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I said last week that I'd respond to Councillor Clive Lloyd's letter in the EP. This is printed today.
*********************************************************************** With reference to Councillor Lloyd's letter, 'Don't envy Cardiff — make most of our City', I don't understand why people choose to see letters like mine as showing envy of Cardiff. What I thought I was arguing for was fairness.
Labour say they are planning to spend billions on the infrastructure around Cardiff because it is necessary to cope with the demand.
They've ensured that most of the well paid jobs that come to Wales are centralised in Cardiff. They've ensured that all the major sporting events go to Cardiff. They've ensured that concerts from world renowned figures in the entertainment world can only occur in Cardiff by providing the arenas. And now that that framework has been provided, which has resulted in millions upon millions of people having to travel to Cardiff for work or play, they have ensured that billions of private investment has poured in. Given all that it's hardly surprising if the infrastructure feels the pressure.
Here's how they could save those billions. Locate the 2000 HMRC jobs in an area that actually needs them ie Port Talbot because they've known for ages that the steel works were in trouble. That way 2000 cars a day would head West instead of East. Do that with a few thousand other jobs heading for Cardiff and, lo and behold, pressure on infrastructure eases and billions are saved.
Back to the letter. Why do all Labour politicians still refer to the Waterfront Museum and the National Pool. We don't need lessons in history. When are Labour politicians going to talk about what's happening now.
Councillor Lloyd did, in fairness, refer to current plans but mostly about things that haven't happened yet. And possibly won't, like the previous regeneration plans. He talks about 'invaluable support for the City Region' and also the City Deal submission. So far the WAG support has amounted to nothing but words. ****************************************************************** Within a very short period of the Cardiff submission they pledged £580million of OUR money to the Cardiff City Deal. Now THAT is investment. And he refers to the trivial WAG investment for such stellar projects as the Hafod Relief Road or the Kingsway redevelopment. I say trivial because i'm comparing these projects with the M4 Relief Road which will cost £1.5 billion.
To paraphrase Councillor Lloyd in his letter, what we need is substantial, not piecemeal, Public investment by the WAG in order to be better able to attract Private investment, as has happened in Cardiff. *********************************************************************
They altered the first part a bit and left out the last part entirely but the gist is there.
John
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The 2016 Assembly Elections: Which way will you be voting & why? on 13:02 - Apr 8 with 1952 views
Well here is a bit of general information for you John! Today Labour have been canvassing door to door in it's ex stronghold of Gower i.e. in Gorseinon. And?........For the first time in my lifetime I have ever seen a high ranking member of Labour going door to door in my constituency. That member the First-Minister himself Carwyn Jones!
It sort of says?..... They must be worried at the prospect of losing Gower again? I have lived through the lot Ifor Davies, Gareth Wardell, Martin Caton, Edwina Hart. We never used to see any of em John not a peep...... Your thoughts, my thoughts and many, many others have been echoed, he has been told of the Cardiff concern(s).
Argus!
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The 2016 Assembly Elections: Which way will you be voting & why? on 17:24 - Apr 8 with 1903 views
Like I thought. You really don't have a clue Trampie.
You only had to browse Facebook to see that, in the last year, Gower has been visited and canvassed door-to-door by Jon Trickett MP (shadow local government minister), Owen Smith MP (shadow pensions minister) Vaughn Gethin AM (deputy health minister), Carwyn Jones AM (multiple occasions), Peter Hain MP, Nia Griffith MP (shadow Welsh minister), Leighton Andrews AM (education minister), oh and JEREMY CORBYN......
And that's just from the press releases I've seen on social media, I'm sure there are many more but I don't have access to all that information.
Troll on.
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The 2016 Assembly Elections: Which way will you be voting & why? on 17:45 - Apr 8 with 1889 views
They may very well be concerned. And so they should. There do appear to be a lot of people, not just on these threads, who are coming to the conclusion that Labour are not doing a good job. Certainly not in spreading investment.
I wonder if they'll do anything different if they are returned to power. I won't hold my breath.
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The 2016 Assembly Elections: Which way will you be voting & why? on 18:11 - Apr 8 with 1885 views
Speaking the truth of what I've actually experienced to you is 'troll on' in fact I am speaking about Gorseinon/satellite areas o.k not anywhere else in the Gower where they could have showed up! So much you know hey?
And I am only speaking the truth through MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE in fact credit to Labour's Liz Evans whom traveled the roads in all weathers in her own precious free-time off work going door to door, meeting the people. And? Way, way, way before an election was even in sight! In fact the lady was no career/professional politician impostor that the WAG is stuffed full with!
And I'll speak the truth when they canvassed last general election I did not see any high ranking Labour politician! Who is Trampie?
Argus!
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The 2016 Assembly Elections: Which way will you be voting & why? on 18:41 - Apr 8 with 1863 views
Given that most people in the Gower constituency live in Clydach, Gorseinon, Penyrheol, West Cross, Mumbles, Newton or Pontardulais, it isn't "largely rural" at all.
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The 2016 Assembly Elections: Which way will you be voting & why? on 19:46 - Apr 8 with 1827 views
Once upon a time many years ago? If you drove into somewhere like Penllegaer you'd instantly know you were entering a 'Labour stronghold'. The entire council estate consisted almost entirely of NCB and British Steel Co employees working in places like Velindre, Brynlliw Colliery, Mountain Colliery etc. House after house with 'Vote Labour' posters. It's not like that any more because 'heavy industry' (all but gone!) bred Labour votes from father to son to mother to daughter.
Heavy industry = Labour voter!
Argus!
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The 2016 Assembly Elections: Which way will you be voting & why? on 19:52 - Apr 8 with 1819 views
Labour have no agricultural policy to speak of. Rural affairs are totally beyond the ken of what is to all intents and purposes an urban association. Aside from Mosley I'm struggling to think of a single Labour spokesman who historically had anything original, innovative or even informed to say.
An idea isn't responsible for those who believe in it.
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The 2016 Assembly Elections: Which way will you be voting & why? on 19:56 - Apr 8 with 1815 views
Very much so. It's always made me chuckle to be honest. In the same way as people from Townhill who insist that they're actually the other side of the "border" with Cockett.
Anybody who knows anything about the history of The Labour Party, and it sounds like you do, will know that it was a movement that arose not to defend the interests of the "Working Class" as such, that's far too broad a spectrum, but was specifically borne of the "Industrialised class."
[Post edited 8 Apr 2016 20:28]
An idea isn't responsible for those who believe in it.
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The 2016 Assembly Elections: Which way will you be voting & why? on 20:06 - Apr 8 with 1799 views
Yes indeed but you have to bear in mind that I'm sitting here with two packs of Lucky Strike and Leffe in abundance. In my own mind I'm busy sketching out a column for The Blackshirt as if the last 75 years haven't happened yet.
An idea isn't responsible for those who believe in it.
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The 2016 Assembly Elections: Which way will you be voting & why? on 20:29 - Apr 8 with 1772 views
You're always welcome. We can smoke, swig and argue until the sun come up!
In between posting on here I've just bought the new Glamorgan CC tie from the on-line shop, given one of the Beagles a small bowl of Leffe because she was woofing at me (who am I to say no?) and sent the youngest to drag the Chiminea out of the garage. We've been deserted tonight so we're going out the back in a bit to toast marshmallows for the us and the dogs and listen to the great Merle Haggard.
[Post edited 8 Apr 2016 20:41]
An idea isn't responsible for those who believe in it.
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The 2016 Assembly Elections: Which way will you be voting & why? on 11:04 - Apr 9 with 1711 views
Good job Langy. Can you tell me what date his reply was?
I got to be honest, I'm surprised and pleased that Carwyn is down here. You can see they're getting concerned about losing Gower. It's like when they did that 'The assembly comes to Swansea' thing, and Carywn was on Swansea til I die last night, and he's been on Swansea Sound in the past 6 months - someone asked him about investment, and he dodged it as per, and took credit for non-WAG projects, as per usual.
If they're beginning to show a bit of fight over potentially losing one seat...imagine how they'd react if they lost all 3 seats? Fingers crossed. Maybe they've realised people down here will stop mindlessly accepting their rhetoric about how much they love Swansea and give us so much stuff...like the museum
A lot of your disquiet is about the disparity in investment between the south east and the rest of Wales, and you often reference the £1bn spent on a SE metro, for example.
Given that most of that money was either matched by the EU or loaned to the 10 local authorities by the UK government, the fact that it is a project guided by the Welsh Government can only be a good thing? It's fairly obvious that there is a need to solve transport issues in the SE, and in fairness to the UK government, they recognised that and allowed the Welsh Government to implement the project as transport is a devolved power.
It's equally obvious that a metro system like the one proposed for the SE is not as viable in a less densely populated SW or NW. So I genuinely cannot see the issue here. Looking at the breakdown of costs, there are 10 local authorities loaning money from the UK government for this project. By contrast, there are four local authorities in the Swansea Bay region-area, so it's clear that we wouldn't be able to access the same resources. Projects such as the SE metro may take place in the "Cardiff City-region" or whatever it's called, but you have to acknowledge there are ten local authorities involved in that, all of which pool together for development projects.
More money is spent per head on transport in the North than the South of Wales as well.
[Post edited 9 Apr 2016 12:54]
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The 2016 Assembly Elections: Which way will you be voting & why? on 18:43 - Apr 9 with 1640 views
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