29/05/2015

Superfast Rip-off!


I was excited by the Welsh Government / EU proposal to give Superfast Broadband to Welsh Rural Communities.

Superfast Cymru will transform the broadband landscape in Wales and promote economic growth and sustainable jobs in Wales. It's been estimated that up to 2,500 further full times jobs could be created throughout the Welsh economy over time. The project will ensure Wales is at the forefront of the global digital economy and will help to champion Wales as a great place to live, work, invest and visit.

When I heard that Llansanffraid Glan Conwy would be connected to the superfast network this week I was overjoyed, so I asked, SKY, my internet provider, to sign me up. I was shocked to find that a service promoted as one subsidised by the EU, Westminster and the Government of Wales would cost me £2 a month more, but I bit the bullet and signed up anyway. My superfast broadband was activated at 3pm on 27th May 2015 .

On 28th May at 11:48 PM I had a message from Sky:

You've gone over your Sky broadband usage allowance
We're just letting you know that you've gone over your Sky Fibre 25GB monthly usage allowance.
The good news is that we won't do anything this time as it may be a one off. However, if you go over your allowance again in the next five months, we'll automatically switch you to Sky Fibre Unlimited, as it has an unlimited usage allowance.
Sky Fibre Unlimited is just £20 a month and gives you the same great speed, but with the added peace of mind of totally unlimited usage.

In a period of 36 hours, when I have only been online for about 4 hours, read my e-mails, looked at my Twitter and Facebook pages, watched a few "Maiden Speeches" on YouTube (in low definition) I have exceeded my monthly allowance and have to pay an extra £22 more to access the internet over a connection provided by taxpayers' money!

I feel ripped off, I can't afford the extra payment!

This is absolutely disgusting, a rip off on the back of public money by a private company. Rather than enabling internet access, SKY's abuse of the service and the fact that I can't afford a locked in contract for £22 a month means that I will probably be forced to abandon the internet for the next 18 months.

This might be the last post on this site for some time; but before I am forced to log off I hope that AM's MP's MEPs and journalists question this abuse of a public funded project and make the abusers account for their rip off.

27/05/2015

Miserable Old Fart: 2016 - The Very Last chance to Vote for Wales!

Miserable Old Fart: 2016 - The Very Last chance to Vote for Wales!: The main story of the UK General Election 2015 is that Britain elected an English Nationalist Government out of fear of what the SNP could...

2016 - The Very Last chance to Vote for Wales!

The main story of the UK General Election 2015 is that Britain elected an English Nationalist Government out of fear of what the SNP could do to Britain if it had the balance of power.

A couple of Welsh seats fell to the Tories because of the same narrative; this worries me, why should Wales fear the SNP?

Because of demographic change the 2016 Assembly elections could be the very last in which the majority of voters in Wales are Welsh people rather than "the people of Wales".

We can accept, what appears to be the inevitable, that despite 1000+ years of resistance to being assimilated into England, that the battle is now lost; by continuing to vote for what have become the English Nationalist Labour party or English Nationalist Tory Party, or we can make, (what might be the very last stand for the future existence of Wales) and vote en-mass for Plaid Cymru in 2016 to secure a future for our Nation by having a government that puts Wales First!

If we vote English Nationalist Labour or English Nationalist Tory or Ultra English Nationalist UKIP in 2016, or even decide not to vote at all we may as well accept that Wales has ceased to exist and get use to the revival of the old adage For Wales - see England

10/05/2015

Plaid 2016 Election

It is interesting that the Conservatives have won the GE on less than 37% of those registered to vote and fewer than 25% of those entitled to vote, but yet the Campaign seemed to be one of trying to swing voters from one party to another, whilst the "spare vote" was obviously elsewhere! With both Labour and Tories being advised by US "election gurus" who believe in both restricting the vote and making policy on what focus groups believe and becoming a choice of two sames, neither turnout nor result is surprising.

If I was a party advisor I would charge Billions of pounds for this simple advice to any party, forget gaining votes from other parties, I'm voting Plaid and nothing will change my mind, chase the disaffected, register the unregistered, that nonvoting part of the electorate is what will give you a solid majority.

And therein lies a problem, Plaid does better in Assembly Elections because fewer vote.

In 2003 I was asked, by Plaid, to take down a Plaid supporting poster from my window because it might alert others to the election and my wife and I were the only committed Plaid voters on our estate. Since adopting that strategy Plaid's share of the vote has declined year after year. The ONLY way #Plaid16 can win is by going out to gain votes, getting non voters TO vote and registering potential voters. The policy of shushing and hoping for a low turnout is past its sell by date.

Plaid got a fair vote in many constituencies in the Westminster GE, hoping it turns out in secret next year is not an electoral strategy! Plaid really needs to persuade non voters, and as yet unregistered voters, to vote Plaid in 2016 and make a song and dance about how fantastic it's campaign is, rather than hoping that only committed nashies vote in a pathetically low turnout!

08/05/2015

Disappointed with Plaid

I am very disappointed with Plaid Cymru's lack of success tonight, I was quietly confident that Plaid would have won 5, 6, even 7 seats in this election scarping to keep 3 out of 40 seats is bitterly disappointing, especially whilst the English nationalist Conservatives made gains in Wales and ultra English nationalist UKIP gained more votes than Plaid.

That UKIP can argue about "Immigration" in constituencies with fewer than 5% non British born residents like Aberconwy, but Plaid is too frightened to mention the 30% English Immigrants is counter-productive.

I Read Mike Parker's Comments and Hugh Thomas comments when they were first made – I agreed with both, there is a problem with English Immigrants invading Wales – Plaid must accept this fact –or accept that the future is that so many English move into Wales that Wales becomes an White Flight English county.

Leanne mentioned during the campaign that Plaid needs to be more "naughty" – that naughtiness must include being much more fundamentally nationalist and opposing the colonisation of Wales!