I haven't blogged in a while and obviously I have some catching up to do. So much has been happening over the last week.
Wales see progress in the capital
Wales has spoken - well, 35% of the Welsh public have spoken. Their Assembly Government will have more powers over twenty different subject areas rather than take issues to the Westminster Government for permission first. Wales now have the power.
Before I want to go to say what went wrong in the run up to the vote, let me just give you the basic statistics. On average, 35.4% of eligible voters went to either the polling station or voted by post, meaning over 800,000 people voted across Wales. Out of the 22 authorities which announced their result, only one voted "No". The county Monmouthshire voted "No" by 320 votes despite the request by the "Yes" campaign for a recount.
It is a remarkable result considering last time there was a referendum in Wales (the vote on devolution in 1997), the gap between "Yes" and "No" on whether there should be a Welsh Assembly was almighty close. 50.3% said "Yes".
There were two main issues about this vote: Publicity and urgency.
I would be the first to hand up and say "I read a national paper everyday without fail". On the run up to the election, I was looking for some coverage of the referendum. The event was the 3rd March and St. David's Day (Wales Saint Day) was two days earlier. Any news of any of these historic events in The Times, The Independent, The Guardian? Not a pin-drop. In fact, when BBC Wales was showing live coverage of the results on Friday 4th, one reporter went to Swansea market and interviewed this man, who voted "Yes", he said The Times on Thursday 3rd had "one and a half lines about Welsh Referendum and twenty lines on Ann Widdecombe signing up to do a pantomime next Christmas."
It does sound baffling though, considering the significance of the referendum. Surely it affects people beyond Wales? Surely people outside Wales would want to know what the other side of the bridge thinks? Surely Scotland and Northern Ireland would want to know as well? They inspired Wales to have this referendum because more powers in them countries have worked very well.
I read The Independent and saw a mention of this vote. It gives the basic facts and at least it was a mention but perhaps a little too late?
There is a simple solution to this matter. Please, more coverage. Although more laws in Wales will be only in Welsh hands but there would be Welsh people who rely on national media and if there's no coverage, no one will know.
This leads to my second issue: urgency. Only 35% went out and voted. 35%! That's not a lot compared to the 1997 vote. Neither campaigns were happy over this statistic. It's embarrasing. However, this could be partly the fault of the campaigns. They were just saying "Yes" or "No" without telling people the reason to vote. I have to be honest, I did not see a single "No" campaigner or flyers. I saw "Yes" newspapers, politicians who said "Yes" and even vans which said "Yes", so the vote itself gave out an obvious answer.
All in all, it's great success for Wales and hopefully some great decision making will take place quicker and more efficiently. Well done Wales!
Chelsea v Man. United clashes shows how special football is
Before this blogpost, I wanted to write something about the bizzare sitation over Ashley Cole shooting a Chelsea intern on the foot with a pellet gun. But after his less-controversial and clean performance against Manchester United on Tuesday night, I thought why not talk about the incidents which took place between the two bests sides in the country. Arguably.
INCIDENT ONE
Luiz v Rooney
He will always be the one with the frizz as big as Carlos Puyol - David Luiz was undoubtedly the man of the match on Tuesday night. His slick passing and superb defending made him worth the millions Chelsea bought him for. However, he was in the centre of controversy over the challenge on Wayne Rooney.
Now, he was already on a yellow card at that point and if the referee saw it, Luiz would have definitely been sent off. It was reckless and immediately, he felt guilty hiding away the foul as if it never happened. Very crafty.
Sir Alex Ferguson criticised the performance of the referee because of that decision and of the other decision (see incident two). Didn't he see Rooney on the previous Saturday against Wigan? He was also left unpunished when he deliberately elbowed a Wigan player. Another red card incident which he could have been suspended and not played against Chelsea. Remember, Rooney scored the opening goal on Tuesday.
INCIDENT TWO
Penalty claim
Zhirkov involved this time which decided the match's outcome. It cost Man. United the points and gave Chelsea some glimmer of hope in the title running.
To me, it's a penaltly. Although Chris Smalling (the defender who conceded the penalty) put his arms up saying he wasn't guilty, I think he put his knee out too early which gave some contact to Yuri Zhirkov. It might have been minimal contact but in a 1-1 situation with ten minutes to go, the Russion thought "let's go for broke" and managed to win the penalty.
Sir Alex Ferguson was upset and did moan in a post-match interview about the referee's performance but his team have had a bit of luck in the past and in this situation, Chelsea had their way. If it was Old Trafford, I'm sure Zhirkov wouldn't have had the penalty.
It was a good match though. Rooney gave Man. United the lead in the first half and Chelsea came back very well. It's made the title race interesting, let's put it this way.
Wales see progress in the capital
Wales has spoken - well, 35% of the Welsh public have spoken. Their Assembly Government will have more powers over twenty different subject areas rather than take issues to the Westminster Government for permission first. Wales now have the power.
Before I want to go to say what went wrong in the run up to the vote, let me just give you the basic statistics. On average, 35.4% of eligible voters went to either the polling station or voted by post, meaning over 800,000 people voted across Wales. Out of the 22 authorities which announced their result, only one voted "No". The county Monmouthshire voted "No" by 320 votes despite the request by the "Yes" campaign for a recount.
It is a remarkable result considering last time there was a referendum in Wales (the vote on devolution in 1997), the gap between "Yes" and "No" on whether there should be a Welsh Assembly was almighty close. 50.3% said "Yes".
There were two main issues about this vote: Publicity and urgency.
I would be the first to hand up and say "I read a national paper everyday without fail". On the run up to the election, I was looking for some coverage of the referendum. The event was the 3rd March and St. David's Day (Wales Saint Day) was two days earlier. Any news of any of these historic events in The Times, The Independent, The Guardian? Not a pin-drop. In fact, when BBC Wales was showing live coverage of the results on Friday 4th, one reporter went to Swansea market and interviewed this man, who voted "Yes", he said The Times on Thursday 3rd had "one and a half lines about Welsh Referendum and twenty lines on Ann Widdecombe signing up to do a pantomime next Christmas."
It does sound baffling though, considering the significance of the referendum. Surely it affects people beyond Wales? Surely people outside Wales would want to know what the other side of the bridge thinks? Surely Scotland and Northern Ireland would want to know as well? They inspired Wales to have this referendum because more powers in them countries have worked very well.
I read The Independent and saw a mention of this vote. It gives the basic facts and at least it was a mention but perhaps a little too late?
There is a simple solution to this matter. Please, more coverage. Although more laws in Wales will be only in Welsh hands but there would be Welsh people who rely on national media and if there's no coverage, no one will know.
This leads to my second issue: urgency. Only 35% went out and voted. 35%! That's not a lot compared to the 1997 vote. Neither campaigns were happy over this statistic. It's embarrasing. However, this could be partly the fault of the campaigns. They were just saying "Yes" or "No" without telling people the reason to vote. I have to be honest, I did not see a single "No" campaigner or flyers. I saw "Yes" newspapers, politicians who said "Yes" and even vans which said "Yes", so the vote itself gave out an obvious answer.
All in all, it's great success for Wales and hopefully some great decision making will take place quicker and more efficiently. Well done Wales!
Chelsea v Man. United clashes shows how special football is
Before this blogpost, I wanted to write something about the bizzare sitation over Ashley Cole shooting a Chelsea intern on the foot with a pellet gun. But after his less-controversial and clean performance against Manchester United on Tuesday night, I thought why not talk about the incidents which took place between the two bests sides in the country. Arguably.
INCIDENT ONE
Luiz v Rooney
He will always be the one with the frizz as big as Carlos Puyol - David Luiz was undoubtedly the man of the match on Tuesday night. His slick passing and superb defending made him worth the millions Chelsea bought him for. However, he was in the centre of controversy over the challenge on Wayne Rooney.
Now, he was already on a yellow card at that point and if the referee saw it, Luiz would have definitely been sent off. It was reckless and immediately, he felt guilty hiding away the foul as if it never happened. Very crafty.
Sir Alex Ferguson criticised the performance of the referee because of that decision and of the other decision (see incident two). Didn't he see Rooney on the previous Saturday against Wigan? He was also left unpunished when he deliberately elbowed a Wigan player. Another red card incident which he could have been suspended and not played against Chelsea. Remember, Rooney scored the opening goal on Tuesday.
INCIDENT TWO
Penalty claim
Zhirkov involved this time which decided the match's outcome. It cost Man. United the points and gave Chelsea some glimmer of hope in the title running.
To me, it's a penaltly. Although Chris Smalling (the defender who conceded the penalty) put his arms up saying he wasn't guilty, I think he put his knee out too early which gave some contact to Yuri Zhirkov. It might have been minimal contact but in a 1-1 situation with ten minutes to go, the Russion thought "let's go for broke" and managed to win the penalty.
Sir Alex Ferguson was upset and did moan in a post-match interview about the referee's performance but his team have had a bit of luck in the past and in this situation, Chelsea had their way. If it was Old Trafford, I'm sure Zhirkov wouldn't have had the penalty.
It was a good match though. Rooney gave Man. United the lead in the first half and Chelsea came back very well. It's made the title race interesting, let's put it this way.
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