June 18, 2003

The Bad and the Mad

Well, I thought Aidie was a handful. At least he hasn’t be disqualified from driving, like a 10-year-old who has committed driving offences on three separate occasions. He received his first driving ban last year. Last month he took the car again, but only got out into the road as he reversed into another car. This month he was at it again.

He isn’t even eligible for a driver’s license for another eight years, yet he has already been convicted of driving while disqualified, as well as aggravated vehicle taking and driving without insurance.

Joyriding isn’t the only evidence of his problems. He also admitted stealing a bicycle and possessing equipment for theft.

More Anti-social Behaviour

If he doesn’t change his ways he could end up like the man who smashed over forty store windows in the centre of Cardiff. He did an estimated £75,000 worth of damage to 23 businesses using a shovel. He was dressed only in his underpants.

He is being held by police while a bed is being found in a psychiatric hospital.


Speaking of crazy people in Cardiff...

What is the Welsh Assembly doing with all it’s power? Recently it ordered the Powys County Council to prosecute Dot Humphreys. Why? She has refused to remove a collection of garden gnomes outside her café five miles north of Machynlleth. The gnomes have been there for five years. Somehow the Assembly decided that the gnomes were a distraction to motorists and a hazard to pedestrians, even though there has never been an accident in the area.

The prosecution was brought and the magistrates decided in favour of Mrs Humphreys. They even went out and looked at the gnomes themselves. The Welsh Assembly wasn’t happy. They decided to appeal against the decision. Now, £27,000 of taxpayers’ money later, they have realised that their appeal didn’t stand a chance and have withdrawn it.

I’m not so sure that Cardiff is ready to be a centre of political power. My opinion hasn’t stopped them from spending millions and millions of pounds on a new Assembly building. Estimates of the actual cost vary. The official estimate is £47 million, but thanks to the Millennium Dome, we know how accurate Labour is when it comes to guessing the costs of building projects. The official estimate started at £12 million, and the finance minister admits that she doesn’t know what the final costs will be. The Conservative Leader of the Assembly estimates it at £100. This may be, in fact, a conservative estimate.

This is a building that was supposed to be complete in the spring of 2001. It was later put back to this year, and now the official guess is that it will open in the autumn of 2005.

Posted by david at June 18, 2003 09:44 PM
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