WalesOnline – Jac o' the North

Cwmparc: Gates & Guards; Answers & Questions

Jac — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 08:00:03 +0000

This is another ‘quickie’. It began life last week when someone made me aware of what’s happening in Cwmparc, Treorchy, a community in the Rhondda Fawr. In a nutshell . . . the new owner of a substantial property at the end of a terrace had put up heavy gates, denying locals access to the …

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Turks To Sosban?

Jac — Wed, 31 May 2023 10:30:03 +0000

I hadn’t planned on writing this, but you know how it is, you learn of 300 ‘refugees’ coming to a place where you’ve sunk a few pints, and then you discover a previously unknown publishing empire in the same town . . . well, it becomes difficult to turn down the opportunity. Maybe I should …

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Baghdad to Pendine?

Jac — Mon, 07 Sep 2020 08:00:40 +0000

PLEASE APPRECIATE THAT I GET SENT MORE INFORMATION AND LEADS THAN I CAN USE. I TRY TO RESPOND TO EVERYONE WHO CONTACTS ME BUT I CANNOT POSSIBLY USE EVERY BIT OF INFORMATION I’M SENT. DIOLCH YN FAWR ♦ This week’s posting began life as a round-up of four separate stories, but one of them grew …

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Justice for Jenny Lee Clarke

Jac — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 08:30:20 +0000

I am grateful for the co-operation of Ms Clarke in the writing of this article A long and completely unnecessary ordeal came to an end yesterday at Cardiff Crown Court for Jenny Lee Clarke, who had been accused of theft by Swansea East Labour MP Carolyn Harris. I have reported on this case more than …

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Devolution as Prozac

Jac — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 14:55:46 +0000

But first . . . A LESSON FROM HISTORY Following victories over the Persians at Salamis (480 BC) and Plataea (479 BC), and with mainland Greece liberated, the Spartans withdrew from their leadership of the wartime alliance. Athens seized the opportunity and in 478 BC created the Delian League. Athenian greed and heavy-handedness soon made the …

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Lying for the Union

Jac — Thu, 25 May 2017 20:00:45 +0000

TURF WARS When the SNP began rising to prominence in Scottish politics a very strange thing happened – Labour and Tories realised they quite liked each other really, to the extent of forming coalition administrations on some local authorities just to keep the SNP (majority party) out of power. It’s still happening. Following the council …

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‘Welsh’ Labour In All Its Ugliness

Jac — Sat, 08 Apr 2017 15:00:38 +0000

A few days ago I got an anonymous message telling me about someone, or a group, seeking to raise money to ‘Save English Language Education in Wales’. Here’s the link to the relevant CrowdJustice site. I doubt if those behind this are susceptible to embarrassment, but just in case, and it’s been taken down, here’s …

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Circuit of Wales Revisited

Jac — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 22:18:26 +0000

When I first heard of the Circuit of Wales project back in the early part of 2013 I was somewhat sceptical of its chances of success, and the reasons for my scepticism were set out in Vroom, Vroom – The Next Gravy Train? Despite being doubtful that the project would ever materialise I was (in …

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Playground Wales

Jac — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 20:46:14 +0000

Oh, the joy! the euphoria! Didn’t you feel the surge of national pride, the collective Cymric breast heaving, positively heaving, at the joyous news? – Lonely Planet declares ‘North’ Wales to be the bestest al fresco fun fair around. Well, obviously, it didn’t use those words (© Jac o’ the North), but that’s what it amounted …

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Where Is Franz Kafka When You Need Him?

Jac — Sun, 01 Mar 2015 23:12:44 +0000

As regular readers will know, I have been having problems from the Wales Eye blog and the Western Mail / Wales Online, they’ve been misrepresenting what they find in my blog and, when that isn’t enough, they’ve just told blatant lies. The story of my relationship with Wales Eye unfolds, chronologically, in the following posts: …

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