I was very fortunate to be invited to the BAFTA Cymru awards ceremony on Sunday evening at the wonderful venue that is the Wales Millennium Centre. For me personally I was overjoyed to see my cousin, Rhodri Evan from Crymych, being awarded the best actor award for his role in S4C’s Cowbois and Injans series. Indeed, the whole evening was a reflection of the amount of talent we produce here in Wales.
For such a small country we have and still are producing extremely talented people in every field. Two of the UK's favourite TV shows - Doctor Who and Torchwood are filmed on the streets of Cardiff. A third, the BAFTA winning Gavin & Stacey, is all about Glamorgan, with Welsh stars, Welsh jokes and a half -Welsh writing team!
And what about our sports stars? Only last week Joe Calzaghe boxed his way through Bernard Hopkins in Las Vegas to add to the success of our Grand Slam winning rugby team. We can also look forward to seeing Cardiff City in the F.A. Cup Final next month and Swansea City are also champions of League 1.
Hollywood is heaving with Welsh stars, and not just the old warhorses such as Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta-Jones, but new faces are emerging over there, including Rhys Ifans, Ioan Gruffudd and Michael Sheen. June sees the release of The Edge of Love, a film based on the life of Dylan Thomas and the musical talent we have here has made us famous all over the world as well, with Duffy recently topping the UK charts
We need to take confidence form these achievements and move Wales forward to be an even bigger success.

Following many meetings with farmers across west Wales I recently met with the Agricultural Minister, Elin Jones to discuss the issue of Bovine TB as this is an ongoing threat to farmers in all parts of Wales. Indeed Pembrokeshire has one of the highest incidences of bovine TB in the UK.

I very much welcome the comprehensive package of measures that will be introduced to eradicate bovine TB in Wales which was announced by Elin Jones last week. In her statement she rightly said that Bovine TB is having a devastating impact on the health and welfare of the national herd in Wales and to do nothing was not an option. Very true.
The measures she has introduced involve strengthening biosecurity measures and husbandry practises, and a one off test of all herds in Wales to ensure that the extent of the problem is fully realised and shapes future policy. She also proposed a trial cull of infected badgers in a designated intensive test area (the precise area is still being worked out). Obviously this is the most controversial element of the plan, but I fully support the minister. We take it as necessary that we cull infected cattle, and it is only right that we look at a pilot area to cull infected badgers. I fully understand the arguments against this, and the scientific evidence is far from clear, with some scientists advocating this procedure and some not. But as the incidence of TB increase at a staggering rate something needs to be done to eradicate the disease. Let’s not forget that Bovine TB is a dangerous disease that can be passed onto humans.

I am confident that the responsible action that the Minister is taking along with the support of the farming industry and our rural communities as a whole will have a very positive impact on the incidence of the disease.

I’ve just come back to my constituency office from Cardiff where we’ve had some interesting debates in the Chamber this week. One of the main issues this week was the Westminster government’s Post Office closure plan. I’m very pleased to say that the Assembly members voted to support Plaid Cymru’s continued opposition to the Westminster government’s Post Office closure plan. Following a debate on the issue in the Senedd, members from all parties supported Plaid’s stance, calling for the future of all viable Post offices to be safeguarded. We also called for further action by local government to help ensure that Post Offices are still viable and remain a vital resource for communities across Wales.

It has been very interesting also to see how the Tories are taking the moral high ground on this issue. I think they’ve forgotten how the pre 1997 Tory Government closed over 3,500 Post Offices throughout Britain – and now they want us to believe that they have suddenly changed their minds. Post 1997, 4,000 post offices have closed in the UK and 300 in Wales under New Labour rule.

We very much believe that local government could bring new services to post offices in order to restore some of the viability that London Labour has taken away.

We’ve campaigned as a party in all areas of Wales where Post offices are being forced to close by the Labour government in London. These closures are damaging to our communities and have been forced upon us by a government that know nothing about the needs of those communities. I’m glad that the Assembly has backed up what we’ve been campaigning hard for since this programme was announced. While I have little faith that the Labour government in Westminster will listen to this message, I am in no doubt that people will now realise why important decision such as this one should not be taken outside Wales.

On Wednesday the National Assembly for Wales will consider whether to vote in favour of a proposed legislation that I recently introduced.

Recent research conducted by Plaid showed that many of Wales’ councils ship some of their waste to be processed in countries outside the EU such as China, India and Brazil, and some councils do not hold the information on where their recylcing ends up.

If the Assembly decide to back my proposal it will mean that local authorities will legally have to consider and report on the where their recycling takes place. When people make the effort to recycle household waste, they do so in the belief that their council will dispose of it responsibly. The public would take a very dim view if they thought, for example, that young people in other parts of the world were being exploited in processing waste from Wales. This measure if approved should address this issue. People need to be confident that their waste is being recycled in a non-exploitative and environmentally-friendly way.

There are issues of course regarding the capacity to recylce here in Wales and across the UK and we accept that shipping waste is sometimes necessary, but my measure if passed would make the whole process more transparent. Hopefully this in turn will open up the debate in order for us to build up our capacity to recycle within our own border.

As Chair of the Cross Party group for broadband in rural Wales I have for the past few months been gathering evidence regarding the broadband not spots across west Wales. Specifically we were asked by locals in Mynachlog-ddu to find out how the lack of broadband is affecting everyday lives in this particular village. It emerged that local businesses lose up to £150 a week because they don’t have access to broadband. This is a huge problem for rural businesses who suffer by comparison to urban-based businesses. It is possible that a business may choose to invest elsewhere which means rural communities suffer economically. Secondly, rural areas may not be able to receive commercial and public services via broadband, which means people are being socially excluded as a result of their geographical position.

We’ve had a great response to our broadband questionnaires in Mynachlog-ddu as we have received up to 50 completed questionnaires. It is obvious from the response how important this issue is in Mynachlog-ddu as it is in other parts of rural Pembrokeshire. Everybody who responded wants to have access to broadband and it is obvious that the lack of broadband seriously affects the local economy.

Local companies said that it was impossible for them to communicate effectively or purchase goods online while working parents said that it was impossible for them to work from home. Some farmers noted that the lack of broadband hindered the reporting of livestock movements or accessing current information with regards to livestock restrictions. With the work that is being done by the new Cross Party group across Wales and the positive meetings I’ve had with BT and the Economic Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones I’m confident that we’ll see a definite improvement in this field.

Good Afternoon and welcome to my blog here on the Western Telegraph website. It has been an eventful few weeks in the Assembly. I along with other Plaid colleagues decided not to accept the 8.3% pay rise that has been awarded to National Assembly Members as I feel that it would be a huge slap in the face for public sector workers. At a time when the public sector is faced with a 1.9% pay award an increase in excess of that amount would and should be greeted with dismay across Wales

I fully accept that the workload of Assembly Members has increased following the implementation of the Government of Wales Act 2006 and we are now undertaking primary legislative work and as a trade unionist I have campaigned for an increase in pay when workers workloads increase.

I also support the principle of aligning the pay of AM's to politicians in the Northern Irish Assembly and Scottish Parliament, but when the financial settlement is so tight across Wales I do not believe that we should be receiving the recommended pay rise. As i said I personally have not accepted the recommended rise and have accepted 1.9%.