Lewis Eldred

The Sala delle Carte Geografiche in Palazzo Vecchio, Firenze has a lovely map of the UK from the 1500s.

Fun shape for Wales 😵‍💫🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 at least they've included Ynys Môn

Quite enjoying the Italian double decker train experience 🚄🇮🇹 tickets are reasonably priced too!

Consultation Croeso “We’re launching this consultation in response to evolving global and national challenges facing the sport and the need this has created to take a fresh view on elite rugby in Wales to…

Anyone able to access the WRU's online survey on the future of professional rugby? There doesn't seem to be a live link on the consultation page yet...

ymlaencymru.com/consultation/

Media Nations 2025 Ofcom’s annual Media Nations report is for industry, policymakers, academics and consumers. Our main objectives are to capture evolving consumer behaviours and key trends in the media sector, and to s...

You can read the Wales report here: www.ofcom.org.uk/media-use-an...

@ofcom.bsky.social published their annual Media Nations report today

📺 In Wales people watched an average 5 hours 9 minutes of video content at home per day in 2024, the highest among the UK nations

📻 BBC Radio performs well in Wales, accounting for just
over half of total radio listening (50.8%)

Getting my first e-bike through the Cycle to Work scheme has been a game changer for me. Getting round my rural, hilly ward for meetings and events has never been easier.

There's been a big drop in the use of my car for those journeys that are less than 5 miles

NEW: Getting to net-zero will be much cheaper than thought for the UK – and unchecked global warming far more costly, says OBR

Quick piece / thread with 4 key charts showing, yet again, why climate action is far less costly than inaction

🧵

www.carbonbrief.org/...
1/6

🚨2 days to go!

With applications for our Trustee vacancies closing 10 July, hear from one of our outgoing board members, Kay Zdzieblo, about her time with Keep Wales Tidy💚

Apply now👉https://bit.ly/4n619oo

Ah Welsh rugby. A nations favourite omnishamble 🤠🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

The first officer of The Titanic sitting in judgement of other’s seafaring skills

BBC to launch new Generative AI pilots to support news production

www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...

Just came across this at the bottom of a BBC Wales article.

The pilot sees reports from the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) being put through a BBC-trained Large Language Model to produce a revised version, adhering to BBC style and tone.

Reading this week's Private Eye on the morning commute.

Bit depressing that the Daily Mail is consistently the most popular daily paper in Wales.

The Council's Health and Social Care Scrutiny Committee has recently done a task and finish review on the topic - democracy.carmarthenshire.gov.wales/documents/s9...

31.4% of children aged 4-5 years old are overweight or obese in Carmarthenshire, the highest levels in Wales.

Less than half of 73 schools in the county comply with the recommended 2hrs of minimum time for PE.

Very worrying.

Welsh Tory leader Darren Millar says he was shut down on grooming gangs Darren Millar says politicians tried to silence his calls for a Wales-wide grooming inquiry.

I have no idea what the Welsh Tories USP is ahead of next year's Senedd election. No Reform voter wants Reform-lite. They're so irrelevant that even Reform staffers aren't tracking their social media/policies.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

It’s Independent Bookshop Week!🥳📚

Picked up this lovely book about one of Wales' greatest politicians from Goldstone Books in Carmarthen this afternoon 🌹🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

#ChooseBookshop #IndieBookshopWeek

A lovely memory on Instagram this morning from two years ago 🤠🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

New research from @transenv.bsky.social finds that average bonnet height in newly-sold cars is increasing by 0.5cm a year, reaching 83.8cm in 2024, up from 76.9cm in 2010.

This increases severity of crashes & reduce drivers’ visibility.

www.transportenvironment.org/articles/eve...

New stations for north and south Wales in £445m rail plan Five new stations in Newport, Cardiff and Monmouthshire, plus upgrades in north Wales are on the cards.

After years of underinvestment in Welsh rail, this funding for projects is hugely welcome.

We need urgent reform in how funding is shared across the UK. The Barnett formula is outdated, unfit, and holding Wales back. We need a system that reflects our needs, ambitions, and future.

Quote card showing JRF Associate Director for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland Chris Birt saying 'There is much work to be done by both the Welsh and UK Governments, but the prize is a Wales where people are able to explore their potential and be free from hardship-something that is miles from reality for far too many people today.'

The two-child limit must be scrapped as quickly as possible.

👥 Better connecting communities, providing affordable housing and breaking down barriers to employment are also measures that will reduce poverty.

The end result could be a Wales free from hardship and hunger.

5/6

Looking forward to all the political hot takes of the day today. Devolution is cool, right?

The likes of Patriotic Alternative and Voice of Wales have been proudly advocating for the Reform candidate.

Extremely worrying.

Having been around Lliedi knocking doors over the past few weeks, last nights result is disappointing but not surprising.

The hangover of Stradey Park Hotel and the impact of UK Labour's Winter Fuel Allowance policy all played their part.

Interesting report from Ofcom on the UK's listening habits

🎧 Younger people more likely to listen to podcasts weekly (28% of 25-34s and 30% of 35-44s)

🎙️ Spotify and BBC Sounds leads the way on the podcast platform of choice.

www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and...

Not my circus, not my monkey etc. but it's interesting to see such a public debate of ideas in the Plaid Sir Gâr contest.

Holding on to Hope: Lessons from Community Britain We polled Britain on how they feel about their country and communities. This is what they had to say.

"Aligning with Reform on immigration would fail to recognise the fundamental finding of this report: what people crave is tangible progress in their community and further power at a local level to make it happen, tapping into what already inspires feelings of pride."

party.coop/community/le...

Natural Resources Wales / NRW steps up action in response to prolonged dry weather NRW steps up action in response to prolonged dry weather

🌧️ The three-month (February-April 2025) cumulative Wales rainfall was 59% of that expected for this time of the year.

☀️ Driest March since 1944

The realities of climate change are hitting home.

naturalresourceswales.gov.uk/about-us/new...

In charts: drought risk as England faces driest year this century Rivers and reservoirs are far below average — with the lowest levels in the north

on.ft.com/4mpQG71

In the year to May 13, only 225mm of rain had fallen in England and Wales, 29 per cent below the long-run average.

By this metric, 2025 has been the driest year since 1997 and the seventh-driest year on record since comparable data began in 1931.