Brave New World

Pen Rhyddid

And lo, the sunlit uplands of a Brave New Wales are sighted in the distance. Ron up ‘Your Worth It’ of Cymru Tartan leading the valiant warriors of Cymru to a future free (or at least marginally less subservient) of the yoke of Westminster oppression.

Doing what those errant Scots did way back in 2007, demonstrating once again the slow pace of dawning understanding in the land of heaven.

The Faragists trailed a poor second, leading the opposition but far below their desires and expectations. The Plaid Cymru fans deservedly chanting ‘you’re not singing anymore’ from the home stands – the RUKers totally deserving of their fate, having gamified politics for all with empty rhetoric, hollow promises and a roster of failed incompetents.

Hat tip to the Conservatives, not only more than half a dozen seats, but in true conservative fashion, each and every one a returning incumbent!

Quite the achievement in a Senedd packed with new faces. Will they leverage their experience into influence and guidance for the RUKers?

Will they use it to sabotage their erstwhile allies on the right? Will they just kick back, relax, enjoy their fat wages and watch the show as the RUKers turn the chamber into a field of social media soundbites?

Great to see the return of the ever-entertaining wild card, Asha Ash Cloud too – what madcap antics will she deliver in this term we wonder. Likewise the inimical Andrew Pork Pie Davies, a man so hell bent on satirising himself that us satirists are to be pitied.

Welcome to the Greens! The dynamic duo of Rock & Slaughter, representing Cardiff, have landed in the Senedd for the first time ever, here to hold you to account, sing for the trees, lead the MS bike bus every Thursday and generally enjoy badgering everyone relentlessly. Bravo!

The Pointless Party of Jane Dodds is also back – the ghost of liberalism refusing to go gentle into that good night. Obstructing the rise of a new Welsh liberal force with its lingering odour?

Grief

And last, and least, the battered remnants of Welsh Labour – the few survivors of the Charge of the Labour Brigade who rode into their Valleys of Death now licking their wounds and wondering what the f**k just happened and what they’re meant to do now?

As they travel through the many stages of grief, (it’s been over 100 years of electoral dominance – it’s tough, we understand, poor dabs), as they watch the continuing Starmerama and whatever follows, where will they land?

They are a small but mixed bag, the old head Huw ‘I Rank Here’ Davies wisely off like a shot to make himself the new Senedd Llywydd, ‘My name is Mike’ Hedges bringing up the rear as ever, and two lost and lonely Young Turks, Shav Taj ‘Mahal’ – the shining golden palace of the future, and Huw (or perhaps Who? So little of his own personality has been allowed out whilst he has aped the old heads of Cardiff Labour’s Unionist wing in his earnest climb up the promised escalator of Labour in Wales – only to find it was in fact a slippery pole to which he now clings for dear life).

So it begins. Next up, Plaid fronting up to Westminster. Let’s ring the bell and see who wins round one. Will First Minister’s Questions be compulsive viewing on Senedd.TV? Will Reform in opposition be anything more than performative?

Scrutiny

Pen suspects that actual work, scrutiny and a real effort to understand the challenges Cymru faces may be beyond many of the RUKers, as well as a fair few of the other new faces across the party benches.

For some of those so vocally against the extra 36 Senedd members, they would do well to remember that the resilience gap has been added partly to accommodate the useless, the lazy, the feckless, and the plain ‘twp’ – if fat needs to be trimmed perhaps, they are the fat?

With more capacity comes more responsibility, will Plaid make its Round 2 the vested interests of Councils and public bodies across Cymru? Pen is here for it – that will be an even better bout to watch than the one with Westminster. Bring it! A reminder that in Cymru there are only 3.19 million of us and we all live within a mere 8000 square miles

Joyous times of interest ahead.

The Labour dragon has been slain and is no more.

Welsh politics just got proper interesting.