I felt rather out of place with this group, as only one of them was born when Margaret Thatcher came to power, whereas I had already voted in the 1970 General Election before that dark day in 1979 when she became Prime Minister. NB: I didn’t vote for her! My expectation and fear was that this film would sanitise her historical role and leave us feeling sorry for her in her confused state of Alzheimer’s disease. I had read reviews that  she had been portrayed very sympathetically in those autumn years of her life so I steeled myself not to feel any undue compassion.

The film alternates between the present day and flashback throughout and it is the skilful make-up worn by Meryl Streep thet helps the viewer get the chronology correct. From the very start, in her role as the grocer’s daughter, you saw the determination, ambition and sheer bloodymindedness of Margaret Roberts, later Thatcher, in her determination to achieve her political goals.

The portrayal of Margaret Thatcher through her period as Education Secretary and then as Prime Minister was very much as I remembered it –obstinate, insensitive, arrogant and even cruel. It put me very much in mind of a sketch in the vicious satire Spitting Image where she is treating her cabinet to a meal in a restaurant

Waitress: Would you like to order, sir?
Thatcher: Yes. I will have the steak.
Waitress: How would you like it?
Thatcher: Oh, raw, please.
Waitress: And what about the Vegetables?
Thatcher: Oh, they’ll [The Cabinet] have the same as me!

The only thing that caught me out was the scene that portrayed the killing of Airey Neave by a car bomb in the Palace of Westminster. Although the INLA (an Irish terrorist group) claimed responsibility, a Wikipedia article suggests the security services or even the Americans were responsible. I always wondered how the INLA could get into the underground car park at the Housees of Parliament. I remember the incident well and how affected I was at the time, emotions I relived while watching. The film then showed Mrs Thatcher running up the car-park exit ramp seconds later, having just said goodbye to Neave. I suspect that was just poetic licence!

I felt again that same surge of anger that I felt at the time of the events when the film covered probably her most controversial policies during the Miners Strike (1984-85) and the Poll Tax Riots (1990) Seeing again the newsreel scenes of appalling police violence reaffirmed my long-held views of anger and incomprehension of her coldness and brutality.

Ironically, I had always promised myself that if I were ever to meet Margaret Thatcher I would tell her exactly what I thought of her. In fact, I met her on two occasions but both times “on duty” where I was representing another organisation and had a prior obligation directing my conduct. I would not have been discourteous, I would simply have asked her if she was aware of the hurt, damage, pain, distress, hardship, and loss of hope that she had caused to the poorest and most vulnerable people in society. This is probably the closest I’ll ever get to having asked that question.

The portrayal that I struggled with the most in the film was that of Denis Thatcher. He came across as an affable, slightly dotty, harmless old man. The reality is that he was a sharp businessman and from all I have ever heard of him, not a particularly pleasant person to know. There is no doubt that Margaret and Denis had a remarkably close relationship and the film betrayed that well. Meryl Streep’s acting was breathtakingly good and one of the few good things that I can take away from the film that stirred up powerful negative emotions in me.

My passport confirms I am a citizen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. As an aside, I have discovered that since 1983 I am no longer a British subject but a British citizen. Concealed in all that complexity is that fact that qualifying people in Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland all have the status of British citizen and there is no mechanism to become a naturalised citizen of just one of those three nations or one province. This is all beginning to get very complicated and I recommend you take five minutes out to watch The United Kingdom Explained. It’s a fun piece but beware of some inaccuracies such as Anglesey, the Isle of Wight and the Scottish islands NOT being part of Great Britain and England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland being “sovereign nations” with their own “Parliaments”. Ah, that it were so!

Anyway, I digress. This is all about me being Welsh. Was I born in Wales? No, sadly. I entered this world six weeks after the creation of the National Health Service (Architect: Aneurin Bevan – a Welshman) so I was free at the point of delivery which was Battle Hospital, Reading. My father? Born in London to English parents (with Irish and French one generation earlier). My mother, however, was born in Cilfynydd, a coal-mining community in the Rhondda Valley, to proud Welsh parents with many generations of North and South Welsh ancestry.

I loved our visits to South Wales as children and our times with our Welsh family and in the 1980s and early 90s I always felt at home when I travelled in Wales in my role of Wales Liaison Manager for the British Tourist Authority. The tipping point came when our elder son Mark moved to Llanberis in 2002. We visited regularly and both fell in love with North Wales and moved here in January 2007.

I realised almost immediately that for the first time in my life, I felt as if I’d truly come home. Some people scoff at the Welsh concept of hiraeth – a deep sense of longing for, and connectedness with, the land of Wales to its people and to its history. Hiraeth is probably the most tangible and real explanation I can give for my Welshness as it’s nothing to do with the more conventional Welsh icons all of which, other than the Red Dragon, are recent inventions.  It’s only slightly connected with rugby – that’s only been the national sport since December 1905; it certainly has nothing to do with thick woollen shawls and silly tall hats – an invention of Lady Llanover in the 1830s;  daffodils only became a Welsh emblem in  1911, courtesy of David Lloyd-George, and the Welsh flag was only officially recognised in 1959!

No, I’m a Welshman because I know I am. I cry when I sing Calon Lân or Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau. I’m profoundly moved when I hear Katherine Jenkins, Bryn Terfel or Cerys Matthews. I am joyously transported 1400 years into Celtic history when I sit in Penmon Priory and think of St Seriol and St Cybi in their daily meeting at Llanerchymedd after a 20 mile walk. I long for their connectedness with God and with the land.

It’s all summed up in a line from our National Anthem (also found on the edge of Welsh £1 coins) – Pleidiol wyf i’m gwlad – True am I to my country. 

Dw i’n Gymro balch.

Where are Welsh radicals of history like Anaeurin Bevan who single-mindedly fought to establish the National Health Service in July 1948, ensuring my birth seven weeks later was free to my parents at the point of delivery (literally)? Indeed one of his famous quotes could be his verdict on current politicians.

We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run down.

We sadly miss Welsh radicals like David Lloyd-George, who for all his deep flaws, was the architect of educational reform and social benefits. He got to the heart of the matter when debating in Parliament on the new idea of unemployment benefit:

You cannot feed the hungry on statistics

Our lightweight, self-serving and ineffective politicians seem to have had every drop of radical blood removed and simple don’t or won’t recognise the need for radical solutions to the issues faced by today’s society. Indeed, they would shy from the dictionary definition of radical:

…a person who advocates fundamental political, economic, and social reforms by direct and often uncompromising methods

My passion for justice has been fuelled by many people who were uncompromising in their quests for reform. People like the great Christian reformers such as William, Wilberforce, John Groom, John Newton, Lord Shaftesbury and Elizabeth Fry. Campaigners for equality and social justice like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King.

When I grew up, my teenage years were the 1960s and I drank in every drop of news and information about the Civil Rights Movement, the Anti-Vietnam War movement and shaped my musical taste with the protest songs of Pete Seeger, Woodie Guthrie, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Donovan and others. Thank goodness we still have Billy Bragg today carrying the torch – his unaccompanied singing of the Internationale always has me in tears.

Students were at the vanguard of reform in the 1960′s and individuals like Daniel Cohn Bendit and Tariq Ali were young focal points for students and others. Today, the Occupy Movement has adopted the view, misguided in my opinion, that everyone is equal and no individual needs to be a leader or spokesman. They need to learn the lessons of history – battles are fought around a leader and a flag. Wider society can then evaluate the arguments in the way they are familiar with.

I’ve given up on today’s politicians. There are young people out there burning with passion, energy and zeal that need to declare themselves, step up to the plate and be the leaders they are and then change Wales, the UK and the wider world for the greater good of the people.

Steinbeck was clear about the guilt of the bankers in the Great Depression. As he prepared to write the novel, he said of them,

“I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this [the Great Depression and its effects].”

He made a statement in chapter 5 of the novel, published in 1939, which is even more true in 2011:

“The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It’s the monster. Men made it, but they can’t control it.”

Then in chapter 14 a passage could have been written for the “We are the 99%” of the Occupy movement:

“This is the beginning—from “I” to “we”. If you who own the things people must have could understand this, you might preserve yourself. If you could separate causes from results, if you could know that Paine, Marx, Jefferson, Lenin were results, not causes, you might survive. But that you cannot know. For the quality of owning freezes you forever into “I”, and cuts you off forever from the “we”. “

In 1962, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature despite the New York Times vilifying the award the day before,

“The Swedes have made a serious error by giving the prize to a writer whose limited talent is in his best books watered down by 10th-rate philosophising”

However, the Nobel Prize committee cited Grapes of Wrath as a “great work” and as one of the committee’s main reasons for granting Steinbeck the prize.

The saddest thing for me as I leafed back through my old copy of The Grapes of Wrath was that we never seem to learn the lessons of history. The Second World War that came hard on the heels of the Great Depression prevented social unrest arising from the poverty and anger from finding expression against the privileged few who prospered. We have fought two world wars and are still embroiled in military action overseas. People are finding expression for their anger and frustration through the Occupy movement. Let’s learn the lessons this time.

Footnote: Three unrelated Steinbeck facts.

• Despite what most people think, “I know this… a man got to do what he got to do” was not said first by John Wayne, it was a quote from The Grapes of Wrath.
• John Steinbeck Toured Wales in 1959 whilst researching The Acts of King Arthur and his Noble Knights which was published posthumously in 1976.
• He used George Borrows’ wonderful book Wild Wales: Its People, Language and scenery for background for his first novel, Cup of Gold, about the Welsh pirate Henry Morgan.

The mantra ‘we are the 99 percent‘ has resonated with ordinary people throughout the western world. People in western nations are confused and angry as they see their standards of living reduced because of the economic crisis of the last three years. Their anger is directed against a tiny number of people and organisations of wealth and power who continue to increase their prosperity and their influence, whilst ordinary people see the deep reduction in their living standards. However, ordinary people perceive no outlet to express that depth of feeling and so the emergence of the Occupy movement has at last provided them a vehicle to carry their anger and frustration with the 1 percent.

Ironically, the ethos of the Occupy movement is actually quite difficult to get alongside. They state general principles of anger and rejection of the conduct of the bankers who caused economic ruin for many people, the huge multinational companies that pay little or no tax and politicians whose priorities include areas like substantial military spending whilst bringing in austerity measures which have hurt people at the most vulnerable end of society the most. However, they are radical because they don’t produce a simple manifesto with a list of demands which ordinary people would find easy to understand and to engage with. As was noted in The Guardian:

“To critics of Occupy Wall Street, one of its most glaring weakness is the lack of specific demands. To many supporters, that ambiguity is one of the main foundations of the movement’s success.”

Two goals documents, The Liberty Square Blueprint and The 99 Percent Declaration  that have emerged from Occupy Wall Street illustrate the diversity of ideologies of participants. The reason is simply that each expression of the Occupy movement is autonomous, and unlike most of society’s structures, is not a hierarchical entity but it represents a group of co-equal individuals, drawn together and united by their shared participation with the 99 percent of society that feels disempowered, disenfranchised and unable to influence the inexorable greedy progress of the 1 percent.

My good friend Steve commented on Facebook,

“If the ‘Occupy’ movement really does represent the ’99 percent’ … it should be no problem for them to accomplish whatever changes they are seeking at the next election opportunity.”

A great idea Steve, but unfortunately the disparate nature of the movement would never be able to stand on a common platform. I attended the planning meeting for Occupy Bangor group, some of whom made me feel decidedly right-wing! The group contained supporters of the Labour Party, Plaid Cymru, the Greens, anarchists, ordinary Bangor University students and people with no declared political affiliation. I know of church ministers, magistrates and other middle-class people who would not be seen as natural participants, joining the occupation at St Pauls.

Despite the setbacks in Cardiff, in Portland, Oregon and in New York where the police broke up the occupations, there is still a hunger for protest and more and more expressions of the Occupy movement are appearing all over the world. However, this movement will only succeed if it is embraced by a huge proportion of the public at large, something that won’t happen until people can find a point to engage. However, the movement has already succeeded by providing a useful platform for others to build upon. Despite St Paul’s Cathedral’s reluctance to endorse the Occupy movement and Ed Milliband’s over-long silence about the issue, St Paul’s and Milliband finally found some integrity and made positive statements of support.

My anxiety is that this movement has built-in the seeds of its own destruction by having no appointed leaders, spokespersons or manifesto to communicate their important message. Here in Wales 100 years ago we had our own movement, a religious revival in 1904 which impacted the nation hugely, transforming many lives. In 1904 nobody would have imagined that the movement would have all but run out of steam within two years. I would urge those involved with the Occupy movement – which includes me as one of the 99 percent — to learn the lessons of history and ensure that its aspirations are clearly understood, embraced and fought-for by the remainder of the 99 percent.

Helen Thomas at Greenham Common

A memorial bench to Helen Thomas, a peace campaigner killed while taking part in the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Protest, has been unveiled in the centre of Newcastle Emlyn by the town clock. Helen was born and went to school in Newcastle Emlyn and her family still have a business there. Aged only 22, Helen died after being struck by a police vehicle in 1989. Folk singer Dafydd Iwan wrote a song about Helen, ‘Cân i Helen’ and took part in the ceremony honouring Helen where Mayor Hazel Evans said the town council honoured her memory and her commitment to peace and her fight against nuclear weapons.

The Occupy movement has filled our media who struggle to understand the nature of protest which is not accompanied by a list of demands.  Thirty years ago Wales kicked off another protest which lasted for 19 years. The Greenham Common Peace Camp, where Helen Thomas sadly lost her life, was started in September 1981 by a Welsh group, Women for Life on Earth, who travelled to RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire to protest against the decision of the British government to allow Cruise missiles (nuclear weapons) to be sited there. The Women for Life on Earth group walked 120 miles from Cardiff to Greenham Common and on reaching their destination they chained themselves to the perimeter fence. They were joined by women from across the UK and during the height of the protests, thousands of women blocked the entrances to the base, cut through perimeter fences and formed human chains around the site.

There were some huge demonstrations during the tenure of the Peace Camp. In December 1982, 30,000 women joined hands around the base at the Embrace the Base event. On 1 April 1983, some 70,000 protesters formed a 14 mile human chain from Greenham to Aldermaston and the ordnance factory at Burghfield. Another encircling of the base occurred in Dec 1983, with 50,000 women attending. Sections of the fence were cut and there were hundreds of arrests.

The women were ultimately successful as the Cruise missiles were removed in March 1991. The airbase was closed in 1993 but the peace camp remained until 2000. The attention they received prompted the creation of other peace camps at more than a dozen sites in Britain and elsewhere in Europe so the Occupy movement is not breaking new ground. There are two clear lessons for Occupy from the Greenham Peace Camp.

• You have to be prepared to be there for the long haul
• Despite all the Police, the Media, the Courts and Local Authorities throw at you – peaceful protest is the way to succeed

Occupy is beginning to succeed. It has caused the St Paul’s authorities to (finally) take a principled stand and Ed Milliband to (finally) come off the fence. Thoughtful people are starting to think the issues through and I’m optimistic that the most powerful force for change, public opinion, will gradually start to bring about the changes our society needs.

'Welsh Not' token in Bangor Museum

Unfortunately, at other times the events of history have caused Wales to be a nation lacking in self-confidence. Historians point to conquest by the Normans, Edward Ist’s bloody campaign and the various Acts passed between 1535 and 1542 which made in Wales part of England – at least, in law. This sense of oppression and being downtrodden has sadly been embraced by many Welshmen throughout subsequent years. This resentment was reinforced by educators who forbade use of the Welsh language in schools by means of the notorious “Welsh not” token where any child heard speaking Welsh at school was made to wear the token around their neck, passing it on to another offender if caught, and the last child at the end of the day was caned. However, it was never official government policy.

I grew up with my Welsh valleys mam-gu (grandmother) furious if ever Winston Churchill’s name was mentioned in the house because he was said to have sent the troops in against the South Wales miners in Tonypandy. The reality was actually somewhat different but the point was that this was seen as yet another example of the Welsh being treated badly by the English.

For 150 years the mines and quarries of Wales – North and South – supplied the United Kingdom, the Empire and the World with iron, steel, coal and slate to drive the Industrial Revolution. Sadly, the vast wealth that these valuable resources created was not enjoyed by the miners, ironworkers and quarrymen that paid a terrible price in poor wages and working conditions with many paying the ultimate price in the many industrial accidents or cruel, lingering deaths through occupational diseases like pneumoconiosis or silicosis. This became yet another brick in the wall built by Welshmen of examples of oppression and was duly embraced.

Caernarfon Castle

Where I live in the mountains of Snowdonia, we are rich with a great history of castles and yet I was amazed that none of my Welsh friends would dream of going into magnificent castles like Caernarfon or Conwy because of the association with Edward I and English oppression. More up-to-date is the fact that most people living in the nearby town of Bethesda would not dream of going anywhere near Penrhyn Castle, because that was the home of the local Penrhyn Quarry owner who locked out the quarrymen for two years at the start of the 20th century.

I am happy to say that I am a Welshman without this cultural baggage and was drawn by hiraeth to come and live back in my beloved Wales. I accept the relationship between Wales and England would not be used as a model for contentment between nations, but I believe a major shift of culture is needed.

Wales is a country where we have magnificent cultural heritage, Europe’s oldest language still flourishing, choirs and a musical tradition unsurpassed in the world. We have stunningly beautiful mountains, rivers, valleys and landscapes. We have more wonderful castles than you could shake a stick at, heritage railways that bring pleasure to every child and grown-up child smelling the steam and oil. We have given the world much-loved actors, politicians like Nye Bevan who gave us the NHS, world famous singers and pop groups. We have our own language which is slowly growing after long decline. We have our own Welsh Government which, for all its flaws, is becoming distinctive and confident. If we were to embrace all that we have as proud Welsh men and women, then the move for Welsh independence would simply disappear as Wales adopted its rightful place as a nation in a Union of nations, co-equal, co-valued and the envy of the world.

So Welsh men and women – throw off those chains of oppression and being downtrodden. They don’t exist any longer. Despite everyone and everything: we’re still here – Er gwaethaf pawb a phopeth: dyn ni yma o hyd!

Porthmadog Station

Ever been hit behind the ear with a sock of wet sand? Let me tell you about what happened to me yesterday. North Wales weather gave us a bonus warm and sunny weekend, perfect for me to take my 3 year-old grandson Logan to the Ffestiniog Railway Vintage celebration as Logan loves trains -  only second to tractors. As this blog is about honesty, I now have to confess that I was indulging my own interest with Logan as my handy excuse.

As we walked across Pont Britannia at the estuary of the Glaslyn River, we saw 30 or 40 people with cameras and tripods ready to photograph a vintage steam train hauling  a train of slate wagons across the road, along the bridge and up towards Aberglaslyn, protected by the brand new level crossing. Recalling those glory days of the slate industry, I became part of a most odd group. One man was in headmaster’s robes complete with mortar board, another had a full morning suit with top hat, a couple even had genuine train spotter anoraks and all carried cameras, notebooks and a specially produced Working Timetable to which I sneaked a look from a kind gent in a frock-coat. I decided not to buy one as a map of the human genome would have been easier to understand.

I felt quite smug as I surveyed this sad bunch that needed to get a life. That was when I felt the aforesaid sock of (fortunately metaphorical) wet sand hit me with a thud. What was I doing? This was a group of people indulging their hobby, having a great time with like-minded enthusiasts.

Just the previous day I had joined a group called Wipeout Homophobia on Facebook and have been involved for many years in campaigning against discrimination in any form. I am opposed to injustice, discrimination, hate and even laughing at people who are different. I was deeply ashamed of my attitude yesterday – ironic, because I have a bunch of esoteric interests which would lead parts of society to put me firmly into a ‘loser’ category. I read a quote today, ‘If only closed minds came with closed mouths’. I’m glad my mind was opened yesterday and maybe I’ve earned the right to open my mouth, even if it is just to apologise!

By the way, both Logan and his Taid (Welsh Grandpa) had a great time being train spotters for a day!

At that stage of the unfolding drama, the TV commentary was almost incoherent as trained reporters were alternating between expressions of horror, incredulity and heroic attempts to be professional. After a couple of hours we went for a walk along State Street in Madison, the main shopping street. Every shop had a portable TV showing pictures of the unfolding drama and nobody was interested in anything else. For several days all TV schedules were abandoned in favour of hastily compiled 9/11-related programming. An abiding memory was the heartbreaking handwritten or computer produced fliers posted by relatives, frantic for news of their missing family members who had worked in the Twin Towers.

So many things touched us, like the totally disproportionate appreciation expressed by so many people when the Star Spangled Banner was played at Buckingham Palace during the Changing of the Guard ceremony. Bewildered Americans, shocked that such an atrocity could happen on US soil, were hugely comforted that others overseas shared their grief. We noticed that every single house we passed was flying the Stars and Stripes or had red, white and blue rosettes on their front door as an expression of identification with a common grief.

My most enduring memory is of the following Saturday when I was in Wisconsin Dells with an old friend, when we heard sirens approaching the main street. A convoy of fire engines was travelling at no more than 20 mph and the first engine had a simple laurel wreath on the front. Cars stopped and their drivers got out, people came out of shops and pedestrians quickly lined the roadside. As the vehicles passed there was spontaneous, sustained applause from everyone toward these fire-fighters who were standing proxy for their colleagues who died in New York.

Sadly, we have an enduring legacy from those events of ten years ago in the security restrictions we must endure when making journeys by air. More serious is the damage done between Western and Moslem societies. The actions of a tiny number of fanatical zealots have caused permanent damage which has resulted in a climate of suspicion, hate and ignorance, fuelling membership of the English Defence League and other right-wing hate groups. The best we can do is simply to see people as people – each equally significant, important and deserving to be treated with respect, dignity and justice. That will erode and undermine the strategies of the purveyors of hate. I’m proud to be living in Wales with its long history of tolerance and inclusion of other nationalities and cultures – an example to the world.

Strikers at Llanelli Station

1911 Strike Medal

There were subsequent riots and, sadly as was the case last week, looting took place. The shops of the magistrates who brought in the troops were stormed and comprehensively looted. Battles took place with soldiers who tried to clear the streets at bayonet-point. Many protesters received bayonet and baton wounds, avoiding hospital for fear of arrest.

Significantly, at the height the battles the soldiers stood back and refused to engage, at one point penned in the railway station while crowds attacked it, smashing all the windows. For hours the authorities seemed paralysed, unable or unwilling to intervene as the trucks and sidings of the Great Western Railway Company were assailed, looted and burned, triggering an explosion which killed another four people. One soldier refused to fire on the crowd, was arrested, escaped from military custody and went on the run, raising the authorities’ fears of a wider mutiny.

Leonard Worsell, Jac John (r)

The lesson of Llanelli must stay in our minds. It is almost unthinkable that the authorities would consider ordering British troops to fire on their fellow unarmed British subjects. Last week the knee jerk reaction of many people who saw crowds of rioters outnumbering beleaguered police was ‘Call in the army!’ Even in some of the Middle East countries, notably Egypt, the military refused to fire on protesters. It was heartening to hear about unprecedented assistance of police with information following our recent riots. We must oppose any move to introduce draconian measures that would undermine our successful model of policing by consensus.