Shorts & Updates 05.02.2019; St Tatans, Weep for Wales 11a, the false economy of the third sector

I’ve burdened you with a few heavyweight issues of late and now I’m going to make up for it with this relatively short piece in which I look at tourist tat, give a brief update on the Williams gang and new boy Myles Cunliffe in Weep for Wales 11a, before rounding off with an appeal for a better system than funding organisations that have no intention of ever dealing with the problem they’re paid to deal with.

ST TATAN’S

As you know, every December I haul the old Jones carcass down to Cilmeri where the craic is good in the company of old comrades from the 1960s (though fewer every year), and this in no way detracts from the solemnity of the occasion, or the fiery speeches at the monument.

Among the regulars are some of our Breton cousins, one of them, Gwion, first came to Wales many, many years ago as a student teacher; a nice lad who unfortunately fell in with a bad crowd . . . that included myself. Ah! happy days.

After Cilmeri this year our Breton guests went to a number of castles and historic sites to soak up some history and culture before heading to St Fagan’s. Where they intended spending money on Welsh goods.

Among their purchases was a scarf, a red, Welsh scarf. This was left in the bag until they returned home . . . when the full horror of what had happened was revealed.

click to enlarge

You’ll see that not only does this scarf carry the ‘Ich Dien’ logo of Charles Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha, but it was made in China! Yet the receipt insists it is a ‘Welsh’ scarf.

After receiving the information and the photographs I got to wondering who could be responsible, who was guilty of perpetrating this deception in our name, so I did some checking.

The receipt mentions ‘NMGW Enterprises Ltd’, but nothing comes up for that name on the Companies House website. Next stop was the website for National Museum Wales where, on the ‘Corporate Partnerships’ page (scroll down), I found this reference to NMGW Enterprises.

A bit more ferreting gave me the name I was looking for – Mentrau Amgueddfeydd ac Orieliau Cenedlaethol Cymru / National Museums & Galleries of Wales Enterprises Ltd. Here’s the Companies House entry.

A number of things concern me, and should concern anyone who cares about Wales.

First off, looking at the directors of NMGW Enterprises, there is a worrying lack of Welsh involvement. (Even the auditors are in Walsall!) Which might explain why tourist tat made in China is being passed off as Welsh and damaging our country’s reputation.

Seeing as NMGW Enterprises is owned by National Museum Wales I suggest that that body either reins in these cowboys or else removes from its website actionable lies about ‘Welsh-made products’. Preferably the former.

And because the ‘Welsh Government’ has ultimate responsibility for our museums and galleries – and may even have appointed the directors of NMGW Enterprises – I also expect to see some action from that quarter.

Wales is supposedly going for up-market tourism and yet, at one of our flagship visitor attractions, people are offered rubbish you’d expect to see sold by a spiv down from London to capitalise on a rugby or football international.

WEEP FOR WALES 11a

This section was taken down after I received a hand-delivered letter after dark on the evening of March 26. This was obviously a ‘We know where you live’ kind of letter. After giving the matter further thought Weep for Wales 11a was reinstated on August 19. 

Here’s the letter I received.

Click to enlarge

I don’t have enough material, yet, for Weep for Wales 12 but there is fresh information that needs to be made public. Let’s recap . . .

Weep for Wales 11 appeared on 3 December and I updated it a few times, including just before Christmas after receiving a threatening letter from a solicitor, demanding that I remove everything I’d ever written about Paul and Rowena Williams. (Here’s my response.) I’ve heard nothing more from the solicitor. I’ll return to this intervention later.

The real news is that there’s a new kid on the block and his name is Myles Andrew Cunliffe. He now appears to run both Plas Glynllifon Ltd and Rural Retreats & Development Ltd through Mylo Capital Ltd, a company with a single one pound share and nothing yet submitted to Companies House.

Though the 10,000 shares issued for each of Plas Glynllifon and RR&D are split equally between Mylo Capital and Rowena Williams.

Another company with which Cunliffe is involved is Etaireia Investments PLC, a company that was until March 2011 known as Aquarius Media PLC, with a Seychelles connection.

More recently Etaireia Investments has been in talks with the Oyston family estate. The name Owen Oyston will be familiar to football fans and to readers of Private Eye. This recent article from the Guardian will give you a flavour of the man we’re dealing with.

On the same day he joined Etaireia Investments Cunliffe also became a director of Etaireia Holdings Ltd, a Scotland-registered company now lined up to be struck off due to both Accounts and Confirmation Statement being overdue with Companies House.

THE FALSE ECONOMY OF THE THIRD SECTOR

One defence of the third sector is that it ‘takes up the slack’ when central, devolved, or local government no longer provides a certain service, and to some extent that’s true.

But there may come a point when it would make more sense to take that responsibility back ‘in-house’, where a service might not only be provided for less in terms of financial outlay but also in a way that made it more transparent in its dealings, and open to public scrutiny.

This thought has occurred to me a number of times recently. And it came back to me yesterday when I read this pitch in the Western Mail for more funding from the CEO of a homelessness business.

click to enlarge

Let’s start with the introduction, where it says, “Lindsay Cordery-Bruce, chief executive of Wales’ leading homelessness charity The Wallich, makes an impassioned call to recognise that our current systems of support to tackle the issue of rough sleeping in Wales clearly aren’t working”. And there are good reasons for why they aren’t working, as I shall explain.

After being introduced as CEO of “Wales’ leading homelessness charity” Ms Cordery-Bruce then, and rather confusingly, began her article with: “Across the UK, including in Wales . . . “. Why would the CEO of Wales’ biggest such charity, operating solely in Wales, and writing about homelessness in Wales, have to put her thoughts into a UK framework for a Welsh readership?

It makes no sense unless you appreciate that the Wallich, like most third sector bodies in Wales, operates in an Englandandwales framework, throwing Welsh money at what are often transferred English problems. (Housing associations are particularly guilty in this regard.)

But of course the Wallich is not alone, for as the ‘Welsh Government was only too pleased to tell me, there are no fewer than 48 homelessness charities / businesses operating in Wales.

click to enlarge

I’m not for one minute suggesting that they’re all as big as the Wallich, but the Wallich is not without serious rivals. With all of them soaking up vast amounts of public funding. To illustrate my point let me walk you through the latest available accounts for the Wallich. (Keep this pdf file open in a separate window.)

Let’s start on page 8, where we see that the Wallich has £2,778,887 squirrelled away in investments. In addition, page 21 tells us that there is another £3,574,617 in readies. Whence cometh these shekels?

Well, page 29 informs us that in 2018 £7,981,735 came from the ‘Welsh Government’ and local authorities. Another £3,993,798 came from rents. This is clearly no hand-to-mouth charity, this is a serious commercial undertaking, and the commodity bringing in this money is homeless people.

That the Wallich is a big company and a major employer is made clear on page 31, where we learn that £8,019,182 went on staff costs (for 381 employees), of which Ms Cordery-Bruce herself pulled down £100,000+. (Though in the previous year the CEO who preceded Ms C-B seems to have been paid less than £80,000.)

To sum up, we have in Wales a homelessness industry made up of dozens of organisations, all reliant to a greater or lesser degree on public funding, and all with a vested interest in not solving the problem of homelessness because to do so would put them out of a job.

Which also means that if Wales cannot provide enough homeless then they will be brought in from England . . . as will the drug addicts, and the ex-cons, and the paedophiles and the problem families for housing associations and others.

Why does the ‘Welsh Government’ not put a stop to this obvious rip-off? Because there is electoral advantage to be gained from keeping Wales poor, which runs:  ‘Look at all the homeless . . . see how poor Wales is? . . . it’s all the fault of them Tories . . . vote Labour!’

We have reached the stage where it would be far cheaper for the ‘Welsh Government’ to take direct responsibility in certain sectors currently exploited by an out-of-control third sector and bring down costs by actually solving the problem rather than by keeping it going for personal gain.

Because if Finland, a country not much bigger than Wales in terms of population, can solve it’s homelessness problems why can’t Wales?

Part of the answer must lie in the related facts that Finland has a government working in the country’s best interests and Finland doesn’t take in Russia’s problems.

P.S. There was a double-page spread on homelessness in today’s Western Mail, in which Ms Cordery-Bruce was extensively quoted. Here’s the WalesOnline version.

♦ end ♦

 

 

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Anonymous

Any more news on the Duggans?

Cantre

Cadw have appointed a new board, sounds more English Heritage than Cadw Cymru’n Lan.

DAIIROKO

Hi Jaco, and team members (Davis, Huge Gee, et al.)

May I should start with a simple comment on my opening remarks to my Jac the Gog opener-10/2/19 – The insomnia is my problem not yours!
My reference to ‘sauce’ (and the lateness of my comments) is a reflection on comments from you and others to my previous incursions .
You, and others respond with great emphasis on the time I post, even pointing to a possible influence of alcohol. Thats their sick call !

The substance of my contributions, however pitched, – are ignored/ or treated as irrelevant! They are commonly, crassly, evenly stupidly miss-interpreted!
I use my day time in the pursuit of simple happiness activities – both physical and cerebral. My nightly waking hours – another story – sometimes reflecting on ‘current society’ via the internet etc. etc..

Jaco, with regard to the follow-up comments from your disciples, I must say that the venom/hate content of their pieces is really both sad and sickening, but comes as no surprise. After all, they are characteristic themes of this site and its hangers on!

Dafis……”Shame they don’t show any interest in decolonising Wales and the Welsh nation. Is this yet another gesture aimed at the soppy pseudosocialist academic community ridden with angst about what happened in the name of Empire since the First Elizabeth ( Queen, not Jones !) ? It’s too much to hope that it’s a first step towards coming out in favour of ridding us of our present day coloniseHd condition, especially as its major offices are all held by loyalist arse lickers.” –
The above, is a current outpouring from a leading disciple! Is it a coincidence that a group, including this crank – speak of ethnic cleansing/decolonisation etc..- come together in a new party, with the title of Mein Gwlad ????

With regard to the BG contribution – (concluding comment) – “Go figure the maths you numb skull. Do you realise how stupid your comment really is?” . It’s both offensive and hilarious that such a humanoid that can interpret my simple factual comment on centuries of Welsh Immigration with its enriching benefit to England in the way he has. Absolute and total bonkers ….not for the first time!
It’s frightening that this site is a haven for Nationalist extremists using a language and ‘logic’ last seen in Germany in the thirties.!

I can’t deny the Fuhrer his right to spend his life – hourly/daily/weekly time etc..pursuing his obsession with exposing English ‘colonisers/undesirables’ in Welsh life. Equally, one is also entitled to question the mind set/sanity of such a zealot.

Peace and Light

DAIIROKO

So you are an insomniac???? lol.

Dafis

Dear Dai, you may already be up, not properly awake because most of your comments seem to convey the impression that you are in a trance. Being referred to as “this crank” might be offensive if it came from a source of repute or substance but coming from you I’ll regard it as a compliment !

As for your rant about nazis, neo fascists etc it falls neatly into that category of deflection by the guilty, as you are obviously deeply committed to the AngloBrit supremacist orthodoxy which deems itself superior to anything else. Their classic default position when confronted is to brand that opposition as nazi fascist Hitler blah blah etc Very boring tedious nonsense but also gives an insight to the mindset. No doubt you are, or have been, a member of the Labour party. Is that the Jew hating wing or have you just remained part of the Unionist core that can’t bear the thought of anyone outside of the London elite having an original thought ?

Stan

I suspect any comments suggesting Dai has, ahem, been on the grog, have come about for the simple reason that his posts are usually unintelligible, always abusive and belligerent, and often incomplete. Besides all being posted in the wee hours, of course. Perhaps it’s Dai’s medication to blame?

Dafis

Big growth plans for Swansea disclosed in LDP.

https://www.insidermedia.com/insider/wales/swanseas-new-ldp-to-be-considered-for-adoption?utm_source=swansea_sw_wales_newsletter&utm_campaign=swansea_sw_wales_news_tracker&utm_medium=property_article

How does this square with last week’s disclosure that Cairns &Co were looking to shift main rail connection OUT of Swansea turning HighSt terminus into a branch line ?

Wrexham

Housebuilding projects are being approved all over North-East Wales, too (part of Mersey-Dee Alliance project?)

DAIIROKO

Oh Jac the Gog
No Sauce,…….but rampant insomniac on the agenda…
You and your “psychos’ (Dafis etc) comments on the issue of COLONIALISM….of Wales is at least marginally – bonkers…but what’s new?
Sickness orr the lands!!!!!!!
I’ve been around for more years than you ….I believe!
In my time more WELSH people have infiltrated/colonised English society than vice versa, … in the main!
Some have returned, but most have remained to enrich that society.
You’r obviously envious!
A SICKENING WELSH WEAKNESS !

Dafis

This is obviously a comment that has to be taken seriously given the absence of sound well reasoned points !!! It’s good to have comment posted direct from the fruitcake segment of our society, we are so enriched by their inputs. It least it provides us with a good laugh, although my mam always told me not to laugh at nutters.

Most of my English friends will testify that the Welsh settle easily and integrate well into a range of English communities in the counties and the shires, and the metropolitan authorities too. All we ask is that those English that settle in Wales behave in the same way. Simple really. It’s reciprocal behaviour.

Big Gee

Wales total population = 3.099 million (2015)
England total population = 54.79 million ‎(2015)

If every single person in Wales moved over the border to England it would make a cultural difference equivalent to a gnat’s wee in the ocean.

Now what do you think would happen if you dumped the whole population of England into Wales?

Go figure the maths you numb skull. Do you realise how stupid your comment really is?

Red Flag

That also means that there are more EU nationals in the UK than Welsh people. There are 3.7 million EU citizens living in the UK

David Robins

Wales loses its young and economically active, in many cases for life, and receives in return England’s old and dependent, to be supported out of the tiny Welsh budget. Great deal, innit? The union’s working SO well.

D

I am disgusted with our AM’s particularly those dealing with ishoos in England which do not involve wales. They also tend to be from the female left meaning there is a solid core of AM’s who will always act against welsh [working class & welsh business] interests.

Last week I was in a south wales town where two police [maybe PCSO’s you can hardly tell these days] were asking a beggar to move on. Apparently part of his backstory was he had come up from Exeter yesterday looking for support [handouts?]. Suddenly a problem that was Exeter’s yesterday is now one for Wales today. He may well need help and be deserving of help but he should be getting that in England – yet HMJ and other “ishoos” politicos want him to be helped and settled in Wales – with money raised from welsh taxpayers or if from the Barnett block grant would be better spent fixing potholes and other infrastructure [NHS?] to help the active welsh economy.

The old Plaid heartlands must be wondering what the hell happened.

Carnabwth

I’m seeing a few beggars in Carmarthenshire nowadays. But the ones I have had a few words with aren’t local. In fact, they’re Rumanian. I don’t think you can even blame the nasty Tories for Rumanian beggars on our streets. I suppose the homeless charities are making use of their numbers to get additional moolah and being linked to Labour using them as a stick to smack the Tories with.

I saw comrade Wood attacking the Labour run council in Cardiff for moving the tents from the City center. But really, if I lived nearby or had a business in the vicinity and was paying rates to the council then I too would expect something to be done. I thought about how it would work if Wales becomes the place to house all the that turns up on it’s doorstep. We’d be a kind of Mecca for homeless; the dream of all the homeless charities you mention. I don’t think Ms Wood has thought the issue through before her virtue signalling on the issue.

Red Flag

A lot of them are Big Issue sellers. There is a reason for that (bearing in mind that you don’t have to be homeless to sell it). They register as self-employed, which means they get immediate access to tax credits – something denied to immigrant workers on PAYE until they have reached the qualifying period.

Hence right across North Wales you see veritable legions of Romanian/Roma Big Issue sellers.

Brychan

The longstanding Romanian national who had a staffie dog who used to haunt the Red Street area of Carmarthen had not previously assisted by the ‘third sector’ in Wales because there was not ‘drop box’ opportunity to cream his benefits for which he was not eligible. He hit the headlines just before Christmas when Dyfed Powys Police confiscated his dog and led him away in handcuffs. This led to a tirade of ‘police brutality’ on social media. Actually the dog was being taken away to a health check by a vet at the Dog Unit and the man taken to the police station to assist with the language issue over what arrangements the police had made.
comment image
Public servants helping out when the third sector can’t earn a wedge.

He was not arrested. Both were fed and watered by Dyfed Powys Police, who subsequently arranged accommodation for both man and dog in Swansea. I mention the ‘drop box’ operation where third sector organisations ‘assist’ the homeless to fill in forms. It’s a way of the premises to obtain housing benefit, they like alcoholics and drug addicts because once the revenue tap is switched on and the homeless revert to rough sleeping due to access to addictive substances, the tap is not immediately switched off. This explains the ‘empty tent’ operation in Cardiff. It’s their workplace for begging and drugs, a pitch, often maintained for later use.

Red Flag

Plaid Cymru should be renamed as the ‘Guardian Readers Club, Wales Region’

Dafis

Yet another contribution to the enrichment of tourist experience in Wales. It looks like it will never end.

https://businessnewswales.com/couple-given-the-green-light-to-build-luxury-holiday-park-in-north-wales/

Dafis

One suspects that the “crisis” in HE/Uni numbers will be resolved by admitting all comers. High percentage of output from such a system will be regarded as defective by mainstream industry, commerce, NHS, HMRC and other major government agencies. However they will be absorbed in large numbers by the “growth” sector – yes you’ve guessed right, the Third Sector a.k.a the Turd Sector cos all the shit goes there and gets well paid as it rises to the top of the pile !

Wynne

I may well use the phrase “Turd Sector” in my next FOI request. If challenged, I can always maintain that it was a typographical error !

Dafis

Feel free, I don’t hold any exclusive rights, didn’t originate it, and if I had I would happily let you use it as it pleases you.. A bit of mischief while we go about serious business helps ease the old blood pressure etc

Dafis

On colonisation we read that Swansea Uni is taking an initiative to teach “decolonised English”

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/feb/06/swansea-university-announces-decolonised-english-course

Shame they don’t show any interest in decolonising Wales and the Welsh nation. Is this yet another gesture aimed at the soppy pseudosocialist academic community ridden with angst about what happened in the name of Empire since the First Elizabeth ( Queen, not Jones !) ? It’s too much to hope that it’s a first step towards coming out in favour of ridding us of our present day colonized condition, especially as its major offices are all held by loyalist arse lickers.

Brychan

There are three critical features of the Finland ‘Housing First’ policy, and it arouse out of a pilot scheme run in Uppsala, Sweden (both countries have an advanced social provision). The three features are..

(a) The cost of directly providing permanent municipal housing FOR THOSE ELIGIBLE is considerably less than ‘transitory provision’ like hostels and outreach schemes operated by the third sector, and
(b) Eligibility relies on Finnish citizenship, and the abolition of the vagrancy laws in 1987 excluded foreign nationals, who are still deported, mainly to the other Baltic states and Russia,
(c) The housing first provision includes addiction displacement, so housing is provided in locations away from the contact points of relapse (drug pushers, opportunities for prostitution) and in municipalities with designated mental and physical health services being strengthened.

If this were applied in Wales, all of the money spent on homelessness through the third sector should be stopped and redirected to local authorities as a ring-fenced amount to build housing, any English person found rough sleeping in Wales be rounded up and taken back to England in a police van, and GP practices who have a footprint to include a housing first domain be provided with direct funding for mental health and addiction remediation.

Why not ‘do a Finland’?

The reality is that in Wales it’s housing associations which are poaching funding from council housing and third sector outfits like the Wallich are ‘farming’ rough sleepers in order to line the pockets of overpaid executives with the Cardiff Huggard centre effectively running a glorified crack den.

Wrexhamian

[Drayford to Brychan]: “Thanks, Brychan. I’m on it”.

Not gonna happen. This is an excellent idea that will have to wait for independence, I think. Or perhaps an Ein Gwlad government willing to fight to the death with Westminster and its Welsh allies, at the risk of impeachment or imprisonment.

Whoever is in power after the 2021 Senedd elections is going to have to box very clever and make maximum use of devolved powers in order to bring the Welsh third sector to heel and put an end to the dumping of lowlife into Wales by English local authorities. Scotland doesn’t put up with this. At the very least, Wales needs parity with Scotland on this and a range of other matters. To get this we unquestionably need a change of ‘government’ in the docks.

Brychan

There are three cornerstones of a transition to a ‘Housing First’ policy as demonstrated in the three classic examples of Salt Lake City, Uppsala, and Finland. It is a joint operation by the operators of municipal housing, the health service, and law enforcement. Two of those three attributes are already devolved in Wales, the third being directed according to ‘public interest policy’ of the PCC. As the law stands..

In Wales, there are two criminal offences relating to class A drugs on the streets.

(a) Possession. (Max 7years prison plus fine)
(b) Possession with Intent to Supply (Max life in prison plus fine)

The suspect in the former offence can only be the person found to be in possession, and by definition, there is more than one suspect in the latter offence, which also includes someone in the supply chain or a person which enables it, whether physical activity or financial activity.

For example, a person can be convicted of the latter offence if they have the proceeds of the crime (usually cash) or operate a premises with intent or by inaction enabling dealing to take place. The law also applies to homeless shelters. The ‘operator’ being the chief executive of the charity concerned.

It should be noted that in Salt Lake City several ‘charity gurus’ of the mormon church were convicted and sentenced to long jail sentences (one shot), in Uppsala there was a city specific medical unit established for the trial with ‘safe houses’, and in Finland legislation to exempt those with dirty hands from the criminal justice system in exchange for cooperation. You can google the examples.

We don’t have to wait for independence, and I’d be interested in what happens in Glasgow. Time for a ‘shakedown’?

Wrexhamian

Yes, all that’s lacking is the political will. The Scottish Government has it, the ‘Welsh Government’ doesn’t. If the legislation is already there, bring it on, before the county lines people start targeting Welsh villages in a big way.

I stand corrected about the prior need for independence to tackle such issues. Greater devolved powers would help to chip away at the overall ‘EnglandandWales’ construct, though — if they’re used effectively and not left in the bottom drawer. It’ll never happen under the present lot.

Brychan

Problem in Wales is that Plaid Cymru being a middle class ‘ok-ya-ishoo’ bunch is that they not only end up propping up the current consensus in the Welsh government, but also fail to bring forward workable front-end policy. They prefer to adopt trendy slogans padded with ignorance. An example is the case of drugs policy (Bethan Sayed AM) they always promote the ‘decriminalisation’ argument, like Portugal, but they are not really aware of what that is. It is not about allowing sniff of a line in a posh wine bar nor doing a spliff at the back of the students union.

All drugs in Portugal are STILL ILLEGAL. The change was to move the offence of possession from criminal prosecution to civil prosecution via tribunal. Those found guilty are (a) fined and amount based on personal wealth, (b) suspended from professional practice, lawyer, doctor, etc, (c) banned from premises, clubs, bars, or a designated exclusion zone, (d) subject to non-contact orders, others who already have a drugs conviction, breach subject to imprisonment, (e) foreign travel ban, (f) reporting requirement to sign a register, (g) access to cirtain benefits withdrawn, (h) driving license revoked, and (i) designated premises of abode, electronic tag if appropriate.

The policy in Portugal has led to a doubling of both homelessness and HIV infection rates in rough sleepers. It is the reason why other ‘progressive’ states like Finland and Sweden have looked the Portugal experience and have chosen to maintain the criminal justice system as a method of coercion while at the same time to tackle homelessness caused by addiction by the ‘housing first’ policy.

Sorry if this discussion has educated and informed, but then again, I don’t drive drunk around Cardiff in my pyjamas and wear an ethnic scarf to film launches nor consume public money. Just bringing these issues to the attention of the people of Wales. Well done Jac. PCC Arfon Jones should take note. Are there still Spice Zombies at Wrecsam General?

Dafis

Ardderchog Brychan. A masterly exposition of the plain truth and routes forward. Sadly it is not wrapped in the jargonised pseudo social science so popular with the muppets who purport to represent us. Because of that it will not be heeded until a bigger percentage of the people of Cymru get off their fat arses and dispose of a high proportion of those who currently sit in the Cynulliad under false pretences.

Wrexhamian

Various community initiatives and a more pro-active Council approach have reduced it a bit, and a major county line gang has been put behind bars recently, but hard-drug use is still quite open in the town centre.

Red Flag

There are indeed stiil ‘ Spice Zombies’ at Wrecsam General. And also the Frodham St area of nearby Chester is infested with them. Whenever I see one they always look to me like a sort of wobbly living statue – some sort of bizarre form of street art even.

(I also must place my cards on the table. Because of personal experiences of dealing with drug users I have not one jot of sympathy with any of them. The War on Drugs was never lost – it was never waged to start with.)

Brychan

I have an answer from Scotland. It relates to Wrexhamian comment about county lines. There are some ‘housing first’ projects, but there was a risk of cuckooing. This is where an addict or vulnerable person who has a residential abode is used as a base for local distribution for drugs imported from big cities like Manchester and London.

This link in the chain was cracked by signing up the vulnerable person to a cashless agreement that can be linked to dispersal order. It prevents begging and electronic cash cards records can be pulled by court order as a restitution condition of a conviction. In Dundee pregnant women in particular are offered a payment of £12.20 per week payment from the NHS for cessation enforced by pharmacies performing weekly carbon monoxide breath test and cannabis mouth swab (also picks up the new psychotics like Spice). Blow tests for alcohol is also available.

Preventing the cuckoo brings a county line gangs into the open for police stop-and-search and removing the vulnerable from operations. Of course, in Scotland they not only control their own NHS and housing, but also the courts and police service. Clearing the bus station in Wrexham of Spice zombies and homelessness (like they’ve done in Dundee) is not about sponsoring third sector handouts but more about control over our own affairs and a road to independence.

Of course, the Dundee example, if implemented in Wales, would mean that if a police officer finds a man with an English accent in towns in the north without good reason, as a suspect, they would have the arse probed for wraps.

Wrexhamian

There’s certainly less of an EnglandandScotland set-up compared to EnglandandWales, and police and court powers are indeed a good example of it. Can they boot ’em out of Scotland if the stop-and-search arse-probe sample proves positive, Brychan?

Brychan

Meanwhile, this morning Helen Mary Jones AM and Sian Gwenllian AM is in a meeting with CSARS (Chester Studies of Addiction, Recovery and Spirituality Group), at Ty Penrhyn in Bangor.
https://twitter.com/higherpowerproj/status/1093769233694101504
According to their twitter feed they are discussing “our Mutual Aid Facilitation work”. CSARS is based at the University of Chester but part funded by the Welsh Government.
http://csarsg.org.uk/research/the-higher-power-project/
It’s a case of ‘send your druggies and drunks to Wales, we will send you cash, and provide them with accommodation’.

Dafis

How would we manage without these major contributions from such fine representatives of the people ?

Red Flag

Tell you a true story. You don’t actually need to have any drugs in your possession to be charged with and convicted of ‘Possession With Intent To Supply.’ You just have to say you have them or can get them.

When I was in the pub game in Greater Manchester, a gang tried to take over my first pub in a pit of a town called Heywood (between the grooming triangle of Bury, Rochdale and Middleton). In return for the ‘trading rights’ for me to turn a blind eye, they wanted to sell drugs to the local brain dead and would insist they bought half a lager at the same time (thus boosting my bar take.) I informed the Police and they in turn took a statement etc. Because of what they said to me, they were charged with the intent to supply even though they had no drugs and none were ever recovered. Several months later we were joyously re-united at Manchester Crown Court where they received six months bed and breakfast.

Wynne

With regard to the third sector Jac, from my perspective you are preaching to the converted. I have spent a year and a half in correspondence trying to get an answer to a simple question. Is “Futureworks” [with a staff of 55] an internal department of Pembrokeshire County Council and answerable to elected councillors, but with offices in Cardigan and Aberystwyth, or are they a third sector body embedded within a department of the local authority. The Council’s internal auditor advised she did not have the resources to investigate. Welsh Government’s internal auditor advised they would not be investigating. Welsh Government’s complaints team decided they could not investigate and directed me to Welsh Government External Assurance Panel. I await their response, although when I asked if the agenda and minutes of their meetings was published on Welsh Government website I did not receive a reply. Hope to get to the bottom of this during the next year and a half.

Wynne

PS. This link should take you to Futureworks.

https://www.pembrokeshire.gov.uk/apprenticeships-and-training/futureworks-at-pembrokeshire-county-council

Anyone visiting PCC website will assume they are a department of the Council so why are they funded by UK Government, Welsh Government and WEFO. Answers on a post card.

Janet howell

The ” Welsh Government ” is not the only evasive organisation . Social Services , the NHS in wales , and The Police are all equally guilty of evasiveness ( Personal experience) After all , they have to consider their jobs and Pensions –” A conspiracy against the laity” , I believe its called

Robert Edwards

Excellent journalism Jack thanks.