Meryl Gravell – Jac o' the North

Dirty, Dirty Politics

Jac — Mon, 01 May 2017 15:05:29 +0000

BIGOTRY WRIT LARGE Last Friday I was sent photographs of a leaflet that had been distributed in Trawsfynydd. The accompanying message was that they were handed out by a guy in a Mercedes. The contents of the leaflet fit a pattern I became familiar with long ago. ‘Plaid Cymru’ or ‘Gwynedd Council’ is attacked but …

Continue reading Dirty, Dirty Politics

Third Sector Woes

Jac — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 13:20:26 +0000

INTRODUCTION Regular readers will know that one of the ‘staples’ of this blog is the wasting of public funding by Third Sector organisations. Exposing this waste is not something I really enjoy but it’s so prevalent in Wales – and has become worse with devolution – that it just cannot be ignored. In a very …

Continue reading Third Sector Woes

Conserving Heritage, Maintaining Colonialism

Jac — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 14:30:01 +0000

BY A GUEST WRITER ◊ Keeping tabs on the incestuous, grant-fuelled world of the Welsh heritage industry could be a full-time job in itself. It seems there is no end to the number of charitable trusts set up to take advantage of the funding available ostensibly to rescue this or that old ruin or building, …

Continue reading Conserving Heritage, Maintaining Colonialism

Ystrad Fflur – The Heritage Industry Moves On

Jac — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 18:51:56 +0000

BY A GUEST WRITER Ystrad Fflur, or to give it its ‘English’ name, Strata Florida, is a quiet, remote and beautiful place. The Cistercians chose it as a site to build a great abbey and monastery precisely because it was off the beaten track, with huge expanses of grazing for their sheep and cattle and …

Continue reading Ystrad Fflur – The Heritage Industry Moves On

Shorts & Updates for St. David’s Day

Jac — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 21:52:52 +0000

I’m off to Swansea this weekend, treating myself and the wife to a wee break. (Well, actually, the wife’s paying for the hotel.) I shall visit relatives and friends and go watch the Swans playing Norwich (son’s treating me!). So it will be at least a week until I put up my next post. In …

Continue reading Shorts & Updates for St. David’s Day

Local Democracy Endangered

Jac — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 09:01:47 +0000

You will recall that up until the end of last year I had this widget at the top of my sidebar, asking for signatures to a petition urging the ‘Welsh’ Government to intervene when chief executives get too powerful and take control of local authorities. That petition was ‘discussed’ yesterday by the Petitions Committee. But before …

Continue reading Local Democracy Endangered

Background to a Carmarthenshire Vendetta

Jac — Thu, 14 Jan 2016 22:03:21 +0000

In my post of November 24th, Wales, Colony of England, I mentioned multi-millionaire businessman Clive Hughes and his tribulations with Carmarthenshire County Council, due to that authority’s hostility towards his project for a biomass combined heat and power plant near Kidwelly. In my follow-up post on December 1st, Meryl Gravell & Robin Cammish, Only in …

Continue reading Background to a Carmarthenshire Vendetta

Meryl Gravell & Robin Cammish, Only in Carmarthenshire

Jac — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 13:15:49 +0000

After posting my previous piece on colonialism, and using as an example the thwarted biomass plans of Welsh businessman Clive Hughes, I received some very interesting feedback naming Hughes’ nemesis as Robin Andrew Cammish. ‘Who him?’ you demand. Well, make yourself comfortable and settle back for a quite remarkable story. First of all, read this …

Continue reading Meryl Gravell & Robin Cammish, Only in Carmarthenshire

Cardigan Castle, Equinox, Gareth Wardell, Terry Matthews

Jac — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 18:28:27 +0000

CARDIGAN CASTLE Not a lot to report from the Gang of Five and I probably won’t do another post until I get something important to report. But if I am silent then you mustn’t think I’m ignoring Timms and the gels; no, siree, it’s because I’ve decided to approach the problem from a different angle. …

Continue reading Cardigan Castle, Equinox, Gareth Wardell, Terry Matthews

Gardening for Merchant Bankers

Jac — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 08:04:24 +0000

A Guest Post by ‘Blodyn Tatws’ (Illustrations supplied by ‘Green Fingers’ Jac showing some of the gems you might encounter at the Garden) The National Botanic Garden of Wales germinated as an idea in the 1990s and opened its gates to the public in May 2000. In common with so many of the other projects …

Continue reading Gardening for Merchant Bankers