Ben Wildsmith
@benwildsmith.bsky.social
Nation.Cymru columnist. Git.
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Now that Reform UK has, as Nigel Farage predicted, replaced the Tory party, it remains to be seen if Zack Polanski’s Greens will do a similar number on Labour. Plaid Cymru seem sure to hoover up the non-Reform vote here in Wales ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-19eM
November 20, 2025 at 8:20 PM
Now that Reform UK has, as Nigel Farage predicted, replaced the Tory party, it remains to be seen if Zack Polanski’s Greens will do a similar number on Labour. Plaid Cymru seem sure to hoover up the non-Reform vote here in Wales ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-19eM
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Everything from the royal family to the Church of England, to the Labour Party, the Conservative Party and the BBC is in existential crisis over the border ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-190y
November 16, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Everything from the royal family to the Church of England, to the Labour Party, the Conservative Party and the BBC is in existential crisis over the border ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-190y
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Self-styled ‘patriots’, festooned in flags and poppies, cannot wait to euthanise a public British institution in favour of private news organisations funded from who knows where, and by God knows whom✍️ Ben Wildsmith buff.ly/XAwF35X
November 13, 2025 at 8:20 PM
Self-styled ‘patriots’, festooned in flags and poppies, cannot wait to euthanise a public British institution in favour of private news organisations funded from who knows where, and by God knows whom✍️ Ben Wildsmith buff.ly/XAwF35X
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Archiving our experiences whilst they are ongoing is part of a new normal that sees us becoming detached from our own lives ✍️Ben Wildsmith buff.ly/WPLQ5m1
November 9, 2025 at 8:20 PM
Archiving our experiences whilst they are ongoing is part of a new normal that sees us becoming detached from our own lives ✍️Ben Wildsmith buff.ly/WPLQ5m1
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As the UK heads towards the 2026 devolved elections and a likely 2029-30 general election, Caerphilly offers a blueprint for resistance to Reform’s national surge✍️Thomas Lockwood
Could tactical voting block Reform in future elections? Lessons from Caerphilly
Thomas Lockwood, PhD Researcher in Politics, York St John University Plaid Cymru’s overwhelming victory in the recent Caerphilly Senedd byelection shattered over a century of political tradition.…
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November 6, 2025 at 9:00 PM
As the UK heads towards the 2026 devolved elections and a likely 2029-30 general election, Caerphilly offers a blueprint for resistance to Reform’s national surge✍️Thomas Lockwood
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From here on, the monarchy dances to a new tune. Without magic blood, the performance will have to be up to scratch or new dancers will be found. That’s showbiz ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-18fr
November 2, 2025 at 8:03 PM
From here on, the monarchy dances to a new tune. Without magic blood, the performance will have to be up to scratch or new dancers will be found. That’s showbiz ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-18fr
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The electorate in Caerphilly proved that 21st century politics is a sophisticated business and that people have grown past tribal loyalties to prioritise values that are under threat from populists ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1863
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October 30, 2025 at 8:20 PM
The electorate in Caerphilly proved that 21st century politics is a sophisticated business and that people have grown past tribal loyalties to prioritise values that are under threat from populists ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1863
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Reports routinely describe Andrew as ‘entitled’. Well, he literally is, isn’t he? Every moment of the man’s life has been experienced from a protected, privileged vantage point so removed from ordinary lives as to preclude empathy for them @WildsmithBen wp.me/p8Mk4U-17Rr
October 26, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Reports routinely describe Andrew as ‘entitled’. Well, he literally is, isn’t he? Every moment of the man’s life has been experienced from a protected, privileged vantage point so removed from ordinary lives as to preclude empathy for them @WildsmithBen wp.me/p8Mk4U-17Rr
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By now, the Reform suits had been joined by Laura Anne Jones MS, whose permanent smile had a long night ahead of it. It was a lonely night too, as by midnight the men at C&A had faces like half a tin of condemned veal ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-17Kq
October 24, 2025 at 7:20 PM
By now, the Reform suits had been joined by Laura Anne Jones MS, whose permanent smile had a long night ahead of it. It was a lonely night too, as by midnight the men at C&A had faces like half a tin of condemned veal ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-17Kq
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Reform UK fanatics, with their laughing emojis, ‘legitimate concerns about immigration’, and belief that the 2.2% of our population intend to turn Wales into a Muslim state, are unreachable via reasoned debate ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-17rH
October 19, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Reform UK fanatics, with their laughing emojis, ‘legitimate concerns about immigration’, and belief that the 2.2% of our population intend to turn Wales into a Muslim state, are unreachable via reasoned debate ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-17rH
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As our politics sinks into toxic rancour, essentially reduced to a choice between scapegoats, we are facing monumental change that is proceeding with little or no democratic input ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-17ie
October 16, 2025 at 7:20 PM
As our politics sinks into toxic rancour, essentially reduced to a choice between scapegoats, we are facing monumental change that is proceeding with little or no democratic input ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-17ie
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As information becomes concentrated in the possession of a handful of billionaires and sold to us as a utility, it is vital that we produce human beings who can think contrary to those interests✍️ Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1762
October 12, 2025 at 7:03 PM
As information becomes concentrated in the possession of a handful of billionaires and sold to us as a utility, it is vital that we produce human beings who can think contrary to those interests✍️ Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-1762
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Reform-friendly influencers are actively calling for the Senedd’s abolition now, even as the party is contesting a seat in it. The Brit-Nat, racist fanatics who shout loudest on social media, however, do not win elections as yet✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-16WK
October 9, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Reform-friendly influencers are actively calling for the Senedd’s abolition now, even as the party is contesting a seat in it. The Brit-Nat, racist fanatics who shout loudest on social media, however, do not win elections as yet✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-16WK
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We have reached the point where Labour and Reform are riding the same train. It’s time to change tracks ✍️Ben Wildsmith
Time to Change Tracks
Ben Wildsmith The last legitimately elected and stable government we had was David Cameron’s ministry in 2015. Once that was undone by Brexit a year later, the country has been effectively…
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October 6, 2025 at 8:01 PM
We have reached the point where Labour and Reform are riding the same train. It’s time to change tracks ✍️Ben Wildsmith
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As Reform peddles its lies against a background of Putinism and personal disgrace, our governing party misleads electors in the service of a Westminster leadership that impoverishes us as a matter of reflex ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-16L6
October 5, 2025 at 7:03 PM
As Reform peddles its lies against a background of Putinism and personal disgrace, our governing party misleads electors in the service of a Westminster leadership that impoverishes us as a matter of reflex ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-16L6
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Labour is now unable to change course credibly because nobody trusts the man at the wheel. If he stays, the coming rout in May’s elections will be UK-wide and quite possibly final ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-16Ct
October 2, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Labour is now unable to change course credibly because nobody trusts the man at the wheel. If he stays, the coming rout in May’s elections will be UK-wide and quite possibly final ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-16Ct
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From the doof, doof, doof of AI-written dance music, to the blue and orange tyranny of Greggs on every High Street, life is battered into familiar shapes through which our primal needs – sex and sausage rolls – are marketed to us ✍️Ben Wildsmith
In Search of the Jazz Cockerel
Ben Wildsmith First off, they don’t go ‘cock-a-doodle-do’, do they? The world over, regardless of geography or culture, the male Galliforme announces his terrifying, sexually-obsessed entry into the d...
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September 28, 2025 at 7:01 PM
From the doof, doof, doof of AI-written dance music, to the blue and orange tyranny of Greggs on every High Street, life is battered into familiar shapes through which our primal needs – sex and sausage rolls – are marketed to us ✍️Ben Wildsmith
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If the Green Party’s vanity is responsible for Reform UK winning in Caerphilly, much of the left in Wales will never forgive it ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-16hD
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September 25, 2025 at 7:20 PM
If the Green Party’s vanity is responsible for Reform UK winning in Caerphilly, much of the left in Wales will never forgive it ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-16hD
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Plaid’s job is to reveal the Reform UK project as Brexit MKII- another deregulatory con trick intended to line the pockets of the wealthy. Nigel Farage’s Wat Tyler meets Arthur Daley act has been allowed to run unchallenged for too long ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-15Xa
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September 18, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Plaid’s job is to reveal the Reform UK project as Brexit MKII- another deregulatory con trick intended to line the pockets of the wealthy. Nigel Farage’s Wat Tyler meets Arthur Daley act has been allowed to run unchallenged for too long ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-15Xa
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From QUANGO-sitting apparatchiks to green energy millionaires to £800k seaside flats and rental empires, Labour represents everything it was founded to upend ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-15Kb
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September 14, 2025 at 7:03 PM
From QUANGO-sitting apparatchiks to green energy millionaires to £800k seaside flats and rental empires, Labour represents everything it was founded to upend ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-15Kb
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The higher ground of politics is prone to give way suddenly when your time is up, and this week’s events suggest that serious slippage is starting beneath the Prime Minister’s feet ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-15C6
September 11, 2025 at 7:20 PM
The higher ground of politics is prone to give way suddenly when your time is up, and this week’s events suggest that serious slippage is starting beneath the Prime Minister’s feet ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-15C6
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This week’s conference has revealed how extreme, undisciplined, and downright weird Farage’s party is ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-15p7
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September 7, 2025 at 7:03 PM
This week’s conference has revealed how extreme, undisciplined, and downright weird Farage’s party is ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-15p7
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From subscription libraries, union scholarships, and the NHS, to the miners’ buyout of Tower Colliery, Cymru can point to a culture of cooperative action that has often led the world in social innovation ✍️Ben Wildsmith nation.cymru/opinion/cymu...
September 4, 2025 at 7:20 PM
From subscription libraries, union scholarships, and the NHS, to the miners’ buyout of Tower Colliery, Cymru can point to a culture of cooperative action that has often led the world in social innovation ✍️Ben Wildsmith nation.cymru/opinion/cymu...
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Whilst flying a national flag is, of itself, a neutral act, the loud support for this movement from anti-immigration politicians suggests motives beyond benign love of country ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-153j
August 31, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Whilst flying a national flag is, of itself, a neutral act, the loud support for this movement from anti-immigration politicians suggests motives beyond benign love of country ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-153j
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Now is the time to condemn, to shun, and to ostracise. If that seems harsh, particularly if you are related to them, well sorry, but decent people have legitimate concerns ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-14VK
August 28, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Now is the time to condemn, to shun, and to ostracise. If that seems harsh, particularly if you are related to them, well sorry, but decent people have legitimate concerns ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-14VK