General Chat

An apology would have been nice John.

I'll not hold by breath.,,lolol

Edit: Hello Tec, thanks for that explanation :-)

" the clearest proof of who was right or wrong will be in the takings of Spar"

I am quite sure that this unfortunate and unnecessay incident will have done Conrad Davies and his shops no harm whatsoever - indeed may have done some good locally.

The attitude of most local people reading the account of events, will be one of "Oh him again"

The Spar shops owned by the Davies family in Pwllheli, Abersoch, Blaenau Ffestiniog, and Dolgellau are highly regarded, and well patronised. Employing local people, Welsh will be the first language of most of them, and whenever I have spoken to any of them in Welsh, they have always responded likewise.


Conrad Davies runs a tight ship in all his stores, as did his father before him. Customer service and attention to the needs of the customer are second to none. Every effort is made to source produce from 80 local Welsh suppliers.
In over 40 years I have always found his employees to helpful, courteous, polite, and friendly.
The Pwllheli store won the prestigious National (UK) BBC Best Local Retailer Award, and in 2012 his Eurospar Superstore in Dolgellau won the award.



If in order to further his cause and agenda Dr Lewis finds it necessary to intimidate a " £7 an hour shop assistant" knowing the publicity his actions would generate, then he sounds to me like a drowning man, and a rather desparate man.

If after trying to resolve the situation, Conrad Davies felt it necessary and appropriate to call for the assistance of the police then I have no doubt he would have felt justified in doing so. His staff are not there to be abused.

It is not the kind of publicity he would welcome, even if Dr Lewis does.

Tec.

Rose. Many thanks for finding that. I had looked and failed.

Yes, bit more colourful than the polite "he disagrees with me, must therefore be a pillock." "Hear, hear"

Also a bit more representative of the fact that over 20% of the Welsh population has been radicalised (like that word). I think I am the only one posting on Genes who admits to that. I am not saying that even the radicalised ones on the Cardiff thread are not saying he is a silly old fool - but silly old fools got a little more love and pandering to in my young days. Much ruder about old people now.

One thing that has been stated (I think this thread) was that Plaid Cymru originated in 1925 from a violent group. As far as I aware they started with a group with "Army" in its title - but two of the three founders were Rev Lewis Valentine of Llanddulas and Rev Ffred Jones (grandfather of pop singer Dafydd Iwan). Both Lewis Valentine and Ffred Jones (and their friend the dramatist Saunders Lewis) were pacifists.

And before anyone reminds us they fired the Bombing School at Penyberth, that was meant to be a pacifist act - and got a lot of support amongst the Welsh at the time.

In conclusion, I have enjoyed this thread more than I think I would have enjoyed the Cardiff thread. Bit nicer people here perhaps :-) I suppose jury is split 11-1 on evidence provided - so will have to submit to a majority verdict :-(

lololol our Rose, I just edited after throwing mine in the damn bin :-P

Bit late, but the New Year & other celebrations took me elsewhere, Muffy believe it or not, 3x Great grandmother was born in........ yep Lisbon :-D

I wanted to have a pop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


and for your information I LIVE in Ceredigion but stay in the Valleys.... hence I know more than you about Welsh speaking areas and I have lived in Wales for about 22 years longer than you


LOLOLOLOL

:-P :-P

Edit: the first google result in Welsh was this:

http://oclmenai.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/y-daily-mail-robin-lewis-spar.html

and you couldn't find it?

Dr Lewis condemned himself out of his own mouth, his own account of his actions show him to be a buffoon and a bully. Or do you think he wasn't telling the truth, John?

Had a very pleasant day out west to the land of my mothers and we got chatting to some locals in a beach cafe. I asked the group we were chatting to what they thought about Dr Robyn and some said he was a nutter, others said he was a bloody nuisance and another that he was an embarrassment.

So it's not just on GR he's viewed with disdain.

Gwynne

I wish there was more about this story. Manager says Dr Ellis's account is rubbish and he was spoken to in Welsh. I cannot believe he went in there to do more than shop.

Have just tried via a google Welsh search to find out more. But that is it, no letters to local papers about it, both sides of the contre temps saying they were right and nobody locally commenting about any threads.

In fact, the only way we would have discussed this is because someone living in Gwent (Sue) wanted to have a pop. Has it caused a stir away from Genes chat? If so, I cannot find it.

I am trying to go in the direction of truth, Merlin. Why do so many posters assume Dr Lewis is wrong. I will not believe that on the evidence so far. The clearest proof of who was right or wrong will be in the takings of Spar - which has been a very successful shop under Conrad Davies so far.

Merlin I did mention who sold the properties to incomers :-D

Hayley, you,re flogging a Dead Horse, John only follows his own Direction,nothing else matters to him. What is interesting though is the fact that all those Houses/Holiday homes that were mentioned, No-one ever mentioned Who Sold them to the People who Bought them, As for that silly old Pillock,if it had been my shop, I would have taken the goods off him,had him removed form the premises an Barred him from entering there again.**M**.

You are wrong John it wasnt just the store managers version of events as you say, the silly old man has given his own interview to the BBC so he has the chance to put across his version of events and still the outcome remains the same , he is a silly old arrogant fool who bullied a cashier and was put in his place, its pretty obvious you think his actions are justified, by your own opinion of Robyn Lewis and that of the mere £7.00 an hour cashier, and the manager was wrong to bring in the police I personally do not, I wonder John if these actions were by any other person than Robyn Lewis. if your opinon would remain the same. Not only should of he pay for his goods but also compensate the £7.00 an hour cashier and also be made to pay the cost to the police for call.


Happy new year btw :-D

Gwynne. I think Robyn Lewis is following in the tradition of grumpy old men and women. Quite a few of us grumpy people contribute to these threads.

If we have bees in our bonnet, they buzz and irritate. And some of us have been on the receiving end of a few bees ;-)

I have seen no more facts about this incident other than what Lewis and the Store Manager have said to the papers, as reported by Sue in OP. I think he had every right to ask the girl to say the amount in Welsh. What happened next is mainly the store manager's version of events. And I agree that makes Dr Lewis look like an old bee. :-D

Rose. Thanks for that article about Coslett. Not too sure of accuracy of Telegraph obituary - as there were probably 14 in the Bangor cell alone. Was aware they were the shop front so to speak - and behind them there were other less obviously military small groups. In Bangor, they were very young lads who would have been pretty radicalised and would still only be in early 60's.

Did not know about the Irish tie up, but it was all pretty menacing and worrying at the time. I am pleased that my friends in Bangor then (who were very extreme often in their views) totally disowned Coslett, Evans and others. Many Bangor friends stood as Councillors, MPs and AS's (Members of the Senedd in Cardiff Bay). And have had a big influence on Welsh politics since 1970.

Dr Ellis was very critical of the methods of the violent men in his book Second Class Citizen (1969). I tend to agree with MrDaff - once a Welshman, always a Welshman. But that sort of murderous intent for what me and my friends think of as the Welsh "cause" of eventual independence from Westminster rule is so horrible and so un-Welsh and therefore so very counter-productive.

In the words of Del Boy - what a plonker.

Dr Robyn is following in a fine tradition of idiocy.

Gwynne

Fourteen eh!!! frightening :-D :-D :-D :-D

Deleting because I will say too much lol..... but along the lines of the "Welsh McGuiness" I think not! ...I'm a bit too young to remember of course but the Telegraph obit is probably pretty accurate

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1462637/Dennis-Coslett.html

Sorry MrDaff. Not trying to ignore anybody's posts, but no one else seems to have replied yo you and you did not address it to me anyway. And did not ask anyone tio reply, as far as I can see.

No, Saunders Lewis and Robyn Lewis are not related. Not sure of significance of Robyn being a Sanskrit name or whatever. What had that got to do with price of sprouts?

Rose. Is paramiltaries not the right word for young Welshmen dressed up in army uniforms with army berets and firearms? That was really happening at time. I even remember the name of the Welsh "Martin McGuiness". It was a man from Cardiff area called Dafydd C*****t. Fortunately it never got too serious.

Funny that, John seems to have ignored my post as well, but that is his right - selective debate.

I left Wales when I was 19 - there were no jobs for me, but although I left the country, the country never left me - and never will. It's for that reason that Wales will not 'die', the culture will not fade, and neither will the language. Past attempts at repression of all have failed, and without resource to anything other than the fact that 'We are Welsh', and proud to be so.
It is that that will ensure continuance, not political bigots, poorly informed 'do-gooders', meglomaniac Druids or bloody Amnesty bloody International.

We are who we are, and more importantly, what we are. WE are Welsh - no matter which bloody language we speak.

My primary language when at home is english, and will remain so. If I go to Pembroke and am called 'Cadarion' by a 'local' who objects to my english prose, he is likely to get a bloody nose, followed by a testicular lecture. However, that is between us Welsh in the South ..... we being somewhat more jocular than those in the North :-D

Sue ROFLMheadO

I must reconfigure my opinions and my findings on my family tree to agree with you, I can see. Wish my views had some validity too :-( :-( :-(

ROFLMAO

No valid counter argument then? I win by default :-D

Now we could discuss migration in the other direction, some of my family in early and middle 1700s through to early 1800s and their reception by some of the English..lolol

However I expect none of my points will be valid again, even though I have written records to refer to.

I am off to engage in sensible conversation with hubby

:-D :-D