Beginning of the End

Since August I've been asking myself, "Why am I still doing this?"

I can't come up with any good reason. After the last few posts you can probably tell I'm getting tired of it and find it so joyless it's hard to call this a hobby but more like "unpaid labour nobody asked me to do or needs".

The irony is the site is (statistically) more popular than ever, but it's a mirage. Owen doesn't exist anymore. Owen is a shell.

Due to changes in social media algorithms, getting people to even see the posts is becoming as much a task as writing them.

So despite not having much in the way of journalistic credibility anyway, this site is becoming a victim of "fake news" too. A sensationalist, rumour-mongering post on a local community page that take seconds to write gets more eyes than I would get in several weeks. I'm not bitter as it was an inevitable change (blogs were outdated when I started this, let alone now) and maybe that's simply the way things are going to be from now on.

Also, if the BBC, social media and the Assembly themselves are to take the lead in coverage of Welsh politics then there's no future for this site (in a good way). If those with more more resources at their disposal are going to do it, I sure as hell don't need to do it anymore and the events of the last few weeks have flagged up just how pointless and unnecessarily risky a task this is. There are also standards I wouldn't compromise either – I don't want to start regurgitating press releases or bringing in things like advertising or paywalls just to give me an incentive to keep going.

My defence posts were supposed to be a finale, but I kept going to work on the background underpinning a Welsh "Wee Blue Book" for Yes Cymru. After about 8-9 months on-off work the first draft was finished in September and it looks like there'll be more news in the new year.

In terms of the detailed stuff on this site, there's a lot to do *clears throat*: fiscal policy, tax, economic development, energy, water, national parks, climate change, farming, animal welfare & conservation, tourism, heritage, the arts, Welsh language, immigration/nationality/asylum, foreign aid, sport, housing, social care, education, the NHS, currency/monetary policy, policing, criminal justice, infrastructure/transport, industrial relations, social justice & equalities, welfare, the constitution....and there's probably around a dozen "Independence Minutiae" topics I can choose from.

There's enough material for years, but it comes back to, "Do I want to keep going and why?"

The answer's perhaps simple and tied to why I support independence – so nobody else will end up like me. It's pure grunt work and despite being written off and dismissed all the time without anyone giving me a chance, or being an after-thought, I clung to a belief that if you take the time to think things through, and present a reasoned argument, you can make a difference, start a debate and the hard work will become it's own reward.

So in some distant future, we'll shake off the cynicism and the chips on our shoulder and get a bit more confidence so nobody in, and no part of, Wales will be left behind anymore or feel "stuck" where they are. We'll start taking control of our own actions and not seek the simplest answer to everything - blame everyone else.

Safe to say that in a post-truth 2016 that's nothing more than self-indulgent bollocks. People will always take the opinions of those who shout in their face the loudest (literally or figuratively) more seriously than actually thinking about things for themselves. They want to be angry, they want a knee-jerk solution to everything and they want to have someone to blame.

Perhaps the time when people are interested in big ideas is over because nothing's worked. Or maybe, like many other people, I've stopped caring. Or care too much and not seen anything in return. I don't know. Maybe this is an "end of the beginning" instead.

Top 10 Posts of 2016

1. Brexit: Why did Wales vote Leave?
2. Can Porthcawl be reconnected to rail?
3. Brackla Station News & Tondu Expansion
4. When Politicians S**t Their Pants
5. Defending Wales II: Our Military Role
6. Carmarthenshire's Roll of Dishonour
7. Defending Wales V: In The Air
8. Election 2016: The Results
9. A Guide to the Welsh Third Sector
10. Welsh Political Tropes

Honourable mentions:

• Election 2016 – The Manifestos : Plaid Cymru
• EU Referendum: The Results
• Defending Wales I : What does Wales need defending from?
• Boundary Commission Carves-Up Wales
• The Big Brexit To Do List

On to plans for 2017. I'll finish the Vice Nation series by looking at junk food, gambling and issues surrounding sex (pornography, prostitution, sex education etc.). The latter's pretty much finished, though I'm holding it off until February.

I still intend to cover the local elections (at a Bridgend level and nationally) starting in early March, though there are ongoing rumours there may be a snap UK general election next spring, probably hinging on the Supreme Court Article 50 judgement. I don't think it'll happen, personally (....and I hope not for my sanity's sake).

After that - nothing.

If I'm still around it'll either be currency or immigration (maybe both, but probably neither). The Broadcasting Wales series is due a Defending Wales style update/overhaul too as it's already looking dated, while the media situation in Wales has changed and not necessarily for the better.

It's too early to say I'm going to "retire". This has been an extraordinarily exhausting year in blogging/political terms, and the only people who will appreciate how much work it is are other bloggers, so maybe I'm just burned out and the break's come at the right time ("break" for me meaning one or two days off whilst writing another dozen blogs that won't be published for weeks; case in point, I've already started on the Youth Work inquiry).

It depends where my head is come May, but when I say I'm going to do something I usually do it and there's a growing sense the site has finally outlived its usefulness and maybe outstayed its welcome too.

Nevertheless, for the time being I'll be back on 2^nd January. Nadolig Llawen.