Well, here we are, on the eve of a great experiment. Are you excited about 20mph speed limits? Enthused? Or do you just roll your eyes skyward in the way that typifies modern Wales?
I suppose I could have gone about this post differently, by looking at the costs, and examining the various claims more closely, but I leave that to others, confident that I’ll return to this subject once the excrement starts moving upward.
And so what I’ll do in this post is expose the propaganda campaign (that we’re paying for); then give the local history of this 20mph madness; before explaining where I believe it’s taking us.
◊
LABOUR’S VERY OWN PROPAGANDA BUREAU
Early last month I published It’s Getting Sinister, in which I drew attention to a relatively new PR/’nudge’ outfit called Lynn Global. The following week I brought out Lynn Global Pushes Globalist Agenda.
What we learnt was that Lynn was being paid to push the ‘Welsh Government’s 20mph restrictions for Welsh roads. And it paid well. For Tory leader Andrew R T Davies was told that Lynn had received £738,593 from ‘Welsh Government’ since 2021.
The figure for ‘2023-24 (to present)’ is £185,164. But is that figure for the calendar year or the financial year? I suspect it’s the financial year, beginning April 6, and I say that because Lynn received almost half a million pounds last year, and with the 20mph roll-out taking place this year, I think it’s reasonable to assume that 2023’s figure will be close to, or in excess of, last year’s figure.
Bumping up the costs will be Lynn’s ‘Misinformation Fact Sheet‘ for the ‘Welsh Government’. This attempts to anticipate and refute the objections raised to 20mph speed limits.
It was produced by Lynn’s very own Misinformation Cell, headed by Stefan Rollnick.
This is odd. When I wrote this on Thursday the online Linkedin page was available, but on Friday it seems to have disappeared. Fortunately I saved a pdf version last month.
So if you’re plagued by fake news, misinformation, disinformation, conspiracy theories, flatulence or scurvy, then Steff is the boy to contact. For having worked for Labour in London and Cardiff he knows all there is to know about bullshit.
In fact, Rollnick tells us he was . . .
Assisting the Office of the First Minister with its preparedness for misinformation outbreaks and developing a broad, proactive strategy for bolstering the spread of good information, with a specific focus on tackling anti-vax misinformation.
Ah! “good information“. Isn’t that what we’re all looking for?
The terminology used by these people is superficially reassuring, but anyone who’s studied history, particularly totalitarianism, knows exactly what’s being said. And it’s sinister.
‘We have a monopoly on the truth. Accept what we say, or suffer’.
Then, having dutifully carried out the orders of ‘Dr’ Bill Gates, in September 2021 Rollnick transferred his devious talents to Lynn . . . but still working for Drakeford’s clown troupe.
But enough background on a propagandist masquerading as a purveyor of truth, let’s get back to the origins of 20mph.
For Lynn was recruited to push the 20mph nonsense, but the story doesn’t begin there. So where do we need to go to find its origin?
◊
THE LONG MARCH
One culprit might appear to be the pressure group, 20’s Plenty for Us; which has quite a presence in Wales, and may even have sent ‘missionaries’. Such as Fiona Andrews, who moved with her partner Piers Graham Partridge to Llandudoch from Bristol in 2018.
She got a mention in the piece I did back in June, Wales: Ruled By Pressure Groups. And here she is in a BBC report from July 2021 lauding 20mph restrictions, that had already been introduced in two Welsh communities.
One being Llandudoch, to which Andrews had so recently moved!
The other, was St Brides Major, in the Vale of Glamorgan. This video, released last Thursday by the ‘Welsh Government’, features a few brainwashed kids and a couple of other well-rehearsed locals.
If you’re convinced by that then contact me about some beans.
The BBC item about Fiona Andrews provided a link to a report that told us the Senedd had initially backed 20mph limits in July 2020. This followed a report from a group set up by the Senedd Member for Llanelli (who prefers to spend his time in Penarth).
The Wales 20mph Task Force Group was formed on the direction of Lee Waters, the Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport, in May 2019.
We aren’t told the individuals who sat on this panel, just the organisations they represented. (Appendix A, page 36.) Among them I noticed Sustrans, of which Lee Waters used to be boss-man for Wales.
The whole tone of the procedure and the report screams ‘Done deal!‘.
But can we go back any further in tracing the genesis of the 20mph restrictions?
Something I dug up (or I may have been directed to) is a report from August 2018 by Dr Adrian L Davis of Bristol. What I found significant about this was that the report was immediately promoted by . . . the ‘Welsh Government’.
In fact, it was available on the ‘Welsh Government’ website on the first day of August, so it must have been available as soon as it was officially released. Perhaps before?
In Appendix A, which lists papers quoted by Davis, we see a reference to, ‘Twenty miles per hour speed limits: a sustainable solution to public health problems in Wales‘. Authored by Sarah J Jones and Huw Brunt.
This US site gives a brief synopsis, which saved me having to splash out £38 to buy it.
Though I was amazed by the claim that imposing 20mph limits will aid the fight against obesity. Surely driving slower gives fat people more time to get out of the way?
But if driving slower makes us slimmer, then what about hair loss? And flatulence?
20mph is beginning to sound like snake oil.
The main conclusion arrived at in 2016, that bringing the speed limit down to 20mph would save 6 – 10 lives per year, and 1200 – 2000 casualties, is now being repeated verbatim by the ‘Welsh Government’.
So who are the authors of that 2016 report, Sarah J Jones and Huw Brunt?
Well, I found them both on the Hinkley Point C stakeholder reference group. In some interesting company.
Chairing the group is former Labour Assembly Member, mastermind of the Future Generations legislation, and mother of the OPD, Jane Davidson. Who does more work for the party and the ‘Welsh Government’ now than when she sat in Corruption Bay.
Cardiff University, that partner with ‘Welsh Government’ in so many quixotic ventures, has two representatives. Possibly a third with Sarah J Jones.
There is another ‘Welsh Government’ spokesperson in Rachel Sharp, CEO Wildlife Trusts Wales, who appeared on this blog in The Alliance Against Livestock Farming.
She has worked assiduously for ‘Welsh Government’ and Dŵr Cymru in blaming farmers for everything in our rivers that shouldn’t be in our rivers. No surprise then to learn that she also sits on Welsh Water Independent Environment Advisory Panel.
Which seems to be another secret society; for when I asked Dŵr Cymru for the names of panel members I was refused and, as with The Wales 20mph Task Force Group, told to scroll down the page to the logos of the organisations represented.
Though we are told that the panel is chaired by “Mari Arthur, director of Cynal Cymru”. But she was secretary of Cynal, not director . . . and she left in July 2018.
It looks a bit of a shambles.
Here’s how I see it. The anti-car, restrict human movement element of the Globalist agenda, takes root in the Bay. ‘Welsh Government’ insiders Sarah J Jones and Huw Brunt are told to knock out something in support of introducing 20mph speed limits.
In the hope of disguising its origins, Adrian Davis of Bristol is roped in, and ‘Welsh Government’ quotes him rather than Jones and Brunt directly. As we saw in a response to a Freedom of Information request earlier this week.
You won’t be surprised to learn that Davis supports 20’s Plenty, Just Stop Oil, and the UN’s climate liars at the IPCC. Not only that, he also dreams of re-joining the EU, and he’s 100% opposed to fossil fuels.
What we have with Adrian Davis is an archetypal member of Globalists’ Woke-Green-Left. Yet in the FoI response just mentioned he is the sole authority quoted by the ‘Welsh Government’ in support of imposing 20mph restrictions.
In whose universe is Davis an impartial and unbiased scientific authority?
How do his conclusions square with those of the Alliance of British Drivers?
But this kind of ‘Tell us what we want to hear‘ behaviour is all too familiar, as I’ve tried to explain on this blog over and over. Let’s just close this section, and jog your memories, with one recent example.
Back in March, in Nicola Sturgeon: Her Fall In Context, I considered the malign influence of pressure groups.
A few weeks before that article appeared the ‘Welsh Government’ announced that all new road projects were ‘paused’. This report from Llais y Sais told us the decision had been made by the Welsh Roads Review Panel headed by Dr Lynn Sloman.
I made enquiries about Dr Sloman and this is what I wrote at the time.
Well, she lives in London, where she’s a board member of Transport for London. The bio I’ve linked to tells us she has a holiday home near Machynlleth. (To be exact, in Cwm Einion aka ‘Artists Valley’.)
So a cycling zealot who lives in London, and hates cars – but has a holiday home in Wales, to which she presumably drives – is allowed to dictate ‘Welsh Government’ policy.
This is how the ‘Welsh Government’ operates. It recruits people it calls ‘independent’ to undertake studies guaranteed to come to the desired conclusion. Then it employs propagandists like Lynn Global, or uses the tame media, to push that message.
There is never an independent voice, nor genuine public consultation.
◊
WHERE IT ENDS
Before I start, let me make it clear that I’m sure there are people who genuinely believe 20mph restrictions will get mamgu on her bike, zooming ’round the neighbourhood frightening animals and knocking kids over.
Just as there are people who believe the planet is doomed unless we get rid of human beings. Or that men can have babies, and women have todgers. That White people are evil. And that every criminal who lands in Europe in a small boat must be looked after cos he is a ‘refugee’.
Such people are fools. But more dangerous by far are those who know these things to be lies, but promote them for other reasons. Which brings us to the Great Manipulators.
For perhaps more than any other administration and political establishment of which I know, Corruption Bay has surrendered itself to the Globalist agenda. And by so doing it is prepared to sacrifice us, the Welsh people.
This sacrifice means imposing restrictions in the name of public health, or saving the planet, or to promote inclusivity / diversity, and generally protect us from ourselves. For we are both stupid and evil.
Wales is now being subjected to the most odious form of paternalism. Odious, as it claims to be done for our benefit, but it’s not.
Because if you understand what I’ve been saying then you’ll realise that making us drive at 20mph has absolutely nothing to do with road safety, or air quality.
This legislation is part of a wider strategy against the private motor car. Or rather, it’s to deny private transport to poorer people. For Net Zero is a war against the poorest in society waged by the middle class on behalf of an elite seeking global domination.
Further proof comes in a ‘Welsh Government’ document updated just last month, where you’ll read it spelled out, on page 45 . . .
Just think how insane that is. They want to take away your car, on environmental and health grounds, but there’s no public transport, so you’re effectively stuck at home.
So wise up,
20mph legislation is part of the same package as ditched road-building projects, 15-minute neighbourhoods, compulsory injections with untested vaccines, the assault on livestock farming, and CBDC to keep check on every penny you spend.
If Wales had more devolution, giving Labour and Plaid Cymru the power (God forbid!), they’d introduce legislation such as we see proposed in Ireland, where there’s a Bill to impose a ‘Hate Speech Act’ . . . that fails to even define hate!
It’s censorship pretending to be something virtuous.
Should that law be introduced then a grifter from a protected group will just need to say they feel offended (or that great favourite, ‘unsafe’), and the Guards will be kicking somebody’s door down in no time.
They will even be encouraged to feel offended, and have explained to them the most lucrative ways to be ‘offended’, and ‘unsafe’, by the shysters in NGOs and pressure groups currently wreaking such damage on Ireland.
Wales would also see legislation against ‘misinformation’ and its even more evil twin ‘disinformation’. Which in practice could mean the ‘Welsh Government’ employing Lynn to police us all.
Even me!
Not a welcome prospect for those of us who believe in freedom of movement, and freedom of expression. But somehow, ‘progressives’, acting as shouty foot-soldiers for Globalist totalitarianism have convinced themselves they’re engaged in a noble struggle against fascism!
At some point in the near future historians and political commentators will marvel that, having alienated the working class, the left then shot itself in the other foot by attacking the poorest and most vulnerable in society on the orders of the world’s biggest corporations and richest individuals.
An encapsulating irony with which to end might be that those who now fight to protect animals we breed to eat, especially perhaps battery hens, have sided with those wanting humans to live in a very similar fashion.
The ‘Welsh Government’s 20mph legislation is a step in that direction. Only a fool would see it for anything else.
♦ end ♦
© Royston Jones 2023
You have my style of humour; some of your phrasing made me almost choke on my muesli (must not be eating whilst reading your blog!). I’m in no position to query your sources or conclusions thereof but, on the assumption that you’re not spinning your own web – for whatever reason – it worries me about the points you raise. Someone’s – or multiple “someone’s” – are getting rich, or the thrill on taxpayers money (including me here in Liverpool – to save the “fact-checkers” the time and bother of locating me ahead of the deathray that’ll hit me in a few seconds time as I type this response). English money, via the central Government, encourage the blockheads running the Senedd to squander much of it on futile, unwanted (I could exhaust my entire repertoire of negatives here, but I won’t as I’m sure you get the drift) projects that are shoved under the bleary eyes of the drones that some people label the Welsh “Government”. So I declare that I have a “financial interest” – ie, my pocket gets ever-lighter – as well as a deeply-personal one. Which is for almost 30 years I was married to a Welsh girl, from just outside Wrexham, with a father who, for almost all of his life, was first a miner, then a steelworker. After 3 years of suffering from what proved to be an irreversible cancer, she slipped away in hospital within 12 days of collapsing at home. Although my life has (necessarily) moved on, there’s more than a few occasions when my mind goes back to those happier days spent at our house close to her parents, when I too followed my father-in-law to the steelworks after I left the Royal Navy over 50 years ago.
Thank you (I hope) for letting me do my own (verbal) spewing, and keep writing – someone has to!
Glad you enjoyed it.
Dafis
It appears chairman Drakeford is ‘stepping down’ in 2024………..Good ridance to that!!. No doubt though with an idex linked pension plus benefits, and a post lined up in a large faceless organisation (such as the E.U) with a ‘Golden Hello’ and six figure pension to boot!
His replacement will be ‘slotted in’ by a minority of Welsh labour apparatchiks, with a view to endevouring to keep the Welsh Labour ‘utopian dream’ alive, despite minority ‘support’ exclusively in the former mining areas of South Wales, and no where else. If only these folk would ‘wake up’ and ‘See the Light’………..I live in hope!
Amazing how ishoos like 20 mph attracts such overriding priority in our allegedly underfunded country while homelessness and poverty is rampant and not attracting half as much attention from our esteemed leaders. They are hardly down at the starting gate to tackle the social problems, then UK government takes advantage of Wales gov’s soppy nation of sanctuary stance and starts shipping in more asylum seekers, all sorts of migrants all requiring some sort of housing and access to the limited supply of benefits. Drakeford’s default response is to say London’s being mean but in the next breath he tells us that the Union is a good thing. Sound to me like he’s confused, his priorities are all over the place, and he needs to retire out of the way. The only downside to all that is that we are likely to get an even bigger wally as his replacement.
I suggest that you all look at http://www.commonlawassent.com and stand under Article 61 of Magna Carta. Like England, Wales is part of a common law constitution under which a crime is an act against an injured party. All of this drivel attempts to criminalise what is a basic common law right – to travel without let or hindrance. If it isn’t a crime, there can’t be a fine. It really is that simple. Politicians are there to serve the people (who are sovereign) – it has no mandate to control us.
I’m a Nigerian prince and will release your inheritance to you for a very modest administration fee.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudolaw
Labour’s senedd majority mandate was delivered by 38% of the votes from just over 45% turnout at the last election.
That’s 398,442 in all.
The petition against their ridiculous imposition of the 20mph limit is now at 372,660. Drakeford effectively laughed in our faces when this was put to him. Looks like only “message friendly “ input is welcome. It’s borderline state rule!
Interesting viewpoint in video clip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO71fjTuoi8
For those confused by the new 20 mph speed limit, I have copied below a response received from “GoSafe” provided to me by a friend. Hope it helps to clarify the position !
Good afternoon,
Thanks for getting in touch.
Road signage doesn’t fall under our remit but I’ll try to provide some clarity by expanding/adding context around the FAQ.
Road Signage
20mph repeater signs, the small circle signs often seen on streetlights, will no longer be needed on roads where the default is now 20mph and there are streetlights present. Just remember, streetlights mean 20. In any 20mph areas where there aren’t streetlights present, additional signage will be in place to clearly indicate the speed limit.
Gateway speed limit signs, the larger signs shown as you enter a different speed limit area, will be in place to clearly indicate the correct speed limit.
Not all signs will be changed on 17 September, but local authorities are working hard to get all the signs in place as soon as they can.
Signs indicating a 20mph zone outside schools can stay in place for up to 12 months, as can any 20mph repeater signs. Although these signs are no longer needed, they only exist in areas that were 20mph before the legislation change. As they will not be displaying an incorrect speed limit, local authorities have more time to remove them.
Any 20mph signs painted onto road surfaces can remain for up to 5 years. Although these road markings are no longer needed, 20mph markings only exist in areas that were 20mph before the legislation change. As they will not be displaying an incorrect speed limit, Highways Authorities have more time to remove them. Highway Authorities can choose to remove them before these deadlines if they choose to.
30mph Exemptions
They are correct when they say that local authorities can set their speed limits and make roads exempt from the 20mph default speed limit. They have provided this information to The Welsh Government and it has been published at Roads affected by changes to the speed limit on restricted roads | DataMapWales (gov.wales)
GoSafe 20mph Engagement/Enforcement
As people get used to the new rules, an engagement approach will be prioritised when enforcing the limit and will be proportionate to the speed the driver is going.
Dedicated roadside education groups, known as Operation Ugain teams, will be stopping speeding drivers in 20mph areas to engage with them, instead of prosecuting them.
Police officers and policing partners will work with fire and rescue services, under the direction of GoSafe, to provide engagement sessions 5 days a week in communities throughout Wales. The free engagement will be available to everyone except the most dangerous drivers, who will be prosecuted, at the discretion of the officers taking part in operations.
There are various locations across Wales, which are identified as high risk, and the public can request the team visit via GoSafe
GoSafe will continue to serve communities in our current 20mph enforcement locations, where the speed limit remains unchanged, and the signage is appropriate. With regards to any other speed limit, our casualty reduction officers complete multiple checks, including checking road signage, before starting enforcement. If the road signage is not appropriate, they will not enforce.
I hope this information has helped to clarify the matter for you.
Kind regards,
GanBwyll – GoSafe
Excellent article indeed, Wales is (typically) the ‘trial run’ nation in the U.K for these idiotic/undemocratic policies, prior to the aim of introducing them in, (i suspect), firstly Scotland, then N.I and finally England.
The introduction date of this 20 MPH nonsense on the 17th September, was, likely, (and cynically) to coincide with the rugby world cup, in which (hopefully) many would be preoccupied with, and thus take little or no notice, this combined with high levels of apathy, and the usual Labour ‘Heartlands’ of (former) industrial South Wales mindset of ” My parents/grandparents/great grandparents all vote/voted Labour” gives little encouragement going forward, a case of ‘Turkeys Voting for Christmas’, and jokes of Labour putting a rossette on a donkey and the masses voting for it.
Wake up people, Stop encouraging these bloody parasites, who dont give a damm about you, and are focussed on restrictions/control/obediance/ and indirect taxation, via fixed penalty notices etc.
This speed limit is (ultimately) unenforceable, and will rely (until the novelty wears off after a month or so) on ‘self enforcement’ via the corporate media & ‘Corruption Bay’ mind control tactics, such as interviews in the media with alledged ‘local citizens’ (i.e ‘crisis actors bused in) on ‘How wonderful this new legislation is’ etc. All part of the mass deception, from which i hope and trust the welsh nation will (eventually) awaken from, sooner rather than later.
Well said Chris. I hope “Tony o’ the North” can now begin to see the bigger picture.
Yes Wales was the trial territory for Maggie with the Poll Tax instead of the old Council Rates. The big difference now with every ail in Wales is that quislings in Cardiff are imposing their shite on our people led by Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru – yet in the next Senedd election our donkey vote will see them all re-elected. We are cursed with quislings and their 30mph and Pylons and Wind Turbines!
Excellent article, I will share far and wide if you don’t mind ????
Feel free.
Would like to thank you for the research etc you put into this article. I’ve been aware for many years the parasitic elites will be closing down all roads to us useless eaters. I can’t do the research anymore my eyesight isn’t good enough
To focus on the actual 20 default limit, rather than generalised rants about the Assembly, the Labour party and Mr Drakeford; in this part of Wales we’re been running a 20mph default pilot for the best part of a year now. I can report:
In short, even without considering forecast reductions in casualties, which I wouldn’t know about, it does seem that some people are making a lot of fuss about very little.
The end point is not 20mph, it’s the removal of private transport. But it will be done incrementally. This is how to view 20mph, not casually say, ‘No difference to me’, or ‘Fuss over nothing’.
You are not seeing the bigger picture here Gav, as Jac has pointed out.
A puff piece with feck all substane to it! NO2 doesn’t cost lives though does it so the argument of increasing pollution costing more lives is BS right? There can’t be more deaths due to notional slower speeds/increased NO2 etc, because Isn’t the pollution scam for breathing/respiratory deaths being used to rail against installation of cameras and ULEZ, or is that only when it suits? the research’ behind how one measures ‘pollution’ for reduced speed limits is limited at best, ignorant and manipulative at worst. when the modelling fails to grasp that not accelerating and not braking as much due to lower limits in urban areas equals lower emissions then you know things aren’t being done properly. Also the 6-10 deaths. In Wales, there were 87 road deaths in 2021 (1,558 for whole of UK in same year), is a 10% drop in road deaths something that should be ignored? Jac o’ the North produces no evidence to suggest that figure is inaccurate, he bobs and weaves some stuff about ‘experts’ and not being independant but gives nothing to support a claim that that number is false.
He like others are really saying driving a bit slower in some places really isn’t worth it because the 6-10 families of those that could be saved from being killed can go f’#k themselves so that he and others can drive at whatever speed they like? Can you see how this looks, how entitled this is? Just so I’m getting the right drift here?
I get that parts of what’s described are absolutely true, the insideous attack on people being able to get about, road pricing, ULEZ etc. However there are parts like reducing speeds of motorists where the dangers are highest are useful to redress the attack on society by motorists and their hunger to do what the feck they like and no fecks given over how many they kill or maim.
And again, circa 24,000 people, every single year are killed or mained with a motor vehicle involved. Will some of those be incidents that motorists can do virtually nothing about or are single person incidents (some people on bikes crashing by themselves for instance), for sure, but the vast majority are at fault motorists doing the carnage. I’ve cycled since I was a kid, I never stopped (now 54 and 200,000 miles ridden), I started driving in my early 20s, commuted into/around and through the shitehole that is London, packed in the car commuting, did advanced driving, gave up my car a few years ago but still drive a bit most wekends.
I will absolutely stand up for the right for people to drive, however I have seen and have been on the end of drivists doing harm where excessive speed was a factor in ever single situation. So much harm meted out by drivers and seemingly these are ‘acceptable losses for the right for people to drive how they like, this is intolerable! It needs curtailing, and in the absence of police on every street, we can do nothing other than put in limits such that we can hope SOME drivers will respect the limits because it’s anti social at best and could save someones life or prevent serious harm. Most don’t, not even when the limits are 70mph, not even when there are children or aged/disabled people are about and getting harmed. People on bikes are fair game to attack by motorists for simply being a ‘cyclist’, pedestrians killed on the footways number about 50 per year alone from errent from motorists, lower speeds in those areas would significantl reduce that number.
The author here is a real piece of work and a manipulator and in complete ignorance of the realities of the harms people in motors do. He doesn’t want to save a life, but keep going as thigs are no matter what.
Moronic is an understatement
Big fuss today about “so many signatures” on that petition originating from outside Wales. In the event it seems that the true figure is about 3-5%. So the allegations of rigged “voting”, a fovourite subject among the easily offended, has rebounded on the soppy souls who thought the great unwashed public would not have sufficient interest and just carry on watching City vs Swans, RWC2023, and all those other little distractions that get fed to us.
Anyway does it matter that a small %age of “outsiders” see fit to take an interest in what goes on in Wales? Drakeford and his corrupt cohorts have allowed all sorts of outsiders to stick their noses in where they are not wanted. Worse still they have been gifted assets at knock down prices, handed grants and other goodies for placing investments of dubious value all over our country, treat our language,culture and heritage with contempt and generally piss all over anything remotely Welsh.
Maybe this will teach the big Drip that he should be a touch more careful in allowing involvement of outsiders in anything that might have an effect on our national recovery and prosperity.
As an 80 yr old retired former Steel Company of Wales employee [Cold Rolling at Velindre (sic) and Trostre] I’ve been watching the twisted saga over the Port Talbot Blast Furnaces with interest. I have written many letters to Politicians at all levels and most have been ignored. These have centered around facts calculated using some secondary school chemistry and junior school arithmetic and mostly simple common sense.
Port Talbot’s two Blast Furnaces are capable of producing 90,000 Tonnes of liquid iron / steel weekly. In recent years its been around 75,000 Tonnes weekly which produced in turn about 44,000 Tonnes a week of very, very hot Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere weekly. Obviously unacceptable in view of concerns over climate change, but quite acceptable in most rival steelmaking processes in several overseas countries. Not a level playing field.
One great problem over the past decade has been the lunatic fantasies of pseudo innumerate politicians coming up with the most ludicrous of solutions of “carbon capture” to “solve” this issue. Let’s list a few here, and remember were are dealing with 44,000 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide gas at one thousand degrees centigrade weekly:-
1) Pumping it down in frozen liquid form into the disused workings of old Welsh coal mines, conveniently forgetting those old mine workings are now full of putrid water and the South Wales coalfield had notoriously fractured rock geology which would allow the gas to escape;
2) Pumping it down, in frozen liquid form, into the disused workings of old oil wells in the North Sea or Middle East, again conveniently forgetting that transporting 44,000 tonnes weekly of gas to a distant oil well in the middle of the North Sea or an Arabian Desert is just not practical and would cost excessively and even then might escape;
3) Liquifying it and pumping it out into the depths of the Bristol Channel from where it would acidify the channel killing all the fish life as Carbonic Acid and then boil and escape back near our shore;
4) Pumping it on site as a gas or liquid into vast tanks of concentrated Caustic Soda solution to create a solid steady rock form of Sodium Carbonate without thought of where all this constant incredibly vast mass of caustic will come from;
5) Or just constantly mumbling demented words like “carbon scrubbing” without any detailed explanation;
6) The only crazier method not mentioned was to send it in rockets to the moon or the sun!
One other possible feasible option, only talked about, but seemingly not research funded to any commercial level has been to use hydrogen as the reductant instead of coke (carbon). This would involve incredible mass quantities of green Hydrogen gas to react with the iron ore (iron oxide) to attach itself to the oxygen as the coke (carbon) does now in the blast furnace reaction. Then producing water (super heated steam) and the liquid iron. This seems to be a feasible but glib answer, as we would need vast quantities of green electricity from many thousands of wind turbines to electrolyse water to get the green hydrogen. This is an explosive gas that’s difficult to store because its tiny molecules can escape containment by diffusion. Not only that, green hydrogen is being said to be the new fuel for trains and planes and buses and even a car Ferry Ship from Swansea to Devon. All talk and hot air by the same politicians for a wasted decade. Anyway, the existing Blast Furnaces are not designed for a hydrogen reduction process.
Yes, we have wasted a whole decade on these fantasies, saying “it will be alright on the night, we have these crazy solutions”.
Well it’s now midnight of that night. It’s now to be recycling existing steel with the electric arc process to produce ‘green steel’ using vast amounts of ‘green generated electricity’ (it has to be ‘green’) dependant on weather vagaries of solar sun or wind power. This amount of green energy does not exist in any reliable steady quantity yet in the National Grid.
Possibly the only answer is to use nuclear power (hopefully future fusion nuclear) powered electric arc hybrid arc furnaces.
Hybrid would involve iron ore plus scrap iron but no coke.
It is time we swept out the political duffers and had far more politicians who are realistic scientists and engineers sitting in the frustrating faulty tower chambers of Cardiff and Westminster.
I. Richard, Swansea.
spot on summary of the conundrum sir! I’m sure one boffin mentioned a while ago that the recycled arc steel isn’t the same quality as blast products ? I also recall Westminster saying that they will support our ability to make our own steel, security issues?
The energy demands are vast , perhaps the refusal to build two nuclear plants wasn’t the best decision? Wind , solar and tidal won’t be enough .
I was in the Bus Shelter by the village Park on Sunday afternoon and talking with two friends, Jenifer who was born a man called Andrew and William who was born a woman called Virginia. Jennifer had been to rugby training with a local women’s rugby team and was sweating a lot after changing in the ladies dressing room. William was off to Male Voice Choir practise.
Anyway Jennifer was saying she had been to Hay on Wye to a book sale last week and had spotted a new book of names for new born babies. It listed all the foresight names for children that parents could choose that would suit their children if they made various trans gender changes in their childhood such as Pat, Rob, Lyn, Sam, Jo, Vic, Fred, Lee. The advantage in such a name saved hassle for Gender changes at any later stage of life.
What’s all this fuss about 20 mph? I went from Swansea to the Abergavenny Food Festival on Saturday. We took ages travelling at just 5 mph to traverse a long length of the Trunk Road “Heads of the Valleys”. On the way back we came via Brecon a long diversion of our choice but worth it.
On the same day my daughter travelled back on the M4 from London to Swansea and for a long stretch of M4 diversions around Newport her speed was even less than 5mph for many miles.
Lee Waters and Julie James and Mark Drakeford should be held responsible for our chaotic traffic system in Wales and the 20mph zones. They should be voted out of the Senedd as soon as possible. Will they? No, not a chance, because this is Welsh Labour’s Wales, forever propped up by Plaid Cymru cooperation agreement !
In the little world of think tanks, pressure groups and quangos that run Wales, it is always worth checking the footnotes.
Sarah J. Jones and Huw Brunt, who wrote the root paper, declared their affiliations on its publication as Public Health Wales. The following year, Public Health Wales published a position statement that endorsed the 20mph limit. That position statement was relied upon by the panel considering the change along with the original paper, thereby magnifying its impact.
What a surprise!
Reading the paper prepared by Davies, you reference, I found this nugget.
“In a complex system such as the built and natural environment, it is rarely possible or appropriate to undertake an experimental approach (such as a randomised controlled trial) that can in other circumstances offer the best way of assessing causality… Some caution is therefore recommended as much of the evidence examined was reliant on findings from before and after studies, albeit it is unlikely that further studies would reverse the conclusions.
“There is a lack of data regarding 20mph speed limits in any rural or small town settings. This is a significant gap in the evidence.”
Your findings would appear to reinforce the suspicion that much of the ‘evidence’ being used is in fact guesswork. Worse, it’s guesswork by Corruption Bay insiders for political bosses who – for other reasons – were going to push ahead with 20mph no matter what.
We were colonised, we remain colonised. Any and all decolonising initiatives and action should be aimed at recognising the long term toxicity and general negativity that derives from our relationship with the imperial/colonial power. Much as I may sympathise with others whose ancestors forefathers were subjected to similar or worse abuse, I argue that their cause is best served by taking steps in their homelands to regain their identity and self respect. Bringing it to our country does next to nothing to improve matters in the homeland. Or is this just a form of reverse colonialism using historical grievance as a weapon bto destroy our culture and identity?
The above comment was prompted by your earlier tweet about attempts to redirect the focus of our national heritage institutions. Our political elites are quite relaxed about this thus reinforcing my belief that they are committed to eradication of identity.
WE LIVE IN A DICTATORSHIP. There is no other party to contest these decisions. We are ruled by outdated and people who believe in the past and not the future and havent the vision to take Wales forward…too vested in their own interests and the past culture of Wales…
XK20 ESNR Trans Strat & Policy Marketing Services from Agents LYNN GROUP LTD 19.04.2023 5200606894 -40,293.33
XK20 ESNR Trans Strat & Policy Marketing Services from Agents LYNN GROUP LTD 19.04.2023 5200606894 -40,293.33 Extract from Aprils Welsh Govt spends over 25K…sorry we only got Jan to April and here we are in September…they are supposed to publish these monthly but dont in the last few years what are they trying to hide? or sift away into the Development Bank of Wales?
Punitive measures like this and no attractive or viable alternative offered, you know, like they might do in civilised countries. Same old bollocks, different day, and all to save a whole 6 to 8 (!) lives a year, apparently. Maybe they’ll ban meteorites and lightning strikes next to bring the lives saved up to double digits.
The closest they’ve got to implementing any enhancements to transport infrastructure (apart from the Cardiff ‘Metro’) is drafting in some transport ‘expert’ from Cardiff Uni to deliver the probably desired and foregone conclusion that a north-south railway would be a waste of money.
His article on nation.cymru did not even mention the three universities that sit along the route; you know, those large institutions stuffed with thousands of young people who come from afar, like to get about and in lots of cases do not drive. The twat had an MBE if I recall, so he’s no doubt the sort who’s done very well out of making the right noises for the right people.
The WGov by law – legislative as part of constitution is bound to publish its spends over 25K monthly but in the last 2 years this has not happened and now we are 5 months behind…last is April…in that there is a spend…to Lynn Global listed…49K …
I just hope that one of your kids or relatives aren’t killed by a motorist, and excessive speed for the scenario/conditions will absolutely be an aspect of that incident!
That you don’t think saving circa 10% of all road deaths in Wales isn’t worth it just shows you the level of entitled Prigs there are driving!
30MPH has not been considered ‘excessive’ for generations, and cars are safer today than they have ever been. You’re also obviously too simple to realise that we already have safety measures in the highest risk places where young families live and near schools, such as elective 20MPH zones, pelican crossings, speed ramps, etc. There is also the fact that it is pretty damned difficult to go ‘full pelt’ at 30 for any distance in any densely populated area regardless, due to congestion, parked cars, and the narrow and windy nature of the roads.
Prats like you obviously slavishly endorse any and all ridiculous and punitive kid gloves measures the nanny state foists on us, don’t you? I guarantee the only difference this ruling will make is in the increased presence of over-eager traffic fuzz, sniffing out easy scalps in nominally ‘urban’ locations like arterial roads, overpasses and out-of-town industrial estates and shopping centres, where young children are rarely (if ever!) to be seen playing kerbs or hopscotch.
Ah right, so because generations have seen fit to stick their heads in the sand and ignore the huge death and serious injury toll by motorists in urban areas (and beond) we should continue on in that vein? Continue victim blaming pedestrians and cyclists which is sickening, particularly when it comes from the police and they state ‘there was nothing you could do’. Except there was, go at a lower speed, it gives more time and space for everyone.
You mirroring your fears to attack me for wanting to save lives, it’d be funny if I didn’t know you and most others are such selfish morons that you think your entitlement has more worth than someone’s life!
As for the claim of ‘already have safety measures in place’, well it’s not doing much good when motorists still keep on killing and maiming by the tens of thousands eh! 50 people killed on the pavement every year by motorists, and you’re calling me a prat, utterly risible.
You mention that you can’t get up to 30 for long, that’s the point no 17.4mph is the average on Urban A roads in England I think, Accelerating to above 30 (yes you do) and then braking, accelerating then braking causes more fuel use and more wear, driven enough in London as a car commuter over 10 years to know this for a fact.
And it’s the accelerating to speed or at that 30mph that causes the problem, it makes others feel fear, it stops some people from being able to cross the road at all, it means pedestrians and people on bikes are caught out by the accelerating/higher speed.
Should they be punished with their lives because you couldn’t be arsed to keep to a steady 20 or even lower or even stopping if the situation demanded? ou’ve seen the videos on T etc with motorists driving like fuckwits around kids, people on bikes, older or ambulent folk, ou think addressing that shouldn’t be a valid thing to do?
I don’t slavishly endorse anything, I’ll debate and think about the merits/downsides to projects and if I think it’s worth it, I’ll state what I think and why. Cycle lanes for instance aren’t worth shit, because they’re too narrow, don’t continue to where people on bikes want to go and often spit you out into faster moving motor traffic at stupid angles.But they are put in place because motorists are too selfish and continue to drive like pricks and the death and injury stats back this up.
‘Dutch’ roundabouts that cost huge amounts are one of the worst, SMART motorways, speed humps/plateaus, they are a bane for everyone and again don’t do squat now cars have bigger tyres and suspension so they can fly over them at speed for the most part.
But motorists want it all, uninterrupted driving without being held up, without due consideration for others and the fact they should have to take by far the greater responsibility around vulnerable road users because of the weapon they are operating that kills and maims oh so easily
But they don’t take the responsibility, so reducing urban speed limits is one way to offset that selfish entitlement, and if you’re obeying the law then you’re not getting tickets eh? I’ve had my fair share on motorways, once when the roadworks had ended but the last camera was fitted right near the NSL sign and hiden by an overhead gantry, so I accelerated too early and got done for 47 in a 40 about 80yards from the NSL sign!, I could have fought it but the cost going to court wasn’t worth it. Now I play the game, think it’s just a few seconds and chill.
What is it that you fear by taking more care of others David?
Your long and boring argument can be summed up as the following obvious nonsense from where I sit, thus: “Selfish, arsehole drivers who drive dangerously and thereby ignore present regulations, will somehow all of a sudden become conscientious, considerate and law-abiding road users with this new regulation”. Why not drop it to 15, 10, or even 5, in that case, eh? A further 0.75 lives might be saved!
Details of roads in Wales affected by changes to speed limit available on interactive map at link below.
https://datamap.gov.wales/maps/roads-affected-by-changes-to-the-speed-limit-on-re/?_ga=2.55927723.1828312436.1675428050-278995397.1674129485
We’ve complained for years about the “bubble” in Cardiff Bay but I don’t think that there’s ever been an issue which has highlighted the disconnect more starkly. It’s the resignation that is so dispiriting, the jokes about walking with a red flag in front of a car are made ruefully because it is only an exaggeration of something ridiculous and damaging that people feel that they can do nothing about. No wonder the brightest and best of our young people are leaving and these chancers are arriving to live high on the hog on public money. We’re going to end up like de Valera’s Ireland where emigration was taken for granted.
Copy below of letter sent to Welsh Government 27 August. Awaiting reply.
Rt Hon Julie James MS
Minister for Climate Change
Welsh Government
5th Floor Ty Hywel
Cardiff Bay
CF99 1NA
My Ref: NCC/WJ/79
Your Ref:
Date: 27 August 2023
cc:
Dear Minister
Subject: Residential Roads [20 mph Speed Limit] [Wales] Order 2022 – Cost of RIA
I refer to the above subject and note – from the Regulatory Impact Assessment [RIA] – that costs are on a forward-looking basis and assume the policy is enacted in 2023.
As the policy appraisal and evaluation period is based on a future timeline of 30 years, with projected future costs and benefits discounted to present value using H M Treasury discount rate, I would be grateful if you could offer an explanation why costs associated with compiling the RIA – including external consultant costs – and the work of the 20mph Taskforce were excluded from the analysis.
I take the view that the following significant costs should have been included in the RIA presented to Welsh Parliament when scrutinising this new policy / legislation.
I would welcome an explanation why – as Minister for Climate Change – you consider that Welsh Parliament should not receive this information to enable informed decisions to be taken regarding the policy / legislation. Thank you.
Yours sincerely
That’s a bloody good question. I can understand why there’s foot-dragging down the Bay.
Saving lives can go get fecked because it costs money, jesus neanderthals are aplenty here …
Tony o’ the North. From your eloquent response, I am struggling to understand what aspect of the “Regulatory Impact Assessment” [RIA] you agree or disagree with. Am I correct in assuming that you have not, to date, had an opportunity to read the document. Your further clarification would be appreciated, preferably without throwing more toys out of the pram.
Response below to recent FOI request to Welsh Government
ATISN 18948
Thank you for your request which was received on 9 September 2023, you asked for the following information:
Itemised breakdown – by subject heading – of the £493,429.64 paid by Welsh Government to the Lynn Group in 2022 / 23.
The information requested is provided below.
• 20mph campaign – £342,346.64
• National Infrastructure Communications for Wales – £43,083.00
• Curriculum for Wales research – £108,000
That’s a hell of a lot of money we’re paying to be lied to.
Remembering that there is no effective political opposition, and no impartial media, to spend so much money on promoting the benefits of 20mph suggests that secret polling has told the buggers how unpopular this measure is.
I recently received reply from Welsh Government to my FOI request for a copy of the data collated relating to the 8 settlements in Wales under phase 1 of the 20 mph programme. I was directed to a report available at the following link.
https://tfw.wales/sites/default/files/2023-03/Phase-1-20mph-Interim-Monitoring-Report_Final-publish-17-March.pdf
‘Such people are fools‘
Yes, however. the question still remains. Why does Wales seem to have such a disproportionately large number of these fools, particularly when compared with England.
Something is terribly broken in Welsh culture and it’s difficult to pin point what exactly but the results are all around us.
Much of it is down to dependency culture. Willing to accept any kind of mediocrity as long as it’s free of (visible) charge. Watch the rumpus now commencing around the proposed changes at Port Talbot’s Tata Steel operations. UK government just wades in dishes out a huge handout with strings attached to a seriously wealthy Indian globalist corporation. Response from the Bay is couched in terms such as “support” “softening the blow” and a load of initiatives which most likely will be delivered by Labour party chums and be as much use as chocolate teapots.
This is where the lack of real commitment to an indigenous-led industrial/commercial recovery and regeneration is highlighted. This Bay regime and its predecessors have avoided enabling an enterprise culture to flourish. Today’s established business community has also been conditioned into a begging bowl mindset seeking out grants and other freebies. This is particularly true of international companies who seem to wander around looking for handouts as a pre-condition for locating an investment.
It’s quite simply a function of a colonised mindset, entrenched for centuries.
It is quite frightening that we have a Welsh Government that has so little regard for the public with the bulldozer attitude for change. Politicians are supposed to be servants of the Public – they are in a privileged position to have been elected yet so many of them see themselves as experts on topics when our primary school children have a greater understanding.
Perhaps the chart below will help to explain how policy originates, is distributed and enforced.
Thanks
I very much doubt if the reduction in particulates from the new 20mph limit, in Wales, will be as high as the quoted analysis predicts. There are three reasons for this.
Firstly in most urban areas of any size it is already unlikely that people exceed 20mph in the current 30mph zones due to traffic congestion. This is particularly true during the ‘rush hour’ when most commuter traffic is on the road.
Secondly particulate levels are reduced significantly by rain – sometimes by as much as 50%. Since Wales is a famously wet country it would have far lower average airborn particulates than the standard model would predict.
Thirdly the standard model for measuring particulates is extremely dubious, being based on laboratory emissions tests on hot engines; or open road tests on long, straight dry roads with no cross wind.
There are also complications regarding biofuels, which may reduce particle size and make them more toxic, and a lack of info on cold engine emmissions (12% of unified total) which tend to be higher.
To be fair I haven’t read the full report, so it is possible that there may be caveats explaining this. It is often the case with scientific articles that lay people disregard the caveats and simply assume the bits they like are absolute.
That’s interesting stuff, Ifor. I wonder why our wonderful ‘Welsh Government’ didn’t take all these things into account? Oh yes, I remember now – because it’s all a stitch-up. They operate like the old South Wales Police murder squad: start with an arrest – i.e ‘conclusion’ – then build the case to support that conclusion.
I’d like to know if any studies have factored in the way gear ratios are set up to allow smooth cruising in fourth and fifth at 30MPH and above, based on it being the hitherto longstanding lower speed limit in the UK. Will having to drop to third gear to maintain 20MPH (especially when heading uphill), which I’ll bet will be the case for many cars, perhaps especially older ones, actually increase the engine revs and therefore emissions?
I’ve seen some research from Canada which shows fuel consumption vs speed is basically a U-shaped chart. The optimum speed for lowest fuel consumption appears to be 50-70km/h ( approx 30 to 45 mph ) for diesel engines and 50-80km/h ( approx 30 to 50 mph ) for petrol engines.
These were ( ironically ) probably the sort of figures the Welsh Gov. used to justify the 50 mph limits on some motorways in order to reduce pollution near urban areas.
It would appear that, like most governments, they’re using one set of figures to justify one thing and a different set to justify something else.
That said most fuel consumption figures are generic guesswork. How much fuel you use depends on which vehicle you have, the fuel type, do you have roof boxes attached, how much unneccessary stuff you’ve left in the boot, how many passengers you’ve got, when was it last serviced, are there three kids and two wet Labradors on the back seat, how hot the engine is, how you drive it etc etc etc.
For example if you’re driving Auntie Blodwen 10 miles through country roads to the hospital, in a 30 year old Landrover Defender – and going nice and slow because her haemorrhoids are playing her up – you’ll cause more pollution than a Ford Fiesta travelling between Cardiff and Llanelli.
I’ve said on previous blogs here that the lower the gear the twitchier the accelerator, and having to stay in third to keep to 20 will in many cars result in a jerkier and more irritating ride, as well as a more distracting one as a result of the necessitated heightened focus on pedal operation. I wonder if this will wipe out any safety ‘benefits’.
There are lots of 20mph zones all over the UK. I think the first was in Sheffield in about 1990; and they don’t seem to make a lot of difference.
I haven’t got figures for Wales but UK Government statistics show that in 2021 over 87% of drivers broke 20mph speed limits and 51% of drivers exceeded 30mph speed limits.
Furthermore a large 2018 study for the UK DfT found that drivers’ median speed fell by just 0.7mph in residential areas, and 0.9mph in city centre areas where limits had been dropped from 30mph to 20mph. Even this small reduction was probably due to ‘traffic calming’ measures such as speed humps that they’re allowed to deploy in 20mph ‘zones’.
According to the RAC disregard for speed limits in general seems to be rising. They did a small study in late 2022 which said almost half of drivers have admitted to occasionally breaking the speed limit of 60mph on rural roads – and on motorways as many as 60% of drivers say they have broken the 70mph limit
It would seem therefore that the university report quoted – which calculates number of lives to be saved by a lower speed limit – is hopelessly optimistic in this regard.
As I said previously I haven’t read the full report so this may be covered by various caveats and conditions – the sort of things politicians ignore if they’re inconvenient.
What about the flip side of the argument? Every sodding time I drive anywhere (incidentally I can’t stand driving and it is very much a means to an end), there’s at least one dunderhead sauntering across the road with no regard for traffic; sometimes kids or teenagers, but too often adults. Will a lower limit make these candidates for the smite of social Darwinism even more blasé? As ‘hard’ as they think they may be, a ton or more of metal moving at 20MPH isn’t exactly a clip round the ear!
We are told the Independent Environmental Advisory Panel (IEAP) of Dwr Cymru to ‘maximise business investment return’. Your request for names of appointees denied.
A bit like the mafia getting the policeman, judge, politician, community centre manager, cafe owner and union boss into the family boardroom. Although Dwr Cymru is a ‘not for profit’ enterprise, unlike the ‘for profit’ private companies that operate in England, it is still a commercial concern. I doubt very much if Southern Water or Severn Trent have representees from the Environment Agency (the policeman) or the Defra (the judge) or National Park and the Landowners Trust sat in on their investment meetings.
This is insidious.
You have a situation where the boss of the technician who samples the river water for pollution incident has already been in a meeting on whether or not to fix the pipe, and it things do go wrong, the man or woman who is tasked to issue the penalty fine was also sat in on the same meeting.
Doesn’t surprise me they won’t name the people on the IEAP. In Scotland it’s the law to do so as Scottish Water is a pubic body. Dwr Cymru hovers in the no-mans land between public accountability (Scotland) and private regulation (England). Dwr Cymru operates a cozy gentleman’s club, members by invitation, G&Ts and scratching backs, revenues sent to a monopoly of bill payers.
Dwr Cymru gets away with a lot due to its ambiguous status.
This is a clear cancelling of science by political spin doctors. An independent study using scientific analysis and real data on wide scale urban 20mph zones is available. It was recently published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. It is here.
https://jech.bmj.com/content/77/1/17
It concludes “A 20 mph speed limit intervention implemented at city centre scale had little impact on long-term outcomes including road traffic collisions, casualties and speed, except for a reduction in traffic volume.”
Brychan, you know it, I know it, Dai Jones down the road knows it (so does his dog), but we have no political opposition and no honest media. We are in one hell of a corner.
A lot hangs on Trump, or even Kennedy, winning next year’s presidential election, because if they start standing up to the WEF and the other maniacs then it will be difficult for European states to carry with their blind obedience.
It’s quite ironic that the WG has fallen in hook line and sinker with the Globalist agenda to the worst extent you’ve observed, despite probably only wielding a fraction of the powers of comparable semi-autonomous entities like U.S. States, Swiss Cantons or German Länder. Talk about getting ideas above your station!
It’s happening here because it then allows the ‘Welsh Government’ to declare that Wales is ‘the first country to declare a climate emergency’; ‘first country to bring in a Future Generations Commissioner’; ‘first country promote OPDs’.
Wales serves the purpose well because, unlike U.S. States, Swiss Cantons or German Länder, and largely thanks to rugby and football, an internationally recognised flag, Wales has a higher profile.
And it gets noticed.
It seems they’ve read their Ladybird Book of Statecraft, to be fair to them. All this Mickey Mouse posturing on the world stage, but mention actual sovereignty and they scatter like cockroaches when the lights are turned on.
“They scatter like cockroaches when the lights are turned on2. Oh, I like that! Easily imagined, repulsive, yet applicable.