"The arms that you wield now are not such as your forefathers wielded; but they are infinitely more effective, and infinitely more irresistable" ~ Cymru Fydd leaflet, 1890

Wednesday 26 November 2014

Scumbag Labour - Deprivation index 2014

The Fails Online has reported on the Welsh Government's 2014 edition of the multiple deprivation index. They haven't provided a link to the source but they have produced some swanky gadget to allow you to enter your postcode and check your area.

Instead of doing this they could have instead looked at the areas to see who is responsible for the poverty the people living there are living in. Of course the Red Tories supporting Fails Online haven't done this which is where people like myself come in.

Another great play-along-at-home game for you. I spoil you.

Tuesday 25 November 2014

'Vote UKIP' banned by Disqus

As you may be aware this page and others use the Disqus comments platform instead of the default system. For those of you who have signed up to Disqus you may have had an email recently telling you that 'Vote UKIP' are now following you.
Your email will have looked a little like this.

Sunday 9 November 2014

A Lidl Less Conversation

Unless you have been living under a rock recently then you will have seen the shitstorm that Lidl have caused over their language policy in their UK stores. It all started up in Scotland when Polish workers at a store in Kircaldy were banned from speaking Polish to each other or they would be sacked.

This led to the people at the EBC's Welsh language news site Cymru Fyw seeking clarification from Lidl UK as to what their language policy was in Welsh stores. Regular readers will be aware that the EBC likes to bury stories where Welsh is being opressed but provide wall to wall coverage where Welsh can be portrayed negatively. This time, however, the EBC decided to run this story on their English language Welsh news site. The only possible explanation for this is because it was them who broke it in the first place.

Lidl's new logo for Welsh stores

Sunday 2 November 2014

Parachutes and donkeys - Neath

Congratulations to Christina Rees on becoming the next MP for Neath. As most of us should now be aware the trough diving Peter Hain has decided to hand the parachute he used when he was given the ultra safe seat of Neath to a Bridgend Red Tory. I think we can all agree that at least Bridgend is much closer than Kenya.

Some might think it's a little premature to be congratulating Christina but if you look at the history of the donkey vote in Neath you'll realise it's entirely justified.

All in all it's just another donkey in Wales. Share via twitter | facebook

Friday 26 September 2014

Did your MP vote against a war in Iraq (2014 edition)

It was only a matter of time before the final part of the re-imagined Gulf War trilogy was put into production. And since Scotland's independence referendum is now over with the war monger British Nationalists don't have to worry about upsetting them.

Friday 26th September was when Parliament was recalled so that MPs could play war once more. Out of Wales' 40 MPs, just five voted against. Some simply couldn't be bothered to turn up.

Even three Red Tories voted against! - Share via twitter | facebook
Of the five, three of them were from the 'Labour' Party with just two Plaid Cymru MPs turning up. The three Labourites were from a pool of just 22 MPs from 'Welsh' Labour, 'Scottish' Labour and 'UK' Labour to rebel against Blair's legacy.

The five from Wales were as follows.

Jonathan Edwards (Carmarthen East and Dinefwr / Plaid)
Hywel Williams (Arfon / Plaid)
Sian James (Swansea East / RedTories)
Paul Flynn (Newport West / RedTories)
Martin Caton (Gower / RedTories)

As soon as a complete list showing who didn't turn up and who voted for another war is published I shall update the page. The map, as is customary for the page is complete. The importance is always placed on those who could be bothered to turn up for work and do their duty for Wales.

The final vote tally read 524 votes for another war with Iraq and just 43 against. The reality is that it wouldn't have mattered if all of Wales' 40 MPs voted against it still would have been passed by a majority of 446.

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Wednesday 24 September 2014

BBC journalism sinks to 'record low'

Today the English Broadcasting Corporation were over joyed to be able to announce that filthy nationalism in Wales is now down to the 'record low' of 'just' 3%. The state broadcaster of the British State would love this to be true for hundreds of millions of license fee pounds reasons but anyone who takes a cursory look at their report will see it for what it is.

EBC bullshit - Share via twitter | facebook

Tuesday 23 September 2014

The backlash

Like many people I was disappointed that the selfish and the scared had robbed the young and the poor of a better future in Scotland's independence referendum. I honestly thought the yes campaign were going to do it but I hadn't counted on the size of the no vote from the pensioners.

One thing I had expected though was a backlash, either the backlash from England against Scotland had they voted no or a backlash from England against Wales should Scotland have voted yes. Naturally there is plenty of time for either or even both of these backlashes to happen. But I must admit the backlash that has already happened is something I never saw coming.

Scotland's new flag

Tuesday 16 September 2014

Scumbag Labour - Carwyn's Jam

There's plenty of 'jam tomorrow' flying about as the unionists panic that Scotland will leave the UK. There's so much that there is even some left over for us down in Wales. Wales' lord and master Carwyn Jones has told us that his lord and master, Ed Milliband, has told him that he is going to sort out the Barnett formula which sees Wales under funded by around £300 million every year.

The more alert amongst us might already see the fatal flaws in this plan and will, like I have done, assume it's just jam tomorrow. But let's go through it anyway.

Our First Minister does think we are this stupid. Share via twitter | facebook

Saturday 13 September 2014

Yes Scotland rally in Cardiff

Today saw the rally in support for an independent Scotland in Cardiff. There was also another rally in Cardiff last month. That one was for Dan Snow. The London born historian had organised a rag tag bunch of millionaires, most with letters from Betty after their name to sign a declaration that the Scots should not be sovereign. Today's rally was organised by 'Go for it Scotland', a grass roots movement of people from Wales.

There is a slight difference, you may have to squint to see it.
I caught a bus up to Cardiff that was organised by the 'Go for it Scotland' team. After sitting down the guy in front introduced himself, it was Cneifwr. Had a good chat on the way there about this and that.

When I got to Cardiff we parked opposite Plas Dahl. Had a quick chat with a Welsh girl who was hoping Scotland would vote no. We were stood at the lights waiting to cross and she saw my flags and started the conversation. It was a pleasant chat and the good thing is that people are talking about it.

September 13th is Roald Dahl's birthday so I wanted to pop over to take a picture of the plaque. It's by the footbridge at the sea end of Plas Dahl. Whilst there a young couple were also taking a pic so I told them it was his birthday today and they looked at me like I had three heads. Why take the picture if you don't care?
In fairness they did look a bit younger than me and probably didn't have a library next to their primary school that had every Dahl book.

From there I went across to the Senedd and was pleasantly surprised by the turn out. By the time the rally kicked off there must have been over 400* people there. Over 400* people in Wales got off their arse to attend a rally about politics. It's incredible.

I chatted with a guy from Breton, he had the accent and everything even though his name was Iestyn! He was over on holiday and stopped off on his way to Scotland. I joked that there'd be more tractors and things on fire if it was back in Breton.

There were a number of speakers, Pol Wong from Wrecsam spoke well, Joanna Lumley Pippa Bartoletti the Green Queen said lots of things about Scotland which she doesn't support happening in Wales, Amy Kitcher (who was a Yellow Tory until she saw the light) was very good. A few others whose names I can't remember and the headline act was, of course, Leanne Wood. Leanne spoke well, the highlight being that on September 18th the people of Scotland would be sovereign and will have the chance to decide whether they want to be sovereign everyday from then on or not.

It's a no brainer really. I took a number of pictures, you can see them all here. The event was also filmed by the organisers and can be viewed here.

*The 400 is a very conservative guess, I have no idea. I've seen all sorts of figures online from 500,600,  even 700+. Have a look at the pictures I took and make your own mind up.

Saturday 6 September 2014

Pale green, red and white dot

On the 5th of September 1977 a Titan IIIE class rocket launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The rocket was carrying the Voyager space probe. The primary mission was for a flyby of Jupiter and Saturn in order to relay back data and photographs. After which it would continue into space, it's now over 19 trillion kilometres away.

Voyager also contained something Welsh. The Golden Record contains 116 images and natural sounds from Earth aswell as spoken greetings in 55 languages. The record is seen as a message in a bottle, cast out to sea in the hope that one day, possibly tens of thousands of years from now, an intelligent race might find the message and after they have managed to play it back they might just hear the following...

Iechyd da i chwi yn awr, ac yn oesoedd which translates as Good health to you now and forever.

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Wednesday 3 September 2014

Tanks by numbers

So apparently almost 600 tanks are going to be built in Wales due to a £3.5 billion order being placed by the British State. At first this sounds amazing, like a real gift but even a cursory look at the numbers will show you that only a moron would think that it was good value for money.

Firstly we need to stress that the UK doesn't own any money trees, magic geese or beanstalks and that the UK is also skint. The three thousand five hundred million pounds that these tanks will cost will go on the UKs ever increasing deficit of well over a trillion pounds.

Even the precious English tax payer cannot afford to keep England afloat and will pass this debt onto their children and grandchildren. Wales will also have to pay its share.

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Monday 1 September 2014

The Western Fail fails yet again

Mocking the continued failure of the self-title 'national newspaper of Wales' is now becoming something of an annual event. 2012's fun at the flopping fail can be found here and 2013's here.

ABC has released its circulation certificate for the fail and it makes for grim reading. As a recap average sales of the fail were down to 23,717 copies last year but that included all the freebies the Cardiff-centric rag were giving away down in Swansea. The figures after the freebies were subtracted was just 21,728. This figure is the average across the week with over 31,000 on Saturday down to around 19-20,000 during the week.

This year's figures are much, much worse.

Tick, tock, tick, tock... Share via twitter | facebook

Saturday 30 August 2014

Scumbag Labour - Prosiect Ffear

By now we're all pretty much up to speed with 'project fear', the self-titled scare tactics employed by the Better Together-No Thanks-UKOKs (or whatever they are called this week).

For those that are not up to speed it revolves around the following premise, rather than trying to put forward a coherant message of why Scotland should remain ruled from London the British Nationalists are simply resorting to scare stories. 'Scotland will be kicked out of the EU' whilst simultaneously being 'forced to use the Euro', 'won't be allowed to use the UK NHS' despite this actually never existing as they are all independent from each other and how about threatening to 'bomb Scottish airports' in the event of invasion despite the fact that the only country to invade Scotland in recent memory was England.

Above is just a few I've listed but it appears that project fear is now making its way to Wales. I've dubbed this 'prosiect ffear' so that we can differentiate between the two but it's basically the same premise just aimed at a Welsh audience.

See how many 'prosiect ffear' examples you can spot. Share via twitter | facebook

Saturday 23 August 2014

Wrexham Lager - A confused history

A simple image search for Wrexham Lager adverts, cans and beer mats will show a confused history of the Wrexham Lager company. They can all be summed up with the following poster, shared to my facebook page by a reader.

Wrexham, England. Share via twitter | facebook

Wednesday 20 August 2014

Scumbag Labour - Calum Higgins

The Red Tories clearly have a real Labourite on their hands in Calum Higgins. For those who have never heard of him he is the Red Tories candidate for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, he is also a Tycroes County Councillor. I'll just mention his name one more time in the hope that google puts it a little higher up the search lists. Calum Higgins.

Liar liar pants on fire. Share via twitter | facebook

Saturday 9 August 2014

Scumbag Labour - Best Day Ever

Picture the scene, you're an MP and you have been an MP for 23 years. You were parachuted into an area you don't care about and this is now your job for life. Alternatively if you prefer to pretend to be an AM then let's pretend you've been an AM for an area for 15 years.

As an MP / AM you get to open things and meet people. Sometimes it's a shop, perhaps a park or if you're really lucky you get to open up a food bank.

This is the same face Hain pulls when receiving his expenses. Share via twitter | facebook

Friday 8 August 2014

Scumbag Labour - The Fucking Welsh

Here's one from the archives that I only came across recently and even that was by chance. I had been asked on the facebook page to post the quote about the African visitor to Wales who stated that colonialism was more entrenched in Wales than any country he'd been to. After a google I found an extract from the book 'Neighbours from Hell' by Mike Parker.

At the bottom of the page was the quote, it isn't credited to anyone specific just a journalist from Africa who was sent over to Wales to cover the devolution referendum in 1997.

An African journalist, Cardiff 1997. Share via twitter | facebook

Monday 4 August 2014

Stolenwealth Games

The Stolenwealth Games are over with for another four years when it will get passed onto a nation that was once part of Betty's Empire which has already hosted it before. Predictably the medal tables were topped by England and Australia but it's stupid to compare medals won by countries with huge populations to those with small populations.

If there were two schools in your town and you had to choose which one you would send your children to, you wouldn't choose the one where 50 out of 500 children had received all A grades over a school where 20 out of 100 children received A grades. So the same is true for the Stolenwealth Games.

The first thing to do when looking to do a per capita comparison is to google to see if anyone else has already done the donkey work. Fortunately the good people who work for Stats New Zealand have done this. Presumably they like to do this so they can stick two fingers up at the country next door with a much larger population which is of course both childish and very convenient as that's what we're about to do.

Total golds per million. Share via twitter

Sunday 3 August 2014

NATO propaganda video

With the impending NATO summit coming to Newport the US Embassy in London has created a propaganda video detailing how Wales and people of Welsh descent have helped build and shape the USA.
It's your usual mix of facts, the majority of which are the sort I share on facebook and twitter as part of my daily facts complete with a rather good and very eclectic sound track of 18 Welsh artists. Even if some of them have succumbed to the trappings of The Empire.

Saturday 19 July 2014

Did your MP vote against the snooping bill?

After the European Court of Justice decided that the ability to store details of the private communications of EU citizens for up to two years was invalid the Blue, Red and Yellow Tories started to cut deals behind closed doors in order to rush through their new 'snooping bill'.

The Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Bill (DRIP) debate was attended by a handful of MPs which should get the alarm bells ringing. You also don't have to follow politics to realise that any new bill should take longer than two days from when it is first announced and when 416 unionist MPs vote to pass the bill.

Did your MP vote against the snooping bill? Share via twitter | facebook

Tuesday 15 July 2014

David Cameron gives Wales Crabbs

The General Election is just around the corner so David Cameron has decided to shuffle his deck one more time in order to do just enough to see off the Red Tories and ensure that whatever is left of the UK is run by a Blue Tory government.

"Nasty fat Taffitses". Get back to your cave Gollum, we've got a new SoS!

Sunday 29 June 2014

Quoted for truth - John Major

Originally covered by the Fails Online was this little gem from the former Prime Minister of the UK John Major. In which he starts off by stating he was opposed to devolution due to it leading to a break up of the UK. This isn't actually true, the need for devolution was brought about by the Council of Europe due to the UK's complete imbalance and constitutional deficiencies. This could have been addressed at any point since Wales was conquered and annexed, and Scotland was forced to sign itself over to England.

The option of devolution was forced upon the UK in order to give (some of) the Celtic nations more control over themselves than the British State would ever give them voluntarily. John Major saying he was opposed to it is a smoke screen because it didn't matter who was in charge of the UK at the time as it had to be offered.

John Major highlighting how rUK will look weak. Share to twitter | facebook

Sunday 8 June 2014

My new flag pole

I finally got around to building myself a flag pole, a couple of the neighbours have got them so I thought that I can't be outdone. You can buy them ready to go but I figured I'd be able to make one quite easily myself. As DIY projects go this was fairly simple and not a job anyone should be afraid of trying themselves.

Monday 26 May 2014

EU Election Results 2014

By now everyone should know that Wales has decided to send an English immigrant that hates immigrants and a Tory that lives in England to represent Wales in the EU. As well as those two we've also chosen one Labour and one Plaid Cymru. Wales, as a region of England, only has four MEPs. If Wales were an independent state then it's likely we'd have around 12 based on the fact we have roughly the same population as Lithuania.

Click to embiggen. Share via twitter | facebook

Monday 12 May 2014

Reasons to be ABE (World Cup 2014 edition).

With the World Cup approaching I thought I'd make a list of reasons why we should be ABE. In case you aren't aware ABE stands for Anyone But England. I will be updating this page as and when I feel things should be included.

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Monday 5 May 2014

Scumbag Labour - Margaret Curran

Labour have a long history of offering us 'Jam Tomorrow', a never ending stream of false promises in order for us to do their dirty work for them. Leanne Wood was recently in Scotland giving a talk about 'Jam Tomorrow' so I guess it is only fitting for a RedTory MP from Scotland to then be given the full support of the EBC propaganda machine to be able to promise us here in Wales some more 'Jam Tomorrow'.

Curran using the EBC RedTory propaganda machine. Share via twitter | facebook

Wednesday 16 April 2014

Nuclear Waste

Not that long ago the Fails Online (of all places) reported on a diplomatic cable that they had found between the UK and USA from 2009 that detailed how strategic Wales was to England's energy needs. They didn't share much information but I was able to track the cable down and it is well worth the read.

One of the key passages on the cable told of a location, somewhere in north Wales for the UK to use as a toxic dump for all its nuclear waste. It didn't say where it was but I think we can start to narrow it down.
Andy Fraser, a climate change official in the Welsh Assembly Government, told ESTHOff there is a repository site that meets geographical requirements for disposing of nuclear radioactive waste in northern Wales, but it is unlikely to gain public support.
Extract from WikiLeaks - Share via twitter | facebook

Monday 14 April 2014

How much will trident cost Wales?

Considering how we're always told that we are too poor to be independent I thought I'd look at some of the costs that we incur simply by not being independent. And as good a place to start with is trident, the big stick of the English or to use its proper terminology the nuclear missiles that England needs to own in order for other countries to think they are a big hard man.

As a part of the UK Wales will have to incur a percentage of the costs of replacing trident and most importantly the upkeep of trident for its planned 30 year life cycle. The figures I'll be using are from a Green Peace report from 2009 so if anything they will be lower than the figures will be when the official decision to replace trident is taken in 2016.

Faint O! - Share via twitter | facebook

Tuesday 8 April 2014

Lost in translation

I was sent a link to a Click on Wales article recently, specifically to look at the last few paragraphs. The article focused on the lack of ambition in Silk II when it came to energy. The report calls for Wales to have powers up to 350MW. Which is seven times more than we currently have but still means that nuclear power plants and giant gas power stations that Wales doesn't need can still be dumped here in Wales.

The part that I was drawn to though was this section where it refers to Wales being a net energy exporter. This isn't news to anyone but the way it is written makes it so obvious as to the colonial arrangement and the sham powers on offer.

First two paragraphs from here. The rest is from Silk II
Regular readers will know by now that I like to look at the story within the story and one aspect I found intriguing about the article was that it used a translation from the Welsh language version of Silk II but it never stated why it used a Welsh language translation. Surely it would have been easier just to use the English language version, unless of course the English language version was different. I needed to check, so I checked both the English and Welsh versions of the Silk Commission website, specifically the Part II reports in each language. The section we want is 8.2.13. I haven't linked directly to the .pdf's in case someone clicks them by accident but both are easy to find on the pages linked above.

The English language version
8.2.13 However, full devolution would not satisfy our principle of effectiveness. It would present security of supply issues: Wales is currently a net exporter of electricity, and a Wales-focussed energy strategy may not meet the needs of the wider United Kingdom. In practical terms, there would also be substantial inefficiencies in the Welsh Government establishing capacity to make very complex, but very rare, consenting decisions – particularly on nuclear consents.

Mae fersiwn Gymraeg gyda geiriau bonws
8.2.13 Serch hynny, ni fyddai datganoli llawn yn gyson â’n hegwyddor effeithiolrwydd. Byddai’n codi problemau o ran diogelwch y cyflenwad. Ar hyn o bryd, mae Cymru’n allforiwr trydan net, ac efallai na fyddai strategaeth ynni sy’n canolbwyntio ar Gymru yn diwallu anghenion y Deyrnas Unedig ehangach, a Lloegr yn benodol. O safbwynt ymarferol, petai Llywodraeth Cymru yn sefydlu’r gallu i wneud penderfyniadau cymhleth, ond prin iawn, ym maes caniatáu prosiectau - yn enwedig yng nghyswllt caniatáu prosiectau niwclear - byddai hynny’n aneffeithlon iawn.

You don't have to be able to speak much Welsh at all to be able to see a huge difference in the context of the section simply by including the words a Lloegr yn benedol. Most people should know the word for England is Lloegr. So why does the Welsh language version feature this bonus content and the English language version doesn't? Surely we either have someone adding words in one language or taking them away in another. The fact remains that this tiny little addition (or subtraction) makes a massive difference to the overall impact of the statement.

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Saturday 29 March 2014

Scumbag Labour - Geraint Davies

Since the 'Welsh' media actively ignores the constant stream of lies, hypocrisy and general bullshit spouted by our politicians it's great when ordinary members of the public can spot this and help point it out. Today's tale of hypocrisy is brought to you via @tisiphone09 who sent me a screen shot of her Swansea West MP Geraint Davies blasting the Tories over the inequality of their welfare cuts. I looked through his twitter and found the tweet here. I have archived it here in case he deletes it.
Tweeted a week before he failed to oppose the Tory Welfare Cap. Share via twitter | facebook

Thursday 27 March 2014

Scumbag Labour - Welfare cap

Tuesday the 26th March saw a vote in Westminster to put a hard cap on the UK's welfare budget. Let's just remember that we've just had one of the worst global recessions for decades that has resulted in poor people having to use food banks in order to feed their families whilst disabled people are being targetted because they were given a home with a spare room and old people are having to choose between heating or eating.

With all that in mind you'd have to be a completely callous poor hating scumbag to side with the Tories and put a hard cap on the welfare budget.

When did Labour start hating the poor? Share via twitter | facebook

Sunday 23 March 2014

Scumbag Labour - Parachutes and Donkeys

Ever since it was announced that Stephen Kinnock was going to be turning up for the General Election result night to claim his MP title in Aberavon in May 2015 some people have tried to say that he has been parachuted into the job. Some also claim that you could put a red rosette on a donkey and the people of (insert valleys constituency here) will turn out and vote for them.

Of course I'm not going to blindly listen to these people so I wanted to fact check these statements first.

Graph showing the Labour dominance of Aberavon since 1922. Share via twitter | facebook

Sunday 16 March 2014

'Chester' Hotels - Part I

So you've flown into Chester Airport in Wales, perhaps you've taken in a game of football watching Chester City play in Wales before stopping off to do a bit of shopping in Tesco Chester Extra, in Wales.

No doubt you are feeling a bit tired and need a place to stay. So here are a few 'Chester' hotels that I have found for you to rest your weary head.

St David's hotel, nr Chester

Saturday 8 March 2014

Cymru Fydd

I came across a Cymru Fydd leaflet on the People's Collection of Wales website and thought it was worth sharing. The leaflet itself is from 1890 but much of it could have been written yesterday.

Page 1

'Home Rule for Wales' (1890)

Tuesday 4 March 2014

Wales' problem with immigration

BBC Wales has devoted a large chunk of its resources today telling us about the rise in migration of the 'foreign born'. By 'foreign born' they are of course referring to those who were born outside the UK. They cannot simply fathom that people who were not born in Wales could be considered 'foreign born'.

The headlines read that the number of 'foreign born' rose by 82% in the 10 years between 2001 and 2011. Apparently they needed some think tank in Oxford University that is called the "Migration Observatory" to work this all out.

The article continues to mention how the Polish are the largest group of the 'foreign born'. It also tells us how many of these 'foreign born' Polish there are in Wales. You may wish to sit down for this, according to the 2011 census there were 18,023 'foreign born' Polish in Wales. I know that some of my come in error readers might find this number hard to grasp so I have graphed it in comparison with the second largest ethnic grouping in Wales.

Wales' immigration problem exposed. Share via twitter | facebook

Saturday 1 March 2014

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi, Happy St David's Day, Feliz día de San David

St David's Day is always a great time to make and share pictures on the internet. So here's a collection of pictures I've made for this year's Dydd Gŵyl Dewi.

Brace yourselves.

Friday 21 February 2014

e-Petition:Make ’Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau’ the Official Welsh National Anthem

January 2016 will mark the 150th anniversary of the composition of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau by Evan and James James of Pontypridd. December 16th 2015 will be the centenary of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau being used as Wales’ anthem at sporting events. For the first time ever the players and crowd sang an anthem before an international match. This would become a staple tradition of international sporting events across the world. But it all started in the old Arms Park because Wales wanted to mitigate the infamous haka used by New Zealand. Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau became our battle cry and we won the game 3-0. Now, it is time to make this battle cry the official Welsh national anthem.

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https://www.assemblywales.org/epetition-list-of-signatories.htm?pet_id=971


I have posted the reason for creating this petition here and the Cymraeg version of this post is here. Again I've included the tweet from the official Senedd account so that if anyone wants to share it simply by retweeting but doesn't want to retweet my account then they can use this.

The important thing is that we all sign this so we can make our anthem official, just like our flag was made official and Cymraeg was made an official language. When the petition was published I made the decision to trickle it over time, at least a week. Posting it in some places on the first day, others on the next and so on. That way it guarantees it a steady stream of hits rather than a big hit and then nothing.

But an important thing to remember is that whilst I may have been the one to submit the petition in the first place it doesn't belong to me, it belongs to everyone in Wales who loves our country and our anthem. So please feel free to save any of the graphics and share the links via your own accounts.

That being said, it would appear that the people of Arfon have said "chill out, we got this". After almost 600 signatures on the petition, Arfon alone account for over 12%.


A couple of things to consider. As of the 598th signature (when the above graph was made) there were 123 separate entries for the area. Many of these are doublers, as an example in the above you can see Cardiff South and Penarth and De Caerdydd a Phenarth. Both the same place just one is written in English and one in Welsh, some will have a typo or be in all capitals which wouldn't have combined them. When the petition is finished I can go through these and combine them where applicable, it's a fairly quick process with a spreadsheet and the filter/sort tools.

It's also worth pointing out that there are signatures from Argentina, USA, Australia, Italy, Belgium and several other countries.

Monday 17 February 2014

E-ddeiseb:Gwnewch ‘Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau’ yn Anthem Genedlaethol Swyddogol Cymru

Nodir 150 mlynedd ers cyfansoddi’r gân ‘Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau’ gan Evan a James James o Bontypridd ym mis Ionawr 2016. Bydd can mlwyddiant canu Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau fel anthem Cymru mewn digwyddiadau chwaraeon yn cael ei gofio ar 16 Rhagfyr 2015. Am y tro cyntaf erioed ar y diwrnod hwnnw, canodd y chwaraewyr a’r dyrfa anthem cyn i gêm ryngwladol gael ei chwarae. Daeth hwn yn draddodiad pwysig mewn digwyddiadau chwaraeon rhyngwladol ledled y byd. Dechreuodd y cyfan ym Mharc yr Arfau gynt, oherwydd bod Cymru eisiau lleddfu effaith yr haka enwog a ddefnyddiwyd gan Seland Newydd. Daeth ‘Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau’ yn gri yng nghanol brwydr y maes rygbi ac enillwyd y gêm gennym, o 3 phwynt i 0. Bellach, mae’n bryd gwneud y gri hon yn anthem genedlaethol swyddogol ar gyfer Cymru.

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https://www.assemblywales.org/cy/gethome/e-petitions/epetition-list-of-signatories.htm?pet_id=971


*Please note I am a learner so the text above has been copied directly from the Senedd website, diolch yn fawr to the staff that translated it so that I may make this post in Cymraeg.

Saturday 15 February 2014

Wales doesn't have an 'official' national anthem.

This year I decided to post more six nations related content on my facebook and twitter pages. One of the features I decided to run with was the anthems, ahead of each match I decided to make a 'hymn sheet' featuring the anthems of each team. Naturally I'm not really going to seriously post that dirge to Betty but, as with many of the things I post I have learnt a few things that I didn't previously know or simply never bothered to pay attention to.

Hymn sheet ahead of Ireland v Wales

Tuesday 11 February 2014

Tesco Broughton Chester Extra

I was made aware of Tesco in Broughton (Wales) using the name Chester for the title of their store. According to the Tesco store finder website the full name of the store is "Broughton Chester Extra". Now I understand the Broughton part as it's in Broughton and I understand the Extra part because of the size and facilities the store offers but the Chester part was a conundrum.

So I asked them.

The original tweet and full conversation | Picture on Facebook.

Thursday 6 February 2014

The editorial policy of the EBC

You may have missed this story from back in January, it's about a woman from Cardigan who for some reason, whilst drunk, decided to bite a car. You read that right, she bit a car. This story was picked up by a lot of media outlets. One of these was the BBC who featured it on both their Cymraeg news site and their English language news site. And as it was a funny story I shared the picture on my facebook page. I will however state that I didn't learn about this important news item via the BBC. I saw it whilst reading another news item that was getting a lot of coverage over on the ITV website.

Stay classy Cardigan

Saturday 1 February 2014

That royal myth about tourism

There's a myth that is ever present in the English media and spouted at every opprtunity by unionist MPs. In the news recently is Scouse MP and former 'Junglist' Nadine Dorries. The Bedfordshire Tory has recently had this to say about the royal parasites.

Pic from ITVs Jungle nonsense. Text from Hilter's pals at the Daily Mail
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Sunday 26 January 2014

When is an English paedo not an English paedo?

The BBC recently reported on the rape of a 15 year old girl in Colwyn Bay. Now I can't be the only one who doesn't trust our state broadcaster so whenever I read a story like this I invariably google the person involved. I shouldn't have to do this but a comment left on my post regarding a recent BBC news blackout has prompted me to do this.

So after a basic google search of his name, Gavin Benit, I found the following.

A basic google search of the name 'gavin benit'

Saturday 25 January 2014

The forgotten Welsh club, Chester FC

I've often heard it mentioned that Chester FC's ground is partly in Wales. Sometimes it's one of their stands, sometimes the car park. The story tends to change so after seeing how Chester Airport is actually a good mile or so inside Wales I thought I'd take a look. Naturally I decided to use the online maps that are freely available so I thought I'd hit up Yahoo maps to find the dopest route.

Yahoo map showing Chester FC is in Wales. Share via twitter | facebook

Thursday 23 January 2014

Chester Airport

If you were to ask someone where Chester Airport is then you probably shouldn't be surprised if they were to say that it was in Chester, England. If you were to take a look at their website, chesterairport.co.uk then again you might be mistaken for thinking that Chester Airport was in Chester, England. And if, whilst looking at their airport you were to go to the contact us page where you would see their address, then yes, once again you might think that Chester Airport is actually in Chester, England.

Chester Airport clearly doesn't know how to read a map. Share via twitter | facebook

Tuesday 21 January 2014

Fight or flight

Wales will never be able to compete with the other countries of the world if we are not even allowed to compete with the country next door. As long as we are a colony of England and as long as we keep electing politicians that refuse to fight for Wales we will never be anything more than the runt of the litter.

Obvious examples I've posted about recently are water, energy and even our mail service which are geared towards providing jobs in England. But another one that landed at the tail end of last year was the prospect of devolving air passenger duty.

Devolving APD would be beneficial to Wales, especially now that Cardiff Airport is a nationalised asset. Since everyone in Wales effectively co-owns this asset it's in our best interest for it to be an economic success. In the six counties, devolving APD is seen as a good thing by our London masters as it's a way of poaching customers from their neighbour and former British colony, The Republic of Ireland.

MPs who fight for Wales in green. Share via twitter | facebook

Sunday 19 January 2014

Going Postal

Here's a question for you. There are eight post code areas in Wales. Can you name them?

Here's the map showing all eight.

3/8ths of post code areas in Wales are English. Share via twitter | facebook

Wednesday 15 January 2014

Salting the earth

Halen Môn (Anglesey Sea Salt) has just been awarded EU regional protection. In a nutshell it means that no one else can produce it unless they are using salt from the sea around Ynys Môn. Wales needs all the protection it can get from exploitation and I really hope that this new status along with the recent protection of Pembrokeshire early potatoes is the start of a fresh wave of Welsh products that are recognised and afforded the added protection and brand recognition they deserve.

But there is a delicious irony in this sea salt shanty and that is that the sea around Wales is not owned by the people of Wales, it is owned by our old enemy The Crown Estate. And as such that means that anyone who wants to remove natural resources from the sea around Wales has to pay The Crown Estate. Whether this is sea water as in the case of Halen Môn or dredging in The Bristol Channel it doesn't matter.

To recap, Halen Môn has its brand protected from exploitation but the only raw material used, Welsh sea water, is an exploited resource. And it's worth mentioning why it is still an exploited resource once again.

Those who salt the earth of Wales are in red. Share via twitter | facebook