If you read this blog regularly you’ll know about the takeover of Cantref, a housing association based in Newcastle Emlyn, by Wales and West Housing of Cardiff, a company with strong links to the Labour Party. For those catching up, I advise starting with the post Cantref: ‘Welsh’ Labour Takeover Challenged? To give some chronological marker, the takeover was officially registered with the Financial Conduct Authority 19 September 2016.
Even before the takeover I was receiving information from a person or persons I must assume were ‘in the know’. This information came by a number of routes, and was of varying degrees of confidentiality; what came as comments to this blog I can use in full, but information received by more discreet routes will require more circumspect treatment.
Let’s start with a comment from July 2015. Two points from it are worth noting. First, I believe the “something else going on” is a reference to the increasing suspicion that Cantref was about to be sold down the river. Second, the reference to “David Hedges of Cyngor Da” (Good Counsel/Advice) was a little confusing at the time because Hedges is a consultant and Cyngor Da is his company, yet he’s described as one of Cantref’s directors.
I shall return to our Dai, son of Glamorgan cricketer the late Bernard Hedges, later.
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As we now know, Cantref was indeed sold down the river, taken over by Wales and West Housing of Cardiff, ‘Welsh’ Labour’s favourite housing association. (Though the ‘Association’ bit was dropped from the name in 2012, now it’s just Wales and West Housing.)
As the takeover was going through I was being told about Wales and West “surveyors” evaluating Cantref’s stock and joking about taking down opposition party – mainly Plaid Cymru – placards and posters from WWH properties in the Cardiff West constituency during last year’s Assembly election campaign. There was no attempt to hide the fact that Wales and West Housing is ‘Welsh’ Labour by another name.
Something else I was hearing through other channels – though I confess I paid little attention at the time – was that Wales and West is linked somehow with the Mid Wales Housing Association. Now MWH inherited much of its stock, either directly or indirectly, from the Development Board for Rural Wales, that agency set up to ‘repopulate’ the five counties of central Wales. Part of the DBRW strategy included building homes for ‘key workers’, which in practice meant housing the complete workforces of relocating English companies or factories.
As I say, I should have paid more attention to this Mid Wales Housing reference if only because something interesting had emerged a few years earlier.
The nub of the story I’m referring to can be found in this news item from 2012 which tells that the Development Board for Rural Wales borrowed money at 14% interest over 50 years to build those ‘key worker’ houses, and when the DBRW (together with the Land Authority for Wales) was merged with the Welsh Development Agency in October 1998 that debt was transferred to the ‘Welsh’ Government.
Which if you think about it was odd . . . if not impossible.
Because the devolution referendum was held on September 18th 1997 and the first Assembly elections on May 6th 1999. Which means that when this transfer was effected in 1998 there was a devolutionary void. The transfer was therefore accomplished by Westminster, and this saw our incoming AMs confronted with a fait accompli. (Makes you wonder what else might have been dumped on our Assembly before it came into existence.)
In addition to the news story there was an interesting discussion on the blog of Montgomeryshire Tory MP Glyn Davies. Davies was the last chief executive of the DBRW.
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Now we hear of deals being struck between Mid Wales Housing, Wales and West Housing and an unnamed English housing association to bring in tenants to Llandrindod. The ‘Paul Diggery’ referred to is Paul Diggory, currently chair of the Chartered Institute of Housing in Wales, and before that, for over 15 years, chief executive of North Wales Housing.
The ‘Ann Hinchy’ mentioned is Anne Hinchey, chief executive of Wales and West Housing, wife of Graham Hinchey, Labour councillor for the Heath ward in Cardiff.
Naturally, I tried to make enquiries about WWH developments in Llandrindod. Turning to Google I came up with this . . . but the link is broken. I was unable to find anything for Llandrindod on the Wales and West website, either.
So what ‘Jonny English’ seems to be saying is that Wales and West Housing, with its HQ in Cardiff, its new western office (the former Cantref office) in Castell Newydd Emlyn, it’s northern base on Deeside, is now trying to get a footprint in the middle by linking up with Mid Wales Housing and some English housing association.
Entirely predictable, because when we look at who’s running MWH we see the usual English mediocrities staring back at us from the Executive Group page. Without whom we’d still be living in caves.
I’m sure ‘Jonny English’ will read this, as will others with information, so please let me have more details, most importantly, the name of the English housing association involved in this scheme. I’d also appreciate clarification on the relationship between WWH, MWH and the English outfit (the one from England).
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Let us return now to David Hedges. After being at Cantref when the transfer to Wales and West was arranged, the word on the street is that he’s now ensconced at Pembrokeshire Housing! What can it mean?
Again, for newcomers, or those with short memories, Pembrokeshire Housing is a body I have written about many, many times. Not just the parent body but also its bonny offspring Mill Bay Homes. I suggest you start here with Mill Bay Homes and Pembrokeshire Housing and then Mill Bay Homes and Pembrokeshire Housing 2.
The set-up is as follows. (And here I have to be careful cos writing about this lot has resulted in Jac getting solicitor’s letters.) Pembrokeshire Housing appears to be a normal housing association, grabbing its whack from the Welsh public purse to build social housing, much of which is allocated to persons and families having no previous connection with the area, or indeed with Wales.
Back around 2011 someone came up with the wheeze of using the dormant Pembrokeshire Housing Two Thousand Ltd to build properties and sell them on the open market. The name was soon changed to Mill Bay Homes. Now, after £7m+ has been transferred from parent to subsidiary, and houses built for retirees, investors, and friends of the MBH management, it seems that questions are – belatedly – being asked about this highly unusual arrangement.
This might explain the recent ‘retirement’ of Peter Maggs, Pembrokeshire Housing’s chief executive, and the arrival of David Hedges as – so ‘Dai the Post’ tells us – interim housing director.
Even allowing for the fact that within the social housing racket field in Wales there are bound to be connections and linkages, there seem to be far too many between Cantref, Pembrokeshire Housing, Wales and West and Campbell Tickell, of whom more in a moment.
As I said at the outset, David Hedges appeared in Cantref just before it was handed over to Wales and West Housing, like some harbinger of doom. Now we hear that he’s involved with Pembrokeshire Housing, and we’re also told that Wales and West is again manoeuvring into position to pounce. Interestingly, if we consult David Hedges’ Linkedin profile we see that he has worked for Wales and West. (If you can’t access the Linkedin profile click here for a downloaded version.)
UPDATE 26.01.2017: An anonymous source tells me that Dai Hedges is more of a fire-fighter than an assassin, sent in when things are going pear-shaped. Which may be true, but won’t be much consolation to those at Pembrokeshire Housing.
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I’m reasonably certain that Jonny English is somewhere in the north, while Dai the Post is probably in the south west, so it’s interesting that both mention Campbell Tickell; which gives me the opportunity to explain for late arrivals where this management consultancy fits into the big picture.
Campbell Tickell is the company of Greg Campbell and James Tickell, both Labour Party supporters. And as his Linkedin profile tells us, Campbell has even worked for the party. Also note the reference to Common Purpose, that shadowy, some say sinister, Labour-leaning, globalist organisation for professionals in public life.
In addition to being rather suspect in its motivation and workings Common Purpose has a distinctly contemptuous attitude towards Wales. Check out this list of CP’s programmes for 2017. Scotland and Northern Ireland are covered, as are the regions of England (even individual cities in Scotland and England), but Wales might as well not exist. Search for ‘Wales’ on the Common Purpose website and you’ll turn up this little story about Chinese students on a flying visit to the Assembly in December 2015, nothing more.
Here we have a network that results in English appointees to many Welsh jobs. On the ground, it operates thus. ‘Welsh’ Labour helps its very own housing association to expand within Wales to the point where – already the largest – Wales and West Housing becomes dominant. (What’s the next stage?) To avoid accusations of cronyism it passes the recruitment process to Campbell Tickell, a Labour-supporting Common Purpose recruitment agency.
This procedure is not confined to housing associations, it can be found across public life in Wales, to the extent that I sometimes wonder if devolution is nothing but a scam to create a few thousand jobs for our neighbours in the £50,000+ salary bracket. Worth asking because devolution is achieving sod all for us Welsh.
This system satisfies two vaguely linked agendas.
On the one hand, it helps the Labour Party compensate for its declining electoral support by spreading the party’s influence, via Wales and West Housing and other agencies, into areas where many would rather Glasgow kiss a rough stone wall than vote Labour. Areas such as Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire, Powys.
But the system also serves the agenda of civil servants in Cardiff and elsewhere, who answer to mandarins in London, and whose overarching ambition is to keep a check on – even roll back – devolution. One of the best ways of achieving this to ensure that as few Welsh people as possible fill positions of authority. This creates the impression that we Welsh can do nothing for ourselves and also comes in useful when ‘consultations’ are undertaken to determine future policy direction.
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All of which brings us back to my post earlier this month Housing Associations: Secret or Public?, in which I explained why Labour politicians and civil servants wish to maintain the secretive status of our public funds-guzzling housing associations. I suggest you read it.
And if you have a beef with a housing association then there’s no point in appealing to Nick Bennett, the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales. Bennett was CEO of Community Housing Cymru, the umbrella organisation for housing associations, from July 2006 until July 2014. Bennett is also close to ‘Welsh’ Labour, having been in business with a former Labour minister.
To take the explanation a stage further, we have a system of social housing, increasingly controlled at national level and managed at local level by people who know nothing about Wales and without any concern for – or even contemptuous of – Welsh identity, using vast sums of Welsh public funding, and regularly housing people with no connection to Wales. Because of course social housing in Wales is locked into an Englandandwales system. I have that on impeccable authority.
Back in early December 2010 I wrote a reader’s letter to the Wasting Mule seeking answers from Nick Bennett to a number of points. Instead of publishing it the Letters Editor passed my questions on to Bennett who then e-mailed me directly, saying: “Strong local connection cannot be the only acceptable qualification for social housing in Wales. Social housing is a scarce resource for homeless people and those on low incomes who can’t access housing in the private sector. There are over 2 million people on waiting lists for social housing”.
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Wales is the most corrupt country in Europe because it suits so many to have it that way. This corruption helps the Labour Party in Wales maintain power and influence despite declining support at the ballot box. Facilitated by Common Purpose and other bodies, this corruption discredits devolution and thereby strengthens England’s hold on Wales to the point where assimilation will have been achieved before most of us realise it.
If I was working for Pembrokeshire Housing I’d be getting worried now, because the vultures are circling – they may already have landed! And yet, just like Cantref, you brought it on yourselves, in your case with the insane decision to fund a private house builder subsidiary. And what will happen to Mill Bay Homes when Wales and West Housing takes over?
To understand how this system of colonialist corruption operates you have to recognise and understand the linkages, how they influence and contaminate public life in Wales. Social housing is the perfect example because it brings together so many threads. And it explains why the ‘Welsh’ Government and the civil servants who ‘advise’ it want to save housing associations from public scrutiny.
But don’t think for one minute that the corruption is confined to our housing associations. Corruption is endemic in Welsh public life – because it’s encouraged.
♦ end ♦
Meanwhile, back here in Cardi Bay the Cambrian News have run a nice picture of mrs Hinchey along with details of her £130 pa salary which has wound everyone up here in the office and around the town. Its no wonder they had to make some local redundancies here to help pay for her salary instead of repairing the houses. Josef has gone and IT is now being run from Cardiff office, Carl has gone, so we are a housing manager down,along with two others. Still no sign of the cambell tickell report being published so we are going to leak a copy to the Cambrian news on the day mrs Hinchey is speaking to the public accounts committee. Do you think they will dare to publish it after all of the free drink that was drunk by their journalists and the fine dining paid for by our tenants? The report tells it all. Maybe they should ask her about the deal she is doing in Llandrindod at present to find out how much Welsh cash is going to the English rsl over the border in exchange for the houses and their white flight tenants in situ? The news is all around the office by now and the surveyors are not happy. Whispers also that there is a fight going on for north wales housing association in the northern office – Penaf housing have been boasting that they have done the deal before wales and west this time, which means there will be a lot of wasted empty space in the new northern office just built. More to come soon…….
I wouldn’t trust the Cambrian News. I would use the information without fear or favour.
That Campbell Tick report and an “insider” brief on the situation that develops in the affected communities would make interesting reading especially areas such as defective services to tenants. After all H.A.’s were set up to meet tenant needs, or is that no longer an orthodox stance on the matter ?.
What I mean is, let me see the report if you want to guarantee it getting into the public domain
On this wet Sunday afternoon, having had as much spiteful journalism as I can take both online and in the rag, I just happened upon your tweet regarding Trump, Brexit etc. This had caught my eye some time back and I copy it for the benefit of some of those who irritate you. It might at least make those of a left wing ( real as opposed to pseudo, and that cuts the field dramatically ! ) persuasion pause and reconsider.
“-Leftists who say we should stay in the EU bring to mind those awful radicals who stayed in the Communist Party of Great Britain even after the Soviets crushed the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. ‘Yeah, that was bad, but Soviet Communism is still a good idea,’ they said.
Now, even after the EU has imposed technocratic governments in Italy and Greece, treated the Irish government as a bunch of thick Paddies, libelled the French and the Dutch electorates for voting against EU treaties, and given rise to a Byzantine system of governance largely beyond the reach of Euro-plebs, they say: ‘Yeah, that’s all bad, but the EU is still a good idea.’
My question is this: how many crimes against liberty and democracy must be committed in the name of a ‘good idea’ before that idea stops being good? ”
As good a line of enquiry now as it was when written pre June 23rd 2016.
Come to think of it even so called right wing radicals who favour the EU experiment would do well to ponder on the same questions.
Excellent – that sums it up nicely dafis. Anyone else care to defend ‘democracy’ and freedom of nations within the EU? Not much evidence to support your stand if you do care to try.
The EU is nothing but a great big fascist region that’s the harbinger of something much worse around the corner.
Well Gee that failed abysmally. I thought that we would be treated to an immediate torrent of EU-phile sermonising from the assorted pro EU “rainbow” that allegedly resides here in Wales. And given that we’re on the net, we could have been lectured by an assortment of ethnic origins all jousting to be the best advocate for yielding to the benevolent dictates of the grey suits in Brussels and their agents. Or are we deemed souls unworthy of salvation, cast adrift to make our own way in the world while everyone else queues up for their rations from the EU goody bank ?.
dafis bach – you sound almost despondent! I expected a little flurry – if not a gush of responses – you don’t think we’ve frightened them all away do you? Maybe they’re all sitting around their media trash boxes being topped up with propaganda or else watching something else really deep and thought provoking – like Tom Jones having a cry!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxX0Up_umoI
Or else X-Factor or Coronation Street! Now I feel depressed as well when I start thinking about how the masses are programmed to stop thinking.
I guess I’m getting to that stage where I get my buzz from irritating a response no matter how irrational ! The trash box has much to answer for, although some of the cranks we get on here from time to time are more influenced by deeply embedded fear of the unknown, fear of change, and hostility to any kind of challenge to orthodoxy. Nature / nurture ? or is it just News at Ten and Newsnight ? topped up with soaps + Sun/Mail ?
The trash box gives a good insight into how we are herded into a mindset. I’ve taken to watching Homeland on C4 ( Sun 9.00 p.m probably repeated 3 or 4 times elsewhere ). Although tending to a good vs bad theme as preached by USA policy it offers just enough darkness and deviant behaviour to make it worth sitting through. The new series has a FEMALE President – elect, so obviously the script writers expected to see Witch Hillary get elected.
The real joke though is that this woman gets portrayed as a pretty naive dame whose son got killed in one of the USA’s recent campaigns and she’s so anti anything covert and devious. They have the usual mix of very dodgy and less dodgy CIA coves rushing around trying to duck this woman’s scrutiny ahead of her appointment and they look like they want to pull off a big hit before she gets into power and shuts a few doors. It’s fuckin’ funny because we know this kind of dame would never get on the list she’d have been shunted off to run social security or education pretty sharpish. And they all have some kind of personal problem which in real life would render them utterly unsuited to any long term appointment in that kind of work. Guess I should file it under black comedy really.
“I thought that we would be treated to an immediate torrent of EU-phile sermonizing”
“I expected a little flurry – if not a gush of responses – you don’t think we’ve frightened them all away do you? ”
Maybe there are some for whom independence for Cymru is the priority and even if they are also anti-EU are a bit embarrassed with your New world Order Illuminati conspiracy theory, sorry incontrovertible fact. So they keep quiet and indulge you for the sake of a united front against those who oppose a Welsh nation state.
Just a little theory but probably not the kind of buzz you were hoping for.
I quoted some writer on 29th “-Leftists who say we should stay in the EU bring to mind those awful radicals who stayed in the Communist Party of Great Britain even after the Soviets crushed the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. ‘Yeah, that was bad, but Soviet Communism is still a good idea,’ they said.
Now, even after the EU has imposed technocratic governments in Italy and Greece, treated the Irish government as a bunch of thick Paddies, libelled the French and the Dutch electorates for voting against EU treaties, and given rise to a Byzantine system of governance largely beyond the reach of Euro-plebs, they say: ‘Yeah, that’s all bad, but the EU is still a good idea.’ ”
Now tell me what’s so NWO about those comments ? I defied those on the so called Left and some of those on the Right to pipe up as there seems to be a blind adherence right across the linear ideological spectrum to this “EU is good” line of patter. Could you enlighten us as you seem to be well up on these matters.
completely off topic, but quite irresistible in its anti-PC values, this quote from an OZ –
T. B. Bechtel, a City Councillor from Newcastle , Australia , was asked on a local live radio talk show, just what he thought about the allegations of torture of suspected terrorists.
His reply prompted his ejection from the studio, but to thunderous applause from the audience.
HIS STATEMENT : ‘If hooking up one towelhead terrorist prisoner’s testicles to a car battery to get the truth out of the lying little camelshagger will save just one Australian life, then I have only three things to say:
“Red is positive, Black is negative, and Make sure his nuts are wet”.
Whilst T.B. Bechel is obviously reasonably versed in comic book torture techniques, his electrical knowledge is abysmal!
To practically make a 12v car battery deliver enough current flow to induce any pain, the resistance between the terminals has to be very low (typically a few Ohms). Unless the poor torture victim has a copper clad scrotum his usual skin resistance (typically thousands of Ohms ) to 12v would be enough to stop ANY current flowing – he wouldn’t feel a thing.
Under those circumstances not much information for T.B. Bechel then. God bless crass stupidity and ignorance of electrical & electronic science! In other words – what a FUCKING IDIOT – but there again we are talking of the land that’s spawned the Crocodile Dundee class.
I said irresistible in anti PC values, not taking into account skin resistance, copper clad scrotum or otherwise ! What makes me chuckle is that this kind of zany line of thinking turns up on that infamous site Guido Fawkes in among a huge torrent of abuse aimed at the BBC’s Laura Kuensberg for asking a “meaningful ” question at the Trump/May love-in yesterday. The question was rather gauche and loaded and of course it was never answered by the podium players who wanted to focus on mutual admiration, blah blah blah.
Back to torture the comment attributed to one of those Generals signed up for a job with Trump was most revealing – something along the lines of “couple of beers and pack of fags is more effective.” What he didn’t go on to say was that normally the 2 interrogators guzzle the beers, have a few smokes and then proceed to beat the shit out of the prisoner !. Bad men those Yanks.
“Back to torture the comment attributed to one of those Generals signed up for a job with Trump was most revealing – something along the lines of “couple of beers and pack of fags is more effective.” What he didn’t go on to say was that normally the 2 interrogators guzzle the beers, have a few smokes and then proceed to beat the shit out of the prisoner !. Bad men those Yanks.”
the stream of unsavoury disclosures continues …… Mr McEvoy at it again digging out a little gem about Finance Wales and its departed Chief Exec Sian Lloyd Jones who trousered a really tasty package during her last (part) year of service :
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/former-finance-wales-boss-received-12518031
The departing head of the Welsh Government’s investment arm had a £400,000 pay package – Wales Online
Here’s an organisation, with huge question marks over its role and how it’s been discharged, gleefully handing over an enhanced rewards package while the workforce at one of Wales’ major manufacturing locations rests at the painful end of an Indian sawn off shotgun being invited to abandon a key component of their much more modest rewards package.
Dirty deeds by people who have no conscience as they wade into the trough and slobber away until full to the gills. The sacrifice likely to be made by the good folk of Port Talbot should stimulate a similar gesture from our “national pig pen” but it’s more likely that they will try to grab even more just in case the cash runs out later.
Nice one Neil!
What I want to know is why is this scrutiny left to the likes of the Neil McEvoys of this world? Why isn’t the Plaid leadership wading in? A far better cause than prancing about in London wasting time with single market arguments presented by our very own, home grown ‘Jack & Jill’ partnership – which is a pissing in the wind exercise and paid for by us. I know it isn’t a lot in the big picture of spending, but it’s the principle of the stupid exercise that counts.
Bloody disgraceful that someone can become a semi millionaire for six months work, paid for by the piss pot poor of our country.
Something is radically wrong somewhere isn’t it? And it’s initials are ‘LP’ backed up by ‘PC’.
I hear the secretary of Welsh labour just got a plum job at the welsh government funded learning and work institute. £60k.
Name?
sounds like normal succession planning in our little banana republic !
On a related matter – well loosely related – our esteemed chief, CJ, has been voicing his opinion that the “deal” to safeguard some sort of future for Port Talbot steel is as good as it gets and members should agree to it. Today their trade union said much the same. Now I accept that the union has a valid contribution to make. It is there to ensure some security for its members and after much consideration concludes that the “deal” is worth taking. Future pension benefits will be severely eroded as part of the “security” offered by TATA . Yet it remains better than the cuts that have been inflicted on most workforces in the U.K, so some cold comfort there.
However I find it a bit rich that the same advice has been forthcoming from politicians like CJ and Kinnock jnr while they still enjoy the fruits of best practice final salary schemes with further enhancements, all done at the expense of the tax paying public. Maybe time for that tax paying public to do a TATA and threaten to close them down unless they too accept pension plans structured just like the TATA revision. Next General Election and Cynulliad Election might be a good time to set the ball rolling.
Gee says – “The voices struggling to be heard in Scotland are those of the two-in-five voters who backed Brexit” and I agree.
For some time Sturgeon’s stance and that of the SNP leadership team has grown to smell increasingly of that fishy phenomenon – groupthink. Not one of them even remotely acknowledges that a bold independence stance would mean EUexit as well as UKexit. It’s as though their inner confidence is not that robust and that they need access to someone else’s pot of gold and goodies rather than stand on their own 2 feet and trade their way out of any shit they might be in short term.
I respect much of what they have achieved thus far in rocking the Anglo Brit boat but their apparent model going forward is no more than tacking on to a new master’s regime rather than confronting their own destiny head on. Perhaps, after all, it’s just another charade, pretending to be revolutionary, rebellious when the reality is a touch more timid and compliant. On a personal level I sometimes wonder whether Ms Sturgeon and her lead boy in the Commons find Mad Maggie May a lot more difficult to handle than the wet Cameron with all his witty quips.
Food for thought that last sentence dafis. I don’t know whether it’s the current ‘subject material’ or what, but I also detect less headway against ‘Mad Maggie May’. As well as the SNPs the same seems to be the case with Corbyn. She seems to have wrong footed them somehow – they seem off balance, but I can’t quite figure out how she does it. Maybe it’s her style – or maybe she possesses some dark force! I’ve never really rated her, but it seems that she’s quite awkward to manoeuvre isn’t she? She’s a bit like a human black hole that soaks up energy aimed against her. Of more concern is that she seems to be gaining a bit of popularity traction amongst the Sun & Mail readers within the English public – that’s a bad sign. Clever the way she’s dodged the Supreme Court judgement by immediately moving on. Cameron would have blushed & sneaked off to sulk in the corner.
Jac said: “also because it alienates those Scots who want real independence – of both London and Brussels“. That’s the very point I was trying to make, when I mentioned the two-in-five group. Ticklish ground, as I said she’d be better off biting her tongue a little on the Brexit circus, and let the dust settle a little in Scotland.
Gee commented in last sentence – “as I said she’d be better off biting her tongue a little on the Brexit circus, and let the dust settle a little in Scotland.”
And that’s where the issue of personal management and control lies. I suspect that Ms Sturgeon has began to like the sound of her own voice ( I quite like it too ) but there are times when less is more. I think she got a flying start with the Indy campaign despite losing it, the GE and Scottish elections reinforced her convictions, but Brexit is really a no win because the EU doesn’t want to play on her terms, only use her as a distraction but leaving her no clout in the real skirmish to come.
The SNP lead boy in the Commons, Angus, is frankly embarrassing – is he the equivalent of a “posh boy” from Edinburgh or something ? . At least Alex would have snarled and bit his way through some of those PMQ’s and has a touch of intimidatory presence that is lacking in any opposition party leaders.
True, VERY true. Ol’ Alex certainly has presence, and as you say, none of the opposition parties have that at present. It’s the missing ingredient.
On Ms. Sturgeon, I feel she was very impressive as Alex Salmond’s right hand, and that carried on after she took the reigns, however she’s become a bit less impressive of late. Lots of talk, but not so much to say unfortunately. If you haven’t got a lot to say you need to talk a lot less. Especially on certain subjects. With a bit more experience perhaps she’ll learn to choose her battlegrounds a bit more carefully.
“human black hole” – that’s a top description of the P.M, soaking up energy and also emotion. Yet I suspect she’s emotionally unbalanced, or asymmetric, there’s some kind of disequilibrium there which is near the surface. I’m not a shrink but have had contact with all sorts of oddballs, deviants, psychopaths etc in business and after c.40 years exposure you end up smelling it long before you see it ! Will be interesting to watch the progress of the Brexit mission and also how she deals with the assorted nut jobs prancing around as leaders on the global scene.
Sounds like lecturing the neighbours on what wallpaper they should put up in their lounge while you’re living in a caravan in next door garden..
And who’s fault is it that we live – in your words “in a caravan in next door garden“?
Does living in a caravan exclude you from making a comment about the wallpaper in your neighbour’s house?
There seems to be a very revealing little dark side of your character seeping out into these comments you’re making di-enw!
The reality is that few people who indentify themselves as being Welsh support the idea of Cymru being independent whereas nearly 50% of the people who identify themselves as being Scottish support the idea of Scotland being independent. Whatever reasons there are for this situation it’s obvious that when it comes do the desire for independence we’re not in the same league as Scotland.
In my opinion it’s presumptuous to lecture the Scottish independence movement for not wanting the kind of independence you think is best for them from the position of being part of an independence movement that is far less successful.
However if getting away from New World Order is your priority I can follow your reasoning for wanting an all or nothing form of independenc . Personally if independence for Cymru was offered on a plate I’d snatch it and leave any sorting out of the EU or NWO until after the Union Jack was lowered and Y Ddraig Goch went up in it’s place.
You have the delusions and outlook of a child di-enw. I suggest you re-read what has been said about Scottish independence by me and others on here. No one has decried the need for Scottish independence – we all support it and hope for it to happen. What we HAVE commented on is the ridiculous stance Sturgeon is taking in the EU argument. It would be a case of jumping out of the frying pan and into the flames.
There is a myriad of reasons why the support for independence is greater in Scotland than in Cymru. Historically they’ve had a legal, economic and most importantly of all, an EDUCATION system of their own for centuries. As for us we’ve been lumped into the English system since the Acts of Union, and since the end of the nineteenth century the same education system as England. Then, given our closer proximity to the cities of England, we’ve been more colonised than Scotland. Add to all that the fact that the Scots have a genuine nationalist party with brains and balls (like they have in Ireland) whilst we are lumbered with the ‘Hide Behind The Sofa’ Plaid party – then even you should be able to work it out!
last week Cymdeithas irritated the Plaid Chair of some Cynulliad committee by announcing they were not going to treat the UKIP member with the full dose of respect expected. Today I read on Golwg that another UKIP A.M has been sounding off about the commitment to teaching of Welsh in schools, which was a pretty quick justification in my book for the original stance take by Cymdeithas towards these poisonous creeps. What really surprised me was the disclosure in the readers comments that there are similar opinions held by members of Plaid Cymru !!
WTF is is that party doing to itself ? Why doesn’t the leadership team insist that policies on matters like the language are key components of what the party is all about ? Or are they too busy planning the next march in support of some remote peripheral “cause” of no real relevance to promoting improvement of our lot here in Wales ?
“Why doesn’t the leadership team insist that policies on matters like the language are key components of what the party is all about ? Or are they too busy planning the next march in support of some remote peripheral “cause” of no real relevance to promoting improvement of our lot here in Wales ?”
Some of us have been screaming that for decades dafis. It falls on deaf ears, and what’s worse, instead of getting better it seems to be getting worse. I think the solution is for Plaid to split up. The Labour loving core should move over to Carwyn’s mob and let the other remnant team up with true nationalists to form a new nationalist party.
More evidence this week of cosy ‘bedmates’ going off hand in hand – as one – to provide input in the form of a ‘single market’ argument in the Brexit discussions.
“Carwyn and Leanne went up the hill – to fetch a pail of water,
Carwyn fell down & broke his crown,
And Leanne came tumbling after . . . ”
That scenario is what it’s actually about – hence the reason the Plaid leadership won’t stick the boot into ‘Welsh’ Labour and won’t stick up for Y Cymry for fear of upsetting their bedfellows. It’s the perfect mess, with the ‘Kippers’ & the Tories licking their lips in anticipation in the wings.
What’s even worse about this latest exercise in futility is that the Supreme Court has told Carwyn and Leanne (even told Scotland) that they are impotent. So rather than keep hanging onto Labour’s coat-tails I would have hoped that the SC decision would have been used to push for independence. But of course, we’re talking about Plaid Cymru.
Exactly! If you didn’t know it before, you’ve now been told in no uncertain terms by wigged ‘wise men’ that the devolved countries of the UK are impotent – THAT should shake those countries into doubling their efforts to gain independence, but as you rightly say “we’re talking about Plaid Cymru“.
In Scotland I fear that Sturgeon also needs a wake up call. Whilst I admire what the SNP have achieved to date – they are now badly veering off course with this Brexit nonsense. “We don’t want to be controlled by Westminster, but we’re happy to be dictated to from Brussels!“. At least they have a little voice in London, in Brussels NO ONE has a voice, least of all little minnows like Scotland. Where is their sense?
The voices struggling to be heard in Scotland are those of the two-in-five voters who backed Brexit and now hear the SNP try to airbrush them out of the debate. It’s surprising Brexit support in Scotland was so high, given that every major political figure in the Scottish Parliament backed Remain. After the 2014 referendum, SNP supporters started referring to themselves as ‘the 45’ – ie, the 45 per cent who voted for independence. But no one talks about the two-in-five Brexit voters. They have become unScots, flies in the SNP’s ointment!
She needs to be very careful that she doesn’t split those who have a common goal of independence. She needs to shut up and keep away from the Brexit circus. She’s backing a dodgy horse if she thinks that Brexit can be her Trojan horse to trigger another independence referendum – by alienating the ‘two-in-five’ that voted to leave Europe she could shoot herself in the foot.
In fact, the SNP is not coming up against the UK’s Prime Minister or the Tories but basic EU law. Diplomats in Brussels are baffled as to why the SNP are even talking about a non-member state either being in the single market or having a separate relationship with the EU. The Spanish are vehemently against this (for obvious reasons), and would veto. So Sturgeon’s demands are ridiculous – given their constitutional impossibility. She’s asking for something the EU would never allow, no matter what Theresa May says.
Dodgy ground & possibly a banana skin that could move independence for Scotland in the opposite direction. That would be a REAL shame.
As things stand Sturgeon is arguing, ‘Scotland voted to stay in the EU, so if we have Brexit there might be another independence referendum’. But this isn’t moving the polls far in her direction (as was hoped), partly because of the price of oil, but also because it alienates those Scots who want real independence – of both London and Brussels.
Her only hope seems to be, wait for Brexit, hope for things to go pear-shaped, and then call another referendum. Problem with that is, if the price of oil goes up it’ll certainly help the SNP, but it will also help the UK economy soften the blow of Brexit.
“but also because it alienates those Scots who want real independence – of both London and Brussels.”
My feeling is that those who are British nationalists in Cymru are likely to be pro Brexit as well. What I hear from my tartan friends is that they think the equivalent situation applies in Scotland.
“Her only hope seems to be, wait for Brexit, hope for things to go pear-shaped, and then call another referendum”
I think the SNP is playing a pretty good game and they’re being helped by both the UK government and the Labour party. Who knows how things develop but right now there’s more than an “only hope” possible for them. Are you sure it’s not the “only hope” you have to get as much of the UK out of the EU as possible.
I must admit that this being out of the EU is more important and urgent than being out of the UK puzzles me and Big Gee’s opinion about the SNP – .
“We don’t want to be controlled by Westminster, but we’re happy to be dictated to from Brussels!“. At least they have a little voice in London, in Brussels NO ONE has a voice, least of all little minnows like Scotland. Where is their sense?”
So if Scotland has an opportunity to escape the UK but still be closely linked to or in the EU it shouldn’t. It should stick with the UK as England pulls it out of the EU then hope that the UK becomes such a poor and nasty place that the Scots vote to leave.
Or as an analogy. The Scottish nationalist prisoner shouldn’t break the handcuffs that attach him to a more powerful and ruthless UK nationalist prisoner if he gets a chance. He should wait until they both escape and then hope that the UK nationalist prisoner does something helpful for the freed Scottish nationalist despite it being something that the more powerful and ruthless freed UK nationalist doesn’t want or will try to avoid doing.
.Is there anyone out there versed in prison psychology that can explain to me why such a course of action would happen?
Two little points di-enw:
a) There is a considerable number of people who voted out who are neither British nationalists, UKIP supporters or dyed in the wool Tories. Quite a few Welsh Nationalists who contribute on this blog, including myself, being amongst them. It is a delusion to assume that the ‘out’ vote in Cymru & Scotland only included English immigrants.
b) A Scotland tied to the EU would mean curtains for them as a nation ruling itself. Even if they did become independent of the UK their enslavement to Brussels would be permanent and complete. Their ‘independence’ would just be a title on paper. They would be signing up for rule by dark suited bureaucrats, whom they don’t know, and never will get the opportunity to vote for.
Anyone that can’t see that a ‘region’ designed to take away national borders, individuality of nations and commit them to a ‘block’ on the globe would entertain the kind of independence that Cymru & Scotland desires, are blind in the worst possible way – mentally blind!
The goal is a global government of fascist style ruler-ship (New World Order/ Project for the New American Century). Creating a European Union is just a step towards that goal. Nicola Sturgeon needs to wake up to these facts, she hasn’t yet seen the big picture. Leanne Wood is in the same boat. Too much navel gazing and not enough peripheral vision and far sightedness.
to reply to your “little points”
a) there are really few genuine Welsh Nationalists in Cymru, ie those who really do want out of the UK. Even if they all voted Leave, and they definitely didn’t then numerically it wouldn’t have made a big difference anyway In any case the correlation I am drawing your attention to is the one that exists between increasing sense of British nationalism and increasing likelihood of voting Leave.
b) If the Scots want out of the EU they are perfectly capable of getting themselves out. Worrying about how Scotland interacts with the EU is not a burden that any Welsh nationalist need carry. We’ve got a big enough load on our shoulders as it is.
if the Scots want your input on” global government of fascist style ruler-ship” I’m sure they’ll get in touch with you.
Really? And where do you get your numbers from? Done your own poll of all Welsh Nationalists in Cymru have you? Why don’t you start here – do an ad-hoc straw poll of what the nationalists on this blog voted in the referendum. You seem obsessed with this idea that all nationalists in Cymru & Scotland want in, and all Brit nationalists want out – it just isn’t the case – whichever way you try to tart it up. You really must stop being so malleable to the messages being put out by Sturgeon & Wood. Another little matter is that contrary to what you believe, not all Welsh Nationalists support Plaid, and neither do they follow that party’s sometimes ludicrous lead.
As for your second paragraph, if we follow that through to it’s logical conclusion, then none of us must make any comment on any political activity outside Cymru, and if we do make comment, then we must wait for others to ask for our opinions first.
Don’t you realise how silly and infantile the last sentence of your post is?
If you have a comment to make, then try to make it after you engage your neurons, and then apply it properly to the subject material you’re commenting about.
Bitchiness & unsubstantiated hypothesis does not win any debates – it just makes you sound stupid.
Poll results need to be looked at with caution, However over the past few years numerous polls have included sections asking people about their opinion on independence for Cymru. There’s plenty of data online. Looking at them overall it’s reasonable to think that the % for independence appears to bump along at a couple of points above 10%. However we must note that in all cases people are choosing something that is hypothetical rather than a real option with real consequences available here and now.
Depending on the questions results can vary, 3% in one fairly resent but much criticised poll. 28% in a poll that linked continued membership of the EU with independence!
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/welsh-independence-poll-brexit-eu-referendum-plaid-cymru-leanne-wood-a7142856.html
I think there are some Welsh nationalists, I’m not saying you are one of them, who worry that Scotland will become independent before enough people in Cymru are ready to support it for their own country. For me the sooner Scotland leaves the UK the better as it makes the chances own independence following in the wake of the ensuing turmoil the best we’ve had since the 15th century. Waiting for a perfect landing place to arrive at before jumping out of the UK is I think asking too much.
As you said and I agree you’ve got a perfect right to state your views. Have you expressed your views on this SNP EU NWO issue on any of the Scottish Nationalist blogs and if so what sort of response have you had? And that question is not me being bitchy I’d like to know more about the Scottish take on this.
I have absolutely no interest in any other blogs, I contribute here because I have an interest – as I’m the web-master of this site and host it. I also happen to be an old friend of Jac’s. I contribute on one other site which I’m also a web-master of and host, however it’s a purely horticultural one.
I have even less interest in contributing or debating on any Scottish blogs. It would be a total waste of my precious time – I don’t get out enough as it is.
I WILL continue to comment on here, on what I think are pertinent subjects that involve Scotland (It’s nationalism and future independence) & my beloved Cymru, along with my views on the NWO that integrate into the subject material. The truth about the NWO is the most important and urgent subject that can possibly be discussed at this juncture in our history – I can’t do that on every blog I come across, so I limit it in order to enlighten some of my fellow countrymen on here. End of.
Why you have a hissy fit every-time I bring this information about the NWO into the discussions I don’t know. Up until now I’ve put it down to ignorance & basic brain-washed bigotry from someone who will not even lower the blindfold and analyse the evidence. Pity really.
PS You don’t STILL believe the bullshit you read in pro EU newspapers do you? Jesus, you’re a bad case. I thought every intelligent being on this planet had woken up by now to newspaper propaganda & MSM false news. You are WAY behind the curve. Wake up . . . !
If it transpires that David Hedges has been parachuted into Pembrokeshire Housing Association by the Welsh Government, this would reaffirm the decision of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to reclassify Housing Associations . As stated on the Community Housing Cymru website: “the ONS have reclassified them as public sector bodies because of the level of state involvement in the way they operate”.
The Welsh Government have already vowed to reverse the ONS decision, despite the ongoing Public Accounts Committee inquiry into the funding of HAs, so does it not follow that to reverse the ONS reclassification decision any alternative arrangement would require an arms length approach to governance by the ‘state.For this to happen the Labour led government would need to curb their natural interventionist instincts and just hand over our cash without question, well the latter is certainly feasible,
Your theory of a role for Wales & West as a super HA could be a tempting way for Sergeant & Co to off load the problem to a company that shares their beliefs, whilst escaping from the ONS classification. We can be sure that any decisions regarding the future of HAs will be made in the usual opaque way and we the taxpayers will be the last to know. Jac you have been criticised, even threatened with legal action, for questioning how our hard earned money is appropriated and distributed, for the sake of our nation please keep probing as ‘they don’t like it up em!’.
I just find it strange that Hedges – an independent consultant – should have been in Cantref just before the handover and now he’s at PHA with the same fate rumoured. Though thinking about any Wales and West takeover, I suppose it could be seen in Cardiff as one way of burying the embarrassing stuff about Mill Bay Homes.
The whole debate about the status of housing associations and the ONS intervention must be very unwelcome for the ‘Welsh’ Government, not least because most people will have assumed that bodies receiving the levels of public funding HAs get were already public bodies.
Of course we’re told that the WG has promised to maintain HAs current status, basically, secretive, publicly-funded, semi-private companies. But who’s calling the shots? Have the politicians even discussed the matter, or is this yet another decision taken by civil servants, some of whom seem operate in the manner of Mark James?
Interesting to note that a certain civil servant we are corresponding with has a background in the private sector {banking profession}. Perhaps he needs to be reminded that he is now working in the public sector and therefore answerable to the public for his actions.
I have long suspected that many of our civil servants answer to masters in London. In theory, they serve and advise the ‘Welsh Ministers’ but I believe they implement policies handed down from London and the ‘Welsh Ministers’ merely announce them publicly. When you look at the quality of those who serve as Ministers in the ‘Welsh’ Government it’s not difficult to believe.
At present I’m working on the drugs racket in Wales. No, not that one, but those who take down millions and millions every year to treat addiction. It looks as if an English organisation has recently moved to Wales and is hoovering up the smaller local groups. Which may be what Wales and West is doing. Wales and West, the only housing association I have ever found to receive money (£25m) from the UK – i.e. English – government.
For your interest, Wynne, 39 St Mary Street, Cardigan will figure in my report.
Dafis I do understand what you are saying. However, Welsh residents daily have to go to other places in the UK for health treatment because we have not got the specialist health and social care here this includes people with physical disabilities, learning difficulties, mental health and a vast range of health complaints. This also includes looked after children and young people who reside in a range of services from foster care to institutional care. Many of these diverse people then end up rehoused in the UK and do not return to Wales. On any particular day Wales cannot treat or care for its own Welsh residents, so we have people crossing the border in both directions.
I accept that private companies that run some of these facilities are very worrying they provide accommodation where property is cheap and social care labour is cheap so many of these establishments are in rural areas throughout the UK, the Welsh complaint is mirrored by other rural communities in Scotland, Northern Ireland and England. I am also conscious that a small number of patients have gone to European countries.
Local to me their is a large social care industry that employs many people caring for English residents paid for by English Local Authorities with learning difficulties and mental health needs. I worry greatly about the effectiveness of the inspectorate in monitoring these institutions, as the local authorities and Betsi Health Board report many of these people have not had Deprivation of Liberty Safeguard assessments or regular reviews. The Welsh Government appears completely indifferent to this reality.
Many of these people are directed to the venues they end up by the public bodied that pay for their care costs it is a very worrying market.
Paul…
(a) Referals and elective treatment.
Example, Swansea has a world class burns unit and gets to invoice the NHS trusts refered to it for patients in SW England. Conversely, the NHS trust in Shropshire gets to invoice Hywel Dda Health Board for out-patients treated in England which are registered to a GP practice in border parts of Powys. The funding is re-invoiced and ‘balanced’
(b) A&E.
If an ambulance scrapes a patient off the road in Cheshire and the sat-nav finds that the Wrexham Maelor is quicker, that’s where the patient is taken. If an ambulance scrapes a patient off the road in eastern Powys and the sat-nav finds that the Shrewsbury General is quicker, that’s where the patient is taken. There is no funding balance but the headcount works out 50/50 in an average year.
There is, however, Yr Wyddfa issue. This is a helicopter parked at Ysbyty Gwynedd, which is often used as taxi for idiot English people who fall off mountains wearing daps.
(c) Dead Bodies.
All people who die in hospital are taken to the mortuary. This is the practice in England and in Wales. The body is claimed, usually by family, and released with the issue of a death certificate. There are twice as many English claims on a body in a Welsh mortuary as Welsh claims on a body in an English mortuary. The sickest and the oldest are, by far, the most expensive to treat, and the most likely to die.
The cross-border issues with the NHS is marginal, for ‘active patients’.
There is a cross-border issue if measured by deaths.
Most English people to die in Wales are elderly or long-term sick, the most expensive burden on the NHS. These are patients who have migrated to Wales to retire and/or have existing health issues. These are, by definition, already registered with a Welsh GP.
(e) Social Care.
This is defined in statute as being a responsibility of local authorities. The statutory provision. In Scotland the additional ‘charity’ provision is restricted by legislation, so must operate within a local authority footprint. In England and Wales, this does not apply. So the third sector not only operates across local authority boundaries but also across the national boundary. This results in “social cleansing” within England and also importing problem individuals and ‘vulnerable groups’ into Wales.
I think we’d all benefit, Brychan, from you explaining in more detail what sounds like the more sensible Scottish legislation and how this differs from what operates to our detriment in Englandandwales.
The issue in Scotland was that ‘posh’ areas were dumping their ‘undesirable’ social tenants into ‘sink estates’. It was the Labour Party (middle class posh people with a false façade of caring) who were conducting this social cleansing.
The public tussle was over parts of Glasgow being ‘gentrified’ by dumping single-mothers into social housing stock out in East Kilbride. The ‘anti-gentrification’ campaign was not led by the SNP but by the SSP, who had MSPs at the time.
The first stage was the Social Landlords (Purposes or Objects) (Scotland) Order 2006.
Full details of this and subsequent legislation is here…
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/16342/regulation
The result is that cash from the Scottish Government for housing goes directly to the local authority and the law says that if any of this cash is subsequently donated to the charity sector, it must be ‘restricted funds’ with the caveat that it must be spent wholly inside, and according to the policy of, the local authority concerned.
For this type of legislation to apply in Wales, the Welsh government (like Scotland) will need to have the ability to legislate on charitable law, and have it’s own charity commission. The legal concept of legislative primacy.
I do not dispute some of the information you provide above. But some of this conversation feels a bit “Trump like” we will build a wall to keep out the “Mexican rapists and drug dealers”.
What I am saying is that on any day health, social care and education professionals have to assess adults, young people and children with a range of health conditions, physical disabilities, learning difficulties, addictions, criminal convictions and anti-social behaviour, they draw up health, care and education plans for some their liberty will be deprived, some children and young people will be in the public care system. In the vast majority of cases health, care and education is provided as near as possible to their home if they have one but on any day finding the appropriate accommodation and care is problematic that is why whether they are Welsh residents or English residents they can be placed many miles from their home in any direction.
I do not dispute that companies or Third Sector organisations set up provision in parts of the UK where accommodation is cheap, land and house prices and also the availability of cheap social care labour. Also some politicians involvement in this maybe less than savoury. If it’s new provision it can be challenged through all the normal regulatory mechanisms but much of this provision is longstanding and historical ie we have a large social care industry locally as a consequence of the legacy of the old Denbigh hospital. This provision will take “customers” on any day if the funders meet the registration and eligibility criteria. As someone in a past life who was involved in these processes you were so grateful on any particular day to find a safe place for the vulnerable citizen temporarily or more longer term to reside. Whether they had to cross the border to England or Wales was not very significant as the statutory duty was their immediate and longer term welfare. You did always wherever possible take account of the persons wishes and feelings and implement them.
What I am saying is that local communities have to democratically decide on their reason for being that will change over time. If communities do not want to become dormitory towns or accommodate the social care industry or some other economic consequence it can challenge that through the present law or if it does not like the law change the law to restrict local development and change. My local council, Conwy County Borough Council, controlled by coalition of Plaid, Independents and Labour, led by a Plaid leader who pays his council tax on receipt of a court summons, appears supportive of the areas reason for being to be tourism, agriculture, with a significant commuting population east and west and also a very significant health and social care provision, this status quo is not greatly challenged by the electorate.
Some Welsh communities are struggling to work out how their residents will earn a living in the future, their maybe a very significant retired population, there is where I live which requires substantial health and social care provision, some decide to leave usually to find a means of earning a living. Young people I know locally have gone in significant numbers to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Europe, my own son went for a significant period to live and work in Canada before he returned, my daughter’s boyfriend spent a significant period working in Australia. I myself went and lived and worked for six months in Italy because I could not get thework I wanted locally.This is the reality today that our politicians are refusing to fully engage with.
Also as someone who has climbed and walked the hills of Wales and the rest of the world since a young child, I will be 63 this year and get up them most weeks, can I assure you I know of fellow Welsh residents that have had accidents in the hills and have required the services of the NHS. Fortunately I have never required their services but in my younger days more by luck than judgement.
It is not always English or International tourists that benefit.
You seem to be saying that looking after England’s elderly, misfits, rejects, is an ‘industry’ we Welsh should welcome, and be grateful for it. I begin to wonder if you aren’t part of this system you defend.
Wow Jac, I don’t know whether you have family members or even a circle of friends with mental health, learning difficulties, physical difficulties, addictions or even convictions but naming people as “misfits” or “rejects” whatever their nationality is a very slippery slope, language is important, we know this from the excesses of the fascist right and left. I know people rightly feel strongly about all sorts of things but “name calling” hardly ever enhances the debate.
You label yourself as Nationalist Right of Centre, I would describe my perspective at the moment as somewhat confused and uneasy about the divisions in Wales, but keen to make a modest and hopefully encouraging contribution.
I can also confirm that I have earnt no income from the health, social care or education sector for sometime, I do have, a not very active website which previously attempted to sell some of my knowledge and skills unsuccessfully following my return from Italy. I live on two very modest occupational pensions, do a minute bit of community work for no pay and produce art from a modest studio in Llandudno I rent, art which I am hugely unsuccessful in selling. I believe it is important to be explicit about who we are especially when we are willing to provide critical feedback to others, hence the use of my real name in this blog. I am not anxious about disclosing any of my past mistakes and all because it makes me who I am today and people can disagree or attack me as much as they like as long as it is fair comment. Anyone can google my back history it need be no secret to anyone.
Before anybody gets upset about this I am completely relaxed with people’s alternative names on this blog and respect that completely.
As you often suggest we have to understand how the “What is” works before we can propose changes, you do this by your investigatory reporting and through your submissions to public bodies which I commend even if I will not agree with every aspect of what you say.
I do not defend the present health, social care or education system, it’s assessment, care planning, eligibility criteria are fiendishly burdensome to citizens receiving services and provides professional work which more and more people reject, just look at the number of teachers, social workers and health professionals not doing that work five years after an expensive training programme.
I am for my fellow citizens becoming active and participating in their local communities and designing them in a way that meets the need. to earn a living and also care and looked after those less vulnerable than ourselves. I do not worry if you have a political party label or not because I have discovered in my life that at times all political parties maybe with one or two really extreme exceptions have some truth to tell.
By all means unpick the detail of my arguments, I and others will learn as a result and also draw in other participants.
What I am clearly saying is, if you do not want a health and social care provision to develop in your community you need to propose an alternative use of that building or site in your community. You need to invest time and effort in this and maybe invest money as well. In Abergele there has been endless consultation over some years about the Abergele Placemaking Plan because our community is on the cusp of declining, empty buildings, blighted sites, young people moving away. There is potentially £4million from various sources to spend, many of us have proposed business and community developments to the point now where we are just desperate for decisions, we are not happy quite bit of money has been spent on consultancy! If studios and a gallery are part of the complex package I will probably invest some modest funds, I might also contribute to other options. There are no proposals at the moment for more health and social care provision though the local pharmacist is the only shop to have had an expensive makeover in recent times.
What I am saying is that only by healing divisions are we going to create a vibrant and dynamic Wales.
I got as far in the opening paragraph as your reference to “fascist right”, and it made me realise that I’ve indulged your precious, simpering bollocks for long enough. Get lost!
You do not appear willing to subject yourself to the same scrutiny and questioning that you subject others. It undermines your cause.
My case is not undermined by your combination of liberal witterings, non sequiturs and resorting to Godwin’s law. So don’t delude yourself. Now go away.
Paul – It appears that Brychan got his contribution in ahead of me so I won’t reiterate much of what he says. It’s a simple matter of financial arithmetic on one level – people residing in one authority getting treated in another should, and probably does, generate an invoice and a payment in settlement for the service rendered. No harm done.
However the adoption of a relocation policy where people with long term “social problems” who often bring health problems with them do not attract any form of payment because they become residents of that new area, be it Ceredigion ( Hywel Dda NHS ) Rhyl ( Bets Cad..) or even sunny Maesteg (ABM NHS ).
The real cost however is in housing these people which is initially with private sector landlords ( funded by benefit streams ) while a lot of them are queued for 3rd sector housing ( public funding ) or contrive to jump that queue because the authority wishing to relocate them have “arrangements” with Welsh H.A’s.
The other hidden cost, but sticking up like a sore thumb, relates to older folk retiring to Wales. Advancing old age correlates almost directly with heavier usage of health and care services. In parts of Wales this is an issue, generally away from the larger urban clusters where health services have already been run down to a modest level of provision.
There’s also been another interesting acquisition this month.
The Kaleidoscope Project Limited (05480423), is a charity which was based in Kingston-Upon-Thames providing ‘multi-agency’ assistance to the druggies, alcoholics and the homeless opened up ‘hostels’ in Newport (Gwent) amply funded with a few hundred grand worth of investment from the Welsh Government, has been expanding, shortly after parachuting into Wales.
They have just bought Nightingale Social (10049991) a Wirral based outfit, also specialising in providing assistance ‘multi agency assistance’ to the druggies, alcoholics and the homeless. The HQ has just moved to Integra House on the Celtic Springs Business Park, Newport.
One of the directors was a Labour Councillor for the Wirral when the deal was done. The Nightingale Social acquisition (Arch project), according to their latest annual report is to expand their current footprint of Bolton, Shropshire, Bradford, Merseyside, into…..North Wales.
Links…
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/05480423/filing-history
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10049991/filing-history
http://democracy.wirral.gov.uk/mgUserInfo.aspx?UID=183
This looks worth investigating, especially if it’s done with ‘Welsh’ Government money.
You will notice that the Kaleidoscope operation in Newport still has debtors, unpaid sales invoices, with a Housing Association in Kingston-Upon-Thames (perhaps the druggie smashed up the flat), while, at the same time, has a £600,000 charge owed to the Welsh Government secured on a property in Newport (an old school) used to house their homeless clients with drug and alcohol addiction in charity-staffed ‘transition’ converted maisonettes.
https://www.kingston.gov.uk/news/article/526/1_million_trailblazer_grant_for_kingston_sutton_and_merton_councils_to_radically_rethink_homeless_prevention
As of January 2017, the Department for Communities & Local Government (England) have awarded Kingston-Upon-Thames a £1m grant. This was one of the successful 28 of the 122 unsuccessful bids for the new pot of cash. They are launching an initial £400k “Rough sleeping Grant” to be donated to the charity sector in Kingston-Upon-Thames. It will not be used to build housing stock.
My guess is, they’ll be banking the cash in Kingston-Upon-Thames and shipping out ‘rough sleepers’ to Wales billeting these people in buildings financed by the Welsh Government.
Another ‘successful bid’ from the DCLG was a £366,288 ‘Rough Sleepers Grant” awarded to Cheshire West, Chester, Cheshire East and Warrington local authorities. They will be looking for housing in the surrounding area. This funding award coincided with the Nightingale Social acquisition by Kaleidoscope to cover north Wales.
Would any property owners in wales that have been ripped of by Anne Hinchey walesandwesthiusing scammers millionaires in grant cash rolling in from crook gay ken skates am news about dirty tricks house sale scams and do hooded rent terms that are fake deals how many unhappy old bats are there victims of Anne Hinchey chief exec getting 183000 wages per years plus grant scam cash please post your bad dealings with hinchey must be lots of elderly folks been conned will she say there getting sued no finding bats sounds more plausible to community’s she fools writing cheques ten thousand for social pretence that evil scripting needs sorting jack o the north have your say
This is a means and ends issue for me. There are homeless, drug and alcohol addicted people living in Wales, we collectively have to take care of them or leave them to deteriorate further and die even earlier. Collectively we do this through the state. Your argument is valid by out sourcing this responsibility to others ( the means) do we get value for money for the taxpayer or the best outcomes for the citizens not coping with living ( the ends ).
Too many of the “homeless, drug and alcohol addicted people living in Wales” should not be in Wales. The fact that they have been brought here by some third party places no obligation – moral or otherwise – on us Welsh or the Welsh public purse. Why are you unable to get your head around the simple fact that they should not be here?
Recently there was a ‘bonding session’ in Cardiff recently between Adref (Merthyr and Rhondda), Dewis (Neath and Pontypridd), GISDA (North Wales) and the Swansea Young Single Homeless Project. Here is the photo.
http://syshp.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/group-pic2.jpg
This begs a number of questions:-
(a) Why the fragmentation of policy by the Welsh Government?
(b) Why are the buildings being used owned/mortgaged to opos from England?
(c) Why is the Welsh Government throwing cash over Offas Dyke?
(d) Why are we importing young homeless people from England?
More on Llamau, here..
https://jacothenorth.net/blog/llamau-yet-more-devocolonialism/
In the above photo of the ‘bonding session’ is outside the Llamau HQ in Cardiff. A free pint of Brains Dark goes to whoever can identify the old bearded tramp at the back ! Tip – He IS homeless in Wales as he only has access to his mansion in Los Angeles, California.
I’ll pass on the Brains Dark, nothing against it but the puzzle was too easy.
The boy Sheen must be “resting” between movies and switched mode to become Mr Goody goody. Does he have a craving for Batman roles, or Superman ? Is he in some sort of mid life crisis, where the angst of earning pots of loot is hurting him bad ?
The increasing amount of posturing as a superior, virtuous, almost Messianic figure is not unique. Many so called stars and other celebs seem to find ” causes” ( I deliberately exclude the word “good” ) to bang on about either because they are “resting” between films/shows etc or they have “rested” for so long they have a P.R surge in an attempt, often futile, to reclaim that stardom they crave.
I think we’ll have to start worrying when Jac sets out to apply for Board positions with one or more of these H.A’s or other 3rd sector entities that proliferate around us. Until then his starring role as lead thorn in the side of the Welsh cliquesters seems to keep him away from such temptations !!!!!
Paul you need to understand that our objections focus on the importing of dysfunctional, problem and criminal units from elsewhere in the U.K while Wales remains incapable of dealing effectively with those similar problems that arise within our own native or long term residents. It is scandalous that bodies reliant on the public purse can make an industry out of the “trafficking” of misery. As I said earlier people with deep seated problems should be managed by their own communities not be part of some perverse “pass the parcel” game.
New signs in Yorkshire have been confusing locals…..
http://www.kaleidoscopeproject.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/ARCH_Bradfprd.jpg
This is what it’s about – plain & simple . . . .
Well diawl erioed, where did you get that photo ? I didn’t realise that Carwyn and ART Davies visited the same trough. Who’s the third bloke ? Or is it Helen Mary without make up ?
I like the photo Big Gee. Sometimes an image is better than a thousand words. Very appropriate.
Interesting post again. Difficult to keep up with all the changes now underway. And where does this leave the current on-going inquiry by Public Accounts Committee into the regulatory oversight of housing associations in Wales. I hope committee members are “tuned-in” to your blog Jac.
I worry that the PAC inquiry is just window-dressing for the benefit of the ONS and others. Like Dafis I suspect that Wales and West – already the largest housing association – will be boosted to the point where it dwarfs all others and then Labour will appear to make ‘changes’ that in reality will make WWH the effective controller of social housing in Wales.
Though it might not be WWH alone, again for window-dressing there may be a few other housing associations involved in this future ‘restructuring’ but all will be Labour/Common Purpose (or Labour-Common Purpose) bodies posing no threat to the system I’m condemning. This is why Cantref and others outside the loop must be dealt with.
just a quick first response to this post – Given that W&W Housing is taking over other social housing providers and developing “strategic” relationships in other parts of Wales, is it fair to presume that these moves are the foundation for a fait accompli ?
That, as and when Government declares the creation of a National Housing Authority it will do a quick name change and use the existing body Wales & West with a few tweaks and modifications to discharge the operational aspects of such a new entity. Neat, as it will ensure that the existing loyalist crew will be preserved plus creating some new non exec sinecures on the Authority Board for even more of Welsh Labour’s great and good clique. And, if it’s renationalised by the Cynulliad as part of such a grand design someone will benefit from such a transfer of loot, and it won’t be the tenants or rank and file staff.
I’m beginning to suspect that that is the objective.
This post from Jac raises more questions than answers always a good thing? If I get the gist of this complex story,especially if you consider the historical back story, there are two major points being asserted.
1. The governors and leading professionals of these housing associations are largely illegitimate in the sense of whether they are Welsh or English because of their close connections with the Labour Party and in Jac and others judgement there first interest is there own status and income and thus ensuring the power and control of the Labour Party in Wales is maintained. A self supporting arrangement. A particular concern being that these Labour Party connections are not explicit and transparentto the majority of citizens.
2. Secondly that these housing associations are illegitimate because they significantly allocate affordable housing to migrants to Wales. The suggestion is that this also bolsters Labour by possibly ensuring new residents are more likely to vote for Labour either because they had previous leanings towards Labour and or because they are just grateful to have an affordable house.
I know this simplifies the argument somewhat but this explains the general tenor.
Now for me and maybe others there are some key questions to ask. If others wanted to take up positions as Governors/Directors and/or leading professional officers of these associations what criteria would make them legitimate? It appears Jac wants them first and foremost to be Welsh speaking residents of Wales, secondly with no connections with the Labour Party or for that matter any political party, technocrats with the appropriate knowledge and skills to do the job efficiently and effectively. The suggestion being that their is a large army of such people wanting to take up these positions but are frustrated because their faces do not fit with the Labour Party.
Further in response to point 2 above Jac and others seem to only want affordable housing built that meets the needs of local longstanding Welsh residents. There is a little dilemma here referred to in other writings where correspondents acknowledge the problem of Welsh speaking residents leaving Wales to earn a living and the local businesses and services suffering as a result, so some acknowledgement that Wales needs some migration to bolster the economy nationally and locally. However, what the valid compromise is between these two positions is not clearly described. There is also some struggling over whether we need housing associations at all and whether the state either through local government or central government should allocate affordable housing to those unable to afford private rented accommodation or house/flat purchase.
I think it would be useful for correspondents to scope out their solutions to these issues. I myself am still reflecting and grappling with them but will attempt to come up with some ideas in the future.
One of the things I really struggle with is the apparent lack of motivation by AMs to ask questions about the stories that Jac and others bring into the public domain. The consequence is that many of the people described and involved have a real nonchalance to any sense of accountability, hence when they move on from one well paid post, even though their their was significant failure, they move into another high paid post. What happens in housing is also true of the NHS.
This causes an enormous sense of grievance from many hard working people and in my judgement was yet another influence on the Welsh vote for BREXIT. It is that regular I just cannot believe it moment!
Whoa, whoa, I have never said that I want those running housing associations “first and foremost to be Welsh speaking residents of Wales”. Never, ever, have I said that. What I want is those running housing associations to be more representative of their communities and not political appointees.
You are also wrong to suggest that “Jac and others seem to only want affordable housing built that meets the needs of local long-standing Welsh residents.” First, I certainly believe that long-term residents should have priority for social housing in their area. Does anyone disagree? Second, we are dealing here with vast amounts of Welsh public funding, so can anyone justify the use of that funding to build social housing for people with no connection to Wales and in many cases no desire to live in Wales?
Now that I’ve given some answers perhaps you can explain “Wales needs some migration to bolster the economy nationally and locally”. That was the argument used by the DBRW when it bribed English companies to move to central Wales and bring their whole workforce with them, with the DBRW spending a massive amount on building new homes for those workers, done with borrowed money that we are still paying back.
But, yes, we need some immigration, wealth creators and those with skills we don’t possess. But neither category includes the problem family, the ex-con, the paedophile gang.
Thank you for clarifying my misunderstanding so directors and leading professionals must be representative of their communities and not political appointees. We need to define the criteria of what makes someone representative of their community.
No social housing for people with no connection to Wales or desire to live in Wales, yes I get that. I get the point of migration from wealth creators and those with skills we do not possess. We certainly want doctors and nurses with language skills from anywhere in the world and other highly skilled professionals. We also need to attract more talented teachers. However, we cannot also find sufficient local staff to provide social care, leisure and hospitality services and there are real problems locally even getting sufficient van and lorry drivers. Many talented and skilled people leave to get better jobs all over the world because the jobs available do not match their particular knowledge and skills. You also need to explain where we house, using your terms “the problem family, the ex con, the paedophile gang” some are Welsh residents, some have previously lived in Wales some have family connections with Wales. It is in this fine detail that the real dilemmas come when we have to allocate social housing to people who are challenging to live with. I assume you do not want to transport them to convict settlements far overseas as we did historically? I do not disagree that safeguarding the majority is important.
I accept that communities grow and decline for many reasons, we have some very poignant abandoned villages and hamlets in the hills not far from here. I do worry about the experience that people have when communities decline particularly the more vulnerable people who just struggle to get up and leave even if they want too. Locally we have more people sleeping rough and others living in very overcrowded and poor accommodation because of the lack of social affordable housing.
Like you I accept what we have at the moment does not work well but we have to come together to create something new that tackles these problematic issues for us all.
Maybe we see the same problem differently, but when you suggest that we must attract doctors, nurses, teachers, etc to Wales I ask myself, ‘Why the fuck is a European country in the twenty-first century not training its own people to do these jobs?’ I know the answer – do you?
When it comes to “the problem family, the ex-con and the paedophile gang” I am talking specifically of those with no connection to Wales, of whom too many are being dumped here. Have you been to Rhyl recently? And it’s no longer just Rhyl any more. For there’s plenty of cheap housing from Amlwch to Abercarn.
You ask, “I assume you do not want to transport them to convict settlements far overseas as we did historically?” It’s a thought, but who’d have them? Though if you think about it, and think of places like Rhyl, Wales is being used in a very similar way.
this issue captures so many of the major flaws, faults and cases of utter malicious negligence that run through our nation.
On this topic, social housing should be deployed to meet local social need. Anything other than that is a diversion of resources away from other productive uses. Indeed it is arguable that an influx of imported deprivation, be it simply hardship, or worse, criminality, merely adds to a knock on social cost even before you factor in the cost of housing such units.
Alarming that no one seems to be counting dysfunctional units or publishing data regarding relocations for “social reasons”. It seems that it is seen as a dirty little secret despite all the denial and obfuscation that surrounds the subject.
Quite simply a family with needs should have its needs met as near to “home” as possible. If they are from Birmingham then Wolverhampton or Coventry may be O.K but anything beyond Shrewsbury is taking the piss. Indeed when you boil it down to its bare bones why can’t their own local authority deal with them every time ?
Within Wales a troubled family from Cardiff should get managed within that authority not shipped out to a rural community in West Wales. Given the growth of W&W Housing that prospect may increase in the near future.
As for NHS recruitment, it is nothing short of scandalous. This is a problem that has been bubbling away for over a decade as nationally we became too distracted to recognise that building a service on a dependency on imported skills was not a safe solution. Also it flies in the face of the alleged beliefs of those hand wringers and oh so virtuous tossers who rant on about overseas aid being inadequate ! Well stop pinching their bloody doctors and nurses for starters ! Within the UK Wales fails to produce an adequate supply of health professionals yet it leading medical school is allowed to apply a rationing system to training places happy to train overseas students ( for a hefty premium) yet turning its nose up at bright young people from its own nation. This will take time to remedy as doctors and nurses are not produced overnight and further time has to be allowed for them to reach a level of competence in their specialisms.
So we now have a situation where the NHS is overpopulated with graduate managers done up to their gills in MBA’s and other business bullshit but utterly clueless in organising and managing the traffic of patients through a range of disciplines in a general hospital. And we wonder what’s wrong ? You don’t need a doctor for this diagnosis, about 5 minutes of common sense will help you reach a conclusion.
Rant over.
Jac I hear your angst and your arguments build on my points. We have never historically trained sufficient doctors, nurses and teachers in Wales. We have always recruited from the UK and the rest of the world. Even now where there is a political consensus to train more doctors in Wales we do not seem able to actually make it happen. Further the doctors,nurses and teachers we do train often choose to go and work elsewhere in the UK or the world. I know of many talented young people locally who have the qualifications to train as doctors, nurses and teachers but choose other means of earning a living in part because they are not attracted by the lifestyle or compensation available. Also as we are repeatedly told by ESTYN we are not very good at training teachers, the quality of teaching in Wales is not very good, certainly not world class.
Rhyl, Amlwch and Abercarn are declining communities their reason for being has gone. Those able and willing have left. Poor people with mental health, physical disabilities and chronic health, learning difficulties, drug and alcohol addictions and criminal records have moved into some of the very cheap abandoned accommodation, some of the large houses have become houses of multiple occupation. Some poor migrants have moved there from Europe or other parts of the world. Significant public monies have been invested in these communities but the impact has been marginal to the scale of the issues. Rhyl relatively local to me poses an enormous range of issues to whoever is in power.
This is how the market works much of this accommodation is not allocated by social housing providers, in fact some of these tenants are on the waiting lists with social housing providers to get better quality accommodation.
So we come back to how do we resolve these complex issues and your original posts. You and I may have some of the knowledge and skills to be directors/governors of these social housing providers but would we meet your community representative criteria, I suspect not, we would possibly provide too much of the grit in the oyster to be acceptable. The solutions to these many complex issues require hard thinking and discussion and a willingness to deeply engage with the complexities. I am not sure enough people are putting their hands up to do this.
“Jac, I hear your angst and your arguments build on my points” is not a good way to start anything addressed to me. It sounds, at best, mildly patronising.
I’m not going to get bogged down in answering every point, I’ve done that over and over on this blog and elsewhere. What I will say is this, I guarantee that the problems we’re discussing here would be alleviated if a) we had an administration determined to prioritise Welsh interests or b) an effective nationalist opposition that might or might not be a political party.
Apologies, I do not want to patronise anyone in my writings. My Welsh interests are only to better understand how things work in this present moment and then to contribute to making them better as we go forward. This for me means really understanding what Welsh interests are because in a positive way they seem diverse and complex.
As for an effective opposition, nationalist or otherwise, we are not calling those in power to account.
I had another I cannot believe it moment this morning. The leader of Conwy County Brough Council, a Plaid councillor only paid is council tax when he received a court summons, he is reported to have said I had some domestic issues at the time and it was an oversight. He receives £48,000 for this leader post and says he won’t be resigning as leader or as a councillor, and will be standing again for the Council in May. I can be kindly and compassionate over whatever his domestic issues are but I don’t think Plaid or he can walk away from accountability for judgement. Good luck to him maybe his constituents will be understanding in May.
PL wrote earlier “………where there is a political consensus to train more doctors in Wales we do not seem able to actually make it happen.”
That political consensus may exist in the narrow sense , i.e lots of politicians mouthing similar platitudes about “crisis” and “priorities” but on the action side of the picture very little seems to happen in terms of directing the universities to get on with the job ! Instead we get vague chatter about incentives to bind doctors to certain areas /jobs for so many years not really a firm foundation on which build some key policy.
Anne Hinchey works with ken skates he gets the grant money for walesandwest housing schemes and gets cash in hand commissions proof is in hand ken skates is going to prison for his deceptions he plays community publicity games getting money for Anne Hinchey and her welsh labour twisters finding bats is a lie cctv cameras on the high street ruabon property’s price this deception and lie were are the rats rats twats walesandwest housing Cardiff watch this space for money laundering ken skates am news
walesandwesthousingCardiff is making millions there accounts are fake and web site not for profit is a big lie Anne Hinchey is a crook her dealings with ken skates sorting grant cash from welsh government is s fraud there is evidence to put that evil butch behind bars so many lies and cash in hand corruption folks need to know what really goes on social housing for immigrants only rents from out of work labour voters bats come overnight when heat is on but lues can be proven Anne Hinchey will be fired and put in Wrexham nick