Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Chwarae Teg Ieuan.

County Councillor for Llanfyllin, Peter Lewis has been on the phone tonight. We're speaking a lot at the moment, following the shocking news about job losses at Stadco Powys. As soon as Peter learned of this disastrous news for the town, we agreed that I would arrange to have a letter delivered to the office of Ieuan Wyn Jones in Cardiff Bay, and that Peter would email him. We wanted to impress upon him the importance of a quick and decisive Assembly Government response. This was on Monday. Well on Tuesday morning, an officer of the Government joined us at our meeting with the company bosses. And today, Peter has received an email from the deputy First Minister's office promising to contact him in January to arrange a date. I can do no other than comment thus "Chwarae teg Ieuan, a Diolch". I wonder whether I should have mutated the word 'Diolch'.

I did think twice about posting such a positive comment about a Plaid Cymru politician. A few minutes ago google alerts, which lets me know if my name appears on any other blogs, informed me that on one fellow blogger's site, my blog is known as 'A Nationalist Tory named Glyn', rather than 'A View from Rural Wales'. I'm not sure that I like this, but I have been called worse.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Montgomeryshire Tories couldn't give a stuff about job losses in Powys!

You are shedding crocodile tears Glyn - crocodile tears!

You people are more interested in ipods than helping the hard working people of Powys!

Your colleagues in the Assembly and Parliament are rubbing your hands in glee amidst all the economic gloom as you think the voters will punish Labour and vote you lot in!

People are not daft - they have seen through your naked opportunism.

I am confident you will not publish these critical comments either. It does not matter a jot - Cameron's star is already on the the wane and you Sir, don't have a prayer of being beating Lembit! :-)

Glyn Davies said...

David - Now thats what I consider to be a very uncharitable comment - and so near the festive season too. But you are entitled to your opinion.

But in one respect you are wrong. I reject comments if they are profane, potentially libellous, or seek to cause hurt to individuals. Being offensive to my party or to me is allowed. In any case, I think comments such as yours are rather helpful to us.

Anonymous said...

Some truth in DLE's comments, take his comments about Lembit, "being beating Lembit!" Sort of true; how can one beat someone who has beaten himself? Answer: stand aside as the beaten man/flaming chariot that is Lembit races by.

Anonymous said...

Fair do's to you for allowing the comment!

Alwyn ap Huw said...

"Chwarae teg Ieuan, a Diolch". I wonder whether I should have mutated the word 'Diolch'.


No, no need for a mutation there.
I find Mr Lloyd Evans' comments rather unsavoury. One of the worst aspects of party politics is the tendency to say if my party suggests X then X is good but if your party suggests that X is good then X must be bad (or desperately pinching X's off us).

I find it refreshing that Ieuan and yourself, despite your political differences, can try to work together in such desperate circumstances.

Losing 100 jobs in Llanfyllin will have the same local affect as losing 10,000 jobs in a more populated area. All politicians should do their utmost to try and prevent such a disaster and to do their best to alleviate the fallout if the worst happens. Playing party politics, trying to gain party points in the face of such a disaster is sick, Mr Lloyd-Davies.

I have always thought of Glyn as the big boy's don't cry type - I can't imagine him doing crocodile tears; so I suspect that Glyn's reaction is genuine.

If Lembit can find the time between his Segway campaign and his Daily Star column to be of practical help to the Stadco workers then I'm sure that he will receive the support of members of all parties and none. But at the moment Glyn is the local person who is championing jobs in Llanfyllin and Lembit has yet to be heard.

Anonymous said...

Talking about 'crocodile tears' ('as u do') did anyone by blind luck read about how croc hearts oxygenate themselves? According to one article, some croc hearts lack blood human heart blood vessels - no surprises there then, 'whoever heard of a crocodile with human blood vessels'? 'I ask you, only a zebra!'

So how does croc heart tissue get oxygena (a 'wicked' form of oxygen) and nutrients?

Well, according to the article (or more accurately what I don't remember about said article), croc hearts are full of narrow blind-holes of sufficent diameter to allow blood inside the beating croc heart to diffuse outwards into the croc's heart tissue without escaping through the heart wall. A blind hole is a hole that doesn't 'go all the way through', a kind of 'blind tunnel'. A tunnel that is blocked at one end. So a blind tunnel in a mountain wouldn't pass all the way through said mountain.

All this has got me thinking - more about that later.

Glyn Davies said...

M-man - Its dificult to assess public reaction to his personal approach to politics. Its worked for him so far - so wait and see.

Alwyn - Local Lib Dem AM, Mick Bates was also at our meeting on Monday morning - and I've heard Plaid Cymru AM for Mid and West Wales, Nerys Evans speaking about the issue as well.

Anonymous said...

Wake up Glyn. A meeting costs the minister nothing. The jobs are gone full stop. At the meeting he will listen and sympathise with the problem. He will then talk about retraining, extra money for the area and the need to work with all public bodies in the area. Basically the Assembly is pretty irrelevant to what is happening the moment.

Glyn Davies said...

Anon - I a general sense, you are probably right. But when the Minister makes such a quick response, it leads his officials to take it seriously. There are areas where I think he may be able to help. For example he may, by reassuring the company of Assembly Government support help the business that's left become profitable, thus sustaining the Lanfyllin plant through this downturn. Its crucial that the base remains in Llanfyllin to build on.

Glyn Davies said...

anons - Sorry but I cannot allow comments that might be libellous. Accusations of drinking, or drugs, or any illegal behaviour is just not allowed - so I'm rejecting them. Sorry for being so nit-picky.

Anonymous said...

Minister? Surely they don't have ministers in the Welsh assembly? Bit high-falutin isn't it?