DEWCH AR GYMRU

HAVING MANAGED, SOMEWHAT AGAINST the odds, to reach the age I now possess, I am rather proud of the fact that I have managed to convince (at least) myself that I am a reasonable person in both my domestic views and my opinions on local and world politics, something which may not have seemed apparent as the path I would forge when I was younger.

IT IS THEREFORE WITH SOME DISTRESS that I feel I am being tarred with a brush bristling with badger hair and primed for others rather than me; and this is simply because I defend a system based on individual rights, precedence, jurisprudence and personal and social responsibility over one bound by nominations, party listings, unelected officialdom, nepotism, and favour.

THE CURRYING OF WHICH IS ACCEPTED in most of the European countries who, at least until recently, have seemed not to mind who decides on the wattage of their light bulbs, on the sell-by dates on their yogurts, on the amount of elastic allowed in any given bikini top or on how powerful their vacuum cleaners, toasters or electric kettles may be.

IF I WISHED TO HAVE a Herman von Rumpoy, a Durão Barroso, a Donald Tusk, a Jean-Claude Juncker or a Martin Schulz telling me I was not allowed to buy a set of heat-based curling tongs for my wife's birthday then I would at least like the possibility to choose which anti-curling candidate to vote for. But we do not have that choice in the European Union. We are told who is in charge. 

THOSE NOMINATED TO RUN THE UNION, from which Britain will fortunately be able to escape, albeit never having been more than a 65% member, have no idea what they are doing, and the predominantly left-wing people who support this absurd idea must surely understand that the problem with international socialism is that sooner or later one runs out of other people's money. 

BEING LEFT WING MEANS caring; it does not mean taking money off everyone and keeping most of it for a bunch of unemployable politicians who spend on average more money on travel, hotels and "down time" than they do on producing much-needed reports to further the cause of aid to regions of Europe which once were relatively healthy and are now slipping back into the poverty and despair of the nineteen fifties.

WALES IS NOW IN THE SEMI-FINALS of the Euro 2016 competition. Wales is, according to all statistics, one of the European Union "regions" (sic) which has received most money per capita from Brussels. Wales beat Belgium this evening. I am sure this was merely a footballing phenomenon, in no way connected to the fact that all of the European money sent to Wales, particularly to the depressed "region" of South Wales, was unable to stop closures of libraries -- a fundamental resource for the unemployed, for young job seekers and for elderly people -- across the unpronounceable towns in the area. And Wales voted out, presumably because the money never reached the people who needed it.

WHERE ALL THIS MONEY WENT, OF COURSE, is a mystery beyond our comprehension, as they sometimes say. Yet money from the taxes of the people of these regions "in the good times" had been used to subsidise bullfighting in Spain, to support "traditional regional cultural activities."

NONE OF THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE these absurd decisions are directly responsible to the people who contribute to their wages nor to the people to whom they decide to grant money. This means that the money for the European superstate apparently comes from no one and from nowhere for those who receive it and goes nowhere and to no one in terms of comeback and justification of expenses from those who grant it. Anyone can do what they like with the money as long as they fill out the forms correctly.

THIS IS A RECIPE FOR BOTH CORRUPTION and medium term economic (and financial) disaster and ruin. And now we are seeing the beginning of it. And those who have seen through the wafer-thin curtain around the worst robbery of public funds in peace-time memory by the shabbiest bunch of retrograde sneaks are being looked at in the same light as the fools who voted for Brexit thinking that this would stop foreigners coming to Britain.

BRITAIN HAS ALWAYS BEEN AND ALWAYS will be open. In 1966 in my state primary school in Liverpool there were three Polish children, one Lebanese boy, a Nigerian girl and a beautiful Russian girl who stole my heart and kept it for a couple of years or so until I managed to forget her. Rather that, than cynical politicians stealing my money forever.