Congratulations Ben Lake, a step forward to an independent Wales!

I have been updating https://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etholaethau_seneddol_Cymru‘s pages on the constituencies of Wales by adding the 2017 General election results. 

Given the comments by media pundits and pissed off Plaid supporters on social media I have been pleasantly surprised by how well Plaid Cymru did in a Presidential election where the others were squeezed dry by the May v Corbyn narrative. 

Plaid only lost 2% of its vote share, kept all its held seats (ok, by the skin of if its teeth in Arfon) and gained another seat. Not bad in the circumstances!

In percentage terms, gaining 1 extra MP, made Plaid the biggest winner in Great Britain in terms of percentage increase of a numbers of a party's MPs.

Ok I’m pissed off too. I wanted Plaid to win between 21 & 40 seats and we fell short. Until we can win a minimum of 21 seats Independence is a pipe dream. But so-called supporters of the Welsh National Cause dismissing Plaid holding on and increasing its representation in the very polarising 2017 General Election are not helping the National Cause.

If we want to win we must celebrate every step on the way. Congratulations Ben Lake, a step forward to an independent Wales!

Great War Nationalist Pish

There is an article on the Scotsman site which is both sick and interesting entitled Great War worst for Scots troops ‘a myth’

The sick part of the article is the way that the body count from the First World War is being used as an argument in the current referendum campaign; whatever the numbers surely both No and Yes campaigners should agree that the answer to the question How many Scots died in WW1? should be Too many and that coming to as accurate a figure as possible should be an academic exercise not a political one.

The interesting point about the article is that I have heard similar claims made about the percentage of Welsh dead in both the First and Second World Wars, and indeed in previous and subsequent wars; and I have heard these claims, as the article suggests, made in the context of Welsh nationalist “myth”; but the Welsh nationalist myth isn't part of the myth of "separation" or "independence"; but the myth that the Welsh / Scottish should be extra proud of being British because they have punched above their weight in Britain. This brings us back to the sick part of the article. For 100 years we are told that we should be extra proud of our nations' contribution to Britain; but as soon as that pride is taken out of a British context we are told, as they say in Scotland, that that proud contribution is just a load of old pish!



(Note the words in the sun!)

Where is the English National Solidarity for Scotland and Wales?

I, unequivocally support the supporters of a Yes vote in the forthcoming Scotland referendum. I am jealous that the cause for Welsh Independence has not been made so forcibly because I believe that independence for Wales is the only way to get us out of the rut that we are in of being the bottom of the pile in the UK on so many issues. We are bottom of the pile in the UK because of the UK, the only way of dragging Wales away from that situation is by divorcing ourselves from the UK and building our own prosperity.

Having said that, I can understand loyalty to the UK, I can understand the concept of Better Together, I am almost disappointed with the paucity of the arguments made for the continuation of the Union, because I could do much better (if I was that way inclined)!

What I find confusing, however, is the attitude in the debate of those who claim to be English Nationalists.

I am as much a Welsh Nationalist as I am a Scottish Nationalist, in that I believe that Scotland should be an independent Nation. I am as much a Welsh Nationalist as I am an English Nationalist in that I believe that England is a proud historic nation that should control its own independent destiny; because of that I would expect Scottish Nationalists to support Welsh Nationalism (which most do) and English Nationalists to support both Scottish and Welsh Nationalism which, confusingly, very few do.

The most vile comments about Scottish or Welsh self determination, on most comment threads, don't come from those who self identify as British but from those who self identify as English.

In the 1966 World Cup final most of those supporting England were waving Union Flags. In Brazil supporters of England will be waving the English Flag, is that an indication of a change of national identity, where English people see themselves as primarily English? Or just a rag change where the English still see England and Britain as interchangeable words, but are more honest about it and call the whole of this island England now?

Does True English Nationalism exist, or is English Nationalism just another guise for British nationalism?

What do you think about Dylan Thomas?

Being the centenary of his birth, there has been a lot of coverage of the life and work of Dylan Thomas on TV and radio recently. I like Thomas' work, but I'm unsure if I should!

There is an old saying that the main difference between a Jewish Joke and an Anti-Semitic Joke is who's telling it – are they laughing with us or at us?

I would love Under Milk Wood if it was laughing with us, and hate it if it was laughing at us.

There were comments on Twitter about the recent broadcast version on BBC Wales decrying the fact that it wasn't broadcast on the BBC through the UK. I'm glad it was only on BBC Wales BECAUSE that meant it was laughing with us.

I don't know what Thomas' intention was. I suspect that it wasn't to take the piss in a My People Caradoc Evans way; but there is little doubt that the play has been used in that vain.

So should I love him or hate him? I can't make up my mind!

Saint David's Day Conundrum

Atheists don't believe in the adoration of Saints.

Secularists don't believe in the adoration of Saints.

Protestants don't believe in the adoration of Saints.

Non-conformists don't believe in the adoration of Saints.

Anglicans actively opposed the adoration of Saints, with vigour, at one time, but seem to have gone soft on the issue!

Despite this the Cult of Saint David, is on the increase in modern Wales with more and more St David's parades in 2014 than ever before – BUT WHY?

As a nationalist, I will re-tweet calls for Gwyl Ddewi to be a bank holiday, I will make St David's Day felicitations to my followers, because that's what Nats do. But having done so, I will still wonder why we make such a fuss about Saint David,  when so few of us, actually, believe in the adoration of Saints!

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)

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.

Unionists aren't the problem – apathy is!

Since I started blogging some 5 years ago I have crossed swords with the likes of John the Stonemason, Adam Higgitt aka Normal Mouth; O'Neil and Kezia Duggdale, and have suffered trolling comments from the infamous KP.

It would be easy to think of these as the anti nationalists; as the enemy – people who deserved to be shouted down, kicked in the tender parts and ridiculed. They are not our enemy, they are almost our best friends. They are the people with whom we can argue the national cause, people who are interested in the concept of nationalism, despite opposing it.

In Wales, the problem that nationalist face isn't opposition to nationalism; it's just downright indifference to nationalism!

The vast majority of Welsh people belong to the "don't care – couldn't care less" spectrum as far as the national cause is concerned, it is they; not those who have thought about nationalism and decided to oppose it, who are the real challenge.

Whether we see the future of the national cause as one of reinvigorating Plaid Cymru or one of creating new nationalist movements (or a bit of both) - to succeed we must realise that those who are opposed to the national cause are not the problem; fellow nationalists with whom we have differences are absolutely not the problem; the problem is indifference and apathy.

Our main task isn't one of opposing Unionism or pissing off other nationalist (despite the fact that doing so is fun). Our main task should be one of enthusing the uncommitted into support for the National Cause

A New National Party?

There has been some discussion of late about creating a New Nationalist Party in Wales, by people who are as peeved with Plaid as I often am.

My general attitude is one of the more the merrier. Many different organisations pleading the national cause from differing viewpoints can only benefit the overall cause of national self determination.

The problem that I have with almost every proponent of a new nationalist party is the lack of ambition; almost all proponents of such a party seem to want to oppose Plaid Cymru!

Why?

Plaid Cymru has 3 out of 40 MPs, 11 out of 60 AMs, gained 19% of the vote in the last Assembly elections on a turnout of just 42% - less than 10% of those eligible to vote. A new nationalist party that just wants to steal a portion of Plaid's vote is a waste of time and would dilute the national cause – what gain would there be for the general cause if there were 3 or 4 more unionist Assembly Members in the Senedd as a result of the New National Party splitting the Plaid vote?

If a New National Party was formed that could appeal to the 58% of those who couldn't be arsed to vote in 2011, or that took votes from the Unionist Labour Party or the Unionist Conservative Party or the Federalist Lib Dems – I might be interested, but I just can't see the point of a new party that restricts its ambition to pinching a small part of Plaid's electoral support because of petty ideological spite.

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.

On Dragons and Tongues

There is a typically Guardianista debate taking place on the Comment is Free site about intellectual clichés:

"We've all been there. You're in the middle of a heated discussion – debating the news over a pint in the pub, or firing off comments below an article on Comment is free. Suddenly, you remember that someone famous once put your argument in a much pithier way than you ever could. It might be an old canard like "Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" from the Old Testament, or trendy economist-speak such as Malcolm Gladwell's well-worn phrase "the tipping point". The point is: you didn't really read the original text, and you're not all that sure what the author was really going on about in the first place. But you quote it anyway. Everyone – commenters, commentators, yes, even editors – sometimes resorts to intellectual clichés."

As if by magic our own Wales Home came up with a perfect example "The Dragon Has Two Tongues", a debate about whether or not Wales Home should publish posts in Welsh without translating them into English, a theme picked up by John Tyler.

In the Context of the CiF debate the cliché's origins are not in a debate just about the language, but in a book by Glyn Jones and a HTV series where Prof Gwyn Alf Williams debated with Wynford Vaughan Thomas, not so much about language, but about conservatism and radicalism. Both Wynford and Glyn were fluent Welsh speakers the tongues that divided their dragon wasn't linguistic but cultural; it wasn't can speak Welsh v can't speak Welsh but right v left.

In the intervening 30 odd years since the programme was made, only one party has successfully taken on the lessons learned from the programme - the Conservative Party - The only party that doesn't really mind the language that you use as long as the message is right in both senses of the word. Unfortunately the Tories oppose national self determination for Wales, so I can't support them!

Plaid Cymru, a party that one would expect to unite all Welsh speakers and all who have an abiding interest in Welsh culture and history cuts us Wynford types out, because we are not Gwyn Alf's disciples who believe that the Gresford disaster and Streic y Penrhyn are the be all and end all of North Wales' history, because we are not all left wing. Plaid treats our Dragon's Tongue with opposition, opprobrium and derision.

Unless and until a national movement unites all who want Welsh independence, left and right, cultural and practical, Welsh speaking or not, one of the dragon's tongues will remain very, very wilted!

Promoting the National Cause

Jac o' the North has a post in which he, quite rightly notes, that Plaid Cymru has lost its way. I agree wholeheartedly with all he has to say.

The dalliance with socialism whilst ignoring the national question; the fear of upsetting English incomers who are drowning out the Party's heartlands, and putting places like Anglesey and Ceredigion demographically impossible to regain at a Westminster level, because the incomers out vote the natives are things that Plaid should deal with and should shout loud against.

When the tourist industry denies the historic fact that North West Wales is as post industrial as the South Wales Valleys, and uses this lie to stop any replacement industry to benefit local people, Plaid should be up in arms; but it tends to be compliant. The party opposes proper industry and supports Mickey Mouse tourist jobs as the only, desperate, hope for our communities.

A number of English politicians in the Labour Party, the Conservative Party, and the Liberal Democrats Party have said that immigrants should learn English; immigrants should learn British values and culture; immigrants should be forced to adapt and accept the culture of the country into which they are imigrating. But those same politicians' call me racist because I expect those who move into Wales to respect the Welsh Language and Culture - and so does Plaid!

The most sickening of the English immigrants into Wales are the White Flight ones. People who have moved into Wales because they see their communities overrun by immigrants, but object to any indigenous Welsh culture 'cos that's the sort of foreign shite they fled to avoid!

Wales needs a National Organisation to oppose the colonisation of Wales and to promote Welsh Nationalism, it needs an Organisation that promotes Independence rather than devo sops!

Jac suggests a New Nationalist Party, I'm not sure!

A new party might get a few thousand votes in the next Assembly Election, a seat by 2025, but having got that seat might start to compromise its nationalist identity in 2030 in order to get a second seat, and our grand children end up with the problem that we have!

What we need is a non party /cross party Campaign For Independence to protect our national identity and to promote independence, outwith the party political cycle. Something like Cymdeithas yr Iaith was in the 60's and 70's!

The English Question

"English votes for English matters" is a non starter, it contains so many problems that it will cause more animosity and strife than it could possibly resolve.

What is an English matter? Under the current system few are, because if expenditure is involved (be it spending more or less) it has Barnet consequentials for the finances of the devolved bodies!

What happens to things that are neither English only nor UK wide issues such as England and Wales measures? And what about those things that are non devolved Wales only issues – S4C, Welsh water, the governance of Assembly elections? Will English MPs be allowed to vote on those issues?

As far as English regionalism is concerned England already has historic regions – they are called shires or counties and parishes. All the countries of the UK should, without doubt, re devolve many of the powers that the counties and the parishes had pre 1974, which have increasingly been centralised; but I see little desire for creating "new" regions for England.

From a Welsh nationalist point of view I don't like the idea of English regional devolution. Wales has its Assembly, at the moment, because it is one of the nations of the UK; regionalise England and Wales reverts to being a region of the UK.

There is no way that the clock can be turned back on devolution in the foreseeable future, and there is no way that the English question can remain unresolved. Any threat to abolish the devolved institutions will lead to Scottish, and possibly Welsh independence. So there appear to be only two options available independence for the nations of Britain or Federalism, perhaps we should have a UK wide referendum on which we all would prefer!

This post is a response to discussions on:
http://oggybloggyogwr.blogspot.com/2011/04/england-question.html

http://ogarethhughes.blogspot.com/2011/02/question.html

http://toque.co.uk/node/1890

If any other bloggers have made reasonable and non racist comments on the issue and would like a link to their posts, please let me know.

Vote For Wales or be Anti Welsh by default

Those of us who are married, middle aged and set in our ways are the most likely to vote in political elections. At a rough guess I reckon that between parish, area, county, Assembly, British, European and referenda, I have voted about 45 out of 46 times since I was 18.

The one I missed out on was on 18 September 1997 the date on which my Mother in Law had a heart attack. My wife and I accompanied her to the hospital, and by the time we left the hospital the polling stations had closed and three definite YES FOR WALES votes were never cast.

Ever since the opponents of devolution have claimed that those who failed to vote in favour of devolution are tacitly opposed to devolution, people who couldn't be bothered!

I wanted to vote Yes, my wife wanted to vote Yes, My mother in law wanted to vote Yes, other members of the family would have voted yes, but were deprived of voting because of family circumstances!

My failure, to vote yes in 1997 could not have been further from the truth of the antis claims about those of us who failed to vote!

If you support Welsh Self Determination – vote YES if you can; because if you don't, those monsters who hate Wales will claim your vote as their own in the same way that they claimed my patriotic mother in law's heart attack as a vote in favour of their hatred of Wales!

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more

A week is a long time in politics a decade is an age and 13 years is an eff of a long time ago.

An eff of a long time ago the Labour Party proposed a Devolution settlement for Wales which was sold, by the skin of its teeth, to the people of Wales as a means by which to defend Wales from future savage assault on Welsh industry and society such as those that the country had suffered under Thatcherism.

Today, the Labour Party in Wales is moaning about the fact that Tory Cuts to the Sain Tathan Bombing School, the Severn Blockade, the Newport Passport Office, S4C etc , etc are all unjustified assaults on Wales by the new Tory government. I agree, they are assaults on Wales. Wales is going to be hammered harder this time than it was the last time that The Unacceptable Face of Capitalism was in charge at Westminster, but we are going to be hammered because of the week defence that Wales was given by virtue of a wishy washy devolution settlement by Labour. The 1997 Labour promise that devolution was a form of Protection from the Tories has fallen at the first hurdle; the palisade has been breached already!

But where is Plaid Cymru, a party that should be fighting to the breach and pointing out that independence would offer ultra protection from all the whiles of Westminster, a party that should be on the rise as the stoutest defenders of a Wales under attack?

Plaid appears to be in a tavern; in an unimportant vile that the oppressors have passed by, discussing the virtues of Plaid Pickles as opposed to Lib Dem Jams!

Bloody hell, if even the Labour Party, the most anti Welsh Party ever to exist in Wales can see an advantage in upping the nationalist anti, why is Plaid going wrong?

There has never been a better time for Plaid to drop its Socialist rhetoric and promote its USP – Nationalism and Patriotism!

The London papers that talk about recessions and recoveries discuss London, not Wales. Wales has been in recession for the past 100 years, and will continue to be so unless and until Wales has the economic leavers to shape its own destiny. Why oh Why is Plaid too scared to put that message across to the people of Wales?

As for the title Labour will go for the whole hog: Cry God for Harry, England, and Saint George! I hear that a Royal Wedding is in the offing as a balm for the public pain of neo Thatcherism! Royal weddings are always good for brining the nation together whilst the shit is raining!

The Belly or the Chequebook?

John Jones is unemployed.

He gets Jobseekers allowance through the Llandudno JobCenter. His benefit is clearly noted as one paid in Wales.

When he visits the JobCenter on Monday he sees a job that fits his profile so he applies for it. The interview is on Friday, so in preparation he goes to Asda to buy a new suit, he buys the cheapest one, of course (he is on benefits).

Despite buying the suite in ASDA Llandudno, Wales, and paying VAT on his purchase, that VAT isn't a tax paid in Wales; the tax will be paid in Leeds, where ASDA has its accounting office.

The person who serves him on the clothing counter lives in Wales and works in Wales, but her income tax will also be paid in Leeds, because her pay check will be taxed in head office.

John gets the job, so he comes off the Welsh benefit take, but his job is also taxed in England so he doesn't become part of Wales' contribution to taxation.

Of course it is swings and roundabouts.

John's new job may involve manufacturing a component that is created in Wales and is exported to the rest of the world, something that is measured on a Wales basis and will show up as a plus in Welsh exports.

But remember that cheep suit he bought in Wales in order to go to the interview? That was probably imported through England, so statistics that show that Wales has a good balance of payments between imports and exports might not be as good as it first looks.

The fact is that the UK produces economic statistics for UK reasons. The UK would never, ever produce economic details that promoted nationalism.

Data that proved beyond doubt that Scotland or Wales or, Heaven forbid, even England would be better off outwith the UK will never, ever be available.

Of course the complete lack of proper data is a means to an end. Without the data we can't make a proper decision based on economic policy as to whether nationalism is good for our nation's economy, or a recipe for disaster. That is precisely why the data isn't available!

We can argue these economic points till kingdom come, but why should we?

Shouldn't the campaigns for English, Scottish, Cornish and Welsh self determination come from a fire in the belly rather than from a chequebook?

Ulster ain't British 'cos the Brits don't want it!

Every night, between midnight and 2am the blog A Pint of Unionist Light produces a post called Elsewhere.

I'm not sure whether this post is auto generated or is a lazy cull of loyal posts that have not been well read, because some of the captures are a bit odd; like a post that claims that states are immortal, so a successful referendum for independence should be rebutted, because the state is more important than popular democracy! I kid you not. Or a post that has obviously gone through the machinations of a translation machine, and doesn't make much sense because of the machines limitations.

However PUL gets his Elsewhere's he does point to some interesting posts, such as this one from Dilettante, who asks whether the Conservatives should go back to their old label of Conservative and Unionists Party.

If I remember rightly, the reason why Unionist was dropped by the Conservative party, was because in the post war years up to the beginning of the troubles in the north of Ireland the term unionism changed its meaning. Rather than being a supporter of the Union of the crowns of England, Scotland and Ireland, an unionist became a supporter of a trades union; Conservative and (Trades) Unionist didn't make sense!

Of course since the beginning of the troubles in the north of Ireland the term unionist almost regained its original meaning, except that it was tainted, it was related to one of the extremes of northern Irish politics which was alien to most people on the mainland and part of the pain and confusion that the Province's politics caused.

With all respect to the likes of O'Neill, to most people on this side of the Irish Sea, the politics of the troubles was a case of Catholic nutters fighting Protestant nutters, neither side was ike us. The likes of the Rev Dr Paisley and his Unionist supporters were Irish trouble makers and very un-British.

The idea of loyalist terrorists was an oxymoron! How can you show loyalty to the crown and a unity with the rest of the UK through acts of deadly violence? There is a kind of insanity in the very concept, which made Northern Irish Unionism foreign to the majority of the British people, rather than making us feel united with them through the Union.

Northern Irish Sectarian Unionism separates Ulster from the rest of UK politics, as much as Republicanism does! The ideal way to counter that would be for voters in Ulster to have the same choice as the people of Scotland and Wales have in elections: Labour, Conservative, Lib Dem and Nationalist candidates. Given that choice the nationalists would probably win every seat under first past the post.

The truth of the matter is that the Union gave up on the North of Ireland many years ago, the only true choice for Ulster is union with the rest of Ireland or an independent Republic of Northern Ireland, Britain moved on without you and you are not British any more, accept it!

The Green Green Grass of Home

I was using Google to search for reactions to Adam Price's decision to resign from Westminster at the next election, and came across the Pink Paper's report.

The Pink Paper on line edition has a related story link, headlined Peter Tatchell calls for a Cornwall Parliament. I assume that the link is Celtic nationalism. The story is quite old now, dating from August 7th, but it's new to me, I wasn't aware of it before stumbling upon it today.

Gay campaigner and Green Party parliamentary candidate Peter Tatchell has compared the fight for LGBT rights with the little-known movement for self-rule for Cornwall.
Both the campaigns for gay rights and Cornish rights involve challenging injustice," he said ahead of Cornwall Pride tomorrow.
They are different, but they share the same commitment to extending democratic freedoms and human rights.
Mr Tatchell said he would be carrying both a rainbow flag and the Cornish national flag at the event as well as a placard reading:
"End ban on gay marriage."
Cornwall has a population of just 531,000, but has historically been recognised as one of the "Celtic nations."
Mr Tatchell, the Green Party candidate at the next election in the Oxford East constituency, said he advocated a "Scottish-style Cornish parliament (that) would bring power closer to the people and ensure a stronger focus on the needs and interests of Cornwall."

I hadn't realised that Mr Tatchell was now a leading Green. I had always thought of him as the Labour Candidate in the Bermondsy by-election in one of the most prejudicial campaigns in modern history. This safe Labour seat was lost to the Liberal Democrats and elected Simon Hughes The Only Gay from Colwyn Bay, as he was once called, after a particularly homotrepid campaign.

Mt Tatchell apparently has a moderate chance of being elected as one of the first Green Westminster MP's in next year's elections. I wish him well and I hope that he wins.

Peter Tatchell's support for Cornish self-determination is in line with the Green's attitudes towards Scottish independence. The Scottish Green party is an independent part, that gives some support to the principal of independence for Scotland

It appears that the Greens support self determination for Cornwall and Scotland, but where do they stand in relation to Welsh self determination?

Why is the Green Party in Wales an EnglandandWales organisation, rather than a separate party similar to the Scottish Party?

Why does the Green movement in Wales portray an image of "Good life" colonisation by hippies, interested in preserving everything other than the culture, values and national identity of Wales?

The latest Victory by the eco movement in Wales was to gain planning permission for a Lammas Village in Glandwr. Lammas, being the Anglo Saxon Feast of the Harvest Crop. Celebrated a full 10 weeks before the traditional Welsh Diolchgarwch am y Cynhaeaf (Harvest Thanksgiving).

Whatever the rights or wrongs of the Glandwr development, it would have taken 2 seconds of sensitivity and 5 minutes of research to call the plan Pentre Diolchgarwch rather than the Anglo Saxon's who couldn't give an F*** about Wales Village (which is what Lammas in Wales means)!

Without such sensitivity, the Green cause will never flourish in Wales

MOF MP!

I am now a Member of Parliament, not any old parliament like that thing in Westminster, but a Member of The English Parliament.

If you believe that England is a nation that deserves its own national parliament you can become a member too by joining The English Parliament online.

Plaid welcomes a Billion Pound Drain from Wales!

According to Adam Price MP the announcement that Swansea and Cardiff will be joined to London by an electric rail link is:

The culmination of more than thirty years of work on Plaid’s part (it became party policy in 1977), dating back to a time even before I joined the party.

Welsh Ramblings sees it as a personal victory for Ieuan Wyn Jones:

Question for the One Wales sceptics - would this have happened if Ieuan Wyn Jones was not Transport Minister?

George Monbiot noted last December that:

The railway map of Wales is a classic indicator of an extractive economy. The lines extend either towards London or towards the ports. As Eduardo Galeano established in The Open Veins of Latin America, the infrastructure of a country is a guide to the purpose of its development. If the main roads and railways form a network, linking the regions and the settlements within the regions, they are likely to have been developed to enhance internal commerce and mobility. If they resemble a series of drainage basins, flowing towards the ports and borders, they are likely to have been built to empty the nation of its wealth for the benefit of another. Like Latin America, Wales is poor because it was so rich. Its abundant natural resources gave rise to an extractive system, designed to leave as little wealth behind as possible.

The electrification project continues the drainage and extractive use of railways in Wales. The electrification project is bad news from a nationalist prospective. It ties Cardiff and Swansea to London, rather than enabling the cities to contribute to Wales as a nation.

Nothing for a nationalist to be proud of. Another proof that Plaid has ditched its Nationalist Credentials!