Quite a few Tories packing in the job. At least 30 I hear. Lib Dems are likely the real threat to everyone else… they’ll target the Tory Remain seats (Probably Labour Remain seats too) – if they’re wise they’ll plop one of their cleverer folk on Maidenhead which in the late 90s and 00s had quite the LD following until people decided Labour had to go.

Plaid… Wood is putting herself out there. Seems like they’re getting closer to Westminster not further away. We’ll see how it goes in Locals I guess. They just need to be getting a good foundation at local level and in the Assembly. Bugger Westminster. They really are embodying our national schizophrenia at the moment.

Good point Dafis, he may well have been busy in the manner that you suggest. As well as writing articles explaining why young people don’t have the right to live in the communities in which they grew up, Simon also robustly campaigned against the building of new houses – presumably including those irritating affordable ones that young people might like to move into in their own communities… So his message is quite clear really – Meirionnydd is for the likes of him to have a second home and the rest of us who are not Chairmen of the National Trust and do not also have a place in Piccadilly to live in which we can entertain powerful people can piss off out of it.

honorary it may be but I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to find him schmoozing his way around assorted haunts like business clubs, local associations – Landowners, NFU, Chambers etc checking out whether any choice bits of property needed taking over. NT probably has a network of “supporters” all committed to feeding info into an acquisition strategy without giving a second thought for the needs of local communities.

Thanks for the info DP. With politicians and the NHS it is always difficult to know whether they don’t give a damn about abuse and neglect until it happens to them or whether they are terrified of the sort of co-ordinated campaign of kicking that the BMA subjected both Ken Clarke and Edwina Hart to – they don’t discriminate on the grounds of political hue, every politician knows that the BMA will destroy them if they challenge the medical establishment and it will all be done under the rhetoric of ‘caring for the NHS’. Ann Clwyd did continue with her campaign after her husband died, I was one of the many who e mailed her and I did get a reply, which was more than I received from Carwyn or Mark Drakeford when I wrote to them about criminal activity and large scale research fraud in the north Wales mental health services. By the way, the most serious problem in the NHS isn’t lack of dosh it is institutional corruption, it is substantial but its the problem that no-one dares talk about because no Government has ever dared tackle it so they can all be accused of colluding with malpractice that has led to patients deaths. However it is a great pity that Ann stood right behind the dreadful Blair and perpetuated myths about human shredding machines…

Yes she did come out and raise the poor quality of care in the NHS when her husband was taken ill. However, the talk in Aberdare [I emphasises talk] is that when other constituents/electors raised this issue with her over the years prior she did not do so much about it – until she was personally affected.

Where was she otherwise – bashing Saddam for TB and helping to kick Galloway out ? The billions spent in Iraq folly could have revolutionised the NHS both for her husband and for her electors.

If this woman has the nerve to stand in June then this story must be resurrected. Ann ‘Shredding Machine’ Clwyd has a nice ring to it.

I hadn’t made that connection. Though I’m sure the post is honorary rather than giving him a role in the running of the NT. To find the culprits I’m seeking I think we need to focus on the senior management and/or the permanent trustees.

http://www.aberdareonline.co.uk/node/8306

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2004/feb/25/iraq.iraqandthemedia

All this talk of the National Trust brings me back to the man that Dafis and I were discussing earlier in this thread, Simon Jenkins, he of houses in Piccadilly – and rather inexplicably Aberdyfi. He is of course Chairman of the National Trust.