England Will Be Playing in Wales
I did’t know until the BBC pointed it out this morning, that Donetsk, where England play their first match on Monday, is actually a city founded by a Welshman called John Hughes in 1869. Everybody is taught at school, that the Welsh colonised Patagonia, but not The Ukraine.
Let’s hope that the dragon, the Welsh left behind is friendly! Except of course to racists!
Cardiff City To Change Colours
It would appear that the new Malaysian owners of Cardiff City are going to change the teams colours from blue to red, as reported here.
To my mind Cardiff City are one of those teams that don’t play in distinctive or unusual colours like Blackpool, Blackburn Rovers, Norwich City or QPR, so in some ways to change from one common colour to another is very strange.
Does it show that the new owners don’t understand football at all? If so, Cardiff City are on a steep slope to oblivion. Especially, as changing colours will alienate a large percentage of the fans. Are they going to buy new shirts? I doubt it!
Time will tell on this, but I think it’s a bit of a disaster.
The Torch Relay Gets a Health Warning
Apparently, they’re fainting in Haverfordwest as they awat the torch and BBC Wales has issued a health warning, in that they’re telling everybody to bring suntan and a drink.
I would assume that some of the locals will be in traditional Welsh dress a short time later in Fishguard, as if the yeomanry and especially the ladies of the town hadn’t defended so stoutly against the French in 1797, the Olympics would now be taking place this year in Paris. The story is told in this article on the Battle of Fishguard. The part the ladies played is summarised in this paragraph.
The heroine of the hour was Jemima Nicholas, who, with her pitchfork, went out single-handedly into the fields around Fishguard and rounded up 12 French soldiers and ‘persuaded’ them to return with her to town where she locked them inside St. Mary’s Church.
It is thought the French troops may have mistaken local women like her, in their traditional tall black hats and red cloaks, for British Grenadiers when they stood on the cliffs above the British force lined up on Goodwick Sands at the surrender.
Certainly the Royal Oak pub has lived on the tale for more than two hundred years.Although today, the weather may be too hot for a black hat and a heavy red cloak.
Wales Does the Torch Proud
They’re now only an hour or so from Cardiff and the end of the day’s run.
Wales has done the torch proud and it has been sunshine all the way.
The BBC Wales weatherman was warning of too much sun in Cardiff and said to bring sun cream. No comment!
Wales Has The Flags Out
This picture comes from Abergavenny.
Flags in Abergavenny
Wales looks like it’s going to party! I wonder if they’ve solved the problem about where they’re going to park the dragon, when Dai Greene runs.
The Torch Will Need Its Passport Today
It’s off into Wales today and the weather appears to be holding. If it’s going to rain, it’ll surely be in Wales or Manchester.
Crowds in Worcester look to be good, even at eight in the morning. How many cafes and tea-shops have have record takings?
Perhaps, it shows that the best way to get through a recession, is to have a party?
I know that people have subscribed to this blog from all over the world. So who is the furthest away, who’s watch the Olympic Torch Relay. Click here to watch.
It’s getting addictive, as this tweet posted on the BBC web site shows.
Sorry the BBC can’t take the blame for everything, although Andrew Cowie may disagree as he tweets: “I think the #bbctorchcam will over take Facebook as the reason i failed my exams!”
Could Auntie have come up with the ultimate Internet time-waster?
Memories of Another Welshman Playing for Spurs
Spurs could probably claim that they were robbed against Manchester City today, as Mario Balotelli could have been sent off after kicking Scott Parker in the head. Harry Redknapp thinks he should have been according to this report on the BBC. But he would wouldn’t he! And so do I!
On the other hand Spurs second goal had a bit of familiarity in my mind. Aaron Lennon weaved inside from the left and gave a perfect pass for Welshman Gareth Bale to drill home from outside the box.
I can remember that great Welsh winger, Cliff Jones, doing the same from probably the other wing and teeing the ball up for either John White or even Danny Blanchflower to score. It couldn’t have been Jimmy Greaves, as he usually scored inside the six-yard box and the distance was too great. Also Greaves didn’t join Spurs until the 1961-62 season and I have a feeling this was earlier.
Jones in his prime was as fast if not faster than Bale, although he wasn’t protected as much by the referee. He’s one of those players, who if they played in the modern era would be so much better.
My father also saw another great Welshman, who played on the wing for Tottenham in the 1930s. He was Taffy O’Callaghan, who although not being as fast as either Bale or Jones, was in a team nicknamed the greyhounds, which won promotion in 1932-33. But by repute he could hit the heavy leather ball as hard and accurate as any.
So perhaps Harry’s team will upset the odds and win the Premier League this year or perhaps in the near future. They have the most important brick in place.
The Scottish Independence Referendum
The phone-in on BBC Radio 5 this morning, was about the possible Scottish Independence Referendum, which is being debated by David Cameron’s cabinet today.
I should say, that I don’t care much, whether Scotland is independent from the UK or not. after all, there would be one big advantage to England if Scotland were to be independent.
It would mean that the result of UK General Elections would not be skewed because of the overwhelmingly left-facing vote north of the border. It would also mean that policies for England would not be decided in a Parliament, where many of the members had no electoral connection to England, but still voted on English law. Tam Dalyell posed this as the West Lothian question and summed it up as follows.
For how long will English constituencies and English Honourable members tolerate … at least 119 Honourable Members from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland exercising an important, and probably often decisive, effect on English politics while they themselves have no say in the same matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?
I agree with this and it is a running sore to many English voters. Interestingly, to sort the West Lothian Question doesn’t need Scottish independence, but just a simple change to UK law, which would say that on matters of English law, only English MPs could vote. But would the Labour Party give up this right?
There might well be other advantages to England and I won’t debate them here, but I think it is in the interest of the whole of the UK, that the problem is settled one way or another before the end of the current UK Parliament.
Some of the biggest problems do not concern either the UK or the Scottish governments.
Suppose you are the CEO of an airline with a service to the London area, that is thinking of serving a second airport in the north of the UK. Obviously, your choice is between Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow. But which? Uncertainty about the status of Scotland in the UK doesn’t help your decision. From my experience of the trains between Manchester and Scotland, it would appear that Manchester is getting the business, as opposed to Glasgow or Edinburgh. Note these points too.
- In 2010, Manchester was used by slightly more passengers than Glasgow and Edinburgh combined.
- The Scottish airports are not connected directly to the rail network. Manchester is and is due to get extra connections in the next few years.
- All airports have direct air links to either Gatwick, Heathrow or Stansted.
If Scotland’s status in the UK were to be sorted long-term, it would be a much easier decision.
There are a lot of other business decisions that are suffering from the same uncertaincy.
I actually think that the biggest problem with any Scottish referendum, is that no matter how it is written, it would not give a clear-cut result, that would satisfy everybody.
There could be three possible boxes on the ballot paper for a referendum.
- Complete independence for Scotland.
- More devolution for Scotland.
- Carry on as we are now.
The Scottish Nationalists would be very happy with one and possibly two. But as time progressed, I suspect that if they didn’t get complete independence, they’d come back again and again until they got the result they wanted. The uncertainty would be bad for Scotland and not very good for the UK. So in my view David Cameron is right to insist on an early binding referendum to put the issue to bed, once and for all. It would appear that the Scottish Nationalists want the referendum in 2014, as it’s the seven hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn. I actually think that would be a recipe for a lot of trouble, that no-one wants.
The English would also like to bury the argument and most would be happy if Scotland became independent, as it would mean no Scottish interference in matters purely of interest to the English. Remember too, that the last two Scottish Prime Ministers of the UK, are not held in much affection in England. I think too, that the English would also be happy to go along with a very definite vote for the status quo, providing that the West Lothian Question was settled and there was no chance of another referendum for at least fifteen years or so.
I feel a bit sorry for the Welsh here, as they were a bit short-changed on devolution by Tony Blair. I do have this feeling though, that Wales will do well economically in the next few years, especially if they get the infrastructure a lot better.
Northern Ireland is a totally different matter and I’ve always believed that it should be united with the south. But that will probably not happen in my lifetime.
To return to the Scottish Referendum, would any political party get a result they want?
Scotland is a much more divided country than England, although both have a lot of regional pride. Edinburgh and Glasgow rarely agree and I’ve read reports in the past, about the islands not wanting independence at all, except from the rest of Scotland.
So it will be very difficult for any party to marshall the voters.
In fact, I think that in a three choice referendum, the Scots are more likely to vote strongly for maintaining the status quo.
The Anonymous Widower 