CARMARTHENSHIRE, KIDWELLY
A few years ago we learnt of the shocking case of the Satanist paedophiles relocated from London to Kidwelly and housed by Grwp Gwalia of Swansea (since merged with Seren to create Pobl). Their trial even made London prints such as the Daily Mail and Guardian.
In addition to being a sick and dangerous pervert, the leader of the gang, Colin Batley, was also an English patriot, with the Cross of St George flying from the flagpole on his front lawn. He was also described as a swaggering bully, often accompanied by his two rottweilers.
In the Daily Mail piece, one ‘local’ is quoted: “Nobody understands how so many of them could come down and all end up living in one place in the town”. Anyone who knows anything about social housing in Wales could have explained it to him.
As if to prove that lightning does strike twice, and yea! thrice . . . two more individuals with an unhealthy interest in children have recently been unearthed in Kidwelly.
The first was 71-year-old retired probation officer, Michael Nathan Cohen, who moved with his wife from Manchester some ten years ago. Though this WalesOnline report from early July prefers to describe him, both in the headline and the first line of the report, as a “Kidwelly man”.
Around the same time we heard about the case of 61-year-old retired civil servant Vincent Barbary – who has since been moved to Abertillery!
You’ll note that both men had pornographic images on their computers, and both were caught when police went to their houses, presumably acting on information received. Where did that information come from?
It would appear to be pure coincidence that these people from different backgrounds and locations – London, Manchester, Leicester – ended up in the same town of some 3,500 people. Though it does make you wonder if there might be some other factor at work.
CARMARTHENSHIRE, FALSE ALLEGATIONS
We now move down the road a bit from Kidwelly to Burry Port, to look at a very troubling case. This Llanelli Herald report from May 2015 will give you the background.
In a nutshell, some seven years ago Carina Burn, a 19-year-old autistic woman with communication difficulties, was locked away in a secure unit for six months because a carer alleged that she was being sexually abused – even prostituted! – by her parents Robin and Julia.
Two weeks after she was taken from her parents six police officers in plain clothes descended on the family home; it was searched, the computers were seized, and the parents arrested. Read more details here in this Daily Express account of the story.
Those responsible for inflicting this trauma were employed by Perthyn, a care company based in Swansea, which does work for a number of local authorities in both Wales and England.
Carina is now back with her parents and £30,000 in compensation has been paid; £26,000 from Carmarthenshire County Council, £1,000 from Dyfed Powys Police, and £3,000 from Dr Rowan Wilson, a man with no experience in the field who was called in by CCC to defend the original decision.
There is a strong suspicion that the case began when the parents decided to end the arrangement with Perthyn due to their fears that money being given for their daughter’s lunch was being pocketed. The very day that Perthyn was told the arrangement was ending the carers persuaded Mrs Burn to let them take her daughter swimming one last time. Carina did not come home.
Naturally, the parents want a full investigation into this case so I’d better not name the carer involved, the one who claimed that Carina was making the allegations, nor her supervisor, though I have both names. I am, however, prepared to name Trevor Stainsby, the local area manager for Perthyn, because what happened to him was quite remarkable.
Once the police dropped the case against the parents, and the focus shifted to Carmarthenshire County Council, who had employed Perthyn, Stainsby was recruited by the Council! Was this because Vinny, the Cardiff Bay property whizz, recognised Trev’s potential, or because he hoped to buy his silence? All might be revealed in the inquiry the ‘Welsh’ Government can no longer dodge.
The pressure might increase when the ITV Wales interview done with Robin and Julia Burn today is televised. Unless of course ITV was there on a fact-finding mission for someone else. These things happen.
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CEREDIGION
In January 2016 I wrote The ‘Care’ Racket in Wales in which I looked at organisations operating under that generic label in the Wild West. It might be worth you reading that minor masterpiece of the blogger’s art before you push on with this update. But if you’re too bloody lazy! . . .
At various times the south west was blessed with (takes deep breath) The Ceredigion Care Society, The Dyfed Care Society, The Carmarthen Care Society, The Pembrokeshire Care Society.
All shared the same espoused objective: “1. The relief of poverty, the relief of sickness and the advancement of education and training amongst: A) Persons who have suffered a legal restriction on their liberty in the community, or any penal establishment or institution B) The families and descendants of such persons described in A) above C) Persons in need, hardship or distress.
In other words, they helped ex-cons. As I said in that original ” . . . of whom there must be hundreds every year returning to the mean streets and gang life of Ystrad Meurig, Marloes and Ponterwyd.” My way of saying that we can with some certainty conclude that most of those helped came from outside of Dyfed, and outside of Wales.
The Ceredigion Care Society has now changed its name to Cymdeithas Gofal / The Care Society, it has moved to a new address at 21 Terrace Road Aberystwyth, it serves Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Powys (though only Ceredigion funds CG), and it no longer claims to be helping ex-cons.
For “Persons who have suffered a legal restriction on their liberty in the community, or any penal establishment or institution” has now been replaced with what you see below.
Which is not to say that Cymdeithas Gofal doesn’t still help those who’ve been in trouble with the law, because one focus is on young tearaways leaving secure units. For “It is recognised that wherever possible the best place for a child is within her/his own family.” This explains young criminals turning up out of the blue at the Young Persons Project in Cardigan, often with their problem family in tow.
The latest accounts available are to year ending 31.03.2016. You’ll see that the numbers housed is quite commendable . . . especially in a rural county of some 70,000 people with no real social problems.
And keeping with the housing side of the business, we see that Cymdeithas Gofal has its own Estates and Lettings department. So let’s say you’ve got a few bedsits in Aber’, you can get in touch with CG and – bingo! – they’ll find you tenants and look after your property for you!
Couple that side of the business with the fact that one of the company’s income streams is administering the ‘Welsh’ Government’s Bond Scheme (£42,707 y/e 31.03.2016), and you have to wonder whether, in a town like Aberystwyth, with so many properties for rent, so many Houses of Multiple Occupation, providing a regular supply of tenants for local landlords isn’t the real purpose of Cymdeithas Gofal. That’s certainly a purpose it fulfils.
The services Cymdeithas Gofal provides, and the public funding it swallows up, are certainly not justified by the needs of the population indigenous to the area it covers. Looks to me like a nice little racket. Which might not bother me if I wasn’t paying for it. So are you.
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PEMBROKESHIRE CARE SOCIETY
Now I bet the heading confused you. You’re asking, ‘Hang on, if Cymdeithas Gofal covers the south west and Powys, how can there also be a Pembrokeshire Care Society?’ Well, let Jac explain.
As with Cymdeithas Gofal, the Pembrokeshire Care Society is both a company registered with Companies House and a charity registered with the Charity Commission. This Pembrokeshire outfit is also in on the bond scheme, and wouldn’t you know it! – it also has its own lettings agency in Pathway Lettings.
What’s more, it’s doing pretty well, because the accounts for y/e 31.03.2016 tell us that the Pembrokeshire Care Society was sitting on reserves of £756,542, and that hoard was made up almost entirely of “cash at bank and in hand” most of it “unrestricted funds”, which means it was not given for a specific purpose and so can be used for just about anything.
Will funders, such as the ‘Welsh’ Government, now be asking for any of their funding to be returned? For it’s clearly not needed.
The bigger question is why public funding is being given to organisations like Cymdeithas Gofal and Pembrokeshire Care to bring people into the area, often undesirables, for no better reason than to provide tenants for local landlords, while also running lettings agencies of their own on the side?
PEMBROKESHIRE, TRAGEDY
Seren Bernard was 14 when her body was found, near Milford Haven, in April 2012. This is one of the few facts we can be sure of in this case. Another is that she was living with foster parents and under the care of Pembrokeshire County Council.
A serious case review undertaken in 2013 concluded that Seren’s death “might not have been preventable”. Though at that review Seren’s mother, Sarah Pollock, insisted that the agencies involved had “willingly and knowingly exposed Seren to harm”.
At the inquest in June 2015, despite highlighting a number of cock-ups on the part of the Pembrokeshire authorities, the coroner had little alternative but to return a verdict of suicide. As a comment to the Western Telegraph from ‘Deryn Bawddwr’ put it, “The teflon coated PCC get away with it again”.
Then, last month, came the kerfuffle in Monkton, over the paedophile that locals believed had moved (or been moved) to the area. After the riotous night the protesters met outside the council offices in Pembroke Dock on July 13th, as reported here by the Pembrokeshire Telegraph.
(It may be worth pointing out that the council, the police, and just about every arm of officialdom, is staying schtum on the details of the Monkton affair. Refusing to even say who owns the property in question.)
Among those in the gathering outside the council offices was Seren Bernard’s mother. She spoke with Herald TV, watch her (4:32). Here’s a written account of what she said.
The allegation is that Seren Bernard was drugged and raped by a group of men, they may have been local, they may have come down from Swansea. What’s more, the solicitor acting for Mrs Pollock has names said to be the men responsible, names giver by Seren herself. The police also have these names.
Now if this is true then it could explain Seren’s suicide, and her strange, uncharacteristic behaviour in the period leading up to her suicide, behaviour which Pembrokeshire council and its agencies were so keen to stress in seeking to exonerate themselves. It may also explain why Sarah Pollock was never given the full report of the serious case review in 2013.
As a man with grand-daughters I find this case harrowing. It seems clear to me that the truth is being withheld, and the reason for that may lie in the names on the list of alleged rapists. Are there prominent men named, and is that why justice is being denied (as in the never-ending ‘North Wales child abuse’ saga)?
I would love to see that list, and make my own enquiries.
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CONCLUSION
We clearly have a dysfunctional system of ‘care’ in Wales, exposed by what we see happening in the south west.
On the one hand, we have ‘care’ agencies such as Cymdeithas Gofal and Pembrokeshire Care receiving millions of pounds in public funding yet they seem to do little more than deliver up tenants – complete with bonds! – to local landlords, private and social. Also bringing in young tearaways plus paedophiles and other criminals.
On the other hand, we have the true care system, that which betrayed both Carina Burn and Seren Bernard. Not only that, but once the mistakes were exposed the machinery of cover-up swung into action. We saw it in Carmarthenshire with the council recruiting Trevor Stainsby of Perthyn, and in Pembrokeshire with the council preferring to blame a ‘suicidal’ child rather than wonder what drove her to suicide.
Now here’s a revolutionary suggestion. Why not ditch the landlords’ friends, Cymdeithas Gofal and Pembrokeshire Care, and give the money to real care bodies, so that they can train staff and avoid another disaster such as befell the Burn family. Also use it to ensure that if there’s another Seren Bernard, that she’s helped rather than abandoned.
The system as it stands is indefensible, but it is being robustly defended: by the ‘Welsh’ Government – because it can’t admit that it’s pouring money down so many drains; by local authorities and their agencies – that can’t afford to admit the mistakes they’ve made; and by others making too much money out of this insane, corrupt system of public funding
For more money withdraw the blank cheque the ‘Welsh’ Government gives to housing associations, organisations deeply involved in the racket. Housing associations that in rural areas are building more homes than are needed locally and also building properties for sale on the open market – even advertising for ‘investors’!
♦ end ♦
Someone has just sent me a link to a 2015 article in the Independent.
This part caught his eye.
https://jacothenorth.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/London-social-cleansing.png
noticed CJ at Eisteddfod today turned out in his traditional Ice cream seller’s jacket spouting about Sports Direct. Would have been good to have it reported that he was on the blower to Fatty Ashley as soon as the story broke last week just whispering something along the lines of – “Listen cunty, we’ll close all your fuckin’ shops down by end of week unless you do some public apologies to all concerned, and while you’re at it lob some scholarship money into that community as a further gesture of goodwill”……. “don’t know if you can do that ?, well just be very surprised where evidence of all sorts of misdemeanors turns up in your stores ” That’s the kind of mouth to mouth that works with Ashley. Asking for a Commissioner’s enquiry is not likely to make him ponder at all.
just found out that the Third Sector Council to which you refer in your tweet has failed to meet since 2014 because they’ve all been away busy spending the loot the managed to liberate so well from Y Cynulliad. Happy days in lah lah land and no one outside that bubble is any better off despite the 100’s of millions pissed down various drains.
your tweet – Everywhere else they talk of the ‘demographic time-bomb’ but my FoI to @WelshGovernment on the cost of incomer retirees got this response. and that cretinous response from Welsh non-Government really exposes these bastards for what they really are.
In one’s darker moments a scene can be envisaged where most of the youth of Wales is steadily shifted away to England ( or Cardiff ) leaving a shallow pool of young people in the country, some of whom are disadvantaged in some way. This creates space for older folk, the sick and dysfunctional to be relocated from England to fill the voids. Then you have scope for 3rd sector visionaries to step in and provide services to these assorted old, needy, sick and dysfunctional. Later those enterprises seek to fetch in even more of the said classes to ensure their ventures operate more “effectively” at some critical mass which steadily increases each year as they seek to grab more “budget”. Creating more demand for “capacity” requires an increase in supply.
That could never happen, surely ?
It’s already happening. All around us.
irony, Jac bach, irony.Yet shocking, bit like a long nightmare and waking up to find it’s also reality.
Very interesting contributions from everyone. Perhaps you can consider another update post on this subject at a future date Jac. In the meantime, I shall be seeking an explanation on various matters from officials in central government, local government and Dyfed Powys Police.
Even the odious Guido has been picking up on Welsh Labour’s cultivation of dependent parasitic people.
https://order-order.com/2017/08/01/taxpayers-spend-millions-funding-welsh-trade-union-pilgrims/
The public sector is now so wedded to the self- preservation effort that any notion of public service is rapidly disappearing. Rank and file workers are far more likely to be helpful than any middle manager tosser who is more concerned about his/her grade and its attendant salary and benefits package. It’s the same wasters that are supposed to be overseeing the efforts of the third sector and as stated before those monkeys are making hay like never before.
OK….which one of you is Al?
I liked this comment at https://nation.cymru/2017/new-homes-gwynedd-mon-plaid-cymru-welsh-democracy-labour/
Al
3rd August 2017 at 5:41 pm · Reply
“I really feel that this is a tipping point for Plaid Cymru. I really do.
We have the weak, vacuous leadership of Leanne Wood with her craven and completely counter-productive pleas for a “progressive alliance” with the British left to defeat “those evil Tories”.
We have just seen them gaining their lowest share of the vote in a parliamentary election for 30 years.
They recently refused the opportunity to lead Conwy County Council in a four party coalition, with well-respected Welsh Nationalist Gareth Jones as leader: just because they did not want to be tainted by association with the Conservative party. An opportunity to LEAD Conwy Council! Have people any idea how radical, how transformational that could have been in a county which features parts of the most anglicised areas in the whole of Wales??
As if by flourishing their tired and hackneyed socialist card, they could somehow magic out of existence, thousands of Conservative voters in Conwy, including many Welsh speakers in their midst.
Now, we have this, the ultimate insult to nationalists all over Wales: deferring to the Planning Inspectorate of England’s housing dictates in the last heartlands of the Welsh language.
A language which has been spoken in Wales for at least 1,500 years – and which is at the very core of Welsh national identity( whether you speak the language or not)- is to be wilfully jeopardised on the altar of yet more houses. By a Plaid Cymru council in Gwynedd of all places.
We’ve known for 50 years and more that speculative building developments have always correlated with a decline in Welsh language communities in Wales. But all these years of experience were simply not considered.
Talking of a Development Plan seems positively Orwellian in this context: there’s no emphasis on developing the Welsh language or identity here, no emphasis on developing Welsh entrepreneurship, no emphasis on developing Welsh confidence and public engagement and no emphasis on developing resilience and sustainability: two qualities which will surely be sorely needed in this next period following Brexit.
We face an existential crisis internally because of Plaid’s weakness and an external crisis because of Brexit.
There is however a way out of this crisis.
In 2020, the Assembly Elections will probably feature a STV voting system. Every single vote cast in Wales will then count. This can enable new, and smaller parties to emerge as part of Welsh democracy.
I would suggest that this is just the time to establish a new centre right nationalist grouping. ( let’s ditch the old tribal party label)
Some initial ideas for such a grouping:
* To stand unequivocally for Welsh Independence
* To push for decentralizing power from Cardiff Bay and establishing different government departments all over Wales.
* To promote a pro-business, pro-entrepreneurship country and launch a “Return to Wales” drive to attract Welsh exiles from all over the world.
* Introduce digital democracy so that all citizens of Wales can be full participants in the governing process
* To point out to people the huge burdens placed on our NHS by elderly retirees from England, and how those costs impinge negatively on the education of all Welsh pupils. To lobby the government of England to ensure that adequate finance follows these retirees..
* Develop a Welsh Migration points system with an emphasis on attracting educated and dynamic working-age migrants( similar to the system just introduced by Canada)
* Set up a new Welsh currency and a National Bank
* Prepare for the potential loss of European markets by developing an internal market for Welsh goods and services( in Wales mainly- but also for England and Scotland)
* Acknowledge the linguistic diversity of Wales: Special Linguistic status for Welsh speaking areas in the West; Intermediate Linguistic status for Less -Welsh speaking areas; Initial Linguistic status for mainly English-speaking areas: under the umbrella of a strong One Wales approach
* Utilise the talents and resources of older people in Wales, not only that older people have the opportunity to keep earning and contributing in various ways: but also to mentor and encourage young people
We really do not have anything to lose with the Brexit clusterfuck planned for us by the Tory and Labour London parties.
Why not adopt a backbone and insist on being a nation at last? We really could become one of the best small nations in the world , if the vision is there.
As the Good Word tells us: “the people perish where there is no vision””
My question: Has anybody else heard of ‘them’ introducing the STV voting system to the Assembly elections? Can’t imagine Labour being too excited about that.
Daffy. Great suggestions. How about also increasing the height of Offa’s Dyke by 3 metres and razor wire across the top, with observation posts every 100 metres along is length. Should help us to monitor inward migration.
Better still sell it like the original as a means to keep the Welsh out of England, then the English will pay for it — LOL!
It wasn’t me, though there’s little there I disagree with.
I’d rather see the rise of on entity that represents all Welsh people. Not one that needs to be labelled Left, Right, Liberal or anything else… just Cymru. Beyond that it was quite a good post… was watching to see if there was a competent response by a believer.
nation.cymru don’t half seem to be having a go at Plaid though. Been quite a few comments complaining about it… not that they don’t deserve it.
Daffy, I liked that particular contribution and the article under which it was made. However that site, while of great interest, attracts an awful lot of wet thinkers, people who are still hung up on being seen to be fair just when the neighboring nation is pissing down their backs and wanting thanks for keeping them warm !
That housing crisis in Gwynedd is a good example of how “policy” is still being steered from London. Councillors have been boxed into a catch 22 and maybe that was the time to make a stand, although seeing the risks of letting the compliant Carwyn and his load of muppets loose on local housing was an equally unpalatable prospect. Someone said that Plaid leaders had their say over Skates’ Ring ( or does someone else own it now that it’s a bad idea ? ) but failed abysmally to pipe up on a sustained basis on this matter. Too busy to tackle 2 issues in 1 week ? or just not interested in kicking up a fuss again ? Flooding that area with a lot of incoming buyers won’t do much for their long term electoral prospects anyway and young Sioni Jones seems to be developing a knack for guaging the local political temperature.
It’s called the moral high ground, Dafis.
For decades Plaid’s upper echelons have sought to position themselves on the moral high ground and feel superior to those who are screwing us.
On a more practical level, it becomes an excuse for doing nothing.
Ugh, I don’t quite get it. If a guy is pissing down your back he must be on higher ground than you, or up a ladder. So Plaid must really be on the moral lower ground for the piss to work its poison. Perverse or what ? As for doing nothing you’d think that even a soaking wet Plaidsman would stick a sharp object in the offending bit of plumbing to obtain some relief.
Or some ones on their knees. “Please sir, can I have some more?”. Clearly so much running down their backs its stained them yella’.
Though as you say the Councillors got boxed in. Labour really capitalised on it by having one of their guys seem like he was on the side of the Welsh language. I’d say that was well played by them even if their adversaries proved rather amateur. Shows whose boss.
I think Plaid want to be the under dogs fighting the good fight. Problem is… the opinion of us over the border has always amounted to being “bare footed idiots” or that we are ignorant, immoral and whatever. So they really just play into the hands of that. Their objectives just become more opaque by the year now.
A question, Daffy. I’ve read through your action points and can find very little to disagree with, just the odd detail or emphasis here and there, yet I’m rather far from being Right Wing. What therefore is reactionary about your manifesto, apart maybe from an understandable anti-English slant?
Easier for people to sweep these kind of things under the rug than actually investigate them. In the case of Carina Burn – the carer/s involved are “trusted” therefor their word will always trump that of her parents – and in turn the authorities will always take the “trusted” organisations word over the parents as well.
I remember a situation a while back where a child was beaten by their mothers boyfriend (not the child’s father) so Social Services came along and took the child away while the mother and boyfriend were investigated. The child actually went into care with the mothers parents who are “trusted” foster carers – strangely over the child’s father. The father wasn’t notified because as it turned out the mother and her “trusted” foster carer parents had stated he was not on the scene. Oh and as i understand it the boyfriend got away with it – because like so many of these people they claim they’re ill and have various difficulties.
So its always the route with the less hassle… whether its laziness or the fact that some things are so harrowing they do not have the emotional ability to function on a level to deal with the tasks that come across their desk.
social workers never recommend placing a child with the [biological]father – bad for business – for the council SS and family courts. Fathers usually working have to be milked for child support and legal aid battles, where would they be if fathers got to look after children. Foster carers get something like £400 per week plus extras per child. Any issues with the child, eg disability, money goes up.
In some towns in Wales you will notice a few [Englanders] buying up properties cheaply who turn out to be looking to foster children rarely local children more likely from England [Birmingham and other large conurbations].
I have been told about foster parents moving in, but I’m not clear who pays them if the children are also from over the border. Any information you have would be gratefully received.
As far as I am aware, not being in the foster care industry myself, the placing Council pays the fostering costs. I think you will find this is now done through fostering agencies rather than the Council – there are some big companies out there now, sometimes run or with an involvement of the wife or relative of family court judges – can be done with a phone call to the agency. Regularly advertise in the papers. Also produce “books” or “Portfolios” of children for adoption.
It has been a phenomenal growth industry in the last few years with even private equity/hedge funds buying up some of the agencies.
“……even private equity/hedge funds buying up some of the agencies.” That sums it all up – spivs from the City joining up with child traffickers/exploiters.. nice little earner with a veneer of respectability. Sadly it will also give genuine foster carers a bad name.
Glad that you’ve mentioned the possible involvement of family members of family court judges. The numerous conflicts of interest that are involved in this business – and it certainly is a business – are outrageous. This is also another business in which the services of corrupt psychiatrists prove very useful – a mental health report declaring the mother to be suffering from a ‘borderline personality disorder’ is all that’s needed to ensure that she loses custody (and usually access to) the child. Of course fathers are frequently cut out of the picture as well as are other members of the extended family. Bingo, another little one available to be fed into the fostering/adoption business.
As with child sexual abuse, the degree to which all this is being facilitated by corrupt health and welfare professionals assisted by a few dodgy people in legal circles is difficult to believe until one actually starts looking at the evidence and the same ‘professionals’ names crop up again and again…
Are you saying Jac that the services provided by Cymdeithas Gofal Ceredigion should not be provided, or that they are only provided for incomers? (Nice locals do not become homeless or have drug and alcohol problems or get into trouble?) Street homelessness is a problem in rural Wales – providing night shelters is a demanding and difficult task for staff but prevents people sleeping rough with all the health and social consequences that such a life style entails. Not everybody can have the kinde-kuche-kirche life.
I am saying that an unquantifiable amount of the funding received by both Cymdeithas Gofal and Pembrokeshire Care is spent on individuals and families that should not be the responsibility of any Welsh organisation using Welsh public funding.
In addition, there is the fact that both organisations are dabbling in the property market in ways that go well beyond what should be their remit.
Reverting to funding, I would like an explanation for why Pembrokeshire Care, with a net income for y/e 31.03.2016 of just £78,056, and virtually nothing in fixed assets, has net assets of £756,542.
And it’s ‘kinder, kirche, kuche’.
Jac as far as i am concerned we should help those who have probs. But lets be honest , there are some people who get helped by the state and have no will or wish to reform/ “get back on track” and frankly i am fed up of seeing trash being supported and perpetuated by the welfare state whilst those more deserving get Nought.
Secondly these so called care societies are rehousing “casualties” from England on an industrial scale in west wales. Just read your local paper and see whose for ever in courts , kicking off, disrupting housing estates. The welfare system is an industry, snd child abuse is a systematic organised racket as well.
sorry about the typo of course ‘kinder’. On the larger issue of how the service works, as you will know there is an acute shortage of housing in the council and housing association sectors for single homeless and couples without children. CGC places people in accommodation provided by private landlords and supports them, people with problems find great difficulty in getting access to the accommodation and rent bonds. Councils have been leasing from private landlords forever (if you look at the early history of the Poor Law, this practice was widespread), in this case the responsibility is delegated to a voluntary organisation. Plus new Welsh Assembly legislation makes Councils responsible for helping to prevent homelessness in all groups not only the narrow priority categories of the 1977 Act. This is surely a good thing and I believe was motivated by the desire to help groups such as homeless ex service people.
The attitude of ‘not from our parish’ is again much associated with both the Elizabethan and the Victorian Poor Law most communities resist provision on the basis that it provides a magnet for problems which of course they say they do not have themselves. Low pay, family discord and high rents and house prices (as well as substance abuse) are problems in rural mid Wales, though more hidden. I have nothing but respect for the staff who run street homelessness services because of the hostility they endure not only from some of their clients but from some people in the community. The radical cuts in in patient mental health provision in all areas has to be also be a factor in increasing the numbers needing help.
No, I don’t know that “there is an acute shortage of housing in the council and housing association sectors for single homeless and couples without children”
Are you talking of Wales or of Englandandwales, because of course social housing operates in an Englandandwales framework. Someone homeless in England can therefore become a priority for a Welsh council or housing association.
I have no objection to prioritising the homeless – as long as they have some connection with the area in which they’re seeking to be housed. But if you make yourself a soft touch then we all know what happens.
Which brings me to your ‘not from our parish’ comment. It’s human nature to prioritise the interests of your family, your friends, your neighbours, your community, your country. Are you saying this is wrong?
It’s pretty clear to me that you’re either a politician or someone else sucking on the teat of the public purse. No one would come here and spout the bollocks you spout unless they had a vested interested in defending the current system.
And you do this without addressing any of the points raised in this post.
Jac, please no not a politician, retired social worker, carer, Welsh learner and ordinary member of the Labour Party so no real axe to grind* apart from lots of contact over the years with homeless people in Mid Wales and have always had positive contacts with CGC. Aber attracts homeless people, some I know sleep on the beach. Some are of Ceredigion, some have moved in. Some wont be helped some will take the first step of going into a hostel. I cannot comment on the detailed accounts of CGC and can only comment as a consumer. I do know from many years experience that local authorities do not have the flexibility or imagination to run these kind of services but obviously there is a democratic deficit when they are contracted out.
* not entirely true I am committed to working with other parties for a better Wales and dislike tribal politics whether Labour Party or Plaid Cymru. So I was very sad when the Lib Dems failed to regain Brecon and Radnor, pleased that Ben Lake won Ceredigion and pleased Labour came back in South Wales.
I commented earlier that ….. ” At that point the usual torrent of hand wringing apologists will turn out, not in defence of the afflicted community but in defence of the “victim” of that justice ….”. I honestly didn’t expect it to start turning up so soon !
Adarynefoedd, whether it is your intention or not you really appear as an apologist. Now that would have been perfectly acceptable when all this nonsense started god knows how many years ago when none of us knew any better, but the catalogue of events over recent years and the nature of the offenders and the distortions now renders it all inexcusable and unacceptable. We have our indigenous social and behavioral problems and let’s make a serious effort at tackling those. Instead we now have public bodies that appear to see more virtue (or revenue?)in piling even more problems on top of those already within our communities. If that isn’t cynical exploitation then nothing is.
“Aber attracts homeless people”. You’re making my point for me.
“I am committed to working with other parties for a better Wales and dislike tribal politics whether Labour Party or Plaid Cymru. So I was very sad when the Lib Dems failed to regain Brecon and Radnor, pleased that Ben Lake won Ceredigion and pleased Labour came back in South Wales”. Labour’s donkey vote staying solid, despite Comrade Corbyn being at the helm, was very disappointing. The only plus is that more people might finally wake up to how totally ineffectual Plaid Cymru is.
Jac, you’ve missed a more telling part of Adarynefoedd’s biography than his (or her?) political affiliations. They are a retired social worker. It has been admitted by the police specialising in child sexual abuse that social work as a profession was infiltrated by organised paedophile gangs as long ago as the 1970s. The high profile scandals happened in Islington, Lambeth, north Wales, Belfast and Haringey, but it was admitted in judicial inquiries that the problem was massive and nationwide.
Social work as a profession has never come to terms with this, it is a profession very deeply in denial. I have three close friends who were social workers – they all told me that the problem was real and huge. All three eventually left the profession after coming to the conclusion that they just could not collude with the level of abuse and neglect that clients were subjected to. Like medicine, there is no room for whistleblowers in social work – your career will be over if you admit what is going on. One of the social workers who blew the whistle on the paedophile ring in Islington in the 1980s disappeared. It was concluded that they fled the country – they were known to have received death threats. Although of course there is another obvious possible explanation regarding the disappearance of someone who has received death threats after confronting organised crime. After all in 1992 five of the witnesses to the north Wales child abuse scandal were killed in an arson attack on a building in Brighton after someone had invited them all to a party there.
I’m old enough to remember a time when few people knew what a social worker was, I’m not sure we had any. I suspect social workers are another legacy of the 1960s.
The other thing that’s struck me is that as a profession it needs to attract those who can dispense ‘tough love’, but instead it attracts leftists and others who blame ‘the system’ for everything.
Which means that any homeless person is a victim of a heartless capitalist system; the fact that they’re feckless, irresponsible drunks has no bearing on their situation.
The fore-runners of social workers were ‘almoners’. It was an occupation that was considered very desirable for rather privileged young women to enter – ‘to help the poor’, although to be fair some of them were genuine and did a good job. The more dynamic ones grumbled about being stymied in their attempts to help people by the much more powerful professions like psychiatry.
I don’t think the problem with social work is that it attracts leftists, but rather that it attracts people who believe that they have an understanding of complex political and social theory when they do not. So they screw up. A very sharp senior sociologist in north Wales observed to me that ‘social work is an authoritarian profession that believes it is liberal’. He was quite right – and an authoritarian person who thinks that they’re a liberal is going to do a great deal of damage.
One should not overlook the amount of assistance given to poor quality social work by the secret family courts [in Wales/this area].
Gagging orders are dished out like smarties to cover up failings and any parents and Mckenzie friends who raise issues get banned.
How did John Owen (teacher/playwright) have 8 times the amount of morphine (prescribed drug under strict control) in his body when he “committed suicide” just before appearing in court.
Adarynefoedd – you are correct, it is not only people who are ‘not nice’ who encounter problems and need help and I share your concern regarding those people. Whilst I know nothing about Cymdeithas Gofal Ceredigion, I do have good knowledge of the practices of many other bodies who are being paid to offer ‘care’ and believe me there is a problem.
Abuse of clients, financial mismanagement and cronyism within the sector is widespread, whether it is in the statutory sector, the private sector or the Third sector. In Terms of the Third sector I first saw this in the mental health charity MIND and I presumed that it was just them. But then I discovered it in more and more mental health charities, so I presumed that there was just a problem in mental health. Then I discovered huge abuse and corruption in drugs and alcohol charities. Then I made friends with someone who uncovered the same in organisations providing ‘services’ for homeless women…
Whilst involved in a European sociology project a few years ago I realised that even the big NGOs are not immune from serving themselves rather than their clients. A couple of weeks ago I was chatting to someone who told me that even dear old Amnesty International is not all it claims to be either.
There is always the potential for unscrupulous people to abuse vulnerable people if they are working with them and that is undoubtedly part of the problem, but the Third sector syndrome I think has arisen because of their need to keep Governments happy to ensure that the big grants carry on rolling in. So if you are Childline or MIND you keep very quiet indeed in the face of children being abused by powerful people or in the care of the state or psychiatric patients abused or even killed at the hands of the NHS.
When a teenager is taken away from a poor family home and placed in an institution we call it ‘taken into care’. When a teenager is taken away from a rich family home and placed in an institution we call it a public boarding school. The only difference in the provision is the skill and professionalism of the staff and amount of cash the staff are paid for the task. Think about it.
Example :- Mr Kinnock, the fabulously wealthy Labour MP for Aberafan, sends his offspring to Atlantic College for ‘additional semester tuition’, however, working class people on the Sandfields estate in the constituency he represents have the council a third sector institution to provide ‘respite provision’.
A child taken into “care” at Cheam Preparatory School, Berkshire, England, later to spend a few weeks claiming housing benefit in Aberystwyth. Blames his background.
HRH Prince Charles recently paid a visit to Caban Bach in Blaenau Ffestiniog. The BBC conducted an interview…. “It’s heart warming to see such wonderful provision for un-loved, socially isolated, abandoned children from dysfunctional families to be catered for in such a caring environment”…….said Emrys Williams, aged seven.
Brychan, is that link supposed to be there?
Hmmmm, it’s not ‘heart warming’ to read such sentiments from a friend of so many child abusers, Jimmy Savile, Bishop Ball, Arthur C Clark, to name just a few.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/peter-ball-bishop-sex-abuse-prince-charles-links-cover-up-report-a7805071.html
His use of the term, ‘dysfuntional families’ is also beyond irony, of course there is Uncle Dickie and Andrew for starters. It’s not surprising that the French call paedophilia, ‘the English disease’ as the aristocratic and mercantile classes normalised it in their public school boarding schools, no wonder there have been so many dodgey MPs, Lords etc, ruling us. Here is a report on Mr Saxe Coburg’s and Tony Blair’s boarding schools, where as in many, many other public schools, care homes etc, CSA was rife and institutionalised.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jun/28/gordonstoun-child-sex-abuse-search-for-victims
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/31/famous-scottish-boarding-schools-named-child-abuse-inquiry/
Adarynefoedd – I am saying…
that Cymdeithas Gofal Ceredigion is a people trafficking outfit,
that over 80% of the client base relates to drug and alcohol addiction,
that this indigenous addiction rate is miniscule, backed up by the Rhoserchan referral statistics where the client majority were from local authorities outside Wales,
the activities of Cymdeithas Gofal perpetuate a business environment for the illegal narcotics business.
Homelessness farming and victim trafficking is damaging to Aberystwyth. As with recent successes in Newport, Gwent, where coordinated raids made by Gwent Police on ‘charity premisis’ leading to significant arrests and convictions, that a similar operation needs to be carried out by Dyfed Powys Police.
Question – How many of your vagrants are on the sex offenders register and are displaced persons resulting from such conviction?
… and who’s keeping a tight lid on that one ? This is the kind of information that is deliberately witheld as it suits the “business case” and the deviants who are participating as organisers and/or abusers.
I have used the term ‘people traffickers’ in a tweet just put out – wish I’d thought of it!
And thanks for reminding us about Rhoserchan.
The third sector partnership council at Welsh Government are tasked with monitoring how public funds are used by the third sector, Agendas, minutes and papers were last updated on Welsh Government website 13 February 2013. Hopefully the link below will take you there. If not, Jac is aware of my on-going correspondence with Welsh Government on the subject.
http://gov.wales/topics/people-and-communities/communities/voluntarysector/partnership/thirdsector-meeting-papers/?lang=en
Great article Jac – My response goes off on a slight tangent, as a concerned parent. In Saundersfoot there was the recent case of a paedophile and respected member of Tenby bowling club a Mr Michael Gouldingay who was caught with many indecent images of children as young as three on his computer. Some of the material was described as Class A i.e. ‘the worst’ including child rape, yet Gouldingay did not go to prison, in fact the court recorder Petts said ‘jailing Gouldingay for a relatively short period would only result in him returning to society an unchanged man’. How reassuring for the local community!
So my point is that not only are our communities having to put up with undesirables but that when caught and convicted they escape a custodial sentence and return to their community and in this case with the added cost of police protection. We are continually being let down by those that serve us and those who are appointed to uphold justice.
An unusual name, Gouldingay, so I was able to check. He was involved the motor trade, in Alrewas, which is somewhere near Burton-on-Trent. It looks like another retiree to the area.
Thank you so much for blogging about this Jac, this is a massive problem in Wales, far bigger than most people could ever imagine. I’ve been investigating the abuse and neglect in the mental health system for years now and started a blog about it last year. People began sending me info and I realised that a huge amount of the dysfunction in the mental health services is a direct result of them being used to conceal child sexual abuse by discrediting the victims or blaming other people – often the relatives of the child – for the abuse that the child has suffered at the hands of other people.
The sexual abuse of children in the ‘care’ system is endemic and the institutions of medicine, law and social care will just not admit it. Of course in the case of the North Wales abuse scandal, those children/young people were being taken to London and some were abused by figures in Westminster, so the cover-up of that particular scandal went as high as the House of Lords, the Home Office and the Welsh Office (I have blogged about all this in detail and named many of the people involved on my own site).
I have been following your revelations re the housing of sex offenders in rural Wales and I really couldn’t understand it at all. But guess what I found out today? That Adam Peat, the former Ombudsman for Wales, who failed to investigate a very serious complaint of mine in 2003 about the mental health professionals in Wales who had concealed the North Wales Child Abuse Scandal, was for years the Chief Exec of Tai Cymru, the body responsible for housing associations for Wales. After retiring from his position as Ombudsman he became the Chair of Magna Housing and still is. Magna Housing is a huge housing association based in Somerset and Dorset.
Police investigating child abuse have long since maintained that rather than being the work of loners in flashers macs, it is actually a form of organised crime, involving human trafficking. They believe that it is facilitated by a network of corrupt professionals, including those from medicine, the police, the law and the judiciary. My investigations have revealed that this is indeed true – and these days the networks stretch across the UK, as well as to Europe and beyond.
Now what if those networks included powerful people in the world of housing? It might actually explain why people involved with organised sexual abuse are managing to secure housing association properties in Wales whilst people who have grown up in the area and have been on the waiting list for years are still waiting…
And the current Ombudsman is Nick Bennett, former CEO of Community Housing Cymru, the successor body to Tai Cymru. What a coincidence!
It is a disgrace – and what is even more of a disgrace is that this is all done in plain sight. If bloggers like us and our correspondents can unearth what these people are up to, who their mates are and identify their company directorships etc, it suggests that a lot of the people who appointed them to their elevated positions also knew what they had been up to. Dunno about you Jac, but I’m sure that if I was known to have concealed a paedophile ring, many of whose victims had been found dead after daring to give evidence in Court or talk to journalists, I’d be finished – yet some of those bastards ended up in the Lords…
So many good people, like yourself, have been researching the networks of CSA for decades, the VIPs and the corruption and blackmail involved and yet the cover up continues, with the help of a complicit Media and draconian libel laws. The only way the whole corrupt system can be changed, is if the cover ups stop, the truth is acknowledged and people are held to account. It is obvious the establishment are making every effort to stop this from happening, even though the public know about VIP child abusers such as, Sir Jimmy Savile, Sir Nicholas Fairburn MP (Magic Circle), Sir Peter Hayman (MI6), Sir Knox Cunningham, Sir Cyril Smith MP, Sir William Van Straubenzee MP, Viscount Tonypandy, Sir Edward Heath, who is under current Police investigation and the list of alleged abusers as you know is endless.
A concerted effort was made recently, to stop Sir Leon Brittan and Lord Janner being outed as other child abusers, when the Police have evidence. It is clear that it goes straight to the top and must have involved the security services as all of these VIPs would have needed security clearance. According to John Mann MP, who handed a dossier, (which had originally been given to the tireless campaigner, the late Geoffrey Dickens MP, but conveniently ‘lost’ with 114 other, relevant missing files, by the Westminster Government), to the Police, there is a network that involved Sir Maxwell Knight at the top, who was placed in charge of monitoring subversion at MI5, so blackmail was key and is key to the conduct and position of many Politicians. John Mann also stated there are at least two current MPs who are suspected abusers. There are also alleged abusers in the House of Lords, so there are those who are definitely above the law.
The Social problems that Wales faces that Jac and yourself have described are definitely part of this corruption, it has permeated the whole system like a fish rotting from the head down, where child abusers from England can be relocated to Welsh communities and where child abusers such as John Allen and Dr Morris Fraser and Peter Righton were helped into influential jobs in the care system. Many people like yourself who have conducted research know this and much more, but how can the truth be fully addressed, when those at the top of the establishment know that the whole house of cards will fall and are trying everything in their power to stop that happening. Consequently, the changes that are desperately needed are never addressed, however for the health and well being of Welsh communities, the system has to change.
You’ve provided a couple of new names for me to research here Myfanwy, diolch yn fawr. There are indeed scores of people keeping schtum, who were either abusers themselves and of course many many more who covered up for abusers. The problem is not confined to any one political party, people from across the political spectrum are involved As are people at the top of numerous professions – medicine, law, the police, the judiciary. To the uninitiated it sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it isn’t. It’s not that everybody is a molester, they’re not, the problem is that in professions like medicine and the law, one’s career progress is entirely dependent upon one not rocking the boat. I know people in these professions who were deeply worried about what was going on but they were quite frank with me when I asked them why they didn’t speak out – ‘I’ll never work again if I do’. Decades of this has left everyone compromised and paralysed with fear. It is a dreadful situation and it’s why the scandals of youngsters in care being ‘groomed’ by gangs continues – the media is only reporting the cases in which white girls are being sexually used by South Asian men, but the sexual exploitation of children in care is happening across the UK, not just in towns with high populations of South Asian men.
Personally, I would find it very hard to continue on my career path, knowing that children were being abused. I do understand that the system is corrupt and people are compromised, which is more reason for Wales needing to have complete autonomy over all decision making, so England’s problems are not thrust upon Wales. Of course corruption and abusers would still exist, but they would be more controllable with a smaller population and more importantly, they would be ours to deal with not England’s, dysfunctional system.
Some contextual information about the John Mann statement here, and the “key” involvement of Spy chief, G. K. Young.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11975799/Former-MI6-deputy-director-George-Kennedy-Young-is-key-figure-in-missing-child-abuse-dossier-says-MP.html
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3oqx4nE35Z0
It’s often struck me that part of the problem of corruption in general, is the culture of creating organisations whose structures and workings are opaque. I’m not talking about making the private details of individuals using or dependent on services, but of the processes.
There is also a culture that mitigates against whistleblowers, thus making it very hard for concerned workers to call time on corrupt practices, or abuse of vulnerable people. The creation of a system of reporting that attaches no blame to whistleblowers who can show genuine concern is needed – and genuine concern can almost always be evidenced citing the operation of existing policies and procedures, e.g. abuse is still a result, despite workers clearly flagging their concerns, and yet being ignored by superiors.
One also thinks of the slightly less awful cases Children’s Services in places like Cardiff where abuses have taken place. Why are these things allowed to happen? Partly I think it’s down to a misplaced sense of security, which, whilst ostensibly to protect the vulnerable, be they children, the mentally ill, or vulnerable adults, in effect they too often provide a shield for those who will abuse. The phrase ‘Out of sight, out of mind’ springs to mind.
As a society, surely we should be demanding that watchdog bodies are set up that are made up of concerned citizens who are vetted, and who operate in a completely transparent manner, (i.e. they are legally obliged to report fully after the event) who are empowered to visit all and any institution, with access all areas, at whatever time of day or night, without warning. I’m not suggesting that this is a sinecure, but something along these lines could be set up relatively quickly, not be too expensive, (and a hell of a lot cheaper in human terms, which is really what is should be about) and would act as a serious deterrent to anyone who would think of abusing.
I agree that it is partly the lack of transparency in any organisation, that allows corruption to flourish. I also think it’s partly down to a culture of apathy and turning a blind eye in society, it’s astonishing that since the exposure of Jimmy Savile as a vile, predatory child abuser, with his high profile status, with access to institutions and connections to the royals etc, that the general public have not fully woken up to the sheer level of corruption that exists. This is not helped by a media which is not rigorous in challenging corruption.
Whistle blowers have not been supported, in many cases they have been vilified in their attempts for doing the right thing. At some level in institutions, there has been a strange acceptance or denial of child abuse, of not listening and believing children over their abusers, this is heard time and again in institutions such as the C of E and the Catholic church, Care homes and Public schools etc.
Mandatory reporting of CSA would help support Whistle blowers and could help break the culture of silence. This has been accepted into law in Australia, where England used to dump it’s poor, vulnerable children, who were then abused, as recently as the 1960s. One of the main advocates for Mandatory reporting is Robert Montagu, who was abused as a young boy by his father the MP and aristocrat, Victor Montagu, yet another VIP, who was above the law, as this article testifies.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/15/tory-mp-victor-montagu-escaped-child-sex-abuse-trial-in-1970s
Tellingly, the case of Montagu being let off by the Director of Public Prosecutions, reveals how corruption works at the highest levels. The DPP can take over any case in ‘Englandandwales’ and make the final ruling, as can be seen in the case of Montagu, there was total leniency. Cyril Smith MP was alleged to boast when threaten with litigation over his abuses, that he had nothing to worry about because he was friends with the DPP.
Here again the power is yet again taken away from Wales through the judiciary, ultimately lumped in with ‘Englandandwales’ we have no control over any form of corruption that is imposed upon us, in every institution.
first to comment – not because I have any sudden insight that solves all these problems – but due to the overwhelming stench of idle indifference blended with serial incompetence and topped off with a generous helping of self seeking corruption.
As written previously so many of these entities are now run to provide the senior execs with a generous salary and benefits far beyond anything they could get in an “open market” but to which they feel entitled due to spurious comparisons made with local authority execs ( they too propped up by some zany comparative “market” exercises)and even private commercial entities.
To perpetuate their existence these bodies then broaden their operating base to capture additional demographic groups hence the “trade” in dysfunctional persons and families. Large metropolitan authorities in England, mainly, dilute their problems by shipping out serious cases for some rehab and therapy by breathing a new set of air molecules in assorted parts of Wales. No doubt some kind of lump sum payment is made to kick off the process but in due course the main source of funds is the Cynulliad.
The scarce resources allocated to Wales are stretched even further by providing budgets for sharp operators who house and “care” for recipients who are often unhappy or ill at ease in their new environment. And that’s before we factor in the further social costs deriving the array of anti social behaviours the new arrivals fetch in with them.
Tackling this crisis will need at least a 2 pronged attack. In very simple sketchy terms – the first programme should address all existing claims of mismanagement or maladministration, including financial corruption and deviant exploitation of minors and any other vulnerable groups. At the same time a second programme should be launched to stop any further transfers of any social housing or benefit claimants from any English authority. This to be accompanied by a steady reduction in the number of existing places granted to such incomers. This would serve to reduce the attractiveness of this sector as an income generator for the assortment of chancers and spivs that are so prevalent within it. The thorough conduct of the first programme mentioned above would also help to weed out some of the opportunists, who are not deviants themselves, but may be quite happy to tolerate such activity if it “oils wheels” and facilitates continuity of prosperity.
So, who has the balls to get cracking on this ? I was criticised, rightly , on here a few weeks ago for venturing to predict that a form of vigilante response would emerge in due course to the persistent misconduct of certain elements who have relocated to Wales. I accept that we too have our own indigenous native brand of horrible little bastards who need sorting but in such situations the last thing a rational person would do is top it up with more bags of crap from over the border ! I have to conclude therefore that unless someone gets off the pot rapidly the situation will deteriorate to a point where patience will be exhausted and some paedo, drug dealer or persistent thief will end up on the receiving end of some sharp “community justice”. At that point the usual torrent of hand wringing apologists will turn out, not in defence of the afflicted community but in defence of the “victim” of that justice dished out in a deserted car park or kids’ play ground.
That’s a big problem with Plaid Cymru, it mistakes scumbags for ‘victims’. And Plaid is always looking for ‘victims’ to help, to prove how ‘caring’ it is. Which explains why it stays silent about paedophiles and others being dumped in Wales and housed with money from the Welsh public purse.
Plaid Cymru is not a party that represents the interests of the Welsh people, it prefers to promote abstractions and theories, or fight battles that have nothing to do with Wales.
I recently had a little run-in on Twitter with some young Plaidistas, when I checked them out it seemed their real concern was Brexit . . . how awful it was . . . how fascists had voted for it! I swear these fuckers – these self-styled ‘citizens of the world’ – care more about Brexit, Trump, and other issues than they do about Wales.
Plaid is like some broken-down old truck blocking a narrow road. Soon, more people will realise that, and there’ll be enough people to push it aside so Wales can progress.
I’m seeing quite a few conversation on twitter about this; I mean how pretty much useless Plaid Cymru is. It was particularly brought to light with Gwynedd County Council rubber stamping the LDP for thousands of new builds in Gwynedd this last week.
I think they may do it themselves either because they’re trying to reach pro-EU and anti-Corbyn malcontents or through continued ineptitude. Sticking to the pro-EU stance when Wales voted out seemed a bit odd unless all they really care about is the votes. That and poaching Labour malcontents who were not impressed by Corbyn… though Welsh Labour saw that move coming I think. Clearly trying to build a new audience/voter base to move themselves away from the increasingly discontented nationalist voice.
I think there’s a saying or something about being wary of people who seek power at all costs – its very appropriate here.
Excellent post again Jac. Your efforts are very much appreciated. I shall be directing detailed enquiries to central government and local government to establish how public funds have been used by these “Care Societies” in West Wales. I shall also be directing enquiries to Welsh Government’s internal and external auditors regarding compliance with guidance documentation published by Welsh Government’s “Grants Centre of Excellence” team. I shall keep you informed of developments.
As you say, Wynne, “Care Societies”, because the more one looks at them the more one sees property businesses – funded from the public purse!
I read this with sadness, as it seems that in Wales we have so many organisations charged with the care of the legion of lawbreakers that are so rife in rural Wales! It seems to me that Wales has become analogous to what the American colonies once were, until they had the good sense, (sadly short lived) to rebel and declare themselves independent, a repository for manifest ‘undesirables’. This led to the colonisation of Australia, where export of undesirables, (disproportionately Welsh, and including the Welsh Chartist leaders) lasted until the Australians sensibly objected in the mid 19th century.
Then England had to reform it’s penal system,but now, in post industrial Wales, with a supine and collaborative Welsh Labour government and it’s spineless Plaid sidekick, we are now seeing our country used as a dumping ground for England’s undesirables. I don’t doubt for a minute that there are Welsh people who have committed despicable crimes towards children, and we must, as the community that produced them, ‘own’ them, and deal with them. but this does not mean we should deal with England’s problem people, they should own their own problems, and our politicians should be questioning the policies of relocation of English criminals and social problems to Welsh communities, not colluding or remaining silent.
Your highlighting of these issues is a vital step in the right direction, but as you seem to allude to, the real fight back must come from the communities themselves, and whilst there is obviously some kind of protest movement in many localities, there seems to be little appetite to show that the cause is the relationship that exists between Wales and England, to the detriment of Wales. The craven approach of both the Welsh government and Plaid’s total silence just bolsters the notion amongst a sizeable proportion of Welsh people that we are not fit to rule ourselves – and so again a lack of backbone, a lack of assertion wins the day and makes this belief self-fulfilling.