history, sport, science & politics! green side but more about outcomes than party rosettes. works policy+pub affairs. Also podcasting, theatre & ancient glass!

Cardiff central / hay
Joined January 2012
Lots on my feed about the wales bill. Need to realise to make wales better it's not laws or power, but how we live, learn and act. Up to us
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If you're a chief executive on a telephone number salary, at least have the grace not to complain about the taxes that fund the benefits your workers have to claim because you refuse to pay them enough to live on
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£1.30 in Feb this year. Rise probably cost me £350ish over a year? Quite remarkable that the early cheerleaders for British involvement in the Iran War (Badenoch, Farage, Tice etc) have not really taken any reputational hit from it.
Average UK weekly road fuel prices statistics as at 26 October 2026 published today at: gov.uk/government/statistics…
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Not my party but fair play kemi is slowly slowly putting the conservatives back together. Fully expect them to be clear ip portion option to labour at the next GE.
NEW headline voting intention from Ipsos 📊Labour on 32% with a lead of +8 – the largest Labour lead Ipsos have recorded this parliament 📊Conservatives take second place the first time since June 2025 📊Reform UK down 3 points and Greens down 5
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I see it took less than a day for even the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street to become a culture war issue. Do we need a term for that brief moment of innocence between something happening and then the online fury? The pre-polarisation window?
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There’s never a dull day learning Welsh. Apparently there are more terms in Welsh for illegitimate children than legitimate ones Of them all I think ‘plant llwyn a pherth’ is my favourite: children of bush and hedge
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1/ The man most likely to rape a White British woman isn't on a small boat or an immigrant. He's her partner or her ex. The graph by @TheEconomist is doing rounds, and @RestoreBritain , @reformparty_uk and the rest of the circus of the self-appointed protectors of White British women think that it proves their made up point: that White British women's biggest danger is immigrant men. Well, data and facts say a different story, a story that the circus of the self-appointed protectors of White British women don't want normal people to know. Here's the data. 🧵
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The Left complain about “neoliberalism”. The Right complain about a “Big State” requiring a Milei-style chainsaw. Both are half right. We have sold off national assets/critical industries to foreign shareholders, watched the public realm deteriorate, & built a financialised, globalised, low-investment, service-dominated open market economy, dependent on FDI, imports, consumer debt and inflows of cheap, low-productivity labour. Meanwhile, the private sector is throttled by regulation, building/development is blocked by a nimby vetocracy, the tax burden grows to fund ballooning cash transfers/entitlements, and gov. policy/Ministerial initiative is overruled by the judiciary/permanent bureaucracy/unaccountable state agencies. This is the nightmare hybrid legacy of Thatcher & New Labour. It’d be no bad thing if a lot of Tej’s (👇) pro-market/supply-side agenda was combined with the restoration of a robust social democracy and an active, interventionist state. Do a two-pronged Budget for *FULL ANGLO-DENGIST MARKET SOCIALISM*— MARKET: 👉Zonal/non-discretionary planning system 👉Generous capital allowances/full expensing 👉Tax relief for UK investments — pensions, new British ISA etc. 👉Welfare reform/jobs guarantees 👉End to 3-lock properly 👉Bonfire of QUANGOs/consolidate regulatory agencies/leave Aarhus Convention etc. 👉End tax cliff-edges & shift burden from work/productive investment to land/unproductive asset wealth SOCIALISM: 👉Medium-term plan for gov. joint equity stakes/full national/public/regional/municipal ownership of utilities/natural monopolies/critical infrastructure & critical industries 👉BIG investment in regional energy/transport/digital infrastructure + urban social housebuilding via NWF/GB Energy/BBB/GB Rail ‘puffins’ + local/mayoral authorities etc. 👉Sectoral collective bargaining agreements 👉Robust industrial strategy for supporting UK advanced manufacturing/science & tech via public procurement/tariff policy/R&D/‘triple helix’ public-private partnerships etc etc. Begin a shift AWAY from a bureaucratic cash transfer/entitlement state, and TOWARDS an agile, investment-first/productive state. Be willing to fundamentally alter BoE-HMT relationship to this end. Do fiscal-monetary coordination, financial repression. Introduce PSNW accounting. Plan for a current budget primary surplus but combine with a BIG push to upgrade public capital stock. 👍👍💪🇬🇧
THREAD (1/7) Britain’s Budget on Wednesday is expected to be low-key. After recent chaos, that is no bad thing. But escaping the country’s economic drift will require something far bolder: a dose of shock therapy. My latest column for @FT: as.ft.com/r/aa18babc-96c7-4f…
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And the reviews are in!
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When 64% of your parliament has a PhD, makes you wonder what their legislation will look like
Serbia's must be the most well-read parliament ever, by the way: 160 PhDs in 250 candidates
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I worked the Brazilian elections for France 24. For what it's worth (and armed with a degree in History and Politics!!), here's my take on what happened.
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BREAKING: Netanyahu has announced that Brazil is just three weeks away from developing a nuclear weapon 👀
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In fairness to central London I had to get a taxi from Westminster to Paddington’s recently. (Not my choice) And London was in gridlock then too - pre improving Oxford street.
The whole of central London is in gridlock thanks to this
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Hate the modern (imported US nonsense) of having people behind the speaker. Always make sit look like people turn up in numbers. Today Nige gave A speech to an empty room with the only people there behind him 😂
I’m not sure I’ve seen a Nigel Farage press conference quite this empty
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This video tells a story. Harsh on those filmed , feel sorry tbh. But it does highlight something I hope plaid go strong on, really strong in wales. Education. Pretty much above all else, go hard at welsh education. Benefits are massive across the board
To anyone that thinks immigrants are the problem, watch this. We are so cooked 😂
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Is anyone going to fucking stop Israel?!?!… WTF is wrong with the world…
Israeli drones are dropping incendiary materials on makeshift tents near Shujaiya in eastern Gaza City in an attempt to force displaced Palestinians to flee the area Displaced people report that at least 350 tents have been burned
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'Beyond a certain speed, cars create distances for all and shrink them for only a few.' —Ivan Illich (1973) 👷 Our cities weren't built for the car. 🚜 They were actively destroyed for it. (Before-after of I-980 in #Oakland by @SegByDesign)
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Bloody Green Party eh …….
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Bodes well for the few stations the metro promises - eventually !!!
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FT’s report on Lula’s comeback says Flávio Bolsonaro’s “nine fingers” jab in the final debate, mocking the finger Lula lost in a factory accident at 17 while working nights, became a turning point. The attack let Lula draw a sharp contrast between his own working-class history and Bolsonaro’s background, helping shift momentum in the runoff.
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