2230 days ago
My late ex father in law Iwan was consistently damning about the Assembly, which governs the Wales he loved with such fervour. He was a man who had grafted away all his life as builder and developer, risking his capital and working bloody hard to make a decent living for his family and along the way paying vast amounts of tax.
2923 days ago
The BBC News at Ten coverage of the elections to the costly waste of space that is the Welsh assembly is focussing on the economy. The big issue is apparently Steel and which party is going to spunk the most cash on part nationalising and subsidising an industry that will never ever make a cent in profit. But the BBC says there is an alternative view in the principality. Hooray. I look forward to Huw Edwards interviewing a real capitalist...but this is Wales.
The alternative view
2988 days ago
AIM listed biotech Reneuron (RENE) has today announced that it has completed the move of all of its operations from Surrey to Pencoed, Bridgend, Wales. Hooray...welcome to the most expensive job creation programme in history paid for with YOUR money.
This deal was first announced two years ago and involved the Welsh Assembly handing over a grant of £7.8 million to get the company to move from Surrey, where it employed 25 folks at the time, to the land of the Sheep Shaggers.
You will note that Wales is a net taker
3242 days ago
Obviously the coolest folks are libertarians. And so am I. Amanda Van Dyke has a few dangerous neocon tendancies (foreign policy) and some odd views on the EU but for a Canadian is a pretty libertarian - her fellow countrymen tend to be lefties. Charlotte Argyle, the daughter of Thatcher pictured above, is crystal pure. But you only know something is really cool when folks with no claim to be one of us, start trying to claim to be part of the crowd. That brings me to a total tosser called Nick Curtis, a columnist in the London Evening Standard.
I stress that I am not a regular Standard reader. But on the train back to Bristol last week I happened upon a copy and being bored started to read it. As ever I was struck how folks inside zone 1 of London are a completely alien speciies to the rest of the UK. They have different concerns, interests and views to the rest of us. They are the political, media and corporate elite and they just live on another planet.
Mr Curtis writes on the 10th June about how the busy body sheep shaggers at the Welsh Assembly wish to ban vaping ( "smoking e-cigarettes" in public places). And in the piece he proclaims "I'm a libertarian who believes in personal choice." Great news... a kindred spirit. er....
