I have consistently argued that colonialism takes many forms. It’s not just England ripping off our natural resources, or using our homeland as a playground, there are a thousand and one less obvious ways in which Wales is exploited. Some of them are curious, even bizarre, while others are in ‘sensitive’ areas where we timid Welsh are often reluctant to raise our voices.
Last Thursday, I was sauntering along Tywyn High Street, nosing here and there, when a sign in the newsagent’s window caught my eye. I reproduce it here for you. I agree it’s not easy to read, due to the reflective qualities of glass combined with the professionalism of our local window cleaners. Even so, you should be able to read that a fund-raising event was organised locally by North West Cancer Research . . . north west England, that is.
I got home and tweeted Cancer Research Wales. Today, after the Bank Holiday, I received a reply, and a short exchange of tweets followed. (Just work your way down, and click to enlarge.) The final, unanswered tweet, was me asking Cancer Research Wales if they will be asking for the money collected last Saturday in Tywyn.
This fund-raiser was not a one-off, I have seen similar posters before, and as this one tells us, North West Cancer Research has a Tywyn & District Committee, which suggests regular fund-raising events.
Now a Britlander reading what I have written thus far would perhaps say, ‘Oh, do come on, don’t be so petty. Does it really matter where it goes – it’s all for the same cause!’. A response that would doubtless silence many Welsh people, while deliberately missing a number of points.
First, Tywyn is on the Cardigan Bay coastline, some 86 miles from Liverpool, so it’s reasonable to assume that if there is a fund-raising group for North West Cancer Research in Tywyn then there will be others as we get closer to Liverpool, especially along the north coast.
Unsurprisingly, there is a committee in Mold, covering Flintshire. There is also a Llanfairfechan, Aber and Bangor Committee for Gwynedd and Conwy, and even a Machynlleth Committee to cover Powys. Though, remarkably, for an organisation serving north west England, there seems to be no fund-raising group in Liverpool, where it’s based, or Manchester!
In fact, North West (England) Cancer Research has more fund-raising groups in Wales than in England! Which makes me wonder just how viable North West Cancer Research would be without the money it gets from northern and central Wales.
The North West Cancer Research website tells us that it funds cancer research “at the University of Liverpool, Bangor University and Lancaster University”. So that explains it – the money collected in Tywyn, and Machynlleth, Mold and Llanfairfechan, goes to Bangor university! Well, no, it actually goes to Liverpool, where it is doled out to those three universities.
But wait, Bangor University (despite what many involved with that institution may believe) is in Wales, and we have our own Cancer Research Wales, so why is Bangor University tied up with the Cancer Research group in Liverpool?
You may be thinking the answer is that people from the Machynlleth and Tywyn areas go to Bangor or Liverpool hospitals for cancer treatment. They don’t, everyone I’ve known in the Tywyn area who has needed treatment for cancer has gone to a hospital in the south . . . yet their donations go to Liverpool!
So the question remains: Why is money being collected in Tywyn and elsewhere in Wales for North West Cancer Research when people from those areas go to hospitals in southern Wales for cancer treatment?
But even if people from Machynlleth and Tywyn were going to Liverpool or Bangor for cancer treatment that still wouldn’t justify collections in Wales for North West Cancer Research. Bangor is in Wales and cancer research at the local university should be funded by money collected in every part of Wales by Cancer Research Wales. Any treatment received by Welsh patients in Liverpool could be handled by the usual cross-border arrangements.
Let’s be blunt about this. The Tywyn and District Committee of North West Cancer Research is a hangover from the pre-devolution days of ‘Merseyside and North Wales’. So we can’t criticise old dears in Tywyn or Machynlleth raising money for a good cause, the fault lies with a system that, seventeen years into devolution, still carves Wales up and attaches our dismembered parts to nearby regions of England.
The blame for the persistence of this colonialist hangover lies with our politicians and our civil servants, with those who run our higher education and our health authorities, many of whom are alien and most of whom operate within an Englandandwales mindset.
But then there’s Cancer Research Wales, why does it pretend it’s a national body when it only operates in the south? Has it surrendered all the territory north of Aberystwyth?
While writing this piece connected questions kept arising. For example, I’ve given money to Cancer Research at local funerals (I’m sure you have), now I’m wondering where that money ended up. And if this situation persists in one charity, how many other charities are there collecting money in Wales and sending it to England? But this problem is not restricted to charities.
There are countless other ways in which money leaves Wales. One I was told about last week will never appear in any economic survey or report, it’s just too off the wall. In the Tywyn area, and along this stretch of coast, are many caravan ‘parks’, ugly, depressing places that should be phased out. Anyway, many of the seasonal denizens of these places are now having their groceries and other supplies delivered from ASDA’s Shrewsbury store, 70 miles away!
In fact, ASDA vans from Shrewsbury are now a daily sight in the Tywyn area. It makes you wonder how much money the thousands of people who stay in local caravans really put into the local economy. I bet it’s a fraction of what we are told tourists contribute, but that’s a story for another day.
Like I say, colonialism – i.e. Wales subsidising England – comes in many forms. But you aren’t supposed to know about them. As a loyal little Britlander you are expected to hitch up your union jack underpants and swallow the ‘Wales couldn’t manage on her own’ line.
Thankfully, as Brexit and other recent examples of the expressed popular will have shown, fewer and fewer people believe what they’re told by politicians, mainstream media and ‘experts’. Wales needs more of such cynicism, more questioning of things as they are, if we are to bring about the changes this country needs.
Among those changes is a full range of national institutions serving the whole country; institutions that reflect our nationhood and respect the border. Cancer Research Wales reclaiming the ‘lost lands’, funding research at Bangor University, and becoming a genuinely national body, would be one place to start.
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“Hitherto, on both sides of the Atlantic, the agency of class has been in retreat in the face of the emergence of a new range of identities and issues from gender and race to sexual orientation and the environment”
Isn’t this also applicable to Plaid veering from it’s true purpose? ie a nationalist party. The Labour party is paying a price from abandoning their core supporters. With Clubb’s appointment in Plaid, I see which way they are continuing along. Is there a message here for them from both sides of the Atlantic?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/21/death-of-neoliberalism-crisis-in-western-politics?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Tweet
“Is there a message here for them from both sides of the Atlantic?” Definitely. A good article that.
Hello there, knowing the North West Cancer Research Charity very well and looking through their accounts it appears that the money going into research in Wales (Not hospital treatment) from this charity is usually twice as much than is received from Wales.
The charity also paid for the labs in Bangor to start up as well.
I would suggest sending this link to Bangor University asking to stop taking the money from the charity for research if you are so set in your ways about the ‘exploitation’.
Does nothing to change the fact that Bangor is in Wales, and should be under the umbrella of Cancer Research Wales.
I’ve looked through the latest accounts available on the Charity Commission website and I can’t see any breakdown giving the geographical origin of the voluntary funding or its disposal. But I did turn this up, which I thought was worth reproducing, seeing as it refers to grants.
It tells us that Bangor is in the “North West”. And I would suggest that the second paragraph makes it clear where the emphasis for NWCR lies.
But this clip does mention the North West Cancer Research Institute at Bangor University (as you did) so I went to the website. It’s very basic, with one page referring to a degree course starting in September 2008! and the Publications page lists nothing after 2007!
Shall I be generous and assume that there’s another, more up to date website? If not, then it’s reasonable to ask if the North West Cancer Research Fund Institute at Bangor University is still functioning.
Either way, you’ve made a statement about where the money comes from and how it’s distributed. Tell us where you get that information and provide a link.
Colin Goodgroves. Anyone one know of this git. On Ynys Mon, White Settler, BNP?
All I know is that he calls himself a ‘British Nationalist’. He fell out with Nick Grffin and the BNP, of which he was a member.
I’m not surprised he’s turned up on Ynys Môn. Like Griffin he’s a ‘white flight’ racist arse-hole, that thinks he should head for this county of England to get away from those nasty ‘brownies’ & ‘blacks’.
But there again, we’re getting used to these “oddballs, social misfits & society drop-outs” invading our country.
Glass houses and stones Ioan
I can cope with oddballs etc who are native to this turf, but draw the line at importing some of England’s best just because they can’t hack it on their own patch and wish to transfer their weird culture onto someone else’s . Crap like BNP, NF, and even UKIP is now dotted all over Wales.
Some of those Eastern European migrants also have toxic ideas yet want to settle in Wales to become “better Englishmen” because they see the Anglo influences all over the place, so know no better, and the idlers down the Bay don’t see any point in trying to teach them different.
And what ‘glass houses’ & ‘stones’ would they be Anonymous? PLEASE – let us all know, don’t keep it to yourself with cryptic comments.
I fell out with the party that I was a vice president of, because they chose to hide behind their sofa and shit themselves when I made an official statement back in 2002 about “oddballs” etc. I stuck to my statement then, and I’m even more convinced now in 2016 of how right I was back then – more so in fact, because the situation and the cause of that situation is getting greater by the day.
Plaid have seen the consequences of not grasping the nettle then, and are now floundering under a pink socialist flag, half dead, no the walking dead. The support I received from genuine nationalist Plaid members then, was reflected in the way Simon Thomas MP lost the Ceredigion seat in the very next election.
I have never been part of a white flight because I hate anyone who hates people who just happen to have a different coloured skin. I’m certainly not a racist that hates the English – I actually married one, who supports my views 100%. What I DO hate is the effect that English colonialism is having on my country, my culture and my language, which is altogether a different thing.
Incidentally, don’t refer to me as “Ioan” – in that put down surname reference style used by the English. The name is Gwilym ab Ioan (William [son of] John). I don’t have a surname, it’s a Welsh patronymic name that neither uses a surname nor a title. Forenames and surnames was a system that was foisted on us by the English after the Act of Union in the sixteenth century. So do yourself a favour and stop parading your gross ignorance.
Now either apologise for your snide remark or fuck off, before you get barred by Jac for coming on here squirting your crap.
Thank you Gwilym
Wales’ only nationalist party were in my opinion correct to do what they they did, whilst I don’t support Welsh nationalism I can understand it, however I don’t support the demonisation of other British people moving around their own country and moving to Wales although there is a problem with the movement of social underclasses but your arguments are all based on them being English.
My problem with keyboard warriors from Abergynolwyn and Aberaeron is their lack of grasp in reality, being a hard line nationalist is one thing but then going on to spit such venom at English people calling them ‘bigots’ whilst responding in the most bigoted language imaginable is beyond the pale..
Your view of Wales is not the definitive view its an opinion, the view from my town in Wrexham couldn’t be more different, I’ve never seen anybody spell it as Wrecsam which sums up our differences.
If you’ve never seen ‘Wrecsam’ spelt then you’re wilfully blind. It appears on road signs, buses, council literature and a host of other places. Do you really live in Wrecsam? Anyway, your answer won’t be published because this is your last comment on my blog unless you identify yourself.
The border of England has been fixed since 1542. Wales probably has one of the oldest frontiers in Europe even if does not exist in the eyes some Labour MPs and overpaid county council executives.
IIRC what happened at that date is that Wales was finally incorporated into the English kingdom and legal system. To achieve this two new court circuits were established, for N and S Wales respectively. However, purely as a matter of convenience, Gwent/Monmouthshire was incorporated into one of the pre-existing English circuits, hence the continuing confusion until quite recently as to whether this territory was really Welsh or English.
Jac, I agree with regard to North West Cancer.
I notice a lot of Asda vans in Tywyn and Llwyngwril. One was blocking the narrow road in Arthog the other day & creating a tailback.
But, there are 10 Asdas stores closer to Tywyn than Shrewsbury.
My guess is that they are coming from the nearest Asda, which is in Pwllheli.
The Shrewsbury store is much bigger than the one in Pwllheli, so it’ll carry a bigger stock and be easier to re-stock as it’s bound to be closer to the ASDA depot. The other stores you mention are on the north coast and in Wrecsam, so the difference in miles is minimal, with the better road probably coming from the biggest ‘local’ ASDA store, in Shrewsbury. But anyway. I’m just going by what I’ve been told. Though I can’t categorically say you’re wrong. Maybe deliveries to this area come from both Shrewsbury and Pwllheli?
Off topic but more evidence of how we willingly suck up all the “trendy, fashionable, in-vogue” output from the environmental thoughts machine. Plaid have gone further into this lobby announcing the appointment of Mr Clubb , capo of FoE in Wales, or is that FoE Wales, or just FoE, as its new Chief Exec.
Now he’ll do a lot of good in further distancing Plaid from its original purpose but will ensure enthusiastic acceptance at the Bay’s salons where inclusive polite chatter often gravitates to subjects on the environmental spectrum. Trouble is no one ever raises the subject how to clear up so much undiluted bullshit that is spouted over us daily by the political clique in the Bay. Maybe Mr Clubb will have some insight on how to neutralise it, turning it into fuel which will shed light on real problems confronting our communities.
Another step for Plaid Cymru on the road from Wales to Whales. (Clubb is a marine biologist.)
At least all the sharks in Plaid are gummy so it’ll be safe for him to swim with them. Ho ho., but will his biology background help him dissect Plaid’s problems and will he recognise what he sees when its a big sticky mess of entrails all over his work bench ? Feeling sorry for the poor chap already.
Cancer – Welsh nationalism – Jac
Perfect fit
Give my regards to the 1870s.
I had Cancer research NW England collecting at my door a couple of weeks ago ( All scowsers.). I asked why were they here in Wales, this is not NW England. They told me that they had Welsh offices and the money would be kept in Wales. No mention of the Welsh cancer research organisation.
Knowing how cheeky they are, you can’t blame the English for trying. But what worries me is the attitude of Cancer Research Wales, they seem to have agreed to the carve-up of Wales. Too many ‘Welsh’ organisations do the same. Wales is Wales, the whole territory of Wales.
It’s no secret why Wales is targeted – we’re a bunch of soft, easily fooled & trusting twats. That’s not my personal opinion – it’s official fact – according to CAF (Charities Aid Foundation).
Check it out HERE.
If a few more of us had the gumption to open our eyes we’d realise what a soft touch and gullible lot we really are – typically the likes of ‘sibrydionmawr’ who believes everything ‘official’ he reads or hears is the truth.
Little wonder the English hop over the border to fill their charity begging bowls. Who can blame them? It’s like taking sweets from a baby.
There are charity shops run by Cancer Research in Bangor, Colwyn Bay, Wrexham, and Newtown. These shops are eligible for 80% business rate relief. They are being subsidised by the relevant local authority. They do not contribute to the infrastructure costs of the towns or high street they trade in.
They don’t pay towards refuse and recycling, or maintaining roads, town centre policing, or other services. This is on the basis that their charitable activities benefit the local community. As the funds raised by Cancer Research in north and mid Wales is sent to England. It’s council taxpayers of these councils effectively sending cash over the border.
In 2013, the Welsh Government proposed that this business rate relief was reduced from 80% to 50%, but the proposal was defeated, mainly by a campaign waged by a number of charities, most prominent being Cancer Research. Now that Jac has exposed the real situation, perhaps the subject should be re-visited, and business rate relief removed from their shops in Wales.
The antics of the Charity “industry” have been a source of irritation for years, like a persistent buzz in the background. Sadly volunteers are so committed that they don’t see, or choose not to see, the excesses of their senior officers. Leave that for another day. However the overriding sense that they are “doing good” wipes out any awareness that they undermine any sense of local community.
Nothing wrong with sending money to Liverpool to have a smaller slice sent back to Bangor. Bit like UK shipping funds to Brussels and Wales being grateful for anything that comes back. And therein lies the dark side of charity – the dependency mindset, the sense of “oh, what will we do if the money stops ” when the answer is more basic – raise funds locally and invest them locally, and that lesson can be applied in so many aspects of life. Of course the giant corporations won’t approve of those kinds of life choices but we’ll get nowhere until we take back at least some of these powers.
I’m very cynical of ANY mainstream charity, especially when I read years ago that only a very small percentage of money donated goes to the good work. The rest is pocketed in between the collection tin and supposed recipients. A bit like Objective 1 money for the Valleys and West \Wales – most of it lands up in the pockets of organisers and ‘consultants’.
As for cancer research, do you honestly believe that the money collected goes into genuine research? Think again. Cancer CAN be cured, but stop and think where Big Pharma would recuperate the money they receive for ineffective chemo-therapy and other cancer managing drugs. When was the last time that you heard of the hybrid bloodlines (royalty) dying of cancer? A bit of a mystery that isn’t it?
Simply put, it’s a gigantic money making scam that relies on peoples’ fears of the disease. My sister currently suffers with lung cancer, but I won’t hand over a penny to put in the pockets of those who use cancer to siphon money from the poor, by providing false hope, in the guise of drugs and treatments that actually encourages tumour growths. An official cure for cancer is not exactly in the interests of those who make billions out of their poisons & potions. Also look at who has pumped billions into medical schools that train doctors to use these poisons. Carnegie & Rockefeller – that should set your alarm bells ringing!
The Truth About Cancer: A Global Quest – The True History of Chemo & The Pharmaceutical Monopoly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqJAzQe7_0g
So the next time you’re tempted to give away your dosh (in good faith) to a collection at the funeral of a good friend or a family member for cancer research – DON’T Jac. You will be the latest victim of a global pharmaceutical scam. If you don’t believe me just listen and watch the video I have provided a link to above.
Most charities believe they are doing good. I personally have been very wary of charities for a long time, as many have been set up to alleviate conditons that should not even exist in the first place. I have also stopped contribiting to many charities due to their complicity with the DWP in the use of the forced labour of benefit claimants. Whilst the amounts of money actually getting use for the purpose it was donated for can vary, and many may be sceptical about the amounts quoted, these things can be checked quite easily through the Charity Commission’s website, as all registered charities have to be seen to be transparent.
Whilst I realise that no-one completely convinced that we are all in the midst of a gigantic conspiracy, (to which only they are the only enilghtened ones) is likely to consider the Charity Commission as reliable, (indeed, ti will no doubt be claimed that they are a part of that very conspiracy) it is all we have. Okay, it means wading through submitted reports, which can be tedious. Thankfully, there is a much easier option.
http://www.aliveandgiving.com/Home.aspx
Granted, this is a website set up to make donating to charitable concerns easier, and does not free the sceptical individual from going away and doing their own research, it does at least allow for a quick check on how much of the donated money actually gets spent on the causes the charity was set up to help – though again, the caveat above for those who believe in huge conspiracies still applies.
There is a lot that is questionalble about Big Pharma, (mainly excessive profiteering) but I doubt there is any kind of conspiracy out there. It’s just too wide open an area, and to claim that the entire worldwide medical profession is covering for this conspiracy is just lunacy. What about those countries in the developing world that have called Big Pharma out on their drug pricing policies and either produced, or threatened to produce unlicenced copies of badly needed drugs? And even if the Big Pharma conspiracy did have any validity, it would only have that kind of validity in places like the USA, where healthcare is ‘for profit’. I don’t think for a moment that this is the case, and it’s asking a lot of people to believe that there is a conspiracy of silence on the part of the entire U.S. medical community. Doctors everywhere are committed to save life, and at the very least, ‘to do no harm’. Whilst there are inevitably going to be a few bad apples, (e.g. Josef Mengele, Harold Shipton) most doctors are out to help their patients as much as they can.
As far as royalty who died of cancer, Edward VIII died of throat cancer, and George VI, whilst dying ofa coronary thrombosis, also suffered with lung cancer, which in the early 1950s was pretty much a death sentence. Certainly royalty has much better healthcare than the bulk of the population, but that’s down to their wealth which means they don’t have to endure NHS waiting lists – it’d be much better for all of us if they did! So no real mystery. I don’t exactly know what you mean when you mention ‘hybrid bloodlines’ but I don’t like the connotations. If you are referring to them being of diverse ancestry, then the comment is meaningless, as we are all of diverse ancestry, stemming from those individuals who left the African continent some many thousands of years ago.
To cap it all, you then cite a really dodgy video produced by a fundamentalist Christian nutjob as ‘evidence’ that ‘proves’ that mainstream medicine is setting out to, if not kill us, at the very least to extract as much money from us as possible before we die.
In a previous response to one of my comments you suggested that I go out and do some research, (which I had actually done, I’m far from stupid, and am definitely not twp). I now suggest that you do similar, as if you had done some very cursory online research you would have discovered that TTAC Publishing is a bit of a dubious outfit – not only does the video ‘documentary’ start out in such a sensationalist manner that it immediately set alarm bells ringing in my mind, but a cursory look at the website should be enough to convince anyone that the guy in question, Ty Bollinger is a complete charlatan, more interested in parting the gullible from their cash than in promoting knowledge about the treatment and cure of cancer. Sadly, there will quite likely have been a number of desperate people who have died as a result of believing the clap-trap peddled by this man rather than have sought treatment from professionals who could possibly have cured them, or at the very least controlled the condition, or prolonged life.
The following links present the other side of the argument, and are reviews by people, not all experts in medical matters, but all in possession of a sound mind and well developed crap detectors. Conspiracy theorists will of course decry these commentators and reviewers are part of the conspiracy, but more rational folks would be advised to not only watch the dodgy video, but also to read the reviews, and then make their own mind up.
https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-truth-about-cancer-series-is-untruthful-about-cancer/
https://integrativeoncology-essentials.com/2015/11/alternative-medicine-gurus-are-misleading-cancer-patients/
http://web.randi.org/swift/-untruths-about-cancer-in-the-failed-quest-for-cures-part-1
http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/the_truth_about_cancer
https://hatepseudoscience.com/2014/03/07/ty-bollingers-canceruntruth/
And everything is hunky-dory in the garden is it ‘sibrydionmawr’?
I have no idea why you bristle up when confronted with facts that don’t fit in with your ‘zombie trance’ perceived view of the world. You are either blind or to quote your own words – particularly ‘twp’. It is evident that you do not question anything, and you certainly don’t read or listen to any evidence that you are confronted with. It is also obvious that you are either a) inherently lazy when it comes to research, or b) you are too hard headed to consider anything that does not fit in with your perceived view of our world. You also try to throw back at me that I need to do research, when in fact, it is blatantly obvious that it is YOU who has a problem with lack of research, choosing instead to go along with everything that you, and other malleable people like you, are led to believe. You really need to scratch a bit deeper and stop viewing everything at face value. You are perfect material for those who wish to deceive us.
You also need to read what is posted here a bit more carefully. Where did I say that charities are part of a conspiracy? I happen to be the chair of trustees for a local charity – the Aeron Vale Allotments Trust. We receive donations and raise funds for our local cause, whereby locals contribute and others in the community benefit – nothing wrong with that. However when you look at the large charities that work on a global scale, what you discover is that the concept of ‘charity’ has been hijacked and used to run what are basically huge businesses. Surely you have come across this phenomenon in the news over the recent years? I don’t need to take lessons from you on how to check up on charities, being a charity founder myself who has to work closely with the Charities Commission.
To blanket cover those who bring certain things into the spotlight, by calling them ‘nutjobs’ is a classic example of a closed mind. You are incredibly naive or stupid, possibly both. We see this kind of closed mind mentality many times in history, where the masses – due to their herding instincts and thought laziness will go along with the most absurd situations. You have to look no further than the fanatical support for the Third Reich in the Germany of the thirties and early forties. If more people had had the nous to question and not accept blindly that phenomenon would never have arisen in the first place.
It is obvious that you have chosen to make remarks about Ty Bollinger based on what others you’ve read (like yourself) have said about him. I would bet my house on the fact that you did not bother to watch more than a few minutes of the video link I provided. Had you watched it through, before galloping off to a preconceived judgement on the contents, without digesting it in it’s totality, then you would not have made a fool of yourself with some of the comments you made about Big Pharma, the training of the medical profession (influenced by Carnegie and Rockefeller), and the misuse of money that’s funnelled into Big Pharma, NOT only by the US (who has added vested interests based on private money greed) but also the NHS in this country. Try cutting your ‘research teeth’ on the amounts handed over each year by the NHS for drugs that are either unnecessary at best or that actually kill and maim people at worst. Whilst you’re at it check out the connections between IG Farben, Bayer, BASF and Hoechst with the Third Reich.
Interessengemeinschaft stands for “Association of Common Interests” and was nothing more than a powerful cartel of BASF, Bayer, Hoechst, and other German chemical and pharmaceutical companies. IG Farben was the single largest donor to the election campaign of Adolph Hitler. One year before Hitler seized power, IG Farben donated 400,000 marks to Hitler and his Nazi party. Accordingly, after Hitler’s seizure of power, IG Farben was the single largest profiteer of the attempted German conquest of the world, the Second World War.
Wake up and smell the coffee. Are you still convinced that Big Pharma have the interests of cancer sufferers foremost in their minds?
If you can’t be bothered to do the legwork, and then debate the issue sensibly you should keep quiet on the subjects raised – that you don’t have a clue about, because if you don’t, you will continue to make an arse of yourself.
Finally, in response to: “I don’t exactly know what you mean when you mention ‘hybrid bloodlines’ but I don’t like the connotations“. Well you wouldn’t would you? You immediately jump to the ‘general popular’ assumption that it has something to do with racism – quite predictable really, given your superficial and shallow view of accepted reality.
You probably won’t view it through, because you’re too steeped in your ingrained and brainwashed view of this world, but try anyway – so that you’ll know what I mean if I mention ‘hybrid royal bloodlines’ again.
Click HERE.
Didn’t take long for Godwin’s Law to be implemented did it? I’m well aware of the role of those big industrial concerns in the support and rise of Nazism in 1930s Germany, but as you probably know, but fail to mention, there were a lot of other factors at play that created the truly toxic situation that allowed the Nazis to first take power, and then consolidate that power through the instrument of referenda.
However, you’re here dealing in the currency of the usual shit that Brits sling at contemporary Germans. I have no doubts that all of these companies are indeed involved in a lot of questionable practices, they are not only capitalist concerns, but operating within a capitalist economic system, and economic system that I presume, you are fully in support of given your right-wing viewpoint. I don’t approve of the kind of behaviour you claim that these companies indulge in, but again, only unregulated capitalism would allow that kind of behaviour to continue, even if it should exist in the first place. There is no way in the world that such big organisations could keep that sort of operating practice a secret in the internet age.
As for making an arse of myself, I’m not sure that I have, and it is you that is continually making a bit of an arse of yourself by posting links to YouTube videos made by peddling an agenda, usually based on some kind of conspiracy theory. I did start to watch the David Icke video but it soon became apparent that he was on his lizard schtick, full of fruitcake theories about how world leaders are different, more reptile and other claptrap about the Illuminati. If that’s your idea of substantiating evidence then I think you need to get your head examined. If you think the kind of stuff you’re trying to foist on the rest of us is in any way reality, then you are truly delusional.
All the links I posted led to blogs and websites written by rational people, who, because they oppose your beliefs are immediately going to be dismissed as unenlightened gullible fools by you and your ilk.
I’m no expert, and neither are you. It would take a long time to be able to be in a position of being able to tell fact from fiction, or superstition, but unfortunately, to do that would mean that I would have to go through the very training that you claim is responsible for the present situation – which would immediately invalidate anything I said, in your view. It would be a no-win situation. In the absence of reliable personal knowledge, we have to trust that which rational professionals say about things, and I’d still far rather trust the world of trained physicians than the word of some God Squad nutjob who probably believes in the second coming and Armageddon too.
Come back when you can find some rationally based evidence for your claims, and not propaganda made by religious charlatans or delusional people.
Godwin’s law is the tendency of one party or the other in an exhausted debate to accuse the other of Nazism – that isn’t quite the situation in my response to you was it?
I merely pointed out that the pharma cartel led by IG Farben, was the largest contributor to the Third Reich’s war preparation. As you quite rightly say, there were many factors involved in the Nazi’s rise to power, BUT the one factor – accepted by all experts – that allowed the military build up and initial successes of Germany in the war, was IG Farben’s monetary contributions to the war effort and it’s technical expertise in the chemical industry to maintain that effort. They provided 100% of all explosives used by Germany in the war, and it was they that bought the patent for the pesticide Zyklon B, we all know how Zyklon B was used. It was the trade name of a cyanide-based pesticide invented in Germany in the early 1920s. It consisted of hydrogen cyanide (prussic acid), a cautionary eye irritant, and one of several adsorbents such as diatomaceous earth. The product is infamous for its use by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust to murder approximately one million people in gas chambers installed at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, and other extermination camps. Here’s the rub – during the planning of the occupation of Czechoslovakia and the invasion of Poland, IG Farben cooperated closely with Nazi officials and directed which chemical plants should be secured and delivered to IG Farben. It should also be noted that Sarin was first discovered by IG Farben.
In 1941, an investigation exposed a “marriage” cartel between John D. Rockefeller (notice how often that Zionist’s name crops up) and I.G. Farben.
The IG Farben Trial, was the sixth of the twelve trials for war crimes in the occupation zone in Germany (Nuremberg) after the end of World War II. Many of it’s directors were jailed.
In 1951, IG Farben was split into its four largest original constituent companies, which remain some of the world’s largest chemical and pharmaceutical companies. The current main successor companies are AGFA, BASF, Bayer and Sanofi. I could go on and on, but I won’t.
Do leopards change their spots? And you are naive enough to believe that today’s big pharma companies are those tender-hearted souls that lie awake at night pondering how they can cure cancer and rid the world of disease? When their chemo treatment preparations bring in BILLIONS into their coffers. Yeah sure, they along with the cancer charities are REALLY keen to see a proper cancer cure appear for the masses. You are naive, gullible and hard headed ‘sibrydionmawr’. WAKE UP man!
There is no point in “casting pearls before swine”. I won’t go over what I’ve already said to you in the past. By your reply posts you are obviously too stubborn to examine the evidence provided for you, choosing instead to jump to your programmed response, fed to you by the media and the establishment. There is no more to be said – “you can lead a horse to the water, but you can’t make him drink”.
Okay, so you read the Wikipedia article about IG Farben. And thnks for the lesson on Third Reich economics, something I already knew quite a lot about, having studied it at some depth at college level. You talk about those big conglomerates who funded the Nazi party, but what about the likes of Ford and other US industrialists? Sure it was, and is disgusting, but the point is that it’s now history, and I very much doubt those corporations are involved in
To return to the main point of the article, and your arguments about big pharma. Your argument is somewhat logically flawed. If indeed there are better cancer treatments that do not have the often debilitating potentially dangerous side effects don’t you think that big pharma would want to buy up these therapies in order to make a profit on them? As for the entire medical profession colluding in a ‘cover-up’ it has to be remembered that that they are humans too, (well, last time I looked, but who knows, perhaps you know better, and that they too are ‘hybrid bloodlines’) and themselves contract cancer, so they would be a natural body to campaign for less toxic forms of treatment, if such were both available and effective.
You accuse me of being naïve and gullible. Whilst I may at times show tendencies towards the former, I am far from being the latter; it’s not me who is the ‘true believer’ who swallows, hook, line and sinker the spiel of snake oil salesmen such as Ty Bollinger and the fantasies of sad, deluded individuals such as Icke, (who, if not that, is probably laughing all the way to the bank at how easy it is to dupe people. But as the great Barnum is supposed to have said, ‘There’s a sucker born every minute’).
You are right about me in one sense though, I am stubborn by nature, which is why I feel the need to challenge what I consider to be wrong headed assertions. It matters not a jot to me what you choose to believe, that is your right. I merely post a challenge to your views that point out to others that so often ‘evidence’ consists of internet sources that are far from reliable, or indeed sources that could be described as non-partisan.
Obviously I have an opinion diametrically opposed to yours on this subject, and post alternative links that call yours into question that makes it a little easier for people to learn that is isn’t all so cut and dried. Ultimately they would have to make their own minds up.
As far as waking up is concerned, please feel free to provide links to credible research into safe and effective alternative treatments to cancer. In the meantime, I leave you with this tragic account:
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2016/04/19/another-young-woman-with-cancer-lured-into-quackery-by-ty-bollinger/
I leave you at the water trough Mr. Ed.
I’m quite happy to post links to evidence, but there’s hardly any point, if I read & digest the links you post, but you are not reasonable enough to listen or view more than a few seconds of what I leave for you. It is evident that your remarks about Ty Bollinger are based wholly on the views of others. If you can’t be bothered to weigh up both sides of this debate by thorough examination of what Ty Bollinger has said, then you and I are both going to be wasting our time.
In closing, and I won’t be debating this subject further with you – as although it goes against the grain – I have to utter the old cliche – ‘we’ll have to agree to disagree’ and leave it there.
However for the sake of fairness, you can’ get away with your accusations about David Icke, because they are simply not true, as you can judge for yourself HERE.
I viewed that particular ‘evidence’ the last time you linked to it, and I’m still not convinced, but that should come as no surprise. ‘He would say that, wouldn’t he’. I would need to have access to a lot more reliable, independent evidence contrary to what I believe.
Wikipedia is a good place to start, and I did just that. I am often sceptical of Wikipedia, but the fact is it is a medium that anyone can sign up to and edit, should they disagree with an interpretation, or wish to challenge an author’s standpoint, or to merely correct a falsehood, or challenge a fact. Therefore there is a highly likely that at least the facts are correct, even if the interpretation is disputed.
By any account, Icke is a wealthy man, his booksales in the English language alone would make him so, as he self-publishes, (because no reputable publisher would?) and therefore cuts out an expensive middle-man.
I’m sure there are thousands of ‘true believers’ who will accept his version of events, and whilst it may well be very true that he doesn’t spend much on himself in the way of an extravagant lifestyle, or flash cars, this does not mean that he doesn’t have the wealth to do just that.
There are also some quite worrying claims made about Icke’s belief system in the Wikipedia article, and I shall be following up on those, particularly his alleged associations with the far right, and his alleged anti-semitism. It’s also quite worrying he bases his beliefs at least partially on a document that has been known as being a forgery, ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’, which is particularly anti-semitic, and has been used as evidence of a ‘Jewish’ or ‘Zionist’ conspiracy since it was first published in the early part of the 20th Century. The only conspiracy was that by the original authors, and the many who have subsequently used it as a basis to peddle an agenda that has some pretty murky undertones. Admittedly the ‘Zionist’ state of Israel has quite a lot to answer for, but so has any other state, and if there was one, a Welsh state would be in that category too. Much, if not most anti-Zionism is a convenient euphemism for anti-Semitism.
I’m not for a moment suggesting that you subscribe to anything anti-Semitic personally, as you take pains to distance yourself from that kind of stuff, but that increasingly leaves me wondering about your constant defence, and apparent allegiance to individuals such as Icke.
As far as Ty Bollinger is concerned, nothing so far has convinced me that he is anything other than a very dangerous charlatan who preys on the gullible during the week, and to God on Sundays, much like many of the religious charlatans that infested Wales in past times. The more I read, the more I am convinced that it’s only a matter of time before he finds himself behind bars after someone calls him out over his quackery. Were that he was running his website in the UK he would quite possibly find himself subject to prosecution under the Cancer Act of 1939. The only people who have anything positive to say about him are true believers, and they aren’t going to be the most reliable of people, as they probably also believe the crap spouted by Icke.
In a way it’s quite paradoxical that you should be such a fan of Icke, given his peddling of a New Age belief system, in that you so often rail against those of that ilk who come to settle in Wales. What is it you call them? Oh yes, “English oddballs, social misfits and dropouts” *. Many of them also probably believe in some kind of conspiracy theory. I should perhaps explain here that I am very familiar with the New Age community that started to arrive in Wales from the mid 70s onwards, and increasing in volume in the further the 80s progressed, so I need no introduction. I no longer live in the Sir Gâr/Ceredigion area, and though I periodically consider moving back, (as I have extensive family connections there) I refrain from doing so as the area is now so Anglicised.
At least we agree on one thing, it is pointless to further discuss this subject, as we have both made our minds up – but I think we both knew this anyway.
*For information purposes, I do not quote you for any other reason than to illustrate my point. My personal opinion is that, whilst I don’t agree with their lifestyle, I don’t actually care about their presence in Wales, so long as they respect the genus loci, (which, paradoxically to many of their beliefs, doesn’t seem to stretch to both respecting that a different language is the main medium of discourse in their favoured settlement areas, and that they should learn it as quickly as possible, and use it)
Before completely stepping back from this debate about cancer treatment and charity involvement ‘sibrydionmawr’, I felt obliged to post this list of medical professionals who support and endorse Ty Bollinger’s work (many give interviews in the video I asked you to watch, but sadly, you couldn’t be bothered to watch it through to the end).
If you think it’s ‘made up’ I can also provide you with photographs and links to their individual web publications. Some are leading oncologists. ALL of them are working hard to expose the truth about the big pharma money making scam, that’s fuelled by an ill educated and ill informed army of doctors that prescribe ‘conventional’ drugs for cancer treatments and an industry that’s also fed by ill informed collectors of money in the name of well meaning charities.
Dr. Matthias Rath, M.D.
Dr. Josh Axe, D.N.M., D.C., C.N.S.
Dr. Russell Blaylock, M.D.
Dr. Joseph Mercola, D.O.
Dr. Jonathan V. Wright, M.D.
Dr. Véronique Desaulniers
Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski, M.D., Ph.D
Dr. Leigh Erin Connealy, M.D.
Dr. Patrick Quillin, PhD, RD, CNS
Dr. Roby Mitchell, M.D.
Dr. Francisco Contreras, M.D.
Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, D.O.
Dr. Edward F. Group III, DC, NP, DACBN, DCBCN, DABFM
Dr. Tullio Simoncini, M.D., Ph.D
Dr. Ben Johnson, M.D., N.M.D., D.O.
Dr. Joel Wallach, D.V.M., N.D.
Dr. Bita Badakhshan, M.D.
Dr. Boris Grinblat, M.D.
Dr. Elias Gutierrez, M.D.
Dr. Sunil Pai, M.D.
Dr. James Forsythe, M.D.
Dr. Robert Scott Bell
Dr. David Jockers
(the late) Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez, M.D.
Dr. Rashid Buttar
Dr. Linda Isaacs, M.D.
Dr. Keith Scott Mumby, M.D., PhD
Dr. Darrell Wolfe, Ac. PhD
Dr. Daniel Nuzum, D.O., N.M.D.
Dr. Murray “Buzz” Susser, M.D.
Dr. Tony Jimenez, M.D.
Dr. Irvin Sahni, M.D.
Dr. Robert Verkerk, Ph.D
Dr. Galina Migalko, M.D., N.M.D.
Dr. Bradford S. Weeks, M.D.
Dr. Patrick Vickers
Dr. Eric Zielinksi, D.C.
Dr. Gaston Cornu-Labat, M.D.
Dr. Gosia Kuszewski, N.D.
Dr. Henk Fransen, Ph.D
Dr. Hyla Cass, M.D.
Dr. Irina Kossovskaia, M.D., Ph.D, N.M.D.
Dr. Ivars Kalvins, Ph.D
Dr. John Consemulder
Dr. Jolly-Gabriel, Ph.D
Dr. Marcel Wolfe, W.L.Ed.
Dr. Martin Bales, L.Ac., D.A.O.M.
Dr. Peteris Alberts, M.D., Ph.D
Dr. Steven Klayman, D.C.
Dr. Subrata Chakravarty, Ph.D.
Dr. Suzanne Kim, M.D.
Dr. Terry Harmon, D.C.
Dr. Thomas Lokensgard, D.D.S., N.M.D.
Dr. Xavier Curiel, M.D.
Dr. Robert Gorter, M.D., Ph.D
Dr. Igor Smirnov, Ph.D
Dr. Raymond Hilu, M.D.
Dr. Howard Fisher, D.C.
Dr. Manuela Malaguti-Boyle, Ph.D, N.D.
Dr. Kaspars Losans, M.D.
Dr. Aleksandra Niedzwiecki, Ph.D
Dr. Garry F. Gordon, M.D., D.O.
Dr. Nalini Chilkov, L.Ac., O.M.D.
I hope you’re not going to be narrow minded enough to suggest that all the above are ‘bible thumping nutjobs’ as well.
Rest assured I shall check these out… Or at least a goodly proportion of them, and then write a response, which, as it will be at length, will not appear here, but on my own (very) occasional blog – I will put a link it here though.
However, I can state, after some cursory surfing, that it isn’t looking too good at the moment, as I’m finding that many of those listed are, variously, chiropractors, (and therefore not qualified to practice medicine) had their licences to practice revoked, or indeed pretty much nutjobs, (but not of the Bible thumping variety). It wouldn’t be so bad, but I’ve only so far randomly looked at four or five names on that list.
A final thought, that some of them appear to at least have some formal qualifications doesn’t mean that they don’t spout complete nonsense, as I’m sure you fully realise. I am very capable of doing just that too, as are you.
It’s also just struck me as a little strange that their qualifications have quite often been listed twice, as many of them have a prefix of ‘Dr’ to their names, and also the letters after their names, such as M.D. or Ph.D – making the ‘Dr’ superfluous, unless that somehow makes them doubly qualified of course?
I imagine by now the whole list has been invited to to a big ´do´ up at Ystrad Fflur, where for a not inconsiderable fee, they´ll to a man (or woman) swear out testimonials to the healing qualities of the holy wells, natural river water, rock chrystals, mystick mysts etc. ad nausium. Then they´ll need crash barriers to hold back the gull… err… ´faithful´. Should sort out the financial problems in no time. It´s a miracle!!
As usual, when all else fails resort to the tried and tested ‘ridicule’ tool.
A bit pathetic really – narrow minded, brain-washed, blind automatons. It is well documented, history has always embarrassed such ones when the masses wake up to the reality.
If we still lived in the 6th century BC you’d also be ridiculing the theory that the world is round!
GOD! Blind stubborn ignorance – it winds me up so much . . . .
Heck, should draw the White Settler population from miles around! 😛
@ BigGee
Believe me I know these kinds of people, the ´victims´ that is, I´m not saying that a good few of the ´gurus´ aren´t out and out con artists.
But for the rest, very sadly many are pleasant, kind and often very intelligent folk. That´s all part of the tragedy really. I remember one lady who´d spent years of her life and God knows how much cash to acquire some mickey-mouse ´qualifications´ in one of these quackeries. She then of course must go off and (no doubt in perfect good faith) peddle her wares to others. So it´s all a bit like a pyramid scheme (ponzi scheme).
What´s at the root of this is many folk distrust ¨the Establishment¨ whether that´s politicians or the Royal College of this or that. Can you blame them?
Speaking of religion, someone said that when people lose faith in the established churches they don´t believe in nothing … instead they´ll believe in anything. And that´s clearly just as true for medicine.
Sorry Jac, this isn’t a double post, or attempt to spam, I posted and noticed a glaring omission that changed what I wanted to say!
Isn’t Morris Dancing as alien to Wales as ballet Jac? A moot point, but ballet is at least international, whilst Morris Dancing is a pastime practised by slightly wacky individuals in mostly English counties. The only manifestation in Wales seems to be the Nantgarw Tradition.
I would suggest that any ‘Morris Dancing’ anywhere else is a modern introduction of a false ‘tradition’ by the very people you are usually highly critical of. However, you only state that you are ‘more into Morris Dancing’ which doesn’t actually indicate a lot, especially if you’re not at all into ballet.
On the main point of your piece, I agree completely with you. There is far too little focus on Wales as a distinct unit and far too much focus on ideas like Wales not being able to manage on it’s own. You mention this charity, and also Asda deliveries from as far away as Shrewsbury. Even deliveries from Asda stores within Wales wouldn’t actually bring much direct benefit to Wales and Welsh people, other than the minimum wage paid to the workers – profits are syphoned off, not just to England, but to WalMart, based in Arkansas, USA.
Which brings us to the issue of taxation, as this is one crucial area of consideration when it comes to whether a country is financially viable or not. How many workers in Wales, working for UK-wide companies and organisations pay taxes through the head offices of those companies and organisations, head offices located in England? I’m sure the tax take from workers in Wales, but not credited to Wales is considerable, and would serve to undermine many of the arguments that Wales is not financially viable.
Of course, one could go much further and start to consider the amount of property in our city centres is owned by companies based outside of Wales, thus siphoning off vast sums in rent for the offices and retail premises which in turn siphon off the profits of their business to their headquarters based wherever in the world – all of which is a loss to Wales, and effectively means that the money spent by Welsh people doesn’t benefit the Welsh economy as much as it could.
First, let me clear up my remark about Morris Dancing. I was joking.
I agree about ASDA, I merely used it as a bizarre example of money leaving Wales. But if the deliveries came from a Welsh store they would at least sustain jobs in Wales, and although the profits would leave, much of the money paid in wages would be spent in Wales.
On the subject of property ownership, here’s an extract from a recent comment to a previous post: “The once vibrant community of Brynmill has been eroded – run down student lets – rubbish everywhere – Owners of student lets are mainly from England sucking the life-blood out of the community – stripping the area of affordable 3-bed roomed family homes – not even paying Council Tax or making sure the properties, which are left vacant for half the year, are maintained.”
But the ‘Welsh’ Government will do nothing in situations like this because to act in the Welsh national interest will mean disadvantaging many English people. That’s why devolution is a sham – because it cannot operate in the interests of Wales. So what is the point of having a ‘government’ if it cannot – or worse, refuses – to operate in the interests of those it supposedly serves?
I would vote tomorrow to abolish the Assembly.
nteresting comment about Asda. One of the joys of supermarket shopping is the ‘choice and variety’ on offer.
September brings in the season of Scottish fruits, naturally grown out-doors in their elongated summer daylight hours. These always taste better than the crap grown in polytunnels in southern England with artificial UV lighting to extend the ripening season. These superior fruits can usually be identified with the Scottish flag on the packaging. But no longer at Tesco, it seems..
http://www.scotsman.com/news/odd/tesco-removes-saltire-from-fruit-after-english-complaints-1-4210178
How long will it be before Tesco remove Y Ddriag Goch from Welsh lamb and cheese? I don’t believe for one moment there has been ‘complaints and confusion’ in England and the solution is to stamp everything with Union Jacks. It’s a cynical marketing attempt to increase sales since Brexit in the belief that all shoppers are little Britlanders now.
The ‘Union Jack on everything’, ‘Great British’ TV progs and the rest, became really noticeable soon after the SNP won the 2011 elections. This hysteria reached a crescendo in the build-up to the Scottish independence referendum, and might have been expected to die down once that vote was ‘won’.
Almost all Scots are nationalist to some degree, and if it’s perceived (or even suspected) that removing the saltire from Scottish produce has an adverse economic impact, then Tesco – and any others minded to follow Tesco’s lead – will find themselves locking horns with people who voted No in September 2014 but are definitely Scottish, and want their produce to carry the Scottish flag because they believe it to better than anything produced south of the border.
There have always been people in England who don’t know when, or how, to be gracious in victory. They have to rub it in. If these idiots only realised it, by removing the saltire from Scottish produce they are playing into the hands of the SNP.
Colonialism? Or simple pragmatic geography? Much of the Welsh border-line makes zero geographic sense. I´ve heard its location was often due to various stitch-up between different Anglo-Norman Lords. Tywyn is probably more accessible from Shewsbury than from any similar-sized place in Wales. In an independent Cymru, would you oppose/restrict cross-border trade?
I appreciate your POV, and in fact largely agree with it. But there´s a practical, pragmatic aspect too. Not everyone in Wales is a NAT, so to many the border is simply just another local government line-on-a-map, practically invisible. How many AM´s are NATs? Not an impressive number, unfortunately. How did Wales vote on Brexit? Pretty much just the same as England, in contrast to Scotland and NI.
Considering the above, and the likelihood of near-perpetual Tory rule at WM, how long can Wales hope to even retain it´s (limited) distinct status? I think it would be foolish to take it for granted now.
You are without doubt the most negative individual regularly visiting this blog. I really do wonder why you bother. Dealing with the subject matter, geography has fuck all to do with it, or even nationalism. If Wales is to be treated as a country, irrespective of her constitutional status, then bodies such as Cancer Research Wales should cover the whole of Wales, be re-labelled, or done away with.
Then there’s the issue of cancer research at Bangor University being funded with money raised in Wales that reaches Bangor via Liverpool. Does this make any sense? Of course not, it would make administrative sense, as well as answering Welsh pride, to cut out Liverpool.
The mistake you make is inferring that the almost invisible border somehow works in the interests of Wales. It doesn’t, and it never has. Look at towns like Chester, Shrewsbury and Hereford, they’ve grown prosperous over the centuries from dominating nearby areas of Wales. Had it not been for industrialisation and urban growth, southern Wales might be still be dominated by Gloucester.
I have previously argued for Wrecsam to be built up as the regional capital for central and northern Wales. Were that to be done, then I wouldn’t have to write posts like this. But the quislings down Cardiff docks, and those they employ, plan to fulfil the ancient colonialist ambition of dismembering Wales and parcelling her up. Which is why I must write posts like this.
Apart from the fact that the industrial side of Wrexham (nobody says Wrecsam) once wanted to become part of Shropshire.
You really do live in a toxic bubble sitting in front of your computer all day festering over your hatred of English people. Marconmatrix is quite right in what he says.
Get out a bit more see that the “border” is a meaningless line on a map and that Wales is integrated into England in a way Scotland and Ireland have never been yet Scotland rejected partition and Ireland is still divided on the issue.
“Partition”! What ‘bubble’ do you live in?
I would have thought that the “industrial side” of Wrecsam abutted Cheshire, but obviously you know better, so please provide a link to this attempted secession.
I’m sure I have a better grasp of day to day life around WREXHAM and the surrounding are than you
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Maelor
So the local squirearchy, in 1877, wanted to detach rural Maelor Saesneg and link it with Shropshire. Hardly a massive public mandate, and 140 years ago! You’re a desperate, anti-Welsh twat!
Jac give the bloke a break. I think there is a bit of Shropshire that sticks up under the Welsh bit that sticks into England, if you see what I mean. Google not well defined on this because it is a bit of no man’s land despite the wonders of modern communication, navigation, understanding of the stars etc
With that man’s unrivalled grasp of geography you know that you can’t argue with the sheer genius on display. I did once hear a whisper that there was a bunch of Morris dancers marauding through the border parishes promoting the idea of an independent “Greater Shropshire” with presidential palace at the Harper Adams College. They had visions of stretching to the west coast but ran out of ribbons just by Lower Wallop, so never reached the A483 where an even bigger Wallop would have been handed out !
You make my point for me because the border areas that spread a long way either side of the meaningless line on a map have a unique pride of their own
If your vision of Wales is the real Wales then call me “anti Welsh” but it is the editor of this blog and its regular contributors who are detached from reality not I.
don’t take yourself so bloody seriously, old boy. Your vision of reality is at odds with ours, indeed there are many visions floating around and there’s nowt wrong with that. However you come on here dismissing some of these visions as “detached from reality” is a tad disingenuous as our vision may become the next reality and you will either have to adjust your spectrum or accept your place “out there” in the unreal world. Times could be achangin’ boyo and that’s your problem, you can’t even face that prospect let alone the actual reality of some shift in any status quo.
Even that sad little quip below equating cancer with Welsh nationalism could be stomached coming from someone with serious wit and charm but coming from you all it prompts is further analogy with medical diagnosis, such as Anglo Brit supremacy = acute delusional schizophrenia.
We are “detached from reality” but all he can produce in support of his anti-Welsh bigotry is some vague discussion that took place in the 1870s between local big-wigs detached from the real world and its toiling masses. I’d tell him to get out more, but the twenty-first century might be too much of a culture shock.
So why don’t you fcuk off and stop reading it? And unless you have something genuine or interesting to to say stop trolling. It’s evident that’s what your game is given your childish attempt to rile others with your ‘WREXHAM’ taunt.
Can’t you take a hint?
no leave him on here, it’s quite entertaining watching a fully formed bigot frothing at the mouth. I just luv the stench of burning Anglo Brit supremacist especially when they immolate in the heat of their own bullshit.
Well, thanks for accepting my comment, even though I think you may have taken it the wrong way. If I do post something senseless, you would be fully within your rights to block it, it´s your blog after all.
Also I should probably apologise for Mr. Anon. here, no friend of mine I assure you.
Thinking about all of this it´s clear that Wales is essentially just an idea, not ´real´ (hold-on! just hold on a bit!). Geographically there´s a block of upland sticking out of the West of Britain, but there´s no obvious line limiting this region. It all comes down to history, and history could easily have been different.
Had the Saxons run out of steam a bit sooner, then the whole border region from Chester down through Shrewsbury and Hereford to Gloucester and Bristol even, might have ended up Welsh. That would make an interesting ´alternative history´. It would be a rather different Wales from the one we have now, perhaps a bit less melancholic? ¨Sefwch allan, vorynnyon a syllwch / Gyndylan werydre / Llys Benngwern neut tande / Gwae ieueinc a eidun botre …¨ would never needed to have been written, no one would have had to have witnessed their hometown reduced to a bonfire.
But then again, most of what´s now South Wales might just as easily have become part of England, with only the bits of North and Mid-Wales where the native rulers held out for so long surviving to constitute modern Wales: A poorer, more fragile, but far more Welsh Wales maybe?
So at the end of the day Wales is just an idea, many things are, like say, justice, mercy or apple pie. This doesn´t mean that they´re unimportant, in many ways they´re more important than many material things. But being ideas, concepts, they only exist as long as people believe in them and ´infect´ others with them. Apple pie, just like the Welsh language, will only exist as long as there are people who know and use the recipe; apple pies don´t grow naturally on trees, and neither do Welsh speaker, or people who are aware that Wales is a nation.
The Language and the chapels and a few other ´unofficial´ institutions kept Wales in existence for as long as it was largely isolated from England. As communications improve, and globalisation progresses it becomes ever harder to sustain the ´faith´ in this identity. And of course most of England, and many people in Wales lack this feeling. To them Wales (other than as a lump of geography) is invisible.
You got devolution and an assembly, probably just in the nick of time. But the assembly is way down there in Caerdydd, more remote from large parts of Wales than many English urban centres. (An outrageous idea — an extraterritoral HQ in Hereford or Shrewsbury might have worked better?) And on top of that Cardiff is it´s own little bubble, ´Welsh´ but in it´s own funny way.
But worst of all, the assembly doesn´t exactly seem to be full of people who want to stick up for Wales (rather than their own petty little privileges). Nor, alas, do most of the voters seem to be nationalist believers.
Now you must consider the following hard facts :
1. Scotland will be leaving the UK, it´s only a question of when and how;
2. Labour in Wales is the main political ´force´, but is essentially just a branch office of UK Labour, and staunchly unionist;
3. The Tories are planning to redraw all the WM constituency boundaries to their own advantage.
4. The assembly might then be abolished ¨to save money¨, and given the geography, Wales would then be cut up and apportioned out to the adjacent parts of England.
So the survival of Wales is in the balance. It´s very fragile and the assembly only disguises the fact.
So what are you going to do about it?
You’re right about Wales the idea, and her survival being due largely to isolation from England. You might have added that the unproductive uplands were unattractive to the English, otherwise Wales might have ceased to exist centuries ago; but now, with tourism, and people seeking alternative lifestyles, etc., Welsh identity is threatened in ways that medieval aggressors could only dream of. I know all this, you could be repeating me with much of what you say.
Wales, as a recognisably separate identity has a generation left in which to ‘realign’ itself to the twenty-first century and the current threats or it will cease to exist in any meaningful sense. This I also believe.
Most importantly, if we are to survive, then it will not be achieved from the starting point of today. As I wrote only yesterday in response to a comment, “I would vote tomorrow to abolish the Assembly”. I say that, because, on the one hand, devolution has achieved nothing for the nation. Yet on the other hand, for many it’s a placebo, the answer to all our problems, and this applies to Plaid Cymru’s hierarchy.
Devolution’s fundamental failing is that it cannot defend the national interest, because the parameters within which the Assembly must operate guarantee that it can do nothing for Wales that might disadvantage England, and it is virtually impossible to defend the Welsh national interest without harming the interests of England or large numbers of English people. This applies as much to issues such as water supplies as to limiting the numbers of holiday homes. Welsh devolution is a chicken coop designed by the fox.
Every administration, from the Russian Federation spread over eleven time zones to Cwmscwt Community Council, has as its primary duty to serve the best interests of those within its jurisdiction. The ‘Welsh’ Assembly is constructed and constrained to ensure that it cannot represent Welsh interests, therefore it is worse than useless, it is a lie, a deception practiced upon a nation.
For reasons I set out in my defence of Brexit, and have stated countless times elsewhere, I believe in the ‘sharp shock’ treatment to achieve results. I agree with Harry Lime that peace and brotherhood achieves fuck all. I was a young man in the 1960s and I know from personal experience that Tryweryn achieved more in a few years than Plaid Cymru had in forty years. Then there was Aberfan, the Investiture, the bombs, the protests . . . We knew who the enemy was and we knew what we wanted. The world was black and white.
Now everything is muddied. I want to return to clear thinking and I believe this can be achieved by what you see as a threat, but I view as a golden opportunity: “The assembly might then be abolished ¨to save money¨, and given the geography, Wales would then be cut up and apportioned out to the adjacent parts of England.”
Realising that devolution was a chimera, the choice facing my people becomes stark: either independence or incorporation.
I don’t know why I’ve wasted so much time on you, you come here asking the same fucking questions all the time, spouting the same negativity. Unless you have something new to contribute, just stay away.
So first you agree with me (thank you!) then you accuse me of having no alternative, no plan to save Wales. But where´s yours? If I were hopelessly lost somewhere in the middle of Wales and stopped and asked you the way to Llanbed, would you reply, like the joke Irishman, ¨If I was going to Llanbed, I wouldn´t be starting from here¨. That´s no help at all is it? However regrettable, Wales is where it is. The most you can do with the past is to try to analyse why and how things went wrong. How a vibrant movement ran out of steam. Were its leaders co-opted? Or did they just burn out? Was its vision wrong? Too broad, or too narrow? Or more likely the methods? You are where you are and must somehow find a way to move on from there.
You do have the Assembly, and for all its limitations it does define Wales as a territory wherein certain rules apply, certain bodies have administrative power, etc. It binds all of Wales together and separates it from England. So surely that´s a start. Take it away and you´re still up the creek but you´ve just thrown away your paddle.
The same goes I imagine for Plaid. It´s really all you´ve got. The thing is it exists and people know about it. That gives it a certain minimal credibility that it would take years to build for any new party — years you may not have.
You, Wales as a whole that is, have been fobbed off with a bit of token devo-min, but however pathetic that may seem it´s still an advance on what came before. The trick is to use what you have as leverage to get more. To create forward momentum. Why for example do so many in Wales still vote Labour? Scotland, and who could have been more hard-core Labour in the past than Scotland, has pretty well shown them the door. Forgive my frustration, but what´s wrong with the bloody Welsh?
Before you accuse me of being negative, will you or your friends here, please explain your way forward.
Something else I have said more than once is that Plaid Cymru was ‘compromised’ in the 1980s, it now fills the space that should be taken up by a national party, without fulfilling the role. I recently described it as a dog in a manger party. Any fear of success – as under Dafydd Wigley – and certain forces will swing into action to put Plaid back in its box.
As for why Plaid Cymru can’t repeat what the SNP achieved, that’s because too many in Plaid Cymru see the Labour Party as the natural ally, rather than the enemy. Remember Leanne Wood’s initial response to Brexit – ‘Oh, dear, dear, let’s have an Assembly coalition with Labour’. That’s the Plaid Cymru mindset – compromised not to succeed itself but programmed to regard coalition with Labour as some kind of victory. Do you remember what happened in 2007 when Plaid had the chance to lead an anti-Labour ‘rainbow alliance’? Yes, admittedly, there was opposition from within the Lib Dems, but fundamentally, there were too many in the upper echelons of Plaid Cymru horrified by the thought of working against ‘Big Brother’ Labour.
The problem is socialism. Plaid Cymru is a socialist party, and anybody who thinks that Wales needs more socialism should have Kapital stuffed up their arse without the prior application of any lubricant. As recent votes have shown, the Valleys aren’t socialist, but I always knew that. People from Ebbw Vale to Llanelli have voted Labour for decades out of self-interest, nothing more.
As you rightly observe, Wales is drifting towards oblivion. Yet we are expected to believe that things will work out in the end because we have a ‘placebo’ Assembly and a ‘compromised’ Plaid Cymru.
This alone should explain why I am a firm advocate of the ‘kick in the nuts’ that might be occasioned by your scenario of the UK government doing away with the Assembly and dismembering Wales. This could be the focus needed, Tryweryn of the twenty-first century, for it would undoubtedly provoke a backlash. The big question is, how big would that backlash be, and where would it come from?
Abolition of the Assembly would leave Plaid Cymru weeping and wailing (but impotent), a Labour Party split (in more ways than one), A Tory party also split, UKIP still doing its ferrets-in-a-sack impersonation, and the Lib Dems hopefully dead and buried.
An angered and confused people coupled with a discredited political system provides the perfect conditions for the creation of new, non-socialist movement that would be unashamedly nationalist. I would do whatever I could to help create such a movement.
Now I’m getting a little tired of your vexatious questions. I’m sick and tired of repeating myself. And more than a little worried by your ‘What are your plans?’ questions. Are you working for somebody?
Hmm..whether it’s Marconatrix or the various ones called Anonymous, it would seem that a negative perspective, is intentionally being promoted to undermine a sense of Wales as a strong, separate Nation. Now why would those writing in to this blog with this perspective, waste their energy, if they already think that all is lost for Wales. The answer of course, is that it certainly isn’t lost and so there is still, a concerted effort being made to undermine any ideas of Independence and sense of National identity, which is happening on many levels.
Who feels uncomfortable about the Welsh having a distinct National Identity, why is an aspiration for independence, labelled negatively, when it is seen as a right of most distinct Countries? The problem actually exists in the mindset of many of those educated in the English schooling system, who have never learnt to respect the historical and cultural distinctions, between Wales and England. I have experienced this at first hand and it explains a lot about the arrogance of many English people who go abroad. Like those who move to Wales, assuming they are just moving to another County and then experience a Culture shock, or what they assume is negativity from those who don’t appreciate their insensitivity and lack of respect for the Welsh language or Culture. Instead of trying to understand and respect these differences, the instinct is to undermine or pretend the Welsh don’t exist, after all Wales is certainly not represented and respected in the English Curriculum,.
No, I´m not working for anyone, rest assured (of course I would say that wouldn´t I?)
¨Abolition of the Assembly would leave Plaid Cymru weeping and wailing (but impotent), a Labour Party split (in more ways than one), A Tory party also split, UKIP still doing its ferrets-in-a-sack impersonation, and the Lib Dems hopefully dead and buried.¨
A leaderless nation without any focus, political or practical. Easy prey I´d say (alas!) All that would happen is a few nut jobs (the type with a shed full of molotovs saved up ready) would do something violent or mega-destructive, probably prompted by agent-provocateurs. This would have two effects. The ´average citizen´ (especially those who barely appreciate that Wales exists) would be outraged and on the whole back the authorities. There would be a crack down in which any potential leaders would be taken out, one way or another, or at least discredited and rendered ineffective. Your only ´hope´ in such a scenario would be if the authorities mis-calculated and grossly over-reacted. But then the ´best´ outcome would be a long costly and very messy civil war like we saw in NI. What a mess that would be? How many generations would it take to heal the scars, and what if anything would be left of Welsh culture, what kind of ´Welshness´ would remain?
In this regard do you know of the essay/speech ¨Y Gwir Rym¨ 1971, by Emyr Llywelyn (in the collection ¨Adfer a´r Fro Gymraeg¨) Still well worth a read I´d say.
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This is not the place to bring ´socialism´ into the argument, that really is something that can wait until ¨after the revolution¨. Bringing it up now is simply divisive. However I should point out that although it includes its conservative elements, the SNP is broadly left-wing and more socialist than otherwise. Yet it´s fairly knocked Labour into a cocked hat. As it happens I was reading this just a moment ago. (Just glance through it and sample some of the comments) :
http://wingsoverscotland.com/how-to-disrespect-the-electorate/
That Leanne should by your description be acting more like Kezia than Nicola is plain tragic. I would feel like taking her by the scruff of the neck like an errant puppy and giving her a damn good shake.
¨… see the Labour Party as the natural ally …¨ FFS, are you all so insular that you don´t follow events in the other devolved bit of this benighted kindom? If there is a lesson to be drawn it´s that Labour´s overbearing arrogance and colonial outlook can be turned against it out in the ´provinces´ where it´s clear that Labour dance to London´s tune, regardless of local needs.
It would appear you agree with me.
I suggest you get up to date regarding Saxons, there is no evidence they wiped out or chased people into the hills, there’s not much genetic evidence to suggest they even came here in great numbers but there’s plenty of evidence they came here to farm and brought with them better farming methods suited to land below 600 feet, of course they also brought with them a tongue that evolved into the most widely spoken language on the planet and which inevitably became the language of all the Britons.
Why is English the most widely spoken language on the planet, because of the endless wars, invasions and the total domination and suppression of other Cultures around the World, by the aggressive English speaking British (English) colonial empire, to the present aggressive American empire, bringing havoc in their wake. The “evolution” of the English language you mention, is nothing at all to be proud of and to this day, this English culture, is still referred to as, “WASP, White Anglo Saxons”, whether farmers, imperial warriors or self serving bankers!
They weren’t English they were British and included Welsh many Scots and even Irish so stop feeling sorry for yourself thinking you’re oppressed and brush up on history.
Whose history would that be then, your subjective, rose tinted view of Anglo Saxon History, no thanks! Perhaps you should “brush up” on how the “British” union was formed and then make an informed decision about whose British Empire it really was. I don’t feel “oppressed”, but you seem to be a very angry, patronizing chap, who is threatened by Welsh Nationalism, why is that then?
Oh and perhaps you should take up Morris dancing to help lighten you up a bit, over the border mind!
Not defending the British empire here I’m telling you it was led by a social class not the “English” Glyndwr would have been part of that social class, there just happened to be more upper class in England than anywhere else. Scotland had a disproportionately higher social class involved in empire than England but if you were an English, Welsh, Scottish or Irish peasant you would still be enlisted as cannon fodder.
A bizarre and utterly anachronistic view of history.
1. As a political reality, Britain was only invented in the reign of Queen Anne in the 18th century, some 300 years after the independent Welsh state of Owain, Prince of Wales.
2. The British Empire of which you are speaking was essentially constructed during the period 1750 to 1880 at the direction of a Westminster government resting on the support of a House of Commons that was dominated by MPs returned by English constituencies.
3. Wales did not even send MPs to the Westminster parliament until the mid-16th century, and the number of them has been an insignificant minority at all times since. No MP representing a Welsh constituency was part of a Westminster administration until Lloyd George in 1916 (with the sole exception of George Cornewall Lewis in the 1850s).
To speak of any association between the British Empire and Owain Glyndwr, the Welsh people or their elected representatives is pure fantasy.
‘Anonymous’ will not be contributing any more. That he should come here, naming and locating those he disagrees with while he himself remains nameless will no longer be tolerated.
Anonymous – “no evidence they wiped out or chased people into the hills”.
Despite all the subsequent revisionist theories, I find it hard to sidestep Gildas writing in the 6th century who clearly saw the Saxon advances as the aggression of a barbarian people from overseas under the leadership of the person he called “pater diabolus”.
Thanks Jac. Ballet Cymru might raise a few eyebrows as well.
That is a body I must confess I know nothing about, I was always more into Morris Dancing. Is there something I should know?
What won the Brexit vote was the propaganda of the billionaire owned London press and the the English billionaire funded campaign of lies and misinformation on everything from the NHS to immigration pumped out by Tory Westminster MPs.
How can you possibly claim that this shows that fewer and fewer people believe what they’re told by politicians, mainstream media and ‘experts’?
Stop focusing on the Sun and the Mail, more people are influenced by the BBC, and we all knew where the Beeb stood.