I had planned a fuller article before I take myself off for a few days, but what with grandchildren staying over the weekend, and the football season now underway, I’ve had less time available than I’d hoped, and so I offer instead this little piece in which I consider one of the absurdities of twentieth century Wales.
One of many absurdities of course.
♦
Let’s begin by establishing our parameters.
Most people on the left would argue that colonialism is an unequal relationship between European, Christian or white peoples on the one hand, and other races or cultures on the other, and that support for colonialism exposes a rightist – even racist – outlook. I say no; any relationship in which one country or people is ruled and exploited by another country or people qualifies as colonialism.
For this leftist interpretation often ignores white on white colonialism, and almost always ignores non-white on white colonialism, such as Turkish rule over large areas of Christian Europe from the sixteenth century up until the twentieth.
Cultural Marxism, that creature of the 1960s, is the leftist control of discourse and dialogue to the extent that certain subjects become taboo, certain words are forbidden, and freedom of expression is curtained to the advantage of the left. Often known as political correctness it is a form of censorship. It is dictatorial.
In normal circumstances, and for fairly obvious reasons, colonialism and cultural Marxism find themselves on opposing sides. Yet in Wales they are allies.
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That’s because Wales is ruled by England in the interests of England. Anyone who believes otherwise, anyone who thinks we have a devolved form of government acting in the interests of Wales, is a fool. Wales is poorer, less healthy, and our children less well educated, than before devolution. (If those don’t fit, then choose your own criteria.)
Devolution has been an unmitigated disaster for the Welsh people. And for the essential Welshness of Wales.
Instead of devolution we have a management system. Senior civil servants based in Wales receive policy and other directives from their bosses in London then, in their role as advisors or whatever to the self-styled ‘Welsh Government’, they ensure that these directives become policy initiatives and legislation.
This is made easier because most Welsh people vote for left of centre parties out of self-interest or misplaced patriotism, and these parties are more susceptible to influences from groups and organisations even further to the left that care less about Wales than, paradoxically perhaps, parties of the right which should be more supportive of colonialism.
This helps explain the dominance of cultural Marxism in Welsh public and political life. It is because it fills an ideological vacuum for a whole class of politicians with no ambition beyond getting elected and keeping ‘the other side’ out. And by so doing, by piggy-backing on an ideology-free political class, leftist activists and practitioners of cultural Marxism are able to dominate Welsh political discourse and facilitate colonialism.
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Colonialism in Wales is subtle. Apart from the obvious manifestations like dams and reservoirs, colonial exploitation is largely hidden from view.
Yet one of the more obvious shows of colonialism is demographic change. To the extent that it is now quite obvious that Wales, particularly the rural areas (and to some extent the post-industrial areas), are denied an economy that might retain the indigenous population and are instead served up a curious mix of ‘initiatives’ and ‘strategies’ designed solely to attract new residents from outside of Wales.
Take tourism, no longer confined to the rural and coastal areas but now being encouraged in areas like Merthyr and the Afan valley (behind Port Talbot). What virtually all tourism enterprises have in common is that they’re English-owned (but often Welsh funded), with the best jobs going to outsiders while locals pick up the scraps in the form of low wage and seasonal employment.
Tourism in Wales is blatantly colonialist, it rapes and prostitutes our homeland for the benefit of strangers, but the left stays silent.
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Then there is the housing market, both private and social. The private sector seeks to build tens of thousands of homes that we do not need and that most of us cannot afford – homes intended for English buyers. This moves us beyond colonialism to colonisation. Which is also what we find in the social housing sector, with housing associations funded with money given to Wales prioritising dysfunctional and often dangerous applicants from outside of Wales.
Again, the left stays silent. Or rather, the left applauds; for importing a problem family from Stoke, or an ex-con from Wolverhampton, shows how ‘caring’ and socialist we are.
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One of the causes taken up by cultural Marxism since the 1960s is environmentalism, and this brings me to the most recent, and perhaps the most blatant, form of colonialism we see in Wales today. Indeed, it may be unique to Wales.
I’m referring now to how – so we are told – Wales can save the planet through policies like the One Planet Development.
Which in practice means that in twentieth century Wales we see a return to the crude, almost apartheid, system of pre-Glyndŵr times in which legislators favour those seeking to colonise Wales while discriminating against the indigenous population. But this time it’s being done by a bunch of clowns calling itself the ‘Welsh Government’!
The fundamental idiocy of this policy is that the ‘Welsh’ Government justifies the One Planet nonsense, TAN 6 and other programmes on the grounds that they will reduce Wales’ carbon footprint. But by bringing people into Wales it can only increase Wales’ carbon footprint.
This time the left isn’t just applauding – it’s doing cartwheels!
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How do we explain the left in Wales either being silent or supportive when it comes to what is obviously colonialism and colonisation? In a word, because we have no indigenous left in Wales concerned with what’s best for Wales, one divorced from external considerations.
What we have instead is a BritNat-dominated left promoting cultural Marxism from which England and English people benefit, which in turn makes leftism and cultural Marxism in Wales colonialist and self-serving. And its influence is everywhere.
It permeates the political system, the third sector, higher education, and other important elements of Welsh life giving out the same message – ‘To oppose our interpretation of what’s right and what’s wrong; to challenge our application of cultural Marxism, our takeover of your country, makes you an ugly and backward racist’.
And Plaid Cymru has fallen for this! it now takes the side of such people against its own people! Or what were its own people. For Plaid Cymru under Leanne Wood now sees itself as part of something bigger and more important than Wales.
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The Anglo-centric or mid-Atlantic left in Wales not only serves its own interests but works against ours. To begin with, and quite obviously, those I’m discussing here do not want an independent Wales. But nor do they want a return to the status quo ante-devolution.
Because devolution serves them perfectly.
For a start, the left in Wales, both English and native, has no idea how to organise a wealth-generating economy, it is ideologically opposed to the capitalist system. Consequently, a system of sham devolution, with the left having a big say in how money handed down from London is disbursed by the ever-accommodating management team in Cardiff suits them perfectly.
Socialism has failed Wales because it sought to ameliorate the effects of capitalism, unwilling to accept that it was in fact confronting colonialism. This was due to socialists viewing Wales and the world through a British and Unionist prism.
This laid the foundations upon which the system we see today was built. A system that keeps Wales poor and underprivileged in order that parasites can demand an ever bigger slice of the cake so that they can help ‘poor Wales’.
The problem facing Wales today is obvious: an entrenched system of colonialism and discrimination reinforced in recent decades – and especially since the advent of devolution – by cultural Marxism and other leftist nonsense that allows parasites to thrive on and further weaken the malnourished body of Wales.
Let’s get rid of it all! Let’s sweep away colonialism and its supporting pillars of cultural Marxism. Let us build an independent and democratic Wales that serves the interests of our people.
♦ end ♦
A. Nutter. I agree that decent people don’t like oppression. The great problem occurs when those on the far left claim a monopoly on defining what is and is not oppression, who the oppressors are, and who the oppressed are. They use identity politics to horde power and stamp out free speech. To consolidate power on a vast scale your first and foremost group to subdue, is men. They can produce wealth with hard labour, have strength and intelligence, and have the potential to compete with the elites. That’s why no protection of mens rights has been normalised. The left hardly bats an eye as the education system demeans and fails boys, discriminates against men in job hiring, the workplace and in courts. Obvious inequalities of power and social destruction are played out in colonisation also. Again the left is silent. And if anyone wonders what mens rights has to do with Welsh nationalism, I believe that a healthy society that has true equality of opportunity, not of outcome would be in a much better position to fend off colonisation and would be better off regardless.
This is no coincidence, the far left only identifies oppressors when it is convenient for socio/economic reasons that benefits their own position and pockets. Hmmm, capitalists in Christian clothing. That is not real compassion at all. In fact it is worse than no compassion because it is pretending to have compassion while actively creating policy to ruin its opponents. It uses compassion as a Trojan horse. So when others come along and point all this out, the far left has to come down hard and call any criticism as extreme, even if it is from moderates with more compassion and better ideas than them. For example, Jordan Peterson, a respected academic has the same kind of accusations thrown at him, yet he is a moderate, so your assertion that only the far right is critical of cultural Marxism in its original form is a big mistake.
In America look at how the left are bending over backwards to defend this bigoted Harvard graduate.
https://spectator.org/the-socialism-debate/
I wonder if there are any sentiments expressed by this lovely piece of work that you would disagree with, o decent defender of the oppressed you.
I think anti nutter is from FarRightWatchWales ….I think they are Leftist English colonists who are attempting to block free speech and are against the independence movement (probably some Welsh Labour fifth coloumnits in there too!) Check out “more breaking news” at the end of my current post. Who could put the pole on the wrong end of the flag?…..certainly not Welsh folk – maybe some secret symbolism by the colonists?
Bobol bach! Auntie, is all this because you object to those who are concerned about Wales’s status as a colony using the term ‘cultural Marxist’ to describe the agenda of the Britnat deep state towards this country? I ask because I couldn’t make head nor tail of your last rant (dated 19/8/2018). You’ve made your point, it’s a valid one, now stop repeating yourself. This is a blog for discussing issues to do with Wales, not a debate about semantics.
Don’t pay too much attention to the Guardian; they are anti-Welsh, anti-any movement that wishes to protect and assert Wales’s autonomy and culture, and, as one of the biggest supporters of the status quo, are part of the problem. From a Welsh perspective, and in the outdated and irrelevant terms you persist in using, they are as right-wing as you can get. So is the BBC.
Have you anything to contribute as regards promoting the interests of Wales in the face of the car-crash that is the current constitutional and political set-up? If not, may I ask you politely to cae dy geg a mynd i chwarae efo dy yn y gornel?
Diolch.
Anyone slightly disappointed with Youtube? You may, as an alternative, like……..
https://www.real.video/
Taxpayer restoration – Lord Lloyd-Webber outraged!
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/08/18/anger-owner-asks-2m-historic-tower-restored-taxpayer-funding/
I see Mr Putin and Frau Merkel seem to be a bit chummy! It does make you think what NATO is all about these days?
https://www.rt.com/news/436255-merkel-putin-nord-stream-meeting/
Russia was colonised by the Communist Bolsheviks who caused incredible destruction to Russia and Europe.
Never give up on the destruction caused by colonists.
Russia kicked them out in the end and is on track to making Russia a Christian economic military powerhouse.
God bless Holy Russia!
God bless Mr Putin!
PS….. I see Mr Salvini is stopping the colonisation of Italy! Well done Mr Salvini the Italian people are proud of you. We wish you luck in getting early retirement for the Communist that has infiltrated the Vatican.
A. Nutter. You apparently acknowledge Marxism, yet there is no such thing as Cultural Marxism? Yet it is merely Marxist critical method applied to culture. A simple concept to digest I’d have thought. Oppressors and the oppressed identified within a social/cultural context. Would you not agree that there has been a long running trend of oppressors being identified? For example, white people oppressing other races, the patriarchy oppressing women, heterosexuals oppressing those of differing sexuality. Welsh colonisation, not so much.
You call anyone who looks at this, as ultra right wing, well that is quite simply the fallacy of association, and you have coupled it with the ad hominem attack of guilt by association. You seem to be very committed to this unwarranted smear. It is however you who is responsible for this forced labelling.
You mention you’re an egalitarian. How does colonisation/colonialism fit in with that?
Lee, he squares that circle quite easily – he considers some people more equal than others, classic self-declared “left” stuff , ” we know what’s best for you so shut up and wait in line for our benevolence”. Guys like Mao, Lenin and the Adolf gang wrote guide books on this sort of “leadership style”, sadly there are people to this day who lap it up.
Clumsy attempt to trip me up. The fact is that any decent person would be opposed to any kind of oppression, and would not need to use the dismissive term for this used by the extreme right. Whatever associations were originally with the Frankfurt School have been displaced now that the neo-nazis, the alt right and alt lite have hijacked the term. Would now anyone in the Welsh consciousness movement attempt to reclaim the term Brtish? I very much doubt they would, as it has become tainted by association with imperialism. It’s hardly a fallacy of association when only those representative of the right use the term. I am not going to attempt to defend Marxism, as I am not a Marxist, never have been, never will be. Perhaps this article will provide some enlightenment:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/19/cultural-marxism-a-uniting-theory-for-rightwingers-who-love-to-play-the-victim
As for ‘unwarranted smear’, it wasn’t me who used the term cultural marxism to attempt to smear the left, accusing it of all kinds of ills, and basically as the fundamental reason why Wales finds itself in the situation it is in. It wouldn’t be so bad if it were socialists who were responsible for the mess, and not the Labour Party, they are not synonymous. Anyone who thinks that the Labour Party is socialist is deluded indeed. As Tony Benn pointed out, the Labour Party is a party with socialists in it, not a socialist party.
If you do a simple Google search, you would find many an article that, whilst pointing out the origins of the term, go on to emphasise that the term is one that has been completely hijacked by the nastier fringes of the right in politics. There is no way that Jac could not have been aware of this when he launched into his sub Breivikian diatribe against everything vaguely associated with the left.
I reiterate, that under such circumstances, it is not me who has besmirched the name of those who choose to buy into notions of cultural marxism, but they themselves who chose to adopt it.
I’m sick and tired of liberal and leftist bullshitters smearing anyone who doesn’t agree with them as ‘fascists’. There is a whole fucking spectrum between where you stand and fascism, and I’m there in that vast area of differing political views.
If you are so proud of your views, so convinced that you are right, come back and comment using your real name. Because this is the last smear I’ll publish from ‘Anti-Nutter Brigade’.
So either have the balls to stand by your so-called convictions or just fuck off.
Leanne’s election address arrived in the inbox this week. It’s terrifying stuff:
“There are no short cuts to replacing Labour – I know that more than most – but replace them we must. I don’t want us throwing away support on a position that will weaken our movement, lose seats and cause disarray.”
In plain Saesneg, don’t rock the boat until Plaid policies and personnel are so cosily aligned with Labour’s that, come the changeover, no-one will notice. All that lovely grant lolly will still be in very safe hands and the forelock-tugging will continue as before.
What the girl’s saying, deep down, is that Labour voters aren’t bright enough to be offered something different.
David, may I correct you just a little bit. What the “girl” is saying is notwithstanding how dull voters may be she and her crew are just too fuckin’ lazy to make sustained effort that it takes to shift the Labour carcass out of its current place at top of the poll.
No point having vague ambition when there’s plenty of other trendy ishoos to bark on about without having to expend much energy.
Of course. What Leanne’s saying, even deep down, doesn’t describe the real picture. Her stance seems to be insulting Labour voters by saying that, it’s alright, Plaid won’t make anything better. Yet ex-Labour voters in Scotland have shown a commendable capacity for independent thought.
There’s a chronic reluctance to actually name Labour as the problem. Even though Labour are a unionist party, they’re seen as the least worst unionist party and so mustn’t be subjected to the level of fundamental criticism that would set Plaid apart from them.
@ Brychan…. chwarae teg bach……a nice retort to Mr Morris. Restrained and succcint yet covering the salient points with aplomb. What a snowflake denialist Mr Morris is. What unfounded allegations the man is espousing. How far will Mr Morris go…..I can imagine him calling Jac a savage next!
ELJ has started something! Don’t quote me, but I heard that the Welsh tourist board is being inundated by enquiries from Uganda about holiday chalets in Rhyl.
Ref the tweets relating to Eisteddfod bigwig’s accidental abuse of Africans and the jokey quip re Rhyl. At least the Ugandans suffered centuries of European colonialism but got some kind of freedom during the 60’s. Mess of last 50 years is due to internal tribalism manipulated by global corporates and major European powers as directed by C.I.A
What’s our response ? A pile of sanctimonious hand-wringing about some senile old twat making a derogatory reference to Africans but none of these tosspots will recognise that European colonialism is alive and well in a variety of new shapes and guises. That’s what you get by using outdated parameters when viewing the world and it’s problems.
PS ….I just posted above comment on Glyn Morris’ post on Newsfeed Cymru. There doesn’t seem to be any comments on his post at the moment. Let’s see if it turns up. Perhaps more could turn up?
It seems that Glyn Morris has joined the far left dia tribe of the cultural marxists and their ultimate goal of destroying Western Christian civilisation.
Mr Morris in his latest post……………
http://newsfeed.cymru/2018/08/13/jac-o-the-north-joins-far-right-in-cultural-marxism-diatribe/
Mr Morris says about Jac……
“The problem has always been that he concentrates all to often on the corruption coming from incomers to Wales and ignoring the truth that we Welsh are perfectly able to carry out much of the dishonesty he has been exposing ourselves”.
Mr Morris…..Jac is not ignoring the fact that “we Welsh” are perfectly able to carry out much of the dishonesty”
Jac and the thinking element of the Welsh electorate realise that much (if not the major cause) of the dishonesty comes from the Welsh socialist mafia in the guise of Welsh Labour who are devoid of morals and have not the faintest idea how to create prosperity and a decent future for an independent Wales.
Mr Morris evanglises his Globalist communist propoganda……
“It is the language of Trump supporters in the US who attack “Liberals” and think his election has given White Supremacists the green light to abuse minorities and to march under Nazi flags.”
You really should keep taking your medication Mr Morris…….and keep up with the news. Trump supporters wave the star spangled banner. Perhaps Mr Morris could give evidence of Nazi flags (I don’t think Mr Morris can…is that right Mr Morris?) If you actually keep up with the news Mr Morris you will actually find out that the attack going on in the US is by antifa the brainwahed cultural marxists thugs who can’t abide free speech, patriotism and a love of their country.
Mr Morris you are either quite evil in wanting to destroy Western civilisation or you haven’t got the mental capability to realise that you have been brain washed into cultural marxist ideology. I would rather think of you as not evil but a low IQ individual incapable of thinking for yourself.
Mr Morris would you disagree with anything that John Rhys Davies says here……….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrNVTOXE7IU
….or perhaps you would label John Rhys Davies “Far Right” and scurry back under the darkness of your stone of oblivion?
O/T I suppose, but…
I have just completed our local council’s annual form for determining who lives here and whether they’re entitled to vote. I went online to do it, and at least there is an option to complete the form in Cymraeg (although there were one or two howlers). But under ‘nationality’, there is no option for ‘Cymreig’, only ‘Prydeinig’. I left a comment to state that I found this unacceptable, and was registering as ‘British’ only under protest. If any of youse get the same sort of thing, I suggest you do the same.
Auntie Nutter, I think you might have won the semantic argument about the use of the term ‘cultural marxist’, since it is also used to describe other groups apart from the liberal elite and self-identifying ‘left’. Since the EU and the British establishment have a similar agenda to the ‘left’ liberal elite in regard to Wales, it would be silly to lump all three under the umbrella term ‘cultural Marxist’.
The term I prefer is ‘globalist-uniformity project’, which applies to any privileged group who promote a globalist agenda, which engages in what social commentators call ‘culture creation’ in order to undermine traditional norms, and which aims to demonise nationalism. This last point hints at the danger such an agenda presents to a country like Wales which, as a British colony, currently lacks the sovereignty necessary to hold this agenda at bay.
The language of the past (‘left’, ‘right’, fascist’, ‘alt-right’, etc.) is, as Big Gee points out, irrelevant in a discussion of Wales’s struggle against colonialism. As for Ein Gwlad, they are clearly not a ‘fascist’ party – they are a nationalist party, which, like any other nationalist party, aims to promote the interests of its people and not those of its colonial masters.
If you have a positive contribution to make as regards how Wales can win this struggle, try to do so without use of terms which have never had much relevance to Wales. Put up or shut up.
As for the use made of those sent from England to live in Welsh social housing by English local authorities, and who then engage in anti-social or criminal behaviour, nobody is demonising them, however much of a blight they are on our country. They are merely symbolic of the problem of Wales’s lack of sovereignty and the colonisation that inevitably results from this lack of sovereignty.
AntiNutterBrigade would do well to focus simply on one sentence in Jac’s piece
The sentence is: “Wales is poorer, less healthy, and our children less well educated, than before devolution. (If those don’t fit, then choose your own criteria.”
It is hard to see how Labour do not carry the blame for this.
Once the left have managed to improve just one aspect of Welsh life, then they will have earned the right to criticise others, like Ein Gwlad
A small challenge for Welsh Labour and the AntiNutterBrigade.
Since devolution, education in Wales has fallen behind the rest of the UK in reading, maths and science (according to the international Pisa rankings).
See if you can just get us rising in the educational tables, see if you can just manage to get Wales to keep up with Northern Ireland or Scotland — a pretty damn modest challenge.
For those writers of rants, based on their own twisted and unfounded assumptions, rather than facts, and who cannot be bothered to click on a link, or are too hard headed to do so. Here is the content of a leaflet that explains syncretism. It’s evident that you do not understand what it’s about, and are confusing certain parties that are not syncretic in Europe with those that are:
If you care to read my comment again you will see that I was asking questions, though in retrospect I can see that they might have been interpreted as rhetorical. However, they were not, but on the contrary, an opportunity for an explanation of exactly where exactly Ein Gwlad lies. I remain unconvinced by the notion of syncretism, and anyway, all political parties already confirm to syncretism to some degree anyway. So perhaps Ein Gwlad isn’t the best thing since sliced bread.
I remain sceptical about Ein Gwlad because of some of the people who seem to be their biggest cheerleaders have used some rather dehumanising language about some of the English people who have moved to Wales. I don’t mean to infer that I approve of them being ‘dumped’ on Wales, or that I in any way seek to mollify what some of those people have done – for the record I think that England should be dealing with it’s own social problems. But i never lose sight of the fact that it is people that are being discussed, however objectionable or problematic they may be, I will not dehumanise them, and will tend to challenge anyone who does use such language about another human being.
@Wrexhamian – I disagree with your interpretation of my understanding. I understand perfectly well. Given that Jac used the term cultural marxism and given the current contexts, (and especially when considering where and by whom that term was adopted in current usage) in which that term is regularly used there is only one possible interpretation, and that is that, through apparently jumping on a bandwagon, Jac has either wittingly, or unwittingly (and I suspect the latter rather than the former) allied himself with the alt light, alt-right and all sorts of right wing whack jobs. By all means be critical of the mainstream left, most of them certainly deserve it, but please be very careful how you frame that criticism lest you yourself be associated with the extreme right and thus tarnished.
@Jac, I think you are better sticking to socialist or leftist as using the word progressive is as bad as syncretic, i.e. a pretty meaningless term, (not that the left, centre.right axis model is exactly ideal, but it’s been around for a long time and its utility, if not its accuracy is handy because everyone understands it).’Progressive’ is a word used by Americans as a very broad and vague term that obviously means something over there. And anyway, I don’t think much of the left in the UK could really be described as what I would understand as progressive. Americans also use the term liberal to mean someone who is progressive, and usually (I assume) on the left of politics. Calling someone on the left in the UK is likely to be interpreted as an insult. About the only situation where the word progressive could be used with any real utility in the UK would be where someone or some group were described as being on the progressive left to differentiate it from Labour, or even the vast majority of Trotskyists. In my case I am far from thinking that anyone who disagrees with me is in any way a Hitler worshipper, but it does set alarm bells ringing when I see references to cultural marxism as it’s a term that is very loaded, and used almost exclusively by those on the extreme right and their apologists. Quite simply, in this case, if you don’t want to be seen as a knuckle dragging nazi then don’t appropriate their language. Having said that, apart from the apparently badly chosen terminology, your post is a caricature.You make sweeping statements about the left that just don’t stand up when applied to the whole spectrum of the left, even if they remain true about certain parts of it. You accuse the left of calling anyone who disagrees with them Hitler worshippers, in which case you’d perhaps be better not referring to anyone who disagrees with you as a Marxist, cultural or otherwise.
It appears that you are steeped in the politics of yesteryear, and you believe the propaganda you’ve been fed for a long time. When confronted with someone who has no wish to listen or see any other way, then it’s a waste of time, because regardless of the information that’s given, the logical arguments put forward or the evidence presented, those people are engulfed in bigoted opposition, based solely on their own assumptions with no foundation or proof of what they say.
It is obvious that when you cast pearls before swine, the value of the pearls are just ignored and never appreciated. For that reason, sad to say, it is pointless trying to reason with you. So I will not waste any more time reacting to your dinosaur minded rants. These uncompromising views are classic symptoms of a 19th century political mindset, which is based solely on party dogma, ideology and doctrines, overlooking the real needs of our country and her people. That is why we refer to the Labour party as the party of poverty, whilst on the other side of the spectrum you have the party of heartlessness and greed – the Conservatives. We the ordinary people are sandwiched between those two.
That’s my last word on the matter. I will not engage further with you, until you treat your blindness.
A. Nutter. Do you believe there is such a thing as Cultural Marxism? I.e. As I understand it, A method of social control that shames and punishes people, who do not wish to put the identities and wellbeing of select social groups before their own, even when it is contributing to their own individual detriment. In this particular case, colonisation and colonialism. If so, why is it not possible to discuss its effect without being labelled an extremist? You seem hellbent on labelling anyone who examines this as a Nazi. Come on. A balanced view of the world would allow examination of right, left and everything in between. It seems you don’t acknowledge the possible existence of views outside the battle between the far right and far left.
@Lee – no, I don’t believe there is any such thing as ‘cultural marxism’. The term has no currency unless you wish to jump on the neo-nazi bandwagon. This does not mean that criticisms cannot be made of the left, right or centre of political thought. Indeed, I am extremely critical of Marxism, and Marxists, but I would never use ‘cultural marxism’ to describe that. It’s a term that is currently used by the alt right, alt lite and neo-nazi extremists. I don’t, and haven’t tried to label anyone, as it is they who have chosen to use terminology associated with the extreme right, and therefore are effectively labelling themselves.
It’s really quite simple, if you don’t want to be associated with the extreme right don’t use the language of the extreme right. I’m sure that most on here would be very wary of using any terms associated with the left, as that might suggest that they are sympathetic with the left.
@Big G – I don’t actually care whether or not you wish to engage with me, and to be quite honest your arrogant and pompous dismissal of the majority who use the admittedly innaccurate left – right axis is risible. Most people still use that axis, not because they take it literally, but because it’s common practice, and is a useful shorthand. Your syncretism is equally meaningless. You can rant on as much as you want, it’s not going to change the fact that most of us are going to continue to use the simplistic axis of political affiliation.
If I, and everyone else doesn’t understand what Ein Gwlad is about it’s because you haven’t told us, and as I have remarked in the past, as far as I can see the people on here who are vocal advocates of Ein Gwlad are guilty of using some pretty disgraceful language when referring to other human beings, and you have yourself used some pretty shocking language to describe people. There has also appeared on this blog a link to a Steve Bannon interview, and comments have been made that are supportive of Bannon’s views, and also those of Trump. I hope I am wrong about Ein Gwlad, but I have to say that thus far it all is beginning to look very sinister, and unless you start to let everyone know what Ein Gwlad stands for, and clearly distances itself from people like Steve Bannon and it’s members and supporters refrain from using similar language to that of the far right people like me have no option but to start forming our opinions from the scant information available. I don’t know if Ein Gwlad will be a force for good, evil or just a bad joke, but I need to have my own responses to a worst case scenario ready just in case.
If I recall correctly, cultural Marxism was – before the far Right got it between their fangs – a neutral term describing a New Left tendency to seek social change through media hegemony rather than through class struggle. It’s been called ‘the long march through the institutions’ or ‘shaping the narrative’. It also goes under the names of ‘critical theory’ and the ‘Frankfurt School’.
Europe is changing. Partly because the student generation of 1968 have reached retirement age. Much more – and certainly this is true of my personal perspective – because they are seen to have achieved fuck all for anyone but those like themselves. If European voters do embrace the far Right, it will be because the far Left have left them with no viable alternative. While people like Auntie Nutter are searching for brownshirts under every bed, decent people are asking themselves whether the far Right would really be any worse. The conclusion may be disturbing.
I can’t resist interjecting here with a theory of my own. Something I’ve thought about over many years, decades even.
Following the upheavals of the 1960s a modus vivendi was arrived at which saw the political right retain control the economic sphere while traditional power conceded influence to liberals and leftists in social and other spheres such as media. This accord could have been arrived at without a word spoken or put to paper.
Which brings me to the BBC. Which the Daily Mail and others would have us believe is a nest of unpatriotic radicals, but the truth is more subtle. Some years ago the BBC did a deal with the deep state (which, again, might have been unspoken), that saw it given freedom on certain issues – race, sexuality, for example – in return for which the BBC would toe the line on the issues that mattered, support for foreign wars, backing the British presence in Ireland and, more recently, defending the Union in the face of the SNP threat.
What I find significant in this regard is that Newsnight’s ‘freedom’ extends to wonky liberals like Evan Davis, Maitlis, Gatehouse and others, but not to more focused leftists like Paul Mason.
Quote: AntiNutterBrigade
I did say I was not going to engage further with you, however I feel duty bout to respond to the above accusation.
I can’t do better than to quote our Aims and Values as set out in our Constitution:
Our aims are:
Independence:
To establish a free, sovereign and independent Welsh state.
Accountability:
To secure a government democratically accountable to the people of Wales.
Prosperity:
To bring about a flourishing Welsh economy in which all citizens have the opportunity to prosper, with enterprise and hard work being properly rewarded.
Distinctiveness:
To secure a future for our national language, distinctive heritage, traditions and culture.
Internationalism:
To see Wales take its proper place among the community of nations, fostering good relations and mutually beneficial economic links with other states around the world.
Our values are grounded in:
Community:
Civic pride, social inclusion and solidarity between all members of our national community.
Liberty:
Individual liberty and equality before the law, underpinned by an independent Welsh judiciary and system of law courts subject to the general principles of Common Law.
Inclusivity:
We affirm our commitment to the common good of all citizens of Wales who are loyal to our country and respect our national identity, whatever their ethnic, linguistic, religious or geographical background may be.
Respect:
We assert our respect and esteem for our English, Scottish, and Irish neighbours, and believe that good relations are best fostered and maintained between free and equal nation states.
Radicalism:
We shall seek radical, pragmatic solutions to the economic and social issues facing contemporary Wales, evaluating ideas according to whether they will benefit Wales and her people – not according to where they come from, whether so-called left wing or right wing. We are a syncretic party that does not recognise the traditional single-axis left, centre or right wing labelling paradigm.
Courage:
We shall not flinch from confronting the scale of the problems
that Wales faces, since only when problems are faced honestly can they be
overcome. We shall be open with each other and the nation at large about
what needs to be done.
Creativity:
Wales is known across the world as a creative nation where
words mean everything. We mean to unleash that power for the good of our
economy and our communities.
Perseverance:
The fact that Wales exists at all in the 21st Century is
testament to our ability to fight against the odds and find a way through. We
shall not be easily deterred from making our case and standing for what we
believe in.
Brogarwch:
The English language lacks a way of easily expressing the
meaning of this word: it is a love of place, a commitment to our land and
people, yet untainted by jingoism or chauvinism. We love our country, and
are determined to make it the best that it can be.
Note that point under Radicalism above: we are not a party of the left or the right. We are definitely not a party of the centre. We’re only interested in what is right or wrong for our country.
There is no place in our ranks for racists, xenophobes, or those who just want to put one over on the English.
That should give you a broad outline of what we are about. Following our launch on the 28th of August, we will be issuing an outline of our basic policies and core objectives.
Regarding our Aims & Principles, please visit: https://eingwlad.wales/register/Aims-Principles.htm
You’re wasting your time with ANB, Gwilym, he’s one of those clowns on the Brit Left for whom anyone who does’t believe that Kapital contain the answers to everything from ruining an economy to treating ingrowing toenails is a fascist. They have to believe that, and promote it, because so few people nowadays listen to them. Consequently, being in the vanguard of some epic struggle with a (non-existent) ‘fascism’ becomes their raison d’etre.
They showed their true colours when they took to the streets against Trump. Which was, essentially, their rejection of democracy. A tactic repeated against other countries, but rarely by the people in those countries. For what we are dealing with here is a creature of the Anglo-Saxon, transatlantic middle class, showing us how they feel about frightful little people who don’t agree with them, and don’t do as the elite tell them. Which exposes the hypocrisy of their true position vis-a-vis their hitherto beloved ‘proletariat’.
Listen now, ANB, you’ve had your little rants – which I’ve been hearing and yawning at since the 1960s – so unless you have anything sensible or original to say I suggest you take yourself back to the dark corner you came from, the dark corner where you’re ignored, and wait for the next opportunity to emerge, wild-eyed, screaming ‘Fascists! AltRight! Reactionaries! Enemies of the People! etc., etc., etc.,’ at somebody else.
I believe you’ve hit the nail smack on it’s head with your theory Jac.
Without a shadow of a doubt there is a cunning plan at play, and undoubtedly it involves a a deal between the BBC and the ‘deep State’. After all the British Bullshit Corporation is the propaganda arm of the state anyway – it is funded and owned by them – regardless of who is in government, the ‘deep state’ is above any party in power at any given time. We the minions pay for the BBC which is a cruel twist – paying to be brainwashed and manipulated!
The ‘Deep State’ are more cunning and devious than people give it credit for being. If the ‘deal’ was less opaque it would be detected by the many, so what they do is provide misinformation, that looks as if the BBC is being fair on the lesser subjects, whilst being VERY pro the ‘Deep State’ in the more serious areas. Very clever.
Interestingly I was listening to a programme on Radio 4 this week, where someone muted the almost identical observation that Jac has made, i.e.
@Jac – so no it’s ad hominem attacks! I must really have gotten under your skin. Unable to present a counter argument you launch into a detailed character profile that I found quite amusing, mainly because it asserts as qualities that I had quite clearly rejected in my comments. I think I made it quite clear that I am not a Marxist, so why then would I use Marx’s Das Kapital as my bible to condemn? Indeed, I also made it quite clear that I do not seek to silence anyone, but that I prefer to let people have just sufficient rope that they hang themselves.
I also don’t see fascists, or the alt-right everywhere. They do not exist in great numbers, but the political hinterland surrounding them is quite vast and so obviously encompasses those who seem to be fellow travellers using similar language.
I’m not sure if you noticed, but Trump wasn’t democratically elected, but shoehorned into power through a mechanism called the electoral college. In fact he was trailing his main opponent by some four million votes. There are some very strange notions going around regarding the nature of democracy, and the most ludicrous seem to be held by those who champion democracy when it works to their advantage, but is then critical when people with a differing viewpoint excercise their democratic right to protest; seemingly this is anti-democratic.
As for me being Anglo-Saxon and being a member of the transatlantic middle class this coudn’t be further from the truth, and though I reject proletarian ascendancy it’s not because am opposed to a ‘beloved proletariat’ but because I seek the abolition of all class- I am a strict egalitarian. Not only am I not Anglo-Saxon, but unlike you Jac, I could respond to your diatribe yn y Gymraeg, which is a tad more than you could do!
I don’t intend to go away, as I feel that I’m onto something in my criticisms. Why else would I have attracted such obviously venomous and intemperate comments on the part of you and Big Gee, who, I see, despite calling the BBC the British Bullshit Corporation in one paragraph, and who had dismissed the BBC as a purveyor of ‘fake news’ then goes on to use an item from Radio 4, a BBC radio station if I’m not mistaken as evidential support – make your mind up Big Gee, either the BBC is a purveyor of unreliable information or it isn’t. Or maybe like one of your heroes, a certain Mr Trump, it’s only fake news when it doesn’t suit your mindest. But then perhaps we should be somewhat wary of giving too much credence to someone who uses YouTube videos as absolutely confirming evidence, and who regards the likes of Alex Jones and David Icke as purveyors of truth.
Bluster all you want – I won’t go away, and even blocking me from your site, which will receive no complaints about preventing freedom of speech from me, you don’t have to provide a platform to me or anyone else, won’t prevent me from commenting elsewhere.
So, in conclusion, I think we’re beginning to get a much clearer picture about the likely direction of Ein Gwlad. Big Gee, you said syncretic and that this was something of a trend in Europe. Yes, was, as apart from one small party in Poland, none has any representation in any parliament in Europe, and when I did some basic research I discovered that most political parties described as syncretic tended to represent the nastier side of nationalism, and quite a few were openly fascist. Ein Gwlad’s constitution may be all fine and dandy, saying all the right things, but so too is that of the National Bolshevik Party, who also claim not to be xenophobic or racist, but who have been linked with some pretty nasty stuff about non Russians, particularly those with darker skins. Now I just don’t know about Ein Gwlad, but it’s not looking very good, is it?
How can I possibly make an ad hominem attack on a coward who hides behind a pseudonym?
Just go away you silly boy and stop showing off.
I am “on the left” but cant find a thing you write here to disagree with.
What’s a halloumi ?
You’ve really upset the middle class establishment with this post, Jac. They’re choking on their halloumi and peppers.
https://twitter.com/llinosprice/status/1023555378922090499
How dare you upset the champagne socialists of Llandaf North. With people like you, how are these self appointed superior beings going to look down on ‘the workers’.
Good!!! About time these hypocritical and self-serving bastards were called out.
I’m blocked from the Twitter account of Llinos Price. She was heavily involved in the persecution of Neil McEvoy. Which tells you a lot about those I’m criticising.
That dame is so fuckin’ lightweight, pure airhead material, but she did play a role in setting McEVoy up.Probably has a major role in preparing organic cakes for the witches’ tea parties. Calls herself a political consultant – majoring in derailing careers of nonconforming politicians.
Cannot read that. Apparently been blocked. Don’t even know who she is.
The same Llinos Price who was “Government and Parliamentary Business Manager” for Natural Resources Wales from April 2013 until May 2015.
Note – The first dodgy contract which was awarded by NRW to BSW Timber was signed in 2014, while Llinos was employed as above. It was for £72million and was not offered out to open tender as is required by law. Interestingly, this under the counter deal included a clause for BSW Timber to establish a timber ‘cutting line’ within Wales, an investment that never materialised. That kind of clause is best described as ‘Government Business”. The clue is in the job title.
Yes, she’s part of the same ugly, corrupt and incestuous system.
Llinos, an accomplished anti-masculist, calls Jac an anti-feminist.
I guess that’s for thinking that wimmin – or anyone else – should only be given jobs they’re capable of doing well.
‘Anti-masculist’! Is there such a term?
BECAUSE I’M AWAY I MIGHT BE SLOW TO APPROVE COMMENTS BUT DON’T LET THAT DETER YOU.
I WELCOME COMMENTS, EVEN THOSE FROM LEFTISTS DEFENDING THE SYSTEM THAT IS DESTROYING WALES.
Intersectionality- isn’t that the study of roundabouts?
And Jac o’ the North finally shows his true colours. Oh, and Big G, forget your nonsense about ‘syncretism’; it’s just a cover, (and a pretty poor one at that) for the usual alt-lite bilge.
If you are spouting about Cultural Marxism, you are promoting Nazi propaganda:
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Cultural_Marxism
I wouldn’t mind so much if much of what this post portrays was in any way anything but a very one sided and incorrect presentation of thinking on the left. Sure, it has it’s issues with those who wish to promote groupthink, but the right is equally guilty, and equally as wrong in pushing such agendas, as they are both totalitarian. Also, when it comes to the national paradigm, something that Marxism and Marxists in particular struggle with, one only has to look at the persistent of communist regimes in the world to see that they were all based on the idea of the nation, though that of China is somewhat imperial, but that of Cuba or Vietnam – both firmly based on concepts of nationhood and anti-colonialism. Also, any honest person of a left-wing persuasion would only be too ready to acknowledge that imperialism and colonialism extends beyond what white people do.
You present a caricature, and a rather vulgar and simplistic one at that. Though those who peddle the kind of stuff you are railing about here, they represent a vocal, but very small minority who in actual fact have about as much real influence as you do with this blog. What you write certainly doesn’t represent the mainstream of people who are left-leaning, or even such as myself, pretty extremely left-leaning.
After a century or more of socialism and deferring to the state Wales is the poorest country in western Europe with the left assisting the exploitation and the colonisation with our so-called national party more concerned with Trump and transgender issues than with Wales.
You use the handle ‘AntiNutterBrigade’ and yet that’s exactly where you belong – among the nutters.
Prior to the Russian revolutions of 1917, a term was coined “Petite bourgeoisie ” which in modern lingo is “cultural Marxism”. These, at the time of the Bolsheviks were the ‘managers of state’ that inhabited rule from the Duma between the Spring and October revolutions, before the ‘proletariat’ of the soviets eventually seized power. When referring to the ‘left’ it’s important to distinguish between these aspects of ‘left’.
When we look at Wales, since devolution, how many former colliers, steelworkers, former factory shopfloor workers have graced the corridors of power? All I see is academics, graduates in history or politics from posh homes, charity land agents and barristers. Those that flit between the third sector and Senedd. That is the issue for the ‘left’ in Wales.
Jac is correct to define ‘cultural marxists’ as opposed to ‘the genuine left’. It was Arthur Horner (SWMF) who fought on the barricades in 1916 for an independent Ireland and served time in Carmarthen goal for his trouble. It was SO Davies (Y llwynog o Tarian y Gweithiwr) who first proposed a bill in the Westminster House for home rule for Wales. These are the people who the current ‘left’ try to expel/airbrush/ignore from history. They are the real ‘left’ of Wales. So different from the parasites which Jac so eloquently exposes.
I apologise if this upsets some, but I used to read my politics in the miners library not in some dilettante arts school, and then lord over the poor. Independence is a war against colonialism.
I won’t give your ‘nutter’ post credence by a response or a rebuttal. However, I think you’ve answered yourself by saying:
That’s why Ein Gwlad is determined to be a syncretic party. Just glance over to Europe and see how syncretic parties are gaining traction.
People are waking up to reality and responding. The right/ left rubbish is dead in it’s tracks, which is an indicator that Jac is wrong with his 99% assumption. Time to move on and leave 19th century political thinking behind. It’s time to focus on our country and her people, and not party doctrines, dogmas and ideology.
Your of course entitled to label me in whatever way you think fit, but you still didn’t answer me in my critique. Unless you choose to change the meaning of what Cultural Marxism means, and explain what you mean when you use that term then none of us has any alternative but to interpret it according to current usage, and crucially in terms of who is using it in those terms. As it is generally the al-right, alt lite, neo-nazis and other nutjobs on the right who are frequently referring to Cultural Marxism, and now Jac and by association Ein Gwlad then what is one to conclude? When jumping onto bandwagons perhaps it would be wise first to realise just whose bandwagon it is?
@ Big G – just what ‘syncretic’ parties are gaining ground in Europe? Are you referring to parties such as Alternativ fur Deutschland or the Italian Movimento 5 Stelle or Lega? And could this also include such dodgy outfits as the KNP in Poland? As I suggested, I think that syncretism is just a rather flimsy cover for alt lite politics. Also, given that Jac’s blog has on the recent past endorsed people like Steve Bannon, and out and out fascist. It wouldn’t surprise me if Ein Gwlad has approached The Movement for advice and maybe other support too. Is Ein Gwlad yet another Welsh proto-fascist party? From the promotion seen thus far, and the comments being made by those prominent in the movement it would seem so, as most of the ‘syncretic’ parties in Europe seem to have some very convoluted policies that mask how fundamentally fascist they are in a very unhealthy way.
At the moment it is very mild, very tentative, but there can be no doubt that they are latching on to some very real concerns that ordinary people have about their lives. There can be no doubt that the mainstream Left has ignored these concerns for a very long time, but anyone who thinks that these new, alt light, alt right, ‘syncretic’ or whatever you want to call them have the interests of ordinary people at heart are really very deluded. Fortunately things aren’t going all the way of the proto-fascists and their apologists as evidenced by the widespread protests in Denmark against the anti-burqa laws, which are in reality just a test to see how well relatively mild legislation goes down, (i.e. legislation that does not apply to 99.999% of citizens) amongst the majority as it only affects a minority.
Thus far Ein Gwlad is appearing to be yet another attempt to champion the far right in Wales, and it is my hope that such toxic political thinking will be roundly rejected. I for one, as someone on the far left. (I have espouse anarchism in the past, but now prefer to call myself a left-libertarian) don’t seek to gag or obstruct groupings such as Ein Gwlad as I think that they should be free to hang themselves with their own words. I’m sure that the luminaries of Ein Gwlad will, in time, do just that, and I think one thing is certain, Ein Gwlad will be under a lot of scrutiny and will, hopefully, be yet another damp squib in Welsh politics of the relatively extreme right who are, by and large restricted to the kind of saddo who attends events such as Cilmeri every December 13th.
Much of what Jac writes about reflects what should be common concern amongst those on the Left in Wales, but his prescription is somewhat delusional. We may not have the Left politics we would like in Wales, but bad as it is, but I suspect it is a darn sight more palatable to that which Ein Gwlad will offer us. Ein Gwlad may have attracted a lot of interest, but I suspect that many initially attracted will quickly rescind any connection when it becomes apparent just how alt light or alt right it really is. Like it or not, national politics in Wales is dominated by social democracy at the very least.
Auntie Nutter, you couldn’t be more mistaken in your interpretation of this post. It is not some anti-egalitarian rant against socialism, nor ‘Nazi propaganda’, but an explanation of how those who — in adopting the label ‘left’ in order to lay a spurious claim to the moral high ground — have been complicit, and even pro-active, in promoting the colonialist agenda of the British establishment.
You don’t mention Wales once, but one of the primary functions of this blog is to analyse Wales’s colonial status and to seek its causes and its agents; the finger of guilt is pointed unequivocally at the self-styled ‘left’, even though they might be expected to empathise with a country undergoing colonial exploitation.
I say ‘self-styled’ because the term ‘left’ has been hijacked by an elite group of careerists (some of them from Wales itself) whose mental constipation prevents them from seeing that diversity of culture and language are among the things that add an extra dimension of quality to what it is to be human and which should make the world a fascinating place. This, and not the Brit-Nat agenda, is what these people should be fighting for. The sad part is that Plaid Cymru has recently become a component of this ‘left’ elite, although it has some dissenting voices among its members and supporters.
Don’t take offence if you are genuinely ‘extreme left-leaning’. If you have an ‘extreme left’ solution to Wales’s problem of colonialism, then share it.
A word I should perhaps have used in place of ‘leftist’ and ‘socialist’ is ‘progressive’. And of course, once you regard yourself as ‘progressive’, then anyone who doesn’t agree with you must be a Hitler worshipper.
I also agree wholeheartedly with what you’ve written Jac. Spot-on and accurate.
But OH! As one of the founder members of a Syncretic party – how I cringe as you perpetuate this ridiculous idea of ‘right’, ‘centre’ and ‘left’. It’s dead Jac, it was never real to start with! They are outdated abstract labels that only serve the mainstream (false) media and the establishment in using this nonsense to label groups of people, and thereby influence the thinking of the masses.
I REALLY wish you could kick the habit. Just call them what they are – they all have names, not positions on a single axis paradigm.
That may be the mission, but for 99% of people out there the left/right paradigm is how they view things.
Greetings Gee. I agree with you that Jac needs to refrain from using the left-right ( 2D) description of political stances,ideologies etc. or reduce his reliance on this misleading “linear” spectrum. However in this piece he is generally referring to people who self identify as various types of “lefties” of various persuasions though few of them demonstrate a genuine adherence to socialism or community in practice.
The same problem manifested itself a few days ago on nation.cymru where a writer referred to a new “right wing” presence in our country – Generation Identity , which in reality is a bunch of supremacist thugs ( small in number as yet) with a European bias. On closer inspection one soon finds that these bastards will find a happy home within the Anglo Brit spectrum but will show no respect to Cymru, Y Cymry, or Y Gymraeg. White on white racism which will go down well with the Bennett’s within UKIP as well as those who love Tommy Robinson etal.
No doubt the entire mix of Anglo Brit politics is heavily laden with colonialist baggage. They may have removed visible formal traces of colonialism in Most of the rest of the world although the less visible strings of business and commerce remain in place. We in Wales enjoy that dubious privilege of being a surviving piece of that original set of colonial properties to be used,abused, as London and it’s lackeys see fit..
Time we moved on.
Disagree with you there Jac. I don’t think the majority of people have a political alignment. I doubt most even consider the idea – they just vote for change or along certain lines like anti-Toryism because their parents did or because… by an large Wales does not identify with what extreme BritNats are selling. I doubt many would even say they have a political alignment.
I also don’t think there’s such a thing as “Left” and “Right” in Wales anyway. We are defined by the world around us which is defined by the British political system. That is to say… we are all to some extent colonised on some subconscious level. The two major parties of the British political system fit into their concept of “Left” and “Right” and they fill our Senedd. Even on the individual label system… Socialist, Capitalist whatever else I’d not describe as being “Welsh” but “British” and I think that’s quite visible in both Labour and Plaid on many fronts.
Welsh politics will be born on the day Independence is declared. You cannot be part of a British state and be against the British state.
I’m sure the Welsh situation was exactly what Labour intended when they established the devolved assemblies etc. So the interesting, but complex question would be to try and pick apart why the outcome has been so different in Wales as compared to Scotland (remember Labour were in charge there too to begin with). I accept that pure geography has a part to play — Wales is much more ‘exposed’ to England, but all the same …
In response to your final battle cry, I as an outsider can only ask “HOW?”
Agree with your piece whole heartedly. I see Labour and it’s socialist policies as a tool of unionist colonialism to keep Wales (as you stated) poor in every sense of the word politically, financially, educationally and culturally. It’s like a giant Boa constrictor snake, slowly, silently but relentlessly squeezing Wales to the death.
Intersectionality is the dominant new culture of the elite combined with transgenderism which seeks to silence all who disagree. The real issues Wales faces aren’t even on the agenda in any meaningful way.
‘Intersectionality’. What a word!