Random Stuff!!

[TheLocalYokel]

'No truth' that Mark Drakeford is in Bristol amid hotel rumours

Mr Drakeford was allegedly seen checking into a Bristol hotel this afternoon.

www.bristolpost.co.uk

Mark Drakeford going clubbing across the border this evening?

Almost certainly not true but even if it was I'm sure he would have a legitimate reason. He doesn't strike me as a 'chancer' politician.

 

[Jerry]

'No truth' that Mark Drakeford is in Bristol amid hotel rumours

Mr Drakeford was allegedly seen checking into a Bristol hotel this afternoon.

www.bristolpost.co.uk

Mark Drakeford going clubbing across the border this evening?

Almost certainly not true but even if it was I'm sure he would have a legitimate reason. He doesn't strike me as a 'chancer' politician.

It's extremely unlikely It's true. Been a lot of anti Mark Drakeford stuff on social media and in the press lately over his decisions with him being called a dictator and likened to Hitler in some instances.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It's extremely unlikely It's true. Been a lot of anti Mark Drakeford stuff on social media and in the press lately over his decisions with him being called a dictator and likened to Hitler in some instances.

People can of course disagree with the FM if they feel so minded, but those who use the Hitler analogy cannot be aware of what the Nazis did.

 

[Jerry]

People can of course disagree with the FM if they feel so minded, but those who use the Hitler analogy cannot be aware of what the Nazis did.

I disagree with a lot of what Drakeford does but i do believe he is a decent man and doesn't deserve the abuse he's getting for in many instances it seems just essentially doing things differently from England and being the current Welsh FM. A lot of the abuse seems to come from people who just don't like Wales and Scotland and NI being able to make their own decisions separate from England.
Interestingly it does seem more devolution may be on the way for England with more mayors and governors for some areas of England.

UKIP founder fears plan for devolution in England would 'create more Drakefords'

The founder of UKIP has said that any plans to devolve more powers across England would simply create “more Drakefords”. A white paper by ‘Levelling up’ minister Michael Gove is expected to roll out a plan for a network of devolved governors and mayors across the English regions. Professor Alan...

nation.cymru

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I disagree with a lot of what Drakeford does but i do believe he is a decent man and doesn't deserve the abuse he's getting for in many instances it seems just essentially doing things differently from England and being the current Welsh FM. A lot of the abuse seems to come from people who just don't like Wales and Scotland and NI being able to make their own decisions separate from England.
Interestingly it does seem more devolution may be on the way for England with more mayors and governors for some areas of England.

UKIP founder fears plan for devolution in England would 'create more Drakefords'

The founder of UKIP has said that any plans to devolve more powers across England would simply create “more Drakefords”. A white paper by ‘Levelling up’ minister Michael Gove is expected to roll out a plan for a network of devolved governors and mayors across the English regions. Professor Alan...

nation.cymru

Bristol is to hold a referendum next year to decide whether to keep the office of elected city mayor. People are fed up with too much power invested in one person. The Gove idea though, if true, is to have regional mayors in England, and Bristol has one of those already who is responsible for the wider city region. With the ceremonial lord mayor also in place, no wonder many people are confused and fed up with the whole thing.

The Gove idea would not be devolution on the scale of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It would be another half-hearted attempt at UK federalism. The only true way would be to increase the powers of the current devolved governments alongside the creation a government for England with similar powers, leaving the UK government responsible for matters such as Defence and Foreign Policy/Overseas Relations. That won't happen though. Westminster would lose too much of its own power.

Incidentally, I note that one reader response to the Nation:Cymru article article suggests it would be a good thing for Wales. I'm not sure what that person has in mind.

 

[JENNYJET]

All this bluster about anti Welsh sentiment directed towards the elected First Minister may, in my opinion strengthen calls by the Welsh for independence from the United Kingdom or more specifically, England.

As First Minister, Mr. Drakeford has Constitutional rights and duties granted by the Sovereign. As a Citizen he has freedoms granted to all citizens of the Kingdom to move within the Kingdom without Let or Hindrance with no obligation to explain. The Coronavirus Act provided a derogation to those rights. However, if acting officially on behalf of Wales, a record and reason will be recorded by his Civil Servants. Such a record may well be protected under the 30 year rule permitting such records be classified. The people shall decide upon the political fate of Mr. Drakeford, not the media!

As I understand it to be.

 

[Jerry]

The Gove idea would not be devolution on the scale of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

To me it seems that the Tory version of devolution is more like local based like city mayors and regional mayors rather than the type of country based devolution we have for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. So probably more similar to the USA where at county and city level local authorities have a lot of power. I don't think that they'll go for an England parliament not just because it'll take power away from Westminster but it helps boost an England only identity in politics which there isn't that much of as it gets subsumed into a UK/British identity.

Incidentally, I note that one reader response to the Nation:Cymru article article suggests it would be a good thing for Wales. I'm not sure what that person has in mind.

There is a belief in some quarters that the more England gets devolution the more it'll want to become a separate entity politically.

All this bluster about anti Welsh sentiment directed towards the elected First Minister may, in my opinion strengthen calls by the Welsh for independence from the United Kingdom or more specifically, England.

In general self government in Wales is popular and the more it's threatened the more people will at the least consider independence as an option. It's no coincidence that support for Welsh independence has risen under a more anti devolution government like the current UK government and that Labour especially and many of it's supporters are becoming more pro independence as well.
In a way the attacks on Drakeford himself and the right of Wales to have an FM to make decisions for Wales that won't necessarily be in step with England despite the limitations the WG work under (lack of fiscal powers) not only will help Labour but will only help the goal of Wales becoming independent in my opinion.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

To me it seems that the Tory version of devolution is more like local based like city mayors and regional mayors rather than the type of country based devolution we have for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. So probably more similar to the USA where at county and city level local authorities have a lot of power. I don't think that they'll go for an England parliament not just because it'll take power away from Westminster but it helps boost an England only identity in politics which there isn't that much of as it gets subsumed into a UK/British identity.

I don't disagree with any of those conclusions.

The Conservative policy, and Labour's according to Starmer, is the preservation of the United Kingdom as a single entity.

The Conservatives seem to think this can be best achieved by a tailored approach towards each of the constituent countries. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own devolved governments but with differing levels of devolved power, with Wales particularly disadvantaged compared with the other two countries. The leaked proposal for England with what would be no more than grandiose county councils falls far short of even Wales's limited devolved powers and government structure.

Short of a break-up of the Union and the resulting full independence for each of the constituent countries (good luck to those trying to sort out Northern Ireland) or a proper federal system where each of the four countries has its own government with increased powers leaving the UK government to deal with such matters as Defence, Foreign Policy/Overseas relations, it seems that we shall continue to pursue what I believe to be an unsatisfactory and inequitable position within the nations of the UK.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Six Nations 2022: Welsh Rugby Union considering hosting games in England

The Welsh Rugby Union is considering playing home Six Nations matches in England because of Covid crowd restrictions in Wales.

www.bbc.co.uk

The FM has today announced that there will be no relaxation of Wale's restrictions for the time being If that persists into February it's going to impact the Six Nations in one way or another Scotland and Ireland also have restrictions that severely restrict spectators at these events. If these governments' intransigence remains it seems likely that the Six Nations matches in the British Isles outside England will be played in empty stadia.

The WG's Health Minister has reportedly been applying pressure on the WRU to avoid playing England by saying that if they did it would be 'more difficult' to support the WRU financially than if the games were postponed or cancelled.

 

[geoff]

A suggestion has been made in some quarters, that the whole of the 6 Nations matches should be played in England, where there are no restrictions on stadium crowds, the Ricoh Stadium in Coventry is one location, suggested. Consideration has to be given to France and Italy, in regard to the legal restrictions in their Countries.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

A suggestion has been made in some quarters, that the whole of the 6 Nations matches should be played in England, where there are no restrictions on stadium crowds, the Ricoh Stadium in Coventry is one location, suggested. Consideration has to be given to France and Italy, in regard to the legal restrictions in their Countries.

Is the Ricoh big enough? It has a capacity of around 32,000.

The English Premiership grounds are of relatively low capacity with the Ricoh the only one over 30,000 and only two others over 20,000. In the unlikely event of the Six Nations being held entirely in England the only football ground with a capacity over 70,000 is Manchester United with Arsenal, Spurs and West Ham around 60,000. Wembley apparently is not available and the football club grounds I've mentioned will be needed for Premier League matches, unless the Six Nations games were slotted in on days not ideal for the competition.

As far as Wales is concerned, the FM anticipates the peak of the Omicron wave to be 10-14 days away. If the infection rate begins to drop significantly after that it might well afford an opportunity for some restrictions to be eased including crowds at outdoor sporting events.

Who would have thought that when the pandemic began we'd still be talking about this sort of thing nearly two years later?

 

[Jerry]

Six Nations 2022: Welsh Rugby Union considering hosting games in England

The Welsh Rugby Union is considering playing home Six Nations matches in England because of Covid crowd restrictions in Wales.

www.bbc.co.uk

The FM has today announced that there will be no relaxation of Wale's restrictions for the time being If that persists into February it's going to impact the Six Nations in one way or another Scotland and Ireland also have restrictions that severely restrict spectators at these events. If these governments' intransigence remains it seems likely that the Six Nations matches in the British Isles outside England will be played in empty stadia.

The WG's Health Minister has reportedly been applying pressure on the WRU to avoid playing England by saying that if they did it would be 'more difficult' to support the WRU financially than if the games were postponed or cancelled.

Hopefully restrictions may well be lifted by then but the WRU may well have to face playing behind closed doors and if that happens the WG will need to provide some sort of financial support to replace the loss of revenue. I don't think the WRU will play in England like it's being suggested. Tottenham Hotspurs stadium has been suggested but playing in England might be just too controversial.

 

[Jerry]

Is the Ricoh big enough? It has a capacity of around 32,000.

Tottenham Hotspurs stadium has been suggested either that or it's be Wembley. If the WRU were going to play in England it would be a London stadium.

 

[geoff]

They could delay the fixtures as they did with some last year, and play them later in the season. I see today France has granted Racing 92 permission to travel to play the Ospreys a week tomorrow, and given Cardiff permission to play in France the same weekend, in the European Competitions.

 

[Jerry]

They could delay the fixtures as they did with some last year, and play them later in the season. I see today France has granted Racing 92 permission to travel to play the Ospreys a week tomorrow, and given Cardiff permission to play in France the same weekend, in the European Competitions.

Would cause more problems later down the road with fixture congestion.

 

[geoff]

We maybe lucky enough to have restrictions lifted within 4 weeks, I hope.

 

[Jerry]

Good news if this happens as expected.

Sports fan ban being lifted in Wales in time for Six Nations by Mark Drakeford

Further details about the Welsh Government's latest Covid restrictions review will be released at a press conference on Friday

www.walesonline.co.uk

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Once Scotland eased their sporting events restrictions it would be very difficult for the WG not to follow suit.

 

[Jerry]

Once Scotland eased their sporting events restrictions it would be very difficult for the WG not to follow suit.

Yes that is true, WG would be too much of outlier then. I also suspect that they don't want the possible embarrassment of the Welsh national rugby team playing home games in England.

 

[Jerry]

Not sure suggesting that potentially a government Wales doesn't vote for, MPs that don't represent Welsh constituencies and an unelected chamber should be able to abolish Wales democratically elected Parliament is something that could be used to keep and strengthen the union.

UK Parliament should retain power to 'abolish' the Senedd, Lords report recommends

A report by the House of Lords Constitution Committee has recommended that the UK Parliament should retain the power to abolish the Senedd. In its report, Respect and Co-operation: Building a Stronger Union for the 21st century, which has been published today, it is argued that “Parliamentary...

nation.cymru