Oxfam Cymru has set out its vision for how the Senedd can fight injustice and inequality. How did a panel of Senedd politicians respond? | Neil Schofield-Hughes

Gruesomely accurate.

And it’s what happens when cynical faux-progressives politicians inflame populist right sentiments by making speeches about an island of strangers.

An election in which young people turned out in numbers to choose hope. New York. Twinned with Caerffili.

Fascinating evening listening to politicians from four of Cymru’s parties responding to @oxfamcymru.bsky.social’s pre-Senedd election Vision for a Just Cymru, published today. Full coverage to follow.

A reminder that we need to be deeply sceptical of the narrative that @plaidcymru.bsky.social as largest party in the new Senedd would have Welsh Labour’s support and votes in a progressive bloc against Reform. Welsh Labour will always obey head office’s instructions.

The problem with Rachel Reeves (one of them, anyway) was that her background was always going to make her a bankers’ Chancellor. We’ve had bankers’ economics since 2008. It’s the root of our economic woes and our political crisis.

And the things that Labour whipped its MPs to abstain on…

I’d also ask whether Lisa Nandy understands that many of the most celebrated practitioners of the classical music and opera being so seriously defunded on her watch were from working-class backgrounds, especially here in Cymru. It’s the prejudice she encapsulates that drives “elitism” in music.

If you're a National Trust member, it's that time of year again: Midnight tonight is the deadline. It's a shame people have to keep doing this to keep a toehold on historical truth in this country, but here we are. Voting link: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/a...

This is very good. Reeves has form - allegations of plagiarism are not trivial. And from Vaughan Gething’s donations to Starmer’s suits to all those freebies, Progress Labour’s grubbiness in office is a gift to right-wing populists. She should go, but she won’t.

Switching 2p from National Insurance to Income Tax could raise £6 billion while protecting workers’ pay packets. Here's what you need to know 👇 👇 👇

In a country with a falling, ageing population and a massive shortage of NHS/Care staff this is bad news. No doubt Starmer’s government will try to claim “credit” for it. That’s the kind of intellectual batshittery that appeasing right-wing populism leads to.

All four @plaidcymru.bsky.social MPs and the sole Welsh Lib Dem MP voted against Farage’s bill to withdraw from ECHR - but only two Welsh Labour MPs. Anyone from Welsh Labour care to comment?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... A great initiative. It is time for progressives in all parties in Cymru to get past the Union - and to understand that the only path to a prosperous, generous, liberal and democratic Cymru is independence. #annibyniaeth

Exactly this. Reform has no greater ally than the Starmer’s failure of leadership, his weakness and moral cowardice on immigration and asylum. When was the last time a party with 5 MP’s set an entire agenda for a party with 400?

As Westminster - for which read England - declines further economically, and slips further into populist authoritarianism, independence - the creation of a modern functioning constitutional democracy - gets more attractive by the day. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 #annibyniaeth

The rights that that Farage and Badenoch want to remove and that the Labour front bench didn’t have the guts to defend today.

You might have been forgiven for thinking that in the current climate, Financial Secretary to the Treasury was a full-time job… Anyway. Have Welsh Labour thought about the optics of an English Lord leading their Senedd campaign? Did they have any say in the matter?

A reminder to fellow NT members - the Restore Trust lot are at it again, trying to insert ideology into NT’s curation of our heritage. Don’t forget to vote for historical accuracy over politicised nostalgic fantasy

Important read - economics is always about politics, and pretending otherwise is an ideological and, yes, political act.

It should be abundantly obvious that cutting household incomes - through cuts in benefits and increases in personal taxation - to meet arbitrary fiscal rules will depress an economy driven by consumers. Reeves is bidding to be the worst Chancellor since Churchill returned to the Gold Standard.

The “good chap” theory was indeed absurd but Brexit destroyed it, leaving a hole into which the bad chaps are now crowding. We need to start by acknowledging that Brexit broke the UK’s pretensions to having a functioning constitution.

Perhaps he should look at the track-record of the private prison at Parc, near Bridgend, where 17 inmates died in 2024 and where drugs are reported to be freely available.

Apparently having the same economic framing as your predecessors and expecting a different result didn’t work. Who knew?

Of course. This is always what Brexit was about - taking the UK out of the framework of international law. About giving a Parliamentary majority untrammelled power.

This thread. And before people bang on about “stopping Reform”, worth remembering that Starmer and his Tory predecessors have systematically undermined citizen rights in favour of corporate interests - on planning and fossil fuels especially - and continue to do so.

Interesting. Labour are getting very close to a political tipping point. And it’s difficult to see where the path back lies.

These are not easy times for political satirists.

We’ve crunched the numbers at Bylines Cymru, and if Caerffili had been fought as a six-seat constituency under the new Senedd system, @plaidcymru.bsky.social and Reform would have got three seats each. bylines.cymru/politics-and...

Fascinating. I think many of us assumed a big turnout would favour Reform. Still a while to go though…

I am not sure that electing the person who said that the economy would crash if winter fuel allowance hadn’t been removed for most pensioners is the obvious route towards honest and difficult conversations.

Can @zackpolanski.bsky.social’s brand of left populism challenge populism on the right and neoliberal consensus in the centre? Well, possibly. Some thoughts on what the rise of Zackmania means. open.substack.com/pub/neilscho...

My thoughts ahead of the Caerffili by-election - complete with fascinating thoughts from @rhunapiorwerth.bsky.social on Brexit and shifting identities in Cymru.

What have Welsh Labour’s comms team been smoking?

Absolutely wrong. Equality is the antidote to division, and growth without tackling inequality exacerbates division. It is beyond horrifying that this Labour government should be peddling its own version of trickle-down economics.

My piece in @bylines.cymru on Saturday’s Cardiff Transformed conference. A hopeful day with @zackpolanski.bsky.social @leannewood.bsky.social Beth Winter and many others.

Farage’s evidence that Muslims want to takeover London: Wait for it. Taxi drivers. In Buckinghamshire. I’ve heard taxi drivers tell me lampposts are watching us, Covid was a scam and Aston Villa will win the premier league!!

Please let me know. I’m awaiting a call from the engineer who’s servicing my boiler tomorrow and I need to be prepared…

Meanwhile, on a rare trip East of Offa’s Dyke, trying to work out whether it’s really a mark of patriotism and respect to festoon the public conveniences in flags?

New blogging: Starmer’s Weimar moment. open.substack.com/pub/neilscho...

I trust it has not gone unnoticed that for all the excluding rhetoric about “working families”, Labour has decided to undermine the operation of Article 8 of ECHR in respect of asylum seekers - of people fleeing real danger and persecution. What hypocrites and cowards Labour have become.

Labour ‘dithering’ on child poverty as Education Secretary admits to being ashamed. Govt finds money for corporate bailouts, subsidies, foreign wars and tax perks for corporations and the rich. Child poverty is an unacceptable political choice. Blights lives.

As someone once put it, Mother of God…

Exactly this.

Were the flames that nearly singed Will’s keyboard spreading from Jo Stevens’ pants? We all know it’s a lie. Everyone in that room knows it’s a lie. So why do they keep lying to us and patronising us? Don’t they understand that the serial dishonesty plays into the hands of hard-right populists?

Something I wrote exactly nine years ago, the morning after that Brexit vote. Apart from the forlorn hope that Labour might stand up against the toxic politics that led to Brexit, and even though I say it myself, it stands up astonishingly well. neilschofieldhughes.substack.com/p/a-vote-for...

I believe the second word is “off”.