THE HERALD FRIDAY JANUARY 27 2017
53 Comment Plaid Cymru Youth with Llyr Williams PLAID CYMRU was quick to
possibly imagined, even after seeing the video of Mr Trump’s supporters on the so-called Alt-Right giving a raised arm salute and declaiming ‘Hail Trump’. There is one point which
Badger wants to develop from the new President’s tweet on Chelsea Manning: Mr Trump was quite happy to engage with Julian Assange of Wikileaks which provided the means by which the documents stolen by Chelsea Manning were presented to the public. Chelsea Manning provided them, Julian Assange was the publisher. Julian Assange is someone of whom Mr Trump approves: after all, it was the former’s website which published those emails from the Democrats so useful to the Donald in his campaign. So, if Chelsea Manning is a
TRAITOR (Badger thinks the capitalisation provides an important insight into the way Mr Trump thinks), what does that make the person who published the documents Chelsea Manning provided? An enemy of the state? A foreign national engaged in
espionage against American interests both military and diplomatic, is usually regarded as beyond the pale. Sarah Palin, hardly the voice of
moderation in Republican politics, said: “[Assange] is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands. His past posting of classified documents revealed the identity of more than 100 Afghan sources to the Taliban.” However, in Mr Trump’s America
it appears that Mr Assange is tacitly approved by the President, who prefers his counsel to those of his own intelligence services. Odd that. In fact, Mr Trump preferred the
words of Mr Assange on Russian interference in November’s US Election over those of the CIA and the National Security Agency. In fact, he tweeted that it was the Democrats’ own fault for being hacked, which sounds rather like blaming the victim than addressing the crime. Either Mr Trump is an ignorant
charlatan who simply picks up bits and bobs of stuff without ever
forming a whole coherent position, or he is a hypocrite. We have evidence that he is
not a hypocrite, however, readers. Remember what Badger said about all those conservative American commentators who said that once he was in the Oval Office, the 45th President would be reined in and that calmer heads would prevail. Well, in his first days as President,
Mr Trump has proved them wrong. Executive Order after Executive Order has been issued following up on what Mr Trump said he would do: bang goes Obamacare; out go commitments on trade; government departments have been placed on orders not to release anything without executive approval; even a Twitter account for one of the national parks in America had tweets deleted because it tweeted some observations about climate change. In short, Mr Trump has signalled
he intends to make good on his campaign promises with – quite literally in some cases – a vengeance. If Mr Trump can so causally
dispense with a trade deal concerning 40% of the world’s commerce, you have to wonder how reliable a trading partner he will be for the UK post- Brexit. In the world of Donald Trump, you can probably boil down his forthcoming meeting with Theresa May to 140 characters or less. ‘Had meeting with @theresa_may
I offered to lease the Isle of Wight as an aircraft carrier in exchange for magic beans. Deal done. SMART woman’. Badger can’t help remembering
an old Spitting Image sketch of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. “Heck of a woman,” said
Ronald’s puppet, “what a shame I’m only screwing her country!” Badger can only suggest Mrs
May is careful about which part of his anatomy Donald Trump invites her to shake.
accept the decision of the people on June 23, 2016 to leave the European Union. Plaid also stated that the party would seek to ensure the best possible Brexit deal for Wales. Voting to Leave is one thing, deciding how that is done is another. A Brexit plan has been slow
arriving from the UK Government, caught short it seems by the unexpected Leave vote. Teresa May’s statement of last week presented a rather sketchy Brexit plan, of little direct relevance to Wales. We stated our opinion then, in this column, that we in Wales needed ‘cross-party unity to demand the best deal possible for our people, our industries and our environment’. Sometimes you do get what you
wish for in life. During the past week, we have seen half of the main parties at our National Assembly cease the usual hostilities and cooperate on a
statement that they intend to take a common position on the road ahead for Wales. Labour, Plaid Cymru and the sole Liberal Democrat issued support for a Welsh Government White Paper outlining how to best serve Welsh interest in any Brexit negotiations and to help guide the UK Government to secure a positive outcome for all of us. ‘Securing Wales’ Future’ can
be found online. It highlights six important areas of agreement; continued participation in the Single Market, a balanced approach to immigration which links immigration to jobs, the UK Government to uphold its pledge to guarantee to replace EU structural funds to Wales, a new relationship between the devolved governments and the UK Government based on mutual respect and maintaining the social and environmental protections we enjoy in Wales through EU membership. The paper also calls
for the UK Government to consider a transitional arrangement with the EU to soften the effects of leaving. Plaid also ensured that the White
Paper calls for the protection of the interests of farmers and agriculture, stronger links between Wales and Ireland and continued participation in the European ERASMUS education scheme and Europass qualifications. Plaid also want to ensure that the benefits of freedom of movement are not all thrown away and that EU citizens already settled here are allowed to stay. This White Paper is a starting
point for all in Wales to engage in a serious debate about how we can approach Brexit and life outside the EU. We all need to ask the question: ‘What sort of Wales do we want?’ Maybe now is the time for Leavers and Remainers to realise that we really do have an interest in working together to get this right, for the sake of Wales.
THE MONTH of January Te Blue View
always brings with it much promise. It is the first month of a new year; a month when resolutions are made and sometimes very quickly broken and a month of renewal when we consider our aims and objectives for the 12 months to come. As a mother to two young
girls, my husband and I often find ourselves having to explain to our kids rights and wrongs and perhaps those grey areas which become more apparent as children get older, wiser and more independent. One of the hardest messages to get across to our two, and I imagine many parents and grandparents will sympathise here, is the message of moderation. To try and explain this after a fortnight every year of eating well, gifts being exchanged and relaxing afternoons out for a walk with the dogs and family, it is not always the easiest message to reinforce. However, the idea of moderation is a key message which all of us would do well to bear in mind.
Newspapers often experience
slow news days over national holiday periods and this is when we have stories informing us of the latest food that has been deemed good/bad/cleansing/toxic. It is strange how different foods feature in different years. Sometimes we are told that a glass of red wine is good for you, then the next year we are told it can be harmful. Butter is sometimes the villain, but sometimes the hero as it has the ‘right’ type of fat. Fruit juice is occasionally one of your five a day, but on other occasions has massive levels of natural sugar which is more harmful than fizzy drinks. In the last week alone, burnt toast and other foods have been claimed by scientists as having a detrimental impact on your health. As with all these cases, moderation is the key. As films such as Supersize Me have highlighted, if the extremes are reached then they can be very harmful, but the odd burger here and there will not leave any permanent damage. This message really hit home
earlier this week when I met with representatives of Alcohol Concern
who took the opportunity to bring me up to date with current thinking surrounding addiction treatment. We spoke about how addicts are now encouraged to tackle all aspects of their life to bring their drinking under control. We may not be looking at total abstinence, but reducing the consumption to safer levels where the drink no longer has a grip on everyday aspects of your life. It is not just alcohol where this message rings true but also other forms of addiction such as gambling. We all need to be aware that
doing anything to an excess can be harmful and moderation is a message which politicians must also adopt. Instead of being extreme in our policies, we need to employ moderation to develop consensus. Let us hope that in these tumultuous times that politicians on all sides around the world bear this in mind.
Angela Burns AM/AC
Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire
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