| Three Months On: “It Feels More Like a Parliament" |
A Political Diary |
| New Senedd & Government , Public Life of Wales , August 30, 2026 |
Three months have passed since the citizens of Wales- at least, 52% of those eligible- set off the earthquake of their making. The first session of the seventh Senedd is over; the weeks before the recess were not as they used to be. The change is there, before the eyes, each week at First Minister's Questions. It was summed up in the Sunday Politics of 19th July . The interviewer, Teleri Glyn Jones, asked “How different is this Senedd? It feels to me there's a lot more energy, there's a lot more debate.” Peter Fox replied: “It feels more like a parliament... It's great to see the new people who've come in, there's some energetic new thinking, from all parties." * * * * If the Senedd has changed the Welsh Government has yet to give evidence that it has also done so. These are early days. On the same Sunday Politics television edition the failure on the part of a minority government to pass its supplementary budget was up for discussion. From Rhun ap Iorwerth: “We had very good negotiations. We all have to take responsibility. There's responsibility in governing. There's responsibility in being in opposition. Opposition isn't just about opposing if we're serious about building a better nation. “..I want to work, I have worked in a spirit of co-operation...There is a new government in place. There is a new opposition in place. And everyone has their part in play. And, remember, the work of government continues.” This is so reminiscent of former days; the proposition is that the legislature is ultimately inferior, and at the beck and call, of the executive. Shavanah Taj was robust in her response: “What Rhun said in his interview, he is in a parallel universe....He could do with learning what negotiating is about.” * * * * 30th June: 440 days have passed since an important ruling by the Supreme Court. At FMQ the ministerial view was: “what it did usher in was a new era of the need for greater understanding between people who have divergent views. All of us have to be aware of that in trying to cool down the temperature in what has become a heated debate.” * * * * 12th July: On Sunday Politics Ken Skates: “I have a vision in the form of a new mission statement. We need to bring people together and we need to preach health and wealth for all. And we have to do that through saving our society. Our society is fractured, and in many respects, it looks as if it is shattering before our eyes.” So society needs to be saved. And the Labour party is to be its saviour. * * * * 13th July: The outgoing Auditor General for Wales gave valedictory evidence to the Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee. Adrian Crompton: “We are a small nation, 3 million-plus people, broadly equivalent in size to the metropolitan areas of the west midlands or Greater Manchester, and yet we have an incredibly complex and convoluted landscape of public service delivery, both in terms of formal public organisations that are in place, but also a web of further structures that we've layered on top of those to try to support greater partnership working and collaboration. “And, from my seat, all of those things, I think, come from a good place—the rationale behind all of that will be there at an individual level. “Yet, you piece them all together and what you're left with is this spider's web of complexity, and that manifests itself, then, in things that will be directly of interest to you, because that manifests in terms of a confusion, sometimes, in terms of lines of accountability—who is responsible for what—confusion for the public and service users as to who and how to access the most relevant part of the system. “And it comes with a real cost, both a financial cost but also an opportunity cost in terms of how senior public leaders are using their time and effort. “What has been the barrier to reducing that over my eight years? Bluntly, a lot of that comes down to politics. It's one thing to put new organisations and structures in place; it can be a very tricky thing to disentangle all of that, especially when, as I say, there will be sound rationales at an individual level for pretty much everything we've got. “What I have recommended several times during my tenure is that, at the very least, we need not to be layering further complexity into the system unless we're simultaneously stripping something out as well. “And if we are to have the sort of systems that we have in place at the moment, then we should be testing them at a much more forensic level for them to demonstrate their value for money, rather than accepting that as the status quo. “...Secondly, to your point, it's about how we are deploying the resource that we do have, because even in these times of tight finances, this place and the Welsh Government control the best part of £30 billion of public spending. That's a third of our GDP in Wales. “So, we have some very significant financial levers still. But what you will see from our work, time and again, is that we're missing opportunities, in my view, to be utilising that resource in different ways that would deliver different outcomes and better outcomes, certainly, further down the line. “...Bluntly, in Wales, most roads lead back to the Welsh Government in some way or another, and you will, I'm sure, during your time in this Senedd, come across that issue time and again, and the tension that exists in the system between the Welsh Government as our system leader driving and being responsible for everything, and an understandable desire to devolve responsibility down to other parts of the system and other structures. “...The Welsh Government will kick me for saying this, because they're probably sick of me saying it, because I've said it several times as well, in terms of the prevention agenda. “Last year, I published a statutory report, which I have to produce once in every Senedd term, on the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015—my assessment, based on all the work that we do, of how the public service is delivering against that piece of legislation. And one of the core ways of working in the Act, as you know, is prevention and also a long-term approach. “I made four recommendations, all of them to the Welsh Government. One of the recommendations related to prevention and, in essence, said that my recommendation to the Welsh Government is that they sit down with all other parts of the system, all those who are subject to the Act, and work together to try to identify, first and foremost, how much we are spending in a preventative way at present, because we don't know; how we can protect those areas of spend from erosion; how we can incentivise other areas of spend; and also how we can learn from what others are doing outside Wales. “So, I framed that in a way that I thought was eminently acceptable, but that recommendation was rejected and, to this day, I don't really understand how it can be rejected and how it can square with the higher level message that I hear from the Government about its focus in that area.” Source: https://record.senedd.wales/Committee/16152 * * * * 15th July: Jonathan Edwards “Is Wales Ungovernable?” “It seems obvious to me that the non-politically engaged are more likely to blame the governing party for not being able to implement its programme, as opposed to the opposition, and I suspect this would have been a major factor in the thinking of the Labour Party. “Considering that they must have known they were going to lose I am surprised that the Welsh Government did not pull the vote. What could have been contained to a Cardiff Bay bubble story is now a full-blown national crisis for the government of our country. “Gone are the days, therefore, of a quarter of century in which Plaid Cymru has effectively enabled a Labour-run Welsh Government. “Unless I am very mistaken, we are living in a new political environment in the Senedd. The only solution would be for the Welsh Government to come to some sort of arrangement with Labour, but matters may already be too sour between both sides for such an accommodation, and I detect no appetite from Labour that they want to make life easy for Plaid Cymru in return for a few financial and legislative concessions.” Lyn E- “Does Rhun ap Iorwerth want to lead our nation or just his party?” https://nation.cymru/opinion/is-wales-ungovernable/ * * * * 17th July: The Labour party in Great Britain gets its 20th leader. Whether the party in Wales is a willow or an oak remains to be seen. The willow bends in the electoral storm; the oak cracks. Everything is new in its own way but never entirely new. Labour had a very good general election on 15th November 1922. On 21st November 1922 the party swapped its leader. Clynes was endowed with many high qualities but lacked the extroversion and speaking skills of MacDonald. MacDonald led the party to split over welfare, the Cabinet vote in 1931 dividing 10-9. The fracturing of the party in 1981, as in 1914, was over defence. * * * * 19th July: Unusual words from Whitehall. “An official spokesperson for The Department for Culture Media and Sport issued a critical response to the Welsh government's ambitions in this area. A spokesperson said: "In light of their failure to agree a budget this week, it would be advisable for the Welsh government to focus on better running the services they have, rather than wasting more taxpayers money by seeking to acquire new functions for them to further run into the ground. “Ap Iorwerth said it was "a pretty disgraceful statement" from a government official. He said it was a "hugely politicised statement that is derogatory towards Wales, that is derogatory towards devolution, that is disrespectful to the government of Wales". Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gxzwp539zo * * * * 31st July: Plaid Cymru: “Fe wnaeth pobl Cymru ethol llywodraeth Plaid Cymru ym mis Mai i frwydro dros y pwerau fydd yn helpu ein cymunedau i ffynnu. “Wrth i'r Prif Weinidog gyhoeddi mwy o ddatganoli i Loegr heddiw, rydym yn ei atgoffa y dylai ei gynlluniau fynd tu hwnt i Glawdd Offa.” This is the party view. Its favoured topics are HS2 consequentials, devolution of justice and policing, the Crown Estate. Money from the arts is to be spent on a shadow broadcasting authority. Whether these are of interest to the voters who put a minority government in place is untested. It is quite feasible that many simply wanted cataracts treated, their children educated to a standard of parity with England, the waters of Wales cleansed. The most significant development of relations between citizens and the institutions of power of Wales was the High Court hearing of 27th April. 4500 citizens are engaged in a class action against the water company. Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crrj4qqqy7po * * * * 2nd August: On Radio Cymru Wales Sunday Supplement Heledd Fychan: “In opposition I was always asking what's the investment needed in both sports and culture, in terms of grass-roots and culture, what's the figure in terms of backlog capital and maintenance? I always thought they were hiding those figures on me but it's become very clear those figures don't exist.” On the dispute with two teaching unions and health visitors on strike for several months. “We have eyes open to these challenges and working with trade unions in a positive way because that social partnership is really, really crucial, and having that dialogue, but it is challenging. We're not running away from that but hopefully people are also seeing that willingness to work with unions, with organisations that we find those solutions together, because if you look at education, they have been in crisis. We are trying to put together long-term plans.” Interviewer: “Can you govern for the full four years?” “We reached out to every political party. There is a responsibility for us to co-operate.” Interviewer: “In a word four years, going it alone, yes or no?” “It'll be up to the people of Wales. We will be standing on our record.” * * * * 20 August: BBC Cymru Wales' lead story was about the pollution of the Tywi “It is a centuries-old tradition in Wales, but coracle fishers on a major river have said pollution has meant there are "no fish" left. The tradition of coracle fishing has been part of life on the Tywi for centuries. “Last year, the nearby River Teifi had been noted as one of the UK's most polluted rivers, with 2,232 spills lasting more than 22,000 hours recorded in 2024. “Welsh Water said "We are determined to play our part to improve river water quality on the Tywi, but this isn't just an issue for water companies, collaboration is needed across sectors, including industry and agriculture, to ensure improvements." “Andrew Davies says there is "no life left in the river". He said that the bad smell coming from the river "doesn't help" and he and others had reported cases of pollution to NRW "all the time", but "nothing seems to be done". “Citizen scientists on behalf of Save the River Tywi, who have been conducting tests on the river, said there had been evidence of pollution coming from farms, companies based along the river and people. “In July the annual Tywi River Festival had to be cancelled because of the pollution. “Huwel Manley, head of south-west operations for NRW, said "Like many rivers, the Tywi faces a range of environmental pressures, including pollution and is also impacted by the current dry weather conditions which are seeing an increase in the water temperature along with wider ecological challenges. "We take all reports of suspected pollution seriously. We currently have a number of ongoing enforcement and compliance investigations within the Tywi catchment, including cases that are progressing towards court proceedings." The Welsh government said: "The Tywi is one of Wales' most important rivers, supporting internationally important habitats and species, local communities, recreation and cultural traditions such as coracle fishing." “It had been "aware of recent concerns regarding foam, odours and discolouration in the River Tywi" and "NRW have investigated and confirmed the impacts were linked to natural environmental conditions". “It said NRW had been investigating a separate potential source of pollution entering the Tywi and as those investigations remain ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further.” From https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cewr9evwdwko * * * * 30th August: Radio Wales Cymru's Sunday Supplement ran a reprise about a seismic quarter. Richard Wyn Jones was interviewed 10th May. “The real challenge for Plaid, going into government, running a government for the first time, is always a moment of danger for political parties, the kinds of decisions, the kinds of choices, the kind of trade-offs you have to make when you're running a government are incredibly difficult. When you're in opposition, or a minority party in a coalition, the pressure is not so great. “The issue potentially for Plaid Cymru is they will be doing things that make their own Senedd members, their own members, uncomfortable. They cannot avoid that. Rhun has huge political capital among his own members. He is frankly walking on water. But I expect that that will all disappear fairly quickly when the hard graft of governing takes over.” “There will be tensions arising from the kind of trade-offs that are inevitable in government. That's the party management issue.” Vaughan Roderick: “The budget is the iceberg that can sink the Titanic of a minority government.” |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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