Bawso and friends

PROPERTY EMPIRES

In my previous post I wrote about Rose Mutale Nyoni Merrill, queen of the race relations industry in Wales, perhaps undisputed monarch since the downfall of the Malik dynasty.

If you go to that previous post, Wales: Corruption and Poverty, and scroll down to the section ‘Hired Bullies’, you’ll see that I looked at the various roles to which Mutale Merrill has been appointed by the ‘Welsh’ Labour Government, and I explained how she’d used her authority – on more than one occasion – to stifle criticism of her political masters who, in addition to elevating her to these posts, also funded her various companies and charities.

A symmetry with which we are only too familiar in Wales. It’s the form of corruption known as cronyism, or patronage.

The foundation for this woman’s rise to prominence in public life, is an organisation called Bawso, formerly, or originally, Black Association of Women Step Out. Here’s a link to the website, and here’s a link to the Companies House entry. Bawso is also registered with the Charity Commission, number 1084854.

Bawso was founded in January 1996, and although Merrill isn’t listed among the founding members she does appear as the witness to their statements on the Certificate of Incorporation, where she is ‘Rose M. Nyoni’ and described as a ‘project co-ordinator’. So, clearly, she was involved with Bawso from the outset.

1. click to enlarge

Now she appears at the top of the pile on the Companies House page where we are told that she came aboard 27 August 2004 as secretary. As she is also chief executive she would appear to have Bawso in an iron grip.

Though despite Mutale Nyoni being appointed secretary 27 August 2004 she didn’t sign the consent document for that post until 19 May 2005, and it was eventually registered with Companies House 2 June 2005. So was she acting as secretary without official recognition, and then her appointment had to be backdated?

Before quitting this section we’ll just take a quick look at the figures in the latest accounts available, for year ended 31 March 2016.

A figure that struck me as odd was, on page 22, ‘Rental Income’ of £388,803. We find what I assume to be the same figure on page 16, listed there as ‘Income from charitable activities’. That’s a lot of money for rental income, it works out at over thirty thousand pounds a month. Apart from the various grants this is Bawso’s biggest source of income. Where might it come from?

Information on other pages suggests that Bawso has a substantial building – possibly buildings – in the north from which it derives a considerable rental income. Page 28 suggests that Bawso also leases property.

Bawso’s Wrecsam address is 33 Grosvenor Road, a relatively quiet commercial street near the centre of town. At 31 and 31a we encounter another outfit that has appeared on this blog more than once – The Wallich Clifford Foundation.

In fact, the Wallich and Bawso occupy the same building, as the photograph shows. The large building on the left of the picture is split between the Wallich on the left, at 31, with Bawso the right, at 33. (On the right of the picture, at 35, we see the Citizens Advice Bureau.)

2. courtesy of Google, click to enlarge

Naturally, I downloaded the Land Registry details for both properties. Here are the title details for 31, and here the details for 33. You’ll see that the Wallich property was bought in 2009 for £312,000 with no loan or mortgage involved. Bawso’s property next door was bought around the same time for £457,000, again, with no loan or mortgage involved.

A total of £769,000. Substantial purchases for third sector bodies like the Wallich and Bawso. Did some fairy godmother buy this building for them?

But the Wallich was soon extending its new property to create 31a. Here are the title details with a map dated 1 October 2015 showing the substantial extension to the rear, visible in another screen capture from Google.

3. courtesy of Google, click to enlarge

The same map shows that number 33, the Bawso property, has also been extended, and this is confirmed by the Google screen capture (2) above.

Which raises a number of questions. Such, as why did the Wallich and Bawso both feel the need to extend their properties so soon after buying them, and who paid for the extensions?

Perhaps more worrying is, why hasn’t Bawso notified the Land Registry of its footprint-doubling extension? Here’s the latest available title plan for number 33. It shows just the original outlines for both the Wallich and the Bawso properties.

4. click to enlarge

I don’t want you to think that I’ve got in for the third sector, but bloody hell! . . . Here we have two outfits dependent on the public purse and yet they can buy a substantial building in the centre of Wrecsam and then spend another dollop on doubling its size! Altogether this must have cost well over a million pounds.

And Wrecsam is just one corner of their national networks.

Oh, and didn’t I mention . . . the Wallich has another building not far away, St John’s House on Chester Road. Though this is owned by the council. So presumably the Wallich rents it, for I can find no leasehold arrangement. Or maybe they get it for free. Who cares? – it’s only public money after all.

5. courtesy of Google, St Johns House, click to enlarge

*Scroll to foot for important update regarding the Bawso property in Wrecsam*

FOREIGN AID

While researching into Labour Party heavy Mutale Merrill I of course looked into those companies with which she is still involved. These being, Bawso Training and Interpreting Services Ltd and Abesu Ltd. The latter she runs with hubby Travers and step-son Samuel Oliver Crichton.

There’s little to report on either company. Unless they’re fronts for something bigger then they’re just ticking over.

Though one thing I did notice was that on the Certificate of Incorporation for Abesu, in the box marked ‘Previous surname(s)’, is typed Kalimamukwento. So is this her original or maiden name, and Nyoni the name from an earlier marriage?

6. click to enlarge

Of more interest is the Sub Sahara Advisory Panel, a ‘think tank’. It is a registered company, and a charity, number 1159990. Mutale Merrill is chairman.

The accounts for year ending 30 September 2015 were 235 days late in reaching the Charity Commission.

The accounts up to 31 March 2017 are now available. So what do they tell us? Well, before getting to the figures we read on page 14 that “SSAP is currently setting up a young women’s safe space platform in Newport, Bangor and Edinburgh” Edinburgh! With Welsh public money?

click to enlarge

The figures tell us that income is rising nicely, though staff costs of £51,488 account for the greater part of the income, and 78% of the £66,162 total SSAP spent. Leaving £36,319 as current assets, i.e. cash at bank and in hand £25,444, plus debtors £10,875.

click to enlarge

Though I’m wondering who actually does the work, because page 13 tells us that SSAP “recruited a project officer (part-time) in Wales following interviews of 5 candidates. The person in post has been effective as of 1st of November 2016”.

Seeing as the accounts go up to 31 March 2017 the salary for a part-time project officer would never amount to £51,000 in five months; so who’s running the show, pulling down the big bucks?

I’m also a little concerned by the use of the phrase “in Wales”. Does this suggest that the Sub Sahara Advisory Panel has employees outside Wales?

Anyway, to the funders . . .

Wales for Africa, as it says on the tin, “. . . works with individuals, communities, the third sector and the public sector to build the world we want to live in and the Wales we want to be.”

If you have the time, and the inclination, you might wish to read the Wales for Africa 10 Year Report, 2006 – 2016. It has a foreword by Carwyn Jones who, at the time of writing, was still First Minister. Moving on . . .

Comic Relief we know about, and I’m sure we all have our own thoughts.

The Welsh Centre for International Affairs is a registered charity, number 1156822, and based at the Temple of Peace in Cardiff, which, conveniently, is where Mutale Merrill’s Sub Sahara Advisory Panel is also located. I couldn’t help but notice that funding for the WCIA went up from £335,881 for year ending 31 March 2015 to £988,946 for year ending 31 Match 2016.

The accounts for the Welsh Centre for International Affairs come in a glossy and expensive document in which the actual accounts seem almost incidental, so where does it get its money from?

Well, as we can see, some 87% of the income came from just two sources; Wales for Peace with £243,233 and Hub Cymru Africa with £614,000. Have you ever heard of these? I hadn’t, so I did a little trawling.

Wales for Peace seems to be some kind of subsidiary of the Welsh Centre for International Affairs – but how can a subsidiary be giving money to the parent company! Because according to the figures below Wales for Peace gave the Welsh Centre for International Affairs £243,233 and the WCIA gave back £254,734.

7. click to enlarge

I can see how shuffling money around within an organisation might create employment, and give the impression of industry, but does it really achieve anything else?

And what of Hub Cymru Africa?

8. click to enlarge

Are you getting dizzy from going round in circles? Let’s stop now and retrace our steps before we get completely lost, because we are in a maze, and it has been created to deter investigation.

Also, to disguise the fact that Wales, a country so poor it doesn’t have a pot to piss in, has a foreign aid programme! Think about that – a foreign aid programme!

And all so that a bunch of delusional liberals down in Cardiff can be manipulated by shysters into ‘helping’ the less fortunate in foreign climes, and send delegates to conferences in Paris and God knows where else.

These bastards shouldn’t be given public funding, they should be taken around Wales and shown the realities of life – the food banks, the failing services, the deteriorating infrastructure, the poverty, the vandalism, the drugs, the crime, the sheer fucking hopelessness.

But of course those I’m talking about don’t notice any of that, it doesn’t affect them in their insulated lives; they’re doing just fine, and feeling frightfully good about themselves as well. With the rest of us paying for this illusion.

Bastards!

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

Let’s conclude by returning to Wrecsam, a town for which I’ve got a soft spot.

I am absolutely certain that the Wallich and Bawso buying adjoining properties within months of each other was no coincidence. Neither were the extensions. It suggests that they may be collaborating. But on what?

The mission statement for the Wallich can be found in the Objects of the charity, which were revised on October 18, to read:

9. click to enlarge

Whereas Bawso caters to black and ethnic minority women, as it explains on the home page of its website:

“Established in 1995, Bawso is an all Wales, Welsh Government Accredited Support Provider, delivering specialist services to people from Black and Ethnic Minority (BME) backgrounds who are affected by domestic abuse and other forms of abuse, including Female Genital Mutilation, Forced Marriage, Human Trafficking & Prostitution.”

So with one catering exclusively to the homeless and the other to BME women, where’s the overlap, or connection? Homeless BME women, perhaps, but how many would there be in the Wrecsam area?

Maybe the answer lies with human trafficking. Certainly this would explain the Bawso presence in Wrecsam. For if we go to the website and the Diogel Project page, we read, “In 2010 Welsh Government funded the expansion of the project to North Wales in response to increased demand for the service.” (Diogel is Welsh for safe or secure.)

So does this tell us that the property on Grosvenor Road was bought for Bawso by the ‘Welsh’ Government? And presumably the same applies to the Wallich property?

It certainly makes sense, for if we return to the most recent accounts we see, on page 20, that the Home Office gave £373,769 to the Diogel Project and the ‘Welsh’ Government gave another £74,000.

Though if women trafficked from eastern Europe are now being targeted by Bawso then it suggests that the definition of BME has stretched way beyond its original remit. But then, that’s how third sector bodies operate, if there’s an ishoo to be exploited and money to be made . . .

What a mess Wales is in with this self-serving Labour crony-filled third sector, with its property empires and investment portfolios, most of its funding going on salaries, motors and ‘conferences’, and achieving sod all for Wales despite being funded from the Welsh public purse.

It only remains for me to write to the Land Registry informing them that 33 Grosvenor Road in Wrecsam has been doubled in size but it seems the owner has neglected to notify them.

An oversight, I’m sure.

♦ end ♦

 

UPDATE 08.12.2017: We know that the Land Registry was not informed of the major changes to 33 Grosvenor Road, even though the title plan for 31 was revised towards the end of 2015.

So I got to wondering what changes had been approved by the local planning authority, Wrexham County Borough Council. I checked for both 31, the Wallich property, and for 33, the Bawso property, in the 10 years between 2007 and today.

Here’s what the WCBC website gave me.

click to enlarge

There is a full set of planning consents for 31 Grosvenor Road, but nothing for 33. Which suggests that the extension to 33 may have been built without planning permission.

Though of course, if no planning permission was granted then this would explain why Bawso didn’t notify the Land Registry about the extension.

I’m no longer sure whether this is just a planning irregularity or whether a criminal offence has been committed.

 

 

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[…] extends to those with a particular interest in clients from further afield, including some within five minutes’ walk of my office. They include the 48 different agencies being funded by the Welsh Government to provide […]

Brychan

The ‘anecdotal’ examples are well represented on this blog. So what is the overall statistical basis of the claim that charities like TheWallich are merely acting as a “colonial settlement agency of homeless people from England”?

Here is the evidence…

Local authorities has a statutory responsibility to ‘prevent’ homelessness as provided by ‘reasonable steps’ under the Housing Wales Act 2014. The prevent concept applies to the ‘danger phase’ which occurs between the date the council becomes aware of impending eviction and the date of actual eviction. Those in the ‘danger phase’ become cases. So in what percentage of cases are successful in preventing homelessness?

78% Gwynedd
73% Pembrokeshire
73% Caerphilly
73% Ynys Môn
73% Swansea
71% Ceredigion
67% Bridgend
64% Wrexham
64% Carmarthenshire
63% RCT
63% Flintshire
61% Powys
61% Wales average
61% Merthyr Tydfil
58% Monmouthshire
58% Conwy
57% Vale of Glamorgan
55% NPT
54% Denbighshire
52% Cardiff
52% Blaenau Gwent
50% Torfaen
49% Newport

Source – How Local Government Manages Demand – Homelessness.
Report from the Auditor General for Wales 08/01/2018.

Obviously someone threatened with homelessness, in the danger phase, by definition is an indigenous resident or defined as “eligible” by local connection, in that local authority area. You will notice that all local authority areas of Y Fro Gymraeg (Môn, Gwynedd, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire) is in the upper quartile of performance, as is Wrexham.

It is the counties of Gwent and Cardiff are in the lower quartile of performance.

This indicates where ‘third sector’ assistance is needed. Yet we see organisations like ‘TheWallich’ using Welsh Government funding expanding into areas where their services are least needed. Why is this? The most likely explanation is that those TheWallich is helping do not qualify as ‘local authority cases’ as defined by the Housing Wales Act 2014, in other words do not have any ‘local connection’ for ‘reasonable steps’ in any local authority in Wales.

In other words, ‘English’.

Begs the other question of why TheWallich purchased a property in Wrexham at £312,000 cash, in a town where their services are least required?

Dafis

note your tweet regarding Owain’s story in Daily Post and all those idiot trolls piping up with the usual mix of retarded shit. Owain must be around 80 or so, or at least it feels like it, and here he is carrying his campaign forward with diligence – a little bit here a bit there, pushing and shoving not put off by the Anglos and the sellouts living in various parts of N.Wales. It was also encouraging to note that bit of support from a schoolteacher in Liverpool who endorsed Owain’s stance.

Dafis

drsally you know a hell of a lot and I’m mildly surprised that you haven’t been “taken out” on some trumped up charge by the thugs working for the highly placed deviants. Women’s Aid in its early days was blessed with a high percentage of lesbians among its staff. Provision of safe havens for harassed women presented the predatory element among this staff with bags of scope for “scoring” but anyone reporting that suspicion would be shouted down as “bigot” “Jew” “misogynist” or whatever the fashionable label of the day happened to be.

drsallybaker

The lesbians bit is well-known, although of course there were those who didn’t simply find that they were attracted to women because they were homosexual, there were the political lesbians who had become lesbians as a political statement who frequently didn’t actually have sex with other women…

The lesbianism doesn’t explain the high levels of dysfunction within the organisation – I have known lesbians who were normal, capable people – or how such a train wreck of an organisation thrived yet alone extracted funding from a society which in those days didn’t have a huge ‘Third Sector’, particularly funding through the Thatcher years when the organisation was anathema to those holding the purse strings.

As for me being taken out – well there were two attempts to set fire to my house, numerous attempts to have me framed for very serious offences, vicious rumours put around among my neighbours about my insanity and the danger that I represented to their children – particularly when I was working as a teacher of course – the constant threats and harassment, the breaking into my car and the theft of letters from my lawyer but nothing else, the opening of post before it had arrived for me, the hounding out of two of my friends from jobs in the media who were planning to make a documentary about the mental health services in north Wales, the attempt to run another friend over at high speed, the death of my flatmate in a crash which involved a car being driven head on into her yet the driver escaping only with a broken arm, the violent attack on another friend in which someone tried to fracture his skull, the attempts of someone to get into my house late one night which my dog dealt with, the poisoning of my dog, the attempts to run me off the road at high speed and the vehicles which were driven in my direction at a high speed very carelessly. Oh and then the policeman following me with a gun that he should not have had – after he had threatened one of my friends the night before.

It’s why I left Wales Dafis. Plenty of people knew what was happening to me, including a number of Welsh Gov’t Ministers. After the policeman and the gun incident my lawyer told me to report it to the police. Somehow I didn’t think that would be an effective – or safe – thing to do. I’ve gone. And now I’m blogging because I know that the criminals who gave me hell for thirty years because I found out what they were up to are still doing it to other people. Not other criminals of course, but kids in care who have been abused or mental health patients who have witnessed the gross abuses which are routine in UK psychiatry and of course whistleblowers. I know of other people who wouldn’t shut up who like me ended up going into hiding and so far in the UK there are at least three consultant surgeons whose careers have ended because they would not keep quiet about the wrongdoing in the NHS and even an NHS Trust Chief Exec. The UK’s health and warfare services have gone so badly wrong that no politician dares admit it.

drsallybaker

DP – Well there were attempts to bribe me years ago, both in north Wales and then twice when I was working in London medical schools. The person who tried it in north Wales was absolutely foul and also wanted to have sex with me – I was so shocked when the bribe was offered that I barely knew what to say. I didn’t quite understand the signals in London – I failed to respond as expected and within weeks I was being excluded and was well on the way to being hounded out. Unbribable and insists on raising the unfortunate things happening to the plebs! Doesn’t do you much good in the UK health and social care system. In medicine it’s all about attending dinners, drinking wine and having sex with people higher up the ladder than you, a lot of them, not just one or even two – the record in the dept in which I worked in St Georges whilst I was there was held by a junior doctor who had sex with five different men, two of whom she had not met previously, in one weekend. She is now a consultant whose speciality is FGM and I read a wonderful profile of her in one of the glossy magazines a while back in which she was constructed as a Feminist Doctor who was able to dispense Sensible Womanly Advice to teenaged girls who were asking for designer vaginas. I expect Jane Hutt, Julie Morgan and BAWSO are consulting her re the campaign against FGM. As for a senior position in social care – from what I have seen you simply have to be barking mad, not very bright, innumerate, highly manipulative, but well rehearsed in the jargon of ‘caring’, being ‘passionate and committed’ whilst at the same time ‘acknowledging one’s own needs’. They really are made of different tissue to the rest of us, I don’t quite know how social work manages to find so many sufficiently dysfunctional people to promote to management level.

It wasn’t just Mary who came under attack – her son worked at Bangor University and he was targeted as well. Her other son was severely disabled and was in receipt of specialist residential care many miles away and she used to spend her weekends visiting him. This was the woman who had no ‘understanding’ of people with difficulties…Whilst Mary was CEO the Daily Post acted as a vehicle for anyone who wanted to throw shit at her. The Daily Mail joined in as well eventually which was fascinating because they didn’t run the story about the criminal activity in the NHS in north Wales which one of their contacts told them that I had before Mary arrived on the scene…But then the Daily Mail is strongly influenced by Amanda Platell who was William Hague’s Press Officer in the years during and following the whitewash of the North Wales Child Abuse Scandal which was the Waterhouse Inquiry – organised by one William Hague when he was Secretary of State for Wales. Amanda is in Mail Online today explaining that any allegations of sexual assault or child abuse must be fully investigated…

I am interested in where the funding for Women’s Aid came from in its early days ie. when dear old Hutt was setting up in Wales. Running refuges is not cheap and although Women’s Aid today is seen as worthy and fulfilling a need, that was not how it was viewed in the late 70s. Erin Pizzey acquired a terrible name for herself in London and in Wales there was a lot of grief about English townies arriving in rural Welsh speaking areas and not being able to ‘fit in’. I know in Bangor the refuge was up in Tai station and there was non-stop aggro. Any other charity would never have survived – so what’s the story behind Women’s Aid??? Some of the jobs were very well-paid too which folk from other charities thought was unacceptable. How did an organisation at war with itself, with a disgraced founder and such hostility ever thrive? Oh – and some women clients themselves walked out of refuges because of the aggression and the chaos…that was constructed by Women’s Aid as stuck up middle class women being used to better things, but that’s always the excuse when health n welfare scandals are uncovered by articulate angry people.

Come on Hutt – who gave you the dosh and why???

DP

Dr Sally

your insights into what is going on is remarkable – its a wonder you have not been cashiered and banished.

The killing of Elsie Scully Hicks is now more in perspective as it was obvious despite the attempted whitewash that it was just the killer that the grandmother/family was never going to be allowed to care for her against a gay couple. The judge has never been identified. To have any faith s/he must now come forward and apologise at the very least and go off and just do speeding ticket offences.

I hear Swansea social services had already been reported to the authorities before aaron gilbert was killed. Nothing was done, obviously, but all nicely covered up.

Mary Burrows is probably typical of anyone who tries to get something done – undermined and herself probably branded or accused of being an abuser of some sort and shuffled out the way with any inquiring reporters told – Ooh you don’t want to speak to her with what she’s done she a ….. fill in gaps…..

With regarding the property owning charities third teaters/troughers, eg women’s aid and associates of which BAWSO is one. each womens aid is a separate company/charity eg Anytown womens aid LTD becomes a stand alone company and part of the women’s aid federation. They then get oodles of funding to buy and run property paid form WG or local council or anywhere. There are probably a huge amount of property hidden within all these “charities” of which Jac is only scratching the surface and all paid for by the taxpayer.

Brychan

I’ve always been suspicious of the ‘Womens Aid’ or ‘Womens Refuge’ approach to domestic violence; mainly because it takes a victim of domestic violence just adds her woes by adding victimhood of a lost home.

When a police office gets a ‘shout’ to an incident of domestic violence that officer (or the custody sergeant) has powers of arrest and removal of the suspect and the imposition of bail conditions which usually removal of abode and non-contact pending court appearance. The magistrate has similar and more stringent powers if the prosecution is taken to a higher court.

Prosecution usually relies on key witness evidence, namely testimony of the victim. The effect of an intervention from ‘Women’s Aid’ is to circumvent these provisions by removing the victim from the residential address, or sometimes, more catastrophically, enlisting ‘mediation services’ or ‘counselling or some other form of quackery. The result is that the victim becomes homeless, filling a funding chrochan of the third sector (if middle class a frozen equity stake in a residential property).

This allows an institutionalised ‘victim fault’ in the process, lubricated by ‘reconciliation’, further abuse, misery, and in some prominent cases, murder. It appears to me, as 85% of domestic violence is men attacking women, ‘Women’s Aid’ should be providing evicted residential accommodation for the man, namely the wife beater. However, it’s difficult to raise charity funding for a hostel to house displaced rapists and wife beaters, so it’s the woman that has to be made homeless. This also has serious implications for the children of the household.

There is only one AM in Wales who has raised this issue and he’s been sharply criticized for his trouble.

drsallybaker

Yes the police do have those powers and these days the police often use them and deal with domestic violence appropriately – but that’s been quite a recent development. There is no question that until very recently the police were terrible at dealing with domestic violence and that some women were murdered despite having begged for help. It was only about ten years ago when I was walking through Bethesda in Gwynedd late one evening with a friend when we heard and saw one of the local police officers beating his wife up at home. I didn’t know what the fuck to do to be honest – er how do you ask the policeman for help when its him committing the offence? And the person I was with – a man, but quite a vulnerable man – begged me not to report it because the policeman in question was a nasty piece of work, lived near my friend and my friend was frightened of reprisals. The situation resolved itself as the policeman’s wife escaped out of the side door and made a break for it.

I’m not sure that I agree with you about inducing a victim mentality in women who have experienced domestic violence – they ARE victims of serious crime. I do know however that the counselling or ‘help’ that is on offer is sometimes diabolical and causes further harm. Some fifteen years ago I had a close friend in Gwynedd who was married to a man who as they had entered into middle age developed very serious psycho-sexual problems and became violent with it. He hadn’t always been like that and they had enjoyed a happy ten initial years of marriage, had two kids whom they doted on and had built up a very successful family business. As my friend’s husbands problems worsened she did what a lot of people do in that situation – first of all hoped it would resolve itself, then felt dreadfully sorry for him but didn’t know how to help him and then blamed herself. In the end my friend’s husband’s behaviour really did become incredibly dangerous and very obvious – they lived in a middle class cul-de-sac and the neighbours witnessed a few dreadful scenes. The nearest neighbours, a married couple, both worked as psychiatric nurses in the Hergest Unit. My friend had a nervous breakdown and was sectioned – on the ward where her neighbours worked. One of them was on duty when she was admitted. So that compromised dignity and confidentiality for a start. Did the neighbour on duty offer any reassurance? No.

My friend was discharged pretty quickly and arrived at my house distraught, too frightened to return to her family home – no-one had addressed the problem of her husband’s behavior. My friend became suicidal again so I rang the GP. He arrived at my place, sat in my sitting room and told my friend that perhaps he shouldn’t have sectioned her and taken her to the ward where her neighbour was on duty but frankly what was he supposed to do. He then spent 15 minutes going through the whole embarrassing scene that had led to my friend being sectioned – in front of me and two friends of mine, disclosing details that we were unaware of and that I really don’t think that my friend wanted us to know. The GP stated ‘well I won’t be helping you again’ and walked out of the door.

Indeed my friend received very little help from anyone, although she had been driven to a state of clinical depression and suicidality. One of her psychiatric nurse neighbours told me that my friend’s situation was ‘her own fault because she’s so pitiful’. Not surprising really, her husband had turned into a maniac.

After many months my friend was referred for group counselling at Hergest. GROUP COUNSELLING – for a problem like that. Furthermore when my friend was 15 she had been the victim of a violent rape which caused such severe injuries that it caused problems wen she gave birth to her first baby, as the scar tissue ruptured. My friend ended up being asked to discuss this in ‘the group’. Now some members of the group were supportive and understood the nature of group counselling very well. One man didn’t. After the session in which my friend had ended up discussing the violent attack on her when she was fifteen, he observed that he thought that there was something wrong but she still had a ‘big arse and tits’. Who was this man? He was the ‘service users representative’ no less who had meetings with the Welsh Assembly reps, the twats from MIND, everyone who reassured us all that there was no problems with the mental health services.

My friend kept telling me that people were gossiping about her – I thought that she was being over-sensitive until one day in Rachub a home help employed by Gwynedd County Council whom I had never even spoken to before felt able to say ‘ere, whats going on with your friend then, I’ve been told that there’s trouble there’. My friends neighbours who worked at Hergest it transpired had been having a field day on the gossip circuit.

My friend was never given any help either to deal with her own emotions or with her husband’s problems. He never received any help either. Their marriage split up, he became unable to run his business and they had to put their house on the market at a low price for a quick sale. They had an offer within a week – from the two Hergest nurses who had failed to even help as fellow human beings let alone health professionals and who had cheerfully dispersed confidential details regarding my friend around Bethesda. They explained to my friend that they’d always liked her house – it was the best one in the cul-de-sac – but they couldn’t afford any others like that but now that it was going cheap….

They bought my friends house and the two monsters lived there themselves until recently – when their own marriage ran into difficulties and they screwed each other over in a custody battle involving their child and ended up dealing with bastards like themselves. My friend wasn’t around to enjoy the schaudenfraude – after the way in which the most distressing parts of her life had been gossiped about by the world and his wife, she moved to another part of Wales where she met a new man and rebuilt a very happy life for herself. Her former husband developed severe mental health problems and the last I heard was virtually destitute. This was a man who had won the Queens Award for Industry.

There is still a great deal to be desired where help for the victims of domestic abuse is concerned. You are correct that men get virtually no help at all – whether they are the victims of a female partner or a male partner in a gay relationship. Furthermore I became aware a few years ago of a small number of cases in which very predatory older women had entered into lesbian relationships with younger very fragile women who had often been sexually abused as kids – there was domestic abuse in those relationships that was ignored by the mental health services, who were busy giving the younger women ‘counselling’ for their abuse at the hands of men…

The only time that I have ever heard of a service for men who are domestic abusers and want help to stop was actually in a radio charity appeal by Grayson Perry – his stepfather had been very violent towards him when he was a boy and he is involved with an organisation which works with violent men. i really admired him for that, you are right that it is a very unpopular cause.

By the way, there is also no help for paedophiles who want to stop their behaviour, absolutely none. The Lucy Faithful Foundation advertises itself as something that ‘works with paedophiles’ but it doesn’t provide therapy of any sort. The courses that paedophiles are given – in Altcourse and Staffordshire Prisons at least – prioritise rehearsing with the prisoners what they are going to tell people when they are released regarding the reason for their sentence. All efforts are concentrated on basically encouraging a cover story rather than trying to address the deviation which could well cause further offending.

I presume that you are referring to Neil McEvoy re the politician who has tried to raise the problem of domestic violence in which men are the victims? I saw him being rudely brushed off when I was watching Senedd TV the other day – its a consequence of the lame gender stereotyping by the Hutts and Julie Morgans et al who dominate Senedd responses to sex n violence. A case of Two Testicles Bad, Two Ovaries Good, that’s about all that their brains have absorbed.

Brychan

Police have had the 14 or 28 day eviction powers of a civil order since the 1980s, but this is dependant on evidence of harm and ‘intent’. It can only be pursued once a charge of ‘offences against the person’ like ABH or GBH is made. The powers were augmented in 2010 with the introduction of ‘go-orders’ which lasts for 24 or 48 hours, which does not depend on the ‘offences against the person’ provision.

This new power is ‘optional’ and needs to be adopted by the crown police force. It was pioneered by West Midlands which resulted in suspects being ‘ordered to the caravan in Wales’ approach. Once the ‘go-order’ is matured, the perpetrator can volunteer to opt for the civil order having secured alternative accommodation as a plea against the pursuit of more serious charges such as ABH or GBH. Usually the victim is happy with this as they are ‘happy to see the back of him’.

There is the longstanding Section136 of the Mental Health Act which allows for a 28 day clinical detention, but that does not apply to a residential premises. In the case you describe, the victim can only be protected after fleeing the home, so there is an in-built incentive to make the victim homeless rather than the perpetrator. The abuse being a contributory factor in the ‘breakdown’. A police officer is very wary of using these powers as it can be contradicted by a psychiatrist, so it’s usually only used when life is in danger. Proving ‘intent’ changes for proving ‘material harm, so the onus of evidence switches from the safety of the victim to the security of the perpetrator.

Unlike Scotland the Police powers in Wales is not devolved, which results in ‘dumping’ of subjects of ‘go-orders’ and ‘civil orders’ into Wales by police intervention in better resourced forces in England.

drsallybaker

Thanks Brychan, I didn’t know the details. What I have seen for decades is the routine failure to use the legislation that is in place to help, because because of the agendas of everyone involved – which very often are completely unrelated to providing meaningful assistance to the victim, whatever gender they are.

I’m interested to note that you mention the reluctance of the police to use certain powers that can be over-ruled by a psychiatrist. The police have among themselves been spitting feathers over psychiatry for a long time now. It has become almost routine for psychiatrists to flatly refuse to provide care to huge swathes of the population – in the event of the patient dying, there will never be criticism levelled at the psychiatrist. The usual narratives of ‘complex cases’ and patients ‘a risk to themselves and others’ will be used to excuse even criminal negligence. But God if a mental health patient dies at the hands of the police, there will be trouble. I know that it still happens – but the police certainly have to explain themselves.

I read an excellent speech delivered to a Police Federation conference a few years ago written by an officer who was questioning why psychiatrists are allowed to place patients in situations which will almost certainly result in the death of that patient, yet if the police fail in their duty of care for someone they will be sued and prosecutions may follow.

The mental health services are killing people at a far higher rate than the police are. Yet in nearly every case in which there has been trouble over the death of a mentally ill person it has been because the death occurred at the hands of the police or prison service. Just in north Wales alone, some deaths over the past few years have been inexplicable – yet no action followed.

A manic patient died at the Hergest Unit a few years ago – she died by choking after compulsively eating I think it was bread. She was allegedly being observed on a one to one basis BY A NURSE whilst she choked. Choking is not a quick process. The nurse in Court gave an extraordinary tale of this mad out of control woman whom he couldn’t stop cramming bread into her mouth. Yes manic patients can do some strange things – but she was in a psych unit. Staff in those units – including nurses – know that they have legal powers to restrain or sedate patients and they do, usually at the drop of a hat. It was also revealed in Court that there was no doctor at all on duty at the Hergest – not even on call – and the A&E doctors from Ysbyty Gwynedd ‘are reluctant’ to answer requests to attend the Hergest.

So a patient who had been detained at the Hergest – against her will, for ‘her own good’ – choked to death in full view of a senior psych nurse while doctors refused to attend. How the fuck does that happen? If that had happened in a police station there would be prosecutions mounted.

That poor woman died and was dismissed by the people who watched her die as a nutter. No more explanation was given.

Sometime before this incident, the police picked up a young woman in Bangor 11 times in one weekend as being in need of a place of safety due to mental distress. 10 times the Hergest discharged her as soon as she had been admitted. On the 11th time that she was taken to the Hergest, the Assistant Chief Constable went to see the Chief Exec of the NW Wales NHS Trust and told him that if they picked her up again, they would bill the Trust for her care.

The Hergest has been a very dangerous place for many years now and numerous patients have died. The NHS has got away scot free on every occasion.

Anonymous

Wonder if the rental income comes from running a women’s refuge? Housing Benefit and/or something from Supporting people Programme. And maybe the extension is for residential use and is hidden re security for same?

DP

before the “victims” have time to settle in the benefits claims are already lodged to get the Housing benefits and any other benefits paid to BAWSO/womens aid – oodles of income which is why they have to constantly shout about [exaggerate] abuse even though despite everything according to them the statistics get worse – once it was one or two women a week claimed to be killed by their violent partners last time I looked it had gone up to four or five. More [exaggerated] victims = more money?

It’s a liberal do goody funding racket from the taxpayer damaging to any children involved who may become targets for adoption or social services.

Dafis

Jac Just reading drsally’s latest episode of all the machinations within mental health/social services etc and linking it to earlier episodes that bridged into the police and criminal justice domain. One needs a spreadsheet to follow all those linkages, multiple daisy chains of dodgy characters all engaged in deviant behaviour and/or troughing at the public purse. Much of this is criminality with others just aiding and abetting by knowing but looking the other way. I’ve said before that there are lots of pig pens to be purged but bloody hell this is way beyond anything I imagined. Bit late in life to form a paramilitary organisation but something of scale will be needed to purge this lot. Could run out of ropes and lamp-posts ! and the tar and feathers market could be distorted by surges in demand.

drsallybaker

Dafis – it is horrible, but interesting. You are right, there is very serious criminality involved and much of it can be traced directly back to the concealing of or colluding with the paedophile gangs that operated in virtually every children’s social services dept in the 70s, 80s and 90s – those gangs had links with organised criminals dealing in child porn and hard drugs, so yes it involved police and judicial corruption as well. Organised child sexual abuse is so nasty that people who are involved with it will do pretty much anything to cover their tracks – when public figures and politicians are doing the abusing, that means an awful lot of people can use that knowledge to climb their way up the ladder. Back in the 80s those gangs were all linked, as was admitted by one of the more frank judicial inquiries. That has now led to present day human trafficking problems re kids in care.

You mention tar and feathers – one of the sites of child abuse was the Kincora Boys Home in Belfast where British Army Officers and civil servants were known to have abused the kids there – it was the judges report into Kincora years ago that admitted that the sexual abuse of kids in care was a nationwide problem. There were always rumours that a member of the Royal Family was involved at Kincora – the suspect is Lord Mountbatten. I’ve not seen any evidence of that, but there was an even greater cover-up at Kincora than there was in north Wales and at Lambeth and Islington. The framing and imprisonment of Colin Wallace the MI5 officer was thought to be because he was investigating Kincora. It played a role in the John Stalker affair and the concealing of activities there was undoubtedly used in the horse trading re the N Ireland peace process. KIncora has been excluded from every public inquiry into child abuse in recent years – something went on there that someone really doesn’t want anyone to know about.

There is a rumour that Lord Mountbatten may have been blown up not because he was targeted for being a Royal, but because it was a punishment execution for something terrible which of course the IRA and other groups did do in those days. You got tarred and feathered for marrying the wrong person – you got rather worse if it was believed that you were a sex offender.

DP

As I think I have said previously she was chair of the Care Council for Wales. A position as head of BAWSo gave her a clear conflict of interest – CCW are responsible for registering and regulating social workers. BAWSO work with many social workers plugging their DV mantra – has anyone notice how the figures for the number of women allegedly murdered by their [male] partner has gone up in proportion to the funding given to these groups. I am not aware if stats are published at all for women killing their partners.

I suspect she is also very close to Jane Hutt which was very important regarding he social work mess in Swansea. Jane Hutt was well aware of the problems before Aaron Gilbert died/murdered. The same problems may still be around both in Swansea and WAG.

drsallybaker

DP – I have spent many enjoyable hours researching those who have held senior positions in the health and social care system in Wales and the associated regulatory bodies since well before the Waterhouse Inquiry. It really is one big game of the pass the parcel. Those running the show whilst a paedophile gang caused havoc NEVER went away – some of those who were social workers and Councillors back then became AMs and Ministers – Julie Morgan, Jane Hutt, Lesley Griffiths and Drakeford for example. Others left their jobs as senior managers and joined the regulatory bodies or became advisors to the Assembly – the on the ground ‘team leaders’ whilst the paedophiles did their worst became senior managers. The world is not even rid of them once they retire – a favourite destination then is the health and social care research unit at the University of South Wales run by Marcus Longley. It really is utterly depressing. As for the NHS – that is one big merry go round of fools and fuckwits jumping between senior managers jobs/the highest echelons of the civil service/bodies like Health Inspectorate Wales/Chairs of Health Boards.

As a sideline, nearly all of them are also Trustees or Patrons of Third Sector organisations.

They really do have the whole system stitched up for themselves and no-one, absolutely no-one, who looks as though might be in danger of breaking their stranglehold – or blowing the whistle on the offenders re the child abusers and their associates – is ever allowed in. One person DID breach the barriers a few years ago – Mary Burrows, who was appointed as the first CEO of the Betsi. She challenged those we know and love, was undermined from within, set up and hounded out. I heard tale after tale about Mary that I KNEW to be untrue – from people who had never met her but who had listened to the poison dripped into their ears by those who had protected a paedophile gang. When Mary left, the vile cow who arrived as Vice-Chair announced that things were really in a shocking state in the wake of Mary – since then things have got worse, and worse and worse. Board now bankrupt, in special measures. Who is the vile cow/Vice Chair? It is Margaret Hanson – who was previously a children’s social worker in Cheshire working on the patch of a paedophile gang who abused kids in care and a Councillor there as well and who then became Head of Age Concern. Margaret is married to David Hanson – Blair’s former PPS. David Hanson was also a Cheshire Councillor during the paedophile years. The Chair of the Betsi is my old mucker Dr Peter Higson – former clinical psychologist at the North Wales Hospital Denbigh, former senior manager of the North Wales Hospital Denbigh, former Chief Exec of Health Inspectorate Wales, Trustee of Cartrefi Cymru. Victims of the paedophile gang in North Wales frequently ended up in the North Wales Hospital diagnosed as psychotic if they told people what was happening to them. Documents in my possession written by Higson himself demonstrate that he knew that patients were being illegally held at the North Wales Hospital but he didn’t follow up complaints about this. I also have evidence that Higson failed to investigate serious complaints against the mental health services when he was Chief Exec of HIW. Who could I have sent this info to? Er – Jane Hutt? Lesley Griffiths? Mark Drakeford? The Chief Medical Officer for Wales until recently maybe, Dr Ruth Hussey? Well Hussey is Higson’s sister. I did try though – I told Dr Brian Gibbons who took over as Health Minister from Hutt that I had evidence of serious criminal activity in the NHS in north Wales. Gibbons wrote back saying ‘this correspondence is closed’. That was it. I also approached the CHC – at that time the Chief Exec of Gwynedd CHC was Glanville Owen. Glanville was the manager of the children’s homes in Gwynedd whilst the paedophile gang was busy within them. The CHC ‘didn’t resolve’ my complaint.

Dr Ruth Hussey was recently made an honorary fellow of Bangor University, as was the former Head of the Care Council for Wales. Dr Peter Higson is a member of the Council at Bangor University. As is Ann Beynon, Leighton Andrews’ wife. The Leighton who is now ‘Professor of Practice’ at Cardiff University – the Leighton who once held the remit in the Welsh Gov’t for public service delivery. But then Ann Beynon sat on the bloody Equalities and Human Rights Commission.

Its just as well that everything was the fault of Mary Burrows.

Marconatrix

Jac : Afaik HMLR are only concerned with ownership of parcels of land, not whatever may or may not be built on them, although obviously maps show buildings since in a built-up area how else would you know where you were, there being few natural features. I imagine the local planning authority would be a better bet regarding extensions.

BG : Thanks for the link, interesting indeed, although “syntredig” (sic) had me stumped initially (had to look at the damned Seisneg — lol!) Even then I was puzzled. Seems to come from syncretiaeth/syncretism which the GPC helpfully defines as “An attempt (especially an unsuccessful one) to unite various religious or scholarly doctrines, faiths or practices” (my trans.) Perhaps not exactly the best wording to wow the werin bobol? Too much like “all things to all (Welsh)men”. I wish you well nevertheless, you can hardly do much worse than ‘Welsh’ Labour wedi’r cyfan …

Marconatrix

Well it’s been a few years, e.g. before everything went online, but I used to do LR searches and even the odd bit of lay conveyancing, so I knew the system. All the books will tell you that when you “buy a house” you simply buy a patch of land which (hopefully!) has a house sitting on it, although it’s always advisable to go and look before paying up. The LR are concerned to some extent with mortgages and longer leases, neighbours’ rights over your land and vice-versa, certain government and local authority restrictions etc., but not what’s built there.
Not sure what you mean by “registered its extension”, unless they bought more land or a mortgage was involved, I can’t see what there would be anything to register. However, as I said, I’ve been a few years out of the loop. All the same the Planning Dept. would surely have had to give permission?

Wynne

In addition to planning permission, Building Regulation approval would also be required with the Building Control department of the Council issuing a “completion certificate” if the work had been completed to the required standard. Most local authorities have a register of building regulation applications on their websites {similar to the planning process}. Two options are available. A developer can submit plans for building regulation approval and the Council have 5 weeks to approve or reject the plans, or the developer can simply serve a “building notice” on the Council. Under the second {and simpler} option the Council’s building control officer would inspect the work at various stages to ensure compliance with “Building Regulations 2010” and issue a “completion certificate” following a final inspection. Fees have to be paid to the Council under option 1 and 2. If correct process has been followed there should be a record of the Building Regulation approval granted.

Wynne

Yes, from the evidence you have presented it is looking as though planning permission may not have been granted. Should be fairly easy to establish. Planning applications submitted have, by law, to be recorded in a public register. That includes application form, engineering drawings, supporting evidence in the form of reports etc. The Building Regulation process is a bit more secretive. As I understand it, any technical plans submitted may not be in the public domain although they may have to disclose information under F O I Act. An enquiry to the planning department would appear to be the obvious first option.

David Robins

The map information on which LR plans are based comes from Ordnance Survey. LR only mark (digitally these days) the property boundaries onto the OS map sheets that they keep, so they’re not the ones to blame if the buildings depicted are incorrect.

Map data is only ever as up-to-date as OS can make it. There’s no obligation to inform anyone if your footprint changes. OS will pick this up with satellite imaging, drones, Google Earth or whatever else it is they use now. They don’t rely on planning records because sometimes things get built that don’t exactly follow the approved plans, and not every planning permission granted will be acted upon. If there are no planning records to suggest a change then it won’t be a priority for OS to resurvey and redraw the map for that area.

If there’s a breach of planning control, then the council can be asked to consider enforcement action, i.e. require the unauthorised works to be demolished. I’m sure you’ll enjoy that, Jac. Perhaps another email to the Valuation Office Agency: they would be very interested in extensions that affect the rateable value of commercial property.

Big Gee

Marconatrix.

Syncretism, in the political context, simply means the amalgamation of different schools of thought. Religion has been linked with the term, but has nothing to do with it in the political sense.

We also make it clear that we do not subscribe to the left, centre or right single axis paradigm, which often confusingly and misleadingly labels parties – a great favourite amongst journalists and political commentators, and especially supported and promoted by the establishment, for obvious reasons.

Being politically syncretic, we would not formulate policies based on dogma or doctrine, in a silly world where single axis terms are the focal point for the way a party operates and is judged. We will set out policies uniquely formulated for our country – regardless of whether they are judged by others to be ‘left’ or ‘right’ wing in essence.

The important thing for us, is that ALL our policies are aimed at what is best for our country and it’s citizens, and no other. The acid test for any of our policies should be “does it benefit our country and our people?” We’ve lived too long under the spectre of whether a policy adopted by any party is left or right ‘wing’ (a bloody nonsense). What we need is something that encourages us to lift our unique country out of it’s abject misery – not political doctrine or dogma that suits any particular political party depending on their nature- most of whom have their roots firmly sunk in the 19th & 20th century.

Wasn’t it some famous mathematician who said

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result

We are crying out for something new – outside of the realms of the thinking processes and actions of the ‘old brigade’. Political correctness, sound bites and the Brownie point scoring game is not our game. We will tell it as it truthfully is, regardless of the reactions and hissy fiting of other parties who are more concerned with semantics and image than with substance. The goal is to reform, adjust and adopt change from the way that London politics effects the lives of our people (and I include our only nationalist party here – Labour’s Little Helper) . We’ve suffered this for far too long. We need to look after the interests of Cymru and and it’s citizens and no other.

From the fantastic response we’ve received from all corners of Cymru, via our on-line ‘Register Support’ form at http://sccambria.com/NewParty/RegisterInterest/ it is apparent that not only are we striking a chord with our people, but it seems to be the right move at the right time.

Does that help clarify the use of ‘syncretic’ for you?

Marconatrix

Yes, thanks,, I got the jist, just thought you might have chosen a more familiar word, ‘pragmatic’ maybe, or is that an equally ‘anorak’ word? There’s sure to be a more transparent Welsh word too.

I’m glad you’re getting a good response BTW. I’d be interested to see you spell out your differences from / criticisms of Plaid Cymru, as clearly they’re as much your rivals as Labour.

Note : in the Welsh text for ‘synTredig’ read ‘synCredig’ (if you must use this awful word);
In the English, start of 2nd para, for ‘deel’ read ‘feel’.

Pob hwyl i chi ‘gyd 🙂

Big Gee

What’s your beef with the word ‘syncretic’ anyway? It’s only a word used to describe the operation of a party that does not recognise the single axis paradigm so loved by the establishment, media and of course the ‘yesterday’ parties.

You don’t think we propose to use it as the name of the party do you? Or are you being snide, in your usual side swipe but friendly little manner? Very much an Anglo Saxon trait that.

Marconatrix

Did I not wish you all well? Give me a break!
All that was intended was a bit of constructive criticism. I’d honestly never seen that word before, and I am I think fairly literate, and could figure out that the syn- bit was Greek for ‘together’. Well for all I know it comes up every night when you talk politics down at your local, but to me, using unnecessary fancy language is hardly the way to win friends and influence people. And you’ll need to do that to have any traction, beyond the initial core group.
So I was pleasantly surprised when you reported plenty of interest, so hopefully an idea whose time has come.

Big Gee

I’m tee-total & don’t frequent pubs. The name’s Gwilym – not Farrage.

I don’t use ‘fancy’ language either – I just tell it as it is – without the frills or the political correctness.

Does your vocabulary stretch to Libertarianism? Because I’m a firm believer in freedom as well, both of the individual, (as long as that freedom does not harm others) and my country.

For too long we’ve been the victims of control and ‘nanny state’ bureaucratic meddling in our personal and national affairs. It’s time to be straight and truthful and not pander to the many – to make ourselves popular by falsehood. Everyone appreciates honesty and candour. They also appreciate courage of conviction.

Don’t blame me for using a totally legitimate word to describe a party that will not be influenced by labels (I didn’t invent the word syncretic) , but we will harvest and implement any and all policies to protect our country and it’s identity.

So, if you’re struggling with syncretic – try ‘broad church’ party with a single goal instead.

Marconatrix

“Broad church”? Dear me that will never do, I’m an atheist, see 😉

Big Gee

And I’m opposed to all man made organised regions. But I know what a ‘Broad Church’ means in the political context.

Being an atheist you don’t do you?

Sorry, but I’m not a fan of shallow humour.

Dafis

You better watch out, the God fearing element might catch up with you. You may be aware that AQ and IS represent the nasty end of Islamic beliefs, well you ain’t seen nothing till you wake a Welsh Methodist in a bad mood !

Big Gee

Stan

Anna Ryder-Richardson set up a new charity two years ago called the Nature Foundation out of Manor Wildlife Parc, near Tenby. The first project launched was Ocean Motion where they “simultaneously worked with children in Pembrokeshire and Nairobi, teaching them about the importance of keeping our oceans clear of litter and helping them find solutions which reverse or at least reduce damage already done”. Nairobi must be quite a place, being where Peter Hain was born and if I’m not mistaken, Naz Malik went to school there and may have been born there.

How does this connect to Hub Cymru Africa? Well they gave the charity a grant of £3,000 which appears in the charity’s accounts for 2016. Whether the project is still ongoing, I know not.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/tvs-anna-ryder-richardson-launches-10110027

It’s also worth a look at the link below which sets out grants awarded by Hub Cymru Africa. I gave up after a while but not before spotting the generous funding to such things as:

Improving mental ill health management in Lesotho; Strengthening the Training of Health Extension Workers and Midwives in Ethiopia; and Breadmaking skills for marginalised people in Uganda.

Warning – do not view if you have high blood pressure!
http://www.hubcymru.org/hub/grantrecipients.html

Marconatrix

What strikes me is the whole highly distributed ‘scatter-gun’ approach, a little here a little there across an entire diverse continent. If they were serious wouldn’t it be better to pick a single place with some connection to Wales and concentrate on some kind of exchange programme or whatever focused on that specific community?

drsallybaker

Stan and Jac – tears are running down my cheeks, but I don’t know whether it’s laughter, despair or frustration after reading the links that Stan has supplied.

1: there is plenty of evidence that Fair Trade is keeping farmers in poor nations in poverty, because of the farming methods that Fair Trade insists that they use. Fair Trade is not doing them any favours but schools for the last few years have positively indoctrinated children into its beneficial effects and it is obligatory for kids in many schools to support this con that basically serves to make affluent people in the UK feel good about leading a comfortable lifestyle. A few years ago I went to watch my friend’s young son in his school play in an event that also involved a contribution from the local vicar, who’s friend had been instrumental in setting up Fair Trade. After the kid’s play we were subjected to what could only be described as a bit of Pathe News from the vicar, followed by all the kids raising their arms in solidarity saying ‘Fair Trade Helps’. My mate and her husband – like me – knew what horseshit the kids were being fed, but when you’re ten you can’t afford to be the only kid in the class who’s parents refuse to Support Africa, so my mate’s son had to join in.

2: What the fuck do we have to teach people in Uganda about making bread? Most people in the UK buy white sliced if they don’t have any money, artisan if they do have money and if they make their own they use a bread maker which has cost a bomb. I only know of one person who makes her own bread properly and that’s because she’s based at home on the farm with the stove going all the time anyway, so she pops the bread in. Furthermore Ugandan bread is probably based on a different grain anyway – I’m not entirely sure, but I very much doubt that they’ll want bread made the Woman’s Hour way.

I have become increasingly angry at the number of mental health workers from Wales going out to developing nations to tell Johnny Foreigner how to run a mental health service. Not only is there now great concern about western psychiatry imposing its theories on other parts of the world, but we are hardly in a position to tell them what to do – look at the state of UK psychiatry, it is a disgrace and in Wales it is dreadful. The Betsi Board is in special fucking measures because of serious abuse in its mental health services and has one of the worst suicide rates in the UK. Professors Catherine Robinson and Rob Poole have just been given £4 million quid to ‘lead’ a suicide prevention project in India – Poole is a psychiatrist for the Betsi and Robinson is a psychologist who’s research unit was funded by the Betsi. She also knows exactly how bad the ‘service’ is and about the harassment and threats that patients who complain routinely receive. It is ludicrous. Western psychiatrists try to justify it by bollocking on about cultural competence – they don’t even understand the meaning of the phrase. Ethnic minorities IN THE UK for years have had higher rates of forced detention, forced medication, ‘restraint’ and die in the ‘care’ of the mental health services far more often than white British people – the embedded discrimination within the UK mental health services has been demonstrated for years. How dare we send folk out to ‘teach’ them?
The Dolen Cymru link. Well there’s a laugh. I knew one of the GPs in north Wales who was a leading light in Dolen Cymru a few years ago. His role at the time was to establish an HIV/AIDS service in Lesotho – with close links to South Africa. Thabo Mbeki was in Gov’t in S Africa at the time and this GP was waxing lyrical about the good work of Mbeki. I reminded this GP that Mbeki was telling his health officials to tell the citizens of South Africa that HIV did not lead to AIDS – that particular belief of Mbeki’s caused chaos. This GP cheerily said oh well because S Africa can’t afford the AIDS drugs they don’t want the people to ask for them. So that GP was happy to go along with that lethal fucking propaganda because he didn’t want to fall out with the S African Gov’t. This GP is also a leading light in the BMA and he knows exactly how bad the mental health services in North Wales are – he used to work in them. For the last year I have had enough and I have been blogging about what has been going on – I received en e mail from this GP recently accusing me of libelling him. No I didn’t libel him but I have published some of what he and his colleagues are doing.

Western aid to Africa and other developing nations has become completely discredited – there have been the scandals concerning the Adopt A Child projects, the scandals concerning the lifestyle enjoyed by the ‘aid workers’, the Africans themselves telling Geldof that they want him to butt out because he is doing so much harm, the havoc that western psychiatry is reaping on certain populations etc. But that bunch of dipsticks in the Senedd – it’ll be the usual suspects, the Hutts and the Julie Morgans, ignoramuses who do not know their arses from their elbows but they do like an organic coffee – will be utterly unaware. Because They Know Best.

A word about Somalia, which was mentioned in one of Stan’s links. Somalia has a high profile in Wales at the moment. Because of FGM , which dear old BAWSO are ‘campaigning against’ – I mean we all know that the natives take their little girls back home to be mutilated with a razor blade covered in cow shit don’t we. Er no, they don’t. FGM is not usually practised by those communities who are in the UK and if it is, it is done unlawfully by doctors in the UK, often in Harley Street. I have mentioned the stereotype about the razor blade with cowshit on it because this was the defence used by a doctor in a London medical school whose mate was carrying out FGM in his Harley Street clinic. ‘Of course it’s FAR BETTER that we do it because they’ll do it anyway’. Particularly as we can charge them a fortune and we won’t be prosecuted.

The desire for ‘prosecutions’ re FGM is causing huge damage to community relations with Somalians in the UK. I think a bit of awareness raising is needed. I’ll apply to Jane Hutt for a grant.

Max Wallis

am surprised you are unaware of the Wales-for-Peace project, using lottery money devoted to commemorating WW1. The WCIA accounts show money coming in to them as managing it and more than the income going out on the Project. Much goes on staff – it does say how much management fee back to the WCIA or what goes to the WCIA for office space and use of equipment. Presumably reasonable charges unless you have evidence otherwise.
So do limit your bullets for Bawso and Wallich in Wrecsam in this case.

Wynne

Yes, totally agree with Big Gee. New party needs a clear policy on Quango’s. Where do you find time to do all the research Jac.

Dafis

Why should it be any of them ? Poverty reigns supreme in most of the countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin/Sth America yet most of the aid gets sucked up by bloated despots like our friend E-ba-guM who has recently made way for another dubious shyster to take over siphoning duties. The use of UK government driven aid programmes is heavily biased to propping up corrupt regimes and has next to nothing to do with a wish to tackle and eradicate poverty. If it were so, we would have taken serious steps to educate engineers and other skills on a far greater scale to enable these countries to hoist themselves out of the shit – but no, it suits the “Old World” powers to keep manipulating large tracts of this world screwing their economies, ripping them off for any mineral wealth that can be looted by corporate gangsters. Defence contractors make big bucks flogging “defence” kit to the despots which are most commonly used to supress any dissent among the population. So aid is an “investment” that leads to more wealth creation in the armaments industries. Lovely !

Sadly the pseudo socialists and softy left poseurs enjoy the virtue signalling and spend ages in denial that any of our donations go to wrong destinations. Well it’s all bollox, big ones, just like it’s slowly getting to be the case here in Wales with the likes of this BAWSO outfit and all the other shitty outfits taking public money to solve problems they help to create and proliferate.

drsallybaker

Dafis – we don’t only extract their mineral wealth, we extract the professionals that they desperately need and have educated at their own expense. For decades the NHS has relied upon swathes of overseas doctors – particularly from south Asia – to do their ‘postgraduate training’ here ie. fill the junior posts. They are viewed very much as second class employees, the racism against them is appalling and is institutionalised, as every analysis of GMC fitness to practice tribunals has shown. Overseas doctors are very much over-represented in the statistics for disciplinary action and they are hauled over the coals for far lesser offences than British graduates. They continue to come to work in Britain because they are still told that the British hospitals ‘are the best in the world’, a myth reinforced by us sending over British professionals as ‘aid’ to show them all how its done. When they arrive to work in a UK hospital they receive a rude awakening.

Some years ago there was a wonderful Indian psychiatrist working at the Hergest Unit – he was the best doctor in that very dangerous troubled Unit, quiet, gentle, caring, intelligent, everything that you’d want in a psychiatrist but very rarely get. He witnessed assaults on patients by staff, staff perjuring themselves in order to bring charges against patients who had complained and also knew that there was another doctor working there who was ill himself and was phenomenally violent to his wife/neglecting his young children/was having sex with other hospital staff on the premises during work hours. I met this Indian doctor some months after he’d left the Hergest and I asked him why on earth he didn’t blow the whistle. He replied ‘I am a junior doctor, I am Indian and an overseas graduate, they would have destroyed my career’. He told me that he had decided that all he could do was make sure that he appeared on the ward when he knew that things were getting nasty and hope that his presence would keep the abuses of the other staff to a minimum. One of his overseas colleagues who worked at the Hergest later killed himself – his name was smeared by the glorious best of British at the Hergest even after his death.

At the same time, Ysbyty Gwynedd managers flew over to the Phillippines on a recruitment drive and returned with nurses. They were wonderful, absolutely fantastic. Everybody commented on how good they were. Like the Indian doctor whom I admired they too were just dismissed by the rest of the staff as folk to do the work that our puffed up uncaring arrogant home grown staff wouldn’t do.

Who was Health Minister whilst these outrages happened which were kept hidden? Jane Hutt of course, that great friend and supporter of BAWSO.

Brychan

It should be noted that the ‘donation’ of £ £373,769 to Diogel Project by the National Probation Service was promoted by the then Director-General at the Home Office, Lady Eithne Victoria Birt. She is, of course married to Baron John Birt, former Director-General of the BBC, and Strategic Advisor to Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair from 2001-2005.

Curiously, Lady Eithne now shares a directorship with Robert Fred Quick a former senior police officer having both launched a company called Bluelight Global Solutions, which is a kind of ‘police mercenary outfit’ to sub-Saharan Africa.

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/07237422
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Eithne_Birt

Quick, previously hit the headlines over his raid and arrest of Conservative MP Damien Green after he obtained secret documents from the Labour Home Secretary, Jaqui Smith (appointed by Blair). Quick has hit the headlines, once more, when further launching a political vendetta for Labour by publishing a claim that ‘legal porn’ was found on Greens computer which was obtained during the previous police investigation, now that Green is deputy PM.

drsallybaker

Very interesting Brychan. Tony Blair absolutely surrounded himself with advisors and aides who even all these years later are to be found on the Boards of various organisations – charities, companies and consultancies – many of which are doing worrying things under the umbrella of right-on causes. As with the ‘human rights’ lawyers who are networked with Blair and Cherie, they have actually played a key role in the concealing of some pretty dreadful activities. I discovered it all when I researched the people who concealed the North Wales Child Abuse Scandal – politicians from across the political spectrum were involved, but again and again the lawyers who got child abusers off the hook such as dear old Lady Patricia Scotland subsequently did really well out of Blair.

I noticed repeatedly that the people whom I discovered had concealed or colluded with organised child sexual abuse in north Wales, in Leicester or in London, had passed through the Runnymede Trust, the Equal Opportunities Commission, the Commission for Racial Equality etc. It was very obvious. I have now researched their networks – all roads lead back to the child abuse scandals of the 70s, 80s and 90s. Because so many of those involved were social workers or ‘human rights lawyers’ they have completely colonised the ‘helping people’ charities.

I haven’t got time to repeat all my findings here – I’ve put up all the names and networks on my own site – but my investigations are continuing. Yes, I came across Birt as well, but I didn’t know about his wife. Birt was a mate of Mandelson’s when they worked at LWT years ago.

Blair very obviously used his knowledge of serious crime and those who concealed it to gain power – and of course you’ll never hear a thing about any of it in the mainstream media because of Blair’s links with the likes of Birt.

The phenomenon even extends to the academics in Blair’s circle. Matthew Taylor, another Blair advisor, is the son of sociologist Laurie Taylor. Laurie’s ex wife Anna Coote is part of the circle who hung out with the ‘radical’ lawyers of the 70s and 80s who failed to help working class kids who were being raped and trafficked whilst in the care of Labour-led London Councils such as Islington and Lambeth. Laurie has massive credibility among ‘radical’ sociologists – Laurie did of course work with the category A prisoners in York when he was a sociologist up there – and a few weeks ago he had Prof Dick Hobbs on his Radio 4 show discussing ethnography. Dick Hobbs’ specialism is the sociology of organised crime. Dick Hobbs was friends with the late Jane Morgan, who was married to historian Lord Kenneth Morgan, Principal of Aberystwyth University. There was a big problem at Aber – they were turning out crooked law graduates who concealed child abuse in Wales. Jane and Kenneth knew quite a lot about that. Like Dick Hobbs, Jane was a criminologist – who knew a great deal more about organised crime than she ever published. As for Dick Hobbs – as an ethnographer he lived among serious criminals and bent coppers to conduct his fieldwork.

Well Lord Kenneth/Laurie/Matthew/Dick, I am living in hiding now because I was a witness to the North Wales Paedophile Gang and the threats made towards me were so serious that I had to leave Wales. Fancy telling Inspector Knacker what you know about the people who killed the five witnesses in April 1992 when someone invited them to a party and then chucked a petrol bomb into the building?

I will blogging further details about the Runnymede Trust on my own site soon. There’s connections between them and the people who ensured that Greville Janner was never prosecuted…

Big Gee

Nice one Jac. Phenomenal research work.

We know the answer to this mess don’t we?

http://sccambria.com/NewParty/RegisterInterest/