| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. 12:42 - Jun 3 with 10164 views | johnlangy |
The latest article on the Nation Cymru website.
‘For the UK Government, Wales is just not important,’ First Minister Carwyn Jones said in response to the revelation that Westminster had just pulled the plug on Swansea’s proposed Tidal Lagoon.
This belated realisation has come after a string of disappointments, including the decision to scrap the electrification of the railroad to Swansea.
Wales has long believed that if it shows its loyalty to Westminster, it will be rewarded. Like an eager dog, it keeps coming back for another kicking.
Of course, this belief flies directly in the face of reality. Compare and contrast how Westminster deal with the SNP Government in Scotland compared to the Labour government in Wales.
Westminster rewards dissent, they reward countries that stand up for themselves. Loyalty, meanwhile, is taken as a signal to treat you like a doormat.
One would hope that the First Minister’s realisation marks a turning point in Wales’ relationship with the UK establishment, which has been characterised by unending loyalty on one side and neglect on the other for the best part of 500 years.
However, his likely successor, Mark Drakeford, gave in to Westminster’s ‘power grab’ on the basis that defending the union was his most important consideration!
If you are in a neglectful and abusive marriage, the last thing you should do is say: ‘However you treat me, our marriage is the most important thing.’
What you do say is: ‘Start treating me right or I’m going to leave you.’
Power
We need to take for granted that Westminster does not care about Wales. That needs to be the starting point for Wales in all our considerations.
And why would they? If I was UK Prime Minister, docile old Wales would be the last thing on my mind too, unless I was planning a walking holiday.
The current UK Government is, in effect, a London and South-East England nationalist party.
Their idea of a ‘union’ is not to strengthen all parts of the UK equally, but to draw cultural, economic and political power slowly and surely into one corner of Britain.
Some politicians and media would like to treat ‘Welsh nationalism’ as an expletive, but all it means in practice is standing up for ourselves and saying that this is unfair.
The people of Wales need to wake up to this. There is no good reason why much of Wales is the poorest part of western Europe, while just down the road we have, in London, the richest part of Western Europe.
There is nothing natural about this concentration of wealth. It’s because the Government sprays money at London and centralises power there, while giving as little as it can to Wales.
The Government spends £2,700 per head on transport in London. The figure in Wales is closer to £100. London is getting Crossrail, HS2, Crossrail 2 and who knows what else will be in the pipeline.
Meanwhile, their only major contribution to Wales’ infrastructure recently has been to rename a bridge, something the majority of people in Wales were against anyway.
Wealth
So, Wales needs to ask itself a few questions: Why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth over and over?
Why do we allow people who don’t represent us — why have no understanding of Wales and its people — to make decisions at Westminster without taking our needs into consideration at all?
Think about the contribution Wales makes, and has made, to the UK.
The UK was built on the iron and coal made in Wales. But even then Wales was treated like a colony, trillions of pounds worth of goods exported, while the majority of our people lived in destitution.
Today, the relationship is just as one way. The UK couldn’t survive without the energy, from nuclear, wind and tides, from Wales, and without our vast reservoirs of water England would dry up like a raisin.
Multinational companies with offices in London feed off our cheap labour. Our children are always the first to be signed up for foreign wars. Wales gets no reward for this.
But the greatest resource Wales has is its people. And by denying Wales its fair share, Westminster is robbing us of that resource too.
Our young people want to leave our decaying towns, villages and cities and go to London and England’s South East. And who can blame them for going to where the wealth and opportunity is?
You can’t find a single father in Wales who will say, ‘I can’t wait for my son to join me at the call centre.’
There is no reason why Wales should put up with this. The ordinary working people of Wales have a right to demand a fair share of the UK’s wealth, and that means proper investment.
Wales needs to demand its fair share of investment so that the country has a future. So that our kids have the opportunity to live and study here and not to have to leave our country to find work.
We all love Wales and want to live happy, prosperous lives here, see our children and grandchildren grow up here, we want to retire here, and be buried here.
But that means that we have to fight, because at the moment our country is being sucked dry of all ambition and potential, and left to stagnate.
Anger
This isn’t about grievance. This isn’t anyone else’s fault. It’s not England’s fault, it’s not even the Tories’ fault — this is our fault. We have allowed ourselves to be treated this way, by being supine, and electing supine politicians to represent us.
We need to fight for recognition and respect. And we can’t sit around and wait for other people’s permission to do it.
We know the working people of Wales are tired of being treated like this. That is what was behind the Brexit vote, although their faith in charlatans like Farage, Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg was misplaced.
These politicians, who don’t understand Wales, have taken advantage of people’s anger and frustration to further roll back regulation that will leave working people at the mercy of global economic winds.
As it has in Scotland, the change here in Wales will happen when we elected people who will fight for what is best for the people of Wales, not what is best for the already wealthy in London and the South East of England.
And like Scotland, if we come together and demand that we’re treated differently, they will have no choice but to do so.
Under the current circumstances, the Welsh Government’s claim that they’re ‘standing up for Wales’ is a joke.
They’re on their knees, complaining about being kicked in the teeth while thanking Westminster for their benevolence.
If they won’t stand up for Wales, it’s time to elect someone who will. It’s up to us. |  | | |  |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 12:55 - Jun 3 with 5982 views | trampie |
That is a top article.  |  |
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| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 13:00 - Jun 3 with 5983 views | peenemunde |
What about the multi billion £ new nuclear power station that is about to get the go ahead in north Wales? Or isn’t that part of Wales? |  | | |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 13:17 - Jun 3 with 5947 views | Badlands |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 13:00 - Jun 3 by peenemunde |
What about the multi billion £ new nuclear power station that is about to get the go ahead in north Wales? Or isn’t that part of Wales? |
Government has been forced into Wylfa as it offers a larger profit for private investors (fair enough) and there was always going to be less opposition than at other sites.
But Wylfa has been in preparation for 5 years and had already sucked in too much money to turn away from.
Good news for the North.
The difference with the Swansea area is two very lucrative, long term developmental projects that had been on the brink of rubber stamping have been taken away.
And -
Nuclear lasts 25 - 50 years.
Tidal - as long as we have coasts |  |
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| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 13:18 - Jun 3 with 5944 views | Badlands |
In response to the OP - we don't just allow it, we vote for it. | |
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| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 13:29 - Jun 3 with 5930 views | peenemunde |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 13:17 - Jun 3 by Badlands |
Government has been forced into Wylfa as it offers a larger profit for private investors (fair enough) and there was always going to be less opposition than at other sites.
But Wylfa has been in preparation for 5 years and had already sucked in too much money to turn away from.
Good news for the North.
The difference with the Swansea area is two very lucrative, long term developmental projects that had been on the brink of rubber stamping have been taken away.
And -
Nuclear lasts 25 - 50 years.
Tidal - as long as we have coasts |
Tidal won’t last as long as we have waves.
Just like nuclear, coal, gas, once it reaches a certain age, it will close. | | | |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 13:36 - Jun 3 with 5915 views | pikeypaul |
Much the same could be said how WAG treats the rest of Wales compared with what is spent on Cardiff,Carwyn is a total hypocrite.
When I got to "our children are always the first to be signed up for foriegn wars" I realised how pathetic the article is and stopped reading.
[Post edited 3 Jun 2018 13:41]
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| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 13:55 - Jun 3 with 5892 views | Jonathans_coat |
Good article on the whole. Does contain some nonsense, but also many good points. |  | | |
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| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 14:30 - Jun 3 with 5845 views | Private_Partz |
A excellent post there John and I hope it is not going to be wasted just on Planet Swans.
Get the message out there.
One point I think needs to be raised though is that Cardiff is the boom City of Europe with Massive entertainment , media, transport, Public Sector, Private Sector and Third Sector infastructure.
The fact is these poor politicians are quite happy to sit in their bubble whilst the rest of Wales perishes by their lack of effort and marginalisation from Westminster.
Plaid is the way forward here (and here is where I fall out withTrampie) but IMHO they are not doing nearly enough. Dai Lloyd being a notable exception.
We used to dream of a team of Alan Tates, I dream of a Party of Dai Lloyds :-)
I hope Plaid will wake up and stop propping up Welsh Labour. There is real dissatisfaction in their ranks with various dissenting factions being formed.
I used to support the Union. Now an Independant Wales, with a Government that cares about the WHOLE of it, under an EU umbrella could be an attractive proposition for me. |  |
| You have mission in life to hold out your hand,
To help the other guy out,
Help your fellow man.
Stan Ridgway
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| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 14:38 - Jun 3 with 5833 views | Joe_bradshaw |
Thinly veiled vote for Plaid article.
Plaid who prop up Labour in Cardiff bay by allowing their budget to pass when they had a chance to make a stance. They claimed it was in return for concessions, most of which were Labour policy anyway.
Why vote Plaid when they support Labour? Why vote for the monkey when you can vote for the organ grinder? |  |
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| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 15:13 - Jun 3 with 5792 views | trampie |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 14:30 - Jun 3 by Private_Partz |
A excellent post there John and I hope it is not going to be wasted just on Planet Swans.
Get the message out there.
One point I think needs to be raised though is that Cardiff is the boom City of Europe with Massive entertainment , media, transport, Public Sector, Private Sector and Third Sector infastructure.
The fact is these poor politicians are quite happy to sit in their bubble whilst the rest of Wales perishes by their lack of effort and marginalisation from Westminster.
Plaid is the way forward here (and here is where I fall out withTrampie) but IMHO they are not doing nearly enough. Dai Lloyd being a notable exception.
We used to dream of a team of Alan Tates, I dream of a Party of Dai Lloyds :-)
I hope Plaid will wake up and stop propping up Welsh Labour. There is real dissatisfaction in their ranks with various dissenting factions being formed.
I used to support the Union. Now an Independant Wales, with a Government that cares about the WHOLE of it, under an EU umbrella could be an attractive proposition for me. |
Oh just seeing this, after I replied to you on another thread, wondering if you was part of the problem, lol.
The best think you can do is support Plaid and try and persuade others to do the same to hopefully from your point of view get some of the things you desire, criticising them constantly in public like this message-board does your hopes no good of getting what you desire for Swansea and Wales as the Labour party, Conservative and Unionist party and the Liberal Democrats are not going to provide it, they are all London centric parties in a UK sense and a Cardiff centric party in a Wales sense.
Plaid Cymru has the interests of all of Wales at heart, don't forget Plaids heartlands are far away from Cardiff, its not in Plaids interest to be Cardiff biased. | |
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| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 15:58 - Jun 3 with 5747 views | moonie |
Good article and realisation of the depth of Swansea demise
What say you Lifey to the others who " slag off" Swansea
How does plaid have the interests of Deeside at heart giving your hatred of those east of the Dyke ,tramps, you're views are appalling and thinly veiled racist hate
Plaid would marginalise non Welsh speakers for a start | | | |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 16:21 - Jun 3 with 5725 views | peenemunde |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 15:58 - Jun 3 by moonie |
Good article and realisation of the depth of Swansea demise
What say you Lifey to the others who " slag off" Swansea
How does plaid have the interests of Deeside at heart giving your hatred of those east of the Dyke ,tramps, you're views are appalling and thinly veiled racist hate
Plaid would marginalise non Welsh speakers for a start |
Forget PC they have no chance.
What do they even stand for? | | | |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 16:24 - Jun 3 with 5720 views | moonie |
Bigotry, envy, hate..like all political parties
You re making good points pee | | | |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 16:28 - Jun 3 with 5714 views | peenemunde |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 16:24 - Jun 3 by moonie |
Bigotry, envy, hate..like all political parties
You re making good points pee |
Do they still want independence ? If so from just the U.K.? Or from the Eu too, because independence from the U.K, but remain in the Eu, isn’t really independence.
All rather muddled really. | | | |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 16:37 - Jun 3 with 5696 views | trampie |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 15:58 - Jun 3 by moonie |
Good article and realisation of the depth of Swansea demise
What say you Lifey to the others who " slag off" Swansea
How does plaid have the interests of Deeside at heart giving your hatred of those east of the Dyke ,tramps, you're views are appalling and thinly veiled racist hate
Plaid would marginalise non Welsh speakers for a start |
The only hatred is from you, as regards Plaid would marginalise non Welsh speakers, Leanne is the leader and she is a non Welsh speaker, not sure how her learning is getting on. | |
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| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 16:44 - Jun 3 with 5684 views | peenemunde |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 16:37 - Jun 3 by trampie |
The only hatred is from you, as regards Plaid would marginalise non Welsh speakers, Leanne is the leader and she is a non Welsh speaker, not sure how her learning is getting on. |
Do they still want independence ? And if so from who ? U.K. , Eu ? | | | |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 17:34 - Jun 3 with 5624 views | Highjack |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 16:21 - Jun 3 by peenemunde |
Forget PC they have no chance.
What do they even stand for? |
They don’t stand, they kind of lean on the bar saying “same again please drive” |  |
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| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 17:40 - Jun 3 with 5616 views | trampie |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 16:44 - Jun 3 by peenemunde |
Do they still want independence ? And if so from who ? U.K. , Eu ? |
Just like Ireland a sovereign independent state and part of Europe, Ireland of course is one of the most prosperous and modern countries in the World.
PS They improved themselves no end by breaking away. [Post edited 3 Jun 2018 17:45]
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| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 17:44 - Jun 3 with 5610 views | Highjack |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 17:40 - Jun 3 by trampie |
Just like Ireland a sovereign independent state and part of Europe, Ireland of course is one of the most prosperous and modern countries in the World.
PS They improved themselves no end by breaking away. [Post edited 3 Jun 2018 17:45]
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How are vague concepts such as prosperity and modernity scientifically measured in your mad world Trampie? | |
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| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 17:55 - Jun 3 with 5593 views | johnlangy |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 17:44 - Jun 3 by Highjack |
How are vague concepts such as prosperity and modernity scientifically measured in your mad world Trampie? |
Very briefly the prosperity part would be measured by a GDP about double that of Wales. | | | |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 17:56 - Jun 3 with 5586 views | trampie |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 17:44 - Jun 3 by Highjack |
How are vague concepts such as prosperity and modernity scientifically measured in your mad world Trampie? |
Human development index [last one I seen Ireland were 8th in the World and the UK was 16th] .
Quality of life index [they were above the UK in 2013]
The Legatum prosperity index 2015 [they were 10th in the World, we was 15th]
With the abortion vote I think in all these indices they will be leaving us behind in the league tables.
If Scotland became independent they would immediately become one of the richest countries in the World.
Wales would do just fine, London centric policies are holding us back.
PS I forgot the UK is leaving Europe as well, human rights, workers rights etc, in these type of indices I think Ireland is going to take us big time in the next few years, during the Celtic Tiger era they took us for the first time on some measures then after the banking crisis and recession some small countries not having the dynamics of scale were hit a bit harder and we were 3 or 4 places above them but now they are set to shoot clear of us. [Post edited 3 Jun 2018 18:12]
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| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 18:01 - Jun 3 with 5582 views | bluey_the_blue |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 17:40 - Jun 3 by trampie |
Just like Ireland a sovereign independent state and part of Europe, Ireland of course is one of the most prosperous and modern countries in the World.
PS They improved themselves no end by breaking away. [Post edited 3 Jun 2018 17:45]
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Did they trampie?
Like when they had to be repeatedly bailed out?
Like when the public had to be asked again to get the EU friendly response wanted? | | | |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 18:02 - Jun 3 with 5581 views | johnlangy |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 14:30 - Jun 3 by Private_Partz |
A excellent post there John and I hope it is not going to be wasted just on Planet Swans.
Get the message out there.
One point I think needs to be raised though is that Cardiff is the boom City of Europe with Massive entertainment , media, transport, Public Sector, Private Sector and Third Sector infastructure.
The fact is these poor politicians are quite happy to sit in their bubble whilst the rest of Wales perishes by their lack of effort and marginalisation from Westminster.
Plaid is the way forward here (and here is where I fall out withTrampie) but IMHO they are not doing nearly enough. Dai Lloyd being a notable exception.
We used to dream of a team of Alan Tates, I dream of a Party of Dai Lloyds :-)
I hope Plaid will wake up and stop propping up Welsh Labour. There is real dissatisfaction in their ranks with various dissenting factions being formed.
I used to support the Union. Now an Independant Wales, with a Government that cares about the WHOLE of it, under an EU umbrella could be an attractive proposition for me. |
No credit for me here PP. The article was posted on Nation Cymru by Ifan Morgan Jones.
There are plenty of good articles on there, some not so good. Some pointing out the dreadful efforts of Labour in running the country, also their centralisation of investment in the South East at the expense of the rest of Wales.
Well worth checking out daily for the latest articles. | | | |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 18:07 - Jun 3 with 5563 views | peenemunde |
| People of Wales, why do we allow ourselves to be kicked in the teeth. on 17:40 - Jun 3 by trampie |
Just like Ireland a sovereign independent state and part of Europe, Ireland of course is one of the most prosperous and modern countries in the World.
PS They improved themselves no end by breaking away. [Post edited 3 Jun 2018 17:45]
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Well that’s me out. Never will I be voting pc | | | |
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