CerithLloyd

Lovely weather we're having.

[Ralïo+ @RalioS4C]

"MAE ELFYN EVANS YN BENCAMPWR Y BYD!" 🤯

Da iawn bois am gadw eich cŵl...🎙️😂

We think Howard and Rhys enjoyed that one...😂🙌

#EE33 #WRC

[Elfyn Evans @ElfynEvans]

WORLD CHAMPIONS 🏆
We did it! 🙌🏼

#EE33

[James Melville 🚜 @JamesMelville]

Britain’s civic pride highlights:

▪️ Rubbish everywhere. Streets that resemble the aftermath of a music festival.
▪️ Weeds on the pavements. ‘Urban rewilding’, apparently.
▪️ One million potholes. The only target that governments have ever hit.
▪️ Blocked drains. Venice, but with Greggs bags, Monster energy drinks and no charm.

Council tax is up. The basics are not. We are no longer paying for streets to be maintained. We are paying for the privilege of watching them rot.

The civic decay is a public disservice at our expense.

[Jack Davey @jacques_davey]

How do you run a state when people like this are elected representatives in the governing party?

[Jonathan Davies CBE @JiffyRugby]

Time for change.

[Samantha Jayne @sambfpod]

Cardiff's Glenn Webbe says merge ....... easy when its not your region being suggested isnt it ?

[Tumblescarlet @MagpieScarlet]

So we’ll know by March if it’s the Scarlets or the Ospreys that are axed by the WRU .
Only in Wales would the two most successful teams be axed in favour of a Capital club that has to be propped up by the WRU and the Dragons that have propped up the league for over a decade .

[birchgrovecomp @birchgrovecomp]

@dynamicRock have asked us to share that an event that they are running on Wednesday 22nd July which offers free climbing sessions for a range of age groups. Sessions must be booked in advance by ringing 01792 845655 and,

[Scarlets Rugby @scarlets_rugby]

⚡️What a year he's had!

Carwyn Leggatt-Jones signs his first senior contract with Scarlets ✍️

Mae 'di bod yn flwyddyn gofiadwy i'r maswr sydd nawr wedi arwyddo ei gytundeb hŷn gyntaf!

#YmaOHyd

[Hugh Laurie @hughlaurie]

Thanks for your critique, Janet. We actually tried a couple of episodes where House (Hugh Laurie) (please put the brackets in the right place) gets it right first time, but they were only 6 minutes long. NBC weren’t happy. Then we tried some where House never gets it right and the patient dies. The audience wasn’t happy.

One could apply your trenchant analysis to other art forms: JS Bach wrote 30 Goldberg variations on the same chord structure; Frida Kahlo painted 50 portraits of herself; Henry Moore, what??

The point is, or was, variations on a theme; if all you see is hospital, medical blah blah, then it wasn’t meant for you.

Nonetheless, I look forward to your first novel!

[Rob Moore @robprogressive]

If you started university in the UK recently under the newest rules, look closely at the repayment terms

The govt extended the repayment window from 30 - 40 years

You will be paying a 9% extra tax on your earnings for almost your entire working life

Most graduates will never clear the balance before the clock runs out

This is a lifetime tax on your potential career progress & ever spiralling compounding debt

[Harry Maguire @HarryMaguire93]

I was confident I could of played a major part this summer for my country after the season I’ve had. I’ve been left shocked and gutted by the decision.

I’ve loved nothing more than putting that shirt on and representing my country over the years.

I wish the players, all the best this summer 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[Simon Thomas Rugby @simonrug]

Dewi Lake, Tomos Williams, Sam Costelow, Teddy Williams, Ellis Mee, Jarrod Evans, Mason Grady and Alex Mann all included in the extended 48-strong Wales squad for the summer fixtures despite being currently sidelined by injury.

[Glamorgan Cricket @GlamCricket]

18 years old. First‑Class debut. Hat‑trick.

Stuff of dreams - you absolute beauty, Tom Norton 🤯🔥

#GLAvSOM
#OhGlammyGlammy

[Dominic Frisby @DominicFrisby]

To give you an idea how out of control things have got, UK public spending is now £48,000 per household.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

My monologue from today’s The Times at One with Andrew Neil @TimesRadio

ROYAL NAVY RIP

While US destroyers duke it out with Iranian navy fast boats over the Strait of Hormuz, we learned yesterday that the Royal Navy’s HMS Iron Duke, a Type 23 frigate, was being withdrawn from active service, despite a recent £100m five-year refit, which suggests that was largely a waste of money. 

More important, it underlines the stark reality that we no longer have a functioning navy. 

That’s right. The country of Rule Britannia, which once had the most powerful navy in the world, capable of protecting an empire which covered a quarter of the globe, no longer has a navy worthy of the name.  

For the factual basis of what I’m about to say, I am indebted to Britsky, who posts important naval data on X and has become the reliable go-to source for information on our disappearing Navy. 

HMS Iron Duke joins another ageing Type 23, HMS Richmond, in retirement. Leaving the Royal Navy with just five frigates to monitor Russian submarine activity in the North Atlantic and other Russian activity in the Channel. 

Even that doesn’t reveal the full, desperate picture. Of the five frigates still supposedly available for service, one, HMS Kent, has been almost 750 days in refit and is not available for service. HMS Portland and HMS St Albans have also been laid up for some time. 

Only HMS Somerset is currently deployed and HMS Sutherland could be, pretty quickly. So the Royal Navy can call on the immediate services of only two of the five frigates we have, all dating from the 1990s. 

What about the more powerful Type 45 destroyers? Sad to relate the picture is even bleaker. There are only six. One, HMS Dragon, has been deployed to the East Mediterranean to protect Cyprus, though that took some time. 

Another, HMS Daring, has been in refit for 3,260 days and still not available for duty. HMS Defender has been out of action for over 1,000 days, HMS Diamond for just under 700 days. HMS Dauntless is in maintenance. Other than Dragon, out of our six destroyers, only HMS Duncan could be deployed quickly. 

What about our hugely expensive, powerful Astute class submarines? Better you don’t ask. We have only five — and only one, HMS Anson, is on active service somewhere in the Indian Ocean. 

The other four — Astute, Ambush, Artful and Audacious — have been laid up for a total of 4,000 days. That’s right 4,000 days. HMS Ambush alone has been inactive for 1,400 days. It’s currently laid up on the River Clyde. 

So the currently deployable, conventional Royal Navy, excluding the ancient, creaking subs carrying our nuclear deterrent, amounts to two frigates, two destroyers and one sub. That’s not a navy for a maritime nation. That’s a joke. 

Yes, we have two big aircraft carriers too. They also seem to spend a lot of time in maintenance, which is where they are at the moment. But both could currently be deployed pretty quickly, which is an improvement. But we don’t have the frigates or destroyers to form a carrier fleet. So they can only be used in concert with better equipped allies. 

We might be short of fighting ships. But we’re not short of admirals. We currently have around 30 rear admirals or above, which works out around four per deployable ship. That’s admirals. Not captains. 

None, of course, of this bloated top brass has been held accountable for the near disappearance of our naval power. Nor have any Tory politicians who for 14 years presided over our navy’s degradation. Nor is the current Labour government in any apparent hurry to put matters right.

Our airforce and army are in no great shapes either. But it is the state of our non-navy, an integral, vital part of our island history, which is the real national scandal. 

And, as is so often the case in modern Britain, nobody is held to account. Nobody forced to carry the can. Nobody making it their mission to put it right. And that is the real national disgrace.

[Lauren Harrhy BDS PGDip @Laurenharrhy85]

Russell telling it like it is for dental practices in Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

The “biggest changes in 20 years” were brought in unpiloted and several mitigations we requested trying to help practices who were all still scrambling in the 11th hour were denied.

They were not ready and consequently we were not ready.

Yet again practices are trying to care for patients while picking up the pieces

[BDA @TheBDA]

“Rachel Reeves chose to denigrate private dentists delivering high quality care to millions, rather than support colleagues providing NHS treatment," says @EddieCrouch.

“Private colleagues deserve an apology. Those in the NHS require tangible support.”

https://t.co/lQbPNqt7rV