This week’s tale comes from Powys. It’s an old story with a modern twist. Local farmers and others up against those with more money and political clout, with the twist being the environmental angle.
The Crown Estate is involved, and we also encounter that ultimate expression of the environmental scam – ‘natural capital’, which puts a price tag (in the form of grants and subsidies expected) on every blade of grass.
◊
ON THE BLACK HILL
The area we’re going to focus on is roughly halfway between Builth and the border, an area containing Glascwm Hill (pinned) and the Black Hill. There are quite a few grouse butts in the vicinity.
For reasons I didn’t query, the area is known as Ireland Moor. This contribution from the Ramblers confirms that and gives a little more information.
We’ll begin with establishing ownership of the land. And we start with a company called Ireland Moor Ltd (IM), registered in Jersey. Below is a clip from the Jersey companies registry.
This company was wound up early in 2018, perhaps because it had been superseded by Ireland Moor Conservation Ltd (IMC), formed in July 2015. For more information, let’s turn to the new company.
The founding director was William Andrew Lewis Duff Gordon, and he was joined on June 6, 2016, by his three brothers. But Tom, the banker, left after just one day. He is with crypto outfit Coinbase.
Let’s turn to the charges for IMC, see who’s owed money.
I assume the first charge is for the purchase of Ireland Moor. The two creditors named are the Jersey-registered Ireland Moor Ltd, and Edward Warren Filmer. But if the land was owned by the Jersey company, does that mean the old company loaned the new company the money to buy the land?
UPDATE 16.10.2024: A comment to the blog tells me Filmer’s full name is Edward Warren Filmer Cabrera, and he’s linked with companies registered in Venezuela.
You’ll see four Land Registry title documents shown there, and here they are, in the order listed: WA484809 (no plan available), WA404806 (no plan available), WA667700 (with plan), and CYM427489 (with plan).
I’ve combined the two plans, but it leaves us with a problem.
What we know is that the total price said to have been paid for the four titles was £1,160,000. (With £600,000 being mentioned as the buyer’s contribution in the legal charge.) But do these two plans cover the four titles, or are there plans missing?
Seeing as the Jersey registry tells us Ireland Moor Ltd is dissolved, then who now holds the debt against Ireland Moor Conservation Ltd? Has it all passed to the other name on the charge, Edward Warren Filmer?
The only company I can find with which Filmer’s involved is CGM Farming Ltd, formed in March 2015, just a few months before IMC.
Though ‘Farming’ is rather misleading, for this company’s in the business of, “Hunting, trapping and related service activities“. So I got to wondering about the name. Might the ‘GM’ stand for grouse moor(s)? And if so, what could the ‘C’ mean?
The Companies House filings give the address of an accountancy firm in Weybridge, Surry for CGM, but tell us Filmer lives in Wales.
There is another title mentioned on that first charge, under ‘Schedule 1’, page 16. This is against William Andrew Lewis Duff Gordon rather than the company.
Though the dates given in Schedule 1 do not tally with those given elsewhere. In fact, the dates given are before Ireland Moor Conservation Ltd was even formed! Something’s not right here.
It relates to “land lying to the south of Cwmpiben barn“. (Though I think that should read ‘Cwm-piban’.) It’s for a trifling £40,000. Here’s the title document and plan. And here it is pinned on the OS map. Not a million miles from Ireland Moor.
The other outstanding charges against Ireland Moor Conservation Ltd are, first, with Lloyds Bank (December 2016). Another with Lloyds (January 2017), secured against the 7000 acres at Ireland Moor. With a further charge with Lloyds against ‘Gwaithla bungalow’, at Gladestry.
◊
POWYS MOORLAND PARTNERSHIP
The problem relayed to me is that local farmer-graziers fear there are plans afoot that will adversely affect them, and this explains them being kept out of the loop.
Let’s start with the Powys Moorland Partnership (PMP). I was unable to establish when this outfit began life, but it visited Ireland Moor in September 2017. It’s funded by the ‘Welsh Government’ through the Sustainable Management Scheme.
Where we read . . .
I’m sure you’ve clocked the £600,000. Is this the same sum we saw earlier, and which I assumed was the contribution made by Ireland Moor Environmental Ltd to the £1,160,000 purchase price of the four titles?
If so, then what I didn’t know then of course was the source of that money.
Though there’s also something odd about PMP. On it’s homepage it describes itself as a “3 year collaborative project“, but we know it’s been running for at least seven years. And in that mission statement there is no mention of the farmers who graze the land.
So who exactly are the partners in this ‘partnership’?
Also note that the capture above, from the Powys Moorland Partnership website, talks of: “. . . nearly 20,000 acres of moorland stretching from the Llanthony Valley in the south of the county to Beguildy common in the north . . . ”
Which is 43 miles by road, and not a lot less for a fit and adventurous crow. What’s more, Llanthony is not in “the south of the county“, it’s in Sir Fynwy (Monmouthshire).
If we’re talking about just 20,000 acres, over that distance, and we know that 7,000 are accounted for on the Black Hill and Glascwm Hill, then the other 13,000 must be scattered about in disparate parcels.
Though something I noticed about Llanthony on the OS map was the proximity of grouse butts. Is that what the Powys Moorland Partnership is all about?
Maybe the ‘Welsh Government’, through the Sustainable Management Scheme, and more locally, the Powys Moorland Partnership, has accepted, even encouraged, some kind of alliance between local sporting interests and the environmental lobby.
The Crown Estate may also be involved. The map below, by Guy Shrubsole, was available through WalesOnline. It shows considerable Crown Estate holdings in the area.
Quite a concentration in a small area. But it all makes sense.
Because it seems the PMP is little more than a vehicle for the Duff Gordons and their circle. Men like Peter Hood who rents the shooting rights on 5000-acre Beacon Hill from the Crown Estate.
Hood of course is one of those listed in the Powys Moorland Partnership’s ‘Who’s Who’, along with his gamekeeper David Thomas. Also there is Will Duff Gordon.
I believe the owners of the uplands we’ve looked at, including the Crown Estate and the Duff Gordons, have reached an understanding with the environmental lobby. The planet savers will turn a blind eye to the killing of grouse and the critters that prey on them to view the whole shebang through green-tinted glasses.
And of course, seeing as some farms might became unviable without their upland grazing the acquisitive interlopers of the local Radnorshire Wildlife Trust (RWT) look forward to more land becoming available.
The RWT has received £1,161,740 from the ‘Welsh Government’ in grants over the past 4 years. And it rises every year! Corruption Bay has no money for farmers, but plenty for those who put farmers out of business, and the scavengers who benefit.
◊
NATURAL CAPITAL
If we go back to the PMP website, we see a tab ‘Natural Capital’, so click on it. The opening paragraph reads:
The term ‘Natural Capital’ refers to the “stock of renewable and non-renewable natural resources (e.g. plants, animals, air, water, soils, minerals) that combine to yield a flow of benefits to people.” (Source: Natural Capital Protocol (2016).
Note the year, 2016. Which ties in perfectly with this document, prepared for the Fifth Assembly (2016 – 2021). Within it we find a contribution by Nia Seaton, asking. ‘Are we neglecting our natural capital?‘
I think it’s reasonable to assume the ‘Natural Capital’ bandwagon started rolling in Wales in or before 2015. Those ‘in the know’, those with contacts, would have had advance warning.
The natural capital report we’re looking at was prepared for PMP by environmental economist Phil Cryle, Duncan Royle, and Ian Dickie of Economics for the Environment Consultancy Ltd (eftec).
With the efforts of their labour reviewed by Dr Rob Tinch, also of eftec. Cosy!
Those involved clearly envision money being made available in the years ahead from exploiting ‘natural capital’. Yes, I know they want us to see it as conservation, but that’s no longer the motive.
The motive now is to put a price on, and thereby capitalise on, just about every square foot of heather, every cubic metre of soil. Even the air we breathe! And the payment won’t be a warm glow, it’ll be hard cash.
And I’m serious about the air we breathe. For as you can see, it’s projected to be a nice little earner in the years ahead.
◊
CONCLUSION
Yet again, we see politicians and others in Corruption Bay throwing money at anybody who can work the magic words ‘environment’, or ‘habitat’, or ‘conservation’, into their pitch for funding. Or into any other way of making money.
Which explains tax haven company Ireland Moor Ltd rebranding itself to Ireland Moor Conservation Ltd. For public money going to a Jersey-registered company would not look good.
The relationship between those two companies, and more especially the ownership of the original company, needs to be established. As does the identity and the role of Edward Filmer.
Because I couldn’t help but notice that the other projects funded by the Sustainable Management Scheme have as their ‘lead organisation’ a county council, a national park, a wildlife trust, or a Community Interest Company, but with Ireland Moor Conservation Ltd public funding was given to a private limited company with shares.
And those shares are divvied up within a very wealthy family.
Discussions and planning by the Powys Moorland Partners (aka Ireland Moor Conservation Ltd), and certain other parties, seem to exclude the graziers.
You don’t need a crystal ball to see what’s happening here. And where it’s headed. Grouse shooting can be very profitable. And as we read earlier, the ‘Welsh Government’ is already funding gamekeeper jobs via the PMP.
Finally, let’s not forget natural capital, which can be greatly enhanced by activities such as planting trees. Or, to put it crudely, greenwashing. I’m told Aviva, partner to WWF, has been spoken of favourably, and more than once, by the Duff Gordons.
The graziers are being sold out; they and their sheep are in the way . . . and getting rid of them dovetails perfectly with the ‘Welsh Government’s desire to end livestock farming.
♦ end ♦
© Royston Jones 2024
I had to laugh when I read the DT article about de-colonising David Lloyd George’s home. Is there any limit, any boundary, any financial constraint, any intellectual restraint, any self respect or self awareness left in these people ? The madhouse is prospering in Cardiff Bay while the country trickles down the drain with increasing speed.
That’s why devolution is a disaster. They can get away with this nonsense, run down the economy, because everything is funded by the block grant from London, and also because few really take an interest in Corruption Bay. Just imagine if they said: ‘We’re going to introduce an extra tax, just for Wales, so we can decolonise our historical sites’. People would definitely sit up and take notice. (I’m saying this very thing in the blog piece I’m finishing now, ready for Monday.)
Still can’t access X Twitter to load a comment. Saw your comment about that tract of Powys land getting carved up into 3 plots ! Good luck with that. Quite alarming to see who have their dirty mitts involved in this project, and no doubt some more as soon as they convince Powys CC that they need more land to make the idea really work. All funded by government at UK and Welsh levels. Black Mountain Coleg along with a host of entitled manipulative bodies are involved so how come Powys fell for this. They would have been better served putting those 38 acres into a single tenancy to see how a real crop farmer could make it work. Who knows, one of the people who turns up to farm a postage stamp plot might done a good job with a decent sized tract of land. Of course it wouldn’t score the same level of points on the virtue signaling scale these silly bastards inhabit.
The lead organisation, Social Farms and Gardens Ltd, moved from Bristol to Newtown in August. No doubt lured by the prospect of Welsh public funding.
From the website: “We’re responding to new demand for fresh food in local communities, in Powys schools and in nearby cities.”. Two points. 1/ They’ll be pushing vegetarianism and veganism on local schoolkids. 2/ Where are the “nearby cities“?
There’s a mention of a “trade link with Birmingham” on the website which is very optimistic when one considers that only a few years ago certain ethnicities were coming to mid Wales to rustle sheep for “smokies” or sourcing said smokies from enterprising hillbillies anywhere between north Sir Gar and top end of Powys. Maybe the palates of those people have now evolved to a taste for greens and roots from the same patch. Progress, bruvver, might even lead to a barter economy where exotic substances for recreational use might be exchanged for this top quality cuisine material.
Would like to get in touch with you privately – is that possible, Royston/Jac?
Write to editor@jacothenorth.net.
Diolch. Bydda i. Efallai dim y prynhawn ‘ma ond, yn fuan.
Honourable mention to Sir John. Didn’t know you guys were neighbours. He was not a fake scientist and would have pondered long and hard over the diagnosis and especially the remedies chosen by the new generation of bandwagon riders and influencers.
By the start of the 21st century people like Sir John were fading out of the picture, perhaps trotted out for special ceremonial events, but their more measured approach was being trampled by the urgency of getting a plausible story out to the gullible masses. That’s when shallow little turds with bags of letters after their names were churning out convenience science so that fuckwits like that Beeb wanker Rowlatts, an Oxbridge PPE twat, could wax on endlessly on his special bulletins.
Probably seen this Jac but the gruesome twosome are back in business together again & funnily enough Welsh Labour kept quiet about it..
Former minister Lee Waters, who was behind Wales’ 20mph speed limit restrictions, has been drafted in to help ministers hit the 20,000 housing target & NHS problems by carrying out a “very rapid deep dive” of each planning application & problem as they come forward..
Lets hope Wales is not covered in them windfarms and solar energy before you can say 20 mph…
Julie James pledges to meet Wales’ 20,000 affordable homes target – BBC News
I wouldn’t trust WG with this problem for all sorts of reasons. For one, try to get them to give a definition of ‘affordable’. Then there’s the fact that housebuilders, both the traditionally private companies and the now privatised housing associations, could build and fill 20,000 new homes on the M4 and A55 corridors but this wouldn’t really address the problem.
Then, the nature of the problem differs from area to area. Back in Swansea there may be a genuine lack of new, affordable homes; but where I live now, in Meirionnydd, the problem is houses and cottages being bought for holiday homes or by people wanting to move here permanently, often retirees. Deal with these problems and more properties become available for locals, meaning few new properties would be needed.
But with Corruption Bay working on it we know it’s going to be a disaster. The green lobby will be involved, and there’ll have to be a trans input, and every property built will have to acknowledge Wales’s terrible guilt over slavery.
………..and that’s before a quota is established for settlement of all sorts of incoming ethnicities with prior claims over any native in the queue. I’d make exception for Gurkhas who might choose to live and work here after completion of service and the Afghans who served in their army but eventually betrayed by those other nations who chickened out of any serious attempt to snuff the Taliban.
Fresh from the F.T I quote :
….Among the other loopholes that could be addressed are relief from IHT for business assets and agricultural land. Removing these wholesale would raise another £2bn by the end of the forecast period…..
Original source is : Rachel Reeves looking at sweeping inheritance tax changes in Budget (ft.com .
Easy to dismiss her as a thick bitch but we know that is not the case. She is a schemer will a squad of dirty tricks advisers to support her. I’m not against the principle of taxing inherited land but government should continue the exemption for land that is evidently used for agriculture. The toffs and spivs who are now hoarding land as portfolios for exploitation should be made to pay this tax in full without any exemptions for ownership vested in offshore companies, trusts or other devices originally created for the purposes of evasion or mitigation. Reeves and Co can hang those fuckers out to dry whenever she wishes but she won’t because they are all in the same or overlapping bubbles.
More on this topic today. Agricultural Property Relief is the inheritance tax mitigation available to farmers. Sadly wide boys who have acquired large tracts of land have benefitted or attempted to benefit without ever seeing livestock, crops or even a tractor. This gateway must only be open for real farmers.
Saw your tweet about the super rich scooping up even more parcels of good land in Ireland and the anxiety among the agri sector in that country. Inter alia, 2 extremely relevant entities mentioned in the article – “Family farms” and “active farms” – are just as relevant in our context here in Wales. O’Leary and the stud/racing fraternity are really an extension of the class of vermin that are out to grab huge swathes of Welsh countryside, so no real points of difference. They may be Irish but they stash their wealth globally as opportunities arise. The parasites who infest Wales are often agents for the rich global elites. They are rich or become rich by fronting various
scamsschemes and engage with lightweights like government ministers and their lackeys to secure deal to enrich themselves and their masters with little or no return to our blighted rural communities.postscript – bit surprised by your lack of modern green chemistry knowledge, you should know that Bison absorb CO2, and expel it as O2 and H2O, eliminating the C element completely by using the Milliband process, which oddly enough is also useful for creating an alternative truth. Einstein and others now consigned to the dustbin of fake history of scientific thought.
Thanks for that, I was struggling to work out the difference between cow farts and the flatulence of the totally unrelated bison. Being serious, who the hell do they expect to believe this crap?
In all seriousness I am appalled by the evident lack of response to various announcements that the madman Milliband is going to frit away billions on his green schemes most of which will be soaked up by an array of corporate scammers who have no real concern or knowledge of the real “green” issues. There is a crass indifference among some many people. They moan about escalating energy prices and related inflationary pressures but still swallow without question loads of bullshit from various influencers.
Check this.
I shall be returning to this subject in the piece going out next week, after more information has come to light regarding those involved at Ireland Moor.
In the company filings for 2018, the last year before it was dissolved, Jersey-registered Ireland Moor Ltd lists as its sole shareholder, Mr Edward Warren Filmer, who gives his correspondence address as:
Calle Rio Orinoco,
Edif Residencias Hato Vlejo
Piso 4,Apto 8,
Las Mercedes,
Venezuela,
1061
From https://www.freebmd.org.uk :
FILMER, Edward W b. Q3 1958 Surrey North; mother: CABREBA*
*this looks like a transcription error, and it should be Cabrera, perhaps the de Cabrera dynasty of Wentworth Estate, Virginia Water, Surrey who played host for some years to exiled Chilean military dictator General Augusto Pinochet?
You’re right. It is Cabrera. Now I have this maybe I can get somewhere. Many thanks.
And the lies and misinformation continues by the green mob/cartel..
Renewables and solar risk for Wales, says industry experts – BBC News
‘Let’s run faster – get over the cliff edge sooner’
Just took a look at Renewables and solar risk for Wales, says industry experts – BBC News mentioned on Jac’s X-Twitter site. “Keep up” says the empty headed spokesperson, “fill your fields with Green industry”. When we are unable to work, travel or eat because of all that clutter covering our country the spokesperson will have buggered off back to England for her next job in promoting another round of green gospels.
And even more BBC lies and blatant propaganda continues.
Ukraine built more wind farms than Wales despite Russia war – experts – BBC News
That plant in Ukraine has been going for a year. Which means it was planned and built before the war started. No doubt we’re expected to believe that the turbines were erected under Russian bombardment.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/10/13/boom-internal-migration-britons-quit-england-for-scotland/
You’d think according to Fleet Street that the rise of ‘nasty nationalism’ would be putting them off. It’s also hardly an advertisement for the UK being better together when our economies are weaker so we get flooded with influx from the ‘Mother Country’.
Back in 2014 it was reported that a fair segment of Anglos living in Scotland were pro- independence. Unlike the high % of trash that migrate to Wales. We need more Anglos with an urge to leave the mother country far behind them.
In fairness every ‘Anglo’ I’ve spoken to on the subject is supportive or at least sympathetic. Then again these days I rarely cross paths with the core cohort who’d most likely be dead against, older, retiree/holidaymaker sorts.
Also, Jac I accidentally unsubscribed from reply notifications and don’t know how to resub.
Nor me. Will give it some thought.
I got an email notifying me of this comment so I guess all’s well!
The whole land grabbing issue in wales is going to get a whole lot worse if the likes of the NFU and FUW get their way and the Welsh Government abandons efforts to integrate greater tree cover and habitat management into active livestock systems.
The irony of course is that such farming groups are often the loudest voices against such things. No wonder ever fewer farmers are retaining their memberships of the two major unions.
I’m hearing from a number of quarters that the leadership of both unions have been won over. This is classic ‘decapitation’. My guess would be that the leaders, and certain other farmers, in outfits like Farming Connect, NFFN, and other groups have been told, ‘Look, a lot of farms will have to go, but you play ball with us and you’ll survive.’
it all depends on the setting. The likes of Abi Reader (due to take over as NFU president next year) will talk a good talk for the press – most of it nonsense to be honest. But plays no role what so ever in anything of substance when it matters.
Aled is obsessed with feeding lamb to china and Ian (FUW) is a nice chap with not much to say.
if truth be told they were terrified by the No Farmers, No Food lot as it showed them how out of touch they were with real farmers. Of course for everyone joining that movement, you have more going over to the likes of NFFN.
as far as I can see NFFN is growing, because regardless of where you stand on the environment or carbon etc, that business model is simply more viable in the long term. Farmers are seeing their neighbours cutting costs and increasing profits and are wanting some of that too.
On the general matter of abuse of natural resources, our rural environment, and land-grabbing have you heard any more about the plans to turn the lower Elenydd, roughly Tregaron to Llyn Brianne, into big turbine park? Any mention of creation of access in the area or sightings of odd strangers ?
Received information about a development planned for Mynydd Pencarreg, between Lampeter and Rhydycymerau. And another one described as being, “north of Pumsaint and south east of Llanddewi Brefi“.
That’s generally to the S.W of the areas reported some months ago and a stepping stone to the Brechfa Forest “park” extending from above Alltwalis over beyond Brechfa.
Before long, they’ll all link up.
Dafis I think you are totally underestimating the situation. Miliband’s Labour Government, with Plaid Cymru, and the Green Party and the few Lib Dems that still exist in Wales, all want to turn Wales entirely into a land of whirling foreign Wind Turbines and Chines Solar Panels with fields full of giant LifP Batteries and Pylons. All is quietly being accepted by the public in Cymru, except by the Plaid Cymru Nimby folk in Ynys Mon – led by Wales’ Chief Nimby Rhun – OK everywhere else but not in Rhun’s Anglesey. The ladies with pink hair, in both the Commons and the Lords, say nothing. The blue rinse Tory Ladies no longer exist. I could not stomach ever voting for Reform. So I think I’ll just spoil my ballot paper next election.. There are no active opponents to this new form of ‘flooding’ other than Nimby Settler folk who have retired here and now their patio window view is threatened – Towy Valley a prime example. Come to think of it Dafis – I’ve not seen anything in the Welsh Media from you. Stop writing anonymously and come out of Jac’s Blog closet. This is a gigantic flooding of the hills with foreign metal for an erratic National Grid. It’s not the flooding of one village with water, as in the sixties, as bad and sad as that was, it’s the flooding of Cymru! Even CPRW legitimizes Wind Power as viable. What’s the position of GWLAD in all this?
Welsh media ? What’s that ? Are you referring to Llais y Sais with its readership soon to be contained in a medium sized minibus ? more likely to get a useful discussion on here where at least we learn from well executed research and pooling of untainted reporting of local knowledge, like we had when locals in Upper Towy ( many farmers, not goodlifers) were able to tell us in detail about local conditions. Many of us are able to feed info on the ground about a variety of topics which gets far closer to the truth than WoL or N.C ever get. No cutting and pasting of P.R Dept’s press releases here.
As for Gwlad’s position you need to ask them. Given their general common sense attitudes I suspect they will give you a sane, logical response. Along with Propel they are more likely in the very long term to deliver lasting results. Sadly both you and I will have moved on to our next dimensions.
Dafis why don’t you come out openly and publicly? You could be far more credible!
My name is Ioan Richard, aged 80yrs, living alone in an isolated bungalow, and I am publicly available in the Swansea area B.T. telephone directory. Are you under some threat from people like the Wind Turbine Tafia? If so, report it to the Police. I suffered that from the British Wind Energy Association with their Internet Web postings of “We know where you live!”. The entire of Wales / Cymru is under threat because cowardly Welsh people will not speak up openly and the Wales Politicians, of all shite political parties, thrive on this cowardice (including the Plaid Cymru woke green folk). Put up or shut up !
Ioan, Dafis is onside. Just because he’s not writing letter after letter to newspapers like you and Lyn doesn’t suggest any different. Stop alienating people on your side.
You are overly polite Jac. I don’t know “Lyn” but know of Ioan who has a history of tackling these issues, so respect where it matters. However my choice is to remain anonymous, so Ioan keep yer fuckin’ nose out and stick it where it’s needed. I do it my way and will not be dictated by likes of you. In that respect you are no different to all those petty party line dictators that occupy the Plaid and Labour space who insist that all conform to some stupid template. Enough said.
Apologies for being slightly off topic but since this article has touched on nobility, I have noticed that Glynllifon is back on the market this time being sold by Sidney Phillips.
Ah! Glynllifon and those who have graced its noble halls. Now you’re talking real nobility!
Going even further off topic but linked to the matter of nobility it seems that Democrat Grandee Obama is not impressed by the idleness of his fellow black males – . Speccie reports “.he ( Obama).. said black men are not giving Kamala Harris enough support. He said her lukewarm reception among black voters ‘seems to be more pronounced with the brothers’. Nothing more entertaining than a camp divided. Trump’s mob seem to stick together. Maybe being a touch bigotted is no bad thing when it comes to elections !
I think you’ll find more bigotry on t’other side.
Depends which type of bigotry you look for. Democrat bigots tend to be concerned about conforming to modernist bullshit like climate, gender and generally talking down to other nations about what their priorities ought to be. Republican bigots would prefer things if there weren’t any darkies wearing MAGA hats and it’s only rarely you catch Trump standing too close to a tinted person unless it’s an attractive female ! USA seems to offer a wide range of defectives right now with blends of bigotry to suit all tastes.
I don’t think many consider Trump to be a racist. There’s no evidence I’m aware of.
You can find a whole host of redneck racists among his most loyal followers.
Politics isn’t straightforward, and parties aren’t homogenous. Because Lincoln was a Republican Southern whites voted Democrat for a century or more after the Civil War. So in the 1960s the Democratic Party contained far left liberals in California and the East Coast, and a grouping known as ‘Southern Democrats’, who were far right and opposed to Civil Rights. But they were all Democrats.
Not kidding.The cosy collaboration of zany neo-lefties with globalist corporate bandits is ample current testimony of this weird phenomenon. Hard to find a political home for straight white working or middle class man
The left today is a mess of contradictions. Hostile to religion – loves Islam. Believes in ‘diversity’ – will shout down and deplatform dissident voices. Hates capitalism – now supporting the biggest corporations and richest billionaires. The once-revered working class – now ‘far right’.
This began with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc. The far left had always looked to the USSR to bring down the evils of capitalism. They were quite prepared to act as agents for international communism. Now they felt lost, abandoned, even betrayed. Along came early Cultural Marxism, but low key, little more than what was called ‘political correctness’. Designed to undermine Western norms and traditions.
Then came 2016, Trump and Brexit, and the left no longer had to pretend it spoke for the working class. Now political correctness becomes full-on cultural Marxism being used in the renewed War on the West. Rather than relying on a distant inspiration in Moscow, the far left is using any weapon it can and bringing down the system from within.
Southern Democrats of the type you mentioned used to be known as Dixiecrats and included people like George Wallace and Strom Thurmond ( who eventually crossed the floor ) who were die hard segregationalists. Hard to believe now.
On topic, it must be very hard for anyone local to turn down a turbine offer, knowing if they do so, they’ll still end up ruining the area on land owned by outsiders and the money will never reach the local economy. It must be a hard call.
Here is some pretty good evidence that Trump is not a racist. from, a black NFL Player who has known and worked for Trump for many decades
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLzg6iGhzVY
I’ve heard the same from a number of quarters. Trump may be many things, but nobody has come up with convincing evidence that he’s a racist. And as we both know, if there was any evidence, we’d have seen it by now.
These Duff Gordon’s must be related to Cosmo Duff-Gordon who escaped along with his Mrs from the Titanic & apparently bribed a sailor in charge of the lifeboat with a £5 note ( with 12 people in a lifeboat that was supposed to hold 40 people) not to return to rescue other passengers struggling in the water..
Shows the character of this family & lets hope they meet their Titanic..
They are indeed. I don’t wish to pass judgement but the facts are undisputed. Cosmo Duff Gordon and his wife escaped the Titanic in a lifeboat with just a few first-class passengers, and money was given to the crewmen manning the lifeboat.
Gun toting toffee-nosed twat ‘sportsmen’ and spiritual successors to Swampy – the strangest set of bedfellows I’ve seen since Gays for Palestine!
Shared interest in elbowing out the graziers. Both see benefits.
The new boss of lunatic green culture, Millipede the Bacon muncher, is now looking to drown a number of valleys in his endeavour to turn beautiful remote landscapes into power stations.
Ed Miliband unlocks billions to build giant dams across Britain (telegraph.co.uk)
This is an oblique admission that his pet fixation, wind turbines, won’t suffice so he’s now prompted to spread his green bile further afield.
The man is unhinged. It’s only a matter of time before Starmer and his gang have to admit it, by back-pedalling on Net Zero.
I don’t know exactly what happened but my great grandfather and some of his neighbours once had to fight to protect grazing rights (Later on, after his days, they disappeared under the Rassau Industrial Estate – I often wonder why more of the old spoil tips weren’t used, rather than unspoiled land) but I rather think this case will be harder to fight, as it seems to be a very tangled web, presumably designed to cover tracks (It’s hard enough to follow after you have made some sense out of it). It seems as murky as the Gilestone Farm purchase but I should not be surprised if some good “Socialist”, in the junta, will benefit. As you say, drop in a few choice euphemisms, like “Green”, “Eco”, “Organic” etc and you’ve got it made.
Yes, using the right language always helps. Though this one could be tricky with grouse-shooting in the mix. We’ll have leftist politicians and their pressure group supporters in the Bay, most of them opposed to blood sports, many of them vegan, supporting grouse shooting. No doubt they’ll use the ‘jobs created’ angle.
Greed Greed and Greedy is it not strange that these people have no sense blinded by yes you gest it.
Hope they. Can remember the black hills breaking contracts and custer instead of supporting the Indians came down on the side of greed .
Wonder what happened to him?
Custer came to a sticky end, and it was his own fault. He was vain, arrogant, and always looking to get publicity.
There’s a lovely story about the end of the Civil War, with Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia moving towards Appomattox, shadowed by Union forces. Everybody knew Lee would surrender, so there was no point in getting killed now. But Custer was harrying Lee’s rearguard demanding it surrender to him!. He was told to ‘go away’ (or words to that effect).
There’s an even better story about him after the Indians smashed him in June 1876 at the Little Bighorn. or Greasy Grass. Some Sioux warrior had been told that Custer often liked “a bit of native on the side”, so having taken off his trousers he stuck an arrow head up his tool to stop him having any more hankypanky in the afterlife. Very deep spiritual side in them Lakota.
All joking aside there is an alarming similarity between our 21st century wave of colonial exploiters and their 19th century forefathers. The Native Americans and the African tribes made a decent effort of resisting the exploitation whereas in the here and now most of our people are either standing on the sidelines with not a clue about what’s happening or actively looking to get their snouts in any old trough.
What happened in Wales in the 19th century could at least be sold as ‘creating jobs’ hundreds of thousands of them. What we’re suffering now is de-growth in order to save a planet in no danger.
The industrial revolution created jobs but it was mostly extractive in nature. True a few natives made fortunes but they were rapidly assimilated into the Anglophone elites of that time. The history of the working man in Welsh mines, steel works, foundries, slate quarries etc is not a pretty sight except where it was tarted up by ruling elites as a subtle psych ops manouvre.
The modern psych ops engages in preaching the virtues of paying through the nose for energy, accepting an array of of other virtues like having ones community priced out of existence, livelihoods branded as toxic when in reality they are the last bastions of native food chains and culture, trashing traditional religious values while embracing a nasty violent creed which enables hatred and intolerance of any attempt to reason with its tenets.
I look forward to reading a report of a party of “exploiters” disappearing in those Radnor Hills or anywhere else for that matter, and no one claiming any responsibility, just stony silence.
Can’t agree with your interpretation of the 19th century. Without the Industrial Revolution people like my ancestors who came up to Swansea from Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire would have emigrated. Wales would not have survived long as a largely rural country with some half a million people.
Even a bad episode can have benefits. Keeping people economically active is good but the harsh environment many endured is not a model for repetition.
But there were few people anywhere living much better.
The important point is if the language went into decline as a result of what was it, English and Irish influx, then at least Welsh identity persisted.
It was the influx into the southern coalfield (post 1890), largely Irish and English, that helped the Labour party take off in Wales. These incomers rejected chapel Liberalism and the Welsh language. But their children adopted (perhaps even invented) a new kind of Welsh identity.
Chapel Liberalism? I take that to mean favouring voluntary charity, with a Christian flavour, over the state in providing for the less fortunate or towards the common good? Church collections over council tax in providing the local kiddies’ playground, say.
Capital ‘L’. If I go back to my great grandparents, four came up from the west, they married four brought up in the semi-rural communities to the north of Swansea. What they had in common was that they spoke Welsh, attended non-conformist chapels, and voted or supported the Liberal Party. This is what the Labour party, with an over-representation of immigrants to the coalfield, rejected in the early part of the 20th century. The rise of Cymru Fydd didn’t help either.
Cymru Fydd, according to Wikipedia, had self-government as one of its main objectives. Lloyd George was a big wheel there. Seems odd that it’d scupper the Liberal Party and/or be a factor in the decline of the language?
Those who were pushing Cymru Fydd came from the rural, Welsh-speaking chapel tradition of Welsh liberalism. Led by men like Tom Ellis, MP for Merioneth. They had little understanding of the industrial towns. As Lloyd George found out in his encounter with Alderman Bird in Newport(?). After which, he rowed back a bit.
Another factor may have been that Cymru Fydd was influenced by the Irish Home Rule movement, parliamentarian and non-violent. Parnell and all that. But there was considerable antipathy towards the Catholic Irish in the industrial areas. They were accused of being strike-breakers, undercutting wages, and various other sins.
The legacy, as late as the 1960s, was that I could canvass for Plaid in my part of Swansea and the most hostile response would often come from those of Irish descent. I compared notes with someone from Merthyr, and it was the same there.
This was also an obstacle for the SNP in Scotland, especially west central Scotland, the Glasgow region, the Celtic vote. For a long time the SNP was regarded with amusement by both Celtic and (Unionist) Rangers fans. The breakthrough from 2008 onwards included cracking the Irish Catholic vote. Glasgow voted Yes in 2014, and few in blue shirts voted for independence.
There are apparently a fair proportion of pro-indy Rangers fans, I’m sure I saw a poll somewhere putting the numbers around 40%. The only way I can imagine that circle to be squared mentally is them enjoying the chants, flag-waving and GSTK crap as maybe a little bit of theatre for the duration of the game, but not forming any plank of their actual political beliefs. Possibly comparable to the way for instance Wagner or Gary Glitter fans still enjoy the art (debatable term for the latter) and have separated it from the artist in their minds.
There are a number of Rangers fans who support independence, I grant you that. But fundamentally, and certainly for hard-core fans, Rangers is a Protestant, Unionist-Loyalist club with strong links to the Unionist community just over the water. Just look at the flags waved at Ibrox. You won’t see many Saltires.