Past, present and future

 
This morning I took a trip down memory lane to visit the family farm outside Crickhowell where I grew up.
 
The old farm has gone; the land divided up and sold off to four other local farmers and the house a gated development  (see extra photo) with farm buildings converted into upmarket properties. (All the result of a family feud).
 
I only managed to get this photo by raising the camera above my head and clicking. The house, once an open door for the local community with a warm Welsh welcome to all and sundry is now locked behind high hedges and electronic gadgetry.
 
Yes I know its all change in rural Wales but I am still angry at the loss of this bit of Welsh rural life.
 
 
Back to the Festival.  You wouldn’t expect a talk on economics on a sunny Sunday afternoon to attract a record-breaking crowd but that is exactly what happened today when Martin Wolf took to the stage. They had to move him to a bigger tent to accommodate the hundreds who wanted to hear the chief economic commentator from the Financial Times explain what had caused our recent global financial meltdown.
 
Well, its bad news all round. Not only is our financial model based on a very unstable and precarious structure but what we have experienced is likely to happen again.  We are repeating the pattern that caused it.
 
 Throw in the growth of ISIS – another debate that attracted a record audience – and global warming with climate change and you end up with a very toxic future awaiting us.
 
How about designing a fairer world asked one member of the audience as he questioned the need for growth.
 
To which Martin Wolfe replied:” How many of you would vote for a reduction in your income by three-quarters?".
The emerging countries want the same standard of living that we in the developed countries enjoy.
And can you blame them?