Friday, July 11, 2025
Details needed on Welsh rail investment
Wales-on-line reports that there is currently no date for when rail improvements promised by the UK Government will start, nor any indication of where the first works will take place.
The Treasury's paperwork said the following was being promised: "£300m for rail investment in Wales, including for the Burns Review stations, North Wales Level Crossing, Padeswood Sidings and Cardiff West Junction.
"This [spending review] and the upcoming 10-year infrastructure strategy will recognise Wales’ long-term infrastructure needs and will deliver at least £445m of rail enhancements to realise them."
But in terms of what will be delivered and when there was no more detail available then. In the following days we had tried to get details from the Welsh secretary, the Department for Transport, and the Treasury about what would take place when and exactly what the money was to be spent on.
The best we could get was from the Department for Transport (DFT). "We will be working with industry partners such as Network Rail and Transport for Wales in the coming months to agree the programme of further work to deliver the investment. This work will update will confirm the costs and delivery schedule for the overall programme," we were told.
Neither Network Rail nor Transport for Wales were able to give details and our questions were directed to the Welsh Government's transport minister, Ken Skates and our repeated requests to sit down with him to ask questions have also been unfulfilled.
"I think that's absolutely right because obviously the Welsh Rail Board has produced the priority list that went into the spending review to get that money They'll now look at how how it is delivered."
She was then asked by Mrs Jones if there was a "timeline for their timeline" and the Welsh secretary said there was not.
She added: "Not that I'm aware of. I know that work is starting on it pretty imminently and so I would hope it would not be too long because now we've got the funding secured, we've got to get on with delivering it.
All-in-all this funding announcement sounds rushed and not very well planned out. Given the previous track record of government railway projects, I will be surprised if there will be a single spade in the ground before the next Senedd election.
Thursday, July 10, 2025
Have we lost the ability to build infrastructure?
A perfect example of that is HS2 (or any railway project for that matter), which is taking far longer to build and costing far more than was ever envisaged for it.
The Guardian reports that the boss of the high-speed rail project has told MPs that HS2 construction contracts priced at £19.5bn have already cost £26bn despite being “just over halfway done”.
The paper adds that the transport select committee heard that the civil engineering to build tunnels and cuttings for the 100-mile line should be almost finished but is closer to 60% complete, while only a third of the wider project – including laying tracks and wiring – is done:
Mark Wild, chief executive of HS2 Ltd, told the committee that the rush to start work in 2020 without balancing the risks in the contracts was the major reason for costs spiralling upwards.
Contracts were signed off in April 2020 and construction formally began five months later, before designs were finalised and local planning consents were in place, he said.
Wild, who started work last December, is currently engaged in a “reset” of construction, which he said would include reshaping his direct staff at HS2 Ltd, coming up with a credible schedule and budget, and renegotiating contracts in the autumn.
He said: “The bottom line is that, at the notice to proceed, the contractors could not price the risk. What we’re seeing is the crystallisation of risk: they should have cost £19.5bn, and we’ve already spent £26bn and we’re just over halfway done … Between 50% and 100% is the likely overspend.”
The line between London and Birmingham – initially designated phase one, but now the entirety of HS2 – was originally planned to open in 2026.
The schedule was subsequently postponed to between 2029 and 2033. But on Wild’s advice, Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, told parliament last month that there was “no route” to full HS2 services until after 2033.
Wild said Covid and inflation caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had both had a significant impact on time and costs, but that HS2 had failed to manage costs.
He said the company was “unbalanced” and had “a significant gap” in its frontline workforce managing contractors, as well as having “too many consultants who’ve been there for too long”.
“We’ve ended up … locked in our own bureaucracy,” he added.
I'm almost sure that Joseph Chamberelain didn't come across any of these obstacles when he performed a civil engineering feat like no other and transformed public health in Birmingham.
Wednesday, July 09, 2025
UN panel raises concerns about impact of Labour's welfare bill
The paper says that n a rare intervention, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities asked about the legislation after receiving “credible information” that it seemed likely to worsen the rights of disabled people:
A letter from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, on behalf of the committee, said it “respectfully requests information” about the bill, and in particular the extent of any impact assessment.
It also sought information on “any measures to address the foreseeable risk of increasing poverty rates amongst persons with disabilities if cuts are approved”.
According to an impact assessment by the Department for Work and Pensions released on Monday, the revised bill will mean 50,000 fewer people are in relative poverty after housing costs in 2030. An assessment of the original plans found the measures would have pushed an additional 250,000 people into poverty, with some charities saying this figure would have been higher.
The letter also requests information on the extent of consultation with disabled people and charities ahead of the bill being presented, and whether the House of Lords would be able to give only “limited scrutiny” if, as expected, it is designated as a money bill, limiting the upper house’s powers.
The UN committee called for scrutiny of politicians and others in the UK “portraying persons with disabilities as making profit of social benefits, making false statements to get social and disability benefits or being a burden to society”.
Pointing to previous UN reports criticising the UK for its record over the rights of disabled people, the committee said it had “received credible information indicating that, if approved, the universal credit and personal independent payment bill will deepen the signs of regression” found in earlier reports.
Whatever this bill turns out to say after all the concessions to Labour MPs, there is no hiding the inevitablity that a large number of disabled people will be worse off.
Tuesday, July 08, 2025
Labour MPs getting the rebellious habit
The paper says that education secretary Bridget Phillipson has insisted that ministers are committed to reforming support for children with learning difficulties or disabilities, which currently costs £12bn a year, but has refused to rule out scrapping key documents that families rely on to guarantee specialist help:
Education, health and care plans (EHCPs) are statutory documents which outline the support needed to help children with special needs and disabilities achieve key life outcomes. Many seeing them as the only way to get schools to provide the support children need.
Asked whether she could rule out getting rid of EHCPs, Ms Phillipson described it as a “complex and sensitive area”.
Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, she added: “What I can say very clearly is that we will strengthen and put in place better support for children.”
“I’ve been spending a lot of time listening to parents, to disability rights groups, to campaigners and to others and to colleagues across Parliament as well, because it’s important to get this right,” she added, but said it is “tough”.
But one Labour MP told The Independent that a lot of his fellow backbenchers have strong relationships with Send campaigners, warning: “If they’re now being told by them this is a betrayal - combined with last week - they’ll be pushing back against any cuts.”
“People are angry with us. New MPs will be feeling that”, he added.
Other Labour MPs told The Times that the plans risk becoming “welfare mark two”, claiming that dozens of MPs are prepared to rebel over the issue.
One backbencher urged the government to “think again now or they’ll be repeating the same mistake they made with welfare reform.”
“We’re all in favour of reforming the system but that cannot be driven by saving money and taking support away from children”, they added.
A second Labour MP said: “If they thought taking money away from disabled adults was bad, watch what happens when they try the same with disabled kids.”
Having forced a climbdown by the government once, Labour MPs are now getting antsy and starting to assert themselves. If Starmer continues to pursue his blue Labour agenda there may well be many more rebellions.
Monday, July 07, 2025
Are MPs failing their staff?
The paper says that staff employed by MPs have said that they have been put in “extremely dangerous” situations after a small number of parliamentarians “wilfully ignored” security advice:
A confidential report sent to Commons authorities last year, seen by the Guardian, highlighted the concerns amid tension over the Gaza conflict and what it described as a rising number of “mentally and emotionally unstable constituents”.
One MP’s constituency worker reported being threatened with a knife last year, while another described a hammer attack at an MP’s surgery.
A survey of nearly 400 MPs’ employees, most of whom were based outside Westminster, found that more than one in three (38%) now fear for their own or colleagues’ safety – up from 19% in 2022.
Ninety-five staff employed by MPs said none or only some safety recommendations had been acted on, while 31 respondents said security measures had been rejected by their MP or office manager. Only 28% said all safety recommendations had been implemented at their constituency office.
The Westminster-based wellness working group (WWG), which represents MPs’ staff, said it was “shocked to our core” by its survey. It said some MPs were “wilfully ignoring security advice and putting their staff in extremely dangerous situations for unconscionable reasons such as optics in the public eye”.
Concerns about MPs’ safety have risen sharply since the murders of Jo Cox in 2016 and David Amess in 2021.
Last year, Lindsay Hoyle, speaker of the House of Commons, described Commons security as his “top priority”, saying the issue “keeps me awake at night”. The speaker’s office published a cross-party report last month warning that record levels of abuse and harassment were “stifling debate and weakening democracy”.
Yet those working for MPs said they felt there had been little focus on their own safety, particularly those in constituency offices where some felt “extremely unsafe” and “very vulnerable”.
A confidential report highlighting a spate of attacks and threats on constituency offices was handed to Hoyle and senior Commons officials last year. The 18-page audit, compiled by the WWG, described how staff endured “countless encounters with aggressive people” at their constituency office, including hammer attacks and bricks thrown through the window.
One MP was said to have reacted angrily about the use of safety tools such as lone worker devices, which send security alerts when activated.
A constituency worker said their MP “laughed off” their concerns when a man attacked the constituency office with a hammer.
Another said they were made to feel scared after being driven by an MP to the home of a constituent known to be “very unwell” and enter the property first.
One worker claimed the police had refused to help when their MP’s office was being vandalised because it was the staff member who was under threat, not the MP.
The MPs were not identified by name in the confidential report and the Guardian is not publishing detailed accounts of the incidents as it risked identifying members of staff.
This is frankly disturbing. MPs have a duty to their staff, those who don't fulfill that duty should be named and shamed.
Sunday, July 06, 2025
The threat to the right to protest
Both will willingly use the mechanisms available to the state to suppress views and actions they disapprove of when, in many instances, there are already routes that can be taken to prevent such protests going too far.
The treatment of Palestine Action is a good example of this. On Wednesday, the House of Commons was asked to vote on whether to proscribe three organisations as terrorist groups under the Terrorism Act: two neo-Nazi groups—the Russian Imperial Movement and the Maniacs Murder Cult—and Palestine Action.
By linking these three groups together, the government put MPs into an impossible position. There is no doubt that the two white supremacist organisations listed clearly meet the threshold for proscription. But, as one Liberal Democrat MP explained, the vote was all-or-nothing. Parliament wasn’t allowed to assess each group on its own merits.
Dr AL Pinkerton, the Liberal Democrat MP for Surrey Heath, explained the dilemma he faced on Facebook:.
Let me be absolutely clear: I condemn in the strongest terms the reckless and illegal actions of those who broke into RAF Brize Norton and targeted military aircraft. Those responsible should be prosecuted using the full force of existing criminal law.
But that wasn’t the question before MPs. Tonight’s vote wasn’t about whether those actions were illegal (they were), or whether the individuals responsible should face criminal charges (they should). It was about whether supporting Palestine Action—regardless of whether you’ve broken the law—should carry a sentence of up to 14 years in prison under terrorism legislation.
'''
I do not believe the Government has yet made a clear or proportionate case for using terrorism powers in this instance. Proscribing a group for damage to property alone—however serious—is unprecedented. Terrorism legislation is meant to address imminent threats to life, not provocative protest, however distasteful.
If the Government has intelligence it cannot share publicly, it needs to explain how that evidence will hold up in court. Because if the proscription of Palestine Action collapses under legal challenge, we’ll have achieved nothing except making martyrs of extremists and weakening the long-term credibility of our counter-terror laws. That’s why I walked through both the “Aye” and “No” lobbies to register an abstention.
I support action against genuine threats—but we need prosecutions that stick, not gestures that unravel.
By my count, six Liberal Democrat MPs, including Dr Pinkerton abstained in this way, others stayed away altogether.
Thursday's Guardian contained a number of letters on this subject, including one by former Greenham Common activist, Dr Lynne Jones. It is worth quoting it in full:
In 1983, along with thousands of other women, I cut down sections of the fence around RAF Greenham Common, which was to house nuclear weapons in the form of cruise missiles (Greenham Common women urge new generation to ‘rise up’ against nuclear threat, 27 July).
Arrested and fined £50 for criminal damage, I was jailed for a couple of weeks for refusing to pay the fine. After the missiles arrived in 1984, I joined Cruisewatch actions, which, by obstructing the convoys on the road and throwing paintballs at them, prevented any missile deployment exercises taking place in secret. Again the charges were not severe. Arrested on Salisbury Plain on one occasion, my friends and I were released without charge. Women who did more than £10,000 worth of damage by painting the Blackbird spy plane in 1983 also had their charges dropped.
This week, if the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has her way, those committing similar kinds of criminal damage could face 14 years in jail for “terrorism” (Free speech target or terrorist gang? The inside story of Palestine Action – and the plan to ban it, 28 June). Yet nonviolent civil disobedience works. In 2004, Mikhail Gorbachev said he attended the 1986 Reykjavik summit because he was confident that “the Greenham Common women and the peace movements of Europe […] would not let America take advantage if we took this step forward”. That step led to a 1987 treaty removing tactical nuclear weapons, including cruise missiles, from Europe.
Keir Starmer plans once again to deploy tactical nuclear weapons, under US government control, on British soil and mass protests are already planned. As the Guardian pointed out in its excellent editorial on Palestine Action (23 June), Starmer might think that “redefining visible dissent as a national security threat is a way to contain public anger”, but it is unlikely to make it go away.
On the contrary, Margaret Thatcher’s government appeared to recognise that increased repression of “eccentric” women might actually increase popular support for a cause. Perhaps he could learn something.
It is worth recording that, on the criteria being deployed by the Labour Government, the suffragettes would have also been proscribed, possibly the antit-apartheid movement too and, even further back, the Chartists, as well as many other protest groups, all of whom are now acknowledged by some of the same Ministers who want to ban Palestine Action as organisatons that secured social reform by direct action.
The treatment of Palestine Action is a good example of this. On Wednesday, the House of Commons was asked to vote on whether to proscribe three organisations as terrorist groups under the Terrorism Act: two neo-Nazi groups—the Russian Imperial Movement and the Maniacs Murder Cult—and Palestine Action.
By linking these three groups together, the government put MPs into an impossible position. There is no doubt that the two white supremacist organisations listed clearly meet the threshold for proscription. But, as one Liberal Democrat MP explained, the vote was all-or-nothing. Parliament wasn’t allowed to assess each group on its own merits.
Dr AL Pinkerton, the Liberal Democrat MP for Surrey Heath, explained the dilemma he faced on Facebook:.
Let me be absolutely clear: I condemn in the strongest terms the reckless and illegal actions of those who broke into RAF Brize Norton and targeted military aircraft. Those responsible should be prosecuted using the full force of existing criminal law.
But that wasn’t the question before MPs. Tonight’s vote wasn’t about whether those actions were illegal (they were), or whether the individuals responsible should face criminal charges (they should). It was about whether supporting Palestine Action—regardless of whether you’ve broken the law—should carry a sentence of up to 14 years in prison under terrorism legislation.
'''
I do not believe the Government has yet made a clear or proportionate case for using terrorism powers in this instance. Proscribing a group for damage to property alone—however serious—is unprecedented. Terrorism legislation is meant to address imminent threats to life, not provocative protest, however distasteful.
If the Government has intelligence it cannot share publicly, it needs to explain how that evidence will hold up in court. Because if the proscription of Palestine Action collapses under legal challenge, we’ll have achieved nothing except making martyrs of extremists and weakening the long-term credibility of our counter-terror laws. That’s why I walked through both the “Aye” and “No” lobbies to register an abstention.
I support action against genuine threats—but we need prosecutions that stick, not gestures that unravel.
By my count, six Liberal Democrat MPs, including Dr Pinkerton abstained in this way, others stayed away altogether.
Thursday's Guardian contained a number of letters on this subject, including one by former Greenham Common activist, Dr Lynne Jones. It is worth quoting it in full:
In 1983, along with thousands of other women, I cut down sections of the fence around RAF Greenham Common, which was to house nuclear weapons in the form of cruise missiles (Greenham Common women urge new generation to ‘rise up’ against nuclear threat, 27 July).
Arrested and fined £50 for criminal damage, I was jailed for a couple of weeks for refusing to pay the fine. After the missiles arrived in 1984, I joined Cruisewatch actions, which, by obstructing the convoys on the road and throwing paintballs at them, prevented any missile deployment exercises taking place in secret. Again the charges were not severe. Arrested on Salisbury Plain on one occasion, my friends and I were released without charge. Women who did more than £10,000 worth of damage by painting the Blackbird spy plane in 1983 also had their charges dropped.
This week, if the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has her way, those committing similar kinds of criminal damage could face 14 years in jail for “terrorism” (Free speech target or terrorist gang? The inside story of Palestine Action – and the plan to ban it, 28 June). Yet nonviolent civil disobedience works. In 2004, Mikhail Gorbachev said he attended the 1986 Reykjavik summit because he was confident that “the Greenham Common women and the peace movements of Europe […] would not let America take advantage if we took this step forward”. That step led to a 1987 treaty removing tactical nuclear weapons, including cruise missiles, from Europe.
Keir Starmer plans once again to deploy tactical nuclear weapons, under US government control, on British soil and mass protests are already planned. As the Guardian pointed out in its excellent editorial on Palestine Action (23 June), Starmer might think that “redefining visible dissent as a national security threat is a way to contain public anger”, but it is unlikely to make it go away.
On the contrary, Margaret Thatcher’s government appeared to recognise that increased repression of “eccentric” women might actually increase popular support for a cause. Perhaps he could learn something.
It is worth recording that, on the criteria being deployed by the Labour Government, the suffragettes would have also been proscribed, possibly the antit-apartheid movement too and, even further back, the Chartists, as well as many other protest groups, all of whom are now acknowledged by some of the same Ministers who want to ban Palestine Action as organisatons that secured social reform by direct action.
They really have lost all perspective.
Saturday, July 05, 2025
A most unusual listed building
As this website states, Mumbles’ distinctive Big Apple has been one of the village’s most recognisable landmarks for generations – it has appeared on postcards, been painted by local artist Nick Holly and has even earned a mention on TripAdviser.
The building, which originally had a long stalk attached to its top, was built in the 1930s by the company Cidatone:
It promoted its apple drink with the slogan “Drink your apple a day!” There were several apple kiosks placed around Wales and England’s coastal towns as part of a wide promotional campaign, including one at Aberavon, Porthcawl, Trecco Bay and Barry. The Mumbles Big Apple is believed to be the only survivor, which makes it unique!
The concrete building has had a couple of mishaps to it along the way. In 2006 it was painted orange by pranksters. Then in 2009, a ford fiesta ran into its front causing extensive damage. After the accident, around 27,000 people backed a campaign on Facebook to safeguard its future, and it underwent specialist repairwork. At its reopening, the Assembly health minister and Gower AM at the time, Edwina Hart, cut the ribbon at the kiosk before handing out free apples.
In 2019, after a campaign by local supporters, the Big Apple was granted listed building status. Cadw described the elliptical building as having “special architectural interest” and was recognised as being an iconic feature from the heyday of seaside entertainment.
Ameco, the company which also runs the Mumbles Pier, now owns this rare and unusual example of a seaside kiosk and well known Mumbles landmark.
Friday, July 04, 2025
Brecon and Radnor forty years on
As the Journal of Liberal History recants, the by-election was caused by the death of the sitting Conservative MP Tom Hooson (a cousin of the former Liberal MP for Montgomery Emlyn Hooson:
The Conservatives held the seat with a majority of over 10,000, however the government encountered problems and the election developed into a three way contest with Labour, which had held the seat before 1979, fighting hard to win it back. When the result was declared after a recount, Livsey emerged as the victor by 559 votes over Labour with the Tories slipping to third place. Livsey remained an MP (apart from 1992-97 when the Tories recaptured the seat) until he retired in 2001.
The BBC report that Labour might well have won the by-election, had it not been for a speech two nights before the poll in which the miners' leader, Arthur Scargill, demanded the right to choose the next chairman of the National Coal Board.
They add that the reminder of the only recently ended miners' strike, along with tactical voting by Conservatives, were enough to put Mr Livsey over the top with a slim majority of just over 500 votes.
Thursday, July 03, 2025
No investment west of Cardiff
Nation Cymru reports that the critcism came from Plaid Cymru’s Cefin Campbell during a scrutiny session on the work of Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Ken Skates:
Last month, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves said she had delivered what the Welsh Government had asked for in her spending review.
The package of funding included £445m for Welsh railways over the next 10 years.
Opposition parties in the Senedd have argued that this is less than what Wales is owed.
In the Senedd on on Wednesday (July 2), Campbell referred to a number of examples where investment was needed in mid and west Wales – including alleviating “chronic delays” on the Heart of Wales line, ensuring more regular services on the Cambrian Line and building a new railway station in St Clears.
Quizzing the Transport Secretary, the Mid and West Wales MS said: “Rachel Reeves said that the Welsh Government had got everything it asked for, including when it comes to rail investment.
“My question to you today is simple: is this true? And if it is true, why did you ask for nothing, literally nothing at all, to invest in the railways west of Cardiff?
“Because the truth is that not only did the spending review deliver painfully little for Welsh rail, it delivered literally nothing for the railways in the region that I represent.”
Skates described the comments as “wholly unfair” adding that he would not “play regions off against each other”.
He said: “It’s absolutely right that we take forward the projects that are most advanced, that we can draw down the funding for, otherwise we could be promised the money, it would never be spent. We will spend that money.
The fact remains that most of the schemes that are 'advanced' are concentrated in the South East of Wales. It is the same old story.
Wednesday, July 02, 2025
An inadequate reform
The poll finds that just 3% of those surveyed backed the government’s plans, with 56% of respondents agreeing that ministers should additionally limit the number of peers the prime minister is able to appoint to the upper chamber for life.
The hereditary peers bill is due to enter its report stage in the House of Lords today after five days of debate with line-by-line consideration of more than 100 amendments during March and April:
The bill fulfils part of Labour’s manifesto pledge for “immediate reform of the House of Lords”. Labour described the Lords as “too big”, with changes “overdue and essential”, promising not just to remove the hereditary peers but also to introduce a mandatory retirement age of 80, participation requirements, make it easier to remove disgraced members, and overhaul the appointments process to improve the quality of peers.
Despite these pledges, ministers argued against every amendment proposed to the bill that would have implemented these changes. Instead, the government said it needed more time to consider how to implement its commitments, and that the bill was “not the right vehicle”.
But “right now, the House of Lords has a legislative vehicle in front of it which is certain to pass. If peers want change, they should seize it,” according to Prof Meg Russell, the director of the Constitution Unit at University College London, which commissioned the polling by YouGov.
Russell said there would probably not be another opportunity to overhaul the Lords for decades. The last major bill was in 1999, in what was meant to be a two-stage reform starting with the removal of 667 hereditary peers.
“You just would not believe how slowly it moves,” she said. “Basically, it’s impossible to get agreement on anything, inside parties as well as across parties.
“No bill has reached the House of Lords coming from a government in 26 years and if you haven’t got a government bill it’s very hard to achieve any legislative change, which is why I’m saying seize it. These things come around on roughly a generational kind of cycle.”
A longstanding cross-party consensus exists that the House of Lords needs to be smaller, a position backed by the public, 71% of whom think it should be no bigger than the House of Commons’ 650 MPs.
But even as the 86 hereditary peers start to pack away their ermine, a steady flow of 76 newly ennobled life peers since the election will limit the effectiveness of the government’s changes in reducing the overall size of the chamber, which now has 859 members. Some hereditary peers may receive life peerages to allow them to stay.
“The problem here is that whenever a prime minister over-appoints, particularly to their own party, the PM that follows them feels the need to over-appoint to counteract those appointments,” said Russell. “And that’s how it gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and it’s completely unsustainable.”
My issue with this poll is that it is quite limited in what it reportedly asks, while the government's proposals are even more limited. The Lords needs more than cosmetic changes, it needs wholescale reform including being properly accountable by being elected.
