The mythical Wales Green Party is holding its Annual General Meeting on Saturday at the Angel Hotel in Cardiff between 10:30 and 17:00. I have been given sight of some important documents that shed light on both the Greens’ approach to next year’s elections to the Notional Assembly and the personalities likely to be playing prominent roles in that campaign.
I describe this party as ‘mythical’ because there is no Wales Green Party, all we have is a regional branch of the Green Party of Englandandwales. But rather than confuse you as to why I’m writing about something that doesn’t exist, let us go along with the pretence and, for the purposes of this post, pretend that there is a Wales Green Party. (Though of course there isn’t.)
Let us start with the recent meeting of the party’s Council on October 10th. Among other things it was agreed that although she is ineligible – not even being a member of the Wales Green Party – UK deputy leader Amelia Womack will be standing for the Assembly next year in the Cardiff Central constituency while also topping the list in the South Wales Central region.
So much for rule books and the party constitution. Though I’m hearing that Ms Womack’s selection has not been universally accepted, and has the potential to cause serious disruption within the party.
Though it could be argued that there is a certain logic at work here. For how can this Womack woman be a member of a party that doesn’t exist? She is deputy leader of the only Green Party in Englandandwales, and is therefore perfectly entitled to stand.
Though the likeliest winner could be whoever tops the list for the Mid and West Wales region, and the one who’s bagged this spot is Alice Hooker-Stroud. It seems Hooker-Stroud has connections with the Centre for Alternative Technology in Corris (surprise! surprise!), and busies herself with other hippy activities in the area, such as the Machynlleth Housing Coop and the Machynlleth Food Coop.
But you have to give Hooker-Stroud credit, when it comes to self-publicity this girl is bloody good, as you’d expect from someone in her line of work, Public Relations and Communications. Her Linkedin profile is one of the fullest, most comprehensive, I’ve ever read.
Then there’s the videos . . . believe me, this girl is no shrinking violet, just Google Alice Hooker-Stroud to see what I mean. It should come as no surprise to learn that she is also standing for the leadership of the Wales Green Party, against the dynamic duo of Ashley Wakeling and Anthony Slaughter. ‘Leadership election!’ you cry, ‘what about Pippa Bartolotti?’
Ah, yes . . . I can’t keep the bad news from you any longer, boys and girls – Pippa Bartolotti is standing down! I must admit, I shed a little tear when I heard that news.
Here is Pippa’s valedictory report. It tells us just a little of what she’s been up to this year, from opening the Rhwiderin (sic) “Save our Woodlands” fund-raiser to hosting the South Wales Greens summer party. (My invitation must have got lost in the post.)
But don’t do anything drastic, for the lovely Pippa will be standing for the Assembly next year in Newport West, and also topping the regional list for South Wales East. So dry those eyes and put away the tissues!
UPDATE 16.12.2015: The winner is (drum roll!) . . . Alice Hooker Stroud! You will note that in the report I’ve linked to there is no mention of Ashley Wakeling; that’s because he pulled out of the contest at the end of November and resigned from the party. Reading his resignation blog post makes it clear that he was coming under attack from Neath . . . which is where Martyn Shrewsbury is now based . . . and seeing as Shrewsbury is La Bartolotti’s faithful retainer, dare we consider that getting rid of Wakeling was her way of ensuring the successor she prefers? Note that Wakeling was accused of being rather too fond of himself . . . so to prove his accusers wrong he will now stand in the Assembly elections as an independent.
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In case you can’t make it to the AGM on Saturday, here is a copy of the agenda, to help you follow the international media coverage I’m sure the event will generate. Having flicked through it myself, I urge you to read it, because it’s more than just an agenda, it runs to 29 pages and is also an annual report, a balance sheet, a list of officials and candidates, election results and reports, and much, much more. It is a very revealing document.
For example, it reminds us what a thoroughly English and middle class party the Green Party is with this analysis of its general election candidates in Wales.
Elsewhere the membership secretary boasts that membership has doubled in 2015, to a high point of 2,850 on September 6, but then has to concede that things have gone into reverse since Corbyn became Labour leader.
Though I found it encouraging to read that the Green Party supports the “greater economic independence of poor countries” . . . but not of course, Wales.
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Another document of which I have had sight is the Greens’ Strategy document 2015 – 2017. I can also recommend this 28-page document, it’s another fascinating read. I suppose no one should be surprised by this, but for next year’s Assembly elections the Greens will be bringing in lots of helpers from England . . . how will we manage to tell them apart from our ‘Welsh’ Greens?
Anyway, the Greens’ primary objectives for the Assembly elections next year are set out in the panel below.
Elsewhere in the document we are told that ‘our core demographic remains the left-of-centre “lower class professionals”, likely to work in the third sector or the creative industries’. Plus of course, layabout hippies and other wastrels infesting the Welsh countryside.
Annex 2:5 is good for a laugh. For once the Greens get something right; yes, Plaid Cymru is on a downward trend, and at present it’s still slow. But anyone who believes that Plaid Cymru is a party that wants independence hasn’t been paying attention, or doesn’t know much about Wales, both of which could apply to the Green Party.
Plaid Cymru also gets a mention in a discussion of election strategies and relationships with other parties.
Them bloody badgers!
The final part of the document is taken up with wild hypothesising and guesswork on election outcomes. Here’s an example: ‘Some of the implications are downright weird – for example, in MWW (Mid and West Wales), if the Corbyn bubble continues to expand, we should target Plaid Cymru, but if it bursts, we should target the Lib Dems’.
Believe me, there are some really strange and highly improbable – though very entertaining – calculations in there (some even involve the Socialist Labour Party!), but I shall avoid any snide reference to smoking.
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I have written about the Greens more than once, most recently about a year ago, with Plaid Cymru and the Green Party of Englandandwales (November 10) and More on the Green Party of Englandandwales (November 17). Reading these posts will tell you how I feel about them. The documents I’ve read this week only confirm me in my contempt.
Because those documents reminded us yet again what a thoroughly English party the Greens in Wales are. Dozens, perhaps hundreds of names are given in them, and yet I doubt if more than a handful are Welsh. Alice Hooker-Stroud clams to have attended Llanfyllin High School; maybe she did, but I guarantee she comes from a white settler family.
There is something so ineffably colonialist about the Greens in Wales that I cannot think of any comparison. Not simply because they’re English, but also because of their dictatorial ‘We know best’ attitudes. I cannot think of any party, operating in any Western country, that is so divorced from the indigenous population of that country. So where should we look for an analogy – the Chinese Communist Party in Tibet?
Any Welsh person with concerns for the environment should think long and hard before voting for a party whose members regard him as a quaint and primitive native. And if Plaid Cymru suggests another deal with the Green Party of Englandandwales then that should be taken as final confirmation that Plaid has given up all hope of victory.
UPDATE 12:50: I’ve just been told that Dan Boyle has been appointed to manage the Greens’ Assembly campaign next year. Who is Dan Boyle? Well, he’s an Irish politician, from Cork. In his favour – and unlike the shower we’ve got in Wales – this guy has actually been elected. But he doesn’t know Wales any better than those who’ve appointed him. I hope he knows what he’s let himself in for.
UPDATE 20.11.2015: Predictably, I suppose, this post didn’t go down well in Green circles. To get revenge La Bartolotti revived her attack hamster, Martyn Shrewsbury. Here’s his comeback post. Shrewsbury has served this purpose before as this makes clear. Here’s another account. As these sources also remind us, Shrewsbury very nearly ended up in the slammer. Here’s one report of the case.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there are some very ugly people in the Wales Branch of the Green Party of Englandandwales. When they aren’t fighting each other like ferrets in a sack they’re up to dirty tricks against anyone exposing them for the charlatans they are. Sometimes it’s both.
This may be of interest, just gone up… http://ashleywakeling.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/an-update.html
Apparently Dan Boyle is having problems getting elected to anything.
From Wikipedia..
He ran for Dáil Éireann in Cork South–Central constituency at the 2011 general election. He failed to get elected polling 2.5% of the vote, losing his right to reclaim expenses. He stood as a candidate in the 2011 Seanad election on the Industrial and Commercial Panel but was not elected. He was an unsuccessful Green Party candidate for Cork City Council at the 2014 local elections.
With a record like that he’ll be right at home with the local branch of the Green Party of Englandandwales.
Been looking out for reports of Green Party Wales Conference speeches and results and there are none on FB.etc What happened?
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I haven’t seen anything either. Nothing has been written up on the website. I can only assume that the conference went ahead . . . but nobody took any notice!
‘Fraid not Jac.
Here is Amelia Womack raising funds for the last time she stood for election…
http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/amelia-womack-for-camberwell-and-peckham/
She is now the No1 on the Green Party list for South Wales Central.
Your man was part of the negotiating team that led the Greens into coalition with Fianna Fail in 2007 – an arrangement that led to their political extinction in 2011. The electors of Cork South Central rewarded him personally though – he polled 2.5%.
And there was me thinking he was an astute and successful politician who could lead the local branch of the Green Party of Englandandwales to great success.
Don’t normally spend much time on history professors, but today’s article in Sunday Times by Niall Ferguson is worth a quick read. His theme is mainly how the decay of modern Europe & West replicates much of “Fall” of Roman Empire – lessons from history & all that. Nothing particularly new but a succinct exercise, it will probably bring revisionists and apologists out in a rash but it serves up some food for thought.
Elsewhere, that chip off the old Tory block, Lawson gives that other Tory Seb Coe’s residual good name a serious kicking in connection with IAAF, policing of drugs, and the inflated expenditure on London Olympics and lack of “legacy” ( love that word, so appropriate for the wankers that are prone to using it when advocating a dubious case ) . Again nothing particularly new but it nails the lies, because the ruling clique – Labour and Tories – were pissing their pants with excitement at “winning” this horrendous circus and would never let a little issue like budgetary constraints get in the way. All fits in neatly with the narrative that the bigger the lie the more likely it will succeed.
Ah, dear old Dan Boyle. Let’s hope he does the same for the ‘Welsh’ Green Party as he did to the Irish version.
Meaning?
What did he do for the Irish Greens?
I was a member of the Green Party, but I got fed up with their fantasy ‘student’ style politics and three flat earth men and his dog in a pub local set ups. The Greens are largely a middle class English guilt and homous heavy outfit, that has more to do with a certain chic bohemian hippie state of mind than either genuine environmentalism nor are they representative of most working people, of which they are frankly contemptuous. Sure, for a while the disaffected left sought them as a home but with Corbyn ascendant, the Greens have no political function (rather like those all things to all men political whores a.k.a the Lib Dems)
Ethnic nationalism, is I suppose nationalism in it’s purest form. But Jac, most ethnic nationalists have difficulty defining their notions of ethnic identity. Is it enough to be born in Wales or worked in Wales? For me a sensible notion of citizenship would grant ‘Welsh status’ to every law abiding boyo, no matter their heritage, who has shown a tax paying commitment to the country for, say, 15 plus years. Naturally, this excludes much of the Green Party apparatchiks. But ethnic identity is a problematic flag to rally around, because it’s evil twin is racial identity. I think we agree the Welsh are not a race, and unless language be the judge, should it be a matter of how far back one can count their ancestors. I have Welsh ancestors going back to the 1820s, if it helps….and yes, I live here but have to work in Bristol because of the modern economic abyss that is South Wales….
Of course there are grey areas. But on the one hand you have people like me who are 100% Welsh and on the other you have those I’m talking about in this post, reluctant to acknowledge that Wales is anything more than a region of England, slightly more exotic than Cornwall. But I’m not saying that Wales cannot accept and assimilate immigrants, of course it can, and has done in recent centuries. The difference is that when you have hundreds of thousands of English moving a few dozen miles – and who can be home in a couple of hours – they do not integrate, because they do not accept they have made any great move, it is they who start integrating us.
Good to see someone keeping an eye on the Greens in Wales, they really are a shower and does any of this have something to do with the Green Dragon blog suddenly announcing its stopping for good this week?
Perhaps it’s my bad mind, I often wonder if the regional greens only exist to make all the other Welsh politicians and parties look vaguely competent?
‘Alice Hooker-Stroud clams to have attended Llanfyllin High School; maybe she did, but I guarantee she comes from a white settler family.’
There’s just no winning with you. Why would you even doubt that she went to Llanfyllin? What a strange comment. I don’t know where her family comes from but do you take offence to absolutely anyone moving to Wales, even if their children go to the local Welsh-medium school, learn Welsh and then find employment nearby?
That’s a lot more than you’ve done as a migrant to north Wales. Apparently you’re the only person allowed to move to a Welsh speaking area and not bother learning the language. What an absolute hypocrite you are.
I do not take offence “to absolutely anyone moving to Wales”. I am making these comments in the context of a ‘Welsh’ party that is almost entirely English in its composition, its membership, its support. Due to having attended Llanfyllin High School, and compared to others in her party, Ms Hooker-Stroud can almost claim to be the reincarnation of Nest ferch Rhys.
If you want to be published here again, stick to the issues and leave out the personal attacks.
‘Stick to the issues and leave out the personal attacks’? What a really refreshing idea. I assume this means from now on you will not be accusing candidates’ parents of being white settlers. Perhaps instead, you will judge them on the desirability of their policies and ability to deliver them.
Listen, lovely boy, you are testing my patience. I criticise politicians for their stupidity, ineptitude and dishonesty. I criticise Third Sector shysters and others for wasting billions of pounds that could be better spent. I criticise others who have put themselves in the public eye claiming to be serving the public good. Having put themselves in the public eye they are all fair game.
But I do not take the piss if somebody’s got a limp, or is otherwise disadvantaged in a way that is beyond their control. Come here and argue the issues, but don’t go for me personally. Understand, Matthew?
Well you can’t have it both ways. You run a very public blog that people actually read. Hence, when you make other people fair game you make yourself fair game.
The issue is that on occasion you do excellent writing that really exposes the many problems in Wales. But on others you’re completely clouded by prejudice that is beneath a man of your intelligence.
You’ve made assumptions about a candidate’s parents and insulted them. You’ve made yourself judge and jury of a candidate’s Welshness based on their LinkedIn profile. This kind of ethnic nationalism is a real issue and will do nothing to advance the Welsh cause.
You are wearing out your welcome, but I shall indulge you a little more.
Yes, I concede that by writing this blog I set myself up for criticism, no question. But all I’m saying is deal with what I write, what I say, what I think, offer counter arguments.
You obviously object to what you choose to describe as “this kind of ethnic nationalism”, which for you is “a real issue”. Do explain. No, not really, don’t bother. I’ve had a fucking lifetime of simpering lefty nonsense that always works against the Welsh national interest. Whether it’s British Unionist leftism, or self-styled ‘Welsh’ leftism. There’s no practical difference because they boil down to the same thing – ‘Don’t defend yourself too vigorously, don’t upset people . . . and ignore the fact that England is the only enemy we’ve got’.
We Welsh have been bullied and brainwashed into accepting second-class status, lower pay, worse housing, poorer health than our neighbours; our resources have been exploited for centuries, and continue to be exploited; Plaid Cymru tells us to accept some bollocks called ‘civic nationalism’ that means accepting becoming a minority in large areas of our own country. But all this is preferable to the horrors of ‘ethnic nationalism’?
Which for me is quite simple, This country is Wales and it belongs to the Welsh. Always has done. Not exclusively, but certainly not to the point where we become over-run and marginalised. So let us start running this country with the best interests of its indigenous population as the prime consideration. Basically, what other countries do.
From where I’m standing, and after 50 years of political activism, ethnic nationalism is the only hope – because everything else has failed.
Don’t bother responding. You’ve said all I want to hear from you.
U ok hun?
There should be a comma after ok. But no matter, the answer is yes, I’m fine. Now fuck off.
Rant all you want but you’ve failed to show how you’re anything but a hypocrite. You judge people for not speaking Welsh but you don’t speak it. You denounce people for speaking English and moving into majority Welsh language areas but that’s precisely what you’ve done. Perhaps so long as every ‘incomer’ who moves to north Wales sets up a racist blog calling for incomers not to move to north Wales then our country will be saved. What exactly have you tried other than this blog that gets a smattering of xenophobes excited about setting up a ‘truly national party’, which none of you can ever be bothered to actually follow through on? You’re like the Rachel Dolezol of Wales. But no amount of cosmetics can hide the hypocrite lurking beneath the surface.
Where have I criticised people for not speaking Welsh?
you should have, you naughty boy. That oversight is entirely due to you being too busy playing with your windmills and solar panel kits. Tut !
You mention Dan Boyle… he was part of the Irish Green Party that was wiped out in the last elections due to them completely going back on their election promises.
Has anyone taken a look at the Caredig i Natur site. It is beyond parody.
Here’s a link to the blog. And here’s a link to the Facebook page. The big issue at the moment seems to be bullfighting, obviously a major problem in Ceredigion.
caring for bulls is an essential part of safeguarding the source of top quality bullshit. However the tonnage derived from protected bovines will render the human variant redundant and thus cause the demise of that website !! Clouds, silver linings etc etc
Jeez! I do love lateral thinking. Come back any time.
That was just me rushing off for my daily feed – clicked the button before uploading my identity. This addiction to meat and plenty of it is tough going, despite warnings that it causes brain damage – now where was I ?
Yes, I’ve had encounters with a few mad cows in my time.
And some of your recent posts have made a few cows made too!
I’m disappointed that you are taking Ceredigion’s bullfighting problem so lightly. I’m seriously thinking of buying a farm (say Cwm Meudwy, or Llwyn Peniarth) and re-naming it “Happy Bull Hill” so that I can start a rescue centre for them.
I saw your comment and was tempted to have a look at the site – nice Welsh name & all that is “hyfryd”, except I didn’t see a word of Welsh on the bloody thing or was I missing some hidden link ? On Facebook which I rarely bother with, I found one small item with a bilingual heading with the rest in Anglo only. Obviously the people steering this venture do not regard native speakers as ” natural ” and don’t need to show any “caredigrwydd” to them ! Winning stance yet again from a bunch of ignorant self absorbed toss pots.
http://caredig.blogspot.co.uk/p/about-cin.html ‘came joint second in the ‘Best Political Blog’ category of the Wales Blog Awards 2011’.
What does that say about the competition?
anon, That Blog looks pretty so that tells me that the persons behind it are bright enough, no shortage of talent for writing and design. Which leads me to a simple straightforward question – if they are so evidently smart what is it that makes them so arrogant and pig ignorant towards the local native language ? , given that it focusses on Aber & its hinterland I would seriously expect a lot more awareness from these people. If they were stupid morons ( UKIPpers, BNP’s, Tories Etc ) I could understand a propensity to shut out the language, can you enlighten us ?
get Pippa Bartolotti back on tv!
I second that!