Councillor returns to Plaid Cymru fold following H.M Stanley statue storm
A councillor has returned to the Plaid Cymru fold following a storm about a statue of the Victorian explorer H.M Stanley.
Cllr Gwyneth Kensler, who represents Denbigh Central on Denbighshire County Council, had resigned from the party, saying that she felt that she did not “fit in” anymore.
The councillor, who had backed keeping the statue of Stanley, amid calls to have it removed, had also cited “nastiness” on social media as a reason.
She and the Plaid Cymru group leader Cllr Rhys Thomas held several meetings to discuss her decision to leave.
She decided to re-join the party and the group of Plaid Cymru councillors on Denbighshire County Council as a result of these meetings.
Kensler told the Denbighshire Free Press: “With devolution under threat and a new era of co-operation starting at the Welsh Senedd, this is not the time to leave the party of which I have been a member since returning to live in Wales in 1980.
“I am also looking forward to working with our new councillor, Gwyneth Ellis from Cynwyd.
“Meanwhile, I shall continue to do my best for Wales and for Denbigh.”
‘Plaid has changed’
When she resigned from the party, she said: “Naturally, Plaid has changed since I first joined and I now feel that I no longer fit in, locally.
“Of course, I have suffered verbal abuse and criticism during my time with Plaid and as a councillor but that was nothing compared to the nastiness that is on social media these days.”
Calls for the statue to be removed from the town had been sparked by the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. Campaigners pointed to the explorers association with European imperialism.
In response Denbigh Town Council held a public vote on whether to keep the statue or have it removed. Of the 592 Denbigh residents who voted, 79.6%, wanted the statue to remain where it is.
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…another victim of Woke nonsense
I don’t think it was nonsense. It was a perfectly legitimate issue to raise but the verdict of the electorate was clear and Gwyneth has done her job of reflecting that. Fair enough. It’s the viciousness of sections of the left that are the real problem, more than they probably realise. They think the end justifies the means but the trouble is that the means often affects the end.
So even though a shade under 80% thought that removing the statue wasn’t reasonable you still think that it was a legitimate issue?
It was sheer wokery!
“A legitimate issue” is dependent on the issue rather than a referendum result on it at one moment in time.
Its legitimacy, surely, depends on who’s trying to make the statue an issue? The statue’s been in place for a hell of a long time without any fuss and suddenly, because a coloured law-breaker is unlawfully killed in a country on the other side of the world, lots of virtue-signallers combine to find things that are not really any of their business and set about destroying / defacing them in fits of mock rage. Very silly.
” Its legitimacy, surely, depends on who’s trying to make the statue an issue?” It’s quite possible for people who you disagree with to have a issue with the statue. Do you accept that? Also it’s not really up to you to define what’s a legitimate issue or not. The statue’s been up for just over a decade so not for “a hell of a long time” and there was “a fuss” when it was proposed and erected. I haven’t heard that it was defaced/ destroyed. It sounds to me like you are indulging in a bit of your… Read more »
Plaid can ill aford to lose excellent and locally committed councillors such as Kensler. The fact that 80% of the local voting public suggests that she was very accurate in her views and intentions is an indication of who’d ‘right’. Plaid need to ensure that it doesn’t become a political ‘basket case’ a for five minute headline news.