The Six Nations in the North

All of the under twenty - Six Nations home Welsh Rugby international games this year and next, will be played at the new Eirias Park stadium in Colwyn Bay. I would like to urge all supporters of the oval ball in the North to try to attend one or more of these matches.

Attending an international match in Cardiff given the cost of transport, ticket and accommodation is way beyond many of us! For only Five Quid we can support Wales on Eirias Park in Six Nations Internationals!

OK – it's just the under 20's –but many of those from Wales and the opposing teams will be the stars of rugby's future and you can boast I was there when the heir to Barry John played his very first game for Wales - etc

More importantly, a good show of support may keep these games in Colwyn Bay beyond 2013, and may also prove to some of the southern-centric members of the WRU, that supporting and developing Rugby in the North will be beneficial for all of Welsh Rugby.

Tickets are available from Conwy Council, Venue Cymru and most Tesco stores in the north of Wales

What is the Labour and Tory Vision for an Independent Scotland?

In trying to follow the Scottish Independence referendum debate, there is one strain of argument that confuses me. It is the argument where Unionists (usually) ask questions about the policies that an Independent Scottish Government would follow, which are sometimes answered, quite authoritively, by Nationalists.

Questions like:

What sort of currency would an independent Scotland have?

What would Scotland's defence policies be? If England went to War would Scotland Support England? How many Aeroplanes would the Scots Air Force have?

How would Scotland deal with welfare and benefits? Would taxes be higher, lower, or similar?

What sort of economic policies would an Independent Scotland follow? What would Scotland's international relations be like?

They are all fair questions, I suppose. They may be questions that an "undecided" might want an answer to. They might be questions that a truly independent commentator (if such a creature exists) might be able to guess at by looking at the historic polity of Scotland.

But are they questions for the YES side alone?

I think not.

If Scotland votes Yes the answers to these questions will not just be in the hands of the Yes voters. Those who vote No and those who don't vote will also live in an independent Scotland and their opinions will still count in an independent Scotland.

The idea that the SNP should be forced to answer these policy questions whilst the unionists snigger is bad for the possible future of Scottish politics.

If Scotland votes Yes the first elected independent parliament may not be formed by the SNP. Voters may think that, having achieved its goal, the SNP is defunct. There may be a Labour Government, possibly even a Conservative Government in the newly Independent Holyrood Parliament.

In order to get the fullest possible picture of what an independent Scotland might look like those who oppose Scottish Independence should surely tell us how they would run an independent Scotland should the referendum vote go against them!

Glan Conwy May 2012 Elections

I have been receiving odd e-mails, comments etc, that suggest that I might be standing election for a New Nationalist Party, as an Independent Nationalist a Plaid Candidate or even as a Conservative Party Candidate for the Llansanffraid ward of Conwy County Council next May!

NONE of these rumours are true! I will vote for and give my wholehearted support to the re-election of Graham (Gas) Rees, regardless of whoever else is standing, on the County ballot!

I will be putting my name forward as a candidate for the Community Council as a truly independent candidate, and that means as independent of The Gas Man as much as independent of the established parties!

I will be standing in my own name on my own ticket - but I hope that I can count on your support!

Leanne Wood - a cultural nationalist!

It is no secret that my ideas of centre right Welsh Nationalism are directly opposed to Leanne Wood's Socialism and Republicanism.

As I have repeated ad-nausium on this blog socialism is dependent on the state, the state on which Wales now depends is the British state; until we throw off the shackles of state control Wales can never be free!

Republicanism is a British obsession. An independent Wales will have no royal family! Republicanism is not a Welsh Nationalist issue!

Leanne and I are not in tune re socialism and republicanism, but there is an issue where Leanne and I are in four square agreement and that is on the issue of the Welsh Language and Welsh Culture.

Despite the Western Mails bollocks comment: The fact that she is not a Welsh speaker would be an enormous advantage in dispelling the still widely held view that Plaid is essentially a party for Welsh speakers. I can guarantee that Leanne can and does speak Welsh - I have never conversed with her in English!

And I can assure all cultural nationalists that Leanne's love and support of our culture is genuine and heartfelt.

This is not an endorsement – just a statement of fact!

Why Independence as a "Long Term Aim" is wrong

When Simon Thomas was an MP he suggested that Plaid should aim for an independent Wales by 2050, because I am already well into my sixth decade, voting for a party that promises independence by 2050, would be an altruistic act for me, the chances of my living until 2050 are minimal. In an article on Wales Home Adam Price suggests 2036 as the date that the party should advocate for its long term policy, when I may be a sprightly 77 years old.

Plaid Cymru has seen generations of activists shuffle off this mortal coil knowing that they would never live in an independent Wales, why should I expect better? Shouldn't I too campaign for independence as a long term aim that will benefit my children and my grandchildren after I am gone?

Possibly, but probably not!

I am a realist, I know that Independence has hovered around the 10% +3 -3 margine of error in opinion polls for the last 30 years, so there isn't a great appetite for Independence in Wales at the moment. One of the reasons for this stagnation is that nobody has made the case for independence. And therein lays the problem of kicking independence into the long grass. If we see independence as a long term issue that can be ignored for another 20 30, 50 years, Wales will never be independent!

For either Adam or Simon to be right, for independence to be achieved in 2036 or 2050 we must campaign for Independence Today. Ignoring the issue as something for the long term just puts off making the case for independence until 2036 or 2050 or 2075 or 2974 or 3465 or for eternity!

If there is a case for Welsh independence it should be made today by all who believe in the cause. Postponing the argument as something for the long term is both duplicitous and dishonest!

If you want to live in an Independent Wales move to Scotland!

Apparently nobody understands the concept of an Independent Wales, or so says Plaid Cymru AM Rhodri Glyn Thomas!

Despite being an elected member of Plaid, Rhodri's advice to those of us who support Welsh independence is F*** off to Scotland. When I was a member of Plaid in the 1970's and 1980's that was the sort of sh*t I use to hear from Labour and Conservative dinosaurs whilst canvassing , go and live in Ireland if you hate Britain so much!

This blog has criticised Plaid Cymru's lack of faith in the national cause over the years, but even I hadn't thought that the Party had sunk to such depths that its elected representatives despise nationalists so much that they feel that they should be exiled to Scotland!

What Rhodri is quoted as saying in the Western Mail is clearly incompatible with any description of Welsh Nationalism. I hope that Rhodri comes forward with a press release that condemns the Western Mail for misquoting him and makes a four square case for the national cause!

If he doesn't I would have to ask any nationalist who supports Plaid Why are you in the same party as Rhodri Glyn? Either he should be kicked out or you should move out and help create a true new Welsh Nationalist Party.

Constitutional change isn't esoteric - as the ConDems know!

Whatever the result of the Scottish Independence referendum it will affect Wales for better or worse. Whether it is for better or for worse will depend on how Welsh politicians prepare for the result and that preparation should be made now by nationalists and unionists alike.

Waiting for the referendum result and playing it by ear after the fact will be bad for Wales.

I agree with Jonathan Edwards MP that the Welsh Government should be preparing for Scottish independence and putting forward a coherent vision for the Welsh nation’s constitutional future if Scottish independence happens.

Whatever one's views on Scottish Independence, it is something that could happen within the next few years. Even if Welsh Labour and Welsh Liberal Democrats were willing to bet the national debt on Scotland remaining within the Union, common sense says that Wales should prepare for the effect that Scottish independence would have on Wales if it comes to pass. Not doing so is true fantasy politics.

Peter Black, in condemning Jonathan Edwards for raising the need for the National Assembly to consider the possibility of a YES vote says:

I do know that the most urgent issues facing the Welsh Government today are the economy, an under-performing education system and the health service. Why would any sane minister take his or her eye off those problems to worry about esoteric constitutional issues?"

The ConDem government is only a year and a half old. Since its inception we have had a referendum on the powers of the National Assembly, a referendum on UK voting reform, an act that guarantees a referendum on changes to Britain's relationship with the EU, a Fixed Term Parliament, an act that reduces the number of Welsh MPs by a quarter, proposals for the election of Police Commissioners and withdrawing police control from local authorities, the establishment of the Silk Commission, and Britain being on the cusp of getting kicked out of the EU – that's a hell of a lot of constitutional change from a government who's supporters believe that constitutional matters are esoteric!

Why have the ConDems perused this wholesale constitutional change?

Because they know that constitutional change isn't esoteric – The constitution is the bedrock on which economic, social and ethical issues stand.

Peter Black's opposition to constitutional change for Wales, other than the wholesale changes imposed by the ConDems, is, in reality, an opposition to Wales having a better economic, social and ethical future based on a an alternative constitution to that offered by the corrupt UKanian State that he supports.

The Unacceptable Face of Capitalism

Standards & Poor's is a company, nothing more nothing less; but it has just threatened 15 Euro Zone countries with downgrading their creditworthiness and those sovereign countries are expected to react to this single company's musings by changing economic policies that will affect over half a billion citizens.

When a single company can dictate economic policy to 15 countries and half a billion people, we don't have democracy; we have a tyranny that is worse than that used by any Self-serving Monarch or Evil dictator in the past history of mankind.

The Euro Zone should tell Standards & Poor's to ****** (expletives deleted), make its sort of trading illegal, ban it and stop it from blackmailing democratically elected governments in future.

The answer to the current economic crisis is not to bow to the markets that created and are exacerbating the crisis. The answer is to regulate the markets so that companies like Standards and Poors can no longer profit out of the economic misery that they wish to impose on billions of people for the sake of a fast buck for their few shareholders.

Tory Brain on Strike?

Perhaps I am a bit thick, but I have difficulty in understanding the argument that the Tories are making ad nausium against today's strike.

Apparently the unions are irresponsible for conducting a strike while negotiations are ongoing!

Isn't the time that negotiations are omgoing the best time to protest and express strength of feeling?

Wouldn't strike action, protest, complaint etc be rather redundant after negotiations ended, after coming to agreement or after a decision is made?

Mebyon Kernow Conference

Mebyon Kernow held their Annual Conference in Bodmin last weekend here are a selection of contributions;

First MK's leader Cllr Dick Cole:



And a contribution from Plaid Cymru's Jonathan Edwards MP



and a speech from the SNP's Kenneth Gibson MSP

Wear Your Poppy With Shame!

It is probably an age thing!

I can understand the Welsh Political Twins antipathy towards the Poppy Symbol, but they are a lot younger than me. I was born 14 years after the end of WWII. The Cenotaphs in Dolgellau, Barmouth, Cilfynydd, Ludlow, Trawsfynydd and Minsterly don't just have names on them they have the names of real people who my parents and grandparents really grieved for, and for whom I still feel a duty of rememberance.

Y Prifardd Hedd Wyn, the Welsh language icon of War loss was my paternal grandfather's cousin. Wilfred Owen, probably the best English language War Poet, was my maternal grandmother's cousin. The words of these two relatives are still used and abused in remembrance.

Armistice Day / Remembrance Sunday is an emotional day for me. My family tree is full of names of fantastic people who I would have known had they not been butchered and damned in the two world wars. So I wear a poppy in respect and remembrance of them!

But think about it! What is poppy money for?

A Charity that supports disabled ex-service personnel!

Why do those who have served King and Country need to depend on charity for support?

Shouldn't the government that recruited them, conscripted them and deployed them pick up the tab for disabled service personnel?

The fact that I have to put a couple of quid into a charity box to buy a poppy, in order to ensure that disabled soldiers are looked after is a shameful reflection on the UK's policy of care for its war heroes!

The Poppy isn't a Symbol of Pride, it is a Symbol of Shame! Shame that a charity is doing what the government should have a moral duty to do!

e-Petition: Recall LDP’s

An e-petition to the Assembly Worthy of Support:

We call upon the National Assembly for Wales to urge the Welsh government to recall all Local Development Plans across Wales and to scrap the use of population projections issued by the Statistical Directorate that are used to inflate housing numbers in local development plans.

We call for all LDPs at whatever stage of development to be halted immediately in order to bring the level of housing growth in line with genuine local needs.We the undersigned view all LDPs guided by the Welsh Government s population projections as ill thought out, fundamentally flawed and detrimental to the communities of Wales.This type of planning is not sustainable, is not needed and is not wanted by the people of Wales. In order to halt the damage that is already being done and to prevent further irreversible damage and devastation to our communities, environment and identity across Wales, we appeal to the Welsh Government to intervene immediately.

Silk - Clichés or Answers?

It was with a certain amount of despair that I heard on the BBC that the Silk Commission:

will hold its first meeting at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on Friday

What a bloody depressing cliché. They may as well have launched the Commission down The Big Pit or on a mountain farm where the farmer had been arrested for shagging his sheep – if the Millennium Stadium is their starting point, we may as well accept that the ending point will be a report full of platitudes and bereft of substance.

If the Commission had any intention of delivering a visionary way forward for Welsh governance and finance they might, at least, have launched their consultation in the memorial hall of a deprived community or in the canteen of a thriving company. Either would have shown some appreciation of the needs of Wales.

Launching in the spiritual home of the 80 minute patriot bodes ill for the value of the Silk Commission!

Good Food Guide

Apparently if we in Wales ate an English diet our health will improve dramatically. As I'm feeling a bit peckish now, what would you suggest as a quick snack? A Brummy sandwich, Scouser on toast or a tasty morsel of East Anglian with a nice chianti.

Dr Hannibal Lecter – Welsh food pioneer

Left, Right or Welsh Nationalist?

I am a Welsh nationalist. I believe that Wales should be an Independent Country. I use to be a member and a branch officer of Plaid Cymru, I have been an electoral agent for the party and I have made speeches in many of the party conferences!

I have not stopped being a supporter of Plaid Cymru, I just stopped paying my membership fees after Dafydd Wigley's statement that plaid had never ever supported Independence for Wales, some 15 years ago!

I support independence!

It's interesting to see Plaid Members calling out Plaid reps on the independence question now!

The one thing that stops me joining Plaid is a quote that appears often on Syniadau's blog when he calls others to order:

2.2 To ensure................, decentralist socialism.

Decentralised socialism is an oxymoron. You can do what you want in your neighbourhood as long as it is Socialist – that isn't decentralisation! It's as stupid as saying that Wales can be independent as long as it remains British!

I was a member of Plaid when this Socialist crap came to a head, in the days of the Hydro Group. The silly thing was that on individual motions there was never a "Hydro" v "Socialist" split, both groups either supported each other, or both split amongst themselves!

I think that there is something quite pathetic in the fact that Plaid's rules exclude me from membership of the party for agreeing on social policy from a right wing Christian position with Welsh Ramblings ultra left atheist position on many areas of public policy. Surely it's the policy that counts - not the background doctrine!!!!

Isn't it funny?

Those who supported Mr Obama in his campaign for the White House a few years ago were using the power of the internet for progressive politics!

The Qaddafi regime was overthrown by the use of modern communications that overrode official propaganda.

Mobile phone videos are destroying the credibility of Syrian State TV propaganda.

The internet is working to create political change, for the better, in every part of the world apart from Scotland where the undemocratic nature of the internet is in play according to Bashar al-Assad Scots Labour leader, Iain Grey:

Pro-independence bloggers the so-called “cybernats” go online in an attempt to trash the reputations of those whom they think do not support the SNP’s cause. Gray warned Labour candidates that cybernats and bloggers would question their sexuality and drag their families into the “vitriol”.
I say to the candidates. Don’t kid yourself. You will be attacked. You will be smeared. You will be lied about. You will be threatened,” Gray said. The cybernats and the bedsit bloggers will call you traitor, quisling, lapdog and worse. They will question your appearance, your integrity and your sexuality. They will drag your family and your faith into the lies and the vitriol. It will be worse if you are a woman.
This is the poison some have brought into our politics and it is vile.

I sympathise with Mr Grey, the Labour Party has a divine right to govern Scotland! Using any new technology to dispute that right is like feeding Satan!

It shouldn't be allowed.

Tax advice for the Silk Committee.

I know that the membership has just been announced, and that it hasn't even met yet, but I would like to offer one word of premature advice to the Silk Committee – Don't do what the press assumes that you are going to do, do not look at tax raising powers for the National Assembly!

Raising is an ambiguous word.

To raise taxes suggests to most of us that the level of taxation will go up, in the sense that VAT has risen from 15% to 20%, and that raising the price of a pint of beer means charging £3 a pint rather than £2.50 a pint etc

In the political world raising taxes means collecting money for the purpose of running government. So in an oxymoronic way a government that cuts taxes by 90% would still be a government that "raises" taxes.

Any public consultation on the Assembly having the ability to raise taxes will be met with howls of protestation, because none of us want our taxes raised in the colloquial sense of them being made higher!

To avoid complication and to have honest consultation the Commission must look at tax setting or tax levying powers for the Assembly, not tax raising powers!

And those of us who belive that the Assembly should have some direct responsibility for its own financial situation should avoid the trap of using the term tax raising.

Normally pedantry is petty, in this case pedantry is important.

Social Housing e-petition to the Assembly

Royston Jones ( Jac o' the North) has posted the following petition to the Assembly:

We call upon the National Assembly for Wales to urge the Welsh Government to address the flawed system for allocating social housing in Wales.

At present, a person who has never visited Wales can qualify for social housing ahead of someone born and bred in Wales. This is due to the points system giving preference to the homeless, those in unfit accommodation, those recently released from institutions, etc.

At first glance, commendable; but when applied on a UK basis we see an endless stream of people with ‘problems’ from outside Wales denying Welsh people social housing and, too often, blighting Welsh communities.

To remedy this problem we call on the Welsh Government to introduce a period of five-years’ residency in Wales before anyone qualifies for social housing, exempting only political refugees and others escaping persecution.

Those wishing to sign the petition can do so by clicking here

The bum side of antique telly programmes

I have just watched an old edition of Antiques Road Show on BBC sign zone.

As is usual in all of these antique programmes it contained the obligatory I bought this in a boot sale for next to nothing item that turns out to be valued at £1000. When this happens it is always seen as fantastic, brilliant, wonderful – which it must be for the purchaser.

But why do these programmes never spare a thought for the poor bugger watching at home who sold that five thousand pound vase for 10p in the boot sale?

When I was younger I use to sell in the occasional car boot sale, every time that Flog It, Real Deal and similar programmes are on the telly, I live in dread that one of the things that I sold as brick-a-brack for a couple of bob might turn up on the programme as a valuable antique. If it did I'd feel gutted, sick, disconsolate.

Show some sympathy telly people!

Why RT is wrong on cancer and millionaire's paracetamol

If I happened to be the winner of yesterday's £85 million Euro Millions Lottery Jackpot, and I decided to use my windfall in order to move into a mansion in a leafy English shire, I would still be able to get free prescriptions on the English NHS. So if Andrew RT Davies objects to free prescriptions being given to Welsh millionaires, of whom there are few, why do his friends in Westminster continue to provide free prescriptions to millionaires in England (of whom there are many)?

Free prescriptions (regardless of income) are available to English millionaires who are aged 60 or over, and those who suffer from some long term illnesses such as epilepsy or diabetes, and those who are pregnant or have been pregnant during the past 12 months.

Cancer is an emotive subject; it is probably the disease that frightens many of us most. When Andrew states that patients are being deprived of cancer drugs because millionaires are getting free paracetamol in Wales, he makes an emotive point. An emotive point that is frankly immoral. To gain enough money to give just one patient a course of Avistin, his fabled Welsh millionaire would have to give up one hundred and fifty thousand courses of free prescription paracetamol. The cost of the 24 cancer drugs that Andrew RT wants to provided on the NHS in Wales would cost as much as 1380 Trillion boxes of paracetamol. Andrew's millionaire mate must have one hell of a headache!

If the drugs that Andrew RT Davies was complaining about cured cancer, I would have sympathy for his argument, but they don't. The drugs extend life for between 3 and 5 months, months that will be lived suffering from cancer rather than living with cancer, at a cost estimated by the Scottish Government in 2006 of between £24k and £93k per patient for the drugs alone (the prolonged palliative care will add to the cost).

If my doctor tells me tomorrow that I am going to die before next Christmas I can see no justification in spending £93K+ in keeping me alive until next Easter.

To expect hundreds of ill people in Wales to fork out £7.50 a script for drugs that will make them better, in order to finance my terminal illness for an extra two months of a drug comatosed life would be selfishly sick.