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
♦
I was already late with the weekly offering, and getting bogged down with what I was working on – but then Plaid Cymru came to my rescue!
So here’s a little something to keep you going while I do a bit more digging into the labyrinthine workings of Wales & West Housing.
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PLAID CYMRU, THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING
I rose late yesterday, and after firing up the trusty old desktop I found a Twitter DM from a regular source telling of a new recruit to Plaid Cymru. Not only that, but the source also provided a tweet from Ms Leanne Wood.
I’m sure that not all new members get such a welcome from the former leader of the party . . . though then again, how many recruits is Plaid pulling in these days?
Anyway, accompanying the pic of Leanne Wood and Sonia Klein was another image, this one from the Ilford Recorder of August last year. It told us that Ms Klein was hoping to become the Labour Party candidate for Ilford South. Here’s a link to the article.
Though I found the photograph the Recorder used a little disconcerting. Here we have a family group, wholesome and clean-shaven, all dressed in light clothing with the sun shining down on them. It reminded me of an image from one of those leaflets I politely decline when they’re proffered by earnest young missionaries.
And now, it appears, the Kleins have moved from one cult to another. Or am I being cynical? Moi!
Anyway, I thought this information merited a wider audience and so I put out a tweet. I was then contacted by Brychan Davies, a regular contributor to my blog, with further information on Sonia Klein.
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THE WOMAN FROM GOD KNOWS WHERE (APOLOGIES TO FLORENCE WILSON)
A later issue of the Ilford Recorder, from September last year, tells us that Sonia Klein, “Grew up in Ilford South and also ran a business in the area. Lives in Wales.”
She wasn’t selected to be the Labour candidate in the December general election, that honour fell to the Momentum candidate, Sam Tarry, who was duly elected in this job-for-life Labour seat.
Brychan also found her Linkedin profile which tells that Sonia Klein has spent some time in the USA, where she got involved with the Democratic Party (natch). This source also suggests she’s a strategic advisor for CMS Global, but with no link provided, and a number of companies sharing that name, it’s difficult to know what this means.
With a complete absence of links on her Linkedin profile it’s impossible to verify the connections claimed. And though a link is provided for CMS Global on her Facebook page . . . it goes nowhere.
I’m not for one minute suggesting that Ms Klein should not be believed, but perhaps she sometimes gets confused.
For example, you’ll recall that we read in the Ilford Recorder that Sonia Klein grew up in Ilford South, yet I remember as if it was yesterday reading in Left Foot Forward (of February 2013) that she claimed to have been, “Born in Tower Hamlets and raised in Newham”.
No doubt, if she ever runs for office in Swansea she’ll claim to have been “born in the cowin’ Hafod, like”.
Going back to the Facebook page for a moment, we read that Sonia Klein works at Welsh Rowing. But doing what, exactly?
Just beneath that entry we learn that Sonia Klein worked at Swansea University’s ill-starred School of Management. If that rings the old ding-dongs then it’s because the School of Management has attracted a great deal of publicity in recent years. Just think of sackings at the University, Mark James’ Wellness Village in a Llanelli swamp, strange deals with Gulf states, and Plod getting involved.
If you’re having trouble remembering the case, just read this.
So I can well understand why the Swansea University School of Management gig does not appear on Sonia Klein’s Linkedin profile. But the link cannot be denied.
For I turned up this Labour CND conference document from 2018 which describes Sonia Klein as you see below. It tells us she was advising the School of Management at the very time the plans were being hatched that ended a number of careers. Fancy that!
And her presence in Swansea is corroborated with this information from Skwawkbox, of October 2018:
“Sonia Klein has been chosen by Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD) as the new candidate for its left slate in the elections for additional members of Labour’s National Constitutional Committee (NCC), the party’s senior disciplinary body.
Ms Klein, who was initially proposed by Labour CND, is a Labour member in the Welsh constituency of Gower.”
While this picture from the Mayoral Parlour in Haverfordwest describes Sonia Klein as “Advisor to the Dean of Swansea School of Management”. The Dean was of course Marc Clement.
Perhaps she was in the Mayor’s Parlour on the same trip she made to fight racism in Pembrokeshire, as reported here in Socialist Worker.
This is one of the reasons I detest socialism and socialists. To begin with, and despite that photograph being taken in Wales, I would be surprised if there are more than two or three Welsh people in that whole group.
What we see there is a crew of blinkered ideologues, obsessed with an ‘ishoo’ they have brought with them from England, and insulting us by insinuating that this problem is widespread in Wales. And in Pembrokeshire of all places!
Bastards! Any self-respecting country would direct them to the border.
Yet it would appear that these are the kind of people that Plaid Cymru’s new recruit feels comfortable with. Which makes perfect sense.
For Plaid Cymru has abandoned Wales and Welsh issues to latch on to idiocies hatched in the alternative universe of US campuses and brought into Wales by the kind of clowns we see in that picture from Haverfordwest.
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THINKS . . .
Now if I was a member of Plaid Cymru (and I was once!) I’d be asking a few questions:
- Who or what is CMS Global?
- When did Sonia Klein resign from the Labour Party?
- Why did Sonia Klein resign from the Labour Party?
- What advice did she give to Marc Clement and Swansea University’s School of Management?
- Has Sonia Klein been interviewed by the police in connection with the ongoing investigations relating to the School of Management and associated parties?
- Is she advising Mark James?
- Does Sonia Klein live in Wales?
- Why has she joined Plaid Cymru?
I know Plaid Cymru has a thing for ‘strong women’ (and is very elastic in its application of the term ‘women’) but I can’t help thinking that a mistake has been made here.
Perhaps both sides should reconsider.
But then again, Plaid Cymru has recruited a woman who just a few months ago was fighting to become a Labour Party parliamentary candidate and, what’s more, she was an advisor to Marc Clement at Swansea University’s School of Management.
What a coup! What could possibly go wrong?
♦ end ♦
Just another affiliation with labour 🙁
Before anyone accuses me of being “Homophobic”. Let me refute it before anyone does. What concerns me about people like Chris Bryant is how they have advocated casual sexual relationships with strangers that can lead to unfaithful infidelity to loyal partners of any sexuality or gender and casual sex can spread venereal illness.
According to the Sun newspaper, he also sent a picture of himself wearing only his underpants (as above) to a stranger with the message: “I’d love to meet for a good long fuck.”. This is on the internet. It is also why his attitude needs to be questioned by the Rhondda electorate, apart from being a ‘Blairite’ that does not fit in with Rhondda’s Corbynite Labour Red Politics.
Bryant is a narcissist. A self-promoting narcissist.
Ohhhhh Purleaseeeeee….Perhaps you welsh are all little bit bored in the “action” department…..You only wish you could have as much fun as Chris does 😁😁😁.
It is no use trying to.disguise your obviously blatant homophobic nature…. your like a transparent sheet of glass….. seethrough and oh so predictable 😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘
His sexuality matters little. I despise the posturing, narcissistic little cunt for other reasons which would apply if he was the Tonypandy Stud. He would have copped the ridicule over that photo if he was straight. Maybe more ridicule. So don’t be so precious.
Jac The clue is in dear Gavin’s response. …..”you welsh” …. typical sweeping catch all racist remark from a supremacist who also likes a bit of “action” as he calls it. Orientation is NOT the issue it’s the sickening “we are so much better than you” tone that does it for me every time.
Nothing racist about using the term “You Welsh”.
Just like people use the terms “You scottish”,”You Irish”,”You Muslims”,”You Australians” and many other versions of “You…….” etc,etc
Perhaps you should look up the legal definition of and the charging thresholds for “Racist abuse”.
The only thing ” precious” here sweetie is you, my dearest Royston
Charging threshold ? Not planning on charging anyone but I am able to recognise a supremacist shitbag from a good distance. Count yourself spotted.
Man or woman, straight or gay, white or POC, etc etc, if I had to get my “fun” by posing nearly naked on a cheap adult website in order to try and attract a sexual partner, then I’ll pass on that one.
Up to him just like all of us what we do in that department. These days thankfully I really don’t think the vast majority of people give a damn. Bryant gets pilloried not so much for this picture itself or his sexuality but because it’s one of the few means of kicking back at the man himself, and how he has used his MP’s position to feather his own nest. He’s made himself something of a lightning rod to attract strikes from a long suffering public who have had a bellyful of his behaviour and many MPs like him. People are disgusted by him flipping homes to make himself many hundreds of thousands of pounds and the system allowing him to get away with it. It doesn’t exactly endear him to the “welsh” as you call us.
Then only last October when Westminster was sitting on a Saturday he was asking for MPs to be paid extra expenses for unexpected Saturday childcare. I mean, life’s intolerably hard on £80K a year plus expenses. I can barely imagine how the poor man makes ends meet. But this action clearly shows that after a lifetime on the public teat, after the furore over his own expenses’ claims, after “the Rotten Parliament” and MPs’ expenses’ generally, people like Bryant are as out of touch as ever. It’s not just out of touch though. It’s a “fuck you” to constituents and voters, it’s supreme arrogance, hubris, “I’m still sucking this tit until my gums ache and the rest of you buggers can eat (welsh) cake”.
Once he’s retired or more likely adorning the benches of the other place where he’ll join hundreds of other self-serving twats of a similar ilk, I doubt the Rhondda will see much of him. As far as I’m concerned the sooner this greedy, arrogant wanker is consigned to the dustbin of our political history, then the better. And he can take his grubby Y-fronts with him – preening twat that he is.
The jealousy is seeping through your comments their Stan…… it a definite that you look nothing like our mp in your “Vile, skanky,filthy y fronts & string vest”.
Ewwwww… what a horrific thought 😫😫😫😫
‘There’.
Myth1.
That Bryant sent an unsolicited promiscuous email. This is not true. Gaydar used membership codes for contacts between subscribers. A reporter masqueraded as a gay man looking for sex to solicit the response published in the article. Current adult dating sites Tinder, Grindr use DM technology. The phot Bryant used was notable for being crass and insulting to gay men, who do tend to wear cleaner underpants.
Myth2.
That gay sex is a particular vector for medical infection. This is not true. HIV which has always existed in humans just found a method of spreading in the 70s and 80s as gay men travelled geographically mainly in the US, and then in Europe. It was a new vector of transmission resulting from new travel and social patterns, in the same way as a modern China offers vector of transmission for pre-existing Coroavirus.
Myth3.
That Bryant was responsible for the legislation affecting Sex Crimes Act in 2003. He was not. He was just one MP of all parties who voted in favour of the legislation. He only became a minister, an MP who brings forward government legislation, later. Labour considered Bryant unsuitable for high office, so they then sidelined him to the foreign office.
Myth4.
That ‘gay sex in public’ was a crime. Like straight sex in public, it was not specified as a crime. Since a private members bill (snigger) in the late 60s legalising homosexuality, an offence of ‘lewd behaviour’ or ‘outraging public decency’ existed. Conviction relies on a witness. This did lead to police officers lurking outside public toilets, in dirty macks and binoculars, it usually involved a form of entrapment. In 1988, this changed as the British Government assumed itself to be a arbiter of public decency, rather than the actual public. Modifications of legislation were made, including clause 28. A this time, Bryant was a Conservative Party activist and supporter of the Thatcher government.
Myth5.
That Bryant is a champion of gay rights. Not true, quite the opposite. It might surprise some, but prior to Bryants arrival in Wales, there were gays in the valleys. A vibrant social scene. The only contribution Bryant has made since his arrival was to make untrue accusations about local hostility against him being motivated by his sexuality, a lie, stories made up in order to justify getting a bigger house and flipping his expenses claims between properties in order to enrich himself.
Myth6.
There is also a presumption that Bryant was the only gay in the village when in arrived in Wales to fill his boots. Not true. As I remember it, there was a wine bar on Dunraven St, in Pandy which was gay friendly, there was gay club nights at the Tynewydd in Porth and Battle of the Bands held competitions in the Pandy Navel for the TH trust.
Myth7.
That Labour is the champion of gay rights. Not true. It should be noted that when Labour fielded their first openly gay candidate in a by-election in Bermondsey (Tatchell) one of the few CLPs, the wealthiest in the UK not to donate to the election fund, because the candidate was gay, was Rhondda Constituency Labour Party. Independent collections resulted at the affiliated organisations, including pithead collections. The Labour Party opposed.
You really are an annoying pest aren’t you Brychan!!!!
You fancy yourself as some kind of private detective with your so called ” insider knowledge” on everything and anything including noe it seems, “all things gay”😘.
The people that matter here know you really are and what your true agenda is on this and the many other forums you create havoc on and are a big pest on!!!!.
Perhaps you would like to receive a “hand delivered” letter too 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
Does anyone remember that all self portrait photo of Chris Bryant he posted on the web as an ‘invitation’ dressed in underpants? Please to anyone who has got a copy, together with his suggestive comment, send it in to several BLOGS – especially this excellent ‘Jac’ Blog. Lots of people, especially young people in Rhondda, have never seen that photo. Bryant has no shame so please share it again with the public internet once again.
Fuckin’ hell Jac You trying to make us all sick or what ? Within the next hour or so I was looking forward to tucking into a full-on Sunday lunch. Now I think I’ll settle for a lie down in a darkened room !
I’ve got a bit of a hangover, and I soon realised I shouldn’t have done it.
Thank God our lamb ain’t cooked until 6. Gives me time to get over what I’ve just seen.
I’m not sure if that’s a bottle of Persil washing up liquid on the worktop behind him or is it Fairy?
Any need to be a “closet” homophobe with your thinly disguised comment above?.
We are positive you have many secrets in your “closet” 🙂
Ych a fi!
Off topic but distantly relevant – big girls’ blouses and all that – I refer to your tweet concerning Wynne Evans a multi talented BBC talking head who gets on my fuckin’ nerves within minutes of me tuning into his station when motoring off somewhere. There’s just something about him that makes my skin crawl. However in any race to get on my nerves he is a distant runner up to that odious creep Chris Bryant a pretentious wanker if ever one walked the earth. He is the classic model, no redeeming features, and shame on the Rhondda party machine for putting up with him. If there was a shred of decency among them they’d pack him off back up to London and replace him with a genuine local product who really cares about the constituency. Or is that too big a thing to ask ?
Brilliant. I don’t even listen to Wynne Evans, but I know Bryant. Thinking of Bryant and I would prefer to hear a tomcat being painfully castrated while sliding – claws extended – down a blackboard.
This new recruit of the “Ishoo” Party is still inkleined to promoting the LABOUR PARTY on her FACEBOOK. Surely the “Ishoos” should tell her to take out these Labour promotions or leave as quick as she came in. Also the “Ishoos” have just reinstated a suspended a member who promoted Anti-Semitism.. Then there is Harl Carys who set up bogus Party web links. Not forgetting whoever who sent in incorrect Party accounts to the Electoral Commission. Then there is parachuting a candidate into Scarlet land. The most scandalous and vindictive actions have been the witch hunt by coven to try to destroy Neil McEvoy and the entire Cardiff Council Plaid Cymru Group. Instead of destroying them, they bounced back and formed a serious rival Party. Well not so “rival” , more as triumphant, as the “Ishoos” are now dead ducks in the water without a Drake. This last action will come back to bite them in their jugulars. Why don’t they just all fold the “ishoo” Pary up? They could all then join either the Welsh Labour Tafia or the English Greens. Tell me Jac what have I left out here? I’m told their Office Paper Recycling Bin in the “Ishoo” HQ is filling up with returned ripped up Membership Cards. Is that true? Oh yes, I know what I left out – they no longer campaign for WALES – they only now campaign for distant odd “ishhos”.
She is quite obviously a ‘chancer’ fishing for a list seat at the next Arsembly elections.
Next stop the Lib Dems, penultimate stop before the Greens
Angered, but oddly not shocked, to read of Cardiff City Council’s decision to apply financial penalty for a “bin offence”on a person who was otherwise engaged attending a DWP assessment as he is an epileptic. What a bunch of brutal fuckin’ scumbags all serving time till they can pick up their pension cheques. Burn in hell the fuckin’ lot of them.
What is it with Cardiff?
Usually the council would send a letter explaining the ‘wheelie bin left out’ offence and enclose a leaflet explaining the rules. This would be prior to issuing a prosecution notice, for any subsequent offence.
There is a ‘duty of care’ relating to the enforcement process, but I cannot see how being an epileptic stops you from moving removing your bin off the pavement. In fact a wheelie bin is an obstruction to disabled people.
This two strikes guidance for all local authorities in Wales arose after a case in RCT a few years ago. A man in his 80s who’d fought in WW2, resident in Trallwng ward. He was issued with a prosecution notice. His offending episode arose because he was too old and frail to lift the bin over the front step. The solution was to cancel the penalty, and there is now ‘bag exemption’ or ‘assisted collection’ in any wheelie bin areas.
Was a prior ‘letter of advice’ for a prior incident sent to him?
I don’t know all the circumstances. However the “killer” in this instance is that the “offender” had to buzz off to a DWP meeting. Those meetings are notorious for arbitrary decisions regarding benefits if one doesn’t turn up on time, not just failing to attend at all ! Now the guy is an epileptic, which probably drives his need to draw benefits, so he goes off to this meeting and the bin gets left outside ( can’t be in 2 places at one time) then council jobsworth comes along and slaps a ticket. He’s obviously had issues with that authority before but you’d think by now they could have spent 5-10 minutes checking out his situation and issuing “terms” within which he gets cut a bit of slack to do his stuff with DWP or any health services that he engages from time to time. There again with Cardiff embarked on a programme of covert and not so covert gentrification the poor boy may be located in a zone marked for “clearance”and upgrading.
There is a protocol for the flying of Flags on Public Buildings – especially if there are a multiple of flagpoles. That being so (agree or not) the Union Jack takes precedence, with the Ddraig Goch second. Until recently the European Flag was third. Then the Flag motif of the organisation, e.g. Council, is next. Lastly “guest flags”, e.g. LGBT, by request and only if formally accepted, are last. However, if the organisation is hosting an Official Visit from a representative of a foreign nation, then that nation’s guest flag can fly second. So if you see flags from some “ishoo” group flying out of order of this protocol, then go into the Public Building and complain with strong insistence. I have done that myself with my local County Council. Be bold stand up for what you believe in. Be bold and patriotic and stuff the trendy “ishoo” brigades ! By the way the Plaid “Ishoo” Party or the “Pip squeaks Party” Offices are not Public Buildings so they can fly an “ishoo” flag out of the protocol if they wish. Do they fly flags? If so, let us all know what preferences do they have.
Contrary to popular belief, there is no statutory requirements on flags. There was only one public building in Wales which refused to fly the rainbow flag on the guest pole on international LGBT day. It was Cyngor Sir Gâr, led by Plaid Cymru. I signed the petition to have it flown on the guest pole.
Our national flag is Y Ddraig Goch. It should always be flown, and primary.
Dipped to half-mast on remembrance day.
Only exceptions to display should be for practical considerations.
Dyfed-Powys Dogging Unit.
As a matter of routine, on the guest pole I suggest the ‘saints’ flags should be flown on St Patricks day, St Andrews day, St Davids day, and St Georges day.
Foreign visits:
One the day his/her preferred flag of the visitor on guest pole. This would include the butchers apron when Betty Battenburg is in town, in the same way as the stars and stripes when the US president is in town. But not routine.
It is February though, so a short month. Expect some questions soon as to why the BAME community get 30 days!
Hi Jac. Off topic but you tweeted earlier, asking why the Welsh Government were running the LGBT rainbow flag on their Twitter account. I think it’s in acknowledgement of it being LGBT History Month. I hasten to add I had to look it up but I’m sure we’ll all have it writ large in our diaries next year.
They get a whole month now! Do we straights have to apologise for anything?
Only for socks with sandals.
When scum like Helen Mary Jones, a Plaid Cymru AM, is making twitter posts that make transsexuals in Carmarthenshire live in fear, by stoking up prejidice and hate, along with her cohort, Ruth Serwotka (married to Mark Serwotka, Labour, of Croydon) who has a posh town house in Rhiwbina, and third property, used by Ruth as a holiday home in Ceredigion, then my message is clear. Fuck off back to England.
Not welcome in Wales.
Welsh people, whether gay, straight, or transsexual should have a right of equality in our country and so while there’s shit like that is flying around there’ll a need for rainbow flags. Plaid Cymru and Labour politicians should not be stoking up hate. This comment is not an endorsement of ‘Aled & Teifi’ who shares the same platform as HMJ, but should be regarded as an endorsement of Neil McEvoy for Cardiff and Sian Caiach for Llanelli. All of our citizens have the right of representation in, and a part of, a free Wales.
I don’t think you need be so offensive. You are very good with facts, stats and arguments without having to resort to that kind of language.
And can we drop this nonsense about people hating transsexuals and that they are a persecuted minority – – they are not. Sure there will be the odd hater like there are about me as a Welsh person.
Here are some of my experiences of community interaction with trans-women. In the 80s one of the regulars in the local was such a person sitting in the pubs with the boys in their 50/60s (his generation) having a pint of Felinfoel; another I met at an Old Merchant Navy Assoc, full of men in late mid age and older and the said person a 6ft plus giant in a frock; and I can go on . Nobody batted an eyelid or shunned them; had been on an equal ops course or a trans awareness day and you could not get a more masculine ( or should I say toxic ( joke) community than those two examples. Everybody accepted them for what they were and still do, as do I.
When it comes to this matter I would prefer to listen to the scientists like Dr Winston It’s only during the last few years that an extreme cohort have hijacked the matter in question. Just like religious bigots . And from my meetings with people who want to express their womanly side/cross dress/take hormones/go total trans/partial – they are not one community but a mixture of many and even some of them are perceived as haters by these loud mouthed bullies who act as spokespeople for nothing but their own vendetta
Winston is Prof, not Dr and he sits in the House of Lords for the Labour Party. His area of expertise, IVF, female fertility, and transplant research, as well as his television career with the BBC. He has his opinion, but is not medically registered to have a say or make medical diagnosis over other peoples bodies. No more than Helen Mary Jones.
I have expressed my support for some who has, though now retired, who did. Sian Caiach in relation to Llanelli.
You say that transsexuals are not a persecuted minority. That is not the case.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4216786.stm
The reality is that Helen Mary Jones legitimises hate and bigotry. She is a stain on the very values to which you, and I have expressed, as bad as some of those on the other side of opinion. Both are not welcome in Wales. We are an inclusive, compassionate, caring nation. It should be remembered that HMJ is not an elected AM and only tolerated as a temporary stand-in for a Plaid Cymru paedophile, who should be in jail.
If she does go on to be a candidate in the election (unlikely now, I hear), she can be sure that I, and others, will be very vocal on these matters and indeed, will find me most ‘offensive’.
Sorry a bit confused now with the conversation re Sian . i don’;t agree with extreme views held by the transgender lobby with no medical qualifications or knowledge either
I’m no longer sure what we’re discussing here. My understanding is that HMJ has come under attack from the usual quarters for expressing the view that a person with a penis and testicles is a man, and must be regarded as a man. Which is what I believe. More recently, she made the mistake of believing what she’d read in the Daily Star.
If a man wishes to dress as a woman and give himself a woman’s name then that’s fine with me, but he will remain a man. And I will object to a man who ‘self-identifies’ as a woman, being treated as a woman in sport, or any other area of human activity where he would have an unfair physical advantage over someone born a woman, or where he might pose a risk to women.
If a man fully transitions then I would still object to her being allowed to compete as a woman in sport, but off the top of my head I cannot think of any other sphere or activity in which I would object to female status.
Most people I think are fair-minded and rational on this issue, but there are extremists on both sides, and Plaid Cymru has quite a few of them, these are intolerant and demand that we accept self-identification in all cases and situations without qualification or safeguards.
There is a myth that the Equality Act and the ‘self ID’ issue has an impact on sport.
It does not.
The criteria for participation is defined by the governing body of the sport, in the same way as a rugby team can ban a man of inferior-to-task body stature from scrum or someone from blind mans golf, can ban a man who has vision, or can ban a person who had vision in the past, as there’s a difference of inherent ability. The issue is the criteria of ban historical build or body structure as a result of hormonal growth, whether artificial or born as, can and therefore subject to exclusion.
It is not illegal to ban a transsexual, for example, in athletics, under the legislation.
The only unresolved issue is ‘intersex’, born both, that difficult South African.
I explain by example – A few years ago I could qualify to play rugby for Sweden (residency card) but not football (born in Wales). Different rules exist in each governing body. This does not make the Swedish Football Association racist.
The ‘sport’ issue is being used as a platform for preachers of hate. For who they are. Attack the sport rules, yes, attack the sportsperson no. Specifically HMJ has been speaking at public events as well as publishing on social media attacks on individuals, inclusive of body shaming images and publishing examples of criminal behaviour as being inherent of ‘that type of person’.
This I find unacceptable.
There we agree – try not to personalise it. But, unfortunately, sometimes one image can illustrate the issue perfectly.
I see that Plaid’s latest star recruit Sonia Klein, fresh from Labour, is a supporter of the green “Gower Power” shower Green Energy brigade. That will not get Plaid a bundle of votes in Gower Constituency.
Why is Plaid always courting these trendy “ishoo” people? Why not just concentrate on Wales?
“Concentrate on Wales”! This is Plaid Ishoo Cymru we’re talking about.
I guess I’m just an old cynic for thinking this new signing for Plaid doesn’t ring right. Middle-aged woman who all her life is as deep into the Labour Party and espousing “traditional Labour Party values” as you would likely find anywhere. Failed on several occasions to become a Labour MP, both at the polling booth and being selected as a candidate. Even late in 2019 was fully signed up to the Red banner. Then suddenly has a Damascene conversion to the Welsh nationalist cause, sorry, read Plaid Cymru. And not only that – her husband undergoes a similar conversion at exactly the same time! Is this the first of a number of similar defections? Are those old Labour dinosaurs finally seeing the light? Somehow, I have my doubts. For me, when Labour politicians preach about “traditional Labour values” I tend to think of those such as nepotism, cronyism, what’s in it for me and my family and mates. But there again, as I said, I guess I’m just an old cynic.
You’re not a cynic, Stan; you’re a realist who has lived with the Labour Party in the flesh, away from the rhetoric and the espoused principles.
The experience of Llanelli suggests that the clique of political professionals directed from the Cardiff HQ will slot in a candidate as required. They will cast aside any local candidate using some administrative wheeze. The golden boy lined up of the South Wales West region is Rhydian Elis Fitter.
He’s from Aberystwyth originally, did the student bit in Swansea with a foot in the door by temping in Dai Lloyds office, and now he’s being modelled as a suitable mannequin type candidate, currently working as a policy advisor in Cardiff.
There’s a mirror in Tŷ Gwynfor over which they’ve stuck a photo of Ben Lake and told anyone seeking to be a candidate to look like that and issued with a script on what to say. In the ladies rest room the photo they use is Mari Arthur.
Plaid Cymru have almost no grassroots party membership in Swansea, other than a couple of evangelicals doing a soup run for the homeless with surplus stock from a trendy sausage bar. Further up the valley there’s an AM who’s reduced community engagement to personal photo ops with film stars.
Instead of engaging in the diverse communities of the southern cities they like to pluck a candidate off the shelf.
Mohammad Asghar for Newport, Sahar Al-Faifi for Cardiff and now it looks like they plumped/been presented with, Sonia Klein for Swansea. It will not end well. They are tokens of representation. Anyone of ethnicity embedded and genuinely representative of that community, who tells it straight, like Neil McEvoy, is cast aside as dangerous.
The whole thing stinks, to be honest, Stan, partly because until as recently as Christmas Welsh politics was none of her business while she was involved with the Ilford Labour Party, but also because it’s transparently obvious that her only reason for ‘doing a Rekless’ and becoming an overnight Plaid Cymru illuminata is her record of failure to get the coveted MP slot in Ilford South. But even this doesn’t explain it; there are blow-ins galore in the Llanelli and Swansea Labour Party branches, for instance, and this might have been expected to be her preferred option for a sinecure. So why Plaid Cymru? And why is Miss Wood bigging her up when no-one outside Ilford has heard of her?
She will bring with her an outlook and agenda that have come to be considered appropriate in a Greater London Borough, lapped up like cream by Leanne but of no interest or value to Welsh voters. But as a protege of Leanne Wood, she will at least become, for a while, a recognised name when she submits her first Yasmin Begum-type article for consideration by the editors of Nation.Cymru.
Indeed. I’m intrigued as to how her old friends and colleagues in Labour will react to this news. If she starts putting the boot into her former Party and dishing the dirt then I suspect some dirt they hold on her will soon come flying back. I bet they have a lot on her. But let’s be honest, can you recall any Plaid politician really putting the boot into Labour? Too concerned with bringing Neil McEvoy to heel, too much time spent poncing around on things that are of insignificant interest to the average Welsh man or woman. And too cosy by half with Welsh Labour in the Senedd and our Council chambers. It’s why McEvoy was like a fish out of water in Plaid.
Dai Lloyd or HMJ to make way.
There might be the opening. Didn’t Dai Lloyd say he wasn’t putting himself forward for the regional list next year and just running for the seat? That’s how Plaid slip their un-electables into the Senedd isn’t it?
one is witnessing the grand old party of Gwynfor Evans etc disintegrate before our eyes.
a tragedy but now has to go.
the ishoos have it, the ishoos have it.
If you want to get on in the crazy leftist politics in Wales these days.
Things in favour of Ms Klein:
She is a woman, she is non-white, she has immigrant parents, she is from London, she describes herself as progressive and a socialist
Things against Ms Klein:
She’s not a trans woman or man, she doesn’t wear a hijab or niqab, she doesn’t live in Cardiff (yet), she hasn’t got it in for Neil McEvoy – but it’s early days, she’s not been vetted by Teifi and his dog Aled
When it comes to Teifi & Aled a lot will depend on Ms Klein’s attitude to the ‘T’ question. The fact that she has been effusively welcomed by LW might suggest that she believes in self-identification.
Forget a response. Wood is busy building up a quasi Labour/Socialist Party with NO interest in Wales.
The one you should be asking is Adam Price – why are you putting up with this woman and her clearly alternative agenda?
And Plaid Cymru is the party that will form the government in 2021…….
There’s no question that Adam Price is just a figurehead, an increasingly unconvincing leader. The Leannistas are still calling the shots inside Plaid Cymru. Helped of course by elements outside the party with which Plaid’s left links due to shared interests and causes. Be they removing all the Confederate statues in Llanelli or getting ready to welcome the ISIS delegation to the Plaid Ifanc conference.
Knowing how the left loves its popular fronts I can imagine next year’s election being fought on a joint ticket with Labour to ‘Send a message to them wicked Tories in Lundun, innit’ . . . and sod Wales.
How true is Dr Ball’s comment about Leanne building a quasi Labour/Socialist Party. Bang on the money that one. To me, all that’s needed is for Welsh Labour to identify itself even loosely with Welsh independence and Plaid may as well not exist. There’s a clear symbiotic relationship between them anyway, has been for years ( that essentially can be read as two cheeks of the same arse for those of an earthier nature, me included).
It’s obvious that Ms Klein has ambition for office. It’s equally obvious that the loony leftist progressives in Plaid are almost daily calling for the head of Helen Mary Jones, who is a blatant transphobe by their analysis. What odds on HMJ not seeing another term in the Assembly? And what odds on the ambitious Ms Klein being a Plaid candidate?
I was also beginning to wonder what Ms Klein had been offered by Plaid, or by Leanne Wood. (Amounts to the same thing.) Aled and his loony tunes playmates have definitely got it in for HMJ, and they are LW followers, so . . .
Fallschirmjäger candidate probably.
Fallschirmjäger translates as paratrooper. I can’t see Ms Klein belonging to any elite unit – for God’s sake she’s just joined Plaid Cymru! I think the word we need might be Fallschirmspringer.
We have another variant on her early years as this article tells us she grew up in Dagenham, Walthamstow, Bow or East Ham.
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dr-nafeez-mosaddeq-ahmed/labour-ukip-2015_b_5926504.html
“I asked Sonia Klein – a former Labour parliamentary candidate for Ilford North currently fighting for a seat in the Welsh Valleys – what she thought. Sonia’s candidacy has been endorsed by Lord Neil Kinnock, former Welsh MP and longtime Labour Party leader, for what he calls her down to earth approach, strong practical abilities and “passion for justice [which] will ensure she gives unstinting local, personal services to the constituency.” – Nafeez Ahmed, investigative journalist, 2014.
Socialist Worker puts her on the Gower, but that article puts her in Swansea East, which is confirmed by this video, with no party specified.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaOg_dNydyY%5Bremovetoplay%5D
Thing is, there was no election for Swansea East in 2014. Carolyn Harris MP was the Labour candidate and she was elected in 2015 to replace Siân James MP.
This woman obviously moved around a hell of a lot in her youth. But never mind, for she comes with the endorsement of Neil Kinnock, which should be enough for Plaid Cymru.
Try this video then
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM06P-IaaI0
I bet she knows more about US politics than she does about Wales.
Endorsed by Lord Kinnock, eh? Sounds like she may be too far to the right to be comfortable with the Leannistas, but I’ve seen more than one ambitious politico ditch their principles for self advancement.
As a potential Plaid AM the litmus test for Ms Klein is not so much where she stands on independence for Wales but the really important ishoos of our age, such as self ID for wannabe transsexuals, smacking kids, homes for the rest of the world’s refugees, Neil McEvoy, arseholes in the Welsh media and that bastard alcohol tax.
Swansea East makes sense. It was known that Sian James was standing down as MP at the next election, and the woman who eventually replaced her, Caroline Harris, was under a cloud for her attack on a lesbian colleague.
This attack was not public knowledge in 2014, when Klein was positioning herself for the seat, but it was certainly common knowledge in Labour Party circles.
That YouTube video about the Swansea East candidacy made me squirm. You can see the North American influence but worse still the Messaniacal bullshit offered up to its viewers. Unless lots of favours were called in, I fail to see how Ms Klein would ever have secured a candidacy there. My first question to her if Swansea East was up for grabs would have been where she stood on lesbians. Hopefully, not on their fingers or toes.
And if they had to fight for it, my money’d be on Caroline Harris every time.
Here’s the one she made in 2019 for Ilford South.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28deskSXBYg%5Bremovetoplay%5D
Cringe.
Here’s a her touting for Ilford North in 2010.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh_pXdKxObg
Cringe.
Dr John, & Plaid Cymru is the party that will form government in 2021
Plaid will be extraordinarily lucky to just stand still in 2021. They are a bigger spent force than a premature ejaculator in a porn film. And even less use.
That’s what happens when you are too much into “gender fluid”, it gets spilled too easily.
That family photo gives me the willies (is it OK to say that these days?). I’m assuming this is the same Sonia Klein that has had a Twitter account since March 2009 and yet has never tweeted. She “follows” 233 other Twitter accounts that curiously do not seem to include a single Plaid Cymru luminary or possibly even a member, Yet the list is a relative Who’s Who of the UK Labour Party, with a strong leaning towards the Blairite faction, which would help to explain her lack of success in being selected as a candidate in the recent General Election. I note Atlantic College, St Donat’s Castle, on the list. Could she be following the example of Kinnock Jnr in sending one (or both) of her offspring there?
That new party set up by McEvoy and others is more attractive by the day.
You can say what you like here, Stan.
I agree with you that her switch to Plaid Cymru is very sudden and difficult to explain. Perhaps Ms Wood can help us.
Ms Wood help you ? Now that is stretching the point beyond credulity, although she might help you put a gun to your head on one of her less pacifist days.
Sonia was married to Mike, that’s Michael Patrick Klein who’s director of Global Media Accelerator Limited (08594648), based in Romford, Essex. This company used to be called London Film Business School where Sonia says she’s been an advisor since 2012. Thing is this outfit was not incorporated until 2013 and is currently dormant. They also may have had a bit of bother over the name, the genuine article being the London Film School.
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08594648
Mike’s other workload is in the business of investment fund management. He’s director of Prometheus Investment Technology Ltd (08378680) based at Chadwell Heath in Essex. Again, Sonia claims to be an advisor to this business.
Up the workers!!
You will also notice that Sonia is employed by KVG and has been for over 22 years at KVG as a political consultant. This outfit specialises in “support solutions with a strong presence at the front lines of defence activities in Europe, Africa and Asia” from its base in Gettysburg, PA. She joined this company in 1998 the same year as graduating MBA from the George Washington University.
https://www.kvg.com/pastperformance
Essentially it works to extend the non-Nuclear proliferation footprint in US foreign policy interests. The projects appear to be in areas of the globe of interest to the various US presidential administrations.
The only outstanding question is whether she used her skills with her current employment with “Welsh Rowing” to get her Kayak up to Tylorstown in Rhondda Fach for the photo-op with Leanne Wood. The tip that slid there last weekend is called Old Smokey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ikJEbEk0Io%5Bremovetoplay%5D
After being an advisor to Ian Lucas MP (Labour, Wrexham) when he was he was the shadow minister for the Middle East and Africa. Sonia then spent a year back in the US with the Veterans for National Security Foundation. This is a US Federal Political Committee, a registered lobbyist and “exists to aggregate contributions from members or employees and their families to donate to candidates for federal office.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/0583064D:US
I don’t know what her interest with Plaid Cymru is, other than to quell the Lower Fishguard beansprout riots or Popular Front for the Liberation of Haverfordwest. She was the Labour candidate for the Ilford North constituency in 2010, but this was when she was working for Ian Lucas MP (Wrexham).
That’s if her CV is to believed.
As you suggest, Brychan, it’a an ‘interesting’ CV. Interesting rather than convincing.
You started off by saying she “was married”. Is that no longer the case?
He, Romford.
She, Swansea.
Unless there’s more than one property and the Welsh domain is a holiday home.
A holiday home! Surely Plaid Cymru wouldn’t welcome into their ranks a holiday home owner? I am appalled!
Group hug on Mumbles pier.
https://twitter.com/ToniaAntoniazzi/status/911645668837613570/photo/1
Still married, I think. Both on the Swansea electoral register in 2018, according to 192.com, and both welcomed to Plaid in Leanne Wood’s tweet.
Here she is introducing herself in West Cross.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10155774200196882&set=a.10150098814236882
The locals look up at ceiling or don comedy ears!
I suggest Michael Klein inform Companies House of a new abode, or register an accommodation address for his directorships with a confirmation statement.
In Ilford South, the sitting Labour MP up until 2019 was Mike Gapes. He was a Blairite MP, supporting the Iraq war which alienated much of the community in that part of London, and opposer of Jeremy Corbyn. He defected from Labour to the pro-EU independent group in the Westminster House. This prompted the selection battle in Labour for a new candidate for the constituency in the 2019 election for the English parliament.
The candidates.
Sonia Klein – readers of this blog will know about her background. Essentially a career politician and social climber. Once she was eliminated from the contest, she supported Jas Athwal, a support which many in Labour considered a poison chalice.
https://www.onlondon.co.uk/redbridge-who-will-be-labour-candidate-for-ilford-south/
Jas Athwal – He’s a Sikh, and longstanding councillor, indeed the leader of Redbridge council. Due to his ethnic background had considerable support locally. He was a prominent supporter of Owen Smith (Labour, Pontypridd) in the Labour leadership contest. He was considered as the front-runner in the Labour leader selection battle.
http://www.jasathwal.com/
Sam Tarry – A working class eastender, born and bred in the constituency, worked as a cleaner and nominated by a trade union. The genuine article for Labour in London and sponsored by TSSA the rail union. Was supported by Momentum, a Corbynista.
https://www.samtarry.org/biography
Half way through the selection battle accusations of “sexual harassment” emerged against Athwal. The source still remain unknown as these were secret accusations known only to the Labour disciplinary process. The offence was not reported to the council, even though he was leader of the council. An internal disciplinary matter for Labour.
The selection process was suspended and Athwal temporarily suspended from the Labour Party.
Therefore, Sam Tarry, time being of essence, became the candidate for the election, and is now the Labour MP. The ‘accusations of sexual harassment’ against Athwal were dropped and he remains the leader of Redbridge council. Many in Labour see that it was a ruse, a ‘stitch up’ of false accusation to get Sam the seat.
Andrew points out that Sonia Klein was already resident in Swansea, and on the electoral register in Swansea at a time when she was touting for the Ilford South seat in London in 2019. What are her new ambitions in Plaid Cymru?
You couldn’t make it up….I thought for a minute it was April First…..
On the brighter side, this means that Plaid Cymru in Swansea now has two members…
Who’s the other one?
What a hoot ! I nearly sprung a rib reading that.
No harm in Ms Klein joining Plaid but to hail her as the latest “big deal” shows a distinct lack of proportion. The woman seems to be an itinerant hot air machine eminently well suited to teaming up with ishoo driven dimwits who prefer avoiding any confrontation with real world challenges. Plaid’s “online activists” should be scribbling volumes of dissent on this matter rather than jerking off their nasty bile over a man who sets up a new party after being excluded from Plaid by a top team that can’t stand real activism.
None of that matters. She’s ‘a strong woman’, and Plaid is always looking for strong women.
strong on bullshit, but haven’t seen any of them running a coal delivery round or dropping off lorry load of 50kg bags of dried firewood to old people or families with young kids. Mouthy tarts, and that’s just the blokes among them !
They inhabit the parallel universe. The real world is not allowed to intrude.
Talking of strong women, have a listen to Plaid’s Mari Arthur on Eye on Wales taking part in a spot of farmer bashing, while spending a whole programme talking about nothing specific while pertaining to be an ‘environmental consultant’ :
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000fdnm
Slightly off topic I know, but it does show the mind fuck Plaid finds itself in when you have the Leannistas advocating quasi re-wilding solutions and others who are actually elected (Ben, Elen and Helen Mary) flat stick against it,……. apparently.
Take a policy position and stick to it FFS.
The Leannistas instinctively side with the Monbiots of this world, but few of them represent rural areas. Those in Plaid who do represent rural areas see the threat. As you say, this exposes the division within Plaid Cymru. But it also exposes the deeper problem with Plaid Cymru, because if the party was putting Welsh interests first then the split would not exist.
a spare rib no doubt!
You’re on form today!
Brilliant, haven’t laughed so much for ages!! 🤣
I’ll have you know this is no laughing matter!
Is that clenched fist line up a parody photo from Private Eye?
No, that’s the real deal. They’re about to set off to fight the Fishguard chapter of the KKK. (You must have heard of them!)
we must also never forget that the Socialist Worker’s Party also has its own disgusting skeletons. The party was found to be defending rape allegations against leadership figures, something the party still hasn’t successfully refuted. This has particular relevance to Wales in that many in the SWP in Cardiff were in support of the leadership and contributed to the denials of rape.
For a short while after the allegations became public there was a website listing all those supportive of the leadership. I saw that list, and was astounded at some of the names, people I knew by sight, who had expressed support. I don’t even acknowledge those people when i pass them in the street now.
Though I am very much on the left, and cannot agree with Jac in his rather one dimensional view of socialists and socialism, (after all, an equally wrong viewpoint could cast all right wing thinkers as basically fascists) I’ve always been opposed to the SWP right from fairly early on in my life. They’re a cult, pure and simple, and they’re largely anti-Welsh to boot. They claim to be internationalist, but that is a bogus internationalism that can easily be proved by their reluctance to regard the issue of the Welsh language or the cause of Welsh national liberation as having an equal validity with any other cultural or national cause.
I’ve never happily shared a platform with these charlatans, and nowadays always announce their arrival or presence with ‘Here are the Rape Denialists’.
Anybody with any sense avoids the SWP like the plague, and would certainly be well advised to refuse to go into coalition over anything with them, as the old Welsh Socialist Alliance found to their cost. In all cases, the SWP will seek to dominate, force our those they don’t like or can’t control, to create a front organisation for their own agendas. Laughably I think they may have even at one stage considered entryism into Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg as they mysteriously started to turn up at Cymdeithas protest rallies in Cardiff – but that idea soon faltered when they realised that they’d need to be able to speak Welsh, which virtually none of them did!
By all means find a socialist bogey if you need to, but for goodness sales Jac at least choose one that doesn’t undermine your credibility.
You and I rarely agree, but I still think that your blog is a vital contribution to the political landscape in Wales, and I’m sure that many more read you that would admit to doing so. I often don’t agree with your preferred prescriptions, as often the fundamental issues at stake are those of corruption and mismanagement rather than those of captialism versus socialism. In particular your focus on the world of social housing in Wales is vital, as no one else is dong it, and the only Wales wide tenants organisation, (though only dubiously so – it was funded largely by landlords and the Welsh government, so how genuinely representative it was of tenants it anyone’s guess) became defunct a couple of years ago due to withdrawal of major funding. It’s an area which is increasingly subject to less oversight, and there are some very worrying things happening in the field, the impending merger of Tai Ceredigion and Mid Wales Housing for one, which will reduce local accountability at probably a similar rate that it influences the increased pay of the CEO.
I haven’t looked at “Jac” for ages, having got hooked on Nation C. but glad I have, given that I was on the verge of rejoining Plaid. I got nervous when I wanted to donate, yet immediately they want people yanked in! In my Youth I got involved with
the Workers Revolutionary Party, which also had a sex fiend called Gerry Healy as
leader. These were also very much anti Welsh Independence, but also tussled with
SWP in inducting twerps such as myself. So I cut away to my beloved Cymru.
Now, Leanne Wood definitely leans that international socialist way, with her commie publication donations and should really be kicked out of Plaid as well as all the other fake patriots . Until then, I’ll wait to see Neil’s lot publish or watch what Gwlad do.