| “A masterclass in political self-harm. Not in what was done, but in how it was presented" |
A Political Diary |
| Interesting Things In Fourth Quarter of 2025 , Political Life of Wales , December 27, 2025 |
12th November: A former minister has accused the Welsh Government of “piling up laws” that are “never delivered”, painting a picture of a pattern of incompetence over the past decade.Labour’s Alun Davies criticised a seven-year delay in introducing an environment bill to plug post-Brexit gaps which left Wales with some of the weakest protections in western Europe, according to environment charities. “We are creating increasingly bureaucratic and cumbersome new structures, targets, which probably won’t be met and, in fact, if you read the bill, won’t even be set until the end of the next Senedd.” Mr Davies told the Senedd: “It’s increasingly worrying to me that what we’re doing is piling up laws… which are never delivered, never implemented and which create burdensome and cumbersome demands on public bodies which they themselves are unable to deliver.” Commentators: "He has more than a point. He is spot on. The Welsh statute book is littered with vague, aspirational and ineffective legislation which has little or no beneficial impact on people’s lives. Much of it is badly costed also. "I was taught how to do legislation it was considered essential that it should be implementable. More and more legislation is now there mainly, to quote Blair, to “send a signal”. Started before him: I remember people asking “Where are the verbs” when the Tories’ Environment Act 1990 set out climate goals but didn’t say who had to do what to achieve them." https://nation.cymru/news/were-piling-up-laws-never-delivered-former-minister-criticises-own-government/ * * * * 15th October: The by-election in Caerphilly loomed. David Taylor wrote: “A masterclass in political self-harm. The problem lies not in what was done, but in how it was presented....ministers tried to turn the programme into a statement of Welsh moral leadership...sweeping rhetoric about Wales...implying a compassion that set it apart from Westminster. "...It is hard to rebut misinformation when it rests on your own exaggeration....the public’s supposed misunderstanding of the policy. But the confusion is entirely of their own making...vague, self-congratulatory language that was never grounded in what the programme actually did. “This episode exposes a broader weakness in Welsh politics. The problem isn’t that Wales copies Westminster, but that it constantly feels the need to prove it doesn’t. Policy is too often driven by the desire to appear distinct and morally superior rather than by what works. "The result is a system that mistakes gesture for governance – guided by vanity, ideology and the reflex to sound kinder than England, whatever the outcome. “For years, this culture went largely unchallenged. With limited scrutiny, a comfortable political class and a weak opposition, the Senedd has become a place where appearance too often outranks achievement...grand claims masking thin delivery. But that complacency is catching up with them. e “Will the Welsh Government learn from this? Unlikely. The instinct to differentiate for its own sake is too deeply embedded in the political ecosystem, a culture that prizes theatre over results and validation within the bubble over credibility beyond it. "Surrounded by the same advisers, lobbyists and commentators who reward moral signalling, ministers and Members alike have come to mistake approval inside their circle for trust outside it. “After a quarter of a century in charge, Wales’s political establishment has run out of excuses...it now stands as proof of something else – that when politics becomes a performance, even good intentions end in failure.” https://nation.cymru/opinion/labours-welsh-sanctuary-a-masterclass-in-political-self-harm/ Comment from Meic: "It’s right up there with the Future Generations legislation. Virtue signalling, loved by bureaucrats, but essentially pointless." * * * * 15th October: Nick Servini presided with aplomb and knowledge over BBC Cymru Wales Television Debate with six candidates “Your Voice, Your Vote: Caerphilly.” It lasted one hour, its best points at 10:00 Steve Aicheler on the muddling of national legislature and local government: “A Senedd member cannot affect the decisions made by a council.” 18:00 “We are owed 4 billion pounds. I understand no-one wants more politicians” Attack on Honours List, Barons and Baronesses. 21:00 “This is the first year we've been able to invest.” 22:00 Audience member. “The only reason the waiting list is going down is that anyone who can afford to go private is doing so. That's the only reason the waiting lists are going down..I had to pay to go forward in the list two years.” 24:00 Audience member from pharmaceutical and logistics facilitation business. Visited by Secretaries of State who have travelled hundreds of miles. “I have never been able to get Welsh Labour to come through our doors.” 50:00: Gareth Potter: “No-one voted for it. The 120 million pound expansion. No-one's voted for it. That's where erosion's going in trust in politics.” 53:00: Audience member: “Are we not a democratic country and should we not have the things we voted for? I think it is abhorrent that decisions are being made by the Senedd that we haven't asked for, that we don't want and that we haven't voted for.” 57:00: Richard Tunnicliffe “Only two parties can win here. Vote for hope, vote for fairness.” * * * * 21st October: Jane Hutt in the Senedd: “We must remind the public that hate crime is any crime...that undermines cohesion.” * * * * 22nd October: Anonymous IWA on economic policy “There is an urgent need for the next Welsh Government to set an overarching vision for the type of economy they are seeking to create and how it will support others to help us get there. Providing a clear set of long-term priorities and aligning devolved policies to achieving them is the only way of extracting the maximum out of our limited economic powers. “Any change to our systemic challenges and making progress to improving our nation’s wellbeing starts here: taking stock of where we are now, clearly articulating where we want to get to, and the tools we have, and need, to take us there. Unless we have a clear conversation on all three of these points, we are doomed to repeat our current mistakes.” * * * * 26th October: Sunday Supplement, Vaughan Roderick on elements in the Caerphilly campaign: nothing on Welsh government, images of Bevan, Thatcher as a Halloween witch. Alun Davies on campaigning needed for 2026: rooted in the culture of Wales, values, social justice, poverty reduction. * * * * 26th October: Lee Waters In Interview with Ministers, Civil Servants, Advisers- “Doors Closing - the final epsiode of Y Pumed Llawr - The Fifth Floor” 00:20: It's quite a secret and secretive organisation...We are unused to challenge and scrutiny. 0800: Not enough legal resource in the government. Wales is awash with great legislation, awash with great policies. The real challenge is the implementation, actually implement it on the ground. 36:00 We need more criticism 50:00 Civic society in Wales is not ready for not having a Labour party in charge. There will be ripples right across Wales if there is a different political party in power. 56:00 What the new voting system guarantees is that there will be a progressive government in Wales after the election. 70% of the vote goes to parties that share the same values. I think the new system guarantees continuity. 1:07: Welsh government does not lack capacity. It does not use that capacity very well. The Welsh government is far too complicated. There are far too many steps between the person who starts the work and by the time it reaches the Minister's desk. Goodness knows how many “clearances” it has to go through on that journey. I have tried once or twice and failed to persuade the machine to employ some people who would strip itself- the machine- and rebuild it....What you really need is a stripping back and a rebuilding of the machine...Bean-counting- far too much of our capacity is devoted to. From: https://amanwy.blogspot.com/2025/10/doors-closing-final-epsiode-of-y-pumed.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXPEhLC4mNQ&t=14s * * * * 28th October: Mike Hedges. "The Welsh Government has made unpopular decisions and while the 20mph limit is generally supported on estates and outside terraced housing, it is very unpopular on B roads which are seen as roads that join communities. "The proposal to expand the Senedd and bring in a different voting system is unpopular with the electorate: there is a belief that we have enough Senedd members and moving to a complicated voting system only makes it worse. "With health, we have long hospital waiting lists and there is difficulty in getting a GP appointment and getting an NHS dentist. "Progress on the environment, animal welfare and social housing has been slow with concerns about river and air pollution and a lack of social housing. "There has been a failure to devise a successful economic growth policy. An economic development plan based upon agriculture and tourism is unlikely to lead to economic growth and a wealthier Wales. "Reform is not unbeatable in an election, but they have won over a large proportion of former Conservative voters, enthused previous non-voters to vote and won votes from previous supporters of other parties. "The largest voting bloc is now the Stop Reform bloc which Plaid Cymru successfully won over at the Caerphilly by-election. But remember: it is just one by-election and there are over six months to the Senedd election." https://labourhub.org.uk/2025/10/28/caerphilly-what-went-wrong-for-labour/ * * * * 2nd November: Sunday Supplement: Vaughan Roderick “Labour people throughout civil society, various Commissioners, various placements.” * * * * 20th November: Andy w on Nation Cymru: “Let us not write off Labour yet. Cardiff Airport new route to Toronto, Wylfa is getting Rolls-Royce plc Small Modular Reactors (Wales chosen over England for first deployment) – lots of jobs created in Somerset and Suffolk for the £60 billion EDF projects – so hopefully lots of roles in North Wales, Wales new AI strategy published this week. "I’ve seen numerous post on LinkedIn about Welsh organisations attending COP30 in Brazil and how Wales is being praised for projects such as https://sizeofwales.org.uk/ "These initiatives build up the perception of Wales as a very ethical country and hopefully that can be supported by ethical organisations opening offices in Wales / Welsh organisations opening offices in those countries." |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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