Archive for June 9th, 2009
9th June 2009
Degawd isel, anonest - A low, dishonest decade
Erthygl Golwg 28/05/09
Mae’n bwysig bob amser i osgoi gor-ddweud ond yng nghanol yr argyfwng economaidd gwaethaf ers y Chwalfa a’r argyfwng gwleidyddol mwyaf ers Chamberlain mae Llundain y dyddiau hyn yn teimlo rhyw fymryn yn debyg i Ewrop ddiwedd y tridegau: “ansicr ac ofnus/wrth ddarfod gobeithion clyfar/ degawd isel, anonest” fel y disgrifiwyd gan Auden mewn bar yn alltud yn Efrog Newydd ar drothwyr’r rhyfel.
Dechreuodd y ddegawd - i mi o leiaf - a Mittal a’r mega-miliynwyr a phrynu dylanwad a gwerthu eneidiau er mwyn ariannu pleidiau. Pa syndod na sefodd Llafur yn erbyn trachwant y Ddinas - y diwylliant bonws a’r ddiffyg atebolrwydd - nes oedd hi’n rhy hwyr.
Aethom ymlaen i gelwydddra y rhyfel yn Irac ac anwybyddu llwyr y farn gyhoeddus. Mae’r Daily Post nawr yn llawn cynddaredd bod Aelodau Seneddol wedi maeddio gwario eu lwfansau nid ar byllau nofio a garddio ond ar rywbeth mor henffasiwn a dwyn y Llywodraeth i gyfri am ladd dianghenraid. Mi oedd yn anfoesol, medden nhw, i ddefnyddio arian trethdalwyr hen ganiatad o’r etholwyr. Dwi ddim gwaetha’r modd yn cofio’r Daily Post yn cwyno mor groch pan ddefnyddiwyd saith biliwn o bunnoedd o arian trethdalwyr ar ryfel Irac - heb son am y wastraff bywyd - a hynny hefyd heb ganiatad etholwyr. Yr ymgais i uchelgyhuddo yn y pendraw a roddodd impetws newydd i’r galwad am ymchwiliad newydd i’r rhyfel - ymchwiliad fydd gobeithio yn taflu rhagor o oleuni dros y bennod dywyll hon yn ein hanes. Gwell werth am arian na symud llwyn wisteria David Cameron, mynte fi.
Blynyddoedd yn ol dwi’n cofio’r cyn-AS Toriaidd Syr Julian Critchley yn clodfori’r bywyd seneddol: “c’est une bonne adresse”. Nawr dwi yn synhwyro pa mor lythrennol oedd ystyr ei eiriau. Ymadrodd arall y dyfynnais yn fy araith forwynol oedd o eiddo un o fy rhagflaenwyr, y Rhyddfrydwr o genedlaetholwr radicalaidd a gynrychiolodd cyn ac yn ystod y Rhyfel Byd Cyntaf, Llewelyn Williams, a ddywedodd am y Ty Cyffredin: “you get in to get on; you stay in to get honours; you get out to get honours”. Pa mor gywir y mae’r geiriau hyn yn swnio nawr.
Dwi’n teimlo yn fwy-fwy na fydd hi yn bosib i greu democratiaeth tryloyw, modern yng nghoridorau llychlyd, gothig San Steffan - yn sicr ddim yn ei ffurf bresennol. Gwin newydd mewn hen gostrelau fydd hi hyd yn oed ar ol yr Etholiad nesaf. Nawr yw’r amser mwy nag erioed i ni gau pennod ar orffennol Prydeinig gwaradwyddus a chamu’n fras tuag at ddyfodol gwell Cymreig.
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Golwg article 28/05/09
It’s always important to avoid exaggeration but, in the middle of the worst economic emergency since the Depression and biggest political emergency since Chamberlain, London these days feels rather similar to Europe at the end of the thirties: “uncertain and afraid/as the clever hopes expire/of a low dishonest decade” as Auden described it in exile in New York on the threshold of the war.
The decade began, for me at least, with Mittal and the mega-millionaires buying influence and selling souls in order to finance parties. What a surprise that Labour didn’t stand up against the City’s greed – the bonus culture and lack of accountability – until it was too late.
We went on to the lies of the war in Iraq and the total disregard of public opinion. The Daily Post is now hopping mad that Members of Parliament dared spend their allowance not on swimming pools and gardening but on something as old-fashioned as holding the Government to account for needless deaths. It was immoral, they say, to spend taxpayers money without the electorate’s permission. I don’t in any way remember the Daily Post complaining so vehemently when seven billion pounds of taxpayers money was used for the Iraq War – without mentioning the waste of life – and that also without the electorate’s permission. In the end, the campaign to impeach gave new impetus to the call for a new investigation into the war – an investigation that will hopefully throw more light upon this dark period in our history. Better value for money than moving David Cameron’s wisteria, if you ask me.
Years ago, I remember the former Tory MP Sir Julian Critchley praising parliamentary life: “c’est une bonne adresse”. Now I realise how literal was the meaning in his words. Another expression I quoted in my maiden speech belonged to one of my predecessors, the radical nationalist Liberal who represented Carmarthenshire before and during the First World War, Llewelyn Williams, who said about the House of Commons: “you get in to get on; you stay in to get honours; you get out to get honours”. How true those words sound now.
I feel more and more that it won’t be possible to create a transparent, modern democracy in the dusty, gothic corridors of Westminster – certainly not in its present form. It will be the same sheep in different clothing even after the next election.
Now is the time, more than any, to close chapter on the disgraceful British past and stride confidently towards a better Welsh future.
Wyneb yn wyneb a’r BNP / Face to face with the BNP
Erthygl Golwg 21 Mai 2009
Ces i’r fraint y diwrnod o’r blaen o gael fy nghroesawu tu fas i’r Stadiwm Liberty yn Abertawe, lle’r oeddwn i yn cyfarch cyfarfod o’r CBI, gan ddau aelod y BNP yn grac oherwydd i mi eu disgrifio yn ddiweddar fel Natsïaid yn y wasg leol. Doedd e ddim yn amlwg os oedden nhw wedi dewis y lleoliad i brotestio yn erbyn presenoldeb Roberto Martinez a’r criw o Fasgwyr a Chatalaniaid sydd wedi bod wrth wraidd llwyddiant Abertawe eleni. Dwi’n cymeryd y byddai’r British Nazi Party yn eu hala nhw nôl hefyd gyda’r Pwyliaid a’r Lithwaniaid y mae nhw’n cwyno cymaint amdanynt.
Perthynas Cymru a Sbaen oedd yn sail i’r sylwadau gythruddodd y ddau gymaint wrth i ni atgoffa pobl leol taw Rhydaman oedd ymhlith y cyntaf i godi yn erbyn Ffasgaeth ym 1936 gan hala pump o wirfoddolwyr draw i’r Frigâd Rhyngwladol adeg y Rhyfel Cartref. Daeth dau ohonynt ddim yn ôl.
Ymateb rhyfeddol trefnydd y BNP yng Nghymru a’u hasiant ar gyfer Etholiadau Ewrop, oedd y byddai’r dynion yma nawr yn brwydro yn erbyn ‘totalitariaeth adain-chwith’ – ac felly yn cefnogi’r BNP – er gwaetha’r ffaith bod nifer helaeth ohonyn nhw yn aelodau ar y pryd o’r Blaid Gomiwnyddol, neu’n ‘pinko Commies’ i ddefnyddio ieithwedd hyfryd y BNP.
Ail-ysgrifennu hanes a meddiannu symbolau pobol eraill yw un o brif dactegau y Ffasgwr (eicon Hindŵ wedi’r cwbl, yw’r swastika). Felly mae’r Brit-Natsiaid wedi mynd ati i hawlio Glyndwr fel arwr a baner Dewi Sant fel arfbais. Ac eto pan ofynnais iddyn nhw beth yw eu barn am annibyniaeth i Gymru yr ateb oedd eu bod nhw yn erbyn achos ‘ein bod ni’n well off gyda’n gilydd’. Mae aml-ddiwylliannedd yn iawn felly cyn belled a’u bod nhw’n wyn.
Welwch chi ddim hyn, wrth gwrs, ar eu fideo nhw o’r sgwrs ar Youtube. Pan atgoffais i nhw o gyfarwyddyd cyfraith Hywel Dda i ddangos lletygarwch wrth ddieithryn, doedden nhw ddim yn hapus iawn.
Cenedl groesawgar fu’r Cymry erioed. Yn ystod y Criwsâd daethpwyd a phensaer o Foslem nôl i Gymru i weithio ac fe adeiladodd Abaty Castell Nedd. Cymaint oedd ei boblogrwydd fe enwyd tref – Tre-lalys – ar ei ôl e.
Cyntefig felly yw’r gair ar gyfer masnachwyr casineb y blaid genedlaethol Brydeinig. Mae un o’r sylwebyddion ar eu gwefan yn awgrymu y byddent yn ail-adeiladu porth y bradwyr ar Fryn y Tŵr yn Llundain er mwyn rhoi fy mhen i ar bicell (fel gwnaed i Lywelyn a llu o genedlaetholwyr Cymreig ar hyd yr oesoedd).
Yr unig fradwyr fan hyn yw’r Cymry sydd yn sathru bob lleiafrif dan draed gyda hen Jac-bŵt yr Undeb a sathrodd un tro arnom ni.
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Golwg article 21/05/09
I had the pleasure a few days ago of being welcomed outside Liberty Stadium in Swansea, where I was addressing a meeting of the CBI, by two members of the BNP, angry because I had recently described them as Nazis in the local press.
It wasn’t obvious if they had chosen the location to protest about the presence of Robert Martinez and the group of Baques and Catalans who were at the root of Swansea’s success this season. I take it that the British Nazi Party would send them back with the Poles and Lithuanians about whom they so often complain.
The relationship between Wales and Spain was the basis of the comments that annoyed the pair so much when we reminded local people that Ammanford was amongst the first to rise against fascism in 1936 by sending five volunteers across to the International Brigade at the time of the Civil War. Two of them failed to return.
The strange response of the BNP’s Welsh organiser and his agent for the European elections was that these men would now be fighting against ‘left-wing totalitarianism’ – and so support the BNP – despite the fact a number of them were, at the time, members of the Communist Party, or ‘pinko Commies’ to use the BNP’s lovely linguistic phrase.
Re-writing history and appropriating other people’s symbols is one of the Fascists’ tactics (the swastika, after all, is a Hindu icon). So the Brit-Nazis have been at it to claim Glyndwr as hero and Saint David’s flag as a coat of arms. And yet when I asked them what their opinion was about Welsh independence the answer was that they were against because ‘we’re better off together’. Multi-culturalism is ok as long as they’re white.
You don’t see this, of course, on their video of the conversation on Youtube. When I reminded them of Hywel Dda’s law to show hospitality towards strangers, they weren’t very happy. Wales has always been a welcoming nation. During the Crusades a Muslim architect came back to Wales to work and constructed Neath Abbey. He was so popular they named a town, Lales-ton, after him.
Primitive then is the word for the British national party’s hatemongers. One of the commenters on their website suggests re-building Traitor’s Gate on London’s Tower Hill to put my head on a spike (as happened to Llewellyn and many Welsh nationalists down the years).
The only traitors here are the Welsh who trample every minority underfoot with the Union’s old jackboot that once trampled upon us.