxpayer. You mention the building and the development down there, obviously there were a lot of grassroot football fields there. Do we have enough football pitches in Swansea for grassroots? We certainly have enough open spaces; I think Robert Francis Davies said that we have more open spaces in our city than any other of our size. We have been working again with the academy and the swans to create 2G, 3G and all-weather pitches across the city and we have had a massive expansion in those sort of facilities over last 5 or 6 years.

Innovative ways, like the redevelopment of our schools. People may not know but we have spent £150 million on schools but this isn’t just on buildings but on things like 3g pitches. We want to ensure that there are all-weather pitches across the county. As well as that, we have tried to support clubs to take ownership of their fields. Saying ‘if you are a football club then you probably have a better idea of what you need that we do’ and allowing them to have more control over it. We are in strange times in grassroots football. The Mens game here has declined a lot. I played Sunday League for years and we had 3 or 4 leagues running and now there aren’t any. However, the girls and women’s football are increasing dramatically, it’s hard to foresee the future but in ten years’ time, if as many women are playing the game as men do, which looks possible. Where can they play? All I can say is that everywhere that we have delivered all weather pitches, they are fully booked. Demand still outstrips supply. We have been re-elected, I think football remains the major participated sport for men, boys, girls and women and I think it’s great that more people are playing the game. We want to support that because it leads to healthier lifestyle, mental health and development. For all those reasons it’s the right thing to do. We invested £1 million into a skate park; we have a programme of about £20 million going into sports which includes more all-weather pitches. That skate park looks as if it’s been a bit of fun to get through! Yeah, its not our delivery but its on land that we are in control of. Clearly there were people that didn’t want it in that

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location, but the community views were the one that won out. deliver and set out a stall that ‘we are going to deliver an arena in Swansea and not just because we want a shiny new If you’d have told me 20 odd years ago that Swansea building but because we want people to come here, for would have got to the Premier League and everything Swansea to be a destination again’. Now at the time I didn’t that went with it, then I wouldn’t have believed you. Its have the money to do it, I had the ambition, but some people nearly 20 years since you became a councillor. Would you didn’t have the belief. I managed to secure the city deal of £1.3 have believed the change in Swansea over that time? billion which created the finance. I’ve lived in Swansea all my life and I want it to succeed, I’ve lived and worked here all my life. Political point for a moment, That’s now created interest and private investors are now for a long part of the 2000s I think we drifted, we missed out investing in Swansea again. Private investors are contributing on a lot of investment which happened in the north of £1 billion into this city, more than we have ever had. You look England and in places like Cardiff and Bristol. across the skyline and we have crains at various sites. If people haven’t been into the city since covid then when they get here; Why was that? it’s a different city. It is not done yet; we still have major I don’t think we had ambition. This is not to criticise anyone challenges and of course we had to do this through Brexit and but it’s the signs of a coalition and we had a coalition in covid, but we have to step up, we have to believe ourselves Swansea for 8 years. What always comes with a coalition is more, we have had too much small-town thinking. compromises and people balancing other parties’ points of view. People trying to work together to run Swansea and I am Before the last election. I put out in the press that we were not a great believer that coalitions deliver. It’s not a criticism going to deliver an aquarium for Swansea. Now, when I did of anyone, I’ll leave the party politics for the chamber. that for the arena 5 or 6 years ago, I had loads of people saying ‘it won’t happen, it will go to Cardiff etc…” when I did What I hope that we have been able to do since 2012 and that for the aquarium, I didn’t get that. I had people saying since I took over as leader in 2014 is to say that ‘we are going “where will it be? What’s going to be in it? Who is going to run to change the city centre’. My background is in project it? But nobody questions that it would happen. That’s a big management, my background is in project delivery, I came to change in the perception of what we can do. politics with a skill set to do that and you only get one crack at it and when I became leader, I wanted to deliver on the things As we have done is Sport, there were loads of fans that didn’t that we promised people. You are always going to get people believe we could get back in the Premiership but we did. My who disagree, people used to say ‘things never happen here, job as council leader, is to ensure that the city gets back into Cardiff will get it’ and in a sense we were talking ourselves into the Premiership and you have to back yourself to do that. failure. More on the future of Swansea and the politics side from A part of my first job was to convince people that we could page 34

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SEASON PREDICTIONS - RELEGATION? TOP TWO? This time last year I remember having a chat with a Cardiff fan. As scummers go, he’s alright and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting up with him later in the year after we completed the double, especially knowing that he was in Lego land that day! But before all that, we had a chat about how we thought the season would go for each of us. “You could go down” he said. At that time, I thought that he was right. We’d once again sold our best players, brought in some on loan and we looked a weaker side than the year before… and the year before that… and the year before that and so on. He went on to say (his words) that “we (Cardiff ) are too good to go down”. Once again, at that point, I (quietly) agreed. That one conversation made last season all the better, watching them fighting relegation and him later telling me that Steve Morrison “kept them up”. That was last season but there is now a noticeably far better feeling. The pessimists are predicting that we will finish mid-table as against bottom 3 as they did twelve months ago. The optimists are hoping for the top two as against scraping the play-offs. I’m one of those frustrating fans that flitter from one extreme to the next. I genuinely thought we were staring relegation in the eye at the start of the last campaign and I’m now certain that we will win every game this season with a goal difference of +500. I asked a few fans what they thought:-

How will Swans do this season? What are your predictions and why? Vince Morris: Top 2 for me uptheswans wjbs Terry John: Top 10 if we bring in another 2 players midfield and forward and not to many injuries Michael Williams: Piroe and obafemi are the best strike force in the division. If we don’t keep giving up STUPID goals away they should be thinking top 6 Darren Maddock: Ambitious I know but I think top 6. We have proven goalscorers at this level, midfield also. Young, thriving defence monitored by Naughts and no doubt fittest team in the league. Ambitious I admit but get a good start and who knows. Kevin Beer: 1st. You have to believe Peter Beynon: We’re up against to many side with much more cash than us mid table but playing with pride and not a pile of debt, hope I’m wrong and we get promoted YJB Nigel Lewis: Depends what system we play Howard Wyn Jones: Playoffs hopefully Phil Hopkins: Top 6 David Nicholls: Mid table again. Mike Duffy: A bit more discipline needed too Gareth Price: Half way

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Player Watch Kyle Naughton

We’ve compared our central midfielders in recent issues and the sheer number of passes each player has had. This issue we look further back at Kyle Naughton and comparing him to himself the previous campaign. I tried to find a like-for-like game for comparison. Ideally a game against the same team, at the same location, with the same score. I found two of those! Sadly, Kyle didn’t play in both fixtures and so the best I could do was compare Middlesboro home 21/22 which we drew 1-1 and Middlesboro home 20/21 which we won 2-1. There are two very clear visuals here. You can see the heat map which shows where Kyle has been in both matches. You can then see the touch map next to it which shows all the touches he made. The first thing which is clear from both these visuals is that Naughton is seeing far more of the ball under Russel Martin. He had 125 touches last season v ‘Boro and just 43 the previous campaign. What is also clear is where he is getting these touches.

V ‘Boro 21/22

V ‘Boro 20/21

In both matches, he played as a part of a back three however our current gaffa sees him as more of a quarter-back dictating play rather than a full back pushed inside. To emphasise the change. The long image below each map shows the number of touches per minute over the 90 mins. Last season, there was no sustained period where our centre half was not involved. Whereas the season previous, there was long spells where he didn’t get on the ball. Kyle is one of our most experienced, calm and gifted footballers. It makes sense for him to be involved, he has had times in centre midfield, but his role here now seems to be one where we get the best from him both defensively and time on the ball. I can’t pretend to always be his biggest fan as a full-back, I didn’t think he offered us the attacking threat in the later Premier League years that what we needed. However, right now, with the role that he has, I don’t think we have a more important player at the club!

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Reckon some of you may dislike me for this!!! NO Answers back anymore as requested the locals the the Masons in Wanuarlwydd. Just foratathe change: Answers are onbypage 98!inGet linkArms between all 4 asBlame well them!!!! Send your answers to 07880 369545 to get your name in next months issue! There is a link between all five! Text in your answers to 07880 369545

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1) How many moves are required to transport the balls from the tube I to tube III if all the balls must remain in the same order? Describe each move. 2) In a game of Tug-o’-War, Oliver and John easily won over Thomas and Jacob. When Oliver and Thomas were a team, they could barely pull Jacob and John. When Oliver and Jacob played in a team against Thomas and John, the game ended in a draw. Can you name each person from strongest to weakest? 3) Sophie and Caroline made arrangements to meet at a cafe at 2 p.m. Sophie thinks her watch is 25 minutes fast, although it is 10 minutes delayed. Caroline thinks her watch is 10 minutes slow, while it is 5 minutes soon. What will happen if they both aim to arrive precisely on time?

4) In which direction the car is moving? 10)

5) It's 3:35. If the clock is rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise, what time will?

6) Can you help the police finding the armed robber? The robber was with blue trowsers, straight striped hat and mustache and he stole a watch!

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A little known fact, Elvis served in the bomb disposal unit during his military service due to his experience with suspicious mines. I saw a bloke with one arm and one leg was about to be hanged. I started shouting out letters. Did you hear about the thoughtful Scotsman who was heading out to the pub? He turned to his wee wife before leaving and said, ‘Jackie – put your hat and coat on lassie.’ She replied, ‘Awe Iain that’s nice – are you taking me to the pub with you?’ ‘Nah, I’m just switching the central heating off while I’m out.’ With a first date in a French Restaurant and I decided I would try to impress her with the French I learned at school. After a perfectly pronounced delivery, the waiter set off for the kitchen. After a few minutes, he returned and said..."would Sir like to order now I have shut the door and opened the window?" My mate with a stutter was telling me about his nan. By the end of it, we were all singing Hey Jude. Got offered a job with a starting salary of £25,000 rising to £30,000 after 6 months. They said I could start immediately, I said nah, I'll start in 6 months. I've had it with Amazon. Every time I order some chicken pellets I get an email a few days later asking for their feed back! Donna a girl at work has put on a bit of weight and has taken up speed walking at lunch time . She asked the lads If they wanted anything while she was out . One of the lads asked if she could stop by the deli and get him a bottle of tabasco . Later when she got back to the workshop she said "who wants this tabasco" Chris shouts out "anyone order a large Donna with chilli sauce" 3D printers are so realistic now. I printed out a life-sized Bob Marley playing the guitar and the paper started jammin'. The Beach Boys stood at the bar. Round? Round.. Get a round? I'll get a round.

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A new car has been launched for American cowboys. The Audi Partner. My Father in law's been showing off his new hearing aid. "State of the art, cost me a fortune" he said. So I asked him, "What type is it?" "Half two" I was setting a voice recognition password for my new phone and a dog nearby barked and ran away. Now I'm looking for that feckin dog to unlock my phone. Last night my wife wore a police uniform in bed and said, "you've been arrested for being good in bed!" 90 seconds later the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence. "Well Dave, thanks for bringing your plate to the Antiques Roadshow...Unfortunately it's not Ming Dynasty as you'd hoped but, the good news is, it's Microwave and Dishwasher Safe." Whoever stole my glasses, I WILL find you I have contacts... My wife said she’s leaving me coz I won’t move to a bigger place! I just told her to zip up the tent on the way out. I got so drunk last night I walked across the dance floor and won the dance contest. Went to a restaurant for a meal last night with the wife, slipped the shoes off and played footsie under the table. I had steak and chips and she got toed in the hole! A very sad day, after seven years of medical school and hard work, a very good friend of mine has been struck off for a minor indiscretion. He slept with one of his patients and can no longer work in the profession. What a waste of time, effort, training and money. A genuinely nice guy and a brilliant vet If you cut a glow worm in half would it be delighted? Anyone know how you cook the boil in the bag fish you get from the fair, there's no instructions on the bag My grandfather gave me some sound advice when on his deathbed. "It's worth investing in good speakers", he said

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The Rob Stewart Interview (Continued) What’s the biggest change? The one bit of infrastructure which will be this council or even your legacy? I don’t like legacy stuff because it’s a bit self-indulgent. I’m proud of securing the city deal because that has allowed everything else. £1.3 billion is not a small amount of money but it has allowed what is happening on the Kingsway, the arena, offices, houses for people that will cost less than £100 energy bill a year. Its enabled so much. I’m proud we delivered the arena because it is the point-to thing, people can say that ‘we weren’t messing around, we were serious’. I must admit that I love the bridge leading up to it. Whether you like it or you don’t, its ours, its unique, it’s our bridge! I was concerned about the colour of the bridge, if you imagine, when you paint your living room, you put a little bit on the wall and you don’t know how its all going to look until its done, and it is no different with a big project. The bridge was supposed to exactly match the metal on the outside of the arena, of course when it turned up its not an exact match but there is an aging process to it, to ensure the paint lasts. We have got to the point where I’m glad we got to, people call it the Taco Bridge or the Crunchie Bridge, for good or for bad but they weren’t questioning that it was going to be there. We are talking about a physical landmark in Swansea but for 10 years we were talking about things not happening. My mortgage is up for renewal soon. I’ve seen the figures and it’s going up a bit. The council have borrowed a fair chunk have they not? Is the council going to see the same issue on a larger scale?

This is where I think we have already been proved right. You and I with our mortgages, we can possibly fix our rate for 5 years. Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose depending on what happens to the rate. We borrowed about £100 million at 1.96% and we have been able to fix that for 50 years. The rate if we borrowed today would be 3.25%. This is the bit that never gets in the press; we pay back as a council, £14 million of old borrowing every year. That old borrowing was taken out in the 90s and 00s when interest rates were 9% or 10%. So, what we have done is that we paid off the old expensive stuff and have taken out new stuff at a historically low rate. Even though we borrowed double what we had, what I’m paying back is less than what we were before. It’s a no-brainer. Where are we with the tidal lagoon? After it being cancelled twice. I am a stubborn bugger and so we set up a piece of work in the city deal to look at what we can do to make the tidal lagoon possible. The technology is not in doubt, the wall, solar, all the turbines, it’s all proven, it’s not new, it’s how you put it all together that’s key. The part that the government wouldn’t approve was the cost of it, so I set a challenge which is essentially; what do we need to do to make the finances work? We went out to a load of international companies, and we got together a load of people who had worked on things like Disneyland Paris, projects in Dubai, big major, multi global projects. Ones which bring in resources around the world. There are people in there that they call ‘Imagineers’, they do

next generation engineer thinking. What they were tasked with doing was working out what to do to make the lagoon possible without costing a fortune. So, we have a new scheme which has come together with a firm called DST. They are not a household name, but they’re involved with major film distribution, involved with the Marvel franchise, Lord of the Rings etc. They have invented a new type of battery technology which uses coal, it stores the energy produced by green methods. They have recently signed a £500 million deal with West Virginia to create a battery facility there. What this does is produce a green battery using coal. One thing that we have in common with West Virginia is that we still have lots of coal, but we can’t burn it because it will pollute the atmosphere. What we can do though, is to use the coal in the batteries which is a much greener method. It could be a new industry for us, so why wouldn’t we? It isn’t the council or government doing this but the private sector. They are interested in that, and is how they became involved in the Tidal Lagoon. Another thing that DST are good at is bringing other consortium partners together. They are bringing HSBC in for funding, SSC for energy distribution, Siemens for energy technology. The first lagoon proposal was that we would have a wall with 16 turbines in. The tide comes in and the tide goes out, every time it does this, it moves the turbines but that was the only thing creating electricity. It would cost £1.3 billion to build the

wall and engineering and you got 1 energy source why it was unaffordable without government suppor

What they’ve said is, hang on, lets look at it a differe They have developed this battery technology and th to deliver a battery technology in the dock area n lagoon. It then potentially utilises coal from Wales batteries and those batteries can potentially be pu walls of the lagoon, so they store a lot more energy tha the lagoon produces alone.

Then they thought, the thing about the lagoon is tha un-interrupted power supply. Unless the moon stop around the earth then there will always be a power su What is the greatest need for an uninterrupted power And that is data centres. So, they are looking at 2 me centres to be a part of it. The cloud for computing, fa mining, all require massive data centres that need uninterrupted power. It can’t be off for a second.

It is a big offering to companies like Google and Ama could host their data centres here and we have go power station right next to it. Data centres take energy and its not good for the likes of Google and A to be burning massive amounts of fuel for their data but the lagoon creates green energy which could be rupted to support it.

Not only that but the data centres are massively h need massive amounts of air conditioning to cool th let’s backward engineer that and let’s extract the he

wall and engineering and you got 1 energy source. That is why it was unaffordable without government support. What they’ve said is, hang on, lets look at it a different way. They have developed this battery technology and they want to deliver a battery technology in the dock area near the lagoon. It then potentially utilises coal from Wales for the batteries and those batteries can potentially be put in the walls of the lagoon, so they store a lot more energy than what the lagoon produces alone. Then they thought, the thing about the lagoon is that it is an un-interrupted power supply. Unless the moon stops going around the earth then there will always be a power supply. What is the greatest need for an uninterrupted power supply? And that is data centres. So, they are looking at 2 mega data centres to be a part of it. The cloud for computing, facebook, mining, all require massive data centres that need to have uninterrupted power. It can’t be off for a second. It is a big offering to companies like Google and Amazon, we could host their data centres here and we have got a big power station right next to it. Data centres take a lot of energy and its not good for the likes of Google and Amazon to be burning massive amounts of fuel for their data centres, but the lagoon creates green energy which could be uninterrupted to support it. Not only that but the data centres are massively hot. They need massive amounts of air conditioning to cool them but let’s backward engineer that and let’s extract the heat from

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the data centres and pump them out into houses built around the docks and the lagoon. This gives low-cost heating to thousands of homes. All of this together, plus floating solar gives us something which not only doesn’t cost anything but provides massive amounts of revenue back and potentially clean energy for 45,000 houses. We have targets to be net zero as a council by 2030 and as a county by 2050. If we can get this off the ground, we can get to net zero by 2030. It’s a massive game changer. It doesn’t currently require any money from government. How does that feel for you as a Labour leader? We’ve talked about billion-pound investments, Google and Amazon, is that just how it is? Are we in a capitalistic world and we can’t do things without the big players? Does that sit fine with you or would you rather this was a government putting this together? I’m a pragmatist at the end of the day. A monopoly is wrong whether its private or public. I don’t support the broad capitalism where they ruin the environment, rip off workers etc. There are expertise in the private sector. The private sector is not a bad word, they have a part to play in the same way as the public sector does. If you go to the extreme in either system, then we are in trouble. I’m happy with the medium. Do I think this nonsense the Torys talk about that the private sector is always best? No, I don’t. Do I think that the private sector in the NHS is a good thing? No. Do I think we have great bus services in the area? No.

But if we had a Labour government in Westminster and in your ideal scenario, would a £1.3 billion tidal lagoon have some government funding? The question is what does it need? The first offering that we had for the lagoon, I still believe that if it needed additional funding and it was going to be the first in the world then that was perfectly legitimate for a government to support. We are already putting subsidy into wind and into nuclear. What seemed unfair was that the government decided that it wasn’t willing to put it into tidal. A government investing into Tidal is perfectly legitimate and a good thing to do. Did you go too far with some of the things which you said pre-election? Give me an example. Calling Matthew Bailey a “committed right-wing Tory”. I think that is reasonable political exchange. The reality with Matthew was that up until the 24th February, he was the Conservative candidate for Clydach. He resigned from the Tory party and stood as an independent a couple of weeks later. We’d had exchanges in the past around conservative policy, including things like cuts to universal credit of £20 a week and other policies which I disagree with and he defended them and remained in the Conservative party. I get called a ‘left wing labour politician’ etc.. and it’s all a part of the game. I think it was legitimate for me to call him out for being a tory councillor and a tory member up to two months before the election.

But “committed right wing”?

Finally, I do feel that as you’ve said, we have this real ambition in Swansea now. We are seeing change, but can Torys are right wing and I’m guessing that as he was a tory we keep it up? member for many years then he must have been committed Yeah. Once you are standing still then you are actually going and given that the Torys are right wing then he must have backwards, and people need to remember that. When people been. are scared of change, I always say that not changing is the worst thing that you can do. That’s what we did for 8 years This is a sore subject, but we have a real problem with and it’s the worst thing to do. I’m happy for people to heroin. Whenever I walk through the city centre it’s like question whether we are making the right change but not zombie apocalypse. What can be done? I understand its whether we should change at all. We cannot lose the tough. ambition because everyone else is going to move forward. Again, we look at our own area and think that we are the only ones going through this problem, but we have county lines which is the trafficking of drugs by organised crime to supply to vulnerable people. It is linked with sex trafficking, and it is a complex problem. It is not something that only affects Swansea but as a major city we see our share. We are in the process of setting up a drug commission, but a part of the challenge is that it is not just the end user you need to get to but the organised crime, the sexual exploitation of people, it is a really nasty system. It is about the police, the health board and everyone working together so that we all coordinate our efforts. For the ordinary member of public, what we see is the anti-social behaviour and the same concerns are being raised in Neath, Carmarthen, Cardiff. I went to the Labour conference in Brighton and the amount of people begging there, people under the influence of drugs and alcohol; it isn’t just a Swansea issue.

In terms of what’s coming, the reinstatement of Castle Gardens, the upgrade of that key area. The delivery of the Library and archives in the BHS building, the delivery of 71-72 Kingsway which will provide 600 really high quality jobs to support Oxford Street, the Kingsway and that part of the city. Delivery of the aquarium, the public sector hub, which is ourselves, Welsh Government, UK Government all bringing jobs into a new building just opposite the arena. The delivery of new homes in the city centre, not just student accommodation but new homes for families. Skyline Park on the top of Kilvey Hill, that is definitely happening, it is signed off by the board, by Welsh Government and will shortly come to us to sign off. The opening of Penderyn whiskey, hopefully a new hotel near the stadium, expansion of the stadium if that’s what the club wants to do. All those things are possible. The tidal lagoon, they have raised £344 million already for that. The metro will happen. We need to keep moving forward.

THE VEGAN REVIEW FINDING RUSSELL THE BEST PLACES TO EAT IN AND AROUND SWANSEA.

Cafe Chameleon, Ystradgynlais The Swansea Valley is a bit of a hidden gem to many, and I wonder whether Russel has venture down the link between Swansea and the Brecon Beacons. If he did fancy a gander, I seriously recommend him popping into Café Chameleon in Ystradgynlais. The café/bar is vegetarian with many vegan options based right by the river Tawe. Route 43 cycle path runs next to it, linking Swansea to the Upper valley with plans to move right onto Brecon (I believe). There is ample outdoor seating with a huge canopy over parts of it to cover from sun and rain (even at the same time in this country). A hippy vibe, massive selection of drinks. Two real ales on tap including a lemon zesty one which I enjoyed in our mini-heat wave. We popped in for lunch and were really impressed. I had a plant-based burger with sauté potatoes and what I assume was a vegan coleslaw (check!). Tara had Mediterranean vegetables with jacket potato. Both were outstanding. A proper salad always helps. This is the kind of place ahead of its time in its location. Things happen in London and it tends to take about two generations before we see them in Swansea and another one before the valleys entertain the idea. If the Uplands is the cutting edge of modern drinking and eating in Swansea, then Café Chameleon stands alone slightly ahead of that. You won’t miss the meat if you are a meat eater, and you will absolutely love the place if you are vegetarian of vegan. Seriously recommend the place, especially on a nice sunny day, explore the valley while you’re there too!

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THE PUB DEBATE

Who is the better manager? Cooper or Martin?

Cooper: by Harris

This is the simplest answer ever. We had two seasons under Cooper and got to the play-offs both times, the play-off final last time out. He left us to go to a club in the bottom three and got them into the play-offs and promoted. He is a top, top manager who will go on to far bigger and better things and the way that he was treated by the club and some fans is stupid. Russel Martin has been given a transition season. No manager is ever given that luxury, excuses have been made by him and for him, that he didn’t have a pre-season. He had longer with Swansea than Cooper had with Nottingham Forest and they are now a Premier League club. Under Cooper, you felt confident that we would be hard to beat. We weren’t going to gift goals away and then if we scored, there was a really good chance that we would win the game. Last season we could be 4-0 up (which we were) and still not win a game (and we didn’t). I don’t see that changing based on our pre-season. Cooper is a class act. He knows how to look after players in the same way as Brendan did, an arm around them etc.. and he gets the very best out of everyone. Martin seems good at that too in fairness but where the real difference is, is organisation. I watched the Swans last season and the players looked uncomfortable at times, not sure what they were being asked to do. Again, people say ‘he didn’t have a pre-season’ but that’s the life of a football manager and Cooper showed that. I truly believe that if we had been able to keep Cooper then we’d be a Premier League club now and for all the fans criticising the style of football we played; you know that they would be cheering him now if we were facing Liverpool first game of the season.

Forest fans love him. He has managed to secure them topflight football for the first time in a generation. I think they have a great chance of staying up and they could establish themselves. Either way, you can guarantee that Steve Cooper will be a Premier League manager for many years to come. Probably a future next England manager. I don’t dislike Martin, I hope he does well but anyone who thinks that he’s a better manager than Cooper needs to have their head tested! We will be watching Cooper and Forest on Match of the Day next year and it should be us. If the board had backed him and if he felt more love from the fans then I’ve no-doubt that we would be Premier League football club right now if he had stayed. On that note! Why wasn’t Alan Tate given the job when Cooper left? Again, someone who was undervalued by the club. Cooper knew his qualities, knew that he was the right man to bring success but for whatever reason, our club let him go.

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Martin: By Matty As a season ticket holder, I pay decent money to be entertained. When you break it all down, yes, we want to win but in reality we follow the football club for entertainment value. The two seasons under Cooper, I must admit, I can’t think of many games where I watched the whole 90 minutes. Even when we were winning, it was tedious at times. People moan now about the suicide passing at the back and gifting goals away but genuinely, I’m loving it. As a spectacle, apart from the first few games of the season, I enjoyed most games I watched last year. I feel like that brand of football (which we once had) has returned. We are brave with the ball, we take chances, but it is all a part of a bigger picture. There are ways out of the Championship. Ways to get promoted. The easiest is to be solid at the back, make few mistakes and then capitalise on any that the opposition makes. Over the course of a season, if the other team make more mistakes than you do then you have a great chance of making the play-offs. We made the play-offs twice under Cooper, but we were a poor side both times. You must give credit to him to achieve what he did, for making us a difficult side to beat and getting us to a play-off final. However, the reality was that the final summed up where we were and where we were heading. You can ‘get out’ of the Championship with that style of play. You can pick up wins on the road and get enough points against mid-low championship sides to be in with a chance of promotion. However, all the sides that do it that way become quickly found out in the topflight. For us, we became quickly found out in the final. Brentford were far too good for us, and they showed what would have

happened if we were to have gone up under Steve Cooper. So many clubs (Cardiff) go up with that tactic and it always ends in the same way. The only way to go up and to have any chance of survival and making a real impact in the Premier League is to do it the Swansea Way! Yes, it is frustrating when we get caught out at the back trying to play football. However, this is the philosophy of the sophisticated, top level. It is more of a game of chess. In the Premier League, you cannot defend well and wait for the opposition to make a mistake. You’ll be waiting months for a goal and in that time, you’d have conceded goals from pure magic. There are players there that you can’t keep quiet, half a yard space and you are one down. When you look at the sides like Brentford and Brighton that have gone up and survive, they have done so with an attacking, brave mindset. Bournemouth and Swansea did it the same before we went down. Leicester and Wolves too although on a bigger budget. Steve Coopers tactic of making us tough to beat is easy in the Championship and it papers over cracks. But that’s it. If we were lucky, then we could become a yo-yo club that goes up every few years for one season in the Premier League before dropping back. That’s not what I want. What we have under Russel Martin is a real plan to move forward. It is more ambitious than play-offs and a season in the top flight. Thank you, Steve Cooper, for your time here. Best of luck in the Premier League, we will wave at you in May as we go up and you come back down! .

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Mind Puzzles 1) Make the following moves, respectively: 3. ball to II. tube 2. ball to II. tube 1. ball to III. tube 1. ball to III. tube 2. ball to III. tube 3. the ball III. Move to the tube. 2) Oliver > John > Thomas > Jacob 3) Sophie will be 35 minutes late. Caroline will arrive at 1:45 P.M, 15 minutes ahead of time 4) Car has no wheels!! How is it going to go anywhere?? 5) After the last question you’d be well within your right to argue that the time remains the same.... If you did want an answerthough then The most crucial detail to consider here is 'counterclockwise'. So, the hour hand will turn 90 degrees to rest at 12, and the minute hand will move to the right to 4. That's why the answer is: 12:20 6) Lou’s hat is decorated with zigzag (not straight) stripes. Lo couldn’t hold a gun because of his look. La’s mustache “looks” down. Lee’s hand is bandaged so he couldn’t steal the watch. So, Liu is guilty Whose tits are they? June Brown Whose cock is that? Shaun Williamson (Barry from Eastenders) Thought of the month: Anything human is mentionable, and anything mentionable is manageable

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