Identifying ‘mapexx’.

A few years ago I used to enjoy visiting the excellent BBC blog of Betsan Powys until it was overrun by Unionist bigots. To the point where Ms Powys couldn’t write about the illegal trade in ivory, or EU plum quotas, without these loonies blaming it all on the Welsh language, or devolution. No matter what the subject, their only response was to spout the same robotic messages of hate towards all things Welsh. Among these bigots was one Mapexx 2signing as ‘mapexx’. Some of mapexx’ contributions can be found on this page from the blog, scroll down to comments 8, 18, 24, 27, 35, 44, 45, 54.

Pay particular attention to number 35. Here, presumably providing evidence for his / her anti-Welsh language views, mapexx says: “Before you say I am wrong, keep one thing in mind, I WAS a Census enumerator in the 2001 census, and am already signed to be one again in the next census. I was also engaged to do a follow up series of interviews with many across the south east Wales area. I found very very little, in the way of fluency to any level, beyond a few simple words.” (A fuller extract can be found right. Click to enlarge.) The only conclusion to be drawn is that mapexx was an enumerator in the 2001 census, and was to be one again in 2011. Whatever he or she might have been, it was also clear from these and countless other comments that mappex belonged to the rabidly anti-Welsh wing of the Labour Party, all dressed up as opposition to devolution, ‘extremism’, and unspeakable things being forced down the throats of innocents.

Now after reading this very indiscreet and worrying comment I wrote to the Office for National Statistics. For quite obviously enumerators are sworn to a code of secrecy. Regretably I can’t find my letter to the ONS, but I do have a copy of the reply. It can be found here. Soon after the exchange of letters with the ONS mapexx stopped making his / her odious contributions and disappeared. I may even have tipped off mapexx that I was going to write to the ONS. I can’t recall. Maybe someone can find such a comment. Certainly, another regular contributor to the blog drew attention to the indiscretion. Finally, note that the ONS says it has not yet started recruiting enumerators for 2011. Yet mappex already knows he / she will be working on the next census. How can that be? (A suggestion will be found below.) Anyway, time passed, and I almost forgot about mapexx.

Then, today, a letter Gez Kirby letter WMappeared in the Wasting Mule, and it was as if the gates of memory swung ajar. (That’s poetic, that is.) The letter can be seen left. (Click to enlarge.) It is from Labour councillor Gez Kirby of Caerffili. Let me explain that at the same time mapexx flourished and gained notoriety Kirby was also appearing on blogs and elsewhere saying . . . well . . . very much the same things as mapexx. Kirby and mapexx were almost kindred spirits. Both didactic and pedantic, ‘I’m smarter than you’ types. Coming out with the sort of comments you get from a clever boy who’s been to university andGez Kirby pic believes this allows him to talk down to people. Or am I being unfair on Kirby? Does the man in the photo look the kind of cocky bastard I’m describing?

The letter in today’s Mule prompted me to visit Caerfilli council’s website and, in particular, Kirby’s information. Where I found, in his Declaration of Member’s Interests, the interesting fact that he works for the Office for National Statistics. (Click here and scroll down.) Following a lead on the council website I did some more Googling and came up with this. Which tells us that Kirby is an ONS representative for the Public and Commercial Services Union. (See panel below left.) Incidentally, something else I learnt from the Caerffili website is that Kirby was elected to the council last year with just 18.74% of the vote, making him the least popular – by some distance – of the three successful Labour candidates in Pontllanfraith ward.

A little more digging told me that Kirby had also belonged (in 2004) to the Population and Migration Theme Working Group of National Statistics. Though these minutes suggest that Kirby was not a great success, for they begin with him apologising for incomplete minutes of the previous meeting! This group seems to deal with population movements, such as the influx we are experiencing into Wales. I can’t help wondering if an anti-Welsh bigot like Kirby isn’t ideally suited for this group, especially if it does more than merely study and report. I’d appreciate more information on this group.

I am not for one minute – heaven forfend! – suggesting that Councillor Gez KIrby is mapexx. In fact we can prove it. All we need to do is find another reasonably articulate, anti-Welsh bigot, based in the Gez Kirby 2south east, who likes to spout his odious views on blogs and in newspapers, is a staunch supporter of Israel, and has strong connections with the Office for National Statistics. There must be hundreds satisfying those criteria . . . Well, dozens, surely? Some? Any?

And even though I’m sure there is no connection between the real-life anti-Welsh bigot, Gez Kirby, and the anti-Welsh troll, mapexx, I would still expect the Office for National Statistics to investigate the possibility – remote though it may be – that someone working for them used a widely-read blog to disseminate confidential information gained carrying out his duties for the ONS. (Of course, the more likely possibility is that mapexx lied about the findings in order to give his / her bigotry some credibility. So which is worse from an ONS perspective?) And if I was Kirby’s employer I’d wonder how much work he does for the ONS . . . when he’s not doing union work, council work, tweeting, networking on Facebook and Linkedin, and posting God knows how many comments in God knows how many names, to God knows how many blogs. (No wonder he can’t get the minutes ready.) Hang on! he works for a government department, I am his employer!

I would also expect the Public and Commercial Services Union to make enquiries, so as to establish beyond any shadow of doubt that their representive, councillor Gez Kirby, is / was not mapexx.

Normally I would also be asking the Caerffili Labour Party to do something, but I feel that shower has more than enough problems to worry about at the moment. I’m not a complete bastard!

Ok, all joking aside, and to leave no one in any doubt as to what I am saying. I believe that there are enough grounds to suspect that Councillor Gez Kirby, an employee of the Office for National Statistics, abused his position to post comments on a BBC blog, under a spurious name, claiming to be using confidential information gained through his employment. That being so, his employer and others, such as Caerffilli council, have no alternative but to establish – through the BBC, internet servers and other channels – whether Councillor Gez Kirby was ‘mapexx’. If so, then disciplinary action must be taken.

 

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Anonymous

Jac is a complete idiot

Bannon

Jac.Just found your blog. Very interesting posts. Like you I find posters on Betsan’s blog, immature and lacking in knowledge.One could almost believe they were,mostly, inmates of a secure mental health unit,allowed internet access as a reward for taking their medication. Having found you,I will check in frequently – thanks for the time and effort you put in to this

Jac o' the North

Nice to be appreciated. You’re always welcome.

penygadair

I’ve tried to retrieve old WoL postings of Scouse55 (sorry said 57 – memory lapse) when he was in full flow on the old forum, but without success.

Some of his anti Welsh language postings – including Wales is not a country – can be found on this link. I haven’t read much from Mappex so cannot say if style is same. Leave you to judge.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/bbc-closing-welsh-language-sports-website-1850687

His legend was that of a retiree who had moved back to Varteg after years of living on Merseyside (fond memories he said) and in the Gulf. Mentioned that he had trained as a carpenter but amazingly had headed up several major construction projects! All multi-posters manage to fall over their concocted legends at some point.

The most memorable aspect of his posts was his hostility and abuse towards anyone who disagreed with him. Aren’t they all the same?

Jac o' the North

Scouse55 sounds very much like ‘mapexx’. And the link you provided is from February 2011, by which time mappex had disappeared. And if he says he lives in Varteg, then we can be fairly sure that he doesn’t live in Varteg. Because the whole point of hiding behind a pseudonym is that it’s someone who doesn’t want to be identified. It allows someone to say things he wouldn’t say under his real name. Doubly important for someone with a public persona.

Iestyn

That’s jogged a memory. I think Mappex was Tomos33 in a previous incarnation (BBC discussion boards), same back story, same attitude.

He was one of those annoying ones who made just enough sense to trick you into discussing with him, and then ignored any logic / exposure of half truths / untruths / propaganda and just carrying on regardless.

I have a feeling he got banned in the end. I never really found out why, just saw the fall out from a pile of Brit Nats claiming a conspiracy of Welsh Nats had lured dear old innocent Tomos into saying something inappropriate, and then, the BBC beiong that hot-bed of nationalist bias (see – that Anglesey bloke that no-one cas say his name! Proves the point…) had used the excuse to make a martyr of him…

Poor dab.

I thought there was another one at the time called Scouse something. Maybe they were the same…

Jac o' the North

Yes, I’ve noticed that too. These bastards have so many incarnations they must be Buddhists. And so many parallel existences they must schizophrenics. Poor dabs, indeed.

Andy Williams

Wonder what mapexx makes of Carwyn Jones and his insistance his kids learn welsh.

I also wonder if there’s a chance the Americans could be persuaded to hit him with an airstrike.

penygadair

A past poster on Wales Online used the same legend as the 2001 Census Enumerator who would cross question people as to their fluency in Welsh.

That was Scouse57 (a virulent hater of anything Welsh) who claimed to live in Varteg.

Jac o' the North

Never heard of Scouse57, but would appreciate more info.

Geraint Davies

I’m truly shocked and saddened a Labour councillor could behave in such an under-hand manner. Oh what am I saying….

Daffy

The sad thing is that there are people living here who vote for such sh*ts!

Jac o' the North

No future for Wales by the democracy route until Labour is broken.

Iestyn

Wasn’t Mappex another incarnation of some old codger from Abersychan who lost his username or password every now and then? I vaguely remember his “talking to people who claimed to be Welsh speaking, and finding out that none of them were” posts regarding his census duties, but if we’re talking about the same guy, I’m pretty sure that he was fairly consistent about being from Abersychan way. He was one of a cohort who whinged that independence would change everything and destroy our british way of life, but spent weeks every year in France because the culture and way of life was so much better there…

Jac o' the North

I’m afraid I don’t see mapexx as a forgetful old codger. I see an
arrogant fucker who never misses a chance to put people down in the most
insulting way. Very much like Gez Kirby . . . which is hardly
suprising.

Kirby belongs to the Dai Smith / Old Labour School of Welsh History.
This holds that what may generously be called the Welsh nation came into
being with the Industrial Revolution. Prior to this was darkness, and
an area inhabited by primitive pastoralists and a few bloodthirsty
warlords. But these people were not a nation, and Wales had no claim to
being a country. (Or at least, not a ‘real’ country.)

This view can in large part be attributed to a factor I have touched
on more than once. The Welsh in the nineteenth century voted, or
supported, the Liberal Party, even after migrating to the industrial
areas. Whereas the immigrants to the southern coalfield from outside of
Wales rejected the Liberal Party, plus the chapels and the Welsh
language that were part of the ‘package’. It was these immigrants,
mainly English and Irish, who formed the Labour Party. A party hostile
to all things Welsh from its creation. Over a century or more the Labour
Party in Wales became more Welsh and, as the children and grandchildren
of the immigrants assimilated, these divisions became less obvious. But
there remain people like Gez Kiby / mapexx for whom all things Welsh
are to be destested and ridiculed.

The reason they hate the Welsh language above all else is because if
you want to promote the idea that the Welsh are not a nation, and
therefore Wales is not really a country, then the Welsh language, spoken
by almost all Welsh as recently as 200 years ago, is a real bloody
problem for you. So you have to reduce the numbers speaking it, push it
further into the past, pretend it was never more than a rural patois
unknown in Merthyr or Pontypridd, etc., etc.

One comment I’ve found here from ‘mapexx’ in September 2009 goes for
broke, arguing that by the time the Romans arrived the Celts had died
out! So desperate to deny Welsh nationhood are these twats that they are
prepared to go back 2000 years to look stupid.

Like I’ve said before. There is no point in trying to be reasonable
with people like these. Don’t waste time debating things with them. Just
tell them to shut up and fuck off.

Jac o' the North

Here are some tweets from Kirby this morning. Amazingly, he does not deny being mapexx. Surely, if innocent of the connection, denial is the obvious response and, for an innocent man, the end of the matter?

Brychan

“I would
suggest a few years living amongst the Muslims in their heartlands, not
sympathising with them from the comfort of your computer chair. I have been
there and done just that. Lived amongst them and listened, as they drone on
incessantly about how Islam will soon take over the world, of how they have
cells in every western country to foment trouble, and to attempt to ‘convert’
the weak minded to their faith.” – Mapexx on BBC blog.

I would be most
interested where Cllr Kirby has spent time resident in a Muslim
‘heartland’.

If he was, then
I wonder why his generalised slant on the Islam is not shared by
received opinion with the exception of (Al-Qaeda inspired)
parts of Somalia, the Peshawar tribal cults, the Yemen minority, and an
some illegal sects in Saudi Arabia. When did he ‘live amongst them’ ? I am
assuming that he is not referring to some racist slur of his fellow ONS staff in
London or at Titchfield with the view that all Muslims are terrorists. Either
way, I think it incumbent upon Cllr Kirby to explain this comment.

Gwilym ab Ioan

The plot thickens Jac. It’s a well known fact that if you give a
baboon a loaded gun he will inevitably shoot himself in both feet!Sounds like mapexx is about to start howling in pain whilst looking for the first aid box!

Penddu

I remember from discussions with Mapexx on Betsans blog that he claimed to originally hail from Birkenhead if that helps.

Jac o' the North

Kirby is from Cardiff. But ‘mapexx’ told porkies, that’s the beauty of a pseudonym.