2016-17 football season review

As we are now into the 2017-18 European competition qualifiers I felt I should probably get round to publishing my season review for the 2016-17 season. Seduced by the success of the Wales team at Euro 2016 I bought a "season ticket" for the 2018 World Cup qualifying  campaign that hasn't exactly reached the heights of expectation but means I have started watching international football again after a break of several years.

As per previous seasons, here are the overall stats:
Season: 2016-17
Total games: 14
Most goals in a game: 4
Fewest goals in a game: 0
Total goals seen: 26
Number of football grounds visited: 6 (3 of which I’d never visited before)

This year I saw 8 games at Cardiff City Stadium - 4 Cardiff City, 3 Wales and the UEFA Women's Champions League Final.

The games:

Cardiff City 0 v 2 Queen's Park Rangers

The mopey mascot just about sums it up for Cardiff at this point, as they were desperately poor. I was in the away end with Steve, my QPR-superfan friend. Two second half goals did for City

Weston-Super-Mare 0 v 0 Poole Town
Steve is also a Poole Town fan and persuaded me to go with him to Weston on a Tuesday evening to see the Mighty Dolphins take on the Seagull Army. (I didn't take much persuading.)

In case there was any doubt about the Seagull Army, they have a banner.

Second half we were right behind the Weston goal and I saw the keeper pull off probably the best ever save I've seen live, from point blank range. He was a nice guy too, having a chat to the fans about the various grounds in the league and who we thought were the best teams.

Cardiff 0 v 1 Reading
This game was notable for two reasons. Firstly, both sides were shambolically bad. Secondly, Reading were in a high viz yellow kit which meant the away end looked like it was packed with safety stewards.

Wales 4 v 0 Moldova
The first home game for Wales after the Euros and a trouncing for the weakest team in the group. Gareth Bale won a penalty at the death to make it more flattering than Wales really deserved. When Moldova decided to actually play they made life a bit more difficult for Wales, but they were trailing by then anyway. This game was my third of the season at Cardiff City Stadium and I was in the third different stand.

Cardiff 0 v 2 Derby
Derby's manager, Nigel Pearson, was relieved of his duties the day before this game, while City boss Paul Trollope was grimly hanging on. Grim was the operative word. I said to my friend Sara, who I was standing with at the back of the Canton Stand that they would get relegated.

Wales 1 v 1 Georgia
This was a massive let down. Wales took the lead, then lost momentum and let Georgia back in to throw away two much needed points.

Wales 1 v 1 Serbia
For the second match in a row Wales let a lead slip and this time against some of their main rivals in the group.

Poole Town 0 v 2 Ebbsfleet United
This was a long road trip with Steve, but I got to see Poole at home for the first time. I particularly liked the idea of the fundraising cheese that was on sale, although I didn't buy any.

The Poole mascot is Danny Dolphin. Amusingly he joined in the team handshakes at the start of the game.

Cardiff v Ipswich 3-1
Another Cardiff game, and another viewing angle. This time I was in the family stand with a friend who wanted to take his daughter to a football match but had never been to one himself. She loved it. He conceded at the end that it was much more enjoyable than he thought it would be.

She particularly liked it when Cardiff scored (naturally) but also when Cardiff missed and the whole crowd went 'OOOOHH' at the same time. It made me remember how much I enjoyed being part of the crowd when I was a kid at football matches. You're this tiny part of this huge organic thing and as much a part of it as anyone else.

Cardiff were much improved, having ditched Paul Trollope shortly after the Derby game and appointing veteran manager Neil Warnock. He's a bit of a marmite manager, with most people detesting him, but the turnaround at Cardiff in terms of team shape, tactics and spirit was very evident.

Shrewsbury 0 v 2 Bolton
I finally got to a Shrewsbury game for the season. Bolton were a horrible team of whinging cloggers. The game wasn't much better. There was supposed to be a minute's silence at the start but it turned into a minute's applause. The mascots joined in. I'm not sure how I feel about mascots at minute silences. It seems a bit frivolous.

Bristol Rovers 2 v 0 Shrewsbury
A game ruined by a referee who sent off a Shrewsbury forward for nothing and gave the home team a duff penalty. The rumour afterwards was that the ref went into the changing room after the game and apologised. Rovers have half a ground and we were sat under a tarpaulin roof.

Shrewsbury 1 v 0 Southend
Three points that meant Shrewsbury were almost guaranteed to stay up, which was a minor miracle given they were bottom in October when Paul Hurst took over as manager. The players did a lap of honour after the game as it was the last home game of the season - although technically they hadn't won anything, so it should probably have been called a lap of survival.

Ton Pentre 1 v 1 Port Talbot Town
Another new ground for me, this time in the Welsh League. The view around this ground, of blue grey mountains and hills is spectacular. The ground is basic, but fun. Tea served in proper mugs, and boy did we need it despite it being May. The pitch was the bounciest pitch I've ever seen. At one point a ball bounced into the stands and I swear it bounced higher off the pitch than it did off the concrete. I don't think player needed to wear studs.

I went at the invitation of my friend Ben who was playing for Port Talbot. Here's a picture of him in action.

Olympique Lyonnais 0 v 0 Paris Saint-Germain (aet) - Lyon won 7-6 on penalties
My eighth match of the season at Cardiff City Stadium. My full review of the game is here. It was the first ever women's football game I'd been to. There was a lot less diving and rolling around than in the men's final a couple of nights later.

It also contained the most amazing conclusion to a penalty shoot out, with one goalie missing and the other scoring to win the trophy. Not a bad way to end the season.

2016 film review

I watched 31 films for the first time in 2016. I've decided to lump them in to one blog post with a one paragraph review. Key: C = cinema; D = DVD; I = in-flight movie; N = Netflix

Edge of Tomorrow (D) - Tom Cruise gets to "Live, Die, Repeat" in a Groundhog Day meets Starship Troopers sci-fi adventure. I quite liked this and the idea of exploring different options each time was well done, even if I didn't see any point to the physical training every time he woke up after dying. It's not like he would keep his newly honed muscles.

Kung Fu Panda 3 (C) - the next installment in the adventures of Po the Dragon Warrior and the Furious Five kung fu masters. It was alright as sequels go, as Po and his friends teamed up against a supernatural villain seeking revenge. It has lots of Pandas in it.

Zootropolis (C) - my contender for animated film of the year. Disney do subversive quite well, and the subtext of this - politicians using fear to divide society to gain power - is very relevant. One of the characters even has a Donald Trump hair do.

(Longer reviews of Kung Fu Panda 3 and Zootropolis)

Captain America: Civil War (C) - third in the increasingly bleak Captain America series, all of which seem to end on downers. The Marvel films are a series and this one felt like one of those episodes you get to move the overall plot line on, rather than being enjoyable in their own right. You really need to have seen the previous Captain America and Avengers movies to understand what was going on, which annoys me, even though I have seen those films. There are a load of new characters now in the Marvel movies and I don't care about any of them. The best scenes were the ones with Tony Stark and yet another kid playing Spider-Man, who is now back in the mainstream Disney-owned Marvel Comics Universe instead of the pseudo one being run by Sony.

Deadpool (I) - I wasn't sure about this but I enjoyed it more than I probably should have. Ryan Reynolds obviously loved being Deadpool, although when he wasn't in the mask his 'scarred head make up' did make him look like a decrepit Ted Danson. Much was made of how Deadpool breaks the fourth wall to engage with his audience. This whole film mocks comic book movies and as such the whole thing is a fourth wall breaker.

Our Brand is Crisis (I) - Sandra Bullock plays a washed up political spin doctor who takes a job in South America running an election campaign for a deeply disliked candidate. The film was mediocre, although the comms stuff was quite interesting.

Straight Outta Compton (I) - the story of NWA, as told by the survivors (and it's noticeable how slanted it is towards them). The scene in Detroit where the band ignore police instructions not to play 'F--- the Police', and then get run off the stage by the police, was particularly memorable, as was Ice Cube's visit to his corrupt agent's office with a baseball bat.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (C) - second in the new series of films. The Turtles' good deeds get noticed by the general public. The guy from the TV series 'Arrow' plays Casey Jones. Megan Fox does her usual thing. It is very reminiscent of the cartoon series. (Which I'm not saying is a bad thing!)

The Secret Life of Pets (C) - animated film that follows some well-worn movie cliches, although it did take a diversion about halfway through with a revolutionary chihuahua advocating animal revolution against humans.

Ghostbusters (C) - the reboot more famous for daring to cast women as ghostbusters than anything else. I thought this was OK. There were some clever scenes and I enjoyed the cameos from the surviving original ghostbusters, especially Bill Murray as a sceptic unconvinced by the 'busters ghost-catching exploits. The opening scene in a supposedly haunted house that suddenly gets supernaturally invaded is genuinely creepy and very well done.

Shaun the Sheep Movie (D) - a nice, warm feature film from Aardman, with no dialogue but a lot of charm. Sean and friends go to the city in search of their farmer who has amnesia and is now lauded as a hair styling genius for his shearing skills.

Star Trek Beyond (C) - another sequel and outing for the Enterprise crew. I wasn't convinced by the motives of the main villain and there were too many convenient coincidences. There is a spectacular space habitat, though, if you are into that sort of thing. Karl Urban's version of Bones McCoy is yet again the best thing about the film. Zoe Saldana is, again, woefully under-used in a Star Trek film, which should be a crime.

Finding Dory (C) - sequel to Finding Nemo. Dory sets off to find her parents. Some fun new characters, including Hank the septipus (he only has 7 legs left) and a beluga whale who thinks his echo-location is a superpower. I was sucked in to the emotional scene at the end and got a bit moist-eyed.

Ender's Game (D) - I was sceptical if they could really make a film of the book 'Ender's Game'. My scepticism was well-founded. This film struggles to bring the source material to life and invest it with any energy because its mainly ponderous CGI. The Battle Room sequences are the best bits. Harrison Ford isn't a particularly animated actor at the best of times and was grumpily robotic. Ben Kingsley was hilariously miscast.

Suicide Squad (C) - an utter nonsense of a film, which only made money because of Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn in the trailer. There were so many things wrong with this film I probably need to do a whole separate post for it. Will Smith was woefully miscast.  Frankly, I'd have been happy to see all the members of the Suicide Squad die instead of the only interesting one.

Jason Bourne (C) - it's a 'direct by numbers' action film that rhymes with 'yawn'. I don't think there was anything in it particularly noteworthy. I did go and see it with my friend, Anthony, who is a top bloke and we had a coffee and a long chat afterwards, which was better than the film really.

The Little Prince (N) - I was very excited by this animated version of the Antoine de Saint-Exupery classic book when I saw the trailer for it, with its mix of computer and stop motion animation. I was gutted it didn't get a UK cinema release and then excited again to see it was on Netflix. But, harshly, I can see why it didn't get a release. This is one of those adaptations where they try to do something new based on the source material and missed the mark by a considerable margin. The fox character is very cute in the computer animation and beautiful in the stop-motion and that's probably the best bit.

The Lobster (N) - a weird premise. Colin Farrell stars as a man without a partner in a dystopia where you have to have one. He goes to a matchmaking hotel where he must find a new mate or be turned into an animal. The first half is darkly comic, but then he goes to live in the woods with other determined singles and it goes bleakly tragic. The turning point is a distressing scene of animal cruelty. Don't watch this film if you like dogs.

The Magnificent Seven (C) - I don't object to remakes, but if you're going to remake one of the absolute best westerns of all time you need to bring your a-game. Even Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke and Denzel Washington couldn't raise this above the mediocre. Denzel mumbled his way through most of his lines, which got very annoying.

Pride (D) - gay activists in London start raising money for striking miners during the mid-80s union-led unrest. Cue a clash of cultures between the traditional Welsh villages and the flamboyant metropolitan homosexuals. The threat of bigotry and gay-bashing, and the emergence of the AIDS epidemic gives this true life story real depth and show how far we have moved as a society.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (C) - Samuel L Jackson is making some odd film choices these days. This is one of them. It centres on a time travel plot twist, which, as ever with time travel plot twists, just doesn't work. The monsters are scary and eat eyeballs plucked from their victims' heads, which I wasn't expecting in a film pitched as a kids' film.

The Penguins of Madagascar (D) - this is silly, but miles better than Madagascar 3, which is one of the worst animated films released by a big studio I've ever seen. The Penguins are funny and the film's alright. It had enough scenes that made me laugh.

Storks (C) - I'd seen a lot of trailers and that drew the sting from this very well made animated film. Storks no longer deliver babies, just packages for an Amazon-esque company. But then a baby comes along and one stork has to cover up its mistake and deliver the baby to his waiting parents. You have to watch this just for the wolf pack. Seriously! The wolf pack!

Mascots (N) - mockumentary as various sports mascots (the guys in the big animal costumes) compete to be mascot of the year, including a chap from London who is the third member of his family to be 'Sid the hedgehog'. It's a gentle film and worth watching on Netflix, if you have it.

Trolls (C) - stupid (in a good way), bouncy, funny, singfest with some quite nasty villains who want to eat the trolls because that's the only way they can taste true happiness. I'm sure there is some kind of message in that.

I, Daniel Blake (C) - at the end of this film, as the credits started rolling, nobody moved. It was probably thirty seconds or more before people started shuffling in their seats getting ready to stand up and leave the auditorium. This is a visceral look at how years of Tory policy have weaponised the benefits system to deliberately make it hard for vulnerable people to get the help they need. There is a scene in a food bank that is beyond upsetting and lived with me for days. Heavily researched, this film wears its authenticity on its sleeve, and it is relentlessly damning of the people who engineered the situation desperate people find themselves in.

RED (N) - Bruce Willis and some other older actors play 'Retired and Extremely Dangerous' former CIA operatives, who are being targetted for some unknown reason. Except, even though they are retired, they are extremely dangerous, as the bad guys find out to their cost. A silly film, made very watchable by performances from Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren. And Bruce.

Moana (C) - Disney animation set in Polynesia. Moana must find the exiled god Maui to challenge the encroaching darkness that threatens to devour her island. Some great music and a very funny meta joke about Disney princesses add to the interesting concept. It's the first cartoon I can remember with such an emphasis on tattoos. I have doubts how accessible it would be to very young children but I really enjoyed it.

Elysium (D) - it's the future and the rich live on Elysium, an idyllic space colony, while the poor live on dust-bowl Earth. Matt Damon plays an engineer who needs to get to Elysium for life-saving medical treatment and makes a deal with a criminal gang leader to perform a heist and get a space on a shuttle trip. Jodie Foster co-stars as the Elysium security chief in what can charitably be described as not her best ever role or performance.

Star Wars Rogue One (C) - I wrote about this here. It's cured me of Star Wars.

Argo (D) - Ben Affleck won an Oscar for this. I can see why. It's a taut drama set after the American Embassy in Tehran was swamped by a mob and all its staff, bar six, are taken hostage. The CIA set up a fake movie production as cover to get the six fugitive Americans, now hiding out at the Canadian ambassador's house, out of Iran. It's the end of the 1970s. Everyone smokes, even on planes (remember that?). I knew the outcome but it was still tense right up until the final scenes. A really, really well-made film.

The big 2016 Christmas card audit

This has become an annual tradition for me. I'm a couple of weeks later this year as I had a big university project to sort in the first fortnight of January. But that's done, I have my life back and I'm back to counting Christmas cards and looking at trends. For the record, here are the figures for 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2012.

I will post some of my favourite cards later, but for now, this is one of the ones I liked the most!

I haven't gone into as much depth as I did last year on the demographics of who sent what kind of card, or had a look at which Bible verse is considered the "most Christmassy" this year. That sort of thing is probably best done biannually, so keep an eye out in January 2018. Also, this audit has attracted some attention and at least one person deliberately tried to find the most uncategorisable card possible. And failed.

Here's the figures. New or altered categories are asterisked. I've listed categories that didn't feature this year at the end. UPDATED 29 JANUARY (as someone gave us a late card)

Total number of cards: 91 (lowest ever)
Hand-made / home-produced cards: 7 (same as 2014 & 2015)
*Cards with embellishments (bits stuck on): 4
* Unusually shaped cards: 2

Cards sold in aid of charity (or fundraising): 55 (down from 60 in 2015)
Total number of charities represented: 48 (Up from 39 in 2015 and the second highest ever)
Main charity represented: Five charities had 5 cards - Macmillan, Traidcraft / SCIAF / CAFOD / Christian Aid, Sue Ryder
Notable newcomer: Donkey Sanctuary, with pictures of donkeys on the front of course!

Religious themes
Religious-themed cards: 34 (bit of a drop from 2015)
Cards featuring the Nativity: 17
Christmas story 'characters':
Three kings: 5 (not as popular as last year but still much more popular than the shepherds)
The shepherds: 1 (scored 0 in 2015, so this was a big improvement)
The star of Bethlehem: 2
Angels: 1
"Joy to the World": 1
*'Cartoony' religious (various themes): 6

Other themes 
'Peace': 1
Santa: 6 (down from 14 in 2015)
Penguins: 5 (including 3 "couples" cards saying, e.g. 'to both of you' with penguin couples on)
Various cartoon bears: 3 (still well down from the all time high of 12 in 2012)
Deer/reindeer: 4 (increase)
Christmas decorations: 5 (increase)
Christmas trees: 8 (increase)
Christmas food: 1 (decrease) - that's the puddings card, above
Robins: 2 (no change)
*Donkeys: 3
*Sheep: 1
Winter scene/scenery: 8 (increase)
Snowmen: 7 (increase)
*Licensed characters: 3

No real clear favourite themes here, but Christmas trees were surprisingly popular. After the epic collection of Dogs in Santa Hats in 2015 (see pics!), there were none this year.

Messages (front of card only)
Cards that mention 'Christmas' on the front: 29. Only 2 of them were religious themed.
*"Seasons Greetings": 1
*"Winter Wishes": 3
*"Let it Snow": 1
*"Ho Ho Ho": 2
*Mentions "Jesus": 3

Non-scoring themes (from previous audits): 'Political' fund-raising cards; Dogs in Santa Hats; Mistletoe; Owls

Back in January 2015 (when I wrote the 2014 audit results) I said I would start producing graphs and stuff in January 2016, when I had 4 years worth of results. Although I did some demographic data-crunching, I didn't do any graphs. If I have time I will try and get to it in the next couple of weeks.

It wasn't all bad... 11 new experiences of 2016

2016 was a bit of a rubbish year in lots of ways, but rather than mull over the increasingly terrible collective decisions the world seems to be making, or the long list of famous people who passed away last year, I have decided to focus on the good stuff. And for me there was a lot of good stuff. This post is about all the things I did for the very first time last year. A lot of this happened on our big holiday in pre-Trump North America, so I'm going to start there...

1) Went to Canada
There are loads of things I did for the first time in on our road trip to the USA and Canada, in terms of visiting places I'd not been to before (like Niagara Falls, or the Baseball Hall of Fame), but I'm going to lump all of those things in under this heading.

2) Ate fried pickles
Just one of the new culinary experiences of our road trip. We also ate at a Vegan Diner and on another occasion had poutine. But fried pickles were the new food of the year.

3) Went to a Baseball match on a giveaway night
'Star Wars night' made seeing the Boston Red Sox even more special. We also saw a baseball game in Toronto, with the Rodgers Stadium dome closed - the first time I'd ever seen baseball "indoors".

4) Saw a moose
OK, it was in a zoo, but it counts.

5) Checked into a hotel then checked straight back out again
The lowlight of our road trip was a disastrous hotel booking in Albany, New York. But it was a totally new experience for me.

So, enough about our road trip, here are some other things.

6) Saw Shrewsbury Town finally beat Cardiff City in Cardiff. 
It had been a long time coming, but I was finally present (in one of Cardiff's record lowest crowds at their new stadium) to see Shrewsbury beat them.

7) Got on a plane unaccompanied
I went to a conference in Glasgow and flew there from Bristol. It was the first time I had ever travelled by plane on my own, having always had Cathy, or family, or colleagues with me on previous flights.

8) Saw Celtic play
A childhood ambition ticked off

9) Went to Spain
Again, this was for a work conference. I took plenty of photos of Valencia by night. I loved it.

10) Rode through a bus wash
Seriously, this was one of the best things I did last year.

11) Going to a cartoon festival
I love cartoons and one of our favourite cartoonists was at the Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival, we decided we had to go. We met her again a few weeks later, in her studio in Massachusetts.

Football season review 2015-16

It's the end of the football season and here is my review of the games I went to. The asterisks indicate the football grounds I watched a game at for the very first time.

First, here are the overall stats:
Season: 2015-16
Total games: 11
Most goals in a game: 7
Fewest goals in a game: 0
Total goals seen: 23
Number of football grounds visited: 8 (4 of which I’d never visited before)

Newport County v Queen's Park Rangers (friendly)
Score: 0-0
This was memorable mainly for the utter torrent of rain that drenched the Londoners who had forgotten that it always rains in Wales and had turned up in shorts. One of those games that could have been played forever and still been goalless.

Welcoming sign; inclement weather

Action shot of Spytty the dog

Shrewsbury Town v Millwall (League 1)
Score: 1-2
First home game of the season. First defeat. Set a pattern for the season really. The deciding goal was a penalty that was more of a penalty won than a penalty conceded.

Yeovil Town* v QPR (League Cup 1st round)
Score: 0-3
My first trip to Huish Park. I was a Hoop for the night. QPR ran out fairly easy 3-0 winners in the end.

Borrowed shirt.

Shrewsbury Town v Crewe Alexandra (League 1)
Score: 0-1
Crewe were bottom of the league having not won a match by this point (we were about 8 games in). They finished bottom of the league at the end of the season. Of course they won this game as Shrewsbury's players seemed to have forgotten what sport they were playing.

Pink bibs in the warm up. It was downhill from here.

Reading* v QPR (Championship)
Score: 0-1
I'd not been to Reading's Madjeski Stadium before. It was pretty impressive. This was Neil Warnock's last game in charge at QPR before being replaced by Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. Reading boss Steve Clarke was sacked the following morning as well. I think this is the first time I've been at a game that was the last game for both managers. The game was pretty dire and QPR nicked it at the end with a bundled in goalmouth scramble.

It filled up a bit for the actual game

Bristol City* v QPR (Championship)
Score: 1-1
Another QPR game. Another new ground. For a long time it looked like Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink would finally see his new side win. But Bristol City equalised. I was impressed with how he stood and shook the hands of all his players as they came off at the end. That's class.

Flags to greet the players as they enter the pitch

Shrewsbury Town v Fleetwood Town (League 1)
Score: 1-1
Shrewsbury struggled to make any headway against another struggling team. At this point I felt Shrewsbury were very likely relegation candidates.

Cardiff City v Shrewsbury Town (FA Cup 3rd round)
Score: 0-1
This was odd. The game was on a Sunday night. Most of the ground was empty as Cardiff fans were protesting something. It was also live on S4C. And yet, it's the first time I've seen Shrewsbury win in Cardiff.

Not many more arrived.

Seriously, this was about it.

Barry Town United v The New Saints (Welsh Cup 4th round)
Score: 2-5 (the most goals seen in a game all season)
Full write up here. Highly enjoyable game.

Shrewsbury Town v Manchester United (FA Cup 5th round)
Score: 0-3
Given everything that has happened at Manchester United since they went on to win the cup a few days ago, and the season they had, this was a real missed opportunity. Shrewsbury kind of choked. This was the third game in a row that I'd been to that was also live on telly. Full write up here.

Celtic* v Dundee (Scottish Premier League)
Score: 0-0
Full write up here. This turned out to be my final game of the season. It feels apt that my season began and ended with 0-0 draws. The essence of football, right there.

And now, bring on the Euros...

Previous seasons: 2014-15

2016 Welsh Assembly election UPDATED communications overview

Some more electoral bumf has come through the door. Yay. So, I'm updating the review I posted last week. We have material from two parties not mentioned before, and new material from three others.

New leaflets

The following parties haven't been in further contact, so keep their scores from last time:
Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party = 0
Women's Equality Party = 1
UKIP = disqualified

Same rules as before. Here we go.

Party: The Green Party
Candidate: Anthony Slaughter
Previous point total = 4
New point awarded
bumf = 1
promises = 0
contact = 0
candidate photos = 1
Cymraeg = 1
total = 3
Points deducted
blame = 0
mud slinging = 0
photos of opponents = 0
sloganeering = 8 (it feels cruel but there is no substance to any of their aims)
typos = 0
REVISED GRAND TOTAL = 2
Update comment: It feels mean that they score so low, given how relentlessly positive and hopeful their leaflets are. But, bottom line is, I'm a pragmatist and want to know what you would actually do, not read your wishlist.

Party: Labour

Candidate: Vaughan Gething

Previous point total = 17

New points awarded

bumf = 2

promises = 1 new one (an environment plan to collect water in Grangetown). There's also an extensive list of things Labour is apparently already working on such as the redevelopment of a leisure centre.

contact = nothing new

candidate photos = 3, including one with Vaughan and a fire engine

Cymraeg = 0

additional points = 6

Points deducted

blame = 0

mud slinging = 2 (reference to broken Tory election promises and how the Tories have "abandoned young people")

photos of opponents = 0

sloganeering = 0 

typos = 0 (although some of the text has flowed a bit wrong on one of the leaflets)

REVISED GRAND TOTAL = 21

Update comment: As mentioned there is a big list of things Labour are doing and introducing. I like that Vaughan is putting out there what he and his party have done rather than slagging off other parties. Also a good use of photos showing him out and about. 

Party: Liberal Democrats

Candidate: This is a list leaflet although the main name mentioned on there is Eluned Parrott, so let's say it's her

Points awarded

bumf = 1

promises = 3 (safe nurse staffing levels and smaller infant school class sizes, cutting business rates on plant and machinery)

contact = 0

candidate photos = 2. I think. If we count Eluned as the candidate.

Cymraeg = 0

total = 6

Points deducted

blame = 1 (it's all Labour's fault!)

mud slinging = agh, so much! The Liberal Democrat invective machine is back up and running. I count 8 specific instances of negative comments about Labour.

photos of opponents = 0

sloganeering = 4

typos = 0

GRAND TOTAL = -7

Verdict: Why do the Liberal Democrats always go negative? It wouldn't be so bad if they offered concrete options but it's all wishy-washy stuff like a promise to "build an 'Opportunity Economy'" and stuff. OK. What does that look like then?

Party: Plaid Cymru

Candidate: Dafydd Trystan Davies

Previous point total = 7

New points awarded

bumf = 2 (1 local, one regional)

promises = 1 (electrification of the railways)

contact = still 0 (Come on, people, these are the easy points)

candidate photos = 3

Cymraeg = 2 (as you'd expect)

total = 7

Points deducted

blame = nobody really

mud slinging = 3 - two references to Labour's failures and also saying Labour has 'run out of steam'

photos of opponents = 0

sloganeering = I'm going to ding them 3 because, e.g. although they say they are going to invest in specific hospitals they don't say what that investment would be aiming to do

typos = 0

REVISED GRAND TOTAL = 8

Further comment: I'm not convinced that Plaid Cymru could pay for everything they want to do. Or that they have thought through their promises. Where exactly are they going to get 1,000 doctors from, for example? But still, generally a positive campaign.

And finally... Vapers in Power

Party: Vapers in Power

Candidate: Bernice Evans

Points Awarded

bumf = 1 (regional list leaflet)

promises = 0 really, although it mentions three places where they think vapers should be allowed to vape

contact = 0 but they do have a hashtag

candidate photos = 1

Cymraeg = 1

total = 3

Points deducted

blame = 2 (The Welsh Health Minister, Mark Drakeford, and the lying media). There's also the comment that vapers will "soon be brutalised by European legislation". Sort of some preemptive blame there.

mud slinging = 1 (their hashtag is anti-Labour)

photos of opponents = 0

sloganeering = 1 (a threat to hold "spreaders of malicious untruths" accountable. How?)

typos = I'm going to ding them 1 for a terrible run on sentence. There are a few garbled sentences so I think this is fair.

GRAND TOTAL = -2

Verdict: A one issue party about an issue that doesn't exercise me in the slightest. Very emotive language from someone who doesn't think anyone should tell her what to do. I am interested to see how many people bother to vote for this.

The election is on Thursday. Any more reviews will probably be after the fact now.

All the links to previous elections are in this overview of trends.

2016 Welsh Assembly election communications overview

I’ve been doing my reviews of electoral communications for a few years now (see an overview of the trends here). We have just over a week to go until the next Assembly election, so here’s my overview of the bumf we’ve had through the door so far.

Lots of people want our vote...

I’m going to use the same marking system as I did back in 2015. Candidates are awarded points for:

~ number of pieces of bumf through the door

~ number of definite promises they make

~ number of ways they offer you to get in touch, not including generic websites

~ number of different candidate photos, with bonus points if they are with the party leader

~ a point for bilingual Welsh/English leaflets

Candidates are dinged points for

~ the number of other people they blame for the mess we're in,

~ number of negative comments about other parties (mud slinging)

~ photos of politicians belonging to other parties

~ meaningless ‘slogan’ promises e.g. ‘I’m going to fight for Welsh jobs’

And new for this year, I’m going to ding for typos because if you can’t be arsed to proofread your leaflet then you should be punished.

This time round I’m going to list them alphabetically by party name.

Party: Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party

Candidate: none (they’re only going for the regional vote)

Points awarded

bumf = 1

promises = 1 (abolish the Welsh Assembly)

contact = 0

candidate photos = n/a

Cymraeg = 0

total = 2

Points deducted

blame = 1 (the Welsh Assembly is at fault for everything, it seems)

mud slinging = 0

photos of opponents = 0

sloganeering = 0

typos = 1 (“A talking supermarket that we didn’t wants and time has shown...)

GRAND TOTAL = 0

Verdict: this has all the hallmarks of a lone nutter with a grudge against the Welsh Assembly. One of the comments in the leaflet is ‘What has the Welsh Assembly ever done for us?’ Well, er, kept our NHS true to its ideals and in a related note given us free prescriptions.

Party: Green Party

Candidate: Anthony Slaughter in the constituency and four others on the regional list

Points awarded

bumf =2

promises = 0 (lots of slogans)

contact = 3 (Twitter, Facebook, personal email)

candidate photos =5 (all four regional candidates, including Anthony and a different one of Anthony on the constituency leaflet)

Cymraeg =2 (both leaflets fully bilingual)

total = 12

Points deducted

blame = 0

mud slinging = 0

photos of opponents = 0

sloganeering = The constituency leaflet has 6 things that a “Green voice in the Senedd will fight for” but with no concrete options. There’s another one on the regional leaflet, so 7 slogans in total.

typos = 1 (they medded up their bullet points on the regional leaflet)

GRAND TOTAL = 4

Verdict: On a personal level I agree with all their aims, but it feels like wishful thinking. If they had put one concrete idea behind any of their pledges I’d take them more seriously. How are they going to deliver “Sustainable and vibrant communities” for example? What does that even mean?

Party: Labour

Candidate: Vaughan Gething

Points awarded

bumf = 2

promises = 6 (e.g. create 100,000 new apprenticeships, NHS treatments fund, free childcare

contact =6 (Twitter, Facebook, email, mobile number, personal website, real world address)

candidate photos = 5 across the 2 leaflets. One of them is in front of the Grange fish bar. Yeah!

Cymraeg = 0

total = 19

Points deducted

blame = 0

mud slinging = 2 (The Tories are a threat to education and local government services)

photos of opponents = 0

sloganeering = 0

typos = 0 (although some of the text has flowed a bit wrong on one of the leaflets)

GRAND TOTAL = 17

Verdict: Vaughan spends a lot of his communication talking about what he has achieved as the Assembly Member for the past term. There’s a big bit bigging up NHS Wales. He also has three local residents endorsing him, which is a nice touch. 17 is the best score Labour have ever achieved in these ratings.

Party: Plaid Cymru

Candidate: Dafydd Trystan Davies (but we also got one for Cardiff Central candidate Glyn Wise)

Points awarded

bumf = 3 (although one is probably a mistake)

promises = 9

contact = All generic so 0 (oof, these are the easy points in this scoring system)

candidate photos = 2 (possible more on the regional leaflet, but it’s unclear)

Cymraeg = 3 – properly bilingual throughout

total = 17

Points deducted

blame = it’s all Labour’s fault, apparently. 1 point.

mud slinging = 5 different pops at Labour

photos of opponents = 0

sloganeering = 4 and lots of promises to “work tirelessly” if elected

typos = 0

GRAND TOTAL = 7

Verdict: The leaflets mention how Labour have had 17 years in power “with little to show for it” but neglect to add that a good chunk of that was in coalition with, er, Plaid Cymru. Bit of an omission.

Party: Women’s Equality Party

Candidate: none (regional list only)

Points awarded

bumf = 2

promises = 0

contact = 0 (but they do have English and Welsh hashtags)

candidate photos = 1, possibly? It’s of 4 women, one of whom is wearing a Women’s Equality badge

Cymraeg = 1 (but only just – the Welsh side doesn’t have a photo and looks like an after-thought)

total = 4

Points deducted

blame = 0

mud slinging = 0

photos of opponents = 0

sloganeering = 3, although there is a lot of positive thinking without any substance behind it

typos = 0

GRAND TOTAL = 1

Party: UKIP

Candidate: Mohammed Sarul-Islam

Wait, he’s not our candidate. He’s standing in Cardiff Central! DISQUALIFIED!

Can't vote for you
even if I wanted to!

For interest, here’s the promises in Mr Islam’s leaflet:

Introduce locally elected health boards

Introduce university technical colleges to teach vocational trade skills

Reintroduce grammar schools

Cut fees for STEM students

Devolve economic development powers to local councils

Scrap the Severn Bridge tolls

And here are the meaningless unsubstantiated slogans:

Support long-term investment in staff and resources for a better NHS

Treat cancer as a top priority

UKIP will hold the Welsh Government accountable

Bring jobs into the local area

And this statement that isn’t really a promise or anything:

UKIP opposes tax raising powers being devolved to the Assembly without a referendum (they love their referendums)

All the links to previous elections are in this overview of trends.