Susie Dent is a lexicographer and etymologist who has appeared in “Dictionary Corner” on the Channel 4 game show Countdown since 1992.
Susie also has a presence on man-baby Elon Musk’s Twitter/X social media platform and usually posts her own chosen word of the day, which is frequently influenced by that particular day’s news agenda.
Here is her contribution for today, 6th November 2024, following on from the news that disgraced former president, insurrectionist, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual predator, business fraudster, congenital liar and golf cheat Donald John Trump has been elected the 47th president of the USA.
All your ‘umble scribe will say is that the US was faced with an IQ test yesterday: and failed it; abysmally.
In more modern times the development of the British state has resulted in the creation of a colonial administrator in Whitehall in the shape of the Secretary of State for Wales, as well as a corresponding position in the official opposition’s shadow cabinet..
Where possible these positions have usually been filled by someone of Welsh origins or having at least some tangible or imagined connection to Cymru; the current Secretary of State is Jo Stephens, who was born in Abertawe (aka as Swansea by monoglots. Ed.)and brought up in Mynydd Isa . However, this is not always possible.
At the July general election, the governing Conservatives lost all their seats in Wales to other parties – Plaid Cymru, the LibDems and the victorious Labour Party. Overall, the Blue Team’s parliamentary representation was reduced from 344 to a rump of 121.
Such a collapse has implications for the depth and extent of any talent pool – never a very deep or extensive body of water to begin with – available to the party leader when forming the shadow cabinet, as the Blue Team’s new leader Kemi Badenoch has discovered.
With not a single Tory MP from a Welsh constituency to choose, Ms Badenoch has had to resort to picking an English MP, and has alighted on Mims Davies, the member for East Grinstead and Uckfield in Sussex, as reported by Wales Online which helpfully points out that Ms Davies' constituency is 200 miles away from Cymru's administrative capital of Caerdydd/Cardiff.
What about that tenuous Welsh connection? It would appear that apart from having a Welsh surname, Ms Davies’ only link to Cymru is that she just happened to study politics and international relations at university in Abertawe, according to her Wikipedia entry.
Ms Davies’ affinity to the Home Counties reminds your ‘umble scribe of the appointment of another Tory Home Counties dishonourable member to the post of actual Secretary of State for Wales – one John Redwood, who served for the best part of two years in that capacity and whose most memorable act in all that time was not know the words of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau and attempting to mime them, a scene that was captured in video (he’s no Jeff Astle! Ed.).
With not a single Tory MP from a Welsh constituency to choose, Ms Badenoch has had to resort to picking an English MP, and has alighted on Mims Davies, the member for East Grinstead and Uckfield in Sussex, as