Stone Me!
A friend of mine who lives in Mid-Wales told me what he found out whilst the row of old cottages in which he lives was being prettified. (It was a pretty row in the first place, but his local Council has been given lots of Euro-cash to play with by our Senedd, so some office-wallah has deemed that Mid-Wales should look more twee to visitors.)
The new walls being built at the front of each house – at no cost to the occupier – are to be topped with flat slate slabs. One of the men building the walls told my friend that, when his firm was working on a bigger contract for Cadw, the slate slabs which were supplied for the job came from abroad.
It may not have escaped your attention that Wales has masses of its own slate just waiting to be used. So why should lumps of the stuff (obviously inferior to our own!) be shipped across the ocean to use in our land?
He has written to his MP and to his AM, appraising them of the situation and asking that most dangerous of all questions: “Why?”
I shall keep you posted.
Education, Education And . . . Oh, Dear!
Students throughout the UK sat with bated breath awaiting their exam results. This week, their patience was rewarded. And, here in Wales, it seems that we did not fare well.
The results show that Wales is at the bottom of the UK league when it comes to passing exams.
Straight away there were cries of “It’s the Welsh language which holds our kids back!” That’s usually said in a voice without a trace of a Welshness.
Our immigrant population – mainly from the other side of Offa’s Dyke – has a large percentage of “We’re British and that means English” in its midst. These arrogant people do not intend to integrate into our communities: they would prefer us to adapt to the ways of Mother England, class-structure and all.
Let us show our pity for them by treating them in a kindly Welsh way and help them realise what they are missing by their anti-integration policies.
WEEKEND WALES WATCH 
As usual the British media (sadly including BBC Wales) show their ignorance of the situation in Wales by not taking into account the effect of the Welsh baccalaureate Advanced Diploma results. This qualification is regarded by UCAS as the equivalent of an A level and when this is factored into the Welsh figures it lifts the Welsh figures above those of England and Northern Ireland.
As Syniadau points out below, because we do have our own Welsh qualification when they are taken into account the situation improves markedly. Most of the top British Universities recognise the qualification and we should be celebrating the excellent overall results our children have achieved. That does not mean we can afford to be complacent because we do need to study why we did not get as many A* at “A” level.
But we shouldn’t be knocking ourselves over what are very good results coming on top of figures showing that at Key stage 2 the Welsh results are ahead of England. As stated earlier our children’s education is too important for us to be complacent but there are far too many including “Welsh media” willing to talk Wales down.
http://syniadau–buildinganindependentwales.blogspot.com/2011/08/wales-422-northern-ireland-345-england.html