Our tagati deserted us

Now we know why Liberals and Liberal Democrats hung on in Wales for so long. It was magic. South African president Jacob Zuma has revealed all in a speech in Lwandle in the Western Cape. The Times of South Africa reports him as crediting the continuing success of the Democratic Alliance (Liberal Democrats' sister party) in the region on sorcery and the supernatural.

Addressing a packed Lwandle Hall‚ in Strand‚ on Thursday‚ Zuma said ghosts might even been voting to keep the DA in power.

“I don’t know where they get the luck to win here because people in the majority are not living comfortable. I don’t know‚ [maybe] it’s because of witchcraft‚ witches practice their craft in different ways‚” said Zuma.

He said nowadays witches even used electricity.

“In the last elections I was satisfied that we are taking the Western Cape‚ I even said so. What went wrong? I too can’t tell you. It’s witchcraft‚ you never know. Maybe even ghosts are voting‚” said Zuma.

His address [to ANC cadres] comes a year after the party took a massive beating in the 2016 Local Government Elections‚ losing all councils.

In the City of Cape Town‚ the DA won back the municipality with a two-thirds majority.

[...] 

Zuma said the ANC was a party which was backed by both the ancestors and God.

Zuma also had words for his political opponents‚ saying he was not going to leave office until his term ended.

“There is not a single country where its president face eight votes [of no confidences] in parliament and all of them failed. The last time ...they used large sums of money‚ buying people‚ money that is hard to say no to‚” said Zuma.

He said his opponents during the motion were so desperate that they ended up pleading with him to please step down but could not come up with reasons for him to step down.

“Ancestors would abandon me if I would leave because of people who talk a lot .... I will be with you‚ even when my term has ended. I will be in branches‚ speaking‚” said Zuma.

He said he would never disappear even if people poisoned him.

This is the man who is in an unholy alliance with the Gupta family and Bell Pottinger. But maybe he is on to something. The ancestors must be keeping Welsh Labour in power, while the spirit of Lloyd George (often described as the Welsh wizard) has deserted the Liberal Democrats.

Aftermath of Irma

One of the benefits of our membership of EU was revealed by a London representative of Antigua and Barbuda in a TV interview a day before the eye of hurricane Irma passed over the UK overseas dependency. The nearby territories of Guadeloupe and Martinique are legally part of France, so Antiguans and Barbudans who need more than basic medical attention are able to call on the sophisticated medical facilities there. With 90% destruction of buildings having been reported, and those still standing being practically only public buildings, it is virtually certain that those facilities will be called on. Already, it is reported that a toddler has been killed. If hurricane Jose, currently only category 1, develops in the same way as Irma, the Antiguan prime minister predicts that Barbuda will have to be evacuated.

On a more frivolous note, one wonders whether the registry of the British Virgin Isles, home of so many tax- and scrutiny-dodging companies, has survived the wind, rain and storm surges of Irma.

Venomous Labour

Labour in public lose no opportunity of accusing us Liberal Democrats of dirty tactics, but as all LD campaigners know, this is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. John Hemming, at last free to speak publicly after a two-year investigation into false allegations of child abuse, contrasts in a statement the restraint shown by the press and the disgraceful tactics of Birmingham Labour.

Cricket is less important now

Hurricane Irma is now forecast to be even more destructive than Harvey. It is bearing down on Antigua and Barbuda as I write, with storm surges in excess of three metres predicted. I feel for the members of the West Indies touring party, unable to help or comfort their families back home. The squad lists do not detail the players' island of origin (understandable in view of the desire for cohesion, and after heated inter-island rivalry in the past), but almost certainly Antigua is represented in the present squad. One feels for them.

The next referendum?

The following letter recently appeared in the Neath Ferret:

So we have got 45 Gay MPs - role models for our younger generation? It is not normal to be gay, which ever way you looked at it. I understand these people cannot help their genes and their sexual orientation - but the issues must be looked closely. Let's look at it from an extreme angle - what if all MPs were gay? Another thought, what if future cabinet ministers were only appointed if they were gay? Will it develop to a party (or club within Westminster), bearing in mind that birds of a feather flock together.

A thought experiment. Suppose a prominent politician, well-known for his amatory heterosexual adventures, feels that his way to the top is being blocked by a gay mafia. He forms a new party, (let's call it the United Kingdom Normal Party) and starts a campaign to reverse the social reforms of fifty years ago*. He is enthusiastically joined by the Express, Mail and Sun. The UKNP stands candidates in by-elections, who do not win, but influence the results. The pressure tells on the May government, which agrees to hold a binding referendum on the subject, confident in the belief that the British people will not make government and public life poorer by driving away homosexuals.

UKNP buys a battle-bus and adorns it with the slogan: "350 kids a week are buggered legally. We can stop this." This is half-heartedly rebutted in the case put by the government. The result is inevitable.

Of course, it would never happen. No government which had the interests of the British people at heart would allow their future to be jeopardised by unreasoning prejudice.

*Round about the same time as we joined the European Free Trade Area

E-Day sixty years on

"You bought an Edsel?" says Kathleen Turner's character in "Peggy Sue got married" after she is transported back in time. Before de Lorean, this was the biggest flop in motor manufacturing history. In both cases, the pre-launch publicity made the débâcle worse. Read more about the Edsel here.

Barry composer Grace Williams to be commemorated

Swansea has Daniel Jones (Dylan Thomas's bosom pal in schooldays) while Barry has Grace Williams. Jones was able to survive as a professional musician but Williams was restricted by the need to earn a living and by precarious health from achieving the volume of work her talent promised. On the 40th anniversary of her death, Bangor University is holding the First International Conference on Women's Work in Music starting today.

Celebrating the Achievements of Women Musicians 

The Conference aims to bring together academics, researchers and music professionals from around the world to share their research and experience of all aspects of women working in music. 

The Conference will seek to both celebrate the achievements of women musicians, and to critically explore and discuss the changing contexts of women’s work in music on the international stage. The diversity and richness of this work will be illustrated at the conference through presentations in areas such as:

• historical musicology, 
• music education, 
• ethnomusicology, 
• practice-led research and performance, 
• composition,
• music analysis, 
• popular music studies and much more.

Thanks to JDCMB for the notice

Högertrafik day

Fifty years ago today, Sweden changed from driving on the left to driving on the right, an assimilation with the rest of the continent of Europe which Napoleon had failed to achieve. There is a film of the changeover on YouTube.

So thorough was the change that the makers of a 1950s-set series of whodunits were hard-pressed to find sufficient right-hand drive cars to populate the roads.