Wales watching - The midweek briefing

Hello,

This is the first midweek briefing of 2026.

Over the last few days there have been several hundred new subscribers so welcome aboard. The midweek newsletter is a whistle stop tour around what is happening in Welsh politics whereas at the weekend we do a comprehensive deep dive into one or two topics.

Great to have you on board!

The Senedd isn’t back sitting yet (they are off till January 12) but there is plenty still worthy of your attention.

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Reporting by Will Hayward and Ryan O’Neill

The closest thing Reform has to a leader in Wales, David Thomas, has been kicked off his community council because he didn’t turn up enough.

Mr Thomas, who also goes by the name Dr Squeegees and describes himself as “the bald Clark Kent”, was removed from Cwmbran Community Council due to his lack of attendance.

Here he is running for election to that council as an independent in 2023 where he said:

“Vote for me…and I will absolutely show you what a true hardworking councillor can do for you, your family and this community.”

Welsh Government minister Julie James went on BBC Wales recently and tied herself in knots defending the indefensible regarding the devolution of rail.

She said:

“I’m not sure we’re wanting the devolution of it.

“Really what we want is the funding formulas to be right and the organisation of it to be right so that we have a loud voice for Wales in what is done in Wales and actually we have a very good working relationship with the UK government about which railway stations will be invested in.

“I’m not a separatist politician at all. I want to work inside the UK infrastructure. It’s very important to me that the Great Western Railway line goes all the way to London seamlessly, you know, I don’t want it to only work to the border.

“If you did devolve the whole of rail infrastructure to Wales, you’d want to be really certain that all the money that you needed for that came with, I’d be very concerned whether that would happen as a one off event.”

Oh good lord, how ridiculous. Nothing better shows how this Labour Welsh Government are prioritising defending a UK Labour administration over actively trying to make Wales better than this.

Julie James MS

There is so much to unpack but I will make these two points:

Ms James saying that “The Great Western Railway line goes all the way to London seamlessly, you know, I don’t want it to only work to the border.” There is no way that the devolution of rail would mean that trains can’t work cross-border. It is devolved in Scotland and you can easily get a train direct from London to Edinburgh. Welsh Labour are divorcing themselves from reality to excuse their “colleagues” in London from screwing Wales.
She also said she wants “the funding formulas to be right and the organisation of it to be right so that we have a loud voice for Wales in what is done in Wales”. The only way to do that is to devolve it. That makes the money automatic and means that Wales’ voice is the ONLY voice when it comes to what is done in Wales.

The fact the Welsh Government are now pretending they don’t want devolution of rail simply to not cause a fuss with UK Labour is, frankly, cowardice. They are elected to stand up for Wales and their constituents. They were prepared to take the Tories to court over this issue. The fact that they have rowed back now is a dereliction of duty.

It seems the Tories can’t even agree among themselves on some things. During a debate in the Commons on Monday shadow transport minister Jerome Mayhew indicated he disagreed with free bus passes for over-60s in Wales and Scotland.

When Mr Mayhew was accused by the Lib Dems of not supporting it he did not deny this, saying “government funds are limited” and adding that support “needs to be focussed exclusively on areas where it can do the most good.”

The Welsh Tories don’t appear to share this view. When asked by Nation Cymru they said categorically: “Our position remains: We support free bus passes for over 60s.”

Alison Vyas went viral after she chastised Reform’s Caerphilly councillor Llyr Powell during the debate back in the autumn (Copyright: Plaid Cymru)

Reform have filed a complaint to the BBC over a televised debate during the Caerphilly by-election campaign.

During the televised debate we saw a heated exchange between an audience member who took Reform’s Llyr Powell to task over their messaging on immigration. Now that audience member is standing as a Plaid candidate for the local community council.

Plaid say that Alison Vyas had no formal connection to the party before the debate. But it hasn’t stopped Reform figures claiming it was “set up” and “stacked” against them.

It is worth noting that there were several Reform Party members in the audience of that debate.

The Welsh Government’s new sustainable farming scheme, which had been the target of fierce protests, has now gone live.

The post-Brexit subsidy scheme has finally come in (just a decade after the UK voted to leave). Previously ministers had to partly back down and make changes to the scheme after it received backlash from farmers. This included massively watering down the tree planting requirements within the scheme.

The firm that gained national attention over its controversial donation to Vaughan Gething’s leadership campaign has been fined for environmental breaches.

Cardiff-based Atlantic Recycling Ltd, which is run by David Neal, came to prominence after it was found it donated £200,000 to Mr Gething’s bid to be First Minister. Mr Neal’s record of environmental offences, as well as the sheer size of the donation, ultimately led to Mr Gething’s resignation 118 days after taking the top role.

Vaughan Gething took a huge donation from the firm to bankroll his campaign to be First Minister (Copyright: Senedd Cymru)

This week a hearing heard the firm breached its environmental permit in July 2019 by storing refuse-derived fuel — a highly combustible form of waste — at its site in Rumney in a manner that risked “major environmental harm”. It was fined £40,000 and ordered to pay £30,000 in costs.

Iwan Huws

A former Plaid councillor in Gwynedd was last month banned from standing for office for three years.

Iwan Huws resigned as a Plaid Cymru councillor for the Y Felinheli and Bethel ward in September. Though his inactive Facebook page still lists him as the councillor for the area.

He is the former chief executive of the Eryri National Park and was found to have breached the local authorities code of conduct “in an attempt to defraud his employer by the misuse of money” by the Adjudication Panel for Wales.

The case tribunal concluded by unanimous decision that the former councillor should be disqualified from acting as a member for any relevant authority for a period of three years.

The proposed changes to the inheritance tax rules regarding farmers has been tweaked with the threshold for payment increased from £1m to £2.5m. This is especially good news for Welsh farmers given Wales has proportionally more small farms than England.

However, it is worth bearing in mind that the UK Government never carried out any specific impact assessment on Wales. Chair of the Welsh Affairs Committee Ruth Jones MP said:

“As the Welsh Affairs Committee said in our November report, the inheritance tax reforms should be delayed until a Wales-specific impact assessment has been carried out, published and scrutinised. Ministers must recognise the distinct nature of farming in Wales. Declining livestock numbers, falling incomes, international pressures and mounting financial pressures – the situation is critical.”

I shared this video recently on my social media but I wanted to do it again here. This is a clip from inside the Senedd just before Christmas:

The protagonist in it is Labour backbench MS Mike Hedges (who we recently reported on for being on his phone while the Covid bereaved families group was giving evidence). He has been an MS since 2011 and has bagged himself the top spot on the Swansea and Gower list for the 2026 election. It isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that Mr Hedges makes up more than 10% of the Welsh Labour group in the Senedd after the election…

One can’t help but laugh Andrew RT Davies sporadically appearing and disappearing behind a pillar like the Minotaur in a Cretan labyrinth or Jenny Rathbone almost dislocating her jaw in incredulity after Mr Hedges starts praising the USA.

The independent Active Travel Board in Wales has published a report which tracks the progress and challenges facing Wales when it comes to getting people into active travel. The modest good news is that there was a 7% increase in adult cycling participation.

However only 48% of primary school children and 33% of secondary school children walk to school.

The charity Living Streets which works to achieve a better walking environment currently has an open survey on walking in Wales which you can fill in here.

That’s all for today. It’s great to be back.

Take care

Will

Wales watching – The midweek briefing

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