Price: Over-patriotic or playing to the Plaid pack

Here we go again! The Welsh MP for Welsh Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, in Welsh Carmarthenshire, in Welsh Wales - Adam Price -demonstrates that this alone will not be his only poor lack of judgement during his time as an MP.

Just what is it with Price and the Welsh identity?

Mr Price's latest outburst is against the Welsh National Opera company, which has an international reputation built up from years of consistent high achievement in its productions. But why does he attempt to hit yet another high note when it comes down to deciding what's good for Wales and what isn't?

Mr Price doesn't seem to be suitably impressed with its reputation for excellence, high artistic standards (considering the funding), or even the use of superb professional home-grown Welsh talent in Dennis O'Neill, Eric Roberts, Rebecca Evans, Laura Parfitt, Wynne Evans, and Bryn Terfel, to name but a few. He prefers to criticise the Welsh National Opera company for not producing enough Welsh opera. Just where does this small minded obsession come from? Mr Price claims to be a music lover but his actions show that he only wishes to see his type of real Welshness and Welsh identity in most aspects of Welsh life.

Now I'm definately not anti-Welsh, especially as I have roots in these parts ever since coal was merely plant remains (not as much as some though), but even I can fully understand that the Welsh National Opera is a world renown opera company because of its wide repertoire of international works, perfect casting and amazing production crew - both the Welsh and the non-Welsh variety.

Broaden your horizon Mr Price. Just as you saw fit to step outside Wales in your youth and continue to do so as an MP, transform this into your constricting view on the Welsh identity. If you do happen to feel the need to spew out your authority on the Welsh identity and Welshness, use your Welsh-built website in order to nitpick at what's truly Welsh and what isn't (surely a possible name of a future pamphlet of his), and stop filling up the newspapers with stories that knock Wales' achievements. Join national debates that your constituents and the general public are talking about, rather than trying to make up your own.

Wales doesn't stand out on the world stage in many walks of life. Cherish those areas where we do.

Welsh National Opera needs to do much more to prove its Welsh credentials, according to an MP.

Plaid Cymru’s Adam Price says despite the company’s strong reputation for artistic excellence, it doesn’t do nearly enough to encourage Welsh composers.

Mr Price, a music enthusiast who represents Carmarthen East & Dinefwr, said: “To what extent is WNO representative of Wales and Welsh culture? In the whole of its existence, it has not had a musical director who was Welsh.

“I am not so parochial as to suggest that its musical director should always be Welsh – like the coach of the Welsh rugby team you expect to see people from outside Wales doing the job – but as a nation we are not exactly renowned for our lack of musical ability.

“You would think that at some stage in the last half century a Welsh musical director would have had a look in now and then.”

Pointing out that WNO was the only body that received funding from both the Arts Council of Wales and Arts Council England, Mr Price said: “That explains why it spends so much of its time touring England, which is fair enough. But perhaps it would be more accurately called the English and Welsh National Opera, which happens to have its home in Cardiff. One of the problems is that it has been many years since it commissioned an original opera from a Welsh composer. In the Seventies, it commissioned an opera from Alun Hoddinott, arguably the greatest Welsh composer of the 20th century. But although it has since commissioned the occasional choral piece, it is a long time since there was a major commission of a new opera from a Welsh composer.”

In 2004 Hoddinott, who died last year at the age of 78, told the Western Mail: “Their [WNO] performance standards are first class and technically they are excellent. But I wish they would pay more attention to Welsh music.

“Their record in the production of Welsh opera is abysmal. Scottish Opera puts on a couple of works by Scottish composers every year.

“WNO has put on perhaps four or five Welsh operas over 20 years. And the record of the WNO’s orchestra as far as Welsh music is concerned is also bad. I have not seen one work by a Welsh composer in any of its concert programmes. Full stop.

“They just seem to have an anti-Welsh music bias. I am sad that they do not do something for Welsh composers, especially young ones.”

Mr Price said: “It seems clear that for commercial reasons the company chooses to concentrate on performing productions of well-known operas. Is that what we want from our national opera company? Some would say yes, but others, myself included, would like to see more original work commissioned from Welsh composers. Otherwise, doubts will continue about whether we are getting our bang for the buck put into WNO from public funds in Wales.”

WNO chief executive and artistic director John Fisher said: “Welsh National Opera prides itself on being not only a world-class flagship for Wales and Welsh culture, but also one of the world’s major international opera companies. We work with outstanding Welsh creative talent every day of the week, in Wales, England and overseas – and we’re proud to do it.”

WNO was founded in Cardiff in 1946. Annually, it gives more than 120 performances of eight main scale operas. In Cardiff, Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool, Llandudno, Oxford, Milton Keynes, Plymouth, Southampton and Swansea, it regularly performs to more than 150,000 people in total.

In 2004, WNO acquired its first permanent home with the opening of the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay.

WNO boasts it is Europe’s busiest touring opera company and the largest provider of touring opera in the UK.

The company’s most recent published accounts, covering the 17 months to September 2007, show it had an income of £20.1m, of which £8.7m came from Arts Council England, £6.3m from Arts Council of Wales and the remainder from box office receipts and other sources.

The frustrations of an internet Troll

It seems that I owe Sanddef an apology after jokingly not thanking him for the Miss Tory Staff comment. I have discovered the troll behind certain comments on my posts, which are not particularly damning and not even time consuming to delete. Any blogger will be able to tell you that it's very easy to delete comments when managing a blog.

The pointless 'Miss Tory Staff' comments that ended up - several times - in every post over the last few weeks seem to have stopped (more will come my way due to this post) which proves that the said blogger has realised his mistake. Strange to think that The Steamer has referred to me as "a well-known Labour insider". Each blogger has their own opinion of me, which leaves me none the wiser as to who I actually am. Someone will let me know one day.

Anyone who reads this blog will realise that I'm not in the habit of outing a person, but an anonymous blogger on the other hand is different due to the anonymity.

Perhaps it's because I always look for the best qualities in people that I often get disappointed so easily. In truth, I've always liked the nationalist blogger Che Grav-ara of the Guerrilla Welsh-Fare blog. For starters, we may have different political views, but I do enjoy reading his posts, and respect the fact that he includes links to a wide variety of political bloggers on his own blog (which is always a major plus in the blogosphere, and unusual of a Plaid blogger).

Any blogger is welcome to contribute in the comments section. I rarely delete comments, and if I do, I end up publishing them without the bad language and attribute them to their original owner.

Understandably, 'Che' finds it difficult that I tend to criticise the 'One Wales Government', after all, he is a "mainstream Plaidie; wants independence, has no time for New Labour, and backed the red-green when it came to it." Let's hope that he now practices what he preaches. Let's draw a line under this, 'Che', then hug, and make up.

What has been your best blogging experience?

It is always a good experience to have people comment on your blog and to start a active discussion. I have been lucky of late in that my post seem to have been getting a lot more attention. I am unsure if the content has become more thought provoking or just the hoards of bloggers that have nowhere else to go now Blamerbell has retired are choosing to spread their views around the blogs.

Do you have any prejudices that you are prepared to admit to?

What are they? Although my views are pretty fluid I do carry the stigma that all Tories are bad, all liberals say whatever you want them to just to get your vote and all Labourites are Tories. However I am happy to admit this is a generalist view and that there are a number of Tories (especially the Glyn Davies’ of this world) that contradicts that analysis and do the Conservatives a credit. Whilst they are decreasing there are still some dedicated old guard Labour members (i.e Hywel Francis) that go against the grain of Tony Blair’s spin era. The liberals……well you can’t win them all!

N.B. No bloggers were harmed during the making of this post. No slur caused by labelling someone a tory - on the person or the party. This blog has always been, and remains, non-aligned. Readers [particularly those of Labour and Plaid] should note that the blog description remains the same - as always - and can be read at the top of the page.

Nationalist Nonsense

What's the point of Nationalists arguing cases such as THIS and THIS.

All David Cameron's saying is that there's an interim report on his desk (well-publicised in the media). Let's wait for an official announcement.

Let's all be grown-up about this.

Alas Goldsmith and Jones

Commentators on Lord Goldsmith’s review of citizenship have focused on a specific proposal, that schoolchildren should swear oaths of alliance to the Queen. The oaths, he said, would tackle a “dimunition in national pride” and address the divided nature of Britain. But polls and surveys about national identity suggest nationalism in Britain is not necessarily diminishing, but rather changing and evolving. Take a walk in Cardiff Bay and you will see the Senedd building and the Wales Millennium Centre – two monuments in the Welsh capital to a changing Wales.

Whereas some national groups define themselves on primarily ethnic grounds Wales’ emerging identity is rooted in these new institutions. A Welsh ethnic category does not exist and neither does a British one, except in the minds of a few at the extremes. British identity in more modern times has often been wedded to the British/English/UK state and to the promotion of democracy at home and abroad.

But there are now democratic institutions in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and these have had tangible effects on the nations they represent. Recent coverage of the Welsh Assembly Government’s decision to phase out hospital car park charges show the UK media are slowly beginning to report the differences arising within the UK nations. There have been faults and Freudian slips that reveal a concerning ignorance of UK events. More than one UK broadsheet newspaper has in the past year mistakenly referred to July 1, 2007, as the date of the ‘UK smoking ban’, missing the fact that Wales and Scotland banned smoking in public places earlier.

When George Bush made his 'you're either for us or against us' speech about terrorism, a lot of people decided they were against 'us' not because of the attractiveness of the opposition but the unattractiveness of 'us'. The measures proposed by Lord Goldsmith could well have the similar, unintended effect of alienating anyone who does not wish to swear allegiance to the Queen. What is needed is a better, less polarised debate about what the union is and where it is going.