Tag: Sport Wales

Net Zero, Pressure Groups, DEI, Cultural Marxism

On By JacIn Climate, DEI, Environmentalism, Far Left, Globalism, Greens, Public Funding, Renewables, Rugby, Sport, Wind Turbines14 Comments

I’m thinking of taking a summer break, but whether I do or not, I want to put this out; based on things I’ve understood for a while, but prompted by cases that have come to light over the past week.

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FUTURE GENERATIONS COMMISSIONER

This job was created by the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. All Welsh legislation now must adhere to the guidelines laid down by this Act. I covered it recently in the second part of Things Are Never So Bad That They Can’t Get Worse.

A wee digression to explain how we got here.

The driving force behind Well-being, and the woman who claims to have authored its bible, is former Labour Assembly Member (for Pontypridd) Jane Davidson. Before taking up the post she’d created for herself, in 2007, Davidson had already damaged Welsh education with climate scam brainwashing and other nonsense.

Davidson was at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, organised by the UN, where the guidelines for ‘sustainable development’ were laid down. They placed the blame for “Climate Change, Desertification and Biodiversity Loss” at the door of Western nations.

This global crisis had to be tackled. When it was pointed out that developing nations were increasingly contributing to the problem it was argued that they must be allowed to catch up. As Google AI puts it:

. . . climate frameworks, like the UN Paris Agreement, operate on the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities”. This acknowledges that wealthier nations historically produced the majority of greenhouse gases and must take the lead in cutting them, while giving developing economies more time and leeway to transition out of poverty.

Developed nations paying for this ‘differentiation’ exposes that ‘saving the planet’ is just another form of occidentophobia, or “anti-Western sentiment, prejudice, or hostility toward Western culture, values, and institutions“.

But I’ve never understood why Davidson was in Rio. The Times Higher Education supplement says: “She entered politics in 1994 as a researcher for Labour MP Rhodri Morgan, later the assembly’s second secretary.”

She’s described that Rio trip as her Road to Damascus moment, when she was converted to the Green gospel, thereupon becoming an apostle. But if she was not already a convert in 1992, and not involved in politics, why was she in Rio at all?

Was she on holiday, and just popped in out of curiosity?

I believe Davidson was already involved in the climate scam; and came back from Rio with the blueprint for turning Wales into the wind turbine, solar panel, anti-farming, DEI, brainwashing kids, 20mph hell it’s become.

The first Future Generations Commissioner (FGC) was Labour insider, and at the time, deputy PCC for South Wales, Sophie Howe. Before that she’d been a Cardiff councillor and a special advisor to cabinets led by Labour first ministers Rhodri Morgan and Carwyn Jones.

She was succeeded in 2023 by Derek Walker, another Labour insider. He had a background in the TUC, trans lobbyists Stonewall, and in the 12 years before becoming FGC he’d been CEO of Cwmpas (formerly Wales Co-operative Development & Training Centre Limited), a “development agency for social enterprises and co-operatives”.

Latest accounts show income of almost £7 million, almost all of which came from the self-styled ‘Welsh Government’, and most of which went on salaries. Basically, another publicly-funded job creation scheme for Labour insiders and keffiyeh wearers.

Most people will never have heard of Cwmpas. Or the many similar outfits.

The reason I mention FGC Derek Walker is due to a report in BusinessNewsWales last week that began: “The Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, Derek Walker, is announcing a review into energy policy and decision-making in Wales.”

I read it, and a few questions came into my head. Let me list them.

“Project Ynni is a new initiative“. OK. And how many other ‘initiatives’ are out there? How many ‘initiatives’ have come and gone? How much public money have they swallowed? What have they achieved?

Where does this man’s legitimacy come from? Who voted for him?

What business qualifications does he have, or what expertise in energy or climate studies?

We all know the answers. He’s a Labour time-server, given a job created solely to promote climate hysteria and control our behaviour.

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THE EVILS OF PRIVATE TRANSPORT (OTHER THAN BIKES)

Another piece that caught my eye last week was a report about increased parking charges in Cardiff, a move that many believe will damage the city’s economy.

Quoted in the piece was Ruth Billingham of Living Streets, an anti-car pressure group that has a pass to all departments in Corruption Bay. I remembered Living Streets from its role in the imposition of 20mph speed limits.

Here she is again, in November 2024, with other pressure groups telling the ‘Welsh Government’ to push “active travel“. But the more people are forced to cycle, or walk, the fewer people there’ll be travelling anywhere.

Is there a lobby group for a nation-wide, cheap and reliable, public transport system?

Doing a little digging soon found that Ruth Billingham had for seven years, until May this year, been involved with Cynnal Cymru-Sustain Wales, which describes itself as “the leading sustainability charity for Wales“.

In reality, it’s just one of hundreds. And all costing us money.

Until March, Cynnal Cymru had been part of the group structure of Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA), though its status now is unclear. The WCVA is a body used by the ‘Welsh Government’ to disburse public funding.

Cynnal Cymru is based at Sbarc/Spark, part of a big Cardiff University complex on Maindy Road. Where we also find Cwmpas, which we just looked at, formerly headed by Derek Walker, now Future Generations Commissioner.

Sbarc claims to be . . .

Bringing academics and entrepreneurs together in a spirit of innovation, enterprise, and collaboration

We can see that it’s home to publicly-funded organisations, so I wonder how many genuine entrepreneurs can be found there?

I’ve always said that Cardiff University is almost an extension of the ‘Welsh Government’ and the Bay establishment; so we shouldn’t be surprised to see it provide a home to lobbyists and leftist groups reliant on the the public purse.

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‘I JUST HEARD SOME BANTER – PASS THE SMELLING SALTS!’

Here’s how DEI is often implemented in Wales. The ‘Welsh Government’ will claim to have received reports or complaints about a certain organisation that warrant investigation. The ‘investigation’ will always conclude that changes are needed that can only be achieved by imposing a far-left Woke agenda.

One example would the South Wales Fire and Rescue Service (SWFRS). A ‘Culture Review’ was held into the Service, headed by “human rights” lawyer Fenella Morris KC.

The Report unearthed countless horrifying examples of cannibalism, human sacrifice, and officers wearing odd socks. I jest, of course. What was found was racism, misogyny, and “banter“. Yes, honestly, banter.

The pearl clutching continued by condemning legitimate opinions on immigration. Even “inappropriate behaviour outside of work”! But who gets to decide what’s legitimate and what’s inappropriate?

The report also criticised the Service for not ‘taking the knee’ for George Floyd. When I first saw that on social media I thought it was the kind of ‘misinformation’ against which I am ever alert.

So I found and downloaded the report, and there it is, on pages 121 and 122.

Think about that for a minute. Firemen in Merthyr Tudful were expected to take time off their duties to kneel for a career criminal who’d died from the drugs in his system, while being lawfully arrested, five thousand miles away.

Also, to show support for the fraud associated with Black Lives Matter (even in the UK!), sympathise with calls to Defund the Police (with whom the SWFRS work on a daily basis), and turn a blind eye to the murder, arson, and looting – always looting – that followed Floyd’s death.

Following publication of the Report Chief Fire Officer Huw Jakeway resigned and ‘Commissioners’ were installed by the ‘Welsh Government’. These included Kirsty Williams former Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for Brecon and Radnorshire.

Here’s Williams demanding “anti-racism” in schools. (She was Minister for Education 2016 – 2021.) It’s less than two minutes long. Go on, have a chortle! (But don’t let Fenella Morris catch you!)

It’s a word salad of highfalutin bollocks designed to undermine the self-worth of Welsh kids by making them feel guilty about evils dreamed up by their enemies.

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WELSH RUGBY UNION

Another example of ‘Welsh Government’ enforcing the Woke agenda is the Welsh Rugby Union. Most people realise the WRU is now a shambles, but few understand how it came about.

Let me see if I can explain it with a timeline.

October 2021: In a BBC report from April 2025 it’s stated that:

In October 2021, a BBC investigation found that the Welsh government had adopted Stonewall’s interpretation of equality law in some of its policies, offering protections not provided for in law.

Hardly surprising seeing as the ‘Welsh Government’ was a major Stonewall funder.

“Early 2022”: Labour MP, and former Wales women’s rugby international, Tonia Antoniazzi, raised concerns with Dawn Bowden, ‘Welsh Government’ Deputy Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, about misogyny and sexism within the WRU.

September 7, 2022: It’s reported the WRU bans biological men from playing rugby against women and girls. For obvious reasons of safety and “in line with World Rugby guidance“.

September 23, 2022: The Sun reports Tonia Antoniazzi criticising the Scottish Rugby Union for allowing biological men to play against women and girls.

October 2022: Dawn Bowden, and Hannah Blythyn, Deputy Minister for Social Partnership (what that?), wrote to the WRU expressing “concern” about its ban on transgender women competing in female-only games. (Reported here March 2023.)

January 23, 2023: BBC Wales Investigates put out a 30-minute programme supporting allegations of “sexism, bullying and sexual harassment at the Welsh Rugby Union“.

January 28, 2023: It’s announced that Sport Wales – sponsored and largely funded by the ‘Welsh Government’ – has stepped in to “advise” the WRU.

January 29, 2023: Steve Phillips resigns as WRU chief executive.

February 2023: The WRU – under new management – set up a panel, chaired by Dame Anne Rafferty, to look into the allegations. This panel’s report is dated November 13, 2023.

Before the report is delivered the ‘Welsh Government’ takes advantage of the chaos it has created to appoint a new chair and CEO to the WRU. Around the same time ‘Welsh Government’ appointees also took over the Football Association of Wales (FAW). Both cases covered in this blog post.

January 3, 2024: It’s reported that Bowden has been ‘liking’ posts on X hostile to Antoniazzi.

April 16, 2025: UK Supreme Court rules that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex.

April 24, 2025: Back to the report I touched on earlier when, in the House of Commons, “Tonia Antoniazzi claimed that the Welsh government and some other institutions had previously been “captured” by LGBT charities promoting the idea that sex can be changed.” (Still held prisoner, Tonia.)

September 12, 2025: Sport Wales signs up to the Brighton plus Helsinki Declaration, which we’re told “supports the development of more fair and equal systems of sport and physical activity for women and girls“.

In Principle 1 of the Declaration we read a reference to “sexual orientation or identity“. Orientation I take to mean heterosexual or homosexual, but identity is almost certainly a reference to self-identification and trans ‘women’.

July 20, 2026: Nation.Cymru runs a piece headed ‘WRU signs international declaration on gender equality in sport‘. The piece quotes the Brighton plus Helsinki Declaration.

So what really happened?

My interpretation is that Tonia Antoniazzi and others raised legitimate concerns with the ‘Welsh Government’ about sexism, homophobia, and misogyny in Welsh rugby.

The Wokists in the Corruption Bay bubble seized on the opportunity to extend these complaints about the treatment of women to include trans ‘women’. Because, as we all know – “Trans women are women!“.

Sport Wales, the WRU, and perhaps other sporting bodies signing up to the Brighton plus Helsinki Declaration is an attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court decision of April last year.

All done in the name of promoting women’s sport. It’ll only take one woman to be injured by a 19-stone psycho calling himself Daisy to put women’s sport back decades.

The new Plaid Cymru administration needs to get a handle on this. Pronto!

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CONCLUSION

What we’ve looked at here; net zero, the power of shadowy pressure groups, and the imposition of the Woke agenda, are part and parcel of something bigger designed to weaken and undermine the West.

We could add open borders, calls to empty the prisons, and other lunacies. Not because Marxists care about immigrants and criminals but because they appreciate the potential of such groups to damage societies, countries, and Western civilisation.

And we must confront the reality that those promoting Cultural Marxism have reached positions of power in countless organisations. With anyone trying to curb the spread of this poison paying the price.

And yet, it’s almost funny. Here’s an exchange in a House Oversight subcommittee hearing this week, in which Republican Congressman Brandon Gill of Texas questions the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History director Anthea Hartig.

He asks why her organisation lists politeness as a “defining characteristic of white supremacy culture“. The question is almost absurd. But nowhere nearly as absurd as promoting the idea that politeness is a form of racism – to be condemned.

You can see where this leads. If people stop being polite to each other, then arguments result, leading to conflict and violence, fractured societies. Which obviously serves the bigger agenda.

Treat yourself to another chortle with the marks by which ye shall know the beast that is white culture: the nuclear family, objectivity, planning ahead, etc. Basically, everything that has progressed humanity to where it is today.

It doesn’t matter whether you trace it back to the Frankfurt School or Antonio Gramsci, the Cultural Marxism threatening us believes that to bring down the evil capitalist West it must go for the foundations. To attack the beliefs, structures and realities that underpin the West.

These might be Christianity, the nuclear family, patriotism, freedom of speech, rejection of state over-reach, or believing that only women can have babies.

But what’s really funny is that those promoting Wokeness, those who indoctrinate our kids in school and university, may be stupid enough to genuinely believe they’re creating a better world in which they’ll have some leadership role.

When in reality they’ve become someone else’s useful idiots. For Cultural Marxism has for some time been funded and manipulated by individuals and corporate interests that want to own everything and control everybody.

If the Globalists succeed then those you’ve read about here might be dealt with in the same way Hitler dealt with the Brownshirts when they’d served their purpose.

Now that’ll definitely be worth a chortle or two!

♦ end ♦

© Royston Jones 2026

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‘Welsh’ Labour And A Milking System Unknown To Farmers

On By JacIn Third Sector, Welsh Government, Welsh Labour20 Comments
Cash cow 1
CLICK TO ENLARGE

The ‘milking’ referred to is done by the Third Sector, that demi-monde wherein dwell ‘Welsh’ Labour’s kept women (and a few men), serving no purpose beyond diverting public money from better use and performing all manner of despicable acts for those who own them. Perhaps it was ever thus, but since the arrival of devolution, and the recognition by our continental cousins of our relative poverty, what had once been a cottage industry of home-grown Labour nepotism and corruption has expanded into a pseudo-economy.

A few years back I started looking into the Third Sector and its relationship with ‘Welsh’ Labour, and in that time certain features have become obvious. Chief among them, that we now have a whole sector of Welsh life dependent upon Labour Party patronage in the form of funding and preferment, which those belonging to this sector repay by promoting the Labour message and by attacking Labour’s political opponents. This client class has become the Japanese knotweed of Welsh life – invasive, destructive, of no use to anyone (other than Labour), and damaging to the wider environment. We should be rooting it out, but it won’t be done because ‘Welsh’ Labour, losing support among the native electorate, is becoming ever more dependent on this monster it has introduced.

One obvious manifestation of Labour losing support is its inability to recruit decent Welsh candidates. It was this problem that led to the recent fiasco in Swansea when the ‘local’ Labour Party was eventually taken over by people who were strangers to the city. Resulting in the embarrassment of Il Duce Phillips and the student councillors, with their sybaritic lifestyles and complete ignorance of the city they were supposed to be running. A self-inflicted wound caused by Labour offering free party membership to students in Swansea University. Yes, that’s how bad it has become for Labour. Something else illustrated by this episode is Labour’s worrying links with certain trade unions, the National Union of Students being one, but another worthy of mention is Unison.

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Now when I were nobutalad – a long time ago I know – trade unions were taken seriously by working class men such as those among whom I grew up. They elected their union representatives, they knew them, and if there was any issue that needed to be discussed then they could have it out with them, at union meetings or even down the pub or club. It was the trade unions, more than anything else, including the Labour Party, that defended their interests. All that is gone. After countless mergers and a dramatic fall in union membership we are left with a few big unions run by professional union officials, mirroring the professional politicians, all equally divorced from real life.Dawn Bowden

As mentioned, one such union is Unison, and one of its full-time officials is Dawn Bowden of Bristol Cardiff, who is tipped to become Labour’s candidate for Caerffili or Islwyn (depending on whether there’s a gender fix) in next year’s elections to the Notional Assembly. Quite how long she’s lived in Wales is uncertain, but she’s loyal to the Labour Party and belongs to that union which is almost ‘Welsh’ Labour by Eaglestoneanother name, so that’s her elevation assured.

Her Twitter account says that she is married to @Carrageryr, so who might that be? Well, it’s another Labour Party star named Martin Eaglestone, perennial Labour loser in Arfon. (Eaglestone, Carrageryr, geddit?) Though in past elections he was living with his wife and five children in Y Felinheli. (I blame all these conferences they go to, and the drinking.) Eaglestone’s Linkedin profile describes him as, “Welsh Policy Officer at Labour Party – Welsh Labour”, whatever that means. He supports West Bromwich Albion while Bowden supports Brizzle City, so neither knows much about football.

I single out Unison because this seems to be the union of choice for many Labour politicians in Wales, even those, like Swansea’s student councillors, who’ve never done a day’s work in their lives. In many ways Unison operates (certainly in Wales) as an adjunct to the Labour Party rather than as a trade union in the traditional sense. Maybe Labour’s political opponents should have a new slogan – ‘Vote Labour, get Unison!’. Though the problem is also found in England, with other unions.

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Returning to the Third Sector, in my delvings a number of things have become apparent, but one that I feel needs to be highlighted is the practice of publicly-funded bodies setting up wholly-owned subsidiaries, for reasons that are not entirely clear, or may even be of dubious probity.

In recent posts I have looked at Canoe Wales, and the extraordinary level of funding that body receives from Sport Wales, £378,000+ in the current financial year alone (see panel below). Yet Canoe Wales has two subsidiaries, C W Sales and Services Ltd and Canoe Wales (Commercial) Ltd. The first of these subsidiaries runs the adult playground at Frongoch, near Bala, while the other is dormant. The representative of Canoe Wales that I spoke with assured me that Canoe Wales’s finances would soon start to improve, and I’m sure he’s right, for seeing as the running of the Frongoch Centre has passed to the subsidiary and Canoe Wales is so well funded it would be strange if Canoe Wales’s books didn’t begin to look healthier. The Canoe Wales representative also told me that his organisation had passed all the auditor’s checks. Which, again, I don’t doubt; but I guarantee that the Wales Audit Office does not look into subsidiaries, for the very simple reason that these do not – directly – receive any public funding.

consolidated accounts

Allowing publicly-funded bodies to form subsidiaries creates the temptation for an organisation to transfer ‘bad news’ to a subsidiary, safe in the knowledge that the WAO will not investigate the subsidiary. I’m not for one minute suggesting that this is what has recently happened with Canoe Wales, but C W Sales and Services Ltd is not in a healthy financial state. If C W Sales and Services Ltd did not exist then its indebtedness of £76,798 would be shown against Canoe Wales, and would be picked up by auditors.

That said, it could be that funders are aware of such arrangements. Staying with Canoe Wales, its accounts for year ending March 31 2013 state that “As at 1st April 2013, commercial trading activities and the operation of the White Water Centre at Canolfan Tryweryn were transferred to C W Sales and Services Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary.” Yet despite this burden being lifted Canoe Wales’ funding from Sport Sport Wales fundingWales leapt from £266,000 in 2012/13 to £378,000 in 2013/14 and 2014/15 (click to enlarge). How do we explain this unless Sport Wales is aware of, and approves the use of, a subsidiary that may be beyond the remit of the Wales Audit Office and will – as the clip above reveals – not be mentioned in future Canoe Wales accounts?

As I say, it’s a phenomenon I have observed regularly in my investigation of how public funding is dished out in Wales. Here’s another example, with a further twist. This example is Carmarthenshire Heritage Regeneration Trust / Ymddiriedolaeth Adfywio Treftadaeth Sir Gaerfyrddin, according to its website, but Ymddiriedolaeth Atgyfnerthu Treftadaeth Sir Gaerfyrddin on the websites of both the Charity Commission and Companies House. Confusing. Maybe deliberately so. Is this a laudable use of yr hen iaith or an attempt to hinder investigation into a body universally known as the Carmarthenshire Heritage Regeneration Trust?

Either way, the Trust has a subsidiary, deep in the red, called CHRT Ventures Ltd. Now for the ‘twist’ I referred to earlier. The chief executive of the Trust is Claire Deacon, and the Trust’s 2012 accounts say this:  “During the year, Ymddiriedolaeth Atgyfnerthu Treftadaeath Sir Gar (CHRT) employed the services of Ms Claire Deacon, CEO, a historic building consultant. The total expenses paid by CHRT for consultancy was £59,159 (2012: £41,873). At the year end, CHRT owed Ms Claire Deacon £9,436 (2012: £3,386). This balance is included in trade creditors”. How the hell can an employee suddenly declare herself a consultant to the body she works for and then demand more than she would have been paid in salary? The full story of Ymddiriedolaeth Atgyfnerthu Treftadaeth Sir Gaerfyrddin, and more, can be found here

Here’s another example, this one from the fleece jacket sector. The issue of public funding and subsidiaries, with the added problem of Welsh public funding seeping across the border, even extends into academe, as this post explains. And how could anyone forget Naz Malik and Awema? Let us remember that the Malik family was staunch Labour, with father and son hoping to be Labour candidates. To help their cause Naz Malik would regularly sing for his supper by proclaiming against ‘racist (Welsh) nationalists’. And what the hell is happening at the YMCA? Then there’s housing associations. We are told by the ‘Welsh’ Government that 22 local authorities is far too many, too expensive, and so there must be ‘streamlining’ – so why is that same ‘Welsh’ Government funding dozens and dozens of housing associations that compete with each and duplicate each other’s work? The answer is that housing associations are stuffed with Labour supporters (and future candidates). Read about it here.

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There are countless other examples of Third Sector bodies, publicly-funded agencies, etc., ‘diversifying’, or setting up subsidiaries and ‘trading arms’ into which ’embarrassments’ can be diverted, beyond the scope of auditors mandated only to check the recipient body itself. Though what happens if one of these subsidiaries actually makes a profit, will the profit be declared to the funding body?

This loophole is known to those disbursing the funding and is almost certainly familiar to those entrusted with ensuring that the funding can be properly accounted for. Which raises the question, why is this loophole not closed? The suspicion must be that it’s left Eaglestone Linkedinopen in order to help hide some of the public funding being wasted by the Third Sector. Because to expose this waste would damage both the Third Sector and the Labour Party, and they need each other, their fortunes and their futures are intertwined.

We have on our hands a sick man called the ‘Welsh’ Labour Party or, if we go by Eaglestone’s Linkedin profile, “Labour Party – Welsh Labour”. (Perhaps the ‘Welsh’ Labour Party is as much a fiction as the ‘Wales Green Party’.) This party is no longer able to find decent candidates from within the nation so it has to rely on recruiting officials imported by its trade union partners and those who have swarmed here to make careers for themselves out of celebrating and exaggerating Wales’ deprivation in order to get their sweaty paws on the money that has been given to alleviate that deprivation.

The Labour Party, with all its hangers-on and cronies, is suffocating Wales. Unpatriotic, anti-initiative, increasingly dependent for its survival on people who don’t know Wales and don’t care about Wales, it can only maintain its position because there is no other party electors find more attractive. Which is why I repeat that Plaid Cymru has fifteen months (the General Election of May 2015 and the Assembly elections of May 2016) to prove that it can mount a serious challenge to Labour; if it fails, yet again, then we must have a new nationalist party, a party that puts Wales and Welsh people first, rather than one that constantly exposes its weaknesses and lack of ambition by looking to do deals with anti-Welsh parties. Fifteen months.

Canoe Wales 3: Paddling One’s Own Canoe. Not

On By JacIn Public Funding, Third Sector, Tourism19 Comments

Last month I wrote a couple of pieces about Canoe Wales and the National White Water Centre on Afon Tryweryn at Frongoch, near Bala. First here and then with the follow-up here. Unfortunately, while writing these pieces Companies House had not made the most recent accounts available to the general public. Though I was assured by the affable and helpful Mark Williamson – who phoned me after the publication of the first piece – that the latest accounts for Canoe Wales credit reportCanoe Wales would show an improvement. For he had been brought in for that very purpose. And someone was certainly needed, because Canoe Wales was shedding auditors at an alarming rate and the most recent to depart had expressed concerns as to whether CW was a viable concern.

Talking of the National White Water Centre, Mr Williamson stressed that this venue now has nothing to do with Canoe Wales; a company called C W Sales and Services Ltd runs the Centre, which seems to be little more than an outdoor playground for adults, offering rafting, quad bike off-roading, clay pigeon shooting, bungee jumping and similar activities. While Canoe Wales goes back to 1990, C W Sales and Services was Incorporated as recently as November 7, 2012 . . . and is wholly owned by Canoe Wales.

So, now that I’ve got the latest (abbreviated) accounts, what do they show? For Canoe Wales, the parent company, the picture does indeed look a little brighter . . . but only a little. Net assets, which stood at -£22,950 on March 31, 2013, had improved to -£20,313 on March 31, 2014. Perhaps the figure would have been worse had it not been for two of the directors lending Canoe Wales £55,000. Though this may be explained by not taking out money owed rather than by putting money in. (Diolch, Dewi.) The March 31, 2014 accounts for C W Sales and Services Ltd show net assets of -£76,798 (there is of course no previous figure), which means that Canoe Wales’s net assets should be read as -£97,111, though Canoe Wales chose not to do this.

consolidated accounts

As that extract from the accounts puts it, “the parent of a group”, for there is yet another ‘child’, Canoe Wales (Commercial) Ltd. This company was also formed in November 2012, and the accounts for year ending March 31, 2014 shown it as a dormant company with a share issue of £1. It, too, is wholly owned by Canoe Wales. I suppose the question has to be, why form another company in addition to Canoe Wales and C W Sales and Services Ltd; what role is envisioned for Canoe Wales (Commercial) Ltd? Canoe Wales and its two subsidiaries have their addresses as ‘Canolfan Tryweryn Frongoch’. Canoe Wales (Commercial) Ltd and C W Sales and Services Ltd each have just two directors, David William Wakeling and Andrew Jeremy Booth, both of whom are also directors of Canoe Wales.

While the reason for setting up Canoe Wales (Commercial) Ltd may be unknown, it could be that C W Sales and Services Ltd was set up to run the White Water Centre because it would be difficult to justify using Welsh public funding to subsidise an IT department from Birmingham having an alcohol-fuelled weekend of farting about in the Welsh countryside.

Which brings me to the issue of public funding, for at the time of writing the original pieces I had yet to receive a reply from Sport Wales to my Freedom of Information request. I now have those figures, see below. You will note that between 2009/10 and 2014 /15 the Sport Wales grant to Canoe Wales rose from £247,500 to £378,000. Or to put it another way, during the worst financial crisis in living memory, when Wales is experiencing cutbacks across the board, someone saw fit to increase funding to a bunch of paddlers by some 53%! How did no Welsh politician pick up on this?

Sport Wales funding

So what is the justification for this extravagance? Because we can be sure that this funding creates very few (if any) jobs for Welsh people. And why is Sport Wales putting so much money into canoeing while cutting back funding on grass-roots sport with much more Welsh participation? Especially when we know that canoeing attracts some very unsavoury colonialist types who go out of their way to seek confrontation with Welsh anglers by demanding unrestricted access to all Welsh rivers and lakes?

And here’s a question for the ‘Welsh’ Government. How can you justify bumping up, year on year, funding for an activity offering little tangible benefit to the people you claim to represent – and nothing they couldn’t do without until economic conditions improve – while cutting back on funding for food banks? What order of priorities does this exhibit? Or is it ‘window-dressing’, an attempt to hide the truth of contemporary Wales? Then there’s the funding cut to young Welsh farmers, yet another attack on our farming community . . . to clear the land for the fleece jacket invaders such as those attaching to Canoe Wales?

So many questions about canoeing in Wales. Time, surely, for our politicians to insist on answers to a few pertinent questions: 1. Which outfit is responsible for which debts, and will publicly-funded Canoe Wales pick up the tab if the Frongoch Centre – run by its subsidiary, C W Sales and Services Ltd – sinks? 2. What is the point or purpose of Canoe Wales (Commercial) Ltd? 3. Given that so much public money is involved is anyone concerned that ‘parent’ and subsidiaries are run by the same two men? 4. For an organisation in receipt of public funding on this scale to be in debt to the tune of almost £100,000 is very worrying, so who is monitoring the situation on our behalf? 5. Finally, and fundamentally, how can anyone justify giving £378,000 a year to Canoe Wales?

UPDATE 14.02.2015: Something else I should have mentioned is the sinking of a previous subsidiary, Rescue 3 (UK) Ltd, written off in the 2013 accounts for £50,000, which may or may not account for the ‘loans’. Though ‘written off investments’ in the 2013 accounts totalled £69,742, the remainder described as ‘intercompany balance’.

Canoe Wales 2

On By JacIn Colonisation of Wales, Third Sector, Tourism19 Comments

By one of those delightful coincidences that brighten up our lives I was working yesterday on an update to the previous post, ‘White Water Up Shit Creek’, when I received a phone call from someone I’d mentioned in that piece. Mark Williamson and I then had a lengthy and interesting discussion. He even invited me over to the White Water Centre at Frongoch to see some of the wonderful things going on there . . . and promised not to drown me!

After giving the discussion a little thought I realised that an update would be no way to handle this development, and so I decided on a new post. Also, I decided there and then – impetuous devil that I am! – to give Mark Williamson a chance to respond to the points I had intended raising in the update. I had no idea how this was going to work out – or even if it would work out – but the promise had been made so I was prepared to give it a try. (In the end Mr Williamson decided not to take up my offer, but phoned on Friday morning to suggest a couple of changes.)

Such an offer would have been unique in the history of Jac o’ the North, and may never be repeated. So I don’t want Third Sector shysters, Labourites, white flight colons, BritNats, etc., etc., thinking that this courtesy will be extended to them, because it won’t – you are ever in my cross-hCanoeistairs.

Before proceeding there are a few things that need to be said, points that emerged from the discussion on Thursday that might help with the understanding of what follows.

1/ Mr Williamson was keen to stress again that the National White Water Centre at Frongoch is run by Canoe Wales Sales and Services Ltd not Canoe Wales . . . though Canoe Wales does have staff on site.

2/ Mr Williamson readily admitted that things had been handled badly in the past, but that this was why he’d been recruited – to clear up the mess. He assured me that an improvement in the finances would be observable in the most recent accounts, submitted towards the end of 2014 and not yet publicly available. While the accounts for year ending March 31st, 2015 would be even better.

3/ When I raised the question of why the Centre’s website is ukrafting.co.uk Mr Williamson admitted that that’s mainly what happens there, it’s used for the purposes I mentioned in the post. Though this was qualified by telling me that Canoe Wales runs lots of courses – using the Sport Wales funding – at other venues around the country. He also assured me that none of this funding finds its way to Frongoch or Canoe Wales Sales and Servicing Ltd because the Centre is separate and entirely self-financing.

*

Despite telling myself (and you) I needn’t bother, curiosity got the better of me and I did after all buy the DueDil credit report on Canoe Wales. A few points extracted from that report were to have been the substance of the update. (Incidentally, I was able to download and open the report, in pdf format, but was unable to save it. Does anyone know what a (135) error message means on Adobe Acrobat?)

  • As we have learnt since the banking crisis of 2008, credit ratings are important for countries, but credit ratings started off as a means of gauging companies’ credit worthiness. Canoe Wales’ credit rating was paddling along serenely at 97 or 98 (out of 100) until it hit choppy water in July 2013 that took its rating down to 87. By January 2014 it was down to 70 and bobbed up and down until nearly going under altogether in September 2014 when the rating sunk to 12. Canoe Wales managed to right itself and stay afloat, with the last recorded rating of 53 in October 2014.
  • A curiosity I would welcome an explanation for is that in the DueDil credit report for Canoe Wales ‘Wages & Salaries’ are £294,260 for year ending 31.03.2013 but show nothing for previous years.
  • What is the explanation for Day Smith & Hunter resigning as the Canoe Wales auditors on May 9, 2013 and Salisbury & Co resigning as auditors Canoe Wales credit reporton March 31st, 2014? Who are the auditors now?
  • Salisbury & Co were so unimpressed with the state of Canoe Wales’ finances that, according to the DueDil credit report, they were unsure whether Canoe Wales was a going concern. (See panel.) Did anyone at Sport Wales pick up on this? Is this in any way connected with the same auditors’ resignation?

*

Although Mark Williamson declined my offer of 250 words he did have a few things to say in a third phone call this morning. Unfortunately, this call caught me at an awkward moment and I wasn’t able to remember all the points on which I wanted clarification.

For example, I should have raCanoe Wales Tree Top Adventureised the point that he (Mark Williamson) has been recruited to get the finances of Canoe Wales into better shape. Which should not be difficult given the large amounts of public funding being received from Sport Wales (and possibly other sources). Another advantage – from now on – is that Rescue 3 (UK) Ltd has folded and been written off. Further income is anticipated from the profits of the Frongoch Centre, now being run by Canoe Wales Sales and Services Ltd; this from the rafting and other activities available there. These include 4 x 4 off-road driving, clay pigeon shooting, quad biking and ‘tree top adventure’ (see panel). In fact, when you take all that into account, it would be difficult for Canoe Wales not to show a profit.

Though this still leaves unresolved the status of the mysterious Canoe Wales (Commercial) Ltd. There are no accounts yet available for this company, so it might still prove a burden for Canoe Wales. Additionally, what if Canolfan Tryweryn does not make a profit, how will it survive seeing as it’s run by a separate company from Canoe Wales and unable to access Canoe Wales’ public funding? I ask this because the most recent figures available for Canoe Wales Sales and Services Ltd show current liabilities of £164,131.

Despite what the helpful Mark Williamson told me I still have difficulty regarding these three entities as separate. A difficulty due to the fact that Canoe Wales Sales and Services Ltd has just two directors, David William Wakeling and Andrew Jeremy Booth, who are also the only directors of Canoe Wales (Commercial) Ltd. Both these companies are wholly owned by Canoe Wales of which Wakeling and Booth appear to be the controlling directors. So with the best will in the world, I remain unconvinced that public funding given to Canoe Wales will not find its way to one or both of the subsidiaries. And seeing as both subsidiaries are wholly owned by Canoe Wales then the parent company is responsible for any losses these might incur, as with Rescue 3 (UK) Ltd. (Refer to previous post.)

*

Over and above these financial and structural concerns there are other, less material considerations that would probably not occur to those running these ventures, and even if they did, would be unlikely to resonate.

Everything at the White Water Centre has been made possible by the drowning of Capel Celyn and the expulsion of its people; our people. Now stag parties and other groups from England – Liverpool included – go there to have a good time, to drink and laugh, to career about the countryside on quad bikes and in 4 x 4s, to whoop and holler almost within earshot of the drowned village. Another example of tourism in Wales but not of Wales.

The whole concept of Canolfan Tryweryn is insensitive, almost vindictive and triumphalist. Perhaps not a lot different to dancing on the grave of a vanquished foe.