THE HERALD FRIDAY JANUARY 6 2017
Like us on Facebook
facebook.com/thepembrokeshireherald
Vehicle interference denied A SAUNDERSFOOT man who
appeared before Haverfordwest Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday (Jan 3) pleaded not guilty to interfering with a vehicle. Andrew Price, aged 28, was
charged with interfering with a motor vehicle in Pembroke Dock. A trial was scheduled for January
20 at Haverfordwest Magistrates’ Court.
New gaming machines granted Viewpoint with Matthew Paul WHEN THE CARMARTHEN-
SHIRE HERALD went to press on New Year’s Day last year, the issue of the moment, and the subject of my column, was the Dyfed-Powys Police helicopter. In the run-up to May’s Police and Crime Commissioner election, that conveyance had been turned into an airborne Plaid Cymru propaganda machine. Plaid politicians mongered scares. Public safety was at risk! In one of 2016’s bigger
Permission granted: The Lobster Pot Inn THE LOBSTER POT INN
in Marloes has been granted permission to install new gaming machines in its premises. The application was heard by
Pembrokeshire County Council’s Licensing Sub Committee on Thursday (Jan 5). Mr Jason Slater had applied to
install two new category C and three new category D machines. He said that they would be
within sight of the bar and that he fully adhered to the supervision of children on the premises. Mr Slater added that CCTV was
also in operation throughout the pub and that the extra machines would be used during the busy holiday period. Cllr Daphne Bush said that the
committee were happy with the situation and granted the application for the new gaming machines.
Pedestrian injured in collision with car DYFED-POWYS POLICE are
investigating a road traffic collision that occurred at approximately 12.25am on Sunday (Jan 1) at The Maudlins in Tenby. A 22-year-old man was in
collision with a silver Vauxhall Astra. The pedestrian was conveyed to Withybush Hospital in Haverfordwest, but has since been transferred to the Heath Hospital in Cardiff where he is currently in a
stable condition. The road was closed during the
afternoon while an examination of the scene took place with the assistance of specialist investigators. Diversions were put in place
with the assistance of Pembrokeshire County Council staff. Anyone who witnessed the
collision is asked to contact the Roads Policing Unit in Haverfordwest on 101.
Trial set for alleged knife possession A 39-YEAR-OLD man who
appeared before Haverfordwest Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday (Jan 3) pleaded not guilty to one charge of possession of a knife and another for using threatening and abusive language. Andrew Lee Gibbs, of Saundersfoot, was charged with having a serrated kitchen knife
disappointments, the excellent Tory Commissioner Chris Salmon lost the PCC election (losing elections was an experience not unique to him amongst Conservatives in the constituency), and Dafydd Llywelyn assumed office. Dafydd joined the board of the National Police Air Service, and hasn’t been heard uttering a squeak of complaint about Salmon’s deal since. How have the other issues raised in this column developed in 2016? A Mark Cainer (see May 6
edition) moment came when the beastly Yahya Jammeh, The Gambia’s answer to Mark James, made like a Carmarthenshire Conservative and lost an election. I had previously (Oct 28r), expressed the view that Jammeh’s decision to withdraw his country from the ICC was not such a bad thing if it led to The Gambia being able to disembarrass itself of him without bloodshed. Jammeh
initially and
surprisingly conceded defeat (something Mark James has yet to contemplate doing). In a spectacular own goal for international law, subsequent threats of prosecution for human rights abuses caused him to reverse that concession. Jammeh is now digging in to do the traditional African Dictator thing, which should be nice for war correspondents, Médecins Sans Frontières, Oxfam, and, if it all gets exciting enough, maybe even Bono and Bob Geldof. On November 18, I called for the
in his possession on Stammers Road, Saundersfoot, and for using threatening and abusive language with intent to cause a person to believe that immediate unlawful violence was to be used against them. A trial was scheduled for
February 10 at Haverfordwest Magistrates’ Court. Gibbs was granted unconditional bail.
prison crisis to be ameliorated by letting out half the prisoners. Three weeks later, former Conservative Home Secretary Ken Clarke, former Labour Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and former figure of mirth Nick Clegg came together calling for exactly the same thing. The column also contained the very easy calls that Theresa
Review of the Year
May was likely to win the Conservative leadership election (Jul 8) and that Jeremy Corbyn would absolutely trample over the hapless Owen Smith. Otherwise, I stayed away from the business of prognostication. Both in the case of the EU referendum, and my own political fortunes (Apr 29 and Sept 12) this turned out to be a wise move. The big news on January 22 was
the threat to TATA’s Port Talbot steel plant. Carmarthen East & Dinefwr AM and mystic Mab Darogan (Apr 29) Adam Price recommended that the Welsh Government deploy a quarter of a billion pounds from its capital budget for the purpose of saving the plant. It is just as well nobody listened to him. The company is organizing its own restructuring, and pouring £1bn of its own money into Port Talbot’s bottomless blast furnace rather than £250m of ours. The likelihood of the Mab
Darogan fulfilling his leadership destiny within Plaid Cymru was also the subject of some conjecture. Soon, Mab, soon. On February 12, the column
turned towards the EU referendum, making an early declaration for Remain. I dealt with the topics of bureaucracy (if Brussels and Strasbourg operate Michelin- starred kitchens cooking up new and imaginative dishes of bureaucracy, Carwyn Jones is running the Fat Duck), and what it means to ‘make our own laws’ (May 20). On May 27, I warned of
the dangers Brexit posed to Carmarthenshire’s farmers, few of whom listened, and on June 17 I addressed spurious national security arguments advanced for leaving the EU. Column of the year award, however must go to July 1, which so irked Brexity local Conservatives that they deselected me as even a council election candidate. Ho- hum. The same column came at the zenith of Stephen Crabb’s meteoric rise and bathetic fall from high office. It championed Crabb for the Tory leadership, before it came out that Crabb had got clawsy, or at least texty, with a 20-year old female friend. The state of Llandovery has
been a running theme throughout 2016, though the column has yet to lament the disappearance of Llandovery’s famous traffic lights
(Feb 19). Other preoccupations over the year have been Wales’ dismal performance in the PISA rankings (Apr 8), the Wales Bill (Mar 4; it was rubbish); Badgers (Mar 11; kill ‘em all) and the absurd witch hunt, set off at a nutter’s whim and enthusiastically pursued by the Metropolitan Police, which saw Leon Brittan and Field Marshal Lord Bramall baselessly accused of child abuse. Carmarthenshire Council’s
disgraceful treatment of blogger Jacqui Thompson has been well covered in The Herald, and my column was no exception (Apr 22; Aug 12 and others). Under the despotic heel of Mark Jammeh James, the institutional persecution of someone who has done no more than report on the activities on her local county council grinds on. In April, James tried to have
Mrs Thompson prosecuted for harassment and perverting the course of justice. I predicted that this was legally, a non-starter and appeared to be an attempt to shut Mrs Thompson up prior to a county council by-election (less said about that the better). Unsurprisingly, the Police quietly dropped the charges, and issued her with what appears to me to be an unlawful ‘harassment notice’, given that nothing of the sort took place. A subsequent attempt by Cllr
Alun Lenny to stay the Council’s hand in enforcing charges against Mrs Thompson’s home was procedurally shot down. Plaid Cymru will have to explain next May why they allow the Council and its officers to behave like this. Given that one of my principal
aims is to annoy the more headbanging variety of Welsh Nationalist, readers will finally be pleased to note that Happy Donkey Hill (Jan 15) has risen above a manufactured controversy surrounding its twee and un-Welsh name. Over the course of the year, HDH put a bit of dog Welsh on its website, and ascended to Tripadvisor’s #1 slot for Llandysul B&Bs. Ymlaen! Happy New Year, and much
success to The Carmarthenshire Herald and all its readers.
9 News
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72
