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Reply | Starmer! Wow!
at 09:27 3 Oct 2024
Disagreement is, of course, allowed and even welcomed in a discussion forum. However, the distinction between gifts and donations is there in guidance, and it is pretty obvious that gifts often translate into a personal benefit in a way that donations to central party funds do not. This is reflected in the regulatory arrangements. The rules concerning donations also warrant scrutiny, but advantage there works in a less direct way as far as individual politicians are concerned.
I stand by my point that references to past donations to the Tory Party won't do much to stifle the present press frenzy about freebies, which is hotting up with the story about Lord Alli helping out a Labour peer involved in an expenses scandal with a loan to pay the money back. Take a look at the news outlets today right across the spectrum from the Indy to GB News. Incidentally, if you listen regularly to Times Radio, you will find it is at the socially-liberal end of the spectrum, and was quite positive towards Labour before the recent governmental mis-steps. [Post edited 3 Oct 9:39]
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Reply | Starmer! Wow!
at 08:14 3 Oct 2024
I am not an expert on this, but it seems a complicated area. On the one hand, there is the Senedd’s Register of Members’ Interests relating to gifts and donations, on which apparently Gething did not declare the £200K donation. On the other hand, there are the Electoral Commission rules on donations. It seems that it was from the Electoral Commission that details of the size of the Gething donation became public. So as far as I can see, this is a donation rather than a gift but a donation to an MS rather than to central party funds. Some have argued that the rules in this area of donations to individual MSs need clarification.
https://nation.cymru/news/petition-launched-to-tighten-up-donation-rules-for-sen
Perhaps others know more than I do about this. [Post edited 3 Oct 8:16]
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Reply | Sheffield United v Swansea City : Match day thread WEDS
at 21:39 2 Oct 2024
Once we are a goal behind we are pretty much done with the present striking options. We were well beaten really because of slackness at the back, but missed two gold-plated chances for players in the No 9 position. |
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Reply | Sheffield United v Swansea City : Match day thread WEDS
at 20:00 2 Oct 2024
That passage of play with Key just now is what does my head in. He is in a crossing position, turns back and ends up playing the ball back to the keeper. He clears upfield and we concede a throw in near the halfway line. |
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Reply | Iran attacking Israel
at 13:38 2 Oct 2024
Re: "targets impacted including the headquarters of the intelligence agency Mossad"...
BBC news today tried to investigate some of the missile impact sites. Using film and geolocation of buildings they matched distant film shots of an explosion near the intelligence service HQ, with close-up film of a crater some distance from buildings. It seems that the missile missed its target. |
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Reply | Starmer! Wow!
at 12:02 2 Oct 2024
Spot on. That is the case I thought of immediately. And it seems that others may have been put in a similar position. |
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Reply | Mobile phone use in Swansea.com
at 14:57 1 Oct 2024
As far as I can see O2 coverage is poor in many parts of Swansea. I had to shift two accounts from Virgin Mobile (EE) to O2 as part of their tie up and Volt promotion, and immediately suffered a loss of signal quality. I cancelled the account I use for my son (no long-term contract), but had to keep the one for my wife because otherwise I lose the cheaper price on my overall internet/TV/landline package. We have very poor coverage in Uplands and indeed several parts of town. I've had to pay for my wife to have a 2nd cheap simcard to make her phone useable (Lebara on Vodaphone is better). O2 admit there is a problem. They gave me a small one-off payment by way of compensation but won't reduce the monthly tariff. |
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Reply | End of coal
at 08:36 1 Oct 2024
It would be good to know how. The EAF on its own would not bring those jobs. The Business Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, recently talked about keeping the idea of virgin steel production on the table, and indeed I started an earlier thread on this saying I was encouraged by that statement, which now seems over-optimistic. If there was a route to build a hydrogen powered direct reduced iron (DRI) front end to process iron ore that would be great, but it seems an outside chance now. Even then a modern plant, like the Dutch Tata plant in IJmuident, won't bring back two and a half thousand jobs. [Post edited 1 Oct 14:00]
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Reply | End of coal
at 18:31 30 Sep 2024
Tata Netherlands is said to be building a hydrogen-fueled DRI stage at its IJmuiden plant , so in theory virgin steel can be produced in a different way. But yes, in India the fuel is still coke. In an ideal world Port Talbot could add a DRI front end to the electric arc furnace, and then it could process ore. [Post edited 30 Sep 18:36]
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Reply | End of coal
at 13:26 30 Sep 2024
Can't disagree. Just reacting to what is in front of us today. I see that the Baroness appeared on BBC TV News after her Radio interview. |
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Reply | Kris Kristofferson RIP
at 07:00 30 Sep 2024
Indeed so. "Me and Bobby McGee" (Janis Joplin and KK's versions)and several of his other songs are staples on my car stereo. How many of the Highwaymen are left now? Just Nelson, I think. RIP. [Post edited 30 Sep 9:01]
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Thread | End of coal
at 06:55 30 Sep 2024
Today sees the closure of both Port Talbot's last blast furnace and the power station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, which will effectively end coal-fired heavy industry in the UK when Scunthorpe's blast furnace goes imminently. To mark this "milestone", Radio 4 spoke to Baroness Worthington, the Powys-born architect of the Climate Change Act, in what was one of the most smarmy interviews I have ever heard. She is taking a break in California and basking in the reflected glory of having helped the UK become the first G7 country to end coal-fired energy generation. She spoke with delight at being congratulated by Al Gore. She talked of how wonderful it is that Port Talbot will now have a plant with modern, clean technology, omitting to mention that this signals the end of the UK strategic industry of primary steel production (and the importation of plenty of dirty steel). When pushed about the many thousands of workers who will lose their present jobs, she said that change happens, and the same has happened to bank staff and supermarket checkout assistants - many more she said if one took numbers across the UK. She said this was sad, but that as somebody who drives through Port Talbot from time to time witnessing the pollution, she feels the population will be better off with the change. She did not seem convinced by the BBC interviewer's question suggesting that the pace of change could have been somewhat slowed in line with what is happening in Germany and the USA. It is hard to escape the conclusion that, along with genuine concern for the climate, there is a big dollop of virtue signalling here. I hope Baroness Worthington will get a warm welcome whenever she returns to Wales. [Post edited 30 Sep 8:55]
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