Globalism For Dummies

On 31/08/202331/08/2023 By JacIn Globalism39 Comments

I mention Globalism regularly, and now I’m devoting a full piece to explaining what I mean by that term. So if it bores you, turn away. But if you want to learn something, stick around.

I advise you to stick with it because those I’ll be talking about already influence your life in so many ways. And they want even more influence, to the point of absolute control.

This piece is, of necessity, long, over 5,000 words, but it’s broken up into easily-manageable sections.

But don’t expect anything next week!

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OUTLINES

By ‘Globalism’ I mean wealthy individuals and powerful organisations imposing their will on the rest of us. Achieved in part through supranational organisations subverting or winning over national and sub-national governments and their various agencies.

These supranational organisations include the United Nations, its World Health Organisation (WHO) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); the World Economic Forum (WEF); the World Bank; the European Union, particularly its Commission; the Bank of International Settlements; NATO.

Though that list is not exhaustive. I should probably include Big Tech and Big Pharma. Though not the traditional media, for despite its – thankfully declining – influence the mainstream media is now entirely controlled by and serving as a mouthpiece for those mentioned above.

For much of what we’ll cover I would also include the US deep state. Those who have interfered in global and domestic affairs since WWII. Responsible for the overthrow of Mossadegh in 1953, the JFK assassination in 1963, the Kiev coup of 2014, and now piling on the indictments in a desperate attempt to stop Donald Trump running for president next year.

Among the investment corporations we must mention BlackRock, where chairman and CEO Larry Fink is also on the Board of Trustees of the WEF. Profiting hugely from the Ukraine war, BlackRock hopes to make further profits from ‘rebuilding’ whatever’s left of the country after the war.

Keeping a slightly lower profile are other investment vehicles including Vanguard, the world’s second-largest asset manager. Then, and seeing as we are talking big money, and investments, the major banks are of course involved.

BlackRock, Vanguard and the rest are not companies as we have known them. They manufacture nothing. They create nothing. They grow nothing. They scarcely exist in the realm of the physical. They are amorphous, multi-tentacled entities that suck in other people’s money and use that money to grow their own power over those who trusted them.

Having just mentioned banks gives me the excuse to introduce Jamie Dimon, CEO of bankers J P Morgan. More specifically, I refer you to this report from April.

This is important because if you understand what Dimon is saying, why he’s saying it, and if you also understand the context, it’ll help you grasp the Globalist agenda.

Because believe me, he spells it out.

The chief executive of JP Morgan has suggested that governments should seize private land to build wind and solar farms in order to meet net zero targets.

Jamie Dimon, the longstanding boss of the Wall Street titan who donates to the Democratic Party, said green energy projects must be fast-tracked as the window for averting the most costly impacts of global climate change is closing . . .

“We may even need to evoke eminent domain we simply are not getting the adequate investments fast enough for grid, solar, wind and pipeline initiatives.”

“Eminent domain” is the US equivalent of compulsory purchase.

This one-minute video might help you understand things a little better.

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AN ATTACK ON THE WEST

But more than an attack on the West the New World Order is an assault on Europe. By which I mean the continent and culture of which we are part, not the political union. An attack on the continent’s economy, on its ethnic and cultural integrity, and on its civic and societal stability.

This is to be achieved partly by the pursuit of Net Zero resulting in ‘degrowth’. Also, through promoting sexual and other perversions. The assault on Europe also insists on unrestricted immigration, of young males who’ll reject European values and hold White people responsible for their own cultures’ failings and inadequacies.

Not entirely correct, but you’ll get the gist. Click to open enlarged in separate tab

Understand that and you’ll understand how fundamental the EU Commission is to the Globalists achieving their genocidal objectives. You’ve already heard from Jamie Dimon, and banks play a big part in this project, so you shouldn’t be surprised at Coutts Bank recently making Nigel ‘Mr Brexit’ Farage a non-person.

For the undermining of the West increased dramatically following the twin shocks 0f 2016 – Brexit and Trump. These were wake-up calls for the Globalists.

And if you’ve taken all that in then you should have no difficulty understanding that a White, Christian country defending the nuclear family, preaching patriotic virtues and eternal verities, a country that refuses to bow to the Globalists, must be brought down. Yes, here I’m referring to Russia.

Returning to the West, we are being targeted for a number of reasons:

1/ The West is wealthy, not just its countries, but also its citizens. Europeans have high levels of personal wealth and assets. A lot to lose, or be stolen.

2/ Europe has to be crushed because the Globalists envision resistance from intelligent, educated people figuring out what’s happening and challenging the agenda. As we see happening.

3/ For all sorts of reasons other parts of the world still look to Europe for leadership and inspiration. A broken Europe sends out a powerful message.

Perhaps the clearest proof that Globalism is an assault on the West is the anti-White racism that is now prevalent in the media, in academia, in Hollywood and other cess-pits where luvvies are encountered.

You know the kind of thing . . . White man says something hurty to Black man, media goes ballistic over ‘racism’. Black man kills White man, media says nothing.

This racism went full-throttle when a career criminal died in a botched arrest a few years back. Now we are asked to dismiss all the achievements and accomplishments of the European race, ignore all the benefits the White man has given humanity, in favour of childish sloganising like ‘White privilege’ and ‘Black Lives Matter’.

All manner of idiocies must be employed because of course the real reason cannot be stated. And that reason is that race is being used to burden White people with guilt in order to undermine their confidence, done in pursuit of the bigger objective which is to destabilise and weaken the West.

Though sometimes the obsession with race goes too far and they make themselves look complete idiots. (Full article here.)

What thought processes were tripping their fevered way through that Wokie mind?

What would really worry me would be that whoever did that, plus his / her / its superiors, think it was a good thing to do, and that only ‘racists’ would complain.

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LAND

The J P Morgan CEO was talking about taking over farmland, which he justifies by saying, “green energy projects must be fast-tracked“.

But it’s not really about green energy, and it’s certainly not about saving the planet. It’s partly about reconfiguring land ownership. And it’s partly about control over food production, because whoever controls the food supply controls the people.

This is why the Dutch government tried to put 3,000 farms out of business, and why the Irish government wants 200,000 fewer cows. And of course, why our very own and self-styled ‘Welsh Government’ is waging constant war on our farmers.

“But you’re wrong, Jac, it’s about emissions, mun“. No, it’s not, you idiot! Emissions is just another pretext, this one imposed on Ireland and other countries by the European Union, a body I’ve told you is controlled by the Globalists.

Thankfully, things are not going to plan.

As you know, Dutch PM Mark Rutte was ousted not long ago, with his slavish service to the Globalists being the main reason for his going. Not just the attack on agriculture but accepting excessive immigration and other damaging idiocies demanded by his WEF masters.

Irish farmers are getting angry because, in addition to what you’ve just read, their government also wants to bring in EU-inspired nitrates legislation, perhaps similar to what we saw in Wales from Lesley Griffiths (and Gary).

Farmers protest in Bandon, Co Cork, July 13, 2023. Click to open enlarged in separate tab

There was a major demonstration by farmers in County Cork a while back, where various concerns were aired. There have been other protests around the country. Including this one at Kilkenny.

As if Irish farmers didn’t have enough to worry about, all their MEPs also voted for the EU’s Nature Restoration Bill. Another unconvincing pretext. And another illustration of how the Globalists exploit the environmental agenda.

And of course, as I’ve reported here a number of times recently, there is growing anger at the Irish government’s open borders policy that sees hundreds of unvetted young males dumped on small towns across the country.

Now it’s hitting the Irish tourism industry as embassies warn their citizens that Dublin is no longer a safe city.

But having mentioned land, it’s natural to consider the food supply. We’ll return to the ‘refugees’ later.

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FOOD

In a nutshell . . . the objective is to use environmental arguments to undermine livestock farming and make large swathes of land available. Which will either be bought by governments, as was proposed in the Netherlands, or else by major corporations like BlackRock, and banks like J P Morgan.

Even if the land is initially bought by governments it will eventually pass to the corporations, the banks, and very wealthy individuals. (Governments will dress up such sales as being good for the national finances.)

At this point you may be worrying that if farmland is taken out of production there’ll be no meat produced, but don’t worry – alternatives are already lined up. These seem to take two forms; either insects, or laboratory-grown ‘meat’ churned out of 3D printers. Honestly!

That’s not all. For to believe the BBC (and I know you all do) Italians now enjoy cricket-based pasta.

In reality, Italy is moving in the opposite directly. For the government there recently banned lab-grown ‘meat’. Though the BBC explains this perversity, in the article’s opening sentence, as the work of a “right wing government“.

The implication being that to insist on real meat is a form of fascism.

But if you do want ‘meat’ from laboratories, then ‘Dr’ Bill Gates, of Covid fame, is your man. Because he believes that “rich nations should shift entirely to synthetic beef“. And by happy coincidence, Gates invests in some of the major companies making this ‘meat’.

Gates’ interest in farming even extends to buying farms. Lots of farms.

And it should go without saying that Gates is big in the World Economic Forum. Just like Larry Fink of BlackRock, and Jamie Dimon of J P Morgan.

Image: Sky News. From 2008. It’s difficult to find a more recent one of Gates with WEF CEO Klaus Schwab. Click to open enlarged in separate tab

What a system Bill and his buddies have worked out! They have an organisation telling us that we humans, with our cars, our household heaters, and our farm animals, are destroying the planet.

We must therefore give them all up – and they’ll look after us!

The land made available by the abolition of farming can be smothered with Unreliables to make lots more money for BlackRock, Vanguard, J P Morgan and others. Or perhaps the land will be used for greenwashing, or handed over to the Globalists’ allies in the environmental lobby for ‘re-wilding’.

Let Dr Vandana Shiva explain carbon offsetting and a few other things in this 2:45 video.

The truth is that how the land is used in future is less important than getting the farmers off that land in the first place. That is the priority.

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HOMES

With that priority being part of a bigger process that sees wealth and assets transferred from individuals, small investors and family businesses to mega corporations and multi-billionaires. It has been described as the biggest transfer of wealth in human history. And it probably is, because it’s not restricted to farms.

Take mortgages, which have been getting more and more difficult to obtain for first-time buyers, with those who already have mortgages finding it increasingly difficult to keep up their payments.

Soon, some company owned by a mega corporation, maybe the one pushing up your mortgage, will come along and say, “Hey, look, your house has obviously become a liability, so sell it to us and we’ll let you carry on living there with just rent to pay.”

Just think about that for a minute. By paying into a pension fund or an insurance policy controlled by one of the big investment corporations, which also controls the lender handling your mortgage, you have contributed to losing your home.

What a system! They can’t lose, you can’t win!

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THE CLIMATE SCAM

This section is headed ‘The Climate Scam’ because that’s what the hysteria about the climate really is – a scam.

But don’t just take my word for it, here’s a Nobel Prize winner saying it. Though of course he has now been ‘deplatformed’ so people can’t hear what he has to say.

That’s how the Globalist narrative is pushed. You buy those who can be bought and silence those who can’t be bought.

To explain why climate hysteria is being used in the way it is, just think of those black and white movies from the ’50s about alien invasions of Earth. They always result in the bickering nations putting aside their differences to combine and defeat the global threat.

Not even those we’re discussing here could come up with a credible alien invasion, but the principle holds – fear.

Anthropogenic climate change would affect us all and if those wanting to persuade us it was happening had bought enough scientists, brainwashed a generation or two of children, and owned the mainstream media, then it could be done.

And that’s exactly what’s happening.

But they’re struggling because the planet isn’t playing ball. Which is why the original threat of ‘global warming’ became ‘climate change’, ’emissions’, or anything else attributable to human activity . . . and therefore open to restriction and control.

More recently CO2 has been demonised on the absurd premise that carbon dioxide is destroying the planet by being linked with rising temperatures. There is no connection between carbon and rising temperatures, and Earth flourished in the past with higher levels of carbon in the atmosphere.

But the Globalists know this. The ‘dangerous carbon’ scam is really being pushed because it provides a means of taxing us and restricting our freedom of movement, while also providing profits for the Globalists in the forms of carbon tax, or carbon capture often known as ‘greenwashing’.

And of course from ‘green energy’, often on land from which farmers have been removed.

This 10-minute video explains it very well. I advise you to watch it.

But not only does the commercialisation of carbon provide profits for the Global elite in new and innovative ways, it also provides opportunities for more traditional criminals. As this case from France tells us. Here’s a case from Germany. And a third from Spain.

With the weather and the climate not co-operating, those who would rule us are now contemplating, both publicly and in secret, how they might influence the weather to persuade us of their claims.

This is a truly frightening prospect. For if the Globalists could control the weather, then they would control the world. Floods, droughts, blizzards, thunderstorms – on demand.

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SEXUAL DEVIANCY

Anyone who’s studied history knows that sexual deviancy and excess often play a role in bringing down civilisations. This regularly links with other signs of decline such as a falling birth-rate, as was the case in Sparta; and a reluctance to defend one’s borders, which contributed to the decline of imperial Rome.

The Globalists know their history.

Sexual deviancy and associated mental disorders are being promoted widely today, but only in the West. Much of it dependent on the idea that biology counts for nothing and a person can be whatever sex or gender they choose to identify as.

The irony being that those who push this defiance of science are the same Globalist puppets who shout “Trust the science!” when it comes to locking people in their homes because of a virus no worse than flu, and in defence of the climate scam.

When I talk of sexual deviancy you know what I mean. I’m talking of ‘Pride’ months that never end, and of ‘drag queens’ demanding to be in close proximity to children.

Here’s where I stand. Any man dressing as a woman and seeking access to children is a pervert. Any individual or agency allowing these perverts access to children is as guilty as the perverts.

‘Drag queens’ go hand in hand with the promotion of ‘trans rights’. Which again, is often a cover for perversion or proof of mental ill-health.

A man dressing as a woman does not become a woman; and he has no right to enter women’s spaces or to compete in women’s sports.

The only people who believe that women have penises and men can have babies are the unhinged, the brainwashed, and the intimidated. But encouraging them are those who see these lunacies as yet another tool (forgive the pun) to use in the destabilisation of the West.

The role the media plays in this is significant, and alarming. On the one hand the media will promote and defend the perverts, while attacking those stating biological facts or defending the rights of women.

An appalling example from the BBC came to light a few days ago.

A ‘drag queen’ named Andrew Way, of Wrecsam, who performed as ‘Miss Gin’, was convicted of making contact with a 14-year-old boy with the intention of meeting up for sex. Way had previous convictions.

In the first report, the BBC told us that Way was a ‘drag queen’, and that he’d been organising a Pride event for Welshpool, Powys. The first re-write removed the ‘drag queen’ reference. The second re-write removed the mention of the ‘Pride’ event.

Leaving us with us a man with no relevant associations or history who simply made a genuine mistake. Could happen to anybody.

For which of you hasn’t made innocent online contact with a 14-year-old boy, claimed to be 30 years younger than you really are, intended to send a photo of a puppy but chose the wrong jpeg and sent a photo of your genitals, and then been understandably horrified to have Plod knocking on the door?

The trans cult is deconstructed quite well in this short video.

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MASS IMMIGRATION

Now we come to one of the more obvious manifestations of the Globalists’ anti-West agenda. And while everybody can see the influx of undocumented, young male migrants, it’s amazing how few people see it for what it really is.

That’s because like all the other courses on the Globalists’ menu this one comes with a heavy garnish of lies.

To begin with, most of those now arriving on the south coast of England are not refugees. They are young men looking for easy money and easy sex. If they were simply seeking safety, then they could have found it in any of the safe countries they passed through, including of course France.

While that might apply to those coming from the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa, too many of the young men from Albania, Georgia and other countries will be coming to engage in criminal activities.

And who can blame certain countries with high levels of crime, or full prisons, for wanting to export some of their problems? That’s what Fidel Castro did back in 1980 with the Mariel Boatlift.

The USA was welcoming Cuban ‘refugees’, but many of those who arrived were criminals, sent over by Castro to cause problems for the USA. The great movie Scarface, starring Al Pacino, is about one such criminal, Tony Montana.

Why wouldn’t Algeria or Turkey be doing the same thing in 2023? How can anyone know the truth when thousands upon thousands of unvetted young men are being allowed into Europe every year?

Of course, those who oppose mass immigration and open borders are ‘racist’ according to the Globalists and their left-liberal shills. But as I say, everything from the Globalists is decorated with lies.

There’s the one about the ‘refugees’ being “mainly women and children“, but we only see young men. But that’s OK because they’re escaping war and conflict . . . which, if true, would mean they’ve run away, leaving parents, grandparents and siblings defenceless.

But the real gem, and this takes a bit of unravelling, is that these young men should be welcomed because Europe has a falling birth-rate and they’re needed to fill job vacancies.

Right, let’s work backwards.

1/ If the immigrants were needed to do low-pay jobs that natives of the country won’t do, then why are they paid benefits higher than the wages in those jobs?

2/ The economies of Europe are heading for recession, led by Germany. Which mean a loss of jobs.

3/ Globalists want to reduce the Earth’s population by some 6 or 7 billion. So why be alarmed by a falling birth-rate?

4/ Globalists also want to introduce Artificial Intelligence (AI) which will mean far fewer jobs for humans. This links with the increasing talk of UBI.

Finally, we must take into account considerations of ‘multiculturalism’, ‘cultural enrichment’ and ‘inclusivity’. Which of us hasn’t drifted off to sleep wishing Wales was more multicultural? Come on, be honest!

Being honest . . . these ‘benefits’ are turd polishing of Olympics standard, just ask the Swedes. Or the French. Or the Irish. Or those protesting outside the Stradey Park Hotel in Llanelli.

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IDELOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

What I’m describing displays elements of fascist corporatism (but with corporations dictating to governments rather than co-operating), yet its foot-soldiers are almost exclusively Greens, left-liberals and avowed Marxists.

It’s a curious hybrid of a type we may not have seen before, and perhaps that accounts for so many people being confused by it.

Perhaps we could put ideologies aside, and view the Globalists’ ambitions in a historical context. Rich, powerful men (and it’s almost always men, both historically and with today’s Globalists), have always believed that their wealth should give them control over the common herd.

In a feudal system such a belief could be enforced with violence. In more recent centuries, with the gradual spread of democracy, it was argued that the franchise be restricted to ‘men of substance’.

The future envisioned by the Globalists is a kind of shadow democracy, a world where we still have a vote . . . but using it will be futile because the political establishments in every country will have been captured, and at elections we’ll be offered a host of parties and politicians – all signed up to the Globalist agenda.

The uniparty state will have arrived. We already see it on a Wales and a UK level. Across the water in Ireland, And in many other countries, where any party seeking to escape the Globalist ‘consensus’ is always dubbed ‘populist’, ‘far right’, ‘extremist’, if not outright ‘racist’ or ‘fascist’.

The message is clear: there are ‘accepted’ parties and parameters; those that reject the consensus put themselves beyond the Pale. They will be mercilessly vilified.

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SOCIALISM SUBVERTED

I’ve had an interest in politics for a long time now, but I can’t recall any time when I felt more disappointed with the left. Let me explain.

When I was younger I disagreed with socialists, obviously, but I still accepted that most of them wanted to improve people’s lives. But I found their class politics divisive, and most of them tended to be hostile to my hopes for Wales, or even to my national identity itself.

While the more extreme socialists wanted to bring down capitalism, which to them meant the West.

The socialists I grew up with believed in science-driven progress freeing people from cults and superstitions like organised religion. They saw themselves as children of the Enlightenment.

Then the left started adopting ‘ishoos’, many of which were inimical to the interests of those it had previously claimed to represent, which led to a rupture with the working class. Obvious by 2016 with Brexit and Trump’s victory.

To the point where, today, too many socialists pretend to believe in the unscientific and biologically impossible fantasies of unhinged narcissists. But there remains one constant – the hard-liners still want to bring down the West.

Maybe this is the key to understanding how the comrades today side with some of the wealthiest capitalists and biggest corporations on the planet.

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RUSSIA, UKRAINE, THE WEST

I set out my position on this tragedy in April last year, in Ukraine: A Personal View. Obviously, that piece, written not long after the conflict started, could be updated, but I can’t think of anything I’d change.

I’ve already mentioned that Russia is a target for the Globalists because it’s a White, Christian country, where traditional values of family and nation are still respected, and the trans cult is rejected.

But over and above these issues there are – as always – more venal considerations. Russia is the biggest country on Earth, with vast natural resources, and no doubt there are resources yet to be discovered. The untapped wealth is incalculable.

Standing between the Globalists and this wealth is Vladimir Putin, and a country increasingly suspicious of the West since the Kiev coup of 2014, the billions of dollars poured into Ukraine, and of course the blowing up of Nord Stream 2, which deserves a mention.

Nord Stream 2 was a pipeline bringing natural gas from Russia to Germany. Cheap, reliable energy, in an agreement that benefitted both countries. As this Guardian article from just before Christmas 2021 article puts it: ” . . . keeping 26m German homes warm at an affordable price”.

But for the Globalists, Nord Stream 2 presented a problem. The problem being that the arrangement gave Russia too much influence in Europe’s largest economy – at their expense.

So just under a year ago someone blew up Nord Stream 2. (Nord Stream 1 was also hit.) It was the worst act of sabotage in history, and also the biggest pollution incident. The finger points everywhere, but it’s unlikely anyone will be indicted.

Unless of course they fall into the hands of the Russians.

The Russia-Ukraine situation is succinctly explained here by Douglas A MacGregor.

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SOME FINAL THOUGHTS

As I keep reminding you, Globalism is, fundamentally, a war against the West; that is, Europe, the USA, Canada, and a few other countries.

This war being waged by the Globalists has twin objectives: the accumulation of global power and assets into very few hands, while making it very difficult for us to protest against what is happening.

The first will be achieved by using existing financial systems, and freedom from political interference through control of Western political establishments. The second by using the media and Big Tech to denigrate and to silence critics.

And it will all be achieved without a mandate, for no element of the Globalist agenda would survive a popular vote, so it must be implemented surreptitiously.

An example might be covering Wales in foreign-owned wind turbines offering us nothing. Or allowing men into women’s toilets because they claim to be women. Or the imposition of ULEZ / 20mph / 15-minute neighbourhoods. Or perhaps being made to give up your car, or your gas cooker.

The list of things demanded by the Globalists and their useful idiot allies pushing the Woke agenda is endless. And they all work against our best interests to serve contrived ‘problems’.

Though ‘useful idiots’ may not be the correct term in all cases, for some of those now serving the Globalist agenda are singing their old refrains.

I can remember a time when vegans were regarded as dotty but harmless, found on the fringes at Liberal Party conferences, they were the ones with the scruffiest beards and the broken sandals.

But in recent years vegans have emerged into the limelight, to the point where local councils and education authorities are now taking meat off the menu at schools and other establishments. It’s happening in Oxford, Edinburgh, Exeter.

Now why is that? Of course! – it’s because veganism serves the Globalist agenda against livestock farming, so it must go mainstream. And the captured media will ensure that.

I have never harassed or bullied a vegan or a vegetarian. (My daughter is a veggie.) They can eat whatever they want – but so can I. Unfortunately, my easy-going attitude is not how Globalism operates. Because Globalism is totalitarian, and before long the only choice will be veganism, or going hungry.

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CONCLUSION

There’s so much more I could have included in an essay on how Globalists operate. But where would I start?

With the lies surrounding Covid? The role of ‘Dr’ Bill Gates in that bonanza? The interplay between governments and Big Pharma? Were Covid lockdowns a trial run for climate lockdowns?

Then there’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). For the path we’re on now leads inexorably to a system in which cash is outlawed, and every transaction you make is recorded and noted. Step out of line and you risk being denied access to your own money.

I’m not making this up. It’s how things are done today in China, and despite the obvious differences, the Globalists are big admirers of how the Chinese Communist Party can keep 1.3bn people under control.

Justin Trudeau gave the game away during the Covid pandemic. Do you recall how he threatened to freeze the bank accounts of those opposing the vaccine mandates? Especially the truckers who’d driven to Ottawa and brought the federal capital to a standstill.

But the left-liberal media in Canada and elsewhere loved Trudeau for it, and weighed in and accused the truckers of being ‘extremists’, and ‘racists’. And all the while their Globalist masters beamed.

(The sight of a Confederate battle flag has a wondrous effect on leftists, Wokies and, now, Globalists.)

Looking at the bigger picture it’s clear we are approaching a world in which the political, economic, military and cultural influence of the West on the rest of the globe will be weakened.

The US dollar will cease to be the world’s reserve currency. The BRICS bloc is taking in new members. Even Argentina is considering joining.

Which could mean that Globalism might be a misnomer, for what really confronts us is a last-ditch attempt by the USA, with allies in Europe and elsewhere, to maintain its hegemonic position over an increasingly multi-polar world where doors everywhere are being slammed in Uncle Sam’s face.

‘Globalism’ limited to North America and western Europe because Russia and China are obviously out of reach, India and other major Asian players are reluctant to comply. And now we see Africa increasingly detach itself from the Western sphere.

Whether what I’ve written about here is indeed global, or more limited in its scope and ambition, is irrelevant for the outcome. I say that because it will affect you in exactly the same way.

Those I’ve referred to as ‘Globalists’ present an existential threat to the West and to our individual freedoms. For they want to erase nations, to destroy the nuclear family, control how we live, where we live, what we eat, how far we can travel, how fast we can travel, whether we can afford to heat our homes, what we are allowed to say, and who we are allowed to listen to.

You’re free to dismiss my warnings and follow the sirens’ call. But if that is your choice, then enjoy your freedom while you can.

Because your ability to make such decisions will not last for much longer. Not unless you start defending the basic freedoms you have always taken for granted.

♦ end ♦

Guest Post: Update from Patagonia

On 08/11/201808/11/2018 By JacIn History, Patagonia, Tourism, Welsh Language15 Comments

I first became acquainted with Jeremy through my old mate, the late Rhobert ap Steffan, known to the inner circle as ‘Castro’, who made a number of trips to Patagonia. I’d known Rhobert for many years, we spent the Investiture period in ’69 with a couple of other young rebels in Ireland.

We had a great send-off on the Swansea-Cork ferry from our Special Branch ‘tails’ (we each had two), who didn’t believe we were going. They followed our car in a convoy down to the docks, boarded the ferry, even bought us drinks, and then waved good-bye from the quayside as we sailed off.

God! it was a touching scene. Them: ‘The bastards really are going’. Us: ‘F### off, copper!’ Ah! Happy days!

But enough nostalgia. First, a biography of our guest writer, Jeremy Wood, and then he’ll bring you up to speed with events in Esquel, Trevelin, Ysgol y Cwm and Bodega del fin del Mundo. (Ahhhh . . . Malbec!)

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JEREMY WOOD

Jeremy Wood is one of the best-known authorities on Welsh Patagonia (to the extent of sometimes being referred to as ‘Mr Patagonia’). He lives in the home town of his Esquel-born wife, Cristina, and young son, Tomos. He is on the committee of the Welsh Society in Trevelin and is actively involved in fund-raising for the town’s Welsh school, Ysgol y Cwm.

He featured extensively in Jon Gower’s 2015 book, Gwalia Patagonia, the sales proceeds of which have been generously dedicated to Ysgol y Cwm. He is involved in numerous projects relating to Patagonia and to the Welsh in Patagonia, about which he writes regularly for newspapers and magazines in the UK and the United States.

Jeremy has also contributed important, newly-discovered archive material to the Welsh museums across Patagonia, including a long lost manuscript regarding the murders of 3 young Welshmen in 1884 by John Daniel Evans, and has recently published a book on that tragedy.

He is also involved with film, writing Esquel (20:35) as part of the programme of twinning with Aberystwyth (which he initiated and completed). Jeremy also worked with Matthew Rhys to produce a Spanish version of Hollywood Gaucho. While as a film historian he has unearthed from the BBC archives 22 films made prior to 1980 about the Welsh in Patagonia and not previously seen in Patagonia.

He was asked by the producers of the Oscar-nominated film, Patagonia, to develop a special tour of Patagonia which follows in the footsteps of the film. He was the Patagonia-based ‘fixer’ for Huw Edwards’ Patagonia documentary released by the BBC in 2015. He has a special relationship with the Palaeontological Museum in Trelew, featured in David Attenborough’s 2016 documentary about the largest dinosaur (and animal) ever to have walked the Earth.

Away from movies and television Jeremy organises tours of Patagonia for small and large groups and has organised several musical tours, including two sell-out concert tours for tenor, Rhys Meirion.

Fittingly, he was one of only 30 Patagonians honoured to have been chosen to re-enact the landings of the first Welsh settlers in the 150th Anniversary celebrations in Porth Madryn in 2015.

Jeremy is a New Zealander and has studied Welsh at Ysgol Gymraeg yr Andes, the Welsh school in Esquel.

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WELSH LANGUAGE IN PATAGONIA SHORED UP WITH EIGHT-INCH NAILS

Hoelion Wyth is a Welsh phrase for somebody who can be relied upon. It literally means an eight-inch nail, which was the longest nail used in the construction of chapels in Wales and, as such, had to be very strong and reliable. It is also the name of a Welsh society whose motto is “Nid rhwd anrhydedd hoelen”, which means, more or less, “A nail doesn’t wear rust with honor”.

Hoelion Wyth is a society to which honor and trustworthiness are very important. It was founded many years ago and the members (about 200 people) meet every month throughout Wales to enjoy wine and conversation. They regularly invite people with an interesting story to tell to attend their meetings and speak to them.

In 2015, I had the pleasure of taking 4 of their members for a trip around Chubut, the Argentinian province where all the Welsh towns and communities lie. In anticipation of their love of wine, I loaded 14 cases of Patagonian wine into my Toyota 4×4 and we travelled from Puerto Madryn on the Atlantic coast to Trevelin in the Andes for two weeks, meeting many members of the Welsh community, visiting homes, farms, schools and cemeteries, travelling to some of the most remote corners of Chubut to see our national parks, glaciers, deserts, geology and dinosaurs. And, with each Welsh Patagonian experience, we enjoyed Patagonian wine.

All my passengers were/are fluent in the Welsh language and use it in preference to English when they speak to each other. Outside Wales, the only place in the world where the language is still spoken is Chubut. Therefore, the most emotional moments we shared during our trip were when we met Argentinians who spoke Welsh and when we visited schools in Patagonia to see children learning and speaking Welsh.

Our visitors understand that the Welsh language is endangered in Chubut and that no money is available from any official source in Chubut to pay for Welsh schools. Therefore, when they returned to Wales, they talked about how they could combine the interests of their Society with the strengthening of the Welsh language in Argentina. The magic formula was then invented – to import wine from Patagonia to sell in Wales (and the rest of the UK) and to donate all the profits to our school in Trevelin, Ysgol y Cwm (which means School of the Valley). At that time, in the early days of the project, they bought the wines from importing agents in Wales and added labels around the necks of the bottles to demonstrate the connection with the Welsh School in Patagonia. To date, they have already raised over $15,000 and haven’t taken a penny in profit themselves.

The group has just visited Patagonia again (much to the regret of my liver) and, on this occasion, we visited the Bodega del Fin del Mundo (literally, the Vineyard at the Bottom of the World), a Patagonian estate of almost 5,000 acres of 12 different grape varieties and with a production capacity of over 10 million bottles per year.

We spent the day with Julio Viola, the son of the founder of the vineyard, who insisted that we try over 30 different bottles from the estate, ranging from delicate champagnes to raunchy reds, and that we explain in more detail about the Welsh language still spoken in Trevelin (a few hundred kilometres south of the vineyard) and how the vineyard could help us raise more money for Ysgol y Cwm.

We left many hours later, most on wobbly legs, with a commitment from the vineyard to look seriously into a production run in Patagonia of a Malbec/Cabernet Sauvignon blend with a label, in Welsh, explaining the presence of the Welsh language in Argentina and the continued teaching and promotion of it at Ysgol y Cwm.

For more information on the wine, please contact John Watkin – jobawat1@gmail.com

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YSGOL Y CWM

The first Welsh settlers arrived in Patagonia in 1865. In 2015, we commemorated the 150th anniversary of their arrival and there were celebrations throughout Chubut. In 2013, the Welsh communities in Esquel and Trevelin met to decide how they would celebrate 2015. (I live in Esquel and I am a member of the Committee of the Welsh Society in Trevelin.) I suggested that we should not plan to do many things, but that we should plan only one thing and that we should concentrate all our efforts to do that thing very well. At that time, children and adults received their Welsh lessons by visiting classrooms in Esquel and Trevelin, but we did not have a full-time school. We decided to build a bilingual Welsh/Spanish school for children between 4 and 11 years of age! The school would teach the Argentine national curriculum in Spanish and Welsh!

The Governor of Chubut (Martin Buzzi) at that time promised to pay about half of the costs as part of his contribution to the 150th Anniversary celebrations. Of course, he paid nothing. Mario Das Neves, the next Governor, also paid nothing. The National Government of Cristina Fernandez paid nothing and the current National Government of Mauricio Macri paid nothing. In fact, the Minister of Education in Macri’s government said that it was the national policy not to support bilingual schools.

The Welsh Society in Trevelin owned some land near to the centre of the town. It decided to divide the land into building plots and sell the plots to raise money to build the school. It did not expect to sell all the plots immediately and therefore asked an Argentine-Welsh architect from Esquel to design a school which could be built in stages – a few classrooms at a time. As it sold more land, it could build more classrooms. Of course, it didn’t anticipate how quickly the Argentine peso would go down and how quickly inflation would increase. But, despite all these difficulties, the school was opened on time in 2016 with the first class of children. Each year since, it has introduced another class. In March 2019, it will introduce another class and open the 5 new classrooms, which are nearing completion (at the moment, the Welsh Society does not have enough money – about 5,000 dollars – to pay for a boiler, so there is a chance that the very picky Argentine inspectors may delay the opening).

Trevelin and the Welsh community in the Andes now have a nursery school and a junior school, which are recognized by the Chubut government and which are regularly inspected. The project has been so successful that it has a waiting list of parents who wish to send their children to the school. The reason for its success, despite being a fee-paying school, is that the school has “old-fashioned” values, that its teachers are committed and passionate and that it is not influenced by the politics of education at a national or provincial level. The majority of children who attend the school have no Welsh blood, but their parents recognize the above benefits, plus the internationally acknowledged merits of a bilingual education (irrespective of what the languages are).

The business model for the school is that the Welsh Association raises funds for construction and it provides the school buildings to a separate legal entity which operates and runs the school. This entity pays all the running costs, pays the teachers and collects the fees from the parents and from adult learners, who use the school facilities at evening classes. The school also receives assistance from the Welsh government, which provides the services of a Welsh teacher on a half-time basis (the other half of the teacher’s time is spent in nearby Esquel). However, the school receives virtually no financial support from the government in Chubut, which pays for one administrator and for 22 hours of teaching per week.

In 2018, the school employed a teacher from Wales, paid for from its own funds, and provided accommodation for her and her family. In 2019, an additional teacher from Wales will be recruited and paid for by the school. Your correspondent opened a bank account for the school in London and it receives money from supporters across the world in the form of standing orders and one-off donations. Trevelin is twinned with Aberteifi/Cardigan and they also hold fund-raising events for the school.

When the group from Hoelion Wyth came to the school, the children welcomed them with songs in Welsh and the ceremonial raising of the Welsh flag.

The Welsh society is now preparing another piece of land for sale to build houses. With the money received, it is planning the final phase – a small (400 seats) concert facility for use of the school and a permanent home for the annual Welsh festival, the Trevelin Eisteddfod.

For more information, please contact jeremywood@welshpatagonia.com

♦ end ♦

News Round-up 29.05.2018

On 29/05/201830/05/2018 By JacIn Cardiff Bay, Colonialism, Colonisation of Wales, Corruption, Cymrophobia, Devolution, Englandandwales, History, Media, Patagonia, Rugby, Welsh Independence, Welsh Labour, Welsh Language, Welsh Media38 Comments

This is a bumper edition, some 3,600 words, enough to keep you going for a week. It comprises six different reports so you don’t need to gorge and make yourself ill, you can take it one piece at a time. Enjoy!

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MRS AND MR MERRILL

Rose Mutale Merrill (née Nyoni), doyenne of the race relations industry in Wales, head of Bawso, and involved with so many other organisations, a Labour Party insider and enforcer, has figured on this blog many times. News now reaches me of yet another string to her bow.

For it is alleged that she has built up quite a property empire in some desirable locations in and around Cardiff. One such property being 6 Mitre Place, in Llandaf, quite close to the cathedral. This cost her £223,600 in May, 2005.

This was before her marriage to Travers Merrill in or around October 2008, he of Rhondda Life fame. ‘Rhondda Life?’ Well, yes, it was a venture which, according to this report, seems to have targeted the gourmet tourists with which the Rhondda Fach is inundated.

Or, to put a less generous interpretation on it, it was yet another non-starter claiming hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money in an attempt to be seen to be doing something in a Labour heartland and, more importantly, providing cushy numbers for Labour Party time-servers.

Travers Merrill was chief executive of Rhondda Life, though when the inevitable collapse came about, Shippo of Llais y Sais was considerate enough to see that Merrill’s name did not appear.

Looking through the papers filed with Companies House I see that after the liquidators – based in Leicester! – had taken their pound of flesh Rhondda Life seems to have been left with 43 pence in the kitty. Another great success for the Poverty Party.

This is what happens when socialists are allowed anywhere near public money (click to enlarge)

But let us hie again to leafy Llandaf.

What I found strange about the title document for 6 Mitre Place was that even though the property was bought before the nuptials in the autumn of 2008 the title document has been amended to show Mutale’s married name, but the erstwhile Raymond Blanc of Ferndale is not mentioned. Which suggests that she is the sole owner.

Not content with just one property she then purchased another not far away, opposite Llandough Hospital. And there have been other purchases since to give Rose Mutale Nyoni-Merrill what I’m told now amounts to quite a property portfolio.

My informant – who I’m sure is mistaken – suggests that there might have been ‘confusion’ in the purchase of 6 Mitre Place, confusion as to the source of the deposit for the property. Perhaps money got mixed up somehow. But as I say, my informant is almost certainly wrong.

Before bidding this formidable woman farewell, another informant tells me that Mrs Nyoni-Merrill is/was lined up – certainly, shortlisted – for the job of Older People’s Commissioner. Can this be true?

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Y WLADFA

In 1968 our national rugby team made its first trip to Argentina. As might be expected, contact was made with the descendants of the Welsh settlers in Patagonia. The BBC’s Onllwyn Brace – former rugby international himself – made a wonderful film of Alun Williams and others on that trip south.

Here’s a link to that 40 minute film (in Welsh). I urge you to find time to watch it. (Though the beginning could have benefited from editing.)

The Welsh Rugby Union has arranged another trip to Argentina for next month, playing two tests against Los Pumas. Given that this will be the fiftieth anniversary of that first tour, our cousins in Patagonia anticipated a visit, hoping that one of the test matches might be played in Trelew, or Puerto/Porth Madryn as on the last tour in 2006.

But it seems the WRU attaches no great importance to the Patagonia connection, or the Welsh language. As I discovered when our Patagonia correspondent supplied me with the information below.

Still from film of 1968 visit to Patagonia (click to enlarge)

Let me start by emphasising that the host country chooses venues for test matches involving touring teams, and for this tour Unión Argentina de Rugby (UAR) eventually gave the tests to the cities of San Juan and Santa Fe, both west of Buenos Aires and well over a thousand kilometres north of the Welsh settlements.

And even after the decision of the host country the venues still have to be confirmed by World Rugby.

When it became clear that no test match would be played in Patagonia the emphasis shifted to laying on entertainment and sight-seeing tours for WRU representatives, especially players, and of course fans, in order to raise money for the local Welsh schools. But for this to happen, the tour operators, responsible for arranging the fans’ itineraries, would need to play ball.

My source’s first contact with the WRU was a phone call on 27 September from chairman Gareth Davies (following a number of telephone calls to him and his secretary). Davies passed the job on to Mark Killingley, Head of Digital and Communications. Killingley appears to be an internet/PR expert who joined the Welsh Rugby Union in 2016 from its English counterpart the RFU

Following that telephone conversation my contact sent an e-mail reiterating the hope that the Welsh Rugby Union would – irrespective of where the test matches were held – show support for the Welsh language in Patagonia, specifically for the schools.

“As I explained on the phone, we would like to organise a series of events for both the fans and the WRU, with all money raised being used by the 3 Welsh language schools in Patagonia for the benefit of Welsh language teaching. To have the best chance of getting the UK Rugby tour companies on board, we would like to make an announcement as soon as possible. And, in order to get the best response from the Rugby Tour companies, we would like to have the open support of the Welsh Rugby Union.”

Contact was also made with Gullivers Sports Travel of Gloucester, the Welsh Rugby Union’s official travel agents. Because of course the WRU had said they wouldn’t do anything that conflicted with what Gullivers was arranging.

The representative at Gullivers that my source met – after travelling to England on other business – had never heard of the Welsh colony in Patagonia and showed no interest in learning. Gullivers would only go to Patagonia if the UAR held one of the games down there.

More bad news came with BBC Wales’ refusal to allow sales of the 1968 film I’ve linked to above, despite Cardiff University having prepared a transcript of the film to enable subtitles.

Even after the UAR announced the venues the Welsh community was still optimistic of getting fans to visit and were working flat out. As my source put it in another e-mail to Killingley, “We have a meeting of the Welsh schools in Patagonia this weekend, and I will travel to Trelew next Wednesday (600km!!), to try and finalise at least a programme for the fans.”

Making clear that the only thing being asked of the Welsh Rugby Union was an expression of support for what hard-working and dedicated people were doing down in Patagonia in the hope that tour operators would make it easier for fans to get down there.

E-mails continued to fly between Wales and Provincia Chubut in the desperate hope that the WRU might be persuaded do something – anything! – to recognise the Welsh colony in Patagonia and show support for it, for the Welsh language, and the schools helping keep it alive.

But it soon became clear to my correspondent that this was a forlorn hope.

The WRU made it clear that no players would be coming to Patagonia – ‘But we can send our CEO’.

‘No, I think people down here want to meet the players, but if they can’t come then how about donating some items that could be raffled to raise money for the Welsh schools?’

‘Oh, no, we couldn’t do that without a recognised charity being involved’.

‘For God’s sake these schools are recognised by the Argentina Ministry of Education – and we had to fight to get that recognition for Welsh language schools’.

On March 27, in what was close to the final communication, the Welsh Rugby Union was told:

“Throughout my communication with the WRU, we have tried to make a number of suggestions about how the WRU could help the survival of the Welsh language in Patagonia and each suggestion has met with resistance or rejection and never with any suggestion about how the WRU could help.

The WRU is obviously not willing to assist official representatives of the Welsh communities in Patagonia, who are asking for a simple endorsement of fund-raising initiatives which should align with the broad interest of a very public Welsh organisation. We have pointed out to you that this tour occurs 50 years after the first tour, where the WRU and the BBC went to great lengths to publicise the Welsh communities in Patagonia. You wear your commitment to the Welsh language very openly on your sleeves.”

As things stand, our cousins will next month be laying on events and food, entertainment and sight-seeing trips in the hope that fans will somehow make their way south from the northern cities. And it’s being done without any support whatsoever from the self-styled Welsh Rugby Union. Though in fairness, maybe Gullivers Sports Travel has now got the message, though it might have been garbled in transmission.

With its three feathers badge and its constant fawning over the English royals the Welsh Rugby Union is a national disgrace. Nothing exposes its ambivalent Welshness more than its attitude to the language, both at home and overseas.

Thank God we’ve got a national football team with a governing body far more supportive than the WRU of the language, perhaps even some of our footballers display a little more pride in their roots than many of our rugby players. For example, it was great to see Gareth Bale leave the field in Kiev on Saturday, after scoring his wonder goal, with the national flag draped over his shoulders.

Which seems to be part of a pattern.

For I’ve noticed in fifty years and more of following Welsh sport that our football fans seem to be increasingly dedicated to the team, and to Wales; whereas the death of heavy industry in the south seems to have robbed rugby of its traditional support base, for which spangly cowboy hats, inflatable daffodils and an endless supply of expensive beer are no real substitute.

But then, it’s all money.

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DELTA WELLBEING LTD

Readers of this blog, and indeed other blogs, especially those focusing on Sir Gâr, will be alert to any mention of Wellbeing, the catchword for the private healthcare development, shopping mall, leisure centre, 86-lane bowling alley, and home for the Welsh space programme, planned for Delta Lakes in Llanelli. Something of which we first became aware with the publication of this document (page 25, section 5.4).

The grand venture originally involved a company known as Kent Neurosciences Ltd, now, alas, dissolved. Among the directors of this enterprise we find a Professor Robert Marc Clement, a Turk by birth now expanding young minds at Swansea University.

Which is convenient, for Swansea University is a partner in the Delta Lakes project.

I have written nothing about Clement myself but he appears regularly on The Eye, a blog written by one of my biggest fans, Phil Parry, who is forever quoting me, updating his biography, and using my photos without permission. (You rascal, you!)

Kent Neurosciences’ place at Delta Lakes may now have been taken by Delta Wellbeing Ltd, Incorporated as recently as January this year with a single one pound share. The company was formed by a Russell Holmes Thompson from what I believe to be his home address in Wolverhampton.

So why would someone form a company in Wolverhampton that is obviously linked to Delta Lakes in Llanelli? Come to that, who is Russell Holmes Thompson? Well, he seems to have been involved in many companies over the years, a number of which are in the health and care sector.

He must have been previously known to Carmarthenshire County Council because on February 4 he ceased to be “a person with significant control” and a day later he was joined as director by Mrs Samantha Watkins, an employee of the council. On the same day the company’s address moved from Wolverhampton to the Dafen Industrial Estate in Llanelli.

Then, mysteriously, Watkins ceased to be a director on the 8th, but returned on March 20 accompanied by Owen William Bowen, possibly another council employee. So it was no surprise to see on March 23 Carmarthenshire Council listed as “a person with significant control”.

Which means that between February 8 and March 20 Thompson was officially the sole director despite having officially relinquished “significant control”. Odd, that.

As we know, Carmarthenshire County Council is simply Mark Vincent James, its chief executive (and Cardiff Bay property tycoon), by another name. And Delta Lakes is his gift to posterity, his lasting legacy for the grateful citizenry of Carmarthenshire, and nothing must be allowed to interfere with this vision.

So let’s keep an eye on Delta Wellbeing Ltd and the Delta Lakes project generally. Keep tabs on how much of the county’s money is used on this project, what other partners emerge, how much of the Swansea Bay City Deal money is diverted, what role is found for Marc Clement, how many new homes will be needed to help fund it, etc.

This could run and run!

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CASTING A LONG SHADOW

The tragic death of Carl Sargeant AM last November lifted the lid a little on the links between politicians, their advisers, PR outfits, third sector parasites and other denizens of that cess-pit known as Cardiff Bay.

Fresh information reaches me that makes the whole business look even more distasteful.

I’m told that following Sargeant’s death, Christina Rees, MP for Neath and Shadow Secretary of State for Wales, had to be forced by other Welsh MPs to make a statement of condolence. Because, I’m told, she, or perhaps her political adviser, former Cardiff councillor, Luke Holland, had been briefing against Carl Sargeant, and that the briefings continued against former AM Leighton Andrews, Sargeant’s friend and defender.

There was outrage within the Labour Party over the behaviour of Rees and Holland, which the bruvvers managed to keep within the party (easy given the absence of a Welsh media) but even so, Holland’s position became untenable and he left, or was forced to leave, Ms Rees’ office.

So what did the boy do next?

He did what everybody in his position does – he set up a PR outfit! This one called Cathod Du (Black Cats) Consultancy Ltd, Incorporated November 30. It seems to have no website and no presence beyond the few sparse documents at Companies House, but that may not matter, for it might now have a specific purpose, or a single client.

I’m told that Holland is a supporter of Vaughan Gething, who a few days ago announced that he was running for Labour leader in the Assembly. And in the best traditions of Welsh politics it is further suggested that Cathod Du may act as a conduit for funding the Gething campaign.

To complicate matters even further, Mark Holland is married to Louise Magee, the general secretary of Plaid Tlodi. Magee was heavily involved in Sargeant’s sacking on November 3. I believe it was she who sent the e-mail informing him of his dismissal.

Then, in a plot twist few writers would dare commit to paper – Magee was appointed by the party to be Jack Sargeant’s agent in his campaign to succeed his father! Understandably, the welcome mat was not rolled out for her on Deeside, so she booked into a hotel outside of the constituency and kept a very low profile.

And to round off this tale of betrayal and incestuous relationships I also hear that soon after being appointed the Poverty Party’s general secretary last April Magee gave hubby Holland the job of being her press officer, without the post being advertised and at a higher salary than other staff.

If so, this isn’t listed on his Linkedin profile, nor can I find information anywhere else, so can anyone confirm this?

I was told long before Carl Sargeant’s death that Vaughan Gething was Carwyn Jones’s chosen successor. Given how instrumental Jones’s staff and former staff were in the campaign against Sergeant, Magee’s role, and how that links with Holland, and how Holland may now be Gething’s bagman, it does make you wonder.

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AIRBRUSHED HISTORY

One of the few Twitter accounts I follow is the excellent Welsh not British and his On This Day feature, which last week reminded us of the Mold Riots of 1869. Just as well because I’m sure few of us know of this episode.

Like so many events in our history the Mold Riots have either been corrupted or ignored entirely. And yet, here we have Welsh miners suffering discrimination, being denied work, then arrested, with the episode eventually resulting in soldiers shooting down people in the streets of a Welsh town.

So how come ‘Welsh’ Labour doesn’t commemorate this event?

The simple answer is that any issue that pits Wales against England or Welsh against English must be avoided like the pox in case it encourages nationalist sentiment which might result in more people questioning the benefits to Wales of being in the Union with England.

But equally, taking the side of England or the English would be damaging for the party, so it’s best that certain issues and incidents are ignored entirely.

For when it comes to Wales the Labour Party is primarily a Unionist Party, everything else is secondary. The ‘socialism’ is just sloganising; the ‘concern’ for the downtrodden is nothing more than posturing to justify the maintenance of the party’s third sector auxiliary force; while the hostility to capitalism is an excuse to explain sheer incompetence from arseholes incapable of organising an economy.

Next year marks the 150th anniversary of the Mold Riots. The Poverty Party won’t commemorate the event but those who died and the others who suffered such blatant and racist discrimination should be remembered. They deserve it.

Let’s do it in 2019!

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SEND US YOUR SICK AND YOUR ELDERLY, WALES CAN AFFORD IT!

The Conservatives have once again raised the issue of free prescriptions, and once again, they’ve done it without really grasping the problem.

As the article from Llais y Sais tells us, people have been getting Bonjela, Strepsils, and even deodorants on prescription, which is guaranteed to get ‘Apoplectic of Cowbridge’ choking on his single malt but doesn’t amount to much in the greater scheme of things. For the abuse of the free prescription legislation is only the tip of the iceberg.

That’s because free prescriptions attract into Wales large numbers of people who would otherwise be spending a sizeable amount of money every month on prescription charges, for there are no free prescriptions in England. These will be people with serious and long-term conditions.

I see such people every day in Tywyn, and they can be found in every other small town in Wales.

Quite obviously, the demands such people make on the NHS will not be restricted to prescription charges. In fact, prescription charges will be only one small part of the burden imposed by a high dependency group attracted to Wales in the first instance by free prescriptions.

For they will also require hospital treatment, therapy and carers, there may be a nurse calling regularly. Or perhaps it’s transport, from the Wales Mobility and Driving Assessment Service, funded by the ‘Welsh’ Government. Its headquarters are at Rookwood Hospital in Cardiff but it has a northern office in Rhyl and ‘outreach’ services at Newtown, Oswestry and Pembrokeshire.

All of which adds up to a hell of a lot more in monetary terms than prescription charges.

Of course a high percentage of the people we’re discussing will be middle-aged and elderly, which helps explain why we also read in the article, “The number of ‘drugs for dementia’ items rocketed by 1,473% – up from just over 11,000 in 2002 to nearly 179,000 in 2017”.

An iron law of the relationship between Wales and England says: ‘Anything which makes Wales attractive to English people will result in large numbers of English people moving into Wales’.

It would be nice if this was a booming economy, an abundance of well-paid jobs, and a labour shortage, but it’s not. (Of course, many of the better jobs are reserved for English people, but that’s simply because of our colonial status.)

Apart from that, what attracts people to Wales in 2018 – especially the retired and other non-working groups – is cheap property prices (or easy access to social housing), nice scenery, few ‘ethnic minorities’, and free prescriptions.

Yes, Northern Ireland and Scotland also have free prescriptions, but they do not have large numbers of English people, moving in every year. Those that do move are more likely to be students than retirees.

It’s difficult to understand why the situation we experience today could not have been foreseen, and the problem mitigated with a residency period of say 10 years in Wales before anyone qualified for free prescriptions.

Or maybe it was foreseen.

Because if someone wanted to skew Welsh health and sickness statistics, over-burden our NHS, in order to paint a picture of we Welsh being unable to run our own affairs, then free prescriptions is a bloody good way of doing it.

I leave you with the words of a ‘Welsh’ Government spokesperson: “Free prescriptions were introduced in Wales as a long-term investment to improve people’s health”. The truth is that free prescriptions have made Wales a less healthy country.

♦ end ♦

Inglorious Isolation

On 07/10/201607/10/2016 By JacIn British Nationalism, Colonialism, Colonisation, Colonisation of Wales, English Nationalism, European Union, History, Patagonia69 Comments

A Brief Follow-up by the Guest Writer of the Previous Post

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Since 1982, the diplomatic position of the British state on the Falklands-Malvinas sovereignty issue has deteriorated markedly from an already weak condition.

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Britain no longer has any support among the countries of Latin America.

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The US does not recognise Britain’s sovereignty claim and has been urging Britain to enter into discussions with Argentina on the sovereignty issue.

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Russia has questioned Britain’s claims and senior politicians have highlighted the brazen hypocrisy of Britain’s stance on the issue of self determination for the people of Crimea.

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China unequivocally backs Argentina’s sovereignty claims.

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The EU currently takes no position on the sovereignty issue but accepts Britain’s de facto administration of the Falklands-Malvinas on the basis of solidarity among member states, despite having a number of member states with profound and undisguised sympathy with Argentina’s claims. Surely, even this position of neutrality will disintegrate post-Brexit.

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Currently, the only countries I have been able to identify that continue to support the British arguments are Canada and Taiwan. (The latter for very obvious and self-serving reasons, Jac.)

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This must surely be the time for Wales, Scotland and Ireland to use the next meeting of the British-Irish Council to join the international consensus in urging the British state to commence discussions with Argentina immediately on the Falklands-Malvinas sovereignty issue.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ End ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jac adds . . . Until I started looking for links for this piece I hadn’t realised myself just how isolated Britain now is on the issue.

While digging I also came across the recently broken story that Israel had supplied Argentina with weapons during the war. Hardly surprising perhaps, given that Buenos Aires has one of the largest Jewish communities outside of Israel. So with Jewish boys in the conscript army we should not be surprised by this revelation.

Though many of the accounts I read, including the one linked to, personalise it by attributing the decision to Israel’s prime minister at the time, Menachem Begin, who had fought against the British in the late 1940s. He was even quoted as having invoked the name of an old Irgun comrade hanged by the British by way of justification.

Other reports of this revelation inevitably described Begin as a ‘terrorist’, which got me to thinking . . . Why is it that all my life I have heard people around the world described as terrorists by the British media and British politicians – did these people come to England and terrorise people?

Of course not, these ‘terrorists’ – De Valera, Kenyatta, Grivas and all the rest – were in their own countries, defending their own peoples. Theirs was a fight against imperialism. Yet the British/English interpretation is that the empire was benevolence manifest, consequently only unhinged terrorists could want to break the imperial connection.

With the empire gone and England becoming isolationist the focus has changed, now the ‘enemy’ is anyone who isn’t English. Anyone who is different, and that includes us Welsh, unless of course we submit to the will of the xenophobes and reject everything that makes us Welsh. For in the new dispensation, to stand up for Wales and Welshness is to be an intolerant and divisive nationalist (© T. May).

This new and ugly Englishness, and all its ranting prophets and hangers-on – particularly those in Wales – must be treated with a combination of contempt and ridicule. And if that fails, then we must do to them as they do to others and shout them down.

This is no time to retreat to the moral high ground. Fight fire with fire.

♦

Time to Show Appreciation of International Relationships

On 30/09/201601/10/2016 By JacIn British Nationalism, Colonialism, History, Patagonia, Welsh Language207 Comments

BY A GUEST WRITER

There are a few countries around the world with which Wales has long-standing and profound cultural, political and social ties. The other Celtic countries, of course. The United States, where, famously, 16 of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were of Welsh descent — with particularly strong Welsh connections with Pennsylvania (aka “New Wales”) and Ohio. However, one of the most celebrated and enduring international relationships is with Argentina.

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Welsh Settlement in Argentina

When Michael D. Jones sought to establish a settlement for Welsh people free from the cultural repression and bigotry of the British state, it was the Argentine government that he approached for permission to locate Y Wladfa in Patagonia as a new country, a “little Wales beyond Wales”, where Welsh would be the language of religion, government, trade and education. And so it was that 153 Welsh settlers arrived in Patagonia aboard the Mimosa, a converted tea-clipper, in a bay which they named “Porth Madryn”.

The context to this remarkable venture was the hostility of the British state to the language and culture of the Welsh people which had reached new heights in the mid-Victorian era. The official denigration and suppression of the Welsh language was legitimized and fuelled by the reports issued by the three English commissioners appointed by the Westminster parliament to head an “Inquiry into the State of Education in Wales”. Their Reports infamously declaimed:-

“The Welsh language is a vast drawback to Wales, and a manifold barrier to the moral progress and commercial prosperity of the people. It is not easy to over-estimate its evil effects …” (Read more.)

eisteddfod_y_wladfa_1942 — Eisteddfod y Wladfa 1942 (click to enlarge)

In Argentina, however, the Welsh settlers were welcomed, and the Welsh-Argentine community continues to this day centred on the towns of Gaiman, Trelew and Trevelin, where there are today at least 5000 Welsh speakers.

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“Every Bloody Cause”

The long association between Wales and Argentina experienced tragedy in 1982 during the conflict in the South Atlantic.

Many Welsh-Argentines from Patagonia were conscripted into the Argentine forces occupying and defending the Falklands/Malvinas. One such Welshman, Milton Rhys, was sent as a young conscript as part of the Argentinian garrison to be a radio operator on the Falklands-Malvinas. Señor Rhys has given a poignant account of his experiences during the period of Argentine rule and the subsequent British invasion. Milton Rhys is the great-grandson of William Casnodyn Rhys, a Baptist pastor and Welsh patriot who emigrated to Patagonia from Port Talbot in the 1870s.

milton-rhys-flying-the-flag-in-patagonia — Milton Rhys flying the flag in Patagonia

Of course, Welshmen fought on both sides of the conflict in the South Atlantic. Thirty-two Welsh soldiers of the British army’s “Welsh Guards” regiment were killed or severely wounded at Bluff Cove, with many suffering terrible burns, after they were left on board the ill-fated Sir Galahad logistics vessel for many hours awaiting orders to disembark – in a display of gross incompetence by the British military high command.

In these experiences on both sides of that senseless conflict, Alun Rees’s lines come to mind . . .

“Now Taffy is a fighter
when he hears the bugle call.
Name any war since Agincourt:
Taffy’s seen them all.

He’s fought the wide world over,
he’s given blood and bone.
He’s fought for every bloody cause
except his bloody own.”

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Competing Legal Claims to the Falklands-Malvinas

The conflict in the South Atlantic arose out of a long-standing dispute over sovereignty of the Falklands/Malvinas Islands between the British and Argentine states. Here is a brief synopsis of the competing claims.

Argentine Claims

It is accepted by both Argentina and Britain that first country with a good legal claim to the Falklands/Malvinas was in fact France, which established the first colony there in 1764 and gave the islands their original name after the port of St. Malo – Les Îles Malouines (subsequently rendered into Spanish as the Islas Malvinas).

The French subsequently agreed to transfer her claims to the Falklands/Malvinas to the Spanish. The Argentine claim that they acquired those rights from Spain in 1810 according to a principle of international law known as uti possidetis juris (basically, principle of international law which provides that newly formed sovereign states should have the same borders that their preceding dependent area had before their independence).

The Argentine claims were not effectively challenged by Britain until a British naval squadron arrived in 1833 and caused the submission of the resident Argentine garrison under threat of force.

On repeated occasions since the British invasion of the Falklands-Malvinas in 1833, the Argentine government has restated its claims.

In due course, the status of the Falklands/Malvinas was recognized as a territory to be decolonized under United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1514 of 14 December 1960, titled “Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples”.

Furthermore, earlier this year, the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), sided with Argentina accepting their maritime claims and fixing the limit of their territory at 200 to 350 miles from their coast – so awarding the seas surrounding the Falklands/Malvinas to Argentina.

Although widely denigrated or misrepresented by the British government and much of the British media, the Argentine claims to the Falklands/Malvinas have considerable substance in law.

British Claims

In a nutshell, the validity of the British claims to the Falklands/Malvinas rests on two questions:-

Was a plaque left by the British when they abandoned a brief settlement on the Islands in 1774 sufficient to entitle the British to re-assert a claim 60 years later (in 1833) and eject the existing Argentine settlement by threat of force?
Had France’s claims, which pre-dated any of the British claims, which France had transferred to Spain, and which Argentina had assumed on its independence, been extinguished by 1833?

To any objective observer, the basis of the British legal claims to the Falklands/Malvinas is decidedly shaky. When this was realised, the British government decided to switch the basis of their argument to one based on “self-determination”.

The self-determination argument has more than a touch of the Ealing Comedy “Passport to Pimlico” about it. How can a community of less than 3000 – smaller than Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen – and utterly reliant for all practical purposes on the umbilical cord with Britain, the colonial power, some 8700 miles away, assert a sovereign right of self-determination for its inhabitants? The Islanders are, of course, a transplanted population of British character and nationality. To attribute sovereign rights of self-determination to this tiny group of people is as ludicrous as astronauts claiming sovereignty over the moon.

Just as the British government and media persistently downplay and distort the basis of the Argentine claims to the Falklands/Malvinas, so too do they brush under the carpet the fundamental weaknesses in the basis of the claims of the British state to the islands.

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Pragmatism and Self-Interest

Ultimately, the Falklands/Malvinas sovereignty issue is not going to find its resolution in legal arguments over fine points of international law, since the arguments of both Argentina and Britain have been amply aired and found to be riddled with weaknesses. The time has therefore surely come for both states to consider rationally and pragmatically what the right result should be. For example:

Which country is best placed to administer these islands? Britain at a distance of 8700 miles or Argentina some 300 miles away.
Could the British state put the vast sums spent defending and artificially sustaining the tiny settler population to better use?
At a time of increased international tensions and security threats, should the British state be distorting its strategic defence priorities to defend the Falklands/Malvinas colony?
Can the British state continue to rely in the 21^st century, and post-Brexit, on political and military support from the US, EU and any countries in South America to maintain its occupation of the Falklands/Malvinas colony?
Following the Brexit vote, and the pressing priority for the British state to establish and upgrade trading relationships beyond the EU, should the British government be perpetuating trivial colonial conflicts at the expense of valuable trading relationships with the emerging economies of South America?

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The Future Role of Welsh Politicians

Given our unique, long-standing and treasured relationships with the Argentine government and people, isn’t it time that we in Wales stood up to the British state and voiced our opposition to the intransigent and counter-productive stance of successive governments on this issue?

Four years ago, the Argentine government reached out to senior members of Plaid Cymru to enlist their support for moves to resolve this dispute. These approaches were apparently rebuffed by Plaid at that time.

Isn’t it now time for a rethink on this – especially following the election of the pragmatic President Mauricio Macri in Argentina?

END

Jac says . . . Not long after the conflict in the South Atlantic I got to meet a few of the surviving guardsmen. One of them, from my part of Swansea, was here to marry a local girl. And of course his mates turned up for the wedding.

People still talk about the first time these survivors of the Sir Galahad heard the low-flying RAF jets come down our valley. Regulars in a Welsh village pub saw Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder at first hand.

sir-galahad-at-bluff-cove — The Sir Galahad was moored in Bluff Cove, with Welsh Guards aboard, inviting the attack from Argentine aircraft that inevitably came.

I’m not sure how many of them are still alive. The bridegroom from Manselton died in 1995, and this sad entry tells us that in 2010 his grave still had no headstone.

That’s the personal, the human, aspect of this tragedy. The wider picture can only be appreciated if we by-pass the British media, for the truth is that England stands almost completely isolated, virtually no one supports her claim to the Malvinas.

The claim is founded upon imperialist aggression and sustained by a combination of lies and yet more aggression, with contempt for international law and UN Resolutions thrown in. The excuse used is self-determination, ‘the people of the islands wish to remain British’.

You might as well ask the denizens of the Shankill Road if they support a united Ireland. Or go to a meeting of the Abbasock Holiday Home Owners Association with a petition demanding that Gwynedd doubles council tax on second homes.

Finally, let us not forget that throughout that conflict in defence of democracy and freedom – so memorably dismissed by the great Jorge Luis Borges as ‘two bald men fighting over a comb’ – Britain relied heavily on intelligence and other support from Chile. A country then controlled by Margaret Thatcher’s great friend General Pinochet, a man with firm views on democracy.

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Jac o' the North

Tag: Argentina

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