Scumbag Labour - Fingers Crossed

The Red Tories down in Cardiff West apparently haven't quite gotten over Neil McEvoy giving Mark Drakeford a fright in the constituency election before getting elected on the list.

Before an AM is allowed to take up their role in the Senedd they have to bend the knee and crawl on the ground like a worm and swear fealty to the English queen, Betty Battenberg.

Like so many others before him, Neil chose to cross his fingers as a sign that he was begrudgingly repeating some words in order to represent the people who elected him. This is where Labour's faux-outrage and hypocrisy comes in.

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FM Wars IV - A New Hope

Mark the date in your calendar. May 11th was the day when Welsh politics became interesting as what was meant to be the formality of reinstating Carwyn Jones as First Minister took a shock turn.

Ynys Môn AM Rhun ap Iorwerth nominated Plaid Cymru Leader Leanne Wood as their challenger. Nothing interesting there but what followed was as all the Labour AMs naturally voted for Carwyn Jones and all the Plaid Cymru, Conservative and UKIP AMs voted for Leanne Wood. The sole Lib Dem AM, Kirsty Williams gave her vote to Carwyn in order to create a dead lock.

The vote finished 29-29. As is customary the Presiding Officer and Deputy Presiding Officer do not vote. Since they are from Plaid Cymru and Labour it wouldn't have made any difference at all.

As interesting as all this is I wanted to look at the claims from Labour that they had a clear mandate to govern.

Now I've already debunked the 'largest party myth' when Labour were banging on about it before the General Election in 2015 and the same rules stand here in Wales and Rhun ap Iorwerth mention it in the EBC article. I wont repeat myself or Rhun, I'll just post some sexy charts to show Labour's mandate for what it is.

This isn't a sexy chart, It's Carwyn having a blub. Source EBC

It's all kicking off in Ceredigion

"We live in a democracy and anyone with £500 can stand as a candidate". Those are the words of the regional spokesperson for the Welsh branch of the Englandandwales Green Party. A branch who believe it is better to stand paper candidates all over Wales than send as many anti-austerity MPs to London.

The anti-austerity bloc comprises a loose partnership between the SNP, Plaid and the Englandandwales Greens. A recent spat appears to have emerged in Ceredigion where Plaid and the Greens once teamed up to win the seat back in the 90s.

With the current incumbant being a Lib Dem the election in May represents a great opportunity for Plaid to win another seat. They already hold three and if they can keep these then anything extra in winnable seats like Ceredigion, Ynys Mon and Llanelli is a bonus.

The following is an extract from Pippa's latest whinge where she accuses Plaid leader Leanne Wood of asking, maybe even demanding that they stand down in Ceredigion. I've also added an extract from a twitter exchange between the Plaid candidate, Mike Parker and Princess Pippa.

Ceredig it, oh yeah!

I have archived both extracts here and here. Now asking, or even demanding that the Greens stand down in Ceredigion might be a big deal if the Greens had a hope in hell of winning the seat. In 2010 the Green candidate came last with less than 2% of the vote with Plaid coming second with over 28%. Given how badly the Lib Dems are performing after getting into bed with the blue Tories you'd have to be brave to think they will get anywhere near the same support this time.

I've taken a look at the latest odds in Ceredigion and they are quite bad if you are a Green but quite good if you are Mike Parker the Plaid candidate.

Where's your 'bang on that?' What 'bang on that?' 'This 'bang on that?' - Share via twitter | facebook

So here's what they could do, they could offer the Greens another chance to stand down in Ceredigion on the proviso that Plaid would in turn stand down in Newport West (where Pippa is standing). That's Paul Flynn's fiefdom and since he is currently 1/100 on and both Plaid and the Greens are both 100/1 it's a no brainer. Whilst he is a red Tory he is probably the least awful red Tory here in Wales. The only downside for Pippa is that she will still come last, albeit in a reduced field. But why should they when hopefully Simon and his team can trounce Pippa in her own adopted backyard.

The Welsh branch of the Englandandwales Green Party are clearly more interested in satisfying Pippa's narcissism than in sending anti-austerity MPs to London. The biggest irony of all is that the Greens are the one BritNat party that would actually be better off if they took their orders directly from Green HQ in England.

Princess Pippa's latest cry for attention has been picked up by the EBC where they are accusing Plaid members of 'bulling' the Greens, I presume they mean bullying. For the record I am not a member of any political party but I do believe that an anti-austerity alliance could ensure that the London parties are put in their place. This should also lead you to ask if Pippa and her merry band of paper candidates cannot accept a few words on the internet then what the hell would they be like if the people of Newport West and the rest of Wales actually voted for them.

On her blog she says that "the Greens do not split the vote, the voters do". To me that's reminiscent of the American gun lovers the NRA when they say that "guns don't kill people, people do". Anyway, I wish the Greens in England the best of luck in May but the Greens in Wales are just one person's ego trip and I really hope she and her army of paper candidates lose their £500.

If you wish to follow Mike Parker's campaign in Ceredigion you can do so via his twitter or facebook pages or via the handy plug ins I've added below.

Follow @mikeparkerwales




Once again, for those who didn't understand it the first time I said it I am not a member of any political party but I'm all for spreading the anti-austerity message.

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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.

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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

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

A private party

There are 365 days this year. St Davids Day occurs once a year, as a fraction that is 1/365ths. As a decimal that is 0.0027 and as a percentage it is 0.27% of the year. I think you get the point that it's a relatively short space of time in comparison to the whole year.

Save the Valleys, save the country!

Plaids new constitution

Plaid Cymru is having a meet up to discuss a new constitution. Although if you read the BBC article it sounds more like crisis talks.

IWJ after making Plaid less loved in Wales than the Tories

Congratulations Mr Cymru

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We've all heard the cliche, we're too small, too poor and too stupid to run our own country. Yes we're small but there are plenty of other, far smaller countries out there than have managed to make a success out of independence. Yes we are poor, and we have the UK governments constant desire to make the rest of the UK weak by destroying it's industry to thank for that. And yes we are stupid, otherwise we wouldn't keep falling for the same old lies again and again.

But what if there was another way? As Leanne Wood puts it, we're in a chicken and egg situation with the Welsh economy. “Wales won’t achieve independence whilst it is economically weak, but Wales will only achieve economic strength if it becomes independent. Ticking over is not enough for Wales”...

The Crown Estate

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In a previous article I briefly mentioned The Crown Estate. Or rather, how MP Jonathon Edwards raised a bill in Parliament to have energy generation (and The Crown Estate) devolved to Wales. 25 of the 26 Labour MPs and 8 out of the 8 Conservative MPs that represent Wales voted no (or stayed in bed, either way they betrayed us all).

Clearly proving that Labour and the Conservatives are against devolution. No matter what their minions in the Assembly say.