It is with heavy heart, and a tear-streaked visage, that I recount further news of our beloved ‘Welsh’ Labour Party bravely defending its Blairite integrity against socialists interlopers, while a much-loved tribune, hewn from the rock upon which Dowlais stands, struggles with Italian menus worried – nay, anguished! – by the situation back home. Oh, yes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
You may recall that I referred a while back to the curious situation of people coming together in Swansea, enthused by Jeremy Corbyn, to form an unofficial Momentum group, then trying to link up with the official Momentum, and to individually join the Labour Party, but being told to piss off. To explain.
Most of you probably think of Momentum as the outfit that provides foot-soldiers for Jeremy Corbyn in his leadership contest. For, to use its own description, “Momentum (Est. 2015) is a Labour Party focused organization”. Focused on, but not part of, the Labour Party. It’s possible in England to belong to Momentum without being a Labour Party member.
Here in Wales the situation is different due to Welsh Labour Grassroots being ‘The Home for Momentum in Wales’, and WLG (Est. 2003) being much closer to the ‘official’ Labour Party than Corbyn’s ‘provisionals’ are in England. Here it appears that only Labour Party members are allowed into Momentum / Labour Grassroots.
In this Labour leadership contest, most MPs, AMs, and councillors support Owen Smith, but the rank and file backs Corbyn. Which explains why the hoi polloi are often denied meetings at which they might express their preference, or else meetings are allowed, but controlled by those who succumb to temporary blindness when confronted with a sea of hands for Corbyn. (I’m told a favoured way of dealing with this is, ‘Too close to call, so in the interests of party unity . . .’.)
(If things get really bad perhaps we can expect decisions to be taken at invitation-only meetings. Though it’s rather confusing to see ‘Welsh’ Labour revert to the tactics of its socialist past in order to silence people who are, in the main, er . . . socialists! But then, I can remember when Plaid Cymru was expelling nationalists. Since when it’s simply made itself unattractive.)
Despite it being closer to the Labour Party in Wales than in England Welsh Labour Grassroots / Momentum still supports Corbyn for leader. But when we look at where the support for Corbyn comes from, it tells an interesting story.
Of the nine CLPs that have declared for Corbyn, only two are in the southern urban belt. The single nomination for Owen Smith is in the south, as is the single constituency that decided “not to make a nomination”, while of the seven constituencies where meetings have been cancelled, five are in the south. Clearly, the farther a constituency party is from the grip of the regional HQ in Cardiff, then the more likely it is to go over to the ‘provos’.
Anyway, as I say, many of those in Swansea enthused by Corbyn had not previously been active in politics, and were not Labour Party members so, if WLG / Momentum was reluctant to engage with them, then surely, joining the Labour Party was the answer? Well, no.
Here’s a letter received in response to an application to join the Labour Party made by one of those political virgins. It talks of “inappropriate comments on Facebook” and having “behaved unacceptably at branch meetings”. (I received a very similar response to my application.)
Now clearly, Labour HQ in London does not check on the social media output of every applicant. It must consult the local hierarchy, along the lines of, ‘We’ve had a membership application from a Rhydderch Prydderch of Morriston, should we let him join?’
And the word comes back, ‘Nah, he’s gonna vote for Corbyn’. Now this may be a losing battle, but the Labour establishment in Wales has a clear advantage over the party in England in that Momentum is not entirely independent, and with enough ‘officials’ involved with WLG potential ‘provos’ can be identified and dealt with.
But by over-riding the wishes of most of its members it cannot escape the consequences, whoever is leader.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Dawn Bowden, the Assembly Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney has been in the news again, this time pissing off her constituents by telling them what a wonderful time she was having in Italy. I was able to salvage the following snaps from her Twitter account – though for some reason she’s blocked me! (@carrageryr is her partner, Martin Eaglestone, another freeloader on the Labour / trade union / Third Sector gravy train.)
Now I know some of you are thinking, ‘Come on, Jac, she’s entitled to a holiday, after working a three-day week every week since . . . well, since she was elected on May 5 . . . or at least, for the few weeks the Assembly sat before breaking up again on July 18 for its two-month summer holiday’. But, alas, it’s not just the holidays that are pissing people off.
To point you in the right direction, here’s something I recently put out on Facebook and Twitter. (Click to enlarge.)
In addition there is much disgruntlement locally over other issues.
First, it is said, that she was forced on the local Labour Party by the manipulations of fellow trade unionist and Labour Party big-wig, Andy Richards.
Second, despite being elected almost four months ago, there have been no advertisements for staff to run Bowden’s offices in the constituency and the Assembly. This being Merthyr, where the Labour Party elevates nepotism to heights that would make the denizens of Tammany Hall giddy, there are strong suspicions that these posts are already allocated – so why waste time and money advertising them? For those who might harbour suspicions that I’m being unfair to Labour in Merthyr, maybe this post from last July might help convince you, Merthyr: All Aboard the ‘Welsh’ Labour Gravy Train.
Third, it is being said, already, that Dawn Bowden is so bloody useless she makes Gerald Jones MP look competent!
But perhaps, and certainly for me, the true awfulness of this woman, her obvious unsuitability for a seat like Merthyr and Rhymney, is exposed in the letter she wrote to party members explaining why – unlike most of them – she is supporting Owen Smith for leader of the Labour Party. (Click to enlarge.)
To begin with, nobody – not even Smith himself – believes that bollocks about a £200 billion investment fund, Wages Councils, Clause 4 and a 50p tax rate. Smith has to say those things because he’s competing against a socialist. So either Bowden is too stupid to realise Smith is simply electioneering, in which case she is unintentionally misleading party members; or else she knows he’s lying, in which case, she’s also lying.
But worst of all is the final paragraph ” . . . which I know is the way we do things in Merthyr and Rhymney”. And how, exactly, would you know that, Bowden?
You are an Englishwoman. You were only elected to represent the constituency in May (after a rigged selection process). You have never lived in the constituency. You know nothing about the area, its history, or its people and their strong sense of local identity and pride in their area’s radical past. You ‘fit’ in Merthyr about as well as I’d fit in Henley-on-Thames.
You are just another shameless Labour interloper, benefiting from the most corrupt political system in western and northern Europe. Realise that and resign.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The title of this post is in the form of a question, so what is the answer? Well, taken in isolation, and if there were no ill effects on others, then the Labour Party, especially now as it tears itself apart, could be seen as a farce, and we could all have a good laugh.
But, regrettably, Labour remains the largest party in Wales, ‘Welsh’ Labour runs the Assembly, and that is most definitely a tragedy.
Perhaps the saddest thing I heard from my Merthyr source was that Plaid Cymru seems reluctant to exploit Labour’s obvious vulnerability in the constituency. Even saying, ” . . . if you’re not in the bloody Rhondda or her (Leanne Woods’) inner circle you don’t count for anything”. This strikes me as a cri de coeur rather than a burst of old-fashioned Valleys’ tribalism.
But I can’t leave you all depressed and miserable, so let me cheer you up with the third option, in the salutary and thought-provoking Parable of Jac’s Tooth. (Not for the squeamish.)
While indulging myself last weekend, sinking my gnashers into a chunk of Bourneville, I lost a tooth, or most of it. (Of course my dentist is on holiday, and then there’s bloody Bank Holiday on Monday . . . )
When I cleaned it, and examined it, I realised that the tooth would have fallen out soon without the intervention of Messrs Cadbury. As I ruefully rolled it about my hand I said to myself, ‘Jac, this tooth, rotten to the core, its days of usefulness so clearly numbered, could serve as the perfect metaphor for . . .
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ END ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Minor digression – As if he hasn’t had sufficient time at the trough that fine example of overworked, underrewarded EU generalissimo, Jose Manuel Barroso, was recruited onto the Goldman Sachs board – allegedly as a non exec Chairman and “special advisor”. Now the so called Right Wing, notably the NF in France, have started kicking up a fuss, but as far as I can see not one of the leading parties in UK or Wales have seen fit to present this as yet more evidence of the corrupt incestuous relationship between EU politicians, senior civil servants and the bankster community.
For this reason alone getting out of the EU is justified as its leadership won’t stand for voluntary reform and rehabilitation just like the Mafia wouldn’t stand down voluntarily ! Free peoples or peoples seeking freedom should now make it part of their mission in life to disassemble this horrible corrupt empire and start again from scratch with an ambitious plan for trade and markets, but no political superstructure sitting on top of it with its increasingly fat ass becoming a burden on us all.
That Dafis is the very reason why I ranted in the recent past about the reasons why I chose to vote ‘out’ in the EU referendum. The arguments about economics, migration, security etc. etc. were a side show distraction. The real issue was whether we were to continue following (blindly) the undemocratic EU establishment dictatorship (an artificial empire guided by the hidden hand at meetings like those of the Bilderberg Group) to continue in their relentless march towards world government, protected by a police and military global police state, and the eventual outworking and accomplishment of Agenda 21.
When you see the close ties and marriages of ex EU presidents – who take office in the lap of Zionist bankers – then the writing is on the wall for us all to see – if we choose to read that writing. They are all part of the same plan. They are that 1% whose aim is to impoverish and totally dominate the masses, who bit by bit are losing their right to freedom and expression.
Incidentally, it’s quite revealing that in past speeches Jose Manuel Barroso has actually referred to the EU as an empire. It’s got to the stage where they don’t feel the need to hide things anymore, because they believe that they are past the tipping point in their quest to accomplish their goal.
there’s going to be a lot of hard work rounding up all these scumbags on the day of reckoning ! I suspect we’ll be working shifts for weeks just building “enclosures” to keep them in. Although some of those factory units built by the Bay clique in out of the way places could be converted quite easily with sheep pens fitted with steel mesh “lids” to keep them confined ( for their own safety, of course! )
I can relate to that dafis. We used to have to “mentor” undergraduates for their year out in the design office when I worked in industry. There was always a stock answer when told to get a pencil and paper to be shown how to work a problem up from base principles. This was “if the system doesn’t do it for me then I don’t need to know it my tutors tell me”
‘Jobs’ for the boys (and girls) with emphasis on the word ‘JOBS’. No longer are people (with a few exceptions) getting involved in politics because they wish to change lives for the better, simply a career choice for those who see themselves as leaders of men, with perks. That’s how they see themselves, not representatives of the people, we’re too thick to know what’s good for us. That’s why we need these strong leaders, not to listen to the views of Joe Public but to lead him to their goals, which are the only right ones.
Thus the shock and awe of the ‘Leave’ vote. We didn’t listen to our betters. Tantamount to treason in the minds of the Private Members Clubs of political elite. Guardian commentators let rip with ‘They must be really thick in Wales’, yes we were singled out for some reason by Jasper, Rupert, Hyphenated Henry and other hard working souls of the intelligentsia. One even went so far as to say the Welsh NHS beats england hands down. Don’t know whether he was talking about waiting lists or complaints but there you go. They’re right on the thick bit though, the crap we put up with as politico’s create closed shops of political parties in the name of ‘People First’ shows that. It reeks to high Heaven but the shit cart ploughs on and I can’t see it braking anytime soon. Too many over-powerful cliques to dismantle. Where the hell do you start? You can’t name and shame because these smug bastards have no shame. Jac’s been doing it long enough with solicitors letters to prove it.
The only people who can effect change, us, do not have viable alternatives at present to the embedded crud that control politics in Wales. Someone to trust, is it too much to ask? They are probably out there but infiltrating the dung heap will be difficult. Too many flies around it.
The information on here is brilliant and I must thank most of the contributors for opening the eyes of many, myself included, to truth and not propaganda on party politics. Shame the media isn’t as free as free press maintains, to pass it on.
Reminds me of the late, great, Swansea publication of the 70’s, ‘Alarm’, only with a wider sea of slurry to swim through. And you’re doing it well. Thanks to all.
I remember many years ago watching US movies and hearing bright young things decide on a career in politics, as opposed to medicine, or the law. And I used to think, ‘Well, I’m glad it’s not like that over here’.
I’ve overheard students opting for a particular course on the grounds that it will help them become professional politicians.
Like PPE at Oxford, excellent grounding for a wide range of shyster activity especially politics, lobbying, P.R and “something in the City”. And especially good if you have silver spoon hanging out of your gob, but commoners with aspirations do manage the transition also
I once interviewed a young Engineering graduate from Cambridge who couldn’t figure out which end was which on a simple piece of factory kit. When I challenged him on this critical defect he quite haughtily turned and responded that he was destined to manage not get his hands dirty. So nice to have one’s destiny so clearly mapped out.
What democratic process? Welsh Labour as a whole has turned Wales into a Third World banana republic of dictatorship, cronyism, political patronage and nepotism. The odious lizard Smith has expressed this very week his utter and total contempt for the democratic process and the citizens of both Wales and the UK. If “The 48” (as Odious has joined now) principles were followed truthfully and without lies and hypocrisy then a significant number of Welsh Labour MPs and AMs would not have seats their margins are so narrow. What has Odious got to say about that?
I used to be a lifelong Labour supporter but after living here for over 14 years, the last 4 years or so have convinced me to NEVER vote Labour again. Corbyn is useless, Watson a turncoat, McDonnell a Maoist (Red books across the despatch box) and all the rest of “the boys in the band” and the only qualification to be senior public servant under Welsh Labour is to be a pathological liar and crony.
Who do I vote for now? Plaid ignore us migrants totally? Conservatives just pass the buck doing nothing? LibDems has-beens and treacherous turncoats? UKIP in fighters and self seekers turning on their own supporters and themselves like rabid dogs in a gutter?
I’d vote for anyone who seemed vaguely competent these days but those people seem notable by their absence from Welsh public life.
I know what you mean, as far as the eye can see . . .
The Llanelli CLP cancelled its meeting in the grounds that the Herald printed a story saying it was going to support Jeremy:
TO: MEMBERS OF LLANELLI CLP
The executive officers of Llanelli CLP have decided to cancel the nomination meeting scheduled to take place tomorrow (9 August 2016). This decision was made because of an article that appeared in the Llanelli Herald (5 August 2016) which appeared to pre-empt the decision of the CLP nomination meeting. The executive members have agreed that this article may mislead members into believe that a decision has already been taken, discouraging them to attend.
Secondly, the ruling of the High Court this morning has brought into doubt the restriction on members who joined after 12 January 2016 to vote in the leadership election. It would not be possible to give these members sufficient notice in advance of tomorrow’s meeting. We understand that this decision will be subject to appeal on Thursday.
We will contact you in the future if circumstances change.
We would be grateful if you would pass this message on to any members that you know who are not on email.
Welsh Labour have been informed of this decision.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact the secretary by email.
Yours sincerely
Lynne Beer, Chair
Gareth Thomas, Vice Chair
Andre McPhereson, Secretary
Tonia Antoniazzi, Junior Vice Chair
Janet Ware, Treasurer
When quizzed after the court ruling the Secretary stated they were not having a meeting as “It was not possible to rearrange a meeting as we have to give members 7 days notices. ”
Which is ironic as they cancelled the original meeting with 1 days notice…
“I used to be a lifelong Labour supporter but after living here [Rhyl?] for over 14 years, the last 4 years or so have convinced me to NEVER vote Labour again.”
This statement suggests that the reason you have abandoned your support for Labour in North Wales is somehow tied in with your migration status from England, some 14 years ago. Also, your comments on the Ukip website from January of this year about Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, suggests you have some beef about the way you have been treated by the NHS in Wales.
Seems to me that since arriving in Wales as a Labour supporter, you have subsequently dabbled with Ukip, a party who have a clear view about migrants from across the English channel, yet shout about being an ‘ignored migrant’ upon your arrival in Wales from across the river Dee.
One might draw a conclusion that you don’t like foreigners coming over here getting aids medication on the NHS but you think that getting a consultation at Glan Clwyd Hospital should be a right because you arrived in Wales with a British passport. You further comment is that you are now disillusioned with in-fighting in Ukip.
Please explain when you say “Plaid ignore us migrants totally?” What do you want?
Well Brychan I have never voted UKIP or dabbled with them as you falsely suggest despite being a lifelong Eurosceptic. When in a quandary having had Labour beliefs torn up, I wrote to Plaid on the basis of representing “all who live here in Wales” asking for further information in detail as to their policies, recognising that the public statements by Wood and others did not quite match up. That letter was not even acknowledged let alone replied to. Secondly, Plaid claimed to have in place in North Wales a form of “patient watchdog” to assist patients in the disaster that is BCUHB. Responsible contact made again to the alleged Plaid rep for that organisation, Nothing again. Why would I bother again?
As regards BCUHB, yes there is a beef and more and as the subsidies from England to Wales are enormous per head of population although not as high as Scotland are you now saying that English people have no entitlement to NHS Wales care if they live here, pay taxes and council taxes here, make contributions here? If you wish to contact me I have a dossier of 3000 pages of lies and contradictions from these people just about my own case including visible proofs of the wilful destruction of parts of my medical records. Yes I do have a real beef as would you. You have but one life!
BCUHB amongst others are killing you at three times the rate that the Nazis killed Germans, the lies, denials and deceit are staggering from NHS Wales and the Boards yet nothing is done, nothing is said and the mortality rates are even higher as Wales in its Labour wisdom has chosen a different method of reporting and it still rises, December 2012—- irregular and untimely death 193.5 per 100,000 head of population (published ONS 7th May 2014) latest figures for December 2014, 240.1 irregular and untimely deaths per 100,000 head of population published 29th June 2016 by ONS.
There is no one else to lay blame other than at the door of Welsh Labour, this has all occurred under the sole stewardship of Welsh Labour (supported at times by self seeking others). Just remember that the Mid Staffs scandal also occurred on a Labour watch and they were warned in writing by a number of what was happening 4 years before the scandal broke. On the premise that the Welsh Labour stranglehold had to be broken one way or another I voted Tory (as being the most likely to break that stanglehold) at the last election? How did you vote?
I came here with a business expecting to be treated properly in the same way as in my childhood Welsh communities in the Midlands were treated both as equals, colleagues and as friends. That is far from the case here now, and don’t worry, we along with others are selling up and baling out ASAP. I have personally persuaded others not to make the same mistake as we did including businesses who would have trained and employed people in skilled well paid jobs. But I question if Wales really wants that.
However you have made it very clear that English people in your opinion are not entitled to NHS care in Wales. Perhaps that should be made clear to a much wider audience and Liverpool, Manchester, Wigan, Stoke on Trent et al hospitals should stop treating Welsh Patients. Yes?
You say that “as the subsidies from England to Wales are enormous per head of population”. This is not true. Health spending comes under the ‘Barnett Formula’ and is equal by population count. The total net amount of total government spend is higher in Wales as we have an ‘older population’ and the excess is based on the welfare budget, of which old age pensions is the largest part.
I will give you a classic example…
A man called Ian Bayliss who paid his taxes while young and healthy in England, then arrives in Wales in late middle age and gets a hip transplant, then gets free prescriptions for pain killers and specialist medication, and then stalks a Tory AM, called Melding claiming an inadequate care package is being offered since his arrival.
May I point out that English people who get their hip replacement in Lille because the health service in southern England cannot cope, only the hospital in France gets to send in an invoice. May I ask how much the Clinical Commission Group in the part of England you are from has paid over to BCUHB?
I don’t believe you when you said you had to write to Plaid Cymru to find out the policies. You have a fine command of the internet, as was shown by you begging bowl you put out for a pier in Bae Colwyn. You are also wrong about brains that migrate into Wales. Contributory brains are not those living in retirement bungalows from Prestatyn to Rhos. It’s wrinklies, convicts, good life spongers and third sector trough botherers. The young qualified talent from Wales are being drained out to work in England, after having subsidised this talent with reduced fees and maintenance grants. This demography also explains the mortality difference between England and Wales. Old people die earlier and cost the NHS, and care system, considerably more than the young.
May I point out that while hospitals in Stoke-On-Trent do supply specialist brain surgery to Welsh patients, the reverse is also the case like Swansea providing specialist burns-unit care to all South West England.
I have no problem with English having treatment in NHS Wales, even if they haven’t already retired to Wales, as long as they arrive with the chequebook from the relavent clinical commissioning group from where they originate. Those that have already retired to Wales, we can just deduct the bog standard headage rate, and charge the excess. I guarantee my sprained ankle at the MIU cost a lot less than your dodgy hip replacement.
To answer your question, I voted Plaid Cymru.
Brychan you need desperately to get your facts absolutely correct before announcing them on the internet. My hip was replaced at Wrightington in 2001 following the battles with Mid Staffs and funded by West Midlands NHS. Wrightington gives a lifelong commitment to all its legacy patients hence no financial loss to NHS Wales at all plus if the other needs to get done then they will also take that in hand once my GP says it needs looking at. That is all paid for from central Westminster government as Wrightington is a World Centre of Excellence. When we first came here in 2002 we PAID for our prescriptions and expected to do so. The cardiac condition is a DIRECT result of clinical failure by NHS Wales in the prescribing of VETERINARY drugs for chronic conditions in human patients which NICE had forbidden in July 2007. It then failed to follow even the very basic guidelines for cardiac patients under CG5 in force at the time and subsequently CG108 since August 2010. These failures and I am NOT alone, my AM has hundreds of cases on his desk, resulted in a failure to diagnose Type 2 diabetes for over 2 years, a direct result of the failures in cardiac care and I refer you to the work M.N.Demant and team who conducted the world’s largest research programme into the causes of Type 2 in Denmark, a programme so large and extensive both in numbers and time that it has been said by expert commentators that 65000 participants passed away during its progress.
So let us move on a little to the financial aspects of your comments. During the run up to the last election our beloved Fuhrer one C Jones AM FM made a speech amongst many. He was complaining about the unfairness of the Barnett Formula in comparison with Scotland. What he did let out in that speech if anyone had bothered to check the mathematics was that in Scotland £1500 per head of population is given to them to spend on public services OVER AND ABOVE that spent on UK citizens per head of population whilst the figure per head in Wales is only £634 OVER AND ABOVE that spent on UK citizens living in England on public services.
Yes that is inequitable but to whom I would ask? Should not the figure be equal for all of us?
As you seem to know who I am perhaps you would like to come out from hiding behind the pseudonym and identify yourself fully and to make these comments very personal and abusive. I am sure Jac would put you in touch directly or are you going to try and expose more of my medical information? Now that would be a very interesting scenario as there are three different sets of my medical records in circulation none of them accurate and 4 years of which were missing in their entirety in March 2014 plus 2 years of misdiagnosis according to the records. Hence those records have been fraudulently created by someone. The police are involved and the matter is being referred to City of London Action Fraud unit.
AND Brychan you also need to check your facts as it is a matter of record that I have NEVER EVER made any contact with anyone named MELDING, AM or not. He is not our AM
Nor is he the AM that has been supporting those of us trying to get YOU better health care. You need to tread very carefully. So produce the evidence of “stalking”, our solicitors will be interested to see the documentary evidence.
It was Isherwood who spoke on your issue, disclosed to the public at large, at your request, the Senedd chamber on 18/05/2014.
http://www.assembly.wales/en/bus-home/pages/rop.aspx?meetingid=228&language=en&assembly=4&c=Record%20of%20Proceedings&keyword=bayliss#154424
I shall treat your veiled threat to ‘tread carefully’, with the contempt it deserves, and will reproduce its content anywhere and anytime I see fit. It is the written record of proceedings of the national chamber. If the Tory AMs put such detail in the public domain without your permission, you should tell your solicitor to sue the Tory party.
Interestingly, your letters, including those to Tory AMs, always start with a reference to you being a ‘lifelong Labour supporter’ as has your comment to this blog.
I do not ‘hide behind a pseudonym’. It’s my name. You should, by now, have acclimatised to the Welsh and their ‘funny names’.
It’s a number of years since you presented yourself to Wales, with associated health issues for cure, slagging off the natives, claiming local GP’s don’t prescribe up to your professed superior standard of expertise. If Wrightington healthcare is so excellent, why don’t you use it?
Your statement was clear “stalking Melding AM”. Correct Mark Isherwood has been trying to assist in getting better healthcare for all in Wales and that statement concerns not only my case but that of others in his constituency and that of many many others in his casework load. but some of us had the guts to stand up and be counted as to what is going on quite unlike yourself. And you are free to quote the statement in its exact form. However despite it being a Bank Holiday weekend as your libellous statement concerning ” stalking Melding AM” has been made erroneously, publicly and libellously he has been contacted on the matter. And as regards Wrightington, your ability to read is impaired plus you are ignorant of the specialty of that unit and how it operates.
And as you clearly have “insider” information due to some of your comments perhaps you should also quote that it is on record that I currently have probably one of the best GPs I have ever had in my life and will be sad to leave them behind. So perhaps in future you will quote within context and fully.
I note as with all internet trolls you still hide behind a pseudonym when you have been given every opportunity to come out and identify yourself even via e-mail if Jac would oblige and not in public. Yet you still hide. So come on identify yourself!
But yes we are selling up and leaving Wales to its own devices and what amounts to a covert policy of euthanasia by the Leftist parties including your own by free admission.
I will leave you with just a couple of thoughts as to the abilities and what real business thinks of Wales, just go back to the Solar Panel fanfare of investment at Wrexham. All that was brought here by a major multi national was the most UNSKILLED part of the process. Light assembly work. Warnings were issued that this was the case but all three leftist parties told those who really knew that they did not know what they were talking about. And yes once your money had been removed from Wales they closed it down without a thought. Gone and more good folk out of work. Then there is that cycle factory now trumpeted. Again the LEAST skilled part of the process which may or may not close once the money has run out and that is no reflection on the folk that work there, it is the view that big business takes of Wales and its people. Its is merely an assembly line when the workers there deserve a much bigger part in the real manufacturing process to have a longer term future with higher wage earning potential. And I won’t even start on the LG debacle and the competence or lack of it in the public service administration of such projects!
Tory AMs on the north Wales coast do rely on businessmen from Cheshire, no longer benefiting from work based private medical insurance, now retired to pleasant bungalows with sea views on the north Wales coast, for clutches of Tory votes, and NHS care. I’m sure their postbag is full of letters relating to complex medical issues, similar to yours. At the same time, proposals for complex neo-natal requirements for young Welsh families to be shipped out to the Wirral while a helicopter from Ysbyty Gwynedd is busy plucking ill-equipped tourists off Yr Wyddfa.
Back to the point of this blog post, we see the Labour party constituencies of Alyn and Deeside, Delyn and Aberconwy nominated for Corbyn. I suspect that these are niches of ‘principled socialists’ who’ve seen through the Oily Fake. I also suspect that if those Corbynistas of the north, were in the valleys, they’d be voting for Leanne. Perhaps if Plaid AMs like Dafydd Ellis Thomas in the north were fighting that corner instead of being afraid to upset the likes of Ian Bayliss, the Plaid would be winning seats off Labour in the north, as is happening in the south.
Owen Smith now spouting yet more drivel – he’s going to get rid of university fees, in a bid to snatch the youth vote ! Nothing wrong with that if it was part of a broader coherent strategy that delivered key results at various stages of the population’s advance from childhood to old age ( don’t like cradle to grave, cos I’m too near the latter !! ).
However the young Oily Slimy is just busy sketching all sorts of assorted goody bags and other “popular ideas” in a desparate bid to snatch votes off Corbyn. This is the same nitwit who regularly pronounces that the Brexit campaign was dishonest !!! The deeper he goes into this campaign the more evident it becomes to those of us with only a “spectator” interest in the Party’s goings-on that there is such a lack of competence that they will be unelectable for a decade or more.
Away from Westminster the Bay Labour clique are ripe for a few well aimed torpedoes but Plaid is in cahoots, regrettably K Williams has been turned to toe a line which she may come to regret, and the Tories and UKIP don’t seem to be really interested in launching a programme of sustained attacks on the creaking edifice of Labour in government. So it makes me wonder whether letting some extreme Anglo Brit have his way shutting the Cynulliad might be the best route to provoke a rebuild of our domestic political affairs. That might give us scope for working towards real economic activity ( instead of playtime stuff currently in vogue ) and meeting real community needs instead of contriving all sorts of spaced out initiatives that only serve create more dependency instead of erasing it.
Dawn Bowden AM – Appears to be proving the old adage in reverse:
‘You can put the girl in the Valleys, but you can’t put the Valleys in the girl’
After her trip to Italy and the opera she may even be considering spending some money on a Labour vanity project to win her constituents over such as the The Merthyr Met Opera House!
Good luck to Dawn and the constituents of Merthyr and Rhymney because if Jac is right you are going to need it.
Another spot on post mate.
Funnily enough Merthyr & Rhymney’s CLP meeting got cancelled after Dawn Bowden and Gerald Jones MP unilaterally declared support for Owen Smith without consulting the CLP which has caused no end of bad blood as have the local leaderhip , but whoever wins I hope the party implodes, your rotten tooth is apt.
And I’m not sure what’s worse invisible Dai (Havard) or the endlessly self-promoting and totally lacking in self-awareness Dawn Bowden, she deleted those and more holidays pictures you flagged up off her Facebook after being hammered for taking the mick, not everyone in the constituency can afford food and she’s swanning off to the opera on Italy. When she was challenged she couldn’t see the problem with it and blocked loads of folk on Facebook for questioning her, Valleys Labour democracy in action for you.
She showed her brass neck yesterday tweeting ‘Good Luck’ messages to GCSE pupils in Merthyr & Rhymney from her home in Llantrisant yesterday, but amazingly she manged to make it in person to Merthyr College for last week’s A Level results because the TV cameras were there.
She’s also regularly sharing and tweeting about Bristol City and their results, I bet Merthyr Football Club are delighted.
I could write chapter and verse and she’s was only selected for the seat in February this year, imagine as you said what a proper opposition could do with this and the rancid Labour Council over there run like a mafia outfit by Brendan Twomey. Is anyone from Plaid Cymru reading?
Anyway it’s great to see someone looking out for the area and more power to you elbow sir.
turning to the other major farce on our political spectrum – just read that Glyn Wise is leaving the Party of Wales but unclear as to the circumstances Is it because Plaid is not sufficiently Welsh in its orientation, is there some deep philosophical schism between them, is someone too much right, or left, or nowhere at all ?
Hard to tell nowadays with the Plaido leadership clique busy spouting Remainer crap as though we had not yet had a referendum, and waking up to some shady goings -on in various parts of Wales long after Jac and his assortment of correspondents have aired those same dirty dealings.
Perhaps young Glyn will take his future lead from these columns and rinse off the fragrant bullshit he had to immerse into to fit in with the ambiguous metropolitan style the Party seems wedded to.
I seriously doubt that the good people of the Rhondda will tolerate “hot platitudinous air and no action” for long so Ms Wood better look again at what happened to the Rotund One and not bank on a cushy number in the local University if it all rebounds badly for her in 2020.
Speaking of the Rotund One, it is quite striking that no one has had much to say about his appointment to a Chair at Cardiff University, whose pretentions to being a centre of excellence will be devalued as a consequence. Tories, UKIPpers, Plaido’s where are you ? Even a squeak for an unseated Lib Dem would be welcome but there again maybe the likes of Mr Black is also in some queue for a nice number in the academic or 3rd sector – Trinity St Dai’s seems to be a haven for such “innovators” and the Generalissimo Medwin seems to know no limits to his expansionist visions and activities. Perhaps he should go to lead Plaid – at least he seems able to develop a vision, create strategies, support these with action plans, secure funding and implement. Man of vision, man of action, no wonder most of the ruling clique are bemused, indeed hypnotised by him.
Wise is on a ‘gap’ year in South Africa, and tweeted his resignation from Table Mountain on the Cape. A kind of ‘media luvvie’ who’s never had a proper job, a professional student, mingling in the third sector and ‘ishoo groups’ taking slelfies at Pride wearing Palestinian scarves before supping cocktails, rwan, at the arts centre.
That’s is not how you win votes in Cardiff.
Compare the election results between McEvoy and Wise. If Plaid are to win the people of Cardiff at the ballot box, it’ll be on the doorstep with struggling mums, shop workers on the minimum wage, shift strugglers on the rail at Canton depot, and those who scoff a clarkies at the football. Not some bechod in a posh wine bars on a gap year. Dafis, hits the nail in describing Leanne.
I also think Jill Evans can un-seat Chris Bryant, as long as she keeps lunching at the chip shop next to the Gelligaled rather than doing a skinny latté down Mermaid Quay. I’m also prepared to share a scampy at Dick Bartons on the Mumbles Road with Kristine when she’s had enough of smashing her head against brick walls with Labour.
Thanks for that bit of additional insight into the “Wise boy”.
There was some negative feedback/insight turned up on Golwg’s readers comments so maybe we just mark him down as someone/thing that passed through Plaid on his way to oblivion/Labour. Lot of inconsistency though, bigging up that witch Katy Hopkins somewhere apparently and mouthing off about the immigrant/refugee/terrorist mess in France. Yet schmoozing the Palestinian and gay demographics ( at the same time ! ? – recipe for getting chucked off a high rise building by Kairdiff jihad branch).
As he had done his reality TV stunt at a young age I had given him benefit of the doubt and was thinking the boy had grown up. Obviously he’s still got the prancing popinjay gene firmly stuck in his brain – Was he picked for Cardiff Central because some embryonic strategist thought he’d go down well among the student masses in that area as they were all gagging to go for the corpse of LibDems back in 2015. Maybe it reflects more on how Plaid picks its runners and riders than on anything else.
On Leanne, I remain of the view that if some of the muppets that surround her were weeded out she could be regarded far more seriously. There will come a point however where she will have to grasp that nettle for herself or be dismissed as a one hit wonder who never got off the pot. Who ever they are those buggers are having a corrosive effect on her efforts and direction.
As for Jill, well again she needs to dump the pro EU baggage merely by recognising that despite her best efforts that bureaucratic empire would not regard her and her kind as anything other than a smokescreen of democratic process while they got on with the business of creating their “dream”. Too right she could see off Bryant, so it’s down to her to re focus and come out fighting because she has a good cred in that constituency. And yes, lay off the muck down the Bay.
According the Mule this morning young Wise voted for Brexit and tweeted his admiration for Marine le Pen (though he calls her Marie), which must have caused a collective attack of the vapours in the Plaid hierarchy. Suggesting to me that he might have been told to sling his hook but offered the face-saving option of ‘resignation’.
I wasn’t sure who Glyn Wise was, beyond the fact that he’d been on the telly doing something (he could have juggled parrots for all I knew), but this news has me warming to the boy.
Admiration for the appalling Le Pen would be a new departure for Glyn Wise. Were this allegation to be confirmed as true, then his departure from Plaid would be axiomatic.
so how do we square all that with prancing around a gay jamboree wearing pseudo -Islamic head gear – or did he pick up his mam’s tea towel by accident ?
As for admiring Le Pen I can buy that as a response to her stance on the EU and indeed most of her offering on the Islamist extremist threat. Beyond that she is a French supremacist ( some contradiction, sacre bleu ! ) and would deny Brittany any identity rights despite her own roots being in that part of France. Bit like some of those silly Brit supremacists from Wales who hate Cymraeg and its culture. Same old circles of illogical thought going round and round.
A quick look through his Twitter profile shows that he’s maybe not the brightest button in the jar… he thinks South African game reserves are full of tigers and pumas, is shocked the fruit there tastes fresher than that in M&S, watches sports he finds boring because he’s yearning for British success and thinks of London as his capital city. So a bit of a dim Brit-nat then. I think the question should be how he ever got selected as a Plaid candidate!
As for why Glyn Wise was ever selected as a Plaid Cymru candidate I think that’s because Plaid likes to show that it’s ‘inclusive’ and ‘a modern party in tune with today’s yoof’. The latter explains Glyn Wise, the former explains Mohammad Asghar. Then you have the gay and lesbian sectors, which are very well covered, as are all varieties of socialism, environmentalists are also generously catered for. In fact, just about everything is covered except for nationalism, and Wales.
I’ll probably get coshed by the moderator for saying this but it occurs to me that maybe dear Glyn was being “mentored” by some middle aged dame with an “eye” for young talent, or even more likely it was someone of the camp ‘ari persuasion who was eyeing him up as a bit of candy for those long nights down the Bay. Inclusive, you can call it that but I prefer “totally unfocussed” as a descriptive term.
All this fringe nonsense started when DLT ( Our Lord, bless him) was in his pomp but instead of getting shot of the baggage when he was sidelined they upped the intensity of commitment to this type of horseshit . Now there are occasional individuals who add considerable value despite taking their pleasures in strange ways ( separate words, not the clink up north) but all too often the right to do so takes precedence over any broader social and economic good that our communities desperately need. Selfish pet projects take precedence over the real central issues and we end up with the shit fest of today.
No doubt some Plaido mouthpiece will utter platitudes about “learning from this unfortunate episode ” and that “serious review of processes and procedures” will be undertaken. Well hooray, but planning to fail seems to come easy to these idiots simply because they fail to plan. What passes for a plan is probably at best a wish list, a dreamscape and in that context Wise probably fitted the bill with a nice shiny “yoof” candidate sweeping to victory on the wave of student and other adolescent votes. Except those little beauties went off and voted for someone else, if at all. So it all hits the deck with a dull thud, especially when the chosen one drifts off script hilariously.
En état-civil:
Le Pen, Marion Anne Perrine, dite Marine
All those meetings cancelled?…. Certain people in Welsh Labour offended by democracy? Certain people in Welsh Labour offended by working class people/members expressing an opinion? Certain people in Welsh Labour offended by its own ‘grassroots’ members and ‘foot-soldiers’ that may be viewed as ‘shit-under-shoe’ inferiors of second class/unworthy status? Or maybe?…..If you’re not on the gravy train, or being lined up for a future seat on it?……..Kindly f#ck off, you’re only use to Welsh Labour is unpaid volunteering and electioneering etc on behalf of the gravy train and its passengers!
Leadership contest – Islington Labour (Corbin) vs. “New Labour” (Smyth). This is really speaking to the issues that matter to the Welsh electorate. (Stifled yawn …)
I joined Labour exactly 2 months ago after being inspired by Corbyn’s politics, I’ve avoided it to this point as never seen any point, there was no hope, my mind was changed with Corbyn so I also joined up to Momentum too in case Labour went tits up, I went nervously down to my first CLP meeting, it was packed, Geraint Davies came in like a told off 8 year old boy, he sulked and moaned about the amount of people there and his attitude was incredible.
He spoke, firstly for the sympathy vote for Jo Cox, never mentioned Corbyn and went straight into what the EU had done for Swansea and how much money we would be losing, then the others got a chance all picked out by the chairwoman after a show of hands for those wanting to speak, councillors first mainly backing Davies, then a few ordinary members who said support for Corbyn, I was waiting for someone to ask for a vote of confidence as I’d heard had been done in other CLP’s so far…….nothing, so as it was drawing to a close I stuck my hand up, thankfully she picked me at the end, I’ve never spoken publicly before so was really nervous but I did have some figures written down about his expenses and salary, I started to say how he was costing Swansea nearly £250,000 per year but Chairwoman stopped me in my tracks not allowed……so i said sorry and asked for a vote of support for Corbyn and how would we ask for deselection of Davies, I had a round of applause!!
Then they said they had to have a vote, Davies went mad and said not on, but because I’d called it they had to act on it, so they said they’d have a vote to see if we could have a vote!!………the elderly gent beside me who’d been in Labour for donkeys years said well no doubt that’s a majority after a huge show of hands………..apparently the count was 51 which was too close to call so they shut the meeting down immediately, ignoring people shouting ‘point of order’.
I left meeting and was contacted by a number of people afterwards saying they were happy with what I’d said so I felt a bit confident and decided to then go to their next policy meeting, wow what an eyeopener that was, boring but so informative, led by their ‘leader’ Rob Stewart the meeting was full of councillors, all laughing at living in different wards to the ones they represent when having to state their names and wards, no concern at all for the people of Swansea just how Labour is branded and portrayed to the general public, tag lines on immigration, crime….would this sound better if we said it this way, a lot of talk of weeds and roundup, basically keeping everyone placated and wrapped up in bullshit, I’ve been to many a corporate marketing meeting to know when I’m in one.
There was a selection meeting at my branch next so I decided to go for it armed with my ‘motions’ support Corbyn and deselect Davies, I emailed councillor to say I was coming and that I would be raising motions, got an email back from Fiona Gordon to say I couldn’t raise motions at a selection meeting, I said can you show me the rules where it states that…………nothing, then I had another message saying don’t bother going she’d forgotten but I couldn’t attend as wasn’t 6 month member, again I asked for the rules to show me this and none were forthcoming so I said if you can’t show me why I can’t come then I’m coming, so I went down with my mate who was going to back my motions and was blocked at the door by two ladies they asked my name I gave it to them and they said Oh yes we’ve been talking about you, you can’t come in, I asked for the rules, they showed me a bit of highlighted paper and after a bit of discussion it was clear I wasn’t welcome.
The next day or so it was a Momentum meeting, I was suprised to see the same old Labour councillors who had been banging on about the weeds a few days before running the meeting, same Chairwoman as Labour, again meeting full of nothing, just talk of a rally at Chistmas for more fundraising, I left feeling totally disillusioned and like my time had been wasted, no action, nothing now, no out and about telling people what Corbyn’s doing…..nothing
I started asking questions online, asking for groups or info so that people could connect, was basically told to stop moaning and let the people who’d been running it get on with it, more people started to contact me who’d seen my posts and frustrations, it wasn’t just me and we were all getting the same sort of feedback and feeling.
Then i accidentally had an email from Momentum to say about a meeting the following day, a meeting none of us knew about, no members were invited to, no address nothing, so again i queried it and was told it was a meeting of the elected hierarchy of Momentum?? The following morning all traces of conversation were removed from their page….I didn’t think Momentum was like this it seemed worse than Labour so I went to their website to cancel my membership and found that they encouraged people to get involved, download fliers, set up groups, do what ever was needed to get the word out……that wasn’t at all what I had experienced so far so I thought sod it and set up a little facebook group calling it Swansea Momentum as indeed i was a member and other people like myself needed somewhere to talk to like minds without it being censored and deleted.
There was uproar, we had the councillors in there asking what we thought we were doing, we weren’t official couldn’t just set up like that..ignored them, then Welsh Labour Grassroots Secretary and NEC member Darren Williams came in and denied that there were meetings going on we didn’t know about but actually proved there were not just one but 2 meetings that day with momentum and no members apart from the hierarchy had been informed, then his girlfriend Sophie Williams vice secretary or something to tell us to close immediately we had no right to use momentum as a name as they had the official nod to do so and we hadn’t asked permission, close down and use our censored groups, although there wasn’t one for swansea itself, again i said no and explained my reasoning behind that, she said we would be closed down…….so far we haven’t been
I put (unofficial) on the end of the group name not for WLG’s requests but because we didn’t want to hoodwink new members into thinking we were the ‘Official’ group and leaving when they found out so we did that for the members not for them
…….. i was then contacted by a high up member of the Labour party in swansea to say I was on the right track and that apparently a deal had been done between Momentums Jon Lansman & WLG (Bob Clay), there had been trouble in the ranks over it but they had sorted it all out now, I have evidenced all this too so I’m not talking out my ass.
We carried on as a group then Corbyn was coming to Swansea suddenly out of the blue, we bombarded evening post, got local groups involved, shared it everywhere to get the word out, not one member of our group that is now over 150 people had an email from Labour, Welsh Labour Grassroots or Momentum about his visit, not one, the only advertising was done on their official WLG/Momentum Swansea Bay (Heavily censored) page, I created a map to show Mp’s & Councillors expenses and salaries, I’ve exposed what I’ve found as I’ve gone along as have others in our group.
So the upshot of all this is I just got booted out of the Labour Party after joining exactly 2 months ago, our group is still going but we’re struggling to find any Labour councillor in swansea who likes truth and transparency, if you know of one ask them to get in touch!
If your a Corbyn supporter and feel our plight then please join our group, we need support and all the help we can get, it’s Swansea Momentum (Unofficial)
Falling polls, internal factionalism, and each faction divided against itself: these are not the characteristics of a viable political movement.
A sorry tale that is, Kristine. You’ll recall a national Labour spokesman comparing Swansea Labour to “a nest of vipers” earlier this year and you appear to have walked into the middle of the snakepit and made yourself a target for both sides.
Corbyn’s policies and public image are clearly attractive to a public fed up to the teeth with what’s been on offer from most Parties for decades. There are many people who would vote Labour and many more who would never dream of it who are over the moon that Corbyn is in the ascendancy and hopefully going to stick it to the absolutely rotten core of the Party who have held court for so long. What a delight it is to watch the likes of the Kinnocks, Blair, Campbell, Mandelson, Harman, Hain and dozens of other mandarins foaming with helpless anger that they can’t get rid of “this turbulent priest” Corbyn. Cameron was right – he is like the Black Knight in that the more he is attacked then the stronger he seems to get.
It’s in most people’s nature to side with the underdog and the way Corbyn has been bullied by supposed friends and by natural foes has made him more attractive, particularly that he has been able to withstand the incessant attacks without resorting to the quite disgraceful tactics used against him. Throw in the mix a pretty decent set of Left leaning policies (though I don’t think they’ll hold up to the scrutiny of a General Election) and his popularity is understandable. Alas, I fear it’s a chimera. My natural cynicism about politicians in general, and Labour ones particularly, leads me to believe that all will end in tears. Scratch below the surface and we’ll find that surrounding Corbyn are another bunch of wannabe narcissists just itching to grab the reins of power not to benefit those who put them into power, but actually themselves. The wheel will have turned full circle. I really hope I am wrong and good luck with your fight to be heard in your Party.
Thanks Stan, I’m in a bit of a quandry about what to do now, the councillors in my ward which is Castle are probably self explanatory to you all and I couldn’t possibly vote for them knowing what I know at the local elections in May, I can no longer go to meetings or get involved that way so the other thought I had was to run as a Corbyn Candidate for Swansea? I’m not wanting to do it at all honestly it’s never been my intention but I don’t want to give up the fight either, I’ll wait till after the leadership election to make a decision but i don’t know what else to do to fight them in my community ? Any ideas or thoughts on what I can do to continue the fight down here, I’ve riled them to high heaven I may as well carry on……. 🙂
In my opinion sit tight until after the vote is decided, probably a while longer because the civil war is in its early stages yet. If you’ve had your membership rescinded take a look at what appeal measures are available to you and remember it’s nothing personal -there are likely thousands in your position. Follow “friendly” social media – the Canary, Vox Politico, Eoin twitter, Paul Mason are good starts and will keep you pretty well bang up to date on unfolding developments in the Labour battle. Not sure how you can stand as “Corbyn Candidate” other than in an Independent capacity. Doubtless others who have a political background can better advise you. Finally – most of us who blog or respond to blogs are probably more wrapped up in these things than the Average Joe or Dai but keep a sense of perspective, difficult though it is when we are so angry at injustice, unfairness and corruption. The sun always rises in the morning no matter how bad the day before has been. A bit cliched and toe-curling, I know, but it’s easy to lose focus on what you can control and what you can’t. Good luck with it and please come back to Jac to let us know how you’ve got on.
Cheers Stan 🙂 I think that’s the way, sit tight till the leadership is over, I’m subscribed to nearly all the ones you mentioned, will add the others x Thought this may help in the meantime, set up a petition last night to reselect the lot of them when Corbyn gets in, may not get far but it’ll keep them on their toes in the meantime and show I’m not going quietly https://www.change.org/p/labour-party-reselection-of-all-wales-mp-s-am-s-councillors-when-corbyn-elected-leader-sept-2016
A very interesting contribution,indeed. It confirms what many of us have long suspected, and reminds me of my very brief membership of the Labour Party in the mid-1980s.when I was working in London. Nothing has changed it seems.
It’s incredible, I knew it was corrupt but I didn’t realise the extent at local level
Apparently you are deemed a threat to Welsh Labour for speaking out,extolling fairness and genuinely caring! The threat to Labour is not from people whom genuinely care. The threat to Welsh Labour comes from others in its higher echelons. The party is infiltrated by many careerist impostors and cuckoos-in-the-nest destroying Labour from within. They have turned thinking ideological non-donkey voters like myself into ex-voters. The Welsh Labour Party/WAG has deliberately governed to see Cardiff progress light years ahead of an excluded, ignored and economically partitioned Swansea, SW Wales, rest of Wales. It’s not the likes of you or me that turned Gower into a Tory seat for the first time in its history!
Labour today is a party held together by patronage and nepotism, a system that is becoming clear to more and more people, which in turn helps explain Labour’s dwindling support. But as the support from decent, local people falls away Labour is forced to rely even more on the careerists and the public funding scroungers who get the party such a bad name. But without an alternative party like the SNP there will be no ‘Big Bang’, just a slow lingering decline that sees Labour take Wales down with it.
What has happened in Gower with Labour’s election defeat there will also happen in the future in quite a few other places IMO. I’d put a bet on Wrexham (of all places!) becoming a future Labour loss. I am now sadly of the opinion that Welsh Labour has deliberate intention and policy to starve money, investment and opportunity in many of its traditional seats/area’s thinking poor people/constituencies are a guaranteed Labour vote/win. The trouble for Labour is?…. A dying donkey vote, growing anger and apathy of the working class towards Labour and a voting switch to UKIP and other parties will let another party in through the back door. Labour’s loss in Gower was not down to a surge in popularity for the (not exactly Wales friendly?) Conservative Party and its policies.
Many a ‘cuckoo-in-the-nest’ impostor Labour A.M and M.P will be long gone, sitting comfortably in a quango job(s), picking up a gold plated pension or two and having a nice little seat in the House Of Lords etc…..And the Welsh Labour Party itself?….. Dying a slow gradual lingering death with continuous decreasing majorities because of the way it has so disgracefully treated its traditional voters/voting area’s as second class. The Labour party was meant to be so much better than that? The party is destroying itself and seemingly either too oblivious or arrogant (or both?) to see it!
I suspect there are two intertwined attitudes that will contribute to Labour’s demise.
Labour’s leadership, confronted with a declining vote and a distrustful electorate, is unable to attract enough people of the necessary ability and moral fibre, so it has to be ever more blatant in its nepotism and cronyism in a desperate attempt to hang on to power.
Those Labour’s leadership emplace, being what they are, and seeing the writing on the wall, have lost all sense of shame. It is now a case of, ‘The party’s over, let’s grab what we can can, while we can’.
So we end up with shysters having no local connections, little ability, and few scruples, who are clearly in it for themselves. Not just politicians, but the ever-expanding army sponging off the public purse. Which only confirms the public perception of ‘Welsh’ Labour, and makes the decline obvious to even more people.
The Swansea Labour Party has been run for decades by successive generations of a number of families and without that knowledge I suspect someone would make little sense of its purposes and people. Try talking to any long standing office holder and bring up the past and you will have a tale of who his or her forebears were and what they did in the party. It’s more wedded to the hereditary principle than the House of Lords ever was. New members with fresh ideas are not so much unwelcome as not required. It runs perfectly satisfactorily as it stands from their point of view. I’d term it feudal rather than corrupt.
I think you’re right, and this explains the willingness, desire even, to take on students and oddballs to swell the ranks, safe in the knowledge that these transients will not be around for long and cannot therefore challenge the established order.
Uplands Ward in Swansea is an example of this Jac – fill Brynmill with HMO ‘s – select newly graduated students to stand as Cllrs – they get in because the balance of students outweighs the ‘normal’ residents. they create havoc in the Ward and then depart to greener fields — using Brynmill as a ladder for their political careers.Why should students who are not indigenous to the area be allowed to vote in Local elections?
The once vibrant community of Brynmill has been eroded- run down student lets- rubbish everywhere – Owners of student lets are mainly from England sucking the life-blood out of the community- stripping the area of affordable 3-bed roomed family homes- not even paying Council Tax or making sure the properties,which are left vacant for half the year,are maintained.
The Labour ‘student’ Cllrs did nothing absolutely nothing to address the situation- a bit of a deviation Jac but I just had to get it off my chest
You’re right to say it. The problem is that there are a lot of people making a lot of money out of students, plus the fact that governments, UK and ‘Welsh’, plus councils, want to increase the number of students to look good in assorted league tables, and improve the local age profile – Cardiff is forever boasting that it’s a ‘city of the young’ (easy enough to achieve when you grab all the investment and jobs).
The losers in this system are obviously those locals who now find themselves trapped in ‘student neighbourhoods’, with all the attendant problems. But who cares about them!
I believe Trefforest is the same. I can remember a certain Lee Whitehead being voted in as a Labour councillor there in the early 90’s. Leanne Wood would remember him well. He was very anti-Welsh and was of English origin. I’ve just done a search on him. Here he is. He hasn’t done too badly for himself appearing to have followed a well trodden path for our Labourite friends.
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/lee-whitehead-96825157?trk=prof-samename-picture
I know what you mean. Some of the students who come here are really lovable. Citizens of the world, open to all cultures – except the culture of the people they chose to live amongst.
Here’s a tweet I picked up on last year, by a student in Cardiff expressing her views on the name of the Students’ Union building.
No doubt Plaid Cymru would try to reason with her, explain things, beg her not to be so nasty. Me, I’d just tell her to fuck off home.
or gas the bitch, that’s what we always did to eradicate vermin on the farm. Very often the old traditional methods are the best !
It’s rather ironic that the only constituency Labour Party in Wales to support Owen Smith (Blaenau Gwent) is the very same constituency Labour Party that rejected him as their Labour candidate for Westminster. Also, all the other constituencies in the valleys have been banned from holding any meetings by their bosses in London. This is despite ongoing ‘issues of the day’ relating to what’s happening in those constituencies or Wales as a whole. London have effectively ‘closed down’ the Labour Party in Wales in case their meetings prove to be an embarrassment.
Agreed, Brychan – and the ultimate embarrassment could have been in Oily’s patch.
Pontypridd CLP nominated Smith on 12 August but for some reason the information has not been updated on the Grassroots Labour website yet, and it’s their information that Jac has reproduced in his article. There are around 400 members in Pontypridd yet only 101 turned up for the meeting. The vote for Oily was carried 74-27. There are apparently also 125 new members who didn’t get a vote due to the Court ruling that disenfranchised new members. I’d be prepared to bet a sizeable majority of that 125 would have backed Corbyn, and being new members would very likely have voted if they’d had chance. Local Twitter sources in Ponty suggest a very healthy level of support for Corbyn throughout the constituency.
I reckon Oily may not be safe in his own backyard if reselection of MPs is brought in. The way the Stalinist purge of Labour members is going on right now, then if and when Corbyn is re-elected there will surely be a price to pay for the old guard’s gerrymandering and cynical attempts to defeat Corbyn by any dodgy means.
That sounds like one of the invitation-only meetings I referred to.
I’m glad you added that geographical qualification when describing the system here as ‘most corrupt’. Without it, you would have offended friends of mine outside this quadrant of Europe. I often think that Leonardo Sciascia’s ‘Day of the Owl’ conveys a vivid picture of the atmosphere of Welsh public life.
I’d like to put it to you that the idle legislator to you may not be lying in a conventional sense. Most people when perpetrating porkies will know what the truth is, but choose to utter a falsehood. There are, however, those who cannot tell the difference between them. Their solipsist outlook remains unshaken by outside influences. Obviously, this would not be possible for most of us, but this person seems to enjoy more favourable circumstances.
Whichever of the two wins, be it Corbers or Master Owen, I can foresee no good outcome. In addition, a lot of people will have devoted to this contest a great deal of energy and time that would have been better devoted to tackling our problems here. Sunt lacrima rerum.