Newport in Gwent - Run by idiots.

Now of late I have done a few post on local affairs, namely the cronic incompetance of the local council and/or the police in being able to resolve local issues.

One I recently covered with the dire failure of the counci/police to tackle damage and the like on the part of the so called traveller community, thus leading to higher council tax bills and also higher crime in the areas affected.

Indeed our local boys and girls in blue seem to be more worried about the affects of plastic glasses than on reducing "real crime" - although if you believe the figures and hype from the government its more to do with the fear of crime, than crime itself. The rest of society just refer to that as bullshit.

Anyway here is the bit about the latest demon that the police are going to cure, plastic glasses to replace real glass glasses: http://newportcity.blogspot.com/2007/04/plastic-glasses.html and some more here on that demon that is glass: http://newportcity.blogspot.com/2007/04/health-safety-rise-of-plastic-glasses.html

Now with regards travellers, who cause crime and do what ever they feel here are a few bits on the poor show by our local council:http://newportcity.blogspot.com/2007/04/found-this-gem-in-our-local-paper-south.html

I am not the only one upset with things in my home town, sorry city the chap called Johnofgwent did a rather good post:http://newportcity.blogspot.com/2007/04/state-of-newport.html which I found here: http://isupporttheresistance.blogspot.com/

Upon checking I noticed that there is another good post from Johnof Gwent, which I shall post in full below. It makes a few very good points about the "redevelopment" of Newport, the complete mess that our city is in at the moment and will be in for the forseeable future and the erasing of much of our past.

It is the erasing of our past that I wish to make my main point, about the Chartist uprising and the way that effects our history. Now anyone who has read Newports history is aware of the Chartists and the fact that they were put down by armed troops and that some of the fighting took place in and around the town centre.

Aside from there not being any proper memorial to that event, other than the mural which will be covered below and may not be with the people of Newport for much longer! The Queens Hotel as it was(it is no more), the site of much of the fighting has now been transformed into a trendy club and unless you are aware of our history there is not any sign of the historic events that took place on that site. Sure a statue but unless you as a tourist take the time to look at it, it is easily missed.

No sign on the wall, no nothing to show what happened there on that violent day. Unless a tourist to the city either speaks to a local who knows about that, or takes the time to visit the museum they will be in the dark over these events. What other city would gloss over a whole chunk of their own hsitory? Any other city would be shouting about the events of that day from the rooftops, not hiding a few bits away on the council website.

A check of council papers in the tourism office gave poor pickings with regards John Frost and everyone else involved. So that is the sort of council that we have, they care not that the mural is erased from history, have done nothing to raise awareness of our past and will be happy for these events to be lost to history and lost to future vistors to Newport.

Some more bits on John Frost can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southeast/halloffame/historical_figures/johnfrost.shtml

Of course a proper monument would remember both the chartists and the troops who followed their orders that day and engaged in bloody hand to hand fighting for hours. It seems the only things being remembered these days are local council officials who have streets named after them. On with the post I have copied from Johnofgwent:

Now people may not easily associate Newport, South Wales, with the words
'hotbed of political revolution'. Especially as history is often rewritten by
the politburo as soon as those alive to contradict the politico's lies pass away
and their stories passed to their grandchildren fade.

And especially so where the story is 'doubleplus ungood'. Anyone who has
tried to work, shop, go to the theatre that isn't propped up by the council
politburo as a monument to harry jones or even just tried to catch a bus in
Newport in the last three years can't have failed to notice that everywhere you
go the buggers are digging up the roads in order to cause maximum inconvenience
to those of us trying to get on with the business of living here.

So it takea a lot to bring my battle-weary sense of outrage out of the
slumber it's been numbed into. But now Newport's politico's have succeeded.A
couple of weeks ago the developers "appointed" (by whom I wonder, and where are
they going on holiday this year ?) to smash up the middle of Newport in the name
of the Ryder Cup announced that the Chartist Mural will be destroyed as part of
the havoc they have been allowed to wreak.

The Chartists. in case anyone doesn't know, demanded universal (male)
suffrage - sorry girls, you had to wait about a hundred more years to get the
vote. They also demanded a wage be paid to members of parliament, without which
standing for election was the privilige of the landed gentry and the moneyed
few. And they demanded annual elections - at the time there was no maximum
lifespan for a particular parliament.

So it can be argued that without these guys the framework for parliament as
we know it today would never have come about. But the landed gentry and moneyed
few were somewhat reluctant to have power wrestled from them. Which is why there was a bit of a bloodbath outside the Westgate Hotel. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/CHnewport.htm

About thirty years ago this bloody massacre was commenorated in a public
mural on the wall of a tunnel leading into John Frost Square (John Frost was a
leader of the movement, although some say he wasn't even present when this event
took place). I've looked hard for a picture of this mural, but the best I can
find is at the top of the Newport Electoral Registration Office website http://www.newport.gov.uk/_dc/index.cfm?fuseaction=electoral.homepage.

How ironic and twistedn then is the alternative text in the image placeholder "The Chartists Fought For Our Vote. Don't Waste It"The Newport Website even includes the mural in its 'Public Art Train' promoting culture in Newport http://www.newport.gov.uk/_dc/index.cfm?fuseaction=thingstosee.publicart
but typically the thumbnails don't enlarge when you click on it.

And now this monument to the public right to have a voice is to be torn down by the apostles of the party that brought you the pinnacle of 'how to ignore ther electorate by saying repeatedly 'if you knew and could see what I know having read ....' in the deserts east of turkey.And the best our limp burghers can do is demand a "chartist theme" for whatever replaces that which they pay to have destroyed.
http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/mostpopular.var.1338859.mostviewed.new_mural_must_have_chartist_theme.php

Tags: wales, Mural, Newport, Chartists, John Frost

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