Propaganda War

THE STATE WE’RE IN

If we believe certain politicians in Europe, the USA and elsewhere, then Russia controls cyberspace. Vlad the Influencer is dabbling here, sticking his oar in there, getting Trump elected in the USA and boosting support for all manner of other candidates. It do make ew think.

Or maybe not . . . seeing as those who tell us these things are politicians and journalists, two sub-species whose members, in the affections of the public, come somewhere below Honest John down his auto ‘showroom’ behind the abattoir. In other words, lying bastards.

Another reason it all falls down is because we are asked to believe that those making these claims against Mr Putin – and the countries these accusers represent – have never themselves tried to influence events outside of their own borders, ever. So it’s not just lies, it’s rank hypocrisy.

The truth is that almost every country tries to influence events outside its borders. With smaller countries it may be no more than an irredentist squabble with a neighbour, but when we come to the big players, the scope becomes global. The bigger the stage, the bigger the lie: invasion becomes ‘humanitarian intervention’ and regime change is ‘restoring democracy’ (often to countries that have never known democracy!).

Now if larger countries are prepared to destabilise or invade other countries in their national interest then it stands to reason that they won’t hesitate to defend themselves from what they perceive to be internal threats.

With the UK this has taken many forms in recent decades. For example, in the 1980s, under Margaret Thatcher, we saw the naked power of the state used to provoke and then crush the National Union of Mineworkers. In Northern Ireland we saw detention without trial and a shoot to kill policy, but also the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the British military and intelligence services co-operating with Loyalist terrorists.

Since the demise of the NUM and peace coming to the Six Counties the perceived threats to the UK have changed, and to meet those new threats we see modified responses. Though one constant among responses is propaganda, which has become more pervasive thanks to modern technology.

To the point where the propaganda offensive mounted to tarnish the SNP and ensure a No vote in the Scottish independence referendum reached a level of state-sponsored lying unknown in Europe since the end of the Cold War.

BELIEVE US – BRITISH IS BEST!

Over the past ten or twelve years we have seen the rise of the SNP, the West has experienced Islamic terrorism (partly in response to military interventions in the Middle East), and to top it all we had the economic collapse of 2008.

After giving these matters a great deal of thought our masters decided that what was needed was a campaign to promote our shared Britishness, then, in response to the faltering economy, suggest that we’re all suffering equally. (Well I did warn you that these are lying bastards.)

Television companies played their part by going into overdrive. In the final year of the ruling Labour–Lib Dem coalition in the Scottish Parliament (to May 3, 2007) there were just 25 television programmes with ‘Britain’ or ‘British’ in the title. Between January 2013 and January 2014, with the SNP controlling the Scottish Parliament and the independence referendum looming, Islamic extremism increasing, and the economy up Shit Creek, the number of ‘Britain’ / ‘British’ programmes had rocketed to 516!

Another response appropriated the humble poppy. When I was young older people wore poppies in November because they had known men who had died in both world wars. It was sincere, and done without affectation or fanfare – and certainly not because they were trying to make a political point.

With our masters’ growing insecurity we saw the poppy transformed into a symbol of British nationalism and unity. This transformation reached its apogee of tastelessness and blatant, Sun-style ‘patriotism’ with the weeping window.

Like I say, it’s called propaganda. On the one hand, it’s intended to comfort (in troubled times) those who have bought in to the messages of state propaganda, and reinforce those messages with which the converted have been inculcated since childhood. On the other hand, this orgy of BritNat patriotism is also designed to win over those who are sceptical of that state propaganda. Finally, it targets by exclusion those who reject the BritNat message; seeking to intimidate and silence them.

Here in Wales, it seems the only way BritNats can express their loyalty to Britain is by rejecting and attacking anything distinctively Welsh, which will invariably be dismissed as ‘nationalism’ (and therefore divisive). For there seems to be no place in this ‘Britain’ for anything that is not English, other than Orange-Loyalism which it is hoped will help secure Scotland and part of Ireland. Proving, yet again, that ‘Britishness’ in Wales is just another word for Englishness.

Seeing as I’ve mentioned Orange-Loyalism some reading this may be tempted to remind me that the Democratic Unionist Party almost swept the (Protestant/Unionist) board in the recent general election. (True, and Sinn Féin did sweep the board on the other side.) But I would remind them that a) the DUP got just 36% of the vote and b) this was the first election ever in which Unionist parties and candidates failed to get a majority of the vote (49.2%). The writing would appear to be on the wall.

From Wikipedia, click to enlarge

When Sinn Féin becomes the largest party, and if the Six Counties experiences its Algeria moment, where will the hard-line Unionists embark for, or perhaps the question should be – where will the British state resettle them?

THERE REALLY ARE ‘KEYBOARD WARRIORS’!

One casualty of this rise in intolerant Britishness has been the consensus Wales so recently enjoyed on certain issues such as the Welsh language. For in recent years, and perhaps especially in the past year or so, we have seen a tide of bigotry rise to challenge that consensus. And yet, when we analyse this tide it’s difficult to identify other than a few – very busy! – individuals, for so much of the rising hostility to the Welsh language is anonymous.

Though as I say, there are some who can be identified. How could I ignore the indefatigable Jacques Protic, bigot extraordinaire, who can turn any discussion, on any subject, into an attack on the Welsh language. Someone who got a mention in a recent post was Julian Ruck, who now has a platform for his hatred of things Welsh with a weekly column in the South Wales Evening Post. Another worth mentioning would be Michaela Beddows, leading light in the campaign against bilingual education in Llangennech.

As for the rest, well many seem to come and go under a variety of silly names: ‘Cliffoch’, ‘Scrumpy Ned’, ‘The Tywyn Territorial’, even ‘Jacques du Nord’! And of course Protic under a host of aliases, among them, ‘Mo Patel’, ‘J/Jon/John Jones’ and, almost certainly, ‘Bilingo’.

Let me give a recent example. Here’s a ‘Welsh’ Assembly blog by Manon Antoniazzi about diversity and inclusion. It makes no mention of the Welsh language but still attracts ‘John Jones’. And Protic is supported here by the aforementioned Michaela Beddows of Llangennech, she who invited Ukip down and even flirted with the EDL.

But it goes beyond individuals and the SWEP, with the Western Mail living up to its Llais y Sais epithet when it ran a disgusting piece on the Llangennech school affair, suggesting that Cymdeithas yr Iaith members had gone around slashing tyres. It soon climbed down.

Articles supporting the anti-Welsh lobby in Llangennech also appeared in Private Eye and the Guardian. Private Eye, that anti-establishment publication forever laying into fat cats and corrupt politicians, and the Guardian, the voice of liberal reason. Who’d have thought they would be supporting a bunch of bigots in Llangennech?

In fact, the Guardian report caused great angst for those who believe that the people who attack us are simply ignorant of the situation, or else they’ve been misled; give them the facts and – being reasonable people – they will be won over. This is the apologist mindset that simply encourages further attacks.

The truth – that Plaid Cymru and others refuse to accept – is that when the bottom line is defending the Union, and dealing with any perceived threat to the cultural and other unity they believe must underpin the Union, there’s no difference between the English left, right and centre.

More recently I’ve noticed a change in the offensive of offensiveness. For a start, there seem to be more of the enemy and the attacks seem to take two main forms. They’re either an attack on Welsh or bilingual education, often suggesting that children taught in Welsh leave school unable to speak English! or else the criticism is over the amount of money ‘wasted’ on bilingual signs, etc., that could be spent on sick kiddies . . . puppies . . . fluffy kittens . . . (reaches for onion).

There is no doubt in my mind that many of those who have joined the fray in recent years, bemoaning the fact that children are dying of malnutrition and old people freezing to death because of the money wasted on the Welsh language, are working for the British state.

As this article from Private Eye earlier this year tells us, the British army now has its 77th Brigade, dedicated to ‘psy-ops’ (psychological operations). Predictably perhaps, 42% of the outfit will be reservists, but less predictably, the 77th will include “civvies with a penchant for tweeting and trolling on Facebook”. To Twitter and Facebook we can add assorted websites.

click to enlarge

“Civvies with a penchant for tweeting and trolling on Facebook”. How would that work, how would the 77th Brigade recruit such people? Do men in dark glasses turn up and say, ‘We’ve been following your career on Twitter and Facebook, we’re very impressed, you’re just the kind of anti-Welsh bigot we’re looking for – sign here!’

So the boys and girls down the local TA Centre, who used to train to repel the Ivans, may now be tweeting in support of Jacques and Jools. (Jacques and Jools may even be on the payroll!) And as the article tells us, the 77th Brigade joins existing units in the army, navy and the air force . . . and then there’s MI5 . . . and MI6 . . . and GCHQ. And of course, with smart phones and iPads, they can all work from home, or on a train – anywhere!

If that wasn’t bad enough then it’s made easy for them by certain websites which don’t ask those making comments or showing ‘Like’/’Dislike’ or ↑↓ to prove they aren’t robots. Among them, perhaps the two most visited sites in Wales, WalesOnline and the BBC.

Something that may have puzzled you is that an anonymous comment to these sites, badly written and expressing lunatic views on devolution, the Welsh language, or blaming laverbread for the decline in the nation’s morals, might quickly gather a dozen shows of support. Rest assured, there aren’t that many nutters out there, these are almost certainly computer generated.

Now that you know, why were you ever surprised that Trinity Mirror and the BritNat Bullshit Corporation should make it easy for the 77th Brigade and others to promote their anti-Welsh agenda? It would be very easy for them to use Captcha – as I do on this blog – to ensure that all comments and shows of support or disapproval were genuine, but they choose not to.

Funny that. Or maybe not.

♦ end ♦

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Dafis

your tweet regarding BT’s piss poor service reflects the monopolistic attitude towards “marginal” customers i.e people for whom it is difficult to provide a reasonable service. Bragging persistently about this and that level of “performance” these pillocks are only good at one thing – drawing fat cat salaries and benefits – everything else is purely down to chance, and often it’s “no chance”.

Cynulliad pumps money into BT because they are all old mates and it allows CJ and his mob to look like they are doing something. They’d get more respect if they banged a bloody big bill for hundreds of millions on BT for failure to perform to levels agreed. But that won’t happen. One time BT Wales was run by a woman who doubled up as Mrs Andrews, when your old mate Leighton was a big shot in CJ’s gang.

Now Leighton’s a big shot elsewhere ( stuffing the public sector for a decent salary somewhere with a nice Professorial tag attached )and Mrs Andrews moved over to Severn Trent where she is steering that colonial enterprise’s affairs in Wales. In due course she will, no doubt, end up at Dwr Cymru guzzling a good salary for doing not a lot and looking forward to a tidy pension. Colonial service is still very rewarding for some.

Dr Sally Baker

Some very odd things were going on at BT in the mid 1990s Dafis. I have a friend who unwittingly – whilst playing a joke on someone – discovered that Ysbyty Gwynedd and the then Gwynedd Hospitals NHS Trust which ran Ysbyty Gwynedd had some sort of corrupt deal with BT. This friend was vexed that a member of staff at Ysbyty Gwynedd was being subjected to some very nasty work-place bullying by the manager of the mental health services, Alun Davies. One of the smaller kicks in the teeth that Davies delivered to this member of staff was to refuse him an office phone, although the member of staff led a team of three and desperately needed a phone to enable the patients to ring for appointments. Everyone knew this was outrageous and that Davies was trying to bully the man out of his job by making his life impossible.

So for a laugh, one of the patients rang BT, claiming to be the Chair of the Trust John Mullen and ordered a phone for this man’s office. It was staggering – BT put him through to the marketing dept, no-one at any point asked for his ID, an account number, an invoice, and the marketing dept simply asked ‘will this be on the special arrangement Mr Mullen?’. So the patient said ooh yes please and gave the location of the office for the phone. A week later the phone was installed. The patients thought it was hilarious, but just think of what this implies. That there was a ‘special arrangement’ – obviously a corrupt deal – between BT and the Trust, in which ANYONE could ring up and get a phone installed. Where did the bill for the phone installation go? What about the bill for the phone as it was used? Why did no-one ask for a number, a finance reference, NOTHING? This is a true story – I heard that phone call and I saw the installation of the phone. That phone stayed in that member of staff’s office for years, no-one ever rumbled the joke that the patient had played.

Another friend commented that the staff of that Trust were almost certainly having home phones installed at the expense of the NHS – there was serious corruption at work there. I have always used this story as an example of the shocking misconduct of the managers of the NHS in north Wales – but it does of course also point to some colluding crooks in BT.

When Alun Davies was obliged to retire from his post a few years later after his gross mismanagement could be concealed no longer, he was appointed Chief Exec of St Davids Hospice in Llandudno. John Mullen also retired but I don’t know what happened to him.

I suspect that the BT ‘special arrangement’ was only one of many scams going on in that Trust. They probably had ‘special arrangements’ with car hire companies, furniture suppliers, the potential list is endless. A young law graduate that I was friendly with worked at Ysbyty Gwynedd as an assistant to the management about 5 years ago. He walked out after a few months describing them as ‘corrupt as fuck’. Yes, I can believe that…

Sibrydionmawr

There are ways of combating the big players, though our Welsh Government doesn’t seem to have cottoned on to the idea, or more likely ti way too afraid that it would allow citizens too much control of the everyday things they need.

Faced with similar false promises from BT a group of people in north Lancashire set up their own fibre broadband company as a non-profit community benefit company. It’s been something of a runaway success, and offers world class fibre broadband connections to rural areas, including one such connection that required a four kilometre connection to the cabinet, done for the standard connection fee of £150 and then £30 a month for a 1 Gb/s connection, synchronous. None of the big companies would have touched that one, or if they did the connection fee would run into the many, many thousands.

You can find out more here, it makes a very interesting read, and there is a lot that is very relevant to large parts of Wales.

https://b4rn.org.uk

It’s initiatives like this that confirm that our government is complicit in farting about pandering to corporate capitalism and ripping us off.

Dafis

noted your tweet referring to some creep wanting to organise goat shoots at about £1,000 per head. Strange that, cos when I offered to organise a “Creep Shoot” for just a fiver a kill plus costs of ammunition ( bring your own gun ) there was a distinct lack of interest from anyone other than Health and Safety Agency who wanted to know whether the creeps would get fair treatment !!. I explained that the hi-viz waistcoats would be issued to the Creeps to enable us to locate the carcasses easily not as an aid to the shooter in sighting the kill. Never heard any more about it so another good tourism idea bit the dust.

Dafis

Perhaps we should draft an outline business plan because the scale of the opportunity is enormous. I’ve discussed on earlier occasions, like when fox hunting was banned, the possibility of introducing child molester hunts where a number of these scumbags would be taken from the local jail, shipped to say Tregaron and released on Elenydd with about an hour to get ahead of the pack. Release the hounds and we’re away on the hunt !
A variant of this, instead of hounds, could allow paying hunters to use crossbows or hunting rifles, depending on the “theme” of the day. Given the rather large population that could be put to such good use the industry could run and run and there would be no need to prevent dysfunctionals from moving into Cymru from the English cities that are so good at producing them ! Tally ho !

Big Gee

In harmony with the subjects touched on in this post, namely COLONIALISM, PROPAGANDA & MIND CONTROL

Here are a few videos I’ve randomly come across, that should chime with the contents of this post – or at least should do – if your minds are still awake!

Crude colonisation – it’s roots that started in Cymru:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK_aYnMycJI

Noam Chomsky on colonialism:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zujsTKJGz0s&t=33s

Propaganda and manipulation of the mind/ sinister use of the media:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khwERBhf1eE

Take time out to watch them, and then have a good think about what we are facing, not just here in Cymru, but globally.

Sibrydionmawr

Nice to see that you’ve found Fellow Worker Chomsky, Big Gee – he makes a heck of a lot of sense, not matter what subject he happens to be talking about 🙂

The Earthshaker

Been away for a while and good to see your still exposing the rank hypocrisy of welsh politics and politicians in all parties as well as the continued rise of suffocating, intolerant British Nationalism and hard core colonialism alive and well in Wales.

Its sad we still have to do this, but your readers will be interested in an Assembly petition calling for welsh history to be taught from a welsh perspective in our schools, if its get to 5,000 signatures it has to be debated in the Senedd, think of the propaganda vale of Hamilton and his crew defending colonialism and Labour AM’s squirming as they have to acknowledge Welsh history started before the birth of their Party.

https://www.assembly.wales/en/gethome/e-petitions/Pages/petitiondetail.aspx?PetitionID

Keep up the good work.

The Earthshaker
Jeremy

This petition is so good I tried signing it for a second time! Forgot I saw it back in June. But seriously it should not just be in schools but compulsory for all Labour AMs.

Big Gee

Thank you for that ‘Earthshaker’.

I’ve just signed the petition. It’s been put out at a bad time though – during the recess. But there we are we should be grateful for small mercies. Although I notice the closing date is early next year.

We need to keep on highlighting this petition regularly between now and it’s closing date, to keep it at the forefront of people’s minds.

Has anyone got an up to date list of the e-mail addresses of all Senedd members? It would help me a lot – rather than have to dig them all up to create a mailing list, thereby duplicating the task that could be averted if someone already has such a list. Diolch.

Big Gee

Received & greatly appreciated my friend!

The Earthshaker

Thanks for signing G, agree the timing isn’t great, but with the iron ring farce in people minds they might be more likely to sign it now and i agree we need to keep the pressure on to get to 5,000 signatures.

And thanks for sharing on your social media and blog Jac, it’s added over 80 signatures over night which isn’t bad going, its sad that this petition is even needed.

daffy2012

Big Gee,
Just thought you might be interested but the Dyfed Powis Police Commissioner has a twitter account. @DafyddLlywelyn · Are you on there?

Big Gee

I’ve written to the Plaid quartet ‘daffy’ (Dafydd Llywelyn, Arfon Jones, Ellen ap Gwynn & Ben Lake) that’s two police commissioners, a council leader and an MP.

I got two automated replies confirming receipt and that’s it! Schtum – as I predicted.

I’m giving them ample opportunity to think about a response, then I’ll start pestering.

I knew about Dafydd Llywelyn’s Twitter account – I believe it’s on the Dyfed Powys Police web-site. Yes I am on Twitter, but I’ll keep that up my sleeve for the time being.

When I get a minute I’ll upload a copy of the e-mail I sent to them and I’ll provide a link to it from Jac’s Blog.

Jeremy

Rhun ap Iorwerth – Ynys Mon has signed – 27/07/17 perhaps he reads your blog Jac! Eurfyl ap Gwilym & Mabon ap Gwynfor two other Plaid names I recognise.

Big Gee

I have an apology to make public.

I withdraw my earlier comment in the ‘Guest Post’ I published in Jac’s absence some time ago.

I said that I had written to the Plaid quartet (Dafydd Llywelyn, Arfon Jones, Ellen ap Gwynn & Ben Lake) that’s two police commissioners, a council leader and an MP.

I further said that no one should hold their breath for a reply. Well I take it back. Ben Lake – to his credit – HAS replied with a friendly, sensible and what I believe to be a genuine answer.

Click HERE to view my original e-mail and Ben Lake MP’s answer as a downloadable PDF file. Read it from the bottom up. It’s in Welsh so if you’re not capable in the language of heaven, you’ll have to get it translated.

It’s given me hope that there may actually be a Plaid MP in Ceredigion (at last) who may be of the right material. I don’t often say things like that about members of the “Hide behind the sofa” party of Wales, but on this occasion I’m pleasantly surprised. Not only surprised that I got a reply, but the fact that this young MP may be made of sterner stuff – WELL DONE BEN! I hope it’s not the manifestation of the work of a new broom, and that he will continue to listen and act on matters that are of serious concern to our nation.

I will update the earlier ‘guest’ post when I get a minute.

Big Gee

    UPDATE

I have just added an ADDENDUM to my guest post on Jac’s Blog.(“Careful where you park your car . . .”)

View

CambroUiDunlainge

You think the Assembly would go for it out of curiosity?

It does seem a logical step, and should have been a logical battle for Plaid. If they got something done it’d be a huge boon for them… if it was unsuccessful it’d be a drum worth beating very hard… and still be a huge boon for them.

So not entirely hopeful.

Dafis

Cambro Don’t go expecting much from the Plaid leadership crew. They are wedded to the notion that Ken bach is a good Welsh boy and are ignoring his utter contempt for matters Cymreig. I suggested that Ken was a typical “ishe bod yn Sais” job and was dismissed as a xenophobe by some Plaid pliables. Sad state of affairs but sadly since the June debacle Plaid seems to be seeking new depths for sucking up to Labour in Wales just cos those ychafi Tories are running EnglandandWales. They just can’t see that Labour is just out of the same AngloBrit colonising mould, or is it a queer kind of masochistic death wish?.

CambroUiDunlainge

Aye problem is there’s not a lot of alternative to Plaid. So I kind of hold out hope that if enough noise is made they’ll sort out their shit. But since the election I’m pretty much resigned to the fact that its not going to happen.

They’re no longer a Welsh nationalist party just one that falls back on that for the stable Welsh speaking vote. Beyond that they’re a Republican party… wasn’t Wood spotted at some crazy event a few years ago with a Welsh tricolour?

Dafis

Jac – ref your recent tweet, Judge Huw Rees is to be commended for his forthright statement. Shame that he didn’t punish the English scumbag more severely. His head on a spike on the Deeside border might do the job, but failing that a 100 hours of hard grafting physical labour would suffice cleaning up the mess that he and his kind are so fond of leaving behind them. Anglo Brexiters are fond of talking big about shipping EU criminals back whence they came. Well we can start here by sending all these English bags of shit back to their homeland.

Dafis

Probably a day tripper down for the day/weekend who thought it was O.K to beat up any passerby. From England therefore get back there either in a bag or alive ( and lucky ! )

Chopper Harley

Wonder where this fine young Englishman will get to serve his sentence?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-40851118

Not content with sending us their pensioners now we get to enjoy the company of their racist criminals. Hopefullly he will get sent back over the bridge to serve his sentence at the expense of English tax payers.

Nigel Stapley

Like you, I’m not sure if any judge of the Laws of Englishry has the power to do that, but if a convict can be handed an ASBO (or equivalent) banning them from, say, a town centre for a couple of months/years, then it should in theory be possible to ban some sauced-up Scouse git from crossing the border for a similar length of time.

Beyond that, I’d like to see any English convict who has lived here for less than five years prior to conviction subject to a similar order upon conviction so that they have to go back to whatever centre of uncivilisation they came from. But then – as our ethically cowardly Establishment would say – that’s racist, inni’?

In the meantime, two and a half cheers for Huw Rees!

CambroUiDunlainge

I think the biggest propaganda tool has always been the education system. Yes social media has evolved the process… but a specific curriculum which is chosen by the state from the moment you waddle in through the doors as an illiterate toddler. They teach you how to read and what to read and generally the norms of the society you live in (that is to be Sheeple). Social media is a popular evolution which is taking the place of the papers and bombarding us with information every single day. Even if its just control and manipulation of information to give target audiences the world view the government wants.

I don’t think its by any means a new thing though. What are religious texts if not propaganda? More recently in regards to Wales you’ve got Glyndwr’s rising… where the Welsh rebels were “bare footed idiots” showing the lack of respect for us and the Anglo-Norman Lords looking down their noses. Of course it got to the point that they’d flat out refuse to fight us and the message changed to “Owain wishes to crush the English language and England!”. A message people clearly believed to quite the extent considering Owain took his English brother in law to meet with Thomas Percy to prove he wasn’t all the things the propaganda claimed. That shows the inferiority complex which has now become the norm within the establishment. They take over the world – yet here we still stand.

That brings me to whats now termed “fake news”. Something which has always existed… yet they put it into the public eye with the sole purpose of making us doubt anything that does not come from the establishment we’re trained to obey from moment we waddle into school for the first time. There’s also the fear of going against that way of thinking – or the current narrative. What happens to those who go against the narrative? We only need look at what happened to one of our own who went against Blair’s agenda.

The truth – that Plaid Cymru and others refuse to accept – is that when the bottom line is defending the Union, and dealing with any perceived threat to the cultural and other unity they believe must underpin the Union, there’s no difference between the English left, right and centre.

Couldn’t put this better myself. They want to fight Labour… when they are an anti-Union party and should be targeting every Welsh person regardless of alignment. They have become part of the machine. I’m not entirely sure Leanne is able to relate to those of us who come from families who have over recent generations lost our language and our identity… which are the people Plaid should have been targeting for years now – not picking up the Labour discontented.

As for he from the Balkans… shouldn’t use his name it gives him undue attention. He won’t go away but there’s no such thing as bad publicity… especially when its a person who spouts such vitriol.

CambroUiDunlainge

You are right. Think I’m getting confused with John Hanmer who acted as his ambassador to France. Mortimer of course became the link between Owain and the Percies.

Brychan

A typical example is the FAKE published today in the Wasting Mule regarding the ‘Iron Ring of Oppression’ at Fflint proposal. The article is here…

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/news-opinion/five-things-think-before-you-13391106

Under the five reasons why the ring is a good idea is the strap line “Everyone’s saying countries don’t erect monuments to their conquest… but they do…” followed by a photo of William the Conqueror on a rampant horse. The suggestion being this statue is in England, at the village of Battle, Sussex.

IT ISN’T..

The statute in the picture is actually the one on the main square in Falaise, Normandy, commemorating where William was born and it was sculpted by Msr Louis Rochet of Paris, the work entitled Statue de guillaume le conquerant.

David James (News editor at Media Wales) is the author of this FAKE.

Brychan

Here is a photo of the Norman and Saxon doing battle. It was erected on a suburban roundabout…
http://mosaicmatters.co.uk/images/newspix/Battle%201.jpg
Here is a photo of the William the Conqueror on a rampant horse in the town of Falaise, Normandy.
http://www.vanderkrogt.net/statues/Foto/fr/frbn032-2.jpg
This is the statue pictured (and still is) by the Wasting Mule to argue that countries erect monuments to their defeat.

The ‘victorious rampant’ is NOT in the country of the defeated, only a mock up of BOTH sides engaged in conflict. Media Wales has not made the correction.

Big Gee

Time for a diatribe to Media Wales Brychan!

Brychan

This is the nature of loaded propaganda. Image swappers.

The incorrect picture published gives the false impression that a statue has been erected at Battle to commemorate the defeat of the English, as a justification for erecting a monument at Fflint to commemorate the defeat of the Welsh. In fact, the monument at Battle is nothing of the sort. It represents BOTH sides in battle, to mark the location of an historical event. If this justification were employed, there wouldn’t be a proposed Iron Ring at Fflint, but a statue of an injured, yet heroic, Dafydd ap Gruffydd in full battle.

Another example of Image Swappers (and Jac hits at it on this blog posting) is the events at Orgreave during the miners strike, 1984. I was there. What happened was, a squadron of mounted police officers charged at a peacefully assembled section of miners in a field. There was a brutal attack by police, and the miners subsequently responded by charging the police lines. This was filmed by the BBC. However, due to pressure from the London Government exerted upon the BBC, the editorial was adjusted prior to broadcast, and the film segments chronologically swapped to give the impression the miners charged first, and the police were attacking in response.

More recent examples of Image Swappery was footage of the trade union building fire during anti-and-pro Russian protests in Odessa, Ukraine. The same footage was used both by the BBC and by Russia Today, but sequenced differently to tell different stories of events. This is not journalism, the role of reporting events, but propaganda, manipulating perceptions by falsely representing images. All observers of a nationalist persuasion in Wales need to be aware of this technique, and challenge it.

Sibrydionmawr

I agree, but journalism and propaganda are often closely related. During the Cold War many people around the world, and especially in regimes supported by the Soviet Empire relied on the BBC’s World Service as it was a voice they trusted, and saw as the most objective source of news. I know this as I had some interesting, and sometimes quite heated conversations about the role of the World Service. This was in an age where there were few international sources of information, other than obviously propaganda service such as Radio Moscow, or Voice of America. And there was some substance in the claim that the BBC’s World Service was somewhat objective by comparison, but I always maintained that it was biased, (but I have to concede, not anything like as dumbed down and partial to UK government line as it is now)

Even then, it was realised that most regimes pandered to what would be acceptable to a western audience, and self- censored accordingly, but with the advent of the internet and satellite broadcasting, along with the massive cheapening of the associated technology, (setting up a TV station is now much cheaper in terms of capital than it was) has allowed many countries to jump on the bandwagon and report their own angle on international events, and as many as possible need to be considered before making up one’s own mind, with the awareness that bias is a definite.

Also, image swappery has a very long history, and was used by both sides in the WW2 period, the same, or elements of the same images swapped around and used to illustrate not only different points of view, but also as illustrative evidence of completely different events.

Even shortly after Orgreave, no one who had listened to those who were there believed for a second, that miners, clad in T shirts and daps due to hot weather, were out to cause a riot. The state version of events there that day were rapidly debunked soon after.

Anyone who read the WCCPL publication ‘Striking Back’ will be in no doubts whatsoever over the kind of dirty tricks the state will use to undermine and vilify those they cast as the enemy.

K. A. Mylchreest

Had a look at the Guardian article you linked to, and if you go to the end you’ll see they had to edit it to remove initial bias. And to think, once the Guardian was considered a ‘quality’ paper. And then just dip into the comments … worse than a visit to the irredentist.

Thing is, IMO at least, when it comes to Wales and the Welsh language in particular, yer average English-person-in-the-street doesn’t have a clue. They simply don’t possess the required concepts, explain as much as you like and all you’ll get back is a blank stare … at best. The idea that other languages exist as real means of expression equal to English, with their own speech communities and history and traditions etc. is hard for the poor dears to grasp, living as they do in a wall-to-wall world of English. Maybe they have a glimmering that ‘foreign tongues’ like e.g. French or Spanish have some sort of separate existence, but the idea that there are other ‘real’ languages within the UK (shock! horror!) that they’re not simply the esoteric pastimes of a few eccentrics, that is quite beyond their comprehension.

Sad but unfortunately true 🙁

[Not bad for a robot, no? 🙂 ]

Big Gee

Which is exactly what we SHOULD do. Why the hell should a group of siaradwyr Cymraeg turn to ‘iaith yr estron’ – IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY, just because one foreigner appears?

If the foreigner doesn’t like it then he/ she has two choices, learn it or fuck off back to where they all speak your language.

Far too nice, far too polite, far too hospitable for FAR too long.

Despite what those ‘nice’ sons of the manse have advocated in Plaid since the days of the super pacifist Gwynfor Evans. It doesn’t work – simple as that.

It doesn’t take long for the message to percolate through – and I’m also fed up of listening to people making excuses for their ignorance.

Wynne

My first question to a telephone cold caller is “A ydych chi yn gallu siarad Cymraeg”. Surprising how quickly the receiver is slammed down the other end.

Big Gee

Proves my point doesn’t it Wynne? Good on you. There’s no need to be rude or aggressive – just USE our language and be assertive. The rest falls in place.

The trouble is we confuse hospitality, being ‘nice’ and being polite with being cowardly and kowtowing.

Dictionary definition of ‘kowtowing’:
1.
act in an excessively subservient manner.
“she didn’t have to kowtow to a boss”
synonyms: grovel, behave obsequiously, be obsequious, be servile, be sycophantic, fawn on, bow and scrape, toady, truckle, abase oneself, humble oneself, prostrate oneself; creep, suck up to, butter up, be all over, fall all over, lick someone’s boots;
informal – brown-nose;

2.
historical
kneel and touch the ground with the forehead in worship or submission as part of Chinese custom.
synonyms: prostrate oneself, bow, bow down before, genuflect, do/make obeisance, fall on one’s knees before, get down on one’s knees before, kneel before.

That is exactly what we do all the time as a nation, so often it’s become habitual, and we don’t even notice we’re doing it!

Sibrydionmawr

I live in Cardiff and make it a point of using Welsh in all my dealings with the council and the housing association. Yet still the council does not ensure that all people staffing the reception counters are Welsh speaking, thus putting any Welsh speaking citizen in the awkward situation of having to ask for a Welsh speaker – which is completely against the spirit of both the 1993 Welsh Language Act, and the 2011 Welsh Language Measure. And even after 27 years the housing association still doesn’t get it, and still sends me English only communications, despite knowing full well that I demand, and have consistently demanded communication to be in Welsh. Now I’ve decided to completely ignore anything sent to me in English only, and indeed I put them on warning that I won’t speak to any member of staff in English. I demand the Welsh language services I’m entitled to!

It still completely amazes me that after nearly a quarter of a century that any publicly funded body in Wales is still allowed to get away with disrespecting Welsh speakers. It would be quite simple to add and enforce a mandatory condition to public funds stating that the recipient will provide a full Welsh language service. There are thousands of people in South East Wales who received all their formal education through the medium of Welsh who then find that their Welsh language skill atrophy due to lack of opportunity to use it. So there is no real barrier for any publicly funded body from providing a full Welsh language service.

Indeed, I’d like to see things go further, with the Welsh government initiating a scheme to gradually Cymricise the administration of the entire public sector over, let’s say, a generation. Despite the constant worry of bodies like Cymdeithas yr Iaith, I don’t think there is much opposition to Welsh medium education amongst the majority in SE Wales, and certainly not in Cardiff: if anything, people in this area don’t seem to be able to get enough of it! Of course education is paramount, but where is the real concern about context? What use is a language that isn’t actually used? Do we really want Welsh to end up like Irish? One of the most important aspects of language survivial, indeed a language being able to flourish, is economic value. At present, despite the arguments of some, (those unable to speak, and largely unwilling to learn) there are still precious few jobs where Welsh is an essential qualification, (though it is the case that there are more than there were)and whilst Welsh is highly valued for itself, (no bad thing) it is still seen as too much of a desirable, rather than an essential qualification in Wales. If English was once sold to the Welsh as the language of progression, there is no reason why the process can’t be reversed, thus making it practical, to demand that all workers are required to be Welsh speaking. But this must be real, and it be genuinely the case that Welsh is the language of daily administration, (which wouldn’t affect the delivery of a bilingual service to the public anyway, so the process would be ‘invisible’ to English speakers, yet deliver Welsh speaker their full rights). At all costs we must avoid the experience of Ireland, where at one point in time an a certificate in the Irish language was required for jobs in the civil service, despite the fact that administration was in English. I have heard that this was even the case in the department that administered the Gaeltacht.

We could learn a lot from countries such as the Republic of Cameroon, a relatively poor African country that has French and English as the official languages. In order to work as a civil servant in that country, an applicant must be fluent in both. I learned this whilst at Cardiff University, where the education department attracted a lot of students from the developing world, which allowed me to have many very interesting conversations with people from many places where they had achieved their independence from European domination – it made a huge difference to be able to relax and to not have to explain the context to doubting co-conversationalists, as was usually the case with English students! People from former colonies often had a far greater understanding of the context of Wales than I did! But then, they had the benefit of perspective, plus a generous dollop of education in deconstructing the process of colonisation, which just doesn’t happen very much in Wales, even amongst the majority of those who consider themselves to be nationalists. I’m so grateful to those people, as they helped me understand the position of Wales. They had a fundamental understanding of the apparent national/international dichotomy; that they are not antipathetic, but but different aspects of the same thing. English people, by and large, struggle to understand that, and imperialists don’t get it all.