A fresh voice for Llanelli

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We need to re-set the debate on farming

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Speech in the Senedd on 16th July 2025 Let me start with the obvious: Farming is hard. I am proud to come from a family of farmers, and I understand the vital role that farmers play. We need them, and we value them as key workers. Not only do they feed us, but they are an important part of our cultural mosaic, and at their best are stewards of our environment. I think it's important to re-state this because the debate around farming is in a bad place. It has become dragged into the culture wars. And those divisions are heightened through our political debate. I’ve heard my colleagues make the point that farming contributes less than 1 per cent to the GDP of the country. But that’s a bit like saying a washer contributes less than 1 per cent to the functioning of a tap. It may be true, but it misses the point. On the other hand, it feels like the main farming unions are fixated on a grievance narrative - and the opposition parties in this Senedd compete with each other to amplify it...
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Dysgu gwersi

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A note to members of the Llanelli constituency Labour Party There has been a big disagreement within Welsh Labour. There has not been a ‘witch-hunt’ against Vaughan Gething, but there has been a genuine conflict of values. Now there is an appetite to quickly move on, but I think there’s a real danger that in shutting down discussion we will neither understand nor learn the lessons of what has happened.  As uncomfortable as it will be I think we need proper debate about the future direction of Welsh Labour. Circling the wagons around a ‘unity candidate’ may bring some short-term relief, but it will do nothing to address the fundamental need to renew in office. I’ve not given any interview and don’t intend to, but as a way of making sense of it all I’ve written this assessment which looks at what should happen now and an analysis of how we got to this position.  These are offered in the spirit of honest debate and not point-scoring. Edrych ymlaen We’re in a pickle. After 25 year...
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2023 - 5 big changes in transport in Wales

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Changing direction takes you to a different destination... We ask our transport system to do a lot of things, but we’ve not asked it to make its contribution to our shared challenge of reducing carbon emissions. Indeed, transport is the sector that has contributed the least to the legal duty to cut emissions. Unless that changes we will not meet our overall NetZero imperative . It is difficult for any incoming Transport Minister to change much in the short-term - road and rail projects take upwards of seven years to implement, and the ongoing pipeline of schemes means that significant spending has already been committed and political expectations raised by the time a new Minister takes office. Though the political spotlight is inevitably on short-term problems, significant change is a longer term project. Over and above the day-to-day activity of keeping a transport system on track I have tried to focus on how to ‘change the wiring’ to secure medium to long-term change. For all its ch...
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