YesCymru, conspirators flying the coup

On 09/08/202124/07/2022 By JacIn Welsh Independence, Yes Cymru58 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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The picture with YesCymru is becoming clearer, which makes those who clouded it ever more desperate. And dishonest.

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“Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies.”

Senator Barry Goldwater

I shall offend certain people by quoting this early influence on my political development. But it doesn’t matter how you try to twist it, what Barry Goldwater says there could have been written about recent events in YesCymru.

For when it comes to YesCymru, there may have been those among the takeover gang who sought to do, “what they regard as good”, but there were many driven by political fanaticism, and a few by self-interest.

And now it’s all over. The coup has failed and the plotters are slinking away.

So let’s have an update.

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WHO’S LEFT THE BUILDING?

It’s been difficult at times keeping up with events, but here’s how I believe things stand after collating information from a number of sources.

Llywelyn ap Gwilym has been keeping a low profile, making me wonder if he was hoping to hide, Claudius-like, and then emerge after the blood-letting to be acclaimed emperor.

But no, for a number of sources tell me ‘Ein Llyw Nesaf’ has promised to stand down and not seek re-election at the EGM. That said, others warn that he’s a ‘slippery customer’, and needs to be watched.

Then, some time over the weekend before last Tori West bade her farewell. But there was no presentation of a clock followed by a few pints down the Red Lion, where anodyne speeches were delivered about ‘Good old Tori‘, and her responding with, ‘I’ll be back to see you all from time to time‘.

Instead, she suggested that YesCymru should be razed to the ground. Which, if nothing else, calls into question her commitment to Welsh independence.

One source suggests that West may still consider herself ‘resignation fluid’. After that tweet she should be toast. And burnt toast at that.

I’m told the next to leave, on Monday last week, was Carys Eleri.

She will be best remembered for the video below. Even though it’s more of an exhibition of posterior than a gift to posterity I still see it as somehow fitting.

YesCymru members’ money was given to a company few had heard of. (Hardly surprising seeing as the company is less than a year old.) Then there are questions as to how this company gained the contract. Was there a tendering process? Does the Turk running the company know someone who may have been influential in YC? Is this company still receiving money from YesCymru?

As I say, I see this video as a metaphor – for the unfocused, spendthrift, self-indulgent and ultimately laughable organisation YesCymru became under the clowns now seeking the shadows.

On Tuesday last week Elin Hywel did her disappearing act. Like so many – all? – of those involved in the attempted and now defeated coup she is a member of Far Left Undod.

While some took to the shadows as the pressure mounted, one who tried to put on a show of resistance was Ben Gwalchmai of Labour for an Independent Wales.

But something has clearly happened with Gwalchmai and it might have been linked with complaints to the Central Committee about his online behaviour. One complaint was signed by some 50 people.

A source tells me: “The CC meeting to suspend Ben was supposed to have been last Wednesday, then delayed until Thursday, then delayed to today (Monday), and now tomorrow.” I hear feet being dragged.

Whether the Rasputin of the Severn Valley has been or will be suspended is unknown, but his YC Twitter account was certainly shut down last Wednesday. A couple of days later he used his personal account to put out a rant against the 16 local groups that mustered a vote of no confidence in the Central Committee at the recent sit-down.

Note that critics are ‘crazies’, and a democratic vote open to all is a ‘coup’.

Though Benji attempted to clarify his remark about ‘violent harasser’ by saying that he was not referring to himself, but to an online critic of the Central Committee, the so-called ‘Cornish Crow’, a Twitter account that was taken down on Sunday night.

But not before encouraging an imitator.

The personal account was putting out YC stuff today. Which might suggest that Benji remains part of the gang, but perhaps semi-detached? ‘We’ll pretend you aren’t with us’ kind of thing.

There could be a good reason for this. As I’ll explain in a mo.

Ben Gwalchmai has a terrible problem with the truth. He should be receiving treatment. Click to open in fresh tab.

Whatever his status vis-à-vis the Central Committee, Gwalchmai is a spent force. Utterly discredited, and perhaps now viewed as a liability even by the remaining CC members. (Which would really be saying something!)

There may also be legal action pending against him.

Ben Gwalchmai’s fundamental problem is that he’s ‘imaginative’. (Yes, that is a euphemism.) Take the recent example below.

Now, to read Benji, one might think that those awful ‘Fash’ had enlisted the help of the Kremlin to mount a full-scale assault against the organisation he and the comrades had so recently snatched from their evil clutches.

The Central Committee had to put out a statement clarifying that it was just a minor, personal matter. And no mention of PayPal.

Talking of the Central Committee, who is left?

Let’s recap . . . there’s possibly Llywelyn ap Gwilym, no doubt carefully weighing up the best move for Llywelyn ap Gwilym. Then there’s Sarah Rees, the vice-chair, and interim chair since Siôn Jobbins stepped down. And finally, there’s treasurer Gwyn Llewelyn.

And that, without suspended Niki Jones, is that. Apart from the indeterminate status of Ben Gwalchmai, which might even have changed between me writing this on Monday evening and you reading it.

UPDATE: The news has been broken now so I can tell you that Niki Jones resigned from the Central Committee tonight.

Which means that the Central Committee might have less than four members and consequently be inquorate. If so, then the only power it has is to call an EGM pretty damn quick to get a new CC elected.

A last-ditch attempt to remain quorate would explain ap Gwilym hanging on and Gwalchmai being allowed to mooch around. Because without them it’s just Rees and Llewelyn, and definitely inquorate.

One who seems to have slipped under my radar is Shane Brennan. In an earlier post I pointed out that with Iestyn ap Rhobert not seeking re-election as secretary his rival for the post, Shane Brennan, was a shoo-in.

What I didn’t know was that Brennan had been offered a job with The National and told that if he was taking it then he couldn’t be YesCymru secretary. Though when you think about it, working for Huw Marshall puts you on the same side as the Woke-Left takeover gang anyway.

Here’s Marshall crowing over the Twitter demise of the Cornish Crow. (Though I suspect he’ll be back soon.) Note that I remain a target. God! it brings a tear to the old Jac eye.

It has been suggested to me that the Cornish Crow’s fate might be attributable to media persons knowing others of that ilk in the employ of Twitter. Who knows?

For obvious reasons, the Central Committee kept quiet about Brennan’s non-arrival. Which means that in addition to possibly being inquorate the CC has also been stumbling along without a secretary since before the May 22 AGM.

YesCymru is an utter shambles!

Another departure was that of Diversity and Inclusivity Officer Jessica Harvey. One of those determined to turn YesCymru into TransCymru. She will not be missed.

The sole remaining employee is Harriet Protheroe-Soltani. Though I don’t recall hearing anything from her or about her for months. Is she still there? If so, what is she doing for £32,000 a year in her part-time job? (For she is also an official of Momentum.)

Putting it all together makes me wonder why the first mate and the purser pretend that the good ship YesCymru is sailing merrily along with a full complement of officers and a not-at-all-mutinous crew.

Sinking Ship GIFs - Get the best GIF on GIPHY

Obviously there’s the matter of remaining quorate, which we’ve just read about. But there are also suggestions that this pretence must be maintained because there are things to hide. And money to be accounted for.

Just one more thing that might need to be cleared up is the Equality and Diversity Sub-committee, which was a motion passed at the May 22 AGM. Were appointments made to this sub-committee? Can a sub-committee exist independently of the committee to which it is subordinate?

Questions. Questions. So many questions.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

The Woke-Left coup has failed, partly because those involved were just so bloody incompetent. But if you want specifics . . .

1/ The Far Left entryists believed that by using terms like ‘fascist’ and ‘far right’ for their critics they could swing more moderate socialists behind them. But this didn’t work. In fact, it may have had the opposite effect.

This I find very encouraging. It tells me there are decent people out there, reasonable and fair-minded socialists, prepared to work with others in the cause of Welsh independence.

2/ Once those who’d taken over began to assert themselves, and it became clear that for many outing ‘TERF’s and ‘transphobes’ was more important than working towards independence, they both revealed their true intentions and sealed their own fate.

3/ In some ways, those who joined the Central Committee were the reasonable face of the Woke-Left fringe. Because out there, on the howling peripheries, roam some seriously unhinged nutters! You have met many of them on this blog.

But those on the inside did themselves no favours by their social media interaction with the loonies. Both encouraging them and being encouraged by them.

An example of the behaviour of these loonies cropped up a few days ago. I don’t know this guy, I’ve had no dealings with him, but he is not alone in his experience of the Woke-Left extremists.

These evil and dangerous bastards mimic their heroes in the anarcho-nihilist cult Antifa: ‘We are absolutely in the right, which means we can do whatever we choose to those who oppose us and those we decide are in the wrong’.

The sort of attitude that leads to Inquisitions, pogroms, persecution, and the public beheading of unbelievers. So far we’ve only reached the de-platforming stage, and social media censoring, but the trajectory is clear.

An illustration of the co-operation between those on the inside and those on the fringes came to light tonight. It’s in a tweet from former Central Committee member Niki Jones, responding to Ben Gwalchmai, who claims never to have made or signed a complaint to YC.

He is of course lying, again, as the complaint from June 4 proves.

But just look at those names! Central Committee members mixed in with the worst of the gang. They’re all there: the mad axeman, ‘Dr Dildo Davies’, that disgusting creature who wrote the obscene tweet to a boy mourning his mother, the mayor of Bangor, and of course, the leader of the pack – Aled Gwyn Williams.

You can see the lines of communication, the links, for organising a pile-on.

Benji’s fiery pants must be visible from the Long Mynd.

UPDATE 10.08.2021: There was a reaction last night to the publication of the list of complainants against Niki Jones, made when it was realised she would not fall into line with the exclusionary Woke-Left agenda. It came from Benedict Belli, ‘BVB’, @no_pasaran90, one of those complainants.

After a chorus of, ‘Non, Je ne regrette rien’ he goes on to blame “that joke organisation” for a breach of confidentiality. It’s always somebody else’s fault.

YesCymru, as it is currently constituted, is no longer fit for purpose. There must be root and branch change, in both personnel and organisational structure.

Those involved in the takeover, and their social media foederati, must return from whence they came and never be allowed back into YesCymru.

For with their undoubted talent, their tolerant and inclusive behaviour, I have no doubt that those of whom I have writ could build up Undod into a movement that both captures the souls of our people and, by so doing, strikes terror into the black hearts of our enemies.

Then again, I could just be taking the piss. (Cos I enjoys a good laugh, I do.)

I started with a little something from Barry Goldwater, and I’ll end with some more wisdom from the great man.

“Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”

God bless you, Barry.

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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.

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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.

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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?

♦

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.

◊

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 ♦

A guest post on . . . YesCymru!

On 21/06/202121/06/2021 By JacIn Yes Cymru37 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.

♦

This week’s offering is a short guest post on an organisation currently providing a great deal of entertainment and amusement. To which I’ve added a contribution of my own.

You only have to remind yourself of the sort of people now running this three-ring circus to immediately understand why so many people are spellbound.

I am of course referring to YesCymru.

Now read on . . .

♦

With the dust and smoke from YesCymru’s AGM on 22 May still thick on the social media battlefield, we can now look forward to another election to the Politburo. This time it’s for the post of Secretary, and first out of the traps is Scott Mackay from Swansea.

Scott’s brief moment in the sun on Twitter as he announced his decision to stand quickly clouded over as he was reminded of some of his more recent pronouncements:

In other words, those unhappy with the direction the movement has taken are just a bunch of far-right fashies, with their “almost entirely baseless” complaints.

Whatever message Scott chooses for his campaign, it seems pretty clear that he does not see himself as a unifying peacemaker.

It won’t surprise readers to learn that Scott has the enthusiastic support of our old friend Aled Williams (and Teifi by proxy):

With an endorsement from the man who has done more to wreck the independence movement than anyone else alive, Scott should be home and dry.

∼

UPDATE (by Jac): Scott Mackay yesterday issued an apology . . . of sorts.

∼

The last week was not without its lighter moments as whoever is handling the movement’s Twitter account mysteriously announced “What a great idea” in response to a tweet that many members found themselves unable to read.

It turned out that the message called on members to meet up in railway stations to campaign and that it came from Rachel Cooze, one of the recently elected central committee members. La Cooze and YesCymru had momentarily forgotten that, in a demonstration of her commitment to inclusivity, she has blocked a huge swathe of the membership from her Twitter account.

Complaints rolled in from disgruntled punters who had never had any interaction with her, but had been blocked anyway.

The effect that this has on potential new YesCymru members when they discover they have been blocked by a senior representative of the movement is not hard to predict. Whatever Rachel Cooze’s objectives are, maintaining and growing the membership are not on the list.

Perhaps recognising that using a personal Twitter account to transact YesCymru business has its drawbacks, Ben Gwalchmai recently announced he was setting up a second account to deal exclusively with YC matters.

Ben has set his Twitter account to autodelete every 24 hours, but an eagle-eyed passer-by did manage to spot this intriguing message on his personal account (you know, the one that doesn’t deal with YC matters):

“KatieMonVie” is a peripheral member of the group which has risen to prominence within YC, but she won’t be joining YC until it has been purged of all transphobes, TERFs, fashies, etc., etc.

So what had rattled her cage?

After a little prompting, Katie revealed that the dodgy, ableist, transphobic and now homophobic committee member concerned was Niki Jones, and that Niki’s latest crime was to like a tweet from someone wondering why Aled Williams seems to have become the voice of the Indy movement:

Fair enough, “the don” could have used slightly more polished English, and the use of “it” was either a little careless or just a clumsy attempt to use inclusive non-binary pronouns, but a lot of people are asking the same question.

Clearly, Ben made a note of this outrage, and no doubt the matter will be raised when the central committee undergoes compulsory diversity and inclusivity training:

The movement’s new LGBTQ+ three-step process was excitedly announced by Comrade Gwalchmai as an example of his drive for increased “transparency and professionalism” by the movement’s leadership.

Quite how this will make the Politburo more transparent, let alone professional, is not clear, but only cynics would see this new process as a mechanism for weeding out members and committee members who are found guilty of being on La Cooze’s blocked list.

Meanwhile, writing from London where she edits Bricks Magazine, “an independent queer led publication rerouting the intersections between fashion and our precarious social systems”, another member of the central committee, Tori West, has announced that she is going on strike less than a month after being re-elected:

Ymlaen!

— ♦ —

Jac adds . . .

Those being written about here used to depict me as some rare and malevolent presence. A lone voice howling into the void.

In the past few months they’ve been made to realise that not only I am not alone, but that they are far less popular than they once believed. With the result that Twitter accounts have been closed, tweets deleted and, as we saw with Scott Mackay, apologies issued.

These things would never have happened just a few months ago when Aled and Teifi could saunter around Ceredigion cocking their legs against ‘Cofiwch Dryweryn’ walls and growling at Dr Dilys Davies.

(But it couldn’t last. She’s back. Come on, where’s she gonna post her selfies?)

Not only is a pillar of their belief system collapsing as Stonewall is dismantled, but in addition they draw the contempt of decent people because so many of them are just very unpleasant. And extreme in their beliefs.

Our guest writer referred to YesCymru Central Committee member Rachel Cooze blocking people on Twitter. Many of these would have committed the crime of following me. For Cooze and some allies went through my Twitter followers requesting they stop following me.

But someone Cooze or one of her allies contacted went even further.

Who the hell is ‘Tess’, linked with #SavetheNorthernMeadows, and why is she saying these lies about me? She doesn’t even know me!

The answer is that she is Tessa Hannah Marshall, of Cardiff, and clearly involved with the Save Cardiff Northern Meadows campaign. Her Linkedin profile tells us that she’s part of the UpRising Leadership organisation, an English third sector body that views Wales as a region of England.

More specifically, Marshall seems to be involved with the Environmental Leadership Programme (ELP). But now it gets a wee bit odd.

The plan to put the new Velindre cancer centre on Cardiff’s Northern Meadows is ‘Welsh Government’ policy. Yet the UpRising / ELP presence in Wales is in partnership with Labour-run Cardiff City Council, and is a ‘delivery partner’ for the Future Generations Commissioner, who is of course Labour time-server, Sophie Howe.

‘Diversity’, ‘inclusion’. Now where have we heard that? Click to enlarge.

Are Cardiff council and the Future Generations Commissioner helping protesters against a ‘Welsh Government’s policy? Or is this some cunning game in which the Labour Party is on both sides, and therefore can’t lose?

Or another example of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing?

Either way, yet more Welsh public funding is wasted on Woke-Left-Green ‘activists’.

It might be significant that Tessa Marshall has written for the Undod blog, because in its short life Undod has become the mother church for leftist extremists in Wales.

No doubt I shall be attacked for ‘harassing’ or ‘doxxing’ Tessa Marshall. Because in the demi-monde of the Woke-Left people can be slandered with impunity; ‘targets’ can be vilified, and in other ways attacked. But defend yourself, or expose what ugly people they are, and the pack will feign outrage before turning on you.

◊

After studying those involved in trying to take over YesCymru, and slander anyone who dares to criticise them, I detect three categories.

First, we have those claiming to be socialists, even communists. Often embittered individuals who maybe can’t understand why their 2:2 in Media Studies didn’t land them that £70k job.

Second, we have the sexuality / gender-obsessed. These can be ‘uncomfortable’ gays and lesbians. They can also be confused young people, and even those who have transitioned.

Third, we have those who pay lip service to the causes espoused by Categories 1 and 2 but also enjoy saying and doing things to outrage people. (As long as Mam and Dad don’t find out!)

Members of Category 1 exploit members of Category 2 who regard members of Category 1 as friends and protectors. Many of both Categories see themselves as involved in some noble crusade. While those in Category 3 are just there for the craic.

If you put them all together you’d be hard-pressed to find many rounded, reasonable, and successful individuals in sound mental health.

And that’s why their hold on the indy movement must be broken.

YesCymru, the beginning of the end?

On 25/05/202127/05/2021 By JacIn Yes Cymru47 Comments

♦

After recent postings on YesCymru it’s time to analyse what happened at last Saturday’s AGM before considering where it might lead.

♦

DEMOCRACY AND THE LEFT

Let me start by spelling out what happened. And then explain why.

In a nutshell: the left, operating from its bases in Undod and elsewhere, captured YesCymru using its woke ‘guerrillas’ advancing under the smokescreen of ‘diversity’.

Among themselves the leftists justify both the coup and the future direction of travel by claiming that ‘Wales is a socialist country’. A claim supported by pointing to the fact that most of us vote for Labour and Plaid Cymru. Which in turn depends on accepting that a) these parties are indeed socialist and b) all who vote for them are socialists.

Which is just one misconception piled upon another.

While Plaid Cymru could credibly be called a socialist party Labour can be anything you want it to be, certainly the Welsh branch of the party.

As for the voters, most of those who vote Labour in Wales do so out of self-interest, believing Labour will keep taxes low, benefits high, while looking after the NHS. These Labour voters tend to be social conservatives, and most voted for Brexit.

Plaid Cymru is more obviously socialist than Labour, but the distance between the party policy-makers and the party’s voters may be greater than in Labour. People from across the ideological spectrum vote for Plaid Cymru because they want independence, while others – especially in western areas – vote for the party because they see it as the party that best supports the Welsh language.

So, only a minority of those who vote for Labour and Plaid Cymru are socialists. With self-identifying socialists increasingly concentrated in an anti-Brexit, climate conscious, gender-obsessed middle class bubble that every year drifts further away from most Labour and Plaid Cymru voters.

To the point where many on the ‘Welsh’ left now identify better with the English middle class and the metropolitan elite than with working class Welsh people.

It’s important to stress that the Conservative Party does not have this problem. People know exactly what they’re voting for because it does what it says on the tin. (This greatly annoys the left . . . but they still don’t get it!)

The reality of the mismatch was brought home to the comrades in the Plaid Cymru leadership contest of September 2018, when the socialist candidate, and then leader, Leanne Wood, came a poor third in a three-horse race.

That election was open to all members of the party. The left has not made the same mistake again.

In the Plaid Cymru party conference held in Swansea just over a year later only those present in the venue – just over 500 people – were allowed to vote. (And it was ensured that the ‘right’ people were in attendance.)

I covered these shenanigans in ‘Plaid Cymru, where to now?’

Which meant that most party members were effectively disenfranchised even though a postal ballot could easily have been organised, as was done with the leadership contest the previous year.

The scheming involved was so obvious that academic and writer Seimon Brooks was moved to compare the 2019 result with that of the previous year. While Alwyn ap Huw described the machinations as a Stalinist coup.

“2021 Plaid Government”. 🤣 Click to enlarge

These Plaid Cymru votes from 2018 and 2019 explain why YesCymru did not allow a postal ballot for the Central Committee elections and motions submitted to last Saturday’s AGM.

Instead, debate was restricted to 400 or so logged in to the online deliberations. Representing less than 3% of the 18,500 members.

Yes, Alwyn, another Stalinist coup.

Though, as you know, I’m a generous old bugger, so I’ll give YesCymru a chance to explain why it couldn’t organise a postal ballot.

I don’t expect an answer because I already know it – the left cannot afford open and fair elections because it knows it will lose.

Proving that there is nothing new in all the world. For this is how the old Communist Party used to operate in places I worked over 50 years ago. Call a meeting at short notice, at a time and place awkward for most people but for which your people are ready. At the meeting, control the agenda, decide who can and can’t speak, and then – make sure you count the votes.

What the left did with Plaid Cymru in October 2019 and YesCymru last Saturday is the old Communist Party playbook updated for the 21st century.

◊

BRAVE NEW WORLD

You’ll get a good idea of what sort of people support the takeover from celebratory tweets put out very soon after the AGM. Here are a couple for you to savour.

To explain . . .

‘TERF’ means trans-exclusionary radical feminist. A silly and insulting term used to describe any woman who refuses to accept a man with penis and testicles as a woman. In other words, the attitude of most people in the real world.

This is the term that has been constantly used in the recent attacks on Dr Dilys Davies and Plaid Cymru’s Helen Mary Jones.

“Fashy phobes” means fascist transphobes. Because of course, in the black and white world of these fanatics, if you don’t agree with them then you must be a fascist. A transphobe is anyone – usually a man – who agrees with the ‘TERFs’. Roughly 95% of the population.

As of Saturday, who’s running the show?

Three of the four officers are: Siôn Jobbins (Chair); Sarah Rees (Vice-Chair); and Gwyn Llewelyn (Treasurer); all of whom were returned unopposed.

Though Jobbins may not be as secure as being returned unopposed might suggest. Someone sent me this tweet, posted on the very day of the AGM. As you’ll see, @thbuff98 was in an exchange with ‘BVB’, who appears in the panel above.

Jobbins may be too easy-going, and has perhaps not appreciated the approaching danger; so it might be karma if he is the left’s next victim. Though I’m sure he has no connection with the political party Gwlad.

Will this be the excuse used to remove him?

I can’t tell you a lot about Shane Brennan because his election statement to the members has been taken down. Perhaps because he became a shoo-in for Secretary after Iestyn ap Rhobert withdrew.

Though I do know that he first came to Wales to study at Aberystwyth, joined Plaid Cymru around twenty years ago, went home to England to work for a few years, before coming back to Wales to take a job in finance.

He was the Plaid Cymru candidate in the 2011 Assembly elections for the Alyn and Deeside constituency, and supported Leanne Wood for the party leadership.

Now let’s introduce the other members of the Central Committee. I shall do this by providing a link to their election statement supplemented perhaps by a comment.

Most of these statements contain a link to a video by the candidate.

CARYS ELERI (re-elected) Seems to be a performing artist with a YouTube channel.

LLYWELYN AP GWILYM (re-elected) Is the son of Eurfyl ap Gwilym (of Paxman interview fame). I don’t know if he’s in a relationship with Carys Eleri but his Twitter account carries the quote: “A wonderful human” – @caryseleri.

NIKITA JONES May be one of the more rational among the new intake. Certainly, in her favour is the fact that the wokie jackal pack turned on her just before the AGM. This is often a good sign. Time will tell.

BEN GWALCHMAI Seems to be the head honcho of that bizarre outfit, Labour for an Independent Wales. About as convincing as ‘DUP for a United Ireland’.

As I’ve pointed out before, Labour for an Independent Wales is quite clear about its objective: “Socialism through independence”. Meaning independence is only desirable if it delivers socialism.

Does that mean that if an independent Wales votes to not be socialist Gwalchmai and his mates will campaign for re-joining whatever is left of the UK? Especially if there’s a Labour government in Westminster?

TORI WEST (re-elected) Is another artist. In this ‘get to know . . . ‘ piece from Dazed digital magazine in June 2020 there’s no mention of Wales, let alone Welsh independence. Which is odd, seeing as West was on the YC Central Committee.

(But then, as a number of people have pointed out, independence wasn’t mentioned during Saturday’s AGM either.)

Soon after the AGM West put out this rather worrying tweet.

Spare a thought for “marginalised Welsh creatives”. 😥

I describe it as worrying because a possible motive for takeover I’ve avoided mentioning until now – despite numerous people suggesting it – is YesCymru’s money. The balance sheet given at the AGM showed an annual income of £365,413, expenditure of £156,792; with almost £198,348 in the bank, and stock valued at £23,500.

(As one of those “marginalised Welsh creatives” I shall of course be applying for a grant.)

ANDREW O’BRIEN Comes from Port Talbot, he’s a Swans fan (which is obviously in his favour), and seems to want independence with no distractions. Time will tell.

RACHEL COOZE Perhaps the kindest thing to say about Rachel Cooze is that she comes from Swansea. Other than that, she seems to have ordered every dish on the Woke menu. To the point where she now sees YesCymru as the agency to rid Wales of the fascists, racists, transphobes, etc that are everywhere. Everywhere!

Cooze appeared prominently in an earlier post, ‘Hopes of Welsh independence being jeopardised by the hard left’.

ELIN HYWEL Seems to live a relatively quiet life. She has written for far left Undod (not encouraging) but I can’t tell you much more about her.

UPDATE 27.05.2021: This tweet, and the fact that is was re-tweeted by Mark Hooper, strongly suggests that Elin Hywel also belongs to the woke left.

In addition, YesCymru now has two full-time officials. One, the Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Jessica (formerly Matthew) Harvey, is a transsexual woman. While the other, the Campaigns Officer, is Harriet Protheroe-Soltani, of Momentum.

They complement each other perfectly because the issue nowadays for the far left is ‘transsexual rights’. With the Labour Campaign for Trans Rights being controlled by hard left Momentum.

The AGM also agreed to create an Equality and Diversity Sub-committee.

Why no place for straight white bloggers?

Put it all together and if it doesn’t convince you of the direction YesCymru is headed, then you must be a bit dim or part of the problem.

Or maybe this will help. Put out late last night by the ‘Communalism or Barbarism’ Twitter account.

First, it somehow conflates the left’s takeover of YesCymru with the recent Senedd elections, and presents the result in the manner of a Wikipedia entry on a war or a battle.

Some of the ‘combatants’ are unknown to me, and I’m not sure that all those on the side of the left would welcome their inclusion in those ranks.

Like those behind it, it’s puerile, amusing, even superficially clever; but it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

Though it confirms and celebrates that the left has taken over YesCymru . . . but justifies it by arguing that YC has been saved from fascism!

For as I suggested earlier, when dealing with these extremists you soon learn that everyone who opposes them, and everyone they attack, is a fascist. So that makes it OK.

‘Fascist’ has been devalued to a catch-all term for a political opponent. I’m not sure who benefits from this devaluation, except perhaps, genuine fascists.

Here’s a link to a pdf version of the tweet.

◊

BEGINNING OF THE END?

Regular readers will know that I’m not a big fan of Nation.Cymru, but my attention was drawn to something published on that site last Saturday, almost certainly to coincide with the YesCymru AGM.

Penned by Ifan Morgan Jones it had the catchy title: The big question YesCymru needs to answer is: ‘What went right in 2020?’ The important section is worth quoting in full:

“I think that changing YesCymru’s central tenet as a neutral movement would be a big mistake, for a few reasons:

Firstly, while I agree that independence for the sake of it would be pointless, no kind of independence is independence for the sake of it. Any kind would transfer more democratic power away from an established political elite at Westminster and into the hands of the people of Wales. There is no independence ‘for the sake of it’ – it’s a massive constitutional upheaval in itself and will radically change how Wales is run. Either that is, in and of itself, a fundamentally good idea or YesCymru should stop campaigning now because nothing beyond that is guaranteed.

Secondly, because nothing beyond independence is guaranteed, no one can honestly promise a single vision of an independent Wales to the people of the nation. The future ideological direction of an independent Wales would be chosen by the people of Wales, at a Senedd election after the referendum, not by any promises made by YesCymru beforehand. As much as I would personally like to see a socialist, progressive independent Wales, that’s dependent not just on independence but the public deciding, in an independent Wales, to throw their weight behind socialist, progressive parties.

Thirdly, there is no guarantee that selling a particular ideological vision to the people of Wales would be in any way effective. While everyone in YesCymru may have an idea of what a post-independence Wales would look like, they’re likely to all have different ones, and backing one of them would alienate others. As Plaid Cymru demonstrated at the recent Senedd election, voters don’t necessarily want a laundry list of specific promises. In fact, the party with the vaguest manifesto of all ended up winning.”

The fraction of YesCymru members that voted at Saturday’s AGM didn’t heed those wise words. Those who now control YesCymru intend promoting a plethora of diversionary concerns, and independence will soon be relegated to just another issue, or dropped altogether.

You’ve already read Tori West suggesting that those in control start divvying up the YesCymru money among their friends. Sorry! “marginalised Welsh creatives”.

Someone else quick off the blocks was ‘Kemp’, of @YesYBynie.

Can anyone explain what this has to do with the campaign for an independent Wales? And where will the money come from to pay ‘contributors’? (And I bet there’ll be no mention of Abram Wood.)

As I’ve said before, Yes Y Bynie (Bynea) is a one-woman show, set up because she found YesCymru Llanelli to be uncongenial, as it’s membership is made up of level-headed people who want to focus on independence.

But perhaps the most important reason that YesCymru is heading down a blind alley is because of recent developments around protected characteristics and related matters.

To explain (as best I can) . . .

I’m sure you’ve heard of Stonewall. In recent years this LGBTQ+ organisation has built up a great business advising government departments, police forces, universities, private companies, and other bodies on matters sexual and gender related.

But recent developments have exposed Stonewall to be both partisan and dishonest.

The problem is one that Stonewall brought on itself by becoming fixated with trans issues. Sound familiar?

Stonewall’s promotion of ‘trans rights’ resulted in academics being ‘no-platformed’, feminists and others being hounded as ‘TERFs’ and ‘transphobes’, and lies being told about ‘persecution’ suffered by trans people.

It all came crashing down last week with a number of announcements. These included:

Stonewall had been telling lies to Essex University. This resulted in the university being forced into apologising to two academics for them being no-platformed following protests by trans extremists egged on by Stonewall.

As this article from the Spectator put it: “Both professors Jo Phoenix and Rosa Freedman have views which accord with our current laws on gender identity”. But Stonewall was deliberately misinterpreting the law to serve its trans agenda.

Other organisations severed their links with Stonewall and yesterday the Guardian, in this report, told us that the Equality and Human Rights Commission would no longer be linked to Stonewall’s Diversity Champions programme.

You know how far Stonewall has fallen when it tries to get a Black lesbian lawyer sacked.

And so it was no surprise to read that the Stonewall UK media director was standing back due to a ‘tsunami of transphobia’. The truth is of course that he’s leaving because Stonewall has been caught out in lies.

But that can’t be admitted, so it has to be ‘transphobia’. Which, if you think about it, should be a reason for staying, because isn’t ‘transphobia’ what Stonewall is fighting?

It would be reasonable therefore to conclude that Stonewall has capitulated.

At the head of this section, and in the title of this posting, I suggest that YesCymru could be heading for the rocks, and there are two main reasons for me thinking this.

First, following the AGM, YesCymru is firmly under the control of ishoo-mongers, obsessives, and the hard left. These will insist on YC fighting on many different fronts, thereby dissipating its energies and making enemies unnecessarily.

Second, the one issue that unites the dangerous and intolerant fanatics that hounded Helen Mary Jones and Dr Dilys Davies, the jackal pack that piles in on its victims, is ‘trans rights’. That’s because the hard left has weaponised this issue.

With the left having relied on Stonewall for guidance and credibility, and Stonewall now itself discredited, dismissing legitimate critics of certain trans lunacies as TERFs and transphobes will no longer work. The scam is exposed.

Put the two together and we see that the present Central Committee is now on the wrong side of history. But it’s still a tragedy for YesCymru. That said, those at the top had plenty of warnings, and time enough to lance the boil.

Perhaps Ifan Morgan Jones should start working on, ‘The big question YesCymru needs to answer is: “What went wrong in 2021?”‘

♦ end ♦

Jac o' the North

Tag: Tori West

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