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Dafis

That tweet of yours featuring juvenile sour yoofs and a suspect adult sums up Rhun’s chances of ever getting Plaid taken seriously by that part of the electorate remotely interested in the democratic process.They are doomed to being a junior partner at those times that Labour needs one. They will on this evidence blend well with the “special interest groups”that thrive in Labour’s bubble . Chixwivdix, shirtlifters and paedos will thrive.

YBarddCwsc

Off topic, but another bizarre appointment,

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/65919265

Richard Collier-Keywood was born and brought up in England, went to University in England, spent his entire business life in England and lives in England.

When I knew him, he had no discernible interest in Wales or Rugby Union. He was keen on tennis — as befits a nice middle-class English boy.

The feebleness of his connection to Wales is indicated by the claim his “mother grew up in Maesteg”. Well, possibly, but given his Collier-Keywood’s age, this will have been in the 1930s, almost a century ago.

So, why has Collier-Keywood been appointed Chair of the Welsh Rugby Union? He appears to have absolutely no obvious qualifications at all for the job.

David Smith

It all seems true to form for a body which had to doff its cap to England’s royals in appointing Ponce Willy as its patron. The image of Baldilocks giving our players pats on the head in the locker room, a representation personified of the worst aspect of the national consciousness of our greatest sporting rival, would be absurd if it wasn’t unfortunately true.

Dafis

Almost prompted me to use that most unlikely phrase : “Carwyn Jones would have been a better choice” then I woke up and left it unsaid.

Jon

David Amess

David Smith

Apparently Virginia Crosbie wears a stab vest to her surgeries. I appreciate people here aren’t all keen on the Conservatives, but for Christ’s sake, this isn’t Belfast in the 1970s!

Dicky Prober

Does she also wear an “old fashioned belt” ?

David Smith

A what?

Randy Valet

David Smith, I guess Dicky Prober means a ‘chastity belt’.

David Smith

Ah. Well the death threat she was sent did look like it was written by a child, so it might be advised to wear such protection against a potential waist-high assailant.

Frank Little

the Great Barrier Reef has never been healthier, the ice sheets are expanding in both Arctic and Antarctic, and there are now more polar bears than ever.
Where do you get this rubbish from?

The Great Barrier Reef has certainly been healthier in living memory. Admittedly, most of the damage has been caused by pollution run-off, but the rise in ocean temperature and acidification have not helped. I cite https://www.barrierreef.org/the-reef/threats among many references in support. There have been suggestions that introducing more resistant corals from elsewhere and by genetic manipulation, but time may be against the scientists.

The Antarctic ice-sheet was reported to have spread by a small percentage a few years ago, but ice coverage of the continent is thinning and glaciers are moving faster. NASA has found that ice is being shed faster than it is being replaced.

There is much more open water in the Arctic than there used to be. Polar bears are probably declining along with their habitat. What is probably happening is that they are more visible as they venture more into human settlements in search of food.

I agree with you about the damage to the democratic process presented by pressure groups (and by Special Advisers and consultants) but disregard for hard evidence does not help the case.

David Smith

Wales being the guinea pig for the 20’s Plenty bollocks reminds me of Scotland being the same for the Poll Tax under Maggie. Such contemptuous and brazen Ivory Tower twattitude would never happen in a federal state. Imagine Berlin or DC trying these kinds of ‘pilot schemes’ on in Bavaria or Texas, the respective Supreme Courts would laugh heartily before throwing them out! No such luck in this ‘United’ Kingdom (by England, for England™️).

David Smith

A question that needs to be put to these types is why they don’t direct all these considerable resources towards nuclear fusion research instead of persecuting people and businesses. Could it be: A) Major OPEC states have an obvious vested interest in not seeing it cracked and are too powerful to bully and push around, unlike small independent states like Ireland or the Netherlands, or minority ‘subnational’ territories like Wales? Or B) As you discuss, saving the environment really is just a smokescreen?

Wynne

You refer to 20 mph speed limit Jac. Following response from Ceredigion Council to my FOI request, I have now directed another enquiry to Welsh Government [WG]. Copy of correspondence below. Currently awaiting reply from WG.

Freedom of Information Officer
Information Rights Unit
Welsh Government
Cathays Park
Cardiff
CF10 3NQ

My Ref: NCC/WJ/59
Your Ref:
Date: 25 May 2023

cc: Ceredigion County Council – FOI Team Ref: EIR-PLR-22370 [for information]

Dear Freedom of Information Officer

Subject: Speed Limit – Cardigan Town

I refer to the above subject and to my request for information addressed to Ceredigion County Council [CCC] dated 6 April 2023. I have today received a response from CCC – under reference EIR-PLR-22370 – as reproduced below in indented blue text. The “integrated impact assessment” undertaken by CCC is attached hereto for your information.

Dear Wynne Jones,

Thank you for your request for information dated 6th April 2023, and please accept our sincere apologies for the delay in providing a response.
Your request has been dealt with in accordance with the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.
The information you have requested is as follows:

“I refer to “Ceredigion County Council [20mph, 30mph, 40mph and 50mph Speed Limits and Derestricted Roads][Consolidation] Order 2014” and attach hereto abstract from the interactive map downloaded from your website.
I note the proposed change to speed limit at Cardigan Town, as outlined on plan.
I would be grateful if you could arrange to provide me with a copy of the “Impact Assessment” undertaken by Ceredigion County Council to support and justify the proposed changes to be introduced under the above Order. Thank you.”

No specific Impact Assessment was taken for the 20mph project since this is a duty that continues to fall under the delegated powers that the Local Highway Authority has and is a change to the existing 2014 consolidation Order. The attached document will continue to be applicable to this, however, Welsh Government will have carried out a wider assessment on the impact of 20mph which is applicable to all Local Authorities – 20mph speed limits | Sub-topic | GOV.WALES

We hope that the above information will be of assistance, however should you have any complaints in relation to this EIR response the Council operates an internal appeals procedure. If you wish to utilise this procedure please respond to this e-mail, marked for the attention of: Mr Alun Williams, Corporate Lead Officer for Policy, Performance and Public Protection, within 40 working days of the date of this response.

Following internal review, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision on the matter. Generally, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the appeals procedure provided by the Council.

The Information Commissioner’s Office can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office – Wales

2nd Floor, Churchill House
Churchill Way
Cardiff
CF10 2HH

Should you have any queries regarding the above response please do not hesitate to contact us.

Yours sincerely,

Amelia Davies
Complaints and Freedom of Information Officer
Policy, Performance and Public Protection Service
Ceredigion County Council
Rhodfa Padarn
Llanbadarn Fawr
Aberystwyth
Ceredigion
SY23 3UE

The content of the response from CCC should be self-explanatory. I would be grateful if Welsh Government could arrange to provide me with a copy of the “wider assessment of the impact of 20 mph applicable to all Local Authorities in Wales” undertaken by Welsh Government, referred to in the response from CCC.

I look forward to receiving the information at your earliest convenience. Thank you.

Yours sincerely

David Smith

I problem I don’t think anyone’s considered with this 20MPH agenda is that in standard, road-legal cars, the gear ratios are tuned so that fourth gear produces a smooth ride at 30MPH and upwards. The first three are in place only to be iterated through, to accelerate to cruising at the speed limit at fourth and possibly fifth; at least that’s the impression I get anyway, not being any sort of ‘petrolhead’. Having to drop down to third to avoid the engine labouring at 20, with the quicker acceleration it produces, results in a jerkier, more agitating ride. I half expect this additional distraction to cause more accidents than it prevents.

Dafis

That “Romanian porn” still that features in your earlier tweet should of interest to our Police forces unless they are colluding with low budget film makers to provide in-house entertainment when Stonewall come on an inspection visit. The freak on the right is brandishing a blade which should earn him a custodial sentence, especially if there are multiple images of him using threatening language. After all over 99% of the population fall into the Fash category as defined by those weirdos

Dyn Gwyrdd

Good work Jac. Keep digging. I campaigned for years to get an ‘Assembly’ and now it’s been here for a couple of decades, and has evolved into a so called ‘Wales Government’, I do not feel it represents me in any shape or form. I walk around my community and talk to the ordinary folk, of every age,and they feel exactly the same as me. Let me level a question here to all Senedd Members of all political groups – “Who do think you really represent?”. It’s not me. nor anybody I know. No Senedd Member will come on this BLOG to answer the question. So readers, can you all submit that simple question above directly to all your own local five Senedd Members for your area. I cannot bring myself to call them ‘representatives’.

David Robins

A comment I saw today at Bella Caledonia read, “Are people reacting to the enormity of the climate crisis by shutting down discussion?”, and went on to talk about denialism.

I do see more evidence of pushback and there are multiple reasons for it. One is panic fatigue. If the problems were real, those whose job is to do something really would be doing something. If they’re not, it’s a performance. Coupled with this is the inequity of ‘think globally, act locally’. If I act by recycling more bottle tops while the world’s thinkers are jetting off to another conference or awards ceremony, I’m going to conclude it’s a con. A third is the breaking of the environmental / non-environmental barrier, so that, for example, ‘trans rights’ becomes an inseparable part of saving the planet, even though ‘trans rights’ is a big win for Big Pharma and Big Surgery. ESG scores – paving the way for individual social credit ratings – are the final straw on this camel’s back.

David Robins

Note the use of words to mean the opposite: “establish a Citizens’ Assembly to enhance the democratic mandate for action”, i.e., bypass the tiresome normal channels. If elected, it would duplicate the Senedd. If NOT duplicating the Senedd, it would need to be unelected, and so undemocratic. We saw the same rubbish from the Occupy movement and it may well be the same people.

One idea is to pick members at random, like jury service except that, being voluntary, only the zealots would show up and they’d then run the show according to a pre-arranged plan. Climate sceptics would be barred from contributing, through defining their views as out-of-scope.

Brychan

The concept of “Citizens Assemblies” or “Soviets” as a mechanism was invented in July 1917 by the Bolshevik Party in Russia. After the spring revolution which deposed the monarchy and established a form of democracy the Bolsheviks had a problem in that they only had support in small enclaves and by July of that year who became restless with uprisings, mainly in Petrograd. Lenin refused to meet the local leaders while Trotsky thought that a route to power rested in these ad-hoc organisations.

This ‘split’ has always haunted the left.

The call for ‘Citizens Assemblies” has remained a tactic in Trotskyite thinking to this day. Most visible by campaigns from the Socialist Workers Party on campaigns ‘against racism’ and ‘trades union rights’. More recently the concept of the ‘Citizens Assembly’ is used as a propaganda tactic of leverage in the middle class ‘ishoos’ of climate and gender, even penetrating aspects of the independence movement in Wales. It’s a product of entryism.

Ian Perryman

The problem is not farting cows producing Methane but Nitrogen (aka poo etc).

Dutch farmers, for example, have about 1.3 million dairy cows, 2.2 million cattle, 11.5 million pigs and 100 million chickens (broiler + egg laying).
That’s a lot of ‘nitrogen’ waste.

If you take just the 1.3 million dairy cows, each of which produces a minimum of 60 litres of waste a day, that’s approx 80 million litres of poo etc per day for the dairy industry as a whole.

In a country with an area of approx 40,000 sq kilometres that’s about 2,000 litres (over 2 tonnes) of pong per sq km per day.

The farmers may be aggrieved by any reduction, but I’d guess the rest of the population is delighted !!

P.S. the EU farm purchase scheme is voluntary.

Brychan

The nitrogen content of the average tonne of dry cow manure is only 90Kg made up of (60% ammonia, from the wee, and 40% in organic substrate, from the poo). The catastrophic error as the “cows are bad lobby” in the calculation is that they assume all the slurry volume is nitrogen. 900Kg of it is degraded cellulose, loam to the soil, and about 10kg of other plant life including bacteria for good soil health. Important to remember that the Netherlands is a big grower of market garden vegetables and flowers. Applying cow muck to the polder means less fossil fuel (Ammoniam Nitrate) required to grow. For every cow removed, a sack of oil-based fertiliser is required to replace it. It’s also why the allotments near me get a trailer full of cow muck every year from a local cattle farmer, and good gardeners on the Gwendraeth wee in their compost heaps. It adds nitrogen for stronger plants.

Dafis

That’s how it always was until some wise guys in governments decades ago started to encourage farmers to use synthetic, manufactured fertilisers on their land. Well meaning, perhaps, but just as misleading as the propaganda now being churned out by the “cows are killing us” lobby. I think it was some theme like “efficiency” and “productivity” that got people off on the wrong track in the first half of the 20th century. Now it’s “sustainability”and “saving the earth” except of course this lot have a far more intense Fascist orientation in rejecting any alternative thoughts or, heaven forbid, scientific proof. They may say that they rely on science but the harsh reality is that the science has been corrupted by an overload of hype, spin and downright opportunistic posturing.

Brychan

Alway like to be driven by the evidence me.

So, when the various climate apocalypse pundits say ‘trust the scientists’ that’s exactly what I do. The thing is, after you dig through the wave of ‘experts in media relations’ to get at the science, that is not what it tells us. A telltale sign is when someone claims a melt (which it is not) of the north pole ice sheet will contribute to rising sea levels. No scientist will have missed Archimedes in the bath in their formative years. An ice cube melting in your G&T will not make you drink overflow. The claim is fake.

I recently decided to check out the other claim that the Antarctic Ice sheet melting will explain our imminent inundation at the other side of the planet. Ice melt from land would indeed add to the volume of sea water, especially as ice shelves block the flow of land ice cap into the ocean for the great melt. We are told that ‘the scientists’ tell us of this other such an apocalypse.

It is here.
https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/17/2059/2023/

What it tells us is there is indeed a net annual melt of the west Antarctic (the volcano mountains pointy bit that sticks out toward south America) ice sheet. Some 12,000 square kilometres of Ice lost since the 1970s. However, the report also tells us that that was gain of over14,000 square kilometres over this period in east Antactica, the bits where the major ice shelves do dwell. So, there’s a net gain in the Antarctic ice sheet over the period in question. Ice cap gain. The reality is the western peninsular is a localised weather fluctuation with glacial ebb and flow in the throughout the centuries. Chronology of the glacial moraines tells us that story.

Trust the science not the spin doctors.

Brychan

Particularly evident at the BBC. Remember they kept publishing the photo of the Afon Cleddau near Carew castle last year to illustrate the unprecedented drought caused by global warming? The photo was actually taken when the tide went out, happens twice a day, exposing the dried mud. The river there is tidal.

Alison Bond

All these people are influencers of the worst sort. They believe they are intelligent and messianic but in reality they are dim, dogmatic, illiberal ideologues. And, of course, they then meet and match up with exactly the same types within the Labour party dominated state of Wales. It becomes a vicious circle that simply reinforces cult behaviour.

Brychan

We also see the hypocrasy. In the 20s Plenty household of St Dogmaels we see Piers grew up in Australia which he likes to fly to in a jet going 600mph spewing CO2. In the dancing video we even see him spreading fossil fuel fertiliser in the form of Ammonium Nitrate pellets prior to laying his new lawn after arriving from Bristol. Utter hypocrites. Saving the planet is something we have to do and sacrifice, but not for them.