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The founder of a nationalist party which fielded candidates at the last UK General Election as well as for the Senedd Cymru/Welsh Parliament (SC/WP), who all lost their deposits, has published the ‘c’ word and uses social media to tell people to ‘fuck off’, The Eye can reveal.
Controversial right wing blogger Royston Jones, who celebrates his time in the paramilitary group Free Wales Army (FWA) during the 1960s, declared last month on Twitter: “You patronising c**t! (written in full) Just fuck off home (Your first home)”. Writing under his pseudonym ‘Jac o’the North’, he also tweeted: “That’s OK. If you don’t want to wear a mask just fuck off back to Englandland (sic)“.
These remarks come amid extraordinary evidence that the entire nationalist and independence communities in Wales, are splitting.
Mr Jones was a founding member of Ein Gwlad (EG, Our Land) which became Gwlad, Gwlad (GG, Land, Land), before being entitled Gwlad (G), and proclaims it is: “a new voice for an independent Wales”.
His then party put up a number of candidates in the December 2019 General Election who all lost their deposits. Sian Caiach of GG, for example, was the candidate for Cardiff Central in the General Election, yet it emerged she was also the proposer for The Brexit Party nomination in Llanelli.
Apart from using foul language on social media, Mr Jones also clearly believes elderly people from England are a drain on resources in Wales. He wrote on the nationalist website which is supported by the taxpayer, Nation.Cymru (NC): “Let’s be brutally honest. For too long elderly people moving from England to Wales has been viewed as a growth industry by the ‘Welsh Government’, local authorities, and of course the owners and providers of care homes. This is an absurd and self-defeating ‘economy’ when all the negatives are taken into account. So why is it encouraged?”.
As with his more recent public outbursts, these comments are set against revelations on The Eye that Ms Caiach claimed Mr Jones had been ‘forced off’ the ‘governing committee’ of EG/GG/G.
He styles himself in documents as an ‘Investigative Journalist’, and says his blog is: “Interpreting Wales from a Right of Centre Nationalist perspective”. But REAL investigative journalists, are unlikely to publish a picture of FWA leader Cayo Evans pointing a hand gun at the camera as others look on smiling, as he has done, or revel in long-standing support for the FWA, and praise Cayo Evans as a “friend”, as well as a “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.
His one-time organisation (G) now announces on its website: “In voting decisively for Brexit in 2016 and rejecting the ‘Remain Alliance’ in 2019, Welsh voters showed that they believe in the importance of the Nation State rather than belonging to a distant Union. Wales is a Nation. It ought to be a State”.
The former colleague of Mr Jones, Stephen Morris of G, said incorrectly last month on Twitter in reply to him: “It always amuses me when people ‘reveal’ I live in Shropshire. I seem to remember Phil Parry getting very excited about it once, despite (a) it’s right there in my twitter handle, and (b) it says so in my profile”.
The fact of Mr Morris living in Shropshire, as well as any number of candidates or officials residing well outside the region they wanted to represent, was merely noted. It was not ‘revealed’ on The Eye that an officer in a Welsh nationalist party actually lived in England.
This is what was written by our journalists: “Stephen Morris is ‘General Party Spokesman’ and ‘Policy Researcher’ of Gwlad Gwlad (Country Country/Land Land) (GG) which was founded as Ein Gwlad (Our Country/Our Land) (EG) 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, and had to opt for another party in his home constituency”. Mr Morris’ inaccuracy is, perhaps, disturbing in a senior party official.
But the party’s opposition nationalist website, NC has also been no stranger to controversy itself. After The Eye revealed that its founder and former ‘Editor’ Ifan Morgan Jones is a prominent backer of Welsh independence and told people to vote PC, we showed how he lectures in journalism when neutrality is a fundamental tenet of news reporting. Dr Morgan Jones has also rubbished our journalists’ disclosures about him on social media.
Hoewever he should know as a lecturer at Bangor University’s Department of Creative Studies and Media, on a course which is not accredited by the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ), that everything published is supported by a raft of unseen evidence.
On The Eye we have many years of experience in journalist law – our Editor Phil Parry has 38 – and are very aware of what can and cannot be published.
Meanwhile his contributor, the right-wing retired heating engineer Mr Jones, has made headlines, as well, for all the wrong reasons.
Following the information about Mr Jones’ connection with Cayo 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/G became deeply 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 divulged how Mr Jones had initially pledged to create the new party with an ‘Annual General Meeting (AGM)’ penciled in for March 3 2018, but nothing happened. EG/GG/G was finally unveiled at Llanelli later that year, but another nationalist blog had ‘reported’ earlier that a first ‘conference’ was to be held before the end of 2018.
Mr Jones’ support for the FWA and Cayo Evans, as well as previous statements have been questioned, and it seemed our Editor had become something of an irritant.
On November 19 (2018) 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 continued: “He’s a mouthpiece for the Labour Party (many of The Eye’s articles have been about the misdeeds of the Labour Welsh Government and its then leader in Wales) and often ‘trails’ stories for Llais y Sais (we never write ‘trails’ for other organisations)“. Astonishingly, and inconsistently, he appeared to accept the ‘invented’ facts, tweeting: “i put a picture of Cayo Evans on my blog and PhilParry2 … ‘exposed’ my 50 plus years’ support for the FWA”.
Mr Jones seems to object to the fact that we have reported how he described the leader of the FWA, Cayo Evans, as a “comrade” as well as “friend”, and how he published the picture on ‘Jac O’ the North’ of him pointing a gun at the camera as others look on.
Yet the ‘inventions’ we have reported, were from pictures on his own blog – including the one of Cayo Evans holding the pistol.
But many of our readers have supported our stance, and backed up the so-called ‘lies’. One commentator on The Eye said: “The man (Royston Jones) and the knuckle draggers that follow him are fascistic ethnic nationalists end of and don’t really deserve the air of publicity except to say that wales has an alarmingly high number (of) far right supremacists who have convinced themselves they have oppressed status so think its okay to demonise ordinary people like retirees from English cities who’ve moved within their own nation state”.
The FWA was a paramilitary Welsh nationalist organisation, formed at Lampeter, Ceredigion, in 1963. Its objective was to establish an independent Welsh republic, and Mr Jones’ blog targets people he believes are not truly Welsh, with some of his victims being given around-the-clock protection.
The leader of his former party (EG/GG/G), Gwyn Wigley Evans, has admitted that key people left, saying: “There was a disagreement about the direction of the party”. He said in an interview with Nation.Cymru that the party was standing at the General Election in four seats where PC withdrew.
It may be embarrassing too for Mr Evans, that the original founder of his extreme Welsh nationalist party, which fielded candidates at elections in Wales who lost their deposits, has published the ‘c’ word and uses social media tell people to ‘fuck off’…
