Cannot understand why anyone would be surprised that Adam Price has announced that he will not be standing at the next General Election. His departure from the House of Commons became obvious when he referred to his position as Member of Parliament for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr in such disparaging terms last week. It would be an insult to voters to ask for their support after describing the position of Member of Parliament as an unpleasant experience. Adam Price is an able politician, who will bring oratory and presence to the National Assembly - if he can find a way of being elected. An year in the States to recharge his batteries will only add ferocity to the fire in his soul. Its what happens in Wales while Adam is on his year out that's interesting.
There's no reason why anyone should take the slightest notice of my opinion but it seems to me that now is the time for the Rev. Rhodri Glyn Thomas AM to make a personal sacrifice for his party. Its time for him to put his name forward for selection as Plaid Cymru's candidate for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr at the next General Election. Its time for him to put the 'lit cigar' incident behind him, and try to reach 'the smoke' where he would be able to use his outstanding oratorical and sartorial flourishes to bring 'Welsh' colour to the proceedings of the House of Commons. He will be free to rediscover his swagger, and and sper-confidence. Come on Rhodri! Its time to go for it.
10 comments:
Cave canem, te necet lingendo ...
I realize Glyn that you will likely not publish this post - it's essentially public domain stuff.
Russia has agreed to not supply Iran with the highly lethal S-300 anti-aircraft system, but there are worrying developments. There is no mention of the latest Russian S-400 antiaircraft missile system which has twice the range of the earlier S-300 system with enhanced capabilities to shoot down stealthy aircraft and cruise missiles. If the S-400 (or S-300) find its way into Iran it is likely the system has a back-door code embedded in its read-only operating software - so yes, Iran will have 'working' S-300/400 - but only until the software trigger is activated. The Iranians had (at the time) highly advanced F14 Tomcat planes in its arsenal immediately after the fall of the Shah - none of the planes flew after the fall of the Shah. Some older F4 phantom aircraft flew after the fall of the Shah, but Iran's Tomcats stayed grounded, some of the Tomcat pilots were jailed and tortured, but I don't think the pilots knew why their planes would not fly. So torturing them did not fix the problem because it was an embedded code that nullified the aircraft software - the 'British' Chinooks had a software problem (but not related to an embedded code), the Typhoon fighters now going into the RAF and European airforces (not France) run using American software code - 'an inconvenient truth' that came out when the UK tried to flog some Typhoons to Saudi Arabia - Lockheed objected and said they had not given permission for the export of code to Saudi (neither did the DOD/Pentagon), but I think the sale has been agreed so I guess the DOD gave the clearance and Lockheed got some spare change out of the deal.
Footnote: Russia has just deployed the S-400 close to the Russian/NK border. There’s a heavy lift air-freighter sitting on the Tarmac ready to warm up its huge engines to carry the S-400 and a crew of Russian specialists to fly them to a Quds airbase in Iran to train Quds forces in the use of the S-400 system. Is Russia still smarting that the Israelis discovered the secret shipment of S-300 missiles aboard the ship-freighter that went missing just a few weeks ago. The Israeli leader recently came back from a trip to Moscow – probably quietly threatened the Russian secret service with exposing the unsuccessful covert/clandestine operation to smuggle S-300 missiles to Iran blaming the operation on rouge Russian generals looking for a fast buck but without the knowledge of the Kremlin.
There is now news from the UN that Iran has tested a critical piece of atomic bomb detonation, the spherical implosion apparatus designed to ‘densify’ a small ball of enriched uranium into the functional equivalent of a ‘critical mass’ – and immediate production of a chain reaction and thence a fission explosion (i.e., an atomic blast). Recall that Iran recently successfully launched a satellite into orbit around the earth and hence is ahead of North Korea (which has failed on two occasions to achieve the same success of putting a package into low earth orbit, much like the space shuttle). Also recall that NK flew out its latest rocket engines for testing at an Iranian rocket engine test facility – the kit was flown aboard an old 747 freighter from an airbase in NK.
PS The USA is moving multi-layers of anti-ballistic mobile launchers into/off-shore Israel including the fully tested SM3 (standard missile block 3), THAAD - Arrow-2 and latest version of Patriot are already deployed on Israeli soil.
It's "GAME TIME" for all those dinky gadgets - Iran has crossed the line in testing the nuclear implosion device. It's now only a matter of time.
PS, the technical know-how/drawings for the implosion 'arrangment' came from Dr. Khan in Pakistan via a shell company operating, in part, with a Suiss connection.
Good comment.
Plaid Cymru needs to win big in Wales, the Scots Nats in Scotland, and the Conservatives need to win big in England (which is very likely). The Welsh Assembly needs strengthening with forceful voices. This is the future of politics in (lesser) Britain.
Showtime!
Taking "a year out", from the political scene, in order to study, might be a very wise move.
Given Mr Prices` stand against the arms trade and war, then his choice of destination might seem as an excursion into the den of the (bankrupt) lion.
Mr R.G.Thomas will have to chop much wood to maintain the fire that glows in Carmarthenshire.
If the article in the Western Mail/Echo is accurate then I have to the logic behind Adam Price's intended temporary move to study small towns in Nebraska and Colorado - I looked very closely at the regional economies of the US/Canada before moving to North America, I'm not 'getting' Price's logic. I worked full time for some five years in America's Midwest, and studied US law at a Midwest graduate school and passed the Bar; I came top or near the top of the Con Law 1 (Constitutional Law) exam at law school beating a fair number of Americans who lived all their lives in the USA.
I don't recognize the Midwest that Adam Price describes - is it possible he has arrived at a daft conclusion before doing serious research? How about Adam Price talking to a few Welsh expats like myself who have or still living in the Midwest, and have a pretty good handle on what's going on in the Midwest - and in my case I have a pretty good handle on the interplay between state and Federal power. I practice in Federal law as a professional lawyer near Washington, DC - specializing in Federal intellectual property law.
Adam Price would do well to contact me and pick my brains on how small and large businesses in Wales could benefit from a greater understanding of US intellectual property practice. Perhaps Mr. Price could suggest a stipend sufficient to pay for me to provide classes in international IP law at colleges up and down Wales to facilitate the expansion of indigenous businesses in Wales in the USA, the largest market on the planet for patent protected products and services - Welsh inventors and companies can obtain US patents (monopolies for a limited time) on novel ideas in the USA.
The last Plaid politician I talked to face-to-face (personal interview arranged with the Plaid AM with the economic brief. Fairs fair, he gave me the time of day. I liked him and was both shocked and very sorry to hear the news of his untimely death (in more ways than one) a few weeks later. I travelled a round trip of about 8,000 miles to see that Plaid AM, maybe if Adam Price visits Washington, DC he will give me a few minutes of his ‘research time’. Not holding out much hope. Plaid have shown a distinct thread of playing student politics with supporters moaning about what badges so and so wore some decades ago and who said what to Mandela – WALES NEEDS JOBS – not (borrowing from President Obama), a jackass.
^If the article in the Western Mail/Echo is accurate then I have to (say I don’t understand) the logic …
First two comments are for specialist eyes!
Alan - In the short term, its more important to ensure that there are MPs commited to making a success of devolution than AMs. If that'a what Adam wants to do, fair enough. It will be a very long time (if ever) when what happens at Westminster will be unimportant to Wales
The way I see it, that time will come, sooner than you think!
Well Glyn: In today's Mail: "The two countries (Iran and Russia) are now discussing the delivery of a newer version of the S-300 anti-aircraft missile defence system (the S-400, mentioned above) that is capable of shooting down aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic missile warheads at ranges of over 90 miles and at altitudes of about 90,000 feet."
So some fancy footwork afoot I fear ... Russia promised not to sell the S-300, but nothing said about the S-400 - more lethal than the S-300!
The plot thickens ... btw, Iran want's one of these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:W80_nuclear_warhead.jpg
... Pakistan has a version of the W80 deployed on its small ballistic missiles - just think, the latest 1,500 mile range one ton payload Iranian rocket - just think, the W80 type warhead is under 300lbs - a couple could be transported in the back of a sports utility vehicle from Pakistan to Iran - one of those in one of Iran's latest ballistic missiles would put Cardiff, London, and Edinburgh well within range - and guess what: Iran already has the details including engineering drawings of the W80 c/o Dr. Khan, copies of the files were found on a hard-drive in an import/export business (shell company for Iran) in Switzerland - the firm was raided some time ago - that's why Iran has built and successfully tested a 'critical component' in the nuclear bomb as alluded to in recent weeks by the UN.
Post a Comment