We may have misjudged the man in believing he was only in it for the money! Now I realise that his motives were entirely altruistic.

Bishop Gill was commenting on a BBC story.

Quote ‘Care homes face new nurses ‘crisis’ – perfect storm of rising number of elderly and fewer carers/nurses’.

Now then – any suggestions as to how Bishop Nathan Lee Gill MEP could help solve this rather difficult and sensitive problem ?

Answers please on a postcard to :

Bishop Nathan Lee Gill MEP
29 Ponc y Fron
Llangefni
LL77 7NY

First Prize for best answer. 4 hardly used, pre-owned, nearly new, once owned by elderly, yet careful lady driver, second hand, ever so slightly worn, automobile tyres.

Second Prize. A seaside holiday for 6 in Hull.

I am talking about, in the short to medium term, ‘Iraqi’ Kurdistan; but in the longer term there must be an arrangement that recognises Kurdish nationhood, and that means all Kurds.

I was aware of some of that but it’s very convoluted and open to many interpretations. The central argument of my post is that the Kurds deserve independence and that the West – by which I mean, primarily, the USA – should start practising what it preaches and stop acting hypocritically by supporting tyrants friendly to Washington while doing down less oppressive governments because they refuse to toe the US line.

All my life I have supported the USA, I even backed the Vietnam war. (That support also extended to Israel.) Obviously I knew that the USA was not without its faults, but I took the view that it was still better than the alternatives, morally superior to the alternatives, now I’m no longer sure. All states act out of self-interest, but the USA seems unable to realise that there comes a point when unquestioning support for Israel, because it’s your only friend in the region, becomes counter-productive because Israel is the root cause for much or most of the hostility towards the USA. And openly allying yourself with laughing-stock tyrannies like Azerbaijan further calls into question US judgement.

The next step is sympathy for the Palestinians, and the sneaking suspicion that Iran, Russia, and all the other countries opposing the US may have a point. In fact, they do have a point. One of my problems is that being a creature of the political right who could never ally himself with the USA’s traditional enemies, let alone a bunch of butchering fanatics, I feel a bit lonely. The only constant in my thinking now is my love for Wales and my desire for independence. Beyond that is a state of flux.

I need to take myself unto an lonely place and think through where I’m at.

And calling for an ethical foreign policy is something few would disagree with after seeing so much bloodshed on our TV’s, newspapers and social media particularly over the summer, but as long as there’s oil and money to be made in and from the Middle East there will be coups, war, extremists, misery, death and instability a plenty shaped and supported by the greedy, self interested numpities who ‘govern’ from Westminster, Brussels and Washington.

I think you’re right about the women, have now changed the caption. You’re also right about the categorisation of the PKK.

Iran also had a plan to supply Europe via a pipeline through Iraq and Syria and guess what suddenly a civil war breaks out in Syria paid for by the Saudis and the Gulf states with US and overwhelming media backing. Now out of the blue Iran drops Maliki and signals it’s in favour of a pipeline the US does like via Turkey and presumably open to Washington’s pals in Azerbaijan.

Who knows where this will end and how it will affect the Kurds. Certainly the Turks and Iranians have no love for the Kurds. One thing for certain is that none of those vaunted Western (sic.) values which are used to bamboozle the taxpayer into supporting bloody wars will count for much beside the greenback.