The question is maybe more why the English are so lacking in patriotism? Anyone here own a flag of St George?

I think it has been packaged and rebranded into a particular form of Britishness which is peddled by the media – a love for monarchy, support for the military and geneal respect for elitist establishments.

I’m surprised language hasn’t come up yet. In N.Wales this is a huge deal with language and culture being indivisible. Expensive to maintain though. I’m sympathetic to its preservation (although I haven’t learnt), but it is interesting when you meet Welsh born folk who don’t speak it. Deffo made to feel less Welsh.

I think you’re right. The languages you speak have a big impact on the way you perceive the world. I was brought up in Wales but, like most people, was taught Welsh only as if it were a foreign language.

It provides you with such a basic level of Welsh that’s practially useless. It means you’re unable to access a big chunk of Welsh history and culture.

I think every child in Wales should be taught at an early age to be able to communicate in Welsh. Then they have a choice in life whether to use it or not.

National identity in the UK is a horribly fuzzy thing. It has been complicated by the, largely succesful, attempt to create an all encompassing Britishness.

Personally, I think all the nations have suffered – including England, which has seen Englishness rebranded into a toxic form of Britishness.

Scotland has started to unravel the mess and is moving off in its own direction.

Wales, meanwhile, could be viewed as one of the least patriotic countries in the world.

How many countries have a population which views the prospect of running its own affairs as scary and absurd? Even the Welsh party created to campaign for independence, no longer dares mention it.

How many countries don’t have any real kind of national media for the majority of its population? Don’t teach the majority of its children to speak the country’s language or about its history?

It’s likely that UKIP, an English nationalist party who recently campaigned for the abolition of the Welsh Assembly, will soon become the third largest party in Wales.

I’m sure Queen Elizabeth – the Second, by the Grace of God Queen of this Realm and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith – must be extremely annoyed by these foreigners and their use of self aggrandising names.

Bowie
The Stooges
Led Zeppelin
Prince
Jimi Hendrix

Yep, a 1990 Courier Comp with a few new bits.

The UK isn’t a country.

Is there a numberwang round?

Only if you manage to get two pink blocks in the Quizzlestick round.

He says at the start of every show that it’s basically all trickery of various types and that he has no “powers”

He doesn’t. The disclaimer he used to use disappeared years ago. He has publically stated that he’s moving away from ‘tricks’ and more towards science experiments – which is where I think he enters dodgy territory.

If get the feeling that the ‘trick’ isn’t really on the person in the programme. It’s on us, the viewers. He’s managed to convince lots of us that what he’s doing isn’t a set up, and is actually happening. I enjoy it, but much as I know Bear Grylls was never really in the middle of nowhere I am pretty sure that I’m the patsy with Derren. Doesn’t stop it being entertaining though.

I think that’s spot on. And in a way the illusion is not just on the viewer but on society in general. It’s based on creating the persona of a man of science, somebody who’s ‘honest about his dishonesty’, who uses psychological power to achieve many of his illusions. None of which are true.

The term for what he does is mentalism – not the Alan Partridge version. It’s finding ways to present convential tricks/illusions in a way which makes them appear to be something else.

Uri Geller did the same but claimed to be using psychic instead of psychological powers.

Are you persevering in insisting this to be true

Ofcom guidance on the use of contributors:
http://www.channel4.com/producers-handbook/ofcom-broadcasting-code/fairness/fairness-and-contributors%5B/url%5D

Where a contribution is significant, that is, endures over a period of time or is likely to infringe the rights of the individual, for example privacy rights in reality television show formats, it will normally be necessary to agree with the contributor, before filming begins, the nature of the programme and contribution, the parameters of filming and broadcast and the detail of all other contractual rights and obligations of the parties, in the form of a detailed contributor agreement letter.

The way Derren brown often selects his “targets” is by setting up fake casting interviews for TV shows, people who apply to attend these are also likely to apply to appear on other shows too. And this guy ended up on take me out eventually.

Nah, anyone who appears will know they’re taking part in some kind of a Derren Brown production. The exact details/name may change but they’ll know generally what they’re getting involved in.

There are a number of reasons – producer guidelines, insurance, health and safety etc.

It’s pretty funny that you think Take me Out is unscripted though

Fair point.

one of his first spectacle type things he did when he kidknapped the guy from the pub who had been playing the zombie shoot em up arcade machine, to then drop him into a ‘real life’ zombie house of horrors was priceless for the constant look of the poor guy evacuating his bowels in his trousers.

Interestingly, the guy playing the zombie arcade game later popped up as a contestant on Take Me Out. In both cases, unscripted but he knew what was expected and behaved appropriately.

Did you even watch it ?

No I didn’t but I have done some research into Derren Brown.

I spoke to a person involved in a Trick or Treat illusion about his experience. When they filmed a particualr ‘hidden’ camera sequence, he had accompanied the film crew.

It doesn’t mean that he knew what was going to happen in the illusion. But he knew he was taking part in a scenario and went along with it.

If they are “stooges” then the only ones being duped are the viewers. That would be a total waste of time surely..

It is. And it helps to create a false belief in the power of psychological effects – particularly hypnotism.

sofaboy73 I would agree they’re not stooges, not in the traditional magic sense, because they don’t know what’s going to happen. But I don’t agree that they’re unaware of taking part in a Derren Brown scenario.

They’re all Derren Brown fans for a start who have been auditioned. So what he gets people to do is no more remarkable than any stunt on I’m a Celeb.

In both cases the people taking part know that they’re not going to come to any real harm.

is it not just all made up for TV?

Aye, didn’t see it but sounds exactly the same as the other stuff he’s done in recent years. No tricks, no particular cleverness, just a Derren Brown fan dutifully playing along with a scenario he’s placed in.

His shows are no different to celebs eating insects on I’m a Celebrity.

Yes, he may have shifted things in his earlier years but in my lifetime (early 80’s onwards) I can’t think of a single noteworthy thing he’s done apart from that equally ridiculous codpiece.

Aye, he’s as important and influential to me as Captain Sensible, Chris Rea, Phil Collins and Midge Ure. He was just another one of those celebs who would pop up on kid’s TV.

He was the prancing idiot from the Dancing in the Street video. A man who, behind the changing fashions, always struck me as a profoundly dull person. Somebody with absolutely nothing to say.

His music represented everything I disliked about music in the 80s. A bland, thin, tinny and over produced noise. Syrupy songs accompanied by screechy saxophone.

And while, I’m sure he was influential. For me, it seemed a bad influence. He was the perfect pop star for the 80’s, a fairly bland and generic product who had understood how to market and rebrand himself.

He was style over substance. The inspiration for the likes of Lady Gaga.

For those of you who find it unimpressive the media time given to the death of David Bowie, I ask you: name someone else who made as much of a contribution as he did to music who died today that you’d prefer to hear about?……

Can’t answer as I feel it would be disrespectful.

Can we not just take a day – a day FFS! – and celebrate the life of someone who by anyone’s standards was pretty bloody amazing?!

At what time is it officially OK to have an opinion which doesn’t conform to your view?

Trello is good for keeping tabs on stuff.
It’s really just a glorified noticeboard that you create online.
It uses the Kanban system – a visual way of seeing what you’ve done.
So you split jobs up into tasks and track each task until it’s finished.

The BBC is scrupulously impartial when it comes to news coverage. So when they devote large swathes of their output to the death of a pop star, it’s important that they provide a balance of views.

So alongside the gushing eulogies, from people who didn’t buy his latest album, I feel a responsibility to express my personal dislike of David Bowie.

I want it placed on public record that I found his music tinny. That I always thought he looked ridiculous. That behind the theatrics and revolving hairstyles, I found him to be a dull man.

Rivethead by Ben Hamper. Chronicle of author’s life on the assembly line at General Motors in Flint, Michigan. Not the most promising subject but very entertaining.

The thing is, there’s no such thing as an impartial broadcaster or journalist. It’s not possible, even if that’s what you aspire to be.

Everything is filtered, and in the case of the BBC that’s through the thick lens of the British establishment.

It dutifully fulfills the role of a state broadcaster while presenting itself as this beacon of independence and impartiality which ‘holds power to account’ etc.

It’s a clever illusion which has been maintained since the origins of the BBC and its role in the 1926 General Strike.

Grum, I don’t think there’s anything wrong, racist or xenophobic in saying you prefer one culture over another.

It’s when it’s used to justify the invasion, colonisation and exploitation of other countries that it’s a problem. At the root of the British Empire is/was a dangerous sense of superiority.

And it wasn’t so long ago that the Welsh, Scottish and Irish were the targets – a threat to ‘British values’. Read the newspapers from 150 years ago and you’ll find similar descriptions – barbaric, savages, ill educated, violent, sexually profligate etc

So more than a thousand brown skinned people carried out, what is reported to have been, a series of orchestrated sexual assualts. This was carrried out on the crowd outside Cologne railway station on New Year’s Eve.

Well, here’s a video that purports to show this grisly, military style, attack:

https://youtu.be/4F7MVGtT9VA

Hmm…

It’s not to say that there weren’t incidents, which should be investigated, but the general media coverage of this is just unhinged.

Couple of nice places just over the road from the castle.
Cafe Citta – tiny place doing authentic Italian food.
Couple of doors away is a similar type of place called Casanova.
Both really good.

By Polish photographer, Maciej Dakowicz. Part of his Cardiff After Dark series:
Cardiff After Dark[/url]

The Open University does a course but I’m not sure how good it is.

Don’t think it’s something that can be taught really. You may be better off just dedicating some time to it and finding out yourself.

It depends what you want to specialise in but usually you would use freelancers for specifics – building a website, designing logo, writing content etc. So it’s more about coordinating those things.

On the Media
Adam Buxton
In Our Time

Isn’t that quite a tiny little shop on Crwys? Where is there room for fire?!?

I’ll have to stop by some time.

Yep, that’s the one. It’s pretty small but long and narrow. Now you mention it, I’m not sure if I’ve imagined them having a wood burner but it’s got that kind of vibe.

Cyclopedia in Cardiff. Log fire, a dog and great attitude. Unlike some places, they’re happy to fix and find bits for a 20 year old bike. One of those shops where I feel they should be charging a bit more.

Pretty much opted out of it.
Still buy people presents but that’s about it.
Seems that, despite what the adverts portray, it’s actually a time of year that makes many miserable.
Family politics and tensions. Pressures to spend lots of money on stuff people don’t really want or need…and to wear hilarious Xmas jumpers.

Red Dead Redemption. It’s bascially cowboy GTA, made by the same people but I think a better game. Just really nice vibe to it.

you only have to live in a country without an equivalent to realise what a national institution it is

Which nation is that? Because if you live in Wales or Scotland, the majority of what you see and hear is from a neighbouring country.

@SaxonRider – no, think problem was caused by Heol Goch being closed so traffic was directed up tiny Gwaelod y Garth road. Pentyrch must be a banging place to live judging by traffic.

Had a similar experience down there last weekend.

Was planning on trying to get up the steep road to Pentyrch which starts by Gwaelod y Garth pub. Thought it would be pretty much traffic free because it’s such a backwater road but it was nuts.

Tried to wobble my way up past a traffic jam on steepest bit – car horns going, people gesticulating as they tried to pass. Horrible.

Fireworks
Paul Weller’s solo career
Plaid Cymru
Beautiful scenery
Education

Xmas should be combined with poppy remembrance to create poppymas jumpers. These would become compulsory for anyone in public – a tribute to our fallen warriors and a celebration of buying tat for family members you don’t like.