Thursday 16 December 2010

Holyhead Coastguard to close

The UK Government today announced that the Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Holyhead, better known as Holyhead Coastguard, will be closed in 2014/15 as part of a complete modernisation of the HM Coastguard service. You can read the full consultation document here.

I had written to the Secretary of State for Transport and stressed the important work carried out by the Holyhead Coastguard, along with the serious jobs situation in Anglesey and Holyhead in particular. While it is very saddening to learn that the station will close, I have been reassured that this change will not affect the front-line services carried out by volunteer Coastguards or the RNLI and that there will be no fall in the provision or standard of service to the North Wales coastline, which remains the most important factor.

The proposed closure of Holyhead Coastguard will not take place until 2014/15 and some staff will have the opportunity to transfer to better paid roles within the Coastguard. I will be making further representations to both the UK Government and to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to ensure that everything possible is done to help all the current staff. If you would like to speak to me in more detail regarding this announcement or the consultation into the modernisation of the HM Coastguard service, please get in touch via the 'contact me' section above.

UPDATE: Following careful consideration of the consultation documents I do not believe that the MCA have put forward a credible case for the closure of Holyhead Coastguard. Their proposals make no allowance for the Welsh language, no allowance for the difficulties non-Welsh speakers face understanding Welsh place names, and no allowance for Holyhead's proximity to the RAF's UK Search and Rescue Headquarters at RAF Valley. For these reasons I don't understand the MCA's logic in wanting to close Holyhead ahead of other stations for example.

I have now raised these concerns with Nick Bourne AM, the Leader of the Welsh Conservatives, and we agree that the emphasis absolutely must be put on safety and have decided to seek a meeting with the Minister responsible as soon as possible in order to put the case for retaining the Coastguard at Holyhead.

53 comments:

Anonymous said...

Never mind the Consultation. It's a done job.

Anonymous said...

Is Rebecca filming in Holyhead?

Anonymous said...

Sioni Sgubor-fawr is filming in the port..

kp said...

Keep out of it mate, no-one wants your input. If jobs must go they must go.

Concentrate your efforts on providing a better business framework for private business on this island. This means, reduce taxes at every opportunity, get rid of interfering bureaucracy, dramatically and speedily improve the education system and implement a single international language policy for business.

Anything else you do is just pointless 'politics'!

Anonymous said...

Druid said "and some staff will have the opportunity to transfer to better paid roles within the Coastguard."

This is corporate-speak pure and simple. A minimal number of senior officers will be given the ability to upsticks & re-locate along with a healthy relocation allowance to help them sell their home and purchase another along with removal fees etc. (What they won't be allowed to do is commute and claim expenses).

For the rank and file it will be the dole queue - but onl;y provided they've spent their redundancy money and they aren't receiving their pension early.

But we're all in this together

Anonymous said...

KP - This means, reduce taxes at every opportunity

Said they day after Osborne stated that the rise in VAT is permanent. Therefore tax reduction is no longer Tory policy.

But we're all in this together.

Anonymous said...

I googled 'coastguards to close' in order to find a list and saw that this blog was fifth in the list of 5, 480,000 results


Congrats Druid and someone get Iolo another ounce of Laudanum. He'll need it to cheer up when he reads this!

Anonymous said...

Kitchen Porter.
We don't need another inversilic lecture from you, thank you.
Keep it out.

kp said...

If you don't want another lecture I suggest you do something useful .....

Research fact and act!

Anonymous said...

kp said...

Keep out of it mate, no-one wants your input. If jobs must go they must go.

Concentrate your efforts on providing a better business framework for private business on this island. This means, reduce taxes at every opportunity, get rid of interfering bureaucracy, dramatically and speedily improve the education system and implement a single international language policy for business.

Anything else you do is just pointless 'politics'!

16 December 2010 21:30

Paul is running for the Assembly, where taxation and bureacraucy isn't decided- though education is.

On taxes, the Tory VAT increase is not good for consumers and small firms. They didn't have to raise VAT. They could have made further savings in defence, or if you want to target bloated bureacracy they shouldn't have ringfenced the NHS in England, that would free up enough money to keep VAT down and help the private sector recovery.

Why are Conservatives raising taxes and funding an incredibly bloated NHS anyway!?

Anonymous said...

Anon 22 17
(Ad Nauseum)


"But we're all in this together"


Everytime I spot this juvenile jibe I'll be posting.

"Yes, because of the criminal incompetence of Gordon Brown and the Labour Party"

An Eye On... said...

Anon @12:16

"But we're all in this together"

Everytime I spot this juvenile jibe I'll be posting.



I'm glad you find the repeated mantra of Cameron & Osborne juvenile. Most of what that pair say is so well done you for recognising it as such.

They were (and still are) either deliberately lying or telling the truth - which one do you think it is?

Anonymous said...

The truth.

But I wouldn't expect you, of all people, to recognise it though.

An Eye On... said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
An Eye On... said...

In fact, I shall be joining the others and inserting it as and where I can from now on just to keep you busy.

After all, we're all in this together.

Anonymous said...

Given your mindset on show here I wouldn't expect you to do anything other than be bolshie!!

How's the revolution coming along by the way. Regained a few of the countries lost to democracy and murdered a few million more of your own citiizens yet?

:-)

An Eye On... said...

Showing your political naivity there Anon.

You are of course trying to insinuate that the regimes in the east were Communist when in fact they were state corporatist (fascist) and in fact China still is. The move through socialism towards communism stopped with the death of Lenin - if it ever started at all.

I suppose you're also the same anon that keeps referring to the Council in Llangefni as a 'bunch of commies' when in fact there isn't a socialist in there. The Labour councillors are New Labour which anyone who knows anything about politics knows are actually right- of-centre and follow right wing neo-liberal economic philosophy - the same economic philosophy of Thatcher and Cameron.

Anonymous said...

"I suppose you're also the same anon.."

You suppose wrongly.

Again.

And the shite about those countries not being commies doesn't wear with anyone* outside your little bubble which means that no amount of dressing it up in gobbelydook will impress.It gets less impressive evertime you trundle it out (most weeks)


* i. e - most of the population.

An Eye On... said...

And therein you just reinforce your naivity. It is brutally apparent that you don't actually know what 'communism' is or means nor I wager the differences between communism and socialism.

So as a little challenge to see how bright you are, name one true communist country that follows or has followed communist philosophy now or in the past. (I'll give you a clue - don't bother looking on this planet).

It gets less impressive evertime you trundle it out (most weeks) I've never discussed the philosophies of communism and the various forms of socialism on here before. So you are prone to fantasism as well.

Anonymous said...

Wow, such a lot of isms. This Red Flag must be good. I'd back off if I was you Anon 13.52.You'll never win against these self styled know-alls. Wouldn't be surprised if another one didn't come along. Can't miss them. They register themselves with a name and them type reams and reams of unfathomable gobbelydook shite to try and appear knowledgable and baboozle you.

BTW Anon. You're dead right. It's only these weirdoes that go this deep. Everyone else know those countries as commies.Even the countries themselves.

An Eye On... said...

The use of the tag Red Flag actually refers to Liverpool FC - something that has been discussed before. If it were for political reasons the avatar wopuld be a direct contradiction would it not. Unless you were attempting to link it to George Washington's beliefs on a nation or Lenin's phrase of every nation having the right to self-determination.

Being as it's silly season I'll really confuse you. I have a blood relative who was a Tory councillor, another who was a Plaid councillor and another who was head of Manchester CND. Amongst my friends and aquaintances are Col Bob Stewart MP (tory), Col Patrick Mercer MP (tory) and the former MP Phil Woolas (formerly New Labour)and Cllr Howard Sykes (Lib Dem). I started voting in 1976 and have voted at every single opportunity at every level since then - even by proxy when I was living abroad - but I've only voted Labour once. I know an awful lot about political creeds from all sides (I've even met that one-eyed joker Nick Griffin twice - but I suspect he would rather not remember it.)

And anon 15:16, these last couple of posts have been the only ones where I've ever discussed political philosophy to this degree. This has come about due to the other anon's sulkinmg over people taking the piss out of Cameron and Osborne over their silly statement of 'We're all in this together' - a statement which that well known extreme left wing rag The Financial Times branded a throughly ridiculous statement that was destined to haunt them for years.

But not to worry - Pickles has out done them with his claims yesterday that the spending cuts will not lead to any job losses or services reductions in local authorities. Yes, that's what he said.

Overweight, prone to making ridiculous statements and occupying the Office of Deputy Prime Minister. Must be part of the job description. Wonder how many Jags he's got?

Anonymous said...

I see what you mean Anon 15 16. Thanks for the insight.

Truly a legend in his own lunchtime.

Anonymous said...

"Wow, such a lot of isms."

I went back and counted. Three I made it that Red Flag used - Communism, Socialism and fantasism (is that actually a word?). Three is hardly a lot unless you are thick - or an aborigine. I believe in aboriginal they only have 'one, two, many'. And I must say I tend to agree with Red Flag - he rarely goes into political doctrines and other than this chain, I don't recall ever before and this does seem to be revolving around he and others taking the mickey out of what Cameron stupidly said at the Conservative conference in 2009 and one anon spitting his dummy out over it. As for him hiding behind a name, I seem to recall a couple of weeks back someone else said that and he promptly posted all his details and called everyone's bluff to do likewise. Former soldier and works in the port I recall.

An Eye On... said...

Anon - With recall like that you should join a pub quiz team.

Anonymous said...

Red Flag

Have a look on wikipedia for sockpuppet and then consider the posting at 16.24

Prometheuswrites said...

@ the anon political critics:
A question - What was it Marx theorised would happen to 'the state' in a truly communist country?

The answer to this will belie any notion that the the USSR or the countries of the Warsaw pact were ever running under anything other than totalitarian state capitalism.

Red Flag: In answer to your question I'd nominate The Free Territory of Ukraine at the time of The Makhnovists 1918-20:
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestor_Machno)
and Anarchist Catalonia (July 21, 1936–February 10, 1939):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchist_Catalonia

The problem both these proto-societies faced was constant attack from the armies of both the right and the left wing.
The Red and White Russian Armies in the case of the Ukraine; and the Spanish Nationalists and the Stalinist backed Communists during the Spanish civil war.

BTW. The answer to my question is 'The Withering Away of the State' - something that did patently not happen in the Eastern Bloc - ergo either they were not really communist countries or Marx was wrong in this respect (the withering away bit) - both answers would seem to be correct but the second gets my vote, as he failed to account for the 'will to power' that dwells in the heart of human nature.

Anonymous said...

I'm the Anon who said

"Yes, because of the criminal incompetence of Gordon Brown and the Labour Party"

and if that means I'm sulking or spittin my dummy out then call me Lord Sulky of SulkyTown, Sulkyshire. No 1 in the Spitting the Dummy Out race.

It still wont change the fact that Gordo and the rest were incompetent criminals.

By the way my name is John and I work on the farm.I used to be an Fireman and was in the French Foreign Legion. Just as recognisable as Andy who works on the docks.

Can anyone tell me if Wikipedias reputation for being correct has improved of late? It used to be atrocious. Just asking.

Prometheuswrites said...

Lord Sulky of SulkyTown: :)

Wikipedia is what Wikipedia is:
Pretty good at the science based stuff and geography and great for music references.
Mediocre (gaps in the literature)at history and politics.
And presumably crap at celebrities and fashion going by the press reports.

If in doubt about the info on Wiki I would recommend the library, (if we still have any left).

John, could you post as 'John' or make up some pretentious pen name (like mine) - that way we'll know who we're all talking/writing to.

PS. I Don't think any of us are disagreeing with you about G. Browns atrocious management of the economy, just the political description of him as being left wing. :)

PPS. Do you happen to know Lord Funky of Funkytown (not in Wikipedia) ;)

Anonymous said...

The Red Flag said...

far to much as usual....

zzzzzzzzzzzzz

An Eye On... said...

French Foreign Legion - Did you know Les Roque from Stockport in 2nd REP? (now living in Antrim?) Good mate of mine.

And also M'Lud Sulky, I don't care what you think about Brown. Or Blair for that matter - feel free to slag them far and wide, I do.. Like I said, I only voted Labour once in dozens of elections at all levels from 76 to now. I happen to think both of them were tossers and any description of them being left wing is taking the piss quite frankly.

Promethues - You have a valid point regarding Free Ukraine, however the benchmark is surely that Marx said it could only come about through advanced industrial nations and Russia was agricultural and therefore failed at the first hurdle. China was really just the Emporer in different clothes.

And anon, I don't see what the link is between me, the anon at 16:24 and sockpuppets?



Wait for it ...........After all, we're all in this together.

the outsider said...

talking about all being in this together, didn't I read that the Druids family run a pub - maybe the pub quiz is not such a bad idea!

An Eye On... said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
An Eye On... said...

@the outsider said...

Hurrah!! Trebles all round and the last one standing's a wimp.

We're all at the bar together!

Prometheuswrites said...

Red Flag: You're such a wag, (in the witty sense, not the football or political sense).

Re: Marx and industrialised societies. Good point. (However I'm not a Marxist as you may have gathered from my references) :)
And Spain was reasonably industrialised and Russia became so - not well, it should be said, but then again they were spending a lot on armaments in the race with the USA for M.A.D.

An Eye On... said...

Tell you what Prom, you liking the written word and all. Read this. I'm going to get this printed on a T Shirt. What's even more remarkable than the power of the words is the fact that it's a US President (Obama) that said them. It's about terrorism and it's marvellously refreshing stuff.

"We took this country by terror away from the Sioux, the Apache, the Iroquois, the Comanche, the Arapaho, the Navajo. Terrorism. We took Africans from their country to build our way of ease and kept them enslaved and living in fear. Terrorism. We bombed Grenada and killed innocent civilians, babies, non-military personnel; we bombed the black civilian community of Panama, with stealth bombers, and killed unarmed teenagers and toddlers, pregnant mothers and hard-working fathers. We’ve bombed Gaddafi’s home and killed his child. “Blessed are they who bash your children’s heads against the rocks.” We bombed Iraq; we killed unarmed civilians trying to make a living. We bombed a plant in Sudan to pay back an attack on our embassy. Killed hundreds of hard-working people, mothers and fathers who left home to go that day, not knowing that they would never get back home. We’ve bombed Hiroshima, we’ve bombed Nagasaki, we’ve nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye. Kids playing in the playground, mothers picking up children after school, civilians not soldiers, people just trying to make it day by day. We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant. Because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back into our own front yards."

the outsider said...

whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap....

oh yes and
early to bed, early to rise!

Worldstrap said...

Les Roque. Yes good one that. I presume your Army monicker was Les Diqued!! :-)


"feel free to slag them far and wide,"

I did and you promptly jumped in all defensive leading to these exchanges. Make you mind up.

"I don't see what the link is between me, the anon at 16:24 and sockpuppets?"

You really do need to catch up with insults.

Do you like my new name. Might sound familiar?

Prometheuswrites said...

Red Flag:
Fascinating quote from Obama. Do you have a reference for it? It doesn't sound like something he's said since becoming Predident.

PS. Does anyone know what strap-on man is talking about?

An Eye On... said...

Les Roque His name is Lesley Roque., He served in The Cheshire Regiment from 78 to the early 80's, then 2REP, then 5UDR in Ulster. Just because his name appears french does not mean it is a piss-take. And in fact he wasn't the only Les Roque that we had. We had another but he died in a firearms accident in Bosnia.

I did and you promptly jumped in all defensive leading to these exchanges. Is pure nonsense. I don't stick up for either Blair or Brown and never have. One is a liar and the other a buffoon.

The reason we are having this exchange ois not as you state, it is because you got upset about me and a couple of other people taking the piss out of what Cameron said. You stated "Everytime I spot this juvenile jibe I'll be posting."

As for your name - other than it's some sort of securing device for a pushbike to a car it means nothing.

Dilwyn D'oh said...

Yes yes Red Flag, whatever you say about Les Rock.

Opinionated people with a high regard for their utterances like yourself(and me)just don't materialise on 'new' blogs like this. They are usually to be found spouting their invaluable insights on other blogs. I doubt whether you are Red Flag on those. Your style and ficticious backstory is familiar though.

As for Obamas quote. Why not get if printed on a headband? Print point 24 should do.... with some room left over for the Old Testament


The band would be big enough.

Have a nice Nadolig. See you in the New Year.

yours affecionately
Dil D'oh

An Eye On... said...

Dilwyn D'oh said...

E-mail me on AndyTSSA@aol.com. I will provide you with stuff backing up everything I have said - photographs, links to newspapers etc etc

It's no big deal and by way of apology for calling it fictitious you can make a donation to the Royal British Legion.

And yes I do write on other blogs but this is the only political one.

Prom - the Obama quote is from his book - 'Thoughts From My Father' or sometyhing like that

the outsider said...

Red Flag.

You may be interested to read Pirates and Emperors - International Terrorism in the Real World by Noam Chomsky it details many terrorist acts the USA state has committed and pre-dates anything Obama has said.

Promo. you would also be interested, and may indeed have read some of Chomsky's other books about linguistics and semantics, his analysis of the use of language by politicians is insightful.

I had the privilege of meeting Chomsky some years ago when making a programme about terrorism. The programme was censored,(it was made at the time when secret talks were being held between John Major's Govn and Sinn Fein/IRA in the long run up to the Good Friday agreement. We used material that illustrated the work N.I. Secretary Patrick Mayhew was doing, and an excellent interview with Gerry Adams etc) but it was finally transmitted, after being pulled from the schedule 3 times, at about 1pm.

Mayhew was an inspired choice by Major, and they both deserve more credit than they have had thus far, for the progress they made towards peace in the north (of Ireland).

Mayhew gave a lot of behind the scenes help to his successor Mo Molam. But Blair, true to form, took all the credit!

Coincidentally many years later I sold a horse to Mr Mayhew, strange what a small world we live in.

Prometheuswrites said...

Red Flag: Thanks for the pointer - I've come up with:

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. 1995.

I'll be looking forward to the Druid's 2025 book "Stories from my Blog" :)

Prometheuswrites said...

Outsider:

I've read some of Chomsky's works on linguistics and I'm dead jealous that you've met him.

There's a series of excellent videos of Chomsky talking politics (The ReasonParty web-site is good).
I recommend this one as a starter for those blog readers who seem to think Adam Smith was an advocate of free-trade capitalism:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el1CdxiDo6M&feature=related

Thank you for reminding me.

An Eye On... said...

Outsider - Just ordered it from Amazon. When you take the roads into consideration and the Xmas period I look forward to receiving it some time around Easter!!

Prom - Yes that's the one. Good youtube link as well.

Prometheuswrites said...

Red Flag: Re: Obama's book: Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. 1995.

The quote you have posted is, I believe, from his preacher Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.

Check out this report, which makes for interesting reading. It's a dissection of the soundbites used by the press, (in the furore during the US election about Obama having been a member of his congegation), and then a comparison with the full excerpt of what was really said.

http://theladnerreportblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/rev-jeremiah-wrights-words-sound-bite.html

An Eye On... said...

This is very interesting Prom. I have re-checked and indeed it doesn't appear in Obama's book. It appears in an essay regarding the influence that the Pastor had on Obama.

Still a cracking quote though and apparently it had a big impact on Obama

Prometheuswrites said...

RF:
I guess if one was was a republican then the sound-bites would go against the grain; if democrat then par for the course, though it pushes the envelop further than US mainstream media would go.

The full extracts given on the web-site, I thought, tended more towards civil liberties/social revolutionary rhetoric, as expressed from the pulpit.

However we stray off topic.

An Eye On... said...

We've been straying off topic for the last couple of days on this thread methinks.

Incidentally, if you are a red wine man get thee to Morrisons. They've got a Chateau Neuf du Pape at 50% off and a decent St Emillion.

Very nice they are as well. Had to convince her indoors that for pre-Xmas research I had to assess both.

Cheers!

PromoW said...

RF: I'm virtually teetotal, (I do have a fondness for the (very) occassional wee dram of fine single malts) - so if you come across anywhere selling bottles of Lagavulin at 50% off then post it up here. :)

the outsider said...

I see free speech has transmuted into speakeasy!

Prometheuswrites said...

A search of google for 'Wylfa - evactuation - plans' gives 179 hits.

Only one is an official document directly mentioning an evacuation plan. Noticable is the Irish Government's web-site that does address an emergency plan to address any potential problems at Wlyfa. According to a Greenpeace review the Local Authorities should have a statutory plan for nuclear facilities, (under H&S). I believe the iodine tablets are kept at Amlwch police station.

The relevent document is the public consultation summary which gives a wide range of opinions both pro and against. (including entries from IoACC councillors)

The document is called:
Strategic Siting Assessment for New Nuclear Power Stations:
Opportunity to Comment on Site Nominations
15 April 09 to 14 May 09
Responses by site: Wylfa

And the reference to the evactuation plan is on page 7. User ID:186

http://data.energynpsconsultation.decc.gov.uk/documents/report/wylfa.pdf

Anonymous said...

I recall making a distress call to HM Coastguards and in this instance the response time was absolutely critical.

To cut a long story short, this guy would have died if the rescue was co-ordinated from anywhere other than Holyhead.

Local knowledge of an area is paramount and the language barrier and accents will prove to be a problem if the "Call Centre" is moved to Scotland for example.

Apparently, RAF 22 Squadron cannot take off without clearance from RAF Kinross in Scotland.

Lug