PLEASE APPRECIATE THAT I GET SENT MORE INFORMATION AND LEADS THAN I CAN USE. I TRY TO RESPOND TO EVERYONE WHO CONTACTS ME BUT I CANNOT POSSIBLY USE EVERY BIT OF INFORMATION I’M SENT. DIOLCH YN FAWR
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Seeing as I spoilt you with two issues last week this week’s post is later than usual. It takes the form of a couple of ‘starters’, a very substantial main course, followed by coffee, and then there’s a liqueur to round things off which some of you may find a little bitter.
But it’s another feast, so take your time!
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RHOSCOLYN LTD
In the recent series I did on Jake Berry – the Conservative MP for Rossendale and Darwen in east Lancashire, but who owns an ever-increasing number of properties on Ynys Môn – we found an old company of his named Rhoscolyn Ltd. This outfit bit the dust in 2010, but the name has been resurrected.
The new Rhoscolyn Ltd belongs to Michael William Kenyon, and it’s also in the business of buying, selling and letting Welsh property. Kenyon also comes from over the border, from Cheshire. As I’ve remarked before, the property market in the north seems to be controlled now from Manchester and Cheshire. With the Cheshire Set entrenched from Abba Sock to Ross Niger and Ross Colin.
Kenyon is involved in a number of companies. An interesting one being a Lloyds-linked LLP which was, apparently, started in 2008 by Kenyon’s then 88-year-old father. Or at least, in the old man’s name. Nomina No 457 LLP has no less than 44 outstanding charges, many of which link to the USA, some to a bank in Louisville, Kentucky. And when you click on the ‘People’ tab you bring up other LLPs and more Kenyons.
The world of high finance, eh! What chance do locals on Ynys Môn, or indeed the council, have against people like Jake Berry with his Westminster connections, and Maxwell with his City links?
But the question is, are the two companies named Rhoscolyn Ltd linked? Do Berry and Kenyon know each other?
♦
MY COMPANY!
You will recall that a company being run by crooks I’ve written about many times, started life in January 2019 as Glynllifon Mansion Ltd, then in December became Waterford Interiors Ltd, before undergoing yet another change of name in June when it became Royston Jones LL36 9YF Ltd.
This was reported to North Wales Police on the grounds of a) harassment [as it followed hand-delivered threatening letters] and b) the possibility that this company bearing my name might be used for unlawful purposes.
I also made my feelings known to Companies House, but there was nothing they could do. You can give a company any name you like, it seems. Though I’m sure you wouldn’t be able to register a company using the name of a royal, or a leading politician, or lots of other people.
Anyway, NWP phoned Myles Cunliffe, who had been a director until November, after that he ran the company through his boy Thomas Jacob Hindle. Cunliffe professed his innocence, as did Hindle when the police spoke with him. So it seems the name changed all by itself! Whatever next?
Myles Cunliffe may be back where he started in the shadowy world of unregulated car leasing and credit brokering. Someone sent this link to explain what he’s up to.
♦
AFAN VALLEY ADVENTURE RESORT
TO RECAP . . .
Among the crooks who’ve crossed the border recently we find Gavin Lee Woodhouse, of Northern Powerhouse Developments. Gavin’s business model was to buy a run-down hotel, inflate its value, and then sell off the rooms individually as ‘investments’.
Many of the buyers had overseas addresses. Whether they knew they’d bought a room from Woodhouse is a good question. Whether some of them even existed may be an even better question.
His other line was selling rooms in care homes . . . care homes that never got built.
Gavin Woodhouse owned hotels from Llandudno to Tenby, and then he got really ambitious with his Afan Valley Adventure Resort (AVAR), up behind Port Talbot.
The jackpot for Woodhouse would be selling the 600 lodges for £200,000 or more, plus the 100 hotel rooms. To get punters queuing, and to promote the ‘adventure’ angle, Woodhouse recruited maggot-muncher and self-publicist extraordinaire, Bore Grylls.
But the black clouds were gathering for Afan Valley Ltd.
And once the storm broke Grylls doused himself with hogwash, put on his camouflage pants – the ones with the Kalashnikov sewn into the hem – and disappeared . . . to emerge a short time later from a rhododendron bush on Llŷn and convince a group of photocopier salesmen from Reading that once they’d got their boots muddy and handed over £2,000 a head they would be official, part-time, honorary members of the SAS. (And for another grand he could get them in the Foreign Legion as well!)
Before long most people realised Woodhouse was a crook . . . except, it seemed, those closest to him. Such as Peter Moore, the CEO and alleged brains of the outfit, who still thought Woodhouse was kosher!
As did the ‘Welsh Government’ whose duty it was – or should have been – to have made enquiries. Young Kenny Skates, famed for his dazzling gnashers and his Flint Ring, rushed to enjoy a photo op with Woodhouse and Moore on a high and windy hill above the Afan Valley. (Councillor Jones looks less impressed.)
One of my favourites, this. It hangs in my hall alongside the photo of great-aunt Fastidia competing at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, shooting something, or somebody. (Did she give a Nazi salute? Of course she did . . . she gave everyone a Nazi salute.)
I started asking questions about Woodhouse in April 2017, and eventually the mainstream media got involved in the middle of 2019. (Though this was almost certainly at the pleading of cheated investors.) This report from ITV of June last year has a video explaining how Woodlouse operates. ITV News co-operated on this inquiry with the Guardian, which provides another account.
◊
UPDATE
Understandably, this house of cards soon collapsed, but I’ve tried to keep up with events. In March I received an e-mail from Companies House telling me a progress report had been received from the administrators, but when I checked, it had been so poorly scanned it was unreadable. After three e-mails asking for a better copy, one finally appeared last week. Here is that report.
Those of you thinking this project is dead should think again. Neath Port Talbot council extended the deadline to establish the project’s credibility until 31 March, (but obviously this was overtaken by the Coronavirus pandemic). So I guess from NPT’s point of view the project is still ‘live’.
You’ll also note that despite Gavin Woodhouse being exposed and his companies in receivership, CEO Peter Moore is still at his desk. Any comparison with a Japanese soldier still fighting on in the jungle in the 196os would be erroneous. Moore knows the score – so who’s he working for?
Let’s refer again to the administrator’s report. Where, at 3.2.1, paragraph 6, we read:
It’s reasonable to assume that this neighbouring landowner is also paying Moore’s salary. Helpfully, he’s named in this Business Live report from September last as Clive Mishon.
And when we look at the Afan Valley entry on the Companies House website we see two charges. One held by Mishon himself, the other by his company 360Mi, which seems to have been set up in September 2017 specifically to deliver the loan in December.
Both loans mention title numbers WA519567 and CYM471819. There are also a couple of other titles worth looking at.
Scroll down to page 8 and you’ll read what I’ve captured for you in the box below. (Caerau Park Ltd was the name used by Afan Valley Ltd from its Incorporation 14 April 2016 until the name change of 23 February 2017.)
As already stated, this ‘Land at Caerau Park Wood’ was bought in March 2017 for £889,000 by Afan Valley Ltd from Ontaris Resources Inc and Foreman Properties Ltd. The top of page 6 tells us this was done with the loan taken out with Clive Mishon.
Ontaris Resources is registered in the British Virgin Islands, one of many dirty money havens protected by the UK government. In the Offshore Leaks Database you’ll find Ontaris linked with Andrew Patrick Foreman. Click on Foreman’s name and you bring up a registered address of Tickton Hall, Tickton, Beverley, near Hull.
This is where we find Afan Solar Ltd. Mishon and Foreman both served as directors, with Mishon the original majority shareholder. The company was struck off in September 2015 without ever filing accounts.
We now know that Woodhouse bought the land from Mishon and his mates – with money they loaned him!
P.S. Tickton Hall seems to be an agreeable county house hotel north of Hull. It is owned by Andrew Patrick Foreman.
This is mentioned in 15 of the panel above, where we are told that Mishon’s intervention in July 2019 also covered CYM471819. This title refers to a sliver of land alongside the A4107 (Brytwn Road), heading east out of Cymmer, which has the appearance of a ransom strip. Possibly a future entrance.
More ‘Land at Caerau Park Wood, Caerau, Maesteg’, bought by Clive Mishon in May 2014 for £180,000. The title document tells us of “a contract for sale dated 1 August 2016 made between (1) Clive Mishon and (2) Caerau Parc Limited.”
It appears the sale did not go through.
You’ll notice that the previous title document mentions a lease of ‘Land lying to the west of Pen y Bryn’. This made little sense for a while until I grasped that Pen y Bryn was the name for a stretch of the A4063 in Croeserw.
The land is leased for 20 years from 1 January 2015 by Arqiva Ltd, a company in the business of telephone masts.
Explained in the images I’ve put together below. The one on the left is from the Caves of South Wales site (you must know it!), and the one on the right from the Land Registry. Which is helpful seeing as the LR does not offer maps with CYM60212 or with WA519567.
On page four (3) of this title document you can read “(22.07.2015) Option to purchase in favour of Afan Energy Limited contained in an Option Agreement dated 17 April 2014 made between (1) Clive Mishon and (2) Afan Energy Limited upon the terms therein mentioned.”
Yes, in addition to Afan Solar there is also Afan Energy Ltd, and at the same East Yorkshire address where we also found BVI-registered Ontaris. Or rather, there was an Afan Energy, because it was voluntarily written off in September 2017 with liabilities of £596,391. Mishon was the sole director at the death. Which means that the Agreement of 2014 was between him and his company.
◊
WHAT NEXT?
It would appear that the whole area set aside for the Afan Valley Adventure Resort is now owned by Clive Mishon (and perhaps others), who reinforced his claim just days ahead of the administrators.
Obviously Mishon thinks it’s worth proceeding with the Afan Valley Adventure Resort; and why not, there’s a great deal of money to be made if it can be pulled off.
And Google Maps certainly thinks it will – it’s even renamed a road in anticipation!
Though a big question for me remains: ‘Seeing as Woodlouse bought the land off people who loaned him the money for the purchase, did he ever really own it?’
Or was he just fronting for Mishon (and his mates) all along? I ask because as I’ve been writing this a picture has been forming in my head.
We’ve met companies called Afan Energy and Afan Solar, which suggest that Mishon and friends originally intended to reap the subsidy bonanza with solar arrays and wind turbines. This fell through, perhaps trumped by the massive Pen y Cymoedd wind farm nearby. So thoughts turned to other uses for the land.
As this was an attractive wooded area, already used by mountain bikers and others, to come up with the idea of an adventure resort didn’t need any great leap of imagination.
For Mishon and his mates the problem might have been the way some of their companies were structured . . . and then there were the offshore links. This might have been off-putting for the ‘Welsh Government’, certainly it could have been used by their opponents. The media (what’s left of it) might also have asked questions.
Gavin Woodhouse, with his hotels scattered about Wales, and being favoured by the ‘Welsh Government’ with a grant of £500,000 for his Caer Rhun hotel in the Conwy valley, might have seemed the perfect front man.
If I’m right, that really is funny.
◊
CONCLUSION
I could certainly understand both the ‘Welsh Government’ and Neath Port Talbot Borough Council being reluctant to deal with people using Limited Liability Partnerships and other opaque financial vehicles. Then there are the tax haven companies.
Would our tribunes ever know who they were really dealing with, and where the money came from? But then, maybe they now think they’re dealing with Peter Moore.
That said, the Afan Valley, and the Valleys in general, need jobs.
We are faced with this dilemma because leftists, like Labour and Plaid Cymru, have no idea how to build an economy and create jobs; which leaves Wales prey to shysters like Woodlouse and businessmen like Clive Mishon and his associates, with their tax haven companies.
Native socialist incompetence and alien exploitation in the symbiotic relationship that is destroying Wales.
Wales deserves better. But it can only come from those determined to make Wales more prosperous, rather than those who prefer to whine about deprivation, and exploit it for political gain.
The first step out of the mess Wales is in is to support political parties seeking to build a genuinely Welsh economy and serve the Welsh national interest. With the foundation laid we can then push for independence.
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ONE PLANET DEVELOPMENTS
INTRODUCTION
For those new to the subject, OPDs were introduced by the Labour-Plaid Cymru coalition management team (2007-2011) as a gesture to show that Wales was playing its part in the fight against global warming.
The truth was that the scam was engineered by Minister for Hippies, Jane Davidson, whose friends didn’t want to pay market prices for smallholdings. So, the ‘Welsh Government’ brought out Technical Advice Note 6, which made it clear to planners that any dreadlocked planet-saver who showed up on their patch should be allowed to build whatever he wanted, wherever he wanted.
That was because this person, his ‘lady’, their offspring, their dogs, cats, goats, chickens, sheep, and other livestock, their candles and incense burners, their wood-burning stove, plus their diesel-powered 4 x 4 and generator, were reducing Wales’ carbon footprint.
Anyone who couldn’t see that had to be a climate change denier.
◊
GOWER
In recent posts I’ve discussed cases suggesting the OPD system is being abused even more than legislators had intended. Catch up by reading: One Planet Developments (29.06.2020) and One Planet Developments, getting devious (09.07.2020).
News reaches me from Gower suggesting that whatever is planned for the Parkmill woodland may not be a OPD commune. I’m glad to hear that, and I hope it’s true, but I shall keep my powder dry.
Staying on Gower, I also reported that the Ecological Land Co-operative (ELC) of Brighton had applied for a two-dwelling OPD at Furzehill, Ilston – that it planned to rent or sub-let! Letters of support have come in . . . from all over England. But a recent letter from Reading might put the absurd project in jeopardy.
It comes from Ieuan Williams BSc., MA., FBIAC, PIEMA of Reading Agricultural Consultants. What gives the letter its weight is that Williams was ” . . . a member of the team that wrote the Welsh Government’s TAN 6 Practice Guidance, relating to rural enterprise dwellings.”
Here are a few extracts: “ELC appears not to understand OPD policy and its requirements . . . It may even be that the tenants have not read and understood the OPD Guidance . . . The tenants’ approach to the development appears to be as a rural enterprise rather than an OPD . . . It is of considerable concern that the prospective tenants seem to think that travel around the country, throughout the UK and abroad on holidays would be acceptable for residents of an OPD . . . With regards to water use on the site, contrary to the ELC assertion in its Planning Statement, use of a mains water supply is not acceptable for the site occupants.”
Another very good objection came from Christine Lloyd of Parkmill who made a very interesting, but rather worrying, point, when she writes: “Most of the letters of support are from outside the area but they seem to be given additional status by being added to the Document page on the planning portal. Most of the objections are from locals and are on the Comments tab.”
Why would that be? Are certain employees of Swansea council exhibiting bias in favour of these schemes?
What the Ecological Land Co-operative of Brighton wants is to throw up cheap dwellings on the edge of town, pretend they’re OPDs, charge rent, and then swan about the world to attend self-congratulatory bun fights.
◊
LLANSTEFFAN
Moving west, we also looked at an application for a OPD at Pentowyn Farm, Llansteffan.
To get the bigger picture I’m told we need to introduce Gwilym Griffith Morris, originally from the upper reaches of Cwmtawe or even the Brecon area. Morris is something of a wheeler-dealer in the world of agricultural land and buildings.
Around 30 years ago, he bought Mwche farm, adjoining Pentowyn. Then Pentowyn itself. He sold off the farm buildings to a woman in Swansea, and the land to other buyers. The marshes he sold to the National Trust and is believed to rent them back.
A recent claim to fame was his planning application for a wind turbine at Mwche, which lies across the Tâf estuary from Dylan Thomas’s boathouse. As is the way with things in Carmarthenshire, local councillors nodded it though without even a site visit.
The international outcry was such that even county CEO Mark James had to back down. And it cost the council over twenty grand.
Here’s the planning application. There was of course a firm from England behind the wind turbine. It would appear that the ‘local benefits’ of renewable energy – rather like caravan sites – are restricted to landowners.
Here’s the inimitable and sadly missed Cneifiwr’s slant on the matter with The Dylan Thomas Memorial Wind Turbine. Be sure to follow the links he provides.
A source has pointed me towards an interesting planning application that might explain the application for an OPD. A few years ago, Griff or Gruff Morris applied for a ‘farm dwelling’ at Pentowyn . . . having sold off the farmhouse soon after buying the farm.
He had been successful with a similar application at Mwche farm. But the Pentowyn application was rejected in May 2018. Check it out here.
As I say, Griff/Gruff Morris is a wheeler-dealer always looking to turn a penny. It is suspected locally that this OPD application is simply the ‘farm dwelling’ in different wellies.
Mwche farm, or parts of it, were sold a few years back, to this man.
Griff or Gruff Morris is now rumoured to be back in the Brecon area.
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‘FAUXDEGLA’
For those who don’t know the area, Llandegla-yn-Iâl is a village in Denbighshire on the moors to which it gives its name. I often take that route to Wrecsam.
Pursuing a certain line of inquiry recently I came across a business named Fauxdegla Shooting Ground. The name is contrived out of, obviously, Llandegla, and the name of the couple that runs this business, Michael and Deborah Faux.
Michael Ronald Faux of Warrington has a glittering business career, with five other companies listed by Companies House – all of them dissolved. Some without ever filing accounts, and mucho dinero owed to creditors by at least one of them.
Fauxdegla Shooting Ground Limited isn’t in the best of financial health itself either. The most recent accounts show tangible assets of just £60,954, and net assets of £1,099. With Barclays Bank holding a charge over everything.
This lack of (obvious) liquidity might explain the appearance of the caravans a few weeks ago. The word on the street is that they’re connected with the Fauxs. Before writing this I sent Fauxdegla an e-mail asking if the caravans were theirs, but I’ve had no reply.
Irrespective of the caravans, what right does anyone have to come into our country and change an ancient name inspired by a saint? What sort of people are we to put up with this colonialist arrogance?
Oh, silly me; I’m forgetting – it’s tourism!
♦ end ♦
I do have to laugh at how Woodworm has become quite obviously fatter, more gurning, and more dishevelled during the course of all this. He’s reinvented himself as a Johnny Vegas tribute act, with the comical addition of a combover Trump would be proud of. “Where’s me money????”.
I read somewhere that much of Eryri was converted into a massive illegal free car park on the weekend. Even Sion Jones, Labour councilman, got het up about it calling for £200 fines instead of the laughable paltry £35. Plaid in Gwynedd seem wedded to the “any tourism is good” mantra.
Better still clamp the buggers and hit them for a £200 fine plus £200 release fee. Nice cash for the council and might prove to be a deterrent to some of these ignorant pigs that visit our turf.
There is a simple solution and that is to implement a red route, a no stopping zone between Nant Peris and Betws-y-Coed. London trunk roads (including A5) of road is designated as such and the Penalty Charge Notice for violation is already £130, plus tow truck fee.
https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/red-routes/penalty-charge-notices/pay-a-pcn
London.
I also suggest the complete closure of the car park at Pen-y-Pass, emergency vehicles excepted, and convert it to an off-road bus stop. Then re-introduce a bus charging commercial rates called Sherpa’r Wyddfa running between Llanberis car park and Betws-y-coed train station, run by a local bus company. It can be done immediately should there be a will by a Welsh Minister. Just by sign off the London clause of the Transport Act into Welsh law.
Nant Peris.
Better still, make them electric busses to be charged from overnight by hydro at another converted car park on the banks of Llyn Peris paid for by Dinorwig Power Station, as long as the logo is Trydan Elidir and not ‘Electric Mountain’.
Off-Topic.
In 2018, this blog highlighted the policy of the leaseholders to NRW land at bike park Wales near Merthyr Tydfil and their threat to fine locals £50 for entering the site without a valid ‘pass’ and issuing a £50 fine. They still have a fine policy despite the First Minister stating that it has ‘no legal basis’ at a plenary of the Senedd.
https://jacothenorth.net/blog/bikepark-wales/
I am now told that a similar restriction has been imposed in the north. Owners of land adjacent to Traeth Llydan, who have renamed the beach as ‘Silver Bay’, on Ynys Môn have now extended their holiday chalet business and banned access to locals to access the beach. News reaches us that, like BikeParkWales ‘security personnel’ have been patrolling the access points preventing locals from accessing the beach.
Here is what they do when this happens in England..
https://coastalwalker.co.uk/campaigns/snettisham-beach-protest-walk/
In Wales, however, there is such a clamour to support the ‘tourist economy’, bending over backwards to accommodate land grabs, caravan sites, chalet camps etc that our elected politicians allow these businesses to carve up our landscape and prevent access to local residents.
https://silverbay.co.uk/
Anyone one up for doing something about this?
It’s owned by the Bulmer cider family of Hereford. They’re neighbours to Jake Berry MP. There is a major problem in this area that neither the council nor the ‘Welsh Government’ will tackle. That’s why it’s up to locals and others to organise a mass trespass. Though I would like to clarify the position on public rights of way.
Which is why I’ve contracted them to clarify whether their previous ‘tolerated access policy’ is still in place.
As I understand it, the pathway through the landholding has been used by locals (as well as visitors) to access the beach since Bertram Bulmer acquired the site after WW2. I suspect they are using the temporary Covid-19 closure as a method of permanent exclusion, and in doing so change Traeth Llydan into a private beach, and rename it ‘Silver Bay’. I also copied the Rhun ap Iorweth the local MS in on my request for clarification, as well as Lee Waters my MS, who’s also the minister in such matters.
There may be more examples of this along our coasts.
This path issue has a converse comparison (is that grammar?). For many years now a County Council (Ceredigion in this example), as the responsible Authority for Rights of Way, together with the Wales Assembly Government and a host of local Politicians, including the former WAG Minister Dr? Jane Davidson PhD?, has done everything possible to keep an unlawful new path open to the public on a Private Tourism business in Gwbert run by one local Welsh speaking family.
However, it seems very different in Ynys Mon where a very large business operation involving a very wealthy family can simply close an access path, that has been a traditional Right of Way for many decades. The local Councillors and Assembly Members just seem to not be botherered in this case.
To be fair, the dangerous unlawful new path at Gwbert should be diverted away from Clynyrynys, whereas the path at Ynys Mon must be opened. With a bit of will and wit the Ynys Mon path could be opened and registered as a Right of Way. Its time the public of Ynys Mon held weekly peaceful mass walks to Traeth Llydan and told the Silver Beach crowd to get stuffed and take their rotten apple brew with them.
Let’s be honest, the ploy at Traeth Llydan is for the estate to keep away any locals from the new chalets near the beach and push up their asset value, using what was the Covid ban as an excuse to keep it fenced off.
I have also requested Visit Wales to remove the following link on their website.
https://www.visitwales.com/attraction/beach/silver-bay-beach-1821339
Despite attempts to re-name this beach for commercial promotion after a nearby holiday park it would be inappropriate for Visit Wales as a corporate body of the Welsh Government to maintain this reference on its website, regardless of any third party disclaimer.
Traeth Llydan is not a private beach, and its open to the public.
It is not owned by Silver Bay Holiday Village.
Ah but the owners of Silver Bay Holiday Village may feel that they “own” certain elements within Welsh government or local authority. Any brown envelopes, posh dinners, weekends away etc – you know, the sort of thing that public figures get accustomed to and go on to feel entitled.
https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/welsh-nationalist-party-forms-new-18600050
Check this out :
https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/first-minister-warns-snowdonia-lockdown-18617934
Looks like Steady Eddie Drakeford regards tourists with an appropriate level of suspicion – carriers of Covid, litter bugs, unruly behaviours etc etc. Give the boy some credit. He has a latent suspicion of what might come from beyond the Clawdd. However he remains a “soft” loyalist surrounded by others who are far more wedded to the Union flag. Plaid should be able to drive a wedge between him and those other Unionists but sadly Plaid is not interested in pushing the independence agenda beyond the hot air stage. They find their comfort in those fringe ishoos distracting them away from confronting the dysfunctional Union. Give them a real battle to fight and they turn on the only person willing to step up to the plate.
Even by the standards of the ‘Welsh’ media this is a gem: “Evidence of the region’s enduring popularity has been seen in the trails of rubbish discarded by walkers in the two weeks since the region re-opened to tourists”. Er, if it was that popular, if they cared so much, then the bastards wouldn’t have left so much rubbish, and shit everywhere.
Wish we could put that down to someone’s sense of irony but sadly not the case. Despite the need for a more constrained behaviour the lessons about discipline, hygiene, safety etc do not extend into any other aspect of life outside or beyond the crisis for these delinquents. The filthy bastards have only operated within any kind of strict regime for a max of 3-4 months and now behave as though they had lived through a crisis of several years. And their politicians persistently evoke the “wartime spirit” yet the indiscipline and urge for instant gratification now evident suggests that these clowns would either surrender or cut and run within weeks.
You’d have to sell an awful lot of postcards, ice cream and candy floss to pay for the public service cost burden of the tourist industry in Wales. Refuse, roads, utilities and emergency services provision way in excess of local need. This is why the financial audit of tourism has resulted in all other parts of Europe affected by saturation tourism levee specific additional seasonal taxes to pay for services rendered. The strange thing is, Wales now has the primary legislative powers to end this subsidy but it chooses not use these powers.
Off Topic.
The first Welsh history lesson of the new curriculum should be at the BBC. They have just run news item saying, “You may not have spotted them but there are more than 500 early medieval carved stones in Wales. The majority are Christian, and range in date from the Roman withdrawal in 410 to the Norman Conquest in 1066.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-53435217
410 wrong.
The Romans formally withdrew from Wales in 393AD when their last outpost at Caerwent (Venta Silurum) was abandoned.
1066 wrong.
That was the invasion of England, not Wales. There were some Norman incursions into Wales between 1081 and 1094 which was not successful, sponsored by the ‘Marcher Lords’ over the border. However, the first formal attempt by Normans to invade Wales was in 1157 by Henry II but he was defeated at the battle of Coed Eulo. Then there was an attempt at Norman rule called the Treaty of Montgomery in 1267, but it was not observed, so a formal invasion was conducted by Edward I in 1282 and Wales was first formally came under Norman occupation in 1284. The event was called the Statute of Rhuddlan.
The BBC charter is to ‘educate and inform unless you’re Welsh’. Bizarrely, on the artefacts presented the BBC quotes evidence by Nancy Edwards who they say is “also a professor medieval archaeology at Bangor University” and her evidence as a ‘belief”.
Some Marcher Lords were quite successful, in Brycheiniog, Gwyr, Morgannwg…
Swansea Castle was in existence by 1116.
Kings before Henry II were granting lands in Wales as if they owned it. I guess you could have it if you went out and fought for it. The Wild West comes to mind.
You’re right, David, but it was done piecemeal. After Harold was killed and his army defeated at Hastings William just marched on London and became king, because England was a centralised state. But without a central authority, or even a capital, Wales could never be conquered in the same way. And that’s what that stupid article said – the Normans conquered Wales in 1066.
David, conquest is defined as complete victory and subsequent subjugation of a country. Examples include…
In WW2, France was conquered by Germany; Russia was not, although there was partial occupation. In WW1, Belgium was conquered by Germany, France was not, although there was partial occupation. There are examples throughout history where there are examples of conquests and also examples of partial occupation.
By all such a definition, England was conquered by the Normans in 1066.
Wales was not. Although there were incursions.
The Normans themselves recorded this fact.
All of England was included in post conquest ledger called the ‘Doomsday Book’. Only bits of occupied territory claimed by marcher lords or some purchased parcels on land in Wales, as you describe, were included. There were no entries in most of Wales because the conquest did not happen until the invasion of Edward I in 1282.
Note – Swansea Castle was built in 1116, but it was taken back by the Welsh in 1217. It was only restored to Norman control in 1220 as part of a territorial settlement between Llywelyn ap Iorwerth and Henry III. Conquered counties do not make territorial deals with ruling monarchs. The ruins that can be seen today from Castle Street were all built in 1284. Unfortunately they do not teach this in history in Swansea schools, and I’m sure Prof Nancy Edwards will conform these facts.
The BBC is wrong, the Normans conquered Wales in 1282, and the occupation was formalised in 1284.
During that period 1st half of 12th century we have Gwenllian’s stand against invaders no doubt operating in the time honoured colonist manner of “grab whatever you can” and the earlier big win at Garn Goch which repelled unwanted visitors in the Gwyr area. Later the Normans took a beating at CrugMawr north of Aberteifi. No doubt the Normans were formally or informally blessed with a mandate to take as much as they could wherever the opportunity arose. I read somewhere that they were sticking their noses in to the north in the 1070’s and took Gwent early on too although that was changing hands frequently for a long time ( no M4 to help them, see). The analogy with the Wild West is a good one but seems to have been the standard approach to expansion (with papal blessing of course) .
That’s the purpose of a March. It’s a monarch saying to powerful noblemen, “Take what you can of this unconquered territory, but remember – ultimately you owe allegiance to me”. It was a good system for both sides, because the barons could carve out territory for themselves, and the king was happy because they were kept busy. And if some over-mighty baron copped it from angry locals, then the king wasn’t going to shed many tears.
The Normans did it everywhere. There was one famous Norman, a small landowner, who had (I think) eleven sons, all trained as knights. Most of them ended up in Sicily and Italy. Some of them became big shots.
The Crusades could be viewed in a similar light. And the Reconquista – ‘Take back your land from the heathen Moor!’
The principle operated across Europe, certainly as the Germans pushed east. There it was groups like the Teutonic Knights fighting the heathen Balts, after getting the nod from the pope or the Holy Roman Emperor. (Remember, the original Prussians were a Baltic people conquered by the Germans who took their name.) Later it would have been mercenaries recruited by the Hanseatic League.
In fact, it’s a universal system. Large groups of men, trained in warfare, with no outlet for their aggression and their ambition, pose the risk of causing trouble at home. And that is bad news for any ruler. So it’s always in his interests to find work for idle swords.
BBC Wales has no interest in Welsh history of o’r life as it is run from Bristol.
I have seen that Chief properties Ltd are marketing the old shirehall in Llangefni on Rightmove. Well it’s the only property they have for sale or rent.
Didn’t that work out well!
Off topic but has anyone else noticed the comments of Plaid Cymru Party chair, Alun Ffred Jones, following the suspension of Jonathan Edwards MP?
“Plaid Cymru condemns any behaviour that falls below what is expected of our membership……..All forms of harassment, abuse and violence are unacceptable, and this has been reflected in the verdict.”
I thought the Labour Party was infested with hypocrites but Plaid Cymru might well have overtaken them with this latest statement by Alun Ffred. Think on “Arseholegate” when the Plaid Assembly Members refused to endorse the censure of Leanne Wood for abusive comments on Twitter that were deemed to have broken the Code of Conduct that they themselves had signed up to. Think on the remarks of Plaid Cymru Treasurer (and former Chair) Marc Phillips, who dished out further unsolicited abuse with the description of Jac as a “Neanderthal prick”. What action did the Party take against him then? Gave him a medal, possibly? Think on the prolonged harassment, abuse and constant online baiting and bullying of the former Plaid AM, Neil McEvoy, by people in the Party. What action was ever taken against Plaid politicians and members who were behind this? And it goes on. A hardcore of mainly wet behind the ears Plaid Cymru social media warriors seem to have no other purpose in life other than to bully, abuse and stir the shit on anyone who happens to contradict their own closeted and blinkered view as to what constitutes a decent Nationalist or indeed, a decent person. And they are actively encouraged in this behaviour by certain Plaid politicians. Yet none are seemingly brought to book. Adam Price might be called the Party leader but he’s just a puppet. Someone else is pulling the strings and you don’t have to be blessed with the wisdom of Solomon to work out where the actual power lies. So that statement of Alun Ffred Jones’ is actually a pile of hypocritical bullshit with a capital B! And what makes it worse, he knows it.
AFfJ has certainly got up your nose Stan. Glad to hear, or read, it as I have wondered for a long time what on earth this so-called Chair does to justify his presence in that role.
I begin to wonder whether all those who get into some sort of senior roles, Elin is another prize example, go off for a few days to study subjects like “abuse of power”, “how to wear blinkers”, “signing up for daft new ishoos”, “living well on a funded salary and benefits” and “ignoring obvious indicators of ordinary people’s priorities”. Once they get a pass mark they get set loose to fuck about with normal people’s needs and aspirations.
The consequences are beginning to pile high. With a bit of luck the pile will avalanche and crush their self centred careers. Nothing personal, just a bit of natural justice.
I see Alun Ffred Jones is trying to re-write his own party history.
He claims to be the first person to speak the Welsh language at EU level in 2008 when he was a delegate on his ministerial role to Brussels. This is false. The first person to use the Welsh language at EU level was at a plenary of the European Parliament in 2004, at Strasbourg, and the speaker was Jill Evans.
I am amazed how Plaid Cymru are now in full retreat mode, running to the bunker.
Brychan You most likely got that wrong. AFfJ was the first person to talk rubbish through the medium of Welsh at the EU. Big distinction that. Also Jill is a citizen of Cymru, AFfJ thinks he’s from the cut above, Y Crachach, one of the anointed families of Wales. Another big distinction to a small mind.
That comment was mine- bit of an identity crisis again, I forget who I am ! . Gets like that when I find reason to call out those shits at the top of politics and Plaid in particular. So it’s a regular event nowadays.
Identity crisis, eh! just as long as you don’t start wearing a dress and calling yourself Gertrude.
Could it get worse here in Wales ? Oh yes, every time one of our ministers opens his/her mouth.
Check out this little report from Nation.Cymru :
https://nation.cymru/news/wales-gave-more-than-10-million-items-of-ppe-to-england-after-they-had-trouble-organising-themselves/
It opens with – ” Wales gave England more than 10 million items of personal protective equipment during the coronavirus pandemic, the country’s health minister has revealed.
Mutual aid agreements in place with Westminster, Holyrood and Stormont saw nearly 15 million items of PPE, such as facemasks, gloves, visors and gowns, given to England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Wales had received 1.4 million items of PPE from those countries in return, Health Minister Vaughan Gething said.”
Later it adds more from Gething – ” “Really, it’s the English system that has some really significant challenges in organising themselves. “The system we have in Wales has stood up to the extreme stress and pressure of this pandemic. “We’ve been able to not just meet Wales’s needs but to help England with some of their challenges. “When it comes to it, I think that is a success story for Wales. We’ve been able to assist other UK nations without compromising our supply.”
So now a minister congratulates himself for allowing a sloppy Westminster regime to hijack his stock of kit rendering his own front line troops vulnerable. Now there’s a good valuable member of a colonial administration in action.
Yes, I read that. I couldn’t believe his bare-faced cheek to present it as a good deal, a system working well.
Is this a case of Stockholm syndrome? If there was a surplus of PPE in Wales why was Tarian Cymru delivering PPE to care homes and hospitals desperate for equipment?
While people lay dying in Welsh care homes, PPE (Gowns, masks, visors etc being light and are manufactured in bulk in China), in March 2020, the Finance Minister in the north, Conor Murphy, signed a joint import agreement with the government of Ireland. It was an all-Ireland inter-availability agreement.
This led to this..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7ZeZEhotK0%5Bremovetoplay%5D
29th March 2020.
With regular deliveries in April and May, culminating in this..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-bQxVkFiAk%5Bremovetoplay%5D
10th June 2020.
Over 5million pieces of PPE was delivered via this agreement to the northern counties.
So embarrassed were the Westminster Government at their failure to supply territory under their control and their needs being supplied from the Irish Republic that another ‘publicity shipment’ was made from the ‘UK’ stockpile from Liverpool. It consisted of 1m aprons and 307k masks.
These are currently stored, un-used, surplus to requirements, at a warehouse on the Boucher Road, Belfast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I24fSktQKEs%5Bremovetoplay%5D
A reminder.
Meanwhile, in Wales….colonialism persists.
How is it that a once prominent Plaid Cymru Assembly Member has been subject to a nasty vile witch hunt and banished from the party forever for just raising his voice, when a prominent Plaid Cymru MP who raised his clenched hand has just only been mildly suspended? Can the puppet mistresses who pull all the strings in Plaid Cymru answer this before they face oblivion?
I thought that only water circled the plughole but here’s a first for me – watching Plaid working its way towards the drain, going round in ever decreasing circles until it goes “glug” sometime soon.
How do you know what he did? Were you present or have had access to witness statetment? Stick to facts not supposition. Saying that however, I think it is time for PC to leave the building.
The arresting officer upon arrival at the scene had grounds to believe that a physical assault had taken place as opposed to provisions available under public order. This prompted the arrest and the immediate removal of the suspect from a domestic premises. It is the withdrawal of support for a prosecution by the victim, which results in subsequent disposal by means of a formal caution.
“The arresting officer upon arrival at the scene had grounds to believe that a physical assault had taken place”. Probably 2 grounds (1) oral complaint, which must of course be accepted because the complainant is female and (2) red mark on skin. No sign of severe bruising or broken cheekbone or jaw, which might’ve been somewhat more persuasive of an actual attack as opposed to argy-bargy, which is not the same thing.
“This prompted the arrest and the immediate removal of the suspect from a domestic premises.” The whole object of the exercise. Easy if police do it. Awkward thing about civil Family Law Act is you actually have to prove things!
“It is the withdrawal of support for a prosecution by the victim, which results in subsequent disposal by means of a formal caution.” No. It is a decision by the Police Officer or CPS. Victim may or may not agree to “mere caution” but its not her call. Caution is administered because the evidence is, in the opinion of the prosecutor, trivial crap. “Victim” doesn’t mind. The point was to get a cheap eviction done for nothing by big strong PC or small blonde PC with a Taser. “Victim” has got him out, which was all that mattered. Man starts by thinking Caution is a good deal, then he finds out may never see children again because Family Courts are fine with alienation by the mother when you come down to it. Then he finds the Caution popping up on DBS searches. Unless the officer was merciful enough to bury the Caution in a police file and not put it online. Call me a cynic, please do. But if this is justice, I’m a banana.
Jonathan, I think you’ll find that if the victim does not wish to press charges and the police cannot find sufficient evidence to prosecute themselves, the victim now being hostile to charges, there leaves two options available to the officer. (a) An informal caution previously known as a ‘notebook entry’ and can be done at the scene, it forms part of the police intelligence record and (b) a formal caution, after arrest, done in the custody suite which is a temporary entry on the criminal record and this can be used as evidence in any future transgression occurs, but it has to be signed as admission and contrition, by the suspect. The latter applied in this case.
Price is clever. However, he appears to be over a barrel. Some of the more cynical have suggested he has been blackmailed.
I don’t know the reason, but it’s been obvious for a while that Price is just a figurehead, with the Leannistas still calling the shots.
Spivs to the left, shysters to the right, and all sorts of crooks and deviants in the middle. Begs the question – Does our feeble colonial government ever attract interest from honest well thought out ventures or are we now the premier haven for cnuts and rogues unwanted by other parts of this rotten U.K ?
Today the Bay Club for dodgy politicians will debate independence. We will be presented with the usual falange of Unionist thought ranging from “soft dependency” to “hardcore colonialist”. Independence will be represented by a narrow range of soft ishoo peddlers, dreamers and fantasists who think that importing everybody else’s problems is a key to success. The only player worth bothering with has been sent off the pitch by the bloated referee because he believes in tackling and only allowed back on if he remains gagged and rendered impotent !
Some choice – Reckless the reckless,spineless Adam, or one-speed Drakeford. I think I’ll go to sleep. Wake me up when it’s all over. Nos da.
Yes, it’a an uninspiring lot. And with his latest great idea Adam Price makes it clear that independence is out the window. What he has recently proposed would see an invasion of wrinklies and women with 5 or 6 kids. Now we are expected to pay for it. Of course, Plaid doesn’t offer any ways of generating more wealth, simply – like Labour – capitalising on deprivation.
As I’ve said before, Plaid wants Devo-Max so that it can create ‘careers’ for its cronies and virtue signal to its heart’s content – all funded by London. Which London will be delighted to do because the thought of independence run by the kind of people Plaid Cymru attracts nowadays will put most people off independence.
The article I read about Plaid’s policies on social care and £35 per child revealed they had no idea how these would be paid for, though increased taxation was obviously on the cards. To be honest I quite like the idea of a free social care system (though that’s a misnomer obviously, it has to be paid for by someone) but it’s a basket case policy while we are tied into the UK and can only have a chance of working if we have strict control as to who can come and live in Wales. The electorate aren’t that dull, even here, and will not fall for this lunacy at the present time. As to wanting to eliminate child poverty by paying families £35 per offspring, are they real? This too will be rejected outright by the vast majority who have no truck with the feckless spongers who would just love this one. What is this “child poverty” anyway? Nearly every kid I see looks overweight, wears expensive trainers, carries the latest mobile phone and lives in McDonald’s. WTF! I thought Adam Price was supposed to be a clever guy but the above is electoral suicide. Can only be good for the other political parties though
Adam Price and too many others are locked into circles where the same unworldly and unworkable crap is spouted to the point where it becomes accepted wisdom. Even ‘the will of the people’. And as you say, while people might welcome these initiatives they’ll soon figure out what we’ve figured out – without controls, scrubbers with 5 or 6 kids, and wrinklies by the thousand, will be moving here. And in many cases they’ll have no choice in the matter.
It’ll be case of social services in Brum saying, “Right, Mrs Smith, we’ve found a nice little place in Wales for you and the kids. If you don’t take it we’ll stop your benefits.” Or, “We’re taking you to Wales, mother. Yes, next door to Tom Jones, with Anthony Hopkins down the street. Won’t that be nice.”
We already have a trade deficit as it is, with exporting qualified young talent and importing the dregs of Liverpool and Manchester in the north, egad!
That, I’m afraid, looks like the future.
Plaid Cymru live in the world of virtue signalling not in a manifesto for government. The kind of policy they should be coming up with is here.
https://www.mygov.scot/baby-box/
Affordable, addresses a real need, vote winner, applies only to those born in Wales, legal, and doable.
When Leanne was replaced as leader by Adam Price I thought it might be a “breath of fresh air”. He has proved to be such a disappointment.
Crooks with the surname Faux… I’m cracking up here 😂
Hang on, I never said they were crooks.
“Person of a spotty directorship record”.
Who are you quoting? They’re not my words.
I know, they’re mine. Should have used single quotation marks, my mistake. My intention was to convey that sort of ‘tongue-in-cheek-ness’ that they do. See, got it right that time!
This might help.
Who is Michael Faux?
Michael Faux runs a clay pigeon shooting gallery. He also plan to set up an “air rifle range” which will need a separate footprint for obvious reasons. He evidently has to have an enhanced fire arms licence for such a business. Here are some details.
http://www.fauxdegla.co.uk/about-us/
– – – – –
What is the background to Michael Faux?
He claims to be ex-forces, SAS, and evidently has a gun license.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1000041/Burrell-said-took-ring-Dianas-body-Paris-mortuary-bodyguard-tells-inquest.html
He says on his Linkedin profile to be a “Close Protection Operative for 35 years. Having worked for Michael Jackson, Mr & Mrs Beckham, Royal Family, Sony Music, Film Premiers, X factor, to name a few, we specialise in red carpet functions, and discrete Close Protection.”
– – – – –
So where do the couple live?
The strange thing is he records his home address, with his wife at Companies House as 34a Raymond Avenue, Stockton Heath, Warrington, WA4 2XE. This is actually a shown as wooden garage on hard standing between 36 and 34 of a suburban street, as seen on Google street view. There is a planning approval to build a house there dated January 2020 but it is not registered for council tax from April 2020 as a residential or business property.
https://warringtondirect.warrington.gov.uk/publicaccesslive/selfservice/services/counciltax/bandsearch.htm
A demolished garage would be suitable to keep a caravan with a postbox nailed to the fence.
– – – – – – –
So where does he keep his guns and ammo?
The police never need a warrant to enter a premises where guns or ammunition are kept or suspected to be kept, licensed or not (except MoD). They can search such a property, anytime 24/7, to ensure that any weapons are stored and accounted for correctly, whether that premises be a house, farm, flat, caravan, or business premises.
– – – – – – –
Who owns the land off the A525 where the Faux caravans have appeared?
Two things strike me as strange.
First, the DM article, dated March 2008, says that Faux is CEO of a company called Executive Group Holdings. A voluntary liquidator was appointed December 2013. I missed this company because Faux himself was not a director. Why not?
And even though this report has been up for 12 years, there has not been a single comment. Which is amazing considering the interest in anything to do with Diana.
A person of his trade, to be successful, needs to be invisible a sort who fades into the background of impeccable integrity. It’s the celebrity that takes the limelight not the bodyguard. When he went into an unfortunate business with Burrell his career was blown. No ‘star’ would ever hire a man who talks to the English papers and no corporate in their right mind would now hire his firm to protect technicians in Africa or Russia. That enterprise was doomed to fail. A new business in a clay pigeon shooting is probably a hobby business, that’s also failing. The wealthy shoot real birds on their own estates, and they certainly wouldn’t tolerate a horde of battered caravans, nor would team building courses for podgy accountants, as they use hotels. There’s something not quite right here. Has debt introduced him to the wrong crowd?
Something that never fails to amaze me is how, for a small, elite unit like the SAS, how many men claim to have served in it. TWO appear in this blog!”
It reminds me of an exchange I had with a Celtic supporter. It starts with a question, Him: “Where is the biggest post office in the world?” Me: “Dunno.” Him: “Dublin – because every Celtic fan had a grandfather or great-grandfather in there on Easter 1916.”
I know people who served in the SAS (being a former 22 year career soldier myself) – 5 in total, one of which died in Iraq,
They are highly secretive even after they have left, rarely if ever say so outside of military, close friends or family circles, rarely brag about it and the SAS itself will rarely admit or deny publicly as to the authenticity of claims made by somebody to have served with them.
Most of the soldiers that serve with them remain officially listed as being members of their original regiments not the SAS.
A number of sources say something similar. Though if I remember what I read I think Faux claimed to have been trained by the SAS in, presumably, ‘close protection’ or whatever he did. Does the SAS run training courses?
Jac – “Does the SAS run Training Courses”
Not as the SAS, but it provides instructors to other courses. For example I did the 3-month Jungle Warfare Instructors Course in Brunei back in the 1980’s. Some of the instructors were SAS – they taught improvised booby-traps and that sort of thing. Big courses draw instructors from across the military to teaach their area of expertise – also on that course was a Royal Engineer instructor who taught demolitions, an Eban Indian who taught trapping and edible plants for the survival phase, and even an old ex-Viet Cong guerilla who taught aguerilla tactics for deep penetration behind the lines.
Close Protection is usually a Military Police course as it’s them that provide it for the Generals etc. I could envisage SAS being involved in some of it, particularly terrorist and Speznaz MO and tactics.
Even without your first-hand knowledge I would have guessed that a unit like the SAS does not run training courses. Though the Military Police would not be the first thought when looking at close protection, though as you explain it, it makes sense. And of course the (Metropolitan?) police provide it for royals and government ministers.