Remember the companies that gave £200K to Vaughan Gething's campaign to be First Minister?

Well 11 months before they received a £400k loan from the Welsh Gov-run Development Bank of Wales.

This was when Mr Gething was economy minister & the bank was in his portfolio.

[Thread] The loans were given to Neal Soil Suppliers, part of the Dauson Environmental Group empire run by Cardiff businessman David Neal which funded Mr Gething's campaign.

Most recently the Cardiff-based development bank gave Neal Soil Suppliers a £400,000 loan in February 2023 to fund the purchase of a solar farm.

This is Labour politician Alun Michael.

He currently occupies 1 of the most pointless jobs in Britain - a Police and Crime Commissioner.

Banking a tidy £86,700 a year as PCC for South Wales he is, IMO, a perfect example of what a missed opportunity the PCCs are.

[Thread] This man is named Dimitris Legakis.

He is a freelance press photographer based in Swansea.

In October last year he was wrestled to the ground and arrested while trying to do his job.

I have gone through every donation Jeremy Miles and Vaughan Gething accepted during their leadership race.

Barring any late declarations the final tally was:

Miles - £58,800
Gething - £254,600

There are some really interesting things in here so let's have a look.

[Thread] Let's start with Jeremy Miles.

Lancehawk - £9,000

This is a company in the wired telecommunications activities sector.

Interestingly, one of the directors is a man named Robert Lovering...

One of the big challenges Vaughan Gething's going to face in winning over both his colleagues & the public is how he reacts to scrutiny.

He has a long history of reacting angrily when challenged.

Let's take a look & work out what it could mean for his premiership.

[Thread] We saw yesterday how he reacted when asked about the controversial donations. Anyone who even asks that question is not a "serious journalist".

It is bananas that some of the revelations from the Wales leg of the Covid inquiry are not getting wider media attention.

Let me give you just one example - the power wielded by Special Advisers.

[Thread] The inquiry has really highlighted in stark terms just how much power and influence special advisors (known as SpAds) held in the Welsh Government response to Covid.

Mr Gething STILL refuses to answer basic questions on the controversial donation he received to bankroll his First Minister campaign & rejected our request for an interview.

We've kept at this. It's not OK for politicians to ignore fair scrutiny in the hope it'll go away.
Thread I case you missed the background - check out this thread.



Basically he took 2 huge £100k donations from Cardiff-based firm Dauson Environmental Group to help him beat rival Jeremy Miles to be Welsh Labour leader and replace Drakeford as First Minister.

https://twitter.com/WillHayCardiff/status/1762138337865871864

Permit me a frustrated thread please.

I have been trying to get more insights into the £200k donation Vaughan Gething took from a company that also put in a request for a solar farm in Cardiff.

The evasion and entitlement on display is ridiculous.

Let me explain.

[Thread] If you are new to this the details of the initial investigation are below.

You can't possibly read this and not think there are serious questions to answer.

But neither Mr Gething, or the many Welsh Labour politicians who support him will answer them?!

https://twitter.com/WillHayCardiff/status/1762138337865871864

EXCLUSIVE - Big Wales News

A company gave Vaughan Gething a huge donation to his campaign to be First Minister, the same day they also applied to build a large solar farm on a Site of Special Scientific Interest in Cardiff.

A development requiring Welsh Gov approval...
[Thread] Let me take you through this step by step.

Vaughan Gething took the huge donation from Cardiff-based environmental firm Dauson Environmental Group to help him beat rival Jeremy Miles to be Welsh Labour leader and replace Mark Drakeford as First Minister.

There is a lot of strange things about the £200,000 donation Vaughan Gething has been given to help him beat Jeremy Miles to become First Minister.

Not least that the spending limit for each candidate is £44k....

There is however a loophole Mr Gething can exploit.

[THREAD] In case you missed in Vaughan Gething received the £200k donation from a man prosecuted for illegally dumping waste on a conservation site.

Let me put into context just how big this donation is in terms of Welsh politics...

I have been through every single donation received by Welsh MPs over the last year and there has been cash pouring into certain Tory seats ahead of the General Election.

One former Wales rugby captain gave £7.5K in one donation.

Let's go through and have look.

[Thread] Starting with Craig Williams the MP for Montgomeryshire.

If the latest polls are to be believed this is potentially the only seat that the Conservatives will hold on to at the next General Election.

Welsh farmers are currently FURIOUS with the Welsh Government.

They have some legitimate reasons to be p*ssed off but the WG are also in a really tricky position.

This is complex but really super important & hidden within the debate is a wonderful opportunity.

[THREAD] The picture above (credit @GlynPreston) is from Welshpool Livestock Market.

It isn’t bulls, cows or sheep occupying the pens but something far harder to domesticate: Welsh farmers.

So why are they so mad with the Welsh Gov?

"WE CAN'T SORT THE WELSH NHS BECAUSE WESTMINSTER HAVE CUT OUR FUNDING"

This is the go-to Welsh Gov response to criticism of how they manage the health service.

But this ignores the fact they could simply manage it better.

Let me give you a really good example:

[Thread] Let's take ambulance waits.

This graph shows how many hours of paramedic time are lost in Wales while they are waiting to hand over patients to A&E.

In December 2023 over 22k were lost because hospital ERs were too full to discharge.

Up from 5.3k in 2016.

So I have been having a little look at the people who run some of the Welsh anti-20mph Facebook groups.

It seems that many of them a run by Tory politicians.... who live in England....and support 20mph where they live....

Let's go on a journey (at a very safe speed).

[Thread] I had a look at 4 Facebook pages that opposed Wales' new 20mph limit:

- South Wales Against Blanket 20mph limits - 5.3k members

- West Wales Against Blanket 20mph limits - 4.3k

- North Wales Against Blanket 20mph limits - 2.6k

- Mid Wal Against Blanket 20mph limits - 225

The ongoing crisis at S4C is a real mess and deserves much wider attention.

If this was the BBC/Channel 4, people would be losing their minds.

Last week I interviewed the sacked CEO Sian Doyle.

This week I asked to interview Chairman Rhodri Williams. They said no.

[Thread] There are so many outstanding questions.

It can be a bit confusing keeping up with all this so let me take you through them.

1. Why has Rhodri Williams declined our request for an interview?

I wrote a piece today about how much cash the former head of the National Museum of Wales had received as part of a settlement.

This story has genuinely blown my mind.

It is wild and there are serious question to answer about how public money is spent.

[Thread] This is the former director general of the National Museum of Wales, David Anderson.

Gulp...

A new report is out looking at the challenges for the Welsh NHS over the next 10-25 years.

Long story short, we can't carry on as we are.

The report is pretty hefty but here are some key points...

[Thread] First thing first, the context.

These are the lengths of different waiting lists in Wales.

The very longest ones are going down but the year long waits are actually going up. Plus this only runs to mid summer.

The direction of travel could get worse in winter.

Everyone & their mother knows that Wales has been shafted by successive UK Govs when it comes to rail funding.

This is undisputable - look at the figures.

But what many don't understand is why they are able to do this to.

This is a wrong that needs to be righted.

[Thread] Very briefly (because I have done this to death) let's just mention the HS2 example which, after the PMs announcement yesterday, is all the more appalling.

Basically, because the UK Gov decided to class HS2 as an England AND Wales project, despite non of it being in Wales.

This map of Wales is really interesting and could help change how the Welsh Government supports communities in Wales.

This is (IMO) really interesting so let's have a deeper look.

[Thread] The sheer gulf in the quality of life enjoyed by people who live in different areas of Wales has been laid bare in new research that identifies the places in Wales where life is hardest.

It is hoped the research will guide policymakers to help those most in need.

Right time for a good old fashioned fact check about this £1,600 to illegal immigrants claim.

As always, this takes some unpacking but it is well worth it because some of our politicians are making claims with are demonstrably false.

[Thread]

https://twitter.com/AndrewRTDavies/status/1689573420554403841

Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies has for the past six months been relentless in what he claims is the Welsh Government “paying £1,600 a month to illegal immigrants”.

It is a policy he has described as “scandalous” and has tweeted about over 40 times.

People are crapping all over the plans to change Wales' speed limits to 20mph instead of 30mph.

There is a lot of noise about it but having looked at the evidence I believe this is actually a really good bit of policy.

Let me explain.

[Thread]

https://twitter.com/WalesOnline/status/1691118932839559171

First off, as a journalist, nothing would make my life easier than if the 20mph policy was a dumb one.

However, after a lot of research and weighing up the evidence I am forced to conclude that policy isn’t just good, it is bloody excellent.

The Welsh Government are refusing to disclose vital information into how they handled Covid 19.

IMO, they are using the UK Covid Inquiry to avoid proper scrutiny of how they handled care homes in the early part of the pandemic.

Let me explain

[Thread] Let me briefly give you the context.

In the early months of the pandemic the Welsh Government were desperate to get as many people out of hospitals and into care homes as possible in order to free up capacity.