There was something about the title of David Jones' most recent blog post that sounded familiar. At first I wondered if "Voices of Colwyn Bay" was an old mariners' tale telling of the disembodied souls of those who had lost their lives a shipwreck on some stormy night a century or more ago. But it was a post about a meeting to express public concern for the future of Colwyn Bay pier ... an entirely good and worthy cause, and one which I hope succeeds.
But at the bottom of the post I noticed a familiar name: John Oddy.
Mr Oddy stood for election to Colwyn Bay Town Council in 2008 as a BNP candidate and, sadly, was returned unopposed. I crossed swords a few times with him on the WalesOnline forum and can assure anyone who cares to trust my judgement that he is a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
After a short while he, and two other BNP councillors who had come to office in the same way, made a show of leaving the BNP for what he would only describe as "personal reasons". I suspected at the time that this was just a cosmetic exercise designed to fool the public ... and it seems I have now been proved right, because he is openly supporting the BNP again, as we can read in this post on his blog.
As anyone who clicked the link can see, the title of John Oddy's blog is ... "Voices of Colwyn Bay".
Now of course I wouldn't want to suggest that the Tory MP for Clwyd West is in any way connected with the BNP. He is probably simply grateful for the publicity that John Oddy was able to give the campaign to save the pier. I'm sure that any little old lady would be equally grateful if a BNP supporter helped her across a busy road ... though I wonder if she would accept such help if she knew about who was offering it.
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I'm quite sure David Jones chose the title of his post simply as a way of saying "thank you" to John Oddy for the publicity he was able to provide, and linked to his blog just to give it a little more publicity in return. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. But it is ... how shall we put it ... just a little unfortunate that he chose to do so.
All in all this episode probably says more about how little David Jones knows about politics in his very own constituency ... and that is something rather more unfortunate.
12 comments:
Gotta keep these British nationalists out of our politics! We need an active political campaign group to track their political activity and block their every move. Am I right in thinking their coming here is all part of 'White Flight'?
This looks like sour grapes from an anonymous Plaid blogger (better keep your name out of it, in case you get your arse sued off). Oscar says that all the Plaid people kept away and were scoffing curry in the Cinnamon Lounge. And where was PC Phil?
Sour grapes? You have a turn of phrase and way of thinking that reminds me of David Jones himself, Gethin. Why would any party feel they had lost out by not wanting to be associated with John Oddy?
John Oddy has been at pains over the last year or so to portray himself as a pillar of the local community. But we can all now see that he has gone back to supporting the same BNP that I always suspected he had left in name only. The BNP and their supporters have everything to gain by being assocated with the local Tory MP, and have scored what in their terms will be a victory because of him linking to the blog and, in particular, using its name as the title of his post.
I would have thought the Tories had everything to loose. That is why, when I wrote the post, I only thought David was being dim-witted and a bit slow ... as indeed he has been before. However, there is another dimension to this that was mentioned on the Plaid Wrecsam blog this morning. The Clwyd West constituency is so marginal (David Jones won by only 133 votes in 2005) that the presence of a BNP candidate in this year's election is very likely to affect the result.
So let's see what happens next. If David does manage to dissociate himself from this it would reflect well on his political principles ... although it will still leave him rather behind on political awareness.
Gethin.
Oscar as ill informed as ever, as there were Plaid people in the audience to listen to what was being said.
Given the very good working relationship that PC Phil and David Jones have on local issues, despite their political differences, I suspect that the MP will be happy to work with Phil and other Plaid people to achieve a result.
However my experience is that Mr Jones is more effective at finding fault with other people/organisations than he is at suggesting practical solutions to problems.
I to had concerns about John Oddy and the BNP but he has proved himself to be one of the best councillors we have. Your attack on him is not only uncalled for it is cowardly and biased. Both my husband and I hope he stands at the next election for he will receive our vote, at least he speaks his mind and brings the council to book.
You're quite entitled to your opinion of John Oddy and the BNP. However, his so-called departure from the BNP has now been shown to be a deliberate attempt at deception. He's a racist because he has stood as a candidate for a racist party and still supports that racist party.
But if you and your husband approve of racism, go ahead and support him. That's democracy.
I, too, have known John for the last couple of years and know he has worked hard for the people in Colwyn Bay, even at the cost of making himself deeply unpopular with the vested interests within the town. I suggest you ask around in Colwyn Bay and you'll see how people respect him for standing up to a corrupt Conwy Council
Before you start having a go at me, I'm a Plaid supporter myself, and look forward to seeing Phil as our new MP in Aberconwy come May. But we should be concentrating on positive campaigning, not feeble attempts like this to discredit other political parties and politicians. This is Plaid, not the Labour Party! This blog post does us no favours at all.
Fe godwn ni eto.
It may have escaped you, Hugh, but this blog is not intended to do you any favours. John Oddy is a nasty piece of work: he is a racist, a liar and a fraud.
Now of course bad people are capable of doing good things—like helping little old ladies across the road—so I won't condemn everything he does. I would simply point out that such people are not the best people to have in positions of public power or trust. He is an unelected councillor, and I'm certain he wouldn't ever be elected if opposed. If you want someone to stand up for what you see as your interests, elect someone who is clean, not someone who is dirty.
Bad people are capable of change. But time has shown that his public show of leaving the BNP was only a cosmetic exercise, because he still openly supports the party. So don't be fooled by him, he's still the same John Oddy.
MH, if you really dislike Mr Oddy so much, then why don't you stand against him in the next election and we'll all see how much personal support he has. Are you willing to do that or are you all talk?
John Oddy is only a Town Councillor now because he put his name up at the last moment in a ward where he would get in unopposed. People are wise to that now, and I'm sure whoever stands against him will beat him ... after all, he finished a well deserved last in the contested Llandrillo yn Rhos division for Conwy Council.
The area may have more than its fair share of BNP supporters, but there'll never be enough of them to get an "I'm not really a BNP candidate any more, I just happen to support them" candidate elected.
I also have known John Oddy (as a fellow Town Cllr - before I resigned from a morally corrupt council due to victimisation and harassment). I can confirm that (as Hugh Jones also says) he has worked harder than any other cllr for the people in Colwyn Bay, even at the cost of making himself deeply unpopular with the vested interests within the town. I also (and use the same words as Hugh Jones) suggest you ask around in Colwyn Bay and you'll see how people respect him for standing up to a corrupt Conwy Council. Dave M -- I know it comes up as anonymous -- I have not got a profile etc, and don't want to spend time making one
For the benefit of others reading this, not only did "Dave M" use the very same words as "Hugh Jones", he used the very same computer to write them.
Because the multiposting is obviously going to continue ad infinitum, I am closing further comments on this post.
In closing the thread, it is worth noting that John Oddy and Dave Maratos both have property as a common interest, and so might be expected to support each other for that reason. But in objective terms John Oddy's "popularity" in the community as a whole can only be quantified in the polls. So let's wait to see if he stands again ... and whether he comes bottom of the poll again.
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Finally, this was a post about David Jones MP: that he was happy to associate himself with a racist, liar and fraud ... and to promote his blog on his own blog.
The question was only about whether he did this in ignorance of the political situation in his own constituency ... or whether he did it in full knowledge of John Oddy's past and present support for the BNP.
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