A depressing story for anyone who supports Ukraine

🚨Today, Wales Fiscal Analysis published our fifth & final manifesto analysis on Senedd powers and reforms to the way that Wales is funded. 🚨Heddiw, cyhoeddodd Dadansoddi Cyllidol Cymru ein dadansoddiad maniffesto olaf ar bwerau newydd a diwygiadau i gyllid Cymru. blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/thinking-wal...

Thank God for one US leader who is an inspiration to us all, irrespective of faith www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

Pleased to have had a small part in this consoc.org.uk/publications...

This is spot-on

How will the 2026 Senedd election change Welsh politics? On 5 March, join @jessblair.bsky.social, @lauramcallister30.bsky.social and @paulsilk.bsky.social to discuss recent and possible future reforms to the Senedd. Sign up for this free, online event 👉 www.ucl.ac.uk/social-histo....

Very sorry to hear of Jim Wallace's death. Passionate devolutionist and always a delight to deal with. As Douglas Alexander said, a man who gave politics a good name

The Commissions chaired by me in 2014, by Lord Thomas in 2018 and by Laura McAllister and Rowan Williams in 2024 all recommended the devolution of policing to Wales. Police reform should be an opportunity to give Welsh Government policing responsibility. What is the case against?

When I was Clerk of the then National Assembly, we hosted members of the US Congress - from both parties - who had come to thank Wales for its support in the Second Gulf War. The delegation's next stop was Denmark

An interesting post. There is an equal need for a shift away from an executive-led agenda in Cardiff and London

Gareth Evans: The Devolution of the Crown Estate in Wales ukconstitutionallaw.org/2025/09/04/g...

A sad week for @studyofparl.bsky.social with the death of two distinguished members who were also both kind and principled - Sir Roger Sands, former Clerk of the House of Commons and Professor Michael Rush of Exeter University. We will miss them greatly

Nigel Farage yesterday asked Laura Anne Jones if the Senedd works. It would be really interesting to hear Reform's ideas about Senedd reform well in advance of next year's election

New blogpost: The Afghan super-injunction case: Some constitutional implications publiclawforeveryone.com/2025/07/17/t...

Great admiration for my wife's (a) fitness (b) commitment to support those who suffer domestic abuse. Please support her. www.justgiving.com/team/calandv...

This article is well worth reading for the long quotation from the former professor of Mediterranean archaeology at Cardiff on what a university should be

Fiction turns into fact....

As a Princeton alumnus, I was very pleased to see this www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2025...

Meg Russell, @ruxandrasrbn.bsky.social and various Constitution Unit fellows and honorary staff are among the 73 contributors to a new textbook on parliament. Exploring Parliament is edited by @estrangeirada.bsky.social, @ameakin.bsky.social and @louisevthompson.bsky.social. Find out more 👇

I hadn't read Laura's excellent blog about Dafydd El until today. His funeral tomorrow in Llandaf will be a chance to celebrate an extraordinary contribution to Wales and politics. I first worked with him almost 50 years ago. How much he will be missed blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/thinking-wal...

I am very interested in the extent to which the Planning and Infrastructure Bill may remove powers from the Senedd and Welsh Ministers - if it does, or if it does without requiring their consent. I hope someone will enlighten us! www.gov.uk/government/n...

www.eventbrite.com/e/where-next... This should be interesting

Excellent blog. Making pious declarations and making good legislation are two very different things

Our new blogpost explains why the reduction breaches a legal duty and how this breach reveals a deeper legislative failure.🔽 buff.ly/92lbtKz

It isn't easy to say what has been most repugnant recently, but Vance and Trump's verbal assault on a polite and brave man speaking his third language was a disgrace

A critique by our @hansardsociety.bsky.social trustee @paulsilk.bsky.social about his experience as a petitioner in the Brecon and Radnor constituency in 2019 explored some of these admin/procedural flaws in the process. 10/ www.hansardsociety.org.uk/blog/the-bre...

Well done Germany. (Turnout in the 2024 UK General Election was less than 60%. Which isn't great.)

Most Constitutions allow the postponement of elections in times of national emergency, and President Trump himself suggested that the USA elections in 2020 might be postponed until people could "properly, securely and safely" vote (albeit that this is difficult under the US Constitution)

Visiting the Capitoline Museums and seeing the bronze cast of the Lex de Imperio Vespasiani, couldn't help thinking that executive orders are nothing new

Very sorry to hear of the death of Dafydd Elis Thomas. He was certainly mercurial, but he was an enormous figure in the development of the Welsh constitution. I liked him a lot. RIP

As Porfirio Díaz so perceptively said, "poor Mexico: so far from God, so close to the USA"

Grim news from Cardiff University. I understand the pressures, but it is hard to conceive of a university that does not teach and research foreign languages, music and theology

Russia wipes out three generations of a family in one strike

The appropriation of the term "America" by the USA is annoying. Mexicans are Americans too, so the name "Gulf of America" may not worry them. At least it's better than its earlier name - Golfo de Nueva España. And Mexicans (and everyone else outside the USA) can continue calling it Gulf of Mexico

This should interest @studyofparl.bsky.social members - Anwen will be a brilliant Chair www.gov.wales/written-stat...

Now I certainly can't comment on her pronunciation, but she's got a lovely voice - and courage. Da iawn yn wir! BBC News - First Minister Eluned Morgan sings Japanese anthem - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/...

BBC News - Japanese UK ambassador sings Welsh anthem - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/... This is lovely. Good voice and spirited attempt at pronunciation. Puts one former Secretary of State to shame

Very sorry to read this. Jenny was always a pleasure to work with - kind, decent and committed to the causes she cared about

Lords Committees have criticised inappropriate delegation of powers in two Bills that House will consider this week: the Great British Energy Bill and the Data (Use and Access) Bill. Let's hope that the Attorney General's pledge to stop inappropriate delegation bears fruit

The latest edition of our regular constitutional review is now available! Monitor 88 covers the new government's early months, highlighting positive first steps, but also many opportunities for quick wins not taken. Read it 👉 www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution....

Very interesting post about Scotland that equally applies to Wales

Welsh (and Scottish) friends: if you haven't already, do read JMG Le Clézio's Chanson Bretonne. It's a lyrical picture of a Celtic past and future

Delighted that the modest, scholarly and liberal English Dominican, Timothy Ratcliffe, is to become a Cardinal

Excellent post - and I would add one more issue: how relations with the other UK legislatures and governments will be improved

As always, the Constitution Committee's Report is rich and thoughtful. To bang an old drum, we also need to see better interparliamentary relations mechanisms developed, too

Interesting (and worrying) post: devolution rolled back and legislatures sidelined

No less than seven pages of the Renters' Rights Bill are in Welsh. How are they going to be properly considered in the monolingual Westminster Parliament?

constitution-unit.com/2024/09/12/s... Very good report from Constitution Unit, encouraging transparency in allocating select committee memberships

One parliamentary conclusion from the Grenfell report: perhaps Governments will now be less willing to disregard well thought through select committee recommendations in the way they did in 1999. Credit to the Environment Sub-Committee at the time (and its staff)