I had planned to focus on the UK general election, but it’ll have to wait as I feel that an update is merited to the ongoing case of the anonymous leaflets distributed in Gwynedd prior to the council elections earlier this month.
A PICTURE EMERGES
I first dealt with this glossy, 4-page leaflet in Dirty, Dirty Politics, but at the time I was only able to provide you with copies e-mailed to me and almost certainly taken with a phone. I have since received a copy of the leaflet and I’m now able to provide a scanned version. (Click on the image to enlarge.) I also provided an update in Elections 2017 (scroll down).
Perhaps the main reason I’m returning to this subject is because information I’ve subsequently received makes it clear that these leaflets were distributed far more widely than I had originally thought, and may even constitute something of a campaign. Let me remind you how it began.
I was sent copies of the leaflet on Friday, April 28th, with a message saying that they had been handed out in Trawsfynydd by a guy driving a Mercedes. I was able to establish that the car in fact belonged to Councillor Louise Hughes, who represents the Llangelynin ward on Gwynedd County Council as an Independent. Louise Hughes told me when I phoned her the next day that she had stopped in Trawsfynydd on her way to Garndolbenmaen to canvass for the Lib Dem candidate in Dolbenmaen ward, Steven Churchman.
Then someone else got in touch to say that the leaflets had also been seen in Dolgellau, and a few individuals were named as likely distributors. Later, I heard they’d turned up in Blaenau Ffestiniog. More recently, I have been told of these leaflets turning up on Llŷn, and there seems to be a pattern emerging.
We shall look at the wider consequences, and the possible scale of this activity, later.
♦
SO WHAT HAVE YOU DONE ABOUT IT, JAC?
I have sent a letter to North Wales Police, and accompanying the letter was a copy of the offending leaflet together with a copy of the Electoral Commission’s factsheet, the clear and concise Election Material and Imprints – Great Britain. I reproduce the relevant passages of the leaflet below.
The page reproduced above makes it clear that Hughes and her gang constitute a non-party campaign organisation, which makes the leaflet election material – in that it seeks to influence people against a particular party – and as such it should carry an imprint, which it clearly doesn’t. (Believe me, ‘Printy McPrintface’ will not be accepted as an imprint by the Electoral Commission.)
On Thursday I received another e-mail from the Electoral Commission which said, “It appears that the material you have provided does not contain an appropriate imprint. However, as it is not clear from the material you have provided who has actually produced and distributed the leaflet, the Commission needs to consider the likelihood of being able to establish the source of the material in deciding how to progress this matter. Therefore, if you have any information as to who may have produced and distributed the material, (including the locality and volume of distribution), please could you provide this.”
I responded with the information requested and also quoted from my letter to the North Wales Police:
“There can be no doubt that Councillor Louise Hughes was distributing unlawful election material in the period preceding the council elections earlier this month. How many others were involved in the distribution remains to be established, but I’m sure Councillor Hughes can give you their names.”
I continued:
“As for who printed and published these leaflets, I’m sure Councillor Hughes can also tell you that. What seems clear to me is that the leaflets have been professionally produced, which suggests that they are the work of someone with access to commercial printing materials and equipment, or may even have been produced by a commercial printer.”
I now believe that we are moving in the right direction, though I still worry that North Wales Police might look for excuses not to get involved. They might try to interpret it as a political squabble, ‘Six of one . . . ‘. It’s not. The law has been broken. The law in question being the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.
♦
WIDER STILL AND WIDER . . .
When my attention was first drawn to this leaflet I assumed it was the work of a few anti-Welsh bigots – camouflaging their swivel-eyed hostility to ‘all that Welsh nonsense’ with attacks on Plaid Cymru – just the usual suspects letting off steam before council elections.
Hughes and her “scruffy” companion were – as she told me – handing the leaflets out in the cafe in Trawsfynydd simply because they’d stopped there en route to Garndolbenmaen. Some leaflets had even been left with the saintly Churchman, who claimed to have destroyed them, but also admitted, “I quite like Louise Hughes”.
We now know that the leaflets were distributed from Dolgellau to Pwllheli. I’ve had no reports as yet from the north of the county, Bangor, Caernarfon, and other places, but if you’re targeting Plaid Cymru’s control of the county council it makes sense to cover the more populous parts of county.
Before leaving Garndolbenmaen, it’s worth mentioning that another source insists Hughes’ scruffy companion was seen on polling day, hanging around the polling station in Pentrefelin, which is on the A497 from Porthmadog to Pwllheli but in the Dolbenmaen ward. He is said to have been handing out copies of the leaflet, which if true, is almost certainly illegal. I’m awaiting further information.
The feedback I’ve had says that the leaflets were available in a number of “retail outlets” in Pwllheli. Which may be significant, for the town produced an interesting result on May 4th when the sitting Plaid Cymru councillor for Pwllheli North, Michael Sol Owen, lost to Independent candidate, Dylan Bullard, on roughly the same turnout as in 2012. If less than fifty people had voted differently then Owen would have been re-elected.
Now Dylan Bullard may be a splendid fellow, who has never heard of Louise Hughes and her gang. But whoever distributed those leaflets in Pwllheli did so with the intention of damaging Plaid Cymru, and if they succeeded then Bullard is the beneficiary whether he acknowledges it or not.
Some reading this are now shouting, ‘But this is all supposition, Jac’. Is it? What we know for certain is that the leaflets exist, they were widely distributed prior to the council elections, and they were intended to damage Plaid Cymru’s election chances. The only imponderable is the degree to which the leaflets succeeded.
UPDATE 21.05.2017: Councillor Dylan Bullard has been in touch to say, “At no time prior to or during the local elections were these pamphlets available in any of the ‘retail outlets’ I frequent in Pwllheli, indeed a quick survey of certain towns people would suggest your feedback to be overwhelming wrong.” A sweeping statement.
He may be right, he may be wrong. But if he’s right, then I find it strange that leaflets should have been available at Bargain Booze and the shop-filling station (maybe other places) in Criccieth yet those responsible did not travel a few miles to Pwllheli where there was such a finely-balanced contest taking place.
When pressed to offer an opinion on the leaflet’s contents, Councillor Bullard said: “I have briefly read the pamphlet and can assure you that I do not agree with what is written and neither would any decent inhabitant of Pwllheli.”
UPDATE 26,05.2017: Here’s an interesting screen capture from the webcast of Gwynedd council’s full meeting on May 18. It shows of course Louise Hughes, distributor of leaflets; then, on the right of the picture, we see Steven Churchman, Lib Dem councillor and recipient of leaflets; on the far left (of the picture, never the political spectrum) we see Mike Stevens, printer of Tywyn; but who is that sitting between Stevens and Hughes, surely not Dylan Bullard?
Oh, yes, out of picture, but sitting next to Churchman, was Siôn Jones, the Labour councillor. What more do you need to know?
♦
CONCLUSION
What might earlier have been dismissed as a few odious malcontents spreading their bigotry is no longer a valid interpretation of what happened in Gwynedd prior to the council elections. For we now know that it was more organised and widespread than that.
Not only did the recent activity cover a considerable geographical area, but the leaflet proudly announces, “this is the 6th edition of Tales With A Twist”. So were the other five produced prior to earlier elections? Will one appear before the June 8 UK general election?
The fact that six of these leaflets have been produced and distributed makes it look like an ongoing conspiracy to influence the democratic process by an organised but secretive and law-breaking group. Therefore those involved must be exposed and punished.
In addition, there are features of this latest leaflet that are just crude racism: the suggestion that Welsh verbs are formed by adding ‘io’ to English words; the allegation that children are punished for speaking English in Gwynedd schools; and the reference to ‘English Not’ signs being made by ‘Waldio Priciau’.
This of course is the insulting reaction we hear from a certain English mindset whenever it’s confronted with another culture or identity. This mindset also believes that the natives are always corrupt . . . and so it is with those behind issue 6 of Tales With a Twist, which accuses Plaid Cymru of electoral fraud.
Those responsible for this leaflet must feel there is an audience for their views, so let them give that audience a chance to express its contempt for all things Welsh through a new party, a kind of UKIP specific to Wales, a party for which there is only one permitted language and only one acceptable identity. A party committed to turning Wales into a greener and pleasanter England . . . without the immigrants.
But before they have that opportunity I hope that North Wales Police and the Electoral Commission do their jobs. Both have enough evidence now to begin proceedings against those responsible for the leaflet and the violations of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.
♦ end ♦
The Manchester atrocity has brought out all that is bad about British politicians and the upper layer of their public servants. Ordinary joes ( and janes ! ) have been genuinely heroic, piling in to the immediate aftermath with a sense of purpose, getting the injured safely out of there for the treatments their injuries needed, comforting those whose hurt was primarily shock and horror, and removing the dead and dying. Truly an excellent response.
Next came the deluge of posturing garbage from our mediocre assortment of so-called leaders. Politicians so tentative about upsetting the “people of faith” despite the fact that the modus operandi was so obviously straight out of the IS and AQ manuals on short cuts to Heaven.
Then came the rush to put the military on the streets, but which streets ! Well not the streets where ordinary people live, not outside the schools where children of various ages attend. Oh no, they rushed to protect those places occupied by those in high office, including the sparsely attended Houses of Parliament vacated as most of the members who sat until May’s decision are now running round trying to get re-elected.
May’s platitude laden speech/statement was as hollow as anything I have ever heard. To describe her as “Wooden” suggests a level of animation and sincerity that she just can’t muster. Then we had some Labour jerk suggest that the incident was very timely for the Tories given the erosion of their lead in opinion polls ! If that’s their best response in such a situation they should go home, sit in a darkened room and consider their futures. But they won’t. We can now look forward to another 2 weeks or so of boring hyperbole, rumour, innuendo, and downright lies as the major parties try to regain ground after the lull in proceedings. Sadly I don’t see them being able to resist direct or oblique references to this week’s tragedy, but none of them will make any meaningful statement regarding the root causes of this atrocity. No one dares utter the words – Radical Islamic ideology for long fostered by the major Western powers but energised by 9/11, the excessive and prolonged invasion of Afghanistan, the grossly exaggerated “false premise” intervention in Iraq and later the more detached & proxy meddling in Lybia, Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East.
All this nonsense drives me to the conclusion that I must withold my vote as a protest against the sheer duplicity, cowardice and shallowness of our political class.
But in the midst of all this dafis, something does not sit comfortably, does not sound quite right, exactly the same as the previous recent incidences in Germany and especially in France. What most of the gullible public will not even dare to think, let alone suggest, is that the whole lot is stage managed by the people in the shadows for a purpose.
Bear in mind the PROBLEM, REACTION, SOLUTION formula. You cause a problem, wait for the reaction (of the public – “you’ve got to do something about this, we’re frightened”), then provide a solution. The solution invariably involves more surveillance, more armed presence on the streets, and a further excuse to escalate involvement in illegal wars overseas, and the curtailing of our freedom at home – another step towards a police state.
9/11 – which you mentioned – was a major classic example. Very FEW people who have properly, and independently, investigated the 9/11 so called ‘terrorist’ attack actually believe it was genuine, but rather a stage managed excuse to go into Afghanistan and invade Iraq. That was the very start of the so-called ‘war on terror’ a phrase originally quoined by Bush & Blair. Job done! Add to that the fact that ISIS and before them Al-Qaeda and the Mujahideen, if not the product of the west (ISIS certainly is) were fully armed and financed by the west – via places like Saudi Arabia! The war in Yemen and the disruption in Syria, and the fall of Libya and Iraq are just the end results of these games, along with the false flags that produce the excuses to go in, or perpetuate the insanity with manufactured (gullible) public support. Putin understands this, and thankfully had the balls to stop it for a while.
Believe NOTHING, question EVERYTHING. Certainly don’t get led by state propaganda in the form of the mainstream (false) media – who are having a feeding frenzy at the moment, and acting like echo chambers for those who provide them with false information. Do more questioning and analysing people. There are too many similarities in the process, not a lot of imagination goes into the planning of these things, so they tend to all look the same, the evidence that appears (magically afterwards) follows a pattern, and the investigation that follows the evidence is well rehearsed, and well known to us by now.
Talking of rehearsals, do you think that it’s a coincidence that almost identical scenarios are played out using actors a short time before the incident was reported? Exactly the same as the 7/7 false flag, in fact some who witnessed that false flag thought it was an extension of the rehearsal they had witnessed a few days before. Strange that isn’t it?
A bit more research material from a trusted source: click HERE
I said earlier – …..the deluge of posturing garbage from our mediocre assortment of so-called leaders. Politicians so tentative about upsetting the “people of faith” despite the fact that the modus operandi was so obviously straight out of the IS and AQ manuals on short cuts to Heaven.”
It is quite conceivable that the politicians and the Islamist terrorists are acting out some “grand plan” designed by a manipulative global elite clique. Given its jerky movements however I suspect that we are still at that tentative freestyle experimental testing stage where all sorts of “events” are allowed, or encouraged, to happen.
At the “macro” level the War on Terror is undoubtedly a construct of convenience as it has enabled the major, mostly US, defence corporations and the financial institutions that collude with them to shift wealth into relatively few hands on a scale hitherto unseen since the Reformation or even earlier. Wealth now moves easily into private hands while state funds pick up the bill for anything that falls off the rails. An prime example nearer our mundane level of life is the habit of big corporates to plead financial difficulties ( despite institutional shareholders and senior execs creaming off millions ) and placing liabilities deriving from employees pension funds into a State supported vehicle, and having terminations compensated by State aided packages.
So power shifts one way and wealth goes with it. And Mrs May is a willing accomplice in all this charade.
Tales With a Twist. Welcome to the sixth edition of Tales with a twist. A TONGUE IN CHEEK (I have bolded these words) swideswipe …..
Any complaints will be met with freedom of speech just having a laugh, you are all being sensitive.
You might want to stick with technicalities – ie electoral procedure, where these leaflets were distributed, who paid for them and did they register with electoral office and declare the money spent.
Which is what I have done in reporting it to the Electoral Commission and North Wales Police.
Having a larf. Just a bit of banter, A bit of fun. Maybe a member of the public could get away with that defence.
Louise herself is in a different position. She is a Gwynedd Councillor. There is code of conduct. It is here:
http://tinyurl.com/ke2oabe
There are explicit statements about respect, equality, consideration for others, not using bullying or harassing behaviour, not bringing the Council into disrepute, and so on.
Louise Hughes has breached the code of conduct.
Also, perhaps we should examine the extraordinary behaviour of Councillor Churchman. He received the leaflets from Councillor Hughes.
He could tell the leaflets were of a vile and racist nature because he didn’t just throw them away, he destroyed them. And then he muttered “I quite like Louise Hughes” to himself
That’s it, is it. I mean, even for a LibDem, that is pretty extraordinary.
No attempt to remonstrate with Councillor Hughes, or suggest that she might be in breach of electoral law or falling short of her obligations as a Councillor.
Royston, for someone who has a thin skin but demands others have thick skins, and who routinely goes out of his way to target people with extremely rude and crude language, particularly on Twitter, it ain’t arf funny that you think it’s “crude racism” to state that “Welsh verbs are formed by adding ‘io’”. Really?
My name is Royston Jones, son of Idwal Jones and Marion Rees, formerly of Brynhyfryd, Swansea, latterly of Abergynolwyn, near Tywyn. Tell us who you are, you hero, or fuck off.
Give the ass a chance Jac. Someone may have told him that he’s a born wit with staggering insight. With a few light years of encouragement he might raise his candle power to a point where it’s visible !
Don’t you just love these ‘keyboard warriors’ who sound so brave, but need to hide behind the ‘Anon’ tag – just in case. Then try to be clever thinking they have performed some feat in displaying other people’s names, whilst hiding their own. You can smell the brown stuff a mile off can’t you?
Pathetic prat, why don’t you go away and educate yourself about Welsh colloquial speech (Cymraeg llawr gwlad). You’ll find most spoken languages do the same – I’m sure you aren’t “ARF” aware of that.
The morphology of the Welsh language has many characteristics likely to be unfamiliar to speakers of English or continental European languages like French or German, but has much in common with the other modern Insular Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Cornish, and Breton. Welsh is a moderately inflected language. Verbs inflect for person, tense, and mood with affirmative, interrogative, and negative conjugations of some verbs.
After you get your head around colloquial Welsh go away and study some literary Welsh – you won’t find any Anglicised words ending in “io”s there.
Now where was it inferred that it’s “crude racism” to state that “Welsh verbs are formed by adding ‘io’”? Twpsyn!
Or, thinking about it more, surely we should complain to Gwynedd Council about the behaviour of one its Councillors ?
https://www.gwynedd.llyw.cymru/en/Council/Contact-us/Formal-complaint.aspx
I guess Jac may have done this, but the more the merrier.
I haven’t done that, but I understand that a councillor or councillors will report her. Still, I suppose I could also make a complaint. Or anyone could make a complaint.
There is a link for complaints against a Gwynedd Councillor.
I’ll happily complain to Gwynedd Council and ask for her actions to be investigated and censured.
I am not in Llangelynin ward, but this seems to be straightforward racism & hate-speech.
I’ll keep you posted on the outcome.
Good man. I’ve just been reminded that in one of the Blaenau wards, Diffwys and Maenofferen, the Llais Gwynedd candidate defeated the Plaid Cymru candidate by just 3 votes. And as I was reminded, we know that the leaflet was available in the local Co-op, almost certainly left without permission.
As I an based in the deep South (!) I need to be enlightened regarding the present view of Llais Gwynedd. Surely that Anglo hate leaflet was aimed at them as much as it was at Plaid and indeed anyone else with the temerity to have a ounce of Welsh identity, or am I missing something here ?
Obviously, given those heading up Llais Gwynedd, it is a nationalist group, but it did suffer defections last year, Seimon Glyn and even Gruff Williams, Owain Williams’ son, went over to Plaid. And then there’s the complication that Louise Hughes used to be in Llais Gwynedd.
Those behind the leaflet attack Plaid Cymru a) because it runs Gwynedd and b) because it’s a national and (for them, at least) a nationalist party. They would like to use Llais Gwynedd to help them remove Plaid Cymru, probably calculating that Ll G could never get enough councillors to replace Plaid. The resulting chaos, with no party in control, would open up opportunities that they would hope to capitalise on.
Not sure Louise Hughes is a Conservative, she’s just interested in Louise.
But, the document is very shocking — as you straight out of the Goebbels playbook.
I feel very strongly that this kind of activity should see legal sanction.
You wouldn’t be able to denigrate anyone else’s culture in this way without ending up in court. Why should we Welsh have to put up with it?
If there is anything Jac or BigGee can advise, I am happy to do it — should we write to the Cambrian News or the North Wales Daily Post or complain ourselves directly to North Wales Police ?
Let us know.
I have already written to the police with a copy of the leaflet accompanying my letter. I have also made a complaint to the Electoral Commission. The Daily Post and the Cambrian News are on my mailing list (for notifying people about new posts), but I might try a more direct approach. But one way or another, those responsible for this shit will get their comeuppance.
That leaflet is a nasty piece of racist propaganda, worthy of Goebbels! It appears blatantly obvious that there is a concerted effort being made, not only to undermine Plaid Cymru, but to undermine Welsh identity in our heartlands. I really hope it backfires on them, it just makes me angry, as it should make any Welsh person and actually, it makes me more determined to vote for Plaid. It is not hard to see this propaganda as part of a concerted, insidious effort to take control of North Wales, whether it is through the constant influx of people who have no respect for Welsh Culture or for learning Welsh, with the consequent displacement of Welsh people and Government policies, which constantly undermine our identity. These are the issues Plaid Cymru need to deal with, not supporting policies which further encourage the anglicisation of Wales. It is obvious the Tories have a vested interest in North Wales, Theresa May even stated she was inspired to call the election while walking in Eryri, this cynical, sentimental nonsense, should not be lost on any of us. Anyway, isn’t the Independent Party, just the Conservatives in disguise, perhaps they think it is a more palatable version for Wales?
If North Wales Police do not take action, can we not do something ourselves?
Can we not crowd-fund a private prosecution of Louise for stirring up racial hatred ?
I find it very upsetting that anyone involved in this racist leaflet is a Councillor on Gwynedd Council. She should be boycotted by the rest of the Council because she is just like the BNP.
It is reassuring that Councillor Bullard has condemned the leaflet as “vile”. What of the Saintly LibDem, Councillor Churchman, who “quite likes Louise”. Can he not throw light on where these evil publications are coming from ?
And Councillor Hughes has — I recollect — commented on your blog before? No apology from her, she remains unrepentant about her race-hate?
Where did the leaflets appear in Dolgellau? I ask, because I’d like to keep my eyes peeled for any further editions of ‘Tales with a Twist’
I think the talk of crowd funding for a ‘private prosecution’ is a bit premature YBarddCwsc. The police have a statutory obligation to investigate this kind of thing, the Electoral Commission has a parallel obligation. If the complaint is valid, then official action should be allowed to take it’s obligatory legal course – as clearly set out in UK Government legislation.
Failure by the police to conduct a proper investigation, based on proper evidence provided of an illegal act of inciting racial hatred ,then the matter should be pursued further by making a formal complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
If after pursuing and exhausting all those avenues, only then can you even start contemplating doing something about it in a Civil Court of Law. That in itself is a minefield of headaches & problems of a practical nature.
It should also be noted that if this publication was encouraged by, or directly involved, a Gwynedd Council member(s), then the Council also have an obligation to take action, as this behaviour brings the Council into disrepute.
The key in all this is media exposure of the act perpetrated, followed by exposure of police investigative failure if they choose to ignore it.
Get the letters going in ALL directions – don’t just leave it all to Jac.
One problem I foresee is that what passes for the Welsh and local media will ignore this story, arguing that if the police and Electoral Commission are involved then it’s sub judice. Of course, they wouldn’t have touched the story anyway. But had it been something put out by one of us, showing anything less than unqualified love for England and the English, the bastards would have been hounding us.
What you say is sadly true Jac, but only to a point. However it’s a story, in the middle of an election campaign, they will run it, if it’s presented properly, because it also has that magic ingredient ‘racism’.
As for sub judice. It’s not under judicial consideration yet, and therefore not prohibited from public discussion elsewhere. All that’s required at the moment is a press release, informing the media of it’s presence and that it has been forwarded to the police and the Electoral Commission – nothing more. Later on, it can be expanded on after the police and the EC come to a decision whether to take it further.
This of course should be a job for Plaid, but they are a bit backward in coming forward to defend their corner when it comes to anything – that’s their BIG problem. No fire in the belly and no backbone, hence the reason they get walked on all over by the other parties, and why we as a nation get trampled on, despite Plaid’s protestation that they are defending Cymru. They can’t even defend themselves.
Have you circulated a press release yet Jac? You can’t just depend on exposure from your blog, in the hope someone will pick it up. It needs a bit of pro-active pushing.
I feel compelled to comment here and do so with a certain level of justification seeing as I am mentioned in the article. At no time prior to or during the local elections were these pamphlets availiable in any of the ‘retail outlets’ I frequent in Pwllheli, indeed a quick survey of certain towns people would suggest your feedback to be overwhelming wrong. The simple fact of the matter is dear sir that today (Sunday) is the first anyone in Pwllheli has heard of said pamphlets and only through your blog. I thank you for bringing this matter up and sharing it with us but I can assure you the good people of Pwllheli north, and indeed south, voted independent because of the lack of support shown by Plaid Cymru for reasons well documented within the community.dydd
I’m reporting what I’ve been told. These leaflets certainly made it as far Criccieth, so I’d be surprised if they didn’t get to Pwllheli. If you can prove the leaflets were never available in Pwllheli then I’ll amend the post.
Whether they made it to Pwllheli or not is a minor point in the bigger picture. The leaflets were produced, they were distributed, and they were illegal. I note that you have nothing to say on the leaflets themselves.
I have briefly read the pamphlet and can assure you that I do not agree with what is written and neither would any decent inhabitant of Pwllheli. I am a passionate Welsh man and extremely proud to represent my town and for you to question my success in the recent election is to me very surprising considering your obvious knowledge. I have no obvious proof but that of the local populance having no knowledge of these pamphlets therefore I ask that you amend your post for I do not wish to be associated with the vile publication. Thank you.
I assume you are Councillor Bullard. I have amended the post and until such time as you can prove that these leaflets were not available in Pwllheli that’s as far as I’m prepared to go.
I am Councillor Bullard and thank you.
That’s OK, I try to play fair with most people, apart from those who don’t deserve it, like those behind this leaflet.
Jac, Councillor Bullard here again, the picture you show of the May 18th full council meeting does not include me sitting between Louise Hughes and Mike Stevens but that of the councillor representing Llanberis, Kevin Jones, who is about a foot shorter than I and has a full head of hair which contains far more colour than mine.
Glad you’ve cleared that up. You must be careful of the company you keep!
Sorry to take this O/T so early in the thread, but have you seen this?
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-39861470
The salient quote:
“BBC Wales asked all 22 local authorities in Wales how many children and young people they currently have placed in foster care outside the country.
Eighteen councils provided figures, showing at least 131 have been placed outside Wales – either with a foster carer, a relative or friend, or in a home.”
Echoes of Australia, where the white colonists removed (and are still removing) indigenous children from their families to ‘care’ for them in white-man institutions and families and therefore ripe for abuse of all kinds?
Nigel, I am so glad that you have raised this point. I have spent the past few months researching and blogging about the abuse of both children in the care system and people in the mental health system (they are often the same people, but at different stages of their life). I also worked undercover as a support worker in ‘care homes’ and completed an ‘access’ course to social work. The full picture is terrifying, children and very vulnerable patients are undoubtedly being transported across the country to isolate and disorientate them and ensure that they are completely invisible in their new ‘placements’ where they are indeed frequently abused. Whilst people from Wales were sent on ‘placements’ in the south east of England, people from England were ‘placed’ in Wales where they could not even pronounce the name of the village that they were living in yet alone navigate their way to a bus or train station to escape (and in the rare event of them doing this, they will be returned to their abusers by the police, because they are ‘looked after’ children or sectioned mental health patients). This is a tried and tested technique to ensure that people being abused are silenced – the Waterhouse Inquiry revealed that this phenomenon was prevalent back in the seventies and eighties. It is accepted that childrens homes had been infiltrated by paedophile rings back then yet no-one seems to have woken up to the fact that the practices used to silence the victims of the paedophiles in those days are still being used today – transport them hundreds of miles away from contacts and familiar surroundings, divert them into the mental health system to discredit anything they say and if that doesn’t work, prosecute them for ridiculous trivial offences so that they end up with a criminal record and then tell everyone that they can’t be believed because they are ‘criminals’. A read of the Waterhouse Report makes it very clear that these were the strategies employed to deal with the kids who complained about being abused – and exactly the same strategies are being used today, dressed up in silly social work ‘theory’ that does not stand up to rigorous analysis. Paedophile gangs are a form of organised crime (as is forced prostitution, which was far as I could see was what was happening to some young female psychiatric patients) – this type of crime cannot operate as a consequence of a few ‘bad eggs’ alone, it operates in systems that have become hopelessly corrupted and dysfunctional, as the children’s care and mental health services are. I will be posting further info up on my own blog later today about the horrors that I witnessed in ‘social care’, how the very substandard training of social workers allows this to flourish and also some info about the institutionalised corruption in the police, CPS and legal services that has allowed this type of crime to pervade the whole of the ‘care’ system. It is no coincidence that nearly every region in the country currently has a problem with the sexual exploitation of children in care – the press have focussed on the ‘Pakistani men abusing white girls’ factor, but the common theme is actually children in care being targeted by organised gangs and somehow the social workers, police, local lawyers etc etc ‘didn’t know’. They did know and indeed they still do know. The present situation has happened as a result of decades of cowards and crooks ignoring what they knew to be happening to the people whom they were paid to care for. And because the cowards and crooks dominate the system, anyone who is brave enough to point out the obvious will very soon find themselves out of a job. It’s not rocket science and it certainly isn’t a coincidence. It’s why the National Inquiry Into Child Abuse is falling apart, with Chairs resigning and lawyers walking out. The system was completely corrupted as far back as the 80s, so its nigh-on impossible to find anyone to run or advise that inquiry who is not tainted – they may not be abusers themselves, but to have progressed through any profession related to children’s care services they will have had to ignore what has been happening and that will have compromised them.
Nigel & drsally – that’s quite strange isn’t it, moving kids OUT of Wales for fostering while shipping into Wales individuals and family units with pages of “track record” in dysfunctional family behaviours, anti-social behaviour, petty crime and major crime.
It’s as though there is a policy aimed at undermining stability of communities, at making these communities “dumps” for badly behaved individuals and families. On many occasions Jac’s columns have reported murders, assaults, thefts, drug crime etc etc where the MSM have just written them up as something on the lines of “John Smith from Wrexham” when in reality Smith had not long moved from N.W. of England and was regularly returning there to engage in criminal enterprises. Yet the MSM enjoy implicitly painting these cnuts as Welsh. Had it only happened once or twice then it could be excused as sloppy reporting but it’s a habit which has been adopted deliberately to dump on our identity.
Yes, you’ve identified a real phenomenon Dafis. I suspect the key is cheap property prices, this certainly attracts the ‘children’s homes’ and ‘care homes’ for the learning disabled/people with mental health problems to rural Wales, as well as the invisibility – isn’t that what caused Manchester City Council to purchase properties in Blaenau Ffestiniog and dump the tenants that they didn’t want in there a few years ago?. Although there is the very obvious language dimension at work in Wales as an additional problem for local communities, the cheap property prices in the north of England are attracting the same ‘businesses’, hence the child sexual exploitation scandals in run-down northern industrial towns. I’m told that rural Norfolk is also a place in which such places are springing up. Many of these businesses are major organisations, some backed by venture capitalists – and yes, again and again when it all goes wrong, it is portrayed as a problem with ‘sheepshaggers’ in Wales. On a political level the Tories sneer at Wales for having socio-economic problems whilst they are in effect exporting their citizens who need looking after to us – well they’re not going to do it are they, hence the suggestion of Liverpool social workers to the clients who they do not want to bother with any longer ‘wouldn’t you like a fresh start in Wales? We’ll help you…’ Difficult client off books, now Wales’s problem.
Interesting, but why does an attack on PC bother you, Jac? From what I’ve seen of your blog you’re not exactly enthusiastic about the ‘Party of Wales’. Moreover the leaflet is almost a parody of BritNattery, so who but a ‘swivel-eyed Yoon’ (Scottish terminology) would take it seriously? Yes it is indeed offensive, but probably no more so than much political comment. I personally find the Tories very offensive, you may or may not agree.
Point of info. Welsh verbal nouns generally end in one of a small group of suffixes, and as a rule _-io_ is chosen when a foreign word is Welshified as a verb. E.g. ‘to blog’ I’m fairly sure would be _blogio_ etc.
Do you understand nothing! The people I’m dealing with are Welsh-hating fucking racists. ‘Gwynedd council’ and ‘Plaid Cymru’ are merely codes. Cyphers. Metaphors. Wake up at the back!!
You seem to have a knack of not understanding issues Marconatrix, whether purposely or through a genuine ignorance of what these things are about – I dont’ know. Yet you seem quite capable of debating certain subjects quite lucidly and in an intelligent manner. THIS is why there’s a permanent question mark over your motives for certain comments you make on here. You just give off a very disturbing vibe that seems to indicate the presence of a woolly goat in a herd of sheep.
It’s not the party that’s under attack here, it’s our identity as Cymry in our own country. References to Plaid is just used as a Trojan horse to carry the bigotry, racism and downright hatred of us as a nation into our midst. But I suspect you already know that don’t you?
> Point of info. Welsh verbal nouns generally end in one of a small group of suffixes, and as a rule _-io_ is chosen when a foreign word is Welshified as a verb. E.g. ‘to blog’ I’m fairly sure would be _blogio_ etc.
But its clearly going out of its way to make fun of that – not to mention “Myfanwy” proclaiming they’re “ever so worried see?”. Underneath all the Plaid Cymru slamming – as my berating compatriots point out – is a very overt disdain for Welsh language and people.
Point of info. That kind of attitude which makes fun of our language and makes us sound daft by the standards of the “What, what Queen’s English lot” is exactly the attitude which was pushed out like a festering blue turd within the Blue Books in 1846 leading to the almost annihilation of our identity. Of course if Welsh history was taught in schools… of course if the party that claims to “defend Welsh identity” actually made an effort to ensure people knew these things… Maybe people would be more aware.
Are you referring to the Plaid Cymru ‘Action Plan 2017′?
In big print it promises to defend Welsh identity and nationhood, but when I read through the document I couldn’t find anything to back up the promises in big print. In fact, Plaid wants more tourism!
curious isn’t it the number of people credited with being extremely bright and authoritative about the economy, trade and business in general who trot out the old nonsense about “of course, we should be expanding our tourism and leisure offers ” when asked about future direction of growth.
It’s even more irritating than those pompous twits who spout the old mantras about the “knowledge economy” when the “ignorance economy” seems to be the default position of our governments. Applying knowledge is fundamental to any really innovative enterprise so let’s see some evidence of ability to translate our bank of knowledge into commercially viable outputs and invest funds in support of such ventures.
Because its a quick and easy response – which is just up Plaid Cymru’s street.
Exactly. But Plaid MP’s are the most active in Westminster. I almost missed that on every other page.
A blatant case of inciting racial hatred – plain & simple.
Here is an excerpt from the CPS web-site:
INCITING RACIAL HATRED – Section 18 of the Public Order Act 1986
6. This offence is committed when someone says or does something which is threatening, abusive or insulting and the person either intends to stir up racial hatred or makes it likely that racial hatred will be stirred up.
7. It covers behaviour such as making a speech, posting material online, displaying a poster, performing a play or broadcasting something on the media.
8. There are a number of different things that we have to prove before we can charge.
9. One of the first things that we have to prove is that the behaviour is threatening, abusive or insulting.
10. The courts have decided that:
these words should be given their ordinary meaning and it is not a question of law but one of fact for the court to determine.
behaviour can be annoying, rude or even offensive without necessarily being insulting;
there is no requirement that any person should actually feel threatened, abused or insulted.
11. We also have to prove racial hatred. The law says this is hatred against “a group of persons defined by reference to colour, race, nationality (including citizenship), or ethnic or national origins”.
12. The courts have said that the term “race” should not be interpreted in a narrow or strictly legalistic sense. In one case the court said that the term ‘African’ is a racial group and in others that it could include the term “foreigners” and “immigrants.”
13. In a case that decided that Sikhs are a racial group the court said that racial group includes those defined by their ‘ethnic origins’ and this includes “a group which was a segment of the population distinguished from others by a sufficient combination of shared customs, beliefs, traditions and characteristics derived from a common or presumed common past, even if not drawn from what in biological terms was a common racial stock, in that it was that combination which gave them an historically determined social identity in their own eyes, and those outside of the group.”
14. Jews can be either a racial group on the basis of ethnicity or a religious group. The context needs to be considered carefully to establish whether it is Jews as a racial group that is being targeted or Judaism as a religion.
15. We also have to prove hatred. The law does not set out what hatred means but the Oxford English Dictionary definition is “intense dislike for or a strong aversion towards.” As a minimum this connotes the idea of hostility and it has been taken to be regarded as a strong concept, going beyond dislike, ridicule, causing offence or bringing distaste.
16. We also have to prove that the person intended to stir up racial hatred or makes it likely to be stirred up.
17. The requirement for us to prove an intention excludes any words or behaviour which is reckless rather than intentional and it also means that it is not necessarily enough to show that racial or religious tensions within a community have been stirred up.
18. Sometimes it may be obvious that a person intends to cause racial hatred; for example, when a person makes a public speech condemning a group of people because of their race and deliberately encourages others to turn against them and perhaps commit acts of violence. Usually, however, the evidence is not so clear-cut and we may have to rely upon people’s actions in order to prove their intentions.
19. If we are not able to prove that a person intended to stir up racial hatred, we have to prove that, in all the circumstances, racial hatred was likely to be stirred up.
20. The courts have said that “likely” means more than merely possible or liable.
21. We have to consider the full context of the alleged behaviour, including the likely audience.
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Report the incident to Plod (which I know you have). They have a statutory obligation to investigate. They collect evidence, they forward a file to the CPS who in turn decide whether to prosecute.
If they fail in their duty then there’s reason to make a complaint to the IPCC.
Report the incident to the Electoral Commission (which you have).
Finally and probably the most effective strategy make a fuss to the media, papers, TV companies etc. If they fail to grasp the story, then threaten them with racial bias!
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Anyone feeling strongly enough about this matter can contact Louise Hughes using the details publicly available on Cyngor Gwynedd’s web-site. As a public servant she is available to discuss this matter with anyone who wishes to discuss it with her as a concerned member of the public.
Louise Hughes
Party: Independent
Ward: Llangelynnin
Contact information
Home address:
20 Maesegryn
Llanegryn
Gwynedd
LL36 9SH
Phone: 01654 711051
Mobile: 07854 969441
Bus. email: cynghorydd.louisehughes@gwynedd.llyw.cymru