Nye

NYE BEVAN, GREAT WELSHMAN?

Many people during lockdown have binged watched Netflix shows, me. I have been binge-watching lectures by Professor Vernon Bogdanor on the postwar Britain, and they are damn good viewing, this guy is so good, he is better than a watching a documentary, he is fair and objective about whoever he happens to be speaking about.  *This video about Nye Bevan is part of a series about great British politicians who may have made great prime ministers. its interesting that Hugh Gaitskell is missing from this list, and Bevan is, in fact, that Gaitskell's widow said that Nye should have been Labour leader than her own husband (something I never knew). This lecture gives meat to Nye's character and personhood.  instead of just a welsh windbag or firebrand, we see a man of integrity and passionate devotion to his country. Bogdnador's view that he was a "first-class minister" one should read John Pater's "Making of the National Health Service" he was a senior Civil Servant who saw the implementation of the Act that created it, and his view is that Bevan was the first-rate minister and that his talent was wasted by Attlee's poor choice of positions that he put him in. He was appointed as Minister of Labour when Bevan had wanted to be Colonial Secretary because he would have been a great help in working between the nations of the new Commonwealth, Attlee felt that Nye would be too "racially prejudiced" for the position (not in the way you would think). 

NYE'S WELSHNESS?

Those who know him so well are familiar with his view and the famous speech where he describes the "Tories being lower than vermin" his use of rhetoric was well known as he was regarded as only second to Churchill in speechifying! or perhaps equal to. What did he think of Wales and Welshness, devolution, and perhaps even there being a Welsh NHS, might be indicated by his view to a "Welsh Day" that was introduced in Parliament in 1944 (by the Coalition Government) by saying what is the difference between Welsh and Westmoreland sheep? and that problems should be dealt with within the context of Central government, he probably would not be happy with the current setup? We know what he thought of Tories,(but not Tories as people he was a friend of Iain McLeod, they used to go to rugby matches together). One suspects that his view of Welsh nationalism and perhaps Plaid Cymru was similar, llygodMawrr! which is probably why his place as the Greatest Welsh Person is so controversial, who many wanted Owain Glyndwr should be, personally I think that accolade as second should go to Hywel Dda, the first king of Deheubarth, who was the ruler of all wales (except Glamorgan where I live) who codified Welsh law and was progressive because it promoted sex equality, which was advanced not only for its time, but for the next 1000 years, but I digress. I think Bevan recognised his Welshness but thought it was not as important to the common good of all those living in the Isles!

HEALTHCARE REFORM IN AMERICA

what has Bevan to do with healthcare in the US?  Quite a bit actually, because of the same arguments used against the NHS are being used by those opposed to "Medicare for all" advocated by Sanders and Warren as opposed to the amended Obamacare advocated by Joe Biden (the current Democratic nominee). Not only was it affordable, but private hospitals existed alongside the NHS. So when Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune speaking on The McLaughlin Group that he "did not want to lose his insurance" which is simply not true. I can give an example when I worked for Tesco in the 1980s,  the company offered a private health insurance policy with BUPA, which I did take out, but there was private healthcare that existed alongside the NHS. its a shame that in this forthcoming election the best they could come up is a dried out guy like Biden, and i like him, however that is conditional on his current situation

CONCLUSION

I hope those who read this  (the ones I have tagged) listen to this lecture and i would love to listen to their views.

*I was wrong about Bevan being the Prime Minister that never was, a minister whose influence was greater than those who were.

Tale of Two Bus Stops

Tale of Two Bus Stops

A couple of years ago (can't remember what year with covid and lockdowns they ran into each other) a new road was built just above us (Eglwys Bewis Road). To make access to the Aston Martin factory easier. 

The West Camp community serves the military at MOD St Athan and private residents. That community is served by one bus (304) previously it was served by 5 buses.

When the road was being completed our road was closed until it was completed and the bus ran along the new road until was completed . I contacted both Adventure and the VoG if would be running on the old road. I was assured that it would and there were "temporary bus stops " until it ran again.

As you can see the stops look more permanent, and now the bus is running along the old road with a wrecked old shelter. Whilst you have 2 spanking brand new shelters on a road that has no buses! What sense does that make? Answers on a postcard.

Obituary for a church

St Timothy’s Church in Caerau, Cardiff will be holding its last service, Sunday , January 29th. St Timothy’s was a big part of the life of the Caerau community of Cardiff. it is the last (Anglican) church standing. built in 1957 to serve the new emerging council estate, as the then medieval church of St Mary's was too small and too isolated on the nearby hill. It was a large part of our family's life there. My father was People's Warden (an ancient post in the Anglican church stretching back to the Middle Ages) from 1976., he was also caretaker assisted by my mother. My sister sang in the choir, and I served at the altar.

St Tim’s (as it was affectionately known) what was known as a “dual purpose church” it was a church on Sunday, and a hall for social functions, such as the church’s popular bingo, numerous jumble sales and Christmas bazaars. It was a big part of the local community.

There were the people who made up that family. Joseph Barry (Joe) when we started there was Vicar’s Warden, Choirmaster, Lay Reader, bingo caller, treasurer. Joe was there when St Tim’s opened, where he was choirmaster, People’s Warden. He was a permanent fixture and since as Reader which is a type of “minor order” he was a type of minister. 

I remember the 1970s and 80s well, Father Jack (later Canon) Buttimore was the Vicar (based at St David’s). St Tim’s was served by curates (assistant parish priests) whilst vicar usually served for 10 or 20 years (Fr Buttimore stayed from 1970=97 his predecessor 1933-70] curates were apprentices and remained for 4 or 5 years. Fr Hugh Broad, 1975-79, Fr Colin Sutton, 1980-1985, Fr Bernard Sharp, 1986-91, they all had their strength (and weaknesses).

however, it was the people themselves that was the important part of this family Saint Tim's. Besides Joe, there were others that I remember,  May Collins, Lou Jenkins, Honor North Olive Newbury, Lily Nichols [with her husband Albert who had been caretaker before my father) Gwenny Wade, Melanie Sloman, Queenie Brown, Beaty Cozey, Nelly Cotta . They have all gone, all collaborated tirelessly with my mother and father.

The last years things kept ticking on with my Pauline Boughton and Barbara Cuddihy as churchwardens, Pauline raised money with her teas and legendary baking. There was Margaret Daniels and her husband Alpheus who returned to their home in St Kitts, Millie Parris an old friend my Mum’s who passed away after enduring a lengthy illness, she and her daughter Selma were pillars of the church as were Fred [a veteran of Anzio) and his wife Winnie Andrews good people. It pains me that they are gone. My time at St Tim’s effectively ended  when I went to the US in 1990,but never lost touch with the place where my faith was formulated though it is not what it was the loss of that still is sad.

St Tim’s was a important part of the community, its loss will be and already lost.

The reasons for its closure seems to be due to an inspection from the diocese of Llandaff that found cracks in the buttress that made it structurally unsound, and it was condemned. This survey happened out of the blue and I was told that the vicar had not been aware that this was going to happen. I was quite surprised. I remember talking to someone about replacing the current building with a new church. I suspect that individual knew that it would never happen. The Diocese sold the land for flats for £750k, the diocese got the bulk of it.

There was a building fund which for a permanent building to be built and the current building would have functioned as a hall, the fact that this never happened was tragic.

People will say that the church are the people and not the building, church is the family! Yes that is true. Yet family lives in a house and that makes it a home. So losing St Tim’s closure is akin to having the family home demolished. 

To the those living and those who are gone, like my father, Joe and the rest it’s sad. 

May St Timothy’s rest in peace! 

Rings, of Power stinker?

I enjoyed it, I  don't know why, the writing is awful, the plot development seems a little lamentable, Galadriel comes across a little dim for one of the eldest of the Eldar, and not seeing through Hambone appears a bit much. I don't know, I'll stick to the books, Jeff Bezos, and his writers can join Gollum in jumping into Mount Doom aka Orodruin. Attacking Tolkien fans as unreconstructed racists, many of us are not concerned so much about the colour of the cast, but being more of a stream of consciousness, disconnected. The next season won't be out for nearly 2 years? Are these actors must have long contracts? I can't see Morfydd Clark committing a decade to this.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/oct/17/now-its-over-lets-come-out-and-say-it-the-rings-of-power-was-a-stinker?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Frank's story is History

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10224228776092871&id=1406573608

FRANK'S STORY IS HISTORY 

Listened to this when my alarm came on at 622am, since I was not working I was not working I was going to turn it off. It was so compelling I couldn't listening to Frank's life as an old time butcher going on whilst new shops opened and closed around him. He kept on, sacrificing a life of happy marriage with children to keep his family business going, happy though. A relic of the 18th century seeing off the "progress" of the 20th century peeking into the 21st. Living in God's country of Llaniltud Fawr aka Llantwit Major in Wales, we have a local butcher's who does very well perhaps not having a Sainsbury, Tesco, or even Aldis is not a bad thing, because quality is more important than quantity and price. As my son a trained butcher pointed out, supermarkets give you more bone or fat and people to are being cheated.

Church during lockdown

In The Begining 

When Lockdown began for us in Wales (for me a week earlier) in March 18. First non essential shops like mine were closed, then it was decided that all places of worship would be closed completely, you could not even enter for private prayer. Only a single minister could go in and conduct online services (which many did like my parish church at St Illtud's in Llaniltud Fawr aka Llantwit Major) many, if most did not.

This was the first time that churches were totally closed and Sacraments not administered since the beginning of the 13th Century, when Pope Innocent lll put England under a interdict when all the churches were closed because King John was a naughty boy! Though priests were allowed to baptise and administer the last rites. Now we have heard from the First Minister, Mark Drakeford that places of worship will be allowed to reopen, and after shops have already been open. 

A New Way of Being Church

Since the closing of Church buildings and the Sacraments not being celebrated publicly was seen as a new way of being church. The common response that we do not need to worship in a building to meet and be with God. True of course, however the buildings are described as "sacramentals" a sign of God's presence amongst creation, was a blanket closing of them totally necessary? The use of Online worship using Mark Zuckerberg Facebook and WhatsApp was quite widespread. My local church used Facebook Live and Zoom for collective worship, and my home church using WhatsApp and Zoom, but not too much on Facebook. This was very good, i participated with my wife in the worship not only at St Illtud's in Llantwit Major but Grace Episcopal church in Hutchinson, Kansas (where my wife worshipped a couple of years ago.. Needless to say that worship has been revolutionised no doubt, but people who have not stepped inside a church in years now engage with God online from the comfort of their own rooms, and great?? 

What About The Forgotten. 

Yes, I the forgotten, and who are they? Simple, I they are the folk, that don't do Facebook, WhatsApp or any other type of social media. Let me tell you a story. Rita (not her real name) is an older woman, a faithful member of her local church, always there, except the rare occasions when she is not well, which is rare. When the churches closed down, she heard nothing from her church (clergy etc) for months, she had calls from fellow church members. The first communication she had received from the church itself was a letter from the minister and a letter from the the Church treasurer for money. The church in Wales was a almost in a state of hibernation in the Real world, and functioned almost entirely in a virtual social media one. Through many people participated in the Online Church, many lost contact, and almost completely. The church in the UK has opened up cautiously, churches are open for private prayer, but under controlled circumstances. In Wales our lockdown rules were strictler than say Kansas. In Wales only a cleric could enter the church, and conduct a service that could be streamed, in Kansas (the place that I participated) Churches were closed but services with a number of individuals were allowed as long as they practiced social distancing. Why that could not have been the case in Wales with the churches working with the Welsh Government i have no idea. 

The Body of Christ

The Church is not just a collection of individuals, but a body, the Body, and the which requires working together, ordinary customers helping each other, and loving each other, giving a home to the homeless, feeding the hungry, helping the sick and Lonely. This time has a terrible time for the lonely and isolated, and sick. No Sacraments not even baptism, but do we not care? 

Life Learning the Language of Welsh

Since we have been in lockdown, one of my activities that I have been doing whilst in exile from Kith and Kin, and work, have to learn our native language, Welsh aka Cymraeg that Janet Davies describes in her excellent book “The Welsh Language, A History” as “Lingua Britannica” which translates as  “The British language”. For me, this is the life continuing process, like “Devolution” is in Wales, however, before I describe my own struggle with this I’ll take through the history of both the language and the people and finally the nation we are in.

The People of Wales
In the Western peninsular of Britain, shaped like a woman sitting and pointing accusingly

Human Beings have lived there for nearly 20,000 years. One of the oldest human remains that were found in Paviland Cave in the Gower peninsula just south of Swansea (see map) he was a young man who was buried in a cave facing the sea 33,000 years ago, he was stained in red ochre, this was during the middle of the last Ice Age when Wales was inhabited by Hunter-Gatherers in the Paleolithic Age. As the ice retreated the population advanced, mostly from the Iberian Peninsular we know bits and pieces about the people that lived in the lady peninsular. What language they spoke, we only can speculate. The oldest language in Western Europe would be Basque, spoke by the people who live in northern Spain and southern France, quite unrelated not to any other language but not a member of the Indo European group. genetically it has been claimed that we (especially in the south-east) related to them perhaps we spoke a language that was closely related to Basque, however, that is purely speculative and can not be proved. 

The Welsh language evolved from what was known as Brittonic (Pretanic is the oldest known word to describe Britain from the 3rd Century BCE) was spoken by the people before the Romans arrived and was never displaced by Latin (unlike Gaulish in France which was extinct by the 5th Century AD), unfortunately, there is very little written down (I think) rather like Gaulish to construct a dictionary. Old Welsh evolved in the 5th Century displacing Latin which was spoken in the large urban areas which disappeared with the arrival of the Yellow Plague. We learn There are written records in Old Welsh as the Poem Y Goddodin written by the Poet Aneurin in the 6th Century. Welsh was the main branch of the languages which became Cumbric (spoken in the north-west of England and now extinct), Cornish, Breton, all of which are still spoken.

Welsh has been the strongest to survive, it was spoken in Wales with up to 90% of the population in the 19th Century, was dismissed as a useless language by much of the English establishment (and Welsh)that was not helpful. Fortunately thanks to a strong intellectual class of Welsh led by members of the Welsh Liberal party that constituted a group known as Cymru Fydd (Young Wales) led by Tom Ellis David Lloyd George, and JO Lloyd. Then by Plaid Cymru founded by Saunders Lewis in 1925. The Welsh language has been revived from possible extinction. It was included in the Education Act of 1944 by the Conservative Secretary of State, RAB Butler who was a strong supporter of the Welsh language. The victory of Gwynfor Evans (who could rightly describe as Tad Cenedl Father of the Nation) won the Carmarthen by-election after the death of Lady Megan Lloyd George for Plaid Cymru, led to the 1967 Welsh Language Act, the 1992 Welsh Language Act which made Welsh compulsory in. Welsh schools, and practically the official language of Wales, Home Rule in 1999, and the dawn of a new nation in a New Millennium.

My Struggle with Welsh 

My life learning Welsh can be split into 3 periods, always described myself and a life long learner of my native language.

1, School

When I was in school (1969-83) Welsh began when you entered Junior school which today would Year 3, at 8 years old. When I began at Cwrt Y Ala Junior School in 1972, my second teacher (as I moved classes in October) was Mr Owen John Thomas (later to become a Plaid AS in 1999-2007 he was the Culture Spokesperson, and remember him heckling Neil Kinnock during a 1979 QT, I remember cheering him on!) no shortage of Welsh history there. Our Welsh teacher was Mr John Blake who left us in the 4th year, or as we called him “flakey Blakey. He was a great teacher, Welsh was one period a day, and I was a semi-active member of the Urdd Gobaith Cymru (Welsh League of Youth)the actual translation is Youth, The Hope of Wales. He told us the Tales from the Mabinogion with his own version of Bran, (in his version Bran’s head is buried in Cardiff ). What I remember was the Welsh we were taught were the formal kind. In Secondary school, it was compulsory until our second year (Year 8). In Glyn Derw High school. Miss Valery Vaughan who was our Form Teacher taught us Welsh, and on the whole, I had good grades, however, when it was an option it was decided to go for French (which I was also good at). I believed later it was a mistake, my French went downhill, I think mainly because the teacher was not that good. The rest is history. Though recently when I was visiting the Museum of Welsh Life at St Fagan's, happen to speak to one of the custodians who I discovered supplied at Cwrt Y Ala in my final year, I thought he looked familiar, and he told me that they focused mainly on the children that had an aptitude for it, and the rest of us were left to flounder, probably what happened with Jason Mohammed who also went to Glyn Drew, I knew his teacher, and believe it to be true. Thus ended part 1 of my struggle to learn my native language.

Part 2 Colorado Welsh Society 

  In 1990 I left Wales and moved to the US, to the great city of Denver, I went there to test my vocation with the Franciscan order at the Anglican Catholic Church of St Mary’s, a former Episcopal Church that left in 1976 over the ordination of women, led by Bishop James Mote, quite a charismatic guy and far more liberal leanings than most people would have guessed. Needless to say, religious life was definitely not for me. I did stay working as a lay assistant, sacristan, acolyte master, Lay Reader/subdeacon etc, quite the life. Worked in the local Roman Catholic seminary of St Thomas in the Library (honorary asst Librarian and bookstore), also completing a Certificate in Biblical Studies in 1995 with Biblical School at the same seminary.

However I am going off on a tangent, so I shall.get back to Welsh. Before I left for the States I checked out the local Welsh society (don't forget this before the Internet). I discovered that there was a Colorado Welsh Society which despite the named membership was drawn from the Denver Metro area, and only met three times a year. The annual meeting that elected the president and Board of Directors, the Davids Day Gymanfa Ganu at the Corona (no virus) Presbyterian Church which was formerly the Corona Welsh Presbyterian Church and had Welsh Language services until 1948, and the Christmas Noson Llawen in December, all great stuff. Small core membership, a choir, there were a couple of native Welsh speakers.

The Kathleen Hughes Welsh Language learning academy

There was a desire for a Welsh Language class to be held. There were 2 ladies who spoke Welsh fluently, the first and oldest was Peggy Brown, Peggy was a war bride who came from Tonypandy, and sounded like she comes from there, the other was Kathleen Hughes, Kathleen was from Abergylowyn in the north, she was a retired nurse who worked at National Jewish Hospital. It was hilarious to hear these two argue about Welsh words because of dialect “Dau! Dou!” “Nawr Rowan!”.People had begged that they start lessons. Sadly Peggy passed away in 1991, which left Kathleen as the potential teacher.  A few of us finally bamboozled her into teaching! she was not keen because she felt it was difficult for a native speaker to teach. She agreed in the end to teach, and a 5 of us started lessons with her as the teacher. It was myself, Betty Foos (From Morganstown who swore blind that “the Englishman that went up the Hill” was true) Betty Brown ( a Spanish speaker who just had problems with pronunciation)Pat Burne (a Spanish speaker who had no trouble) and Dale Summers (He was LDS and did his mission in Cardiff and knocked on our door in 1975). We met on Monday nights at Kathleen’s apartment for an hour and a half using “Teach Yourself Welsh” from October to May (Kathleen spent her Summers in Wales). It did not take long to grow. Within 2 years we had 20 people learning Welsh. When I was “drafted” as president of the Colorado Welsh Society my philosophy was that the KHWLA was an important mission in making the society a strong association which it had not been until then. Frequent meetings of the Language group, of the choir, of talks about Wales and its history (I gave one on Owain Glyndwr) was what was important to raising the profile and teaching our Langauge. The group grew and matured and met in a large room, we divided the class into beginners that were led by Trefor Roberts (Tref picked up the language pretty quickly and was so good he could teach) Kathleen taught the Advanced class until she passed away sadly in 1999. Mine ended around 1997 after I got married and moved away, and the language sadly went away. My wife, Cathy who is a teacher, her great great grandfather, Timothy Thomas was a master silk mercer who was born in Carmarthen. Cathy supplied in Wales and started learning it herself, she is a Spanish speaker, Mother, Mary was a bilingual teacher in the LA area, and fluent in. Spanish, I think foreign languages are taught better in the US. However, The Colorado Welsh Society is thriving as is its Welsh classes and it still needs and it's successful and deserves an award from the Welsh Government for what it has done to promote our native language. For free, no charge/

3.Duolingo 

I have tried Duolingo a number of times and really have not kept up, until now with the Lockdown, I think the fact it is free is a great help, and easy to follow, giving you 3 learning sessions .1 casual 2 serious 3 insane. I found it helpful with a reintroduction to Welsh or Lingua Britannica. 

The Way Forward 

One thing that I believe that the Colorado Welsh Society deserves a shout out for are offering free lessons. Surely this should be explored. Offering free lessons would be a great help in heading towards that goal of 1 mllion speakers.