Tuesday 21 February 2017

Labour launches another investigation into Llanelli CLP - and more

The big news this morning is that the Western Mail is reporting that the Labour Party has launched an investigation into its constituency party in Llanelli in the wake of revelations on this blog that Cllr Tegwen Devichand had shared propaganda put out by neo-Nazi Britain First.

The story is not yet available online, but here is a screenshot:


As readers know, the scandal goes way beyond the activities of Tegwen Devichand, who is deputy leader of the Labour group on the county council and the holder of a whole string of other positions. It includes collaboration with UKIP as well as bullying and intimidation both within the party and of members of the public and non-Labour councillors.

In a separate development, another county councillor, Theressa Bowen (Independent) said that her complaints against former Labour colleagues have in the last couple of days been rejected by the General Secretary of the Labour Party, Iain McNicol, who told her to take the matter up with the County Council.

Meanwhile, more evidence has come in of Labour activists and candidates, including Jacqueline Seward, cosying up to UKIP party officials.

Cneifiwr has also received separate but unverified reports from different sources of an investigation by the NHS of allegations of a major fraud involving a key figure in the Llanelli Labour Party.

Michaela Beddows

It will come as no surprise that Michaela Beddows is now busy painting herself as a victim while continuing to lash out in all directions.

Here she is in the Llanelli Star telling the reporter, "I'm just a mum – I'm not a politician or anything like that. Does it warrant a mother being put through all newspapers and on both TV and online?"

As for sharing propaganda put out by the neo-Nazi English Defence League, she said she didn't know who the EDL were, and appears deliberately to have tried to mislead the newspaper reporter.

Meanwhile, here she is having a go at Huw Edwards, the BBC journalist and newsreader, on another extreme right-wing Facebook page.

 

Huw Edwards grew up in Llangennech and had expressed dismay at the tone of the anti-Welsh campaign in his old village. This was hardly surprising given that parents and teachers were being intimidated and harassed, and the village was being plastered with posters like this:


 
Having announced to the world that she had joined the Labour Party to support Corbyn, she told the BBC over the weekend that she was not a member of the party - after it announced that it was suspending her pending an investigation. In the Llanelli Star she now appears to be saying that she was never really a member at all.
 
And so it goes on. 
 
In her interview with the Llanelli Star, Beddows says that her partner is urging her not to give up the fight. 
 
Let's hope that they change their minds because this campaign is going nowhere and is only serving to deepen divisions in the village, quite apart from making Michaela herself look very bad.

Unsurprisingly, social media is ablaze and the media are circling. Michaela has already attracted some very unpleasant "friends", and no doubt more of them will beat a path to her door, offering her a shoulder to cry on but intending to exploit her for their own sinister ends.

For her own sake and that of the village, Michaela's real friends need to tell her to call it a day.
 
Lee Waters

Michaela Beddows was one of the smallest fish in the party which suspended her, but which she now claims never to have been a member of.

Nia Griffith has maintained complete radio silence on the whole affair, but after initial silence Lee Waters has been fighting a spectacularly incompetent rearguard action, blaming the situation in Llangennech on Cllr Gwyn Hopkins.

There is now overwhelming evidence that Waters knew what was going on in Llangennech, but as recently as last week he was still hobnobbing with Beddows and others. 

Quite apart from anything else, did he not see the posters which sprang up around Llangennech? And did he not think that they were unacceptable, bordering on racism? Did he not realise that a campaign of intimidation was being waged under his nose?

And did he not realise what was happening in the party in Llanelli itself?

 
 




11 comments:

Stan said...

As one our blogging friends who is sadly out of circulation at the moment has often said - Welsh Labour, the gift that keeps on giving - or words to that effect.

Michaela Beddows strikes me as remarkably naive and immature, with a desire to be in the public spotlight as well, all failings that should make her avoid social media like the plague. She was revelling in the publicity when it suited her, for example with the appearance in the audience of Question Time in Neath, but now she has the undivided attention of the media, she finds it a poisoned chalice.

I see from that pageshot of Michaela's on Huw Edwards she delights in telling us she soon put him in his place. I wasn't privy to the interview or conversation, but somehow I think that's wishful thinking. People who have followed Michaela's rantings will recall she used eerily similar language on Facebook in trying to belittle and bully the poor checkout staff of Morrisons in that infamous incident about the tablets she was buying for her sick children. My advice for Michaela, not that she wants it, would be to give up on Facebook and Twitter and do something of more benefit to her personal development instead. Possibly take up Welsh lessons? When you're in a hole every man and his dog knows you should stop digging.

Anonymous said...

Digging a hole is nothing new for Llanelli Labour, We've been saying for years
"they need to step away from the shovel, because the hole is so deep, no one is getting out".learning from past, astonishingly arrogant behaviours, is for people with brain cells, which leaves LLanelli labour right up the swanee. I'm certain there will be other big scandals coming out regarding Llanelli Labour and racism, corruption and much more.So I understand why Nia is keeping quiet, she knows there is more to come. As for Lee Waters what can one say, He shines out in a party full of incompetents.

Anonymous said...

Did you know that Llanelli Labour has a new motto for the upcoming elections,it reads -
"It appears we can't fool all of the people, all of the time, though God knows we did try".

Jac o' the North, said...

This saga gets curiouser and curiouser.

We are now asked to believe that Michaela - "only a mum" - Beddows has been suspended from a political party of which she is not a member! If true, is an unprecedented injustice, and she should hot-foot it to some international tribunal demanding justice.

Stan said...

I've heard she's asked Rag'n'Bone Man to Llangennech to serenade her with his fantastic hit "Human".

"I'm only human after all, I'm only human after all - don't put the blame on me...."

Anonymous said...

After reading most of the information of the chaos surrounding Llangennech school the only thing I have come away with is that bullying of Michaela Beddows has taken precedence over welfare of children.
Until I see or hear of justification for what has been done in the name of the welsh language I shall continue to hold the people who bullied Michaela Beddows in complete contempt.

Cneifiwr said...

Thanks for that Michaela.

Anonymous said...

No Cneifiwr.I am fully behind anything that promotes our heritage of the welsh language but I stand by what I can see as totally unacceptable persecution of someone who only wants what is best for their child.

Stan said...

Ah, the power of introspection.

"To A Louse, On Seeing One on a Lady's Bonnet at Church" by Robert Burns.

O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!

Anonymous said...

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/parents-welsh-school-row-say-12641612
This is dustirbing news !

Anonymous said...

So labour have suspended a member almost imediately . Why haven't they acted inediately with other serious complaints against members ? Are they using Beddows as a scape goat ? And hope the rest will die down quietly again ?