by Julian Ruck
Back in 2002 Rhodri Morgan gave his “clear red water speech,” declaring “We’re not old or new Labour, we’re Welsh Labour.” It set the course for Welsh Labour’s approach to government, citing Beveridge and Bevan as the inspirations.
Fine words but more than 10 years later, where has it got us?
Perhaps Morgan would have been more honest had he said, we are going to fight Tony Blair to the death and to hell with modernising public services, the Welsh economy, health and education.
We want the days of old council chamber back-slapping and back-scratching in Cardiff Bay. We want to be welsh and proud of it, no matter what the cost. You boyos in Westminster can pay our bills, no questions asked. We know our devolved rights, so go and get stuffed!
For every Welsh person almost an extra £4,000 is borrowed compared to England. This Welsh Labour dream of an outdated socialist Brythonic Atlantis has bankrupted Wales, bankrupted the education of our young and bankrupted the Welsh health service.
The Welsh Labour party’s obsession (and Plaid Cymru’s) with a tyrannical Westminster Labour party has resulted in a dire attempt to free fall into isolationism without a parachute.
It’s totally unrealistic separatist agenda has resulted in a greater dependency on Westminster (currently 80% plus of Welsh GDP and rising), a defunct private sector and zero growth where it matters. We all know that the public sector is a net loser and let’s face it, it’s the public sector that is keeping Wales on life support.
Is Wales facing encirclement and injustice? I think not.
But it is certainly facing irrelevance and failed state ignominy due to the Welsh Labour establishment’s refusal to sign an armistice over an unnecessary war with England.
If Welsh Labour wants to be unique and a miscreant child of Beveridge (incidentally, Lloyd George was more the architect of the welfare state than William, give us Taffies some credit!), then it should break away from the Labour party once and for all. Call itself by a different name and allow voters to know exactly for whom and what they are voting for.
Welsh Labour is not the Labour of Westminster, or the United Kingdom for that matter. It has become a clumsy nuisance, to be tolerated and indulged when unfortunate needs must. If Labour is to keep Wales, then Welsh Labour must be allowed to go its own way but under a different name.
Wales deserves better than Welsh Labour, with its glossy catalogue of failure and backward fixations. It needs the reality and energy of the real Labour party, not the undisciplined and pretty memories of a political heyday that doesn’t even reach out to a generation without a smartphone.
And before I go, if politicos up there in London think they have their fair share of Disraeli’s greasy poles, what with MP expenses and lobbying, look at Wales for five minutes. We have political scandals to spare. Only a couple of weeks it was reported that the Welsh Labour administration has blown £1.6 million on a Kung Fu centre in Llangollen. Flaws in the conveyancing of the property apparently, nothing like oversight and scrutiny is there?
The tenants I’m told have all been ‘kicked’ out.
Julian Ruck is the author of the Ragged Cliffs Trilogy and legal thriller The Bent Brief’. He is an FoI campaigner and has made contributions to programmes in both Welsh and national broadcasting
Tags: debt, deficit, Julian Ruck, Rhodri Morgan, Welsh Labour
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
God missed a bit.
In 2008 the Genesis Cymru Wales 2 project was established.
The Welsh Assembly Government said let there be light and employment
What happened? Well it’s still dark and Wales is still reliant on public sector jobs. The next project is being thought up in the deep recesses of the Senate in Cardiff Bay.
The people of Wales wait for the next coming of Genesis Cymru Wales 3, with the new added ingredient (more money from the EU and probably a couple of bob from the British tax-payer).
“In subsidies and grants we trust”……………………………….
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/welsh-government-announces-closure-genesis-2604666
Mr Origami
I now understand what this Juliab Ruck business is. He is a satirical creation; a self-loathing, self-publishing Dic Sion Dafydd. Now I have wprked out the joke (can’t believe it took so long) it’s actually quite funny – the dreadful quality of the text, the ludicrous opinions, the shameful plagiarism… brilliant! Keep this dross coming, it’s a positive shot in the arm for pro-devolution in Wales!
To Ed ap Parkio,
Now you wouldn’t happen to be a Welsh speaker would you? Sadly, your ‘Dic (rather appropriate here I hazard) Sion Dafydd’ simply isn’t going to be understood by anyone here.
So do please insult in English in future, or maybe French or German?
Many thanks,
Julian Ruck
Yes ‘Julian’ I am – I moved to Wales for university and once I’d decided to stay I chose to learn the language! Now, what people do (well, intelligent people anyhow) if they don’t get a reference is to look it up on Google. Anywat, keep up the good work and remember: everytime ‘you’ submit a piece you are helping devolution!
the annoying thing Is Ed ,knows this will come up at the general election ,and crucify us, but he’s burying his haed in the sand,
But don’t you think it is flawed to directly compare borrowing between England and Wales. England has a very rich south-east were spending per person will be lower, and a more working class north were spending will be higher. Surely if you compared Welsh spending with that of the north of england and scotland it would be move comparable. And this would show spending per person is based more on an area’s economic make-up as opposed to a ‘taffy-Taliban’ trying to bring down the country.
And I am somewhat confused about how exactly the assembly government wanting more separation yet are simultaneously able to demand more money from London.
Yes there are differences between welsh Labour and English Labour, but if you have ever listened to Denis Skinner speak you will see there remain dissident elements within Labour from all parts of the country, its what makes us a stronger party.
And I do think its a shame that instead of answering peoples questions in the comment section you just insult them!
Q – how can you tell Ruck hasn;t plagiarised an article?
A – because it’s badly-written, substanceless and full of non-sequiturs
There are several problems with this piece:
1 – no links made between political cause and socia/ and economic effects. In other words, no relation between what Rhodri Morgan said and did and the actual state of anything in Wales. There may be a relation, but it is not stated. This isn;t political commentary, it’s rant. (there are in fact many ways one can show that the Labour party in Wales wasted money and opportunities – EU Objective One funding for example, but Ruck doesn;t actually know enough about politics to make that link).
There is a debate to be had about actual and perceived differences between ‘Welsh’ Labour and ‘Labour’, but you aren;t going to get it from this chump.
2 – POlitical scandals – well, the Kung Fu centre isn;t a scandal or a tale of corruption, it’s just a case of incompetence. If you want a scandal, look at Awema, whose leader, Naz Malik, a Labour Party member with highly-placed friends, got away with embezzling money for years, and has just been called to account. If Ruck knows about this, he doesn’t show it. Odd, no?
3 – Ruck continues his nasty, really nasty, habit of mocking Welsh speakers and assuming that all who disagree with him or disapprove of his dishonesty must be Welsh nationalists. The word ‘welsh’ for him is obviously a dirty word.
4 – constant grammatical errors, grocer’s apostrophes and malapropism.
5 – ranting overstatement: ‘war with England’? ‘Armistice’? What?
The problem here is that you are hosting a reactionary’s blunderbuss rants which show no knowledge of their subject. There is plenty going on in Wales that makes for interesting and uncomfortable reading to Labour supporters of all hues, but if you employ a barely-literate twice-caught plagiarist who hates his people and claims, as he has done in his blog, that they’re only up to reading ‘Jack and Jill’ (Ruck should write so well as that!), you are going to end up looking stupid.
The common thread in all the essays you post here is, in general, informed and polemical opinion by people who actually know what they’re saying. And yet for your Welsh contributor you choose someone who not only knows nothing about politics but can;t even write about politics interestingly or with insight, and who abuses all who disagree with him
As I hope to have shown, you could be doing a lot better for yourselves than this.
To John P Reid,
Yes John, I believe you are right. The departure of Welsh Labour from the modernising and voter-aware Westminster Labour, is I suspect turning people away in droves.
Post-devolution Welsh Labour has made a complete mess of things and this is finally getting noticed.
The people of Wales have a history of militant socialism but there is now the new internet/social media voter. The voter who will have no truck with Bevan or extreme Beveridge.
It really wouldn’t surprise me if next time around and after 90 years of Welsh Labour, the Tories will take over the Welsh Government, either this or a coallition of sorts with the Liberals.
All the best,
Julian Ruck
To Darren Almond?
It is others who tend to do the insulting not me, as a quick glance at these comments sections will quickly confirm.
JR
I should add that only an idiot would think of the Labour party as being homogenous, and that there exists something called ‘Welsh’ and something called ‘English’ Labour.
As a member of what Ruck would call ‘English’ Labour, I know of a very broad spectrum of views, and much of the Labour party I know from the NE of England , Scotland and the big cities and conurbations in the north have the same values and views as ‘Welsh’ Labour.
Ruck is too stupid to realise that a (possibly unfounded and sometimes unexamined) belief in the state and the public sector is not necessarily ‘Welsh’, any more than Blairism is ‘English’.
As I said, only an idiot would make these comments, an idiot who knew nothing about Labour politics either in the present or historically.
Ruck appears to be that idiot.
“he departure of Welsh Labour from the modernising and voter-aware Westminster Labour, is I suspect turning people away in droves.”
Sorry Ruck, you are politically as well as practically illiterate: the whole point about ‘Welsh’ Labour is that it states, often overstates, its difference from London precisely IN ORDER to gain votes. Which it has done: Rhodri Morgan’s ‘Clear Red Water’ strategy was a response to exactly the declining popularity of Blairism in Wales. It gained Morgan a second term in the Assembly without needing coalition. If you don’t know this, you’re not fit to pronounce on Welsh politics. Similarly, now, all polls show that ‘Welsh’ Labour under Carwyn Jones is riding pretty high; much higher, vote for vote, than Milliband currently rides.
Now, whether or not it is right, or good, for people in Wales to keep voting Labour because they perceive it to be more left-wing and less Thatcherite than the dominant strains of Blairism (which – see above – are alsomuch disputed by many in English Labour) is another question. But to say that English labour is more ‘voter aware’ is, as I said, a sign that you know nothing of Welsh politics or generally UK Labour’s ideological spectrum.
As I said, you neither know the facts nor understand the forces that make the facts.
To ‘Dave’?
If you were a trifle more polite and not so intemperate with your views, I might just be inclined to respond to your comments in a meaningful way.
However, I will not debate with someone who views personal insult as a form of substantive argument.
Now do please go away; actually I hear Hamleys is doing a new line in toy train sets, some free trial choo-chooing is on offer I’m told.
Just up your street I imagine.
Do think about it, oh and you don’t need a Passport to cross the Severn Bridge. Not yet anyway.
JR
“It really wouldn’t surprise me if next time around and after 90 years of Welsh Labour, the Tories will take over the Welsh Government, either this or a coallition of sorts with the Liberals.”
Look at the polls, Ruck, and you will see that the Labour party (for good or ill) in Wales is heading for an outright majority, and the tories will lose slim-majority seats. Many tory Assembly seats have tiny majorities, and if you are really suggesting that they will increase their majorities in the assembly and win new seats – let alone enough to form a govt – then you know as much about Welsh politics as I know about your Ragged Cliffs ‘Tilogy’ [sic]
Again, as I’ve made clear – whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is a different matter. But you really have no idea of what’s actually going on: your last ‘letter’ was nicked from a Tory MP’s blog, and though this is your own work (perhaps *because* it is) it is incoherent.
To ‘Dave’,
The thing is anonymous Dave, I have a voice – and not just on Uncut.
You don’t.
JR
I’m sorry Mr Ruck, I have made many substantive points, which call into question both your qualifications to opine and the very specific statements you make. Now, if you have the guts to engage with them, please go ahead. If not feel free to continue your silly jokes about passports and Severn bridges and ‘war with England’ and so on.
But I’m afraid my many points remain – if you don’t like to hear my objections to your bad writing style, then at least show your mettle and engage with the substantive points I’ve made about your lack of knowledge of what you claim to speak about.
I don’t need a passport to cross the Severn bridge: as an English ex-Labour activist based in the Home Counties of England, but hailing from the north of England, your petty anti-Welsh insults are not only irrelevant but misplaced.
This is n;t the first time you’ve squirmed from debate – now at least I’m offering you the chance to defend the views and statements you’ve made. You must surely be able to do that without resorting to Welsh-bashing paranoia.
To ‘Dave’,
I do not debate with those who lurk behind the anonymous walls of cowardice.
The paranoia of Welsh nationalist delusion is patently all yours, albeit that you apparently hail from the north of England and are an ex-Labour activist based in the Home Counties?
As for my ‘bad writing style’, do be so good as to advise Uncut readers of your own published literary achievements? After all, your style of writing is most certainly creative, notwithstanding its magnificently tendentious pique.
I am sure thay would all just love to know.
JR
Another wonderfully inept article by the worst writer ever.
As soon as someone disagrees. With you Julian (which is pretty much all the time), you resort to calling people named Ed Parke ‘Ed Ap Parkio’. How puerile.
At least this article is a Julian Ruck original and not plagiarised from a conservative MPs blog.
Why is anyone who disagrees with you a Welsh language extremist? What is a linguistic extremist anyway? Please inform me as I am perplexed?
Why do you think that Westminster is a gold standard? Why do you hold up England as an economic idyll? Why do you presume Wales is more corrupt, or has a ‘gravy train’ culture that you cannot substantiate, that England apparently hasn’t got?
I personally think that Labour controlled Wales is doing a better job than the Tory led omnishambles in Westminster, which is producing no economic growth whatsoever.
Another poorly written and terribly sourced polemic, but at least this one isn’t plagiarised, right Julian?
Haha, this is ‘Classic Ruck’! Whoever is behind this grotesque caricature is doing a fine job, keep it coming!
To Darren Almond?
Your personal insult free comment (for once!) does of course demand a response from my good self.
May I firstly point out that for every Scot, £2000 is borrowed, for every Welsh person it’s £6000 – statistics published by an Assembly economist/BBC Wales news.
Your sentence beginning ‘ And I am somewhat confused…..’ is somewhat abstruse. My whole point is, that on one hand Welsh Labour expects British tax-payers to pay up for its exteme mishandling of public finances, whilst on the other wanting no political chunk out of the very hand that feeds it.
A slight contradiction I think you will agree.
As for your reference to Dennis Skinner, his ageing dissent is indeed to be admired, but like it or not he is old socialist, state owning Labour and not quite ‘on message’ as they say, with 21st Century reality.
Welsh Labour still believes that as long as you throw enough tax-payers’ money at it, all will be well.
This never has, and never will work, as both political and economic history teaches us time and time again.
JR
‘For every Welsh person almost an extra £4,000 is borrowed compared to England. This Welsh Labour dream of an outdated socialist Brythonic Atlantis has bankrupted Wales, bankrupted the education of our young and bankrupted the Welsh health service’.
That is what you wrote in your initial essay, you then go on to state that;
‘May I firstly point out that for every Scot, £2000 is borrowed, for every Welsh person it’s £6000 – statistics published by an Assembly economist/BBC Wales news.’
So which one is it, or do you not know? You also fail to mention how much more the English and Scots get per head for education and for the NHS, but you would not write that Julian as it does not fit your schewed views.
The backlash to Julian’s column on twitter has been hilarious, on the evidence I have seen Julian Schmucks views are very much disdained and are strangely anachronistic. He also plagiarised a Tory MP on a labour grassroots site which adds another wonderful string to the tragicomic farce that has been Julian’s ill fated foray into writing. Failed ebook festival, truly awful books, rejection byWelsh publishers ( which is why he dislikes them) and his books are also distributed at taxpayers expense! Add to that the dire record of his public talks (he either gets totally heckled or cancels because of lack of interest), his deleted Wikipedia ( whose editor called Julian a gadfly) and the fact you cannot seem to buy his books anywhere and he is a double exposed plagiarist and you pretty much have the measure of this egotistical nobody.
He is, in short, a toss pot.
Dear Mr Ruck,
My question is simple: why do you make so much use of personal insult, then refuse to engage in debate with those who, in your opinion, insult you?
Do you not, for example, see the glaring hypocrisy in your comment posted at 1:55p.m. on the 24th?
As my comment is insult-free, I think I deserve a meaningful reply.
“May I firstly point out that for every Scot, £2000 is borrowed, for every Welsh person it’s £6000 – statistics published by an Assembly economist/BBC Wales news.”
I have no idea what this means nor can I find anyone quoting such a “fact” except Julian Ruck. Source please. And who exactly is borrowing from whom? How much on this apparent basis do we each “borrow” in England ?
To Rhys Evans,
On occasions, which are infrequent, I will treat like with like, although I tend to avoid crude name-calling.
You will further note, that most of the time I exercise considerable restraint when dealing with the relentless abuse and vicious attempts to silence me, both here and elsewhere.
Please do not presume to judge me, before considering the vitriolic tirades I am subjected to on a daily basis.
Not that these Trolls will ever get anywhere, they damage only themselves and the reputation of the my fellow countrymen.
They do not even deserve contempt, and this includes you Hewson and Mosby.
JR
PS There really is no point in communicating with any of you.
So good luck and over and out.
JR
Welsh Labour is failing badly – 6 out of 22 education authorities in special measures, worst performing regional economy in the UK, failing in its NHS (ambulance service response times, cancer waiting times etc etc). Just read the Western Mail…
So bring on devolution?? Wales would go bust in 5 minutes. The tiny added value of marginal hill farming and tourism is nowhere near enough to fund its bloated inefficient public sector and vast welfare bill. Wales only survives because of English taxpayers cash.
Very sad, given what the country could be. The totally inept political opposition in the Senedd also bear some responsibility. Try watching “first ministers questions” on the parliament channel and see how long you can stand it…
“I have no idea what this means nor can I find anyone quoting such a “fact” except Julian Ruck. Source please. And who exactly is borrowing from whom? How much on this apparent basis do we each “borrow” in England ?”
Mr Hewson
I believe Julian Ruck is misquoting the HMT Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses series (PESA)
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-treasury/series/public-expenditure-statistical-analyses-pesa
This has been doing the rounds in Conservative circles (search for the term PESA along with the Daily Mail or Conservative Home in the search bar and you will see) since it was published last July. In short, it states that public spending per person is
£8,588 for England
£10,212 for Scotland
£9.829 for Wales
£10,706 for Northern Ireland
So the gap would be £1,624 for Scotland/England, £1,241 for Wales/England and £2,118 for NI/England.
Of course, as has been pointed out by Darren Almond earlier, this fails to take into account the huge swing that the South East of England puts on things, and how it would be better to compare Wales with areas of Northern England instead. I believe Mr Ruck has many questions to answer that have been put to him by both Darren Almond and Dave – his last answer to Darren didn’t answer all of the points and he is avoiding Dave’s answers like the plague at the moment.
How dare you call me a troll? All I did was ask where your figures came from! What’s wrong with that? And trolls don’t use their own names by the way – nor has Steve Mosby even commented here.
Titus, as I watched the BBC news with tales of massive NHS cover-ups in England, the failure of PFI hospitals, endless lobbying scandals among MPs, illegal and extremely expensive wars etc, I’m not sure it’s so rosy for any of us. I’ve watched race riots, the EDL, BNP MEPs , a rail service funded by the taxpayer but which produces the worst service in developed Europe (but costs the most), and the highest (and fastest-increasing) inequality in Europe. I’ve watched this happen in my country, where banks and CEOs receive government handouts while the rest of us stump up. Social mobility has ground to a halt an din may respects gone backwards. This is a result of political decisions made by a particular and dominant political orthodoxy which has little, in my view, to recommend it. Wales has historically paid its way and helped make the UK’s wealth. Any historical perspective needs to take the post-industrial situation into account. It’s not as simple as England pays for Wales.
As for the ‘English taxpayer’, 30% of the population of Wales is in fact English, and about 60% of that population is retired, enjoying the free prescriptions and health care that make Wales attractive. Any computation of the ‘cost’ of Wales to England must take that into account too.
On balance, I’d rather have a devolved government with powers that we more or less voted for than a Westminster government that we didn’t – nor indeed did Scotland or large parts of England. My view is that Wales’s problems come not just from its industrial history and its legacy, but from the one-party state that Labour Wales has become. This is no more the fault of devolution per se than Thatcher was the ‘fault’ of Westminster.
If we abolished whole systems because we disliked the governments they threw up or which mismanaged this or that aspect of governance (actually – I’m not against that either: I’d happily see a wholesale redrawing of our politics and electoral system UK wide) we’d be having a different debate.
Joao
Conservative Home seem to be saying that Wales gets less than Scotland in terms of public expenditure per capita.
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/thetorydiary/2011/08/1624-the-gap-in-public-spending-per-person-in-england-and-scotland.html
My problem – and I am no economist – is I fail to see how expenditure equates to borrowing. If Julian Ruck would disclose the source of his “figures” perhaps all would become clear.
Mr Ruck,
You tend to avoid “crude name calling”? Then what do you call “Ed ap Parkio”? And various other examples of mangling Welsh names?
Also, “like for like” is rather pitiful. Maybe “rise above it” would be a more fitting philosophy, although you seem to thrive on magnifying the so-called vitriol and avoiding all direct questions and debate. Do you not agree that this is blatant cowardice?
I do believe that what you call “abuse” is due to your indifference to any other kind of communication and inability to react productively to any sort of debate. You are not talking to idiots or trolls, Mr Ruck, and you seem to be severely out of your depth.
Yours, perplexed,
RhE
What makes ‘julian’ such a compelling and tragic fictional creation is the way his writer/creator has managed to convey the idea that ‘julian’ actually considers himself intelligent or important – when he can barely write! Honestly, his text is of a borderline d/c grade gcse standard. This is made all the funnier given that ‘julian’ thinks education is too easy these days!
I can’t emphasise enough what brilliant satire ‘julian’ is. The obvious move would have been for him to change my surname to ‘parcio’, but by choosing ‘parkio’ he shows himself up as being utterly ignorant to his own culture – and therefore the character works even better. Utterly loathsome, but keep it up!
They say that for every ‘julian’ post, one hundred people become pro-devolution.
To all of you and finally,
Where all my Letters are concerned, none of you address the substantive issues I raise – although for once, you do seem to be exercising a degree of rather quaint advocacy (something I do know a little about), in respect of public borrowing for both Welsh and Scot.
This however, is merely a distraction from the important issues I raise ie the profligate waste of tax-payers’ money by Welsh Labour, its seccession from Westmnister and the generall Third World state of its economy and education.
I note none of you have been able to challenge (apart from my £2000) any of the facts I have put into the public domain eg the Estyn Report,the Committee sytem at the Welsh Assembly, the Welsh literati recipients of tax-payer largesse, the millions wasted on the Technium projects, the millions wasted on Welsh books that don’t sell, millions on martial art faiure…..the list goes on and on.
If you wish me to debate in a mature and informed manner, then do please all of you address the issues, instead of seizing Uncut as an opportunity to vent your unpleasant and remarkably twisted vitriol.
As Uncut has itself commented, ‘…..from MP’s to party members, no-one yet has echoed the tone or substance of the critics in the the comments thtread. If the intention of commentators is to persuade and put an opposing side of the argument to Julian, you might want to calibrate your approach.’
You would all do well to observe this wise advice and also perhaps to appreciate, that Uncut is not the platform for the immature, political bun-fight antics one is likely to encounter on some away-day Welsh Assembly pleasure cruise in Cardiff Bay.
JR
PS You will also note that some of you have already been blocked – an extremely unusual event for Uncut – this alone rather says it all about the abysmal and extraordinarly low-grade level of debate in Wales.
Julian, what bizarre planet are you on?
Have you not bothered to read any of the comments on any of your essays, even your plagiarised one?
I think Joao Morais has been particularly good at this, but I think you are perhaps so arrogant that you don’t read anything (or at least take in) any information which contradicts your spurious claims.
I beg to differ where labour uncut is concerned, I know a great many labour councillors and MPs who think you are completely misguided and totally unqualified to write for a grassroots labour blog. And you cannot help but agree with them. Labour incurs twitter page is a good place to go to, never have I seen such a universally hostile reaction to a tweet.
I personally think labour uncut have disgraced themselves in giving you a soap box, one in which last week you were miming to someone else’s recording. I think they shown support to you to save face, it is embarrassing publishing plagiarists.
So I call on anyone to read these threads and ask themselves, has anyone called Julian up on his ‘facts’? I say yes, despite Julian sitting there moping in the dunces corner.
Julian, the facts *are* in the public domain, all you did was write them down and often get the wrong. People are constantly asking you to address substantive issues and correct your mistakes, but you won’t do it. You’ve also been invited to apologise for plagiarism.
Neither will you admit that your impetus for attacking Welsh publishers is that they rejected your books.
This is incredibly silly.
Hello Dave Rodway,
I completely agree with your view that:
“My view is that Wales’s problems come not just from its industrial history and its legacy, but from the one-party state that Labour Wales has become”.
How can you change this? Welsh Labour are complacent and arrogant, and are never held to account by inept opposition parties and AM’s, despite having held power in Wales for years.
and re “industrial history and legacy”, this has had devastating consequences – see article from BBC today:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23028078
What has Welsh Labour done to address the country’s real problems like this?
It is truly deplorable that this bitter individual remains a contributor of articles to this website. He makes Rob Marchant look intelligent and coherent. Shame on Labour Uncut for allowing this puerile material to continue being published.
Julian –
“Not that these Trolls will ever get anywhere, they damage only themselves and the reputation of the my fellow countrymen.
They do not even deserve contempt, and this includes you Hewson and Mosby.”
I haven’t trolled you; I’ve pointed out the two occasions when you’ve been caught plagiarising the work of others. Why do you persist in bringing me into things? Is it some kind of dare? I don’t know enough about the content of this direly-written article to discuss it; do you want me to spend five minutes reading up on the subject so that we’ll be on an even footing?
And as for you Mosby, to use your own towering, if truly uncouth invective, ‘I would rather stick fxxxing pins in my eyes’ than share even one modest schooner of Tio Pepe with you, in an up-market Parisian bordello party.
Not that you would be allowed in.
JR
“I don’t know enough about the content of this direly-written article to discuss it; do you want me to spend five minutes reading up on the subject so that we’ll be on an even footing?”
Steve, 2 minutes will do, but you need to allow an extra one for plagiarism.
“‘I would rather stick fxxxing pins in my eyes’ than share even one modest schooner of Tio Pepe with you, in an up-market Parisian bordello party.”
I wouldn’t worry.
Julian why do you keep mentioning Steve Mosby by name when he only bothers saying anything to you if you call him out!?
It’s like you love being confrontational with people sometimes or are you just a masochist!
TItus I agree with a lot you are saying, though I did find that Bbc article a little imbalanced. Particularly the section about a rise in atheism, it is massively on the increase everywhere which I myself welcome. I do often think when in post industrial communities, what purpose do these places serve now? There is no easy answers to these questions, but Westminster austerity, I think, would hinder them further.
I don’t feel the piece expressed properly the closeness of a lot of valleys communities and I know of good community and business based initiatives that are taking place in the valleys that were not mentioned at all, as well as the fact that a lot of people commute to Cardiff from there.
The last person to answer questions that difficult, however, is Julian Schmuck.
I continue to hope that Mr Ruck will post the ruling on plagiarism that he has obtained as a member of the Society of Authors (a membership to which he himself first drew attention on this site). That would surely stop people repeatedly accusing him of plagiarism.
Julian –
There is something quite moving in your desperate urge to be taken seriously as both a novelist and a journalist against all the odds. May I offer a few tips that could help in the latter?
1. It’s always best to assemble opinions out of facts, not the other way round. Opinions are synthesised from real world experience and knowledge. If you simply come up with one out of nowhere and then try to find, or invent, the facts to back it up you usually end up writing bollocks.
2. You know that saying “facts are sacred”? It’s the bedrock of journalism. You have to get them right, say where they came from, preferably with a link, and put your hand up and say mea culpa if you get them wrong. If you don’t, or worse try to bluster your way out of things with puerile abuse, you are liable to look like a prat.
3. When writing a column it’s best to address one subject only. Mostly you try to do this here. I just have difficulty understanding what that subject is. But in your only other outlet, that newspaper in Wales…
http://julianruck.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/ruck-goes-multi-cultural-star-coulumnpub-19-6-13/
Here you have two opening paragraphs which appear to be marvelling at the fact that Polish people live in Wales. Then you recount some fanciful stuff about signing books in Brighton before winding up with a very odd tale about a bearded man in a dress. A psychologist might guess that there is a sub-current here suggesting you are discomfited by the presence of foreigners and gay people. But the average reader will simply be puzzled.
4. Try and maintain some semblance of conformity of style and opinion. In the column cited above, for example, you come across as a stiff, right-wing prejudiced old fogey. While here you come across as… Well pretty much the same but with sops to the Labour Party thrown in from time to time, presumably when you remember the name of the blog. This does not make for credibility.
I hope this helps.
Hewson,
Facts are sacred! The bedrocks of journalism! Who the hell are you kidding?!
How many times were you sued?!
How many phones did you tap?!
Dear God, journalists have a worse reputation than lawyers and that’s saying something.
What a pompous, self-serving, irrelevant little twit you are, no doubt you were bullied at school or something.
Get a life.
JR
And Leighton Andrews. the education head honcho of the Welsh administration has just resigned, following some torrid skulduggery over a Welsh school.
Well well, and only today I requested an interview with him.
Lucky chap!
JR
What ruling was that now Campbell? First I’ve heard of it.
You are yet another silly little man with pretensions that would shame the director of Star Wars.
Stay in your tiny fantasy world is my advice, along with Hewson and Mosby.
JR
Julian Ruck said,
“Where all my Letters are concerned, none of you address the substantive issues I raise…”
He also said,
“I note none of you have been able to challenge (apart from my £2000) any of the facts I have put into the public domain…
Julian – you have been challenged on every single one, and then you refuse to answer your critics – pretending that it hasn’t happened doesn’t mean that the questions go away. I have challenged you in previous letters and you have tried your best to not answer them – in one answer you kindly asked me to stop replying to your blogposts and asked me to do something else with my time after I presented you with evidence which proved you wrong.
Dave has made some excellent points and instead of engaging him in debate, you accused him of hiding behind an anonymous wall of cowardice and called him a Welsh Nationalist, which to you seems to be a dirty term – why can’t you just answer his questions? Just because the guy doesn’t have a blog doesn’t mean he is fake. You are doing yourself a disservice by refusing to answer his questions and accusing him of sockpuppetry with absolutely no evidence to back up this view.
Julian Ruck said,
“If you wish me to debate in a mature and informed manner, then do please all of you address the issues, instead of seizing Uncut as an opportunity to vent your unpleasant and remarkably twisted vitriol.”
In your last letter, I pointed out your plagiarism and asked you to comment before I made any remarks myself – your next message said, ‘why don’t you all go get stuffed.’ Perhaps you should take your own advice…
Julian Ruck said,
“As Uncut has itself commented, ‘…..from MP’s to party members, no-one yet has echoed the tone or substance of the critics in the the comments thread…’ “
This is not true and Labour Uncut are aware of it. Have a look at the answers to the tweet of this blog update: https://twitter.com/LabourUncut/status/348762837906235392
Here is a selection:
Peter Bradbury (Labour Councillor for Caerau, Cardiff) said:
“@LabourUncut what a load of nonsense that is! Clear Red Water wasn’t about having a go at England it was about having a different approach”
David M Davies (Labour Councillor for the Town Ward in Merthyr Tydfil) said:
“@LabourUncut Thats about the biggest load of crap Ive read in years. Why fight the tories when we can fight each other yeah.”
Luke Holland (Councillor for Splott, Cardiff and Cabinet Member) said:
“@LabourUncut Just read yr “Letter from Wales”. Most desperate & tragic piece of writing / commissioning I’ve had misfortune to read in ages.”
David Hagendyk (Welsh Labour General Secretary) said:
“Ill-informed is politest word I can think of for @labouruncut piece on Wales. Feel free to tweet them any words you can think of.”
Estelle Hart (Labour Party activist from Swansea) said:
“@davehagendyk all of the stuff that guy writes on Wales suggests he should spend less time online & more time actually with activists”
Jo Stevens (Trade Union Lawyer and Labour Party activist from London/Cardiff) said: “@davehagendyk @LabourUncut absolute drivel were the words I was thinking of.”
Gareth Jones (artist from Anglesey) said:
“@LabourUncut what a load guff. Stick to fiction. # criminalguff”
Michael Fogg (Labour Party activist from Cardiff) said:
“@jostevens1966 @davehagendyk @LabourUncut Confusing (deliberately?) political pragmatism and policy substance, is my initial reaction….”
Julian Ruck said,
‘…this alone rather says it all about the abysmal and extraordinarly [sic] low-grade level of debate in Wales.’
Again, Mr Ruck, just because you are unaware of it and do not engage does not mean that debate in Wales doesn’t exist. This link is a few years old but the vast majority are still active. so instead of just looking at Glyn Davies MP’s blog, I urge you to read these blogs and comment on them:
http://www.totalpolitics.com/blog/27353/top-50-welsh-blogs.thtml
To Morais,
Now, you say you are doing a PhD on the arts or something, but are you sure it isn’t on Welsh Labour?
Because you are spending one hell of a lot of time on the subject!
JR
Julian – you really don’t have the common sense and insight to understand how badly you’re embarrassing yourself with these comments, do you?
Julian, this feud with David Hewson is beyond absurd, like everything you do. David’s credentials as a writer seem pretty secure to me. Let us compare your attempt at creating a Wikipedia entry for yourself Julian….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Julian_Ruck
To quote one of the editors who had your page deleted; ‘Autobiography of local vanity self-publisher and gadfly; fails to meet requirements for substantive coverage.’
Compare this to Mr Hewson’s Wikipedia entry…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hewson_(author)
I do not think you can do anything but accept his friendly advice Julian, as a luminary in your chosen profession who has decided to gift it to you.
I cannot ascertain any evidence that David Hewson hacked phones, or been sued. Where did you get this potentially libellous information from?
And why are you still having a go at Steve Mosby?