Robert Lloyd - a Sir Gar Blog of random news . . . and some Clecs!

Artist and blogger Isobel Williams will present a richly illustrated public lecture in the Department of Law and Criminology at Aberystwyth University, on Wednesday 22nd April at 18.15, discussing her experiences of drawing from the public seats in the Supreme Court. Why does she do it, and how did she get there? Isobel’s copiously illustrated talk describes how sketching people under the A40 and at the Occupy protest camps led her to the highest court in the land. She will include her thoughts and pictures from Nicklinson, the 'right-to-die' case heard at the Supreme Court. The event will be held in room EM 1.21, Elystan Morgan Building , in Aberystwyth University’s Llanbadarn Centre. This event is open to all, with no pre-booking required. Further information about Isobel Williams can be found here; http://www.isobelwilliams.org.uk Aberystwyth University www.aber.ac.uk

Autism campaigner Tom Nasmyth-Shaw was the guest speaker at the weekly meeting of Llanelli Rotary Club held at the Stradey Park Hotel. Tom explained about his "life-changing" experience sleeping on the streets of London for a week to help families affected by autism. Tom, from Burry Port, decided to sleep rough in the capital to support the cause after his four-year-old son Jack was diagnosed with autism. After months of fund-raising, Tom jumped on a Paddington-bound train armed with just warm clothes, his phone, a stab vest, and a sleeping bag. He told Rotarians: The experience was mentally draining and overwhelming. There were a couple of times when I wanted to give up, but I didn't." During the week living rough on the streets of London, Tom kept a blog and tweeted about his experiences. It was his first night that proved to be the most dramatic. After bedding down in a doorway in Victoria, Tom had a rude awakening by a man standing over him. The conversation t...

Been a manic couple of days. Normal service about to resume.

The much-debated libel case in the High Court - Jacqui Thompson v Mark James and vice versa - made it into The Times last week. Wednesday saw The Times devote a leading article (comment) to the case. The Times operates behind a paywall on the internet, so for the benefit of those who missed it (or don't have access rights) here is the article. State versus Citizen Carmarthenshire council is behaving with arrogance and defensiveness A chunk of West Wales has decamped to the High Court in London, where it has been filling out Court 14 in an expensive libel trial, partly funded by taxpayers. It is a case that has its origins in two decisions — made three years apart by Carmarthenshire council — concerning Mrs Jacqui Thompson, a woman apparently as welcome to council leaders as chicken pox is to a primary school. In 2011 Mrs Thompson, a long-term critic of the council, began to film sessions of the planning committee, using the camera on her mobile phone. Someone in officialdom de...

BBC News - Carmarthenshire blogger libel case judgement reserved Judgement has been reserved in a case in which a blogger and a council chief are suing each other for libel. Lawyers representing Jacqui Thompson told the High Court her case was one of "state versus citizen". She is suing Carmarthenshire chief executive Mark James and the council. He denies libel and is counter-suing, Lawyers for Mr James said she carried out a "wholly improper" campaign. Mr Justice Tugendhat reserved judgement until an unspecified later date.

Carmarthenshire Planning Problems and more : As I have reported countless times on this blog, Carmarthenshire Council has a real problem dealing with negative stories in the local press. I'm sure the same goes for the national press too but they're the bigger boys and will not succumb so easily to threats. I raised this issue only the other day (The question of editorial control again). The Western Mail reports on the latest attempt at 'blackmail' against one of our smaller local papers, the South Wales Guardian. More on Caebrwyn blog . . .

Borthlas: More to the olympics than gold The opinion poll finding that most people in Wales think that the Olympics will be of no benefit to Wales is hardly a surprise. It would be a bit like an opinion poll finding that the majority of people believe the world to be round. Whilst there’s always a minority whose beliefs fly in the face of the objective evidence, most of us are willing to believe that which is factually evidenced. More interesting though would have been the supplementary question which appears not to have been asked, and that is whether the UK should still be staging the Games regardless of the question of economic benefit.  There is a sort of assumption that ‘no benefit’ leads automatically to ‘don’t do’.  That doesn’t only apply to the Games, of course; but I’d challenge the assumption. More on the Borthlas blog  . . .

Carmarthenshire Planning Problems and more: A chat with the Wales Audit Office I ventured out into the monsoon this morning to have a meeting with the Wales Audit Office. For those who have been following things, the WAO preferred to discuss the matter in person prior to writing a reply. The matter is of course, the use of your money (Carmarthenshire taxpayers) to fund the Chief Executive's counterclaim for libel. So armed with some general questions, and acting strictly on behalf of the taxpayer,  I headed down the M4 to a bleak looking business park/Industrial estate on the outskirts of Swansea. More on the blog . . .

Splendid weekend - now back to work! Blogging about to resume.

Y Cneifiwr: Joined at the hip There are very strict rules governing petitions in Carmarthenshire. Councillors may not debate them. Only the relevant member of the Executive Board may comment on them, and only if they so wish. Since 99.9% of all petitions will be critical of some aspect or other of what the council is doing, the Executive Board member's comments invariably involve defending the council's position. Things were different in the case of Ffwrnes (school), where objectors have made the chief executive, Mark James, very, very angry. So this time, in the full glare of the cameras, out went the executive member responsible for Education and Children's Services, Gwynne Wooldridge, and the shaven-headed Director of Education, Robert Sully, himself. The gruesome pair then surrounded themselves with small children and had their pictures taken, probably while some lowly official was employed peeling onions off camera. This is only the latest example of the increasingly b...

Y Cneifiwr : 'via Blog this' Don't know enough about this issue to take sides, but there's an interesting read on the blog written by 'Y Cneifiwr'. It's all about Carmarthenshire Council links with churches.

Carmarthenshire Planning Problems and more: The Council 'Minutes'....and no mention of Jacqui?! : Extract from Caebrwyn blog - Further to this post (on Jacqui Thompson's blog) 'No round of applause for Jacqui' , I noticed, with some excitement, that the Minutes of the meeting (Full Council 9th November) were finally published this afternoon. As you may imagine I was waiting to see, under Item 2, Apologies and Personal Matters, the little announcement that was made by Cllr Caiach about my blog award win, preserved in Council records for posterity. Just in case my eyes were deceiving me, I checked several times before I realised, that there was...er... not a mention. Not even a carefully worded summary!