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For those interested in Welsh politics & #devolution more generally, this is an interesting episode on the politics of governing in a system where (thanks to our quasi PR electoral arrangements) reaching across the aisle is not just a desirable practice, but of the utmost necessity #senedd

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‘My favourite quote on theatre is from American poet Anne Carson. She says, and she translates the Greeks, “Do you want to go down to the pits of yourself all alone? Not much. What if an actor could do it for you? Isn’t that why they are called actors? They act for you’ nation.cymru/feature/the-...

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My graphic showing cumulative change in the mass of reference glaciers around the world has now been updated with 2024's data. We are losing ice. Graphic available at: zacklabe.com/climate-chan.... More info: wgms.ch/global-glaci...

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Listeners to 'Y Pumed Llawr - The Fifth Floor' podcast may be interested in this exchange in the Senedd this week where the WG Perm Sec was asked a series of questions about it by Adam Price record.senedd.wales/Committee/14...

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"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help." - Ronald Reagan, 1986 The era of big government is over" - Bill Clinton, 1996 This is where 40 years of denigrating the role of public services gets you www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

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Very welcome move. The difference a Labour Government makes. In Wales, the @welshlabour.bsky.social Government introduced free school breakfasts in 2004 and completed the rollout of free lunches in primary schools in 2024.

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They’re trying to carve up Ukraine

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Please share this fact sheet on Ukraine with anyone who needs it understandingwar.org/backgrounder...

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It may not be cool or hip in some circles, but we legitimately do need a massive amount of people to run for office. Flood the school boards, councils, county seats, state legislatures, Congress, etc. Big changes at the top happen when the ground shifts at the bottom. And that can start now.

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Didn’t want the triple crown anyway, can’t even cook anything for dinner with it

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Daily reminder of who Musk is:

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Global crisis style note: What Trump is doing to Ukraine is not 'blackmail', which would be demand for payment under threat of exposure of compromising information*. This is demand for payment under threat of violence/refusal to protect from violence. The word is 'extortion'.

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I feel like we’re weeks away from seeing Trumpers do this en masse at a rally

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Just look at these paragraphs from the AP story. Hegseth called Brown unqualified solely because he's Black. Then they fired him... and replaced him with a white guy so indisputably unqualified that he requires a Presidential waiver. This is what "merit" means to them. apnews.com/article/trum...

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If you are interested in an insider’s guide to how politics and government in Wales works there are six episodes of a documentary podcast exploring the pressures faced on The Fifth Floor in Cardiff Bay podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/y...

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There's a reason for the Roman symbolism, he wants to be an dictator... www.newsweek.com/third-term-p...

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Jenny Rathbone has really added to the Senedd and the Labour group. A distinctive, principled, fearless voice for reform. Well done Jenny. Diolch.

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We faced horrible trade-offs last year because of Tory budget cuts. But a better settlement from the Labour Government has allowed us to repair some of that. More to do, but important step

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Julie James will be a huge loss to the Senedd, she has made a huge contribution. One of the highlights of my professional life has been working alongside her. She’s a phenomenal operator - profoundly principled, determined, un-showy, skilled and great fun. Take a bow Julie. And thank you.

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Jane Hutt is the longest serving Minister in the history of the Labour Party in the UK Her standing down marks the end of the first chapter of devolved government in Wales

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Some surprise amongst journalists that so many Labour MSs won’t stand in 2026 - I said I thought at least 1/3 would announce last October! youtu.be/VZbWZRaWIFY?...

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I think I’m late to this but this is a great Welsh news/media substack from @nwdls.bsky.social - well worth subscribing!

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Steve Bannon last night with a Nazi salute followed by the smug nod which says, ‘Yeah, we can do this in the open now.’

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COLLINS: “In 2023 you wrote in Putin is to blame like Al-Qaeda was to blame for 9/11 - Do you still feel that way or do you share the president's assessment that Ukraine is to blame?” WALTZ: “That was back when I was in Congress.”🤷🏻

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This to me is the most striking finding on the depth of UK support for Ukraine. We know there is strong support for Ukraine in general but the fact that it even persists traded off against maintaining relations with for the US is a testament to how deep that support is.

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Particularly pernicious because the intuition is half right. If you could just increase CO2 levels and keep weather the same, you would increase plant growth. Unfortunately increased CO2 does in fact affect the weather, and the climate loss to yields is bigger than the CO2 fertilization gain.

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

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If data and evidence is what you are after. Richard Owen and Phil Jones are running the numbers on the first 12 months of evidence from the Welsh 20mph default speed limit monitoring in this free lunchtime webinar next Wednesday (26th Feb) www.transportxtra.com/tx-events/27...

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Most of the people quoted here are Republicans afraid of death threats from their own party leader. www.vanityfair.com/news/story/t...

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Let’s take a moment to process this A ‘political party’ polling at circa 25% is ‘professionalising’ by changing itself from a Limited Company (registered with Companies House) owned by its leader to… …a non-profit limited company with directors as it ‘prepares for government’ 😳😳😳

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Please enjoy this letter, published in a 1962 issue of Jazz Journal, in which the author describes how he drunkenly harassed John Coltrane (This happened in Glasgow, because of course it did)

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Just in case people have forgotten, Trump has an abiding hatred of Zelensky for refusing to pursue Biden and his son, Hunter in an investigation Trump wanted opened in Ukraine, as he thought it would help Trump’s 2020 Presidential run. What you see now is spite

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In other words, a group of law-abiding citizens had their doors smashed in by the Border Force at night, because the Prime Minister wanted some "man of action" pictures for the telly. And this is regarded as a political "F-up", not an abuse of state power. It's like we learned nothing from Windrush

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NEW: I took a look at the power of regenerative braking in electric cars - and how it reduces particulate pollution from these vehicles! www.thereengineer.pro/p/how-evs-ef...

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"We do not need a foreign policy: we are not a country. Nor do we need a view on every occurrence: we are not a newspaper. The concern of a university is that opinions are reached on the basis of truth, reason & knowledge, which requires thinking & speaking with freedom" www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-02...

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A US judge explaining that Trump’s Executive Order’s assertion of an absolute binary of two sexes is just, factually, biologically, incorrect If this is news to you, read this. Learn something. The XX/XY stuff you learned in school was, and is, a gross oversimplification (Copied from a US friend)

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BREAKING: Keir Starmer has spoken to President Zelenskyy and backed him after Trump’s attacks. “The PM expressed his support for Zelenskyy as Ukraine’s democratically elected leader and said that it was perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during war time as the UK did during World War II."

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This is so profoundly anti-American one of our state flags is a half-naked lady killing a dude for it.

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Former 🇺🇸 ambassador to Russia 👇🏽

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There's been (inexplicably, IMO) some debate over the source of Reform UK's growth in Scotland (e.g. a few unionists claim that the flow to them is from the SNP). Looking at the latest polling, that very clearly isn't the case. The story is the total fragmentation of Scottish Labour's vote:

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A number of prominent UK Conservatives' statements about Donald Trump resemble one of those news stories that begins with a magazine feature about a new age mystic who believes he can talk to bears and ends with a newspaper article about a new age mystic being mauled to death by bears.

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The US State Department is forcing all of its employees to cancel subscriptions to any Trump-unfriendly media.

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This snippet of how honors are handed out in Simon Hart's diaries shows show daft the whole system can be www.thetimes.com/article/e25f...

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Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was formally charged with attempting a coup to stay in office after his 2022 election defeat in a plot that included a plan to poison his successor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and kill a Supreme Court judge.

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Looking forward to speaking at this important free lunchtime webinar on 20mph speed limits next Wednesday, 26th Feb. @waterslee.bsky.social

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The diversity of the Welsh senior civil service on display this morning

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One of the nice bits of the job, sponsoring and welcoming the Scouts Cymru / Welsh Centre for International Affairs Youth Parliament to the Senedd and talking about how decisions are made

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Listening to @senedd.wales Public Accounts Committee reference important insights provided by @waterslee.bsky.social & @willhaycardiff.bsky.social in their recent podcasts in questions to the Permanent Secretary of Welsh Government today. More good journalism increases scrutiny. Wales needs this.

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