Wales Resurgent - Gwynfor Evans

The audio comes from a record by Gwynfor Evans released after his election victory in Carmarthen in 1966 to become Plaid Cymru's 1st ever MP. Audio - Wren Records, Christopher Davies Ltd, Llandybie, Carmarthenshire. Pictures - from the web and other sources. The following text was written by Islwyn Ffowc Elis and appeared on the sleave of the Record.

GWYNFOR EVANS is President of Plaid Cymru, the Welsh National Party, and is now its first MP for Carmarthen. Born and bred in Barry, Glamorganshire, and a Law graduate of Aberystwyth and Oxford, he returned to the Carmarthenshire of his forebears to start a market garden which helps to provide employment in a rural area. He is married with seven children.

He has written much, and travelled more, to proclaim the message of Welsh freedom in all parts of Wales and beyond. He is immensely respected for his brilliance and integrity and is looked upon by many thousands of his countrymen as the herald of the new Wales.

Keep to your promise Rhodri - Welsh Language Daily Newspaper

SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION - http://deiseb.cymdeithas.org/

Keep to your promise Rhodri - Welsh Language Daily Newspaper:

We call on you as minister to ensure that the government honours its clear promise to establish a Welsh language daily newspaper announced in One Wales.

"We will expand the funding and support for Welsh-medium magazines and newspapers, including the establishment of a Welsh-language daily newspaper."

We ask for a new statement from the government that sufficient funds will be set aside specifically to establish a national daily newspaper in the Welsh language.

What's good for the Lander...

On 1st January 2008, 8 of the 16 German Lander (or states) introduced public smoking bans similar to the one we now have in Wales. Each of the states was free to make its own decision, because under the German federal law, all legislative power resides at the State level, unless specifically reserved under the ‘Basic law’ for the federal government. Consequently, the German Lander governments all have considerably more power than say the Scottish Parliament, let alone the Senedd, and even retain the right to conduct their own international relations.

The largest German state has a population of 18 million, less than half the size of England, and if Wales were part of a federal Germany we would be right in the middle of the rankings, with 8 states larger than us and 8 states smaller.

Yet the British government considers that we are too small a nation to manage our own affairs – oh - and who set up the system of German government?

Yes you guessed - the British......

Life in the Cayman Islands

Most of us have one – a sticker on the car which proudly displays CYM in place of a GB sticker. There is only one slight problem – according to the International Standards Organisation this is the three-digit code for the Cayman Islands. I am sure this is a lovely place, but I want to live in Cymru/Wales.

Among their many publications, the International Standards Organisation (with the support of the United Nations) publish a series of standards (ISO 3166) which agree on the recognized short and official names of countries (eg France and The Republic of France). It also standardises on a short two-digit code to represent the country (FR), which is commonly seen on car number plates and internet domains.

There is also an alternative three digit code (FRA) which is used for some other official purposes, including on passports).

But unfortunately CYM is the three-digit code for Cayman Islands (which actually uses KM as its 2-digit code). As far as two-digit codes go, CY has already been taken by Cyprus, CM by Cameroon (who also use the 3-digit code CMR) , CR by Costa Rica and CU by Cuba. Maybe we should be looking instead at ‘billingual’ codes of CW and maybe CMW?

Cymru/Wales is not to small to warrant such coding by ISO – When I was younger I remember that cars from Guernsey had GBG on their number plates. These have since been changed by ISO to a 2-digit GG with the 3 digit code becoming GGY.

ISO will not allocate a coding to us yet as we are not an independent state, but they can reserve such codes for future use if requested to by the UK government (who requested the change for Guernsey as well as Jersey and Isle of Man). We should campaign for the Senedd to make this request to the ISO on behalf of the UK Government.

p.s. Cymuned’s dot.cym campaign is commendable, but this is for a ‘second-tier’ designation based on language use - we should also be aiming for a ‘first-tier’ .CW domain to represent an independent Wales!

26% Now Favour Independence

Well, that is stretching the truth a little bit, but in the bizarre Daily Telegraph campaign last week to remind its English readers that they were all British (except for the Scottish - and who are the Welsh anyway?), one of the questions asked:

Would you like the Union between England and Scotland to continue as it is or would you like to see it come to an end so that both England and
Scotland become independent of each other?

Respondents in Wales said that 22% favoured independence, 62% the union and 16% dont know. So yes - out of those expressing a preference, 26% favoured Independence - for England & Scotland.

Not really a question on Welsh independence, but it is difficult to see how England could become independent from the 'Union' while Wales remains in (with who?).

We need to see more opinion polls on the subject of Welsh independence, because as the debate becomes more open in Scotland, and now in England, it is not really being discussed very loudly in Wales. Despite this lack of debate, up to 1/3rd of the population are now considering independence. How many more will join as the discussion opens up??

ps for those of you who were concerned that I had not been posting because I was in a Cardiff police cell, rest assured - they will never catch me!!

Beyond the Vale

In the 16th Century, as part of the colonization of Ireland under the English Crown ‘plantations’ were established where English & Scottish settlers were placed to displace the local population. While only partially successful in the ‘Pale’ of Dublin, this tactic was very effective in Ulster, and which ultimately led to ‘the Troubles’ and the partition of Ireland.

A similar tactic was also used in Wales, most notably in South Pembrokeshire, where Flemish settlers were used to displace and dilute the local Welsh speaking population, and the linguistic divide is still very apparent today.

While I sympathise with those who oppose the ‘University of Death’ at St Athan on pacifist grounds, I oppose it because it represents nothing more than a repeat of these earlier settlement tactics, brought forward to the modern day.

Peter Hain and the promoters of the scheme claim that it will bring 5,000 jobs to Wales and will be a huge boost to the local economy – not just in the Vale of Glamorgan but in neighbouring Cardiff and Bridgend. But lets look at this more objectively and ask what jobs will be created and who will fill them.

In the short term, around 1,000 construction jobs in will be created during building of the facilities, and while these will be mostly filled locally, they will only be temporary lasting no more than two years.

Of the permanent jobs, around 3,000 will be filled by trainers, technicians, military support staff and civil servants. These jobs will not be filled locally, but will be transferred from existing military bases elsewhere in the UK, and many of the positions will be viewed as ‘expatriate’ postings.

Potentially 2,000 jobs could be filled locally, but these will be mostly low paid support jobs including cleaners, cooks, secretaries, administrative staff etc. While these jobs are better than none at all, they must be balanced against the fact that the incoming transferred staff will also be bringing their families, many of whom will be looking for work locally and these new job seekers will largely offset the new jobs created.

There will undoubtedly be a boost to the local economy as money is spent in shops & pubs, houses are rented etc but this will also increase prices and put a strain on local services and we can soon expect a vociferous minority to demand ‘English-curriculum’ schooling and opt-outs from Welsh lessons.

The local economic benefits from this project are questionable (incidentally I would also raise similar concerns about the proposed Severn Barrage), but this is not why the project is proposed.

This is simply a 21st Century Plantation - designed to dilute the local population and defuse nationalist sentiments.

Get Dafydd Iwan in to the charts for Ray Gravell

Dafydd Iwan was Grav's favourite singer and it's well known that before games he would sing Dafydd Iwan songs emotionally especially 'Yma o hyd'! Dafydd Iwan will be singing at Ray Gravell's public service at Stradey Park in Llanelli at 1pm on 15 November.

A campaign has started on Facebook to try and get the song 'Yma o Hyd' into the top 40 of the UK Charts this week in memory of Ray Gravell, and Dafydd Iwan has stated that profits will be going to the Ray Gravell memorial trust. Please buy 'Yma o hyd' online from itunes - it will only cost you 79p. Going by recent trends, 'Yma o Hyd' should reach the top 40 of the UK Charts if more than 3,000 copies ar sold on Itunes. 2,000 people on Facebook have already promised to buy the single. Please buy THIS VERSION now (Dafydd Iwan ac Ar Log - Album: Yma o Hyd - Song 21: Yma o Hyd)

The song must be purchased before the end of Saturday to be included in the Sunday UK Charts. The song is currently No. 1 in the iTunes 'Folk' Chart and No. 99 in the iTunes general Charts.

Supermarket Carbon Footprint - Somerfield Llantarnam, Cwmbrân

On my way home from work I passed up through Casnewydd onwards up to the Cwmbrân area when I realised I needed to go and do a bit of basic shopping.

I turned into the Somerfield Supermarket in Llantarnam near Cwmbrân.
Shock and horror total AWE ! not one Welsh pint of milk, not one product displaying any dragon and worse everything on the shelves appeared to have come from hundreds of miles away. Like the milk from JERSEY and Guernsey and YORKSHIRE !

I sought out the manager but only got the deputy manager - bemused he politely passed off - more like brushed off my comment, "that the stores' Carbon Footprint must be as big as an Elephant if not as big as a Mammoth since everything comes from anywhere except Wales." When I asked him why do you buy everything from the British and not from Wales - and further commented, "that nothing in here is from Wales" - he replied, " I do not not know why ." I asked that he convey my dismay to his manager. He luke warmly agreed and walked off. Am I the only one that has ever made this sort of complaint?

I then left the store with nothing in my trolley not having spent one single penny and went to ASDA where Welsh produce is sold.

An independent Wales could ensure that all supermarkets in Wales sell a percentage of Welsh produce, it is readily available.

John Frost

Economic ABC

If an Independent Wales is to succeed, then we have to develop a stronger economy. I believe that employment activities can be broadly classified into three types:

A: Wealth Creators
B: Wealth Distributors
C: Wealth Consumers

The Wealth Creators are those jobs that result in something physical being produced – these include the older traditional industries such as coal and steel, as well as manufacturing, agriculture and construction, etc. These jobs are the engine that drives the economy – for every job created here, one or more are typically created elsewhere in support industries. We should do everything in our power to encourage and develop these ‘Type A’ jobs, but which should generally be provided by the private sector. This should include distribution of grants but I would prefer to give tax-breaks instead – give new enterprises a 5 year holiday against corporation tax. This tax loss would be offset by taxes paid by new jobs created elsewhere in the economy.

The Wealth Distributors are those jobs that do not make anything physical, but support the Wealth Creators – these include transport, financial services, IT, retail, etc. These are real, valuable jobs, but they simply move existing money around – they do not create any new money. These jobs do not directly add anything to the economy, and are dependent on the Wealth Creators for their success – they follow the economy – they do not drive it. The creation of ‘Type B’ jobs should be only passively encouraged and facilitated, for example by the removal of red-tape. However, they should not receive any precious grants, and tax-holidays should be limited to say 2 years.

The biggest legacy of the Thatcherite years was her policy of eradicating the Wealth Creators in favour of the Wealth Distributors. This worked well in the City of London, where the distribution is on a global level – but has resulted in the devastation of many Welsh communities. I am not advocating reopening the mines, as there were underlying reasons for their closure – but we have to replace them with real jobs – that are wealth creating and will encourage the creation of others, for example in manufacturing and construction.

The Wealth Consumers are those jobs that do not directly contribute to the economy, and are generally funded as public services – these include health, education, government etc. Despite their negative name, these jobs are an essential part of our society, without which the economy can not operate. But we can only afford a limited number of these jobs, and must ensure that these deliver value for money. I consider these jobs to be broken down into a further 3 types:

C1: Service Providers
C2: Service Supporters
C3: Service Passengers

The Service Providers are the front line jobs – the teachers, doctors, even our AMs. To provide these services effectively we must establish service levels (eg the right to a doctors appointment within 24 hours) and ensure that we provide the right resources to meet these service levels (eg one dentist per 10,000 population). These service levels should become manifesto commitments for our politicians and they should be judged against them.

The Service Supporters are those essential support staff, without whom the Service Providers can not function, eg school secretaries, hospital cleaners. We must develop ways to ensure that these support services are provided in the most efficient manner, using benchmarking to compare different service providers (eg Hospital A costs £x per patient to clean – Hospital B only costs £y – how can Hospital A match the Hospital B level?). This is not a question of ideology but of efficiency. I do not advocate that all such positions should be in the private or public sector – simply that we must spend our limited money wisely to ensure that our service target levels are met.

The Service Passengers are those staff that exist but which do not directly contribute to meeting any agreed service level, for example management, administration, compliance officers etc. While some of these staff are necessary, others clearly are not, and some hard questions need to be asked - Why does Powys County Council need a Communications Manager? Why does Bridgend Council employ an IT Manager to read staff’s e-mails? Why do some councils want to employ race relations compliance officers? What would happen if these positions simply ceased to exist ?? Some of these positions are a necessary evil, but many are simply jobs for the boys, and usually highly paid ones.

I suggest that we should grade every job in our local councils and public sector bodies as either C1, C2 or C3, and publish annual statistics on the percenteage of such jobs, and their cost.

The harsh reality is that in Wales we have become too dependent on such Wealth Consuming jobs, and that there are too many Service Passengers. Of course, this issue is not related to Welsh Independence, and can be adressed at any time. But this issue will become critical following Independence as we will have limited resources, and we will have to carefully prioritise our spending.

Scandinavia

This article was published on the Cross of St George website, in support of English Independence. It is not quite as catchy (or pronounceable) as the Balkanisation of Britain, but the Scandinaviaisation of Britain has some good examples:


Scandinavia, a region of five countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Finland), has seen its constituent countries form different unions with each other from the Middle Ages to 1918, until Iceland became the last independent nation. They share similar cultures and similar languages, but have remained separate sovereign nations ever since.

So for a lot of people, a possible break-up to the United Kingdom is something they fear, believing this would cause many problems and challenges. The prospect of this raises many questions. However, one only has to look towards Scandinavia to realise all these questions have already been answered:

Would the home nations be economically viable?
The Scandinavian nations top all tables on average wealth per person. Size of country has no bearing on economic success. No reason why the home nations can’t be economically successful too.

Isn’t Britain stronger together? Wouldn’t England, for example, have a lower standing in the world than Britain?
If enjoying a high standing in the world means participating in numerous foreign wars, who needs that? Does a Swede, who lives in a wealthy nation, and has not seen his country fight a war for 200 years, envy our status? I seriously doubt it.
Perhaps countries like the USA, Russia and China dominate world markets, but their citizens don’t enjoy the same wealth per person as in the Scandinavian countries.
And if a lower world standing also means not sending men into space or topping an Olympic medals table – then I can live with that.

Would there be passport/border controls between the home nations?
No. There are no border controls between the Nordic countries.

Many Scottish people have relatives in England and vice versa. Doesn’t this make independence difficult?
Not when there’s free movement of people between nations as per Scandinavia.

What would be the constitutional position with the monarchy?
In Scandinavia, some countries are kingdoms, some are republics. It’s up to each home nation to decide their constitutional position.

Wouldn’t there be problems if England was a member of the EU, but Scotland and Wales weren’t?
Denmark and Sweden are in the EU, but Norway isn’t, and there are no problems.

And wouldn’t it be difficult for Scotland and Wales economically, when they have a much larger economic neighbour in England?
Hasn’t affected Denmark, who share their border with Germany.

Would the break-up of Britain lead to problems with security? Especially if England has an independent Scotland on its northern border?
Why? Is there a problem with security in Scandinavia? Is England likely to do something that will prompt an invasion of a foreign army? If Scotland did, would that automatically mean this army would move onto England? Even in the dark days of WW2, when Germany invaded Norway and Denmark, this didn’t spread to Sweden.

But on a small island, there must be issues where there needs to be co-operation?
Indeed, and this is true in Scandinavia. However, these issues are dealt with by the Nordic Council, without impairing any of the nations’ sovereignty.

I don’t know if I’ve listed all of the questions regarding this issue, but I’m sure if you need an answer – look to Scandinavia.