Ryan Thomas

News Round-Up

I've been awfully busy recently. It's that time of year, trying to get everything in order before Christmas. Here is a round-up of the news relevant to Llanelli and Wales.

I’ve been awfully busy recently. It’s that time of year, trying to get everything in order before Christmas. Here is a round-up of the news relevant to Llanelli and Wales.

  • The Works project fell at the final hurdle when the County Council lost the lottery funding bid to fund the construction of the arts and cultural centre. I must congratulate the Council for using the bid to unite their selves with their constituents through creating such hype. To be fair though, I don’t think the project deserved to win because of questions to do with it’s sustainability and that a large theatre (comparable with Thetre Elli) was not included in the plans.

  • Wales drew with Germany (0 - 0) away, restoring some national pride and boosting the confidence of the national football team players.

  • The Scarlets’ New Stadium has finally been given the go ahead. The revised plans show that the capacity will be less than the original design due to financial constraints. There are already calls for the stadium to be named in memory of Ray Gravell.

  • I missed the annual Llanelli Christmas Carnival but I’m sure it went well. I have read that the Round Table were disappointed that there were so few floats. We should be more ready to display some community spirit and be enthusiastic about entering floats into the Carnival.

  • I spent this last weekend in Cardiff, attending the Welsh Labour Youth and Students Conference. It was a really interesting but poorly attended events. There were a number of high-profile speakers including the Rt. Hon. Rhodri Morgan. I was encouraged by the enthusiasm of the delegates to spread the Labour cause and their ideas for campaigns to take to the Welsh Assembly. By the way, we went into the City after the Rugby match finished. Cardiff has such a great atmosphere on a match day.

  • The debate about a Welsh symbol on the Union flag has resurfaced again. I am of the strong opinion that if the Westminster government does not reform to be more democratic and representative of the United Kingdom and Wales, the Union will split. On the other hand, I believe that the House of Lords in currently more representative than the House of Commons at the moment.

  • Adam Price MP continues to add substance to Abraham Lincoln’s proverb:

“It’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”

Hope this was not too concise.