INTRODUCTION
Everyone I think accepts that in Wales we have a dysfunctional housing or property sector; one not fit for purpose, and one that certainly doesn’t serve the needs of the Welsh people.
But I’m not simply talking about holiday homes and English migrants squeezing us out of the private housing market, though that is the biggest problem in rural areas, especially in the west.
No, the issues in Welsh housing go beyond asking £2.2m for a ‘fisherman’s cottage’. There are problems less obvious, that don’t attract such attention. And yet, if these problems were remedied, then the money saved could go towards solving other issues.
In this post I shall deal with two of those problems.
◊
GANGLAND ABERYSTWYTH
There have been persistent reports of trouble in Aberystwyth of a kind that almost beggars belief. I quote from this recent report, “There’s been a number of instances where a fight took place between rival gangs from the midlands (sic), apparently, who were fighting over a turf war.”
The area worst affected is close to the castle, in the Rheidol ward. Here’s a map of that ward, with one address marked with an x on Upper Great Darkgate Street. I’ve done this because I’m going to tell you a little story.
So make yourselves comfortable.
This part of the town, Upper Great Darkgate Street, between Clock Square and the castle, holds fond memories for me. For back in the ’60s it was home to two great pubs, The Angel and The Farmers, next-door to each other.
I sank many a pint in both. And oft-times in wonderful company. I have great memories of Cayo on his accordion leading the ensemble.
Happy days!
The Farmers is closed, but the Angel is still open, but obviously not what it used to be, to judge by this review. Though if they think this is the dirtiest, scruffiest pub in Wales, then the Sheppey family of Pontypool enjoy a very sheltered life.
Note the reference to this pub being “full of drug people”.
The reason you’re traipsing down Memory Lane with me is because, back in June 2019, I was in the vicinity when I came across a strange scene. The road around the clock tower was blocked off by the police and I could see somebody up on a second floor window sill, apparently threatening to jump.
I joined the small throng that had gathered to shout advice to the would-be jumpee. (For next to suspenders and stockings few things get the old Jac adrenalin pumping better than a raucous mob!)
Realising I was going to use this image sent me to the Land Registry website, where I was able to establish that the property in question – No 50 – is owned by our old friends Wales & West Housing.
Here’s the Land Registry title document.
The property was originally bought by Cymdeithas Tai Pumlumon in 1989, which merged with Cymdeithas Tai Dyffryn Teifi in 1993 to form Cymdeithas Tai Cantref. Cantref was eventually swallowed up by Wales & West in 2016.
Which is just before the problems in this part of Aberystwyth started.
By clicking on Cantref: ‘Welsh’ Labour Takeover Challenged? you’ll get more information and links to all my previous postings on the subject.
I used that title in 2016 because Wales & West is the ‘Welsh Government’s favourite housing association. Group CEO Anne Hinchey – who’s never knowingly missed a photo op – is the wife of Cardiff Labour Councillor Graham Hinchey.
Wales & West has an appalling record for dumping petty criminals and drug addicts on Welsh towns and villages. In this news report from January 2018 W&W admits there have been “issues” in Lampeter.
That’s because Wales & West is a business, and housing England’s problems pays well. Which goes hand in hand with W&W rejecting its responsibility to Welsh communities, or Wales in general, and its “Do we have to!” attitude towards the Welsh language.
Though this recent report from the Tivy-Side Advertiser about W&W’s plan to damage a community in north Pembrokeshire makes clear that locals now know exactly how Wales & West operates.
But Wales & West is not alone in causing the kind of problems we see in Aberystwyth. A few other housing associations do the same thing, then there are third sector bodies, and private landlords. Often working together, as we saw in Tyisha, Llanelli.
But what makes Wales & West especially damaging is that it’s the biggest housing association in Wales, and it achieved that position through favouritism and funding from the ‘Welsh’ Labour ‘Government’, and through operating a business model that a more responsible organisation would reject.
Can you imagine a Labour Party election manifesto that read: “We shall increase funding to housing associations and third sector bodies so they can bring into Wales more criminals, drug addicts and families from hell”?
No, neither can I. But it’s what they do.
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“MOVING TO WALES”
On Sunday someone drew my attention to this story he’d picked up in KentOnline.
It seems that Kayleigh Parnham can no longer afford to rent a home for herself and her three children in Kent and so, “in a few weeks’ time she will be moving more than 200 miles away to Wales”.
Later we read, “Miss Parnham says a friend who found herself in a similar situation moved to a town in Wales – so she has decided to follow suit, successfully applying for a council house.”
(Though of course “council house” in this instance could mean any kind of social housing, which would include housing association properties.)
The question many of you are now asking is – How does this woman qualify for social housing in Wales? So let’s examine some possibilities. (Here I am indebted to a couple of people who contacted me after I put out this tweet on Sunday.)
The article tells us that Kayleigh Parnham has lived in Kent all her life. This rules out her having local connections with any part of Wales. But it mentions her “friend” who made the move, so is she claiming kinship with this trailblazer and saying she needs to be near relatives?
Because this is a loophole often exploited.
This loophole also explains how a youngster who’s got into trouble is ‘adopted’ by Wales-based do-gooders and then, within months, his extended criminal family appears. And is immediately housed.
Cos there’s good money to be made.
Another scam, rife in coastal areas, is to move your family into a caravan – plenty available, especially in winter – claim “cramped living conditions”, etc, then tell the nice lady from Cwmscwt Housing Association that little Chardonnay is coughing all the time and you’ll soon be offered a nice big house.
Or, if that doesn’t appeal, then find anywhere to live, stick it out for six months and, bingo! – you qualify as ‘local’. Look you.
I even knew one guy, came down from Manchester, pitched a tent on Tywyn beach for himself, his wife, and their 5 kids. An absolute rogue. I used to go drinking with him. I even got talked into ferreting for rabbits one forgettable Sunday.
But these scenarios don’t seem to apply here. It looks as if Kayleigh Parnham, living in Kent, is just waltzing straight into a home in Wales. A country she may never even have visited.
The photo in the article I’ve linked to shows Ms Parnham with her two daughters, but there is a third child, her son, 12-year-old Alex. And as this article from the Daily Mirror informs us, Alex has ‘issues’.
Not only are we taking in a family with no Welsh connections, it looks as if one of the children will need expensive treatment.
Thank God Wales is a wealthy country!
But it’s not just Kayleigh Parnham and the friend who preceded her coming to Wales.
This story carried by CornwallLive is headlined: “Ponsanooth mum might be forced to move to Cardiff after eviction notice”.
I love the use of “forced”. But then, I’d have to be dragged kicking and screaming to live in Cardiff . . . and I’d leg it at the first opportunity.
To misquote that great Swansea poet, Harri Webb. Better a shed in Landore than a mansion in Lisvane.
The issue for mother-of-four Rae Layton in Cornwall is Section 21 notices, which allow a landlord to evict a tenant with just two months notice. Often done to switch that property to Airbnb or to sell as a retirement / holiday home.
Or else the sitting tenant is evicted and the property is rented out again at a greatly increased rent. Which is what seems to have happened to Laura Williams of Penzance, another woman with four children.
One contact on Sunday directed me to the Housing (Wales) Act 2014, and in particular sections 73 and 75. Where we read that Wales has an obligation to house the homeless, no matter where they come from. In some circumstances the obligation extends to those who are intentionally homeless.
This looks like another nice little earner.
Because I bet that a Welsh council or housing association taking in a family from almost anywhere in England will be able to charge the ‘home’ authority more than they could charge local tenants. And the ‘home’ authority won’t mind paying because it’ll still be cheaper than if they’d housed that family locally.
As with housing criminals, drug addicts, neighbours from Hell, it’s a business model.
But what about local people waiting for social housing, who see people with no local connections being housed ahead of them time after time after time, because they are “priority cases”?
I don’t wish to appear heartless, these women obviously need help. But they should not be our problem. Section 21 evictions are happening all over England – do we take them all in?
◊
CONCLUSION
It doesn’t matter which vantage point you take, or which sector you focus on, the housing market in Wales is screwed.
In the village where I live every property that comes up for sale is bought by an English buyer. Either as a holiday home or somewhere to retire to.
There’s little demand for social housing because there is no employment locally, so young people leave. This explains the closure of the village school, the age profile, and the language shift.
I was only able to buy the house I live in thanks to Right to Buy legislation. This provided the only chance for most locals to buy a home in many parts of Wales. Especially coastal and rural areas.
But the socialists in Corruption Bay did away with Right to Buy. Hypocrites, many owning two or three properties. That’s ‘socialism’ for you.
A country with a modicum of self-government becoming increasingly less accommodating to its native population suggests either a malevolent guiding hand or incompetence such as no nation should be expected to tolerate.
∼
Radical action is needed to put things right. Here are some suggestions:
- Instead of tinkering with council tax rates that councils will never have the balls to implement, the ‘Welsh Government’ should itself impose a 500% national surcharge on all holiday homes.
- Airbnb and similar operations should be banned from Wales.
- Canada recently introduced a two-year ban on most foreigners buying domestic property. Denmark and New Zealand have similar legislation. Why can’t something similar be done in Wales?
- Failing this, then we must have a split market such as operates on the Channel Islands. This sees most properties reserved for local buyers, with a smaller ‘open’ market accessible to everyone.
- Something that could be implemented tomorrow – and should be – is the ‘Welsh Government’ ceasing to fund housing associations and third sector bodies that bring in criminals and other undesirables from England. (A practise that should surely compete with Einstein’s [alleged] definition of insanity.)
- Close the loophole that allows the victim of a greedy landlord in the bucolic idyll of Scrotum Parva to qualify immediately for social housing in Wales. This is England’s problem, not ours.
- Make local connection the overriding qualification for social housing in Wales. And someone has to have lived in Wales for at least 5 years before they qualify as ‘local’.
The options are endless for those with imagination and the will to implement the kind of legislation Welsh people need. Regrettably, both imagination and the will to act in the nation’s interests are alien to the political class that claims to be running Wales.
But something must be done to straighten out a housing sector currently working against Welsh interests; otherwise Welsh people becoming strangers in their own country will be perfectly justified in taking matters into their own hands.
Finally, and this should go without saying – don’t vote for a socialist party tomorrow. Vote for a party that is uncompromisingly Welsh or, seeing as these are local elections, give your vote to a decent independent candidate.
♦ end ♦
A few corrections.
Kayleigh moved to be closer to her paternal grandmother and step sister.
Her son needs no expensive treatment. Unless you count excessive books as he seems to spend his evenings engrossed.
She works full time as a teacher and has been learning welsh since arrival.
The chance of antisocial behaviour from any of the family is 0.
Whilst you have valid points regarding the need and difficulty for social housing, rising rental prices and the UK struggling, it may be better to research the subjects and not just assume you know a story that someone reported from a comment on Facebook.
Whilst I can certainly understand a healthy dose of cynicism in today’s world, may be better to target the decision makers in the government. Not those who work for a better life still struggling.
Jack Harris is a drug addict and likes to have sex with under aged schoolgirls girls. On 22rd March 2018 he was convicted at Taunton Crown Court and sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for two years, and placed on the Sex Offenders Register. The court also heard he had previous convictions for public order offences, assault, theft, battery and robbery.
https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/taunton-woman-tried-incite-schoolgirl-1372477
In January 2021, he turns up in Plymouth and after an arrest for possession of drugs, it was found that he had failed to properly register his address there as a registered sex offender.
https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/plymouth-news/sex-offender-27-could-jailed-4852745
He was handed a further sentence of nine months in prison, suspended for 18 months, and at that hearing the barrister commented “He is described as hostile in a police interview. He called the officer and idiot and said she was a slag”.
Move to Wales.
On 14th May 2022, Jack Harris ends up in social housing in the Port Tennat area of Swansea. We know this because he was convicted at Swansea Crown Court for train fare evasion, detected as the train was travelling into Wales from Bristol. Police were alerted and while being apprehended upon arrival an altercation took place which resulted in the dislocation of a police officers shoulder.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/travelling-train-without-ticket-23954362
“Harris was restrained and taken to the floor, and this was to be the start of a violent 20 minute disturbance played out in front of shocked passengers during which he threatened to cut an officer’s throat, to bite-off an officer’s nose, and made crude sexual suggestions about the mother of one. During the struggle he also mocked the shoes of an officer, repeatedly told police they were abusing their power, and told them they owed him for a packet of crisps which he had dropped. When he began clearing his throat as if to start spitting, a hood was place over his head.”
The judge also activated six months of the previously imposed suspended sentence for failing to comply with the sexual notification requirements to run consecutively with the sentence for the station offences, making an overall sentence of 16 months. Harris will serve up to half the 16 months in prison before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
Which community?
How did he end up in Port Tennant?
Why does the BBC not publish the correct election results?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2022/wales/councils/W06000008
It must be a reference to the fact that Plaid are now in control with the same number of seats because there are 4 fewer seats which were held by others.
Or did Plaid really gain one?
Ceredigion councillors have been reduced in number from 42 to 38. What is odd though (and misleading) is that the BBC has lumped in Gwlad with the Independents total, rather than listing that seat as being won by Gwlad, a separate party. This is incorrect – the ballot paper did not list Gwyn Wigley Evans as “Independent” in any way, rather the name “Gwlad” was on the paper that electors marked, and the totals the BBC list should reflect this
Same in Cardiff (McEvoy, Propel). As far as I’m aware, both Gwald and Propel are registered as political parties at the electoral commission and the returning officers have correctly recorded this. The BBC are in error.
Is it a genuine mistake or is it deliberate?
I think that you may have answered your own question, Jac.
Just look at the results summary for England, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2022/england/results. Included here are the Reform party with just 2 councillors and UKIP who were wiped out and now have no local councillors.
And it’s not as if the BBC are not aware of Neil McEvoy and his party. Four stories, three of them full of negativity and one, probably grudgingly, added to provide that famed BBC balance.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-60491267
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-58996114
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-55797912
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-49964366
The British establishment propaganda outlet, as ever, are setting the agenda, creating a narrative, just as they do in Scotland. Love him or loathe him, just remember how they treated Alex Salmond, here, https://inews.co.uk/news/bbc-told-it-failed-to-do-enough-to-correct-a-serious-error-in-coverage-of-alex-salmond-and-nicola-sturgeon-1502621
here, https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/bbc-says-sorry-first-minister-rude-and-dismissive-interview-2453523 and once again here,https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/alex-salmond-could-sue-bbc-over-one-sided-trial-documentary-hosted-by-kirsty-wark-zz5g9lcfh.
One fly in the ointment in Scotland was bad enough, imagine if there were one in Wales also.
Here you go Royston, less than two weeks removed from Neil McEvoy being re-elected to Cardiff city council, and this appears.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-61436605
A coincidence, or is he still perceived as a threat to the established order. You decide.
I expected no less from the BBC.
I certainly like to think that history will look upon these elections as the beginning of the end of the Hegemonic Fiefdom.
Great to read of the Gwlad success in Llanrhystud, well done GWE. The county now has a real “cenedlaetholwr” in the mix. At the same time sad but not surprising to read of Solfa Sir Benfro electing a Tory. Shows the influence of Sais in migrants over recent decades. Back in the 60’s a few Sais families move into our old stamping grounds in North Sir Gar and went native with their kids proud of their Cymreictod. Makes one hanker for those days when there was a modicum of respect for the communities among those who came to join us. Now they buy our farms and plant trees or build wind turbines, all extractive and wasteful.
Just read that McEvoy has won his seat in Fairwater. Great ! And up there in the good news too is the report that Emlyn Dole has been ousted. One less Party donkey to be bothered with.
Solfa has been gutted. The root cause is tourism. It’s delusional to believe that Wales can encourage mass tourism from a wealthier and much more populous England and NOT expect an English influx that will work against the interests and the very identity of the indigenous population.
Anyone who were to say I’m a bigot for making these sorts of points, I’d reply by stating that were England and English language and culture under threat by in-migration from a much larger country I’d be dead against that too, because once these things are lost they’re lost forever.
No doubt Plaid Cymru will be delighted with winning a majority in Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire and Ynys Mon to add to Gwynedd in their tally. However, the detailed picture shows they’ve actually got major problems. They were smashed in the valleys. Evicted in RCT and Caerphilly, losing many seats. In Cardiff they also lost a seat but McEvoy kept his. Although PC won a majority in Carmarthenshire, they have been evicted in the Llanelli end. Lost Cydweli and remain evicted in Pembrey, Burry Port and Llangennech. In the town the candidate they said could not win elections for Plaid has won in Tyisha. Stonking result in Llanrhystud for Gwlad. Has it not dawned on Plaid Cymru that setting themselves on fire locally and snuggling up to Labour in the Senedd will not extend their reach outside the Fro?
As you suggest, these results are not as good for Plaid Cymru as they’re trying to make out. Definitely being pegged back into their heartland. Which can only be a short-term refuge due to demographic change and the loss of traditional voters once socially conservative supporters realise the kinds of policies and agendas Plaid is now supporting.
Sean Rees won in Glanymor not Tyisha.
Not content with destroying Aberystwyth, WWH has turned its attention to Cardigan with the redevelopment of the former hospital site. Construction work currently ongoing.
Instead of building castles the new colonialism works by installing a number of dysfunctionals into the host community. Worked well in the 19th century in New South Wales.
I think fred [sic] has been at the crack pipe. As for Wales and ‘West’ Housing, the clue is in the name. As always is the case for colloquialisms in this anglocentric ‘union’, the ‘of England’ qualifier for a compass direction is always implied.
Wales is becoming a dumping ground for England’s unwanted, you natives should have been more welcoming to us one million working middle classes who just wanted to make a normal, peaceful life in Wales, now look what you have. Why I believe England and the UK government want to expel Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, I ask myself, why would a country such as England, and its billions really want to keep the union together? England’s politicians seem to be slyly but deliberately punching buttons, aggravating all three devolved unions, take the borderline created in the Irish sea, then you have free trade agreements with Australia, really smashing the Welsh Lamb trade for six, not forgetting ripping Scotland out of the EU against their wishes. The nasty, racist, insular state of nationalism is raising its ugly head in all three devolved unions, the plaid/labour/Sinn Fein movement in Wales, the SNP/Sinn Fein rabble in Scotland, and the Rise of Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland, all driven by hatred towards the English, driven by indoctrination of children via a Welsh,Celtic,Gaelic language education/ political bigotry, giving a false sense of culture, history, and community, that was never a reality and nor will it ever be. The UK has never been more divided and broken, England would profit enormously by cutting the billions in subsidies given to those ill-informed, devolved unions, the effect would be felt instantaneously, would the EU take on three countries that rely so heavily on billions in subsidisation? I somewhat doubt it, would they allow the Euro as a currency, more than likely, spiraling all three countries into a recession, one of the like never seen before, just as it happened in Ireland, a tax haven for the rich, a living hell for the working classes. Let’s face it, only a minority of people in the devolved countries will profit from independence, politicians and tax evaders. Finally, for those of us who are a tad intellectually challenged when it comes to working out where all your freebies come from, take a long hard look at the English taxpayers, here’s what they give you’re gifted, in
2018/19, before the Covid pandemic, Scotland ran a deficit of over 7% of GDP – well over twice the 3% level mandated for those hoping to join the EU, and far higher than the English deficit in that year of 0.3% of GDP. The deficits in Wales and Northern Ireland were higher still at 18% and 19% respectively. Put differently, each person in England on average benefitted from public spending worth £91 more than the taxes they paid: in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland the figures were £2,543, £4,412 and £5,118, respectively
What in the name of Beelzebub is a ‘devolved union’?
FFS, it’s like trying to catch smoke educating you f@@kwits, devolved Union, a country that claims to be a country but can’t be one, and never will be
There’s no need to bowdlerise, I’m a big boy and can handle swears. Is that an OED definition sonny? Never heard the term in my life.
David, given the source it’s more likely to be an O.C.D definition with a dash of ADHD thrown in to spice it up a bit!
More than likely a textbook case of batshit-itis!
So, the other night on ITV Wales the news at 6, it showed a Welsh woman living in a caravan complaining about second homeowners, not about people that own more than one, just one extra!! Why doesn’t she moan about the £millions per year being wasted on Welsh vanity projects, £87 million a year wasted on S4C alone, why doesn’t she moan about insane wages for local politicians, MPs £70.000+/AMs £120,000+ expenses per year, for what? this 3 million welsh population seem to have 5 times the public servants than any other equvilant in the UK? How about a dig at Senedd that costs over £1.5 million a week to run, soon to almost double, not a peep out of caravan lady about that.There’s more, £180 million a year wasted on the NRW quango, still not a word, £157 million wasted on the failed M4 relief road, never built? where did that money go? When will ITV and BBC news be content, when they’ve whipped up enough Welsh Nationalism for them to start burning down houses, again? Lets face it, it’s not the second homeowners who are screwing up the housing market, most of those houses either need too much work done to them or are, and always were going to be unaffordable to those who have suffered under a poor education system, and even poorer job opportunities. Supply and demand obviously have an impact on houses prices, as it does with, let’s say the price of lamb, you would hardly tell a farmer to halve the price of his sales just to accommodate a minority. If you want to blame anyone, look closer to home, sorry to say, the Welsh are screwing the Welsh over, simple as that. Look at the political gravy-train and see who rides it the most!! It’s the locals who sell their houses for max profit, remember that. Let’s look at Peter Jones CEO welsh water, £760,000 for a year’s work ,now part-time on £300,000 a year, not a dickie out of caravan lady or the nationalists about that!! So yet again on the BBC news a member of plaid cymru talks about how unfairly Wales and it’s people are treated by the UK government, and how appalling the tax evasion loop-holes created by the conservatives allow for an unfair society, when in his own back yard Plaid Cymru stand shoulder to shoulder with their Sinn-Fein friends across the sea, to the Republic of Ireland, the most tax-evading country in Europe. A splattering of Hypocrisy, wouldn’t you agree?
Kind regards,
Fred Evans,
Welsh politics and policies, now there’s a conundrum, let’s take free prescriptions and school meals for all, but to name a few, regardless of wealth? The cynic in me would suggest a political gambit to gain votes, surely an evasion of taxes by the wealthy?. Welsh politics, lazy at best, reckless and questionable, without a doubt. Having lived in Wales for some time, it becomes tiresome listening to the same old rhetoric, droning on and on about how England dominates Wales, even bullies it, throws its weight about, withholds funding and so on, nothing could be further from the truth, what other state of the union receives such gargantuan amounts of funding only to be absurdly blown away on vanity? This assembly/ Senedd of clowns has dragged Wales almost into the abyss, I abhor the way Wales is being dragged through sewer politics and policy by those in power who have nothing to offer but a life of bitter envy and despair. This brings me to Education and it’s dire failings. I support the development of the Welsh language but this is not the way to do it. This is a really damaging move for the country, for both children’s wellbeing, and being able to attract the people we need here to sustain health and education in the country. In the critical early years of 3-7, it is well-founded in pedagogic research of multilingualism, that the child’s primary language needs to be embedded BEFORE learning a second language. This is why in most continental European countries, English is not taught until the later years once the primary language is embedded. It is true if you are from a multi-lingual household to start with this can work, but the proposal is aiming at implementation in English medium schools, where parents will almost entirely be first language English / non-Welsh speaking. Where you have a non-Welsh speaking household, to immerse a child whose primary home language is English in a Welsh-medium setting could be hugely damaging on a number of grounds. While some children will do fine in this proposed system, it will likely decrease the attainment and development of children overall as the Welsh language forms an extra access barrier to learning. Children from more disadvantaged backgrounds, where parental help and input may be more limited, will be hit the hardest undoubtedly. Children with learning difficulties will be doubly impacted by the extra barrier of learning through what to them will be a second language at this critical stage. Aberystwyth, Ceredigion’s main population centre and representing 30% of the county’s population, is a multi-cultural environment, with people from all over the UK and the world due to the presence of the 2 main employers, Aberystwyth University and Bronglais Hospital. We are so lucky to have such diversity in a small town. It’s what makes Aberystwyth unique, and a quality recognised by most who live here. Pupils benefit from diversity and it has generally been embraced and celebrated. This diversity is reflected in the linguistic diversity of the town where Welsh, English and other international languages co-exist. The current educational arrangements, to choose Welsh or English medium education from the age of 3, work very well. The proposed policy does not account for these local cultural and linguistic characteristics. Removing choice over which language your child is educated in is going to be very damaging for community cohesion because of this. It also directly counters the Welsh Government’s Cymraeg 2050 policy document which states “…the education system needs to be sufficiently flexible to reflect the linguistic characteristics of different areas of Wales”……. ”Effective language planning requires an understanding of the different circumstances that exist in different parts of Wales to plan interventions accordingly”. Also, this document clearly states “What a Government strategy can’t do is to force individuals to use the language” (Welsh Government, Cymraeg 2050). The proposal clearly does force pupils to use the Welsh language by removing choice and does not reflect the linguistic characteristics of the area. On these grounds alone, I cannot see how this policy has been approved, as it directly breaches Welsh Government policy. We should indeed support Welsh Government’s goals to increase the number of Welsh speakers in Wales, but this is not the way to do it. A more intense and structured program of Welsh language teaching is more likely to result in an increase in the number of proficient speakers of the Welsh language so that there are positive effects on pupils’ opportunities to use Welsh and on treating Welsh no less favourably than English, but being sensitive to the fact that their home language may be English or other languages. What concerns me the most, some teachers still to this day use the Welsh language to inflict punishments on young children, even in preschools. I’ve had parents telling me of punishments such as 150 lines given “I must not speak English” appalling teaching standards are commonplace in some parts of Wales. I will end by saying this, if more than 99% of Wales understands English then why are councils, health boards and other public sectors crippling their own capabilities by insisting on only employing Welsh speakers? only one answer to that, it’s the only policy the Welsh government have, hate all things English, vote for us, political indoctrination of children.
Kind regards,
Fred Evans,
Fred (if that is your name), I’ll answer your various contributions here.
You obviously have a deep loathing for the Welsh language. Suggesting you’re one of those who’s moved to Wales and feels cheated out of a good job because you don’t speak Welsh. This is sad. But if it’s true, then you could always return to England.
You describe yourself as middle class, which would suggest a reasonable level of education. So why were you never introduced to the paragraph? The absence of paragraphs makes reading your bile even more difficult.
You suggest that Aberystwyth contains a third of Ceredigion’s population. Remove the transient population of students and the true figure is less than 20%. You then credit Aberystwyth with being a diverse community . . . presumably because this ‘diversity’ makes the town less Welsh. Yet I have a suspicion that were you back in England you would be far less accepting of diversity.
You also throw in the usual moans about Welsh people selling the properties that become holiday. Blaming victims for their situation is a dark road to travel, ‘Fred’. Don’t go there.
Yes, Wales is funded by the central exchequer. But I feel no guilt when I remember how my country and my peoiple have been exploited by England for centuries. But at least we agree in wanting to end this arrangement.
All in all, ‘Fred’, your contributions are really one long, racist whine. If you’re that unhappy just leave. I promise not to put any obstacles in your way.
One final thought – are you the shade of the late Jacques Protic?
Jac I have enjoyed the last few minutes reading Fred’s 2 missives. It’s not often these days that we get a genuine anti Welsh whinger on here to grace us with a tumultuous rant. Indeed I was beginning to think that the colon community and the compliant happy native set had packed in whining and were content to watch as the Welsh political class undertakes the job of consigning us and our identity to the dustbin of history by facilitating total assimilation by means of their sundry daft policies. Fred obviously thinks it ain’t happening fast enough and he’s not alone in that respect. What the carpetbaggers really dislike is the fact that :
a) an increasing number of disadvantaged Welshies are making more of a fuss about their circumstances (but no where near enough in my book) and
b) the disrupted social conditions of recent years and the increasing inequalities of income and wealth distribution is perversely driving up house prices in nice coastal areas to a point where lots of aspiring Sais in-migrants can’t even afford to step on that particular ladder, boo hoo ,Shame that !
I hope now that Fred encourages some more of his kind out of the woodwork. It’s so much better knowing a bit about one’s enemies and their supremacist bigotry. Having a bit of verbals with some of these tossers really makes my day. Almost as much fun as heckling politicians.
Just noticed the 3rd and the brief 4th. Didn’t need to wade in too far before I realised it was another load of old Anglo Brit supremacist nonsense so declined to study just now. Will return to it later when I might need to have another good laff ! Good on him, the twat that keeps on giving !
Dafis, have you any idea how hilarious your name looks like ?
Not half as daft as your rambling scribbles. Your name lacks a capital but don’t worry you are a capital Moron.
So you admit by default your name sounds funny, that’s one weird paradox, the other strange paradox would be your support for Jac, a man with no k? and a man that thinks your lack of paragraphs makes you a moron!!
Ok Dafis, I accept what you say, but come on man, seriously, are you not mad at what you were named? Dafis the duck, that’s what it sounds and looks like
You’re being very silly now. But consistent in your hostility to all things Welsh.
At the risk of sounding childish, you started it !!
You need to start taking whatever meds you were on once again. If you never stopped taking them you need to visit your G.P and get a referral.
Firstly Jac, we live in the UK and it’s my right to live anywhere within it, and have the right to free speech, just as the 250,000 Welsh migrants have who moved to England, see they don’t get any shit there.
On your point of Welsh speakers taking jobs, you would have to agree, it’s insane to give Welsh speakers jobs over highly educated who can’t speak the lingo, people that would serve the community much more efficiently, so you’re right in a way Jac, children are being cheated out of a proper education, and higher taxation through incompetence.
See Jac, your reply proves me right, everything nasty and gnarly about you old dinosaurs are there, plain to see in your reply, your attack on my gramma is childish, clutching at straws, I thought better of you.
As for Jacques Protic, he was ten times the man you could ever be, a legend, you’re not privy to the information I hold, but trust me when I say, the walls are crumbling, Welsh education services are in for a major shakedown,the NHS on it’s knees, money spent on your vanity will end.
By the way Jac, you might not like it, but if all the English left Wales your services would collapse overnight, FACT, forced English education dragged you out of the dark ages.
I never knew your gramma.
If Jacques Protic was a legend to you, there doesn’t seem much more to say.
He was spot on about the abuse of children in Welsh-medium schools, the problem is no one will talk about it for fear of having their house set on fire, or worse
If you’re so Welsh why do you type in English, why not type in Welsh?
If a requirement of the job is to be a Welsh speaker, then they are not qualified are they, numb nuts?
You’re deliberately missing my point, and that was the pointless need to speak welsh in 99% of those jobs advertised, you dip-shit
I’ve let you enjoy yourself, ‘Fred’, but I think you’ve said all you have to say. So I’m showing you the door. Don’t come back.
While eastern Europeans are known to have something of a penchant for pseudocide, I present a few relevant quotes for you to consider. Because I feel there has been a case of the not so immaculate deception carried out by certain associates of Protic and his continued worldly existence.
Tis a tangled web we weave, when we practice to deceive, along with, The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.
And below is a third, once again more than a little fitting when discussing the sociopath from Anglesey, especially considering the tone and content of some recent comments on your website.
It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
How sure are you that Protic is indeed late, Royston?
There’s this. But then again, Greg Lance Watkins is of a similar ilk.
The whole story regarding the demise of Protic, is something akin to an Aesops fable. Resides on Anglesey, treated at Morriston hospital and laid to rest in LLanelli.
Consider the characters who were front and centre of the story that Protic had succumbed to illness, Lance-Watkins and Marcus Stead, two deluded egotists who present a podcast together, both of who are known to have an association with Protic.
Furthermore there was mention of Protic’s offspring, one of who was claimed to be in Japan, and another, a spotty faced youth, claimed to be living in the Wrecsam area and going by the name of Protic-Irving, complete with Twitter account and photographs. All traces of this mythical son which were once in the public domain have now mysteriously disappeared.
Lance-Watkins stated that Protic was 75 years old when he died earlier this year, depending on which of the two birth dates that Protic uses that you consider, either 1943 or 1945 that would make him 77 or 79 years of age at his death They couldn’t even get the core facts of the story straight.
In addition, his online propaganda operation is still operating as normal. So is there an official record of his death at the National Archives? That is the only thing that would convince me that this is anything but a story concocted by a group of sick minded narcissists.
Good points. Also worth remembering that his name was Dusan Protic.
Naturalised in 1971 with address in Southport.
Maybe Protist was only ever a construct, a persona hidden behind? Is there any concrete proof the man actually existed in real life?
That’s a good question, because I cannot remember anyone claiming to have met him or spoken with him. And yet he had a considerable ‘paper’ existence.
I spoke to him just before he died, absolutely gutted, he cared so much for the children of Wales, and he was right, they were, and still are being politically indoctrinated, nothing short of child abuse, anyone that claims otherwise is culpable
“Culpable” of what? You spoke to him just before he died? So who are you, ‘Fred’?
If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth, I have broken it all down, a minority are a problem, you are the problem, a majority just want a normal life, you are the parasites
I find the late Jacques Protic (of Belgrade, via Stockport via Beaumaris) was cremated last year in Llanelli and his ashes entombed there. I don’t know if, other than his association with the anti-Welsh medium school campaign of Llangennech jointly launched by Michaela Beddows (Labour) and Neil Hamilton (Ukip), he had any connection to the land of Sospans.
That seems to be what I picked up, and like you I couldn’t figure the Llanelli connection. Still can’t.
Nothing radically new here Jac but having said that your message can stand being repeated ad infinitum because the nation as a collective is not taking that message on board yet. As you say the political parties including Plaid are more interested in some other “bigger pictures” while those they purport to represent are left to wallow in the mire. Allowing all sorts of queue jumping by people relocated from elsewhere in the UK is yet another strand in the process of absorption, dilution and assimilation. It also keeps a percentage of local people in the disadvantaged class and come election time our devious Welsh Labour elite will trot out the same old mantras about caring and fighting what those nasty Tories have inflicted on them.
Well it’s patently obvious that the Welsh Labour regime is aiding and abetting this sordid destructive process and our own little Plaid is not raising its voice in dissent. Too alert to the judgements of the Islington set and similar lifestyle leftie “thinkers” to stand on their own feet for once. I suspect that the most we’ll get from the council elections is yet more evidence of indifference about who governs and holds purse strings at local level so it seems that the herd is being nudged gently towards the enclosures where their identity will be well and truly erased then homogenised into standard “mainstream Brit – fat head class”.
The virtue signalling we see from the leftist establishment in Wales is welcomed by the political establishment in London because it eases their load.
As you say, we’ve known about housing associations dumping criminals, drug addicts and families from hell on unsuspecting Welsh communities, but not all housing associations are guilty. Looking at the turf wars in Aberystwyth, the building I focused on came into the ownership of Wales & West in 2016 when it took over Cantref. Cantref had been based in Castell Newydd Emlyn and had done all its business in Welsh with a high sense of responsibility to the communities it served. And it did serve them. Wales and West exploits those communities for its financial gain.
But with the help of the ‘Welsh Government’ Wales & West was able to take over Cantref, with the results we see in Aberystwyth. Which makes the ‘Welsh Government’ complicit.
Plaid Cymru runs Aberystwyth and Ceredigion and because it’s in alliance with Labour in Corruption Bay it will not make a fuss beyond “Something must be done” when pressed by local residents or the Cambrian News. For the elections to Cardiff council, Plaid is in alliance with the Greens; who want turn us all into vegetarians or vegans, stop us driving cars we can afford and, when it comes to “women with penises”, the Greens are even more off the wall than Labour and Plaid Cymru.
On top of which, the Greens are an anti-Welsh party that refused to set up a Wales Green Party. Remember that? So Plaid is in league with the Green Party of Englandandwales.
It’s not just the housing system that’s fucked. It’s the whole political system in Wales.
The WELSH HOUSING CRISIS as described by Jac is making the Housing Situation very difficult in Wales. We already have had a decades long term big problem with second homes and it’s now being made worse with people being encouraged and forced to come to, and go to, Wales to escape high rents in other parts of the UK and then squeezing local Welsh people out of the chance of renting a house, let alone buying one, and further squeezing Welsh people of local jobs that’s if the incomers will work or even want to work. Some also have Social and Health issues or are Aged putting a heavy burden on our Police and Hospitals and Social Services. This is being done in many other parts of the UK outside Wales to save their Authorities the cost of providing social housing in their areas. Encourage them, or force them, or dump them, into Wales. If you say this, you are accused by Corbynite Welsh Labour of being a racist. The trouble is we have a Welsh Labour Corbynite Government (Senedd) in Cardiff that is wholly responsible for Welsh Housing and they are doing nothing about it. The final sting – in this – is that when Social Housing is built in Wales, with Welsh public money, it is often used by the Welsh ‘Managers’ (generally of Welsh Labour ‘jobs for themselves’ brigade) to house people from outside the communities it is built for. Is it being racist to raise this? Will we see another donkey vote this Thursday 5th May?
The problem in Wales is the politicians of the established parties.
These are either leftist politicians desperate to show their moral superiority over the Tories in London (which invariably works against the Welsh national interest), and politicians of the Unionist right who believe that Wales being screwed by England is the natural state of things. Neither is good for Wales and both, by different routes, serve England’s interests.
I do wish you Welsh would remember, over 250,000 Welsh natives now live in England, should we tell them all to bugger off back to wales? this is why some of you live your lives in misery, an utter toxic waste of life. You do however have a valid point about scum moving to Wales, but please remember you have plenty of your own homegrown Welsh scum, more Welsh in prison per head than anywhere in the UK
250,000 Welsh in England are unnoticed and certainly don’t try to impose themselves on the English.
Jac, they were 250,000 nice Welsh, the brain drain as it was called in the papers, they hate nationalists,that’s why they moved to England.
Nationalists are the problem, you are the very people that divide and cause the misery, just as your friends in Ireland have done. I used to think you were ok, I now understand why so many people dislike you.
I was looking for the list of candidates for Ceredigion and I turned up this piece from the Cambrian News. With a comment from you. Don’t you get bored saying the same old thing, time after time?
But you’ve been ”saying the same old thing” for 60 years Royston.
You are best when exposing the socialist woke left in Wales and elesewhere, leave Anglophobic paranoia to others less erudite
odd how Jac no longer posts my posts
Jac’s been watching the football.
Jac, I’ve bestowed too much intelligence and lateral thinking upon you, I thought you of all people would have understood the pointless baseless virtue of repetitive speech, the welsh have been at it for 900 years, you have an ugly pile of bricks to prove it
Say that again.
Jac, I’ve bestowed too much intelligence and lateral thinking upon you, I thought you of all people would have understood the pointless baseless virtue of repetitive speech, the welsh have been at it for 900 years, you have an ugly pile of bricks to prove it
Would you like to report on the number of nationalists who will take their seats without any votes? 1930s Germany ring any bells !!
You are pathetic!
so you don’t want to post this from the CN then? when you have Plaid Cymru politician obtaining child porn and you set the bar with no prison sentence, how are you going to justify any other sentence?
What does a Plaid Cymru politician have to do with me?
I’m not anti-Welsh, and far from anti the language, I happen to know that bilingual children a more intelligent, something I very much doubt the Welsh government would approve of, being that intelligent people wouldn’t have voted that lot into power in the first instance, on the other hand, I’m very much anti-political indoctrination and abuse of children in Wales
So you don’t have a problem with welsh not using paragraphs? There’s a good reason why I hate the welsh, the welsh hate the English, secondly, the Welsh public services treat the English like scum, but you know Jac, Wales is rapidly filling up with outsiders, you know it, the Welsh will be in a minority within 20 years
You hate us Welsh! I would never have guessed.
Not all Welsh, just the Nats, same with the Scots and Irish, Welsh chap about to marry my granddaughter, lovely chap, hates nationalists
To marry into your family, if you are any sort of representative, he’s obviously a nut!
If he’s marrying into Fred’s family he probably hasn’t met Fred.
You really are the violist that the Welsh have to offer, a piss stain on humanity, I never thought I would find radicalised Muslims a preferred option to the low life that that fester in Wales
I had banned you, but gems like deserve an audience. I assume you mean “vilest”?
They both work in child protection,I know wales has a large pedophile problem, please let me know if I’m stepping on some toes in here???
‘Freddie’, you’re ranting now. Go lie down for a bit.
Welsh public money? you don’t have any, over 50% of employment in wales is propped up by subsidies from the English taxpayers, the rest of Wales are on some form of benefits, again, propped up by England’s taxes
3000 empty homes in Wales, 3000, as I’ve said before, you waste over £300 million a year on Welsh vanity,£300,000 just to change the name of that cesspit in Cardiff into the Senedd, why not use some of that loot to build some nice new pads?