Sick as a parrot over football rights

Posted by North Wales Weekly News team on September 16, 2008 11:47 AM

By Richard Evans, Reporter

I KNOW the highlights of the international football last week were later aired on a freeview channel for all, but it wasn't much good if you didn't know about the late decision.
I don't blame Setanta Sports for trying to make the most of their exclusive rights to England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales away games, but I think most will agree it is fundamentally wrong.
Reportedly the Irish channel paid £5 million for the exclusivity of the games. In a world where nothing is free it seems you must now pay more and more for what essentially I'd expect the BBC to acquire the rights to in the first place.
The Premier League and such... okay, take it away, flog it on Sky Sports or whatever. Do the same with the Ryder Cup if you must, and the volleyball world cup and other niche sports. But the national game? Sorry rugby fans, but football is still the most popular sport in Wales, as in England, although you could argue this is not the case in terms of the international game.
Every household is forced to pay for the outdated and drastically unfair TV licence when there is a choice of literally hundreds of channels available elsewhere. Unless you like EastEnders then why would you want to spend your hard earned cash on a channel of reruns when you have hundreds of alternatives?
If you want the BBC then pay for it, but people should be given the choice. And if we aren't then the least the Government funded British Broadcasting Corporation can do is pull their finger out and secure the rights to events of national interest such as the national teams trying to qualify for the World Cup, which is still more popular than the Olympics, by the way, however commendable Team GB's performance was.
I just feel sorry for those who splashed out £15 to watch Amir Khan take a whopping in 54 seconds.
The BBC has reportedly struck a £18 million three-year deal to pay Jonathan Ross - nice work if you can get it, but wouldn't £1 million of that sum be much better spent on the wights - sorry rights - to the football? I think so.

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Why Colwyn Bay is nothing like Beirut

Posted by North Wales Weekly News team on September 3, 2008 1:29 PM

By Steve Stratford, Deputy Editor

IT'S so tediously easy to say that somewhere in Britain that's seen better times is "like Beirut".
Colwyn Bay town councillor Gwyn Hughes said as much in a council debate on Monday, likening Abergele Road in Colwyn Bay to the troubled Lebanese city. He admits that his comments were throwaway, but sticks by what he said - that the fact there are a number of boarded-up buildings there, and a post office under threat of closure, makes it like a war-torn Middle Eastern city that has actually managed to stage an impressive economic turnaround since the civil war.
The 2006 Lebanon "July War" might have set it back once more, but it's no longer as easy to justify likening a deprived area of Britain to this tenacious capital city.
I find it tiresome when people roll out the old "looks like Beirut" comment because it could be perceived as pretty disrespectful to the 200,000 people who lost their lives or were injured in Beirut during the conflict. There was a distressingly good reason why Beirut got the reputation for destruction that it did, and Colwyn Bay cannot boast a similar history of death and destruction.
Colwyn Bay might have its problems, but come on... they're nowhere near as serious as those faced by the Lebanese in the 1990s and 21st century.
The ironic thing about this story is that Cllr Hughes is Bay of Colwyn Town Council's representative on the Bay Life Initiative regeneration panel. So if those charged with trying to turn around Colwyn Bay's fortunes are going to be that negative, how can we expect any movement on the issue?
Beirut has a rich and impressive cultural history that is capitalised upon in its many museums, tourist attractions and Ottoman and Arabesque architecture. It is a vibrant city with both horror and splendour in its past, and perhaps Colwyn Bay could learn something from how it gets back up, dusts itself down and forges fresh fortunes every time it's knocked back.
It was poor town planning that destroyed Colwyn Bay, not civil war.

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Richard Brunstrom's reputation precedes him!

Posted by North Wales Weekly News team on September 2, 2008 12:49 PM

By Steve Stratford, Deputy Editor

NEWS travels fast! An exclusive story by our chief reporter Richard Evans which appeared in last Thursday's paper was picked up by at least two Sunday papers at the weekend, both articles quoting the North Wales Weekly News as the source.
It was the amusing story about Chief Contsable Richard Brunstrom denying to our reporter that he was due to retire at the end of 2009, despite the police chief telling the BBC in an interview last month that he would do so.
And luckily we got Mr Brunstrom's comments on tape so there could be no argument he never said it. In fact, you can hear him say it in a special video we have put together in our online videos section.
It's far from unusual for national newspapers (or TV and radio, come to that) to pick up on stories in the Weekly News. Indeed many news organisations trawl the regional papers on a regular basis for stories they can beef up and use again. And it's very often something to do with our controversial chief constable that gets picked up, especially by those tabloids that seem to have it in for him.
But it's always gratifying for the Weekly News to get a name-check in a version of the story that will be read by many more people across the UK, and the world online. If you missed the story, it's on page 6 of our August 28th edition, or, as I say, on the website in story and video form.

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