What is Gavin Henson's Problem? Answers on a Postcard Please

Only last month I wrote here about my exasperation at the Welsh enigma that is Gavin Henson.

At the time I was hoping that Warren Gatland would reject calls to name him in Wales' 6 Nations Squad. As it happens, days after I wrote that blog post, he was injured and was automatically ruled out of the tournament so the decision didn't have to be taken.



Henson signed for Saracens on October 28th - he left
them yesterday on February 2nd. Where's the respect?



But his decision today to move to the fashionable southern French club of Toulon, after barely 3 months and just 4 appearances (only one of which was a start) for Saracens after his controversial move to London from the Ospreys just beggars belief.

Yet, I was under the impression that he was dedicated to his family and that his move to London was made so that he could be closer to his children. Am I missing something?

Clearly I am because unless Charlotte Church has moved to France away from the gaze of the roaming paparazzi then the only recognisable British face that Henson will find on his arrival will be that of Jonny Wilkinson.

There is so much to question when it comes to Gavin Henson. To me, all he wants is the glamour and the attention. The showboating has no place in the Welsh national team and unless he changes his ways which I very much doubt, then I don't how how he could fit back into a future Welsh squad.

As we face England in the opening encounter tomorrow, I know one thing for sure. We have a better chance of winning without Gavin Henson.

In which case, I suppose Saracens should breathe a sigh of relief.

BBC Wales Rugby Adverts at their best - Wales Vs England? Bring It On!



My Welsh Hero in the 1990s -
Neil Jenkins

 Tomorrow sees the start of the 6 Nations. Wales play England in the opener and it should be a great beginning to the tournament.

Over the past 20 years, since I can remember, the championship has always been built up for me with the quality of the BBC Wales and S4C adverts running up to the big kick-off.

2011 is no different. Here is S4Cs stirring advert for tomorrow's match. No proud Welsh patriot could fail to be stirred by the sight of Barry John, Phil Bennett and Neil Jenkins pulling on that famous red jersey.

The melodic sound of Cerys Matthews singing Ar Hyd Y Nos is the icing on the cake.



Mind you, this is one in a long line of memorable Welsh BBC rugby advertising.

Here for example, is a cartoon advert during 'The Great Redeemer' Graham Henry's time in charge. Note also, the Stereophonics cameo. It was time then, for Henry's Heroes.



Indeed, here's another.



But anyway, less of that.

Because for all it's worth, as Kelly Jones from the Stereophonics said...

C'MON CYMRU!

A Sam Cooke Hymn for Egyptians Today - A Change is Gonna Come

It's a haunting song, sang by the maestro Sam Cooke. It spoke of the Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the early 1960s.

But for those in Egypt today who feel that President Hosni Mubarak's words in his recent address didn't go far enough and to those who are fighting inequality and injustice around the world, these words sang by Cooke feel particularly apt right now.

'A Change is Gonna Come'.

My Internet Stat Porn Monthly Report (5)

This is my fifth monthly round of blog figures for anyone who is remotely interested in who reads my little blog. These stats for the month of January come courstesy of google analytics.

Another Record Breaking Month
After the record breaking month of December, I expected things to cool down somewhat in January. But to the contrary, I wrote a record 42 blog posts this month, up from the then record of 38 in December.

So, here come the stats...

In January, I had a record 2,370 absolute unique visitors to my blog - up from the 1,702  record of December, 1,024 in November, 701  in October and 597 in September. The 2,370 visitors visited the blog on 2,668 occasions (up from 2,180 in December,1,396 in November and 1,107 in October) and viewed 4,240 pages (up from 3,435 in December, 1,991 in November and 1,711 pages in October). So the number of 'hits' to my blog continues from month to month.

The top 10 stories by direct page views that you've read this month were:

1. 'The King's Speech' - The Book Vs The Film (SPOILER WARNING!)
2. My Sports Personality of the Year - Phil 'The Power' Taylor
3. Has Mark Webber Blown It?
4. Lib Dem defection to Labour akin to jumping onboard the Titanic
5. An Anfield Farce - Liverpool FC in Turmoil
6. Why I'm not accepting Ed Miliband's offer of joining the Labour Party
7. The Sydney Morning Herald verdict - Australia's Worst XI
8. Liberty Vs Security - Lib Dems get Detention without Charge Progress
9. Minimum Alcohol Pricing - Good or Bad?
10. The reports of the Lib Dem death are greatly exaggerated

A typical mix of politics, sport, and the movies then.

In fact, my 'The King's Speech' - The Book Vs The Film (SPOILER WARNING!) blog post has been read more rapidly in recent days than it had when I first wrote it. It is now already the second most read blog post that I have written. It lies behind my Has Mark Webber Blown It? post, which although written on October 31st, continues to pull in pageviews on a constant basis and was my 3rd most read post this month. My Sports Personality of the Year - Phil 'The Power' Taylor post has moved up from 8th in December to be my No.2 in January and is my 4th most read blog post of all time. These 'slow-burning' blog posts have really helped my blog stats to keep ticking over nicely.

Of all of the blog visitors, 15.37% were through direct traffic (up from 13.58% in December), 62.26% came from referring sites (up from 53.81% ) and 22.26% via search engines (down from 32.61%).

My top 10 referring/search engine sites for the last month were (with change from December):
1. Google (No Change)
2. Facebook (No Change)
3. Lib Dem Blogs (No Change)
4. Lib Dem Voice (No Change)
5. Blogger. com (No Change)
6. Twitter (No Change)
7. Iaindale.blogspot.com (New Entry)
8. Mobile Facebook (-1)
9. Peterblack.blogpost (New Entry)
10. Yahoo (New Entry)

A surprise this month was being included in one of the 'Daley Dozen' top blog posts on Iain Dale's blog. It helped to bring in some extra new readers to read my Liberty Vs Security - Lib Dems get Detention without Charge Progress post.

An International Blog!
The visitors to my little blog came from 68 countries this month - up from 61 in December (with a cumulative total of 93 countries having supplied visitors to my blog to date).

The top ten countries to date are as follows (with position change from December & % of total views):
1. United Kingdom (No Change) 61.3%
2. United States (No Change) 11.4%
3. Germany (+3) 3.2%
4. Canada (+1) 2.9%
5. Thailand (-2) 2.9%
6. Australia (+1) 2.0%
7. Ireland (-3) 2.0%
8. Holland (+1) 1.1%
9. Poland (+1) 1.0%
10. New Zealand (-2) 0.8%

The % of viewers to my blog from the UK has fallen from 80% after my first full month last September down to a little over 60%. It has become a very cosmopolitan blog with a now record 11% + coming from the USA (The King's Speech' popularity in the Oscars stakes has helped that in recent weeks). My Sports Personality of the Year - Phil 'The Power' Taylor blog post has also for example drawn in many readers from Holland and Germany.

Honourable mentions must also go to those countries that have provided its first viewers to my fledgling blog this January. Montenegro, Belarus, Bangladesh, Chile, Peru, Maldives, Nigeria and Colombia have all supplied their first readers to my blog during the past month.

Fair play to them all, and to you all, for putting up with my ramblings!

Mubarak is Resigning

Well, that at least has been the rumour sweeping through the protests in Egypt's second city Alexandria this afternoon.

The End of Mubarak?



Live on the BBC earlier, a reporter from Alexandria in the crowd was reporting on rejoicing in the crowd at the news that the aim of the insurgency had been achieved.

It is the way of such protests that rumours can spread quickly. Confusion can mount and that is clearly happening as the biggest protests have swept the country today.

The Domino Effect?
It began with Ben Ali in Tunisia and there have been protests also in the Yemen. Today, the King of Jordan has dismissed his government in response to protests there.

It all adds up to a potent concoction of discontent which the western leaders in the USA must treat with great care.

If Mubarak is forced to flee and it is of course possible, then who will fill the vacuum? If there are elections, will the popular but non-party political Mohamed ElBaradei be able to lead a secular, broadly-based opposition to sweep to power? What about the Muslim Brotherhood? They are apparently the most organised of the opposition groups.

According to Jeremy Bowen, the BBC's Middle East Editor: "Unlike the jihadis, it (Muslim Brotherhood) does not believe it is at war with the West. It is conservative and non-violent". However, Mubarak's Nationalist Secularist NDP Egyptian government question this.

If the army (which is conscripted and which therefore feels a greater allegiance to the Egyptian population than many fully professional armies have towards their peoples around the world) turn against Mubarak and there are elections in which a government is formed by a new form of dictatorship that opposes true democracy in a extremist islamiscist mould, what will the west do then? Hamas remember won the elections in Gaza but do the west deal with them as a democratic party? No, because they are seen as being a terrorist organisation.

Diplomacy
The west can't always have its cake and eat it. Words expressed at this very delicate time by western leaders therefore are quite rightly being said with care.

The Muslim Brotherhood

Former US Presidential candidate and current Chair of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, John Kerry has today stated that Hosni Mubarak should announce his intention to not run in the November elections at the end of the year and that his son likewise will not run.

It's a wise tone is that Mr Kerry, but it probably isn't enough. The crowds in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez want nothing less than the removal of Mubarak as President.

But it does demonstrate that in the world of diplomatic relations, words being expressed from the west are toughening up.

Mubarak may well still resign. But even if that happens, no-one can guarantee what comes next.