News round-up 25.04.2018

SHEEP AND GOATS

My attention was drawn last Saturday morning to a very curious story on the BBC Wales website. Telling of some woman named Miranda Whall who has been crawling around on all fours in the hills inland of Aberystwyth (apparently sober!). Read it for yourself.

Photo by Rhys Thwaites-Jones captured from the BBC Wales website, click to enlarge

My instant, and characteristically cynical, reaction, put out on Twitter, was, “Rarely does one encounter such unutterable bollocks. There must be grant funding involved somewhere”.

Sure enough, I was very soon sent evidence that this stunt had netted £25,000 from the Lottery. Was there also money from other sources?

Source unknown, click to enlarge

According to the BBC Wales report the inspiration for this stunt ground-breaking transhuman art “came to Miranda in 2015 after reading a book called The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd, which explores life in the Scottish Cairngorms. (Are there other Cairngorms?) She said: ‘Nan Shepherd wrote about immersing herself in the mountains and opening up her imagination to rethink how we look at them’.”

Let’s be honest – which of us hasn’t felt that same urge to rush into the hills and become one with our woolly compatriots. (Not a reference to the Liberal Democrats.) Many of us do it regularly . . . and some get caught. But enough of that.

The BBC article, by Gwyneth Rees, also provided a link to a video on the Vimeo platform by the Rhys Thwaites-Jones whose photograph I’ve used above. The video is called Woolly Maggot. Which I suppose makes sense to somebody.

Further information received directed me to an article in the Daily Mail telling of someone pretending to be a goat in the Swiss Alps back in 2015. Here it is. The article tells us that being a goat was not Thomas Thwaites’ first choice: ‘I initially wanted to be an elephant, but it wasn’t going very well,’ said Thwaites. ‘I visited a shaman, and she said “you’re an idiot”. So, I decided to be a goat.’

I suggest Thwaites thanks the shaman. Trying to mix in with a herd of elephants could have ended a lot worse than scraped knees and Swiss shepherds wetting their lederhosen. The lions would definitely have targeted him as the weak one in the herd.

Thwaites was funded in this nonsense by the Wellcome Trust to the tune of £30,000 for five months. A paid holiday in the Alps is nice work if you can get it. If you class it as work, that is.

from the wellcome trust website, click to enlarge

At this point, might it be worth speculating that Rhys Thwaites-Jones is married to the sister of goat man Thomas Thwaites? And, as a consequence, that Miranda Whall’s inspiration came from the brother-in-law of the guy who made her video, rather than some crazy old bat up in the hielands.

Or is there a clique of them – a flock? a herd? – out there looking for sponsors? There certainly seems to be plenty of money out there for anybody who can come up with an idiotic and self-indulgent project that ticks the right boxes.

Personally, I’m thinking of applying for a grant to imagine myself as an Argentine wine drinker. For which I shall need to live in Argentina for a while (take in a few football games, the odd asado, tango lessons with bosomy Argie matrons) and then, to satisfy the funders, make a film of me getting pissed really getting into the role and attending a rally to demand the return of the Malvinas.

It’ll be hard, but I promise to give it my best shot.

Finally, for anyone who might have been wondering, Miranda was trying to pass herself off as a sheep during the summer months, before the rams are brought in to do their stuff. Just as well, I suppose, otherwise Miranda might have found out what it’s like to be sheep in ways she hadn’t planned.

On the plus side, it would have been far more authentic and given Rhys Thwaites-Jones a much more interesting video. The boy could have made a fortune on YouTube. (And certain websites I’m informed cater for that sort of thing.)

CHAD AND BRAD MOVE TO RHYL

Regular readers will know that over many years I have questioned the practice of dumping England’s criminals and degenerates on the north coast. Rhyl being the town worst affected.

Nothing seems to change to judge by a recent report of brothers from Walsall going on a rampage in the town. Although, unusually, the BBC report I’ve linked to does say that they came from Walsall. As does this report in Birmingham Live. But the good old Daily Post has the headline “‘Dangerous’ Rhyl brothers who stabbed pop man jailed for 16 and a half years” with no mention of Walsall.

Courtesy of BBC Wales, click to enlarge

This case prompts the same old questions:

  • Who brought the Daniels brothers into Wales?
  • Were the local authority and police made aware that two dangerous little thugs had (been) moved onto their patch?
  • On the assumption that North Wales Police must know about this unending influx, does the force get payments to cover the extra work involved, and if so, where do these payments come from?
  • Why are local politicians so easy-going about a regular influx of violent people that endanger, and indeed murder and assault their constituents?
  • Why have journalists written up their reports as if these criminals were local? Or is the decision to hide the origin taken at an editorial level?

Chief Inspector Neil Harrison of North Wales Police commented on the case, “We are determined to maintain a safe North Wales and will always pursue those who bring harm to our communities.” If he’s serious then he and North Wales Police will do something to stop the dumping of scum like this in Wales.

The bottom line here is that ‘re-locating’ England’s rejects in Wales would be much less likely to happen if we had our own legal system. Because do you think Scotland accepts English criminals? The fact that Wales suffers dumping on an industrial scale is one of the reasons London refuses us a separate legal system.

Next time the issue comes up in Westminster I want Welsh MPs to remember all the people in Wales who have been killed, raped, robbed and assaulted by criminals who wouldn’t have been in our country if we had our own jurisdiction.

WOODY ALLEN LOOKALIKE DEFENDS ROD LIDDLE AND FEDOR THE ‘JUGONOSTALGIC’ JOINS IN

The fall-out from Alun Cairns’ announcement that the second Severn Crossing will be officially named the Prince of Wales Bridge continues.

After Rod Liddle’s contribution in the Sunday Times we were treated to James Delingpole’s defence of Liddle in debate with my MP Liz Saville Roberts. (Delingpole is a real person and a journalist, not a character from one of the earlier series of Blackadder.)

We’re all familiar with the defence used by Liddle, Delingpole and others too numerous to name. We Welsh lack a sense of humour, we are told to ‘get a life’, and most important of all, by defending ourselves we are attacking someone else’s freedom to express themselves.

click to enlarge

Which is where I would normally agree with our detractors, for I have always opposed political correctness and the censorship that goes with it.

But those we are discussing are not really defending freedom of speech. What they are defending is the right of an extreme form of English nationalism to say whatever it likes about minorities in these islands, be they ‘minorities’ that pre-date the arrival of the English or minorities here as a result of England’s imperial past.

For no matter how measured and urbane the likes of Delingpole may appear, beneath the surface there writhes a shield-beating Beowulf trying to break out and slay the Grendels defiling their land.

This is no more than we can expect from English writers, but perhaps the most bizarre and insulting defence of Cairns’ decision came from within Wales. I’m referring now to a piece on the Wales Arts Review by Fedor Tot.

‘Who he?’ you demand. Well, Tot describes himself on his Twitter account @redrightman (which uses a picture of a fag-smoking Tito) as a “Serbian-born, Welsh-raised. Yugonostalgic. Probable Comemeunist.” Make of that what you will.

Despite prefacing his piece with, “The decision to rename the Severn Bridge as the Prince of Wales Bridge to is by all means a silly and empty one, one designed purely as a meaningless PR exercise for Tory powers in Westminster, who have no interest in Wales other than as a resource for cheap sheep jokes and the occasional seat. It is a vacuous symbol of valueless political power” he then goes on to attack those opposing this “vacuous symbol” and links them with fascists!

Tot is a Serb, and like many Serbs he suffers from motes and beams, blaming ‘nationalism’ – on the part of Croats, Slovenes, Albanians, Muslims and others – for the break-up of Jugoslavia, but is himself blind to Serbian nationalism. It’s as if the ruling or majority group in a multi-national state can never be guilty of nationalism because it seeks to hold the state together against the centrifugal forces of peripheral nationalisms.

He seems unable to grasp that those seeking to hold such states together are themselves motivated by selfish and nationalistic reasons. The difference being that Jugoslavia was cobbled together after World War One and the Serbs didn’t have enough time to confuse Serbian identity with Jugoslav identity in the way that the English have done, to the extent of Englishness and Britishness now being synonymous and interchangeable.

This explains why Tot can attack us for being nationalistic in opposing the PoW Bridge but make only passing reference to the British nationalism explicit in the naming. (Though I suppose that the confused and unproofread intro could be the work of someone else.)

Though the boy shows promise as a political commentator with this observation: “I would like to clarify for a second here: I do not consider the majority of Plaid Cymru to be a nationalist party, and neither should it consider calling itself a nationalist party, despite the common usage of the term ‘civic nationalism’. Rather what Plaid calls for is something that’s better off being called regionalism or autonomism, as it promotes economic and political independence based on the existence of a region traditionally ignored by centralised powers, a response I very much respect and agree with.”

Chwarae teg, Fedor.

It may be no coincidence that Fedor Tot’s rather silly and insulting piece appeared on the website of the Wales Arts Council, a Cardiff organisation that relies on the ‘Welsh’ Government for much of its funding. I ask you to note that fact because Fedor Tot’s piece was nothing but a reiteration of the BritNat line.

It was the nationalism of the state, be it Britain or Jugoslavia.

P.S. Fedor Tot wants me to make it clear that he is not a Serbian nationalist. Fair enough, I’m happy to do that.

But he describes himself as a Yugonostalgic, in that he yearns for the old Jugoslavia. But Jugoslavia was Serbia’s little empire, held together by the power of Serbian nationalism; as soon as they could, the other nationalities got out.

So what is he nostalgic for? Tell us, Fedor.

‘NUFFIN TO SEE HERE, GUV’

If what I’m hearing is true, then a terrible crime has been perpetrated in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Earlier this year work began on a ‘road-widening’ scheme on Five Mile Lane, or the A4226. Though as the video shows, what contractors Alun Griffiths have done looks suspiciously like cleared land for housing or some other development.

This would be bad enough in itself, but the allegations made in the video are that a very important archaeological site has been destroyed and human remains treated with contempt.

The video also tells us that archaeological work was undertaken at the site by Rubicon Heritage Services. This is an Irish company run by Colm Moloney with a separate presence this side of the water in the form of Rubicon Heritage Services (UK) Ltd. This company conveniently went bust last month.

Rubicon could be a kosher outfit, on the other hand it could be the kind of company that – for a price – will find nothing to impede developers.

I urge you to watch the video and draw your own conclusions. Then, if, like me, you feel that an insult of national significance has been perpetrated I’d like you to contact the politicians who seem to have given the green light to this desecration or else may be minded to stop it and save what can be salvaged.

Given that it is our history, and people living in Wales today are descended from those who lived on this site, those whose remains were treated with contempt, this may explain why local archaeologists were not employed. Come to that, who was responsible for hiring an ‘archaeology’ company from God knows where teetering on the brink of liquidation? Or were those the attractions of Rubicon Heritage Services?

The local MP is Alun Cairns. The local AM is Jane Hutt. You’ll see in the link I’ve given to the Vale of Glamorgan council website that Ken Skates, Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport, is involved, here are his contact details. The Regional AMs are Gareth Bennett (Ukip), and of course, Neil McEvoy.

Make your voice heard. Demand answers as to who gave the order for a ‘road-widening’ project to exceed its planning consent and destroy a valuable Bronze Age, Iron Age, possibly Neolithic site.

AND FINALLY . . .

Carwyn Jones has thrown in the towel, though I’m at a loss to understand why anyone was surprised by the announcement he made last weekend at the ‘Welsh’ Labour conference. He’s been doomed since Carl Sargeant’s suicide on November 7th and the evidence started emerging about the role of lobbyists Deryn and other parties.

The hot favourite to replace him as Labour leader and First Minister is Mark Drakeford, the Assembly Member for Cardiff West, just. For at the last Assembly election in May 2016 Drakeford was given a nasty shock by local councillor Neil McEvoy standing for Plaid Cymru.

Although he didn’t win Cardiff West Neil McEvoy made it to the Assembly as Regional Member for South Wales Central.

click to enlarge

Now whoever leads the Labour Party in Wales is expected to be a constituency (rather than a regional) AM; he or she is also expected to have a solid majority in order to be able to concentrate on being leader rather than having to worry about holding on to their seat.

But if the trend evident in 2016 is repeated in 2021 then Drakeford might not be elected. For Neil McEvoy is a man on the rise . . . or was until his own party decided to sabotage his political career. Let’s look at the chronology.

  1. By June 2017 it was widely believed that Carwyn Jones was preparing to stand down in the near future. This report lists four potential successors, but Drakeford is not among them.
  2. In September, and on vague and flimsy charges, Plaid Cymru suspends Neil McEvoy.
  3. On November 7th Carl Sargeant commits suicide and questions start to be asked about who knew what and when, and the role of employees and ex-employees of Carwyn Jones.
  4. In mid-January, and with pressure increasing on Carwyn Jones, Plaid Cymru expels Neil McEvoy from the party’s Assembly group.
  5. On March 19th, and with Carwyn Jones now clearly doomed, Neil McEvoy is expelled from Plaid Cymru for 18 months. He will never be allowed back in, but the best option is to leave him in limbo.
  6. April 21st and Carwyn Jones announces he’s standing down. Mark Drakeford is the front-runner to succeed him.

In less than a year, the threat of losing in 2021 to Neil McEvoy is removed and Drakeford emerges from obscurity to be the shoe-in successor to Carwyn Jones. Whether by accident or design the engineered downfall of Neil McEvoy parallels the emergence of his rival in Cardiff West to be the next First Minister of Wales. Funny old game, politics, innit?

“I’m the unity candidate” says the headline in this report, but Drakeford might also be the Plaid Cymru candidate.

♦ end ♦

 

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Carnabwth

Poor Carwyn. I doubt if he would recognise Rhydlewis today. Pretty much like most other rural villages in west Wales today; the Welsh becoming if not already a minority.

I’m sure many of you will have seen on twitter or FB how our Labourite friends are campaigning against the closure of Whithybush A & E. The comrades were in Haverfordwest in numbers on Saturday with placards most of which identified as being held by Labour activists. It’s been reported by the BBC but in their usual style, have forgotten to mention that Labour actually run the Welsh Government and have basically been in control of Health for 20 years. This is what I’m getting onto. I’m linking it to ‘Ein Gwlad’. You can already see that it will be mostly ignored by the BBC unless they can link it with something unflattering. Ditto the Western Mail and Daily Post. Do you think that it’s message can be got to Mr and Mrs Jones of Cilfynydd? The media is a massive massive problem in Wales. I believe it’s our main problem.

Donkey Ostler

The calibre of person we need to lead our nation today – at all levels ;-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARVZutPwFJM

Big Gee

Thank you Donkey Ostler for posting that video. It brings tears to my eyes every time I’ve seen it, and I’ve seen it many times by now, and it still does emotional things to me each time I see it anew.

An absolutely brilliant man, on all levels, in fact I would say he totally typifies what we are about as a nation. I was in college myself during the early seventies, and my best friend was from Mynydd y Garreg. He had been in school – Queen Elizabeth Grammar in Carmarthen – with many of the famous players of that area in that period. Through him I got to know them, more especially Grav, who of course was from Mynydd y Garreg, who became a great friend and hero of mine, and by extension all the others who played for Llanelli and Cymru, and of course my greatest hero of all was Carwyn James. I spent so many happy weekend in that neck of the woods, and I would go with my mate Clive down to Strady to watch all the home games, and I can say ‘I was there’ when we beat the All Blacks. They say the pubs ran dry in Llanelli that day, I don’t know about that, getting to a bar was a rugby forward task.

We DO need leaders like Carwyn. His spirit and style of play still lives on in Llanelli. But more importantly that flame in his heart for his nation and all manifestations of it from poetry, literature, music and yes, rugby needs to be rekindled.

THAT is my dream for Ein Gwlad. Don’t be afraid to dream, because dreams CAN come true. We – even this late in the day – can evoke the spirit of Carwyn James and build a nation in his honour that he would be proud to be a part of.

Slippery Sydney

Well said ‘Donkey Ostler’. Yes where was Plaid Cymru and all others when Amber Rudd’s then husband was illegally committing “criminal incitement to racial hatred”? To the point today, where was Liz Saville-Roberts (now a Plaid Cymru MP) then? She has made a ‘hoo hah’ now about a “Sunday Times” joker who has now attacked both Wales – and the English recently! Come to think of it – Liz Saville-Roberts is a rather close photo-fit for Amber Rudd. Jac with a bit of cleverness and computer wizardry can you show us photos of both of them alongside each other.

Big Gee

Liz Saville-Roberts and Amber Rudd – which is which?

Answers on a postcard . . . .

Dafis

Not much point in howling at Amber Rudd, or LSR for that matter, for any mischief committed by AA Gill some years ago. The responsibility for letting that jingoistic prick loose lay squarely on the shoulders of the Editors of the Times/ Sunday Times. They choose to employ useless wankers like Gill, Clarkson and Little so either take it up with them or stop buying the fuckin’ rag. Longer term (and it will take time) people like LSR may prevail but there are too many people in the Commons and other centres of power who are adherents of a perverse faith in the integrity of journalism in the U.K and are content to let it carry on with its offensive take on anything not mainstream AngloBrit ! The journalistic quality of the Sunday Times was ditched years ago and it now ranks no higher than rags like the Mail in many respects. That’s why sites such as this gain traction because we read about reality not some concocted bullshit smokescreen.

Big Gee

Totally agree with your comments about journalistic quality and principles Dafis.

The reason it’s relevant now, is because of the shit-storm currently swirling around Amber Rudd, the current Home Secretary and her predecessor in that role – Teresa May. This shit-storm has implications for racism and attacks on minority cultures.

The fact is, that when A. A. Gill was writing this racist muck he was living under the same roof as his wife Amber Rudd – so she must have been aware of it but did not object at the time. Therefore, the logical conclusion is that she agreed with the sentiments at the time, and by extension was complicit in her then husband’s behaviour. The time line is immaterial, whether it happened twenty years ago or yesterday.

We are concerned, not because we want to interfere in Westminster politics, but because our race in Cymru were the victims. Anyone involved or implicated by reason of allowing such behaviour – either then or now – are not fit for the role of Home Secretary dealing with minority groups.

Let it not be forgotten, as a result of that complaint by the then Councillor Ioan Richard from Abertawe, Gill was hauled in by the Metropolitan Police and issued with a formal caution – which he accepted as an acknowledgement that he had committed the crime of incitement to racial hatred.

Whilst those parties representing us in Westminster at the time, did nothing, Ein Gwlad will NOT let injustices like this – against our people – go unanswered that easily.

This is the standard of accountability against those who wilfully attack our people and their country that Ein Gwlad will pursue relentlessly from here on.

Dafis

Splitting hairs for a moment – you only touched briefly on Rudd’s predecessor, the evil May. It’s been acknowledged for years that the witch ran a shambles in Home Office. Witness her inability to “manage” immigration yet keep on spouting drivel about bringing net inflows down to “tens of thousands”. Of course May worked for Cameron, an expedient spinner and liar on a par with Bliar. This is a rot that has prevailed in the Brit government since 2010 and probably a lot earlier when you account for the tenure of Bliar and his compliant lieutenants.

I don’t seek for a minute to defend Rudd, though I would put a word in for LSR who was probably not a sitting M.P when Gill was spouting most of his bile. However the major responsibility for these behaviours lies within the corporate layers of the media be they newspapers, online media, TV or radio as they do it knowing that they can challenge the boundaries of current woolly legislation . It is arguable that they foster some of these racist antics because they think it’s entertaining and they can kick a minority without bringing down the wrath of Allah and his boys. Perhaps we should all sign up as temporary Muslims and take a few heads off, just for a laugh. I’m sure Liddle and the other wankers would see the funny side of that !

Big Gee

I agree with what you say Dafis, however Rudd is the target at the moment. No doubt if she falls, then the guns will be turned on May – so you get two for the price of one. There’s an opportunity here to use the corrupt media machine that is the establishment weapon against itself.

What IS important is that connections are made by the public between Rudd, Gill and the way they view and treat people like us. It makes it a lot harder to wrongly accuse us of being bigoted racists who just hate all English people, when their true colours are displayed for public consumption.

You’ve heard the old saying about using a sprat to catch a mackerel.

Brychan

That’s the point. Rudd is incompetent, but May is so isolated that she only has a group of jolly hockey sticks, greasy pole climbers, closet racists, chromosome missing aristocrats, buffoons, fruitcakes and misfits to choose from, when appointing ministers.

Specifically about Rudd, herself. She is incompetent, and her home office dysfunctional. The only reason she’s on the racks over the ‘Windrush’ issue is because these victims have black skin and goading on this issue on the Westminster benches goes down well in Islington. Loads of other failures are ignored by Labour, from lost paedophiles not signing registers, white slaves at hand car washes, uninterrupted networks of the heroin trade, prisons where the boss of the wing is the most feared murderer who gets his spice from corrupt prison officers and criminal families going unchecked until the pensioner stabs the intruder. This is Rudds real repertoire. The fact she’s shagged a racist just means not all thick anglo-saxon chavettes from Sussex wear pink tracksuits and carry fake channel handbags.

Amber Rudd should not be in charge of home affairs of the people of Wales for two reasons, (a) she’s incompetent, and (b) she’s English.

Big Gee

You’ve summed it up perfectly Brychan. I’ve often said it would be a big advantage to us if we were ‘coloured’ so that we could be distinguished from the pale skinned Saxons. It would then be much easier to make the arguments against racism directed against us.

Unfortunately a culture has sprung up where racism (white on white) is ignored, whilst racism is only perceived to be associated with skin colour.

Dafis

Funnily enough something very similar was said in conversation early yesterday morning while out with the dogs. I met another “old dog” like myself and he was soon telling me how bad things were up Brecon way. He related eavesdropping on a bunch of Anglo-sounding chaps at a pub in the town who were swapping notes about smallholdings available in the area, a snip compared to similar assets in Cotwolds or other desirable areas of England. Now this man was not a Welsh speaker but he went off on a rant about fuckin’ English buying up “tidy property” and making things difficult for native youngsters. I soon moved it on to “it’s nothing other than colonisation ……..” and to my surprise the other fellow said “yes, we’re treated like they used to treat the blacks”

Big Gee

I rest my case!

Donkey Ostler

We know that “we are not our brother’s keeper”, but if we are in a marriage we do have some responsibility for what our spouse does in our joint home. Our present UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd MP was once married to the late ‘Sunday Times’ (ST) correspondent A A Gill at the time when he was promoting criminal racial hatred in a weekly column in the ‘ST’ against the Welsh people and Wales. Surely she should have stepped in trying to to stop his criminal activities. Now she is responsible for preventing Racists Abuse. With such a background she is surely not up to the job of curtailing racism. Below this comment I will attach just a few examples of Gill’s criminal racist comments. At the time, this was unacceptable and it still is. Many complaints were made to the ‘ST’ and Press Council and to a number of Politicians, including Plaid Cymru’s then Leader Dafydd Wigley, who all did nothing. It only stopped when one Swansea Councillor went to the Police with a file (like the examples below. As a result of that complaint Gill was hauled in by the Metropolitan Police and issued with a formal caution – which he accepted as an acknowledgment that he had committed the crime of incitement to racial hatred – all written in Mrs Gill’s house – yes Amber Rudd’s house of the time. She should be sacked now for that history. Read these:-
Examples of offensive, sexist and racist ANTI WELSH material all written by AA Gill and published as a weekly column in the Sunday Times:-:-
(1) [referring to Wales] It ought to be called the un-principality.The Welsh would not recognise a principle if sheep wore them as underpants.
(2) {referring to a Film about Wales] This film was a story of incontinent,mendacious fornication, child abuse, drug addiction, prostitution, depression and despair, all on the dole. In fact, it was an every day story of Valley girls. There was so much thoughtless serial rutting that it should have been called La Rhondda. It was brilliantly convincing…………….. By God, it was Wales.
(3) Now the Welsh women and make-up. If you look Welsh, you do see the problem. You either mortgage the house and go for it with a trowel, or just forget about it as being a bigger job than painting the Forth bridge.
(4) Valley kids were revealed as the most likely to be criminal no hopers who believe further education and training is a stupid waste of time.
(5) The Welsh are particularly mean about vowels. They are mean about everything, of course, but they hoard their vowels for eisteddfods.
(6) [referring to a Welsh Hotel] I know it’s actually in Wales, but it has got a carpet, so it counts as English.
(7) A group of sporting personalities were asked to drop-kick an amusing goal over quarter sized posts. They all failed. So Wales will be seriously considering them for next season.
(8) His guardsmen were typically Welsh; mournful, pudding-faced stoical moaners. You could see why the regiment’s nickname is “the Sheepshaggers” they spend a lot of time crouching with intent in fields.
(9) I hate Japanese tourists most of all. I would hate the Welsh even more, but there aren’t any Welsh tourists; they are too mean and they do not have the wanderlust of the Japanese.
(10) Being my agent is about as profitable as being a Welsh dental hygienist.
(11) Gastronomically, Wales is a foodie “diversion-free” zone. You can easily travel from Cardiff to Anglesey without ever stimulating a tastebud.
(12) Wales enjoys a panoramic range of prejudice. We all know they are loquacious dissemblers, immoral liars, stunted, bigoted, dark ugly, pugnacious little trolls. If you find a two faced Welshman, then back home in the valleys they think he’s been short changed in the boat race department. Television has tried to create a series made up entirely of Welsh people, but only the Welsh have the stomach to watch them. God knows what they say about the rest of us on their own channel. As Rabbie Burns said “a man’s a man for a’ that” – unless of course he’s Welsh.
(13) I yield to nobody in my deep concern for the malingering man of Europe – the gargoyle-visaged Welsh. With innate disregard for veracity they have traduced my charitable concern for their hideous blighted country and are reported as saying that I called them “hideous trolls”. Nothing could be further from the truth. They go on to whine that my honest observations are affecting inward investment, that the truth may damn the cornucopia of Asian electronic companies paying them to lift televisions and videos a skill all Welsh lads learn as children in the holiday homes of their English neighbours. The clear light of truth may hurt.
(14) ..the Welsh. All they’ve ever been systematically humiliated with are copious Giros and repeat prescriptions of pessaries for ovine cystitis.
ALL QUOTES FROM A.A.GILL IN “THE SUNDAY TIMES” .
YES AMBER RUDD YOU SHOULD BE SACKED NOW OR RESIGN NOW.

Big Gee

Good ol’ Ioan Richard. He did a good job there.

NOW why don’t you spread it around, strike the iron while it’s hot. Or would you like Ein Gwlad to do it for you?

The press and media would lap this up right now, because they’ve smelled blood.

Dafis

According to LlaisySais online the Chair of Welsh Labour is a woman living in Bolton ! Does this mean that Welsh Labour is about to do what neither Plaid or any other force have been able or inclined to do – annexe a large piece of cheshire, Lancashire & Greater Manchester to extend Wales into the foothills of the Pennines ? or have a small enclave in N.E Lancs, bit like Russian Kaliningrad on the Baltic ? Sadly not, it’s the reverse, and no surprise either. WelshLabour are content to appoint any old card carrier regardless of location, showing again their total indifference to being Welsh in any way. Sooner they remove this sham identity and just call themselves AngloBrit / English Labour in Wales the better for everybody. UKIP probably has more integrity – and that’s something I never thought I’d ever get round to saying !

ffranc_sais

Alleged archaeological vandalism in the Vale: no doubt the Glamorgan/Gwent Archaeologist Trust was a consultant to Vale of Glamorgan council in the planning process. (http://www.ggat.org.uk) I am surprised not to see a reaction from Karl-James Langford of Archaeology Cymru.

Keith Parry

Have you the film of Mark Drakeford waving a piece of paper saying “Peace in our time. We have lost no powers to England” If not a film of Neville Chamberlain waving a piece paper of similar value will do.

EU am byth

I think the mistake that most people make is to assume that ‘Welsh’ Labour are a separate party in command of their own destiny.
Corbyn has told Carwyn to go and when to go. He has also told the faithful for whom they should vote.
The evidence for this is that he has openly proclaimed that he will not attempt to interfere in the election process for a new leader.

The supine acceptance of a new name for the Severn Bridge and the grovelling acceptance of the Tory stance on post-Brexit devolution also derive from Corbyn’s unionist agenda.

Brychan

Yep. Meanwhile, in Plaid. Lennin Wood, the charismatic leader has been prevaricating, Adam Trotsky the theoretician was last seen heading west on a train, and Alun Stalin Jones has launched a purge of the Sospans and has started shooting his own soldiers at Cardiffgrad.

Dafis

Perhaps Alun Ffred could start by shooting himself !

Brychan

Regarding the desecration of a clearly significant archaeological site under the guise of the A4226 widening scheme, the safeguards are contained in the “UNESCO Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage” established in 1972. The United Kingdom, at the time, signed up to this. Evidently, devolution means that the responsibilities now fall upon the shoulders of the Welsh Government who legislate and manage planning.

It is here..
https://whc.unesco.org/en/conventiontext/

It is for this reason, in England, there is open and active consultation and consideration on such infrastructure. Most notable examples are the ‘Roman graves’ uncovered by Crossrail in London and the ‘tunnel solution’ to widening the A303 in Wiltshire. That video shows clear breach of obligations, and the Welsh Government, having seen the video, has a case to answer in their failure to meet these obligations.

There is, of course, the very valid question – Where are the artefacts already extracted from the site being held, catalogued and analysed?

Wynne

I hope those living in the area decide to direct searching questions to the local planning authority. A few obvious questions that spring to mind are. Reference No. of any outline or detailed planning permission granted. Were planning decisions taken by planning officers using delegated powers or elected councillors on planning committee. What archaeological and environmental studies / reports were commissioned to inform the planning decision. Is the site allocated for development in the adopted Local Development Plan. Questions should be directed to Council’s CEO and / or elected leader with MP / AM copied in. Sounds to me like an abuse of the Town & Country Planning process. Thanks for bringing it to our attention. I am so involved in sites locally in Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire or I would get involved myself. I’m sure this story will run for a long time.

Western Welsh

All the documentation relating to the development are available online through the local authority’s planning portal. Full reporting will follow once the post-excavation specialist work is complete. Bad-mouthing people for undertaking a complex and important dig, which while represent a significant step forward in our understanding of the past in that area, is reprehensible. The video shows a site AFTER excavations have been completed. All archaeology is a destructive process, but we do at least have a system which archaeologists to excavate a site and study their finds when a development impacts on the archaeology. This story has already died a death because it has no legs.

Brychan

The legal powers are rested in the “Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979”. Under the Government of Wales Act 2006 full legislative and administrative control rests with Welsh Government Ministers. Provisions were adjusted with domestic legislation in Wales under the “Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2016.” CADW is the body that does the paperwork. The minister concerned is Hannah Chainsaw Blythyn AM, the Minister for Environmental Destruction.

http://www.assembly.wales/en/memhome/Pages/MemberProfile.aspx?mid=5112

I can see no legal or legislative role in this from the Westminster Government other than if they have invoked the Defence of the Realm legislation, we are at war, and the land concerned is under MoD control due to the strategic need of works on the A4226. Perhaps I’ve missed something.

Dafis

That 5 Mile Lane is on the plan for M4 > Cardiff Airport link road straight through some nice countryside from J34 by Renishaw plant ( ex Bosch ) past Pendoylan etc and out to the A48 virtually straight across into A4226. So the “strategic need ” is to allow the Bay fantasists to stick a fast track from M4 to give their investment at Rhoose another shot in the arm. Perhaps more sensible would be a spur off the A4232 Bay Link at say Culverhouse which would also serve Barry and communities off the A4050. No doubt that would also piss some people off especially as likes of Jane Hutt resides somewhere along that route.

Brychan

Why not just…

(a) Burn all the caravans at Porthkerry.
(b) Replace them with a rail spur from the Vale of Glamorgan railway line.
(c) Rail spur to run north of the runway directly into the air terminal.
(d) Run frequent lite electric shuttle trains directly from Cardiff Central.
(e) No need for ANY bigger roads from either the M4 or Culverhouse.

Rumour has it that some of the Neolithic skeletons uncovered at 5 Mile Lane were found clutching bus tickets having been falsely told Rhoose railway station was at the airport and the burial chambers contained various drafts of the South Wales Metro.

Protecting the environment is not about exchanging green soundbites over glasses of prosecco in the posh wine bars in the Bae. It’s about real practical engineering solutions.

Dafis

Apparently Fonmon Castle is now “for sale” with multi million price tag. No doubt some overpaid City plonker will come up with the loot and be welcomed by Cynulliad types as top class inward investment !

Or maybe Cairns and CJ ( if still in job ) will conjure up a bid to present the nation with that “Royal Residence” they crave. Who needs a job when there’s so much to watch every day ?

Dafydd

I want to know what happened to the goats and sheep. Are the films public and if not, why not? Do they show abuse of the goats and sheep? You never know with Funded Artists.

CambroUiDunlainge

Got to be honest… McEvoy was a bit of a coincidence. If I were a suspicious fellow…

Marconatrix

‘Welsh’ ‘Labour’ also seem to have given in over non-reserved powers returning from the EU. The Scots are disappointed but not really surprised at the loss of a potential ally. See here from around 8:45ish, but I warn you it’s none too flattering for Wales :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qym1fsDy-Ds