Colonialism 3.0

I'm in the middle of working on a new site and was looking to buy one of these newfangled .wales or .cymru website. I have mentioned these way back in 2012 with the appropriately titled Colonialism 2.0.

Wales' domain names launched in 2015 and I made the decision to keep with my .com for this site. And don't worry about an extra site, this site will remain as infrequently updated as it has always been.

Off I went to ourhomeonline.wales and sure enough the domain I was looking for was available. It then presented you with a selection of resellers that you can purchase the domain from. The initial selection is quite limited but it does present you with an option of displaying all of the resellers.

Resellers of .wales and .cymru domains from here

The EVEL Empire

English votes for English laws is going through, not many people can have any complaint about this. After all the only people who should be making laws that concern England are the people of England or those who they have chosen to represent them, be that in London or in Brussels.

What people from outside of England will complain about is the fact that there wont be such a thing as Welsh votes for Welsh laws or Scottish votes for Scottish laws.

The irony of EVEL passing almost 50 years to the day that Tryweryn was forced through despite the opposition of all but one of Wales' 36 MPs will be lost on the London based media. They will be too busy desperately scrambling for examples of where the London based Labour party has changed laws in England with the help of Labour MPs from outside England.

October 21st be with you, always

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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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

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

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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'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

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.

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'

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

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

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.

Renewable UKs Taff Department.

The question itself was fairly simple, how many turbines will be built in Wales? But the interviewee squirmed and dodged the question despite being asked over and over again. It made for uncomfortable listening, which was a pleasant surprise considering this was Radio Wales doing the interview.

"A wind farm of mass destruction", pic - VisitWalesNow

Colonialism 2.0

Colonialism now extends beyond the real world into the virtual world

You may have heard of the campaign for Wales to have it's own top level domains. An obvious example is a .com or .org. Unlike Jersey (.je), Guernsey (.gg) or the Isle of Man (.im) Wales does not have a TLD of it's own. This campaign has been handed to Nominet by the Welsh Government. That's very sporting of Nominet you might think, but just who are this Nominet.

Banning the Union Flag

A new e-petition has been launched by the founder of Plaid Glyndŵr, calling for the outright ban on flying the flag of the British Empire on all Welsh Government buildings in Wales. I'm not affiliated with Plaid Glyndŵr or any party for that matter. But I am all too happy to support a cause such as this.