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The ‘chair’ of a controversial extremist Welsh independence party has admitted on social media her predecessor was “turfed out for being an authoritarian, control freak” but that a right wing pensioner who supports a paramilitary group was “a critical friend”, The Eye can reveal.
Sian Caiach of Gwlad Gwlad GG (Land Land/Country Country) 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.
On Facebook she said astonishingly: “Gwilym ab Ioan was turfed out for being an authoritarian, control freak. As for Royston Jones, he’s not on the Steering Committee and is now more of a critical friend of GWLAD in essence”.
The remarkable news follows other extraordinary controversies reported exclusively by us. On the same post, GG 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.
The contentious party proclaimed 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 apart from Ms Caiach, it has also emerged that the party’s other candidate has a controversial background which has also been divulged 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.
Ms Caiach’s predecessor as 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 was ‘turfed out’, as EG/GG 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 the retired heating engineer mentioned by Ms Caiach. Mr Jones 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. He styles himself in documents as an ‘Investigative Journalist’, and posted on his blog ‘Jac o’ the North’ 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”, and his picture of Cayo Evans is of him pointing a hand gun at the camera. He revels in his long-standing support for the FWA and has 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 although he lives across the English border in Shropshire, and 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”.
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”.
But the present senior officials in GG also have interesting pasts.
Yet it has been accusations of being a far right party which have constantly bedevilled GG/EG.
It appears Facebook is used extensively by officials at EG/GG – the ‘chair’ of the party used it to warn readers her predecessor was ‘turfed out’ and that a pensioner who supports a paramilitary group was a ‘critical friend’.
