Billions being wasted by the UK Government
TATA the Indian owner of the Port Talbot steelworks is seeking £500m from the UK Government to assist in installing an electric arc furnace at the Port Talbot steelworks.
That same Tata group has recently announced a
£278m sponsorship of cricket’s IPL. How many more times is the UK Government going to be hoodwinked by false statements by foreign “investors”?
Port Talbot is steel. Thousands depend upon the steelworks for their livelihoods, outside the 2,800 who work directly for Tata and who are likely to lose their jobs. In cricket terms Port Talbot is stumped.
Down in the west country we have alarming news about the escalating cost of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station – surprise, surprise, the French company EDF is “running the show” without its original partner China General Nuclear who jumped ship last December. It is billions of pounds over budget (original in 2016, £18bn – most recent estimate, £37bn) and way off target completion-wise. EDF having lost its partner and having taken a £12bn hit on over budget expenditure now feels it expedient to come, with its begging bowl, to HMG.
This is a further example of unwise decision making by our governments. HS2, Post Office Horizon, overspend on aircraft carriers which don’t work – how many more?
Jeremy Biggin
Sheffield
Constant reminders I am getting older!
IT’S amazing how life changes – you can measure it by the unsolicited mail that you receive:
In my 20s they wanted to sell me gym membership.
In my 30s they wanted to sell me time-share apartments.
In my 40s it was private health insurance.
In my 50s it was Saga cruises and over-50s life insurance.
In my 60s it was stair-lifts, recliner chairs and equity release.
Since turning 65 it was residential care “communities”. Today I received one from a funeral director.
David S Evans Danescourt,
Cardiff
An expertise Wales should be exporting
THE threat of global warming is a problem that should unite the world to tackle a common enemy.
However, here in Wales it has only succeeded in dividing the nation. In global terms, Wales is minuscule. Unfortunately, our Labour administration imagines we punch above our weight as a result of our environmental and farming policies. For how can it be a good result if we decimate our rural economy and Welsh culture by tree planting and the illusion of rewilding? For in global terms, the effect will be barely measurable.
Where Wales is a world leader is in waste management (methodrecycling.com). This message should be shouted from the rooftops, for its importance is underrated. As an example, two landfill sites alone outside Delhi periodically emit methane that is the equivalent to 90 million running cars (Kayrros.com). As a further example, in the USA, the methane produced from rubbish is the equivalent of 79 coal-fired power stations (RMI.com). The five worst offenders are China, India, USA, Russia and Brazil.
If the Welsh Labour Government had any enterprise, we would be exporting our expertise to these countries. And what a business coup it would be, to construct an anaerobic digester in Delhi, or wherever, to generate electricity and sell it back to the government, taking a leaf out of Tata’s business manual.
Sion Griffiths Trawsgoed, Aberystwyth
We’re ridiculed over 20mph objections
OVER the months since the introduction of the 20mph speed limit on selected roads here in Cymru, I have had the opportunity to travel on roads in Scotland and England.
In doing so, I have seen that a similar speed restriction applies in various locations in both countries. Almost without exception, those locations are much like those here in Cymru where the new speed restrictions apply.
Most people in both Scotland and England seem not to have raised the level of objection to the imposition of the speed restrictions as has been seen here. Indeed, talking to people in both countries, it has been interesting to hear their ridiculing our fellow-Cymry for raising any objection at all.
It is time the foolish objectors rein in their anger and apply some logic to their thinking as we all accept that road safety must take precedence over the selfish need for speed that some hotheads retain.
Andrew Bennett Llanarthne, Caerfyrddin
Political judgement has to be questioned
“ANY person may make an error of judgement; none but a fool will stick to it.” With apologies to the ghost of Roman statesman Cicero for marginally paraphrasing his observation.
Hindsight makes us all appear cleverer than we actually are. However, I well remember when Mark Drakeford rather spectacularly lost his cool in that explosive exchange with Andrew Davies in the Senedd. Rather than gloat, I felt sad for him because clearly politics was affecting not just his personal mindfulness – stress does that to all of us to varying degrees – but also clearly influencing his political judgments.
The 20mph is a case in point. Such a limit in high-risk locations makes perfect sense, but to impose it without carrying out detailed trials in carefully selected locations to see what the reaction and feedback would be was a serious error of judgment.
Think how such a trial would have avoided so much hassle for both Drakeford and the Welsh Labour Party.
And currently, not only has he angered farmers over subsidies and a potential loss of food security, but in particular lecturing farmers that they had brought the sky crashing down on their own heads because they voted for Brexit. But hang on: how does he know that all farmers
How many more times is the UK Government going to be hoodwinked by false statements by foreign ‘investors’?
Jeremy Biggin
voted for Brexit, an observation that is clearly nonsensical? Or, more to the point, that 52.5% of farmers – reflecting the national vote – voted for Brexit?
How does Mark Drakeford know all this? I thought such information was confidential? Or could it be yet another error of judgement, i.e. engage brain before mouth?
Oh dear, the current British body politic is slowly decomposing and returning to dust.
Huw Beynon
Llandeilo
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