Pat Finucane murder was little more than a war crime.

The Sir Desmond de Silva report into the murder of Pat Finucane was published yesterday, 23 years after the Belfast civil rights lawyer was shot 14 times in front of his wife and children by a loyalist death squad.

The Campaign to get at the Truth like Bloody Sunday and Hillsborough have been long and torturous 

In 1999, the third inquiry of John Stevens into allegations of collusion between the security forces and Loyalist paramilitaries concluded that there was such collusion in the murders of Finucane and Brian Adam Lambert. As a result of the inquiry, RUC Special Branch agent and loyalist quartermaster William Stobie, a member of the Ulster Defence Association was later charged with supplying one of the pistols used to kill Finucane, but his trial collapsed because he claimed that he had given information about his actions to his Special Branch handlers. The pistol belonged to the UDA, which at the time was a legal organisation under British law. A further suspect, Brian Nelson, was a member of the Army's Force Research Unit. He had provided information about Finucane's whereabouts, and also claimed that he had alerted his handlers about the planned killing

Wikipedia

The key conclusions of the latest report,include the following acknowledgements:

• There was a continuous supply of information from the British state to the British terrorist groups
• in the North of Ireland over a period of many years. In fact, concludes the report, by the mid-1980s up to 85% of all intelligence information gathered by the UFF / UDA alone was supplied to them by the RUC, British Army and the British Security Service (MI5).
• The British authorities took no action in relation to numerous intelligence reports which outlined a number of future terrorist attacks by the Unionist gangs, with the paramilitary police and Intelligence services ignoring or concealing such information.
• British agents employed or working on behalf of the RUC, British Army and MI5 played “key roles” and actively “furthered and facilitated” the murder of Pat Finucane and others.
• Following the murder there were no attempts by the RUC or British authorities for a long period of time to investigate or arrest known suspects belonging to the UFF / UDA for their participation in the assassination.
• Serving or former members of the RUC, British Army and MI5 Army persistently lied or attempted to deceive investigators. Several senior British Army officers provided  highly misleading and inaccurate information.

RTE

And yet The Finucane ,family’s demand for a full public inquiry into his death, however, was refused by David Cameron

The Idea that such a murder could take place in which the state concluded only 23 years ago ,is shocking and we cannot draw a veil over it until the Finucane family get full justice 

The  Bloody Sunday inquiry showed that, we are entitled to know exactly what happened, how it is that state forces could commit such atrocities in our name,The truth, the whole truth must out, and it will only emerge with a full judicial inquiry. and it must come sooner than later if not from this Government then the next.

The Agents of Law concluded in the murder of a man who was doing his job seeing that all are entitled to a proper defence.

This was not James Bond or Spooks.There's no justification for the State to break its own Laws and murder people even if they thought they were Terrorist

Bur  Pat Finucane wasn't even a Terrorist the UFF may have considered him one; But he was a Lawyer and the British Government and its arm of ts the law knew this and still concluded in his murder and we still do not know the full extent of that murder or the extent of the knowledge of government minister at the time of this conclusion before Finucane's murder and after.

Just like Bloody Sunday we will eventualy have a full inquirey but probably after many of those responsible are dead.

But time will not dampen the truth and the truth is in 1989 the forced of Law abd Order in the UK behaved in the same way as those in former Yugoslavia during the recent conflict.

What we have here is little more that a form of War Crime and those who are responsible must face justice.

Nearly 100 yeats later Westminster still don't get devolution.

We are used to Westminster MPs ad even Government |Ministers not realising that Devolution in Wales has really happened  but it seems it that what was the second piece of devolution to Wales . The Disestablishment of the Church in Wales (passed 1914 enacted 1920) Has never happened

The first was the Sunday closing Act 1881

Now the government have now announced that  the Church in Wales and Church of England will be banned in law from offering gay marriages.


Other religious organisations will be able to "opt in" to holding ceremonies.

Culture Secretary Maria Miller said both organisations had "explicitly" stated strong opposition and would not be included.in the bill


However The Archbishop of Wales says making it illegal for the Church in Wales to offer same-sex marriages will be a "step too far".

Dr Barry Morgan says the freedoms of the church would be curtailed by a ban.

Other religious organisations will be able to "opt in" to holding ceremonies.

The Act both disestablished and disendowed the "Church in Wales", the term used to define the part of the Church of England which was to be separated. Disestablishment meant the end of the Church's special legal status, and Welsh bishops were no longer entitled to sit in the House of Lords as Lords Spiritual.

So where they may be a case of the Government has the representative of the Monarch who is head of the Established Church (as well as the Church of Scotland) to separate the Church of England from any legislation  But  can it really interfere in the Church in Wales in this way?

Clearly this move was to appease the the likes of the Taliban Tendency of the Cornerstone Group which is currently dominating the Welsh Office.

One thing is clear nearly 100 years after the second law specifically tailored for Wales . Westminster is still reluctant to loosen its grip.

We need a new Welsh language strategy.

The Census Figures for the use of the Welsh Language look gloomy
Figures

	All usual residents aged 3 and over	No skills in Welsh	Can underst-and spoken Welsh only	Can speak Welsh	Can speak but cannot read or write Welsh	Can speak  and read but cannot write Welsh	Can speak, read and write Welsh	Other combin-ation of skills in Welsh
	Persons	Persons	Persons	Persons	Persons	Persons	Persons	Persons
Wales Total	2,955,841	73.3	5.3	19.0	2.7	1.5	14.6	2.5
Isle of Anglesey	67,403	30.4	10.7	57.2	7.0	4.3	45.6	1.9
Gwynedd	117,789	26.5	6.9	65.4	5.8	3.4	56.0	1.5
Conwy	111,724	60.6	9.5	27.4	4.1	2.4	20.6	2.7
Denbighshire	90,527	64.6	8.5	24.6	3.6	2.2	18.6	2.6
Flintshire	146,940	79.4	5.1	13.2	2.4	1.2	9.3	2.5
Wrexham	129,425	78.7	5.9	12.9	2.3	1.2	9.2	2.7
Powys	129,083	72.0	6.7	18.6	3.0	1.6	13.7	3.0
Ceredigion	73,847	42.4	8.1	47.3	4.9	3.4	38.8	2.4
Pembrokeshire	118,392	72.5	6.1	19.2	3.2	1.9	13.9	2.3
Carmarthenshire	177,642	41.9	11.7	43.9	6.7	4.2	32.8	2.8
Swansea	231,155	80.7	5.5	11.4	2.0	1.2	8.1	2.6
Neath Port Talbot	135,278	75.2	6.4	15.3	2.7	1.6	10.8	3.3
Bridgend	134,545	82.7	4.1	9.7	1.5	0.9	7.3	3.6
The Vale of Glamorgan	122,018	83.7	3.3	10.8	1.6	0.9	8.2	2.2
Cardiff	332,273	83.8	3.1	11.1	1.4	0.8	8.7	2.1
Rhondda Cynon Taf	225,555	80.4	4.2	12.3	1.6	0.9	9.7	3.3
Merthyr Tydfil	56,623	84.9	3.5	8.9	1.5	0.7	6.5	2.8
Caerphilly	171,972	83.9	3.0	11.2	1.7	0.9	8.4	2.1
Blaenau Gwent	67,348	88.5	2.2	7.8	1.5	0.6	5.5	1.7
Torfaen	87,844	86.5	2.3	9.8	1.8	0.7	7.1	1.7
Monmouthshire	88,609	86.0	2.5	9.9	1.8	0.7	7.2	1.9
Newport	139,849	86.9	2.2	9.3	1.7	0.7	6.5	1.8

I am not convinced that the UK census is the best and most efficient way of measuring peoples ability to speak Welsh or to measure competence and we need much more breakdown particularly regarding to age differences and origins

And " No skills in Welsh which has a Welsh average of 73.3 "  seems to be high as most of the people I know in this area have some knowledge of Welsh and certainly more than they would have than any other second Language. 

And it would be Interesting to see the questions asked in 2001 compared with 2011 (Were they exactly the same).

But it does appear that there has been a fairly large drop in areas like Gwynedd  (-3.6) Carmarthen (-6.4) and  Ceredigion(-4.7) which have not been made up  (see the Table provide by Syniadau here

Nor has there been a increase in Welsh Speakers out side Y Fro Gymraeg areas as expected

Clearly In-migration has had a major effect in Y Fro but emigration has to be a major problem.we need to address the dispersion of our people

Its all very well having a Welsh Speaking Scientist working in Silicon Valley in California but it would be much better if they were able to work in Aberystwyth.or Bangor 

And work must be found for those who are not so well qualified.

We need to look at a Mondragon stule cooprative movement for  Y Fro Gymraeg  based on Gwynedd Carmarthen and Cerdigion with cooperatives linked to the Universities of Bangor, Aberystwyth and Trinity St Davidas as well as other  educational institutions to create new an innovative jobs which will be linked to the use of the Welsh Language.

The answer to the fall in Welsh Language speakers will always be work for those who speak it where they live and quality work at that.

But it also means that we must also aim to provide a working environment where the Welsh Language is used regularly..To the extent that Non-welsh speakers are encouraged to learn Welsh as part of their employment 

Our Political Parties must work through our Assembly to ensure that this becomes a reality.

Even if the Census figures had shown a slight growth we would still need a new initiative from the Welsh Assembly Government the response from Leighton Andrews seems complacent Leighton Andrews said: 

The Welsh language and Welsh language communities face challenges and the issue now is not to blame people but decide how to work together to ensure a sustainable future for the language."

He said he would be open to new ideas and had a strategy, launched in March, which included encouraging the use of Welsh in social media.

A Welsh government spokesman added that the strategy recognised the "fragile state of the language" and looked to promote its use across all walks of life.

We need something more than people having  a Facebook page in Welsh.

Welsh Secretary David Jones 30 years behind us.

So our Representative  Westminster Cabinet  (or Westminster representative in Wales ) Welsh Secretary David Jones,  he  will vote against plans to legalise gay marriage in Wales and England.His fellow Conservative and Wales Office deputy Stephen Crabb will also oppose the move.

They are joined by  Monmouth MP David Davies calling it "barking mad".

Mr Davies said the party would lose loyal activists if it pressed ahead with the policy.

Mr Jones, the MP for Clwyd West, declined to give interviews on the UK government's same sex marriage plans as "this bears no relation to his role as secretary of state for Wales".

Yes it does we kneed to know where a public fave of Wales stands .

This is hardly surprising as all three are members of the Cornerstone Group  a socially conservative or traditional conservative political organisation within the Conservative Party.The Group espouses so called traditional values as exemplified by its motto: Faith, Flag, and Family. 

Conservative MP  Alan Duncan  who is openly Gay once referred to this wing as a "Taliban tendency" within the Party.

The fact that Duncan and other MPs can know openly announce their sexuality and that it has absolutely no effect on their voters shows how time has changed.

But the weekend, David  Davies said the idea pf  same sex churchoWeddings  was "barking mad".

He caused  controversy by saying most parents "would prefer their children not to be gay, knowing most parents want grandchildren if nothing else".

The UK government will set out its plans soon after a consultation on measures to allow homosexual couples to marry.

Some senior Tory MPs and peers have launched a campaign group backing same sex marriage.

and not all Welsh Tories are locked in the past. The leader of the Conservatives in the assembly Andrew RT Davies also added his support to Cameron's  plans  on Twitter, saying: "The best thing to happen in my life was to meet and marry my wife, it cannot be right to deny two people in love the same feeling".

The world has change as a 59 year old  heterosexual male I have in my own time matured and seen same sex relationships for what they no different in the love and commitment than heterosexual ones.

And Marriage has changed many chose to make the commitment outside religion and go for a secular marriage.

The Church  long ago lost the right to define marriage as being between a man and  a woman. it is for us to decide now.

The proposal in that Churches will not have any legal compulsion to marry same sex couples is a sensible one.

Though there would be controversy ,if a Church was to refuse a couple who were a different colour.

But it is better to allow the Church's to follow their pwn conscious rather than legislate.Many will realise that they must reflect the mood of the people of the nations of these Islands. 

Some like Catholic and Anglica church s n will resist same sex  marriages  for a long time.

But some time in the future people will look back with amazement that people opposed same sex marriages in the same way people opposed the abolition of slavery.

In the meantime the Welsh Office is full of Ministers who seem to be 30 years behind the rest of us out of touch and out of reality.

Anne Clwyd at least she is being heared.

I'm sure everyone feels huge sympathy for Ann Clwyd and her campaign for more caring nursing after "the callous lack of care" with which nurses treated her husband as he lay dying in the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.

Clwyd, the Labour MP for Cynon Valley since 1984 and Tony Blair's former human rights envoy to Iraq, told the Guardian she fears a "normalisation of cruelty" is now rife among NHS nurses. She said she had chosen to speak out because this had become "commonplace".

Describing how her 6'2'' husband lay crushed "like a battery hen" against the bars of his hospital bed with an oxygen mask so small it cut into his face and pumped cold air into his infected eye, Clwyd said nurses treated the dying man with "coldness, resentment, indifference and even contempt".
Owen Roberts died on Tuesday, 23rd October from hospital-acquired pneumonia. The former television director and producer had multiple sclerosis for 30 years and had been in a wheelchair for the previous two years. He had been in the flagship hospital for ten days.
"I have had nightmares about what happened," said Clwyd, speaking to the Guardian after initially making

Guardian December 4th 2012 

However sympathy and respect for her undoubted distress, cannot distract from the fact that she has been a MP for 28 years and must surely have had hundreds of letters and  constituency surgeries where her constituents have related similar horrific stories.

Her Labour Party have been in Power for at Westminster for 13 of the  years since she was first elected  and in power in Wales and running the NHS here since 1999.

So was she right despite her anger and distress to blame the Westminster Government 

 The rowdy House of Commons fell silent when the Labour MP rose to speak at the end of prime minister’s questions. Her description of how her husband, Owen Roberts, suffered “coldness, resentment, indifference and contempt” has sent shockwaves through the NHS.
She said: “The universal healthcare system, free at the point of delivery, is what the overwhelming majority of the British people want – something which I remain firmly committed to. However, there are increasing complaints about nurses who fail to show care and compassion to their patients.
“What exactly will the prime minister do about that?”

Western Mail December 5th 2012

Has she asked Welsh First Minister and his health Secretary the same question ?

Many observers believe that the problems of care go back to Project 2000 a new university-based system of nurse education and greater emphasis was placed on the education of nurses rather than their caring capabilities.

It led to claim that some Nurses saw their role as being above simple caring task's feeding like washing soiled patients who could not carry out such tasks.

A largely unfair accusation but cases like Ann Clwyd , point to concerns that must be answered and I support her campaign to bring caring back to those wards where it has appeared to have disappeared.

But its sad that it has taken her own personal tragedy to open her eyes . At least she has a voice that is being heard.

For many of her constituents there seems to be no one before know to speak for them.

Something that has been her job for the last 28 years

The return of Rachel Banner.

If you were wondering whatever happened   to Rachel Banner the main spokesperson for the No campaign (True Wales) during last year’s referendum on direct law-making power in Wales. She has turned up on the Blog Open Unionism

She writes .

The referendum turnout figure of 35% left us all struck by how the Welsh people are decidedly not deliriously excited about the brave new era of public engagement we were promised a Yes vote would bring.  This should prompt serious debate about how devolution should involve more democracy and accountability at local level, rather than the imposition of new taxes on the people of Wales.The fact that there is no democratic mandate for the far-reaching changes that are to take place is of no concern to the politicians.  After all, isn’t that what politicians are expected to do – get what they want at almost any cost, even if it makes a farce of democracy?  We in Wales will never be able to say that there was a full and open debate on the devolution journey. 

Ms Banner neglects to mention her part in the 35% when  True Wales the group calling for a No vote in the March referendum on further powers for the Welsh Assembly,announced that it did not want official status as a lead campaign comes as no surprise.

Thisl meant n that the  Electoral commission , the watchdog overlooking the referendum decided  it it couldn't  appoint   lead campaigners for the "No" side by which meant that it could nor give funds to each side of the campaign and therefore no side received funding

.
It was widely  believed that True Wales  hoped that it would  result in fewer people taking an interest in the referendum and this would result in a lower turnout and if it was close the argument about no mandate would have been stronger.

However the result was decisive With only one Welsh Unitary authority Monmouth voting NO. (Which is probably why she failed to mention it ).

Election results
Yes or no	Votes	Percentage
Yes	517,132	63.49%
No	297,380	36.51%
Valid votes	814,512	99.86%
Invalid or blank votes	1,116	0.14%
Total votes	815,628	100.00%
Voter turnout	35.63%
Electorate	2,289,044

In truth I suspect many like myself will agree with Ms Banner when she writes.

What we have now is a Whitehall-in-the-Bay model, dutifully reflected by the Welsh media.  There is no effort to explore any devolution models other than transferring yet more power to the Assembly. Apparently, that is ipso facto democratic.

Bur she offers no alternative and as a comment by DaveDare  pointed out  it is

Smoke and mirrors coming from someone who doesn’t support devolution at all.

She offers no alternative from her real aim of abolition of  the Assembly altogether.

She then goes on to address the West Lothian Question without realising that most consider it to be the English Question

To be fair she makes a reasonable argument about the problems of MPs from outside England voting on English matters. But offers no real solution.

Apparently this is only Part One . I look forward to her coming up with an alternative rather than criticism in Part Two .


Bur I'm not holding f my breath.

PCC's already under fire for cronyism.

It seems that the 15% who bothered to vote in police and crime commissioner election may have voted for a package they were not quite expecting

Because its been revealed  a number of winning candidates seem to believe that their agents were de facto also running for the position of their deputy

Gwent police commissioner Ian Johnston,, who stood independently, announced his intention to appoint his former Gwent Police colleague and election campaign agent Paul Harris as his second-in-command.

It comes as police commissioners in England have been accused of cronyism over their decisions to appoint friends, ex-colleagues and contacts as deputies on salaries of up to £65,000.

 The Northamptonshire commissioner, Adam Simmonds, is reported to be planning to appoint 17 staff, including his election campaign agent.

These are not elected roles and one wonders how many of those who bothered to vote realised that the Police commissioner would have unelected deputies .

I suspect that many thought that the Police Commissioners, would cut down on bureaucracy  and expenses .

Instead we are likely to see empire building and money diverted to the Office of the Commissioner as the PCC seek to limit the councillors and independent members that make up the Police and Crime Panel

Meanwhile the Mirror  reports   newly-elected Police and Crime Commissioner has been criticised for refusing to quit working as a barrister while picking up a £70,000 annual salary from the taxpayer.

Winston Roddick, 72, confirmed he intends to continue as a lawyer alongside his new role even though he promised voters he would “put the needs of the ­ratepayers at the top of my priorities” during his election campaign.
When challenged about any conflict of duties, he dismissed any suggestion he might not spend enough time in his new post, replying: “It was never advertised as a full-time job.”
He said: “The holder of the post may hold other ­positions, self-employed or otherwise, but the people of North Wales can rest assured my priority will be this post.”

Mirror  1st December 2012

The Mirror report may be be connected to Winston a Liberal Democrat winning the post whilst standing as an Interdependent.

 But its valid criticism 

Again I imagine most people saw the PCC as being a full time job but we probably will fond that simply by the position all the PCCS will be taking up exalted part -time positions .

It makes you wonder why people bothered to vote

Oh that's right most didn't

It seems they may well have made the right choice.