IN THE BEGINNING . . .
Once upon a time there was an obscure little charity in Barry called the John Rowley Trust, formed in 1986, which ran a hostel for homeless young people.
But then, in May 1999, came the first elections to the National Assembly for Wales. Someone said, ‘Ah, a new source of funding – time to get organised!’ What’s more, because Plaid Cymru did so well in those first elections, they thought they saw the future, and said, ‘Let’s give our revamped organisation a Welsh name’.
And so, at an Extra-ordinary meeting of the John Rowley Trust on July 12, 1999, Llamau Ltd was born, and a few new directors appointed. (Though there was obviously some confusion about the name chosen because the document submitted to Companies House says that the new name is ‘Llaman’.)
Though Llamau’s commitment to the Welsh language is questionable, seeing as there is no Welsh version of the website, nor indeed any Welsh at all to be found on it. Clearly the ‘commitment’ extends no further than the name.
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ENTER FRANCES BEECHER
In October 2000 Frances Beecher was appointed CEO, and boy! did things then take off. Ms Beecher is also a Fellow and a Trustee of the Labour-supporting Institute for Welsh Affairs, where her bio (scroll down) tells us that, “Frances steered the organisation (Llamau) through an extensive development programme from 28 staff to approx. 350 staff.”
Ms Beecher was next appointed to the board of Llamau Ltd, as secretary, on February 10, 2005. There is also the charity Llamau. As is normal practice the directors of the company also serve as trustees of the charity, with two exceptions. Frances Beecher, as an employee and a director, is not a trustee. And even though Stuart Duffin is listed on the Llamau website as Vice Chair (under Trustees) he does not appear on the Charity Commission page as a trustee, nor on the Companies House website as a director. Which I find odd.
The ‘Governing document’ is the Memorandum and Articles of Association which sets out what the company is allowed to do and how it operates, a copy must be filed with Companies House. You can see that a number of changes are mentioned, but we only need to concern ourselves with the most recent.
Let’s start with the last but one amendment. This is dated St David’s Day 2012 and was agreed at a General Meeting of the company held on February 25. It says, “3 The Company’s objects are – To promote the welfare and well being of people in need in the South Wales area, etc., etc.” Which is what we should expect.
But if we go to the amendment of roughly a year later, following another General Meeting, this one held on January 26, 2013, we read, “That the Memorandum of Association of the Company be altered by deleting paragraph 3 in its entirety and inserting the following – 3 The Company’s objects are to promote the welfare and well being of people in need in the United Kingdom, etc., etc”.
So in the space of less than a year this hitherto insignificant outfit, once an unknown charity in Barry, has taken on a UK-wide role. Given what it does, and that Llamau operates only in Wales, the fact that it benefits people from across the United Kingdom suggests only one thing – that people from outside of Wales benefit from Llamau’s services by moving to Wales.
But even “across the United Kingdom” is misleading because Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own judicial systems, so it should read ‘England and Wales’.
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ALSO INVOLVED . . .
The Chair of the Trustees at Llamau the charity, and of course a director of the company Llamau Ltd, is Angela Mary Gascoigne; a busy woman with an interesting background.
From 24.09.1998 until 27.09.2001 she was a director at Community Housing Cymru. There then seems to be a gap – or at least I’ve found nothing – until some time in 2008 when she turns up as managing director of the Somer Housing Group in Somerset, which has since changed its name to the Curo Group (Albion) Ltd.
The name change may have come about in response to a less than favourable report on Ms Gascoigne’s running of the Somer Housing Group.
Obviously cue to exit stage left, so in November 2011 we find Ms Gascoigne joining the ‘Wales’ Probation Service, which has since split, in 2014, into the Wales Community Rehabilitation Company and the National Probation Service which, as the Justice website tells us, ” . . . is a statutory criminal justice service that supervises high-risk offenders released into the community in England and Wales”. So it’s an Englandandwales body.
UPDATE 12.11.2016: Here’s an example of the kind ‘high-risk offender released into the community’ . . . to kill an innocent teenager. The family of the murdered youth is now planning legal action against the Wales Community Rehabilitation Company.
It would appear that Angela Mary Gascoigne was still connected with the National Probation Service for Englandandwales when she joined Clean Slate Training & Employment Ltd of Bath as a non-executive director on July 1, 2013. Its website tells us, “Clean Slate Training & Employment was set up in 2006 as a social enterprise creating and supporting paid work opportunities for people facing barriers to the labour market”. Ms Gascoigne left Clean Slate on July 4, 2016.
While a director with Clean Slate Angela Gascoigne also took up a directorship, on November 11, 2013, with Sedgemoor Housing Management Services Ltd, of Bridgewater, Somerset. She was appointed secretary on January 2, 2014. This company might be the trading arm – it’s certainly a subsidiary – of SHAL Housing, an Industrial and Provident Society. She is still director and secretary of SHMS Ltd.
From reading both websites and picking up information from elsewhere it’s clear that SHMS Ltd and SHAL Housing have links with London and help relocate people from the Great Wen to the west of England.
Finally, Ms Gascoigne joined Victim Support Cymru on January 14, 2014, and is still there. Though what she does is a mystery, seeing as Victim Support Cymru is listed as a dormant company by Companies House. In fact, the last accounts filed for Victim Support Wales (as it then was) were for year ended 31.03.2006.
From this website it’s clear that Victim Support is yet another Englandandwales body. The Javed Khan referred to was chief executive of Victim Support before moving on to Barnardo’s. Prior to the change shown in the panel, dated October 30, 2013, the Trustees of Victim Support Cymru were, with the approval of “the National Charity”, free to appoint “a Chairman, Treasurer and other honorary officers from among their number”.
Can we conclude that this change in October 2013 to the way Victim Support is run explains Angela Mary Gascoigne’s appointment in January 2014, was it made by ‘The National Charity’ in London? But why bother? The company has been dormant for 10 years, there is no charity called Victim Support Cymru, and it doesn’t seem to exist in any other form either. Victim Support Cymru seems to be as imaginary as the ‘Wales Probation Service’.
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NUMBER CRUNCHING
Time to lift the lid on Llamau’s finances. Here are the most recent accounts available on the Companies House website, for year ending 31.03.2015. The accounts for 2016 should be available soon.
Before going to the figures, let’s look at some other information found in the accounts. Turning to page 6 (numbered at top of page), the use of ‘principal’ in the first paragraph may be significant.
Page 9 is interesting with its reference to the “Young Persons Resettlement Broker Project for North and Southern Wales”. (Why not just say ‘Wales’?) More information can be found on the website under Llamau’s Resettlement Project.
The ‘Brokers’ are, for the north, Dr Kathy Hampson, and the south, Tracey Kinsey. Dr Hampson’s Linkedin profile tells us that the project is really run by the Youth Justice Board, yet another Englandandwales outfit. I can find little information on Tracey Kinsey beyond the fact that at some time previously she was Family Mediation Manager for Llamau. Though her real claim to fame may be as the Chair of the Chepstow-Corneilles Twinning Committee.
The first paragraph on page 10, particularly the bracketed section referring to “company law”, again calls into question the status of the ethereal Irishman, Stuart Duffin.
Turning to the figures, Ms Gascoigne is forced to admit that Llamau is living a hand-to-mouth existence, with no reserves whatsoever. Hardly surprising with total resources expended in 2015 of £10,997,104 (an increase of £1,217,973 on 2014) against income of £10,837,897 (an increase of just £886,155 on 2014).
The largest component of the expenditure, is staff salaries. Staff costs (wages, pensions and social security payments) total £7,585,065. And that doesn’t take into account staff training (£111,703), travel and subsistence (£178,418), etc., etc. But then, we must remember that CEO Frances Beecher “steered the organisation through an extensive development programme from 28 staff to approx. 350 staff”. That don’t come cheap.
UPDATE 06.11.206: When writing this I neglected to consult the Transparent Wales website. Having now done so I find in the funding for Llamau a number of payments of the type ‘Current grants to private sector’, and these total £1,116,420. Private sector!
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THE TROJAN HORSE THAT IS THE THIRD SECTOR
To recap, with the advent of devolution someone saw the opportunity to turn a small Barry charity into a major player in the Third Sector, and this is what happened.
But then, just short of four years ago, Llamau spread its wings to become a ‘UK’ – in reality, Englandandwales – organisation. This seems to have happened soon after lead player Angela Mary Gascoigne, a woman with feet on both sides of the Severn, got involved with the Probation Service and other elements of the judicial system.
Giving us an organisation based in Wales, largely funded from within Wales, but run in the main by people from outside Wales and serving England’s interests by rehousing young tearaways and those released from the ‘secure estate’. Making Llamau little more than an agency of the Englandandwales judicial system.
To achieve this position, agencies that previously had a modicum of Welshness and independence, such as the Probation Service and Women’s Aid have been absorbed into an Englandandwales framework.
Another example is of course Victim Support, where successive amendments to the Memorandum have exposed the increasing hold of the ‘national body’ over its Welsh outpost. As I’ve pointed out, Victim Support Cymru is registered with Companies House as a dormant company. It still has a skeletal presence with the Charities Commission that tells us it operates ‘Throughout Wales’, though when it comes to the ‘Area of benefit’ box it says:
Don’t be surprised, for it’s how the Third Sector operates. The era of devolution and easy money has attracted all manner of shysters across the border with no commitment to Wales, they’ve come either to take over existing Welsh organisations or else to set up new ones in order to tackle ‘ishoos’ of which we were blissfully unaware ere the arrival of said shysters.
What were once separate Welsh bodies, serving Wales, are now locked into Englandandwales frameworks. This explains how undesirables and all manner of criminals appear out of the blue to occupy – and very often wreck – Welsh social housing.
I could set up an outfit tomorrow claiming to help distressed caber tossers and start milking the system. And if anyone said, ‘But, Jac, there are no distressed caber tossers in Wales’ I’d just pop up to Scotland and find some. Because that’s how the Third Sector in Wales operates – demand money to tackle fictitious ‘problems’ or else import problems that aren’t ours.
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DEVOCOLONIALISM
Last month I coined the term devocolonialism to explain this system we now live under. This post gives me an opportunity to expand on what I said in that tweet.
We have an Assembly down in Cardiff docks, and within it a group of Labour Party deadbeats desperately hoping to be mistaken for a government. They are a joke, they and the whole apparatus of devolution is a sham, proven by the fact that no one outside of Wales – and certainly not ‘Welsh’ Labour MPs – takes devolution seriously, so why should you?
The Assembly’s powers have been restricted by Government of Wales Acts ensuring that the Assembly can never operate in the best interests of the Welsh people. All we get is ‘Welsh’ Laws that are English legislation with ‘(Wales)’ added, and civil servants answering to London acting as ‘advisers’ to this self-deluding ‘government’.
Yet all the time, while it’s hoped we are focused on those slobbering grotesques in Cardiff, behind our backs, in a hundred and one ways that our thoroughly useless media will never report, Welsh identity is being crushed, and we become strangers in our own country as Wales merges into England.
Devolution is nothing but a comfort blanket against the encroaching darkness of assimilation. And if devolution is the comfort blanket then the comforter itself, designed to make you forget your fears and nod off, is the belief that a few more Plaid Cymru AMs can improve things.
Take my word for it, there is no political solution to the problems confronting the Welsh nation.
~ ♦ ~ end ~ ♦ ~
I see the BBC are running a story about “Michael Sheen helps launch new homeless helpline”.
It is in conjunction with Frances Beecher, from Llamau. It reports she said “Homelessness is a hidden epidemic and what is so scary is that 76% of homeless young people have no idea where to turn.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-47359492
“He sounds like any other teenager but with one important difference – Cameron is rebuilding his life after becoming homeless at just 14. He is part of what one of Wales’ biggest charities called a “hidden epidemic” of youth homelessness. Stories like his inspired actor Michael Sheen to help set up Wales’ first national out-of-hours helpline.”
May I just point out a few facts.
(a) Michael Sheen has a number of properties, in NPT, Cardiff and a multi-million pound mansion in Los Angeles. He’s divorced so it’s not unreasonable to say he has a few empty bedrooms available should he really wish to help.
(b) Any person in Wales who is a juvenile automatically becomes under the guardianship of the relevant local authority. 14 years olds are never ‘homeless’.
(c) The police have a number to call. It is 101, or 999 if it’s an emergency. While facilities like ChildLine operates a ‘counselling service’ it does not offer accommodation. It urges children to report crimes directly to police.
(d) This new Llamau ‘helpline’ is attempting to prevent juveniles in distress from contacting official emergency services and as a result could put young people in danger.
(e) Children are not feral cats or lost dogs. To take a child off the street into ‘accommodation’ without the consent of the legal guardian (other than warranted officers under certain provisions) is a criminal offence covered by kidnapping, human trafficking, and appropriation of funds resulting thereof as child slavery.
(f) Frances Beecher earns between £60k and £50k a year as a result of being CEO of Llamau according to the accounts lodged with the charity commission so it’s not exactly a philanthropic operation.
(g) There is no ‘out-of-hours’ for children’s services of local authorities in Wales. The care of ‘juvenile waifs’ is the responsibility of the custody sergeant at the relevant police station, which provide 24/7 cover.
What qualifications does Mr Sheen have to take out-of-hours phone calls from distressed homeless children and has he been subject to an enhanced records disclosure both by SWP and LAPD?
Frances Beecher earns over £80,000.
This is rather exaggerated. What a load of waffle.
In which way?
“transgender toilets”……:-)
well, that’s the sort of “shit” those assorted pseudo’s like to turn into “causes”. Nice to know some people have a sense of priorities.
Interesting article that you link to in your tweets column about why people voted for Trump. Its analysis of the working class in the U.S, or at least its summarised conclusions, is also quite valid for us here, and I mean UK not just Wales. The pseudo liberal, pretend left has cultivated an utterly detached irrelevant body of political thought pursuing causes with a vigour utterly out of proportion with the causes themselves yet looking away when confronted with real issues on their own doorstep. This criticism can be levelled to varying degrees at most members of the London centred parties, while here in Wales our Plaid has been jumping off the rails so it can join the pointless virtue signalling of the London set.
Trump may be an odious creep but he does us a great service in bringing back the focus onto the real issues that working folks confront today. I don’t believe that he will do much for those people but Hillary wasn’t even going to mention them in passing. Now these issues are “back on the table” is it too much to ask that our elected politicians start really addressing them instead of producing even more hot air to add to the climate change debate that they all love to engage in so much.
And on the colonial theme – devo style – we are yet again underwhelmed by the news that a life long servant of the Anglo Brit supremacy has been appointed as the next Perm Sec at the Welsh Government. Shan Morgan has a Welsh sounding name, indeed she may have an utterly superior Taffette pedigree but her service c.v does little to fill me with optimism that she carries more than a few grains of empathy for her new colonial responsibility.
Check out : https://www.gov.uk/government/people/shan-morgan and you will find a bluechip bureaucrat now gliding smoothly towards a gilt edged pension. Well done Shan.
However this teaches us that not only is Wales a dumping ground for some of England’s less desirable social content, it also serves as a neat terminal point for the careers of those who have diligently served the government machine. Not so well done Carwyn !
Ha! ¨Go out and govern (New) South Wales!¨ You have to laugh, the alternative is just too dismal to contemplate. Btw. ydi Siân Fach yn medru Cymraeg?
Dim fuckin’ gair yn ol yr hyn a ddarllenais rywle arall.!
The clue is in how she spells her name. Born and raised in the Home counties, of Welsh parents, she then followed the gilded path to seniority in government service. Given she had experience as a senior diplomat in South America I expected her to flow in Spanish, but so far I have only seen reference to her ability in French ( which helped in Brussels, I suppose ).
And now to possibly the last instalment of the splendid career history and that crock of gold called the senior civil servant’s pension. So much for the entrepreneurial spirit, although she may apply that in retirement with the usual crop of Quango seats, official enquiries, committees, and odd non- executive board appointments.
What surprised me, knowing nothing really of such things, is that she went from boring but necessary (?) jobs in IIRC employment and training, presumably doling out grants and monitoring compliance etc, to international diplomacy. I´d have thought diplomacy had it´s own specialised training programme and career path, it being slightly more critical than most government bureaucracy, but who knows. I´m not exactly sure what her present post involves. Is she kind of Governor General of the West British Colony?
Agree totally with your last para, btw. But then she would have gone to the right school, be related to the right people, moved in concentric circles etc. Far removed from us, the common herd.
How she “migrated” from “Employment” to “Diplomacy/Foreign Affairs” is down to the elitist view that if you are from the right background and good at one thing then you will be able to tackle most other things. In the abstract that is a highly egalitarian concept, but really only in abstract.
Move into the real world and the challenge of shifting between major functions becomes steep especially as few if any takes a step back before moving forward. However it may partly explain why so little really get achieved ( as opposed to done ). Well educated misfits bounce around and through assorted ministries with no-one daring to call it “failure” because these anointed ones are very special and have to be looked after.
Call me cynical, overly suspicious or even paranoid but I think I just have a well developed “awareness” and “sensitivity” about these things !! Seen it all before, and if it happens once it’s bound to happen again if you repeat the behaviours.
Sorry folks, but my mostly dormant muse has awakened, the awen must out :
Eb´r Cadeirydd wrth y Bwrdd
Hen bryd ei phacio i ffwrdd
Hyd at swydd neis a phlymu
Fel sgrifenwraig draw yng Nghymru
Ceidwad Carwyn a´i Aelodau
Braf y gyflog, gwell yr amodau!
Well, that could get you a cadair in Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Cwmscwt (rhyngwladol branch )
ll2 for ¨ei¨ read ¨i´w¨ (wrth gwrs). Otherwise I´m truly honoured by your recommendation 😉
upside to this appointment – they might create a Cynghanedd coach for the Guv General just like they created a Harp Plucker for ein Tywysog Carlo Clyste Mawr ! Labour well known for a spot of useless job creation so watch this space.
ah that old saying charity begins at home hmm these devious lot set these companies and charitys to pay themselves not to help others
I can’t believe how ‘upset’ our Welsh media luvvies are……not to mention those who self-identify as being ‘progressive’. When pointed out that Clinton is dishonest and a war-monger they simply choose to ignore. There is something deeper here isn’t there? Almost like they know what it is but don’t talk about it. That’s the impression I get. I don’t think I’m far from it when I say that Trump has put a spanner in their utopian vision of a borderless world. Pretty much like what Brexit did. I remember a few years ago Vaughan Roderick saying on his blog that there was nothing wrong with discussing immigration. I wouldn’t say he’s known for his conservatism. But I’ve now noticed that many who are against mass immigration are being labelled ‘racists’. And some who are in Plaid are doing this to others within the party who oppose mass immigration into Wales.
I’ve just read Williamson’s column in the Wasting Mule, he managed to go to Michigan yet not meet a single Trump supporter. Amazing bias.
right now Trump looks set to win ! Another smack on the nose for those elitist know-alls who want to dictate to us all how we should live etc etc. Now I don’t accept Trump is any real kind of change he’s just a different type of crook ! However he is a bit of an outsider and that I hope will shake the tree. The EU elites will be trembling today. Both France and Germany have potential and capacity to follow the Brexit example, both populations are fed up with busy-body elitists sticking their bloody noses into everybody’s haystack so the likes of M LePen can cause an upset. And we have Brexit, which should serve as a model for those bold enough to seek further change, like getting out of the London centric Anglo Brit supremacy.
So good morning Leanne, are up for it or would you like to stand aside and let some real patriots lead the way ?
Don’t get too lulled into a sense of a new dawn dafis!
What you had in the US was two different masks on the same face. The face belongs to a power that lurks in the shadows but controls EVERYTHING. Trump being a billionaire who has, and still will, rub shoulders with that elite owner of the shadowy face is another puppet. He will, without doubt, be doing the bidding of that power in the shadows. It’s just a different flavour, the one that the ‘power’ believes will fool the people the easiest, will get put in place for the big ‘choice’. Remember the same thing with Obama? A messiah with dark skin who would change everything? No way – that was the illusion projected to get the masses into the realms of false hope. Not only are these candidates selected before hand, the rest is just eye candy for the masses. They all work hand in hand, and most of them are even related by blood. Obama included – despite his skin colour! It’s a game that the stupid and gullible public are tricked into playing.
If anyone out there thinks “elections” are how the presidents get put into office by the will of the people think again. If you don’t believe me, please try to explain how all 44 U.S. presidents (some research will say with the exception of only one- Martin Van Buren) are all related. According to Burke’s Peerage, all 44 U.S. Presidents have carried European royal bloodlines into office- thereby all 44 being related. What are the chances of that happening in ‘real’ life? Even the clown and the witch of this last ritual are related!
As it turns out, both Trump and Hillary Clinton are related to John of Gaunt, a 14th century royal. Gaunt, who was the 1st Duke of Lancaster, was the son of King Edward III. According to MyHeritage, Trump is related through his mother, Mary Anne Macleod, back to his 17th great-grandfather, John Beaufort, while Clinton is related through her father and the Rodham family, back to her 17th great-grandmother, Joan Beaufort. The two candidates are 19th cousins. Neither has commented on this fact.
34 of the 44 previous presidents have been direct genetic descendants from just one person, Charlemagne- the brutal eighth century King of the Franks and 19 of them directly descended from King Edward III of England. In fact, the presidential candidate with the most royal genes has won every single American election. Strange that don’t you think? Wakey wakey folks!
The facade of giving the people choice is the cunning way the tyranny is given lamb’s clothing in the guise of ‘democracy’ – and we ALL know that democracy is fair & just don’t we? Go on choose the least evil you stupid people and then land up believing that the ‘people’ elected a leader!
Put another way, imagine the local baron sending two psychopaths around to your door. One says “I’m going to punch you in the face” the other says “I’m going to kick you in the crotch”. You are then given a chance to choose which one you want. What would be your reaction? If it was me I’d slam the door in their faces. THAT’S what the people need to do – stop voting and start civil disobedience. That is the only way to stop this madness.
The same applies in our country Cymru Fach. You only need less than 10% of any population to do this and you can topple the greatest empire anywhere in the world. Stop playing the game is the answer, and whilst people continue to fall into the trap that’s set, by thinking they will change anything in the ballot box, what they are actually doing is endorsing the corrupt system that gives them a ‘choice’.
Read my 3rd sentence – it says “Now I don’t accept Trump is any real kind of change he’s just a different type of crook ! ” It’s good news insofar as it destabilises things in EU/ Europe. It causes a flutter among those who think things are heading in one, and only one, direction. And it should make people here in Wales want to question more deeply what the hell goes on in our corridors of power ? Only a part of the recipe for success but anything that is a catalyst or a spark for unrest and unease has got to be good.
All that info about the Euro royals connection is a bit disconcerting. I knew there was a significant %age but to that extent – god save the Queen/King/President & uncle tom cobley and all. Which was Obama ‘s ancestor – Black Prince ?
Otherwise I fully agree with you dafis. I understood what you said in your 3rd sentence, all I set out to do was inform readers of the ‘odd & strange’ family tie-ups, well quite alarming actually! Certainly not a coincidence I would have thought..
too true – a family tree that big makes our dear old Gwynfor’s efforts pale into insignificance ! It’s too late for me to start a big dynasty now. I reckon I’ve only got a couple of good (ish) shots left in me and letting one of those fly at the wrong time might cause me to fall apart.
I googled some of that info after your earlier note and it makes worrying reading to see that all these Presidents are plumbed into the royal bloodline, how did van Buren slip through ? Very clever too having them drawn from the bloodline but not in the traditional linear succession which would have the plebs kicking off a big fuss. Much more discreet.
I’d read about the old Merovignian bloodline years ago and pushed it into the deeper recesses of my mind. That was about the time when it was fashionable to say that everything was descended from Christ, now it seems they all got some kind of reptilian genetic code. I will remain sceptical about that until I see Charles morph into an iguana but the theory that they have a dash of alien gene code in them dating back into prehistory is quite plausible and explains a lot of the shit doing the rounds since Egypt & Babylon about royal blood, priesthood elites etc
Keep on studying dafis! Keep on digging and it won’t take long for you to discover & recognise the truth.
Key words for you in your research should be:
Sumaria
Anunnaki
Illuminati
New world Order &
Hybrid Royal Bloodlines.
Check out this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N526daW2AzM
Check out:
Michael Tellinger
Zecharia Stichin &
David Icke
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THWrzaF3bMI&list=PLsnG9lDpivN571gGfXEc1eOqdedHIcm-n
The cynics will laugh and try to ridicule this information – very much like a chimp laughing at the experiments of Nikola Tesla!
To anyone with an open mind and the ability to listen, watch and learn through natural intelligence will understand what it’s all about. It’s not difficult, as long as you don’t slam your mind shut through the shit we’ve all been programmed to believe.
So if I can trace my ancestry to Rhodri Fawr and William the Conquerer, what does that make me?
If you go back 1000 years, then unless you´re a recent immigrant you´ll most probably be related to nearly everyone alive at that time who left any offspring, basically it´s just a matter of arithmetic.
Jesus! Is that right? All written down is it? Perhaps you’d like to post it here for us all to see it.
Or are you just another prick trying to be clever? That’s what your comment makes me think you are when you ask “what does that make me”.
William was a bastard, in more ways than the obvious, while I confess to not knowing much about Rhodri Fawr other than his dad was well known and he in turn expanded his territory from Gwynedd right down to Carmarthen Bay. A real warrior he died in his 50’s still fighting Saxons having beaten the Vikings on Ynys Mon. So there you are, subject to the integrity of all the others who have shot their assorted loads into your female ancestors you could be a right bastard or the man destined to lead the Welsh into battle. I leave that matter for you to resolve.
Nos da.
Hysterical conspiracy theory re roysl linrs of USPresident, but keep taking the mushrooms,
Typing with one finger sdo sorry about errors
Two points,
once worked in local health dept in Cetedigion, sorted files in a big cupboard one week, arranged every name in alphabetical order. Out of the 100s thete i would say that only 20% wrte Werlsh names. The majority of problem kids or youngsters with ,” issues” were AngloSaxon names, fosyeted, adopted and migrants. This is the fact, not a conspracy by an antienglish zealot am not one.
Two asked somebidy who works for substance abuse agency in Ceredigion , once again, “spill the beans, how many native welsh cluents have you got on your book?” All i got was downcast eyes and embarresed shuffling of shoes.
also asked welsh housing assoc/ councils to provide me with stats on rehousing people from across clawdd offa, result- schtum or excuses azbout not keeping stats, Bollocks
what have you been taking bud ? Are you Anonymous cos you haven’t a clue who you are let alone which day of the week you are in !!
Thick index finger I guess dafis! Why the other one on the other hand doesn’t work I have no idea!
Comments about those of us who dig a bit more, are less gullible and think a bit deeper – (outside the conventional box) being mushroom eaters is par for the course.
What he/ she says in the latter part of his/ her comment is very good though – very observant – and of no surprise. It’s what some of us have been drawing attention to for over a decade and more, but some of us were accused of being conspiracists then as well.
Funny old world, they start off ridiculing you, then they despise you for what you say, they then hear more people say the same thing, then finally they agree with you!
May only have one finger but i find a lot of things out, and am fully aware of facts
over the last few weeks I have been getting registered as a Landlord with a body called RentSmart Wales which is aimed at raising the standard of the private housing sector in Wales. Now much as I admire their aims and objectives creating yet another regulatory body with fees etc attaching will do sweet F.A to achieve better housing or deter those bad bastards who manage a portfolio of hovels, slums and (usually) squalid H.M.O’s in our cities and towns.
Like so many of my generation I’m a landlord by accident – my mam died a few years ago just after Blair and Brown fucked up the economy and just before Cameron and Osborne decided to stamp their own peculiar marks all over our lives. She left a bwthyn bach which was put on the market, sat there for over a year attracting no interest as the arse had well and truly fallen out of the market. So our agent helpfully suggested letting, we took his advice and a month later out tenants moved in. Over 5 years later they are still there, and we are getting along O.K. Sometimes they remind me of my obligations and like wise I remind them. A nice even tempered relationship.
So what fuckin’ use is approx £200 worth of registration rigmarole other than to raise funds to keep a shed load of pen pushers at City Hall in Cardiff in work ? Oh yes, our capital city cornered this nice little earner rather than having local authorities across Wales managing on their own patches. And when a wily old landlord with umpteen properties across South Wales or anywhere else misbehaves they will not be better equipped to deal with the bugger. There are already umpteen laws of the land available to enable such delinquents to be tackled but it needs the will to use those powers to secure the desired outcomes. Instead we have another piece of classic Labour posturing – trouble in town ? oh, lets write another law or regulation and the dull public will think we’re doing something. So thousands of us will be £200 or more lighter and the few bad eggs in the basket will still be going about their dodgy dealing knowing full well that the bureaucrats have no real interest in solving the problem.
Yes, I thought it was odd – but entirely predictable – that this role, for the whole of Wales, was given to Cardiff council, as if enough Welsh money isn’t already pouring into that city.
As for the legislation itself, being seen to be doing something, but achieving fuck all, sums up the Labour Party in Wales. A useless bunch of posturing buffoons.
Dafis,
Won’t you be able to ‘write it off’ as expenditure against your annual income from rental on your tax return?
daffy – You are correct but that still means a net cost of over £160 as I pay tax at 20%.
However my real gripe is that here we have another “regulatory body” sitting on its fat arse sucking money out of the private rental market just to pretend that it’s actually doing something useful. Although I’m a grumpy old fucker I have a tidy relationship with my tenants, lay off rent increases, respond sharpish to issues regarding fabric of the old building and its services and now some stupid arse in a shabby suit thinks he can sharpen up my conduct as a landlord. Bollocks
As I understand it only 1 in 4 private landlords in Wales has registered to date. I would have kept your £200 Dafis and waited to see what happens next. Although Cardiff City Council collect the funds {licensing fee, registration fee, re-licensing fee every 5 years, training fee etc. etc.} I believe any enforcement action will have to be undertaken by the relevant local authority. I would be surprised if local authorities have the resources to enforce this legislation. I’m in the same category as you but have resisted the temptation to communicate with them for now. Hope nobody from Cardiff City Council reads this or I may end up in handcuffs.
Wynne Thanks for that comment, apologies for being a bit slow coming back to you.
I suspect you are correct about the low compliance so far because they were saying it would take a few weeks after taking your test to have everything ratified, yet having done mine successfully ( now have an online certificate in property management – only have 1/2 of a property FFS! ) I clicked on some link, handed over the last stage £144, and bingo within 2 ticks the job was signed sealed and delivered which suggest the online traffic was pretty light. If the take up is as low as you indicate I will ask for my money back – I won’t get it – but it will irritate the hell out of some pen pusher as I will keep on niggling about Rachman’s all over Wales getting away with god knows what while poor old codgers like me are being bullied by the government machine ! You got to have some fun while stalking these organisations.
A report by the Rowntree Foundation in the news today, revealing that almost a quarter of people in Wales are living in poverty and that it is apparently ” costing the country £3.6bn a year – a fifth of the Welsh government’s annual budget”.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/nov/08/wales-poverty-report-joseph-rowntree-uk-eu
Wales is being kept in poverty and dependent, why has there been little investment in infrastructure, business development and education? There are other countries in Northern Europe, with similar size populations, who run successful economies, they do not have natural resources, they are independent and their population do not live in poverty, it’s heartbreaking!
Labour and Plaid Cymru will argue ‘Something must be done’ and that ‘something’ will be setting up dozens of Third Sector bodies, pouring in hundreds of millions of pounds, and creating a few thousand jobs for Guardian-reading shysters to feel good about themselves.
There will then follow the inevitable scandals involving nepotism, money wasted, and then, when the ‘programmes’ are completed the Valleys will be left as they were before, perhaps even worse off. The answer to poverty and deprivation is a healthy economy, but Wales is in a double bind.
First, our relationship with England because a healthy Welsh economy would mean exploiting our resources and building up Welsh companies to compete with English companies who currently enjoy a captive market in Wales.
Secondly, Labour and Plaid Cymru are both socialist and statist parties, believing that government should control and provide. Which would be bad enough if Wales was independent and relatively prosperous, but Wales is neither, which results in begging-bowl politics.
As I keep arguing, with the political and economic model we are lumbered with, and the unambitious political parties that support and run that model, there is no hope for Wales.
I actually agree with you Jac, the revelations of how our rotten political system has been operating, has certainly questioned my political persuasion. Persuading those who have habitually voted Labour all their lives and whose family have traditionally voted Labour for generations though, might take time, but it is happening. The Scottish have spectacularly dumped Labour in a relatively short space of time, but like Scotland, Wales needs to have a strong, National party to fill the vacuum.
As soon as we hear the phrase “something must be done ” we know that we’re in for another round of committees, steering groups, task & something group, tea and biscuits cross party fuck fest ……… you know the drill. All loaded up to the gills with the usual suspects, talking heads spouting the usual jargon-rich drivel with findings that never lead to any positive outcomes. Labour. Plaid and the tories seem to breed these tossers in large quantities, and now we have the UKIP dimwit squad to add to the heady mixture of well remunerated nut cases.
Where are Wales’ “best minds” ? The best and most lucid advocate in any current debate is Arglwydd Elystan, a Plaid renegade of the early 60’s now getting on a bit , closely followed by Arglwydd Wigley, long dismissed by the modern, fey Pleidwyr as too long in the tooth. Well give me any day an old dinosaur with real bite rather than the gummy little pussies that inhabit our current political bubble.
Interesting post but it’s a shame about the mistakes. Llamau isn’t living a hand to mouth existence. It did make a small loss in 2015 but it still has reserves of £3.7 million according to its accounts. But what drives a coach and horses through your claims is where it gets its money from. Of its £10 million income, £0.58m came from the Welsh Government. Nice money if you can get it but that’s NOT “largely funded from within Wales” as you claim – more like a measly 5%. Expect those solicitors letters soon.
Now listen, lovely boy, go to page 15 of the accounts, and the report signed by Angela Gascoigne, and look under the section heading ‘Reserves Policy’. It is made quite clear there that Llamau has little cash in reserve.
The ‘reserves’ of £3.7m to which you refer – taken presumably from page 19 – is certainly cash in the bank, but it’s cash that is almost all allocated. (Scroll down to ‘Funds’ on the same page.) Which means that these are not ‘assets’ in the sense that Llamau can use this money as it chooses.
I’ve handled hundreds of thousands of pounds myself on a small, local project. Taking a snapshot someone could conclude ‘They’re doing well’, but I’d know that 95% of those ‘reserves’ had been given by funders for specific purposes; the cash was allocated, either waiting for the work to be done or for the invoices to arrive.
Looking to the source of the income, on page 23, the largest single source, with £4.8m is the ‘Welsh’ Government’s Supporting People Programme. You’ve just looked at those entries towards the bottom that are obviously ‘Welsh’ Government.
And if you study page 23 a little more closely you’ll find many other Welsh funding sources. Such as Police and Crime Commissioner for Gwent (£79,376), Local Authority S180 (£37,097), Family First Funding (£220,325), another ‘Welsh’ Government funding scheme.
So don’t come here picking on old Jac, I’m doing my best to educate youngsters like you, but sometimes I fear it’s pearls before swine.
glad you never had a chance to analyse my accounts. Your superficial approach would have had me spending money I never had a couple of times over – but there again that’s what a lot of these 3rd sector not for profit organisations do, and when they tip over they either get more funding or leave their creditors high and dry while they waltz off to their next 3rd sector cushy number. Used to be called playing at being in business. Now it’s a vocation.
I had missed your earlier tweet regarding Communities First. This has run since ……forever ! and only now someone is thinking about pulling the plug when it has soaked up £millions with much of it getting paid out in salaries and expenses to Labour hangers-on who had no idea about really reviving communities.
In most areas they just pissed money down a drain but got well paid for doing it. The good bits of social activity could have been put together by existing resources if those had been told to get on with it and given a controlled budget. But no, big fanfare and lots of spend and no accountability. Just like the rest of this 3rd sector farce.
Most of the above suggestions would take generations to have any sort of impact, even if they were realistic. By which time the damage will have be done. They are also counter-tactics, they don’t in and of themselves stop the problem, which is what I believe needs to happen. How do we stop the colonisation in its tracks? How do we expose the agencies promoting and facilitating colonisation? We all know it’s happening, we can see and hear it all around us, even people of very moderate nationalistic leanings have commented to me that they’ve notice a huge increase in English settlers – and not good-lifers or retirees as used to be the case, but large families with myriad health problems, ‘rough’ types (their words), single men ‘looking for something’ or escaping a past shrouded in secrecy. The demographic of those coming here has changed and where we once thought we had it bad with the new-age, self-sufficient “let’s buy a small-holding” types, now we’re having to endure those fleeing the bottom of the English social barrel.
Nic – very often they are NOT “fleeing the bottom of the English social barrel.” but being shipped out to various parts of Wales as part of a deal between agencies in England and 3rd sector bodies in Wales. There may well be a short term financial “gain” for the receiving body by way of a lump sum payment, but in medium and long term the burden turns up in our health, social care, police/justice and education systems. Net costs to Wales = massive, and I bet no bastard in government even goes there to count because it would have to turn up in some sort of public account and scare the shit out of the population paying for all this nonsense.
Exactly. Very often they didn’t want to come to Wales, but were left no option – ‘lose your benefits’, etc – and their resentment at being dumped in Wales soon shows.
Regarding the relocation to parts of Wales of benefits claimants affected by the benefits cap (about to get a lot worse as of today) and social misfits – who holds the statistics on this? Does the WAG hold an overall figure? Do individual local authorities know who is shipped into their patch? I’d love to get hold of official figures for this.
I did read a few years back that some London boroughs were relocating claimants to areas of the country that included Pembroke but weren’t informing the receiving authority in some cases. Anecdotally, people living in my own area (Neath Port Talbot) have noticed of late a goodly number of Jeremy Kyle types, either alarmingly obese or starvation thin, with snotty nosed kids in pushchairs, hanging around our bus stations and town centres and their accents are a dead giveaway. They are clearly new to the area and if you’re hanging around the centre of a dump like Neath, well you ain’t a tourist that’s for sure.. The strain on our already creaking public services is huge. I’d imagine just a dozen or so of these problem families could break a social services department. We need figures for every local authority in Wales and we need a political party to stand up for those of us who are the subject of this eugenics and say, no more – enough is enough..
Much as it saddens me to say so Stan, but the problem you highlight today in Neath is identical to the problem we’ve observed in Gwynedd, Ceredigion and Sir Benfro for decades. I now notice that it’s crept into Shir Gâr, and lately into the South Wales and Valleys areas. Twenty years ago the alien accents from across Clawdd Offa were unheard in the former industrialised areas of our country. The last time I recently visited the Rhondda I was astonished at how many times I could detect accents from across the border, not one being the posh Home Counties stuff, but the accents of socially deprived English inner city types. And yes, as you rightly reported from Neath they had the same habits as those you described.
When we were making an issue of this a decade or so ago, it fell on deaf ears amongst the population of the more southern Valleys (a problem for those Welsh-nats in the rural areas). In fairness it was a problem that was unfamiliar to them. Plaid (hiding behind the sofa as usual), wouldn’t pick up on it, although they were made fully aware of it, for fear of alienating what they dreamt was a vote loser amongst the socialists of the south. The chickens have now come home to roost. The disease has spread to the remotest corners of our country. Remember the furore when John Elfed Jones famously said that “outsiders” coming into Wales were the equivalent of “human foot-and-mouth disease” during the famous Eisteddfod week fourteen years ago in Dinbych? The exact same time that Plaid went into convulsions when I said that we were being swamped by “oddballs, social misfits and society drop-outs” from England’s inner cities. A pity a few more hadn’t paid attention then.
No one listened when we were pointing out that councils in the hinterlands were receiving incentives to accommodate these gutter level aliens. Now, too late in the day, the problem has spread, and people are waking up to it. But one fears too late in the day.
We in Cymuned, discovered in 2002 that Ceredigion County Council (CCC) was receiving incentives to rehouse ‘problem’ families from Coventry. Once here – with no filtering systems in place by CCC – many would decide to return back to where they came (overcome by the cultural shock and lack of shops, decent off-licences & access to substances I presume). When they applied to councils in Coventry for housing, the Coventry Council would insist on a rent payment record of these people from CCC. If they were perceived as a problem family, according to their rent record, they were refused, ignoring the fact that they had come from Coventry in the first place!
No one batted an eyelid, even when confronted by evidence. It was as if we were invisible. Plaid knew – but kept schtum (surprise, surprise) – the next bombshell would have been the racist card played by Paul Starling of the Trinity Mirror Group & Co. (remember the ‘Welsh’ Mirror – so loved amongst the so called Socialists in our midst?). And we all know how the word ‘racist’ sends Plaid politicians’ bowels into spasms.
Harking back to Myfanwy’s question regarding how the SNP have managed to gain momentum as a nationalist party where Plaid have failed. Can you, in your wildest dreams, imagine the SNP, or Sinn Féin allowing what I’ve just described to happen on their patch?
It became easy to integrate dysfunctional family units into Sir Gar because the earlier “wave” of Anglo goodlifers , genuine farmers, and new professionals ( jobs that hitherto had not existed in large numbers in our public sector ) had created the right sort of background noise, English on Welsh streets was a novelty. English now complain about Welshies speaking in Welsh when they enter a pub and so on, well in my youth we just stood there quiet, fascinated that an English had come into our neck of the woods. I can’t remember the precise detail but I think natives near Llanllwni ate one before they realised it was human !
Any way back to the serious point. Things that were welcome in their time have huge unintended consequences. In Ceredigion, the growth of Aber Uni to a bloated institution dwarfing its host town led to an influx of Anglo and Anglo -influenced students and teaching staff. Teaching staff tend to stay, some for ever, and in turn create an Anglicised environment ( only an insignificant minority bother to learn Welsh or even understand the broader social context they inhabit ) . Students may leave but retain some sort of contact with the old county so when they work for Midlandshire Social services and need a nice place to rehab some of their delinquents they immediately recall those tranquil places just a few miles out of Aber, and within weeks cut a deal with the Old Dragon’s council to ship out some of their best cuts of antisocial livestock.
Pembroke carries the burden of being known as ” Little England beyond Wales” which makes it an easy proposition to shift problem units. That said, I doubt whether anyone living in the county sees it that way other than those 3rd sector magnates who see nothing other than cash on the hoof.
Recalling only vaguely the events of c.2001 when Cymuned started really pushing the “Dal dy Dir” slogan I reckon that despite leaders making quite a noise the MSM /BBC et al did a neat job of suppressing the message. It just never hit the high repetitive notes needed to make people think hard about what’s going on. I don’t blame Cymuned, a newish body with very little funds, but it does highlight how the media really can snuff out a cause in this country if it doesn’t fit their agenda.
This has made me realise how Wales is perceived by all these various official and semi-official bodies in England. Ireland is clearly a ¨Foreign Place¨ full of crazy insane bomb-throwing eejuts; Scotland is not so much ´foreign´ but is definitely understood to be ´different´. Having a separate legal system, different titles for various bodies and officials, different traditions and sheer physical distance from London, all contribute to this ´understanding´ that Scotland isn´t England. Of course, mostly they simply forget about Scotland, which is fine because they´ll forget about dumping their problems there.
But Wales? I don´t really think the English view Wales as a separate country at all, more as a sort of annex with interesting scenery and slightly odd people with entertaining habits. Just the place for a holiday, a second home (if you´re one of the elite) and maybe a place to retire to. So it´s entirely predictable that faced with an urban ´problem´ person, who they believe is a victim of their environment, what better ´cure´ than to pack them off to healthy rural Wales. A long way from all those bad influences, and (under their breath!) ¨a long way away from us!¨
That’s probably quite an accurate assessment. It highlights the level of ignorance and unashamed colonial mindset of our neighbours from across Clawdd Offa, and certainly highlights the vacuum that has been generated within the Welsh population, thanks – in the main – to constant brainwashing and with-held knowledge of ourselves in the education system.
This is not withstanding the influence of the media. From brain-rotting reality/ celebrity TV shows & sports to the (supposedly) ‘serious’ news media.
This morning I listened to Radio 4 and after a bout of nausea from listening to circus commentary from the US I tuned in to Radio Wales – same shit. You could hardly tell one from the other – with the exception of occasional croaky voiced plugs from the chirpy monkey ‘Brit-Nat’ ‘Jase’ for his later mush show. Pathetic! The only Welsh flavour was an interview with someone from an American Deli in Kerdiff commentating on why she was supporting the ‘wicked witch of the west’, which again was a display of obedience by a politically paid-up member of the establishment media.
The operative word in your comment was ‘annex’ – which is another word for the take over of a defeated nation through assimilation by a bigger neighbour.
I was thinking of the noun, like the annex of a building, a bit you´ve extended into. But you´re right, Wales was in fact ´annexed´ by England long ago, not joined in an ´equal´ (why are you laughing??) union like Alba. The other problem is that the border really makes little cultural or geographical sense, making it difficult to realise when you´ve crossed it very often, at least until you see an ´araf´ painted on the road. The only thing less rational is having the capital and seat of the assembly down there in Cardiff, in the corner of a corner of Wales. About as relevant to say Bangor as Liverpool would be. TBH Amwythig would have been a better choice 🙂
OT a Scottish blogger who´s into railways has just commented favourably on the Welsh signs etc. on trains even on the English side of the border, and wonders why there´s no Welsh to be seen in Chester. But does this simply add to ´border blurring´ ?
I think most people in the valleys know that organisations like Llamau are just an opiate, liberally injected into our communities to prevent social unrest and fog out clear thinking and come up with real solutions.
[a] It doesn’t take a genius to understand that when Sian Hamilton turns in the underground car park at Tesco’s in Merthyr on a shout to spliff distribution as a Special Constable for South Wales Police, she’s really fishing for a ‘client’ for Llamau who provides her with a day job. Proper coppers know this.
[b] It doesn’t take a genius to understand that when Simon Weston kicks off at Cardiff Central “do you know who I am ossifer, punch punch” it’s because he’s still using alcohol to deal with his own demons, and that, after it went into administration the clients of ‘Weston Spirit’ were inherited by Llamau, so that the MoD can dump their responsibility for veterans into a hostel in Tonypandy funded by lottery tickets and an opportunity for Weston to do his ‘Celebrity Burnt Face Football Poppy Outrage piece’ for the Daily Mail.
[c] I doesn’t take a genius to understand that when some arsehole bruiser kicks the shit out of his missis that Womens Aid should be providing refuge accommodation only as a temporary measure before evicting the arsehole from the main family home onto the streets rather than Llamau ‘offering mediation to prevent homelessness’. They are letting people who beat up women the opportunity to get a new flat and counselling as a means to escape justice.
A genius is required to (a) stop all public funding to Llamau etc, (2) divert this cash to the local council to build council houses, (3) council housing only offered to local Welsh people, (4) if they turn their life around and earn a crust they get to buy the council house and the funds used to build a replacement, and (5) minimum price on alcohol, (6) if you sell blow and spice in Pandy or Merthyr you go to jail, and (7) veterans with issues should be housed and treated in those MoD accommodation blocks in Brecon not dumped into the charity “network” in the valleys. If any AM disagrees with this solution (especially former Rhondda probation officers or Sir Fynwy BTP Specials), please write to Jac.
If any of the 200 or so ‘outreach workers’ who work for Llamau can pass the probation officer of social work exams, then they should apply to work for an accredited agency rather than winging non-job charity postings dishing out tea and custard creams. As for the bosses of Llamau, they should hand over the physical assets to the council and then piss off back to ‘property in Clifton don’t you know’ then stop trying to put lentils in our cawl.
A bloke I used to know living in Barmouth used to tell me amazing tales of the things that went on in the large floating population of that town. For example, witnesses in important London gangland trials being relocated, for example. Another tale was the battered wives racket, where women (with a couple of kids) from a long way away would be allocated a flat or house in the town, then their abusive partners would turn up, there’d be a ‘reconciliation’, and a family from Wolverhampton or some other hell-hole now had a nice little place by the seaside all paid for by somebody else.
But of course this bloke of whom I speak was a cynical bastard, not like me.
You seem to know quite a bit about Llamau, Brychan; feel free to tell us more.
My comments relating to Llamau and the MoD is somewhat topical.
The ‘help to buy’ scheme run by the MoD has been extended and I understand three sites of defense land in Wales will be closed and become become available for housing to dump the sick squaddies. No doubt there will be a queue of assorted third sector ‘house troubled soldiers’ charities hoping to get their hands on existing barracks or, if possible, for new housing.
Mynydd Epynt?
Castlemartin?
Cydweli (constituency of the shadow defense secretary)?
or perhaps some other sites?
Prepare for invasion!
I notice Llamau have recently accepted a large donation from Garfield Weston. This is an organisation who was sanctioned for giving almost a million pounds to the Conservative Party (which constituted a breaches of UK Charity Law) and is a regular funder of the Centre for Policy Studies, a right wing think tank who have been championing moving social tenants out of London and the Home Counties onto a privatised MoD estate.
One of the three MoD sites is Brecon…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-37902151
If one London borough seeking to socially cleanse itself of benefits tenants, can outbid the county of Kent, then Powys doesn’t stand a chance. See…
http://www.kentonline.co.uk/canterbury/news/influx-from-london-just-the-96508/
Aberhonddu will be swamped.
The MoD says it will go to the highest bidder and has a target to build 55,000 properties.
Actually, I think it’s Canterbury City Council rather than Kent County Council, but I see your point. It will be interesting to see how Powys CC reacts, and of course our wonderful ‘Welsh’ Government.
Though I can predict with certainty the response of the Third Sector – ‘Wales is a welcoming country . . . poor dabs . . . give us more money, and lots of it!‘
only caught up with the significance of all this today. Interesting to read the locals in Kent having a right old go at their elected leaders and the entire idea of “dysfunctionals” from London spilling in droves out to Kent !.
Now we might say “fuck you, you deserve it” but on reflection anything that rebels against London’s god given right to tip its shit elsewhere on these islands has to be worth a bit of support. It looks like London and say 6 or so major conurbations are making decisions with little or no regard for the rest of England (and by extension Wales). Will this be how City Regions manage their relationships with the wider hinterland ?
No doubt UKIP will make hay in England, and if our native representatives don’t wake up sharpish we’ll have UKIP Wales hijacking the bandwagon despite having an ideology more closely wedded to the views of some of the new “arrivals” from east of Clawdd Offa.
It’s no coincidence that the ‘liberal elite’ of London having been cleansed of their ‘dysfunctionals’ was the only significant bit of Southern England which voted to remain in the EU. The most significant party of Southern England to give support to Ukip, where they run a council and where Farage stood for MP coming a good second to a Tory, is in the parts of Kent where the ‘socially cleansed dysfunctionals’ were dumped.
I do not expect the Tories in southern England to see this as an end to the matter. I expect the Westminster Government to expand on this policy and use Wales as a ‘plantation repository’ for their ‘dysfunctionals’, not just to move on their hoards of work shy spongers currently deposited in Kent and Essex, but to expand the social dumping to cleanse Plymouth, Portsmouth, Bristol, and of course the English Midlands. I expect a ‘dump them in Wales’ policy with ‘regional benefits’ so that the cost of welfare payments is lower, especially in the valleys or transfers of MoD estate. Of course the burden on social care and the NHS falls upon Wales. Labour in Wales will welcome this as it fulfils their philosophy of need.
It should be remembered that English colonialism has always relied on such a policy, whether it be murderers and horse thieves escaping a hanging by transport to the colonies, or farmers in debt to landowners and demobbed thugs from wars with the other imperial powers being given expropriated land in Ulster. The modern tool of such colonialism is the welfare system shored up with ‘charity’.
I do not expect Powys (Brecon garrison) or Pembrokeshire (Cawdor garrison) to have the cash to compete with London boroughs in a bidding war on the real estate and I’m sure the Senedd could be bribed with a donation for a ‘military museum’ and a donation to Llamau, WellbeingCymru outfits and DrugAid.
The social cleansing of areas of England is nothing new of course, I remember being told about the dumping of problem families from Liverpool and Manchester onto Penzance, years ago, by a local (one of the only few remaining Cornish locals!!). This little published social policy is reiterated here:
http://www.ilivehere.co.uk/penzance.html
According to the writer, ” our council introduced the policy of adopting ‘problem families’ from less happy towns in exchange for cash.”
The effect of incomers in Cornwall is all too evident, the Cornish person who I talked to mentioned that many Cornish people from the area moved to Brittany as more people from England moved into Cornwall in the last few decades. The same effects on the local communities in areas of Wales, such as Dyfed, are all too recognisable.
The warning signs are there, the social policies have been in play for years and the Councils have been happy to take the bribes. Revealing what has been going on is the first step, this social policy and it’s effects on the local communities has been carrying on unabated, as the media has not been discussing what exactly has been going on. It is an incredibly destructive policy for Wales and now we are aware of it, it has to be stopped!
I’m traumatised. I kinda knew this was happening, but to hear someone else outlining it, publicly, just ‘brings it home’, like a wrecking ball to the face. What CAN I do? Not ‘we’, because us Cymry can’t organise the proverbial party. What can I, me, myself do? Nothing. Just sit by and watch, write the odd ‘disgusted of Tunbridge Wells’ style letter, have a rant at someone (usually English or Scymraeg), go on protest marches, support Yes Cymru etc etc etc etc etc. But, despite these things, the future looks ever bleaker.
We must never be disheartened. It is important that Welsh nationalists work to spread the word meta-politcally. I’m always surprised by how many people are aware of Jac’s blog. He’s opened so many people’s eyes to what’s going on in our country.
Speaking from a young man’s perspective, here are a few things you can do to support the Welsh nation.
1) Avoid working for the British State
If you’re a young Welshman thinking about a career, pick up a trade. If you live in the Valleys then you’ll earn more as an electrician than most of the idiots who pay thousands to study worthless subjects at university. Our bloated public sector is paid for by the southern English taxplayer and it is the chain that keeps our nation servile. The nationalists of the 60s and 70s were paid off with cushty jobs in the public sector. Don’t let them get to you. Be your own boss, don’t be a slave.
2) Be positive, confident and presentable
It is important to dress well, be physically fit and to put your point across in a logical, polite and authoritative manner. Welsh nationalism should be the nationalism of the guy who captains the rugby team, not the dork who goes to drama club or the nerd who spends all his time online. Avoid pornography and video games and hit the gym hard instead. Join a local sports team and get out of the house whenever you can. This will increase your confidence, give you presence and people will listen to what you have to say. There’s loads of ‘Alpha Male’ life improvement literature out there on the internet. Look it up.
3) Find a nice Welsh girl, get married and raise a large family
Demographics is the mother of politics. If you’re confident, look after yourself and work hard then it shouldn’t be too hard to find a pretty traditional girl who would make a great Mam for your kids. This will probably be someone you went to school with and knows your family well. Settle down and have as many children as possible. Try to buy a house in the same village as your parents. Stay within your own community, don’t move to Cardiff or some faceless dormitory town on the M4 corridor. Encourage your friends who are thinking of moving away to do the same. If you can speak Welsh then make sure that you pass the Welsh language on to your children and that they go to the local Ysgol Gymraeg. Keep the community alive.
It’s simple, we need to create more Welsh people. It may seem hard to raise a large family in this day and age but it can be done. It means going without holidays abroad, expensive cars, meals out and so on. Put your family and nation first. Be a good dad and a faithful husband.
There are many more things e.g supporting local businesses, sharing Welsh nationalist content on social media and so on but basically if you’re a decent, dedicated and principled person then people will listen to your message. Dedicating yourself to Wales means becoming a better person, putting down roots, raising a family and contributing to the creation of a healthy Welsh society.
The Wales we live in is rotten to the core but we can create something better for our children. Never feel ashamed of who you are, keep your accent/language and don’t waste your time on people who hate our nation. We’re not scroungers, degenerates or pushovers. We’re in a bad way right now but we can lay the foundations for a better country. Never give up.
Rhedyn : Communities fail and people move out because there is no local economy. It´s no use having a dozen kids if you can´t feed them. They´ll just be forced to emigrate, like the C19th Irish, or remain and be dependent on government hand-outs. Where´s your solution to that? All the confidence in the world won´t solve that one. All that will happen, is just like in nature, is that your alpha-males will fight one another for the few remaining resources (while the real enemy stands back and cheers them on, ¨more fun that a barrel of monkeys¨).
OTOH the internet etc. does make your physical location largely irrelevant for many purposes these days, so maybe you should ¨Nurture a Nerd¨ lol! In any case, control of the so called ´social media´ is probably as important these days as ´control of the airwaves´ used to be.
Also, just in case it´s not blindingly obvious, your scheme plays straight into the English stereotype of the parochial inbred surly aggressive WelshNat, and since there are many more of them than there are of you, all you could hope for would be to go down fighting in some great noble defeat. As if Wales hasn´t seen enough of those over the centuries.
Defeatist nonsense. You can start your own business, buy your own house and raise 5 or 6 children in the Valleys if you’re willing to make some superficial sacrificies. You don’t know the area at all, this is not 19th century Ireland you clown. Moving away is simply giving up. Houses are cheap, cost of living is lower than elsewhere and there is work available if you’re willing to look for it.
It pays to stand your ground. I don’t what care what English people think of me although they actually tend to respect people who stand up for themselves and show no deference towards them. Why would they want to fight me? All I want is the continued existence of the Welsh nation… Just as most English people want England to remain English. This is a normal, natural behaviour.
I’m a free man, I have a great home, wife and I’m planning to do my best to raise the next generation of patriots.
I don’t get what your problem is? What is wrong with bettering yourself? Why do you troll Welsh nationalist blogs?
You make an important point about the English respecting those who stand up for themselves. Which explains why they can take the piss out of us.
That Jac is (unfortunately) probably the most astute comment on the thread.
A number of excellent points you raised there Rhedyn.
There has always been a lot of power vested in the loins. The Catholics have done a good job of that in the six counties. Proliferation of natives has always been a thorn in the side of colonisers.
In reply to the negative comments on this subject. Each community can generate it’s own economy, as long as you have strength in numbers. Changing people’s mindset in these matters is the problem. Getting Dai or Blodwen to buy from the local shop instead of going on-line or down the supermarket is the first step. Difficult.
I wonder BG? How far can a community get by ¨taking in each others washing¨ as we used to say? How far can you be self-sufficient when multi-nationals or big government (or formerly and perhaps still today big landowners) control major resources? You could survive, I´ve seen groups and families that have tried, but all you have to eat may be tatties and neaps and whatever you can gather on the seashore. Very few people would be content with such a ´pure´ minimalist lifestyle, and of those who try, most would ´break´ and return to Babylon after a year or two.
I´m not saying it´s impossible but it would require extensive resources of both skill and determination. You would first and foremost need land. But even if gifted a large tract of land you´d find yourself in a head-to-head with the planning authorities whose prime directive seems to be to keep the ´countryside´ empty and a playground for the rich. Not to mention any number of major and minor regulations, usually framed by distant urban bureaucrats with entirely different circumstances in mind. And to get around any of this you´d need to take a political route … which you´ve just admitted hasn´t worked very well in Wales.
In any case there have been movements like this in the past, often with strong clever and inspiring leaders. Ond ble mae Adfer heddi? Ble mae Cymuned chwaith? Ble mae´r Chwyldro Cymraeg/-eig ardderchog sydd bob amser yn barod i wawrio?
¨A daw cwymp | ciwdodau caeth / A Hydref | ymerodraeth?¨
¨O mae gwanwyn | amgenach / Ar hyd : y byd | i rai bach.¨
Gobeithio — but I wouldn´t hold my breath …
Absolutely right, Gwilym. Population numbers is a game everybody plays but no one likes to talk about. I recall back in the days of Y Cyfamodwyr we called for a higher birth-rate, which prompted a certain reporter domiciled in Wales, writing for the Guardian, to make the immediate link with the Nazis.
But there are plenty of other examples Tony Heath could have used, examples more relevant to Wales.
After the English takeover of Canada, and the expulsion of those French living too close to the eastern coastline (the Acadians/Cajuns), the remaining French-Canadians deliberately set out to breed their way to survival as a distinct identity by having 12 or more children per couple. They even coined a term for it – ‘The Revenge of the Cradle’.
After their defeat in the Second Boer War, and after losing thousands of women and children in English concentration camps, the Afrikaners set out to build up their numbers so they could take over South Africa politically, which they did in 1948. Admittedly under a system that denied votes to non-whites. But then, that system had been introduced by the Brits.
And then there’s the example we’re all more familiar with, in Ireland. But significantly, the birthrate in the Republic is now almost down to the European average, but it’s higher in the Six Counties.
Variations on a theme . . .
The fundamental problem in Kosovo was that the area was central to Serb history and identity – Field of Black Birds, etc – but the Albanians bred like rabbits, and intimidated Serbs to leave many parts of the province, to the point where Albanians became an overwhelming majority where they had once been a minority.
In Tibet, Chinese authorities lifted the one-child-per-couple rule for Han settlers. Done for a blindingly obvious reason.
Here in Wales . . .
Living next door to my son in Machynlleth, in a council house expensively adapted for large families, was a shower from somewhere in the English Midlands who used to drive around in a Cadillac Escalade 6.3 litre 4×4.
At the last count they had 9 kids, and have now moved to another, expensively adapted house in Newtown.
Neither parent worked. It seems their only talent was breeding.
By an amazing coincidence, living next door to my son’s ex-wife in Tywyn was another large English family. Similarly unemployed and with the same, singular talent.
No country in its right mind allows in people such as those I’ve just described. But this is Wales, and no matter how useless they might be, or how much of a drag on society and a drain on the public purse, that doesn’t matter because these people – and hundreds of other couples like them, or single parents – have lots and lots of kids.
And no matter that these kids are unlikely to make any positive contribution to society when they grow older, that doesn’t matter either, because they will be disruptive in school – ‘Why we learnin’ fuckin’ Welsh?’ – and they will sport their England football shirts, and they will breed, and in countless other ways contribute to the Englishing of Wales.
So numbers are vital. And it’s a battle we are losing. Because when you exercise total control – as our enemies do – then you don’t have to discuss colonisation and anglicisation, you just get on with it. Making it almost impossible to pin down and argue against.
You can’t put in a FoI to get ‘The Grand Strategy for Overrunning and Re-populating Wales’ – because no such document exists. However, when you look around Wales today, see what’s happening, and study the agencies behind it, there is only one conclusion to draw.
Wales is being deliberately colonised. Fight back!
You and Rhedyn are seeing it in the correct light Jac. There are many implanted myths that have people believing that unless you go to a big city, or further afield to the big cities of other countries, get embroiled in the rat race, (which includes buying into a worthless educating system that is designed to brainwash you and mold you into a mindset that makes you a good manipulated and obedient little citizen) then you’re doomed to a subsistence lifestyle, or inevitable starvation. It’s all bullshit within a bubble, a bubble I hasten to add, that’s on the verge of bursting. Logically, large population cities are actually a death trap. Put a spanner in the works with a disaster or a war and we all know what happens next, when food disappears off the supermarket shelves, there’s no fuel, the internet shuts down, money is worth what the value of the paper it’s printed on is and the whole artificial illusion melts away. Who do you think survives the longest, the practical crop grower, butcher and carpenter, or your stockbroker, banker and barrister?
An interesting fact. Europeans and Americans have consistently bemoaned the fact that poverty and starvation in Africa is due to overpopulation. Bollocks. It’s caused by long term exploitation by the affluent countries. The reality is that Africa – as a continent – is woefully underpopulated. In developed countries, who have escaped the problems currently observed today in Africa, were in the same position when the population to land mass ratio was equivalent to what it presently is in underdeveloped countries. Spread out increased population brings the capability of better support from within communities in any country. The next problem is caused by overpopulation within a crammed area i.e. cities. The propaganda that’s spread is diametrically opposed to this truth.
The reality is that unequal distribution of wealth and resources causes the big problems, where wealth is concentrated in one area to the detriment of other areas. We see it on a small scale in Cymru, with artificial wealth accumulation in the Cardiff/ south east area. Artificial wealth accumulation in London and the south east of England (with respect to the UK) and on a larger scale the accumulation of artificial wealth on certain continents, by the exploitation and the impoverishing of other weaker continents. Often through western induced conflicts. There is a sinister and evil reasoning to this madness, through the hand of the 1% that horde all the wealth.
Communities need to be strengthened by an increase in indigenous population, allowing them to develop and flourish with home grown economies. The sooner we all stop buying into the myth that’s been concocted and set-up to siphon money in the wrong direction, and start looking after ourselves within our own communities with an increased indigenous population the sooner we climb out of the slime pit.
A change of mindset – away from the establishment’s established propaganda – and a halt on our brain drain, and a loss of our people to the culture of an alien colonising nation is the only way to do it. Breed and stay put in your community is the key. Easier said than done. However I, along with hundreds of thousands of others, have blindly fallen into the trap of getting educated by the establishment and then having to move away to find work in our chosen fields (electronics was mine – as much use as a chocolate teapot in the Ceredigion of the 70s). I would have been of more help to my nation in the long run, if I’d followed the advice of my old headmaster, who I thought at the time was talking out of his old fashioned and outdated arse-hole, he said I should concentrate my efforts on the subject material that would be of most value in my own community. In reality, with hindsight, I now believe he had it right, because he could foresee what the drain was doing to our communities in Ceredigion. Leaving behind us communities populated by those with lesser abilities and a a population vacuum that was filled with aliens from a foreign source over Offa’s Dyke.
How to convince others of this is another conundrum.
A really good scoop again by Jac, but the sense of hopelessness for the situation we find ourselves in, and more particularly, how to alter things, jumps out large in the replies. I feel traumatised too, Nic and I appreciate the frustrations Jac feels about Plaid Cymru. But one thing is for sure. While “Welsh” Labour retain power both in the Assembly and in our town halls, things definitely won’t change. Time after time in Jac’s articles, and the articles of other “anti-establishment” bloggers in Cymru, the corruption endemic in the Labour Party and the myriads of parasitic organisations that associate with it and exist thanks to it, are revealed. And when this happens, when do we hear our Wales media take up the cudgel? Never, it seems. When do we hear AMs from other Parties take up the fight, even when they are spoonfed by Jac and others? Never? Those who make a living in the world of politics, charities, housing associations, the media and our universities are in Wales but they are seemingly not of Wales – at least the Wales I know. It’s like they live on a different planet to the rest of us. (I was encouraged to hear Iolo Williams call our AMs “parasites” after allowing scallop dredging in Cardigan Bay. A lone voice in their insane world). I fear things have gone too far. There are now so many parasites living off parasites that I doubt they can be eradicated. It’s like that old saying about “big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite ’em; and little fleas have littler fleas, and so “ad infinitum””. That just about sums them all up.
You’re right, Stan, a party as corrupt and useless as ‘Welsh’ Labour should have been swept away years ago. So why hasn’t it? Because the Scots have the SNP and we have Plaid Cymru which, rather than wanting to destroy Labour, wants to get into bed with Labour.
Again from a Scottish perspective it´s long been blindingly obvious that Labour is a British Unionist Party through and through. Their Scottish and Welsh offshoots are entirely subservient to London, at best their members try to sugar the pill with platitudes and double-talk delivered in the local lingo. Corbyn simply doesn´t ´get´ Scotland, so I imagine he doesn´t ´get´ Wales either, or probably feels it´s irrelevant, or that there´s still a loyal Labour movement that will fall into line when called upon like a pack well trained poodles.
Writing letters (or the modern equivalent on the Internet) would raise awareness outside the political world. Talking to people about the problems in Wales, the possibility of independence would raise awareness outside the political world. Going on protest marches (if any are passing) if you have a few spare minutes that could raise awareness. Same with supporting (thankfully non party) Yes Cymru and stuff it does.
All going towards raising awareness in the general population.
So yes, that is what we can do.
I’m certainly not saying it’s the only thing, but I wouldn’t dismiss it as useless.
Jac, you state “Take my word for it, there is no political solution to the problems confronting the Welsh nation.”
What do you think is the solution to the problems facing Wales and how can this be achieved?
Politics in a system of constrained devolution without a national party is a dead-end. As I’ve said time and time again, Plaid Cymru is just a regional left-green party. At this juncture the Welsh people need something far more committed and forceful than Plaid Cymru.
How did the SNP manage to turn things around and attract voters from both the left and right to fight for a forceful and united National cause?
Partly by good fortune and better than average politicians. However, Scotland does have some natural advantages. Firstly it joined with England etc. as it´s own united modern nation state, retained it´s own legal and education systems etc. etc. all making the idea of an Independent Scotland a lot more credible to more folk than is the case for Wales. Secondly, it doesn´t have language as a big issue. Status for Scots and Gàidhlig are on the whole not seen as a threat (although the usual bigots will write purple prose to the papers whenever a new bilingual station sign goes up). Thirdly, it´s a long way away from the main population centres of England, making the border much clearer and English immigration and cultural influence much less.
The advantage they have had all the way through is that they’ve had their own legal system, their own pound & most importantly their own education system. Most Scottish children get taught about Scotland, in Wales they learn NOTHING in school about their own country, it’s history or it’s culture.
When it comes to the SNP – like Sinn Féin – they set their stall out, stuck to the arguments, put those arguments over in a forceful & intelligent way. They both had independence at the top of their agenda.
Now compare that with Cymru & Plaid Cymru and you have your answer.
Diolch Jac, very interesting reading and as stated in one comment definitely “food for thought”.
Myfanwy asked a question which I would like you to clarify your answer a little bit more, what are you actually proposing Jac, instead of working with any Cymraeg party already in place?
I’m not sure what you mean by “Cymraeg party”, presumably Plaid Cymru, in which case I don’t think they’d welcome being called a Welsh language party because it’s an image they’re trying hard to shed.
I’m too old now to be bothering with new parties or movements except from the peripheries, but what I believe is that nothing is going to happen without a seismic shift in Welsh public opinion close to a national awakening. But in the absence of a nationalist political party, and with the abysmal media we have in Wales, how is that to happen?
It can come about, as it did in the 1960s, with an affront to Welsh nationhood such as Tryweryn (plus Clywedog and the other dams) or the Investiture and, to some extent, the language campaign. Those campaigns got people involved with Welsh nationalism that would never normally have bothered with Plaid Cymru. Yet even though Plaid Cymru benefited from the ‘unrest’ it has always been loath to admit that fact.
Another spark might be provided by attempts to undo devolution and start incorporating Wales into England, in fact, it’s already under way, but being done surreptitiously. The Wales Bill being one example. The Third Sector and organisations such as Llamau being another. This potential exists because many people, in Wales and within the UK establishment, misinterpret the Brexit vote, and may even be allowing that misinterpretation to influence important decisions.
They think that because Wales voted very much like England this means that those of us who voted Brexit – me included – were rejecting Welsh identity. Nonsense. People in the Valleys, Swansea Bay and other areas voted Leave because they feel left behind, neglected, taken advantage of – by Brussels, London and Cardiff. But confront those who voted to leave the EU with the prospect of Wales ceasing to exist, and most would be ripe for re-education. And nowadays, with social media and the internet, we can even by-pass the useless ‘Welsh’ media.
With devolution and the political parties we have today Wales is sleepwalking to oblivion. It’s going to take something dramatic, as in the ’60s, to wake us up. That’s why I might vote for the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party next time round.
In your last-but-one para, I think you´re probably correct, people voted Leave for all kinds of sometimes quite bizarre reasons, and that throughout the UK. In the case of Wales though, whatever the motivation, the effect, not just the perception from outwith Wales, is to leave yourselves open to further assimilation, whereas had you lined up with all the other non-English parts of the UK you might have been part of a united front.
I hadn´t realised until I followed your link just how negative the new Wales Bill was. It seems your ´government´ will need in effect to grovel to Westminster every time it wants permission to blow its nose or slip out to the tŷ bach. This could as you suggest lead to a Welsh awakening followed by a major backlash, but this is a risky game-plan IMHO. The reason being that WM and its minions will act slowly and by stealth, so that by the time (if ever) the Welsh are fully awake, the process may well have gone too far. What´s left of Wales by then might be too weak, too constricted, to infiltrated etc. to mount anything more that a final ´glorious last stand´. It´s the sort of thing the bards would sing about for generations … except if Welsh culture were annihilated there would be no one left to remember.
This is not something I´d want to see, which is why it´s a great pity the Welsh could not have lined up with their potential allies, from Scotland to Gibraltar.
From their homepage: “Llamau (pronounced Lamb – eye)”, and there isn’t even a little “Cymraeg” in the top right hand corner in miniscule font that takes you to an incomplete and out of date version of their website.
I hadn’t noticed that. Here we have a publicly-funded ‘Welsh’ organisation without a Welsh language version of its website.
Excellent post again Jac and compulsory reading for all regulators, or are they all in hibernation. How do you find time to do all this research. Now will they run to a solicitor or a PR consultant.
I’ve stated the facts and drawn what I consider to be reasonable conclusions. I’d be surprised if they run to solicitors, but if they do, I wonder which one it will be? Now let me think . . .
This is an increasingly apparent problem in Wales and one made easy by our spineless senedd. Though I hate to admit it, our own inability and apathy as a people to see the wood for the trees and tackle this is a real problem. Through setting up our own third sector organisations to challenge them on our own soil we could deliver real benefits to real people here in Cymru fach. We need to talk about solutions and ideas to tackle the hideous reality of engineered colonisation that you Jac have unearthed over the last few years.
For too many people the problem of colonisation and the destruction of Welsh communities, the erosion of Welsh identity, is just too big an issue to confront. Consequently, they seek comfort in believing that there’s a remedy in politics.
But Plaid Cymru will never tackle colonisation, it’s terrified of being branded ‘racist’ by the kind of newspapers that call judges Enemies of the People and bigots like Alun Cairns. And even if Plaid Cymru won a majority in the Assembly, it’s a socialist party that loves the Third Sector and thinks it does wonderful work.
The people need to be awakened, and it will have to be done outside the narrow confines of electoral politics, as it was in the 1960s.
Then predictably the Labour Party and BritNat press will play the raciest card as they did in the not too distant past. The kind of shite currently being directed at the SNP will be nothing by comparison. You will need to prepare the ground carefully and have your defenses prepared. Good luck!
¨We have an Assembly down in Cardiff docks, and within it a group of Labour Party deadbeats desperately hoping to be mistaken for a government. They are a joke …¨
I´m afraid I can only agree, but were they not voted into power by the Welsh people, in what I assume was as fair an electoral system as anywhere else in the UK (?) So as an outsider I´m obliged to ask, ¨What´s wrong with the Welsh?/ Be sy´n bod ar y Cymry?¨
¨… Welsh identity is being crushed, and we become strangers in our own country as Wales merges into England.¨
Again, we only have to look at the Brexit results to see how Wales voted with England in contrast to Scotland and NI. You could end up joined at the hip to an ever more xenophobic BritNat England. Yet again though, this was a reasonably fair democratic vote. I´m both appalled and confused. Why are the Welsh as a nation set on this course of self-harm? Why in essence do you seem unable to produce and elect politicians who will stand up for your language, culture, identity and nationhood?
Wales didn’t vote for assimilation into England. We voted to leave the EU and gain control of our borders. A lot of people in places like Merthyr and Ebbw Vale oppose all types of immigration… including giving social housing to problem families from Cardiff, Newport and England. These people are the real Welsh nationalists but they’re totally repulsive to ‘cultural nationalist’, middle class, Anglo-worshipping, Guardian-reading Plaidies!
Neath Port Talbot, RCT, Merthyr and Blaenau Gwent should be the heartlands of Welsh nationalism. Parochial, conservative (small c) areas that still have some sense of Welsh identity. Dyfed, Powys and Monmouthshire are full to the brim with Englishmen. In order to create an independent and united Wales, these rural areas would need to be resettled by large families from the core Welsh areas of Glamorgan and Gwynedd.
By the way, the SNP die-hards are all true nationalists and hate the idea of being controlled by the EU. They voted ‘Remain’ to piss off the English and trigger IndyRef2.
My friends in Ireland are pretty Eurosceptic too, immigration is a big issue over there. Nationalists all over Europe hate the European Union. It is an anti-European institution.
Rhedyn : An interesting POV, and I admit the situation is not at all simple. However, since most of the immigration you object to comes from England (or from beyond the EU), I don´t see how leaving the EU will make any significant difference. You will have no more control that at present over the Welsh border.
In fact with England getting more and more ´English´ rather than ´British´, it could very easily go very bad for Wales. Consider a future where Scotland is independent (and will then of course decide for itself whether to be in or out of the EU) and NI has worked out some sort of deal with the RoI that leaves in inside the EU or at least avoids a ´hard´ border. That would leave just England-and-Wales. How long would Welsh devolution last in that scenario? With the economy tanking the Assembly could simply be abolished on cost grounds, after all even Jac agrees that it´s a waste of space. Back to Direct Rule then?
“By the way, the SNP die-hards are all true nationalists and hate the idea of being controlled by the EU. They voted ‘Remain’ to piss off the English and trigger IndyRef2”
Exactly! And Northern Ireland voted remain because even the rabid loyalists didn’t want the UK and the Republic to have a border, for all sorts of good reasons.
The SNP pushed the narrative of “a vote against Brexit is a vote against independence, a vote against independence is a vote for independence” for all sorts of good reasons itself, but it is a narrative which does not transfer to Northern Ireland or Wales.
To say a vote to leave the EU automatically means that voter does/will not support Welsh nationalism is to completely misunderstand the situation in Wales. Understandable if you come from outside Wales.
But there are a fair few people in Welsh nationalist circles whose reaction to Brexit was one of wailing, wearing sackcloth and ashes and entering a competition to see how much they can condemn their compatriots.
Because they simply follow the SNP line on the matter.
I sometimes think a narrative which benefited the British State and England instead of Wales is being replaced by these people with a narrative which benefits Scotland instead of Wales.
This is obviously not healthy. We should concentrate on pushing our own narrative.
Great food for thought as usual from Jac and I’d like to think you are wrong Jac but I also fear the worst and the fact that the invisible ‘Welsh’ media help to keep us in the dark gives me no cause for optimism on the future for Wales.