Lockdown confusion is the result of wriggle room in the Welsh Government’s bad law

There’s no confusion at all. It’s the Tories that has caused the confusion. I’m not a Labour supporter but they’ve dealt with this in a sensible way. It appears the Tories caused unnecessary deaths because of their incompetence.

This is a brilliant, and sane article, raising serious concerns over the quality of administration and legislation during this emergency. This of course affects Wales and England together and seperately, and to varying degrees, but always with the same worrying conclusions: our law-makers are tending to produce government that is not fit for purpose. The poor quality of our legislators in both England and Wales is producing bad, inconsistent law, and is leaving too many vague and ambiguous areas that are open to misinterpretation or over-interpretation, whether in good faith or from malicious opportunism. There will consequently be a lot of private actions brought to redress both inadequacies and excesses in the administration of such imperfect instruments. Simply put, injustice and an increasingly untenable government authority - a deficiency likely doubled-down on in an incipiently dictatorial manner, especially by over-the-top actions by police struggling with poor guidance - is in danger of producing a real crisis of legitimacy. As if we didn't have enough problems. I wanted to say this and support a crucial view that seeks to ensure justice is done, before the article's really valuable raising of a pressing issue is drowned in the usual torrent of leftist Welsh bigotry that too often wants to see itself as 'holier-than-thou' when compared with a Tory England's response to the unfortunate and increasingly ramshackle expedient of Lockdown. And please don't bother telling me I can't call myself Welsh, just because I disagree with using a dangerous mix of radical Nationalism and COVID hysteria to steamroller any degree of necessary and rational prudence in our response to this challenge for our United Kingdom. Panic measures have done as much social damage as any possibly tardy response to this health challenge, and this Welshman is grateful for this Conservative Senedd Member's timely article. Cool heads in a crisis? Too often 'headless chickens'I regret to say.

Suzy Davies Have a word with yourself! Is this the pot calling the kettle black! Her party should know the definition of confusion!

Suzy Davies always strikes me as one of the more constructive and consensual opposition members, and I think she makes a sound point here. But her criticisms - as indeed she seems tacitly to acknowledge at the start of her opnion piece - can be levied no less at the Covid-19 legislation imposed by her party's government in England, as amply demonstrated in the recently publicized 'Dom Durham Dash' incident! Maybe creating law which offers certainty rather than supposition in dealing with a foe as amorphous as a new virus is practically more difficult than it might initially appear? Have they done better in Scotland, I wonder?

It's got to be hard to make good laws quickly, but what they *are* achieving is keeping the discussion away from opening Wales to the waves of visitors that are likely to come the moment the restrictions are relaxed. In the long run that's got to be worth a little confusion around whether or not we can visit Granny yet.

Also confusion on Radio5 earlier when the presenter (Rachel somebody?) asked Mark Drakeford why it was now permissible for English people to travel wherever they want in Wales? Given a sharp rebuke. People commenting might bear in mind that five miles is more than enough for most Valleys' people, though maybe the six miles from Abertillery to Ebbw Vale would have been more appropriate. Keep the Lockdown tight, Wales. Only this week have buses and trains around Leeds put limits on passengers, just in time judging by observation. 10 people per deck of a bus and 8/10 per train compartment.

In the Welsh Government's Health and Social Services Budget there is an unquantified allocation to "effective health emergency preparedness arrangements". There should have been a plan in place for dealing with a contagious respiratory tract infection. That plan should have considered implementing and easing a lockdown based on infection risk, if an initial comprehensive system of test/diagnose/identify, track, trace and quarantine/hospitalize failed. As part of that plan, consideration should have been given to what legislation would be necessary for fair, clear, risk based, enforceable law.

I'm really proud of the way the First Minister has dealt with the crisis. I'm delighted that Wales is not party to the chaos and confusion caused by the tories in England. It is becoming blatantly evident that the Conservative Party in Westminster care only about profit and certainly not people. The way they have conducted themselves throughout this pandemic is utterly deplorable and we will remember that.

I really can't be bothered to listen to you Suzy because your party have and will always be a blight on Welsh society. Name me something you have done for Wales in your entire existence? Nothing. You only act in self interest and given your vocal protestations about scrutiny could you tell me why your masters in London have outsourced over £1 billion pounds worth of health contracts to private companies which will cost the taxpayer even more for services in England and make the rich even richer? This article is nothing more than an old fashioned attempt at divide and conquer. You have nothing to offer and when you can't even condemn the actions of your puppeteer it beggars belief why anyone thinks you have anything relevant to say. If you really cared for Wales in the way that Ruth Davidson did in Scotland then I may have a crumb of a second for you but you don't and as such have no relevance to me.

So, while AM's niggle over the details of lockdown legislation, the excess in deaths in care homes continues - not due to Covid-19 but do to the lockdown itself and the disastrous policy of 'saving the NHS' while throwing the old and vulnerable under the bus. If you think this is nonsense because this is not what the BBC and other "reliable" news sources are saying, do your own research, starting with the Welsh government statistics: https://gov.wales/notifications-deaths-residents-related-covid-19-adult-care-homes-1-march-22-may-2020-html

She may or may not have valid points in this article but the tories do not have any moral or ethical authority, this is a problem they will encounter more and more as people realise just how really rotten they are (The DC scandal being a good example of this process). The elected tories all have put their name to the shenanigans (hooliganism) instigated by Johnson since he became prime minister (many who did not agree either left the party or were thrown out) not to mention their appalling handling of the covid-19 crisis which has see the highest worst death to population figures in the world ("World Beating" as Johnson would say). The death figure in Cymru at this time is 1,317 out of a population of just of 3 million which make Cymru as a country a vey high death rate (if you multiply this to the population of England at around 55 million the death rate would be about 23.4 million in Cymru, still very high by world standards). There should be still strict control in Cymru until we can see an easing of the rates of infection, if the Welsh Government would have been on the ball at the beginning the lockdown would have been instigated sooner in March not following the tories like sheep.

Come on Suzy where do you stand on D Cummings? resign/sacked, yes or no?

The Welsh covid-19 regulations are not law, surely, in the way that, for instance, the Welsh Language Act is. The number of infections was going up, and Drakeford had to act quickly to come up with a response that would enable the Welsh people to play their part , whether willingly or reluctantly. There was never going to be enough time to throw it open for debate in the Senedd to allow for the picking apart of each small point. With the possible exception of the 5-mile limit, none of Cymru's lockdown measures seem to have been arbitrary, but have been based on the advice of public health experts, which was the best that could be hoped for in the circumstances. As for the 5-mile limit, by virtue of it NOT being law, it is open to reasonable flexibility by the heddlu in individual cases, particularly in rural areas, on a case by case basis, and they can use their discretion where necessary. If the Welsh lockdown is intended to last for next five or more years, then Suzie Davies' point would be valid. But this is a public health emergency.

Suzy I'm not a Labour supporter but your party is in no position to criticise the Welsh Government's policy making. Get the UK Government to act responsibly and put the public's health before the economy - and then you come back on here and judge the situation in Cymru.

Commrade drakeford should resign he's not got a clue we are United kingdom not divided kingdom little bit of power gone to his head

Why can't we just follow national policy our figures are the best in Britain. As for visiting family but only in a 5 mile radius get a life what's the difference between 5 and 50 miles as long as you only visit family. God did we really vote for a Labour senate a bunch of point scoring idiots. Time for normality now.