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Reply | The Home Office and the hotels budget
at 08:52 27 Oct 2025
It’s a scandalous situation. People need to be held to account. I’m not surprised contract management was abysmal has the HO isn't fit for purpose, it’s been nothing short of a shamble for years, probation service reform, police reform, Bail Act changes are other examples.
I think it’s worth pointing out that these deals were agreed under by the previous Conservative government.
It’s also worth pointing out that some of the companies involved in providing the accommodation have connections with and have made donations to the Conservative Party either through the company, owner or director.s. [Post edited 27 Oct 8:55]
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Reply | Government Contracts for Party Donors
at 18:37 26 Oct 2025
It’s highly likely that some of the companies who donate will always pick up contracts, for example 3 of the 4 big accountants made donations but the reality is there aren’t many companies who can probably have the size to do the work.
Government and public sector contracts are subject to strict procurement processes and competitive tender, I’m not saying they’re infallible but the processes should be robust. The real issue for me is when contracts are awarded outside the rules and governance structures, for example the Covid contracts via the VIP lane.
According to the Guardian, the Autonomy Institute identified a total of 125 companies that were awarded central government contracts worth £28.8bn after previously making £30.15m of donations to a political party. About £2.5bn worth of those contracts were awarded within two years of the donation.
The consultancy firm “Baringa Partners, who donated £30,061.50 to Labour in January 2024 and received £35,196,719 worth of government contracts between July 2024 and March this year. Grant Thornton donated £81,658.37 between March 2023 and July 2024 (when Labour weren’t even in power) and has since been awarded £6,541,819 in contracts.”
“However, the vast bulk of the contracts – £25.4bn – were awarded under previous Conservative governments to Conservative donors. They include Randox Laboratories and Globus Shetland, both of which were offered contracts during the Covid pandemic.”
The big issue for me is stepping outside proper process, think Covid VIP lane, Mone etc, MP’s lobbying on behalf companies, Patterson who was alleged to have acted as a lobbyist for Randox and even worse Boris who tried to change the rules after the Standards Investigation. |
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Reply | Caerphilly by-election
at 14:42 25 Oct 2025
Most of the people who’ve come here under the National of Sanctuary scheme were Ukrainian, I think 90% of the £55m that was spent was spent on Ukrainians. It’s also worth nothing that some of that money was given by the EU. |
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Reply | Cardiff Rugby
at 14:39 25 Oct 2025
It’s unreal. I nearly choked when I read “ We now look forward to exploring the wider detail and working collaboratively to help shape the future of professional rugby in Wales as we approach our 150th anniversary season.”
Cardiff Rugby is a new entity that’s been around for 20 odd years, Cardiff RFC are the club who’ve been around almost a century and a half. When the WRU set up the Super Club Rugby competition a couple of years ago, 10 teams applied, 9 were successful including 3 from the Ospreys region Aberavon, Bridgend and Swansea. Neath applied but were rejected.
Cardiff RFC (along with Pontypridd and Merthyr the latter being 2 of the most successful clubs in the last 7 or 8 seasons) decided they weren’t going to apply and the 3 teams held out against the competition. After Neath were bombed out, the league was 1 team short so the WRU reopened the application process, this time Neath and Cardiff applied - guess who got the place? Yes Cardiff, whole thing IMHO stinks.
If the West goes down to 1 team, in terms of the facilities the team should be based at PYS because it will be a better ground than ST Helens which will be half its size, BUT in terms of financial muscle, businesses, Swansea and Neath and Port Talbot which would be more closely aligned are much bigger than Llanelli. The current Scarlets region is supposed to draw on West Wales, but even then I don’t think they’d have the financial muscle.
Kicking the can down the road doesn’t help anyone, let’s be honest if you were the Ospreys or one of their benefactors would you redevelop St Helens now knowing the Os could be dead and buried in a year or 2.
Can the clubs call a motion of no confidence in the WRU officials? |
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Reply | Caerphilly by-election
at 14:15 25 Oct 2025
You are right about U.K. infrastructure project management needing a review because many of the projects have over run, cost many times what they initially should have, but Drakeford was offered a relief road by Boris and the U.K.Westminster government and rejected the offer- that was in my opinion stupid and unforgivable. I know people living in Newport and they besides themselves on account of the congestion.
Wales needs a good infrastructure to promote and deliver growth, the M4 relief road should have been a critical component of that strategy. Just look at what’s happening around Bristol, it’s booming. |
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Reply | Caerphilly by-election
at 14:08 25 Oct 2025
There are issues which have caused the current Labour regime in the Senedd to become unpopular, things like the 20mph speed limit, Vaughan Gething’s expenses, lack of a relief road around Newport to name but 3, but we’ll have to disagree about immigration being the main issue.
I don’t think it matters how many of Caerphilly’s population was born outside the U.K., immigration and the small boats issue has become the main cause of concern for a significant number of people in the U.K. Social Media and the main stream media are continuously featuring articles on arrival numbers. My mother is in her 80’s, lives in an overwhelmingly white area and is not impacted by immigration, but it’s something that’s she raises in conversation continually as a result of watching certain tv channels and reading certain newspapers.
Immigration and net immigration have for the last 4 or 5 years been at unprecedented levels and that’s the major issue for lots of people. |
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Reply | Senedd election 2026
at 06:30 24 Oct 2025
Labour deserve to be “wiped out” at the polls next May for their abject performance, but extending the vote to 16 year olds is far more democratic than trying to disenfranchise a vast number of electorate who don’t have photographic id on the pretext of clamping down on voter fraud when voter fraud wasn’t even an issue. [Post edited 25 Oct 14:44]
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Reply | Caerphilly by-election
at 06:26 24 Oct 2025
Labour have got what they deserve.
A quote from a BBC article - “Labour First Minister Eluned Morgan said the by-election had been conducted in the "toughest of circumstances and in the midst of difficult headwinds nationally", adding that the party heard people’s frustrations on the doorstep.”
Morgan needs to wake up, smell the coffee, saddle up and get the ….. out of Dodge.
I’ve no doubt that trying to run Wales which has more older people who cost more to care for, more social depravation etc against a background of a Conservative government in London reducing resources will be difficult, BUT her party is guilty of failing to read the room and making some pretty disastrous decisions in the form of the 20mph limit, the increase in politicians and the lack of a relief road around Newport for starters.
The Conservatives also had a disastrous night, their vote was down to 2%.
There’s a little no way to go before next May, but it’ll be interesting to see the reaction in London. I expect we’ll see a much bigger focus on immigration from Labour because that’s the main issue for lots of people. |
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Reply | British troops found not guilty of 1972 “ killing”
at 22:57 23 Oct 2025
Justice is devolved in Northern Ireland, they have their own Director Of Public Prosecution and they also have their own version of the CPS called Public Prosecution Service. All this kicked off on the back of Lord Saville’s review about 8 years ago. The case was dropped at 1 point, but then resurrected after legal proceedings and here we are today with the judge criticising the PPS and the merits of the case.
I suspect there have been lots of political agendas being played out behind the scenes. Many of the people in our last government were very critical of what has happened, but they never prevented Soldier F from being prosecuted and I dare say they would sight the independent of the judiciary etc for not interfering. I reckon Soldier F has been put in this position of events being allowed to run their course so that justice can be seen to have been done and the facts tested in a court of law. That way, no one has to make the tough call that would alienated half of NI, but Soldier F has in all honesty been put through the wringer. Whether we like the law or not, cases should stand or fall based on the available evidence and this one seems to have come up well short. |
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Reply | Senedd election 2026
at 18:01 23 Oct 2025
The Nation of Sanctuary scheme has cost £55m over 6 years ( March 2019 to March 2025) and some of the money has come from the EU even though we are no longer a member.
Most of the individuals assisted by the “Nation of Sanctuary” scheme were actually Ukrainian refugees who left the Ukraine after the Russian invasion. They would have arrived here legally.
I’m not condoning illegal migration for 1 minute, but the numbers arriving by boat is less that 5% of the total number arriving in the U.K.
Of the 1,218,000 immigrants who came to the UK in 2023, only 126,000 were citizens of EU member states. |
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Reply | British troops found not guilty of 1972 “ killing”
at 17:47 23 Oct 2025
TBH I don’t think anyone envisaged a situation arising where soldiers were going to be prosecuted 50 plus years after the event, but the point you make is good.
To my mind, a line should have been drawn at the time of the GFA and this matter finalised along with all the other atrocities, that said it would have been a hard sell to the families of the victims, but no harder than the sell to the families (including the relatives of service personnel) who saw loved ones perish at the hands of the Republicans and the Loyalist terrorists,
It think it’s worth pointing out that Soldier F was charged in 2019, the case was then booted out in 2019, resurrected following appeal in 2022 and finalised in 2025. How on earth can these things drag on for so long. |
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Reply | Budget Speculation - Part Deux 2025
at 21:48 21 Oct 2025
Some really good points being made in this thread.
There’s a huge waiting list for neurodiverse assessments and a lot of it is being fuelled by the benefits claim culture. ADHD can be a golden key to benefits, some children need the assessments and support but others don't and some parents are seeing it as an opportunity to extract someone else’s hard earned tax in benefits.
On the other hand, I’ve recently had some professional dealings with a 3 or 4 of guys who’ve had pretty poor upbringings, struggled academically, been cut adrift from school etc, social skill deficiencies, got in a bit of bother with the law and spent time doing bird. They’ve come out and been assessed properly and they’re all well up on the spectrum, if they’d have been identified maybe their lives wouldn’t have gone the way they have. I dare say in many cases poor parenting has played a part, but domestic kids have been let down.
I’m not sure what the answer is, but things have to change. The people who need help should get it, those who are playing the system need to be sorted. TBH I’m not sure if any party has the will to address this, it’s an issue that started to get out of control under the last government and has snowballed over 4 or 5 years.
[Post edited 21 Oct 21:52]
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Reply | Championship chat along this week
at 21:35 21 Oct 2025
Coventry going well at the moment, pulling ahead of the pack and 10 unbeaten. Grimes is getting some very good reviews up there. Anyone think they’ll go up? |
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Reply | Is Swansea really one of the UK's worst cities to live in?
at 00:18 15 Oct 2025
100% agree with this post.
Further to the comments made by other posters about the smell of cannabis being very common on our street, I’ll bet most on here didn’t know that in 2016 the College of Policing's ( Home Office’s “arms length” body which sets standards and policies) authorised professional practice on stop and search training for police officers states 'smell of cannabis' alone is not enough to constitute reasonable suspicion for stop and search.
If a police officer searches someone and the only grounds they have for carrying out the search is the smell of cannabis, it’ll be considered an unlawful search (even if it finds cannabis) and will potentially mean the case won’t get off the ground and the officer could even face a disciplinary process for breaching the College of Policing (aka Home Office) guidance. The officer could also find themselves subject to legal action. [Post edited 15 Oct 7:14]
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Reply | Hamit Coskun
at 00:03 15 Oct 2025
Where we are today is as a result of a legislation, guidance and recommendations and investigations spanning almost 30 years. The Stephen Lawrence enquiry highlighted the need to record all incidents perceived as motivated by hostility, not just criminal acts.
This led to a common definition for hate crimes (but not incidents) being agreed by the police and other criminal justice agencies in 2007.
The picture changed again in 2014 when the College of Policing (allegedly an “arm's length body" of the Home Office but in reality it is the Home Office means of exerting control and direction on the police) first initiated advice ( a posh way of saying required / forced) police forces to start keeping records of non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) which then be inspected by HMIC (Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary). If the officers on the ground and the Force got it wrong, didn’t do something they should have etc etc they’d get slammed by the Inspectors, get done on a disciplinary or the Force could be outed and put in special measures. There was a big case in 2019 where a person who’d been investigated for a “hate incident” challenged and won a case against the College of Policing guidance.
In 2022 the then Conservative government introduced legislation which resulted in the code of practice for recording non-crime hate incidents (NCHI) coming into force on June 3, 2023. Once recorded, the incidents have to be investigated which is where we’re at today.
It’s rather ironic (and hypocritical) that some of the politicians who’re most critical of what’s going on today were actually in government when the laws were introduced.
The last government also oversaw a number of what many would call disastrous changes to the Probation Service, there were also changes to the bail act which resulted in police forces being directed down a route to “Release Under Investigation” suspects involved in crime as opposed to bailing them out and not forgetting the closure of the Forensic Science Service. |
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Reply | That’s another fine mess Mr Starmer
at 23:13 14 Oct 2025
The citizenship deal for the Chagossians has absolutely nothing to do with Labour, as has been said earlier in the thread.
The previous Conservative regime introduced the legislation which enables anyone of Chagossian descent to claim British citizenships within 5 years from November 2022 - that’s nothing to do with Starmer.
Starmer has hardly set the world on fire, but blaming him for this is farcical. |
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Reply | One in one out scheme
at 21:02 10 Oct 2025
Recently, there was an interview on the radio with an ex British serviceman who runs a charity to do with migrants. To Understand the issues he went to Germany where many of the people smugglers are based to find out more about the issues and how to stop it. He spoke to a number of the people doing the smuggling and some of the people looking to come over.
After researching the issues, his views were that it was going to be almost impossible to stop. The “boat people” are told and believe a kind of Dick Whittington type story that they can come to London and almost immediately start to earn thousands and thousands of pounds. Theres no counter narrative and all they hear are the promises of a better life, endless wealth etc etc. the people smugglers don’t care because they are coining it in.
Can we stop it? I don’t know if I am being honest. The illegals who were stowing away on Lorrie’s and campervans have been stopped, but they’ve now changed tactics and are coming on dinghies. This guy did say things are likely to get worse because the smugglers had invested in much bigger boats ready for next year. I think addressing the possibility of working is the only way. |
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Reply | Just what is happening in our schools
at 22:14 9 Oct 2025
I think we need to treat Voice of Wales articles with a fair dollop of caution, they are hardly a reliable and unbiased communications platform. |
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Reply | Sir Lenny Henry
at 22:09 8 Oct 2025
I think we can all accept that some pretty abhorrent things happened during the slave trade era , but this suggestion of suing for £17tn in reparations is in my opinion crackers. We aren’t responsible for what happened over the last 500 years ago in the same way the citizens of today’s Germany aren’t responsible for WWI or what happened afterwards. Over and above that, where on earth would we get £17tn even if we were minded to pay it!
What I do disagree with was when slavery was abolished “we” compensated the slave owners - totally and utterly wrong imho. I travelled to a number of Caribbean islands last year and some of them are very poor and run down - far from the idyllic places we see on tv. I’ve no issue with helping the countries in the Caribbean etc with debt relief, economic development and education and we can express remorse for what happened, but I think that’s as far as we can go.
Just imagine some Papa Doc type coming in to a trillion or two, I reckon we all know where a good chunk of that cash would end up !!!! [Post edited 8 Oct 23:22]
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