Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,

Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,

for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,

for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart,

for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they will be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

LATEST ODDS

Carwyn Jones 5 - 2
Edwina Hart 5 - 1
Huw Lewis 4 - 1
Andrew Davies 10 – 1
Leighton Andrews 8 -1

GOD BLESS WALES

The steamer would like to commend to listeners the joint Welsh Office / WAG strategy on the crisis crunch. The economy – a focus for Wales. It treats the Welsh people as adults and sets out pretty clearly what the government in Westminster and Cardiff can do. And can’t do.

Kim Jong-Morgan and St Murphy have also been largely successful in keeping the bleating of Plaid Cymru away from the detail. Crucially the document is signed by the two leaders and not the economically illiterate little Wyn.

The Steamer is rarely critical of our great leader St Murphy, however, we cannot fail to think that the people of Wales would have been better served if the saintly one had spent yesterday morning preparing for the National Economic Committee (in which he was representing Wales), rather than sharing a platform with little Wyn’s at the Assembly’s economic summit in the morning.

The meeting was a pointless talking shop that brought together the great and the good to talk. It changed nothing, reassured no one. The sad reality is that gathering of this nature can do little to ameliorate the economic tsunami that is about to crash over Wales.

Late news

Social Justice and Local Government Minister Brian ‘Do the funky’ Gibbons has however made a small and largely unheralded step to ensure that all the people of Wales have access to credit unions. Good work Bri!

LATEST ODDS

Carwyn Jones 5 - 2
Edwina Hart 5 - 1
Huw Lewis 4 - 1
Andrew Davies 10 – 1
Leighton Andrews 8 -1

GOD BLESS WALES

Miss Wagstaff blog on Ms Morgan and the leadership.

This blog written by well known Labour insiders at the Assembly does nothing to help the
Labour cause. It simply promulgates division that can then be used by our enemies.

Its recent comments on Ms Morgan are particularly unhelpful. Ms Morgan is a talented politician wasted in the European parliament. It is only proper that she should consider her future and make plans for her next step. This might be into parliament or it might be to fight for a seat at the next Assembly. She would make an excellent First Minister and is exactly the kind of person we in Wales should be promoting as representative of the labour cause.

A few weeks ago a number of commentators were mentioning that there Ms Morgan might replace the excellent Karen Sinclair if she had to permanently stand down because of ill health. Now a potential vacancy in Pontypridd is being mentioned. This speculation in the first instance is insulting and in the second unhelpful.

Imagine the fun that could be had by the opposition if there was a parachute by-election in Pontypridd. Despite a great fight back by Brown now is not the time to risk finances and effort on a by-election Labour should, but are by no means guaranteed, to win. The economic situation is so unstable that anything could happen politically within a six week period.

Misswagstaff should be more careful that her comments support excellent Labour party politicians rather than sink to an unhelpful paranoia that only helps our enemies. Now is not the time for a fight. Labour has five good potential candidates for leader at the Assembly

LATEST ODDS

Carwyn Jones 5 - 2
Edwina Hart 5 - 1
Huw Lewis 4 - 1
Andrew Davies 10 – 1
Leighton Andrews 8 -1

GOD BLESS WALES

St Murphy’s conference speech.

Why the Man is a saint!

Carwyn Jones 5 - 2
Edwina Hart 5 - 1
Huw Lewis 4 - 1
Andrew Davies 10 – 1
Leighton Andrews 8 -1

GOD BLESS WALES

Man who condemns labour MPs to lead Wales’ economic fight back

An all-Wales Economic Summit to discuss the present financial crisis and its impact on the Welsh economy has been announced by the Deputy First Minister to the Assembly.....................

First the good news

St Murphy will be in attendance. SERVE AND OBEY.

Then bad news

little Wyn Jones will also be in attendance. One can only imagine what hair-brained ideas Jones Bach will be bringing to the table. It will however be a good opportunity to put some questions to little Jones on how he thinks Labour is handling of the crisis.

For example I am sure St Murphy will ask for clarification on little jones' conference statements that Gordon Brown had been "found wanting" and had be shown to be "incapable of handling a major economic crisis".

I am sure St Murphy will comment upon Little Wyn’s recent assertion that

"Frankly, people have had enough. They want a government in London that not only understands their concerns but is prepared to do something about it,"

And hopefully he will ask Little Wyn what exactly he meant means when he said

"Labour MPs have let us down," and "There'll be no hiding place for Welsh Labour MPs who say one thing in their constituencies and another in their cosy club atmosphere of Westminster."

At a time like this our leaders in Cardiff and Westminster need to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their comrades in the party and the trade union movement in support of Gordon Brown and the Welsh Labour MPs.

LATEST ODDS

Carwyn Jones 5 - 2
Edwina Hart 5 - 1
Huw Lewis 4 - 1
Andrew Davies 10 – 1
Leighton Andrews 8 -1

GOD BLESS WALES

Wales bails out England and Scotland. Again!

Hard working Welsh tax payers are being asked by Alistair Darling to bail out the mad cap capitalists in the city of London and the city of Edinburgh. In effect every Welsh tax payer is being asked to stump up around £10,000 to bail out banks that have shown little interest in investing in Wales. We the Welsh taxpayer will have no control over these banks and when cuts come they surely will come to the ‘call centres’ that along with Admiral constitute Wales financial services sector.

The Steamer thinks Darling has done a good job but he hasn’t been helped by the SNP and there Lib-demesque-flip-flopping-economics.

Comrades we should be aware that two of the biggest banks with their heads stuffed most deeply in the trough are Scottish. We should also be aware that the SNP virtually control how one of these parasitical banks is communicating with the outside world. Staff members in RBS the press office include Andrew Wilson, a former Scottish National Party MSP; Colin Pyle a friend and ex staff member of Alex Salmond and Andrew Henderson, one of Salmond's drivers during the recent election.

Andrew Davies our excellent Minister for Finance must be fuming at what amounts to the biggest transfer of cash from Welsh public services into the hands of a bunch of Scottish bankers!

LATEST ODDS

Carwyn Jones 5 - 2
Edwina Hart 5 - 1
Huw Lewis 4 - 1
Andrew Davies 10 – 1
Leighton Andrews 8 -1

GOD BLESS WALES

Top 10 most powerful Welsh Labour Politicans

1. Paul Murphy (Torfaen) – The great leader, supreme protector. Serve and Obey

2. Rhodri Morgan (Cardiff West) – A once great leader but now an ageing lion. Rhodri's health is so fragile that balloons have been banned at official WAG functions in case one pops unexpectedly.

3. Kim Howells (Pontypridd) – Chair of the Security and Intelligence Committee. Keep a close watch..........

4. Edwina Hart (Gower) – Runs the Welsh NHS, hard as nails

5. Chris Bryant (Rhondda) – Deputy Leader of the House of Commons and Curry House Plotter Part of the outer, inner circle, a Brownite to his underpants. One of the best communicators in Parliament

6. David Hanson (Delyn) Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice – Consistently the most impressive Welsh minister.

7. Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office. Small but perfectly formed.

8. Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) – now looks after English Soil

9. Jane Hutt Vale of Glamorgan Minister for Welsh children

10. Wayne David (Caerphilly) – Great Leaders Number 2

LATEST ODDS

Carwyn Jones 5 - 2
Edwina Hart 5 - 1
Huw Lewis 4 - 1
Andrew Davies 10 – 1
Leighton Andrews 8 -1

GOD BLESS WALES

Kim Howells in charge of Spooks (and I don't mean the TV program)

Kim Howells has been moved from the FCO to Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee. This is the parliamentary committee that rubber stamps overseas the work of the MI5, GCHQ and MI6.

This is a position of some importance as the chair can virtually hold the prime Minister to ransom on issues of national security. He is the first person to Chair the committee who has not been a cabinet minister and replaces Margaret Becket who replaced our great leader St Murphy.

This is an interesting appointment for an ex-communist, especially who ran one of the NUM offices in South Wales during the miner strike. Younger viewers will remember the 1994-85 was also a time of great economic upheaval where the government had a somewhat confused attitude to protecting the rights of its citizens that disagreed with it. Although Kim Howells was a moderate there has always been a whiff of suspicion about what exactly he was up to during the conflict.

Although the strike was particularly strong in south Wales the union rank and file remained sensible throughout. Despite this the union was engaged in activities that were clearly outside the law. Kim Howells has even admitted destroying clandestine union records when he thought the policy were going to raid an NUM office after a taxi driver was killed driving miners to work.

Many in the NUM believe to this day that Kim wasn’t exactly on the side of the union and that he was a stooge of parts of the Labour Party that wanted an end to the divisive strike. This was however obviously not the worst crime that a union official could commit. During the strike sections of security forces infiltrated the NUM probably to undermine the efforts of the moderates.

Kim is maybe now in a position to maybe find out what really happened.

LATEST ODDS

Carwyn Jones 5 - 2
Edwina Hart 5 - 1
Huw Lewis 4 - 1
Andrew Davies 10 – 1
Leighton Andrews 8 -1

GOD BLESS WALES

Wayne's World! Wayne's World! Party time! Excellent!

I love Wayne David. So does the great leader.

Help the bald brother out by watching the following adfomercial.







LATEST ODDS

Carwyn Jones 5 - 2
Edwina Hart 5 - 1
Huw Lewis 4 - 1
Andrew Davies 10 – 1
Leighton Andrews 8 -1

GOD BLESS WALES

Didn`t we have a lovely time the day we went to Bangor

Bangor on Dee is one of the finest places to watch racing in Britain. On a cold November’s day I would take a day’s sport in Bangor over virtually all other potential outdoor recreations.

Bangor is unique in Britain in being the only racecourse without a grandstand but this adds to the spectacle. People stand, often in the drizzle as a faint orange sun crosses the grey sky, watching honest racing. But as cold and as wet as you get you Bangor somehow connects you to the action and the history of a sport. When the horses pound on the turf you can really feal them in your bones. It is wonderful space that harks back to another, possibly better era.

Bangor on Dee is served by two of politicians who remind one of a better era, the excellent Karen Sinclair AM and the slight eccentric but also excellent Martin Jones MP. If the Labour party is to put up a credible challenge to keep in places like Clwyd South then the candidates for the leadership and going to have to ship up to places like Bangor to talk face-to-face to the voters and support Karen and Martin. For this reason The Steamer is recommending that they attend the Bangor

Christmas meeting on the 17th December 2008.

LATEST ODDS

Carwyn Jones 5 - 2
Edwina Hart 5 - 1
Huw Lewis 4 - 1
Andrew Davies 10 – 1
Leighton Andrews 8 -1

GOD BLESS WALES