My son lives and works in Machynlleth, with his partner and their two young children in a small house they’re buying in a cul-de-sac. Last night his partner was parking their W Reg car when she had a slight coming together with the vehicle from the larger house next door, coming out of that property’s driveway.
The damage was slight, but words were exchanged and my son’s partner called the police. They turned up and calmed things down. This morning, the woman next door shouted at my son’s partner, “Time to put up the ‘For Sale’ sign. We’re gonna make your lives hell”. The neighbours were reported to their landlord, Powys County Council.
My son’s partner – who, in addition to bringing up two children under 5 works as a part-time carer – is Machynlleth born and bred. The neighbours moved in about five years ago, from somewhere in the English Midlands. These neighbours, neither of whom works, have seven (7) kids and they drive around in a 6.2 litre, 4 x 4, 15mpg, LHD Cadillac Escalade. Nice.
Now obviously, ‘benefit scroungers’ with 7 kids and a massive and very expensive to run American car would normally be meat and drink for the Daily Mail, but we know they’re not going to be interested in this one. If these people were Welsh, maybe. For as we know, the English media is very keen to run anti-Welsh stories at the moment.
Though our own ‘Welsh’ media is not blameless. Jason Mohammad did a phone-in on Radio ‘Wales’ this week about some young man badly beaten in Cardiff because, allegedly, he was English. The suggestion of an ethnic motive came from no one but the victim himself, who thought the attack might have been provoked by his English accent. Not much to go on, but of course that didn’t stop Radio West Anglia reporting it as Gospel. Though I wonder if ‘Jase’ would have been interested in a case of English on Welsh violence, even with hard evidence? No, he wouldn’t have touched it.
Inevitably, the English media – including the aforementioned Daily Mail – ran with this story about racist Welsh thugs attacking entirely innocent English people. But that’s what we expect. What I found really disturbing was that there was no appeal for moderation from either our political establishment or our police. I can only assume that both decided it was best to say nothing, and to let this smearing of a nation (and possibly influencing of judicial process) go unchallenged.
I wonder if any Welsh people living in England were verbally or physically abused as a result of this gutter press journalism? If they were, then we can guarantee that the Daily Mail would not have reported it. Worse, the ‘Welsh’ media would not have reported it either.
It has become clear of late that Wales and all things Welsh are under attack from all sides. It’s almost as if someone has declared open season on us. Part of this offensive is selective and prejudicial reporting by news media, both in England and in Wales. Another aspect is an attempt at redefining what Welshness means; thereby making anyone who steps beyond this definition an ‘extremist’. The sort of idiot who kicks shit out of someone because they have an English accent.
This brings me back to ‘Jase’ Mohammad and others, such as Wasting Mule columnist Caroline Hitt. (But there are plenty more.) For this group ‘Wales’ is defined by (and confined to) things like sport, tourism, showbiz, Cardiff. It is the dumbing down of any consideration of Welshness to the point where someone from Wales appearing on a ‘reality’ TV show becomes the most important thing happening in the country. No place here for history, traditions, culture, language, economics, politics, or the worsening poverty and increasing deprivation. In fact, no place for anything of real consequence. This is bread and circuses tailored for twenty-first century Wales.
All done to distract us from the colonisation, the exploitation, the calculated attacks on Welsh identity from all quarters. Those who should be defending us are part of the problem rather than part of the solution. While the English media can attack us head-on, what remains of the ‘Welsh’ media operates more subtly. It’s message is, ‘Oh, don’t get worked up over that (you’ll be an ‘extremist’) . . . ‘Look! Catherine Zeta Jones is home in Swansea’ . . . ‘George North’s injured’ . . . ‘There’s a new branch of Gobshite & Co opening in Cardiff’ . . . ‘Prince William lives on Anglesey’ . . . ‘Some twat said something stupid on Facebook’, etc., etc. Weaving a ‘curtain’ of trivia and superficiliality behind which to hide the uncomfortable truths of modern Wales.
I can’t predict the outcome of my son’s spat with his Cadillac-owning neighbour, but I guarantee the neighbour will be blameless of anything – he’s English, my son’s Welsh. No one will dare ask why these undesirables moved to Wales. Or why a Welsh local authority is housing them. Or why they are getting so much benefit they can afford to own a vehicle with three or four times the running costs of a normal car. There are people like my son’s neighbours all over Wales, their numbers increasing; but we mustn’t complain, it makes us ‘racist’.
Yet it’s not racist to relentlessly vilify, intimidate, exploit, traduce, atomise, ridicule, colonise a nation . . . and make it clear that we can expect even worse treatment if we stand up for ourselves! When a minority is treated like this it is often the precursor to something even uglier. So I say, ‘Fuck ’em!’ Enough is enough. Reject the stinking English system and its Welsh quislings. Fight it wherever you can. However you choose.
I agree ‘enough is enough’.
My 11 year grandson and his friends are suffering terribly at the moment because their school hase failed to deal with two ethnic pupils – who don’t even live in our community. Indeed, one of the ethnic pupils has to travel past 7 other primary schools to get to our village school.
This problem has been ongoing since last year when my 7 year grand daughter was asked for SEX by the 10 year old ethnic pupil. The school did nothing other than to ask a few questions and tick a few boxes. My grand daughter was so afraid; at her request she was moved to another local school and is now happy.
We have recently lodged a formal complaint of racial discrimination against the school. We took this action because our grandson and his friends were/are being persecuted by senior management because they are Welsh and white whilst the ethnic pupils are allowed to continue their reign of abuse because the school are afraid of repercussions from MEWN and the race relations board.
If standing up for our children is now to deemed racist – so be it. Bring it on.
You say you “have lodged a formal complaint of racial discrimination against the school”, please keep us updated.
Why the Welsh are being attacked? Because we’re an easy target. Expect a lot more from the Brit nats up to autumn 2014.
I totally agree with you,sadly it’s the dim witted Welsh sycophants/apologists who can’t be bothered to think about their oppressed nation unless theres a benefit on the end of it eg. A winning try against England,or male voice choir singing in Windsor Castle.Until we educate our people with the real history of Wales,long and rich in tradition,whose influence around the world by far punched above it’s own weight and which existed long before the english nation (whose own traditions are usurped from brythonic ones),only then will we find the backbone to stand up to the likes of the english establishment and crush the sycophancy that gnaws at our nation like a cancer.
Welcome back, Jac.
Re. violence towards the Welsh. A young man I know went to Cardiff for the National Eisteddfod a few years back, and was attacked by a gang of young teenagers as he, alone, left the Cardiff Students’ Union building in Park Place about 11 p.m. They had earlier threatened a group of Indian/Pakistani or similar people but there were too many of these for the youngsters to deal with.
When the young man (bleeding from a cut above his eye) reported to the police what had happened, they said that attacks like this had been very common during Eisteddfod week, as Cardiff extended its warm ‘welcome’ to visitors from ‘beyond the Pale’, namely the rest of Wales. Of course, no CCTV cameras were working in Park Place at the time, so nothiing further could be done to find the culprits. As far as I know, nothing reached the press about these attacks. How odd!
You hit the nail on the head (again) about the picture the Wasting Mule wishes to paint about Wales – sport, tourism, showbiz etc. The only time Carwyn Jones appears to come alive is when he talks about rugby; the same was true for Rhodri Morgan. S4C also plays along with this as its programme many a Saturday night is nothing but rugby, Jonathan, rugby, sports news, rugby, Jonathan (repeat)…
have to say jac i think your bang on the mark with that analysis……indeed it would be hard to conclude that the wave of anti-welsh news stories that have surfaced in the british and ‘welsh’ media’ in recent months could be anything but the results of a sustained and concerted campaign by forces opposed to every last vestige of welsh nationalism…….the britsh state has of course had centuries to develop the art of protecting its ‘interests’ and to learn how to hold on to its ‘colonies’….thankfully it has of course failed in those efforts in virtually every part of the globe…..now ireland is fast disappearing….and scoltand may soon join them in breaking free of westminister’s clutches….so yes it would appear that they are taking no chances as far as wales is concerned…..and getting their retaliation in early to use rugby parlance…….
on the point raised by our manchester based compatriot its interesting that whenever anyone makes a case for the welsh nation…and for the welsh people to exercise the same right as those of any other nation ie to manage their own affairs….the old chestnut of being anti-englsih crops up….i certainly am not remotely anti-englsih……after wales (obviously) england happens to be my favourite place on the earth and i wish the english nation and the english people nothing but good in the future…..and i look forward to our two nations enjoying very good relations and fruitful economic cooperation in the future……ive no time for the rotten and corrupt english ruling class of course….as exemplified by the revolting and decadent windsor’s or by the public school educated millionaires currently dismantling the welfare state …. but i know this is a feeling shared by many ordinary people in england too….
as for the poster leaving wales to escape alleged ‘small mindedness’ well i would like to point out to that poster that he has gone to the wrong place if he thinks he will find it in manchester….liverpool are playing man united this weekend and manchester will be full of deragatory comments about liverpool supporters and ‘scousers’….there wil doubtless even be disgraceful insinuations among some in manchester that liverpool supporters were somehow to blame for the appalling events at hillsbrough….a nauseating and baseless charge which to their shame some united supporters have been making about liverpool supporters for years of course……now that is ‘small mindedness’ by anyone’s definition……so i trust that poster will shortly be seeking pastures new again………
Funnily enough I have had a season ticket at Anfield for the last 15 years (and I live within a mile of Old Trafford!). So I know only too well about the Manchester anti-Scouse small mindedness. I don’t like that either. So we are agreed that one group being small minded about another is wrong, right?
This distrust of ‘the others’ and the paranoid antenna for anything anti-Welsh is destructive and doesn’t lead anywhere.
Btw, prediction for tomorrow, Utd 1 – Liverpool 1.
And I didn’t leave Tywyn to escape small minds (unfortunately you find those everywhere). I left for work and because I want to live in a city. So I’m not going anywhere!
Enjoy the blog even though I disagree with 90% of it.
I didn’t realise there were any indigenous Welsh people left in “Taawyn”!
So you had to go to England to find work? Ever wondered why that is? Possibly:
1. Too much competition from English immigrants for meagre jobs?
2. The manufactured decline of the Welsh economy?
or possible
3. You felt a need to be in a more central location at the heart of the thriving British Empire?
Try talking about anything Welsh up in Manchester and see how much change you get – I hear they’re incredibly unbiased and tolerant up there!
You’d have to some kind of idiot not to realise that the Mail and the Telegraph have some kind of anti-Welsh agenda going at the moment – probably spook inspired.
I’m not so sure about the Cardiff media, I doubt they have had an original idea in their tail chasing lives, just copying the big boys.
predictably the middle england mouthpiece and wales hating Daily hitler ran this gentleman’s totaly unfounded claims that he was attacked because he was englsih under the headline ‘engish man attacked by welsh thugs’…..you do wonder what the racial equality commission et al thought of this manifestly racist headline (not much clearly) because as you rightly point out jac it is ok for all and sundry to publicly abuse the welsh and the welsh language in a way that would simply not be tolerated were these attacks taking place on any other ethnic group…..and the fact that toadying elements within the so called welsh media are happy to join in these vitriolic anti-welsh attacks is all the more sickening…
but on the very serious point about someone being attacked because of their nationality there was of course a case where a welsh football supporter was killed outside wembley by an england football fan precisely because he was welsh..it happened in september 2011 and occured when one ian mytton of redditch visciously punched to death welsh fan michael dye……if the opposite had occured one can only imagine the hoo haa there would be…and not just in the wales hating xenophobic englsih media but from the so called ‘welsh medai’ too….though of course it is only ‘welsh’ in the sense that it is broadcast or sometimes printed in wales….as every important media outlet in wales is owned or controlled outside wales in england of course….but you are right to highlight the fact that wales does seem fair game at the moment…clearly all the mass of stories cropping up about the welsh language or alleged discrimination against englsih people in wales are not happening by accident….there is clearly a concerted effort on the part of someone somewhere to demonise both the welsh language and also any meaningful aspect of welsh identity …..
but thats why blog’s such as your are important jac..as while i dont always agree with what you say ..yours is at least a blog that is unashamedly on the side of wales and its people ……..and the fact that there was an explcit effort on the part of someone to recently take you out …figuratively speaking….shows how seriously the enemies of wales view your blog and the pro wales views it articulates…….
Leigh,
I believe that the present onslaught we Welsh are suffering is connected to the impending Scottish referendum. It is an attempt to intimidate us and secure Wales ahead of a possible Yes vote in 2014. This also explains the massive house-building schemes being pushed through all over Wales.
To lose one colony may be regarded as bad luck; to lose two would be seen globally as carelessness. England and her quisling allies are determined that if Scotland goes Wales is held firm.
After the Welsh fan was murdered by an English fan the English media took great delight blaming Welsh fans. First they started with fans from the north (Wrecsam I believe) then they worked their way down (to Aberystwyth) and then finally Swansea.
When it was finally revealed that it was actually one of theirs they didn’t focus as much on the story. Strange that.
Re the story of the young man who claimed he may have been attacked in Cardiff because of his English accent, I think the Daily Telegraph coverage was more invidious than the Daily Mail on this occasion.
Having repeated the claim the Telegraph reporter immediately produced the figures on hate crimes for England and Wales, as if the claim had been substantiated. It may turn out to be true but as yet it is unsubstantiated. Shoddy stuff from the Telegraph.
I watched Trainspotting again over Christmas. In the scene where they are in the Scottish mountains, I couldn’t help substituting being ‘Scottish’ with being ‘Welsh’:
TOMMY: Doesn’t it make you proud to be Scottish?
RENTON: I hate being Scottish. We’re the lowest of the fucking low, the scum of the earth, the most wretched, servile, miserable, pathetic trash that was ever shat into civilization. Some people hate the English, but I don’t. They’re just wankers. We, on the other hand, are colonized by wankers. We can’t even pick a decent culture to be colonized by. We are ruled by effete arseholes. It’s a shite state of affairs and all the fresh air in the world will not make any fucking difference.
No-one could say such a thing about being Welsh without being accussed of being extremist or racist.
There is no point in being Welsh any more – the WAG and their allies are determined to exterminate us – why not ally grants to what people have put into the system in taxes? Answer – because no-one would get any free housing in Wales plus free big tellies plus free heating plus Motability cruisers. Why does no politician speak about the Tibetinisation of Wales? Why are the Welsh a minority in their own nation?
I am Tywyn born and bred. I now live in Manchester. Anti-English small mindedness like yours is one of the very few things I don’t miss about home.
Hope your son’s problems get sorted.
Blwyddyn Newydd Dda.
Nice to get a balanced comment. Dismiss me as being anti-English and ignore the anti-Welshness all around us.
Amusing e-mail address – how long you had that?
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/Social media used in hunt for thug who attacked Welsh man for having ginger hair
When this Welshman had his jaw broken in Birmingham it was because he was ginger not because he was Welsh. Double standards……………….
1. http://www.walesonline.co.uk/…/social-media-used-in-hunt-for-thug-who-a...
4 days ago – A MAN had his jaw smashed in a vicious one punch attack because he … Social media used in hunt for thug who attacked Welsh man for having ginger hair … on a North Wales man outside a fast food outlet in Birmingham …