Sunday, April 12, 2026
Police review Reform UK energy prize draw
However, Nigel Farage has said he is “not in the least bit worried” electoral rules may have been broken by holding the competition after footage online showed him and Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick visiting the winners:
In a video posted on X, the pair could be seen handing a bunch of flowers and a large cheque for £1,758 to a couple, said to be Reform UK supporters, in Wigan on Thursday.
Asked whether he was worried the party may have broken electoral rules with the stunt, Mr Farage told reporters on Friday: “No, I’m not in the least bit worried.”
Party sources said many members had entered the competition so it was no surprise that a supporter won and that there was video evidence of the randomised draw taking place for legal purposes. It is understood the draw was open to both members and non-members.
A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police said: “We have received a report and are currently reviewing the matter.”
This is not the same as launching an investigation and it is unclear what potential offence is being looked at.
An ICO spokesperson said: “All political parties collecting personal information, including information for political campaigning, need to comply with data protection law.
“We’re in regular contact with political parties about how they use people’s data. We have spoken with Reform about this competition and improving transparency in how they handle people’s personal information.
“People who are concerned about how their information is being used by any political party can raise those concerns with the party, and if they remain dissatisfied can make a complaint to the ICO.”
The Electoral Commission said some activity designed to “incentivise voter behaviour” may be considered an offence, including “bribery and treating”.
“It would be for the police to consider the facts of any allegations made to them, in order to determine if an offence has been committed,” the watchdog said.
“Treating occurs if food, drink, entertainment or other provisions are directly or indirectly given to voters to corruptly influence how they vote.
“Bribery occurs when money is given, directly or indirectly, to induce a voter to vote or not vote. Any allegations should be reported directly to the police.”
Perhaps the police should also review this article, which reports that Reform are also offering “cash prizes” to its Welsh branches as a sweetener to entice members to canvas during the Senedd election campaign. Paying canvassers is also illegal. Is that what this is?
Saturday, April 11, 2026
Basque refugees in Swansea
Swansea University's history website reports that in May 1937, nearly 4,000 children arrived in Southampton aboard the Habana, fleeing the horrors of the Spanish Civil War. Among them were around 400 Basque children destined for Wales, a country with little direct connection to Spain but a growing sense of solidarity and humanitarian agency.
The author of this piece, Louise Miskell says that while many local communities rallied around the displaced children, the realities of welcome, integration, and eventual repatriation reveal a far more complex and often fragile response:
The bombing of Guernica in April 1937 sent shockwaves through Europe. Photographs of civilian devastation caused by German and Italian air forces supporting General Francisco Franco’s Nationalist uprising captured the attention of the British public. Although Britain maintained a policy of non-intervention, humanitarian efforts – coordinated by the National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief – led to the evacuation of Basque children from the Republican-controlled north of Spain. While the British government permitted their arrival, it did so under strict conditions: the children were to be maintained at no public expense and repatriated once it was deemed safe.
The decision to bring Basque children was politically loaded. These young refugees were not just seen as victims of war, but as symbolic figures in a broader ideological conflict. The press coverage in Wales reflected this tension. On one hand, local newspapers celebrated the children’s arrival in Swansea as a humanitarian act. On the other, reports were laced with assumptions about responsibility, worthiness, and social class. A South Wales Evening Post article described the children as ‘well-dressed’ and ‘polite’, implicitly reassuring readers that they were not only victims, but the ‘right kind’ of refugee.
In Swansea, the Basque children were housed at Sketty Park House, a Regency mansion temporarily transformed into a makeshift colony. Their arrival was chaotic – they turned up more than twenty-four hours ahead of schedule, prompting frantic preparations. Yet despite this, many locals responded with generosity. Fundraising efforts led by the Mayor of Swansea quickly raised hundreds of pounds. Volunteers offered clothes, books, and toys. The South Wales Evening Post carried images of smiling children, presenting a hopeful narrative of safety and second chances.
But behind the headlines lay deeper complexities. Personal testimonies from children and volunteers reveal the emotional scars carried from Spain. Rose Noriega, a local interpreter, described the children as ‘frightened’, ‘frail’, and haunted by the sound of aeroplanes. Another child recalled being assigned the number thirteen upon registration and crying out, ‘Nombre Malo! Nombre Malo’ (‘Bad Number’), revealing how superstition, fear, and trauma followed them into their new lives.
Louise Miskell says that despite efforts to integrate the children, the question of their eventual repatriation loomed large:
Originally promised to be temporary, their stay became increasingly politicised as Franco’s regime consolidated power in Spain. The Spanish Children’s Repatriation Committee, backed by pro-Franco elements in Britain, pushed for the return of the children – many of whom had no idea whether their parents were alive or where they were. Testimonies suggest serious safeguarding failures. One former refugee, Hermino Martinez, recalled how documents authorising his return were likely forged, and how his mother later confirmed she never signed anything. ‘They would have starved’ he said. ‘But her signature was forged’.
Even when genuine attempts were made to verify consent, the task was monumental. Families had often moved several times during the war. Some children were repatriated alone, met by no one at the border. Others were returned to guardians who had no legal or emotional claim to them. What began as a humanitarian effort ended, for some, in quiet tragedy.
The council's archive service has a lot more about these children here, including the story of how the mayor of Swansea, Richard Henry, launched the Swansea Spanish Refugee Children Relief Fund to help fund their keep.
It was estimated that to maintain the children for about 40 weeks the relief fund would need to raise over £2,000. To this end the mayor sent out 600 letters appealing for support and assistance.
Labels: lochist
Friday, April 10, 2026
The bleak prospects for our future cost of living
The paper says that Graeme Downie, a Labour MP who sits on the energy select committee, has warned it “will still take a long time for prices to return to normal” and the full impact of the crisis on the cost of living could be felt “until 2027/28 at least”:
His comments follow warnings from experts and industry figures that the two-week ceasefire – which is already in jeopardy as Iran threatens to cancel the deal over Israel’s attacks on Lebanon – is not long enough to see any benefit for the UK economy.
The price of Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, dropped on Wednesday as news of the ceasefire emerged, but it remains significantly higher than before the conflict and sustained high oil and gas prices will see the costs of fuel, food and heating rise.
Speaking to The Independent, Mr Downie, the Labour MP for Dunfermline and Dollar, warned: “This isn’t going to be a short-lived problem that will now go away. It will still take a long time for prices to return to normal and we need to prevent a rocket and feather situation – where prices have risen very quickly but only fall very slowly.”
He noted that the impact of the Strait of Hormuz being shut down before the ceasefire had hit the price of fertiliser, which means food costs will likely rise next year as the knock-on effects of production run through the agricultural system to the supermarkets.
“There have been delays to different products like fertiliser and you’ve got the damage to the LNG [liquid natural gas] plant in Qatar that’s knocked its production down and could take years to repair,” he added.
“I think the effects of this will be felt until 2027/28 at least.”
New polling by Ipsos UK has revealed that economic anxiety from the war continues to dominate the public mood, with 86 per cent concerned over the impact of the conflict on the price of fuel and energy, while four in five (80 per cent) Britons are concerned about the availability of fuel. Around three in five are concerned about the availability of wider goods, such as food, toiletries and medical supplies.
Mr Downie added: “It’s also brought into focus that our own energy security is not where we need it to be. I think this government’s taking a lot of the right decisions on grid upgrade, on renewables, on your home energy.
“I think we’re doing all the right things, but we need to move faster – what we have done helps us in the next crisis, not this one, because these things take time."
This war is going to have a much wider impact, but it is individual families who will suffer the most.
Thursday, April 09, 2026
Another leading Reform politician quits party
The news site says that former UKIP Assembly Member for South Wales West Caroline Jones told followers on Facebook on Tuesday (April 7) that she had quit Reform UK 24 hours ago but had not received any acknowledgment from senior party officials:
In a statement to Facebook she wrote: “It has been over 24 hours since I have formally submitted my resignation from the Reform UK party.
“After more than 13 years representing our community, this has not been an easy decision.
“I genuinely believed this party could bring the change Wales needs. Sadly, my experience and that of many others has shown that this is not the case.
“Over recent months, I, along with other dedicated members, have raised serious concerns about the way candidates have been selected in Wales.
“Local members who have worked tirelessly within their communities often at significant personal cost have been overlooked, while individuals with little or no connection to those constituencies have been placed into positions.
“This has caused deep frustration and disappointment among hardworking members, candidates and supporters who have given their time, energy and resources in good faith.”
She added: “Even more concerning, some of those parachuted into constituencies have brought further reputational damage through conduct that has been publicly questioned, including allegations relating to racism and discrimination.
“This has embarrassed many of us who have worked hard to represent our communities with integrity and respect.
“I formally submitted my resignation and raised these concerns directly. Nearly 24 hours later, I have received no response—something that has become all too familiar.
“This continued lack of engagement reflects the wall of silence that many of us have experienced when trying to seek clarity and accountability.
“I have made repeated attempts over time to seek honest answers from within the party, including writing formally and speaking to those I believed to be colleagues and friends.
“Unfortunately, I have consistently been met with silence.
“I have always believed in openness, accountability and respect for those who serve their communities.
“When those principles are not upheld, it becomes impossible to continue.
“I want to thank everyone who has supported me over the years. It has been an honour to represent you, and I remain deeply committed to our community.
“This decision is about integrity, and about standing up for what is right.
“I will continue to stand for the values we all believe in—putting people, community and country first.
“I remain committed to serving our community, veterans and anyone who needs my support.”
This is in fact the third time Caroline Jones has quit a political party founded by or led by Nigel Farage. She was first elected for UKIP as a member of the Welsh Assembly, now Senedd, from 2016 to 2018, but left the party to sit as an independent in 2018.
She then joined the newly formed Brexit Party group in the assembly, but quit again to sit as an independent due to disagreements with their anti-devolution stance.
She formed the short-lived Independent Alliance for Reform Assembly group in October 2020, serving as the group’s leader until the 2021 election, which she lost, before rejoining Reform UK two years later and more recently served as the party’s spokesperson for Bridgend.
What is it that people say about doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a differnt result?
Wednesday, April 08, 2026
Is Starmer facing another row with Labour rebels?
The paper says that in a move that risks a repeat of last year’s chaotic U-turn, which sparked questions over the prime minister’s authority, education secretary Bridget Phillipson said there “needs to be further reform to the social security system for people to get back into work”:
Last year, Sir Keir attempted to impose welfare reforms that would have saved around £5bn per year, but he was forced to U-turn on the majority of the cuts at the last minute following a furious revolt by Labour backbenchers.
The government was facing a humiliating defeat, with more than 120 Labour MPs having signed a rebel amendment seeking to kill the welfare bill.
There is now a growing expectation that the government will attempt fresh reforms in the autumn to slash the ballooning welfare bill.
Speaking to The Independent after the government lifted the two-child benefit cap this week, Ms Phillipson insisted that the move – which is expected to lift 450,000 children out of poverty – “shows the Labour government is on the side of working people”, but she also failed to rule out further welfare cuts at the next Budget.
The education secretary said: “All changes that we consider at a Budget will be taken and considered by the chancellor at that time.
“And of course, we do believe that there needs to be further reform to the social security system for people to get back into work.”
Whatever the government has planned, the timing of this intervention just before the May elections could well be unfortunate, especially with elections due in four weeks.
Tuesday, April 07, 2026
Brexit continues to impact businesses
The paper says that the data, revealed in response to a parliamentary question submitted by Liberal Democrat Europe spokesperson Al Pinkerton, shows that 2,051 haulage companies went bust between 2021 and 2025 – almost double the 1,068 that went bust in the five years prior:
It comes amid growing fears over spiralling prices and shortages as a result of the Iran war, with oil prices having soared in response to Iran’s stranglehold on tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The figures are expected to only get worse in the coming months, as haulage firms scramble to adapt to the full enforcement of the EU’s Entry-Exit System, with the Road Haulage Association warning that 80 per cent of operators expect a decrease in business.
Industry bodies have previously warned that the hit to the economy arising as a result of the new EES system – which requires UK travellers to have their fingerprints registered and a photograph taken to enter the Schengen area – could be as high as £400m.
The Lib Dems are now reiterating calls for the government to find a way for British HGV drivers to bypass this problem.
Europe spokesperson Al Pinkerton told The Independent: “The government must immediately secure an agreement with the EU to allow British hauliers to register biometric details away from the border.
“Failure to do so will have a catastrophic impact, not only for haulage companies who are unable to survive, but also for supply chains and a subsequent increase in food and goods prices for those already facing the effects of the soaring cost of living.
“Ministers must therefore also begin negotiations with our European partners on a customs union.
“A customs union is the single biggest lever the government can pull to boost business, deliver growth, and slash unnecessary Brexit bureaucracy. The government knows this, and it’s high time they do something about it.”
With Trump becoming increasingy hostile to the UK, and with supply problems growing because of his Iranian war, we need to move past Brexit and the restrictions it puts on business, and seek to rebuild a customs union.
Monday, April 06, 2026
The reality of Reform in power
The paper has spoken to residents, charities and local politicians to understand what impact the party had made a year after they took control of the council:
Reform ended a nearly 30-year Tory reign at Kent County Council (KCC) at last May’s local elections. Party figures promised it would be a “shop window” for how a Reform government could govern in Westminster and Mr Farage promised a "new dawn" in British politics.
But when The Mirror last week spoke to half a dozen people on the high street in Maidstone, Kent, not a single person could say how life had improved in the area. Eileen, 88, said: “Since Reform took over Kent County Council, it’s not been so good. Nothing gets done properly. The roads don't get swept, all things like that.”
Frank, 60, who lives in the area, said: “Nothing has changed. Nothing's got worse. Nothing's got better.” Paul, 70, added: “I can’t say I’ve seen a great deal of difference between the previous council - the Conservatives - to what it is now.”
Those working in local politics in Kent said the Reform administration has been combative, unconstructive and chaotic. More than half a dozen Reform councillors have either quit or left the party since last year’s election.
One of the most notable scandals involved a damaging video leak which showed Reform’s leader in Kent Linden Kemkaran swearing and telling her colleagues to "suck it up" in relation to her decisions on local government reorganisation.
Tory councillor Dan Watkins, who was unseated by Reform at a county level but remains a councillor at Canterbury city council, said Reform's management is the “worst approach” he has seen in seven years in local politics. He said: “Debate is being shut down. Individuals are being personally criticised in the chamber and the whole thing seems just performative for national politics and I think that's a real loss to local democracy.”
He accused local party leaders of engaging in “gesture politics” on issues like immigration - which is controlled by the national government. “What we have at County Hall in Maidstone is Reform just engaging in gesture politics and fomenting an aggressive atmosphere where the whole thing is set up to be about doing down your opponents and scoring some national political points rather than any constructive debate,” he said.
“This is how they run local government. Imagine the horror story that will materialise if they run national government. If it’s a shop window, it’s a shop window to a horror show, isn't it? I really wouldn't wish residents in any other part of the country to have to experience what we are.”
Alister Brady, a Labour councillor at KCC, echoed Mr Watkins’s comments on the culture at Kent, saying: “The leader of Reform would have an argument in an empty room - very combative and doesn't know how to bring people together.” He told The Mirror: “Since Reform took over at Kent County Council, there's just been chaos. It shouldn't be KCC, it's Kent Chaos Council.”
Mr Brady was highly critical of the council’s Department of Local Government Efficiency (Dolge) project, inspired by Elon Musk’s so-called DOGE unit in the US. The scheme - which seeks to cut wasteful spending - has faced a mountain of criticism over the last year.
Reform councillor Matthew Fraser Moat, who was in charge of it, resigned in February after he said the council "had not actually made any cuts" since his party took control. Referring to last June’s launch of the Dolge initiative in Kent - which was attended by national party frontman Zia Yusuf - Mr Brady said: “When Reform - the ‘Dolge’ people from Reform - rolled into Kent County Council, it was like a circus.
“They posed on the stairs. They said, they'll find all this waste, all this corruption…It was nonsense. What Reform do is they do things to get headlines and then you look at their actions and nothing really happens.”
Mr Brady similarly accused Reform of peddling “lies” throughout the election campaign in Kent, during which the party handed out leaflets saying it would cut taxes - before this year approving a 3.99% council tax rise. “They misled residents and I'm hearing on the doorstep that they see that lie,” he added. He also raised concerns that Reform is “overspending” at the council, which he claimed had led to a “very risky” Budget.
Broken promises when it comes to cutting people’s bills can have a real world impact. Rob Foley, charity manager Making a Difference to Maidstone, said pressure on his foodbank services has not eased since Reform came in. “Since Reform have been in, the strain on our services has been the same,” he said.
“I would say that they need to be given a chance. I know they've come in and they've started to look at savings and maybe that one year of looking for savings has been the priority. All I know is pressure keeps building. People keep needing it and we just keep trying to provide that restoration in their lives.”
Asked about Kent being a “shop window” for Reform in Westminster, he added: “If he's saying that Kent is going to be a shop window, then he really needs to sort that display out. Because at the moment, Kent hasn't changed.”
Those thnking of voting Reform on 7th May need to be aware of the party's chaotic record and the damage their can do to the bodies that they are seeling election to.
Sunday, April 05, 2026
The North Sea myth
The paper says that the Jackdaw field, one of the largest unexploited gasfields in the North Sea, would displace only 2% of the UK’s current imports of gas, which would leave the UK still almost entirely dependent on supplies from Norway and a few other sources. They add that the Rosebank field, also in Scottish waters but mainly containing oil, would displace only about 1% of the UK’s gas imports:
Tessa Khan, executive director of Uplift, the campaign group, which compiled the data from public sources, said: “New fields like Jackdaw and Rosebank would do vanishingly little to boost UK gas production. Even in the most optimistic scenario, and assuming none of its gas is exported, Jackdaw would provide just 2% of UK demand over its nine- to 12-year lifetime.”
It has already been shown, by authorities including the UK Energy Research Centre, that new drilling would not reduce oil and gas prices, or improve the UK’s energy security. It is also unlikely to produce durable jobs or major new tax revenues, as 90% of the UK’s North Sea oil and gas has already been burned, putting the industry in steep and irrecoverable decline. Companies are also demanding tax breaks to tap the new fields, which are harder to access than existing supplies.
But Ed Miliband, the secretary of state for energy security and net zero, is under pressure from the fossil fuel industry, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, some trade unions and the Conservatives to give a green light to Jackdaw and Rosebank, which are not covered by the ban on new licences for North Sea drilling because their applications were already in the system when Labour took office.
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor of the exchequer, has previously spoken in favour of drilling, though at the recent G7 energy meeting she emphasised renewable power as the solution to recurrent oil crises.
Miliband has not yet made a decision on either field, the Guardian understands, and is still mulling the potential impacts. The UK is likely to be among about 50 countries represented at a major climate conference later this month in Colombia, at which governments will make a start on plans to phase out fossil fuels.
The owner of the Jackdaw field, Adura Energy, has been asked by the North Sea regulator to respond to new questions related to the licence application, including on greenhouse gas emissions. That process could take weeks, if not longer, meaning no imminent decision is likely.
Any decision on the Rosebank field could be taken separately from that on Jackdaw. Khan said: “Rosebank is oil for profit, not our security. Its reserves – which, if burned, would see the UK breach its climate commitments – are predominantly oil for export. It has the potential to reduce the UK’s annual gas import dependency by just 1% on average.”
Philip Evans, a senior climate campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said: “Our fossil fuels are provided by a volatile global market which we cannot control, and is regularly upturned by reckless wars and blockades. The only path to real security is to leave fossil fuels behind as quickly as possible.”
Farage and Badenoch are pushing this agenda pretty hard as the solution to the energy crisis, however all the research shows that this is a myth. We need to build energy capacity so we are self efficient but this is not the way.
Saturday, April 04, 2026
The Kardomah Gang
Regular members of the Gang included poets Charles Fisher, Dylan Thomas, Bert Trick, John Prichard and Vernon Watkins, composer and linguist Daniel Jones, artists Alfred Janes and Mervyn Levy, the broadcaster Wynford Vaughan-Thomas, Mabley Owen and Tom Warner.
As Wikipedia says the café was located opposite the offices of the South Wales Evening Post newspaper where Thomas and Fisher worked. This was where the group drank coffee:
In a letter, dated 26 May 1934 to Pamela Hansford Johnson, Dylan Thomas writes about their first meeting in the Kardomah Café:
"I'm in a dreadful mess now. I can hardly hold the pencil or hold the paper. This has been coming for weeks. And the last four days have completed it. I'm absolutely at the point of breaking now. You remember how I was when I said goodbye to you for the first time. In the Kardomah when I loved you so much and was too shy to tell you."
In February 1941, Swansea was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe, in a 'Three Nights Blitz' Castle Street was just one of the many streets in Swansea that suffered badly; the rows of shops, including the 'Kardomah Café', were destroyed. After the bombing, Dylan Thomas came back to visit Swansea. He later wrote about the devastation in his radio play entitled Return Journey: “The Kardomah cafe was razed to the snow, the voices of the coffee drinkers - poets, painters, and musicians in their beginnings - all lost”.
The Kardomah Café reopened after the war in a new location in Portland Street, a short walk from where the original stood. The café's Castle Street site was originally the site of the Congregational church where Dylan Thomas's parents married in 1903.
Recollections of the cafe and people who met there were recorded by Fisher and are available at kardomahgroup.net
"My recollections of the place date from the year I started working for the Post (1934?) Dylan, briefly a reporter at the same time as myself, was in the process of leaving the paper and preparing his assault on literary London. (But he and I were in the habit of meeting there even before then, in Grammar School days (see: Bishop Gore School) when editing the school magazine was used as a pretext for cutting classes)" etc...
Labels: lochist
Friday, April 03, 2026
Ex -Welsh Reform candidate issues warning about his former party
The news site says that following the publication of an image of lead candidate and former Conservative aide Corey Edwards performing a Nazi salute, Pen-y-bont Bro Morgannwg candidate Owain Clatworthy announced on Tuesday (March 31) he was leaving Reform UK, citing concerns about the selection process used to choose the party’s top candidates for the May 7 election:
Clatworthy told the BBC the image, “really did it for me. I can’t support a party that would be happy to back something like that”.
Five of Reform’s Senedd election hopefuls have so far stepped down since the party unveiled its full slate of candidates a week ago.
On Wednesday (April 1) Clatworthy took aim at one of Reform’s top media performers in Wales – Torfaen councillor Jason O’Connell.
He has faced accusations in recent days from his own party members of being “parachuted” into the Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr constituency from outside the area.
In a post to X, O’Connell said Reform was gaining “momentum” in Wales adding that his party’s manifesto would put Welsh people first.
Clatworthy responded warning that O’Connell was not motivated by Valleys families – but by a Senedd salary and other “perks”.
He continued:
“Jason, like far too many others in Reform, is not motivated by the Valleys or your families.
“They’re motivated by the Senedd salary, the perks, the pension, the title, and protecting their own. Power. Money. Self-interest.”
A senior Reform UK source said the party was in the midst of a “civil war” and warned that further resignations by candidates were expected ahead of the May 7 election.
The source said: “At this stage it’s civil war. Welsh leader Dan Thomas hasn’t seemed to have intervened or done any leading at all, as chaos descends over the farcical candidate selection that was used by Torfaen’s David Thomas and HQ to place friends into winnable rankings.
“Owain Clatworthy is right – the whole party has become a careerist vehicle.”
Let's hope that the voters take notice when they come to choose who represents them.
