Miscellany 30.01.2024

For the first time in quite a while I’m putting out a Miscellany, an assortment of unrelated stories. There’s one from Wales and then we’re off to the USA, Ireland and the Eastern Front.

This is longer than recent posts but it’s four separate pieces with a wee monologue to end. So it should be easy enough to manage.

ASPIRING TO INSPIRE

Let’s start with someone who tried to cash in on the culturally destructive tourism afflicting Eryri by offering ‘adventure’, in the form of ‘bonding’ weekends for the staff of companies like Shyster and Scumbag (UK) Ltd of Rickmansworth.

Working backwards, this story takes life with a report that came out last week about fund-raising hikers left stranded near Mount Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania. The trip had been organised by Aspire Adventures Ltd, which left the 26 hikers stranded in Africa after they’d paid the company as much as £3,500 each.

Aspire Adventure and Expeds Ltd is now filing for liquidation. Though the company was only formed last April.

The mountain man involved is Jason Rawles. Let’s go to a site called Tales to Inspire, and this piece from November 2021. (Here in pdf format.) The article is presumably written by Rawles, but the foreword, the passage in bold print, this I assume has been added by the site publishers.

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What follows is an intriguing story about a kid from the slums . . . of St Albans. Doesn’t have the same menacing ring as the Gorbals, but there you go. The article, and the style, suggests someone with . . . well, I suppose the mot juste would have to be ‘imagination’.

What I find interesting is that although the Aspire company we’ve just looked at wasn’t formed until last year, Rawles was using the name back in 2021. So what’s his business background?

It’s clear that he’s unlucky when it comes to money. Here’s a report from October 2020 telling us that Rawles lost £250,000 overnight! (When his mattress caught fire?)

This earlier piece from September 2015 mentions a company called JR Mountaineering. But I can’t find any such company. Nor can I find a record of mountaineering / outdoor companies using the ‘Aspire’ name other than what looks to be an entirely unconnected outfit in the Peak District.

The only other company I can find is The Rawles Group Ltd, currently in its death-throes at Companies House. And it’s the company number for the Rawles Group that’s given at the foot of the website for the Aspire Leadership Academy. (Here in pdf version.)

And that’s about all I can find by way of companies: the Rawles Group and the outfit set up last year to arrange the Kilimanjaro jaunt. And I would guess that this second company had to be set up because the old one was heading down the Swannee.

But why did nobody check him out, especially after the allegations in 2021?

The address given for the company organising (or not, as the case may be) the Kilimanjaro trip is, Caban Cyf, Brynrefail. A village to the east of Caernarfon and just north of Llyn Padarn.

There is a company by that name that recently changed to a community interest company (CIC). Though Rawles doesn’t seem to be involved. It looks as if he was using the old school building as an accommodation address.

In the Caban building itself you can find Climb Snowdon, North Wales Sports Massage, and the Snowdonia Society. And within ice axe throwing distance, there’s Rock and Sea Adventures, Martin Chester – Guiding: Consulting : Coaching, Outdoor North Wales, and Gradient Adventure.

This helps explain how Coed Carreg y Fran becomes “The Mushroom Garden”, and Crib y Clogwyn Du turns into “Senior’s Ridge”.

For the area seems to have been invaded by fleece jacketed hearties of the kind destroying Welsh communities with their belief that Wales is England’s playground.

I’m sure they all know Jason Rawles. Maybe they’ll chip in to help him out.

TRUMP ON A ROLL

As I’ve mentioned a number of times, November sees the US presidential (and other) elections. At the moment it looks like Biden v Trump. But that could change.

Mainly because an increasing number of Democrat power-brokers, and others, know Biden can’t win, and some of them will be in trouble if Trump becomes president.

The Iowa caucus earlier this month, with Republican voters braving snow and ice, gave Trump 52% of the vote and 98 out of 99 counties. This was enough to make second-placed, Florida governor, Ron DeSantis abandon his campaign and get behind Trump. The result also pushed the other challenger, Nikki Haley, into third place.

It was argued by Trump’s opponents that Iowa is not ‘typical’ – but which state is?

Next it was New Hampshire, where Haley was expected to do better, and perhaps even win. In the end, and despite Democrats and Independents being allowed to vote for her, she ended up 11 percentage points behind Trump.

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Next up is South Carolina, Haley’s home state, on February 24. If she doesn’t win there by a big margin, then it’ll be all over, and Trump can be crowned.

Many in the Republican party distrust Haley. They think she’s a RINO (Republican In Name Only), or an agent of the uniparty Washington establishment, which amounts to much the same thing.

Among the other runners who have now pulled out is Vivek Ramaswamy, who impressed me greatly. He too has thrown his weight behind Trump. If he has a fault, it’s verbosity, but that can be curbed.

Remember the name.

Another great contribution was made by actor Burt Thakur, after Haley tried to play on the fact that she’s part-Indian. (Not that anybody had noticed or mentioned it.)

Ramaswamy and Thakur remind us of the contribution being made to the USA by Hindus. They work hard, they obey the law, they respect the country that has welcomed them, they don’t kill and rape its citizens.

It’s the same with Buddhists, Jews, Confucians, Sikhs, Taoists, Zoroastrians and the followers of Shintoism.

Incidentally, the tweet that contained the put-down from Thakur came from the X account of Simon Ateba, which I follow. Ateba’s African, and he’s rather conservative. The establishment hates him!

Ramaswamy, Thakur, Ateba and others expose the patronising basis of liberal-left race politics. Which says that anyone who isn’t White must be a victim of colonialism, slavery, white privilege, or whatever slogans are currently being screeched on campus.

Few things drive a Wokie crazy quicker than a non-White person saying, ‘Well, actually, I don’t feel oppressed. I worked hard in school, I got a good degree. Now I’m doing quite well. I believe in the USA, the nuclear family, and I think Donald Trump talks a lot of sense’.

The left-liberal response is wonderful to behold.

IRELAND: NO MORE WOMEN, NO MORE FAMILIES

I have mentioned Ireland a few times lately. There the Globalist agenda is being enthusiastically implemented and supported by the three main parties (Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin) and of course the Greens, who’ve gone so far down the rabbit-hole as to be at risk from dingoes.

Sinn Féin gained the most votes at the last general election (February 2020) and to keep them out of power an unlikely coalition was cobbled together between traditional rivals Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, plus the Greens.

Despite being excluded SF agrees with almost everything coming from the government, especially on climate, race, and gender. And of course, on the big issue in Ireland, mass immigration.

The opposition to the Globalist agenda comes from a growing number of politicians who’ve broken with their parties, and ‘insurgent’ parties such as the Irish Freedom Party and the even newer Farmers’ Alliance.

Irish Freedom Party Manifesto. Nothing there I would disagree with if applied to Wales. Click to open enlarged in separate tab

The European elections in June might indicate how much support there is for the new parties, and how much opposition to the establishment. Then again, getting new parties off the ground is not easy, and in Ireland, as elsewhere, the ‘mainstream’ media is in the Globalists’ pockets.

But before those elections, Ireland has a couple of linked referendums in March on changes to the Constitution. This is how the Electoral Commission explains it.

The first vote is being seen by many as an attack on the nuclear family; certainly, the nuclear family as most people understand it, which is a married heterosexual couple and their children.

It wants to replace family with the concept of a ‘durable relationship’. Which might seem acceptable, but as ever, the devil is in the detail. And the Electoral Commission didn’t help with this suggestion.

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So if young Dermot and the bird who’s now dumped him get a Christmas card addressed to both of them does that mean the relationship is back on? Mmm.

I have a long relationship with a number of Argentinean wine producers – does this make us ‘family’? (I hope so!)

It’s clear that the definition of ‘family’ is being extended beyond the heterosexual couple and their children to the “durable relationship”.

At which point the whole farce degenerates into a lawyers’ benefit fund. I mean, how do we even define “durable” – surely not by Christmas cards?

The second proposal removes “woman” from the Constitution. This might not arouse suspicion were it not that those proposing the change are the usual suspects who cannot define a woman but still think anyone can be one.

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Erasing “woman” from the Constitution has nothing to do with liberating adult human females and everything to do with pandering to deranged and dangerous men who want to be allowed to pretend to be women in any situation they choose.

Critics see another potential problem.

As I’ve said, the big issue in Ireland now is uncontrolled immigration. The arrival of large numbers of unvetted and almost exclusively male migrants. And it really is pushing people to the edge. A few weeks ago Mayo County Council in the west voted to refuse future cooperation with the Department of Integration. (i.e. immigration.)

If the proposals are accepted, then there’s little to stop each of these migrants bringing in others with whom they’ll claim a “durable relationship” of the kind the State says it will “strive to support”.

With or without Christmas cards.

PRODDING THE BEAR

Last week a former deputy commander of NATO, General Sir Richard Shirreff, suggested that the UK might need to bring back conscription.

Britain’s current numero uno, General Sir Patrick Sanders, chipped in by telling his troops to prepare to fight and beat Putin’s armies in a European land war.

This is pure Strangelove. I was half-expecting mention of bodily fluids. Then I learnt that the same calls were being made in other countries.

Clearly, there is a campaign to get people used to the idea of WWIII.

Germany, I can understand – but Australia! Click to open enlarged in separate tab

To explain what’s happening I think we need to start in Ukraine.

You know my take on events there. I set out my views soon after the conflict started. I haven’t updated it or changed anything.

To describe Russian action in Ukraine as ‘unprovoked aggression’ is like mistreating a dog over a long period of time and then feigning shock and outrage when it bites you.

Or maybe repeatedly poking a bear with a stick.

I say that because Russia didn’t want war in Ukraine, the Globalists wanted the war, the same people who engineered the 2014 coup, and then they despatched Boris Johnson to scupper the chance of peace.

It was hoped that by sending money and armaments to Ukraine a combination of Russian casualties and hardships at home would turn the people against Putin.

But the plan has failed. Ukraine is being bled white and is unlikely to hold out much longer. While the Russian economy may actually be stronger due to new markets, alliances, and trading partners. So a fresh approach is needed.

Which fits with US and Western foreign policy since WWII – engineer conflict and instigate regime change for corporate gain. We can trace this strategy back to at least 1953 and the removal of Mossadeqh.

(Cheeky blighter thought Iranians should benefit from Iran’s oil!)

The truth is that Russia lacks the manpower and other resources needed to mount an attack on Western Europe. And I don’t believe she plans to invade the countries that were formerly within the Soviet Union, or part of the Eastern bloc.

So rest easy, you won’t have telnyashka-clad Ivans larging it in your local.

By Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0, Link

But the facts remain. The Ukraine ploy has failed; so have sanctions; so maybe all-out war, or the threat of war, is the only way for the Globalists to get their hands on the wealth of Russia.

And note the number of times the issue is personalised. The message to Russians, from the highest-ranking general to the most wretched babushka, is clear: ‘Putin is the problem. Replace him with somebody we approve of, and there’ll be no war’.

If there is a land war with Russia, it will not be about ‘security’ or ‘deterring aggression’; it’ll be an asset grab, the biggest of all.

And of course, Russia cannot win a lengthy land war fought on a number of fronts. But she has new allies . . . and the biggest nuclear arsenal in the world.

So for God’s sake, somebody rein in these nutters!

But if you’re happy for your children, your grandchildren, to die for BlackRock, Vanguard and the WEF, then keep swallowing your daily dose of misinformation from the mainstream media.

Which is of course owned and / or funded by BlackRock, Vanguard, Bill Gates . . .

EPILOGUE

In recent years I have defended Western civilisation against the Quisling Left, Black racists, Islamists, and assorted muppets who portray all White people as descendants of slave-owners and colonialists, enjoying unspecified advantages over other races.

That’s the easy bit. For the benefits the White man has bestowed on humanity are incalculable and ubiquitous. Only twisted and embittered fools, or followers of a death-cult, would try to argue otherwise.

Much more difficult is defending the empty and battered shell of the modern West, hollowed out by anomie. A condition brought on by endless war, constant ‘threats’, ever-rising prices, engineered societal fractures, falling standards in public life – all serving to further enrich the already rich and give them more power over us.

The only way to break this cycle of decline is to return to those values that made the West great, and the world a better place.

Fundamental to any reformation must be an understanding of truth, a sense of right and wrong; and it’s almost irrelevant whether that’s premised on the Hellenistic tradition, the Judaeo-Christian, a simple form of dualism, or even Pinocchio.

What matters is knowing.

It begins with the individual who, in return for guarantees of personal freedom and security, abides by the laws agreed on by the elected representatives of the society in which he lives. And only those laws.

The individual will be part of a family, that most precious of all associations; always a target for dictators and totalitarian regimes.

Then we arrive at the nation. A number of people who, for whatever reason, feel a strong enough bond to regard themselves as a distinct grouping.

Nations may enter into any form of free and mutually-beneficial association, from which they should be free to withdraw at any time.

Truth, personal liberty, freedom of speech, the family, the nation, are all threatened by Globalism. Which is why it must be defeated, and not just for the benefit of those of us who see the threat but also, and perhaps more importantly, for those poor souls trapped in their silly cults about climate, gender, race.

So join the fight, even if it just means doing something simple like switching off the BBC, rejecting the Globalists’ political puppets, or supporting the farmers.

This is a fight we must win. Lose, and we may not get a second chance.

♦ end ♦

 

© Royston Jones 2024

Dawnus 3

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

This was intended to be a sort of bits and pieces post in which I looked at various topics. Among them the sale of Coleg Harlech and an update on the (ex-)student councillors that used to plague Swansea council, a sort of ‘Where are they now?’

For your information, and titillation, one former Labour councillor ended up working for Tory Home Secretary Javid; another went home to California before returning to promote herself as a ‘political consultant’; a third works as a ‘Director of Sponsor Relations’ for a US company; a fourth worked for that same company before becoming a ‘globetrotter’; while a fifth – the only Tory – got banged up for child pornography.

But all that can wait because cogs have been turning in the old Jac noggin as I tried to make sense of who’s who and what’s what on either side of that great turbulence that cleaves Jack from Turk.

Not a great deal of new information has come to light but I have been pointed in certain directions and the bigger picture is now less opaque as connections are made and things fall into place.

Though I beg you to be patient, because this is one of the most complicated investigations I’ve ever done.

DAWNUS

There are a few things to add on Dawnus itself, and the myriad companies that sheltered ‘neath that umbrella. To help you get up to speed I advise you to read Dawnus and Dawnus 2.

The asset stripping and dismemberment of Dawnus may or may not have begun with the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone 2014/15 but it certainly ties in with the arrival of Nicholas Charles Down, who now seems to run what’s left of Dawnus.

Though having said that, two new companies have emerged from the ashes. The first, on 22 March, was Dawnus International Group Ltd, which has already changed its name to DIG International Group Ltd. This new entity contains as directors a number of names that have appeared before in connection with the Dawnus group.

Another piece of the puzzle is Legsun Ltd, a company that is heavily in debt and whose directors are, since 14 February 2014, Timothy Alun Lowe, who has served as director with many Dawnus companies and also, since 12 March 2018, Dawnus head honcho Nicholas Charles Down.

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The early documents for Legsun are not available with Companies House without payment but we know that the company was started in March 1973, and though it now uses a Cardiff address it was previously using an address in the Pontypool area. I am in no doubt that Legsun is linked with the former Royal Ordnance Factory at Glascoed. Today this site is known as BAE Systems Munitions Glascoed.

Legsun is not a commercial company in the sense that you or I understand that term, because no genuine company could sustain losses on the scale of Legsun’s without going bust. How Legsun links with the collapse of Dawnus I’m not entirely sure. But it does, if only because Legsun’s only directors are also directors of Dawnus companies, and previous Legsun directors also had Dawnus links.

Legsun introduces the first connection with the military-industrial complex.

Late news: the following companies are now officially in receivership: Dawnus Construction Holdings Ltd; Churchfield Homes Ltd; Legsun Ltd; Quantum Geotechnical Ltd; Dawnus Group Ltd; Dawnus Southern Ltd; Dawnus Ltd; Dawnus Developments Ltd; Ashridge Construction Ltd.

There are charges outstanding against all these companies with the sole exception of Legsun which, despite having massive debts, was somehow able to satisfy three charges on March 14.

At the time of writing the administration documents aren’t available with Companies House. There’s also the possibility that other companies in the Dawnus stable may yet follow those listed above into receivership.

By my calculations the companies left standing are: Dawnus Consulting Ltd, with a Manchester address; Dawnus International Ltd; Dawnus Sierra Leone Ltd; DIG International Group Ltd; Dawnus Holdings Ltd; Construction Recyclate Management Ltd.

CROSSING OVER AND TOOLING UP

Another connection with the military-industrial complex – and one I neglected to mention in the two previous pieces – is Thales, the French ordnance manufacturer. Thales has a presence at Stradey Park (Business Centre), Llangennech, owned now by Robert Nigel Lovering.

To understand the background I refer you again to a 2014 Rebecca article by Paddy French.

What Paddy French told us was that the redundant Ministry of Defence site at Llangennech was bought in early 2009 by Carmarthenshire County Council (Prop. M. V. James) and immediately sold on to R & A Properties, an unregistered company.

According to this WalesOnline report from early May 2009 the manner of the deal was justified by ‘the council’ (the aforementioned M .V. James) because the MoD would otherwise have auctioned the site.

The title document for Stradey Park is interesting. Lovering is named as the owner but the money to buy the site seems to have come from three funders: Lloyds Bank plc, the Secretary of State for Defence, and Carmarthenshire County Council.

The title is dated 1 April 2009. It also refers to land detached in 2015 from the title and directs us to the title plan for Stradey Park . . . which is not available on the Land Registry website.

The ‘sale’ was handled by Hugh James Solicitors of Cardiff, official solicitors for the ‘Welsh Government’.

There appear to be further loans, including one from Thales UK Limited.

There are also leases; one is for ten years from 1 April 2009 and covered by title number CYM465605, which again, is unavailable with the Land Registry, perhaps because that lease has now expired. Another, for 25 years from 27.03.2012, is with SSE Micro Renewables (Commercial) Ltd for the lease of air space.

But none of this can be checked because everything is in the name of the individual Robert Nigel Lovering. Who must be well thought of in certain quarters.

There was understandable disquiet over the deal. One councillor was quoted, “No information was given about the firm that will be creating the jobs beyond the fact that it was involved in defence procurement. Neither were we told who was behind R & A Properties, except that they were known to some of the officers.”

Just over a week later WalesOnline reported the involvement of then Welsh Rugby Union chairman David Pickering. Pickering was promising the creation of 100 jobs before Christmas by a “blue chip” company understood to be involved in the “defence procurement industry”.

Pickering was also reported as saying, “I know some people will find it strange that R&A is not a limited committee (sic), but we’ve been advised to do it this way by our professional advisers”.

It may not have been a limited company but the section below from the year ended 31 March 2016 accounts makes reference to R&A Properties LLP (Limited Liability Partnership); but I can find no such company registered with Companies House. Was it not registered, or registered in some other jurisdiction?

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One company I did unearth was R & A Secure Services Ltd, described on the Companies House website as a ‘non-trading company’ with Lovering as sole director. This was launched in September 2012, so chronologically it fits, but how?

The capture below is from the Company Check website. Jacobs can be disregarded, he’s a Company Formation Agent, but who or what is Francis Trust? And where’s Pickering?

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One company that Lovering has been involved with for some time is Lancehawk Ltd, of which he became a director in July 1999. And as this report from an Industrial Tribunal tells us, he was in fact managing director.

The report, about a bit of rumpy pumpy (was he shagging two of his staff!), also tells us that Lancehawk was trading as European Telecom Solutions. So I don’t understand why Lancehawk is still in business and a new company called European Telecom Solutions Ltd was formed 15 November 2017.

By November 2009 the BBC was telling us that Thales UK was to equip or modify Warthog all-terrain armoured vehicles at Llangennech for use in Afghanistan. This is the “blue chip” company we were told about, the justification presumably for the curious purchase arrangements.

So it looks as if Lovering (plus Pickering and Preece?) bought the site specifically to accommodate Thales? (Whatever the answer, R & A Properties now seems to have finally done the decent thing and gone legit, forming R and A Properties Cardiff Ltd last month. Why ‘Cardiff’?)

Some would have us believe that Thales has moved out of Stradey Park, but I can find no report of such a departure, certainly not in the Welsh media. Though I did turn this up in the Herald. It suggests that Thales closed its Llangennech operation – or part of it – in late 2012 or early 2013.

Which might link with reports in February 2012 that Cassidian was moving to Llangennech. Cassidian merged with Airbus Military and Astrium in January 2014 to form Airbus Defence and Space, now a division of Airbus.

This would give us a third connection with the military-industrial complex. Though I can find no evidence of the Cassidian move ever materialising.

Though from a distance there is little documentary or other evidence of either Thales or Airbus having been in Llangennech. Come to that, the whole site might as well be a secret, what with it being owned by an unregistered company, or an individual, there being no website, and Google turning up no recent references to either company being at Llangennech.

Though Google Earth came up trumps with what might be a recent shot, suggesting that Thales is still in situ.

Courtesy of Google Earth, click to enlarge

Correction: The Google Earth image I’ve used there is from 2011. I am informed that Thales has long since slung its hook. Why was it not reported in the Welsh media?

UPDATE 23:25: The British Army withdrew from Afghanistan in 2014, which would clearly have reduced the demand for the Warthog All-Terrain vehicles assembled by Thales at Llangennech, and this might explain the closure.

It also suggests that despite all the bullshit and backslapping that attended Thales’ arrival in Llangennech it must have been known that the French visitor was never going to stay and put down roots.

However, this forum posting I stumbled upon suggests that other uses were found for Warthogs: “Jane’s military guide has reported that British Warthog vehicles will be transformed to serve as transporter vehicles for Thales Watchkeeper UAV”. ‘UAV’ being unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone. Which would make perfect sense.

Watchkeeper drones fly out of the base at Aberporth and they are none too reliable, five having crashed in recent years, one of them uncomfortably close to a school.

I’m convinced that drones out of Aberporth, or possibly Llanbedr, use darkness and cloud cover to fly up the Dysynni Valley along part of the ‘Mach Loop’. The constant noise can last half an hour or more. And recently I’ve had reports of the same issue around Cydweli, Glanyfferi and out over the sea.

Which means that Thales’ presence is still here, with Watchkeeper drones being transported on Warthog vehicles assembled at Llangennech. Overflying our country . . . and often crashing!

HYDRO INDUSTRIES LTD

On 2 January 2013 Lovering and Preece became directors of Hydro Industries Ltd (originally Watertec Solutions Ltd and then Aggrelek Ltd), with Pickering joining them in November.

Watertec was Incorporated 2 September 2010 on the east side of Swansea, at the Ashmount Business Park . . . within spitting distance of Dawnus Construction Holdings Ltd (at the time known as Dawnus Construction Ltd).

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Is this propinquity a coincidence? I think not.

The address for Aggrelek Ltd changed to Stradey Park 13 July 2011, and it became Hydro Industries in December of that year. Hydro Industries becomes another Legsun, in that it seems to operate in a parallel financial universe, being heavily in debt but still able to satisfy charges and generally carrying on as if nothing is amiss.

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The founders of Hydro Industries, Philip and Janine Morgan of Gorseinon, presumably had some knowledge of the water industry, to judge by other companies with which they’ve been involved, and certain directors of these companies, such as Chris Stretton.

But I don’t know what knowledge of desalination processes, or water purification and disposal in the third world is possessed by Lovering, Pickering and Preece. Maybe it doesn’t matter.

For almost immediately Lovering, Preece and Pickering had their feet under the Hydro Industries boardroom table things started happening for them on a transatlantic level with First Minister Carwyn Jones jetting across the Pond to put in a word.

As this ITV report from February 2013 tells us. Here’s how the BBC covered it. This, remember, is just one month after the trio became directors. Carwyn Jones was over again in February 2014.

Now clearly, if Lovering, Preece and Pickering didn’t join Hydro Industries until January 2013 then they didn’t have time to have arranged the contract with T&T Salvage that was announced by Carwyn Jones in February. In fact, Carwyn Jones seems to have taken Hydro Industries Ltd under his wing. How many other small companies received such treatment?

Another interesting – and more recent – reference to Hydro Industries I turned up is this one from March 2018 which sees Hydro Industries at No 3 in a list of “The 7 firms at the heart of Wales’ thriving tech and digital sector”.

Courtesy of WalesOnline, click to enlarge

You’ll see that at No 6 in the list is Airbus. Airbus is also mentioned along with Hydro Industries in the blurb for Carwyn Jones’s 2014 visit to the States. And I’ve seen the connection made elsewhere.

As with Thales locating to Llangennech the T&T contract was arranged by someone else, and Lovering and Preece were put into Hydro Industries to front the deal because they were ‘trusted’ . . . by someone. ‘Someone’ who could also pull Carwyn Jones’s strings.

SWEET CHARITY?

Though as I told you in the previous post, the three amigos have now been joined (displaced?) by some very glitzy company on the board and among the shareholders of Hydro Industries.

Almost immediately Pickering had joined Lovering and Preece on the Hydro board we saw investment from Diane Briere de L’Isle, David Stevens and Heather Stevens.

As I explained in an earlier piece, Diane Marguerite Marie Briere de L’Isle is the French wife of Henry Englehardt the American founder of Admiral Insurance. So who are David and Heather Stevens?

They, it turns out, are behind the Waterloo Foundation, a name that some may think unfortunate or insensitive given the involvement of Mme. Englehardt. The Waterloo Foundation was begun in 2007 with a donation of Admiral Group plc shares to the (then) value of £99m.

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And it all makes sense, for “clean water” is listed among the charity’s ambitions under ‘World Development‘. Which is why I was surprised not to find Hydro Industries listed under ‘Investments‘ and ‘Wales’ because the Foundation has definitely invested in Hydro.

And after the investment came a series of convoluted share reclassifications and allocations. Diane Marguerite Marie Briere De L’isle is named on the Companies House website as the person ‘with significant control’ from 21 August 2017. Preece, Lovering and Pickering cease to have significant control on the same day.

It’s not inconceivable, given Hydro’s links with Thales, that Mme. Englehardt joined Hydro in order to represent France’s interests.

Certainly Mme. Englehardt became a director of Hydro and appointed others to eventually outnumber the three musketeers. Among these newcomers was Guto Harri, Welsh language journalist and former PR guru for Boris Johnson.

The boys are still there, but maybe just for window dressing.

Predictably, perhaps, the Waterloo Foundation is a Patron of The Prince’s Trust. And why not, for The Prince’s Trust is based at Stradey Park. And wouldn’t you know it, the Chief Operating Officer for Hydro is Brigadier Rick Libbey . . . who used to run the The Prince’s Trust in Wales!

The links with the British establishment just keep coming, and of course Libbey provides another to the military-industrial complex, such as we find throughout this saga.

Which is easily explained. Major powers exert influence through ‘soft power’, which can mean aid to third world countries that just happen to have valuable natural resources or are of strategic importance.

What could be more caring and philanthropic than providing clean drinking water?

SUMMARY 

Up until the autumn of 2018 everything seemed to be hunky-dory with Dawnus, Hydro Industries, Swansea University, Thales, Legsun, etc, and there were exciting plans in the pipeline.

Here we are, six months later, and it’s all fallen apart. Perhaps some of those involved were strung along, and once they’d outlived their usefulness they became dispensable.

So what are we left with? Well, there’s Hydro, which I believe to be a ‘front’ company for some agency of the UK state; and then there’s the remains of Dawnus, run by someone who is almost certainly co-operating with the same shadowy elements.

If I’m right, then hundreds of Welsh workers, sub-contractors and suppliers were shafted by the UK Government, which either engineered the collapse of Dawnus or else accepted it as collateral damage. But we’re Welsh, we’re used to being shafted and exploited.

What is unforgivable is that this damage was inflicted on Wales with the support of the self-styled ‘Welsh Government’ and, especially, that of Carwyn Jones.

♦ end ♦