PLEASE APPRECIATE THAT I GET SENT MORE INFORMATION AND LEADS THAN I CAN USE. I TRY TO RESPOND TO EVERYONE WHO CONTACTS ME BUT I CANNOT POSSIBLY USE EVERY BIT OF INFORMATION I’M SENT. DIOLCH YN FAWR
♦
The past couple of days have not been good for James Jacob Gilchrist Berry, Tory MP for Rossendale and Darwen in east Lancashire, and better known as Jake. Not good at all.
His problems began when rumours started spreading that he and his family had rocked up at their very expensive holiday home at Rhoscolyn on Ynys Môn. Social media was soon a-buzz with the story.
Prompting his colleague, the new Tory MP for the island, Virginia Crosbie, to step in and defend her boy.
There was nothing to see here, she insisted, because Jake Berry lived in Rhoscolyn. “A few people have been in touch with me regarding the MP Jake Berry living here in the island. Mr and Mrs Berry have been living here in the island since February – it is their home”.
So that’s OK then.
It means that the MP for a Lancashire constituency lives 130 miles away near Holyhead. I wonder how the electors of Rossendale and Darwen would have voted if they’d known that fact before they re-elected him last December.
Perhaps what Ms Crosbie meant to say was explained when a spokesperson on behalf of Mr Berry said: “During a visit to Wales, a family member of Mr Berry started showing signs of Coronavirus. This visit was prior to the Government decision to lockdown.”
So putting together the contributions from Ms Crosbie and the spokesperson, perhaps we should conclude that the Berry family was on Ynys Môn in February when Mrs Berry was taken ill, perhaps one of the children was also unwell, so they all stayed put.
So why did no one notice them until a couple of days ago?
Lockdown was announced on 23 March. But on 29 March the Lancashire Telegraph reported that Berry had been to inspect local landmark Darwen Tower. Though on his Facebook page Berry was keen to point out that the visit was made on the 13th, prior to lockdown.
Two points are worth making. First, we are expected to believe that the Lancashire Telegraph sat on this story for two weeks and then published it as ‘News’. Second, Berry is reported to have had his dog with him. So if Virginia Crosbie is correct, and Berry was living at Rhoscolyn, he took the poor mutt on a 260 mile round trip.
But a few days later, on 3 April, Berry himself put out what you see below. So either he was in his constituency, as the message ‘Lovely to see this up in #Darwen’ suggests, or else it was posted from Rhoscolyn, making it a deliberate attempt to deceive his constituents into believing that he was there among them.
But if, as his defenders insist, he has been living at Rhoscolyn since February, then he could only have reached Darwen by breaking the lockdown rules.
The consistent line in all the reports I’ve read says that he was visiting relatives when a member of his family fell ill. This makes a certain sense because Berry’s wife gave birth on or just before 11 February. It would have been natural to have taken the new arrival to be seen by Berry’s parents, who do live at Rhoscolyn.
And then they went home.
In fact, Jake himself is quite the property tycoon; for he either owns outright or has a share in four properties around Rhoscolyn. As his Declaration of Interests makes clear.
One of the shared properties is the one his parents live in.
UPDATE: I did not identify this property when writing the article because my information was that his parents lived there permanently. But now I’m told that Cerrig is used by Berry’s parents as a holiday home.
So if it’s true that Jake Berry, his wife and children, travelled to Rhoscolyn in February to meet with family, then it suggests that his parents were already there staying at their holiday home.
The latest addition to the portfolio, and the property in which the Berry family may, or may not, live, is Rhyd-y-Bont farm, for which Jake paid £780,000, cash down, last November. It even has its own coastline.
Another property he owns is Plas Coch. If I’m reading the title document and the women in his life correctly, then he owns this property jointly with his mother and his ex-wife. Which must be a bundle of laughs. But again, this property was also paid for in readies, £249,000 in May 2017.
As I’ve said, Jake Berry is a non-practising solicitor, and as far as I can see there are no directorships or other sources of income. So either there’s family money or else he makes his MP’s salary go a long, long way.
Having mentioned Plas Coch, my man in the bushes tells me that no lights have been seen there in the evening. Though there is a car parked, a silver Volvo XC70. Funny thing is that the MOT on this vehicle expired in January 2019. And the tax ran out in March last year.
So if it’s parked up then it needs a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN), but I’m told it doesn’t have one.
Though Jake’s brother is reported to have lived at Plas Coch for a while. Is the car his?
And can anyone identify the fourth property Jake Berry owns on Ynys Môn?
The evidence suggests that the Berry family visited in February with the baby, went back to Lancashire, and turned up again a few days ago after Boris Johnson’s garbled message about staying alert.
I cannot believe that the Berry family is living permanently at Rhyd-y-Bont. It would be too risky. Some local shit-stirrer back in Lancashire would almost certainly find out and our boy would be in trouble.
Though if they are living at Rhyd-y-Bont then, when things get back to normal Jake Berry will be catching the Holyhead to London train on a Monday and making the return trip on Thursday evening or Friday. So when will he find time for his constituency? Or if he spends weekends in his constituency, when will he see his missus and the sprogs?
Alternatively, if it is a holiday home, £780,000 is a hell of a lot to pay. Insulting to the local Welsh people being priced out of the market by people like the Berry clan.
Finally. I’ve just remembered that there is no London property shown in his Declaration of Interests, so where does he live when Parliament is sitting?
◊
The bigger issue here of course is holiday homes. Holiday homes in Wales owned by people who have no connection with our country other than the exploitative and parasitic relationship provided by the property they own.
In this pandemic, the issue has come to the fore in ways I would not have believed possible. There is palpable anger directed at holiday homes and those who own them.
Only yesterday we read that police had to ask a Liverpool family to leave their holiday home in Llandegfan, on the other side of Ynys Môn, for their own safety. This report in NorthWalesLive gives the impression of a crowd of yokels brandishing pitchforks.
Feelings are running high everywhere. But what else can be expected?
Nothing really, because tourism encourages contempt for us and our identity. Wales doesn’t really belong to us, it’s theirs to take and do with as they wish. So come to Wales . . . swamp our communities, ridicule our language, change our ancient place names, and pay £780,000 for a holiday home.
Tourism and the colonisation that always follows has given us areas of our country where we Welsh are in a minority. A constantly diminishing minority. Every year more and more communities cease to be Welsh because of tourism.
There has never been a better time for politicians to get to grips with the problem of holiday homes, but they are too cowardly to grasp the opportunity. Those weaklings in Corruption Bay refuse to give police the authority to make people leave holiday homes and won’t even increase the fine for disobeying lockdown.
In Wales it stays at £60 but in England – where restrictions have been eased! – fines start at £100.
Holiday homes are inseparable from tourism. A tourism industry that is overwhelmingly foreign owned and of little or no benefit to us Welsh. The few benefits more than outweighed by the damage caused.
We have learnt a great lesson during this pandemic – the power of community resistance. When it’s over we must continue refusing to accept holiday homes and saturation tourism.
♦ end ♦
Jake Berry – He’s not standing in the next GE so who cares ?
Perhaps he’ll devote himself to making money.
I heard a rumour that virginia is currently living in one of Jake’s properties in trearddur bay. Any truth to that?
I was the one who posted about the liverpool couple in the local llandegfan Facebook group, quite surprising I had 200 shares of my post, numerous shares from others and then a local resident may have mentioned mabion glyndwr in a comment, and then the police were at their door 2 lots by sounds of it and 7am next day they were gone. Seems tensions are high on anglesey and renaming Welsh houses as english names is beyond damaging to wales and should not be happening either.
It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that if you are rich or powerful enough then law enforcement is irrelevant to your concerns, and at worst a peripheral business cost.
As someone who has had to do stints of work under lockdown defined as ‘key worker’ and regularly coming into contact with police officers on a regular basis on other matters, it’s important to understand what frontline police officers have to deal with. Regular crime has not gone away, and in some types of crime its character has changed. Specifically ‘lockdown breakers’ are a number of types.
The Stupid.
There are people of low intellect who genuinely do not understand their responsibilities. A ‘treat them as vulnerable’ approach is best advised and involves contacting their parents, carers, guardians, or social workers. There may also be underlying mental health issues. They are also the old and confused.
The Young and Cocky.
Many young adults have taken an attitude of ‘doesn’t affect me’ in the mistaken belief that they are immune from Covid-19. They don’t care about others in normal times. A ‘in you face’ approach is best advised, and often they will react with behaviour that allows an officer to deal with the transgressor using other offences. Those relating to public order, or even possession of small amounts of drugs, or other outstandings.
The Entitled.
These are people who say things like “do you realise who I am” or start quoting the law to police officers. The owners of holiday homes are usually of this type. As in normal times a frontline officer will take a ‘bedpan approach’. Let them dig their own hole and then issue a fine. Departing comments are often ‘I’ll be speaking to my solicitor’ but the fine is usually paid online the same day when they realise it’s a trivial amount with no repercussions.
It is the third type of transgressor that are the main spreaders of the virus in rural communities. The young and cocky tend only to mix with the same social circle. The entitled however will have holiday home dinner parties, socialise with acquaintances, both at their normal residence and fellows of similar type in holiday homes. They also have substantial contact the local community through retail, fuel, contact with NHS in older, and also with elderly relatives. There perceived entitlement does not end when they arrive at their destination.
When the Welsh Government refused to increase the fine as parity with England they have also given the ‘entitled’ a free pass to use Wales as a playground, not only have they undermined the work of front line police officers but also put the lives of the rural communities of Wales at risk. This also puts the native community at even more of an economic disadvantage. They are the ones who have signed on for benefits, are of low pay, now even lower, trapped in their homes, stuggle with food rent or mortgage and of course, law abiding.
Meanwhile the English entitled, the law-breakers, run roughshod over these communities. The Welsh government are “Fiddling while Rome burns”. Why infect the local golf club in England when the entitled arseholes can do their damage in Wales?
According to Virginia Crosbie ‘Sadly Mrs Berry has been ill in Bangor Hospital for a month’. So did Mrs Berry, travel after she was showing signs of C19, prior to the Lockdown? Was she admitted to Ysbyty Gwynedd, for a month, with C19 and did she need a ventilator? Easy to see, patch over a tracheostomy scar.
Well done her for Protecting the NHS England, London or Blackburn.
There is community paediatrics and specialist services for young families specifically provided for the Covid-19 outbreak provided at both Chorley and South Ribble Hospital and the Royal Preston Hospital. These hospitals are both within a stones throw of the Rossendale constituency.
It is services provided by the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
It should also be noted that there is somewhat superior provision provided by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in London, much closer to Mrs Berrys home, which she owns, at Westmoreland Terrace, London, SW1.
They have chosen to de-camp to Wales to access NHS services. This applied both to an ailment experienced by the mother prior to the pandemic and later, the Covid-19 symptoms of a child during the pandemic.
There is of course the most over-riding reason for travel during lockdown, that journey to access health services, even if you’re ‘caught out’ somewhere else, like North Wales, you cannot be ‘fined’ for attending a hospital appointment, wherever that may be. Patients only get rushed to the nearest hospital of current disposition on blue lights in an ambulance.
So the Berrys have no faith in NHS England.
They have chosen to put the lives if their children in peril for purposes of consolidating wealth in a property portfolio, and all paid for by NHS Wales. It could be argued that the grandparent generation of the family was already close by, secreted in another holiday home on Ynys Môn to help out. However, the clinical guidance is quite clear in this matter, being a high-risk group they should be shielded during the pandemic. If that was the case they also put their parents health at risk.
Just to remind Mr Berry.
Your work address is in London.
Your constituency is in Lancashire.
Your wife, who made need assistance, is caring for the kids.
Think about it.
Fuck off out of Wales. If NHS England is not up to standard you’re a person best place to change it. You’re an MP.
I am reliably informed that the three Berry children were all born at St Thomas’s Hospital in London. Nothing so common as Preston or Chorley.
He tells the Manchester Evening News that he obtained an amicable divorce from is pervious wife, Charlotte Alexa in September 2016. This previous marriage lasted 7 years, having married in 2009. He also told the same newspaper that he was delighted that his then new partner, Alice Robinson, gave birth to his son, Milo, weighing in a 7lb 6oz, this birth having taken place on 2nd March 2017.
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/jake-berry-mp-rossendale-baby-12712100
Jake Berry also added, in his press release to the Manchester Evening News, that he would be taking paternity leave from his duties as an MP to enjoy the new arrival, but could be contacted for any urgent constituency business on 01706 215547.
He says this is “the office”. It’s actually landline number to a rather modest terraced (leasehold) property at 4 Mount Terrace, Rossendale, BB4 8SF. This is the postal address of Rossendale & Darwin Conservative Association. A rather strange arrangement as most MPs have a dedicated constituency office, from which their staff work on constituency matters.
What you’ve spotted there is something that seems to happen in many constituencies, Brychan, though I too have not only found it strange but bordering on unethical. In Neath, the MP’s office is owned by the Neath Constituency Labour Party. Think of the undoubted benefits. The local party of whatever persuasion gets an assured market value rent ad infinitum. Built into the lease at Neath are the rights for the constituency party to use the building on a restricted basis, but is it monitored, does anyone check? You’re damned right they don’t. MP, cue us, pay all the service charges, but both MP AND Party benefit. It’s disgraceful but been happening for nearly 20 years in Neath unchecked. And I suspect many, many other constituencies too. The system is rotten to the core.
If you delve into his Facebook page a little closely you will find,
1) That on 10th March he was at a PR photo shoot with the Whitworth and Rossendale Community First Responders.
2) On Friday 13th, tricky date that one, he took part in a letter drop in Irwell Vale as part of the Grane Residents Association, story posted complete with accompanying photograph.
3) Then there is another entry on 17th March again with PR picture attached of the campaign to reinstate the number 33 bus between Warerside and Lower Derwen. Although in fairness the photo is not dated stamped so you cannot deduce whether it was taken on the 17th the day of the Facebook entry.
Additionally, on 31st March as part of the #AskForHelp campaign he posted the following comment, “The #AskForHelp campaign has been launched to help local businesses here in Lancashire. ”
Why would he use the phrase “here in Lancashire” if he and his family were self-isolating on Ynys Mon ?
Makes something of a mockery of the claim he has spent an unbroken spell on Ynys Mon since February. As a legal professional you would have thought he would have the good sense to eat the wealth of incriminating evidence on his Facebook page, or at the very least feed it to his dog ,who likely goes by the name Passepartout.
I’ve saved those three photos but as they were all before lockdown their only value is to disprove what Virginia Crosbie said. But even then, before lockdown, he would argue that he was free to travel from Rhoscolyn to his constituency. But obviously he wasn’t self-isolating.
The Rossendale & Darwin Conservative Association is currently selling tickets at £50 per person or £500 for a table of ten at a black tie dinner at Crow Wood Hotel, Burnley, Lancashire, on Friday 5th June 2020.
https://www.rdca.co.uk/events/east-lancashire-blue-wall-dinner
At which Jake Berry MP is being advertised as a key-note speaker.
What needs to be established is whether Berry has a property in Lancashire, or whether he has upped sticks and moved permanently to flit between his Ynys Mon properties on a permanent basis when not sitting on a back bench in the House of Commons. It would also help to know how old his kids are, and where they are schooled (unless its a public school and they are boarders).
This should show whether his chum Ms. Crosbie was, or was not, stating the truth when she claimed that Ynys Mon is ‘his home’.
The three children are all under three. His ‘home’ in the constituency is a small place rented from his mate Tony Cope, who is deputy chair of the constituency association. The cosy sort of arrangement we expect from Tories.
The Berry family lives in Westmoreland Terrace, SW1. And since Jake paid out £780,000 for Rhyd-y-Bont in November 2019 that’s where they’ll be spending their time when they aren’t in London. The constituency will see very little of him.
I feel an update coming on!
It appears Jake Berry and his new wife Alice Robinson (her maiden name), by early 2017, were happily living together, long after the divorce of his first wife. Alice at this time was working the very demanding job as office manager for Boris Johnson, a role that must have involved her living in London. Alice then became pregnant and gave birth in 2017. They subsequently married. They now celebrate the birth of another, possibly third, child this year.
The Daily Star published the Jake and Alice story in a ‘sleaze list’ at the time saying some rather nasty things, which can be googled, but I do not include the link on my comment, and only report/extract the known facts. What their bedroom arrangements are is of no concern in the matter in hand.
It’s possible that he’s ‘flipped’ his parliamentary second home between owned Lancashire to owned London (2017) and then back to rented Lancashire (2018) as a method of creaming maximum expenses within parliamentary rules. The growing property empire on Ynys Môn (2019) then becomes evident.
There is a ‘stamp duty’ issue as you pay between 3% and 5% of, depending on its value, when buying a residential property that is not your primary residence. A work around this tax is for a partner to buy it (marry later, after completion) or place title in parental hands, but this process involves a process of equity dilution of part ownership over a severn year term to avoid inheritance tax.
But his wife is now using the name Alice Molly Radclyffe Berry. So where did the ‘Robinson’ come from, and where did it go?
My working hypothysis..
Middle name.
Molly is the kind of name your posh parents award as a middle name and she probably never used it. It would, however, appear on birth certificate, driving license and of course verification process such as directors registration at Companies House.
Surname.
I suspect Radclyffe was the original surname.
Picked up a suffix (or complete replacement) of Robinson by previous marriage.
Upon divorce reverted to plain Radclyffe, may have been family pressure.
Added the suffix of Berry when she married Jake.
To answer one of your questions, MPs get paid well, but not enough to buy the pile at Westmoreland Terrace, SW1. Then fork out £750k cash for Rhyd-y-Bont. She may have arrived on Jakes doorstep with cash liberated from a previous marriage. Ladies who double barrel names upon marriage tend to be either feminists (unlikely) or aristocrats.
I would assume that the Daily Star got a disgruntled debutante insider to dish the dirt.
Renting a property in your constituency in order to have an address there is quite common. Ed Miliband’s – just down the road from me, is derelict and nobody has lived in it for years. Someone from his office pops round once a week to pick the mail up and a bloke down the road does the garden once a month. (I know the bloke lol, he drinks in the local pub. )
He definitely had a home with a substantial driveway in Helmshore, Lancashire, until quite recently. Jake Berry MP had his blue Land Rover and his previous wife’s silver Volkswagen Golf, both stolen at the same time, from outside their other home in Helmshore, Lancashire on Sunday, May 4, 2014.
https://www.rossendalefreepress.co.uk/news/local-news/two-cars-stolen-home-mp-7089040
When I read this report, I did ask myself the question of how does a car thief drive away two different cars at the same time? The only logical explanation is a long window of opportunity must have presented itself to the thief in order to return to take the second vehicle, possibly while the owner was away for the weekend, in Wales.
Bad luck just seems to follow that fellow Jake around, doesn’t it.
He is registered to vote in Rossendale.
I understand he is registered to vote in Rossendale..Surely his main residence.
As you know, I until very recently lived on Ynys Mon, not that far away in sunny Holyhead (4.9 miles) My ‘investigations’ with people living around there suggest that he and his family took up residence in February, following the birth of the baby, for a bit of recuperation for his wife and as you point out, his parents (the proud grandparents) were there nearby at the time to welcome the infant. The intention was for he, his wife, his children and his parents to remain in the area until after the easter break while everybody got used to the new addition.
He then did a bit of commuting for events into his constituency and possibly one or two trips into that there London (which is only 3 hours away by Virgin train from the nearby Holyhead, or possibly car-share with the local Tory MP who lives a stones throw away?), intending to do that until the Parliamentary Easter Break 25 Mar-21 Apr, intending at some stage during that to do a bit of local media stuff in the constituency showing off the new born. Commuting by train to London from Holyhead is a doddle – direct virgin express from Holyhead, 3 hours 15 mins, 2-3 times a day because of the ferries. And if you miss those, Manchester is an hour away, where there was (pre-lockdown) basically a London express every hour. Commuting to his constituency (again at that time) was not a problem – commuting from Ynys Mon to nearby Greater Manchester is (or was before the plague) not unusual – I used to commute daily from Holyhead to Liverpool One for one job I did.
(The NHS photo incidentally, he didn’t take apparently, he just used). At some stage in the first half of March a family member (his wife I’ve been told) started to display symptoms and the family went into self-isolation. This apparently can be confirmed by Ysbyty Gwynedd just down the road so I am told. At that point, he ceased commuting back to his constituency. During the 14 days self-isolation, the country went into lockdown, thus preventing him from doing anything other than remaining where he was.
Again this is only hearsay from contacts in the local populace, but Gog Plod have apparently checked his presence out several weeks ago and are satisfied with the timeline, and the media are fairly disinterested by the whole affair, having known about it locally and regionally ( the Post are also part of the Trinity Mirror and the North Wales Chron are part of MWN Media so nationally as well) since very late March /early April) but only in the last couple of days trying to make something of it but not really getting anywhere.
Once his expenses are fully published, I assume the timeline will be more transparent.
So you’re saying the Rhoscolyn property is a holiday home. Local MP Virginia Crosbie says he lives there.
If his wife started feeling unwell on a visit in February then the family should have returned to where they live permanently. Because if too many had done what they did, and if the pandemic had hit us harder, then local services would have been overwhelmed. And local people might have lost out to selfish, rich fuckers like the Berry family. And if they were visiting Berry’s parents then it means they were also staying at their holiday home.
I’m convinced the man is a liar and that he broke lockdown. But over and above that is the anger I feel that a rich family from England can just buy up a corner of Wales for themselves. And that this happening all over MY country.
Once you go into self-isolation, you remain where you are. As for the status of which residence is what and when, that I assume will become transparent once the expenses are published etc.
But certainly Gog Plod are satisfied and so apparently are the Parliamentary authorities.
That would be the same GogPlod that started using the term ‘Seasonal Properties’ for holiday homes and also had the lowest number of fines for people breaking lockdown of the four Welsh police forces?
That depends on what form the satisfaction GogPlod had, Red Flag.
It should be noted that if any MP designates a property as a ‘home office’ for parliamentary business then that limits the investigative powers that they are able to exercise. Gog-Plod would have had advise on how to proceed. This advise arose from the events of the Damian Green affair which involved documentation held at his “home”. It relates to MPs privilege over constituency business and those events resulted in concurrent access to an MPs home office and also at the Palace of Westminster. Permission was granted by the Serjeant-at-Arms.
Throughout this period the family have had a nanny with them. We in Rossendale were told that his wife did not have the virus but some other, serious complaint and went into Bangor hospital. Nothing has bee said about one of the children displaying symptoms of the virus.I believe that someone has checked the local records and Mr Berry is registered to vote at his “Home Address” the property he rents here..Incidentally in the recent past an army of Govt workmen descended on this property and installed security precautions..special glass, alarms etc..These reputedly cost £29,000.. but I cannot verify the cost. The local people are becoming more and more disenchanted with our MP from what I see.
That’s a lot of money for a cosmetic exercise, because I doubt if he spends much time in Rossendale. His main home is in London and when he’s not in SW1 most of his time will be spent at Rhyd-y-Bont.
If he is registered to vote here in Rossendale then surely this is his main residence ? I know the local conservative association were upset as they did not know where he was.
Berry and his wife did not spend £2.15m on a house in London in 2017 and £780,000 on a house on Anglesey last year in order to spend a lot of time in Rossendale. People with multiple addresses can choose where they wish to vote. In Berry’s case it makes sense to throw the curious off the scent by being registered to vote in the constituency he represents.
Check commons voting record for Jake Berry, Apparently he was in London on 10th March to vote.
I’ve managed to find a helpful video of a Welsh bloke who’s been travelling between London and Lancashire regularly during the Covid-19 lockdown.
https://twitter.com/nigelmp/status/1256200681364619264%5Bremovetoplay%5D
01/05/2020.
Some advise for Jake Berry MP he should heed.
Does anyone know who the chap in the video is?
I think that video has been taken down. What was it about?
I’ve placed a [removetoplay] suffix to the link. This prevents cluttering your blog comments on screen direct launch video, eating bandwidth. To see the video, click on the link, then delete the string enclosed by the % characters. Alternatively, feel free to edit out my suffix.
Question 38909.
On 22nd April 2020, Jake Berry MP, tabled an ordinary written question at the Palace of Westminster.
It is here…
https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2020-04-22/38909/
It is the ‘Table Office’ that administers such questions.
They can be submitted (a) in person, (b) by post (reverse verification process applies), or (c) online by the member logging in to a secure hub where only MPs have access.
Which mode did the ‘Table Office’ accept this question?
If it was the online method, where was the ‘secure protocol’ located?
Second homes: I agree Jac, we have something very unusual. Time was when nationalists would talk loudly about banning/burning holiday homes. When it was 2am and they were drunk. Because it was not practical politics. And Anglo-Brits would mock the Welsh Nationalists for wanting customs posts along Offa’s Dyke. Even though no nationalist suggested this because there was no real need, and it was ridiculous, and a lie to say Nats wanted borders. Now we can’t be so sure. I have been shocked here in Dinas (Pembs) by the level of hostility to 2nd-homers. One leading member of the Community Council shopped a family, and the cops sent them home. Over Easter, the police were out in force. If not along Offa’s Dyke, then in places where they could monitor incomers. Enforcing a border. When I (legally) drove from Liverpool to Pembs last week, through Y Bala, I saw unofficial signs saying “Wales is closed” and “Turn round and go home.” What is this? Is this a new burning patriotism, or is it something less pretty? At the very least, these things are no longer unmentionable, and the Welsh agenda has become more Welsh. Now THAT I like.
J.E says : ……….” I saw unofficial signs saying “Wales is closed” and “Turn round and go home.” What is this? Is this a new burning patriotism, or is it something less pretty?…”. I seriously hope that it’s something much less “pretty” indeed “ugly” would do very nicely. Why ? well a lot of the pigheaded souls won’t modify behaviour unless they feel threatened. That threat could have been delivered by the regional police forces in each part of Wales but they are either reluctant or constrained.
Therefore planting the belief that some undefined native/resident “force” might confront them is a legitimate alternative. Of course that is one less likely to use bracelets and/or guidance on how to go home, and more likely to come down to a slap, a swipe with a cricket/ baseball bat or pickaxe handle,or if it escalates in frequency a visit to the tar and feather salon !
What’s different about this time, Jonathan, is that it’s no longer just ‘nationalists’ who are condemning holiday homes and the irresponsible owners. It cuts across political divides and even English residents of Wales are reporting those who’ve sneaked and are hiding away. And the feelings aroused will not all die away when Coronavirus is behind us.
The paradox is that, in one sense, the issue of holiday homes has been de-politicised by coronavirus, and yet in the longer term the attitudes to holiday homes can only serve one political agenda. We know it, the opposition knows it, but there’s nothing they can do because we can’t turn the clock back.
The box has been opened and people will never view holiday homes in the pre-coronavirus way again.
What you describe is yet another example of the kind of greedy grasping bastards who get into the highest levels of politics in the U.K. If they don’t chase money they chase power, and some of them manage to do both. Probably lied and cheated his way through his early life and now doing it for a living. Admirable !
Our pond life here in Wales get by nicely too. Tories in the Bay Bubble now defend its existence because most of them get a decent salary way above their capability and chances to score a few bucks on the side. Some call it upward mobility, what’s not to admire ?
And I managed that without any hint of sarcasm or cynicism !
As far as jake berry is concerned a little early to pass jugment as yet.But as far as virginia crosbieis is in question she has blown her self out of the water and her seat right along with it.silly woman.
On 10th March 2020, both Jake and Virginia were sat on the same green benches in the Westminster House in London. Not only that, they both went together into the voting lobby during the vote on the Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Bill.
She deliberately and knowingly lied.
Now that is interesting. If his wife had been showing symptoms of Covid-19 in February – and she was in hospital for a month – then he and the rest of his extended family should have self-isolated for a period that would have covered the 10th of March. But of course, if he and Virginia Crosbie were lying, then there was no need to self-isolate. Have you got a link I can use in an update on the blog?
The vote on the 10th of March is one I would have expected him to attend. Because “Berry was one of 72 Conservative MPs who voted against the amendment who personally derived an income from renting out property”. This was a Labour amendment in 2016 that would have required private landlords to make their property ‘fit for human habitation’. He obviously didn’t like that idea.
Given that Berry’s legal speciality is in conveyancing law this suggests that he may be one of those who buys up lots of properties and rents them out. If so, this would explain both his voting record and the fact that he can pay £780,000 up front for a holiday home.
14 days, Jac. The period of quarantine for a multi-person household with a positive Covid-19 diagnosis, or anyone who suspects themselves to be symptomatic, is 14 days. The standard pro-former letter from PHW, issued by Ysbyty Gwynedd, to a household from which one of their patients has been admitted or attended for treatment reminds them of their responsibilities in this matter.
The Berry household wherever that is at any point in time is of such a type.
It also contains infant children.
Virginia Crosbie said he had “not left the island”. She should be reminded that it is not the island that is the quarantine bubble, but the physical boundary of a positive household. As she is new to the area, it might also be wise to also point out that Ysbyty Gwynedd, the hospital that serves her constituents, is on the mainland.
There was a piece in one of the Lancashire locals saying that it was one of the children who were displaying symptoms of Coronavirus. It would appear that his wife had some other kind of medical condition.
Yes, I’ve read about the wife and one of the children, but I couldn’t figure out if they had the same problem.
Jake Berry MP
Rossendale and Darwen
Conservative
Expenses investigation.
https://www.mpsexpenses.info/?#!/mp/386
There are regular entries of £4,350 for “Accommodation Rent” on the MPs expenses register, along with Gas Bills. This is distinct from office costs. The provider of energy to his office is E-On, and provider of energy to is expenses claimed accommodation is British Gas.
https://www.theipsa.org.uk/mp-costs/your-mp/jake-berry/
In the year 2018 to 2019, Jake Berry MP claimed a total of £16,618.31 for his rental accommodation. However he also claimed for reimbursement of a council tax bill of £1806, the payee recorded as RBC. This is Rossendale Borough Council. This indicates he had a Lancashire property registered his second home for purposes of claiming MPs rent and expenses. The primary address, therefore, should be in London.
https://www.theipsa.org.uk/media/185655/ipsa-coronavirus-guidance-version-26-03-2020.pdf
On 26th March 2020 the MPs were awarded an additional sum of £10,000 by the taxpayer for additional costs to cover staff expenses incurred. This is an additional allowance to cover equipment such as laptops and printers for MPs having to work from a corona lockdown address.
This is on top of the £26,000 they can normally claim for such equipment.
Boris and Jake reading a copy of the local paper in Rawtenstall 2015.
Jake campaigned for Boris to be leader of the Tory party.
The ‘IPSA’ card, a kind of credit card for MPs is paid off by the taxpayer. The credit limit on this card was increased to £10,000 with single transaction limit of £5000 for emergency spending due to Coronavirus. The latest receipts, once submitted, should apply veracity of his claimed location throughout the period in question.
I’ve just been told that Berry bought a property in Westmoreland Terrace SW1 in February 2017 for £2.1m. It is registered in his wife’s name.
WTF!! If that’s true, and I don’t doubt it, what’s the chances of me marrying a Tory MP? Why is he apparently still claiming rent for accommodation in London as part of his MP’s expenses? I’d have thought he could walk to the Commons from a SW1 address.
My man in the bushes tells me the family home is in London, Berry rents a cottage from a mate in the constituency, makes the occasional well-publicised visit to Darwen and Rossendale, but when he’s not in London he prefers to spend his time at Rhoscolyn. Your average Tory MP outside the Home Counties.
Ah, my mistake, sorry. So the rent is for the address of the house he calls “home” in his constituency then. Not cheap to doss down there, is it? £13,050 paid out in 2018/19 and it’s not clear if even that is a full year’s rental. Good tenant to have, I guess. Not likely to default because he lost a job or something.
This jake berry lies to everybody ..on twitter .HE SHOWED SYMPTOMS ..on e mail HIS WIFE WAS IN BANGOR HOSPITAL FOR A MONTH AND HE WAS LOOKING AFTER 3 CHILDREN ..then in another statement ..his child had symptoms so they stayed on anglesey …he hides his face pulles cap over his face when somebody passes ..he knows full well he is in the wrong …. cant abide him and by messages neither can his contituency
You could be right, but a local source told me he had four properties close to each other. And his Declaration of Interests mentions four houses on Ynys Mon.
Gosh. That’s a lot of houses for one man and his family. I think one that’s missing may be in London, alluded to in your article. IPSA shows claims by cheeky Jake for £1,033 for rail tickets so far in accounting year 2019/2020 for his wife and family travelling from London to his constituency. One of the claims has a tag that suggests she has travelled from her “London home”.