Huw Lewis Merthyr Tydfil’s Labour AM publishes a pamphlet today entitled “Winning for Wales” in true fighting spirit. The pamphlet is written in plain English and offers an honest appraisal of some of the problems facing the Welsh Labour Party today.
He writes that “in order to create a party that can win elections over the next generation we must react to the 2007 result as though it were a heavy defeat – any other response will not be sufficient and we will sleepwalk to a very real loss in 2011 where the number of marginal seats we will be contesting will be unprecedented in modern electoral history. 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. ( pg. 11; our emphasis)
And this gem : “the priorities of working people and their member organisations should be at the heart of any progressive party of government” (pg. 13)
Finally, he draws attention to the use of new technology for communicating a political message : “The final and most fundamental point we must address in making our party more open and democratic is discovering new ways to reach out to new people and organisations… The creative use of the internet, email and accompanying technologies allows you to converse quickly – and cheaply – with thousands of interested parties. We are exploring these options encouragingly through Labour’s mpurl network, but we must also be thinking about broadening our online conversations. IT, properly used, is a low cost high-speed connection to half the households in Wales. (pg 24-25)
Merthyr has more statues for boxing legends than any other Welsh town. This is a tough Valleys town where people are proud to stand up and fight for what they believe in. Huw Lewis’ contribution is like a breathe of fresh air. One wonders what good it will do for a Welsh Labour Party with its head so far up its own arse it can lick its own tonsils.
We took the charabanc to the West Wales coast for the annual August pilgrimage this week. After a miserable June and July and a heart-breaking summer harvest, a spell of sunshine gave us precious time to ’stand and stare’ and re-charge our batteries whilst enjoying the Welsh countryside.
On Wednesday the sky was cloudless and the beaches of Cardigan Bay filled with holidaymakers, sunseekers, the sea-sports people, and families from near and far. As the hot sands teased our toes, we joined them for a refreshing dip in the serene Ceredigion sea. It was clear that day and below you could survey the wonders of the sea-floor. Above the aircraft scribbled ugly white trails against a pristine azure canvas.
We swam like a paddling of ducks who had been deprived of water for far far too long. We splashed each other and our selves. We dived deep and touched the floor, grabbing a handful of sand and coming to the surface to hold our prize ‘pearls’ aloft. We kicked and danced, bobbed and gyrated.
We held our heads under the water and listened to the strange hypnotic humming of the sea. We teased and laughed at each other as we made wild claims about crabs biting toes, octopuses ogling legs, squids and that mythical creature, the great white Cardigan Bay shark.
As we meditated on our uplifting surroundings and the creatures that inhabit the seas, we noticed Rhodri Morgan, the Welsh Assembly First Minister, and his wife Julie Morgan, the Cardiff MP, swim past us. They swam with grace at ease with themselves and the other swimmers enjoying the unusually calm Welsh sea. The Morgans swam far out to the deep and swam several times that afternoon.
Given a choice between spending time gnawing the proverbial bones of a dead culture in Mold, North Wales, or enjoying what nature has to offer in West Wales, he has clearly made a wise choice. Yes, he definitely swims in a circle. He swam with vigour, encircling the beach as if tracing the contours of the Welsh landscape as an act of appreciation.
Here’s a video clip of a paraglider ‘jumping off’ Rhigos Mountain yesterday.
It’s near Craig y Llyn, the highest summit in Glamorgan.
There are splendid views of Rhigos and Hirwaun from this lofty ledge.
Tower Colliery is nearby, although it it expected to close this month.
Jill Evans, Plaid Cymru’s Candidate for Rhondda in the National Assembly Elections, chose this location to give a press conference yesterday.
The following statement was issued on behalf of Jill Evans’ office :
“Plaid Cymru firmly believes that urgent and effective action is neededto tackle climate change. But the top priority must be given to energyconservation and efficiency. Then, renewable energy must come from severalsources – hydro, solar, bio-mass and wind. Labour’s policy, with its80% reliance on on-shore wind-farms, is wrong. The result – 150 windturbines in north Glamorgan by 2010 – is unacceptable.
“We’re calling for a planning moratorium while a new strategy isdeveloped. And then, local communities should decide their own energyplans, not be dictated to as they are now”.
Our emphasis on what is a radical proposal – “local communities should decide their own energyplans" : people should be free enough to make decisions for themselves and their community.
Every year, around 114,000 smokers in the UK die as a result of their addiction
Smoking kills around six times more people in the UK than road traffic accidents (3,439), other accidents (8,579), poisoning and overdose (881), alcoholic liver disease (5,121), murder and manslaughter (513), suicide (4,066), and HIV infection (234) all put together (22,833 in total – 2002 figures).
Smoking causes thirty per cent of all cancer deaths (including at least 84% of lung cancer deaths), 17% of all heart disease deaths and at least 80% of deaths from bronchitis and emphysema.
Stopping smoking reduces this excess risk – stopping before age 35 can reduce a smoker’s health risks to the same as those of a life-long non-smoker
Four years ago saw the invasion of Iraq with the wholehearted support of the British Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Hundreds of thousands have been killed in Iraq, as well as Afghanistan and elsewhere, in an imperial war to secure oil supplies from conquered territories.
Since the invasion, the British Labour Government has attacked our freedom through arbitrary arrest, ID cards and many other measures.
A year ago, the Labour First Minister Rhodri Morgan refused to give his view on the Iraq War on the BBC Question Time programme.
In the May 2007 Welsh Assembly Election, Welsh voters have their opportunity to give their views on Rhodri Morgan and the Labour Party.
Imagine living in a world with no birds and no spring songs to enrich our lives and nourish our souls. A world where the fires of industry had burned all the trees and where the only sounds were artificial and anonymous sounds : a chorus of machines, rotating monotonously.
This weekend the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds organised their annual Big Garden Birdwatch, perhaps the biggest such birdwatching event in the world. This event offered many people an opportunity to ‘re-connect’ with their own natural environment.
We take our environment for granted at our peril. By our overuse of chemicals we risk losing not only our spring birds, but poisoning ourselves. This is a lesson that an American scientist and writer taught in her book Silent Spring (1962). Rachel Carson (1907-1964) was a marine biologist working for the US Government. She started investigating the use of pesticides after receiving a letter from the owner of a bird sanctuary that had been sprayed by the US Government.
Rachel Carson wrote about the abuse of chemicals and the perils they posed industrial society. She questioned the received wisdom of science, and faced a barrage of criticism and opposition from publishers, fellow scientists, and in particular, the corporations who profitted from society’s increasing over-reliance on chemicals.
The idea for the book title was taken from the poet John Keat’s La Belle Dame Sans Merci.
O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has wither’d from the lake,
And no birds sing.
In her book Carson was able to communicate an ecology freed from the laboratory and her academic training as a scientist. It was a subversive ecology and her text is a seminal work for the environmental movement.
This brave woman’s voice helped shape a new consciousness as she challenged a materialistic, rational industrial society heading for self-destruction. In her book she concludes :
The “control of nature” is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and philosophy, when it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man. . . . It is our alarming misfortune that so primitive a science has armed itself with the most modern and terrible weapons, and that in turning them against the insects it has also turned them against the earth. – last paragraph from Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962)
May 2007 is the Centenary of Rachel Carson’s birth. In Wales, as we go to the polls in May 2007 for the Welsh Assembly Elections, we may like to consider the legacy of this woman. If we value our environment and all that lives in it, then we should consider what our politicians stand for and vote accordingly.
Plaid Cymru’s Deputy President Jill Evans MEP has been arrested at the gates of the British Nuclear Weapons Base at Faslane in Scotland today and has been taken to Clydebank Police Station.
Jill Evans was arrested with Plaid Cymru Welsh Assembly Member Leanne Wood. Both were at the base to reaffirm Plaid’s commitment to nuclear disarmament.
Plaid Cymru is contributing to the Faslane 365 continuous blockade of the Trident naval base which includes members of the Westminster, Scottish, Welsh, Dutch and European Parliaments, and local councillors.
Speaking from Faslane Jill Evans said:
“We have taken part in the blockade today to reflect the views of the majority of people in Wales who oppose and have protested against Trident.
“Nuclear weapons make the world a more dangerous place. They will not protect us from global warming or terrorist attacks.
“The Labour government has to make a decision on the future of Trident. This is the opportunity to honour the commitment made by Britain 35 years ago in the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty to disarm its nuclear weapons. In financial, environmental and security terms, the costs are too high.”
*
We salute both for their willingess to stand up for their principles and to protest peacefully… to “do and dare what is right”.
Fifteen years ago the Labour Party boldly claimed “New Year – New Government” in their member magazine. They printed a photograph of a confident-looking Neil Kinnock, the would-be Prime Minister.
It is the year in which the Tories run out of time. They can dither and delay no longer. 1992 is the year of the General Election. 1992 will be the year in which Britain elects a Labour Government.
The New Year is a time for new ideas.
Time for new people, the energy, the vision, the policies to strengthen and modernise the British economy. Time for a new team with commitment to the values of social justice needed to raise standards of care and opportunity.
Time for a new government.
Three months later and Neil Kinnock would be standing in front of a rally of Labour Party members in Sheffield claiming triumphantly “We’re alright! We’re alright”. A week after that Labour lost the General Election. Kinnock resigned immediately.
The start of a new year is always a time for reflection, as well as for scanning the horizon. 2006 was a remarkable year for the Welsh economy. There are now 130.000 more jobs than there were when the Assembly came into existence seven and a half years ago.
On behalf of the Labour Party, I make this promise: whatever the results of May’s elections, we will not go into a government with the Tories – only a vote for Labour will keep the Tories out of Welsh Government
My challenge to the other parties is to make the same commitment but I do so knowing that they cannot deliver. A vote for Plaid Cymru or a vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote to return Wales to the dark days of Tory misrule. Only Labour offers a future of hope, confidence and social justice.
The people of Blaenau Gwent rejected Rhodri Morgan’s Labour Party a few months ago because they were, in the words of Trish Law AM, “more Tory than the Tories”. Rhodri Morgan has little to be confident about.
Blaenau Gwent Labour Party have selected Keren Bender as the Labour candidate for next year’s Assembly elections. No Viagra salesman this time instead Blaenau Gwent have decided to experiment with a good old-fashioned socialist!
It is far easier to admit to being a crack-addict or sacrificing goats on Valleys mountain tops than to admit to believing in socialism in today’s Labour Party. All credit to Blaenau gwent Labour Party on electing some one who, at least, claims to be a socialist.
Fifty-year old Bender from Cwm is an official for the steel Union Community. After her selection she promised to “stand for traditional socialist values of quality jobs, rights at work and world-class public services here in the community”.
How will Ms Bender fare at the election? It’ll be a tough test… remember June 2006.
Here’s some free wisdom gleaned from Trish Law, the current incumbent, speaking at the Assembly Debate on the Draft Budget in late October 2006 ….
Imagine Cynon Valley as an orange being squeezed …
The latest pips to squeak are from Abernant
Residents in Abernant are infuriated by a proposal to build on the local village green.
People from across Cynon Valley can sympathise with their plight because building overdevelopment is a key feature of the Cynon Valley economy today. It is spurred on by a planning system which favours the developer-capitalists and the mammoth planning bureaucracy of the local County Borough Council who have a vested interest in continued overdevelopment.
Individuals and communities who dare to argue “no, enough is enough… where is this development leading?” are simply trodden on like unwelcome cockroaches in their own communities.
Yesteryear we might have argued the case ‘for’ or ‘against’ in the local newspaper, but in 2006, Aberdare has no free press where such a discussion could take place. Freedom of speech in Aberdare is a luxury for a political and commercial elite. It has been completely marginalised and shunted to the sidelines into online forums, websites, blogs and the occasional meeting in a local Chapel organised by annoyed citizens.
The media are, as Noam Chomsky argues, adjuncts of the powerful. The media exist to ensure we consent to what the elite have decided is in their best interest. To question economic overdevelopment, whether it is the overdevelopment of houses, roads, or any form of overdevelopment, would be to question the very basis on which the Cynon Valley economy rests : capitalism.
Corporate media do not reflect any anti-capitalist sentiment today because it is, again to quote Noam Chomsky, beyond the “bounds of the expressible“. The media only permit a spectacle or charade of free and open discussion. Thus we can read about opposition to wind turbines in the Cynon Valley in the local newspaper – wind turbines do not, after all, generate much advertising revenue – but we are unable to read about the mass opposition to overdevelopment or to the duelling of the Heads of the Valley road near Hirwaun, a Welsh Assembly Government project. That is beyond the bounds of the expressible. It might upset the capitalist apple-cart and people might get the wrong idea and start engaging in a real democratic debate.
In Abernant, if we look back thirty years, we might find lessons there. Thirty years ago, services at Aberdare were being downgraded and moved to Prince Charles hospital. Thousands took part in rallies and marches. Such expressions of solidarity are nowadays rare. We can but marvel at these mass movement in history books.
Today bourgeois capitalism reigns triumphant and the very last thing the rich and powerful and their newspapers would admit is that there are pips squeaking in every corner of the Cynon Valley. That might give working people a sense that they had something in common . The last thing the bourgeosie want is a conscious working class… it would be bad for business.
Almost three hundred people met in a Valleys Chapel recently to discuss the future of their community. The village campaign group Action for Hirwaun organised the meeting at Nebo Chapel in Hirwaun to address the fears of local people concerning over-development in the area.
Action for Hirwaun were formed in response to widespread local concern about issues such as housing over-development and loss of basic public services. They hold regular meetings, consult widely and have deep roots in the community.
Many of these community-spirited people remember or were involved in previous community campaigns such as the campaign to prevent gas tanks being located in the village in the mid 1970s. Women were at the forefront of that campaign and thirty years later Hirwaun women are leading from the front in their battle for their community.
Chris Bond (see photo below) spoke on behalf of Action for Hirwaun and gave a hard-hitting visual presentation. He showed in graphic detail precisely how much of Hirwaun is disappearing under house and road building.
We learned that Hirwaun is being simplified. It is both a sad and frightening ecological tale. The rich tapestry of fields, the wildlife, flora and fauna supported by the remaining natural havens is being simplified into tarmacadam, asphalt, and concrete. Such is the legacy we are leaving our Valleys children in the name of ‘economic development’.
There was an audible sigh from members of the public as the presentation progressed showing the inevitable loss of green fields and open spaces. The audience was shown a horse in a green field and someone quipped “enjoy it while you can”.
Mr Bond spoke of the transformation of Hirwaun from “a quiet village to commuter town”. Hirwaun is one of Wales’ biggest villages and there is a continued growth in population due to a house-building boom. Land is cheap in Hirwaun and it is a magnet for property developers.
The presentation cited the key issues that went to the very heart of the community and local people’s concerns : health, education, recreation, amenities, and policing. These were basic political issues, yet there was no elected politician at that meeting. The absence was in many ways a shameful indictment on local democracy. Elected representatives were invited to attend this meeting in advance, including local County Councillors and Assembly Members.
“So far no consultation”
One of the chief grievances seems to be the fact that local people are not being properly consulted over a range of large-scale developments. Some of the grievances concerning broken promises go back twenty or more years. Action for Hirwaun repeatedly emphasised “so far no consultation”. Given the voluminous evidence they have collected to support their assertion it is not easy to disagree with them.
Are local people to be consulted properly on issues that will affect their lives and the lives of generations to follow ? Or is it only a corporate oligopoly – the rich and powerful – that has a ‘vote’ on what happens to Hirwaun ? These are questions that demand to be answered by working people in Hirwaun.
public services “retreating from the community”
Mr Bond bemoaned the fact that “policing is retreating from the community” and the downgrading and eventual closure of Hirwaun police station. Mr Bond is correct however many people would suggest that he does not go nearly as far enough in his analysis : health, education, and other basic public services are also retreating from the community under the influence of neoliberal economics.
Neoliberal economics is the dogma that now rules our lives. They called it Thatcherism in the eighties, and many other things since, but it is nonetheless now the dominant political and economic system. It is a form of capitalism with the gloves off where very few private interests are allowed to control as much of society as possible. Today Hirwaun is fighting against the greedy robber-baron property developers, but tommorrow it could be the complete privatization of healthcare or education. People should be concerned about what is left of their communities.
Two wags from the WAG
It therefore seemed re-assuring to know that the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) were invited to send representatives to this public meeting to make a contribution towards the democratic process. They parachuted two wags into Hirwaun for the meeting and they came with a mission. It seems these Assembly Missionaries were there to convert the people of Hirwaun to the cause of ‘economic development’ Cardiff Bay-style.
Andy Falleyn came representing the Welsh Assembly Government’s Transport Wales department. He came as ‘travelling salesman’ for the A465 Heads of the Valley Duelling Programme. He flapped on about statistics and referred to a glossy document called Turning Heads 2020 which he waved about. It was an instant turn off.
People coughed and yawned. They were busy – and tired – working mums and dads and grandparents. It is not easy to listen to a bureaucrat jawing about jargon and fancy figures when you’ve just spent a day at the proverbial ‘coalface’. Mr Falleyn convinced few – if any one – at that meeting of the usefulness of the Heads of the Valley project.
If the duelling of the A465 sends thousands of extra cars through Hirwaun, the people will suffer a serious, long-term degradation in the quality of their lives and the lives of their children. That was the case presented by Action for Hirwaun and it was uncontested by members of the public. The severe concerns expressed about traffic congestion at the meeting were not assuaged by the Welsh Assembly Government representative… he wasn’t much of a travelling salesman.
From the back seats of Nebo Chapel the two wags seemed to a bear a physical resemblance to Laurel and Hardy, at least in this writer’s eyes. There was a physical contrariety and comedy about them, especially the wag called Chris Ashman who resembled Oliver Hardy. It seems that Mr Ashman is employed by Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Council and is “on-loan” to the Welsh Assembly.
Mr Chris Ashman wowed the audience with this long title : Head of Regeneration, Welsh Assembly Government. Licensed to frill it seems… He then proceeded to talk about frilly phrases like “regeneration” and “development” and “investment” when most people there wanted to know about traffic gridlock. It all seemed so glib to be told that the “strength of the Valleys community spirit is envied across the UK”. And as if that was not enough Mr Ashman cooed that he saw “this meeting as the start of something”. This was perhaps the most inane political ‘chat-up’ line ever spoken in Hirwaun.
That great observer of language use and abuse George Orwell would have wept in Hirwaun at Nebo Chapel that evening. The Welsh Assembly Government people perverted words like “growth”, “development”, “regeneration”, and “investment” to fit their own ideological needs. Language is an instrument of power, and so if a rich and powerful elite want to exploit the people of Hirwaun by running thousands of extra vehicles through their village they will not (and did not) call it what it is – degeneration or degradation – they call it “regeneration” or “development”.
Betrayal by Assembly
There was a palpable sense of betrayal at that meeting. No one held out much hope that the Labourites Clwyd (MP) or Myring (County Councillor) would attend, but there was some hope that Welsh Assembly Members would give their moral support to their own constituents. None came.
But nearly ten years ago, in the summer of 1997, they came to Hirwaun. They came to campaign on the eve of the September 1997 Referendum on the Assembly. They came with promises. There was a cross-party campaign. In a Public Meeting at the Michael Sobell Sports Centre in Aberdare Ieuan Wyn Jones (Plaid), Eluned Morgan (Labour), and Tyrone O’Sullivan (Tower Colliery) shared a platform with Professor Kevin Morgan (Chairman, Yes for Wales Campaign).
Professor Morgan was born in Rhigos, a neighboring village. He is a good man and a clever man without whom the Referendum would not have been won. At that 1997 meeting in Aberdare he talked about his vision for the Welsh Assembly and how the people needed to give voice – to articulate and to confront the problems of industrial decline in Wales. There should have been a place at that Hirwaun meeting for the good Professor.
The Forgotten People ?
As Chris Bond asked at the end of that meeting, “Are we the forgotten people?”
Plaid have won a crucial vote at the Welsh Assembly in an attempt to reform the planning system for phone masts and bring planning closer to the people.
Yesterday the National Assembly for Wales accepted by a unanimous vote (41 to 0) the principle of full planning for phone masts. If the recommendations of the report are fully implemented, it would give the people of Wales the greatest say on phone masts siting anywhere in the UK.
Chris Maile Director of the campaign group Planning Sanity said “This is a positive stand that will benefit many within Wales who were slowly becoming disenchanted with a planning regime that at face value is failing to serve those that are forced to live with the consequences of inappropriate developments close to sensitive areas such as schools, hospitals and residential areas.
Janet Davis AM (Plaid Cymru) said “I am very pleased that two of the committee recommendations have addressed the main objectives of my subordinate legislation proposal. This is urgently needed to help to increase democracy in the decision-making process for masts and ensure that health concerns are taken into account in a meaningful way.
At the moment, developers are given almost a free rein to bypass the full planning system and we are, therefore, seeing an explosion of masts in our communities. The public is losing confidence in decisions made in relation to these types of developments, and, unable to see means of influencing decisions. This cannot go on and hopefully will not if the Welsh Assembly Government accepts these recommendations and implement them as soon as practically possible.”
We took the charabanc to the West Wales coast for the annual August pilgrimage this week. After a miserable June and July and a heart-breaking summer harvest, a spell of sunshine gave us precious time to ’stand and stare’ and re-charge our batteries whilst enjoying the Welsh countryside.
Four years ago saw the invasion of Iraq with the wholehearted support of the British Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Imagine living in a world with no birds and no spring songs to enrich our lives and nourish our souls. A world where the fires of industry had burned all the trees and where the only sounds were artificial and anonymous sounds : a chorus of machines, rotating monotonously.
Plaid Cymru’s Deputy President 
“The Labour government has to make a decision on the future of Trident. This is the opportunity to honour the commitment made by Britain 35 years ago in the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty to disarm its nuclear weapons. In financial, environmental and security terms, the costs are too high.”
