Slate

I've been much engaged of late in viewing a lot of old, slow video media, courtesy of YouTube; featuring long-thought lost programming from decades-past UK TV. I'm not talking about re-runs of Blankety Blank or Are You Being Served, but rather of the more thoughtful and considered documentary kind, which we do so well in this archipelago of small countries that we call the United Kingdom. In particular the output by the estimable Jack Hargreaves, a man of far more depth and media-savvy than his avuncular, pipe-smoking on-screen persona might suggest. Anyway, if you feed the algorithm with enough searches for this type of material, all sorts of extraordinary footage from the archives emerges, like TikTok in a parallel universe for people of, shall we say, a more mature generation: you gotta game it to play, people. One such gem I found tonight is this episode of 'Horizon'.

Living in North Wales and being immensely proud of our family's connections and heritage in the area, I've nevertheless always been cognisant of the struggles of the North Wales quarrymen - Y Chwarelwyr - throughout the history of the exploitation of this area's natural resources by English 'entrepreneurs' - read already wealthy landed gentry or slave owners cashing in yet another Golden Goose to fleece of it's eggs - and their inhumane treatment of the men who actually created their increased wealth for them, at the expense of their workers' health and well-being. I reiterate the importance of a book mentioned in the linked documentary: 'What I Saw At Bethesda', by Charles Sheridan Jones, published in reprint by Gomer Press. I would urge anyone who doubts the depths to which capitalism in unfettered form will go to in the search for profit at the expense of it's workers to read this one hundred and twenty-two year old book. It is well worth the entry fee of £8.99 to gain such a piercing insight into man's inhumanity toward man in the pursuit of transitory wealth.