- Sex slur - 24th June 2025
- Cancel culture part two - 23rd June 2025
- More media monkey business - 23rd June 2025
News that a woman claimed she was thrown off a druid training course, and that the governing body revoked her membership in a row over trans rights, has highlighted huge controversies in Wales.
In one Huw Edwards remained in the Gorsedd of the Bards long after he had been exposed as a viewer of paedophile images, and in another the entire committee of the Welsh independence movement Yes Cymru (YC) was forced to resign after toxic posts were revealed about the make up of ‘true’ gender.
Angela Howard (a practising witch) alleges that the British Druid Order (BDO) ejected her from their course, as well as cancelled her membership, and accused members of the Pagan Federation (PF) of defaming her by branding her as ‘transphobic’.
All of this has put centre stage extraordinary events in Wales.
Authorities at the Eisteddfod DID finally expel Edwards from the Gorsedd of the Bards – one of the highest accolades in Welsh public life – however this was a week after he had formally admitted in Westminster Magistrates’ Court seeing the images of children, and even then there was a delay – Edwards had 21 days to appeal the decision and was not formally removed until then.
Apart from moving images of a child aged between seven and nine, Edwards had 41 photographs – seven category A images, 12 category B pictures, and 22 category C. The category A images (the most serious kind) were mostly of children aged 13 to 15.
But the Gorsedd recorder, or secretary, Christine James merely said the issue would be ‘discussed’ when it met, and that it did “… not have a process or a specified mechanism to expel members”. In a statement, Ms James stated: “In such matters, the Gorsedd is subject to the Eisteddfod Court”.
The pace of these events provoked fury from within the Eisteddfod. One whistleblower who is close to senior management, declared in Welsh to The Eye: “This is unbelievable. Haven’t these people heard of telephones or conference calls?!”.
It had also been proclaimed: “Oh for God’s sake! The managers really are IDIOTS! People don’t care about ‘processes’, just that they have honoured a paedophile. if there is no process for getting rid of people, we need a new one. The current situation is bad for the Eisteddfod, and bad for Wales”.
However the situation was almost as bad at YC, and this too has had the spotlight thrown on it by what has happened.
During an incredible internal row over trans rights, the eminent clinical psychologist Dilys Davies, suffered enormous abuse online (as endured allegedly by Ms Howard).
Ms Davies had to ‘protect’ her Twitter/X account after quoting the famous feminist Germaine Greer, who has said that even following gender re-alignment surgery, a person is not fully a woman, because puberty, periods, childbirth, and the menopause have not been experienced. Dr Davies specialises in sleep difficulties, and bought the famous Cofiwch Dryweryn memorial wall on the A487 near Llanrhystud.
Yet the war inside YC appeared to intensify, and Dr Davies was not the only victim. One supporter declared on the internet: “I have been harassed, doxxed (publishing private information about an individual on the internet with malicious intent), and been sent death threats – all because I have refused to remain silent over the treatment of transgender individuals within the movement.”
Another alarming announcement from a former member of YC revealed that he had left, but been “branded as a fascist” and that “Members of my family were hounded and contacted at work”. YC was accused on Twitter/X of being “rancid”, and “toxic”. Another said YC ‘needs to sort it out’. It was disclosed by us that a letter had been sent to members warning of “Organisational and Accountability Failure”, that there has been “No financial oversight”, as well as a “Lack of transparency”.
Along with the resignations and sacking, these comments also shine the spotlight an earlier unbelievable statement by YC, headlined “WE WILL NOT TOLERATE INTOLERANCE”, and how for many it is now in complete disarray, with one supporter tweeting that there is “fear for the movement”.
In an email there was a frank admission that members had been exposed to intolerable harassment which “went far beyond social media posts”. It went on: “The members of the Central Committee of YesCymru have collectively resigned and stood down from their roles with immediate effect…The announcement comes with the opportunity to enable a new Central Committee to be elected at a forthcoming Extraordinary General Meeting.
After a long delay the astounding development of the mass resignations in YC was reported beyond the nationalist ‘family’, and was published in the Newport-based South Wales Argus which stated that: ‘The outgoing Chair of the Central Committee, Sarah Rees, said: “This decision has been taken in the best interests of the organisation and its members. It enables a totally clean break from the past and provides a clean start for the newly-elected Central Committee in the autumn, while protecting all the good that has been created”’.
There appears to be an issue within YC about what constitutes the reality of what is and what is not male and female, and it emphasises previous controversies where images appear to be fairly traditional (although problematic).
YC released a sexist video promoting Welsh independence which featured a pair of cartoon women’s legs in stockings, and one critic on social media said: “fire the pig that designed it”. The video displayed the cartoon of a woman wearing stockings and red arms, with a map of Wales for her body, screaming “YEEEEEEEEEEES!” in the caption below.
It is clear that the difficult headlines for YC and the Gorsedd are not simply about a cartoon woman – and a person claiming that her bardic connections were severed, underline this.
Details of our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry’s astonishing decades-long journalistic career (when internal controversies became a significant source of stories), as he was gripped by the rare and incurable neurological condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in an important book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order it now.
Tomorrow – how news that millions have been paid out in compensation for a SECOND Post Office (PO) IT scandal, puts centre stage the significant part Wales had to play in the drama of the FIRST one, and the UK Government has faced challenging headlines about them.
