Cardiff musician and family lucky not to be murdered by south Wales police!

                                                                                                                                                                           On 12 February 2009, as a police helicopter hovered overhead, four heavily armed cops raided the Grangetown home of jazz musician Victor Frederick, 63, his partner, Andrea Heath and their 12 year-old daughter.

 

 

Ms Heath described what happened:

“I heard some scuffling sound and shouting. When I opened the door there were four police officers armed with machine guns which had infra-red sights.

“The whole street had been cordoned off. I could see Victor in his underpants outside with police training guns on him. Other officers trained their guns on me. I was told I would be shot if I moved. It was absolutely terrifying.

“Our daughter was upstairs. She told me later that she had a camera and thought about taking pictures of the police activity and commotion. It’s awful to think what might have happened if the police had seen a camera flash from the upstairs window and assumed it was a gun.”

Mr Frederick was arrested under suspicion of possessing materials likely to be used for making explosives and hauled off to Rumney nick where he was held for 24 hours before being released without charge.  

In a published letter to Barbara Wilding, south Wales chief cop, Plaid Cymru AM Leanne Wood writes: “When [Mr Frederick] asked for [handcuffs] to be loosened, he tells me they were deliberately tightened to the extent that he was in extreme pain and circulation was cut off.

“He tells me that the police officers armed with machine guns appeared extremely nervous. They did not seem to have any background knowledge of why they were there. Other officers both in uniform and in plain clothes said they did not know what was going on…The family feels lucky and relieved that all three members are alive.”

And just what suspicious material did the cops find in Mr Frederick’s recording studio? A Mohammed Ali boxing video and a west Indian drink called mauby.

And as for south Wales cops? Still insisting, as they had done for the past six weeks, that officers had acted “in good faith based on genuine concerns”…until yesterday, that is, less than 24 hours after a much-publicised press conference given by Mr Frederick, Ms Heath and Ms Wood. Mr Frederick has now received a hand-delivered letter from Superintendent Bob Tooby, Deputy Divisional Commander of C Division, offering the family an unreserved apology. Bob has also offered to repair the damage the cops did to the family’s home.

Our advice? Tear the letter up and sue Barbara Wilding and her thugs for every penny you can get! But that won’t change much. South Wales cops seem to be out of control. We wonder how many other people have been terrorised by them and how many more will suffer at the hands of these people in “authority” who are meant to “serve” the community…

Resist police repression.

Who killed Nikkita Walters and Katie-Jo Davies?

The movers and shakers of the Welsh weapons industry will gather on Tuesday 7 April 2009 for the annual Aerolink Wales arms fair. Organisers promise ‘a host of new opportunities for our attendees’ plus a very pleasant stay – at the taxpayers’ expense, of course – in the 4 star Vale of Glamorgan Hotel and Spa.

But just who are the people intent on putting Wales at the forefront of the global arms trade?

Here's to more death and destruction!

First minister, Rhodri Morgan, makes no bones of his support for the Welsh war machine. In early February 2009 he was in north Wales offering support to Saygrove Electronics Ltd, which produces missile systems. Two weeks before that he visited Hawker Beechcraft in Broughton, which makes the spy planes that patrol the skies above Afghanistan and Iraq.

And when the announcement of the new military academy at St Athan was made on the steps of the Senedd in 2007, Rhodri and Welsh politicians from all parties were queuing in front of the TV cameras to express their delight at the £14 billion project, hailed as the saviour of the south Wales economy.

Ieuan Wyn Jones, country lawyer turned government arms dealer

Now that the academy looks doomed to fail, Rhodri and Ieuan ‘deputy dawg’ Wyn Jones, his Plaid Cymru sidekick and minister for enterprise, innovation and networks, will no doubt be using Aerolink 2009 to push for companies to set up at the ParcAberporth UAV technology park near Aberystwyth, where unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), such as the Hermes 450 made by Israeli firm Elbit Systems, are tested. According to the technology park’s website a ‘generous and comprehensive support structure [is] available to occupiers’. By May 2008 £8.7 million of our money had gone towards making Parc Aberporth one of Europe’s leading military testing centres, attracting not just Israeli UAV manufacturers but many others from around the world.

Mark Norris, head of aerospace and defence, IBW; director of AWF

Making sure Rhodri and Ieuan’s pledges are turned into action is the job of Mark Norris, head of aerospace and defence at International Business Wales (IBW), a government department under the direct supervision of Wyn Jones which offers ‘an unrivalled package of skills, sites and support’ to the arms industry. IBW is a main sponsor of Aerolink 2009 so Mr Norris will, no doubt, be courted by representatives of arms manufacturers from around the world eager for handouts. Yet far from providing the ‘unbiased’ eye of a civil servant out to get the best deal for the taxpayer, Norris is indisputably on the side of the arms industry, demonstrated by the fact that he just happens to be a director of Aerospace Wales Forum Ltd (AWF), a private lobbying company – yet in receipt of public money – run by CEO John Whalley, whose thirty years of experience at BAE Systems, the UK’s premier arms manufacturer, put him and his lobbying outfit at the heart of the Welsh arms industry.

John Whalley, ex-BAE Systems and CEO of Aerospace Wales Forum

Politicians and manufacturers would be lost without the research and development (R&D) expertise of Wales’ top universities. Cardiff and Swansea universities have received at least £7 million of public money to help private companies develop their weapons capability. In addition, Bangor and Aberystwyth universities (along with Swansea) got £17 million of taxpayers’ money last year to work on the Tyciant project which aims to develop further UAV technologies.

Getting our children involved in the war effort is the task of John Steele, University of Glamorgan academic, director of AWF and representative of the Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC). At a Welsh assembly science policy review meeting in 2005 Mr Steele, in his role as ‘coordinating and implementing a Welsh academic and skills aerospace strategy,’ declared the national curriculum as ‘too prescriptive and too soft’. His solution?  ‘Mathematics, Science and Innovative skills must underpin any future education system’. Fellow AWF director John Whalley’s former employer, BAE Systems, has taken Steele’s words to heart by opening an ‘education’ centre at its Glascoed bomb-making factory where primary school children are promised ‘a unique learning experience to bring the subject of World War 2 to life’.

John Steele, military academic, AWF director, SBAC people and management board

Luckily the children can leave the bomb factory and go home at the end of the day. Not so fortunate were air cadets Nikkita Walters and Katie-Jo Davies, the teenage cousins from Gilfach Goch, killed above the skies of St Athan during one of the RAF’s ‘First Flight experiences‘.

            As Rhodri Morgan, Ieuan Wyn Jones, Mark Norris, John Whalley and John Steele cut deals over wine and canapés at Aerolink Wales 2009, dreaming of the world’s biggest and brashest training camp, serving the armies and airforces of the world, we wonder if any of them will pause to remember Nikkita and Katie-Jo…

PARASITE: PERSON WHO EXPLOITS OTHERS

Mark Roberts, lord of extortion

Following our exposē of would-be Plaid Cymru councillor, Mark Roberts a.k.a. lord Marcher of Trellech, dubbed the ‘lord of extortion’ by the press, Plaid are taking active measures to expel Roberts. We wonder, however, whether the good lord will go quietly, given his continuing litigious adventures – Roberts is taking legal action against the Vale of Glamorgan council to get his hands on the Old Harbour in Barry – or whether he’ll call on Darwin Gray, the Cardiff-based solicitors, to defend his honour.

Established in 2002 by Bethan Darwin and Donald Gray, the legal firm has carried out much of Roberts’ dirty work, including the scam against the residents of Peterstone Wentlooge, Newport in 2004. Paul Flynn MP was so outraged by the ‘atrocious’ letter sent by Darwin Gray to residents that he named and shamed their four senior solicitors (Darwin and Gray plus colleagues Jason Smith and Rhodri Lewis) in his campaign newsletter, describing them as ‘parasites‘.

           

Donald Gray, specialist in common land and manorial law

 Flynn couldn’t possibly be referring to the Donald Gray who provides commercial property advice for South Wales charity, Valleys Kids, could he? Or media-friendly Bethan Darwin who does voluntary work for Cardiff Law Centre and who set up the Superwoman charity which boasts of helping Barnardo’s Cymru, Trust for Sick Kids, Bobath Cymru, Smile Train and Noah’s Ark? At Superwoman 4, a charity piss-up for the great and the good, held in October 2008, guests were treated to talks by Menna Richards, head of BBC Wales, and Betsan Powys, Wales’ leading political pundit. Ms Darwin clearly knows people in high places.

Bethan Darwin, superwoman

Plaid Cymru beware! When it comes to assisting Mr Roberts with his scams, justice is the last thing to concern Darwin Gray. Mind you, they can’t be that good. Roberts lost his attempt to extort money from the Peterstone residents and last year got stuffed in another high court case resulting in a legal bill running into hundreds of thousands of pounds. Before he gets kicked out of Plaid Cymru, perhaps Mr Roberts should think about giving Darwin Gray the boot…

One thing’s for sure: Valleys Kids and all the other charities supported by Darwin Gray solicitors must sever their links with these ‘parasites’ before they, too, become discredited.

And when Roberts does get his marching orders from Plaid, remember, it was South Wales Anarchists wot done it!!

LORD OF EXTORTION?

 

Lord Marcher of Trellech aka Mark Roberts aka Mark Andrew Tudor of Friar's Point, Barry Island; owner of Tacticall Radio Hire, Trecader Court, Barry or would that be 11, Wayne Street, Trehafod?

 

Who thinks this man is fit to be a councillor?

 
Not Glenys Phillips, an 86 year-old disabled widow living in Ferndale, Rhondda, that’s for sure. Mr Roberts bought up the freehold property of her home for £6,350 three years ago without her knowledge and is now demanding up to £20,000 for the leasehold of the house she’s been living in for 60 years. Mrs Phillips will just have to go on worrying about being evicted while the case is considered by the leasehold tribunal. That can take 18 months!

Julie Foster and others living in Peterstone Wentlooge, near Newport, may not be overjoyed to have Roberts ‘lording’ it over them either. Over the years Roberts has bought up 60 manorial titles, including that of Romney, which covers common land in and around Peterstone. Having paid £10,000 for the hereditary title at an auction, Roberts then sent letters to the residents, demanding sums of up to £45,000 in return for access to their homes across paths and verges – access they’ve enjoyed freely all their lives! The letter threatened litigation if villagers didn’t cough up immediately. Housing officer Ruth Winstanley faced an £18,000 bill.

“I was flabbergasted when I received the letter demanding I pay for the right to park my car in my own drive, I’ve never heard of such an outrageous thing in my life.”

Julie Foster and her neighbours paid out £100,000 before the legal loophole was closed and Roberts handed a hefty bill for legal costs. A resident of Alstonefield, a village in the Peak District where Roberts tried a similar scam said:

“This is the 21st century and we feel trapped, prisoners on our own land.”

The fishermen of West Wales certainly wouldn’t consider Roberts fit to be their councillor after he tried to establish title to half the coastline of Pembrokeshire and exclusive fishing rights! Who’s to say what fishermen would have been asked to pay? Fortunately, Roberts lost this case as well and earlier this year was handed another bill for hundreds of thousands of pounds, which may explain why he’s now targeting vulnerable people like Mrs Phillips.

Plaid Cymru, however, would be only too pleased to see Mr Roberts, dubbed the ‘lord of extortion’ by the press, in a position of authority. In fact, such is Plaid Cymru’s conviction of Mr Roberts’ integrity and of his commitment to civic duty and social justice, that they backed him as the Plaid Cymru candidate in not one, but two council elections in St Athan in 2004 and Buttrills in the Vale of Glamorgan in 2008, where he finished a respectable 4th out of 6 candidates. Watch out for Mr Roberts at the next Welsh Assembly elections! A bright future as housing minister may be in the offing. Homeowners, check your leases now!

Lording it over the anti-fascists

Anti-fascist? Don't make us laugh!

What on earth has prompted anti-fascist campaigners Searchlight Cymru to make Dafydd Elis-Thomas their honorary president? Don’t they know that Elis-Thomas epitomises the very worst characteristics of many professional politicians: hypocrisy, greed and arrogance to name but three?

Once upon a time Elis-Thomas was a self-confessed Marxist who moved the writ in parliament for Bobby Sands’ election in 1981. Yet within two decades he dumped any pretense at being a democrat to become a member of the house of lords, taking the title of lord Elis-Thomas of Nant Conwy.

Unworried by the charge of ‘traitor’, the good lord has continued to exploit his powerful position, especially with the ladies. Marjorie Thompson claims she and her purse were taken to the cleaner’s by the former Plaid Cymru leader in their nine-year relationship. Mind you, his “lordship” does speak sense from time to time: in 2003 he slammed the Welsh assembly, saying he wouldn’t bother to vote if he wasn’t a politician. So why is he still the presiding officer? Err, could it be anything to do with the big fat salary he gets on top of all the allowances? Or perhaps it’s the chance to vote himself an 8.3% bung when other public servants are scraping by on below-inflation pay settlements. Then, again, it might be because he gets to be the chair of a number of well-paying quangos, including the Welsh Language Board – seen in Welsh-Speaking Wales as not only toothless but in many ways sustaining the status quo that condemns the language to client status.

Wise up Searchlight! If you want to maintain your credibility get rid of this pompous ass. He does the anti-fascist cause no favours. Quite the opposite – ordinary people are increasingly turning to the BNP because they’re fed up seeing members of the political establishment pursuing political careers for personal gain. If the BNP get a foothold in Wales, it’s down to nobs like Dafydd Elis-Thomas.