After technical difficulties I’m delighted to report that my computer is now running again. Though with nothing prepared I won’t publish just for the sake of getting something out this week. Instead, I shall work on an idea for next Monday, August 24th.
The theme I shall be exploring is the role played – or not played – by our ‘Welsh Parliament’ as Wales is increasingly exploited, anglicised and assimilated into England. For example, by refusing to take the machete to the housing jungle, as Wrecsam becomes ‘West Cheshire’, Newport an outer suburb of Bristol, and rural communities are destroyed by tourism and holiday homes.
I have long argued that this is due to a trade-off between Tory governments in London and Labour administrations in Corruption Bay that sees the latter willingly implement the policies of the former in return for being allowed to run Wales as a one-party crony state.
‘Surely not’! you cry. Take my word for it, good people.
For some years now the big worry for London has been the SNP threatening the very survival of the UK. Recent opinion polls have caused something close to panic in the imperial capital. To avoid the ‘poison’ spreading to Wales the two major Unionist parties will forget their differences to co-operate. In fact, they’ve been co-operating for a while.
Given that the ‘Welsh Parliament’ serves only England’s and Labour’s interests the name is obviously a misnomer. It is not our parliament because it does not serve Welsh interests.
And yet . . . it has a certain value. For example, as a distraction; confusing too many of us who aren’t sure who to blame when things go wrong. Worse, some who really should know better are strangely comforted by the ‘Welsh Parliament’ just being there.
So the working title for next Monday’s piece is ‘Wales’ placebo parliament’.
♦ end ♦
This is Roshan Doug, a poet somewhere in England, ‘not being racist about the Welsh (according to him):
https://roshandoug.com/the-welsh-im-not-being-racist-but/
Rhosan Doug
What a cunt.
Maybe keep on with them disregarding of social niceties and you might get a sonnet slap, you poetic ponce. Most probably another fucking useless ‘art’ graduate on the Dole.
And he had the cheek and audacity to use the flags from Nation.cymru!!
I wonder if I’ll get a reply?
Roshan
I read your recent recount of your visit to Llanberis with some distain. May I recount my own assent of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) with my then partner. She of Indian heritage, we met in London, now resident in Wales.
Upon parking at Llanberis my companion was accosted by a National Park warden, a lady of significance, the official being in possession of a distinctive English home counties accent. Ignoring the white guy present, my partner was quizzed “what brings you to Snowdonia” and “please fill in the visitors questionnaire” which included an ethnicity section, and “we don’t get many Asians in the countryside”.
My partner turned to me indignantly, she now being fluent in the Welsh language, and handed me the said ‘visitors questionnaire’, and asked why she was singled out for attention by an English official at a Welsh tourist hotspot.
My reply was that it’s a manifestation of colonialism. As someone of south Asian heritage, you should no doubt understand. It’s similar to the greetings of pith helmeted guides of impeccable English at the gates to the Taj Mahal prior to independence. The floor sweepers have always been native.
May I address your condiments in the hotel dilemma.
Our experience was that French mustard was also available in Llanberis, as was Texan chilli, and a highly recommended concoction of dishes at a local restaurant based around garam masala. Your dribble remind me of the ‘smelly food in the neighbourhood’ that my former partner once endured as a form of racism in Lewisham, characterising a people by ‘native food’ definition and ‘but they do eat good old English fish and chips when it suits them’.
As for your comments about Welsh taxi drivers, similar publication about Albanian cab drivers hanging out in Solihul kebab shops may lead to your arrest.
You end your comments with “next time, I think I might just ignore civic and social niceties”. Lets hope that you never return to Wales. We do not need you racist projections or your lens of assumed superiority. Travel is not about arriving, flashing the dollar, and saying they wouldn’t do it like this at home, nor is it “the natives should be grateful I’m here”.
A good tourist embraces the difference and immerses, something you failed to do.
It’s one of the reasons that tourism is often a curse.
Please feel free to add my repost to your blog if you think it worthy. For what it’s worth, my former partner put the Snowdonia National Park warden in her place by asking if she enjoyed her own visit to north Wales, and explained the mountains she wandered as a child. The English call them the Himalayas.
Brychan
He seems to have missed the obvious points about tourists, Brychan:
1/ Their very presence in large numbers in the cefn gwlad Gymraeg during a pandemic is a public health risk and represents two fingers to the people of those areas.
2/ The inability of locals to use the car parks or to drive in a straight line along Pen-y-Pass while their mountains are trashed is not compensated for by the paltry amount of money that the tourist economy puts into the pockets of locals.
It hasn’t registered with him that he and his girlfriend are part of the problem, so it must be Taffy’s fault that his largesse only gave rise to the cold shoulder.
Rhosddu.
(a) Tourists in large number is damaging at any time, pandemic or not. Their presence is of no net value, we need to reduce numbers considerably and increase spend per head.
(b) There shouldn’t be any parking at Penypass. Re-open Penygwryd as a local owned hotel at £200per night, parking patrons only. Tourist tax £10 per night. Others can catch the bus than runs from Betwsycoed to Llanberis, £10 a shot, parking included.
It’s all very simple.
The reply I got was..
Thank you for your response to Roshan’s piece on his recent visit Snowdonia.
Please feel free to add any comments to this or future blogs.
Regards
Leena Fowler
Executive PA to Dr Roshan Doug
However, his blog comments are disabled, and the racist Dic Sion Davinda, who disparages his native India as much as Wales, did not reply himself.
Welcome back.
It’s an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act to introduce beavers to Wales without a license. So to answer you twitter question about who’s responsible for the escapees, here is the link to my number one suspect.
https://www.blaeneinion.co.uk/Beavers.html
The concept of a ‘corral’ for a pair of beavers is quite bizarre. What did this lifestyle Londoner use? Fence posts! Munch, Munch.
These beavers will do irreparable damage to the ancient oak rainforest along the Welsh river system. Their natural environment is streams lined with regenerative willow, like the fens, the lower reaches of the Exe, the Stour, and the feeder streams of the Thames (they’d never allow it). Maybe the Tay in Scotland which is lined with sappy pine and silver birch.
The Dyfi and the Teifi is none of these.
Who killed the ancient oaks of Wales? Some pratt from London who’s knowledge of the countryside is limited to a ‘beaver corral”. When is the Welsh Government going to order NRW to call round with a summons and a rifle?
May I also comment on the raptor champion of Wrexham and all round despoiler of the Welsh countryside.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-53806369
The ignorance of eco-tourism.
The Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) is native only to Scotland; its feathers provide camouflage to nest in the tips of their native Grampian conifer trees. It is the sea, or white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) that is native to Wales, it’s feathers provide camouflage to the nesting cliffs of Eryri with access to the coast for food in winter.
But don’t tell the re-wilders who are ignorant of our native species and our landscape.
Eryr eryrod Eryri, Motto and shield of Owain ap Gruffudd.
The native eagle has white flared tail feathers, while the non-native does not. Perhaps Iolo Williams should spend more time back in Wales rather than schmoozing the BBC establishment. Then he’d remember that places he’d wander in his youth, and recall the correct taxonomy of the species he claims to champion. Craig yr Ysfa is missing it’s Eryr (cym) not the Iolaire (gae).
Brychan, are you being fair to the beavers? They were naturally present in Wales, in the Dyfi in the time of Dafydd ap Gwilym. To be accurate, they either eat oak or they prefer other trees. Oaks and beavers seemed to co-exist just fine, so I’m thinking beavers don’t eat much oak. Perhaps the beavers are not the problem. The humans are. Ones who claim to live in a place called Artists Valley, this in 2020 when we are fighting to preserve Welsh place-names. And who are utterly self-confident yet tone-deaf to the Wales around them. Stop them, Brychan, not the beavers?
I could probably go along with re-introducing beavers if it was being done by Welsh groups with Wales’ interests at heart, and if it was being done with the support of local farmers, anglers and others. Neither condition is met in this instance.
It’s yet more outsiders, using their influence with civil servants and politicians, to impose ‘rewilding’. And doing it by persuading those clowns in Corruption Bay to withhold money from farmers so as to force them off the land.
Heeeeeeeeere’s Jaco!
Welcome back Jac. Glad to hear your technical problems are resolved. We have missed you. Look forward to your next post.
I promised the next post for Monday, but something’s come up that deserves a mention, so it’ll be out on Wednesday.