From the 'great abstainer' to a Euro no-brainer for Wales

Oh yes he’s the “great abstainer” and he’s “pretending that he’s doing well” in a lovely series of little podcasts being put out on Instagram at great expense by the Conservative Party... but money well spent on Alun “Friend of Israel” Cairns as it’s only a drop in the ocean in comparison to the Tory government’s investment on kid-killing weapons to bolster Benjamin Netanyahu’s campaign of genocidal ethnic cleansing in Gaza.

As The Platters sang in the their famous ballad, Cairns’ needs must be such that he “pretends too much”… he’s rattled and we all can tell! Oh yes, he’s the great abstainer adrift in a world of his own, his need to be all that he’s not has left him to “dream all alone”.

“Too real is this feeling of make-believe”... too real when he feels what his deeds can't conceal, the campaign of genocide he condones. Yes, he’s the great abstainer “just laughing and gay like a clown”. He pretends to be all that he’s not and he’s wearing his guilt “like a crown”.

He’s pretending and praying his fibs seem profound but he’s Alun and, to paraphrase a Benny Hill classic, he “spins the biggest bull**it in the west”. No mean feat I’ll have you know when he’s competing against Rishi Sunak, Boris Johnson, Keir Starmer and the like.

No announcement yet on when the United Kingdom will go to the polls this year but Cairns isn’t going to sit back and let his complicity in genocide be what you think of when you see his name on the ballot sheet, he’s got Tory dosh to invest in a cute little online campaign that, unfortunately for him, simply confirms the great “abstainer on the Gaza ceasefire vote” as the pretender he really is.

The complicity of Cairns and his cohorts in Westminster, not all Conservative I hasten to add, has seen the entire surviving population of Gaza herded south into Rafah, an area roughly the size of Heathrow Airport, to flee Israel’s five-month campaign of genocide further north.

But now there’s nowhere left for them to run and unless the world’s leaders finally intervene an atrocity of unimaginable proportions could be about to unfold.

On Tuesday night, while Israel’s terror bombing campaign targeted Rafah in earnest, Palestine solidarity action took to the streets around the world to beseech callous politicians to come to the rescue of the innocent children and civilians being slaughtered by Israel, still clinging to its 7 October fantasy as justification for the genocide.

For five months now the regular Saturday Cardiff marches in solidarity for Palestine have been almost completely ignored by the Wales On Sunday newspaper but when Tuesday night’s protest blocked Castle Street by the entrance to Cardiff’s most famous landmark for more than an hour I hoped the Western Mail, another of the MediaWales titles I used to work on, couldn’t possibly ignore it too.

But the now Reach-owned daily did just that, a picture of a rugby player returning from injury being the main image and a story on a trial hearing about a man beating his brother to death forming the lead for the Valentine’s Day edition.

There was some token coverage on the world pages about the Rafah attack prompting an urgent ceasefire request to the United Nations International Court of Justice and Starmer rejecting candidate Azhar Ali for the Rochdale by-election as part of a pledge to tear antisemitism out of Labour’s ranks.

Clearly Ali was not supporting Starmer in condoning Israel’s campaign of genocide in Gaza. And, if the definition of antisemitism is to not support genocide in Palestine, then I’d hope all politicians would support it too… which means I’m hoping Labour has no takers to stand for the Rochdale by-election. And although I’d hate a Tory to be voted in, hopefully there’s another “genuine” candidate up for election too.

But Starmer, who attends London’s Liberal Jewish Synagogue with his wife attorney Victoria Alexander and their family, is clearly a true Zionist at heart and just the man to replace Sunak in allowing Israel free rein to slaughter Palestinian children if the tide turns away from the Tory leader. Heavens to Murgatroyd the UK electorate is really caught between a rock and a hard place isn’t it? Genocide from both sides of the divide!

In 30 years as a journalist I can think of no other time when a capital’s main thoroughfare being closed for an hour by a protest against the slaughter of innocent children would not have made the front page of that nation’s flagship newspaper. But these are different times we live in. News, when it shows Israel to be the monstrous terrorist state that it is, is definitely not fit to print. Shame on you Western Mail!

People ask me how I am so convinced my views about world events are on the money right now, but it’s quite easy to understand… when genocide is ignored by the mainstream media something has gone radically wrong with society. I didn’t live through it, but my history teachers assured me that was what happened during Adolf Hitler’s regime in Germany in World War II.

Tomorrow (Saturday, 17 February) sadly I’ll be back tramping the roads of Cardiff – on another humanitarian crusade for Palestine, which the mainstream media will no doubt do its damnedest to ignore – having been diverted to Swansea last week for what was a global day of protest in support of the tragic loss of life in Gaza. First time I’d been to Swansea in more than 10 years, but it hadn’t changed much.

Now almost on a daily basis humanitarians are recognising Israel as the pariah state that it is and are showing their support for Palestine in whatever way they can. On Thursday last week I made a first visit to Le Pub for a night of music and poetry at an event organised by Newport Palestine Solidarity Campaign, where it was heartening to see a room packed with people from all walks of life speaking out against the genocide.

The main attraction for the evening was Penarth-born singer-songwriter Martyn Joseph, whose name rang a bell as he’d penned the song On This Celtic Morning for the 2010 Ryder Cup.

I’d remembered a conversation I’d had with a friend about writing a piece on it for a golf website I was developing at the time and learning that they’d been classmates at Stanwell School and Albert Primary in Penarth. That was my only knowledge of Joseph before the event at Le Pub, but it was enough of an introduction to learn more about his humanitarian work for causes from Nepal to Haiti and Uganda to Palestine.

His Let Yourself Trust, a non-profit organisation, provides funding for and informs on a wide variety of projects and justice movements in all segments of society globally and locally without being held hostage to any particular ideology – only one of change and hope.

It was very refreshing to listen to his passion for these causes and particularly the Alrowwad Children’s Theatre in Bethlehem, which sparked the establishment of the trust that now helps projects in 19 countries around the globe.

He’s an inspirational guy and his humanity shines through in his music, which during last week’s performance I heard likened to that of the more famous Cat Stevens… so I guess Stevens must be a pretty hot performer then.

Apart from being deeply saddened and ashamed by the inhumanity shown by the likes of Sunak, Cairns, Starmer and the other heartless apologies for human beings who walk the corridors of power, Joseph and I share another thing in common, the same year of birth.

It’s probably just me looking for some hope that fate will intervene to assist humanity in coming to the rescue of the children of Gaza but Joseph and I also have a more famous critic of injustice who shares our year of birth, although he’s from Leicester not South Wales.

BBC football presenter and former England star Gary Lineker was also born in the same month and year as me, although he’s aged a lot better than I. And just as with Joseph there are some parallels to our lives.

Lineker’s parents had a stall at Leicester Market where my brother, a teacher in the city, and I used to shop when I visited… but I don’t remember if he taught at a school Lineker had attended.

We’d also go to the Willie Thorne snooker club in the city for a few frames during my stays and my brother would tell me how he’d bumped into Lineker, a friend of Thorne, on a few occasions there as he was still a Leicester player at the time.

I don’t watch the BBC these days and seldom catch Match Of The Day but I am aware Lineker has been reprimanded on a few occasions for his outspoken views about injustice so I hope I can somehow appeal to him to back calls for Wales to boycott next month’s Euro 2024 play-offs, which also include Israel, albeit in a different qualifying path.

The play-offs get underway in around six weeks and I’d hate Rob Page’s side to have to pull out but participating in a competition that includes a side from a state carrying out genocide is totally untenable as far as I’m concerned.

So, if Europe’s governing body has lost its grip on humanity, it falls on the teams taking part to stand for justice and I beseech the Football Association of Wales to lead the way.

I’d love to be cheering the Wales team on in Germany this summer... and to witness them become European champions would have meant the world to me, at any other time, but not now at the expense of thousands of innocent children, it would be too high a price to pay.

Come on Wales, take a stand for humanity… if Israel’s in, we have to pull out!