Ian Rees 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿💙

Straddling the municipal and entertainment worlds...

[James West @ejwwest]

@BBCPolitics Yet he’s a member of a party of climate change deniers who deliberately reject the overwhelming science.

[Mark Ruffalo @MarkRuffalo]

As we watch hollywood barrel towards a paramount Warner bros merger, this movie should remind us of what may be lost. The relationship between movies and journalism is without question one of the most important parts of a democracy. Having choice in a multi studio system with a news media that is completely independent of those studios cannot be undervalued, nor its importance overstated. This movie would not have been made in a Paramount/Warnerbros/CNN /Trump era. Just never would have happened. That’s what’s at stake. Trump and Hegseth have told us so. “Separation between News and Power”. Should be our new “separation between church and state”.

https://t.co/U4NnA2JXcl

[Cultural Institute - Swansea University @Culture_SwanUni]

📢 Have you entered the Rhys Davies Short Story Competition yet?

⏰Deadline for entries MIDNIGHT ON MONDAY 16 FEBRUARY

🥇£1000 & publication in anthology by @parthianbooks

🥈Runners-up/finalists receive £100 & publication in anthology

FULL DETAILS: https://t.co/FD7geJataP

[Ian Rees 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿💙 @IanJRees]

Oh FFS! When will @Keir_Starmer & Co @10DowningStreet realise that to get anything from Trump's America you've got to stand up to him and not kiss ass... Just look at Putin, whom I'm sure he respects more... https://t.co/dPLvVVe7qO

[Ian Rees 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿💙 @IanJRees]

That aside, UK Labour clearly have given up on Welsh Labour winning the Senedd next year and are doing all they can to retain some levers of power in Wales. Sadly, it's a case of party before the country and the people.

[Ian Rees 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿💙 @IanJRees]

Jo Stevens said Pride in Place funding was "about making sure that people in Wales get what they need and what they deserve in order to make improvements to their lives". BBC News - No apology from Welsh secretary over town centre cash row
https://t.co/V31wdkwjZr

[Ian Rees 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿💙 @IanJRees]

If it were true, surely the equivalent money being spent on HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail would be allocated to Wales? I mean, since when has Wales been in England? Oh, silly me...

[Will Hayward @WillHayCardiff]

No one outside of Wales seems to have picked up on the ridiculous situation we currently have here regarding waiting lists.

The Welsh Government are now three weeks late in publishing the latest waiting list data.

This is because Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board has problems with its data with the Welsh Government saying that there have been "concerns about the accuracy" of the number for some months.

Betsi is Wales' biggest health board, covers all of North Wales, employs 20k people and has a £2bn budget.

It has also been in special measures for a decade (except for a brief period when the Welsh Gov took it out just before the last Senedd election).

The previous board was sacked en masse by Eluned Morgan when she was health minister and the new one is entirely the creation of the First Minister.

This is a scandal that the Welsh Government simply cannot wash their hands of. They have had unprecedented powers to make changes in the organisation for a decade but have failed.

Some of the stories from Betsi are unbelievable.

In 2022 a member of the board left the organisation only to be appointed by the Welsh Government in spring 2023 to a new independent board which was supposed to scrutinise the health board's performance and governance.

As this person previously sat around Betsi’s board table when they were a director this means they would have been scrutinising decisions they themselves made!

Ultimately it is the people of North Wales who are suffering because of these failings, as well as the staff on the ground who have to work in this basket case of an organisation.

I have no doubt that if this was in South Wales, closer to the corridors of power in Cardiff Bay, this atrocious situation would never have been allowed to fester how it has.

We have now reached the stage where we can't even see the latest waiting list data (the reduction of which which was central to Eluned Morgan's strategy) because the one health board the Welsh Gov has direct control over can't even be trusted to have accurate records.

[Variety @Variety]

When Jodie Foster first met Robert De Niro on the set of "Taxi Driver" at 12 years old, she found him "really uninteresting."

"One of our greatest American actors, so proud to have worked with him — not the most interesting person on earth. And at that time, he was very much in character, the way he was in those days. So he was really uninteresting and I remember having these lunches with him and being like, what is happening? When can I go home? ... But he finally walked me through improvisation by the time we had our third lunch together, and it opened my eyes to what acting could be." https://t.co/wEgSRYaDX7

[Ian Rees 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿💙 @IanJRees]

Yes... to the Welsh!

Source: The Independent
https://t.co/HqqenLDqqJ

[Campaign for the Arts @_CFTA]

“You don’t get Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa or Oasis without small venues. The collapse of independent venues puts the entire night-time economy at risk.” - @MickKill

New research has found that 1 in 4 late-night venues have closed since 2020.
https://t.co/XPVZLUucnD

[Ian Rees 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿💙 @IanJRees]

@EnochWasRightUK @zarahsultana It's her country too, mate...

[Ian Rees 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿💙 @IanJRees]

@moment_mirthful @TRobinsonNewEra I thought you guys didn't believe in Europe... 🤔

[Ian Rees 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿💙 @IanJRees]

And @WelshGovernment should follow the evidence and not roll back on the 20mph limit policy.

[Will Hayward @WillHayCardiff]

WE NOW HAVE A YEAR OF DATA SINCE 20MPH WAS INTRODUCED IN WALES

There were around 100 fewer people killed or seriously injured on 20/30mph roads.

The number of casualties in 2024 from July-Sept was the lowest Q3 figures in Wales since records began.

Over the year since it came in the number of casualties on roads affected by the law is 28% lower than the year before.

This is good policy making.

[Ian Rees 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿💙 @IanJRees]

'Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov accused Washington of trying to escalate the conflict.'

Honestly, there would be no conflict if Russia hadn't invaded Ukraine.

Just remember that...

https://t.co/1h0kpBddQY

[Ian Rees 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿💙 @IanJRees]

Aye, when you're dead...

https://t.co/XkPmV1McXq

[Ian Rees 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿💙 @IanJRees]

@misscatw Penblwydd Hapus! X

[Have I Got News For You @haveigotnews]

The Conservatives have criticised Labour’s plans to give more money to public sector workers, because 14 years of giving public money to your mates worked out so well for Britain

[Have I Got News For You @haveigotnews]

A reminder on A Levels results day for anyone who doesn't get the grades they hoped for... going to a top university is no guarantee of success