How nuance can be reintroduced to politics is beyond me, but the binary nature of debate is consistently producing see-saw outcomes in our governance that are becoming absurd ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1mCu

Nigel Farage’s cynical evocation of ‘cold rage’ in response to Henry Nowak’s murder was as politically cute as it was morally reprehensible ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1mtF

Plaid is not continuity Labour. Nor, as Wes Streeting suggests, is its politics comparable to the insular jingoism of Reform. As far as Welsh issues are concerned, it is Labour and Reform who have emerged as bedfellows ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1lNk

Immigration is Elvis and Nigel Farage its Colonel Tom Parker – re-releasing Blue Christmas every year, long after the King’s lips had quivered their last ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1lF7

it’s wise to sniff the air for countryside aromas whenever politicians are politicking, and even more so when they are clearly driven by an internal need for advancement ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1lob

Shiny Wes approaches personal advancement like a crack addict with a broken lighter, so to imagine him sweatily lunging for the keys to Number 10 was all too easy ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1lde

This could be the dawn of a new era for Cymru. The simple fact of a ruling party that is only beholden to us is a giant leap in political confidence and accountability ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1kV6

There is much to laugh at in Reform UK’s antics. Personally, I’d sink into despair if I relinquished the facility to find the funny in their vulgarity, dishonesty, and transparent opportunism ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1kD8

Reform’s messaging has increasingly foregrounded the voting system as evidence that Welsh democracy is beyond saving. The existence of an ostensibly left of centre majority is explained away as an ‘establishment stitch-up’ ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1kuq

The UK has very few options in its weakened condition, but whoring out its head of state to despots should not be one of them✍️ Ben Wildsmith

Having a constitutionally constrained monarch as head of state mutes the United Kingdom at the highest tier of diplomacy. Trump, characteristically, has zeroed in on the fatal weakness of the UK’s constitution ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1kjK

Hatey Katie arrived from the dark imagination of England’s furthest flung ideological wastelands with a message that was predictable in its contemptuous tone, but startling in its assumptions ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1k1n

The past cannot be relitigated, and the future is not promised but if Plaid are, at last, to be granted an opportunity to lead the nation, its first responsibility must be to shape this moment in its history ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1jSn

From the moment Keir Starmer’s government assumed office it seemed to take perverse pleasure in making the Labour Senedd cohort look like fools ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1jB1

The role of politicians has changed from explaining the complexities of governance to pandering to the pre-existing obsessions that Facebook or X has cynically nurtured in our increasingly isolated social spheres✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1jrR

To turn an election that cannot change immigration policy at all into an imaginary referendum on it, is as barking as it is disrespectful to the process✍️ Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1jaZ

Llandeilo Lit Fest is just a few weeks away! We are so excited for events with Calon authors @benwildsmith.bsky.social and @carwyngraves.bsky.social 📚️

Trump’s readiness to wear the black hat in the cowboy flick, to characterise American influence as deriving from nothing more than military technology and economic advantage, has changed how the world perceives it ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1j0q

Join @benwildsmith.bsky.social in conversation with author Niall Griffiths, discussing his debut memoir 'Whose Song to Sing' 📚️ 📆 26 April 🕞️ 3:30pm-4:30pm 📍 Hengwrt, Carmarthen Street 🎟️ www.llandeilolitfest.org/programme/be...

Bydd @benwildsmith.bsky.social mewn sgwrs gyda Niall Griffths am ei hunangofiant cyntaf, 'Whose Song to Sing' 📚️ 📆 26 Ebrill 🕑️ 15:30yp-16:30yp 📍 Hengwrt, Stryd Caerfyrddin 🎟️ www.llandeilolitfest.org/programme/be... Digwyddiad Saesneg.

The extent to which our nation is diminished by the actions of madmen, over whom we have no control, depends upon the resilience we build into it ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1iNy

The annual ‘They’re cancelling Christmas!’ nonsense that we endure every winter, just after the tawdry exploitation of Remembrance Day by performative warmongers, has been extended to Easter ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1imV

As the parachutes of their candidates lie strewn across our hills, valleys, and town centres, how are we to feel about the poor saps who seem genuinely to believe that this stockholders’ junta represents their interests? ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1i8V

With every day that passes the mystique of US supremacy fades, emboldening other actors both in the region and the wider world ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1hR3

Support for Scottish independence is currently polling at 51%, as opposed to 41% in Wales. In both nations, however, support is weighted towards younger voters, with the fulcrum at around 35 years ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1hkp

The fathomless ache of mortality echoes through eternity in our stories. They lend weight and permanence to the gossamer levity of our lonely flights through existence ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1h7I

With Plaid Cymru, the SNP, and Sinn Fein predicted to run their respective governments by summer, the seams will fray yet further as this war rumbles on and we shall all be forced to reflect upon where we stand ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1gMI

The idea of Europe as a restraining force is obsolete in the face of gangsterism that is happy to co-opt fundamentalist religion as ideological muscle ✍️Ben Wildsmith

We are now being encouraged to believe that Islamic fundamentalist men were allowed by woke election officers to intrude on their wives in voting booths and command them to vote for the party led by a gay Jew ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1gbT

'All adoptions ripple out through families, changing the stories of those within them in unpredictable ways.' A beautiful and profound piece by @benwildsmith.bsky.social in @telegraph.co.uk Read here: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/02... Ben's debut memoir 'Whose Song to Sing?' is out now 📚

In his debut memoir, @benwildsmith.bsky.social offers an adoptee’s take on society as he struggles to carve out a space within it. 📚 www.uwp.co.uk/book/whose-s...

Fantastic evening in Palas Print Caernarfon with Niall Griffiths and @benwildsmith.bsky.social for Ben's new book with @calonbooks.bsky.social

The forces that seek to divide us, dull and blunt as they are, can be subverted by our wit and common feeling if we will it. What seeks to cast us asunder could yet pull us together ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1fsY

There are two types of people in the world: 1) Those who think Wes Streeting is popular with the British public. 2) The British public. Unfortunately, the former group includes most of our political class including, crucially, political journalists ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1f5G

'Whose Song to Sing?: A Memoir' by @benwildsmith.bsky.social is available now 📚

If the former Tory leader of Barnet Council recalls anyone in Welsh politics, it’s not the radical standard bearers of yesterday but parachuted-in placemen like Alex Barros-Curtis of Cardiff West and Torsten Bell of Swansea West ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1eUW

You can surmise that Farage doesn’t care at all whether his local party activists remain loyal or not. His plan is not to build support and eventually govern Wales but to use the party’s Senedd presence to generate headlines & create chaos✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1ezI

Upcoming events! Next stop on the 'Whose Song to Sing?' book tour is Mold Library! Join @benwildsmith.bsky.social in conversation about his brilliant debut memoir 📚 📆 17 February 📍 Mold Library 🕖️ 7pm 🎟️ Order your ticket here: www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/mol...

Out now! In ‘Whose Song to Sing?’, @benwildsmith.bsky.social offers an adoptee’s take on society as he struggles to carve out a space within it. As family life disintegrates, he seeks refuge in culture, always returning to the songs and stories of the Valleys, the gift of his adoptive grandfather.

📚 New Events 📚 @benwildsmith.bsky.social is on tour throughout the spring discussing his debut memoir 'Whose Song to Sing?', beginning with a launch at Waterstones Cardiff! 📍 Waterstones Cardiff 📆 5 February 🕖️ 7pm 🎟️ www.waterstones.com/events/whose...

One week to go! 'Whose Song to Sing: A Memoir' by @benwildsmith.bsky.social is publishing 5 February 📚 Pre-order now from your favourite local bookshop or via the link below! 📚 www.uwp.co.uk/book/whose-s...

If, as seems likely, Labour now careens through a series of damaging defeats. Starmer will surely be shown the door this summer. Control-freakery and weaponizing party structures can only get him so far ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1dtO

Family is part of anyone’s identity, positive or negative – we get no choice – but so is culture and community, and that, we can choose. Ben chose Wales, or Wales chose Ben – who cares which way round ✍️Desmond Clifford

After weeks of bellicose threats on the sovereignty of Greenland, including a couple against Iceland for good measure – it’s all walruses and Commies, what’s the difference – the retreat has started ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1dib

Nothing Trump is doing differs from standard American practice around the world, what’s changed is that he feels no need to fabricate justifications for it and he’s happy to include Europe as a target ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1cWo

Memoirs must be based on life stories of actual interest. That’s the starting point for Ben Wildsmith, and his story is interesting. Vivid and well-written, this history is sometimes vertiginous, but you’re never far from a laugh ✍️ Desmond Clifford

Watching Robert Jenrick badmouth all his mates and fall like a shot pheasant into Nigel Farage’s bulging game bag brought plenty of cheer to a dreary January afternoon ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1cLk

One of the paradoxes baffling anyone engaged with politics in 2026 is the enthusiasm with which those who rail against ‘globalism’ import political obsessions from abroad ✍️ Ben Wildsmith

Publishing 5 February, 'Whose Song to Sing' is a heartfelt collection of essays from @benwildsmith.bsky.social. Follow Ben's path from childhood privilege to addiction and despair, before the healing power of community offers a route to happiness. 📚 www.uwp.co.uk/book/whose-s...

Trump is now governing as a cartoon villain – nodding and winking to us that he has no ideological mission at all. ‘Ha! You thought we took Maduro because of drugs? Don’t be a child, we did it for the oil.’ ✍️Ben Wildsmith