Welsh Independence And The Left

On 02/01/202302/01/2023 By JacIn Greens, Plaid Cymru, Welsh Independence, Welsh Labour, Yes Cymru54 Comments

I’m kicking off 2023 with thoughts on independence; more exactly, the kind of independence being offered by those who’ll be gathering in the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, on the 28th of this month.

Ah! the Brangwyn Hall. I remember being slung out of there many years ago. It was a Labour Party do, with that son of Abersychan, Roy Jenkins, topping the bill. (Ere he and others left to form the SDP.)

Anyway, Woy had got to the bit in his peroration where he proclaimed to the assembly that he too was Welsh . . . at which point a young Jac jumped up and shouted ‘You’re no Welshman!’ (My outburst may have contained an expletive attributive.)

I was immediately attacked by some old crow sitting behind me, who laid into me with her umbrella! A possible headline from the Evening Post flashed through my mind – ‘Nationalist yob beaten to death by umbrella-wielding Labour granny’.

I was saved from this undignified and premature fate by the ‘stewards’ (i.e. Labour heavies) dragging me off towards the huge front doors. With a few reminders along the way that my contribution was not appreciated. (‘Troublemaker, ew are!’)

Happy days!

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‘PROGRESSIVE’ MELIN DRAFOD

In this section I shall refer more than once to the briefly successful far Left takeover of YesCymru in 2020 and 2021.

I wrote about this extensively at the time and so, to catch up with what I wrote, type ‘YesCymru’ in the search box atop the sidebar.

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The event later this month in the Brangwyn is organised by think tank Melin Drafod. And you don’t need to think too hard to realise what anyone attending is likely to hear.

All the speakers are on the Left. Or the far Left. Or the Woke Left. Call it what you will.

But ‘progressive’ is the label behind which they all hide nowadays. Such a nice word, harmless and unthreatening. Who among us could object to ‘progress‘?

Me. Because I recognise rebranded Marxism.

Helping me appreciate that the ‘progress’ demanded by those who’ll gather where a young Jac was assaulted by a Bolshie harridan is worrying.

But let Melin Drafod speak for itself:

‘Not independence for its own sake’. What is that trying to say – patriotism is not enough? Or is it a veiled threat to scupper any form of independence that doesn’t meet with the approval of the far Left?

There is so much to read into that section.

My views on ‘climate change’ are well known – it’s not happening. The myth is being kept alive by ‘environmentalists’ and others who’ve staked their reputations on it and can’t afford to backtrack, with supranational bodies thinking ‘global warming’ gives them the excuse to control human behaviour worldwide.

And does anyone seriously believe that racism is a ‘scourge’ in modern Wales? Who but the seriously unhinged could insult us by equating Wales in 2023 with Arkansas or the Transvaal a few decades back?

Only perhaps those with a vested interest in using the allegation of ‘racism’ to slander political opponents and to promote their own interests.

The latter might apply to Melin Drafod National Committee member Harriet Protheroe-Soltani, of the Wales Refugee Council. Like all third sector bodies, this one thrives by inventing or exaggerating a problem – and then demanding funding to tackle that problem.

Ms Protheroe-Soltani of Momentum was also employed by YesCymru when it fell briefly under the control of the far Left in 2020 / 2021.

Sam Coates is another member of the National Committee.

His Twitter account tells that he is a socialist first, then a Welshman. Which would appear to bear out that for these ‘progressives’ Wales comes second to their ideological priorities.

Significantly, perhaps, there’s no mention of independence.

And, again, it’s worth returning to the far Left takeover of YesCymru, for Coates wrote this essay in July 2021, and it’s revealing. (Available here in pdf format.) Not just about Coates but about the others who’ll be at the Brangwyn later this month.

He writes: ‘In 2017, I rocked up to the Hen Coleg yn Aberystwyth on a baking hot day to attend YesCymru’s AGM. It was a friendly room of about 50 people, mostly middle age, and mostly white.’

‘Mostly white’ – in a country that is 95% White! Would Coates and the comrades be happier if YesCymru was a majority non-White organisation, and therefore grotesquely unrepresentative of Wales?

As unrepresentative as those who’ll be at the Brangwyn Hall.

Referring to the rigged YesCymru elections of May 2021 that saw the far Left briefly take control, Coates writes: ‘Hundreds of members attended the online event, and used a voting tool used by many other political organisations to choose members of the new Central Committee’.

It would appear that when he wrote of those ‘hundreds’ voting Coates had forgotten that a few paragraphs earlier he’d talked of YesCymru having 18,000 members. Presenting us with the obvious question: why were just 2-3% of the members able / allowed to vote?

But let’s remember some of the tweets from ‘progressives’ celebrating victory!

Coates’ whole essay is an apology for an attempted far Left takeover; and it’s riddled with inaccuracies, misrepresentations and outright lies.

The other members of Melin Drafod’s National Committee seem to be Plaid Cymru members, and others who were involved in the near-destruction of YesCymru in 2021. I’m thinking of Llywelyn ap Gwilym, and Siôn Jobbins, Chair of YesCymru who eventually jumped ship.

Then we have Elin Hywel and Colin Nosworthy of Undod, the source of so much of the poison that almost finished off YesCymru.

And of course there are one or two on the National Committee from the Labour Party.

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WHO’S COMING TO THE SUMMIT AND WHO’S NOT INVITED?

Let’s start by listing those political parties and organisations that are not invited by Melin Drafod (or whoever) to the portentously dubbed ‘Independence Summit’.

First off, there’s the party to which I belong, Gwlad. Then there’s Propel. There’s also the Sovereign Party / Plaid Sofren. So without going too far, we’ve already found three registered political parties, with councillors, made up of serious and experienced people, with all three parties committed to Welsh independence.

So why didn’t Melin Drafod invite them?

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The listed speakers are advertised as follows . . .

‘Anthony Slaughter (Wales Green Party Leader), Adam Price MS (Plaid Cymru Leader), Cllr Rachel Garrick (Welsh Labour for Independence), Sam Coates (Undod), Gwern Evans (YesCymru), Luke Fletcher MS, Mirain Owen (Cymdeithas yr Iaith) and others’.

So let’s begin with Slaughter, and remind everyone that there is no Wales Green Party! There is only the Wales branch of the Green Party of England.

In 2018 Green Party members in Wales had the chance to create a separate Wales Green Party, they voted not to. The main reason for that was that most Green Party members in Wales are English.

Then, last year, the Green Party of England in Wales claimed to be in favour of Welsh independence! Plaid Cymru fell for it and was happy to enter some sort of agreement with them.

No individual, group, or party, sincere about Welsh independence, should even talk to a colonialist outfit that refuses to even recognise the existence of our country.

Plaid Cymru I’ll leave until last.

‘Welsh Labour for Independence’ (WLfI) is another piece of nonsense. Labour is a Unionist party. Any Labour member who wants independence is in the wrong party. Maybe some now realise that.

But is (WLfI) the same as Labour for an Independent Wales (LfIW)? Or, and this is the frightening bit – are there two of them!

During the struggle for YesCymru LfIW was prominent in undermining sensible committee members and replacing them with some real nutters. Working from the shadows was Rob Lloyd of Prestatyn, while out there on the Welshpool barricades was Benji Gwalchmai.

Where are they now? How I miss them!

We already know all we need to know about Sam Coates and Undod.

Luke Fletcher is a Plaid Cymru Senedd Member. With a beard.

YesCymru is represented by Gwern Gwynfil Evans. He was announced as YC’s first-ever full-time CEO in September. The piece I’ve linked to says he has ‘a business background’. Which is true; one of his companies was Dissolved in the very month he was appointed.

Yet he brings another Aberystwyth connection to the party. Which I’ll explore shortly.

Cymdeithas yr Iaith is not worth dwelling on. Hopelessly Woke it overlaps with Undod and other far Left groups like Plaid Cymru’s youth wing, Plaid Ifanc, where pronouns are of paramount importance.

So, finally, let’s give some thought to Plaid Cymru which, in most people’s eyes, is ‘the nationalist party’, and the leading voice for Welsh independence.

On the one hand, Plaid activists seem to be more at home at Gay Pride parades than at marches for independence; while the party is being eaten away from the inside by a combination of back-stabbing and sexual misbehaviour.

The party tries to keep things under wraps but news of the obsession with other people’s ‘bits’ inevitably reaches the public domain.

MS Rhys ab Owen was suspended a few months ago for unwanted sexual advances to a female. But he was only suspended after the party had sat on the case for some time in the hope the complainant would go away.

Last month, the party’s chief executive, Carl Harris, finally stepped down after it emerged he had made unwanted sexual advances to a young party worker.

When it’s like this at the top of the party – and I mean, the very top – then no one should be surprised that lower down the pecking order we find bizarre behaviour.

The image below (which I pixelated) is of someone who works for a Plaid Cymru MS showing what he proposes to do when he catches whoever is behind an anonymous ‘I know what you did!’ Twitter account accusing him of . . .

And, yes, that is a crowbar.

No wonder a former Plaid Cymru Police and Crime Commissioner recently called on party leader Adam Price to resign.

Plaid Cymru is a mess, however you look at it, and from top to bottom. To say it’s lost its way would be wrong . . . for that would suggest Plaid’s leadership in recent decades ever knew where it was going.

I think Plaid Cymru is now too far gone for the change of leadership Arfon Jones calls for to make any difference. My view is that Plaid should do the honest thing and merge with Labour.

They deserve each other.

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RUM, REGGAE, AND ‘AN UNTAINTED, LEFT-WING, WELSH ALTERNATIVE’

I mentioned earlier that Aberystwyth businessman, Gwern Evans, is CEO of YesCymru. And he’s not the only one speaking at the Brangwyn bash from that lovely town where a dashing young blade spent a weekend in the police cells.

Happy days!

For Melin Drafod Chair, Dr Talat Chaudhri is mayor of the town. Also living in Aber’ is secretary Mererid Boswell, and former chair of YesCymru, Siôn Jobbins.

UPDATE: I am indebted to Jon Coles for telling us that Colin Nosworthy is a press officer for Aberystwyth University.

And there may be others with Aberystwyth connections. Not Sam Coates, obviously; not after his chastening experience of stumbling into a gathering of the Llanbadarn chapter of the Afrikaner Broederbond.

However you cut it, Aber’ will be over-represented at this Swansea gig. And then I came across something last week, which is intriguing, but needs an intro.

There is an intermittent column in the Cambrian News by a Gareth James.

This was the piece drawn to my attention, last November. It contained this line: ‘Like it or not, mid Wales is woke, for mid Wales is about sharing mid Wales with everyone’, plus a few passages that the source interpreted as threats against those who refused to accept Wokeness.

Then, a couple of weeks later, came this extraordinary piece calling for Dyfed Powys Police to be more ‘woke’, following what the writer interpreted as racial profiling that targets his sons. (Here in pdf format.)

You’ll also see, at the top of the article ‘The View from the Vaults’, these being the Weston Vaults pub in Aberystwyth. Now renamed Irie’s Rum Bar and Reggae Lounge.

Gareth James, the man in the picture, runs the bar. This piece from the Cambrian News last September makes that clear. What you see above is something of a resurrection, for Irie’s closed in March 2016, apparently for good.

The building that houses the Rum Bar is owned by Cyngor Ceredigion. Do councils normally buy pubs? This other Land Registry title document tells us that a lease was taken out (or taken over) in April 2015 by Irie’s (Aberystwyth) Ltd.

Aberystwyth is a fairly small town, so I’d be surprised if the ‘progressives’ of YesCymru, Melin Drafod, etc, don’t frequent a bar run by a man who wants Plod to be more Woke.

A consideration that brings us to the most recent contribution from Gareth James, that appeared in the Cambrian News last week. (Available here in pdf format.) Also available on Irie’s Blog.

Another long, rambling piece, but when I read the final paragraph a light went on in my head – a new political party that is ‘an untainted, left-wing, Welsh alternative’.

Is Gareth James trying to tell us something?

Is this what Talat Chaudhri, Sam Coates and the rest have in mind? Is this what Melin Drafod is hoping comes out of the Brangwyn Hall meeting?

Whether it’s a new party or simply closer co-operation between existing far Left groups, this Independence Summit looks like another attempt by the far Left to take over the independence movement.

If so, then it becomes the duty of those of us with a broader view of Wales to challenge these people. For if it became accepted among the general public that these fanatics are the only ones wanting independence then Wales is finished.

Independence must promise, and deliver, the inclusivity the far Left always demands of others but never practices itself.

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CONCLUSION

I have warned many times before, and I make no apologies for doing so again, that what these Green-Woke-Leftists want is independence for a small country whose politicians can then be bullied and blackmailed into implementing their fantasies.

This capture from the website of Labour for an Independent Wales reminds us that, for them, independence is simply the route to socialism.

It’ll be something like the Wales we know today: a country falling apart at the seams because weak politicians are dominated by lobbyists, pressure groups and third sector organisations. But it’ll be a hell of a lot worse!

There’ll be nothing in it for you and me, Dai. For our people; or for our Wales.

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!

♦ end ♦

YesCymru: Resignations and more

On 18/08/202119/08/2021 By JacIn Yes Cymru36 Comments

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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Here we are again! But with good news to impart. Though we mustn’t get carried away, for the enemy has retreated into the bush to reflect on his next move. Indeed, I hear that in remote valleys, far, far away, the wily Wokie is regrouping and planning a fresh offensive.

And you thought they couldn’t get any more offensive!

Have I got news for you!

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OUT WITH THE OLD

Every man and his dog knows by now that YesCymru’s Central Committee – or what remained of it – resigned last Friday. Here’s the statement they put out. Gettysburg Address, it ain’t, but I’ll take it.

Despite what this destined-for-the-archives document says, speculation abounds as to what really precipitated the decision at that time.

You may recall that in my previous post I quoted a source who’d told me: “The CC meeting to suspend Ben (Gwalchmai) was supposed to have been last Wednesday (Aug 4), then delayed until Thursday, then delayed to today (Monday), and now tomorrow.”

Could it have been that young Benji’s suspension couldn’t be put off any longer, and then, because suspending him would leave the Central Committee inquorate, they decided to go together? Perhaps holding hands and singing Abide With Me, as they jumped overboard into the icy waters of the North Atlantic?

Gwalchmai certainly had one hell of a Twitter rant on Saturday night. He lashed out in all directions. Members of the middle class seemed to particularly irk him. Whether this was an attempt to burnish his working class credentials or an attack on those he felt had betrayed him was difficult to say.

Possibly a bit of both.

Because in that rant Gwalchmai stated that he had not wanted to resign. Suggesting perhaps that he had been outvoted by the other three. (Bourgeois bastards!)

And he hadn’t calmed down by Monday, to judge by this tweet. Though this time the target was, ‘The Groups’.

But the groups, and the members they represent, are YesCymru. How could they mount a coup against themselves? What the groups have executed is a counter-coup. They’ve been fighting to reverse a sly takeover by extremists.

Far left extremists who’d ensured that some people – Secretary Iestyn ap Rhobert and Central Committee member Dilys Davies – could not be re-elected at the May 22 AGM. While also guaranteeing that their choices would be sneaked in by keeping the number of members able to vote at the AGM down to a few hundred.

There were also people involved in the coup who were not on the Central Committee. Most notably, perhaps, Rob Lloyd of Labour for an Independent Wales.

But whether they were on the Central Committee or not it was a Woke-Left takeover involving the Leannista wing of Plaid Cymru, Undod, Momentum, and Labour for an Independent Wales. Using ‘trans rights’ as their trojan horse they sought to silence all critics by labelling them ‘TERFs’, ‘transphobes’ and, of course, ‘fascists’.

Explained here, with main players named, in YesCymru: it must be a clean sweep.

YesCymru is now in the hands of an unnamed firm of accountants. Which is no doubt costing more money. Maybe a lot of money. Who knows?

This expensive period of stasis could have been avoided if the Central Committee had agreed to an EGM as soon as possible after the Vote of No Confidence passed by local groups on July 13.

Instead of accepting that VONC, at a meeting arranged by them – a meeting at which they’d allowed the attendance of supportive non-branches (Maesteg, Bynie) – the Central Committee rejected the vote as being “anti-democratic”.

A complete absence of self-awareness is something that has been remarked on many times in this saga when people look at the Central Committee and its chorus.

Or maybe it’s psychological projection; in which someone attributes their own faults or feelings onto others.

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OUT IN THE FIELD

The High Command may have fled, jodhpurs flapping, but the indefatigable infantryman and infantrywoman carry on the fight, from north to south.

In Rhuthun yesterday they were out showing their colours. (One of my favourite towns, can’t wait to visit again.)

While back in the City of my Dreams the local branch of YesCymru met the very day the Central Committee did a lemming and discussed a statement to submit to the Gweithgor (the working group to organise the EGM).

Note, in particular, the reference I’ve highlighted about not pre-judging ‘what an independent Wales should look like’. How encouraging to read that!

For those involved in the Woke-Left coup were so prescriptive in their vision that they’d even worked on the locations and lay-out of the gulags, and stipulated that bread queues would have agreed percentages of trans, non-binary, etc., etc.

Despite this common sense, one from the ugly lovely town was a member of the takeover gang. This was Rachel Cooze, though her elevation to the Central Committee had little to do with support from her local group.

Cooze’s success was due to her allies within and without the Central Committee. Partly a reward for her enthusiastic involvement in the campaign against Dr Dilys Davies that saw Dr Davies suspended and therefore unable to oppose the elections of Cooze and others like her. A suspension that also helped facilitate the adoption of the Left-Woke motion to set up a Diversity and Inclusivity Sub-committee.

All carefully orchestrated, and beginning with Aled Gwyn Williams’ deliberately provocative visit to Dr Davies’ properties in Ceredigion.

The three who lodged the complaints that got Dr Davies suspended were Cooze, ‘Emrys’ Price-Jones, and Elinor Walters. For a while, Walters even renamed her Twitter account, ‘Dr Dildo Davies’.

Which Aled Gwyn Williams thought was ‘excellent’. Silly boy!

But Cooze went further, offering discounts on her OnlyFans sex site using Dr Davies’ name. That was a new low even for these people. Perhaps worse, was her co-conspirators defending her.

Cooze gets a mention in the next section. Though we may soon be hearing of her in another context.

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A PHOENIX RISES?

After I’d stopped laughing I got round to properly reading what someone sent me on Sunday evening. After reading it properly I laughed a lot more. Here it is.

Aled Gwyn Williams – for it must be him! – has arranged a meeting on Glyndŵr’s Day at Maesteg RFC to launch Cwm Llynfi for Indy, ‘a group advocating inclusive independence for Wales’ . . . but not if you’re Dilys Davies, or Iestyn ap Rhobert, or Niki Jones, or me, or anybody who won’t accept Marxism and women with penises.

You’ve read about Rachel Cooze, so who are the other speakers?

Siwan Clark has not long returned from London, where she was a big fan of Jeremy Corbyn. It should go without saying that she is in Momentum.

Welsh independence seems to have become more attractive to the far left since Corbyn’s hammering in the December 2019 general election. Not because the comrades want Welsh independence – or even care about Wales – but because with the Labour Party under Keir Starmer being less welcoming they must find new platforms for their odious message.

Clark brought Momentum methods with her. One of which is the sock puppet Twitter account. She has run quite a few of these recently.

The other name is ‘Charlotte Williams from Hiraeth Films’. This outfit has been working for about seven years on a film about Capel Celyn, the village drowned to make way for the Tryweryn dam; though apart from a few short videos to be found on Twitter and Facebook it’s difficult to know if it really does anything.

But the point is, Charlotte Williams comes from Welshpool, and who else do we know in that area? The photo below will help. It’s taken on the Montgomeryshire Canal in the town.

Kneeling down, swigging from a bottle, is Charlotte Williams and behind her is Katie Bataille, another trans woman, one who never turns down an opportunity for a social media pile-on. But who is that bearded fellow, sitting there so nonchalantly, about to fall backwards into the murky water?

Why! it’s young Ben Gwalchmai!

And is that a sticking plaster across his knuckles? Has Benji been brawling with the local fascists and transphobes? (Cos I’ve seen them many a time goose-stepping up and down Broad Street.)

Enough levity.

Aled Gwyn Williams has brought together this impressive threesome to launch Cwm Llynfi for Indy. So what is this new venture?

Worth asking because, as I mentioned, Williams represented YesCymru Maesteg in the July 13 meeting at which the vote of no confidence in the CC was passed. (AGW of course supported the Central Committee.)

Though whether YesCymru Maesteg was a legally-constituted group is debatable.

Whether it was or not, this proposed launch of Cwm Llynfi for Indy certainly suggests that Aled has now severed his links with YesCymru. The presence of Cooze, Williams and Clark suggests that they too have burned their bridges.

Worth watching, I suggest. And although I’ll be unable to make it myself on September 16 – unless I go in disguise – I’m sure I’ll get plenty of feedback.

(There’s also a Twitter account.)

UPDATE: An early comment tells us that YesCymru Welshpool has rebranded to Welshpool for Independence. Taken with the plan for Maesteg it looks as if this is the path chosen by the defeated takeover gang. Will there be a national structure?

And do these new groups have access to YesCymru information on members? If so, how does this square with General Data Protection Regulation? And access to YC money?

A source also tells me that Scott Mackay, one of the Woke-Left plotters who failed to be elected to the CC, has left YC Abertawe.

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BEYOND THE FRINGE

In many ways the Woke-Left coup was the work of different groups and individuals that could be viewed as concentric rings.

With the Central Committee serving as the inner ring. Aled Gwyn Williams and his social media pile-on gang as the next ring, but in close contact with the inner ring. Then beyond them, an outer ring, where we find those who can be rallied to support the others and attack the fascisti.

In the hazy outer ring we find the fascinating ‘Alan Reilly’. I’ve put his name in quotes because I’m not sure if he’s a real person.

This name first cropped up towards the end of 2018, soon after the formation of Gwlad. With vicious attacks on me, personally. Also attacks on Cayo Evans and the Free Wales Army – ‘What did you bastards ever do for Wales?’ and more in that vein.

It was strange stuff from someone professing to be a sympathetic Irish Republican and, as I say, it was very personal. With an unhealthy obsession with my bodily functions. A fascination recently exhibited by others.

‘Reilly’ was often in the company of Shane Waters aka Séan Mac Uaitéir and Andrew McDonald aka Andras ap Alun. And despite their claims of support for Wales and Welsh independence, they often slipped up.

‘You Welshies’! Click to open in separate tab

Then ‘Reilly’ went quiet. To reappear very recently, when the pressure on the YesCymru Central Committee reached the crescendo that led to the mass resignation.

This time he was commenting to posts on Nation.Cymru. And I’m ‘Nonce o’ the North’.

I complained to N.C about the first comment and it was taken down, so ‘Reilly’ wrote the second comment, and then I had to complain about that. It too was taken down. In an e-mail, Mark Mansfield at Nation.Cymru told me: ‘I’ve banned him and his IP address and disabled comments for the article’.

‘Alan Reilly’ is now back on the Nation.Cymru site posting as ‘Alan Reilly 1’. Presumably from a different IP address. Unless Mark Mansfield was lying about blocking him.

But he’s not using ‘Alan Reilly 1’ to attack me. No, instead, the attack last Saturday came from someone signing ‘Rwân’. (The correct spelling is of course ‘rŵan’.) How do I know it was ‘Reilly’? Because of the references to ‘old incontinent boy, sad Sac o’ the North’.

Someone saw it, drew my attention to it and, again, I had to complain to Nation.Cymru before the comment was taken down.

To express his frustration, ‘Reilly’ then turned his attention to my blog, where he posted this comment at twenty minutes to one on Sunday morning. It’s difficult to know where to start.

He accuses me of hiding behind an alias. Yet he knows my name, everybody does, it’s Royston Jones. As it says in the old Daily Mail report from October 1968. In fact, I was ‘lifted’ by the police more than once. (Lost jobs because of it. Fortunately, I was young, and carefree. And handsome!) I did not make a complaint about Leanne Wood’s ‘arsehole’ remark, that was someone else.

How many remember the old Quarter Sessions? Happy days! Click to open in separate tab

Without thinking too much about ‘Alan Reilly’, there appear to be four possibilities:

1/ He’s a sock puppet of one of the Woke Left fanatics who nearly wrecked YesCymru.

2/ He is what he says he is, an Irish Republican with an interest in Welsh politics.

3/ He’s someone in Wales, possibly even Welsh, hostile to Welsh nationalism. And / or me?

4/ He’s working for some agency hostile to both Irish Republicanism and Welsh nationalism.

I dismiss the first two possibilities because I don’t believe anyone qualifying for those descriptions would be so dismissive of the national movement in Wales.

The third option is plausible because Alan Reilly’ seems to know quite a lot about Wales and the history of the national movement, but is clearly hostile. But if so, why adopt the Irish persona?

Then there’s option 4. Also plausible because ‘Alan Reilly’ first appeared shortly after a new political party was formed, and reappeared when it became clear that the coup to subvert YesCymru was in danger of failing.

I am not suggesting that those behind the coup work for the British state. But the British state would have been delighted to see a growing movement for Welsh independence subverted and side-tracked.

If anyone has any thoughts on ‘Alan Reilly’, then please pass them on.

And by the way, don’t think I’m whining here; I’m an old bastard and this is water off a Jack’s back. Think of it more as a warning.

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LOOKING FORWARD

The worst appears to be over, with an EGM in the offing at which all members will be able to vote. YesCymru should in future be more representative of its membership than it has been since May’s rigged AGM.

Whether YesCymru sticks with the old structure of officials and a Central Committee, or whether it becomes more professional, with full-time employees, is something else for the members to decide.

But without I hope sounding vindictive, I would warn YesCymru’s members to be very wary of those who’ve appeared on this blog recently. And think carefully about whether they are made welcome in future.

Because, politics aside, there have been some very weird people involved in recent events. Some of them seriously unhinged. Others, violent. A few, genuinely evil.

Speaking personally, I would not extend a welcome to any of them.

And though he’s a long way from being the worst among them, for God’s sake don’t allow Rantin’, Rovin’ Benji anywhere near the levers of power in YesCymru.

I’m now hoping to take a break from the Woke-Left interlopers who tried to wreck YesCymru and re-acquaint myself with more likeable people. I’m referring now to the grant grabbers, con men, money launderers, mortgage fraudsters, etc., who’ve starred on this blog for so long.

They must be feeling neglected!

♦ end ♦

YesCymru: it must be a clean sweep

On 19/07/202130/07/2021 By JacIn Welsh Independence, Yes Cymru33 Comments

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Yes, folks, this is another episode in the ongoing tale of YesCymru. Another report of damage inflicted on the independence movement by a gang of Woke-Left extremists, their assorted hangers-on, others too weak to resist, and a few who thought they could ride the wave for personal advancement.

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UPDATES

In the previous post in this series, YesCymru, light at the end of the tunnel?, I had to add a few updates, so in case you didn’t catch them, here they are. With one snippet I didn’t use as an update.

Siôn Jobbins, long time Chair of YesCymru – and after a couple of weeks AWOL – finally announced he was stepping down within hours of my previous post going live. I am not claiming cause and effect.

Rachel Cooze, one of the Central Committee members elected at the May 22 AGM, resigned after – among other things – it came to light she had used suspended Central Committee member Dr Dilys Davies’ name to offer discounts on her OnlyFans porn site.

Would-be journalist, ‘Emrys’ Price-Jones, was suspended following her very silly article in The National. A redacted version of the article is still available.

The article named Dr Davies, even though her appeal against suspension is still to be heard. ‘Emrys’ also clearly identified, but without naming, the Central Committee member elected at the May 22 AGM who has also been suspended.

I reached out an avuncular and comforting hand, but the offer was politely rejected. (Since deleted?) Though someone in the gang made a suggestion on Twitter that my approach to ‘Emrys’ was creepy, possibly sexually motivated.

Maybe somebody can find the tweet.

Just when you think there’s nothing new to surprise you about these clowns they manage to plumb new depths.

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THE PART WHERE JAC EXPLAINS HOW IT ALL FITS TOGETHER

Bottom line: There was a conspiracy to take over YesCymru. It was mounted by people I shall name below. Marxists and others belonging to the Far Left justifying what they did as being in the cause of, “progressive socialism”.

Facilitated to some degree by fools who think Communism is ‘cool’, some too stupid to appreciate the danger, and others who just proved too weak to mount any opposition.

The conspiracy has failed because too many people were involved; some of them none too bright who gave the game away, others so convinced they were on the side of the angels that they bragged about their involvement.

But over and above that, once you put the facts together – it’s just so obvious!

I shall try to lay it out in chronological order without, I hope, repeating myself too much. But if I do, then it’s justified because previously I have dealt with disparate pieces, whereas this is the near-complete jigsaw.

The genesis of YesCymru can be found in earlier posts. But it’s worth mentioning that among the founders we find Dr Dilys Davies, Siôn Jobbins and Iestyn ap Rhobert.

Inevitably, the Far Left infiltrated YesCymru early on, but an attempt at takeover was rebuffed and the plotters – or some of them – went off to found openly Marxist Undod towards the end of 2018. A group promoting ‘socialism through independence’ or ‘socialism and independence’.

Though the Undod website now reads, rather anaemically: ‘We are a democratic, socialist republican movement established to secure independence for Wales’.

About as ‘democratic’ as the long gone and unlamented German Democratic Republic. (East Germany.)

Perhaps as revenge for the rebuff the Far Left remnant within YesCymru tried to ambush Dr Davies in the autumn of 2019. It was very amateurish and she survived.

The defeat of Jeremy Corbyn in the general election later that year resulted in Momentum taking an interest in Welsh independence. One member, Harriet Protheroe-Soltani, is now YesCymru’s Campaigns Officer, while still serving as an officer of the North West and Wales region of Momentum.

Another, who returned to Wales from London following Corbyn’s fall, is Siwan Clark. It’s claimed she has more ‘sock puppet’ Twitter accounts than anyone. I couldn’t possibly comment.

To clear the way for the Far Left to take control at the May 22 AGM certain people needed to be ‘neutralised’.

In the case of Dr Dilys Davies this was achieved by @AledGwynWiliams (Single ‘l’!) travelling to her properties in Ceredigion and engineering a spat that resulted in complaints being made to the Central Committee by ‘Emrys’, @sheikyerbouti_ and Rachel Cooze. Dr Davies was suspended from the Central Committee and unable to participate in the AGM.

All explained here in ‘Hopes of Welsh independence being jeopardised by the hard left’.

But this Ceredigion foray was part of a bigger scheme.

We’ve met a number of manipulators in this series on YesCymru but one, almost overlooked, whose name has cropped up a few times recently, is moustachioed Robert Lloyd of Prestatyn, President of Labour for an Independent Wales.

Lloyd became head honcho of this group in January this year. And sources say that the plotting to take over YesCymru began soon afterwards. Plotting in which Lloyd played a bigger hand than he has previously been given credit for.

And you know me, I’m all for giving credit where credit is due.

What’s crucial for the purposes of this article is Lloyd’s role in the run-up to the May 22 AGM, his part in selecting who served on the Central Committee. And I’m sure it will interest you, as well.

Lloyd recently confessed on Twitter that he had indeed been involved in a group that brought together those of a certain ideological disposition seeking to ensure that the incoming Central Committee was to their liking.

This ” . . . very loose campaign, but ultimately a successful one” (note the use of ‘campaign’) pulled together serving Central Committee Members, retiring Central Committee members, and candidates seeking election to the Central Committee for the first time.

In the first category we find Llywelyn ap Gwilym, Elin Hywel and Carys Eleri. In the second there’s Mark Hooper. While in the ranks of the hopefuls, bright of eye and bushy of tail, were Ben Gwalchmai and Rachel Cooze.

These Signal app meetings were set up to delete everything after 5 minutes, and so that option proved unsuitable. Future meetings were held on Zoom, and a fresh initiate was Scott Mackay of Swansea. (Endorsed by Aled Gwyn Wiliams.)

It was now that ap Gwilym and Hooper pushed the “Iestyn must go” line and urged everyone to support Shane Brennan for Secretary. This proved unnecessary because Iestyn ap Rhobert withdrew from the race.

But Lloyd fits into none of the three categories – so why was he there? Who was he representing? Obviously, Labour for an Independent Wales, which I have previously described as about as convincing as DUP for a United Ireland.

Lab4Indy overlaps with Momentum and links with Undod. There are fellow-travellers in Plaid Cymru, especially its youth wing, Plaid Ifanc. There has also – believe it or not – been a Far Left takeover of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (the Welsh Language Society).

But YesCymru was the big prize due to its 18,500 members and the ‘reach’ such a figure gave the organisation.

Of course a membership of that size also presented problems for the Marxist plotters. Selecting and screening Woke-Left candidates for the Central Committee in secret meetings was one thing, but an open and fair election at the AGM, with all members voting, could have undone all the plotting.

To guarantee the election of those they’d chosen the Woke-Left ensured that as few members as possible would be able to vote at the May 22 AGM.

The leaders of the takeover plot were Robert Lloyd, Ben Gwalchmai, Mark Hooper, and Llywelyn ap Gwilym. Representing Undod, Labour/Momentum, and the Leannista wing of Plaid Cymru.

Some of the foot-soldiers, hangers-on and social media warriors I’ve already listed, but there were others. A few too many for the plot to succeed.

Many have justified the takeover as ‘protecting YesCymru from ‘fascism”. Just as the Soviets were fighting ‘fascism’ and ‘revisionism’ when they put down the Hungarian Rising of ’56 and the ‘Prague Spring’ in ’68.

Perhaps the biggest worry in that comparison should be that Marxism prefers big units and is invariably hostile to the aspirations of small nations unless pretending to support those aspirations can be used to promote Marxism.

∼

Footnote: Vice-president of @Lab4IndyWales is our old friend Martyn J Shrewsbury. A source points out that both Lloyd and Shrewsbury might have escaped prison terms.

In his case, in 2014, the magistrate was amazed that Lloyd had not been charged with dangerous driving. If he had been, and if he had been found guilty, then he might not have gone to Cardiff University.

Shrewsbury is a convicted fraudster who escaped jail. (Strangely, the link to the court case is broken.) After causing disruption in the Green Party of Englandandwales for a few years he moved to the Labour Party, and of course Momentum. Shrewsbury had quite a reputation for fake social media accounts.

Read more about Shrewsbury here, in ‘Plaid Cymru’s enemy within‘. In fact, type his name in the sidebar search box because he’s appeared on this blog a few times.

President and Vice-president of Labour for an Independent Wales both dealt with leniently by the authorities with subsequent careers as political wreckers is obviously just a coincidence.

But what are the odds?

UPDATE 30.07.2021: A link to the Shrewsbury conviction has turned up.

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THE COUP SUCCEEDS

The high point for the plotters was around mid-day on May 22, just after the AGM, when their supporters were putting out celebratory tweets like these.

It’s been downhill for them ever since.

For it soon dawned on YesCymru members that the new Central Committee had been elected with the votes of some two per cent of the total membership. (Many members didn’t even know there was an election!) Not even in the socialist Utopias dreamed of by the plotters would such a blatant con have been pulled.

Then it was one revelation after another, indiscretions followed with vile attacks as the plotters and their foot-soldiers were put on the defensive. (Did anyone really believe this woman would be an asset to YesCymru? Or was she brought in to be a wrecker?)

Where were the Minutes? Why couldn’t members see detailed and independently audited accounts?

Regarding the latter, there was a growing suspicion that YesCymru money was being appropriated by Central Committee members, or being diverted to their friends.

A suspicion that began on the day of the AGM. Encouraged by another celebratory tweet; this one from re-elected Central Committee member Tori West.

Recently, London-based West went on strike. How a Central Committee member withdraws their labour is not clear. But anyway, she’s back.

As I’ve said, the pressure on the Central Committee has been relentless, and it has increased week on week. To the point where the Central Committee was forced to agree to a meeting with the branches, which took place on July 13.

I’m not sure what purpose the Central Committee thought the meeting would serve. Was it intended to be a show of strength? An attempt at reconciliation?

I can’t answer those questions. What I can tell you is that from the Central Committee’s perspective it was a disaster.

To begin with, and in an obvious attempt to show that there were branches siding with the Central Committee, those attending the meeting were entertained by . . .

Aled Gwyn Wiliams, tormentor of Dr Dilys Davies, and a veritable keyboard samurai. (Though he’s a bit too fond of the saké and often has to do a lot of deleting the morning after.) He was there representing YesCymru Maesteg. Reports says he waffled without contributing anything.

Then there was ‘Kemp’ who set up @YesYBynie because she didn’t want to mix with all those horrid transphobes and fascists in the thriving Llanelli branch of YesCymru. This Bynea ‘branch’ is just her, and therefore should not be regarded as a branch.

Aware of this she put out a sorry tweet a couple of months ago hoping to rope in waifs and strays. I wonder if anybody answered the call?

Someone else who spoke was Central Committee member Ben Gwalchmai – on behalf of the Welshpool branch! This should not have been allowed.

The letter sent to the branches promised that two members of the Central Committee would be in attendance. In fact, they were all there. Well, those who haven’t resigned or been suspended.

Seeing as ‘Emrys’ is suspended, and his deranged deputy at YesCymru LGBTQ+, ‘George Brown’ has presumably been locked in the attic, being fed through a hatch at the bottom of the door, it fell to young Tyler Griffiths to represent this section.

He did not impress. After ranting about a suspended Central Committee member running ‘sock puppet’ Twitter accounts he didn’t really have a lot to say.

Llywelyn ap Gwilym remained largely silent and seemed to wish he were somewhere else. Whilst Elin Hywel did not enhance her reputation with a number of rather silly comments.

The good news from last Tuesday’s meeting is that most genuine branches want an Extraordinary General Meeting and fresh elections to the Central Committee.

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AND FINALLY . . .

As was reported on Politics Wales yesterday, there’s a lot of crazy stuff flying around on social media. I can state with confidence that 80 to 90 per cent of it comes from defenders of the takeover. And participants therein.

One of the leaders in the field is Rachel Cooze who put the knife into Dr Davies and anybody else she took a dislike to – including me! First, by telling my Twitter followers that I was a fascist and a transphobe, and suggesting they unfollow me. (Which about 40 or 50 did, but now I have more followers than before her attack!)

Then, she came out with a bizarre – and actionable – claim that former YesCymru Secretary, Iestyn ap Rhobert, had been feeding me confidential information. I can swear on a stack of Bibles that the claim is untrue.

I assumed that she had dreamt it up, or been fed it by one of her poisonous consœurs. But then, last week, along came @YupCymru. One of the weirdest accounts to appear in this saga.

Mention has been made of ‘sock puppet’ Twitter accounts, which are shell accounts used by people wanting to hide their identity and/or pretend that their position has more support than is truly the case.

But @YupCymru, now closed, was different.

To begin with, it was opened in 2013, before YesCymru was even thought of, and there were only ten or a dozen tweets until very recently. Yet this almost inactive account made the same allegation on April 29 of Iestyn ap Rhobert leaking me information.

So who was @YupCymru?

It’s a question many are asking because in a brief flurry of activity before closing the account @YupCymru also released confidential YesCymru documents. To wit, the Minutes of the Dr Dilys Davies disciplinary hearing held on May 5.

This hearing was a kangaroo court. The decision to suspend Dr Davies had already been taken by the plotters named earlier. She had to be removed before the AGM because she was a threat to their plans and would certainly have opposed the two motions the plotters had framed.

The Minutes are already in the public domain so I feel able to offer them here.

It’s a strange business. One minute (no pun intended) @YupCymru was fighting for the takeover gang, attacking Iestyn ap Rhobert and me; and then, by releasing the Minutes, seems to be trying to damage YesCymru.

I suppose any investigation will have to start by asking who had copies of or access to those Minutes.

For this breach of security and confidentiality is a serious business. And it’s not the only example we’ve seen recently of unauthorised or unlawful use of confidential YesCymru information.

Perhaps attributable to the fact that those who mounted the coup, and those who support them, know that their time is running out. Of course, they can’t accept that the fightback is coming from ordinary members who want to welcome everybody to a broad-based movement working for Welsh independence.

No, it has to be a fascist takeover. Because anybody who doesn’t agree with these lunatics is a fascist. That’s one of the big mistakes they’ve made – absurd slanders alienating so many decent people.

But then, when you dream of driving a Red Army tank along the boulevards of Budapest or Prague this intolerance of differing views will often betray you.

It’s alleged that ‘Arson Sam’ is one of Siwan Clark’s many sock puppet accounts. Now putting her Momentum experience to the service of the Far Left in YesCymru. Click to enlarge.

Where now for YesCymru?

It would be absurd to suggest that all those involved in the takeover of YesCymru are working for the British state. Equally absurd would be to think that the British state would ignore a movement with 18,000 members pushing for Welsh independence.

The damage done is so severe that none of those responsible for the coup or supportive of it can be allowed to stay. If they don’t resign they must be removed.

There must then be a fresh start with a more professional structure in place to ensure it can’t happen again. Otherwise YesCymru is as good as finished.

♦ end ♦

YesCymru, light at the end of the tunnel?

On 09/07/202112/07/2021 By JacIn Yes Cymru51 Comments

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At the risk of overworking clichés, YesCymru has become the gift that keeps on giving. In fact, it is developing into a veritable cornucopia of source material.

The reason for this is now obvious. There is a group of people within (and some outside) YesCymru who have persuaded themselves that they can say and do whatever they like with no repercussions.

They have been encouraged in this belief, first, by the ease with which they were allowed to take over YesCymru, and then, by the lack of opposition from politicians and mainstream media to their insane views on society, politics and gender.

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IF YOU’RE NEW TO THE SAGA . . .

YesCymru was born ~~on a cold and gray Chicago morn~~ in 2014 out of Welsh support for Scottish independence. The group was officially launched in February 2016, and I gave it my backing in this piece, ‘YESCymru Launch Rally 20.02.2016‘.

As is the fate of all such groups, the Far Left soon tried to muscle in and subvert a cross-party and non-ideological group.

The initial attempt was thwarted, which resulted in certain individuals leaving and, towards the end of 2018, forming Undod, offering ‘Radical Independence for Wales’. It was soon clear that Undod was a Marxist organisation whose members turned up for any kind of protest.

Inevitably, Undod also attracted – and welcomed – Marxists with no real interest in Wales, let alone independence. For these, Wales was just another stage on which to perform, and independence another ishoo to exploit.

One of these recruits was Siwan Clark. For soon after her hero Jeremy Corbyn lost the December 2019 general election she left London to return to Cardiff. In this tweet, put out 11 days before this year’s AGM, she helpfully explains the genesis of Undod.

Clark is of course a member of Momentum, the Marxist party within a party that cost Labour so many seats in December 2019. And now Clark has brought her winning formula to Wales!

What could possibly go wrong?

To prepare the way for the takeover completed at the May 22 AGM certain people, resistant to the Marxists and the Wokies, needed to be removed. Among them, Dr Dilys Davies.

Dr Davies had been attacked earlier, in September 2019, for defending Germaine Greer’s views on sex and gender. (Or at least, that was the excuse used.) I dealt with it here in, ‘Misogyny, bullying? Depends who’s doing it‘.

The attack was renewed at Easter-time this year when Aled Gwyn Williams went down to Ceredigion to engineer the excuse for more complaints – from Aled’s cronies – that would be used to get Dr Davies suspended from the Central Committee.

This I dealt with in ‘Hopes of Welsh independence being jeopardised by the hard left’.

In the tweet above, from around April 23, Siwan Clark helpfully confirms that there was indeed a campaign against Dr Dilys Davies by, “Welsh trans people and their allies”. Code for, ‘Hard Left and their Woke dupes’.

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POTS, KETTLES, AND OTHER NEWS

These Woke-Left extremists do not provide much in the way of humour. Understandable, for they count many swivel-eyed fanatics in their ranks.

Which means that what laughs they do provide are entirely unintentional. Here’s a recent example from Twitter. It’s Aled again!

It’s difficult to think of any group that has posted more ‘mad shit’ on Welsh Twitter in recent years than Aled Gwyn Williams and his gang.

Though as I may have remarked in recent postings, Aled and his fan club are much less active now. They either post innocuous stuff or else their accounts are protected. The suggestion is that they’re using private chat rooms . . . where no doubt the ‘mad shit’ still fills the ether.

But wherever they are, Aled can’t kick the selfies on Twitter: ‘This is me!’, ‘Look at me!’, ‘Look what I’m doing!’.

If anybody loves Aled half as much as Aled loves Aled then Aled is a very lucky boy.

Aled’s mate ‘BVB’ has also forsaken Twitter, having lately realised that it is “vile”. This is priceless.

For when they ruled social media, when they could slag off good people with impunity, Aled and his gang thought Twitter was the best thing since Leanne Wood becoming leader of Plaid Cymru.

But now, as more and more people realise what a pernicious influence this gang has been for too long, it becomes, ‘Oooh, nasty people on Twitter answering back’.

A case of biter bit. And he doesn’t like it. Click to enlarge

Lest we forget, here are two gems put out not so long ago, on Twitter, by ‘BVB’. Did somebody say ‘Mad shit’?

In other news . . .

A bizarre article appear on The National website last Saturday. I knew it was going to be a treat when I saw that the author was our young friend, ‘Emrys’ Price-Jones, Chair of YesCymru’s LGBTQ+ Committee.

‘Emrys’ has a deputy, even more off the wall than her. I’m referring now to ‘George Brown’. Here are some of their recent tweets, to give you a flavour of this dysfunctional duo.

I have to be careful how I word what follows because lawyers are involved, and old Jac has had his fill of those buggers. Anyway, here’s the article from The National as it now reads on the site. But that’s not how it originally appeared.

You’ll see that certain comments have been deleted. This is because they addressed parts of the original article that were soon removed by The National. But not before the article, in its original format, had been endorsed and retweeted by YesCymru.

In the section taken down ‘Emrys’ was candid enough to confirm that he was one of the complainants against Dr Davies a few months back. He even spelled out that the whole charade was staged to engineer her suspension, thereby ensuring that Dr Davies could not stand for election to the Central Committee at the May 22 AGM.

The redacted section also libelled, without naming, but clearly identifying, the woman referred to above by ‘George Brown’ in such vile terms.

Make no mistake: this article was a deliberate attempt to prejudice hearings that are yet to take place; hearings involving Dr Dilys Davies and the other woman identified in the article.

Thankfully, apart from a few ‘wonderful article’ comments from a few people, including ‘BVB’, most comments were hostile. Here’s a good example.

The Central Committee member so grossly abused by ‘George Brown’ in the tweet above complained to Jess Harvey, YesCymru’s Diversity and Inclusivity Officer. The complainant was fobbed off with, “I know George from Plaid Pride. This is very uncharacteristic of them. I’ll have a chat with them!” (Note the pronouns.)

On the contrary, it’s all too characteristic of ‘George Brown’, and Jess Harvey must know it.

Yet this episode reminds us that Jessica – formerly Matthew – Harvey left Plaid Pride in April. ‘George’ left around the same time. Both seem to have decided that YesCymru offered more scope for their intolerant, cultist approach to trans issues; and gave them more freedom to slag off good people as TERFs, transphobes and fascists.

For while earlier forays had established a bridgehead for the Woke-Left, the war on diversity of opinion intensified once YesCymru had a Diversity Officer.

I’m assured that legal action is actively being pursued against those involved with the writing and publication of that heinous article, and other examples of defamation and intimidation. The police are involved.

I can understand why YesCymru Chair Siôn Jobbins has closed his Twitter account.

UPDATE: Siôn Jobbins resigned around mid-day. Here’s the statement he put out.

UPDATE: I am informed that ‘Emrys’ was suspended late this afternoon. Which I assume prompted this rather plaintive tweet.

UPDATE 12.07.2021: ‘Emrys’ has confirmed that she has been suspended. Does this mean that the lunatic ‘George Brown’ is now acting Chair?

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SLAPPERS, MINUTES, MONEY

As if YesCymru doesn’t have enough problems with police and lawyers, more problems are piling up with questions about how YC is organised and regulated. And where the money is going.

On the day of the AGM, London-based Central Committee member Tori West put out this intriguing tweet.

Suspicions grow that ‘Welsh creatives’ (and indeed, non-Welsh creatives) already had their fingers in the YesCymru pie when that tweet went out.

Such as whoever created this eyebrow-raising, toe-curling, stomach-churning, vomit-inducing little video. If you haven’t yet seen it, I suggest you sit down before watching.

We’ll deal with the images in a minute, but let’s focus first on the ‘lyrics’: “England, I know you love me / And I love you too”. What the fuck is that supposed to be saying?

Is anyone claiming the credit!

And why does ‘Wales’ have to be a buxom slapper on a night out down Wind Street?

I know we complain that Wales has been shafted by England for centuries, but did it have to be so graphically illustrated? And seeing as it was, shouldn’t it have come with some kind of warning?

Who the hell commissioned this? Who agreed to pay for it? And who made it?

The answer to the last question I’m told is BAK, a Cardiff company. They look like the kind of ‘creatives’ Tori West may have been thinking of. But there is no company called BAK. We need to look for Capsizing Creative Ltd, formed just last October.

The sole director is Memet Ali Alabora. A Turkish actor and playwright who fled his homeland – with his wife – when it was alleged a play of his had encouraged riots in 2013. He is now a British citizen.

Those involved at BAK are either Turkish or Welsh and, in fairness, Alabora and his wife seem to have taken to Wales, the language, perhaps even the independence cause. But nothing can justify that video. And how many others of that execrable standard has BAK turned out for YesCymru?

I’m even told that the singer is Central Committee member Carys Eleri. Is that true?

Finding out how much that video cost to produce, and how much YesCymru money has found its way to BAK, or anyone else, may not be easy because there are increasing claims that YC’s accounts are either unreliable or unavailable.

Similar claims are made for the Minutes of Central Committee and other meetings.

Another cause for concern might be Ymgyrch Yes Cyf. This being the private company that holds the rights to the YesCymru trademark. Until this year’s AGM the company had four directors. Two resigned because they were no longer officials of YesCymru.

This left just Chair Siôn Jobbins and Treasurer Gwyn Llewelyn. But with Jobbins AWOL this means that the company is in breach of Article 10 of its own Articles of Association, which says there must be 2 directors for a meeting to be quorate.

There are other matters being raised of a similar nature. It looks chaotic.

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DENOUEMENT?

The prevailing mood among members has increased the pressure on the Central Committee and that pressure is certainly telling.

A grassroots revolt, with branches demanding face-to-face meetings with the CC, resulted in this e-mail going out yesterday. It’s signed, in the absence of Siôn Jobbins, by his deputy, Sarah Rees.

It confirms that there will be a meeting of the local groups and the Central Committee on Tuesday.

You’ll note there are certain things that cannot be discussed at the meeting “due to legal reasons”. I bet there are! I just hope that whoever represents the Central Committee doesn’t use that as an excuse to clam up on everything.

And it will be interesting to see who does represent the Central Committee at Tuesday’s meeting.

The victory of the Woke-Left has been short-lived because they were too arrogant and self-obsessed to appreciate that taking over the Central Committee in a rigged AGM would be resented by the great majority of YesCymru members.

Members who want to prioritise independence, and welcome into YesCymru all those who share that view, irrespective of political loyalty and ideological alignment.

For YesCymru to get back on track most of the Central Committee must be removed. The same goes for Diversity and Inclusivity Officer Jessica Harvey, and Campaigns Officer Harriet Protheroe-Soltani (of Momentum).

Unless swift and firm action is taken YesCymru as an organisation could find itself paying – literally! – for the disgusting and criminal behaviour of a few dozen people. That would not be fair on thousands and thousands of decent people.

If YesCymru is to be saved, those wanting to save it must be ruthless. Cut the guilty loose and let them fend for themselves. They’ve already done enough damage.

♦ end ♦

YesCymru: Stalin meets Kafka on a Marx Brothers set

On 01/07/202103/07/2021 By JacIn Welsh Independence, Yes Cymru63 Comments

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I had intended putting out Weep for Wales 19, but events in and around YesCymru meant that my attention was drawn there. What’s more, with the YC story developing as I write this it may be more stream of consciousness than you have come to expect from me.

In a nutshell, YesCymru, an organisation formed and dedicated to campaigning for Welsh independence has, over recent years been first, infiltrated, and then taken over, by the Woke-Left obsessed with issues that have little or nothing to do with Welsh independence.

The AGM of May 22, rigged so that as few as possible of YesCymru’s 18,500 members could participate, sealed the takeover. Less than 2% of the members voted for the new Central Committee and two contentious Motions.

The takeover has been accompanied by a campaign of lies, intimidation, and the vilification of anyone standing up to the extremists. Yet those behind this takeover have cleverly turned the facts on their head to present themselves as victims of intimidation, ‘transphobia’, etc., etc.

To prepare you for what follows I would suggest you read these recent postings. ‘Hopes of Welsh independence being jeopardised by the hard left’ (April 27), ‘Senedd elections: Hard left to win by stealth’ (May 4), ‘This is where I came in’ (May 11), ‘YesCymru – under new management?’ (May 18), ‘YesCymru, the beginning of the end?’ (May 25), ‘A guest post on . . . YesCymru!’ (June 21).

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IN THE BEGINNING

As you’ll have read in the posts I linked to the extremists now running YesCymru – and their allies outwith that organisation – first came to my attention with the hounding of Dr Dilys Davies. This followed her purchasing the ‘Tryweryn Wall’ on the A487 in July 2019.

The memorial had been subjected to two attacks earlier that year and was in danger of complete collapse. So, you might think that a Welsh patriot buying it for the nation would be welcomed by those claiming to be patriots or nationalists.

Mais, non. For Dr Davies was almost immediately attacked, and for bizarre reasons, most of which seemed to focus on the fact that she had the wherewithal to make the purchase.

It was pure, old-fashioned, socialist envy of the, ‘I hates rich people, I do’ variety. The sort of thing you often get from failures, malcontents, and social misfits.

Some even talked of demolishing the wall. Though now they insist they were only joking. Of course they were. Though it does raise an interesting possibility.

For it has been suggested to me that Dr Davies stepping in to buy the Wall may have thwarted a plan for our heroes to buy it – probably with crowdfunding – thereby guaranteeing their places in the pantheon of Welsh nationalism. When their hopes were dashed they had to ensure that Dr Davies was not deified in their stead.

Whether that theory is plausible or not, it may be worth mentioning that no one was ever charged with causing the damage to the Wall in 2019. Or even accused on Twitter. Which, in the febrile world of Welsh social media, is quite something.

Who could have done it?

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TAKEOVER AND AFTERMATH

And so it came t0 pass that at the YesCymru AGM on May 22 the Left-Woke extremists, influenced by Momentum and operating out of Undod, took control of YesCymru.

This was achieved by the old Communist Party ploy of fixing things beforehand and keeping participants down to a manageable number and a favourable disposition.

Undod was formed towards the end of 2018 by leftists who’d previously attempted to take over YesCymru but had been resisted. Its website tells us, “Our members are involved in political campaigning across Wales on a wide range of issues”. Which is fine for an avowedly left wing campaigning group.

But why would the Undodistas want to take over YesCymru and have it do exactly the same thing? The answer, gentle reader, comes down to numbers, and the perceptions of the general public.

Let me explain.

Undod has a few dozen members. At best, a Far Left outfit could hope for a few hundred members. YesCymru has – or had until very recently – 18,500 members.

If Undod protests about US involvement in Laputa they will be dismissed as ‘the usual suspects’. By which will be meant a tiny minority unwilling to come to terms with a liberal democracy and a market economy.

But, if YesCymru demands that the US withdraws its troops from Laputa then the public response might be different. It won’t be, ‘Them lefty nutters!’, it’ll be, ‘Oh, hang on, there’s somebody in YesCymru who works with me – tidy bloke’.

And this is why the Left wanted to take over YesCymru – credibility. And not just with the public, but also with the media, and with politicians.

However . . .

Since the takeover, resistance to it has grown as people who joined YesCymru to work for independence see the organisation’s energies – and money? – dissipated on causes that should have nothing whatsoever to do with YesCymru.

Not least because above and beyond the more general Leftist agenda there are other issues causing concern. First, is the obsession – and that is not too strong a word – with ‘trans rights’. Then there is the growing realisation that some of those involved in the takeover, and their allies, are very unpleasant people.

Very unpleasant indeed. With quite a few of them absolutely unhinged. And those who encourage and exploit them are of course unwilling to rein them in.

One of the new members of the YesCymru Central Committee is Rachel Cooze of Swansea.

Rachel appears on OnlyFans, an online pornography site. Here’s a recent WalesOnline piece that might give you a better idea of what OnlyFans offers.

Some will disapprove of a YesCymru Central Committee member being involved in that kind of thing, others will rush to her defence . . . ‘How is a working-class girl supposed to make money?’ I’m sure there are a million answers, but we don’t have the time . . .

Though the reason Rachel Cooze is coming under pressure now is not – as her defenders pretend – because she is a sex worker, but because she joined in a second attack on Dr Dilys Davies and linked it with her sex work. This second attack was instigated to get Dr Davies removed from the Central Committee ahead of May’s AGM.

To explain. From what I can gather, punters pay money to see Rachel Cooze and others ‘perform’ on OnlyFans. In April she offered a ‘Happy Fuck Off Dilys Day’ discount voucher, the kind of thing you get from your local supermarket.

Well, perhaps not quite.

The renewed attacks on Dr Davies were set in train by Aled Gwyn Williams of Maesteg, something of a guru to those being discussed here. Over Easter he made a trip to Ceredigion in order to provoke Dr Davies into doing something out of which her suspension from YC’s Central Committee could be contrived.

This trip is covered in ‘Hopes of Welsh independence being jeopardised by the hard left’. With photos!

Here’s another photo; this one shows Aled Gwyn Williams with Rachel Cooze.

The person on the right has had her face pixelated. She doesn’t really look like that. Click to enlarge

Rachel Cooze’s reward for sticking it to Dr Davies may have been membership of the Central Committee, to which she was duly elected at the rigged AGM on May 22.

Rachel Cooze’s position within YesCymru must surely now be untenable, as must the positions of those who drew her into the conspiracy against Dr Davies, and those who persist in supporting her despite the evidence.

Among his other qualities Aled is forthright . . . especially after a few drinkies.

Here’s an example I was sent today that is completely in keeping with our hero’s behaviour: “Looks like Aled has a habit of saying “f**k off” to women on Twitter and deleting tweets. He told C—– H—– to “f**k off” at 12:06 am and by 9 ish this morning the tweet had gone….It was there at 8 ish this morning. By the looks of it he spent some time in a pub yesterday too…”.

Some previous examples of Aled Gwyn Williams’ chivalry. Where are the troubadours when you need one? Click to enlarge

The latest news on Dr Dilys Davies’ suspension is that her appeal was heard on Tuesday and the final decision on whether she’s re-admitted will rest with . . . the Central Committee! The very people who engineered her suspension.

No, I am not making this up!

Iestyn ap Rhobert was a YesCymru founder and served as Secretary until withdrawing just before this year’s AGM.

Iestyn ap Rhobert had a bit more to say about his own position today in this Twitter thread. It’s worth reading.

Motions 1 and 2 to which Iestyn ap Rhobert refers – and which I mentioned earlier – were put before the last AGM:

Motions ensuring that as many as possible of YesCymru’s decision makers are non-binary, transsexual, and belong to other ‘oppressed’ minorities. In this set-up there is little room for straight White people . . . unless they’re pulling the strings.

When I started writing about the shenanigans in YesCymru, and wondering who Rachel Cooze was, she put out a message to my Twitter followers asking them to unfollow me.

She asked others to put out the same lies, among them Tessa Marshall of Cardiff. I’d never never heard of Marshall before this, and she certainly didn’t know me. But that didn’t stop her going even further than Cooze.

On Wednesday Marshall was back, defending Rachel Cooze. And attacking Dr Dilys Davies, someone else she doesn’t know.

Tess Marshall is still retweeting Stonewall. Reminding us that much of what I’m writing about is a desperate, rear-guard action by those who know they’re on the losing side.

These people are no different to members of a cult. They are incapable of reasoned argument, so they scream slogans. Their world is black and white, without nuance. Everything is exaggerated: they always feel ‘unsafe’, words are violence, any attempt to engage or debate is ‘harassment’, ‘fascists’ are no longer hiding under the bed – they’re trying to jump in with you like some jackbooted incubi belting out the Horst Wessel Lied.

But then, all manner of strange behaviour is to be found with these people. Some of it truly disturbing, to the point where you wonder how twisted a mind has to be to produce such filth. Take this for example, addressed to a boy of 18 who had recently lost his mother.

This came with illustrations. I’ve spared you those. Click to enlarge

The person who wrote is also 18. It’s a boy wanting to be a girl or a girl wanting to a boy. Either way, the confusion has clearly affected ‘George’, and made him / her both irrational and vicious. Which is something encountered time and again when dealing with Wokies and those obsessed with gender issues.

Despite these obvious and troubling problems, ‘George Brown’ is the vice chair of YesCymru’s LGBT Committee. And was recently defended by Montgomeryshire’s answer to Rasputin, Ben Gwalchmai.

For even though Gwalchmai is a relatively intelligent individual, a member of the Labour Party (and of course, Momentum), he knows that unhinged individuals like ‘George’ have paved his crew’s way to control of YesCymru. And it’s not time to ditch them, yet.

In other news . . . YesCymru Chair, Siôn Jobbins has been missing since Monday. Or at least, his Twitter account was closed on that day.

So what does the future hold for YesCymru?

◊

THE ROAD AHEAD

Last Saturday there was a meeting of the Central Committee. At the meeting was YesCymru’s Diversity and Inclusivity Officer, Jessica – formerly Matthew – Harvey, who harangued Andrew O’Brien of Port Talbot for daring to suggest that YC should focus on independence.

Didn’t he realise that the streets of Wales ran red with the blood of trans martyrs! Ripped limb from limb by TERF mobs! Where were his priorities?

Soon after, Andrew O’Brien resigned from the Central Committee. Here’s the statement he issued:

Andrew O’Brien is a decent, level-headed guy from the steel town of Port Talbot. The sort of man that Plaid Cymru has struggled to recruit, but YesCymru was able to attract. But is now alienating.

It is reported that just one member of the Central Committee spoke up in defence of Andrew O’Brien, so this man’s days on the CC may also be numbered.

Which leaves Niki Jones, who is hanging on by her fingertips. Niki could not attend last Saturday’s Politburo lecture. Though I’m sure she can empathise with Andrew O’Brien because she too has been attacked by people inside YesCymru aided by their social media allies. To the point where it is now a matter for the police.

There’s an irony in the fact that the Far Left, using its Woke foot-soldiers, has finally captured YesCymru; yet as they settle in, hoping to take advantage of their success – the whole thing starts falling apart!

We are at the stage now where YesCymru is alienating people so fast, and bringing the idea of independence into such disrepute, that if the Central Committee is not working for the British state then it is certainly doing the work of the British state.

In his statement, Andrew O’Brien asked, “Who is it who is actually guiding the direction that YesCymru is currently taking”.

A good question. Here’s my answer.

Wales may be at a constitutional crossroads, even First Minister Drakeford is dropping hints about an unbalanced Union not working for Wales. Others sense that Wales may be closer to independence now than at any time since Glyndŵr’s day.

Having captured YesCymru the Far Left has a credibility and influence that would never be bestowed by the ballot box. This gives the Marxists a platform from which to not only influence events in the here and now but also, should independence be achieved, the development of the new state.

More credibility and influence than Undod could ever hope for under its own banner.

◊

CONCLUSION

From my observations, from what I’m being told, and from what insiders are now making public, YesCymru has become TransCymru, and should be allowed to drift away to irrelevance.

I believe TransCymru is too far gone to save. Any attempt would be lengthy and acrimonious, would almost certainly involve lawyers (which those holding the YesCymru purse-strings could afford), and attract the attention of Wales’ enemies in London and elsewhere. All of which would damage the independence cause.

A new organisation is needed. One rooted in Wales. An organisation that will speak out on the real world issues that affect our people; and by doing this build up support for independence, through proving commitment to Welsh people and their physical rather than their imaginary communities.

We must start again. And this time – get it right.

Senedd elections: Hard left to win by stealth

On 04/05/202104/05/2021 By JacIn Elections, Labour Party, Plaid Cymru, Welsh Independence, Yes Cymru72 Comments

I’M IN SEMI-RETIREMENT AND THIS BLOG IS WINDING DOWN. I INTEND CALLING IT A DAY SOON AFTER THIS YEAR’S SENEDD ELECTIONS. POSTINGS WILL NOW BE LESS FREQUENT AND I WILL NOT UNDERTAKE ANY MAJOR NEW INVESTIGATIONS. DIOLCH YN FAWR.

♦

Last week, in discussing the suspension from Yes Cymru, on the most spurious of grounds, of Dr Dilys Davies, I offered you ‘Hopes of Welsh independence being jeopardised by the hard left’.

This latest post is in part an update of, and in part a sequel to, last week’s post.

♦

INTRODUCTION

In that previous piece I explained the infiltration of Yes Cymru by left wingers who are more likely to be promoting their own agendas than serving Welsh interests.

I also tried to explain the linkage between the doctrinaire ‘hard’ left and the ‘fluffier’ wokies, especially those who believe transsexuals are a persecuted minority in Wales that must not just be protected, but promoted and grown.

Following that piece I suffered considerable online abuse, people saying they wanted to attack me, even kill me. Moi! loveable old Jac!

This is the kind of thing I’m talking about.

Aled Gwyn Williams, poisonous little troll of Maesteg, was no doubt angry that my blog piece had been taken up by Llais y Sais, where Martin Shipton gave him a few mentions.

This was perhaps payback for Shipton being attacked last year by the usual suspects for daring to wonder why BLM protests were allowed during Covid lockdown.

For this he was removed from a judging panel by the touchy-feely, state-funded, left liberals of Literature Wales, an organisation where ‘diversity’ now takes precedence over good writing.

Shipton was quoted in a Nation.Cymru article saying, “Many of the tweets questioned my right to express an opinion, called into question my credentials as a journalist and attacked me on the basis of my age.”

Tell me about it!

But it was all rather naïve of Shippo. For as we learnt from the USA and elsewhere, marches, riots, arson, looting, even murder and mayhem, were perfectly acceptable during lockdown – as long as it was BLM or Antifa doing it.

Further news came in after last week’s post was published, some of which I added as an update, and so you may have missed it. Also, information to which I’ve been directed in recent days.

◊

HARD LEFT INFILTRATES, PROMISES SOCIALIST UTOPIA OF . . . GULAGS

As a late addition to last week’s post I mentioned that Yes Cymru had taken on a Campaigns Officer. Her name is Harriet Protheroe-Soltani (formerly Protheroe-Davis), originally of Merthyr.

What’s important about her is that she comes from Momentum, or Welsh Labour Grassroots, as it tends be more popularly known in Wales. By either name this is the hard left group that gathered around Jeremy Corbyn capturing and, for a while, controlling the Labour Party.

Since Corbyn’s fall parasitic Momentum has sought new hosts.

A year ago Harriet Protheroe-Soltani stood for Momentum’s National Coordinating Group (NCG), seeking to represent the ‘North West and Wales’ region.

She was elected and became “vice chair of the campaign group Momentum”. By March this year Protheroe-Soltani was a “YesCymru activist“.

When standing for the Momentum NCG last year this is what she had to say to the Momentum membership in her election pitch:

The penultimate sentence is chilling. It suggests that those who are democratically elected to the Senedd by the Welsh people will be dictated to by left wingers like her.

Another hard left woman who has adopted the cause of Welsh independence is infamous anti-Semite Kerry-Anne Mendoza, editor-in-chief of far left media site The Canary. I think she has ‘bought a place’ near Abergavenny.

I don’t accept that these women really care about Wales, or about us. I say that because the left is inherently unpatriotic. To them, patriotism is either passé or downright evil.

One of Aled Gwyn Williams’ playmates’ recently used the term ‘flagshaggers’ to describe Welsh patriots. (He’s the one in the centre of the picture below.)

Not long before, in a truly bizarre tweet – even by their standards – he challenged ‘flagshaggers’ to a cage fight! Everybody had a good laugh.

The hard left supports Welsh independence for its own reasons. Reasons that would be of no benefit to the Welsh people. For example, the left would do nothing to combat the ethnic cleansing taking place in our rural areas as they believe in open borders and free movement of people.

Consequently, the independent Wales they promise would be an absolute nightmare. As we were reminded by the comedian in the centre of the picture above . . . who fantasises about gulags!

And he is not joking! That’s how unhinged the hard left / wokies have become.

These are the people taking over and reshaping the movement for independence, and it makes sense.

For reading Momentum literature certain things become obvious. Regular references to the Labour Campaign for Trans Rights tell that this issue is being used by Momentum to cause disruption in ‘target groups’.

It worked its magic on the Labour Party and now we see the hard left using its useful idiots the wokies to cause disruption with transphobia allegations in Wales. Especially within Plaid Cymru and the independence movement.

◊

THE HARD LEFT UNDERMINING THE NATION

When it’s not talk of gulags and cage fights with ‘flagshaggers’, or dictating policy to the ‘Welsh Government’, then leftists engage in other attacks on the nation.

Here are two examples from last week.

To believe the first, the movement for Welsh independence owes virtually nothing to white, heterosexual Welsh people!

“Bigots and fascists” is code for, ‘anyone who refuses to accept the hard left / wokie message’. That is, most of us.

According to Welsh Communalists of the World Yes Cymru was “only possible” due to the LGBTQ community and the Kurds. Now, I have supported the Kurds ever since I became aware of their plight – and this was long before the clowns I’m writing about were born – but to give the Kurdish diaspora in Wales such influence would probably embarrass the Kurds themselves.

Yet – and this is surely the clincher! – what Welsh Communalists of the World says is “a scientific fact”. So there!

Who are these idiots?

A brief background may be needed for you to understand the second example.

A recent proposal to the Snowdonia National Park Authority by Gwynedd councillor John Pughe Roberts called for our highest mountain to be known only as ‘Yr Wyddfa’.

This has excited the representatives of the ‘visitor economy’ (love that term!) who claim the tourists won’t like it. Citing the fact that no one visits Mont Blanc or Benidorm.

It’s this suggestion from Cllr Roberts that encouraged the Twitter contribution you see below from @henpbapur.

It’s difficult to know where to start with this, but let’s try some facts. Colonel Sir George Everest was born into a family of butchers turned lawyers from London. They’d made enough money to buy a sizeable estate near Crughywel.

There is some dispute as to where George Everest was born, in 1790, but he was certainly baptised in London and educated in England before joining the East India Company as a cadet and sailing for India in 1806. He died at his London home in 1866 and is buried in London.

His connection with Wales, therefore, is tenuous in the extreme. He may never have set foot here! For all sorts of reasons, to call him a Welshman is absurd.

But none of this matters to those, infected with transient lunacies, who want to paint us Welsh as colonialist oppressors. Though even if Everest was Welsh, would that make us all guilty?

Following World War Two the Allies decided that guilt for the Holocaust and other crimes would be borne by those who were guilty – not by the whole German nation. That was the correct thing to do then, and now.

But under the influence of Black Lives Matter, and its mantra that all white people must carry the guilt for slavery and colonialism some young person in Wales uses George Everest to pin the guilt of colonialism on the whole Welsh nation in 2021!

And by so doing, she lines up with some Cheshire Set shite in Abbasock who thinks using the name Yr Wyddfa is racist!

Whose side is she on?

She doubled down on her silliness with the tweet you see below.

No, I’ll tell you what’s ‘toxic’ and ‘shallow’ – blaming people for things they had no hand in, and arguing for collective guilt. Because that’s how dictators and genocidalists ‘justify’ their crimes.

◊

THE HARD LEFT, YES CYMRU, AND THE COALITION

One of the many curiosities of the Welsh political scene nowadays is a group calling itself Labour for an Independent Wales. As you can see if you click on the link, the homepage of the group’s website proclaims ‘Socialism through independence’, leaving us in no doubt of its priority.

(Mercifully, there’s no mention of gulags. Or of challenging ‘flagshaggers’ to a scrap.)

On the executive committee of @LabforIndyWales we find Martyn Shrewsbury, snake oil salesman of Swansea and former luminary of the Liberal Democrats. Shrewsbury has appeared on this blog more than once. (Just put his name in the search box atop the sidebar.)

The rest seem to be the usual mix of dinner party socialists, those still fighting Brexit, and yet more opportunists dreaming of exploiting an independent Wales.

The leader and spokesperson for this merry band is Ben Gwalchmai, who is the fourth of Labour’s four candidates on the Mid and West Wales list for Thursday’s election. Which means he’s got as much chance of being elected as I have.

I mention Comrade Gwalchmai because, idly searching the web the other night, I came across a podcast in which he appears, alongside Harriet Protheroe-Soltani of all people. She of Yes Cymru and Momentum.

If nothing else, it tells us that they know each other. Which is no great surprise.

But the reason I mention it is because I’m told Gwalchmai has been having discreet talks with the leadership of Yes Cymru. The organisation that so recently attracted Protheroe-Soltani. This might be significant.

Because despite Yes Cymru’s claims to not be aligned with any political party, it became obvious soon after YC’s launch that it was an extension of Plaid Cymru. While the claim to being ideology-free has been destroyed by Yes Cymru’s surrender to the far left and the left’s wokie dupes.

Then, other sources tell me that the details of the post-election coalition between Labour and Plaid Cymru have already been settled. Plaid Cymru is being coy about it so as not to alienate its supporters.

I’ll remind them: A vote for Plaid Cymru is a vote for Labour.

It would make perfect sense for potential partners in any coalition to have made the initial contact through proxies. Or should we view it as Yes Cymru acting as matchmaker?

One thing is absolutely certain. The hard left has extended its influence in Wales without ever putting its agenda to the electorate. It has achieved this influence through the time-honoured methods of entryism and operating through surrogates.

The little chart I’ve drawn up explains how I see the flow of left wing influence. You’ll note that while Labour is obviously targeted, the ultimate targets are Yes Cymru and Plaid Cymru. In fact, Plaid Cymru might be seen as the end of the line.

Making the party of Saunders Lewis and Gwynfor Evans the Labour Party by another name.

Undod is a far left group containing a number of extremists and oddballs, some of whom crop up in the company of Aled Gwyn Williams. With its emphasis on class war it’s about as relevant to the 21st century as whalebone corsets.

“One of the reasons we decided to call ourselves Undod was as a permanent reminder that the working class have more in common with one another than they do with the political and business elites in this country.”

As I said earlier, the left is always unpatriotic, and Undod is no exception. It seeks to divide the Welsh nation on class lines while forging alliances with the toiling masses elsewhere. It’s almost nostalgia socialism; the sort of thing that can only appeal to the truly embittered or the too-young-to-know-better.

Plaid Ifanc, the youth wing of Plaid Cymru, is another far left organisation, with its number one objective being to make Wales independent . . . and then join the EU! Being generous, I’ll suggest its members are too young to remember the 2016 referendum in which Wales voted to leave the EU.

There is no mention on the Plaid Ifanc website of the citizens of an independent socialist Wales having a referendum to decide whether they want to join the EU.

There are other groups and social media accounts that I could have mentioned but these would be more peripheral.

Though one deserving a mention, which seems to be another front for Momentum, is Acorn. Formed in 2014, it describes itself as “a mass membership organisation and network of low-income people organising for a fairer deal for our communities”.

Deliciously vague . . . but who could criticise!

◊

LOOKING AHEAD

There will be a Labour-Plaid Cymru coalition after Thursday’s elections, but the real victor will be the hard left, which has infiltrated both parties, and will, as Harriet Protheroe-Soltani warned, “set the narrative” for the ‘Welsh Government’. It could be argued that this infiltration made the coalition almost inevitable.

Can merger be far behind?

From then on it will be virtue signalling on steroids!

The planet will be saved by banning private transport while also getting rid of farmers and their farting livestock; the world’s refugees will be encouraged to come to Wales; police will be defunded and their bicycles emblazoned with ‘ACAB’; England’s homeless will be housed; gender dysphoria counselling will be available to foetuses; the stocks will be brought back for flagshaggers; the currently under-funded third sector will enjoy a golden age of largesse; anyone asking, ‘But what about the economy?’ will be re-educated . . . and Wales will sink into (even greater) poverty and utter chaos.

I can only hope that a few years of the lunatics running the asylum leads to our people coming to their senses, and from then on voting for parties with no hidden agendas, and only Wales’ best interests at heart.

♦ end ♦

Wales and West Housing, the scandal continues

On 28/02/201804/03/2018 By JacIn Colonialism, Colonisation of Wales, Corruption, Housing Associations, Planning, Third Sector, Welsh Government, Welsh Labour93 Comments

INTRODUCTION

In the previous post ‘Sister Sledge’ and I tried, in our different ways, to explain the Labour Party’s links with various other bodies, from Spartist rent-a-mob-with-whistles outfits to superficially respectable social housing bodies.

Ultimately, such linkages combine to create a system not unlike those we see in one-party states, where the reach of the ruling party extends into every area of national life. Such contempt for plurality ignores the fact that Labour gets just a third of the votes in Assembly elections and it leads, as in true dictatorships, to over-confidence and even corruption.

Which might explain what I’m now going to tell you. Though if someone can satisfactorily prove to me that it’s nothing more than a genuine mistake then I shall make that clear in a subsequent post.

◊

PLAS MOROLWG

To give you the fullest understanding of the subject I think some background information would be helpful.

Plas Morolwg was a general needs family scheme owned by Bromford Carinthia, an English housing association, and built in the late 1970s. You have to wonder who gave planning permission for an English outfit to ship in dozens of people many of whom would have had special needs, with each one adding to the burden on the local health and other services.

But the importation of England’s problems still goes on, the difference today is that it’s done by ‘Welsh’ organisations using Welsh public money! Yet I have heard of no residential homes or social housing developments in England catering for Welsh people and paid for from English funds. Isn’t that strange?

Tai Cantref, based in Newcastle Emlyn, was pressured into buying Plas Morolwg by Tai Cymru, the former umbrella organisation for registered social landlords, now superseded by Community Housing Cymru. It was not a good buy.

To begin with, Plas Morolwg stood in an exposed location above the harbour/marina in Aberystwyth. It’s a nice spot when the sun’s out but otherwise at the mercy of the weather coming in off Cardigan Bay. Enough of a problem in itself, but Plas Morolwg was not very well built either, and a storm in February 2014 exposed just how bad a job the builders had done.

Almost before the wind had died down Tai Cantref slapped in a planning application on 11 February 2014 to demolish Plas Morolwg and replace it with a “mixed affordable and open market residential re-development”. (Ref No A140117.)

As you’ve seen in the link supplied above, Outline Planning Permission was granted 7 October 2014 and Plas Morolwg was demolished in January 2015.

But more storm clouds were gathering. For some bad business decisions by Tai Cantref encouraged Bay Bubble scheming that saw this housing association brought to its knees and handed over to the Labour Party’s favourite RSL, Wales and West Housing.

This arranged marriage was formalised in September 2016. Which meant of course that Wales and West came into full possession of the now-cleared and ready-to-build-on Plas Morolwg site.

In addition to the Tai Cantref planning application to demolish and rebuild Plas Morolwg Wales and West has submitted a further application – Ref No A170922 – for a further eight “residential apartments”. (Are there non-residential apartments?)

This presumably is in addition to the Tai Cantref application of February 2014 for 64 apartments. The original Plas Morolwg complex was just 44 apartments, but the new building is two storeys higher and many believe it’s an even bigger eyesore than the original.

One thing’s for sure, the biddies on the top floor are in for exciting times when 90mph westerlies blow in from Labrador.

The next development in this saga was Ceredigion council announcing that the Bodlondeb extra care facility in Aberystwyth faced closure. This news was exploited by the Labour Party and its formed-for-the-purpose front organisation the Ceredigion People’s Assembly. (Not to be confused with the People’s Assembly of Ceredigion, or the Popular Assembly of Ceredigion.)

In response to the campaign the council entered into talks with Wales and West in the summer of 2017 for an extra care residential facility on the Plas Morolwg site to partly replace Bodlondeb.

So a Labour-led campaign against Ceredigion’s non-Labour council eventually drove the council into the arms of the Labour-run Wales and West Housing, which may now be in a position to demand whatever it wants on the Plas Morolwg site.

◊

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

I have been helped with this section by someone who has signed up to the new party, someone with connections in Ceredigion Council and Cantref, and this individual has some very interesting information about the Council’s final quarter Social Housing Grant programme bid to the ‘Welsh’ Government.

Submitted by Keith Davies, on 16th February 2018, I am informed that the bid spreadsheet includes the following statement: “We have included a drawdown request for the Plas Morolwg extra care scheme acquisition stage totalling £1,690,000 . . . ”

The spreadsheet shows £1,051,000 being claimed for site acquisition of Plas Morolwg in the 2017/18 Social Housing Grant development programme; with an extra £188,500 claimed from any spare moolah available in 2017/18 surplus grant round to top up the “remaining acquisition grant only”.

This seems to suggest that Wales and West is to be paid Social Housing Grant to buy a development site that they acquired when the ‘Welsh’ Government encouraged them to take over Tai Cantref. In other words, a site they already own!

But just to be sure, I went to the Land Registry website. From there I downloaded both the title and the map of the site. There seems to be little question that Wales and West owns the Plas Morolwg site and with no money owing to banks or other lenders.

But then I got to thinking, ‘Well, hang on, maybe Wales and West is buying some extra land, and that explains this “acquisition stage” payment?’ So I went to the plan on the Ceredigion Council website, the plan relating to the proposed redevelopment of the site, and compared it with the Land Registry map.

They’re identical. As you can see for yourself.

The proposed development moves down the hill to minimise the impact of the two extra storeys and this will almost certainly mean that access, parking and just about everything else will be located at the rear of the building.

◊

‘THE WILD WEST SHOW’

In the days when Ceredigion council was run by men of property, planning permission was so easy to come by, and planning rules treated with such contempt, that Paul Flynn, the veteran Newport West MP, described Ceredigion council as “the Wild West Show”.

Those days of greedy landowners enriching themselves may be gone, but a new menace to open and honest local government in Ceredigion has emerged in the form of Momentum, whose followers act as foot-soldiers for a locally unelectable Labour Party and its linked organisations.

This was all explained in my previous post.

Juvenile leftists with nothing better to do are one thing, but with Wales and West Housing we are dealing with a ruthless – possibly corrupt – organisation bent on hoovering up rivals thanks to funding and political support provided by its parent body, ‘Welsh’ Labour.

So we need answers to the following questions, and these answers must come from Wales and West itself, Cyngor Ceredigion, and the ‘Welsh’ Labour Government.

First, has the Plas Morolwg development received full planning approval? Then, given the history of the site, where will the residents come from?

But perhaps most important of all – is Wales and West Housing receiving £1.69m to buy a site it already owns? If so, why? And who authorised this funding?

The time has come for opposition politicians in the Assembly to demand an investigation into social housing in Wales; we must know exactly how it’s funded, whether it meets – even exceeds – the needs of Wales, and the relationship between some housing associations – particularly Wales and West Housing – and ‘Welsh’ Labour.

♦ end ♦

UPDATE 01.03.2018: Someone sent me a ‘Welsh’ Government document called a (social housing) Programme Delivery Plan for Ceredigion. I’m not sure how readable it is, but anyway, here’s the link.

The first page lists a number of projects in the pipeline, including Plas Morolwg, but with some information redacted. The other project with information redacted is Mid Wales Housing’s Cylch Caron in Tregaron, which I understand has been scuppered by Cyngor Ceredigion getting into bed with Wales and West up on the windy heights of Plas Morolwg.

Note also on this first page that under the ‘Tenure’ heading all the other projects are listed as ‘Social’, but not Plas Morolwg, which is ‘Neutral’. This I’m told means that it will either be private housing or mixed.

And yet, as I’ve explained in the main post, Wales and West is asking for Social Housing Grant to acquire the Plas Morolwg site. Yet we know a) Wales and West already owns the site and b) the Programme Delivery Plan now tells us W&W will not be building social housing.

So what the hell is going on here?

Scroll down to the third sheet (which I suspect is a continuation of the first) and you’ll find other Wales and West projects with information redacted. In fact, there are five redactions for Wales and West, the two for Mid Wales Housing, but none for Tai Ceredigion which has the most entries on these sheets.

So why does Wales and West Housing get such preferential treatment from the ‘Welsh’ Government? I can understand the reasoning behind commercial confidentially, but when it’s only applied to Wales and West it looks very much like favouritism. Or maybe hiding something?

P.S. I’ve also seen the Pembrokeshire Programme Delivery Plan, and there Wales and West has even more redactions. They may be connected with a development called Parrog Yard in Newport. Any information will be gratefully received and treated confidentially.

‘Welsh’ Labour – Farce, Tragedy or Rotten Tooth?

On 26/08/201626/08/2016 By JacIn Uncategorised59 Comments

It is with heavy heart, and a tear-streaked visage, that I recount further news of our beloved ‘Welsh’ Labour Party bravely defending its Blairite integrity against ~~socialists~~ interlopers, while a much-loved tribune, hewn from the rock upon which Dowlais stands, struggles with Italian menus worried – nay, anguished! – by the situation back home. Oh, yes.

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You may recall that I referred a while back to the curious situation of people coming together in Swansea, enthused by Jeremy Corbyn, to form an unofficial Momentum group, then trying to link up with the official Momentum, and to individually join the Labour Party, but being told to piss off. To explain.

Most of you probably think of Momentum as the outfit that provides foot-soldiers for Jeremy Corbyn in his leadership contest. For, to use its own description, “Momentum (Est. 2015) is a Labour Party focused organization”. Focused on, but not part of, the Labour Party. It’s possible in England to belong to Momentum without being a Labour Party member.

Here in Wales the situation is different due to Welsh Labour Grassroots being ‘The Home for Momentum in Wales’, and WLG (Est. 2003) being much closer to the ‘official’ Labour Party than Corbyn’s ‘provisionals’ are in England. Here it appears that only Labour Party members are allowed into Momentum / Labour Grassroots.

In this Labour leadership contest, most MPs, AMs, and councillors support Owen Smith, but the rank and file backs Corbyn. Which explains why the hoi polloi are often denied meetings at which they might express their preference, or else meetings are allowed, but controlled by those who succumb to temporary blindness when confronted with a sea of hands for Corbyn. (I’m told a favoured way of dealing with this is, ‘Too close to call, so in the interests of party unity . . .’.)

(If things get really bad perhaps we can expect decisions to be taken at invitation-only meetings. Though it’s rather confusing to see ‘Welsh’ Labour revert to the tactics of its socialist past in order to silence people who are, in the main, er . . . socialists! But then, I can remember when Plaid Cymru was expelling nationalists. Since when it’s simply made itself unattractive.)

Despite it being closer to the Labour Party in Wales than in England Welsh Labour Grassroots / Momentum still supports Corbyn for leader. But when we look at where the support for Corbyn comes from, it tells an interesting story.

WLG Nominations — From the Welsh Labour Grassroots website

Of the nine CLPs that have declared for Corbyn, only two are in the southern urban belt. The single nomination for Owen Smith is in the south, as is the single constituency that decided “not to make a nomination”, while of the seven constituencies where meetings have been cancelled, five are in the south. Clearly, the farther a constituency party is from the grip of the regional HQ in Cardiff, then the more likely it is to go over to the ‘provos’.

Anyway, as I say, many of those in Swansea enthused by Corbyn had not previously been active in politics, and were not Labour Party members so, if WLG / Momentum was reluctant to engage with them, then surely, joining the Labour Party was the answer? Well, no.

Here’s a letter received in response to an application to join the Labour Party made by one of those political virgins. It talks of “inappropriate comments on Facebook” and having “behaved unacceptably at branch meetings”. (I received a very similar response to my application.)

Now clearly, Labour HQ in London does not check on the social media output of every applicant. It must consult the local hierarchy, along the lines of, ‘We’ve had a membership application from a Rhydderch Prydderch of Morriston, should we let him join?’

And the word comes back, ‘Nah, he’s gonna vote for Corbyn’. Now this may be a losing battle, but the Labour establishment in Wales has a clear advantage over the party in England in that Momentum is not entirely independent, and with enough ‘officials’ involved with WLG potential ‘provos’ can be identified and dealt with.

But by over-riding the wishes of most of its members it cannot escape the consequences, whoever is leader.

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Dawn Bowden, the Assembly Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney has been in the news again, this time pissing off her constituents by telling them what a wonderful time she was having in Italy. I was able to salvage the following snaps from her Twitter account – though for some reason she’s blocked me! (@carrageryr is her partner, Martin Eaglestone, another freeloader on the Labour / trade union / Third Sector gravy train.)

Now I know some of you are thinking, ‘Come on, Jac, she’s entitled to a holiday, after working a three-day week every week since . . . well, since she was elected on May 5 . . . or at least, for the few weeks the Assembly sat before breaking up again on July 18 for its two-month summer holiday’. But, alas, it’s not just the holidays that are pissing people off.

To point you in the right direction, here’s something I recently put out on Facebook and Twitter. (Click to enlarge.)

In addition there is much disgruntlement locally over other issues.

First, it is said, that she was forced on the local Labour Party by the manipulations of fellow trade unionist and Labour Party big-wig, Andy Richards.

Second, despite being elected almost four months ago, there have been no advertisements for staff to run Bowden’s offices in the constituency and the Assembly. This being Merthyr, where the Labour Party elevates nepotism to heights that would make the denizens of Tammany Hall giddy, there are strong suspicions that these posts are already allocated – so why waste time and money advertising them? For those who might harbour suspicions that I’m being unfair to Labour in Merthyr, maybe this post from last July might help convince you, Merthyr: All Aboard the ‘Welsh’ Labour Gravy Train.

Third, it is being said, already, that Dawn Bowden is so bloody useless she makes Gerald Jones MP look competent!

But perhaps, and certainly for me, the true awfulness of this woman, her obvious unsuitability for a seat like Merthyr and Rhymney, is exposed in the letter she wrote to party members explaining why – unlike most of them – she is supporting Owen Smith for leader of the Labour Party. (Click to enlarge.)

To begin with, nobody – not even Smith himself – believes that bollocks about a £200 billion investment fund, Wages Councils, Clause 4 and a 50p tax rate. Smith has to say those things because he’s competing against a socialist. So either Bowden is too stupid to realise Smith is simply electioneering, in which case she is unintentionally misleading party members; or else she knows he’s lying, in which case, she’s also lying.

But worst of all is the final paragraph ” . . . which I know is the way we do things in Merthyr and Rhymney”. And how, exactly, would you know that, Bowden?

You are an Englishwoman. You were only elected to represent the constituency in May (after a rigged selection process). You have never lived in the constituency. You know nothing about the area, its history, or its people and their strong sense of local identity and pride in their area’s radical past. You ‘fit’ in Merthyr about as well as I’d fit in Henley-on-Thames.

You are just another shameless Labour interloper, benefiting from the most corrupt political system in western and northern Europe. Realise that and resign.

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The title of this post is in the form of a question, so what is the answer? Well, taken in isolation, and if there were no ill effects on others, then the Labour Party, especially now as it tears itself apart, could be seen as a farce, and we could all have a good laugh.

But, regrettably, Labour remains the largest party in Wales, ‘Welsh’ Labour runs the Assembly, and that is most definitely a tragedy.

Perhaps the saddest thing I heard from my Merthyr source was that Plaid Cymru seems reluctant to exploit Labour’s obvious vulnerability in the constituency. Even saying, ” . . . if you’re not in the bloody Rhondda or her (Leanne Woods’) inner circle you don’t count for anything”. This strikes me as a cri de coeur rather than a burst of old-fashioned Valleys’ tribalism.

But I can’t leave you all depressed and miserable, so let me cheer you up with the third option, in the salutary and thought-provoking Parable of Jac’s Tooth. (Not for the squeamish.)

While indulging myself last weekend, sinking my gnashers into a chunk of Bourneville, I lost a tooth, or most of it. (Of course my dentist is on holiday, and then there’s bloody Bank Holiday on Monday . . . )

When I cleaned it, and examined it, I realised that the tooth would have fallen out soon without the intervention of Messrs Cadbury. As I ruefully rolled it about my hand I said to myself, ‘Jac, this tooth, rotten to the core, its days of usefulness so clearly numbered, could serve as the perfect metaphor for . . .

Jac o' the North

Tag: Momentum

Welsh Independence And The Left

YesCymru: Resignations and more

YesCymru: it must be a clean sweep

YesCymru, light at the end of the tunnel?

YesCymru: Stalin meets Kafka on a Marx Brothers set

Senedd elections: Hard left to win by stealth

‘Welsh’ Labour – Farce, Tragedy or Rotten Tooth?

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