Eideard

GARY SPEED
September 1969 – November 2011

Animal welfare officers in Wales were on Thursday trying to trace a man seen trying to board a train with a pony.

CCTV images showed the pair unsuccessfully attempting to buy a ticket at a station in Wrexham. The man then led the horse onto the platform as a train pulled in, but they were turned away by the conductor.

Later in the day the man also took the horse to a hospital in the town, media reports say.

Wrexham Council’s animal welfare staff are now trying to speak to the man to confirm the horse is not in danger, spokeswoman Gill Stevens told CNN…

Arriva Trains Wales said dogs and other small pets were allowed to travel on its trains, but larger animals such as horses were banned for “common sense” reasons.

A spokesman said: “Apart from dogs all other animals have to be in a basket or a cage. Obviously it’s common sense that we don’t allow horses or ponies on the train. He tried to buy a ticket and was refused and then left the station.”

Are we certain the horse wasn’t trying to put the man on the train?

Claire Jones, 38, of Tonypandy, in the Rhondda Valley, south Wales, had claimed poor health left her unable to cook or even chop vegetables herself. In reality, she used a gym and went dancing with her partner and earned cash working in cafés…

An undercover investigation was launched by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) after an anonymous tip-off. It found Jones regularly checked into the fitness suite at her local leisure centre and used the gym, swimming pool and sauna.

She did a skydiving jump at Swansea Airport in October 2008 to raise cash for a cancer charity, Jonathan Holmes of the DWP told the court.

Investigators got their hands on a copy of the souvenir DVD presented to every skydiver who takes the 12,000ft plunge. It shows Jones lugging the heavy paraphernalia of a parachute on to a plane then doing a tandem jump with a professional…

Jones appeared in court today to admit two charges of failing to notify the authorities of a change in circumstances. The charges covered a period from April 2008 to August 2010.

Over that time she was given disability living allowance at the highest level and also received incapacity benefit for a bad back. She dishonestly claimed £6,016. About £900 had since been reclaimed by docking benefits she was still legitimately receiving.

Har.

Wales has said a resounding Yes in the referendum on direct law-making powers for the assembly.

When the last result was declared, all 22 counties except one – Monmouthshire – backed change. Turnout is provisionally put at 35%.

The final result saw 517,132 vote Yes, and 297,380 say No – a 63.5% to 36.5% winning margin.

The vote will give the assembly direct law-making power in 20 devolved areas, such as health and education…

First Minister Carwyn Jones told celebrating supporters in the Senedd, the assembly building in Cardiff Bay: “Today an old nation came of age.”

Deputy First Minister and Plaid Cymru leader Ieuan Wyn Jones said it marked “the beginning of a new era of Welsh devolution – the decade to deliver for Wales”.

“To demand respect, you must first display self respect,” he said. “Today we have done just that, and the rest of the world can now sit up and take notice of the fact that our small nation, here on the western edge of the continent of Europe, has demonstrated pride in who we are, and what we all stand for…”

A No vote would have kept the current system where the assembly asked Parliament for powers to be transferred to Cardiff on a case-by-case basis.

Bravo!

The mother of a murdered teenage girl had called police 102 times to claim she was being abused by her father – but officers thought she was “over-reacting”, an inquiry has found.

Gary Fisher, 48, stabbed his 17-year-old daughter, Chanelle “Sasha” Jones 22 times in a car and then drove her lifeless body around for 10 hours before he was caught by police near her home town of Cardigan, West Wales.

A report by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) found that the victim’s mother, Jayne Jones, had reported concerns for her daughter’s welfare to Dyfed-Powys police on more than 100 occasions before she died. But despite Fisher’s history of violence going back to his teens – and him being wanted for a serious assault by another police force – officers failed to take the reports seriously.

Four officers are now facing disciplinary action within the force…

And that is expected to prevent a recurrence of ignorance and thoughtless practices?

One Pc who did take the allegations seriously failed to notice that Fisher had a police record and was wanted for a serious assault by another police force.

Despite the numerous failings, the IPCC concluded that no individual errors “had any impact on Fisher’s later actions when he murdered Sasha”…

Ms Jackie Roberts, Deputy Chief Constable of Dyfed Powys Police, said: “Firstly I would like to express my condolences to Sasha’s family for their sad loss.

This is followed by more predictable blather, blah-blah-blah and political rationale. Sounds as if all can be assured that little or nothing will be done to improve a flock of coppers obviously incapable of being useful to the community they police.

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

A British lawnmower has cut the world land speed record by reaching a new top speed of more than 86mph.

Rider Don Wales took the petrol driven mower into the record books at Pendine Sands, in west Wales.

The previous lawnmower land speed record was 80.792mph (130.022km/h) set in America – Mr Wales was recorded as reaching 86.069mph.

His team are now due to return to the same spot on Sunday in a bid to break the 100mph barrier…

Any of the motorised grass cutters taking part must also be built primarily from lawnmower parts…

American Bob Cleveland set the previous land speed record on a lawn-mower at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, and was present at Saturday’s run in Wales.

Bravo!

Squirrels could be put on the pill in a bid to decimate a colony of greys threatening Anglesey’s red population.

Grey squirrels on the island have almost been wiped out by a culling programme to protect the reds that are thriving after conservation efforts begun 11 years ago.

But greys in forests on the Gwynedd side of the Strait are using the Menai and Britannia bridges to cross the water.

Now conservation group Friends of Anglesey Red Squirrels has volunteered to trial a contraceptive drug to be placed in bait.

Dr Craig Shuttleworth from the squirrel group said: “Despite having the barrier of the Menai Strait, some grey squirrels are still making it across the bridges. Short of having guards there 24 hours a day there is not a lot we can do about it.

“Culling has been successful on the Anglesey side but there is less enthusiasm for that on the Gwynedd side, where there are large numbers of greys in forests near the Strait.

“If we can prevent the squirrels breeding there then this would be a good long-term solution for reducing numbers and be more publicly acceptable than culling.”

Having been on good terms with grey squirrels for a very long time, I take no joy in hearing of the squirrel wars, or the strategies used to deal with them. But, the public must be kept informed of world events, so here I go.

Captain Jack Harkness will sort this lot out!

While you may be sure Cardiff is the capital of Wales, Facebook users in the city were baffled after the social networking website put it in England.

People in Swansea, Wrexham and even the very Welsh sounding Llandrindod Wells were confused too as the location on their profile was also moved there. Over 8,000 users joined campaign groups demanding the locations on their profiles be returned to Wales.

Facebook blamed the problem on a bug and apologised…

Student Alex Smith said his friends had changed their location on their profiles to different Cardiffs elsewhere in the world as a protest.

Mr Smith, 18, said he had been a user of the site almost since it launched in 2004 and the problem had never happened before…

A spokesperson for Facebook said: “There was a bug causing this issue which has been fixed. We apologise to users who were affected.”

Let’s see. Facebook was founded by American college graduates. It’s maintained and run in the GOUSA.

Do you know anyone in the United States who knows squat about geography?

The couple in better days

A police force has apologised to a widow after officers gave her the rope her husband used to hang himself.

Angie Gerrelli found the blood-stained yellow tow rope in a sack of items returned after her estranged 50-year-old partner, John Gilmore, killed himself in a park in Barry, south Wales…

Recounting the time she discovered the grisly item, Ms Gerrelli told the Barry and District News: “I reached into the bag and took out the laptop, and then I saw yellow and realised what I had in my hand.

“I went to pieces – I just sunk to the floor. I dropped it and put my hands to my face.”

Officers from the force have been spoken to by superiors about their conduct in the matter.

Well, that will sort it all out, eh?

Click photo for interview

I find myself accused of a number of heinous acts including “infecting” Wales with GM, acting irresponsibly and possibly of breaking the law. Not bad for a Welsh peasant who simply wishes to try – with the support of the scientific community – to facilitate the introduction of a new and valuable technology into Welsh agriculture.

So what is the precise nature of my supposedly “ill-informed”, “illegal” and “irresponsible” behaviour? The seeds I planted are maize varieties on the EU’s “common list” of approved crops. As such, my legal advice is that it is lawful to plant them within the EU. But according to some of my detractors those rules apparently do not apply in Wales.

Then there is the charge that I have “infected Wales with GM“. With what I ask? Genetic modification is a process as opposed to a product and as such cannot be bought or sold any more than “keyhole surgery”. The analogy of GM technology as a contagion is simply false.

Have I removed consumer choice? Again, I believe not. That choice was taken away several decades ago – unless you choose to survive entirely on wild fruit and nuts. We are all either wearing or consuming plant products that have been bred using technology that involves artificially manipulating plant genes. I can’t think of a single crop plant in the UK that has not been bred by artificially mutating its genes using chemicals or radiation. The group of techniques that are commonly referred to as genetic manipulation are simply more precise and safer ways of doing the same thing…

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