Just last week at a meeting I was enjoying a pre-dinner beer when a man close by me collapsed. A fit looking 60 something it looked for all the world like a cardiac arrest. As a retired surgeon I was gearing up for CPR, reminding myself of the sequence of breaths to compressions.

A young woman serving behind the bar stepped in, announcing that she was trained in first aid. She must have been early twenties, calm, confident and clearly very competent. It transpired that the likely cause was a feint, but wisely she called an ambulance to get a proper assessment. The shambles surrounding that (it was over in England) is another story. The point is that we are blessed with some wonderful young people in this country.

This column is published on Remembrance Day when we should properly remember those who gave everything in the service of our country. They were mainly in their twenties. So maybe it is also a time to think about the future we are bequeathing today’s young people.

Patrick Loxdale
RIGHT FIELD (Cambrian News)

The young woman I mentioned above had just completed her training as a Paramedic. Clearly she was good. But even though emergency medical care is under intense pressure across the UK, she couldn’t find a job. That’s why she was working behind the bar. The insane irony is that another delegate told me of an acquaintance, born and brought up in New Zealand and a trained Paramedic, who had just been given a golden handshake by the NHS to come over to the UK to work.

Locally, it is very disheartening to read about the Llettytwppa project. Mighty oak trees grow from little acorns, but with only two students enrolling in the first year there is reason to worry. Setting aside any other issues , I would be far more interested to understand the thought processes that drove this project.

The secrecy surrounding the planning for Llettytwppa remains very damaging. The apparent aim to retain young people in Ceredigion by giving them skills relevant to the rural economy, whilst simultaneously promoting Welsh language and culture is entirely laudable. But this has to work in the real world.

Labour intensive traditional skills are great, but the assumption that there is sufficient surplus money in Welsh farming to pay for them is pie in the sky right now. The truth is that if an old wall starts to crumble, the realistic option is to knock it down and put up a fence. If we try to finance such work by Welsh Government grant money then something else has to be sacrificed (nurses, teachers etc). Or if we encourage wealthy foreigners/corporations to buy up land in Ceredigion the plans to support Welsh culture may backfire badly; we could end up living in a theme park.

At a “brainstorming” Llettytwppa workshop last year - probably more PR than decision making! - , I sat next to Patrick Holden. He is a world recognised pioneer of organic and regenerative farming, and an expert in generating the added income for farmers which is required to support artisanal jobs. He farms twenty minutes up the road from Llettytwppa; I wonder if his knowledge was properly tapped into?

Meanwhile there are plenty of bright articulate twentysomething Welsh people in Ceredigion; Lloyd Warburton who shares this column space is one good example. It is all very well asking teenagers what they want from life, but it’s ten years later that maturity and experience begins to build. Were they involved in the Llettytwppa planning?

There has never been very much wrong with our young people; we just need to remember how to give them the opportunity to confront today’s challenges.