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Dr Who's Tardis may excite the modern
child's mind with infinite travel possibilities to beyond the beyond, both in place and time, but
we wee lads of the late 1940s and 1950s were not at all deprived on that front.
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England's steadily emerging identity will lead to the Scandanavianisation rather than the Balkanisation of the British Isles.
I had a novel experience watching the 2007 Rugby World Cup a few months ago. For the first time ever I wasn't supporting ATBE (any team but England). Whilst I didn't rush out to buy a Cross of Saint George flag, I'd go as far as saying that I would have been quite glad had the English retained the Webb Ellis Trophy.
I've traditionally taken the ATBE position not through anti-English xenophobia but for political reasons. Were I, and thousands of other Welsh people to support England, the media and political class wouldn't applaud us for our cultural generosity but would see the equation; the Welsh support England, ergo, the Welsh are essentially English. Not supporting England is an easy-to-read way of making the point, 'we're Welsh, don't take us for granted'. |
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By Gareth ap Sion
OWN GOAL FOR PEOPLE'S ARISTO IN BOURNEMOUTH - BEACH DEMO DRAMA!
So the headline of the Sun of Wales - if such existed -might justifiably have shrieked on a sunny day in September this year, when, as an embittered former employee of the Allied Steel and Wire plant in Cardiff in 2002, was cast on a communal Welsh scrapheap as the direct result of New Labour's neglect and obduracy, my system received a welcome boost.
Erstwhile Labour leader and 'socialist peer' Lord Kinnock, the sometime Neil Kinnock, had a highly embarrassing run-in with semi-clothed pensions campaigners from Wales on a Bournemouth beach during the recent Labour Party Conference.
The campaigners, most wearing bathing trunks to emphasise the impoverished condition in which they find themselves as a result of the government's pathetically weak response to their plight, were confronted by the snappily-dressed 'people's aristocrat' looking for an individual who, his lordship felt, had 'been telling lies' about him. |
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Is it all rosy in the Coalition Garden? |
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The first four months have been too little to judge the strength of the Labour-Plaid coalition in Cardiff Bay. But it has been just enough for First Minister Rhodri Morgan to wonder aloud whether the coalition is strong enough to last.
When senior figures in Plaid start mouthing similar concerns about the ability of their One Wales deal with Labour to see out the year - never mind the four years it was signed for - perhaps the peaceful agreements which have characterised the months since July are in truth an aberration which cannot continue.
The issue Mr Morgan was worried about was the budget for next year, for agreement by the Assembly by the end of the year.
"The true test of the coalition is can we agree a budget. I am quite confident that we can," Mr Morgan told a press briefing in the Senedd (the building alongside the water of Cardiff Bay, which houses the main debating chamber). Can the coalition continue? "I am confident, but I do not want to be overconfident."
Which is all well and good if taken by itself. But what senior Plaid officials volunteer doesn't exactly bolster the First Minister's hopes. |
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Mrs Patel, the chippie, and the Language Act |
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Quite a few language enthusiasts will be feeling pretty sore when they see the government proposals for a new language Act due after the Assembly returns in September. To be presented and shepherded through Cardiff and Westminster until they become law by none other than Plaid group deputy leader Rhodri Glyn Thomas, the bill will fall a mile short of what Cymdeithas yr Iaith have been demanding. |
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