I know, I know . . . I said last week’s post would be the last before Christmas, but those devious buggers in Corruption Bay sneaked out a couple of things that can’t go without comment.

GLOBALIST SNAKE OIL

This section begins with a tweet I picked up last week relating to Bute Energy, a Scottish company that wants to cover Wales in wind turbines and pylons. It claims to be ‘Welsh’ because it operates here.

So what is ‘Social Value’?

Well, from what I can see, Social Value is on a par with fairy dust, the Emperor’s New Clothes, and the whole Wokie belief system; in that it relies on people denying their better judgement to go along with what they know is unadulterated bollocks.

A kind of snake oil for the senses peddled by earnest, often intense, people who really should be receiving treatment. Alternatively, it’s done by charlatans.

Still, in fairness, I looked for an alternative definition, and this is what the Local Government Association (England) offers.

It strikes me as a flagrant attempt to inflate the value of something, perhaps a contract awarded; or even a way of salvaging something from a failure. Putting a gloss on something. Dare I say, turd polishing?

Taken ad absurdum you could say, “Well, yes, Hitler may have been a genocidal maniac – but he liked dogs.”

The outfit pushing this with Bute Energy is ANTZ. I assume this is its Companies House registration. Another company using the ANTZ label at the same Manchester address is ANTZ Junction, in the business of social work.

There’s also ANTZ Network Ltd of Ormskirk, a management consultancy. And until 30 March 2021 there was also an ANTZ Group Ltd of Bolton. There are many other companies using the ANTZ name but I know these four are related through the shared directors.

As I say, one is dissolved, and the other three are all in the red according to the accounts filed with Companies House.

But there’s also a charity by the name of ANTZ Junction. I know it’s linked because the entry on the Charity Commission website gives the company number for ANTZ Junction.

But now it gets odd. For the Charity is doing very well financially.

In my experience, when an entity is both a company, registered with Companies House, and a charity, registered with the Charity Commission, then the directors of the company are always the trustees of the charity. Also, the accounts filed with Companies House and the Charity Commission will be the same.

That is not the case with ANTZ Junction, and I’d like to know why.

In fact, the only director I can find serving as a trustee is (I assume) Nicola Joanne Geddes, who appears among the trustees as ‘Jo Geddes Hold’. I even found a Linkedin profile for a Joanne Geddes-Hold, but with no mention of ANTZ.

So who are the other trustees?

And why is money going into the charity but not showing in the company accounts?

I’m asking these questions because ANTZ is getting a lot of work in Wales. Not least from the South East & Mid Wales Collaborative Construction Framework (sewscap).

And, as we saw at the start, Bute Energy.

ANTZ’s man on the ground, so to speak, is Kerdiff boy Paul Shackson, who has a PR company called Camarilla. And good for him, I say, because Cardiff is desperately short of PR outfits . . . and lobbyists, and nudgers, and shysters of all kinds.

Here’s his Linkedin bio, but again, no mention of ANTZ.

Something’s not right here. But then, when you deal in bullshit like Social Value you shouldn’t be surprised if magic bean salesmen appear.

I suggest questions need to be asked about the structure and financing of ANTZ.

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UPDATE: Last week Plaid Cymru MS Llyr Gruffydd left Rural Affairs Minister Lesley Griffiths floundering by asking how farmers would be compensated for their land being devalued by her administration forcing them to plant trees.

She was rescued by senior civil servant Gian Marco Currado; but the best he could offer was . . . “Social Credit”. Which will mean absolutely nothing for farmers.

This takes us neatly into part two of this offering where we look at the wider threat to Welsh farming.

GLOBALIST LAND GRAB?

This section was inspired by a tweet I saw on Saturday morning about the publication of a report entitled Potential economic effects of the Sustainable Farming Scheme.

The Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) being ‘Welsh Government’ policy, read about it here. Yes, it’s the one about planting trees everywhere.

The document that came out a few days ago, as the title suggests, calculates the effects of the SFS. You can either go through all the tables, or you can skip to the last page, where you’ll find the Summary.

And you’ll see some worrying figures. Not least, a decline of 11% in “on-farm labour”, which means thousands of jobs lost.

It’s no secret that the ‘Welsh Government’ wants to do away with farming as much as it can. There are a number of reasons for this. Among them, the old socialist hostility towards ‘kulak’ landowners.

I suspect most are using a contemporary fad to serve the pre-existing bias. But that does not exclude the possibility that some of them are stupid enough to really believe in the Armageddon potential of cow farts.

What struck me about the new report was who the ‘Welsh Government’ had chosen to do it. The report tells us, “This work has been undertaken in accordance with the quality management system of RSK ADAS Ltd“.

One of the authors of the report, Dr Liz Lewis-Reddy, works for RSK ADAS.

So what am I driving at?

OK, let’s start with the company, RSK ADAS Ltd. Or rather, ADAS, which is an agricultural advisory service that was acquired by RSK, resulting in the new company, formed some seven years ago.

ADAS has done a lot of work in Wales, scroll down here to see some projects. Much of it has been for the ‘Welsh Government’.

Tracing the ownership of RSK ADAS eventually gets us to Los Angeles and “global alternative investment manager” the Ares Management Corporation. You may not be surprised to learn that among the largest of Ares’ shareholders we find both BlackRock and Vanguard.

Let’s go back to Liz Lewis-Reddy, the RSK ADAS representative and leading member of the trio that produced the recent report. What’s her background? Well, to begin with, she’s Canadian.

Before joining RSK ADAS Dr Lewis-Reddy worked for the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust. At first sight I thought that was a rather startling career change, from bucolic bliss to the cut-throat world of alternative investment.

But when you think about it, it makes perfect sense.

Let me explain that by using Dr Lewis-Reddy’s Linkedin profile. In particular, note her role at the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust.

We are told she: “Maintained the Trust portfolio of Rural Development Plan funding streams and oversaw the management of over 1000acres of Nature Reserve”.

That 1000+ acres was once agricultural land. Bought with funding from the ‘Welsh Government’. The reference to “funding streams” tells us Lewis-Reddy knows how to get money from politicians to buy farmland.

Remembering Ares, and reminding ourselves that carbon offsetting is now one of the most popular alternative investments, RSK ADAS recruiting Dr Liz Lewis-Reddy makes perfect sense.

And just as with the politicians, she can kid herself she’s saving the planet by getting farmers off the land . . . so it can be bought by her employer’s clients.

And it could get even worse. Because the ‘Welsh Government’ and Plaid Cymru have both bought into the climate crisis scam, and the next stage will be governments forcibly confiscating farmland and other private property.

J P Morgan CEO, Jamie Dimon, let the cat out of the bag a few months back.

But of course it’s got nothing to do with saving the planet. It’s about concentrating wealth and assets in the hands of those who want to own and rule the world.

Welsh farmers need to realise that you can’t negotiate with brainwashed thickos who believe farm animals are killing the planet. And the same applies to those pretending to believe it in order to grab farmland for ‘alternative investment’.

And when you see the two coming up the road, arm in arm, singing the same tune, then the only option is to dig in and fight.

Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda

© Royston Jones 2023