There is a goldmine of fascinating articles on Dave Raybould Welsh Bloggers website.
Many different types of Welsh blogger have contributed their own perspective on blogging and the Welsh blogging scene.
A wonderfully pithy article published today by Al Iguana catches the mood of the Welsh voter
Trust in politicians has reached an all-time low. You won’t gain votes by being some anonymous person knocking on peoples doors once every four years and waving a manifesto at people: they’ve already made their minds up. You will get votes by making friends with your constituents, by engaging with them, involving yourselves in their lives - you know, old fashioned community stuff. Time and distance is a factor, of course it is, but with new media you have the tools to do this easily, conveniently, openly. All you need to is get past this “them and us” mindset. There is no them, just us. Trust and respect isn’t earned by a glossy flier, but it might be earned with an email, a tweet. And the sooner we all sit down round a table, real or virtual, and talk like adults the better Welsh politics will be.
Aberdare’s elected politicians have chosen not to blog. That is a great loss to the people of Aberdare because the blog is an ideal medium to engage and connect with constituents. Al Iguana hits the proverbial nail squarely on the head.
Aberdare’s Assembly Member, Christine Chapman AM, pays her respect at the Aberdare Cenotaph memorial on the recent Remembrance Parade Sunday in Aberdare.
Photographs courtesy of John Rees Photography (Aberdare) - Full Set of Parade Photos Available to Buy
Nice peoples the
Bevan Massive Crew is havin a Blogging Gig in Cardiff Bay.
It be happenin soon.
DJ Peter Black be there.
Boom boom, shake the room.
He big nice tie man, wear me shades.
Vicky W of the Bevan Massive Crew be there.
Betsan Bloop be there. She be be be by the sea woman.
Tea be there…. “re fresh ments provided”.
You be there ?
A Public Meeting will be held in Aberdare on Thursday 9th October 2008, at the Sobells Sports Centre.
At the Meeting Rhondda Cynon Taf Councillors will decide on the new Gloucesters & Ironworks site planning application.
All Welcome.
A Planning Application has been re-submitted to the local Council. The plans are for 130 houses to be built on the Hirwaun Gloucesters and old Ironworks site. This area is much valued and used by the community as an area for recreation and leisure and home to an abundance of wildlife and flora.
Councillors voted to refuse planning permission in July 2008.
Local Council Planning Officers are trying to persuade Councillors to change their minds and approve this application, despite overwhelming objections from residents over the last 3 years.
The people of Hirwaun are not opposed to building new houses.
They are opposed to inappropriate overdevelopment at the expense of the whole community.
Hoo-bloody-rah! for Hirwaun people fighting for their own Community.
It is with considerable sadness we announce that Huw Lewis AM has joined the Mumbo Jumbo Cult.
On 3rd July 2008, he announced on his blog that he has “joined the revolution”. This is a common phrase chanted by new Cult Members as they ritually affirm that they belong to their new ‘family’.
The Mumbo Jumbo Cult has swept through the Welsh political landscape claiming many other Assembly Member casualties.
Symptoms of Cult Membership include excessive use of brand names and imagery in a not-very-subtle attempt to recruit more people to the Mumbo Jumbo ’cause’.
Huw Lewis History
- On July 18th 2007, Huw Lewis was sacked as Deputy Minister for Transport and the Economy. Two months later he published his Winning for Wales pamphlet on the future of the Labour Party in Wales.
- Huw Lewis forewarned that in 2011, the Welsh Labour Party will face its biggest challenge.
- He claimed in Winning for Wales (pg. 11) “the only way to successfully combat these challenges is to create a self-sufficient genuinely Welsh Labour Party which can properly shape this next exciting phase of devolution.“
- Today, eleven months later, Huw Lewis joins the Mumbo Jumbo Cult performing a public volte-face and completely ignoring his own advice. It’s goodbye to those ideas of a “self-sufficient” and a “genuinely Welsh Labour Party”…
Arg! There be a grand, grand mutiny aboard HMS Senedd this week …
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Jane from Mountain Ash blogs here with a story on the proposed opencast plans for Mountain Ash…
We had a knock at the door last night from a nice man called Ian. It was -3*C and he was going door to door with a petition. Ian was collecting residents signatures for his petition to raise awareness of one anonymous landowners intent to dig for coal on a small plot of land behind the graveyard in Caegarw, Mountain Ash.
We had been wondering about the sounds of heavy machinery and the Apex Drilling vans seen on our street over the past few weeks.
It appears that the plot of land was sold by Lord Aberdare in the ’60’s to this man and he has twice been denied permission to excavate the coal from a 100 year old tip.
We understand that the land has a preservation order on it due to its environmental value following the tree planting which has occured on it. It is close to a hospital and two
schools, not to mention hundreds of houses.
We wonder why this is being attempted again, when the council and Welsh Assembly Government have spent over £20 million on cleaning up the Cynon Valley, when there are plans for a new community hospital less than half a mile from the site and when there are concerned residents, the authorities have done nothing.
Has planning permission again been sought? If so, wouldn’t the residents who live within 500 metres of the plot have been told? Where is our voice in all this? We understand that the land is an old tip. We don’t want a return to dust and smoke - we value our environment and hope that the council and WAG do to. Anyone know anything about this???
The residents of Caegarw are a vociferous bunch and we welcome any information that can help us get to the bottom of the drilling, digging and the looming threat of coal dust again…
The people behind Y Byd project had some not very nice things to say about Rhodri Glyn Thomas today.
Dyddiol Cyf. the company behind the project to launch a Welsh language daily newspaper today published a News Release today attacking the Welsh Assembly’s Culture Minister.
Rhodri Glyn Thomas’ decision not to give them the grant they wanted - around £1 million - to set up a daily Welsh language newspaper has irritated them. So they’ve hit back hard and low.
They invoke the One Wales political agreement of 27th June 2007 between Labour and Plaid Cymru, claiming that Rhodri Glyn Thomas has reneged on a “promise” within that manifesto.
And they claim (in Welsh) : Rydym fel cenedl yn haeddu papur dyddiol. Mae angen llais newyddiadurol ychwanegol ar Gymru er mwyn sicrhau plwraliaeth o fewn y cyfryngau. (We as a nation deserve a daily newspaper. Wales needs another journalistic voice to ensure pluralism within the media).
This is bunkum. Wales does not need a printed Welsh language daily newspaper subsidised by the taxpayer. The driving force behind this project is greed and vested private interests.
Today Rhodri Morgan celebrates eight years as the Welsh Assembly Government First Minister.
He seems like a physically fit man. We reported a film clip of him swimming around Cardigan Bay, in August 2007 not long after his heart operation.
The important question is, whether Mr Morgan is politically fit to lead Wales in 2008.
Journalist Patrick Hannan - raised near Aberdare - comments on Rhodri Morgan in his recent book, When Arthur Met Maggie (Seren, Bridgend, 2006) :
Mrs Thatcher brought a ball and crane and other items of demolition machinery into industrial Britain. Almost fifteen years after she left office, Rhodri Morgan, marking his fifth anniversary as Welsh First Minister, told the press : “My own personal ambition is to try to undo the damage that Margaret Thatcher did to Wales - that’s what I have a burning ambition to do.”
Morgan’s political ambition reveals the poverty of Labour’s vision for Wales : a Party which can only define itself in opposition to some body else’s achievements.
Oh, hallelluia. The Welsh Assembly Gets Tough on Bloggers this week.
We noted some weeks ago the sudden disappearance of a Plaid Cymru Assembly Member’s blog in mysterious circumstances.
We called for Guidelines on the use of the Internet by Assembly Members, especially after dastardly projects like Natwatch - an anonymous blog - apparently funded by a Labour Party Assembly Member and his young researcher.
Today, leading Assembly Member bloggers Peter Black AM (in Blogging AMs) and Glyn Davies AM (in Bloggers Beware) discuss a Guidance Note sent to all Assembly Members via the Welsh Assembly’s Standards Committee.
Although parts of this missive are being discussed online, there is no copy available in the Transcript of the Standards Committee meeting of 29 January 2008 on the National Assembly website.
Perhaps Jeff Cuthbert as Chair of the Standards Committee will reveal his blogging ‘Guidance’ given to Assembly Members.
