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HANSEN'S WISDOM

Having identified the best blog in Wales last week, I was lucky enough. on Monday, to read one of the best articles ever published on the Welsh psyche.

Written by the irrepressible Carolyn Hitt in the Western Mail, the article takes to task those small minded people that continually hold Wales back, a mentality that has been prevalent in Newport earlier this week with the "Farmhousegate" fiasco at the Celtic Manor Hotel, which saw local Newport councillors incredibly attack Sir Terry Matthews, a man who has brought over £150 million of investment into Wales' third city.

The one paragraph that does stand out though is her reporting of "a remarkable and impassioned rant" from the former Wales coach Steve Hansen on the tribalism that for him was "a source of both fascination and incredulity".

To quote Mr Hansen,

“There are so many people here who are poisoned by the selfish attitude cancer that runs through this nation. It’s stopping you from being the country you can be and I don’t just mean that from a rugby point of view.

It’s not a united country from east to west and north to south. It’s pockets of different people. And the little villages in the west fight with each other and little villages in the valley derive a lot of satisfaction when one of the villages down the road are put under the cosh.

And when you look at the history of Wales and the battles that it’s been in, it’s been beaten by itself rather than been conquered by somebody else. They’ve spent so much energy fighting each other they’ve allowed the enemy to slip in and do the business and take them over or win the things they wanted to win.

That’s still happening in rugby and it’s happening in everyday life in Wales. If we could just get rid of that, this could be one of the greatest nations in the world.”

Enough said.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Enough said also by the outgoing Director General of Amgueddfa Cymru, Michael Houlihan, in his farwell speech on Wednesday night. He is about to go to New Zeland.

http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/5/

Gwynfor somewhere is smiling.
July 16, 2010 8:14 am
Jeff Jones said…
Dylan read the report to the planning committee before attacking the councillors. Terry Matthews just three months before the Ryder Cup was trying to amend the conditions on a planning approval which was nearly 10 years old. The original conditions stated that the farhouse had to incorporated into the clubhouse.I'm assuming that at the time the Celtic Manor resort agreed to those comnditions. The key question that should be asked is why did he and his advisers leave it to the eleventh hour. The planners might have recommended demolition but reading the report it was the councillors on the basis of the report who took the logical decision. Even if they had supported the officers' recommendations it could not have been demolished without the approval of Cadw. They had the democratic right to take the decision they did. If the application for demolition had been made a few years ago Mr Matthews would also have had the time to appeal against their decision. He has been treated no differently as far as I can see from any other planning applicant. The comments by the councillors were also made after the event after they had been criticised in the media. It isn't a matter of some sort of Weslh habit of diliking success. It's purely a planning issue which I would argue has reached this stage because the applicant has been badly advised.
July 16, 2010 10:04 am
Rhys said…
No and apparently more importantly SME's cannot survive without public money.

At a time of a record public deficit Dylan Jones-Evans wants us to buck the trend and increase expenditure in SME's.

Not a true picture I know, however he says, I think, that WAG should provide loans instead of grants - but surely that's the job of banks?

Please explain is that really the role of government ?
July 16, 2010 8:48 pm
Anonymous said…
The government, at least in Westminster, now own the banks. It's best to use that tool to our ability now.
July 17, 2010 11:47 am
Anonymous said…
Ieuan Wyn Jones wants to provide next generation broadband to all businesses in wales

Please explain is that the role of government or of private companies such as BT, Virgin Media etc. Whys should the taxpayer subsidise what, in the end, will only be used for a quicker downloading of porn.
July 17, 2010 2:56 pm
Anonymous said…
same what happend to ireland in medieval times, they were all fighting each other and the Normans cakewalked it and controlled ireland
July 17, 2010 11:14 pm
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