Reform in Wales are angry about flags…again

0:00Hello and welcome to 4 Wales Sea Wales with me Malau in. Me, Robin Walker. Me, Will, Hayward. How are we all? The weather has changed. It is raining. It is cosy in here. It is quite cosy. It is sort of cosy autumn feels. Yes it is. Pumpkin spice everywhere. Not yet. We have to hold off. No it's causing well allergies. I bet you order a pumpkin spice. Oh, top of my first. I'm a pumpkin bitch. Don't even, don't even, don't even understand what just happened. I'm the pumpkin bitch. When I do trick or treating this Halloween and sitting there with some sweet kid knocks on the door and I open it and you're there. The sound of the words pumpkin spice last day renders me non-verbal. You got so excited about it. Sorry excited, but we do have to wait. We had it too soon to go. What do you think so? Because what if we start now with mid September, we're going to be pumpkined out. I did that a couple years ago. I used to get very excited by Christmas sandwiches, you know, and all the supermarkets

1:01release their ones. All the cranberry ones, all the turquins, the stuff, a bit of brie in there, lovely. Usually I try and have December not gigging as much now, but I used to do a lot of gigging December. December gets horrible as a comedian. What? Because everyone's just out on a work night out. It's office parties. It's vials. No one's come to see you. They're just out. They're out because the boss has spent like them and 29 others and they're all just coked up and pissed in his horrible. Not going to call anything to be snug. You're like, I've got a joke about my mum. No one cares. No one cares. But you drive a lot and I have a lot of Christmas sandwiches in the car. Yes. But I went big a couple of years ago and I started using them in October and then by December was that a buzz out. When is it acceptable to start? I really like Christmas, but I want it, I want it, I want to condense my Christmas excitement down into just a couple of weeks. I don't want like. Well, not even for months. I can accept anything from the start of December. I think that is fair, but I do think some of the some of the little events start to happen a little bit in mid-November. Do you know what for me is, when fireworks night is out the way, call me Santa, I mean. I'm

2:02no longer the pumpkin bitch. I'm now the festive bitch. I actually almost been forgot when the fire, the bonfire night was, which is obviously very against the song. Yeah, what is the remember? Remember the fifth November. Well, indeed, that's breaking news. That is breaking news. Welcome to Four Welsy Welses September. Exactly. Do you know what, I got a clang, I ran kind of 10 counts on them. Yes. Did you reveal your time? I did 69 minutes. Nice. Which I was really pleased with. Did you say nice because it was 69? Nice. Nice. Do you not always weird that melded it in 60 minutes and then stood up just in time? Yeah, for nine minutes. Yeah, I didn't even go up at seven. I was like, no, I'm not doing six seven. This will be the funniest numbers across the world. Over the line. That's really good. It's well done. Thank you. And I want to say a massive thank you to three people who have three different occasions. Like four Welsy Welses. As I was running past, yes. And I'll tell you what, the power up that gave me soda banana, that was brilliant. It's

3:06like Mario Kart. In literature, I felt like I looked at mushrooms. I was like, it was. What was it? It was good impression. What does she influence? And attention. It did be so well. Because especially when you're like, I want to walk. I want to walk at this point. It was hot cathedral roadies along. And I was coming up by the sacrifice gardens. And every time I was losing the spirit, that would happen. And it's gone. That's also maybe this because you know that you were getting recognised. You can't walk like, you're going to get in the wall. Oh god. I'm going to keep going. 10% of the sources wouldn't walk. I've got to crack on. Which of your first 10k? So no, I have done a couple of 10k's before. I did do kind of 10k 2023. But I would take my attitude for this one was very different because I went out the night before that one. Where I just like lulled it. Whereas this one I did take a bit more seriously. I did pause call, started July. That was nice. That was really lovely. I've got chelt them in two weeks and then last me for the year. The races. Yeah. It's always the horses.

4:09I'm nearly to go. I've been 15 for long. Over the fences. There'll be such a funny horse name. You're at the Grand National. Mel O'Win. Right, okay. It's a melodrama. Mel O'Win. Thank you. The pumpkin bitch. 6 to 1. Shall we talk about washpots? Let's do it. Let's do it. We recorded last week early early in the week. And as we were recording news broke that there were going to be a freeze on genderless time and services in Wales. Obviously at the time there wasn't a lot of information as to how wide. But we're really keen to discuss it this week because obviously we do recognise it is something that affects so many people. And it is also a Wales specific story. There's a lot of misinformation being thrown about as well about is it to do with NHS waiting times. This and the other which is untrue. So I think it's really important for us to try and unpack it this week and

5:13find out what it is going on. So as I understand it, it is a pause. They have said it is not a finalised cutting. It is a pause of gender services and it's gender surgeries. So there's still services going forward. And what's the difference between the services and the services? So things like psychological support hormone therapy, that's continuing. It's just the surgery that has been paused. I think there's one story of somebody who is there and then turned up expecting to get surgery and then it not happening which is brutal. This is what is so heartbreaking is that this people who have been assessed and as ready to receive the surgery, they will also be paused. The root of it is that the number of referrals in Wales was significantly higher than in proportion to England. And there is being an investigation

6:16carried out as to why this is. That is being treated as a negative and it's something to be investigated. There are people on the other hand who would say, you know, maybe the service in Wales is more understanding that the system is just more efficient and that's why that is happening but that is whilst being investigated. So who this affects is that there is a pause on all referrals for surgeries that affects people on every step of that process apart from people who have been referred for multiple surgeries and have already started. So say if they need three surgeries, if I had one, the second and third will still be carried out. If you have been assessed and been given the green light for surgery but have not, that surgery has not started yet, that has been paused. Whilst they have said that, you know, this is a pause and not a complete full stop end of it, there also has been no date that's been given as to when the investigation will be kind of concluded and they can continue. A lot of the narrative that I've seen this week,

7:23which I've found personally that really distressing is a lot of people say, well, you know, when the NHS weight unless this long, this shouldn't be a priority. And when you've got people dying and they ain't, because of their weight and for ambulances and this and the other, they shouldn't be a concern. These are two very different services and also this is a life saving surgery for many people for whom their mental health absolutely is at rock bottom because they have lived a life feeling as though they are misunderstood in terms of their gender. So I think compassion has, his felt quite off this week. Yeah, there's, I mean, I'm sure these people making those assumptions aren't experts in health and can work out the the property and the hierarchy when these services need to happen. If they are then maybe they can solve a lot of the weight in time. Yes, but it's been and helpful is that there have been almost like guesses put out, which have found the flames as well in terms of, you know, in order to have the surgery, your BMI has to be

8:27within a certain range. We, you know, I don't think this is a hot take, the BMI is kind of bullshit, it's 2026, but it is obviously still used by the NHS and a lot of, you know, kind of a health services still, but your mental health is assessed and I think what makes that particularly hard is the hyperportion of people who are trans do tend to be on the spectrum as well. So that does complicate matters as well. And are these things about the BMI mental health, where are these things being shared online is like, oh, this is why it's not happening? Yes, I think that again, this is, that, I don't think that is part of the official reason that's being put out, but when you have, it's been a lot of the discourse this week and you had certain like representatives saying this and sort of representatives saying that and it's just been I think very, it's found the flames and made a lot of people feel helpless as well. When there isn't that sort of direct line of communication of like, this is what's happening, that's when other things can step in and feel that void in terms of confusion in terms of room and that kind of stuff. Like what's been the official

9:31line, I know, Rene was doing the phone in on Radio Wales last week and was asked about it. The Health Minister and Deputy First Minister are attending a meeting with the joint committee, a commissioning committee that made this decision, the Welsh Government statement said, ministers saw and received reassurances, but decision is a poor not stop. Each relevant case will be reviewed and once the JCC has assurances, the appropriate clinical assessments are in place, individuals will progress to surgery at the earliest possible opportunity. So I think it's, I think the issue here from what I can see is around kind of the communication and the really abrupt nature of how it happened. I think what's really hard about that though is there's already a mistrust, you know, and you know, broad brush here, but I do think within, especially the trans community, there is a distress of the NHS or that like health services in general because of previous traumatic experiences and you know, it's different to say me going in and being like

10:32my ankle really hurts what's going on and a doctor looking at it and then referring me, you know, with a trans person they are going to the doctor, explain to them what they need and it's very traumatic having to advocate for yourself anyway when you're up against a system that rightly or wrongly they feel is up against them which is not always the case but I can understand where people feel that way. So I think it's hard when you've got people saying I need this and then what feels like a faceless institution saying let's do an investigation. So I, you know, I think there's two, there's two sides which both are very difficult to get right, you know. People, you want people to get the help that they want and I think, you know, we talk about waiting lists and how one impact that has on people's health and you know, I've had family members, not in this situation but in terms of ways in front operation and it doesn't happen and that's heartbreaking, you build up your whole life, you get childcare, it has a massive impact on a nuts and bolts day to day level I think as well. So I think, you know, these things are being

11:37paused, they haven't set a date yet I think it'd be very interesting to see what the communication is going for and I think that communication thing is something that we've criticised with our labour government for, you know, certain policies and things I think communication and telling people what's happening I think is very important. So reform at a conference, reform at a documentary, yeah. There you have. A documentary. A documentary, it feels like it's going to be one of those, you know, you sit in there like here, yeah, yeah, sorry, I'm ready. Yeah, one of those. But they were ready, they were ready to go, they were YAP city, bitch. They were, yeah, they were, they were in YAP city, that's where they held the conference, YAP city. Resident, um, um, loose lips, what's we going on? That's the nickname for you. So, uh, it was his sources, right, loose lips. Well, we're talking about it. So channel four news published a investigation by the Baton in to reform for, oh, for a year, they, says, you infiltrated farages in a circle.

12:44I, we don't need to go into this in crazy detail. You've probably seen it, if not, I highly recommend you go and look at it. James Or the party's head of policy and Dan Duke, who's a close age of Nigel Farahatchra, I've personally experienced that their conference, what a sterling chat. He, they, those two basically were filmed, allegedly seemingly, however you want to phrase it, speaking to a undercover journalist who was pretending to be the son of an rich American man, the crux of it is there was two things in it which were especially problematic for reform. So there was the investigations seem to suggest, seem to suggest that reform were taking donations in kind. So they were getting people outside of the UK, this American millionaire to pay for polls for them, which were very favorable and that was underclaed. So that is, that is a problem.

13:47So it's illegal to take for parties to take donations from people from overseas. Mm-hmm. They were in a pub, beer garden where the man playing the rich, older American said, I'm trying to remember the exact phrase because this hasn't been reported as much, where he said, I think these guys are really good at spending my money and they were like, but they, my dad talks about me. Yeah. In undercover, who? Yeah. And my first agent, Chris was there. That's what comes up in the channel for. Yeah. Same time as the King's beer. Yeah, what the fuck? The answer to Chris is, me getting spikes. That would be so hard to capture as well because you're both male. Exactly. Yeah. That would be difficult. Who's money? Who's money? We know who it's way around it. So basically, the young guy who was playing the son of the American dad said that he had a British passport and he said, very clearly, my dad can give me this money and as soon as I get that money, I will give it to you, which would be illegal. Right. Farage replies to that saying, thank you, both of you, thank you. He has since said that he didn't hear the question

14:53and he wasn't really listening. It wasn't listening. Can I just say in his defense, right? Quite a lot of the time. You know, when you ask somebody something and then they say, you know, I didn't catch you, then you ask, you got like, I've got one more go at this. You're like, what was that? And they say, I will just go, yes. Yes. God knows what I've agreed to. Exactly. And if it's going to be in reform, yeah. It's how you ended up doing this podcast. Exactly. If it's in a pubic garden, bless him as well. He probably wasn't this. He's probably scammed the QR code on the table to all of the other. Thank you. Both of you. Yes. Thank you. So we're always does under seafood. Yeah. Snacks weirdly. Snackly. Like fights. It's end day. This will have been covered a lot by the time this comes out. So we won't go into too much detail on that. But this is a serious problem for reform. This is not breaking just parliamentary procedures. This is breaking electoral law. If it's found to be the case, the two people in question have stepped down. I wasn't there because I wasn't allowed to be because I'm still banned. Oh, bless him. Obviously, this was very frustrating for some people on reform.

15:58And they took it out on a random climate protester. Oh, yeah. I watched a couple of seconds of it. And I was kind of like, it was quite bleak. It was disgusting, wasn't it? Like watching that to come from a party, which basically says vote for us because we care for free speech and we will protect women or our women. Sure. They like to refer to it. Maybe that one just wasn't one of their women. Sure. Maybe not in the ownership, not in the lease. Not in the circle of trust. No. I mean, if you haven't seen that, it's absolutely reprehensible. Yes, it was just, but that is that can easily happen in an atmosphere where opponents are called enemies, isn't it? Yeah, definitely. But I think, you know, I was straighters. What for us to do when you try to stand down was to show and draw a line under the initial, the money stuff, the crypto money and things and try to be like, look, the people have voted me back in. It's fine. I've defeated the bucket head, been face man, and back in, everything's fine. And now, obviously, people are sitting on stuff, right? If this was a year, I would love to be an

16:58undercover journalist. Oh, I'd be so bad. Do you think so? Yes, I would crack so easily. I would laugh. I'd laugh in their faces and tell somebody I've like, you can't say anything. Yeah, I'd be in the Watshaus by the way, I'm going to go to you. Yeah, I literally would. Why do you think you'd be quite good? Do you reckon? Yeah. I think I reckon your desire for vengeance would outweigh it as I am. Any desire to laugh? This is the problem. I think I would, yeah, that is true. I am motivated by anger. It's really good for me to have an emphasis. It is good for me. It really gets me up in the morning. So yeah, maybe I would be good at it. The person who's pretending to be an American millionaire, it just reminds me of like a Simpsons character. Was he there just in a cowboy hat? I'm like putting on a really bad accent. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I love the footage as well. I'm obsessed with it. How does that work? Have you ever sort of, you can't do undercover stuff because you're newsletters called the Wilhae with newsletters? How do they have cameras and stuff? Where would they put a camera? Oh, yes. The S-where's the camera? It looked like it was in a kind of

18:03button from the positioning of it. But there was somewhere they had like four different shots. They'd obviously set up loads of cameras which just hadn't been noticed. I mean, you know what, you do TV stuff and you do close up then I write guys, can you do that again on a wide, right now we'll do a dirty single and you and I'll say, no, what are you doing? They wouldn't leave to me. I think they hired Heyman Media to film the whole thing. I'd fair play to them. The best in the biz. They are good. They are good. All the angle. producer Darrell there just had a pint, just like, oh, what the fuck is this going on? producer was long been a militant left-wing climate activist. I've had my suspicions about Darrell. Now obviously this is a big deal for reform and in Wales in particular they have found an even bigger issue to distract everyone. Oh, flags. We're back to flags. I love flags. Well they like some flags. Sure. So a picture of two flags was posted by restore counselor O'Brien, clap worthy. Now O'Brien has been a member of reform fairly recently. He

19:03was on their list for the veil I think, but he stepped down not all because he wasn't near the top of the list. So Mr. Clap worthy posted a picture of the Pakistan flag above Cardiff Castle and he said they call the Union Jack extremist slash far right. Then they hoist this over Cardiff Castle. Britain has been hollowed out from the inside. I thought we were being invaded by Pakistan. I had a feeling. Do you know what I mean? I'm working at the small and I feel I didn't know if I was in Canada. I didn't know. We look at Pakistan and Britain. One country's definitely invaded the other more. It's not going to be the first time I've done this, but yeah. That's so funny that it was like Cardiff Castle as well. Like the history of it. We have fucking winter wonderland, Castle bowling for soup there. I forgot a couple of months ago. It's only pit bull was performing at the other day. There were more pit bull in person as there than people from Pakistan. I would get. Can you imagine him going to? We've been invaded.

20:05We've been invaded by bold men and we've got teas from the inside. We've been hollowed out. It's funky. It's too funky. So Dan Thomas, the reform leader in Wales, also tweeted his outrage Rupert Low, one of the great brains of our... Yeah, a group at the bear. He said, what are we doing to ourselves? I don't know. I mean, 98% of Twitter is poor now, now there is a bit of a problem with this photo. And that is that it's two years old. Oh really? Yeah, it was actually a photo by the BBC journalist Peter Gillibrand. And I write Peter. So the flags of Pakistan and India are flown above a kind of castle every year to mark their independence day from British rule. Yeah, there's a little chestnut that we like to forget. Also, both our members of the Commonwealth, which if we forget Brexit, was to bring us closer to the Commonwealth. Yeah.

21:06That's funny. So, yeah, but I mean, this is just a dead cat, isn't it? Yeah, especially after, I mean, yeah, this tracks from the finance stuff, but also, I think especially with like an English reform politician, I think they're just a bit annoyed, their flag isn't as strong as... I mean, Pakistan flags are pretty good. Well, flagged very very good. Oh, the best. Let's not even beat around the bush. You know, it is the best one. Less in the world. What I really struggle with is if you are a person, I try and understand people from all walks of life that I disagree with, but I'm really struggling with the person who's biggest gripe in life is a flag. Do you know what I mean? Like, if you are somebody who reads a paper or is on Twitter, scrolling as you do and sees that there's the flag of Pakistan flying above Cardiff Castle, I would get with other flags, you know, and if that is really ruined your day, you've got a fucking wonderful life. You've got a wonderful life that that is your biggest concern. Yeah, and it would be up for a day, right? To celebrate that's one particular day.

22:08Yeah, I mean, it's ridiculous. It's a non-thing. The most frustrating thing is obviously these are all elected representatives who haven't bothered to do even a cursory fact check. They've just taken somebody's picture. I mean, a cynic might say they're just doing it to stoke division. Would you would maybe... Generic was doing it as well, right? Generic sort of jumped in on this as well. Oh, yeah, Generic jumped in on it as well. I think what it sums up is, if you are annoyed by flags, you really haven't paid attention to all the actual problems. Yeah. And you've got no solutions, and this is what, like, I think, is so frustrating about a lot of what we've seen from some of them reforming the Senate, is that you're the opposition in a country with loads of problems. Why not actually, like, be a constructive opposition to the actual problems, rather than a flag was above this castle for a day? It's going to be really interesting, like, it's true. It is. We're in a... And a UK... Yeah. Honestly. A UK level, we're in a strange place where Kemi is the leader of the opposition despite not being really the sort of like the biggest party in

23:09terms of like voting intention. And we've really interesting with an ex-lection or whatever, when they are the official opposition on a UK level. And to see how they act in that kind of way... They will be the official opposition of the next election. Let me wear a few years out, but yeah, I do. If the election were tomorrow... Yeah, I think we did just have the first time in 600 odd days that reform were behind the Conservatives. Really? It's only one poll and... Yeah. It's my American dad paid for it. Yeah, very true. American dad, so fun. It's been like, I have a boyfriend, like, he's another school, like, in America. It's very hard, isn't it? So fun. Did you ever pretend to have a partner in your own? The partner in your own? He had a partner in your own. You go to house party to read wine and talk about your partner at each 16. I think jokes are new because I would go to parties and I would sit in the back garden because they'd always have a fucking cat. Oh, bless you. You weren't even smoking out there, were you? Were you? No. Now, as a big crescendo to this podcast, shall we talk about the Welsh government?

24:20So, we have had 100 days of plied-com re-government. Is this significant? Doesn't have to be, but it does because they made it significant because they said they had a 100-day plan. They said vote for us because we've got a 100-day plan. This document is not only beefy, it is glossy. Was it glossy? Was it matte? It was a nice document anyway. I remember holding it in Aberystwyth at the live show and it was, yeah, slippery. It was wet. Okay. So, look me in the eyes. So, 96 pledges were within this document. Plied and the Welsh government have said, we have completed it. Re-napped your offer. I went to a... Oh, they've said complete. Completed, mate. Yeah, complete that. That said, that plan is now complete. The Welsh government has indicated that they believe they have hit all 96 of these targets now. Wow. Mel, you said you wanted to be an investor of journalists under cover. Under cover. Under cover. Under cover. Under cover. Under investigative. No. Under cover. Just hiding. I just want to look. In beer gardens, but dominant. Yeah. I want to be in a beer garden. Yeah. Actually, what I said. We have gone through, when I say we, I mean, me and my team,

25:25which is a phrase that they absolutely hate me saying. But we're referring to us. Oh, no. We're not part of the team. We're trying again. So, filming was entirely effect. We're trying to catch them out. So, we went through all 96 of their pledges within it, and we believe that they have done 73 of 96. We think they've not done 13 of them. We think that they've sort of done seven of them. We think it's impossible to tell on two of them, and we think one is not finished. Oh, okay. Can we get headlines for done and the others? Yeah. So, if you want to see the full comprehensive, I know not even joking about this, 11,000 word piece where we break down every single one, you can get it in the newsletter. With love, well. I don't believe that first. With mild respect, well. Please break it down for me in ways I, if per se, I didn't want to read that at home. Could I just get the headlines? So, let me give you an example. Okay. So,

26:25on pledged 10 of their 100-day review, plied said they will commission an independent review of the performance of the NHS in Wales with particular emphasis on the impact of waiting lists on population health. So, commission an independent review on the performance of NHS. So, we went to them and said, have you commissioned this? What will it be looking at? Will it be issuing recommendations to the Welsh Government and when? And who is running it? Because if you're commissioning a review, which is independent, there will be a person leading that review. No. No. Bear in mind, there's 96 of them and we went back with questions like that on all 96. Oh, matey. So, I can hate it, you. I think they probably did. Yeah. I'd hate that. Another email from William Hayworth. I made a rinder. Yeah. I share a rind. I think the thing to say before we go any further is they responded to every single one. They're at a time where... And subsequently. Please, I'd like to invoke my right to be forgotten. At a time when people are rejecting scrutiny, powerful people are and governments are trying to dodge scrutiny. I think... Planning from conferences. That's right. Planning from conferences, beating up people in conferences.

27:29I think we shouldn't have to praise it, but I think it's worth saying that there was a spirit of open scrutiny, which I hope is time for. So, they responded to us saying, we've agreed the scope and approach of the independent review on NHS performance and are now taking forward steps needed to commission the review. So, to me, that is, it's not commission. If you're taking steps forward to commission it, you haven't commissioned it. So, you know, that's an example of all of the things which I don't think that they have completed. Now, you might think, oh, this has been a bit harsh, this has been a bit nitpicky. But let me just give you some examples of what Plyde said before the election. So, in 2024, they tabled a motion calling on the Labour government to declare a health emergency. They've also declared a cost of living emergency. They led the Senate debate on declaring a climate emergency and their MS is of called child poverty rates, a national scandal and nothing short of a crime for their empower. If you are going to have the mentality of we are doing a hundred-day plan because there is a health emergency. Two years ago, there was a

28:32health emergency that they felt should have been declared. You're open to criticism when you don't commission the review within the first hundred days. Now, I appreciate these things at time, they're logistically, you don't want them to rush them so that they're not worth doing. But also, it can't have come as a surprise that they won the election. They were the odds on favorite for the six months before the election. That's thrown out some WhatsApp's at least, you know. Good ahead of the game. I think another frustration I have is around, we still don't have a child poverty target. So, the Welsh Labour government previously had a target to eradicate child poverty by 2020. It hasn't moved. They abandoned the target and they never reintroduced one. And, reenappeworth was really vocal about this. So, just last year, it applied issue to press release and it included a quote from the now-first minister. So, where he said, the Labour First Minister claimed to enter politics to eradicate child poverty. Yet, when I asked her three times to reinstate the child poverty target, she refused to do so.

29:33There is no logical reason why the First Minister cannot set new bold and ambitious target to tackle the scourge of child poverty. Applied government will demonstrate a new sense of urgency ensuring that giving every child a fair start in life is a priority. So, we are now three months in, well over three months into their tenure as the Welsh government and they haven't set a child poverty target. We asked the First Minister about this at the press conference they held at Cardiff and Vail College. And he said, you're absolutely right, this is something that we believe is fundamental mistake of the previous administration. But unless you have a target to aim for, you're unable to be held at count for your success in moving forward. So, it's one of our top priorities for a reason. Has a target been set within the first 100 days? No. Has work begun on realising those elements to build towards having a meaningful target? Yes. Work begun is a bit great, isn't it? I mean, that could be anything from we're going to announce next week too. I've turned on my laptop. Yeah, and also, let's not forget that they were quite integral in

30:36kind of the decision making of the last government as well. It's not like they first day of school and they don't know where D block is or where, you know, what plan are they having? It's a school in prison. My as well, I mean, they've been there. They know, like you said, they were odds on favourites. Send a WhatsApp, as you said, Robin. Like, get it. You, maybe can't start turning on the laptops now, I'd be like, what was it assessing? Yeah. And I think they have done some stuff towards child poverty that started work towards a pilot for a essentially a payment, a child payment, which is similar to what they have in Scotland. And that's had evidence, so that's actually had really significant impact on reducing child poverty. We're now 100 days in supply. And I think it's worth asking the question of like, kind of, are they doing a good job? And I think they're really kind of a crossroads because they've done, I mean, they did a lot of their pledges. And there's definitely a kind of energy to government, even people not like necessary politicians, but even civil servants I've spoken to, they definitely does seem to be a bit more umph

31:40than in the kind of, well, for a long time under under Welsh Labour. So I think there has been progress. I think that applied have done well to acknowledge a lot of the problems that we know are there. They also have like, they have been more vocal in advocating for Wales to a UK government, it's been seen whether that'll have an impact. Forgive me if I'm wrong. Did applied say that there would be a website where people can keep a track of their progress? Yeah, they did. This was the digital dashboard. Oh yes, I was. Oh yeah. I've been refreshing it most days. It's not really sort of. It's going on. So there is a digital dashboard. So this is part of their pledges. The pledge was, how do I find it? I'll put it in the WhatsApp group now. I've just accepted cookies. So you're well. That's not going to happen in NHS. So progress on our priorities. See the Welsh government's top priorities for this centre term and track progress. Select a priority. Oh, and then I can click on cutting NHS waiting list. I can click on tackling child poverty.

32:41Where are you in as at a at a maithrin? Do you want to do you want to click on child poverty one? I would love to click on child poverty. So while these do this, I'm just going to fill for listeners where basically the aim of this dashboard was essentially to enable the people of Wales to track how the Welsh government were progressing towards their targets because so many of Wales's problems are so deeply entrenched. But the idea was that it's going to take a long time to do it. So you need to bring people along with you and see how you're going. So have you got the graph up with child poverty? But there's no 2026. So do we need to zoom out? So there's no 2026. That's because those figures aren't there yet. I see. But do you know what I think the biggest thing that's missing is? There's no target. Sure. Oh, so we're just seeing a line or within the line. It's just pulling data from South Wales. So there's no what we're aiming for. If you're going to have this digital dashboard to track progress towards a target, you need to know what the target is. On none of it could I find any kind of target of this is where we're trying to get to?

33:43And look, I get why because they don't want to have a target that they then fail to miss to hit. Do you know what I mean? Like, but also, could we be a little bit ambitious and set a target to hit and actually hit and beat? Yeah, I mean, that's when when we chatted to Elin and Morgan, you know, she was, and we mentioned this about the waiting list times in changing, you know, what wanting to cut these things. And I think it's like a bold thing to announce that because you're going to be, you know, that's the stick they're going to beat you with. That's why I didn't have people who was calling for it, you know, trying to tie their shoelaces together so they could trip over, right? So he's not going to do that yet. But I think that's the kind of thing. If you've been, it is hypocritical to then sort of like shouts better from the rooftops from your opposition. And then when you're in government, go, well, it's with what work is work is being done. Work is being done. I mean, look, that's the first time I've gone on that, that website. They've, I think it's a benefit that they've put it out then. This is this is this is this sort of, I suppose, the discourse of I mean, you literally put a got that date before. They've just put it in a different format. But

34:43I think making it accessible, I think is important. And I, you're hyper engaged in Welsh politics. You didn't know it was this is going to be my question. How much do you think they're taking people on the journey at the moment? Because how much are people feeling the change in their pockets and their heads and their hearts? And how much are they aware of these things that they're happening? Obviously, the, the, the, you know, a bit of a policy blitz after 100 days, press conferences, radio, media, or that. Yeah, she didn't do it straight after 100 days. It was David Tristan, I think, the first minister was away, which I'm not criticizing for. It's coming over the recess. Burnham's coming in and took took a lot of the sort of the media narrative for a way. And I think obviously you got to reset that relationship as well. But it'd be interesting to see going forward. And obviously, like, as you say, we're very engaged, you know, on socials, I'm seeing bits and bobs and things. But be interested to know what the, the person on the street is, is feeling about about it all, whether that narrative can change. I wonder whether and, you know, an alarm has gone off in the Senate because someone has accessed the digital dashboard. And, you know, ring the bell. I understand why they haven't got a target, because you don't want to

35:48set a target, which is unreasonable or not helpful. But if you've called for one for two years, you'd think after three months in power, you might have it. But I mean, this is just one kind of specific thing. I think how the last 100 days have gone for plight will actually depend on the next 300. If the last three months had been foundation setting to enable them to kick on to really tackle Wales' problems, to really grasp some nettles, bites and bullets, you know, whatever kind of analogy you want to use, then this will have been a really well spent 100 days because you've been laying the groundwork for something significant. If in a year's time, we've still got this kind of weird feeling of just a bit of a holding pattern, has something significant been done, then actually the previous 100 days will be seen as actually just the epitome of what was to come. And that would be, I mean, not just terrible because, you know, we've got over 30% of kids living in poverty and all, and like, an absolutely ridiculous amount of underfalls. So that's the most important thing that, you know, if you're not tackling these problems, those people are still suffering and not having

36:52their potential fulfilled. I mean, the ultimate thing that underpins this is they, there isn't much money that they haven't got a lot of resources. They've got a opposition parties in the centre who, to be honest, see, probably see kicking plight as more important than supporting a Welsh government, and you can have opinions on that. But they're trying to do something that is really, really hard. But I've got, I've got a founder quote from 2024 that the first, well, Renault Piuwaf said, when a little in Ed Morgan had first become first minister. So you remember she did that speaking to a listening tour, wasn't speaking to listening. So he said, let's give her the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps this talk could help sharpen minds about practical steps required for a change of direction to demonstrate the first minister's serious about refreshed approach. Sadly, though, I think that business as usual is precisely what we will be given again, the all two familiar attendancies I'm afraid of, labour empowers in Wales. Problems being listed, yes, but without any real notion of solutions, vague pronouncements at best about the plans that are being developed for an unspecified point in the future. Milestones, timelines and targets for delivery all conspicuously

37:58absent. Now, he needs to avoid, the biggest thing for him is to avoid the perception that plight have done what he's just accused Welsh Labour of being. Businesses usual, nothing's changing. That has got to be it. So, I mean, I don't think they've had an amazing first 100 days, I don't think they've had a bad first 100 days. I think what they use, what they've done over the last 100 days for the next three years, three and a half years is what we're mad. A lot discussed in today's episode, a little bit of a bump, but I enjoyed it. Yeah, me too. Does anybody have anything to plug? Rob and Morgan, I just see a little announcement go out on the old social news. I've just announced a new tour for next year. What's it called? It's called silly goose. You are a silly goose. It's not about me, it's about you. And it goes on say, I'm going around Wales, going around the UK, tickets for on sale on my website. Yeah, I'm really excited. I'd love the last tour and we love to see the same people sat in the same seats. Yes, absolutely.

39:02That's what I'd like at any date. I think it's like 20, around 20 at the moment, but we're going to potentially answer more as well. So yes, silly goose, coming to a town or city or hamlet near you next year. I'm exciting. William Hayward, would you have to plug? Just if you want to look into some of the stuff and ask us who've done around plight, it's in the newsletter. Just look it up, the World Hater with News Lab. It's called the Will Hayward Newsletter, I believe. It is, Melanie. It is. It's funded by an American millionaire. And he's dad. Sorry. I think that's a plug. At Aberystwyth Comedy Festival, I am doing my hour mellow drama. Really nice Saturday night. This Saturday. No, the first Saturday of October, which I believe is the second. Really lovely. I think it's like half eight in the cinema in the art centre. The last thing my parents saw there was the odyssey, so they were like no pressure. Wow. That's next thing we're going to be seeing in there. So yes, very excited. I'm going to get to the third October. It's the third October.

40:02Is it? It's going to be a kid showing the afternoon and then a whip in the working progress in the afternoon. Love that. Double up. Probably the afternoon, mellow and in the evening. I'll be at the plight conference. Is that the same again? Where are they this year? I planted them. Oh, must they wear an Aber? Imagine they'd all be arse. They would be at our shows. Yeah. They actually probably would be at your shows. They're pulling polis. Yeah, exactly. Guys, I've really enjoyed it. I've been mellow in. I've been Robin Morgan. I'm Will Hayward. Bye.