Talk of restructuring and job losses at National Museum Wales. Always tough for the people involved.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-22507017

But my attention was caught by the line at the end:

"The institution said it remained committed to delivering key projects, including the redevelopment of the St Fagans: Natural History Museum and providing a National Museum of Natural Sciences."

There has been lots of talk on here about St Fagans, but does any one have any further info on the National Museum of Natural Sciences? I remember some time ago there was talk of building on the car park behind the museum in Cardiff. Is this idea still floating around? Any other ideas? I guess the vision for a national museum of natural sciences is related to the idea of making the existing site 100% art based?

A little more from walesonline:

"The Natural Sciences Department will, even after the organisation, still be the largest in the UK outside of London, maintaining the Amgueddfa Cymru’s core scientific expertise and a strong platform upon which to develop a new National Museum of Natural Sciences over the next five years."

Will this be in cardiff?

I think that may be a typo. I'm guessing it should read St Fagans; National History Museum. As far as the "Museum of Natural Sciences" goes - I wonder if this might refer to some sort of tie up between Amgueddfa Cymru and the National Botanic Gardens in Llanarthne?

One thing that strikes me is comments repeated to me by visitors to this city (from UK and beyond) about how incredibly friendly, welcoming and relaxed they find people in Cardiff. Wonderful moment in March when I took a group of visiting friends (from the USA, never been to Wales before) to Llandaff Cathedral to discover a crowd of well dressed people emerging, followed by the Archbishop of Wales in all his regalia (there was a special service taking place of which I had been unaware). Next minute he was chatting to them, having photographs taken with them, and ushering us into, as he called it "our beautiful Cathedral". I just passed it off as "the advantage of living in a small country". They were dumbfounded and still talk about it - then I was getting messages from friends of theirs asking about Cardiff. Prior to that they had been in the city centre, had noticed all the "daffodils on the streetlights" (St David's Day had been 2 days before), but that everyone seemed chirpy (the sun helped I think). They had lunch in Crumbs and had been impressed by the warmth and friendliness of the staff.

We need to be a bit more confident in what we are at the moment, and not get too anxious about what we think we ought to be - even though that in itself supports the view that the ongoing cultural attribute of the Welsh is that they lack confidence in themselves but then seek to over compensate for it.