John Osmond reflects on 17 years at the helm of the IWA
When I became Director of the IWA in 1996 I never imagined I would still be here nearly 17 years later. I thought about five years would do it – enough to make a mark and then move on to pastures new before I had run out of ideas. After all, the IWA is a think tank and has to keep up. Can you think up an original new thought every day?
So why am I still here? It’s a good question, though one that won’t have to be asked for very long since within a few months, once we’ve found someone who can carry on the thinking role, I shall be finally moving on.
But what’s kept me here for much longer than I’ve been in any other job in a career that has now spanned some 45 years? The answer is that referendum we had in 1997. The result, albeit by the narrowest of melodramatic margins, opened up a unique prospect for forging a new Wales, for creating a truly democratic political nation. It was not just a chance of a lifetime but a real moment in history.
In the wake of the referendum, in October 1998, a few months ahead of the first election to the National Assembly, I published a pamphlet with Charter 88, a group then campaigning for constitutional change throughout Britain, New Politics in Wales. In it I argued that during the previous 20 years Wales had changed unalterably. “The end of Empire, the decline of the nationalised industries, and 18 years of Conservative government have played a part in redefining what it means to be Welsh today,” I wrote, and predicted that Labour’s overweening dominance of Welsh politics was coming to an end with an era of coalitions beckoning.
I also said that policymaking communities would develop in every area in which the Assembly had responsibility, claiming that this interactive network would be a building block for a new dynamic civil society. I said the challenge was to transform civil society in Wales into Welsh civil society:
“The new Welsh politics is about creating this democracy and a new civil society to make the democracy work. When it first meets, the National Assembly will not be representative of that civil society. But it will be the essential instrument to ensure that in the coming decades, a Welsh democracy and a Welsh civil society will come into being.”
I wanted to be part of that process which is why I have stayed with the IWA so long. Ours has been a central role in the building of the Welsh civil society I was talking about. How successful have we been? Well, along with a wide range of other organisations that have sprung up around the Assembly, to lobby and debate policy, the IWA has grown substantially. We now have 1,200 individual members, 125 Fellows and 130 organisations in the private, public and voluntary sectors supporting us. We have a branch network throughout Wales, organise regular events and conferences throughout the country, and publish a good deal, including this daily website and our journal the welsh agenda.
If the IWA wasn’t here it seems to me that something like it would have to be invented. In the Assembly’s early years the new institution became a surrogate for a constitutional convention and, indeed, in the process created two groups to pursue that role more formally – the Richard Commission in 2004 and later the All-Wales Convention itself. In all of this the IWA has been highly active, following events, explaining them, and making its own recommendations.
A key moment, of course, was the second referendum we had in 2011 that transformed the Assembly into a proper legislature, with primary law-making powers. An essential part of that achievement was a cross-party consensus in favour of the change, including remarkably the Welsh Conservatives. Throughout these years the IWA has made a point of being a place and providing a platform where all the parties can meet on an equal footing.
This, I think, is something that marks out a difference between Welsh and Scottish politics. Inevitably, we have our share of sectarian instincts, but little of the hatred that characterises some of what passes for political debate in Scotland. Is this merely a reflection of the fact that Wales presents less of a threat to the continuance of the British state? Or does it say something about a social democratic instinct and centre of gravity that most of our politicians have in common? I like to think it’s more of the latter than the former.
In any event, whoever takes over the helm at the IWA will have a very different platform and vantage point to survey the Welsh scene than the one that confronted me in early 1996. There will still be formidable challenges, and among them, in my judgement, the following should be priorities:
- Tackling our economic problems around communications and connectivity, including improving our internal road network, making best use of rail electrification with speedy progress on the Valleys Metro, developing our ports, and thinking outside the box on enhancing our air links.
- Finding innovative ways of combining economic with sustainable development, especially in energy generation, to ensure that Wales can really become a world leader in tackling climate change.
- Sustaining our communitarian approach to health and social care at a time when England appears to be going in the opposite direction.
- Developing the comparative advantage that Welsh medium education gives us by extending it, over time, to all of our schools. We need to promote Welsh not just for the sake of the language, but for the sake of our children.
- Making more imaginative use of the Internet in communicating with our people and promoting debate on Welsh issues.
- Discovering the value we can gain from exploiting Wales’ European vocation – and it has been good to see that our First Minister Carwyn Jones has been emphasising this in recent weeks.
Yet in facing these and other vital policy questions there is one major difference that marks Wales out in 2013 compared with 1996. A friend once made the analogy that it was like playing a game of tennis. You can’t join in until you have a bat and ball. In 2013 we may still not have reached our full potential, but at least we can join in the game.
IWA Chairman, Geraint Talfan Davies, said:
John has built the IWA into what it is today. His passion for Wales and its development, his total commitment to the task and prodigious output will mean that he will be a very difficult act to follow. Our debt to him is enormous.
When John became the first full-time director of the IWA it had only some 60 members, and our continued existence was precarious. It now has 1200 members and a network of branches across Wales. His contribution to Welsh life in developing the IWA and through his own writing has been immense, and I am sure that he will continue to contribute to our work in other ways.
This is a pivotal moment for the IWA and, inevitably, the beginning of a process of renewal for the whole organisation. Everyone tells us that our work is important and that we must continue to develop. That is the most important tribute to what John has achieved.
What the IWA has achieved over the past 17 years is hearty testament to John Osmond’s contribution. For me, the IWA is a major part of the process of policy and capability ‘capacity building’ that any area needs. As a returnee Cardi, I would not have shelled out for a Fellowship unless I thought my money was being soundly spent. It has been.
One further priority area for the future can be summed up in four questions:
What are we going to do about the lack of an enterprise culture in Wales, especially outside the greater Cardiff area?
How do we fund sustainable enterprise as opposed to box ticking exercises and temporary job creation schemes?
What are the areas where entrepreneurs and enterprise in Wales can make a difference in Wales and the wider world?
What lessons do prosperous, small and genuinely bi/multi-lingual countries have to offer us?
John. You are a wonderful ambassador for Wales and Welsh life. Your intelligence and warm personality has created for the IWA many friends and contacts in Wales and across the World. Long may you continue to contribute in other ways outside of the IWA.
I know it will be very difficult but I hope the IWA spends time and care (and a bit of imagination) in finding your replacement for this important and influential role in what will be a new era.
Pob lwc.
John’s contribution to Welsh public life through his role as Director has been immense. Diolch o galon!
John: a salute of respect to your beliefs, and thanks for what you achieved with the Institute. I hope that we will continue to read and hear about your vision of a new Wales. Pob hwyl.
It has been my privilege to have known John since the early 1990’s. His contribution to Wales since he became Director of the IWA – and indeed for a long time before its creation – has been immense. I am reassured to hear him say that he will continue to be actively involved in Welsh public life.
I’ll just sign off with something cryptic which John will understand : Paris 1994 and Preseli 2007..!
The IWA is one of the organisations that helps me to define what is Wales, and as its director John Osmond has articulated its voice so well, so often.
If you needed an example of his clarity – and power – of thought just take those final six bullet points: a succinct, spot-on, understandable, unequivocal few paragraphs that would make a fine manifesto for any – indeed all – of our political parties. Better still, let us all adopt them as goals for the fine civil society of Wales that he so often urges us to aspire to.
Fantastic blog, John has had a significant impact on Wales. Thanks for consistently providing us with this valuable information!
It is hard to overstate your contribution to the IWA and Wales, John. You have indeeed left the former in a healthy state, so let’s hope that our politicians can be inspired and do the same for the latter.
On a perosnal note, seeing you sitting at the IWA Eisteddfod stand come rain or shine, was an integral part of my Maes experience. Maybe, we can now both spend a little more time at the bar discussing Wales and the World.
Diolch John.
“Developing the comparative advantage that Welsh medium education gives us by extending it, over time, to all of our schools. We need to promote Welsh not just for the sake of the language, but for the sake of our children.”
Absolute insanity but also a dishonest evaluation of the consequences of Welsh Medium Education.
“If the IWA wasn’t here it seems to me that something like it would have to be invented”.
Agreed John, but it’s much easier to invent an organisation than to find the right leader for it.
Wales would be a poorer place without your contribution to the work of the IWA. Like Ian I’ll miss that annual pleasure of helping you carry that flimsy trestle table out of the rain at the Eisteddfod. But I’ve got a feeling that sometime soon I’ll be admiring your ability (in another role?) to synthesise ideas from across disciplines and traditions, and to point the way forward for a more confident Wales. Thanks John.
John, it has been a privilege, albeit brief, to have joined IWA during your term, and so feel somewhat short changed by your leaving just as I became a fellow! It really was your terrific instinct, and, as I grew to find, some characteristically spirited blogs that drew me to IWA. Glad to hear that you will still be involved with IWA in some form. All the very best.