Tag: Andy Burnham

Don’t Panic, But Stay Alert

On By JacIn European Union, Globalism, World Economic Forum20 Comments

Countries around the world are telling their citizens to stock up with water, food, cash, wind-up radios, batteries, torches and other items. Suggesting we will need these some time soon.

This advice comes with talk of cyber attacks and hybrid warfare. Some even mention outright hostilities. The UK has raised to 65 the age at which reservists can be called up. Other countries are bringing in similar measures.

As an alternative explanation to full-scale war, some say there’s very bad weather coming, maybe due to El Niño, the polar vortex, or perhaps even a pole shift.

Either way, it seems we’re being prepared for something. Here are my thoughts. But this is no more than speculation.

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NUCLEAR WAR

Let’s start with a dire and catastrophic possibility.

Are we being readied for nuclear war? If it’s all-out nuclear war with Russia or China then stocking up on a few days supply of mulligatawny and Brecon Carreg isn’t going to be a great help. Unless of course you’ve got your own bunker, like Ned Flanders.

No matter what our ‘leaders’ say, I don’t believe Russia has any intentions of a first-strike using nuclear weapons against the West. If the threat is nuclear then it’s more likely to be a rogue state or terrorists involved.

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PANDEMIC / BIOLOGICAL WARFARE

Having had their rehearsal in 2020 with so-called ‘Covid’, the elites might think they’ll get it right next time. So I’m not ruling out Bill Gates et al releasing something truly nasty, then persuading the idiots among us to to take injections prepared by Gates’ mates in Big Pharma.

The best option here is to regard Jeffrey Epstein’s big buddy Gates as dangerously unhinged, a man who should be behind bars. But never listened to.

Worse, would be the possibility that some nutters had got their hands on the kinds of pathogens or other nasties being cooked up in laboratories around the world, often by Western governments and/or Big Pharma.

Protecting these labs is one of the reasons Ukraine must fight on.

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WEATHER

Yes, I suppose an extreme weather event is possible. But if so, why not warn us better by being specific? Are those behind these warnings afraid of starting a panic? Perhaps fearing that if people are told the northern hemisphere is threatened, there’ll be an exodus – certainly of the rich – to southern climes.

Argentina would suit me just dandy. (So chip in on the Buy me a Coffee app!)

I’m inclined to disregard the extreme weather possibility, but without dismissing it entirely. My thinking leads me in other directions.

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THE POLITICAL SITUATION IN EUROPE

As it stands, the next month or so could be the best window for the supranational elites to act. Because things could soon start turning against them.

Let’s start in Spain, where there are national elections on November 29th; and PM Pedro Sanchez is going to be kicked out. After allowing the invasion of Ceuta, and naturalising around a million illegal immigrants, his time is up.

Conservatives will win; perhaps one big question is how many votes the ‘far-right’ Vox party gets.

In France, Marine le Pen is set to win the presidency in April. Though the Enemies of the West are still looking for a way to ban her or her party. Ideally, they’d like to ban her at such a time that her Rassemblement national would have no time to run a replacement candidate.

In Germany, the ratings for Chancellor Merz are at an all-time-low, as Germany continues to deindustrialise while accelerating the country’s impoverishment by keeping the borders open and giving generous benefits to those who shouldn’t be in Europe.

And to cap it all, the patriot party AfD, enemy of the EU, is way ahead in the polls. And will pull even further ahead following the recent riots.

German schoolchildren complaining about the lack of trigonometry textbooks

In Italy, prime minister Meloni is still trying to be all things to all men, but if she appreciates which way the wind is blowing she’ll have to respond and get tougher with the left and their migrant criminal allies.

Here in the UK, the replacement puppet PM, Burnham, is a joke. Every time he opens his mouth his backroom staff switch to damage limitation mode and issue statements beginning, ‘What he really meant to say was . . .’.

Few will accept another puppet parachuted into No 10 to replace Burnham. And so, following a weak but inoffensive budget, and with Reform apparently faltering, now might be a good time to call a general election.

Moving east, to Poland, prime minister Donald Tusk just tried to seize control of the country’s Constitutional Tribunal. He did it while the nationalist president was in a plane en route to Africa. This was a EU-inspired coup ahead of elections that must be held before November 2027. Elections the Globalist Tusk is predicted to lose.

In Romania, the EU has imprisoned the man who keeps winning elections. And just a week ago, in Serbia, the ‘students’ won against Vučić, who rejects the idea that Putin is the devil incarnate.

Put it all together and there is now a political ‘window’ for the Globalists that will very soon close.

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Let’s just tag on a quick shufty at economics, where the situation is dire. For there are countries in Europe that are approaching collapse. Things can’t improve until Globalism is defeated. And continuing decline makes people seek out the real reasons for it.

And then, just last week, Christine Lagarde head of the European Central Bank (ECB) announced she was stepping down ahead of her planned retirement.

But why? Is she ill? Perhaps not, for this article from CNN quotes her saying:

 . . . the decision to leave early was driven by a wish to engage on issues outside the ECB’s mandate.

What the hell does that mean? C’mon, Chris, you can tell me, love.

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CIVIL UNREST IF NOT WORSE

Are we heading towards civil war, or at least major social unrest? Now what troubles me here is that it’s difficult to predict such events unless one is planning them.

For if you’re not planning riots, with all that attends them, then to predict them you must know who is planning them. And if the authorities know, then they should arrest the ringleaders before the trouble starts.

That said, serious civil unrest would almost certainly be the result of a breakdown in the authority or control of the state. So it’s still Shit Creek.

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WAR WITH  RUSSIA

I’ve already dismissed a nuclear attack by Russia. Land invasion from that quarter is out of the question.

And yet, this is exactly what governments across Europe have for months, if not years, been trying to persuade us will happen. With the scaremongering intensifying in recent months. Who can forget Jacob Rees-Mogg’s fireside chat exhorting us to do and die. He even demands a stiff upper lip.

This alarmism was not well received. Most of us laughed; many responded with remarks that I would never dream of repeating on this blog for all the family.

The point being that our ‘leaders’ very quickly realised hardly anyone was falling for their bullshit. And talk of fighting the Ivans soon died down.

Which may have ruled out that option. Unless . . . (See below.)

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CYBER ATTACKS & AI

Here I must confess to my woeful ignorance of the internet thingy and associated matters. But I keep up with the news well enough to realise the danger of both cyber attacks and Artificial Intelligence.

Just last week we learnt that some rascals had made off with a lot of swag in ‘digital assets’. This was attributed to North Korea, which definitely qualifies as a rogue state, despite attempts in some quarters to rehabilitate Fat Boy. Or soften that country’s image by promoting his daughter as the likely successor.

One problem with cyber attacks is that it’s often difficult to trace and attribute blame for one that does great damage, such as bringing down the electricity grid, or attacking banks. And they seem to happen with increasing frequency.

Which means it would easy to blame a cyber attack on an innocent party. Especially with the mainstream media amplifying the official narrative.

When it comes to AI, I know it means Artificial Intelligence. Someone once tried to explain to me the Singularity, but my eyes glazed over, and they gave up.

The technological singularity is a theoretical scenario where technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, culminating in profound and unpredictable changes to human civilization.

AI might be an improvement, because after writing this blog for 15 years I know only too well that human intelligence is a rare commodity in Welsh politics. But there are still big, big downsides to a world run by algorithms.

Which brings me to a troubling possibility that can never be overlooked.

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FALSE FLAG OPERATIONS

A false flag operation is when a government, or an agency of a government, does something, commits an act of sabotage perhaps, which is then blamed on another government or organisation, to justify ‘retaliating’ against those wrongly accused.

For example, in 1939, German soldiers in Polish uniforms attacked Gleiwitz radio station in Silesia, on the border between the two countries. Hitler used this and other examples of ‘Polish aggression’ to justify invading.

In the modern age, false flag operations can of course be cyber attacks.

So I’m not ruling out an event that will be presented as a hostile act, allegedly committed by perhaps Russia, or Iran, and used to justify a response. But bear in mind that the response to a major cyber attack, or any other threat, be it genuine or false flag, need not be directed externally.

For it would give the authorities the excuse to impose a state of emergency. In the UK there’s the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. Here are the powers it confers.

Imagine the self-styled ‘Welsh Government’ having the powers to confiscate and destroy property, and restrict movement and travel. Leanne Wood and her allies would brainstorm themselves into a right old tizzy thinking of draconian measures for FM Rhun ap Iorwerth to implement to deal with the ‘far-right’.

(In that scenario I don’t give much for my chances!)

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CONCLUSION

I’m ruling out a direct military attack by a foreign power, though a false flag operation is always possible. Also ruling out a weather event. I’m dismissing a biological attack, through not ruling out entirely another orchestrated ‘pandemic’. While spontaneous (or organised) civil unrest is never out of the question.

That’s because I think the reasoning behind all the warnings we’ve received is to create an atmosphere in which, for example, lockdowns or other disruptions to normal life, could be justified.

Maybe also crack down on social media (especially X), and impose other curbs on free speech – to fight ‘misinformation’. Or grabbing your ‘lazy’ savings, an idea von der Leyen has already floated. Possibly even arresting dissidents and opponents.

Which means we’re back to politics now. And the worsening situation in Europe.

Governments are under increasing pressure as rioting spreads and economies tank; and it’s also problematic for their masters as more people wake up to the damage done by the Globalist policies of de-growth, fiat currencies, and mass immigration.

A staged or planned event could therefore provide the excuse to impose restrictions and suspend elections. Elections Globalist puppets are likely to lose.

Also, from their perspective, President Trump distracted by a hostile Congress following the midterm elections would be an ideal time to close down Europe and implement the grand plan.

It may even have been what they were waiting for.

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My advice? Stock up, because it’s sensible at any time; and especially now it seems likely something’s planned. But whatever happens, don’t accept as gospel the official version. Do your own research – and think for yourself.

Oh yeah, and keep one eye on what’s unfolding in Poland.

♦ end ♦

© Royston Jones 2026

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The Slide Into Authoritarianism ‘To Defend Democracy’

On By JacIn Brexit, Europe, European Union, Globalism, Housing, Housing Associations, Plaid Cymru, Racism, Russia, Senedd, Ukraine, USA, World Economic Forum22 Comments

There’s a saying wrongly attributed to an old Chinese sage that runs, ‘May you live in interesting times’. Well, we do; and just as phoney as the provenance of that maxim are the statements we’re fed daily by our politicians and their media.

Much of what follows may be updates of what’s gone before; but I increasingly suspect the Western world is approaching a dénouement. That scene at the end of a murder mystery, when everyone is gathered in the drawing room, and all is revealed.

To start, I shall concentrate on our new prime minister, Andy Burnham, whose mounting problems make me think he might soon be gone like his predecessor . . . what was his name?

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THE APPOINTED ONE

Andy Burnham, ‘King of the North’, formerly mayor of Manchester.

As we all know, Burnham was not elected by the people, he was voted into No 10 by the Labour party. Not that the party’s MPs had much say in it, much less party members. Burnham’s coronation was arranged by the Fabian Society, acting for the Globalist network of which the Fabians are a part.

Burnham is already running into trouble. Let’s look at reasons for his difficulties.

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First, he inherited the plan to bring back blasphemy laws – abolished in 2008 – but only for Islam. There had been pressure for some years to introduce anti-blasphemy laws to counter ‘Islamophobia’, but Conservative governments had rightly been cautious.

The election of Labour with a huge majority in July 2024 gave the campaign renewed impetus. In November 2024 Labour MP Tahir Ali set the process moving again. With someone cleverly wording his proposal to call for:

 . . . measures to prohibit the desecration of all religious texts and the prophets of the Abrahamic religions?

The ‘Abrahamic religions’ are Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The ‘People of The Book’. But nobody was fooled.

Suspicions justified by the Labour government formally adopting an official definition of ‘anti-Muslim hostility’ in March. Which soon ran into criticism.

The government’s own counter-terror advisor, Jonathan Hall, has said that the proposed definition could ‘inhibit’ criticisms of Islam. ‘How far are people going to be allowed to push definition effectively in their own political interests?’, he asked. There is no doubt that this is precisely what activists will do. They will try to use this definition to restrict what can be said about Islam.

Inevitably, critics started asking how the government had arrived at the definition. Who advised the politicians? Who supplied evidence? And now it started getting murky.

Initially, the government said it had destroyed all the relevant documents. This would have been illegal. But when pressure was maintained, a civil servant answering to Angela Rayner, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, admitted the documentation did exist – but nobody was allowed to see it!

It’s safe to assume that laws against ‘Islamophobia’ were demanded and framed by Islamists.

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Second, and just last month, Burnham himself announced to the United Nations:

a new national centre to tackle disinformation and deepfakes from hostile states such as Russia . . . saying the government had a duty to “stem the poisonous tide” from damaging British interests.

Note that Russia is singled out. With no other country mentioned. Maybe setting the stage for his next delivery of performance politics.

By the way, ‘misinformation’ is anyone challenging the Globalist narrative. Whether it’s the climate crisis, Covid, DEI, open borders, CRT, gender woo-woo, etc. And it includes the alleged danger posed to us all by Russia.

Next, after his UN gig, and after regularly trailing the idea of closer co-operation with the EU, Burnham announced that it was “Russian interference” wot gave us Brexit . . . but then he started back-tracking.

If Russia did not influence the result of the Brexit referendum, then why resurrect complete bullshit dismissed years ago by the intelligence services? And why kick off this series of performances at the UN? And why single out Russia?

Then, last week, the head of MI5 seemed to slap Burnham down.

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And how can we overlook Burnham’s relationship with the owners of Manchester City? Even though Man of the People Burnham is an Everton supporter he has strong links with Citeh’s Abu Dhabi owners from his time as mayor of Manchester.

For those who’ve been living under a stone . . . it’s alleged the club’s owners funded Man City’s recent success illegally, often through massive sponsorship deals where the bulk of the funding came not from the stated sponsors but from other entities controlled by the owners.

But it didn’t end with football. Because it’s further alleged that in his role as mayor Burnham gave the oil-rich Arabs sweetheart property deals. With complaints over many years by other developers saying they’d been excluded from the tender process.

Here again, Burnham is struggling with the truth, and backtracking. With the suggestion that he might now be using his power as PM to cover up what he might have done when mayor, and to protect the Man City owners.

Even changing official records.

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As if to prove how gaffe prone he is, just a few days ago Burnham had to correct remarks made in the House of Commons in which he referred to the man accused of Ann Widdecombe’s murder as “the man responsible for the murder“. Thereby undermining the accused’s presumption of innocence, and possibly prejudicing the upcoming trial.

Could it have been deliberate?

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But all is not lost – for democracy will be saved by abolishing the need for voters to show photo ID. Straight out of the US Democrats’ playbook – allow illegal and undocumented immigrants to vote.

It looks as if the Globalists should have done a little more research before putting their latest puppet into No 10. He’s turning out to be a disaster for them.

But to cheer you up, the word in the corridors of power is that if Burnham is dumped – he’ll be replaced by Ed Miliband!

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WHY RUSSIA?

These silly allegations against Russia remind me of what the USA went through in 2016, within days of Trump winning the presidential elections.

A campaign led by the defeated candidate Hillary Clinton and former president Barack Obama, and involving the agency behind the JFK assassination, tried to salvage something from that defeat. Tying up the Trump administration for years defending itself against allegations with no substance.

Not even those making the allegations believed them. But that wasn’t the point.

Make the allegations, and with media support guaranteed, just keep repeating the lies and the media will do the same. But it got worse.

To ensure Trump wasn’t re-elected in 2020 the Democrats mounted ludicrous prosecutions, even attempting impeachment. They also rigged the 2020 elections in key states and Democrat-run cities like Philadelphia, Detroit, Phoenix and Atlanta.

As Josef Stalin is reported to have said in 1922:

It’s not who votes that counts, it’s who counts the votes.

And so the 2020 elections gave us Joe Biden. A man so obviously unfit for the role that it became painful to watch. Yet the media went along with the official line that despite his gaffes, his incoherent mumbling, his wandering off stages, his falling over, he was still “sharp as a tack“.

‘SHARP AS A TACK’

Even after the disastrous presidential debate in 2024, when Biden lost himself entirely and his wavering voice just trailed off – the media still called it a draw!

So who was really running the USA, and leading the free world between 2020 and 2024? Clue: that period is often referred to as Barack Obama’s third term. And in the past week Obama’s been over here meeting Burnham and others. What can it mean?

Is he planning some kind of government in exile? If so, maybe Obama should watch his step. A former president having talks with foreign governments without the permission of the current resident of the White House could be flirting with treason.

But ain’t Western democracy wonderful? Puppets like Burnham up front, ruthless political operators like Obama controlling them, and then, running the whole shebang from the shadows . . .

But why do the puppets, their handlers, and the media all paint Russia as the bad guy? The easiest way to answer that is to ask why the same people also hate Donald Trump. Because it’s the same answer to both questions.

Neither Putin nor Trump will submit to the Globalists. Understand that and so much else becomes clearer.

Trump is restoring US sovereignty by rejecting supranational organisations like the UN, WHO and, most recently, the ICC. He’s rebuilding the USA as a self-sufficient country that makes things, where money has real-world value.

In Russia, Putin dealt with the oligarchs who were ripping off the country’s wealth with the help of the international financial elites. Russia’s wealth is now Russia’s. And of course, Russia has unexploited natural resources that dwarf those of other countries.

Trump and Putin have become the twin bogeymen for the Globalists, their puppet politicians, the media they control, and their useful idiots of the Woke left.

It’s worth dallying with the media for a second. I often refer to the Uniparty, where squabbling is encouraged to give the proles the impression of choice and the promise of change. But in reality it’s just politicians pushing the same message in different ways. It’s all theatre.

Meanwhile, the proof of Globalist control of UK newspapers – from the Guardian to the Daily Mail – is in their reporting of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. They speak as one, hostile to both, revealing who controls them.

Telling us that Russia is not the enemy of the West. Nor is the USA. They are its defenders. As Marcio Rubio reminded us in his speech in Athens.

The enemies of the West are those they’ve been for centuries. Rootless anti-human capital, socialism, and Islam.

But they never before combined. Though it’s unlikely the leftists and the Muslims appreciate who’s using them. Each probably believes they’ll come out on top after they’ve collapsed the West.

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HOW THE WEST IS THREATENED

The West is to be collapsed by a combination of strategies.

First, there’s managed decline through net zero and deindustrialisation. Similar attacks are being mounted against farming and food self-sufficiency. We see it all around us and across Europe.

Second, open borders. Encourage the migration of individuals and groups that it’s known in advance will be no asset to the country and are unlikely to integrate. These will help push up crime and promote social dislocation as well as increasing the welfare budget – until everything collapses.

I’m not making this up. It’s a variation on a theme laid out back in 1966 by a couple of leftist US academics. It even bears their name: The Cloward-Piven Strategy.

It may have been written for the USA in the turbulent 1960s, and envisioned using the black population, but the strategy is applicable elsewhere: Overload a system until it implodes.

In the modified version there’s an element of – and here I’ll use a term I’ve tried to avoid – ‘population replacement’. Which links with something I can’t help returning to – the watershed year of 2016. Brexit in the UK and Trump elected in the USA.

The shock the establishment experienced, and the realisation that the white working class was being ‘lost’, meant that a new voter base was needed. Which then explains the 2018 UN Global Compact on Refugees.

Today we see that Compact in operation – but not in the USA since Trump took over from whoever was working Biden.

But if you bring in millions of people then you must promise them – in addition to benefits – somewhere to live. And now it gets perhaps a little darker. As we saw in a recent exchange in the Senedd.

When Reform suggested locals should have priority when it came to social housing Kiera Marshall of Plaid Cymru giggled her way through a response.

We heard a Plaid Cymru SM argue that Welsh people should be discriminated against in their own country. You can dress it up in ‘progressive’ word salads, but that’s what it amounts to. So who is Kiera Marshall, SM for Caerdydd Penarth?

She says she’s from Townhill, but she’s not really from The Hill. For both parents, of the social worker/’progressive’ type, had moved to Swansea. And Kiera herself, went to the London School of Economics (LSE), founded of course by the Fabian Society.

Lot of kids from The Hill go to the LSE.

Note that she doesn’t claim to have experienced inequality, just observed it; maybe like some 19th century anthropologist studying a tribe of interesting primitives. For Kiera is just another middle class girlie telling us what to think, and how to behave.

Why is Kiera Marshall in Plaid Cymru? What sort of party has Plaid Cymru become to have one of its politicians advocating discrimination against working class Welsh people? Maybe the clue lies in the term ‘working class’.

But why do I even mention Kiera Marshall?

Some forty years ago, during the Meibion Glyndŵr arson campaign against holiday homes, I argued that depriving young local people of somewhere to live, somewhere to raise a family, was a form of birth control.

A similar case could be made today if non-native groups are given priority for housing over local people in their own communities. But as I say, I’m reluctant to get into talk of ‘population replacement’.

But it’s increasingly difficult to dismiss.

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CONCLUSION

We’re at a stage where the enemies of the West know they’re lying, we know they’re lying, they know we know they’re lying, but they don’t seem to care. Which could be interpreted as a sign of confidence . . . or desperation.

I believe it’s the latter. There are so many little clues. One was footballers over the weekend being made to ‘take the knee’ again. Has there been a big surge in racism? Then there’s Obama’s visit.

And of course, there’s been constant talk of war with Russia; because those I’m writing about know their time is running out, and thought war could save them and their project. This is why I say they’re ‘anti-human’.

Over in the USA, they’ll have the mid-term elections next month. Normally, the party of the president loses ground in the mid-terms, sometimes badly. But this time, as the realisation grows that the Democrats have been infiltrated – if not taken over – by Marxists and Islamists, the Republicans might do better than expected.

But of course opinion polls, and MSM pundits, are predicting a hammering for Trump and his party. Funny that, innit? Though almost predictable.

The images of the French riots won’t help the Democrats.

If anybody thinks those riots, the arson and looting, are about schoolkids not having enough textbooks, then you need to slap yourself. Hard.

Having their plan of war with Russia rejected by the people of Europe, knowing the US Cavalry won’t come riding over the hill, and seeing the EU rejected by the rise of the national sovereignty right, the Globalists might conclude that destroying Europe from within is the only option left in the time still available to them.

Which again, I find encouraging. Reinforcing my belief that the crunch is coming; everybody’s gathering in the drawing room, paying attention, and the enemies of the West will soon be exposed.

♦ end ♦

© Royston Jones 2026

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Power To The People! (Our People, Of Course)

On By JacIn Corruption Bay, Devolution, Globalism, Labour Party, Plaid Cymru, Senedd, Welsh Government, Welsh Labour71 Comments

In my previous post I wrote: “. . . one thing Labour was good at over 27 years of devolution was cronyism. That is, using public money to create pointless jobs for party loyalists, and to fund their organisations. To the point where there are now hundreds of these organisations and thousands of jobs“.

Done to extend Labour influence or control into almost every corner of Welsh life.

But not in my wildest, Malbec-fuelled dreams, did I think Labour would prove me right so quickly. (I need a drink!)

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DEVOLVING POWER TO KEEP POWER

Yet over the weekend, at the Labour party conference in Liverpool, we heard calls from the party in Wales and Scotland to devolve power to local authorities and communities. Now, if I wanted to be generous, I could say that this chimes with what we’ve heard from the unelected Globalist puppet in No 10.

But I don’t feel like being generous. And neither will you after reading this.

Going back to the 1990s, one of the great selling points of devolution – certainly for sceptics within Labour – was that Scotland and Wales would always vote Labour, and so devolved parliaments in Edinburgh and Cardiff could be useful for making life difficult for Conservative governments in Westminster.

And of course, they’d stymie the SNP and Plaid Cymru. (Though the latter was not thought to be a real threat.) Older readers may even remember George Robertson.

In 1995 George Robertson – then the Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland – argued that the creation of a Scottish Parliament would quench the Scottish thirst for the decentralisation of power. Devolution, according to Robertson, would kill the idea of an independent Scotland “stone dead”

The SNP may be less popular following the Sturgeon (and hubby) years, but it’s hardly stane deid, eh, George.

We must also remember that the Tories were in power from 1979 until 1997, which encouraged the thinking I just outlined. And so devolution became Labour policy before Blair was installed as PM in 1997.

Even so, there were those who went along reluctantly with this constitutional change, maybe even Blair himself. And many within Labour – certainly in Wales – who were vehemently opposed.

Perhaps what these diehards realised, or what Labour strategists failed to factor into their calculations, was that many who voted Labour in Scotland and Wales did so in the hope of avoiding a Conservative government in London, rather than from any great love for Labour.

And while devolution offered a kind of ‘filter’ to direct London rule it also meant no threat of Tory administrations in Edinburgh or Cardiff, which allowed voters to relax, even ‘shop around’.

Here we are in the autumn of 2026: Labour hasn’t been in power at Holyrood since 2007, and has just lost control of the Senedd. To compound Labour’s problems, we have an unpopular Labour government in London, polling consistently under 30%, led by a phoney whose gloss is wearing off fast.

You can therefore understand why Labour now wants to devolve power away from Edinburgh and Cardiff. But to where? And to whom?

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LOCAL GOVERNMENT

The situations of Scotland and Wales are different, but as this blog is about Wales we’ll consider who power might be devolved to here.

The obvious place to start is the level of government below the Senedd, which is our local authorities. All twenty-two of them, and all 1,234 councillors – in a country of just over three million people!

Maybe it’s also worth mentioning the 730 community and town councils, which are served by over 8,000 community and town councillors.

The three major cities, Cardiff (pop 382,000), Swansea (249,000) and Newport (169,000), all have Labour-majority councils. The third largest local authority, by population, is Rhondda Cynon Taf (241,000), which is also run by Labour.

Four other councils in the south are Labour controlled; with a combined population of 485,000. Adding them together gives us some 50% of the country’s population.

In Monmouthshire, Labour’s the largest party, but with no overall control. There are Labour minority administrations in Flintshire and the Vale of Glamorgan. In Merthyr, Labour and Independents are tied. No overall control in Neath Port Talbot, Conwy, Denbighshire. With Plaid running things in Gwynedd, Ceredigion, Ynys Môn, and Carmarthenshire.

Elsewhere, Pembrokeshire is fought over by competing gangs of Independents. The Lib Dems are the largest party in Powys. While in Wrexham it’s a coalition between Independents and Conservatives.

It’s easy to see how devolving power away from Corruption Bay to local authorities could benefit Labour. For with Plaid Cymru ruling it’ll be they who’ll get blamed by sub-Senedd level Labour for everything that’s wrong in Wales.

But it doesn’t begin, and certainly doesn’t end, with local authorities.

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CRONYISM RULES!

Now I’ll turn to the cronyism referred to at the start. This is power and influence that’s less obvious than local authorities because there are no elections, and party labels are not obvious.

As I said, Labour spent 27 years of devolution building networks that would support the party. Or else corrupting organisations, often through funding, and bending them to do Labour’s bidding. For example, if you want to understand the chaos at the Welsh Rugby Union, it can be traced back to the WRU saying that biological males would not be allowed to play against women.

That outraged certain Labour Senedd Members, and so the wheels were set in motion.

Let’s also remember the housing associations, many of which are controlled by Labour loyalists. One example would be Wales & West, our biggest provider of social housing.

But it’s no longer just housing associations, and social housing, for many of them now have subsidiaries, which seem to focus on building open-market private housing. Even leasehold properties. Wales & West has Cambria Maintenance Services Limited, Enfys Developments Limited, and Enfys Homes Limited.

Google AI says of the last named:

Enfys Homes Limited: Focuses on mixed-tenure developments to deliver extra affordable housing without requiring grant subsidies.

The bit about grant subsidies may be right. But funding goes to the parent body from the so-called ‘Welsh Government’ and is then diverted to the subsidiary.

There are thirty housing associations registered with Community Housing Cymru. Most, if not all, have subsidiaries. And those subsidiaries, which we hear less about, rely on funding from their parent body. Something we are never told.

As we see with the latest accounts for Enfys Developments Limited.

What a strange set-up this is. I’m waiting for the response to a FoI request I submitted, and I might do a piece on these providers of social housing.

Next, we must consider our health boards. Labour spent many years emplacing trusted people. Whether these were capable of running a health board may never have entered the comrades’ collective thinking.

Then there are the countless third sector outfits and charities. And the duplication involved. Which means funding dozens of organisations to do basically the same job.

One example is homelessness. In a reply to a FoI request I was told that Wales had 48 organisations ‘tackling homelessness’ – in a country of just over three million people and less than 200 miles from one corner to the opposite corner.

In addition to the homelessness racket there’s the race racket, which is catching up fast in these days of enforced diversity. Though you have to wonder if there might not be a symbiotic relationship between the two.

One established outfit in the race racket is BAWSO. Here’s how it bills itself:

Bawso provides practical and emotional prevention, protection and support services to Black Minority Ethnic (BME) and migrant victims of Domestic Abuse, Sexual Violence, Female Genital Mutilation, Forced Marriage, Honour Based Violence, Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking.

BAWSO gets over £3.5m a year from the ‘WG’ alone in grants and contracts. For many, many years it was the fiefdom of Mutale Rose Merrill. Under her leadership BAWSO built up quite a property portfolio. (It’s alleged her personal portfolio is also quite impressive.)

Even hubby got in on the third sector racket. For Labour put Travers Merrill in charge of the doomed Rhondda Life. But why worry – it’s only public money!

The thing to remember about third sector bodies, charities, and others in the various rackets is that they must never solve the problem they were set up to tackle. Because to do that would mean an end to funding and the loss of many cushy jobs.

So it serves their purpose to invent or exaggerate problems. ‘Homelessness is rising’, or ‘racism is rampant and increasing’, means more funding and more jobs. Almost an economy in itself. And all funded from the public purse.

I swear to God someone could launch a third sector body that claimed to offer counselling to the non-binary yak herders of Ceredigion – and there’d be funding available with few questions asked! (For let’s not forget the gender racket.)

And then of course we have the Future Generations legislation. For all the bodies we’ve looked at must dutifully obey the commandments inscribed into the tablets received from the Future Generations Commissioner.

The first to fill that post was Labour stalwart Sophie Howe, daughter of a Cardiff councillor. She has since moved on to launch her own business, and she’s also joined a host of ishoo-mongers including Coleg Soros.

She was replaced by another Labour apparatchik in Derek Walker. Who’d led another What-the-fuck-is-that-about group in Cwmpas. Which seems to be people with no experience in business giving advice to businesses.

But when you look at who they ‘help’, these are not genuine businesses as you or I might understand that term. In the main, they’re just more third sector gangs.

Though in recent years it’s ceased to be exclusively Labour. Here’s an image from the Our Services section of the Cwmpas website.

I know what you’re thinking – who da honky? You don’t recognise him! It’s one of our new Plaid Cymru Senedd Members, Mark Hooper. The Deputy Minister for Transport who believes in “actively discouraging car use“.

And if you think that’s worrying, Hooper’s boss, Dr Dafydd Trystan Davies, promised to ditch his car when he was elected. If he’s just dumped it somewhere then I expect to see him arrested and charged with being a sanctimonious and insufferable little git.

Yes, indeed, as George Carlin so memorably put it: “It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it” – unless you belong to a Globalist-left party.

◊

CONCLUSION

As I just suggested, on most issues you can’t get a fag paper between Labour and Plaid Cymru. Whether it’s climate, open borders, re-joining the EU, DEI, ‘trans rights’, or any of the other issues designed to weaken the West and increase the power and wealth of supranational elites.

But voters realising there’s little difference between the two is no good for either party, so minor differences must be exaggerated and new ones invented. And there are of course areas – like independence – where Labour and Plaid do disagree.

So devolving power out of Cardiff might just be something dreamed up to remind punters that Labour in Wales is different to Plaid – and here’s a policy to prove it.

But if Ken Skates, Kinnock, Burnham and others, are serious about devolving power within Wales then a good place to start would be moving the Senedd out of Cardiff. For all devolution has really achieved is allowing Cardiff to enjoy some of the capital benefits London has always enjoyed.

Moving the Senedd could be funded by cutting the number of local authorities from twenty-two to the eight we knew in the days of two-tier local government.

More money could be found by reducing the number of housing associations. Having thirty, plus subsidiaries, is insane. Or why not do away with them altogether and hand the responsibility for social housing back to eight local authorities?

Finally, there’s the morass of the third sector. Hundreds of publicly-funded bodies, most doing work of no discernible public benefit, with dozens of almost indistinguishable gangs fighting turf wars in each and every sector.

But for Labour to agree to anything I’ve suggested would mean weakening the party’s crony network. And that would defeat the object of calling for ‘greater devolution’.

There’s a big test here for Plaid Cymru. They could devolve out of Cardiff, and fund it as I’ve outlined. But if Plaid was to suggest that then Labour would oppose it.

Reminding us yet again that Labour will always act in its own selfish interests.

♦ end ♦

© Royston Jones 2026

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Things Are Never So Bad That They Can’t Get Worse

On By JacIn Climate, Corruption Bay, Environmentalism, Far Left, Globalism, Plaid Cymru, Renewables, Senedd220 Comments

First, a brief look at the new Plaid Cymru administration. Then an analysis of ‘Well-being’. Before looking at the looming threat of AI data centers.

This piece is bigger than usual, some 2,700 words. But you know it’ll be worth it!

◊

PLAID CYMRU IN POWER

Plaid Cymru emerged from the May 7 Senedd elections as the largest party, winning 43 out of the 96 seats contested. So we have a minority government that will almost certainly need support from Labour (which won 9 seats) to run things.

And even though the Guardian might view Plaid as “centre-left“, I see a far-left party. Which might not be too bad, if it was an old-fashioned left wing party intent on improving the condition of the working class and governing in the interests of a majority of the population.

But the working class, normal people, level-headed people, are now the enemy for the Antifa Irregulars and the Hamas Support Brigade so influential in Plaid.

Let’s start by looking at the cabinet selected by new first minister Rhun ap Iorwerth.

OMG! Where’s the diversity?

Perhaps the only one in whom I might have confidence is Llŷr Gruffydd who, if nothing else, seems to understand rural issues. But then I curb my enthusiasm by remembering that before May 7 he was the SM for the largely rural North Wales region; whereas he now represents the smaller Clwyd constituency, dominated by the urban fleshpots of Rhyl, Prestatyn, and Colwyn Bay.

And then we must consider the description of his ministerial role: Cabinet Minister for Rural Resilience and Sustainability.

‘Sustainability’ for Plaid Cymru, Labour, Greens and the Globalist left generally means: net zero, Agenda 2030, wind turbines and solar panels everywhere; while promoting veganism and using various deceits to get farmers off the land for the benefit of corporate investors.

But what the hell is ‘Rural Resilience‘? Does anybody know?

Even just skimming over the rest of the bunch is really depressing.

For example, in newly-elected Mark Hooper, Deputy Minister for Transport, we have a man on record as saying that “private car travel is a massive problem“. His colleague, also new, Dr Dafydd Trystan Davies, Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness(?) and the Constitution, is equally if not more hostile to the freedom bestowed on us peasants by private transport.

For Davies is a sanctimonious planet saver; determined to punish those going to work, dropping the kids off at school, or running granny to her chiropodist appointment.

If these sinners paused for a moment in their attempts to make ends meet, or hold the family together, and instead gaze up to the moral high ground (just above the sunlit uplands), they’d see Dr Daf, wagging his finger admonishingly.

This saintly individual has for some time been a big wheel (spoked, and fully pumped) in the 20mph Sustrans outfit, now renamed Walk Wheel Cycle Trust.

And don’t get me started on Sioned Williams and some of the wimmin. If former Plaid leader Leanne Wood was Medusa they’d be the snakes. One of the new intake, Sarah Rees, admits to being “a campaigner at heart“, perhaps to explain why she’s never done a real job. Perfect for the Senedd!

Despite the widespread ‘optimism’, Plaid Cymru seems as much in thrall to pressure groups and ishoo pedlars as Labour. The useful idiots of Globalism, a form of capitalism so ruthless, so anti-human and authoritarian, that it would repulse the most heartless 19th century ironmaster or coal owner.

◊

BEING TOLD TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT BEING POORER. AND THE ENDGAME

Now I’m going to focus on something I’ve mentioned in connection with other topics. It’s the vast superstructure built on the Well-being of Future Generations Act 2015.

Everything done in Wales since then must follow the stipulations of the Act. It’s used to influence everything. I’ve seen planning applications contain phrases like, ‘This development accords with Future Generations legislation’.

So let’s give Well-being itself more attention. With this section inspired by Nicola Lund, and this piece she wrote back in October 2023.

Nicola’s work is impressive, and extensively researched. So I won’t go over the ground she’s covered; but it’s worth noting her references to the usual suspects: Club of Rome, WEF, EU, WHO, and others.

The way I see it . . . national and individual wealth has traditionally been gauged by metrics such as GDP, disposable income, home ownership, number of private cars per head of population and other determinants.

But by following the Globalist agenda we in the West are becoming poorer by those traditional ways of assessing wealth. Consequently, something was needed to hide the reality and change the focus. This is where Well-being enters the frame.

Let’s go through the ‘Welsh Government’ graphic you see above.

Starting with, at the top, ‘A Prosperous Wales’. So vague as to be meaningless. And how does a country de-industrialising while simultaneously being trampled on by the new robber-barons of the ‘renewables’ racket and the digital age become prosperous?

‘A Resilient Wales’. That word again. But what does it mean? Taking all the crap forced on us without complaining?

‘A Healthier Wales’. Yeah – with the NHS on its knees.

‘A More Equal Wales’. Which means what, DEI and anti-white discrimination?

‘A Wales of Cohesive Communities’. Impossible when you destroy the economic foundations that made communities cohesive. And how does welcoming illegal immigrants to the Nation of Sanctuary aid community cohesion? This is delusional.

‘A Wales of Vibrant Culture and Thriving Welsh Language’. I suspect ‘vibrant’ here means diversity. Again. As for the language, no one who’s destroying farming, a bastion of the language and the economy in so many areas, should be taken seriously.

‘A Globally Responsible Wales’. Probably means student politics and virtue signalling. More bollocks. The sole responsibility of any ‘Welsh Government is Wales.

“Forget about the kids going hungry, Mrs Evans – improve your well-being by thinking about the non-binary lynx we’ve released in the area. Look, there’s one now, making off with little Carys’s rabbit!”.

Once you accept the fundamental lie of the ‘climate crisis’, and agree to the sacrifices demanded, then you’ll accept the resultant decline. But it’ll be you making the sacrifices, not those asking you to make them.

And because the threat is global it must be tackled globally. Which inevitably means trans-national bodies taking control. The next step will be a kind of world government. But you’ll have no say in electing this world government. For elections will be things of the past.

We’re already on our way to an unelected world government with what masquerades as electoral politics in the West today. At a stage where it matters little who you vote for; as most politicians – the Uniparty – sing from the Globalist hymn sheet.

Another feature of such systems is the ‘Chosen One’. Often a graduate of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders programme.

Back in 2024, in Canada, when it became clear that Justin Trudeau had been rumbled by the electorate, Mark Carney, former Governor of the Bank of England and arch Globalist, appeared from nowhere. Carney wasn’t even a sitting MP, but it had been decided, somewhere, by someone, that he would be the next prime minister of Canada.

First, he was made leader of the ruling Liberal Party, then a seat was found for him and he was elected for Nepean, Ontario, in the general election of April 2025.

Over here, Starmer’s a dead man walking. And so a suitable replacement had to be found. The one chosen is mayor of Manchester Andy Burnham. But like Carney, he’s not even an MP. So a Labour MP has stood down and now there’s a by-election in Makerfield on June 18.

If Burnham is elected he’ll become party leader and therefore prime minister. He might be worse than Starmer, but he’ll be a fresh face to fool the plebs for a bit longer.

What I’m describing is not old-fashioned party intrigue, or political jockeying. Because Carney and Burnham were not chosen by their respective parties. (Let alone the members of those parties.) They were chosen by people you’re not supposed to know about; and the role and power of these oligarchs will never be discussed in the media they control and want you to rely on.

To implement their agenda of wealth and asset transfer, Digital ID, Central Bank Digital Currency, and Universal Basic Income, you must be brainwashed into believing that not only are the sacrifices you’re making unavoidable, but also that you should feel good about making them.

Which is all you need to know about the Well-being scam.

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AI DATA CENTERS

This part puts me in debt to David Powell. Specifically, this piece he put out last November. Scroll down to the part dealing with AI data centers planned for Wales. Mainly in the south, which is a designated AI Growth Zone.

Here’s a section:

One facility matches a city of 50,000’s water consumption, straining drought-hit valleys and jacking up Dŵr Cymru rates for everyone else.

What’s clear, and what no one denies, is that data centres consume vast amounts of water and electricity. So let’s consider water first. For as David Powell tells us, “One facility matches a city of 50,000’s water consumption“?

Though Google AI suggests the demand will be even higher:

A typical large data centre consumes between 11 million and 19 million litres of water per day—roughly equivalent to the daily usage of a town of 30,000 to 50,000 people. Facilities dedicated to Artificial Intelligence (AI) demand even higher volumes.

Do we have that much water to spare? The answer is obviously no, so it’ll be existing consumers, in the urban south, that’ll find themselves going without. And paying Dŵr Cymru more for less.

In Ireland, there’s even talk of transferring water from the River Shannon, in the west, to the AI data centers in Dublin, on the east coast. Here’s a follow-up article from Gript. (Paywall, I’m afraid.)

But what’s the purpose of these date centers? Listen to Sam Altman, founder of OpenAI, speaking at the BlackRock US Infrastructure Summit.

But we see a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter.

Clearly, AI data centers will need vast amounts of water that the current system will struggle to supply. But electricity will perhaps be even more of an issue.

Parts of England ran dry last week

Those who support ‘renewables’ argue wind and solar will make a huge contribution to supplying AI data centers. That’s wishful thinking; an intermittent supply from wind farms and solar installations, even with their unreliability mitigated by Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), isn’t going to cut it.

UPDATE: It’s estimated that AI data centers use 22% of Ireland’s electricity.

Though there are many BESS planned for southern Wales. One by RWE at Pembroke, alongside the power station. Another on the site of the old Uskmouth power station in Newport. A second Newport site is at Quinn Radiators. One is in Cardiff. Finally, one at the old Ford engine plant in Bridgend.

There are many other projects, including those planned by ‘Welsh’ Labour’s favourite company, Bute Energy. Additional to the BESS installations incorporated into the various ‘Energy Parks’ (windfarms & solar soil destroyers) Bute’s formed BESS companies that specifically name; Cilfynydd, Rhigos, Carmarthen.

But BESS are springing up everywhere. One I’m just hearing about is Castell Llwyd, just west of Ystrad Mynach. The company behind it, Qair, is French owned.

No doubt there are others in the pipeline. For as Google AI tells us:

Wales is rapidly developing into a major UK hub for AI and cloud computing, driven by billions in inward investment, massive hyperscale data center construction, and official AI Growth Zone designations by the UK and Welsh governments

Yes, of course there’s a National Grid. But AI data centers are springing up in England, too, increasing the demand on a system that, like the water supply, will struggle to cope. And will struggle even worse the more it relies on ‘renewables’, the price of which is set to double by 2030.

Then there’s the impact on health. Data centers emit a continuous noise. Here’s David Powell again:

Vantage’s Cardiff operations clock 46-48 decibels at the doors – officially “minor adverse” per standards, but stack multiple facilities in clusters and it becomes a symphony of sleepless nights and shattered quality of life.

Google AI suggests it’s even worse:

AI data centers are notoriously loud. Driven by the need to cool thousands of dense servers, they produce constant, 24/7 noise pollution that can reach 55 to 85 decibels—and sometimes up to 100dB right next to the facility.

A problem exacerbated by the back-up generators:

On-site diesel generators or natural gas turbines used during power grid shortages sound like low-flying planes

All this can affect property values close to the centers.

But do AI data centers have a purpose over and above that outlined by Sam Altman?

Fundamentally, AI data centers are being built so someone, somewhere, can collect as much information as possible on as many people as possible: So as to know what they do. And what they buy. Their reading and viewing preferences. What they think. And what they say.

Information is power.

And this power, in a world where oligarchs are trying to take control through making a sham of democratic politics, will not only know your views and your preferences; for when combined with Digital ID, CBDC, and UBI it will be able to control you.

You’ll find that expressing certain views not only loses you your internet connection, it will also mean you’re unable to access your money. (Cash will already be outlawed.)

You’ll become a non-person except to those you can interact with on a physical level. But you’ll find that few will want to be seen talking to you due to the ubiquitous cameras.

◊

CONCLUSION

‘Well-being’ is obviously a deceit. A form of manipulation that expects people to put up with less or worse for a noble objective that, when analysed, itself turns out to be a lie.

Now let’s have a few final thoughts on AI data centers. Because powerful voices are coming out against them, and even those behind them are getting nervous.

First, the Pope has spoken out. In fact, His Holiness issued an encyclical. And Pope Leo didn’t mince words.

Some of the Pope’s strongest imagery in the document related to slavery, warning parallels between the historical tragedy of traditional slavery and the emerging threats of “new digital slaveries”.

It should be noted that Leo XIV is the first Pope from the USA. I mention that because another American is worth quoting in this context – Larry Fink, BlackRock CEO and Interim Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum.

As you might guess, Larry and his multitudinous investment arms have put a whole lot of money into AI data centers. But Larry fears the peasants will rise up, and attack the data centres with cheap drones! (An update to pitchforks and blazing torches?)

Here’s Neil Oliver’s take on it. It’s worth watching.

Neil also reminds us that the power and reach of “Caesar” Fink’s empire is built on the savings and pensions of millions of little people. Which means that Joe Schmuck in Ohio and Dai Williams in Ponty pay for their own “digital slavery“.

Will the new Plaid Cymru administration stand up for Wales, and humanity, and against the proliferation of AI data centres and the misery they’ll inflict?

And what about the inconsistency – many might say hypocrisy – of allowing AI data centers to drain the electricity grid and monopolise water supplies while constantly hectoring us mere mortals into consuming less of everything?

Thankfully, more and more people see the nature of Globalism, and the threat it poses. While Wokism is increasingly rejected as a load of dangerous tosh. Now the UN has pulled back on its more hysterical climate claims. While NASA shows CO2 greening large areas of the planet, thereby making attempts to reduce or ‘capture’ it insane.

Wales can’t continue in a cartoon world created by brainwashed or unhinged useful idiots where cows are a threat to the planet and Welsh cakes must be decolonised.

Wales has more than enough real problems. Plaid Cymru must tackle them.

♦ end ♦

© Royston Jones 2026

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