New Knights of the Valleys

Meet the new Knights of the Valleys… the people who clean up the rubbish.

Ben Williams of Keep Wales Tidy and Chris Cotter of Rhondda Cynon Taff Council’s Wastebusters team.

Full Story and Pictures on Penywaun Net …

View from the Valley Lossity

Chilling winds and freezing temperatures today in the Valleys and nowhere seemed colder than the Lossity.

The Lossity or Lost City of Perthcelyn is nestled high upon the mountainside.

It rests above Penrhiwceiber and near the town of Mountain Ash.

The air is fresh and clean and the sights are wonderful to behold.

But please remember to wear your woolly hat and gloves.

Review : Alfreds, Pontypridd

Alfreds Restaurant and Bar
3, Market Street
Pontypridd
CF37 2ST
Tel. (01443) 404060

Alfreds is a stylish restaurant and bar situated in Market Street, Pontypridd. It was opened in late Summer 2004 and named after Alfred John who was the founder of Pontypridd Market. The same family also own the Market Tavern nearby.

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Crucifixion held in Valleys

Capel Calfaria Chapel Rhigos will be demolished by developers within the next week or so.

Your last chance to see Calfaria … a piece of your local history transformed into rubble.

Drive to Rhigos, a few miles outside Hirwaun and savour the 146 years of history.

On Calvary, Jesus Christ was crucified. And so Churches choose to remember this ordeal.

The act of crucifixion was meant to be a public spectacle.

It was chosen as a deliberately painful and gruesome form of death.

Precise details of the method of crucifixation varied between epoch.

Today in the South Wales Valleys developers tear down our history and build supermarkets….

cheap cathedrals of consumption.

Please come to see a crucifixion in the South Wales Valleys this weekend.

Your shops crucified, your local village crucified, your public highways….

The fist of Neoliberal economics rules the Valleys and politicians betray us like Judas.

Two Tales of an Assembly

Sixty Assembly Members stepped out on to the stage of our newest theatre today.

The new Welsh Assembly building in Cardiff Bay was built with £67 million pounds generously donated by the taxpayer.

Today the Assembly staged the ‘Opening Debate’ where the Assembly Members followed the familiar ritual of thrust and parry. The invited audience chuckled at the to and froing. It was friendly play acting between consenting performers.

Behold all the wood in this new theatre! There is so much of it. Many woods look their best after they have been oiled. The oil provides a protective and durable coating. This new theatre requires a suitable oiling before the ceremonial opening by HM Queen on March 1st 2006 St David’s Day.

So today saw the first coat of varnish laid on the new building of the Welsh Assembly. As this was the very first day, glib self-congratulation was the chosen finish. Assembly Members came forward with enthusiasm to give it all a fresh lick.

Many claimed personally to have had a hand in creating a bold new Welsh historic building. Tributes and praises were heaped upon corporations and their lackeys as if they were being beatified for later canonization.

Tickets for this theatre were in short supply, unlike the supply of crachach and media luvvies. They came to engage in the peculiar Welsh sport of intellectual frottage. Never in the field of Welsh journalism have so few critical questions been asked about such a grand folly.

Today in the opening debate the media pack outweighed the taxpaying public. A Grand Scrum of media players formed in the upper public gallery. If you looked closely you could see them salivate at the prospect of even more work on their doorstep in Cardiff. Although Cardiff didn’t vote for the Assembly, it prospers by it.

“Cardiff was built on the exploitation of the people and the environment of the South Wales Valleys. And so the exploitation continues today but instead of coal barons the new exploiters are global corporations. The Welsh Assembly facilitates this exploitation.”

“People in the Valleys quarrel for crumbs and handouts from Government, whilst an effete bourgeoisie in the new Welsh Assembly building today proclaimed their so-called sagacity in shipping slate all the way from North Wales to this new spectacular theatre in Cardiff Bay.”

None of these lines were a part of today’s script at the Welsh Assembly.

After an hour of play a voluble Cabinet Minister was joined in a cross-party chorus of self-praise. We were told that the new Assembly Building was an important part of our history, that the building was an icon and a symbol of a new way forward, and that it establishes the Welsh Assembly’s environmental credentials. It helps if you are able to ‘suspend belief’ in any theatre including this one.

The Assembly was ‘green’ said the granny on the pulpit. The project to plan and build the new home for the Welsh Assembly took seven whole years. If only granny had asked the architect to design a system to harness the hot air generated by this new theatre, they could heat most of the houses in Cardiff.

This was a very Welsh affair : Democracy as spectacular theatre and religious revival.

At a Religious Revival people would come to reaffirm their faith, to renew their belief and to sing praises. At the opening of the new Welsh Assembly Building, the politicians that represent us came to renew their belief in themselves and to reaffirm their right to rule us and spend our money.

* * * * *
And so that is the first tale of an assembly where sixty elected politicians met on February 7th 2006 at the new Welsh Assembly Building in Cardiff Bay. Another assembly of people gathered on that same day in Hirwaun . Local working people gathered in a village hall to discuss the future of a community which is being destroyed by property over-development.The village of Hirwaun came to life around the ironworks which were established in Hirwaun 249 years ago. For every 1 year of the history of the Welsh Assembly, there is 35 years of Hirwaun history. In the Merthyr Rising of 1831 starving ironworkers captured a calf on Hirwaun Common, butchered it and it was from this that the first red flag was ever raised on British soil as a symbol of the solidarity of a working community.But this is a tale for another day.It will be told for the assembly of people in Hirwaun decided they shall tell you the story of their struggle.

Free entry to Welsh castles on St David’s Day

The Welsh Assembly Government will be lowering the drawbridge to some of Wales’ historic monuments and letting visitors in for free on March 1st to celebrate our national day and the official opening of the new Assembly Debating Chamber in Cardiff.

On St David’s Day, entry to 12 of Cadw’s properties will be free. Those historic monuments participating are Beaumaris Castle, Caernarfon Castle, Castell Coch, Conwy Castle, Harlech Castle, Caerleon Roman Fortress Baths, Caerphilly Castle, Chepstow Castle, Raglan Castle, Tintern Abbey, Kidwelly Castle and St David’s Bishop’s Palace.

Alun Pugh said: “As well as being St David’s Day, March 1st will be an extra special day this year. The new Debating Chamber is a landmark building for Wales and as this will be an important day for the whole of Wales, it is fitting that people are able to visit other landmark buildings, which have played such an important part in Welsh history and culture.”