Historic Time for England - Irish diplomacy

An English man and an Irish man are driving head on , at night, on a twisty, dark road. Both are driving to fast for the conditions and collide on a sharp bend in the road. To the amazement of both, they are unscathed, though their cars are both destroyed. In celebration of their luck, both agree to put aside their dislike for the other from that moment on. At this point, the Irish man goes to the boot and fetches a 12 year old bottle of Jameson whiskey. He hands the bottle to the English man, whom exclaims,'' may the English and the Irish live together forever, in peace, and harmony.'' The English man then tips the bottle and lashes half of it down. Still flabbergasted over the whole thing, he goes to hand the bottle to the Irish man, who replies: '' no thanks, I'll just wait till the Garda get here!''

Thanks to Maelgwyn, King of Kings, for this rather witty-ish gem of  political understanding of the Irish question.

Remember- cutting edge political debate starts with Fluffy- the dragon with an opinion on chips.

Thieves, Robbers and the new 'Old Labour'.

It is now an established fact that Labour have been removing Plaid stakes from the Caephilly constituency, by the hand of none other than than Wayne David, the Labour MP. It shows just how desperate Labour are to secure power in  the area because of the very real possibility of a Plaid win thanks to Ron Davies, who has, arguably done more for Welsh devolution than any other Labour politician. It shows that Labour may be willing to break the law to remain in power, and so postal votes should be suspect. When will Labour stop bringing the democratic process in Wales to the level of Pakistan?

After robbing MP's  we have the Robbing Bankers who have brought financial disaster on the UK with their relentless, greed driven persuit of profit. Despite the public outrage, even banks owned in large part by the UK government, are paying bonuses in excess of  ten times the wage of the lucky bankers who receive this 'gift.'

The NGO Positive Money (http://www.positivemoney.org/) has spent three years researching the best voting method to hold banks accountable. Ben Dyson, their chief  director writes:

"Tommorrow, the UK will have its first referendum in 36 years. We’ll be deciding whether to keep the existing ‘First Past the Post’ system to elect Members of Parliament (MPs), or switch to the ‘Alternative Vote’. The outcome could affect our chances of securing real banking reform any time soon. 
After weighing up the different concerns, we’ve come to the conclusion that the chances of fixing the banking system (and ending their power and privilege to create money out of nothing at the expense of the rest of society) are higher under Alternative Vote (where you rank candidates in order of preference) than under First Past the Post (where you get just one choice).

Sticking with the current system?

If we stick with the current system, we’re destined to have alternating Labour and Conservative rule for the next few decades. Given that these two parties were at the helm during that last 30 years, and did nothing to limit the power of the banks or to reform banking in the interests of ordinary people, I’m not convinced that this would be the best thing for the nation. It might work well for the banks, however.

In Summary

1. AV would allow us to vote honestly to support the issues that we really care about.
2. Growing support for these issues would be reflected in the first preference voting figures.
3. The large parties would react to this growing support by adopting these issues into their policies.
4. It’s questionable whether either of the two main parties will take the risk of challenging the banks when the current voting system guarantees them power by default at least every decade or so. Growing support for smaller parties is likely to be an important way of increasing pressure on the two main parties to take real action on the banks, and AV makes this more possible."

And Finally…
From a personal point of view, this comment on a newspaper website sums up my concern with keeping the existing system, and the main reason why I’ll personally be voting yes to AV on Thursday:

“I’m 62 now and I’ve spent the last 41 years of my life disenfranchised. If I vote ‘NO” to AV, I shall probably spend the rest of my life in the same condition. That is why I shall be voting YES TO AV. This referendum has nothing to do with Conservative, Labour or Liberal Democrat to me. It’s to do with my right to a meaningful vote.”

Real change and real justice can be achieved. Tommorrow can be the start. You decide.

Bankers R W******* (fill in your favourite adjective)

 "Aristotle considered the most hated and unnatural profession to be that of the banker. Likewise all the Abrahamic faiths historically considered the charging of interest to be an exploitative practice. Very few of the mainstream parties are willing to takle in the inherent injustice of  personal and national debt caused by the use of private loans from private bankers. The Independent Wales Party, in its first manifesto, "The Road to Cymru" (2001) advanced a policy that would create true wealth  (http://www.cymruryddwelshrepublicans.webs.com/) which received the backing of organisations such as the Christain Council for Monetary Justice. Since then, small scale initiatives have found success, such as the "Valleys Pound" championed by Plaid's Lianne Wood in the Rhondda. In the past such schemes were mocked. Now that sterling has devalued and the Labour government ruled over the first bank run (at Northern Rock) for well over a century, such schemes are providing a lifeline for all those who have struggled with the tax cuts, removal of  "safety net" benefits and Working Tax Benefits.

On a desert island, you will soon die if your try to eat a £5 note, but a coconut or fish could keep us going until  Prince William comes to rescue us with his chopper.

The resources of Wales have been exploited for centuries. Its time to end our debt, and take back the wealth that is truly ours.