How Plaid Cymru Works - 11

This is the eleventh tranche of emails from the correspondence between various people in Plaid Cymru and myself, following a complaint about what I had written on the subject of the Ynys Môn by-election last year. For easy reference, I've put together the all the previous corresponence on this page, which I will keep updating as further emails are published.

From: Dafydd Trystan
Sent: Wednesday, 30 October 2013, 7:39am
To: Michael Haggett
Cc: Leanne Wood, Chris Franks
Subject: Re: Complaint

Dear Michael

Thank you for your Email.

I can assure you that I considered each of the points you raised in detail. For each issue I need to make a judgement whether I am dealing with a matter of process relating to the constitution and standing orders of the Party, or whether they are matters for the Panel and / or for the hearing.

The conclusion of my consideration was my previous Email i.e. that I have sought assurances on two specific matters of process. I have concluded that the other matters you raise are ones for the Panel and / or for the hearing itself.

I appreciate that you may, in all probability, disagree with these conclusions. However, given that we have agreed a robust process for matters of discipline in our new constitution, which includes less of a role for senior NEC officers than previously, I can, and will only intervene if there is clear evidence that the constitution and standing orders are not being followed.

I very much hope you can appreciate my position, even though you sought greater intervention on my part,

Sincerely

Dafydd Trystan

Dr Dafydd Trystan Davies
Cadeirydd / Chair Plaid Cymru

From: Michael Haggett
Sent: Wednesday, 30 October 2013, 1.11pm
To: Dafydd Trystan
Cc: Rhuanedd Richards, Shaughan Feakes, Leanne Wood, Chris Franks, Elin Jones
Subject: Re: Complaint

Dear Dafydd

I have provided you with clear evidence that Standing Orders have been ignored, and I must warn you that you are now dragging Plaid Cymru into even greater ridicule and disrepute by deliberately turning a blind eye to it.

However, as there several other matters to which I have not yet received a response, I will wait for these answers before taking things further. It's pointless to do things in dribs and drabs.

Best regards

Michael

From: Dafydd Trystan
Sent: Tuesday, 12 November 2013, 10:56am
To: Michael Haggett
Cc: Leanne Wood, Rhuanedd Richards, Shaughan Feakes, Chris Franks, Elin Jones
Subject: Re: Complaint

Dear Michael

Thank you for your note. I'm sorry my previous correspondence may not have been sufficiently clear. I have considered in detail the matters you raised, have acted where appropriate and necessary, and have now concluded my consideration of the matters referred to me.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact me

Sincerely

Dafydd Trystan

From: Michael Haggett
Sent: Wednesday, 13 November 2013, 12.26pm
To: Dafydd Trystan
Cc: Rhuanedd Richards, Shaughan Feakes, Leanne Wood, Chris Franks, Elin Jones
Subject: Re: Complaint

Dear Dafydd

You made yourself perfectly clear, and I made it perfectly clear that you cannot evade the responsibility you have been given. You are burying your head in the sand. My questions will not go away just because people refuse to answer them, and it is your job to make sure they are answered.

As chair of the party, you must take responsibility for internal party machinery and representing the voice of members. On both counts, this matter falls squarely onto your shoulders. But even if you question this, Leanne has specifically asked you to ensure that the party's rules are being adhered to and that everyone is treated properly and fairly. This is an ongoing responsibility that you cannot shirk. Therefore I will continue to write you until such time as the disciplinary processes relating to Rhun, Elfyn, Bob, Dafydd and myself have been resolved, or until you have been relieved of that responsibility.

-

I'm sure you enjoy the prestige and prominence of being chair, but the job also involves dealing with matters that you'd prefer not to deal with. I can understand why you want to distance yourself from what has happened, for it has been a farce from the very beginning. But by turning a blind eye to blatant wrongdoing, and by refusing to act when asked to do so, you are making yourself complicit in that wrongdoing. Chris's reputation is now in tatters. Do you really want yours to go the same way?

I can't say I particularly care about either Chris's reputation or yours, but I do care about our party. So I urge you again to act to prevent Plaid Cymru becoming even more of a laughing stock on this issue than it is at present. You owe this to the membership that only a month ago overwhelmingly voted to reaffirm our position on nuclear power at conference ... and, as set out in section 15.2i of the constitution, it is conference that is responsible for determining the party's policy. No matter how "inconvenient" this may be for those in positions of power in the party, our rules are quite clear.

Do I need to remind you of the big picture? A series of prominent members of the party have told lies about Plaid Cymru's policy on nuclear energy. But instead of taking action against them for telling lies, the party is trying to take action against me for exposing them as liars. I have no objection to being held to account for what I have said, but I will not tolerate the party turning a blind eye to what they said to occasion my criticism of them.

Best regards

Michael

From: Chris Franks
Sent: Monday, 18 November 2013, 12:33pm
To: Michael Haggett
Subject: Complaint

Dear Michael

Further to the email postponing the hearing I now inform you that the meeting will be held on Wednesday 27 November at 6.00 pm which will be held at Ty Gwynfor, Cardiff.

Best Wishes

Chris

From: Michael Haggett
Sent: Friday, 22 November 2013, 6:57pm
To: Dafydd Trystan
Cc: Rhuanedd Richards, Shaughan Feakes, Leanne Wood, Chris Franks, Elin Jones
Subject: Re: Complaint

Dear Dafydd

I must once again remind you that I have not received answers to my outstanding questions. No matter how tightly you shut your eyes to them, they will not go away.

In your email of 24 October you acknowledged that it was unreasonable for Chris to act in the way he has done regarding my complaints against Rhun, Elfyn, Bob and Dafydd, and on the 29 October you said you were assured that a timetable for evaluating and investigating them was being drawn up. It is now clear that you were rather too easily assured. If you were foolish enough to leave responsibility for this in Chris's hands, he has not taken a blind bit of notice of you, just as he has not taken a blind bit of notice of standing orders in dealing with me.

Like a toy robot, he will keep pressing blindly forwards until someone in Plaid Cymru has enough sense to realize the damage he is doing to the party, and enough decisiveness to stop him while there is still some slight hope that the damage can be repaired.

-

I will simply repeat that you cannot move to an investigation unless you set out a timetable for it and inform all parties of what it is (Clause 4.3) and that any investigation must make enquires of all parties (Clause 4.2). Until a proper investigation has been conducted the Hearing Panel cannot resolve whether or not there is a case for me to answer (Clause 4.4). If they were then to decide that there was a case for me to answer, I would need to be informed of what that case was before I could answer it at a formal hearing.

As I said before, if the party is determined to proceed with disciplinary action against me, it must go back and do things properly.

-

It would, though, be a shame to let the meeting arranged for 27 November go to waste. So I would suggest that other members of the MDSP are included and that the meeting be used to evaluate my complaints against Rhun, Elfyn, Bob and Dafydd, and to set up investigations by an external investigator for my complaints against them and for Elin's complaint against me. This will require them to have been given copies of all my correspondence with Chris and yourself beforehand (in electronic form, so that the links in it can be followed) as they cannot make an informed decision without it. There is too much information for them to be expected to go through it all in just a couple of hours at one meeting, and Chris has admitted that he has until now kept them completely in the dark about what I have had to say.

However if the MDSP does not set out a timetable before or at that meeting—and bearing in mind that the party has now allowed more than two months of continual evasion to elapse without doing a thing about it—there will be no alternative but to conclude that the party never had the slightest intention of dealing with these complaints in a fair and even-handed way. The two-faced hypocrisy of trying to stitch me up by blatantly ignoring every rule in the book, while at the same time refusing to even consider whether Rhun was or was not telling the truth, will be plain for all to see.

Best regards

Michael

From: Dafydd Trystan
Sent: Saturday, 23 November 2013, 8:37am
To: Michael Haggett
Cc: Rhuanedd Richards, Shaughan Feakes, Leanne Wood, Chris Franks, Elin Jones
Subject: Re: Complaint

Dear Michael

Thank you for your latest Email.

May I refer you to my previous Email, where I was clear that I have considered all of the matters you have drawn to my attention and sought assurances on two specific matters of process.

I am pleased that on one of those matters, the timetable for your complaint, sufficient time has elapsed to allow you to prepare fully for your hearing.

On the complaint that you have lodged, as advised previously, I have sought assurances and been given assurances as to the timescale for dealing with the next steps with that complaint.

You raise one new matter in your Email - and that is the access of members of the panel to correspondence relating to the matter(s) at hand. I am confident and would fully expect that all members will be furnished with all relevant correspondence prior to considering these matters,

Thank you again for contacting me,

Sincerely

Dafydd Trystan

Dr Dafydd Trystan Davies
Cadeirydd / Chair Plaid Cymru

From: Michael Haggett
Sent: Monday, 25 November 2013, 12:27pm
To: Dafydd Trystan
Cc: Rhuanedd Richards, Shaughan Feakes, Leanne Wood, Chris Franks, Elin Jones
Subject: Re: Complaint

And I would remind you of what I said in my reply of 13 November, Dafydd.

Your reputation is on the line too, and you must bear the consequences of the ridiculous decisions you have made, even after being presented with incontrovertible evidence that standing orders have been, and are still being, ignored.

Best regards

Michael