Shorts & Updates 22.02.2018

BRYNCYNON COMMUNITY REVIVAL STRATEGY LTD

I added an update to the previous post about Empower after learning more about this group, and perhaps what struck me most was the fact that despite the latest Accounts telling us (top of page 4) that “Trustees are elected from Bryncynon and its surrounding areas”, only one of the trustees lives anywhere near Bryncynon.

So I took it upon myself to make enquiries into these non-local trustees, assuming that if they’ve been recruited without knowing the area then they must bring some special talent to the venture. The four, all appointed 31.03.2017, are: Elizabeth Claire Bryan of Brackla, Bridgend; Paul Christopher Maliphant of Whitchurch, Cardiff; David Joseph Haines of Llandaff, Cardiff; and Robert Andrew Dickens of Mitchel Troy, Monmouth.

Ladies first. Elizabeth Claire Bryan is also a Designated Member (partner) in Coherent Light Consulting LLP. The other Designated Member is Michael Haydn Bryan, of Tonteg, Pontypridd, who I assume is her father. Bryan père is involved in a number of other bodies – Arts Factory Ltd of Ferndale, Toogoodtowaste Ltd of Porth, Citizens Advice Rhondda Cynon Taff Ltd, and Ffotogallery Wales Ltd.

Given that these are all reliant on public funding it would be reasonable to assume that Bryan is a Labour Party member or supporter. But on the Companies House website (and elsewhere) he consistently gives his nationality as ‘Welsh’.

As Labour Party members tend to be Welsh only for the duration of a rugby international this might indicate that Bryan is not a bruvver. Someone out there must know.

Either way, Claire Bryan is a consultant.

Next up we have Paul Christopher Maliphant, whose Linkedin profile would suggest that he’s a geologist . . . ideal then for a community venture like Bryncynon Community Revival Strategy Ltd. But he is also a mentor, approved and recommended by the ‘Welsh’ Government.

Above his photo you’ll see a tab for ‘Mentor profiles’. I urge you to click on it and go through some of the bios. God Almighty! it’s frightening, with a worrying number of them having moved here in their twilight years or else they’re not living in Wales at all.

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These mentors are listed alphabetically – by Christian name! Which means they run from Adrian T. Barsby to Yasmin Crawford. So if you’re looking for ‘Wassisname Doyle’ you’d better know that it’s Lindsay Hugh Doyle.

Moving on, the next trustee is David Joseph Haines. Now Dai has an interesting business background . . . in shipping, which must be useful along the bustling quays and wharfs of Cwm Cynon.

The only company he’s involved with that hasn’t sunk or been scuppered is Bryncynon Community Revival Strategy Ltd itself. Quite what he brings to the party is a mystery to me.

The final non-local is Robert Andrew Dickens whose business interests seem to flit between addresses in Monmouth and Aberthaw. I guess what puts the bread on his table now is Safety Technology Ltd.

Though there are disasters in his past, too. Not least Mainline Safety Ltd, which sank with all hands – and a few creditors – off Liverpool some years ago. Merseyside being where Dickens calls home, Southport to be exact.

Bringing up the rear we have the only local trustee in John Matthews, Earth-botherer, former policeman and now bus driver who’s been in post for over ten years. I suppose they had to keep him on to have one trustee who could pronounce Bryncynon.

The ‘Welsh’ Government has obviously stepped in and appointed these new trustees (and in so doing might have broken the rules), perhaps because the Abercynon venture has relied heavily on Communities First funding and this has now come to an end.

But what has it all achieved?

We have areas across Wales like Abercynon in desperate need of help, but the only response from Cardiff Bay is, ‘OK, we’ll give you money to buy an old chapel – turn it into a cafe, crèche and community building – then we’ll send you up a few mentors, and if things are really bad we’ll chuck in a motivator, too. And then, when this pot of money runs out, we’ll look for another one. Tidy, mun’.

All this system achieves is the normalisation of deprivation and the creation of a dependency culture. For politicians it’s being seen to be doing something. For civil servants it’s a box-ticking exercise. And for the third sector it’s just milking the system.

Something in it for everybody . . . except those it’s supposedly helping.

ANONYMOUS LETTERS

Regular readers will have heard me mention Wynne Jones of Cardigan. Wynne is a scourge of the third sector and the civil servants with responsibility for the third sector due to his probing questions and his meticulous record-keeping. I bet there are senior civil servants quaking at the mere mention of his name.

So wary have civil servants now become of Wynne that he is receiving letters with neither signature nor name appended, suggesting that some civil servants don’t want to put their name to the answers they’re providing. Why would that be?

And the same thing is happening to me. Here are a couple of samples. The one on the top was received by Wynne last week and the other was sent to me last month.

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And it’s getting even more strange now with Wynne because he is being asked to discuss things on the telephone, suggesting that some of the civil servants he’s dealing with don’t want to put anything in writing, whether signed or not.

What a situation! What does it tell us about the way Wales is run?

If you’re reading this, Carwyn (and if you’re still FM), what do you think about civil servants answering letters anonymously? I’m sure there must be a rule that says there should be a name attached.

Because when we take over, how will we know who to put on trial?

USING THE MEDIA

In case you missed it, there was a curious story in the media earlier this week about a man accused of being a paedophile because he stayed in a Cheshire hotel with his fourteen-year-old daughter while visiting his cancer-stricken mother. Here’s the WalesOnline report which also tells us that the man’s wife – and presumably the girl’s mother – suffers from multiple sclerosis.

The family lives in the relatively remote Carmarthenshire village of Rhydcymerau, which may be found on the B4337 between Llanybydder and Llansawel. I assumed they had recently moved to the village. A suspicion borne out by his Linkedin profile and these entries from 192.com.

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As I say, this story appeared in WalesOnline and its print version Llais y Sais. And though it was claimed as an Exclusive by the Daily Star it also appeared in the Independent, the Sun, the Express, Mirror and a host of other ‘papers and online sites. Nick Ferrari had a rant about it on LBC, it was reported in Australia, and even beyond the Anglosphere. Here’s a Czech report, a Flemish account, and finally, for good measure, it’s covered here in what I think is Chinese.

This coverage, for what was little more than a misunderstanding, is quite incredible. How was it achieved?

If we look at the photograph above we see that the attribution is “Image: Karl Pollard / SWNS.com”. Which would suggest that the image belongs to Pollard and was distributed by South West News Service, an agency dealing in ‘news’ for those who prefer ‘human interest’ stories.

The Twitter feed, with tales of a hairy-chested woman and a foetus flicking a V-sign, tells us that SWNS is to news reporting what The Jeremy Kyle Show is to intellectual discourse, or am I being too harsh? Whether I am or not, I think it’s reasonable to conclude that after the incident at the Travelodge in Macclesfield Pollard went to SWNS with the story and the pictures.

What’s more, he wasn’t slow about it. The WalesOnline report is datelined 10:20 Monday the 19th and says the incident happened “last week”. The StarSun, Express and Mirror reports are dated Sunday the 18th.

Perhaps this explains why it has been suggested to me there may be something ‘contrived’ about the whole thing. I’m not sure about that because it wasn’t Pollard who called the police, it was staff at the hotel. But then again, he must have realised that a 46-year-old man sharing a bedroom with a 14-year-old girl is guaranteed to attract suspicion.

But it’s how Pollard responded to a misunderstanding that was soon sorted out that causes me disquiet.

Let’s look at the three most important females in Karl Pollard’s life. His mother is gravely ill with cancer, his wife is suffering from multiple sclerosis, and his 14-year-old daughter was, in Pollard’s own words, “distraught” after being questioned by police, so all three would surely have craved peace and quiet.

But no, Pollard goes chasing global exposure for a simple misunderstanding made by sincere people acting out of the best possible motives.

I can’t help thinking that the media got this story arse-backwards.

MASSAGE

As you might imagine, I get a lot of strange messages, from all sorts of people and by a number of different routes. This week has been no different. Here’s one I feel able to share with you.

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Let me start by saying that I know nothing of ‘massage’ in the Tonypandy area (or anywhere else, come to that), nor have I been Googling for such services. So it was easy to dismiss this message as some kind of joke. But then I was drawn to the logo, which made me think the source at least might be kosher.

More than that, a pink butterfly with the body made up of a woman in a tight-fitting dress suggested to me that if it exists then the Women’s Business Club is for women, rather than the wimmin I have written about of late. So I Googled Women’s Business Club and sure enough, it is genuine.

This may have started as someone’s idea of a joke but I was very impressed with what I read on the website, consequently – and even though the heels are killing me – I have now joined and I’m looking forward immensely to the next Wonderbra Session.

♦ end ♦

 

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Brychan

Why does the Western Mail describe this armed robber from Birmingham who descended upon Cardiff taking crack and heroin “loveable”.

He’s since been given £12,000 in cash and then convicted of harassment of some poor woman. Why is this maggot described as ‘lovable’, and why don’t reporters interview the victims of this Brummy pond scum who’s lives have been ruined to get the full story?

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/tv/benefits-street-star-fungi-badly-14334617

Did the poor hard working teenager who had a sawn off shotgun thrust in her face think he was ‘lovable’, like the Western Mail?

mrorigami2013

I knew it wouldn’t end there!

It’s now been reported that the HSDD community are now protesting outside Carmarthenshire County Hall. Mary Helen Jones-Perott (originally from Shoreditch London ) now living in Bronydd Arms, the leader of the protest group said: “We from the HSDD community demand a Welsh Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder history month and we demand that a Wankers flag be flown over the County hall.

She went on to say:”This PC/Cultural Marxist crap….where will it all end? It’s hard to get any these days with all these abuse claims. I’m living on my own now with my two labradors and a cat. We are a forgotten part of society and it’s hard to cover the cost of the batteries for my vibrator and the dog food is getting more expensive after Brexit. The HSDD community should come out more and talk about our plight”.

Later in the evening after it got a bit chilly outside, the protesters all went to the local folk-club and took their frustrations out in a good old sing song………

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_Ld8JGv56E

Dafis

You shouldn’t make that sort of joke as it has an increasingly unhappy knack of becoming self fulfilling here in Wales ! Indeed some deranged tosser looking for a new “ishoo” will have read your piece and started knitting a new banner ( or fed it into his 3D printer ! ).

Donkey Ostler

Lady Geologist
Sally Baker above says her past university lecturer hoped to produce a Lady Geologist. Well a very prominent Lady Geologist in Wales is Councillor Ellen Ap Gwynn (Plaid Cymru) Leader of the Ceredigion Council and a Lady Geologist. Google her. She has been in “hot water” a few times – once for upsetting the BBC. What is unforgivable is how she claimed that Ceredigion would never allow “Fracking” in the County, whilst knowing full well that the rocks under Ceredigion are all of extremely old strata and that none these rocks hold carbon based fuels like Coal or Oil or Methane Gas. Her actions in this, as a Geologist, were devious and deceitful, and a disgrace to the term “Lady Geologist”. This is one more piece of evidence as to why the voters and people of Wales should no longer support a deceitful Plaid Cymru and hold their votes for any new party, dedicated to Wales, likely to emerge soon. Plaid Cymru in Llanelli, like other branches, should jump aboard as soon as such a new party is declared.

drsallybaker

Jac – thanks for exposing the nonsense that was the ‘women’s empowerment/business network’. Just to let your male readers who have left robust comments taking the piss know that a great many women feel offended and patronised by this utter shite as well. As if women have to be given lunches of salad – there weren’t many calories on those plates and we know how important that is don’t we ladies – and pep talks before they can actually do anything. And of course no men must be let in because women just turn to jelly in the presence of men don’t they.

The roots of this began decades ago when unions, politics and business were dominated by very aggressive, misogynist men who undoubtedly did intimidate any woman who strayed into the fold, but could someone please wake up and realise that actually most men don’t behave like that anymore, they really don’t. What has happened as a result of this foolish cuddly fluffy nonsense is that predators – both male and female – are now making a beeline for these women’s networks to sell their ‘mentoring’ to the clueless vulnerable women who have been positively encouraged to attend these events. (Women who are serious about running a business are simply busy setting one up, they’re not going to waste their time with a communal salad and a flipchart with ’empowerment’ scrawled along the top.) One such predator was Rebecca Jones, formerly of Bangor University’s Management Centre – and what a fucking joke that was – who styled herself as Red Shoe Biz Woman, a ‘mentor’ for women who wanted to set up businesses. Rebecca’s adverts read like Cosmopolitan – I was delighted to hear that Rebecca understood my needs as a woman and as a mother (I don’t have kids though Rebecca) and all I had to do to benefit from Rebecca’s wisdom was give her a lot of money and in return I’d receive Rebecca’s e book. What Rebecca didn’t mention on her adverts which littered the internet was that her only qualification was in nursery nursing and that she had left Bangor University under a very big cloud indeed among allegations that she had effectively blackmailed someone after finding out about serious wrongdoing.

Red Shoe Biz Woman then headed for Pembrokeshire – with her husband who’d had a bust up with all the other crooks on Anglesey Council, his previous employers – and opened a B&B. And I bet that it wasn’t Rebecca who was up at 7 every morning doing the breakfasts, that will have been a badly paid local woman…

The last time that I followed her adventures, Red Shoe Biz Woman was trotting around Cardiff dispensing advice in return for dosh to the not-very-confident down there.

Red Shoe Biz Woman was a mate of Dylan Jones-Evans’s, which says it all.

It has become clear in recent years that the schemes under which people set themselves up as ‘mentors’ after receiving Welsh Govt dosh have acted as magnets for the spivs and cheats who have been sacked from all their previous jobs.

I am particularly interested in the shite directed at women though and how if one doesn’t subscribe to it one is constructed as unsisterly or as not doing anything for other women. I heard this allegation levelled at Edwina Hart. Actually, Edwina was the only Health Minister who took on the bunch of crooks who have caused havoc in the NHS in north Wales for decades and if she had been allowed to continue with that she would have done a damn site more for other women than any dipstick organising a mentoring day with a salad lunch, poncy bottled water and a little piece of ludicrously expensive chocolate – cos we’re girls and girls love chocolate!, but only a small piece mind – oh it is fucking pathetic Jac, it has enraged me for years.

Not only is it alienating SO MANY women, but it achieves nothing and actually undermines women who might lack confidence. They are not told ‘just go for it, i’ll give you sound advice on establishing a business and you will be fine’, but they are led to believe that they will be greeted by a bunch of snarling beer swilling 1960s trade unionists, a sort of gathering of a bunch of Mick McGaheys. Research has shown – and I was glad to hear someone mention this on the radio the other day – that in male dominated professions, it is not men outnumbering women who hold women back, it is whether those men are supportive or not. If they are hostile and aggressive to women – like the police force was in the 70s – it will hold women back. If they are not hostile, women can achieve success. There is a comment about geologists above – I did A level geology and our teacher was desperately hoping that he would soon produce a ‘lady geologist’ because he had so many pupils who were girls and good at geology. The only reason why we weren’t thinking of careers in geology was that the jobs were in the oil industry, on rigs at sea, away for months at a time and girls DO think of babies when they are in their late teens, simply because they have the ability to have one and know that they might want to do that and it will be difficult on an oil rig. Although isn’t one of the senior oil execs in the UK a woman and a mother of several who has always maintained that she never encountered hostility from her male colleagues?

Gov’t notions that adult women need to be sat in a high chair with a nose bag on lest they meet a germ and be spoon fed low calorie nutritious lunches by Jane Hutt whilst jokes about chocolate and shoes are made is just another example of how alienated Gov’ts have become from all sections of the electorate.

Donkey Ostler

In my former comment about Gower Constituency I forgot to mention the Labour AM Rebecca Evans. Why did I forget? I forgot because she is far more invisible than Tonia Antoniazzi MP Labour for Gower. Where does Labour find these totally invisible people? Antoniazzi is a sort of public figure because of her Pancake Racing and Women’s Rugby and Karaoke, but not for any constructive politics. Edwina Hart was certainly visible and she got a lot of things moving. In the past Edwina Hart AM used to share an Office with Gareth Wardell MP on Pontarddulais Road, Gorseinon. A useful “user friendly” set up. Now only Rebecca Evans AM is based there, but Tonia Antoniazzi MP is based at West Street, Gorseinon. Her Office was bought using public money by Gorseinon Town Council (Labour led of course) reputedly for a £149,000 off the Swansea Council. The big questions are :- Why and for what purpose? The public of Gorseinon need to ask questions of this bizarre costly set up.

Penclawdd Donk

We have a SME on Gower and assigned a mentor. She charged the Welsh Government a hundred hours for advice we already knew. (we told her, what appeared in the subsequent report) Eventually, after almost six months and complaining to the WG we received something that looked as if it was written by a ten year old. We complained again and again. After a further five months, we were told, ‘the WG had paid the mentor over £50,000 and they could now do nothing’. Also the WG asked why we were applying for funding, as WG stopped giving grants in 2010 for SME’s. Strange how WG gives lots of dosh to co’s from outside Wales, eg TVR, Aston Martin and Cancoat, the former use Ford engines, and no doubt, CJ, (I did’t get where I am today) will be handing out lots more money to a very large co in his constituency, because Bridgend Ford claim to be struggling.
Also Donkey Ostler is bang on re our beloved MP, Antionazzi, who is usually invisible around Gower apart from carefully orchestrated Labour photo opportunity’s. Otherwise she stays under cover in her Gorseinon tax payer funded office, the one with an illegal banner outside, why hasn’t SCC ordered the Town Council too take it down, just like when banners appear elsewhere? Must have something do do with the Clark, John Millard, being a former planer!

Dafis

Twas ever thus Jac. I stopped using the term “consultant” and called myself “contractor” as it distanced me from the increasing numbers of pillocks trading as consultants. They knew next to nothing and misled & mis-sold for a living ! However most of them seemed well versed in the dark arts of self promotion.

Nigel Stapley

I see that Pope Alun Ffred I has kicked another branch of Ddy Parti Of Wêls in the teeth:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-43169114

If we have anyone active down there already, they should be making contact with the excommunicated and telling them that something better is coming.

Dafis

Opportunity for Llanelli branch of Plaid Cymru ( a.k.a party of Labour lapdogs, deviants & hot air merchants) to shift lock stock and barrel into being the Llanelli branch of Plaid Newydd ( a.k.a the team that will focus on Wales’ needs rather than feathering nests for themselves & their cronies).

Penclawdd Donk

Did you know that Mari Arthur works for Cynnal Cymru, a third sector dodgy crew, who are based in the same building as Deryn?

Dafis

That’s very reassuring. Always thought she was out of a similar pond, now we know how close.

Dafis

You can count on a regular supply of outrage from some part of that rainbow set any time. As for hetero’s, well they are the scum of the earth according to the weird and gender-fluid community. Odd that use of the term “gender fluid” I thought that was what you blasted forth if you was playing with yourself excessively, but it’s obviously moved on from there !!!

Donkey Ostler

Flag Flying on Public Buildings should follow a protocol. There should be sufficient flag poles to achieve it. That is rarely the case. Sadly for us Welsh, the Union Flag takes prime place. Second should be the Wales national Flag Y Ddraig Goch. However, if a Head of State of another Country (or that person’s representative) is officially visiting on a formal visit, then that Country’s Flag should be second and the Ddraig Goch becomes third, but that is very rare. Next (presumably to be ceased soon) comes the European Flag. After that the Flag of the organisation e.g. County Council etc..Only after that can a public building fly Flags of various organisations for short sessions only after an application has been approved on a first come / first served basis. So any guest flag should be fifth or sixth. The same protocol applies to prominence and height of any flag, in the order as above.The questions are, will Carmarthen County Council adhere to protocol and how many Flag Poles does it have? These are strict rules of protocol not to be broken on any whim nor from pressure of flag flyers.

mrorigami2013

I see that the LGBT Rainbow Flag will fly outside Carmarthenshire County Hall this weekend…….

http://www.southwalesguardian.co.uk/news/16043339.Rainbow_Flag_will_fly_outside_County_Hall_this_weekend/

….we need to keep an eye on this and make sure they hoist the “baner hetrorywiol” in support of the cymuned hetrorywiol for Welsh Hetrosexual History Month. ……..if they don’t there is sure to be an outrage!

drsallybaker

Isn’t this the endemically corrupt Council who took a blogger to the High Court in an attempt to relieve her of her home because she dared report on their shenanigans? I’m so glad that they are celebrating diversity and are fighting trans and bi phobia. Unless you are a bisexual transgender person who blogs about the Council’s wrongdoing I presume.

Donkey Ostler

A POST CARD FROM GOWER
Political vacuum in Gower constituency
This is just a well informed opinion and it has no proof, but it needs proving as a warning, because if this is typical, then we in Wales’ former industrial areas are to fall to the fate of local rule by generations of Labour non-entities. Gower may be a typical area. The constituency is based on the old Gower Lordship once ruled by the vicious De-Breos family. For the past 500 years the Lords of Gower have come from the ancient hereditary lines of the non-Royal Dukes of Beaufort, whose wealth and power were once centred in Monmouthshire and Gloucestershire, but are now seated at Badminton Gloucestershire holding an Estate of about 60,000 acres, of which a large chunk is the Cotswolds.
Gower Lordship is now the the constituency which is not just the leafy shore lands of the peninsular’s south. It extends into former mining and steelworks areas such as Penclawdd and Gowerton and Gorseinon and Pontarddulais and Clydach. Prime traditional donkey Labour voting townships. The general election before last saw Byron Davies, an affable local, snatch Gower for the Conservatives. This really shook Labour. So they made Gower an “all women” selection list area. Labour then selected a Llanelli Woman rugby player who had previously failed to win a Community Parish Council seat in her own village of Burry Port. This caused some divisions in the Labour camp, especially at Pontarddulais. Ms Antionazzi then surprised all by snatching the seat back off the Conservatives. She has gained an early bad reputation of not answering some constituents who contact her with relevant issues and problems to be dealt with by an MP.
These surprise results have seen a decline in the activities of other Parties. Plaid Cymru are virtually dissolved in Gower (and in Swansea as a whole), as are the Lib Dems (who only have two Swansea strongholds at Killay and Cwmbwrla, both outside of Gower). The Independent Councillors are old and weary and will probably retire at forthcoming Council elections. Community Council seats, the traditional “political apprenticeships”, have uncontested vacant seats. The big “white hope” for Gower is that Byron Davies may make a come back. So that leaves Labour to fill the gaps and they are also mostly old who linger in there for patronage for “jobs for their boys and girls”. The only up and coming Labour activists are generally young outsider Momentum Corbynites. Just about none can speak Welsh – not even former language teacher Antionazzi. They have no feeling for Gower and its culture and bilingualism.
Parts of Gower, like Pontarddulais, were once cross-party bastions of Welsh culture in Choirs & Poets & Rugby & Cricket & Soccer & Agricultural Shows and Eisteddfodau. The Momentum Corbynites have no interest in such activities. Put simply they do not know the meaning of community culture. . The only hope now is for a new young Welsh Party to start working in Gower and to start by filling un-filled Community Council seats.
This is just an informed opinion of Gower. I guess its the same elsewhere.

Dafis

The chap who got frisked by the local Plod for booking into a lodge with his daughter can only be judged as an attention seeker, thus far. Plod enquiries seem to clear him of any deviant activity, but the grandstanding within a day or so suggests that he’s either got a hugely distorted sense of his own innocence – “how dare anyone think I’d do something like that” – or, he’s maxing out on publicity hoping that it might get him some slack in any future brush with the law. Anyway that’s his problem.

Given that he’s so comfortable with publicity perhaps he’d like to tell the readers of red tops how much, or little, he’s doing to integrate into what’s left of Welsh community life in Gogledd Sir Gar. An influx of well intentioned folk from anywhere would be welcome especially if they stimulated demand for learner groups in places like Brechfa , Llansawel, Pumsaint or Llanybydder. Somehow I tend to suspect that his next media appearance is more likely to be draped in green fleece or waving a Union Jack, whining about how people in one of those local villages had the temerity to keep on yapping in fuckin’ Welsh when he graced their presence.

Stan

I think he’s on to you, Jac. The link is no longer active. Funny that a man that courts so much publicity should come over all shy. I’ve seen that happen a lot locally with me. Local politicos strutting their stuff on social media and as soon as you draw attention to it, they lock their accounts or close them altogether. What’s the point of being on an open social media account if you don’t want people to see it?

Dafis

page not available !

Dafis

Oh well got that pretty much right first time without seeing all the evidence. Shame old bill didn’t catch him up to no good, though the headlines in red tops would have been something like “Welsh pervert caught with his dick in his hand” !

Stan

Looking on the bright side – he might have supported Labour.

Dafis

Oh no. Voting Labour would only confirm his credentials as a deviant. Anglo in-migrants have to be card carrying Tories or Kippers to ensure their stamp of authority and superiority over the thick native Welshies.

Wynne

It does appear Jac that we are both members of the exclusive “signature-less letters” club. I do hope to receive Carwyn’s signature on a letter when he decides to spend more time with the family.

Brychan

The question posed is the status of Mr Maliphant and the reasons for his involvement with the Bryncynon Community Revival Strategy Ltd. He’s evidently a very eminent and professional individual, not just a geologist but also someone who project manages aspects of major civil engineering. Unlike the other third sector parasites you mention, he does something constructive, work that does actually need doing.

He lists his Porth Relief Road, the budget overspend on this was no doubt due to the difficult geological issues encountered. I remember that faulted coal seam. He also lists the Church Village Bypass which was only marred by the dormouse bridge fiasco, but as with all such projects you have to do a little greenwash. What really intrigued me was that he was a project manager for a canal rebuild following a breach. I think it’s safe to assume that this breach was the Llangattock incident on the Brecon and Mon. If I remember flooding occurred at Gilwern, over ten miles of the canal was drained and whole sections re-lined. Was Mr Maliphant the project manager for Halcrow?

Which brings me back to Bev ‘lived on a Surrey canal boat when an animal rights terrorist’ Garside you mentioned in you previous contributions on this blog. Perhaps Maliphant and Garside had a rewarding walk together down the towpath? As ever with major civil engineering contracts a feature of such venture is saving the birds and the bees, or in some cases dormice and fish. It may also be the case that Mr Maliphant was previously unaware of the harassment conviction of Ms Garside in her previous incarnation with the Animal Liberation Front, when she moved in her consultancy business into offices at Bryncynon Community Revival Strategy.

So why is Mr Maliphant so interested in Bryncynon Community Revival Strategy? My guess is that if the electrification of the valley lines goes ahead, which will involve the demolishing and rebuilding scores of bridges, some trackbed realignment, the cherry pick of the project being the Aberdare branch with the associated light rail extension up to Hirwaun and it’s located at Abercynon high level cord for the Merthyr Tydfil branch. Whoever gets the valleylines bid, assuming the Welsh Government gets it act together then I’m sure that Mr Maliphant will be first in the interview queue for the role of Geotechnical Director. I wish him the best of luck; just do a bit of due diligence on the parasite who sits in the office down the corridor. Garside will not provide Greenwash, it’s employing convicted terrorists to bring in personnel at the expense of the local community.

If Mr Maliphant does manage to get his house in order and transform the Bryncynon assets to a training engine to recruit and project manage the biggest investment in Wales, with local people engaged giving them the high paid high tech skills for future generations, then he has my backing. However, the benefit has to go to the local community, not the vultures and cuckoos that fly in from England.

Stan

Paul Maliphant was an NCB geologist back in the 1980s. It was a graduate profession in the sense they came into the industry having a degree, unlike quite a few of the other professions in the industry where people started out as apprentices and worked their way up. And they knew it!

With the Karl Pollard story, my sympathies lie entirely with Travelodge which I use now and again. Mrs Stan would be delighted if the Plod called around when we were away, thinking I was shacked up with a young girl instead of an old crone (sorry). But reading the responses to the story as published in the press there’s a lot of support for the Travelodge employees who were only following company procedure. It’s not as if Pollard had his doors kicked in at 3 in the morning, handcuffed and cautioned, after all. A perfectly legitimate investigation by the Plod IMO, even if it surprises me for saying it. Yes, I’d be really miffed initially if it happened to me but on reflection I hope I’d see the sense in things being checked out. Pollard has clearly milked it for all he is worth, which speaks volumes for the sort of bloke he is if his daughter was so traumatised. Play it down, don’t spread the story and the poor girl’s image to the press all over the planet, for Christ’s sake!

And no pics of Jac in heels – it didn’t happen. Your readership awaits………..

mrorigami2013

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I hope when you see all those ideas bouncing around in the Wonderbra session…. your “business” doesn’t grow too much!

Big Gee

This may have started as someone’s idea of a joke but I was very impressed with what I read on the website, consequently – and even though the heels are killing me – I have now joined and I’m looking forward immensely to the next Wonderbra Session.

Larff – I thought my knickers would never dry!!

Tessa

So – erm – any pics……?