The Welsh Government has spent £820 of taxpayers’ money on subscriptions to anti-Reform commentator and Guardian columnist Will Hayward’s Substack. The cash is going on a multi-user subscription held by the Welsh Government press office since 1 October 2024 supposedly for “media monitoring purposes”…
Hayward spends his time attacking the opposition party with articles like “How to stop Reform in Wales” and “Reform are treating Wales as a joke.” You get the picture…
Hayward isn’t the only Reform-sceptic outlet on the Welsh taxpayer’s books: Nation.Cymru has been propped up by public grants routed through the Books Council of Wales. It was awarded £20,000 a year for four years from 2020, plus one-off grants of £42,000 and £7,200. It also got £9,400 from a fund paid for out of the Welsh Government’s Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru. A fresh grant for 2024 to 2028 is worth £25,000 a year. That adds up to around £200,000 since 2020…
A Reform Wales spokesman attacked the Hawyard spending:
“Welsh taxpayers shouldn’t be paying for Plaid Cymru to get its weekly Will Hayward fix. Plaid Cymru should cancel the subscription and stop making taxpayers bankroll its favourite blogger.”
Incidentally Welsh government officials who are interested in monitoring explosive political news outlets can subscribe to Guido at order-order.com/membership…
The final conference of the season. The Tories are in Birmingham…
MAIN SPEECHES
The set pieces are in Symphony Hall, with policy sessions on the main stage in Hall 5.
Sunday
2pm. Welcome to conference, Alex Burghart and the Scottish and Welsh leaders on the Union, then Kemi Badenoch. Symphony Hall.
Monday
9:45am. Andrew Bowie on energy.
10:30am. Richard Holden on transport.
11:15am. Damian Hinds on AI and the NHS.
12:15pm. Andrew Griffith, Helen Whately and Laura Trott on getting people back to work.
2pm. Griffith, Richard Fuller, Katie Lam and Julia Lopez on the economy. Symphony Hall.
Tuesday
9:45am. Katie Lam on local government, billed as “the frontline of Burnham’s agenda”.
10:30am. Laura Trott on school standards.
12pm. Rebecca Paul on Great British fashion.
2pm. Burghart, Tom Tugendhat, James Cartlidge and Helen Whately on defence. Symphony Hall.
Wednesday
10am. Kevin Hollinrake on going “From Party to Movement“, then Chris Philp and Nick Timothy on borders and crime. Symphony Hall.
Then Kemi’s speech.
WHERE TO GET DRINKS
Sunday
3:30pm is the CWO welcome drinks.
4pm. The Spectator’s Coffee House Shots welcome reception.
5:30pm is the Local Government Drinks Reception, with the CCA Awards.
6pm is the Gibraltar reception.
6pm. CCHQ Alumni drinks. A big room, after 2024…
6pm is the Eastern & Midlands Reception.
6:30pm. Conservative Friends of the NHS champagne reception.
7pm. The party’s pub quiz.
7pm. Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) Drinks Reception.
7pm is the Rally for Hospitality, with Andrew Griffith.
8pm. Politico’s ‘Speakeasy’
8:30pm. Countryside Alliance and Conservative Rural Forum drinks, with Victoria Atkins.
8:30pm is the Welsh Conservatives reception.
9pm is the Northern Reception.
9.30pm. 1922 Committee & ConservativeHome Reception. Invites needed…
10pm. Britain Remade drinks, with Katie Lam.
Monday
5pm. Centre for Government Reform x LFG reception.
5:30pm is Business Day drinks.
6pm. CEN’s big pub quiz.
6pm is the ConservativeHome Pride Reception.
6pm. Telegraph’s drinks.
6pm is the Southern Reception.
7pm. Exhibitors’ drinks in the Blue Room. Invited guests only.
7:30pm. is the Onward Reception, with Alex Burghart.
7:30pm. Young Conservatives at Barbara’s Bier Haus. Open bar, DJ, MPs and a photo booth. In that order of appeal…
7.30pm. UK Music/TikTok party.
7:45pm. More in Common reception.
8:30pm is the Conservative Friends of Israel reception.
8:30pm. Prosper UK, with Andy Street and Ruth Davidson.
8:30pm is the CBI business reception, with Griffith.
9pm is the London Reception.
9pm is the GB News ‘Celebrate Britain’ party. Invites required…
9pm. The Silent Disco.
9:15pm is the Total Politics reception.
9:30pm. AQA’s Gin Parlour at The Distillery.
10pm. Green Groups Reception.
10pm. Sky News reception. Invites, invites, invites…
11pm. The TaxPayers’ Alliance, with Griffith again, the TRG Midnight Reception and the councillors’ late-night do.
Tuesday
1pm. The EU Ambassador’s Reception. At Tory conference…
4:30pm is the Conservative Friends of Pakistan reception, with James Cleverly.
5:30pm. Small Business Day drinks.
6pm is the Street Party.
6pm. Irish Ambassador’s drinks.
7pm is the Conservative Friends of India reception, with Chris Philp.
7:30pm. The House magazine’s reception.
8pm is the Adam Smith Institute’s Rally for Liberty, with Philp.
10pm is The Spectator’s bash. Invites required…
The rest of the information can be read below:
Continue reading “Who to Meet, Where to Drink – Tory Conference 2026”
Tobacco Duty rose by a whopping £1.21 on a packet of 20 cigarettes yesterday. Bad news for all puffing co-conspirators…
Factory-made cigarette duty jumped from £353.50 to £394.09 per 1,000 – an 11.48% increase – while hand-rolling tobacco is being whacked with an even bigger hike, rising from £503.80 to £574.30 per kilo. Even the right-on luvvies of the FT thought it was a bad idea…
As the pink’un related, a decade after Australia began its crackdown on smoking, tax now makes up 70% of the price of legal tobacco – proportionally the most expensive in the world. The result? 8.5 billion Australian Dollars is now spent on illegal cigarettes each year, with 80% of tobacco on the black market – fuelling organised crime linked to more than 300 firebombings and three murders. Does not bode well for Burnham’s pledge to clean up the high street…
The Australian Bureau of Statistics said in June that the quantity of nicotine consumed in Australia increased by almost 40% between 2017 and 2025. So Labour-style tax hikes have actually seen consumption rise…
Entries in the comments…
No10 North is not yet escaping allegations that it is a vanity project. The government is now hiring for a front of house manager there…
For £49,458 the postholder “will be the primary Front of House and event operations presence at No10 North and the key contact for hospitality, visitor experience and on-site event delivery. They will play an important role in representing the Prime Minister’s Office in Manchester and ensuring activity at No10 North is delivered to the highest standard.” It’s all about the visitor experience…
Requirements include taking “a leading role in organising ministerial events held at No10 North, including roundtables, bilateral meetings and intimate receptions,” supporting “media activity in No10 North including supervising visiting media,” and preparing and serving “refreshments for ministerial and senior stakeholder meetings.” How intimate are we talking?
The Cabinet Office has recently hired a media SpAd for No10 North as well as new videographers. There was also recently a briefing that No10 North would be bringing in its own resident cat. Unfortunately no amount of polish can prevent the repercussions of the PM’s own words…
Kemi Badenoch at the 1922-ConHome bash last night:
“I did praise [Burnham] for his stamina, it was amazing. All I had to do was sit back and lie there. I didn’t have to do anything at all…”
