BBC Radio 2 – The Welsh language

On Tuesday of this week, there was an interview on the Welsh language, pros and cons as it were ( I have done the same interview some time ago, Jeremy Vine was exceptionally balanced then).They had a pro-Welsh language and an anti-Welsh language on.

The fact is the Welsh language lady ignored all the facts, indeed she was talking a load of old bollocks! She didn’t mention how the public sector is in a fine mess, in their insane effort to promote the language and recruit Welsh speakers(where are they going to come from, out of a population of three million???), she failed to enlighten her audience the cost to the tax payer for all the Welsh language translation (about a million plus for every local authority), she was remiss in not saying that all the costs to the tax payer for the Welsh publishing industry (they publish books that no-one reads), the Welsh Arts Council (seven of them going the the Biennale for just one Welsh exhibit, two thousand a piece each executive), the Welsh Books Council, Literature Wales etc etc And BBC Wales, that crass representative of media excellence is full of tax payer funded books by its employees (I never watch it) and it’s Welsh radio channel gets 15 million a year and BBC Radio Cornwall gets only 1.5 million a year – and they both have the same audience figures!!!

All paid for by the tax payer. The English are paying for the vast majority of this. And what about education? Carmarthenshire County Council has made all primary schools Welsh medium, there is no choice for the average parent. What happens to one of the main democratic principles – choice! Welsh is put on parents who neither want it, nor espouse it. The Welsh education system is crap, full stop. If I had young ‘uns. I would be off to England. The Welsh Labour administration (this is a curious fact, the rest of the country after the last election went Tory but what did Wales do? Labour increased its vote, put a glass eyed snake in power and see what happens. Labout again!) What has it done now, it has now made the Welsh language equal to English, for God’s sake!!!

She didn’t mention the fact that North Wales cannot understand the South, where all the population is and as for the Welsh culture/history bit, there is none! I was against Devolution in 97/98 and I am against it now. All it has done is to allow extremist to raise the nationalist flag. It is a total bloody joke. Come to think of it she mentioned those Welsh people who learn Welsh – most of them give it up, for it is too difficult, my own solicitor for one!!!

There are only three million people in Wales against a national population of sixty five million. Give me a break will you??? A ‘Government’???

And as for independence? This is a farce, where are the Welsh going to get fifteen billion odd??? And the Welsh lady forgot to mention, that it is only 15% of Welsh people who actually speak and read the language!!! Where would Wales be without the tax payer!!! Everything would be demolished, including the Welsh language. It is dying, so get a grip!!!

NB All the above can be corroborated by FOI facts that I have in my study.

Get rid of an excuse for a Welsh ‘government’!!!

It is all tosh, a Welsh ‘government’? That is the name they have given themselves. Give me strength!!!

Let’s do over the tax payer again!

Brian Meechan, the insipid man, is on BBB Wales news channel again. A few thousand pounds from the tax payer for a manuscript he hasn’t even written! It is a disgrace like the news channel itself. Many of the editors, presenters etc have all had tax payer handouts for books that don’t sell – the previous controller Talfan Davies gets a few thousand quid for a book that only sold a 100 copies. BBC Wales should be dumped into the nearest rubbish bin for out of control government expenditure. The elections are coming up, vote UKIP and destroy this be fangled ‘government’ of Wales.

Stroll on Swansea! – SWEP

Re-vamped hotels, caravan parks and twitching RSPB eco-warriors, are now the name of the game in this ancient spot of tourist deliverance. Being an inhabitant myself of this sometimes surly town, with its charming mix of old and new minds, Chapel and High church optimism in a heretical world and faded Street blues, those who are attempting to bring some commercial reality to the place are to be congratulated, well, Covid-19 allowing!

But, and where Ruck is concerned as all you readers will know, there has to be a ‘but’, will all this well-intentioned effort pay off? It is certainly in with a chance, but only if those with commercial intent do it properly and with an eye to the outside world – after all, Swansea is hardly renowned for a cosmopolitan approach to things as I well know. Will the pubs succumb to micro-waved grub and vast plasma screens intent on abusing gentle conversation, be the order of the day? Will caravans determined to leave behind their detritus of holiday fun, be allowed to depart with a happy and forgiving Welsh smile? And will your average, silent twitcher be allowed to twitch without fear of intrusion and dastardly human interference?

Challenges indeed, one might think and not mention the disgusting Castle Gardens and everything else that is the town centre – a concrete jungle! What the Swansea City Council must be thinking of here beggars belief! They’re planning department needs a complete overhaul!

Far be it for me to put the boot in. I am an outsider, an interloping English speaking, irreverent heathen (and actually rather proud of the fact as it happens!) and one unfamiliar with traditional Swansea sensibility but one thing I do know, Wales’s only hope for future economic growth is leisure and tourism. This being the case, local businesses if they are to succeed, must cast aside suicidal Welsh insularity and deadly parochialism, otherwise projects such as the above will last a year and be no more. There is a huge and accessible market-place out there, from South America to China. How I long to see a few turbaned heads and mah-jong players stroll along the High Street, because then and only then, will I conclude that Swansea has finally said ‘Hello’ to the outside world.

Look beyond the Severn Bridge all you business boyos, invest and good luck!

A pair of hopeless sods!

Trump and Macron, what a duo of hopelessness. They are both arrogant and self-centered who think they can rule the world. What is their calling card? Kill the Nation, that is the way to do it!!!!

Men? – SWEP

Are men turning into Big Jessies?

A writer writes about the world as he (or she) sees it. These observations are liked by some, hated by others but there we are, a writer can never ever please everyone and this is just the way it should be.

Now, in my time I’ve had many a medical and surgical procedure, from club feet twists and turns to open heart jobs, brain surgery and a good few items in between. Indeed, my body (such as it is!) bears a strong resemblance to a National Rail railway map, such are the stitched scars etc plastered all over me – actually you know, women have never seemed to have objected to all these nasty little trials of living, makes ‘em all sympathetic, at least they used to be anyway!

Recently I was in hospital having what in my view was a minor medical procedure and certainly nothing to write home about, as it were. Not so it seemed. At least where all these young strapping macho, rugby types were concerned. There they were, gobbling down sedatives, holding girlfriends’ hands and looking as if they were about to face a firing squad! I have to say, I was astonished. The only time I involve my own missus in anything medical is if I know there really is a risk of me snuffing it, then to be fair she has a right to know what is going on, even if it’s only to discover where my last Will and Testament is located.

So, what do you make of all this?

I suppose one can only observe that apparently these days young men are taking longer to dress than young women, male cosmetics are rapidly catching up with the female variety in sales and to cap it all, these young male pioneers of the modern world are starting to blub in public! I mean…..Big Jessies or what?? Take all this along with baby-carrying knapsacks, baby bottle stuffed pockets and nappy liners as handkerchiefs and what have you got?

Men are no longer men, and God help all you girls out there – in spite of the Me Too and man bashing minorities!!! I am all for women’s rights etc but all this is going too far. Next thing we will have men apologising for being men!!!

What a year!!!- SWEP

Apparently, my column is causing some disappointment among some of you Evening Post readers, particularly those who are fans of my books. ‘Too tame’, ‘Not hard-hitting enough’, ‘Not the Ruck we know, at all’, are some of the examples of readership opinion when my novels are compared with columns herein – that’s good isn’t it, legalese and what have you!  

Well, you have a point. It is after all a writer’s duty to offend, we wouldn’t have a Parliament were it otherwise, so in future the gloves are well and truly off and anyone who upsets me had better watch out!  There is an awful lot of argument going around at the moment. The murder of an innocent, Sarah Everard, Brexit, the Markle Affair (I do not take much notice of this, it is a Royal mess again, Merkle is trying to turn it into a soap opera, she will win an Oscar for her performance and Harry is too weak to shut her up!) and so on. As for ‘the murder of an innocent’, I do not know what to say. Some men are undoubtfully perverted but what can you do? Stay safe is all I can say. Do not walk alone and keep your eyes open. Heaven knows what the parents must be thinking, if they think at all in the present circumstances. I have a remote idea what it is like to lose a child, heaven help them.

One morning last week, I was walking my dogs along the pathway in dear old Swansea (you know, the place that has a Council filled with those people who have delusions of grandeur, full to the brim of deluded self-importance, Sun outrage and those who have nothing better to do). One of my dogs is a greyhound, full of ladylike laziness and a damn your eyes contempt for everyone and the other is a cross between a jackal and a variety that even Heinz has not been able to conjure up yet (I am being polite now!).

Anyway, this woman started coming towards me, armed to the teeth with water-sprays, sticks, protective clothing you name it. She had three lumps of objectionable, haute-couture lumps of snappy fluff with her, in fact they were so small I didn’t even notice them at first.

‘Get your dogs’ away from my little darlings!’ she screamed, as she sprayed and snarled for deliverance. ‘They’re invading their space!’

‘Dogs, space?’ Now this was a new one. The woman was obviously on day-release from somewhere or other. My two were only doing what dogs do, sniffing backsides, bouncing around and generally enjoying themselves. Come to think of it, maybe her dogs were gay, they were pretty camp after all? Of course, I took no notice and just carried on walking. Later that morning I get a call from the police. ‘Sorry to bother you, Mr Ruck (grin, grin)…..but we have to respond to every complaint……’

My dogs are not ‘Dangerous’, and they will continue to enjoy themselves ‘off lead’. And as for you missus, see what happens when you mess about with your Swansea newspaper columnist? You’re lucky I’m not naming you!

BBC Wales – what a crachach means of nobbling the tax payer!

Brian Meechan, a business journalist for BBC Wales, has claimed a few thousand pounds from the tax payer, for a book he hasn’t even written! Just another example of BBC Wales employees screwing the tax payer!

Are men equal??? – SWEP

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been pondering this whole equality of the sexes lark. Having lived through all the so-called gender-bender upheavals of the sixties and seventies, I think I am entitled to have a view on the feminist revolution with its subsequent demolishing of what I perceive, to be manly endeavor – let’s face it, all the nagging and moaning that women are famous for! Every second of every day, I come in for it! It is ruining my health!

 I mean, what are all these ante-natal classes, unisex baby changing rooms, trousers stacked with bottles and disposable nappies all about them – not to mention, men running about the place with a harnessed sprog up front pretending they are now the mother’s? Disgraceful. Men should go back to being men, never mind Mars or fifty shades of grey, blackness here we come!!!

You’d never catch me in a baby changing room and that’s a fact besides, even these places are ‘Non-Smoking’ now! Damn, I bet this is getting some of you warrior-like Boudicca’s and born-again Pankhursts all riled up. Enjoy your power that’s what I say! My point is this, the war is over. The chains on the railings have rusted away. Women are in the board rooms, in Parliament, in industry, in the professions…..there’s nothing left to prove.

But here’s the best bit, I can’t understand why the whole movement started up in the first place? Women have always called the shots, talk to any married man, or unmarried man for that matter! The Bard had it right all along, when he penned (I assume he had the missus at the back of his mind at the time), “What is she but a foul contending rebel, And graceless traitor to her loving lord, I am ashamed that women are so simple!”

I spout this every morning, as I’m making my wife her tea, 3.90 second boiled egg and melted butter toasted soldiers, that’s after I’ve scattered freshly cut rose petals on the carpet from bed to bath and all before I’ve hoovered, polished, fed and walked the dogs……..I’d better watch what I am saying here, the missus is hovering around, and you know what that means!

It’s a man’s world, ain’t it just! And what is all this? A Womens International Day, what about a day for men? Fat chance, and that is a fact!

Who is putting the boot in on BBC Wales – long overdue if you ask me?

Somebody is railing about the Welsh language and the Welsh on BBC Wales! I would go along with them on the Crachach (I would like to see the channel having me on again, I would give the goods on all the editors/presenters ((the Crachach, a Welsh speaking middle class elite who want everyone in Wales to speak Welsh, daft buggers, how is 80% of the population of Wales going to tune their vocal chords to a language that can only be used in a small part of the UK?)) taking handouts from the tax payers for their stupid bloody books, which by the way, don’t sell! But the Welsh are kind and giving, and that is that.

And by the way, devolution is receiving attention from the Government, about time too. Get rid of it, once and for all – a population of three million in Wales and a system of administration that runs it – or ‘Government’ as the Assembly likes to call itself. It is a trash can of a deliberate and non-sensical waste of money!!!