DOUBLING DOWN ON 20

Of all Labour's oppressive nanny state laws throughout the history of our nation, there are seldom few more unpopular than the blanket 20mph mandate in Wales.  Although the policy did feature in their 2021 Senedd manifesto, the reality for drivers when it was introduced two years later has been insufferable.  Longer journey times, increased traffic, an even greater threat of speeding fines and all round frustration.

As Labour looks set to fall from its 27 year grip on the Senedd, its politicians are beginning to reflect on the inevitable.  Of course they are not issuing any apologies, in fact quite the opposite - the narcissist control freaks are doubling down.  Ex-first minister Mark Drakeford told WalesOnline last week that he had 'no regrets' over Labour policies, including the 20mph mandate.  He said:  "We know from the latest figures there are people alive today who would not have been alive if we hadn't changed that."

He goes on to say that there have been '100 fewer life-changing accidents' as a result of the policy.  His colleague Julie James echoed the claim in a defence of the policy last week.  Addressing the Senedd, the minister said people opposed to the policy 'should be thoroughly ashamed', while making the bizarre claim that 'women and children' were now safer (apparently men's lives don't matter).  However, what Drakeford, James and their comrades conveniently fail to factor in is that ambulance times - in fact response times of all the emergency services - has increased thanks to growing congestion and heavier traffic resulting from the policy.  How many lives has that cost?

And what about the claim that the policy has 'cleaned up the air'?  James made the claim twice in her speech, without zero evidence to support it.  Repeated studies have found that the policy has had virtually zero effect on air pollution.  We would argue that increased road congestion, with engines idling in stationary traffic, cannot possibly result in 'cleaner air' - in fact quite the opposite.

Watch the clip below (one minute watch)

Of course the saddest thing about the outcome of the 2026 Senedd election is that despite Labour's demise, nothing will change.  Welsh voters look set to replace Labour with an equally damaging leftist successor - Plaid Cymru.  Worse still, Plaid will probably have to reach out to other leftist parties in order to form some kind of coalition government.  This could include Labour, but there will also be an option to include the Greens.  All three parties strongly support the 20mph policy, while the Greens want even tighter restrictions on motorists in order to get them off the road entirely.

Both Reform and the Conservatives have pledged to scrap the 20mph policy.  Hopefully, Welsh voters will wake up before May, but the likelihood suggests they face yet another five years of nanny state policies.  Vote better next time!

MEME MONDAY EXTRA: RAYNER'S PORTRAIT

As promised, we had a little fun with the presentation that took place in Westminster last week.  One of the original images can be seen above.

All the following efforts were posted on Facebook and we asked followers to like and share their favourites.  They are presented below in ascending order of favourability, beginning with three website exclusives that did not make the cut.

binlabour.com exclusive.  We could not possibly risk using this as it contains
one of the images that resulted in a recent Facebook strike

binlabour.com exclusive

binlabour.com exclusive

17 reactions and 2 shares

19 reactions

21 reactions

21 reactions

21 reactions and 1 share

28 reactions and 1 share

30 reactions and 3 shares

33 reactions and 1 share

33 reactions and 2 shares

33 reactions and 3 shares

35 reactions and 3 shares

36 reactions and 3 shares

41 reactions

57 reactions and 8 shares

111 reactions and 40 shares - far and away the most popular.  This one also
found its way onto X in various posts.  Apologies to Tim Healy!

The Facebook album containing these memes can be found here.

BRYANT'S BONKERS QT REMARK

The 20mph mandatory speed limit is hugely unpopular in Wales and some Labour politicians are getting nervous about an electoral backlash.  Rhondda MP Chris Bryant was the Labour representative on BBC's Question Time last week in Cardiff.  He defended the policy, but noted: "There are some areas where it's just a bit, frankly, bonkers. You go from 20 to 30 back to 20."  That remark will not have gone down well at all in the Drakeford household, or those of Senedd politicians who backed the scheme - including the Plaid and Lib Dem AMs whose support carried the vote.

Bryant will have had one eye on the general election when he made the comment.  In Rhondda he will be defending an 11,440 majority.  Drakeford's scheme is part of a long term objective to abolish or at least severely restrict private car use in Wales, similar to other measures elsewhere in the UK, such as the ULEZ expansion.  However, at present there are no trains running in Bryant's constituency due to ongoing line works, so the argument for switching to public transport has largely fell on deaf and increasingly agitated ears.

If the backlash against 20mph is not enough, how are Drakeford and his successors going to make a case for getting people out of their cars in rural communities which have no public transport links?  And exactly how fast and how far will Keir Starmer push a similar objective in England when he enters Downing Street as PM?

These questions will be answered as the clock ticks down to 2030 and the (attempted) implementation of the globalists' Agenda 2030 plan.  Resistance and awareness grows by the day and the chances of their success fades.

SHEERMAN LOSING PLOT

At 83 and still clinging to the Westminster gravy train, Huddersfield's Barry Sheerman appears to be losing the plot.  On Thursday evening a bizarre tweet appeared from his Twitter account, a photograph of a meme that was on a laptop screen.  The meme in question has become very popular in Wales thanks to recent events, but it seems that old Bazza hadn't seen it before and was clearly quite taken by it (see below).

The problem for Barry is that the meme is used by opponents of Mark Drakeford's absurd 20mph decree - a Labour policy.  It's not clear if Sheerman was aware that Labour govern Wales or whether he is just past caring with his time on the gravy train (finally) drawing to a close at the next election.  Either way, he deleted the tweet a few minutes later - but not before a screen grab by BTLP.

What a clown?

LABOUR CRUSH SNP

Labour's crushing victory over the SNP in the Rutherglen by-election has implications far beyond the Scottish borders.  The SNP's persistent electoral successes have been a major hindrance to any hopes of a Labour general election victory since 2010.  Gordon Brown left office with 41 of the 59 Scottish seats still in Labour hands, but Ed Miliband lost 40 of those in 2015.  Labour never recovered from that crushing blow and prior to Rutherglen still had just one MP north of the border.

They now have two MPs in Scotland, thanks to a huge 20 per cent swing in Thursday's by-election.  If such a colossal swing were to be repeated in the next general election, Labour would surge back in Scotland and potentially deliver the keys of Number Ten to Keir Starmer.

However, things are not all gloomy for Westminster Conservatives.  While Labour may be on the up as a result of SNP free fall, things are not so rosy for them in Wales.  It is yet to be seen just how fierce the electoral backlash will be in the wake of Mark Drakeford's absurd 20 miles per hour scheme.  If Labour were to haemorrhage seats in the still standing 'red wall' of South Wales that could wipe out a potential advance in Scotland.  The more densely populated Valleys account for more than half of Wales' 20 Westminster seats and all but two are currently red.

Labour's war on the motorist in Wales, London and beyond could yet be Starmer's undoing.

Rutherglen & Hamilton West Parliamentary By-Election

Michael Shanks (Lab) 17,845 (58.6%) +24.1%

Katy Loudon (SNP) 8,399 (27.6%) -16.6%

Thomas Kerr (Con) 1,192 (3.9%) -11.1%

Gloria Adebo (LDem) 895 (2.9%) -2.3%

Cameron Eadie (Grn) 601 (2.0%) New

David Stark (RefUK) 403 (1.3%) New

Niall Fraser (SFP) 319 (1.1%) New

Bill Bonnar (SSP) 271 (0.9%) New

Colette Walker (ISP) 207 (0.7%) New

Christopher Sermanni (TUSC) 178 (0.6%) New

Andrew Daly (Ind) 81 (0.3%) New

Ewan Hoyle (Volt) 46 (0.2%) New

Prince Ankit Love, Emperor of India (Ind) 34 (0.1%) New

Garry Cooke (Ind) 6 (0.1%<) New

Lab GAIN from SNP

This month's Time magazine celebrates Humza Yousaf, in
remarkably poor sense of timing

A WELSH REBELLION?

A petition set up on the Welsh Senedd website has quickly become the most signed in the history of Welsh government.  Having gathered more than 100,000 signatures since Sunday, it is - not surprisingly - about Mark Drakeford's absurd 20 mile per hour speed limit.

The daft law designates a default 20mph limit for every road in a built-up area, with a handful of exceptions where local authorities have applied for exemptions.  The law was brought in on Sunday and affects around 3 per cent of all Welsh roads.  Needless to say, the law has provoked widespread dismay among drivers and the many businesses who will suffer as traffic backs up and deliveries are delayed.

The petition against 20mph has - at the time of writing - surpassed a quarter of a million signatures.  That's a whopping eight per cent of the entire population of Wales and far outstrips the previous record, which was set in 2020 and again, in opposition to another outrageous Drakeford imposition.  During the scamdemic, Drakeford declared a two week 'firebreak' lockdown and ordered supermarkets to bar the sale of non-essential items.  This led to a bizarre situation in which people were allowed to buy wine, beer and spirits (already subject to astronomical price rises thanks to Drakeford's minimum alcohol price) while being unable to purchase clothes for their children.  The petition against this decree garnered almost 68,000 signatures, a figure now dwarfed by the 20mph petition.  A Facebook group set up in opposition to 20mph has swelled to almost 50,000 members.

The 20mph law is inspired by the same mindset that gave Londoners ULEZ and increasing numbers of UK cities 'clean air zones'.  It has nothing to do with health and everything to do with the imposition of so-called '15 minute cities' where our movements are controlled by the state.  We can but hope the Welsh rise up and fight 20mph just as the infamous 'blade runners' are doing against ULEZ in Greater London.

Some of the new 20mph signs have already been vandalised

A BIT RICH, COMRADE

There aren't many days on which the First Minister of Wales doesn't take aim at UK government policy on Twitter.  Following the failure of the Rwanda policy it was suggested that some of the migrants could be given electronic tags, so that they don't abscond from bail.  They have, after-all, entered the UK illegally.  This was all lost on open borders enthusiast Mark Drakeford who lambasted the very suggestion...

Of course not so long ago the Welsh Commissar effectively closed the Welsh border several times and told, specifically, English people to stay away.  What if they too were 'seeking safety and sanctuary' Mr Drakeford?  Does this sanctuary of which you speak only apply to foreigners?  Or was this merely an opportunity for you to flex your socialist nanny state muscles, an opportunity that no comrade could fail to seize with both limp-wristed hands?

As for treating people with 'dignity and respect'.  Was it not only a few months ago that people in Wales who had not received an experimental and potentially fatal Covid vaccine were largely excluded from society?  They were treated like second class citizens, criminalised and barred from hospitality.  Meanwhile, the compliant ones were forced to present their papers or digital ID in order to participate in society and failure to do so would relegate them to the lowly status of the unjabbed lepers.

Those who may be tagged by immigration officials have entered this country illegally Mr Drakeford.  They may well pose a threat to the security and safety of our citizens - as with the abhorrent bombing of the Manchester Arena that cost so many lives.  What is abhorrent about looking after the safety of your own citizens?  Is that not what you were doing with your over-the-top Covid restrictions?

We strongly suspect it was more likely that you merely leapt at the chance to stamp your socialist authority on the proletariat and when some refused to comply you created an apartheid society.  You will undoubtedly be gagging to do so again, especially seeing as Covid restrictions in Wales are 'paused' as opposed to 'ended'.

An apartheid regime Mr Drakeford, really?  What would Jeremy say?

ACTIONS AND CONSEQUENCES

One of the few saving graces from Boris Johnson's torrid time in office is that a significant chunk of the population know that if Labour had been running things, England would have been locked down longer,  harder and more often.  Last Christmas - despite all the data coming from South Africa about how mild the Omicron variant was - Labour clamoured for a fourth lockdown.  That would have been catastrophic, as all the lockdowns were, but with Covid reduced to cold-type symptoms it would have been the most absurd.

The only part of the UK under a Labour government was also the last part of the UK to end all Covid restrictions.  Mark Drakeford finally lifted the remaining restriction - face masks in health and social care settings - on May 30.  However, in announcing the change he declared that such restrictions had been 'paused', raising the spectre of renewed diktats in the autumn: "We will put all these measures on hold.  However, we aren’t simply abandoning them, we are pausing them in case we see another pandemic wave in the autumn, or the winter." 

As if these socialist policies hadn't done enough harm already.

The cost of living crisis is a cost of lockdown crisis.  Us mere mortals will all be much poorer as a result of the wave of self-defeating, pointless, costly and painful policies meted out across these islands.  None of the governing parties are free of blame.  While the Tories did their best to oppose some measures in Scotland and Wales, they dished them out in Westminster.  For Labour and the SNP, such an opportunity to dictate the lives of the proletariat was a dream come true.

When Keir Starmer stands up in the Commons and attacks the government over the cost of living, NHS waiting lists and tax burden - we must never forget that he voted for all this.  Repeatedly.  In fact he consistently called for lockdowns to come sooner and argued against lifting them.  It is only thanks to Labour support that vaccine mandates were passed in England last year - including the despicable NHS mandate that would have seen up to 100,000 staff sacked had it been carried through.

As if things weren't bad enough for patients already - missed diagnoses, record waiting lists, abysmal ambulance response times.  Ironically, one of those complaining about the state of the NHS is none other than Labour's Jess Phillips, who repeatedly voted for all this.

Imagine complaining about the consequence of your own actions, but not being self aware enough to realise?  Phillips encapsulates the current woeful state of the green benches.

LET THEM EAT BUGS

Mark Drakeford has tweeted a picture of himself tucking into some 'delightful Welsh produce' less than two weeks after it was revealed a pilot scheme in Welsh primary schools would introduce children to the somewhat less delightful concept of eating insects.

Pupils aged 5-11 at four primary schools will take part in the scheme and will be offered insect protein in the form of mince made from the likes of grasshoppers, locusts and mealworms.  If only we were making this shit up.

Bug-eating and plant-based alternatives to meat are being increasingly pushed by the global establishment as part of their crazed 'net zero' and 'zero carbon' agenda.  One of the motives for pushing insects is that they produce less CO2 than cattle and poultry.  On the same day Drakeford was pretending to indulge Welsh farming, the government in New Zealand announced plans to tax farmers on gases emitted from burping cattle.  If only we were making this shit up.

The long-term intention is that farming as we've known it for centuries will largely go to the wall, while consumers are forced to choose between plants and bugs for dinner.  Of course, not all farmers will go under - a few will be retained in order to provide the global elites with all the finest cuts of meat, while we tuck into our reconstituted mealworm goop.

As with Covid, the bourgeoisie socialists in Wales are prepared to go further and faster in this course of action, while not practicing what they preach.

DRAKEFORD BANS SMACKING

Socialist Wales has become the second part of the UK to outlaw all physical chastisement of children - after socialist Scotland, naturally.  The new law criminalises parents who hit, smack or shake their children.  First Minister Mark Drakeford tweeted that he was 'really proud' of the new law and describes it as 'an historic achievement'.  He also released a video in which he quoted a UN convention on children's rights.

Drakeford says: "The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child makes it clear that children have the right to be protected from harm and from being hurt and this includes physical punishment".  However, Article 19 to which he is referring does not specify smacking or shaking.  The charter states: "Governments must do all they can to ensure that children are protected from all forms of violence, abuse, neglect and bad treatment by their parents or anyone else who looks after them".

Smacking a naughty toddler on the bottom is an 'act of violence' only in the twisted minds of the left, who seem to think they have a right to intrude on how parents raise their children.

Watch below as commissar Drakeford takes great delight in announcing his latest act of social engineering.

This is the nanny state of the socialist.  Commonsense dictates that there is a clear difference between minor physical chastisement and violent abuse.  Unfortunately, there is no commonsense where socialists prevail.

WELSH LABOUR'S HYPOCRISY

Welsh Labour continue to snipe at the Westminster Tory government, following Mark Drakeford's extraordinary attack last Friday.  Welsh government minister Vaughan Gething tweeted on Wednesday to brag that his government 'had never had a VIP lane' and that 'the same rules applied to everyone'.  This is a bit rich coming from Gething, who was Welsh health minister when he was photographed eating a meal at a picnic table with his family during the first lockdown.  Gething, of course, had done nothing wrong according to the Welsh government - but ordinary Welsh folk could potentially have been fined for doing the same thing.

Then there was the Senedd drinking scandal, when three assembly members were revealed to have consumed alcohol in the parliament building days after an alcohol ban was slapped on Welsh pubs.  Two of them were Tories, the other was Labour.  Apologies were issued all round, including from Alun Davies - the Labour member involved in the breach who was also suspended from the Labour group in response to the scandal.  Davies was later readmitted to the Labour group, but look who retweeted Gething on Wednesday...

Short memory or selective memory Alun?

More recently there was also Mark Drakeford's Diwali knees-up in November.  At a time when he and his government were beginning to ramp up their Covid rhetoric, the First Minister was filmed dancing among an indoor crowd at a Diwali celebration in Cardiff.  Despite the never-ending mask mandate in Wales, there were no face masks to be seen anywhere in the footage (see below).

The Welsh government later said that no rules were broken as it took place in a premises where food and drink were being served.  A month later the same government ordered nightclubs in Wales to close.  It's safe to dance in a crowd when you're the First Minister, but ordinary Welsh folk must be careful!

FACTUALLY DEVOID DRAKEFORD

During Mark Drakeford's weekly press conference on Friday he lashed out against the UK government over its reluctance to impose stricter Covid measures for England.  Wales, along with Scotland and Northern Ireland, has implemented far harsher restrictions to tackle what is effectively a cold.  People in Wales can even be fined £60 for going to their place of work, if it can be shown they could work from home.

Watch Drakeford's extraordinary attack below.

Drakeford is clearly rattled, as well he might be, because the facts show that despite all his madcap restrictions - Wales continues to fair worse than England this winter.

Data that is publicly available on the UK government's coronavirus dashboard shows that as well as having a higher infection rate per 100,000 for the entirety of the pandemic, Wales currently has a far higher infection rate than England and second only to Northern Ireland (see screenshot below).  In direct contradiction to his own assessment, England is currently fairing better than all three of the devolved nations in spite of all their Orwellian restrictions.

The increase in the case rate per 100,000 since the start of the Omicron outbreak shows that, once again, England is best placed from all the UK nations (see table below).

Equally damning is the complete lack of media scrutiny in response to Drakeford's factually impotent outburst.  Why has the media meekly accepted his demonstrably incorrect assessment?  We know why, because like him they crave restrictions.  For them England is the outlier - for despite its masks, vax passes and mandates, the Johnson regime is not toeing the line of globalist tyranny quick enough.

THE ABSURDITY OF OMICON

It becomes clearer by the day that Omicron- or Omicon as it should be more accurately described - is a mild cold-like illness that has resulted in as many as zero deaths and very few hospitalisations.  Despite this reality, British politicians are chomping at the bit to impose restrictions on our festivities.  A split in the Westminster government has reportedly staved off further curbs for England, although Plan B is now in place and will surely be expanded in the weeks to come.

If anyone wants to know what kind of authoritarian mandates the Westminster government has in store for England, all they need do is look around the Western world - or closer to home.  The socialist governments of Scotland and Wales have been less hesitant in implementing such diktats, which is why the likes of vaccine passports, mask mandates and working from home decrees were already in place ahead of England.  Likewise, post-Christmas restrictions have already been confirmed by Sturgeon and Drakeford.

Sturgeon has torpedoed Hogmanay celebrations by banning 'large gatherings' from Boxing Day onwards and ordering nightclubs to close for 'three weeks'.  We've heard that before.  What are the odds they will still be closed in three months time, some of them permanently?  She has also re-imposed social distancing and table service for remaining hospitality settings.

Mark Drakeford has gone even further.  In addition to ordering nightclubs to shut their doors from Boxing Day, he has decreed a whole host of wide-ranging measures as follows:

- Groups of no more than six can meet in pubs, restaurants and cinemas from Boxing Day

- Licensed premises must operate table service only, plus social distancing, face masks and contact tracing

- Outdoor events limited to 50 people

- Indoor events limited to 30 people - except weddings and funerals

- Two metre social distancing in workplaces and public places

- Fines for workers who travel to their workplace when they could work from home

Unlike in Scotland, Drakeford has not proposed any time limit for such measures.

All this for a variant that causes symptoms so close to that of the common cold that no-one can tell the difference - without a test that is.  Restrictions at this point are insane, but what it is even more mind-blowing is that many people will comply with these crazed diktats.

Anyone who thinks that such lunacy won't come to England clearly hasn't been paying attention.  Remember that the first mask mandates were implemented after the first wave had subsided, not during it.  Once Omicon subsides and even with no clear evidence to suggest that the NHS is at risk of being 'overwhelmed', our puppet governments will still implement ever greater restrictions with the main objective to usher in a new digital age of total social control.

For the sake of future generations we must not allow this to happen.

PLAID ENTER LABOUR COALITION

Plaid's Adam Price and Labour's Mark Drakeford

Plaid Cymru members have voted in favour of a 'co-operation agreement' with the governing Labour Party of Wales. 94 per cent of Plaid's members backed the deal, which stops short of a formal coalition.  There will be no Plaid ministers in the Welsh government, but the wide-ranging agreement ensures that Wales will remain firmly in the grip of the hard left for the next three years.

Despite Labour being by far the largest party in the Senedd following May's election, they were still one seat short of an overall majority.  This was not disastrous for them in the short term, as they could generally rely on their fellow leftists in Plaid Cymru to pass legislation.  However, a divergence between the two parties would cause problems for Mark Drakeford and so - after six months of talks - a deal has been agreed.

There are 46 policies in the agreement, which can be read in full here.  These policies include a tourist tax, the creation of a publicly owned energy provider and the expansion of the Senedd from its current 60 members to either 80 or 100.  The latter is clearly aimed at securing Labour's long term position in government and finally achieving the outright majority that has eluded them since the inception of home rule in 1999.  Most of the extra seats will come from South Wales, where Labour support is strongest.

Plaid have gone into coalition with Labour before in Wales - in 2007.  Plaid's leader Adam Price hailed the agreement as a seed for 'a new society, a new Wales, a new beginning'.  It's a remarkable turnaround for a guy who said prior to May's election that his party 'would not support a Labour government under any circumstances'.  Click below for the clip and note the response of the presenter to Price's seemingly decisive stance...

It took a little longer than a couple of months for Price to be shown up as yet another disingenuous politician, but his u-turn couldn't be clearer.

DRAKEFORD ANOTHER MASK HYPOCRITE

A week after Twitter had a meltdown and the media ran wild about Boris Johnson's mask-free hospital visit, there has been a relatively minor fuss in Wales about Mark Drakeford prancing about mask-free in a crowded Diwali celebration.  While many will argue that a hospital is a different ball game to a religious knees-up, it should be duly noted that the PM masked up upon meeting patients and was only photographed mask-free in a corridor.  However, the double standard was not Johnson's on this occasion.  There is no mask mandate in England and there has not been since July.  Wales is different.

Although Wales was the last place in the UK to install a mask mandate, it has never relinquished that mandate.  Drakeford likes to pontificate about such measures in the same way that his Labour colleagues in England do, but like them he does not consistently practice what he preaches.  His bizarre Diwali dancing video asides (see below), Drakeford and his colleagues appear to mask up only when they feel like it.  Unlike their Commons counterparts, Welsh Labour MS's only mask up in some Senedd sittings.

When the topic of Drakeford's Diwali knees-up was raised by a Conservative MS in the Senedd last week, Drakeford was sat there unmasked.  Click below for that video and note the response of Labour's health minister Eluned Morgan who deems the issue 'not appropriate' for a statement.  Do as we say peasants - not as we do!

Labour MS's were also unmasked when the Senedd re-opened last month, in fact the only people in the chamber who appeared to be masked up on that occasion were Prince Charles and the female harpist.  On that same day Drakeford tweeted a series of photos from the ceremony, including two in which he meets the Queen and Prince Charles.  Again, no consistency on masks.  He wears one when meeting Charles, but not when meeting Her Majesty.

Note also the complete lack of reference to Her Majesty in Drakeford's message.  As a hard left socialist it was clearly no honour to receive her and as a hard left socialist he preaches to the proletariat while not leading by example.

DRAKEFORD EXPANDS VAX PASSES

In his three-weekly update on Friday, Mark Drakeford confirmed his plans to expand vaccine passports in Wales to cinemas, theatres and concert halls.  Those venues would join nightclubs and large-scale events which are already 'mandated' to check passes.

This is just as we predicted.  Once the initial passport remit clears political legislature the politicians will expand their use to include more and more settings until they have almost complete digital control over our movements.  To further that very point Drakeford added that if virus levels continued to rise in Wales he would add hospitality to the list of venues that will be required to demand a vax pass, meaning that the days of a pint after work or a meal out would no longer be possible without a QR code.

Watch Drakeford's sinister threat to Welsh hospitality venues below.

A vax pass for hospitality venues would bring Wales in line with much of the Western world, where citizens cannot go to a pub, restaurant or cafe without papers.  For any so-called democracy to enact such dystopian and apartheid measures is an outrage and we must all resist it.  Thankfully, a number of establishments in Wales have already chosen not to accept Drakeford's mandate, but that's not enough to end this nonsense.  And nonsense it is...

Elsewhere in his briefing Drakeford responded to a media question about vax passes: "Your pass should be very easy to show.  You will then know with people sitting next to you - you are safe".  We know now that none of the Covid vaccines currently in use prevent people catching the virus or passing it on.  In fact, according to recently released UK government data - the vaccinated in all age groups over 30 are more likely to be infected with the virus than the unvaccinated (see table below).

The source for this table is here.

So if the establishment narrative is all about infections - and not hospitalisations and deaths as it should be - then there is simply no case for vaccine passports.  If we say no and we do not comply with this, together we can stop this totalitarian control nonsense in its tracks.  Hold the line.

DRAKEFORD TO IMPOSE VAX PASSPORTS

Mark Drakeford has confirmed that Wales will join Scotland in implementing domestic vaccine passports from next month.  However, unlike in Scotland (and England, when they are implemented as part of Johnson's 'Plan B'), unvaccinated people will still be able to attend nightclubs and large-scale events if they can show proof of a negative lateral flow test.  In order to do so they will still have to use the sinister NHS Covid app to obtain a 'Covid Pass'.

Drakeford bizarrely claimed during his three-weekly briefing on Friday this meant that Wales was not implementing vaccine passports, merely a Covid Pass.  He did so to try and assuage libertarian concerns, but it will fall on deaf ears as this new mandate remains a grave abuse of state power.  Furthermore, at no point during his 55 minute briefing did he say that the move would be 'temporary'.  He did admit that the vaccines do not prevent transmission - so what is the point of a vaccine passport if it is not merely a form of social control?

Vax passes are a slippery slope and we must oppose them in order to prevent a CCP-style social credit system for future generations.  Our ancestors did not die for this.

The fourth 'Worldwide Rally for Freedom' takes place on Saturday in cities around the world, in opposition to ongoing Covid tyranny.  Participating UK cities include London, Belfast, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds, Bristol, Hull and Cardiff (see below).  For more information please click here.

LEFT CLING TO MASKS OF FEAR

While the Westminster government has committed to abolishing the mask mandate across England from next week, other parts of the UK under the control of the left will remain subjected to mask mandates for the foreseeable future.

Mark Drakeford has committed to ending 'most' restrictions in Wales next month, but face masks will continue to be mandated in most public settings - including shops, public transport and health/social care facilities.  No end date has been suggested.

Nicola Sturgeon says masks will be mandated in Scotland "for some time to come".  That sounds rather ominous.  Sturgeon appears the least keen of all the devolved governments to loosen the Covid grip.

Sadiq Khan has decreed that face masks will remain a 'condition of carriage' on public transport in London.  It's not clear yet if his Greater Manchester counterpart Andy Burnham will follow suit, as pressure mounts from the pro-lockdown media and the rabid left who long to be subjugated by big government.

There is little evidence that masks reduce the spread of coronavirus.  There was no mask mandate during the first wave, but there was during the second much bigger wave.  Conversely, the removal of mask mandates in US states such as Texas and Florida - condemned by the left and Joe Biden - resulted in no increased transmission.

There is no evidence masks reduce transmission, but no doubt they increase fear of coronavirus.  As Boris Johnson now freely admits, face masks were a 'basic tool to control human behaviour'.  It is little wonder then that the powers looking to cling on to these tools are all from the totalitarian left of politics.  No self-respecting conservative or libertarian should allow government to dictate these symbols of subjugation and fear ever again.  We are many, they are few.

NO FREEDOM DAY FOR WALES

Despite Wales doing so much better than England in terms of infections, hospitalisations and deaths, not surprisingly its socialist government is not keen on relinquishing the totalitarian measures it has accumulated.  Speaking to LBC Radio's Peter Gillibrand on Monday, Mark Drakeford said he had no plans for a 'freedom day' like the June 21 date promised by the Johnson government in England.  The First Minister said Wales would continue to restore freedoms in a 'step by step' process.  However, no-one beyond the Welsh government knows what that process is or when, if ever, pre-Covid liberties will be restored in full.

Gillibrand phrased his question around the fact that coronavirus is still in retreat in Wales.  There have been zero Covid deaths recorded in Wales for 13 days, a record for Wales and only beaten elsewhere by the 16 day stretch enjoyed by Northern Ireland last September.  Hospitalisations are also down more than 70 per cent, compared to -0.3 per cent for the UK as a whole.

Click below for the exchange between Gillibrand and Drakeford.

STARMER BREAKS TWITTER SILENCE

Behind closed doors Keir Starmer was clearly a busy man in the aftermath of Thursday's poll disaster.  He gave one very brief interview on Friday, refused to speak to reporters outside his home and his social media accounts went silent for four days.  The end result was an underwhelming and drawn out reshuffle, which despite media speculation to the contrary, left Ashworth and Nandy in place.  The only major change was Rachel Reeves replacing the non-entity Anneliese Dodds as shadow chancellor.

The Rayner debacle ended with her taking on three fairly obscure roles - shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, shadow minister for the Cabinet Office and a new position that Starmer has invented, the shadow secretary of state for the future of work.  It's difficult to see this as the 'significant promotion' Starmer loyalists had predicted, but more of a sideways shift to placate angry party activists.

Starmer broke his social media silence by retweeting some of the new faces - Rachel Reeves, Wes Streeting, Shabana Mahmood (replacing Rayner as national campaign co-ordinator), Thangam Debbonaire, Lucy Powell and Angela Rayner herself.  Then, just before noon yesterday, he finallly acknowledged Labour's success in Wales - two days after counting was complete and two days after Jeremy Corbyn had publicly congratulated his friend Mark Drakeford.

Starmer followed up with a string of congratulatory tweets (better late than never) at intermittent intervals throughout the day.  They were as follows:

Dan Norris (new West of England mayor) at 12:38

Tracy Brabin (new West Yorkshire mayor) at 14:00

Marvin Rees (re-elected Bristol mayor) at 14:45

Sadiq Khan at 15:20

Andy Burnham at 16:25

Nik Johnson (new Peterborough and Cambridgeshire mayor) at 18:42

Paul Dennett (re-elected Salford mayor) at 19:29

Cambridge Labour (have no idea why he singled them out, they merely held control of the council with an increased majority of one seat) at 19:54

Steve Rotherham/Joanne Anderson/Emily Spurrell (Liverpool metro mayor/city mayor/pcc) at 20:33

How odd there was no congratulations for Anas Sarwar on Scottish Labour's magnificent third place finish (and the worst ever performance by Labour in Scotland, despite the mainstream media having beefed him up as the saviour of Scottish Labour and Unionism).  Never mind Anas.