Declan Lynch: The BBC got us through endless Northern nights, Gerry Adams
The BBC is 'The British Broadcasting Corporation', but nobody calls it that except Gerry Adams. Again and again, very deliberately, as he savours his triumph in the recent libel action against 'The British Broadcasting Corporation', he gives it the full official title — almost as if the 'British' part has connotations of inherent badness.
He claims that his purpose in taking the action was to 'put manners' on this British Broadcasting Corporation. There were even suggestions — later denied — that the BBC would consider blocking the transmission of its programmes in this country, rather than risk further exposure to our atrocious libel laws.
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Wales Online
2 hours ago
- Wales Online
Nigel Farage reveals his vision and promises to Wales
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info The 1851 census recorded that more people in Wales were employed in industry than in agriculture, a first for any country, meaning it has the claim to be the first industrial nation. And for a time, Wales was undeniably an industrial powerhouse. Wales once produced almost 60 million tons of coal per year and South Wales alone was the biggest coal exporter in the world. The Cardiff Coal Exchange set the global price for steam coal and Swansea smelted most of the world's copper. Merthyr Tydfil was the world's largest producer of iron and the Port Talbot Steelworks were once the largest steel plant in Europe. Much of that is now gone. Wales's economy lags the UK in jobs, wages & growth and the deindustrialisation of Wales means that GDP per capita is £10,000 less than the UK. For many years Welsh Labour blamed the Conservatives in Westminster for this and, in fact, for all other ills. However, the truth is that Labour are just as much as responsible, if not more so than the Tories. Since the first elections to the then Welsh Assembly in 1999, Labour has been in power in Cardiff Bay for 26 years, the longest term in government of any party in Europe. With Labour now holding office in Westminster, Welsh Labour have no one left to blame. Next May voters in Wales will get the opportunity to vote in the Senedd elections and have the opportunity to not only to pass judgment on Labour's track record but also decide on the future direction of the nation. They can choose from more of the same mismanaged decline from Labour, or they can vote for a party, Reform, that unashamedly wants to see Wales reindustrialise to prosper and grow. Labour closed Wales' only primary steel making furnaces, we want to open them in the long run. We have said and say again that we think it's better to use British coal for British steel than imported coal. Which is why we would allow coal, if suitable, to be mined in Wales as part of Reform's long-term ambition to reopen the Port Talbot Steelworks but we know this will not be quick or easy. A Reform-run Senedd would also use Welsh Development Grants to support real industry. We'll redirect economic funding from consultants and NGOs to actual factory floors, machinery, and industrial jobs in places like Llanelli, Shotton, and Ebbw Vale. We'll also set up regional technical colleges teaching welding, plumbing, robotics, electrical trades, and industrial automation. Every young person who wants to work should have a path into a proper trade. More than that, we will change the way Wales is run. We will put the interests of the Welsh people first and make sure that local people go to the front of the social housing queue. We'd stop the use of any building for asylum seeker accommodation. We would end funding to the Wales Refugee Council and scrap the 'Nation of Sanctuary' for asylum seekers and any funding that goes with it. For WalesOnline's free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here A Reform UK Senedd will also save hundreds of millions each year by cutting bureaucracy, waste and bad management. The establishment of Welsh DOGE will help us uncover where there is woke and wasteful spending and we will make sure those funds are redirected to frontline services. People might say these are lofty ambitions for a party that currently has no representation in the Senedd, but its clear that the people of Wales want Reform. Our growth in Wales has been extraordinary. We now have almost 11,000 members and tens of thousands of supporters. We are winning Council by-elections in Wales with almost 50 per cent of the vote. The result in Scotland last week confirmed to us that we if we can do that well in Scotland, then we can win here in Wales. It also made clear that a vote for the Conservatives is a vote for Labour, it's more obvious than ever before that the Tories can't win in Wales. The only party that can end Labour's 26 years of failure in Wales and put the nation on a better path is Reform and I am confident we can do it.
Scottish Sun
2 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
UK's ‘outrageous' migrant hotel bill revealed & it takes every penny in tax from all people in city as big as MANCHESTER
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) BRITAIN'S £4.7billion annual bill to keep migrants in hotels and look after them takes every penny of tax from 582,000 workers. The shocking new statistic is equivalent to every grafter in Manchester stumping up for asylum seekers through their pay packet. 4 Britain's £4.7billion annual bill to keep migrants in hotels and look after them takes every penny of tax from 582,000 workers 4 The shocking new statistic is equivalent to every grafter in Manchester stumping up for asylum seekers through their pay packet Credit: Getty 4 Jamie Jenkins, who did the research, said: 'This isn't just unsustainable. It's outrageous' Credit: PA Jamie Jenkins, who did the research, said: 'This isn't just unsustainable. It's outrageous. "A government that borrows billions each year, can't control borders, and taxes its citizens to pay for hotel rooms and housing for people who've just arrived is not working for the British public. 'It's time for a system that protects the people who pay in. That rewards contribution. That puts citizens first." Latest figures show there were 32,345 asylum seekers staying in up to 220 hotel. It costs £41,000 a year to house each, up from £17,000 in 2020. Ex-Office for National Statistics analyst Mr Jenkins found the average UK salary was £38,224. Each worker pays income tax and National Insurance contributions of £8,081. So 582,000's entire tax bills go on housing migrants — equal to the working population of Manchester. And it is significantly larger than the employed populations of Nottingham, Sheffield and Leeds. The total is also higher than the tax contributions of every UK mechanic and HGV driver combined. A total £4.7billion went on asylum support in 2023-24 — £3.1billion on accomodation. 13 migrants jumped from the back of a lorry at a Sainsbury's distribution centre in South East London The rest went on grants to local authorities, running sites like the disused Bibby Stockholm barge in Dorset, plus £49-a-week subsistence allowance. The £4.7billion total was up from 2022-23's £3.6bn. Nearly 15,000 people have crossed to Dover in 2025, up 42 per cent on this time year. French cops, given £480million of UK taxpayer cash, are failing to intercept them.
The National
4 hours ago
- The National
Farage's proposal is just the latest undermining of the Barnett system
This, according to senior criminologists and ex-police officers, is not just a failure of admin, it's the result of austerity-era cuts that stripped police forces of capacity, dismantled the state-run Forensic Science Service in 2012, and left fragmented, underfunded systems to cope with ballooning evidence demands. Austerity didn't just weaken institutions; it disassembled infrastructure. READ MORE: Nigel Farage could cut the Barnett Formula. Here's what devolution experts think of that While these failings may seem like an English and Welsh concern, they tell a broader UK-wide story. Because when public services are cut in England, the Barnett formula translates those cuts into reduced budget allocations for Holyrood, too. Scotland has long borne the dual burden of being denied full fiscal autonomy while also seeing its devolved budget squeezed by decisions made for entirely different priorities south of the Border. Cuts to police, criminal courts, housing, public health, and local government in England have systematically eroded the spending floor on which Scottish services rest. So when justice collapses in England, it affects Scotland financially – even if the governance is separate. And now, against this backdrop of UK-wide budgetary degradation, Nigel Farage has called for the scrapping of the Barnett formula entirely. It's a move that's politically convenient, historically illiterate, and economically reckless. But more than anything, it's a distillation of what's already happening by stealth. Successive UK governments have undermined the foundations of the Barnett system – and devolution itself – for more than a decade. READ MORE: Furious Anas Sarwar clashes with BBC journalist over Labour policies It's obvious to every Scot that Farage's view relies on a mischaracterisation of Barnett as a subsidy, when in fact it simply ensures Scotland receives a proportional share of changes to spending in England for devolved services. It doesn't calculate entitlement or need, it mirrors policy shifts at Westminster. If England increases education or health spending, Scotland sees a relative uplift. If England cuts deeply, Scotland's budget falls, even if demand remains or rises. This has led to an absurd and punitive dynamic where Scotland loses funding not by its own decisions, but because England spends less. And when Scotland chooses to maintain higher standards in public services, it must do so from a proportionately smaller pot. Perversely, it doesn't stop there, though. Since the 2016 Brexit vote, Westminster has begun bypassing devolved governments directly. Funds like the Levelling Up Fund and Shared Prosperity Fund are allocated by UK ministers to local authorities, often bypassing Holyrood entirely. Promises made in The Vow on the eve of the 2014 independence referendum to deliver near-federal powers and respect Scottish decision-making have unravelled. READ MORE: SNP must turn support for independence into 'real political action' The Internal Market Act has overridden devolved laws under the banner of market 'consistency'. Powers that returned from Brussels in areas like food standards, procurement, and agriculture were supposed to go to Holyrood, but in many cases they were retained by Westminster. The Sewel Convention, once a safeguard of devolved consent, has been treated as optional. Farage's proposal to scrap Barnett isn't an outlier, it's the natural conclusion of a decade-long pattern: cut services in England, shrink the Barnett allocation, bypass devolved institutions, and then blame the devolved nations for 'taking more than their share'. There's no consideration of fairness, or implementation of a needs-based analysis, it's a strategy of erosion; one that gouges out the Union from the centre while draping itself in the flag. The failures of justice in England, catastrophic as they are, expose a deeper injustice: the systematic unravelling of the constitutional promises made to Scotland. Ron Lumiere via email
