Comments on: Politicians, Parochialism and Populism.

By: Gwyn

Gwyn — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 20:17:25 +0000

I went to the Bala Eisteddfod. I didn’t go to Cardiff.

I live in Cheshire.

Not sure what this proves, if anything, but hardly that Bala is the middle of nowhere ….

By: Y Barcud Oren #10

Y Barcud Oren #10 — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 15:17:18 +0000

[...] During the Eisteddfod itself, Freedom Central’s Jeremy Townsend published a piece about political influence on arts spending in Wales, responding in large part to earlier comments by The Next Lover Of Lembit Opik™ that the Welsh [...]

By: senn

senn — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:04:54 +0000

for the record i have left 20 comments or so on plaid blog guerilla welsh fare under my surname ‘senn’ and all have been blocked!
Mr. Macguiness get real buddy, cannot Jeremy express himself? without being called anti-welsh….what would you do , censor the whole damn thing?

By: Peter Black

Peter Black — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:01:31 +0000

Adam Price has not left any comments on this post so your assertion that they have been blocked is untrue. I have rejected two comments. One used a single swear word to describe the author and the other contained a link to Adam Price’s blog and no other content. If it had included a comment I would have let it through but we are not in the process of promoting other blogs for the sake of it.

By: Jeremy Townsend

Jeremy Townsend — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:38:36 +0000

Patrick, Freedom Central does not censor any comments – unless they are personally abusive.

We did block one such comment which described me using unnecessary, let’s say, ‘post-watershed’ language… given that Adam Price is one of the few people making an informed and reasoned contribution to the debate (over on his own blog), I somehow doubt that was his post…

Oh, we block spam too. I know Adam Price and I don’t agree, but I don’t think he’s spamming us in revenge!

By: patrick mcguinness

patrick mcguinness — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 14:22:53 +0000

All one needs to know about Townsend’s views are contained in phrases like ‘middle of nowhere’, ‘culturally regressive’, etc. They bespeak assumptions that are hugely arrogant and contain a good deal of pseudo-metropolitan snobbery. I don’t think one would be over-reading them either to see them as anti-Welsh, in basis if not overt statement, and what’s most telling is the clearly anti-Welsh underbelly of many of the comments they’ve engendered. And that’s just the ones the moderators have let through (when they’re not busy blocking Adam Price’s!

By: patrick mcguinness

patrick mcguinness — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 14:17:03 +0000

That’ll be by why more people went to Bala’s eisteddfod than Cardiff’s then will it, Rachel? Nice to see you come to this question with an open and in full possession of all the facts…

By: Pads

Pads — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:03:44 +0000

The Eisteddfod can’t go back to Wrexham/Deeside so soon because of fundraising issues. Every year, the local organising committee are set a quota to raise funds towards the cost of hosting the event. People put on lots of events such as concerts, gigs and jumble sales, and you can’t keep going back to the same people too often.

The Ebbw Vale money is coming from the Heads of the Valleys programme.

As regards the reaction to your article – what do you expect when you used the terms such as “cultural regressives”, “[un]challenging” and refered to the best venue in many years as “the middle of nowhere”. The Eisteddfod is about so much more than male voice choirs and national costume. Perhaps people resent sounding off from someone who needs to find out more about the subject first. Back to the question of arts funding – I can’t believe you didn’t mention the Wales Millennium Centre.

Damn – Montenegro have just scored!

By: Jeremy Townsend

Jeremy Townsend — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:18:18 +0000

Honestly, it hadn’t occurred to me to have a fixed site. I was still advocating multiple sites, but – and I will repeat this – for the SHORT TERM have them in urban centres.

Just because Wrexham and the Deeside conurbation have alreday had or are about to have a go, does that mean they can’t again? It’s not the way it works at the moment, but I was suggesting a temporary change in the way things have operated. It doesn’t mean it has to go to the south.

Perhaps it wouldn’t work, but I wuold prefer it if people offered arguments as to why it wouldn’t work, rather than shutting down the debate because it is deemed to be anti-Welsh. That is not helpful to anyone.

Perhaps if Ebbw Vale requires additional funding, this should come from the Economy department rather than the culture department, as part of a wider regeneration and economic development strategy? It needn’t come at the expense of other events.

By: Peter Black

Peter Black — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:23:17 +0000

I think that what Jeremy was getting at was that if we adopted the fixed sites solution being touted by many for the Eisteddfod then it may not cost so much to put on. He may be wrong on that but it is worth exploring.