The following is a summary of the ground-breaking article in Issue 2 of Ein Gwlad. In it the author looks beyond what is happening in Wales today and examines why our very existence as a nation is being ruthlessly undermined. Behind it he detects a grand strategic design. He calls it "Plantation"

Plantation: What it is

"According to many expert commentators, the relentless influx of English people into Wales is attributable to what they term "market forces". Having thus identified, at least to their own satisfaction, the root cause of the problem, they embark on the quest for some magic formula guaranteed to cure it. One has, they insist, only to reduce or, better still, redress, the current disparity in wealth between the populations of England and Wales and the problem will disappear. Or so they claim.

They are wrong. Some of them even know they are wrong. For the plain truth is that the present influx is sponsored, even engineered, by the English state in accordance with a policy I shall henceforth refer to as "Plantation". As for differences in comparative wealth these merely facilitate the influx. In other words they are no more than a device, one of several, by which the policy of Plantation is implemented. Until we recognise this, we have little hope of defending ourselves against it."

With these words Dr. Jones begins his survey of the policy described as "Plantation", explaining how the influx it sponsors is different from all immigration into Wales.
Tracing its origins to the 1960's - when plans were drawn up for a new town of 60,000 people, mainly from the West Midlands conurbation, at Caersws - he explains how the policy was intended to suppress the resurgence of national feeling prevalent at the time and far from welcome to those in authority. By those in authority the author goes on to add

" I do not necessarily have in mind the government of the day. No, governments are transient affairs, their policies adapted to meet short-term concerns, preferably in a manner that pleases voters and helps win elections.
The people I have in mind are the faceless éminences who operate behind the scenes, their influence more subtle, more secret, but above all far more wide-reaching. They are the so-called "great and the good" who make up that amorphous, but quintessentially English, institution known as the Establishment. Answerable to none but themselves, they remain staunchly committed to Queen, country and their own special interests (though in practice all three coincide). Composed of senior civil servants, trusted academics, members of the judiciary, the military and the intelligence service, they will, more often than not, have gone to the same school or university (strictly Oxbridge), belong to the same clubs and move in the same social circles.

In the event the Caersws project was so blatant an attempt at demographic redistribution that protests throughout Wales led to its abandonment. Instead the authorities opted for a more surreptitious approach. One example was the creation of the Development Board for Rural Wales (DBRW)
Though purportedly set up to arrest rural depopulation the DBRW:

". . . . did no more than attract more English immigrants to Wales. Yes, it attracted English companies as well, but instead of providing jobs for Welsh people, these companies were encouraged to bring with them there entire workforce: van drivers, odd-job men, even the tea-lady were classified as "key workers", people whose jobs could never be filled by stupid locals. Not only dod the DBRW encourage the transfer of such workers but saw to it that thousands of new dwellings were built to accommodate them once they got here - houses for which homeless Welsh people were not entitled to apply. Even more scandalous was the way the DBRW did nothing to help businesses already located in Wales.
In the end nothing could disguise the fact that the activities of the DBRW were serving only to increase the population of central Wales by bringing in people from England. Nothing had been done to halt the emigration of the Welsh. The Board even admitted as much. But this apparent failure was, of course, nothing of the sort. For in terms of Plantation, the DBRW had fulfilled its hidden remit with honours."

Similarly, according to the author, Plantation was well served by our national seats of learning. As Dr. Jones points out "the Universities of subject nations can be dangerous places for occupying powers".

"Not only are our university colleges thoroughly anglicised, but so, too, are whole areas around Bangor, Aberystwyth and Lampeter. It goes without saying - but needs to be said all the same - that academic standards have declined alarmingly as Englishness rather than ability, becomes the preferred qualification for staff and students alike.
Equally complicit in the Plantation exercise has been the Welsh Development Agency which recently boasted of its ambition to keep inside the country as manu University of Wales graduates as possible. This was its response to a perceived brain drain, though the exodus in question consists of nothing more than English students heading back for home. Curiously the WDA has no policy of attracting back Welsh students who graduated outside their homeland"

The article proceeds to uncover the part played by the broadcasting media ("Welsh television comes second only to that of the former German Democratic Republic in terms of blandness and vacuity. Perhaps not even second") and the press. He castigates the various quangos and grant-givers who seem determined to subsidise anything and anyone in Wales as long as they're not too Welsh. Cadw ("that most English of our national institutions") is singled out as an object of scorn. Everywhere, however, he detects the true purpose: "keep Taffy in the dark, deprive him of his history and, above all, make sure he doesn't know he's being screwed".

Among other examples offered is the A55 Expressway (cost £2 billion - so far!). This road has brought an influx of new English colonists "throughout the area it transects", as well as criminals who, thanks to it, "can now knock over a post office on Ynys Mon and still be back in the "Pool" for happy hour at their local".

Looking more closely at the people moving into Wales, Dr. Jones notes the pensioners who flock here from England ("Llandudno will soon have more retirement flats than hotel bedrooms") and younger, middle class professionals ("some of whom, to their credit, are warmly sympathetic to the language and culture of their adopted country") But, he remarks, such people do not always live up to the hopes of the policy makers. To make Plantation more effective, what

". . . . is wanted is something more rough-edged, more robust - and far more procreative.
To provide it, private landlords are now being coaxed to play a part in the exercise by buying up derelict old properties for conversion into multi-occupancy slums. Advertising in English social security offices, even prisons, these entrepreneurs have already brought in riff-raff by the coach load. To put it thus is not to show want of feeling. It is simply to point out that we have enough socially- disadvantaged people of our own to look after and precious few resources to offer them the support they require. As it is, the unfortunates who flock here from elsewhere find themselves living in conditions so squalid that alternative housing has urgently to be sought for them. And that means they jump the queue ahead of local people whose situation is otherwise no better than theirs. Sadly, all concerned are being exploited"

Turning to employment opportunities for Welsh people, Dr. Jones asks:

"Why so many private companies, government departments, utility companies and recently privatised bodies either transfer staff from England or give preference to candidates from the immigrant population. It happens at every level of the workforce - causing understandable hurt when, as in the appointment of Chief Constables and, last year, two diocesan heads of the Roman Catholic Church, the impression is given that none of our own kind ever measures up to the top job".

This practice, applied across the board, has dire consequences for our communities

"After all, it will never be possible to preserve our Welsh-speaking communities, if those living in them are unfairly denied access to Jobs.
Yet our middle-class activists remain oddly silent. We must hope that Cymuned will take up the cudgels."

Linked to the need for jobs is the need for homes. In Wales

"more houses are going up than the population could ever aspire to occupy. But these pretty bungalows and smart executive dwellings are not intended for the locals. For one thing the price is often well beyond their reach. No, they are meant for incomers. And they are going up with the blessing, nay the encouragement, of the English state, which has in the past acted through agencies such as the Land Authority for Wales. This body, together with Welsh Office civil servants, has put enormous pressure on planning authorities and local councillors to sanction new developments"

The author then offers a possible solution to the current housing problem, with curbs on speculative building ventures "that result in more houses being constructed than are needed to satisfy local demand". Also proposed is:

"A two-tier system with a majority of properties reserved for indigenous buyers and state funding offered to cover the initial adjustment or else subsidise local buyers directly. Certainly, something must be done: it is no longer tolerable that an ancient people like us should no longer be able to afford to live in our own country"

Contemplating the overall situation today, Dr. Jones comments that the effect of Plantation on homes and jobs is nationwide:

"Its tactics may vary - in the countryside, it overwhelms towns and villages with incomers, be they deprived and indigent or comfortably middle class; in the urban-industrial areas, it allows towns and villages to fall into decline, encouraging their residents, at least the young and more enterprising, to seek their fortune elsewhere"

Regretfully, he notes also that to identify the most deprived areas of Wales we need simply

". . . . look for those areas with the highest percentage of Welsh-born residents. It is here you will discover the most disadvantaged communities in Wales, whether they live in Blaenau Ffestiniog or in Blaenau Gwent"

In the remainder of his article, the author examines the counter-measures required to check Plantation and eventually destroy it. He observes that its effects constitute "a grave indictment of all political parties active in Wales" and warns that:

"We should not look to them for help. Neither should we place our hope in organised bodies like the trade unions, for they are either England-orientated or, despite a thin veneer of Welshness, run by English incomers or native 'friendlies' . . . . . No, some new form of organisation, the expression of a popular revolt is urgently needed.
Best equiped for the task is a civil rights movement of the kind that flourished in the 1960s among American blacks or Six Counties' Catholics, a movement that defends the interests of an entire population, not just particular causes. Such a movement would represent all Welsh people and its message, loud, clear and unambiguous, would spurn the evasions and weasel-words we have become so accustomed to. Spurn also every inane reference to the 'people(s) of Wales', a term that eprives us of our national identity by making us just another element - and, thanks to Plantation, a minor one at that - in the predominantly English mix that seeks to take possession of our land."

He continues:

"Our immediate task is to halt the workings of the machine - what might be called the 'facilitating mechanisms' of Plantation and so free ourselves from the debilitating effect they have on our national integrity. To do so we must act assertively, perhaps focusing on issues that have not in the past received the attention they deserve. Employment is a good one to begin with."

But, he adds:

"The campaign could be extended beyond employers. Why not demand that, instead of throwing grants at every hare-brained scheme that crosses the border, our politicians and quangoes start giving preference to initiatives from within the indigenous population?"

". . . . then we can hope to preserve the identity which defines us as individuals and as a nation. For God's sake, this is our land. We must refuse to become strangers within it.

Finally, the author urges us to set aside our differences and overcome the rivalries that divide us and offer comfort only to our enemy. To do nothing, he maintains, puts in question our right to survive as a nation.

"But fight back and win? Not only will that assure the survival of our nationhood but the struggle itself, as much as the triumph, will invigorate our people. It will change for the better our relationship with England. It will put us on the road to independence."