The state of Newport

The following was on the Home of The Green Arrow blog.
http://isupporttheresistance.blogspot.com/

posted original by JohnOfGwent

Good morning

As the election day draws near, and as you've seen fit to send numerous letters to me requesting my support, I thought it only fair to ask you for your opinions on a few matters:-

However, As MY daughter will be working abroad outside the EEC when SHE starts her working life, because there are no vacancies for her here, she won't have to repay her student loan at all. So I have a different set of priorities....

1. As I walk through the streets of Newport, Monmouthshire, I can't help noticing that all the official posters, signs, letters, and everything else to do with administering and taxing the sorry shambles that passes for this country nowadays has everything written FIRST in welsh, and often in a large font, and SECOND in english, and often in a smallerfont. What do you think about that ?

2. Anything 'official' coming through my door now comes printed and inserted in a way that the WELSH is the language that stares you in the face, and the ENGLISH is tucked away beside it. Or the WELSH is written where the non-arab races start reading their letters, at the left, and the ENGLISH is in the other half of the page. What do you think aboutthat ?

3. As a small businessman I am hearing noises that there is a campaign afoot to FORCE me to provide a means to conduct my business through the medium of welsh. I say it's my business what language I conduct my business in and if some people can't understand a word I say that's not my problem. What do you think about that ?

4. Did you know that planning applications in certain parts of wales have been turned down on the basis that to grant the application would present an unwarranted intrusion of english-speaking people ?

5. Did you know that there is at least one large organisations in what used to be the public sector whose language policy is that any welsh speaker complaining about being sent a document with english on it is immediately sent a welsh-only document, bereft of english, but any english speaker making the complaint about receiving documents in welsh receives a letter, sent to them welsh-outwards and english on the reverse, stating it is government policy that they must send their communications in both languages. And now for a few more local matters

6. Did you know that if you take a car down to the tip today there's a notice on the siter demanding that you be polite to the staff ?

7. Did you know that if you take something to the site that you cannot personally lift above your head in order to put in the skip, that one of the people paid from your council tax to man the site will shout and swear at you for not doing so.

8. Did you know that if you telephone to complain at the actions of those people you will be told that the staff there are told they must not assist you on the grounds of health and safety, and that in any case they are too busy directing the 300 cars that now turn up evewry day because rubbish is now only collected every fortnight ?

9. Do you know how much extra co2 is being pumped into the atmosphere by 300 cars making an average 10 mile trip to the tip instead of having one refuse lorry do it ?

10. Do you know how much we could save by sacking all the arrogant, rude, staff currently working at the tip and replace them with polish migrants ? And now for another issue ?

11. Do you know when it was last possible to drive a car from junction 24 or 28 of the M4 into the centre of Newport in daylight without hitting a delay caused by a roadwork scheme ?

12 Do you know how much money traders have lost because people are going to other places where their money is welcomed ?

13 Do you know how many businesses are looking outside Newport to set up business premises because of the ongoing hostility to vehicle traffic ?And whilst on the environment...

14 Would you please explain why we have to bear the cost of allowing your party to occupy the moral high ground when across the atlantic the smallest vehicle on the roads consumes more petrol per mile than our BIGGEST gas guzzler and the bloke in charge there laughs at us ?

And finally ...At the last general election, there was widespread complaint from politicians on all sides that there was a complete lack of interest from the younger send of the electorate. At that election, my eldest daughter got a polling card for the first time.

Now when I was in that position, Ian Grist the (tory) sitting MP for what is now Cardiff North, my constituency, wrote to every 17 year old, organised a coach trip to london, took us round westminster hall, walked us into the chamber of the house of commons (yes, honestly - it was in recess for the holidays and we walked in with him and looked at the green leather seats .....) and took us to the balcony outside where disraeli and gladstone (who were then on the GCSE O Level History syllabus) argued about the state of pollution in the river.

Can you explain why NO-ONE has bothered to do ANYTHING to give my daughter any belief, no matter how false in the current political and electoral system, that her vote, and her opinions matter to the way the country is run ? Because I believe that in a land where cottage burners are getting the upper hand, in a land where the only people the government bend over backwards for are those who claim to have put down the armalite rifle, the only message being sent out is that the way to be taken notice of is to PICK UP an armalite rifle and start using it, so that in twenty years time those of you who survive WILL be listened to.

And that gives me what some might call a rather unique view on the unorthodox way chapati flour was being used in what is now the country across the river Severn a few months back. And that makes me worried. What do you think about that ?regardsA person hoping to get his postal vote in time to use it (but it hasn't arrived yet so I guess the labour wreckers have done their job again)

**Some good points on that. So come May 3rd vote out the current shower of shit and get in decent people who actually care about improving Newport for the inhabitants of that city and not for their vested business interests.

Tags: Newport Gwent, Local Politics, South Wales

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