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!
18/08/2013
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?
11/12/2012
NURSING - the normalisation of cruelty?
One of the few taboos left in our modern society is one that makes it difficult to criticise other people's expressions of grief. Because of that it is difficult to criticise Ann Clwyd Roberts' recent attack on the nursing profession, made in the context of the death of her husband.
Of course I sympathise with Ann in her loss, I met her late husband Owen on a few occasions and I would be horrified to think that his last days were blighted by lack of care in Wales' flagship hospital, but I'm sorry Ann, I doubt that it is true.
Because professional health care workers expect to be at the butt end of anger as an expression of grief, being insouciant about such attacks is an element of being a caring health care worker.
When my eldest son was a little boy, about 4 years old, he was rushed into hospital with a very severe ear infection. A doctor told me that if the infection spread to his brain that he would die and that the severity of his condition suggested that that was the most likely outcome, his chances of survival were very low indeed!
I hated that doctor with a level of hatred that you cannot imagine – I wanted to do worse than "shoot the messenger".
I see him occasionally in the aisles of the local Tesco store and every time I see him I feel my stomach churning 12 years after the event! Did he break the news gently and with compassion or was he brusk and clinical? I don't know. All I can remember of the event is the horror of some ****** telling me that my lovely little baby was likely to die. Thankfully my son survived, but I still hate that doctor despite the fact that he saved my son's life.
When our loved ones are in hospital it is difficult to be rational, they are the most important people in the world to us we are very emotionally involved with their care, anybody who shows less emotion in such a crisis can appear "callous". But the nurse on that ward may have thirty other patients to deal with s/he has other relatives and friends who are as demanding of her / his attention for their loved ones as I am for mine. S/he can only give one thirtieth of the time that I feel my nearest and dearest deserves, because s/he has to care for the other 29 patients too.
Having a child, a parent, a spouse a grandparent in hospital coming to the end of their lives is probably one of the most traumatic experiences any of us can have. Dealing with the expression of that trauma is an everyday occurrence for health care professionals; If they become emotionally involved they will burn out! A caring professional must be able to share professional empathy with all patients and clients but they cannot give personal sympathy (which is what most of us want from them) and carry on working.
Indeed professional standards and even basic empathy can often conflict. Refuse to tell an 82 year old granny how her granddaughter and prospective great-grandchild are doing and you will be accused of being a callous "jobs worth"; give that information, unintentionally, to hacks and you have breached patient confidentiality and are the butt of a radio hoax and at the arse end of a Professional Conduct Enquiry!
What annoys me most about Ann's intervention on this issue is that she, as a Labour MP, has allowed Jeremy Cunt to respond to her grief by claiming that nursing has descended into the normalisation of cruelty! A means of blaming nurses, rather than government, for failings in the NHS
Ann - Is that sick lie about dedicated public servants what you want Owen to be remembered for?
Of course I sympathise with Ann in her loss, I met her late husband Owen on a few occasions and I would be horrified to think that his last days were blighted by lack of care in Wales' flagship hospital, but I'm sorry Ann, I doubt that it is true.
Because professional health care workers expect to be at the butt end of anger as an expression of grief, being insouciant about such attacks is an element of being a caring health care worker.
When my eldest son was a little boy, about 4 years old, he was rushed into hospital with a very severe ear infection. A doctor told me that if the infection spread to his brain that he would die and that the severity of his condition suggested that that was the most likely outcome, his chances of survival were very low indeed!
I hated that doctor with a level of hatred that you cannot imagine – I wanted to do worse than "shoot the messenger".
I see him occasionally in the aisles of the local Tesco store and every time I see him I feel my stomach churning 12 years after the event! Did he break the news gently and with compassion or was he brusk and clinical? I don't know. All I can remember of the event is the horror of some ****** telling me that my lovely little baby was likely to die. Thankfully my son survived, but I still hate that doctor despite the fact that he saved my son's life.
When our loved ones are in hospital it is difficult to be rational, they are the most important people in the world to us we are very emotionally involved with their care, anybody who shows less emotion in such a crisis can appear "callous". But the nurse on that ward may have thirty other patients to deal with s/he has other relatives and friends who are as demanding of her / his attention for their loved ones as I am for mine. S/he can only give one thirtieth of the time that I feel my nearest and dearest deserves, because s/he has to care for the other 29 patients too.
Having a child, a parent, a spouse a grandparent in hospital coming to the end of their lives is probably one of the most traumatic experiences any of us can have. Dealing with the expression of that trauma is an everyday occurrence for health care professionals; If they become emotionally involved they will burn out! A caring professional must be able to share professional empathy with all patients and clients but they cannot give personal sympathy (which is what most of us want from them) and carry on working.
Indeed professional standards and even basic empathy can often conflict. Refuse to tell an 82 year old granny how her granddaughter and prospective great-grandchild are doing and you will be accused of being a callous "jobs worth"; give that information, unintentionally, to hacks and you have breached patient confidentiality and are the butt of a radio hoax and at the arse end of a Professional Conduct Enquiry!
What annoys me most about Ann's intervention on this issue is that she, as a Labour MP, has allowed Jeremy Cunt to respond to her grief by claiming that nursing has descended into the normalisation of cruelty! A means of blaming nurses, rather than government, for failings in the NHS
Ann - Is that sick lie about dedicated public servants what you want Owen to be remembered for?
07/12/2012
Do I take Sugar?
Whenever there is a news item about people who live with a disability a representative pops up on the telly to speak on their behalf!
Where do these representatives come from?
Who elects them?
Who selects them?
I am very hard of hearing and I have up to 50 absence epileptic fits a day, but I have never, ever, been approached by any organisation purporting to represent my disabilities before they give evidence on my behalf to the National Assembly or Westminster Committees. When I see these people representing me on BBC Democracy Live I wonder how on earth they were selected to speak for me because they haven't got a fucking clue about the realities of living with hearing loss or epilepsy in rural north Wales.
Who are Epilepsy Wales/Epilepsi Cymru? I have lived with epilepsy for 40 years without this organisation ever aproaching me or asking my opinion about epeleptic issues! Apparently Wales Council for the Deaf is a lead organistaion in informing the Assembly about hearing loss issues - sorry for the pun, but as a deaf person, I've never heard from them!
Today's news about the closure of another two Remploy factories in Wales is apparently supported by SCOPE a charity that has grand ideas about some disability utopia, but doesn't have a realistic clue about the realities of living with a disability!
How many people who live with a disability voted for the Scope Representative to "speak for them" in support of a Tory attack on real people whose only chance of a job is in a Remploy factory?
I agree with IDS, most people with a disability can work! Disabled people should have work. Working is a good therapy, but the idea that I can compete in an open jobs market is a total fallacy. Be honest – given the choice of employing a healthy young 17 year old or 50+ deaf epileptic – who would you give the job to?
Sorry SCOPE, but your trendy lefty lovey attitude towards disability doesn't help me!
The only way that I can get a job is if I can get an employer that discriminates in my favour – like Remploy!
The only way that I can be represented is if I am consulted as a disabled person -rather than be represented by the wheelchair pusher who is asked does he take sugar and answers, wrongly, on my behalf - like Scope!
03/12/2012
Is the government reducing benefits costs by killing claimants?
This is a press release from Disabled People Against Cuts Caerdydd which will be holding a memorial protest today for those who have died as the result of the Westminster Government's draconian treatment of disabled and chronically sick people as part of their benefits cuts policies.
Disabled People Against Cuts Caerdydd and supporters will gather at the Aneurin Bevan Statue, Queen Street at 5 pm on Monday 3rd December. The event will include the lighting of 1000 candles to remember welsh disabled and sick people who died last year shortly after being told that they were fit for work and having benefits cut by an Atos 'work capability assessment. It may also include 'direct action' such as blocking roads.
The National Day of Remembrance for those killed by ATOS has been supported by disability campaigning organisations including Disabled People Against Cuts, Black Triangle and others. 29 MPs signed an Early Day Motion in support off the day including Welsh MPs, Martin Caton, Anne Clwyd, Jonathan Edwards and Albert Owen.
http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2012-13/687
According to an FOI (Freedom of Information) response publicised by the Daily Mail journalist Sonia Poulton on October 7, the current weekly average Atos/DWP death toll of people found fit for work after an ESA work capability assessment now stands at 73 people per week.
A FOI in April revealed in 2011 an average of 32 dying a week after failing test for new incapacity benefit. More than a thousand sickness benefit claimants died last year after being told to get a job.
http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2012/04/32-die-a-week-after-failing-in.html
There have been numerous horror stories in the media of people with terminal illnesses (in one infamous case even someone in a coma) being declared fit for work by ATOS and having their benefits cut.
Recent Stories:
'A GRIEVING boy of 13 has accused Atos of killing his disabled dad. Kieran McArdle told the Daily Record in a harrowing letter how his father Brian, 57, collapsed and died the day after his disability benefits were stopped. He had been assessed by Atos and deemed “fit for work”'
http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2012/11/01/atos-benefits-bullies-killed-my-sick-dad-says-devastated-kieran-mcardle-13/
'A cancer sufferer, who had her benefits cut by government officials who said she was fit to work, has died'.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-19433535
'I sought this debate in order to raise the case of one of my constituents, Colin Traynor, who was epileptic. He was assessed as fit for work, yet died less than four months later' (Michael Meacher MP)
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2012-09-13a.532.0
Disabled People Against Cuts Caerdydd and supporters will gather at the Aneurin Bevan Statue, Queen Street at 5 pm on Monday 3rd December. The event will include the lighting of 1000 candles to remember welsh disabled and sick people who died last year shortly after being told that they were fit for work and having benefits cut by an Atos 'work capability assessment. It may also include 'direct action' such as blocking roads.
The National Day of Remembrance for those killed by ATOS has been supported by disability campaigning organisations including Disabled People Against Cuts, Black Triangle and others. 29 MPs signed an Early Day Motion in support off the day including Welsh MPs, Martin Caton, Anne Clwyd, Jonathan Edwards and Albert Owen.
http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2012-13/687
According to an FOI (Freedom of Information) response publicised by the Daily Mail journalist Sonia Poulton on October 7, the current weekly average Atos/DWP death toll of people found fit for work after an ESA work capability assessment now stands at 73 people per week.
A FOI in April revealed in 2011 an average of 32 dying a week after failing test for new incapacity benefit. More than a thousand sickness benefit claimants died last year after being told to get a job.
http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2012/04/32-die-a-week-after-failing-in.html
There have been numerous horror stories in the media of people with terminal illnesses (in one infamous case even someone in a coma) being declared fit for work by ATOS and having their benefits cut.
Recent Stories:
'A GRIEVING boy of 13 has accused Atos of killing his disabled dad. Kieran McArdle told the Daily Record in a harrowing letter how his father Brian, 57, collapsed and died the day after his disability benefits were stopped. He had been assessed by Atos and deemed “fit for work”'
http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2012/11/01/atos-benefits-bullies-killed-my-sick-dad-says-devastated-kieran-mcardle-13/
'A cancer sufferer, who had her benefits cut by government officials who said she was fit to work, has died'.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-19433535
'I sought this debate in order to raise the case of one of my constituents, Colin Traynor, who was epileptic. He was assessed as fit for work, yet died less than four months later' (Michael Meacher MP)
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2012-09-13a.532.0
01/12/2012
The Evolution of Devolution project has Failed
I canvassed in favour of a Yes vote in the 1979 Devolution Referendum. At the beginning of the campaign there was a considerable amount of enthusiasm for the proposal in Merioneth. As the campaign progressed I saw that enthusiasm wane into indifference and even into outright hostility. As the likes of Neil Kinnock, Leo Abse and Donald Anderson made their tirades against the Welsh language, Welsh culture and the dreaded monsters that lived to the north of the Beacons the opposition to devolution grew stronger. The starting message of the 1979 campaign was that Wales was being ignored by Westminster so we needed a parliament of our own. As the campaign went on fervent Nationalists were telling me that they would prefer Welsh issues to be ignored by Westminster rather than be oppressed by the likes of Kinnock etc in a Welsh parliament.
One of the arguments made by Plaid Cymru in favour of campaigning for enhanced devolution rather than ought right independence is that if devolution works well for Wales, then the people of Wales will embrace the process and demand more and more powers for Wales. Opinion Polls suggest that there is an element of truth to Plaid's theory and as time has gone by support for devolution has increased substantially, but every attempt to move the process of devolution on is stymied by the same old opponents of Welsh self determination – the Labour Party.
In the four years prior to the 2011 referendum all of the talk was about parity with Scotland which seemed to have massive support amongst the electorate. It was only in the statuary period three weeks before the vote, that honesty entered the campaign and we were told that the actual referendum would be on a cosmetic issue!
The first volume of the Silk Report suggests another referendum on another cosmetic issue that won't be held for at least another 10 years, I'm sure that the second volume will contain even further obstacles to attaining what many thought they were voting for a year and a half ago.
In the meantime the Labour Government in Cardiff is doing what the cynics of 1979 were predicting: Ruling Wales poorly in order to prove that Wales can't run its own affairs. We have had a Labour Government since the beginning of Devolution and in that time it has lowered Wales' economic performance, worsened the health of the nation, inflicted poorer education on our kids and encouraged maximum immigration of non Welsh speakers into the Welsh Language Heartlands.
Broadcasting has been administratively devolved to Wales since the 1950's. Before the creation of the Assembly we had Teledu Cymru, TWW, HTV Wales, BBC Wales, BBC Cymru, The Welsh Light Programme, Radio Wales, Radio Cymru, S4C and a number of regional broadcasters. Local broadcasting within Wales is likely to expand over the next few years. As the media has been practically devolved for so many years, one would think that the governance of broadcasting should naturally be devolved – but Labour is opposed to devolving broadcasting!
Some have laughed at the unfortunate timing of the Welsh Labour Government asking to pull an episode of a soap opera on the day that Lord Levison published his report on statutory control of the press. I don't think it's funny, unfortunate nor an accident. It is another case of the Labour Party deliberately creating a situation which proves that Wales shouldn't have broadcasting devolved, because Wales can't be trusted, even in the case of the editorial independence of Soap Operas. Labour attitude through and through.
The Evolution of Devolution project has failed, and failed miserably, it's high time that all of us who support the National Cause - Left or Right- In Plaid or anti-Plaid – Cultural, Political, Economic and every other sort of Nationalist to give up on the Devo project and go four square for independence, because at the current rate Wales will become extinct before it evolves or devolves much further.
One of the arguments made by Plaid Cymru in favour of campaigning for enhanced devolution rather than ought right independence is that if devolution works well for Wales, then the people of Wales will embrace the process and demand more and more powers for Wales. Opinion Polls suggest that there is an element of truth to Plaid's theory and as time has gone by support for devolution has increased substantially, but every attempt to move the process of devolution on is stymied by the same old opponents of Welsh self determination – the Labour Party.
In the four years prior to the 2011 referendum all of the talk was about parity with Scotland which seemed to have massive support amongst the electorate. It was only in the statuary period three weeks before the vote, that honesty entered the campaign and we were told that the actual referendum would be on a cosmetic issue!
The first volume of the Silk Report suggests another referendum on another cosmetic issue that won't be held for at least another 10 years, I'm sure that the second volume will contain even further obstacles to attaining what many thought they were voting for a year and a half ago.
In the meantime the Labour Government in Cardiff is doing what the cynics of 1979 were predicting: Ruling Wales poorly in order to prove that Wales can't run its own affairs. We have had a Labour Government since the beginning of Devolution and in that time it has lowered Wales' economic performance, worsened the health of the nation, inflicted poorer education on our kids and encouraged maximum immigration of non Welsh speakers into the Welsh Language Heartlands.
Broadcasting has been administratively devolved to Wales since the 1950's. Before the creation of the Assembly we had Teledu Cymru, TWW, HTV Wales, BBC Wales, BBC Cymru, The Welsh Light Programme, Radio Wales, Radio Cymru, S4C and a number of regional broadcasters. Local broadcasting within Wales is likely to expand over the next few years. As the media has been practically devolved for so many years, one would think that the governance of broadcasting should naturally be devolved – but Labour is opposed to devolving broadcasting!
Some have laughed at the unfortunate timing of the Welsh Labour Government asking to pull an episode of a soap opera on the day that Lord Levison published his report on statutory control of the press. I don't think it's funny, unfortunate nor an accident. It is another case of the Labour Party deliberately creating a situation which proves that Wales shouldn't have broadcasting devolved, because Wales can't be trusted, even in the case of the editorial independence of Soap Operas. Labour attitude through and through.
The Evolution of Devolution project has failed, and failed miserably, it's high time that all of us who support the National Cause - Left or Right- In Plaid or anti-Plaid – Cultural, Political, Economic and every other sort of Nationalist to give up on the Devo project and go four square for independence, because at the current rate Wales will become extinct before it evolves or devolves much further.
23/11/2012
David Davies and the Welsh Not
Whilst searching the Internet for some genealogical information I stumbled across a story in the Western Mail originally published over a week ago which would, at one time, have set the Welsh blogosphere alight. I'm not sure if the fact that the story was ignored is a reflection of how blogging is no longer au fait, or a reflection on the fact that the Western Mail has become such a voice piece for the anti Welsh that Welsh bloggers are ignoring it. I hope that it is the latter.
The story is headlined Welsh Not a myth to stir up prejudice against the British Government!
In the article David T C Davies MP claims that, an infamous 19th century school punishment handed out to children for speaking Welsh in class is largely a myth used to stir up anti-English prejudice. He Justifies this statement by claiming that:
Until the 1870 Education Act, the state had no involvement at all in schools, so whatever was observed by the inspectors who wrote the Blue Books had nothing to do with the Government.“The teachers who imposed the Welsh Not were Welsh and its imposition would have been done with the agreement of parents.“ Of course I have no sympathy with the Welsh Not, but it’s important to recognize that it wasn’t imposed by the British Government.”
The article is then followed by over 200 comments made by anti- Welsh trolls, many of whom are probably one individual posting under numerous monikers. Although, in fairness, some of those opposing the trolls also show a degree of ignorance about the truth about the Welsh Not and make unfounded remarks about Mr Davies himself.
Let's start with David Davies, himself. Mr Davies is a fairly fluent Welsh speaker, he is not an anti Welsh blow-in to Welsh politics or a stranger to Welsh culture. Indeed David's great, great, great grandfather the Rev Peter Williams, was the author of what is probably the most famous Welsh song in the world, Guide me o thou Great Redeemer (better known to rugby followers as Bread of Heaven) so David has every right to comment on Welsh culture. Secondly much of what the MP sid about the Welsh Not is factually correct.
As Mr Davies says the Welsh Not was never imposed by the British state on Welsh Schools. The person responsible for creating the myth of the Welsh Not, Sir O. M. Edwards, notes that some of those who thrashed him in Day School for speaking English were the same teachers who taught him how to read and write in Welsh in Sunday School, and recounts an incident when one of those who beat the English language into him admonished for speaking English, rather than Welsh, when they met on a train. The Welsh Not was used as a means of teaching English, rather than one of oppressing Welsh.
Where David Davies' argument fails is in his claim that the Welsh Not was never endorsed by the British state, because Until the 1870 Education Act, the state had no involvement at all in schools" which, with all respect is a load of tosh! Before 1870 schools were run by the Church – The Church of England was an integral part of the State at that time.
The Not punishment was invented by the Church, it was first used in monasteries to discourage the use of any native language in favour of the use of Latin. The origin of the Welsh Not also included an English Not!
After the dissoloution Anglican and then nonconformist missionaries used the practice throughout the Empire against hundreds of languages – many of which have become extinct because of Language Not practice as endorsed by the British Government.
I suspect that David Davies is not responsible for the Newspaper's headline Welsh Not a myth to stir up prejudice against the British Government because there is nothing in the article that suggests that David said anything like that, but the headline writer is way off the mark.
The Myth of the Welsh Not came from a True Brit who was a Liberal MP, His Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools and a Knight of the Realm – not quite the typical Radical Welsh Nat Extremist, but a person who was at the heart of the Brit Establishment and a confidant of the British Government, a person who would hardly stir up prejudice against the British Government!
That the Welsh Not, The Gaelic Not, The Afrikaans Not and hundreds of other Nots were used throughout the Empire in order to promote the use of English is not a myth!
The story is headlined Welsh Not a myth to stir up prejudice against the British Government!
In the article David T C Davies MP claims that, an infamous 19th century school punishment handed out to children for speaking Welsh in class is largely a myth used to stir up anti-English prejudice. He Justifies this statement by claiming that:
Until the 1870 Education Act, the state had no involvement at all in schools, so whatever was observed by the inspectors who wrote the Blue Books had nothing to do with the Government.“The teachers who imposed the Welsh Not were Welsh and its imposition would have been done with the agreement of parents.“ Of course I have no sympathy with the Welsh Not, but it’s important to recognize that it wasn’t imposed by the British Government.”
The article is then followed by over 200 comments made by anti- Welsh trolls, many of whom are probably one individual posting under numerous monikers. Although, in fairness, some of those opposing the trolls also show a degree of ignorance about the truth about the Welsh Not and make unfounded remarks about Mr Davies himself.
Let's start with David Davies, himself. Mr Davies is a fairly fluent Welsh speaker, he is not an anti Welsh blow-in to Welsh politics or a stranger to Welsh culture. Indeed David's great, great, great grandfather the Rev Peter Williams, was the author of what is probably the most famous Welsh song in the world, Guide me o thou Great Redeemer (better known to rugby followers as Bread of Heaven) so David has every right to comment on Welsh culture. Secondly much of what the MP sid about the Welsh Not is factually correct.
As Mr Davies says the Welsh Not was never imposed by the British state on Welsh Schools. The person responsible for creating the myth of the Welsh Not, Sir O. M. Edwards, notes that some of those who thrashed him in Day School for speaking English were the same teachers who taught him how to read and write in Welsh in Sunday School, and recounts an incident when one of those who beat the English language into him admonished for speaking English, rather than Welsh, when they met on a train. The Welsh Not was used as a means of teaching English, rather than one of oppressing Welsh.
Where David Davies' argument fails is in his claim that the Welsh Not was never endorsed by the British state, because Until the 1870 Education Act, the state had no involvement at all in schools" which, with all respect is a load of tosh! Before 1870 schools were run by the Church – The Church of England was an integral part of the State at that time.
The Not punishment was invented by the Church, it was first used in monasteries to discourage the use of any native language in favour of the use of Latin. The origin of the Welsh Not also included an English Not!
After the dissoloution Anglican and then nonconformist missionaries used the practice throughout the Empire against hundreds of languages – many of which have become extinct because of Language Not practice as endorsed by the British Government.
I suspect that David Davies is not responsible for the Newspaper's headline Welsh Not a myth to stir up prejudice against the British Government because there is nothing in the article that suggests that David said anything like that, but the headline writer is way off the mark.
The Myth of the Welsh Not came from a True Brit who was a Liberal MP, His Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools and a Knight of the Realm – not quite the typical Radical Welsh Nat Extremist, but a person who was at the heart of the Brit Establishment and a confidant of the British Government, a person who would hardly stir up prejudice against the British Government!
That the Welsh Not, The Gaelic Not, The Afrikaans Not and hundreds of other Nots were used throughout the Empire in order to promote the use of English is not a myth!
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