When I was a lad the suffix in the English county names Essex, Sussex and Middlesex use to reduce me to fits of giggles, I'm sure that little boys still get a laugh from such names, but as far as I know puerility has never been used as a reason to suggest that these ancient place names should not be used or be changed.
Can you imagine the outrage and the ridicule any local or national politician would be subject to if they said that these names should be changed in case naughty boys laughed at them?
But yet in Wales the fact that kids might giggle at finding that the Welsh name Y Farteg contains the English word Fart has been raised in both Community and County Councils, been commented on by a former Secretary of State for Wales and yesterday was even the subject of a Question to the First Minister in the Senedd. Incredibly the First Minister's response was that the correct Welsh spelling should not be used for what he called "obvious" reasons.
The only thing that is obvious is that the correct spelling should be used because it is correct.
If the correct spelling gives kids a giggle so what? Personally I prefer to hear the kids laughing than to hear the politicians faux outrage; and if politicians can't understand that kids will still find the Fart Egg joke in Varteg they clearly don't know how little boy's dirty minds work.
18/08/2013
What do Cardiff and Swansea FC's give to Welsh Football?
When the Ryder Cup was getting Mega Bucks from the National Assembly Government we were told that the expenditure was justified because it was more than a Game of Golf it was a worldwide advert that said "This is Wales –Come Visit, Come and Invest"
It was a load of baloney, of course. 99% of worldwide references to the Ryder cup placed it in Europe / Britain / England. The only time that Wales got a mention was when the poor weather intervened and then it was "Welsh Rain" that gave our nation negative publicity.
This makes me wonder about the "Value to Wales" of all the hype about Swansea and Cardiff being in the ENGLISH Premier League actually offering Wales, as a nation!
Far from putting Wales in the international spotlight, don't the Cardiff and Swansea teams confirm the Encyclopaedia Britannica 1771 entry of WALES: See England?
It is not so much a Nationalist issue as Parochial one, how many playing members of Man U or Man City have any local connection with Manchester? Very few, I suspect. That disassociation gets passed lower down the line until we get a failed former Blue Square player on the bench for Llandudno Junction, forcing a local lad out of the team and that Junction lad stops a Glan Conwy born and bred boy from being part of his village team.
That is not the way to spread sporting activity at grass roots level. If football in Wales is to succeed we MUST find a way to spread success up from local activity to international level, rather than continuing to "buy" failures into our village clubs on their way down!
I don't like the rugby v soccer rivalry, but I think that RGC1404's attempt to foster local talent to a regional and international level should be a lesson to the Welsh FA, because North Wales football has been too long a resting place for Accrington Stanley Non Milk Drinking, Wanabees, rather than a breeding ground for native Welsh success!
It was a load of baloney, of course. 99% of worldwide references to the Ryder cup placed it in Europe / Britain / England. The only time that Wales got a mention was when the poor weather intervened and then it was "Welsh Rain" that gave our nation negative publicity.
This makes me wonder about the "Value to Wales" of all the hype about Swansea and Cardiff being in the ENGLISH Premier League actually offering Wales, as a nation!
Far from putting Wales in the international spotlight, don't the Cardiff and Swansea teams confirm the Encyclopaedia Britannica 1771 entry of WALES: See England?
It is not so much a Nationalist issue as Parochial one, how many playing members of Man U or Man City have any local connection with Manchester? Very few, I suspect. That disassociation gets passed lower down the line until we get a failed former Blue Square player on the bench for Llandudno Junction, forcing a local lad out of the team and that Junction lad stops a Glan Conwy born and bred boy from being part of his village team.
That is not the way to spread sporting activity at grass roots level. If football in Wales is to succeed we MUST find a way to spread success up from local activity to international level, rather than continuing to "buy" failures into our village clubs on their way down!
I don't like the rugby v soccer rivalry, but I think that RGC1404's attempt to foster local talent to a regional and international level should be a lesson to the Welsh FA, because North Wales football has been too long a resting place for Accrington Stanley Non Milk Drinking, Wanabees, rather than a breeding ground for native Welsh success!
Who are the anti-English?
According to the Scotsman, BBC reporter Andrew Marr has claimed that Anti English Feeling is Entrenched in Scotland and is the basis of the Yes campaign for Scottish independence. So much for BBC neutrality!
To many people the terms United Kingdom / Britain / England are coterminous. It is beyond their ability to accept that England isn't the UK and the UK isn't England!
The problem with Andrew Marr's comments is that he cannot distinguish between being opposed to the UKainian State and being Anti-English!
As a proud Welsh Nationalist I have no hesitation in saying that I am 100% Pro-English. I support the Yes cause in Scotland, I want Wales to be part of the family of World Nations and I want England, a nation that I love and have a huge amount of respect for, to be an Independent World Nation too!
The anti-English are the pro UKainians in the Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and UKIP parties - who cannot perceive the concept That England is a Nation in its own right, rather than a by-word for Britain / the UK!
It is not the pro Welsh in Plaid, the pro Scots in the SNP or the pro Cornish in MK who are anti-English. The parties who oppose Plaid, the SNP and MK are the ones who don't want England to flourish as a nation in its own right! They are the truly anti-English.
(Photo credit and HT to https://twitter.com/SteCymru14)
To many people the terms United Kingdom / Britain / England are coterminous. It is beyond their ability to accept that England isn't the UK and the UK isn't England!
As a proud Welsh Nationalist I have no hesitation in saying that I am 100% Pro-English. I support the Yes cause in Scotland, I want Wales to be part of the family of World Nations and I want England, a nation that I love and have a huge amount of respect for, to be an Independent World Nation too!
The anti-English are the pro UKainians in the Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and UKIP parties - who cannot perceive the concept That England is a Nation in its own right, rather than a by-word for Britain / the UK!
It is not the pro Welsh in Plaid, the pro Scots in the SNP or the pro Cornish in MK who are anti-English. The parties who oppose Plaid, the SNP and MK are the ones who don't want England to flourish as a nation in its own right! They are the truly anti-English.
(Photo credit and HT to https://twitter.com/SteCymru14)
16/08/2013
Reintroducing Grammar Schools – providing the best for Tory Bastards?
It is interesting how often in British novels the working class boy (it is always a boy) who succeeds against the odds, usually by winning scholarships to a good school and then to Oxbridge, almost always turns out to be a secret posh kid born on the wrong side of the blanket. It's always the Earl who roggered the maid's son or the managing director who took advantage of the cleaner's boy who gets the grades and the education or the success.
Jeffrey Archer's Clifton Chronicles and Ken Follett's Century Trilogy are the latest that I have read, but it is a recurring theme, overused to the point of boredom.
But it makes one wonder if this recurring theme is really art reflecting life!
Is the Tory obsession with reintroducing Grammar Schools really based on the worry that the Comprehensive system isn't allowing their bastard children to raise above the hoi-poloi?
The crap novel reading public MUST be told!
14/08/2013
The Tory Legacy of Disability Hatred
I went shopping to the Iceland / Asda site in Llandudno Junction yesterday with my severely disabled wife. All the dedicated disabled parking bays were blocked by young drivers parking across the bays rather than in them. Because of their actions I was unable to access a bay where I could open the car doors wide enough in order to help my wife into her wheelchair so that we could shop together.
I approached some of the youngsters and explained my difficulties (not in the most polite terms, I must admit) their response was that they do it all the time in order to Stop the lazy scrounging spazers from parking. I complained in both shops. Iceland sympathised but didn't think they could do anything. Asda said you can't blame them!
When Iain Duncan Smith began his investigations into barriers to work, he had no greater supporter than me. Disability isn't and should never be a barrier to work, people with some of the most severe disabilities can work and should be encouraged to do so and government, at all levels, should do their utmost to enable people who live with disabilities to work within their abilities.
But somewhere along the line the message has been distorted the disabled are to blame! If they don't work it's their own lazy fault, they deserve to be bullied and ridiculed, nothing should be done to protect them or enable them. They are just bloody scroungers and the kids blocking their parking spaces in the Junction were right to oppress them!
Guto Bebb MP, David Jones MP, Janet Finch Saunders AM, Darren Miller AM are you proud of your legacy to people who live with a disability? Or are you going to do something positive to stop the disability prejudice that your party propaganda has caused?
I approached some of the youngsters and explained my difficulties (not in the most polite terms, I must admit) their response was that they do it all the time in order to Stop the lazy scrounging spazers from parking. I complained in both shops. Iceland sympathised but didn't think they could do anything. Asda said you can't blame them!
When Iain Duncan Smith began his investigations into barriers to work, he had no greater supporter than me. Disability isn't and should never be a barrier to work, people with some of the most severe disabilities can work and should be encouraged to do so and government, at all levels, should do their utmost to enable people who live with disabilities to work within their abilities.
But somewhere along the line the message has been distorted the disabled are to blame! If they don't work it's their own lazy fault, they deserve to be bullied and ridiculed, nothing should be done to protect them or enable them. They are just bloody scroungers and the kids blocking their parking spaces in the Junction were right to oppress them!
Guto Bebb MP, David Jones MP, Janet Finch Saunders AM, Darren Miller AM are you proud of your legacy to people who live with a disability? Or are you going to do something positive to stop the disability prejudice that your party propaganda has caused?
17/07/2013
The benefit of large families and young mothers
My father had sired 5 children before he was 30 years old, as his children were born towards the end of the 50's and the beginning of the 60 his output was symptomatic of the fact that working class people were having fewer children. His breeding rate was unimpressive in comparison to the 15-20 babies that many of my earlier ancestors were baring even at the beginning of the 20th century.
I was a late comer to the breeding game, I was 35 when my first child was born and 36 when my last child was born, my wife is some years younger than I am but at 29 and 30 when the boys were born she left the biological clock ticking dangerously low before becoming a mother.
Attending parent / teacher evenings in school my wife and I didn't stand out as old parents, indeed we were in the median range of parents, we are typically part of what has been described as The Demographic Time Bomb where the number of younger people available to service the needs of the elderly for care, pensions etc is diminished. Added to this is the fact that children born to older parents and smaller families are, themselves, likely to be less healthy than those born to younger parents and larger families, because of both biological and practical reasons - so they may add to the general burden of care rather than contribute to familial care.
There are three things that can help offset the demographic time bomb; immigration (young people being invited into our community to make up the lack of native youngsters); encouraging parenthood at a younger age and encouraging youngsters to have larger families. That all three are opposed by those who are most likely to suffer when the demographic time bomb explodes appears to me to be total madness!
I was a late comer to the breeding game, I was 35 when my first child was born and 36 when my last child was born, my wife is some years younger than I am but at 29 and 30 when the boys were born she left the biological clock ticking dangerously low before becoming a mother.
Attending parent / teacher evenings in school my wife and I didn't stand out as old parents, indeed we were in the median range of parents, we are typically part of what has been described as The Demographic Time Bomb where the number of younger people available to service the needs of the elderly for care, pensions etc is diminished. Added to this is the fact that children born to older parents and smaller families are, themselves, likely to be less healthy than those born to younger parents and larger families, because of both biological and practical reasons - so they may add to the general burden of care rather than contribute to familial care.
There are three things that can help offset the demographic time bomb; immigration (young people being invited into our community to make up the lack of native youngsters); encouraging parenthood at a younger age and encouraging youngsters to have larger families. That all three are opposed by those who are most likely to suffer when the demographic time bomb explodes appears to me to be total madness!
20/06/2013
Will Plaid have me back?
Yesterday I made an application to re-join Plaid Cymru. I don't know if my application will be successful or if Plaid will tell me to **** off!
I joined Plaid in 1979 after the first devolution referendum vote, I defected from the Liberal Party because, despite the Liberal party's 100 year support for Home Rule for Wales, I was the only party member in Merioneth who actually went out in that bitterly cold January and February to campaign for a Yes vote.
I gave up on Plaid in about 1995 when Dafydd Wigley made the claim that Plaid had never ever supported independence for Wales. In the intervening 18 years I have made a lot of criticisms of Plaid Cymru, I don't regret many of them. Many of my criticisms have received vocal support from within the party and from other disillusioned nationalists out with the party, but none have resulted in the creation of an alternative national movement.
The best alternatives so far have been Llais Gwynedd, Siân Caiach's People First and Plaid Glyndŵr, but all have been predicated on stealing / splitting / affecting Plaid Cymru's rather sparse share of the vote rather than widening the appeal of the national cause into areas that Plaid has failed to reach, which is pointless.
After spending 18 years waiting for a new bus at the Nationalist Bus Stop and finding that one isn't going to turn up, I feel that the time has come to get back on board the old one that, despite its faults, has been faithfully serving the route to national self determination for many years.
I joined Plaid in 1979 after the first devolution referendum vote, I defected from the Liberal Party because, despite the Liberal party's 100 year support for Home Rule for Wales, I was the only party member in Merioneth who actually went out in that bitterly cold January and February to campaign for a Yes vote.
I gave up on Plaid in about 1995 when Dafydd Wigley made the claim that Plaid had never ever supported independence for Wales. In the intervening 18 years I have made a lot of criticisms of Plaid Cymru, I don't regret many of them. Many of my criticisms have received vocal support from within the party and from other disillusioned nationalists out with the party, but none have resulted in the creation of an alternative national movement.
The best alternatives so far have been Llais Gwynedd, Siân Caiach's People First and Plaid Glyndŵr, but all have been predicated on stealing / splitting / affecting Plaid Cymru's rather sparse share of the vote rather than widening the appeal of the national cause into areas that Plaid has failed to reach, which is pointless.
After spending 18 years waiting for a new bus at the Nationalist Bus Stop and finding that one isn't going to turn up, I feel that the time has come to get back on board the old one that, despite its faults, has been faithfully serving the route to national self determination for many years.
10/06/2013
Socialism = Middle Class Tokenism
One of the reasons that I hate Socialists is because I don't think that Socialists have a fringing clue about the real life experiences of the real people that they claim to support!
I have seen two real life examples of Socialists opposing the realities of poverty recently.
The first is the proposal that energy companies will be "forced" to give the "cheapest" tariffs to poorer people.
No thank you!
My 80+ yr old parents have been paying the most expensive tariff since time immemorial; they have been paying PAYG before PAYG was a term! And that is the way that they want to continue paying – putting a couple of quid on the gas or the lecy when they need and can afford to do so.
The Labour Party's idea of forcing the cheapest tariff on the poorest people, worries me, because it doesn't appear to have any basis on the experience of those of living in poverty, it is based on their own middle class experience.
The other example of them "protecting" the poor without any experience of poverty is the campaign against payday loans. The 3000% APR interest rate is a fallacy. Nobody borrows £100 today and pays back £300000 at the end of the year, whatever the small print says!
A Payday Loan is what it Says on the Tin. If I have a direct debit for the phone bill to be paid on Monday, but I don't get paid till Friday a payday loan will be a damned site cheaper than the bank and phone company's Bounce Fees. And 3000% APR when calculated between Monday and Friday is probably the cheapest loan available and a dammed site cheaper than bounce charges. No a Credit Union will not cover such short term loans, so the credit Union Argument is a myth!
I may NEED my Payday Loan. Middle class Socialists who cannot perceive that "need" because it is out with their experience make me sick!
I have seen two real life examples of Socialists opposing the realities of poverty recently.
The first is the proposal that energy companies will be "forced" to give the "cheapest" tariffs to poorer people.
No thank you!
My 80+ yr old parents have been paying the most expensive tariff since time immemorial; they have been paying PAYG before PAYG was a term! And that is the way that they want to continue paying – putting a couple of quid on the gas or the lecy when they need and can afford to do so.
The Labour Party's idea of forcing the cheapest tariff on the poorest people, worries me, because it doesn't appear to have any basis on the experience of those of living in poverty, it is based on their own middle class experience.
The other example of them "protecting" the poor without any experience of poverty is the campaign against payday loans. The 3000% APR interest rate is a fallacy. Nobody borrows £100 today and pays back £300000 at the end of the year, whatever the small print says!
A Payday Loan is what it Says on the Tin. If I have a direct debit for the phone bill to be paid on Monday, but I don't get paid till Friday a payday loan will be a damned site cheaper than the bank and phone company's Bounce Fees. And 3000% APR when calculated between Monday and Friday is probably the cheapest loan available and a dammed site cheaper than bounce charges. No a Credit Union will not cover such short term loans, so the credit Union Argument is a myth!
I may NEED my Payday Loan. Middle class Socialists who cannot perceive that "need" because it is out with their experience make me sick!
22/05/2013
Localism - the salvation of devolution?
Press Release from the National Assembly for Wales
Democratic Deficit Session 2
Localism - the salvation of devolution?
At a time when the national and regional media in Wales often fail to engage the people of Wales in the work of the National Assembly, Rosemary Butler AM, the Assembly’s Presiding Officer, would like to invite you to a take part in a discussion on the regional and hyper-local media’s role.
The session will take the form of a round-robin round-table discussion where you can give your views on a number of new and emerging channels
of communicating with audiences across Wales as well as more traditional local initiatives.
The results of this session will be used to draw together a report on how the National Assembly can work with all sections of the media in Wales to encourage more people to become active civic citizens. This event follows the Cardiff University conference on community journalism, held earlier this year.
Day: Wednesday 12 June 2013
Time: 17.00 – 19.00
Venue: Pierhead
RSVP: 7 June
Tea and coffee will be provided
To book a place please email
Assembly.bookings@wales.gov.uk
or call 0845 010 5500
#newsdeficit
Democratic Deficit Session 2
Localism - the salvation of devolution?
At a time when the national and regional media in Wales often fail to engage the people of Wales in the work of the National Assembly, Rosemary Butler AM, the Assembly’s Presiding Officer, would like to invite you to a take part in a discussion on the regional and hyper-local media’s role.
The session will take the form of a round-robin round-table discussion where you can give your views on a number of new and emerging channels
of communicating with audiences across Wales as well as more traditional local initiatives.
The results of this session will be used to draw together a report on how the National Assembly can work with all sections of the media in Wales to encourage more people to become active civic citizens. This event follows the Cardiff University conference on community journalism, held earlier this year.
Day: Wednesday 12 June 2013
Time: 17.00 – 19.00
Venue: Pierhead
RSVP: 7 June
Tea and coffee will be provided
To book a place please email
Assembly.bookings@wales.gov.uk
or call 0845 010 5500
#newsdeficit
06/05/2013
The UKIP Conundrum
I am sick of seeing Nigle Ferage's big grin on my telly and
the claim that UKIP has made some mega breakthrough.
OK! UKIP made some
gains last Thursday, so what?
UKIP won just 5% of the contested seats.
UKIP is currently in eight place re number of County and
district councillors in the UK.
UKIP didn't gain control, or even balance, on any council.
From a purely psephological point of view UKIP had a shit result last Thursday
they failed to break through anywhere!
So why does the media spin UKIP's disappointing result as
exiting?
Less than 0.75% of the UK electorate actually voted UKIP
last Thursday – why isn't that truth being broadcast?
73% of those who cast a vote, voted against UKIP.
UKIP is not, by any stretch of the imagination, the new voice
of Britain!.
The majority of the people who live
in these islands continue to oppose UKIP's neo Nazism,!
The best way to deal
with UKIP's so called "success" is to move away from it rather than
embrace it!
Only Plaid Cymru, MK and SNP seem to be moving away from the fascist minority, whilst the big three want to embrace and "understand" UKIP Facism!
Do you remember 1936?
31/03/2013
Stop the Benefits Scroungers
With the Westminster government intending to hammer benefits
claimants on Monday I thought that this picture published on Twitter by @RCdeWinter is quite pertinent, despite the fact that it
relates to the USA (however Walmart is, of course, the parent company of ASDA on
our side of the pond).
@wallbngr54 they're disgusting hypocrites #Walmart #Waltons twitter.com/RCdeWinter/sta…
— RC deWinter (@RCdeWinter) March 31, 2013
If companies pay so little to their employees that they have
to depend on state handouts in order to have a basic standard of living then it
is not those in receipt of benefits who are the cheats and scroungers so
despised by The Daily Mail and its ilk, but the owners of these companies who
abuse the benefits system as a means to boost their profits by underpaying
their staff.
If the government really wanted to tackle the benefits bill
for fiscal, rather than ideological, reasons then they would increase the
minimum wage to a level where a working couple with an average amount of
children wouldn't need to claim any state support.
Before the usual suspects accuse me of socialist ranting or
bolstering the left, I would point out that I am a fiscal conservative, and
this post makes a free market point.
The welfare state should support those in
greatest need, not one of the wealthiest families in the world and a company
that relies on huge state subsidies in order to pay its workforce is not
working in either the true private sector or in a free market economy. If paying a fair wage would make the company unprofitable (doubtful) then they should go bust - which would be a boon for the thousands of small companies that their abuse of state subsidies squeeze out of the market place!
21/03/2013
Spare Room Subsidy/Bedroom Tax- a response to Glyn Davies MP
http://glyn-davies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/spare-room-subsidybedroom-tax.html
There is no justification for the bedroom tax. It is a tax based on ideological spite rather than on saving money or on fairness. There is an ideological minority in the Tory Party that hates the poor and the bedroom tax is am ideological sop to them.
The fact that the bedroom tax had been inflicted on those who live in private rented accommodation before it was inflicted on people in social accommodation is not an argument in favour of the bedroom tax. It is wrong in both cases and, as the old saying goes - two wrongs do not make a right!
As it happens I have some sympathy with the problem of people living in houses that are too big for them blocking housing. My parents are part of the problem! They live in a five bedroom ex-council house - sold to them by the last Tory Government and taken out of the social housing mix. But if they sell it they couldn't afford a smaller house in the private housing market.
If your lot hadn't destroyed the social housing stock in the first place the problem wouldn't have arisen. The Bedroom Tax is punishing the poor for the effects of the anti poor policies of Thatcherism – that you and yours celebrate.
The sickest thing about your policy is that if my parents hadn't wasted money on oversubscribing their little wealth into buying a council house, which may be eaten up by age care costs, they could be living in a council bungalow with a spare room that their children, grandchildren and great grand children could use on visits. But even that would not be allowed if they were re-housed under the bedroom tax!
There is no justification for the bedroom tax. It is a tax based on ideological spite rather than on saving money or on fairness. There is an ideological minority in the Tory Party that hates the poor and the bedroom tax is am ideological sop to them.
The fact that the bedroom tax had been inflicted on those who live in private rented accommodation before it was inflicted on people in social accommodation is not an argument in favour of the bedroom tax. It is wrong in both cases and, as the old saying goes - two wrongs do not make a right!
As it happens I have some sympathy with the problem of people living in houses that are too big for them blocking housing. My parents are part of the problem! They live in a five bedroom ex-council house - sold to them by the last Tory Government and taken out of the social housing mix. But if they sell it they couldn't afford a smaller house in the private housing market.
If your lot hadn't destroyed the social housing stock in the first place the problem wouldn't have arisen. The Bedroom Tax is punishing the poor for the effects of the anti poor policies of Thatcherism – that you and yours celebrate.
The sickest thing about your policy is that if my parents hadn't wasted money on oversubscribing their little wealth into buying a council house, which may be eaten up by age care costs, they could be living in a council bungalow with a spare room that their children, grandchildren and great grand children could use on visits. But even that would not be allowed if they were re-housed under the bedroom tax!
26/02/2013
Politics and Gender Politics
In the early 1980s my union did an exercise in attracting more female members to participate. It worked, to a certain extent, the changes initiated doubled the number of women attending union meetings, it also doubled the number of men attending – which preserved the gender imbalance! Which suggests that many of the reasons given for "gender imbalance" in politics - family friendly – time – place – terminology – structure etc aren't things that put women off politics but are things that put people off politics.
The family friendly argument is popular but doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Because of the distances travelled, by virtue of being held in two different places and because of the huge size of each constituency the most family unfriendly of elected offices is the MEP, where Wales currently has 50 / 50 gender balance and has been fairly well represented by women since the first elections in the 1970's. If a lack of family friendliness was the real reason for gender imbalance in politics 40% of all MEPs ever elected in Wales would not have been women.
If any party offered me a safe seat as an MEP I wouldn't accept it, I cannot think of a worse job in elected politics, I wouldn't fight tooth and nail for it, any boy or girl who wants the job is welcome to it!
And that is the real rub in gender politics – when men stand it has sod all to do with gender it's to do with ME. I stood for election to my community council last year. If eleven women were elected and I was the only man elected, I couldn't give a shit about the men who lost, as long as I won!
I stood so that I could be a community councillor not so that a man could hold that role. I stood as an individual who hoped to contribute to the council not as a male!
The feminist movement, to a certain extent, has homogenised female politics. A woman stands election for womanhood rather than just as a candidate for her party, and that is wrong!
If I vote for Leanne (through her party) in the next election my support will be based on what we have in common between our ears and in our hearts not on the differences between our legs!
I want Wales to be an independent and successful country I don't care about the gender balance, disability balance, racial balance etc that delivers a free Wales; I just care about the deliverance!
The family friendly argument is popular but doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Because of the distances travelled, by virtue of being held in two different places and because of the huge size of each constituency the most family unfriendly of elected offices is the MEP, where Wales currently has 50 / 50 gender balance and has been fairly well represented by women since the first elections in the 1970's. If a lack of family friendliness was the real reason for gender imbalance in politics 40% of all MEPs ever elected in Wales would not have been women.
If any party offered me a safe seat as an MEP I wouldn't accept it, I cannot think of a worse job in elected politics, I wouldn't fight tooth and nail for it, any boy or girl who wants the job is welcome to it!
And that is the real rub in gender politics – when men stand it has sod all to do with gender it's to do with ME. I stood for election to my community council last year. If eleven women were elected and I was the only man elected, I couldn't give a shit about the men who lost, as long as I won!
I stood so that I could be a community councillor not so that a man could hold that role. I stood as an individual who hoped to contribute to the council not as a male!
The feminist movement, to a certain extent, has homogenised female politics. A woman stands election for womanhood rather than just as a candidate for her party, and that is wrong!
If I vote for Leanne (through her party) in the next election my support will be based on what we have in common between our ears and in our hearts not on the differences between our legs!
I want Wales to be an independent and successful country I don't care about the gender balance, disability balance, racial balance etc that delivers a free Wales; I just care about the deliverance!
23/01/2013
Not In or Out, but a New Europe
The European debate in the UK is rather odd. It is portrayed as one of two stark choices IN or OUT. If an in/out referendum were to be held tomorrow I would suspect, based on what my friends and family say, that most of the voters of Wales would vote OUT (not a scientific survey, but this is a blog not an academic essay).
The oddity is that most people who tell me that they would vote OUT are not anti-European; they are opposed to a European Superstate. They agree with the idea of a Common Market, they agree with the idea of a "level playing field" where employment rights or animal welfare standards etc are equal thoroughout Europe they like the idea of free trade and free travel in Europe; what they don't want is an United States of Europe.
Such attitudes are not "little Englander" attitudes, they are not UKIP attitudes; they are actually Pan European attitudes. Large numbers of the citizens of every part of Europe want to rein back the idea of a European Superstate and re-embrace the idea of a Common Market. Supporting either the Europhobes or the Europhiles in an UK stark choice referendum will be bad for Wales. What we should do is unite with those, thoroughout Europe, who want a new European settlement where independent nations are In Europe, but not under Europe's thumb!
The oddity is that most people who tell me that they would vote OUT are not anti-European; they are opposed to a European Superstate. They agree with the idea of a Common Market, they agree with the idea of a "level playing field" where employment rights or animal welfare standards etc are equal thoroughout Europe they like the idea of free trade and free travel in Europe; what they don't want is an United States of Europe.
Such attitudes are not "little Englander" attitudes, they are not UKIP attitudes; they are actually Pan European attitudes. Large numbers of the citizens of every part of Europe want to rein back the idea of a European Superstate and re-embrace the idea of a Common Market. Supporting either the Europhobes or the Europhiles in an UK stark choice referendum will be bad for Wales. What we should do is unite with those, thoroughout Europe, who want a new European settlement where independent nations are In Europe, but not under Europe's thumb!
07/01/2013
A New Year's Resolution – tell the diet industry to Fuck Off!
Every New Year thousands, probably millions of people will make a resolution to lose weight and increase their fitness levels, and they have many companies to help them achieve their goals.
Or do they?
In the pure capital society in which we in the Western World exist a diet programme that worked would be counter productive to business. If I could make you thin and you stayed thin, I wouldn't have any repeat business!
The "diet industry" has no interest, whatsoever, in keeping you thin and healthy. Its interest is in keeping you in a "yo-yo" situation where you lose weight and gain weight and lose weight and gain weight ad infiniteum! The industry' has a vested interest in making sure that it fails in order to keep you as a continuous dieting customer!
A simple example – I have two spoons full of sugar in my tea. If I stopped taking sugar in my tea I would get use to unsweetened tea and I would make a life changing difference to my sugar intake. But hey I don't need to make that life changing decision because I can use 0% sweetener instead. – so I am permanently addicted to sweet tea – so I yo-yo between taking sugar and going back to sweetener!
When you eat a Granola Bar rather than a Mars Bar you are confirming the "bar" habit rather than breaking it, you are falling into the diet industry trap. If Mars bars are making you fat – give up snack bars - don't swap them for false "healthy" bars.
And remember that normal healthy people have bellies – the six pack is unnatural and probably unhealthy!
How loyal are loyalists?
Like, I suspect, 99% of others who live on the largest of the British Islands, I don't understand the politics of Northern Ireland.
I can sort of understand the nationalist position. They want Ireland to be independent in the same way as the English Democrats, Mebyon Kernow, Plaid Cymru and the SNP want their parts of these islands to be independent or less dependent on each other.
There are those who propose and oppose nationalism in England, Scotland Cornwall and Wales but we tend to accept each other's views as legitimate ones to hold even in our most vehement of arguments. The vast majority of people in mainland Britain probably couldn't give a toss about the Independence / Union argument.
I don't know if my local county hall flies the Union Flag permanently, or if it flies it only on flag days or if it doesn't fly it at all, whatever it isn't a big deal to me and it won't be a big deal to most of us who live on the larger island. Even if it was a big deal we might send letters to the editor of the local rag, complain to our MP, we may even raise a petition. We wouldn't riot!
If anybody started a riot in Llandudno because the Union Flag was absent from the Town Hall the local Lore and Order Tory Brits would be the first to condemn the rioters and would insist that they were dealt with by the utmost severity of the law.
That is basically why I don't understand the politics of the north of Ireland, the loyalists don't seem very loyal to what the local Brits tell me are British values. And the local Brits tend to see the likes of Ian Paisley and his loyalist ilk as "Irish Scum" rather than a True Brits.
How can you be "loyalist" to Britain if the rest of Britain abhors and rejects your interpretation of loyalty?
I can sort of understand the nationalist position. They want Ireland to be independent in the same way as the English Democrats, Mebyon Kernow, Plaid Cymru and the SNP want their parts of these islands to be independent or less dependent on each other.
There are those who propose and oppose nationalism in England, Scotland Cornwall and Wales but we tend to accept each other's views as legitimate ones to hold even in our most vehement of arguments. The vast majority of people in mainland Britain probably couldn't give a toss about the Independence / Union argument.
I don't know if my local county hall flies the Union Flag permanently, or if it flies it only on flag days or if it doesn't fly it at all, whatever it isn't a big deal to me and it won't be a big deal to most of us who live on the larger island. Even if it was a big deal we might send letters to the editor of the local rag, complain to our MP, we may even raise a petition. We wouldn't riot!
If anybody started a riot in Llandudno because the Union Flag was absent from the Town Hall the local Lore and Order Tory Brits would be the first to condemn the rioters and would insist that they were dealt with by the utmost severity of the law.
That is basically why I don't understand the politics of the north of Ireland, the loyalists don't seem very loyal to what the local Brits tell me are British values. And the local Brits tend to see the likes of Ian Paisley and his loyalist ilk as "Irish Scum" rather than a True Brits.
How can you be "loyalist" to Britain if the rest of Britain abhors and rejects your interpretation of loyalty?
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