Labour is Imploding in Scotland - an opportunity for Wales?

Backing the wrong horse there, Jonathan. Labour has lost its allure in Cymru (and look even worse in 'the UK'). They have failed to show any leadership for our country. They are tired and unimaginative. We don't want more of the same, and particularly more of Rachel from Accounts. Labour is supporting an economic model for the haves, and which cannot and does not work for most of the people, and is life-expired. They have failed working people, let alone non-working people, apparently their unmentionables. There is an alternative. While the Greens and LibDems look weak alone, an alliance would be potent, as Gwern Gwnfil has pointed out in these columns. But it is Plaid that has done most to gain our trust. They have the ideas, the energy and the talent to lead us forward to independence, the only sustainable option for our country. And Propel would provide a bit of ginger...

Humiliation for Reform in Wales would seriously damage their UK ambitions. London Labour absolutely needs to focus on making sure that happens. It's cheap too, 5% of what it would cost to achieve the same at the UK level.

Naive I’m afraid. Wales doesn’t want more of the same - and that includes Plaid propping up Labour yet again (or vice versa). Unless and until politicians on the left get this glaring reality, the march of Reform will continue unabated. Scotland is no parallel.

My suspicion - with the caveat that I've never lived in Scotland and my impressions of Scottish politics are in consequence only drawn from a distance - is that the distinctly unimpressive performance of UK Labour over its first six months in government at Westminster may be the main reason why numbers of Scottish voters might be reverting to support of the SNP. And that even despite the still rather mysterious disintegration of the Scot Nats during the time which followed the departure from the party of the late Alex Salmond. Here in Wales, however, Plaid has never managed to engage the degree of nation-wide popular electoral support which the SNP succeeded in garnering across much of Scotland over quite some time now. My fear for us here in Wales is that, come the Senedd elections next year, disillusion with Labour in office at Westminster will result in a surge of support for Reform UK rather than for Plaid. We'll know next year.

When the SNP were demonised after the Nicola Sturgeon controversy Scottish Labour and their London puppetmaster UK Labour were rolling about like a pig in the proverbial. For a while they were cock-a-hoop and squealing with delight at the Scottish Government's misfortune. Not so anymore, especially after eight months UK Labour in power where authoritarian dictator Keir Starmer is drunk with power whose been copy & pasting the ideas and language of the fascist English Tories and rabid Reform UK. And what better to send Keir Starmer & Scottish Labour a message by firstly wiping them off the political map Scotland in Hollyrood in 2026. Also the SNP can send packing those treacherous Scottish Tories back down South to think again. And in 2029 returning once more an army of SNP MPs to London to send Starmer & co a message that independence has not gone away, it's an irresistible force of nature that's bubbling quietly under the surface ready to explode. There will be another referendum. It's not if but when. We in Wales could do our nation a favour by sending London a message but ousting career politician Eluned Morgan & Welsh Labour from power. UK Labour will never listen or take Wales seriously unless we stand up and fight. Rhun ap Iorwerth & Plaid Cymru is that leader & party. He's a statesman in waiting. Rhun ap Iorwerth is the only true leader and Plaid Welsh party in Wales answerable solely to the people. We are his & their boss. That cannot be said of Welsh Labour First Minister Eluned Morgan's master servant relationship with England's PM Keir Starmer. The same can be said of Welsh Conservative Darren Millar's relationship with his English Tory Islamophobe Kemi Badenoch. His priority is not only attacking all things Wales & Welsh , but being jingoistic towards asylum seekers to counter Reform UK who like a predator grooms & manipulates those they deems poorly educated from deprived forgotten valleys communities. This a method right out of Donald Trump's malicious manual. Mein Trumpf. And populist pustule Reform UK's Nigel Farage is a law unto himself. His priority is maintaining his inflated ego and getting a feet under the cabinet table at Whitehall. To Reform UK Wales is merely a steppingstone , something to be trampled, on his & their way to invading Poland. And yes, those apathetic voters foolish enough to vote for Reform will be insulting Wales. It would be the equivalent of spitting into the wind and getting a face full. Or they can really change Wales for the better by voting for Plaid Cymru rather than wasting their vote on Nigel Farage. Don't take my word for it. Just look at the damage Farage's Brexit experiment has done to Wales. As highlighted. Farage is aping Donald Trump. He's a populist. Favours doing rallies. Wants to scrap the Welsh NHS. Just look what Trump is doing to his MAGA base in America. Deporting families. Stopping Medi Care to the poor. Sacking civil servants and putting stooges in their place. Farage wants to do the same on Britain. Wake up! And what to say about the Lib Dems. Yes, what to say. The sole surviving Welsh liberal Jane Dodds. A rare breed in Wales. Last of her kind. Bit like a Dodo. And where the Dodo met an unfortunate fate, this flightless bird was saved from extinction in 2021. Let's reunite her with her English Lib Dem leader Ed Davey & flock in their ancestral home in the West of England come the 2026 Senedd election where she belongs. Tag, ring, release. It's the humane thing to do.

Look at the Scottish council by election results

I won't vote for a right wing party obviously but the middle/left wing parties all hate women. The Lib Dems has just said it'll allow "gender critical beliefs", Labour says that it will "pledge to maintain single-sex exceptions under the Equality Act. In Scotland Anas Sarwar has outlined his "regrets" at Scottish Labour previously supporting the Gender Recognition Reform bill. Having seen that the Democrats in USA lost partially because of not maintaining women's rights, some parties have realised that this is a vote loser. But not Plaid or the Green Party and the Welsh Labour is hanging back. Ignore this issue at your peril - it's a deal breaker for many of us

I suspect the biggest group of voters at the next Scottish elections will be those who decide to stay at home. The SNP have proved themselves unfit for office by prioritising ideology over running the country, while Labour in Westminster have done everything they can to make sure their Scottish cousins can't take advantage of SNP's downfall and the Conservatives are making a very weak effort to cast themselves as a change from the party that delivered ever-increasing taxes to pay for ever-decreasing public services. Alba may secure a few seats, as may Reform, but the complete inability of the established parties to listen to the public is staggering. Hypothetically, if some devious soul were to launch a new political party called 'None of the above', they could end up being asked to form a government!