THE RECENT UK SUB-NATIONAL AND LOCAL ELECTIONS

Sign of the times: London's new mayor.

by Colin Liddell

Earlier this week a number of elections below the UK state parliamentary level were held in Britain. This included elections for the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly, some local councils, and the mayor of London.

Usually midterm elections favour the chief opposition party, which in this case is the Labour Party, with its recently-elected leader, the extreme Leftist, Jeremy Corbyn. This time they didn’t. Instead of winning hundreds of council seats as is usual, Labour actually lost a handful, as well as control of one council Dudley in the West Midlands (population 312,900 – 93% White).

BLODEWEDD: THE MABINOGIAN MAY QUEEN

by Juleigh Howard-Hobson

The May Queen. We celebrate her appearance and her blossoming forth at this time of the year through Walpurgis observances, May Day faires, and Beltaine festivities. We’ve always known her, whether she is called by her ancient names of Flora, Maia, or Freya or the relatively modern names of Godiva, Guinevere, or Marian.

The Welsh legend of Blodewedd (which is pronounced almost as it looks: bloody-weth) is not so well known, but Blodewedd—of all the incarnations of this Spring Earth Goddess—is the most splendidly interesting May Queen of them all.