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Owen Williams @owswills.bsky.social · 1d

(And before some headcase mentions ‘Nation of Sanctuary’, let’s try to remember what that scheme actually is: It’s a resettlement programme for people who’ve been granted asylum by UK Government. The vast majority of beneficiaries are Ukrainian refugees.)

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Owen Williams @owswills.bsky.social · 1d

It bears repeating that Welsh Government has *no* control over Immigration.

Voting Reform in the Caerphilly by-election because you’re cross about small boats on the Kent shoreline is an utterly mindless exercise.

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Owen Williams @owswills.bsky.social · 5d

Usually gullible bigots.

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Owen Williams @owswills.bsky.social · 5d

They fall into four broad camps:
1. Gullible
2. Grifters
3. Bigots
4. Racists

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Reposted by Owen Williams

Anianegwr @anianegwr.bsky.social · 5d

Watching Thatcher on the news as a kid I asked my Dad where's Wales' parliament? He explained why we didn't have one. That's not fair I said. We reasoned it out. He started voting @plaidcymru.bsky.social shortly after.

I still feel the same way about our Statehood.

Nikita Gill @nikitagill.bsky.social · 6d

I can’t begin to tell you how damaging “the world isn’t fair, get used to it” line has been to every child’s psyche growing up and therefore has led to a world that stays unfair. If we teach children to get used to an unfair world, we are destroying the possibility of a better world.

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Owen Williams @owswills.bsky.social · 5d

Done!

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Owen Williams @owswills.bsky.social · 5d

What an abject mess Reform is
nation.cymru/news/reform-...

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Owen Williams @owswills.bsky.social · 13d

I have it on excellent authority that, contrary to reports, Mayor Sadiq Khan *IS* going to enact Shania Twain in London.

I want to state, for the record, that don’t impress me much.

@london.gov.uk

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Reposted by Owen Williams

Anianegwr @anianegwr.bsky.social · 18d

If Unionism is your bag, knock yourself out. Just dont pretend it's progressive or liberal. It's imperialist all the way through. The UK is a State that was built hand in hand with empire and blood. You cant just pretend that didnt happen then claim some moral high ground about some "unity" blather.

Anianegwr @anianegwr.bsky.social · 18d

‘The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.’

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

#DissolveTheUnion

Farron drapes himself in flag as Lib Dems seek to reclaim patriotism

The Lib Dems are urged to stop being squeamish about national pride, at their annual conference.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Owen Williams @owswills.bsky.social · 20d

Labour, Lib Dems and Plaid don’t always agree, and sometimes those disagreements are explosive!

But political parties in the Senedd are democratically-bound to find common ground.

And that’s just good politics.

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Owen Williams @owswills.bsky.social · 20d

As I argue in my op-ed for Nation.Cymru: the way government in Wales works isn’t a “stitch-up,” it’s what a proportional democracy demands.

The Senedd is designed so parties *must* work together.
nation.cymru/opinion/the-...

The real story behind Labour, Plaid and the ‘stitch-up’ in Wales

Owen Williams The idea that Labour and Plaid Cymru are “in cahoots” in some backroom conspiracy to stitch-up Wales is not only lazy, it’s cynical, corrosive and entirely predictable. This is a narrati...

nation.cymru

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Owen Williams @owswills.bsky.social · 20d

The rest of the time, Labour governed in minority, but still needed support *every single year* to pass a budget.

Collaboration isn’t optional here in Wales - it’s baked into the political system.

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Owen Williams @owswills.bsky.social · 20d

How often have parties shared *some form of power* with Labour in the past 26 years?

• Lib Dems: 29%
• Plaid Cymru: 25% (15% in government)
• Independents: 13%

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Owen Williams @owswills.bsky.social · 20d

Sometimes it’s a governing coalition.
Sometimes a compact.
Sometimes it’s just a budget deal.

That’s not weakness. That’s how proportional democracy is *meant* to work: no one gets to govern alone, everyone has to collaborate.

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Owen Williams @owswills.bsky.social · 20d

No party can dominate the Senedd. That’s the point.

Labour scraped a majority once, in 2003. Every other year since 1999, Welsh Government has only functioned because someone else helped make it work - Lib Dems, Plaid, independents…

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Owen Williams @owswills.bsky.social · 22d

They don’t know. And they don’t care to find out. They can’t articulate what a Reform-led Welsh Government could actually achieve, because they don’t understand devolution.
The mess is decades in the making – the dominance of England-centric media here has fundamentally damaged democratic discourse.

Reposted by Owen Williams

Travellersuzy @travellersuzy.bsky.social · 22d

Welsh voters putting their faith in farage when his Brexit has damaged Wales to such a degree is quite simply bonkers and I have no sympathy for them. Grow up voters. This is ridiculous. You will be even worse off..wtf😳??

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Owen Williams @owswills.bsky.social · 22d

I don’t know. I lost track when I stepped away from Twitter.

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Owen Williams @owswills.bsky.social · 22d

If you’ve voted Labour your entire life, now is the time to break ranks and install a Plaid Cymru government led by the genuinely decent Rhun ap Iorwerth. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Without a move to Plaid, Wales will be left under the rule of far-right racists, bigots, grifters and imbeciles.

Jac Larner @jaclarner.bsky.social · 22d

Latest ITV BarnCymru 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 poll confirms trend seen over last 6 months - neck and neck race between Plaid Cymru and Reform UK for largest party, with Labour falling to even more distant third. Evidence growing of distinct realignment in Wales 🧵

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Reposted by Owen Williams

NationCymru @nation.cymru · 25d

Reform is a movement built on perpetual complaint, a self-sustaining outrage machine. Now Welsh devolution is at risk of being treated the same way, with the Senedd offered up as a grievance-in-waiting ✍️ @jamesldowns.bsky.social

Welsh Devolution: Just the Latest Character in Reform’s Shadow-Play

James Downs, Mental health campaigner Reform UK’s party conference in Doncaster produced its first Welsh headline when Laura Anne Jones declared that the party would not rule out scrapping the Senedd....

wp.me

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Owen Williams @owswills.bsky.social · 26d

I’m looking for an open-source topographic map generator that outputs vectors in hi-res.

Does anyone know of such a thing, please?

Thank you BlueSky!

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Reposted by Owen Williams

Scott Reid @ascottreid.bsky.social · 27d

Before you watch, well, people basically dying online - whether through feeling a need to "bear witness", through morbid curiosity or by stumbling across it thanks to an algorithm, it's worth bearing this in mind.

If nothing else, turn autoplay off where possible. www.poynter.org/ethics-trust...

The human cost of witnessing violence online - Poynter

I was 14 when I found the murder video of a journalist on a file-sharing site. Today, violence finds us before we can look away.

www.poynter.org

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Reposted by Owen Williams

Alex Goldman @agoldman.bsky.social · Sep 5

Hi! I'm Alex Goldman, I used to host the Reply All podcast, which some of you may or may not know. I wrote a thread 🧵 about the economy of narrative podcasts because of this article that appeared in Rolling Stone about them. Please enjoy

Alex Goldman @agoldman.bsky.social · Sep 5

This is real as hell. Hollywood thought narrative pods would be easy IP to make into movies, and overvalued the market. Now they are undervaluing it. You can support independent journalism by becoming a @hyperfixedpod.bsky.social member. au.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...

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Owen Williams @owswills.bsky.social · Sep 6

This was clearly a very foolish human.

Owen Williams @owswills.bsky.social · Sep 6

I’m done being nice to Welsh people who type “REFORM 100%”

Facebook comment from me:

“Stuart Williams Of course it's different. What a preposterous assertion. Reform has no policies, no platform and no leadership in Wales. And the election is a mere eight months away.
And you're voting for them blindly based on what? Lunatic rhetoric about small boats and
immigration - none of which is within the Senedd's control?
Simple solutions to complex problems that pour out of Farage's gaping maw like spittle?
Farage, Tice, Dorries and the rest of rabble will not be sitting in the Senedd. It'll be an abject mess, and you'll have wilfully neglected your own country by appointing the party.
You're not a patriot, you're a traitor.”

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