Boris and his band fail to make a hit
HAVING nothing better to do during lockdown, I suppose that I should be grateful for the existence of “Boris and The Blunderers”, even if I don’t share this band’s taste in music.
The opening headline of your February 11 edition (“Boris in battery factory blunder”) and that on page 23 of the previous day’s edition (“Rejoining single market could stop damage to the economy”) go hand in glove with each other.
I say that in the sense that, as a soloist, Boris has blundering form with the floral London Bridge disaster. He also forgot to deliver
on the blustering promise made to his constituents to lie down in front of the bulldozers contracted to prepare the ground for Heathrow’s third runway, a runway which, presumably, he has used since as an MP of the, so-called, UK’s House of Commons, and continues to use since being raised to the elevated post he now occupies.
With that kind of form in the UK’s London orientation, is it at all surprising that he gaffed when claiming that a battery factory destined for Bridgend was going to be one of the great centres of battery manufacture in this country? Especially as, in English eyes, Wales has been in England ever since Henry VIII, of Welsh descent, decided it would be. To make matters worse, the battery
factory in question is destined for the north-east of England.
The video clip of the blunder, without correction made by the England-born and educated Right
Honourable Simon Hart, MP for West Carmarthenshire and South Pembrokeshire and Secretary of State for Wales, is no surprise.
This is the same member of the band, who, along with his Right Honourable colleague, Michael Gove MP, politician, writer, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister of the Cabinet, required the remaining members of the “European Union Band” to allow the Brexiting UK entry to the single market that it had enjoyed prior to EU membership.
The reason being to rectify the losses the UK economy stands to make.
Oh dear me, what would the Beatles, as a band, have made of such harmony or lack thereof?
More importantly, from a Welsh perspective, what would Catatonia have made of it? Or, more recently, what does former Catatonian, Cerys Mathews, my fellow, latergeneration, Fishguard “high school” educated product, make of it all, especially as it applies to the Twin Towns of Fishguard and Goodwick and their “Port”?
Derek Griffiths Pontcanna, Cardiff
THE red flower getting all the kudos this month is, of course, the red rose. Apparently over 200 million of them are cut and given as gifts on Valentine’s Day. They have come to symbolise love and romance after being associated with Aphrodite, the goddess of love. As long ago as the seventh century BC the Greek poet Sappho declared the rose to be the ‘Queen of the Flowers’ and the story goes that when Aphrodite ran to the side of her wounded lover Adonis, who had been injured by a wild boar during a hunt, she pricked her foot on a white rose. Her blood turned that rose, and others on the bush, red and from then on the red rose became a symbol of undying devotion.
Another theory is that the delicate red rose petals represent the heart and its fragility, and as the flowers have a tough, thorny stem, we are reminded that love has two sides – pleasure and pain.
The good news (for your pocket, rather than for florists) is the tradition of giving a dozen red roses has simply been encouraged from a commercial perspective. It is actually considered to be more meaningful to give a single red rose. I can hear all the fellas sighing with relief – studies show that 78% of the people who buy flowers for Valentine’s Day are men.
A staggering £503m is spent on chocolates, flowers, cards and other Valentine gifts in the UK alone and while Valentine cards and gifts were traditionally given anonymously, it is more common today for the sender to make themselves known – not surprising if you are spending that sort of money!
The tradition of sending Valentine’s cards began after Charles, Duke of Orleans, was imprisoned in the Tower of London after the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. He remained there for 25 years and wrote 60 love poems addressed to his wife. These are claimed to be the first formal Valentine notes or cards. I wonder if our lockdowns will produce anything as poignant.