The Case For A Twenty Mile Per Hour Speed Limit In Sully And Beyond

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today....and that especially includes you, Vale of Glamorgan council.

Currently we're renting near Sully, a small village between Penarth and Barry Town. A pleasant place but if the signs I notice driving through are of any guide there are apparently two issues which have caused anger amongst the permanent residents. One are the proposed housing developments for the village. On this issue I'm currently on the fence. If only because I don't know what type of developments are being proposed.

But the other, whose sign I've only just seen today, is trying to persuade you to reduce the speed limit for vehicles that enter the village to twenty miles per hour. On this issue the answer should be obvious. On this you should agree with the people.

Now for the moment let's ignore the main road of the village (South Road) and concentrate on most of the other roads. Because those of us who've driven round the area know full well that there really is no reason to drive around there at thirty mph. These roads are generally relatively short, and a lot of them windy and thin.

It's important to remember that we're talking here about the roads that are in the village and not those that could go to the outside of it (such as Sully Road) so essentially the specific long stretch of road that we would need to speak about is South Road. Home to the convenience store, the library, the post office and the playing fields.

In seemingly empty traffic it's not impossible to reach thirty miles per hour on this road. Whilst there is a set of traffic lights there's not that many other things that I recall would curtail a person's speed behind the wheel along this road. Now if you're driving on the other side of the road to the convenience store and there's a delivery truck on that side it means that the lane the truck is parked in is blocked you won't see until the last minute the teenager suddenly running across the road. I am old enough to remember the ads that explained that you have more chance surviving being hit by a car doing twenty than doing thirty miles per hour.

So Vale Of Glamorgan Council how about reducing the speed limit in the village to twenty miles per hour? It's simple, cheap and effective...and you know full well that if you don't do it then it will take one child/teenager's death to change your mind. So how about doing it now?

And while you're at it (though I can't say I've done the research) I'm sure there are roads in Barry Town and Penarth that this could help as well.

You know it makes sense.

Until the next time.

In A New Dawn Let's Chat About the Age Of Innocence By Edith Wharton

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

As I'm writing this it's 4:53am on a Thursday morning. The alarm had been set for six. Insomnia is a cruel mistress.

Outside a new dawn is slowly beginning to emerge. It looks for the moment kike it will be a grey one and it's certainly wet. The weather forecast indeed suggests that the rain will be much, much worse as this day continues. Of course as is always the way I have a few journeys to make today.

Normally with insomnia I would have probably spent the time the time nowadays wandering the web. An internet hobo from site to site. This morning however was different. For I had according to my Kindle less than half an hour of Age Of Innocence by Edith Wharton to go. So decided to finish that.

Now this book had been split into two sections, literally Book one and Book Two. This seemed somehow appropriate. For if any novel could be described as a book of two halves in my opinion of it this is it. So let's chat about Book One first.

Book One was, for the most part, a dull trudge. I was wondering when I read this exactly why it's the classic that it is. The characters for the most part are as limp as the wettest of lettuce (and that includes the leading male in this story). And as for the denouement well it was so obvious it might as well have been covered in neon and sponsored by the city of Las Vegas.

What saves Book One, just, are two central characters. Firstly Madame Olenska, the central woman here. Beautiful, different, mysterious and for Nineteenth Century New York Society a woman with issues.

The other central character is Nineteenth Century New York Society itself. Outwardly polite it nonetheless is a very powerful force seeking to control the emotions of those it rules no matter how much certain people try to resist.

And so I approach Book Two in a depressed frame of mind. The sort of mind a reader has when he/she is halfway through a book, feels as a sense of duty as a book lover to finish it but knowing full well that their mind will be turned to mush at the end.

Well....was wrong about that.

Book Two is everything Book One isn't. Characters become fully rounded (though the two main ones from Book One are as strong as ever), the plot moves in a way that you did not expect and the ending was as subtle as it was strong. It was brilliant. You have to read Book One I'm afraid to get to Book Two. But trust me it's worth it.

No question the most surprising book I've read so far this year.

Until the next time.

Apathy Doesn't Help The Drive For Welsh Independence But It Might Not Last For Much Longer...

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

When I find myself chatting about independence for Wales on Twitter I get different reactions. Some of the main ones is that the Welsh don't want it or why does organisations like Plaid Cymru or Yes Cymru seek a goal without planning the consequences through.

What these people don't seem to realise is that all political parties and movements have goals which may not be popular in it's creation. These goals may lack line by line detail. That does not matter. A political party/movement is created to change the mind of the people and show people that there is another way.

I have written before that there will come a time when the Welsh non-Tory voter will seek a different political party to the rule of arrogant incompetence provided by Welsh Labour at national and local level. These people will look at Plaid Cymru for their vote. It happened in Scotland and it could happen here.

And let's like we always have to do here look at Scotland. When they got elected as a minority administration in the Scottish government the SNP didn't say "Right folks let's have a referendum". No for the lifetime of their first term they let certain people within their party plan independence for Scotland whilst they showed the nation that they could govern. That Scots could have confidence in them running the country. They may have lost the subsequent referendum for independence (because of Westminster lies but let's not dwell on that here) but the point remains that it was the closest in my lifetime that any of the four home nations got to obtaining it. There is no reason why Plaid Cymru should not follow the same approach, which whilst ultimately unsuccessful was close.

People in Scotland might be for or against independence. But the point is that since the SNP obtained power no one considers it impossible. 

We also need again to consider the consequences of Brexit. If it creates further economic austerity for Britain then that would be the final push for Scottish independence. Indeed there is a possibility that it would cause the reunification of Ireland. People living in Wales would look at this and say "why not us?"

And so planning for independence is important. But there could be a scenario where the best option (through a referendum) is just to leave rule from Westminster with the barest structure in place. That would be if the situation in the UK was so bad that a messy divorce was preferable to staying in the union. If the Remain side's post Brexit scenario proves correct that just might happen.

So Plaid Cymru needs to be ready. Events might soon prove momentous.

Until the next time.

In Which I Combine A Very English Scandal, The TV Effects Of Old Age And Why An Elderly Dubliner Could Be Angry At Bridgend Town

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

So it's Bank Holiday Monday as normal nothing I want to watch. Until that is the wife suddenly said:

"Shall we watch A Very English Scandal"? (She had recorded both episodes currently shown)

Now I've posted before that wife and I find it very difficult to find things that we could watch together, but this Russell T Davies drama based on the true life events between then Liberal party (now the Liberal Democrats after mergers and acquisitions) leader Jeremy Thorpe and his lover Norman Scott fitted the bill.

Why? Because wife and I are old enough (as children) to remember the moment all of this culminated in a trial. So we could recall when all of this was made public.

What this means of course is that we have come to an age where figures real to us at the time have now become historical actors in TV dramas. We are that old. Before the only TV effects of our age were the digital channels showing programmes we remembered when younger. With a few exceptions they were always disappointing. Starsky and Hutch for example. Two detectives fighting crime with the inconspicuous sports car with a white lightening strike and a loud wheels. Loved it at the time. Laughable now.This however took our geriocracy to a whole new depth.

I'm not normally one to write about TV dramas in this blog. And after seeing the first episode we are going to view episode two sometime. But the thing that makes me want to chat about it are the scenes where the friend of Thorpe goes to Dublin in an attempt to stop Scott blackmailing the leader of the Liberals.

Because apparently the place in Britain that could pass for Dublin in the nineteen sixties was Bridgend Town. That's right the urban tragedy that is Bridgend Town was considered as the perfect substitute for the Irish capital!

Now I have never been to Dublin (I'd like to one day) and I have no idea what it was like in the sixties. But I'd be willing to guess that anybody who's lived there at that time would have been insulted. Or perhaps will be. Because those of us aware about the state of Bridgend Town in the present day will know that whilst television "Irished up" the scenery (phonebox for example) there was no real attempt to hide the closed down shops that blight the place arguably more than any town in South Wales.

Consequently in terms of the scenery (as opposed to what happens to Norman Scott there. Which I won't spoil) Dublin is shown as a rather dull and dreary place. Whereas what it's actually showing is the Bridgend Town of today.

Of course the odds of someone knowing Dublin in the sixties and Bridgend Town of today are extremely thin. But if you know of an Irish person angry after seeing this episode that's why. Trust me.

Until the next time.

In Defence Of The Male Reader

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

One of the great advantages of Twitter is the way it will lead you to things that even the normal internet would not. Yesterday, quite randomly it led me to a post by the writer David Hayden with regard to men and their reading choices. It suggested that male readers would normally see writing as the canon with women hardly getting a look in.

The article is here https://lithub.com/david-hayden-men-still-too-often-see-their-writing-as-the-canon/

It referred to readers surveys which stated that male readers almost exclusively and deliberately read fictional books by other men and not women. This surprised me. I personally wonder how these surveys were phrased. Most male readers I'm aware of don't discriminate by gender at least not as consciously as Mr Hayden's article implied. That said, as I've mentioned in this blog in the past, there have been some female writers who I have avoided specifically because the cover and the blurb suggests not that it will be too female, but rather too gushingly romantic, too girly or too delicate for my male DNA.

As readers of this blog will also know I have tried to go beyond the covers recently (too varying degrees of success as I will explain later) but I don't blame myself for not looking at books that were not designed to attract me the male reader.

These covers need to be discussed individually. There were four particular types:

a) The "Mills and Boon" Cover: We are all aware of that cover that suggests whirlwind romance through a [insert historical period here]. Avoided Georgette Heyer (only read her for the first time a couple of years and Norah Lofts (I've a book of hers have not got round to reading yet).

b) The Chick Lit Cover: Bright Colours, Swirly lettering, Cartoon figures. They were literary warning lights for men to avoid. But if circumstances were different, I wouldn't have realised that (as I've explained in previous posts) Marian Keyes is a far more important writer than her covers would suggest.

c) The Chocolate Box Cover: Which interestingly I have an example in one of the two books I'm reading at the moment.

Santa Montefiore - The Beekeeper's Daughter

(The other book I'm reading incidentally is The Age Of Innocence by Edith Wharton)

So you're looking at that cover and would instantly see a sweeping romance style book. I won't chat about the novel until I've properly finished it. Though let's say that for the moment it's a case of Bad Santa.

4) The Delicate Cover: This tends to be a relatively thin book with a painting/photo and a blurb that suggests something arty and dull. Anita Brookner comes to mind here (though I have got a few of her books now though amongst the great unread at the moment).

There was also one other thing about Mr Hayden's piece (whose books incidentally I haven't read either - so many books - so little time ) that sprang to mind. His concentration on general literature ignored the genre where women writers have had critical and popular (including men) acclaim through the decades and that's crime.

From Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers through to Liza Cody, P D James, Sarah Paretsky, Ruth Rendell  with now Lynda La Plante and Val McDermid female writers have shown that if you write in a subject men are interested in they are happy to read you without any issues of gender. And, it should be stressed that often the people doing the detecting are women as well.

I'm not saying that men (including myself) shouldn't read more books by women authors. But I am saying that the reasons we haven't are probably less obvious than Mr Hayden's article would suggest.

Until the next time.

Cliche Ireland Is Apparently Over. Let's Try To Remove Cliche Wales

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

At time of writing (5:48 am on a Saturday morning - Woke up at 4:50am - Welcome To Insomnia) it appears that the exit poll in the Irish Referendum will mean that the Ireland will be able to abolish their extremely strict abortion laws.

But to spread the effects of the referendum out still more it will also mean that the power of Catholic Church has gone to terminal decline (which is of course their fault over how they handled the abuse scandals) and that cliché Ireland is no more.

Ireland can now truly say that it's a modern nation not tied up to it's past and not gagged by the undemocratic religious forces that so dominated it's life. It knows that once the immediate Brexit hurdles have been overcome it can look forward to a bright future within the EU whereas we in Britain will soon be looking in from the rainy shop window.

So outside of the touristy stuff there will be no more images of Ireland of "sure and begorrah" leprechauns, green hills, farming and living lives and following laws essentially set by the Vatican. That outside if Dublin there isn't anywhere that can be called sophisticated.

Cliché Ireland is no more....which led me to think about Cliché Wales.

After all Wales, it's language and people are still the butt of jokes from people who know they can't talk about the Irish in the same way as they used to.

(And that's another cliché - the stupid Irish - that was something that was commonplace on comedy shows in British TV in the seventies. Thankfully gone now. Partly because it wouldn't be acceptable but also because it wouldn't be believed).

There are many clichés about the Welsh. From the absolute love of rugby (which I've argued in this blog is not true anymore on a club level), to the weather (Ok it's not the Mediterranean but it doesn't permanently rain), to the language being either just an English word with an accent or just throw up scrabble letters in the air and create a word from it.

There are others of course. The Welsh are farmers and rugby players now that coal mining is no more or are on the dole. There is nowhere remotely sophisticated in Wales aside from Cardiff. And don't get me started on the sheep....

But possibly the biggest cliché about the Welsh people is that they are servile and will just accept anything Westminster throws at it. From the naming of a bridge after royalty, to having no rail electrification West of Cardiff, to taking nuclear waste generated in Somerset. All of this stems from the cliche that Wales is essentially there to serve England.

And of course the actions of the Welsh National Labour Government in surrendering Brexit powers whilst the Scots are Braveheartedly (another cliché I know. Couldn't resist) fighting them should not be ignored. But a country's politicians are not necessarily representative of it
(This is why journalist Rod Liddle can make comments about Wales and get away with it or England rugby coach Eddie Jones can call it a "s****y little country" and be unpunished)

But this apparent servility is partly there because as I've said before the cliché, which is true, is that the Welsh people as a whole are too nice.

So what can be done to remove cliché Wales? Well ultimately independence. But in the meantime independence of action from Westminster will help. It's why whilst not yet independent cliché Scotland is kilts and bagpipes and nothing useful except for it's oil is fast disappearing from the landscape.

Of course it's difficult to see that happening with a Welsh Labour administration as independent of thought as a train track. Which is why Plaid Cymru (the party I support) needs to be there and ready for the moment (which will come) when the people of Wales will know that change from the status quo is needed to make their lives better.

And should Labour be defeated here. Then Cliché Wales will start to crack.

Until the next time.

On Books: Particularly on the Plante in the Quick Reads Garden

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well read a number of books since the last post, so let's begin.

All Hell Breaks Loose - Max Hastings: What I said about the book previously is unchanged now I've finished it. The best non-fiction book I've read so far this year.

1227 QI Facts - John Lloyd, John Mitchinson, James Harkin: A bought it because it was a) cheap and b) I'm a fan of the TV programme. This was though a mistake, though it could be personal to me. I'm not a fan of books that you can "dip into" finding them difficult to concentrate on if you're trying to read from cover to cover. It does have Quite Interesting facts (Cardiff has more sunshine than Milan caught my eye) but I thought my view of it would be different to those similar books given I liked the TV show it was based on. I was wrong.

The Essays Of Arthur Schopenhauer ; Studies In Pessimism: Philosophers eh? They get paid to write down what they're thinking in long words and everyone thinks they're a deity? Well it's the first time I read Arthur's stuff and I wasn't impressed.

You get for example stupid ideas like "We should forgive a man his folly" and you think "Really Arthur? If I went and killed someone close to you would you really forgive me? Really?

Aside from one really interesting essay on suicide (which when he wrote it was a crime) this was mainly long words wrapped around the bleeding obvious. The real odious essay was that on Women. If you're female I'd suggest you check your blood pressure before proceeding.

And speaking of females....

Lynda La Plante - The Little One

This was the latest library book I'd read.

What perhaps is first worth discussing is that it came out of the QuickReads stable. These are slim books written by established writers either to attract people who have gone off reading or readers eager for that quick fix. Essentially literary espresso. By getting people to read more following reading a Quick Read book then it has performed a service for us all.

I had never read a Lynda La Plante book before, purely a case of so many books so little time, but I feel having finished it that clearly I've been missing out. The story of the relationship between a struggling journalist and an ex Soap star leads you one way and then twists and turns. You assume that things are moving in one direction and then seamlessly your preconceptions are subverted. Only towards the end did I begin to understand what was happening.

Ms La Plante clearly has a skill in plot then. But also in character. Your views seem to shift with every page. Things are not as they seem.

I really enjoyed this book. Clearly it's my loss I've not read her before.

Until the next time.

A Quick Wander Around Bridgend Town

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

As regular readers will be aware the urban tragedy due to the arrogant incompetence of the Labour council that is Bridgend Town is a feature of this blog, though less frequent now I no longer live in the area (though I still work there).

I do plan to do a more measured post on the state of the town sometime in June. However unexpectedly I had to go in there yesterday so this is a snapshot of what I saw.I should stress that I only had (including grabbing lunch) about forty five minutes to play with.

And because of the relative rush I missed snapping a few things. A new nail bar is there. As is a gym (though with another one just a few blocks away I really wonder how both can survive).

I also forgot to snap the situation regarding the "McDonald's" area. The McDonald's, closed down in 2000 and left to rot for seventeen years before finally demolished in December last year. Well as I left the situation nothing had been done in March. And as we approach June nothing has changed. What it has become is an eyesore gap.

If you approached the eyesore gap from the car park on a wall nearby someone wrote "Apathy". Which was interesting as perhaps that person was trying to convey what the town has become. And whoever wrote that is educated, after all he/she didn't scrawl "can't be bothered".

I mention this because that person didn't just graffiti it there. I noticed this.

The Bridgend V For Vendetta Slogan?

Now having been fair and mentioning the places that had just opened since my last visit that I'd noticed I need now to mention the places that have closed down. Starting with this:

No Longer Cooperative

This was the Cooperative Travel agents. Now gone. Here's an interesting fact. Whilst there are Cooperative food stores in the Bridgend area, with the closure of the bank branch last year and now this, it's only presence in the town is the funeralcare. Symbolic or what?

And opposite there's this:

A Chainstore Outlet

This used to be Ethel Austin and then it became this. Now even a chainstore outlet can't sustain business in the town.

Now since I moved I have four regular features I look at regarding the town. I've dealt with the McDonald's Eyesore gap and the places that have opened and closed down. So let's have a look at Bridgend Indoor Market. Well I'm afraid nothing has changed. Many stalls are empty including apparently this one now.

All Very Sad

But if a picture can illustrate the contempt the council apparently shows for the stall holders it's this one.

Look Up

For what you see are Christmas decorations.....and it's nearly June!!!

And, (and I forgot to photo this as well) with regard to the Nolton Street Shopping Arcade it's still the case that aside from the two shops that go onto the aforementioned street every single shop in that place empty.

So then Bridgend Town. Nothing has really changed since the last time I was here. All very,very sad really.

Until the next time.

Until the next time.

How I Avoided The Royal Wedding With The Help Of Work,A Classical Music Radio Station, Heavy Rock And The Second World War

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well then Saturday was Royal Wedding Day and I was working. And a good thing too. Even if I hadn't worked I'd have avoided it. Essentially the reasons boil down to two.

Firstly I'm a Republican. A nation should not be obsessed by a fairytale idea of a King, Queen and the rest of what is a privileged elite. Why in events such as these the television stations for example will be broadcasting through the medium of curtsy is beyond me.

Take for example the reporting of Meghan Markle's father. Yet those of us old enough to remember the issues surrounding the divorce Of Charles and Diana know that he didn't cover himself with glory. And yet apparently all is now forgotten.

For a lot of people the Royal family is a fairy story that hides the true state of Britain where the tale is Grimm

Secondly I have no interest in watching a wedding on television and I suspect that most men (other than those who will dress in union jack clothing for the day - when at any other moment they'd be considered weird) feel the same whatever their views on the monarchy otherwise. As I think I've mentioned before the process of getting married in a church, as opposed to getting married is a distinctly female event. Men, I would guess, would rather watch the sport on another channel.

Wife and daughter went to an event organised by a (female) friend where they and more female fans watched the event...yes I know. And you know what? She's also recorded it!

As it happens I also missed the FA Cup Final today as well. But to be honest I don't care about that either (though I'd admit I'd would've watched it if I wasn't working). Mainly because the final does not this year hold out any interest for the neutral.

So where did I start avoiding this wedding whilst I'm wasn't working? Well a classical music radio station, so the wedding would probably only be mentioned in the news headlines (and as it happens the wedding was the second item on their news at 12:30). Not Classical King FM as Ms Markle is American so the choice was (taken as a whole) my favourite classical radio station RTE Lyric FM of the Irish Republic.

I was listening to an aimiable programme called The Hamilton Scores. Where George Hamilton leads through a range of easy listening classical scores perfect for a Saturday morning. The title? Well I'm assuming that refers to his work as a football commentator. I mean? A football commentator on a classical music station? Where else but RTE Lyric FM would be comfortable with that? It is, as I've said before the most unpretentious classical music station I know.

Heavy rock? Well this was the latest library book I read.

Ian Vince - The Lie Of The Land

This book was trying I think to make geology accessible for the masses as he chatted about the subject whilst going round Britain.

Now Mr Vince can write, when he was chatting about his travels you were interested (indeed as an aside he mentioned another book he wrote about travelling around Britain in a milk float - I do want to read that). But....when the book chatted about the specifics geology then it got ...well...rocky (apologies but I couldn't resist).

It was dull.

In essence if your interest in rocks doesn't go beyond the views it produces or avoiding them in the case of an avalanche then it really isn't the book for you.

Continued then reading Max Hastings book All Hell Let Loose about the Second World War mainly through the eyes of ordinary people caught up in it. I haven't finished it yet, but I suspect it will be the best non-fiction book I've read so far this year. Mr Hastings handles the large remit with ease and aplomb. Also, a key test of any history book is that it tells something you didn't already know. It worked on that basis as well. I thought I knew enough on the Second World War. Mr Hastings proved me wrong.

So a Conservative historian helped me avoid a most conservative of events. I should thank him.

Thank you Mr Hastings.

Until the next time.

The Farewell Tour Of The McDonald's Menu Part 11: It's A Wrap

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well it is done. I've completed the medium regular meal tour of the McDonald's menu. That is it. No more McDonald's,Burger King and the like. I know you don't believe me. Temptation you think will come my way. But I am genuinely resolute. This is the first step in reducing the more than a pound of flesh on my belly.

This was the last meal then. A Bacon and Chicken One Wrap.

The End Of An Era

It was tasty but forgettable.

So what have I learnt from this experience? Well...

1) I won't miss it. Honestly I won't. The food ranged from tastily forgettable to absolute rubbish.

2) The names of McDonald's meals make for the most part no sense. Since when has a chicken been a Legend?

3)Taking the food out of the packaging onto the plate has shown how relatively small a lot of these meals actually are. We've been taken for mugs.

And that's it...it's a wrap.

Until the next time.

Wanderings In Barry Town And Whitchurch (Cardiff)

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

For reasons I won't bore you with yesterday I found myself with time to wander around two different places in South Wales yesterday. I've already dealt with Barry Town a bit in this blog so won't dwell on it that much but Whitchurch (a suburb of Cardiff) is new.

So let's start then with Barry Town.

I call this "View From Barry Town Car Park"

Now I like Barry Town, and it doesn't have the death spiral feel of Bridgend Town, but (referring to the high street) it must be careful not to fall in the same trap it's near neighbour did. It's not easy to work out the extent, partly because a number of outlets are being renovated and some (closed when I was there) were sort of takeaways/restaurants open in the evening, but it's not immune to shops closures.

I still feel though that what happens to this place (which I mentioned in my last post) is a bell weather to what will happen to the town as a whole if no one is careful.

Still Closed

As I mentioned in the previous post this is the Filco convenience store which has been closed since December last year. All retail closures are obviously bad news for the town, but like Bridgend Town with it's McDonald's or Phones4U there is something particularly depressing when the shell of the previous owners is still there after a particular length of time.

You may remember that I had a go at Cardiff Councillor Russell Goodway for suggesting that Barry Town did not have a purpose. In it I mentioned that by his logic (which I didn't agree with) you could make the same argument for most parts of Cardiff.

Whitchurch is a case in point. By Councillor Goodway's argument it's just a purposeless suburb that should just be called "something on the outside of the important bits of the capital" and forgotten about. But places evolve into a character of it's own. And Whitchurch is no exception. Circumstances meant I had an hour to wander round the place so here we go.

The main high street in Whitchurch is a delightful throwback to the Seventies with amongst the established names there are also the quirky shops. Unfortunately some shops so embrace the seventies they actually closed at 1pm on a Wednesday afternoon. Including annoyingly the Welsh Language shop.

A settled place I think

And of course amidst the coffee shops, bars, delis, gift shops there are a few charity shops. This from The Cancer Society Shop is worth a mention.

Is it just me or does Tracey seem a bit demonic?

It does have an impressive looking church, even for an atheist like me.

St Mary's

No need to wear a watch here

What bothered me about this church was that there were some parts of the cemetery outside where the grass had been cut and some which were not. Have no idea as to why but surely this should done equally just to respect the dead?

Example One

Example Two

As I've said the church was impressive looking. This spoilt it.

Walked past the local High School when I saw this sign.

Thing Is...

What's wrong with this sign? Well it's the following year. So no pressure on the class of 2018 then.

Sometimes you know you turn a street not specifically looking for anything and you are caught by surprise. St Mary's Church didn't give me that feeling. This did.

As Unexpected As It Was Impressive

I have no idea whether it was a planned thing or not. But that was unquestionably the best bit of graffiti art I have ever witnessed personally.

Whitchurch then. Settled. Relaxed. At ease with itself.

Perhaps that should it's motto.

Until the next time.

The Farewell Tour Of The McDonald's Menu Part 10: The Peri Peri Chicken One Wrap

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well I'm on the final stage of going through the medium meal menus of McDonald's before I stop eating fast food anymore. No more burgers though this time it's a wrap.

Literally

I remember when McDonald's introduced these wraps as a response to Morgan Spurlock's film about them Supersize Me. As if they were saying "We can produce healthy food as well". Like they're now saying "We can produce coffee like Starbucks" (In fact they can't).

You can see from this that the wrap was, well, not really wrapped properly. Looking at it it just seemed to be an undercover chicken burger. The Peri Peri sauce inside was just unimpressive.

It was, well, rubbish.

I had thought I'd got three meals left to do. But then I saw two of them were exactly the same as this and just the sauce was different. Only one meal really then to go where bacon is added to the chicken.

Then it's literally a wrap in every meaning.

Until the next time.

From A Jack To Still A King..Just A Sadder One. Swansea City Today

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

About two and a half months ago Swansea City fans I knew were not exactly gloating but were smiling to me, probably the only West Ham fan they knew at the fact that their team had won 4-1. At that time, the way the football mood was melding it appeared that the Swans were going, like last season, to escape relegation by the skin of their teeth whilst the hammers looked as if they were on the way down to the Championship.

Fast forward to today the thirteenth of May. West Ham play Everton knowing that they secured another Premiership season a week ago. Swansea City however were relegated. Their extremely slim chances were cut to non existence by losing 2-1 to already relegated Stoke City.

And with that relegation there's the example of how fairy stories don't always have a happy ending. Or if they do unexpected bumps occur. Their rise from Division Two and the brink of bankruptcy to the Premiership and their first ever cup competition win is the stuff of legend. They were the team people admired and yet now they are relegated. Of course to add insult to injury their bitter local rivals Cardiff City are taking their place amougst the elite.

(A quick aside here. I've not met that many Cardiff fans gloating about Swansea's fate. If only because they would have wanted to have seen the return of the South Wales derby)

So how has it come to this? Well their American owners have to take a vast amount of blame for their fate. But probably with hindsight their decline truly began in November 2015 when the Chief executive Huw Jenkins sacked club stalwart and then manager Garry Monk (I chatted about his autobiography (written whilst still with the club) in this blog. Read with hindsight it's probably the most bittersweet football book you will ever read. Just as the film about their rise to the Premiership, From A Jack To A King, will be probably the most bittersweet football film you'll see for a while.

Whether the firing of Garry Monk was justified or not is not the point here. The point is that by sacking him in an attempt to stay in the Premiership Swansea City lost their innocence. That certain somethng that made them different from other clubs was gone. They were like all the rest.

And then we come to the American owners. I suspect that they felt that the Swans were going to be a sort of Premiership cash cow. Because when Huw Jenkins and the previous group of businessmen took over the club from the brink of bankruptcy they seemed to have the knack for the most part of picking the right manager. People like Roberto Martinez or Brendon Rodgers seemed to be left of centre managers capable of finding inexpensive but talented players from across Europe (I chatted about the book Spanish Swans by Pablo Gomez which went into this).

However when the American owners took over that knack was already eluding the Swans. They had just survived staying up last season. There was I remember a tweet by a Conservative Welsh councillor that mentioned that Swansea City like Theresa May was "strong and stable" (this was during the election) forgetting as I reminded him that last season they had three managers so not so strong and stable (he blocked me since).

So if the club were unable to find cheap bargains like Michu anymore they needed the owners to put up much more money to provide players that would keep them up. This they didn't do and despite the false dawn of  manager Carlos Carvalhal's early results (including the West Ham one) gradually the growing problems came to damn them to relegation.

The future? Who knows. But as club legend Leon Britton said. It would be better that they were out of the top flight for years if it meant that when they did return they were ready for life again in the Premiership.

As a West Ham fan I hope they do.

Until the next time.

Does Carwyn Jones Have A Picture Of Bridgend Town In His Attic?

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Now before I start properly anybody who has not read/seen the film should know that I'm going to referencing A Picture Of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde in this post. So Spoiler alert and all that.

Last week Carwyn Jones, soon to be not First Minister of Wales gave an interview to the local paper where he stated that when he relinquishes the top post and becomes just an Assembly Member he will concentrate on work in the Bridgend area. To which my reaction was about time too.

But it appears not for long. Last Friday it was announced that he won't stand again for the next Assembly elections in 2021. Devotion it appears has a time limit.

However this got me thinking. Until essentially the suicide of Carl Sargeant Carwyn Jones' future seemed secure. In 1999 he got elected as Assembly Member for the Bridgend area. In 2000 he was appointed as  Minister for agriculture. An appointment that seemed to be welcomed on all sides given that the First Minister at that time, Alun Michael, decided that the previous incumbent for the post was of all things a vegetarian. Nothing against the world of the Veggies but even they must have thought that was odd.

It was as if supernatural forces were lined up for him.

In 2007 he was appointed Minister for various things such as culture and the Welsh language but (and I must admit I'd forgotten this) education. Given how bad Wales is in international league tables it's not surprising when asked about his successes as First Minister that wasn't on his list.

And in 2009 he became First Minister. A job which he holds until resigning this autumn. He had as I've explained before one real skill which was as a politician which since Mr Sargeant's death he seemed to have lost.

But during the same period Bridgend Town has declined from a proud hub of the area into an urban tragedy. You will see from my blog countless examples in the last two years alone where the rot has literally set in and the council gives the impression of running the place under crisis management conditions.

Is this his fault? Well exactly where the demarcation line is between the Welsh Labour National Government and the arrogantly incompetent Welsh Labour Council it's not easy to say. But what is clear is the lack of response from Carwyn Jones about the situation the town finds itself in.

I know what you will say. He's First Minister as well as holding other national portfolios. He just hasn't the time. Well firstly he's AM for the area, that's his job. Secondly it's the lack of any relevant criticism or action. That damns him (or more accurately the town). And again, when asked about his successes as First Minister he didn't mention anything Bridgend related.

So perhaps Carwyn jones has a picture of Bridgend Town in his attic and now that his career is on the wane perhaps the town will rise again.  Let's hope so.

Analogies though go so far. Welsh Labour are still in control.

Until the next time.

And Another Book By this author in Matthew Quick,Quick Time

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Late last month regular readers to this blog may remember I chatted about Matthew Quick's novel The Reason You're Alive. Essentially I didn't like it. Feeling for reasons that the post chatted about that it was too American Republican for my taste and best avoided.

Well in the random way I pick books from the library I'd taken out The Good Luck Of Right Now by the same author, which I'd mentioned last week in passing in my post on the American football match in Llanharan I saw last week.

So I've never read a book by this writer and like London buses two come along in Matthew Quick succession.

Now I've finished the novel let me say this.....I loved it.

Essentially it's about a thirty nine year old man who lived with his mother who had to adjust to life since her death. He is clever but not emotionally attuned rather like a younger version of  Zachary Addy in Bones.

It's a quirky novel filled with quirky characters trying to cope with the quirky things that life brings. I won't say that the plot points will surprise you. There's one particular twist that's not so much telegraphed as lit up Las Vegas style. But that doesn't matter. It's watching different individuals deal with things that makes this book readable and indeed recommended.

Now the fact that I've read two novels by the same writer and have had two different reactions to them made me think. Of course I have favourite authors. But the chances of such a different response seems to occur more in books than in films or television. Why? Well I suspect we readers invest more in the book, we immerse ourselves in it. More than say TV for example where you know you're not in an island looking for treasure or trying to get around the world in eighty days. As a consequence the writer has more of a chance that the reader will consider a different work in a different light.

Also writers for the printed page are more likely to experiment with different genres/forms. So if your taste is not for a comedy then a Science Fiction novel set in a parallel universe might help you like a writer instead.

Random from the top of my head without doing any research I know. But interesting nonetheless.

Until the next time.

On Books: Including Not Really Liking Jane Austen

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well what can I say? Regular readers will know that I've read Jane Austen books with an open mind. Until the last book Lady Susan my view was neutral.

And of course I'm a fifty four year old man, so not her natural audience. Also everything I'm going to say is on the understanding that I haven't read all of her novels including the biggie Pride and Prejudice.

But I've finished Northanger Abbey, and well, I was bored.

It actually started so well. I got the fish out of water theme it seemed interesting enough. But then my mind was rather dulled by it all and then it started to wander until at the very end I really couldn't care less if all of the characters jumped off a cliff in mass suicide (spoiler alert:they don't).

So why don't I like her now? Well not being her audience is clearly a factor but not the only one. I think possibly because her male and female characters seem like clichés to me. Perhaps this "comedy of manners" thing is not for me. We shall see when I read her next time.

The next book was Letters Of George Borrow to the British and Foreign Bible Society. I enjoyed reading this, having taken a bit of an interest since he was mentioned in Robert Macfarlane's Tracks. But if you don't know George Borrow from George and the Dragon this will have no interest for you whatsoever and best avoided.

The Death of Balder a short play was the next thing. I don't like reading plays as a rule. I didn't like this one.

The next book is All Hell Let Loose by Max Hastings about the second World War. I've read his book about the D-day landings and liked it and so am looking forward to reading this.

Jane Austen it is not.

Until the next time.

The Farewell Tour Of The McDonald's Menu Part 9: The Chicken McNuggetts

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

As regular readers will be aware before I abandon fast food for good I'm going on one final tour of the normal medium meals in the McDonald's menu. A few days back it was the turn of the Chicken Mcnuggetts.

And here is the meal:

Yes I Know

I'll say this. Unlike most other meals I've had in this exercise the name makes sense. They do look like nuggets. These chicken pieces which are according to the ads carefully reared and yet not good enough chickens to be called "Select" or "Legend".

Of course it was tasty. but like most McDonald's meals quickly forgettable.

One thing that did occur to me whilst eating this, but it doesn't just refer to it, is whether McDonald's meals are actually getting smaller so that they can hold down the price rather like chocolate or packets inside multipack crisps. Of course what I'm saying is completely on memory and might be wrong. But a lot of their meals just seemed somehow bigger in the past.

There is a nine McNuggett meal (I had the standard six) but I'm going to ignore it. If only because my comments would just be times three of this one. That means there's actually just four standard medium meals to go. All wraps.

I can't wait.

Until the next time.

So Let's Talk Again About Radioactive Mud Coming To Cardiff Bay and Virgin Media

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Sometimes issues return when you least expect them. But there you go. However I didn't expect to talk about the fact that mud from the Hinckley Point nuclear plant will be deposited in Cardiff Bay for a while. But there we go.

I argued that it did not matter that science said it was safe. Science can be wrong. And the consequences of it being wrong here, being dumped not just on the Welsh capital city but also depending on the tide the seaside resorts of Barry Town and Porthcawl would be devastating.

But I find yet again I'm being accused of being "anti science" or "anti progress" or wanting to live in the dark ages or I assume wishing Wales was some large Amish community. What I've learnt is that for some Science is the new religion. Question it in any way and you're a heretic, a disbeliever. As a general term this could be called the "cure for cancer" argument. In that if you don't believe in science you don't believe in the people who are trying to make lives better.

The trouble with that argument is this. Again if we are talking generally medicines are tested first. If they fail then nothing changes to the status quo. With regard to anything nuclear however then if the science is wrong then the results could be a disaster. And that's why Wales, and specifically here Cardiff Bay, should not be used as Westminster's dumping ground for this radioactive mud.

And so back to Virgin Media.

You may remember last week I chatted about the announcement by Virgin Media that it was to close next year their call centre in Swansea. Eight hundred people were going to lose their jobs.

You know when a company lays off workers or closes a factory there is normally a sense of regret by that firm. Whether it's true or just for publicity purposes depends on the case by case basis. But here you just don't get that vibe. The feeling you get is that Virgin want you to ignore this. "800 jobs? Don't worry about that just look at our flashy new superfast superfast broadband". And who might you get if you enquire about this by phone? Why possibly some of those eight hundred whose futures have been cast aside by the Virginites. Imagine how you would feel being one of these people, trying to be professional whilst Virgin have done this to you?

And so, for the reasons I explained in my earlier post but even more now. I feel Wales should just boycott Virgin Media. There wouldn't be major job losses as I explained previously and Wales can live without Virgin Media now that Virgin Media has decided to live without Wales.

I don't believe they would be missed.

Until the next time.

On Cardiff City, American Football In Wales, and The South Wales Valleys....As You Do.

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

As I'm writing this the biggest sporting news is that Cardiff City have won promotion to the Premier League after four years. This time they'll be managed by Neil Warnock (author of The Gaffer which I've discussed in this blog and is a good read)..

More than Swansea City it'll be very easy for me to go and watch them play West Ham. I've done it before. All I need to do is to pretend to be a Bluebird and look dejected when West ham win whilst keeping a monk-like silence so no one will suspect that inside I'll be happy as Larry...whoever he was.

Aside from that though I genuinely wish them well (along with Swansea City, Newport and Leyton Orient). I suspect for Cardiff City next season. A dull but stable season will suit most people fine.

But whilst they were getting promotion I was watching a different sport. American Football in fact from the British National Football League. The Welsh team, the South Wales Warriors were playing and I kid you not The Jurassic Coast Raptors from Dorset. Arguably the most stupid name in American Football history.

I like American football, with it's combination of violence and chess and as it was free to watch and wife/daughter didn't have anything better to counter it with I decided to go to Llanharan Rugby Club where the game was being held by myself (they don't like the sport).

As I took my spot the Welsh team were doing their pre match training. There was eventually a fair crowd for this game, given that the players were mainly doing this for the love of the sport and not for multi-million pound contracts. Still rules are rules. A bearded man with a clipboard asked a player whether he had a Warrior strip. Given that the player was wearing the strip he was not impressed.

Next the coach introduced the team to the team to wops and cheers from the team.

The Green Army

After that he told the players he expected a high score from them. He needn't have worried as it soon became clear that this game was going to get one sided as once the Warriors scored a touchdown they soon scored another one."They're not pushing" was a comment I heard one of the Warrior players make on their opponents. And it was true. I'd put more effort in opening a Jam jar than the Raptors did on the pitch.

After touchdown two

In all honesty the Raptors were an awful team. I could only recall one significant drive they had. And they didn't score from that.

After the third touchdown you knew it was going to be the sort of victory where the opposition had neither the energy, talent or resolve to beat the Warriors.

Half time. Time for food. A Hot Dog and a Pepsi. Wouldn't have been more American at that moment unless singing a Country and Western tune.

After I had the hot dog I was reading one of the two books I'd borrowed from the library. It was this:

Matthew Quick - The Good Luck Of Right Now

Regular readers will know I didn't like the last book of his I read. I won't chat about this properly until I've finished but so far so good.

The Warriors Half Time Warm-Up

Soon after the second half started the Welsh side scored again. I'd lost count by this time.

And then they scored again. and again. Come the last quarter I knew I was going to leave early. Why? Because you could tell that the Warriors Jurassic performance had like their Dinosaur namesake rolled over and died. There was a sort of surrender in their performance which meant it was pointless to stay on. And I left with about five minutes remaining.

"The game's not over" said the offensive coach to his men as I was walking passed them. Trust me it was over a long while before that.

I decided to drive around the South Wales Valleys before I went home. It was a spur of the moment thing. So I didn't stop until I reached somewhere near Treherbert. Still the views were stunning. Here they are.











And let me repeat. If my wife dies before me I'm moving to Treorchy. No matter what my wife or her Cardiff friends and family think. And this is the reason why. Let's face it. If I didn't tell you where I was you'd think France or Tuscany.

Until the next time.

The Farewell Tour Of The McDonald's Menu Part 8 : The Spicy Vegetable Deluxe

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Regular readers of this blog know that I'm on an exercise before I no longer eat any fast takeaway food that I'm slowly going through the regular medium menu of McDonald's. I have learnt that despite it's Americana allure the food is really not as good as I assumed. And that what they call their burgers is well, stupid to say the least.

In my last post on this I chatted about the Vegetable Deluxe. I'd assumed that that was it with regard to all things Veggie amid the home of the Carnivores. But I was wrong. The Vegetable Deluxe was not on it's own. It has a raunchy cousin. The Spicy Vegetable Deluxe.

And here it is:

You're impressed. I know it

I'll say this unlike the Vegetable Deluxe I didn't have to wait for the burger for a more than a few minutes. Presumably when the veggies enter the meat shrine they try to make themselves more sophisticated by ordering this than the mere deluxe.

So let me make it clear. Like it's ordinary version you cannot see why this is deluxe. It's also not all that spicy either. Taste wise it's hung around my mouth more than any other burgers I've tried on this so far.

Perhaps my foul mood was because for the first time since I started this exercise when I took a bite bits of orange sauced lettuce came out and went onto my T-shirt. Since my T-shirt was white it did it's damage. I hate it when that happens. People think you've only just escaped from nursery school.

It was worse than the vegetable deluxe.

You know with every medium meal I take the more I'm looking forward to finishing this and saying goodbye to fast takeaway food.

Until the next time.

Another Rambling Post From An Insomniac Morning : Mayday Weekend Edition

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well insomnia has taken grip of this Saturday morning and it's three thirty am. I am awake. Something's wrong. Went to bed at ten only had Bread and jam for dinner. Curious. Very different from me normally.

Twitter is suggesting to me to count sheep (I live in Wales it figures someone will think that's funny). But no insomnia doesn't do that. You are awake. But you're also asleep. That twilight zone of living. that's insomnia. It's where you feel up to reading Twitter but not a book.

Wife is having an uncomfortable sleep but is staying in bed. She's bunged up with the cold. Still none of the easy option for her of getting up and wandering zombie lite. She's fighting to get back to the land of nod.

I look up at the sky. There is a half moon. I'm not sure how to spend the day. Probably helping/nagging my daughter with her homework. This holiday weekend is meant to be hot, very hot. Must be honest not comfortable with extremely hot weather  as I've said before. Probably will hunker down inside, Well until tomorrow anyway, I've something in mind for tomorrow and we'll see whether I can do this. Regular readers will know whether I succeed Monday.

For the moment am listening to the Backlisted Podcast. After it's finished will listen to Classical King FM from Seattle. After five thirty it'll become the turn of BBC Radio Cymru. That is the only planning I have for the day. Let's face it. A day with no plans is not great when you have a day off work.

It's 4:12am Classical King FM is on now. Seattle. Halfway round the world and I'm a listener. The internet can do that.

Four Fifty Seven am. Dawn is beginning to break now. I hear seagulls. Summer is coming. Not saying it'll be bright and hot all the time you understand. But it is coming.

Five Seventeen am. The electric light is switched off.

Five Fifty Eight am. Now I'm listening to BBC Radio Cymru. It's a church service at the moment. Odd given that it's a Saturday morning. Definitely day now.

Six twenty nine. Beginning now to feel tired. Will give sleep another chance despite the sunshine.

Seven thirty eight. Did sleep a bit but it wasn't easy. Awake again. Wife/daughter still asleep.

Until the next time.

Perhaps A Boycott Of Virgin Media By Wales Is In Order....

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Today there has been shock in Wales as Virgin Media announced plans to close it's Swansea Call Centre next year. Which will mean that eight hundred people will be out of work with an employer that I suspect they assumed they would be with for the rest of their lives. That they could raise families, buy houses with mortgaeges, go out on holidays etc. In other words a reasonable standard of living. Within a day those people's ambitions were thown away in probably the most cruellest of ways.

The Welsh Labour Government's reaction was unsurprising. It was going to set up a taskforce to try and find the people affected new jobs. Nothing against that of course. Except what was also crystal clear from their reaction was that they were completely unaware of the announcement. Hence echoes of when Tata Steel originally proposed to close down the Port Talbot Steel works two years ago. Or when Tesco actually closed their call centre in Cardiff earlier this.

Yet again Welsh Labour have been asleep on the job. Bet Carwyn Jones won't reminisce on this being "an achievement" of his time as First Minister.

Swansea council stated that the lack of rail electrification west of Cardiff would have been a factor in the decision. Something Secretary Of State, Political slimeball and blog villain Alun Cairns denied. Well whilst it probably wasn't a final dealbreaker the fact that the stabilisers have to be put on the trains past Cardiff doesn't help now does it? And after all he won't care. His constituency is in the Vale Of Glamorgan.

On the BBC today it was suggested that some of the staff could get similar call centre jobs with other firms. Let's hope so. But there may be issues of cost and exactly where these opportunities will be in terms of distance. So things will not be easy.

What Virgin Media's behaviour has revealed yet again is that for the most part Wales is considered the easy option for big companies, often happy to take Welsh government money when setting up something here, to close down when no longer needed. Yet again Wales suffers for no apparent reason. If you think about it. Apart from the Port Talbot Steelworks when has there been a time when there has been a fight over a proposed closure in recent years? After all, as I continue to say, the Welsh people taken as whole are too nice for their own good.

So perhaps there should be a quiet revolt by the Welsh people against Virgin Media? Perhaps what they should do is not get their services? Perhaps if they have already a contract with them is not to renew it?

There are other internet companies out there. Other providers of  TV services. Other providers of telephone and mobile services. There is also the likes of Netflix and Amazon. So you see Virgin Media would not be missed.

Would some people lose their jobs? Well I suspect following from what has happened today the Virgin Shop in the city centre in Swansea will not be with us for much longer. As for the tech people. Again I suspect a lot of them are agency staff anyway. They'd do BT work the day after for instance.

So you see Virgin Media are vunerable to a Welsh boycott. They may seem like a big company. But even Goliath fell.

Until the next time.

On Books: Including For Men At Some Time What Is The American Version Of Jane Austen

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Let's start with the latest library book I've read:

Peter Haining - The Great English Earthquake

Did you know there was a violent earthquake in England in 1884 with Essex as it's epicentre? Well  didn't. How a book about an earthquake in England during the Victorian era reached a small library in South Wales I don't know. But there we go.

Historians and Seismologists will love this book. Mr Haining knows his Essex earthquakes and the research he's done clearly shows this. However for the general reader (of which I'm unquestionably one) account after account of the ground shaking and damage to buildings can be wearisome after a while.

Still if you're into earthquakes and especially Essex earthquakes this is the book for you.

So a couple of days ago I was looking through the hard drive of the DVR (dominated by programmes the wife records now for me it's just Pobol Y Cwm and Bones generally speaking) when I noticed a film she'd recorded in late December when I was away in Essex exile looking after my unwell mother.

" I see you recorded Little Women" I said

"What of it?"

"Well I'm reading it right now".

And for the first time ever when I mentioned to the wife what book I'm reading she actually gasped.

My attitude to Louisa M Alcott's classic novel was exactly that to whatever Jane Austen tome you'd care to mention. As a boy/teenager/in my twenties I avoided it as it was "for girls". When I got older it was a case of so many books so little time...until now.

Let's start by saying that a fifty four year old man is not the target audience for this. But given it's classic status any true reader does need to say that they've read it.

Apparently Little Women was originally two books before merged into the one we know today. This did not surprise me. For (talking about the completed package) if football is described as a game of two halves then so is this novel. I can't remember another book where there seems to be a radical and sudden difference between it's first and second half. If there was one reason why I couldn't say I liked Little Women it was that.

The first part was very homespun American. And the thing is, nothing much really happened. It was a dull read. Indeed it was a shame that it wasn't set in the American South because with the general storyline (the lives of a group of women living in genteel poverty) I couldn't help thinking of cliched Country and Western tunes. The type that work along the lines of "We were poor and living in a cardboard box in Nashville....but we were happy" (not that poor mind you,they have a servant).

But it seemed as if Ms Alcott realised this because in the second half everything that she could have put in such a book seemed to be thrown in all of a sudden. So I disliked it for a different reason. That things happening so quickly in relation to the first part beggared belief.

But yet again it wasn't aimed at me. Mind you I've read Caitlin Moran and Marian Keyes and have enjoyed them as well. So perhaps it was just the case that Ms Alcott knew her audience and was happy enough with that.

Perhaps. Who can tell?

And in the random way I pick books from the Kindle the next ebook turns out to be Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. As I've said before in this blog my view of her is that she's in that group of writers I call "Literary Switzerland". In that I don't dislike them but I can't understand why they're considered great. A position that always bothered me because I feel I've missed something.

My Kindle has a mind of it's own.

Until the next time.

Wales: The Politics Of Apathy?

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Recently there has been a poll which showed that Wales was the most apathetic nation when it came to politics. The reaction on Twitter that I saw was wide ranging. But I did notice that there was a number who were despairing about this. One tweet I saw suggested that he might as well move to Scotland and help the SNP with their Independence drive.

So why is this? Well one factor as I've said before and am going to repeat again is that the Welsh people suffer for the fact that taken as a whole they are just too nice. They allow decisions to made which the Northern Irish or the Scots would rebel about. Not so much apathy, more the "mustn't grumble" approach to life.

Trouble is. Being nice means that for example, a bridge can be renamed to toady up to a Royal. Radioactive mud can be dumped in Cardiff Bay, Super prisons for criminals to be built for criminals  all round the United Kingdom or whilst high speed services are built in England with Welsh taxpayers' money the intercity train service west of Cardiff has the rail equivalent of stabilisers being put onto it as the line is not going to be made electric. And don't get me started on Welsh local Labour Government mismanagement...(Regular readers know what I think of what they have done to Bridgend Town)

And these decisions are taken by Labour and the Conservative party in Cardiff, local government and Westminster level in this "mustn't grumble" atmosphere which they take full advantage of. They also have the advantage of the one true obstacle of their political monopoly, Plaid Cymru, being damaged by the leadership of it's previous leader Iuean Wynn Jones, who damaged the brand by muddying the waters as to what it stood for.

Can this situation be changed? Even to an extent where Welsh independence can be seen as a credible alternative? Well yes in my view. Of course in politics events are everything but based on how they seem at the moment I have also mentioned before that the Welsh might vote Labour in the next general election if they felt it could get Theresa May out. This would in the short term damage Plaid but when the people see that Socialism with a Westminster face does not work for them then that's when the party for Wales will need to move to show you can provide Socialism with a Welsh face. For the people will need an alternative. the politics of apathy could soon turn to the politics of despair which only extreme parties profit from. Only Plaid Cymru, not extreme but not part of the establishment either can offer a true alternative, and yes, that includes independence.

And when people are shown there is an alternative, that there is a different pathway for their aspirations then the Welsh will be apathetic towards politics no more.

Until the next time.