est. 1972
27 Hydref 2025 27 October 2025
Team Cardiff raised over £30,000 in Half Marathon
“The way to avoid disillusionment is to try to avoid illusions in the first place”
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Lord Kinnock, thank you for having us. Your political career began in Cardiff, where you were the SU president. Could you begin maybe by describing your time in that role? I've been a member of the Labour Party since I was 14. I was allowed to join three months before the official date by a very friendly county counsellor in Tredegar, which is where I was born and brought up. And then I went to Cardiff and joined the Socialist Society. As these things happen, I was elected Secretary after being in university for about three or four months. Then the following year I talked a young woman from Anglesey into becoming secretary in her third week in university. I married her five years later. I then became President of the Socialist Society, and we were extremely active politically, not just in student politics, indeed, not even mainly in student politics. In 64, there was the general election in
which labour won after 13 years of Tory rule, and then 66, when Labour won a big majority. In between times, of course, there was the Cuban Missile Crisis, there were the Rivonia trials of Nelson Mandela and his colleagues, and the '60s, the late '60s, were a swirl of political activity in which we were heavily engaged. So that was not a baptism of fire, but fire wasn't absent. Do you feel that the role prepared you for your political career? Not really. I would have been active and engaged in politics in any case as an activist. What did assist, I guess, is that when I went to university, the first year, I played rugby and I sang a lot and I was out with the lads a lot. Then Glenys arrived. I met her, poor girl, on her first day in university and I started to take her home, but I had a kick in the head and I was suffering from a delayed concussion. So, I passed out and she ended up taking me home from our first date. In order to impress her the following Friday, I spoke in the Union Debate for the first time. The debates union in the University in those days was very active, packed out, and very, very rumbustious.
There was a complete absence of deference and good manners. So it was hellish. But I managed to get through that, and I managed to impress her, which was the intention. Then I found myself stuck with being, not only actively engaged in the Socialist Society, but in the politics of the Union. So, in a sense, it was a sort of involuntary training, because I learned to take the punches as well as giving them, learned to be indifferent to insult and to enjoy a little bit of praise. I suppose that's a fair old grounding in active politics. And as you mentioned, you were SU president during the upheaval of the '60s, and known to support anti-apartheid efforts. What do you think of the efforts by Cardiff University to prevent protests by legal injunctions? I think that if it involves invasions of premises, the University is within its rights to try to prevent the possibility of damage and of disruption that could affect students who are not directly engaged. Otherwise, I think that efforts to prevent protest as a general practice are fruitless in any case. And on that topic, do you feel that
Grace Byrne Contributor
n Sunday 5th October 2025, the city of Cardiff was filled with energy and anticipation as over 27,000 determined runners set their sights on running 13.1 miles across the capital. This is the 22nd year the race has taken place in Cardiff and, once again, it proved to be extremely popular, with places selling out within 12 hours of the registration opening. Over 29,000 people signed up to take part, setting a new record.. To read, turn to page 3
Gŵyl Sŵn yn “codi proffil cerddoriaeth Gymraeg” Gwenno Davies Golygydd Taf-Od
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In an interview with Gair Rhydd, Neil Kinnock, former Labour leader and President of Cardiff students’ Union discusses his university days, the state of politics, devolution and what makes a ‘successful political career’. James Roberts and Ruaidhri Gillen Lynch
Issue 1212
Rhifyn 1212
gair rhydd
student politicians have the same voice and agencies that they might have done in your day? We had no voice or agency. We made a hell of a lot of noise, and nobody took any notice, as you would expect. I can say from the great height of being 83 years of age, there are times when much more notice should be taken of youthful opinions and concerns. The fact that they are held by young people doesn't invalidate them in any way... To read, turn to page 12
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m mis Hydref eleni, daeth Gŵyl Sŵn yn ôl i Gaerdydd i lenwi’r strydoedd â chyffro, bwrlwm, a llawer o sŵn! Gŵyl gerddoriaeth tair noswaith o hyd yw Gŵyl Sŵn, sydd wedi denu llu o gefnogwyr yn flynyddol ers 2008. Mae’r Ŵyl yn rhoi llwyfan i artistiaid newydd mewn gigiau ar hyd a lled y ddinas – gan gynnwys yng Nghlwb Ifor Bach, Fuel, The New Moon, Tiny Rebel, Jacob’s Basement, The Canopi, Tramshed, Eglwys Sant Ioan, a Porter’s. I ddarllen, gwelwch dudalen 14
The UN at 80: time for a change?
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Megan Warren Contributor
omorrow marks a very happy birthday for the United Nations, which was founded on October 24, 1945, to promote peace, security, and cooperation in the post-World War II global landscape. Its purpose was to replace the failed League of Nations, an organisation some at the time blamed for the lack of cooperation and peace leading to the Second World War. The United Nations sought to establish a platform for international cooperation and peace. But 80 years on, it begs the question... To read, turn to page 20