Wednesday, 30 April 2008

Apr 30 2008 by Our Correspondent, Western Mail

Prison healthcare suite needed revamp
SIR – It is good to read (Western Mail, April 28) that the healthcare suite at Cardiff Prison has been upgraded at last. It needed it very badly, even seven years ago.

Then it resembled a boarding kennels for dogs – underground. Not one I would care to put my pet in for a holiday .Also it was very difficult to get into there for “care” from one of the cell wings unless your need was truly desperate, due to “staff shortages” and “security” regulations and procedures, especially at night.

Let us hope the new cosmetic budget has also allowed for a defibrillator for urgent heart cases, there wasn’t one then.

Unless the jail has doubled in size overnight, “fit” inmates are still at least two to a cell in the wings. Imagine sharing, locked up in something the size of a typical “downstairs cloakroom” for 23 hours a day with someone you would normally not give the time of day to.

What happens if you don’t have identical tastes in TV programmes or if only one of you is a games console freak?

Or if one of you smokes but not the other; or if only one of you does drugs. Presumably the jail is still awash with them?

Not quite the holiday choice that the media would have us believe? Still it’s an easy topic to fill column inches.

CHRIS FUSSELL
Woodland St, Mountain Ash

Imperialist parties
SIR – Your front-page report (April 25) says that David Cameron and Gordon Brown were visiting Wales to win support for the Conservatives and the Labour party respectively?

I believe that it should be mentioned that these two political parties and the LIberal Democrats, are imperialist parties because they campaign for votes in Wales (and Scotland and Cornwall).

My only objection to Brown and Cameron is that they do not acknowledge and respect Welsh nationalism, both cultural and political.

I have never been a formal member of any political party but I have a professional interest in the Welsh language, Welsh history and the history of the Welsh people and of course literature in the Welsh language, which I would like to see studied in England along with Welsh drama staged in Welsh in England, as English drama is in Wales.

If Italians and Iraqis in England can vote in their national elections, in Italy and Iraq, why can’t I and other Welsh people in exile, involuntarily, vote for Plaid Cymru, here in England?

J TREFOR WILLIAMS
Griffin Avenue, Moreton, Wallasey, Merseyside

Regional accents
SIR – Following on from Dr Meic Stephens’ timely admonishing of Welsh broadcasters (Letters, February 16) for insisting on using English-sounding presenters to front programmes, a recent viewing of The Passion on BBC1 yielded a further lesson in how the Welsh will sell out.

Actors on this production were encouraged to use their own regional accents in line with a growing practice.

From the excellent Ulsterman James Nesbitt down, all parts were played in the actors’ own natural accents – Scottish, Irish several regional English – all except the sole Welshman who enunciated his few short lines in an impeccable English accent.

And he is not alone. The BBC series Holby Blue also clearly subscribes to the same commendable natural-accent practice.

The lead is a very Scottish-sounding Scot, there are myriad other glorious British accents enriching the series, but what does the Welsh lead do?

He delivers us his vapid character in as close as he can get to a cut-glass English accent.

Natural accents on TV are not solely for regional programmes.

You are choosing to sell out the rich legacy of brilliant Welsh ambassadors Burton and Hopkins, gentlemen, never mind your resident countrymen and women in your field who are fighting daily and bloody battles to get due access to UK television networks for Welsh identity and product.

You are selfishly hammering down nails into a coffin which everyone else is trying to dismantle.

JANE BOYES
Cae Canol, Caversham Park, Penarth

Heads high, Cardiff
SIR – Cardiff City should not feel like underdogs meeting Portsmouth in the FA Cup final.

In the famous 1939 final, Major Buckley’s fashionable young Wolves were hotly tipped as favourites, but were soundly beaten 4-1 by Portsmouth on the day.

After WWII, record crowds were watching Cardiff City (20,000) Swansea Town at the Vetch (28,000-30,000) and Newport County at Somerton Park (12,000).

Field admission was then only one shilling and six pence, about seven-and-a-half pence in today’s money.

In those days a song was composed entitled Blue Birds, sung by a woman vocalist to the accompaniment of a silver band.

At the time there was a popular radio live show with a line called “open the door Richard”.

As Cardiff’s centre forward and named Richards, the impatient Ninian Park crowd would sometimes burst into song, shouting, “open the score, Richards”.

The fair-haired player usually obliged.

1939 was Newport County’s finest hour, when they gained promotion from the old division three (south), to the second division for the first time in its history.

I remember listening intently to the football results on the wireless – there was no television then. The score was Newport 3, Southend United 0 and County were no longer the underdogs of the third division.

But they only played three games, won one, drew one, and lost one.

Then on September 3 we were at war with Germany and league football as we knew it would resume only when the war was over, six years on.

In an early post-war Cup round, Cardiff City lost at home to Spurs, before a record crowd at Ninian Park of 55,000.

Newport County back in the third division after only a year in the second division, once went to the sixth round of the FA cup, drawn at home with Huddersfield Town, then a first division side, (there was no premier division then), which had lost 1-0 to Preston North End in the 1939 FA cup final, which featured the controversial Mutch penalty.

Before a capacity crowd of 23,000 Newport drew 3-3, but lost the replay at Huddersfield.

I failed to get a ticket for the game at Somerton Park, but turned up nevertheless five minutes before the kick-off.

The outside of the ground perimeter was deserted, except for a solitary police sergeant who was usually on duty when County were at home.

In his hand was a bundle of field tickets. He offered me one asking if I wanted a ticket.

I couldn’t believe my luck and so I gained free admission by courtesy of the old Newport Borough constabulary.

IDRIS BERRY
West Park Drive, Porthcawl

Apology required
SIR – Glyn Erasmus’ letter of abject apology (April 26) is a welcome departure from the usual position taken by some local politicians who publicly demonstrate discrimination, whether it be ageism, as in Mr Erasmus’ case, or disability discriminatory remarks made by a Plaid Cymru colleague of Mr Erasmus at a recent Caerphilly Town council meeting.

Plaid Cymru councillor James Fussell singled out those who were sitting in the public seats and said, “for the benefit of the deaf and hard of hearing sitting in the back here, I want them to know that we don’t have thousands of pounds to spend all over the town on this and that”.

“I just wanted to say that, Mr chairman, in case they don’t hear me.”

What makes the remarks more offensive and disgusting is that the councillor was referring to a previous occasion when he said a statement he had made at a previous meeting, and, which was picked up by members of the public, was misrepresented.

This councillor really needs a lesson in disability awareness and common decency, he should now take a lead from his colleague Glyn Erasmus and apologise, to all those people and the families of any one who may have a hearing problem and whose votes he may be seeking in the council elections.

TREFOR BOND
Windsor Street, Caerphilly

Labour’s worries
SIR – Your editorial comment on April 22, said Labour had nothing to fear from their opponents in Rhondda Cynon Taf on polling day. It could even be interpreted as free advertising for the Labour Party.

The recent furore and subsequent political climbdown, about the abolition of the 10p rate of income tax suggests that Labour have a great deal to worry about.

It was interesting to read the Daily Mail of April 23, which listed the name of the 39 Labour MPs who had signed a protest motion against the tax cut.

Only three were Welsh Labour MPs: Betty Williams, Dai Havard and Paul Flynn. No mention of the other 26 Welsh Labour MPs supporting the lowest paid in their constituencies.

Could it be that Chris Bryant, MP for RCT and others are taking their supporters votes for granted?

SANDRA AIVER
Trefechan, Aberystwyth

Hospital mistakes
SIR – Yes things can and do go wrong in hospitals (Campaign to saves 1,000 lives in NHS Wales ..., Western Mail, April 21).

I went into hospital for an aorta repair, a major and difficult op.

Although I got over the op fairly well, I’m in constant pain, am just able to walk just a few yards, and climbing stairs is almost impossible.

D EVANS
Porth, Rhondda Cynon Taf