Another country…

0
1191
The Eye
Latest posts by The Eye (see all)
Stephen Morris – unique?

A senior official for an extreme nationalist Welsh independence party created by the supporter of a paramilitary organisation which had links to the IRA, lives in England and cannot even vote for his own party in Wales, it has emerged.

Stephen Morris is ‘General Party Spokesman’ and ‘Policy Researcher’ with Ein Gwlad (Our land/country) EG, founded by a retired heating engineer, who writes an acerbic right wing blog and published a picture of the leader of a paramilitary group holding a gun.

In a piece introducing EG on the Nation.Cymru website Dr Morris wrote: “Wales is a unique country. There is nowhere quite like it.”

The rolling hills of Stephen Morris’ homeland – Shropshire

Yet apparently there is somewhere better than Wales to live.

Dr Morris works in Wrexham but lives across the English border in Shropshire.

He has also written:  Never underestimate North East Wales. People in the rest of Wales tend to forget that WE(our capitals)’re here…”

In the Nation.Cymru article he declares that Wales is “a different country. A country which has often led the world in technological and social development…”.

But Dr Morris is barred from voting in Welsh elections so he is unable to vote for his own party which claims it would return Wales to being a leading country.

Cayo Evans with gun as seen on the ‘Jac o’ the North’ blog

EG was founded by Royston Jones, who writes ‘Jac o’ the North’, which proclaims it is: “Interpreting Wales from a Right of Centre Nationalist perspective”.

He has published on his blog a picture of Cayo Evans, the leader of the 1960s paramilitary group, Free Wales Army (FWA), pointing a hand gun at the camera, and he revels in his long standing support for the organisation.

Mr Jones has also praised Evans as a “friend” and “comrade”.

The ‘venerable’ Royston Jones in his youth with the Free Wales Army (FWA)

Evans was the leader of the FWA, 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.

Despite this, Dr Morris describes the founder of his party as “venerable”.

The disturbing news about him comes hard on the heels of other worrying issues concerning EG highlighted exclusively by The Eye.

Reporters say they have been unable to contact the party and campaigning before a possible UK General Election has been invisible.

An early meeting of Ein Gwlad – a party which is ‘hard’ to contact

The EG website is still active and states: “FOR NEWS, REVIEWS & OPINI0N ON THE POLITICAL FRONT IN CYMRU (WALES)”, but other engagement is minimal.

One journalist told us:  “It is incredibly difficult to get hold of Ein Gwlad for a comment. Nobody seems to know who to contact”.

Hotel – ‘concerns’

But this is not the first time EG has been engulfed by problems.

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 sent a message to him saying:  “With regards to … concerns, we have now cancelled your meeting room with full refund of payment”.

Is Ein Glwad hiding something?

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 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.

Cayo Evans – a ‘comrade’ of Royston Jones

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”.
 
Our Editor Phil Parry became angry when he was accused of being a liar

Plainly, despite our factual revelations, Mr Jones was troubled by our intervention, and wrote on his blog:  He (another critic of the plan) used the lies peddled by Phil Parry on The Eye”.

 
Mr Jones may have blamed our Editor in the past, but he has used ‘lies’ before in describing him. More than three years ago he called Mr Parry “a lying bastard” and dubbed him “vermin”.
 
Mr Jones said on Jac o’ the North:  “That lying bastard Phil Parry never misses an opportunity to twist or invent ‘facts’”. He continued:  “He’s a mouthpiece for the Labour Party (many of The Eye articles have been about the misdeeds of Labour politiciansand often ‘trails’ stories for Llais y Sais (we never write ‘trails’ for other organisations)
 
Legal action could follow

Evidently Mr Jones is unaware of legal rules because these comments are highly-defamatory, and as they have been published, they fall within the remit of libel laws.

Mr Jones’ attempt to create the new Welsh independence party was also the subject of our satirist Edwin Phillips, and came soon after controversy was prompted by his personal views.
 
The ‘Full Of Shit’ award for Royston Jones

The equal treatment of disabled people is viewed by commentators as a progressive mark of civilised countries, and it is seen as important to address debilitating illnesses, but it seems Mr Jones does not agree. One of the lines by him on Jac o’ the North which caused particular offence was:  “Am I alone in thinking there’s an element of a Victorian freak show in the Paralympics?”. 

 
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.
 
More baths may be needed for Ein Gwlad

But readers have been dismayed in the past by what has appeared on Mr Jones’ blog. 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”.

 
Another critic of Mr Jones told us:  “I feel like taking a bath after I read his stuff”.
 
Yet it seems the profile of EG could be improved with or without taking a bath – perhaps reporters should contact Dr Morris at his English home.
 
Book posterAfter all he is the ‘Party Spokesman’
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!

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here