Let sleeping arsonists lie
Reflection — By Duncan Higgitt on December 12, 2009 10:17 amNEWS that North Wales Police has marked the 30th anniversary of the holiday home arson campaign with the suggestion that its officers may go back into the case surely must have led to some considerable scratching of heads.
Save the sliver of comfort to some people who lost their houses and possessions at that time, it’s difficult to see what might be achieved by reopening this investigation. While it remains such a cold case, it continues to be a political timebomb and, regardless of what the police might claim otherwise, they have to pay regard to such considerations.
It is widely accepted that the 12-year-long campaign which involved the burning of around 220 homes, caravans and cars, from the Llyn peninsula to South Pembrokeshire, was the work of Meibion Glyndwr. Among the homes torched were a number belonging to Conservative MPs and one owned by then-Welsh Secretary David Hunt. As a response, police carried out Operation Tân, a series of raids on the homes of nationalists, which led to widespread resentment and also failed to stop the campaign.
Three groups other than Meibion Glyndwr have attempted to take responsibility for the attacks – Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru, Cadwyr Cymru and the Welsh Army for the Workers Republic. But only one man, Sion Aubrey Roberts, has even been convicted for playing a part in the arson campaign. He was convicted in 1993 for a letterbomb campaign, although his complicity in the whole campaign remains in doubt, as he would have been only seven when it started.
Plenty of paranoia and touchiness still surround the subject. Some 38 MI5 agents were reputed to have followed Roberts prior to his arrest, yet Elfyn Llwyd, now Plaid’s Merionnydd Nant Conwy MP but a solicitor at the time of the attacks (he represented Bryn Fôn when the singer was arrested for his alleged involvement) said in 2004 that he believed there had been Secret Service involvement in the burnings.
This was dismissed by then-Clwyd West AM Alun Pugh as “too much X Files”. Although if there was no involvement, there was certainly sympathy on the part of some local police officers. Former detective Gareth Jones, who once led North Wales CID, told the BBC: “There’s no doubt that some police outside this unit were supportive of what was going on. I have no doubt about that and we had to co-operate and work with those people, but nobody was open about it at the time of course.”
There is little doubt that the burnings could be as indiscriminate as any terror campaign. Canon Geraint Meirion Roberts, a vicar in Surrey at the time, lost his cottage in Rhosgadfan, in 1986. He rebuilt the house and now lives there. But surely the time to do anything on behalf of the victims of the campaign has passed? When North Wales Police announced it was looking for fresh DNA in relation to the case five years ago (at the time of the 25th anniversary), it led to widespread questioning over the wisdom of the move.
Former Clwyd West MP Gareth Thomas said at the time: “It is a reasonable requirement that police review old cases, but I’m mystified as to why it’s been decided now. I think this has got the potential to be very divisive – it was a very sensitive subject. I would not want to belittle the seriousness of the issues, but the DNA technology has existed for a number of years. There is not new evidence. It seems a real fishing expedition.”
The historian Dr John Davies went one further, suggesting that the widespread sympathy for the campaign in certain areas of Wales remained so strong that any new arrests resulting from a fresh police investigation could spark a new campaign. And therein lies the rub. The problems that caused it still remain. Of course, the Welsh language is now stronger than it was back then, somewhat allaying fears about an erosion of Welsh culture. Nevertheless, the inability of local people to afford homes in the area in which they were born still remains.
Home supplements in London newspapers often feature quarter-million-pound-plus properties, usually in areas like Gwynedd, and often wrecks seemingly unaffected by the housing bubble’s deflation. Of course, there are social housing projects in place, and they are to be welcomed. But the issue of affordable homes if, if anything, worse than it was in the days of Meibion Glyndwr. And there is no easy solution to the matter. How can property prices be controlled? Any legislative move would surely be overturned by the first case that challenged its restrictive nature.
One last thing – this latest move by the police smacks of a Richard Brunstrom headline grabber. The former chief constable has now, thankfully, departed, and along with him should go the kind of rash moves that often landed North Wales Police with unfavourable headlines. As such, it would be best to let sleeping arsonists lie.
Tags: arson campaign, cottage burning, Elfyn Llwyd, Meibion Glyndwr, Welsh Language
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13 Comments
The cottage burners didn’t conduct their campaign because they wanted to draw attention to the problems of unaffordable housing. They did it because they didn’t want English people living on “their” soil. It was straightforward criminal racist intimidation and you should not equivocate over it.
Rhys. Do you know the bombers, then? How else would you know their motivation so well? Or are you just making assumptions based on, I’m guessing, your own pre-conceived ideas?
‘Rhys’ you are talking rubbish. The main aim was not some racist attack on English people, it was to draw attention to the absurd situation of locals being priced out of the market because people from outside Wales could pay any asking price. Local people in those areas where the arson attacks took place didn’t stand a chance (remember those areas are amongst the low paid areas of the whole of the UK). Although I sympathise with that viewpoint I would never condone criminal attacks, thank heavens nobody was injured.
Rhys,
I disagree, for two reasons. The first is that in none of the research I did for this piece, or in all the years I spent as a journalist sometimes covering various aspects of this story, there was anything to prove that sustaining racial purity was a motivating reason for the arson campaign. And, as an Englishman by birth, I like to think I would have been more sensitive to such motivations.
Secondly, if it was racist intimidation, then what provided the spark? How did matters move from resentment and protest to outright violence? I would suggest that there were earlier moments in recent Welsh history that would have given greater impetus to armed insurrection – the flooding of Capel Celyn in 1964-5, and the investiture of the Prince of Wales some four years later. Although there was the Free Wales Army campaign around this time, it was far smaller and more sporadic than the cottage burning campaign attributed to Meibion Glyndwr.
One last personal observation. I’ve lived here for 15 years, and I’ve witnessed the replacement of a sometimes insecure general embitterment at aimed the English with a national self-confidence found widely among Scottish people. This is right, because it defines itself by what Wales is, rather than how it isn’t English. But that confidence may hang finely in the balance. As such, I don’t see what good can come of raking through these embers.
“Of course, the Welsh language is now stronger than it was back then, somewhat allaying fears about an erosion of Welsh culture. ”
I disagree. There are more people who speak Welsh, it’s true, but the survival of Welsh depends on its use as a community language. Most communities where Welsh is the majority language are being diluted by monoglot English-speaking incomers, which threatens the status of Welsh as a community language. The problem is worse than it has ever been.
Young people cannot afford to stay in their communities, as they are generally priced out of the housing market and often have poor employment prospects. So they leave to find work and affordable housing, and their place is taken by incomers who can afford the houses but don’t speak Welsh. Then the linguistic nature of the community gradually (or not so gradually in some cases) changes as more and more people there speak only English, and less and less speak Welsh.
The Welsh language now is under more threat than it has ever been. When it ceases to be the language of a community as most of the community don’t speak it, it is in danger of dying out. This is unacceptable.
Duncan,
“around 220 homes, caravans and cars”
Can you tell me how many were Welsh owned ?
Barry – Good point. I hadn’t thought about that aspect. Thanks for the contribution. Do you have any thoughts on how this could be arrested?
Red Dai – no idea. At least one – the example I give above. Please let me be clear – this piece passes no judgement on the rights or wrongs of what happened back then. It merely inquires after the benefits of what may be had by unearthing the matter now.
The government should put tighter restrictions on the housing market and take both language and local economic issues into account. The emphasis in new development should be on building affordable houses for local people, rather than the current practice of building a token percentage of affordable housing as part of larger developments aimed primarily at wealthy incomers. Local authorities should also be able to place restrictions on the number of people from outside the area who buy houses in the area, to give the advantage back to local people. Tied in with this would be the necessary powers to enforce this policy onto estate agents who would otherwise seek the largest profit over the good of the communities in which their housing stock lies.
In considering any planning applications in rural Wales, particularly the “touristy” areas, it should be a requirement that planning authorities must consider the impact of a planned development on the linguistic make-up of the community. Again, emphasis should be on local homes for local people.
Taxes on second homes should be much higher than on main residences, to discourage people from buying holiday homes.
The right to buy council houses should be abolished, to avoid further erosion of the social housing stock available in Wales. More properties should be made available for young families to rent in their local area. Money should be invested in the building of new housing stock specifically for local people to rent.
Job creation should, of course, be a priority. By that I mean new companies and industries (or new branches of already existing ones) located in other areas of Wales outside the M4 and A55 corridors. People will only stay in their communities if there are sufficient employment opportunities within easy reach of those communities.
In order to make more of Wales accessible and thus more able to attract businesses, better north-south transport links would be required. This would ideally include a direct rail route and improved road links.
In short, the needs of Welsh communities and the people living in them should take preferences over those of holiday home buyers and other incomers.
In all discussions about housing in the Fro, I think we need to be terribly careful to distinguish between second home ownership and permanent settlement. It strikes me that so-called “dark villages” are undesirable in any part of rural Wales, or indeed in the rest of the UK. I seem to remember Plaid putting forward a proposal several years ago that would require anyone buying a permanent home for use as a second residence to redesignate it and apply for planning permission as a change of use for that building. This is an entirely sensible move that would allow planning authorities to very closely control the proportion of housing in any area being used as a second dwellings.
But that is quite different from the question of so-called “incomers”; i.e English-speaking people (often Welsh people) who move into a largely Welsh-speaking area. I cannot see how you might seek to control the supply of housing so as to maintain the linguistic status quo without running the very real risk of violating somebody’s human rights. As Barry above suggests, there may be indirect routes to consider the the linguistic impact of new developments, but public authorities would need to be extraordinarily careful not to even indirectly deny someone their rights on the basis of their language.
Placing “the needs of Welsh communities…[ahead of] incomers” is an attractive-sounding objective, but we need to realise that it is also putting group rights ahead of individual rights. That is a very major jurisprudential step indeed, and one that needs to be considered for all its implications.
Adam makes some sensible points.
I would add however that where there is a buyer, there is also a seller.
Perhaps we should clobber Welsh speakers who try to move away with punative taxation (say double the standard UK CGT rate)? That would help keep them trapped in the Fro …
As to Duncan’s suggestion that NWP should close the file on the firebombers, they are obliged by law to keep the files on unsolved crimes open in case new evidence emerges. DNA advances have enabled the resolution of a number of violent crimes from the 1970′s and 1980′s. The decision over whether to pardon the terrorists of Meibion Glyndwr, if they can be caught is one for the politicians, not the Police.
Dave,
I said nothing of the sort. I understand fully well police procedure in such matters, just as I understand that pardons are only given to people with convictions. Every force has cold cases on its books. As distressing as these attacks were to the people whose homes were firebombed, the fact remains that there are cases where people were attacked or lost their lives that must take precedent – according to the severity of the law – ahead of the arson campaign.
So let me say again, as I have done throughout both the original piece, including its headline, and its thread. I am vexed as to what good will come of this investigation – if it goes ahead (the piece makes it clear that it is still only being considered by NWP).
As an aside, I would also suggest that the emotive tone of your argument rather undermines it.
Duncan,
From a Police point of view what good may come of it is wholly irrelevant. Serious crimes were committed and they have a duty to investigate. There is no statute of limitations.
As to the term “terrorism”, well one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter, but using violence and intimidation for political ends is a mouthful …
Dave Collins
I think the police who complain endlessly about their lack of money and resources to police effectively today should forget it. Why spend money and time on something where there was no loss of human life. They should just put Constable Evans (Rhys Bowen) on the case, and just get on with the job of protecting the here and now.