-Caveat Lector- >From TheNewStatesman http://www.newstatesman.co.uk/199910040014.htm {{<Begin>}} No politics, please, we'll stick to rugby Jane Jakeman Monday 4th October 1999 Blair's bastardised socialism fails to excite the people of Cardiff, finds Jane Jakeman As I leave the station into the damp air and screaming seagulls of my normally unexcitable home town of Cardiff, the first thing that meets my eyes is a huge red dragon lying on its back on a nearby rooftop. The dragon is clutching a rugby ball between its front paws, having clearly performed a classic save. The city has totally given itself up to the rugby-fest of the World Cup and rugby mania has caused a wild sprouting of nationalism. The red-dragon emblem has been pressed into service everywhere, not only clutching balls or wearing T- shirts inextricably subsumed into the iconography of a sporting city, but also involved in all its financial enterprises. I see a florist's van, speeding past through the muddy puddles of the frantic last-minute construction going on around the stadium, with a dragon clutching a bouquet in the logo on its side. Restaurants are advertised with rows of small dragons wearing chef's hats. Rugby has completely eliminated politics as a matter of national interest. It is in the crucible of the new stadium that Wales will be tested in the fire and recreated as a nation - not in the Welsh Assembly, which is vaguely perceived as a talking-shop for the boyos. Anyone will tell you where the rugby ground is, whereas no one knows the whereabouts of the assembly, and even the tourist office staff had to check when asked for directions. (It is in a different part of the city, in the Cardiff Bay development area, and will be housed in a new building designed by the Richard Rogers Partnership, with a transparent roof to symbolise the open nature of its democratic proceedings - an announcement that provoked many hollow laughs in the city that didn't vote for it.) Paradoxically, the assembly has resulted in the depoliticisation of popular culture. South Wales was a society with a high political conscience, where policies and strategies were widely discussed, even though the country was virtually a one-party state. Nearly 20 years of Conservative treatment of Wales as a hostile colony did not diminish this. But Blairism has. With new Labour, the passion has gone out of politics for the Welsh: the socialism that fired their blood is seen as defeated from within. Welsh socialism was created by the miners' unions with a vision of a mutually supportive society. This vision remained intact, even after Thatcher's destruction of the mines in the 1980s. But the Cardiffians realise that, with Blair, this version has been effectively castrated into a milk-and-water alliance with capitalism that is unlikely to deliver social benefits. This may explain why, when it came to voting for the assembly, the people of Cardiff dragged their feet, and the Welsh as a whole only voted it in by a narrow margin. Little wonder, then, that new Labour is viewed as an alien ideology imposed from Westminster. There may still be an official Wales that is bullish about its national politics, but in the real Wales, in the pubs, clubs and front rooms, no one discusses Alun Michael or beef-on-the-bone: the talk is all of the forthcoming game with Western Samoa. It is as if, in turning its back on the assembly as a national symbol, Wales is all the more eager to embrace its rugby team. Local politicians, sensitive to the national mood, fall over one other in claims to be promoting sport. Even the Welsh nats, traditionally occupied with more intellectual squabbles about Celticism, have taken to posting discussions of tactics on their internet site, and Alun Michael has announced that a funding review will begin shortly. A Cardiff member of the assembly, Jenny Randerson, has demanded a higher share of financial support for sport, which at present gets 5 per cent funding as against 6.5 per cent for heritage. "The greatest rugby show on earth", as the tourist literature bills it, is set to transform Cardiff. Giant electronic street signs advertising local businesses have been keeping a countdown check on the number of days to go before the World Cup starts. The price of accommodation is shooting up. There is a new five-star hotel, the St David's, overlooking the bay area. The normal charge for a double room starts at �98; after the start of the World Cup on 1 October it will be �110-�160 and for the cup final at the beginning of November it will rise to a whacking �200. All the way down to the B&Bs this pricing is reflected: the Arosa Guest House in Pontcanna will increase its modest �36 per night to �50 "for the rugby". In the market, pennants bearing the red scaly beasts flutter above the meat on the butchers' stalls with bizarre effect, vaguely suggestive of Grendel's lair. In the tiny bar of one pub near the ground, I count six huge television screens suspended from the ceiling for the benefit of those who couldn't get or can't afford tickets - official prices range from �4-�150. The stadium will be overflowing with fans. Down in the bay area, meanwhile, a handful of politicos will trickle into the assembly. At least by then the tourist office may have learnt where it is. {{<End>}} A<>E<>R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your common sense." --Buddha + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller, German Writer (1759-1805) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." 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