Getting businesses back on track

WE’RE more than a week on from the floods that have devastated many parts of Carmarthenshire, and it’s clear that while it will take some time to get things back to normality, there is a great amount of strength, resilience and determination being shown by many people.

I was glad to see the First Minister visiting Carmarthen on Thursday, it was an opportunity to show him just how much these floods have affected our communities.

It was also an opportunity to let the Welsh Government know how determined Carmarthenshire County Council is to support people and businesses get back on track as quickly as possible.

That started with the hardship relief fund we set up for residents as soon as the floods had subsided, and the grants we are offering businesses to help them repair and recover.

I have been proud, as leader of the council, to put that immediate support in place, and while it was disappointing to hear that it wasn’t particularly welcomed by the First Minister, I can assure you that it was welcomed by the people who have lost so much.

During his visit, I also took the opportunity of highlighting how continued cuts to local authority budgets could mean we are less able to respond should anything like this ever happen again.

This should be a wake-up call. YOU know when you read a newspaper headline and it takes a moment for it to register?

Well, I read one the other day that took a full minute to sink in.

And this is it …

“Since 2011, 259 people have died while taking selfies!”

According to the American Journal Of Family Medicine, 159 of these selfie deaths occurred in India, followed by the United States (14 deaths) and Pakistan (11).

The most common selfieinduced death was from drowning, and the second was . . . wait for it . . . while trying to take a selfie in front of a moving train!

Let me clarify for any of you in doubt.

The trains in question weren’t moving away from them; they were moving towards them.

The researchers admit the figure is probably much higher than 259, because many deaths aren’t linked to selfies.

For example, if someone falls from a great height or is swept out to sea by huge waves, their smartphones tend to go missing.

In our narcissistic selfie society everyone with a smartphone thinks they’re a star (It’s partly your ell!).

Selfie-takers think the world hungers to know where they fault Mister Cow- are and

24/7.

Over a year ago I wrote an article about how a theatrical what they’re doing, performance I attended was spoiled by a self-obsessed couple (and don’t write in and tell me a couple can’t be self- obsessed, because nitely were).

They were sat in the row immediately in front of me. Before the show (and all through the intermission) they took selfie after selfie of themselves, in basically the same pose.

No. I don’t know why, either. Had they been upstairs in the balcony and stepped back a little too far in their eagerness to photograph themselves, there might have been two more added to the 259 in the headline.

But, at least, I would have enjoyed the show in peace.

The world has gone mad, for sure. they defi-

You can follow Phil Evans on Twitter @philevanswales or visit www.philevans.co.uk