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legendaryavocet

Listed below are comments made by legendaryavocet between Wednesday, 14th October 2009 and Wednesday, 25th November 2009.

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The Cardiff Concordat 7:13pm on 25 Nov 2009 Pro devolution politicians quote ad nauseam Ron Davies' comment about devolution being a process not an event. I have yet to get any of them to say how they believe the process will end.
The Big If 9:17pm on 17 Nov 2009 Groups who are currently complaining that the Legislative Competence Orders are being held up by Westminster, that the whole process is 'cumbersome', and argue that the Assembly should immediately have more powers transferred to it, conveniently omit to tell us that, although 12 LCOs have been passed through Westminster, only 4 resulting measures have been delivered by the Assembly. They also do not tell us what they would do with extra powers, should they get them. There appears to be a focus on getting powers rather than wisely using those that they already have.
As for Adam Price's speech, I can viualise now the raised right arms of Institute of Welsh Politics members - music to their ears.
The big deal 09:32am on 10 Nov 2009 Wake up to the reality of today's Wales, FoDafydd. Notonationalism is exactly right, it is you and your fellow exponents of the 'bash anything that is English' brigade who are deluded. Like it or not, many of us born and bred Welsh people recognise that we share a common heritage with working people on the other side of Offa's Dyke.

It is devolution that has brought to the fore the cultural differences and ideologies that now exist in this small country. We must either stop the encouragement of hatred towards the English which offends so many of us; build another Berlin Wall, so that both sides can live in peace, or perhaps the Welsh Labour Party will soon have a new leader who will reverse the current downward spiral to sectarianism.
The big deal 10:53pm on 07 Nov 2009 I suspect that the Labour leadership contenders have been 'out and about' among the Welsh grassroots, much more perhaps than previously during the last ten years.
They may have noticed the deep unhappiness felt by Labour supporters about the tribalism now pervading our lovely country, the denigration of anything 'English',even though most of us are descendants of English men and women who came here during the industrial revolution and contributed so much to Wales. There is also resentment that Rhodri Morgan signed Labour members up to campaigning for a 'Yes' vote in the promised referendum.
This contact with grassroots may serve to remind our elected representatives that they cannot ignore vast swathes of members.
We have lived together, people of North and South Wales, respecting each others differences for many years, but I'm afraid that since the inception of the National Assembly, we are all expected to conform to one version of 'Welshness'. Should we complain, we are taunted to, 'go and live over the border'. It is to be hoped that the new leader will reverse this trend, otherwise we risk storing up countless problems for the future.
No problem! 09:09am on 20 Oct 2009 Gwyrangon, Re your link reference http://www.welshtimes.eu/politics.html - The Rural Influx.

Is this discrimination aimed solely at the Anglo-Norman or are the other Celtic nations untermenschen too; and does this extend beyond the British Isles, are the takeaways in Pillgwentlly shuttered at dusk to avoid a Welsh ‘Night of the Shattered Glass’?
Follow the leader 09:44am on 19 Oct 2009 From today's Western Mail:
A PROMOTIONAL bus bought by the National Assembly cost more than £112,000 to get on the road, it has been revealed. The bus’s purchase price was £73,437.50, while the cost of refurbishing it was a further £38,735.64. The refurbishment included “purchasing a security system and multi-media hardware to further enable increased public understanding of and interaction with the Assembly and AMs”.

The figures were revealed by officials responding to a request made under the Freedom of Information Act.

An Assembly source said: “Spending £112,000 on a bus seems like an extremely excessive amount of money to pay in this age of austerity. A quick search on the internet will show (Presiding Officer) Dafydd Elis-Thomas could have picked one up for at most half that price.

“To spend nearly £40,000 to essentially ‘soup-up’ this vehicle is extraordinary. It’s like that MTV programme Pimp My Ride. This is just pouring public money down the drain on a wasteful PR gimmick.”

When the bus was launched in May, it was announced that visitors to it would be able to find out more about how the Assembly works, leave video messages for AMs, learn how to start a petition and provide evidence to Assembly committees.

Lord Elis-Thomas said: “As we mark the 10th anniversary of devolution, it’s more important than ever that we engage with as many people as possible, The National Assembly creates laws for Wales, holds the Welsh Government to account and represents the interests of all citizens of Wales. In order to do that we need to know what the people of Wales want, which is why we are putting the issue of engagement at the centre of the debate.

“This bus will take the process out to the people in Wales in a way that’s never been done before. It will complement our presence in Colwyn Bay and enable us to take the Assembly out on the road.”

In my view, not so much a promotional bus, asking what the people want, but another expensive WAG propaganda exercise to push us down the nationalist route. Disgraceful!
Follow the leader 7:59pm on 18 Oct 2009 56 - Yes, and Torfaen CLP; it'll be interesting to see whether a pattern emerges. It may well be that grassroots members, many of whom are uncomfortable with the alliance with the nationalists, will vote for Huw Lewis.

I was horrified to hear Sir Emyr say on the Politics Show that he took a bunch of kids from one of the schools he visited (to persuade sixth formers to vote 'Yes' in the forthcoming Referendum) to the Assembly to meet the most unashamedly partial presiding officer/speaker in political history, Dafydd Elis Thomas. Have they been taking lessons from Robert Mugabe, I wonder? And how on earth can they fail to see how inappropriate all this is?
Follow the leader 6:35pm on 18 Oct 2009 Should we feel comfortable with the fact that the Tomorrow's Wales organisation, led by the great and the good in Welsh society, generously funded by charitable organisations and campaigning for a 'yes' vote for primary law making powers for the WAG, is now employing a 'development officer' to go into our schools spreading their propaganda? See: http://www.tomorrow-wales.co.uk/blog/index.php?language=en
POLL! 00:59am on 15 Oct 2009 Never mind dodgy polls, Trechu, just bring on the referendum! (with multi choice questions on the ballot paper, of course). That would be the democratic option!
POLL! 2:50pm on 14 Oct 2009 Are we supposed to be inspired with confidence knowing that the analysing will be carried out by the same people who are always commissioned by the Assembly? The very same people who tell us that the Welsh public are becoming more and more enthusiastic about the devolution of further law-making and tax-raising powers? The same person who writes endless publications eulogising about devolution, and who sat on the AWC panel at their last public meeting in Cardiff, helping Sir Emyr to pursuade us to go down that slippery slope?

The results of that poll, like all the others these people have produced, will not be worth the paper it is written on.

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