John Clark MS 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧

The future of our country rests on the preservation of its people, traditions and character. That is what has made it what it is. All else may fall apart, and the people will survive. But if the soul of the nation is gradually given over to the primacy of foreign cultures, religions, and traditions, then the nation will one day be lost. Our history is clearly laid out. Our future rests on the continuation of our people, our traditions, and our culture - demographics are destiny. This is a debate that must be had, and we must come together to make the case.

This piece of writing from @NationCymru, linked below, raises a timely question about how Welsh taxpayer money is used to support journalism in Wales - it's time we had a moratorium: Nation Cymru has received tens of thousands in @WelshGovernment linked, public, money whose purpose is to support high-quality, trusted public interest journalism for Wales. The grants include (non exhaustive list): - @CreativeWales Public Interest Journalism Fund: £50k - @Books_Wales magazines grant: £25k - @pingnewsuk Journalism Fund: £9.4k - Independent News Accelerator support, and participation in the broader journalism project pots. Given the funding source, there is a question over how this aligns with the spirit of the grants or the expectation that public money was awarded to support pluralistic, accurate, trustworthy news. In this example piece, former Labour Bridgend council leader Jeff Jones @Jeffrey62093861 is reported as accusing @CristianaEmsley of 'whitewashing her past' because Romania was an Axis power in the Second World War. That is a claim of collective guilt: it holds a naturalised British woman, born after the war, personally responsible for the actions of the Antonescu regime on the Eastern Front in 1941 simply because of her country of birth. The comment itself fails any scrutiny; it is self evident that her participation in a Remembrance Day reading has no bearing on those events. It does however follow the anti-Reform pattern. The Editors’ Code permits opinion, comment and partisan reporting, but still requires a clear distinction between fact, opinion and conjecture. In this case the piece gives prominence to the claim as noted above, but amplifying the claim in this way, without meaningful challenge, raises a legitimate question about editorial standards. Furthermore, Nation Cymru has two recent upheld (or partly upheld) IPSO accuracy breaches requiring corrections, and produces consistently partisan staff-written output. This includes a clear pattern of overt bias in @reformparty_uk / @RUKWales coverage where other parties are broadly treated with neutrality. A normalised analysis of Nation Cymru's reporting is available here, with the methodology included: https://198.244.148.151/nation/ The bias, and how it changes over time, is clear, and puts a sharp focus on how Nation Cymru reports across parties. In this context, I am calling on the Welsh Government for a moratorium on further public money being distributed to any news operation until a clear code of conduct is in place that holds grant recipients to high, auditable standards of accuracy, impartiality, transparency and public-interest purpose for the duration of the grant period. Public money must not be used to fund media that does not adhere to high standards. Organisations that wish to publish output below that threshold can fund themselves. nation.cymru/news/reform-ms-… teapawt.org/NationCymru/status/211…

@NationCymru @WelshGovernment

My colleague Joe Martin MS @joemartin1066 has raised the issue of the pace of demographic change driven by migration. Official ONS data show clear shifts in the demography of the population of England and Wales. This is a legitimate subject for political discussion. Both legal and illegal migration are changing communities. Respect and dignity remain essential, as does acting truthfully. The conversation should take place in the political realm rather than being left unaddressed. @reformparty_uk @RUKWales policy on migration and its associated impacts can be found here: reformparty.uk/policies/endi… Data: ONS National Population Projections (2024-based) ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationa… ONS Census Maps — Change over time (identity/ethnicity) ons.gov.uk/census/maps/chang… ONS Ethnic group, England and Wales: Census 2021 ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationa… Polimapper — Census 2021 ethnic group visualisation visualisation.polimapper.co.… UN Replacement Migration study (ESA/P/WP.160) digitallibrary.un.org/record… web.archive.org/web/20180225…

The cost of electricity in the UK right now is now once again very high, and this directly impacts households and businesses. Many people are again being forced to choose between lighting, heating, and eating; a reminder of a time before the 1800s when only the wealthy could 'burn the midnight oil'. @UKLabour energy policy is a return to the dark ages, continuation of decades of deliberate, poor choices by @Conservatives government, which have now left bill payers paying among the highest bills in the world, and subsidies that could have capitalised the build out of reliable generation capacity, like the excellent SMR technology from @RollsRoyce. @reformparty_uk will put competence back in to energy policy, starting by ditching Netzero, and then charting a way back to reliable, cheap power for the country. This is now an urgent mission.

This is not sustainable for the future of Wales, nor is it desirable. We must work hard to raise the prosperity of Welsh people - a good start would be cutting government costs, lowering taxes, and incentivising businesses to hire. State dependency is no answer.

A house in Bangor that used to hold a family now holds six men who arrived as adults. Bins overflow, parking goes, kids stop playing outside. Every family home turned into an HMO is one less home for a local family. Wales has no spare stock of family homes. British families, veterans and workers first for taxpayer-funded housing. Common sense.

The 30y UK gilt interest rate just crossed 6%. We are now in an era where the government cannot afford to spend more than the economy can afford. Government must now live within its means, cut rates for businesses, and let the productive economy drive growth.

If you believe elected representatives should deliver the manifesto they ran on when they were elected, please sign here. petitions.senedd.wales/petit…

Gwynedd already has the power, under section 47 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988, to give extra business rates relief on empty High Street units. Footfall isn’t high enough to justify the rates, and there aren’t enough open shops to create the footfall. That’s a doom loop. Local government can intervene. Time-limited relief to get units occupied or refurbished would be a start. Use the power.