Amlwch to Magor (up to January 2009)

Hello and Goodbye!

2009-10-30T17:13:00.000Z

As I heavily hinted to in the last post I am back in Wales and ready to turn my hand to blogging again.The new Amlwch to Magor can be found at:

www.amlwch-magor.blogspot.com

If your blog list still links to this site please can you change it to the new address (please, pretty please!)

Also it seems that both Welsh Political News and the Welsh Political Index have both died a death while I'm away - can anyone tell me if there's still a good Welsh political blog aggregator out there for me to get back to speed on who's still blogging and which new people I need to catch up on?

This will be the last post on this address, so goodbye and see you HERE!

An (Un?)Welcome Return

2009-10-28T08:59:00.002Z

There's no place like home...
http://www.amlwch-magor.blogspot.com/

Priorities

2009-01-04T16:39:00.003Z

As you'll have noticed, this blog has been neglected for a month or two now. As I mentioned in a few previous posts, personal life took away the Hen Ferchetan's time and I simply could not devote the time to post here regularly. A blog commenting on political news needs to be active every day or it's a pointless exercise so I put it on hold until the New Year.

Well the New Year has arrived, and my circumstances have changed again. Work commitments of the man of the house means that, for a short period at least, the Hen Ferchetan will not be living in Wales, or in the UK for that matter. So I'm afraid to say that the Hen Ferchetan won't be here for the European Elections and, depending on when Gordon dares go for it, may not be here for the next General Election. While I could still post snippets every now and then from my temporary home I won't be able to give the blog the time and attention it needs and deserves. I'm therefore signing off. While the usual bunch of anons will give their usual smile of glee at seeing another blogger depart, there's no doubt that the Hen Ferchetan will return - but not in 2009.

Have a great year, and I'll see you all in 2010. Hwyl fawr!

First Female Party Leader

2008-12-09T10:29:00.004Z

So Kirsty "Rainbow-Wrecker" Williams eases to victory in the all-female Lib Dem leadership campaign by some 60% to 40%. I won't comment much for now because I'm still off blogging until the Christmas holidays (although it certainly does make the Labour Leadership contest a damn sight more interesting as Kirsty will be clearly be pressing the One Wales Government skeptics (i.e. Huw Lewis) to dump Plaid and restart the Lib-Lab if he wins). I'll let Confused for Cardiff have the last word (for now) on this one:

Kirsty's new Shadow Shadow Cabinet

Comings and Goings

2008-12-03T11:11:00.003Z

So the Welsh political blogosphere loses a prominent blogger in Ordovicius. As the most regular poster around it can only be a loss, good luck to him with whatever will now take up all that time.

Thankfully the loss of one blogger is offset by the re-gain of another. The Cynical Dragon is back after he realised that retirement isn't all that it's cracked up to be. As one of my favorite blogs I'm glad to see him back.

As for this blog, I haven't posted regularly for a month or so now. Some of you will be disappointed to know that I'm not quite ready to follow Ordo into retirement just yet. Personal problems have been keeping me away and will continue to do so for a short while. I'll be back before the New Year and by February my problems will have either been solved or become such a mess that I stop caring about them and blog to take my mind off them!

My Word is Gospel

2008-11-18T09:48:00.004Z

Peter Hain 2006:

He said that there was "no way" Labour would introduce proportional representation (PR) in local elections.

Rhodri Morgan 2008:

“The only way in which this is going to happen is through proportional representation – a form of election which would, undoubtedly, improve our representation in counties such as Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion, Ynys Môn and Gwynedd,”

Peter Hain March 2007:

Asked by Plaid's Adam Price to clarify his position on a Labour-Plaid coalition, Mr Hain said: "I'm ruling it out.

Peter Hain 17th May 2007:

Asked by BBC Radio Wales whether his party could do a deal with Plaid or the Conservatives, Mr Hain replied "certainly not".

BBC July 2007:

Labour has voted by a big margin to back an historic coalition with Plaid Cymru in the Welsh assembly.

Adam Price 2007:

He (Hain) quite regularly takes a different view to those who actually make the decisions

Rhodri Gets Tough

2008-11-17T12:45:00.005Z

So finally, at long last, after 8 years and one month into his job, Rhodri Morgan grows some cahoones. In an essay he wrote for a new book on Welsh politics the First Minister finally bites back at a few parts of the Labour Party that he has usually lain down before.

Firstly he launches a pretty damning critic of the Blair and Brown legacy. He ridicules Brown's attempts to convince us all that being British means tolerance and decency by pointing to New Labour's record of:

"bulging prisons, record incarceration of children, fortress-like asylum policies, and a progressive erosion of the distinction between ‘anti-social’ behaviour (where solutions ought to be sought primarily through social policy)and criminal conduct (which falls to be dealt with by the criminal justice system) provides an uncertain background of evidence.”

Damning stuff. He also criticises the attack on Iraq, something which he embarrassingly refused to do a few years back (when it actually mattered). But Rhodri isn't finished yet, he then turns to his own Welsh party.

Echoing views that Eluned Morgan and Carwyn Jones said in February's Welsh Labour Conference (but which they later backtracked on in the Western Mail letter page) Rhodri states that a big reason for Labour's collapse in West Wales (they do not hold an Assembly seat West of Swansea) was their public image of being anti-Welsh language. While Rhodri is careful enough to state that he doesn't believe his party is anti-Welsh language his admission that:

"it would be foolish to deny that, from time to time, strands in the party have acted in ways which have given it credibility"

is as subtle as a sledgehammer. Strands in the party? Now I wonder who he could possibly be talking about there?

It's very interesting to see Rhodri's admission that the Tories have managed to reposition themselves in front of Labour in the "pro-Welsh language" front. This would have been unimaginable only a few years ago, but there's no doubt that Welsh-speakers now feel that Labour is the party who opposes their quest for more rights not the Tories.

There are two reasons for this; yes the Tories, in the Assembly at least, have repositioned themselves well to the fore of Labour on this issue and, as Welsh-speaking Tories will always be quick to remind you, it was the Tories that (eventually) gave us the Welsh Language Act and S4C.

Perhaps more importantly though, they only have 3 Welsh MP's at the moment. So while Labour's numerous MP's lash out at the Welsh language from London, their Tory counterparts don't get much publicity when they do the same. So while the Tories in the Assembly have managed to redeem themselves to some extent, their MP's haven't - they're just being ignored. When, as is likely, the Tories find themselves with many additional Welsh MP's come the next election, it will be interesting to see if we'll still be thinking of them as pro-Welsh language?

So with the looming Cardiff v Westminster fight is about to begin over the Welsh Language LCO (believe me, the Housing LCO bickering is merely an undercard compared to the mess that the next one could cause) Rhodri has drawn a pretty big line in the sand. The question is what side of that line will the reminder of his party stand?

AM's Trusted With the truth

2008-11-12T13:37:00.003Z

The Western Mail has a two page spread today about a Committee on Standards in Public life survey on public perceptions of honesty. The article is headed "Our Assembly Members seen as less honest than local MP's" which, on first glance, suggests that the public prefer their MP's to AM's. The key word though is "local".

Even though the survey did find that people trusted their local MP to tell the truth more than local AM (49% v 41%) in every other part of the survey Assembly Members were the ones held in better regard.

As a whole MP's were given a 30% trustworthy rating, compared to 35% for AM's. Interestingly UK government ministers received less than general MP's (29%) but Welsh Assembly Ministers significantly more than their backbench colleagues (41%) .

In encouraging news for Welsh Ministers they outscored their London rivals in every category:

Dedicated to doing a good job for the public - 49 v 40
Competent 42 v 40
Set good example 39 v 31
Do not use powers for own gain 44 v 39
Use public money wisely 34 v 27
Explain reasons for decisions 29 v 24
Tell the truth 32 v 26
In touch with public 33 v 22
Do not take bribes 58 v 55
Own up to mistakes 10 v 13

Of course, both set of politicians come off worse against most other professions, with doctors, headteachers and judges leading the way.

For some reason the Western Mail has decided to ignore all those results and stick to the one single figure that MP's trump AM's on for their headline! Could that be the reason why, right at the bottom of the trustworthy pile, well below both AM's and MP's, come tabloid journalists!

The Forgotten Earthquake

2008-11-06T23:18:00.004Z

In all the hype and excitement of the American elections, even over here, we all seemed to have forgotten that the Glenrothes election is today. The count has started and the word that's spreading is that the SNP will turn the Labour 10,000 majority to a 1,000 majority of their own.

Labour are already trying to turn such a result into a "win", saying that the defeat would have been much worse a few months ago. Sorry but I can't buy that. While they may well have lost by a large amount a few months ago, losing a 10,000 majority is nothing close to a win, it's embarrassing.

Who knows though, the count is still young, Labour may well keep the seat.

Whichever way the result goes though, it won't have as much effect as we thought when the seat became vacant. This was supposed to be Brown's saviour or executioner. But with all the focus on Barck Obama's victory, Glenrothes has slipped from the front pages and, win or lose, won't have any substantial effect on Brown and Labour's ratngs.

Update: Rumours have now switched to say that Labour may hang on. Brown may well rue his decision to "bury" the poll by having it in the same week as the US election. If they are going to win it Labour could have done with having the by-election dominate the news instead of being ignored for weeks.

Coat-Tail Hanger On

2008-11-05T16:13:00.003Z

Blog post by Lib Dem Leadership contender Kirsty Williams:

As the world turns to a new generation of leaders with Barack in America and Tavish Scott and Nick Clegg in Scotland and the UK there should be no doubt about the opportunity we Welsh Liberal Democrats find ahead of us.

Ouch. Just...ouch! What price Barack Obama makes a speech this week about how great it is that the world is turning to people like him, Tavish and Nick! I'll give you 4,000-1 odds!

President-Elect Obama

2008-11-05T11:34:00.003Z

Barack Hussain Obama - the soon to be 44th President of the United States of America. It was an incredible night of drama an emotion, even from the Hen Ferchetan's living room thousands of miles away.

It was all over as soon as Ohio was called for the Democrat but nobody in our house dared call it until Virginia came in a few minutes before 4am Wales time. Waiting for California to put Obama over the edge was then a mere formality, followed by telephone calls to jubilant friends and family in the States.

It's incredible that states like Virginia and (probably) North Carolina found themselves in the Blue column. Even more incredible is Indiana, where Obama turned a 20% defeat in for Kerry in 2004 to a 0.9% victory. Yes demographics have changed all over the US in the past 4 years,but that remains a HUGE swing.

Both McCain and Obama's speeches were of the highest quality. McCain returned to the humble man of 2000, the candidate many people wanted him to be again this year. Obama has a lot of pressure on him now. He's promised Change, he's promised unity, he's promised to remake America brick by brick. Will he be able to live up to the hype? We'll wait and see.

Owain Who?

2008-11-04T13:43:00.008Z

We all know the stereotype of the estate agent that embellishes a bit on the history or quality of a property they want to sell, but when it comes to McCartneys Estate Agents in Knighton, Powys they may well be able to argue that their apparent blunder is no more than another Western Mail mess up.

In the Western Mail story today we find out that McCartneys are selling Castle Hill for a client of theirs. Local tradition has it that King Arthur was married on the mountain. The Western Mail's report also tells us that:

These days there’s not much to separate it from thousands of other grassy hills that dot rural Wales – other than the buried remains of a Norman castle destroyed by Owain Glyndŵr’s forces...the Normans built a castle on the hill as a way of keeping the troublesome local population in check. But it was unsuccessful in its design, and was consigned to ruin after Owain Glyndŵr’s forces laid waste to it in 1262.

Problem is of course Owain Glyndŵr never saw Knucklas Castle, let alone destroy it. How do I know this? Owain Glyndŵr was not born in 1262, and not for another 95 or so years!

A quick history check tells us that it was Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf's men who destroyed the Castle, led by his general Owain ap Madoc!

What makes the mistake even more careless is that it quotes the Estate Agent's description of the property:

Available evidence suggested that Knucklas Castle was of a square construction with substantial stone walls and a circular tower at each corner. Its purpose was to remind the more or less hostile Welsh population who was in charge. It was attacked in 1262. The castle is last mentioned in contemporary records in 1316.

This description is taken nearly word for word from the Castle Wales' entry on Knucklas Castle:

...available evidence suggested that Knucklas Castle was basically a square construction with substantial stone walls and a circular tower at each corner. Its purpose was to remind the more or less hostile Welsh population who was in charge..The castle is last mentioned in contemporary records in 1316...

The next half of that last sentence on the Castle Wales website reads:

...it is very unlikely it was anything more than a ruin by the time of Owain Glyndwr's revolt in 1402.

Good old Western Mail, as trustworthy as always!

Obama Wins!

2008-11-04T11:22:00.003Z

Two US towns have declared their results for the presidential elections. In Dixville Notch, New Hampshire 40 years of Republican rule has ended after the townspeople voted for Obama by 15 votes to 6.

In the other town to traditionally open and close voting early - Hart's Location - Obama's 17 votes beat McCain's 10. With Ron Paul winning two votes the town was able to declare 100% turnout and an Obama victory!

Other US towns, Cities and Precincts are so slow compared to those two bustling towns and won't start reporting results until at least 11pm our time!

Slow Seperatists

2008-11-04T11:08:00.002Z

According to a study by the University of Edinburgh and the UK Medical Research Council Plaid voters were thicker than their Lib Dem, Labour and Tory counterparts at the age of 10.

Some good news (at last) for the Liberal Democrats is that their voters were the brainiest kids from the main parties (only the Greens had brighter kids growing into voters). The Tories pipped Labour to third place with Plaid voters strolling in 5th, marginally ahead of their Scottish counterparts. UKIP and non-voters were low IQ children while, unsurprisingly, BNP voters were the least intelligent as children!

The "research" tested 6,000 UK kids aged 10 and then, 24 years later, asked them who they voted for in 2001.

Of course, if you believe such research has any bearing on reality then you're not even smarter than a ten year old kid who'll grow up to be a BNP voter!

Ya Halfwits

2008-11-01T20:51:00.003Z

The Scymraeg sign that came into existence due to an automated reply e-mail has now been taken down. Showing us poor blogs how it's done the mainsream media in the guise of the BBC and Western Mail finally got the story today. Yahoo even made it their main news on their UK homepage. Only problem is, someone in Yahoo can't seem to read English, let alone Welsh. The picture they've used for their story is not the sign in question, it's the sign at Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantyseiliogogogoch Railway Station - a sign that has so little to do with the main story it's not even a bilingual sign (there being no English name for the long named village!)

Do as we Say, Not as we Do

2008-11-01T17:45:00.003Z

David Cameron - 21st October

Lots of our small businesses provide goods and services to local authorities, with payment normally coming within 30 days. But Brentwood and Castlepoint councils have led the way in reducing this to just 20 days. These 10 days can make all the difference in paying bills and staff, and helping businesses survive, and I want more local authorities to take it up

Western Mail - 1st November

A flagship Conservative council has been criticised for paying less than 40% of its bills on time. Monmouthshire Council, one of two Welsh authorities controlled by the Conservatives, has a record twice as bad as the Welsh average. County halls are supposed to pay all uncontested invoices – bills for everything from school meal suppliers to management consultants – within 30 days. In 2007-08 Monmouthshire paid just 39.9% of bills within this period.

Oops, someone didn't get the memo Dave!

Praise You!

2008-10-30T14:47:00.003Z

A good spot by the "What Is Wales And What It Is For?" blog today.

The Mule recently printed a nice glossy magazine informing us of the up and coming Welsh business to watch out for, their so called "Fast Growth 50". One page of the magazine was dedicated to the re-born blogger and Tory politician Professor Dylan Jones-Evans. A very flattering piece apparently, Prof Jones Evans was described as a "passionate champion who is ahead of his time".

The founder and Director of the Fast Growth 50 project and editor of the magazine? Professor Dylan Jones-Evans!

Time to Type

2008-10-30T11:08:00.004Z

Right then, while the home concerns are still there, I need to push them to the back of my mind for a while so I'm back. Let's catch up...

Gordon Brown and David Cameron have decided that the most important thing for our leader and leader-in-waiting to address this week is not the economic crisis that has left thousands of the Welsh workforce unemployed (along with the the rest of the UK), it's not the fact that they're going to have to make huge decisions about Iraq once Obama (probably) wins on Tuesday, it's not even the fact that their respective darlings Mandelson and Osbourne have been cavorting around on yachts causing trouble. Oh no, the big issue that our leaders have made sure they address is the fact that two BBC radio hosts told someone that one of them had slept with his granddaughter. A revelation so shocking to the show's listeners that 2 of them felt the need to complain. Two. While remembering that there shouldn't really be a bandwagon over the matter in the first place (who are the Sun to express disgust at such thing, have you read their celebrity gossip column?) we certainly don't want Brown and Cameron' jumping on to it! And shock horror, David Davies MP has also called on Brand and Ross to resign. The man is like a machine, any hint of newspaper coverage and there he is, calling on someone to resign!

Talking about the "True" Wales founder, Welsh Ramblings points us towards a Daily Mail story reporting on the Monmouth MP telling the National BLACK Police Association that they were as racist as the apartheid regime in South Africa because only black policemen could join the National BLACK Police Association. While David Davies must be hurt by the negative press, I a have a feeling that what will hurt him most is the fact that it's his best friends in the Daily Mail who are lampooning him and that they had the nerve to say this:

"Many members had expected the more famous former shadow home secretary to be speaking and few recognised his namesake, who is also a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee, when he stood up to speak."

Ouch!

Update: As Ordovicius points out, Alan Williams MP for Swansea West and Father of the House is also named in the piece as "a dud"

David Davies isn't the only Welsh MP who has had a bit of a kicking by the Mail this week. Ceredigion Lib Dem MP Mark Williams won't have enjoyed the paper's column on worthless MP's. I'm sure that this quote won't be appearing on the Lib Dems pamphlet come the next election:

"On the LibDem benches, meanwhile, we are assured that one Mark Williams sits for the electors of Ceredigion (Cardiganshire in old money). Does he? Could have fooled me. What makes this all the worse is that the alleged Mr Williams - who may well be Inspector Clouseau, for all we know - won his seat at the last general election by ousting Plaid Cymru's Simon Thomas, an outstanding parliamentarian"

Again - ouch!

Down the bay I missed the whole Lord Dafydd vs London fight. The story's been well covered by now so I won;t go too far into it apart from noting that this must be one of the first occasions in the history of the Assembly where Dafydd Ellis-Thomas caused a stir and was actually supported by all the AM's! There's no doubt that the Lord was right on this one, but whether he won or not is harder to tell. While some pro-devolutionists believe that the LCO mess will be a big boost to the Yes campaign (whenever it is created!) I don't believe it will be. Most people have no idea how the LCO's work and don't read such stories in the Mule (if they read it at all). This is a story read by us anoraks and no-one else I feel.

Welsh Ramblings also quotes this exchange from the floor of the Commons. For all those who refer to the Assembly as a talking shop, have a read of this:

Richard Younger-Ross MP: ... Blue Peter was important to me as a child ... I remember those wonderful moments with the elephant, the gentleman sniffing, John Noakes, the dogs — what were their names?

Lembit Opik MP: The Blue Peter dogs since the inception of the programme were called Petra, Patch, Shep, Goldie, Bonnie, Mabel and Lucy. There was also a dog called Meg, but it was not an official Blue Peter dog. It belonged to Matt Baker and frequently appeared on the show, so including that one, there were eight dogs.

Mr. Deputy Speaker: Order. That is a detail which could possibly be left for Committee.

Nice to know Lembit is as focused on the important things as Brown, Cameron and David Davies!

Right then. What next?

The Dangers of Auto-Reply

2008-10-28T15:19:00.004Z

A quick post to keep you entertained while I'm on my break, the Flickr group Scymraeg has had this truly beautiful sign uploaded recently.
The English is clear enough, and the Welsh is grammatically perfect. I assume that whoever was in charge of creating the sign e-mailed their usual translator asking him what "No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential sites only" was in Welsh. He must have received a very swift response and immediately ordered the sign and had it put up.

Unfortunately the reply he received wasn't quite what he expected. The Welsh part of the sign says:

I am currently out of the office. Send any work to be translated.

Oops!

Have a Break

2008-10-26T12:04:00.003Z

I know there's been a huge dip in posts recently, the Hen Ferchetan has some family issues to sort out which is succeeding in blocking politics from my mind for the time being, even with such whoppers as the LCO arguments and Osbourne and Mandelson's mischief making filling up the news pages!

I'll be back soon enough, speak to you soon!

Give Me a H!

2008-10-15T18:58:00.003+01:00

So True Wales have decided that one line of attack they will use to make people vote "No" is to remind us voter about all those AM's with their snouts in the trough spending all those expenses. It could prove an useful argument for them, after all what voter wants to see their money being used to fund someones excessive second home, food and hotel expenditure?

It could be worse you know. Imagine if those AM's claimed 5 times more expenses than they currently do! Sound insane? Well it is possible, all they need to do is change to a very similar job in London. If they want advice about how to do so, then I know who they can ask...

Average AM Expenses Claim inc Travel: £6,682.73
Maximum Expenses Claim inc Travel Made by any AM: £12,500
True Wales Founder David Davies MP Expenses Claim inc Travel: £33,375

% of AM's claiming more than 99% of the maximum allowance: 16%
% of maximum allowance claimed by True Wales Founder David Davies MP: 99.96%

Can I hear someone saying "hypocrite"?

(David Davies MP Expenses figures from here)

Hoorah!

2008-10-13T21:18:00.002+01:00

The Lords have amended the government's terror legislation to remove the extension of the time limit for detention without charge.

It comes to something when we have to depend on the unelected, elderly, white, posh males (majority speaking) to bring sense and justice back to the fore.

Hopefully the matter is now dead, and Gordon Brown won;t try to push his evil pet-project through with the Parliament Acts

Check Facts? Nah, Who Cares!

2008-10-13T19:17:00.003+01:00

The anti-Brunstrom campaign continues with a Tory MP and London Media bursting in mock outrage against North Wales Police' Chief new policy to remove "Police" from squad cars and leave them with just "Heddlu". First up let me state the obvious, North Wales Police don't have such a policy and, if they did, it would be illegal as Police forces in Wales are required to be bilingual.

The comments attributed to Brunstrom came from a forum on the Welsh language where he was discussing the lack of the word "Heddlu" on squad cars when he first started. He said that people who resisted the addition of the Welsh had argued that it was dangerous and people could die due to misunderstandings. He pointed out that if that argument held any water, which it doesn't, then in areas where most were first speakers Welsh it should have been in Welsh only.

Cue Tory MP and London Media.

David Jones, Tory MP for Clwyd West, had a chat with the Sun, who printed the story under the heading Take 'police' off all my cop cars. The Tory said:

"We cannot allow this nonsense to continue. It's bad for community relations and it's got to stop"

Reading the article it is sad but predictable that the Sun totally misstates his words. They state:

"Mr Brunstrom rejected claims that English visitors would not understand what the police cars were if they were marked only as ‘Heddlu’.

He said: “There were many false arguments that people would die if Heddlu was used.

“It was absolute arrogant nonsense.” Now that's not what Brunstrom said. While the quotes are correct, he was not referring to it being a false argument that people would die if it was only marked as Heddlu, he was referring to the old argument when people objected to making the cars bilingual. But hey, when has The Sun ever bothered about getting it's facts right.

Unsurprisingly the story was then picked up by the usual hit squad of the Mail and the Times, using the same quote in the same distorted way.

The best quote though comes on the BBC website The BBC, unlike the other three bastions of journalism, bothered to check the facts with North Wales Police before just writing a story. North Wales Police explained what I have done above, namely that there is no such policy and there will be no such policy, and quite right too. Of course the rent-a-quote Tory MP couldn't accept he was wrong and insisted that he stood by his comments, even though they made no sense once the facts were revealed.

The quote I enjoyed though was not from David Jones MP but from Jeanette Miller, president and chief executive of the Association of Motor Offence Lawyers. She said that there was no doubt that removing the word Police would cause problems:

"I think there would be a good argument that a motorist was unaware of any requirement to stop if the word police is removed from signage on police cars"

It's a car with blue and yellow stripes, a huge blue flashing light at the top, a loud siren and two uniformed coppers inside - I wonder what it could be!

The Irony of Truth

2008-10-13T19:05:00.004+01:00

The laughably named True Wales now have a website! It doesn't contain much yet, but it's already a step further than the Yes campaign. Interesting to read their Vision Statement though:

VISION STATEMENT

Our Wales is a beautiful, diverse country which belongs to all who live here. There are many versions of 'Welshness', all to be respected and celebrated. We believe in equality and fairness for all citizens, regardless of linguistic preference, ethnicity, faith, political persuasion or gender.

There is no place in our Wales for discrimination or prejudice against any group or country. We value all the settlers who have contributed to our cultural diversity and our shared heritage within the United Kingdom.

True Wales advocates:

spending priorities that reflect the needs of all the people
restoration of a cohesive, tolerant society
no increase in the current number of AMs and MPs
keeping the Secretary of State for Wales
the maintenance of a strong position within the United Kingdom
that any application to draw down Legislative Competence Orders from the United Kingdom Government must have the support of the majority of Welsh people

Wait a second..."restoration of a cohesive, tolerant society"? "No place for discrimination or prejudice"? I thought this was supposed to be a No campaign for the referendum? Is the implication supposed to be therefore that those who want a Yes vote are discriminatory, prejudiced bigots? That's the picture True Wales seems to be painting.

It's also interesting to note their vision that every LCO should have a referendum on it. Are they mad? We're talking anything between 5 and 11 LCO's a year, how many millions do they intend to spend on referendums (seeing as how they've declared themselves the protector of public money)?

Betsan also comments on the lies and slights of hand printed in the No Campaign's first door to door leaflets. It makes a mockery of their name, "True" Wales indeed. It's also interesting to note which part of Wales has received these scaremongering pamphlets. The leafy suburbs of the South-East, the most likely of areas to vote No and therefore the least likely to pick up on the spin and deceit in the No leaflets.

The problem is that while the two Davids are peddling lies and innuendo the Yes campaign is still waiting to be launched. What's that saying about lies being able to run twice around the world before the truth puts it's shoes on? We need a Yes Campaign now, not tomorrow.

Martin, You Forgot Your Pen!

2008-10-12T19:48:00.003+01:00

Wales' 40th best blogger (apparently) Martin Eaglestone has resigned as Labour prospective Parliamentary candidate for Arfon.

Martin states personal reasons for his resignation and having lost four elections in a row I guess that kind of thing does get personal. Arfon is, technically, a Labour seat. Although it has a Plaid Cymru sitting MP it's boundaries have been withdrawn to the extent that the seat is considered a very marginal Labour one.

Having been trounced in the first post-boundary change election (Assembly 2007) there was no way Martin Eaglestone was going to "retain" the seat for Labour. So what is Labour's plan? Have they found a heavyweight candidate and therefore forced Martin to step down? (Betty Williams will certainly have some free time come the next election, and she does have roots in the area) or will they now effectively concede the seat and pick an unknown young candidate to "train him up" for the next set of elections?

With Llais Gwynedd winning seats on the Council, do Labour think that their best option is to pick a sacrificial lamb and hope the anti-Plaid coalition called under the Llais Gwynedd banner will unseat Hywel Williams? I Doubt it, if Llais Gwynedd have a chance anywhere (and I don't think that they do mind) it would be Elfyn Llwyd they'd be targeting, not Hywel Williams.

Update: It is now apparent that Martin's decision to step down was, unusually for politics, purely personal. I hope you'll enjoy your life outside of politics Martin.

Lover's Tiff

2008-10-12T15:35:00.003+01:00

A final note for now, it seems that two of our small world's heavyweights, Most Improved/Best New Blog and Sauregurkenzeit Award winner Pippa Wagstaff and Best Welsh Political and Best Welsh Nationalist Blog Ordovicius have a bit of a lover's tiff going, with Welsh Ramblings also getting in the mix.

Pippa's Monarchist post set it off and I have to say I can see where the criticism came from. While there's clearly an argument to be made for the Monarchy, it's not the one Pippa made, and it's certainly not one that needs to be preached with such arrogance. And while we all enjoy the occasional bash at the Lord of Wales that is our Presiding Officer, when Pippa labels him the "self-appointed Lord Protector" in a pro-Charlie post, you have to ask who she's talking about, our elected AM and Presiding Officer or the bloke who was given his title at birth?

I don't know, I always assumed Miss Wagstaff Presents to be a Tory blog at heart, but with
subtlety and wit and with a clear dedication to not preaching a party line (unlike plenty of Plaid and Labour blogs). There seems to be a bit less of the former and a bit more of the latter recently, I do hope it's only a short blip.

Heard It All Before

2008-10-12T15:32:00.002+01:00

A reader pointed me in the direction of a Daily Post column from last month where writer Tom Boden commented on Adam Price's Assembly ambitions, ending his piece with:

"But as we are at it, how about Carmarthen East AM Rhodri Glyn Thomas - of the lit cigar pub scandal - deciding to stand down from the Assembly, swapping his candidate's role with Mr Price, who could then sweep into Cardiff Bay? You saw it here first."

Two months too late I'm afraid Mr Boden:

"One final note on this whole saga, there is one possible after-effect that needs be considered. In 3 years it's National Assembly election time again - will Rhodri Glyn be standing? Having been a minister and now returned to the back benches will he have the desire for another 4 years? If not then it would open up an Assembly candidacy spot in Carmathen East and Dinefwr. Can anyone think of a politician from that area who may be looking for an Assembly seat come 2011?"

Poll Ponderings

2008-10-12T15:16:00.002+01:00

Next up is a new poll data for us to pore through. The Assembly Commission's huge poll asked people, once again, about their views on the Welsh Assembly, a Parliament and independence.

Andrew R T Davies will take a small fall from his high horse with the news that support for independence doubles in the under 24's, but much more interesting is the party by party data, but any pleasure Plaid will get from that would be cancelled out by the fact that the poll states that only 27% of their own voters want independence.

Peter Hain told us just last week that:

“Welsh Labour members – and even more Welsh Labour voters – are currently overwhelmingly against an early referendum, and I do not see that changing for some years to come.”

Some asked at the time where he got that piece of information from and it seems even more codswallop than before today as the poll discovers that only a third of Labour voters would vote No. 50% of Labour voters want a Parliament or independence. As I said last week, Peter Hain is nowhere near the wavelength that his party's members are on.

The most bizarre finding though is that 2% of Plaid voters want to scrap devolution all together. Do they know who they're voting for?!

Note: The call for a Yes campaign increased today with the launch of an online cross-party group calling for a referendum, see here. Not being a Facebookian myself I can't join but I hope you do!

All Change

2008-10-12T15:02:00.002+01:00

Right then, a whole basket of topics to talk about today so let's start with the hello's and goodbyes.

Jane Davidson will be off in 2011. The ex-Education Minister has told Labour's Pontypridd branch that she's giving up the job. Not a sniff of a scandal around Davidson so there's no reason to treat it as anything other than early retirement.

Mike German has also, finally, stepped down. The race to be his replacement begins and we should have the first female party leader in the Assembly by December. In his goodbye speech to the party faithful he stated that the Union was "dead" and that the only options for the future was a federalised UK or an independent Wales. He warned that Wales was in danger of getting left behind in the devolution race, echoing Peter Black's recent call for a Yes Campaign.

Jenny Randerson immediately put her hand up as a candidate which, after Kirsty declared herself to be a candidate last month, means that the Lib Dems have a contest. Peter Black has immediately written Randerson off as "more of the same" but she has collected heavyweight support in the shape of the Lib Dems only "safe" MP, Jenny Willot and the leader of Cardiff Council Rodney Berman. Unfortunately for her though she's also attracted the support of serial loser-backer Lembit Opik. Unsurprisingly Peter Black, a staunch Kirsty backer, immediately declared his support for Opik's opponent for the UK party presidency!

Even though Ordovicius clearly thinks otherwise I'll give the Libs the benefit of the doubt and state that this could be an interesting contest. It will be the first leadership contest between two females for one thing and, as the UK Lib Dems have showed us over and over, when it comes to Lib Dem leadership issues they can be pretty nasty with each other.

Flynn's Words of Wisdom

2008-10-09T21:46:00.007+01:00

"No, No, We're Welsh, Welsh and Welsh and even more Welsh and our association alongside Scotland and Northern Ireland's party line is that we want to keep our independence and that is so important to us."

Bryan Flynn, U21 Wales Coach when asked whether he supports a Team GB for 2012.

British Olympic Association Chief Simon Clegg stated on Dragon's Eye today that politicians like Plaid's Adam Price and Labour's Lesley Griffiths were "jumping on a bandwagon, this is a sports issue not political". I have three issues with that. Firstly where was Clegg's objections when UK Minister for Sports Andy Burham says:

"I just hope we can overcome any differences and bring a strong British football team to the London Olympics."

Secondly, of course this is political not a sports issue. If it was merely a sports issue the BOA would listen to British football fans and shelve the whole idea. They would listen to the Welsh, English, Scottish and Northern Irish fan Federations, all of whom are against the very notion of Team GB. Finally, seeing as how the definition of jumping on the bandwagon is following the crowd, is Simon Clegg admitting what we all know anyway, that the crowd doesn't want a Team GB?

And by the way, when Dragon's Eye tells us that the FAW's worries over losing independence exist despite Sebb Blatter giving reassurance to the contrary they're simply lying. Blatter, the President of FIFA, has made such comments in the past, 5 whole years ago, but his most recent comments on the subject is this:

"If you start to put together a combined team for the Olympics, the question will automatically come up that there are four different associations so how can they play in one team. If this is the case then why the hell do they have four associations and four votes and their own vice-presidency? This will put into question all the privileges that the British associations have been given by the Congress in 1946"

Sorry BBC, but I'm not "reassured"!

Another True Blue?

2008-10-09T21:21:00.005+01:00

In a 3 minute interview on Dragon's Eye Tory AM Andrew R T Davies managed to mention that 10% of Welsh people wanted independence while 90% were "passionate Unionists" a total of FOUR times!

Was the interview about independence or about the referendum even? Nope, it was an interview about whether or not we should have events celebrating 40 years since Charles was investitured and whether there should be another pompous ceremony at Caernarfon Castle when William (maybe) becomes Prince of Wales.

Can anyone else spot the relevance of quoting independence figures because I surely can't! I'm sure David Davies and David Rees will be very proud of him though.

Update: Ordovicius has the transcript here

Barack Jones

2008-10-09T20:48:00.003+01:00

The new Barack Obama advert has actors playing the part of McCain's campaign staff in a strategy meeting.

Reminds you a lot of Plaid Cymru's hugely successful Party Political Broadcasts last year (before you ask, my definition of a "hugely successful" PPB in Welsh politics is very very low, all that a PPB requires to reach that level is that I can just about remember what happened in them - that "We know what's best for Wales" line still chills my bones!)

Who knew the next President of the USA was such a buff of Welsh politics!

Hat Tip: Vaughan

Seb Coe's Groupies

2008-10-09T18:59:00.002+01:00

It seems that there are a handful of people who agree with Seb Coe that the FAW, WAG and Welsh football fan Federation should have their objections overridden. The Welsh Assembly website gives us voters the ability to start a petition, similar to the Number 10 website that has had a lot of publicity.

One of the petitions currently running states:

After the great success of team GB at the Beijing Olympics, a great example of our united strength. We call upon the National Assembly to lobby the Football Association of Wales to work with the three other football associations in the UK to put aside their vested interests to allow a Team GB football team to compete on home soil in London 2012, hopefully adding to our medal haul.

The petition was written and added by a David Rees. I wonder if this is the same David Rees that sleeps in the same "No" bed as David Davies!

One of the signatories is an Alwyn ap Huw - I very much doubt that that's the Miserable Old Fart!

The petition's nemesis, a petition calling for a Welsh Team in the 2012 Olympics found here, is well ahead in the number of signatories at the moment, but there's plenty of time left to sign either!

That's Why Councils Go To Iceland

2008-10-09T15:32:00.006+01:00

The list of Welsh Councils who have money stuck in Icelandic bank account continues to grow, with Caerffili announcing that they have £15m deposited in the island's troubled institutions. They join Ceredigion (£5.5m), Powys (£4m), Gwynedd (£4m), Fflint (£3.7m), Rhondda Cynon Taf (£3m), Mynwy (£1.2m) and Gwent's Police Authority(£1m) in sweating on the fate of their deposited millions. (Neath Port Tabot is still checking!)

Update: Neath Port Talbot have confirmed they have £20m in Icelandic banks, putting them squarely at the top of the "Welsh Councils Crapping Themselves" list, South Wales Police have £7m in jeopardy while Dyfed-Powys Police complete the list with nother £2m and and bringing the total of Welsh publc money at risk to £66.4m.

Plaid AM Chris Franks said today:

"When I was a councillor I met with local authority treasurers, my first question was always 'are you sure the money is invested in a safe haven rather than in accounts that paid the top interest rates'. I would hope members of local authorities in Wales would have asked similar questions."

If that was meant to be a political dig towards Rhondda's Labour controlled council, as Vaughan suggests it was, then it's a stupidly misguided one. Until a week or two ago the Icelandic banks were considered totally secure and no amount of questioning his local authority treasurers would have suggested otherwise. That's why Kent Council has £50m there, why Transport for London have £40m there and why Welsh Councils have more than £36m there, £19m of which, and take note Chris, was put there by Plaid Cymru controlled councils.

Franks isn't the only one to speak nonsense on this issue. The Taxpayer's Alliance also seems to totally misunderstand how the world works. Their spokesman stated:

"People will be shocked that the councils had this money stashed away in the first place. Every year we hear that councils don’t have enough money and need to raise taxes but it seems they have had sufficient excess tax to salt tens of millions of pounds away. The fact that they have invested this money and seem to have lost it is even more shocking and is sadly yet another reminder of the poor financial management in local councils. In short, they should not have stashed this money in the first place and they simply weren’t equipped to try to be clever in the markets with it.”

Council get their funding in blocks from the Assembly, what does the Taxpayer's Alliance think they should do with it through the year, stash it under the mattress?

Why Use The Stick?

2008-10-09T10:33:00.002+01:00

Rhetoric Innes comments on Peter Black's speech and repeats the mistakes Peter did in that speech.

As I posted yesterday I think that what Peter said needed saying and I agree with most of it. But it makes it harder for me to see it as a honest, passionate plea for a Yes campaign when he peppered it with petty point-scoring.

What on earth does London's mad ID-card scheme have to do with establishing a Yes campaign, or Edwina's new Health policy. Even more bizarre, what do ASBO's and curfews have to do with it?| Nothing of course, but I guess that as a politician Peter Black is unable of resisting the urge to try and score points.

Does Peter honestly believe that the best way to get Rhodri and Ieuan to start a cross-party campaign with his Liberal Democrats by calling them "devo-doubters" and by slagging them off on affordable homes and "Y Byd". His speech should have been a call to Labour and Plaid to work together along with the Lib Dems to bring forth a Yes campaign, not just an attempt to bash them in public.

Rhetoric Innes does the exact same thing, stating that:

If you are reading this outside of Wales. It is the Welsh Liberal democrats who are at the fore of Pro-Devolution. The Separatist Plaid Cymru do not want this compromise. Both the Welsh Conservatives and Welsh Labour do not recognise or choose not to recognise that Separatist Nationalism will increase under a Tory government with people in Wales feeling disenfranchised at being ruled by a government they largely did not vote in.

Yes it gives us all a good laugh to imagine the Lib Dems being at the fore of anything, but again you have to ask whether calling Plaid "separatist" and telling the Tories that they'll be a government that nobody wants is the best way to promote a cross-party campaign.

If you want everyone to co-operate and work together for the good of a Yes campaign, don;t start by slagging them all off in an attempt for party political gain.

Our Creators

2008-10-08T22:18:00.004+01:00

The Daily Mail has recently printed a list of the 50 people who "wrecked Britain". Apparently these are the people that made Britain "the ugly, ignorant, beer-ridden and brawling place it is today".

Wales' very own "Prif Copyn" Richard Brunstrom makes the list (honestly) along with such awful people as Princess Diana, the man who invented the mini-roundabout and Jimmy Saville. Imagine how much happier we'd all have bee without these people...!

A few more deserving souls anmed in the list are Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Maggie Thatcher and Janet Street Porter. There is also a special mention for Wales' first First Minister:

"A dismal little doormat called Alun Michael. To look at, he is not a striking proposition, a careworn creature with the hunched shoulders and lank hair of a natural loser."

And the annoyance of all bloggers (Just kidding, love you all really!) also get a mention - Internet Anons!

But surely, pride of place in the list must be reserved for the truly evil, the god-awful, the child-corrupting Topsy and Tim. Apparently these cpreaches:

"A Britain peopled by disciples of Topsy and Tim would not last long in the world of international terrorism. If we succumb to the worldview of Topsy and Tim, we might as well give up now."

I still can't believe people actually read this paper!

I Say Yes, You Say No

2008-10-08T22:03:00.002+01:00

Peter Black made a speech in Plenary today calling for the establishment of a Yes campaign for further powers - I can't agree more.

The One Wales Agreements commits the government to a referendum before 2011 with the caveat that they can pull out if they think they'll lose it. I understand the need for the caveat, if it was clear that a referendum would end up in a 1979 drubbing then it would set back further devolution for a decade or two. But there's an increasing worry that Labour and Plaid are planning to rely on that clause just because they cannot be guaranteed of a win.

That is poppycock.

Washed-up Has-been Peter Hain is telling us that there shouldn't be a referendum before 2011 because people don't want further powers. Of course what he really means is that Labour MP's don't want further powers. When he says that the majority of Labour members and voters are against it then he should cast his mind back to last year when his party's members voted for the One Wales Agreement by about 79% to 21%. If it was only Peter Hain making that argument then it would be easy enough to ignore, nobody listens to him anymore anyway (as proven by the 79% who wanted a coalition with Plaid even though Peter had ruled it out, and that was before his disgrace and resignation). But he isn't the only one saying it. We keep hearing that we need to be sure we'll win before we announce a referendum, that we need to be sure that we'll win before we launch a Yes campaign.

That is poppycock.

The whole point, the only point, of a Yes campaign is to convince Welsh voters that further powers is a good thing and that they should vote Yes (that's why we call it a "Yes" campaign!). Unless we put forward the case for further powers, the undecided voters will not be convinced. How can we win enough support to be guaranteed a victory if we never start campaigning for a Yes vote? It simply makes no sense.

Polls and research show more people supportive of further powers than are against it. There's enough undecided to swing the vote either way. But there's no use sitting on our arses waiting for those undecided to switch to the Yes camp, the only way that will happen is if we set up a Yes camp and start using our energies to convince them it's worth voting Yes.

It's about time Rhodri and Ieuan pulled their finger out and start putting the case for further powers.

Mea Culpa

2008-10-05T20:33:00.002+01:00

Nick Bourne, having last week denied having any role in the Clown Prince of Wales dossier now admits that he had singed off on it. Apparently, being so busy preparing for the Tories' Convention he only speed-readed the dossier and didn't notice the paragraphs which he ended up denouncing. He's apologised to Rhodri Morgan and apologised to his staff for dropping them in it.

Will it be enough to save his job? If I was a betting girl, I'd say yes.

Can Never Change His Spots

2008-10-05T20:21:00.004+01:00

I didn't see the Politics Show today, but apparently Peter Hain appeared on the show and stated that he would argue against a referendum in Wales before 2011, even though the Welsh branch of his party had voted for one. His reasoning was that there was division in Labour about the subject and that without the support of the whole of Labour the referendum would be lost. In other words, instead of trying to convince his colleagues that a successful referendum would be good for Wales, instead of setting out to prove his colleagues wrong, Peter Hain wants to do exactly what he did in drafting the Government of Wales Act 2006 and put the unity of the Labour party before the good of Wales. I can't say I'm surprised, I just hope that Labour's Assembly group ignore the busted flush member for Neath.

The Double Century post!

Sunday Sillies

2008-10-05T19:58:00.004+01:00

Sunday is a day of rest - no work, no night out to plan, nothing to do. That's why we get the big fat papers on Sunday and that's why Sunday's are usually the day bloggers, commentators and forum users bicker about stupid things to waste time.

Today seems to fit that bill perfectly. The News of the World prints a story saying that the One Wales Government is going to scrap free prescriptions. Straight away alarm bells should be ringing in a reader's head. Firstly, it's the News of the World. Now while that should be enough to make the reader suspicious of the truth of the story there's plenty more.

The paper's source is from Whitehall, that makes him an English Health Department source. Recent months have seen plenty of tension between Edwina in the Bay and Ben Bradshaw, the English Health Minister. If the WAG were about to scrap their free prescription policy then you can be sure that Bradshaw's department would not be the first to know. Another reason to cast doubt on it all is the reason given, namely that Doctor are prescribing over the counter medicine and that the cost of the policy has ballooned due to all those millionaires abusing it. As I've noted before, the rise in the amount of prescriptions issued since the scrapping is virtually the same as the rises that occurred every year for the past half decade.

So surely anyone with any knowledge of Welsh politics would have written this story off as Whitehall mischief making. Apparently not. Tory Health Spokesman Jonathan Morgan is quoted as saying:

"This news destroys the Welsh Assembly Government’s remaining fragments of credibility over health policy. Ministers in Cardiff must now give clear answers as to the future of this initiative."

Glyn Davies also seems desperate to believe the story while Miss Wagstaff, not a fan of free prescriptions, barely pauses to question it, and the same is true of David Jones MP.

Personally I'm no big fan of free prescriptions. As long as the means test limit is set high enough to cover the people who need it then people like me who earn enough not to be on the breadline should fork out for our pills. Having said that I don't see it as a disastrous policy, neither do I see it as just a gimmick. After all our Health Service is supposed to be free, something it simply would not be if we paid for our prescriptions. But even though I'm not a fan of the policy, I'm not going to jump on an obviously false story to try and make a political point of it.

Glyn Davies believes that this is a huge story unless the One Wales Government issue a categorical denial with no weasel words.

"The story in today's News of the World is absolute nonsense. We told the newspaper on Friday that we have no intention of 'pulling the plug' on our free prescription scheme, which is highly popular, and we're delighted that Scotland and Northern Ireland are following our lead. We're at a loss to understand where this story has come from"

Categorical enough for you?

Shocking Shuffle

2008-10-03T19:29:00.003+01:00

So the Welsh Secretary job survives once again and Murphy doesn't join HTV's 17 employees on the dole. Whether Brown even considered amalgamating the Cabinet post for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland who knows, the stories have been around since time immemorial.

The big story from the Cabinet reshuffle though is the return of Peter Mandelson. Having entered government twice, and being sacked in disgrace twice, no-one predicted a return for Mandy. So what is Gordon thinking? Surely he can't believe that bringing back Mandelson would be a hit with the voters, and with his new minister's track record surely Gordon didn't pick him as a safe pair of hands.

I can only think of one plausible explanation for bringing back Peter Mandelson to the Cabinet. Gordon Brown wants to remind us that as much as we all hate him, there's someone we hate more!

At The Opticians

2008-10-02T23:12:00.009+01:00

Senedd Whip seems to believe we all got a bit hot under the collar with Lord Coe's "Fuck 'Em" moment (or "alleged" moment!) because that he's a Tory.

Sorry Mr Whippy, it has a bit more to do with the fact that we're told he told us to Fuck off!

As I said on the previous post, the story disappeared quite quickly. Here's a copy of the printed version (courtesy of Dougthedug)

Coe hasn't commented on the story because he's in the opticians (honestly!) but the London Olympics committee says that it doesn't sound like him and that they've asked for a retraction. Skip past the expletive though and the general gist is just the same. Sky News, being a tad more restrained than theLondonPaper, tells us that Lord Coe spoke "bluntly" on the subject and when asked what about the objections of the Scottish Parliament and Scottish FA (along with WAG, FAW, FA of Northern Ireland and the Fans Federations of all four home nations) he said that they would be "over-ruled".

So whether he said "Fuck 'Em" or not, and (as a present for Senedd Whip) be him a Tory, Labourite, Lib Dem, Celtic Nationalist or Monster Raving loony Party member, I still think he's a prat!

The Bourne Supremacy?

2008-10-02T23:03:00.004+01:00

Nick Bourne appears to be in some trouble. First is the rumours that the long (long) awaited Richards Report into the Tories' position on further devolution which Cameron is refusing to read at this moment will advocate supporting a No campaign. Bourne has been banging the drum of further devolution for some time. If his party goes against him on the matter what will he do. Will he try and lead his AM's to breaking the party line and campaigning for his desired Yes vote? Or will he do what Glyn Davies seems to be doing already and backtrack so that he can bow-tow to his London leader?

Secondly the fallout from the "Rhodri Files" could be very damaging for Nick. Vaughan seems to believe it is will be very bad indeed for the Welsh Tory leader. Having seen the negative reaction to the dossier ridiculing Rhodri Morgan, Nick Bourne now claims that he had nothing to do with it and has apparently apologised to Rhodri in private. Tory insiders claim that Nick actually signed off on it while Glyn Davies sticks the knife in a bit further by stating that Bourne is acting like a captain walking off the field when the game gets hard.

So Mike's gone, Rhodri says he's going, Nick is in trouble - Ieuan should better make sure there's not a whiff of curry powder in the air!

The Lord Doth Speak

2008-09-30T22:03:00.005+01:00

TEAM GB will have a football team for the 2012 Games, Seb Coe has confirmed, whatever opposition is put up by the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish.

The creation of the team has been opposed by the Football Associations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland who are concerned it may compromise their individual status within Fifa.

But he said the BOA, which selects teams for the Games, has decided to press ahead with a football squad despite the opposition.

When asked last night about the opposition from the Welsh and Scots, Coe replied bluntly: “F*** em!”

The feeling's mutual mate. Prat.
Hat Tip: Gareth Young

Update: Interesting update to this story, the above story was printed in The London Paper, it is no longer available online. The Metro then wrote a story headed "Seb Coe denies 'f*** 'em' Olympic row" and now that story has also been taken down!

What Did I Just Say?

2008-09-29T20:18:00.006+01:00

Cheryl Gillian, Tory Shadow Minister for Wales

“People deserve honesty from Plaid Cymru. They deserve to know where the party stands. They should trust the people of Wales by making it crystal clear where they stand on the question of Welsh independence."

Tory policy on further devolution

Ummm........dunno

Tories "dossier" on Rhodri Morgan

“unique dress sense and hairstyle...erratic and unusual behaviour...undermined the role of First Minister and embarrassed the National Assembly and Wales”

Tory Mayor of London

Tory Chair of Assembly’s Finance Committee, 25th September

I would have a strong and equal relationship with Westminster and the other devolved governments and I would demand our fair share, I would lobby for more powers to keep money in Wales for Wales. I would like to levy a small charge on some of the companies that use us as a gateway and I would re-invest that money in developing business"

Tory Chair of Assembly’s Finance Committee, 27th September

Misquoted, never asked for tax powers - "What I am suggesting is that we need to think smarter and work harder to make money being invested in Wales work better for Wales"

The Welsh Conservative Party - so consistently inconsistent!

Media Mess

2008-09-26T13:38:00.002+01:00

So ITV Wales is, for all extent and purposes, no longer. The industry regulator, Ofcom, has announced that Welsh news coverage on the third channel will be reduced from 320 minutes a week to 240. Even worse is that non-news will fall from 240 minutes to just 90.

What this means in practical terms is that the evening Wales Today will be the only Welsh news on the channel, with the mid morning and weekend lunchtime programmes dropped. As for non-news ITV Wales' current flagship programmes like Wales This Week, Sharp End, Soccer Sunday, Fishlock's Wild Tracks and The Ferret will find themselves fighting for scraps.

ITV Wales' head of Drama was scathing in judging the proposals:

“This is the kind of vested interests and cultural arrogance we have seen over the years where they have deliberately undermined our attempts to represent Wales on the UK network."

It's already clear that coverage of devolved politics in Wales is abysmal. With the UK written media practically ignoring the Assembly all together and the Western Mail's circulation flatlining under 40,000 and seemingly concerned only in copying and pasting Adam Price's blog posts the only place the Welsh public learn about devolved politics is through their TV set. With the BBC being attacked for ignoring devolved politics and ITV now cutting their coverage to the bones things look quite bleak.

The barrenness of the media coverage was reflected by the recent poll which showed that over 30% of Welsh people interested in politics got their fix from the internet. Credit where it's due, the BBC Wales news website churn out plenty of stories, but, being the BBC, they are lifeless and simply contain quotes from government and opposition politics. The same pattern is employed by the Western Mail and her sister paper. What this means is that there is no-one left to actually investigate Welsh politics, to dig deep into her secrets and complexities. If Peter Hain had just been the Welsh Secretary and not the Secretary for Works and Pensions, would he have escaped disgrace? Because I can guarantee you that neither BBC Wales, ITV Wales nor the Western Mail would have any ability or interest to expose him.

With the possible end of Wales this Week and the Sharp End, and a further cut in Welsh news, what we are left with in this country are a few reporters. What we need is investigative reporters, but don't hold your breath.

True To Their Word

2008-09-25T09:49:00.005+01:00

Apparently we now have a wannabe official No campaign. (Such campaigns are not official until the Electoral Commission specifies them as "the chosen one", that won't happen until we actually have a referendum called).

It seems that someone had a quiet word in David Davies' ear about his suggestion of going with the slogan "Wales for the Union" so the name is now "True Wales". While the idea behind the name is that:

"members felt that those who support Wales' presence in the United Kingdom have been for too long unfairly categorised as "anti-Welsh". True Wales aims to represent the true feelings of the huge majority of people in Wales who wish to remain in the United Kingdom"

Hmm....representing the huge majority of people in Wales who wish to remain in the UK? Funny, I thought that we were talking about a referendum on further powers, something that apparently more of "people in Wales" (not "Welsh people" note) support than oppose.

As a flashback to 1997 True Wales is led by a Tory and an unknown Labour Councillor (what happened, was even Llew Smith refusing to work with you David?). Apparently the group consists of Labour, Tories and Independents, although no names yet apart from those two - I wonder if there will be anyone else we've heard of (apart from the other Welsh Tory MP's, who we can safely assume will follow David anywhere).

So what kind of debate can we expect from True Wales? The fact that they're already talking of representing those who wish to stay in UK gives you a hint of what their tactic will be. The same theme can be seen in these two recent statements from True Wales' leading men:

"...the devastating impact separation from Britain would have on Wales."

"Granting full lawmaking powers to the Assembly would be a huge step along the rocky road to full independence for Wales, which is what many people in the Yes camp actually want. Make no mistake – independence would drag Wales down to Soviet-style poverty"

So expect True Wales to try and turn the referendum into one on independence instead of debating what the referendum actually is for, a devolved Parliament, weaker than that of Scotland. It also seems that they'll colour this theme with sweeping statements like above, telling us that there is no way on God's earth Wales could survive a Yes vote and independence without becoing a third world ghetto.

Will the formation of True Wales mean a Yes campaign is set up soon? There will be lot of pressure on Labour and Plaid to form one but don't hold your breath, I have a feeling the One Wales Government has decided to wait until after the All Wales Convention before they make any such move. While that may or may not be a good idea, those in favour of a Yes vote should better start banging their drums a little louder, even if the first signs from the No campaign seem a bit weak. After all, it's important that they remember that the 1997 No campaign that so very nearly derailed devolution was also lead by an unknown Labour Councillor from the Valleys.

Time for Fisitcuffs

2008-09-25T09:42:00.004+01:00

Between Jenny Randerson sending out three announcements in a day and this video appearing on YouTube I guess it's fair to say that at least someone in the Welsh Lib Dem is up for a fight. Well, there's a first for everything!

Wow, Thanks Big G!

2008-09-24T14:39:00.004+01:00

So here's those brand spanking new promises made in Brown's big comeback speech, the things that will benefit all of us who have young kids or are old, poor or sick and make us all love Labour again...

1. Free drugs for cancer patients

2. Free universal check ups for over 40's

3. Free broadband vouchers for low-income families

4. Free nursery for 2 year olds

Anyone see the link?

Here's a hint. When Gordon said this:

"In April a Labour Britain will become the first country in the whole world to offer free universal check ups for everyone over 40."

he was very much lying.

The Times thought they'd spotted the link, but still managed to mess it up...

"Free universal check-ups for the over-40s? Extension of nursery places? No prescription charges for cancer patients? A commissioner for victims of crime? More children connected to the internet? All England and Wales only, I'm afraid."

I despair sometimes!

Money Money Money

2008-09-23T17:07:00.004+01:00

So Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire Tory Westminster candidate Simon Hart has received £40k from a hedge fund to beat Labour MP Nick Ainger in the next election. Apparently Mr Hart is an avid Countryside Alliance member and huntsman and the good old folk at Christofferson, Robb and Co are buddies of his.

While the hedge fund's HQ is in New York there's nothing dodgy about the gift as it comes from their London office, which is registered as an UK company. But you have to say it's an interesting gift. The ban on Fox Hunting had a majority of over 200 in the Commons - Simon Hart won't change that by any measurable extent.

While the Western Mail's article on the story, mainly a copy of a blog post by Plaid Cymru candidate John Dixon, puts great emphasis on the New York link I see that as a side issue. Both John Dixon and Nick Ainger seem to have realised that the best way to attack this gift is to emphasise that it came from a City hedge fund - the people most of us seem to blame for the current economic turmoil.

With Simon Hart already odds on to win Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire for the Tories, could his generous friends be more a bother than their worth?

So Influential We Forgot His Name

2008-09-23T11:47:00.004+01:00

The Telegraph's list of Top 100 lefties has a new entry at 83 this year:

83. (NEW) IEUEAN WYN JONES
Leader, Plaid Cymru

It may be mere opportunism or the example of what the SNP has achieved but Plaid Cymru’s leader has turned on his coalition partners to good effect this year. His attacks on Labour for having lost its way ring true in a Wales that has benefited from devolution and Labour governments but often not as much as the Scots seem to have done. There have been as many false dawns for Welsh nationalism as there have been general elections since the Second World War, but maybe this time with Labour in meltdown and Jones in charge their time has finally come?

Ieuean? Still, I'm sure Ieuan will be happy enough to be higher than Neil Kinnock, Ken Livingstone and Martin McGuinness in a pointless list, even if he was below a Liberal-Left Blogger!

British Bull

2008-09-19T13:44:00.008+01:00

Vaughan Roderick points us in the direction of a paper by the Minister of State Liam Byrne on Britishness. Apparently:

"Britishness is quite simply one of the most important associations that we have; it is a code, shaped by our history and reinforced by our everyday experience, which defines so much of the way we look at the world"

Really?

One of the days suggested as a potential bank Holiday to celebrate our Britishness was St George's Day! As to how we should celebrate it, Liam Byrne has his opinions again. Not too much idolising of the Union Jack (thank god for that!), by promoting posters of iconic figures like Churchill, by incorporating ex-Empire countries (oh yes, I'm sure they'd love that!), another Queen's speech (isn't one per year enough?!). Finally there is a suggestion that celebrities with the right values should take part in the national celebrations. Who are these celebrities? Liam suggests David Beckham and Kate Moss. Ah yes, a cocaine addict and a multi-multi-multi millionaire who moved to Spain and America - the perfect values for Britishness!

The document is also a masterstroke of ignoring the elephant in the room. In a 96 page document about Britishness today the word "devolution" isn't mentioned once!

Huw Lewis Leadership Tactics Part 2

2008-09-19T13:44:00.007+01:00

After his recent decision to learn Welsh, Huw Lewis has now swung his leadership campaign into Phase 2. He is quoted as saying: “

There won’t be any turning back of the clock. The coalition government is here to stay until 2011 – nobody should be saying or doing anything that might undermine that.”

What has changed the mind of the man who lost his place in Government because of his opposition to the Labour-Plaid pact? Well he'll probably need the support of one or two of those 62% of members who voted for the One Wales and the 96% of Trade Union affiliates who also voted yes!

Paralympic Gold

2008-09-14T23:17:00.002+01:00

Pontypridd's Dave Roberts notched up his 11th Paralympic Gold by winning the 50m freestyle today, equalling Tanni Grey-Thompson's record haul. Another Welsh paralympian, 13 year old Eleanor Simmonds from Swansea, took 2 gold medals and a World Record in the pool to add to the Welsh haul today. Impressive stuff.

Scotish Labour's Saviour?

2008-09-13T19:26:00.004+01:00

Scottish Labour have chosen their new leader, the Chosen One is Iain Gray. Never heard of him? Me neither! The big question of course is how will he deal with Alex Salmond and will he be able to convince Scottish voters to vote Labour in the next general Election and, more importantly, to vote No if the SNP get their referendum. In both cases he'll have to outmaneuver the SNP and out-wit the media-savy Salmond. Can he do it? Here's Gray's most high profile TV spot to date, I'll let you make your own minds up.

Reality Bites

2008-09-13T14:58:00.002+01:00

Wales Office Minister and Labour MP Huw Iranca-Davies gets the award for most bizarre attack of the day after he said this:

"I hope that after the heady nationalistic froth of Plaid Cymru’s conference, Ieuan Wyn will get back to reality. His comments this week have laid bare the soul of Plaid Cymru, and most people in Wales will not like what they have seen, as the nationalists lick their lips over the possibility of a Conservative government in Wales"

This is what Ieuan Wyn Jones said to anger Huw so much:

"The smart money is on probably the Tories winning the next general election, which I think would be bad news for Wales"

So what part of that is devoid of reality? Does Huw believe that the Tories are not odds-on to win the next election, or is he saying that Ieuan Wyn is deluded to think that the Tories winning would be "bad news for Wales"? Answers on a postcard.

Brown Bullied

2008-09-13T10:11:00.003+01:00

As the new political season swings into action nothing seems to have changed down at number 10. Yesterday Brown was forced to sack one of his whips, Siobhain McDonagh, after she called for a leadership election. McDonagh would usually be seen as a Brown ally and not one of the "usual suspects" of rebel MP's. Today another government loyalist, Joan Ryan MP, makes the same call.

There needs to be 70 MP's calling for a leadership contest before Labour are duty bound to hold one. The way these calls have been staggered over the two days (with probably more to come over the next few days) it's likely that the contest calling MP's know they haven;t got the numbers yet but are hoping that one-by-one they're setting the ball rolling before Labour's conference.

Will Brown be Labour leader come the next election? I just don't know. Common sense tells me that Labour MP's must know that keeping Brown is like Turkeys voting for Christmas, but something is telling me that a leadership contest just won't happen, not now anyway.

Hat tip to Glyn Davie s who commented on Siobhain McDonagh's calls yesterday by saying:

To this observer, it does not look like an isolated act. She's a whip, and they know a bit about tearoom chatter. I expect another grenade to be lobbed into the Brown Bunker tomorrow from behind another unexpected bush.

Well called Glyn!

Note: An anon corrects my spelling of Joan and a third Labour MP, George Howarth, calls for a leadership election.

Bye Betty Bach

2008-09-11T14:06:00.002+01:00

Conwy MP Betty "Bach" Williams will retire at the next General Election, which answers one question which has been hanging around for a while. Due to boundary changes some of her previous seat had moved to the new Arfon constituency with the rest in the new Aberconwy constituency. Although both these new seats are nominally Labour, Betty had a big problem in that both are vulnerable come the next election.

Aberconwy, won by Plaid in the Assembly elections, will almost certainly be lost to the Tories and Guto Bebb. Betty would be facing a big struggle to "defend" that seat. She would have a much better chance in the Arfon seat as she is from that area and would get a strong personal vote. Unfortunately for her Martin Eaglestone seems to have a lock on every election that covers Caernarfon, even though he's lost more than anyone dare count! She was therefore left to defend, and probably lose, Aberconwy or to retire. At the age of 64 it's no shock that she chose the latter.

Panic Room

2008-09-10T19:47:00.006+01:00

Here's a video that's just appeared on YouTube. Using the same footage that every "let's dub Hitler" uses (there's another one for Shane Williams leaving the Ospreys). It's totally incorrect in so many ways (for some reason doesn't mention the school re-organisation plan which turned so many in Gwynedd against Plaid Cymru and weirdly enough calls Llais Gwynedd by their defunct name of Llais y Bobol) and libelous in so many more (repeats the totally untrue rumours spreaded by Llais Gwynedd supporters that Dafydd Iwan and friends were getting free flats and backhanders from those building the Victoria Dock complex) and is a perfect example of the gutter politics I just lambasted in the last post but it's still very well put together and gave me a giggle or two! Enjoy!

Note: I found this video through Peter Black's blog. Peter posted the video and commented "This is hysterical. Those of a nervous disposition should not watch it, especially those who maybe offended by bad language". That post has now disappeared, not really a surprise considering the string of libelous comments in the video!

Gutter Politics

2008-09-10T19:28:00.002+01:00

I thought that petty politics was rife in Wales, but clearly it's a thousand times worse in the USA! Democratic candidate Barack Obama said in a speech yesterday that McCain's adoption of Obama's "Change" motto was just "putting lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig" when you remember that the Republicans have been running Washington for 8 years.

McCain's campaign have now launched an ad, picked up by the American media of course, accusing Obama of sexism and of calling Republican vice President candidate Palin a pig! And if that wasn't an absurd enough claim on it's own, it's made even more foolish after the Democrats responded by flagging up a YouTube clip of McCain 9 months ago calling Hillary Clinton's health plan "putting lipstick on a pig"!

With intellectual debates like this you'd think America was choosing a class clown not a President.

Top Lib

2008-09-10T14:21:00.003+01:00

So Kirsty Williams is the first to throw her hat into the ring for the soon-to-be vacant post of Welsh Lib Dem leader. She is supported in her bid by Mick Bates AM and Peter Black AM. The fact that these two men are supporting Kirsty means that we are now seemingly certain to see the first female leader of a Welsh mainstream party. (Did I just call the Lib Dems mainstream?)

This means that the ball now lies in Jenny Randerson and Eleanor Burnham's courts. Current Lib Dem rules state that any candidate for the job must be nominated by another AM. Unless Mike German backs one of those two as his successor (unlikely, he'll probably keep out of this one) one of them has to back down and support the other to challenge Kirsty. This may change however as the leadership election rules could be changed before nominations are due.

Eleanor Burnham would garner strong support from the North and the Welsh speakers while Kirsty's support took a big blow in the will-they-won't-they mess the Lib Dems found themselves in during coalition talks but I can't look past Kirsty for the job. We all know she's been craving this chance for at least three years and I think it's fair to say that's she's the mos likely to give the Lib Dems the boost so they have needed for years. She's young, attractive and has a much higher profile than the other two women. In a party that suffers from the lack of name/face recognition she is the most likely to be remembered by the voters.

The Welsh Lib Dems do desperately need a boost - their coalition mess has been followed by 15 months of anonymity as Labour, Plaid and the Tories take the headlines. I don't know if Kirsty will be able to give them that much needed boost, but she certainly has a much better chance of doing so than the other potential candidates.

One question though, why does the BBC refer to Kirsty as "Ms Williams"? Isn't she a Mrs?

End of Days

2008-09-10T13:53:00.003+01:00

When the Hen Ferchetan woke up this morning I was quite suprised to hear the radio telling me that the world would end at about 8.30am. Apparently one of the biggest machines in the world was about to be switched on and there was concerns that it would create a black hole and swallow the earth whole.

Codswallop of course and Dr Lyn Evans, the Welshman in charge of the Large Hadron Collider, expressed his dissapointment at the "science fiction" stories circulating. Of course the huge coverage in Today's press won't really do the Collider any harm and I'm sure that the team at CERN are quite pleased to find that their new toy is the hot topic of the day.

I'd go all technical and try and tell you what the LHC does but I don't really see any point, I'm sure you've all read Dan Brown's Angels and Demons already!

Yma o Hyd

2008-09-08T00:27:00.005+01:00

So Dafydd Iwan has beaten Elfyn Llwyd MP to retain his position as Plaid Cymru President - no shock there. I note that Plaid's official release does not contain the actual figures, possibly to save some of Elfyn's blushes (Dafydd Iwan was expected to win by a landslide).

Apart from being one of the most unremarkable and uninteresting "leadership" election in history (Plaid's President holds no leadership power these days, Ieuan Wyn Jones has all of those) what will be the effect of this election be on both men? Does the (apparently) huge victory for Dafydd Iwan mean that Elfyn Llwyd messed up in challenging him? Is this defeat going to haunt Elfyn for a while? Don't count on it.

Thing is you see, Elfyn didn't need to win the election, in fact even the amount of his defeat probably doesn't matter much to him. And Dafydd Iwan did need a contest, being reselected automatically will have done him no good.

Let me deal with Dafydd Iwan first. Before today he must have been at a very low ebb. Chucked out of his Council seat, slagged off by those who had previously been his closest supporters and after electoral defeat in Gwynedd seeing his own party ditching the school re-organisation plan he had backed so heavily. If ever there was a politician in need of a confidence boost, it was Dafydd Iwan. While he could have trundled along as unopposed President for another year, I can't see how he could have done the job with any motivation when the thought must have been in the back of his head that the party members had turned against him. An internal election victory is exactly what Dafydd Iwan needed to regain his mojo.

So did Elfyn Llwyd unselfishly sacrifice his pride to help Dafydd Iwan get back into his swing? Of course not! But neither do I think he entered this election to win. What was important to Elfyn Llwyd, most important of all, was to show the voters of Dwyfor Meirionnydd that he, Elfyn Llwyd, their MP, is not Dafydd Iwan. It was over in Dwyfor Meirionnydd that Plaid got hit hardest by Llais Gwynedd in the Council elections. It's the people of Pen Llyn that feel most betrayed by Dafydd Iwan and the old council. While there was barely a rumble in Caernarfon and Bangor, Llyn Plaid councillors were turfed out one by one. So while Hywel Williams doesn't has to worry too much about a Llais Gwynedd challenge come the next election, Elfyn Llwyd might just. So Elfyn needed to distance himself from Gwynedd Council, and Dafydd Iwan in particular. Now how might he do that? If only he could challenge Dafydd Iwan in some internal election or something. Oh, wait a sec...!

Update: Although Plaid remain shtum on the matter, the word is that Dafydd Iwan's margin of victory was 2500-1800.

Hat Tip: Betsan

Clueless Promoters

2008-09-05T13:37:00.004+01:00

Vaughan Roderick comments today on the mess that is the Visit Wales website. Vaughan notes that in the history of Wales page it goes straight from Norman Conquest of 1066 "They are reluctant to venture into Wales itself." to Owain Glyndwr in 1400, somehow forgetting to include the fact that Wales was conquered in between!

Visit Wales is, of course, a government body and Vaughan asks whether not government employees are the best placed to label Owain Glyndwr "tyrannical". I've got a far bigger worry though, because later on in the same page is this entry:

2000 – First Welsh Assembly is formed.

Um...don't you mean 1999?

American Dream

2008-09-04T16:39:00.004+01:00

Republican Mitt Romney speaking at their convention in St Paul:

"We need change all right -- change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington...It’s time for the party of big ideas, not the party of Big Brother

Yes we all get the clever twisting of Obama's "Change" slogan but...um... did Romney just call Bush and his friends "liberal"? And who is he calling the party of Big Brother, apparently not the Republican party and their Patriot Act!

It's bizarre stuff, it's like the Republicans have decided to pretend that they haven't been in power for eight years and hope no-one remembers!

Wales For Whom?

2008-09-04T13:47:00.003+01:00

A few weeks ago I asked this:

The second question that has to be asked is: Who on earth will run the No campaign this time round? The Electoral Commission gets to decide which No group is to be the "official" one they will be seriously hindered this time round by the fact that there will be no major party to start the campaign. Highlights of the 1997 count gave us Michael Ancram and Nick Bourne (how times have changed!) telling us how bad devolution would be - who will be the criticiser in chief this time round? It seems that the No campaign will have to be lead by Labour Welsh MP's who desperately tried to stop the One Wales Coalition and their Tory counterparts.

Well David Davies MP has decided that he wants to be the No campaign's knight on a white horse and has declared that he will be launching the No campaign. He has already had what he describes as "tentative talks with one ex-Labour MP" (in other words - Llew Smith!) and he's open to suggestions for a name for the No campaign. His personal favorite is "Wales for the Union".

As someone who will vote, and probably do some campaigning, for the Yes campaign my reaction to this news is: BRILLIANT!

Firstly it will hopefully jolt Labour and Plaid Cymru to actually move on the issue and set up the Yes campaign. While the All Wales Convention trundles along anyone with a calendar can see that by the time they finish there won't be much times for a campaign and vote before 2011 so let's get the ball rolling on the campaigning side.

Secondly, it's David Davies, the eternal clown of Welsh politics. The very fact that he wants to call the campaign "Wales for the Union" shows how out of touch the man is. While the Yes/No split is relatively close at the moment, the way to bolster the Yes vote is certainly not to make voters think that they're voting for the Union if they vote No. The way to convince people to vote No is to say that it is a vote for Wales, to protect Wales, to improve Wales - not to tell them that they're voting for the Union. If David Davies starts printing posters with "Wales for the Union. Vote No" on them then all the Yes campaign need to do to win is print posters with "Wales for Wales. Vote Yes" and they'll have the referendum in the bag!

Finally, it's David Davies (yes I know I've already said that but bear with me!). As I explained in my previous post the Electoral Commission will have to chose a campaign group to be the official group. David Davies is clearly angling to be the man who leads the group. For a strong No campaign he will need cross party support. Clearly there is cross party support for a No campaign, at least Tory/Labour - I'm not as confident as David is that he'll have the support of many Lib Dems, but how many of those will want to be linked to David Davies? While Llew Smith may well be happy to throw his hat in, how will Chris Bryant or Ian Lucas feel about getting into bed with their Tory counterparts?

Interesting times!

One Man, One Voice

2008-09-04T00:34:00.002+01:00

It's a very sad day, Don LaFontaine has died from pneuothermax aged 68.

Don't know who Don was? Of course you do, he was the voice of Hollywood. The guy who's deep voice and cheesy lines we all try to copy when drunk - "One Man" and "In a world without hope" and all that.

Thursday nights at the Cinema will never be the same!

Party Poopers

2008-09-02T13:34:00.002+01:00

The Western Mail is reporting today that Cardiff has become the first Council in Wales to employ officers who's job is to stamp out late night house parties. The two officers will have power to hand out on the spot fines to those who blare music into the night. Apparently the officers will be patrolling the capital's streets from 7pm to 3pm Wednesday to Sunday.

Here's the Hen Ferchetan's Top Tip - have your party on Monday night!

Another Award Winner

2008-09-02T13:32:00.003+01:00

It looks like the Hen Ferchetan's favorite letter writer is back

Sign of the times

SIR – I have no wish to lower the tone of the debate occupying your letters pages, following my letter published on August 19 (which expressed my concern about the misapplication of scarce Welsh Assembly funds in the wasteful promotion of the Welsh language and the misuse of curricular time by the compulsory teaching of Welsh to a generation of teenagers who need more marketable skills to prepare them for employment) but this morning, I received through the post a computer-generated certificate stating that I had been nominated for “A**hole of the Year” for my services to Welsh.

Perhaps you will allow me, through your columns, to thank the sender for the award.

I cannot do it personally, because the sender signed X and gave no address – proof, if any were needed, that our Welsh education system is indeed failing.

BERYL ROBERTS

Caerphilly

Ok, who's the joker?!

NB - there's three stars after the "A" in "Arsehole" Mrs Roberts, unless you happen to be American!

Deja Vu?

2008-09-02T09:54:00.004+01:00

So Gordon Brown has announced "free loans" to first time buyers in England to help them purchase properties. After five years the owner would pay a "fee" back to the scheme instead of repaying the loan.

I'm looking forward to hearing Welsh Labour flood the airwaves to tell Gordon that they were not convinced that such a move " would not simply cause a dangerous wholesale inflationary increase in prices"? after all, that's what they told us would happen when Plaid Cymru made a similar election pledge last year.

And this isn't the only new policy today that has "Made in Wales" stamped all over it. The Scottish Government have followed ours in announcing the scrapping of NHS Car parking Charges while Darling has also copied the Welsh Assembly's proposals to allow struggling mortgage payers to sell their house to the Council and stay there as tenants.

So three major proposals and policies of the Welsh Government and Welsh parties are being adopted in other parts of the UK. Maybe people shouldn't be so quick to deride the Assembly politicians as inferior talking heads.

Choir Charisma

2008-08-30T12:33:00.002+01:00

Oh and good luck to both Ysgol Glanaethwy and Only Men Aloud! in the Last Choir Standing final tonight. They are competing against London based Revelations. It starts at 6pm and one choir will be voted off at the end of that programme with the winner chosen in a later programme tonight. Hopefully both Welsh choirs will survive to be the final two (with Glanaethwy pipping the boys to the title!).

Let Others Speak

2008-08-30T11:48:00.002+01:00

The Hen Ferchetan is being lazy today and instead of finding my own news I'll steal from others...

Ordovicius seems to have gone American on us with a series of posts on Obama and McCain so I'll skip on to someone else. Numerous blogs have commented on the end of Tory Dylan Jones-Evans' blog. Valleys Mam and The Cynical Dragon have gone all teary eyed while Welsh Ramblings is a little less kind in his goodbye. Personally I guess I fall a little closer to the Rambler in that I've never taken to Dylan's blog and, although based on hearsay and people moaning and no personal experience, to Dylan himself. Having said that it was an intelligent blog and losing any regular blog from the small world of Welsh politics is sad news so I'll join Valleys Mam in hoping he returns one day.

Brother Tecwyn directed me to this post on the Cambria Politico blog. Apparently a source has told the writer that Brown has a secret plan to kill off the FAW and WRU to promote a sense of Britishness. While Gordie's "Soccer Team GB" crap is annoying most of us, I can't quite see him getting rid of the FAW and the WRU and I certainly can't see how anyone would believe that closing down the WRU would make us more British, drunk Welsh fans would riot on the streets! A bizarre post to say the least, and I love the qualification of "believed to be a member of Gordon Brown’s Downing Street staff" - so in other words the source could be a crazy nut sleeping rough in Cathays?

Welsh Ramblings has also made a lot recently about Huw Lewis for First Minister. He believes that since Lewis topped his poll of possible First Ministers that means he's popular with Labour members because he's the man Plaid most fear. Since Welsh Ramblings is a Plaid supporting blog, and therefore a large proportion of it's readers will be Plaid supporters, doesn't the fact that Huw won the poll mean that he's the one Plaid wants most?

Talking of polls Cambria Politico's poll of best Welsh blog has, surprise surprise, Cambria Politico leading the way! Joint first is a "Miss Wagstaffe" - I'm guessing they mean Pippa!

Over at Miss Wagstaff Presents is this wonderful joke from the Western Mail:

There were two goldfish in a bowl. One said to the other: “How do you drive this thing then?”

So it's official, the Mule can't even copy and paste jokes from the internet without messing it up! (As Pippa notes, it's a bloody tank dumbasses!)

Miss Wagstaff also directs me to the comments on Iain Dale's Top 40 Welsh Blogs list where you'll find this wonderful exchange by someone called "londoner" and an anon

Being no 40 on a list of Welsh bloggers is quite a thing. To receive such an accolade is a bit like being singled out as the 40th most pro-democracy member of the Chinese politburo or the 40th most attractive check-out girl in the Croydon branch of Tesco! Respect.

Haha consider who is number 40 that's probably the most accurate thing ever written

The Cwrt seems to have died out before he even began - from the tone of his first few comments I can't really say that it's a huge loss to the blogosphere.

Oh and pretty much everyone have pissed themselves laughing at the story on Peter Hain being parachuted into the Assembly to take the top job!

And that's it. Next time I promise I'll stop being lazy and find a topic of my own to post about!

The State of Wales

2008-08-28T13:47:00.003+01:00

A number of different stories in different papers today try and paint a picture of Wales.

Firs up is the revelation that Powys is the happiest district in the UK, beating Manchester and West Lothian to the top spot. Down the other end of the scale Cynon Valley & Rhondda takes the second least cheerful spot, with Swansea down in 5th. Apparently the only place less happy than Ann Clwyd and Leighton Andrews' stomping ground is Edinburgh. A load of codswallop of course. Who pays for this kind of research? How do they decide how happy I am? I'm great today but was a bit miffed yesterday, should they change the result?

Next in line is the revelation that we Welsh are the fattest around, yes even more so than the battered mars bar munching Scots. Only two areas in Wales are outside the High and Highest fatty range, and we've got none in the Low or Lowest range. The fattest in Wales, that would be the citizens of Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy's Torfaen where 13.9% are obese. Cardiff pips Swansea to the title of healthiest county with "just" 7.4% obese.

Finally the listeners of Classic FM have voted Katherine Jenkins the best classical female singer and Bryn Terfel the second best male classical singer behind Last Choir Standing judge Russel Watson. (That's Peter Hain and Alun Ffred Jones to continue the meaningless politician link!).

So Wales is the happiest, most depressed, fattest, least confident, best singing country in the UK. Now that's quite a CV for a day's news!

Crackpot Coup

2008-08-27T14:20:00.003+01:00

I guess there's no choice but to comment on this story today. According to the Mule senior Labour figures are getting very concerned about the lack of quality candidates for Rhodri's job once he retires. According to one such source:

They all have fundamental weaknesses and would probably not be considered for major promotion if they were members of the UK Parliament.

So what do these unnamed mystery but oh so important figure want to do about it. Apparently their plan is to either give Neath AM Gwenda Thomas a peerage to vacate her seat or convince ill Clwyd South AM Karen Sinclair to retire. They would then parachute in disgraced ex-Secretary of State Peter Hain or MEP Eluned Morgan to those seats so that they can take control of the party.

Hmm...Hands up who thinks this is a cunning plan of Baldrick proportions?

Firstly there's no guarantee that Neath nor Clwyd South would be retained in a by-election. In both seats Labour's majority is less than 2,000 with Plaid Cymru knocking on Neath's door and the Tories on Clwyd South's. While you could argue that having Peter Hain as a candidate would boost their majority (he has 12,000 majority for the parliamentary seat) he would struggle being in the limelight of a by-election so soon after his resignation from the Cabinet. As the Mule's source rightly points out:

In the case of Neath the national press and bloggers would have a field day with Peter Hain.

You bet we would!

Secondly it seems that these so -called "senior sources" assume that if Peter Hain or Eluned Morgan entered the Assembly Labour's AM's would warmly accept them as new leaders. How naive an assumption is that? Do they not see that inserting a "London man/woman" because of an apparent "fundamental weakness" in the current AM's would piss off those AM's enough that they chose their own leader anyway? Do these people not remember Alun Michael's fate? (I'm sure they do, wouldn't be surprised if the ex-First Minister himself was one of the people thinking these thoughts)

Let's be honest though, this is a far-fetched plan probably thought up by one or two deluded fools over in London. It will never happen and the Mule knows that. Why do they even bother printing this stuff?

Thanks

2008-08-26T12:31:00.003+01:00

Thanks to whoever of you voted Amlwch to Magor into the Top 20 (just!) of Ian Dale's Top Welsh Blog list. While I'm not a big fan of such awards (which is why I only bothered to draw attention to 1 this year, the Welsh Blog Index's) only a liar would tell you that they don't really appreciate the recognition and gave a big smile at the thought that people they don't know bothered to vote for them.

Congratulations to Peter Black and Glyn Davies who topped the poll and to Ordovicius who was the top non-politician.

Do Not Pass Go

2008-08-26T11:34:00.003+01:00

So Wales is going to get a new prison. The Ministry of Justice have shortlisted four sites, two up north and two in the south. The original plan was for two new jails, one for the Hwntws and one for the Gogs but it seems that we are now down to one.

There's an estimated 1300 shortfall in Welsh jail spaces and we do not have any jails which hold women, young offenders or Category A prisoners. There is currently 5 prisons in South Wales and none up north. All women, youths, Category A and North Walian prisoners are shipped to over 25 different jails in England.

When you consider those facts it's understandable why the Ministry is considering a new jail here. The question now of course is where.

The four contenders are Merthyr and Cwmbran in the South and Caernarfon and Wrexham up North. It's very interesting to see the different reactions such a proposal gets. While some desperately want the 1000 jobs and annual £17m boost to the economy others are scared that a jail will drive down house prices and deter other investments while pushing up crime.

Cwmbran residents have set up the Oppose the Prison Action Group and protests have been held at the site. In Wrexham the local MP and AM are opposing the plan while the Community Council of the area which includes the jail site says that local residents are "100% opposed to it".

There's been no visible uproar in Caernarfon and Merthyr (although Valleys Mam has posted against it) which may well make them more attractive to the Ministry of Justice, who are accepting opinions until October 31st. Personally however I don't think Valleys Mam needs to worry too much, I can't see this jail going anywhere but Caernarfon. Both their Plaid Cymru MP and Council have not only declared themselves as supporting the plan but revealed that they pressed hard for Caernarfon to be included in the short list. Unlike Cwmbran there's been no organised resistance there yet and with the MP's opponent also supporting the plan there's unlikely to be a big political fight over the issue.

But it's not just the support/lack of opposition in Caernarfon that makes me feel the prison will go there, it also makes sense. North Wales clearly need a jail more than the South does and Caernarfon makes much more sense than Wrexham for a few reasons. Firstly Wrexham is that step closer to the English border and Altcourse prison (the current location for Gog troublemakers). Since one of the reasons for building a jail in North Wales is to house criminals closer to their homes then a Western site would do the job better. Secondly Caernarfon seems to be the "legal centre" of North Wales, or at least it will be. At the moment there are two Crown Courts in North Wales - Caernarfon and Mold. With Caernarfon already building a brand new "Criminal Justice Centre" which includes a Crown Court it will cut transport costs considerably to have a jail nearby.

Finally there's the Welsh language issue. There's always been complaints (usually by Plaid Cymru politicians) that Gog prisoners are being disadvantaged by being placed in an English jail where they can't get education in Welsh. Apparently being physically and emotionally close to your community reduces re-offending - maintaining such closeness is hard when you're a 100 miles away where no-one speaks your language and your family can;t make regular visits.

The new prison is not due to be up and running until 2012 but I'd put good money on it ending up on the banks of the Menai Straight. Anyone living in one of the 4 areas care to put me right?

Alex and Maggie Sitting In a Tree

2008-08-22T16:46:00.003+01:00

Scottish Labour is in uproar as Alex Salmond apparently praises Lady Thatcher in Total Politics magazine. With the Scottish First Minister going on radio to insist that he never did such a thing the Labour politicians are crowing:

Labour MSP John Park: The screech of the first minister going into reverse gear can't disguise the own goal he's scored with his praise of Thatcherism. He clearly realised that his off-the-cuff remarks have backfired.

Fellow Labour MSP Malcolm Chisholm said: Alex Salmond should hang his head in shame.

So what did Alex Salmond say to put Thatcher on such a pedestal and turn his back on Scottish voters who were hurt by Thatcher?

One of the reasons Scotland didn't take to Lady Thatcher was because of that. We didn't mind the economic side so much. But we didn't like the social side at all.

Yes, massive praise that.

Live Choirs

2008-08-22T13:48:00.002+01:00

A quick note following on from my post about Last Choir Standing it seems that there will be a chance to see both Welsh Choirs singing live next week.

If either or both choirs survive Saturday's vote (It would help if you voted!) I understand that they will sing at the London welcome home party for the Olympic Team. Whatever happens on Saturday Only Men Aloud! have been invited by the Assembly to sing at the Welsh reception to the Welsh athletes down the Bay while there's talk of Ysgol Glanaethwy being invited to sing on the Monday night of Bryn Terfel's festival at the Faenol in Bangor.

If you get the chance to go to any of those events, go for it. If you can't make it then make sure you watch Last Choir Standing on Saturday (and VOTE - preferably for the kids of Ysgol Glanaethwy!)

A - neigh - bolic Steroids

2008-08-21T13:38:00.001+01:00

Apparently four competitors in the equestrian events in the Olympics, including a bronze medal winner, have been suspended after their horses tested positive for banned drugs.

You really couldn't make this stuff up could you!

The Lord Does Cometh

2008-08-21T12:55:00.003+01:00

I haven't blogged yet about the row between Alun Michael's merry men and the Lord of the Assembly. Having read Peter Black's take on the matter here I don't feel there's any purpose in me saying anything - just read what he says!

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

2008-08-20T16:48:00.003+01:00

Pippa posts over at Miss Wagstaff Presents about the story on the BBC and the Mule about the 5% rise in the number of prescriptions dispensed in Wales in the first year since Labour's free prescriptions policy. It seems that Pippa, along with opposition politicians, sees this as an indictment of the policy:

Miss Wagstaff: the Welsh Assembly Gimmick Government's main gimmick - in order to make it stand out from Westminster - isn't quite going to plan.

Lib Dem Jenny Randerson: The cost of this gimmick will be with Welsh patients for generations. While millionaires claim their free paracetamol, the health service will continue to be to stretched to provide life saving services.

Yes yes, good story, at least it is if you ignore the facts. This is the fifth year on the trot that the number of prescriptions rose. In the year before charges were abolished there was a 4% increase (see here). So how on earth is this increase an indictment of the Labour free prescriptions policy when similar increases occurred the previous four years?

Oh and Jenny, "welsh millionaires claim their free paracetamol"? Yeah, right, THAT'S what's eating up the budget!

Letter Writing Bigots

2008-08-19T13:26:00.004+01:00

Western Mail letters page, my additions in italics:

Forcing Welsh
SIR – It is not enough to provide Welsh Nationalists with Welsh-medium schools; they also insist that all state school children should be compulsorily indoctrinated in the Welsh language, even though timetable space is paramount.

If we want to attract investment into Wales to create more jobs, we need to give curricular priority to science, technology, basic English literacy and numeracy, not Welsh. (Don't kids still learn Science, Maths, Technology and English?)

Authorised bilingual graffiti disfigures public walls, train windows, street signs and motorway gantries, confusing visitors and annoying most residents. Our ears are abused by Welsh rasped at us over electronic amplifiers in post offices, railway stations and even in supermarkets. (Our ears are ABUSED? Bloody hell!)

The objection is not that Welsh is spoken by Welsh speakers (good luck to them) but that we non-Welsh speakers are forced to hear it, to read it and, more significantly, to pay for it. (Forced to hear and read Welsh. Breach of human rights surely? Call the police!)

Welsh Labour Party complacency and apathy among the Anglo-Welsh population has allowed Plaid Cymru, a minority party in South Wales, championed by voters from outside the area, a disproportionate amount of power as reward for coalition in the Assembly. (outsiders moving in? Sounds like Seimon Glyn doesn't she! Someone tell Glennys Kinock so she can reach for her high horse again!)

Language Acts have been rushed through and fluency in Welsh has become the pre-requisite for employment and promotion in top jobs in areas of Wales which had formerly felt enlightened to be exempt from its parochial constraints. (acts? More than one like? rushed?)

Scottish Nationalists are realistic about their ancient language and look forward and outward, not backward and inward to their place in the real world.

There are indeed some useful tips to be learned.
Beryl Roberts
Waun Erw, Caerphilly

What century do these people live in? Seeing as how, in a recent letter to the Telegraph, she claims to live in "Mid-Glamorgan" which hasn't existed since 1992 then I'm guessing it's not the 21st Century!

Bye Bob

2008-08-19T10:37:00.002+01:00

Former BBC Wales's sport maestro Bob Humphries has died of cancer aged 56. The Hen Ferchetan met him once and he was a genuinely nice man as well as being a great correspondent. He's been missed since he retired earlier this year and he'll be missed even more now.

If You Say So David

2008-08-19T09:59:00.004+01:00

Clwyd West's Tory MP David Jones notes Heritage Minister Alun Ffred Jones' congratulations of Geraint Thomas and Team GB's men pursuit team (Olympic Champions and world record holders). He comments:

Nice to see a Plaid Cymru politician acknowledge that we Brits can be world-beaters when we stick together

Isn't it great how politicians will even try to turn messages of congratulations into political point scoring! Following this line of thinking I assume that when David Jones MP celebrated Wales' Grand Slam here he was acknowledging that Wales is better off alone? I doubt it.

Living up to the Stereotype

2008-08-18T15:58:00.003+01:00

Two Welsh choirs have made it to the last 4 of BBC1's Saturday night programme Last Choir Standing.

Ysgol Glanaethwy from Bangor in North Wales and Only Men Aloud! (their ! not mine!) from all over South Wales but based in Cardiff have both won the right to compete in the series' semi-final next Saturday thanks to winning the public vote on two consecutive weeks.

I watched the programme for the first time last Saturday and my God are they good. I found the programme's website which has a video of every song sung by each choir and I'll say again, my God are they good.

Head over to the Last Choir Standing website or just use You Tube. I'd recommend Ysgol Glanaethwy's O Fortuna and Adiemus and Only Men Aloud!'s Goldfinger.

For the first time ever I actually telephoned a vote in such a programme on Saturday. My vote went to Ysgol Glanaethwy, the fact that high school kids can produce such sound is insane, and if you have the time to look at some of their other songs you can see that they have versatility too. It's only 15p a vote, go on, you know you want to!

Loony Leanne

2008-08-18T15:49:00.003+01:00

We all know Little Miss Protester Leanne Wood, Plaid Cymru's eternal student AM. Miserable Old Fart notes this paragraph in a column of the "Weekly Worker"

Our fighting fund received help from an unexpected source this week - Plaid Cymru Welsh assembly member Leanne Wood donated a handy £25, which shows the breadth of the Weekly Worker’s appeal.

So Leanne donated £25 to a Communist paper - so what? We all know Leanne Wood is a bit nutty when it comes to that side of things, who cares right?

Well, Ieuan Wyn Jones for one should certainly care. The Weekly Worker is more than just a Communist paper, it's the paper of the Communist Party of Great Britain - an official political party.

What on earth is an elected member of one party doing giving money to the official mouthpiece of another party! Imagine the fuss if Peter Black or Huw Lewis was donating money to Y Ddraig Goch (Plaid's paper).

Will Leanne Wood explain herself to her party's members? Don't count on it.

Good Luck on the Jobsearch

2008-08-18T12:21:00.002+01:00

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has resigned as impeachment proceedings against him continue.

Good riddance.

Sunday Stupids

2008-08-17T09:56:00.002+01:00

Two weird stories spotted today. Firstly this one in a Labour party blog. I haven't seen the story anywhere else so all I can give is the Labour slant on it but it seems that a newly elected Plaid Cymru councillor has failed to return his acknowledgment of office back in time and that there will therefore be a second by-election in Pentyrch (a Tory councillor resigned and another one voted in to replace him). Anyone know more about this one? Is the Plaid councillor just plain stupid or is there another reason?

Secondly, after the Post Office agreed a review of the decision to close a Post Office in the Rhymney Valley, Plaid's Andrew Nutt has this wonderful quote from Caerphilly MP Wayne David trying to take the credit:

"This is the stark truth. I only wish the Nationalists would put in half as much effort into fighting for local services as they do in attacking Labour MPs"

Now, let's skip over the fact that Wayne David somehow manages to attack Plaid MP's and criticise them for attacking Labour MP's in the same sentence and remember one thing:

Wayne David voted for the closure of Post Offices, as government whip he actually pressurised others to vote to close Post Offices with him. The Plaid MP's voted against the closures.

Hmm!

Tale of Two Cities

2008-08-16T16:52:00.004+01:00

Birmingham City Council recently sent out a leaflet to 720,000 citizens thanking them for their good work in helping the Council reach their recycling targets.

Pity that the picture under the heading "THANK YOU BIRMINGHAM" is of the skyline of Birmingham, Alabama, USA!

No Ron Revolution

2008-08-16T11:58:00.003+01:00

Caerphilly Council Leader Lindsay Whittle has been chosen to fight the Parliamentary seat for Plaid Cymru (for the seventh time!). That should put an end to the rumours of Ron Davies making a dramatic switch and winning the seat for the nationalists.

Home Sweet Home

2008-08-15T23:39:00.005+01:00

A couple of posts ago I stepped in front of Huw Lewis and Lynne Neagle and suggested people back off them a bit about the expenses. Well, one AM seems to be getting no criticism at all for his expenses, even though his worries me more than most.

Step forward Mr Leighton Andrews, AM for Rhondda. Now a quick look at his expenses shows him to be very reasonable in his claims. There's no TV, no sofa, no curtains and certainly no Pyrex bowl. In fact all there is is mortgage payment on his second home along with Council tax and bills for the same. It comes to a total of something over £7k - well underneath the maximum allowances.

So what bugs me about Leighton's claims? Well, firstly think of why AM's get an allowance for a second home...

AM's are elected from constituencies all over Wales, many of which are too far from Cardiff for it to be reasonable for them to commute. They therefore get help in having a home in Cardiff for them to stay in when they're working in the Capital. For the other 3 or 4 days of the week they return home to their constituency, do the surgeries and live their family life.

Although the Rhondda is only 40 minutes from Cardiff there's plenty of AM's who live closer and still claim the allowance (that's you Mike German) so it wouldn't be fair to single Leighton out for that. The problem is, if he didn't have the second home allowance then I don't think Leighton would have to commute at all.

Leighton Andrews was born and raised in Cardiff (and Barry). Until 1997 he was head of public affairs at the BBC, in Cardiff. Between 1997 and his election in 2003 he was a Journalism Lecturer, in Cardiff. His wife is the director of BT Wales based, that's right, in Cardiff. Leighton Andrews doesn't seem to live in the Rhondda, before he was elected he lived in Cardiff and since election that doesn't seem to have changed. Of course he does have an address in the Rhondda, you don't get to be a candidate without such an address, but it's not his home, his home is the one we pay for in Cardiff.

So what you might ask? What's the difference between us paying for a flat in Cardiff when an AM lives at home and paying for a house in Cardiff where he lives full time? Well the difference is twofold. Firstly the point of expenses is to pay for somewhere to stay when an AM is away from home, not for their family home - the cost of which should come out of their wage like everyone else. Secondly, when Leighton visits the Rhondda to do his surgeries (according to his blog -twice in June and twice in July) the Hen Ferchetan hears that his usual preference is to commute from Cardiff and return to his family home that night. If anyone happens to see Mr Andrews soon, do ask him how many times has he slept in his Rhondda "home" since the last election? Could it really be less than 5?

So while most AM's seem to be spending our money on a place to live when in Cardiff, Leighton seems to be spending it on having an address in Rhondda to make him eligible for election there. Wouldn't it be cheaper for us to rent him a P.O. Box or something?!

Edit: An anon correctly notes that you do not have to have an address in a constituency to be eligible to stand - candidates usually make sure they have one to avoid damaging allegations of being parachuted in. An anon being helpful = now that's a first!

Lessons From 1997

2008-08-15T18:33:00.004+01:00

I've just re-watched ITV's online highlights of the 1997 referendum result night and a few things struck me. (Warning: Very long and probably boring post. Maybe you should stop reading here!)

Firstly it is important to remember that before the ballot boxes were opened in 1997 everyone assumed that the Yes campaign had won easily. That's what the polls said, that's what the media said and that's what both the Yes and No campaign thought. You won't need my reminder that in truth the result was very close and that until the last two results came in (Gwynedd and Carmarthenshire) the Yes campaign had virtually conceded defeat. This is a lesson that a Yes campaign in a new referendum has to take heed of. While the few polls that we have show support for a Parliament, there is a hell of a lot of work to be done by supporters of devolution if Wales is to say Yes again. Even with every major political party on board the result is far from certain. Back in 1997 only the Tories and a few Labour members supported the No campaign, and this was at a time when the Tories were in tatters remember. One of the leaders of the campaign was a Labour Councillor (Carys something, my memory fails me), not in the least bit well known, not in the least bit charismatic and yet the No campaign came within less than 7,000 votes.

The second question that has to be asked is: Who on earth will run the No campaign this time round? The Electoral Commission gets to decide which No group is to be the "official" one they will be seriously hindered this time round by the fact that there will be no major party to start the campaign. Highlights of the 1997 count gave us Michael Ancram and Nick Bourne (how times have changed!) telling us how bad devolution would be - who will be the criticiser in chief this time round? It seems that the No campaign will have to be lead by Labour Welsh MP's who desperately tried to stop the One Wales Coalition and their Tory counterparts.

Surprisingly perhaps, such a situation may harm the No campaign more than in 1997, when the only MP I remember opposing the plans was Llew Smith (Yes, even Don Touhig was in favour). Back in 1997 there was no AM/MP divide because we didn't have any AM's. How will Welsh voters react to having their MP's on one side and AM's on the other? I can't answer that question but the only guide we currently have is the vote at Labour's Conference when the One Wales Coalition was supported by about 3.5/1 of Labour members, even though the majority of MP's opposed it. While there's no doubt that such a majority would not be repeated in the Tory voters it does show that, at least in Labour, people are more willing to listen to their AM's than MP's (obviously I am generalising here, there will be Labour MP's in support as well).

Another issue that the 1997 result highlighted was that Powys, where both Lib Dem seats were held at the time, voted heavily against the Assembly. While the Lib Dem party supported devolution in 1997 and will do so again in a future referendum, will they be able to carry their voters along this time? Honestly I'm not so sure. While Labour and Plaid have always had a "Welsh" wing in their parties, and the Tories have been working hard to develop one, I can't quite put my finger on the Lib Dems. I wouldn't be too surprised to see the Lib Dem areas, at least in Powys, rejecting further devolution against the wishes of their party.

Obviously, just as in 1997, Plaid would expect to have the unwavering support of their voters for devolution. One interesting sidenote from the 1997 campaign was that Plaid did not immediately voice their support when the referendum was announced. their spin at the time was that they didn't think it was enough and might campaign against it. From what people have said since it seems that this was a conscious ploy by Dafydd Wigley to distance Plaid from the proposals so that they wouldn't "taint" it in the eyes of Labour voters who, in 1979, had seen devolution as Plaid's desire not their own party's. The effect of this can be seen when you review the 1997 count night, there is a thousand and one references, by both sides, to "the government's proposals" and "Labour's plans".

Whatever the result across Wales in a new referendum one place where I would expect a big change is Cardiff. The capital voted overwhelmingly against devolution in 1997 but I cannot see the same happening again. In the last 12 years Cardiff has really grown into its role as the Capital of Wales and I'd be surprised if it voted against again.

One final note: When we talk of the Assembly these days, more specifically about the Labour group, we always plant Huw Lewis and Leighton Andrews together as the "anti-devolution" side who think more like Labour's MP's than AM's. When Huw lewis opposed the Labour-Plaid coalition and then lost his place in Government a lot of people commented on how Leighton had kept quiet even though he surely opposed the coalition. Back in 1997 Leighton Andrews was one of the main organisers of the Yes campaign and was interviewed fro the Yes HQ throughout the night. While his hatred of the Nationalists is well-known, have people been a bit hasty in placing him in the anti-devolution camp?

Be Nice!

2008-08-14T09:20:00.003+01:00

It seems that Huw Lewis and Lynne Neagle have taken a bit of a flack over the expenses list, both in blog posts here, here and here, and in comments all over the place. Most of the people who found Amlwch to Magor through Google yesterday had used the search terms "Huw Lewis" "Lynne Neagle" and "expenses" or "allowances".

It's a teeny bit harsh in my opinion, as there's a few other AM's who deserve more of a tongue lashing than them. They are a special case in that they have double everyone else's allowance and because they placed themselves right in the spotlight with their day before announcement of returning all profits from the sale of the house, but they are hardly the worst offenders of stretching their expenses.

Mike German has to be considered one of the worst - why on earth does he need a second home seeing as how he lives 17 miles away from Cardiff! Alun Cairns as well deserves criticism for continuing to claim the full amount through a loophole in the rules. Lesley Griffith's £2k sofa and Nick Ramsey's £1,000 TV also raise an eyebrow.

So, just this once, maybe we should leave Huw Lewis alone!

Earthquake Mark 2?

2008-08-13T10:40:00.004+01:00

With Labour MP John MacDougall dying after a long illness there will be another by-election in Scotland, this time in Glenrothes (Fife). Labour have a 10,664 majority over the SNP. While usually this would a huge insurmountable majority it is 3,000 less than the one Labour failed to defend in Glasgow East.

Here we go again...

Update: Ordo notes a new YouGov poll giving the SNP 19 points over Labour in Scotland as a whole (44-25). Just three months ago YouGov had the parties 1 point apart at 33-32 .

Adopting Bricks

2008-08-13T10:32:00.002+01:00

An update on Plaid Cymru's Adopt a Brick campaign. With 50 bricks adopted and £2,500 raised it seems that some people actually took the offer seriously! One of the adoptees is a Mr Dafydd Iwan. I wonder if he'll get to sign his own certificate or if he'll have to accept it from Elfyn Llwyd!

Most Anticipated Non-Story of the Summer?

2008-08-12T18:45:00.005+01:00

I was going to do the obligatory post on the release of Assembly Member's allowances but to be honest with you, having given them a cursory glance, I can't see much worth talking about.

At first i was going to comment about the big gap between the Labour AM's average "additional" expense (£4,691) and the other parties (Tories: £7810, Plaid: £8.662, Libs: £9,220) but then I had a look at the individual figures for each AM and looked at the electoral map of Wales explained that one (additional expenses is for a second home, most Labour AM's live much closer to Cardiff than those of the other parties').

Then I thought about posting on Huw Lewis and Lynne Neagle's pre-emptive strike in the Western Mail this morning, when they promised to pay back the profits from their Cardiff home when they step down or are defeated. Yes the timing of it is the most see-through production since The Invisible Man, yes they haven't actually made the arrangements yet and it could be hot air, but it still is a good gesture that other AM's should take note of and Huw and Lynne should be applauded for.

So all that's left is to point out that Lesley Griffith AM (Lab) spent £2,000 on a sofa, Nick Ramsey AM (Con) £1,000 on a TV and Lynne Neagle AM (Lab) £400 on a pair of curtains. Have these people never heard of IKEA?

Edit: having looked at the examples in the Mule today it seems the Draig is right and Lynne and Huw's curtains actually costed £800, with Plaid Presiding Officer Lord Ellis-Thomas also spending £400 on curtains! As for sofas, while Lesley Griffith paid £2000, Angela Burns, Rhodri Glyn Thomas and Janet Ryder all found ones at less than half the price. Lib Dem Elanor Burnham gets the award for prudence however, she spent £44.79 in Argos and £4.08 in IKEA!

I Am Who I Am

2008-08-12T12:36:00.003+01:00

In the Comments section to a recent blog post by Peter Black there was quite a debate on anonymous bloggers, with one writer calling them (and Miss Wagstaff in particular) the "scum of the earth". Now I'll reveal you a big secret, just don't tell anyone...Hen Ferchetan is not the name on the Hen Ferchetan's birth certificate (I know, what a shocker!) so as an anonymous blogger I thought I'd better stand up for my kind.

The main argument given against anonymous blogging was that they could "spread malicious garbage that cannot be challenged". It's an interesting argument and one that has some merits. Cast your mind back to the NatWatch debacle and you will remember the trouble that was caused when an anonymous blogger became vicious. What's to stop me spouting allegations here against every Tom Dick and Harry without fear of legal consequences?

The reason I chose a pen-name was not because I wanted to reveal scandals (true or false) without the world finding out who I was. I'm the Hen Ferchetan because I want to say what I want here, and defend what I say here, without also having to defend it to my friends or family down the pub or at the kitchen table. I like the fact that I can switch off my computer and forget about whatever discussion or argument that's going on here without having it brought up in my daily life.

So how is an anonymous blogger held to account for his words? Well, there's two ways, depending on what kind of blog you run. Firstly, no blogger that regularly angers others in the small world of Welsh Politics can keep his identity hidden for long. If I said some lie or other that enraged someone enough that they wanted to find out who I was I don't think my secret identity would protect me for very long. Welsh politics is a small world, and even an outsider like me could probably be identified without much hassle. Look at NatWatch, while technically the writer remained anonymous anyone with any interest in the Welsh blogosphere will have a pretty strong and similar view as to who the writer was. The heat got too much for the blogger very quickly and the blog was soon left to another writer and swiftly fell into obscurity.

That's the problem with trying to remain anonymous with a "sensationalist" blog. If you annoy enough people and cause a big enough storm, you will be unmasked very swiftly. Even if the unmasking is not public for all to see, being identified by those you work with (or more importantly, for) is usually enough to end your sensationalist blog.

But what if you do not go for the secret revealing sensationalist blog and prefer to run a simple blog with your opinions on matters? You're very unlikely to anger someone enough that they go to the effort of unmasking you and therefore you will usually be able to hide behind your false identity for long, if not for ever. But even then you are not immune from criticism and correction. The Welsh blogosphere is a small place and while most of us do not know each other personally we feel familiar to the blogging identity of others. While I could not begin to tell you who Miss Wagstaff, the Welsh Lobbyist or the Miserable Old Fart are in the real world I don't need to. Their blogging identities are strong enough that if i need to criticise or correct their post I can do so to that identity instead of to their true self. If I feel the Cynical Dragon is being unnecessarily offensive or vindictive (just an example Dragon, not singling you out for any reason!) then my respect for the Cynical Dragon as a blogger would go down - who cares if I can't convey that to the real person?

The two type of anonymous blogger (the vindictive sensationalist and the opinion based blogger) are very different animals. the first has adopted their screename to purposefully spread information/lies without the world finding out who they are. Whether they are doing good or bad, they will eventually be unmasked and their anonymity is always vulnerable. For those who have no sensationalist agenda (and, unlike the commenter on Peter Black's blog I'd put Miss Wagstaff into this category as well as all the other current Welsh bloggers with screenames) their names may never be revealed, but they still live and die by their words, even if they still have the ability at the end of the day to shut down the blog and walk away into the sunset.

Edit: Matt Wardman makes a similar argument here

What Dissalusions You?

2008-08-11T21:40:00.002+01:00

I've noted in the past that one of the things that angers me most about politics is the fact that so many politicians devote their time to attacking other parties and scoring petty political points instead of actually debating things that will actually help us.

While welcoming Brother Tecwyn I mentioned Huw Lewis and this had me thinking again about the changes we can expect when Rhodri Morgan retires. There was a lot of talk last year of the Unionist v Devolutionist battle within Labour, with many placing Huw in the former camp along with most MP's, with Carwyn Jones in the latter camp. While Carwyn is odds on to win the prize there's no doubt that Huw Lewis has plenty of support. The consequences of a Carwyn victory is pretty easy to predict - business as usual as Carwyn is very much a Rhodri man. But what if Huw wins? What becomes of the One Wales Government? Can Plaid stay in cahoots with a party led to a man who, rightly or wrongly, is considered to be more of a Don Touhig/Llew Smith character than a Rhodri Morgan type?

This reminded me of a Hansard transcript I came across a while back. It dates back to 2002. While it was 6 years ago the names of those speaking will be familiar to you all - I think I'm correct in saying that all but 2 of them remain MP's. It's of a debate on Racism and Welsh Politics and is led by Llew Smith, Wayne David and Don Touhig. Have a guess how many times they mention racism against black, asian or muslim people and how long they preferred to spend playing party politics? Check it out.

Blown by the Assembly?

2008-08-11T15:52:00.002+01:00

At the Eisteddfod new Heritage minister Alun Ffred Jones announced that the One Wales Government were earmarking £20,000 to support the DotCym campaign. this is a campaign to give Wales it's own domain instead of having to use the British .co.uk. Catalonia has recently succeeded with such a bid and .cat is now proving popular.

While some will surely argue that the Assembly is blowing our cash away on a worthless job I personally support the campaign for a Welsh domain. I am just a teeny bit concerned about the choice of preferred domain though - .cym. Once the historically most enterprising entrepreneurs on the Internet find out how .cym is pronounced we might find that the battle to register certain website names with the new domain becomes a little too fierce!

Get Voting

2008-08-11T11:24:00.004+01:00

The Welsh Blog Index has been a good friend to the Hen Ferchetan by sending a lot of readers over here every day. I'll take this opportunity then to "big up" the WBI's annual Blog awards...
Please email me your nominations at welshblogindex@hotmail.co.uk.

Nominations will close at 12.00pm on August 31st with the winners announced on September 1st.

The categories are:

Best Politicians Blog
Best Media Blog
Best Other (i.e. not media or Politicians) Blog
Best Welsh Language Blog
Best Newcomer (for blogs that were established after the last awards of August 15th 2007)
Most Improved Blog

Adam Price has stiff competition for the Politicans Blog while Vaughan Roderick is probably odds-on to retain his media crown. Having recently retired from blogging Normal Mouth will need a successor for the Best other while Annibyniaeth i Gymru may struggle to retain the Welsh language award following the birth of a glut of new blogs in the old language. Best Newcomer and Most Improved blogs are new awards for this year.

I've sent in my votes, but I won't try and influence you with my choices!