Most popular 'Daily Facts'

After conducting a review of the facebook posts for 2013 I wanted to also conduct a review of the daily facts that I share each day. The easiest way to do this is via the twitter posts since I already collate them here on the blog. It's basically a case of looking at the page for each month and then seeing which has the most interactions. As with the other review I will post the most popular from each month. Hopefully we can learn something from the results.

January

Dydd #SantesDwynwen hapus i bawb. pic.twitter.com/P1iDrJ4r
— Welsh not British (@welshnotbritish) January 25, 2013

Dydd Santes Dwynwen was the most popular daily fact on both twitter and most popular picture I shared on facebook for January.

2013 review via facebook

With 2013 coming to a close I wanted to conduct a couple of reviews, the first is of the posts shared on my facebook page. So I have looked back to the beginning of the year and taken the one picture from each month that had the most shares. Some months had a stand out winner, others were fairly close. But I hope this gives some sort of indication of what people like.

2013 in pictures, chosen by facebook users - facebook original | twitter

Piss off Biggles

I came across an amusing picture on the internet, it told how a Welsh farmer grew so tired of low flying aircraft using his farm as a 'target' and scaring his children that he took matters into his own hands. I googled the key words "piss off biggles" and the story appears to be quite true. I've remade the graphic below and included the picture credit to the original photographer, Terry Blacow a former BAe Systems (Warton) photographer.

Taking on the colonial war mongers like a boss! Share via twitter | facebook

Proud to be British? - Anglostralia

The Stolenwealth of Anglostralia, where a people once lived peacefully for millenia, in fact modern DNA evidence indicates that they may well have been there for 400,000 years. Of course none of that matters when you discover a new land to exploit. If there are natives there then you simply kill, rape, kidnap, enslave and even create sports to wipe out those who were ironically called 'savages'.

So please take less than five minutes out of your day to watch this video I found which illustrates some of the heinous crimes committed and the hypocrisy used to remember the fallen in selective campaigns whilst deliberately forgetting and covering up those who were wiped out by their genocidal ancestors. That doesn't make the modern day rulers innocent though as they continue the oppressive regime that maintains that first Australians are second class citizens of their own country.

Share video via twitter | facebook or view on YouTube

A good place to start

Another rag, another poll. Except this time it's the Western Fail asking the people of Wales how they would vote in a referendum on income tax-varying powers. The headline from the Fail states that it's "too close to call", and since the gap between yes and no is just 2% you might be forgiven for agreeing with them. But when you realise they weren't asking a straight yes or no question you begin to wonder how big the gap really is. National Left has posted a link to the official poll page so I can see the stats and delve a little deeper.

Aargh my eyes! Learn about images please Beaufort

Better together?

YouGov were recently commissioned by gutter rag The Sun to poll people across the UK on a few different questions but the one that YouGov jumped on was that the people of Englandandwales were desperate to deny Scotland one of the most basic of all rights, the right of self determination.

In the poll, YouGov claim that 55% of adults in Englandandwales would, if given the choice, vote no to Scottish independence. In the graph below it does state that the % is of all UK adults, but even with Scotland taken out it's the same figure.

Poll from here

Gold medal winning hypocrisy

Paralympic legend Tanni Grey-Thompson has appeared in The Independent, giving answers to a few questions. The questions range from boring hardly newsworthy ones on Scottish independence to topical question about Tom Daly's sexuality, real hard hitting journalism. What caught my eye though was what Cardiff born Tanni said about devolution.

"It doesn’t make sense to do something differently in England to the other home countries."

In other words, devolution doesn't make sense to Tanni. My hypocrisy alarm did buzz slightly because Tanni had already answered a question about Cymraeg and she sounds quite pleased that children are learning Welsh in Wales. Now since they don't learn Welsh in England, Scotland or the six counties you might naturally start to question if Tanni really does believe that it doesn't make sense to do things differently. But then we did things differently before devolution so I decided to have a little google.

I know the feeling Jackie, my mind is full of it too. Share via twitter | facebook

The exact search phrase I used was "tanni grey thompson devolution", which any hard hitting journalist could have typed in. About the 12th link down the search results was a (.pdf) from a Sport Wales group in which Tanni chaired.

On page 5 of the report the following statement is made.

"the development of devolution has offered a massive opportunity to look forward, and to offer something different, visionary and transformational which would help Wales’s ambition to be a world-leading nation in sport and physical activity."

So here we have the hypocrisy, on one hand we have a Tanni led group outlining the "massive opportunity" that devolution offers us in order to be a "world-leading nation". And on the other hand "It doesn’t make sense to do something differently in England to the other home countries."

It's also worth pointing out that Tanni's official title is "Baroness Grey-Thompson, of Eaglescliffe in the County of Durham", I've looked on google maps and I can't find that anywhere in Wales. It must be one of those places in that UK nation that doesn't have devolution.

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Quoted for truth - Jack Straw

Here's a couple of great quotes from nu-Labour stalwart Jack Straw. They are from 2006 but in many ways they are even more relevant now than they were back then. After all, back in 2006 Labour had a clean sweep of Governments in Wales, Scotland and UK. Now they only have Wales and with the Scottish referendum less than a year away they are facing self destruction.

So first up, here's Jack Straw outlining why England needs to hang on to the rest of us in order to keep up the pretence that they are still a world power.

Jack Straw outlining why England needs us. Share via twitter | facebook

Myth - Wales isn't represented on the Union Rag

There is a myth that many people in Wales believe, they believe that Wales isn't represented on the Union Rag. And that is nonsense. Just in case anyone doesn't know the Union Rag in its current form was drawn up in 1801 but other variants have existed since the 1600s. The current design features the crosses of St George, St Andrew and St Patrick. St Patrick is used since Ireland was part of the 'union' back then.
So no Wales then?

Union Rag. Share via twitter | facebook

On this day in Wales - December

December 1st

Died on this day in 1866, #Crickhowell born geographic surveyor George #Everest #Chomolungma http://t.co/tPKvnQrkwo pic.twitter.com/qaaaPAVMWd
— Welsh not British (@welshnotbritish) December 1, 2013

Give what you can

Children in Need has been and gone once more and with it the nauseating spectacle of millionaires telling the poor people at home to give what they can. This is now even more pronounced with Comic and Sport Relief. But this year something new was added to the mix. Instead of just having millionaires telling us to give what we can we had millionaire tax dodgers telling us to give what we can.

I saw this picture on facebook, I do not know who made it originally but it featured millionaire tax dodger Gary Barlow telling us to give what we can in order to keep a children's hospice up and running.

Give what you can. Share via twitter | facebook

As I have said I don't know who created this picture, most people should realise it wasn't me due to the inclusion of the OBE after his name. Although in hindsight I suspect this has added to the impact of the graphic.

Gary Barlow hasn't broken any laws. He used tax loopholes in order to retain more of his personal wealth. But the morality of this aggressive tax evasion is what upsets people. Especially when these tax dodgers are then in our faces telling us to give what we can in order to keep open a children's hospice.

Gary Barlow has a new solo album due out on the 25th November, he has a personal net worth of around £50 million and yet he still used aggressive tax dodging loop holes.

If I had made this picture, I would have included a scumbag hat.

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Like they do on Top Gear.

It's that time of year again when our TV tax (the license fee) goes towards make a rubbish Top Gear book and/or video. Someone uploaded a picture they took of the entry for 'Wales' in their latest book. It's the usually crass, boring racist nonsense that we have come to expect from the English Broadcasting Corporation. I've added the picture here so you can see it.

Just a joke. Share via twitter | facebook

Prince Wilhelm Cup

Saturday the 9th November marks the seventh match since the sycophantic unveiling of the Prince Wilhelm Cup by the anti-Welsh language pro-colonialism royalists of the Welsh Rugby Union. The cup is another one of these token gestures that can only be won by one of two teams, although only one appears to have been told about that. This cup is contested between the former English colony of South Africa and the current English colony of Wales.

Tuvalu hasn't quite realised what independence means. Share via twitter | facebook

Energy Scroungers

After looking at how Peter Hain was well and truly on the gravy train when it came to the energy expenses I decided to look into the rest of the MPs in order to try and find some sort of perspective. Is Peter right when he says that without being able to make claims we'd be left with "only very rich MPs" or is he simply digging himself an even deeper hole.

So I went back to the Sunday Mirror article and began to compile a list of every MP, their constituency, their party, their claim amount and what the claim was for. Once you have a full table of results you can then sort them into highest to lowest, organise them by party and create sexy graphs.

You wont find this on the BBC! Share via twitter | facebook

Peter Hain on the gravy train

Dear Wales, please spare a thought for the people of Neath, some of these people are so poor that they will risk freezing to death this winter as they opt to eat rather than heat their homes. For according to Peter Hain, Labour MP for the constituency they cannot do both.

You'll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. Share via twitter | facebook

The gift that keeps on giving

So it finally happened then, Cameron and Clegg came down to Cardiff in their ties matching their parties (or possibly the colour of their blood) and gave the Senedd the gift of borrowing and tax raising powers. The tax raising powers are "only if they want them" and they also have the ability to hold a referendum if they so wish.

You can read about it in more detail from Syniadau or The Guardian if you like but here is the highlights of the hand over and our First Ministers response.

Who will Carwyn blame now? Share via twitter | facebook

Carwyn has, or course, refused to give the people of Wales what they want. Two thirds of us want tax raising powers but denying us this opportunity allows the Red Tories the chance to hold one in future, perhaps as a bargaining tool for a future budget or coalition deal. Regardless which it is, Wales wants these powers. By not taking these powers Carwyn is reducing the effectiveness of one of his two campaign tools. The first of course is the "we are not the Tories" mantra and the second one is "blame the Tories".

Now whenever Carwyn or any of the Labour in Wales AMs/MPs try and blame the Tories, the rest of Wales will be perfectly within our rights to tell them to grow a backbone and give us our referendum. And before anyone says "not another bloody referendum" the more used to saying yes we become as a nation the easier it will be when we get the big one.

For those interested you can see more of these comics here, but be warned they often feature very dark humour.

Gift this to twitter | facebook

On ths day in Wales - November

1st November

Launched on this day in 1982, @S4C Penblwydd hapus S4C a Superted http://t.co/d6QoHFUNhl pic.twitter.com/A2SsgQY0E8
— Welsh not British (@welshnotbritish) November 1, 2013

Cake or Death?

An interesting article was published on the Welsh language version of the BBC news site. It doesn't appear to have found it's way onto the English language version which means it has effectively been buried. Thanks to google those who aren't Wesh speakers can have a fairly good translation of the page here. I have archived both pages just incase it should suddenly vanish.

The story revolves around an opinion given by Cardiff University's Proffessor Richard Scully who believes that if Scotland votes for independence then England would seek to cast the rest of us off.

I'll have the cake please. Share via twitter | facebook

Scumbag Labour - Aberfan

Shortly after October 21st, 1966 when the 116 children and 28 adults of Aberfan were murdered by the negligence of the National Coal Board, the Labour Government of Harold Wilson decided that they would take £150,000 from the memorial fund in order to pay for the clean up.

The Red Tories are the real enemy of Wales. Share via twitter | facebook

Food banks

I'd never heard of the Trussel Trust until today. I'd heard of foodbanks but not the people who appear to be behind the organising of a lot of them. So off I clicked to their website, where I read the following blurb.

"The Trussell Trust works to empower local communities to combat poverty and exclusion in the UK and Bulgaria. We work with the people that society forgets, providing practical help through sustainable projects and enabling each person to realise that they are valued. Our vision is to build communities where people of all backgrounds are included and have the opportunity to live in dignity with hope for the future."

It continues with references to religion but the cool feature of their website is the map. Maps like these are now incredibly simple to set up. You just create a google my map and then add place marks. You can add text and links to the map and embed them in web pages. They are simple but very effective.

Food banks in Wales (green) under development (purple) Share via twitter | facebook

Proud to be British? Where is our legacy?

October 14th 2013 marks the 100th anniversary of the Senghenydd colliery disaster in which 439 men and boys died. The disaster came just 12 years after a similar explosion killed 81 of the 82 workers. The greed of the owners resulted in the second disaster. In a week it will also be the anniversary of Aberfan, when the negligence of the coal board saw 116 children and 28 adults murdered by an avalanche of wet slag. I use the term murdered for that is what the parents at the inquest shouted.

116 children and 28 adults 'buried alive by the national coal board'.

Proud to be British? - Reinhard Heydrich

I noticed a quote started doing the rounds, it was attributed to a Nazi who was referring to the Germanisation of Czechoslovakia. But to read it it could have been about the Anglicisation of Wales, Scotland, Ireland and just about any country the English colonised.

We often use racial stereotypes, usually in jest but often in more darker ways. Us taff have a fondness for sheep, the Italians are lazy, the Yanks are fat, the Scots are drunks, the Irish are all thieves, the French are cheese eating surrender monkeys and the Germans are notoriously efficient. To many, the Nazis were just a more efficient version of the British. Whilst the British took centuries to take over the world the Nazis wanted in done in decades.

Original possibly from here - Share via twitter | facebook

From the Berwick and Wales act, to the Welsh not and the blue books, right through to the modern day media that is both London owned and London based.

This might as well be the speech from one of the unionist politicians that keeps telling us how small, poor and stupid we are. How we're better off being controlled by foreigners because we couldn't possibly run our own affairs.

Did Reinhard actually say these things? That's debatable, when googling the quote I came across an interesting article referring to the brushing aside of Celtic history here which also has the quote above and via the magic of google books I found The Killing Of Reinhard Heydrich: The SS "Butcher Of Prague" written by Glasgow born professor of history Callum McDonald.

You can search for key words within the book itself and it will present you a selection of search results, when you click on the result it will take you to that page. Some of the keywords I searched for are below.

Deprive the people of their national consciousness

Treat them as a tribe and not a nation

Dilute their national pride

Do not teach their history

Dismiss independence as a barbaric anomaly.

Whether he said the quote is almost academic at this point, perhaps the 'quote' in the graphic was pieced together by things he actually did as opposed to things he actually said. Everything in the quote happened in Czechoslovakia just as it has happened in Wales, Scotland, Ireland and every single colony invaded and controlled by the English Empire. In fact the word happened isn't quite right as that implies it isn't still happening. It is still happening and it will continue to happen until we free ourselves.

Invade timelines via twitter | facebook

BritNats For My Valentine

It appears that Wales has lost another band. Despite the uniform rejection of Britishness by the three nations on this island, Welsh metal band Bullet For My Valentine are gearing up for their "rule Brittania" tour.

Bleurghhhhhh. Share via twitter | facebook

Scumbag Labour - "The Workers Party"

On the afternoon of October 3rd 2013 the Labour run council instigated a sneak attack on the mural celebrating the 1839 Newport Rising. Despite efforts from local campaigners their protests were ignored by the Labour run council. They were ignored by Labour's Culture Minister, they were ignored by Labour's Newport MP Paul Flynn and they were ignored by Cadw. For those not aware Cadw is the Welsh word for keep or protect. And yet the Chartist mural was not kept or protected from the Labour cabal that sought to destroy it in order to build a shopping centre.

Jac codi baw - Share via twitter | facebook

On this day in Wales - October

1st October

Tragedy strikes #Machynlleth on this day in 2012 as school girl April Jones goes missing http://t.co/9cXwNUMP1l pic.twitter.com/d5nNPVTBYQ
— Welsh not British (@welshnotbritish) October 1, 2013

Post Cymru

Shortly after the UK Government announced the privatisation of the Royal Mail the Scottish Government promised that after a yes vote they will renationalise the postal service in Scotland. The silence in Wales was broken this week with Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood asking for the postal service in Wales to be handed over to the Welsh Government in much the same way as the postal service was handed over to the Manx and the Channel Islanders. The fact that this is even happening should go to show people how much we in Wales are at the mercy of the Government that the people of England choose.

Imagine the spin off TV show on S4C? Share via twitter | facebook

The majority of Britain is officially not British

What an incredible headline that is. Regular readers will remember the fantastic moment when the results from the 2011 census were released which proved catergorically that the majority of Wales was officially Welsh not British. Syniadau then showed that the majority of England was also not British. But now, after all this time the results of the Scottish census are out and the majority of Scotland is Scottish not British.

So that means that of the three nations on this rock the majority of us are not British. This is a complete and utter rejection of Britishness, a two fingered salute to a fast decaying empire.

What a joyous site, share via twitter | facebook

Caeredin / Edinburgh 2013

Edinburgh hosted the 2013 independence march and rally on Saturday 21st September. I was at home but it was great to see so many pictures of Welsh flags shared online amongst the assortment of flags from Scotland and other nations in attendance.

Here are some that I have collected from around the web, I have reduced the picture and file size in almost all cases but each has a credit link back to the original source, if you want to share any then please click through to the original and share that way.

-

Côr dre via @menna

English Broadcasting Corporation

An eagle eyed reader spotted something unusual over on the EBC podcast page. In order to allow everyone to play at home, take a look at the following picture and see if you can spot the offending mistake.

When you see it... Share via twitter

Following the glorious example

I stumbled across an article recently whilst looking up daily facts, it was a list of all the rugby internationals that died during The Great War™. I also stumbed across a rather interesting propaganda poster claiming that every England rugby international from 1913 had joined up. It then asks the question of other "British athletes". Will you follow this glorious example?

WWI propaganda Share via twitter | facebook

Bale out

So the deal is finally done, Cardiff born Gareth Bale has finally signed for Real Madrid and in doing so becomes the most expensive football player in history. Not bad for a player once described by the English media as a flop defender who ought to be offloaded to Birmingham for £3m. The Real deal was signed for €100 million which works out as around £85 million. But bare with me as this isn't really a post about football.

The top 10, with a Cymro in first place

On this day in Wales - September

1st September

Born in #Barry on this day in 1912, politician and author Gwynfor Evans http://t.co/Q04vuiRZXM pic.twitter.com/4q99GxqEAo
— Welsh not British (@welshnotbritish) September 1, 2013

Video - The Great Debate

It will be no great surprise that Wales is decades behind Scotland when it comes to politics. But this video from 1995 shows clearly the gulf between the devolution Scotland was just about to receive and the devolution that Wales is still trying to achieve. Tax raising powers is probably the most obvious of these.

The debate betwen Alex Salmond and "Baron" Robertson also highlights the gulf between our nationalist party and Scotland's nationalist party. But before anyone in Plaid takes this as a slight it also shows the gulf between the SNP and Labour. The old cliché of "if this was a boxing match" is obvious from early in. And if I am to use another boxing reference it's a pleasure to watch Salmond in this old debate in much the same way that it's a pleasure to watch Muhammad Ali dance around his opponent, invite attacks before leaving them on the floor wondering what the hell just happened. I would recommend everyone watches this but at around 50 minutes not everyone will so I will mention some key moments below.

Video - Castle Ghosts of Wales

I recently stumbled across this show. It was originally aired in the 90s as part of a four part series. With one episode devoted to Wales, Scotland, Ireland and England. I have since found these episodes on youtube which allows me to share easily on here.

Carew Castle - wikipedia

Bongo Bongo Land

When making a valid point it's important to remember what century you are in and use the appropriate language. As an example, if a left wing politician had commented "it doesn't appear right that billions are being given away in foreign aid and yet we have millions of people in the UK living in poverty. Having to feed their family with donated food from food banks, going hungry at winter because they were choosing to heat rather than eat" then no doubt many would agree.

But if you are a UKIP politician and you use terms like Bongo Bongo Land then no matter what message you try and put across it's not going to go down very well, apart from with the people who belong in a different era.

Tory Map of the World (Spitting Image)

On this day in Wales - August

1st August

Gŵyl Galan Awst. Happy Lammas Day. http://t.co/cvPAjhHPi2 pic.twitter.com/1GyaqUkDLR
— Welsh not British (@welshnotbritish) August 1, 2013

Disqus

Regular readers may have noticed I have added a new comments gadget powered by disqus. I have seen it on other websites and as it's so easy to use, especially in comparison to the awful blogger comments system I wanted to use it on here. And now I have added it I wanted to show others how easy it is in case they want to switch to using disqus.

Accidental Republicans

The worlds largest silver spoon was recently spotted being carried across London by a sea king helicopter. I don't quite know where it was heading but whoever it was destined for must have done something very special to receive it. At least I'd like to think so, I hope it wasn't going to someone who was getting it solely because of an accident of birth.

Share this picture via twitter | facebook

Missing the point - Part II

Most people who have more than a passing interest in Scottish politics will have heard about the GERS report. It stands for the Government Expenditure Revenue Scotland and it does exactly what it says in the title. It details the government expenditure and the revenue of Scotland. We in Wales do not have a similar report which is why back in 2012 I submitted a petition calling for a report to be created.

This old graphic is still valid. Share via twitter | facebook

We all need a bit of space

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield recently took to twitter from the confines of the space station. Tweeting pictures of Earth, some with topical posts such as a picture of Cardiff after rygbi thrashed rugger 30 points to 3. I wanted to share these pictures relating to Wales so that people who hadn't seen them have that opportunity. In all instances I will post the picture, the text from the tweet and a link to the tweet. This is purely to ensure that the pictures are still available should Hadfield delete his account or the original tweets. if you wish to search through his tweets for more photos then you can use the snapbird website. Just insert his username @Cmdr_Hadfield (link) and then the search term and click 'find it'. If you find any more cool pictures then post the links below.

Happy St. David's Day! The Sun shines on Holyhead, northern Wales on the first of March.

BLOGGERS, Y U NO USE FACEBOOK?

One thing I have been meaning to do for a while is mention facebook pages and this is an opportune moment to bring it up. A lot of blogs don't have them, presumably they don't understand them or how beneficial they could be. I'm going to show you some stats that I hope make people sit back and think.

Scumbag Amazon

I first heard about the petition from Y Lolfa for Amazon to start allowing e-books to be sold yn Gymraeg via Syniadau. At first you may just think that this only affects people who have a kindle. But that's not true, you can download the kindle app onto your smart phone, tablet or computer allowing you to read e-books from the Amazon store. It's worth getting purely for the free classics that are available, and once you have an e-book it's available to you on any device you have the app on.

Amazon though, has decided that publishers like Y Lolfa are not allowed to publish books yn Gymraeg via their platform. And given the way that Kindle is dominating the e-book market it's a massive blow. So I created a few graphics in order to share via facebook and twitter.

Translation help by Hedd Gwynfor. Share via twitter | facebook

Puppet State

As most people are probably aware there is a by-election taking place on Ynys Môn as a result of Ieuan Wyn Jones stepping down as AM for the island. I saw people on twitter suggesting that Labour were going to throw £100,000 in order to try and buy win the election and thus take a majority in the Senedd. So in the interest of fairness I decided to ask the Labour candidate himself.

The original tweet

Organ Farming

The Senedd passed a ground breaking bill on the 2nd July 2013. Where organ donation in Wales will switch from being opt in to opt out. When this is introduced in around 2015 it effectively means that the organs of people in Wales are owned by NHS Blood and Transplant in England. So despite health being devolved and the farming of our organs being devolved the decision with what happens to them is not.

Silence of the Lambs probably wouldn't have worked in Wales.  Share via twitter | facebook

On this day in Wales - July

1st July

#Wales is under lock down on this day in 1969 as a Chuck Battenburg is crowned in a sham service at #Caernafon. pic.twitter.com/k4uZAt2Aqh
— Welsh not British (@welshnotbritish) July 1, 2013

Ffolsom Prison Blues

I hear the prison fawr comin' it's comin' round the bend

We're the oldest colony since I don't know when

I'm stuck in Ffolsom Prison and time keeps draggin' on

But Anglicisations a rollin' on down to Tyddewi

Proud to be British? - Franz Ferdinand

June 28th marks the 99th anniversary of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and the beginning of British brainwashing relating the cause of World War I. Of course it had nothing to do with the fact that the Berlin - Baghdad railway line was nearing completion. Of course not. It had nothing to do with the fact this would bypass the British controlled Suez Canal and open up new trade routes to Asia and beyond that were not on British terms. Especially in an era where oil was quickly becoming the fuel of choice for the various naval forces of Europe.

Either the most popular guy of the time or a century long scape goat?

Scumbag Labour - Happy Birthday

They've finally done it. Many people doubted their ability to pull it off but I want everyone connected with the English regionalist party known coloquially as 'Welsh Labour' that I never doubted you for a moment. When I first congratulated Labour after nine months I bet there were people muttering under their breath that they would never carry it on. But then 10 months came and went and people thought they were just getting lucky. I didn't want to make a fuss after 11 months as even I was getting nervous and I didn't want to be blamed for being the one who junxed it and spoilt their run. But the wait is finally over.

Penblwydd hapus i chi. Share via twitter

How balanced is Parliament?

After showing the imbalance of the UK population in this post I wanted to look at how MPs are balanced. I have looked at this before using pie charts but my new toy is pixel (px) art.

The UK has 650 MPs representing the four constituent countries of Wales, England, Scotland and N Ireland. I will use a 255 x 255 px square. This gives us 65,025 px which works out as a scale of 1 MP = 100 px. For consistancy I'll try and make the shapes as similar to how  I did them for the population square so that they can be easily compared.

Parliament (1 MP = 100 px)

Britain is not a country

I don't whether it's just lazy journalism, ignorance or deliberate propaganda but the media constantly uses the words Britain, UK and 'this country' interchangably. This is not only factually incorrect but when it is said enough times people start to think that it's true. It's used in everyday conversation which makes things even more confusing when the media handles things that are not devolved. We have to acknowledge that most people are politically ignorant due to their only source of information being lazy, ignorant or deliberately bad journalism.

So I created this little graphic to easily show the difference between the UK, Britain and "this country". Note that "this country" should only be used when referring to the country you are actually in. So whichever one of these countries you are in. Just imagine the words "this country" under it's name.

An easy to follow representation of the UK. Share via twitter | facebook

St David's Channel - Culfor Dewi Sant

I was looking at a map one day and something struck me as being odd. In order for you to play along at home I'll post a similar map for you to see if you can spot the oddity.

This is not the offending map, this is just a tribute.

Who is subsidising who? - Pembroke

I remember asking myself that very question the first time I read about the opening of the new gas fuelled power station in Pembroke. As is customary the BBC just reports the facts without any question or balance. See if you can spot the obvious piece of info that jumped right out at me.

A screenie from the BBC story here

The Western Fail fails again.

The Western Fail has released it's sales figures and it's now 'flogging' 23,717 copies. Which is a huge decrease on the 25,898 copies they were flogging back when the figures were released in July 2012. This represents a loss of 2,181 copies or a reduction of 8.42%

A typical copy of the Fail

Missing the point - Part I

Regular readers will know that from time to time I like to submit a petition or two to the Senedd in the hope of making a small change to the way this country works. My theory is that if enough of these small changes are made then gradually large improvements will be made.

I was sat in traffic one day at the new set of traffic lights built at the new junction to turn into the new supermarket so that I could buy some petrol at the new petrol station. I looked across to see the sign for the new road. It was a typically bland name in English only that we've come to expect from such developments.

A typical street sign in England's West Bank.

On this day in Wales - June

1st June

Born in Holywell on this day in 1947 actor, bond baddie and Gov of Port Royal Jonathon Pryce en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_… twitter.com/welshnotbritis…
— Welsh not British (@welshnotbritish) June 1, 2013

Cardiff Bay Republican Day 2013

Here is the press release ahead of this years Cardiff Bay Republican Day. This will be my first time attending. Hope to see you there! For more info see CBayRday.com

Click to embiggen!