These Albanian minicab drivers are intimately familiar with the streets of Cardiff, or is the minicabbing just a front for the baccy business?

Like parts of Germany, the price of smuggled cigarettes and street heroin in South Wales has already fallen considerably. This is probably because the Macedonian cartels have now managed to crack their supply chain problem. They used to lack of dispensable end-of-chain-on-the-ground distributors in Western Europe. Some may be surprised how young ethnic Arabic men are able to accumulate a few thousand Euro, more than the manual wage of a Syrian worker (in the middle of a civil war) to pay the trafficking network. The Bajrush Sejdiu, Arslan Poda, and Nezim Allii gangs call it a ‘loan’. Those who are campaigning for local authorities in Wales to fund settlement of the smuggled refugees should also campaign to make financial provision for the Welsh police forces to set up anti-money laundering operations. Providing asylum for someone plucked out of a refugee camp in Lebanon is simple, however, housing a smuggled debtor of a Macedonian cartel via the Balkan route is fraught with dangers. I gave up smoking tobacco a few years ago partly due to cost, but now find the Albanian minicab drivers in Cardiff are doing a roaring trade.

I can live with that compromise. Shall we get back ‘on topic’?

I can agree with you that Cameron is right for the wrong reasons.

Jac you know as well as I do that Cameron saying that is just a weasel’s way around his responsibility. He’s a classic English upper class xenophobe.

5,000 refugees per year for five years is a pathetic number – just to scotch the embarrassment that the Swedes and the Germans are causing him. 5,000 refugees a year into an UK of 64,000,000 is .0078 of ONE percent. And that’s going to change everything? I don’t think so.

Gwilym, I was simply quoting official German figures. As for Cameron’s position, one is far more likely to find genuine refugees from the war in Syria just over the border in neighbouring countries than among those currently heading for Germany or Sweden.

But everything may now be about to change as the Russians are shipping soldiers, tanks and combat aircraft into Syria in support of Assad. Peace, even under Assad, might be better for most Syrians than a war that no one seems able to win.

The ‘window’, as the tourism business sees it, is normally Easter to the end of the school holidays in early September, which is five months. And even within that period there are troughs and peaks. There’s a lull after Easter, peaks at Spring Bank Holiday weekend and Whitsun weekend, then another downturn until the school holidays, mid-July to early September. The Christmas and New Year period can also be busy if an area has many trailer parks and holiday homes.

But this being Wales, visitor numbers at any time of year will be influenced by the weather. This year’s bad summer is already affecting next year because many who might have visited Wales in 2016 are already booking holidays in countries where they are more likely to see prolonged sunshine.

Like all publicly-funded projects – and here I speak from experience – there is a temptation to overstate potential visitor numbers and other factors in order to convince funders of the ongoing viability of the project. In fact, the system of awarding grants is so designed that if you don’t over-egg it then you’re unlikely to see the funding in the first place. This explains why so many publicly funded projects like this fail without further inputs of public funding.

My prediction is that Cardigan Castle is economically unviable as a castle that attracts too few visitors; a wedding venue that hasn’t seen a single wedding!; a conference centre that sees very few conferences; and on a daily basis, a cafe / restaurant that few people use.

But because so much public money has been poured in it would embarrass too many people if the Castle was to go bust in the next few years, so more good money will be thrown after bad. Money that could be better spent on worthwhile projects. So sad.

Thank you for wrinkling out my envelope!

There is only a six month window for large numbers of visitors anywhere. Keeping the facility open for small numbers during winter is not be cost effective. The only way to keep numbers up is by diversified activities, many at risk of poor financial return.

The total number is not relevant as long as they bring 80K with them, so either many with a small spend, or less, but with bigger pockets. That is all reflected in how the enterprise is marketed.

As other sites close down over the winter, so is this one is likely to reduce staffing for the winter, one big reason why the AGM was advanced.

line 20 should have read ” to fund a new life in the land of the free ” !!!!!