Posted by Dyfed on Friday, November 11, 2011,
In :
Politics
There is something profoundly moving in listening to the stories told by
the brave men who have fought in any war. On Monday I listened to a piece on
Radio 4’s Today programme about the work done behind enemy lines in Burma
during the Second World War. A new book is being published about their story
and the author was the piece’s main contributor but they also had one of the
soldiers who had actually seen action at the time.
Nightmares
As this was a covert operation it would have been impos...
Posted by Dyfed on Saturday, October 22, 2011,
In :
Politics
As promised, some photos of the Occupy protest in London, with some added commentry notes.
The main banner situated at the front of the camp and seen by all who walk towards the main entrance to St Paul's - seen in the background. The camp occupies this corner of the cathedral's site only.
Taken from the steps of St Paul's this photo shows some of the camp. Access to these steps was clear and very much available. Entrances to the cathedral were all clear and the organisers of the protests were ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Dyfed on Friday, October 21, 2011,
In :
Politics
The coverage of the Occupy protests was very slow to get going –
especially by the BBC – when the whole thing first sprung up in the US as Occupy Wall Street.
Coverage has also been muted since the camp was set up by the London stock exchange but when I saw
the first TV news report I knew that I had to go there. And on Wednesday that’s
what I did. Here are some thoughts about what I saw. I’ll post some photos and
video footage tomorrow and on Sunday I’ll reflect on the involvement o...
Posted by Dyfed on Thursday, September 8, 2011,
In :
Politics
We all pretty much depend on
oil. For us personally it heats our home and powers our car and probably does a
lot more to boot. None of us could do without it. The oil producing countries
have us – pardon the pun – over a barrel. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t
be informed about these countries, however.
Oil-producing democracies are few
Apart from Russia and Norway
the other big oil exporters are part of an exclusive club called OPEC. Most of
them are located in the Middle East (t...
Posted by Dyfed on Monday, September 5, 2011,
In :
Politics
The results of a study
published by the British Journal of
Psychiatry this month put the current debate about abortion counselling in
England into sharp context (as a devolved matter the Field/Dories amendment will
not affect Wales). According to the study women who have undergone an abortion
are 81% more likely to experience some kind of mental health problem and nearly
10% of mental health problems in women were attributable to having an abortion.
Posted by Dyfed on Tuesday, August 30, 2011,
In :
Politics
I’m not an expert in the
crude oil market – but then you knew that. I have suspected, though, that there
is a far closer connection between the price of oil and NATO’s military intervention
in Libya. Below is a graph showing the fluctuations in the price of oil over
the past 12 months (thanks to http://www.wtrg.com).
On
this graph I have added some major points from the timeline of the uprising
(thanks to The Telegraph).
I cannot prove that there is
a connection between these two thing...
Posted by Dyfed on Monday, August 1, 2011,
In :
Politics
The military intervention in
Libya would make a good farce by now. I’ve blogged about the situation a few
times (here, and here) and was always against what started off as a
supposedly humanitarian effort to save the civilians of Benghazi. This, the
allies certainly managed to do. But consider the current situation as reported
in the British media over the past few days:
Gaddafi, once considered far
too dangerous to be allowed to stay in Libya following his defeat at allied
hands, is now so ...
Posted by Dyfed on Thursday, June 30, 2011,
In :
Politics
A while back I posted a piece about the then impending air strikes against Gaddafi’s regime in Libya and suggested that we should stop the bombing for a number of reasons. In this post I want to look back at those reasons and see whether they still stand up to scrutiny three months after the bombing started.
My first stated reason was that innocent people would be killed by allied strikes.
To be fair it would appear that very few civilians have lost their lives in this conflict as a result of...
Posted by Dyfed on Friday, June 3, 2011,
In :
Politics
Fair Trade products have become popular and an easy way of helping us shop ethically. And as we know those who benefit are some of the poorest people on earth in developing countries. But should we be extending the Fair Trade concept to include UK farmers?
On Tuesday I highlighted the way imperial power has shifted to multi-national companies to the extent that they can ignore the demands of nation-states. Today I want follow-up that thought with some details about the buying power of our larg...
Posted by Dyfed on Tuesday, May 31, 2011,
In :
Politics
Last week saw a great example of how impotent the world can be in the face of imperial power. It was all the more poignant because of the context – both historical and current – in which the incident took place.
The Business, Innovation and Skills select committee of the House of Commons released its report on the acquisition of the successful British company Cadbury’s by the American conglomerate, Kraft. The committee of MPs were particularly upset that Kraft’s CEO, Irene Rosenfeld, r...
Posted by Dyfed on Monday, January 17, 2011,
In :
Politics
Having been invented on the billiard tables
of the British Raj in India, snooker has
always been a quintessentially British game, its values reflecting the good
gentlemanly conduct of the Empire. At one time it used to be my favourite sport
– back in the days when the stars of the game were what were rather quaintly
called the ‘home nation’ players: people like Ray Reardon, Doug Mountjoy, the
young Steve Davis, and De...
Posted by Dyfed on Wednesday, October 20, 2010,
In :
Politics
I never liked maths at school but
here are some stats for you on the day the Chancellor announces where the axe
will fall in the comprehensive spending round.
Posted by Dyfed on Friday, August 27, 2010,
In :
Politics
If I were to suggest to my fellow
Welshmen and women that the resentment some of them have in their hearts
towards the English is not a helpful thing but that it is actually a sin, what
would that make me? Would it make me an enemy of my nation? If I were to point
out that actually, far from helping our cause, such resentment detracts from it,
would that make me anti-Welsh?
Posted by Dyfed on Thursday, July 29, 2010,
In :
Politics
Usually when a politician is
described as being plain-speaking they’re backbench mavericks. Dennis Skinner
is plain-speaking; Nick Winterton too. Rarely do we hear of a front-bencher or
a high-ranking minister being acclaimed for speaking their mind openly and
honestly. But maybe things are changing with this new government. This week
alone we’ve had a health minister – albeit in a ‘personal capacity’ â...
Posted by Dyfed on Tuesday, July 20, 2010,
In :
Politics
DC launching the Big Socieity - though I've no idea who the woman in the funny hat is.
During the election David Cameron’s
idea about a ‘big society’ was dismissed as fluff. Yesterday, however, he
offered us some details of how it could work and set up a number of regions
where trials would be put in place. I particularly like the fact that there are
pilot schemes being set up before the whole policy goes nationwide – ...
Posted by Dyfed on Wednesday, June 23, 2010,
In :
Politics
I’ll jump straight in – for this probably
won’t be a popular post – but I think that overall and considering how bad the
country’s debts are, that was a fair budget. Is it right to freeze child
allowance for three years? No, I don’t suppose it is. What about the VAT hike –
well it will hit the poorest the hardest, no doubt. So there are some negatives
in there, I accept.
Posted by Dyfed on Tuesday, May 11, 2010,
In :
Politics
Yesterday we expected that a
Conservative/Lib Dem government would have been formed, but when Gordon Brown
resigned at tea time all bets were off and Labour back in the running. The
interesting thing about a potential Lib/Lab pact, however, is that they would
have to depend on other smaller parties for they would not command an overall
majority in the House of Commons. Those parties would include both the SNP and...
Posted by Dyfed on Monday, May 10, 2010,
In :
Politics
It’s the Monday after the General
Election and I had thought that today’s post could steer away from the
political world. After all, we normally have a new government in place by now
in the UK and the Monday papers would merely
comment on who got what in the Cabinet.Things are different this time, though – reflecting the confusion in the
minds of the electorate. Of course, here in Wales, like Scotland, we...
Posted by Dyfed on Friday, May 7, 2010,
In :
Politics
Well we have our balanced parliament
– but our guy won’t be there. We’re very disappointed, obviously. Dylan fought
a long and hard campaign. But with the Labour vote holding up so well it was
always going to be difficult to win here on Anglesey.
Having had little sleep overnight I’m
not sure I can come up with any great insights about the election results in
general, but I’ll try! Labour’s final wee...
Posted by Dyfed Roberts on Tuesday, May 4, 2010,
In :
Politics
Here's a video I prepared for Dylan's campaign following a rally in Beaumaris yesterday. It's bilingual - with enough English for you to understand what's going on.
Posted by Dyfed on Monday, May 3, 2010,
In :
Politics
Apologies that the blogging has been
light during the past two weeks. We had expected to be in the US and the plan was to blog my
experiences there, but as you know, we never made it. We did manage a relaxing
holiday in Dorset, however, in a lovely cottage in a
tiny village outside Bridport.
Being in Dorset allowed me to follow the UK general election. We spent most of
our time in an area covered by two constitue...
Posted by Dyfed on Tuesday, February 23, 2010,
In :
Politics
Bullying
and politics seem to go together. Gordon Brown should not feel isolated in his
current situation of being fingered as a work-place bully – he is in good
company in the Palace of Westminster. The stories about his
rage towards colleagues have been around for a long time and those of us who
enjoy the political blogoshpere have not been surprised by the latest
revelations. Stories about his loyal lieutena...
Posted by Dyfed on Friday, February 19, 2010,
In :
Politics
It’s been a bizarre week in international politics. First, the story that is still gradually being revealed about the assassination of a Hamas commander in Dubai: now widely thought to have been perpetrated by the Israeli secret service, Mossad. As if that isn’t outrageous enough there is an extra twist in the tail for us in the UK as we hear that those responsible were travelling with British passports. A story worthy of a Bond movie, surely.
Is there any connection between the violent suppression of protests in Iran on Wednesday and the news revealed on the same day that the Labour government had allegedly tried to silence those local authority leaders from within its own party on the issue of long term care of the elderly in England? You might argue that there is very little that can be compared between these two incidents and you may well be correct.
Posted by Dyfed Roberts on Tuesday, February 2, 2010,
In :
Politics
The controversial Montgomeryshire MP, Lembit Opik, has announced that he has become a Christian. Read the story here. While many eyebrows will be raised by, the fact the Lembit himself says that he has stuff he has to sort out in his life is surely a positive step in itself.
Posted by Dyfed Wyn on Friday, January 29, 2010,
In :
Politics
Government plans to pass an Equality Bill through the House of Lords failed this week when strong objections were made by an on behalf of Christian churches. The Bishops were especially vocal apparently as were many Conservatives. Indeed the Conservative Party officially opposed aspects of the Bill. Objections were raised because of the fear that churches and other Christian organisations could have been prosecuted for refusing to employ people on grounds of sexuality. While priests and pasto...
Posts on my Tumblr site willI now appear here. Tumblr's ability to post by text and email will help me blog even when away from my desk!
Some thoughts following my visit to Occupy London.
October 27th 2011
Ok so there’s plenty to disagree with but this is such a good song.
October 12th 2011
There are so many draining things we can focus on during the day: how we appear to others, how much others do or don’t respect us, how we can get people to do what we want. But once we become aware of the negative impact of these areas of focus, we can get clear on - even excited about - who we really want to be … We can shift our focus toward qualities like mercy, gentleness, courage, and the many others that bring true joy in our lives and in the lives of others.
