'Got an email form the editor. Usual sort of thing. "Graham", he says, "I fully understand if you've had enough of these crap deadlines I keep imposing. It's just that I'm off on holiday with the family on Sunday so have to get everything finished by Saturday night". You’ve got to admit he’s got a way with words – that’s probably why he’s the editor. So here I am sitting in my kitchen. Its two hours to the football and I’ve got a hangover. Bit I’ll give it a go…
Spent six days last week in good old Ponty. Looked much the same as ever. Charity shops are booming. The argument over the car park in the park is still going – ten years that one has lasted. Wales won the rugby (I guess you know that). Tom Jones is playing his birthday gig in the park. And the Clwb y Bont committee is still trying to cut down the opening hours – sparking the usual big tiome controversy. So, plenty to talk about. One thing people weren’t talking about was the forthcoming election. Even the Plaid members seemed decided uninterested – although the candidate is having a women only cocktail evening (there’s radical posh even if it is in the Clwb). Got me wondering why. As regular readers will know I get to travel around a lot – been in about eight countries this year. People I talk to are interested in politics and most are some sort of socialist or other. Yet everyone seems cynical about how much difference an election might make. Easy to understand if you look at England – Howard issues some evil rant against any group not in a position to answer back and Blair responds by saying how he will be even more draconian than the Tories in clamping down on their rights. And so it goes on.
Now you could say it’s just because of the rubbish parties we have in the UK or the unfair nature of our election system. I think it goes further than that. An election ought to be about choosing a representative – my representative. But the way our system works we get a limited choice and once that person is elected they are there for five years regardless. I don’t feel represented. One thing which would improve things is if we could recall them – kick them out of they don’t do what we want. But even more important is to build a democratic society. Most important decision should be decided locally. We should be involved. Our so-called representatives should be talking to us. We should be voting on what we think and they should listen. Why, at the time of the Gulf war couldn’t Kimbo Howells have called a meeting for us to debate and decide what way our representative voted in parliament? Why can’t the people of Ponty decide whether they want a car park in the park instead of RCT councilors doing behind the scenes deals with rich, English based developers? Why is Glam uni – like all the other universities – run by an unelected cabal of businessmen and women? Why can’t we elect school head teachers like they do in Spain and Portugal?
Democracy starts at the bottom – not at the top. And we have precious little of it in Wales. If we want a self-governing Wales then it has to be just that – us governing – not another lot of self serving politicians.
Ah – well – that’s this months rant over – I’ve hit the deadline, hangovers getting better, it’s a beautiful day and I’m off to see Werder Bremen play Stuttgart. All’s well in the world. Talk to you again next month.