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…
The Welsh government is paying out £9 million in taxpayer cash annually for woke jobs. The Taxpayers’ Alliance have uncovered data revealing that in 2022, a total of 138 posts in the Welsh Government featured words ranging from “diversity” and “inclusion” to “climate“, “wellbeing“, and “race“. A whopping 25 staff are employed in roles mentioning “equality“. The total cost of these, including salary and pension contributions, was £8,879,479. Drakeford’s gravy train rolls on…
Conor Holohan at the TPA said:
“Hard-pressed taxpayers in Wales expect their cash to be focused on key services, not on an in-house team of race and gender campaigners.“
Guido wasn’t aware the Welsh government contained anyone else…
UPDATE: Welsh Tory leader Andrew RT Davies tells Guido: “Under Labour, Wales has longer NHS waiting lists than England. But instead of tackling the problem, Labour waste their time virtue signalling“.
Mark Drakeford’s new 20mph speed limit has gone down like a cup of cold sick over in Wales. In fact, it’s gone so badly that a whopping 445,130 people have signed a petition calling on Welsh Labour to “rescind and remove the disastrous […] law“. The Senedd Petitions Committee has to consider all petitions that get more than 10,000 signatures. They’ve just about passed that threshold…
In fact, there’s another milestone the petition has now passed: it now has more signatories than the total number of people who voted for Labour in the 2021 Senedd election (443,047). Implementing the new limit reportedly cost around £33 million, and will whack the economy by up to £9 billion. You’d think Mark would pump the brakes. He’s still going full speed ahead…
According to an FOI request, the Welsh Government has spent £440,082 of taxpayer cash on insects as an alternative food source. Of this, £349,960 was awarded in January 2018 to fund insect-based food for children. The “alternative protein”, called VeXo, was offered to children aged 5-11. It is said to look like mince and contains a combination of insect and plant-based proteins.
Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for Education, Laura Anne Jones, was bugged by the revelation. She said:
“To learn that Labour have wasted more than £400,000 in providing bugs as an alternative food source is very concerning, Labour need to properly fund their free school meals and not waste money on dystopian futuristic meals for our children… Along with cutting the education budget in real terms this year, Labour instead prioritise this bizarre pet project. Children need nutritious affordable meals, preferably locally sourced, to sustain them through the school days and expensive bug farming is not the answer.”
If, for whatever reason, Welsh school children don’t enjoy their cockroach cuisine, Guido’s sure Matt Hancock would be happy to take it off their hands…
After a Canadian TikToker went viral for mistakenly saying Wales was in England, Mark Drakeford reacted as any spend-happy politician with a desire for positive publicity would. He arranged for her to take a holiday to Wales – all on the taxpayer’s expense…
An FOI request from the Taxpayers’ Alliance revealed the Welsh government budgeted £1,500 for the influencer’s trip, based on the justification it would “raise Wales’ profile across the world” and “celebrate the partnership” between Wales and Canada. It’s not the first time Mark’s spaffed the cash chasing viral hits…
On Friday the Welsh Government’s appeal over its failed legal bid to overturn a post-Brexit UK trade law – the Internal Market Act – was once again thrown out by the courts. Having previously claimed the Act would, by unifying trade rules across the four nations, “neuter” the Senedd’s ability to regulate goods and services, it was always going to be a tall order for Welsh ministers to explain why they were happy for such an arrangement under EU rules – yet forcefully opposed to it within the UK. The judge agreed.
Writing in the full judgement, Sir Geoffrey Vos said:
“…When one drills down into the alleged inconsistency between the restriction that says the Senedd cannot amend UKIMA on the one hand, and the reservations that imply that the Senedd can legislate for non-reserved matters on the other hand, one always end up needing to know precisely what the Senedd wants to legislate about before one can determine whether there is an inconsistency […]
Moreover, the existence of an inconsistency may also turn on the extent that the EU had the competence that the Senedd seeks to exercise before the EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020.”
What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander…
