News

Badger smells more than a rat

Published

12 years ago

September 29, 2013

Readers will have read exclusively in this newspaper about the collusion of certain Councillors in a scheme intended to help top boss Bryn Parry-Jones avoid tax.

There are times when even Badger is astonished by the way in which some members of the Council, having found one level, appear to find murkier depths to plumb with ease.

Look at the six faces opposite: The leader of the Council, his predecessor, a former deputy leader of the Council, a former cabinet member, a current cabinet member and the former leader of Pembrokeshire’s Conservatives: there they are.

These are the faces of the Councillors who sat behind closed doors in a meeting that, in a time of brutal cuts to Council services, decided that a man paid more than the Prime Minister needed a big tax break to make ends meet in his retirement.

Well that condensed milk and those tinned pilchards won’t buy themselves, will they?

Let’s look at some of the sorts of figures involved in the calculations of the Staff Remuneration Committee to see if we can get close to the size of Bryn’s Big Break. The Council, as is usual, have decided that such is Bryn’s importance and magnificence that the public should not have the details of the pot of public money he gets for his part in bringing such shame to Pembrokeshire that the Welsh Government had to intervene in the Council’s operations.

Readers may be surprised to learn that not only is Bryn’s salary actually a matter of public record – although Pembrokeshire County Council held out against revealing his hefty salary for many moons– but calculations used in other local authorities are widely available online.

In 2011, Haringey Council produced the following figures for someone on a salary of £150,000 (much less than his Bryn-ness):

Salary at beginning of year	£150,000
Service at beginning of year	25 years
Pre-2008 service at beginning of year	22 years
Increase in Pay	6.6%
Salary at end of year	£160,000
Service at end of year	26 years
Pre-2008 service at end of year	22 years
Inflation over year (Consumer Price Index)	2.5%
Pension accrued at beginning of year	£48,750
Lump Sum accrued at beginning of year	£123,750
Pension accrued at end of year	£54,667
Lump Sum accrued at end of year	£132,000
Value of “pension savings”	£80,323
Excess over annual allowance of £50,000	£30,323
Tax charge if 40%	£12,129
Tax charge if 45% (from April 2013)	£13,645
Tax charge if 50%	£15,161

Local government pensions work on the basis that employers and employees make contributions to the scheme. In order to permit Bryn to avoid tax what the IPPG led Committee did was to make it possible for Bryn Parry-Jones – as well as his fellow highest-paid officers – to choose to salt away the equivalent value of the Council’s contribution to their pensions to somewhere the tax man wouldn’t be able to get his mitts on it.

The change in the tax laws which brought about this tax dodge “arrangement” only affects those described as ‘very high earners.’ In fact the reason the change was brought in, ostensibly, was because of a quarter of all pension tax relief was going to only 1.5% of members of the pension scheme.

Bryn is one of the 1.5%.

These members – and take a good look at the mug shots opposite – thought that in a period when services were being cut and the wages of the lower paid employees were being slashed, they would give the best paid of their best paid employees a chance to avoid paying tax.

They have colluded to give those most able to afford tax to avoid it at the expense of everyone else.

Cosy and complacent: it appears they sat around a table in secret session to carve out a sordid tax dodge.

They should be ashamed. They won’t be.

Five of these sat together and decided to cut low-paid workers’ pay knowing that Bryn is trousering a big tax-free wodge of Council Tax payers’ cash.

It stinks.

The members of this Committee have colluded to let their very well remunerated Chief Executive avoid tax.

The Welsh Audit Office don’t seem to like it. Why should we?

Let’s also put this in context. At the time this meeting took place, the Council had just been the subject of the report that led to Welsh Government intervention in Pembrokeshire’s affairs. That report said this about our County Council (emphases added):

“The absence of effective governance in relation to safeguarding and protecting children REFLECTS FAILURES WITHIN THE CULTURE OF THE AUTHORITY AS A WHOLE. The shortcomings with the authority’s arrangements to safeguard and protect children are longstanding and systemic. This is indicative of the deep-seated nature of these problems and failings within the authority … THIS IS INDICATIVE OF A CLOSED, NOT AN OPEN OR TRANSPARENT CULTURE.”

So it was – as the minutes of the meeting put it – to aid the retention of the person in charge at the time the Council failed most spectacularly in its duty to us that the Committee members opposite decided that so essential was Bryn’s contribution that he needed an annual five-figure sweetie to stay.

Shortly after the child safeguarding issue came to prominence, a vote of no confidence in Bryn was tabled by Councillors who were, to say the least, “disappointed” in his management. He survived the vote as ‘Cwmbetws’ and his cohorts rallied round him.

Smell a rat?

It stinks of other odours, too: those more associated with the dairy farming with which John Davies and Jamie Adams will be familiar.

Badger was thinking of illustrating this point with the quote from Animal Farm about some animals being more equal than others. Instead, he remembered something he read when being taught history by former Director of Education, Graham Longster.

Senator Joseph McCarthy was notorious for helping create the ant-communist hysteria in America during the early 1950’s. His claims became more outrageous and vindictive as time went on. He finally met his come-uppance before a Senate committee in 1954.

Joseph N. Welch, Counsel for the US Army, finally – exasperatedly – asked McCarthy the lethal: ‘You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?’

Shut a library. Close a school. Cut bin collections. End public toilets. Slash workers’ wages. Tell everybody the cuts are unavoidable. But for God’s sake give Bryn the Merciless a tax break.

Look at the faces opposite again.

Ask Joseph Welch’s question of them.

Entertainment

Gavin & Stacey stars reunite for Christmas advert

Published

1 hour ago

December 4, 2025

Luke Sinclair

Gavin & Stacey favourites Joanna Page and Mathew Horne have reunited on screen for a Christmas special – though not the one fans might have hoped for. Instead of returning to Barry or Billericay, the duo appear together in a new festive advert for Waitrose, sharing a turkey pie while responding to a fan’s heartfelt letter about expressing love through food.

The short film marks their appearance in How to Say It With Food, a six-part series in which Page and Horne tackle some of the nation’s most common Christmas food dilemmas. The clip opens with Page teasingly nodding to their iconic sitcom: “Oh, you didn’t think we’d let Christmas roll around without showing up again, did you?”

Horne quickly follows with his own playful line: “Us? Miss Christmas? Not a chance. But this time we’re here to help you say it with food.”

The pair are then handed an envelope “from Santa”, containing a letter from a viewer asking how he can show his “leading lady” he loves her through food. Mathew quips: “First time saying it, you want a statement. Sixteenth time, you want a statement that doesn’t involve socks.”

He then introduces Waitrose’s new Christmas advert starring Keira Knightley and Joe Wilkinson. The main campaign follows an unlikely festive romance sparked by Sussex Charmer cheese and culminating in Wilkinson presenting Knightley with a turkey pie decorated with the words “I love you”. Watching the moment unfold, Page smiles at Horne and mirrors another classic Gavin & Stacey reference: “Oh, that’s so romantic.”

The duo are soon given their own turkey pie to try. Horne eagerly tucks in before cutting Page a slice, prompting laughter from his co-star. The advert ends with the pair wishing viewers a Merry Christmas as Knightley and Wilkinson share a warm festive kiss on screen.

The reunion comes almost a year after audiences tuned in to the BBC sitcom’s much-anticipated finale, which drew an impressive 12.3 million viewers on Christmas Day. The episode wrapped up storylines including Gwen’s blossoming romance with Dave Coaches, Smithy’s near-wedding to Sonia, and the moment fans had long debated – Smithy and Nessa tying the knot.

Reflecting on the new project, Page said: “You thought you’d seen the last of us! Well, we’re back and what fun we had.” She added: “It was such a treat working with Mat… food is what brings people together over the festive season.”

Horne described the experience as “brilliant”, calling their on-screen reunion “a Christmas tradition”.

Health

Government orders clinical review amid sharp rise in mental health diagnoses

Published

1 hour ago

December 4, 2025

Tom Sinclair

4.4 million working-age people now claiming sickness or incapacity benefit, up by 1.2 million since 2019, many because of a mental health condition

A CLINICAL review into how mental health conditions are diagnosed across the UK is expected to begin this week, following concerns within government over rapidly rising sickness-benefit claims linked to conditions such as autism, ADHD and anxiety.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has commissioned leading clinical experts to examine whether ordinary emotional distress is being “over-pathologised” and to assess why the number of people receiving sickness and incapacity benefits has grown to 4.4 million – an increase of 1.2 million since 2019.

According to reports in The Times, ministers are particularly alarmed by the surge in the number of 16- to 34-year-olds now out of work because of long-term mental health conditions.

Streeting said he recognised “from personal experience how devastating it can be for people who face poor mental health, have ADHD or autism and can’t get a diagnosis or the right support,” but added that he had also heard from clinicians who say diagnoses are “sharply rising”.

“We must look at this through a strictly clinical lens to get an evidence-based understanding of what we know, what we don’t know, and what these patterns tell us about our mental health system, autism and ADHD services,” he told the newspaper. “That’s the only way we can ensure everyone gets timely access to accurate diagnosis and effective support.”

The review is expected to be chaired by Prof Peter Fonagy, a clinical psychologist at University College London specialising in child mental health, with Sir Simon Wessely, former president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, acting as vice-chair.

Prof Fonagy said the panel would “examine the evidence with care – from research, from people with lived experience and from clinicians working at the frontline of mental health, autism and ADHD services – to understand, in a grounded way, what is driving rising demand.”

The move comes as the UK Government faces mounting pressure over the rising welfare bill. Ministers earlier this year pulled back from proposed changes to disability benefits, including those affecting people with mental health conditions, after opposition from Labour backbenchers.

Speaking on Monday, the Prime Minister said a fresh round of welfare reform was needed.

Keir Starmer said: “We’ve got to transform it; we also have to confront the reality that our welfare state is trapping people, not just in poverty, but out of work.”

Business

Welsh Govt shifts stance on business rates after pressure from S4C and Herald

Published

15 hours ago

December 3, 2025

Sarah-Jane Absalom

Ministers release unexpected statement 48 hours after widespread concern highlighted in Welsh media

THE WELSH GOVERNMENT has announced a new package of tapered business rates relief for 2026-27, in a move that follows sustained pressure from Welsh media — including S4C Newyddion and The Pembrokeshire Herald — over the impact of revaluation on small businesses.

In Milford Haven, the hard-pressed pub sector is already feeling the impact: the annual bill for The Lord Kitchener is rising from £5,000 to £15,000, while rates at the Kimberley Public House have nearly doubled from £10,500 to £19,500. The Imperial Hall’s rates are increasing from £5,800 to £9,200, prompting director Lee Bridges to question why businesses “are being asked to pay more when we use less services”. In Haverfordwest, the annual rates bill for Eddie’s Nightclub is increasing from £57,000 to £61,500.

A written statement, issued suddenly on Wednesday afternoon, confirms that ministers will introduce a transitional “tapering mechanism” to soften steep increases for tourism, hospitality and small independent operators. Full details will be published with the draft Budget later this month.

The announcement comes less than two days after The Herald’s in-depth reporting brought forward direct concerns from Pembrokeshire business owners and councillors, highlighting the uncertainty facing one of Wales’ most important local industries.

Herald reporting credited by senior councillor

Pembrokeshire County Council Independent Group Leader Cllr Huw Carnhuan Murphy publicly thanked The Herald for pushing the issue into the spotlight.

In a statement shared on Wednesday, Cllr Murphy said: “Welcome news from Welsh Government. Thanks to Tom Sinclair for running this important item in the Herald in relation to the revaluation of businesses and the consequences it will have for many.

He added: “Newyddion S4C hefyd am redeg y stori pwysig yma ynghylch trethi busnes.,” which in English is “and thanks to S4C Newyddion as well for running this important story about business taxes.”

He added that the Independent Group “will always campaign to support our tourism and agriculture industry, on which so many residents rely within Pembrokeshire”.

Media spotlight increased pressure on Cardiff Bay

On Monday, ministers said business rates plans would be outlined “within the next two weeks”.
By Wednesday afternoon — following prominent coverage on S4C and continued pressure from The Herald — Welsh Government released an early written statement outlining new support.

Industry sources told The Herald they believed the level of public concern, amplified by the media, “forced the issue up the agenda much faster than expected”.

A cautious welcome for ‘better than nothing’

Cllr Murphy welcomed the partial support, though he stressed it fell short of what many businesses had hoped for.

“This isn’t the level of support many were hoping for,” he said, “but it is certainly much better than nothing.”

Draft Budget expected soon

The full tapered support scheme will be detailed in the Welsh Government draft Budget, expected within a fortnight.

Tourism and hospitality representatives have reserved final judgment until the figures are published, but many have expressed relief that some support will continue, following weeks of uncertainty.