The Case For The Union

Gordon Brown made a strong case for the Union in his speech to his Scottish party last week. Here's part of it...

"But what matters even more are the common values we share across the United Kingdom: values we have developed together over the years that are rooted in liberty, in fairness and tolerance, in enterprise, in civic initiative and internationalism.

These values live in the popularity of our common institutions from the NHS, the BBC, to the Queen - and even more recently in UK-wide support for the Olympics, Children in Need, Comic Relief, Make Poverty History and action on climate change"

In other words - don't vote SNP in May or you won't get to wear a red nose once a year!

Spot the Difference

When the white paper that eventually became the Government of Wales Act 2006 was published the words used to describe it by many were a mess, a fudge and a compromise.

As the white paper became a bill and then statute there was many a non-Labour voice criticising it for being confusing and that it would result in no-one quite knowing what the Assembly could or could not do.

While the constant bickering between London and Cardiff over the LCO's suggest those critics may be right, it's hard to blame the GoWA2006's muddles for the mess this week concerning the protection of NHS staff.

London wants extra laws to protect NHS staff from abuse by patients and guests. These were published with fanfare last week and it was only a matter of time before someone asked whether Welsh nurses would get the same protection. Welsh health Minister Edwina Hart thought not, and the London Justice Department semed to agree, although they were hopeful of convincing the Assembly to copy the new laws so that they apply in Wales. A Ministry of Justice statement said:

"Health is a devolved matter in Wales ... We are discussing the issue of the extension of this provision to NHS premises in Wales with the Department of Health, Wales Office and the Welsh Assembly Government."

But wait a sec, we're talking about new criminal laws here, not Health policy. Surely that has nothing to do with the Welsh Assembly? It was only last month that Peter Hain was slapping Rhodri Morgan down over the issue of a smacing ban, saying that it was outside the Assembly's powers. How can the Assembly decide whether or not they want to implement these new criminal laws then? 24 hours later, cue a second statement from the Ministry of Justice...

"Health is a devolved matter in Wales ... We are discussing the issue of the extension of this provision to NHS premises in Wales with the Wales Office and the Department of Health".

The two obvious questions here, firstly who was it that made the rushed phone call to the MoJ to correct them, I'm prety sure it wasn't Edwina or Rhodri! Secondly how on earth was our Health Minister, along with the London Ministry of Justice, unaware that Wales were not abe to make its own criminal law!

(Thanks to Betsan for the quotes of the statements)

Religious Rebels

With the Six Nations gone for another 12 months and Hen Ferchetan comfortable in her new home it's time to discuss the world again. A lot has happened while I've been away, and much of it has passed me by for the simple fact that the only thng my brain has been concerned with is how is Lee Byrne suddenly a good player, why didn't we get Warren Gatland 3 years ago and how gutted must England be that Shaun Edwards works this side of the Severn!

The one big issue that's caught my attention recently is the Embryo debate going through Parliament. Our new first secretary has hinted that he will resign rather than vote for a bill he disagree with. Firstly, all kudos to Murphy if he does this, it's always refreshing to see a politician give up power to vote as he feels is right. Of course, he might not actually resign, the hint may well have been an attempt to force Brown into giving a free vote.

Current gossip seems to suggest that Brown will relent and allow Catholic Labour MP's to vote against this bill. This simply does not seem right to me. While I would always prefer MP's to vote as they fit and not as their masters see fit, as long as the system of whips continue it should apply to all matters. How is it right that an MP can vote with his conscious on the Embryo matter but not on top up fees? Are we now saying that religion is more important than education? And there I was thinking that there was supposed to be a separation between Church and State!

I'll Be Back!

A mixture of the Hen Ferchetan moving house, wasting the weekends watching the rugby and having several important pieces of work in urgent need of sorting out is at fault for the lack of postins recently!

Wait patiently until the Six Nations is over and I promise I'll be back!

End of the World

Yes the title of this post is so very unoriginal, yes every part of the Welsh media have already used it and so has most blogs, but it's a good title so I'm sticking to it!

It refers of course to the premature death of Y Byd, the Welsh language Daily Newspaper that never got to publish. The company who had been touting the paper for over a year finally announced that it could not do so, mainly due to what it saw as a pitiful grant offer from the Welsh Assembly Government, more specifically from Plaid Minister Rhodri Glyn.

While the inner workings of a coalition government means that the decision to offer only a third of what Y Byd said it needed must have been joint between Labour and Plaid, as Culture Minister Rhodri Glyn was always going to be the man in the firing line, and rightly so.

This is Plaid's first real taste of the bad side of power. When you make unpopular decisions, you will, unsuprisingly, become unpopular! I've heard a lot of people saying that any state funding of a newspaper is undesirable, I disagree. As long as every effort is made to show that the paper is nwholly independent editorially then I would not be too concerned. After all, most of the private papers we have in the UK are slanted enough without state funding!

Let's be honest, £600k out of the Assembly's budget is far from huge, and that's why the decision to offer something not even close to it is so confusing. A Welsh language daily was part of Plaid's manifesto and, even more importantly, it was in the One Wales Government document.

So what happened? Hell if I know. Was Plaid trying to make themself look like a party of government by being tough. Was Plaid trying too hard to not pander to their core supporters? Whatever it was, it's made a lot of their voters angry with them.

While both governing parties, especially Plaid, have a lot to answer for, so do Welsh speakers. While every Welsh speaker I know wanted Y Byd, very few subscribed to it (Y Byd asked for advance subscriptions). I, along with many others I'm sure, may regret that now, but I'm still not convinced that a daily paper dependant on subscriptions would survive. And that's where Y Byd was always in trouble. Most people buy their Dailes in the shop. I read papers during lunch, something I could not do if my paper was delivered to my home. While those in the so called Welsh language heartlands would probably have no trouble finding a copy in their local newsagent, are we really to believe that demand would be strong enough in places like Newport or Monmouth that it would be stocked anywhere?

The whole saga leaves us with a Hobson's choice. Either there will be no Daily, or one will be published by Trinity Mirror, who has a near enough monopoly over all our English language papers let alone Welsh ones!

Huw Lewis' Phantoms

So both Eluned Morgan and Carwyn Jones write letters to the Western Mail disagreeing with the Newspaper's coverage of their comments regarding Labour and the Welsh language. Carwyn's letter was a little less forcefull than Eluned, merely stating that he hadn't mentioned the Valleys as the hotbed of the anti-Welsh. Eluned denied having said that any part of Welsh labour is anti-Welsh language. Apparently what she said that parts of Labour are PERCEIVED as anti-Welsh (all our fault then is it Eluned?)

Huw Lewis, probably the biggest fish in the valley contingent that we all assumed Eluned and Carwyn meant, calls the claim nonsense, bonkers and self-deluded. Apparently Huw Lewis has never come across any person in his party who is against the Welsh Language. Everyone in Labour loves the Welsh language!

Well, Eluned and Carwyn may be trying to distance themselves from the matter, but this is certaintly not the first time that prominent Labour members have made such comments...

The Wales Labour Party has been attacked by one of its own MPs for "shamefully" ignoring the state of the Welsh language in order to further the party's electoral position. Newport West MP Paul Flynn, speaking in the Welsh language current affairs magazine Barn, said greater efforts had to be made to protect the Welsh language. MrFlynn said some Labour politicians were guilty of joining a tabloid "witchhunt" against the language "in the belief that it is politically advantageous". (BBC 2001)

Paul’s (Murphy) antagonism to the Welsh language is not skin deep. He shares with MPs Alan Williams (Swansea West) and Llew Smith a tribal phobia of Welsh (Paul Flynn 2008)

Does Mr Lewis consider Paul Flynn to be bonkers then?

The one quote from Huw Lewis that made me laugh most however was this...

What people expect from Labour is first of all that they are a unifying force across Wales, [and] any party that sets out to pit one part of Wales against another is doing a bad thing.”

Considering the organised assault on the Welsh language back in 2000/01 which I discussed in my earlier post and which Paul Flynn was talking about in the first quote, I assume that Huw Lewis will admit that back in 2001 Welsh Labour was "doing a bad thing"?

P.S. If Huw Lewis wants to do some investigating into finding the anti-Welsh language parts of Labour, I'd suggest he starts here:

Chris Bryant, Paul Murphy, Don Touhig, Alun Michael, Ian Lucas, Nick Ainger, Ann Clwyd, Andrew Pelling and John McDonell

Those were the signatories of the Early Day Motion to ensure Welsh was never announced before English in train stations in the majority of Wales. (What the hell was the MP for Hayes and Harlington and the MP for Croydon doing signing such an EDM!?)

Let's Go Kill Again!

Dave of the Tories has announced that under a Conservative Government there would be a free vote on Hunting. Apparently he thinks that having a law so often breached is "idiotic". I wonder where David Cameron was when Prif Copyn Richard Brunstrom was advocating the legalisation of drugs - now that's an often breached law if I ever saw one!

I also like the fact that the Countryside Alliance has (obviously) reacted with joy at Dave's announcement. Weren't they the ones complaining that debating the Hunting ban in 2005 was such a waste of parliamentary time? Surely if it was a waste of time to spend hours debating it's banning, isn't it a waste of time to spend hours debating it's legalisation?

Hunting is banned. Get over it.

5 Dwarves

In a he said she said they said post Tom Livingstone quotes Adam Price as saying that his Labour friends find the candidates to replace Rhodri as uninspiring. Apparently they are:

the too pro-Plaid one, the too anti-Plaid one, the too posh one, the too clever-by-half one and the too boring one.

Number 1 and 2 are pretty easy to guess (both mentioned in my Labour Love In post), I wonder who the others are? Any guesses?

(oops, just noticed that i referred to Adam Price as a she - ah well!)

Dodgy Anglesey

The blog reached a new low two days ago, and I wasn't even blogging. Someone, presumable a sexually adventurous person from Môn, typed "Amlwch Dogging" into AOL search - apparently I was the 6th top result!

Labour Love In It Was Not

So the Welsh Labour conference has been and gone, and while most of it was enough to draw a snore from even the most die-hard Labourite, there were some bits of interesting news from Llandudno.

I'll just make it clear from the outset that Rhodri's speech and "interesting" are not words I'm going to put together. It shows how desperate the media is for a bit of political news during the boring season that Rhodri's speech was considered even remotely newsworthy. What did he say? He said that there would be investment in health and education (really, who saw that one coming!), he said that there would be difficult decisions ahead on the environment (haven't we been saying that for a decade?) and finally he broke the huge shocking news that Labour would be fighting against Plaid in the May elections (Oh. My. God!).

Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy told us that we care more for services than for devolution, the exact same words he's said in every speech and interview since he became Welsh Secretary again (actually, as I pointed out before, the exact same words he's said since he FIRST became Welsh Secretary!)

No, far more interesting was the talk coming from the Cymdeithas Cledwyn tent. This is the Welsh Speaking part of Labour, whose meeting I was once lucky enough to gatecrash by accident. The time I saw them in action Rhodri Morgan and Beti Williams were being heckled and booed by an audience that was supposed to be Labour members. With his answers to questions (or, more accurately, his non-answers to questions) drowned out by the sound of rain on the roof Rhodri was accosted by an old lady who told him that the noise was God's way of telling him to shut up!

While I'm sure things were far more civil at this meeting, the shots fired by certain high profile Labour members were just as powerful as the words of that old lady. King -to-be-Carwyn and Eluned "We don't do Welsh in Brussels" Morgan were the ones quoted delivering cannon-ball sized shots across the bows of the ever-strong Valley contingent in Welsh Labour. When they said that the 2007 elections were lost due to the anti-Welsh agenda of the valleys it was not hard to see who was sitting in their sightlines. Step forward Leighton Andrews, Huw Lewis and of course the pathetic Chris Bryant. While there was clearly a little bit of blame-shifting in the allegation that it was the anti-Welsh ramblings of the valley types that lost Labour the election, there's undoubtedly truth in it.

Labour has no presence in West Wales at the Assembly. And when I say "West Wales" I don't just mean Llanelli! There is not a single Labour AM in the North or South West, most of which forms the so-called Welsh language heartlands. Labour lost big seats in the West (even though Nia Griffiths MP still hasn't realized it!) And is there any doubt after the attacks the Welsh language have had from Labour over the years.

While it's very refreshing to hear Labourites being so open about their anti-Welsh problems, it's a bit rich for them to try and pin the blame on a few rouge elements in the valleys. After the 1999 drubbing of Labour, where they lost big seats in the valleys, Labour went nasty. With the help of the newly-formed Welsh Mirror and the ever reliable journalist Mr Paul Starling they made a conscious effort to dump the Welsh speakers. The tactic was simple and effective. Welsh speakers are a minority that Labour decided they could win without. Facing electoral danger from plaid, Labour decided to turn Welsh politics not into Labour v plaid, but into monoglots v bilinguists. The thinking was that if they could identify Plaid with the bilinguists and themselves with the monoglots they'd be guaranteed big wins.

Looking back at that part in politics you shudder by how nasty things were. Hardly a day passed without the Welsh Mirror deriding a prominent Welsh speaker as racist. While some Labourites denounced the tactic (Paul Flynn in particular) most, including those at Cledwyn, sat back and hoped the plan worked. Eluned herself caused a stir at the time when she and Mrs Kinnock refused to speak Welsh to a group of Welsh language children visiting Brussels. When one of the Children asked Mrs Kinnock why she answered their Welsh questions in English, Eluned jumped in and told them 'leave Glenys alone, you have an obsession with the Welsh language'. The presentation became a bit of a slanging match which I would have paid good money to see!

The anti-Welsh tactic paid off, with Labour getting a working majority at the next election and Plaid thrown into the curry-conspiracy madness (another Welsh Mirror coined phrase!). But the cost was huge, both to Wales and to Labour. The relationship between Welsh and English language Wales was badly hurt, as a Welsh speaker I still come across people who see all of us as racists. While Plaid eventually recovered from the assault, Labour was damaged badly out West. I know a lot of Welsh speakers who see Labour as a bigger enemy of the Welsh language than the Tories even.

While it is very refreshing to hear parts of Labour doing the political version of standing up at an AA meeting and admitting their problem, their words will not have much effect while Chris Bryant and his lot keep up with crap like the train announcement early day motion!

Break's Over

A week is a long time in politics they say - really? After nearly a week and a half away I struggle to find anything really interesting that's changed while I ignored newspapers and blogs.

Yes OK in Wales we had Rhodri's big speech ("we will fight Plaid at the May elections" - waw, what a shocking revelation!), in the UK we've had the first nationalization of a company for goodness knows how long, in Europe we've had the birth of the new nation of Kosova and in the World we have Obama becoming the Democratic frontrunner - but to be honest there's nothing there to excite me too much! I really was hoping for a Rhodri dogging scandal too!

Oh well, if there is one thing I've learnt in the first few weeks of blogging it's that there's always something I can find to say about even the most boring of subjects, so here we go again....!

See You Soon

Well the kids get off school tomorrow, it's half term and the Hen Ferchetan won't be posting. Even if Rhodri is brought down by some shocking dogging scandal between now and the end of half term you won't hear a peep from me.

Enjoy the next week or so, don't bother wasting time coming to see if there's anything new here because I can assure you there won't be!

I Demand To Be From Gwent

A bizzare quote in the Western Mail today in an article about computer databses still not recognising the names of the "new" unitary authorities. I've seen the same thing myself, with online forms offering me South Glamorgan for Cardiff, and it is rather pathetic.

The quote in question comes from a David Jandrell from Cwmcarn in Caerphilly.

"Caerphilly is Cardiff, basically. You go over the mountain and there it is. People of my age were brought up in Monmouthshire and then Gwent."

He said he always listed his address as Cwmcarn, Crosskeys, Newport, Gwent but that he regularly got sent items addressed to Caerphilly – despite not using the county name on outgoing correspondence.

“It’s taking away my right to have a choice of what my address is. Sometimes when you speak to people [in offices] they ask you for your name, house number and postcode and then they tell you what your address is. I find that a bit presumptuous.”

A bit presumptuous? What? It's your address mate! We don't have a "right to have a choice of what my address is" - we choose our house name and the Royal Mail does the rest. Maybe I want to change my address to Hen Ferchetan, Amlwch To Magor House, Jamaica - but I haven;t done so because I doubt my mail would arrive!

The Counties changed in 1996 - 12 bloody years ago. Get a life David!

Best of Friends?

Gliding through the Welsh blog land (I hate the word blogosphere!) today I read a very interesting post by Mr Martin Eaglestone (the guy who lost his pen to Adam Price at the Plaid convention, remember?) concerning the ever protesting Tony Benn's visit to North Wales.

The ex-Labour candidate must be commended on blogging about an evening that could not have been too comfortable for him. According to Hen Ferchetan's secret spies (well...paying guests at his "Evening with... in Caernarfon") the government got a whole lot of kicking from Mr Benn.

Eaglestone acknowledges this, but claims that the Tories were abused more by the veteran politician. Not quite what I heard! Apparently Mr Benn considers Tony Blair to be the first Prime Minister he's ever met (and he's met them all since Chburchill) who's word he considered to be compleately untrustworthy. While Blair is obviously no longer our Prime Minister, Gordie hardly faired better.

Apparently the MP for the constituency next to where Mr Eaglestone keeps trying to get elected, Betty Williams, spent the whole evening tutting and moaning to her friend about the opinions Tony Benn was making very clear about his Labour collegues.

All in all I hear the evening was a great success, with Tony Benn proving to be very popular with the crowd. This may explain why Betty Williams was nice enough to put her disagreements and tutting away at the end and walk up to Benn, who was signing his books in front of a big crowd, give a big sloppy kiss to "Tony Darling", and say (very loudly) that she had to dash but would see him "back in London".

Seeing as how Betty had apparently talked to Benn at a private function earlier in the night I'm sure we should give her the benefit of the doubt and state that it must have been Tony Benn's old age that made him give a look like he was struggling to remember who she was!

(By the way, type "Betty Williams MP" into Google Images and on the third page of results you get this image - I make no comment!)

Super Duper Tuesday

Today is Super Tuesday, when more than half the American electorate get to cast their vote for either the Democratic or Republican candidate. John McCain seems likely to win the GOP's nomination tonight, but the Democratic party's election will probably rumble on for a while yet, even though today will have a big say in it.

A shock from the McCain camp came with a little family photo I found:

What the hell is an ugly sod like him doing with a quite hot daughter? And one with a Welsh name as well! (even if she does spell Meghan a bit funny!)

Americans are obsessed with celebrities, Oprah's support for Obama is seen as a massive boost to his campaign, people actually vote for him beause Oprah's told them to! I propose a change to the American electoral rules. Everyone picks their strongest celebrity backer, and they fight it out for the Presidency. Imagine the money for the TV rights! Who would win?

Clinton would be a no-hoper, her biggest celebrity backer is her husband, and he is not well known for fighting skills! McCain would be confident with the Govenor of California Mr Terminator on his side, but no-hoper evangelical Huckabee would hope to trump Arnie with the support of his celebrity backer, the legend that is Chuck Norris.

Obama might well emerge victorious however, as he has a secret weapon on his side, step forward the legendary Hulk Hogan!

The Curse of Lembit

French president Nicolas Sarkozy will sleep a little sounder tonight after Montgomeryshire's favorite son (for now) leapt to his defense among widespread disapproval of his marriage to a gorgeous model.

With the French media and opinion polls laying into the recently divorced leader, he must have thought he was all alone in this world. But thankfully Lembit Opik has reassured him, through radio 4's Today programme that having a beautiful partner does not dent political effectiveness.

Someone better warn Sarkozy of Lembit's history of supporting horses with broken legs (Charles Kennedy, Oaten, Peter Hain)

By the way, here is the new Mme Sarkozy

And the one day Mrs Opik (plus sister)

Yes Lembit, I'm sure you know exactly how Mr President feels having such an attractive partner!

Mr Pussycat Hisses

Well if it's dead why dig it up again?

Language is a living thing or nothing at all if you ask me. And the rest of us, by a stroke of luck, are in possession of a tongue worth the weight of Ben Nevis in gold. The English language is our greatest asset and the government spends far too little spreading it even wider.

There are more people who speak Punjabi in Scotland than have the Gaelic. Can you imagine the outcry if the government gave £50 per week per head to subsidise Lahore TV?

And more people speak Polish in Scotland than speak Gaelic but Gdansk TV could only dream of such a subsidy.

Soon we will have bi-lingual signs, and alphabet soup on every street corner.

If a handful of people in Scotland want to keep this obscure language alive, they can do so. Like the Amish in the United States, let them be self-sustaining.

'We're not even spending enough teaching our own kids how to speak, read and write our own language properly'

Sounds like the crap that was directed at Welsh when S4C was launched doesn't it? This is George "I Thought I Saw a Pussycat" Galloway in the Daily Record lashing out at those damn extremists who want a channel in their native language. Seems that when it comes to sad pathetic idiots with a chip on their shoulders some things never change. Doesn't Gorgeous George (!) remember that he's no longer a Scottish MP, and is certaintly not a MSP? I guess when you manage the humilating feat of emulating Kilroy and having to leave your own party you'll lash out at anything if it gets you a bit of media coverage.

Oh Happy Days

Bring on the Scots! (Click on the photo to see the happy moments in full)

Three Cheers For Me!

Well this is my 50th post, so I thought I'd give myself a clap. Yesterday was a big day for this blog, the first time that the majority of people came here directly instead of accidently landing here from another blog or a random google search (someone found this blog by searching for "urine pee", I didn't think my standards were that low!

I've survived longer than the two weeks I feared I'd last, and it seems that someone at least is actually bothering to read what I write.

Big thanks though to every blog who's linked to here, with special thanks to Miserable Old Fart, Normal Mouth who's welcome posts sent a whole lot of people this way. It seems that my posts now appear on the Welsh Political News (thanks for the tip Miss Wagstaff), which might explain the bigg surge in readers today, and the Welsh Blog Index has also helped by linking some of my posts.

There'll be no posts from me this weekend, if you need to ask why then you're clearly not Welsh (C'mon Cymru!).

Will This One Think?

So the new Welsh Secretary's first piece of business in Wales is launching a new Welsh Labour think tank. Before the Electoral Commission start grinding their swords and Paul Flynn starts preparing his defence I should point out that this think-tank seems ready to do a whole more lot of thinking than Hain's version!

Apparently Welsh Labour have never really had a think tank all for their own (depending on the London think tank I guess, just as they depend for the London party's finance). From the report in today's Western Mail it seems that one of the leading lights of this think tank will be ex Labour parliamentary candidate (i.e. failed candidate) and cultural historian Peter Stead. The quote from Mr Stead is exactly what you'd expect from a combination of a politician and historian (confusing!), so I'll try and translate for you.

"A new culture has been developing in Wales which has largely been led by other groups and it has not always been clear what Labour’s role in that has been."

Welsh Labour is so divided it's hard to know what we stand for


“I think Labour needs to tap into the cultural energy that is now around in Wales, which in a sense is more important than the details of the constitutional developments. "

Don't mention the referendum


"It’s quite ironic that Wales is being allowed more freedom now, at a time when its economic freedom within the UK has diminished from the days when we had a thriving coal industry, for example"

Remember the miners? Proper Welsh they were. They voted Labour you know.


“There was a lot of negativity around at the time of the Blaenau Gwent by-elections, which is not good for Wales."

People in Blaenau Gwent hated Labour. That's bad for Labour.


“The example of Tower Colliery, on the other hand, is inspirational and had an enormous impact in persuading people that they could do things for themselves. A lot of people in Wales are not natural entrepreneurs, and we need to get away from the victim culture. It’s the kind of energy exemplified by Tower that Labour needs to tap into.”

Weren't the miners great? They voted Labour, that's us. What a wonderful age that was, when being proper Welsh meant voting Labour


Hope that clears things up for you!

Fun and Games Down the Bay

Over the recent week or two there's a feeling that the Assembly is getting periously close to the farce that was the seating arrangement debate. We have had a recent flood of opposittion motions criticising the London Government over all kind of things.

The Lib Dem and Tory tactics are clear, propose these motions and watch with glee as Plaid vote against them even though they really support them. The latest edition of this cat and mouse game had the bizzare situation of both Labour and Plaid AM's agreeing with the motion, voting against it, then privately criticising London anyway, telling them that voting against the motion hurt badly.

Each and every party in this mess needs to look at themselves a bit closer, none more so than Plaid.

There's no doubt that for the Tories and Libs they can make a lot of political point scoring from this tactic. Whenever a Plaid AM or Plaid candidate mentions one of these subjects in the future, the opposition can point out that Plaid voted against them. On the other hand by using Assembly time (and, more importantly, the rare commodity of Assembly publicity) for petty point scoring they are hurting the whole Devolution project. Welsh people want to see the Assembly DOING things, not arguying back and forth on whether they should criticise London or not. Whether these motions were passed or rejected does not make one tiny difference to the life of any Welshman (apart from the AM's themselves of course).

Then there's Labour. What on earth are they doing refusing to criticise London, then privately doing so anyway? Clearly this is an indication that, to the Welsh Labour in the Assembly, protecting the party in London is more important than being honest about what they, and Welsh voters, actually think. Devolution was supposed to bring in a whole new style of government. By refusing to criticse London even when they disagree with them Labour AM's are making the Assembly Government look like the little kid of the London Government, not allowed to do or say anything to hurt the masters over the border. Labour AM's should look at to who they owe the greater duty, the people of Wales or the British Labour Party.

Finally we come to Plaid. Now, with all the other parties I've managed to explain why they are doing what they are, and why I think they are wrong. With Plaid I can't even do the first part. What possible logic is there in Plaid voting against these motions? Is it some misplaced loyalty to Labour? Plaid members voted for the One-Wales Government. That government was based on a very specific document which stated:

"Matters reserved to the UK Parliament, other than those mentioned in this Programme, are outside the scope of this Agreement."

In other words, there is no duty on Plaid AM's to blindly follow Labour on these issues. So why are they doing it? Voting for these motions would do no damage to the One Wales Government, only to the London government and the Labour party (and that would be very minimal damage in all honesty).

Yes, being in Government carries responsibility and is a steep learning curve. But by voting against motions which they actually agree on, Plaid are doing themselves, the Assembly and the One-Wales Government serious damage.

Let's hope that the Lib Dems and Tories will grow up very soon, that Labour will realise very soon it is supposed to represent the people of Wales and that Plaid realise even sooner that they have merely joined Labour in Government, not merged parties.

These people are supposed to be acting for OUR benefit, not their own.

The Telegraph's Version of Britain

O'Neill pointed me towards a part of the Telegraph's site today that would be scary if it wasn't so funny.

Call Yourself British is the Daily Telegraph's attempt to make us all stop calling ourself Welsh (or Scottish or English or Irish) and bask in our Britshness. This follows on from Gordie's attempts last year to wrap himself in Britishness and call for a "British Day".

The site is covered with the Union Jack (and by the way, it is called the Union Jack not the Union Flag - incorrect pedantic fools!), Big Ben, British Bulldogs, the Queen and a British passport. It looks like a proper propoganda machine. But once you look at it closely, it falls apart pretty quickly.

First is their all important poll, headlined "Most of us feel British - for now ", "Only 37pc of us see ourselves as British" and "We are better off British - and proud of it". You'd assume that, in a website devoted to "rally the people of Great Britain around the 1707 Acts of Union", "us" would mean British people. Read the text of the articles and you quickly realise that they only carried out their poll in England - hardly a good example of uniting the UK!

Even better is, at the bottom of the front page, the pictures of the Assembly, Scottish and NI Parliament and the Commons. I'll reproduce it here and will give plenty of kudos to the first person to point out how not in touch with the world outside England the Telegraph is! (Remember that building on the left?)

Then there is their "Journey to the Heart of The Union" - passing through Glasgow, Edinburgh, Hadrian's Wall, The Midlands and into London (I guess Wales and Northern Ireland are just not important enough to be the heart!)

To cap off the whole doomed project (no new articles since December 2007) is the advert on the left for the Telegraph Family Activity Planner. Here it is......

I guess that's a good map of the United Kingdom as the Daily Telegraph sees it!

I'll Protect You Boyos

Here we all were, thinking that a cut (or is that a cull?) in the ranks of Welsh MP's was a forgone conclusion if a referendum was won. We considered Scotland, who maturely accepted in 1997 that there was much less work for their MP's now and that it would be quite unfair for them to continue to be overepresented at Westminster. They duly carried out their cull with a minimum of fuss.

But our new Mr Secretary has shown all these assumptions to be wrong. By carefully looking at each argument and thoroughly discrediting them with slick advocacy and intellectual pondering he has made us all realise that we need all those MP's desperately.

Well, his actual words were that it would be "bonkers" to reduce the number of Welsh MP's - but we must assume that he had done the thinking, slick advocacy and intellectual pondering alone in the shower.

Wiiiiiii

Neath Port Talbot Council has installed a few Wii systems at their elderly care homes. Apparently it helps keep the residents healthy, both mentally and physically. We're all used to the funny smell of old people's home, now there will be the added aroma of Wii caused sweat - If I ever get old, please shoot me!

So It's Goodbye From Them

Let's all give a big round of applause to ex New York mayor Rudy Guiliani for the shortest presidential challenge I can recall - one caucus in Florida was enough to see him quit! The self styled 9/11 saviour had ignored all the early contests so that he could win Florida and go on from there. He got third. With 15%. 21% behind McCain! Guiliani only had one campaign tactic, say 9/11 as often as possible, no matter what the debate is about. Let's just say I'm not sad to see him go!

Also gone is Democratic Candidate John Edwards. He, along with pretty much everyone else, knew he was onto a loser taking on the potential first Woman President and potential first Black President. It will be very interesting to see if he throws his weight behind either candidate. he seemed to be closing up to Obama, and his support would be a big boost for Barack, but we'll have to wait and see.

The final farwell is to the legens that was Jeremy Beadle. Everyone of a certain age will have been brought up in front of Beadle's About and You've Been Framed (well before it was redone with that annoying freak of Emmerdale). He died of pneumonia. (I tried my best but just couldn't find anywhere to fit in a joke about his small hand!)

So Close Now!

Wales team to thrash England:

WALES: Lee Byrne; Shane Williams, Sonny Parker, Gavin Henson, Mark Jones; James Hook, Mike Phillips; Duncan Jones, Huw Bennett, Adam Jones, Ian Gough, Alun-Wyn Jones, Jonathan Thomas, Martyn Williams, Ryan Jones ©.
REPLACEMENTS: Matthew Rees, Gethin Jenkins, Ian Evans, Alix Popham, Gareth Cooper, Stephen Jones, Tom Shanklin

Guess we'll all be osprey fans on Saturday!

Deja Vu?

Paul Murphy, October 2000

Paul Murphy warned that voters want better public services ahead of further constitutional change.

Paul Murphy, January 2008

"No [I will not be banging the drum for more powers], I will be trying to ensure good services for the people of Wales."

Just hours into the job and he's already dusted down his "how to answer questions about more poers" book!

Secretaries, Lords, Pigs and Corridors

Having ignored the blog for a couple of days (hey, even a Hen Ferchetan has a life you know!) let's do a quick roundup of what I've missed.

Paul Murphy

The new Welsh Secretary - lots of people are a little uncomfortable with Murphy's (re)appointment. He is known to be a devo-sceptic and was very much against the One Wales government. A lot of people down Cardiff way have told us of their worries that Murphy will try and stick an oar into extra powers for the Assembly, both by blocking LCO's and by meddling with preparations for a referendum. I disagree.

While Murphy may well be less of a supporter of devolution than Mr Permatan was, he is a man who will do his job with the least amount of confrontation possible. While Hain jumped at the chance to try and rule the Assembly, I don't see Murphy sticking his oar in too often. People forget that he was the Welsh Secretary when the Assembly came to life in 1999, there was no indication then that he was trying his best to hamper things.

The anti-devolution Labour MP's will be a little weaker with Murphy at the helm. Hain pretty much always followed the Labour MP's will, but he tried to colour things differently. He denied that the GoW2006 was pandering to them when it blatantly was. He denied that the ban on sitting in seats and on list was a sop to them when it blatantly was. We also seem to have all forgotten that Peter Hain was very much not a fan of the One Wales government. Remember his firm assurance before the election that Labour would never go into government with Plaid?

While I won't say I'm delighted with the appointment of Murphy, I can't say I'm devastated either. He'll do his job and he won't try to be the Governor General of Wales.


Plaid's Lords

So Wigley got the top spot on the wannabe Plaid Lords list. I'd like it on record that I beat CNN, FOX and all other news agencies in calling that result! Joining him on the list is Eurfyl ap Gwilym - again I have no surprise - and ex-AM Janet Davies. I don't know enough about the women of Plaid to say whether Davies was the expected result or the right result, but I think they got the men spot on.

It's up to number 10 to decide whether these three become Lords of course, but I suspect they will pretty soon. What's important, both for Plaid and for Wales, is that everyone sent to London as Lords take up their positions pretty much full time. Wales needs people actively speaking for us in the Lords, we don't want anyone wasting a seat there by rarely showing up.

Pig Builders

Now I'm not one to jump on the anti PC brigade, in fact I despise nothing more than the words "PC Gone Mad", but one story this weekend tickled me quite a bit. The "government banned three little pigs for offense to Muslim" story barely had me batting an eyelid. What did make me smile was the awards panel's other criticism of the reworked version of the story (called "Three Little Cowboy Builders). According to the awards panel comparing Builders to pigs was offensive to the workmen. I bet the pigs wouldn't be too happy with the comparison either!

Welsh Facts

icWales gives us a list of the weird and wonderful facts of Wales. My personal favorites is the longest corridor in Europe in Llandough Hospital, Cardiff and that New Zealand is one of the few countries in the World where "everyone knows of Wales.".

Call my cynical but has someone really asked EVERY person in New Zealand? And who was the poor sod who got the job of measuring every corridor in Europe!

The Final Curtain

So one last look at Peter Hain then, before we finally get to move on and start finding reasons for Murphy to quit!

The "tributes" to Hain keep on flooding in. Politicians are reserved, with the word Honourable mentioned 10 billion times by every Labour politician (Honourable would have been resigning once he realised his cock up, hanging on until the cops are called is far from honourable). The blogland is a little less diplomatic...

1. You should have done the 'honourable' thing right from the start you self-serving tangerine TWAT.

2. If there is one person I would cheerfully not lift a finger to help under any circumstances, it is Peter Hain

3. So farewell Peter Hain. Today British politics is a little cleaner without him

4. Let’s be fair, the bloke is a bit of a twat, a non-entity that has never really done anything of note.

Yes, this is the internet and you can find quotes saying absolutely anything if you look hard enough (Elvis is alive!), but I still think that my earlier analysis was right - the biggest reason for Hain's sudden career collapse has quite a lot to do with the fact that, whatever kind of person he is personally, is simply not liked by anyone watching him.

The general feeling down the pub today was the same, i.e. thank god the sell out prat is gone

What's in a Date?

Tomorrow is Santes Dwynwen Day, the Welsh "version" of St Valentine. it is a happy day, at least for those in a relationship - hardly happy for the Hen Ferchetan.

That makes today Santes Dwynwen Eve. January 24th. It lands slap bang in the middle of what so called scientist label the "saddest week of the year".

This is especially true if you happen to be a Cabinet Minister. Peter Hain, Peter Mandelson and Leon Brittan. Three high flying ministers, three resignations, one date, 24th January (2008, 2001, 1986).

Come next Santes Dwynwen Eve, the One Wales government should better hope there's no scandals lying about!

Update: (Add to that list Mr Prodi as well!)