AND THIS LITTLE PIGGY CAME TO WALES
To properly understand this article it’s best to know a little of the legislative and other background, and when we put it all together it should warn us that what we see at Red Pig Farm (yes, honestly, Red Pig Farm) is one element of the dystopian future envisioned for the Welsh countryside by our masters down in Cardiff Bay. (ALT = Agroecology Land Trust Ltd.)
‘WELSH’ LABOUR, DAVIES OUT, HOWE IN
First, though, let us reflect on the role of Alun Davies AM (then Minister for Natural Resources and Food) who, in January 2014, announced that the government he represented had decided to transfer 15% of EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funding from Pillar 1 to Pillar 2. (See it here.) Which meant that henceforth this money, instead of going to our farmers, would be spent on “rural development projects”, most of which will have nothing to do with real farming, and little or nothing to do with Welsh people.
But then, it might be argued that Davies had form when it came to undermining Welsh agriculture, for after the heavy snow of March 2013, when farmers in the north east were particularly badly hit, he announced there would be no ‘Welsh’ Government aid. Justifying the decision with these priceless words (April 3, 2013, BBC Wales News), “You don’t create a strong business base by throwing public money at every problem you face”.
Yes, folks, that came from a ‘Welsh’ Government minister; a representative of an administration, and a political party, that believes there should be a Nobel Prize for frittering away public money.
Former Plaid Cymru member Davies eventually lost his job, in July 2014, after pressuring civil servants to find out how much some opposition AMs were receiving in farming subsidies! He was still at it in October. But then, it has to be said that even before his fall he was having trouble with farming subsidies. In fact, it often seemed that Davies thought of little else.
The second legislative hammer-blow came last year with the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act. There’s even a video, accompanied by a monologue combining political correctness with envirobollocks. Whatever credibility the Act might have had all was lost with the appointment of Labour insider Sophie Howe as Future Generations Commissioner.
Despite these manifest idiocies and insults to the collective intelligence the Well-being of Future Generations Act (Wales) Ltd is now law, and is already being taken advantage of by those seeking to move to Wales.
Such as James Scrivens and Sara Tommerup, he English, she Danish. This enterprising duo are the proprietors of the Agroecology Land Trust Ltd, based at the above-mentioned Red Pig Farm, which was carved out of Forestry Commission land near Bethlehem, Carmarthenshire, some years ago, long before Scrivens and Tommerup discovered Wales. We shall return to them anon.
ENTER JANE DAVIDSON LABOUR(?) AM
For in addition to the legislation I’ve mentioned, in 2011 those buffoons down Cardiff docks also accepted the diktats of the One Planet Council. As it says on its website, “The One Planet Council provides a bridge between applicants and local planning authorities, with guidance and tools to support anyone making the transition to this more sustainable way of life. It works also with those who have already made that leap, and with policymakers, academics and landowners.”
In other words, it helps good-lifers, bullock worshippers and others move to Wales and get retrospective planning permission for buildings they’ve erected without consent – even in National Parks. And they can do it because they have the support of the ‘Welsh’ Government. (By the way, that reads bullock . . . though I suppose bollocks-worshippers applies just as well.)
A major reason for the direction taken by the ‘Welsh’ Government in this period is Jane Davidson, former AM for Pontypridd, and now chief Patron of the One Planet Council. It was she who persuaded her colleagues to agree to its agenda before she stood down in May 2011 as Minister for the Environment. After leaving the Assembly she also became director of the Wales Institute for Sustainability (INSPIRE) at Trinity St David Lampeter.
Jane Davidson is one of those middle class Englishwomen one finds in the National Trust, Cadw, and other bodies, who believes that the Welsh countryside is too naice to be left to us; it needs to be run by people like her and those she feels comfortable with, whose numbers can be increased by elbowing the backward locals aside.
For make no mistake, Davidson represents the Green lobby and others who want greater access to the Welsh countryside, and freedom to use and exploit our rural areas as they wish. One such group would obviously be the Ramblers Association, for whom she became ‘Welsh’ President almost immediately she’d left the Assembly.
At Davidson’s direction, fully supported by coalition partners Plaid Cymru, and groups and individuals unlikely to vote for either party, the ‘Welsh’ Government produced, in May 2009, One Wales: One Planet, a document setting out how we are to reduce Wales’ carbon footprint.
Among the ambitions articulated by this document, that could have been been written by Friends of the Earth (and might well have been), we find, “Within the lifetime of a generation, we want to see Wales using only its fair share of the earth’s resources, and where our ecological footprint is reduced to the global average availability of resources – 1.88 global hectares per person”.
So there you are, we’re all entitled to 1.88 global hectares per person – claim yours while stocks last!
Jane Davidson was able to walk into the post of Minister for the Environment because she was one of the few Labour AMs who knew anything about that mysterious world beyond Merthyr known as ‘The Countryside’, inhabited by strange creatures most of whom steadfastly refused to vote Labour.
So she had free rein in the Dark Regions and Plaid to vouch for her in quarters where she might have encountered suspicion or hostility.
Which meas that we could view her appointment at INSPIRE as the reward from the enviro-colon network she had so assiduously worked for while at the Assembly – cos she sure as hell didn’t represent the people of Pontypridd.
But as we know, politicians are not supposed to take up posts connected with their previous ministerial duties. Davidson obviously did by taking the job at INSPIRE and was reprimanded for it . . . but edited her Wikipedia page to hide her little embarrassment.
N.B. You may have noted that even though Wales is the only country to have adopted the One Planet agenda, and this outfit operates only in Wales, OP haven’t got round to doing a Welsh version of the website.
HIPPY, HIPPY STATE
Let’s wend our way back to Red Pig Farm and the happy couple. There can be no doubt that James Scrivens and Sara Tommerup relocated to Wales because of the favouritism shown towards their ilk by the ‘Welsh’ Government. For as it says on the Red Pig Farm website:
I love that phrase “reactionary and conservative local council”. Translated, it means, ‘People who represent the wishes of the majority when confronted with the unreasonable demands of recently-arrived Alternatives’.
Before relocating to Carmarthenshire we find Scrivens and Tommerup in Gloucestershire, running the Yorkley Court Community Farm Ltd near Lydney, a company struck off in August 2015 without apparently doing any business. According to this BBC Points West report it seems that Yorkley Court Community Farm was in fact a squatter camp.
Another company they were involved with at that time was Agroecological Land Initiative Ltd, Incorporated February 24, 2015. The name was changed on April 14, 2015 to Agroecology Land Trust Ltd, and then, on June 26, 2016, to Red Pig Farm Ltd.
Scrivens and Tommerup have settled in quite well, among their ventures is a stake in the Llandeilo Food Hub in a disused railway wagon at the local station. As the report in the West Wales News Review tells us, this project is grant-aided by the ‘Welsh’ Government.
There now follows a short diversion . . .
The Llandeilo Food Hub seems to come under the umbrella of the Heart of Wales Line Development Company Ltd, yet another ‘community venture’ run by those whose parents and grandparents are buried somewhere else. In more senses than one, the company appears to be up a siding, for the latest accounts tell us it has net assets of only £20,169, and is kept in the black through the generosity of a director not insisting on payment of her £35,500 loan.
This benefactrix is Gillian Elizabeth Wright. Now if that name rings a bell then it might be because I wrote about her and her Llandovery Hub, in Ancestral Turf. (I’d like to tell you more about Llandovery Hub, but the website offers neither Companies House registration number nor Charity Commission number. Nothing turns up on the FCA website, either. What kind of outfit is this?)
Wright also ran, with Jane Ryall, The Level Crossing Community Interest Company, offering bed and breakfast accommodation in a converted pub, Incorporated with Companies House September 24, 2012. The most recent accounts, April 2, 2016, show liabilities of £55,271. The Level Crossing Community Interest Company is in the process of being struck off.
The Level Crossing Community Interest Company was yet another ‘community venture’ that was only ‘viable’ with public funding and, like thousands of others, that have swallowed hundreds of millions of pounds, it has been a complete waste of money.
UPDATE 07.09.2016: Here’s a report in a local paper from mid-July 2013, before the business opened, with the date suggesting that this tourism venture had already lost half the summer. The report tells us that the building was leased from the owner, Neo Neophyton. Does anyone know to whom it was leased, and the terms?
Moving back to Red Pig Farm we see that Scrivens and Tommerup are seeking human company, for they have submitted a planning application for more dwellings at the ‘farm’, which lies in open country and, remember, in a National Park! But thanks to the legislation passed by the ‘Welsh’ Government they anticipate no problems.
“We are fully aware of the many challenges in obtaining residential planning permission in the open countryside. However, thanks to the pioneering foresight of the Welsh government a planning framework to support low-impact rural developments known as One Planet Development is in place to guide applications that seek to demonstrate the ecological benefits from the creation of sustainable land based livelihoods”.
Finally, let me conclude this passage by highlighting an inconsistency. According to the One Planet gurus and others we must reduce our carbon emissions. Fair enough. Yet Red Pig Farm is also home to Black Mountain Wood Fuels, and as we know, burning wood creates higher carbon dioxide emissions than any other fuel.
Which seems to expose a contradiction in the back-to-nature schema. For the desire to protect the planet obviously conflicts with the wish to live ‘naturally’ by burning wood. And believe me, those seeking the ‘alternative’ lifestyle do love to burn wood.
Corris (Isaf) is home to many such people, thanks to the nearby Centre for Alternative Technology (of which, incidentally, Sara Tommerup is a ‘graduate’). One can drive the A487 past Corris on a still winter’s day and see a vast pall of smoke motionless above the village. It reminds me of the old films of London smog.
And I haven’t considered the issue of regenerating the stocks of wood.
SUMMARY
Let’s recap: through legislation and other measures the ‘Welsh’ Government has made life more difficult for Welsh farmers and others who were born and raised in the countryside, while making it much easier – with both funding and relaxation of planning rules – for outsiders to settle in our rural areas.
Now let’s put it all into its chronological sequence:
May 2007: Birmingham-born Jane Davidson appointed Minister for Environment and Sustainability in the Labour – Plaid Cymru coalition government.
May 2009: Publication of One Wales: One Planet.
July 2010: Publication of Technical Advice Note (TAN) 6 giving the green light for ‘sustainable’ dwellings in open countryside.
January 2012: INSPIRE launches at Trinity St David with former Minister Jane Davidson at the helm.
March 2013: Alun Davies’ response to snow-hit farmers asking for help,“You don’t create a strong business base by throwing public money at every problem you face”.
January 2014: Alun Davies announces transfer of EU Common Agricultural Policy funding from Pillar 1 to Pillar 2, in other words, from farmers to “rural development projects”.
January 2015: ‘Welsh’ Government announces cuts to funding for young farmers (i.e. Welsh young farmers).
March 17, 2015: Assembly passes Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. Basically, The Hippies’ Charter.
April 29, 2015: Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 becomes law.
Spring 2016: James Scrivens and Sara Tommerup arrive at Red Pig Farm, and almost immediately apply for planning permission to erect other dwellings, in open country, and in a National Park.
And all this takes place to the background drone of George Monbiot in his regular Guardian column and elsewhere calling on governments to remove farming subsidies, bankrupt Welsh farmers, and thereby remove sheep from the hills to allow ‘rewilding‘. His voice being one of a chorus. It may be no coincidence that Monbiot moved to the Machynlleth area in 2007.
CONCLUSION
I’m sure the envirofascists and their political allies would argue that Welsh people are free to get involved, and join them in building their carbon-free (well, apart from the wood stoves) Utopia in our green and pleasant land.
Trouble with that is that I don’t know any Welsh people who want to live in a turf house choking on fumes from a wood fire and shitting in the bushes before batting away the sheep turds while taking a bath in the stream.
The people I know want the best that modern life can offer, and wonder why they have to go without, especially when they see so much money being given a) to people who arrived here yesterday, and b) to activities from which they derive no benefit.
There are so many demands on the Welsh countryside today, from tourism, from the ‘outdoor activities’ industry, from the military (even more so if Scotland becomes independent), from white flighters, from good-lifers, and from so many other quarters. The problem, when viewed from the perspective of such people, is that far too much Welsh land is still in Welsh hands.
And while the Planning Inspectorate can demand tens of thousands of new homes surplus to local need, and housing associations can waste tens of millions of pounds building homes for tenants who have never been to Wales in their lives, and the local economy can be allowed to atrophy with the few jobs that remain increasingly filled by transfers from outside Wales and recruitment from within the local English population, something more is still needed.
♦ ♦ ♦
Which is why, when we consider the bigger picture, and remember the commitment of vast sums of public funding, we have to conclude that moving money around within the CAP, and One Planet, and TAN 6, and all the other ‘Green’ initiatives are just elements of a wider programme of engineered demographic change. A Clearance for the twenty-first century, done without the unsightly bloodshed and the blatant expropriation.
In my more generous moments I used to think that the Assembly and the ‘Welsh’ Government were merely incompetent for achieving so little for our people. But enough time has passed now to realise that this failure is quite deliberate. Worse, successive ‘Welsh’ Governments have actively discriminated against the native Welsh.
Nothing would change if Plaid Cymru had a majority in the Assembly, things might even be worse, because while many in Labour see the envirofascists as just a stick with which to beat those who refuse to vote for them, The Party of Wales has fallen completely under their spell.
The survival of the Welsh nation is under threat as never before. To save the nation we must reject all political parties, and the distraction of electoral politics. There is no hope of winning by that route, and not enough time.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ END ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I did some reading around the subject of One Planet and regarding some of the planning applications, that have been passed and are currently being considered. What comes across is a strong sense of entitlement and arrogance, of some of the people involved. In particular, this person describing his experience of the planning process for an OPD application in Camarthenshire.
http://www.lowimpact.org/one-planet-development-arrested-my-attempts-to-build-a-home-on-a-smallholding-in-wales/
Naturally, he came up against opposition from local residents and a Councillor, who were not happy about the proposed developments, so the application was rejected. Rather than try to understand the perspective of the local residents, the applicant, arrogantly stated on his blog that, “I think we will win at appeal, I don’t intend to take victory graciously or to be nice to the people” who apparently put him through “stress” and most outrageously of all he states “I wouldn’t piss on these people if they were on fire”. Charming, so this is what he thinks of some of the Welsh people he is foisting himself on, not surprising they don’t want him living near them!
Then, quite livid by his attitude, I read the comments section. Plenty of comments from members of the same ilk, applauding his determination etc and other hippie matters, but only one Welsh person, Alun picking him up on what he said and very patiently and competently, trying to describe the Welsh position with regards to culture, language and the migration of people. He was lampooned for his efforts as a “nazi, a bigot, racist and xenophobic”, sound familiar? That is what the Welsh are up against everytime they try to stop the destruction of their Culture.
It is understandable that local people will wonder, how these applicants, can afford to rent locally, with no jobs, buy a piece of land and support themselves through the whole planning, building, living, providing for children process. As Jac mentioned, how many of these people are already from wealthy middle class families, who possibly went to public school and have always done, just what they wanted to do, without thinking too much about other people, unless it’s about being hip about the environment or about refugees in another part of the World.
This would explain the sense of arrogance and entitlement that comes across, who actually is paying for their lifestyle, it’s enevitable they will annoy many of their new neighbours, who they are imposing themselves upon. There is a kind of propoganda that goes with this, now very well organized, middle class, movement, which has been legitimised and supported by the Welsh Government and various funding bodies. They make a point of saying that they are learning to speak Cymraeg and that they are integrating with their communities, but the attitude of many, such as the man from lowimpact.org, show that in reality it is only lip service and that in reality, they will socialise in their own communes and festivals etc and once they have got their planning, they will not have to show any genuine, respect for Welsh people and Culture.
Sorry, Carmarthenshire, Sir Gâr!
The problem here is that the decision of those democratically elected by the residents of the area will always be objected to by council planning officers and, if it goes to appeal, overruled by the English Planning Inspectorate, enforcing the insane legislation enacted by the ‘Welsh’ Government that favours these envirofascist invaders.
Which means that whatever a planning committee might decide will only ever be a delaying action, thanks to the ‘Welsh’ Government.
Best laugh I had, as a former Welsh Assembly employee, was around 2006/7 when Carwyn was Environment Minister, Wound up by Jane Davidson and certain eco-loony civil servants, Carwyn was pursuaded to make an announcement that “Wales would be Carbon Neutral by the year 2011” . Unfortunately, as he stood a the podium delivering this pronouncement, he lost his place in the (civil servant written) papers he had in front of him. Panicking, he blurted out that “Wales would be Zero Carbon by 2011.”. Even the eco-loonies were aghast, and after the meeting, tried to pursuade Carwyn to retract the (undeliverable) promise. “No” said Carwyn, “if I retract that wording, the media will have a field day”. However, after 5 years of inaction on climate change by WAG/Welsh Government, so it was that “Zero Carbon Wales” was quietly deposited in the dustbin of history.
Like many senior civil servant colleagues, I always regarded Carwyn as a hedgehog on top of a gatepost. You knew what it was, but you could never fathom how it got there.
Thank you for that ‘Anonymous’. It’s probably one of the most sensible and astute comments that I’ve read on here recently.
You are absolutely right. The ones to actually blame are often hidden, but their influence permeates right down to the roots, where the blame by the public is wrongly directed to. Well done for that contribution. The Alun Davieses and the Jane Davidsons are simply manipulated pawns in the bigger game – probably without them even realising they are inadvertently doing the bidding of others with a far more sinister agenda, that revolves around money and control. They though believe that they are following their own agenda or the agenda of organisations they support.
When blind men lead blind men they both fall in the pit. It must be an hilarious sight for the money and power possesing people who are doing the exploiting from a distance.
The plan for farming is to have intensive factory style farming and processing plants where the few gigantic companies control everything from the ‘factory’ to the supermarket shelf. It is all part of Agenda 21 by stealth. Here’s a map of the way it’s progressing across the UK. This shows the popping up of such milk producing ‘units’ across the British Isles (pointless focusing on Cymru – it doesn’t exist as a separate entity in these people’s book). The next stage is to evict the ‘squatters’ (i.e. the traditional farmers) off the land. That’s what’s being done by making life intolerable for them, or impossible for them to make a living. Inadvertently fuelled of course by stupid and blind politicians like Alun Davies railing against agricultural grants & subsidies, and blaming the farmers for their own predicament.
It’s very little of Wales which is suitable for dairy farming. So, you can’t blame dairy farmers for pushing up the price of land. Like houses, farm-land is the result of the availability of credit. The banks are willing to lend against land as they view it as a safe bet. It’s in a bubble ie the prices. In the same way that London etc property is. The banks know that when things go tits up, then the government will step in and bail them out. I was talking to a farmer near Abergavenny some time ago and he said that land around the area was being whipped up by mainly Londoners when something came on the market. I asked him what did they then do with it once puchased. His answer was…..”Rent it to people like me’. So, it’s not really correct to say that it’s farmers who are chasing the prices up. It’s what you get when credit is loose. But alas, we don’t have any controls of such things in Wales. The London government and their bankster friends have created this mess…..not Welsh farmers. I do agree though that these ‘mega-dairy’ farms are a shame but they arent very prevaletn in Wales.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-controversial-mega-dairies-that-alarm-campaigners-and-divide-a-struggling-sector-of-british-a6744511.html
Jacthedick seems to be making som very anti-farmer comments. What’s his problem? There are as many different styles of farming and positions of wealth/poverty amongst the farming community as there are farmers. You ignorant generalising self-hating t**t.
When you say “It’s very little of Wales which is suitable for dairy farming”, that’s not quite true. Sir Gar, Penfro and Ceredigion are excellent for dairy farming because of it’s climate, warmer and wetter facing South West. In fact it’s one of the few landscapes on the British mainland (like Devon) that is most suitable for organic dairy farming because of the elongation of the grass growing season. Further north the winter daylight hours are too short so the grass stops growing, further east, and the summers are too dry and the grass stops growing. South West Wales is ORGANIC cattle country for this very reason.
This is the reason why there are few mega-herds in Wales. This relies on all year indoor husbandry and concentrate feeding. What should happen is that CAP subsidies to dairy farmers of land unsuitable for dairy farming should be stopped, and the cash diverted to product enhancement such as organic creameries and cheese. Protecting Welsh livelihoods and adding value to the product. It’s rather ironic that most milk produced in Wales, from an area most suitable for dairy farming, is actually shipped across the border to England, where there be over-subsidised mega-dairies.
There is another problem. We see the influx of ‘good-lifer’ hobbyists getting grants as Jac has identified in this blog, taking valuable land out of productive use, and county councils like Carmarthenshire, who have just given planning approval for a huge housing estate to be built on the old creamery site at Hendy-Gwyn (Whitland). Udder madness.
Brychan what I meant was that the majority of Welsh land isn’t suitable for dairy farming arguing against blaming dairy farmers for being the sole reason for pushing up land prices. The old Dyfed doesn’t equate to Wales now does it? 😉 And even if you go to some areas of /Pembrokeshire/north Ceredigion and some areas of Sir Gar you won’t find conditions ideal for dairy farming. Having said that, I can remember a friend of mine who used to work for a Dairy in CN Emlyn and he said that the Dyfed area was viewed as a ‘Milk Field’ on an European level. Just arguing against blaming Dairy farmers for forcing up land prices. And certainly, I believe that this jewel of a good percentage of our land being ideal for dairy farming should be exploited fully.
I heard that news report about the Hendy-Gwyn planning approval. It said that a few years ago 600 people worked at the dairy there. It now was meant to be used for business use but there was no take-up? leading the council to give planning approval for a housing estate. I was just left wondering who would want to move there as the reason for it to be built was the lack of business opportunities/employment. More housing for the retired/economically inactive? Also, all those 600 dairy jobs had now been moved over the border where milk is now mainly processed. Is this the point of improving transport links?
Yes. Lots of the ‘Green’ parasites like to use “the cows are bad argument”. That’s because they’re posh vegetarians from England. They think that herd of free-range cows in a field eating grass all year is bad. They don’t know the difference between natural husbandry and the over subsidised grain farmers over the border who grow poor quality corn and this grain is then fed to freaky cows in mega dairies in England. It just shows how ignorant they are of farming and ecology. Perhaps they should spend a bit more on their loaf of bread if they don’t eat meat, and turn some of that land in England back into fens. South West Wales is natural bovine habitat.
bit late to the party here but well said!
OBSERVATION: No one commenting on this post has tried to defend Alun Davies AM, Jane Davidson, ‘Welsh’ Labour, or the insane funding schemes that operate in Wales. I find that very encouraging.
Instead, it’s been diversionary attacks on me for being beastly to cuddly hippies, or else being a ‘bigot’ for, again, dealing with the colonisation issue.
Yes, very encouraging.
“insane funding schemes that operate in Wales” it seems we can agree on something then Jac.
Why does Llandeilo need a food hub? Because it allows farmer to sell directly to the consumer without them themselves having to be at the market stall (and taking up their time).
It can help break them away from the supermarkets and multi-national corps that currently have a strangle hold on SMALL farms. While the large Factory style enterprises thrive.
Wales needs a review on the direction its heading, OPD gives people a chance to live a life more akin to that of the Wales my parents, grand-parents and great-grandparents would be used to. Every council house will have front gardens of turned soil. We have tourist attractions like folly farm, that could not be further from a working farm if it tried. Over 14 years of Welsh education and never visited a working farm (yet visited over 30 with the YFC). A friend recently went to our local primary school to teach the kids gardening, but when he suggested the kids would be planting the lettuce was shot down, “they can’t they’ll get to dirty and could catch something”
Why welsh produce isn’t protected in the say way French and Italian produce is down to the producers (farmers) themselves not applying enough pressure. Lamb should be labelled UK Spring 2016 Welsh Lamb, it might then help people question how is it spring lamb if its been on a ship for 6month travelling from NZ.
I look up to people like Gareth wyn Jones, and think finally a farmer that gets it and I do know many young farmer who think the same; however most are stuck in a rut their forefathers put them in (not necessarily knowingly or willingly) and are contracted like slaves to the System and the large multi-corps.
I’ll even apologies to the people I called bigoted, but hardline Welsh Nationalist also need to think bigger, supporting Wales isn’t just about protecting the Welsh language, it about protecting a way of life, something I feel Cardiff will never understand.
Wales future shouldn’t be about closing borders and keeping people out, it should be about educating people of who and what we are. Invite them in and Open their eyes.
Myfanwy my first spelling of your name was a genuine mistake however it seemed to rattle Jac so much I stuck with it. Sorry.
Why are you now calling yourself ‘Jacthelefty’? Don’t you know who you’re supposed to be?
Don’t waste your time Jac. His choice of handle should be enough for you to dump him. I’ve read his posts quietly without responding.
Whilst I’m not a psychologist, I think I know which pigeon hole he’s in. My concerted guess is he has a problem with peer pressure and is probably suffering from a bit of low self esteem and inadequacy. He evidently blames his Welsh roots for his problems and has blossomed into a Welsh ‘self-hater’.
My middle son, along with his elder brother moved with me back to Ceredigion about eighteen months after their mother died. The middle son was about ten at he time. Up to that point he had been brought up in the south Wales Valleys, in a hybrid Welsh, Anglicised environment. When he came to Ceredigion there was a bit of a cultural shock especially at school.
When he moved into Tregaron secondary school, he found himself in the middle of children who were either born and raised in Welsh speaking homes. Some Welsh speaking, but the offspring of a previous generation of immigrant families, with probably strong Britlander mentality in the home. And thirdly the most damaging children, who had been uprooted from homes in English inner cities, brought to Cymru, and had developed a huge chip on their shoulder and a nasty attitude towards all things Welsh, including the communities and people who lived in those communities that they had been transplanted into. Little wonder – many had friends and an established school social circle in England, although they were only eleven years of age. They spoke no Welsh, and the more they were taught the language the more they hated it and anything to do with it.
In school these children formed two groups. One was made up of the indigenous Welsh children who communicated in their mother tongue, and had cultural Welsh traits and habits. The other group were made up of the two other types I mentioned earlier. This second group viewed the ‘Welshies’ as thick (although far more of them went on to higher education), ‘uncool’ old fashioned. they were usually referred to as ‘Ham Bones’ or ‘Sheep Shaggers’ or ‘Woolly Backs’.
The Welsh group viewed the ‘Englanders’ as townie twats, softies, or just arrogant little farts to be minced on the rugby field. The Welsh group predominantly played rugby, often got involved in fights or it has to be said would often intimidate their English counterparts, who invariably played football (so were called ‘Nancies’ or ‘Softies’) the collective term for them by the Welsh kids was ‘Jac Sais’.
Interestingly my old headmaster, in conversation with me many years after he retired, told me that in the latter years of his career, he had an increasing problem with cultural groups. He even said that he could tell me from what group a wrongdoer in school was from – depending on the wrongdoing. If it was a problem with fighting, swearing or smoking, it was usually the Welsh group. If it was theft, drug related or immoral behaviour it was usually from among the English peer group. Imported problems he called them. he said he daren’t say this when he was still a headmaster for fear of the backlash.
Now my son, in the early years at Tregaron gravitated towards the English bunch, because to be truthful, although they did not mirror the community and culture he left in south Wales, he could relate more to them than the Welsh crowd. This had two effects. 1. He started viewing our indigenous language and culture in a less than healthy way, and 2. He started developing a kind of resentment towards the Welsh children in general. I noticed that in our conversations together he would be derogatory towards the Welsh culture and started injecting little words like ‘Ham Bone’ into his vocabulary when referring to his Welsh classmates. He had started to yield to peer pressure, in the group he had latched on to, and was fearful of getting labelled within that group as a ‘Weshie Ham Bone’.
However, thankfully he grew out of it (more especially when most of the members of the English group left school – usually around 16 years of age). Many by them were also heavily steeped in city culture of drug taking and stealing. Many of their parents were of that ilke as well, and viewed their offspring’s liberal upbringing as something normal. When my son went on to sixth form his bond with his Welsh classmates grew and he healed himself of the attitude problems he had inherited from the group he attached to when he started school in Tregaron. Today he’s a grown man and passionately patriotic. He has matured, grown up, and he is very defensive of his Welsh heritage and culture and uses Welsh as his language of choice in all matters.
Our little ‘friend’ who is obviously still suffering from what I guess is the aftermath of the group he also probably attached himself to in his formative years, still suffers an inferiority complex, seems a bit immature and probably still surrenders to peer pressure. He evidently blames his miserable existence on his Welsh background (assuming he is not the child of an English immigrant). He rants and raves and makes himself feel good by being a prick on here, and trying to annoy as many as possible.
By his below par grasp of the written English language and grammar I would also guess that he’s not particularly well educated. His style reflects the tenor of someone who spends a lot of time contributing to Micky Mouse social environments like Facebook.
He is evidently someone to be ignored or pitied. This blog certainly does not suit his levels of understanding of deeper subjects. Shame really.
That’s a fascinating insight, and it chimes with many of my observations. Though in fairness, kids who find themselves in an alien environment through no choosing of their own will almost inevitably be resentful, and kick out. The blame lies with whoever was responsible for putting them in that situation. Too often it’s ‘good life’ parents indulging some fantasy – often at our expense – but showing little concern for the effect their selfishness will have on their children
I couldn’t agree more Jac. It IS selfishness and it has far reaching nasty consequences for all concerned – including us – and THEIR poor children. You can’t blame the kids. But there again it’s the classic example of the types that get tempted to move here, for all the wrong reasons.
Reading that I can’t come to any other conclusion than you don’t know much about agriculture, rural land use and the food industry apart from a few headlines and you haven’t given the matter much thought after that.
Just to take one of your points
“Why does Llandeilo need a food hub? Because it allows farmer to sell directly to the consumer without them themselves having to be at the market stall (and taking up their time).”
The only type of food hub that makes any sense for farmers around Llandeilo is a food hub in somewhere like Swansea selling their beef lamb and dairy goods. It’s the urban areas which have the consumer numbers not rural retreats.
As for the consumers of Llandeilo a food hub selling spices imported from a wholesaler in Bristol, 50gram gourmet chocolate bars at 3.25 and organic carrots at 1.84 a Kg well it doesn’t sound like they’re targeting the average Llandeilo shopper.
Exactly. There are aspects of this back-to-nature movement that we haven’t yet examined.
First, it tends to be exclusive. They mix with each other and rarely with ‘outsiders’. In this regard, they’re rather like a religious cult. Wanting to live on co-operative farms away from infidels is a sure sign of this.
Second, few if any of the ventures they engage in are economically viable.
Third, many of those engaged in these away-from-it-all ventures are the non-academic offspring of middle class families. Family financial support explains how they can indulge themselves in their ludicrous communes.
You can’t defend the indefensible Jac!
I’m totally with you regarding the price of land Stan. It’s a massive issue and a failure of government, thought it’s not One Planet Development which is pushing up the prices. Let’s put it in context 11 successful OPD applications in 5 years. Not exactly a gold rush. Round our way the land price has up until recently been pushed up (nearly double) by large factory style dairies gobbling up all the pasture land. The small dairies are having a hard time and are going out of business by the week. Those who run these large dairies are indebted up to their eyeballs and it only takes another cattle health scare and where will they be? That’s one of the problems with large scale monoculture.
Regarding the hiring of lawyers and the like. That’s not for me either. The point of the One Planet Council which was started by ordinary people, not bureaucrats, is to represent ordinary people and help them understand their way through the planning minefield. This isn’t about living an alternative lifestyle. It’s about living simpler and becoming more resourceful and economically viable. Whatever you may think, it offers a genuine way for young people here in Wales out of a pretty rum deal. That goes for for anyone who isn’t on the housing ladder, isn’t loaded and wants to work on the land. It’s ideally suited to kids of farmers looking to diversify and get away from the subsidy culture which could well be on its last legs. Using the OPD model they can build a neat modern home, run off renewables and farm sheep or whatever as long as they can demonstrate a significantly reduced impact on the environment. This means looking at pretty much every aspect of what you consume, i.e., transport, waste, food, home efficiency and also the impact of any development on the local community. So anyone can do an OPD, though it’s hard work and not for the faint-hearted. You don’t have to live in a mud hut either.
Myfanwy, I don’t wish to live an alternative lifestyle. I wish to live simply and provide for my family in a healthy way, and in a place which is my home. I have as much right as you do to live and work on this land. I am not a colonialist and enjoy taking part in my local community life yn cymraeg ac saes.
Big G. I don’t know anyone who is a supporter of Agenda 21. My concerns for the environment come from a love of the land. Since I was a kid I’ve seen many of the birds I loved seeing and hearing nigh vanish. The lapwing, the partridge etc. Both you and I know why really.
btw… credit to you Royston for letting me air my views here.
I guess it will be interesting to see statistics as more OPDs are processed, hopefully to include those that have been unsuccessful as well as those permitted. These should include where the applicants have come from, in my opinion. We can all then make an objective assessment based on real data as to whether the scheme is benefiting local people or whether it’s weighted in the favour of those moving in from elsewhere.
I agree with Stan, that the statistics of the OPDs need to be assessed, to discern who in reality is applying. I am curious, as someone, like you, who also has a young family and on behalf of others like me, about who, actually meets the criteria, for planning approval? In this context and with regards to your own application, I was wondering if you could enlighten us about your own circumstances? Are you and your family already living in Wales, do you have other family members, who have already settled in Wales and living local to you? Do you or your family, own the land, you intend building on, or is it part of a community, like the Lammas Eco village? How much will it cost to build your own house and will you get funding, you mention that you are self employed, will you be running your business from home or in the local community and will you be sending your Children to the local, Welsh Medium school?
I noticed that a number of the planning applications are retrospective, is this the case with your own application? You mention that it is not an alternative lifestyle, but considering few people are able to live like this and support themselves, it is often considered as such, especially if only a few planning applications are passed. Ultimately, who fits the criteria, are applicants purely assessed on their belief systems and is it open to everyone, or just people with families? I am genuinely interested, but I do wonder how exclusive this is, if everybody decided to live like this, how sustainable would it be, especially as more people become aware of this possibility and I hope you don’t mind me asking all these questions?
Good post, Myfanwy. Yes, that’s just the sort of information that I think a lot of us who have been following this thread would find interesting. But another thing about these OPDs has got me thinking. As I understand planning permissions, they run with the land and are not usually personal. So say a plot of land has planning permission for a house on it – a beggar or a king may build there. People with first-hand experience of OPDs are saying it’s a veritable minefield of red tape, hoops to be jumped through etc. So – once you get that precious permission from the local authority, albeit there are countless planning conditions attached, just what is going to happen if or when you start to ignore those? From my experience of authorities enforcing breaches of planning consent, they are pretty bloody useless and it can take years just to sort out one case. In any case they usually have neither the time nor the resources to follow up complaints.
Someone seeking an OPD is going to have to agree to constraints over and above those in the usual planning permissions but who is going to monitor things like continuing engagement with the local community, matters ecological etc. Indeed are things like local engagement capable of being proper planning conditions anyway because I always understood they had to run with the land? I guess what I’m trying to say in a rather roundabout way is to get consent people will agree to all sorts of things. They won’t necessarily abide by them. And perhaps more importantly – when someone who lives on land subject to an OPD moves on – who ensures the new owner meets all those nice eco/social/cultural/agricultural practices of the former owner?
Exactly, as you mention you could be a beggar or a King, but you got me thinking, if you or your family are already on the wealthy end of the spectrum, not only could you be getting help with planning and funding to build, but once you have developed the site, you could then be in possession of a very expensive piece of real estate, perhaps along the Pembrokeshire coast line. To attain this, you might well jump through hoops, and use loop holes, to exploit the planning laws, perhaps getting people involved, who have experience in the Eco movement to give your project legitimacy, even though you are potentially already wealthy, you could sell this Eco property in a few years time, for a fortune, so helping the rich get richer.
Another aspect of this is, that the National Parks are already under increasing pressure. If, let say, a development is given the go ahead, along the Pembrokeshire coastline, with house, poly-tunnels etc, it would then give other applications legitimacy and there could be no end to the developments, which will destroy our National Parks. The planning developments in the Preseli Mountains are another worry, fine if they are local Welsh people, but many of the applicants won’t be Welsh and as one of the last Welsh speaking areas in Pembrokeshire, the issue is a very sensitive one. Who decides, which planning application is more worthy than others and where will this all lead to? It is certainly a huge threat to the National Parks and really the door should never have been opened.
Thank you, Myfanwy for crystallising the thoughts and fears I had about this. I expect most people would agree with looking at diversification in agricultural practices and would be sympathetic to opportunities for young families to get a foothold in “New Age” farming, if I could call it that. But first priority in allowing these opportunities should have been for local families in my opinion.
There is a very good reason why our most precious landscapes have been granted National Park status, and why development has historically been so strictly controlled in these areas. The name gives it away – they are of national significance. I feel sure that there are some pretty shrewd moneymen watching how these OPDs get going, and though the numbers approved may be small right now, you will definitely see that argument of precedent “well you allowed it in the Beacons so why not Pembrokeshire or Snowdonia?” coming to the fore. It’s difficult to get the genie back in the bottle once it’s been let out.
Coincidentally what did i see in this month’s Post, on the front page but Llandeilo food hub located out of town in the Railway containter! so apologies to that bloke, his finger was on the pulse. Why do we need a food hub in llandeilo there is already the weekly WI market? which runs sans grant.!
I guess the so called ‘environmentalists’ who have contributed here (+ others like Jane Davidson) are fervent supporters of AGENDA 21?
If you’ve never heard of it, check it out, it’s tentacles reach right down to the governments and local councils of tiny countries like Cymru – after all it’s mandate is, and I quote:
“Agenda 21 is a comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the United Nations System, Governments, and Major Groups in every area in which human impacts on the environment“.
Heard of Mauice Strong? He’s dead now (thankfully). He created the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) that in turn produced Agenda 21 and the false climate science of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The claim that human CO2 is causing climate change is the biggest deception in history, the brainchild of Maurice Strong, a front man for those who are guiding the agenda.
Maybe some of the ‘environmentalists’ who feel very strongly about the state of the world (as I do to the core), may need to take stock of why they are engaged in the way they are, and more seriously are they the duped foot soldiers of a far more sinister agenda, that actually has nothing to do with the core subject? This whole enviromnment protection and sustainable development, is a Trojan Horse to bring about a world government ruled by a handful of powerful people in the shadows. Are they inadvertently pushing this agenda in even the most remote parts of our country here in Cymru?
It is my belief that many who argue for the environment, and others who bring in the legislation (like Jane Daidson – possibly) may actually be very well meaning and genuine individuals with a true conscience, but who are grossly misled by the Maurice Strongs of this system.
Find out more HERE.
@Big Gee
You obviously have a number of subjects that you’re passionate about. The latest being
“The claim that human CO2 is causing climate change is the biggest deception in history, “.
You seem to have a suite of beliefs that I’ve found to be common in a group often referred to as “Little Englanders”. After being exposed to your beliefs I think it’s probable that you and I would disagree on maybe 90% of them, A mutual interest in Cymru and her future being the only common ground.
I wonder whether you’re aware that as long as you kept off the subject of Cymru you’d be perfectly in tune with practically any “Little Englander” you had a conversation with.
Uugghh??? I think you need to add more water to whatever you’re drinking, or stop smoking whatever you’re smoking my friend. Or possibly you need new specs, because your post bears no resemblance to a reply that has any contextual connection to anything I’ve written. Try reading it again – slowly this time.
I make no apologies for my passion, and yes there are many things I’m passionate about – unlike some, I don’t hide my head in the sand and let the world drift by. I happen to have a very strong sense of injustice. Deception and lies really rile me – especially when they are propagated by the establishment.
Perhaps you’d like to expand on how my refuting the deception that man’s CO2 emissions is the prime cause of climate change has anything to do with being, in your words, a “Little Englander”. Whilst you’re at it list the “suite of beliefs” that you seem to think I have which puts me “perfectly in tune with practically any ‘Little Englander’ “. So you believe that the ONLY people who oppose the nonsense about CO2 emissions and world climate change scaremongering are “Little Englanders”? I think you need to expand your vision if that’s the way you think.
Jac has commented on the strangeness of contributors and contributions to this particular blog topic, but you’re contribution is bizarre!
You are not a climatologist nor do you have any significant knowledge of or experience in the subject but the high opinion you have regarding your ability to challenge the settled view of many thousands of qualified and experienced professionals is pretty much identical to the combination of ignorance and arrogance that goes along with “Little Englanders”. I can’t think of one I’ve met who didn’t think that man made climate change was a lie.
Regardless of what they have read (always read, never done) the vast majority of these deniers made up their mind about climate change before ever reading anything questioning climate change anyway. Of course they’ve nearly all shifted their stance and now they accept climate change is happening but hey it’s not manmade.
It is truly bizarre that you think there is an Illuminati Environmentalist Hippy axis of evil but then haven’t you alluded to a similarly bizarre Nazis and Zionists alliance in the past.
Personally if I thought the illuminati existed I would expect them to get into bed with the oil companies rather than a bunch of hemp weavers, but then you know you’ve read the texts.
Bloody hell man – has your brain turned to mush?
1. Where have I EVER associated the Illuminati with hippies? You are unbelievable.
2. Regarding Zionists. If you did ANY research on the subject you’d realise the connections between Zionism, the oil industry and the men in the shadows. Nothing to do with hippies – different subject, how the hell you managed to mix them all up I can’t begin to fathom out.
There is a historic connection between Zionist and the funding of Nazis before the Second World War – check it out before showering shit in all directions at me, because you are found wanting in the knowledge department. It is the very thing that Ken Livingston got hammered for – telling the truth about Zionists supporting the Nazis in the thirties, and in his defence he quite rightly pointed out that it was historical fact that’s well documented. However, because of cloth ears and hysterical, mindless reactions (similar to yours on here) Livingston decided it wasn’t worth the bother trying to educate pork on the subject and stepped out of the shit.
3. Regarding climate change, of course there’s climate change, there always has been, and always will be, evidenced by The Medieval Warm Period (MWP), Medieval Climate Optimum, or Medieval Climatic. It was an anomaly at a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that may also have been related to other climate events around the world during that time, including China and other areas, lasting from about 950 to 1250. THEN we had The Little Ice Age (LIA) it was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period (Medieval Climate Optimum). While it was not a true ice age, the term was introduced into the scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939. It has been conventionally defined as a period extending from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, or alternatively, from about 1300 to about 1850. In Charles Dickens’ writing heyday they still had ice fairs on the frozen Thames. FUCK ALL to do with ‘man made factors’. However this scaremongering we are now experiencing (where the whole blame for global warming is based on man created CO2 emmissions) is designed for a specific purpose – see Agenda 21 – it’s a fear based load of crap, to usher in the events leading up to the full implementation of that Agenda 21. The same applies to scaremongering about security due to terrorism, it’s all fabricated for a reason, using fear as the lever.
There is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific nonsense on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Check it out HERE.
Contrary to your misguided statement that “the high opinion you have regarding your ability to challenge the settled view of many thousands of qualified and experienced professionals is pretty much identical to the combination of ignorance and arrogance that goes along with “Little Englanders”. I can’t think of one I’ve met who didn’t think that man made climate change was a lie” the general consensus of opinion is actually beginning to weigh on the side of the ones who are taking a non establishment view of global warming.
Finally you come up with this cockamamie statement about “Little Englanders” – where the hell did that come into the equation in your jumbled up brain? And what the hell has it got to do with what I am talking about?
I believe you are seriously deranged or you were drunk when you wrote that load of bollocks. Now I don’t mind you drivelling crap – for whatever reason – but don’t you even bloody dare call me a “Little Englander” again.
I didn’t call you a “Little Englander”. I said that if you avoided the subject of Cymru (and independence obviously) you’d get on like a house on fire with them eg subjects like Environmentalism – bad, EU -bad, Jewish bankers conspiring, NWO conspiring, man made climate change – denial.
There’s a sort of celebration of an anti-intellectual attitude amongst them and a certainty that their opinion is right in the face of facts to the contrary.
Wales was never a country
Manmade climate change is bogus
You’d strongly disagree with the first but after reading your views on other subjects I suspect that’s likely to be due to an accident of birth.
No accident of birth I can assure you. I can trace my ancestry back ten generations by oral tradition on my grandmother’s side. My father was born in the same semi crofter homestead that all those generations were born in on the barren Mynydd Bach upland moors of Ceredigion, where the poorest of the poor lived in Tai Unos. We were rich as a family in the knowledge of our roots, our culture, language and history and the realisation of why we were so poor. It was that last bit that was an accident of birth.
I was lucky enough to be born into a period of free health care and education, and through that ‘accident’ received an university education. The way I vary from those generations before me was that I got through a gateway which opened onto a wider view and analysis of the world around us. A free thinker (like many of that same period) who no longer accepted the authority, propaganda and control of the system we lived in. Especially the control of our thoughts.
You see your problem is you are compartmentalised. You accept what appears on the surface, fed to you through our education system, what’s told to you by the establishment and the media, (which is the official mouthpiece for the former) and the blind acceptance of those who wish to control you. You are the finished product of a brainwashed and programmed automaton. You have even been programmed to accept blindly anything that’s fed to you through those channels – simply put you’ve given up thinking for yourself. When you are confronted with an alternative view of things, even when presented with the evidence, you dismiss it out of hand as a ‘conspiracy theory’, ridicule it (that’s a favourite weapon of the establishment) or try to project those who question and reveal these things as some sort of simpletons or uneducated troublemakers. Or,you even try to label them as “Little Englanders” (although I still fail to see how your contaminated view of matters far beyond England have any bearing on that jibe).
You mistake manufactured truth from reality, simply because things are fed to you in the guise of ‘official’ statements from those you suppose are beyond reproach. Again you’ve tried to turn the debate on it’s head, by suggesting that your programmed view of the world is the proof provided by ‘intellectuals’ who are always right – instead of analysing and questioning the things you are fed. By extension you therefore imply that those who question the ‘official’ information are non intellectuals and unlearned, when in fact the opposite is the case. It is those that accept the status quo who are closed minded, whilst the minority who do question and investigate are the open minded.
It is also significant to note that you link such views as exclusively belonging to England’s oddballs, rather than accept the fact that there is an awakening to the reality taking place across the globe. It is on a lower, personal level – as a victimised nation – that we have a problem with our colonial neighbours on the other side of Clawdd Offa. However there is a wider world out there, that does not revolve around ‘EnglanandWales’. Two issues, two separate debates. Don’t mix the two, although some of the issues between these nations is sometimes influenced by the agenda of the New World Order.
If you stubbornly refuse to take on board the arguments and evidence I have provided, then just stick to the matters that we are agreed upon, and we’ll get on fine. As far as I can see you are a lost cause when you try and join in any other wider debates. How can you come to a conclusion on these matters if you’re only prepared to listed to the (false) information that’s only provided for you by the one side that you have been programmed to accept? Bloody madness in my book – you insist on living in that perception of reality that has been manufactured for you so that you can continue to be shafted by those in the shadows. I would expect that from one of my own unenlightened ancestors (through no fault of their own) who would have known no better and had no access to the necessary knowledge to shake off those chains of ignorance and closed mindedness.
“accident of birth” is an idiom and nothing to do with family lineages. I’ll leave it to you to look up it’s definition.
Just because many “Little Englanders” (you mention them as oddballs) deny manmade climate change doesn’t mean that everyone that denies manmade climate change is a “Little Englander or that only LEs deny it.
I never called these people “simpletons” or “uneducated troublemakers” you’ve brought those descriptions to the discussion. We are both happy to use the term “Little Englander” and many of them have views outside of Unionism/British nationalism that chime with yours. If you don’t like that it’s not my fault. I’ve pointed out what I’ve observed and experienced that’s all. You can have a look on a websites – Grumpy old men – and similar and see for yourself.
Yes, yes, whatever. End of topic I think ‘di-enw’. I’ve said all I need to on this subject to you. It’s pointless ping-ponging any more between us, and your contribution seems to have spiralled down to nit-picking semantics and repeats anyway.
Save it for another day, possibly on another subject that we may both agree on.
Royston, you really are having fun tearing into the people at Red Pig Farm. Does it feel that good to speculate and pour scorn on those not here to defend themselves?
With respect to your work in exposing corruption and other misdeeds against the common people. I can understand you and others here railing against career politicians, banksters, multi home owners, large land owners, dodgy councils and quangos. I don’t get all the vitriol against those without such power and privilege seeking to find a way to live outside the drip feed, dependency culture system. Just because you don’t like someone else taste and preferences doesn’t mean that they are threat to you and your way of life.
I know people from different walks of life, mainstream and alternative looking at this route simply because it actually exists. Why doesn’t matter. Who put it in place doesn’t really matter either in the scheme of things. It’s one possibility amongst others in a rigged system. Yes it’s a lifestyle choice. What’s wrong with this if it harms no-one? What if these were good people who don’t wish to isolate themselves from the local culture and community? Is it going to mean that Wales is overrun with green hippies? Just look at the figures. 11 approvals out of many more applications refused in 5 years. That’s two a year. So much for the talk about an invasion.
Myfannwy was way out in suggesting it’s for those with rich backgrounds. On the contrary, if you have the money you’ll just buy a house or a ready to go smallholding rather than putting yourself through this arduous planning process. Most folk I have met who are doing this don’t have much money. A big motivation is that they have kids. Purchasing a small parcel of agricultural land and living and working on it with strict conditions attached isn’t exactly everyone’s cup of tea I know. but it works for some.
As for a way round the planning system. Are you kidding? Have you read the terms and conditions? Are you aware that you risk losing your right to live on your own property after 5 years if you don’t meet the targets? It’s true that some people come to this naively, but they don’t succeed. To run a successful smallholding takes a lot of skill and hard work.
The planning system has been made a lot easier in Wales through the new legislation. Scrivens and Tommerup say so on their blog, it’s why they moved to Wales, so why are you trying to argue different? As someone else here pointed out, they’ve already had a number of planning permissions from the BBNP, one of them retrospective. I’ve checked, it’s true.
Before you make anymore FALSE claims I suggest you maybe contact them directly; if you actually have any interest in the truth and facts.
The ‘red pig farm’ of Application Validated Mon 30 Jun 2008
is not the same as Agroecology at the ‘red pig farm’ of mid/late 2015.
Mycogeneration is not the same as Mycotonix
James is not Richard
Jesus Jac, don’t you have access to ‘Google’ up there beyond Aberystwyth.
Investigative Journalist you claim…with the research you’ve put into this article and subsequent comments; I’m surprised you haven’t been approach by the Sun newspaper for the post of editor.
I wonder how many generation must we go back before your family we mere outsiders, coming in taking locals land, houses and jobs… not may I imagine with a good Old English Name like Royston.
You’re right about the planning applications, but entirely wrong about my family background. I am 100% Welsh. My name is Jones, mother’s name was Rees, maternal grandmothers were Phillips and Williams. But you’re the one making an issue of it not me.
I have to say, Bard, that I thought Myfanwy had it spot on in that earlier post. You say yourself that the planning side of it is still a minefield. No doubt it’s small potatoes for the sons and daughters of the well to do to hire professional advice to negotiate the minefield – something a young man or woman, maybe the offspring of an agricultural worker in Wales, may find it impossible to do because of the cost. And you still always have to have solicitors or conveyancers to do all the legal side of things for you – not cheap at all if there’s anything complicated on the land.
I also disagree with your contention that the better off would simply buy a smallholding or a house. Even Red Pig Farm is 70 acres, albeit woodland. Have you seen the price of a 70 acre holding in an attractive area of Wales? It would surely stretch the resources of even the very wealthy. It stands to reason that IF this takes off and the process becomes easier, then good sites will be competed for. Competition means prices go up. Increased prices mean the less well off (probably the indigenous Welsh) are less able to compete. Ergo – the scheme ends up being mainly used by those best able to afford it – and that ain’t gonna be young people from poor areas of Wales.
You have completely missed the point, this is not about you or those like you, who wish to live an alternative lifestyle, it’s about the continuous migration of people like you, who are completely oblivious to the impact they are having on Welsh communities and it’s Myfanwy, says it all really! I don’t blame you or people like you, exploiting an opportunity, I blame the Welsh Government, for allowing this to happen, when they should be looking after their own!
Happy donkeys on a hill, red pigs on a farm, straw bales for an office, What next. I hope there is also a proper Welsh translation “Fferm Mochyn Coch”.
From the 1907 OS map the location now named RPF is shown as Pant-y- gelynnen. However there are a few other properties shown in the wood which may be within RPF’s domain. Names that I can make out for two are Pant-y-dderwen and Pentre-fach.
https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/
The OS map seems to show Tan-y-lan for the Red Pig post code up to 1976. Yet when I go to the Land Registry website and search for ‘Red Pig Farm SA19 9DR’ I come up with this.
The 1907 OS map shows a clutch of properties not all named with adjacent small enclosures (gardens?) Pentre Bach /Pentre-fach might have been the name for the group. If there are any remains they are located in the deciduous wood immediately to the west of th conifer plantation. Google maps satellite view shows a number of tracks in these woods.
I here there’s another site on the go. It’s down of the banks of the Cleddau. It’s been donated to an English woman who did a cash raid at Abergwaun (a tea-room charirty scam). The land is wooded and donated by the Port Authority for public relations greenwash with a bonus of trousering carbon offset grants.
There has already been a breach of planning at Red Pig Farm (formally Talylan), and an application for retrospective permission was made….
http://planningbreconnpa.org/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=relatedCases&keyVal=K19W8TSY00V00
This outfit has planning for a ‘straw bale office’ but they are now advertising commercially to run training courses on site, including construction of domestic fuel heaters using salvage scrap. To give an example of the previous enterprise in the Forest of Dean. Here’s a photo…
A nice enhancement to the Brecon Beacons National Park?
When you let people take advantage of you they take advantage of you.
I cannot believe that photograph. Is this what One Planet brings to the National Parks?
Tommerup and Screvens were directors of Yorkley Court Community Farm Ltd, of Lydney, Gloucestershire. They ‘eco-farmed’ with a mob of volunteers a parcel of land around the farm, and also had established a ‘food hub’ of produce that they sold. It turns out, however, they were not the legal owners of the land, the title of which had been in dispute. The true owners of the land came forward and successfully gained eviction of the eco-squatters, who had a few run-ins with the bailiffs . Hence the erection of the tin shack fortresses, like the one in the above picture.
The land at Red Pig Farm (Talylan), near Bethlehem in Carmarthenshire was formally a Forestry Commission Wales plantation, and is now being mushroom and wood farmed by Tommerup and Screvens who again, have established an eco-community, and associated ‘food hub’. Due diligence might be required to find out if they actually have legal title over the land in question, given their recent history. This ‘eco-project’ may not be what it appears, it is quite evident that the eviction process of these two squatters, Tommerup and Screvens, in Gloucestershire was tortuous and appears to have been violent with a mob occupation.
I first came across the name Red Pig Farm when I was writing this piece about EU funding in December 2014.
It was then home to an outfit called Fruiting Bodies that sold mushroom extract. Their website suggests they may have moved to Llandysul. But this ties up with what Scrivens and Tommerup say about re-starting a mycology business. The Red Pig Farm website seems to have lapsed and been taken over by someone flogging men’s attire. (Could have been a lot worse!)
From what I recall, Black Mountain Woodfuels were already on site at Red Pig Farm. Which would make sense if this was formerly Forestry Commission and then Natural Resources Wales land.
As to ownership, the land may still be owned by NRW, with some agreement in place that sees BMW just buy the timber with a clause to clear within a certain period. Which doesn’t tell us much about the position of Scrivens and Tommerup. I feel a Land Registry enquiry coming on . . . after the football.
In fairness I think that’s their first attempt at a cob house following the design of the well known alternative lifestyle guru, Ianto Evans. It hasn’t been painted yet and will clearly blend in a lot better once it gets a good coat of recycled gloss paint – in green preferably.
Ianto has lived in the wilds of North America for many a year now but as you’d expect with a name like his, he came from Wales. Legend has it he was so pissed off with the faux New Age Hippies and survivalists arriving in his beloved Wales in their thousands in their VW campervans and drinking cheap sparkling wine that he had a nervous breakdown. He built himself a raft made entirely of hair from the tails of Welsh Black cattle, all held together by his own spit. He set sail under cover of darkness from Abergwaun one stormy December night and next turned up in the USA years later, suffering from amnesia.
He went on to invent the rocket stove, beloved of Ms Tommerup of Red Pig Farm. The beauty of these are that a six year old can build them from an old Parkray and a roll of aluminium foil wrapped around the inner cardboard cores of toilet rolls. All you then need is some wood, petrol, matches and the nine lives of a cat, and if the wind is in the right direction you might live to see the sunrise in the morning.
It’s a grand life living in the land of the Welshies if you can put up with the rain and the funny language and it’s been made even easier now they’ve relaxed those draconian old Planning laws about developments in their countryside. Not just relaxed them but positively encourage us now. It should be a rite of passage for everyone born east of Offa’s Dyke to give it a go. Go on, you know you want to.
I am seriously considering submitting a planning application for a new dwelling in the Brecon Beacons National Park under the One Planet Initiative. The design, which takes the form of a five bedroom Spanish hacienda, will not necessarily fit in with the countryside views but the adjoining 25 acres of energy saving photovoltaic panels will surely qualify me for consent. I intend to farm Psilocybin mushrooms which, when sold at the local farmers’ markets and consumed, will produce feelings of spiritual well being and euphoria……….a necessity it today’s modern, green loony world. Oh, and the mushrooms have a tendancy (I am told) to transform Red Pigs into Pink Flying Pigs……very apt.
Go for it!
“Trouble with that is that I don’t know any Welsh people who want to live in a turf house choking on fumes from a wood fire and shitting in the bushes before batting away the sheep turds while taking a bath in the stream.”
because most are happy living of the subsidies that get thrown at them based on how much land they have, not whether they actually are any good at their job, Welsh Farming is the rural equivalent of the City Bankers.
Jac North defender of Wales and its Language… You criticises a AM that was voted for by the People of Wales… and your Blog is written in English
you are an idiot.
As soon as I wrote it I knew that paragraph would rankle. As for my criticism of Jane Davidson, I repeat what I wrote in another comment.
Jane Davidson used the Labour Party, and its ignorance of ‘The Countryside’, to promote the agendas of people who did not live in her constituency, and for the most part didn’t even live in Wales when she was Minister for the Environment (2007 – 2011). She had the power of the Assembly, the civil service, the media, academe, lobbying groups such as the Ramblers and the whole environmental lobby on her side.
And this betrays your attitude to Welsh farmers: “Welsh Farming is the rural equivalent of the City Bankers.”
I see you very politically skipped your own Welsh Language policy there Mr Jones. OPD is a threat to farmers I admit, as it shows farming sustainably is not an exclusive club for farmers and their cousins but normal folk can do it also. I see you also failed to mention the OPD at Hebron, by a Welsh couple from up your way Jac. Damn those young Welsh folk and there dreams, re-open the pits that will remind the Welsh people of their place in a modern world.
No one denies that Welsh people are involved, but they are a small minority. We both know that, and because that is the case it in no way invalidates my more general observations.
“damn those young Welsh folk and their dreams” you say, but these are not predominantly Welsh people from local communities, with Welsh backgrounds are they, who are applying for these planning opportunities? If this was an opportunity offered to just, local Welsh people first, whose families go back generations, then it may be a positive first step to supporting local communities, who are now effectively being replaced. Alternatively, all the Welsh Government would have to do, is restrict the sale of housing to Welsh residents only first, instead of multiple English holiday home owners and you would see the cost of housing falling and once again young Welsh people and their dreams, would be able to afford a house, to start their families, living and working in their local communities and supporting their local schools and hospitals. It’s not rocket science and these new developments impacting on the National Parks, would not be necessary, but the Government wants to keep house prices high and so the sorry story continues, Welsh families move out, English people will move in, until the system changes, that’s if it’s not too late!!
Sorry how many OPD applicants do you know? do you have a clue about the requirements of a OPD application… Most have orders for their good and even established B2B links before they’ve even had planning… because LOCAL integration is part of you even achieving planning permission.
You Myfanny are just like any other Bigoted Welsh Nationalist: One minute your screaming about people coming in and stealing Local Jobs; but with your next breath your complaining about people coming in and creating their own income without taking anyone’s job.
Don’t you get it Local WELSH Communities aren’t dying because of lack of jobs and youngsters having to move away, it’s because the young Welsh people want to move away to get away from people like you and the image of Wales you represent… I should know I’m one.
“I should know I’m one”, allowing for the missing comma I assume you’re trying to say that you’re a Welsh person who has moved away and, what’s more, you moved because of bigoted Welsh nationalists like Myfanwy. This is wrong in fact, and it’s offensive. What’s more, I think you’re lying, so I’m going to call your bluff. Prove to us that you aren’t a liar by giving us your name and your background, tell us which bigot-infested community you escaped.
Otherwise – piss off!
I’m a young Welsh Person (early 30s) who is keen to distance himself from a representation of Wales, that we are a closed country that only look after our own. we discourage people from outside our areas and would rather our communities dye that have (to quote you Jac) every Tom, Dick or Harry moving here and keeping them afloat. You may find it offensive Jac, but that’s because you seem so out of touch with the youth of this Country that it probably irritates you, to have one suggest you are not as clever as you think your are.
I never said i wanted to get way from Wales, I love the Country and thankfully most the blinded-hardcore Welsh Nationalist are old and are dying out… so here’s to the future of MY country.
This is you saying you saying in an earlier comment that you want to move ‘away’: “Don’t you get it Local WELSH Communities aren’t dying because of lack of jobs and youngsters having to move away, it’s because the young Welsh people want to move away to get away from people like you and the image of Wales you represent… I should know I’m one.” Now you’re telling us, “I never said i wanted to get way from Wales”.
You are contradicting yourself. You are also talking absolute bollocks about farmers and the reasons for young people leaving Welsh communities.
I will not publish another comment from you until you provide evidence that you are a young Welsh person who has left or wants to leave a Welsh community. So don’t waste any effort writing something else, because it won’t be published.
My comments about the young moving away refers to my friends, as youngsters we were a small group of 7 of which all but two have moved across the border, if that’s not bad enough when asked their nationality they will go for British over Welsh, due to the stigma attached with the Welsh being backward and bigoted. Which from your posts people are able to find evidence to support such views. If you want evidence to prove I am what i say I am, next time your out supporting you local football team (the reserves) ask the defender Gaz Griff who I went to Uni in Aber with who am I. My nickname was Dangerous and I was the only other Welsh speaker residing in Tan-y-castell.
But the last thing you want is for me to be what I said or you’d have to post my post Questioning your heritage, Mr ‘town of the Rose’
“when asked their nationality they will go for British over Welsh, due to the stigma attached with the Welsh being backward and bigoted.” So you’re either a self-hating Welshman or a complete liar. Either way, I don’t think I want you commenting here.
What are you talking about with my ‘heritage’, what post, and what does “town of the Rose” mean?
Don’t let me stop you then. When you do move away, sign up for a class in how to write “proper” English. They’re subsidising Syrian refugees how to communicate in English, to the tune of £10 million – maybe you can sit in with them. And “JactheDick”. Surely you could have come up with a pseudonym cleverer than that? Shouldn’t you be back in school by now?
I’m such a generous old fool that I haven’t even mentioned the silly and offensive handle he’s chosen. But then, he seems very immature, I suspect he’s too young to leave home . . . no matter how much his parents, siblings, neighbours, teachers, etc., urge him.
Sorry stan, are you criticising a Welshman English…? how very British of you…
If you are what you claim to be then you would have spelt Myfanwy correctly.
No Jac that was also a jibe… keep up old man
The only time my name has been spelt wrongly, continuously corrupted (thankfully, I’m not your fanny, yawn!), mispronounced, or in the greater part, never heard of before, is when I lived in England, so it really is hard to believe you are Welsh, if you are, I would be very curious to know which school you went to?
Maybe you should leave and move to England or travel abroad, like many Welsh people before you, including myself, have had to do and then maybe, you would get a fresh perspective, while thinking about where you are from. After working, perhaps in the rat race in London or the South East of England, you might reflect upon how your home back in Wales, has basically become, just like any other County of England, like Berkshire or Sussex, where only wealthy, middle class, English people,can afford to live, but if you are Welsh, you would be well aware of all these issues and would not be misdirecting your anger!
I also love the fact both you (Jac) and Stan question my maturity over a slightly immature choice of handle; with statements like:
“I suspect he’s too young to leave home”
and
“Shouldn’t you be back in school by now?”
irony must be a lost cause on both of you… kettle and pot anyone
Since neither of us know you we have to make an assessment of your faculties on what you post here. You’re not the sharpest tool in the box, are you? I’d suggest that you have your cereal and get your Mam to tuck you in and read you a story. When you wake up in the morning don’t forget to brush your teeth before going to school.
“because most are happy living of the subsidies that get thrown at them based on how much land they have, not whether they actually are any good at their job, Welsh Farming is the rural equivalent of the City Bankers.” This obsession with farming subsidies can only mean one thing – you’re Alun Davies AM!
I’m sorry Jac do you disagree… you look to exploit corruption on your blog but aren’t willing to look at your own people… The biggest benefactor of the Single Farm Payment is Nestle??? How can that be justified. Why should my tax money go to keep farmers afloat who are piss poor at running their own family business, perhaps mammy and daddy should have paid more attention at teaching basic math than buying the next generation £40k tractors.
Farming has changed because of subsidies its gone from being a neighbourly community lead enterprise into a max production business, farmers are moving onto more productive breeds with out the facilities or knowledge of how to manage such breeds; take beltext sheep bread for their fast weight gain, however at the same time have such muscle build that its common place for them to crush their own windpipes. No young farmer invites his friends around to help with the hay anymore… the pay them to come round with their flat eight instead. Dairy farmers turned away from the co-op who were paying slightly-less than the big milk companies were; to line their own pockets; but now look at them they have no power or say… instead they decided to sign any strength they had as a group away to the (at the time) highest bidder, but now every few month or so they’ll be back at the supermarkets protesting.
New Zealand Lamb, “they should be selling Welsh Lamb”; but nobody asks the question how is it that lamb that has traveller near on half the globe cost less than lamb raise a few miles down the road. the transport cost alone should put Welsh lamb in everyone fridge and freezer.; but it doesn’t because farmer want so much otherwise how will they ever afford next years plated 4×4.
Farming is a business and should be treated as so… anyone moaning that young people are being pushed out of farming and blinded to the truth, it not that their being pushed out its just that there not being allowed IN. Look at how many farmer are still farming passed retirement age… its them that need to move over.
You’ve really got it in for farmers, haven’t you? Is there a name for this condition – agriphobia? Have you considered therapy? I’m more than ever convinced that you’re Alun Davies AM.
And after your unnecessary tirade against Myfanwy we’re still waiting to hear which bigot-ridden community in Wales you escaped.
Jac you have me wrong, it the system that is wrong/broken not the farmers; most are forced to play a hand and push their business into areas and directions they themselves many not want to go in… Farmers were once the back-bone of our country, but now they are nothing but slaves to the supermarkets and a poor political system. I actually believe what i said about the older generation needing to move over, but i also think their should be land 100% allocated to future generations of farmers, I don’t it should be allowed that a farm is purchased purely for the land and quotas.. small local farms need to be protected, and capped. so the likes of Nestle aren’t milking a system intend to support a way of life.
Hasn’t your Mam packed you off to bed yet? Look, Sonny, I had the same problem with a local Councillor who just couldn’t string a sentence together without grammatical and spelling errors. Now no way am I going to offer you my dictionary and thesaurus because I’m down to my last ones after gifting him with my spare copies. FFS stop making a tit of yourself and turn in for the night. Anyone would think you’ve been at your Mam and Dad’s drink cabinet the way you are behaving. If you carry on like this I’m going to have a word with your headmaster and you won’t like that, will you?
Purely and simply this is a way around the planning laws, how many of these applications will be in the Pembrokeshire National Park etc? The aspiration to live an eco lifestyle and develop a piece of land in this way, is all very well, but it would not be sustainable if everybody developed the land like this, would it, so it ends up being an exclusive club. That is why in general, it is an aspiration of mainly, middle class, English people, who are bored of living in Brighton or where ever. Of course they will jump through hoops, if it means getting the planning, how many of these people, who are adept at applying for and getting grants, don’t actually need them, as they are already from wealthy families? In the end, jumping through hoops, reads as lip service and this money could be far better spent on initiatives to help Welsh people to stay in their local communities, through investment in local businesses etc to stop Welsh people migrating, instead the Welsh Government is actively encouraging a further wave of migration from England.
How many of the first waves of English people moving to Wales, mainly from the 1960s on, sent their children to Welsh Medium schools? Many if they were wealthy, may have sent their children to Public schools in England, where they will have learnt nothing about Welsh Culture and there will be a total disconnect, even if those people think that they are from Wales. It is a worrying development if Private schools start appearing to accommodate for this trend, many of them will probably send their Children to the Steiner school, which is not a Welsh Medium School. The arrogance of saying that they would be happy if more Welsh people got involved knows no bounds, perhaps they should do some classes in self awareness and shove their Yurt where the sun don’t shine!
Yes, it is a clearance of the 21st Century, well put as ever and yes We desperately need to unite and reject the Political Parties who are not working for Wales!
And by the way, I would love to see you in a live debate with Jane Davidson. Would you be up for that?
Further proof that Davidson represented you types rather than her constituents. Fight! Fight! You’re beginning to come across as a bit weird.
Can’t you fight your own battles Mr. Thorpe? Whether Jac or Jane Davidson is the best debater hardly addresses the points made. That’s like saying “my brother is bigger than you, he can give you a bloody nose, so that proves I’m right”.
I have to agree with Jac – you do seem to come over as being rather strange to me as well.
Of course you can always invite your beloved Jane Davidson to come here and give her own views. I’m sure many of us would be more than willing to oblige by joining in.
I only mention that because it is her you are attacking. It is easy to attack people on a blog, I would rather debate with you myself face-to-face. And, isn’t everybody strange when seen through the prism of the Internet? at least I do not hide my identity.
Now listen, pal, you are wearing out my patience with your distorted view of the world. No wonder you describe yourself as a writer of children’s stories, the truth is you’re a fantasist.
Jane Davidson used the Labour Party, and its ignorance of ‘The Countryside’, to promote the agendas of people who did not live in her constituency, and for the most part didn’t even live in Wales when she was Minister for the Environment (2007 – 2011). She had the power of the Assembly, the civil service, the media, academe, lobbying groups such as the Ramblers and the whole environmental lobby on her side. All I have is this blog.
Yet in your twisted interpretation it is I who have the unfair advantage! You twat!
As for us meeting face-to-face, pray it doesn’t happen.
There is no secret about my identity, except for people like you who’ve been in this country only a very short time. I am Royston Jones, originally of Swansea, now living in the Tywyn area. I am a veteran of the 1960s struggle against the exploitation of my homeland and the insults to my heritage. The fight never ends.
I’ve lived in Wales for 25 years. Used to hang out with Glyn [Lone Wolf?] and Glynis in Corris. Loved Glyn, a great guy. Shows how easy it is to get the wrong impression online.
Yes, I knew Glyn from way back. He was a great guy. And if you knew him as well as you claim, you wouldn’t have a question mark after Lone Wolf. (He was given that sobriquet by Cayo Evans, by the way.)
But none of this changes your insulting suggestion that I have the advantage over Jane Davidson, or that I’m bullying her, just because I have a blog. As I’ve made clear, she has the whole panoply of a colonialist system on her side. A system from which you have benefited, because I suppose that when you were in the Corris area you were connected with CAT.
Tell us how many millions CAT was pulling down in grants and subsidies when you were there? How many Welsh people were working at CAT when you were there?
What were ended up being sacked when CAT went into liquidation in 2013. Then they decided to go down the third sector charity route, creaming grants, avoiding all taxes and rates and any contribution to the wider community. It morphed into WISE, which now dishes out dodgy degrees in the ‘education funding stream’.
Ms Tommerup of Red Pig Farm is a ‘graduate’ of CAT.
Happy to supply evidence to back up my statements. Also, your table on wood burning carbon emissions neglects to point out that growing timber absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, so on balance is almost zero carbon. As an investigative journalist, I would have thought you would be aware of this.
Look, pal, we both know that the tide is turning against biomass. It’s dirty to use, commercial biomass usually involves long haul by pollution-emitting ships, and much of the wood, pellets or whatever comes from sources that are not replenished.
Someone else commenting here tried to get around all this by saying that Black Mountain Wood Fuels produces ‘low carbon’ wood fuel. This is like arguing for non-lethal bullets. Burning wood is a dirty and polluting process. Full stop.
Also, this One Planet outfit at Red Pig Farm is not replenishing the timber growth, but using the resultant left-overs from felling to grow non-indigenous mushrooms. Growing mushrooms is a net producer of CO2 into the atmosphere. It is the single biggest contributor to greenhouse gasses in the natural eco-system.
Besides introducing invasive foreign species into the National Park most from from South East Asia, they also make claims about the anti-cancer medicinal properties, claims that have been disproved in clinical trials.
Red Pig Farm may merit further investigation.
They explicitly accuse both Forest of Dean Council and Gloucestershire County Council of corruption. I suspect they will amend their website before I inform these councils that they have been accused of criminal offences, or I assume they can back up these accusations.
So we should reject political parties and reject the Welsh speaking farmers who are actual Plaid Cymru councillors and AMs? That’s ‘reactionary’ for certain!
Plaid Cymru, as a party for Wales, is a failure.
To be fair Plaid Cymru opposed and campaigned against the transfer of CAP funding from Pillar 1 to Pillar 2. It was a Labour Party policy and got through with the help of the LibDems not Plaid Cymru.
Agreed, but that was in 2014. I’m talking about the work done by Jane Davidson when she was Minister for the Environment, 2007 – 2011, and Labour was in coalition with Plaid.
Sorry Jac. Davidson’s remit was restricted to stuff like carrier bags and recycling bins. It was Elin Jones (Plaid Cymru) who was minister for Agriculture during the coalition term, and got loads of flack for standing up for farmers in Wales, especially over bTB and the badger stuff. Which reminds me, I must try to find the records on Red Pig Farm Bio-security plan. Do they have one? Looks like badger country.
Exactly. Davidson’s remit was the Environment, she and her kind have no interest in real farming, that was left to Elin Jones and Plaid Cymru.
Update on bio-security :- I took a peek on what’s gone on, and besides a dead badger on the entrance lane by the bridge which appears to be (road kill?) from the contractors rebuilding a culvert, I actually think ‘Red Pig Farm’ may be used as a mechanism to release wild boar into Wales at the western end of the national park. The previous encampment of Scrivens and Tommerup in the Forest of Dean was used by ‘animal rights activists’ to frustrate the wild boar cull in Gloucestershire. To keep wild boar it is necessary to hold a licence under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976, and the holder of this license has a duty to keep the boar and any offspring from entering into the natural environment. It’s a criminal offence to do so. Also, to capture a specimen from Gloucestershire and transport it to Carmarthenshire is also an offence under the Sec9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. It appears strange for two dedicated vegetarians to name their new plot after pigs, and it’s only the wild boar that does boast the distinctive red stripes. I shall pay another visit to the plot soon, this time taking photo’s of what I have uncovered. I’m also under the impression that planning permission is needed for poly-tunnels inside the national park but not sure about the size rules. Planning was refused (applicant – Mr Singleton) for his previous application inside the Dinefwr estate, which was also destined to supply the ‘food hub’ at Llandeilo train station. Incidentally, this new ‘mock railway wagon’ structure is actually on land owned by Network Rail, and the security/anti-trespass fencing modified to accommodate it.
Correction – It is David Thorpe who is the man who thinks that covering the Welsh countryside with polytunnels. He’s the publicity officer for ‘Transition Towns Llandeilo’. After arriving in Wales, he moved from Machynlleth to Llandybie.
http://transitiontywitrawsnewid.org.uk/
This is him.
http://www.davidthorpe.info/im/King-Mob-David-Thorpe.png
and his wife.
http://www.davidthorpe.info/im/catwoman-helen-adam.png
Helen Adam.
Their ‘steering group minutes state “Upsetting the politics of local shops was a caution mentioned by Fishguard”. This is a reference to a project at Abergwaun.
Yes. This was where they established a cafe with a £60k grant from the Welsh Government, in direct competition with established local cafes putting them out of business with Welsh people loosing their jobs.
Incidently, the Llandeilo ‘food hub’ is directly opposite an existing locally owned fruit and veg distrubution business at the railway station.
There is no locally owned fruit and veg distribution business opposite the ‘hub’ at Llandeilo station.
Doesn’t Gerwyns Llandeilo (Bridge Street) have a ‘lock up’ on Station Road? It’s where the vans are parked and loading. I’ll ask next time.
This again is a typical well meaning ‘dream world’ concept, cooked up by people who know as much about producing food, and the practical problems involved with their dream as a Mongolian goat herder knows about Quantum Physics. Simply put, they don’t have a clue – to the point where they are staggeringly incompetent, laughably so at times.
On a small scale, I’ve seen it so many times in the allotment growing world (as many of you know, being the product of a small hill-side homestead upbringing, following a lineage of at least ten generations of subsistence farmers in our family, I have a little passion for dirtying my hands in the soil and growing my own fruit and vegetables). The bane of traditional allotment groups is the influx of the tree hugging hippy-like mob, ‘green save the world’ types, that are so well described by Jac. What they, without exception, have in common is zero practical knowledge. In a couple of words they are GORMLESS and USELESS, but seem to think they know it all. Many come from English immigrant city backgrounds, with dreams of living the self sufficient ‘good life’ in Cymru, (although the same applies to other secluded rural areas all over the UK). They are an annoying group of idiots, or rather that particular group, within a group are. There’s nothing wrong with leaving the mad rat-race and growing as much of your own food as you can. It’s to be commended, it helps with physical and mental health well being, and is certainly a far better alternative for the individual than eating insecticide, herbicide and other poison laden muck from the supermarket. However, my bone of contention is with that group of people attracted to this healthy lifestyle, who are mostly starry eyed clowns who actually give sustainability and self sufficiency a bad name.
The other problem is that these ignoramuses often take over wherever they land, worse still, many also land up in positions of legislative power. That’s when the real problems start. I knew Alun Davies before he became an AM. He would hover around Seimon Brooks (an old college friend apparently). What immediately struck me about him was that he was a frothing bull shitter who always tried to impress with knowledge he didn’t posses. A townie who had zilch knowledge or understanding of rural matters, and a very patchy understanding of Welsh cultural matters. Jane Davidson seems to fit the same type of template. I think that explains a lot about what you’ve written about these two Jac. It’s an absolute disaster, not just from a practical self-sufficiency viewpoint, but it’s another tool in the genocide of our identity as a nation.
Just a quick comment in reply to Pat who says “I have known ancestors from all over the British Isles including Wales, and from disparate parts of Europe” – SO WHAT? Has that got anything to do with the price of bread?
As Prof. Hywel Teifi Edwards was mentioned in an earlier post, he jumped to my mind when Pat HAD to mention that Heinz 57 genetic pool, which in some mysterious way is so important.
Years ago I was at a Plaid meeting (in Llandysul if I remember correctly – it may have been elsewhere, possibly at Tafarn Ffostrasol – but I digress). Hywel Teifi was a guest speaker. He was introduced by Guto Prys ap Gwynfor (Gwynfor Evans’ son, and torch bearer of the family tradition of being preachers and ‘heddychwyr’). Guto preambled rather extensively, and proclaimed – before finally handing over to Hywel Teifi – his pride at having a great mixture of genetic ancestry in his bloodline, including all-sorts with Danish amongst others. He was trying to make some sort of point about Plaid’s inclusiveness and welcoming attitude towards others of different backgrounds. Hywel Teifi stood up to start speaking, and in that inimitable way that he had, flatly and in a manufactured serious and concerned way said “wel wy’n credu bod gyda ti probleme boi!” (well I think you’ve got problems boy!). What a put down. Most of us laughed our socks off.
The point is of course that this fluffy and gullible attitude towards certain things is a dangerous ‘problem’.
If you think it is easy to live a ‘one planet’ lifestyle’ you should try it yourself. This post is ridiculous and takes no account of the reality of the need to change the way land is used to adapt to and mitigate climate change and the destruction of biodiversity by modern farming techniques, which are subsidised. OPDs are NOT subsidised. Farmers commonly rely on public handouts. OPDs do not. To obtain OPD planning permission stringent conditions must be met which 99% of modern farmers would fail. Included in these is the need to integrate with the community and respect Welsh culture. Furthermore if the majority (so far – but by no means all) of people who have applied under this policy have not lived in Wales long, then that is not because of any conspiracy. Anyone can apply. We would love more Welsh people to do it. OPDs on upland sheep farm conversions demonstrably employ more people, are MUCH more productive and, I repeat, do not require subsidies. Many farmers are in despair at the poor performance of their farms and at what to do about the changing weather patterns. The diversification and new routes to market offered by OPD-type conversions are one solution. At the same time, they vastly increase the number of species in their habitats and contribute to the local economy. You, who hide behind a cloak of anonymity while making baseless accusations and distorting the truth, should preferably occupy yourself with something as useful.
You people are starting to believe your own propaganda.
You say, “Furthermore if the majority (so far – but by no means all) of people who have applied under this policy have not lived in Wales long, then that is not because of any conspiracy. Anyone can apply. We would love more Welsh people to do it.”
Do you realise how patronising that reads? You’re saying you’d be happy for Welsh people to get involved in something in their own country! Stop digging!
Another thing, you’re missing the bigger picture. This piece covers the corruption in the Labour Party, with a Labour AM using her position for purposes that had no benefit for those she was supposed to represent. And those at Red Pig farm are already working with others of their kind who’ve been milking the system in Llandovery for years. Squandering money that could have been put to better use.
Like I’ve said elsewhere – stop believing your own propaganda, you people make no contribution at all to saving the planet or the food supply. You’re simply indulging yourselves at the expense of the Welsh people.
My wife, I and 2 young sons are living here in the land we love as our own. We are not hippies, nor bullock worshippers, though in my younger days I confess to once doing a shit in the woods. We also appreciate many mod cons and nice efficient homes.
We are applying to live on our own land and farm it under the One Planet Development planning policy. Why? despite the arduous rules and hoops to jump, it offers a way we can live relatively simply and affordably without using taxpayers money. We actually want to grow food and offering it to our local community. As I’m self-employed getting a large mortgage is impossible and there is poor rental provision in our area. Young local farmers here are not yet aware that they can live on their ancestral land and farm too under the OPD policy, although it is beginning to happen.
To point out some inaccuracies in your report:
You are wrong to call the One Planet Council ‘diktats’ who influenced Welsh Government in 2011. For a start this independent voluntary body didn’t form until 2013. It started as a grass roots support group and continues it’s work unfunded with the aim of ensuring ordinary folk, planners, local communities, farmers understand the complex rules and conditions. It has no allegiances to any political party including Green or Plaid Cymru. Thus far, the Welsh Government have provided no support whatsoever.
I actually bothered to look at your link to Black Mountain Wood Fuels and your claim of inconsistency. Read again and you will see that it’s a business based on making and supplying processed ‘low carbon’ wood fuel.
Your article fails to mention that several of those who have gained planning permission under the OPD policy are in fact Welsh speaking natives. I would add to this that most folk I know interested in this route, are like me, dysgu siarad Cymraeg. This is not a token gesture.
Finally, regarding the 1.88 global hectares per person. What’s wrong with consuming less and becoming a little more self sufficient. Even if you don’t want to change your behaviour, why begrudge a small number of folk the chance? Relying more on public transport, walking, cycling, growing food, harvesting water and the energies of the sun, taking care of our own waste. Is that really so bad? I run a car and will continue to do so though I don’t need two or three cars.
There are targets far more worthy of your rage.
It’s irrelevant when One Planet Council was formed. The same people, with the same objectives, were around before coming together to call themselves One Planet.
I have known ancestors from all over the British Isles including Wales, and from disparate parts of Europe. I expect you do, too. The One Planet policy makes me proud to live in Wales as a forward-thinking nation. What are you going to do when you have no oil, no food, and a climate changing for the worse? Is it not worth planning for such eventualities? Why stir up xenophobia when we all need to co-operate? Do you want to go back to an era of petty tribal squabbles? You write about identity, Welsh identity, but we all have multiple identities, which help to give us wider perspectives.
If the end of the world really is nigh, do you think a few hippies are going to save the planet, or feed mankind? Face it, the people you defend are simply using circumstances to live a chosen lifestyle.
A sobering read. But if we reject all political parties and electoral politics, then what do we do instead?
It has to be a national movement, by-passing the mainstream media to put out the truth using Facebook, YouTube, Twitter; educating the public, invigorating the people, making them angry, getting them demonstrating, challenging their politicians. A movement with a simple objective – to put the interests of Welsh people and their identity first. Anything that threatens Welsh identity, anything that works against the national interest, becomes a target. But focus solely on WELSH issues, don’t get sidetracked into trying to save the planet or stop wars in the Middle East. WELSH ISSUES ONLY!
Your first statement there, Jac, is exactly how Corbyn has decided to conduct his leadership campaign, plus travelling about personally to build up support. It seems to be a very successful way of building up a power base. The public mood against the established order is now such that the more they hit back, it seems the more people rebel against what they are told is best for them. Not just Corbyn’s campaign but the EU Referendum are recent examples of this disconnect. In Corbyn’s case there’s an obvious leader of the cause but in the EU referendum there was no lone voice really, the Brexit message being advocated by a number of individuals, of different political views and sometimes different agenda.
i’ll reply when I have more time to this quite excellent and disturbing post. Suffice to say that Mrs Stan popped into the living room late last night and said to me “why are you crying?” They were actually tears of laughter at your demolition of this latest idiotic and quite absurd action by the WAG, and Red Pig Farm and its wannabe developers, but mixed in with them were tears of frustration as well. Shiitake mushrooms and rocket stoves FFS!