- Comedy of errors - 4th December 2025
- All in the mind - 3rd December 2025
- Nasty nation - 2nd December 2025
For our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, exposing huge political and strategic errors, has always been a mainstay of his journalism, and this is now underlined by a new book about the brilliant scientist Francis Crick.
In life making enormous mistakes is almost as important as creating major achievements.
For example, a defining event in my early reporting career was the miners’ strike of 1984 – 1985.
I would often be sent to cover picket line violence in the South Wales valleys, or the dreadful poverty in communities there.
The strike in South Wales was almost rock solid (until the last few weeks), however it was undermined by the decision not to hold a UK-wide ballot of NUM members, which I thought even at the time was an appalling mistake by Arthur Scargill.
The controversial decision was strictly within union rules, however it undermined public support, and was judged unlawful in September 1984 by the courts.
The fight to save the coal industry was, of course, lost, and trade union power in general was massively diminished.
The veto on holding that ballot created a big rift between hardliners and moderates representing miners in the North West of the UK who wanted to work.
The fight to save pits was noble, even glamorous, but the decision not to hold a ballot was an awful mistake.
But I have seen these errors being committed time and time again.
For instance in 1989 Rhodri Morgan made public his deep hostility to the enormous Cardiff Barrage.
The then Labour MP for Cardiff West said that he did not think it right “to subject my constituents to disturbance for something of extremely doubtful value”.
This was seized on by opponents of the barrage, and Richard Evans, the Chairman of the Riverside and Pontcanna Residents’ Group Against the Barrage declared: “It is very important news that Rhodri Morgan has finally made up his mind to oppose the scheme”.
“It is the best thing that has happened in the whole year our campaign has been running”.
However the economic (although not the environmental) benefits of the barrage are everywhere to be seen now – with new flats and retail outlets springing up all the time.
Even before his death Mr Morgan will have been able to see the economic development spurred by Cardiff Bay created by the barrage from his office window!
Despite this inconsistency he has become something close to a hero for left-leaning people in Wales.
There is, for example, even an institute named after him in Swansea University (SU).
Their website proclaims proudly: “The First Minister of Wales launched the Morgan Advanced Studies Institute – MASI – on February 26th 2021”.
Yet Mr Morgan was not alone in making horrendous mistakes – another example (although in a quite different league) was the brilliant scientist Francis Crick.
A new book about him highlights what a maverick character he was.
In February 1953, after five weeks of intense work he along with James Watson solved one of biology’s most fundamental puzzles: the structure of DNA. The double helix.
After the double helix came many more discoveries, often on other scientists’ turf. Dr Crick proposed the mechanism by which DNA was translated into protein and helped crack the genetic code.
He contributed to the understanding of collagen’s structure, devised prescient theories of embryonic development and later turned his attention to the neural basis of consciousness. Dr Crick was one of the 20th century’s greatest scientists.
Yet he had also made enormous mistakes.
Before settling on the double helix, he proposed a TRIPLE one.
He published an incorrect structure of collagen and a mistaken theory about the genetic code.
In one paper he argued that life on Earth began from microbes sent by extraterrestrial beings.
In Dr Crick’s case it seemed to be trial and error, because he, of course, came good in the end, but lesser mortals have not.
They should take note…
The memories of Phil’s astonishing 42 year award-winning career in journalism (when huge mistakes were often exposed) as he was gripped by the rare neurological disabling condition, Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order the book now!
It would make a good Christmas present – Nadolig Llawen!
‘Crick: A Mind in Motion’ by Matthew Cobb. Basic Books; 608 pages; $36. Profile Books; £30.
