England’s wind turbines – in Wales!

On 11/10/202113/04/2023 By JacIn Colonialism, Environmentalism, Planning, Welsh Government, Wind Turbines35 Comments

My intention was to start winding down this blog, spend more time with my wife, grand-children, books, Malbec . . . but things keep cropping up. That said, it’s very unlikely I shall undertake major new investigations. Diolch yn fawr.

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Last week, I introduced you to the Bute empire, based in Edinburgh and London, which, under a variety of company names, is planning many new wind farms in Wales.

This week’s piece is partly a recap, partly putting a new slant on things, and partly some fresh thoughts on the unequal relationship between Wales and England.

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MAPPING IT OUT

Here are the location-specific Bute Energy companies, sixteen in all, each with a link to the relevant Companies House entry. Is there a project near you?

The full list of recent company formations, and other background information, can be found here.

I’ve now drawn up a map showing what I hope is the correct location of each of Bute’s planned wind farms. I can’t be absolutely sure because in most cases all we have is a company name, and that name could fit a number of locations.

The names Rhiwlas and Moelfre, for example, can be found in many locations.

But by ruling out urban areas, National Parks, etc., etc . . .

To help them build these wind farms, Bute’s head honcho, Oliver James Millican, and his constantly growing band expect help from both Labour Party insider David James Taylor and Lesley Griffiths MS, the Minister for Rural Affairs in the self-styled ‘Welsh Government’.

I’m not exactly sure what’s expected from Taylor, but he’s been made a Member of Grayling Capital LLP, and he’s also been given shares in Windward Enterprises Ltd, both in his own name and that of his company Moblake Associates Ltd.

Taylor seems to be paying himself some £200,000 a year from Moblake Ltd but the skeletal accounts give no indication of where the money originates. Though, strictly speaking, and quoting the ‘accounts’, the money is, ‘an interest free loan and does not have a repayment date’.

But seeing as Taylor is the sole Moblake director, and holds the only share, for him to ‘repay’ Moblake would just be transferring money from one pocket to another.

From Ms Griffiths Millican and whoever he might be working with obviously expect planning permissions. I’m not for one minute suggesting favouritism, let alone inducements. It’s simply that, as we saw when she overruled the Planning Inspector’s decision on Hendy Wind Farm, she has the final say.

Griffiths and Taylor are well known to each other. It would be unusual if they weren’t, seeing as they belong to the same political party and are both from the north east. Here’s Taylor out canvassing for Lesley Griffiths in the 2016 Welsh Assembly elections.

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A WEE DIGRESSION, BUT INTERESTING

Something I didn’t explore in the previous post was the fact that Taylor, Griffiths, Sophie Howe (Commissioner for Greenwash), and others, were on the same side before and after the Carl Sargeant suicide in November 2017.

This picture below, from 2014/15, shows, left to right, Carl Sargeant, Sophie Howe, a former Spad to Sargeant (though when the photo was taken she was deputy to former MP Alun Michael, the South Wales PCC), Lesley Griffiths, and Leighton Andrews AM for Rhondda, who lost his seat in 2016 to Leannein Wood.

David Taylor worked as a Spad or trouser presser for Andrews, and his loyalty to the party was rewarded when, in 2016, he was the Labour candidate for the North Wales PCC post. He lost out to Arfon Jones, the Plaid Cymru candidate.

L to R: Carl Sargeant, Sophie Howe, Lesley Griffiths, Leighton Andrews. Click to open in separate tab

The thing about this picture is, it’s not a ‘work’ photo, they’re out together relaxing. They know each other, they obviously enjoy each other’s company.

After Sargeant’s suicide they all rallied to his defence, or at least, they didn’t do any favours to then First Minister Carwyn Jones, lobbyists Deryn, and others coming under fire. Lesley Griffiths is quoted more than once in this report.

In this piece, we read that Sophie Howe: ‘ . . . told Coroner John Gittins: “I find that incredible that he (Sargeant) can be sacked without being told what the allegations were.”’

While Leighton Andrews has plenty to say on his blog.

In this November 2018 report from the Wrexham Leader we are told that, ‘The inquest also heard a statement from David Taylor, a friend of Mr Sargeant who was previously employed by the Labour Party.’

It’s all coincidence, no doubt, but from this small group around Carl Sargeant we have three – Howe, Griffiths, Taylor – currently contributing to Wales being ripped off by every shyster who can spin a line about saving the planet.

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‘JUST A FEW QUESTIONS, SIR’ (Oh, the times I’ve heard that!)

I wrote to Bute Energy last Tuesday morning, ahead of office hours, giving them the chance to clarify a few points for this follow-up.

My questions were:

When and where did you first meet David James Taylor?
Were you introduced to Taylor? If so, by whom?
What is your relationship with Taylor’s Moblake companies?
Why did you make Taylor a Member of Grayling Capital LLP?
Why did you give Taylor (and Moblake) shares in Windward Enterprises
Have you met Lesley Griffiths, Welsh Government Minister for Rural Affairs? If so, where and when?
Did you have advance warning of Ms Griffiths’ overturning a Planning Inspector’s decision on Hendy Wind Farm in October 2018?
Why did you recruit former Labour MEP Derek Vaughan to chair your Welsh Advisory Board?
Why does your Welsh Advisory also have as a member John Uden, a former London police officer now specialising in property security, who, apparently, has no Welsh connections?
Why do you have so many wind farms planned for Wales?
You don’t know Wales, so how did you find these sites? Did someone recommend them?
Do the principals in Bute and the other companies have any experience in engineering, construction, renewables, or related fields?
Do you really intend building wind farms or will you simply obtain planning permission and then sell the sites?
Talking of the sites, have you been promised that, if necessary, powers of compulsory purchase will be exercised on your behalf?
Do you have contact details for David James Taylor?
Do you have anything you’d like to say?

I’m still waiting for answers.

Having mentioned the ‘skeletal accounts’ of David Taylor’s Moblake Ltd I naturally got to wondering about the accountant.

At the start, Moblake’s registered address was in the West End of London, at 109 Gloucester Place. It’s the tidy-looking gaff with the blue door. Though the company registered at that address, Adams Mitchell Ltd, was only formed in August 2019.

In fairness, it looks as though David Taylor was simply using Gloucester Place as an accommodation address. The ‘accounts’ submitted were all his own work.

Though the most recent accounts are a tale of West End to East End. For Moblake’s latest accounts were signed off by Naail & Co Ltd, a husband and wife outfit on Lambeth Walk in property leased with money borrowed from banks.

But the accounts remain unaudited. The accountant just signed off what Taylor put in front of him.

Accountant’s contribution to the latest Moblake Ltd accounts (y/e 30.04.2021). Click to open in separate tab.

Couldn’t David Taylor have found a nice, respectable accountant in Wales who would have presented fully audited and verified accounts?

Makes you wonder.

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‘HERE YOU ARE, TAFF – DON’T SAY WE DON’T GIVE YOU NOTHING’

Maybe I’d better explain what I mean by the heading to this article about England’s wind turbines in Wales. Now pay attention, because this is a bit complicated, and prefaced with, ‘As I understand it . . . ‘.

In 2015 legislation was passed, covering England and Wales, that gave local planning authorities – i.e. councils – powers to decide on wind farms of 10MW and above. (They already had the power over smaller installations.)

This had been mooted for some years and finally came into effect, on June 18, 2015. With political spin about upholding election promises by letting ‘local people have the final say on wind farm applications’.

Hinting that this was a decision dictated by electoral considerations. For wind farms are erected in rural areas, and the rural areas of England are overwhelmingly Conservative in their political sentiments.

The Conservative and Unionist Party would lose MPs and councils if a Tory government in London over-ruled local councils to impose wind farms on areas where locals didn’t want them.

The map below might help illustrate my point.

You can do your own by going to this site, and by playing with the various layers on the interactive map you can end up with whatever your heart desires.

Image: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy / Barbour ABI. Click to open in separate tab

To reproduce my map, from the menu on the left: In ‘Energy Type’, keep Wind Onshore. In ‘Energy Capacity’, 10MW and Above. In ‘Status’, Application Submitted, Awaiting Construction, Operational, and Under Construction.

If we could add a layer giving political features it would show that Tory-voting England is almost entirely free of wind farms.

Below you’ll see an extract from a relevant UK government publication. This makes it clear that the 2015 legislation covered England and Wales.

Obviously, this legislation means there will be hardly any wind farms in England. And that will result in the UK struggling to meet its climate change obligations. It will also be bad news for the Tories’ business friends who milk the subsidies paid for renewable energy.

Which is why I am convinced pressure was applied from London on the ‘Welsh Government’ for Wales to accept more and more wind farms.

This explains why the legislation was reversed in Wales to make wind farms of 10MW Developments of National Significance, meaning local authorities must either grant planning permission or expect to be over-ruled if they refuse planning permission. For the ultimate power rests with Welsh ministers. (Here’s the link.)

This explains how, in 2018, Lesley Griffiths was able to over-rule both Powys County Council and the Planning Inspector on Hendy wind farm.

Ordinarily, Wales and England moving in separate directions would be something I’d applaud, but not this time.

Perhaps someone in the ‘Welsh Government’ can explain why 10MW wind farms are Developments of National Significance in Wales, but not in England.

Especially as we share the same National Grid and the electricity generated by ‘Welsh’ wind farms will most likely go to England.

As I’ve said, I’m convinced pressure was applied from London, perhaps via the civil servants operating in Wales who answer to London. The ‘Welsh Government’ couldn’t admit that, so it was glossed over with the Well-being of Future Generations Act, which came into force in April 2016.

Followed by pious declarations to make Wales ‘carbon neutral’ and then, like a maiden aunt having an attack of the vapours, declaring a ‘Climate Emergency‘.

As if anybody outside of Corruption Bay gives a toss!

These bouts of orchestrated hysteria turned planting wind farms all over Wales into an environmental crusade. The panel below, from this ‘Welsh Government’ site, explains why someone thinks we needed this legislation.

Note that climate change, over which Wales can have no effect, is more important for the ‘Welsh Government’ than spheres where it could make a difference.

Priorities, eh!

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CONCLUSION

Despite the apparent divergence of approach over Developments of National Significance in 2015/16 we are, effectively, still in the Englandandwales model.

Making wind farms another example of devolution being used to serve England’s interests rather than ours. Consider this . . .

Just imagine if a Tory government in Westminster had said, ‘We don’t want wind farms in England – so we’re going to dump them all in Wales’. There would have been a national outcry.

Yet that is what has happened!

It’s the old story of Wales being exploited for the benefit of England. And just as with our water, we are not compensated for what we export.

Wanting Wales to be ‘carbon neutral’ and declaring a ‘Climate Emergency!’ is just vain posturing to disguise Wales’ subordinate status. Play-acting that won’t improve the lives of Welsh people, or make any difference to climate change.

And things might be about to get a whole lot worse.

For the number of wind farm applications is accelerating. Not only do we have Bute Energy’s 16 projects, there’s also the monster turbines planned for Y Bryn, between Port Talbot and Maesteg; while more recently I’ve learnt of a plan for turbines above coal tips at Ynyshir in the Rhondda Fach.

Yes, honestly, above coal tips.

How many more are planned that we haven’t yet heard about?

There is nothing to be said in favour of wind turbines. In their brief and intermittent lives they do not repay the environment for the damage caused in making, transporting, and erecting them. They are all built and owned by foreign companies. They provide no jobs. They despoil our landscapes. They kill birds. They cause flooding.

But never mind, we’re serving England’s interests. Again.

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‘Energy Parks’ – new name, but same old corruption, same old exploitation

On 01/10/202113/04/2023 By JacIn Amgueddfa Cymru, Colonialism, Corruption, Welsh Government, Wind Turbines24 Comments

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The previous post was a cri de coeur from someone who by chance had learnt that she is to have a wind farm plonked on her doorstep. Which is often how people find out.

Because in the early stages of wind farm projects those pushing them like to tread carefully, and operate in the shadows. Which encourages skulduggery and often results in what can only be described as corruption.

Yes, I know, that will shock and surprise many of you. But it happens, even here, in planet-saving, refugee-welcoming, men-with-cervixes accepting Wales; where self-absorbed nobodies flit about the Bay out-mwahing each other as they await the next ishoo over which to drool and became instantly knowledgeable.

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BACKGROUND

I must begin with a sizeable recap, because if you don’t understand what has gone before then you’ll have difficulty making sense of what’s happening now. And what is likely to happen in the future.

About three years ago I was contacted by people in central Powys who were fighting against the imposition of a wind farm. What resulted from that approach was Corruption in the wind? in November 2018.

This was followed up in August 2020 with, Corruption in the wind 2, Labour snouts in the trough.

The story began with the strange case of Hendy Wind Farm, not far from Llandrindod. To cut a long story short . . .

Planning permission was refused by Powys County Council in April 2017, at a meeting where there occurred an episode worth recounting. (And here I lift a section from my November 2018 offering.)

‘Back in 2017, on April 27 to be exact, there was a curious scene played out at a meeting of Powys County Council’s planning committee. At a point in the meeting after the committee had refused planning permission for Hendy and was about to discuss further conditions for Bryn Blaen, a woman who had been sitting with the developers tried to hand a note to one of the committee members.

The woman had to be forcefully ushered away. She was recognised as a lobbyist, working for Invicta Public Affairs, a company based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne . . .

It was Anna McMorrin, who had been recruited by Invicta in October 2016 for no reason other than she was a Labour Party insider, having joined the party when she was a student, and as a result of her subsequent career she knew exactly who to approach to get things done.

While she was working for Alun Davies they began an affair which resulted in both leaving their long-term partners. They now live together.

In the general election of June 2017 Anna McMorrin was elected Labour MP for Cardiff North.’

When McMorrin became an MP her profile obviously increased, and she could hardly be expected to raise the hopes of elderly councillors by slipping them billets-doux during planning committee meetings.

A replacement would have to be found.

Inevitably, the Hendy developers appealed against the council’s decision but the appeal was dismissed by a planning inspector in May, 2018. Then, just five months later, Lesley Griffiths, Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs Secretary for the self-styled ‘Welsh Government’ over-ruled the planning inspector.

Here’s the letter Lesley Griffiths sent to Keith McKinney of Aaron and Partners LLP, a firm of Chester solicitors acting for the developers Hendy Wind Farm Ltd. Which is directly owned by DS Renewables LLP and ultimately owned by U + I Group Plc.

You’ll note that Griffiths says the justification for her overruling the planning inspector is that Hendy Wind Farm is a Development of National Significance (DNS).

Yet Wales already produces roughly twice as much electricity as we consume, with the extra going to England for no remuneration. So Hendy and all the other developments planned cannot be in the Welsh national interest. Which means they must be in the national interest of England or the UK.

Suggesting that Wales is being lumbered with an unfair and disproportionate number of the UK’s wind farms. Take Scotland out of the calculation and it becomes even more obvious that Wales is suffering an excessive number of wind turbines in order to protect English landscapes.

But it’s OK, because this exploitation is presented as little old Wales saving the planet.

It’s unusual for a minister to overrule the Planning Inspectorate. And because the Planning Inspectorate plays by the same DNS rule-book Griffiths’ decision made a number of people suspect that other factors or influences might have been at play.

From the ‘Welsh Government’ website. Click to open in separate tab

And then . . . it was noticed that Labour insider David James Taylor had slipped on to the stage. Was he the replacement for Anna McMorrin?

In this website – put up I assume by objectors – Taylor’s company Moblake is named as working for the developers. Though as I’ll explain in a minute, there are two Moblake companies. And Taylor’s connection to those developers goes beyond Moblake.

Taylor is described in this piece as a ‘Former Labour spin doctor’. To give you some more information I shall shamelessly lift a section from last year’s piece:

‘Back in the early part of 2009 a bright lad in the Labour Party launched a website attacking his party’s political opponents. The site’s name cleverly linking the names of Labour icon Aneurin Bevan and national hero Owain Glyndŵr. As background music it even employed Tom Jones’s Delilah.

How we laughed!

But it all came unstuck and caused the bruvvers considerable embarrassment. First Minister Rhodri Morgan was particularly irked because Plaid Cymru leader Ieuan Wyn Jones had been portrayed as a clown. In normal circumstances this wouldn’t have mattered, but Labour was in coalition with Plaid Cymru at the time.

The website itself has long disappeared into the ether, but this old blog will give you a flavour. Though the Aneurin Glyndŵr Twitter account lives on.

The photo below shows Taylor canvassing for Lesley Griffiths in the 2016 Assembly elections along with some kids shipped in from England.

Around the same time he stood as the Labour candidate for the North Wales PCC post, but lost. Which would have left him looking for a suitably remunerative position.

Taylor had worked as a spad for Peter Hain when the Sage of the Serengeti was Secretary of State for Wales, and has also served as head cook and bottlewasher to former Labour Assembly Member Leighton Andrews.

Taylor joined the party while still in nappies and chaired his local constituency association before leaving kindergarten. In short, he is Labour through and through, and is very well connected in the Welsh branch of the UK Labour Party.

Additionally, he’s from the north east, and knows Lesley Griffiths personally.

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WHAT A BUTE!

There is something of a changing of the guard in 2017/18. Not only do we see Taylor taking over from McMorrin as the Labour Party / lobbyist presence but those originally behind Hendy wind farm are overshadowed by new players.

The linkage between the new and the old can be found in the company originally named Windward Generation Ltd, then Bute Energy Ltd, and finally, RSCO 3750 Ltd.

The first two directors were Oliver James Millican and Lawson Douglas Steele, both using the address of the Edinburgh Solicitors’ Property Centre at 90a George Street. They were joined 6 days later by Steven John Radford of Hendy Wind Farm Ltd.

Radford left in December 2019 and in the same month Stuart Allan George joined. Millican, Steele, and George will dominate this narrative from now on through a galaxy of companies under the Bute Energy umbrella.

To help you make sense of it I offer this table, with working links, that shows the various companies involved at the outset of the Hendy scenario and how, since they appeared on the scene, Millican, Steele, and George seem to be planning wind farms – now renamed ‘energy parks’ – all over Wales.

Since April 2020 there have been 20 new companies. Most of them location specific. See how many you can identify.

Earlier I mentioned David Taylor’s two companies called Moblake. These are Moblake Ltd (formerly Moblake Wind Ventures Ltd), and Moblake Associates Ltd. Despite the suggestion in the name of the second, Taylor is the sole director of both.

The latest unaudited financial statement for Moblake Ltd (not to be confused with audited accounts) show a healthy balance of £765,000. The ‘Nature of business (SIC)’ says that this company deals in ‘specialised construction activities’.

From the latest accounts, y/e 30.04.2021. We can guess where the money came from. Moblake is just a conduit. Money goes in one end and Taylor takes it out at the other end. Click to open in separate tab.

The Moblake companies were formed a week before Lesley Griffiths wrote to the developers’ solicitor advising that the Hendy Wind Farm was going ahead. What a coincidence!

Which I find curious. For Taylor has neither qualifications nor experience in the field of construction. I’ve read somewhere that he took time out from being a political fixer to study cyber security in the USA.

To further the pretence of Welsh involvement in or benefit from these projects Bute has recruited or appointed a Welsh Advisory Board headed by former Labour MEP Derek Vaughan.

UPDATE 15.10.2021: We now learn from her entry on the Register of Interests that senior Labour MS Jenny Rathbone‘s partner is a member of the Advisory Board.

This is John Uden.

What expertise does he bring? Or is his real benefit that he’s the partner of a Senedd Member who sits on the Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee?

Having touched on Taylor’s background, it’s worth adding that Millican, Steele, and George have never driven a digger for Wimpey either. Their expertise is in real estate and equities.

Which raises a number of possibilities.

Until he discovered an interest in wind turbines Millican was a director of companies under the Parabola label. Companies such as Parabola Estate Holdings Ltd, operating out of the same London address as his more recent wind farm ventures.

A director of this and many other companies is 72-year-old Peter John Millican, who I assume to be the father of 40-year-old Oliver Millican.

Given that Millican junior is in ultimate control of all the wind farm companies I can’t help wondering whether he has really branched out on his own or whether he’s still working for daddy. Or perhaps fronting for someone else.

To summarise, we have the three musketeers from Caeredin, and their man on the ground in Wales, David Taylor, none of whom has any obvious background in engineering or renewables. Nor are they believed to be card-carrying members of the Greta Thunberg Fan Club.

Which suggests to me that they’re just in it for the money. With that money assured through being able to influence the ‘Welsh Government’.

For it wasn’t Taylor’s sparkling repartee that persuaded the Bute gang to make him a member of Grayling Capital LLP, and a shareholder in Windward Enterprises.

All of which leads me to wonder if this lot will erect a single wind turbine.

Because having apparently secured the rights to so many sites all they need do on each is spend a few thousand for a planning application and, once that’s secured, each site becomes worth millions.

And we are talking tens of millions of pounds, possibly nine figures, for a total outlay of less than a million pounds, and without having to do any real work.

Not far from Hendy Wind Farm, nearer to Llangurig, we find Bryn Blaen. A modest affair of 6 turbines with a tip height of 100m and a potential output of just 14.1MW. This too was launched by Steven John Radford, the man behind the Hendy project.

The latest accounts (to 30 September, 2020) show ‘Tangible assets’ of £35,567,344. And this figure has been reduced by the estimated cost of removing the turbines when their days are done, and restoring the site.

Though I predict it will be a hard job getting those responsible to restore wind farm sites. We might see companies locating offshore, as we saw with those seeking to avoid cleaning up opencast coal sites. A famous example being Celtic Energy.

Incidentally, Celtic Energy was advised by M & A Solicitors, which changed its name to Acuity Law and then advised Stan ‘The Pies’ Thomas on his notorious acquisition of public land.

I wrote about it back in the early part of 2016, with Pies, Planes & Property Development, soon followed by Pies, Planes & Property Development 2. ‘Planes’ refers to Stan and his brother Peter selling Cardiff airport to the ‘Welsh Government’ for a ludicrously high price.

When dealing with the ‘Welsh Government’ the Thomas brothers adhere to the old maxim, ‘Sell high, buy low’. With which the ‘Welsh Government, apparently, agrees.

Acuity Law still does a lot of work for Whatshisname and his gang. God help us!

Let’s conclude this section with a bit more information on Bryn Blaen. Radford and other directors left the company in February 2020. They were replaced by Stephen Richard Daniels, Edward William Mole, Benjamin Alexander Phillips, and Roger Skeldon.

Together, the three for whom I’ve provided links, hold 1,647 directorships, and a hell of a lot of the companies are dissolved.

It might be worth keeping an eye on Bryn Blaen.

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IT COULD HAVE BEEN SO DIFFERENT

Consider this: We have a ‘Welsh Government’, and it wants to fight climate change by covering Wales in wind turbines.

The obvious course to have taken would have been to build up a Welsh renewables industry. Welsh companies could have been formed, could have grown and prospered; created jobs, built up local skills, and put wealth into local economies.

Had this been done we could today have Welsh companies erecting wind turbines around the world. Using highly-skilled Welsh technicians and engineers. Bringing money back to Wales.

But no.

Instead, our colonial elite behaved like procurers, offering Wales up to foreign investors and companies for them to do with as they wished. The former sometimes based in tax havens, the latter often state owned, such as Sweden’s Vattenfall, which owns our largest wind farm, Pen-y-Cymoedd.

But it will get worse before it gets better. Because in some ways Bute Energy’s plans may represent the last hurrah for increasingly discredited onshore wind.

The next scam is tree planting. Which is why . . .

When independence is seen to approach the first priority must be to seal off Corruption Bay and block all escape routes. Then flood the place. Have gangs of likely lads at each exit to mercilessly deal with anyone trying to get out.

Because . . . can you imagine giving more power, and more money, to those we find in that nest of vermin? The jumped-up councillor politicians, their spads, and other hangers-on; the third sector parasites dreaming up new ‘problems’ they can use to bleed us dry; the (unregistered) lobbyists; the civil servants taking orders from London; the enviroshysters and other ‘influencers’ directing ‘Welsh Government’ policy.

They must all be swept away.

If independence offers nothing but devolution on steroids, then here’s one lifelong nationalist who will reject it. My independence, whilst being free of ideological pre-conditions, demands a fresh start, with a different model, and in a new place.

A new system that works for the Welsh people, not against us.

♦ end ♦

More wind turbines!

On 27/09/202127/09/2021 By JacIn Colonialism, Welsh Government, Wind Turbines26 Comments

My intention was to start winding down this blog, spend more time with my wife, grand-children, Malbec, books, but things keep cropping up. That said, it’s very unlikely I shall undertake major new investigations. Diolch yn fawr.

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As you can see this contribution is an anonymous guest post from another Welsh community being threatened by foreign-owned wind turbines erected – we are told – to save the planet, but providing no benefits whatsoever to Wales.

You’ll also see that the writer seeks help from someone who is clever, cheap, and cheerful. Well, I’m certainly clever, and I don’t charge, but whether I’m cheerful depends on a number of factors. Such as whether anybody’s pissed me off, how the Swans are doing, the latest lunacies out of Corruption Bay, and whether I’ve had a glass or twa or the Argentine nectar.

The area affected by the proposed wind turbines is inland of Abergele. Not far from Llanfair Talhaiarn, of blesséd memory. For many, many years ago a gang of us hired a Ford Transit van in Swansea and did a wee tour of the area. We were headed for Squire Wynne’s place at Garthewin.

Anyway, we got a bit boisterous in one the Llanfair pubs and were ejected. (Can you believe that!) So we made a dash for the village’s other pub. But like a scene from a Bergman movie, as we drew near, the big front door was slowly closed with a deathly creak.

The bastard in the first pub had obviously phoned ahead!

Happy days!

Now read on . . .

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ENGLISH VERSION

250 Metre Onshore Wind Turbines – Paradise Lost or Paradise Regained?

I had a strange and surreal ‘Mabinogion’ or ‘Under Milk Wood’ type dream last night, I was talking to an industrial wind energy company representative from another country. Rather he was condescending whereas I was rendered gobsmacked (the correct technical term to describe this state eludes me). He took undue delight in telling me that the Welsh Government designation of pre-assessed status for wind energy generation afforded to my home (Future Wales Plan 2040) gave his company ‘presumed consent’ to build a huge industrial wind site, unprecedented in size and scale. This entails placing 250-metre-high turbines (Bendigeidfran – like but without getting his feet wet) extending some 3 or 4 miles across the beautiful hinterland of rural Conwy and all this barely 700 metres from our front door and newly established small glamping business.

The dream became more bizarre. This ‘pre-assessed’ status, based on prior Development Framework Plans and an evidential basis we are still awaiting full sight of was sanctioned in February 2021 during a global pandemic. This status was apparently not known to our Assembly Member, neither of the respective two county councillors, nor three relevant community councils whose parishes had acquired the prestigious accolade of being sacrificed as collateral damage, to save the planet by selling our landscape, ecology, souls, livelihood, and wellbeing to finance the unfaltering altruism of multi -national constellations of hedge fund and venture capitalists.

The threatened area. Click to open in separate tab

In fact, we shouldn’t have known about it at all, but for the integrity and courtesy of good neighbours who had received a ‘Noise Agreement’ to sign along with an annual financial incentive. We then became aware that the company had been in negotiations with several landowners since September 2020, nine months earlier. I understand that the recognised industry terminology or parlance to describe this practice is ‘public engagement and consultation’, requiring no doubt years of university education to hone the required skills.

The dream became a nightmare. We have inadvertently found ourselves bound in a Sisyphean Greek fable, attempting whilst blind folded to complete a highly complex – albeit extremely interesting – jigsaw, without as yet the benefit of the complete picture. Further exacerbated by the inevitable one or two critical pieces lurking in the dark corners under the sofa cushions destined to remain forever hidden or inadvertently coming to light when seeking the TV remote control.

Who would have thought that I’d be rapidly including ‘Clean Energy?’ to my limited but highly exclusive repertoire of specialist subjects for any potential Mastermind invitation (alongside cast on techniques in fair isle knitting and Sunday School sol – ffa if you’re interested). Topics include constraint payments (money for switching them off), wildlife and ecology impacts including flooding risks, overseas production, the mining of precious metals, visual and noise pollution … and all the pioneering developments in more effective and efficient clean energy options.

It’s clearly a long time since I was in school, but not quite that long ago that I couldn’t see that the maths nor the logic didn’t quite add up. In focusing on hitting targets, it seems to me that we are in danger of missing the point and losing all common sense within the unquestioned and well -rehearsed Mantra.

We haven’t objected to smaller scale local initiatives, it’s the unprecedented size and scale of this proposal and what it will herald that is of concern. Of course, we’ll be labelled as NIMBYs, (whereas FISBY ‘Fine In Someone else’s Back Yard especially if I get paid for it’ is perfectly acceptable though not as catchy), whilst the developer will be welcomed as a returning Messiah laden with gifts and distributing charity and largesse to the grateful natives.

Please someone wake me up and tell me it’s all a bad dream or if as I fear, this is our new reality – is there someone out there who could help give a small rural community a fighting chance with this? We need someone clever (essential); cheap (essential) and cheerful (preferably). Thank you for reading.

Chwarae Teg – Hen Dro Sal

Jac’s PS: A new company has been formed for this project, Moelfre Energy Park Ltd (they’re not called wind farms any more). The single share issued, thus far, is held by Bute Energy (Cambria) Ltd. Look at the directors of Moelfre Energy Park and Bute Energy (Cambria) Ltd and you’ll see some Edinburgh gents who have appeared on this blog before. Read Corruption in the wind 2, Labour snouts in the trough.

∼ ♦ ∼

FERSIWN GYMRAEG

Tyrbeinau Gwynt Tir 250 Metr – Adennill Paradwys ynteu Paradwys Coll?

Cefais freuddwyd Dan y Wenallt a Mabinogaidd ei naws, enbyd o od neithiwr. Roeddwn yn siarad efo cynrychiolydd cwmni gwynt diwydiannol o wlad arall, wel i ddweud y gwir ‘roedd o’n nawddoglyd a finna’n gegrwth.

Ymhyfrydodd wrth ddweud wrthai fod statws dynodedig ynni gwynt Llywodraeth Cymru (Cynllun Cymru’r Dyfodol 2040) fy nghynefin, yn sicrhau ‘caniatad wedi ei ragdybio’ i’w gwmni, adeiladu maes ynni gwynt diwydiannol, cwbl ddigynsail o ran maint a graddfa. Gosod tyrbeinau 250 metr o uchder (megis Bendigeidfran ond heb wlychu’i draed) ar draws 3 – 4 milltir berfeddwlad hyfrytaf Conwy, a’r cyfan 700 metr o’n haelwyd a’n menter glampio bychan ni.

Aeth y freuddwyd yn fwy rhyfedd fyth. Cytunwyd ar yr ardaloedd dynodedig hyn, yn derfynol ym mis Chwefror 2021, ynghanol pandemig fyd eang. Er holi a holi rydym yn parhau i aros am y dystiolaeth lawn sy’n rhoi sail i’r penderfyniad.

Yn ol a ddeallwn nid oedd y statws yma yn wybyddus i’n haelod seneddol, nag i wleidyddion lleol na sirol, sydd a’u plwyfi breintiedig wedi eu dethol ar gyfer achub y blaned. Ac yn sgil hynny aberthu tirwedd ac ecoleg, a bywoliaeth, llesiant ac eneidiau ninnau drigolion – er mwyn ariannu anhunanoldeb dibendraw cytser rhyngwladol o gyfalafwyr menter.

Ni ddylem ni wybod hyd yn oed ‘rwan. Oni bai am hygrededd a chwrteisi cymdogion da a dderbyniodd ‘Gytundeb Swn’ gyda chymhelliant ariannol blynyddol i’w arwyddo, fe fyddwn ni dal yn y niwl. O dipyn i beth fe ddaeth yn amlwg fod trafodaethau y datblygwyr gyda thirfeddianwyr wedi cychwyn naw mis ynghynt. Deallaf mai’r terminoleg swyddogol o fewn y diwydiant ar gyfer yr arferion rhain ydy, ‘Ymgysylltu ac Ymgynghori gyda’r Cyhoedd’, sgiliau mae’n rhaid wrth flynyddoedd o addysg Prifysgol i’w mireinio siwr o fod.

Fe drodd y freuddwyd yn hunllef. Rydym yn gaeth mewn chwedl Roegaidd Sisyphean, yn ceisio llunio jig-so cymhleth (er un hynod diddorol), heb weld y llun cyfan, hyd yma. Yn anorfod mae na ddau neu dri o ddarnau coll yn celu yn nhragwyddoldeb ebargofiant encilion y soffa.

Pwy feddyliai y byddwn yn ychwanegu ‘Ynni Glan?” i’m repertoire cyfyng ond hynod ddethol ar gyfer y gwahoddiad Mastermind (ynghyd a dulliau gweu Fair Isle a Sol-Ffa Ysgol Sul). Mae’r meysydd llafur yn cynnwys, Taliadau Cyfyngiad (arian i’w diffodd); effeithiau ar fywyd gwyllt ac ecoleg gan gynnwys llifogydd, dulliau cynhyrchu gan gynnwys concrid a mwynau gwerthfawr, ynghyd a’r holl ddulliau amgen cyffrous sydd yn fwy effeithiol ac effeithlon.

Mae na amser maith er pan fues i’n ddisgybl ysgol ond nid cweit mor hir imi beidio a gweld nad ydy’r rhesymeg na’r syms yn taro deuddeg. Wrth ganolbwyntio’n unllygeidiog ar wireddu targedau mae’n amlwg imi ein bod yn methu’r pwynt a fod synnwyr cyffredin wedi diflannu o fewn y Mantra.

Nid ydym wedi gwrthwynebu datblygiadau eraill lleol, maint a graddfa y safle sydd yn ein dychryn. Wrth gwrs fe gawn ein collfarnu a’n labelu’n NIMBYs, (dydy’r term FISBY ‘Fine In Someone else’s Back Yard especially if I get paid for it’ ddim cweit mor fachog), tra chaiff y datblygwr, sy’n addo rhannu elusen a largesse i’r werin dlawd ond diolchgar, groeso y Meseia dychweledig.

Gall rhywun fy neffro o’r hunllef plis neu os mai dyma yw ein normal newydd oes rhywun gall gynnig cymorth i gymuned fechan wledig? Rydan ni angen rhywun clyfar (hanfodol), rhad (hanfodol) a llawen (dewisol). Diolch am ddarllen.

Chwarae Teg – Hen Dro Sal.

♦ end ♦

In the next day or two I shall bring out a supplementary piece explaining certain connections between wind farm developers, movers and shakers with political connections, and politicians making decisions on wind farms.

There is definitely corruption involved. The only question is: How far does this corruption reach?

Invasion of the Enviroshysters (PG)

On 21/09/202123/09/2021 By JacIn Colonialism, Colonisation of Wales, Greens28 Comments

I’M IN SEMI-RETIREMENT AND THIS BLOG IS WINDING DOWN. I INTEND CALLING IT A DAY IN THE NEXT FEW MONTHS. POSTINGS WILL PROBABLY BE LESS FREQUENT AND I WILL NOT UNDERTAKE ANY MAJOR NEW INVESTIGATIONS. DIOLCH YN FAWR.

♦

Since posting Enviroshysters flock to Wales for easy money last week a source has been in touch with news of more shady dealing down among the organic radishes.

But first, an update.

∼ ◊ ∼

BLAENEINION

I have now spoken with Sharon Girardi of Blaeneinion. And while I’m sort of persuaded that she is not the owner of the property, I’m still no nearer knowing who really owns it.

According to Ms Girardi, ownership is somehow tied up with a family trust. One of the family being an old friend of hers who allows her to live at Blaeneinion. Which seems plausible. Though newspaper reports continue to name her as the owner.

What puzzles me is why a family trust would go to such lengths to hide the ownership of 75 acres of not very good land.

For the Land Registry tells us that Blaeneinion’s owner is Gibraltar company Endeavour Ltd. From Companies House in Gibraltar we learn that the shares are all owned by Gibraltar International Trust Corporation Ltd (GITCO). The ‘directors’ being Trilex Ltd, also of Gibraltar.

Just like GITCO Trilex appears in the Paradise Papers and has many interesting connections.

Image: International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Click to open in separate tab

What’s clear is that someone has gone to considerable lengths to hide the identity or identities of whoever owns Blaeneinion.

Another mystery is that the Gibraltar International Trust Corporation Ltd is a director of a company formed earlier this year in Worcestershire. This being the only mention of GITCO I can find on the Companies House website. How is this explained?

On the one hand I’d like to believe that Sharon Girardi is living a Blanche Dubois existence in the hills, but on the other hand, the known facts cause me concern.

♦

Before we push on, let me warn you, this three-reel production has a cast of thousands, sweeping vistas, farce and tragedy, ‘Welsh Government’ funding, Arts Council of Wales funding, home schooling, land grabbing, elephants . . . and all made possible because the Woke-Left-Green shysters involved are favoured by politicos and their dosh-dishers in Corruption Bay. Which encourages more of the buggers to move here.

(OK, I lie about the elephants.)

◊

THE GREEN, GREEN GRASS OF (SOMEBODY ELSE’S) HOME

Knowing of my interest in all things Green, a regular correspondent directed me to The Green Gathering, to be held next year in Chepstow. Which is convenient for the anti-everything head-bangers of Bristol, while also ensuring ‘Welsh Government’ support.

The event is organised by a charity of the same name. Which is also a company.

From the documents filed with the Charity Commission we learn that The Green Gathering has a ‘trading subsidiary’ / ‘production company’ by the name of Optimistic Trout Productions CIC. (It’s amazing what quirky names appear when, after another hard day herding rabbits, one relaxes with a mug of sun-dried amanita muscaria.)

All shares in Optimistic Trout Productions (OTP) are held by The Green Gathering Ltd.

Optimistic Trout Productions, of Pengraig, Felindre, Llandysul, was Incorporated December 2010. (Until May 2020 the company’s address was in Frome, Somerset.) The Green Gathering, of Shrewsbury, first saw the light of day in July 2011, in Maidstone, Kent. In August 2013 it moved to Four Roads, Kidwelly. Then on to Shrewsbury in August 2019, moving to another address in the town in October 2020.

The move from Kidwelly to Shrewsbury ties in with Susan Ellis Alexander Pickles of Four Roads ceasing to be secretary and director of The Green Gathering in August 2019.

I suspect The Green Gathering replaced Big Green Gathering Company Ltd, of York, which faltered in 2010 / 2011 and was compulsorily struck-off in July 2012. (Among former directors we find an old friend in the form of Graham ‘Brig’ Oubridge, who has now returned to the land of his naissance.)

I suggest that succession because Stephen Fraser Muggeridge is a director of both companies and also of the Optimistic Trout. He lives in Maidstone, and stood for the county council in May this year. For the Green Party, of course.

Muggeridge failed to be elected but one of the gang who is a councillor, is Shane Collins, who sits on Mendip District Council representing the Frome Keyford ward. This of course explains Optimistic Trout Productions being based in Frome.

When he’s not fighting the Green cause on Mendip District Council Collins is a spokesperson for Insulate Britain. You know, the Provisional wing of Extinction Rebellion that believes they have a right to interfere with everybody else’s lives.

As I say, Muggeridge and Collins are both directors of Optimistic Trout Productions. These are the other directors.

You’ll note that two of them, Muggeridge and Emma Louise Fordham use Llandysul as their correspondence address, but we know Muggeridge lives in Maidstone and Fordham gives ‘Country of Residence’ as England.

So all the directors of a company registered in Llandysul live in England! What’s going on? Perhaps the answer can be found at Pengraig itself.

According to the Land Registry, the property is owned by Amanda Beatrice Murdoch. It was bought in October 2004 for £355,000 without need of a mortgage. We have not encountered this woman before, she has certainly not been involved with the companies mentioned.

I’m guessing that Optimistic Trout Productions is using Pengraig as an accommodation address with an eye to Welsh public funding. It’s difficult to think of any another reason seeing as the directors live in various locations in England and the company holding all the shares is also based over the border.

Because we must remember that everything is now working towards August 2022 and the Green Gathering in Chepstow. I predict with certainty there will be applications for Welsh public funding. The applications may already have been made.

Next, we’ll look at people who are definitely receiving funding, both from the ‘Welsh Government’ and our friends at the Arts Council of Wales.

◊

‘WHAT DID YOU LEARN IN SCHOOL TODAY?’ (OH! I FORGOT – YOU DON’T GO.)

We move a little further west now, to ‘Fountain Hill’ at Glogue, in north Pembrokeshire, where we find Majical Youth, also in the festivals entertainment business. Scroll down on the home page and you’ll see the backers.

Click to open in separate tab

There are obvious connections with Pengraig, Llandysul.

One I found intriguing was that (Rev?) Helen Mary Caroline Reynolds, who bought ‘Fountain Hill’ in December 2015 for £245,000 without need of a mortgage, was previously a director of Pengraig Property Investors Ltd.

Pengraig Property Investors was formed in April 2014. Fountain Hill was bought in December 2015. The company was dissolved at the end of May 2016. Was the company set up for no other reason than to buy ‘Fountain Hill?

I ask because there are tax benefits in buying a property through a limited company. Which is what appears to have happened at ‘Fountain Hill’. It can later be transferred to an individual.

Another link between Pengraig and ‘Fountain Hill’ would be the company Plant Natur. For the two directors are Amanda Murdoch, proprietrix of Pengraig, and her opposite number at ‘Fountain Hill’, Helen Reynolds.

Reynolds signed off the Majical Youth CIC accounts. Though the most recent available accounts only take us up to May 2019. With the next accounts due at the end of next month.

Even so, things were looking pretty rosy, with £81,500 cash in hand and total assets of £169,6580. But these ‘unaudited statutory accounts’ make no mention of succour from the ‘Welsh Government’ or the Arts Council.

Though as the logos for both appear on the website we have to assume that funding has been received, probably after May 2019. Because using the logo is a condition of funding.

Does Plant Natur or Majical Youth connect with the Fountain Hill Home Education Group? Which provides: ‘Wednesday home education social days days for children who do not attend school’.

The issue of home schooling is a problem. A growing problem due to the influx into our rural areas of the kind of people I’m writing about.

And one that is embarrassing politicians since the death 10 years ago of Dylan Seabridge. Eight-year-old Dylan died of scurvy. He lived in Pembrokeshire but his parents had moved from Stoke-on-Trent.

Yes, scurvy!

Dylan was schooled at home. Maybe it would be more accurate to say he just never went to school. He had never seen a doctor or a dentist. And yet, his parents escaped prosecution. They were let off to avoid opening a can of worms and embarrassing the local council and other bodies.

Even so, the ‘Welsh Government’ had to pretend to be doing something. Resisting calls for a register and regular checks on home educated children, the Corruption Bay cronyocracy instead produced a few wishy-washy booklets, such as this, aimed at parents and carers.

The message being, ‘Er, just carry on doing what you’re doing’.

There are obvious reasons for the ‘Welsh Government’ not wanting to take action over home schooling. For a start, too many of those not sending their kids to the local school are in networks loyal to the Green Queen, ‘Dr’ Jane Davidson.

But I think we all need to be concerned if the ‘Welsh Government’ is funding people who, wearing different hats, are involved in and encouraging home schooling.

◊

LAND GRABS

Not a lot of people know this, but Majical Youth of ‘Fountain Hill’ is part-owner of a wood-fired pizza trailer. Ownership seems to be shared with Incredible Edible Carmarthenshire, a group that’s been in existence for five or six years but finally launched last December as Incredible Edible Carmarthenshire CIC.

The reason it went legit is because those involved are hoping to grab some land near Llanelli railway station. And of course the grants to ‘improve’ the land.

And what an interesting bunch they are. Read about them here. I was particularly struck by this potted bio.

‘Finally, Heike Griffiths, the group’s Chair and Equal Opportunities Champion, is a lecturer who teaches inclusion and social justice at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, as well as being involved in . . . Extinction Rebellion.’

As we know, Lampeter means ‘Dr’ Jane Davidson. Another director is Montserrat Ribas-Gomis, a Spanish scientist head-hunted by Natural Resources Wales from . . . Bristol.

The land in question adjoins Llanelli railway station. It’s the green strip shown in the image below from Google Earth.

The station itself is, predictably, owned by Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd but was leased in October 2018 to KeolisAmey Operations Ltd soon after the partnership had been handed the Wales and Borders rail network.

I am assured that this land is in the stewardship of the Heart of Wales Line Development Company Ltd. The line itself runs from Swansea to Shrewsbury. Though unlike, say, Llandrindod, Llanelli’s main traffic is from the south coast mainline.

So the presence of the HoWLDC might seem a little odd. But it’s worth remembering that there is usually land available close to railway stations. Land that can be acquired for ‘community purposes’, and for which grants will be available.

A director of the Heart of Wales Line Development Company is Gillian Wright, and she first appeared on this this blog in September 2014 in Ancestral Turf. Scroll down and you’ll find her in a video.

Via the HoWLDC Wright was also involved with the Llandeilo Food Hub. This was based in an old railway wagon near the station, and had hopes to be a commercial venture selling locally-grown organic produce. Though now it may be operating as a food bank.

Possibly it’s both. Either way, if the venture has moved to the centre of Llandeilo, then I wonder what’s happened to the £30,000 wagon we see below, refurbished with ‘Welsh Government’ funding?

Image: West Wales News Review. Click to open in separate tab

Another of Wright’s ventures, this one funded by Carmarthenshire County Council, was The Level Crossing Community Interest Company, which went belly-up in 2016 after a few years of struggling, and failing, to break even.

So, if my source is correct (and I’m sure he is), then the would-be organic growers of Incredible Edible Carmarthenshire will be trying to do something that has already been tried, and failed.

And they will no doubt be getting public funding for it.

◊

CONCLUSION

We have a problem in Wales because, in its desperation to be seen to be Green, in its embarrassing attempts to convince a completely uninterested world that we are saving the planet, whassisname and his gang squander millions of pounds every year on enviroshysters, memsahibs and dreamers.

These invariably dress up their scams or their idiocies as ‘community ventures’ . . . of which the local community is almost always ignorant. It’s usually just outsiders talking to themselves.

But these outsiders are well connected – to Welsh public funding. Which shows how far the Labour ‘Welsh Government’ has drifted from the people it claims to represent.

Selling organically-grown vegetables might be a commercial proposition in the Cotswolds, or Islington – but in the poorest part of a poor Welsh town! An area blighted by the low-lifes shipped in by Labour’s third sector cronies.

News of the ‘Welsh Government’s gullibility has spread far and wide, and that’s why we are experiencing the invasion of the enviroshysters. It’s time to call a halt.

If people want to improve their land by planting trees then they should be allowed to do so without let or hindrance. Those wanting to organise festivals must be free to do so. And the best of luck to anyone wanting to grow and sell organic vegetables.

But these must be done on a commercial basis. None of them merit public funding because there is no public benefit.

♦ end ♦

Reverend Bobbins speaks to the nation

On 16/09/202116/09/2021 By JacIn Yes Cymru10 Comments

♦

I present another guest post on the tribulations afflicting YesCymru. Though you mustn’t think that I’ve derived pleasure from reporting on those tribulations, far from it.

Though the way I see it, the threat from an ill-starred and unlikely assemblage of entryists, chancers, and downright odd-balls, was confronted, and defeated. So we can all laugh about it now.

But let’s remember that we humans are all different, and that is true diversity. It doesn’t need to be labelled and imposed by diktat. Diversity just needs to be quietly and generously accepted. For labelling human beings almost always ends badly, because it’s invariably done to promote extreme forms of politics.

As we have so recently seen in YesCymru.

Now read on and have a bit of a laugh.

♦

BBC Wales: Transcript of our interview with the Reverend Bilbo Bobbins

Roderick ap Fechan (for it is he): Good afternoon Reverend Bobbins, and thank you so much for inviting me to the manse after what has been a very stormy time for your church.

BB: Indeed, but things have been a little quieter of late, and I feel that in a very real sense it is now time for me to speak out and set the record straight.

Before our interview could proceed a large housekeeper with very hairy legs, a beard and a floral dress entered bearing a tray laden with Welsh cakes and a pot of PG Tips.

BB: Ah, Mrs Boyle. Thank you, thank you. You know it’s hard to believe it Mr ap Fechan, but until a few months ago Mrs Boyle was a loose head prop with hopes of making it into the Ospreys, but then she read an article on non-binary fashion by one of our Deacons, and the rest, as they say is history.

You can put the tray down here, Mrs Boyle.

Mrs Boyle: Feck off.

BB: Thank you Mrs Boyle, you little minx. Now, Mr ap Fechan, where were we?

ap Fechan: How do you respond, Reverend Bobbins, to claims that your church was taken over by a group of extreme left wing fanatics at the annual picnic in May?

BB: There is not a scintilla of truth in this, and Comrade Guacamole has given me assurances to that effect. In fact he introduced me to an interesting gentleman known as Honest Bob who told me that the list of candidates he put forward represented a range of perfectly innocent cultural groups, and it was in that spirit that I for one welcome members of the Welshpool Trotskyite Crochet Circle, the Maesteg Marxist Doglovers Association and the Swansea Revolutionary Sadomasochistic Front.

As I understand it, only Comrade Guacamole himself is an active member of a political party.

ap Fechan: One of the deacons, Ms Moonbeam Molotov, said on Twitter that she wanted to burn the church to the ground. How do you reconcile this threat with her membership of your ruling body?

This image is used for purely illustrative purposes, to show people what dynamite looks like. Like. Click to open in separate tab

BB: Another complete misunderstanding. When I asked Ms Molotov about the cans of petrol she was storing in the church and the boxes labelled TNT in the vestry, she explained that the petrol was for the church minibus and that the large sticks of what looked like dynamite were in fact just fireworks bought in preparation for our annual Guy Fawkes celebration.

ap Fechan: There have also been allegations that a large sum was transferred from church funds to an account belonging to a member of the Welshpool Trotskyite Crochet Circle to finance a planned film featuring ‘marginalised talent’. How do you respond to that?

BB: Comrade Guacamole told me that he had received assurances from the young lady concerned that the money was merely resting in her account, and I think we can put that matter to bed, don’t you?

ap Fechan: Reverend Bobbins, there have been multiple complaints of bullying and harassment of the membership. What do you have to say about that?

BB: I was shocked to learn from the deacons after the annual picnic that our church was no longer a safe space for true believers, and that we had been infiltrated by heretics they called “terfs” and “fashies”. That was why Comrade Guacamole, Ms Gwenda Whiplash, Moonbeam Molotov and the others worked tirelessly to produce a three step procedure for unmasking the heretics.

To my astonishment they revealed that one former deacon and one newly elected deacon were in fact witches, and Ms Molotov and Ms Whiplash set about preparing to have them burned at the stake in the church grounds.

I felt this was unwise in view of the large quantities of petrol and fireworks Ms Molotov had stored on the premises, and so the sentence was commuted to excommunication and eternal damnation, which I felt was more compliant with health and safety regulations.

So, far from being divisive, I came to see that Comrade Guacamole, or Y Mab Darogan as I sometimes call him, and his followers had been sent to restore harmony to our congregation. Indeed, as Honest Bob said to me, “Oi, vicar, don’t you think that Comrade Guacamole, with his flowing beard and sandals, may have been sent to live among us sinners once before?”

ap Fechan: Bringing things up to date, Reverend Bobbins, the Daily Wales is reporting that a formal complaint has been made to S4C about a satirical video featuring a man called DJ Bry. Would you care to comment about this?

BB: I am enormously grateful to Mr Huw Janus, the proprietor of that esteemed organ, for the support he has given to our deacons who regrettably recently resigned en masse. As Mr Janus himself said the other evening, satire is all very well, but the references to social services and revenge porn were extremely upsetting.

Gwenda Whiplash, and I am reminded of Mary Magdalene here, has done a great deal of vital missionary work, and as her OnlyFans page says, at very competitive rates.

This image is, again, used for purely illustrative purposes. Click to open in separate tab

ap Fechan: And finally, Reverend Bobbins, how do you see the future for the church?

BB: It was with a heavy heart that I stepped down from my duties, but in a very real sense we are all to blame, are we not? Perhaps some members have been a little too enthusiastic on Twitter, but I am confident that we can rebuild, and Honest Bob has put me in touch with what he tells me is a very reliable firm of builders who will restore the smouldering ruins of the vestry to their former glory.

ap Fechan: Thank you, your grace.

♦ end ♦

Enviroshysters flock to Wales for easy money

On 13/09/202109/11/2022 By JacIn Colonisation of Wales, Corruption, Environmentalism, Welsh Government17 Comments

♦

As is so often the case, this week’s post began life with someone sending me a ‘this might interest you’ snippet. Sure enough, it did. Because once I started digging, all sorts of interesting information came to light.

◊

LIFE WITH THE BEAVERS

It all started with a news item from the Cambrian News, about a ‘conservation retreat’ not allowing onto the property people who had been vaccinated against Covid-19. I don’t buy this ‘paper and I try to avoid reading it because I’ve never trusted the Cambrian News. (I give some reasons in this short pdf document.)

As you’ll see, the CN report gives the name of no individual so, on the assumption that this ‘conservation retreat’ doesn’t run itself, and isn’t run by the beavers, I started my enquiries.

I soon realised that the story had also appeared in English dailies, and they had no hesitation in naming Sharon Girardi as the woman running Blaeneinion. So why would the local rag be so reticent to name her? Local weeklies survive by naming local people doing this and that. That’s why locals buy them.

Image: Daily Mail. Click to open in separate tab.

Next step was to the Land Registry, to see who owns Blaeneinion. And now it gets really interesting. Here’s the LR title document. I suggest you open it in another tab and keep it open.

You’ll see, on the first page, that the property is owned by Endeavour Ltd, a company registered in Gibraltar. And that it was bought for £595,000. At the foot of page 2 we read that Endeavour Ltd bought Blaeneinion on November 13, 2008.

Next stop, Gibraltar.

Companies House in Gib is quite efficient and helpful, and so I had few problems in buying a company profile for Endeavour Ltd. Though, this being Gibraltar, the paperwork doesn’t tell us much. Here it is anyway.

We learn that Endeavour Ltd was set up April 14, 2008. Some 7 months before the purchase of Blaeneinion. Perhaps created specifically for that purpose. Maybe other properties were bought.

Two thousand shares were issued and they’re all held by Gibraltar International Trust Corporation Ltd (GITCO). An old entity, this; Incorporated in November 1968.

You will not be surprised to learn that GITCO appears in the Panama Papers, where it links with other exotic forms of commercial life such as Cathay Transport Ltd of the Bahamas.

But, thanks to Open Corporates, we also find GITCO linked with a new company nearer home.

I’m referring now to Friar Street Properties Ltd, Incorporated with Companies House as recently as March 29, 2021. There, among the directors, we see Gibraltar International Trust Corporation Ltd.

Why would Gibraltar International Trust Corporation be named as a director for a small-scale property company operating out of the red brick office in Worcestershire of Hayward Wright Accountancy Group? Especially as this new company seems to be the only one in the UK with which GITCO is officially linked.

This sumptuous accommodation seems to be the base for Alistair Graeme Hayward-Wright, director of Friar Street Properties and many other companies. Though the latest accounts filed suggest that Hayward Wright Accountancy Group is a dormant company.

Back to Sharon Girardi. She’s not named on the LR title document as a leasee, so it’s reasonable to assume she’s the owner. As such, she must be Endeavour Ltd of Gibraltar. If not, then she’s fronting for someone.

The Daily Mail report tells us that, ‘She has previously been backed by the Forestry Commission to plant 34,000 native saplings at her Blaeneinion estate’. But the FC doesn’t operate in Wales, that role here is filled by Natural Resources Wales.

The image above – of Ms Girardi with ‘Mr Beaver’ – was used in the Daily Mail report I linked to, but I think it appears first in this Daily Mirror article from September 2015. Though the beavers had arrived in 2011.

From the Mirror article we learn that Sharon Girardi kept the wolf from her door through Airbnb. Though as a rewilder, shouldn’t she have welcomed Mr Wolf?

From the Daily Mirror, September 2015. Click to open in separate tab

The more I think about it, the more bizarre this whole story becomes. I can’t help feeling that there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye.

It starts out with someone buying a remote property for £595,000 without need of a mortgage.
But they claim they can’t make ends meet with organic veg so they go in for Airbnb.
Which means that despite claims about conservation and rewilding, what we see at Blaeneinion is to all intents and purposes a tourism business.
How much has Natural Resources Wales or any other agency of the ‘Welsh Government’ paid to Endeavour Ltd or Sharon Girardi?
Assuming Sharon Girardi is Endeavour Ltd of Gibraltar, what is the ‘Welsh Government’s position on funding companies based in tax havens?
Come to that, why did Sharon Girardi feel the need to buy Blaeneinion by this roundabout route?
Though if she’s not the owner, then who is?
What is the connection between Endeavour Ltd and Friar Street Properties Ltd?

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HORSING AROUND

Not far from Blaeneinion there is a similar but larger venture, only this time, instead of beavers, it’s Konik horses . . . at the moment. And while beavers were once native to Wales I’m pretty sure our ancestors never saw these critters.

They’ve gained quite a bit of publicity over the years, they’ve even appeared on this blog, in The Green Menace, back in August 2018. Here’s a BBC report about them.

(It seems Wales has no native horses that could have been used.)

As the BBC report tells us: ‘Cambrian Wildwood wants to extend native woodland from 10 to 100 acres across its land using natural projects. It is looking after a 350 acre site which was acquired by Wales Wild Land Foundation (WWLF) on a 125-year lease from the Woodland Trust, which bought the land.’

Wales Wild Land Foundation operates as Cambrian Wildwood. It’s explained here, with maps, in the Management Plan 2017 – 2022. And the plans are ambitious. Some might say unrealistic. Even worrying.

On page 13 we read: ‘All other native species, including large herbivores, will be present. Some animals requiring cooperation and agreement across a large area of landscape will be longer term considerations: for example, wild boar, moose, bison and red deer.’

There are some pretty hefty beasts named there, with the potential to cause a great deal of damage. Will a bunch of enviro-dreamers, with no experience of domestic livestock let alone wild animals, really be able to restrict them to the 350 acres they manage?

On the same page we read: ‘For the foreseeable future, it is presumed that the large carnivores (bear, wolf and lynx) will not be present on the site, and it is considered beyond the scope of Cambrian Wildwood to promote these species.’

A confusing sentence, that. It starts off by suggesting that large carnivores might be a long-term ambition, with the concluding phrase hinting that it might be achieved by someone other than Cambrian Wildwood.

So which is it? And if these animals are out of the question, why mention them at all?

Bears strolling into Mach’ for a few pints of a Saturday night, and wolves taking down Mrs Evans on her way to the Co-op, should certainly get the old town rocking.

As I’ve said, Cambrian Wildwood is the operating name for the Wales Wild Land Foundation. So let’s turn our attention away from carnivores stalking the denizens of Machynlleth to a form of parasite to be found a-plenty in the nearby hills.

Wales Wild Land Foundation is a CIO; that is, a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. Here’s the link to its Charity Commission page.

You’ll see that it was formed in 2014, which makes perfect sense. For in December 2013, Alun Davies, then Minister for Natural Resources and Food in the ‘Welsh Government’, announced that the maximum 15% of CAP payments would be transferred from Pillar 1 to Pillar 2.

Which meant taking money from Welsh farmers and transferring it to what were euphemistically called ‘other rural activities’. In other words, those who had lobbied against farmers and expected to profit from the diverted funding.

My notations in red. Click to open in separate tab

It may have taken a while to start, but the funding is definitely flowing now. As you’ll see from the table above, ‘Welsh Government’ funding for the WWLF rose from nowt in y/e 31.03.2018 to £349,773 in y/e 31.03.2020.

If it keeps increasing at that rate they’ll soon be grazing thoroughbreds at Bwlch Corog!

And what’s the money for? Well, I suppose a cynic might say it’s for ‘looking after’ land that could just as easily look after itself. But nice work if you can get it.

And when ‘Dr’ Jane Davidson, former ‘Welsh Government’ Minister for Environment and Sustainability (2007 – 2011), is your Patron, then the funding from Corruption Bay tends to flow much more freely.

The long-term ambition seems to be to buy the 350 acres currently leased from the Woodland Trust and fit it into something bigger.

This piece from GlobalGiving talks of, ‘7,000 acres of native woodland, heathland and rivers will be restored. Animals like red squirrel, water vole, wild horse, deer and bison will be living in the wildwood.’

Actually, it’s 7,413 acres, or 3,000 hectares. And it seems to be part of the Dyfi Biosphere project. Explained here.

I wonder how much local people know about these plans.

But then, locals aren’t important. What matters is that those drawing up the plans have the ear of politicians and civil servants in Corruption Bay. And that they are united in wanting to replace farmers and other ‘obstructive’ indigenes in order to free up vast tracts of our country.

How many jobs and business opportunities will the Dyfi Biosphere create for Welsh people? Very few, if any. But I guarantee we’ll be paying for it.

In fact, I’m beginning to wonder how much we’ve already paid. Let me explain.

The land in question can be easily identified from various images supplied in assorted locations.

But before moving on, I just want to set out a bit more information and some more thoughts. See what you make of it all.

The first piece of evidence is the maps locating the land in question. Due to the recognisable outline it was easy enough to find the title documents on the Land Registry map search. Which is where it gets interesting.

Because I suppose the first question is – why did the Woodlands Trust buy land on which there were hardly any trees? The only sensible answer must be that they intended to plant trees.

The title document for the purchase of the land tells us that the transfer was completed May 31, 2017. And whaddya know – the lease agreement is dated the very same day!

Clearly, the lease was agreed before the purchase was made; and more than likely, it was that agreement that prompted the purchase. But let’s think about this a little more.

The Woodland Trust bought rough upland pasture, heath and bog. Which it immediately leased to the Wales Wild Land Foundation, for an unspecified amount. Though as we are clearly paying the lease we’re entitled to know much it is.

As the annual report for y/e 31.03.2020 tells us, WWLF expects to be getting a lot of money in future from the ‘Welsh Government’. This explains the increased income we saw in the table above.

Which means that . . .

. . . the ‘Welsh Government’ is giving hundreds of thousands of pounds, maybe millions, to the Wales Wild Land Foundation to improve land that belongs to an English organisation, the Woodland Trust. Unless of course, WWLF itself buys Bwlch Corog.

Either way, where is the benefit to Welsh people from throwing vast amounts of public funding at schemes like this? This kind of spending can only be justified on projects owned by and open to the Welsh public. It should not subsidise hippy fantasies.

‘Welsh Government’ pays one bunch of strangers to lease land from another bunch of strangers and increase the value of that holding, while simultaneously undermining Welsh farmers so as to free up more land for more strangers.

The overall strategy is pretty obvious.

And as I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, this all links with that lebensraum venture, the Summit to Sea rewilding project. But the WWLF gang got cold feet when the public pressure mounted against Summit Sea.

From the Wales Wild Land Foundation annual report. Click to open in separate tab

I’ve written about this episode of colonialist arrogance more than once. So just type ‘Summit to Sea’ in the search box.

Though from thinking about Blaeneinion, Bwlch Corog and other examples it looks as if Summit to Sea may still be going ahead, incrementally, without much fanfare.

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TIME IS RUNNING OUT

The ‘progressive’ consensus in Corruption Bay is so wedded to reducing investment, so addicted to greenwash in all its forms, that what we Welsh need no longer figures in their calculations.

This explains why Welsh farms are being bought by hedge funds and others from the City of London.

It may even be valid to compare Wales under devolution with post-colonial Africa. Where we see newly-independent countries ruled by crooks who encourage foreign exploitation but dress it up as ‘investment’ or some other bullshit term.

Because when you think about it, someone buying a holiday home is ‘investing’ in Wales.

These lies make leaders look good but work against the interests of the people they claim to represent. That seems to be the situation both in Africa and Wales.

Devolution has been a disaster. Not just by the yardsticks of health, wealth and education. But also because we own less of Wales today than we did in 1999.

That’s a sobering thought; and no amount of airy-fairy gestures and ‘look at us!’ virtue signalling can disguise that we are becoming strangers in our own country.

Corruption Bay, including those we elect, is conspiring in this displacement.

Blaeneinion, Bwlch Corog, OPDs, Summit to Sea, etc., etc., tell us the truth about Wales today; who the system really benefits, and where we Welsh fit in.

Before long we won’t fit in anywhere.

♦ end ♦

Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union unmasked

On 06/09/202109/09/2021 By JacIn Amgueddfa Cymru, Arts Council of Wales, Cardiff Bay, Third Sector, Welsh Government21 Comments

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This is the third posting on the report accepted by the Arts Council of Wales and the National Museum from the mysterious and hitherto unidentified Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union (WAARU).

The WAARU submission was one of three (out of 34 applications) accepted by the two bodies ‘to undertake a series of in-depth research conversations’, with a view to ‘widening engagement‘ in the arts.

Before starting, let’s just pause to consider the name of the group, Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union (WAARU). Clearly, whoever set up this group had already decided that there were racists in the Welsh arts scene. The kind of report the WAARU would produce was therefore entirely predictable.

I am now almost certain that I know who was involved in producing this scandalous report. Though many questions remain.

First, we’ll consider the report itself, then I’ll identify those I believe are responsible for the report, and finally, pose some questions.

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THE REPORT

We don’t have space to go through the full report so instead, I’ll do what many of us do in such circumstances and head for the Recommendations. Except that in the Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union document there are no Recommendations.

Instead we find, beginning on page 27, ‘Our List of Demands’.

These Demands are broken down into ‘Immediate’, which must be met within 14 days of the two bodies concerned receiving the report. ‘Short Term’, within six months. ‘Medium Term’, 6 to 12 months. ‘Long Term’, 1 to 2 years.

Before looking at the Demands themselves I’ve taken the following extract from ‘Principles’ on page 29, which sets the tone for what follows.

‘NMW-AC and ACW cannot accept that the racist situation we find ourselves in needs to change without equally accepting the role they play in maintaining it. As a result of this, they cannot be trusted to lead us out of this situation and must hand over significant power to Black and non-Black people of colour . . . .NMW-AC and ACW have been upholding white supremacist ideology.’

Suggesting that the Arts Council of Wales and Amgueddfa Cymru are irredeemably racist and should hand over the reins to, presumably, the authors of the report.

Moving on to the Demands themselves, starting at the foot of page 29 we read:

‘A budget commitment for at least five years offering regular and substantial grants for Black and non-Black artists of colour (prioritising people who experience multiple marginalisation). Access to the grant will not be conditional or selective.

Funding to shift from being governed by ‘outcomes’ (including artwork production, public exhibition and ‘community’ workshops) and towards self-identified/ self-measured artist development or community activity.

The only way I can interpret this is that Black and non-Black artists of colour should get paid for doing nothing. Perhaps get paid just for being, er, Black and non-Black artists of colour.

On page 30 we read an appeal for ‘democratisation and transparency’ . . . in a report that is itself unsigned and completely anonymous! (Page 23 is even headed: ‘The need for transparency’!)

On page 31:

‘All expressions of interest / applications longer than 500 words and interviews involving preparation tasks must offer payment to people from marginalised backgrounds as a means of positive action towards more diverse applicants. In a similar vein, all interview offers must come with a clear offer of access costs towards child care, time off work etc (which can be accessed anonymously).’

Demanding payment for completing application forms. But only for people from ‘marginalised backgrounds’.

I think we can safely assume that ‘marginalised backgrounds’ is another way of saying, ‘Black and non-Black artists of colour’.

On page 33:

‘If an employee from a marginalised community feels they need to leave their place of work due to discrimination, they will receive their full salary over the duration that they were contracted to work.’

‘Marginalised community’ is yet more code.

Here’s something else that caught my eye, this time from page 34:

‘NMW-AC and ACW should not be the sole bodies in charge of large budgets and / or distribution of funds. This process should be decentralised to other individuals and organisations, to increase transparency.’

That word ‘transparency’ again. And, again, it’s about money. Money. Money.

Towards the bottom of the same page we encounter:

‘A transformative justice and care fund made available for Black and non-Black people of colour, disabled and neurodivergent people, trans and queer people, people on low-income and people with refugee/asylum seeker status who work as freelance artists or as art workers, who have experienced harm and traumatic experiences within NMW-AC, ACW and all their funded organisations.’

‘I’ve had a traumatic experience with the vending machine – pay me!’ No, I’m not being flippant; it’s just that this section doesn’t explain what qualifies as ‘traumatic’. Though I’m sure we can guess who will qualify – and it won’t be no old honky like Jac!

You may – like many others – be confused by the report’s use of the term ‘Black and non-Black people of colour’. Helpfully, it’s explained in a footnote to page 3.

It’s all-embracing: Navajo and Nepalese, Hausa and Han, Mongol and Melanesian. Lumping non-white humanity under one clunky label to align them all against the pith-helmeted white supremacists of the Arts Council and the National Museum.

It’s really sad, almost delusional; the idea that non-white people everywhere share the views of some far left malcontents in the Cardiff arts scene.

This ‘report’ from the Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union is a ransom note. And like all ransom notes its authors remain anonymous. The other similarity with a ransom note is that its primary purpose is to extract money.

♦

THE UNMASKING

In case you’re new to this saga, it may be worth glancing at the Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union (WAARU) Twitter account, which suggests the WAARU was born in early July, 2020.

As I wrote in ‘Corruption Bay and a tale of Cymrophobia‘: ‘The first tweet was on July 6, 2020, followed by a flurry of tweets that ended on August 11. There was nothing then until a retweet on Oct 20. A further retweet in November, another in December. Then nothing until April 18 and 19. A final retweet on May 14, attacking Israel, and nothing since.’

What’s remarkable about this Twitter account is that there is no mention of the tender to the Arts Council, or of the tender being accepted, or of the WAARU getting paid for the report, and then the report being published.

Yet this is the sole achievement of the WAARU. It’s almost certainly why the WAARU was set up. So why are those involved so reticent to claim the accolade?

This is a question that will probably remain unanswered. Though one possibility is that tweets were deleted before I saw the Twitter account. I suggest that because the response to its publication guaranteed the report would be an orphan.

And yet, the answers to who is involved in the WAARU can be found in the documents I’ve used or referred to in the previous two posts.

Let’s start with something that appeared in an update to the previous post. Put up after a source suggested that when dealing with anonymous Twitter accounts it can often be rewarding to check on the first followers.

Here they are. Reading from the bottom up, we see that the first follower was @radha_sophia. Then comes @Durre_Shahwar, then @tayloredmonds, and so on.

A number of the other early followers have appeared in the previous blogs. Who could forget that master of the iambic hexameter Beau W Beakhouse? And then there’s BLM supporter Letty Clarke of Artes Mundi.

Note also that one follower is @WICFCardiff, which is a group called Where I’m Coming From. Of the first five followers, one is the group itself, and three of the others appear to be members.

WAARU Twitter follower number one, @radha_sophia, does not list Where I’m Coming From in her bio, but she is certainly linked. As this testifies. Note also the reference to ‘Sadia Hameed’. This being Sadia Pineda Hameed, the partner of Beau W Beakhouse.

Here’s @radha_sophia retweeting the WAARU launch tweet almost immediately it was issued. Do you find her message mildly threatening?

You’ll see in the link to the WICF piece that @radha_sophia is named as Radha Patel. Which is her real name. Or, in full, Radha Mukesh Patel.

The Arts Council / Amgueddfa Cymru advertisement for tenders went out June 29, 2020 on the Sell2Wales site. In an update, on September 29, 2020 – giving the names of the successful applicants – we find an address for the Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union.

That address is in Pyle, just outside Bridgend.

The Land Registry website gave me ownership details for the property, and I recognised the family name. Next, it was over to 192.com to check on who actually lives there. And guess what – living at that address is Radha Mukesh Patel.

So Patel’s family home in Pyle was given to the Arts Council as the address of the Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union.

But how much of a hand did Patel herself have in the writing of the report for which the Arts Council and Amgueddfa Cymru were happy to part with a few thousand pounds of our money?

Maybe not a lot. She’s more likely to be one of a number of contributors.

Either way, here’s another tweet from Radha Patel, from August 2020, when she was presumably in Scotland. She doesn’t want to eat in a white-owned establishment.

Moving on . . .

If we’re looking for a group that might have co-ordinated this exercise, then the previously mentioned Where I’m Coming From fits the bill very well.

As we’ve seen, its founder-members are among the earliest followers of WAARU and it connects with other significant actors in this scam. For I have no hesitation in using that word.

Beakhouse and Hameed of Lumin may be in the mix, but I think it would be more rewarding to focus on the Arts Council – specifically, Artes Mundi – and the Future Generations Commissioner’s office.

For if we look at the Artes Mundi Twitter account we see that it is currently co-operating with Where I’m Coming From. And if you click on the short video, there, at 0:41, we see Letty Clarke herself.

While in the latest tweet on her personal Twitter account Letty Clarke promotes Hanan Issa, who comes in at number 5 in the WAARU Twitter followers.

Letty Clarke is a busy woman, and she’s named in its metadata as the author of the ‘Wales, Culture & Race Taskforce‘ (WCRT) document of June 2020. Prepared for the Senedd by yet another group of disgruntled BAME arts sector operators.

What happened to the WCRT, and the cash it was promised, is still debated.

I believe Letty Clarke had a hand in producing the WAARU report. But the involvement of Artes Mundi may not be limited to her.

For also listed among the first followers of the Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union we find another Artes Mundi Curator, Melissa Hinkin.

Responsibility for the report may extend further.

The ‘widening engagement’ exercise undertaken by the Arts Council was probably initiated by this report, ‘Well-being of Future Generations Increasing Participation in Areas with Under-developed Reach of the Arts – Arts Council of Wales’.

Sure enough, at number 3 among the first ten WAARU followers we find Taylor Edmonds, the Poet in Residence at the Future Generations Commissioner’s office. She is also a ‘team member of @WICFCardiff’.

What the hell does a Poet in Residence do, anyway? Wander around the office sighing, looking for a chaise longue on which to drape oneself in the hope of attracting the muse?

But what if the muse appears at 4:55 and everybody’s off down the pub at 5 for Sharon from Accounts’ birthday piss-up?

‘Oh, Muse, it’s a bit awkward now . . . can you come back tomorrow?’

∼

The impetus for the WAARU and the Mary Celeste-like Wales, Culture and Race Taskforce was the killing of George Floyd 5,000 miles away.

An event irrelevant to Wales encouraged some in the Cardiff arts scene to make unfounded allegations of racism and demand money for perceived injustices. Encouraged by a ‘progressive’ Cardiff Bay establishment ready to roll over and take the blame for slavery, colonialism, and a raft of other crimes of which we Welsh are innocent.

I’ve drawn up a timeline that might help. (The links all work.)

I am now 85% certain that the Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union report was compiled by persons named above. Employees of publicly-funded bodies and others involved in the arts sector in Wales.

This sordid episode raises a number of questions.

UPDATE 08.09.2021: The update is just too big to put up on the blog, so it’s available here in PDF format.

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WE NEED ANSWERS

A well-connected source tells me that in his experience no public body gives a contract such as we’ve discussed to a group with no record, no references, no money, no nothing.

Especially when there were 34 applications to choose from.

Another source thinks that if this had taken place in the world of finance it would be called insider dealing. Which is why I earlier referred to what we’re discussing as a scam.

Now for the questions:

Whose decision was it to advertise for organisations to tender for the ‘widening engagement’ research?
Can we see a copy of the tender brief?
Who sat on the scoring panel to select the successful tenders?
Can we see a breakdown of the scores awarded to each tender?
Who at the Arts Council of Wales signed off the award of the contracts?
Why did no one at the Arts Council appreciate the contradiction in a report repeatedly calling for ‘transparency’ itself being anonymous?
Into whose bank account was payment for the WAARU report paid?
Have the Welsh Arts Council and Amgueddfa Cymru already met or do they intend meeting any of the ‘Demands’ in the WAARU report?
How far up the Arts Council totem pole does knowledge of and participation in the WAARU deception extend?
Will those responsible for this deception now be dismissed?
What safeguards will ‘Welsh Government’ put in place to ensure that no more public funding is siphoned to cronies in this way? (Or is that the wrong question to ask of a political party and an administration built on cronyism?)
Will the Wales Audit Office investigate the procedures by which public funding was used to produce what is little more than a racist ransom note?

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CONCLUSION

When people on the Far Left work themselves into a frenzy of Woke self-righteousness, to the point where they claim to see ‘fascism’ and ‘racists’ everywhere, then campaigns against racism often end up being racist themselves.

Even more so when they contain unsubtle references to what those behind the report clearly regard as an over-emphasis on Welsh cultural identity.

What makes this case even worse is that there appears to have been collusion from within Welsh public bodies and national institutions. Public bodies and institutions funded by the Welsh public purse.

Wales is a tolerant and welcoming country. When those who claim otherwise use imported terms like ‘systemic racism’, resort to silly words like ‘microaggressions’, and flirt with anti-Semitism and Cymrophobia then they invalidate whatever cause they think they serve.

What I also found revealing about this report was that it contained a litany of vague complaints but a complete absence of specific examples; with not a single case that could be investigated. Let alone substantiated.

Innuendo and hyperbole, sloganising and insults, are no substitute for hard facts.

To the members of the Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union, and others like them, I say: Instead of standing outside shouting and chucking stones, why not come in; join us, integrate?

We really aren’t that bad.

♦ end ♦

Arts Council of Wales and Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union, an update

On 31/08/202129/05/2024 By JacIn Colonialism, Corruption, Cymrophobia, Public Funding, Third Sector, Wales, Welsh Government32 Comments

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This is a follow-up to last week’s post, ‘Corruption Bay and a tale of Cymrophobia‘. You’ll remember that we looked at how Labour Party insiders were paid to produce reports that would guide more ‘inclusive’ policy at the commissioning bodies, the Arts Council of Wales and the National Museum.

♦

UPDATE

One of these submissions, from the mysterious Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union, painted a picture of Wales as some kind of Hell on Earth where ‘creatives’ of a non-Caucasian pigmentation are brutally discriminated against.

It was reminiscent of the hysteria I’ve been writing about in connection with YesCymru. Where some of those involved in the failed Woke-Left takeover wanted us to believe that ‘women with penises’ are being butchered on Welsh streets by mobs of transphobes.

What I found revealing was that neither those suggesting rampant transphobia or a whites-only arts scene are prepared to debate. Any dialogue must start from a blind acceptance of their ‘facts’.

A few tit-bits have come to light since the previous post went out. For example, someone drew my attention to the metadata naming authors for the three reports.

The report from Labour insiders Lu Thomas and Jon Luxton named Luxton as the author. But the other two reports listed Arts Council employees as authors. Which might at first sight seem a bit odd, though there could be a simple explanation.

Such as the reports being submitted in MS Word or some other format and the Arts Council converting them to PDF.

If that is not the explanation, then what is?

Despite the ‘authorship’, there is no real issue with the Richie Turner Associates’ report because the contributors are named in the report.

It’s the third report, from the Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union, that’s causing concern. Because no individual or contributor is named anywhere.

Anyway, in the hope of helping me make sense of the bigger picture, a few people made suggestions. Pointed me in certain directions. So off I went.

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NATURE OF THE BEAST

It’s fair to say that Amgueddfa Cymru was almost a ‘passenger’ in this exercise, so I’m ruling them out to focus on The Arts Council of Wales.

The current Chair is Phil George, who I speculated was a Labour Party supporter. His immediate predecessor in the post, from 2007 – 2016, was David Burton Smith, whose political leanings have never been in doubt.

For Dai Smith – father of unsuccessful challenger to Jeremy Corbyn, Owen Smith – is another creature of the left. One of those historians who, like Neil Kinnock, believes Wales isn’t worthy of study until the Industrial Revolution and the creation of a proletariat.

Smith worked for the BBC in Cardiff, from 1994, as, ‘Head of Broadcast (English Language). He was responsible for commissioning programmes on the arts and in drama and has also presented award-winning documentaries on the people and culture of south Wales’.

Through a socialist prism, of course.

An interesting insight into colonial Wales, this. For while the Labour Party rails against Tory cronyism, Old Boy networks and the rest, the Buttybond practises something very similar in Wales.

And the Tories are more than happy to let them do it. I’ll explain why a bit later.

Phil George has a long history with The National Theatre of Wales (NTW). In fact, he was one of the founding directors on September 9, 2008. He seems to have left NTW in March 2016, around the time he was appointed Chair of the Arts Council.

I’m told the National Theatre of Wales was always well favoured in Cardiff. One source reports: ‘”BBC Wales” used and uses every opportunity to promote this company. Hardly any arts documentaries are done but in its formative years, 2010, it commissioned a 30 minute advertorial dressed up as a documentary on a National Theatre production’.

It was thanks to Phil George and NTW that Abdul Shayek of London got his foot in the Welsh public funding door. For Shayek’s Linkedin page tells us that from April 2011 until April 2013 he was a Creative Associate with NTW.

Shayek then branched out to form FIO, a BAME theatre group. Though apparently reliant on funding from the Welsh public purse this didn’t stop FIO taking plays to India. And Shayek ‘representing’ FIO at symposia and the like in Sri Lanka and Australia.

Nice work if you can get it! And especially if someone else is paying.

Another source tells me FIO got some £400,000 in funding over 3 or 4 years. (It might have been more.) Which pays for quite a few trips to Oz and old Serendip.

Going back to Shayek’s Linkedin bio we see that he left FIO in August 2020 to join Tara Theatre. No, this has nothing to do with halls and High Kings, it’s yet another ‘ethnically diverse’ theatre group. This time in London.

I’m not sure of the reasons for Shayek’s departure, or where this leaves his creation, FIO. The website suggests it’s still going, and the Charity Commission entry implies he’s still involved.

Whatever the relationship between Abdul Shayek and FIO he still appears to be involved with the arts scene in Wales. And pissing off quite a few people with his involvement in the Wales Culture and Race Taskforce (WCRT).

Which was set up in June 2020 to, ‘challenge the lack of diversity within the arts in Wales and demand systemic change’.

I’m not sure if this was Abdul Shayek’s brainchild or if he just got involved somehow. Certainly, his creation FIO was holding the money donated to WCRT by other arts groups. Said to be £20,000.

You’ll get a flavour of the dispute from the Critically Speaking blog of Jafar Iqbal. (A supporter of Leyton Orient football club.) In particular, read the lengthy comment from ‘pledging organisations’.

If you want to know more about the role envisaged for the Wales Culture and Race Taskforce then you should read this document prepared for the ‘Welsh Government’.

Strangely, in just 452 words this document manages to use the term ‘white-led’ three times. In the Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union ‘report’ we encounter the phrase ‘white-led’ 10 times.

When checking the metadata for the document I’ve just linked to, I found the author named as Letty Clarke. So obviously, I wondered who she might be.

You will not be surprised to learn that Letty is also from England, but since January 2020 she has been Curator of Public Programmes at Artes Mundi Prize Ltd. From the Artes Mundi website we learn:

‘Artes Mundi Prize Ltd is a registered non-profit charity that annually relies on support from individuals, corporations, sponsors, trusts and foundations to fund the costs of all our programmes, alongside our core public revenue from Arts Council of Wales and Cardiff City Council’.

The name may sound like a character from a forgotten novel set in 19th century New England, but Letty is of the here and now. And, unfortunately, the ‘here’ is Wales.

Letty Clarke’s Linkedin profile makes it clear that she supports Black Lives Matter, and her Twitter account provides a few gems.

As many of you will know, investigations are continuing into the death of Mohamud Mohammed Hassan, who died some hours after leaving police custody. But Letty Clarke, after being in Wales for a short time, has already made her mind up.

For according to her Hassan was a victim of ‘police brutality’ and ‘state violence in Wales’. What the hell does she mean by ‘state violence’? There is no Welsh state!

Let me explain the relationship to you, Letty . . . Your country robs my country and by way of compensation doles out money to those buffoons down Corruption Bay, who in turn distribute far too much of that cash to people like you and your friends.

Which means that, one way and another, most Welsh people get screwed twice over.

Up to now in this painful trawl through the ‘Welsh’ arts scene I don’t think we’ve met anyone who is actually Welsh, apart from a few cocks atop the dung heap.

Let’s see if we have any more luck in the next section.

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THE SEARCH CONTINUES FOR THE WELSH ARTS ANTI-RACIST UNION

In December 2019 the Wales Audit Office produced a snappily-entitled report, ‘Well-being of Future Generations Increasing Participation in Areas with Under-developed Reach of the Arts – Arts Council of Wales’. You can read it here.

The Introduction says: ‘This document has been prepared for the internal use of the Arts Council of Wales’. Reminding us that this is an example of the additional public money wasted since the implementation of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, and the creation of the post of Future Generations Commissioner, with of course, a whole new department.

The job of Commissioner was given to Labour time-server Sophie Howe. She had previously worked under Alun Michael, the former Labour MP and now Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales.

Under ‘Contents’ we read: ‘In its efforts to increase participation, inclusion and engagement in areas with under-developed reach of the arts, the Arts Council of Wales (Arts Council) is demonstrating commitment to the sustainable development principle but it recognises the need to further embed the five ways of working.’

Clearly, the Audit Office looked into inclusion in the arts, and made recommendations to the Arts Council. So why, just six months later, did the ACW spaff another £50,000 (minimum) doing what looks like exactly the same thing?

(Note that the Sell2Wales notice I link to is from June 2020. Which is when the Wales Culture and Race Taskforce was set up.)

This duplication produced the three reports dealt with in the previous post, including the submission from the mysterious Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union.

This digression takes us nowhere nearer identifying the person or persons behind the Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union. In fact, it’s difficult to get any handle on the WAARU.

One mention I did find was on what I assume to be a podcast. It seems to be called Mostyn, or Lumin, the latter described as, ‘an artist-run radio and publisher led by Sadia Pineda Hameed and Beau W Beakhouse’.

If you scroll down to the bios of others involved, you’ll see this for the Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union. But again, no name.

I’d like to be able to tell you that Hameed is from Froncysyllte and Beakhouse from Llangyfelach, but alas . . .

Beau tells us: ‘I’m originally from Bournemouth but moved around . . . I come from a nature & craft background . . . My parents were self-employed gardeners, who then went into woodcraft . . . Eventually, I managed to study English Literature at Cardiff University’.

Hameed: ‘I’m from London. I also came to Cardiff to study English Literature at uni and decided to stay ‒ in part because I didn’t really have the money to pursue the arts back in London, but also because I really liked how open the arts scene in Wales is.’

Yes indeedy; the ‘arts scene’ in Wales is open to just about anybody . . . artistic talent is unnecessary, and knowledge of Wales undesirable.

Here’s an example of Beakhouse’s poetry from 2017.

Don’t give up the day job, Beau. Whatever it is.

That we are no nearer fingering who wrote the Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union report is understandable, given its reception. But the Arts Council of Wales must know because the WAARU was paid well to insult us.

Which is why I have submitted a Freedom of Information request to the ACW.

But over and above that, this situation of strangers being paid to insult us could only happen in the peculiar circumstances of devolution, which sees politicians and others who superficially oppose each other agree when it comes to Wales, and the Welsh.

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UPDATE: Since publishing this piece I have received feedback, including someone drawing my attention to The Future Generations Report 2020. On page 355 we read what you see in the panel:

I have two points to make.

First, ‘learning Welsh on the job’ sounds like a good idea, until you realise it’s often a ruse to give jobs to people most of whom will do no more than go through the motions of taking a few Welsh lessons.

Mark James, former chief executive of Carmarthenshire County Council, would be a great example of this scam in practise.

Second, The Future Generations Commissioner in her 2020 report is quoting Race Alliance Wales (RAW), a body formally launched on December 19, 2019. How the hell did a newly-constituted body become so influential so quickly?

The answer is that those behind RAW are based almost exclusively in Cardiff and well connected in Corruption Bay.

While organisations elsewhere in Wales, established for far longer, representing many more people, but outside the Bay Bubble, are ignored.

This is not healthy; this is not democratic; this should not be the Wales any of us wants to see.

But it’s the Wales we live in.

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FURTHER UPDATE: Someone else has been in touch with an intriguing suggestion. Which is, that when an anonymous Twitter account is launched the author is often to be found among the early followers.

In the case of the Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union Twitter account the first ten followers can be found here. (Read from the bottom up.) There are quite a few names there that appear in this article.

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THE BIT AT THE END WHERE COLOMBO PUFFS ON HIS CIGAR AND . . .

Picking up again on the shared motivations, what I’m hinting at is that these otherwise squabbling interests agree that Wales must be carefully ‘managed’.

Which is why what passes for entertainment on television and elsewhere is banal and superficial. Welsh politics, social issues, and other specifically Welsh matters (when dealt with in English) are often quarantined in programmes broadcast at awkward times . . . which results in hardly anyone watching them.

The same applies more widely, in the fields so copiously manured by the Arts Council. For example, there’s not a hope in Hell of Wales having its own Abbey Theatre.

We are at a stage now where if two plays are in competition for funding, one about Welsh villages being destroyed by excessive tourism, the other about the absence of obstetric facilities for low caste birthing persons in Tamil Nadu, then you can predict with certainty which will enjoy an opening night.

Researching this piece I stumbled on an hour-long lecture by former Arts Council Chair Dai Smith, built around writer Raymond Williams. Smith is speaking at a ‘Cultural Democracy Workshop’ in November 2020.

This was of course delivered at a time when the three reports commissioned by the Arts Council were being prepared. Yes, it was all happening around that time.

Smith makes the point that in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, when Williams was at the height of his intellectual and creative powers, his writing was framed by what he saw as a class struggle. But things have moved on.

(Interestingly, a piece on Williams appeared in UnHerd yesterday.)

Most importantly, the political left in Europe and North America has lost the working class. Which is why Marxism is now promoted through race, environmentalism and gender. And the harder the left pushes these the more it alienates the working class.

No one living just thirty years ago could have envisioned the crazy situation we have reached today. And few political activists of the left under the age of 40 can believe that their ideological predecessors idolised those they regard as stupid, racist, transphobic, climate denying Brexiteers.

The sons and grandsons of Marxist miners are fascist white van men!

A hazy understanding of Marxism re-interpreted by Black Lives Matter almost certainly lies behind the report submitted by the Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union. It also explains the report’s acceptance by the Arts Council.

But why would the Old Etonians in Westminster and their civil servant alumni of lesser schools want to push such drivel? The answer is that they share with the Woke-Left establishment in Corruption Bay a desired outcome.

This explains the funding and other encouragement for people from around the world to come here, take funding that should go to Welsh arts, and then call us racist.

London likes the ‘The Welsh are racist’ message because it explains why we oppose holiday homes, and resent being colonised. (It’s why the Telegraph used the WAARU report.) Corruption Bay modifies it to read, ‘Nationalism is racist’ because that can slander those suggesting there is a better way for Cymru than devolution’s cronyism and exploitation.

Together they tell us why the ‘Welsh’ arts scene today is a revolting mess of talentless dreamers and grant-grabbing shysters. Overwhelmingly alien; with some of those involved positively racist in their attitudes towards us.

Modern Wales in microcosm.

♦ end ♦

Corruption Bay and a tale of Cymrophobia

On 23/08/202124/08/2021 By JacIn Corruption, Cymrophobia, Public Funding, Third Sector, Welsh Government, Welsh Independence, Welsh Labour, Welsh Language39 Comments

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This post is about the findings from surveys commissioned by the Arts Council of Wales and Amgueddfa Cymru. The project was entitled, ‘Widening Engagement’.

These reports, or certainly one of them, prompted old Shippo at Llais y Sais to give it something close to the, ‘We Are At War With Germany’ treatment. (Available here in pdf format.)

Front page lead continued on inside page, completed with a full page of grovelling from the white supremacist running-dogs of the patriarchal imperialist-colonialist system.

The story travelled. Not only did the Daily Telegraph pick it up, but also, from that source, Andy Ngo, in Portland, Oregon, scourge of Antifa.

Even RT.

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This passage from the Arts Council website explains the exercise . . .

“At the end of June 2020 Arts Council of Wales and Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales advertised a tender to undertake a series of in-depth research conversations. Our aim was to widen engagement with communities we consistently fail to engage in our work. We received 34 submissions and after a detailed selection process and interviews we decided to appoint three organizations to undertake three very different studies.”

The reports from the three successful tenders have been submitted and are now available online. They are from: Re:cognition, Richie Turner Associates, and the Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union.

So let’s look at them in that order.

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RE:COGNITION

The first problem I have with these people is the name. Let me explain.

There is a company Re:Cognition, with qualified medical people involved in specialist mental health services. And an annual turnover in excess of £10m. But this was not the company employed by Arts Council of Wales and Amgueddfa Cymru.

For as the report tells us, on the very first page, its authors are Jon Luxton and Lu Thomas, two Labour Party stalwarts from Penarth. (Where Luxton was once mayor.) And wouldn’t you know it – Lu Thomas has appeared on this blog! In ‘Plaid Cymru’s enemy within‘ (scroll down a bit).

Lu Thomas is big in Pride Cymru, and something of a trans fanatic, believing that ‘women with penises’ are being persecuted. Everywhere. By everybody.

Here’s her Linkedin profile. Where you’ll see that she claims to be a director of a company called Cognition.

Cognition Training Ltd, directors Thomas and Luxton, was put out of its misery in December 2018. But even when trading it never provided the income that bought Thomas and her wife their £500,000+ house on Windsor Esplanade.

Image: Mark Lewis. This appeared in a WalesOnline report in July 2018. Click to open in separate tab.

The ‘Cognition’ name was also used by Luxton and Thomas in Cognition Associates. Which produced a website where the latest ‘News’ is from July 2013. Cognition Associates was never registered with Companies House.

And now there’s Re:cognition Wales. Or rather, there’s a website. Note that Thomas and Luxton use a lower case ‘c’, whereas the ‘real’ company spells it ‘Re:Cognition’. But again, this Luxton-Thomas company is not registered with Companies House.

One Lu Thomas company that was registered with Companies House was Pitch Consult Ltd. Incorporated July 15, 2019. Struck off January 5, 2021. No accounts were ever filed.

What I found interesting about Pitch was that the other two directors were Mitchell Theaker and Pearleen Sangha, who you may remember from their appearances on this blog. They were Labour councillors in Swansea; part of the student intake needed to keep up the bruvverly numbers.

Jon Luxton has also been rubbing shoulders with celebrities lately. For listed among the directors in Sound Progression Ltd, along with Luxton, we find Cian Ciaran, of Super Furry Animals, and late of YesCymru. This company was Incorporated June 10, 2019.

Given Luxton’s record its time can not be long.

A glimpse of what Thomas and Luxton do is given in this snippet from the NHS. They work for the Labour Party, in its various forms: ‘Welsh Government’, Cardiff Council, etc.

They also work for bodies reliant on ‘Welsh Government’ funding. Reminiscent of the jobs found for the nephews of made men.

To understand how it operates imagine a phone call from Corruption Bay or City Hall: ‘Oh, hello, Lu, love, how’s it going . . . listen, we want you to do one of your surveys, yeah, here are the findings we want from you’.

And this is why no ‘survey’ conducted by Thomas and Luxton should be given any credence. They are just Labour Party apparatchiks.

The worry should be that these beneficiaries of Labour cronyism get so much work. Work paid for by the public purse. It’s naked corruption.

But it also explains why they were one of the 3 out of 34 applicants chosen by the Arts Council and the Museum to do the ‘research’.

Page 10 of the Thomas and Luxton report tells us (rather clumsily): ‘To note: only one respondent namechecked the Eisteddfod indicating poor reach into this community of mainly English speakers. this lack of Welsh Language art and culture was also demonstrated in the responses to all other relevant questions.’

I wonder if this ‘finding’ will be used in future by the ‘Welsh Government’ to deny or reduce funding to Welsh language organisations, events, and projects, or in other ways be used to undermine the language?

Click to open in separate tab

The quote above, from page 12 of the report, about sums up what Thomas and Luxton have to say – ‘Do what our friends in the Welsh Government tell you’.

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RICHIE TURNER ASSOCIATES

Whoever these are, they compiled, ‘A research report looking at the reasons why D/deaf, disabled, learning disabled and neurodiverse people do not attend arts events or visit National Museums’ Wales or attend very infrequently’.

While that may have been the ostensible reason for recruiting Richie Turner, his Linkedin profile makes his political leanings very clear. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a colourful Linkedin header.

Or one less relevant to Wales.

Richie Turner is of course another Corruption Bay insider. His jobs and appointments listed on Linkedin suggest someone with strong Labour Party connections. For no one in Wales without Labour Party connections could dream of a CV like that.

So what does the Richie Turner Associates report have to say? Though before you read it, I should say that Richie Turner Associates is not a company or a partnership, just an ad hoc group of his friends and, well, associates.

Richie lives in Hay-on-Wye, which is handy for the books, and the festival.

Those who helped him compile his report, also live in the south east. In fact they all seem to live in Cardiff and Gwent. One of them, Lyndy Cooke, is a former director of the Hay Festival. Nice.

Though the report tells us (page 4): ‘Our research engaged with people across all regions of Wales.’

Possibly. But how well do Richie Turner and his gang know these far-flung ‘regions’?

It might also be asked how well Turner knows his associates. For the woman named throughout the report as ‘Mary Allen’ is surely Mary Allan.

There’s little to take issue with in the Richie Turner Associates report. It’s just a litany of complaints followed by a few recommendations. And concluding with some comic book-style illustrations!

Flicking through it a few things caught my jaundiced eye.

This, for example (page 27): “Arty farty type messaging on advertising, such as Gothic and trendy typefaces also make it hard to read from a few feet away in a wheelchair”.

Who could argue with that?

Whereas I found this a little confusing (page 30): “Some places like museums are too big, with too many people. I need less people to be able to go”.

We obviously can’t have empty museums. Museums that attract no visitors will be closed.

All in all, this contribution from Richie Turner Associates may be regarded as the bland filling between two very unappetising slices of bread.

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THE WELSH ARTS ANTI-RACIST UNION (WAARU)

It’s difficult to know what to make of this one. For a start – what or who is the Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union?

I found a Twitter account. I think we can assume that it was started in the period of hysteria following the killing of George Floyd, some 5,000 miles away.

In fact, the WAARU Twitter account started up a week or so after the Arts Council and Amgueddfa Cymru decided to launch their ‘research conversations’ at the end of June 2020. What an amazing coincidence!

The first tweet was on July 6, 2020, followed by a flurry of tweets that ended on August 11. There was nothing then until a retweet on Oct 20. A further retweet in November, another in December. Then nothing until April 18 and 19. A final retweet on May 14, attacking Israel, and nothing since.

Why hasn’t the Twitter account rejoiced in WAARU’s participation in this exercise? I find this very odd.

We can reasonably assume that the WAARU leans politically to the left, maybe quite far to the left.

There is no website for the Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union. Just a Gmail address on the Twitter account. So I wrote on Friday morning. I’m still waiting for a reply.

Anyway, here is the report produced by Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union. However you look at it, it is a remarkable document.

It suggests that the Welsh language is racist and the Arts Council and Amgueddfa Cymru are both run by white supremacists.

There are ten references in the report to these organisations being ‘white-led’. But in a country that is 95% or more white does the writer expect them to be non-white-led? That would make them grotesquely unrepresentative.

There are also references to Black Lives Matter, reminding us that the report is very much of the post-Floyd era. Summed up perhaps with this paragraph from page 24: ‘One participant asked how Amgueddfa Cymru could see itself as combating poverty, when it’s very purpose involved displaying objects from countries whose wealth had been plundered through colonialism.’

No, that is not its ‘very purpose’. What a stupid and insulting thing to say! If Amgueddfa Cymru has a ‘very purpose’ then it’s to celebrate the history of Wales.

But that is not atypical. For a number of times this report comes across as either ignorant of recent Welsh history, or misinformed, or just mischievous. Here’s another example, from page 18.

There is no ‘Welsh Census’, it’s organised by the Office for National Statistics in London. Not so long ago you couldn’t even describe yourself as Welsh on the census form. That’s why I was one of those protesting before the 2001 census.

But the writer of the WAARU report presents the census as more evidence of structural racism within Wales!

Having mentioned the writer, I ask again – who is it? Because there is no name mentioned anywhere in the report. It is anonymous. So why was it accepted? Or to go back to the beginning, why was the WAARU commissioned to write a report?

Are we to believe that out of the 31 rejected applicants there wasn’t one better qualified!

On page 36 we read this passage: ‘Marginalised artists and art workers should receive support to learn different languages, in addition to Welsh. This additional support is necessary because Welsh language policies in current applications can exclude Black and non-Black people of colour’.

What ‘different languages’ are needed in Wales?

The writer is clearly ignorant of the fact that many ‘Black and non-Black people of colour’ were brought up speaking Welsh, or else have learnt to speak Welsh.

And while there’s solidarity implied with the term ‘Black and non-Black people of colour’ this solidarity is not consistent. Because the Twitter account suggests that non-Black People of Colour might be little better than Uncle Toms.

Finally, most reports end with findings and recommendations. The report from the Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union ends with ‘Our List of Demands’. It sounds almost threatening. Like a kidnappers’ note.

Whoever wrote this report may have legitimate grievances, but they’ve gone about airing those grievances in entirely the wrong way.

The national institutions of Wales exist to reflect and to serve the culture, history, identity, and people of Wales. The Welsh language is central to Welsh identity, and for many centuries served as the identifier of Welshness.

Maybe the so-called ‘Welsh Government’ can also remember that.

◊

UPDATE 24.08.2021: Checking the metadata of the three published reports gives Jon Luxton as the author of the Re:cognition report, which is what I would expect. Him or Lu Thomas.

But listed as author for the other two reports are Arts Council of Wales employees.

There are a number of possible explanations for this. Maybe the original documents were converted from MS Word to PDF format at the Arts Council. If so, why? Those chosen to produce these reports were well paid to do so. Was this work at the Arts council deducted from their fees?

Or is there another explanation?

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CONCLUSION

The first report we looked at was produced by Labour Party insiders who carry out research for their comrades. The ‘findings’ are often used to justify legislation and other measures that the ‘Welsh Government’ has already decided on.

I wonder if the ‘Welsh Government’ would pay me to do a survey into the third sector, or housing associations, or tourism . . . or even the ‘Welsh Government’?

∼

The second report told us nothing really except that the Arts Council and Amgueddfa Cymru are doing a bad job when it comes to catering for those with disabilities.

Though much of the feedback was about venues, over which the Arts Council may have little or no control. And as for ’empty museums’ . . .

But that will be overlooked because the report gives the ‘Welsh Government’ another stick with which to beat both organisations.

∼

The third report is just a chip-on-the-shoulder, ‘where’s our grants?’ diatribe. To give it credit for being anything more would be to legitimise the anti-Welsh prejudice running through the report.

Whoever commissioned this report must have known in advance the kind of submission they could expect from the Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union. Which means that the WAARU was paid to produce exactly that kind of report.

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Let’s remind ourselves who heads the two organisations involved.

Phillip George of the Arts Council was previously,‘ Creative Director of the award-winning production company Green Bay Media which specialised in high-end documentary projects for broadcasters in Wales’.

He left Green Bay on March 31, 2016, when he was appointed to the Arts Council. At that time, Green Bay had 14 outstanding charges (loans, etc) with S4C and Finance Wales.

Phillip George re-joined Green Bay on June 30, 2017, as secretary, though I suppose he could have been acting as a director.

The next development came on July 24, 2018, when all 14 outstanding charges were cleared. The company’s registered address was changed on the same day.

On January 14, 2019, a Declaration of Solvency was made and a liquidator appointed. Green Bay was finally struck off May 19, 2020. With George still listed as secretary.

Were those debts really cleared, or were they written off, or was some other arrangement agreed? And why was Phillip George allowed to re-join Green Bay while serving as Chair of the Arts Council?

I don’t know Phillip George’s politics, but here he is with former Labour MP Kim Howells. Does he share Howells’ attitudes to the Welsh language, devolution / independence?

Prior to taking up the post Amgueddfa Cymru chief Roger Lewis was CEO at that most BritNat and Unionist of organisations, the Welsh Rugby Union.

∼

It’s the third report, from the Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union that’s getting the media attention, and quite rightly so, so let’s give it a few final thoughts.

Although the report ostensibly deals with the Arts Council and Amgueddfa Cymru, by questioning the role of the Welsh language and perceptions of Welsh identity its impact goes well beyond those two institutions.

Doing it from an ethnic minority perspective is clever, because attacking Welsh identity from a BritNat position invariably generates resistance. It’s much smarter to use the race angle, and maybe get some liberals and socialists onside.

Which makes it difficult to pin down the origin of this survey. Because if someone is trying to introduce Critical Race Theory into Welsh public life, for the disruptive effect it guarantees, then that source could be Marxist left or Unionist right.

Whatever the source, if enough people can be persuaded that defending Welshness is ‘racist’, then this will impact negatively on the growing interest in Welsh independence. The ‘racist’ slander can even be used against those demanding action on holiday homes.

Where does it end?

Maybe campaigning against Tryweryn was ‘racist’. And perhaps it’s ‘racism’ that sustains our national sporting teams. Why not just merge with England and join in singing GSTQ at Wembley and Twickers?

No one should be publicly funded to question a nation’s existence. Both bodies must explain why they chose the Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union.

We, who’ve paid for it, are entitled to know who wrote the WAARU report.

Finally, perhaps the real lesson from this fiasco is that Wales must have independence. Not just from England, but also from Cardiff Bay.

♦ end ♦

YesCymru: Resignations and more

On 18/08/202119/08/2021 By JacIn Yes Cymru36 Comments

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Here we are again! But with good news to impart. Though we mustn’t get carried away, for the enemy has retreated into the bush to reflect on his next move. Indeed, I hear that in remote valleys, far, far away, the wily Wokie is regrouping and planning a fresh offensive.

And you thought they couldn’t get any more offensive!

Have I got news for you!

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OUT WITH THE OLD

Every man and his dog knows by now that YesCymru’s Central Committee – or what remained of it – resigned last Friday. Here’s the statement they put out. Gettysburg Address, it ain’t, but I’ll take it.

Despite what this destined-for-the-archives document says, speculation abounds as to what really precipitated the decision at that time.

You may recall that in my previous post I quoted a source who’d told me: “The CC meeting to suspend Ben (Gwalchmai) was supposed to have been last Wednesday (Aug 4), then delayed until Thursday, then delayed to today (Monday), and now tomorrow.”

Could it have been that young Benji’s suspension couldn’t be put off any longer, and then, because suspending him would leave the Central Committee inquorate, they decided to go together? Perhaps holding hands and singing Abide With Me, as they jumped overboard into the icy waters of the North Atlantic?

Gwalchmai certainly had one hell of a Twitter rant on Saturday night. He lashed out in all directions. Members of the middle class seemed to particularly irk him. Whether this was an attempt to burnish his working class credentials or an attack on those he felt had betrayed him was difficult to say.

Possibly a bit of both.

Because in that rant Gwalchmai stated that he had not wanted to resign. Suggesting perhaps that he had been outvoted by the other three. (Bourgeois bastards!)

And he hadn’t calmed down by Monday, to judge by this tweet. Though this time the target was, ‘The Groups’.

But the groups, and the members they represent, are YesCymru. How could they mount a coup against themselves? What the groups have executed is a counter-coup. They’ve been fighting to reverse a sly takeover by extremists.

Far left extremists who’d ensured that some people – Secretary Iestyn ap Rhobert and Central Committee member Dilys Davies – could not be re-elected at the May 22 AGM. While also guaranteeing that their choices would be sneaked in by keeping the number of members able to vote at the AGM down to a few hundred.

There were also people involved in the coup who were not on the Central Committee. Most notably, perhaps, Rob Lloyd of Labour for an Independent Wales.

But whether they were on the Central Committee or not it was a Woke-Left takeover involving the Leannista wing of Plaid Cymru, Undod, Momentum, and Labour for an Independent Wales. Using ‘trans rights’ as their trojan horse they sought to silence all critics by labelling them ‘TERFs’, ‘transphobes’ and, of course, ‘fascists’.

Explained here, with main players named, in YesCymru: it must be a clean sweep.

YesCymru is now in the hands of an unnamed firm of accountants. Which is no doubt costing more money. Maybe a lot of money. Who knows?

This expensive period of stasis could have been avoided if the Central Committee had agreed to an EGM as soon as possible after the Vote of No Confidence passed by local groups on July 13.

Instead of accepting that VONC, at a meeting arranged by them – a meeting at which they’d allowed the attendance of supportive non-branches (Maesteg, Bynie) – the Central Committee rejected the vote as being “anti-democratic”.

A complete absence of self-awareness is something that has been remarked on many times in this saga when people look at the Central Committee and its chorus.

Or maybe it’s psychological projection; in which someone attributes their own faults or feelings onto others.

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OUT IN THE FIELD

The High Command may have fled, jodhpurs flapping, but the indefatigable infantryman and infantrywoman carry on the fight, from north to south.

In Rhuthun yesterday they were out showing their colours. (One of my favourite towns, can’t wait to visit again.)

While back in the City of my Dreams the local branch of YesCymru met the very day the Central Committee did a lemming and discussed a statement to submit to the Gweithgor (the working group to organise the EGM).

Note, in particular, the reference I’ve highlighted about not pre-judging ‘what an independent Wales should look like’. How encouraging to read that!

For those involved in the Woke-Left coup were so prescriptive in their vision that they’d even worked on the locations and lay-out of the gulags, and stipulated that bread queues would have agreed percentages of trans, non-binary, etc., etc.

Despite this common sense, one from the ugly lovely town was a member of the takeover gang. This was Rachel Cooze, though her elevation to the Central Committee had little to do with support from her local group.

Cooze’s success was due to her allies within and without the Central Committee. Partly a reward for her enthusiastic involvement in the campaign against Dr Dilys Davies that saw Dr Davies suspended and therefore unable to oppose the elections of Cooze and others like her. A suspension that also helped facilitate the adoption of the Left-Woke motion to set up a Diversity and Inclusivity Sub-committee.

All carefully orchestrated, and beginning with Aled Gwyn Williams’ deliberately provocative visit to Dr Davies’ properties in Ceredigion.

The three who lodged the complaints that got Dr Davies suspended were Cooze, ‘Emrys’ Price-Jones, and Elinor Walters. For a while, Walters even renamed her Twitter account, ‘Dr Dildo Davies’.

Which Aled Gwyn Williams thought was ‘excellent’. Silly boy!

But Cooze went further, offering discounts on her OnlyFans sex site using Dr Davies’ name. That was a new low even for these people. Perhaps worse, was her co-conspirators defending her.

Cooze gets a mention in the next section. Though we may soon be hearing of her in another context.

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A PHOENIX RISES?

After I’d stopped laughing I got round to properly reading what someone sent me on Sunday evening. After reading it properly I laughed a lot more. Here it is.

Aled Gwyn Williams – for it must be him! – has arranged a meeting on Glyndŵr’s Day at Maesteg RFC to launch Cwm Llynfi for Indy, ‘a group advocating inclusive independence for Wales’ . . . but not if you’re Dilys Davies, or Iestyn ap Rhobert, or Niki Jones, or me, or anybody who won’t accept Marxism and women with penises.

You’ve read about Rachel Cooze, so who are the other speakers?

Siwan Clark has not long returned from London, where she was a big fan of Jeremy Corbyn. It should go without saying that she is in Momentum.

Welsh independence seems to have become more attractive to the far left since Corbyn’s hammering in the December 2019 general election. Not because the comrades want Welsh independence – or even care about Wales – but because with the Labour Party under Keir Starmer being less welcoming they must find new platforms for their odious message.

Clark brought Momentum methods with her. One of which is the sock puppet Twitter account. She has run quite a few of these recently.

The other name is ‘Charlotte Williams from Hiraeth Films’. This outfit has been working for about seven years on a film about Capel Celyn, the village drowned to make way for the Tryweryn dam; though apart from a few short videos to be found on Twitter and Facebook it’s difficult to know if it really does anything.

But the point is, Charlotte Williams comes from Welshpool, and who else do we know in that area? The photo below will help. It’s taken on the Montgomeryshire Canal in the town.

Kneeling down, swigging from a bottle, is Charlotte Williams and behind her is Katie Bataille, another trans woman, one who never turns down an opportunity for a social media pile-on. But who is that bearded fellow, sitting there so nonchalantly, about to fall backwards into the murky water?

Why! it’s young Ben Gwalchmai!

And is that a sticking plaster across his knuckles? Has Benji been brawling with the local fascists and transphobes? (Cos I’ve seen them many a time goose-stepping up and down Broad Street.)

Enough levity.

Aled Gwyn Williams has brought together this impressive threesome to launch Cwm Llynfi for Indy. So what is this new venture?

Worth asking because, as I mentioned, Williams represented YesCymru Maesteg in the July 13 meeting at which the vote of no confidence in the CC was passed. (AGW of course supported the Central Committee.)

Though whether YesCymru Maesteg was a legally-constituted group is debatable.

Whether it was or not, this proposed launch of Cwm Llynfi for Indy certainly suggests that Aled has now severed his links with YesCymru. The presence of Cooze, Williams and Clark suggests that they too have burned their bridges.

Worth watching, I suggest. And although I’ll be unable to make it myself on September 16 – unless I go in disguise – I’m sure I’ll get plenty of feedback.

(There’s also a Twitter account.)

UPDATE: An early comment tells us that YesCymru Welshpool has rebranded to Welshpool for Independence. Taken with the plan for Maesteg it looks as if this is the path chosen by the defeated takeover gang. Will there be a national structure?

And do these new groups have access to YesCymru information on members? If so, how does this square with General Data Protection Regulation? And access to YC money?

A source also tells me that Scott Mackay, one of the Woke-Left plotters who failed to be elected to the CC, has left YC Abertawe.

◊

BEYOND THE FRINGE

In many ways the Woke-Left coup was the work of different groups and individuals that could be viewed as concentric rings.

With the Central Committee serving as the inner ring. Aled Gwyn Williams and his social media pile-on gang as the next ring, but in close contact with the inner ring. Then beyond them, an outer ring, where we find those who can be rallied to support the others and attack the fascisti.

In the hazy outer ring we find the fascinating ‘Alan Reilly’. I’ve put his name in quotes because I’m not sure if he’s a real person.

This name first cropped up towards the end of 2018, soon after the formation of Gwlad. With vicious attacks on me, personally. Also attacks on Cayo Evans and the Free Wales Army – ‘What did you bastards ever do for Wales?’ and more in that vein.

It was strange stuff from someone professing to be a sympathetic Irish Republican and, as I say, it was very personal. With an unhealthy obsession with my bodily functions. A fascination recently exhibited by others.

‘Reilly’ was often in the company of Shane Waters aka Séan Mac Uaitéir and Andrew McDonald aka Andras ap Alun. And despite their claims of support for Wales and Welsh independence, they often slipped up.

‘You Welshies’! Click to open in separate tab

Then ‘Reilly’ went quiet. To reappear very recently, when the pressure on the YesCymru Central Committee reached the crescendo that led to the mass resignation.

This time he was commenting to posts on Nation.Cymru. And I’m ‘Nonce o’ the North’.

I complained to N.C about the first comment and it was taken down, so ‘Reilly’ wrote the second comment, and then I had to complain about that. It too was taken down. In an e-mail, Mark Mansfield at Nation.Cymru told me: ‘I’ve banned him and his IP address and disabled comments for the article’.

‘Alan Reilly’ is now back on the Nation.Cymru site posting as ‘Alan Reilly 1’. Presumably from a different IP address. Unless Mark Mansfield was lying about blocking him.

But he’s not using ‘Alan Reilly 1’ to attack me. No, instead, the attack last Saturday came from someone signing ‘Rwân’. (The correct spelling is of course ‘rŵan’.) How do I know it was ‘Reilly’? Because of the references to ‘old incontinent boy, sad Sac o’ the North’.

Someone saw it, drew my attention to it and, again, I had to complain to Nation.Cymru before the comment was taken down.

To express his frustration, ‘Reilly’ then turned his attention to my blog, where he posted this comment at twenty minutes to one on Sunday morning. It’s difficult to know where to start.

He accuses me of hiding behind an alias. Yet he knows my name, everybody does, it’s Royston Jones. As it says in the old Daily Mail report from October 1968. In fact, I was ‘lifted’ by the police more than once. (Lost jobs because of it. Fortunately, I was young, and carefree. And handsome!) I did not make a complaint about Leanne Wood’s ‘arsehole’ remark, that was someone else.

How many remember the old Quarter Sessions? Happy days! Click to open in separate tab

Without thinking too much about ‘Alan Reilly’, there appear to be four possibilities:

1/ He’s a sock puppet of one of the Woke Left fanatics who nearly wrecked YesCymru.

2/ He is what he says he is, an Irish Republican with an interest in Welsh politics.

3/ He’s someone in Wales, possibly even Welsh, hostile to Welsh nationalism. And / or me?

4/ He’s working for some agency hostile to both Irish Republicanism and Welsh nationalism.

I dismiss the first two possibilities because I don’t believe anyone qualifying for those descriptions would be so dismissive of the national movement in Wales.

The third option is plausible because Alan Reilly’ seems to know quite a lot about Wales and the history of the national movement, but is clearly hostile. But if so, why adopt the Irish persona?

Then there’s option 4. Also plausible because ‘Alan Reilly’ first appeared shortly after a new political party was formed, and reappeared when it became clear that the coup to subvert YesCymru was in danger of failing.

I am not suggesting that those behind the coup work for the British state. But the British state would have been delighted to see a growing movement for Welsh independence subverted and side-tracked.

If anyone has any thoughts on ‘Alan Reilly’, then please pass them on.

And by the way, don’t think I’m whining here; I’m an old bastard and this is water off a Jack’s back. Think of it more as a warning.

◊

LOOKING FORWARD

The worst appears to be over, with an EGM in the offing at which all members will be able to vote. YesCymru should in future be more representative of its membership than it has been since May’s rigged AGM.

Whether YesCymru sticks with the old structure of officials and a Central Committee, or whether it becomes more professional, with full-time employees, is something else for the members to decide.

But without I hope sounding vindictive, I would warn YesCymru’s members to be very wary of those who’ve appeared on this blog recently. And think carefully about whether they are made welcome in future.

Because, politics aside, there have been some very weird people involved in recent events. Some of them seriously unhinged. Others, violent. A few, genuinely evil.

Speaking personally, I would not extend a welcome to any of them.

And though he’s a long way from being the worst among them, for God’s sake don’t allow Rantin’, Rovin’ Benji anywhere near the levers of power in YesCymru.

I’m now hoping to take a break from the Woke-Left interlopers who tried to wreck YesCymru and re-acquaint myself with more likeable people. I’m referring now to the grant grabbers, con men, money launderers, mortgage fraudsters, etc., who’ve starred on this blog for so long.

They must be feeling neglected!

♦ end ♦

YesCymru, conspirators flying the coup

On 09/08/202124/07/2022 By JacIn Welsh Independence, Yes Cymru58 Comments

♦

The picture with YesCymru is becoming clearer, which makes those who clouded it ever more desperate. And dishonest.

♦

“Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies.”

Senator Barry Goldwater

I shall offend certain people by quoting this early influence on my political development. But it doesn’t matter how you try to twist it, what Barry Goldwater says there could have been written about recent events in YesCymru.

For when it comes to YesCymru, there may have been those among the takeover gang who sought to do, “what they regard as good”, but there were many driven by political fanaticism, and a few by self-interest.

And now it’s all over. The coup has failed and the plotters are slinking away.

So let’s have an update.

◊

WHO’S LEFT THE BUILDING?

It’s been difficult at times keeping up with events, but here’s how I believe things stand after collating information from a number of sources.

Llywelyn ap Gwilym has been keeping a low profile, making me wonder if he was hoping to hide, Claudius-like, and then emerge after the blood-letting to be acclaimed emperor.

But no, for a number of sources tell me ‘Ein Llyw Nesaf’ has promised to stand down and not seek re-election at the EGM. That said, others warn that he’s a ‘slippery customer’, and needs to be watched.

Then, some time over the weekend before last Tori West bade her farewell. But there was no presentation of a clock followed by a few pints down the Red Lion, where anodyne speeches were delivered about ‘Good old Tori‘, and her responding with, ‘I’ll be back to see you all from time to time‘.

Instead, she suggested that YesCymru should be razed to the ground. Which, if nothing else, calls into question her commitment to Welsh independence.

One source suggests that West may still consider herself ‘resignation fluid’. After that tweet she should be toast. And burnt toast at that.

I’m told the next to leave, on Monday last week, was Carys Eleri.

She will be best remembered for the video below. Even though it’s more of an exhibition of posterior than a gift to posterity I still see it as somehow fitting.

YesCymru members’ money was given to a company few had heard of. (Hardly surprising seeing as the company is less than a year old.) Then there are questions as to how this company gained the contract. Was there a tendering process? Does the Turk running the company know someone who may have been influential in YC? Is this company still receiving money from YesCymru?

As I say, I see this video as a metaphor – for the unfocused, spendthrift, self-indulgent and ultimately laughable organisation YesCymru became under the clowns now seeking the shadows.

On Tuesday last week Elin Hywel did her disappearing act. Like so many – all? – of those involved in the attempted and now defeated coup she is a member of Far Left Undod.

While some took to the shadows as the pressure mounted, one who tried to put on a show of resistance was Ben Gwalchmai of Labour for an Independent Wales.

But something has clearly happened with Gwalchmai and it might have been linked with complaints to the Central Committee about his online behaviour. One complaint was signed by some 50 people.

A source tells me: “The CC meeting to suspend Ben was supposed to have been last Wednesday, then delayed until Thursday, then delayed to today (Monday), and now tomorrow.” I hear feet being dragged.

Whether the Rasputin of the Severn Valley has been or will be suspended is unknown, but his YC Twitter account was certainly shut down last Wednesday. A couple of days later he used his personal account to put out a rant against the 16 local groups that mustered a vote of no confidence in the Central Committee at the recent sit-down.

Note that critics are ‘crazies’, and a democratic vote open to all is a ‘coup’.

Though Benji attempted to clarify his remark about ‘violent harasser’ by saying that he was not referring to himself, but to an online critic of the Central Committee, the so-called ‘Cornish Crow’, a Twitter account that was taken down on Sunday night.

But not before encouraging an imitator.

The personal account was putting out YC stuff today. Which might suggest that Benji remains part of the gang, but perhaps semi-detached? ‘We’ll pretend you aren’t with us’ kind of thing.

There could be a good reason for this. As I’ll explain in a mo.

Ben Gwalchmai has a terrible problem with the truth. He should be receiving treatment. Click to open in fresh tab.

Whatever his status vis-à-vis the Central Committee, Gwalchmai is a spent force. Utterly discredited, and perhaps now viewed as a liability even by the remaining CC members. (Which would really be saying something!)

There may also be legal action pending against him.

Ben Gwalchmai’s fundamental problem is that he’s ‘imaginative’. (Yes, that is a euphemism.) Take the recent example below.

Now, to read Benji, one might think that those awful ‘Fash’ had enlisted the help of the Kremlin to mount a full-scale assault against the organisation he and the comrades had so recently snatched from their evil clutches.

The Central Committee had to put out a statement clarifying that it was just a minor, personal matter. And no mention of PayPal.

Talking of the Central Committee, who is left?

Let’s recap . . . there’s possibly Llywelyn ap Gwilym, no doubt carefully weighing up the best move for Llywelyn ap Gwilym. Then there’s Sarah Rees, the vice-chair, and interim chair since Siôn Jobbins stepped down. And finally, there’s treasurer Gwyn Llewelyn.

And that, without suspended Niki Jones, is that. Apart from the indeterminate status of Ben Gwalchmai, which might even have changed between me writing this on Monday evening and you reading it.

UPDATE: The news has been broken now so I can tell you that Niki Jones resigned from the Central Committee tonight.

Which means that the Central Committee might have less than four members and consequently be inquorate. If so, then the only power it has is to call an EGM pretty damn quick to get a new CC elected.

A last-ditch attempt to remain quorate would explain ap Gwilym hanging on and Gwalchmai being allowed to mooch around. Because without them it’s just Rees and Llewelyn, and definitely inquorate.

One who seems to have slipped under my radar is Shane Brennan. In an earlier post I pointed out that with Iestyn ap Rhobert not seeking re-election as secretary his rival for the post, Shane Brennan, was a shoo-in.

What I didn’t know was that Brennan had been offered a job with The National and told that if he was taking it then he couldn’t be YesCymru secretary. Though when you think about it, working for Huw Marshall puts you on the same side as the Woke-Left takeover gang anyway.

Here’s Marshall crowing over the Twitter demise of the Cornish Crow. (Though I suspect he’ll be back soon.) Note that I remain a target. God! it brings a tear to the old Jac eye.

It has been suggested to me that the Cornish Crow’s fate might be attributable to media persons knowing others of that ilk in the employ of Twitter. Who knows?

For obvious reasons, the Central Committee kept quiet about Brennan’s non-arrival. Which means that in addition to possibly being inquorate the CC has also been stumbling along without a secretary since before the May 22 AGM.

YesCymru is an utter shambles!

Another departure was that of Diversity and Inclusivity Officer Jessica Harvey. One of those determined to turn YesCymru into TransCymru. She will not be missed.

The sole remaining employee is Harriet Protheroe-Soltani. Though I don’t recall hearing anything from her or about her for months. Is she still there? If so, what is she doing for £32,000 a year in her part-time job? (For she is also an official of Momentum.)

Putting it all together makes me wonder why the first mate and the purser pretend that the good ship YesCymru is sailing merrily along with a full complement of officers and a not-at-all-mutinous crew.

Sinking Ship GIFs - Get the best GIF on GIPHY

Obviously there’s the matter of remaining quorate, which we’ve just read about. But there are also suggestions that this pretence must be maintained because there are things to hide. And money to be accounted for.

Just one more thing that might need to be cleared up is the Equality and Diversity Sub-committee, which was a motion passed at the May 22 AGM. Were appointments made to this sub-committee? Can a sub-committee exist independently of the committee to which it is subordinate?

Questions. Questions. So many questions.

◊

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Woke-Left coup has failed, partly because those involved were just so bloody incompetent. But if you want specifics . . .

1/ The Far Left entryists believed that by using terms like ‘fascist’ and ‘far right’ for their critics they could swing more moderate socialists behind them. But this didn’t work. In fact, it may have had the opposite effect.

This I find very encouraging. It tells me there are decent people out there, reasonable and fair-minded socialists, prepared to work with others in the cause of Welsh independence.

2/ Once those who’d taken over began to assert themselves, and it became clear that for many outing ‘TERF’s and ‘transphobes’ was more important than working towards independence, they both revealed their true intentions and sealed their own fate.

3/ In some ways, those who joined the Central Committee were the reasonable face of the Woke-Left fringe. Because out there, on the howling peripheries, roam some seriously unhinged nutters! You have met many of them on this blog.

But those on the inside did themselves no favours by their social media interaction with the loonies. Both encouraging them and being encouraged by them.

An example of the behaviour of these loonies cropped up a few days ago. I don’t know this guy, I’ve had no dealings with him, but he is not alone in his experience of the Woke-Left extremists.

These evil and dangerous bastards mimic their heroes in the anarcho-nihilist cult Antifa: ‘We are absolutely in the right, which means we can do whatever we choose to those who oppose us and those we decide are in the wrong’.

The sort of attitude that leads to Inquisitions, pogroms, persecution, and the public beheading of unbelievers. So far we’ve only reached the de-platforming stage, and social media censoring, but the trajectory is clear.

An illustration of the co-operation between those on the inside and those on the fringes came to light tonight. It’s in a tweet from former Central Committee member Niki Jones, responding to Ben Gwalchmai, who claims never to have made or signed a complaint to YC.

He is of course lying, again, as the complaint from June 4 proves.

But just look at those names! Central Committee members mixed in with the worst of the gang. They’re all there: the mad axeman, ‘Dr Dildo Davies’, that disgusting creature who wrote the obscene tweet to a boy mourning his mother, the mayor of Bangor, and of course, the leader of the pack – Aled Gwyn Williams.

You can see the lines of communication, the links, for organising a pile-on.

Benji’s fiery pants must be visible from the Long Mynd.

UPDATE 10.08.2021: There was a reaction last night to the publication of the list of complainants against Niki Jones, made when it was realised she would not fall into line with the exclusionary Woke-Left agenda. It came from Benedict Belli, ‘BVB’, @no_pasaran90, one of those complainants.

After a chorus of, ‘Non, Je ne regrette rien’ he goes on to blame “that joke organisation” for a breach of confidentiality. It’s always somebody else’s fault.

YesCymru, as it is currently constituted, is no longer fit for purpose. There must be root and branch change, in both personnel and organisational structure.

Those involved in the takeover, and their social media foederati, must return from whence they came and never be allowed back into YesCymru.

For with their undoubted talent, their tolerant and inclusive behaviour, I have no doubt that those of whom I have writ could build up Undod into a movement that both captures the souls of our people and, by so doing, strikes terror into the black hearts of our enemies.

Then again, I could just be taking the piss. (Cos I enjoys a good laugh, I do.)

I started with a little something from Barry Goldwater, and I’ll end with some more wisdom from the great man.

“Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”

God bless you, Barry.

♦ end ♦

No to Terfs and Fash Trash Cymru!

On 05/08/202105/09/2021 By JacIn Yes Cymru37 Comments

♦

This short guest post from ‘”Honest Bob” Lloyd’ was too good to turn down. It certainly made me laugh.

Though it’s worth pointing out is that it comes from someone who is not involved in the YesCymru debate in any form, he’s just a decent guy who’s been observing from a distance.

And here I think is an important message for those still in control of YesCymru, their few remaining allies, and their social media foederati.

The period of anyone taking you seriously is over. People are laughing at you!

∼

“HONEST BOB” LLOYD of Undod Indy 4 Lab with a world exclusive preview of his slate of candidates for the upcoming YesCymru EGM.

No pasaran, Comrades! The combined forces of Terf and Fash reaction, centrism, revisionism, Merched y Wawr, Plaid Cymru and the Botwnnog Trotskyite Collective are congratulating themselves on their pathetic coup against our democratically elected Central Committee.

We will smash them, Comrades, and I call upon you all to support the new team which will lead this great movement into the wilderness and beyond.

UPDATE 26.08.2021: I have been asked to make it clear that the image above is not really of Bob Lloyd. The likeness is pure coincidence.

UPDATE 05.09.2021: I have been asked to make it known that the real Bob Lloyd did not write this article. It seems some people think he did!

☭

BEN GWAGMALU

Yo dudes (but a big f*** off to anyone called Iestyn, Dilys and all the Terfs, Swerfs and Fascist bastards of the extreme right in Plaid Cymru). Yes, it’s me Ben Gwagmalu here, or Ben Guacamole as we say in these parts.

As a lecturer in macrobiotic badger yoghurt at the East Powys Polytechnic, I am once again standing on a platform of greater transparency and general koolaidness.
Our new world-leading three step methodology for unmasking transphobes, pogonophobes, nationalists and malcontents is now being rolled out, and there will be no room in our movement for anyone who is found guilty by me and our diversity and inclusivity unit.

That is why Tregaron must be wiped from the map.

I’d love to respond to all of the thousands of messages I receive from you every day, but I can’t be arsed, and much as I would love to agree to requests for copies of minutes, I regret to inform you that they, like everything else what I wrote since becoming leader, have fallen prey to an auto-delete within 5 minutes setting.

Solidarity!

☭

MOONBEAM MOLOTOV

As someone who lives with multiple undiagnosed personality disorders, I know only too well that YesCymru is not a safe space for people like me. That is why it must be burned to the ground.

Only from the ashes of this stinking pit of crazed queerphobia and terfdom can we hope to build a movement which is truly inclusive. Until then I will refuse to engage with anyone fighting for toxic so-called independence.

Vote for me. You know it makes sense.

☭

BENITIO “THREE LIONS ON MY SHIRT” BELLENDINI

YesCymru has fallen prey to the forces of fascist transphobia and my sisters, brothers and non-binary siblings are literally being hacked to death on the streets by the jack-booted thugs of Yes Pontrhydfendigaid and Yes Hanes, wherever that is.

So death to the Terfs and Smurfs! Nor shall my axe sleep in my hand, till we have built Jerusalem, in England’s* green and pleasant land.

*Or Wales if that’s not possible.

☭

TEIFI

As some of you know, Aled has left to form a movement of his own, accusing me of ailurophobia and anti-veganism after I turned my nose up at his Pedigree mungbean and tofu surprise, but I’m sure he will be back soon along with his follower. That is why I have decided to stay and fight to make YesCymru a safe space free of cats and terfs. Inclusivity must extend to all those of us with four legs and wet noses.

Solidarity!

☭

GWENDA WHIPLASH

Yes, it’s me, and I’m back! There’s only one thing these far-right agitators understand, isn’t that right Iestyn bach?

When I resume my rightful place on the Committee, I will arrange for every member to receive a complimentary sex toy from my exclusive collection with instructions on how to shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.

☭

CARYS HARRIES

Gwlad y Gân? Donchya wanna puke when ya hear those words? So for a modest fee* me and my fellow Transistors (geddit?) in Les Tricoteuses, our newly formed street dance collective, will be staging a shrill-othon to drown out the screams of the terfs and fashies when Bob’s great top to bottom purge gets underway.

*None of your business

☭

CHRIS BRYANT

Just as Comrade Guacamole endorsed me when I stood in the 2019 general election, it is only right that I should show solidarity with him at this critical time, and so I too have been persuaded to join Honest Bob’s team as the unity candidate under the slogan Better Together! to work for a slight change in direction.

One of my first actions on being elected will be to introduce a modest salary and expenses for all those expected to turn up to meetings of the Central Committee.

☭

[That’s enough candidates. Jac.]

♦ end ♦

Jac o' the North

Author: Jac

England’s wind turbines – in Wales!

‘Energy Parks’ – new name, but same old corruption, same old exploitation

More wind turbines!

Invasion of the Enviroshysters (PG)

Reverend Bobbins speaks to the nation

Enviroshysters flock to Wales for easy money

Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union unmasked

Arts Council of Wales and Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union, an update

Corruption Bay and a tale of Cymrophobia

YesCymru: Resignations and more

YesCymru, conspirators flying the coup

No to Terfs and Fash Trash Cymru!