6th July 2007
Voices From History
Beth yw cenedl? (What is a nation?) asked Waldo whose other famous poem Cymru’n Un gave us the name of the historic programme my party will debate tommorow. Waldo, who came to Plaid, like so many others, via pacifism and the ILP, gave that most evocative, almost mystical answer: cadw ty mewn cwmwl tystion (keeping a house in a cloud of witnesses). This is what early Christians called the “fellowship of the saints”.
Continue reading Voices From History
5th July 2007
A Gwerin and its Gwerin-iaeth
A lot of discussion in nationalist blogs and within on-line communities like maes-e recently have focused on whether and why Plaid Cymru is a party of the Left. Some have seen this as some kind of sentimental attachment to an imagined and idealised past of working-class radicalism. Coming from a totally different direction, Kim Howells has also attacked what he sees as the proto-nationalist myth of ‘y werin’.
Continue reading A Gwerin and its Gwerin-iaeth
3rd July 2007
Rhagfarn y BBC
“Dyw mwyafrif pobl Cymru ddim o blaid Deddf Iaith Newydd” yn ol y BBC. Y drafferth ydy mai nid dyna’r cwestiwn a ofynnwyd iddyn nhw. Mae na hen ddigon o dystiolaeth erbyn hyn yn dangos bod fframio’r cwestiwn mewn termau sydd ddim yn niwtral - yn yr achos yma gofynnwyd i bobl ynglyn a ‘gorfodi’ cwmniau i ddarparu gwasanaethau dwyieithog - yn effeithio’n drwm ar yr ateb cewch chi. Beth am gwestiwn felly am hawliau cyfartal i siaradwyr Cymraeg neu jyst dwyieithrwydd yn narpariaeth gwasanaethau neu wahardd discrimineiddio. Newyddiaduraeth gwael iawn gan y Gorfforaeth yn yr achos yma a hynny ar fater sensitif yn ymwneud a hawlie lleifafrifol. Continue reading Rhagfarn y BBC
2nd July 2007
Nice Try - but no cigar
It might not be quite up there with the Zinoviev letter but “Hayzell David”’s bogus e-mail to the Western Mail’s Martin Shipton was a political hoax timed with perfection to cause maximum damage. Hat tip to Ceredig for yet again proving the power of the blogosphere to trounce traditional media. Sent at four o’clock on a Friday afternoon, giving the Mail’s Chief Reporter the least amount of time to check the story out, it was probably designed to rattle nerves at Plaid’s national executive meeting the next morning. One of the reasons it didn’t work was nobody had ever heard of said Ms David - activists in the Women’s Section are hardly that numerous that you wouldn’t have ever heard of them somewhere along the lines. The name itself, and some of the political language (’united socialist front’etc.) sounded distinctly suspect. Continue reading Nice Try - but no cigar
