tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207830182024-03-08T11:33:05.164+00:00RADNORIANradnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.comBlogger849125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20783018.post-26127730147075164102023-12-01T13:07:00.002+00:002023-12-01T13:11:53.947+00:00How are things in Lackawanna <p>If you delve deep into Welsh family history you'll soon be as familiar with Pennsylvanian counties such as Lackawanna and Luzerne as you are with places nearer home. We tend to underestimate the Welsh contribution to North America, look at this interesting youtube of ethnic background in the US for example. Even as late as 1931 the Welsh element made the top 17 and even that was a big decline from the proportion in earlier years.</p><p>Two things to remember, the US immigration and census authorities were the first governmental bodies in the modern world to recognise the Welsh as a separate nationality - this at a time when the for Wales see England attitude ruled the roost. Secondly the great majority of Welsh migrants in the Victorian period were Welsh speakers. Anyway take a look:</p><p>*</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VS4SbbCC8nU" width="320" youtube-src-id="VS4SbbCC8nU"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>radnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20783018.post-55676341006127908522023-07-11T20:52:00.032+01:002023-09-18T22:10:34.968+01:00These Times We're Living In<p>I discovered Kate Wolf during lockdown, enjoying the sunshine and wondering at the stupidity of it all. I do believe that some are chosen, Kate obviously.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dNacOVmerhU" width="320" youtube-src-id="dNacOVmerhU"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p>radnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20783018.post-14673299014822018712023-06-29T11:24:00.099+01:002023-06-29T11:57:20.060+01:00Armageddon and Idpol<p>I don't know if the West ever thought they could beat Russia in Ukraine, perhaps they did but clearly that's not the case now. Today the aim seems to be to kill as many Russians, and Ukrainians, as possible. Hang on, they want to kill Ukrainians? Well clearly if you think the Russians are going to win and that Ukraine will be absorbed into the Federation, then the more damage you can inflict both economically and demographically to the future Greater Russia the better.</p><p>As a last throw of the dice the extreme warmongers want any nuclear incident at the Energodar reactor to be treated as an Article 5 attack on Europe, necessitating direct Nato involvement in the war. Clearly this is an invitation to the Kiev regime to carry out such an attack knowing that the mainstream media will rush to blame Moscow. Today's announcement of an evacuation of Nikopol is extremely worrying in this regard.</p><p>Meanwhile Wales carries on blissfully unaware that there's a good chance that we are living in the last days of humanity. The actions of the laughable Welsh government make even fervent supporters of devolution regret ever voting for the Assembly. Steadfastly ignoring the real problems facing Wales the Drakeford clique and their Plaid allies seek to solve non-issues by imposing busy-body controls on an apathetic population. The controls rather than the solutions being the whole point of the exercise.</p>radnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20783018.post-55268974867971841702023-06-16T14:38:00.002+01:002023-06-29T13:44:33.231+01:00Wcrain<p>Every now and then during the last year I've typed Wcrain into the twitter search to see what my fellow countrymen have to say about the war.</p><p>Apart from a Ukrainian lady who is learning the Welsh language - hir oes iddi - posts from individuals are rare, the majority come from bodies in receipt of public funds, it's almost as if posting something in support of Nato's war was a condition of receiving government handouts. The same thing is true, if less markedly so in respect of the climate change agenda and other right-on issues.</p><p>A few months ago there was a bit of a stir when the online magazine Spiked published an article criticising the over reliance on public sector employment in Wales and the way in which a new elite was forming, employed by the state, paying lip service to the language, intolerant of criticism, prone to nepotism and group think; oh and divorced from the lives and attitudes of ordinary working class folk.</p><p>This developing class certainly fits in well with the pro-war, anti-democratic, pro-globalist forces which are dominating much of the Anglosphere and its European puppets. The only problem is that these forces are having their bluff called by the multipolar world. Their days are numbered.</p><p>Given how devolution and even the Welsh language have become associated with this class of apparatchiks there is a danger that their inevitable fall will see the baby thrown out with the bathwater.</p>radnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20783018.post-53133031115900470802023-05-15T12:03:00.002+01:002023-06-29T14:19:21.712+01:00Red Radnorshire<p> I'm sure a lot of Welsh folk have an image of Radnorshire as a rural backwater, anglicised, probably Tory voting, an extension of Herefordshire protruding into their imaginary radical Wales.</p><p>Here's some anomalies to ponder:</p><p>Nye Bevan, mother Phoebe Protheroe, her family went to the coalfield from Glasbury</p><p>George Lansbury, the Labour Party leader, his mother was from Clyro</p><p>Arthur Horner, Communist boss of the Miner's Union, mother a Lewis from Gwystre</p><p>Clem Edwards, radical lawyer and MP, from Knighton, one of the organisers of the London dockers strike and the famous laundresses demonstration in Hyde Park</p><p>Charles Edwards, MP for Bedwellty from 1918 to 1950, a Labour Chief Whip, he was from Llangynllo</p><p>That's enough for now, maybe I'll add some more later.</p>radnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20783018.post-8276645763607286642023-05-04T08:51:00.002+01:002023-05-04T09:01:59.896+01:00Reflections on wasted opportunities As someone with an interest in family history and the science of dna, I've taken tests with a couple of companies. All very interesting, with hundred year old affairs being revealed and a personalisation of history - migration, war, disease and the like as they affected the extended family.<div><br /></div><div>One surprise were the dozens of Mormon third and fourth cousins who popped up in my match list. These people all traced back to a clan of Flintshire stone masons who were early converts to the church and played an important part in the development of Salt Lake City, from building the Temple to establishing the forerunner of the Tabernacle Choir. The link was an illegitimate birth in Llanwrthwl, my great great grandmother being born the child of a visiting mason with the necessary surname.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway this handful of Mormon kinsmen have multiplied so that today literally thousands of folk can trace themselves back to these pioneers.</div><div><br /></div><div>This made me think what a great opportunity the Welsh National movement missed in the 1960s. Now I'm not suggesting polygamy but what if patriotic couples had decided to marry and have large families back then. No doubt their lives would have been less bourgeois but how many thousands of extra Welsh speakers would exist today, how much talent would exist, how many businesses? Wales would surely be different, richer both culturally and economically ...... because people aren't a problem, they are an opportunity.</div><div><br /></div><div>Instead we followed the Anglo-Saxon model, Plaid Cymru is just New Labour's little helper, the language figures might look reasonable but less Welsh is spoken in everyday life, the rural areas are taken over by outsiders and locals are priced out of the housing market. Worse still the Sion Whites are disconnected from the ordinary folk, more interested in American virtue signalling than the everyday problems of the gwerin.</div><div><br /></div><div>So go on your little marches, put a flag in your twitter profile, virtue signal to your heart's content but what are we doing to actually build alternative structures to the dying empire.</div>radnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20783018.post-16095421640177861852023-03-22T10:24:00.004+00:002023-03-22T10:24:44.820+00:00Another Old Post<p> </p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="background-color: #333333; color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;"><a href="https://tredelyn.blogspot.com/2013/09/widows-and-spinsters.html" style="color: #cc6600; text-decoration-line: none;">Widows and Spinsters</a></h3><div class="post-header" style="background-color: #333333; color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 10.8px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><div class="post-header-line-1"></div></div><div class="post-body entry-content" style="background-color: #333333; color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 670px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">You don't find much written about the Welsh businesswomen of the Victorian and Edwardian period. Such females did exist of course, although it helped to be a widow or a spinster or otherwise unencumbered with a spouse.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Hotel trade in pre-First World War Llandrindod was no small beer, as the buildings of the town, now somewhat decayed, still testify. And it was a trade which was dominated by the women who owned, or managed, the majority of the most important such businesses in the town.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Look at the 1911 Census and you'll find Miss Duggan and her sister, they were from Hundred House, the owners of Duggan's Temperance Hotel. Then there was the Llanyre born Miss Sheen, manager of Plas Winton - now the Commodore. Miss Ace ran the Waverley, Miss Jenkins York House and Miss Smith the Montpelier. If they weren't spinsters they were widows like Mrs Bentley of the Spring Hotel and Mrs Smith of Ye Wells - currently occupied by Coleg Powys's Llandrindod campus.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The largest hotel in the town, indeed in the whole of Wales, was the Pump House; with its posh clientele and Continental cuisine - one of my aunts married the son of a Swiss chef from there. It was managed for many years by the Monmouthshire born Miss Duffield, who interestingly enough was elected to the town council in 1900.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglUceNbd_K6GZ5h2HDgFMNnojXUEXlgyRB3n6Z1kBeWkpOW3ocbZHIqn5GfJTQzoAhbuXKILVRZGjZpKZDYL3NMXu9cyF2N4EurNY5P2MJKvR6itDQFnSQrBnJBzxcR3wE46U80A/s1600/miles.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; color: #dd7700; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglUceNbd_K6GZ5h2HDgFMNnojXUEXlgyRB3n6Z1kBeWkpOW3ocbZHIqn5GfJTQzoAhbuXKILVRZGjZpKZDYL3NMXu9cyF2N4EurNY5P2MJKvR6itDQFnSQrBnJBzxcR3wE46U80A/s1600/miles.JPG" style="background: rgb(17, 17, 17); border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 1px; position: relative;" width="275" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> The great rival of the Pump House was the Bridge, which would eventually supplant it as the largest hotel in the country.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Like many of the businesses in the town it was originally built and operated by local Radnorshire families. For even though Llandrindod has been described as "not a Welsh town, but a town in Wales," most of the entrepreneurial spirit that built the place was Welsh. In 1897 the five Wilding sisters and their two brothers sold the Bridge Hotel to the redoubtable Mrs Miles (see picture) for a tidy £7850.</div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Born in Treforest in 1847, Elizabeth Miles (nee Spencer) was the daughter of Pontypridd innkeepers. Married at 20, she found herself widowed by the age of 24, and with two young sons to boot. Perhaps because of this setback Elizabeth went on to own or lease some 10 hotels in South Wales, including the Angel in Cardiff. A Welsh speaker - and so were her two sons - Mrs Miles eventually changed the name of her Llandrindod purchase to the Metropole Hotel. This was for the rather frugal reason that she had bought a quantity of bankrupt linen and crockery, all inscribed with the letter M.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">So why aren't such women, and others like them elsewhere, better known? Well, apart from the fact that history has largely been written by men, such successes may not have suited the agendas of those who tend to sell Wales short</div></div>radnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20783018.post-2456810379224853762023-03-21T23:00:00.001+00:002023-03-21T23:00:54.617+00:00Bill Sikes, Radnorshire's Own<p>Let's forget for a moment the utter stupity of supplying depleted uranium shells to a bunch of mindless idiots, who will more than likely use them contaminate farmlands described as Europe's breadbasket ...... and travel back to simpler times when I put forward a theory that Dickens' villain Bill Sikes was inspired by a Radnorian:</p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="background-color: #333333; color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;"><a href="https://tredelyn.blogspot.com/2012/02/bill-sikes-radnorian.html?m=0" style="color: #cc6600; text-decoration-line: none;">Bill Sikes the Radnorian</a></h3><div class="post-header" style="background-color: #333333; color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 10.8px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><div class="post-header-line-1"></div></div><div class="post-body entry-content" style="background-color: #333333; color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 670px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">I've blogged about Bill Sheen before, see <a href="http://tredelyn.blogspot.com/2008/02/bill-sheen.html" style="color: #dd7700; text-decoration-line: none;">here</a>.<br /><br />I believe he was a model for the Dickens character Bill Sikes, although now <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/01/charles-dickens-real-character-names?newsfeed=true" style="color: #dd7700; text-decoration-line: none;">we learn</a> that the great novelist used the names of everyday folk from his teenage neighbourhood for some of his best-known creations. William Sykes, it seems, was a harmless tallow seller.<br /><br />While not doubting that Dickens may have found the surname in that way, the character of Sikes is surely based in part on the Radnorian Sheen, once pursued from London to the Severn Arms in Penybont after slicing off the head of his jade Letitia's infant son and being subsequently found not-guilty of the murder on a legal nicety - twice!<br /><br />Now Bill Sheen was not some anonymous Radnorian abroad in the smoke, he was famous, a 19C celebrity if you like. He was Sheen the infanticide, Sheen the child murderer, whose every scandalous court appearance for twenty years was reported assiduously in the public press - not least by the Thunderer itself.<br /><br />Bill and his notorious mother Ann Sheen* ran brothels in Spitalfields, in particular in Wentworth Street. A street that was also home to another well known criminal, the receiver of stolen goods, Ikey Solomon - who many agree was the model for the Dickens character Fagin.<br /><br />Sheen's brothels were infamous dens of child criminality where youngsters were lodged and sent out to pick pockets and plunder. Take a look <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TUoSAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA176&dq=%22wentworth+Street%22+Sheen&hl=en&sa=X&ei=wKwrT9qbOsXB8gOW1NH3Dg&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=%22wentworth%20Street%22%20Sheen&f=false" style="color: #dd7700; text-decoration-line: none;">at this evidence</a> to a Select Committee of the House of Commons from 1837, just a year before the publication of Oliver Twist, evidence which was quoted verbatim in the Times.<br /><br />And what of Sikes' moll, the unfortunate Nancy? Well in 1847 Bill Sheen was sentenced to two years with hard labour for violently assaulting and slashing his common law wife of eighteen years, one Mary Ann Sullivan. The Times reported that Sullivan had been "the subject of constant ill-usage" during her nearly two decades with Sheen and had frequently needed hospital attention after the brutal beatings she received. Was this violent relationship known to Dickens perhaps? He could certainly have read of the court case in 1836 where Bill had threatened to "rip up the bowels" of a lass called Mary Moore.<br /><br />Radnorians may be interested in an obsequious letter Sheen wrote to the Lambeth Street magistrates from the New Prison in Clerkenwell, following the rescue of eight young mites from his clutches. Sheen boasted of "the respectability of my relations in Radnorshire." There was: a Mr___, a respectable farmer, and Mr___, shopkeeper and farmer at ___, and "aunt Sheen who lives on her own freehold estate at a place called ___, where my grandfather lived and kept his hounds for 70 years." Unfortunately the Times omits the actual names, no doubt to spare his relatives' blushes. If only the magistrates would release him, Sheen promised, he would leave London and go to Radnorshire and "never more trouble you." Thankfully for Radnorshire the magistrates ignored his plea and sent him down for 18 months.<br /><br />* Like her neighbour Ikey Solomon Ann Sheen was a well-known fence - she owned a chandler's shop in Spitalfields. In 1840 at the age of 59 she was sentenced to be transported for 14 years. In the event Mrs Sheen pined away in the Millbank Penitentiary, dying in 1842. Ann left her not inconsiderable fortune in Bank Stock and properties to her favourite son, Bill.</div></div><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="background-color: #333333; color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;"><a href="https://tredelyn.blogspot.com/2008/02/bill-sheen.html" style="color: #cc6600; text-decoration-line: none;"> Sheen</a></h3><div class="post-header" style="background-color: #333333; color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 10.8px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><div class="post-header-line-1"></div></div><div class="post-body entry-content" style="background-color: #333333; color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 670px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZzPEtRFypMn-bOLST4QETLqN0FrNttgKGqPgVvdEj4JiMuevAnznmGbKXsK1vM_YWBCEmSBfa_uGGPbAleONXArDh0MxChPzixNU2-TLbYhMHwawX2rpSvCgaZM3Nvxdfv5OKTA/s1600-h/bill+sikes.jpg" style="color: #dd7700; text-decoration-line: none;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5165849499278581314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZzPEtRFypMn-bOLST4QETLqN0FrNttgKGqPgVvdEj4JiMuevAnznmGbKXsK1vM_YWBCEmSBfa_uGGPbAleONXArDh0MxChPzixNU2-TLbYhMHwawX2rpSvCgaZM3Nvxdfv5OKTA/s400/bill+sikes.jpg" style="background: rgb(17, 17, 17); border: 1px solid rgb(17, 17, 17); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; cursor: pointer; float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; padding: 1px; position: relative;" /></a>Radnorshire must reluctantly lay claim to one of Nineteenth Century London's most notorious criminals, Bill Sheen, a man who must surely have been one of the models for Dickens' Bill Sikes.<br /><br />Sheen came to prominence in 1827 when he cut off the head of his girlfriend's infant son. Fleeing from Whitechapel to Radnorshire he was tracked by a London constable, Robert Davis, to Penybont and eventually taken at the nearby home of a relative, Lane House, Llanbadarn Fawr.<br /><br />You can read a report of Sheen's first trial<a href="http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/oldbailey/html_units/1820s/t18270531-14.html" style="color: #dd7700; text-decoration-line: none;"> here</a>, He was found not guilty on a technicality, a confusion over the actual name of the murdered child. A second trial was held and Sheen was again acquited on the grounds that you could not be tried twice for the same crime.<br /><br />This stroke of good fortune did not induce Sheen to follow the straight and narrow. By now something of a minor celebrity, his assaults and burglaries were widely reported in the press. A girlfriend, one Mary Anne Sullivan's throat was cut and she was left for dead after being brutally kicked, Sheen was jailed for two years. Perhaps the clearest evidence that Sheen may have been the model for Sikes comes from the fact that he kept brothels in Spitalfields which were also home to between 30 and 40 boys and girls, some aged as young as nine, who spent their days begging and thieving throughout the city. <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zHsEAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA149&dq=%22william+Sheen%22&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1#PPA149,M1" style="color: #dd7700; text-decoration-line: none;">Read about them here, pages 149 and 150</a>.</div></div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>radnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20783018.post-38165926646178302662023-01-18T18:21:00.001+00:002023-01-18T18:28:38.496+00:00An old post from 2014<p>I think this post about Ukraine has stood the test of time, not a hard thing to predict mind.</p><p><a href="http://tredelyn.blogspot.com/2014/07/a-10-minute-stroll-through-village.html" target="_blank">http://tredelyn.blogspot.com/2014/07/a-10-minute-stroll-through-village.html</a><br /></p>radnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20783018.post-49990156388912123562022-11-28T12:30:00.005+00:002023-05-02T12:04:46.044+01:00Gareth Jones<p> I first became aware of Gareth Jones when I purchased a copy of the Dictionary of Welsh Biography from Griff's bookshop in the early 1970s. In a volume chock a block with forgettable nonconformist preachers his entry stood out. Nowadays he's much better remembered than he was back then, the subject of a movie and a useful tool of anti-Russian propaganda.</p><p>None of this is Mr Jones's fault of course, read his actual work and you'll find nothing about a planned genocide of the Ukrainian people, rather he reported what he saw, a famine that affected all of the wheatlands, from Ukraine, through Russia and into Kazakhstan.</p><p>Now some facts - </p><p>Western Ukraine, the heartland of Ukrainian nationalism and the main proponent of the genocide myth was not even part of the Soviet Union at the time of the famine, it belonged to Poland.</p><p>Famine was common in Russia and Ukraine during the Tsarist and early Soviet period. This was caused by natural problems of climate and disease and the rather primitive holdings and methods of the peasantry. The Soviet solution was American inspired mechanisation and consolidation of land into collective farms. In reality this turned out to be successful and the only famine subsequent to that of 1931/1932 was one in the late 1940s.</p><p>Agronomists agree that the failed harvest of 1931/1932 was the result of natural causes, although the Soviet reaction certainly exacerbated the subsequent famine as it affected the steppe. Grain was confiscated from the agricultural areas to feed the cities and the so-called kulaks, the class of richer peasants were persecuted and often deported. In part this was a reaction to hoarding for profit, something that has happened in every famine in history.</p><p>The idea that the famine was a deliberate attempt at genocide directed at the Ukrainian population by the Russians was born out of World War Two German propaganda. It seems to have become an article of faith for many in the West who are uninterested in alternative, more realistic narratives.</p>radnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20783018.post-77767855255923679572022-09-13T16:00:00.003+01:002022-09-13T18:49:04.626+01:00Taeogion?<p style="text-align: justify;">& <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX5nY9NQ_qTTFof65v_LOmPlSEr7Y6knN9mntygWNfYJbz4NSmdXADRtCikKh2bAZQRXMfCOyBXix6uALPvMqtjrQ50SvjoJKr8R1o3Krpc9nKNHTB7-YCqdPDp1POJcWlbK3MPMzG2mY3W3hokMJD5g08GOoNnJz4UY_feEVMCrcE-nKGjik/s2071/20220913_114521~3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1923" data-original-width="2071" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX5nY9NQ_qTTFof65v_LOmPlSEr7Y6knN9mntygWNfYJbz4NSmdXADRtCikKh2bAZQRXMfCOyBXix6uALPvMqtjrQ50SvjoJKr8R1o3Krpc9nKNHTB7-YCqdPDp1POJcWlbK3MPMzG2mY3W3hokMJD5g08GOoNnJz4UY_feEVMCrcE-nKGjik/s320/20220913_114521~3.jpg" width="320" /></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I was reading an article that claimed that Wales was far more servial (taeogion) at the commencement of the Queen's reign than it is today, but is that true? After all in 1952 we had genuine working class parties and a real national movement, forces that made capital uncomfortable. Can that be said of today's versions? Much of Welsh industry was owned by the people - well in theory at least, and the newly established health service seemed less interested in enriching the drug companies than is true today.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Of course the article makes much of identity politics, but that seems more about getting into the elite rather than curtailing its power. It's an odd world where Rishi Sunak's billionaire wife is somehow seen as more disadvantaged than that old bloke down the pub. Infact most of the left's current obsessions seem to coincidence with the latest money making wheeze of the ruling class.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Anyway the late Queen's first visit to Wales after her succession was to Llandrindod Railway station, from where she proceeded by car to open the new Claerwen reservoir. I dug out some cuttings - the photo is from the Daily Graphic, which was what the Sketch was still called in 1952. I know the lad in the beret quite well, a stalwart Radnorian and still alive and kicking. The paper also mentions the enhanced security measures in place as a result of the recent bomb attack on the Fron aquaduct. Taeogion yn wir!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>radnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20783018.post-27430210982385620042022-09-08T11:37:00.005+01:002022-09-14T09:47:35.319+01:00Our Radnorshire Folk<p>My great great grandfather was born in Llandinam around the same time as David Davies of the Ocean Coal Company - who is getting some mention on twitter today. His son, my great grandfather, lived in Gwystre, a few doors from the family of Arthur Horner's mother. Both families ended up in Merthyr Tydfil - which was really the home of more Radnorians than any place on the planet at the end of the 19th century.</p><p>What I'm trying to say is that Radnorshire history is part and parcel of mainstream Welsh history. Another example is the famous poetic dispute between Ieuan Dyfi and Gwerful Mechain resulting from Ieuan's misogynistic rant against his ex Anni Goch. Far from being in the North or the distant West, Ieuan and Anni's affair went down in Presteigne and Norton. Likewise the Red Book of Hergest found a home near Kington and Kinnerton, while Glyndwr's great victory was near Knighton and won by the men of Maelienydd.</p><p>Ffansis Payne opened my eyes to the deep history of Radnorshire while for many readers of the Radnorshire Transactions in the 1930s it must have been Mr Cole's transcriptions of Elizabethan wills, full of names like Tangwystl and Lleucu .... these were our Radnorshire folk.</p><p><br /></p>radnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20783018.post-52579074131445750722022-07-20T09:54:00.002+01:002022-07-20T19:43:42.099+01:00Barbarossa<p>We tend to forget that when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 they were not alone - Rumania, Italy, Finland, Hungary and Slovakia were also active participants. As the war proceeded SS units from the Baltic states, Ukraine, France, Spain, Bosnia, Croatia, Scandinavia, Belgium and the Netherlands were also involved. Is it any wonder that the present war against Russia - just as Nato's previous onslaught against Serbia - can be seen as a continuation of the Second World War. The only difference being that the Anglo-Saxons have this time thrown in their lot with the fascists.</p><p>For old timers like myself this is all pretty obvious, youngsters not so much. I happened to catch a quiz programme on TV the other day where a second year geography student claimed never to have heard of the River Rhine. Not much chance of understanding even the basics of world history there. </p>radnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20783018.post-13609395019614564212022-04-06T11:24:00.105+01:002022-05-28T11:40:54.193+01:00Social Fascists?<div style="text-align: justify;">What prospects for a truly independent Wales in a country that so readily swallows the mainstream lies about Covid and Ukraine? The intellectuals are a lost cause, thoroughly indoctrinated, as they are, with "Western values." Maybe there's some hope with the Brexit voting working class, who showed signs of independent thought over that issue at least</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">How to describe the Labour-Plaid hegemony? A term from the Thirties might fit the bill, Social Fascists ............ folk who spout Socialist platitudes but, when it comes to it, always support imperialism and the corporate state. A Wales bedecked in blue and yellow flags is just the latest manifestation of all this. One wonders what Gwyn Alf would have thought of it all? I like to think his sympathies would have been with the miners of Donbas rather than the Nazi lovers currently eulogised by my myopic fellow countrymen.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Trying to be a little less blunt, I guess a good deal of the rank and file support for Ukraine stems from ignorance. The country is seen as a minnow standing up to a giant although in reality, despite widespread economic looting by its elite, it still has one of the largest populations in Europe. It is also a multi ethnic country seeking to forcibly impose the language of its Western regions on the national minorities. It is a nationalism that sided with Hitler during the war, carried out unspeakable atrocities on its Jewish and Polish neighbours and continues to celebrate the killers down to the present day.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One lesson from the last few months is that throughout the EU the ruling elites continue to hold the Russophobic views of their fathers and grandfathers. Many countries in Europe were not victims of Nazidom, they were willing accomplices and this thinking has again come out into the open.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here's a song by Chicherina celebrating the Donbas miners and their struggle.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HdVkbCGEyT8" width="320" youtube-src-id="HdVkbCGEyT8"></iframe></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>radnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20783018.post-20298233145131049982022-04-03T16:58:00.002+01:002022-04-03T16:58:58.791+01:00The Radnor model<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><ul><li><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJAi8mXBSAOdwJ7HsgMRYgtqaia5oPoeJoo5mrLsO4BH_w2NNsvzHHZ4DzA8V4TFVYn6THrmqBvoAsJmeEjAv_eWRfKOvAz0zU19kDXD3up4pXi9rcKKiF1tvKyuSyzv3VNoqRrYUmJepqIFaDeDEKLPaoJVbn2-rPX6hwnRFbSoIPr_SF1i4/s1751/20220403_161549.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="986" data-original-width="1751" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJAi8mXBSAOdwJ7HsgMRYgtqaia5oPoeJoo5mrLsO4BH_w2NNsvzHHZ4DzA8V4TFVYn6THrmqBvoAsJmeEjAv_eWRfKOvAz0zU19kDXD3up4pXi9rcKKiF1tvKyuSyzv3VNoqRrYUmJepqIFaDeDEKLPaoJVbn2-rPX6hwnRFbSoIPr_SF1i4/w400-h225/20220403_161549.jpg" width="400" /></a></li><li><br /></li></ul></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Remember when the two Wales model, or was it the three, was all the rage. Something about how modern day Wales was still influenced by the division between the Principality and the March. It didn't make much sense to me as anglicisation was always a process not an event.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Anyway this map which I came across in a new book about the March illustrates that things were a bit more complex than could be described by drawing a simple line on a map. The cantrefi which later went to make up Radnorshire stand out as areas in the March which had resisted the Normans for 200 years, often successfully. It says something about Radnorian independence .......... perhaps there is something to be said for drawing lines after all.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p>radnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20783018.post-64335789253929700572022-04-02T22:03:00.005+01:002022-04-02T23:32:11.396+01:00Nid ddoe y dechreuodd y rhyfel hwn<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AUWkRbp--4Y" width="320" youtube-src-id="AUWkRbp--4Y"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Mae'r fideo yn chwe mlwydd oed, gyda llaw.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p>radnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20783018.post-45553968059840369732022-04-02T08:04:00.001+01:002022-04-02T08:04:37.429+01:00Gagauzia<p>The Gagauz are a Turkic speaking but Orthodox Christian people mainly living near the Ukrainian border in Moldova. Enjoying a degree of autonomy within Moldova: their fear has been that Moldova would be subsumed within the Romanian state; their desire that they could find a home within the Russian Federation. The current events in Ukraine make this wish a possibility. If the Russians do absorb the Black Sea coast up to Moldova then the Gagauz and Bulgarian speaking borderlands could easily end up in Russia; with Moldova itself uniting with Romania.</p><p>Anyway, here is a popular Gagauz song.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0j7kZhtiIks" width="320" youtube-src-id="0j7kZhtiIks"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p>radnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20783018.post-78946742898740121992022-03-27T22:34:00.005+01:002022-03-27T22:59:56.557+01:00Donbass<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The usual virtue signallers were quick to add Ukrainian flags to their twitter accounts but more sickening than this was the way in which ordinary folk swallowed the war propaganda of the mainstream media. I doubt if many Welsh folk had much clue about the origins of the war but anyway I'm reminded of Traudl Junge's words at the end of the film Downfall. Ignorance is no excuse. I like this song because it speaks of keeping faith with the generation who fought against the Nazis, the sentiment touches me.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LSlw9-qfAZM" width="320" youtube-src-id="LSlw9-qfAZM"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>radnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20783018.post-31400410992900476882022-01-07T18:46:00.002+00:002022-01-07T18:46:38.666+00:00The 1921 Census<p style="text-align: justify;">At £3.50 for every household downloaded only the most well-heeled genealogist will be making much use of the recently released 1921 Census. Never mind in two or three years it will be free, if the government allows us to live that long.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Despite the cost it is possible to dig out some information for free, especially if you are dealing with unusual names and known locations, for example I dug out a great great uncle of 70 who had recently married a 28 year old, and no, his name wasn't Sion White.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">More usefully the site has a search facility that allows you to bring up all manner of sociological information without the need to cough up for cash. For example you can search Welsh speakers by any number of criteria - age, sex, birthplace, occupation, current location etc. The search will give you the numbers and even the names.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Here are a few random results:</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Wales had 1374 Welsh speakers born in Radnorshire, although only 141 of them were living in the county. At this point we should remember that the Radnorshire of the registration districts did not coincide with the historic county borders. Large chunks were included with Hay and Builth in neighbouring Breconshire, while other parishes were included with Kington in Herefordshire. The Knighton sub-district included many English parishes, all this the result of a deliberate Victorian policy to tame the wild Radnorians by including them with more civilized folk.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Cwmteuddwr was still 25% welsh speaking in 1921, with Rhayader at just under 10% and St Harmon at 7.6% still exhibiting some vestige of the old native tongue. Nearby Llangurig was still 67% welsh speaking at this time and of course Welsh still dominated in the western parishes of Builth hundred. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Most of the Radnorshire born Welsh speakers lived in the coalfield, 517 in Glamorgan, 52 in Monmouthshire - including my Gwystre born grandmother and 286 in Carmarthenshire. This last being a surprisingly high figure perhaps related to the opening of new pits?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Amongst the usual Joneses, Evanses, Davieses and the like, we find familiar local surnames such as Bywater, Bufton, Hamer etc. It's a reminder that the process of language shift in Radnorshire was part and parcel of a general shift occuring in those parts of rural Wales open to the border. Radnorshire wasn't different just further along the line.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>radnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20783018.post-75915709672043271802021-10-05T01:15:00.003+01:002021-10-05T01:22:25.005+01:00An Irish Patriot in Radnorshire<p>The Irish War of Independence saw Cork born Sheila Browne commanding Liverpool's Cumman na mBan. As such she engaged in various revolutionary activities: an arms raid, obtaining paraffin for arson attacks and transporting money to Dublin. Finally arrested she spent three months in jail before she was released through lack of evidence.</p><p>This was enough to obtain her a small military pension from the Free State government, although it might have alarmed the good folk of Radnorshire, where she was evacuated along with a class of Liverpool schoolchildren in 1941. Billeted in the wilds of Rhiwlen, Miss Brown now encountered some difficulties with the Dublin bureaucrats. They wanted a person of sufficient stature to confirm her existence, but where, she complained, was she to find such a person when her only neighbours were mountains and her companions children? Eventually she moved closer to civilization in Hundred House.</p><p>Miss Browne was clearly able through education and connections to cope with the red tape. Sadly this was not true of Kate Evans, a miner's wife from the Irish community of Dowlais. We've met Mrs Evans before, she was the leading light of a group who were obtaining explosives from the mines and transporting it to Ireland. Eventually she was caught and jailed for 7 years. The bureaucrats were unimpressed and wondered about her maiden name, some of her comrades could not be traced, the evidence of others was ignored while they engaged in an ill-tempered correspondence with an official who had had enough of their enquiries in other cases. Mrs Evans, a widow in ill-health had her pension application rejected.</p><p>Mrs Evans wrote to De Valera complaining of being forgotten after suffering much for Ireland, her letter was passed back to the pensions office and ignored. It's ever thus for the working class. Here's a song about Cumann na mBan:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Sgp56f_IRkE" width="320" youtube-src-id="Sgp56f_IRkE"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>radnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20783018.post-16112032577982257752021-09-24T12:17:00.004+01:002021-09-24T12:20:41.504+01:00Nothing on the Telly<p>One of the depressing features of present day Wales is how anglocentric professed adherents of its national movement have become. Oh sure they generally claim to be Europeans, whatever that means, but anything outside the Atlanticist bubble doesn't get a look in, they are good little followers of the BBC and the Guardian.</p><p>Personally I dumped my TV more than 20 years ago, disgusted by the one-sided reporting on the Balkan wars, a few years later I stopped buying the London papers. I don't think I've missed very much.</p><p>There is plenty to see on YouTube, great Russian war films like 72 Hours, Come and See, and The Dawns Here Are Quiet ..... all with English subtitles; and popular shows like the superb Detective Anna - 98 episodes for anyone missing endless re-runs of Poirot and Miss Marple.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B8l3qtF5jaw" width="320" youtube-src-id="B8l3qtF5jaw"></iframe>ñ</div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>radnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20783018.post-63241715599069516702021-08-30T10:38:00.001+01:002021-08-30T10:48:47.719+01:00Wales TodayThe Covid era is dominated by agendas: big pharma - which has far too much influence over the medical profession - wants to make money; environmentalists want to shut down industry; eugenists want to rid the planet of useless eaters; comic-book billionaires dream of transhumanism and outer space. Oh and the media remember who butters their bread and have mutated into mere propaganda machines.<div><br /></div><div>If all that wasn't bad enough the real driving force are the West's deep states. They see the pandemic as an opportunity to implement measures that would be impossible in normal circumstances - vaccine passports will quickly form the basis of digital identity cards and the disappearance of cash is just around the corner. Imagine what power, for good, but more likely evil, those two measures would give the state. When conspiracy theorists talk of chipping they are just a couple of years ahead of the curve.</div><div><br /></div><div>Where does Wales stand in all this? Let's be honest Wales is finished. When the main nationalist party is just an echo chamber for globalist talking points what chance does Wales have? They can't even do anything to stem the ethnic cleansing via cheque book that is happening in all the rural areas, worse than that they don't even want to. There is an historic shift happening towards a multi-polar world, the West is rotting from the head, all of which escapes the notice of nationalists, fixated as they are on the Anglo values of the BBC and the blue check media.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>Thank you.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>radnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20783018.post-27996827181618986032021-08-20T08:33:00.009+01:002021-08-30T10:42:46.374+01:00Some more music from Ireland<p>The very talented Dea Matrona.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4J6z1xGYd4c" width="320" youtube-src-id="4J6z1xGYd4c"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p>radnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20783018.post-57868957783693414902020-11-07T18:13:00.007+00:002020-11-07T21:27:07.903+00:00The American Election<p></p><div style="text-align: justify;">Of course the news media don't certify the result of the American election, that's the job of the electoral college and perhaps ultimately the Supreme Court. The drama still has a few more scenes left to play</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Let's assume though that Biden has won, there are quite a few positives to take away. No more Pompeo or Pence for starters, although their replacements will be equally as satanic. The white working class support for Trump dropped a little, no doubt disillusioned with the failure to drain the swamp. Meanwhile black and Latino support rose, showing that men, especially, reject identity politics and are attracted to the idea of unity based on common economic interests, call it class if you like. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then you have 70 million voters who must be thoroughly disillusioned with crooked mainstream politics, that's a great engine for real change. And finally some of the most obnoxious people on the planet think they've won a great victory, they'll be emboldened - really they can't help themselves - and will no doubt hasten a day of reckoning with their stupidity.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So what has any of this to do with Wales? At least there is some interest in the US Election amongst the Welsh political class, although none of it advances much beyond echoing woke mainstream media talking points. The world beyond the EU and the Anglosphere elicits little interest, and this at a time when global power is shifting away from the West. Nationalists make the perfectly valid point that Wales is rich enough to be independent, whether it has the necessary leadership to bring that about is doubtful.</div><p></p>radnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20783018.post-39336879511391795022020-05-06T10:48:00.001+01:002020-05-06T10:58:08.870+01:00What's HappeningHow many realise that the architect of the lockdown Neil Ferguson is an old boy of Llanidloes High School? He's the same age as another OB, the actor who plays Ian Beale in the BBC soap Eastenders, perhaps they were contemporaries. Anyway, as in any mediocre soap, a blonde proved the downfall of Ferguson, while perhaps the country would have been better served if Mr Beale had been its chief advisor on matters pandemic.<br />
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The one reliable statistic amidst a deluge of facts and nonsense are excess deaths, the weekly comparison with this year's totals and those of previous years provided every Tuesday by the ONS. These show that up until week 13 of 2020 things were proceeding much as usual, there was a big jump in week 14 - but that was only marginally worse than the figure for week 2 of 2015. For the last three weeks the figures have steamed ahead, peaking in week 16 (April 17) with a slight fall in week 17. I'd expect them to fall again next week.<br />
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Of course these figures are time delayed by a week or so and the excess deaths may also include victims of other diseases who avoided seeking prompt treatment for fear of contracting the virus. That said they do give an idea of the severity of the outbreak, serious but not overwhelmingly so, especially for the majority of the economically active.<br />
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<br />radnorianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18441612211167338629noreply@blogger.com4