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Now comes the hard part

 Published in Nation.Cymru on May 9th 2026 https://nation.cymru/opinion/the-campaign-is-over-now-comes-the-hard-part-a-former-minister-on-what-governing-wales-really-takes/ So, the campaign is over but now comes the hard part. If you think forming a Government is tricky, try running one in the age of the Polycrisis!         There are multiple crises all happening at the same time, and the Welsh Government has neither the levers, capacity, nor financial firepower to make more than a dent in any of them. But don’t worry, this is not a counsel of despair. It’s a case for focus.       I am neither religious, nor an addict, but during my decade in politics I turned more than once to Reinhold Niebuhr’s ‘Serenity Prayer’: ‘God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference’.        So, what can be changed, and what is out...
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A national plan to improve Tourette syndrome services

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Speech in Senedd on 21st January 2026 Tourette's is a complex and misunderstood condition.   And yet it’s a common one. It is a brain disorder that affects 1 in 100 people.  That’s a similar prevalence as autism, or childhood epilepsy, but it doesn’t get the same recognition - either from the general public or from the health service. If most people know anything about Tourette's at all, it's that it makes people swear and shout in public. And the excellent new Bafta nominated film, I Swear, which I would recommend to all, to some degree reinforces that stereotype. In fact the vast majority of people with Tourette’s do not have a compulsion to swear.  But as the film also captures they do suffer pain, anxiety and isolation. And yet people think Tourettes is funny. It's not. It causes great distress, and pain. Tourettes is not in itself a psychological condition, nor a behavioural one, nor is it caused by poor parenting.  It’s a complex neurodevelopmental conditi...
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