Archive for May, 2009
18th May 2009
‘Man dall’ Eluned a Glenys / Eluned and Glenys’ ‘blind spot’
Fe ddyweddodd Rhodri Morgan rhywbeth eithaf anhygoel yn ystod un o’i areithiau’n ddiweddarar; bod Eluned Morgan a Glenys Kinnock, sydd ill dau yn ymddeol eleni, ymhlith yr Aelodau Seneddol Ewropeaidd gorau erioed.
Yr ydym yng nghanol Etholiad, wrth gwrs, a gwaeth na hynny yng nghanol rhyw fath o ‘bandemig gwleidyddol’ sydd yn debyg o chwalu gobeithion etholidaol y Blaid Lafur am genhedlaeth.
Maen nhw yn mynd i golli yn Lloegr ond mae’r arolygon yn fwyfwy awgrymu y down nhw yn ail, neu yn drydedd, yng Nghymru hefyd am y tro cyntaf ers y Rhyfel Byd Cyntaf. Er hynny dewis Old Etonian o academydd Seisnig gan y Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol a chyn-fancwraig buddsoddi o Henffordd gan y Toriaid fel prif ymgeiswyr yn mynd i helpu Llafur ychydig.
Os fydd yna gwymp, ar Gordon bydd y bai – ond bydd Glenys a Luned wedi chwarae eu rhan . Yn union fel y llun enwog o fondigrywbyll hynny gan Eurostat rhai blynyddoedd yn ol wnaeth gadael man gwag lle ddylai Cymru fod, man dall fu gan Eluned a Glenys erioed pan fo’n gwestiwn o hawliau cenedlathol neu ieithyddol Cymreig.
Pryd mae gwrthod cenedlaetholdeb yn troi yn gwadu eich Cymreictod? Gofynnwch i Glenys Kinnock ASE. Yn ol y record swyddogol, mae hi ond wedi crybwyll Cymru unwaith yn ei hareithiau i Senedd Ewrop yn ystod y pum mlynedd diwethaf – a dim ond unwaith yn ystod y pum mlynedd cyn hynny hefyd, felly dwywaith mewn degawd!
A dyna ni wedyn isafbywnt hunan-gasauol gwleidyddiaeth Cymreig diweddar– yn lle dathlu’r foment hanesyddol pan ddaeth y Gymraeg yn iaith cyd-swyddogol o fewn Cyngor y Gweinidogion Ewropeaidd (diolch i Jill Evans), dyma Eluned Morgan yn ei beirniadu fel gwastraff arian.
Pa syndod oedd darllen bod y ddwy wrth-wladgarwraig yma wedi lladd ar grwp o fyfyrwyr Glantaf am eu hobsesiwn gyda’r iaith? Onid cymhlethdod israddoldeb y ddwy Lafurwraig a gafodd ei ddadlennu?
Mae Llafur yn haeddu crasfa ar y bedwaredd o Fehefin. Mae yn sicr yn rhy hwyr i neb cael ei berswadio gan lun Glyndwr ar wefan propaganda cenedlaetholaidd-Brydeining.
Wedi’r cwbl mae hyd yn oed y BNP yn ceisio tynnu’r strocen hynny – a dyn nhw ddim yn credu mewn annibynniaeth Gymreig mwy nag Eluned.
Mi ddylai fod Eluned wedi bod yn lladmerydd dros Gymru – nid ei phlaid, na’i gwladwriaeth. Pam, pam, pam, Eluned, na fuest ti ddim?
Pa hawl sydd ganddi i lambastio gweddill y Blaid Lafur am fod yn wrth-Gymreig? A wnaeth hi erioed ystyried edrych yn y ddrych?
***
Rhodri Morgan said something quite remarkable during one of his recent speeches: that Eluned Morgan and Glenys Kinnock, who are both retiring this year, are amongst the best ever Members of the European Parliament.
We are in the middle of an election, of course, and, worse than that, in some sort of ‘political epidemic’ which is likely to shatter the Labour Party’s electoral hopes for a generation.
Thy are going to lose in England but the polls are more and more suggesting that in Wales too they will come second, or perhaps third, for the first time since the First World War – although the choice of an English academic old Etonian by the Lib Dems and a former investment banker from Hereford by the Tories as their main candidates is going to help Labour somewhat.
If there is a slump, then Gordon will be blamed – but Glenys and Eluned have played their part. Just like the famous photograph by Eurostat some years ago leaving an empty space where Wales should have been, Eluned and Glenys have always had a blind spot when it was a question of Welsh national or linguistic rights.
When does being against nationalism turn into denying your Welshness? Ask Glenys Kinnock MEP. According to the official record, she has mentioned Wales once in her speeches to the European Parliament in the last five years – and just twice in the five years before that as well, so three times in a decade!
A then we have the low-point of Welsh political self-hate in recent times – in place of celebrating the historic moment when Welsh became a co-official language within the Council of European Ministers (thanks to Jill Evans), here’s Eluned Morgan criticising that it’s a waste of money.
What a surprise to read that these anti-nationalist women here set upon a group of students from Glantaf about their obsession with the language. Except it was the two Labourites inferiority complex that was revealed.
Labour deserve a thrashing on the fourth of June. It’s too late to persuade anyone through a photo of Glyndwr on a British-nationalist propaganda website.
After all, even the BNP are trying to pull this trick – and they don’t believe in Welsh independence any more than Eluned.
Eluned should have been an interpreter for Wales – not her party, not her state. Eluned, why, why, why weren’t you?
What right does she have to lambast the rest of the Labour Party for being anti-Welsh? And did she ever consider looking in the mirror?
Prif deallusyn Rhydaman / Ammanford’s egghead
Prif ddealusyn Rhydaman – a shock-jock Eistedffodol – oedd disgrifiad cellweirus Prif Wenidog Cymru ohono i yn ei araith olaf fel Arweinydd y Blaid Lafur. Mae’n enw y bydden i yn gwisgo gyda balchder er nad ydw i’n siwr mod i yn ei headdu. Mae yna dinc o snobyddiaeth metropolitan yn y cyhuddiad, wrth gwrs; awgrym bod yr holl syniad o intelligentsia yn Nyffryn Aman yn destun sbort. Mae’n atgoffa fi o hen ffrwgwd rhwng Saunders Lewis a W.J. Gruffydd, dwi’n credu, rhwng y ddau rhyfel ynghylch pa raddau yr oedd yn bosib i fod yn ddealusyn cyfoes cystal ym Mharis ac, yng Nghaerfyrddin , dweder. Mi oedd y ddau mae’n debyg byddai Aberystwyth yn iawn. Plus ca change.
Yn dref wedi ei enwi yn Rhydaman i efelychu Rhydychen oherwydd y Coleg yn Neuadd yr Iforiaid mae gan fy nhref enedigol traddodiad deallusol o fri. Ar ol i Watcyn Wyn rhoi’r gorau iddi, agorwyd Y Ty Gwyn fel cyrchfan i anarchwyr a sosialwyr o dan nawdd yr Americanwr, George Davison, sylfaenydd Kodak. Hyn oedd yn sail i record argraffiadol yr ardal fechan hon a ddenwyd i undebaeth llafur yn gymharol hwyr yn cynhyrchu arweinwyr radicalaidd yn yr ugeinfed ganrif. Y ddau enwocaf oedd Jim Griffiths o’r Betws, Ysgrifenydd Gwladol cyntaf Cymru a chreodd y cynllun yswiriant cenedlaethol a D. J. Davies o Landybie, un o feddylwyr pwysicaf hanes cynnar Plaid Cymru.
Alla i ddim disgrifio Neil Hamilton, y cyn-weinidog Toriaid ag aeth i Ysgol Ramadeg Dyffryn Aman, fel unrhyw fath o ddeallusyn, ond mae un aeth i’r un ysgol gynradd a fi yn Nhycroes yn sicr yn cyfri: Alan Watkins, un o sylwebyddion gwleidyddol gorau fu erioed. Yn anffodus damniol ac ymostyngol fu ei ychydig ebychiadau am Rydaman erioed: fe ddisgrifiodd pwl o iselder un tro fel “prynhawn gwlyb mewn rhywle o’r enw Rhydaman”. Ac fe soniodd am duedd pobl Rhydaman i lusgo’i traed gyda phopeth, yn son am wneud pethe ‘fory’ a ‘fory’ yn golygu tua’r un peth a manyana yn Sbaeneg “ond heb yr un awgrym o frys”.
Y gwir amdani yw bod unrhyw un yn medru cogio bod yn soffistigedig yn Llundain neu Caerdydd. Y gwir gamp yw bod yn ddealusyn sydd yn cynrychioli rhywbeth: sydd a gwreiddiau, sydd yn siarad o berspectif. Dwi’n cofio Philip Weekes, cyn-bennaeth y Bwrdd Glo, yn gweud taw yn y Gorllewin yr oedd e yn dod ar draws yr arweinwyr undebol mwyaf gaboledig, a’r capel a Das Kapital wedi plethu mewn synthesis anorchfygol. Os ydw i hanner cystal a hynny, bydd fy nipyn cyfraniad i’r ddisgwrs genedlaethol heb fod yn ofer i gyd.
***
Ammanford’s leading egghead – and Eisteddfod shock-jock – was the First Minister’s playful description of me in his final speech as leader of the Labour Party. It’s a badge I would wear with pride, although I’m not sure I deserve it. There’s a slight hint of metropolitan snobbishness in the charge, of course; the suggestion that the whole concept of intelligentsia in the Amman Valley is a bit of fun. It reminds me of the old squabble between Saunders Lewis and W.J.Gruffydd, I believe, between the two wars about to what extent it was possible to be a modern intellectual as much in Paris as in, say, Carmarthen. To both of them, I’m sure that Aberystwyth would have been fine. Plus ca change.
In a town named Ammanford to imitate Oxford because of the college in Ifor Hall, my birthplace has a significant intellectual tradition. After Watcyn Wyn passed away, y Ty Gwyn opened as a destination for anarchists and socialists under the patronage of the American, George Davison, founder of Kodak. This was the foundation of the impressive record of this small area, that was attracted to trade unionism comparatively late, in producing radical leaders in the twentieth century. The two most famous were Jim Griffiths from Betws, Wales’ first Secretary of State who created the first national insurance scheme, and D.J. Davies from Llandybie, one of the most important thinkers in Plaid Cymru’s early history.
I can’t describe Neil Hamilton, the former Conservative minister who went to Dyffryn Amman Grammar School, as any sort of egghead, but one who went to the same primary school as me in Tycroes is sure to count: Alan Watkins, one of the best political commentators there ever was. Unfortunately, his few comments about Ammanford were damning and humbling: he described depression as being ‘a wet afternoon in a place called Ammanford’. And he spoke about the tendency of Ammanford folk to drag their feet with everything, about doing things ‘tomorrow’ and ‘tomorrow’ meaning the same as in Spanish, ‘but without the suggestion of haste’.
The truth is that anyone can feign sophistication in London or Cardiff. The real achievement is being an intellectual who represents something: with roots, with a sense of perspective. I remember Philip Weekes, former head of British Coal, saying that in the West he came across the most polished union leaders, with the chapel and Das Kapital entwined in a victorious synthesis. If I am half as good as that, my small contribution to the national discourse won’t be entirely in vain.
Trafod dyfodol yr hil / Discussing our race’s future
Mae gennym ni bum mlynedd cyn cyrraedd pwynt di-droi’n ol o ran newid yn yr hinsawdd, yn ol Gordon James o Gyfeillion y Ddaear. Mae John Holdren, cynghorydd gwyddoniaeth newydd Arlywydd Obama a James Hansen, pennaeth NASA, yn cytuno.
Mae’r rhai sy’n gwrthwynebu codi melinau gwynt ar faes y Gad Mynydd Hyddgen yn poeni yn ddigon diffuant am y bygythiad i’n treftadaeth dirweddol. Ond mae’r bygythiad i’n cynefin yn edrych nawr gymaint yn fwy. Yng Nghymru bydd hyn yn golygu diwedd ar y dderwen, hen symbol o’r gorfennol Derwyddol – Brwynddail y Mynydd sydd yn unigryw i Eryri, ac yn arbennig o ddadlennol i fy mhlaid i, y Pabi Cymreig.
Ond mae’n amlwg nad yw melinau gwynt yn mynd i’n hachub yn y pum mlynedd sydd yn weddill – er eu bod nhw yn rhan o’r ateb ar gyfer y tymor hir. Gyda amser yn rhedeg mas mae angen nawr ystyried atebion brys i’r argyfwng.
Un syniad sy’n cael ei awgrymu yw gollwng llwyth o lwch i’r stratosffer er mwyn lleihau lefelau pelydredd yr Haul ac felly gostwng y tymheredd. Mae gwyddonwyr wedi awgrymu hyn ers y 60au fel ateb dros dro i broblem newid yr hinsawdd ar ol canfod effaith llosgfynyddoedd ar dymheredd byd-eang – fe gwympodd hanner gradd celsius er engraifft ers y digwyddiad mawr olaf yn Pinatubo ym 1991.
Yr effaith cysgodol yma sydd yn esbonio’r ffaith taw ardaloedd mwyaf ‘brwnt’ y byd o ran llygredd diwyddiannol ydy’r rhai sydd wedi gweld y cynhesu lleiaf yn ystod y blynyddoedd diwethaf. A dweud y gwir – ac yn eironig efallai – pe na bae llwch o brosesau diwydiannol gyda ni o hyd mi fyddai’r effaith ty gwydr rhyw chwarter yn uwch.
Yn ol rhai gwyddonwyr dim ond ychydig biliynnau o ddoleri efallai y byddai’n ei gostio i ddychwelyd y tymheredd i lefelau diogel. Yr unig broblem yw y byddai’n rhaid gwneud hyn flwyddyn ar ol blwyddyn oherwydd nad yw llwch aerosol ond yn para yn yr awyr am ddwy flynedd tra bod carbon deuocsid yn para am ganrif. Byddai paentio’r byd – ein toeau a’r pafinau – yn wyn hefyd yn dadwneud effaith carbon pob car ar y blaned am ugain mlynedd.
Dyw’r rhain ddim yn atebion tymor hir, wrth gwrs. Ond maen nhw yn ennill amser i ni newid ein ffordd o fyw ac achub y Pabi – gan gynnwys ar lethrau Hyddgen.
Yn anffodus dim ond £3 miliwn mae’r Llywodraeth Prydeining wedi eu glustnodi ar eu cyfer nhw. Gobeithio wir felly taw hil fydd prif bwnc yr Etholiad Ewropeaidd. Yr hil ddynol a’i dyfodol, hynny yw.
***
We have five years before reaching the point of no return regarding climate change, says Gordon James from Friends of the Earth. John Holdren, President Obama’s new science adviser and James Hansen, head of NASA, agree.
Opponents to building wind farms on the battlefields of Mynydd Hyddgen are quite genuine about the threat to our heritage.
But the threat to our habitat now looms so much larger: in Wales this means the end of the oak, the old symbol of our Druidic past, the Snowdon Lily that is unique to our mountain-tops, and especially revealing to my party, the Welsh Poppy.
But it is obvious that windfarms will not save us in the five years remaining – even though they are part of the long-term solution. With time running out there is a need to consider quick solutions to the crisis.
One idea which is growing in support is to discharge loads of dust into the stratosphere in order to decrease the level of rays from the sun and so lower the temperature.
Scientists have been suggesting this since the 1960s as a temporary answer to the problem of climate change after identifying the effect of volcanoes on world temperatures – they fell by half a grade of Celsius, for example, after the last major event in Pinatubo in 1991.
The dimming effect here explains the fact that the ‘dirtiest’ parts of the world in terms of industrial pollution are those which have seen the lowest warming in recent years.
To be honest, and quite ironically, if we didn’t have the ash from industrial processes already then the greenhouse effect would be a quarter higher.
According to some scientists, it will perhaps only cost a few billions of dollars to return to safe temperature levels.
The only problem is that this must be done year after year because aerosol dust only remains in the air for two years while carbon dioxide stays for a century.
Painting the world white – our roofs and pavements – will also undo the carbon effect of every car on the planet for twenty years.
These aren’t long term solutions, though, of course. But they do win time for us to find a way to live and to save the Poppy – including on the slopes of Hyddgen.
Unfortunately, the UK Government has only earmarked three million for this.
Hopefully the future will be the main focus of the European Elections.
The future of the human race, that is.
14th May 2009
Putting Wales Last
The fact that Welsh Labour’s leading MEP has only spoken twice in the European Parliament about Welsh issues in the last decade – out of a total of 123 contributions – is a bit shocking, even from Glenys whose attitude to her home country has always been a little bit, well, ambivalent. Rhodri Morgan described her and Eluned “Welsh language equality is a waste of money” Morgan at his valedictory address to the Welsh Labour Conference a few weeks ago as “Euro-for-Euro… the best MEPs in the whole of the European Parliament”. Never let reality get in the way of a Morganesque analogy….
Someone has pointed out to me there were two other oblique references by Glenys to Wales – one mentioning the rugby world cup in a debate on South Africa in 1999, and a reference to a ”Welshman Ncube” of the MDC in a debate on Zimbabwe – but I am not sure these do much to change thje overall position. Being a Welsh MEP was purely coincidental as far as Glenys was concerned. She might as well have been the Member for Gibraltar for all the interest she showed in one of the EU’s poorest nations. Rhag ei chywilydd.
6th May 2009
Against Unilateral Rearmament
Gordon Brown has just ruled out a new parliamentary vote on any decision by the Government to move to the next stage of the Trident replacement programme in response to a question by Elfyn Llwyd. This is despite the former Foreign Secretary promising full parliamentary scrutiny during the last Commons vote in March 2007. Since then a chorus of voices including David Davis, Nicholas Soames, Stephen Byers, Malcolm Rifkind and James Arbuthnot have all argued the decision on Trident should be revisited. But as things stand the Cabinet will make the decision on moving beyond the ‘concept stage’ in September when Parliament isn’t even sitting.
Whatever happened to Brown’s promise to increase parliamentary scutiny? If Brown wants to refuse a vote then we may have to find a way to guarantee one – through voting against expenditure or some other mechanism. With the Tories shifting their position there are signs that this is a vote we could win.