Navarian

Sir Keir Starmer, the UK’s new prime minister, brings an impressive CV: barrister, former director of public prosecutions, and ex-shadow Brexit secretary. An establishment insider who knows his way around the corridors of power, he is no stranger to leadership. But that does not necessarily make him a good leader, nor even indicate his potential to become one. Being a member of a privileged elite might land you a plum job, but it does not make you good at it.

Our ancient Welsh forebears knew this well, telling stories to expose bad and promote good uses of power, as my research has shown. Starmer could do a lot worse than to read the Four Branches of the Mabinogion from Welsh mythology during his first few weeks in office. From those skilfully fashioned tales of lordship, he might learn a lot about how to conduct himself as head of government. And, crucially, how not to.

Wales First Minister Vaughan Gething has insisted he is getting on with the job, despite a continuing row over his sacking of a minister and criticism of controversial donations to his leadership campaign.

He said there was evidence a photograph of Hannah Blythyn's phone had been sent to a website which published the story that triggered her dismissal.

Nation.Cymru used the picture to reveal that Mr Gething had said he was deleting messages from a chat group full of ministers in August 2020, during the pandemic.

Campaigners have called on the Welsh Government to ensure plans to create a new national park in the north-east of Wales will protect and enhance the special landscape there.

A joint statement led by Campaign for National Parks has been released ahead of an expected public consultation on proposals this autumn.

It’s been signed by 18 campaigners including Alliance for Welsh Designated Landscapes, RSPB Cymru, WWF and National Trust.

The organisations have called for high ambitions for the proposed area with a supporting framework that will enable a new national park, the first to be designated in Wales in over 60 years, to be an exemplar in the UK.

A number of Labour Senedd Members called on Vaughan Gething to resign during an acrimonious “away day” meeting in Cardiff, we have been told.

Mr Gething’s future hangs in the balance, with bitter divisions between his loyal band of supporters in the Senedd Labour group and those who believe the scandals he is embroiled in will not go away and would prove disastrous for Welsh Labour if he is still First Minister at the time of the next Senedd election in May 2026.

A recent poll undertaken by Beaufort Research for NationCymru showed that nearly 70% of voters in Wales believe he should not have accepted donations totalling £200,000 for his party leadership campaign from a waste company owned by David Neal, a Cardiff businessman who received two suspended prison sentences for dumping toxic sludge in the protected wetland landscape of the Gwent Levels. Mr Gething had lobbied Natural Resources Wales on Mr Neal’s behalf, asking the environmental regulator to go easy on his company.

A number of Labour Senedd Members called on Vaughan Gething to resign during an acrimonious “away day” meeting in Cardiff, we have been told.

Mr Gething’s future hangs in the balance, with bitter divisions between his loyal band of supporters in the Senedd Labour group and those who believe the scandals he is embroiled in will not go away and would prove disastrous for Welsh Labour if he is still First Minister at the time of the next Senedd election in May 2026.

A recent poll undertaken by Beaufort Research for NationCymru showed that nearly 70% of voters in Wales believe he should not have accepted donations totalling £200,000 for his party leadership campaign from a waste company owned by David Neal, a Cardiff businessman who received two suspended prison sentences for dumping toxic sludge in the protected wetland landscape of the Gwent Levels. Mr Gething had lobbied Natural Resources Wales on Mr Neal’s behalf, asking the environmental regulator to go easy on his company.

Many, including media pundits, make false claims about Welsh independence and Wales as an EU member. Here are the facts of the matter

"Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much." Those words by Helen Keller are as true about politics as they are about life itself.

Rishi Sunak cut a lone figure on that wet Wednesday in May. He called that shot alone, and was then rejected by the country and was unable to stem the revolt of his party.

Only 18 months previously, behind the same lectern in Downing Street, he had promised to ‘unite our country - not with words, but with action’.

How hollow that promise proved to be. Divided parties don’t win elections, as the old adage goes.

The Welsh Government has made history by committing to outlaw political deception. In a move heralded by campaigners as a significant development in the fight to restore faith in democracy, the government confirmed that it will introduce legislation before the next Senedd election in 2026 to ban candidates and members of the Welsh Parliament from deliberately lying to the public.

The move follows the tabling of an amendment by Welsh MS Adam Price to create a criminal offence of political deception. The proposal had previously won the backing of the Welsh Conservatives, Plaid Cymru, and the Welsh Liberal Democrats but was originally opposed by the Welsh Labour government.

A former Labour minister has broken her silence over her sudden sacking by Vaughan Gething in May.

In a dramatic statement, Hannah Blythyn told the Senedd she has never leaked to the media.

The first minister had alleged that she was the source of a story which revealed Mr Gething told ministers he was deleting messages from a pandemic-era group chat.

But the Labour Member of the Senedd (MS) for Delyn said she was not shown any evidence before she was sacked, was not told she was being investigated, and that the situation left her with acute anxiety and stress.

A company in the group that donated £200,000 to Vaughan Gething’s leadership campaign is under investigation for the second time following the death of a worker on its premises.

South Wales Police and the Health and Safety Executive are investigating the death of a man following an incident at the Atlantic Recycling site in Cardiff.

At approximately 12.45pm on Monday, July 8, emergency services were called to a report of an injured man at the site on Newton Road, Rumney.

The man died of his injuries and his family were informed.

A former newspaper editor was publicly harassed and falsely accused by far-right activists of stealing money from a campaign fighting fund as he walked with his wife through the centre of their home town.

Rob Lloyd, who used to edit the Llanelli Star and the Carmarthen Journal, and his wife Carol were surrounded by members of UKIP and intimidated as they attended the Ymlaen Llanelli 80s Festival.

Among the hostile group were the party’s local general election candidate Stan Robinson, who lost his deposit after winning less than 1.5% of the vote, and Dan Morgan, a convicted fraudster with whom he broadcasts a far-right video blog called the Voice of Wales.

The expansion of Craig yr Hesg quarry in Glyncoch, to which there has been widespread opposition locally, was discussed in the Senedd. Plans to extend the time and area of quarrying were initially rejected by Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT) Council’s planning committee after hundreds of residents objected to them.

But both aspects were allowed on appeal by an inspector from Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW) in 2022, a decision the minister supported at the time.