by Julian Ruck
Yes it’s true, I’m not joking! The Byddin Ymreolwyr Cymru (for all you English speakers, the Home Rule Army of Wales as was Plaid in its original combustible form) is sadly lacking in geographical awareness. It’s official.
And how do I know this? Well now, it seems one soldier of the Army of Home Rulers (take that for those who want a Welsh only speaking sovereign state of Wales), the venerable and not so loquacious Jill Evans Plaid Cymru MEP, has apparently only spoken some 13 times to European Parliamentary plenary sessions in Strasbourg since June 2009, whilst her fellow Welsh MEP’s have each made between 187 and 227 contributions.
Quality not quantity you may be thinking? But some of her questions have related to the independence (funnily enough!) of a former Spanish colony in Africa and financial support for a Frisian language theatre (again funnily enough) – hints here I think of a minority Welsh language kindred spirit perhaps? Oh and not forgetting her question relating to Chagossians.
Chagossians? Yes I know, apparently the late Saunders Lewis, that old Plaid Cymru war-horse, hero of nationalist endeavour and pyrotechnic genius, albeit that his propensity for arson landed him in the Scrubs, had dropped in on the Chagossians for a pint of Felinfoel Double Dragon ale when he had got lost in the Indian Ocean, so the story goes. He had only gone out to buy a gallon of paraffin too!
Now, you may be wondering what Jill Evans is all about? I mean, isn’t she supposed to be representing the Welsh and raising Welsh issues? Not so, it would seem. Minority languages and the plight of Chagossians seem to be her order of priorities. This being the case, one has to ask whether the Rhonddian fire-brand, Leanne Wood – I hear she now has some English (god forbid!) elocution and make-over gurus in tow – is equally shy of atlas absorbing, because Plaid Cymru certainly seems to have difficulty deciding the order of its geographical priorities.
One can only conclude that the next thing our Welsh politicos will be doing, most particularly Plaid Cymru and Old Labour, is basing the Welsh economy and healthcare on Latvian and Afghanistan models – as if they are not doing this already!
PS Well, we did it. The only Welsh sports car ever made, a Gilbern Invader MK III, completed the 2000 odd mile MSA Euro Classic Rally round trip and even reached a check-in point or two before the odd Porsche and Ferrari!
Julian Ruck is an author, columnist and Freedom of Information campaigner. He also makes contributions to both Welsh and national broadcasting and media
Tags: Jill Evans MEP, Julian Ruck, Leanne Wood, Letter from Wales, Plaid Cymru
The author is aware that Somalia is not an ex-spanish colony and the Chagossians have nothing to do with it either. That is some. G Bloom style geographical mix up!
And I have not heard anything of Welsh moving towards a Latvian Model fro healthcare, please explain.
Evans seems to disagree with your statistics
http://m.thisissouthwales.co.uk/story.html?aid=19120756
What a load of utter toss. Labour Uncut, when you have authors writing real and substantial columns, do you publish this? Julian, get back in your car and have a jolly, quit this writing laugh you pub bore. You know nothing of politics, go and get your wife to pay for ‘publishing’ your next ‘book’ for you.
….but Evans doesn’t disagree with the Western Mail.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/mep-jill-evans-under-fire-2012326
Can we believe all that Jill Evans says?
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/plaid-mep-jill-evans-apologises-2018354
Could we not disagree with Mr Gething?
Welsh Labour AM Vaughan Gething said: “This whole episode just gets weirder and weirder. It’s like a scene from Lord of the Rings.”
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/plaid-cymru-president-criticised-bizarre-2020991
Anything can happen in Middle-earth or Wales for that matter…………
Stop confusing the Welsh with Wales Julian – you blur the lines by doing so. There are plenty of non-Welsh living in Wales and plenty of Welsh living outside Wales. Plaid Cymru is not a party for the welsh – it is a party for the citizens off Wales irrespective of their country of origin – a fact you full well know, and has many non-welsh members, activists and voters – again as you very well know. You try to make Plaid out to be something it is not and gloss over what it actually is.
You may impress people outside of Wales who have little idea of welsh politics, but you make yourself look a fool – a buffoon even, to those of us who do live in Wales and understand the politics.
And Akira, just for background info – The Western Mail is predominantly a south Wales newspaper and is barely read in the north (it’s actually quite hard to get hold of up here in the north). North Wales is the North Wales Daily Post – which outsells virtually all (if not actually all) daily newspapers in North Wales.
“But who knows what can happen? Wales beat England! There’s snow on the ground in Jerusalem – yes really – and the children have been pelting our bus with snowballs! On our late night drive back to Jerusalem I think maybe I shouldn’t be so pessimistic.”
There’s Jill Evans making an analogy between Palestine and Wales in the North Wales Daily Post.
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/jill-evans-mep-reports-palestine-2844207
Wales is getting poorer at a faster rate than the rest of the UK – with a third of children now living in poverty.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/proportion-people-wales-living-poverty-4308922
I am beginning to become pessimistic, I hope the children don’t start pelting rocks at the Senate when they realise their prosperity and their future have been robbed by a bunch of die hard nationalists intent on making Wales a post devolution Welsh Palestine.
PS…Perhaps some copies of the Western Mail could be sent up into the wilderness of North Wales using Ieuan Air?
To Taffia,
You state that people outside Wales have little idea of Welsh politics – which is precisley why Uncut publishes my columns.
UK taxpayers have a right to know how their money is being spent, if you don’t like this then may I suggest you restrict your reading to the North Wales Daily Post.
Further, if Plaid Cymru is such a wonderfully inclusive and cosmopolitan political party, why does it use a name that can be undertsood only by the few?
Julian Ruck
Mr Origami, I think that was a great article by Jill Evans in the North Wales Daily Post.
Do you have a problem with the views expressed by her in that article? I struggle to see what is wrong with it or why you keep putting irrelevant links on this site, is it just to show you can use search engines?
There are lots of problems with poverty in Wales. Why is devolution to blame?
I think devolution is a positive and logical system. Why can’t we in Wales make our own laws? Why are English politicians worthy or more knowledgable about Wales than Welsh people themselves?
By Senate I believe you mean Senydd?
On the article itself, utter toss. Somalia was never a Spanish colony, Somalia was half British and half Italian. Bugger.
I also question the relevance of this on a Labour grassroots blog. Julian knows a bit about sports cars but nothing about politics or history.
This is an article by someone who dislikes Plaid, gets basic historical facts wrong and comes up with no answers to any questions. What has this bile got to do with Labour politics, much more to do with a bitter man who hates his own country of origin.
Also, what qualifies him to write for you editor? It can’t be his Llanelli Star rubbish if his last one is anything to go by
http://julianruck.wordpress.com/2013/09/18/the-gilbern-invader-mk-iii-a-true-welsh-great-star-column-18-9-13/#comments
‘The highlights of the Rally? Strong beer and bars that didn’t throw you out for having a fag, at least in my view anyway. One noticeable feature of the Rally was the fact that there appeared to be no female classic car owners. A few wives and girlfriends riding shotgun but that was it. Obviously, such activity is beyond the whip of feminist outrage – for now anyway, but who knows?’
Just total chauvinistic, idiotic crap, like everything this plonker seems to write.
I hope the children don’t start pelting rocks at the Senate when they realise their prosperity and their future have been robbed by a bunch of die hard nationalists intent on making Wales a post devolution Welsh Palestine.
In case it escaped your attention, Labour has an absolute majority in the senned and in fact Labour has been in power in the senned unbroken since 1999 and if Wales is failing it’s failing because of Labour – nobody else has had a look-in.
Again in case it escaped your attention the ‘die hard nationalists’ aren’t even the current opposition – the tories hold more assembly seats than Plaid.
So don’t go blaming ‘die hard nationalists’ for Wales’s problems – the problems are the fault of Labour.
To Tafia…….”Nobody else has had a look in”?
Plaid was tested in government and was not found wanting – Ieuan Wyn Jones writes for the Western Mail
http://www.ieuanwynjones.plaidcymru.org/news/2011/08/03/plaid-was-tested-in-government-and-was-not-found-wanting-ieuan-wyn-jones-writes-for-the-western-mail/
“I knew that the 2006 plans to give us law making powers with the consent of Westminster were going to be highly problematic. I insisted that a referendum on law making powers had to be one of the cornerstones of the agreement that formed the One Wales government.
I can now say that the wording of the commitment to the referendum in One Wales went through many iterations and the drafting process became quite tortuous and arduous. Nevertheless, agreement was reached.
Despite occasional noises off in Westminster and apparent attempts by Labour there to derail the whole idea, we refused to let it go! The referendum would not have happened without the presence of Plaid in government. We can rightly claim the credit for that.”
PS… Mr Marshall the Cymraeg word for senate is senydd.
Julian – You are included in the ‘no idea about welsh politics’ – you obviously don’t
For instance you seem not to know that Plaid Cymru’s full title is Plaid Cymru – The Party of Wales, despite that appearing on iot’s literature and the ballot paper.
You would also be hard pressed to find anyone living in Wales who doesn’t know who/what Plaid Cymru are.
Reading your drivel week-in week-ouut it quickly becomes apparent that really you don’t like Welsh Labour or Llafur Cymru as it is also known and again appears as in it’s literature and on ballot papers and that you are extremly anti-devolutionist.
A rather pointless and regressive individual is all you appear to be.
Mr Origami, you write to mr Marshall the Cymraeg spelling of Senydd, he spelt it correctly the first time you fool.
Plaid have never been in government, Why do you think they have?
You seem to think, wrongly, that Plaid are the cause of all Welsh ills. This is a silly reactionary idea and I would like to see evidence of this.
Julian, who has wants an only Welsh speaking sovereign state? You are a silly clown Julian, have you any evidence of this daft claim?
Jill Evans does do excellent work. I think she comes up for criticism by Julian Ruck and yourself for similar reasons as George Galloway in Westminster. Galloway is not the type of politician to make speeches to the house, instead choosing to work for constituents instead.
Jill Evans does the same for minority cultures internationally.
‘One can only conclude that the next thing our Welsh politicos will be doing, most particularly Plaid Cymru and Old Labour, is basing the Welsh economy and healthcare on Latvian and Afghanistan models – as if they are not doing this already!’
Even for Julian Ruck, some of the rubbish in this article is beyond… And that says something.
‘Further, if Plaid Cymru is such a wonderfully inclusive and cosmopolitan political party, why does it use a name that can be undertsood only by the few?’
Come on Julian, even someone as stupid as you should be able to translate that after a month or two living in Wales. I agree completely with Tafia’ above comment. This is nearly as daft as the times when you’ve missed buses in Wales, despite all public transport being bilingual..
http://julianruck.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/welsh-buses/
I do think though, any English people who do have an interest in Welsh politics would look elsewhere for insight. Julian is lacking. On this blog he has plagiarised a Tory politician, Glyn Davies;
http://labour-uncut.co.uk/2013/06/14/letter-from-wales-welsh-democracy-is-in-a-ruinous-state/comment-page-1/#comments
And invented a fictional businessman and accuses WAG of blowing huge investment. Funny only Julian knew about this story..
http://labour-uncut.co.uk/2013/07/08/letter-from-wales-welsh-government-blows-e130m-investment-in-north-wales/
On another note, what has this article got to do with grassroots labour politics? Nothing, for the second week in a row. Well more like since its inception. Maybe it would be better just to give him a motoring section, so he write his chauvinistic crap like a beta Jeremy Clarkson? Maybe approach the Llanelli Star with it Julian? Though you would probably use it as a vehicle to blame getting lost on bilingual signs..
The fact that this crap keeps getting published week in week out is absurd and farcical, like Julian’s entire oeuvre.
Apologies mr Origami, Plaid were a minority partner in coalition with Labour between 2007 and 2011. Which poses interesting questions that have not been discussed sensibly here.
Would Labour have done better without Plaid as minority partner? How can a Labour improve it’s record and not need coalition partners? And is Labours hegemony bad for Wales? What does Welsh Labour stand for, when Plaid do have a clear mandate? Should Welsh Labour move further to the left?
Proper and informed debate on this Welsh labour politics page is made difficult because of the much tainted and clownish figure of Julian Ruck.
I am not making a comment but Leighton Andrews seems to know Welsh politics, Plaid Cymru and it’s history in his reply to Helen Mary Jones
“Ha Ha. I defer to Gwyn Alf Williams, a former Plaid Vice President, in When Was Wales? (Penguin) when he argued: ‘During the 1930s Plaid became even more of a right wing force. Its journal refused to resist Hitler or Mussolini, ignored or tolerated anti-Semitism and, in effect, came out in support of Franco. In 1941 Saunders Lewis’s pamphlet The Church and the World explicitly rejected the war against Nazi Germany while in 1944 Ambrose Bebb condemned the plot to assassinate Hitler’.”
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/memorial-call-sets-ams-arguing-2109469
I didn’t know this about Plaid Cymru…….interesting.
Ok so we all know that Ruck is a shamefully ignorant and bigoted slice of self-hating puke pie, that much is not on doubt. It is surely a matter of time before this website reveals the joke has been on us and that he is nothing more than an intentionally unfunny and self loathing grotesque cariacture created by anonymous writers intent on bringing to life the archetypal self hating Brit-nat Welshman of yesteryear.
However it would appear that Origami is an actual person (albeit one who can barely write to an adult standard). What a monstrous bore, always devoid of fact, always perpetuating his racist anti-intellectual agenda. His choice to misspell Senedd is as tragic as it is pathetic – a failed troll. Sad.
To Ed Parke
Tafia gives the Cymraeg version of senate as “senned” is he wrong too? Or is that the North Cymraeg? version?
I will use the English term “senate” as this is an English speaking site- if that is OK with you Ed?
I am beginning to understand why Welsh education is in a mess……Sad.
But the name of the building is the Senedd you silly little man. Anyone of any intelligence, or cultural capital (of which you blatantly have next to none of), does not translate place names (especially as some kind of crypto racist point scoring tragi comic exercise) – it marks you out as a mouth breather of the highest order. Tell me more about yourself, I’m interested in the man behind the moron (I think I see you but am interested to know if the reality meets my own idea).
I believe people, places and things should be called by there names Mr Origami. The Senedd is universally called the Senedd, in all parts of the media and in day to day conversation, both in English and in Welsh.
So what name should we use to address you?
I am confused as to why you dislike devolution so much. I am guessing you must be of similar age to mr Ruck? What is wrong with Welsh people being able to pass laws in Wales? Even the older generation in my family, my great uncle and his friends being an example (navy men all their life), have come round to the idea that devolution is better for Wales.
It is a very defeatist and pessimistic attitude toward Wales that makes a Welshman, or woman, think that we are unable to have the powers of reason to understand our countries needs. I think Leanne Woods understands Wales better than Cameron or Osborne. On the same note, Welsh Labour over English conservatives any day.
So tell us something about yourself Mr Origami, what makes you feel how you do?
To Ed Parke
Do you know what Senedd means?
Check it out, it is “Senate”, it is not a place name.
How can you be so ignorant?
gwyn alf williams was a member of plaid, mr origami.
Origami, you get more tragic by the post. Yes, the word senedd can be translated – of course it can, it is a word with a meaning. But in this case it is also the given name name of a building/institution, hence why it is spelt with a capital letter i.e the Senedd. Therefore, as has been pointed out by John Abell, this is why all people the world over only refer to it as the Senedd. Do you really not understand this you silly little man?
It is Senate then.
Thank you Ed
Would I be right to call Plaid Cymru “the Party of Wales”?
If you like, Mr Origami. Or just call it Plaid, it’s easier.
To Tafia
I hope they don’t overlook this news item in the North Wales Daily Post and they have a full inquiry in the Senate.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/hotel-folds-after-receiving-700000-6095648
Thank you Mr Abell….I will call it Party on English speaking sites – even easier.
Hi Julian, just curious as to where your figures come from.
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/4550/JILL_EVANS_activities.html
says she’s spoken 311 times in plenary sessions since 2009, on a range of topics.
Where does your figure of 13 come from?
Origami, as a point oif interest can you tell us what the English words for spaghetti, macaroni, beans, petrol, paper, burger, ambulance and dozens of others are?
The Senned is named the Senned. It is the correct word for it. It is the title used for it in countries elewhere. To use another word is not only incorrect – it’s blatantly ignorant.
Perhaps Mr Ruck’s insightful wit and joie de vivre banter would be better served by redirecting his Carry On binoculars at the unionist Labour party in Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland who have been so eager and willing to enter in to the the four genocidal and illegal wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria and which have resulted in the deaths of up to 2 million people