Do we still give Christmas tips (there was a word for it but I can't remember) to the milkmen? My last milkman was Barry Taylor, big friend of mine, brother of Jennifer who married Philip Corke. Their parents kept the Masons' next to Eddie Thomas' gym on Penydarren High Street. Over here for many years we gave a tip to the post men when they brought us a calendar; I don't know whether or not they stopped doing it or whether they left me alone when I was out of work for three years. I'll find out this week probably.

How many people know that England was ruled by a western french family, the Plantagenets, until being taken over by a tenuous link to Wales, the Tudors, claiming England for the Welsh with a Red Dragon on the royal insignia and the first born son becoming a new Arthur king of the Britons. Unfortunately or not he never reigned, he was denied the royal Welsh succession/accession by his early death leading the way for his brother Henry Vlll to annex our country. Not for nothing was it famously written in the Encyclopaedia Britannica: for Wales see England. Now we are Cymru (Wales) again, we have a national identity for the first time in nearly 500 years. We were officially & legally English, we are not anymore, we have an autonomous government no matter how limited its powers; do we go down or up? Does it really depend on demographics when only once in our history we had a united Wales under a Welsh kingdom, Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, it's been a battle ever since the Irish and Northumbrians threw us out of Strathclyde and Cunedda came to Wales. We've always had a fight on our hands so what makes it anymore different now? I've got you, immigration! And after 2000 years you may be right! But we'll still have a rugby team even though you'll have to go to France to speak to them!

What about the language?

What about the Language? It's all very well to go to chapel in Welsh but with nothing on the streets, nor in the factories & offices, or to go to go dancing at a fest noz and waking up the following morning with a hang over and the French language. South Wales was a rich area, the cradle of the industrial revolution, the Rhondda miners spoke Welsh as a first language, Welsh was also the first language of Merthyr well into the twenties, the largest town in Wales a little earlier. Assimilation or protection? Do we want the Welsh language to survive and prosper, or don't we; as I see it most people don't! They are misguided, Wales is Cymru one of the oldest languages in the world with one of, if not, the oldest flag in Europe. The Brythonic army left its homeland in Wales & Cornwall to defend Gaul against the Visigoths on the Loire. Unfortunately we lost and were left wide open to attack from the Irish & the Germanic English, so many of us settled in Armorica which became Britain or Brittany. Now we are under a new attack, the native language is in danger from non-natives, more Welsh (Cymry) are speaking the language than for many years, but the percentage is down due to immigration. Sorry Gareth if it didn't get through to you what I was trying to say

Sorry Gareth

What about the Language? It's all very well to go to chapel in Welsh but with nothing on the streets, nor in the factories & offices, or to go to go dancing at a fest noz and waking up the following morning with a hang over and the French language. South Wales was a rich area, the cradle of the industrial revolution, the Rhondda miners spoke Welsh as a first language, Welsh was also the first language of Merthyr well into the twenties, the largest town in Wales a little earlier. Assimilation or protection? Do we want the Welsh language to survive and prosper, or don't we; as I see it most people don't! They are misguided, Wales is Cymru one of the oldest languages in the world with one of, if not, the oldest flags in Europe. The Brythonic army left its homeland in Wales & Cornwall to defend Gaul against the Visigoths on the Loire. Unfortunately we lost and were left wide open to attack from the Irish & the Germanic English, so many of us settled in Armorica which became Britain or Brittany. Now we are under a new attack, the native language is in danger from non-natives, more Welsh (Cymry) are speaking the language than for many years, but the percentage is down due to immigration. Sorry Gareth if it didn't get through to you what I was trying to say

Welsh! What's that?

How can we dislike foreigners when our whole Christian ethos is based upon a coloured man from the Middle East who couldn't speak a word of English (especially as English didn't exist for another 1400 years)? What a load of nonsense is spoken about immigrants destroying society as we know it. English upset the Welsh, Normans upset the English, French upset the Bretons. Basically we are talking about numbers upsetting the balance of what we know and respect; we are all immigrants, only time has brought us together, and I can't see the Eastern Europeans taking over, only sending a ripple as the Spanish, Irish and English did in Merthyr many years ago, in saying that, in Merthyr we are very content to be speaking English today, perhaps in a few years time we will be proud Roumanian speakers, these things happen; we've lost our Welsh and we seem to be happy enough it's called assimilation, we Welsh are experts at it whether in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada or wherever; we move on, the world doesn't stand still so why should Britain. Follow the Welsh example, open your doors and shut your windows on the world, become multi-cultural when Cardiff is just down the road, there's no need to be mono-lingual any more; St. David himself spoke Latin, Gaelic & Welsh; sorry, what was that, Welsh! what's that?

Perceptions

Our so called 'traditions' that through non-conformism spawned our choirs but lost us our dances and most of our instruments except for the harp ruined our culture, no dancing and singing unless it was praise be to 'God' and this superstition is still continuing in so much as even though the chapels and 'worshipping', what a word! is declining, our music is still more adapted to the chapels and prayers than it is to dancing (Devil's work). And I mean good old barn dances where everything was cleared out for the seasonal festivities. Now we are known throughout the 'world' (big word) for clichés such as the quality of our choirs, our rugby limited as it is to the British Empire' and a few more who have the audacity to refer to the 'World Cup' (mind you cricket 'world cup' is even worse); our soccer has too much competition, something our rugby doesn't suffer. We weren't the only country to have had coal miners but it's become a cliché. Scotland isn't the only country in Europe to have bagpipes & kilts and stout isn't an Irish drink, but they aren't perceived as clichés and it works for them! Is it that their respective self-awareness of their own identity outweighs the clichés whereas we in Wales have such a low self esteem that it only carries us through as a nation to a rugby match in Cardiff. We have to explain that we are neither Scottish, nor English, nor Irish, even though we have a heritage second to none, and that the founding saints of Brittany were born here, as was the founder of Donetsk in the Ukraine, plus some of the most famous Hollywood stars, entertainers & poets. But we shouldn't have to keep on repeating ourselves, we should be able to stand up equal to anyone on the world stage, so why doesn't it happen and why aren't we known outside the Commonwealth? A big problem is that once we drop our language we assimilate, something that the Scots & Irish don't do!

No Matter!

May I say that there was a Jewish sandal wearing Arab hippy whom we are told claimed to be the son of 'God', perhaps he was drugged, but as in the legends of Arthur these stories were embellished and written down centuries later, the Roman Empire eventually got them to us in Wales. Think about it; we are now complaining about foreign infiltration when for two thousand years we've been under Middle Eastern propaganda that we would never heard of in the first place if we had never been occupied by the Romans. So what if Roumanians, Hungarians, Czechs and so on come into the country; there are so many of us speaking English now and taking it on as our first language that these people are just ripples, and ripples after the stone has been thrown initially always find their way back to the calm waters, even if we still have to wait a while. Wales has a defensive system in that is becoming an autonomous country insomuch that it's the Welsh in the long run who will eventually decide their destiny, that is if it's not to late to defend its language & culture, then what would it matter, we wouldn't be more Welsh than the People of Strathclyde who have no longer any memories of ever having been Welsh, and the Cumbrians of old. For those non political sports fanatics, it was almost too late for our reborn Welsh football (soccer), will it be too late for our rugby? Will it be too late anyway? Are we on the road to a collective euthanasia? No matter; for the moment we can still put on our red, go down to Cardiff and imagine that we're a nation, get pissed and vote Labour.

R.I.P.

In political terms Neil Kinnock put the 'lower' into 'class; he wasn't accepted, nothing to do with his being Welsh, although 'Welsh windbag' was a convenient alliteration; Margaret Thatcher put 'middle' into 'class' and because of it she was not liked by the main stream of her 'Party'; now we are back to the Dickensien 'ancien régime' where England and her Welsh & Scottish satellites are ruled by the 'upper' class Eton educated millionaires. We believe we have a democratic choice, even though the opposition is a Labour Party of class conscious wannabees, but least there is a choice, limited as it is. In the US of A there's no pretension, even a millionnaire doesn't have enough money outside his campaigns. Which brings me to my point that in South Africa a blackman came out of prison to completely transform the politics of his country, he created a 'Rainbow Country' out of former White supremacist rule, a true revolution, not a stone's ripple in a pond. The world watched as a right wing apartheid régime was brought down peacefully. After having unjustly wasted most of his life in prison there was no animosity on his part, no grudges, he just got on with it. He was a hero to everyone who believes in justice. There will be very many sad people tonight, but there will also be many high level crocodile tears at his funeral.

Breton Entity

The French government under Petain collaborated with the Nazis to the extent that they loaded the trains with Jews, and we know where that lead them. Some Bretons saw the the opportunity to be liberated from the French, but what happened later made the French worse than the Gestapo, the Bretons were persecuted, even primary school teachers of the language were condemned to prison, Breton and anything to do with it was not allowed (and we think we Welsh have problems). Even the very idea of Brittany as an entity couldn't be supported by the French Jacobins to whom the integrity of the French state took precedence. De Gaulle from his seat in London was allowed by the Allies to lead the free French into Paris, then in his arrogance his previous aid was forgotten. He was not the favoured French General neither of the Americans nor Churchill and he never forgot it (which I suppose is a slightly different point, no matter).

It was the Plantagenets who built the wall of castles, not the so called Anglo-Normans. What is an Anglo-Norman? There were Angles & Saxons who shared the crown of Britain before England became a part of the Danish empire, consolidating themselves as English before being defeated by the Normans. Our king Gruffudd ap Llywelyn was killed by his own men in 1063, who knows what could have happened if he'd held on for another 3 years. England lost to the Normans in 1066. William didn't bother us (The Cymry (Welsh) that is, a third of his army was Breton, Welsh speakers 'returning home' whom he settled on the borders of Cymru (Wales). William Rufus, his son' opened the floodgates allowing his barons to cross the border beginning at Chepstow creating the Marcher Lordships, they kept their own laws independent of the king, yet allowed Welsh autonomy. The Normans intermarried with the Plantagenets thereby creating the Angevin empire. Not only is there no such thing as Anglo-Normans but the north Walian ring of castles was not built by the 'Anglo-Normans', but rather by the Plantagenet Edward I, king of a European empire based in Aquitaine, speaking neither English nor Norman but Occitan. The Plantagenets were eventually overthrown in 1485 by the Welshman Henry Tudor. Bynn Walters There were the Cymry (Britons, or in the Germanic languages of the time 'Welsh) who ruled the land from the borders of Caledonia (Strathclyde or Ystrad Clud) to 'Lands End' before for historical reasons crossing to Armorica renaming the land 'Llydaw/Breizh/Brittany. The Northumbrian Angles (Germans) fought many battles against the Strathclyde 'Welsh' & the Gwynedd 'Welsh, sometimes winning, sometimes losing. At the same time the Irish of Dalreada expanded into Welsh territory pushing us against the Germanic invaders creating a Brythonic exile to the north of our present Cymru (Wales). Towards the end of the 7th century we lost our crown but have fought back ever since to hold on to a semblance of a country and a semblance of pride. Taliesin's 6th c. prophecy was that we would lose our land (except Wild Wales) but not our language, yet there are people in Wales today who want to see us losing our language and with it an ancient heritage? I say shame on them.