The Case of the Disappearing Councillor

THEN THERE WAS ONE

In my previous post I mentioned that concerns are growing for the whereabouts and reputation of Labour councillor John Charles Bayliss of Swansea. Well, I’m afraid that fresh information only confirms that those fears were well founded.

To recap: John Charles Bayliss came to Swansea as a student, possibly in 2009. He and other students were recruited, in advance of the May 2012 council elections, to support the man who went on to become council leader after Labour won those elections, David ‘Il Duce‘ Phillips (of whom I have written more than once). This recruiting was perhaps done through Phillips’ wife Sybil Crouch, also a councillor, who works at Swansea university.

Among others recruited in this manner were Pearleen Sangha and Mitchell ‘Mitch’ Theaker. Another former student in this coterie of juvenile councillors was Nick Bradley. Phillips and Crouch are from Liverpool, Sangha from California, Bayliss is from Sussex, Bradley from the West Midlands, and Theaker may actually be from somewhere in Wales, though not Swansea. (Read more about them here.) So all were perfectly qualified to run a city they know sod all about. But that’s the state of the ‘Welsh’ Labour Party today, it just cannot find enough local candidates.

Phillips

After two disastrous years in charge Phillips was overthrown in a palace coup. (Here’s an example of how his clique operated.) While mooching around waiting for the job offers to pour in the former council boss tried his hand at fly-tipping before sinking into the obscurity he so richly deserved. Their leader and inspiration thrown down Phillips’ young acolytes started moving out of Swansea, leaving only John Charles Bayliss. Now fears grow that Bayliss has also departed . . . but may be trying to shield the citizenry from the welcome truth sad news.

THE BOY DONE GOOD . . .

Some unkind souls were wont to think that John Boy was nigh-on unemployable, and quite happy to subsist on his council allowances (with perhaps help from his parents) while pursuing his real passions of LGBT causes and enjoying himself. (Though, curiously, all references to his previous enthusiasm for Gay issues have been scrubbed from his Twitter account and other records. How very strange!)

But then, seemingly out of the blue, he found himself a position with flim-flam merchants a PR company called the Remarkable Group. According to the Swansea council website this new position was declared on April 30th this year and officially added to the Register of Members’ Interests on May 6th. Bayliss is now employed as an ‘Account Executive’, but we are not told which account(s) he has responsibility for.

Bayliss Remarkable

Though as I stated in my previous post, I have no doubt that Bayliss was recruited by Remarkable because he is a councillor in Swansea, and in order to ease through the currently stalled Mynydd y Gwair wind farm project for Remarkable’s client RWE Innogy.

 . . . BUT NOT IN SWANSEA

Not long after this appointment Bayliss changed his address from a flat in a house of multiple occupation in Cwmdonkin Terrace, in the Uplands ward he represents, to Cambrian Place in the Maritime Quarter (see picture below); in fact, the very pad where his friend and former council colleague, Mitch Theaker, had lived, vacated when Theaker went to work in the Gulf. But does he really live there? Because it could well be – as was suggested in an e-mail I received on Sunday – that Bayliss works in Bristol during the week and comes back to Swansea after finishing work on Friday. Then again, he might have moved to Bristol altogether and is simply using the Cambrian Place address to deceive people into thinking he still lives in Swansea.

Either way, for a fit and healthy young man with no obvious calls on his time, such as children or elderly parents, and living just a skip and a jump from the civic centre, John Charles Bayliss’s attendance record is appalling . . . or certainly it has become appalling since he got the job in Bristol working on the Mynydd y Gwair wind farm project.

A comment to the previous post by ‘Jobovitch’ tells us that, prior to his taking up employment in Bristol, Bayliss had an attendance record of close on 96%. So I checked, and he’s right. Between 09.11.2014 and 04.05.2016 John Bayliss had an attendance record of 96%, present at 24 out of 25 meetings he was expected to attend. And in the period before that it was 94%. And we find it was also 94% if we go back another six months.

Yet during the most recent six months, the period 04.05.2015 to 27.10.2015, his attendance record plummeted to 27%, to the point where his record was the worst bar just one. (Set out in this document supplied by a reader.)

Cambrian Place

This dramatic change in the attendance record of councillor John Charles Bayliss can be attributed to only one thing: his job with the Remarkable Group, that requires him to live in Bristol.

And yet, at a meeting on May 19th Bayliss was elected vice-chair of the Economy & Investment Cabinet Advisory Committee . . . even though he wasn’t there! He missed further meetings of this committee on June 17th (‘Apologies received’); July 15th (‘Absent’); August 19th (‘Absent’); but he did turn up for the Glyndŵr Day meeting, of what had now been renamed the Development Cabinet Advisory Committee, perhaps because the very first item on the agenda was that, ‘ . . . Councillor J C Bayliss be elected (again?) Vice Chair for the remainder of the Municipal Year’ (’til May 2016). As might be expected, he missed the most recent meeting on October 21st (‘Apologies received’).

Why the hell would the Labour Party in Swansea be so keen to install as vice-chair of an important committee a councillor they must know no longer lives in the city and is not going to turn up for meetings? Does the clue lie with his new employer?

CALCULATIONS

At this point some reading this might be asking, ‘Hang on, if the decision to block the Mynydd y Gwair wind farm was taken at Assembly level, where’s the advantage to the developers in recruiting a Swansea councillor?’ Well, if you read the reasons for turning down the application you’ll see that it hinged on the land lost by the commoners being replaced with acceptable grazing land. This is still being worked on, and the application will almost certainly be re-submitted.

In addition, Bayliss’s great friend and former councillor in the Uplands ward, Pearleen Sangha, is now living and working in Cardiff – for the Labour Party. We can be sure that Bayliss and Sangha, both wind energy fanatics, are in regular contact . . . and who’s to say she isn’t pushing Mynydd y Gwair to persons in or close to the ‘Welsh’ Government? Additionally, Swansea council passed the Mynydd y Gwair application in February 2013 by just three votes. Among those who voted for the application were Bayliss’s friends, Mitchell Theaker, Pearleen Sangha and Nick Bradley . . . all of whom have departed. Council leader at the time David Phillips was also a big supporter, but he’s no longer in a position to threaten, cajole or bribe Labour councillors.

It could well be that if Mynydd y Gwair came before Swansea council tomorrow it would be rejected. That would be a disaster for the developers, because in dealing with the ‘Welsh’ Government one of its strong cards is, ‘Swansea council is in favour’. But things have changed, and that’s why RWE Innogy and Remarkable need a Swansea councillor to tell them who’s for and, more importantly, who’s against – in other words, who they need to work on. This explains why Remarkable recruited John Bayliss.

Though you have to wonder why so many self-declared socialists in the Labour Party in Swansea are keen to cover bleak but lovely Mynydd y Gwair with wind turbines for the benefit of the Beaufort Estate (Prop. Duke of Beaufort). Why is that? Could it be partly personal?

Mynydd y Gwair

I ask because Mynydd y Gwair lies within Mawr, the most rural and sparsely-populated of Swansea’s wards, represented for almost thirty years by Ioan Richard of Craigcefnparc, once a Plaid Cymru councillor (on the old Lliw Valley District Council), like so many genuine nationalists Ioan gave up on Plaid Cymru long ago and has, since local government reorganization in 1996, sat as an Independent on the new City and County of Swansea council.

It would be fair to say that the Labour Party in Swansea doesn’t much like Ioan, he’s been a thorn in their flesh for years. They’ve repaid him in various ways, not least by blocking him from becoming Lord Mayor when his turn came up about a decade ago, a move supported – cheered on, even – by the four councillors Plaid Cymru then had on Swansea council, all of whom have now, thankfully, fallen by the wayside. A procedural change from party political voting to elevation on a simple calculation of seniority finally allowed Ioan to wear the chain in 2011. Ironically, perhaps, the year after next should see David ‘Il Duce‘ Phillips become Lord Mayor, but as a notorious and convicted fly-tipper he is now thankfully disqualified.

Another way Labour displayed its feelings for the councillor from Mawr was in preventing him from voting on the 2013 Mynydd y Gwair debate – an application in his own ward! It was judged that Ioan had ‘pre-determined’ the case by his opposition to the scheme and was therefore not allowed to vote. The student-councillors like Sangha and Bayliss, who had been tweeting their support for the project for months, and who were in contact with Gwenllian Elias, the PR woman for Mynydd y Gwair, were deemed to be approaching the debate with open minds and were allowed to vote!

TIME TO ACT

The situation we find today with John Bayliss is remarkably similar to the one we saw last year with Pearleen Sangha. She too took a job away from Swansea but tried to carry on as if nothing had happened. This was obviously done with the knowledge of the Labour Party – because she was working for the party! Eventually she had to admit the truth and stand down, but had it not been for external pressure then she and the Labour Party would have just carried on, to avoid a ‘messy’ by-election, which Labour lost.

But you mustn’t think that this behaviour is confined to Swansea, as a comment to the previous post from ‘Keri Tyisha’ reminded us. He told us of the 90-year-old councillor in Carmarthenshire suffering from dementia but kept on the council by repeated leaves of absence issued by the chief executive and ruler of the council, Mark James. Again, far better to maintain the pretence that a councillor is doing his or her job than risk a by-election.

Chubby Johhny

In conclusion, Swansea council’s website shows that the attendance record for Councillor John Charles Bayliss has deteriorated alarmingly, from 96% to 27%, and that this deterioration links with his recruitment by the Remarkable Group in Bristol. It is therefore reasonable to assume that Bayliss is living and working in Bristol. That being so, he cannot serve the residents of the Uplands ward in Swansea. He must therefore stand down and a by-election must be held to elect a councillor who can properly serve the ward.

For the longer term, the next reorganisation of local government must be about more than just re-drawing boundaries. It must introduce mechanisms to ensure that the narrow and selfish interests of political parties or chief executives can not be served by deceiving the public into believing that councillors who’ve died, emigrated, been banged up, or are no longer compos mentis, are still serving their community.

Swansea deserves better. Wales deserves better.Swansea your councillors

UPDATE 22:35: Shortly after posting this article, I noticed that the links I’d provided to Swansea council’s website were no longer working. (They were working this morning, that’s how I got the information.) I checked the website and found that everything was working except the section for ‘Your councillors’. I tweeted about it, and got a reply in mid afternoon, but the problem still hasn’t been fixed. Now if I was the suspicious kind . . .

UPDATE 10.11.2015: I have learnt that John C Bayliss is seeking election to the Notional Assembly via the regional list.

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Terrance.Davies

One Look at is Lack of Life and Let alone Political Experience and think WHY. on Facebook So he Commented on a Comment i wrote on SW evening Post story about the Cuts I will add the link in at the End so 3 days with out a Response so tonight after reeding this and a few other things I wrote this back

ME : My personal Favourite thing Is Reading about a Councillor who Lives In Bristol Monday To Friday and then Lives in the Marina of SA1 on weekends what’s out of his own constituency and the Community he is meant to be representing went from a 96% Attendance recorded to 27% So what Should Happen To this Councillor? John Bayliss Or yea it you.

John Bayliss : Oh Terrance, you read up on what other people say about me. That’s so sweet. I do my best for Uplands and Brynmill. You need to pop up for a coffee some time, I’ll show you around.

ME: John Bayliss the Funny thing is I dont not need to shown the uplands I was born there and lived there for most of my life and go there nearly every day

See I dont think he got that For 28 years of my Life have visited the uplands on a regular base’s also MY Gp is there my Dentist and even Family members Work and Live there

Does it not make a Mockery of the WAG if a English man who lives in England can Run for it?he is also Trying to hide that fact that he is Gay but then Named the Champion for Gay rights I wonder if Swansea Univerity Even Installed any Ethics in to there Political Students

Link to Post : https://www.facebook.com/SWEveningPost/posts/975510825854837?comment_id=975706525835267&reply_comment_id=976873165718603&notif_t=share_reply

Carnabwth

Saw A ap Huw post this on Blog Menai. Might be of interest unless you know about it:

“Heb ddigwydd eto, ond edrychwch am gyhoeddiadau am ehangu’r hyn a fu yn Gymdeithas Gredyd Llandudno a’r Cylch, a ehangodd i fod yn Gymdeithas Credyd Gogledd Cymru, ac sydd ar fin ehangu i Ddyfed a Phowys (gan newid ei enw eto). Er bod y Gymdeithas, o ran ei gyfansoddiad, i fod yn ased cymdeithasol; mae’n cael ei redeg fel braich o’r Blaid Lafur.”

Uplander

STAN in NEATH – to help you get answers may I suggest the following lines of action:-
Go into GOOGLE and search for John C Bayliss TWITTER or better still JULIE JAMES AM TWITTER, and go back to Sunday 11th October this year. They were out Labour Doorstepping in the Swansea Sandfields on a Sunday morning and posted a photo of their group outside a Fish ‘n Chip Shop. The people in the pic’ are named. Click on LILY SUMMERS and go into Lily’s Twitter Site. Lily is the Trans Chair of Swansea Labour Students at Swansea. Nothing wrong in that, but it implies an important role in the Swansea Labour Party and being close to the Deputy Labour Minister James in her canvassing team. Go further and you will see Lily supports SEX WORK and OPPOSES THE WAR ON DRUGS and then dig deeper into Lily’s constant TWEETS (has Lily any time for study – or is Lily on a sabbatical?) and you will find out a lot of rather sordid sex terms and questions and answers on – ask.fm.LilySummers entries. Where does Swansea Labour find these people?

Stan

Not familiar with the nitty gritty of local politics in Swansea, having enough on my plate with the shower in my own patch – Neath Port Talbot. But Jac’s excellent article got me searching John Boy on the Swansea Council website. Can someone tell me why on the Register of Councillors’ Interests, Bayliss lists his interests as a member of “Repubic”. Does such an organisation exist? Do they make merkins, for example? Mrs Stan is after one in purple – her favourite colour.

Uplander

In answer to Stan – the declared interest “REPUBLIC” by the absentee Councillor means he belongs to a group dedicated to overthrow the British Monarchy. There is a mystery about his current true address – maybe he has been locked in the Tower of London as a Traitor of the realm.
This issue has been hi-jacked by Daley Gleephart who is a regular creep defendant of the Labour Creed in Swansea.
Respondents to this thread should GOOGLE a LILY SUMMERS who has been out doorstepping with the missing Councillor and Julie James AM. Check their TWITTER photo albums from a few recent weeks ago and then do some deep digging via search engines. Then you find very embarrassing associations for Swansea Labour. Where do they find these people. Swansea Labour is packed with drifters. It’s not just the high tides that will power the lagoon, it is the high tide flotsams and jetsams that appear in Swansea to power politics there.

Stan

Thanks, Uplander. All for the aims of Republic myself – at least in the abolition of the monarchy.

Wow – that Lily Summers Twitter account seems weird. Is Lily a man, woman or undergoing a change then? I think the “in” word is now non-binary according to Mx Jack Monroe, the former Guardian food writer. Not to worry, best leave it as I’ve led a sheltered life in NPT and best it remains that way.

Not sure I’ve uncovered the embarrassing associations you refer to, though Lily does have some VERY interesting links and references on his/her/its Twitter pages, I must say. If I was a politician in the public eye I think I’d be a little nervous about getting too close to Lily and friends.

Daley Gleephart

Bayliss gets a quote in The Beans today: http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/Street-rubbish-row-collect-animals-birds-work/story-28073457-detail/story.html
Rubbish to Rags
The Mule and The Beans are now owned by the same group: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-34658444

Rhys

That’s interesting. I’d expect to see more Bayliss quotes in the EP in the future: is he listening to us I wonder? Is his personal PR campaign finally kicking in?

And I agree about Peter May (he’s surely in contention for an Angry People In Local Newspapers lifetime achievement award, as Jobovitch pointed out in their reply to Jac’s previous post). He does have an eerie tendency to actually get things done, regardless.

Colin, in an ideal world I think it should be: renewables > nuclear > fossil extraction, with tidal the most desirable renewable, but I’m acutely aware that keeping the lights on seems to trump everything else right now. I’m quite a fan of nuclear, though it can be the definition of a difficult sell to the communities that might host a plant (as Plaid Cymru’s vacillations over Wylfa B have demonstrated).

Colin

I think there are many ways in which renewable energy could be harvested in a less obtrusive manner, such as using solar farms as roofs over Tesco type car parks, we stay dry, we get energy and no space is wasted, butt ugly? Then get a get a decent designer.

I personally believe that nuclear power is probably the best option we have at present. As long as they are properly built and managed they will provide up with clean power long after the earth would have perished through burning fossil fuels and far less of an impact on the land than wind farms. I don’t particular want a power station on my doorstep but I would rather Wylfa than a coal fired monstrosity or wind farm

Rhys

I’m horribly conflicted by this. On the one hand, I’m pro-renewable energy if the schemes are planned and situated properly, I tend to gravitate towards the left and I gave both the Uplands student councillors the benefit of the doubt when they were first elected. But democracy has got to be seen to be done, and right now, Bayliss isn’t doing it, to my mind. Yes, a by-election here in Uplands/Brynmill would be expensive (and frustrating too – the 2nd in just over a year), and yes, it may well be that Bayliss still actually lives in Swansea but went through a demanding first four or five months at work, and is only now managing to reconcile his council commitments with his PR day job.

And yet, and yet… everything from his dismissal of the 900-name petition against Uplands Costa with an insulting ‘wake up and smell the coffee’ soundbite in a planning meeting, to his hand-waving shooing away of any concerns over the sale of playing fields, make me think that John’s at best naive in thinking he can represent the Uplands in the professional way that his voters expect him to do. Ironically, it may even be his (lack of) personal PR skills that are the problem here: brand Bayliss seems to associate itself with impetuous outbursts and opaque decisions…

Yes, we have Peter May to fill the gap, and the Evening Post appearances suggest he’s doing the work of at least three councillors himself (and has his personal PR down to a fine art). There are four councillors for the Uplands though and I don’t think it’s too much to ask all of them, including Bayliss, to at least put their bums on seats an average number of times.

I’m non-aligned politically, I float between three parties when it comes to elections of various flavours, and I don’t think I have any particular axe to grind – and maybe I’m hopelessly idealistic anyway – but surely, surely we deserve better representation than this.

Daley Gleephart

Do you mean Councillor tasks like this?

Rubbish bags from a house with multiple tenants left outside on forecourt.
Council cannot remove the bags because they’re on private property
Council contact the landlord
Landlord informs the Council that he has placed the bags on the pavement in accordance with their request
Bags can then be collected by the Council
Members of the public see the bags on the pavement and throw them onto the forecourt
Council cannot collect the bags because they’re back on private land
Peter May Promotions spring into action and yet another ‘Isn’t Cllr May wonderful’ story appears in the local rag.
http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/Councillor-s-anger-refuse-bags/story-27925828-detail/story.html

Swansea Council had no valid reason to block Costa Coffee opening in the Uplands. However, I agree that the Cllr Bayliss remark was insensitive and not in the slightest bit funny.

Brychan

I find it interesting that a Labour councillor, Mitchell Theaker has since found new employment in Qatar as he must know that the penalty for homosexual behaviour in Qatar is six months in prison and 90 lashes. Then we have a Labour councillor, John Charles Bayliss, who was formally a champion of gay rights has ‘cleansed’ his public profile of any involvement, and landed himself a lucrative position with an energy ‘greening’ public relations company.

It should be noted that Qatar is the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas into Milford Haven and currently used to generate electricity at the new power station.

Wind turbines on Mynydd y Gwair is just ‘greenwash’ and these two Qatar enablers have been faking their previously professed support for gay rights to ingratiate themselves within the British Labour Party and are currently actively assisting the importation of fossil fuels from the Gulf into South Wales. The ‘wind turbines’ do not provide any effective input to electricity supply but they do offer a public relations platform for those who flog fossil fuels on behalf of repressive foreign powers.

Daley Gleephart

Wasn’t Ioan Richard blocked from taking the role of Lord Mayor because he brought the name of the Council into disrepute? There was Ioan Richard’s cunning plan to keep his special troughing allowances – A scheme that Private Eye magazine reported.
Personally, I think that wind turbines on Mynydd y Gwair would improve the landscape. Others disagree including David Bellamy a climate change denier who wants all subsidies for renewable energy withdrawn – With naturalists like him, heaven help us. I cannot understand why people want to keep a bleak vista bleak when the alternative proposal by Cameron’s Tories is fracking. Franking involves using up potable water and rendering it poisonous and unfit for any use – An insane idea in a century when drinking water will be one of the most valuable commodities in the world. http://epub.artbox.no/statkraft/cr/ Don’t be another Kodak.

Daley Gleephart

I don’t think so. They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I find nothing beautiful about Mynydd y Gwair. No one is suggesting that that M y G is fracked because there’s no gas to extract from the rock. Do you think that fracking in other areas won’t affect Wales? Electricity generated by wind power costs more at present but the future will be different.

Daley Gleephart

Think of large tower e.g. the Eiffel Tower. Does the Eifel Tower despoil the area where it is situated? Think of a demolishing large tower e.g. the Eifel Tower. Can the Eifel Tower be demolished and removed so that there is no trace that it was ever there?
Can the same be said of other methods of electricity generation? Then, there’s the pollution of land sea and air.

Sorry, but I find nothing attractive about Mynydd y Gwair.

“… what is to be done about the wandering boy?”
I have no idea. Don’t lose any sleep over it. Uplands is a lively area that manages pretty well without much Councillor intervention. Good places to dine and drink with little to no problems as most of the town’s binge drinkers are drawn to Wind Street. Give it a try.

Daley Gleephart

Dodging the issue? I have no control over ‘the issue’. Is ‘the issue’ is damaging the fabric of Uplands society?

The point that I make is that wind turbines are temporary structures that do no permanent damage and do no harm when compared alongside the whinging neurotics who don’t want them but seem to want electricity, cars, telephones etc., and seem okay with roads, high voltage pylons, utility poles traversing this ‘natural landscape’. Ah well. Never mind. President Xi Jinping has a solution.

As for ‘unspoilt Welsh moorland’, if it disappeared how many would miss it? The US Air Force could do a Cambodian scale carpet bombing of the area and not make it any bleaker or depressing. An ideal spot for misanthropes and misfits though – All it needs is a local shop for local people with a brother and sister (pretending to be husband and wife) running it.

Ian Perryman

To say that the only alternative to wind farms is fracking is just plain silly.
Wales already produces more energy than it uses. Let them put up wind turbines closer to where the energy is need. i.e. England.

Daley Gleephart

So, your answer is to position wind turbines where there is less wind.
Please read about how the national electricity grid functions and, if you have the time, explore how Wales can make something we have in abundance into a great wealth producer. That ‘something’ is water.

Colin

Exactly, while English power and water companies have control of our resources we will remain “ripped off”. Only through independence would they give up the ridiculous prices they pay us and then they would fight it.

My view on wind farms is that each one is a little Tryweryn, one by one and bit by bit they consume us!

Daley Gleephart

Are you concerned about being at the mercy of oil and gas producers in other countries? Why are you referring to ‘English power and water companies’ when Dwr Cymru is a non-profit organisation and most for-profit energy companies are multi-nationals?
As for your Tryweryn comparison: How many people have lost their homes due to wind turbine construction?

Colin

We are at the mercy of oil and gas producers in other countries!

Why is Dwr Cymru a non profit organisation when Severn Trent / Liverpool are?

Probably no one has been made homeless but a fair few have has a good lump of value knocked off their homes because of wind farms, or farms lost land. If you want wind farms go and live by one or better still erect your own turbine on your property

Ian Perryman

Mr dear Daley, I know exactly how the national grid functions. Your convenient assumption that I don’t undrstand these things is the usual eco-twat’s defence in response to criticism.

Wind energy is one of the least cost-effective options for generation that we have. It only exists because it is heavily subsidised.

There is also the major problem that the amount of power it produces is unpredictable on a day to day basis.
This adds to the hidden costs of wind generation which people like you prefer to hide.

For example we cannot store excess energy in large quantities and there are reports of producers being paid ‘constraint payments’ for excess energy capacity that could not be used. I believe the figure for last year was over £40 million – and increasing.

On quiet days – when there is little wind back up systems using fossil fuels are brought on line. The cost of maintaining these back-ups either off-line when not being used, or at reduced inefficient loads, is also a hidden subsidy.

Going back to your second convenient assumption that I propose putting wind turbines where there is less wind. I would mention 3 things that you have failed to understand.

I only propose no more wind turbines in Wales. We have enough.

There are plenty of places in England that have just as much wind as Swansea.

It is far more cost effective to put power generation close to consumers as this reduces infrastructure cost and transmission loses. How about a nice large solar array or two in all those large parks in London?

Daley Gleephart

eco-twat versus eco-centric berks?
It’ll be a rude awakening, but you need to get out of this ‘put it in England’ mentality. The put it in England brigade are similar to 1950s Councillors in the eastside of Swansea. In the 50s and early 60s, whenever a proposal came before the Council to build an industrial unit, Swansea East Councillors would shout “Put it in the Mumbles” or “Put it in the Gower” Presumably those Cllrs were of the opinion that, as Landore is a dump then, everywhere should be a dump. Thankfully, common sense prevailed and people living in Swansea East were still able to enjoy the delights of the Mumbles and Gower.
Whilst on the subject of this ‘England Bad So, Dump It There’ attitude – What may seem English-owned isn’t these days. The rise of the multinationals means that less and less of England is owned by the English. The same is true in Wales but on a lesser scale. One of the most popular ‘local pubs’ in Gower, the Gower Inn, is owned by a company registered in the Cayman Islands tax-haven.
How to combat the multinationals? There are many books written about the creeping power of the big corporations and Naomi Klein’s ‘Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism’ is one of the best. Read and note that you vote for politicians who allow raw neo-con ideology to flourish.

dafis

Let’s digress for a moment – I saw this earlier at Golwg and the irony is hurting my ribs !

“…..Fe fydd Sioned Hughes, sy’n wreiddiol o Ruthun, yn gadael ei swydd bresennol fel Cyfarwyddwr Polisi a Materion Allanol gyda Cartrefi Cymunedol Cymru, ac yn dechrau gyda’r Urdd yn gynnar y flwyddyn nesaf.”

So the Urdd has appointed the Policy & Public Affairs Director from a leading Housing Association, one of those bodies that you have correctly identified as actively subverting our communities. Does this hold out much hope for the Urdd ? At least Efa MBE did not a bad job of keeping a Welsh character to the movement ( despite its slightly over keen unionist traditions ) but what will this appointment do for it ? Lots of jobs for Anglos who are best suited for the jobs on offer having “promised” to learn the lingo.

Gillian Jones

Rhob would be so proud of you and your excellent investigative talent.

howell williams

a great fighter for independance burnan davies was leyed to rest in capel cendy abernant carmarthen on friday last.he had been an honest and proud supporter of plaid through his life and a well repected member of his local area as was reflected at his funaral..but were were the plaid officials in carmarthenshire? shame on them

howell williams

yes jack you are right,but it seems a shame that people like my old friend now passed on robert ap steffan worked so hard for the party and had nothing in return.a great shame.but that’s how gangs work.

Alun

It is shocking to discover that these students were allowed to vote on the wind farm planning permission debate in 2013 given their known pro wind farm views and yet Ioan Richard was barred from doing so. What is even more galling is the fact that these students probably know next to nothing about the people who live and work on Mynydd y Gwair and even less so about the damage that this large scale industrial development would have on this fantastic upland lanscape. One has to admire the Mynydd y Gwair graziers, who, despite being let down by the elected representatives, who really ought to have supported them, and with limited resources, continue in their David v’s Goliath fight to protect their common from irreparable desecration.

Ian Perryman

I’ve never understood why eligibility to be a local councillor has never included a local residency test e.g. must have had their primary abode in the constituency for the last 5 years.

The same idea could apply to a national election to stop the Labour party parachuting people like Stephen Kinnock, Peter Hain etc into safe seats.

howell williams

if you are looking for reform,you will not find it at plaid in carmarthenshire

Marconatrix

I’m inclined to agree somewhat … but what is your alternative, anyone’s alternative? Surely not UKIP??

Elwyn Williams

The 90 year old councillor from Carmarthenshire did stand down, there was a by election which Plaid won.