theo

This is a pretty scary statement. It seems like the Conservatives (the official opposition) see Reform as their opposition and are just trying to counter their policy by trying to sit further right. This seems bonkers to me and will only normalise this sort of discourse, also pushing other parties further right.

I do wonder if we had a voting system and parliament which encouraged party collaboration we would have such issues.

Good news! Reversing the mayoral and PC changes were just in the news last week! https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jul/10/ministers-propose-voting-changes-for-mayoral-elections-in-devolution-bill

Seeing as they are following in the footsteps of the Welsh voting reforms with this news, I would hope that if all goes well then they will follow with the PR changes too. Although looking polling at how Labour are expected to fare in the Sennedd, maybe they will consider it not in their interests.

I have also been pretty pleased with a Berghaus mac I bought a while ago. It survived about 10 years of near daily use (either on or scrunched in a bag). I have only recently replaced it with a Patagonia after the inner lining started disintegrating. Before that it kept it's waterproofness throughout many wet Welsh downpours.

This sounds like big news, but he lost his seat last election so it doesn't really mean much. Despite them repeating that they are the opposition to government, they still only have less than 1% of the total seats.

It is just for a council seat so I doubt Starmer's government has all that much influence on the candidate.

Sultana was elected as a Labour MP at the 2024 general election but was suspended not long after, and has since sat in the Commons as an independent.

Not sure if this is incompetence or an editorial decision, but this reads like she was only a Labour MP for a few weeks when in fact she was elected in the 2019 election. Kinda lessens the impact of her leaving.

Another well written piece!

Labour sold themselves as being able to create "a partnership in power" at the last General Election, but the whole dynamic is rigged. The way it is structured means that the partnership is similar to that of a parent and child. You can see Welsh Labour are wanting to create space between the two govs, but if push comes to shove, parliament can tell the Sennedd to sit on the naughty step and withdraw power.

I think the only way around this while keeping the union is for England to have their own devolved parliament. There can still be a UK-wide assembly, but this should operate similarly to the EU where each country can still have a fair bit of autonomy.

Despite what some idealistic people will say, independence will require a huge amount of bureaucracy to achieve which will dwarf that of leaving the EU.

I realise the Lib Dems are likely trying to put a wedge between the parties with this statement, but I am fairly certain they have been pushing for increase devolution which is a pretty similar viewpoint of Plaid at the moment.

I don't think I'm your guy haha. I do not have a ravioli bowl unfortunately.

I am not all that knowledgeable on the US egg industry, but wouldn't this mainly just the small scale farmers that would be struggling?

As it mentioned in the article, the large companies will have the leverage to raise the prices (article describes it as cartelization). And are then encouraged to keep the scale with compensation and I guess subsidies.

Been listening to Jamie xx's newish album In Waves. Got some pretty catchy beats.

Your song by HappyHappy reminds me of an American version of Crywank. Ironic having very contrasting names, but a similar kinda theme.

I have personally found that roads are nicer to walk along with people going slower, but I haven't necessarily noticed more people walking. I think part of the issue is the way that new housing has been built where it is still a significant distance away from the places you need to get to is still keeping people in cars.

I have not noticed any differences in the lighting, but the Welsh Gov did postpone all road building projects at a similar time, and for any smaller residential road building I would've thought the builders would want it to be low speed anyway.