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An extremist Welsh independence party founded by the right wing supporter of a paramilitary organisation whose candidate had also stood for a far right English party, said the election result held “promise for the future” despite the fact it had lost all deposits and secured just a few hundred votes, The Eye can reveal.
Gwlad Gwlad (GG) (Land Land/Country Country) proclaimed on social media that the result on Thursday night was “not bad for a brand new party with no real public recognition at this stage of play”.
But it has emerged that the party’s candidates have controversial backgrounds which have been disclosed by The Eye.
Laurence Williams stood as the GG candidate in the Vale of Glamorgan, yet he has also been a candidate for the far right English Democrats, and stood for the Christian Party (in Old Bexley and Sidcup in 2015), while in the 2014 European elections, he stood for the London region of the right wing Christian Peoples Alliance.
His political career however started in the 2010 General Election fighting the Erith and Thamesmead seat for the English Democrats.
Party ‘chair’ Sian Caiach was the candidate for Cardiff Central in the General Election, yet was also the proposer for The Brexit Party nomination in Llanelli and the spotlight was thrown on to the remarkable situation after comments on Twitter.
It is also possible that voters were put off by reports of in fighting inside GG, as reported by The Eye.
The former chair of GG, Gwilym ab Ioan (then known as Ein Gwlad {EG}) forecast in a secret phone call to us that it would soon collapse, and (presciently) that candidates would lose their deposits.
He told our undercover reporter: “…our big mistake was not vetting people” and that has been thrown into sharp relief by the selection of Mr Williams to fight the Vale of Glamorgan seat.
Mr ab Ioan chaired EG before the party became GG, as it cleaned up its image to adopt a “more consensual approach”, but he has long been a contentious figure.
In the past he has described Wales as a “dumping ground for (English) misfits”, was forced to resign from Plaid Cymru’s (PC) ruling body, and he has been faced with major problems running a charity allotment scheme which failed to file accounts two years running,
EG/GG was originally founded by a retired heating engineer, who supports the 1960s paramilitary group Free Wales Army (FWA), and who, it was claimed to us, has also been ‘forced off’ the governing committee of EG/GG.
Royston Jones (who styles himself in documents as an ‘Investigative Journalist’), writes an acerbic right wing blog called ‘Jac o’ the North’ and published a picture of the leader of the FWA holding a gun.
Mr Jones’ blog proclaims it is: “Interpreting Wales from a Right of Centre Nationalist perspective”.
He has published 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 the party he founded 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.
It seems his party has had a difficult birth
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 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 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.
Intriguingly Mr Jones no longer mentions EG/GG on his right wing blog.
Meanwhile his 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 (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”.
Yet it seems he became totally disillusioned with GG/EG and bizarrely urged people to vote for The Conservatives.
But the present senior officials in GG also have interesting pasts.
The leader of GG, Gwyn Wigley Evans, has admitted key people have left, saying: “There was a disagreement about the direction of the party”.
Nation.Cymru asked Mr Evans about a post on the party’s Facebook page praising the Lega Nord and Brothers of Italy parties, and past praise for Hungary’s controversial nationalist leader Viktor Orban.
Our Editor Phil Parry’s memories of his astonishing 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! The picture doubles as a cut-and-paste poster