Tag: Institute of Welsh Affairs

It’s Always Who You Know

On By JacIn Arts Council of Wales, Climate, Environmentalism, Labour Party, Public Funding, Renewables, Third Sector13 Comments

The old adage says: ‘It’s not what you know, it’s who you know’. Referring to family connections, the old school tie, Freemasonry or some other means of getting preferential treatment, especially when it comes to landing a contract, getting a job, or gaining promotion.

It’s just as true today, but the mechanism for preferential treatment has changed. Certainly in Wales. For what’s been added is believing in, or at least going along with, Woke thinking and Globalist dogma.

The sad, twisted mindset that pervades Welsh public life, and would see some people campaigning on behalf of cancer cells if Elon Musk discovered a cure for cancer.

For we are dealing here with zealots. Some of them truly fanatical.

In this piece I’m going to look at a specific funding pot run by the so-called ‘Welsh Government’ in order to explain what I mean.

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YNNI CYMRU GRANTS

Ynni Cymru (Welsh Energy) was set up by the previous Labour administration. It gives out grants of up to £999,999 for Smart Local Energy Systems (SLES) through Local Partnerships.

Bureaucracy, eh! Layer upon layer; where would we be without it?

It’s pretty obvious that Ynni Cymru was set up by the Corruption Bay establishment to counter criticism that all the money from ‘renewables’ leaves Wales with no benefits whatsoever for us.

Ynni Cymru was the start. Soon followed by Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru (owned by WG), and last month, a call for a state-owned energy investment company.

Too little, too late. And anything run by Labour or Plaid Cymru is doomed to fail.

There doesn’t seem to be a website for Ynni Cymru. Which might make it difficult for those out of the loop to know about the money on offer.

Ynni Cymru should not be confused with Ynni Cymunedol Cymru, where former Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood is secretary (cos she got lots of pencils).

There’s not a great deal of money involved with Ynni Cymru grants, £8.27m in total for 2026/27. But it’s the recipients I want to look at. Asking who they are, why they got their funding, and wondering whether it was justified.

Here’s a list of the grant recipients (scroll up for 26/27), with the amounts received. Let’s look at some of the big awards.

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RENEWABLE POWER PEMBROKESHIRE LTD £997,556

The first thing to say is that this lot used to be known as Gower Power Energy Co-operative Ltd. One of a nest of companies set up by eco-grifters who’ve settled on the western outskirts of Swansea. Gower Power always filed as dormant.

Obviously, it’s easier to take over an existing entity than to start a new one; but here it might suggest a connection, even a continuation under a different name.

Whatever, the directors of the new or renamed company are Peter Roger Davies, Jane Nerys O’Brien, Felix Merry, Brian Mark, and Ena Lloyd.

Davies and O’Brien are also directors of Community Energy in Pembrokeshire CIC. In fact, Davies is involved with many other outfits. A few of which have hit the wall. Hard.

Though I also see some old favourites Davies links with: Size of Wales (which plants trees in Africa), WCVA (a conduit for WG funding), Community Foundation Wales, Social Investment (Cymru) Ltd (run by the WCVA), and The Institute of Welsh Affairs. For nine years Peter Davies worked for Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water.

We can safely assume that Davies is well connected in Corruption Bay.

Felix Merry is a project manager for RES Energy Services Ltd. For eight years before that he worked for Natural Resources Wales, run by the ‘Welsh Government’.

Brian Mark “lives off-grid in Llandudoch“, and is involved with Grannell Community Energy Ltd, as is Jane O’Brien. Grannell has a wind turbine near Lampeter.

The only Ena Lloyd I can find works for Cynon Taf Community Housing Group.

Renewable Power Pembrokeshire is not an organic community group made up of local people coming together. It is led by those who ‘know people’.

Which will always help when it comes to getting funding.

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LLANIDLOES DISTRICT ENERGY LOCAL CLUB LTD £941,280

It was formed just over two years ago. And before this Ynni Cymru grant it seemed to have assets of just £6. (Click on link and scroll down to blue sheets.)

So who’s running this show? Well, the names given on the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) filings are: Neil Statham, Lisa Stead, Tim Ware, and Duncan Burwood.

The only Neil Statham I can find was a director with the Association for Environment Conscious Building in Huddersfield. The year of birth tallies, so I guess it’s him. He might have lived in Wales for a couple of years.

Lisa Stead seems to run a holiday business, and busies herself with the local Scouts.

Google AI says Tim Ware is “ . . . a self-described handyman, gardener, and wood and metal craftsman“.

As for Duncan Burwood; he is Dr Duncan Frederick Strathdee Burwood, who was until earlier this month a director and trustee of Llanidloes Energy Solutions Ltd. Which after 20 years in existence doesn’t seem to have done much. If anything.

I’m not sure I see any genuine locals there, nor do I see much experience in ‘renewables’. Why were they given just shy of a million smackeroos?

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YNNI BRO RHIAN CYFYNGEDIG £881,654

When I saw ‘Rhian’, I guessed we were going to Llanrhian, in north Pembrokeshire, where Meibion Glyndŵr made their debut in December 1979. This is another new company or, to be exact, a Community Benefit Society. With three directors: Huw Morris, Robert Laddle, and Neil Prior.

In the FCA entry we read:

The Society is a community renewable energy company, with aspirations to become a generator of green energy and leading on other renewable energy projects.

Ah! aspirations.

Huw Morris is Welsh, but I don’t think he’s local. I say that because his Linkedin page tells us he was educated at Aberdare Boy’s Grammar School. And I think he lives in Swansea, where he runs his ‘Higher Education Consultancy’.

Robert Laddle has been involved with many other companies, quite a few with Welsh names. (Though I think ‘Penberth’ is in Cornwall.) And I’m certain he lives in England. Maybe he has a holiday home in north Pembs?

Now we come to the star of the Llanrhian show in Neil Prior who, as chair of the community council, and a county councillor to boot, must surely be local. A busy boy, our Neil, and obviously well connected.

His Linkedin profile reads:

Your mush has to fit to be appointed to a health board, while Codi is the biggest housing association in Wales following the merger of Linc Cymru with Pobl. Telling me that Neil Prior is another who’d know his way around the Bay.

Which means that in Ynni Bro Rhian we have another new entity with no track record, just “aspirations” – and £883k to play with!

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RHONDDA CYNON TAF COUNTY BOROUGH COUNCIL £695,888

RCT council is of course controlled by Labour, and these grants were presumably awarded before the May elections, when Labour lost power in the Bay. It seems five projects across RCT and Merthyr received £1.37m.

  • Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council, Rhondda Cynon Taf – local authority project at Ysgol Nantgwyn supporting education and community energy. £695,588.
  • A Strings Limited, Treforest – specialist retail business. £40,065.
  • Cambrian Village Trust Ltd, Clydach Vale – community organisation supporting local people and activities. £169,020.
  • The Merthyr Tydfil Institute For The Blind, – charity and employer supporting disabled and visually impaired people. £388,840.
  • Business in Focus Limited, Dowlais – social enterprise supporting local businesses and entrepreneurs. £81,344.

I can’t find details for the first project beyond the vague: “project at Ysgol Nantgwyn supporting education and community energy“.

The last-named is yet another ‘social enterprise’. And looking none too healthy according to the accounts. With the Confirmation Statement overdue with Companies House.

Wales is weighed down with ‘social enterprises’. But social enterprises running on bank loans or public funding, and ‘advising’ other social enterprises and third sector outfits, are no substitute for a real economy; just a system kept afloat by the block grant from Westminster.

Independence with this as the model would reduce us to cannibalism in about five years, maybe less. On the plus side, if it ever came to that, then there are specimens in the Senedd that could feed the average village for a week.

Is the Ynni Cymru grant to Business in Focus really about green energy, and reducing bills, or a disguised hand-out to keep them afloat?

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AFANTI MEDIA LTD £668,558

This is owned by power duo Emyr and Mair Afan Davies, and they have a number of other companies. Here are those listed with Companies House for Emyr. And those for Mair. There is of course a big overlap. And many are no longer with us.

One that caught my eye, Cynhyrchiadau J Ltd, (Productions J Ltd), was Dissolved in June 2018. But with an outstanding charge held by Finance Wales, since renamed the Development Bank of Wales (DBW), run by the ‘Welsh Government’.

Then there’s the Avanti Media Media Group Ltd, with two outstanding charges with DBW. Though one seems to have been carried over from Cynhyrchiadau J.

Avanti Media itself, the recipient of the Ynni Cymru funding, shares the other charge with a third company, Avanti Media Group.

The ‘Welsh Government Media Service’ tells us us what the Afanti grant is for:

Afanti Media is set to receive £668,558 to help bring cleaner power centre stage at festivals, cultural events and broadcasts across Wales. The company has already used its battery technology at events including the Eisteddfod yr Urdd, Cân i Gymru and S4C’s Super Rygbi Cymru coverage.

The investment will help expand the use of battery-powered systems at events across Wales, reducing reliance on traditional diesel-powered generators while creating quieter event spaces and reducing emissions.

So it’s to phase out diesel-powered generators. Very worthy, perhaps. But shouldn’t a private company be funding this itself? And where are the community benefits?

When I saw the name ‘Afanti’ I was reminded of Avanti!, the newspaper old Benito edited between 1912 and 1914. Though it was during his socialist period, so I wasn’t a subscriber.

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SMALLER FRY

Just to be fair, and so they wouldn’t feel ignored, I also had a peek at a few of those who got smaller grants. Here’s one that caught my eye.

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G39 £113,400

That’s this lot. As you can see, they only got £113,400, but in these uncertain times, with Russian paratroopers ready to drop on us, blackouts forecast, and climate change about to engulf us, every penny counts.

The money is for solar panels – on a building g39 doesn’t own, and looks somewhat temporary! (Image here.)

So who or what is g39? It’s something to do with the Arts, I think. Here’s how it describes itself. Note the Palestinian flag, and the admission that the bulk of the funding comes from the Arts Council of Wales (ACW). Even though most of those involved have only a tenuous connection to Wales.

(The ACW is totally captured, and was the body that funded the decolonisation of the hated Welsh cake. For which we shall be eternally grateful.)

To judge by its Strategic Equality Action Plan, and the emphasis on “dismantling systemic inequality“, it’s another far-left gang that believes white people are evil.

The latest accounts (click here) confirm the ACW funding on page 7, and on page 5 you’ll read, in ‘Future plans’: ‘The Communist Party South Wales Archive Project’. Hang on – are we paying for this?

Looking at the Charity Commission entry for g39, and the financial history, we see that income has dropped steadily over the previous three years, and it’s been outstripped by expenditure in the past two years.

Making me wonder if the Ynni Cymru grant for ‘solar panels’ is a ruse to keep g39 afloat, because the figures you’ve just read head in only one direction.

Those involved with g39 can hold any views they like, but no organisation so partisan and exclusive – bordering perhaps on extremist – should receive any form of public funding.

The problem is that those giving the funding belong to the same far-left bubble, divorced from mainstream thinking, as the recipients. And that applies across the board, not just to g39.

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CONCLUSION

There are worthy causes getting grants from Ynni Cymru, but those I’ve highlighted seem questionable, often because I struggle to see the community benefits. And if we’re talking about cheaper energy, then the best way to deliver that is to dump net zero.

But that would mean having to admit the ‘climate crisis’ is one big scam, created to make the rich richer and the rest of us poorer. But too many have been fooled.

And then there’s the issue of the money going to the well connected. No surprise in Wales, for Labour spent a century building the crony state, in which funding, jobs and sinecures, go to those who support or submit to Labour.

Plaid Cymru running the Senedd will be no improvement because in the era of the Globalist Uniparty only those standing outside that system can make a difference.

Ynni Cymru is a just another way of servicing that crony state while indulging in what can only be described as virtue funding: ‘Look at us . . . worthy causes . . . saving the planet . . . blahdeblah’.

Wasting money to get a good write-up in the Guardian from Will Hayward is truly despicable. Explain it to the family of the 93-year-old who lay for 10 hours on a cold floor waiting for an ambulance.

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© Royston Jones 2026

Buy Me A Coffee

Lynn Global Pushes Globalist Agenda

On By JacIn Corruption, Globalism, Welsh Government12 Comments

This is a follow-up to last week’s piece about the brainwashers and silencers of Lynn Group Ltd and Lynn Global Ltd. The latter company seems to have superseded the former, for the website is now Lynn Global.

And the piece was very popular. It got a record number of hits the day it went out, with even more hits the following day. Maybe someone was trawling through my output for ‘wrongthink’. If so, I’m done for!

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RECAP

That earlier piece, ‘It’s Getting Sinister’, was inspired by a Freedom of Information (FoI) request, the response to which told us there had been a lot of interaction between Lynn and the self-styled ‘Welsh Government’, in the year from July 1, 2022, relating to the imposition of the 20mph speed limit.

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Clearly, Lynn was working for the ‘Welsh Government’, using ‘behavioural science’ to promote acceptance of WG’s imposition of 20mph speed limits. Behavioural science is shortened to ‘BS’, which you’ll realise is hilariously appropriate.

Naturally, learning of this connection piqued my interest, and so I did some more digging. Since then, others have helped. Including someone who keeps me updated on Bute Energy and its grandiose plans to cover Wales in wind turbines.

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UPDATE

This source directed me to an article on a site, We Are The City, where in February you might have read, Inspirational Woman: Shayoni Lynn CEO & Founder, Lynn, a piece that, interestingly, mentions Covid.

In answer to the question, ‘Have you faced any challenges along the way?’ Shayoni Lynn responds:

I launched Lynn just weeks before the Covid pandemic took hold. . . . Behavioural science was critical to both Covid response and recovery. . . . Lynn was able to establish itself as a firm that deeply understood human behaviours and then embraced, interpreted and integrated these into creative communications to drive persuasive content and calls to action to deliver change for good.

We know that Lynn Group Ltd was Incorporated October 7, 2019, as Lynn PR Ltd (a name it kept until May 5, 2022). The first admitted case of Covid-19 was in Wuhan, China in December 2019. The first confirmed case in Wales, according to Wikipedia, was February 28, 2020.

So Shayoni Lynn formed her new company just in time for Covid. Such propinquity! The answer above seems to suggest that Lynn might even have had some involvement in fighting Covid.

Would that have been in Wales? And if so, might it help explain both the ‘Welsh Government’s reluctance to have an independent, Wales-only inquiry and also its refusal to answer the FoI about its dealings with Lynn?

Possibilities strengthened by learning that the company had a contract from January to April 2021 with Cwm Tâf Morgannwg University Health Board to help the board combat, “anti-lockdown sentiment and hesitancy“.

Nice work if you can get it for a company with no track record. But then, this contract would not have been awarded without the OK from Corruption Bay.

Sticking with the same February article, under the section, ‘What has been your biggest achievement to date?’, we read something explaining how Lynn and others in the field operate:

. . . most meaningfully, provided innovative behaviour change solutions that have measurably improved and saved lives.

“Behaviour change solutions” in the sense of telling people what to think and how to behave. But most importantly, telling people who and what to believe.

And it should go without saying that dictating to people “measurably improved and saved lives“.

And if you believe that then they’ve got you by the balls!

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GOODIES AND BADDIES

Let’s kick off this section with a mercifully short film that’s nevertheless revealing about where Lynn stands politically. In the video below the company claims to be “empathetic“, “objective“, and “packed with integrity“. (The final phrase borrowed from Amazon?)

Clearly, the good guys.

In contrast, Trump and Putin are cast as pantomime villains, by being rather crudely associated with “misinformation“. Boo!

We read the boast that, “Our campaigns have improved vaccine uptake by 77.8%.”

Given all we know now about Covid, the lies about its origin, the damage caused by lockdown – especially to children’s health and development – and the surge of deaths caused by untested vaccines, I’m amazed that video hasn’t been taken down.

 

What it lays out is a political position, a world view. The Globalist agenda.

The agenda of the United Nations, the World Economic Form, the European Union; assorted asset managers like BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street; various multi-billionaires like old money Rothschilds and Rockefellers, joined by arrivistes like Bill Gates, George Soros and Mark Zuckerberg.

Something else that turned up after the original piece was written is an article from the Institute of Welsh Affairs (IWA) website entitled ‘How Disinformation Arrived in Wales, and Where It’s Going Next‘.

Published last September, lead billing was given to Adam Belcher, deputy head of Lynn’s Misinformation Cell; with his boss, Stefan Rollnick, also credited.

A ‘Misinformation Cell’! Bloody hell! And here it is on the Lynn website.

I can’t be sure who Adam Belcher is, and for some reason he doesn’t appear in Team Lynn (has he left?), but Rollnick has a predictable background for this work. Here’s his Linkedin page. (Pdf format.) One section tells of his time at the ‘Welsh Government’.

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It may be nothing, it may be something . . . Rollnick started working for Drakeford within a month of Lynn getting the health board Covid contract. Then he went to work for Lynn.

The IWA article might strike you as unremarkable, if slightly hysterical, but read between the lines and it betrays the nature of the beast. And it’s oh so predictable.

It’s the Globalist agenda of those listed above, promoted and defended by shills or useful idiots like those at Lynn.

We are presented with the sole accepted narrative, this is the one pushed by Lynn and others, such as Big Tech, and the mainstream media, either owned or funded by Globalists. Anyone contradicting or challenging that narrative will be guilty of “misinformation” or “disinformation“.

Or smeared in other ways. Such as we see in the IWA article, where the term “far-right” is used no less than eleven times to describe those with whom Lynn’s Disinformation Cell disagrees. Eleven bloody times!

A frame of mind perfectly illustrated by this cartoon I saw on Twitter / X when I was writing this piece. The workings of serendipity, eh!

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It’s easy to ridicule brainwashed youngsters who may genuinely believe in the nonsense they spout, but those who’ve brainwashed them, and those whose agendas they promote, are not to be laughed at.

They are a threat to the democratic system, and to the liberty of the individual.

Take this segment highlighted in the IWA article. Read it and think about it.

Our major political parties have a duty to be the first line of defence, not adopting adversarial narratives for opportunism’s sake or political popularity

“Adversarial narratives” competing for “political popularity” is the lifeblood of healthy democracies. It’s almost the sine qua non of a democratic society.

Lynn wants a single, unchallenged voice; in other words, totalitarianism; yet still argues that attacking and silencing those who challenge this totalitarianism is defending “democratic institutions“.

How fucked up does your head have to be to push such bollocks?

And look who these threats to “democratic institutions” are!

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Little old ladies protesting about giant wind turbines killing skylarks must be vilified and silenced because they’re opposing “large-scale green infrastructure projects“. When and how did such projects achieve sacred status?

For those who still don’t get it, let me explain . . .

The Globalists instil fear over an imaginary climate crisis in order to enforce compliance with the Globalist agenda.

Get people to believe in the ‘climate crisis’ and those behind the lies can make billions of dollars by enforcing Net Zero, and renewable energy, energy that they will of course own and control. And when they’ve forced farmers off the land they will also control the land, and the food supply, and have us eating insects and lab-made ‘meat’.

We face a future of engineered hardship and shortages designed to give more power to the Globalists, and to take away our control over own lives; whether it’s by restricting our movements with 20mph and 15-minute neighbourhoods, climate lockdowns, vaccine passports, or by removing cash so that every penny we spend is recorded, and we can be punished by a CBDC system if we step out of line.

It’s a return to feudalism, but it will be 21st century feudalism enforced by facial recognition technology and digital passports rather than private armies. (But don’t rule ’em out!) And the people at Lynn Global, together with similar companies and organisations, are the prophets and the praetorians for this New World Order.

But only if we submit, and allow it. And believe BS outfits like Lynn Global.

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CONCLUSION

Of course, there will be those who’ll reject what I say about the Globalist agenda and the New World Order. Perhaps because what I’m suggesting sounds too far-fetched. And there’ll be some who don’t want to believe it for fear it might be true.

Others may seek comfort in a reassuring analogy. “Come on, Jac, it’s just persuading people – like adverts on the telly, mun“. But is it?

If my wife doesn’t like Daz she can buy Persil, or Bold, or some other detergent. If I’m looking for a bottle of wine I’m spoilt for choice even in Tywyn Coop. With Lynn and its behavioural science it’s a case of, “We have a monopoly on truth, you must therefore accept what we say.”

Which means that my wife has choice over washing powder, but left to Lynn and their ilk none of us would be allowed to hold divergent views on the major issues affecting us and the world around us.

We are living under a creeping form of totalitarianism, and like all totalitarianism, from the Inquisition to 20th century Communism, it allows no divergent views.

At the moment Wales seems badly afflicted by these Green-Woke-Left servants of the New World Order. And much of it stems from Cardiff University. Which is where Shayoni Lynn would have been found ere she donned her armour to confront the twin evils that have dominated this article.

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And yet, I find it revealing that Shayoni Lynn doesn’t actually want to confront them. The excuse given in ‘The Dangers of Debating Disinformation‘ is:

 . . . debunking misinformation requires a careful and nuanced approach in the battle against falsehoods, with hidden risks to addressing false claims directly . . .

This is the kind of approach adopted towards a child who’s caught an adult lying, or proven an adult wrong. The little smart-ass is either ignored, ordered to shut up, or banished to the naughty step.

But the bigger problem is that behavioural science – i.e. censorship – now pervades political and public life in Wales. We see it manifest its ugly self all the time. We saw it in recent posts on this blog about Extinction Rebellion and other pressure groups with far too much influence over the ‘Welsh Government’.

A term I picked up, used by Extinction Rebellion, and then adopted by the ‘Welsh Government’ itself, was “trusted messengers“. The passage below is from page 24 of ‘Climate Change – A Strategy for Public Engagement & Action (2022-2026)‘.

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I translate the opening phrase as, “We’ll only engage with people who agree with us. People who’ll tell us what we want to hear“.

It crops up a number of times in that document I linked to, and in many other ‘Welsh Government’ publications. And whaddya know – on the Lynn website Shayoni herself presents a wee opus on trusted messengers.

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Wales has a government failing on all fronts and still pushing what’s becoming an increasingly discredited Globalist narrative, which means those politicos are forced to rely on the pyscho-spivs at Lynn, with their ludicrous ‘behavioural science’.

And this explains why we’re fed so much BS.

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© Royston Jones 2023

Vroom, Vroom – The Next Gravy Train?

On By JacIn Environmentalism14 Comments

I don’t know how many of you are aware of this, but there’s a new £250m racetrack planned for Ebbw Vale, to be known as the Circuit of Wales. Promising to bring high tech, top-wage jobs; tens of thousands of high-spending visitors; and much more besides. All this promised by a company – the Heads of the Valleys Development Company – set up specifically and solely to deliver this project. I was unable to find a website in Ebbw Valethe name of HVDC so I assume this serves as the company’s website. So who’s behind the company?

Well, one of the founding directors is named as Peter Thomas. Is this ‘Peter the Pies’, the man behind that great Welsh success story, Cardiff Blues? Or is it Swansea’s Peter Thomas, who is obviously big in tyres? Either way or neither way, according to Company Check, Peter Thomas joined (set up?) the company on June 30th, 2011. Presumably with a Mr M. A. Carrick, who is listed as joining the Board on the same day. Though according to Company Check Peter Thomas left the Board roughly a year later, on July 13th, 2012.# Which appears to have left the company with just one director! Whatever, August 13th, 2012, saw four new Board Members appointed: Mr S. J. Kealey, Mr T. N. Murnane, Ms A. L. Lloyd-Carrick and Mr A. P. Woodbury. Can we assume that Ms Lloyd-Carrick is somehow related?

Oh, yes . . . perhaps I should have mentioned earlier that this exciting new Welsh venture has its global headquarters at The Coach House, 79 Mill Way, Grantchester, Cambridge CB3 9ND. (Yes, that is the Grantchester of Rupert Brooke fame: ‘Corner of a foreign field’ and all that.)

Let us return to the man who appears to have been the co-founder of the Heads of the Valleys Development Company / Circuit of Wales, M. A. Carrick. Not so long ago he was working for Merrill Lynch, which many people believe is more responsible for the current financial crisis than perhaps any other single company. In fact, he’s described as nothing less than ML’s “Managing Director and Global Head of infrastructure”. Carrick now plies his trade – whatever it might be – with Duet Asset Management, which, reassuringly, appears to specialise in hedge funds. But he also seems to run Aventa Capital Partners Ltd., which looks like another new company set up to promote, or capitalise on, the Ebbw Vale project. Listed with Carrick on the ‘Investment Committee’ of Aventa are Charles Grime and David Bates.

Another name I have unearthed in connection with this venture is Chris Herring, formerly of Honda Racing. Though he is not mentioned in the Company Check extract referred to above. Of those who are mentioned as joining the company in August 2012, information is sparse. Without, I admit, digging too deeply, I drew a complete blank with S. J. Kealey, T. N. Murnane and Ms A. L. Lloyd-Carrick. The search for A. P. Woodbury produced only this which might, or might not, be him.Neil and Glenys

One more name is worthy of mention in connection with this project . . . wait for it! – Neil Kinnock!!! Who is billed as the “Ambassador”. I don’t wish to appear cynical, or unkind (you know me!) – but any project needing Kinnochio to lend it “considerable credibility” is surely dead in the water. Though give him his due, he can still recognise a gravy train approaching, even one running on very expensive tyres.

Someone else plugging the project, sort of, was that famous Danish rugby international, Sebastian Barrett, writing for Click on Wales. Though he seemed to quickly lose interest in highly-tuned engines and soon started plugging the Cardiff city state and the planned Cardiff Metro system. So irrelevant had the Ebbw Vale project become to him that at one point he referred to the Circuit of Wales as the “Circle of Wales”! (What’s happened to the Institute of Welsh Affairs, it’s become just another mouthpiece for Cardiff?)

The reason I started writing this piece is that there is mounting opposition to the project from a particularly obnoxious sub-species of colon. You know who I mean, they’re always on the ‘Welsh’ News, fleece jackets and English accents; ‘Oh, you can’t do that!’ ‘Oh no, we oppose this’. All of them working for bodies funded by taxpayers, charity collections, old ladies’ legacies, EU or other funding. Dictatorial bastards who want to keep Wales unspoilt by jobs or prosperity, preserved in aspic for the English middle classes to which most of them belong. First, in November, it was the Gwent Wildlife Trust. Then in March the Open Spaces Society chipped in. Last week it was Natural Resources Wales. It begins to look co-ordinated on the part of those who ‘love’ Wales but don’t give a toss about the Welsh.

Weighing it all up, my position is as follows. If this project can deliver what it promises, primarily investment and well-paid jobs for local people, then I support it. But I have grave reservations as to whether it will deliver. Mainly because I have little faith in those behind it. I smell another Valleywood. So strong is the aroma that I would have expected ourCarrick wonderful Welsh Government to be asking many more questions about those behind a £250m project that will soon be asking for a hell of a lot of public funding. (Or does Kinnock’s involvement mean that this scheme gets nodded through?) I might also be worried by what appears to be the total lack of Welsh involvement. When does ‘outside investment’ become exploitation, colonialism? As for those objecting on what they allege to be environmental grounds . . . I’m sure you think you mean well, but shut up!

#Though on this page (shown right) of the Circuit of Wales website, in an undated piece, Peter Thomas is still listed as a director. He is also listed as CEO of Insight in Infrastructure, another new company (set up in September 2011) and also based in Cambridge. Though this company appears dormant, if not dead. Yet these are the people running a £250m racetrack project, with only one among them who appears to have any experience of motor sport, and no obvious assets. Doesn’t that fill you with confidence?