Comments for aledwyn.com

Comment on Leanne Wood to stand for leadership by M Griffiths

M Griffiths — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 21:10:53 +0000

I Hope Leannae Wood’s grasp of reality is better than Elin Jones’

Elin Jones Reality Distortion Zone
Elin Jones quote in support of her Leadership challenge:
“After four successful elections in Ceredigion I have widened the appeal of Plaid Cymru – broadened the base of electoral support.”

Reality:
Elin Jones’ Ceredigion majorities
1999-10,249
2003 – 4618
2007 – 3955
2011- 1777

Comment on Riots – What can we learn from history by Aled Wyn

Aled Wyn — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:21:35 +0000

There is a sense of entitlement in society, which is certainly more prevalent among younger generations, but by no means exclusive to them. This might go part way to explain why such unashamed looting was occurring. Many see getting what they want as a right rather than something that is hard won. however this by no means will explain why the rioting occurred this week as opposed to any other time. Time, I believe, will tell however.

Comment on Riots – What can we learn from history by rob

rob — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:16:00 +0000

Society has made us greedy when I was young footballers wanted to play football for the love of the game, and because they wanted to play for a ‘team’ now we have footballers who are payed in millions and have transfers in the millions, and then our sports men and women who want to represent their countries in the Olympics, or other public arena rarely associated with violence get what? train where? at what cost?? Today’s young people who are good at sports ( just picking on one topic could be any worth while job like nurse, teacher carer etc) only want to be the best, don’t want to represent their country because they cant afford to its about time a decent living wage was imposed on all of us.. so that the potential for all will be the same..money can be put into services jobs, and volunteering for people who want to work for their communities and in their communities..NOT earn hundreds and thousands and millions of pounds that they cannot possibly spend in a life time….. while others go on to earn NOTHING in their lifetimes. live in poverty and deprivation where they see no way out! now what was the question OH yes riots why??? hmmm i wonder

Comment on Riots – What can we learn from history by Cneifiwr

Cneifiwr — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 10:51:48 +0000

Some idiotic MP was interviewed on the Today programme earlier saying he thought that those caught rioting should lose their tenancies if they rent from the council. Great, let’s add to the social problems by chucking people onto the street.
The only way we can begin to understand the causes of the rioting is to look at the individuals who took part rather than the mob. Then you start to see young people who frankly never stood a chance of growing into well-adjusted, caring, even mildly ambitious adults.
Cai hits the nail on the head by talking about the unequal distribution of wealth, and it just may be the reason why we did not see any rioting in Wales or Scotland. In London in particular, but in many other English towns and cities too, the gulf between the haves and have-nots is vast, and the commercialisation of our culture means that people in their teens and twenties all want the latest Xbox, iPhone, Smartphone, Blackberry, etc. Without them, you are a nobody.
In some Welsh and Scottish towns and cities the deprivation as every bit as bad, and often worse than anything you can see in parts of London, Birmingham, Manchester, etc. The difference in Wales is that the gulf between rich and poor is less apparent, and by and large we don’t have a two-tier society of private education and medicine for some and state schools and the NHS for the rest.
The English political parties, including Labour, never even question the effects of a two-tier education system on society as a whole. Living standards are certainly much lower in Wales than in Scandinavia, but what we share with those countries is a much more classless and egalitarian culture than England will ever have. Time to draw the consequences.

Comment on Riots – What can we learn from history by Cai

Cai — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 17:46:41 +0000

Excellent article from someone with their finger on the pulse. Sadly “Sunreader Solutions” will spout forth from the hang em and flog em brigade. No one in their right mind would condone what happened in England over the last few nights but to caricature these incidents as just the acts of criminality is to seriously underestimate the problems that are endemic in British society. Why did these problems occur in this country? Is it at least in part because we have one of the most unequal distributions of wealth in the whole of Europe? Why do the gutter press spend so much time and effort hounding benefit fraudsters that cost us about £1.5 Billion per annum, whilst allowing the rich Tax avoiders who cost us about £120 Billion per annum to get away with impunity?
The stench of corruption and decay is beginning to coalesce around what is left of the UK. I think it is time for we in Wales to take more responsibility for the direction in which our society develops. More Scandinavian than Anglo Saxon is the direction we should be taking in my opinion.

Comment on It’s up to them by Aled Wyn

Aled Wyn — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 18:57:26 +0000

This again is where transparency and openness should come through. All tenders should then be open to public viewing and scrutiny.

Comment on It’s up to them by diafol

diafol — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 18:20:54 +0000

I expect the council would put a tender out for the webcasting facility and find the most expensive vehicle, passing the costs on to the constituents. There’d be such a stink, they’d bin it and could say, “we did try, but public opinion was against it”.

Comment on It’s up to them by Richard

Richard — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 07:11:11 +0000

Very disappointing.One thing that is often forgotten is that there is not a single council HQ without CCTV, and all visitors, councillors, etc. are filmed by the council as they go about their business whether they like it or not. Apparently that’s OK for some, but not OK to film public meetings at which important business is being transacted.

A couple of quibbles with the last paragraph. Carmarthenshire has not announced plans to webcast proceedings – it has only said that it will look into it, without giving any timescales. To date there has been no public meeting or open discussion of the matter, and attempts by one councillor to table a motion to debate it were rejected by the chief executive. If there is discussion going on, it is behind closed doors.

The Carmarthen TV project was an experiment set up a couple of years back to create an online version of the council’s “newspaper” (i.e. film clips of council bosses cutting ribbons and telling viewers what a good job they were doing). It was not about webcasting meetings. The project apparently cost £30,000 and was quietly abandoned.

Comment on Why Lembit lost… by Aled Wyn

Aled Wyn — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 16:15:25 +0000

There had been an air of ridicule in Montgomeryshire for a long while, he was a joker and an embarrassment to locals. As you say on your blog, it was downhill for a long time before Bates’s punch.

Comment on Why Lembit lost… by Tim Roll-Pickering

Tim Roll-Pickering — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 13:57:08 +0000

Opik is not the sole person who doesn’t think he had anything to do with his loss, but the only other one I’ve seen is his promoter, Ed Joyce, who probably wrote the actual text of that manifesto.

Joyce has popped up on various blog threads across the internet to insist that it was all the fault of Mick Bates, but seems unable to explain why people were predicting Opik’s defeat as early as 2007 or why Opik had both the biggest Lib Dem collapse and the biggest anti-Lib Dem swing in both the Westminster and Assembly elections in the region.