News
Badger and the big lie
HALLO readers. My word, UKIP supporters are a sensitive souls! Who would have thought a few inconvenient truths would have raised so many hackles. Badger particularly liked the correspondent who told me it was wrong to criticise UK IP’s policies because they had not yet produced their manifesto. How proud he must be to follow a party with no policies (apart from the obvious one). Badger is certain we can all rest assured that as soon as Brother Farage is able to type with more than one finger and work out how to stop spelling ‘banana’ w c will be faced with a literary tour-de-force to rival “Hurrah for Little Noddy”.
Back to matters Pembrokeshire, however, readers. Let’s put the Euro elections back in their empty ballot box. Over the last couple of weeks, while he has been slaving away over Latin epigrams, Badger has read the story of Beloved Bryn’s brush with luxury motoring with considerable bemusement. Not, however, amusement. He’s not even driving the Brynmobile. No readers: we are paying the lease and insurance on Beloved Bryn’s Porsche so Parry Jones junior can tootle to Valero every morning! That, readers that takes the biscuit! Badger has a question for you readers. One he has used before. One that he has been ticked off by his editor for using before. It is a short question. Badger is prepared to take the risk of having to stand in the naughty corner for a while to ask it. WTF?
Readers, even IPPG leader Jamie Adams must be aghast at the CEO’s complete lack of political nous. It appears as though, at least when it comes to insensitivity and arrogance, Jamie takes a distant second place to Bryn. When Jamie told the Full Council that he often popped along to the CEO’s office to engage in “challenging” discussions, when Jamie told the Full Council that he and Beloved Bryn didn’t always see eye-to-eye. did Jamie have in mind how the news that Bryn had availed himself of a Porsche Panamera Hybrid S with a list price of C85.000 would look and sound to a Pembrokeshire public told relentlessly that the Council can’t afford to maintain essential services?
Or was Jamie appeased by a trip around the car park in the Brynmobilc and playing Robin to the CEO’s Batman? Jamie is fond of harping on – like the good Toytown Tory Boy that he is – that all these spending cuts people complain about are the fault of the “Welsh Labour Government in Cardiff Bay”. Well, readers, there are two problems with Jamie saying that: Firstly: you can usually tell when Jamie is spouting (expletive deleted) codswallop. It happens when his lips move. Secondly: Cardiff Bay dots not raise its own taxes. it receives a block grant from the Coalition government in Westminster. With that block grant it has to allocate funding for services across Wales. The Welsh Government is funded nearly entirely by a block grant The Dynamic Duo: Bryn and Jamie are “on a budget” provided by the UK Treasury.
The change in this block grant is calculated using the Barnett formula, based upon changes in the budgets of Whitehall departments that deliver services for which the Welsh Government are deemed to have responsibility in Wales. Large increases in spending on the NHS and education in England therefore fed through to substantial increases in the amount of grant paid to the Welsh Government in the first decade following devolution. But cuts to government spending as pan of the fiscal consolidation mean that the Welsh block grant has been cut substantially since 2010-11.
The total block grant allocated by the UK government to Wales in 2013-14 is set to be 9.4% lower in real terms than that in 2010-11 (after adjusting for the transfer of funding for council tax benefit to the Welsh Government). Further cuts have been announced for 2014-15 and 2015-16, which, if implemented, would take the cut to 12.2%. So, when Jamie says it is all Welsh Labour’s fault, he really is ejecting a particularly large quantity of a substance with which, as a farmer, he would be intimately familiar. Readers, if Jamie’s was the only whopping porker we had to contend with that would be enough.
But it isn’t. Badger is not talking about the way the Council claims to overpay its officers because to get the best it has to pay the best. Badger isn’t even talking about the nonsense Jamie told Tenby Town Council about the rationale underpinning his decision (made with others) to give Beloved Bryn a whacking big tax break on his pension and to make unlawful payments to the CEO, to boot. Badger wants you to consider the following: Beloved Bryn became CEO of Pembrokeshire County Council in 1996. He was appointed at the top of his then pay grade and received a salary of around f60,000 a year.
The Council’s 2012/13 Accounts show that the Chief Executive received £194.661 in respect of gross salary, fees and other emoluments plus benefits in kind of £11,665. Corresponding figures for 2011/12 were £208,170 and £10,017, plus in that year, employer’s pension contribution to the local government pension scheme of £30,000. Had the lowest paid worker’s wage risen at the same rate as Beloved Bryn’s over the same period, a manual working for the local authority would be on somewhere near £25,000 per year. Care workers would be on around £27,000 per year.
Badger can bet his boots that there are no lowest pay grade workers on that sort of screw. The big lie, readers, is that senior officers have to be paid the same sort of wage as notional equivalents in private industry. However, senior officers in local government have blue-chip, gold-plated pensions funded by tax payers. Senior officers in local government have the type of job security a manager in the private sector can only look at and envy.
The idea that there are companies battering down the council office doors to get at the senior staff and spirit them away to the private sector is a lie of such size and magnitude that it even dwarfs the lie by implication that Bryn would have run away from Pembrokeshire if he hadn’t been given unlawful payments by his employers. Readers, if a senior manager in the private sector had presided over the number of crises and cock-ups that Bryn Parry Jones has, do you think he would still be in a job? If your name is Jamie Adams or Suc Perkins and you answered “yes”. please lie down. The nurse will be with you shortly to show you to your room.
Crime
Unanimous verdict in Ceredigion sexual assault case
A CEREDIGION man has been convicted to three years and six months in prison for sexually assaulting a woman in her own bed after the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict.
27-year-old Suroj Bk, from Llangrannog, was sentenced this week following a week-long trial at Swansea Crown Court (May 1).
On 7 October 2023, Dyfed-Powys Police received a report that Bk entered the victim’s home and sexually assaulted her while she lay in her bed.
When the victim realised what was happening, she kicked Bk out of her bed and called the police.
Upon receiving the report, officers quickly attended the victim’s home and conducted a thorough search of the surrounding area using police dogs and scenes of crime officers.
Evidence gathered from scene, together with extensive local enquiries, led officers to arrest Suroj Bk the next day (8 October).
While Bk was in custody, detectives, crime scene investigators, and digital forensic officers worked tirelessly to uncover the evidence that ultimately placed Suroj Bk at the scene.
After hearing the evidence, the jury took less than two hours to agree a unanimous guilty verdict.
The detective in charge of the case has praised the victim for her ‘tremendous courage’ in reporting the assault to police.
“Incidents of this nature are thankfully very rare within Ceredigion, and I’d like to reassure the community that this was an isolated incident, and that the identification and arrest of suspect was done quickly and efficiently,” said Detective Inspector Sam Gregory.
“The victim in this case demonstrated tremendous courage in reporting to police, and while this investigation was not straightforward in its nature, it was through the expertise and tenacity of forensic officers, working together with the investigation team, and the victim, that led to this successful prosecution.
“I hope the sentence given to Suroj Bk sends a clear and strong message that Dyfed-Powys Police takes reports of sexual offences seriously.
“We will listen to you, and we will work tirelessly to get justice.”
On Wednesday, 1 May 2024, Saroj Bk was sentenced to three years and six months in prison and a five-year restraining order, and he will be on the sex offenders register for life.
If you have been a victim of a crime such as this, report it to Dyfed-Powys Police either through a direct message on social media, online at: https://www.dyfed-powys.police.uk/ro/report/rsa/alpha-v1/v1/rape-sexual-assault-other-sexual-offences/, by emailing [email protected], or by calling 101.
In an emergency, always call 999.
If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech impaired text the non-emergency number on 07811 311 908. Alternatively, contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously by calling 0800 555111, or visiting crimestoppers-uk.org.
News
Body recovered confirmed to be Luke Stephenson, say police
DYFED-POWYS police have said today that the body found on Wednesday, May 1, has been confirmed to be Luke Stephenson, who was reported missing from the Pembroke Dock area on April 14.
A spokesperson for the force said: “We will continue to support the family and will assist with issuing a tribute publicly if the family wish to do so.”
In a statement, his family said: “Luke was a joyful and funny young man and always wanted to help others. He was a loving son, brother, grandson and uncle, and will be forever missed.
“We have lost a huge part of our family, and our loss is shared by his many friends who also loved him dearly.
“We would like to thank the local community for the overwhelming support we have received.”
Business
Port of Milford Haven now official ‘a great place to work’
THE PORT of Milford Haven has been officially accredited as a Great Place to Work-Certified™ organisation. As the first Port Authority in Britain to secure this Certification™, it is a significant achievement.
“We are very proud to be Great Place to Work-Certified™,” said Vidette Swales, HR Director at the Port of Milford Haven. “It means so much that our employees have reported a consistently positive experience with their colleagues, their leaders and their jobs. Offering a positive employee experience is not only beneficial for the people who work with us but is also key for our continued business success.”
Tom Sawyer, CEO at the Port of Milford Haven added: “Our team is operating the UK’s leading energy port, and it is of the utmost importance that we do that safely, responsibly and effectively. We’re striving for excellence and aim to provide a world class service to our customers as well as supporting sustainable coastal communities for the prosperity of future generations. Our employees are clearly at the centre of this which is why I’m delighted that they feel supported in their role. I’m especially proud that this Certification™ demonstrates our core values of Safety, Excellence, Collaboration and Sustainability so perfectly.”
“We congratulate the Port of Milford Haven on achieving their Certification™,” said Benedict Gautrey, Managing Director of Great Place to Work® UK. “Organisations which put the employee experience at the heart of their business gain their employees’ trust and, in turn, are truly able to build a great workplace culture that delivers outstanding business results.”
Find out more about careers at the Port of Milford Haven here: www.mhpa.co.uk/about/careers-at-the-port/.
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