Dafydd Trystan

Van (Caerphilly) Council By-Election Result:

🌼 PLC: 43.3% (-1.9)
➡️ RFM: 28.5% (New)
🌹 LAB: 26.8% (-28.0)
🔶 LDM: 1.4% (New)

Plaid Cymru GAIN from Labour.
Changes w/ 2022.

Two things that strike me i) this late on, you'd only do this if you think you are losing, ii) in all likelihood underestimating the Green candidate ... [PS been convinced all along that Caerffili dynamics would see Labour come home in third place ...]

Fishguard North East (Pembrokeshire) Council By-Election Result:

🌼 PLC: 33.8% (New)
🔶 LDM: 18.0% (New)
➡️ RFM: 12.7% (New)
🌹 LAB: 11.1% (-47.9)
🙋 Ind: 10.5% (New)
🌳 CON: 9.2% (-31.9)
🙋 Ind: 4.7% (New)

Plaid Cymru GAIN from Labour.
Changes w/ 2022.

There doesn't need to be reform branding on the letter - BUT - there must be an imprint (could be in fairly small font) setting out that its printed on behalf of reform. The Returning Officer I'd assume would stop any further distribution of this

Welsh higher education is running out of wriggle room Jim Dickinson gets across a candid Welsh Government document that identifies problems that others are less willing to confront – from market redistribution to the graduate brain drain Jim Dickinson ge...

Hanfodol i bawb sydd hefo ddiddoreb mewn addysg yng Nghymru - yn wir, i bawb hefo diddordeb yn ein dyfodol fel cenedl.

Essential reading for anyone interested in education in Wales or, indeed, the country’s future more generally.

wonkhe.com/blogs/welsh-...

Welsh higher education is running out of wriggle room Jim Dickinson gets across a candid Welsh Government document that identifies problems that others are less willing to confront – from market redistribution to the graduate brain drain Jim Dickinson ge...

'Howells’s department has published the actual substance – 60 pages of analysis, data, and, unusually for these things, genuine honesty about the constraints the system is operating under.' 1/2

I'm not quite sure whether I'd go as far as Rob Ford, but this would be a pretty remarkable result (and I say that as one of the potentially 46 according to this prediction) ...

"Pam y sefydlwyd Plaid Cymru?'

Mae testun fy narlith - sef Darlith Flynyddol Archif Wleidyddol @librarywales.bsky.social - bellach arlein os oes rhywun ffansi deunydd darllen dros y Nadolig?!

www.llyfrgell.cymru/fileadmin/do...

Disgybl o Wcráin ymhlith llysgenhadon newydd y Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol “Fel person o Wcráin, dw i’n deall sut mae’n teimlo pan mae eich iaith dan fygythiad”

Disgybl o Wcráin ymhlith llysgenhadon newydd y Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol

“Fel person o Wcráin, dw i’n deall sut mae’n teimlo pan mae eich iaith dan fygythiad”

✍️ Efa Ceiri

Voting intention If there were a general election held tomorrow, which party would you vote for?

Yougov publish their (small) Welsh sub-sample along with other voting intention data every week ... if you look specifically at Wales you get a very clear sense of the battle looming between Plaid and Reform for first place yougov.co.uk/topics/polit...

£16 billion of investment announced at Wales investment summit Wales is set for a major economic boost with more than 10,000 jobs and billions of pounds invested in projects from 5G networks to green energy. Global companies are betting on Wales and its future.

nation.cymru/news/16-bill...

I'm always fascinated by big numbers ... £16bn is a very big number on Welsh investment; and I had a briefing on one aspect of it a little over a week ago from Vodafone (some £600mn), but the figure that stands out is £10bn from Vantage Data Centres (4 times the size of Wylfa???). Any ideas?

£16 billion of investment announced at Wales investment summit Wales is set for a major economic boost with more than 10,000 jobs and billions of pounds invested in projects from 5G networks to green energy. Global companies are betting on Wales and its future.

nation.cymru/news/16-bill...

wales came close earlier this year to a Coucil Tax reform including both lower and higher bands ... not a million miles from the Reeevs plan, but as part of Council Tax ...

This is very welcome news ... having promoted this as a low cost - high return boost for walking safety, and seen the results of the pilot in Llandaf N - this is great news.

Module 2, 2A, 2B, 2C Report - Core decision-making and political governance UK Covid-19 Inquiry Archives A report by The Rt Hon the Baroness Hallett DBE, Chair of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry on the core decision-making and political governance, dated 20 November 2025.

For fans of devolution *and* once in a century global pandemics, the Covid-19 inquiry has published its Module 2 report - focussing on decision making by each of the UK’s 4 govts as well as the intergovernmental coordination that occurred #holyrood #senedd #stormont #devolution #covid19

Helsinki just went a full year without a single traffic death The capital city is Finnish’ed with car-related fatalities.

“Helsinki hasn’t registered a single traffic-related fatality in the past year…Citing data that shows the risk of pedestrian fatality is cut in half by reducing a car’s speed from 40 to 30km/hr, city officials imposed the lower limit in most of Helsinki’s residential areas & city center in 2021.”

A point I've wanted to make in print for a while but hadn't got around to: 'Freebiegate' was a revealing scandal because if Labour had properly modernised in office, they would have had a modern anti-gifting policy.

Dim clem ... a dwi ddim yn croesawu fod y sawl sy'n rhedeg Prydain yn gwbl ddi-glem!

this is such a grim story. I hope B and all the family are getting the care and support they need.

Wales’ new ambulance strategy is cruel and distressing for patients and those dialling 999 Emily Price Call handler: “Ambulance, is the patient breathing?” It’s early on a school day and my worst fears have happened before my eyes. My 11-year-old daughter has collapsed in front of me. B had...

It was clear my 11-year-old daughter was seriously ill when she collapsed on Friday.

And yet, she wasn’t entitled to an ambulance when I dialled 999.
nation.cymru/opinion/wale...

The Anthracite Strike of 1925 Event Location: Ammanford Welfare Hall, 11 Wind St, Ammanford SA18 3DN Event Date: 25/10/2025 Event Starts: 25/10/25 10:30 am Event Ends: 25/10/25 04:00 pm Join Llafur and our guest speakers to explore the 1925 anthracite strike and its legacy a hundred years on. Speakers – Aled Eirug, Robert Smith, Ioan Matthews, Bill Jones and Sian Williams.

Join Llafur and our guest speakers to explore the 1925 anthracite strike and its legacy a hundred years on!

📆 25/10/2025
⏱️10:30-16:00
📍Ammanford Welfare Hall

🎟️Free tickets: tinyurl.com/anthracitest...

Release of Wales-only prison data will “enhance transparency and scrutiny of the Welsh criminal justice system” Dr Robert Jones welcomes move by Ministry of Justice after years of campaigning

NEW: The UK Govt's Ministry of Justice begins routinely publishing Wales-only prison data for the first time following a decade of research exposing issues in the Welsh criminal justice system by Dr Robert Jones. 1/3
www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/29...

Excellent thread 🧵

Active travel really is a public health issue rather than a transport issue.

The personal and societal benefits from being more active is immense and we need to make it much easier and pleasant.

It's also not about sport, but just being active & walking or cycling when we can.

Watching Caerphilly: Welsh byelection may be bellwether for political transformation in UK Plaid Cymru and Reform are polling above Welsh Labour in race for Senedd seat experts say may be ‘canary in the coalmine’

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Trowbridge (Cardiff) Council By-Election Result:

➡️ RFM: 39.6% (New)
🔶 LDM: 23.6% (+15.9)
🌹 LAB: 21.3% (-31.1)
🌼 PLC: 7.7% (New)
🌳 CON: 3.1% (-14.8)
🌍 GRN: 2.3% (New)
🐉 PRO: 2.2% (-4.5)

No PC/G (-12.5) or TUSC (-2.7) as previous.

Reform GAIN from Labour.
Changes w/ 2022.

Welsh Westminster Voting Intention:

RFM: 29% (+5)
PLC: 23% (-1)
LAB: 18% (-2)
CON: 11% (-2)
LDM: 9% (=)
GRN: 7% (=)

Via @yougov.co.uk, 4-10 Sep.
Changes w/ 23-30 Apr.

Latest ITV BarnCymru 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 poll confirms trend seen over last 6 months - neck and neck race between Plaid Cymru and Reform UK for largest party, with Labour falling to even more distant third. Evidence growing of distinct realignment in Wales 🧵

*way

Still can't orient myself propely on this ... which was is it facing ... and I've tried from Mill Lane or the train tracks but still can't work it out ... which speaks to your point!