My understanding of the word billion is that it is the number that is represented as a one followed by nine zeros in American, but the number that is represented as a one followed by twelve naughts in English; a thousand million in the USA, but a million million on this side of the pond.
So when Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne talk about a billion pounds are they:
A) Genuinely talking about a billion pounds sterling?
B) Using the American usage out of ignorance of English usage?
C) Using the American usage in order to exaggerate the reality of the UK's financial problems?
Or
D) Bastardising the English language for some other reason?
11/10/2010
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?
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?
07/10/2010
Affordable Housing - a Welsh Joke!
There were questions to the Housing Minister in the Assembly yesterday.
As usual when questions about housing arise in the Assembly or in other government institution from Community Councils to the European Parliament, the term affordable housing was uttered.
Affordable Housing is a term that makes my skin crawl every time that I hear it. Mainly because affordable housing is always an add- on to every housing development proposed, rather than the core of the planning application.
Jocelyn Davies mentioned that Rural Development Enablers had ensured that a massive 110 affordable homes had been built in Wales as a result of their efforts last year – Wow!
A company wants to build 100 houses in Llanbethma 10% of which will be affordable. WTF?
I accept that some housing development has to be aspirational. When I win the £112 million Euro Lottery Jackpot on Friday, I would like to think that I can build my new mansion in my local community! So I don't want unaffordable housing to be excluded from the planning process; but why should any planning authority support a development where 90% of the proposed houses are designed to be unaffordable to the community in which they are to be built?
If a company sees the potential to build 100 houses in my village shouldn't the vast majority of those homes be affordable homes for those who want or need to live here, rather than be beyond the means of locals and their children?
Making 90% of those houses unaffordable to villagers, but affordable to commuters from Cheshire and Lancashire kills the village as a vibrant community and turns it into nothing more than a boring dormer community!
Local need and local affordability should be the driving force in housing policy!
As usual when questions about housing arise in the Assembly or in other government institution from Community Councils to the European Parliament, the term affordable housing was uttered.
Affordable Housing is a term that makes my skin crawl every time that I hear it. Mainly because affordable housing is always an add- on to every housing development proposed, rather than the core of the planning application.
Jocelyn Davies mentioned that Rural Development Enablers had ensured that a massive 110 affordable homes had been built in Wales as a result of their efforts last year – Wow!
A company wants to build 100 houses in Llanbethma 10% of which will be affordable. WTF?
I accept that some housing development has to be aspirational. When I win the £112 million Euro Lottery Jackpot on Friday, I would like to think that I can build my new mansion in my local community! So I don't want unaffordable housing to be excluded from the planning process; but why should any planning authority support a development where 90% of the proposed houses are designed to be unaffordable to the community in which they are to be built?
If a company sees the potential to build 100 houses in my village shouldn't the vast majority of those homes be affordable homes for those who want or need to live here, rather than be beyond the means of locals and their children?
Making 90% of those houses unaffordable to villagers, but affordable to commuters from Cheshire and Lancashire kills the village as a vibrant community and turns it into nothing more than a boring dormer community!
Local need and local affordability should be the driving force in housing policy!
02/10/2010
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!
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!
01/10/2010
Benefits Abroad
I was surprised to hear on BBC news 24 that the British Government has launched a hotline in a bid to track down British benefit fraudsters living in Portugal. I couldn't understand what benefits it was possible to claim, honestly or fraudulently, if one moved to Portugal. After Googling I eventually found out from the PA that the biggest problem was people on means-tested benefits going abroad but failing to declare their absence, and individuals working while claiming sickness benefits.
There was a time that benefits could only be claimed by signing on at a benefits office weekly or fortnightly and that benefits moneys could only be obtained by cashing a Giro or a benefit payment book in a named post office; making falsely claiming benefits whilst living abroad rather difficult. As a reward to political backers from the banking community Tony Blair and New Labour decided to make benefits automatically payable into bank accounts, in order to force the 20% of people who didn't have bank accounts in 1997 to open one; so that the poor could be ripped off by punitive bank charges. A very socialist policy!
A silly thought, perhaps, but wouldn't it be better to go back to a system of signing on and getting your cash from a named PO, rather than setting up foreign hotlines for ex-pats to shop their neighbours?
Before I found the PA report I found a DirectGov site that informs claimants about which benefits they can claim abroad. There aren't that many, in fairness. You can continue to get Job Seekers Allowance if you go abroad to look for work for a very short time. If you work for the Government or a British Company abroad you can get things like Statutory Maternity Pay and Statutory Sick Pay – which, I suppose, is fair enough.
The abroad benefit that really tickled me, however, is the Winter Fuel Allowance. This a benefit paid to pensioners to make sure that they are able to heat their homes in winter. The weather in January in the Algarve, the Balearic Islands, Alicante etc is often hotter in January than it is in July and August in parts of Britain – so why on earth are wealthy ex-pat pensioners in these warm climates paid this benefit?
There was a time that benefits could only be claimed by signing on at a benefits office weekly or fortnightly and that benefits moneys could only be obtained by cashing a Giro or a benefit payment book in a named post office; making falsely claiming benefits whilst living abroad rather difficult. As a reward to political backers from the banking community Tony Blair and New Labour decided to make benefits automatically payable into bank accounts, in order to force the 20% of people who didn't have bank accounts in 1997 to open one; so that the poor could be ripped off by punitive bank charges. A very socialist policy!
A silly thought, perhaps, but wouldn't it be better to go back to a system of signing on and getting your cash from a named PO, rather than setting up foreign hotlines for ex-pats to shop their neighbours?
Before I found the PA report I found a DirectGov site that informs claimants about which benefits they can claim abroad. There aren't that many, in fairness. You can continue to get Job Seekers Allowance if you go abroad to look for work for a very short time. If you work for the Government or a British Company abroad you can get things like Statutory Maternity Pay and Statutory Sick Pay – which, I suppose, is fair enough.
The abroad benefit that really tickled me, however, is the Winter Fuel Allowance. This a benefit paid to pensioners to make sure that they are able to heat their homes in winter. The weather in January in the Algarve, the Balearic Islands, Alicante etc is often hotter in January than it is in July and August in parts of Britain – so why on earth are wealthy ex-pat pensioners in these warm climates paid this benefit?
26/09/2010
A daft way of choosing a leader!
I have never been a member of the Labour Party, but I have voted in two Labour party leader elections. The first time was in 1983 when Neil Kinnock was elected, the second time was in 1992 when John Smith was elected. I was allowed to vote because I was a member of the Trade Union NUPE. I was entitled to vote so I did vote – for the candidate who I thought would make the worst Labour leader.
Both Kinnock and Smith won handsomely, so my vote, however it was cast, didn't make much difference – Labour got who Labour wanted, for better or worse.
It appears that Ed Milliband has been elected, by the skin of his teeth, by the union vote. Which could mean that a couple of thousand people who did as I did in previous Labour Leadership elections and voted for him as the worst possible candidate may have tipped the balance in Ed's favour this time!
Rather a daft way of choosing a leader!
Both Kinnock and Smith won handsomely, so my vote, however it was cast, didn't make much difference – Labour got who Labour wanted, for better or worse.
It appears that Ed Milliband has been elected, by the skin of his teeth, by the union vote. Which could mean that a couple of thousand people who did as I did in previous Labour Leadership elections and voted for him as the worst possible candidate may have tipped the balance in Ed's favour this time!
Rather a daft way of choosing a leader!
25/09/2010
The cost of pride!
Something that may be of interest to some of my older readers (or the parents and grandparents of my younger readers). Until December 11th return train tickets from any station on the network are available for just £15 on Arriva Trains Wales to those over 55 years old.
I know this because some witch with a capita B offered me the deal for a journey to Cardiff from Llandudno on the day of my 51st birthday!
The ticket for younger people costs £54 - if I was too poor to be proud I could have gone to the capital and returned for just £15! I refused the offer!
Have I gained a conscience since that time long ago, when I use to take a bus to Barmouth as a 17 year old teenager and insisted to the driver that I was under 16 in order to get a child's fair, before insisting to the landlord of the Last Inn that I was over 18 in order to get a pint?
Am I just a proud old fool for refusing the offer of a cheaper ticket because the ticket seller thought that I look older than I am?
No!
The cost of my train ticket for this journey will be paid by through Crown expenses, so I don't give a fiddler's how much it costs!
But there may be a shopping trip to Cardiff by a young man unlucky enough to look over 55 y.o. before December 11th!
I know this because some witch with a capita B offered me the deal for a journey to Cardiff from Llandudno on the day of my 51st birthday!
The ticket for younger people costs £54 - if I was too poor to be proud I could have gone to the capital and returned for just £15! I refused the offer!
Have I gained a conscience since that time long ago, when I use to take a bus to Barmouth as a 17 year old teenager and insisted to the driver that I was under 16 in order to get a child's fair, before insisting to the landlord of the Last Inn that I was over 18 in order to get a pint?
Am I just a proud old fool for refusing the offer of a cheaper ticket because the ticket seller thought that I look older than I am?
No!
The cost of my train ticket for this journey will be paid by through Crown expenses, so I don't give a fiddler's how much it costs!
But there may be a shopping trip to Cardiff by a young man unlucky enough to look over 55 y.o. before December 11th!
23/09/2010
The English Parliament's New Address
I have received the following message from the English Parliament On Line:
For technical reasons (making space for the upcoming redesigned CEP website), and for more delicate matters of political expediency, it has been necessary to relocate the English Parliament online website.
It is now relaunched under the name Rise Like Lions, and features as its inaugural article a piece on Welsh Nationalism by Wales Home Co-Editor, Duncan Higgitt.
The details that you used on the English Parliament online site can be used to login at Rise Like Lions.
Hope to see you there.
Gareth
Duncan's article is worth a gander!
As many Welsh Nationalists are of a left leaning disposition, here is a left wing English Nat blog for your delectation England's Left Forward
For technical reasons (making space for the upcoming redesigned CEP website), and for more delicate matters of political expediency, it has been necessary to relocate the English Parliament online website.
It is now relaunched under the name Rise Like Lions, and features as its inaugural article a piece on Welsh Nationalism by Wales Home Co-Editor, Duncan Higgitt.
The details that you used on the English Parliament online site can be used to login at Rise Like Lions.
Hope to see you there.
Gareth
Duncan's article is worth a gander!
As many Welsh Nationalists are of a left leaning disposition, here is a left wing English Nat blog for your delectation England's Left Forward
16/09/2010
An Alternative to Public Sector Cuts?
There was an interesting article on the Politics Show yesterday, in which Profesor Greg Philo of Glasgow University (about 1hr:29 mins into the programme) argued that the state deficit could be abolished by a one-off tax on the wealthiest 10% of the population, rather than through the cuts agenda that almost all politicians of all stripes seem to be seeing as inevitable. The Profs' ideas are promulgated on the Glasgow Media Group's website.
Because I believe that government interferes too much in the life of the individual, I would support some state spending being reduced even if the government had zero deficits or even if it made a healthy profit.
I have some doubts about the practicality of taxing the best tax avoiders in order to raise revenues! There would have to be a series of preliminary laws to tighten tax avoidance and the donations made to political parties by massive tax avoiders, before any collection of such a tax could be practical – something that neither Labour or Conservative recipients of tax avoiders largess will support!
And there is the perennial problem of taxing success. Untaxed money can go back into business and wealth creation, creating better businesses and more wealth (and more taxes in its wake). Taxes tend to get swallowed up in bureaucracy and bumf and administration rather than in economic growth.
On the other hand I don't want to see my local school close, fewer police on the beat; monthly bin collection, or my aged parents' old age pensions slashed either. If a one off tax on the super rich can avoid those then I'm all for it!
Whatever the merits or the faults of Prof Philo's proposals, it is good to see an alternative to the cuts agenda offered by most parties in the last election. The Glasgow Media proposal should have been offered as an alternative to voters during the election by a major party. Agree or disagree a party proposing and another party opposing would have given the electorate a real choice!
Because I believe that government interferes too much in the life of the individual, I would support some state spending being reduced even if the government had zero deficits or even if it made a healthy profit.
I have some doubts about the practicality of taxing the best tax avoiders in order to raise revenues! There would have to be a series of preliminary laws to tighten tax avoidance and the donations made to political parties by massive tax avoiders, before any collection of such a tax could be practical – something that neither Labour or Conservative recipients of tax avoiders largess will support!
And there is the perennial problem of taxing success. Untaxed money can go back into business and wealth creation, creating better businesses and more wealth (and more taxes in its wake). Taxes tend to get swallowed up in bureaucracy and bumf and administration rather than in economic growth.
On the other hand I don't want to see my local school close, fewer police on the beat; monthly bin collection, or my aged parents' old age pensions slashed either. If a one off tax on the super rich can avoid those then I'm all for it!
Whatever the merits or the faults of Prof Philo's proposals, it is good to see an alternative to the cuts agenda offered by most parties in the last election. The Glasgow Media proposal should have been offered as an alternative to voters during the election by a major party. Agree or disagree a party proposing and another party opposing would have given the electorate a real choice!
13/09/2010
Ron Davies' Address to Plaid Videos
Thanks to Sanddef:
If you prefer to read rather than listen to the speech Cllr Alun Williams has a transcript on his blog.
The petty point scoring experts at Freedom Central might like to listen carefully to Ron's comment regarding the "stench of an illegal war" about 8:05 mins in video 1; I hope that this was a slip up not a prophecy!
If you prefer to read rather than listen to the speech Cllr Alun Williams has a transcript on his blog.
The petty point scoring experts at Freedom Central might like to listen carefully to Ron's comment regarding the "stench of an illegal war" about 8:05 mins in video 1; I hope that this was a slip up not a prophecy!
10/09/2010
Gareth's School Days
Buried amongst the many is my comment on Gareth Malone's Extraordinary School for Boys blog
At 02:36am on 10 Sep 2010, Alwyn ap Huw wrote:
A lot of negative comments above, many suggesting that it's OK on a programme from the BBC, but couldn't be adapted to practical everyday teaching. I disagree.
There isn't a school in the world, even the most impoverished, that can't introduce,(at no cost) debating skills, an essential ability in answering those exam questions later in life that go "blah di blah di blah" –discuss!
Even the poorest school in the world can act out the meaning of a poem or the storyline of a book, at no cost.
When I was in school, a long time ago, many of the things that Gareth is doing were extracurricular. Debating and acting (passages of the Bible) was done in Sunday school.
The rough and tumble outdoor activities were done in the Cubs and the Scouts.
Competing in elocution, poetry reading or writing, singing, dancing, artwork and a hundred other forms of expression were provided by the local to national eisteddfod movement, encouraged by schools but outside the school curriculum!
It is a shame that children aren't members of as many extracurricular societies as I was 40 years ago. If schools are expected to make up that deficit, then school hours need to be extended.
An interesting point that Gareth made is that boys have to take risks. I agree. It is interesting that girls started overtaking boys academically when corporal punishment in school was abolished, when the risk of six of the best for the rudeness to Gareth that some of the boys on the programme displayed would have earned them a whacking in my day.
The abolition of CP has reduced the risk in boys education and reduced their achievements at the same time!
At 02:36am on 10 Sep 2010, Alwyn ap Huw wrote:
A lot of negative comments above, many suggesting that it's OK on a programme from the BBC, but couldn't be adapted to practical everyday teaching. I disagree.
There isn't a school in the world, even the most impoverished, that can't introduce,(at no cost) debating skills, an essential ability in answering those exam questions later in life that go "blah di blah di blah" –discuss!
Even the poorest school in the world can act out the meaning of a poem or the storyline of a book, at no cost.
When I was in school, a long time ago, many of the things that Gareth is doing were extracurricular. Debating and acting (passages of the Bible) was done in Sunday school.
The rough and tumble outdoor activities were done in the Cubs and the Scouts.
Competing in elocution, poetry reading or writing, singing, dancing, artwork and a hundred other forms of expression were provided by the local to national eisteddfod movement, encouraged by schools but outside the school curriculum!
It is a shame that children aren't members of as many extracurricular societies as I was 40 years ago. If schools are expected to make up that deficit, then school hours need to be extended.
An interesting point that Gareth made is that boys have to take risks. I agree. It is interesting that girls started overtaking boys academically when corporal punishment in school was abolished, when the risk of six of the best for the rudeness to Gareth that some of the boys on the programme displayed would have earned them a whacking in my day.
The abolition of CP has reduced the risk in boys education and reduced their achievements at the same time!
08/09/2010
Plaid Cymru Credit Union - not much of a credit to the party?
Andrew Nutt posts a rather bitter post about his experience of Undeb Credyd Plaid Cymru Credit Union
I empathise with him because I had a similar problem with UCPCCU some years ago; when unfortunate circumstances resulted in me losing my health, my business, my job and my home shortly after the expense of my marriage and the birth of my first child.
I had, a few months earlier, when I though that I was flush for life, borrowed a sum of money from UCPCCU, not because I needed it, but in order to support the Plaid Cymru Credit Union cause.
When a health disaster struck and I lost everything it hurt that people I thought of as friends, who I would have expected to have been supportive and sympathetic of my plight, started sending threatening letters and using credit collection agencies against me. It hurt most bitterly.
My case ended up in the County Court; with a company from Halifax, which objected to my insistence that the hearing should be held in Welsh in Wales claiming to represent Plaid!
I won and the Judge offered me expenses and compensation in excess of what Plaid claimed I owed, but I refused his offer because I wouldn't do that to Plaid Cymru – much to my wife's annoyance.
The judgement was scathing in its condemnation of UCPCCU's lack of unemployment and disability insurance on its loans policies and its ruthlessness in pursuing people who used the CU services out of loyalty to the cause, rather than using services that might have offered better protection to customers who encountered difficulties.
Because Credit Unions are, in essence, a banking service for the poorest in society, the district judge said that they should have the strongest safeguards for those who encountered unexpected financial difficulties; and that PCCU seemed to approach their business as a party political fund raising venture rather than a proper CU service.
Mr Nutt's experience suggests that UCPCCU has ignored the County Court Judges' advice given in my case; or worse still, that they never even received his good advice because they had sold my loan to a loan shark in Halifax who never bothered to pass the judgement back to them!
I empathise with him because I had a similar problem with UCPCCU some years ago; when unfortunate circumstances resulted in me losing my health, my business, my job and my home shortly after the expense of my marriage and the birth of my first child.
I had, a few months earlier, when I though that I was flush for life, borrowed a sum of money from UCPCCU, not because I needed it, but in order to support the Plaid Cymru Credit Union cause.
When a health disaster struck and I lost everything it hurt that people I thought of as friends, who I would have expected to have been supportive and sympathetic of my plight, started sending threatening letters and using credit collection agencies against me. It hurt most bitterly.
My case ended up in the County Court; with a company from Halifax, which objected to my insistence that the hearing should be held in Welsh in Wales claiming to represent Plaid!
I won and the Judge offered me expenses and compensation in excess of what Plaid claimed I owed, but I refused his offer because I wouldn't do that to Plaid Cymru – much to my wife's annoyance.
The judgement was scathing in its condemnation of UCPCCU's lack of unemployment and disability insurance on its loans policies and its ruthlessness in pursuing people who used the CU services out of loyalty to the cause, rather than using services that might have offered better protection to customers who encountered difficulties.
Because Credit Unions are, in essence, a banking service for the poorest in society, the district judge said that they should have the strongest safeguards for those who encountered unexpected financial difficulties; and that PCCU seemed to approach their business as a party political fund raising venture rather than a proper CU service.
Mr Nutt's experience suggests that UCPCCU has ignored the County Court Judges' advice given in my case; or worse still, that they never even received his good advice because they had sold my loan to a loan shark in Halifax who never bothered to pass the judgement back to them!
05/09/2010
Unscrupulous Liberal Bastards?
Next week the second reading of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill will be debated; the measure in parliament that intends to introduced the proposal to hold a referendum on the Alternative Vote system.
Caroline Lucas on behalf of the Green Party, Plaid Cymru and the SNP will proposed an amendment to the legislation which will offer alternatives to voters in the referendum. A choice between AV the list system used for Assembly elections and European elections, or the Single Transferable Vote system, a system that the Liberal Democrats have supported for several decades.
Under such circumstances, what will the Liberals do?
They can support the Green amendment in the hope that Labour and the Conservatives will join together to kill the motion between them. A dangerous proposition, because Labour might back the Greens just for the thrill of giving the coalition a bloody nose!
The Liberals can abstain; which will ensure that the vote is lost, or they can vote against the amendment, in effect vote against a policy that they have supported for decades!
Opposing the Green and Nationalists amendment is the most likely response; then spinning a justification for voting against a policy that has been at the core of Liberal policy for generations.
Unscrupulous bastards? We wait an' see!
Caroline Lucas on behalf of the Green Party, Plaid Cymru and the SNP will proposed an amendment to the legislation which will offer alternatives to voters in the referendum. A choice between AV the list system used for Assembly elections and European elections, or the Single Transferable Vote system, a system that the Liberal Democrats have supported for several decades.
Under such circumstances, what will the Liberals do?
They can support the Green amendment in the hope that Labour and the Conservatives will join together to kill the motion between them. A dangerous proposition, because Labour might back the Greens just for the thrill of giving the coalition a bloody nose!
The Liberals can abstain; which will ensure that the vote is lost, or they can vote against the amendment, in effect vote against a policy that they have supported for decades!
Opposing the Green and Nationalists amendment is the most likely response; then spinning a justification for voting against a policy that has been at the core of Liberal policy for generations.
Unscrupulous bastards? We wait an' see!
03/09/2010
Why isn't there a Welsh Public Service Trades Union?
During the late 1970's through to the early 1990's I was a member, a section steward, a branch secretary and a district chair of a trades union known as NUPE (The National Union of Public Employees). The union represented health service employees, local government employees, the ancillary staff of Universities and weirdly, junior Anglican Clerics and Methodist Ministers.
NUPE was affiliated to the Labour Party.
As a senior lay officer I often use to attend Welsh "regional" gatherings of the union, when I attended such gatherings I was always surprised at the fact that very few of those gathered were members of the Labour Party. There were quite a few Communists and Co-op party supporters, a smattering of Greens and SWP members, but by far the largest group of party affiliates were members of Plaid Cymru (as was I at the time).
In 1993, just after I had left the public sector UNISON joined with CoHSE (the Confederation of Health Service Employees) and NALGO (The National Union of Local Government Employees – a non aligned union) to form UNISON. Unison is the Union of which Ian Titherington (Grangetown Jack) is now a senior lay member.
From what I read on Ian's blog, it appears that UNISON in the 2010's is similar to NUPE in the 1980's, a Union with a large number of Plaid supporting members and lay union officials who also hold office in Plaid, and a significant number of supporters who belong to parties other than Labour or who have no particular party affiliation.
A question that I use to ask often amongst the great and the good of NUPE Cymru in the 1990's was why don't we form an independent non-affiliated Welsh public service union or an independent union affiliated to Plaid?
The answer was always that the Wales TUC wouldn't countenance such a Union because the TUC was Labour dominated and without TUC membership the "new" union would be too week.
Is this still the opinion of Plaid and other non Labour trade unionists in Wales? Or has the time come to form a distinctly Welsh Public Service Union, given that so many public services are devolved?
NUPE was affiliated to the Labour Party.
As a senior lay officer I often use to attend Welsh "regional" gatherings of the union, when I attended such gatherings I was always surprised at the fact that very few of those gathered were members of the Labour Party. There were quite a few Communists and Co-op party supporters, a smattering of Greens and SWP members, but by far the largest group of party affiliates were members of Plaid Cymru (as was I at the time).
In 1993, just after I had left the public sector UNISON joined with CoHSE (the Confederation of Health Service Employees) and NALGO (The National Union of Local Government Employees – a non aligned union) to form UNISON. Unison is the Union of which Ian Titherington (Grangetown Jack) is now a senior lay member.
From what I read on Ian's blog, it appears that UNISON in the 2010's is similar to NUPE in the 1980's, a Union with a large number of Plaid supporting members and lay union officials who also hold office in Plaid, and a significant number of supporters who belong to parties other than Labour or who have no particular party affiliation.
A question that I use to ask often amongst the great and the good of NUPE Cymru in the 1990's was why don't we form an independent non-affiliated Welsh public service union or an independent union affiliated to Plaid?
The answer was always that the Wales TUC wouldn't countenance such a Union because the TUC was Labour dominated and without TUC membership the "new" union would be too week.
Is this still the opinion of Plaid and other non Labour trade unionists in Wales? Or has the time come to form a distinctly Welsh Public Service Union, given that so many public services are devolved?
02/09/2010
What's in a name?
In about 1979-1983 or there about, the late Daily Post columnist Ivor Wynne Jones criticised me in one of his typically anti-Welsh columns regarding something I had said or done in the nationalist cause, in which he referred to me as the Rev Dr Allan ap Hugh. I dropped a note to the Post to say that I was not a Rev or a Dr and that I am Alwyn ap Huw rather than Ivor's interpretation of my name.
Ivor, being Ivor, couldn't accept that he had made a mistake and retorted:
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet - as would the name of the foulest stench of the briar smell as foul!
I appologise to Duncan Higgitt for getting his name wrong in my last post.
Having said that, I hate to admit it, but perhaps Ivor had a point!
Ivor, being Ivor, couldn't accept that he had made a mistake and retorted:
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet - as would the name of the foulest stench of the briar smell as foul!
I appologise to Duncan Higgitt for getting his name wrong in my last post.
Having said that, I hate to admit it, but perhaps Ivor had a point!
01/09/2010
The Blog awards = V sign to arrogant Duncan Higget!
As I have said many times before, I don't like awards given for places where opinions are expressed.
If I didn't believe that Ted Heath was the best Prime Minister of the 20th century, way above Thatcher, Blair and Churchill; if I didn't hate the Labour Party with a passion and if I didn't think that Plaid's commitment to the evils of socialism was a betrayal of Welsh nationalism, my blog might have been a tad more popular in the Total Politics Blog Awards!
Despite being a member of the awkward squad who peeves all sections of political opinion at times I was pleased that both my blogs were in the Top Ten of the Total Politics Awards for Wales. MOF was at no 6 (down 4) and HRF at no 4 (up 10) a net up!
The thing that gave me the greatest pleasure was that both of my blogs are higher than the site that has the audacity and arrogance to call itself the HOME of Welsh Politics. If you don't know which site I am talking about, I'm sorry but I have been barred from linking to it, because by doing so I am accused of abusing the site in order to drive traffic to my own (much more popular –it appears!) blogs.
Up yours Duncan Higget!
These are the winners (Unlucky 13 excluded)
1 Blog Menai
2 Plaid Wrecsam
3 Syniadau
4 Hen Rech Flin
5 Vaughan Roderick
6 Miserable Old Fart
7 Cardiff Blogger
8 Betsan Powys
9 Peter Black AM
10 Everyone's Favourite Comrade
11 Blog Guto Dafyyd (aka Blog Guto DAFYDD!)
12 Pendroni
13
14 Welsh Ramblings
15 Freedom Central
16 Bethan Jenkins AM
17 Ffranc Sais
18 Dib Lemming
19 The Druid of Anglesey
20 Valleys Mam
21 Blog yr Hogyn o Rachub
22 Glyn Davies MP
23 Plaid Panteg
24 Polemical Report
25 A Change of Personnel
26 Leanne Wood AM
27 Politics Cymru
28 Blog Answyddogol
29 Liberal Smithy
30 Inside Out - A Jaxxland Perspective
31 Alun Williams
32 Gwilym Euros Roberts
33 Institute of Welsh Affairs
34 Dylan Jones-Evans
35 Borthlas
36 Paul Flynn MP
37 David Cornock
38 Morfablog
39 Red Anorak
40 Mike Priestley
41 07.25 to Paddington
42 Blog Golwg
43 Plaid Cymru Llundain
44 Rene Kinzett
45 This is My Truth
46 Denverstrope
47 Independence Cymru
48 Grangetown Jack
49 Blog Rhys Llwyd
50 Cambria Politico
If I didn't believe that Ted Heath was the best Prime Minister of the 20th century, way above Thatcher, Blair and Churchill; if I didn't hate the Labour Party with a passion and if I didn't think that Plaid's commitment to the evils of socialism was a betrayal of Welsh nationalism, my blog might have been a tad more popular in the Total Politics Blog Awards!
Despite being a member of the awkward squad who peeves all sections of political opinion at times I was pleased that both my blogs were in the Top Ten of the Total Politics Awards for Wales. MOF was at no 6 (down 4) and HRF at no 4 (up 10) a net up!
The thing that gave me the greatest pleasure was that both of my blogs are higher than the site that has the audacity and arrogance to call itself the HOME of Welsh Politics. If you don't know which site I am talking about, I'm sorry but I have been barred from linking to it, because by doing so I am accused of abusing the site in order to drive traffic to my own (much more popular –it appears!) blogs.
Up yours Duncan Higget!
These are the winners (Unlucky 13 excluded)
1 Blog Menai
2 Plaid Wrecsam
3 Syniadau
4 Hen Rech Flin
5 Vaughan Roderick
6 Miserable Old Fart
7 Cardiff Blogger
8 Betsan Powys
9 Peter Black AM
10 Everyone's Favourite Comrade
11 Blog Guto Dafyyd (aka Blog Guto DAFYDD!)
12 Pendroni
13
14 Welsh Ramblings
15 Freedom Central
16 Bethan Jenkins AM
17 Ffranc Sais
18 Dib Lemming
19 The Druid of Anglesey
20 Valleys Mam
21 Blog yr Hogyn o Rachub
22 Glyn Davies MP
23 Plaid Panteg
24 Polemical Report
25 A Change of Personnel
26 Leanne Wood AM
27 Politics Cymru
28 Blog Answyddogol
29 Liberal Smithy
30 Inside Out - A Jaxxland Perspective
31 Alun Williams
32 Gwilym Euros Roberts
33 Institute of Welsh Affairs
34 Dylan Jones-Evans
35 Borthlas
36 Paul Flynn MP
37 David Cornock
38 Morfablog
39 Red Anorak
40 Mike Priestley
41 07.25 to Paddington
42 Blog Golwg
43 Plaid Cymru Llundain
44 Rene Kinzett
45 This is My Truth
46 Denverstrope
47 Independence Cymru
48 Grangetown Jack
49 Blog Rhys Llwyd
50 Cambria Politico
29/08/2010
Needed –an independent Devo Sceptic Tory Monkey for Aberconwy!
Assembly opponents amongst Aberconwy's Conservatives are so disappointed by the Assembly candidate chosen for their party in an open primary that they are threatening to put up an alternative candidate to oppose her.
Inspired by Hartlepool's election of H'Angus the Monkey, they are threatening to set up a Facerbook campaign to try and find a similar candidate for Aberconwy. Although I agree that Janet Finch-Saunders isn't the best candidate to represent the Conservative interest in Aberconwy I hadn't considered her to be particularly supportive of Welsh devolution.
If disaffected Conservatives want to find an independent devo-sceptic monkey to split the Conservative vote in Aberconwy, good luck to them in their quest – it can only help Gareth Jones' chances of re-election!
Inspired by Hartlepool's election of H'Angus the Monkey, they are threatening to set up a Facerbook campaign to try and find a similar candidate for Aberconwy. Although I agree that Janet Finch-Saunders isn't the best candidate to represent the Conservative interest in Aberconwy I hadn't considered her to be particularly supportive of Welsh devolution.
If disaffected Conservatives want to find an independent devo-sceptic monkey to split the Conservative vote in Aberconwy, good luck to them in their quest – it can only help Gareth Jones' chances of re-election!
22/08/2010
Plaid's Living Wage should be supported by both Right and Left!
During the last election Plaid Cymru proposed two policies that I would have expected every decent person to support. The first was for a fair pension, the second was for a living wage rather than a minimum wage. Both policies were opposed and ridiculed, not because they were bad policies, but because they were policies suggested by the wrong party.
I don't understand what the Labour Party has against the idea of a living wage. Surely such an idea should be a core Labour principal!
I don't understand why a Conservative should oppose such an idea either.
If an employee has less than a living wage s/he becomes a burden on the state, and has to have topup benefits out of the state's purse to give her/him a wage – his/her job is subsidies by the tax payer in the same way as his/her unemployment would be subsidised – what's the difference?.
If a person works his or her guts off for 60 hours a week but still needs state benefits to make ends meet, who is the scrounger? The mean employer, or the hard working employee?
There is nothing Conservative in underpaying an employee because you know that the benefit cheque will take up the slack in the wage bill.
The benefits bill needs to be reduced, without a doubt, but it needs to be reduced in a way that looks at the full picture.
I can't see a Socialist or Conservative value that should oppose Plaid's living wage, idea, so why don't both parties welcome Plaid's suggestion as part of the answer to a very big problem, rather than opposing it for opposition's sake just because it is a Plaid proposal?
I don't understand what the Labour Party has against the idea of a living wage. Surely such an idea should be a core Labour principal!
I don't understand why a Conservative should oppose such an idea either.
If an employee has less than a living wage s/he becomes a burden on the state, and has to have topup benefits out of the state's purse to give her/him a wage – his/her job is subsidies by the tax payer in the same way as his/her unemployment would be subsidised – what's the difference?.
If a person works his or her guts off for 60 hours a week but still needs state benefits to make ends meet, who is the scrounger? The mean employer, or the hard working employee?
There is nothing Conservative in underpaying an employee because you know that the benefit cheque will take up the slack in the wage bill.
The benefits bill needs to be reduced, without a doubt, but it needs to be reduced in a way that looks at the full picture.
I can't see a Socialist or Conservative value that should oppose Plaid's living wage, idea, so why don't both parties welcome Plaid's suggestion as part of the answer to a very big problem, rather than opposing it for opposition's sake just because it is a Plaid proposal?
17/08/2010
How a pee could save millions!
This is weird but true!
Before the days of S4C, Eric Dafydd, my cousin in law worked for the BBC and on a couple of occasions, when I was in Cardiff, I went to the BBC Club with him for a pint.
In early August 1978, I had had a few pints in the club and went to relive myself; when a member of the news team, who was standing by my side, said Sad about the Pope isn't it? I hadn't heard the news, but Pope Paul VI had died.
A couple of weeks later I was in Cardiff again. I went to the BBC Club toilet again, and the very same reporter peed next to me and said Sad about the Pope isn't it? JP I had died – Spooky!
Because Eric left the BBC on the establishment of S4C I never went to the BBC club again until I was asked to take part in a programme for the Beeb in 2005.
I was having a pee, when a member of the news team who was standing by my side said Sad about the Pope isn't it? I hadn't heard the news, but John Paul II had died!!
Valleys Mam, Welsh Agenda and Aeron Jones object to the state visit of the Pope, because of its cost to the public purse.
They have an easy way of stopping it! Put some pints in for me behind the bar of the BBC club Llandaf. If they put enough pints in to make me pee - the visit might have a major problem!
Before the days of S4C, Eric Dafydd, my cousin in law worked for the BBC and on a couple of occasions, when I was in Cardiff, I went to the BBC Club with him for a pint.
In early August 1978, I had had a few pints in the club and went to relive myself; when a member of the news team, who was standing by my side, said Sad about the Pope isn't it? I hadn't heard the news, but Pope Paul VI had died.
A couple of weeks later I was in Cardiff again. I went to the BBC Club toilet again, and the very same reporter peed next to me and said Sad about the Pope isn't it? JP I had died – Spooky!
Because Eric left the BBC on the establishment of S4C I never went to the BBC club again until I was asked to take part in a programme for the Beeb in 2005.
I was having a pee, when a member of the news team who was standing by my side said Sad about the Pope isn't it? I hadn't heard the news, but John Paul II had died!!
Valleys Mam, Welsh Agenda and Aeron Jones object to the state visit of the Pope, because of its cost to the public purse.
They have an easy way of stopping it! Put some pints in for me behind the bar of the BBC club Llandaf. If they put enough pints in to make me pee - the visit might have a major problem!
04/08/2010
Reforming the Benefits System
Ian Duncan Smith has suggested that the Benefits System needs to be simplified. He has said that there are far too many benefits, that the system is complicated and that it puts too many claimants in a benefits trap where it isn't worth their while looking for jobs, because gaining a job will make them worse off!
The knee jerk reaction of the left wing is to moan that Mr Smith just wants to demonise those not in work in order to cut their benefits and save money!
I don't believe that this is so.
There is no doubt that some tabloids do demonise the out of work in a counterproductive way. The Daily Hate Mail thinks that anybody who is on Incapacity Benefit is a scrounger, a shirker and a cheat and takes every opportunity to vilify them. This makes it harder for a beneficiary of Incapacity Benefit to gain employment! Would you offer a job to a scrounger, a shirker and a cheat?
Demonization of those not in work is bad, and the Tories should encourage their supporters in the press to desist from it. Likewise the left should resist from condemning all benefit changes as an attack on the poor, because there is little doubt that the current benefits system is a complicated mess, that is a hindrance to the poor gaining meaningful employment!
With a coalition Tory government that depends on Liberal attitudes to benefits, and which may depend on the votes of sensible people from the opposition benches to offset Neanderthal views from its own benches the benefit system has never had a better chance to be dragged up to date. I hope that it is.
To save the there are no jobs to be had commentators from keyboard fatigue – I believe that the benefits system is in desperate need of reform whether the unemployment numbers go up, down or remain the same!
Making the system fair is as important as taking people out of the system, Plaid, SNP and sensible Labour MP's should seize the chance, to work with Mr Duncan Smith in order to create a benefits system that is worthy of today's circumstances!
The knee jerk reaction of the left wing is to moan that Mr Smith just wants to demonise those not in work in order to cut their benefits and save money!
I don't believe that this is so.
There is no doubt that some tabloids do demonise the out of work in a counterproductive way. The Daily Hate Mail thinks that anybody who is on Incapacity Benefit is a scrounger, a shirker and a cheat and takes every opportunity to vilify them. This makes it harder for a beneficiary of Incapacity Benefit to gain employment! Would you offer a job to a scrounger, a shirker and a cheat?
Demonization of those not in work is bad, and the Tories should encourage their supporters in the press to desist from it. Likewise the left should resist from condemning all benefit changes as an attack on the poor, because there is little doubt that the current benefits system is a complicated mess, that is a hindrance to the poor gaining meaningful employment!
With a coalition Tory government that depends on Liberal attitudes to benefits, and which may depend on the votes of sensible people from the opposition benches to offset Neanderthal views from its own benches the benefit system has never had a better chance to be dragged up to date. I hope that it is.
To save the there are no jobs to be had commentators from keyboard fatigue – I believe that the benefits system is in desperate need of reform whether the unemployment numbers go up, down or remain the same!
Making the system fair is as important as taking people out of the system, Plaid, SNP and sensible Labour MP's should seize the chance, to work with Mr Duncan Smith in order to create a benefits system that is worthy of today's circumstances!
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