How Plaid Cymru Works - 18

This is the next 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.

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Because all the previous members of the Membership, Disciplinary and Standards Panel had now been involved in one way or another in the farcical disciplinary process which should, as set out in Standing Orders, have concluded with my successful appeal, any loose ends should have reverted to the Chair of the Party, Dafydd Trystan to deal with.

Dafydd had confirmed in his email of 4 February that there were in fact no constitutional grounds for the party to "re-start" disciplinary action against me (his exact words, here, were that we were in "uncharted constitutional waters") and this meant that the leadership of Plaid Cymru had now abandoned even the pretence of following Standing Orders and were now making it up as they went along.

However as Dafydd had himself been an instrumental part of the wrongdoing that led to the previous injustice, the matter was passed to the Deputy Chair, Nerys Evans. What she should have done was either drop the matter or, alternatively, act as an honest broker in setting up the proper, independent investigation which I had proposed. But she just pressed ahead with the plan to go through the same motions all over again, although I'm sure this was a decision made by the leadership as a whole rather than her alone.

It was nearly a month before I next heard from her and, as people can see below, she had buried her head in the sand and refused to address any of the questions I had asked or points I had made. It was now obvious that the farce was going to be repeated.

From: Nerys Evans
Sent: Monday, 7 April 2014 3:00pm
To: Michael Haggett
Subject: Re: Complaint by Elin Jones

Dear Michael

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner regarding the on-going complaints, I have been away on holiday.

As mentioned previously, we have sought new members for the MDSP to hear the complaint by Elin Jones against you.

I wrote to you to inform you of the names of the three new members, but it has since emerged that one of the potential new members was conflicted, and so the new members, who have declared that they do not have a conflict of interest are:

Sian Powell, Eli Jones, Peter Fenner.

All three have received the relevant MDSP training.

The MDSP met last Wednesday and will be in touch regarding the investigation, timetable etc

I have asked the MDSP, and they have agreed, to postpone the investigation into the complaint made by Alun Cox until the process in relation to Elin Jones's complaint has concluded.

Many thanks

Nerys

From: Eli Jones
Sent: Monday, 7 April 2014, 2:37pm
To: Undisclosed recipients
Subject: Complaint made in August 2014 by the Director of Communications

To: Michael Haggett and the Director of Communications
Copy to: Hearing Panel members and the Investigation Officer

Without prejudice

Dear Mr Haggett and Ms Jones

I am writing to you in my capacity as Chair of the Hearing Panel that was appointed by the Membership, Disciplinary, and Standards Panel at its meeting held on 2 April 2014, to hear the complaint originally brought by the Director of Communications, against Mr Haggett in August 2014.

My fellow members of the Hearing Panel are Sian Powell and Peter Fenner.

Our brief is to deal with the issues de novo - that is, as if they were being considered for the first time. We have received a copy of the complaint, as formulated by the Director of Communications, in response to the request made by the Chair of the Membership, Disciplinary and Standards Committee, but nothing further, although we are given to understand that there has been subsequent correspondence.

We met formally as the Hearing Panel, on 2 April 2014 and, in accordance with paragraph 4.2 of the Standing Orders, we have appointed Ian Titherington to act as Investigating Officer.

Additionally, in accordance with paragraph 4.3 of the Standing Orders, we determined the following timetable:

1. The Investigating Officer to complete his report and submit it to the Hearing Panel by 9 May 2014;

2. The Hearing Panel to meet on 19 May 2014 (or as near as possible to that date), to consider the Investigating Officer’s report and determine whether there is a case to answer, and, the Hearing Panel’s further action (if any), in the light of that decision;

3. It is intended that all parties will be advised of the Hearing Panel's resolution within one week of that meeting.

In the absence of being informed to the contrary within the next five days, it will be assumed that all parties are content to continue with this process by means of e-mail correspondence.

Meanwhile, may I take this opportunity to remind all parties of the provision of paragraph 9.1 of the Standing Orders for Membership, Discipline and Standards:

9.1 Public Statements

No public statement regarding the circumstances or persons involved in a disciplinary Procedure shall be made by any member other than the Chair of the Party until after the conclusion of any appeal or until after the last day for the making of an appeal in the event of no appeal being made.

On behalf of the Hearing Panel, I look forward to your co-operation with the Investigation Officer and the Panel, in bringing this matter to a fair and speedy conclusion.

Eli Jones
Chair - Hearing Panel

From: Michael Haggett
Sent: Monday, 7 April 2014, 11:50am
To: Nerys Evans
Subject: Re: Complaints by Elin Jones and Michael Haggett

Dear Nerys

I trust you had a nice holiday, and that you will now address the outstanding issues raised in my previous emails, which are included below.

I have received an email from Eli Jones, but it would not be appropriate to respond to it until all these outstanding issues have been properly resolved.

Best regards

Michael