Drop Dead Gorgeous Wales

This was a hastily snapped photo taken near the roadside on route back home to the smoke yesterday in Snowdonia. I think it is Llynnau Mymbyr on the A4086.   Lovely...

Unfare: Boris and Osborne fare rise

"Higher fares and cuts under Boris and Osborne"...This leaflet is being handed out outside bus and railway stations in London.

Single bus journey by Oyster UP by 8% - 44% under Boris in three years.

Rail fares up by 6.2% average - some more than 10%.

Zones 1-5 monthly travelcard UP £11.50 to over £180.

Weekly bus pass UP to £17.80, a rise of 7%

Zones 1-2 monthly travel card UP £6.90 to £106.  

All this while most people face pay freezes and pay cuts.  

Unfare

Off now to my local station before work to spread the festive news.

Last year here and here

Ain't Seen Ruthin Yet

Not as good as "Newport" but this is another great parody.  I was actually brought up in this part of North Wales - not that far from Ruthin.  My parents even thought about buying a pub in Ruthin and for a little while I had one of the best job in Britain for a 18 year old.  My girlfriend and I had to check out and report back on all the possible competition in the other pubs in Ruthin.  Great stuff.  They didn't go ahead and buy or lease anything but I "enjoyed" the research at the time.

New Year's Resolution 2011: Targeting Tax Thieves

I'm back from New Year in Wales.  What about those New Year's Resolutions then?  From UK Uncut  "Philip Green is a multi-billionaire businessman, who runs some of the biggest names on British high streets. His retail empire includes brands such as Topshop, Topman, Dorothy Perkins, Burton, Miss Selfridge and British Home Stores.

Philip Green is not a non-dom. He lives in the UK. He works in the UK. He pays tax on his salary in the UK. All seems to be in order. Until you realise that Philip Green does not actually own any of the Arcadia group that he spends every day running. Instead, it is in the name of his wife who has not done a single day’s work for the company. Mrs Green lives in Monaco, where she pays not a penny of income tax.

In 2005 Philip Green awarded himself £1.2bn, the biggest paycheck in British corporate history. But this dividend payout was channeled through a network of offshore accounts, via tax havens in Jersey and eventually to Green’s wife’s Monaco bank account. The dodge saved Green, and cost the tax payer, close to £300m. This tax arrangement remains in place. Any time it takes his fancy, Green can pay himself huge sums of money without having to pay any tax.

Before the election, the Lib Dems liked to talk tough on tax avoiders. But as soon as they entered the coalition, this pre-election bluster became just another inconvenient promise they quietly forgot. In August David Cameron appointed the country’s most notorious serial-tax avoider to advise the government on how best to slash public spending. Not a single Lib Dem minister uttered a word of complaint. A Guardian editorial denounced this as “shameful”.

Philip Green’s £285m tax dodge could pay for: The full, hiked up £9,000 fees for almost 32,000 students. Pay the salaries of 20,000 NHS nurses.

And if that’s not reason enough to take action against Sir Philip, it is worth noting that he has built his £5bn fortune on the back of sweatshop labour, using Mauritius sweatshops where Sri Lankans, Indians and Bangladeshis toil 12 hours a day, six days a week, for minimal pay".  Hat-tip SERTUC

The Isle of Bards and Saints

Picture of Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island) off the Llyn Peninsula, North Wales on New Year's Day (yesterday).  A superb walk from Abedaron following "in the footsteps of medieval pilgrams".  Walk 15 "Snowdonia, Anglesey, Llyn" pathfinder guide (sheet 10).    

Update: rest of pictures from walk here

Newport, Newport, Newport

and why not :)

Happy 2011 New Year from Bwlch Mawr and Gryn Goch

John-Boy's Labor blog

I've been having some further fun with the "blogger" Stat counter.    In October I posted on "Giovanni's Lavoro blog" and puzzled over the large number of hits on this blog apparently from Italy. 

During the last week or so as you can see (right screenprint) most of the hits have been coming from America.  1,966 compared with 868 from the UK.  I can't think of any obvious reason for this.  In fact most of my recent hits seem to be about the UNISON Labour Link Link Forum 2009 (see below screen print).  Which was very good event but I thought it's appeal to most American's would be somewhat limited. 


We had a very good delegation meal in a Turkish restaurant; I spoke in a Forum debate on defending Public Sector pensions; Ed Miliband spoke well, so did our General Secretary Dave Prentis and Harriot Harman MP gave a good speech...but?

Any of my cousins from across the pond care to enlighten me on the reasons for the apparent interest?  Or is there any other reason?

I'm curious about the 141 Slovenia hits as well.

The Tories: Family Butchers Since 1679

hat tip Isleworth Labour Party

Labour Link with Unions?

I'm not really sure what to make of the story in today's Independent about Ed Miliband supposedly severing "big money" ties with affiliated trade unions.  It is all pretty unclear and confusing.  This is after all the winter silly season. 

The idea of having a 4th estate of Labour "supporters" (define?) to vote in leadership elections seems particularly daft and impractical. 

The state of the Party finances means it is hardly in a position to contemplate getting rid of any financial sources never mind trying to pass controversial rule changes at Conference. 

I'm not at all sure what impact this would have on an affiliated union such as UNISON which has its own separate political fund called (hint, hint) "UNISON Labour Link" paid for by voluntary levy payments by individual members of much, much less than £500 per year.  In fact I think changes could indeed strengthen the link between the Party and its unions. 

I do like this great quote (para 354) by former Labour Party General Secretary Peter Watt “...I think the relationship between the party and trade unions, people misconstrue it, it is not a relationship we have with them, they are of the Labour Party, they formed us, they are members of. People talk about the trade unions and the Labour Party, we are the same institution in terms of the Labour Party, they are fundamentally in our DNA from top to bottom, and that cannot and will not change, and the party gains huge political strength from that and I think could gain more".

Hat tip UNISONactive