The Judge RANTS!
Date: 15/10/16
O, Argwlydd!
Wel, mewn blwyddyn sydd wedi bod yn un i ddigalonni'r saint, mae'n braf cael newyddion da am unwaith.
Ydy, mae "Dafydd Elis Elis-Thomas of Nant Conwy in ddy cownty of Gwynedd" wedi rhoi'r gorau i'w ymdrechion i danseilio arweinyddiaeth Plaid Cymru o'r tu mewn ac, yn lle hynny, y mae wedi penderfynu ceisio i'w dinistrio o'r tu allan trwy ymadael â'r blaid fu'n arweinydd drosti ac eistedd yn ein Senedd ddrama ni fel aelod 'annibynnol' o hyn allan. Mi fydd yn rhyddhad i'r Blaid, bid siwr, na fydd y diawl di-egwyddor bellach yn sefyll tu mewn i'r babell a phiso ynddi yn lle piso allan.
Ond sylwch ar ei 'resymau' am ymadael; mae o'n cwyno gan nad ydy Plaid wedi 'cydweithio' â'r Blaid Lafur i ffurfio llywodraeth 'sefydlog'.
Gwranda rŵan, 'rhen rech; swyddogaeth 'gwrthblaid' ydy gwrthwynebu'r blaid sy'n llywodraethu, nid ei helpu i aros mewn grym. Mae hynny'n bwysicach byth wrth ystyried mor ddi-glem, mor ddi-fflach, mor ddi-syniad y mae'r Blaid Lafurus yng Nghymru. Buasai cadw'r math lywodraeth ar ei gorsedd (fel y mae'r un llygoden fach o LibDem sydd ar ôl yn gwneud ar hyn o bryd) yn fradychiad o'r miloedd ar filoedd o bobl yn y wlad yma sydd eisiau gweld terfyn ar deyrnasiad di-dda, di-ddim a llwfr y Lêbyr Parti yng Nghaerdydd. Does dim pwrpas mewn cael llywodraeth 'sefydlog' os mai sefydlogrwydd y bedd yw'r canlyniad.
Ond y mae Milord wedi bod yn ddigon hapus trwy'r blynyddoedd ers iddo orffen ei gyfnod trychinebus fel arweinydd i hobnobian efo Llafur, ac efallai mai dyma'r cam cyntaf tuag ato'n ymuno â Phlaid Y Crachach Cymreig yn swyddogol; jyst mewn da bryd iddo gael ei daflu allan gan etholwyr Dwyfor-Meirionydd y tro nesaf (gan mai breuddwyd gwrach fuasai disgwyl i un sydd mor hunan-fodlon a chysetlyd ynddiswyddo o'i sedd a sefyll mewn is-etholiad i roi cyfle teg iddyn nhw yn y cyfamser).
(Mae'n drueni, wrth gwrs, nad yw ei gyn-blaid mor rymus, mor ddewr, mor blaen ei thafod a'r SNP yn Yr Alban: bûm yn gwylio araith Nicola Sturgeon i'w chynhadledd flynyddol y prynhawn yma, a gresynu nad ydyw ein plaid 'genedlaethol' ni mor benderfynol a sicr ei hegwyddorion).
Ffarwél felly, Milord, ac i'r diawl â chi!
Ychwanegol!
Fel un efo obsesiwn dros archifio, ac fel un sydd yn amharod iawn i daflu dogfennau i ffwrdd, dwi wedi bod ati yn ddiweddar yn sganio hen lythyron dderbyniais gan ffrindiau ac aelodau o'r teulu o'r cyfnod 1981 ymlaen. Mae hyn yn cynnwys y blynyddoedd pan oeddwn yn fyfyriwr yng Ngholeg Y Brifysgol, Aberystwyth (fel yr adwaened yr adeg honno). Un o'r bobl gwrddais yno oedd hogyn o Ddyfnaint (ond o dras Cymreig) o'r enw Danny O'Dare.
Ar ôl i mi raddio a symud yn ôl gartref, bu cyfres o lythyron rhyngddom ni am rai blynyddoedd. Yn anarferol, cedwais gopi o lythyr yr anfonais ato ym Mis Ebrill 1987, a - thrwy hap - dwi newydd ei ddatgloddio. Mae rhan o'm llythyr yn berthnasol iawn i'r pwnc godais uchod; gan mai yn Saesneg oedd o, y mae'r darn yn dilyn y testun Saesneg i lawr fan 'cw.
(Mae Danny O'Dare bellach yn ysgrifennu erthyglau dros y Weekly Worker, papur y Communist Party Of Great Britain, dan yr enw 'Eddie Ford')
********
Oh, Lord!
Well, in a year which has been enough to dishearten saints, it's nice to have some good news to report for once.
Yes, "Dafydd Elis Elis-Thomas of Nant Conwy in the county of Gwynedd" has ended his campaign of undermining the leadership of 'The Party Of Wales' from within and, instead, has decided to try to destroy it from the outside by leaving the party he once led and sit in our Pretendy Parliament as an 'independent' member from now on. I'm sure that it will be a relief to the Party that this unprincipled twerp will no longer be standing inside the tent and pissing in it instead of pissing out of it.
But note his 'reasons' for leaving; he complains that the party has not 'co-operated' with the Labour Party to create a 'stable' government.
Listen now, you old fart; the duty of an 'opposition' is to oppose the party in government, not help to keep it there. This is even more important when you consider how clueless, how devoid of spark and ideas the Laboured Party in Wales is. Keeping such a government on its throne (like the one remaining little mouse of a LibDem is doing at present) would be a betrayal of the thousands of people in our country who want to see the end of the reign of the good-for-nothing and corrupt rule of the Laybore Party in Wales. There's no point in having a 'stable' government if that 'stability' is the stability of the grave.
But Milord has been happy enough through all the years since he ended his ruinous period as leader to hob-nob with Labour, and perhaps this is the first step towards his joining with the Welsh Élite Party officially; just in time for him to be thrown out by the electors of Dwyfor-Meirionydd next time around (because expecting someone so self-satisfied and conceited to resign his seat and fight a by-election to give them a choice in the interim is a pipe dream).
(It's a shame, of course, that his former party is not as strong, as courageous and as forthright as the SNP in Scotland: I watched Nicola Sturgeon's speech to their annual conference this afternoon, and felt regret that our 'national' party wasn't as determined and as certain of its principles).
So farewell then, Milord, and to hell with you!
Additional!
As I am an obsessive archivist who is reluctant to throw documents away, I have recently been busy scanning old letters from friends and family dating from the period 1981 onwards. This includes the years when I was a student at the University College Of Wales, Aberystwyth (as it was then known). One of the people I encountered there was a young man from Devon (but of Welsh descent) by the name of Danny O'Dare.
After I graduated and moved back home, we kept up a correspondence for some years. Unusually, I kept a copy of a letter I sent to him in April 1987, and it is this which I have just unearthed by sheer coincidence. Part of my letter is highly germane to the subject of the above piece, and so I append it below (with explanatory bits in [square brackets]).
(Danny O'Dare now writes articles for the Weekly Worker, the paper of the Communist Party Of Great Britain, under the name 'Eddie Ford')
"The above [that is, my belief that loyalty to nation will trump loyalty to 'class' any time] is also why I find it impossible even to contemplate re-joining my old party [Plaid Cymru]. Plaid has been taken over by a group of people who believe that Marxism and the class-struggle are more important than gaining our national freedom; in other words, they believe that socialism is more important than patriotism. The party leader himself, Dafydd Elis Thomas, has decried Nationalism and emphasised what is laughingly known as 'democratic socialism'. In other words, he is a closet Labourite. Evidence can be found in a recent incident. A few months ago, a cultural delegation from the occupied area of Ireland came over to see the language situation here, and to talk theory and tactics with Cymdeithas Yr Iaith [the Welsh Language Society]. The scum press got hold of it, and revealed that two of the delegation were Sinn Féin councillors, and that one had served a prison sentence for killing an RUC [Royal Ulster Constabulary] officer. The enemies of our language, Tories, Labourites and 'Alliance' [the Liberal/SDP Alliance] alike, wasted no time in using this as another convenient stick with which to beat Cymdeithas Yr Iaith. Then, up popped Dafydd Elis Thomas, insisting that the visit be called off. When Cymdeithas Yr Iaith refused, he resigned from it, and proceeded to stab it in the back from the outside. He was supported in this by some of his trusty lieutenants, including the prospective parliamentary candidate for Ynys Môn [Ieuan Wyn Jones, who later became the MP for the island and party leader], who presumably was acting in self-interest.
"One of my colleagues [at the Community Programme scheme I was working on at the time; I think it was Dyfan Wyn Owen] informed me that a friend of his had attended a lecture by Thomas in one of the London colleges. When asked about the Cymraeg-speakers, he said, "They're more trouble than they're worth"."
