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Earlier I said that Plaid were 21 votes off a second regional seat but it turns out the winner of that seat was the Tories. South Wales East and Central to go, where I expect Tories will do better than Plaid, but it was so close to Tories being on 11 seats and Plaid on 10 going into final day.
Police Crime Commissioner results on Sunday.
Labour minority government , never thought they would get 30 seats
Tories in certain towns are complaining long waits to vote which saw many walk away was a conspiracy by Labour to reduce the tory vote !
Aww
I didn’t expect any different but god it’s depressing. Seeing people hating the Conservatives and celebrating Welsh Labour is mind boggling to me, we truly deserve the country we live in.
No. It’s because I’m fed up of the likes of you and your generation, you care more about the Conservatives than you do the people of Wales. We’ve had a lifetime of mediocrity and we’re falling behind. Regardless of who I want to govern, the current system is failing us. 5 more years of a Labour held Senydd and Tory Whitehall just means more of the same but hey ho the tories didn’t gain seats so all is good.
Thank God Wales bucked the trend and didn’t vote for the God awful Tories.
This election was dominated by covid and that can, to an extent, explain results seen.
By the time we have the next Senedd election we'll have had much more fall-out from Brexit; difficult recovery from covid; Drakeford going; Tories retaining a majority in Westminster and Wales losing seats at that level; and possible independence vote in Scotland.
The incumbent party has had an advantage this time round but could easily swing against them next time.
Interesting point on BBC Wales last night that covid ended up really damaging Plaid, they had planned for a presidential style election campaign pitting Price against an unknown Drakeford but the immense media exposure Drakeford had doing daily press conferences helped labour massively. Also, because of the covid restrictions they lost months of potential canvassing and door knocking which is key to them as they don’t have the financial donors that labour and Tories do.
Plaid need 3-4 regional seats today to limit the damage but I can’t see more than 3 to be honest
Both got the majority wrong but at this date (this may change in future) I think we can say Drakeford got it less wrong than Boris in a couple of key areas:
Drakeford made a better fist of managing autumn/winter period by:
- implementing a fire-break when this was the advice of the scientists - Sunak and Boris listened to anti-covid scientists instead
- locking down the whole of Wales when more transmissible Kent variant recognised (see how tier system has been dropped in England since start of the new year)
- not sending schools back for one day
Over half the deaths experienced in the UK were in autumn/winter time when the most was known about the pandemic and Drakeford took stronger and earlier action to manage the number of deaths, though not as well as Sturgeon in Scotland.
In addition you could add:
- different rules for young children who were least at risk from a much earlier stage.
On the flips side you would argue:
- More open last summer in England which gave a timely boost to their economy
- More open outside earlier this year in England which is safer than inside
But I'd also argue:
- Scotland got the best approach in terms of recognising children and outside was safest the earliest
Each nation within the UK fecked up in the first wave, perhaps NI the least, but England or Northern Ireland fecked up the autumn/winter period the most even if they still all got things wrong.
Boris now acting more cautious than needs be so, in combination with successful vaccine roll-out, people forget how needlessly risky his government's actions were during autumn/winter when most was known about the virus.
At this time people haven't recognised downside of Drakeford's cautious approach, but that may hit during recovery if ours is slower/more difficult than in England's. It's likely that Labour will point more to Brexit and Tories more to management of Labour to confuse things.
Refusing to lockdown in the autumn, refusing to lockdown over Christmas, going on holiday during February 2020, not attending the first five Cobra meetings on Covid, ignoring scientific advice on shaking hands, attending rugby internationals at packed stadiums, messing up school returns, messing up track and trace, messing up exam results, messing up free meals for children ........
give me time, you caught me on the hop with that question.
Richard wyn Jones was ranting that Plaid aren't professional enough and he's right, they don't use data in the manner the other parties do, they allow petty squabbles to escalate and play favourites with candidates. Helen Mary Jones was a massive liability in a winnable seat in Llanelli but they stood with her for no apparent reason, they also threw the Cardiff North branch under the bus to try and protect Leanne Wood
It wasn't a disastrous night for Plaid but it was very poor and should serve as a wake up call. They've increased the vote share in a lot of places but been abysmal in their target seats. Aberconwy and Llanelli in particular were shocking whilst the swing in Rhondda was dreadful
The two I mentioned are known, Llanelli is a marginal, HMJ has held it before and has had a number of controversies that have received national attention, her vote share went down 8%. Leanne Wood also has a high profile.
I agree with you in general though, it was more of a point on Plaid's shoddy management
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Every 5 years Plaid make excuses. The fact is they have gone backwards this time, not simply because MD had loads of media exposure, but also because the electorate does not completely buy into its independence narrative.
I know Adam Price is a poster boy to some on here, but he must take some responsibility. A rethink of strategy/leadership is needed.
I'm genuinely surprised by how well Labour have done. I think there's been a fair amount of "anyone bar the Tories" about this election. There had been predictions that the Conservatives could even be the largest party in the Senedd or that they were at least going to make huge gains. I feel this election is as much a two-fingered salute to the Tories as it is any endorsement of Labour. Votes for Plaid were mainly going to affect Labour and I know of people who were torn between the two, who ended up voting Labour to ensure the Tories didn't get in through the back door.
Do we have a strong Tory candidate in Wales? RT Davies is such a populist moron and highest profile of the rest are more interested in getting a peerage from PM than serving in Wales.
Conservative Wales should be a strong party but Tories are far, far more interested in winning English seats than Welsh ones.
Drakeford was also more cautious and we didnt have the fust pumping bullsh!t like world class track and trace.
Lets not forget his unforgivable backing of Dominic Cummings