Monday 21 May 2007

We want a Wales Olympic team by 2012

Scotland's first minister, Alex Salmond, has expanded his vision for an independent Scotland by backing the creation of a Scottish Olympic team.

Salmond knows that you have to take the initiative to split Labour. This is what Plaid needs to be doing. The politics of the next years are the politics of identity. Plaid needs to be develop a radical nationalist agenda to inspire people and give Plaid a unique selling point.

We want a Wales Olympic team by 2012.

14 comments:

Charlie Marks said...

i don't know if it would be worth £9bn, but i'd like to see the back of the butcher's apron...

Unknown said...

I agree - just hope its better than our soccer team....

Unknown said...

And the Welsh relay team is off - Rhodri has the baton first - but he doesnt seem keen to get rid of it - second runner is Mike - but he doesnt want to take the baton, so Ieuan steps in to take it, but Rhodri still wont give it up - Mike & Nick wade it to try and wrestle it from him, then Mike runs away... No one wants to give the baton to Nick so Ieuan tries again, Rhodri still wont let go, but he is gasping for air now as the finishing line gets nearer.....

Meanwhile the Scottish team led by Alex has already taken the Gold.


ffs

Gath Clag said...

I think this is definitely important, but that Plaid should focus on Labour's immoral foreign policy too, and issues such as nuclear power/weapons.

Charlie Marks said...

looks like plaid will be focusing on the occupations in the middle east and nuclear power and weapons now that labour is in a minority govt. the wee revolt against a "rainbow" coalition was a principled and smart move by the plaid AMs -- it would have damaged the party to work with the tories. and it would have been fucking weird.

Unknown said...

The race is over and the medals awarded, but little Mike is now jumping up and down saying 'give me the baton'.

The political incomptenec of our politicians is staggering - maybe an independent Wales should be a dictatorship to keep them out.

General Penddu has a nice ring about it............

Anonymous said...

Could we even afford to train our own Olympic team without English subsidy from the National Lottery? I can't understand how you can be so anit-Britain. I strongly support self-governance but our own Olympic team. Going a bit too far!

Gath Clag said...

"Could we even afford to train our own Olympic team without English subsidy from the National Lottery?"

Scotland and Wales part paid for Wembley, and the Millenium Dome, and for the new MI5 HQ, and are paying for the Olympic bid in London. This is not a one way traffic.

Anonymous said...

"Scotland and Wales part paid for Wembley, and the Millenium Dome, and for the new MI5 HQ, and are paying for the Olympic bid in London. This is not a one way traffic."

Do you really think that England needs Wales subsidise their projects? No way! But Wales could not afford any special cultural projects without English or European subsidy.

I'm not against Welsh self-government, as I've said before, but there is a really need amongst Nationalists to get finance and economic matters into perspective.

Unknown said...

Personally speaking I feel only neutral towards GB or UK teams in any sport - whether the Olympics or the British Lions. I am not negative about them - I just dont feel they represent me.

I am however very negative towards the England cricket team - not because they are crap at a boring game - but they because they claim to represent Wales, but wont change their name.

MH said...

In the All-Wales Accord (the Rainbow coalition agreement between Plaid, the Tories and the LDs) Pillar 6, action 6 reads:

"We will establish a National Teams Development Fund to develop new and existing Welsh national sporting teams."

Now on the assumption that we're not talking about adopting new sports (which is highly unlikely) new national teams can ONLY mean setting up separate or parallel Welsh equivalents of what are presently UK or GB teams.

So the idea is much closer to reality than we might think. I'm not, here, making a point about the pros or cons of the coalition - but AM making the point that the Liberals and even the Tories think it's a good idea and are prepared to fund it. This isn't a thing that only a few hot-headed nationalists want!

I've no time or sympathy for Ryan's "we can't afford to do it without English or European subsidy" line. These things are proportional. Yes of course we'll do things on a smaller scale, but we have a smaller population to go with it. The Welsh Olympic team is going to be a twentieth the size of the UK team. We won't win as many medals but if past performance is anything to go by I think we'll win more medals than, say, Ireland usually does.

Charlie Marks said...

Ryan's attitude is mistaken. If you can't understand why people can be so anti-Britian, you ought to consider the history of British imperialism... Self-determination is about more than government, it includes culture, of which sport is a part.

huwcaint said...

Just think what the £600 million quid London is nicking from Wales for its Olympics could do. Apart from not having to curtail development of various sports and supporting various good causes in Wales we could have a Wales team competing for their own country not somebody elses.

Unknown said...

Thanks to the Welsh people in GB team at the olympics, gb has the medals, gb team would be lucky 2 have 16 medals without any Welshmen