YouTuber Danny from the Honest Places channel visited different boozers in Rhyl in North Wales — a former tourist hotspot now dubbed one of Britain’s worst seaside resorts
Liam McInerney Content Editor
06:30, 09 Mar 2026
Danny and his pal walking through Rhyl(Image: Honest Places/YouTube)
A YouTuber who travelled to one of the so-called worst seaside resorts in Britain claimed he felt completely at ease there, where traditional boozers brimming with character were packed with locals enjoying affordable pints.
Danny, who operates the Honest Places channel, was visiting Llandudno and Rhyl in NorthWales, with the latter having earned the nickname “Costa Del Dole”.
The resort is littered with abandoned buildings and establishments which have closed down permanently. Despite once being a magnet for holidaymakers, the pier, funfair and shopping centre have long since faded into memory.
The Telegraph listed it amongst the worst seaside resorts in Britain three years ago and described it as “Blackpool after a neutron bomb”. Danny, however, labelled it “Britain’s saddest seaside town” in his YouTube headline before speaking about it affectionately upon arrival.
He commented: “We have come to Rhyl because I felt a bit too out of place (in Llandudno). I feel actually at home in Rhyl.
“This is the front — it is such a contrast to Llandudno. I know people say British seaside towns have gone to s***. But they have been s*** for ages. This is a real British seaside town. Most of them are s*** and that is a real seaside town.
“So Whitby is a seaside town but it’s not a real British seaside town because the real ones are the ones that are like this, like Blackpool.
“But the main reason I came here, I didn’t want to go to another pub in Llandudno because it is just a bit tepid really.”
He continued: “There are some proper tasty pubs I went into last time where the barman and bar staff were just shouting at the customers and stuff like that.”
The first establishment he and a friend visited was Victory Club on Queen Street which has been welcoming drinkers for more than 70 years.
He wasn’t particularly taken with his pint of Caffrey’s Stout but remarked: “The gaff is alright though isn’t it?” His companion responded: “Yeah, tidy and reasonably cheap.”
Yet, if they considered paying £4 a pint reasonable value, they were in for a pleasant shock at their next destination.
They were drawn to The Bodfor and after hearing the booming music from within, Danny chuckled: “It does look good in there, doesn’t it? It reminds me a bit like Benidorm!”
He continued: “People will watch this back and say you should have went in but I’ve got a better boozer for you.”
Danny then headed towards the Imperial Hotel pub and described it as being like stepping into somebody’s front room.
Whilst at the bar, he announced that he had never sampled a pint of Fosters in his life, before deciding to try one.
And staring at his drink, he commented: “That head is beautiful! I don’t think I’ve had better head.”
After taking a gulp, he then remarked it was “fitting” to have a Fosters in Rhyl, before his friend responded: “Absolutely, for what it is, it’s a good pint. You want a fizzy, cold, tasteless pint. That’s what you get.”
Danny then admitted he was enjoying it more than anticipated before he enquired how cheap it was. After discovering the pint was just £2.70, he enthused: “Granted, it’s Fosters. But at that price, you can’t kick off. That’s got to be a 10/10.”
His friend then suggested that one could have a smashing night out in Rhyl with just a tenner and some loose change.
Stepping outside post-pints, Danny remarked: “We got some nice little tasty pubs, we saw Rhyl, it hasn’t changed. I don’t think it will change.”
Last year, reports suggested that Rhyl, which boasts four beaches, would undergo transformation thanks to £200million invested over the past decade, as per Denbighshire County Council.
The town also benefited from a £20million injection from the government’s Levelling Up fund three years ago.
Sue and Noel Radford, best known for starring on 22 Kids & Counting, have made it to the Canary Islands after they faced backlash for complaining that their Dubai holiday had originally been cancelled
20:22, 07 Mar 2026Updated 20:22, 07 Mar 2026
Sue Radford has made it to Dubai(Image: Instagram)
Sue and Noel Radford have arrived in a beach resort amid backlash. The 22 Kids & Counting star, 50, and her husband managed to get to the Canary Islands, after previously complaining that their Dubai holiday had been cancelled.
Last week, war broke out in the Middle East as Israel and the USA struck Israel, which killed its leader, Ali Khamenei. Iran then retaliated by striking military bases and various places across the Middle East including Tehran, Beirut and the UAE, including missile strikes and drones in Dubai. The strikes have lead to mass flight cancellations as the Foreign Office advised against all but essential travel to the UAE.
She captioned the post: “”The sun is shining we are all checked in and looking forward to a few days in the sun loving the Canary Islands we’ve not been for years.”
Sue was due to go to Dubai but has understandably cancelled her trip given what is going on. However, she has left her fans fuming by saying she was having a “nightmare” with the travel company they used as she tries to get a refund.
Taking to Instagram, she wrote: “As you know Chris and Aimee both got us weekends away for Christmas but as we couldn’t do the dates we swapped it to Dubai we were going to be flying tonight. Anyway hands up who’s been having a nightmare with travelup1 because I think there’s going to be lots of you.
“Phone lines dead so guessing they have turned them off and no response from them to emails i have commented on their insta page but all of our comments have been deleted and there been lots from very unhappy customers.
“I know we are safe in this country but even if you wanted to rebook you can’t because they aren’t dealing with it, so anyone who’s booked with this company think twice PLEASE.”
Editing her post later on, Sue said the company had been in touch. She added: “Travelup have messaged on insta so for others in the same situation it might be worth doing the same.
“The point of this post is that we do not want to rebook I would imagine lots wouldn’t but this company switching phones off is not the way to go about it so people can’t contact them at all and deleting comments is bad.”
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Despite her insisting it was all resolved now, angry fans took to social media to fume over her original post. One branded it “tone deaf”, writing: “This is tone deaf. People are dying. Others are hiding in hotel rooms/basements. And the rest are stranded with many fearing for their lives. Your holiday dues not matter right now.
“Your refund/swap is not the priority. You should have travel insurance and be Atol/Abta protected – you’ll get your money. For now just sit tight and be thankful you’re not one of the people I just listed above.”
Another added: “Love you guys and this family so much, watch their shows every week and you’re all so lovely…. But please can we be kind to companies who are dealing with a war. This isn’t a day to day situation. I know we all want to rebook flights, I want to get some sun !! and get on our holidays, but why don’t we let the dust settle and give people a time to breathe and take stock of what’s actually going on, especially since the situation is escalating by the day.”
“I wouldn’t normally comment but I’m not being funny but face palming and talking about a weekend away when thousands of people are stuck in the Middle East either as ex pats or holiday makers/ on cruises etc. I think the travel agents have a little bit on their plates currently with a war occurring,” a third wrote.
“I like this family… but maybe think of those who are actually stuck over there instead of hounding travel companies. They will have a ridiculous amount to deal with, not just your holiday which im sure in due course will be sorted out for you,” a fourth penned.
Chancellor says he wants to deepen trade relationship while making it fairer during visit that sees signing of several agreements.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has kicked off his inaugural visit to China with a focus on resetting trade relations and deepening cooperation.
Speaking in Beijing on Wednesday, Merz told Chinese Premier Li Qiang that Germany sought to build on the decades-old economic ties with China, while emphasising the need to ensure fair cooperation and open communication.
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“We have very specific concerns regarding our cooperation, which we want to improve and make fair,” said Merz, in an acknowledgement of the strain faced by Germany’s manufacturing sector from Chinese competition.
Li, who met Merz shortly after his arrival in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, called on both sides to work together to safeguard multilateralism and free trade, in a reference to US President Donald Trump’s tariff policy that has upended the global trading system.
“China and Germany, as two of the world’s largest economies and major countries with important influence, should strengthen our confidence in cooperation, jointly safeguard multilateralism and free trade, and strive to build a more just and fair global governance system,” Li said.
During the meeting, representatives from both sides signed several agreements and memorandums, including on climate change and food security.
“We share responsibility in the world, and we should live up to that responsibility together,” Merz said, adding there was “great potential for further growth”.
He added that open channels of communication were essential, as he announced visits by several ministers in the months ahead.
‘More equal playing field’ sought
Reporting from Beijing, Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride said the visit, in which Merz was being accompanied by a large delegation of German business executives, was important for both Europe’s economic powerhouse and the world’s second-largest economy.
Alongside the signing of deals with Chinese companies, a key focus of Merz’s visit would be “looking for a more equal playing field when it comes to trade”, he said.
“There is a real concern in markets like the European Union about cheaper, sometimes subsidised Chinese products that are looking for markets other than the US, suddenly flooding other marketplaces such as Germany … undercutting many domestic manufacturers there,” he said.
Germany’s imports from China increased 8.8 percent to 170.6 billion euros ($201bn) last year, while its exports to China dropped 9.7 percent to 81.3 billion euros ($96bn).
McBride noted Beijing was seeking to pitch itself as a “responsible advocate of free trade compared to the sometimes unpredictable and chaotic tariffing policy of the US”.
He said the visit would also see Merz attend a banquet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and visits to German companies with strongly established presences in China, such as Siemens and Mercedes-Benz.
Geopolitics and human rights would also be on the table, he said, with Germany particularly concerned about Beijing’s support, tacit or otherwise, for Russia amid its war on Ukraine.
Western leaders court Beijing
Merz is the latest in a string of Western leaders to visit Beijing in recent months, including the UK’s Keir Starmer, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Canada’s Mark Carney, amid the fallout from Trump’s tariffs on long-established trade relationships.
The chancellor said on Friday he was going to Beijing in part because export-dependent Germany needs “economic relations all over the world”.
“But we should be under no illusions,” he said, adding that China, as a rival to the United States, now “claims the right to define a new multilateral order according to its own rules.”
New blockchain solutions are integrating corporate treasury and retail banking, and opening the transactions system to multiple issuers of tokenized deposits and stablecoins. But regulators worry these innovations could make the global system more fragile.
Tuesday, 2:14 PM GMT: Elena, the treasurer of a global logistics giant in Rotterdam, stares at a red alert on her dashboard. A supplier in Singapore demands an immediate $40 million settlement to release a shipment of semiconductors. The old banking system would tell her she’s out of luck; her euro liquidity is trapped in a T+1 settlement cycle and the foreign-exchange swap markets are too slow for an instant release.
But Elena’s treasury operations are kinetic. She hits “Execute.”
Four thousand miles away in Chicago, it is 8:14 AM: David, a retail banking client, is buying coffee. His phone buzzes with a silent notification: “Yield Generated: $4.20.”
He doesn’t know it, but in the last 18 seconds, J.P. Morgan’s Kinexys algorithm borrowed the digital title of his tokenized vacation home, which was sitting idle in his portfolio, then pledged it as collateral to mint $40 million in intraday stablecoins for Elena.
In less than a minute, the transaction is over.
Elena’s chips are released in Singapore.
The bank has managed its risk without touching its own balance sheet.
And David has paid for his morning coffee just by owning a house.
Two-tiered digital asset strategies, combining institutional/bank-led Tier 1 and retail/public chain Tier 2 transactions to merge corporate treasury and retail banking, are now a reality. Programmable money appears inevitable; the struggle is over who—banks or crypto-natives—will control this “kinetic” new world connecting retail assets with corporate liquidity.
“Our mandate for Kinexys by J.P. Morgan is to transform how information, money, and assets move around the world from an institutional perspective,” says Arif Khan, chief product officer for Kinexys Digital Payments. “Since inception, over US$3 trillion in transaction volume has been processed on the Kinexys platform, which processes on average more than US$5 billion daily in transaction volume.” Although Kinexys’s offerings are not aimed at retail clients, it enables banks to use retail assets as collateral for institutional clients.
Tony McLaughlin, a contributor to “The Regulated Liability Network,” a 2022 white paper and blueprint for bank-led digital money, left Citi last year after a two-decade career to found Ubyx, a stablecoin clearing system. He sees the November 2024 US elections as clarifying the route for banks to interact with public chains.
“This is because stablecoin regulation was more likely to pass, and stablecoins live on public chains,” he says. “It would be intolerable if only non-banks were able to offer stablecoins on public chains, so it would be necessary for banks to be able to enter the market.”
McLaughlin predicts the development of a “pluralistic market structure, just like we have in [credit] cards,” with “many issuers and many receivers” and a variety of issuers—including both banks and non-banks—offering tokenized deposits and a variety of stablecoins. The “great unlock,” he foresees, is building “a common acceptance network.” Corporate treasurers will utilize a mixture of tokenized deposits, stablecoins, and tokenized money market funds from different issuers.
Ubyx is working to get banks and fintechs to offer wallets for clients to receive stablecoins and tokenized deposits, ensuring transactions “are processed within the regulatory perimeter and go through KYC, AML, fraud, and sanctions checking,” McLaughlin says. The current situation, where “stablecoins are transacted across self-custodial wallets,” is less desirable, he says, since the supply of these unregulated wallets is “infinite” while the supply of regulated wallets is “essentially zero.”
McLaughlin blames regulators who have “placed a large ‘Keep Off the Grass’ sign on bank participation in public blockchain,” allowing the “vacuum” to be “filled by unregulated players.” Bank and fintech involvement will make these new transaction processes safer, he argues, and “dramatically increase the regulated nodes in these networks.” He draws a parallel to the evolution of streaming media; just as content piracy gave way to streaming TV and music from “reputable players,” so the transition to a more honest and reliable digital transactions system will come about on public blockchains.
“We believe that both private and public blockchain options will coexist moving forward,” says Khan. “Institutional firms that want to keep their money movements on a private permissioned network will still benefit from the 24/7, 365-day, programmable benefits that blockchain infrastructure provides.”
Arif Khan, Chief Product Officer for Kinexys Digital Payments, J.P. Morgan
The Interoperability Imperative
While banks pitch kinetic treasury as a liquidity upgrade, regulators and wealth strategists warn it may introduce new fragility into the global transactions system. Without a public digital currency, Fabio Panetta, governor of the Bank of Italy, has warned, the payments market will be dominated by “closed-loop” private solutions, such as proprietary stablecoins or Big Tech platforms, that do not interoperate, fragmenting the monetary system and threatening the “singleness” of currencies.
J.P. Morgan’s Khan counters that interoperability between deposit tokens and other digital cash will be essential for scale and adoption.
“We are proactively working with other actors in the industry, such as DBS in Singapore, to develop a framework for interbank tokenized deposit transfers across multiple blockchains,” he says. “This would potentially allow the institutional client bases of each bank to pay each other, exchanging or redeeming their deposit tokens across either bank’s platform and across borders with real-time, around-the-clock availability.”
For example, a J.P. Morgan institutional client would be able to pay a DBS institutional client using JPM Coin on the Base public blockchain, which the recipient could exchange or redeem for equivalent value via DBS Token Services.
“This aims to uphold the singleness of money,” Khan argues, “where deposit tokens across banks and blockchains are fungible and represent the same value: a key principle that is imperative in an increasingly multi-chain, multi-issuer world.”
The Clearing House, which owns and operates core payments system infrastructure in the US, is currently discussing and analyzing stablecoins and tokenized deposits. President and CEO David Watson suggests that tokenized deposits could be a more significant development than stablecoins, especially for large multinational corporations and wholesale banking.
That’s because tokenized deposits are viewed as “truly a fiat instrument,” he argues, while a stablecoin is merely a “representation of an instrument.” This directly impacts the risk profile for corporate treasurers. “If you’re a multinational corporate treasurer,” Watson asks, “how much of the company’s balance sheet are you willing to hold in different stablecoins, with all that exposure, versus fiat money backed by the issuing government?”
The concerns about trust and risk that Watson highlights, directly inform initiatives like JPM Coin, which Khan notes was driven by clients seeking to make public blockchain payments using a trusted, familiar bank product. With Kinexys Digital Payments, treasurers can pre-define rules that automatically trigger payments, foreign exchange conversions, and liquidity movements in real time. Decisions are executed without manual intervention and are not subject to banking cut-off times.
BMW Group uses Kinexys Programmable Payments for fully pre-programmed euro-to-US-dollar FX transactions and corresponding fund movements. Since both the FX and payment settlement occur instantly on the same blockchain platform, the process operates 24/7 without human intervention or traditional settlement windows. This allows BMW to optimize global liquidity, reduce idle balances, and execute near-instant, multi-currency cross-border payments.
The traditional method for large multinational corporations to manage liquidity—relying on extensive multi-currency buffers and manual fund transfers—is inherently capital-inefficient and complex, Khan contends. Blockchain-based infrastructure, by contrast, offers a fundamental shift, enabling a new, more dynamic model that moves beyond the limitations of conventional settlement windows.
“We are going to see a new paradigm emerge,” McLaughlin predicts. “We are going to move from the age of bank accounts to the age of tokens, chains, and wallets.”
