Alun Davies AM wants to Stand for Blaenau Gwent

Alun Davies: "Same Welsh Labour Gangsters" is he a Brit or a Nationalist?

New Car or Solar Panels

Motorist in Wales could cost the taxpayer an astonishing £1.5bn fortune if they trade in their old bangers for new cars. Chancellor Alistair Darling announced in his Budget last week that car owners will be entitled to a £2,000 cash payout if they scrap cars that are more than 10 years old – with half of that coming from the taxpayer. The most expensive scenario would see a £1.5bn payout if everyone who qualified traded in their car.
But even if Wales only follows the trend of other European countries in taking up the offer, the bill could amount to at least £150m. In France, for example, sales of new vehicles rose by 10%. If Wales followed suit that would cost £150m.
This would put thousand of cars on the road and have a negative impact on the environment.
Why doesn’t Labour provide every homeowner with £2,000 towards Solar Panels, triple glazing or home installation? Solar Panel Water Heating System, usually cost under £4000 installed and Save Up To 70% On Water Heating cost. European money could be used to install energy efficient products to every council house and council owed building. The elderly and disabled and families on low income who doesn’t live in council houses could have a big reduction, why the rest of us could have the cost added on at the end of our mortgage with no interest cost added. This would stimulate the manufacturing sector and provide thousands of jobs to those manufacturing and installing energy efficient products. Not to mention it would be good for the environment and reduce our carbon footprint. I would rather make my house more energy efficient and save me money than buy a new car.

The cost of voting Labour

1) Upgrading the Trident submarine fleet at a cost of £15bn to £20bn. 2) ID cards Scheme "May cost £18bn!
Identity cards could cost three times the government's estimate - almost £300 per person. 3) Labour’s bank rescue will cost us £200billion or more than £3,000 for every man, woman and child.

Labour Prepare to Privatise £10million per year profit Royal Mint

Labour prepares to privatise the Royal Mint, after making £10million profit last year. Which could mean within 5 years there is nothing stopping whatever company that buys the Royal Mint moving it abroad to the likes of Eastern Europe or the middle East. This is like selling off the family silver. Unions like Unison threatens withdrawing donations to the Labour party if Labour doesn’t clean up its act. I think all unions should show some bottle and stand up for their members by withdrawing all donations to the Labour party and Labour elected members in disgust.

Britain has the worst record in Europe for locking up children

The figure is a five-fold increase in just a decade, according to the children's charity Barnardo's.
Barnardo's said the increase meant that many children were "being written off" by the age of 12.
In 1997, the Government lowered the age of criminal responsibility for children from 14 to 10.
Custodial sentences were handed down to 844 children in the age group in 2007, including 133 for burglary, compared with just 21 in 1996.
The charity's chief executive, Martin Narey, a former director general of the Prison Service, said detaining so many youngsters was "inexplicable" and "unjustifiable".
The number of children and young people in custody in England and Wales was the third highest in Europe, behind only the Russian Federation and the Ukraine, the charity said.

UK ranked third worst in Europe for teenage binge-drinking

The UK is ranked the third worst in Europe for teenage binge-drinking in a study out today.
More than half of British youngsters drink to excess every month, with girls more likely to abuse alcohol than boys, the research found.
It said teenagers are developing serious illnesses as a result of alcohol abuse, while many are dying prematurely.
Thirty-five European countries took part in the study by University of the West of England academics, who have described it as the largest project of its kind.
Professor Martin Plant, who led the investigation, found only Bulgaria and the Isle of Man had a poorer record when it came to binge-drinking and problems of delinquency among 15 and 16-year-olds.

Powerful Assembly Government could change the face of Welsh life

LAW-MAKING powers for the Assembly could pave the way towards a healthier, greener Wales with better transport and more accountable Government, a major report launched today argues.
The Institute of Welsh Affairs (IWA) has come up with concrete examples of policies a more powerful Assembly could bring forward and how these could change the face of national life.
Major pieces of legislation could include:
a Welsh Public Health Act which would cap the salt, fat and sugar content of food sold in Wales and require the Assembly to consider the health impact of any new law.
the creation of a new body called Transport Wales to make travelling by train and bus more affordable and convenient. Travellers could potentially gain a Welsh version of London’s Oyster card to allow them to use different forms of transport.

Ireland’s Recovery will be quicker that Wales

I expect that, by 2012 the Irish Celtic Tiger will not only be well on the way to economic recovery, but will be in a far better position to sustain this growth than over the past 10 years. If we compare the Irish position to Wales, the gap in prosperity between Wales and the UK continues to increase because of successive London governments’ inability or reluctance to invest in developing skills and innovation and create an infrastructure which supports productivity. Despite the billions of pounds of additional European funding, Wales has moved no further on in terms of its competitiveness relative to the rest of Britain. This is because European funding was transferred via the London treasury. Back in 2002 Plaid Cymru has insisted on the Treasury providing match funding for a £1.2bn aid package. The European funds - earmarked to help regenerate deprived areas - can only be accessed if pound-for-pound matching cash is made available.
Therefore, those unionist believers who criticise the Irish do so at their peril as I believe that once they have sorted out their overdependence on property, their economy will come back stronger than ever before.

The Right to Protest

Watching the G20 protests and the heavy handed of the police force. Now to find that one of the female protesters who got a smack by one of the officers has gone to Max Clifford to sell her story. I wonder if Max would be interested in my mate Jim who got smacked by a police officer during the miners strike and he was there defending his job and livelihood.

St George’s Day and English Nationalism

English nationalism refers to a nationalist outlook or political stance applied to England. In a general sense, it promotes England, as a focus for patriotic sentiment and national identity. In addition to this, it denotes a political movement that seeks self-government for England.
Regarding the United Kingdom, English nationalists have advocated a devolved English Parliament within the UK. Others have gone further, seeking the re-establishment of an independent sovereign state of England, dissolving the United Kingdom.
Modern
The English nationalist movement has its roots in a perception amongst many people in England that they are primarily or exclusively English rather than British. The perceived rise in English identity in recent years, as evidenced by the increased display of the English flag (particularly during international sporting competitions), is sometimes attributed in the media to the increased devolution of political power to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
One possible incentive for supporting the establishment of self-governing English political institutions is the West Lothian question: the constitutional inconsistency whereby Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish MPs in the UK Parliament are able to cast votes on bills which will apply only to England while English MPs have fewer such rights in relation to Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish legislation, which is in many cases handled by the devolved legislatures. The only way for the UK to become strong again is by the 4 countries of Wales, Scotland, Ireland and England having their own Parliaments.

Labour Spin-Doctor forces to resign over Email

Special adviser Damian McBride stood down yesterday after emails he wrote intended for former spin-doctor Derek Draper became public.
Mr McBride has apologised for his actions but opposition MPs are calling for the Prime Minister to also issues a personal apology for what happened.
In the emails, Mr McBride discussed with Mr Draper setting up a blog, called Red Rag, which would spread gossip about members of the Conservative Party. After Tony Blair Gordon Brown promised an end to spin and sleaze by Labour, every week we see promises being broken by this failing Labour government. Remember the blog set up by Leighton Andrews AM spin Doctor David Taylor (Aneurin Glyndwr). Inspired by the New Labour message, that a government could be both socially progressive and economically successful, David Taylor joined the Labour Party at the age of 15 in the constituency of Clwyd West. He soon felt at home in the close knit group that made up the local party in this marginal seat in North East Wales, including local MP Gareth Thomas and Welsh Assembly Member Alun Pugh. After working on a number of campaigns, including the successful re-election of Alun Pugh AM in the knife-edge 2003 contest, David became the Secretary of his Constituency Labour Party in March 2004, shortly after his eighteenth birthday. He is to date the youngest person to have held such a position. Later in the same month David was elected to the Labour Party's Welsh Executive Committee (WEC), as Youth Representative.

We Built This City (Starship)

A group of rock artist should get together and release a fund raising single for the Point in Cardiff. This is the song to use:-
Chorus:We built this city, we built this city on rock an' rollBuilt this city, we built this city on rock an' roll
Say you don't know me, or recognize my faceSay you don't care who goes to that kind of placeKnee deep in the hoopla, sinking in your fightToo many runaways eating up the night
Marconi plays the mamba, listen to the radio, don't you rememberWe built this city, we built this city on rock an' roll
Chorus:We built this city, we built this city on rock an' rollBuilt this city, we built this city on rock an' roll
Someone's always playing corporation gamesWho cares they're always changing corporation namesWe just want to dance here, someone stole the stageThey call us irresponsible, write us off the page
Marconi plays the mamba, listen to the radio, don't you rememberWe built this city, we built this city on rock an' roll
Chorus:We built this city, we built this city on rock an' rollBuilt this city, we built this city on rock an' roll
It's just another Sunday, in a tired old streetpolice have got the chokehold, and we just lost the beat!
Who counts the money underneath the barWho rides the wreaking ball into our guitarsDon't tell us you need us, 'cos we're just simple foolsLooking for America, coming through your schools
(I'm looking out over that Golden Gate bridgeon another gorgeous sunny Saturday and I'm seeing bumper to bumper traffic.
Don't you remember (remember)
(Here's your favorite radio station, in your favorite radio cityThe city by the bay, the city that rocks, the city that never sleeps)
Marconi plays the mamba, listen to the radio, don't you rememberWe built this city, we built this city on rock an' roll
Chorus:We built this city, we built this city on rock an' rollBuilt this city, we built this city on rock an' roll
Chorus:We built this city, we built this city on rock an' rollBuilt this city, we built this city on rock an' roll
(We built, we built this city) built this city (we built, we built this city) (repeats out)

Peter Hain received a £10,000 Donation towards his Legal Expenses

Former Welsh Secretary and failed blogger Peter Hain last month received a £10,000 donation towards legal expenses resulting from the investigation into funding of his deputy Labour leadership campaign.
While council workers consider strike because of their 0.5% pay rise offer and still their unions Unison, Unite and the GMB still donate to the Labour party in London. I’m fed up with reading spokesman from "Welsh Labour" under the Electoral Commission, as an accounting agent does not exist anymore.

One in four pensioners are living in poverty

A RISE in the state pension will not be enough to ward off pensioner poverty, a campaign group warned at a protest in Newcastle yesterday. The state pension rose by 5% from £90.70 to £95.25 yesterday – almost an extra £5 a week. But the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) want to see the figure rise to £165 – a figure they say will raise the pension above the poverty level. If Labour restored the pension link with earnings, there would be no need for Government handouts.

Closed Post Offices Face New Bills

Former postmasters in Wales whose businesses were shut down in the Labour Government's closure programme may be hit by the new empty property tax. From April of next year the owners of closed post offices will have to pay the same business rate as the holders of any other empty commercial property. This new property tax adds to insult to injury. They've already lost their livelihoods through the closure of their local branch, while communities have been robbed of valueable local services. While Labour spends trillions of pounds bailing out failed banks and building the Olympic Games for London. The workings classes, the most needy and vulnerable gets left behind and forgotten. You expect this attitude from a Tory government but not a Labour one, but it's not Labour it's New Labour, a Tony Blair/Gordon Brown New Labour.

Plaid Cymru Spring Conference 2009

How refreshing and encouraging to see so many young Plaid Cymru members / Westminster / European candidates at this Spring Conference. This shows age, creed or Ethnic background is not a barrier if you have political aspirations to fight for Wales 12345678910. Come on Wales join the social revolution.

Didn't He / Did He

Tuesday 31.03.2009 Rhodri Morgan didn't know about the Anueringlyndwr web site (even thought he as a comment on it). Thursday 02.04.2009 Rhodri Morgan admitted he did know about the web site. Some would say that the statement he made on Tuesday was a lie, I leave that to you the reader

Plaid up in the Polls

The Western Mail makes welcome reading for Plaid supporters, with polls showing support rising to record levels:
"LABOUR’S vote in Wales is holding up surprisingly well and Plaid Cymru has attained its highest level of support since 1999, according to the findings of a new opinion poll.
Voters across Wales were asked how they would vote in Westminster and National Assembly elections.
The poll was commissioned by Plaid from Cardiff-based Beaufort Research, which regularly conducts Omnibus surveys in which a representative sample of the Welsh population is asked questions.
In an Assembly election, which will next take place in May 2011, Labour would get 35% of the votes (it got 32% in the 2007 election), Plaid Cymru 27% (22%), Conservatives 16% (22%), Liberal Democrats 12% (15%), Green 4% (-), UKIP 1% (8%) and Others 5% (-).
In a general election, which must take place before June 2010, Labour would get 41% of the vote (43% in the 2005 election), Conservatives 22% (21%), Plaid Cymru 17% (13%), Liberal Democrats 13% (18%), Green 2% (-), UKIP 1% (5%) and Others 4% (-).
A Plaid Cymru spokesman said: “We are very pleased with these results. They are the best we have had since partaking in the Beaufort Omnibus Survey and continue the trend of increased support for Plaid in every election since 2005.
“If these results were transferred to an Assembly election, we would see an increase in the number of Plaid AMs, with the party winning extra constituency seats in the South Wales regions.
“In terms of Westminster, these figures represent Plaid winning Ceredigion and Ynys Môn, while Llanelli would be too close to call between Plaid and Labour and Aberconwy too close to call between Plaid and the Tories.”

Unfair to disable

The Labour government today defended a new disability test aimed at ending Britain's "sicknote culture", as critics accused them of punishing people with disabilities.
The work and pensions secretary, said the test, which is expected to get 20,000 people a year off sickness benefits and into work, was instead about helping people.

Apparently, Wales is too small and too poor to be independent...

Myth #1: Wales is too small to survive as an independent nation
Myth Busted: Wales, a country of 3 million people, is not too small to survive as an independent country. It is a fact that there are over 100 other independent countries in the world that are smaller than Wales. In fact, of the top 10 wealthiest countries in terms of GDP per capita, 9 have a population of less than 5 million, and 7 of those have a smaller population than Wales.
Of the countries of the European Union, the six most prosperous are small countries:
EU Member State
GDP per head (in PPP)
Population
Luxembourg
58,900
0.5m
Ireland
32,600
4.2m
Netherlands
29,500
16.3m
Austria
28,900
8.3m
Denmark
28,600
5.4m
Belgium
27,700
10.5m 1
Economic prosperity is no longer secured through being a large country or empire nor by using military force to gain access to markets.
There is no longer a link between the size of a country and its economic success.
That a small country the size of Wales can prosper is evident.
Those that argue otherwise are either unable to accept the evidence for this, or must believe there is something peculiar about the people of Wales that means they’re incapable of making a success of things.

Myth #2: Wouldn’t Wales’s budget deficit be too big for it to cope?
Myth Busted: The UK currently has the biggest budget deficit in the developed world.
The argument that Wales gets more in public spending than it pays in taxes is often seen as evidence that Wales cannot pay its own way. When you consider the deficit of the UK as a whole, the argument does not stand up to scrutiny.
There are undoubtedly economic challenges facing Wales. The current GVA of Wales is around 77% of the UK average.
The challenge to those who oppose independence on the grounds that Wales cannot afford it is to explain why being part of the United Kingdom has led to this poor economic performance.
It’s important to remember that Wales has historically been a creditor to the UK Treasury and more than paid its way over the years. Of course the wealth that Wales once generated, and will do so once again, did not remain in Wales for the benefit of its people.
Myth #3: People don’t care about independence. It’s a distraction from real issues that matter to people.
Myth Busted: We believe that independence for the people of Wales is central to a prosperous economy and society. The quality of local services, job security, affordable housing which are the issues that affect people’s lives can be dealt with far better by an accountable, elected Welsh Government.
Myth #4: We’re stronger together! Why break-up Britain?
Myth Busted: The ‘separatist’ label is often thrown around by opponents of Welsh independence. Do they think we’d somehow tear Wales apart at the border and move it somewhere else? The truth is we are the opposite of separatists. We want to be a full part of the international community and of institutions such as the European Union and the UN. An independent Wales would still be a neighbour to the other countries of the United Kingdom. There will always be strong, social, cultural and economic bonds between the people of the countries of the UK.
The difference would be that we could be a partner to the other countries with our own voice being expressed. This would make for a stronger relationship.
Myth #5: Most people in Wales feel Welsh and British and will never want independence.
Myth Busted: In the modern world it is inevitable that people within Wales will have several identities.
Identity is a personal thing and is separate from questions of democratic accountability.
Personal identity does not necessitate support for a particular way of being governed.

Myth #6: Independence is irrelevant in the modern globalised world?
Myth Busted: The inter-dependence of countries is a fact of modern life. We want to play our part in the international community. As Winnie Ewing of the SNP put it: “Stop the World, we want to get on”. Globalisation not only makes an independent Wales relevant; it also makes it a more viable prospect.
An independent Wales becoming a full member of global institutions such as the UN and playing a full part in the global economy would give Wales the opportunity to thrive.
No longer does being a part of a large country or empire provide an economic advantage, small countries have access to the same global market.
Myth #7: Wales would be kicked out of the European Union.
Myth Busted: It has been officially confirmed that Wales, if independent, would remain within the European Union. Former Secretary General of the European Commission confirmed this, when discussing the case of Scotland:
“There is no precedent and no provision for the expulsion of a member state, therefore Scottish independence would create two new member states out of one. They would have equal status with each other and with other member states.
The remainder of the United Kingdom would not be in a more powerful position than Scotland…Anyone attacking the claim in respect of one country is attacking the claim in respect of the other. It is not possible to divide the cases.” 2
Also, under the principles of the Vienna Convention on the Law of International Treaties, Wales would remain a part of the European Union, as would the other countries of the UK. The Convention states that an international agreement still applies to newly independent countries when a signatory state is broken-up.

Thanks to Welsh Ramblings

Leighton Andrews/ Chris Bryant

Leighton Andrews is married to Ann Beynon, BT Director Wales, at the age of 29 he stood as Liberal Alliance candidate in the 1987 General Election for the Gillingham constituency. He gained 29% of the vote, losing to the sitting Conservative MP.

Chris Bryant was initially a member of the Conservative Party, and an elected office-holder in the Oxford University Conservative Association.