Mark Drakeford has been forced to correct the record after telling the Welsh Assembly he did not use WhatsApp. After it emerged yesterday that Welsh Government officials may have deleted their WhatsApp messages, he claimed had never deleted anything, as he didn’t use WhatsApp. Turns out the Welsh leader does in fact have the app…

Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies received a screenshot of Drakeford’s WhatsApp profile, prompting the First Minister to write a letter to Elin Jones, the Senedd’s speaker, saying:

“I have reviewed my exchange with the leader of the Welsh Conservatives during First Minister’s Questions (FMQs) yesterday (7 November) and I would like to clarify that I have WhatsApp downloaded to my Senedd-issued mobile phone. I do not use it regularly to send messages. I would appreciate it if the Record could be amended on this particular point.”

Oops…

A leaked document showing Welsh Labour’s plans to boost the number of female politicians has backfired, with a clause in the draft bill allowing biological men to qualify for female-only quotas without officials having the authority to question their identity. That’s certainly one way to increase female numbers in the Senedd… 

Drakeford’s minority government has been accused of “betraying” women by trying to sneak through the reforms, with Cathy Larkman from Women’s Rights Network Wales saying:

“It is astonishing that the government is spending public funds and using a Gender Quotas Bill to promote an agenda which undermines the rights of half the population of Wales. It is shameful that they are high-jacking legislation that should benefit women and increase female participation in political life, to embed a toxic and misogynistic ideology. It is unforgivable that the First Minister and his Government, aided and abetted by Plaid Cymru, intend to betray the women of Wales in this underhand way.”

A Welsh government spokesperson claimed the proposed model for quotas is designed to “maximise the chances of achieving a Senedd comprised of at least 50% women”. Opportunity knows no gender…

Jenny Rathbone called for GB News to be banned from internal TVs in the Senedd back in March because it supposedly broadcast “hateful views”. It looks like she’s finally got her wish – Senedd officials have censored the People’s Channel following a “recent broadcast that was deliberately offensive, demeaning to public debate and contrary to our parliament’s values”. Staffers and Senedd members have been told if they want to keep watching it they’ll have to do so online. This is the same institution which refused to fly the Israeli flag after Hamas’ terrorist attacks…

Mark Drakeford has come out in support of Nicola Strugeon’s incredibly controversial gender recognition bill and told the Welsh parliament he intends to copy the move, despite government lawyers threatening to block the Holyrood legislation. Responding to a question from Tory Welsh Assembly member Laura Anne Jones yesterday, Drakeford told the chamber:

“We will do as I’ve said; we will seek the powers, if we obtain those powers we will put them to work here in Wales and we will put proposals in front of this Welsh Parliament so that those people seeking gender recognition are able to do so in a way that is not stigmatised and does not involve them having to go through a lengthy medicalised route in order to establish themselves in the way they themselves would wish to see established.”

Responding to the proposals, a government source fires a warning shot at Drakeford, telling Guido that “bad legislation is bad legislation. Whether in Scotland or Wales.” 

Government lawyers are still poring over the Scottish bill, and Rishi is weighing up the various options between blocking the bill, involving the courts or merely refusing to recognise gender certificates in England that were issued in Scotland. Guido’s sure the people of Wales, experiencing strikes, a collapsing health system and a stalling economy, will be delighted that Mark Drakeford’s spending his time on this vitally important issue…

The Senedd is getting down to delivering on the key priorities of Welsh citizens, and top of the agenda: making sure the men of the Senedd are well-supplied in sanitary products. Men using the Senedd’s bathrooms in recent days have been greeted with the sight of free feminine hygiene products. The move was organised by the Senedd Commission Trade Union Side, with the products “provided free of charge for all those that need them”. Somehow Guido doubts they’ll be flying off the shelf…

Co-conspirators could be forgiven for thinking this is more likely to be a simple mistake than an example of woke excesses. Nope. They’re being dished out in bathrooms across the Senedd…

The Welsh government has copied the Scottish government in passing a vaccine passport law in the Senedd by a single vote yesterday. It’s now emerged that Tory MS Gareth Davies missed the session because he was at the party’s conference in Manchester. The new law will introduce mandatory vaccine passport checks (or evidence of a recent negative test) at large scale events and nightclubs across Wales. Apparently the Senedd had tried repeatedly to reach Davies leading up to the vote, yet “no one could get hold of him”…

Reacting to the news that he was, in effect, solely responsible for allowing the Welsh government to implement this law, Davies later said:

“[I am] working and representing the group at the Conservative Party conference and I would have been able to vote remotely if I’d have been able to access the remote voting tools […] I am deeply upset, frustrated and angry at last night’s events and my inability to cast a vote against vaccine passports.”

Unfortunately for Davies, Welsh Labour’s Health Minister Eluned Morgan has insisted the vote won’t be re-run. Time for Welsh co-conspirators to get their papers ready then…