Wednesday, 20th April, 2016
JAMIE’S EU PROPAGANDA IS TOTALLY PLAGIARISED
PCC LEADER USES COUNCIL AS POLITICAL FOOTBALL TO ENGENDER SUPPORT FOR EU
ALSO A FARMER, HE PROPAGANDISES PEMBS. VOTERS WITH PLAGIARISED INDUSTRY SPIEL
COPIES AND PASTES MULTIPLE FARMING SOURCES IN SUPPORT OF EU MEMBERSHIP
QUOTES FROM TRADE MAG ‘FARMERS WEEKLY’ AMONG THOSE HE USES TO MAKE HIS CASE!
Regardless of anybody’s views on the upcoming EU referendum, only terms like ‘an affront’ can describe the propagandising motion Pembrokeshire County Council’s leader – Cllr. Jamie Adams – is spearheading that: “Pembrokeshire residents be urged to vote to “Remain” in the European Union in the forthcoming referendum.”
This, he tabled, to a taxpayer-funded public body which should be politically neutral, totally indifferent to its residents’ personal and political beliefs.
![The six prongs of Cllr. Adams' motion [CLICK TO ENLARGE]](https://jacobwilliams.com/files/2016/04/EU-referendum-motion.png)
The six prongs of Cllr. Adams’ motion [CLICK TO ENLARGE]
I’ve uncovered evidence that he’s totally incapable of articulating ‘his’ views on the subject and is wholly reliant on others to make ‘his’ case for him.
It’s emerged that the authority’s £50k per year ‘independent’ leader serially plagiarised a statement, presented in his own name, supporting his controversial attempt to bind the council into supporting the UK’s EU membership and encouraging the county’s residents to vote accordingly.
County council papers show that Cllr. Jamie Adams lifted quotes from a document published by and for his powerful farming fraternity as part of his bid to drag the council into partisan politics.
Further research shows some of the sentences “he” wrote have even appeared in his trade rag, ‘Farmers’ Weekly’ magazine!
Whilst the legitimacy of the motion is itself in question, it’s due to be discussed by Cllr. Adams and his nine cherry-picked cabinet members at a webcasted meeting on Monday morning.
They will put a recommendation to a subsequent debate on 12th May open to all sixty councillors for a final decision.
Cllr. Adams’ supporting statement – required by council rules – is printed in the agenda for Monday’s meeting.
JW has been anticipating this document for some time – and it’s no disappointment.
Cllr. Adams’ data-laden supporting statement contains the sort of informational and grammatical fluidity that’s well out of keeping with the uninformed, clichéd, management-speak style he honed at the young farmers’ club debating society.
So I started looking into the words he claims are his own – and it wasn’t difficult to uncover our dear leader’s tracks:
JAMIE’S SUPPORTING STATEMENT:
WHAT JAMIE ACTUALLY WROTE:
Every single word supporting the EU comes from other sources – none with Cllr. Adams’ council motion to propagandise Pembrokeshire residents in mind.
The only original parts of Cllr. Adams’ supporting statement are the heading (added in by council officers) his name at the bottom, and connecting words and introductions to sentences borrowed from elsewhere.
The multitude of sources carrying the plagiarised words are easy to find online, but one particular document contains nearly all of the sentences – and it’s by far the most interesting.
It’s a 24-page booklet titled ‘UK FARMING’S RELATIONSHIP WITH THE EU’ published by the farming union, NFU Cymru.
Aside from raising questions over Cllr. Adams’ capacity – lest we forget he ‘leads’ a £300m budgeted council – JW can’t help wonder: if he’s unable to frame what are supposed to be his own arguments, whose interests is he really aiming to serve by using the council as a political pawn?
He didn’t have to enter the fray at all, but, having taken this step, whose case is he making?
Is it the farming community – of which he is a key member in the county – or is it the wider Pembrokeshire public?
Many questions, indeed – and his insults to the intelligence of Pembrokeshire folk just carry on and on.
Cllr. Adams’ family’s strong links to the farming fraternity in Pembrokeshire are well known and the foreword to NFU Cymru’s leaflet was written by the NFU’s England and Wales president – none other than local boy, Meurig Raymond MBE.
Mr. Raymond and his twin brother were awarded MBEs in 2004 for ‘services to agriculture,’ running the family farm – Jordanstan Hall – ten miles from Adams’ dairy farm on the outskirts of Haverfordwest, north Pembrokeshire.
Public information is incomplete but shows between 2001 and 2008 the Raymonds trousered over €1.3m in EU subsidies, and over £250k in payments in 2014 alone.
The Adams enterprise netted €180k between 2003-2008 and over £100k in 2014.
The NFU was trying its best to make out it was sitting on the fence in the literature Cllr. Adams quoted from.
On the one hand if we left Europe… and on the other…
It does so under the cover of David Cameron’s renegotiation talks – which were then ongoing – saying: “NFU Cymru has not taken a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ stance ahead of the conclusion of the renegotiation. At this stage we simply can’t. What we can do is assess what we know.”
But David Cameron’s renegotiation has since concluded in failure.
Surprise, surprise, on Monday the NFU balloted its 90 council members – I don’t think this means people like Jamie! – who voted overwhelmingly to support remaining in the EU.
These 90 council members are but a very small sample of the NFU’s 55,000 membership.
Despite other UK council leaders pulling similar stunts, on May 12th when Cllr. Adams’ motion comes before the full council meeting I intend to argue that the chairman should deem it out of order – and not because I want to hide my voting intentions!
It’s difficult to see how the motion is constitutional, as the EU and the referendum are matters over which the council has no control, and should take no stance.
But if it does go through it’s difficult to think of anything more patronising than someone like Jamie Adams trying to impose his views on Europe, through his tightly whipped party, backed up by the gospel of his farming fraternity, on the Pembrokeshire public.
Unlike Jamie, I wholeheartedly support ‘Brexit’ – and I’m confident in the public’s ability to make up their own minds – y qué será, será!
But I’m sure they won’t be entirely dependent on the farmers’ union or Farmers Weekly to form their opinion or articulate their own views for them.
The council is no instrument for Jamie to use to encourage others to do as he and his fraternity wishes.
When caught out it’s usually Cllr. Adams’ reaction to try and turn the tables – cue suggestions I’ve used his image without permission…
SO…
WHO WROTE JAMIE’S SPIEL?
THE COPYING AND PASTING EXERCISE:
A clearer picture emerges if we break down the “council leader’s” statement paragraph by paragraph.
1“I have already in my notice of motion to Council outlined many of the actual and tangible benefits that Pembrokeshire has gained from Britain’s membership of the European Union.”
So far, so good – no evidence that Jamie didn’t write his opening sentence.
2“It is important to understand that the cornerstones of the EU single market are the ‘four freedoms’ – the free movement of people, goods, services and capital. The single market allows people and businesses to move and trade freely across borders within the EU.”
Jamie’s lack of knowledge – or interest – set in early. He couldn’t make two paragraphs without turning to others to do his dirty work for him.
Here it is in the NFU’s brochure:
The NFU may even share authors with UNESCO and Farmers Weekly as they’ve also used uncannily similar wording.
3“The single market gives Pembrokeshire businesses access to the world’s largest economy with more that [sic] 500 million people with a GDP of €25,000 per head. The free movement of goods across the EU’s single market directly benefits businesses and consumers. The elimination of tariffs, border controls and the establishment of Common rules and standards all reduce the administrative burden on trading businesses.”
The first bits of paragraph 3 are included in the previous snippet from the NFU’s brochure. All the rest is lifted from the same page:
4“Furthermore the EU has taken on multinational giants like Microsoft, Samsung and Toshiba for unfair compensation. The UK would not be able to do this alone.”
What on earth is ‘unfair compensation?’ I hear you ask!
As my regular contributor Keanjo jokes, maybe this could be taken as a reference to Bryn Parry-Jones’ golden goodbye!
Jamie, of course, means ‘unfair competition.’
It’s safe to say this sentence is one of the few that didn’t appear in the NFU’s brochure – but it must have had some appeal for Jamie to stray from his holy book.
Perhaps he thought it best to slip in some populist element unrelated to farming to spice things up and cover his footprints.
The same sentence – without the mistake – appears on a multitude of websites and forums, including Pro Europa and, ironically, Leave HQ!
5“Finally, if UK was to leave the single market it would face a complex process to strike up new trading deals that would hit the financial market substantially. The risks to our economy are clear and would leave the jobs and prosperity of the British people dangerously exposed.”
No, not the words of dairy farmer and council leader Jamie Adams, but cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock MP.
The words Jamie quoted from Mr. Hancock appear both in this Guardian article and a Daily Express report.
You might be thinking the Guardian’s lily-livered-lefty-liberal outlook isn’t Jamie’s breakfast reading.
It’s a fair assessment because we can be pretty sure it was in fact the tabloid Daily Express article Jamie landed on during his copying and pasting rounds, and not the Guardian, because ‘his’ first sentence was actually the Express journalist’s analysis.
The Daily Express also sub-headed their piece with the suggestion that ‘anti-Brexit’ ministers were ‘scaremongering’!
Who do EU think you are kidding Mr. Adams?
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‘Unfair compensation’ – Jamie must have been thinking of his old mate.
The funny thing about Jamie’s effort to support the Remain campaign is that he doesn’t mention the Common Agricultural Policy and those lovely grants to farmers!
Lol!
It’s not plagiarism: it’s a tribute to the deathless prose of the Daily Express and the NFU.
Mocking Jamie for his failure to improve on perfection is grossly unfair, Jacob. It’s bad enough to deride his struggles with the truth, but poking fun of his problems with original thought is just one step too far.
So cruel.
So very cruel.
So true.
You can’t believe anything he says.
My thoughts I will venture at a later time. There are quite a lot.
€25,000 per head? Then why do so many want to be here? What Mr Adams wants me to vote ensures I do the opposite. Rule Britannia.
I am sure that I read somewhere that out of 1,000 Welsh farmers asked ‘Do you want remain in or leave the European union’ 700 of them indicated they wanted to get out.
Do the EU subsidies people take into account all Jamie Adams’ other sources of income before they throw money at him?
Why should he be getting two very large bites at taxpayers’ money when others are getting none, not to mention having to support this parasite through their taxes?
Jacob, I have to admit (through gritted teeth) that this is a brilliant piece of research.
In an attempt to keep up, I Googled Cllr Adams’ submission on the badger cull.
On searching: “The range of goods and services delivered by the Agricultural Industry in Wales is unparalleled by any other primary industry”, I came across: “The range of goods and services provided by upland farming systems is unparalleled by any other industry.” (NFU Cymru research paper).
Those monkeys have been busy bashing their typewriters, it would seem.
Of course, plagiarism, or not, you are right to question whether it is appropriate for the Leader of council to be using his position to promote his own financial interests.
I wonder how many members of the cabinet, who all owe their £25,000 special responsibility allowancess to Cllr Adams’ patronage, will vote against this.
So Jamie Adams wants Pembrokeshire people to listen to what he says on the E.U. referendum, has he or his sheep listened to any Pembrokeshire people on the sixth form school consultation in Haverfordwest?
The answer is no, so why should we listen to him just so he can keep clawing in his E.U. grants?
Some farmers and councils do very well out of the EU, you won’t get these turkeys to vote for Christmas!
Cameron came away from Brussels empty handed, at least Chamberlain got a piece of paper! That’s because the majority of turkeys who gain from the EU won’t vote for Christmas either!
The EU can only reform when the EU is faced with the reality of BREXIT. Then perhaps the donor nations (UK, Germany et al) can cut the turkeys out and do real reform. At the moment all the corn that our turkeys get is paid for by us, along with many of Europe’s turkeys.
As for Pembrokeshire’s very own chief turkey? Surely a creature that is too busy gobbling corn wouldn’t have time to write.
Either Jamie is a plagiarist, or he is incapable of articulating his thoughts in written form.
What kind of example does this set to the county’s schoolchildren who would get a zero if they committed plagiarism in one of their subjects?
Or is the new (is it really needed?) Welsh medium school going to be built with EU money?
It is a shame that the political puppets, from top to bottom, do not credit us with enough intelligence to make an informed decision ourselves.
Once you tell people how to act, you inevitably end up with them doing the complete opposite…or is it that they have not heard of reverse psychology?
I was always told by my gran that ‘a still tongue is a wise tongue’. I knew I should have listened to her…
Ivor, all I can say is your gran obviously never witnessed a PCC meeting.
A look at the IPPG benches easily disproves her theory that ‘a still tongue is a wise tongue’.
By her reckoning the likes of Davie Neale, Umelda Harvard, David Rees (who even is he?) etcetera would be mentioned in the same breath as Albert Einstein.
This council prides itself over its success of levering in grant money from the EU and elsewhere.
It would be an interesting exercise to tot up how much had been levered in and spent, say over 5 years.
Perhaps even more interesting would be to see the value the county had gained from grant funded projects.
Another issue concerns the cost of maintaining additional facilities, no grants for additional running costs or maintenance.
With its proud ‘lowest council tax in Wales’ claim, this council has a history of running down its own, or our, corporate estate to the extent that it can no longer afford to refurbish them and is engaged on a fire sale of dilapidated properties.
Is anyone held to account? Of course not.
I understand that communities in part of the county are considered by the EU to be deprived. Did this merit a mention in the Leader’s rambling?
Remember the great debate, when some councillors went public on suspending the then Chief Executive, they were forced to leave the wchamber being deemed to have pre-determined the matter under discussion.
When the matter of “In” or “Out” of Europe is debated I hope that the leader respects that ruling and leaves the chamber since he has gone public having pre-determined the issue to be debated.
At least Jamie knows which side his bread is buttered unlike this farmer
http://www.the-eye-investigates.uk/andrew-rt-davies-2/
Come to think of it I think Jamie has worked out how to get his buttered on both sides…
John Hudson, the answer to your question is to be found in Cllr Adams’ submission in support of his pro-EU NoM at the time he submitted it in March:
No mention, alas, of the EU-funded commercial property grants scheme in Pembroke Dock which is currently the subject of a long-running (two years+) police investigation.
This person is way over his head he should stick to farming and forget the politics. What next, him and BPJ will probably get a knighthood.
Quill, you are quite right!
John, you make a good point; the EU have yet to have their accounts signed off as the auditor refuses to do so. This dates back over 20 years! So it would suggest that the whole system has its (serious) faults, right from the very top to the bottom, i.e. local level.
That is why we have career politicians. Even politicians who speak a lot of sense before being elected soon are forced to toe the ‘party line’.
The sad fact is that once into a position of power, it does not generally take long for the outspoken ones to be ‘brought into line’.
A fine example is the schools fiasco. There has been talk of a school at Withybush for so many years, it now appears that the funding has been obtained from WAG, but to build a Welsh medium school, when perhaps the need is not as great as a bilingual one.
We will probably never know exactly who is the puppet masters at County Hall, but you will be sure that it won’t be the sacrificial lambs of Adams and George et al.
As far as the Europe question, I’m undecided as of yet as I am still trying to obtain accurate information, but I certainly will not be accepting so-called facts from County Hall telling me what’s best for me.
Fair point Pembs. Exile – and if IPPG secret meetings in advance to decide on how to vote are not pre-determination – I don’t know what is. A deathly silence from the little missed, previous monitoring officer on that matter.
However, the latest guidelines on pre-determination from WAG shows that those councillors should NOT have been excluded.
They can make statements in advance about a topic and indeed SHOULD if that will stimulate public debate. The more the public talk to their councillors the better informed they are!
That doesn’t bar them from the debate but they must still keep an open mind before deciding how to cast their vote.
Thanks Mike, but I am unable to draw any sense of value gained for £121,000,000 from that list. It does not sound a lot of benefit to me. Perhaps as the council is fund holder, councillors receive “end of project” evaluation reports that put them in some sort of context?
I am aware that The Lottery Fund commissions independent evaluation reports from Oxford Brookes University in respect of its THI programmes.
For example, the Pembroke Dock THI Scheme has had 5 and 10 year review reports. Having read them I am not surprised that these reviews were not reported to council.
I am awaiting the Haverfordwest THI evaluation report with interest.
I would like to be informed of two figures – firstly how much does it cost the UK for EU membership including the salaries, expenses and other costs of keeping the small army of MEPs, commissioners, civil servants, advisors, security staff and others in Europe and the UK. Secondly the amount returned to the UK in grants etc. That would help me greatly in reaching a decision.
I wonder if Cllr Adams’ IPPG colleague Rob Summons has identified any copyright issues arising from this industrial-scale plagiarism?