After a top civil servant in Wales was forced to resign for posting “f**k the Tories” on social media, alongside other ramblings, the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales has appointed the “independent” KC James Goudie to examine bias in decision making. Guido’s not sure they quite understand the meaning of “independent” over there…

James Goudie’s links to Labour are strong and long-held. He was the Labour leader of Brent Council in the 70s, as as well as standing for Labour as PPC in Brent North. On top of that he was chairman of the Society of Labour Lawyers. His wife, Labour peer Baroness Goudie, was suspended from the Lords in a “cash for ‘parliamentary advice‘” scandal last year. No doubt an impartial review into the anti-Tory civil servant is on the way…

The Welsh Tories have just sharply raised their eyebrows over the appointment of Goudie: “How can we expect a review under these circumstances to have the confidence of the public with such a barrister leading it?” Who will review the reviewer?

UPDATE: The Ombudsman announces that “concerns have been expressed by several people” and Goudie has been dropped.

Flagpoles around the Senedd are adorned with the trans-inclusive LGBT flag, despite the fact that “LGBT History Month” has been over for some time now. Now the Welsh Parliament has decided that they’ve exceeded their “lifespan” and is forcing taxpayers to cough up £36,595 for a 6-week project to replace them. Some contractors are rubbing their hands with glee right now…

The flagpoles are used for political posturing – they previously played host to the EU flag until it was taken down a full four years after the Brexit vote. Flying high while Wales racks up a £900 million budget shortfall…

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…