Swansea Bay to bid for UK City of Culture

“Oh dear. You can't rewrite history to suit your nationality. George Crane's work only warrents 2 lines in the Blast Furnace article in Wikipedia. Crane was the first to sucessfully use anthracite in the process, if you believe he was the only person working towards using anthracite, you'd be very wrong.

Same goes for the Bloodhound land speed record attempt. Swansea University plays a part in the development of the car. An important part, but they are not doing anything that couldn't be worked on elsewhere.

The 'true' culture of Swansea remains the same as it has for many years, bingo, boozing, boxing, bonking and the box.”

“Hit submit to early.

It looks like a list of achievement but my intention was rooted purely in culture and what we have given the world, we should be celebrating these amazing achievement and whilst I understand we should also recognise the arts (literature, television/movie performance, painting/sculpture and music) it is the technology/sciences aspect that has set Swansea aside as truly standout in the list of competing regions for the award.

We have these other sections of our culture as a might strong back up, I have always wondered why the entire Swansea Bay area didn't make more use of it's proud science background. There should be bronze statues of scientific figures, such as a certain Professor who still lives today who helped design and then actually took charge as Project Leader after construction the machine that only just now discovered the famous Higgs Boson "God Particle" that received global front page news. Dr. Lyn Evans was born in Aberdare, but he spent most of University career at Swansea University.... this is the man who helped create the Large Hadron Collider and then became the big boss of it on the site in Switzerland. He should be honored here for that! Swansea Bay region still contributes massively to this day.

:)”

“Everything I listed helped shape the culture of the entire Western World. That is why I chose them. They are the biggest contributors to culture that Swansea has produced but I did say there was more.

For instance, no Blast Furnance... no Industrial Revolution. It was the inspiration on one man working here that led to it's existence and because the design was so radical, it is entirely open to debate if somebody else would have come across the same design in the 100 years after it was invented because nobody came up with the design in the 400-500 years before where furnace technology essentially stagnated. Before this one piece of new technology, the furnaces in use were present as far back as the Medieval times but had only increased in size.

The speed one in the list, less so because speed record attempts existed before it, but we did set land speed records via Pendine Sands and inspired others around the world to use land other than roads leading to ever greater achievements. At the time, it was here it was realised that roads would not suffice and now we see places like the Salt Flats in America being used to attempt a 1000mph record bid.

It is not just a technology and science award, these are real things that shaped the way nations grew and prospered and dare I say it, some of them have affected Communist nations like China who to this day is using our design to become the worlds next Ultra Power after the defunct British Empire.”

“Sounds like a poor attempt to get us more votes in the Eurovision song contest.”

“Swansea has a rich and diverse culture heritage ranging from the days of Beau Nash to the Kardomah Boys. The town and laterly the city has been a home to artists and artisans and the wider region can also lay claim to a history of supporting the performing and creative arts.

Have to agree though that the list proffered by Philosorupture seems to be for an entirely city of science & technology award ... and he forgot to mention the formulation of the Birds Custard recipe.”

“Lezz_T, you obviously know nothing about the history of the Swansea, UK and how it contributes to culture around the world. Anybody with an average or above IQ would know exactly how these tie in with culture but it is of no surprise to me that you failed to see it.

It takes a truly special person to not see how Swansea contributes to culture in the listed topics I provided even today. There are events of global interest happening right now for which Swansea Bay either laid down the pioneering work or is still actively pursuing but no, you can't see that so it isn't relevant, right? You are so uncultured, I can't believe that somebody like you can even be loosely geographically linked to the upcoming 1000mph speed bid, or the discovery of the Higgs Boson at CERN, or the ability our species now has to produce metals that are strong enough to build the tallest building on the planet in Dubai, or even give women equal status to be the lead of an organisation.

There are times where I really do question if you come from this region because you alone could lower the mean IQ of an area containing about 600,000 residents. Given the constant negative posts I would declare you are the poster child for a government sterilisation program.”

“"First passenger train route (Transport)
First car speed test to get over 150mph (Automotive)
First blast furnace which led to the Industrial Revolution (Economy and Industry)
First female University Master (Academics)
First use of an Electro-Magnetic Pulse (Sciences)"

All very interesting, but absolutely nothing to do with culture.”

“And why is it called City of Culture, when many areas are entering. Should be called Area/Region of Culture.”

“These awards usually go to cities that don't have culture, so Swansea is in with a chance. The cities with culture don't need to enter, because people already know they have culture. The cities entering are the no-hopers, hoping to make a name for themselves.”

“haha! Thats not very nice Wes, but somewhat true. :)”