The Plaid Cymru leadership race seems to have stepped up a gear this week and is gathering some steam after Simon Thomas’s withdrawal to support Elin Jones.
So with all three candidates still in with a chance of winning might something like this sway a few more votes Leanne Wood’s way in the days and weeks ahead.
Leanne was interviewed by Canadian radio on Monday (6th) a part of a feature on the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth becoming Monarch along with Richard Wyn Jones and the reason I flag it up is not because im a republican or a monarchist i’m indifferent if the truth be told, but because it made me think when was the last time a Plaid Cymru politician or any Welsh politician or Minister for that matter who was interviewed by the foreign media in relation to an international news story?
If Plaid Cymru is to overtake Labour as the biggest party in Wales as two of the three candidates claim then having a leader who is interesting to the foreign press isn’t a bad qualification at all.
There is also a good round up of blogs and news on the latest at AWEMA from the Malice in Blunderland blog
Friday, February 10, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
Comedy Gold from AWEMA’s Chair Rita Austin
If you haven’t seen this from AWEMA's website today, Rita Austin claims the allegations against Naz Malik are racially and politically motivated to get at the Labour Party and the Welsh press are not playing fair – it reeks of desperation and a desire to deflect attention from the fraud, nepotism and corruption that is helpfully being buried by Welsh Government Minister's again.
Its a substantial rebuttal but this is a taste and the full pdf is here
It has become increasingly clear in recent days that AWEMA has become the stick with which to beat the Welsh Government. The glee with which the Press and TV convey the partisan attacks of opposition politicians is catching AWEMA in its backwash, creating the unedifying spectacle of a concerted attempt by powerful institutions to characterise AWEMA as a corrupt organisation: a time honoured way of debasing and devaluing the contributions of black and minority ethnic people, often on the basis of scant evidence, which is well known to many of us.
It is as though the great, the good and the powerful have already rushed to judgement and made their minds up about what should happen to AWEMA, long before the Welsh Government Internal Audit, with which we have been co-operating fully, has reported. It was always the way.
Being Welsh in Wales
There are many ways of „being Welsh‟ in Wales, and as Wales‟ only development organisation for black and minority ethnic communities which is led by black and minority ethnic people, AWEMA is proud to have delivered successfully as the lead partner in an earlier £5.2m European funded project - on time, in budget and, in many aspects over profile - co-ordinating the activity of 23 organizations and 7 community groups and benefitting around 1,000 people directly, with many more beneficially affected. In fact we have never defaulted on any project we have won funds to undertake and always won the respect of our funders and the thanks of our participants. Even today, with all our difficulties we are performing close to profile on the current crop of projects.
So AWEMA is not only doing its bit to develop ‘being Welsh’ in the minority ethnic communities, it is also doing its bit to develop Wales as a cohesive nation. And this includes, in terms of the political process, developing civic and citizenship values in black and minority ethnic communities and encouraging their involvement in electoral politics - hardly encouraged by the sight and sound of senior politicians having a pop at us for their own merriment or to make partisan party political points when a person of colour does put up for election and is supported by other persons of colour.
The conduct of resigned trustees and the Paul Dunn report
But it is the case that we have heard many concerns expressed about the publicity given to the Paul Dunn „independent investigation‟, though exactly how this confidential-to-AWEMA document got into the public domain is still a bit of a mystery to which the Western Mail of 7 January may hold a clue. Of course it did not help that Paul Dunn himself went on the Wales wide Dragon’s Eye on 26
January to speak about the conclusions and recommendations of his report.
Our charitable obligations to those we receive public monies to serve, our lead partner obligations to our co-sponsors and our duty of care to all our staff including those singled out by Paul Dunn, are such that the credibility being given to his report can no longer remain unchallenged.
What has persuaded the trustees who remain loyal to AWEMA to speak out publicly now about AWEMA‟s internal matters through me as their Chair, is the concern expressed to us by the Charity Commission about the effect the current publicity is having on AWEMA and on the charitable sector in Wales more generally. So, following the "Serious Incident‟ report I submitted before Christmas to the Charity Commission and the Police, I have now written a further Statement to both giving context and background about the conduct of some of the now resigned trustees and on the content of the Paul Dunn report to balance out what is being so one-sidedly aired in the Press and TV media.
Last week I accepted an invitation in good faith to Dragon’s Eye to be interviewed on my Statement. I suppose it was foolish of me to expect much by way of „balance‟, but I did, given what I was led to believe from an extensive email correspondence with the BBC producer in the preceding hours. But in the 10 minutes offered for me to speak up for AWEMA in contrast to the almost 30 minutes across 2 shows devoted to those who had very little good to say about us, it is of note that the interviewer concentrated almost entirely on just 400 words of my 4,000+ word Statement and then in an entirely hostile way. Not surprising then, that the first email I opened the morning after said “Now that interview was little short of harassment” and the second said “You did really well: I‟d have clobbered her”.
And If you’ve not read BBC Wales Betsan Powys’ blog on the timelines involved in AWEMA I would recommend it.
Its a substantial rebuttal but this is a taste and the full pdf is here
It has become increasingly clear in recent days that AWEMA has become the stick with which to beat the Welsh Government. The glee with which the Press and TV convey the partisan attacks of opposition politicians is catching AWEMA in its backwash, creating the unedifying spectacle of a concerted attempt by powerful institutions to characterise AWEMA as a corrupt organisation: a time honoured way of debasing and devaluing the contributions of black and minority ethnic people, often on the basis of scant evidence, which is well known to many of us.
It is as though the great, the good and the powerful have already rushed to judgement and made their minds up about what should happen to AWEMA, long before the Welsh Government Internal Audit, with which we have been co-operating fully, has reported. It was always the way.
Being Welsh in Wales
There are many ways of „being Welsh‟ in Wales, and as Wales‟ only development organisation for black and minority ethnic communities which is led by black and minority ethnic people, AWEMA is proud to have delivered successfully as the lead partner in an earlier £5.2m European funded project - on time, in budget and, in many aspects over profile - co-ordinating the activity of 23 organizations and 7 community groups and benefitting around 1,000 people directly, with many more beneficially affected. In fact we have never defaulted on any project we have won funds to undertake and always won the respect of our funders and the thanks of our participants. Even today, with all our difficulties we are performing close to profile on the current crop of projects.
So AWEMA is not only doing its bit to develop ‘being Welsh’ in the minority ethnic communities, it is also doing its bit to develop Wales as a cohesive nation. And this includes, in terms of the political process, developing civic and citizenship values in black and minority ethnic communities and encouraging their involvement in electoral politics - hardly encouraged by the sight and sound of senior politicians having a pop at us for their own merriment or to make partisan party political points when a person of colour does put up for election and is supported by other persons of colour.
The conduct of resigned trustees and the Paul Dunn report
But it is the case that we have heard many concerns expressed about the publicity given to the Paul Dunn „independent investigation‟, though exactly how this confidential-to-AWEMA document got into the public domain is still a bit of a mystery to which the Western Mail of 7 January may hold a clue. Of course it did not help that Paul Dunn himself went on the Wales wide Dragon’s Eye on 26
January to speak about the conclusions and recommendations of his report.
Our charitable obligations to those we receive public monies to serve, our lead partner obligations to our co-sponsors and our duty of care to all our staff including those singled out by Paul Dunn, are such that the credibility being given to his report can no longer remain unchallenged.
What has persuaded the trustees who remain loyal to AWEMA to speak out publicly now about AWEMA‟s internal matters through me as their Chair, is the concern expressed to us by the Charity Commission about the effect the current publicity is having on AWEMA and on the charitable sector in Wales more generally. So, following the "Serious Incident‟ report I submitted before Christmas to the Charity Commission and the Police, I have now written a further Statement to both giving context and background about the conduct of some of the now resigned trustees and on the content of the Paul Dunn report to balance out what is being so one-sidedly aired in the Press and TV media.
Last week I accepted an invitation in good faith to Dragon’s Eye to be interviewed on my Statement. I suppose it was foolish of me to expect much by way of „balance‟, but I did, given what I was led to believe from an extensive email correspondence with the BBC producer in the preceding hours. But in the 10 minutes offered for me to speak up for AWEMA in contrast to the almost 30 minutes across 2 shows devoted to those who had very little good to say about us, it is of note that the interviewer concentrated almost entirely on just 400 words of my 4,000+ word Statement and then in an entirely hostile way. Not surprising then, that the first email I opened the morning after said “Now that interview was little short of harassment” and the second said “You did really well: I‟d have clobbered her”.
And If you’ve not read BBC Wales Betsan Powys’ blog on the timelines involved in AWEMA I would recommend it.
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