The Farewell Tour Of The McDonald's Menu Part 7: The Vegetable Deluxe

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

As regular readers of this blog will know, there is an occasional series where before I give my waistline a rest and never eat takeaway fast food again I'm going to be eating every regular medium meal from the McDonald's menu. So today it was the turn of the Vegetable Deluxe.

I'd never ordered a veggie burger before. Wasn't really sure how to approach it. Do I go all meek and quiet so that the carnivores around me don't mock me. Or do I pretend I've come out of the Veggie Closet and proclaim my desire "FOR A VEGETABLE DELUXE"?

Needless to say I chose the latter.

I was number 88 in the queue. Let me explain the panic I must have caused in the kitchen when they knew someone had asked for the Vegetable Deluxe. I had to wait FIVE minutes before I got the order. Numbers 89,90 and 91 were done before I got my hands on it. Two of those five minutes were after when I heard someone there shout out "The Vegetables Done"

And this was the result. The question which of course needed to be asked was...what on earth is deluxe about this?

Pathetic is the Word

I feel after looking at this to apologise to the quarter pounder with cheese, for it's this that's truly the wimpy meal. This that gets bullied by the other burgers after dark. If the Vegetable Deluxe burger was a person I'd send it to counselling immediately.

It was also only just edible. Clearly a conspiracy by McDonald's to convert veggies back to the land of meaty burgers. For the first time since I started this exercise I put extra tomato sauce on the burger to hide the dry taste of deluxian Vegetables.

All in all not the greatest.

Until the next time.

Is Sajid Javid Going To Be A Good Home Secretary? Perhaps You Should Ask The People Of Port Talbot

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

So Sajid Javid is going to be the new Home Secretary replacing Amber Rudd, a woman who is either a liar, incompetent ,lazy, illiterate, dyslexic or prone to amnesia depending on your point of view. Mr Javid of course is going to bestride the Home Office like a Goliath. He will have full control of his brief. Nothing, and I mean nothing is going to pass Sajid.

However....

If a week is a long time in politics then it appears that just over two years is an eternity. For it was then that Tata Steel announced that it had planned to close the Port Talbot steelworks. An action which would have created a wave of redundancies in the area and the surrounding boroughs not just in the plant itself but in the wider economy of the South Wales.

And obviously an action which would have devastated Port Talbot as an area.

Sajid Javid was Business Secretary. So you would think he would be aware of the scale of the situation in a major employer in a major industry. That he would be aware that an important decision was going to be made (he was apparently aware of the meeting). Well no...He was in Australia at the time on a Trade mission. He had to cut short his visit and fly all the way back to Britain to try and handle this unforeseen mess.

I remember him visiting the Port Talbot Steelworks on his return. He described the steelworker I think as "magnificent" or something like that. You knew if he could kiss their backsides he would have done so if only to have left the area with all of his limbs intact. It was pitiful.

But a deal with Tata was eventually made and the steel plant was saved. As was Mr Javid's career. You see he got lucky. For he was not the only person who was caught on the hop by Tata's original decision. Step forward soon to be ex First Minister of Wales Labour's Carwyn Jones. Both of them probably knew that their careers would go down the plughole if the plant was closed so along with the Trade Unions an agreement was reached (you may remember the First Minister said it was one of the successes of his tenure that the jobs were saved).

So if you think Mr Javid will be a reliable Iron Man in his job. Come to the Port Talbot Steelworks. I suspect the response will be different.

Until the next time.

Let's Chat About The Centre Of Cardiff (Without Pictures...I'm Blaming My Wife)

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

You may remember a few posts back that I mentioned in passing that having been to centre of Cardiff during Easter I'd hope to return in a few weeks to chat about it with pictures as my phone was dead at the time.

Well that day was yesterday. Wife/daughter, both of whom are old enough to know better wanted to see Disney On Ice which was being held in the Motorpoint arena in the centre of the city. I, just old and wanting nothing to do with Disney other than apparently audition for the role of Grumpy was not going.

They had wanted to go by train to Cardiff Central and then I was to pick them up when the performance finished. That was the plan. However the best laid plans of mice and women were foiled when they were slow to get ready and so wife decided to drive there to save time. This meant that I couldn't do what I'd intended doing which was to provide a snapshot portrait with pictures of the capital city centre.

So what I'm going to say now is a brief portrait of what I saw. It is based on a trip we did in the Easter break on a Sunday to see Cardiff Castle. So in no way am I saying this is scientific. Just an impression.

Let's then begin by one fact. I did not go to the centre of Cardiff because I didn't need to. If you live outside of Cardiff you don't visit the centre  (obviously excluding working there) unless there's a reason to. Thing is the reasons are reducing.

When we were there a few weeks back we went to the Toys R Us in Queens Street that was going to close a few days after out of curiosity. But the bigger shock came when we left the store. For opposite the Burtons store had also closed down.

Now Burtons obviously has it's problems (as I've mentioned before the Barry Town branch has also closed). But it would appear that the concept of a "flagship store" in a city seems to have lost it's allure. Currently the only Burtons store in Cardiff I'm aware of is just in an out of town place occupying the first floor of a Tesco's supermarket.

We were walking along St Mary's Street as well. Looking around as we were had time to spare and we noticed a few things as well as shops closing down. There was a feeling that the centre of Cardiff had gone a bit shabby. Not the Chip Shop alley One Night Stand Shabby. No. Shabby in the sense of being tired, drained.

And there was also the homeless. The centre of Cardiff always had homeless people there. You get that, cities do provide them whether intended or not with shelter and the chance of more money from the coins of kind strangers. What I hadn't seen before (and remember that this was during the day) was the fact that there were definitely more of them. Some chatting away together. Some alone. And one man who just seemed to spontaneously chat to anybody nearby. I have to say I made sure we avoided that man. Not because he was homeless, but that I wasn't sure whether he was drunk.

So why am I going on about this then? Well as I've discussed before Cardiff Labour Council appears to have taken a snobby attitude with regard to neighbouring boroughs. If this snapshot is in anyway typical for the City Centre now then perhaps they should deal with the problems within the city than acting superior to those around them.

Until the next time.

Carwyn Jones' Final Problem: Is He On The Way To Becoming The Welsh Tony Blair?

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Today (Sunday) Carwyn Jones, still First Minster of Wales is in all media giving "exclusive" interviews following his announcement last weekend that he will resign from the position in the autumn.

In these interviews the main thing he insists upon is that he did not make the decision to resign in the light of Carl Sargeant's suicide. He stated that he had made the decision months earlier.

Now, I am not saying that Mr Jones is lying, I have no idea. But as I have said in this blog before that since Mr Sargeant's death (the main enquiry of which is about to begin) the First Minister gradually began to lose the one skill he genuinely did have in politics which was as a politician. He surely knew as he uttered those words in the interview that there would be a proportion of the people who saw/read it, and I would guess the majority, who did not believe him because they consider him culpable in Mr Sargeant's suicide.

So these words, whether true or not are worthless. Just as he threatened to use the courts if publication of one of the enquiry reports was voted on by the Senedd to block it. Doesn't matter whether he was doing it out of innocent motives. Perception is the key. And the perception was not good.

Unless there is clear and conclusive evidence that the First Minister's actions were not a factor in Mr Sargeant's suicide then that is the issue that will hang around him until his dying day. Rather like Tony Blair (and as an aside Blair has aged more quickly than any other politican I know. Not only does he look old he sounds old as well) when he's wheeled out to talk about Brexit on TV few people listen to him because he is tainted with Iraq well this is I belive is what will happen to Mr Jones if he discusses Welsh affairs when he no longer First Minister.

Let me give you a few more examples from that interview that shows Carwyn Jones lost his touch as a First Minister. He said regarding his record that there was nothing that was unfinished? Really? A precarious econonmy. Bottom of International Education Leagues. I can really go on and on and yet he thinks there's nothing unfinished?

His proudest "achievements" were saving the Port Talbot Steelworks and the proposed Aston Martin factory at St. Athan. Again really? As I recall he was caught on the hop when the initial decision was made by Tata Steel to close the steelworks and the final deal was a combined Welsh/UK government and Trade Union initiative. He was not the only person involved.

He was you may remember also caught out when Tesco closed down their Cardiff call centre despite Welsh Government cash being used when it was set up. He doesn't mention that. So I've done that instead.

As for the Aston Martin plant I've written on this blog the possibility that should Brexit go pair shaped the plant might not be built in the first place. It might be an achievement.....but it's too early to decide.

He will revert to being an Assembly Member for Bridgend. Good. Perhaps then he can concentrate on a region that he seemingly has ignored during his time in the highest echelons of Welsh politics. Perhaps he can start on the urban tragedy thanks to Welsh Labour mismanagement that is Bridgend Town.

So is this situation fair on Mr Jones? Of course we don't really know at present. Hopefully the final enquiry will give a definitive answer. If it doesn't then possibly only History can be the final judge.

Until the next time.

When Science Loses To Emotion Part Two: Hinckley Nuclear Plant Sediment Coming To Cardiff

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Let me first recap on the situation. Radioactive mud from the Hinckley Nuclear Power Station in Somerset is going to be transported and then disposed of in Cardiff Bay. When I discussed the situation in an earlier post my argument was it didn't matter whether the science said it was a safe thing to do. If the Science is wrong the consequences would be disastrous given that it was to be dumped by the capital city of Wales and depending how the water flows could also be in coastal towns such as Barry Island and Porthcawl.

The responses I got for this post ranged from the local Friends Of The Earth who questioned where the science was for this decision in the first place (their comment in below the original post) to those who said on Twitter that I should just accept the Science and that's that. That Science "is rarely wrong" (note the word "rarely" which comes from an actual tweet) . That Science is progressive and emotional responses are regressive. And also that if we don't follow Science but emotion we would be living in the dark ages.

The other response from the detractors of what I wrote on Twitter was that if they lived nearby they would probably get emotional too. Well being patronised by scientists is one thing I didn't expect when I started this blog.

But what these pro-science critics of what I wrote before don't seem to realise (and perhaps I should have made it clear in the first post but I'd assumed it would be obvious) is that I'm not anti-science. I'm not talking about the science of trying to find a cure for cancer, or making further advances in technology. What I am arguing about is the science of saying that it's perfectly safe to dump radioactive sediment from a nuclear plant in a bay by the capital city of Wales. If science had said the best place for this sediment was on the River Thames in some of the busiest parts of London do you seriously think this would have been acted upon? Do you? Of course not. And the arguments against it would be exactly the arguments I'm using here. That the consequences of the science being wrong outweighs the benefits.

I'm sure this sediment could have been placed in a more isolated spot for example in Somerset and yet it's being placed here in Wales. You know post-Brexit Wales seems to have been designated as a radioactive dumping ground, a place for super prisons and a regal theme park. It really shows both the contempt of the Westminster government towards Wales and the weakness of the cowardly Welsh government.

Ah I'm being emotional again.

But to those pro-science people (and remember I'm not talking about science generally but on this specific issue) I'll end this post as I ended the last one. If you think the sediment is safe....you take it and place it where you live. I bet you'll get emotional then.

Until the next time.

The Reason You're Alive By Matthew Quick :American Conservative Literature?

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

So I finished yesterday one of the library books I'd borrowed a few weeks back which was this (even though I did a spoiler alert in the title)

Not Easy On The Eyes This Cover

Now the cover revals that Mr Quick was the author of The Silver Linings Playbook. I'd heard of the film, didn't realise it was a book, haven't seen/read either.

The best thing I can say about this novel was that it was readable. I'll give it that. Ultimately though I didn't like it. Firstly because until the end there are few moments in this book where anything really happens. It is mainly a reminiseence by the main character Vietnam War Veteran David Granger.

He is not just a war veteran but a Republican. It's his views that permeate the book. So that it's the sort of narrative where he is not just right politically but in everything else as well. He might be aware that he has certain flaws. But these are caused by what others inflicted on him. Such as him not being on good relations with his son is partly due to him being "a liberal".

He is not racist....apart from being of the view that all muslems are terrorists. Equally disturbingly he seems to think that paedophilia is accteptable if a) Done "back in the day" b) Consensual c) If your mind's messed up due to having fought in a war.

America is "the best country in the world". Well I'm old enough to say it isn't. Nowhere is perfect. Everywhere has problems they're just different.

The fact that it was a Conservative book did not bother me (I've praised Jeffrey Archer in this blog!).It's more the lack of nuance, subtlety that's annoying.

For all I know there may be hidden subtexts that I didn't catch. I don't think so. But you know any book is irritating where it has these so well hidden that you'd have to use infra red technology to highlight them.

The book cover of the UK paperback edition is interesting. Firstly the blurb says that the book "challenges us to look beyond our own prejudices and search for the good in others". That presumably refers to the politics. Also there are five comments of praise. None though from any British and only one from an American newspaper, which I think tells you how it was received.

So the question is this. Would this book have been published in Britain if it wasn't for The Silver Linings Playbook?

I don't think so.

Until the next time.

The Cowardly Welsh Labour Brexit Deal

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

So here's a question. What do you do when those powers you thought you were going to receive post Brexit as part of a devolved administration when you realise that Westminster has grabbed them for itself?

Well apparently the answer is that if you're Scottish you fight and if you're Welsh you give in.

In a deal cobbled together yesterday the Welsh Labour government has agreed that Westminster can keep those powers for seven years and that any further changes in Westminster power would have to be agreed by the devolved administrations.

So let's look into this.

Firstly the UK government must delight in the "divide and rule" tactic which Welsh Labour have agreed to. Pressure will now turn on Nicola Sturgeon in Scotland. Welsh Labour have stabbed her in the back in an issue where the Scottish government would have rightly assumed they had common cause.

Seven years is a remarkably long period of time. Longer than a normal Parliamentary term. Why did they not only give in but give in for this long a period? Also if Labour does form a UK wide government within this period will they give Wales these powers earlier? We need to know.

I have said in this blog before that Carwyn Jones lacked stature to lead Wales. This deal (and deal is the right word, for it has not been negotiated out of any degree of political principle) just means that Welsh Labour have one less immediate issue to wrestle with no matter what it's importance to Wales as a nation. This is the politics of the lazy, the "quick-fix".

That's the current leader of Wales betraying the nation. The fact that the man who is tipped as the next First Minister (Mark Drakeford) was also involved in this "deal" does not bode well for the future.

What Westminster will also have learnt from the deal is that the Welsh government is weak. After all it's a minority Conservative UK government and only around because of the Democratic Unionists in Northern Ireland. However even in that state of affairs the Welsh Labour government caved in. What it means is that should the Conservatives be able to form a majority administration they will know they can push Welsh Labour around.

So this "deal" has been done by Welsh Labour people afraid of battle, afraid of putting themselves on the line for the cause of Welsh devolution. This "deal" has been negotiated by cowards.

I'll leave you with one fact. If this deal is so good why is it that the happiest Politician in Wales today is likely to be Alun Cairns?

Until the next time.

In Which I Wonder Why I'm So Calm When People I Know Are Dead

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I am I think a man of many normal emotions. I can be happy, angry, passionate or humorous.I can also be caring and definitely grumpy. And yet if there is one thing my emotional DNA stops me from doing it's grieving when another person is no longer with us.

Was reminded about this a few days back when contacting my mother and could only hear tears on the other end of the line. Eventually she told me that a relative had unexpectedly died of natural causes.

My instant reactions were as follows:

1) Relief that my mother was fine given her problems earlier in the year.

2) Surprise that a good person had died so unexpectedly

3) Sadness

4) Calm

When I told wife/daughter about my relative's passing, their reaction was only on a level slightly below my mother's. They started looking at Facebook and Instagram accounts of that person and reminiscing.

Me? I went to bed.

Now let me stress before I go on this person and me got on fine. And, as I said before I'm genuinely sad at her passing. Also, and this I must stress as well, my reaction was not unusual in the face of death. Even my father's. He was a man I loved and admired very much. A man who I miss with every day that passes. And yet when he died as my mother was so (understandably) distraught I spent the day after at the hospital, the church, the registrar of deaths and the funeral directors. Other than specific details of the service which needed my mother's input I just unemotionally dealt with arranging the service and subsequent burial.

So then why is this? There are three obvious explanations.

1) Some sort of British "Stiff Upper Lip" thing?

2) Some sort of Machismo thing

Or, as my wife put it

3) I'm a cold fish.

Of course I don't know the answer or what can be done. And as the years roll on I'm more conscious of this now than when I was younger.

Perhaps the real answer is that when it's my turn to die, I feel unless it involves extreme pain I'm going to be equally calm at my own death. That is really how I would like to go.

Quietly.

Until the next time.

The Severn Bridge Rename Revisited : Why Symbols Are Important. As Is Welsh Nationalism

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I have spoken about the proposed renaming of the Second Severn Bridge Crossing before in this blog but am brought to chat about again following an article in the Wales Art Review by editor and journalist Fedor Tot. In it he criticises what he sees as the arguments against the renaming on the basis of the symbolism of what the proposed change means.

So let's stop there for a moment. Symbols are important. Firstly the decision to call it the Prince Of Wales Bridge is a not the symbol of a thrusting nation. It's a symbol of a nation tied to a monarchical past. Also the manner of the decision, done in Roman pro consul style by blog villain and all round political slimeball Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns without any consultation with the Welsh people symbolises a contempt for legitimate opinion about the proposal.

In other words....who cares what the Welsh think?

His view is that this argument plays into the hands of "the worst elements of Nationalism" of thinking that "my country is better than your country". I would argue that Welsh nationalism is different because it never has said "my country is better than your country" it says, just like the equivalent Irish and Scots versions that "my country is different from your country and should be independent from it"

Unlike Mr Tot I do consider Plaid Cymru to be a Nationalist (ie my description of Nationalism mentioned above) party and as an Englishman and a member I've no problems with that. There may be issues as to the timescale but if Plaid Cymru is not the party for ultimate independence for Wales then it is nothing. It's a position that Leanne Wood holds and I would argue when it's previous leader Ieuan Wyn Jones seemingly muddied the waters on it then the party was damaged.

And with his comments with regard to Yugoslavia and it's turmoil when it spilt up well who is arguing for war? Independence without the vote of the people for it will mean failure. As Scotland showed you can have a referendum on a nation's future without bloodshed.

So there is nothing wrong with Welsh Nationalism, nor indeed with disagreeing with the symbolic effects of decisions made without consultation with the Welsh people. For people who believe in Welsh Nationalism know that whether "my country is better than you country" is unimportant. What's important is that independence means that every decision is made without having to look over a bridge (which will of course be renamed).

Until the next time.

Carwyn Jones: The Most Successful Failure In Welsh Politics

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

So I was driving home from work last night. Decided to listen to BBC Radio Five Live as there was some live Boxing coming up, but as it happens I'd turned on in time for the news. Remember now this is a UK wide station, so imagine my surprise when I heard as chief headline the words "Carwyn Jones..."

I knew then he was going to resign as Welsh First Minister, the announcer did not need to go on.

As I've said in a post earlier this week. Since the death of Carl Sargeant Carwyn Jones lost the one real skill he had which was being a politician. He probably knew this. Whether the Labour party in Wales knew this as well who knows? Did he go or was he pushed? Who knows? Who cares? Though it's worthwhile pointing out that should any of the enquiries going on concerning Mr Sargeant's death blame the current First Minister in any way, he will probably not be First Minister by the time they're published.

And before we chat about his career in his speech to the Welsh Labour conference yesterday he stated that no one knew the pressures put on his family in the past few months. No matter how truthful the remark it was nonetheless tactless because there would be no one who heard that who wouldn't be thinking about what Mr Sargeant's family have had to face in the past few months. At least Mr Jones' family still have a husband/father with them.

So then Mr Jones' record as First Minister. Was it good? Of course not. We start with the simple fact that he always seemed to lack stature on the political stage. When Nicola Sturgeon said something London listened. When Carwyn Jones said anything London yawned.

The Welsh economy is in a precarious state. It takes problems in key factories throughout Wales and immediately there could be regional disasters (such as what happened when it was proposed a few years back that the Port Talbot steelworks should be closed).To Westminster it appears that Wales is only good for investment as a nuclear mud dumping ground, a place to house monster prisons and a regal theme park. What is the reaction of the Welsh government? A mixture of the ineffectual and the servile. As a force for Wales the government under the current First Minister was useless.

The Health service have faced cuts and longer waiting times. Education in Wales is in such a bad state in international league tables that a LIBDEM is education minster. It's culture minister proposes that Wales the country should market itself as a Serfdom Principality and there's no murmurs from the First Minister.

His record as the local Assembly member for Bridgend is not great either. To this day I've no real idea on whether he has made any comments on some of the Welsh Labour council's mad policies that have so damaged the borough. Particularly the urban tragedy that is Bridgend Town. It's noticeable also that the council have often complained about their Welsh government grant.

So all Carwyn Jones really had was his skill, and it was a skill, as a politician. When that left him, there was really nothing else he could do.

Until the next time.

On Books:Specifically How Those On Ireland And Russia Makes Me Wonder Whether The Welsh Are The Last Serfs Of Europe

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

The Land War In Ireland (1870) A History For Our Times a contemporary history written by Irish writer James Godkin was an interesting book to read. Imagine the history of a country (and yes I know the republic didn't exist then) through the basis of it's laws of land ownership and rent with the effect it had on the people.

His preface was an interesting one. Suggesting as it did that whilst Ireland did indeed have problems. It was largely brought upon by the English ( though to be fair here Westminster).

It's not an easy read. It demands your complete attention and any lapses of thought are punished as you find yourself adrift for a while only discover sanctuary in the next chapter as the story moves apace.

The thing is that the Irish Land laws punished the vast majority of the population. But they were also, you realise now with hindsight, one of the slow burners that led to the creation of The Republic.

John M Synge: a Few Personal Recollections, with Biographical Notes is essentially an article John Masefield wrote about the Irish playwright. It was I must admit an indulgence (albeit a free one) on my part getting this book. But I was curious given that I had to do The Playboy Of The Western World for my exams at school.

Well it had it's moments. But mainly it was a waste of my time and my (non) investment.

Can you like and dislike a book in equal measure? This question comes to me on reading A Sportsman's Sketches Volume one by Ivan Turgenev. This is a volume of short stories published in 1852 and set in the Russian countryside.

Sketches are in fact the perfect description for this book as in the majority of these cases you catch a glimpse of the lives of people and then move on. This was before I read him what I understood the term Checkovian meant before I read the good doctor Anton and yet it's Turgenev who seems to better define the term and is indeed to me the better writer.

Also I've never been to Russia, let alone it's countryside and yet the picture Turgenev conveys of a sense of place in the nineteenth century certainly seemed convincing to me.

However the "sport" referred to in the title is in fact shooting birds which to most people is just the passion for the rich in money if not mind. And the condescending tone the narrator has for the people he describes doesn't does grate.

Best described as a nearly then.

The book did remind me in one story though of the system of serfdom in Russia at that time. Rather like the Irish land laws it was one of those issues that served as a slow burner that led to change for the nation.

And the thought did occur to me that Wales could be the last Serfs of Europe. Allowing Westminster to starve it of long term investment such as the Swansea Bay Lagoon or electrification of the Main Intercity line. Instead it seems to be deemed only worthy in their for dumping nuclear mud, monster prisons and the rest being some sort of regal theme park. The Welsh government in the Assembly seemingly powerless or obsequiously servile to all of this.

Which just might mean it's another slow burner to independence....hope so.

Until the next time.

Ramblings Before I Make A Call About A Car Accident....

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well as I'm writing this it's 7:02am on a Saturday morning. Wife/daughter are asleep and outside it looks as if it's the forecast last of the hot days we've been having recently.

There goes summer folks...

At around eight thirty I have to make a call to the motor insurance people. To possibly make a claim. I cannot really comment about it at the moment. All I will say is that it's remarkably like the last claim I made about six months ago, including the fact that (acknowledged again by the other driver) it was not my fault.

Also if appearances are of any judge the mighty Kia Picanto seems unaffected. But as I learnt last time appearances can be deceptive. It will need looking into. Hence the reason for the call.

We were as a family off to the Grand Theatre Swansea from the Vale Of Glamorgan to see a production of Of Mice And Men. A journey that should have taken one hour took about two. And the exchanging of numbers etc with the other driver was only part of the reason why it took so long. Apparently, as the saying goes we were caught up in the "sheer weight of traffic".

Lucky us.

For me as a reader I didn't want to go even though it was my suggestion as I knew it meant that I couldn't really read the novel by John Steinbeck. It would be like watching a recording of a sporting event on the TV whilst knowing the result. However it is on my daughter's literature syllabus at school. So it seemed like a good idea.

I'll say this. Judging by the short time I was there unlike the journey where you could see completed or soon to be completed along the road to the city. There seems to be a decline in Swansea City centre. This is purely judging by the drunks acting up in the Tesco car park, the teenagers doing exactly the same thing along the main shopping area, and the closed down shops which seem to be more than last time (This is about 6:45pm yesterday evening....in daylight)

Now as I said all of this is from a relatively brief impression. I didn't really have the time or opportunity to look around properly. But if this impression is right then something is very,very wrong. I say this because having been to Cardiff City Centre a few weeks back the very same feeling came to me there as I saw the shops that were closed down and an increase in homeless people wandering around the streets. I might have to go to Cardiff City Centre next Sunday. If I can I'm going to make the time and wander round.

It's 7:41 now....

Apparently today (Saturday) is going to be the last of the string (and here I mean three) of hot days we have recently had. Hope everyone enjoyed their summer.

Well 8:10am ....time to prepare for that call. Until the next time.

Why Barry Town Must Always Look At Bridgend Town

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Now Barry Town is not Bridgend Town. Not even close. But there is a constant danger that if it is not vigilant enough it might become the urban tragedy that is Bridgend Town thanks to the arrogant incompetence of the Welsh Labour council.

A town does not normally decline through one factor alone. A group of factors combine and, and you don't realise this until you take a step back, suddenly realise that it's in trouble.

I spoke last year of the proposal to add car parking fees to the town centre and what a disaster that would be citing Bridgend Town's experience. I'm assuming that has (for now at least) been put on the shelf. But yesterday on Twitter another example came up. That of what you do to closed down retail outlets.

Again, Barry Town  has closed down shops in it's centre like all towns. But nowhere near the vast swathes that blight it's Bridgend neighbour. The most prominent is this.

The Windsor Hotel

I think I've mentioned this before in this blog. Personally given how exceptional this building is in relation to the rest of the town centre I don't think it can be judged like the rest. It's been closed down for at least a year.

An off the top of my head thought about this building is this. If ever a place seemed suitable for social housing and, say a gym at the ground level, this is it.

The Burtons in Barry Town has also closed. But I don't think that's to do with the place, given that I know that the one in Cardiff Queens Street has recently closed as well.

This though did come as a surprise. Which I saw today.

Not So Direct For Barry Town Soon

But the shop closure I want to specifically chat about is this.

Filco

This store, opened in 2015 was closed in December last year. I was personally only aware of the closure yesterday though to my defence a lot of the intervening time was spent looking after my mother in Essex. If you look at it only the For Sale sign gives you any hint of trouble. When I approached the front there was a message announcing the closure and laughably suggesting that you should you wish to shop in Filco go to neighbouring stores which included places about an hour away such as Maesteg!

A Plaid Cymru councillor Millie Collins has asked the Housing Association for news on the current position of this property. She is right to do so. Why I'm focused on this shop? Because if left empty then it reminds of Bridgend Town Centre with it's closed down Phones4U shop still a retail shell (barring the sign). And who will ever forget the McDonald's? Closed down and left to rot for seventeen years before being demolished in 2017.

Unattended shops, leave a sense of decay which in the long term damages a town. It's important that, even if it involves giving temporary leases, these buildings are used. It is why Barry Town must always constantly look at the urban tragedy that is Bridgend Town to avoid it happening there.

Until the next time.

The Farewell Tour Of The McDonald's Menu Part 6: The McChicken Sandwich

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Regular readers to this blog will know that I've decided to stop eating fast food. But before I do I'm going to be eating every regular medium meal of the McDonald's menu as and when the opportunity arises.

Well this time it's the turn of the McChicken Sandwich.

A Mutated Sandwich If You Ask Me

Let's be clear here. Whatever this is, this is not a sandwich. I don't see slices of bread over a fried chicken. I see a roll. And because the chicken is hot. I see a burger. This is a chicken burger with pretensions.

If there is one thing I've learnt since starting this exercise once McDonalds went off their original menus and started on new items they really went for the most stupid names going. After all what is legendary about their chicken legend meal? Who on earth thought that Fillet O Fish was the best way to describe what is essentially a fish finger with pretensions?...Really!

And of course it was edible but quickly forgettable. I'm beginning to wonder whether what seemed seductive American glamour is in fact just fuel for the body and nothing more. Once I finish this tour of the menu I will be very surprised if I miss it.

One final unrelated issue. With this meal I ordered a Cappuchino as my drink. McDonalds do coffee now. And they advertise it as basically just like Starbucks or Costa but without the caffine snobbery.

Well...the only connection between the drink I bought and any other coffee establishment was that it was hot liquid. It really was awful. Won't be doing that again.

Until the next time.

Whether Guilty Or Innocent Carwyn Jones Has Revealed Himself To Be Incompetent

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

You may remember earlier this year the political fallout from the suicide of Assembly Member Carl Sargeant. Something I discussed at the time.

Well amongst the various enquiries that were instigated was one as to whether the sacking of Mr Sargeant was leaked to the press. That report has been completed and the Conservatives have sought a debate today (Wednesday) in the Senedd to force the Welsh Labour administration to publish this report.

So what does Carwyn Jones do? He writes a letter to the presiding officer asking for the debate to be postponed or else he threatens court proceedings. He states that the reason for doing this is to protect the confidentiality of witnesses to that enquiry. At time of writing the Presiding Officer has rejected his request.

Now whether or not he has a case I don't know. But it's worth pointing out that he writes this letter a day before the actual debate and without any notice beforehand to the other political parties that this could be an issue.

Obviously the other parties were unhappy about the governing party of a major Parliament in Britain using the courts. What was telling watching the news reports was the sheer silence of the Labour AMs as Jones was trying to defend himself. Tellingly at the back of the chamber the look of the man who replaced Carl Sargeant as AM, his son. You felt that here was a man who was keeping his powder dry....for now.

Now whether or not Carwyn Jones is trying to cover up something I don't know. Clearly there are two scenarios here. One is that he is using the notion of witness confidentiality to save his own skin from some damning evidence in the enquiry report. The other is that he is completely innocent and the actions are being from a genuine concern.

The trouble is, even if he is innocent, his authoritarian, undemocratic methods to muzzle the Senedd was always likely to make people suspect a cover up. If protection of witnesses was an issue then this last minute heavy handed approach will not help these people as it has only made the other parties assume he does have something to hide.

In other words. Whether guilty or innocent Carwyn Jones has made a delicate situation worse by his actions.

It would be laughable....if we were not talking about the loss of life.

Until Mr Sargeant's death, and for all of his faults Carwyn Jones was a smooth political operator. Since that tragedy though. The First Minister seems to have lost his touch (note my comments on his Syrian Statement Of Nothing).

Until the next time

Barry's Almost Into Europe....That's Barry Town United By The Way

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

It had been last year that I went to a football game. There were various reasons. Working regularly on a Saturday doesn't help. But spending roughly two and half months in Essex helping my unwell mother recover was probably the main cause.

But this Sunday was different. Barry Town United were playing Newtown. Wasn't working. Am back in Wales and I was looking forward to watching Welsh League football.

Barry Town are, I think I've mentioned this before, amongst those group of teams that I genuinely wish well unless they're playing the team I support (and in the case of Wales that's Ton Pentre FC though I can't say that I've had the chance to follow them this season). This game was important. For they just needed one point to guarantee entry into the playoff spot for the ultimate prize being entry into the Europa league, or rather the matches before you go into the Europa league, but you probably knew that anyway.

Their opponents Newtown however had every reason to stop them. For they were only one position behind them in the league. So they needed to defeat Barry in order to still be in the running for this play off space themselves. The Welsh language channel S4C knew all of this, which is why it was it's live game of the week.

I bought the matchday programme and was shocked to discover that Secretary of State for Wales and blog villain Alun Cairns was actually honorary president of the club! So let me give Barry Town United AFC are friendly warning. Be careful. Or you will soon find yourself being called Prince Of Wales United.

Le Parc De Jenner

To the noises of cowbell, horn and a drum it all started. When I was watching games when they were the away side it was irritating. In Le Parc De Jenner it's just part of the atmosphere. Probably it's because the perspective is different. After all the artificial grass is always greener on the other side.

A couple of men were chatting about potential European opponents should Barry go through and win the play offs. Paris? Milan? Madrid?

No. Liverpool apparently. I blame Brexit.

After about fifteen minutes Newtown scored. A ball exposed a gap in the Barry Town defence and left the keeper exposed on a one on one basis. It really was no contest.

"That's OK" said the voice behind me "Last time we played them they scored first and it finished five one to us".

So that's all right then.

Then it started to rain. And heavily at that. The assistant referee was soaked. No sympathy for him. I hate all match officials younger than me. And as I'm fifty four that means all of them.

Ha Ha Ha

The referee was not popular with the Barry Town supporters judging by what I heard. However I felt they were being unfair given that he was suffering with a disability during the first half to be unable to use his arms to collect a [insert colour here] card to give to Newtown players after countless fouls. Also, from a distance the ref looked like he was wearing a skull cap.

What do you think?

More Action From Le Parc De Jenner

Towards the end of the first half there were three miracles that I need to chronicle. Firstly the sun shone (yes I know). There was a moment when it was so bright I actually had to cover my eyes (and again, I know).

The second miracle was that the Ref overcame his disability and was able to give a Newtown player a yellow card for a foul. Praise be.

And the third miracle was that Barry Town scored. But it wasn't that they scored a goal. It was truly a magnificent goal. Worthy The Barry player Jon Hood received the ball in the Newtown half, moved through to the box and then made a low curler that was too finely targeted for his opponent's goalkeeper to reach.

If this was La Liga you would have thought it was Messi who scored. Hood did a dance to celebrate. I don't blame him. If I'd scored a goal like that I'd have boogied on down Barry Town High Street.

At halftime I went to get something to eat and drink. I chose Belgian.

They like Mayonniase on their chips

In truth the second half was not as good as the first. I can only recall one decent chance per team. So that was how it ended.1-1. A fair result with regard to the game. But for Barry Town it was enough. It meant a shot at the playoffs, which. for a newly promoted side is very impressive.

Barry's nearly into Europe

Until the next time.

Why First Minister Carwyn Jones Should Resign Over His Syrian Statement Of Nothing

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

As I'm writing this the situation in Syria suggests that the American/UK/French airstrikes were just a one-off for the moment. Now for what it's worth I gave my opinion on this in the last post, and nothing has changed since the missiles actually were fired. But this post is not about my views, or the way Theresa May looked unwell in the past couple of days as she allowed Britain to be subjugated by the American property developer.

No it's about the amazingly small statement on the conflict issued by the First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones.

My Twitter timeline was shocked by his apparent support to the airstrikes. Having read it I'm not so sure. Having read it again I actually think it's a lot worse

This is what (whilst having a telephone conversation to the Prime Minister) he said:

"I offered my support to any intervention that could prevent a further atrocity...."

And that is seemingly clear. The First Minster of Wales supports the air strikes on Syria.

But it goes on...

"....but it is vital that any action forms part of a wider long-term plan for the region"

So in a criticism of Blair and Cameron over Iraq/Libya Carwyn Jones is saying that you cannot do this sort of action without planning for it's consequences.

And yet we have heard nothing from America/UK/France that suggests there is any long term plan. The President of the United States has said there will be further strikes if there are any further chemical attacks by Assad. But that's it. Nothing that actually suggests that should the Syrian leader use any other sort of weaponry there will be a response.

Let's read that part of the statement again.

"....but it is vital that any action forms part of a wider long-term plan for the region"

If there is no long term plan for the region by America/UK/France. If this was just an attack on the bases and that's it. Then that part of the statement suggests that the First Minister is against the air strikes.

Now what I'm going to say now is speculation on my part and let me stress that. But to me the only logical explanation is that Carwyn Jones was trying to have his cake and buy the patisserie. That he was hedging his bets with the fence he was sitting on.

No one truly knows how the Syrian issue will end up. But it's in moments like this when nations turn to it's government. Where people expect a leader.

What Wales got was a politician.

And that's why he should resign.

Until the next time.

With The Potential For War, Let's Talk About A Dodgy Lunch And My Celtic Blood

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

It's very odd to be in a nation on the brink of entering into a war with Syria. After all on the one hand you're conscious of this hovering in the background as you lead your life doing daily life things. But on the other those mundane tasks (milk is needed! Have to go to the shop tomorrow) suddenly become appreciated and important in view of the uncertainties.

So let me (for what it's worth) make my position clear. I'm against any potential war with Syria. Assad is obviously a bad man. But like Iraq and Libya there seems to be no clear plan for the consequences of war. And if those two countries should have taught us anything, it's that my enemy's enemy is not necessarily my friend.

As for the Prime minister Theresa May she grows pathetic with every second. So desparate for a trade deal with the United States post Brexit she is using military forces to help pander the whims of a property developer with delusions of grandeur.

It was in this atomosphere that wife, daughter and myself went into a place part of a chain of restaurants this Friday lunchtime. I won't go into exact detail (other than it was in the Vale of Glamorgan) because I don't want to get people sacked. But when we entered at two o'clock we were told to wait whilst the waitress checked if there were any reservations.....even though there were plenty of empty tables.

When on eventually getting to the table we ordered our starter. Our starter you understand which took...pause for dramatic effect ...thirty five minutes later.

And there was more. We asked for extra red sauce during the main meal. A promise to return was only kept when we'd finished. As for a refill of the cola. We lost patience waiting and got it ourselves.

How did we complain? Well of course in the way that most people in these islands would deal with this situation. We did not tip. Except mentally transmitting a psychic thought that being quick and correct would help in the future.

Whilst we were waiting, and I'm not sure how the subject was brought up, we discussed family trees. Daughter having taken an interest in the subject and having been on these online websites.

It was interesting. For it turned out that whilst I'm English by birth I'm the only one of us three who (judging on what I know so far) doesn't have any English blood in them. Whilst I'm not a believer that nationality should be judged on "blood" it nonetheless showed up some interesting facts. Like my wife, unquestionably Welsh, has some English blood from some ancestor on her father's side centuries ago. And as for me. Judged by blood I'm mainly Italian...except for the portion coming from my great grandmother...who was Scottish (indeed Glaswegian).

So perhaps this explains why I'm a Plaid Cymru member and a supporter for Welsh and Scottish independence.

It's in the blood.

Until the next time

Blog Villain Bridgend Welsh Labour Council: When Even Offering Something For Free Is For The Most Part Worthless

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Last time I spoke about Bridgend Welsh Labour Council, I enquired whether they had reached a situation where the consequences of years of their urban mismanagement of Bridgend Town had meant that they just quite simply lost control. Whether they had no strategy for it's future. Whether essentially it was being run on a crisis management basis.

Well I noticed on their Twitter account yesterday that they, along with a group which are trying to regenerate Bridgend Town were offering that the first hour of the relatively newly built (November) Rhiw car park would be free.

Now my instant reaction was to say "well that's encouraging". But when I said instant I meant instant. For what I soon realised was that they were indulging in media spin.

The car parking charges are one of the issues that have so damaged the town and discouraged people from visiting with a consequent damage to local shops and amenities. The nearby outlet centre's Macarthur Glen's car park is free, as are those in Maesteg. Of the other main town in the area Porthcawl, whilst there are charges there are also many places to park for nothing.

What the tweet did not offer was a similar deal for the other car parks in the town run by the council. Why? Why focus on one car park in the town and not the others? It lacks a coherent strategy. Especially as most people would just park in the nearby ASDA's anyway. A car park with a three hour free parking limit.

And how exactly does a "first hour free" car parking encourage people to wander around the town? Relax with a coffee or marvel at the empty retail wrecks with which talking generally the council should bare some responsibility for? What a "first hour free" car parking charge will do is to make people drive to the car park, do one quick targeted shop, and drive out again. Hardly something that will bring urban renewal to the town.

Incidentally as a quick aside the council's Twitter account also revealed that it's also on Instagram. Spoiler alert: You won't find pictures of the many empty shops in Bridgend Town on that account.

What Bridgend Labour Council should do is make all of it's car parks free for at least a three hour period. That way the town could benefit a lot more from it's visitors. It would not be a quick fix to the urban tragedy that is Bridgend Town thanks to Labour.

But it would be a start.

Until the next time.

On Books: Including Being Disappointed With Dickens And The Book Genre That Brexit Will Kill Part Two

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Haven't done a post with regard to the books I've read for a while so here we go.

Let's deal with The Lemon Tree Café by Cathy Bramley first. Regular readers to the blog know I like to randomly pick books from the library outside of my comfort zone. This piece of chick lit potboliery definitely comes into that category.

I wish to say I was pleasantly surprised. But no. Really was a waste of my reading time. Though let's be clear here as a fifty four year old man I was definitely not in the target audience.

Because as regular readers will know I make every effort not to spoil the plots of the books I chat about it's impossible to explain fully why I didn't like The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens. A spoiler was incidentally one of the reasons as I already knew what happens to one of the characters. It is difficult for a reader to hide him or herself from some part of a classic novel before reading it no matter how hard they try.

The other reason I can mention here is the fact that the chief villain, Mr Quilp, is of restricted height. Now I know what you're going to say. Why not just call him a dwarf? (My blog my rules) and also there are many able bodied villains in Dickens novels? Why get put out over this.

The answer to the second point is that Mr Quilp is a greedy landlord and moneylender. Assaults his wife and desires (when she is an adult) to have the character of Nell as his second wife. There are no redeeming features to him whatsoever. And to make that even more clear as a contrast to the pure and innocent Nell Dickens makes him physically different as well. This was clearly deliberate in a Victorian society where the only good "dwarfs" are those miners who help Snow White.

Dickens was playing to his audience.

You may remember some time back I chatted about the sort of book where a Briton, frustrated in one way or another about the way his/her life is going, decides to move to a country in the European Union (normally one with sunlight), starts growing [insert Mediterranean produce here], and slowly through misunderstandings with the locals and about their customs grows to love the new home.

Whilst a lot of this type of genre was smug twaddle I'd mentioned that this would die because of Brexit as even if you voted Remain it would be too depressing to read something that would be for most people unobtainable.

What did not occur to me until starting to read Lucy Wadham's excellent 2009 book The Secret Life Of France is there is another type of British immigrant to the EU. The sort of person who emigrated not out of a love of growing lemons but of a significant other.

Being British but having married and living in France she is the perfect guide to life there. The real skill of the book is to effortlessly discuss an aspect of French life, say health, on a national basis and combine it with her own experiences.

I read this in a day. It's that good.

The point is post Brexit whilst I'm sure there will be some Britons able to emigrate to an EU country and marry abroad these will surely drop. Then of those people able to move to the European Union how many of those would be able to write a book about their life in a new country as Ms Wadham has done?

This type of book will wither and probably die. Which is a tragedy. Because the British people will lose people like Ms Wadham giving us a guide to and an understanding of our European neighbours. And so Brexit amongst it's many other damaging consequences might lead to Britain just not understanding the people around us. Which will be a tragedy and potentially dangerous.

So treasure Ms Wadham's book and (if well written) books like it.

We won't see their like for a while.

Until the next time.

A Caravan Killing Near Barry Town

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Just outside Barry Town there is an industrial estate. And when I say an industrial estate I don't mean a small group of warehouse type buildings (though there are those too) but large structures including a small power station and other factories where industrial people do industrial things.

Along one of the roads around this area there is a lay-by in front of one of these places. And, for a month now, becoming almost a tourist attraction, there has been this....

Well and truly dead

Now in the beginning when it was left there it was actually more upright than it is now. But like some hunted animal it could not stand the pain of being ravaged in such a manner and collapsed.

Who could have done it? Well the woman who was passing by when I looked around this said that it was "campers". The usual suspects. But I don't think so. Because despite the ransacking that took place according to this woman the caravan killers took the number plate, the windows and the chassis. Things that could have led them to the owners. Which makes me believe that despite the look of all this being carried out by mindless yobs, the perpetrators knew what they were doing.

Also this action (presumably at night) was done at a spot where the killers could feel they wouldn't get caught....despite more than one sign saying that there were CCTV cameras around.

I think this caravan was killed by professionals. People who knew what they were doing and probably have done this sort of thing before.

A caravan contract killing

Anyway things went to a stage where in windy weather (rare in Wales I know) parts of the contract killed caravan could fly off to the nearby road. So I contacted the Vale of Glamorgan council, asking (given the length of time) when is it going to be removed. Their response was that they could not do anything because the dead beast was on private land but the company that owned it was arranging it's removal.

I thanked them. But then I thought again. Surely given that it was on layby contract flytippers could put anything on this spot. Things potentially even more hazardous than the caravan but they could not do anything because it was on private land? Even though it was by a public road? So I relayed this thought to council. Which is why (or so my fragile male ego would like to think) whilst the carcass is still there the place has been blocked off by a steel caged fence.

And I feel for the caravan. I suspect once it led a happy life, and now it's just been beaten, murdered and dumped like so much trash.

Until the next time.

In Which A Day Trip To Porthcawl Makes Me Think About Blog Villian's Welsh Labour Council's Management Of Bridgend Town

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

On Friday wife daughter and myself had one of those rare days where we had the day together when one of us were not working and we all of a mood to go out. However as it was midday the decision as to where to go was not easy. The morning (it was about eleven) was bright so the obvious choice, nearby Barry Island, wasn't really a starter as being on a school break it was likely to be packed.

So I suggested Porthcawl. We would know side streets to park and then wander round a town and a seafront that we all liked. As no obvious alternatives presented itself it won the day.

Well I can't say it was the most enjoyable trip. Largely because the weather decided to be occasionally showery and permanently grey from the moment we arrived. We had clearly displeased the Bridgend weather gods by moving away from the area.

Porthcawl Town Centre

The town looked a bit weary that day and noticeably lacking in the numbers of people you would expect in an Easter bank holiday school break. However it was not the moment to properly judge the place. Partly as I said the weather was not a "Come to Porthcawl!" invitation (apart to idiots like me)  but also there was work being carried out along the seafront that also might have affected visitor numbers.

Some of this work was to bolster the town's flood defences but the other, advertised by a sign and partly financed by the National Lottery (of which I'll come back to later) was a forthcoming Porthcawl Maritime Centre.

Now exactly what this will provide we don't really know until this built but clearly this is designed to attract new tourists to the area as well as regular visitors whether the weather is sunny or stormy. And you know what? Building something like this in a seaside area is not unreasonable. There is a strategy at work.

And it got me thinking. There is something similar (though as I've argued in this blog before flawed) going on in Maesteg with the proposal to turn the town hall into a "cultural hub" (whatever that means). "Renovate it and they will come" seems to be the motto here. Thus boosting the economy of the town.

But as I've said there are problems. Not least because at time of writing financing is not secured as the council are waiting (longer than anticipated) for the result of their proposal to the National lottery. This being the third proposal. A refusal here could mean that the iconic building is abandoned. Something that would be a disaster for the town and the council will have only themselves to blame having badly mismanaged the originals proposals in the first place.

However when it comes to mismanagement that pales into insignificance when compared to the Welsh Labour Council's action regarding Bridgend Town. I've gone through in this blog how their arrogant incompetence have turned what I understood to be a once proud place into an urban tragedy.

When I looked around the town as I did a few weeks back it did not occur to me then of the possibility that the Labour council now realise the consequences of years of  their inept rule but do not have a strategy of how to deal with it because the problem has got so bad. Why is it that the only recent building/renovations of any significance in the town involve social housing (a good thing) over shops (why given the vast swathes of empty retail outlets do this?).

This is not strategy. This is town planning on the hoof

I mentioned before that there is "a taskforce" in Bridgend council that is dealing with the issue of empty retail space. According to the local paper they have sent a questionnaire to shop owners asking how they can improve the situation. A move that strikes me as shutting the shop door after the customers have bolted.

There is nothing in Bridgend Town that would attract the regular casual visitor and seemingly nothing planned. This would presumably mean that the Welsh Labour council are running the town in crisis management mode. If I'm right. This is just unacceptable. If I'm wrong then perhaps the people of Bridgend Town should be told what vision the council has for it's future.

Until the next time.

A Severn Bridge ReName Too Far

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well I wake up and go online. What you may ask is the biggest news in Wales? Unemployment? Brexit? The state of unease that has permeated the nation for a long time now and doesn't seem to go away?

No.

Instead we wake up to the news that Secretary of State for Wales and blog villain Alun Cairns announces that the Second Severn Crossing is going to be named "The Prince Of Wales Bridge". Instantly turning it into architecture as curtsy.

Republicans will tell you that when the British nation faces uncertainty or crisis there is always media focus on the Royal family to provide a distraction. So given that there is a wedding, a birth, refurbishment of a ship and various palaces at the taxpayer's expense we must be facing a very bleak future.

This renaming of the bridge, so unnecessary given it's decades old,is just another obsequious icing on that cake. And if you want servile cometh the hour cometh the Cairns.

And what is the toady one's justification for all of this? Well firstly that only Republicans will object. Well speaking as one it's true that Republicans do object, but how does he know that it's only Republicans? Well the clue comes in his next response. That he spoke for "the silent majority" revealing a level of ministerial mysticism unheard of in British politics. I'll come back with my guess of what the "silent majority" thinks in a moment.

Prince Charles, he also said, deserves this renaming for the work he does for charity. Rubbish. I would assume that as a proportion of the finances at their disposal and the time available to them that there are many more people who have given themselves to charity work than Charlie boy. But do you think Cairns is going to rename a bridge for them?

In fact to be fair to Alun Cairns (a statement which if I ever have to read out loud it'll be through gritted teeth) he has only one real argument going for him. That he contacted First Minister Carwyn Jones about the proposed name change and he didn't object. However all that proves is that in front of royalty Labour politicians can be as servile as their Conservative opponents.

My guess is that the "silent majority" will object to the renaming of the bridge because of the Pro Consul way Cairns has acted. Not allowing the people to have their say as to what the bridge should be called is not democratic. I suspect the majority would have picked other names than the Prince Of Wales. Names which would not give the impression of trying to ingratiate yourself with royalty by kissing it's backside.

And my view of what the name should be? Well there's actually nothing wrong with the Second Severn Crossing as it does exactly what it says on the road sign. However if there needs to be a new name how about one that is clearly Welsh, welcoming and actually is close to the Welsh word for bridge?

Ponty it is then.

Until the next time.

Wales Is Treated As A Second Tier Nation In Law and Order......And In Cricket

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Haven't been blogging for a while. Am awaiting one thing before chatting about the mystery of a dead caravan. But for the moment let's chat about minor issues like law and order.

Wales is a nation. Let's mention that first. It's not a town snuggled up in the Midlands to remembered only in election times. And yet it is denied powers that are given to cities let alone nations. Policing and justice responsibilities have been under the control of the Scottish government since devolution but does Cardiff Bay have a sniff of them? A chance of getting them? Well of course not. And with political slimeball Alun Cairns at the helm at the Welsh Office that won't happen.

Manchester has powers over policing. London will have some powers over Justice. Yet Wales, a nation, is being told to be grateful with what you have and run away like a good little child..

I have said before, and will say again in my blog until I'm blue in the face, that all of this stems from the fact that the Welsh people (taken as a whole) are just far too nice. Liberties and rights are denied them because they are just too nice to argue. "Mustn't grumble" is a phrase I hear when someone moans about some aspect of Wales that's not right. Well perhaps the Welsh people should grumble, and shout, and like the Scots shout loudly.

And this placidity permeates into sport. The governing body of Cricket in Wales is the ECB. Now those not used to the acronym might think that the C in ECB stands for Cymru. No it stands for Cricket. So to be clear the English and Wales Cricket Board does not have Wales in it's acronym at all.

A minor thing you might say. But I'd argue that symbolism is everything. It should be the EWCB. But Wales is absent from the acronym. Subsumed into England.

As indeed is the team. When Test Matches are played it should be England and Wales vs [insert a test playing nation here]. But no when Welsh players play an important international game they play for England.

You know the arguments already against Wales having it's own test team. The biggest is that it will be a minnow against more powerful opponents (including England). But Cricketing independence is an allegory for political independence as well. For whilst a Welsh cricket test team would indeed be small initially, and will falter. It will also grow, establish itself and then thrive amongst other cricketing nations.

And perhaps subconsciously, that's why it's not yet happened.

Until the next time.

"Let's Watch A Film Together As A Family" Says The Wife And Daughter......I'd Rather Not

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

It has been a wet and miserable Easter Holiday weekend. In fact as I'm writing this it's 3:54am on Easter Monday...and it's raining. But this occurs the previous day. The wife has cooked an excellent Sunday dinner. No denying this. But once the dinner has been eaten, and we're seated in front of the TV she says the words that strike fear into my brain.

"Let's Watch A Film Together......"

Now personally I would have rather watched something online. There would have been some free sports stream somewhere. Or I could have listened to something whilst wife/daughter enjoy a movie. Or (and this is what my body was beginning to tell me) I could have just taken a nap.

But of course she does not say "Let's watch a film together". What she says is "Let's watch a film together.....as a family". To me they are dreaded words. Because it's very difficult (not impossible but very difficult) for wife, daughter (who is a teenager) and myself to find something that we can all enjoy. And the person who causes the most problems.....is me.

Wife's/daughters tastes in movies seem to have merged together now. Mine however has resolutely stayed still and then gone into reverse. Not interested in holiday blockbusters anymore, or crime or indeed anything taken as a whole. I even bought a Radio Times Film Catalogue in Harlow (admittedly for £2.50 from the original £25) in the hope it might inspire me to go through the listed movies in the same way as I would be happy to do so in a library. But it hasn't worked. In fact the last film I really really liked (and I've bought a copy on Amazon video) was Julie and Julia starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams.

And my reference to a library is important here. Because as regular readers to this blog will know I'm happy as I grow older to go random on what I read. It doesn't mean I'd like it you understand, but I'd give it a go. But movies? My instinct is to go all Trump and a build wall from them entering my mind.

Being so resolute in my disinterest means that I can't generally choose the film for us to watch as I'm disinterested. The Catch 22 of the couch potato.

Even so. Here I am trapped into watching a film I don't want to watch because not watching it means in their eyes I don't care about the family. And the thing is, even if I was more tolerant of most movies the choices of wife/daughter I'd find difficult to watch anyway. A few weeks ago the film was "We Bought A Zoo" starring Matt Damon and Scarlett Johannson about a guy who, (surprise,surprise) buys a run down old zoo in California. It's not a spoiler alert to say that the only real surprise was not that the story was "based on true events" but the zoo is in England.

I wished I'd taken a nap in that movie. Yesterday I did take a nap through the movie they watched (though in fairness, as I'd mentioned in my previous post I'd woken up too early in the morning because of insomnia and after a full meal sleep had caught up with me). When I woke up with about twenty minutes remaining they looked at me as if I'd just announced I was leaving them to shack up with a woman half my age.

Doubt I would have liked the movie they saw anyway. Goodbye Christopher Robin was telling the story of the troubled relationship between the creator of Winnie The Pooh A A Milne and his son (Christopher Robin), Thing was, I knew about that already and (whisper it gently) as a child I preferred the Disney films to the original stories.

But of course that didn't matter to wife/daughter. What mattered was that I'd lost an afternoon of spending time "as a family". Whether I'll regret it in the future time will tell but to be honest, at that particular moment I didn't really care.

Until the next time.

How Kenneth Williams Spoilt A Susan Sontag Essay, Why Broadway Can Prove West Ham Fans Don't Have High Expectations And Other Ramblings Of Another Too Early On A Sunday Morning Insomnia Post

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well as I'm writing this it's 5:56am on Easter Sunday morning. I'm not working today, I have no real plans and yet here I am awake. Insomnia rules again.

Have finished Susan Sontag's Penguin pocket book of essays I bought last week. All very interesting and intellectual. Her essay on "Camp" clearly showed her knowledge and intellectual breath. Trouble is, when I think of "Camp" in relation to a manner of behaviour I think of someone like Kenneth Williams or  Larry Grayson which she probably never heard of being American. So it was difficult to look at it in a more reflective, calmer mode.

That of course is my problem. My other problem is that she is far more cleverer than I am. When (and not if) I approach a Susan Sontag book again, I have to get my brain into fifth gear from page one. That as a reader is my responsibility. Whatever a Susan Sontag book is, I've learnt that she demands attention from page one.

West Ham won yesterday (hooray) but a lot of focus has been put on the club recently due to it's poor performance in previous games (including against Swansea City, which living in South Wales I was reminded of constantly) and the protests against the board.

When the mainstream media looked at the situation they got people, including ex manager Harry Redknapp (a manager who I did respect when he was at West Ham. After all under him you didn't have to look at the bottom of the table to find out where your team was) who agreed with the idea that the club's supporters had high expectations.

Rubbish.

West Ham fans are not glory seekers. They are fans because they believe passionately in their team. All they expect is for the team to put in a shift. To make an effort. To do the best they can.

And if you don't believe me then I would refer you to Broadway and the origin of the West Ham familiar chant "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles". What other chant anywhere in sports would have something like these lines referring to blowing bubbles.

"...just like my dreams they fade and die. Fortune's always hiding. I've looked everywhere"

Is this the song of a team supported by people with high expectations? No. We are West Ham supporters. We are realists. But we also care. And it's the fact that we care which is what confuses the media and ex players to think we have ideas above reality.

It's now 7:35am. The sun is actually shining. Wife/daughter are asleep. Perhaps we should go out. But wife has bought beef and is actually looking forward to cooking for lunch and, well, how can I argue with that?

Must admit I do enjoy riling right wing Americans with regard to gun control. After all the rest of the world thinks that their gun laws are mad and yet somehow they're right. Tell you what? They don't like me.

One of them pointed to a particular graph of homicide rates. Just four countries in the graph HE TWEETED were worse than America's. The rest were better than the USA.I wonder why. These people really are thick. Thick and with guns in their possession.

Well wife and daughter awake. So time to close off for now.

Until the next time.