The ‘Silver Songsters’ is a novel (makes a change from the Election, doesn’t it?) – written by me, so what more can I say? It’s about a Jewish boy, a Welsh compatriot and an evil chorus girl. Love and betrayal drive the book on to an unconventional conclusion. The fact is that it is based on true events in the past. My father in law was rated as the finest contralto soprano on the British Isles, in the 1930’s that is. The Songsters sang all over the British Isles and abroad – Illtyd is still going strong as he’s 97! It’s a good yarn – well, I would say this wouldn’t I?
Anyway, I was doing an interview for BBC Wales at the time – heaven knows what it was about, but there we are. At the time I remember a charming gentleman coming up to me (from the Welsh BBC) and telling me that the book had been passed upwards to do a film on it. A drama would have made a good catch all bit of television. It had come back with a straight “no”, can’t give this Ruck anymore publicity and so on. BBC Wales and its presenters and controllers are up there with the crachach and I’ve criticized them for taking taxpayer grants for books that don’t sell – that’s if they have written any! I can think of one news journalist who hasn’t even written a book but still received a few thousand pounds in taxpayer money from Literature Wales.
I’ve taken the Talfan Davies’s (the father and son controllers of BBC Wales) and numerous employees to task over receiving grants to write books that don’t even sell. That’s not to mention all the Welsh speaking staff at BBC Wales. It a haven of Welsh speaking prowess if ever there was one. I’m not against the Welsh language, never have been, speak whatever language you like, we’re a free country but I’m against the cost to the taxpayer for a language that is only spoken by 10-15 (who can read or write it) percent of the Welsh population. Like other parts of the United Kingdom you can throw money at it but it will never work, full stop. Good luck to Welsh speakers and carry on with the language you enjoy but if you think you’re going to get the whole of Wales speaking it, forget it. Its just like that Welsh water advert – in Welsh!
The nationalist Welsh administration’s target of a third of Wales speaking Welsh by 2050? In your dreams.
An Election? God help us! – Evening Post
So, what is this fuss all about? A new election? This is what happens when political parties cannot agree on anything. Leave or Remain in the EU. The trouble with this is, the people have voted democratically and our great and learned politicos cannot carry out the will of the people. The Remainers are causing chaos and the Leavers just sit tight and wait to see what will happen in a General Election. In fact, it’s all a mess.
The Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats, the SNP, the Greens and Paid Cymru (there’s nothing much to talk about where Plaid is concerned, they go on about Independence when all of Wales doesn’t want it, they are a joke), the Remainers are forgetting what position they have in Parliament – they are to carry out the will of the people. Pure and simple.
There are scraps going on about how much each party will spend: Labour will spend twice as much as the Tories, a road to financial ruin and the rest are going on about what position they will take if they get into government – a delusion if ever I’ve heard it. I’m not a Leaver in some respects but I believe in the democratic will of the people. They have voted out and that is all there is to it.
The politicians are treating the general public like a load of idiots. Enough of this. When it comes to the practice of mindless idiocy, they go off with the laurels no doubt about it. Particularly when it comes to the juvenile antics of a five-year-old. They ought to grow up and act like adults once and for all.
No matter which way politically you sway, you must vote for the people, otherwise we’ll end up in a political nightmare.
Tory or Marxist Labour? The Tories have their problems, but no-one has gone near the amount of spending that Corbyns’s shadow government has promised. He has been friends with as assorted group of terrorists, he will nationalize everything, and he will not push the button on nuclear attack. If this is what you want, fair enough. I’ll be out of the country if this happens, you can be certain of that.
It’s up to you and remember that Mark Drakeford (the leader of Welsh Labour in the Assembly) is voting for Corbyn even though Wales has voted to leave the European Union – another joke in the offing!
A General Election – Evening Post
On April 20, 1945: Adolf Hitler raises a glass to his fifty-sixth birthday. He won’t celebrate another birthday, not much to regret there then. He caused more chaos and destruction across the world than one can ever imagine. What if? – now, here is a historical question for you, his fifty–sixth birthday was not his last? In other words, he had conquered Gt. Britain and all the other territories he had in mind?
Now, France had given in to his Blitzkrieg, so we were the next. Just across the channel, if you like. I put it to you, and in the words of Churchill, we would have fought Germany on the beaches etc. We would not have given in. We would have fought, fought and fought again, no matter what the loss in human endeavor. These historical questions do raise the odd hint of common forbearance, don’t they? This is basically the difference between the UK and other nationalities of the European Union. We are an island nation; we had fought all the other states of Europe to a standstill in the past. It is this difference if you like, that makes us, so hell bent on being a problem for our European friends……or enemies, depending on which way you look at it. Well, ‘enemies’ is pushing it a bit but there you are. We live in the twenty first century now, so a European war is out of the question. But you take my point – we in the UK are different, just like an Italian is different from a Frenchman.
It comes back to my question. What if Hitler had lived, what if history had got it wrong again? A thought you must admit.
So, to come back to the EU debate, democracy is raising his head again, not at the destructions of the naysayer’s angst. Our MP’s are nothing but a shower of indecision and complacent jack of all trades and most of their time is spent seeing to their own jobs. Get rid of them and let’s have a fresh start. It’s December the 12th like it or not, not one for predictions but I have a feeling that Johnson will walk it, the Opposition parties are in a state of oblivion. Jeremy Corbyn? No chance.
The Gospel according to Ruck you might say, but there is some truth in it. We are in a mess and at last the politicos are doing something about it.
Boris Johnson – Evening Post
The Queen’s Speech? There’s another moment of chaos it would seem. The Opposition had a whale of a time and Boris Johnson had an even greater wallowing in a mire of accusation that teared the Labour party apart in response. Marxist, spendthrift and a general going back to the 1970’s was the gist of his condemnation of the Labour Party. Johnson was having an enormous joke on the disgruntled Corbyn and McDonnel – well, nothing changes with our Parliamentarians does it?
Jokes aside, Corbyn’s speech last week enunciated a plan of political doings, tax raising, nationalizing all industries whatever. If you follow him vote for him, that’s all I can say.
Is there a deal on Brexit or isn’t there? No one knows at the moment but keep your hair on we will soon find out. I have to say – although I am not a fan of Johnson – the man does know how to speak to the ordinary human being, better than May it has to be said. Arms waving, his nose getting straight into the bag of grub. He has a certain passion about him, I have to admit. It wouldn’t surprise if he wins the next general election hands down. As for Corbyn, we’ll just have to wait and see, judging by his Marxist 70’s stand I don’t fancy his chances, but one can never tell, these days anything is possible in politics.
I actually found Parliament following the Queen’s Speech quite invigorating for a change. It was quite polite, all things considered. The Opposition looked tired of it all, not surprising when you think it has taken three and half years to draw an inconclusion on indecision, that’s the way I put it, might as well add to the confusion that everybody feels at the moment! I can’t work out where Labour stands on Brexit and I doubt that anybody can but there we are. The Tories aren’t much better and as for the Lib Dems, well, going against a democratic vote defies any sense of reason one may well have.
Anyway, we shall just have to wait and see. Heaven knows what we will end up with, Brexit or no Brexit but I just have a funny suspicion that our Boris might, just might pull it off. Don’t keep me to this prediction, I’ve only said ‘might pull it off’!
Brexit again! Evening Post
Where is all this violence and street chaos coming from then? The media getting above itself and turning the Brexit vote into a haven of panic-stricken people getting into a tizzy again. Heaven help us! Brexit will create a War-torn Berlin again. Guns and death everywhere What complete and utter nonsense.
Boris Johnson is insisting on the fact that we get out of Europe on the 31st of October come hell or high water – well, you had better believe the press on this, because no doubt a nuclear bomb will go off at the same time! A Russian has just discovered his wife is having an affair with someone, so you had better look out! He’s gone ballistic and has pressed the button on a World War just waiting to happen. And we are the targets, as if! Labour is in a turmoil of self-discovery and can’t make up its mind on anything and as for the Liberal Democrats, well, what can one say. They have turned their backs on anything that has a democratic hue on it.
No wonder nobody reads the newspapers anymore and the internet is so full of unadulterated rubbish that there seems little point in reading any of them (makes you wonder why I am writing this, doesn’t it!). Artificial Intelligence will take over any attempt at reasonable discussion, you can depend of it.
Now, our Boris. You can say what you like about him, good and bad but the thing is he is doing what the country by referendum voted for. He is saying cheerio to Europe. The politicians, the commentators and so on all talk about democracy. We’ve had a democratic vote on it, and its out. What happened in 2016? Out and out again, we’ve had over three years to think about it and nothing much had changed.
We are leaving Europe and that’s it. If the politicians in a heavenly appointed Parliament don’t like it, then they have to go. We, the people, have the power to do this. We live in a democracy – not that you would think this anymore. Our ‘politicians’ are making us a laughingstock throughout the world, so let’s kick them up their rear ends and try to get back to a true democracy. Show the word we can do it, we did it the Second World War, so let’s do it again.
To hell in a handcart with our politicians, let’s do it once and for all. Vote them out.
We leave the EU and it could be the first of many countries who will decide enough is enough. It has become a dictatorship, and this is what the EU is so frightened of. The destruction of all that it holds holier than thou.
Global heat!- Evening Post
Well, it looks as if global warming is being put on the record where ‘crisis’ is concerned. There is so many of them! Brexit, doom and gloom, financial and economic meltdown and so on, it never ends. Plastic bags, rivers are denuded with waste and so on – all a must for people fearing the worse! So, what is really going on?
There were pre-historic periods of global warming, but what has happened in the mid-20th Century outweighs this. Man’s delight in succeeding in technological might and so on. Come to think of it you might look back to the mid-eighteenth century to see this, the Industrial Revolution and so on – we led the world in this. Man’s global warming has started here, and we don’t look back far enough – well, this is my opinion anyway.
If you want to stop the global warming effect marry my wife – she will stop any delusions of grandeur you may have, believe me! She’s a warrior for the global front, I can tell you! Take this out, take that out, watch which bag you throw the junk in and so on. It’s a nightmare! I love her though and I put up with it – who’s suffering from delusions now!
On a more serious note, we all have to take care with our waste. The world temperature is going up and there’s nothing we can do about it. We have to be more careful with plastic bags (sorry to go on about these measures, plastic bags and what have you!), water, gas and electricity etc We need to be more aware, more astute, if only for our grandchildren’s sake, for they are the future and make no mistake about it.
I look out at the calm; dusky sunset and I wonder how long it will go on. Forever, in my lifetime at least. But for the next generations? Who knows? The ‘clock is ticking’ (don’t you just get seriously annoyed with these words, every politician is using them, unimaginative incompetents that they are!), so I can say without being prone to castigation that we had better look out, global warming is here, we had better not let it fry us all up!
That’s my lesson for the day and note, no Brexit argument can be seen or heard!
Politics – my arse! – Evening Post
Politicians, they are as likely to fill up a hole that they’ve just dug as the Council are. Standing around talking about the missus and having a fag, whist they’re paid enormous amounts of money (and expenses) to work out what to do next. They are utterly hopeless, incompetent and have a derisory impact on the national will to get out of Europe. And they all blather on about ‘democracy’, take that for a self-inflicted delusion of self-interest – like the repeated ‘self’ do you? I’m going as nuts as the politicians are!
At the next General Election vote them all out, and start again with a new set of politicos, then we might be in with a chance. The lot that are in Parliament are a disgrace to the country and everywhere else. They are making us a laughingstock. I don’t care what your political persuasion is, just get them all out. Labour, Tory, SNP, Liberals Democrat and that inconsequential Plaid Cymru. They all are about as much use to the people as an empty dog food bowl.
They lie, they distract, and they will do everything they can to stay in power. All of them. Its time for a new political class, a new innovation and a new intent. We need politicians who will do our will because that’s what it is all about. The will of the people. This is democracy. They are in Parliament by our consent and they can be put out of a job again, by our consent.
In the 63 years that I have lived on this planet, I have never come across such a political mess. The infighting is deplorable – twenty-one Tories being scrubbed out of this political fandango, serves them right. And Labour has no idea what it wants- and Newsnight is baffled by them as well. One just doesn’t know who to vote for, they are all a shamble of indecision. Well, we have the right to vote for whom we like, next time pick on somebody you really fancy. Think about it, and we might just get out this terrible might is right debacle we are in.
Deliberate with a sense of purpose, and make your choice as you will, but just get this shower out. Out once and for all. I don’t know about you, but I have certainly had enough of Brexit. I would take anything that’s on offer – for peace and nothing else!
Respect for politicians? Give me a break, will you!
Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson, what a character he is! I’m thinking here of Paddy Pantsdown (the late leader of the Lib Dems) but what the blue blazes, I can talk! He’s got a history, hasn’t he? Hanging from wires by his pants, women and so on, the list is endless. He wouldn’t have got my vote, Rory Stewart was my candidate but there we are, it’s all in the past now anyway. Like it or not, Johnson is clearly the best bet where Jeremy Corbyn is concerned, if you fancy Dianne Abbott and John McDonnell to be in power well so be it. Personally, I am finding the Lefty Labour Party a bit hit and miss now, they are rapidly becoming a Party on the outside or inconsequential if you like. It’s a pity, but there you are. Bring back Blair, is all I can say.
Jeremy Corbyn is all over the place and if he thinks he can lead a unity government, well, we can all have our dreams, deluded as they are but that’s the Labout Party for you. At least in the Blair and Brown years they went for the center of politics, now it’s the other way around. Left, left and left again! Nationalization and tax, all the hall marks of the 1970’s, it sadly it duffed up the Labour political process and it will do again. Marxism and Trotskyite politics don’t work, it has been tried in many countries and all have failed. Why can’t the Labour Party realise this? Blair maintained a grip on the Labour Party and he won, three elections in a row. The first time in Labour history. But now Blair is anathema to Left Labour aficionados. Well, they will sink in their own glorified political angst if they hold on to this.
Boris Johnson is the only way, you may not like some of his characteristics, but he’s got what it takes, like it or not. He will become the King of Downing Street – well, it’s an odds on bet anyway. We shall just have to wait and see what happens when Parliament gets back to quarrelling over the Brexit plan, in the not too distant future. If you don’t fancy this vote Labour instead, that’s if you fancy a Marxist theology.
Welsh Education – Evening Post
‘……Children are missing out on education because they don’t speak the language being used in their schools. Children taught in an unfamiliar language often fail tests, have to repeat grades and drop out of education altogether.’ Thus, the familiar policy brief of Save the Children institution. This will be known by all in Wales, particularly those in the vast majority who only speak English.
According to the Welsh in Education: Action Plan 2017-2021, Welsh is no longer to be treated as a second language in English medium primary schools; in other words, all our toddlers will speak Welsh as a first language.
Has the Welsh Labour administration has gone completely nuts? This is their policy.
Cardiff and Swansea, where most people live, will go around the bend at this. Its nationalism on a grand scale. We are a small principality, 3 million at best, and we are trying to take Wales back into the Dark Ages. Plaid Cymru is trying to make Wales independent (this is a joke) and the Labour Party is in a union with them.
Feel free to speak whatever language you like, but don’t give our children a language that is only recognized in a tiny spot in North and West Wales. The language is only spoken by a minority – fact. The administration should stop telling everybody what language they should speak. This is a United Kingdom, get over it and get real.
3 million against say, 63 million? 14 million pounds in tax- payers money going to BBC’s Radio Cymru and 1.4 million going to BBC’s Radio Cornwall, and the best bit is they have the same audience numbers! The Welsh administration is going outside its remit, as Twitter clearly shows.
You would think I’m going too far on this, well wake up, I’m just under starters orders. The Welsh language is becoming a hindrance to Wales. Its creating a country that is not part of the order of Britain, and like it or not I’m starting here to defend the rights of normal individuals who seek to lead normal lives, not people who want their rights to be extinguished and thrown into the gutter. You will damage our children and this is not on.
Devolution? Heaven help us.
Smoking
90% of Welsh constituencies have smoking levels above UK average according to new PML analysis ranks the smoking prevalence for every constituency for the first time.
36 of the 40 Parliamentary constituencies in Wales have smoking levels higher than the average for the United Kingdom according to new analysis by Philip Morris Limited (PML). The average smoking prevalence of the 40 constituencies that make up Wales was 16%, which is higher than the average for the UK (14.7%). Of the 632 Parliamentary seats across Great Britain ranked in total, no Welsh constituencies are placed in the top third.
Isn’t this something to cast your eyes over? What with this and the free prescription orders, it’s a nightmare that has just fallen into our laps. Free Paracetamol and pain killers? Its ridiculous. The Welsh Labour administration really does need to get its act together, doesn’t it just. Labour is being hauled over the coals for anti – Semitism, being too far left of left and just about anything else that you can think of. And now these statistics. It’s a mess.
Mark Drakeford, the leader of Welsh Labour, has just refused a request for an interview by me (he just isn’t replying, well there’s nothing new here, Carwyn Jones refused the same request albeit it that I have interviewed a number of politicians both Labour, Conservative and Plaid Cymru). He’s too busy seeing to his Social Policy transactions, I assume. Welsh Labour is showing weakness and an abject refusal to any journalistic endeavour.
And you want to vote for Corbyn? Well, that’s your right but be careful what you vote for, we’ll have a Marxist state before you know it! We’ll have nationalism (remember the last time we had it, it took a year to get a new telephone line on a brand new property?), borrowing, spend, spend, spend and an unmitigated tax burden that will drag us back to 2008 – another financial crisis.
What with this and the Tories being up to their ears in it, what hope is there, one might well ask? Well, I’m a great believer in the UK as being a country that one is lucky to be born in. I can honestly say that we will find a way out of this mess, so hold on to your hearts and keep your fingers crossed. We will come through it all.
