The previous post got considerable attention and it also unlocked fascinating new information. And that explains this follow-up. Which I hope will result in further revelations.
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WHERE ARE WE?
In the previous post I dealt with the Bryn Cadwgan wind farm planned by Galileo Green Energy. This is a Swiss company that set up a UK operation a few years ago to cash in on the Welsh wind turbine rip-off.
Different rules in England mean that complaints from local communities must be listened to which, in practical terms, means that no onshore wind farms get built. This sees Wales and Scotland increasingly used to supply electricity to England from a source the English don’t want.
Even to the extent of electricity from wind farms off Scotland’s west coast coming by undersea cable to Bangor, then down to Swansea, where it can connect with the main transmission lines from Pembroke power station to England.
Here in Wales, every project of 10MW or above is classed as a Development of National Significance (DNS), which means locals, and their elected representatives on local councils, will always be over-ruled by politicians in Corruption Bay who’ve declared war on a people they regard as racist, climate-denying, car-driving, transphobes.
It’s succinctly explained here. The chronology is intriguing.
In addition to the Galileo proposal I also knew that Bute Energy, a Scottish firm that rents a cupboard in Cardiff to fool us into thinking it’s Welsh, had a plan for an installation they were calling Blaencothi. Though details were scarce.
But true to form, Bute has again recruited a local to proselytise on its behalf. This one is Cilycwm community councillor Jamie Pickup. We can no doubt expect Pickup to be speaking up for all three projects.
But the third project, Waun Maenllwyd Wind Hub, being pushed by Belltown Power of Bristol, was a bit of a surprise. Possibly because it had previously been known as ‘Bryn Brawd’, and I’d perhaps assumed it had fallen though because I’d heard no more of it by that name.
Anyway . . . since putting out last week’s piece I have been told that the companies behind these three projects are combining to share a route to the plateau that forms the southern end of the Cambrian Mountains of central Wales.
The proposed access route to the site for abnormal indivisible loads (such as blades, hub, nacelle and tower sections) will be from the port of origin (which is likely to be Swansea) via the M4, A48 and A40. Loads would turn off the public highway at Pumsaint and travel north for approximately 14km on a combination of existing commercial forestry tracks and new tracks to reach the wind farm location. No significant traffic flows will be associated with the operational phase of the site.
Who could argue with that? A motorway and nice wide trunk roads all the way. Problem is, the route as given is sort of incomplete. Let me explain.
As written, deliveries will turn off the A40 at Pumsaint . . . but the A40 goes nowhere near Pumsaint. Which makes what Belltown says misleading, if not dishonest. And if they could get this so wrong, what else might they have got wrong?
The truth is that after leaving Llandeilo the huge low loaders will turn onto the B4302 and head for Talyllychau (Talley). Then on to Crugybar and the Bridgend Inn (where I sank a few pints in the good old days), where they’ll join the A482 to reach Pumsaint.
Using my bestest crayons I’ve conjured up this map that might explain it better.
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For those of you unfamiliar with this road, take my word for it, it will struggle to accommodate massive low loaders carrying huge turbine blades and tower sections.
Below is a capture from Google Maps showing the B4302 just after leaving Talyllychau on its way to Crugybar. Those hedgerows will have to go. And so will many other trees and hedgerows on the 13 miles from the A40 to Pumsaint.
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Now we’re going to move on to Stage 2 of the environmental vandalism associated with these projects. The section that involves the National Trust (NT) and the ‘Welsh Government’.
With the Foresight reputation damaged locally Belltown may be fronting for Foresight. Questions need to be asked. And answers demanded.
UPDATE 10.11.2023: It was learnt last night that Belltown will be taking the A482 from Llanwrda to Pumsaint. Galileo will take the Talyllychau route suggested above. No information yet on the Bute route, but it doesn’t really matter. Because there will now be two roads suffering expensive damage.
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DON’T TRUST THE NATIONAL TRUST
Once the huge low loaders reach Pumsaint, or just outside the village, they’ll take a right turn onto National Trust property.
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This is the Dolaucothi estate, home to the famous ‘Roman’ gold mines, once owned by the Johnes family, who also owned the Hafod estate, to the north. Hafod fell into the clutches of the National Trust last year. With a 99-year lease and £700,000 gift from the ‘Welsh Government’.
In other words, the ‘Welsh Government’ paid an organisation worth billions £700,000 to take over a prime Welsh estate.
Despite the excuse given by Corruption Bay for this generosity it might have been due to the involvement of Dawn Bowden MS. As Deputy Minister for Arts and Sport the Hafod deal should have had nothing to do with her. But Tourism’ has since been added to her portfolio. Fancy that!
Response from ‘Welsh Government’ to FoI request. Click to open enlarged in separate tab
I wrote about it in this post, scroll to the section ‘Bristol Fashion’. And then in this post, in the section, ‘”Welsh Government” funds National Trust’.
It’s instructive to consider the organisation of the National Trust in Wales, and what happened at Hafod. Not least because it might provide clues as to why the NT would be a willing party to this planned environmental disaster.
It was early June last year when we learnt that the Trust was taking over the Hafod estate. Which seems to be owned by the ‘Welsh Government’ through Natural Resources Wales, and had until then been run by the Hafod Trust.
Just three months earlier, in March, Lhosa Daly of Bristol, had taken on the role of NT’s Acting Director for Wales, and was appointed to the post officially in September. I mention Bristol because that’s where she lives.
If we look at her career background we see that in the past seven or eight years Daly’s been chair of the Bristol branch of the Institute of directors, vice chair of the Bristol Law Centre, and she is still a business ambassador for the Western Gateway.
These positions would have brought her into contact with the glitterati of Bristol’s business community. Including, perhaps, the directors of Belltown Power, the company planning to desecrate our country with Waun Maenllwyd Wind Hub.
With Belltown, Bute and Galileo hoping to reach the site by traversing land owned or managed by Lhosa Daly’s National Trust and the ‘Welsh Government’.
The mystery of Dawn Bowden representing the ‘Welsh Government’ last year, despite it being beyond her responsibilities, could be accounted for by her also being from Bristol. She and Daly might have already known each other.
And if that’s too fanciful an explanation for you, then try this: Bowden should have known Lhosa Daly through her being Deputy Minister for Arts since May 2021 and Daly being an advisor to the Arts Council of Wales since April 2019.
Come to that, how did Bristol-based Daly get that gig with the Arts Council of Wales?
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FINAL THOUGHTS
I’m told deals have been done with farmers and other landowners along the route between Llandeilo and Pumsaint to cut corners, destroy hedges, and in places widen the B4302, and even perhaps the A482.
This will cost a considerable amount of money. So who’ll pay for it? Will it be the ‘developers’? The county council? The so-called ‘Welsh Government’? Or will there be a whip-round in the Dolaucothi Arms?
And then there’s the question of how the National Trust squares being a conservation body with the damage it’s helping inflict on the Welsh landscape by these wind farms. What would NT members say, if they knew?
Not just in the road ‘improvements’ I’ve just described, but also on the 14km journey to the sites after the low loaders turn off the A482. And then the on-site destruction.
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There’ll be the vast concrete bases to support these huge turbines, the access roads, the deep trenches for the cables. How many trees will be felled? How much peat bog damaged? And let’s not forget the pylons.
I ask about the trees because I’m told new populations of red squirrels and pine martens are establishing themselves. Will they adapt to climbing pylons and turbines?
I suggest that even if they stick around they’ll be so traumatised by what’s being done to their habitat they might stop breeding.
As if that wasn’t enough, someone then tells me . . .
We also have two breeding maternity colonies of soprano pipistrelle bats on my land, they will love the sonic signature of wind turbines of course.
Don’t worry – once the poor little buggers are disorientated enough the blades will finish them off pretty quickly. (If they’re turning!)
Them and the kites, and other birds. And insects by the million.
Nothing here really surprises me, because I’ve always regarded the National Trust as a very commercial organisation and, in Wales, rather colonialist. Lhosa Daly playing the memsahib is entirely in keeping.
Not only that, but there’s something of the vulture about the NT in Wales, picking up land and estates as old Welsh families die out. Or more recently, acquiring property from the ‘Welsh Government’ or Natural Resources Wales.
Porthdinllaen once belonged to the Jones-Parry (Madryn) family. Sir Love Jones-Parry MP, was very supportive of the Patagonia settlement. Which explains why a town over there is called Puerto Madryn; and is twinned with Nefyn, I believe.
Another example of this sad phenomenon is located not far from me, a place I love to visit. I’m directing you now to Llynnoedd Cregennan.
Llynnoedd Cregennan. Click to open enlarged in separate tab
Major C L Wynne-Jones lost both his sons in WWII, so in 1959 he handed over this 285-hectare estate to the National Trust.
As I hope I’ve made clear, I’m not surprised by the National Trust’s behaviour with these wind farms, and the damage they’ll cause . . . what really pisses me off is that the National Trust is still operating in Wales.
Devolution should have brought Wales a new organisation to replace the colonialist parasite that is the National Trust. We should by now have a Welsh body conserving our heritage and our history, safeguarding our landscapes.
But to set up such a body would have required political leaders with vision and courage, rather than the grubby, ishoo-of-the-month puppets Wales is cursed with.
The title is a nautical reference to wind, and a change of direction, which I’m entitled to use cos I was in the Sea Scouts. Right! And what I’m alluding to will, I hope, become clear before the end.
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TWM SIÔN CATI
We start in the wild and beautiful uplands between Lampeter and Llanwrtyd, once home to Thomas Jones, known to us all as Twm Siôn Cati, or Twm Shôn Catti.
In the centre of the map I have pinpointed Bryn Cadwgan; Twm’s cave is to the west, and to the south east we see Ystradffin, where Twm took a fancy to the widowed heiress, Joan, and eventually married her.
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Last year I wrote about a plan for wind turbines at nearby Bryn Brawd, which you can see to the north west of the pin. It was in this post, just scroll down to the section ‘Local benefits (well, local to somewhere)’.
A company mentioned in that piece, Awel Newydd Cyf, recently issued 43,659,462 shares. Which suggests there may be something in the wind. (Geddit?)
But I wouldn’t get carried away by the company’s Welsh name, for it’s ultimately owned by Elm Trading Ltd, which has being issuing shares like they’re going out of fashion.
We’re switching our attention to Bryn Cadwgan because another wind farm is planned there, and it should go without saying that the plan comes from yet another gang of foreign investors.
So who is it this time?
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GALILEO GREEN ENERGY
This company launched in early 2020, and is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. Set up with . . .
Galileo Green Energy Wales was set up in April 2021, and was originally known as GGE Machynlleth Ltd (until 4 June 2021). Why ‘Machynlleth’ should appear in the name is a mystery, seeing as the original address was in Bristol, and the first directors lived in Italy (2), France, and Ireland.
Was the original plan to bless the Dyfi valley with yet another wind farm?
All 10,000 shares for Galileo Green Energy Wales are held by GGE Nordics Ltd, who can now be found at the North St. David Street address. But until January this year was up on the fourth floor of 115 George Street in Edinburgh.
The majority shareholder in GGE Nordics is Empower Renewables Ltd, also of 7 – 9 North St. David Street. When we look at Empower’s UK registration we see that apart from a Dane (who lives in Killarney) all the directors are Irish, with control exercised by Diarmuid Anthony Twomey of Castleknock, Dublin.
I bet like me you’re excited by all the Welsh involvement in these projects!
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MYNYDD TY-TALWYN ENERGY PARK
“So where are we now?“, you’re wondering. Well, Mynydd Ty-talwyn, or Mynydd Ty Talwyn, is just to the north west of Bridgend. Outlined in red on the map.
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Other than Bryn Cadwgan it’s the only Welsh site I’m aware of. Though the website tells us (scroll down to the ‘About Galileo’ section): ”
Mynydd Ty-talwyn Energy Park is one of a pipeline of our new renewable energy projects in development across Wales.
So where are the others?
Never mind that for now, because I want to concentrate on a worrying claim and a serious untruth, on the Mynydd Ty-talwyn website; and I also want to highlight a major drawback with Bryn Cadwgan.
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Under ‘Specifications’ ‘Wind’ we read,
Approximately 64,643 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions saved per annum.
We don’t normally see this calculation given, so why do we see it here? One possibility must be that the calculation has been made for the purposes of carbon offsetting.
Just as medieval evil-doers would pay the Church to be forgiven their sins, and carry on sinning, carbon offsetting is a twenty-first century version of the scam.
Immediately below we read, “Up to 50-year lifetime“. If that’s the projected lifespan of the Mynydd Ty-talwyn Energy Park then Galileo must plan to replace the turbines at least once. For few turbines last 20 years.
On the other hand, if Galileo is saying that the turbines they hope to erect at Mynydd Ty-talwyn will last 50 years, then that statement is an outright lie.
Another issue is that Mynydd Ty-talwyn is home to a . . .
Cluster of nationally important medieval house platforms and settlement remains.
And they’re shown clearly on the OS map for the area. Though just one is shown on the map supplied by Galileo (above) there are at least three around Mynydd Ty-talwyn.
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We saw Irish control of Empower Renewables Ltd up at North St. David Street, Edinburgh, and Coriolis Energy, the company behind Y Bryn, is also Irish. The other company involved at Y Bryn is ESB UK, the UK face of a further Irish company.
Mynydd Ty-talwyn is not far off the beaten track, but even so, there will be environmental damage caused hauling huge turbine blades and towers to a relatively unspoilt area.
And let’s not forget the vast concrete bases for each turbine, and the access roads gouged out of the earth, the trenches for cables . . . and then there’ll be the pylons . . .
We can take it for granted that the blades and towers will not be manufactured locally, which will probably see them shipped into Swansea docks and then taken along the M4, before the final four or five miles of their journey to the site.
But the problems that’ll be encountered there are nothing compared to what will need to be overcome at Bryn Cadwgan. From Swansea docks the loads can take the M4 west, and then perhaps the A483 up past Llandovery, but then what?
Once you leave the A483 and head for Rhandirmwyn, and the closer you get to Bryn Cadwgan, the more you’ll realise that you’re really out in the sticks.
How many wind turbines can you get in the back of a farm pickup truck? Click to open enlarged in separate tab
To reach the site itself, new roads will have to be laid. The environmental damage caused will be immeasurable . . . unless of course those clever people at Galileo can get their calculators out again.
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WHO’S WHO AT GALILEO
Let’s start by going back to the main Galileo website. In particular, to the ‘Our People‘ section where, yet again, we see a complete absence of Welsh involvement. Whereas in Scotland, those involved all seem to be Scottish.
Let’s look first at Rob Paul and Joe Winton, both described as ‘Development Manager’. These two are also directors and shareholders of One Wind Renewables Ltd of Truro, a dormant company.
We find these two, along with Simon Edward Coles, at a number of renewables companies. They’ve been knocking around the sector since they were callow youths, and both seem to have started out with Ecotricity.
Next we turn to Leslie Walker, Senior Project Manager. Very interesting, Ms Walker. Here’s her Linkedin page to give you a clue as to where we’re going. (Scroll down to her ‘Interests’.)
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On that Linkedin page you’ll see that she works for Dutch company Arcadis Consulting. And has done for over 30 years.
I’d never heard of Arcadis, maybe I should have, because it gets a lot of work in Wales. Much of it from the so-called ‘Welsh Government’.
I’m not for one minute suggesting that Leslie Walker is not good at what she does, but if I was in the position of Galileo, hoping to get approval for major contracts in Wales, I’d be looking for somebody who knew their way around the Bay.
And recruiting Walker might be less controversial than taking on Matt Enoch who, after 13 years as Project Manager and then Project Director with the ‘Welsh Government’, joined Arcadis in October 2019 as Project Director.
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I could go higher up the food chain to people like Ingmar Wilhelm, CEO at Galileo Green Energy, but it wouldn’t tell us much more than we already know. We’re dealing with foreign individuals, foreign companies, foreign money.
Our contribution is our country – and most of us don’t even know we’re making it.
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FINAL THOUGHTS
Earlier I mentioned that GGE Nordics Ltd, which owns Galileo Green Energy Wales, had been based at 115 George Street, in Edinburgh’s New Town. When I wrote it, I thought to myself, “Jones, that address rings a bell“.
115 George Street, Edinburgh. Click to open enlarged in separate tab
Bute is a Scottish company that’s appeared on this blog many times. It has insane plans to turn our country into a vast open-air electricity generator for England. And like Galileo, Bute employs people familiar with the denizens of the Swamp.
The connection between Bute and Galileo seems to be by association, via CIP. Then again, the link could be Vistra, with companies using it as their address. Which might explain the original Bristol address for Galileo Green Energy Wales.
Food for thought.
We may have missed the public meetings for Mynydd Ty-talwyn, but those for Bryn Cadwgan are being held next week; Llanddewi Brefi on Wednesday, and Pumsaint on Thursday.
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I suggest that people turn up to these meetings and demand answers to all sorts of questions. Here’s what I might ask . . .
How much environmental damage will be done transporting the turbines to and and erecting them at Bryn Cadwgan?
Where are Galileo’s other Welsh projects?
How many local jobs will be provided at Bryn Cadwgan?
Is Galileo claiming that wind turbines last for 50 years?
How much of Galileo’s business model is carbon offset ‘greenwashing’?
Is there any connection between Galileo Green Energy and Bute Energy?
And finally, always remember! wind turbines are not built to save the planet. They’re built to make a few people a lot of money, and to make our lives more difficult through an increasingly expensive and unreliable electricity supply.
In this piece I shall look at what might be a renewed attempt to promote OPDs, or perhaps it’s just another bit of ‘affordable housing’ flim-flam. Maybe a bit of both.
For newcomers . . . the OPD system is unique to Wales; it allows people to build a dwelling in open country as long as they promise to worship the sun, name their sprogs Earthworm and Beelzebub, and grow a couple of carrots to prove they’re ‘farmers’.
I’ve written about OPDs many times. Just type ‘OPD’ in the search bar.
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GARRISON OPD
Three years ago I introduced Garrison Farm CIC, you’ll find it in this post, scroll down to the relevant section. The two principals were Ross Edwards and Chris Carree. Carree left the company in June 2021 but Edwards is still there.
I assume Garrison Farm is still a going concern because three new directors have joined since Carree left. Let’s look at them in the order they joined.
Finally, we have Michael Paul Smith, 05.08.2023, who is Senior Facilities and Project Officer for Swansea council, and has worked for the council for over 20 years. Swansea council contributing?
The plan is to set up – possibly in Swansea, or maybe Carmarthenshire – a kind of OPD community for former military personnel. That’s the impression I get in this video from February last year. (Watch from 38:00.)
Thorpe was clearly recovering from a stroke, which he attributed to ‘climate anxiety’.
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Thorpe has crossed my path a few times over the years as I’ve researched OPDs. And the idea of a community of OPDs is not new. As this tweet of Thorpe’s from January 2018 makes clear.
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Though I don’t know what project was being discussed, or even if there was a specific project mooted. So much OPD discussion is little more than pipedreams.
But to return to Swansea, where there was certainly a project launched that could plausibly be called a community. This was Killan-Fach Eco-farm on the Gower side of the city. (Marginally more attractive than the Port Talbot side.)
I wrote about it in June 2020 in One Planet Developments, just scroll down to the section ‘Farmlets’.
The council knocked it back for a number of reasons. One being that . . .
There is also no evidence of how the development would meet local affordable housing needs
Which tells me that ‘affordable housing’ was one of the angles used in the hope of getting planning consent for an OPD project. This is interesting, because you’ll be reading more about affordable housing, and ‘co-operative social housing’, in a minute.
But before that it might be worth focusing on Ross Edwards a little.
From his Linkedin profile we learn that since January this year he’s been Business Development Manager for Rouute. Here’s the website. It describes its product as a, “road-based energy harvesting system“.
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If I understand it . . . pads or sensors are placed on the road surface and vehicles driving over them generate electricity. Even if it works, we’re unlikely to see this technology in Wales because we’re heading towards a vehicle-free future.
There’s another military connection here at Rouute. For CEO is Antony Edmondson-Bennett, a former army officer who, according to his now disappeared Linkedin bio, is trained in ‘close protection’. (It was there last week when I was researching this.)
The Rouute website announces a link-up with a firm called Carma. Here’s a very short video starring the founder of Carma, Jim Holland.
I found the Carma website easily enough, but there is no company of that name registered with Companies House. It was only by scrolling down to the small print at the bottom that I found, “Carma is a trading name of Rewards.Earth LTD 13315107“.
So let’s see what else we can learn.
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‘I THINK THAT I SHALL NEVER SEE . . . ‘.
The arrangement between the two, as spoken by Jim Holland of Carma, is that . . .
Rouute Technologies Ltd will be planting trees for every single unit they sell in the UK or abroad.
On the ‘Meet the Team‘ page of the website we see: “Our target is to plant tens of millions of trees in the next five years“. That is some ambition!
Rooting around for more information I naturally looked up Holland’s Linkedin page, where we see that he was in the Royal Navy for 13 years. So another military connection.
In this rooting around ‘South Wales’ appeared more than once.
This March, ten members of the Tillo team will be making their way to South Wales for a day of tree planting in partnership with Carma.
Despite the nonsense about saving the planet, what we’re looking at here is greenwash; and it must be bracketed with outfits like Stump Up For Trees, and investment vehicles like Foresight, buying up Welsh farms.
Too much of Wales is being lost in this way. We don’t need any more of it.
Drakeford was responding to a completely unrehearsed and piercing question from Huw Irranca-Davies MS. Here’s the transcript.
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Seeing ‘Mike Hedges’ and ‘fascinating’ in the same sentence is quite hilarious.
But here’s where I want to focus, on this section referencing “co-operative social housing managed and owned by the people who live in them“:
And the good news is, Llywydd, that we have a new wave of initiatives being led in different parts of Wales: the Solva community land trust, the Gower community land trust, the Taf Fechan Housing Co-operative in Merthyr—all of them initiatives designed to develop housing that will be run and managed by the people who live in them.
In his ‘question’ Irranca-Davies makes reference to “international youth leaders” in attendance, though God knows why anyone would travel to listen to those clowns. Let alone travel any distance.
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THE EXAMPLES DRAKEFORD QUOTED
Drakeford mentioned three examples of co-operative social housing. These were, to quote him verbatim: “the Solva community land trust, the Gower community land trust, the Taf Fechan Housing Co-operative in Merthyr”.
Let’s look at them, working backwards.
Taf Fechan looks like an offshoot of housing association Merthyr Valley Homes. I guess it takes over or runs MVH properties. If so, then it’s not a group of locals coming together afresh to build and manage their own community.
Now let’s turn to Solfa.
The Solva Community Land Trust was launched under the direction of, or with the help of, Planed in September 2019. “Planed delivers sustainable outcomes for communities by a collaborative, people-led approach“.
But I’m not sure what if anything’s happened since.
An internet search turned up this from March this year, which suggests the properties are still not built.
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The third project mentioned by Drakeford was in Gower. And I assume he was referring to Gŵyr Community Land Trust. Here’s the website.
Though it’s registered with Companies House as Gower Land Trust CIC, launched May 2021. And with just a few hundred in the piggy-bank it’s also difficult to see where this is going without a major injection of funding.
But it seems to have a rival in the Gwyr Community Land Trust Ltd, launched August 2023. This is a one-man band run by a local, Roger Brace.
I mention that Roger Brace is local because, looking at those involved in Gŵyr Community Land Trust, I see that a number of them are newcomers to Wales.
Director Adam Jefferson Land was not long ago pushing a similar venture over in Devon. (Fellow-director Niaomh Convery came to Swansea with him.) Another of the three directors, Emily Robertson, came to Wales a few years ago after working for Solace Women’s Aid in London.
Going by the bios and other evidence, this crew is sure to appeal to ‘progressive’ politicians. An impression strengthened by the image used in this WalesOnline report in November 2021.
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THE BIT AT THE END WHERE I PULL IT ALL TOGETHER
OPDs, as originally conceived, never really took off. While throwing up a shack in the countryside might appeal to many, needing to prove that you were living a largely self-sufficient lifestyle seems to have put many off the idea.
To make things worse, the idea was highjacked by unscrupulous, often unsavoury individuals and groups, buying land, often tracts of forestry, then selling or renting plots for people to put up cabins or bring in mobile homes.
The examples below are from Llangynog, Carmarthenshire, and they were sent to me a couple of years back. They’re not OPDs, and they don’t have planning permission.
But those who live in them will employ the OPD defence against council planners.
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I’m not suggesting that Wade William Heames is either unscrupulous or unsavoury, but his Edible Forest projects have come in for a lot of criticism. Much of it from people who’d been tempted to buy in, or even had bought in.
Which brings me back to Ross Edwards and Garrison Farm. I might accept this project if it was home to Welsh ex-service personnel. But if it’s nothing more than a smokescreen for greenwashing, then I would object.
The video you saw earlier, starring Ross Edwards and David Thorpe was produced by Cwmpas. (Formerly, Wales Co-operative Development & Training Centre Ltd.)
Income of £6.5m from “‘Welsh Government’, European funding, other grants and sources of income“. With two-thirds of that income going on the 100 staff.
And I bet you’d never heard of Cwmpas until you read this. How many more such beasties are out there, lurking in the shadows, devouring unwary maidens and feasting on public funds?
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You’ll see that the Cwmpas accounts were signed off by the then secretary, D Walker. Now Derek Walker – for it is he! – is the Future Generations Commissioner. Does he plan to breathe new life into OPDs in his new role?
Whatever Walker may have planned, Drakeford was talking about more conventional housing. But to understand why we are where we are, you need some background information.
It was always my belief that the left wing administration in Corruption Bay wanted rented housing to be the sole preserve of housing associations . . . with these in turn funded and controlled from the Bay.
But the close relationship that developed led the ONS to decide that Welsh housing associations were, effectively, public bodies. This resulted in them being privatised. Explained here from a ‘Welsh Government’ perspective.
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Welsh housing associations are now building many fewer homes for rent. Some are building none at all. They, and their subsidiaries, are focused almost exclusively on private, open market housing.
This helps explain why some councils are trying to make up the shortfall.
Finally, and especially in rural areas, we have the issue of holiday homes, also retirees and others buying property and moving in permanently.
So . . . fewer housing association properties for rent; private landlords quitting the business; councils spending money they may not have trying to fill the gap; politicians tickling rather than tackling the rural housing crisis; to a backdrop of recession, a ‘de-growth’ agenda, and increasing economic hardship enforced by following the lunacies of Net Zero.
There could be a perfect storm approaching . . . and this storm will have bugger all to do with any imaginary ‘climate crisis’.
Which is why I would hope to see official support for local people getting together to help themselves. But the examples quoted by Drakeford do not inspire confidence.
One thing for sure – a government making major expenditure cuts, and councils that are also feeling the pinch, should not be funding good-lifers hoping to settle in scenically attractive areas with which they have only the most tenuous connection.
The only real solution is a comprehensive and national housing strategy. But it would need joined-up thinking and hard work – from a ‘Welsh Government’ that prefers soundbites and virtue signalling!
Now that we’ve had three weeks of living with the 20mph speed restrictions I think it’s time to put this measure into its wider context, make a few connections, and introduce some new faces.
I apologise for this piece being a bit long, but it’s still less than 2,800 words. And worth sticking with.
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THE BIGGER PICTURE
Much of the background to this new legislation was covered a few weeks back in ‘20mph, A Disaster Unfolds’.
What’s absolutely clear now is that 20mph did not suddenly appear, it’s been hatching for a while. To explain what I mean, here’s a table I’ve drawn up, though I’m sure it’s incomplete, so if you can add to it . . . .
And it’s failed her on almost every count. But then, grand gestures done for dramatic effect rather than to deliver lasting benefits will invariably fail.
Next, we look at the Wales Act 2017. There, in Section 26, we see that power to vary or regulate speed limits is now conferred on the ‘Welsh Ministers’.
Consideration should be given to lowering speed limits in a CAZ from 30mph to 20mph, which some research suggests would deliver overall benefits27. Safety benefits from reduced road speed can also encourage modal shift from private cars.
Perhaps, state-owned, chauffeur-driven cars are OK?
The call was taken up by Sustrans who, in a publication dated 1 January 2019, called for 20mph speed limits across the UK, quoting Public Health Wales. Does this also show Wales being used as a testing ground?
Another example of pearl-clutching theatricality was Wales declaring a climate emergency. This happened in April 2019, just before Environment Minister Lesley Griffiths (and Gary) met with Scottish and UK counterparts.
Here’s the plan for funding the responses deemed necessary to combat this ’emergency’, produced by Future Generations Commissioner and Labour party insider, Sophie Howe. From which I’ve extracted the graphic for ‘Transport’ below.
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Those who compiled that table obviously view increased car ownership as something deplorable, which must be reversed. Yet for me, and I suspect for most people, those figures represent progress and increased prosperity.
Finally, we see 20mph again in Labour’s 2021 manifesto ahead of the Senedd elections. The original manifesto seems to have disappeared, so I can only link to the update put out following the agreement with Plaid Cymru.
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It’s a pity the original’s disappeared because I’m told it proposed risk-based approaches to assessing trunk road speeds. Basically, ‘Welsh Government’, or an individual minister, wanted lower speed limits on A and B roads.
Perhaps Plaid Cymru, a party of rural areas with sparse traffic on open roads, realised this would not go down well in Trawsfynydd or Nant y Caws.
So we see that the call for 20mph, and associated demands, goes back at least 5 years, and probably further. We’ll briefly consider associated issues before turning to an unattainable fantasy.
One of the associated matters is 15- 0r 20-minute cities / neighbourhoods. Which can be viewed in two ways.
The optimist might say: ‘Wow! everything I need will be within easy travelling distance; Waitrose, Pilates, accountant, Skivvyhire, Green Party constituency office, ballet class, tattooist, florist, saddler, doctor, dentist, plastic surgeon . . . .’
(Dentist? In Wales!)
The cynic might ask: ‘Yes, but is that 20 minutes there, or 20 minutes there and back? And what if I want to travel for longer than 20 minutes . . . and just keep going, into the wide blue yonder?’
Make no mistake, Sustrans is an anti-car organisation. And Waters himself is said to be a cycling and walking “fanatic“. Which is fine with me. Veganism is fine with me. It’s when zealots and fringe outfits are allowed or encouraged to push their beliefs onto the rest of us that I object.
Labour-controlled Cardiff council was also on board with the “20-minute neighbourhood or 15-minute city“, as this motion from March 2021 puts it. Even crediting Sustrans.
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Erm, let’s think about that for a minute. A city is made up of neighbourhoods. So obviously a city is bigger than a neighbourhood. That being so, how can a city be traversed, and its services accessed, quicker than those of a neighbourhood?
I’ll touch briefly on three more elements of the grand design.
First Minister Drakeford has described ULEZ charges as the “last resort“. But he hasn’t ruled them out. Labour’s experience in London, with people fighting back, might explain his hesitancy.
We will develop a framework for fair and equitable road-user charging in Wales and explore other disincentives to car use, taking into account equality issues including the needs of people in rural areas, people who share protected characteristics and people on low incomes
“ . . . and explore other disincentives to car use“.
Something I found odd about this was that it said, “in Wales“. But this was produced by the ‘Welsh Government’, so which other country would it refer to? Or was it written by someone else, perhaps not based in Wales?
The reference to “protected characteristics” I assume means that women with penises won’t have to pay. (Where’s my wig?)
To achieve this result the Welsh Roads Review Panel was created with orders to deliver the desired ‘findings’. And to guarantee that outcome the group was chaired by Dr Lynn Sloman. Who wrote ‘Car Sick‘, which rather gives away her position.
‘Vision Zero’ seems to have appeared in September 2012. In the ‘Welsh Government’s Road Safety Delivery Plan. Explained here in a written statement from the late Carl Sargeant, then Minister for Local Government and Communities.
But then, just a year or so later, on page 24 of the Manifesto for the 2019 UK general election, we read that Vision Zero has become a plan to eliminate road deaths and injuries entirely!
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Let’s give a little more thought to this idea of Vision Zero.
It should be obvious that Vision Zero can only be achieved by banning all vehicles, whether powered by the internal combustion engine, battery, or hydrogen.
But with more bicycles and pedestrians on the roads – as is hoped – there will still be fatalities and injuries. Either cyclists crashing or cyclists colliding with pedestrians. It happens now. With more cyclists, and with cyclists having freedom of the highways, some will be even more reckless and inconsiderate than they are now.
With vehicular transport banned – and that must also mean public transport – then people will spend far more time at home.
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But most accidents happen in the home, so spending more time at home will result in more accidents. Don’t take my word for it, read what RoSPA says on the subject. So how is transferring death and injury from the highway to the home an improvement?
It’s not an improvement at all. It only makes sense if the real goal is to ban cars.
More people spending more time at home will create other problems. I can predict with certainty there’ll be more cases of domestic violence, and murder. There will be more children physically and sexually abused. Even more cruelty towards domestic pets.
Also, more suicides, due to the stress of being cooped up at home. It will be a kind of lockdown. And it will be done despite us knowing the social and psychological damage inflicted by Covid lockdown.
But then, it may be dressed up as climate lockdown. And if so, then we must accept that chasing each other round the house with meat cleavers is an acceptable price to pay for saving the planet.
Think about what you’ve just read. Put it all together and tell me it’s not a war on cars, on private transport, and the freedom the car gives us.
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RULE FROM THE SHADOWS
I’m returning to the idea of Wales being used as a testing ground. With most people unaware of it, and the lack of awareness even extending to the ‘Welsh Government’.
But testing ground status is easy to achieve when our politicians are controlled by pressure groups. These often directed and / or funded by individuals and organisations making up the Globalist network.
The bigger picture only makes sense when you remember how it started.
With the end of Communism a new threat was needed. And so in 1991 the Club of Rome adopted ‘global warming’. Explained in this video (less than 5 minutes long).
Klaus Schwab, founder and chairperson of the World Economic Forum (WEF), makes an appearance. Schwab is also a member of the Club of Rome.
This programme of control was easy to sell to third-rate leftist politicians in Wales because socialism is fundamentally anti-human; viewing us as classes or identities, even “protected characteristics“, rather than gloriously varied individuals.
And of course, socialists love imposing “Can’t do that!” restrictions.
Now for the new faces I promised.
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NORTH STAR TRANSITION
This company was formed just over three years ago by Jyotir Banerjee. The website is full of silly phrases interspersed with impenetrable jargon: “multi-capital metrics” . . . “radical reframing and holistic transformation” . . .
It’s not often one encounters so much bullshit on a single website. Thankfully.
The clue to North Star’s real purpose comes in a piece written a few weeks ago by Banerjee himself. We are told that “biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change” can all be remedied – by “large-scale investment funding“.
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Now you know me, when a chancer crosses my path I like to know more about him or her. Did I really say, “chancer“? (Inner voice: “Yes you did, Jac.”)
First stop was Companies House, to see what our boy has been up to over the years. There are a number of companies to his name, which are either dissolved, dormant or, if still trading, then none too buoyant, to judge by the accounts submitted.
The address currently used for Banerjee’s empire is 1 Pembroke Villas, The Green, Richmond. And a very nice gaff it looks too. But according to the Land Registry this property is leased to a firm of accountants.
Since October 2020, a group of 35 thought leaders across Wales have listened to each other and imagined a country that future generations could thrive in.
“Listened to each other“! I see a gang of interlopers discussing the future of our homeland without consulting us. This is often called colonialism.
Topham continues . . .
Why Wales? With a population of 3m people, Wales is the right size for such a living laboratory.
Now she’s gone full-on memsahib. For her and her ‘thought leaders’ our Wales is just a testing ground. With us indigenes as guinea-pigs? Or are we to be removed?
Despite this clique being anonymous one name found on the North Star website is, inevitably, Jane Davidson, who seems to serve as a kind of chatelaine to that demi-monde where enviroshysters have the ear of politicians and civil servants.
After claiming to have initially been reluctant to get involved Banerjee eventually joined Davidson’s Wales Net Zero 2035 Challenge Group. (How many different target years do these people use?)
In his homage to La Davidson Banerjee writes: “Olivier Boutellis and I set up North Star Transition to tackle the climate emergency . . . “.
My cue to introduce Olivier Boutellis and explain what I think is really happening.
Despite what Banerjee says, Boutellis was not there at the start (unless he was keeping his head down). For North Star Transition was launched 10 June 2020 and the company Olivier Boutellis-Taft SPRL climbed aboard 3 February 2021.
The capture below from the European Parliament tells us he’s a lawyer and an economist. And this tells us he’s been a magistrate and a lecturer. Also, CEO of Accountancy Europe.
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But it’s his Linkedin profile that I found fascinating. The screen capture below will explain why.
It tells us Olivier Boutellis-Taft joined the Club of Rome EU Chapter at exactly the same time he got involved with Jyotir Banerjee and North Star Transition.
There is also a Linkedin page of the most elementary kind. But it claims the Club of Rome EU Chapter has 11 employees and that its focus is on “sustainability” and “environmental services“.
But understandable doubts to one side, let’s accept Banerjee and Boutellis-Taft at face value. I believe they’re promising to find ‘investors’ looking to buy Welsh farmland for carbon offsetting, or in other ways take land out of agricultural production.
Which fits perfectly with the Globalist agenda to destroy small- to medium-sized farms so that corporations can take control of the food supply. Because if you control the food supply then you control the people.
This Globalist agenda is welcomed by the environmental pressure groups because it destroys farming, especially livestock farming, and most of these activists seem to be vegans.
They also anticipate getting some of the grabbed land for their rewilding fantasies.
Because of course there’ll be fewer people living in the countryside. Take out the main industry and the decline begins. Impose travel restrictions, run down public transport and impose other obstacles and rural living becomes even less attractive.
At the top and the bottom both Globalists and environmental activists know what they want, and are guaranteed to benefit. It’s those in the middle of the scam who, along with the people, will lose out.
Because politicians don’t seem to realise that in the New World Order they are surplus to requirements. As Klaus Schwab explains in this very short video – in the future we won’t need elections.
“Can you imagine such a world?“, he asks. Yes, I can; and while losing politicians has its attractions . . .
Without elections we won’t need politicians, except to serve as ‘managers’ for their Globalist masters. Which is not a lot different to what they’re doing now.
Our politicians have been fooled into thinking they’re saving the planet when what they’re really doing is sacrificing Wales and other countries to the psychotic ambitions of the Globalists.
And this explains dreamers, chancers, shysters and con men flocking to Wales.
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CONCLUSION
As I hope I’ve explained, 20mph speed restrictions should not be viewed in isolation. They are part of something much, much bigger.
You’re free to dismiss me as a conspiracy theorist. It’s a free world. For now. But before you go . . .
Justify Vision Zero transferring deaths and injuries from highway to home without admitting it’s a plan to do away with cars. Do you think Jyotir Banerjee’s “large-scale investment funding” is designed to save the Welsh family farm? And why does Klaus Schwab talk about abolishing elections?
It all started when it was brought to my attention that properties in Swansea used by housing associations were leased or rented from Link. After a bit of digging I was satisfied that, in various forms and under different names, Link had been operating in and around Swansea, and across the south, for decades.
But, as I say, due to the various entities being offshore, and information hard to come by, there was a limit to how far I could go. In the end I just had to leave it and move on.
Even so, to help you understand better what you’re going to read, and for me to avoid repeating myself too much, I suggest you read the piece from 2016.
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THE LEASEHOLD SAGA
We are going to deal with an issue that’s been rumbling on for a long, long time; with politicians of all stripes promising to tackle it. For those unclear what I’m talking about, the leasehold system is explained here.
Which would of course save the so-called ‘Welsh Government’ from having to do anything. Though it might have some powers now.
I say that because the ‘Welsh Government’ has given thought to leasehold. Here’s a July 2019 report, Residential Leasehold Reform, from a task and finish group.
With the quote below from page 29, made in March 2018 by the Minister for Housing and Regeneration, Rebecca Evans.
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But this report from March 2021, despite containing ‘next steps’ in the title, suggests that ‘Welsh Government’ is just kicking the can down the road.
In fairness, and as I’ve suggested, leasehold reform might be an Englandandwales matter; but if so, it hasn’t stopped Corruption Bay from creating the post of Head of Leasehold Reform. Does that job title suggest he has staff!
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You won’t be surprised to learn that this job went to an insider. His name is Timothy Mann, formerly with the Labour party’s favourite housing association, Wales & West.
But FFS! If ‘Welsh Government has the power to act on leasehold, then why doesn’t it? But if it doesn’t have the power to act then why waste time and money faffing about with task and finish bullshit and sinecures for cronies?
It would appear that Labour in Wales has rowed back from outright opposition to leasehold to merely being against the sale of leases on new-build properties.
One reason might be Registered Social Landlords (housing associations), which are funded by the ‘Welsh Government’. For since their privatisation in 2018 many, perhaps most, have set up subsidiaries, which now build private housing for the open market . . . often leasehold, or ‘shared ownership’.
Also, and as I reported in the 2016 piece, housing associations are quite happy to lease property from Link Holdings (Gibraltar) Ltd, and perhaps other companies. With the ‘Welsh Government’ fully aware of this.
To make sense of it, understand that housing associations, especially in the urban south, are extensions of the Labour party. So if housing associations are doing lots of business with leasehold firms, or selling leaseholds themselves, then this might explain why ‘Welsh Government’ is reluctant to implement leasehold reform.
But if intervention comes from the next Labour government in London then the bruvvers down here can hold their hands up and say, “Nothing to do with us“.
OK, that’s a more general picture on leasehold, time now to turn to the latest news about Link Holdings (Gibraltar) Ltd, and what I’ve unearthed.
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WHY I’M REVISITING THE SUBJECT
This return to Link Holdings (Gibraltar) Ltd was prompted by an e-mail I received last week. Let the senders explain with this extract from that e-mail.
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You must admit, it’s a worrying tale. If the couple that wrote to me hadn’t opened the innocuous-looking letter from Companies House they might have lost their home.
You’ll see Castlebeg mentioned, that we encountered earlier in the Davies-Edwards House of Commons exchange. This was another horse out of the Link stable, based in Jersey. I use the past tense because the company’s dissolved.
Also based in Jersey were Cymru Management Ltd and Cymru Investments Ltd, both of which were connected with Link Holdings. The former has filed nothing since January 2021, and the latter was dissolved in September of that year.
Was this in anticipation of the new legislation you’ll soon be reading about?
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And yet . . . another document I unearthed, for a UK-registered company owned by the family I believe is behind Link Holdings, suggests there is still a company using the ‘Gwalia’ name. This document is dated 24 January 2023.
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The Cymru Investments Ltd just mentioned was once known as Gwalia Investments Ltd, but the name changed many years ago. The date of the filing above suggests an active company. But in which jurisdiction?
Let’s return to the reason for this update.
Here’s the title document sent by my source (already highlighted.) I’ve made redactions for obvious reasons but you can see that in January, this property, for which both leasehold and freehold had been purchased by my contacts, was still, according to the Land Registry, owned by Link Holdings (Gibraltar) Ltd.
There are other title numbers mentioned on the document I’ve just linked to, and these refer to a property on Neath Road in Plasmarl. The freehold is held of course by Link, but the leasehold by Caredig Housing Association. Again, we see a connection between Link and a housing association.
Anyway, after reading and digesting the information I’d been sent, it was time to make fresh enquiries into Link, maybe pick up where I’d left off in 2016.
This registration with Companies House ties in with the Register of Overseas Entities legislation that came into force 1 August 2022, demanding that . . .
Overseas entities who want to buy, sell or transfer property or land in the UK, must register with Companies House and tell us who their registrable beneficial owners or managing officers are.
There’s nothing really to see on the Companies House entry apart from the Registration document itself (OE01). Though it is quite revealing. For if you scroll down to ‘Part 13 Disposal of land’, you’ll hit a few pages of Land Registry title numbers.
Forty-nine titles in all. From my quick dip I’m guessing that most if not all of them are ‘multiples’, covering a number of properties, with a total running into the hundreds.
It would have been too much work, and too expensive, to check them all; so with each page containing 8 titles I settled for one from each page.
Despite being chosen at random, all were in the Swansea area, the furthest out being Ammanford. The others in Penclawdd, Sketty, Waunarlwydd, and Dunvant.
Sketty is 16 properties on an older development. There seem to be 8 properties in the Waunarlwydd development. Finally, at Dunvant, we find (by my figuring) the title covering 35 separate properties. I won’t link to the title document because lessees are named. These properties are scattered about on Hendrefoilan Road, Derlwyn, Gwelfor, and a few other nooks and crannies.
All the Killay / Dunvant properties would seem to be covered by this map.
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That’s a total of 90 properties on five randomly chosen Link Holdings titles.
And remember, these are just the titles disposed of between 28 February 2022 and the dates of the application, the latest of which was 7 November 2022. There will be many, many more titles held by Link.
For example, the Hirwaun title that started the ball rolling again is not listed.
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To give some understanding of how much property Link owns go to Private Eye‘s Tax Haven map. Or try the Excel database (the link for this is just above the map). Admittedly, these only go up to 2014, but they’re revealing; and this research helped bring about the law to register overseas entities owning UK property.
Open the Excel file and, even though there are many Link properties before, and after, if you start at 73397 (left-hand column) you’ll hit a long sequence of Link properties due to the ‘WA’ Land Registry prefix.
Most seem to be in the Swansea area, but they’re spread across the south (with the exception of Blaenau Gwent), though perhaps no further west than Llanelli.
If you’re smart enough with Excel then you can probably extract all the Link properties from the document. (In fact, I’d appreciate it if someone could do that.)
The area we’re looking at next is north east Swansea, either side of the M4. The properties in orange in the Private Eye map on the left are relatively new and all Link Holdings leaseholds.
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Funny, isn’t it? ‘Welsh Government’ says it’s opposed to new builds being leasehold, but this seems to be exactly what Link’s been doing for decades.
If you look at the Land Registry title documents I’ve used in this article you’ll see addresses given on the first page, against ‘Registered owners’. Link Holdings is obviously listed but beneath the company name the contact details given are:
Sovereign Fiduciary Services Ltd, Po Box No 564,
Sovereign Place, 117 Main Street, Gibraltar, GX11 1AA
107 Charterhouse Street, London EC1M 6HW
3rd Floor, 11-12 Wind Street, Swansea SA1 1DP
The Gibraltar address is obviously Link’s representative on The Rock, but the other two are solicitors. One is Sayers Butterworth LLP in London, the other Smith Llewelyn in Swansea.
I saw no point in contacting Sovereign Fiduciary Services at its plush downtown offices. But I thought it might be worth approaching the solicitors, to see if they had anything to say about their client.
I sent each solicitor an e-mail, on Wednesday last week. But I’ve received no reply. I think they’re waiting to see what I write before contacting me.
I’m 90% sure I know who’s behind Link Holdings. It’s an established business family in Swansea. The name suggests their ancestors might have been part of the Cornish migration of the 18th and 19th centuries, following the tin and the copper to Swansea.
Though they seem to have deserted the City of My Dreams for Hampshire, Fulham, and God knows what other hell-holes!
My many admirers on the left might describe those behind Link as, “bloodsucking capitalists!“, or some other carefully-honed and rationally presented response such as we hear from the comrades nowadays.
But me, well, I see it differently. A moral and regulated capitalist system is the only way to create wealth and employment. With the prosperous and egalitarian democracy that results the surest guarantee against the extremes of left and right.
There’s more I could say about the leasehold model; for this throwback to feudalism should have been abolished a long time ago along with droit du seigneur.
Such as people contacting me who thought they’d bought their new house outright, only to discover the hard (and expensive) way that what they’d actually bought was a lease. Leasehold is a system that invites deception and corruption. It should be abolished.
But instead of signing off with a rant I’ve decided to wind up this wee opus with some harmless musing.
How many others have found themselves in the position of my Hirwaun contacts, with Link Holdings claiming to own their home?
How many others are in that situation without knowing it because they haven’t checked what’s filed with the Land Registry?
Given that in recent decades Link has concentrated on new build properties, what is the company’s relationship with the builders involved? Is Link buying ‘off plan’? Or is Link commissioning the building of these developments in order to sell the leaseholds and retain the freeholds?
What is Link’s relationship with Swansea council, which cannot be unaware of the company’s activities? What would the council say to those who’ve been denied the opportunity to buy a home outright by Link hoovering up the freeholds and only offering leasehold agreements?
Labour has argued against the leasehold system for at least 60 years, yet in 24 years of devolution has done nothing. Is this another example of Labour making promises out of power and failing to deliver when it has power?
Is the ‘Welsh Government’ comfortable with certain Welsh housing associations renting / leasing property from a company of unknown ownership hiding away in a tax haven?
Here’s another ‘off the cuff’ kind of post; but what I’m going to write about illustrates a growing problem. Growing due to the increasing unpopularity of the so-called ‘Welsh Government’.
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WELSH MEDIA: FASCISTS AND FOREIGNERS OPPOSE 20MPH
The big issue this week has been the introduction of the 20mph speed limit across the country. I wrote about it in last weekend’s posting, ’20mph, A Disaster Unfolds’.
But perhaps the legislation has been overshadowed by ‘that’ petition, which at the time of writing is heading towards 400,000 signatures. Though the so-called ‘Welsh’ media has tried hard to discredit it and those who’ve signed it.
Here’s an example from yesterday’s Western Mail. Despite 95% of the signatures coming from within Wales, Llais y Sais wants us to know that people in 51 countries have signed.
There’s even an insert headed: ‘Where the global opposition has come from’. Seven from Germany, one from Hungary . . .
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But what that rag is attacking is in fact perfectly reasonable. Welsh people living abroad, and English people in the Marches and elsewhere who regularly drive in Wales, are perfectly entitled to voice their opposition.
Then, at the bottom of the page, there’s a carefully worded piece inviting us to think that opponents of the 20mph restrictions are violent individuals. Probably ‘far right’.
This is not journalism; this is naked propaganda.
But then, when, like the Western Mail, you depend for financial survival on public notices and advertisements paid for by the ‘Welsh Government’, What ya gonna do?
But it was ever thus. It’s just a bit more obvious now. And it’s moving up a notch.
Which is the cue for me to tackle the meat of this issue.
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NUDGE, NUDGE – WHO’S THERE?
For this week also saw the release of a bizarre poll showing that more people support the 20mph restrictions than oppose them. And it was odd for a number of reasons.
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First, there’s the ‘slanted’ question, worded to achieve a desired outcome. Hoping “Where cars mix with pedestrians and cyclists” will conjure up images of boy racers screeching through pedestrianised areas, knocking over old ladies and kiddies on bikes.
This is called ‘nudging’. But even this doesn’t fully account for the ‘findings’.
By way of comparison, here’s a survey from WalesOnline. It certainly overstates the strength of opposition, but it’s closer to the truth than the survey we just looked at.
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Then there’s this YouGov poll, which still shows an almost two to one majority against.
No survey I have seen, and no other form of evidence, suggests anything other than a big majority against widespread 20mph speed limits.
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The other thing I found strange was that the survey doesn’t tell us who commissioned it, which is normal practice. So who produced that slanted survey?
The answer would appear to be Redfield & Wilton Strategies. So what can we learn about them? Well, not a lot. Individuals named Redfield and Wilton may not exist.
Which takes us on to the next section of this post. Follow me . . .
So why is the company called Redfield & Wilton? Is it to make it sound more English? Whatever the answer, it’s difficult to escape the conclusion that it’s an attempt to deceive. Which is not good for an organisation trading on credibility.
Even so, it’s reasonable to assume that Rodrigues has background in polling and market research? Well, er . . . no.
For Rodrigues is a solicitor. Here’s his entry from the Solicitors Register.
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Cassadys, mentioned above is a debt-ridden company that’s escaped compulsory strike-off for late returns more than once. The company is named after its founder, an Indian named Kaizad Cassad.
Around the same time, on 1 January 2020, Rodrigues took over BR Services Europe Ltd from Pakistani Umar Aqueel. A ‘Management Consultancy’ company, that was just bumping along financially.
The other entity mentioned in the Solicitors Register is the Brooke Consultancy LLP. Which seems to be a genuine sort of legal partnership, and it provides a useful profile of Bruno Rodrigues.
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That profile tells us he specialises in immigration law, and he’s also into, “the niche area of fashion law“. What the hell’s that? Does it mean I could get arrested for wearing the wrong socks?
But, strangely, no mention of his new venture of opinion polls. Come to that, here’s his Linkedin profile (here in pdf format), and there’s no mention of Redfield & Wilton here either.
I find that very, very strange. If ‘niche’ interests can be mentioned, why not a new company being regularly quoted in the media, and apparently being used by politicians on both sides of the Atlantic?
One more company needs to be mentioned. This is Alghanim Capital Ltd. Rodrigues was a director along with Kuwaitis Abdulwahab Alghanem and Fahad Alghanim who, despite the slightly different spellings, I take to be related.
Abdulwahab is described on the Companies House entry as a ‘civil servant’ in Kuwait, while Fahad is said to be a student in the USA.
Their line of business was: ‘Retail sale via mail order houses or via Internet’. Mmm.
Alghanim Capital was formed in October 2018, and folded without seemingly doing anything. So why was it formed at all? This is the sort of company behaviour that gets my whiskers twitching.
But even if it was all innocent, how did Rodrigues meet the Kuwaitis?
Well, I assume that’s where it comes from, but my quick search didn’t find it. Though I’m sure it’s genuine, because the font and the colouring match, and the rascal who used it seemed to think he was putting me down, or weakening my case.
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“Self-commissioned“? Does that mean that Bruno Rodrigues and his little team decide amongst themselves what surveys to do, and then publish them? Or maybe get some media outlet to pay for their whimsical and random findings?
I don’t buy that. I certainly don’t think it accounts for all of their output.
The more I’ve thought about Redfield & Wilton the stronger the possibility has become in my mind that this outfit may not do any research or polling. It simply acts as a channel for what others want to promote.
Let’s say you want to push the message that more people in Wales support 20mph restrictions than oppose them, then you engage Redfield & Wilton in order to make the message look more credible than if it had come from a source that is obviously biased.
Though the R&W record is not impressive. Because for an organisation dealing in statistics, Bruno and his pals are not very good at figuring. They often seem to get things horribly wrong.
Which, when coupled with their pro-Labour bias (pro-Democrat in US polls), makes them look rather stupid. Here’s a recent example.
Bookies, as we know, like to have facts and reliable figures because there’s always money riding on them. So I was amused to read this piece in PoliticalBetting.com expose how horrendously wrong Redfield & Wilton got a recent Scottish poll.
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So who in Wales might have been desperate enough to ask R&W to put out this phoney 20mph survey?
Obviously, there’s the ‘Welsh Government’. But would they run the risk?
A more likely possibility must be the company that Drakeford and his clowns have employed to promote the 20mph restrictions. I’m referring now to Lynn Global. For this is their line of work.
Lynn would regard what I’m suggesting as ‘countering misinformation’ and therefore perfectly legitimate. Even desirable. To most people it would be lying to get your own way.
If I’m right, then we are on a dangerous path. Let me explain why.
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CONCLUSION
It’s common knowledge that in recent years opinion polls, especially on politics, have been used to influence public opinion rather than to gauge it and report it.
This explains why so many polls have been spectacularly wrong; on Brexit, on Trump’s victory in 2016, on the size of the Conservative majority in 2019. All because too many pollsters allowed their left-liberal or woke prejudices to intrude.
Returning to the Redfield & Wilton survey, as I see it, there are two alternatives: either the poll result is distorted with bias, or else it’s completely and deliberately fabricated. Neither option should be acceptable in an open and democratic society.
Good governments can stand on their records, on what they’ve delivered for their people. Only liars, incompetents and aspiring totalitarians need a bought media, ‘behavioural sciences’, and phoney surveys.
Well, here we are, on the eve of a great experiment. Are you excited about 20mph speed limits? Enthused? Or do you just roll your eyes skyward in the way that typifies modern Wales?
I suppose I could have gone about this post differently, by looking at the costs, and examining the various claims more closely, but I leave that to others, confident that I’ll return to this subject once the excrement starts moving upward.
And so what I’ll do in this post is expose the propaganda campaign (that we’re paying for); then give the local history of this 20mph madness; before explaining where I believe it’s taking us.
What we learnt was that Lynn was being paid to push the ‘Welsh Government’s 20mph restrictions for Welsh roads. And it paid well. For Tory leader Andrew R T Davies was told that Lynn had received £738,593 from ‘Welsh Government’ since 2021.
The figure for ‘2023-24 (to present)’ is £185,164. But is that figure for the calendar year or the financial year? I suspect it’s the financial year, beginning April 6, and I say that because Lynn received almost half a million pounds last year, and with the 20mph roll-out taking place this year, I think it’s reasonable to assume that 2023’s figure will be close to, or in excess of, last year’s figure.
Bumping up the costs will be Lynn’s ‘Misinformation Fact Sheet‘ for the ‘Welsh Government’. This attempts to anticipate and refute the objections raised to 20mph speed limits.
This is odd. When I wrote this on Thursday the online Linkedin page was available, but on Friday it seems to have disappeared. Fortunately I saved a pdf version last month.
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So if you’re plagued by fake news, misinformation, disinformation, conspiracy theories, flatulence or scurvy, then Steff is the boy to contact. For having worked for Labour in London and Cardiff he knows all there is to know about bullshit.
In fact, Rollnick tells us he was . . .
Assisting the Office of the First Minister with its preparedness for misinformation outbreaks and developing a broad, proactive strategy for bolstering the spread of good information, with a specific focus on tackling anti-vax misinformation.
Ah! “good information“. Isn’t that what we’re all looking for?
The terminology used by these people is superficially reassuring, but anyone who’s studied history, particularly totalitarianism, knows exactly what’s being said. And it’s sinister.
‘We have a monopoly on the truth. Accept what we say, or suffer’.
Then, having dutifully carried out the orders of ‘Dr’ Bill Gates, in September 2021 Rollnick transferred his devious talents to Lynn . . . but still working for Drakeford’s clown troupe.
But enough background on a propagandist masquerading as a purveyor of truth, let’s get back to the origins of 20mph.
For Lynn was recruited to push the 20mph nonsense, but the story doesn’t begin there. So where do we need to go to find its origin?
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THE LONG MARCH
One culprit might appear to be the pressure group, 20’s Plenty for Us; which has quite a presence in Wales, and may even have sent ‘missionaries’. Such as Fiona Andrews, who moved with her partner Piers Graham Partridge to Llandudoch from Bristol in 2018.
One being Llandudoch, to which Andrews had so recently moved!
The other, was St Brides Major, in the Vale of Glamorgan. This video, released last Thursday by the ‘Welsh Government’, features a few brainwashed kids and a couple of other well-rehearsed locals.
If you’re convinced by that then contact me about some beans.
The Wales 20mph Task Force Group was formed on the direction of Lee Waters, the Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport, in May 2019.
We aren’t told the individuals who sat on this panel, just the organisations they represented. (Appendix A, page 36.) Among them I noticed Sustrans, of which Lee Waters used to be boss-man for Wales.
The whole tone of the procedure and the report screams ‘Done deal!‘.
But can we go back any further in tracing the genesis of the 20mph restrictions?
In fact, it was available on the ‘Welsh Government’ website on the first day of August, so it must have been available as soon as it was officially released. Perhaps before?
In Appendix A, which lists papers quoted by Davis, we see a reference to, ‘Twenty miles per hour speed limits: a sustainable solution to public health problems in Wales‘. Authored by Sarah J Jones and Huw Brunt.
Though I was amazed by the claim that imposing 20mph limits will aid the fight against obesity. Surely driving slower gives fat people more time to get out of the way?
But if driving slower makes us slimmer, then what about hair loss? And flatulence?
20mph is beginning to sound like snake oil.
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The main conclusion arrived at in 2016, that bringing the speed limit down to 20mph would save 6 – 10 lives per year, and 1200 – 2000 casualties, is now being repeated verbatim by the ‘Welsh Government’.
So who are the authors of that 2016 report, Sarah J Jones and Huw Brunt?
Chairing the group is former Labour Assembly Member, mastermind of the Future Generations legislation, and mother of the OPD, Jane Davidson. Who does more work for the party and the ‘Welsh Government’ now than when she sat in Corruption Bay.
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Cardiff University, that partner with ‘Welsh Government’ in so many quixotic ventures, has two representatives. Possibly a third with Sarah J Jones.
She has worked assiduously for ‘Welsh Government’ and Dŵr Cymru in blaming farmers for everything in our rivers that shouldn’t be in our rivers. No surprise then to learn that she also sits on Welsh Water Independent Environment Advisory Panel.
Which seems to be another secret society; for when I asked Dŵr Cymru for the names of panel members I was refused and, as with The Wales 20mph Task Force Group, told to scroll down the page to the logos of the organisations represented.
Though we are told that the panel is chaired by “Mari Arthur, director of Cynal Cymru”. But she was secretary of Cynal, not director . . . and she left in July 2018.
It looks a bit of a shambles.
Here’s how I see it. The anti-car, restrict human movement element of the Globalist agenda, takes root in the Bay. ‘Welsh Government’ insiders Sarah J Jones and Huw Brunt are told to knock out something in support of introducing 20mph speed limits.
You won’t be surprised to learn that Davis supports 20’s Plenty, Just Stop Oil, and the UN’s climate liars at the IPCC. Not only that, he also dreams of re-joining the EU, and he’s 100% opposed to fossil fuels.
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What we have with Adrian Davis is an archetypal member of Globalists’ Woke-Green-Left. Yet in the FoI response just mentioned he is the sole authority quoted by the ‘Welsh Government’ in support of imposing 20mph restrictions.
In whose universe is Davis an impartial and unbiased scientific authority?
But this kind of ‘Tell us what we want to hear‘ behaviour is all too familiar, as I’ve tried to explain on this blog over and over. Let’s just close this section, and jog your memories, with one recent example.
A few weeks before that article appeared the ‘Welsh Government’ announced that all new road projects were ‘paused’. This report from Llais y Sais told us the decision had been made by the Welsh Roads Review Panel headed by Dr Lynn Sloman.
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I made enquiries about Dr Sloman and this is what I wrote at the time.
Well, she lives in London, where she’s a board member of Transport for London. The bio I’ve linked to tells us she has a holiday home near Machynlleth. (To be exact, in Cwm Einion aka ‘Artists Valley’.)
So a cycling zealot who lives in London, and hates cars – but has a holiday home in Wales, to which she presumably drives – is allowed to dictate ‘Welsh Government’ policy.
This is how the ‘Welsh Government’ operates. It recruits people it calls ‘independent’ to undertake studies guaranteed to come to the desired conclusion. Then it employs propagandists like Lynn Global, or uses the tame media, to push that message.
There is never an independent voice, nor genuine public consultation.
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WHERE IT ENDS
Before I start, let me make it clear that I’m sure there are people who genuinely believe 20mph restrictions will get mamgu on her bike, zooming ’round the neighbourhood frightening animals and knocking kids over.
Just as there are people who believe the planet is doomed unless we get rid of human beings. Or that men can have babies, and women have todgers. That White people are evil. And that every criminal who lands in Europe in a small boat must be looked after cos he is a ‘refugee’.
Such people are fools. But more dangerous by far are those who know these things to be lies, but promote them for other reasons. Which brings us to the Great Manipulators.
For perhaps more than any other administration and political establishment of which I know, Corruption Bay has surrendered itself to the Globalist agenda. And by so doing it is prepared to sacrifice us, the Welsh people.
This sacrifice means imposing restrictions in the name of public health, or saving the planet, or to promote inclusivity / diversity, and generally protect us from ourselves. For we are both stupid and evil.
Wales is now being subjected to the most odious form of paternalism. Odious, as it claims to be done for our benefit, but it’s not.
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Because if you understand what I’ve been saying then you’ll realise that making us drive at 20mph has absolutely nothing to do with road safety, or air quality.
This legislation is part of a wider strategy against the private motor car. Or rather, it’s to deny private transport to poorer people. For Net Zero is a war against the poorest in society waged by the middle class on behalf of an elite seeking global domination.
Just think how insane that is. They want to take away your car, on environmental and health grounds, but there’s no public transport, so you’re effectively stuck at home.
So wise up,
20mph legislation is part of the same package as ditched road-building projects, 15-minute neighbourhoods, compulsory injections with untested vaccines, the assault on livestock farming, and CBDC to keep check on every penny you spend.
If Wales had more devolution, giving Labour and Plaid Cymru the power (God forbid!), they’d introduce legislation such as we see proposed in Ireland, where there’s a Bill to impose a ‘Hate Speech Act’ . . . that fails to even define hate!
It’s censorship pretending to be something virtuous.
Should that law be introduced then a grifter from a protected group will just need to say they feel offended (or that great favourite, ‘unsafe’), and the Guards will be kicking somebody’s door down in no time.
They will even be encouraged to feel offended, and have explained to them the most lucrative ways to be ‘offended’, and ‘unsafe’, by the shysters in NGOs and pressure groups currently wreaking such damage on Ireland.
Wales would also see legislation against ‘misinformation’ and its even more evil twin ‘disinformation’. Which in practice could mean the ‘Welsh Government’ employing Lynn to police us all.
Even me!
Not a welcome prospect for those of us who believe in freedom of movement, and freedom of expression. But somehow, ‘progressives’, acting as shouty foot-soldiers for Globalist totalitarianism have convinced themselves they’re engaged in a noble struggle against fascism!
At some point in the near future historians and political commentators will marvel that, having alienated the working class, the left then shot itself in the other foot by attacking the poorest and most vulnerable in society on the orders of the world’s biggest corporations and richest individuals.
An encapsulating irony with which to end might be that those who now fight to protect animals we breed to eat, especially perhaps battery hens, have sided with those wanting humans to live in a very similar fashion.
The ‘Welsh Government’s 20mph legislation is a step in that direction. Only a fool would see it for anything else.
This is a piece that I’d planned to get out earlier in the week, but things cropped up. For example, I had to make a trip to Swansea. So for that and other reasons it got delayed.
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DRAMA QUEEN PERFORMS
This piece took inspiration from a report in Saturday’s Llais y Sais, but it links with other things I’ve written in recent years. Let’s start with the article.
It’s about Jessica Dunrod. Who a few days before had resigned as Amgueddfa Cymru’s “project manager of decolonising collections“.
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The first point I want to make is that if you employ someone to ‘decolonise’ your collections then that’s an admission your collection needs decolonising. But who decides in the first place that a collection needs decolonising? And what criteria do they apply?
What exactly is a colonised collection? Is it a collection that has been taken over and is now being brutally exploited by another collection?
I suspect not.
In her resignation letter Dunrod accused our National Museum of high crimes and misdemeanours including a “toxic working environment“, being a den of “unresolved racism and bullying“, before sparing none with, “institutional racism across Wales in general“.
That final attack might appear to be an accusation of collective or national guilt. If so, then it’s a slander against us all. Which is why I’m going on the offensive, and not just against Jessica Dunrod.
∼
I wrote about our national museum a couple of years back, when it came under attack from certain quarters.
My coverage began with Corruption Bay and a Tale of Cymrophobia (23.08.2021), in which I related that surveys commissioned by the Arts Council of Wales and Amgueddfa Cymru concluded both bodies were racist!
Yeah, ‘surveys’.
My attention was soon drawn to the Welsh Arts Anti-Racist Union (WAARU).
In a nutshell, what I found was a bunch of far left shit-stirrers moaning about racism, with WAARU (in its ‘report’) even accusing the Arts Council and the Museum of “upholding white supremacist ideology“.
Wow! there’s an ideology!
But as with all the other allegations, and the cases of ‘discrimination’, there was nothing specific, nothing tangible. Just wild accusations that make the report a work of fiction more worthy of funding than anything else produced by these mediocrities.
But while the race grifters were getting the publicity, plus the jobs, grants and other goodies, they were in some ways just a distraction. For there were other beneficiaries.
Allegations of ‘racism’, campaigns to bestow ‘inclusivity’ and other joys, or funding and appointments, are all used to increase ‘Welsh Government’ influence over certain bodies, even to the point of total control.
Though the use of one tactic does not preclude the use of others. And once you appreciate what’s happening then a number of things become clear. For example, the contrived furore over rappers being banned from the National Eisteddfod was clearly a warning shot about the Eisteddfod’s all-Welsh rule.
With the Eisteddfod so dependent on ‘Welsh Government’ funding, and Vaughan Gething being Drakeford’s heir-apparent, things look bleak for the Gorsedd.
Jessica Dunrod’s sinecure at Amgueddfa Cymru as project manager of decolonising collections was perhaps a result of similar manoeuvring.
Yes, it actually says: “The Black Lives Matter movement has fast-tracked conversations about the stories that our collections and displays present, calling for us to confront history and challenge present-day injustices.”
By 6 December 2021 we see Amgueddfa Cymru advertising the vacancy that was filled by Jessica Dunrod.
The wording says: “We are recruiting for a Project Manager, Decolonising Collections. The closing date is 13 December – apply now to be part of the de-colonization of the national collections.”
Which I find revealing.
Because so much of what passes for debate on the subject of race and racism is simply slogans imported, without adaptation, from the USA, often unfit for purpose in Europe; and especially in Wales, which had neither an empire nor slavery, and is itself a victim of colonialism.
This wholesale importation of Americanisms extends to the spelling “de-colonization” in the job advert.
One final word on Jessica Dunrod, who sees racism everywhere, to the point of absurdity.
You’ll recall the case of nurse Lucy Letby, who was recently convicted for the deaths of a number of babies in Chester. As far as I’m aware, all the babies were White, a number of them born to Welsh parents.
Well, someone tweeting as ‘Dr Ruby’, somehow linked these killings to the bizarre case of a woman kicking a big horse, and believes that the tragedy of the murdered babies and the horse incident can be attributed to “white supremacist structures“.
And Jessica Dunrod agrees, for she retweeted it.
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How unhinged, how obsessed with ‘racism’, do you have to be to see white supremacist structures (whatever they might be) in the Lucy Letby case?
Or to put it another way, how far down the woke rabbit-hole do otherwise sane people have to fall to not call this out for what it is?
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SELECTIVE ATTITUDES TO SLAVERY
Slavery is all the rage nowadays.
Well, obviously not the real thing, or certainly not in Western countries, but talk of it often dominates certain political discussions. Based on the absurd premise that slavery was only and ever practised by White people against Black Africans.
And for this, we White folks must be forever repentant. All of us.
I do not believe in collective guilt, even less in inherited guilt. We don’t blame all Germans for WWII, or all Americans for the unspeakable horror that is basketball. And if my great-great-great-great-grandfather killed somebody then that was something he did and for which he alone was and remains responsible.
Similarly with slavery. Though others choose to see it differently.
One of those being Malik Al Nasir, described in the article below as “a poet and an author”, also a PhD history student at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. He has focused on former MP and Assembly Member Antoinette Sandbach.
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It seems that she had a slave-owning ancestor named Samuel Sandbach and Al Nasir wanted everyone to know. This resulted in death threats for Sandbach.
The article doesn’t tell us when Samuel Sandbach flourished, but seeing as Britain outlawed slavery in 1833/34, it had to be over 200 years ago.
Come to that, how many Black Africans were enslaved by Muslims over the centuries? Why is it, as this article suggests, “a taboo subject“?
Well, we know why, don’t we? (And if you don’t know, then keep reading.)
After all is said and done, Al Nasir is free to condemn the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but he should be honest enough to accept that slavery was universal.
And by the same token, I am free to condemn the countries of the Sahel, and Turkey, for their part in enslaving millions of White, Christian Europeans in the same time frame as the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
The more I think about the left’s attitude to slavery the more I see the response from the same quarter to ’emissions’ and fossil fuels. China can open a coal-fired power station every other day, the same with India and other countries . . . but climate change is still the fault of Western countries currently impoverishing their populations with degrowth strategies in pursuit of Net Zero.
Which should tell you that it’s not really about slavery, or emissions. These are just elements of the Globalist agenda being implemented to undermine the West.
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WHITE BUGGERS ON BIKES
We turn now to someone who’s appeared on this blog before, it’s Gareth James, who runs Irie’s Rum Bar and Reggae Lounge in Aberystwyth. He appeared in Welsh Independence And The Left, back in January.
He got a mention because Aberystwyth seemed to be home to a number of those I wrote about, with Gareth James himself, in his piece in the Cambrian News, arguing that Dyfed Powys Police should be more Woke!
(Most people would settle for them being awake.)
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His most recent offering was in last week’s Cambrian News. It’s a truly strange, and worrying article, but it’s very clear that Gareth James has issues with middle-aged White men riding motorbikes.
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I won’t dissect it too much, but a few questions must be asked.
If the problem is the noise he claims they make, does it really matter that these bikers Gareth James complains about are White? To put it another way, would the noise be acceptable if these, “elderly dickheads on ear-splitting motorbikes” were Black?
But then, he seems to think that if they were Black they wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near Aberystwyth. Thanks to un-Woke local Plod.
I know Aberystwyth prom, and I’ve seen the bikers parked near the Prom Diner many a time. Yes, there are a few preening wankers among them, but by and large they’re just ordinary blokes who like motorbikes, and like getting together to talk about motorbikes.
Some are middle class, but most are not. Many come up from the south. Let me make it absolutely clear that I’m thinking now of southern Wales, not Dixie.
I make that clear because the piece gave us another jarring Americanism with Gareth’s reference to Harley Davidsons. Jarring because I don’t think I’ve ever seen one on Aber’ prom.
But Gareth’s rant is obviously informed by American movies, and the perception that all-White motorcycle gangs are inherently racist.
Slow down, Gareth; it’s Aberystwyth promenade, not Sturgis, SD.
That sad piece says more about Gareth James than it says about the problems caused by a few middle-aged bikers in Aberystwyth.
Its confessional nature was disappointing because even though rum and reggae are not my thing I was still warming to Gareth James. Possibly because I’ve spent many happy hours – days, even! – in establishments of public resort wherein alcohol may be obtained.
To the extent that I believe there’s a special place in Heaven reserved for bar-keepers. And if I’m right, then, when my time comes, you’ll find me there on a bar stool.
But I’d rather spend eternity being served by a bosomy slapper (Black or White) who enjoys a risqué joke than being lectured on the evils of Whiteness by Gareth James.
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CONCLUSION
If Jessica Dunrod was the best of those that applied for the post of decolonization (sic) officer at Amgueddfa Cymru then it don’t bear thinking about the unsuccessful candidates.
Malik Al Nasir is a wannabe academic riding a wave. Promoting himself by putting an innocent woman in danger was unforgiveable.
Gareth James really does need to take a long, hard look at the town and the country he lives in. It’s nowhere near as bad as he seems to think.
Combatting ‘racism’ has become a way for some to expose their own frailties by using the most absurd pretexts to attack White people. Thankfully, an increasing number of people, White and Black, see it for what it is. Which is why Dunrod, Al Nasir, James, and others, need to remember the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf.
Otherwise people will ignore them when the fascists really do appear.
For I see it now . . . hundreds of the noisy buggers, astride Harley Davidsons, demanding the immediate implementation of “white supremacist structures” as they ride up and down Aberystwyth prom seeking Gareth James.
I mention Globalism regularly, and now I’m devoting a full piece to explaining what I mean by that term. So if it bores you, turn away. But if you want to learn something, stick around.
I advise you to stick with it because those I’ll be talking about already influence your life in so many ways. And they want even more influence, to the point of absolute control.
This piece is, of necessity, long, over 5,000 words, but it’s broken up into easily-manageable sections.
But don’t expect anything next week!
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OUTLINES
By ‘Globalism’ I mean wealthy individuals and powerful organisations imposing their will on the rest of us. Achieved in part through supranational organisations subverting or winning over national and sub-national governments and their various agencies.
Though that list is not exhaustive. I should probably include Big Tech and Big Pharma. Though not the traditional media, for despite its – thankfully declining – influence the mainstream media is now entirely controlled by and serving as a mouthpiece for those mentioned above.
For much of what we’ll cover I would also include the US deep state. Those who have interfered in global and domestic affairs since WWII. Responsible for the overthrow of Mossadegh in 1953, the JFK assassination in 1963, the Kiev coup of 2014, and now piling on the indictments in a desperate attempt to stop Donald Trump running for president next year.
Among the investment corporations we must mention BlackRock, where chairman and CEO Larry Fink is also on the Board of Trustees of the WEF. Profiting hugely from the Ukraine war, BlackRock hopes to make further profits from ‘rebuilding’ whatever’s left of the country after the war.
Keeping a slightly lower profile are other investment vehicles including Vanguard, the world’s second-largest asset manager. Then, and seeing as we are talking big money, and investments, the major banks are of course involved.
BlackRock, Vanguard and the rest are not companies as we have known them. They manufacture nothing. They create nothing. They grow nothing. They scarcely exist in the realm of the physical. They are amorphous, multi-tentacled entities that suck in other people’s money and use that money to grow their own power over those who trusted them.
This is important because if you understand what Dimon is saying, why he’s saying it, and if you also understand the context, it’ll help you grasp the Globalist agenda.
Because believe me, he spells it out.
The chief executive of JP Morgan has suggested that governments should seize private land to build wind and solar farms in order to meet net zero targets.
Jamie Dimon, the longstanding boss of the Wall Street titan who donates to the Democratic Party, said green energy projects must be fast-tracked as the window for averting the most costly impacts of global climate change is closing . . .
“We may even need to evoke eminent domain we simply are not getting the adequate investments fast enough for grid, solar, wind and pipeline initiatives.”
“Eminent domain” is the US equivalent of compulsory purchase.
This one-minute video might help you understand things a little better.
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AN ATTACK ON THE WEST
But more than an attack on the West the New World Order is an assault on Europe. By which I mean the continent and culture of which we are part, not the political union. An attack on the continent’s economy, on its ethnic and cultural integrity, and on its civic and societal stability.
This is to be achieved partly by the pursuit of Net Zero resulting in ‘degrowth’. Also, through promoting sexual and other perversions. The assault on Europe also insists on unrestricted immigration, of young males who’ll reject European values and hold White people responsible for their own cultures’ failings and inadequacies.
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Understand that and you’ll understand how fundamental the EU Commission is to the Globalists achieving their genocidal objectives. You’ve already heard from Jamie Dimon, and banks play a big part in this project, so you shouldn’t be surprised at Coutts Bank recently making Nigel ‘Mr Brexit’ Farage a non-person.
For the undermining of the West increased dramatically following the twin shocks 0f 2016 – Brexit and Trump. These were wake-up calls for the Globalists.
And if you’ve taken all that in then you should have no difficulty understanding that a White, Christian country defending the nuclear family, preaching patriotic virtues and eternal verities, a country that refuses to bow to the Globalists, must be brought down. Yes, here I’m referring to Russia.
Returning to the West, we are being targeted for a number of reasons:
1/ The West is wealthy, not just its countries, but also its citizens. Europeans have high levels of personal wealth and assets. A lot to lose, or be stolen.
2/ Europe has to be crushed because the Globalists envision resistance from intelligent, educated people figuring out what’s happening and challenging the agenda. As we see happening.
3/ For all sorts of reasons other parts of the world still look to Europe for leadership and inspiration. A broken Europe sends out a powerful message.
Perhaps the clearest proof that Globalism is an assault on the West is the anti-White racism that is now prevalent in the media, in academia, in Hollywood and other cess-pits where luvvies are encountered.
You know the kind of thing . . . White man says something hurty to Black man, media goes ballistic over ‘racism’. Black man kills White man, media says nothing.
This racism went full-throttle when a career criminal died in a botched arrest a few years back. Now we are asked to dismiss all the achievements and accomplishments of the European race, ignore all the benefits the White man has given humanity, in favour of childish sloganising like ‘White privilege’ and ‘Black Lives Matter’.
All manner of idiocies must be employed because of course the real reason cannot be stated. And that reason is that race is being used to burden White people with guilt in order to undermine their confidence, done in pursuit of the bigger objective which is to destabilise and weaken the West.
Though sometimes the obsession with race goes too far and they make themselves look complete idiots. (Full article here.)
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What thought processes were tripping their fevered way through that Wokie mind?
What would really worry me would be that whoever did that, plus his / her / its superiors, think it was a good thing to do, and that only ‘racists’ would complain.
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LAND
The J P Morgan CEO was talking about taking over farmland, which he justifies by saying, “green energy projects must be fast-tracked“.
But it’s not really about green energy, and it’s certainly not about saving the planet. It’s partly about reconfiguring land ownership. And it’s partly about control over food production, because whoever controls the food supply controls the people.
“But you’re wrong, Jac, it’s about emissions, mun“. No, it’s not, you idiot! Emissions is just another pretext, this one imposed on Ireland and other countries by the European Union, a body I’ve told you is controlled by the Globalists.
Irish farmers are getting angry because, in addition to what you’ve just read, their government also wants to bring in EU-inspired nitrates legislation, perhaps similar to what we saw in Wales from Lesley Griffiths (and Gary).
Farmers protest in Bandon, Co Cork, July 13, 2023. Click to open enlarged in separate tab
As if Irish farmers didn’t have enough to worry about, all their MEPs also voted for the EU’s Nature Restoration Bill. Another unconvincing pretext. And another illustration of how the Globalists exploit the environmental agenda.
And of course, as I’ve reported here a number of times recently, there is growing anger at the Irish government’s open borders policy that sees hundreds of unvetted young males dumped on small towns across the country.
But having mentioned land, it’s natural to consider the food supply. We’ll return to the ‘refugees’ later.
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FOOD
In a nutshell . . . the objective is to use environmental arguments to undermine livestock farming and make large swathes of land available. Which will either be bought by governments, as was proposed in the Netherlands, or else by major corporations like BlackRock, and banks like J P Morgan.
Even if the land is initially bought by governments it will eventually pass to the corporations, the banks, and very wealthy individuals. (Governments will dress up such sales as being good for the national finances.)
At this point you may be worrying that if farmland is taken out of production there’ll be no meat produced, but don’t worry – alternatives are already lined up. These seem to take two forms; either insects, or laboratory-grown ‘meat’ churned out of 3D printers. Honestly!
In reality, Italy is moving in the opposite directly. For the government there recently banned lab-grown ‘meat’. Though the BBC explains this perversity, in the article’s opening sentence, as the work of a “right wing government“.
The implication being that to insist on real meat is a form of fascism.
Gates’ interest in farming even extends to buying farms. Lots of farms.
And it should go without saying that Gates is big in the World Economic Forum. Just like Larry Fink of BlackRock, and Jamie Dimon of J P Morgan.
Image: Sky News. From 2008. It’s difficult to find a more recent one of Gates with WEF CEO Klaus Schwab. Click to open enlarged in separate tab
What a system Bill and his buddies have worked out! They have an organisation telling us that we humans, with our cars, our household heaters, and our farm animals, are destroying the planet.
We must therefore give them all up – and they’ll look after us!
The land made available by the abolition of farming can be smothered with Unreliables to make lots more money for BlackRock, Vanguard, J P Morgan and others. Or perhaps the land will be used for greenwashing, or handed over to the Globalists’ allies in the environmental lobby for ‘re-wilding’.
The truth is that how the land is used in future is less important than getting the farmers off that land in the first place. That is the priority.
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HOMES
With that priority being part of a bigger process that sees wealth and assets transferred from individuals, small investors and family businesses to mega corporations and multi-billionaires. It has been described as the biggest transfer of wealth in human history. And it probably is, because it’s not restricted to farms.
Soon, some company owned by a mega corporation, maybe the one pushing up your mortgage, will come along and say, “Hey, look, your house has obviously become a liability, so sell it to us and we’ll let you carry on living there with just rent to pay.”
Just think about that for a minute. By paying into a pension fund or an insurance policy controlled by one of the big investment corporations, which also controls the lender handling your mortgage, you have contributed to losing your home.
What a system! They can’t lose, you can’t win!
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THE CLIMATE SCAM
This section is headed ‘The Climate Scam’ because that’s what the hysteria about the climate really is – a scam.
But don’t just take my word for it, here’s a Nobel Prize winner saying it. Though of course he has now been ‘deplatformed’ so people can’t hear what he has to say.
That’s how the Globalist narrative is pushed. You buy those who can be bought and silence those who can’t be bought.
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To explain why climate hysteria is being used in the way it is, just think of those black and white movies from the ’50s about alien invasions of Earth. They always result in the bickering nations putting aside their differences to combine and defeat the global threat.
Not even those we’re discussing here could come up with a credible alien invasion, but the principle holds – fear.
Anthropogenic climate change would affect us all and if those wanting to persuade us it was happening had bought enough scientists, brainwashed a generation or two of children, and owned the mainstream media, then it could be done.
And that’s exactly what’s happening.
But they’re struggling because the planet isn’t playing ball. Which is why the original threat of ‘global warming’ became ‘climate change’, ’emissions’, or anything else attributable to human activity . . . and therefore open to restriction and control.
More recently CO2 has been demonised on the absurd premise that carbon dioxide is destroying the planet by being linked with rising temperatures. There is no connection between carbon and rising temperatures, and Earth flourished in the past with higher levels of carbon in the atmosphere.
But the Globalists know this. The ‘dangerous carbon’ scam is really being pushed because it provides a means of taxing us and restricting our freedom of movement, while also providing profits for the Globalists in the forms of carbon tax, or carbon capture often known as ‘greenwashing’.
And of course from ‘green energy’, often on land from which farmers have been removed.
But not only does the commercialisation of carbon provide profits for the Global elite in new and innovative ways, it also provides opportunities for more traditional criminals. As this case from France tells us. Here’s a case from Germany. And a third from Spain.
With the weather and the climate not co-operating, those who would rule us are now contemplating, both publicly and in secret, how they might influence the weather to persuade us of their claims.
This is a truly frightening prospect. For if the Globalists could control the weather, then they would control the world. Floods, droughts, blizzards, thunderstorms – on demand.
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SEXUAL DEVIANCY
Anyone who’s studied history knows that sexual deviancy and excess often play a role in bringing down civilisations. This regularly links with other signs of decline such as a falling birth-rate, as was the case in Sparta; and a reluctance to defend one’s borders, which contributed to the decline of imperial Rome.
The Globalists know their history.
Sexual deviancy and associated mental disorders are being promoted widely today, but only in the West. Much of it dependent on the idea that biology counts for nothing and a person can be whatever sex or gender they choose to identify as.
The irony being that those who push this defiance of science are the same Globalist puppets who shout “Trust the science!” when it comes to locking people in their homes because of a virus no worse than flu, and in defence of the climate scam.
When I talk of sexual deviancy you know what I mean. I’m talking of ‘Pride’ months that never end, and of ‘drag queens’ demanding to be in close proximity to children.
Here’s where I stand. Any man dressing as a woman and seeking access to children is a pervert. Any individual or agency allowing these perverts access to children is as guilty as the perverts.
‘Drag queens’ go hand in hand with the promotion of ‘trans rights’. Which again, is often a cover for perversion or proof of mental ill-health.
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A man dressing as a woman does not become a woman; and he has no right to enter women’s spaces or to compete in women’s sports.
The only people who believe that women have penises and men can have babies are the unhinged, the brainwashed, and the intimidated. But encouraging them are those who see these lunacies as yet another tool (forgive the pun) to use in the destabilisation of the West.
The role the media plays in this is significant, and alarming. On the one hand the media will promote and defend the perverts, while attacking those stating biological facts or defending the rights of women.
An appalling example from the BBC came to light a few days ago.
A ‘drag queen’ named Andrew Way, of Wrecsam, who performed as ‘Miss Gin’, was convicted of making contact with a 14-year-old boy with the intention of meeting up for sex. Way had previous convictions.
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In the first report, the BBC told us that Way was a ‘drag queen’, and that he’d been organising a Pride event for Welshpool, Powys. The first re-write removed the ‘drag queen’ reference. The second re-write removed the mention of the ‘Pride’ event.
Leaving us with us a man with no relevant associations or history who simply made a genuine mistake. Could happen to anybody.
For which of you hasn’t made innocent online contact with a 14-year-old boy, claimed to be 30 years younger than you really are, intended to send a photo of a puppy but chose the wrong jpeg and sent a photo of your genitals, and then been understandably horrified to have Plod knocking on the door?
Now we come to one of the more obvious manifestations of the Globalists’ anti-West agenda. And while everybody can see the influx of undocumented, young male migrants, it’s amazing how few people see it for what it really is.
That’s because like all the other courses on the Globalists’ menu this one comes with a heavy garnish of lies.
To begin with, most of those now arriving on the south coast of England are not refugees. They are young men looking for easy money and easy sex. If they were simply seeking safety, then they could have found it in any of the safe countries they passed through, including of course France.
While that might apply to those coming from the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa, too many of the young men from Albania, Georgia and other countries will be coming to engage in criminal activities.
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And who can blame certain countries with high levels of crime, or full prisons, for wanting to export some of their problems? That’s what Fidel Castro did back in 1980 with the Mariel Boatlift.
The USA was welcoming Cuban ‘refugees’, but many of those who arrived were criminals, sent over by Castro to cause problems for the USA. The great movie Scarface, starring Al Pacino, is about one such criminal, Tony Montana.
Why wouldn’t Algeria or Turkey be doing the same thing in 2023? How can anyone know the truth when thousands upon thousands of unvetted young men are being allowed into Europe every year?
Of course, those who oppose mass immigration and open borders are ‘racist’ according to the Globalists and their left-liberal shills. But as I say, everything from the Globalists is decorated with lies.
There’s the one about the ‘refugees’ being “mainly women and children“, but we only see young men. But that’s OK because they’re escaping war and conflict . . . which, if true, would mean they’ve run away, leaving parents, grandparents and siblings defenceless.
But the real gem, and this takes a bit of unravelling, is that these young men should be welcomed because Europe has a falling birth-rate and they’re needed to fill job vacancies.
Right, let’s work backwards.
1/ If the immigrants were needed to do low-pay jobs that natives of the country won’t do, then why are they paid benefits higher than the wages in those jobs?
2/ The economies of Europe are heading for recession, led by Germany. Which mean a loss of jobs.
3/ Globalists want to reduce the Earth’s population by some 6 or 7 billion. So why be alarmed by a falling birth-rate?
4/ Globalists also want to introduce Artificial Intelligence (AI) which will mean far fewer jobs for humans. This links with the increasing talk of UBI.
Finally, we must take into account considerations of ‘multiculturalism’, ‘cultural enrichment’ and ‘inclusivity’. Which of us hasn’t drifted off to sleep wishing Wales was more multicultural? Come on, be honest!
Being honest . . . these ‘benefits’ are turd polishing of Olympics standard, just ask the Swedes. Or the French. Or the Irish. Or those protesting outside the Stradey Park Hotel in Llanelli.
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IDELOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS
What I’m describing displays elements of fascist corporatism (but with corporations dictating to governments rather than co-operating), yet its foot-soldiers are almost exclusively Greens, left-liberals and avowed Marxists.
It’s a curious hybrid of a type we may not have seen before, and perhaps that accounts for so many people being confused by it.
Perhaps we could put ideologies aside, and view the Globalists’ ambitions in a historical context. Rich, powerful men (and it’s almost always men, both historically and with today’s Globalists), have always believed that their wealth should give them control over the common herd.
In a feudal system such a belief could be enforced with violence. In more recent centuries, with the gradual spread of democracy, it was argued that the franchise be restricted to ‘men of substance’.
The future envisioned by the Globalists is a kind of shadow democracy, a world where we still have a vote . . . but using it will be futile because the political establishments in every country will have been captured, and at elections we’ll be offered a host of parties and politicians – all signed up to the Globalist agenda.
The uniparty state will have arrived. We already see it on a Wales and a UK level. Across the water in Ireland, And in many other countries, where any party seeking to escape the Globalist ‘consensus’ is always dubbed ‘populist’, ‘far right’, ‘extremist’, if not outright ‘racist’ or ‘fascist’.
The message is clear: there are ‘accepted’ parties and parameters; those that reject the consensus put themselves beyond the Pale. They will be mercilessly vilified.
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SOCIALISM SUBVERTED
I’ve had an interest in politics for a long time now, but I can’t recall any time when I felt more disappointed with the left. Let me explain.
When I was younger I disagreed with socialists, obviously, but I still accepted that most of them wanted to improve people’s lives. But I found their class politics divisive, and most of them tended to be hostile to my hopes for Wales, or even to my national identity itself.
While the more extreme socialists wanted to bring down capitalism, which to them meant the West.
The socialists I grew up with believed in science-driven progress freeing people from cults and superstitions like organised religion. They saw themselves as children of the Enlightenment.
Then the left started adopting ‘ishoos’, many of which were inimical to the interests of those it had previously claimed to represent, which led to a rupture with the working class. Obvious by 2016 with Brexit and Trump’s victory.
To the point where, today, too many socialists pretend to believe in the unscientific and biologically impossible fantasies of unhinged narcissists. But there remains one constant – the hard-liners still want to bring down the West.
Maybe this is the key to understanding how the comrades today side with some of the wealthiest capitalists and biggest corporations on the planet.
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RUSSIA, UKRAINE, THE WEST
I set out my position on this tragedy in April last year, in Ukraine: A Personal View. Obviously, that piece, written not long after the conflict started, could be updated, but I can’t think of anything I’d change.
I’ve already mentioned that Russia is a target for the Globalists because it’s a White, Christian country, where traditional values of family and nation are still respected, and the trans cult is rejected.
But over and above these issues there are – as always – more venal considerations. Russia is the biggest country on Earth, with vast natural resources, and no doubt there are resources yet to be discovered. The untapped wealth is incalculable.
Standing between the Globalists and this wealth is Vladimir Putin, and a country increasingly suspicious of the West since the Kiev coup of 2014, the billions of dollars poured into Ukraine, and of course the blowing up of Nord Stream 2, which deserves a mention.
Nord Stream 2 was a pipeline bringing natural gas from Russia to Germany. Cheap, reliable energy, in an agreement that benefitted both countries. As this Guardian article from just before Christmas 2021 article puts it: ” . . . keeping 26m German homes warm at an affordable price”.
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But for the Globalists, Nord Stream 2 presented a problem. The problem being that the arrangement gave Russia too much influence in Europe’s largest economy – at their expense.
As I keep reminding you, Globalism is, fundamentally, a war against the West; that is, Europe, the USA, Canada, and a few other countries.
This war being waged by the Globalists has twin objectives: the accumulation of global power and assets into very few hands, while making it very difficult for us to protest against what is happening.
The first will be achieved by using existing financial systems, and freedom from political interference through control of Western political establishments. The second by using the media and Big Tech to denigrate and to silence critics.
And it will all be achieved without a mandate, for no element of the Globalist agenda would survive a popular vote, so it must be implemented surreptitiously.
An example might be covering Wales in foreign-owned wind turbines offering us nothing. Or allowing men into women’s toilets because they claim to be women. Or the imposition of ULEZ / 20mph / 15-minute neighbourhoods. Or perhaps being made to give up your car, or your gas cooker.
The list of things demanded by the Globalists and their useful idiot allies pushing the Woke agenda is endless. And they all work against our best interests to serve contrived ‘problems’.
Though ‘useful idiots’ may not be the correct term in all cases, for some of those now serving the Globalist agenda are singing their old refrains.
I can remember a time when vegans were regarded as dotty but harmless, found on the fringes at Liberal Party conferences, they were the ones with the scruffiest beards and the broken sandals.
But in recent years vegans have emerged into the limelight, to the point where local councils and education authorities are now taking meat off the menu at schools and other establishments. It’s happening in Oxford, Edinburgh, Exeter.
Now why is that? Of course! – it’s because veganism serves the Globalist agenda against livestock farming, so it must go mainstream. And the captured media will ensure that.
I have never harassed or bullied a vegan or a vegetarian. (My daughter is a veggie.) They can eat whatever they want – but so can I. Unfortunately, my easy-going attitude is not how Globalism operates. Because Globalism is totalitarian, and before long the only choice will be veganism, or going hungry.
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CONCLUSION
There’s so much more I could have included in an essay on how Globalists operate. But where would I start?
With the lies surrounding Covid? The role of ‘Dr’ Bill Gates in that bonanza? The interplay between governments and Big Pharma? Were Covid lockdowns a trial run for climate lockdowns?
Then there’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). For the path we’re on now leads inexorably to a system in which cash is outlawed, and every transaction you make is recorded and noted. Step out of line and you risk being denied access to your own money.
I’m not making this up. It’s how things are done today in China, and despite the obvious differences, the Globalists are big admirers of how the Chinese Communist Party can keep 1.3bn people under control.
But the left-liberal media in Canada and elsewhere loved Trudeau for it, and weighed in and accused the truckers of being ‘extremists’, and ‘racists’. And all the while their Globalist masters beamed.
(The sight of a Confederate battle flag has a wondrous effect on leftists, Wokies and, now, Globalists.)
Looking at the bigger picture it’s clear we are approaching a world in which the political, economic, military and cultural influence of the West on the rest of the globe will be weakened.
Which could mean that Globalism might be a misnomer, for what really confronts us is a last-ditch attempt by the USA, with allies in Europe and elsewhere, to maintain its hegemonic position over an increasingly multi-polar world where doors everywhere are being slammed in Uncle Sam’s face.
‘Globalism’ limited to North America and western Europe because Russia and China are obviously out of reach, India and other major Asian players are reluctant to comply. And now we see Africa increasingly detach itself from the Western sphere.
Whether what I’ve written about here is indeed global, or more limited in its scope and ambition, is irrelevant for the outcome. I say that because it will affect you in exactly the same way.
Those I’ve referred to as ‘Globalists’ present an existential threat to the West and to our individual freedoms. For they want to erase nations, to destroy the nuclear family, control how we live, where we live, what we eat, how far we can travel, how fast we can travel, whether we can afford to heat our homes, what we are allowed to say, and who we are allowed to listen to.
You’re free to dismiss my warnings and follow the sirens’ call. But if that is your choice, then enjoy your freedom while you can.
Because your ability to make such decisions will not last for much longer. Not unless you start defending the basic freedoms you have always taken for granted.
This offering starts out as a quickie, and I hope it stays that way. But as you know, these things have a way of growing.
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PORTHMADOG
The origin for this piece was an article in last week’s Cambrian News. After a front-page intro the story was set out inside. And here it is.
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The same story appeared a couple of days earlier in NorthWalesLive and, presumably, the Daily Post.
This link to Google maps shows the land in question on the Penamser Industrial Estate in Porthmadog. Overlooked by Travis Perkins and Travelodge.
Local politicians claim that the self-styled ‘Welsh Government’ has some kind of “exclusivity agreement” with a company that has resulted in this land gathering weeds while local businesses want to set up or expand on that land.
The company in question is Morbaine Ltd, of Widnes, in Cheshire.
Here’s a contribution to the dispute from local Plaid councillor Nia Jeffreys.
“It makes no sense at all that public money is being spent on this site whilst the Welsh Government is standing in the way of job creation in Porthmadog. They must seriously reconsider their decision and their priorities for the sake of our local economy.”
For God’s sake, woman, don’t use words like “economy” when dealing with the ‘Welsh Government’! Language like that could have Drakeford falling off his bike.
When we turn to the Charges tab we see loans and other arrangements related to property and land in Wales, Scotland, and England. With 48 of them outstanding. There were a number of mentions for Caernarfon Road, Bangor.
The financials certainly seem to have perked up last year, with accounts to 30 June 2022 showing a profit of £727,251 against a loss of £1,168,055 the previous year.
I mentioned the new directors, and this may link with “significant control” passing in March from John Finlan who, if he’s still alive, is 98, to Morbaine Properties Ltd.
So what’s the story with Morbaine Properties? Well, there are 13 outstanding charges. With the latest accounts showing a gross profit of £5.24m on a turnover of just £6.87m. Which is quite impressive.
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The entry for significant control shows John William Finlan who, at 31 years old, I take to be the grandson of the old man I just mentioned. Yet this entry might be misleading.
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And I say that because when we turn to a document filed on June 22 showing the distribution of shares, we see that John William Finlan is a minority shareholder. And that’s been the case for some years.
Finlan owns just 60 out of a total of 200 shares. With 100 being held by “Helen Woods Equiom (Isle of Man) Ltd”, and another 30 by “Equiom (Isle of Man) Ltd Helen Woods”. (To make sense of the entry note that some listings are for 0 shares.)
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Here’s Helen Woods’ Linkedin profile. You’ll see that she’s, “Tax Director at Hotchkiss Associates Limited Isle of Man”.
So through holding most of the shares, Helen Woods / Equiom of the Isle of Man, now owns the company that has some kind of deal with the ‘Welsh Government’.
Or so it might appear at first sight.
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WHO OWNS WHO?
As you’d expect, Equiom is quite a big outfit. I get the impression it provides legal and other services for even bigger fish. One of which seems to have swallowed it.
For an online search revealed that Equiom was taken over last year by Alcentra. Here’s the Alcentra website. With offices in London, New York, Boston, Tokyo and Hong Kong Alcentra has “Total Assets Under Management” of $34bn.
Alcentra is a wholly owned subsidiary of Franklin Resources, Inc. (Franklin Templeton) which is one of the world’s largest independent investment managers with $1.4 trillion in total assets under management
From what I can see, Franklin is still independent and owned by the Johnson brothers of Silicon Valley. And Franklin Resources are certainly big fish, listed at number 20 in this, “World’s Top Asset Management Firms”. A list headed of course by BlackRock and Vanguard.
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BUT WHAT ABOUT THE LAND?
Tracking something on the Land Registry website can be straightforward if you have an address or a title number. But in this case it’s just land in the vicinity of Penamser Road.
Still, I tried my luck. And the site is easy enough to locate, it’s in the centre of this OS Land Registry map.
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This helped me track down, “Land lying on the North side of Penamser Road, Porthmadog (Freehold)”. Title number WA612872. And here is the 30-page title document, but unfortunately there was no plan available.
We see that the owners of the land are, “The National Assembly for Wales”.
A search of the title document turned up two mentions of “Morbaine”.
The first, on page 24, refers to an “option to purchase the land edged mauve”. But without a plan we can’t locate this land. This entry is dated November 26, 1991. It was an agreement between Morbaine and the Welsh Development Agency (WDA).
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The second entry is on the penultimate page and it reads:
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That title number, CYM402906 refers to land now occupied by Travelodge. It was sold by Morbaine Ltd to Sunville Properties Ltd. Here’s the title document, scroll down for the plan.
From which I conclude that the original title WA612872 covered the land sold off for the Travelodge plus the land now being discussed.
Which means that a week or so before selling it on Morbaine bought the land from “The Welsh Ministers”. And without doing anything, sold the land to Sunville at a profit.
Nice work if you can get get it.
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AND FINALLY . . .
The problem with the land at Penamser Road is that Morbaine has an option to buy. But claims it can’t do so until the ‘Welsh Government’ carries out “remedial works“.
Which will of course be paid for from the public purse.
“The current position is that we are still waiting for the Welsh Government to deal with various issues on the site as part of the land transfer . . . Following these works we hope to then be able to progress expressions of interest received in the site from retail operators. The site has an extant retail consent.
“From our position it has been extremely frustrating that addressing these remedial works has taken so long.”
It has always been the case that too much of the money made in Wales leaves Wales. The Travelodge money-for-old-rope deal suggests Morbaine is just another company making money out of Wales while contributing nothing.
Devolution has made things worse, with successive administrations wanting to single-handedly save the planet, fight trans genocide, confront the fascist hordes . . . which in practice means throwing money at global corporations, unhinged narcissists, and grant-grab grifters.
I think Morbaine – or whoever now owns the company – should be told that 32 years is long enough to sit on an option to buy. And so the ‘Welsh Government’ is cancelling that arrangement and asserting full control over the land at Penamser Road.
Because, if, as the councillors say, there is “local interest to develop the land and create jobs“, then local businesses should take priority over Morbaine’s clients, who will almost certainly come from over the border.
The ‘Welsh Government’ can be decisive enough when it comes to making mistakes; here’s a chance to get something right for a change, and help Welsh people.
And the piece was very popular. It got a record number of hits the day it went out, with even more hits the following day. Maybe someone was trawling through my output for ‘wrongthink’. If so, I’m done for!
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RECAP
That earlier piece, ‘It’s Getting Sinister’, was inspired by a Freedom of Information (FoI) request, the response to which told us there had been a lot of interaction between Lynn and the self-styled ‘Welsh Government’, in the year from July 1, 2022, relating to the imposition of the 20mph speed limit.
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Clearly, Lynn was working for the ‘Welsh Government’, using ‘behavioural science’ to promote acceptance of WG’s imposition of 20mph speed limits. Behavioural science is shortened to ‘BS’, which you’ll realise is hilariously appropriate.
Naturally, learning of this connection piqued my interest, and so I did some more digging. Since then, others have helped. Including someone who keeps me updated on Bute Energy and its grandiose plans to cover Wales in wind turbines.
In answer to the question, ‘Have you faced any challenges along the way?’ Shayoni Lynn responds:
I launched Lynn just weeks before the Covid pandemic took hold. . . . Behavioural science was critical to both Covid response and recovery. . . . Lynn was able to establish itself as a firm that deeply understood human behaviours and then embraced, interpreted and integrated these into creative communications to drive persuasive content and calls to action to deliver change for good.
We know that Lynn Group Ltd was Incorporated October 7, 2019, as Lynn PR Ltd (a name it kept until May 5, 2022). The first admitted case of Covid-19 was in Wuhan, China in December 2019. The first confirmed case in Wales, according to Wikipedia, was February 28, 2020.
So Shayoni Lynn formed her new company just in time for Covid. Such propinquity! The answer above seems to suggest that Lynn might even have had some involvement in fighting Covid.
Would that have been in Wales? And if so, might it help explain both the ‘Welsh Government’s reluctance to have an independent, Wales-only inquiry and also its refusal to answer the FoI about its dealings with Lynn?
Nice work if you can get it for a company with no track record. But then, this contract would not have been awarded without the OK from Corruption Bay.
Sticking with the same February article, under the section, ‘What has been your biggest achievement to date?’, we read something explaining how Lynn and others in the field operate:
. . . most meaningfully, provided innovative behaviour change solutions that have measurably improved and saved lives.
“Behaviour change solutions” in the sense of telling people what to think and how to behave. But most importantly, telling people who and what to believe.
And it should go without saying that dictating to people “measurably improved and saved lives“.
And if you believe that then they’ve got you by the balls!
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GOODIES AND BADDIES
Let’s kick off this section with a mercifully short film that’s nevertheless revealing about where Lynn stands politically. In the video below the company claims to be “empathetic“, “objective“, and “packed with integrity“. (The final phrase borrowed from Amazon?)
Clearly, the good guys.
In contrast, Trump and Putin are cast as pantomime villains, by being rather crudely associated with “misinformation“. Boo!
We read the boast that, “Our campaigns have improved vaccine uptake by 77.8%.”
Given all we know now about Covid, the lies about its origin, the damage caused by lockdown – especially to children’s health and development – and the surge of deaths caused by untested vaccines, I’m amazed that video hasn’t been taken down.
What it lays out is a political position, a world view. The Globalist agenda.
The agenda of the United Nations, the World Economic Form, the European Union; assorted asset managers like BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street; various multi-billionaires like old money Rothschilds and Rockefellers, joined by arrivistes like Bill Gates, George Soros and Mark Zuckerberg.
Published last September, lead billing was given to Adam Belcher, deputy head of Lynn’s Misinformation Cell; with his boss, Stefan Rollnick, also credited.
I can’t be sure who Adam Belcher is, and for some reason he doesn’t appear in Team Lynn (has he left?), but Rollnick has a predictable background for this work. Here’s his Linkedin page. (Pdf format.) One section tells of his time at the ‘Welsh Government’.
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It may be nothing, it may be something . . . Rollnick started working for Drakeford within a month of Lynn getting the health board Covid contract. Then he went to work for Lynn.
The IWA article might strike you as unremarkable, if slightly hysterical, but read between the lines and it betrays the nature of the beast. And it’s oh so predictable.
It’s the Globalist agenda of those listed above, promoted and defended by shills or useful idiots like those at Lynn.
We are presented with the sole accepted narrative, this is the one pushed by Lynn and others, such as Big Tech, and the mainstream media, either owned or funded by Globalists. Anyone contradicting or challenging that narrative will be guilty of “misinformation” or “disinformation“.
Or smeared in other ways. Such as we see in the IWA article, where the term “far-right” is used no less than eleven times to describe those with whom Lynn’s Disinformation Cell disagrees. Eleven bloody times!
A frame of mind perfectly illustrated by this cartoon I saw on Twitter / X when I was writing this piece. The workings of serendipity, eh!
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It’s easy to ridicule brainwashed youngsters who may genuinely believe in the nonsense they spout, but those who’ve brainwashed them, and those whose agendas they promote, are not to be laughed at.
They are a threat to the democratic system, and to the liberty of the individual.
Take this segment highlighted in the IWA article. Read it and think about it.
Our major political parties have a duty to be the first line of defence, not adopting adversarial narratives for opportunism’s sake or political popularity
“Adversarial narratives” competing for “political popularity” is the lifeblood of healthy democracies. It’s almost the sine qua non of a democratic society.
Lynn wants a single, unchallenged voice; in other words, totalitarianism; yet still argues that attacking and silencing those who challenge this totalitarianism is defending “democratic institutions“.
How fucked up does your head have to be to push such bollocks?
And look who these threats to “democratic institutions” are!
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Little old ladies protesting about giant wind turbines killing skylarks must be vilified and silenced because they’re opposing “large-scale green infrastructure projects“. When and how did such projects achieve sacred status?
For those who still don’t get it, let me explain . . .
The Globalists instil fear over an imaginary climate crisis in order to enforce compliance with the Globalist agenda.
Get people to believe in the ‘climate crisis’ and those behind the lies can make billions of dollars by enforcing Net Zero, and renewable energy, energy that they will of course own and control. And when they’ve forced farmers off the land they will also control the land, and the food supply, and have us eating insects and lab-made ‘meat’.
We face a future of engineered hardship and shortages designed to give more power to the Globalists, and to take away our control over own lives; whether it’s by restricting our movements with 20mph and 15-minute neighbourhoods, climate lockdowns, vaccine passports, or by removing cash so that every penny we spend is recorded, and we can be punished by a CBDC system if we step out of line.
It’s a return to feudalism, but it will be 21st century feudalism enforced by facial recognition technology and digital passports rather than private armies. (But don’t rule ’em out!) And the people at Lynn Global, together with similar companies and organisations, are the prophets and the praetorians for this New World Order.
But only if we submit, and allow it. And believe BS outfits like Lynn Global.
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CONCLUSION
Of course, there will be those who’ll reject what I say about the Globalist agenda and the New World Order. Perhaps because what I’m suggesting sounds too far-fetched. And there’ll be some who don’t want to believe it for fear it might be true.
Others may seek comfort in a reassuring analogy. “Come on, Jac, it’s just persuading people – like adverts on the telly, mun“. But is it?
If my wife doesn’t like Daz she can buy Persil, or Bold, or some other detergent. If I’m looking for a bottle of wine I’m spoilt for choice even in Tywyn Coop. With Lynn and its behavioural science it’s a case of, “We have a monopoly on truth, you must therefore accept what we say.”
Which means that my wife has choice over washing powder, but left to Lynn and their ilk none of us would be allowed to hold divergent views on the major issues affecting us and the world around us.
We are living under a creeping form of totalitarianism, and like all totalitarianism, from the Inquisition to 20th century Communism, it allows no divergent views.
At the moment Wales seems badly afflicted by these Green-Woke-Left servants of the New World Order. And much of it stems from Cardiff University. Which is where Shayoni Lynn would have been found ere she donned her armour to confront the twin evils that have dominated this article.
. . . debunking misinformation requires a careful and nuanced approach in the battle against falsehoods, with hidden risks to addressing false claims directly . . .
This is the kind of approach adopted towards a child who’s caught an adult lying, or proven an adult wrong. The little smart-ass is either ignored, ordered to shut up, or banished to the naughty step.
But the bigger problem is that behavioural science – i.e. censorship – now pervades political and public life in Wales. We see it manifest its ugly self all the time. We saw it in recent posts on this blog about Extinction Rebellion and other pressure groups with far too much influence over the ‘Welsh Government’.
I translate the opening phrase as, “We’ll only engage with people who agree with us. People who’ll tell us what we want to hear“.
It crops up a number of times in that document I linked to, and in many other ‘Welsh Government’ publications. And whaddya know – on the Lynn website Shayoni herself presents a wee opus on trusted messengers.
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Wales has a government failing on all fronts and still pushing what’s becoming an increasingly discredited Globalist narrative, which means those politicos are forced to rely on the pyscho-spivs at Lynn, with their ludicrous ‘behavioural science’.
This quickie begins with the response to a Freedom of Information request. It concerns ‘Welsh Government’ dealings with an outfit called Lynn, which former Future Generations Commissioner, Sophie Howe, joined in May as a ‘Global Strategic Partner’.
‘Global Strategic Partner’! Has she ever lived outside of Cardiff?
The sole director and shareholder of Lynn Group Ltd and Lynn Global Ltd – the latter formed just a month after Howe joined – remains Shayoni Sarkar Lynn. She studied at Cardiff University (where else?) and is married to a Welshman.
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So let’s turn to the FoI mentioned at the top, and the reason I’m writing this piece.
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TOO MUCH TO HANDLE
This FoI request, dated 27 July, simply asked for . . .
a copy of all correspondence, digital or otherwise, both internal and external (including time sent) that reasonably relate to Welsh Government’s use of communications consultancy Lynn to promote the 20 MPH zone law, from 1 July 2022 to date.
It seems straightforward enough, and surely a request easy enough to satisfy, covering just a year, and a single topic.
But the response, as you can read below, makes clear that there was a lot of traffic between Lynn and the ‘Welsh Government’ in that period. For a quick shufty turned up over 2,000 documents!
The number of employees went up from 5 the previous year to 12 in y/e 31 March, 2022, and money in the bank went up from £199,227 to £1,650,756. I’ll repeat that for the hard of reading. Cash in hand, for a small company, went up by £1.45m in a single year.
Yes, creditors account for £1,172,195, but most of that figure is covered by ‘accruals and deferred income’. This probably means income from the previous year, but it’s not money owed to anybody.
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And remember, that previous year, ending 31 March, 2021, was the first year in business for the Lynn Group (originally Lynn PR). Which tells us that Shayoni Sarkar Lynn hit the ground running. Dare we assume the work was already promised and all she had to do was set up the company?
How much did Lynn earn in year ending 31.03.2023, the period largely covered by the FoI request, and how much of it came from ‘WelshGovernment’?
Did Lynn have any other clients, or was it just the ‘Welsh Government’? The Spartan website certainly mentions no clients. There are a few campaigns listed, but no claim that Lynn was involved in them.
Come to that, what exactly does Lynn do? What does it offer clients? Here’s Shayoni Lynn to tell us.
Well, whaddya know, it’s “behavioural science“. Which is getting people to believe in things they wouldn’t readily believe in. A kind of brainwashing. Or coercion.
The kind of thing politicians do when trying to push unpopular policies, like, er . . . oh I don’t know, maybe 20mph zones. Which is of course what the FoI request was about.
And she makes no secret of her admiration for the MS for Llanelli (resident in Penarth). Though given the money that association has brought her I can understand why she’s delighted to support Lee Waters and 20mph.
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But we are still no nearer to understanding exactly what she did for that money.
The Twitter / X account I grabbed the above image from contains a number of gems that leave us in no doubt as to how Shayoni Lynn operates. It’s the “Scare them shitless” UN-WEF strategy used to get people to believe in the ‘climate crisis’.
Lynn describes it as, “impactful fear appeals“. Yeah, like I said – “Scare ’em shitless“.
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From what I can see, the wonderful and universally respected ‘Welsh Government’ is paying this woman – and others – to frighten us into accepting their Globalist agenda.
Is this a proper use of public funding? And how much are we talking about?
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SOPHIE HOWE
Now we have to consider where and how Sophie Howe fits into the picture.
After leaving her sinecure as the Future Generations Commissioner in February Sophie Howe was soon putting herself about.
She started her own company, Sophie Howe Associates Ltd . . . with her as the only associate. In June she became a trustee of Coleg Soros. And a Scottish source tells me she’s also got a seat aboard the Bute Energy gravy train.
And of course she joined Lynn. But why?
It couldn’t be because Shayoni Lynn needed influence in Corruption Bay, for she was already living high on the hog of Welsh public funding. There had to be another reason.
Being an aficionado of Mafia movies I know there’s often a scene when the local kingpin insists on a job for a relative. Just think of The Godfather, when young Vito Corleone loses his job in the grocery store to Don Fanucci’s nephew.
Don Fanucci. Click to open enlarged in separate tab
Alternatively, the Mob moves somebody into a business they’ve invested in in order to protect that investment.
Which is it with Lynn and Sophie Howe?
Don’t get me wrong, I am not for one minute doubting Sophie Howe’s talents; but let’s be honest, we’re dealing here with ‘Welsh’ Labour, and as political parties go, this lot comes bloody close to being a criminal enterprise.
(Though mentioning ‘enterprise’ in their company might get you whacked!)
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CONCLUSION
I’ve written a lot about those clowns down in Corruption Bay, and the system of third sector spongers, funded pressure groups, and assorted cronies, that serves as an echo chamber protecting them from the reality of an increasingly restless population.
But with Shayoni Sarkar Lynn we have entered new and dangerous territory. For we are being manipulated and frightened into accepting policy decisions over which we were never consulted and with which the majority of us do not agree.
This is a form of totalitarianism. And yet we are paying for it!
And it comes with a failing NHS; with our poorest kids going without meals this summer; with a community in Llanelli on edge as it waits for ‘refugees’ every man and his dog knows are not refugees; as rural Wales is turned into an open-air power station with turbines and pylons – to supply England; and as the no roads, ‘degrowth’ agenda demanded by demented Globalists is imposed.
I therefore call on opposition politicians to demand that this Freedom of Information request be answered properly. Because we are entitled to know how much public money has been paid to Shayoni Lynn and her Lynn Group Ltd to lie to us, and to frighten us.
Because if opposition politicians don’t oppose, and the will of the people can be ignored by a cult-like minority that’s persuaded itself we, the common herd, are stupid and bigoted (and they have), then democracy is as good as dead.
UPDATE: A good source directs me to this Sell2Wales entry (22/12/2021) seeking tenders for: “NPS Media Buying, Integrated Marketing Campaigns and Public Relations Services Framework”. Of 16 applications 12 were accepted.
The 12 were approached for what was now the, “20 mph National Campaign” (17/08/2022), only 5 tendered, and if we click on the tab ‘Full Notice Text’ we see Lynn PR was successful. For some reason, ‘Estimated Total Value’ is left blank.
My source points out: a) Lynn was competing with more experienced and better resourced competitors; b) tenders are not accepted from companies with less than 3 years experience, which should have ruled Lynn PR out.
That Lynn PR got the 20mph contract suggests that someone in Corruption Bay smiled on Shayoni Lynn. That Sophie Howe, the ultimate Labour insider, has joined Lynn, would seem to confirms this suspicion.
But that still leaves the mystery of the work Lynn PR was doing that paid so well before being awarded the 20mph contract.
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I promised a piece on Bute Energy, its links with the ‘Welsh Government’, and a few associated snippets, but it’ll have to wait until next week.
The previous post got considerable attention and it also unlocked fascinating new information. And that explains this follow-up. Which I hope will result in further revelations.
