Points to Ponder

[Hugo]

You are spot on Norman,    the people of Llandudno have been shafted by their own Councillors.     

[Hugo]

This is what prisoners in North Wales will be eating on Christmas Day
Welsh prisoners to enjoy festive feasts including halal and vegan options this Christmas,  I'm sure that the Asylum seekers will have the same too.
Let's hope that provision will be made for our own homeless people to be treated the same


https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/what-prisoners-north-wales-eating-30633204

[Hugo]

I went to the public library in Llandudno last week and it's the first time I had been there for many years.    Inside it is a very attractive building  and is very well lit up and is extremely well organised.    In fact I much prefer it to the one in Colwyn Bay and in future I may visit the Llandudno one instead.
Seeing how well it was,  it made me wonder what is going on at CCBC and who makes the decisions to relocate the Library to the Venue Cymru site?
CCBC claim that Venue Cymru is at the centre of town and that there is ample parking there, neither of which is true.    What does concern me is what is going on behind the scenes that we are not being made aware of.
Llandudno Public Library was given to the town many years ago by the Mostyn Family so in effect the town owned the building.    Yet just a few years ago CCBC sold the Library back to the Mostyn Estates and the reason why they did this and the price involved is unexplained.    Then CCBC leased the building from Mostyn Estates but now CCBC  wants to relocate to Venue Cymru but why?        Who is pulling the strings?

[Hugo]

North Wales council's bid to build homes for locals 'priced out the market'
A planning application has been submitted to build nine properties in Morfa Nefyn on a shared equity model
It sounds like a good idea, providing of course that these "affordable homes" are only for local people


https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/north-wales-councils-bid-build-30729575

[Robert2020]

I've just read the daily mail article about the Department of Transport confirming the 2030 cut off date for the purchase of new ice vehicles.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/cars/article-14261977/Will-2030-ban-new-petrol-diesel-cars-happen-able-drive-petrol-car.html?ico=mol_desktop_home

How can this government stick to such a plan when the power generation is in such a state. Do we really want to power EV's with electric generated from gas turbines.

Today  at 13.20hrs over 60% of power generated was  gas turbine (52%) and 11% import via cable from the EU, our nuclear power was 11%,  our  green generation was 17%.

https://gridwatch.co.uk/

Look at the grid watch site and see the graphs for the last day/week/month/year.

As a country we have a big issue with wind power which I can't see being resolved with more turbines on the hills of Wales or anywhere else .

[Hugo]

Political Parties Labour or Conservative promise to tighten up on Tax avoidance and tax evasion but when they come into office they never do anything about it.     Tax avoidance is legal and is a way of paying less tax but tax evasion is illegal and is just evading paying what you should be paying.
David Beckham and George Osborne are just some of the well known names who participate in schemes for avoiding paying tax, but it's all legal.    George Osborne when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer allegedly avoided paying £2 million pounds tax on his carpet business.  Still it's perfectly legal under the present tax rules
Avoidance on the other hand is illegal  and it is individuals and Ltd companies who don't reveal their actual earnings   
HMRC has not charged a single company over tax evasion under landmark legislation
This article is more than 11 months old
Powers bestowed by the Criminal Finances Act 2017 are not being used effectively, say critics,   I'm inclined to agree with the critics as I know a number of people who have had several phoenix type companies and they have not been prosecuted by HMRC.        It's time that the powers that be put their words into action

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/jan/20/hmrc-has-not-charged-a-single-company-over-tax-evasion-under-landmark-legislation

[Hugo]

I was watching a report on the TV about the magnificent work the Salvation Army was doing for the homeless people in the UK especially during this prolonged spell of bitterly cold weather.
I know that a lot of homeless people have brought it on themselves by drug and alcohol abuse but no one in the UK should be homeless.   These people are vulnerable people and we should be looking after the homeless properly.
I had a mixture of sadness and also anger that the Governments that have been in power don't seem to give priority to homeless UK citizens.
No prisoners or illegal asylum seekers will have had to endure those conditions or there would have been an outrage voiced by the so called do gooders but our own homeless people need the same protection too

[SteveH]

"I've worked in hospitality since I was 15, and this is probably the quietest January I've worked," says 23-year-old Willow Gwyn-Williams, a pub manager in Chelmsford.

She thinks the cost-of-living crisis is to blame for bookings being down where she works at the William Boosey in Hatfield Peverel.

"People just don't have the money to go out and do anything," she says.

Videos of eerily empty bars and restaurants are trending on TikTok, with staff posting videos under the hashtag January in Hospitality.

Some posts have tens of thousands of likes, showing staff finding creative ways to stay busy, including perfecting latte art or making pint glasses sparkling clean................. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvglw0vl6jzo

[SteveH]

Working from home is creating a generation who are "not doing proper work", the former boss of Marks and Spencer and Asda has warned.

Lord Rose told BBC Panorama that home working was part of the UK economy's "general decline" and employees' productivity was suffering.

His comments come as some companies are calling time on remote working. Amazon, Boots and JP Morgan are just some of the businesses who now require their head office staff to be in every day................. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0qww8xdvnwo

[Hugo]

Donald Trump's  mass deportation is a disgrace according to the Pope.        So is the UK'S approach to illegal immigration, not only is it unsustainable to the UK, it is also breeding resentment to the benefits freely available to these "asylum seekers"
Perhaps the UK may learn something from Trump's approach to the problem that both country's share

[Hugo]

Trump vows to leave Paris climate agreement and 'drill, baby, drill'
President Donald Trump has once again vowed to withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement, the world's most important effort to tackle rising temperatures.
The first Trump administration made a similar move in 2017, but that step was promptly reversed on President Joe Biden's first day in office in 2021.

With President Trump vowing to withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement and the fact that China contributes 25% to global warming, are the rest of us fighting a losing battle?





https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20px1e05w0o

[SteveH]

I did hear a comment on TV........jf he is drilling to make oil prices cheaper for America.....if oil is to cheap, its not worth the companies
drilling for it?

[DaveR]

I was watching a report on the TV about the magnificent work the Salvation Army was doing for the homeless people in the UK especially during this prolonged spell of bitterly cold weather.
I know that a lot of homeless people have brought it on themselves by drug and alcohol abuse but no one in the UK should be homeless.   These people are vulnerable people and we should be looking after the homeless properly.
I had a mixture of sadness and also anger that the Governments that have been in power don't seem to give priority to homeless UK citizens.
No prisoners or illegal asylum seekers will have had to endure those conditions or there would have been an outrage voiced by the so called do gooders but our own homeless people need the same protection too

I agree. It's just bizarre, isn't it?

The problem is that when mainstream politicians ignore the wishes of the electorate, then they will inevitably turn to those with more extremist views.

[Ian]

The problem is that when mainstream politicians ignore the wishes of the electorate, then they will inevitably turn to those with more extremist views.

I think it's more complex than that.  Seems to me it all started in 2007-2008. when predatory lending in the form of subprime mortgages to low-income homebuyers and a resulting housing bubble, excessive risk-taking by global financial institutions, and lack of regulatory oversight, which culminated in a "perfect storm" that triggered the Great Recession, all combined to create massive instability, exacerbated (unlike in the 1929) by a far more pervasive news broadcast system and a rapidly growing internet.

Governments around the world have been 'running scared' of their electorates for quite a while.

[SteveH]

Poland's president has said that gas flows from Russia to Western Europe should never be restored, even if Russia and Ukraine reach a peace deal.

Andrzej Duda told the BBC that the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which have not been used since 2022, "should be dismantled".

This, he said, would mean the likes of Germany would not be tempted to restore Russian supplies to boost its own struggling economy.

"I can only hope that European leaders will learn lessons from Russia's aggression against Ukraine and that they will push through a decision to never restore the pumping of gas through this pipeline," he said............ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1m5p21pmy2o