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Reply | The rising costs
at 19:07 10 Sep 2024
The lunacy of open boarders? Did Gwyn mean the boarders in our hotels who have come to us from the EU? Sorry, I am not usually such a pedant but couldn't resist.  |
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Reply | Minimum Unit Pricing
at 18:42 10 Sep 2024
I see that Dundee features on the list of areas with excess deaths. When I think back to my time in the city, and the kind of characters you would meet in some of the dives on the Perth Road, the Hilltown and Lochee, I wonder how the SNP and their woke policies ever got voted in. It must be a generational thing. |
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Reply | Voting against winter allowance
at 18:14 10 Sep 2024
Yes, almost all the SW Wales Labour MPs voted against the opposition motion ensuring a healthy 120 vote majority for going ahead with means testing. The Gower MP didn't vote, probably because of an authorised absence. |
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Reply | Winter fuel allowance
at 18:10 10 Sep 2024
Bell's Facebook page contains a few negative messages, but not a peep from him about WFA and the way he cast his vote. One of the main recent items he has posted features him holding up a "Refugees are welcome here" sign in a vigil in town outside McDonalds. Perhaps shows where his priorities lie. [Post edited 10 Sep 18:16]
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Reply | Winter fuel allowance
at 17:33 10 Sep 2024
Unsurprisingly the Labour Government easily won the vote to defeat the opposition motion to halt the means testing of the WFA. Only one Labour MP who had not previously been suspended over another issue voted for the opposition motion, while 52 did not vote, mainly because their absence was authorised.
Among those who voted against, meaning they supported the Labour policy, are:
Torsten Bell (Swansea West)
Carolyn Harris (Swansea East and Neath)
Stephen Kinnock (Aberafan Maesteg)
Nia Griffith (Llanelli)
Absences included:
Tonia Antoniazzi (Gower) |
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Reply | Stay safe out there
at 12:45 10 Sep 2024
The other disturbing thing being reported is that some released prisoners will not have had accommodation arranged for them, which seems a recipe for re-offending. |
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Reply | Stay safe out there
at 11:35 10 Sep 2024
"With the current growth in the UK population it will be impossible to service."
Here is a summary of what Milton Freidman said about free immigration and welfare states. Was this one of the few things he was right about?
"Milton Friedman famously once said ‘You cannot simultaneously have free immigration and a welfare state’ (Friedman 1999). He argued that a country with open borders and access to generous welfare provisions would become a haven for poorer migrants which would place a significant fiscal burden on the host country. Consequently, increasing immigration may present serious challenges to Europe’s relatively generous welfare states by exposing tensions between the inherently closed system of the welfare state and the relatively open economies of the developed nations. Indeed, some authors have gone so far as to argue that increasing immigration in Europe will eventually lead to the Americanization of European welfare states and politics". (From: Clare Fenwick, European Political Science Review, 2019) . Actually this author disagrees with Friedman, but some will think the chickens are coming home to roost in 2024. |
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Reply | The tainted First Minister
at 10:14 8 Sep 2024
Interesting new book that I heard reviewed by Laurie Taylor on Radio 4:
Born to Rule: The Making and Remaking of the British Elite
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Born-Rule-Making-Remaking-British/dp/0674257715
One of the key arguments is that the way privileged people describe their rise to powerful positions has changed. While in the past they were relaxed about describing the advantages they enjoyed from education and social connections, they now present an outward picture of being ordinary people who advanced through merit. For example, a number of senior politicians include in their list of interests in Who's Who, "drinking beer".
The analysis in the book is perhaps not the whole truth but interesting. One snippet that caught my eye is that the % of members of Starmer's cabinet who received at least some private education is much lower (17%) than in Sunak's cabinet (c70%) or indeed any recent cabinet. Mind you if the new breed are all like Angela that could be a mixed blessing. 
I thought this might be good background reading for Cat and help his politicians "are all the same" thesis. |
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Reply | The new system for electing Senedd members
at 07:08 8 Sep 2024
What concerns me is the possibility that the Crachach may now shoehorn Gething into some plum public sector or publicly-subsidised NGO position that will carry the salary (above that of an MS) that he considers to be his entitlement. The question mark against his integrity makes that highly undesirable. If some private company wants to put money in his pocket there isn't a great deal we can do, although such a company should be aware of likely reputational damage. [Post edited 8 Sep 18:20]
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Reply | Ron Yeats
at 19:31 7 Sep 2024
Will be mourned in Dundee where he made 96 appearances for United in the early 1960s. I like the line from the Everton song: "We hate Bill Shankly and we hate St. John, but most of all we hate Big Ron." Another real character has left us. RIP. |
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Reply | 🏴 Wales v Türkiye 🇹🇷 : Nations League 1/6
at 14:03 7 Sep 2024
Like other Anglophones, I accept that there is a valid case to promote the Welsh language. This does have certain downsides though. In the organisation where I worked full time for many years and still do a bit, every organisation-wide communication must be sent in both languages. This means there is now a translation unit that requires a couple of days notice if a translation is needed and delays messages being circulated. When emails are sent, the Welsh must precede the English language part. I often wonder how much time it takes across the organisation to scroll through the first part of emails, since only a minority of employees actually speak and read Welsh fluently. |
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Reply | Cardiff Airport
at 13:31 7 Sep 2024
My take is that the experience of using Cardiff airport is better than that in Bristol airport. It is just that the limited choice of destinations and the fact that value for money is usually better with the Bristol departures. But if the same flights were available from Cardiff it would be much more convenient for travellers coming from Swansea. |
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Reply | Rwanda
at 06:47 7 Sep 2024
That is a gracious post and as I said I think there is room for different views here. However, if the key document is the 1951 Refugee Convention (and 1967 then you get to the controversy about Article 31, which most originally understood to mean that asylum seekers are only exempt from penalties for illegal entry when they come directly from a country where they were at risk of persecution. In essence this has been diluted over the years by judgements that have opened up various loopholes as to why "coming directly" does not necessarily mean coming to the first safe country. However, whatever the content of this discourse about the meaning of the 1951 Convention, there is nothing in it about a right to claim asylum in the country of the asylum seeker's choice. Some of the UK's own immigration legislation (e,g. Section 31 Immigration and Asylum Act 1999) incorporates this notion of first safe country, although again various court judgements have watered this down. This allows the NGOs to say the idea means very little. So overall current majority legal opinion will point to all kinds of reasons why claiming asylum in places other than the first safe country is allowable, but stops short of saying that persons can travel around unrestricted until they find their preferred destination country.
Article 31 says:
1. The Contracting States shall not impose penalties, on
account of their illegal entry or presence, on refugees
who, coming directly from a territory where their life or
freedom was threatened in the sense of Article 1, enter or
are present in their territory without authorization,
provided they present themselves without delay to the
authorities and show good cause for their illegal entry or
presence.
2. The Contracting States shall not apply to the
movements of such refugees restrictions other than those
which are necessary and such restrictions shall only be
applied until their status in the country is regularized or
they obtain admission into another country. The
Contracting States shall allow such refugees a reasonable
period and all the necessary facilities to obtain admission
into another country.
HoC background paper:
https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-9281/CBP-9281.pdf
The "legacy" paper by an academic lawyer that was influential in diluting the "first safe country" notion:
https://www.unhcr.org/sites/default/files/legacy-pdf/3bcfdf164.pdf
What some Australian academic lawyers say:
https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/australia-1951-refugee-convention
Apologies if this is all too boring. |
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Reply | 🏴 Wales v Türkiye 🇹🇷 : Nations League 1/6
at 21:48 6 Sep 2024
Oh for a goal scorer! I think we could have played another half an hour and still not scored. The general play was good at times and we made enough chances to get a result. At least we did not concede a late goal. I feared that as our defence always had a mistake in it. |
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Reply | Rwanda
at 18:17 6 Sep 2024
I'm not pursuing this in a nasty way and appreciate that you have a right to a different point of view from mine, but the main legal issue in the court cases was the possibility of "refoulement". That is not about return to the UK but return to the country where the person seeking refugee status was at risk of persecution. The 2024 Act made provision for certain safeguards to prevent refoulement. To quote from a commentary:
"The Act is an attempt to address the Supreme Court’s decision in R (on the application of AAA and others) v SSHD UKSC 42 that the relocation policy was in breach of international law due to the risk of refoulement – the forcible return of refugees or asylum seekers to a country where they could be in danger of persecution."
https://www.lauradevine.com/news/safety-of-rwanda-act-2024-passes-into-law-contr [Post edited 6 Sep 18:18]
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Reply | Rwanda
at 18:02 6 Sep 2024
The other angle is that as long as migrants are waiting for their asylum claims to be processed their accommodation must be funded by the Home Office, but when they are approved and become refugees those who cannot afford to pay commercial rents must be accommodated by the relevant local authority. Council tax payers will be left to pick up the tab (assuming that central government is unlikely to bail out the local authorities). [Post edited 6 Sep 18:03]
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Reply | Rwanda
at 17:42 6 Sep 2024
Please, if that is the case you are just about the only one to see things that way. Safety was the main issue in the Divisional and Supreme Court cases and the central issue addressed in the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024.
Edit:
To be fair you have questioned the workability of the scheme from early in this thread, but you also wrote:
"My understanding from the judges remarks (I’m no legal expert) is while Rwanda don’t have a functioning asylum system, it won’t be legal whether we’re in air out of the EHRC."
One of the key reasons why some said Rwanda was unsafe was the alleged absence of a properly-functioning asylum system.
[Post edited 6 Sep 17:55]
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Reply | Rwanda
at 17:26 6 Sep 2024
The MP indeed gave a master class in not seeing the wood for the trees. [Post edited 6 Sep 17:29]
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