DutchEnery

It is incredible how inept government can be. Brexit has been trundling on for two years and we are still soldiering on. With no result any time soon. All talk and most of that is pure guesswork but no action. Then some idiot decided to fly a few or just one, drone near to an airport. In this case the second biggest in the UK and we all dive for cover, shaking in our boots, looking fearfully up at the sky. Again the government has known  about drones  for a number of years, in fact flies these themselves via the armed forces. So there is no secret there of what these things can do. But here is the problem, MPs are supposed to discuss how and why we should curb their use. So, again an impasse, no-one agrees. Not even in the same party. The problem is that MPs do not seem to avail themselves of the details of any possible problem. At least not the intricate details. The problem though is not the machines but us! We seem to turn every machine around us into a weapon. Every...

Felly, dw i’n byw yn y Rhondda, dw i’n pryderu am gwleidyddiaeth leol. Mae’n ffaith y Blaid Lafur wedi bod mewn grym am miloedd o ml ynydd! Wel, bron. F ydd hi’ n wedi newid y byd ? Ac yn fuan? Siŵr i fod! Mae gwleidyddiaeth leol wedi dod yn ddifyr ac yn ddiflas iawn ar yr hun bryd . Ar hyn o bryd, dw i’n aelod plaid o Gymru, wrth gwrs enw nateriol, Plaid Cymru. Ro’n i falch yn weld lawer o bobl ifanc mewn gr ŵ p lleol. Da iawn yn wir! Falle r ŵ an, allwn ni symud ymlaen a pharatoi ein llywodraeth ein hunain? Credaf hyn, oherwydd llywodraeth Westminster ydy’r broblem mawr presennol. Gwleidyddiaeth lleol nawr ydy’r rhyfedd. Pam? Wel, mae’r Plaid Cymru yn penderfynu pwy sy’n arwain y plaid am yr degawd nesa’. A dyn n i wedi dewis arweinydd newydd nawr - Adam Price. Mae hi’n ystyr ffordd ymlaen newydd. Yn enwedig am yr annibyniaeth o’r wlad. Y broblem fawr ydy’r economeg! A threthi. Mae Gymru yn wlad bach. Wrth gwrs, welwn ni...

Something to think about this Christmas? I am wondering like many others – are there aliens around? And if there are why don’t we hear or notice anything? Well, if you look at the state of this world we live on you could consider that the reasons we don’t hear anything is that there are none. At least no advanced alien civilisations. Here on Earth we are literally at the borderline. The way we treat the planet, the overpopulation, overfishing, plastic pollution, and all of the rest - if that is the norm of how civilisations develop then we will never hear of aliens because they and us as well are back in the Stone Age. The funny thing is this, we are also capable of reversing the trend. The answer lies within each of us, it starts at a young age. No, don’t throw that crisp packet on the floor, don’t discard your coke bottle on the road. Take your uneaten school sandwich home. Properly pack your rubbish in the sacks or bins provided. Don’t put them out too early and so on. The answer ...

Big advertisements shouting from the rooftops - I’m saving money and the planet at the same time - wonderful. I’m in. But wait what the ‘eck is it? Oh smart meters. Well, what’s it all about then? How do you actually save money and the planet with a smart meter? Eh, tell me and I’m still in. A meter is a meter, yes? So, it measures my electricity usage. Brilliant so far, my present meter does just that. Do I want to know how much money I spend on electricity? Well, maybe. Our household is not particularly extravagant with the leccie. We use the normal amount of lighting, switch off where not needed, even with grandchildren romping all over the place from time to time. The usual Wi-Fi systems etc etc. We have lamps with LED bulbs where possible of 10amp and no more than 24amp. The biggest is a fluorescent in the kitchen of 60amp. So, in real terms we are pretty low users anyway. So, let’s have a look at the claims – an average user with a smart meter saves enough energy to make ...

I have and many others too, been critical of our politicians. And yes, what a shower they are as so remarkably shown on TV. I often looked wide-eyed at the performances of grandstanding and heard the most astounding rubbish! It is obvious or it should be, that our representatives have a complete misunderstanding about how the general population feels! But there is more than that – behind politicians, like rats hiding in the sewers, are the Civil Service. The little mandarins, permanent blockers we should call them. The glorious ESTABLISHMENT. What can anyone say? They have been revealed to be complete liars and ever since the 2016 referendum have been busily countermanding every step towards leaving the EU. It could be said that the anti-Brexit block is aided by the Establishment. I suppose it was always on the cards because being members of the EU would make their job so much easier. Loads of money for very little. They could sit in their plush offices, drinking coffee all day long,...

You could arguably say there is something wrong with the British political leadership. Not just the Conservative government but the whole lot in Parliament. First of all due to pressure of a sizeable faction of all parties, not forgetting the then UKIP party, we decided on a referendum. Great idea. It already showed the weakness of the Conservative government. The result was to be fair, a foregone conclusion albeit a close one. Leave the EU. Things should have been simple all ties cut immediately, no further money. Simple. Simple? Forget simple, in the UK today nothing is simple. Because as soon as the result of the referendum was published, the snide remarks, the constant sniping, the what if’s, the ‘we are out of our minds’ opinions surfaced and how! It shows without any doubt that our government, indeed all political parties did not have any idea at all as to what to do. They did not expect this result and still don’t. It shows there is a malaise at the very top of the governin...

A lot of people just don’t realise that to stay in the EU is basically to continue financing a losing side. The problem is not the idea of integration of the various states but their inability to have a consensus. That is to say they cannot agree on the best way forward. As was so ably demonstrated by the German Chancellor in her call to immigrants to come. The other states on the way of the routes to Germany were aghast at the numbers. Now I fully understand why they would want to come, after all don’t we all want a better life but what is missing is a proper integration policy. And if there is one it is mostly full of holes and incompatibilities, basically just words and no action. This is what also worries UK citizens, the lack of integration and the unbridled influx, the lack of proper policies and if there is such a thing, the lack of willingness to carry them out. As so ably demonstrated with the Asian sex gangs in northern England when normally good people just ignored the pr...

Proper thinking people with a brain know there is something strange going on in this country. Take the witch hunt of soldiers. It is an absolute idiocy that a British government who after all are the authority sending troops to wherever their foreign policy dictates it, are now literally allowing unscrupulous lawyers throwing allegations of torture and more . Even worse I suspect even the government is riddled with liberal idiots who have no idea what they are doing. If there should be legal repercussions then it should be the government, not the soldiers who have no choice but to go where they are told to go. This should end right now. And just for those liberal pretty boys who think they are in charge of the country, or their academic advisers with mickey-mouse degrees - I have been in the army and yes it is a heavy job, especially when your squad has to follow orders given by cigar chomping, whisky guzzling, overweight circus performers who have little idea what the squaddies hav...

Anyone for a bit of borrowing? Borrowing cash that is. Well, with Christmas around the door a few grand would be welcome? Yes, but I just read in a daily newspaper that this, our beloved country is in deep, deep debt. In fact the total debt stands at £5.1 trillion! That is £2 trillion of the national debt (government) and the rest represents borrowing by households and companies. Not bad eh? And moreover this debt is allegedly going up to over £6 trillion (£6,000,000,000,000) by 2023. It is a rather interesting thought but who lent us that sort of money? Where does it all come from? The banks lend cash and with rich people/or organisations like pension funds buy silver/gold gilts (the government issued bonds) but that surely is still not enough to cover such a debt? So, it seems that a second grand economic finance collapse is just around the corner. A day of reckoning. That will bankrupt quite a number of people I suppose. The various governments, except the UK’s government, of the...

What in all honesty is the matter with our politicians? Is the old adage – They haven’t a clue which way the wind is blowing – true in their case? Take the Brexit conundrum. As Mr McKinstry put it so brusquely in the Daily Express – A second EU vote (probably should have said, a second referendum) will not solve this Brexit turmoil. Absolutely, a second referendum would be as undemocratic as you will. You simply cannot keep voting until one or other party gets the result they want. A second referendum on an important issue such as this cannot solve the issue as there will follow a third because the losing party will or cannot accept the result. This I cannot believe, politicians thinking it is the right way to go! It puts a blanket of incompetence on all politicians. Mrs May seems to be hell-bent on steering through (and it’s pretty debatable) her plans engineered in Chequers because it allows the EU still too much power over UK issues. As I said before, out is out and please clos...

Roedd yn amser doniol yn ystod un o’r gwers Gymraeg. Roedden ni yn dafod y bosibilrwydd trychfilod fod bwyd y dyfodol. Achos erbyn hanner ganrif bydd rhwng 7-9 biliwn o bobl ar a ddaear! Siaradwch am 1 miliwn siaradwyr Cymraeg, bydd dipyn o her hefyd oherwydd falle fyddon ni dim ddigon o egni i ddysgu’r iaith! Oni bai byddon ni yn dechrau bwyta trychfilod (pryf). Dyma cwmni yn y gorllewin paratoi bwyd fel hyn. Chwilod a sioncod y gwair, wedi frio yn siocled? Ond ie, rhaid i ni atal defnyddio llawer o dir am codi gwartheg! Bydd yn dorri nwy methan, defnyddio llai o dŵr a llai o dir fermio ac wella’r amgylchedd. Dylai fod polisi pob Plaid Wleidyddol, yn arbennig Plaid Cymru wrth gwrs. Fe welwn ni yn fuan, gobeithio.Dw i'n hoffi bwyta fel bobl Tseina ond dim cŵn, neu gathodd. 

The NHS is very much in the news again at present. The government has indicated that a lot more money is coming, the question is will it? Personally I believe that no matter how much money is given it will never be enough. The NHS is a bottomless pit. Whilst drug companies charge exorbitant prices for their medicines and people generally go to a GP just to get a supply of paracetamol which they could easily buy at Tesco for less than 30p? Whilst the top management keep on the practice of empire building and give themselves salaries of incredible proportions the NHS will be as it is today. Also when we are the world’s health service the money that it costs runs into the millions annually. It ought to be clear that a hard but fair re-organisation is needed. Less admin, better deals with drug companies, a much harder approach to foreign use of the NHS. I am not advocating that we should not help those that come to the UK but prior to them coming we need to know their needs and insurance...

Fracking is rearing it’s ugly head again. Slowly but surely it is getting approval in small areas but before long it will be everywhere. Much like the ugly wind turbines which were only going to be seen in a very small number of places. Now they are everywhere. I am very concerned that our brilliant but silly politicians do not really have a clue about the implications. By all accounts fracking is not going to be the bonanza they think it will be. They talk of vast reservoirs but it's all pie in the sky. No-one knows, not even the specialists! In a small country like ours it actually is only in very few places where it can be done. The upheaval is really not worth it. And besides do we want to ruin the Earth once and for all? I do think that there is no doubt any more, we are responsible for the hotting up of the planet. We just do no longer have any options except to cut carbon emissions. And cut heavily if we want our grandchildren to have a reasonable life. We simply have t...

Funny is it not? I have mentioned this many times before. Our national debt mountain. By all accounts and this is from the IMF, it stands at over £2 trillion! Actually, it is NOT funny at all. It means if we say there are 65,000,000 of us in the country each and everyone of us, immigrants, babies and octogenarians all included, owe £30,770.00 (rounded up to nearest pound). That is an absolute disgrace, our various coloured governments have failed so miserably. The ultra left now in power of the Labour party wants to even up that amount. The article I read stated that the debt mountain was not helped by the recent financial crisis. No, really? Who gave the bankers free rein? I know one thing it wasn’t me! The GDP of the country (Gross domestic product) does not even equal this debt. The politicians keep talking of reducing the deficit hoping of course we don’t understand and equal deficit with the word debt. In actual fact reducing the deficit does not lower the debt, it increases ...

Reports of and on software breaches, like the recent Facebook one where some 30 to 50million users’ data was compromised are becoming a frequent occasion. One of the problems is the sheer volume of code. I have done my own website and a few others and I can assure you I have run into those problems when due to wanting to ‘move’ an object or image you inadvertently run into that the code you used clashes with something similar already there. Or you used a subroutine that also unknowingly interacts with something else. The thing is this, why do software developers not test out their code much more thoroughly? In the race for getting nice looking web-sites with plenty of user-interactive items we have just allowed ourselves to become vulnerable. There is no time for checking. There is no excuse for Facebook to blandly state that ‘It is a war'. Yes, but only because they have left themselves defenceless. The problem has arisen and up to 50 million are compromised and now the word is,...

Goodbye Labour… The one and only workers party we had in the UK is now good and well dead and it buried itself last night on telly for all to see. It is quite funny, if not stupidly so, to see a political party being taken over by a minority!  Motormouth Corbyn trying to sound like a world politician, but one who has no idea where Israel actually is situated. Chants of  (if you could hear them between the screams of exited ladies, yes Corbyn is a pin-up too) ‘from the river to the sea’ meaning no Israel existing of course. Then we had the ‘nodding donkey’ Ms Butler who can be seen vigorously nodding at everything the Motormouth is saying at PM’s question time! Saying a few words and trying to be intelligible.  It really was a pathetic show that would have been quite in place at the Edinburgh festival. 400,000 green jobs, what in all honesty does that mean? That might mean you cannot fa*t in the London Tube anymore. Because if you did Corbyn’s Green Police wo...

Last night I was astounded by what has happened in World War II. The television program called Nazi Treasure Hunters on the More4 Channel showed some very unpalatable truths about human nature. First of all the terrible happenings in the Nazi camps, the collection of gold teeth and other jewellery. But also what happened to the gold. To me it showed the avaricious nature of humans. Even countries like Switzerland and Portugal being heavily engaged in clearing gold so that the Nazis could buy war materials. Nice country that, Switzerland, outward anti-Nazi, inward everyone in the Swiss banks were engaged in the Nazi gold exchange. Making huge profits taken from the vast suffering in the camps. So called white-washing dirty money. Even today as the program stated, Swiss banks still hold Nazi gold and art objects. Why don’t we as ‘civilised’ people instruct the Swiss to OPEN the vaults to a proper inspection. I think that country simply stinks. It may look nice, lovely mountains but it...

I often wonder whether our leading politicians know exactly what they are doing. Take Brexit. The referendum was, in my opinion, a clear fact. We leave the EU. End of story. Ah, but now the cess-pit opened up. Leave yes, but let’s cherry-pick a bit. We want to keep trading for free. We want no further immigrants but we knew that was against one of the EU’s policies, part of the freedom of movement. It seems to me from Mrs May’s plan that we want the penny and the bun. Now if she thought that the EU leaders didn’t know that she was sadly mistaken. They know she is in a weak position, we can all see that here as well. A minority government. The EU leaders don’t have to play hardball even, although it seems to be doing just that; no, they only just have to refuse to even talk about Mrs May’s demands and/or suggestions. It is Non, nein, nee and please go back to the drawing board. Friends, there will be no trade agreement, it’s not really feasible, it never was. Leaving the EU, is just l...

On a simple visit to Cardiff, my capital city of the country I live in, Wales (still part of the UK but if Westminster keeps on this ludicrous excuse of governing, it might not be for much longer), I was astounded at the pace of change! High rise monstrosities hiding under the name of office blocks. Office blocks we apparently need. Wholesale changing of the cityscape. Well, OK the city rules I suppose. Then I drove back home via the old A.4119 and marvelled at the destruction of the ubiquitous green fields for yet more housing. Not affordable homes mind; no, expensive 3,4 and 5 bed-room housing. Whole fields are going under, meaning Cardiff is growing at an alarming rate. This fact and having read an article stating our wildlife is under severe stress, and having listened to Chris Packham saying that some of the reasons are linked to the explosion in house building, paving over whole farms. Why all this? Well, you don’t have to guess much more. Immigration is the main culprit, b...

Recently discovered, pigs do fly after all.... in Russia. It was funny to listen to the explanations of two Russian agents as to why they went to Salisbury. World famous spire of the cathedral? Of course, in Russia they are three deep waiting for flights to Southampton Airport to get to Salisbury before the spire collapses. I just hope we can get hold of these two examples of a nation's disgrace to try them in court. It will be fun but also tragic.

I suppose I am a law-abiding person. Much like most other people. But sometimes I think the laws that are made are a bit, shall we say, nonsensical? Take this new one about cold-calling. You know the type, ‘Hey are you not claiming PPI, why not? You could be awaiting a trillion pounds!’ Yeah we’ve had them all. But this law will stop all those nuisance calls. Or won’t they? I do think not. Why? We are now getting calls from abroad, from those countries where this law does not apply. While it may stop calls from registered British companies, it won’t stop others. It also may companies get up and get out. We will see I think pretty soon as to how this is going to pan out. Another proposal now is to make divorce easier, like it is not already easy enough. Well, why not just make a declaration, Love is gone, out of the window. Goodbye. Get the papers signed by the local undertaker and hey presto, where is my next partner? People tend to forget that a partnership and yes I person...

Newyddion doniol - Dw i wedi ymuno cwrs Gymraeg arall - Uwchradd 2. Wel, dim ond unwaith byddwch yn byw! Yn y cyfamser dw i'n defnyddio rhaglen wych ar y gyfrifiadur ac hefyd 'Google Cyfieithu' (Google Translate). Dyma rhaglen arall gan Prifysgol o Fangor - ApGeiriadur (am ffoniau symudol neu ffoniau clyfar). Cymorth mawr i dysgwyr yr iaith! Dw i wedi geisio ymuno grwpiau siaradwyr lleol ond anfoddus dim digon o bobl siarad Cymraeg nawr yn yr ardal TafElai. Gormod o Saesnegwyr o gwmpas. Dod o Fryste? Falle mae'r Cyngor Llundain yn dalu y Gynnulliad yma symud bobl i Dde Cymru?  Ysmygu ar wahan, wir neu angywir? Dywedwch wrthyf! Hwyl am y tro!

I am a great fan of a television programme called ‘Fake or Fortune’. Last night (12/8/18) it showed a painting owned by a lady bought for £165,000 that had been said to be a fake. This was decided by the usual ‘expert’. A lady who wrote a book, a catalogue of the painter’s works. The programme did some very thorough investigations, even going to Canada. They checked the paints used, the way it was painted, the actual board with writing on the back. Checked the writing style, dates that were still visible. They all matched the Canadian painting, a painting that was definitely not a fake. So, our painting here was similar in quality, materials, same writing, same markings. So, what sort of an expert has then found it was a fake? Well, apparently there were two brush strokes she did not like. Were not correct. Eh? What? I am not an expert but I believe in probabilities and that tells me that the probability of that painting declared to be fake, is over 98% not a fake. When the checki...

Friends, are we losing sight of reality? I was watching the BBC news on television this morning and although I am now of the opinion that the BBC is guilty of being, let’s say, one sided, the discussion about the news of what was in the papers was a bit on the weird side. The liberal agenda was there for all to see and hear, so let’s have a female James Bond. No, we must have a black Bond. No, Bond should be a robot. May I say if you have read the books it seems that James Bond was certainly not female, not had a skin tint and was not a squirrel either. I purchased a recent film on CD, Black Panther, and thought it was great. Good actors who fitted the story admirably well. Do we now have to complain that there were no white actors called Bond in there? Of course not. We are now pandering to the idiotic requests of all sorts of weirdos and we have lost sense of reality. The Labour leader’s *** views on Israel are pretty well known, yet he felt it was a good photo opportunit...

Yeah, here we go again, self-righteous Britain at its best. What is it about? Well, the  media attacks on our good ol' Eton chappie Boris. Actually I'm not sure if he went to Eton but there you go. So, what did he say other than his personal held opinions? In fact I believe that his opinion on the dress code of some women is pretty well held by a heck of a lot of others in this country. I hope you will notice how careful I try to write this?  The problem is that we in the UK still think we are better than everyone else. Most of Europe is outlawing the dress code, no veils thank you. Although even Boris said that there should be no ban. But there is a divide, and that divide is between most of the general public, and politicians/media. In one of the national newspapers it is said that it is mainly Brexiteers who want Boris out. Now, why should that be then? I am not a follower of Boris but I don't mind a politician who speaks some unpalatable things from time to time. Or poi...

I suppose you could say I have a bit of a jaundiced view of politics and in the general state of the country. I live in what I call a blessed environment, yes, it has problems but these would not take too long too sort out. It is not all the fault of politicians. It has to be understood that the general public (yes, that includes myself) has to bear a lot of the blame. Our young people have apparently no problem with rubbish. They don't see it, they just add to it. You can see a tidy car with four young adults, suddenly a load of paper wrapping, food containers and a bag all emblazoned with a big M (now where did that come from?) is thrown out of the moving car. Nice. Young girls enjoy some bags of chips, but do not like it all, watch the weight you know and onto the street it goes. Food for the plentiful rats I suppose. Well, OK so it is our own attitude to the environment that is at the root of the problem. It is not a new thing of course but throughout the existence of humanity ...

There has and still is a lot of talk about people having lost trust in politicians. We hear reports about police having lost control over our streets. Drug pushers trading openly. Moped riders terrorising London’s streets. The reality is pretty stark. When I look at some of the local issues here in South Wales, the degradation of the environment, the rubbish strewn streets, the lack of infrastructure, it is easy to despair. Where are the politicians with ideas? Where are the police? All that seems happening is house building. Well yes but again it is done without any idea about services. Think of a thousand new houses in an area where there are already problems with getting doctor’s appointments and the one or two dentist’s surgeries are already overfull. Where there are schools who have to cope with children that cannot even speak English. Where children sit in classes of over thirty strong because the Victorian school buildings are not fit for purpose. House building in Wales su...

Un o’r fy nghasineb anwes ydy lefaru a chanu yn rhy gyflym. Yn enwedig ar Radio Cymru. Llawer o bobl lleisiau clicio gyda nhw! A mae gan ddysgwyr broblem gwrando a ddeall. Ga i ofyn – arafwch plís. Dw i’n mwynhau gwrando ar y radio oherwydd mae’n helpu’r dysgu yr iaith (os dw i’n deall beth sy’n dweud yn well!). Does dim broblem gyda fi os lefarydd yn siarad yn araf ond mae bobl gogledd, fe faswn i hoffi deall Gogs wrth gwrs hefyd, mae’n arbennig. Mae Cymru’r un! Felly, yn y cyfamser dw i’n mynd am dro breuddwydio am Dynion o Harlech a Gofod – Ble mae’r diwedd!

The Cliff case (a good beginning denoting the issue as far as the legal stuff is concerned) is quite exciting insofar the strange statements made by all and sundry. First of all I saw the BBC report made at the time, using a helicopter to show Cliff’s little pad. Was he even there? Well, the police did not seem to care much whether he was or not. The real implication about all of this, should people be named in investigations or not? Obviously the police has to investigate allegations of wrongdoing. I am certain the Crown Prosecution Service was informed and might have given an indication that sounds like an approval. But the next question is – why was the BBC involved at that time? You do not hire a helicopter in five minutes, so collusion with the police? I think we need to be blunt here, people under investigation must not be named. Actually it serves no purpose to name persons as it only serves unwarranted intrusion and might even harm the court case to come, if any. In ot...

Politicians still don’t get it, do they? You might say – what? They keep on ignoring the people’s wishes. It amazes me we have not heard rumblings of discontent. Except from the the Sun newspaper obviously but two years ago we were asked – In or out of Europe? Result? Out! Ever since politicians of all colours have been trying hard to water everything down. We should ask what does Out actually mean? Partially in? Part of the EU, yes, no, maybe? And who in all honesty thinks that a soft Irish border is going to work? Cameron has left us with one of the most difficult problems to solve, if it can be solved at all. President Trump is right, yes he is also wrong on many issues but here he is absolutely correct. You do not make deals with two hands tied behind your back. Out is out and you have to deal accordingly. As it is the EU has made all the strategic decisions, the UK has and still is miles behind. Frankly Mrs May hasn’t got a clue as how to do this. Perhaps we should swallow ou...

A friend asked me - ‘Hey, you do a bit of coding with HTML5 and CSS3, how do you get things onto the screen? Not just anywhere but nicely placed, side by side. Well, that’s the million dollar question, I had to learn, teach myself how things work and I am still learning! But as I said, start with the basics. The problem with computer coding, languages and so on is that they do and can change rapidly. HTML5 is using quite a number of new ‘tags’ as is CSS3. So-called div’s are now not as supremely important. What I tend to do is draw up a grid of blocks. First the header, this can be a logo, a coloured navigation bar (although with HTML5 we now have the nav tag. Then I fill the blocks with a colour just to see where they fall onto the page and I can size them correctly, even with space between them. You start off with the usual opening tags using a editor like 'gedit' or Sublime Text: <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title>page.html...

One of the many problems that society has to cope with is that well-educated people tend to dish out the justice. But the question is – do these people actually understand the level at which the so-called poor have to live? A lot of people would say yes That the low educated poor themselves have not taken the opportunities available to them. No, they were never available. Lack of money, lack of parental support, and even no parental support because there wasn’t any. When you are born in a semi-derelict estate built by those ‘caring’ social experiments of the do-gooders, your chances are already halved. Coming into the schools where the teachers have only one goal and that is to get home as soon as possible, the choices are further diminished by another 50%. And moreover by the time they are of employable age they will be lucky to get a job of the ‘zero-hours’ variety. When you are called at 2 o'clock in the night to fill some shelves. You might think we are in the Victorian ...

Wow, the World Cup, brilliant and idiotic all at the same time. I love football and having Dutch genes (can’t help it you know!) was very sorry to see Holland go out. But hey, England Wales’ neighbour managed to go and that’ll do nicely! Except the team seems to attract other nation’s teams who seem to be playing another game. Something like volleyball or a game with no ball in it at all. Like perhaps wrestling? I cannot believe this is accidental, this surely is and was premeditated by the players and staff. Tunisia, Colombia just to name a few. Mostly South American nations. But it has percolated to other second and third rate football nations. Fall about, obviously clutch face, just wondering when the blood sacks are going to be brought in for a better effect? A good question, did these South American players ever do a course in pantomime but have forgotten to dress up? It is ludicrous that referees actually allow these histrionics! I think a stand has to be made, even if tea...

It is quite interesting to watch the various discussions on political programmes like ‘Daily Politics’. Mostly the questions are a bit arcane so to say, but today was an exception. Justine Greening in the hot-seat being hauled over the barricades. One of the issues was the declining investment to the car industry. By up to half? In other words halved. Well, it beggars belief that politicians do not seem to grasp one of the problems with cars – exhaust fumes and plastic! Does anyone ever discuss the amount of material going into the production of cars? We constantly hear about overcrowding, traffic chaos, poisoning of the city air up and down the country. These things are all related. I think it might be a blunt statement - if we are serious about cleaning up our air, less dependence on plastics and be more responsible how we husband the earth’s resources then car production should not only be halved but changed to benefit public transport. Not just a few more trains and bu...

With all the new regulations still coming from Europe I have changed my blog and deleted the Contact page. Simply because I just can't be bothered about possible questions, court appearances,  arguments etc etc. One good thing came about almost straight away, spam email virtually disappeared. Good. So now you will find some pics, articles or art made personally. The front page has a new composition with some interesting fish. I am also trying out animation. I have a couple of dragons flying but I need to delete the background for superimposition. Should be ready soon.  So now I managed to get a funny mouse onto the Welsh page (Tudalen Cymraeg) and on the 'More..' page a few kissing fish. Well, why not. There is some fun in getting free animations but a lot of work trying to get them onto a web page in the correct position. My next project will be to get the website responsive. At the moment I have 'anchored' the pages, meaning they don't move when the viewing pa...

One of my favourite author’s Scott Mariani. Writing explosive stories with the great character he created, Benedict Hope. The latest gung-ho story called The Moscow Cipher actually highlights one of the things that has bothered a lot of people. That of mind-control. I’ve wondered about that as well since even in this country that is a process carried out. It is not a bloody affair as depicted in the book but nevertheless computers, the power of the chip has made it so much easier to influence the minds of the general public. Fake news, little bits of untruths here and there. No hesitation in deluding the general public. Just read, listen and make your mind up. All done in the name of “the truth would harm us all”. But will it? . We have smart phones. With chips that know where we are, what we do and what we say. And yes, it is logged somewhere. We have been rail-roaded into using Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp. Google knows more about you than the taxman or even your partner and that...

The General Data Protection Regulation – or GDPR for short, what does it mean for the normal guys and gals on the streets? Like myself for instance? First of all when you have waded through the thousands of messages asking you, nay plead with you to reply to agree to continue receiving messages which you might or not, have replied to; you will have found nothing has changed. You will still receive all these useless emails, especially on Gmail and including scams. One of the problems is that ordinary citizens, yes me included tend to put too much personal data on the web. Whilst I do not subscribe to Twitter or Facebook at all (yes, I am an anachronism) there are literally millions who will tell you all accompanied by loads of photos. So, what about protection then? Scammers and criminals will just laugh at the GDPR regulations. Governments can regulate whatever they want but in the end it will all depend on public acceptance and compliance. The best way to protect your data is NOT to g...

Shwmai, ychydig yn ôl fy ngŵr yn darganfod brân ifanc iawn ar ochr y ffordd. Anfoddus oedd e wedi cwympo allan y nyth adar. Wel, mae e'n tyfu iawn ar cig nawr, sgrapiau ac yn y blaen. Mae e’n barod hedfan ma’s yn fuan. Yn wir, dyma’r ffordd yr wlad. Mae fy ŵr (wyth oed) yn ymwybodol am natur, diolch hefyd i’r athrawon yr ysgol yng Nghymru. Tybed pryd y brân yn barod hedfan os fydd e’n dychwelyd i dweud helo! Ar hyn o bryd dw i wedi ceisio I dysgu yr iaith iddyn nhw. Na, dim y brân, y fachgen wrth gwrs. Mae’n anodd dysgu’r iaith yn Ne Cymru, felly dw i’n ceisio defnyddio brawddegau a geiriau o fywyd ddyddiol. Dim yn ddrwg (neu dim yn wael?). Hwyl am y tro.

One of the three newspapers I tend to read, the Sun not because of the sometimes interesting failures of celebrities but because of the few good columnists. Jeremy Clarkson, Trevor Kavanagh and the irascible ‘say it as it is’ Rod Liddle. Or even the Guardians’ political commentators who are so blatantly pro-Europe. Jeremy you might not like, his style is what I would call ‘funny acidic’ but nevertheless there are great insights. This Saturday’s Sun newspaper has him stating what I have suspected for a while – The world seems to hate Britain… but not as much as Labour does’. A very interesting statement. Poor Labour one has to feel sorry for ‘m. I don’t because some of that is very true. Labour hates the way politics are practised today. There is no if’s and but’s. It is the party line or rather the party leader’s views and to ‘eck with everything else. The party faithful always remind me of those starry eyed pubers looking at their wall photos of rock-gods. So, the question need...

Sitting at the computer tonight writing these probably most interesting words to some intelligent people. No, not the steroid addled ones, they are already a lost cause. But to you. I saw a most interesting but in a way boring film. Called – Singularity. A story about how mankind developed a super computer. But not just a computer but one that could make decisions. And guess what, although it was told to ‘solve’ all mankind ills, it quickly came to the conclusion that it was mankind itself that was the problem. An infection on this planet that had to be eradicated to save the planet. Yep, a most interesting train of thought since what are we doing? Yes, we are developing A.I (Artificial Intelligence). The question needing asking is – Do we actually know what we are doing? If you say of course we do, then explain to me if AI takes hold would it mean a type of independence for machines. There would be no halt to developing their own ways and means. Could we possibly stop that? I...

Ah yes, the Prince and someone. Listening to the media, newspapers and TV a lot is made of the term - mixed race. What does that really mean? I am waiting for some reporter to ask - Is she human? For a country that tells everyone who listens how we have an integrated society we do make a lot of idiotic statements. Mixed race being one of them. Obviously we are not as integrated as we think! Well, I am proud to state I am of mixed race as well. I am of the Dutch race. But now the Welsh race and by conquest the British race. How more mixed can you be? Yes folks I am very mixed up!

Now that the good and dry weather has arrived this Bank Holiday I might as well re-fibreglass my shed roof. Yes, friends I have a man-cave. Problem is you cannot move in this cave because I need to chuck out about half its contents! I ordered some flexible fibreglass from Northern-Ireland and resin and am still studying the directions! What is the air temperature, mix it in this percentage, too hot outside and it will set in seconds, too cold and it will not set at all. Ahhhh! Well, I must rub the area down and get on with it despite my wife’s misgivings. It beats having to scan newspapers and computers to find out the latest mistakes of our politicians. I suppose they are human but I am not sure any more. Perhaps the aliens landed yonks ago and we never knew (until now). It is worrying that as soon as one becomes a councillor all the promises made on the doorstep have faded away like morning mist under a hot sun. I have always been of the opinion that a local councillor is e...