They were furious when I asked questions about Deryn’s dodgy
contract with OFCOM. I was told many times to leave it well alone. I
later discovered through complaints that Deryn itself had complained
to Plaid Cymru to reign me in. My senior advisor was told to tell me
to stop asking questions about Plaid Cymru’s lobbying firm, or “face
the consequences.”
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/politics/ofcom-wales-under-fire-after-12649696
I had to go home to my wife to tell her that my ability to pay our
mortgage would be gone, if I continued to ask questions which powerful
people did not want put. My wife was rock solid and said that if we
had a choice between earning a good living, or sticking to our
principles, then we would stick to our principles. Very soon after
getting married, my wife realised why I told her to not take my
surname when we got married. Let’s just say life is never dull.
Eleven days after the story about Deryn which I was supposed to
ignore became public, I was suspended from the Plaid Cymru Senedd
Group, supposedly for being found guilty of bullying by the Ombudsman
for saying that I wanted to restructure Cardiff Council to change
eviction processes and stop people being evicted.
Plaid just did not care about us winning seats in the Council
Elections in 2017. It was clear that senior people wanted us to lose.
I was reminded at the time that they did not want me elected in the
first place. In 2016, we were the busiest Plaid team in Wales, but I
was the only candidate in a target seat to lose party funding. They
also took Senedd staff off me at a crucial point and gave them to
Simon Thomas; more about him later. Anyway, as you can gather Plaid
Cymru used Senedd staff to campaign politically in Senedd time. Every
party does this. It would be odd if they didn’t.
Moving on, I was the first politician in 17 years to ask to see
Government Ministers’ diaries. I had a whistle blower about a matter
and I needed to prove certain meetings had taken place. The Government
refused to publish the diaries retrospectively, but after a fuss
agreed in early 2017 to publish them going forward.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-politics-38830073 I
was still able to prove that lobbyists had access to ministers by
simply flashing around a photograph of lobbyists with ministers in the
Senedd.
Both Labour and Plaid Cymru voted against my proposal to bring in
rules for lobbyists in Wales. This keeps covered the awkward fact that
Welsh politics is run by a small group of people, who do not want
scrutiny.
In March 2017, complaints were made about me, almost all connected
to Deryn. It was pay back time.
After the 2017 election in June, I suspended my office manager.
There were complaints he had harassed a young female and I had
witnessed one incident myself. Members of the public had also
complained about him for not doing his job; one person also witnessed
the harassment. Michael Deem had also misused my office budget,
causing me to have to pay for an expensive unwanted item myself.
Shockingly, I later discovered that Deem had taken photographs of a
child protection file and kept the details of the children on his
phone. I was sickened and staggered. I sacked him.
The man who had harassed a young woman and had stored details of
children on his phone was supported by Plaid Cymru and he made further
complaints about me. He was later employed by the Plaid Cymru Senedd
member who replaced me, Rhys ab Owen, whose brother Rhodri is a
lobbyist, who worked with Darran Hill at Positif Politics. Rhodri Ab
Owen is now managing partner and co-owner of a re-branded Camlas
Public Affairs, listing big pharmaceuticals as clients.
The complaints process took on a life of its own. The BBC’s Aled ap
Dafydd always knew more than me about what was going on. He became the
first journalist who I refused to deal with. I later discovered he was
in a relationship with Plaid Cymru’s Head of Communications, who was
later given a top job by Plaid Cymru’s Presiding Officer at the
Senedd.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-46740445I was really unhappy with the Standards Complaints process. Before
it began, a key organiser of the complaints, who had known the former
Standards Commissioner for decades had a meeting about me. I was not
allowed to attend and there were no notes of the meeting. I stated
that the former Standards Commissioner had allowed himself to be
lobbied.
I was so concerned at what was happening that I requested the audio
recordings of my hearings. It took some time to get them, but it was
worth the wait. I heard the former Standards Commissioner making a
derogatory remark about me when I was out of the room. The complainant
and Standards staff were present when it was said.
In the public interest and for self-defence, I then decided to
secretly record everything when I was out of the room. If the hearing
was at 9am, I would place my phone under the table on record at
8.15am. I would usually irritate the Standards staff by then turning
up late for the hearing, which gave them plenty of time to voice their
true feelings about me. This went on for months, with hours of audio
footage. I heard the investigators discussing the case with the
complainant, who was offered career advice and help in his career. I
heard about a lack of evidence against me. I also listened to the same
complaints made about another MS not taken forward. I also heard about
a really serious matter just brushed under the carpet.
It was also shocking to hear about staff saying they had consulted
with a senior member of the Senedd staff who was open to just seeing
my appeal against guilt, “ just thrown out,” before I had even made
the appeal. This was the basis for the police investigation into
Standards staff, which did not result in charges being laid by the
Crown Prosecution Service.
Knowing what I knew, I pulled out of the farce and refused to play
any further part on legal advice.
The complaints process was delayed, which provoked what I can only
describe as “fury”.
A new commissioner came in and continued a very unjust process as I
see it.
I continued my work exposing what I could:
I was vilified in writing by Plaid Cymru Members of the Senedd for
attacking the early retirement of Natural Resources Wales’ Chief
Executive, after the £39 million wood contract being found to be
unlawful by the Auditor General.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-44845904I pursued many family cases and employed a social worker to do so.
Supporting a child alleging abuse in care got me called a bully again
and banned from the Council for 4 months. The alleged abuser started
the complaint. An issue conveniently ignored by ‘journalists’,
politicians and useful idiots on new media, all eager to stick the
boot in, whilst ignoring the poor child’s allegations.
https://youtu.be/YDpsjUF6Ykk
I pleaded with journalists to give the child a voice, but the
author of the Walesonline article today, Ruth Mosalski and her
husband Cemlyn Davies of the BBC had no appetite to find out what had
happened to the child. I am still as disgusted now as I was then at
how those people had such little care for what a child said happened
to it. Shame on them. I can look in the mirror in the morning without
guilt. I cannot see how they can do the same thing.
This made me feel sick and I ultimately withdrew my application to
get back into Plaid Cymru. We backed Dewi Evans in his bid to clean up
Plaid, but he was prevented from campaigning and bureaucratic means
were used to stop members voting. My time with Plaid, such a
disorganised hypocrisy was over in the Autumn of 2019. A once proud
Plaid Cymru has been reduced to being a poodle for the corrupt Labour
Party, cheaply bought off with press opportunities, appointments on
public bodies and jobs.
Fast forward to September 2021 and the complaints process was
complete and written up. The reports were held back until now, just as
the Council election campaign is starting.
I deny doing anything other than being a politician. I did my job.
My staff printed and folded material for example opposing Cardiff’s
Local Development plan and I did so unashamedly. I paid for the
folding machine.
I am supposedly guilty of using electricity for political purposes.
Are they serious?
Who does not do that? Both Labour and Plaid Cymru Senedd Groups
were also found guilty of misusing public resource for political
purposes, but those details were not covered by the Welsh media. Plaid
Cymru used the Senedd restricted areas for party political filming,
but nothing was done.
I did interview someone on the Senedd estate about a political job;
which party political group has not done that? I did attend a party
political meeting on the Senedd estate for which Plaid Cymru kindly
provided the invite and minutes to the Standards Commissioner. The
irony is that Leanne Wood’s staff booked the room, yet it was me who
carried the can. I did organise a few political meetings in my office.
Which MS has not done that?
The Standards Commissioner got the most basic details wrong. I did
correct him on the Committee, but that did not make the report. For
example, he accused me of employing a family member who is no relation
to me at all!
One staff member did have an exchange of messages with a
complainant. It was not a wise move, but after being harangued in
public by the same person who was worse the wear for alcohol, it was
difficult to look too unkindly on the exchange.
If anyone ever has the chance to look at all the documentation
regarding the complaints, they will see that the complaints changed as
the process went on. I was first accused on producing 250,000 leaflets
on the Assembly printer. A simple look at the manufacturing
specification showed that this was impossible. Eventually, the total
was boiled down to a few thousand.
When I was in the Senedd, I donated my councillor allowance to
various causes. I am not motivated by money. On the grounds of natural
justice, I will not pay the sum of money plucked out of thin air,
because I do not owe anybody anything. I pay my way and I will not
credit such a shocking stitch up with any financial contribution.
