Just when you thought the campaign against DARC might cool down just a little in the winter…

That’s right: PARC is going to the Senedd—and we’re showing up in style.

On March 5th, PARC, in conjunction with a huge array of supporting national Welsh and UK peace organisations, is hosting a major support push in the Senedd’s Pierhead Building—and everybody’s invited to join us!

Come along on Wednesday March 5th for an afternoon session of public lightning talks starting around 13:30 (Seminar Rooms 1 & 2, Pierhead Building, Cardiff Bay), featuring Academi Heddwch, Cymdeithas y Cymod, Crynwyr Cymru/Quakers Wales, Cardiff UN Association and Stop the War Cardiff, and join us for the big photo opportunity with MSs on the Senedd steps!

(And if that’s not enough, you could always make a day of it and stop off at Ikea for some Swedish potato pancakes and a fresh stash of Daim bars!)

Themed Highlighting Militarism in Wales and hosted on the UN’s International Day for Disarmament & Non-Proliferation Awareness, the earlier part of the day will be an opportunity for PARC to present its case to the whole political establishment of the Senedd (we’d like to invite you all but capacity is a bit restricted on this one). Wish us luck everybody!

What are we ultimately asking our MSs to do? Well, a statement of opinion recognising the level of public opposition to DARC in Pembrokeshire and calling for a full Welsh government commission into the disastrous proposal has been officially tabled by Senedd Member for Mid and West Wales Cefin Campbell—and it’s already gathering support from MSs!

 Watch this space, because after we delivered 60 special booklets to every single MS in the Senedd (more on that soon!), this story is sure to develop. The papers though, it seems, are excited already—with more great coverage in The Morning Star, Yahoo News (from The Western Telegraph), The Herald, The Tenby Observer, Pembrokeshire Online (with a series of five articles! 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and The Canary.

 But another big step you can take to help out is to make sure our own constituency and regional MSs know about the event, and plan to be there to heed the call of their own Pembrokeshire constituents.

 Please make sure you follow this link to a handy piece of bilingual text ready for you to use to invite your local MSs to the event, and then just send it to their email addresses (below)!

 Here’s a quick copy and paste you can put straight into your email client’s CC box (just as is, including the commas):

[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

The above emails are those of Paul Davies (Preseli Pembrokeshire MS, Conservative), Samuel Kurtz (Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire MS, Conservative), Eluned Morgan (Mid and West Wales MS, and Welsh Labour First Minister), Joyce Watson (Mid and West Wales MS, Welsh Labour), Jane Dodds (Mid and West Wales MS, Liberal Democrats), Cefin Campbell (Mid and West Wales MS, Plaid Cymru) and Elin Jones (Ceredigion MS, Plaid Cymru).

Thanks for your help!

Meanwhile, our flyerers have been doing unbelievable work, reaching the huge milestone of 10,000 flyers delivered across Pembrokeshire!

A monumental effort from everyone involved, and a huge well done, as numerous politically sensitive constituency wards of Welsh Labour are being given just the first of many rounds of awareness raising about DARC and why it’s an issue everyone in Pembrokeshire can be against—with positive feedback coming from the doorsteps of residents across Pembrokeshire.

Our crowdfunder has also had a great start…

… with one person donating an incredible £500 (!) (thanks so much—you know who you are!), and one donor even kindly pledging a monthly £10 donation to PARC. A huge thanks to everyone who is donating!

Can we hit our target, and expand the campaign into Correx boards, march placards, and the next big flyering and booklet plans? Please give anything you can—and help us keep heaping on the kind of pressure that it takes to turn DARC into the disaster that even Google Search’s AI seems to think is going to end up in a Senedd debate!

The Senedd may be getting a visit from PARC, but that, of course, is not the only Parliament in town… stay tuned for even more!

Stay safe,

The PARC Against DARC team