Reform Senedd candidate mocked for blasting 20mph speed limit while standing on a 50mph road
Emily Price
A Reform UK Senedd election candidate has been mocked after blasting Wales’ 20mph “blanket” speed limit while filming a campaign video on a road with a 50mph limit.
Catherine Cullen – Reform’s second place candidate in Blaenau Gwent Caerffili Rhymni – disabled commenting on the video she posted to Facebook on Sunday (April 26) after facing ridicule from social media users.
In the clip, Cullen is seen wearing a blue jumper with bright heart shaped buttons walking alongside a road as she asked voters if they were “fed up” with seeing 20mph signs “all over Wales”.
However, in the footage a 50mph speed limit sign can be seen over the Senedd election hopeful’s shoulder.
Social media users flooded the comment section, questioning whether the video had been posted by a parody account or an actual Welsh election candidate.
Cari Tronic asked: “Is this a parody? This is satire, right?”
Danny Crudge wrote: “This is satire, right? Incorrectly spouting that Wales has a ‘blanket’ 20mph limit whilst standing in front of a 50mph sign?
“Instantly debunking their own claims in real-time? Slapstick comedy at its best.”
Morgan Gibbs wrote: “You are literally standing on a 50mph road 😂😂😂.”
Matthew Orton added: “Oh shit! This was real!?! I thought was something from Bo’ Selecta!”
Gail Lewis wrote: “Whilst standing in front of a 50mph sign!”
Sam Davies wrote: “Lol what the hell have I just had the misfortune to watch?? It’s genuinely like a sketch.”
Mark Whalley commented: “Bit silly talking about 20mph speed limits while standing in front of a 50mph one 🤣 slower speeds save lives!”
John Cook added: “The irony she has a 50 sign behind her. Perhaps they couldn’t find a 20…”
The next day, Cullen posted a comment to the video saying the responses had given her a “good laugh”.
She wrote: “Well I have to say everyone I did have a good laugh at these while having a cuppa and studying for my doctorate. Vote reform on May 7th.”
Cullen then disabled commenting on the post, preventing any new interactions from the public.
Alun Davies, Welsh Labour’s lead candidate in Blaenau Gwent Caerffili Rhymni said: “It’s typical of Reform. All mouth and no basic understanding or knowledge.
“If they can’t look at a road sign that’s sitting directly behind them then I wouldn’t trust them with anything more different!”
Petition
The Welsh Government’s 20mph policy sparked fierce controversy following its rollout in 2023, with a 460,000-signature petition calling for it to be reversed becoming the most signed in Senedd history.
But data from the first year of implementation showed that 100 fewer people were killed or seriously injured on 20mph and 30mph roads across Wales.
Welsh ministers hailed the scheme as the most successful road safety intervention in modern times.
Reform UK has made it a central pledge to scrap the default 20mph speed limit if they win the upcoming Senedd election on May 7 with Welsh leader Dan Thomas labelling the policy “stupid”.
The party says it would axe what it calls the scheme’s “blanket” approach, while retaining 20mph speed limits in higher-risk areas such as near schools and hospitals.
The Welsh Government has argued that the 20mph default is not a “blanket” policy because it allows for exceptions where local authorities decide certain roads should remain at 30mph.
‘Imprecise’
Senedd Members were previously warned not to use the word “blanket” when referring to the default 20mph speed limit in the Welsh Parliament’s Chamber.
It came after the Senedd’s standards watchdog Douglas Bain investigated a complaint against Welsh Conservative Andrew RT Davies over posts to his social media accounts branding the policy a “blanket” restriction.
Bain concluded that this description was “imprecise and inaccurate” and Llywydd Elin Jones later warned Members that she would intervene if the term was used in the Chamber.
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“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.” A little Kierkegaard for your Monday evening.
Thanks to NC for printing the comments and to those who left them. There was a glimmer of hope that this person who seemed devoid of the normal necessary human traits of the notions of shame, humiliation and embarassment harboured them in there somewhere shown by the disabling of further comments but it was shattered before that with a desperare show of bravado in trying to skew who is really having the laugh. I cannot match up ‘studying for my doctorate’ with this level of total muppetry.
It’s probably something to do with the “every road is 20mph” nonsense that still gets pushed around online, and people just not bothering to confirm what the policy actually was.
Of course, as was stated in the original policy, which people chose to ignore, some roads will be changing moving forward, with some increasing the speed limit but with other communities pushing their councils to change to 20mph on some roads due to the reduction in accidents and deaths on other roads since dropping the speeds.
To be fair, when I was 4 I used to mix up my 2’s and 5’s as well.
……. and these are people who want to lead the country?
What can be certain is that the only thing that’s slow is not the 20 mph default speed limit, but Reform’s Catherine Cullen. She’s as dim as a 2-watt lightbulb.
Is the 50 her I.Q. score?
I have already posted, but I feel that I must comment on the costs that keep getting thrown around. This has been covered in so many different places, but I’m specifically using figures published by BoltBurdonKemp, who are negligence and compensation solicitors in London. “The Department for Transport estimates the total societal cost of someone being killed on the road is just over £2.4 million. When a serious injury occurs, it is £271,000. Even a ‘slight’ injury results in a cost of nearly £21,000. This includes NHS costs, emergency services costs, bereavement services and compensation.” Even if you forget about… Read more »
I’m sorry that i have only given you your second uptick for this. You can post all day. You’ve done more than provide balance, you have jumped on the scales an BOING! Off go the ‘blanket’ burks into the stratosphere.
Thank you, I didn’t really want to post again, but felt it was worth it. People sometimes ask me why they should believe anything that I post, and my response is always the same: “I’d really rather that nobody believed me, I’d be far happier if you didn’t believe a complete stranger online and took a little time to investigate for yourself”. I feel the reason it happens is not new and is even understandable to a certain extent. As soon as something becomes “you have to do this”, I imagine the somewhat natural response is to be something along… Read more »
Still waiting for reform or Tory explained the issues with the 20. Apart from “ Labour, grrr”
Reform UK-led Kent County Council’s own website states “national and international studies show that lowering the speed limit from 30mph to 20mph reduces the number of casualties”. It goes on to say how 20mph schemes promote active travel which is “a very positive contribution to improving health and tackling obesity”, and that “there is also no significant increase in the time it takes to cross these zones. Many bus companies have found no difference in their journey times” So 20mph in Kent = good, but 20mph in Wales = bad. Sadly, Catherine Cullen is simply one square in a whole… Read more »
The reform candidates make clowns in a clown car look like enlightenment intelectuals. They are gonna to be a basket case similar to the UKIP 7 in 2016 but on a worse scale. Ignorance, stupidity, corruption, lies, a bunch of opportunist grifters. Literally the worst England has to offer getting paid to disrupt our parliament to destroy our social services, our culture, language, our democracy & countries reputation.
Is this the same Catherine Cullen who wrote in support of Tommy Robinson on her Facebook page a few months after being the candidate for High Peak?
If Little Britain did politics!
Reform rely on barrel scraping but these characters are beyond a joke. Whether they’re after the senedd £80k x 4 years lottery or trying to monetise their social media, we should have a minimum level intelligence threshold for anyone claiming governance.
There’s another down Neath way who can barely speak let alone think. As mentioned previously, instead of sitting at the back of class with the letter D on a pointed hat they now sit in front of their webcam with a pointed KKK hat.
Is this a remake of Alan Partridge?
The reason why this Reform candidate cannot find a suitable 20mph speed limit where it is un-justified is because the blanket imposition by Labour in-built up areas no longer applies. As a result of the petition (and pressure from other political parties in the Senedd) the blanket was changed to just a recommendation, with funding provided to local councils to revert stretches of road where it was silly back to 30mph. It was an ill-conceived imposition. A far better approach would have been what we have now. Am glad to see my council in Carmarthenshire, which is led by Plaid… Read more »
The policy wasn’t ill-conceived. The approach we have now is precisely the same approach the policy had when it was first introduced in September 2023 — the restricted default speed limit was reduced to 20mph, some roads were automatically exempted because of their strategic importance, and then councils were required to implement the change and to make exemptions where appropriate. Some held their own public consultations to this end. Unfortunately, a number of local authorities took this less seriously than others. As the review you mention is applied across Wales, some councils have adjusted a minority of their roads (some… Read more »
That is clearly not true. Not only was the legislation changed, my MS Lee Waters, the Transport Minister himself admitted it was “cack handed” and has resigned. It’s also not true that some councils took ‘exemptions’ less seriously. Many councils could not take advantage of the exemptions are the initial criteria was ill-defined and called on the Welsh Government for more time for consultations. It’s not just a matter of erecting a 20mph road sign, there are other considerations, impact on junctions, lines of sight, augmentation of the carriageway, previous road network plans and development zone to consider. The reason… Read more »
I noticed a few days ago that on average any reporting of Reform’s antics draws far more comments than reporting on other subjects often of greater importance. It seems that people are getting terribly agitated by the prospect of Reform saying anything yet we now know from experience that it’s mostly noise and very little content. So give it a rest folks and plan your lives for those times, soon arriving, when Reform won’t be here to bother you any more. Then you should be free to address the more serious issues that confront us as we continue to be… Read more »