Welsh Liberal Democrats shock Labour with by-election win

Although I vote Plaid first and foremost the Lib Dems would be my second party, so I'm happy that they won, and happy that Plaid came second.

So much for the suggestion that Reform UK are sweeping across the valleys!! The media's obsession with Farage's mob doesn't appear to be affecting voting intentions nearly as much as many people believe.

Labour's vote is collapsing around Wales. As well as this embarrassing result they suffered a humiliating loss - to Reform - in a council seat in the south wales valleys recently. And they came nowhere in a council by-election in Swansea last week (a city that is Labour controlled). Labour's branch office in Wales should be very worried about next year's Senedd elections.

Labour 4th in the Valleys. Ouch.

Before the pile on I say this as a friend. This is an awful result for Plaid. For a party hoping to win next year's election. I am beginning to see hints of this but, Plaid really need to provide more evidence of why people should vote for them. Endlessly trying to be to the left of Labour and promising to use Welsh Government funds to pay for everything and obsessing about letters written by Eluned Morgan, HS2 and the Crown Estate is clearly not working.

So much for Reform "sweeping the board". Here's hoping the trend will continue. Anyone but Reform. Or their fellow far right travellers.

Labour has just had the first of many kickings to come. ... Perhaps if they were a truly independant Welsh Labour Party we might still trust them to act in our best interests instead of simply brown-noseing English Labour and it's principle-free administrators who seem to have become nothing more than "Tory-Light".

Even though a council by-election result, shows all that Labour have a problem at all levels in Wales. In power too long in councils, Cardiff Bay, add an ineffectual First Minister against her right wing counterpart in London currently wearing Reform UK clothes, is it a surprise that Labour were thumped in this by-election. Not really. But I echo others when they say although they vote a certain way are content the Liberals Democrats beat Welsh Labour and that Plaid Cymru came in a strong second, although personally would have preferred it to be the other way round. Glad also that the Tories were last with 1% lol, so funny, and that Reform UK struggled with poor 13%. I think people are now slowly realising that Nigel Farage is fraud, has no interest in Wales other than using and abusing us for his cynical political ends.

It's good for politics if the Dems are a stronger voice but they have to work on their ambition. Their last stint in Cardiff was a story of managed decline and everytime their local representatives get involved it's to try and talk the capital city into a provincial backwater.

If Plaid can keep up the campaign to the Senedd elections then we can expect to be near to achieving a Plaid led government. We need to continue to make it clear that 'reform' is an far right group that is appeasing fascist dictatorships around the world including Trump and Putin and such if elected to our Senedd would do great damage to Wales, people and economy. Plaid Cymru should be able to attract many English speaking Welsh people. But, there are areas may be harder to reach and that is where the Liberal democrats will provide the alternative. At the current standing it is likely that Plaid Cymru may be short of the overall majority at after the Senedd elections and if that is so a Plaid Cymru / Liberal democrat coalition may be necessary as outside the longer term view of whether Wales will be an independent nation (our preference) or a federal, most other policies including more democracy, Economic, European, STV and human rights policies are all in agreement or the LD being described as an England version of 'Plaid'.