Sat, 18th July Cardiff 20°
Nation.Cymru wordmark
Advertisement

Opinion

Let Them Make Cake

By Mark Mansfield
The Prince of Wales distributes Welsh Cakes made by himself and the Princess of Wales, during a visit to Pontypridd Market. Photo Ben Stansall/PA Wire

Ben Wildsmith 

Local Facebook pages are a bit of an obsession of mine. After you’ve waded through all the dog-poo-related content, A CHILD could have stepped it for God’s sake, there’s a lot of kindness on show when people are struggling.

The instinct to help is a beautiful facet of humanity, and facilitating it is the least toxic aspect of social media.

It’s fair to say, though, that when a middle-aged English couple showed up in Pontypridd on Wednesday for half an hour’s work experience making Welsh cakes in the market, local sentiments weren’t 100% behind them.

Whilst Wills and Kate got to grips with the flour and sultanas, currant affairs[1] had conspired to make this innocent visit to Ponty a controversial one.

When Plaid Cymru brought an amendment to the Crown Estate Bill in Westminster, proposing that revenues from the royal estates in Wales be administered by the Welsh Government, it couldn’t be accused of nationalist opportunism.

[mid-content-banner]

Labour policy

This is official Labour policy in the Senedd and a settled feature of devolution in Scotland. So, the spectacle of Welsh Labour MPs voting against the amendment, particularly as the Tories abstained, was perverse.

It comes as no surprise, though, does it? Labour ‘at both ends of the M4’ was defined in Jo Stevens’ first week in office when she suggested that her mandate represented the ‘people of Wales’ more meaningfully that those won by all sitting members in the Senedd combined.

So, anyone paying attention is aware of the contempt with which Labour in Westminster holds the devolved institution that was once its cherished achievement.

When they are starving us for cash in other ways, over HS2 for instance, most of us are so used to their attitude that it doesn’t even sting. This though: defending royal lucre that Scotland receives yet we don’t, seems emblematic of the moral decline of the Labour party here and an unforgivable insult.

[lower-mid-content-banner]

Derided

Anybody objecting to the party’s trajectory over the last forty-odd years has been derided as unrealistic, sentimental and childishly idealistic. People held their tongues when Neil Kinnock refused to back the strike and looked on mutely as the former scourge of aristocratic rule was swaddled in ermine down London way.

They observed the absurd rise of Owen Smith to establishment-feted puppet and subsequent return to corporate life after Jeremy Corbyn thrashed him. We’ve seen them ennoble barrow-boy capitalists like Alan Sugar, become enthralled to sinister Machiavellians like Peter Mandelson, and be complicit in the deaths of over a million Iraqis for reasons nobody believes.

Throughout all of that, Wales, and the Valleys in particular, have turned out for this party as a matter of tribal allegiance, perhaps even faith. Mark Drakeford used to occasionally whisper about disestablishing the Welsh party from its UK parent. What a thing that might have been!

It was just a mess of pottage though, like everything else the party dangles in front of this abused nation it was all sizzle and no steak.

The opinions about the royal visit on Facebook were split between people who were viscerally angry about them setting foot here, and those who find that sort of rhetoric rude and unseemly.

Clicking through to the profiles of people commenting revealed that most objectors were Reform UK supporters, whilst those who liked the royal couple were Labour.

Plaid Cymru

Plaid Cymru did well to platform the Crown Estate issue this week and general discontent at the status quo should be to their advantage. Where, though, is the urgency?

Evidently, Wales is on the cusp of political upheaval as Labour’s Welsh credit card finally gets refused. If that momentum cannot be harnessed by a party that explicitly puts ‘Wales First’ then we are unviable as a nation.

It is unthinkable to me that thuddingly stupid dolts like Lee Anderson can possibly express any facet of our political culture.

Plaid needs to become an insurgency, it needs not to be polite, and it needs to do so right now.

[1] Remind me to give you a pay rise, this is exceptional stuff- Ed.

For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.

Get more trusted Welsh news

Choose Nation.Cymru as a preferred source in Google News to see more of our journalism.

Choose Nation.Cymru as a preferred source in Google News

7 comments

J Jones

Until the English cease claiming the millions for us walking on our land, we should increase tourist tax to the exact same amount for day trips by anyone with the surnames Saxe-Coburg Gotha, Windsor or Middleton. They'll then either make no further profit from the English Crown plundering, or decide to stop their toe curlingly cringy cross border raids to a country where the true indigenous people believe they are not welcome.

Reply
Y Cymro

That's it William, keep up with the Welsh stereotypes, why don't one. What, did you exit your helicopter as small children assembled in an avenue throwing leeks & daffodils on the ground in adulation as a close harmony choir sang Cwm Rhondda? As with all pointless Royal visits to Wales it cost thousands of public money we can ill afford l, but we don't see Tory troll Darren Millar complain about this expenditure do we, oh no, it's just money to promote Wales to the world with Welsh Government foreign offices this pleb objects to. Megamouth Millar forgets a few years ago a former British Ambassador to the US was asked could he promote Wales in America and he replied that he couldn't as it was only Britain he could represent. So Darren Millar this is the reason why these Wales foreign offices were set up around the world in the first place. To promote Wales and encourage inward investment. See, If we don't promote Wales who will? Not the treacherous Welsh Tories! Oh, and take note Darren Millar. The cost of the King Charles coronation funded out of Welsh & UK taxpayers was estimated to be over ÂŁ100 million pounds. That was for one day by the way And the repair to the House of Commons will cost taxpayers ÂŁ22 billion and take 76 years to complete. Although if HS2 is anything to go by it will likely end up over budget, botched , and be in the hundreds of billions. Also, I noticed with any Royal visi see dozens of children bussed in, who are effectively brainwashed & groomed by Monarchists, are mainly there to scream, cheer and wave both Union & Welsh flags as clothes horse Kate grins like a Cheshire cat looking radiant as she does flipping Welsh Cake with sycophants marveling at her wrist action. The political good bad and the ugly applaud like clapping seals at a water world after being thrown a mackerel. Like no one in Wales has ever seen a Welsh cake made let alone tossed before. And speaking of tossers. We have Prince William. He has the bloody nerve to set foot in Pontypridd seeing this chrome dome supported England over Wales during the recent World Cup. Oh, and not forgetting his equally follicle challenged adulterous father who on being oiled and crowned King transferred all land & property over to him , Prince of Wales, who himself could have equally stepped down as President of the English FA, but he didn't. And we had the ridiculous scenario in 2022 where the Prince of Wales was videoed handing out England shirts & caps while wishing them good luck against the very country he allegedly represents who were in the same bloody qualifying group! This is the contempt the English establishment continued to have towards Wales. The sooner the Prince & Princess of Wales titles are abolished the better.

Reply
J Jones

The Prince/Princess of Wales titles are their titles, which they will keep hold for as long as possible to belittle us as a country. As the name 'Wales' is their old 'outsider' insult towards us, why don't we just abolish the term 'Wales' from this country and only use our own indigenous 'Cymru'. We can then turn the WeighOwls insult back on the English and use it's 'outsider' meaning for those disrespectful outsiders that are unwelcome here - we do have a few!

Reply
HarrisR

"Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light" Or as Wales Labour now unanimously exclaim, "Excellent cocoa Baroness! And the buttered toast! And these armchairs are so comfortable, we could sink into them forever and happily forget the world outside. Now, just get the janitor to turn up the heating a few notches, it's not as if we're bloody pensioners is it!" With a whimper...

Reply
Joe

Great title! ‘Let them Eat Cake’ indeed. So Wils will look into flooding like he is solving homelessness in Newport…. It was great to see no Union Jacks in the crowd and the comment on Ponty local facebook pages against this wealthy family.

Reply
Nia James

Excellent piece Ben! All royal visits are naff, but I found this particularly cringeworthy. They arrived in a town that has suffered flooding but the tabloids were mostly interested in who designed Kate Windsor's coat. Also, not untypically, the London broadcasters strangled 'Pont ar priff', and then informed us that is in a place called "south Wales". Clearly it is far too difficult to say RCT. I remember reading that every royal engagement, however small and casual, costs a minimum of ÂŁ40,000. The day out to Ponty would have cost a lot more. I wonder what that money - our money, at the end of the day - could have done to help those in the community recover from the floods. But, who cares? Wills chomping a Welsh cake is far more important.

Reply
Heddwch

There was definitely a mixed reception! It would be good to see the protesters be covered too, I saw this: https://x.com/welshugn/status/1894805182191440265?s=46

Reply

Leave a reply

Replying to Nia James Cancel

Excellent piece Ben! All royal visits are naff, but I found this particularly cringeworthy. They arrived in a town that has suffered flooding but the tabloids were mostly interested in who designed Kate Windsor's coat. Also, not untypically...

Comments are reviewed before they appear.