THREAD:

This is Cefn Golau. It’s located on a narrow mountain ridge between the communities of Rhymni, Tredegar and Abertyswg in the South East. In the 19th century, some 200 people were laid to rest in this isolated location, far away from their grieving friends and families.

In the mid 19th century, a series of deadly Cholera pandemics broke out across Wales; claiming 1000s of lives. Due to a lack of scientific understanding, victims’ bodies were purposefully buried in remote locations out of fear that they might infect the healthy.

Despite enduring unimaginable tragedy, the people of these communities pulled together and eventually defeated Cholera once and for all. What became clear in the aftermath, was that there was no going back to how things were. Society needed to change in some fundamental ways.

In 1848, the Public Health Act established the Board of Health, the first time that government had ever legislated on health issues in Wales. They had the power to improve sanitation by cleaning the streets, managing sewerage, and by ensuring clean supplies of drinking water.

Today, Wales is once again facing a devastating pandemic, COVID-19. In the same way that the Cholera pandemics of the 19th century paved the way for groundbreaking social innovations, today’s crisis affords us the opportunity to reflect on the kind of society we want Wales to be.

Now's the time to adopt bold & ambitious policies, which under current circumstances appear far less ‘radical’ than they might have done only a few weeks ago. Now's the time to introduce a Universal Basic Income, to give the people of Wales a greater degree of financial security.

We should also re-examine ideas such as adopting a 4 day work week that would allow us all to strike a better work-life balance, and to devote more of our time to the things that truly matter... The crisis has also demonstrated the necessity of having well-funded public services.

Finally, recent controversies over the procurement of PPE and test kits have once again shown how the current constitutional arrangement is failing Wales, strengthening the argument that the best future for our nation lies outside of the Union.

Check out this photo article in its original video format here: