THE GRANDIOSE spending on the Olympics in London, at the expense of the rest of the UK, is getting to the First Minister, writes Clive Betts from the National Assembly press gallery.
Rhodri Morgan didn’t slate the Olympics spending, directly, when he spoke to the press at the final cabinet weekly briefing before the summer break. He merely compared it with the much more modest spending to bring the Ashes to Cardiff.
£12m for the Ashes on the Swalec Stadium, compared with how many thousands of millions for the London erections for an event which does not last that much longer.
Sophia Gardens will be in continual use for decades. How many of the Olympics sites will see secure and frequent use after the world’s press have left ?
“We provided value for money for Wales; there is a very clear message there,” Rhodri Morgan told the press.
One of the messages of the Ashes visit is that some of the English are furious. Take the Daily Mail, for instance, with their racist piece ridiculing Hen Wlad fy’n Nhadau.
Clearly, to the Tories of Derry Street, the Mail’s HQ, Wales is not a nation.
And the Welsh are figures of fun to be ridiculed, as that paper did at every opportunity when a Welshman began presenting the BBC’s main news bulletin.
The real problem is that some of the English hate being beaten. After all, some of them believe that they were born to rule a world which was painted red.
But the thicker members of that nation, particularly in some of their tabloid-sized newspapers, did not realise that pieces of paper bearing the Queen’s head are as important in choosing the site of the Ashes as in picking where to play the Ryder Cup.
In each case, the Assembly was important in ensuring that Wales won.
If Lords can’t win the race for the Ashes, that might indicate that London is past it.
The Telegraph, which is not a friend of Wales either, knows a bit more about money that the Mail.
The Telegraph was decent about the Welsh triumph. The paper said Cardiff “made an impressive start as an international venue, and silenced some of the critics around the counties who had questioned its presence on the Test grounds rota”.
That sort of attitude will help retain a United kingdom – whatever you think of that particular concept.
Not so from the Mail. One of that paper’s ridiculed the singing of Hen Wlad, which it considered the equivalent of singing On Ilkley Moor Baht’at.
When political argument from England reaches that level, you can understand why the country has such a problem with late-night drunkenness. They’ve got to get into that state in order to forget who they are.
Well said!
As a first time visitor to Cardiff for the last day of the Test, I applaud the relatively minor investment in Sophia Gardens, which paid off for this event alone, in terms of world attention – and will continue to pay dividends to Cardiff for decades to come.
Hat’s off to all those who made the Cardiff Test a reality.
Joseph Karnes
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Good on you Joseph. Yes I too thought it was terrific, but I’m biased, Welsh and from Cardiff…
I spent a few hours with some English fans and not one of them shared the views of the Daily Mail or the rest of the pompous whingers who complained. Not one. So much of this anti-Welsh crap is media-generated, media-fanned, and, I’m sorry to say, encouraged by some of our own battier anti-Welsh Welsh.
Check out Betsan Powys’s blog for an almost daily update on the ravings of the welsh-hating fascist wing of our own population.
Apart from the Daily Hate’s bit of nonsense over the anthems, the coverage was pretty positive. What I find depressing is Quentin Letts’s suggestion that the Welsh Assembly is ‘expendable’ as a means of reducing politician numbers. (I commented as ‘anon’ on Glyn Davies’s blog.)
I find it worrying that any Welsh patriot should welcome the England v Australia game to Cardiff. Why was Cardiff awarded a test match? – for the same reason the politicos want a UK soccer team in the London Olympics. They’re trying to use sport to turn back the devolutionary tide.
And how can it be money well spent (on Sophia Gardens)? There’s no guarantee that the ground will ever see another test match. So the crowds (did I say ‘crowds’?) turning out for county and other games certainly won’t justify the expenditure.
That’s because cricket as a game is dying. When I was a boy – back in the ’50s and early ’60s – we played cricket all summer long. When was the last time you saw a bunch of kids play an unsupervised and spontaneous game of cricket? They probably lack the attention span required nowadays. Which explains why cricket has had to introduce ever shorter formats to keep the gnat brains interested.
Lack of crowds is also attributable to Glamorgan deserting St. Helen’s, for Swansea always provided the biggest crowds. But of course in the modern Wales everything must be in Cardiff . . . even when it’s economic lunacy.
So, as a Jack, I’d be quite happy to see Cardiff City Cricket Club go to the wall. Then they could play baseball at Sophia Gardens, pulling in thousands to watch Grange Albion play Ely Social!
The first Ashes Test outside England was an undoubted success and I am delighted to see that Cardiff has been awarded a range of international fixtures until 2016. This is just reward for the organizational effectiveness of the five days coupled with the warm welcome given to everyone that attended. However, attention must also be given to Glamorgan cricket as their current plight has to be addressed with urgency.