THE HERALD FRIDAY FEBRUARY 3 2017


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with Matthew Paul “IN THE GRIM darkness


THIS week on Herald Radio


we’ve continued playing all your favorite songs whilst keeping you updated with the news. On the hour, every hour, we bring you the latest stories from around the world and the UK with our national and international bulletin. This is followed by West Wales news so you can find out what’s happening in Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion. Some of the stories we’ve


covered this week include that a report into Bronglais Hospital in Aberystwyth has shown that patients in the catchment area are waiting longer for cardiac and neurosurgery services, and that nurse shortages mean that bank and agency nurses that are being used are having to travel long distances to work at the hospital. We also told you that work has started on the new retail park development at Cross Hands West in Carmarthenshire and how an eco pod could be built for visitors to the eco village near Glandwr in Pembrokeshire. If you have a news


story you’d like us to cover, then email the Herald Radio news team at news@heraldradio.com. As well as playing you the


best variety of hit music from the 80s, 90s, 00s, 10s and today’s Top 40, we bring you some specialised programming on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights from 8pm until midnight. On Sunday night from 8pm, it’s the ‘70s hour’, followed by an hour of music from the noughties with the ‘00s hour’. Then, from 10pm, it’s two hours of rock and guitar tunes from the biggest artists and groups from the 1980s until today. We are looking to create a


brand new website for Herald Radio and would love to know what you’d like to see on it. If you have any ideas then you can email them to us at studio@heraldradio. com,


Remember to follow us on


Twitter (@herald_radio) to get a heads up to what stories we are currently running on our West Wales news bulletins and to see images that accompany the stories.


Viewpoint


of the far future, there is only war.” Not, on this occasion, a prediction of the probable diplomatic consequences of the Trump Presidency, but the tagline of science-fiction combat game Warhammer, set in a dystopian world 40,000 years after Brexit. Animal rights nutcases PETA


got quite annoyed this week about Warhammer, having noticed that some figurines of plastic Warhammer orcs were draped in cloaks made of an acrylic approximation to animal hide. Evidently running short of


anything better to do, PETA criticised the orcs’ attire and suggested that the orcs should wear something that did not involve slaughtering an animal - even artificial polyester one. It is not clear what effect,


edifying or otherwise, PETA’s disapproval had on the orcs. The orcs all looked like the sort of UKIP voters who don’t take kindly to being ordered around by do- gooders, and in any event they probably had a planet full of giant mutant orc-eating rats to slaughter. If PETA want to get behind a really big and important cause, they should dump the fur cloak trivia and look into what is happening to those giant mutant rats. PETA’s effectiveness as a


WWW.HERALDRADIO.COM Successful first Policing Board meeting


POLICE and Crime


Commissioner Dafydd Llywelyn welcomed new Chief Constable Mark Collins at the most recent Policing Board meeting, which was held on January 16. 2017 is being heralded as a year


of exciting new beginnings for Dyfed- Powys Police and this was the first meeting Mark Collins has attended since taking up his post on December 19, 2016. The meeting provides an


opportunity for the Commissioner and the Chief Constable to discuss any matters relating to the effectiveness and efficiency of the policing services delivered in the Dyfed-Powys area. A wide range of topics were


discussed and the meeting was deemed positively constructive and a good working relationship was clear to see between the Commissioner and the


Chief Constable. Since taking up his post, new


Chief Constable Mark Collins has also outlined his priorities to officers and staff and he is working to ensure that these are delivered. They are to support and protect the


most vulnerable in our communities; to improve standards across the organisation - doing the basics brilliantly; and to improve victim satisfaction and confidence in policing. These are in line with the Commissioner’s priorities, and who will support his efforts where possible in ensuring that these become a reality. Dafydd Llywelyn said: “I am very


much looking forward to working alongside the new Chief Officer team in order to provide the best service possible to the communities we serve, and to ensure the successful delivery of my Police and Crime Plan.”


campaigning organisation has slumped since 1991, when they astutely recognised that getting supermodels to take all their clothes off could generate a good deal of public interest and enthusiasm. “We’d rather go naked than wear fur,” shouted the likes of Naomi Campbell. There is more joy in heaven over


one sinner who repents, and Naomi Campbell is now regularly spotted wearing her enormous collection


of beautiful fur coats, in which she looks absolutely splendid. Piqued by this betrayal, and by


fur’s gradual reappearance on the catwalks, the cranks at PETA lost the plot. Early signs that all was not well with the organisation emerged in 2004, when it appointed a Fish Empathy Project Manager. On the face of it, this position gives Wales’ Future Generations Commissioner a run for her abundantly supplied public money as Most Useless Job Ever. The fish empathy project entailed


raising awareness of the dubious proposition that fish have feelings, and the less dubious proposition that whether their examination of the issue involves to any degree a Socratic internal dialogue, the fish probably derive less pleasure from the sport of angling than do its human participants. Elsewhere, the Fish Empathy Project Manager led a silent but determined crowd of protesters, in a remorseful, candlelit vigil outside a chippy. When they are not fussing


about fish, PETA are grotesquely misrepresenting farming. Last year, they circulated pictures purporting to show a very ineptly sheared baby lamb, in the hands of I Killed the Prom Queen guitarist and vegan propagandist Jona Weinhofen. Weinhofen had the appearance of one of those hipsters who sell expensive cocktails made of breakfast cereal to gullible idiots in Hoxton, which might explain why he is so rotten at shearing. Whatever a collection of dim


slebs might say, there is absolutely nothing wrong with wearing fur. Quite the contrary; it is practical, warm and glamorous. The vegan view is mad but has some integrity; what is bizarre is the superstition, which PETA had some hand in


f ome n t i n g , that it could


be acceptable to kill animals for food but not for fur. The rarity of some animals


traditionally made into rather tidy coats is a red herring. If there are only a few breeding pairs left of the thing you are wearing, there is an ecosystem somewhere that needs that fur more than you do. These considerations do not apply to foxes, which last time anyone looked weren’t in short supply in Carmarthenshire, or to mink, which are a destructive, invasive species, and basically well-upholstered rats. In terms of animal welfare in


the fur trade, it is likely that PETA have done more harm than good. The anti-fur zealots’ harassment of fur farms in the UK had the perverse effect of lowering overall standards of welfare, and pushing the industry offshore to countries like China, where Cruella de Vil would draw a line at some of the farming practices. Cruel practices are cruel


practices, and should be eradicated regardless of whether an animal is being reared for its fur, its meat or its eggs. Animals don’t have rights, but humans do have a responsibility to ensure their welfare. The success of PETA’s crusade


against fur had more to do with perceptions of people who wear fur than with any welfare concerns. Like the screeching saboteurs who hurl abuse at hunts, activists who define themselves as animal lovers are often better identified as people haters. Working up a good froth of self-righteous indignation is all the easier if your targets are wealthy- looking people in nice fur coats. That is likely to be as true 40,000 years in the future as it is now.


17 News


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