I’M IN SEMI-RETIREMENT AND THIS BLOG IS WINDING DOWN. I INTEND CALLING IT A DAY IN THE NEXT FEW MONTHS. POSTINGS WILL PROBABLY BE LESS FREQUENT AND I WILL NOT UNDERTAKE ANY MAJOR NEW INVESTIGATIONS. DIOLCH YN FAWR.
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As is so often the case, this week’s post began life with someone sending me a ‘this might interest you’ snippet. Sure enough, it did. Because once I started digging, all sorts of interesting information came to light.
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LIFE WITH THE BEAVERS
It all started with a news item from the Cambrian News, about a ‘conservation retreat’ not allowing onto the property people who had been vaccinated against Covid-19. I don’t buy this ‘paper and I try to avoid reading it because I’ve never trusted the Cambrian News. (I give some reasons in this short pdf document.)
As you’ll see, the CN report gives the name of no individual so, on the assumption that this ‘conservation retreat’ doesn’t run itself, and isn’t run by the beavers, I started my enquiries.
I soon realised that the story had also appeared in English dailies, and they had no hesitation in naming Sharon Girardi as the woman running Blaeneinion. So why would the local rag be so reticent to name her? Local weeklies survive by naming local people doing this and that. That’s why locals buy them.
Next step was to the Land Registry, to see who owns Blaeneinion. And now it gets really interesting. Here’s the LR title document. I suggest you open it in another tab and keep it open.
You’ll see, on the first page, that the property is owned by Endeavour Ltd, a company registered in Gibraltar. And that it was bought for £595,000. At the foot of page 2 we read that Endeavour Ltd bought Blaeneinion on November 13, 2008.
Next stop, Gibraltar.
Companies House in Gib is quite efficient and helpful, and so I had few problems in buying a company profile for Endeavour Ltd. Though, this being Gibraltar, the paperwork doesn’t tell us much. Here it is anyway.
We learn that Endeavour Ltd was set up April 14, 2008. Some 7 months before the purchase of Blaeneinion. Perhaps created specifically for that purpose. Maybe other properties were bought.
Two thousand shares were issued and they’re all held by Gibraltar International Trust Corporation Ltd (GITCO). An old entity, this; Incorporated in November 1968.
You will not be surprised to learn that GITCO appears in the Panama Papers, where it links with other exotic forms of commercial life such as Cathay Transport Ltd of the Bahamas.
But, thanks to Open Corporates, we also find GITCO linked with a new company nearer home.
I’m referring now to Friar Street Properties Ltd, Incorporated with Companies House as recently as March 29, 2021. There, among the directors, we see Gibraltar International Trust Corporation Ltd.
Why would Gibraltar International Trust Corporation be named as a director for a small-scale property company operating out of the red brick office in Worcestershire of Hayward Wright Accountancy Group? Especially as this new company seems to be the only one in the UK with which GITCO is officially linked.
This sumptuous accommodation seems to be the base for Alistair Graeme Hayward-Wright, director of Friar Street Properties and many other companies. Though the latest accounts filed suggest that Hayward Wright Accountancy Group is a dormant company.
Back to Sharon Girardi. She’s not named on the LR title document as a leasee, so it’s reasonable to assume she’s the owner. As such, she must be Endeavour Ltd of Gibraltar. If not, then she’s fronting for someone.
The Daily Mail report tells us that, ‘She has previously been backed by the Forestry Commission to plant 34,000 native saplings at her Blaeneinion estate’. But the FC doesn’t operate in Wales, that role here is filled by Natural Resources Wales.
The image above – of Ms Girardi with ‘Mr Beaver’ – was used in the Daily Mail report I linked to, but I think it appears first in this Daily Mirror article from September 2015. Though the beavers had arrived in 2011.
From the Mirror article we learn that Sharon Girardi kept the wolf from her door through Airbnb. Though as a rewilder, shouldn’t she have welcomed Mr Wolf?
The more I think about it, the more bizarre this whole story becomes. I can’t help feeling that there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye.
- It starts out with someone buying a remote property for £595,000 without need of a mortgage.
- But they claim they can’t make ends meet with organic veg so they go in for Airbnb.
- Which means that despite claims about conservation and rewilding, what we see at Blaeneinion is to all intents and purposes a tourism business.
- How much has Natural Resources Wales or any other agency of the ‘Welsh Government’ paid to Endeavour Ltd or Sharon Girardi?
- Assuming Sharon Girardi is Endeavour Ltd of Gibraltar, what is the ‘Welsh Government’s position on funding companies based in tax havens?
- Come to that, why did Sharon Girardi feel the need to buy Blaeneinion by this roundabout route?
- Though if she’s not the owner, then who is?
- What is the connection between Endeavour Ltd and Friar Street Properties Ltd?
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HORSING AROUND
Not far from Blaeneinion there is a similar but larger venture, only this time, instead of beavers, it’s Konik horses . . . at the moment. And while beavers were once native to Wales I’m pretty sure our ancestors never saw these critters.
They’ve gained quite a bit of publicity over the years, they’ve even appeared on this blog, in The Green Menace, back in August 2018. Here’s a BBC report about them.
(It seems Wales has no native horses that could have been used.)
As the BBC report tells us: ‘Cambrian Wildwood wants to extend native woodland from 10 to 100 acres across its land using natural projects. It is looking after a 350 acre site which was acquired by Wales Wild Land Foundation (WWLF) on a 125-year lease from the Woodland Trust, which bought the land.’
Wales Wild Land Foundation operates as Cambrian Wildwood. It’s explained here, with maps, in the Management Plan 2017 – 2022. And the plans are ambitious. Some might say unrealistic. Even worrying.
On page 13 we read: ‘All other native species, including large herbivores, will be present. Some animals requiring cooperation and agreement across a large area of landscape will be longer term considerations: for example, wild boar, moose, bison and red deer.’
There are some pretty hefty beasts named there, with the potential to cause a great deal of damage. Will a bunch of enviro-dreamers, with no experience of domestic livestock let alone wild animals, really be able to restrict them to the 350 acres they manage?
On the same page we read: ‘For the foreseeable future, it is presumed that the large carnivores (bear, wolf and lynx) will not be present on the site, and it is considered beyond the scope of Cambrian Wildwood to promote these species.’
A confusing sentence, that. It starts off by suggesting that large carnivores might be a long-term ambition, with the concluding phrase hinting that it might be achieved by someone other than Cambrian Wildwood.
So which is it? And if these animals are out of the question, why mention them at all?
Bears strolling into Mach’ for a few pints of a Saturday night, and wolves taking down Mrs Evans on her way to the Co-op, should certainly get the old town rocking.
As I’ve said, Cambrian Wildwood is the operating name for the Wales Wild Land Foundation. So let’s turn our attention away from carnivores stalking the denizens of Machynlleth to a form of parasite to be found a-plenty in the nearby hills.
Wales Wild Land Foundation is a CIO; that is, a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. Here’s the link to its Charity Commission page.
You’ll see that it was formed in 2014, which makes perfect sense. For in December 2013, Alun Davies, then Minister for Natural Resources and Food in the ‘Welsh Government’, announced that the maximum 15% of CAP payments would be transferred from Pillar 1 to Pillar 2.
Which meant taking money from Welsh farmers and transferring it to what were euphemistically called ‘other rural activities’. In other words, those who had lobbied against farmers and expected to profit from the diverted funding.
It may have taken a while to start, but the funding is definitely flowing now. As you’ll see from the table above, ‘Welsh Government’ funding for the WWLF rose from nowt in y/e 31.03.2018 to £349,773 in y/e 31.03.2020.
If it keeps increasing at that rate they’ll soon be grazing thoroughbreds at Bwlch Corog!
And what’s the money for? Well, I suppose a cynic might say it’s for ‘looking after’ land that could just as easily look after itself. But nice work if you can get it.
And when ‘Dr’ Jane Davidson, former ‘Welsh Government’ Minister for Environment and Sustainability (2007 – 2011), is your Patron, then the funding from Corruption Bay tends to flow much more freely.
The long-term ambition seems to be to buy the 350 acres currently leased from the Woodland Trust and fit it into something bigger.
This piece from GlobalGiving talks of, ‘7,000 acres of native woodland, heathland and rivers will be restored. Animals like red squirrel, water vole, wild horse, deer and bison will be living in the wildwood.’
Actually, it’s 7,413 acres, or 3,000 hectares. And it seems to be part of the Dyfi Biosphere project. Explained here.
I wonder how much local people know about these plans.
But then, locals aren’t important. What matters is that those drawing up the plans have the ear of politicians and civil servants in Corruption Bay. And that they are united in wanting to replace farmers and other ‘obstructive’ indigenes in order to free up vast tracts of our country.
How many jobs and business opportunities will the Dyfi Biosphere create for Welsh people? Very few, if any. But I guarantee we’ll be paying for it.
In fact, I’m beginning to wonder how much we’ve already paid. Let me explain.
The land in question can be easily identified from various images supplied in assorted locations.
But before moving on, I just want to set out a bit more information and some more thoughts. See what you make of it all.
The first piece of evidence is the maps locating the land in question. Due to the recognisable outline it was easy enough to find the title documents on the Land Registry map search. Which is where it gets interesting.
Because I suppose the first question is – why did the Woodlands Trust buy land on which there were hardly any trees? The only sensible answer must be that they intended to plant trees.
The title document for the purchase of the land tells us that the transfer was completed May 31, 2017. And whaddya know – the lease agreement is dated the very same day!
Clearly, the lease was agreed before the purchase was made; and more than likely, it was that agreement that prompted the purchase. But let’s think about this a little more.
The Woodland Trust bought rough upland pasture, heath and bog. Which it immediately leased to the Wales Wild Land Foundation, for an unspecified amount. Though as we are clearly paying the lease we’re entitled to know much it is.
As the annual report for y/e 31.03.2020 tells us, WWLF expects to be getting a lot of money in future from the ‘Welsh Government’. This explains the increased income we saw in the table above.
Which means that . . .
. . . the ‘Welsh Government’ is giving hundreds of thousands of pounds, maybe millions, to the Wales Wild Land Foundation to improve land that belongs to an English organisation, the Woodland Trust. Unless of course, WWLF itself buys Bwlch Corog.
Either way, where is the benefit to Welsh people from throwing vast amounts of public funding at schemes like this? This kind of spending can only be justified on projects owned by and open to the Welsh public. It should not subsidise hippy fantasies.
‘Welsh Government’ pays one bunch of strangers to lease land from another bunch of strangers and increase the value of that holding, while simultaneously undermining Welsh farmers so as to free up more land for more strangers.
The overall strategy is pretty obvious.
And as I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, this all links with that lebensraum venture, the Summit to Sea rewilding project. But the WWLF gang got cold feet when the public pressure mounted against Summit Sea.
I’ve written about this episode of colonialist arrogance more than once. So just type ‘Summit to Sea’ in the search box.
Though from thinking about Blaeneinion, Bwlch Corog and other examples it looks as if Summit to Sea may still be going ahead, incrementally, without much fanfare.
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TIME IS RUNNING OUT
The ‘progressive’ consensus in Corruption Bay is so wedded to reducing investment, so addicted to greenwash in all its forms, that what we Welsh need no longer figures in their calculations.
This explains why Welsh farms are being bought by hedge funds and others from the City of London.
It may even be valid to compare Wales under devolution with post-colonial Africa. Where we see newly-independent countries ruled by crooks who encourage foreign exploitation but dress it up as ‘investment’ or some other bullshit term.
Because when you think about it, someone buying a holiday home is ‘investing’ in Wales.
These lies make leaders look good but work against the interests of the people they claim to represent. That seems to be the situation both in Africa and Wales.
Devolution has been a disaster. Not just by the yardsticks of health, wealth and education. But also because we own less of Wales today than we did in 1999.
That’s a sobering thought; and no amount of airy-fairy gestures and ‘look at us!’ virtue signalling can disguise that we are becoming strangers in our own country.
Corruption Bay, including those we elect, is conspiring in this displacement.
Blaeneinion, Bwlch Corog, OPDs, Summit to Sea, etc., etc., tell us the truth about Wales today; who the system really benefits, and where we Welsh fit in.
Before long we won’t fit in anywhere.
♦ end ♦
You got to laff, otherwise it’s time for hysterical tears. Drakeford pulls another cracker, suckered the wobbly Plaid leadership into some sort of “deal” that won’t really compromise his ability to do as he pleases unless he decides to cut up rough about “dames with dicks” or stops grants to the swathe of assorted enviro-bandits now visiting our rural areas. Price takes a sabbatical to play mummies and daddies and fails to spend much time dwelling on the disaster that is Wales today. So Mark, fly old bugger, gives him a sniff of something meaningless dressed up as power and bingo the boy and his gang are on the hook. Almost as easy as selling a 2 bed bungalow in Abbasock.
There is absolutely nothing in this for Plaid Cymru. Especially as Plaid’s electoral strength remains in the west, where Labour does nothing about holiday homes while simultaneously undermining farmers and the rural economy.
What this proves more than anything is that Plaid is now a Corruption Bay party. Decisions are made at dinner parties and soirees attended by other ‘women with penises’, BLM, save the planet, progressives.
Let us hope that this is the final nail in Plaid Cymru’s coffin, and we can all move on.
How can Plaid Cymru vote for Labours agricultural policy, inclusive of the NVZ?
They are committing electoral suicide.
Especially in the parts of Wales they have retreated to.
That’s the question a lot of people are asking. Perhaps Plaid think they can change Labour’s mind on this.
Plaid ! I doubt whether they have enough in them to change a ten quid note into 2 fivers. Changing Labour’s mind, not on your nelly.
Dafis I must agree with you. It immediately brought just one sad question to mind – “Why vote Plaid Cymru when all your vote does is continue the century of office in Cymru of that stale old lot of time serving nepotistic grey suited Labour Tafia plus some gnawed old bones for Plaid’s chicks with dicks followers?” Were Plaid’s members consulted? Were ‘Yes Cymru’ asked? Do Plaid’s Youth know the track record of the Labour Tafia in handling the language and culture of Cymru? Is Cymdeithas yr Iaith still hibernating or is it dead? There is not one Politician left in Cymry with fire in the belly. They have all overdosed on Gaviscon !
You did a good job there of listing all those groupings who have wandered away from their original core purpose. Now they are all led by people who have been drawn into narrow ishoo driven activism and well away from what they would have regarded as top of their agendas until fairly recently. The rot has set in big time and I’m unable to figure how to stop it without engaging in some serious law breaking !
I just hope that Gwlad and McEvoy’s Propel gain traction soon otherwise our cause will go down that plughole with the Plaid, YC, Cymdeithas etc
Sharon Girardi seems to have involved herself with various environmental groups/charities in England before becoming a memsahib in Wales, including a spell with the Wilderness Trust, a group from Shropshire who moved their operation to Mid Wales in 1988, whereupon they immediately became a charity.
As for Cambrian Wildwood, its rewilding and anti-agriculture agenda for Wales is nicely explained in this report from 2012. The section headed “Who can deliver rewilding?” [i.e. in Wales] gives a summary of the organisation’s position regarding Welsh farmers. Inevitably, they also give Sharon Girardi a plug earlier on in the report. The document is interesting in that the name of its author gives a rare example of a Welsh person having a major part in an eco-colonialism organisation, and not just cleaning the chalets.
https://www.ecos.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ECOS-33-1-15-Heartlands-and-wildwoods.pdf
for the above-mentioned report. Sorry.
In an abstract sort of way that work is well written. However it has an undeclared agenda alongside its openly declared aims. It dismisses farmers and other land based “earners” as not sufficiently in tune with the grand ambitions of these fantasists. Because it is well written it is easy to understand how it would appeal to some stuffy university educated prat working in government, and therein lies the big threat. I’m told that Goebbels could write a neat note or two but my Jewish friends would not share any positive critical view of his works.
It confirms what Jac has alleged in the past, namely that some Welsh farmers must be replaced by land managers committed to rewilding.
It seems there is a problem with https://blaeneinion.org/. A pity as I was going to ask some questions.
There are still contact details on the website. Send her an e-mail.
It’s been plain for a long time that immovable property has become a sort of international reserve currency that can be deployed for any imaginable goal (and, probably, many unimaginable ones).
By the time that large carnivores are introduced, it will be possible to enclose much of the Perfeddwlad as a sort of superior hunting ground, retaining a few grateful indigenes employed as game wardens, waiters, chambermaids, cooks, bartenders, shoeshiners, etc. Parc Gwledig Mark Drakeford?
More like Parc Gwledig Simon Hart, or Goldman Sachs even ! But whatever name we stick on it as a sarcastic comment the fact , the unpleasant truth, remains that there is a steady programme of displacement to make way for this fantasist vision. Farms will be lumped together to form estates of diversity, while the displaced will retire to villages or towns specially earmarked for the winter of their lives.
The displacement is bad enough, but we are paying to be displaced. We are funding these charlatans!
When they run out of animals they can shoot us.