Amazon ads ban for satirical book on Welsh independence
THE author of a satirical novel about a referendum on Welsh independence saw his American advertising campaign pulled because Amazon believed the book could result in political violence.
Huw Johns, a marketing professional who lives at Marshfield, near Cardiff, wrote Breaking Britain last year during a dip in business because of the lockdown.
He decided to publish it himself after being rejected by a small number of commercial publishers, and interest was sparked in the United States after the book was reviewed positively on the website Goodreads.
But his attempt to conquer the US market came to an abrupt halt when he was told by the marketing branch of Amazon that the contents of his book were not considered suitable for an advertising campaign.
The message received by Mr Johns stated: “The following ads are non-compliant to creative acceptance policies.
“Your ad titled Breaking Britain no longer complies with our current Creative Acceptance Policies. Specifically for the following reasons.
“Your ad contains a product or content that is not allowed for advertising. Content that may promote hate, incite violence or intolerance, or advocate or discriminate against a protected group, whether based on
race, color, national origin, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, disability, age or another category are prohibited.
“Please remove this content from your ad.”
Mr Johns, 54, said: “I couldn’t believe it – you couldn’t make it up.
“I was absolutely gobsmacked. It came at a time when the political temperature was very high in the US because of the presidential election.
“I can only think that someone had a very black and white view of Welsh and Scottish independence campaigns, and didn’t realise they were wholly peaceful.
“If I’d been a younger, hungry writer who wanted to make a career out of it, I’d probably have been really upset.
“But as a hobbyist author who has no ambitions of that kind, I found the whole thing funny.
“I didn’t pursue it with Amazon, and did without the advertising campaign, but I’m happy that many people have enjoyed the book.”
The book is a humorous, fictional take on the bid for Welsh and Scottish independence, fake news and the pandemic, seen through the eyes of a struggling Welsh advertising agency based in Cardiff.
Mr Johns said: “A lot of the funny stories in the book come from my time in the advertising industry. Writing it kept me amused during the lockdown. I kept most of my work, but lost about 30% to 40% because when companies were furloughing their staff they weren’t thinking of marketing.”
Breaking Britain’s main character is a sexobsessed ex-civil servant who joins an advertising agency where drinking and questionable morals are regarded as part of the job.
He quickly becomes involved in managing publicity for the Vote Yes group, campaigning for Wales to leave the UK and join the EU, and is enmeshed in deceit, revenge, relationships and politics.
The book’s front cover was designed by Huw’s former business partner, Cardiff illustrator Clem Wigley, and is a cartoon pastiche of events in the story.
Mr Johns said: “I’d like to write more, but I’m very busy with my work.
“I suppose I’d have more time for writing if one of my clients sacked me,” he joked.
Available as an ebook and paperback, Breaking Britain can be bought from Amazon for £7.99.
A WELSH toilet roll company is to expand and create 50 news jobs following £6m in funding from the Welsh Government.
WEPA UK is using the investment to supports expansion plans, which are expected to create around 54 jobs – as well as safeguarding hundreds more – at its Maesteg site.
Economy Minister Ken Skates said the funding from the Welsh Government’s Economy Futures Fund will be crucial in seeing the firm’s site developed into a fully integrated papermill, doubling production.
A new paper machine will enable the company, which is one of the leading suppliers of household paper in the UK, to produce an additional 65,000 tons a year of toilet paper and kitchen towels for the British market.
The announcement comes as the Welsh Government this week launched its Economic Resilience and Reconstruction Mission which sets out how it will work to rebuild Wales’ post-Covid economy so that it values and prioritises wellbeing, drives prosperity, is environmentally sound, and helps every person in Wales to realise their potential.
Mr Skates said: “WEPA is a vitally important employer in the region, and the £6m the Welsh Government is investing will be crucial in supporting the local economy at what continues to be an incredibly difficult time.
“I am delighted that our investment will help the business create good-quality jobs as the volume and variety of products produced by the business increases.”
Tony Curtis, the joint managing director of WEPA UK Ltd, said the company had worked with the Welsh Government on the project since the concept was first considered and it was grateful for the support.
“During such unprecedented times as these, this is a fantastic development for our UK business, particularly for the local community in which we operate, our UK-wide customers and our employees who can now plan for the future with increased confidence,” Mr Curtis said.
“This investment provides state of the art additional production capacity with an important quality upgrade to our product offering; it will also drive our site operations to the leading edge of sustainability in our industry.
“The project offers employment protection for our existing workforce of over 270 Bridgend employees and also creates more than 50 additional jobs at the site.”
BENEFITS for terminally ill people must be improved, Newport East MP Jessica Morden has argued in Westminster.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Ms Morden renewed calls on the UK Government to make changes to the way in which the benefits system works for people with terminal illnesses.
“Dying people deserve to be treated with dignity by the benefits system,” said Ms Morden.
Currently, terminally ill people in the UK must prove they have six months or less to live to access fast-track financial support, while those who live for longer than three years must reapply for benefits.
Speaking last year, Ms Morden called the system “cruel” in a speech delivered to Parliament.
“Nobody given the devastating news that their illness is terminal knows how long they
have left, not their loved ones, not their doctor and not a DWP benefits assessor,” she said on Monday.
“However much time they have left should be spent living as well as they can for as long as they can, making memories with loved ones.
“It should not be spent worrying about money, filling in endless forms, being dragged to assessments and fighting for the support they need.”
Campaigners are calling for an end to both the six-month rule and the three-year award, and the UK Government originally announced a review into the way in which the benefits system treats the terminally ill back in July 2019.
But there have been no changes made to the system since the review was announced 19 months ago.
“People living with terminal illness and their loved ones have been campaigning tirelessly for change for more than two years,” said Ms Morden.
“Many of them will not have lived to see the change they have fought for – an end to the six-month and three-year rules and a change to the system to allow anyone who has received the devastating news from a clinician that they are terminally ill to get fasttracked access to benefits via the special rules.”
On Monday, DWP minister Justin Tomlinson responded on behalf of the UK Government.
He said he understands “the importance of this issue and the need to make changes” and that the Government hoped to be in a position in the coming months to set out the timetable to start bringing forward changes.
A MAN accused of being part of a gang alleged to have murdered a teenager said the fact two of his co-defendants were carrying knives “must have slipped my mind” when he failed to mention it to police.
Raymond Thompson, 48, who is known as Paddy, is one of seven people standing trial accused of the alleged murder of Harry Baker, 17, who was found in Barry Intermodal Terminal on August 28, 2019, bloodied, stripped and covered in stab wounds.
The defendant is accused of being part of an “armed and deadly gang” who prosecutors allege murdered the Cardiff teenager.
Leon Clifford, 23, Peter McCarthy, 37, Ryan Palmer, 34, Lewis Evans, 62, and Thompson, who are all from Barry, as well as Leon Symons, 22, from Ely, Cardiff, and a 17-year-old from Cardiff who cannot be named for legal reasons all deny murder and are on trial at Newport Crown Court.
The jury has heard that Thompson was a heroin addict and alcoholic who would take up to £20 of heroin “seven days a week”. He said on Monday that each day he would drink between half a bottle and a full bottle of vodka within an hour of waking up and had been drinking to that degree for a decade.
Yesterday he was cross-examined by prosecutor Paul Lewis QC about what he told the police during a series of interviews following his arrest in August 2019.
Thompson was asked about the alleged ambush of Harry Baker and his associate Louis Johnson by several of the defendants in Little Moors Hill, Barry, in the early hours of August 28, 2019.
Mr Lewis asked the defendant why he had not told police that the youth defendant and Symons had brandished knives during the confrontation but had then said that during his evidence in court.
The defendant replied: “Where I had been drinking and taking heroin it must have slipped my mind. I had a bottle of vodka and a cocktail of drugs.”
Mr Lewis said: “But you can remember Harry Baker and his friends carrying knives?” Thompson said: “I can remember some things and not the rest.”
During his cross-examination Thompson
denied being part of the ambush and wanting to attack Harry Baker.
Mr Lewis also probed other inconsistencies between what Thompson told police and had said during his evidence in court.
Mr Lewis said: “You said you didn’t know [Harry Baker’s] face. That was a lie, wasn’t it?” Thompson replied: “Yes.”
When asked why, Thompson said: “The drink distorts my mind and I have blackouts. I only remember things from CCTV.”
But he maintained “it was not a deliberate untruth” and contested Mr Lewis’ assertion he was “deliberately telling a load of rubbish”, though he did admit during his evidence that he “made a lot of mistakes” during his exchanges with police.
In his second police interview Thompson was asked to describe his co-defendants. Asking about this passage of the interview, the prosecutor said: “If you saw someone wearing a balaclava on the streets of Barry in the middle of the night you’d cross the road wouldn’t you?”
Thompson answered: “I suppose so, yeah.”
Mr Lewis said: “If you were in a car with two men wearing balaclavas you must have thought they were up to no good.” Thompson said: “Yeah.”
Mr Lewis said: “When you were sat in the back of [Lewis] Evans’ car with [Leon] Symons and [the youth] you must have thought these boys were up to no good.” Thompson said: “No.”
Mr Lewis said: “What did you think?” Thompson said: “I didn’t think anything. I asked them why they were wearing balaclavas and they said it was the fashion. I think they were joking.”
When he opened the case, Mr Lewis told the jury: “Harry Baker was just 17 years old at the date he was so brutally murdered by these defendants. It’s the prosecution’s case that Harry Baker was deliberately targeted as a victim. He was ruthlessly hunted down by vicious people who were determined to find him.”
He said Mr Baker sought refuge “in a secure floodlit docks compound”, adding: “He no doubt thought he would be safe there but he wasn’t. His killers were determined.
“They subjected him to a swift, bloody and merciless attack before quickly fleeing from the scene.”
The trial, before Mr Justice Picken, continues.