Blair - don't come to Wales... just send us the cash

That seems to be the message from the Brit Nats at the Welsh Labour Party. Blair's popularity was good enough in 97, 01 and 05, but not in May 07.

Old Rhodri Morgan seems to be doing his damnest to distance himself from Blair's New Labour, thinking up any last minute gimmick to bribe the core Labour vote. But where's the cash coming from?

If Blair isn't welcome in the Valleys (as the BBC would say) then that should be true of New Labour's cash too. Plaid should again challenge Welsh Labour to spend only what they themselves have raised.

Who are Ya, Gordon?

Is he taking the piss? There's nothing at all the matter with the UK Chancellor supporting an England bid to host the World Cup - as a constituent nation in the UK, that's his job. But this effort to cuddle up and start mating with the English electorate like some deranged pup is just plain embarrassing. What's this all about:

The Chancellor, who said he would support all UK teams that qualified, said: "I have been around the world, I have been in Asia, America and Europe, and I think there is great support for England having it 50 years after we won the World Cup in 1966."

Gordon, you're Scottish and it's just too late to change that - I can't wait for him to be PM!

The only down side is that England have a good chance of hosting the World Cup in 2018. Nothing wrong with that - it will increase English nationalism which I'm all in favour of, and if England aren't independent by then, they will be pretty soon after.

My only problem is this. Knowing our luck, Wales will qualify for this - our first major tournament since 1958 - and rather than a month long holiday in Brasil or Italy we'll be stuck in rainy Liverpool or Birmingham!

National St. David's Day Parade

Will You Be There? This is a much welcome event and should be a good day out. It's time we started celebrating our Welshness - why should the Brits have all the best parades?

'NATIONAL ST.DAVID'S DAY PARADE!'

www.stdavidsday.org

This will be the 4th Parade and promises to be bigger and better than ever before, with more people, more colour, and much more music. This is your chance to celebrate our culture, our heritage, and our identity ; your chance to declare before the world, 'We're still here!'

On the Parade this year will be:

• BAGAD BRO MORGANNWG : a pipe and drum band from Glamorgan
• THE WELSH HORSE : from Carmarthenshire
• THE CAMBRIA DRUM BAND : from Flintshire.
• BAGAD PENHARS : (a pipe and drum band, from Kemper /Quimper, Brittany). Our special guests, since according to Breton tradition, St David himself was born in Brittany, and Non, his mother, buried there.
• ADAMANT : Closer to home, the legendary Cardiff New Orleans-style Jazz band.
• LOCAL SCHOOLS : a number of local schools will be taking part in the Parade.
• THE LORD MAYOR OF CARDIFF, Councillor Gareth Neale
• REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
• REPRESENTATIVES OF FAITH GROUPS
• DELEGATION FROM CORNWALL
  

The Parade will muster at 1.30pm and set out at 2pm from Sophia Close (near the 'Mochyn Du' pub), Thursday, March 1.

The Parade will finish with a Closing Ceremony in front of the National Museum of Wales, with an address by Mererid Hopwood (Crowned Bard and last year's National Children's Poet), and

The Right Rev.Daniel Mullins (former Catholic Bishop of Menevia), to be preceded by the children of 'Ysgol Treganna' singing 'Ring out the Bells for Dewi!' (a song written specially for the occasion), and ending with the singing of the National Anthem. To be followed by 'cawl' and entertainment late into the evening at the 'Mochyn Du' public house.

BE THERE ! …..FOR WALES

How sad are we as a nation?

Last week we saw WRU bigwigs cooing over the fact that Prince William (the President of the English Football Association) had officially started his role as Vice Royal Patron to the Welsh Rugby Union (his Mum being the Royal Patron) by attending the Six Nations match between Wales and Ireland.

The most servile of the lot was Chairman of the WRU David Pickering (who was seen sucking up to Princess Anne at the Scotland v Wales game today) who said at the time of William's appointment:

"I am delighted that Prince William has agreed to become our Vice Royal Patron... He has particular qualities when it comes to interacting with young people and I am sure he will prove inspirational in his new role within Welsh rugby. We're all thrilled."

I'm sure that William inspired many young people in Wales to get involved in Welsh rugby when they saw him supporting England in Twickers today instead of supporting our boys in the Scottish match. But hey, that's exactly where he should be of course, given the fact that he is English!

How pathetic are we as a nation that the Patron to our National Sport isn't even Welsh? Haven't we got enough confidence in our own nation, and our own people?

What next, a Kenyan Secretary of State for Wales?!?

Wales v Ireland

Ok so we didn't win, but wasn't it touching to see Prince William not knowing the words to our national anthem. Will we have to suffer this bloke as well calling himself the Prince of Wales.

As an aside - I was watching the new series on S4C, Tywysogion, (princes) with English subtitles and I hadn't realised that there was a king of all Wales at the time of Edward Confessor in England, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, who united the country and even took land from Edward. If he hadn't been killed by a traitor in 1063 it's interesting to think how things would have turned out following William's conquest of England three years later.

However, a few seats away from prince William was Peter Hain, enjoying a game of rugby by two Balkanised teams. Of course, if Hain had his way there wouldn't be a Welsh or Irish team just one big cuddly British team of Brotherhood and Unity. Of course, on the other hand, Hain may just be a hypocrite with no principles.

The one great thing from the game was seeing Aled Brew wear the red jersey. No doubt it's further confirmation that the CRE are right and that independence for Wales would mean racial tension here. Bollocks!

The existence of a national rugby team, like independence, gives Wales the opportunity to build a civic nationality. Aled Brew, a black Welsh speaking proud Welshman, with a Welsh first name, is living testament of this blindingly obvious truth. It's the CRE and Hain who want to keep Welsh identity an ethnic identity not Welsh nationalists!