13 January 2010 – 9:00 PM
Sometimes I feel as if I’m always playing catch-up. This book “A Useful Fiction“, which came out last year, has just brought me reasonably up-to-date with devolution of the United Kingdom, particularly some of the finer details which I’d missed. It has many good insights into the idea of Britain and its democracy, or rather [...]
By Carl Morris
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Also posted in books, britain, politics, uk, wales
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Tagged A Useful Fiction, britain, democracy, devolution, Gordon Brown, Northern Ireland, Patrick Hannan, Scotland, Tony Blair, wales
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Just a couple of days ago, I mentioned some really odd police posters I’d seen in Cardiff. This isn’t about those posters. (At least those police ones were trying to make some kind of valid point, but failed.) It’s about the ones that say “These chemicals won’t be used in a bomb because a neighbour [...]
By Carl Morris
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Also posted in britain, places, politics, uk, wales
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Tagged anti-terrorist hotline, caerdydd, cardiff, cory doctorow, cymru, fear, grangetown, liberty, posters, terror, wales
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The police have some new posters on display around the UK. I don’t like the posters. It was a definite case of dislike at first sight. It turns out the posters are there to advertise the new Policing Pledge: The Policing Pledge is a set of promises to local residents that not only gives more [...]
By Carl Morris
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Also posted in britain, politics, technology, uk, wales, web
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Tagged advertising, big brother, communication, orwell, orwellian, police, policing pledge, propaganda, uk, wales
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23 January 2009 – 3:07 AM
Here’s a Guardian gallery with fleet upon fleet of unsold cars. If you like big pictures of large numbers of small things you’ll LOVE it. Unless you’re a car manufacturer. There’s a huge one of these car facilities on the M5 motorway in England, going south-west towards Clevedon or other Somerset towns. I used to [...]
By Carl Morris
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Also posted in art, britain, photos, places
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Tagged afon, avon, cars, guardian, photos, pictures, psychogeography, river
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27 October 2008 – 11:50 AM
There’s a scene in Alan Bennett‘s semi-autobiographical play The History Boys where two teachers are discussing the English language. Hector, played by Richard Griffiths, remarks to his colleague that he loves language. Not merely “words”, he says. “That would be so… Welsh!”. They both chuckle. I wasn’t able to quote that one exactly as I [...]
By Carl Morris
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Also posted in britain, language, places, wales
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Tagged alan bennett, cardiff, cwmaman, cymraeg, english, learning Welsh, pellach, slough, welsh, wlpan, words
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12 September 2008 – 11:29 AM
I was reading about the history of these islands last week. It set off a whole chain of thoughts, memories and some unexpected laughs. I’m particularly enjoying this page. http://cym.englishriviera.co.uk Open the link “Listen using ReadSpeaker” in a new window and marvel at the cut glass computer voice making a total hash of the Welsh. [...]
By Carl Morris
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Also posted in britain, language, places, wales
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Tagged anglo-saxons, branding, brythonic, english, french, japanese, lloegr, new zealand, norman, positioning, riviera, torquay, welsh
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