Saturday 26th July

Well today was my first day off and as such I enjoyed a nice relaxing morning doing as little as possible , although I was woken up by army helicopters that kept flying over head. In the afternoon I took advantage of the fantastic weather we had and took a walk from the bottom of the road my garn lives on, onto the canal and then into Brecon itself, before going along the promenade;

So, ive been in New York for he last few days, and have had an amazing time. I'll write about what i got up to, sometime in the next fewdays, but for now here are a few photos from the trip;

I know that I’m late blogging about this, when you consider that it happened Tuesday night/ Wednesday morning, but it’s official now John McCain will be the Republican Nominee for President of the United States. Whilst for now we are no closer to knowing who will be the Democrat nominee will be, since Obama and Clinton still remain neck and neck in the race to, be in the race to the white house.

It is looking more and more likely that the race is going to be decide by the Superdelegates. Although there is still a chance that the voters will decide the outcome of the primary process, this is looking slimmer and slimmer, and so the Campaigns move on; today to Wyoming and Tuesday to Mississippi.

Me on the other hand; I will actually be in America when the next primary takes place. I’m off to New York tomorrow, hence my absence from the party conference in Liverpool, to attend a student conference at the United Nations.



The one day conference which will see a debate on whether or not the five permanent members of the Security council should give up their Veto, added to other educational activities on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, including visits to Ellis Island and the Tenement museum will see me out of the country for the first time since I went to university, and the first time I’ve been to America in over 5 years.



In fact the last time I was there (in America) I was in New York, a mere 18 months after the 9/11 attacks. Like last time I will again visit ground zero, which was a strange experience the first time. A site where thousands of people died; and tens of thousands of people’s lives changed forever; for it to now be a tourist attraction just seems wrong. But that unfortunately isn’t the worst thing about the site. I’m hoping that times have changed and that what I remember being there is no longer there.



Last time I was at ground zero it was a cold it was a foggy Sunday morning which just added to the cold effectiveness of the site. But opposite was something I did not expect to see, people capitalising on the tragedy by selling all things American.



Posters, photos and American flags decorated over everything and there they were not seeing the tragedy but seeing a chance to make money.

So will New York have changed? At the moment I don’t know, but so much has changed since that dreadful day that it now impedes upon all of our lives, and of course our elections.



And America is no different; terrorism and the war on terror remain key issues for the campaigns that are fighting across America, for the chance to fight for America. Mississippi is next for the Democrats, whilst the republicans look to unite around John McCain and the one interesting thing now for the republicans will be; will McCain let President Bush who for the most is seen to blame for all that has happened since that day, campaign with him. He faces a choice bring Bush along to unite the party, or risk bringing Bush along and alienate the rest of America against a new Republican administration. For the democrats we all wait, and I’m fairly sure to say, in boredom to see will one give up to help the other. Will it be Obama or Clinton, or could we get very lucky and despite the negativity of the campaign see the dream ticket of either Obama/Clinton or Clinton/Obama in the race to the White House, a race that will not finish for over 7 months.

here are a few photos taken earlier today of the flood waters in lincoln, please take time to see the photo of council workers pumping more water into the already full Brayford