This week has seen a serious row break out on social media between two elected members of Pembrokeshire County Council.
Young, progressive Councillor Joshua Beynon of Pembroke ward, requested that the council light up their county offices in purple as a show of solidarity for the protests taking place elsewhere in the UK and abroad.
The council supported his request and the council offices shone purple and were visited by a group of supportive locals. Socially distanced, small protests took place in various places around the town.
However, controversial Pembroke Dock councillor Paul Dowson reacted unfavourably to this on Facebook, quickly rallying support for his opinion. He stated that the council were wasting tax payer’s money, supporting a cause that had resulted in vandalism and breaking of social distancing rules around the country.
And with that, all hell broke loose.
It’s always been evident that there’s a very clear left/right divide in Pembs, but never before have I witnessed such a dichotomy of outpourings from the locals. For days the argument raged, culminating in Councillor Beynon reporting Councillor Dowson and his followers for hate crimes, after comments referring to his homosexuality got extremely out of hand, and some serious bullying took place.
Members of the public had already reported Dowson for his stance on the issue, branding him a racist for his comments. Cllr Beynon even took to twitter after some particularly vile comments were posted. He included screenshots, one of which mused whether Beynon “spat or swallowed”. In a wonderful retort, Cllr Beynon confirmed that he does actually swallow.
There are people on facebook saying that they’re exhausted, after days of arguing on Facebook. The whole county are exhausting themselves. This issue has got far more massive than any other that has arisen in Pembs, and ultimately it seems less about BLM and more about the general discontent that exists in this part of Wales. Maybe it’s the same everywhere, where the social gaps are so huge as to be untenable. Where the youth have been away and seen a bit of the world and most of the elders have never got far past Carmarthen.
What’s going on here? Sadly, the comments expose a streak of Pembs that has always seemed to bustle beneath the surface, but has never been exposed. There are very few ethnic minorities living in Pembrokeshire. Not black or Asian ones anyway. There are many white Europeans, but you don’t notice them until they speak.
The locals happily get their takeaways from the Turkish family run shops or Chinese from the Chinese, but it’s like they don’t make the link. Their endless chants of All Lives Matter doesn’t seem to come from any real basis of understanding; the comments on that side are all recognisable from the media, be it mainstream, or social media, where an opinion is formed, it gets lots of likes, it becomes the new gospel, and those who do not wish to study can decide which side to take and copy and paste the sentiment, share it, retweet it, and then wait for the pile on.
It’s not just here in Pembs. It seems to be everywhere. How can we make it stop? It seems, looking in, that someone, somewhere, has been working very hard to turn the working classes against each other. There’s no solidarity out here. It’s like a giant football match turned nasty, it’s like the battle of Naseby or The fields of Blackheath. We’re heading for civil war.
But where are the leaders? Who is in charge? Where are Charlie and Ollie? This is the crux of the matter. Not many in this country trust their government, even if they trust their flag, be it a British flag, English flag, Welsh flag. Their government give them instructions and half the population refuse to give up what they think is their liberty. Here in Wales, where the lockdown rules are different, half the country love Drakeford and half want to hurl him into next week and swap him for Boris and the perceived freedom that the English enjoy.
The Welsh hate their own parliament as much as they hate Westminster. But they still have their allegiances to individuals. Some are crying that they’re following rules, some are crying that they’re having their liberty stolen. Everyone sees everyone else’s position and situation as somehow better than theirs. Rifts are forming. Some are fighting for black rights, some for civil rights in general, but the Thatcher generation never got past the statement that there is no society, only the individual, and they seem obsessed only with their own rights.
I don’t know where we go from here. It’s probably the end of days. If we don’t sort ourselves out soon we’re doomed. You know those scenes in sitcoms where everyone is arguing and someone comes in and screams “shut up!!” and they all freeze and look up? Well, we need that to happen, really quickly.
As for who’s going to come in and shout, who is the responsible adult here? Are there any? Speak now. Shout out. Pls.
Postcards from the Hedge 