Tag: Brexit
The silent election
Has there ever been a general election studded with so many good jokes? From the very start, when Rishi Sunak destroyed his blue suit while standing in the pouring rain to announce the election, to the news that the even more hapless ex-MP Craig Williams had used his insider knowledge to place a £100 bet […]
Pos poblogrwydd Boris
Yn gyson mae’r cwmni pôl pinion YouGov yn tracio bwriad pleidleisio pobl ar draws Prydain. Dangosa’r canlyniadau mwyaf diweddar (4-5 Ionawr 2021) fod y Blaid Geidwadol a’r Blaid Lafur yn gyfartal (39% yr un). Sut ar y ddaear y gallai hyn fod yn bosibl? Ystyriwch yr hyn sy wedi digwydd ers i Boris Johnson ennill […]
Cymru annibynnol: un arall o blaid
Pwy ydych chi? I ba wlad ych chi’n perthyn? Am flynyddoedd, os digwyddodd rhywun holi – a gwrthod derbyn tawelwch, neu’r ateb ‘dinesydd y byd’ – fy ateb fu ‘Prydeiniwr’. Albanes oedd fy mam. Daeth fy nhad o Swydd Efrog, a bues i’n byw yn Lloegr tan yn 21 mlwydd oed. Cymru fu fy nghartref […]
Covid-19: pam mae Prydain mor drychinebus?
Erbyn hyn mae’n amlwg fod Prydain yn dioddef o’r pla yn waeth nag unrhyw wlad yn Ewrop. Amlwg hefyd mai esgeulustod llywodraeth y DU yw un o’r prif resymau. Ei methiant i ymateb i’r firws yn brydlon. Ei methiant i ddarparu offer ar gyfer unedau triniaeth ddwys, a dillad i warchod pawb oedd mewn cyswllt […]
The memory of Sir Thomas Picton
One of the many noxious elements making up the miasma of Brexiter thinking is exceptionalism. The idea that Britain is naturally superior to other countries, and that it is strong enough to stand alone against every foe, has deep roots – much deeper than the Battle of Britain, so often trundled out by politicians. If […]
What happens when a politician lies?
A few years ago, the answer to that question would have been obvious. If the lie came to light, and was serious enough, he or she would have been in grave trouble – and might even have had to resign. Today the answer would be – precisely nothing. This is so common that almost nobody […]
A farrago from Mr Farage
Another interesting printed document has come, uninvited, through our letterbox. It’s an A3 sheet, printed in colour and folded once. Its publisher is an organisation calling itself the EFDD Group in the European Parliament. EFDD, we’re told, stands for ‘Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy’. In the bottom right-hand corner of page 4 is a […]
The Sicilian Expedition: a second Brexit footnote
After the 2016 Brexit referendum I suggested that the historian Thucydides, in the fifth century BC, can help us to understand how democracies have the capacity to change their decisions on major policies – and both the capacity and the duty to do so when those decisions are clearly, in retrospect, unwise or disastrous. A […]
What’s wrong with BBC news?
Nowadays I seldom choose to watch or listen to ‘national’ BBC news programmes. I’m certain I’m not alone, to judge from personal enquiries and listener statistics: the Today programme lost 800,000 listeners between August 2017 and August 2018. Some of this listener loss could be down to the changing shape of media – there are […]
Iaith a Brecsit
Er Mehefin 2016 mae llawer o bobl yn cynnig llawer o resymau er mwyn ceisio esbonio pam dewisodd mwyafrif o bleidleiswyr Prydeinig i adael yr Undeb Ewropeaidd. Rhesymau economaidd – yr awydd i gadw swyddi a chodi cyflogau, i sicrhau masnachu rhwyddach gyda gweddill y byd, i wario rhagor ar y gwasanaeth iechyd. Rhesymau gwleidyddol […]