The Slide Into Authoritarianism ‘To Defend Democracy’

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

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

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

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THE APPOINTED ONE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Even changing official records.

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

Could it have been deliberate?

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

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

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

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WHY RUSSIA?

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

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

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

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

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

As Josef Stalin is reported to have said in 1922:

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

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

‘SHARP AS A TACK’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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HOW THE WEST IS THREATENED

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lot of kids from The Hill go to the LSE.

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

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

But why do I even mention Kiera Marshall?

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

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

But it’s increasingly difficult to dismiss.

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CONCLUSION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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© Royston Jones 2026

Buy Me A Coffee

Wales, Slavery, The Truth

This piece was unplanned until, on Tuesday morning, I woke, bleary-eyed, to find a DM waiting from a regular source alerting me to a piece in the Spectator (PDF version) connecting our village with slavery! This followed an earlier piece in the Telegraph (PDF version).

It all links with the UNESCO Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales project. I was involved locally in that project, and following the recent unwanted publicity I feel it’s time to give an alternative view.

And this is my own, and very personal, view.

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A BIT OF HISTORY

The first exploitation of the slate reserves at Bryneglwys was undertaken by John Pughe, when he took out a lease with local landowner Lewis Morris. Pughe, from Aberdyfi, already worked a few mines in the area.

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Among these enterprises was the famous Dylife lead mine, in the high, empty country between Machynlleth and Llanidloes. Dylife attracted a number of workers from the Cardiganshire mines.

There’s little left in Dylife today, just scars of its industrial hey-day, plus a few houses and the Star Inn. But at its height, almost 200 years ago, it was a community of some 1200 people.

From the road near Dylife looking south west towards Nant y Moch. Click to open enlarged in separate tab

My wife tells me she recalls reading that Pughe died relatively young and his widow then sold the business. It passed through a few hands before being bought by the McConnel family of Manchester in 1863. I shall return to this period of the Bryneglwys quarry later.

The third chapter belongs to Henry Haydn Jones, who was born in Rhuthun, in the same year the McConnels bought Bryneglwys quarry. His father died when he was 10, which led to his mother returning to Tywyn.

Young Henry worked for his uncles J and D Daniel in their ironmongery business on Tywyn High Street. He obviously prospered, because in 1911 he bought the quarry and much of the village.

Sir Henry Haydn Jones, Liberal MP for Merioneth 1910 – 1945. Click to open enlarged in separate tab

The year before, 1910, he had been elected Liberal Member of Parliament for Merioneth. And was to remain the local MP until 1945, when he stepped down as Sir Henry Haydn Jones.

Sir Henry kept the quarry open long after it was economically viable. Perhaps because he had a greater affinity with the community than the previous owners.

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THE MCCONNELS

The previous owners were of course the McConnel family, three of the sons of James McConnel, cotton mill owner of Ancoats, Manchester.

The reason the McConnels bought Bryneglwys quarry in 1863 was because the Union blockade of Confederate ports meant that little or no cotton was reaching Manchester.

So let’s state this clearly. The American Civil War meant that the McConnels had to find other ways to make money. They did not come to Wales as philanthropists.

They came to an area they already knew because, in 1859, one of the brothers, William, seems to have entertained dreams of setting himself up as squire, with the purchase of Plas Hengwrt at Llanelltud.

Plas Hengwrt. Click to open enlarged in separate tab

The tenure of the McConnels saw a major expansion of Bryneglwys quarry, and they built most of the older houses in today’s village. But again, this was done for sound economic reasons.

It was difficult recruiting workers in a sparsely-populated rural area, and so many people had to be persuaded to move to Abergynolwyn. They could not move without somewhere to live.

The McConnels therefore built and owned their workers’ houses, for which the workers paid rent. A common enough arrangement.

And seeing as we’re discussing slavery . . . plantation owners also built accommodation for their slaves.

The McConnels laid the railway line we know today as the Talyllyn Railway, done to get the slate out to their customers. By taking it down to the coast, from where it would either be transported by rail from Tywyn or by ship from Aberdyfi.

The line also brought supplies to Abergynolwyn. With a local network taking those supplies, particularly coal, around the village. The train also brought beer for the pub!

Sir Henry Haydn Jones kept the railway open as a passenger service after the quarry closed in 1947/48.

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‘SLAVERY’

I’m writing this because Abergynolwyn is the village in which I’ve lived for many years, where my children were brought up, and where my wife was born and raised. Her taid, Richard ‘Dic Bêch’ Humphreys, worked in the quarry.

But now the village is getting very unwelcome publicity due to being unfairly associated with slavery.

Here’s the Telegraph headline (29.04.2023).

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And here’s the headline from the Spectator article (14.05.2023).

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I don’t really feel particularly “embroiled“, but let’s be quite clear about this . . .

The community of Abergynolwyn has no connection with slavery other than a tenuous link provided by the McConnels, who came to Abergynolwyn when the American Civil War cut off their supplies of raw cotton.

Though it could be argued that the link between Abergynolwyn and slavery is even more tenuous seeing as the McConnels did not own slaves or plantations themselves.

Using the reasoning of extended culpability could it be argued that a baby wearing a garment made from McConnel cotton was also complicit in slavery?

And would guilt extend to someone living in a property roofed with Abergynolwyn slate?

Come on, let’s get real – this slavery accusation is just Woke bollocks. Heading in the direction of, “All White people are guilty!“.

You’ll note that the Telegraph headline mentions an “explanatory plaque“. Well, here it is, as it now appears on our Canolfan wall.

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So who’s responsible for the wording on the plaque? Is it Cyngor Gwynedd? Cadw? Someone working for the so-called ‘Welsh Government’?

UPDATE: I now learn that the text on the plaque was written by the National Slate Museum, and knocked up by Headland Design, of Cheshire. How could a Welsh institution have got it so wrong? And why did an English company get the contract?

But it doesn’t end there for David Martin-Jones, the writer of the Spectator piece – who claims roots in the area – for he thinks he’s found another issue.

But McConnel is English and a capitalist to boot. Such a background is anathema to those who currently run Wales and micro-manage the Welsh version of the cultural revolution. From this perspective, McConnel’s achievements must be re-defined to fit an ideology that reduces history to melodrama, where brutal and rapacious English capitalists despoil the Welsh landscape and immiserate its people.

He sees the McConnels as victims of “the Welsh version of the cultural revolution”. And while I won’t argue with anyone putting the boot into our hyper-Woke ‘Welsh Government’, I will take issue with the suggestion of an anti-English motivation.

Listen, Dai, try reading that plaque again. Yes, there’s a silly reference to slavery, but apart from that where’s the criticism of the McConnels?

The real problem is the exclusive and fawning focus on the McConnels.

The McConnels took over an established Welsh business and the quarry ended its working life back in Welsh ownership. But that plaque is all, “McConnel, McConnel, McConnel . . . Manchester, Manchester, Manchester”.

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CONCLUSION

The plaque on our Canolfan insults the community with its unnecessary and misleading reference to slavery; while also being historically inaccurate in not mentioning the Welsh ownership.

Yet it could have been even worse.

For I understand that someone involved in designing the plaque was so keen to glorify the role of the McConnels that an earlier draft even tried to credit them with building the old village hall in 1947 – a full 36 years after they’d severed their ties with the area!

That plaque must be removed, and re-written. With the new plaque giving a more accurate resumé of the quarry’s history, and without any references that insult the memories of decent people who can no longer answer for themselves.

Because with the tourist hordes about to descend I’d hate to be approached by someone who’s read the plaque and then asks me if I’m suitably ashamed of the village’s links to slavery.

In such a situation I might let slip a naughty word. Perhaps a few naughty words.

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