WEEKEND WALES WATCH

Again for technical reasons, Archie’s column will not be published this week.

Hidden Treasure

     There’s a move to close Swansea Museum.   If that happens, it will be a great loss.   We all need reminding of our past so that we can understand our present and plan for our future.

     However, I heard that the staff there have discovered a long-lost painting hidden away somewhere.   I have neither seen nor heard anything about who hid it, nor why no record of its existence was kept.

     And the piece of art has turned out to be worth a LOT of money!

     So that might be a good reason to keep Swansea Museum open.   If an important work like that has been stored therein, somebody must rate the place highly.

More Monetary Matters

     It came as a surprise to me that The Party Of Wales received a massive donation from an Eastern gentleman – was it Gadaffi? – a few decades ago.

     It seems, though, that nobody in Plaid Cymru remembers that gift coming into the coffers.   The amount was rather large, too:  seventy-five-thousand pounds or so I hear!

     Two questions spring to mind.   Firstly:  why should that particular gentleman be disposed to help the cause of Plaid?   And secondly:  where are the records of his cheque being cashed?

The Changing Face Of Wales?

     A friend commented to me that “Wales isn’t what it was”.   Well, that was a wondrous piece of philosophical observation.   “What does he mean?” I wondered.

     No Owain Glyndwr?   No Welshmen being hit by arrows in the middle of Hereford?   Or was this something more basic?   I asked him.

     He told me that he’s been to the Republic of Ireland a few times and noticed while driving narrow country roads that, if he pulled in to allow someone to pass him, the other drivers nearly always acknowledged his courtesy by letting their double-flashers blink a couple of times.

     “That sort of politeness has disappeared here in Wales,” he moaned.

     And, come to think of it, it has.   He has suggested that independence from Mother England – which is what the people of Southern Ireland have – might be a good step towards bringing back traditional Welsh politeness!

     Hmmm – I shall have to think about that one.   If it could be true, I shall ask Plaid Cymru to include it in their publicity.

Even In Wales . . .

     . . . we seem to be tainted by terrorist fears.

     This week, a man in Cardiff has been arrested on charges of stirring up terrorist activity.   And our police are still searching for other evidences of potential terrorist activities.

     Yes, it’s happening in cosmopolitan Cardiff.   That’s a big city.   So most folk who live in the vast expanses of rural Wales are, perhaps, not concerned.

    But I have been told that “these prospective terrorists have to live somewhere, and out in the countryside is a safer place for them than in the middle of one of our big cities“.   A case of build your bomb in the Cambrian Mountains and carry it to your target, then.

     Perhaps we should all be alert – but not nosey!

For reasons beyond my control, there will be no Weekend Wales Watch this weekend.