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An extremist Welsh nationalist party whose founder was a supporter of a paramilitary organisation which had links to the IRA, could be in its death throes with reports that it now has fewer than 40 members, The Eye can reveal.
The leader of Gwlad, Gwlad (GG) (Land, Land) Gwyn Wigley Evans has admitted key people have left, saying: “There was a disagreement about the direction of the party”.
GG, formerly called Ein Gwlad (EG) (Our Land), was originally founded by a retired heating engineer, who supports the 1960s paramilitary group Free Wales Army (FWA).
Royston Jones (who styles himself in documents as an ‘Investigative Journalist’), writes an acerbic right wing blog and published a picture of the leader of the FWA holding a gun.
Those same documents make clear that Mr Jones was also in charge of the website of the old EG.
The acerbic right wing blog written by Mr Jones is called Jac o’ the North, and proclaims it is: “Interpreting Wales from a Right of Centre Nationalist perspective”.
He has published on his blog a picture of Cayo Evans, pointing a hand gun at the camera, and he revels in his long-standing support for the FWA.
Mr Jones has also praised Evans as a “friend” and “comrade”.
The FWA came to prominence more than 50 years ago, and it has been reported that the Official IRA (OIRA) gave or sold, most of its weapons to the organisation as part of its turn away from political violence.
Stephen Morris was ‘General Party Spokesman’ and ‘Policy Researcher’ of EG/GG, although as he lived in England he was barred from voting in Welsh elections, so is unable to vote for the party at these ballots.
In a piece introducing what was then EG on the Nation.Cymru website, Dr Morris wrote: “Wales is a unique country. There is nowhere quite like it.”
But Dr Morris works in Wrexham and lives across the English border in Shropshire.
Following our revelations about Mr Jones’ connection with Evans and news on The Eye of his publication of him with a pistol, a hotel where he was to announce the formation of EG/GG was clearly unhappy.
Officials sent a message to Mr Jones saying: “With regards to … concerns, we have now cancelled your meeting room with full refund of payment”.
He then advertised on his blog a new venue, with the words: “I am delighted to announce that a meeting has been arranged for November 18th (2018) in Aberystwyth to discuss the formation of a new political party to defend Wales’ interests”.
Before this a ‘public’ meeting was held in Autumn 2017 and we disclosed how Mr Jones had initially pledged to create the new party by early last year, with an Annual General Meeting (AGM) penciled in for March 3 2018, but nothing happened.
EG/GG was finally unveiled at Llanelli later last year, but another nationalist blog had ‘reported’ earlier that a first ‘conference’ was to be held before the end of 2018.
Meanwhile Mr Jones’ support for the FWA and Evans, as well as previous statements have been questioned, and it seemed our Editor had become something of an irritant.
On November 19 Mr Jones had written on his blog: “The meeting yesterday went very, very well. I was delighted with the turnout and with the enthusiasm shown…perhaps the one disappointment – given the interest he’s shown in the new party – was that Phil Parry of The Eye wasn’t there. You could have had a scoop, Parry – ‘Shock! Horror! irritating little git thrown out of meeting”.
On November 22 he wrote after an article on The Eye: “Following Phil Parry’s latest attack on me I asked for the right to reply (The Eye – there has been no such request), but he hasn’t responded. I’d prefer to ignore the irritating little git but he is now making serious and misleading allegations that have to be answered”.
Mr Jones may have blamed our Editor in the past, but he has used ‘lies’ before in describing him.
Mr Jones has also promoted a petition calling for social housing only for people from Wales. Families from London who took homes from a Welsh housing association were heavily criticised, and they were called perverts.
A post on the Republic website concluded: “(Royston Jones was) awarded …that week’s Full of Shit award. It was well merited (as this was a) primitive attitude to disabled people.”
Another who has left is the one-time Chair of GG/EG who was faced with major problems running a charity allotment scheme after failing to file accounts two years running.
Mr Evans himself has also hit the headlines for other reasons.
Mr Evans replied: “I haven’t seen that post on Facebook. And the person who praised Viktor Orban left a long time ago“.
Phil Parry’s memories of his extraordinary 36-year award-winning career in journalism as he was gripped by the incurable disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major new book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order the book now!
