I’M IN SEMI-RETIREMENT AND THIS BLOG IS WINDING DOWN. I INTEND CALLING IT A DAY IN THE NEXT FEW MONTHS. POSTINGS WILL PROBABLY BE LESS FREQUENT AND I WILL NOT UNDERTAKE ANY MAJOR NEW INVESTIGATIONS. DIOLCH YN FAWR.
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The picture with YesCymru is becoming clearer, which makes those who clouded it ever more desperate. And dishonest.
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“Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies.”
Senator Barry Goldwater
I shall offend certain people by quoting this early influence on my political development. But it doesn’t matter how you try to twist it, what Barry Goldwater says there could have been written about recent events in YesCymru.
For when it comes to YesCymru, there may have been those among the takeover gang who sought to do, “what they regard as good”, but there were many driven by political fanaticism, and a few by self-interest.
And now it’s all over. The coup has failed and the plotters are slinking away.
So let’s have an update.
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WHO’S LEFT THE BUILDING?
It’s been difficult at times keeping up with events, but here’s how I believe things stand after collating information from a number of sources.
Llywelyn ap Gwilym has been keeping a low profile, making me wonder if he was hoping to hide, Claudius-like, and then emerge after the blood-letting to be acclaimed emperor.
But no, for a number of sources tell me ‘Ein Llyw Nesaf’ has promised to stand down and not seek re-election at the EGM. That said, others warn that he’s a ‘slippery customer’, and needs to be watched.
Then, some time over the weekend before last Tori West bade her farewell. But there was no presentation of a clock followed by a few pints down the Red Lion, where anodyne speeches were delivered about ‘Good old Tori‘, and her responding with, ‘I’ll be back to see you all from time to time‘.
Instead, she suggested that YesCymru should be razed to the ground. Which, if nothing else, calls into question her commitment to Welsh independence.
One source suggests that West may still consider herself ‘resignation fluid’. After that tweet she should be toast. And burnt toast at that.
I’m told the next to leave, on Monday last week, was Carys Eleri.
She will be best remembered for the video below. Even though it’s more of an exhibition of posterior than a gift to posterity I still see it as somehow fitting.
YesCymru members’ money was given to a company few had heard of. (Hardly surprising seeing as the company is less than a year old.) Then there are questions as to how this company gained the contract. Was there a tendering process? Does the Turk running the company know someone who may have been influential in YC? Is this company still receiving money from YesCymru?
As I say, I see this video as a metaphor – for the unfocused, spendthrift, self-indulgent and ultimately laughable organisation YesCymru became under the clowns now seeking the shadows.
On Tuesday last week Elin Hywel did her disappearing act. Like so many – all? – of those involved in the attempted and now defeated coup she is a member of Far Left Undod.
While some took to the shadows as the pressure mounted, one who tried to put on a show of resistance was Ben Gwalchmai of Labour for an Independent Wales.
But something has clearly happened with Gwalchmai and it might have been linked with complaints to the Central Committee about his online behaviour. One complaint was signed by some 50 people.
A source tells me: “The CC meeting to suspend Ben was supposed to have been last Wednesday, then delayed until Thursday, then delayed to today (Monday), and now tomorrow.” I hear feet being dragged.
Whether the Rasputin of the Severn Valley has been or will be suspended is unknown, but his YC Twitter account was certainly shut down last Wednesday. A couple of days later he used his personal account to put out a rant against the 16 local groups that mustered a vote of no confidence in the Central Committee at the recent sit-down.
Note that critics are ‘crazies’, and a democratic vote open to all is a ‘coup’.
Though Benji attempted to clarify his remark about ‘violent harasser’ by saying that he was not referring to himself, but to an online critic of the Central Committee, the so-called ‘Cornish Crow’, a Twitter account that was taken down on Sunday night.
But not before encouraging an imitator.
The personal account was putting out YC stuff today. Which might suggest that Benji remains part of the gang, but perhaps semi-detached? ‘We’ll pretend you aren’t with us’ kind of thing.
There could be a good reason for this. As I’ll explain in a mo.
Whatever his status vis-à-vis the Central Committee, Gwalchmai is a spent force. Utterly discredited, and perhaps now viewed as a liability even by the remaining CC members. (Which would really be saying something!)
There may also be legal action pending against him.
Ben Gwalchmai’s fundamental problem is that he’s ‘imaginative’. (Yes, that is a euphemism.) Take the recent example below.
Now, to read Benji, one might think that those awful ‘Fash’ had enlisted the help of the Kremlin to mount a full-scale assault against the organisation he and the comrades had so recently snatched from their evil clutches.
The Central Committee had to put out a statement clarifying that it was just a minor, personal matter. And no mention of PayPal.
Talking of the Central Committee, who is left?
Let’s recap . . . there’s possibly Llywelyn ap Gwilym, no doubt carefully weighing up the best move for Llywelyn ap Gwilym. Then there’s Sarah Rees, the vice-chair, and interim chair since Siôn Jobbins stepped down. And finally, there’s treasurer Gwyn Llewelyn.
And that, without suspended Niki Jones, is that. Apart from the indeterminate status of Ben Gwalchmai, which might even have changed between me writing this on Monday evening and you reading it.
UPDATE: The news has been broken now so I can tell you that Niki Jones resigned from the Central Committee tonight.
Which means that the Central Committee might have less than four members and consequently be inquorate. If so, then the only power it has is to call an EGM pretty damn quick to get a new CC elected.
A last-ditch attempt to remain quorate would explain ap Gwilym hanging on and Gwalchmai being allowed to mooch around. Because without them it’s just Rees and Llewelyn, and definitely inquorate.
One who seems to have slipped under my radar is Shane Brennan. In an earlier post I pointed out that with Iestyn ap Rhobert not seeking re-election as secretary his rival for the post, Shane Brennan, was a shoo-in.
What I didn’t know was that Brennan had been offered a job with The National and told that if he was taking it then he couldn’t be YesCymru secretary. Though when you think about it, working for Huw Marshall puts you on the same side as the Woke-Left takeover gang anyway.
Here’s Marshall crowing over the Twitter demise of the Cornish Crow. (Though I suspect he’ll be back soon.) Note that I remain a target. God! it brings a tear to the old Jac eye.
It has been suggested to me that the Cornish Crow’s fate might be attributable to media persons knowing others of that ilk in the employ of Twitter. Who knows?
For obvious reasons, the Central Committee kept quiet about Brennan’s non-arrival. Which means that in addition to possibly being inquorate the CC has also been stumbling along without a secretary since before the May 22 AGM.
YesCymru is an utter shambles!
Another departure was that of Diversity and Inclusivity Officer Jessica Harvey. One of those determined to turn YesCymru into TransCymru. She will not be missed.
The sole remaining employee is Harriet Protheroe-Soltani. Though I don’t recall hearing anything from her or about her for months. Is she still there? If so, what is she doing for £32,000 a year in her part-time job? (For she is also an official of Momentum.)
Putting it all together makes me wonder why the first mate and the purser pretend that the good ship YesCymru is sailing merrily along with a full complement of officers and a not-at-all-mutinous crew.
Obviously there’s the matter of remaining quorate, which we’ve just read about. But there are also suggestions that this pretence must be maintained because there are things to hide. And money to be accounted for.
Just one more thing that might need to be cleared up is the Equality and Diversity Sub-committee, which was a motion passed at the May 22 AGM. Were appointments made to this sub-committee? Can a sub-committee exist independently of the committee to which it is subordinate?
Questions. Questions. So many questions.
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FINAL THOUGHTS
The Woke-Left coup has failed, partly because those involved were just so bloody incompetent. But if you want specifics . . .
1/ The Far Left entryists believed that by using terms like ‘fascist’ and ‘far right’ for their critics they could swing more moderate socialists behind them. But this didn’t work. In fact, it may have had the opposite effect.
This I find very encouraging. It tells me there are decent people out there, reasonable and fair-minded socialists, prepared to work with others in the cause of Welsh independence.
2/ Once those who’d taken over began to assert themselves, and it became clear that for many outing ‘TERF’s and ‘transphobes’ was more important than working towards independence, they both revealed their true intentions and sealed their own fate.
3/ In some ways, those who joined the Central Committee were the reasonable face of the Woke-Left fringe. Because out there, on the howling peripheries, roam some seriously unhinged nutters! You have met many of them on this blog.
But those on the inside did themselves no favours by their social media interaction with the loonies. Both encouraging them and being encouraged by them.
An example of the behaviour of these loonies cropped up a few days ago. I don’t know this guy, I’ve had no dealings with him, but he is not alone in his experience of the Woke-Left extremists.
These evil and dangerous bastards mimic their heroes in the anarcho-nihilist cult Antifa: ‘We are absolutely in the right, which means we can do whatever we choose to those who oppose us and those we decide are in the wrong’.
The sort of attitude that leads to Inquisitions, pogroms, persecution, and the public beheading of unbelievers. So far we’ve only reached the de-platforming stage, and social media censoring, but the trajectory is clear.
An illustration of the co-operation between those on the inside and those on the fringes came to light tonight. It’s in a tweet from former Central Committee member Niki Jones, responding to Ben Gwalchmai, who claims never to have made or signed a complaint to YC.
He is of course lying, again, as the complaint from June 4 proves.
But just look at those names! Central Committee members mixed in with the worst of the gang. They’re all there: the mad axeman, ‘Dr Dildo Davies’, that disgusting creature who wrote the obscene tweet to a boy mourning his mother, the mayor of Bangor, and of course, the leader of the pack – Aled Gwyn Williams.
You can see the lines of communication, the links, for organising a pile-on.
Benji’s fiery pants must be visible from the Long Mynd.
UPDATE 10.08.2021: There was a reaction last night to the publication of the list of complainants against Niki Jones, made when it was realised she would not fall into line with the exclusionary Woke-Left agenda. It came from Benedict Belli, ‘BVB’, @no_pasaran90, one of those complainants.
After a chorus of, ‘Non, Je ne regrette rien’ he goes on to blame “that joke organisation” for a breach of confidentiality. It’s always somebody else’s fault.
YesCymru, as it is currently constituted, is no longer fit for purpose. There must be root and branch change, in both personnel and organisational structure.
Those involved in the takeover, and their social media foederati, must return from whence they came and never be allowed back into YesCymru.
For with their undoubted talent, their tolerant and inclusive behaviour, I have no doubt that those of whom I have writ could build up Undod into a movement that both captures the souls of our people and, by so doing, strikes terror into the black hearts of our enemies.
Then again, I could just be taking the piss. (Cos I enjoys a good laugh, I do.)
I started with a little something from Barry Goldwater, and I’ll end with some more wisdom from the great man.
“Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
God bless you, Barry.
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