Charlie Alford

Thinktank calls for greater controls on number of Welsh homes being turned into holiday accommodation

Post author:The Canary
Post published:7 August 2026
Post last modified:7 August 2026

Welsh thinktank the Bevan Foundation, working in partnership with Shelter Cymru, has published a new report on 7 August at the National Eisteddfod. It analyses evidence on the prevalence of second homes and holiday lets using permanent homes across Wales. And it evaluates policy measures to tackle the issue which have been put in place over recent years. The report follows an announcement by the Welsh government that it will be reviewing the controversial 182-day rule for holiday let businesses in Wales, as well as a commitment in the Plaid Cymru manifesto to review the effectiveness of the range of current…

Welsh Reform politician caught lying about fossil fuel interests

Post author:Cameron Baillie
Post published:16 July 2026
Post last modified:16 July 2026

Welsh Reform UK politician Cai Parry-Jones MS has been caught out lying about his fossil fuel interests. Another anti-Net Zero campaigner in Reform, Parry-Jones strongly denied the claim that his share holdings benefit from climate deregulation. He was quickly shown up for it. To make matters worse, this all took place as Wales and the UK grappled with another intense heatwave. Some 2,700 people already died across the UK from extreme heat exposure. In summer 2024, in just five days, at least 557 Welsh people died of extreme heat. This is our climate-changed future. Here’s yet another story of right-wing climate-reality denialism,…

Welsh Reform politicians are embarrassing themselves in the Senedd

Post author:Cameron Baillie
Post published:3 July 2026
Post last modified:3 July 2026

Reform’s Wales representatives in the Senedd are showing themselves up in multiple serious discussions. Supposedly the formal opposition in the nation’s devolved parliament, Reform look increasingly foolish. The Members of the Senedd (MSs) are on record making various bloopers, not taking subjects seriously, and generally cocking-up. Not worth the £80,000 salary they’re plumped with. Reform ‘having a mare’ Cardiff-based Welsh journalist Will Hayward caught one Reform MS sorely lacking when he was entirely unprepared to ask a follow-up question, or ‘supplementary,’ on the Senedd floor. MS Gareth Beer asked a question which couldn’t have taken more than 30 seconds to think of,…

Senior Welsh Reform politician ‘infantilises’ entire Welsh nation

Post author:Cameron Baillie
Post published:8 June 2026
Post last modified:9 June 2026

Award-winning Welsh journalist and author Will Hayward has criticised a senior Welsh Reform politician over his comments that “infantilise” the proud people he claims to represent. The Reformer’s statement came at the Hay literary festival in Hay-on-Wye in Wales. Hayward indicated the Member of the Senedd (MS) in his post as James Evans. He’s the Shadow Minister for Health, Prevention and Sport in Reform’s Welsh cabinet. Since May’s Senedd elections, James Evans MS has occupied that position within Welsh Reform. The comments were made in the context of significant ongoing debates around devolving the Crown Estate. The MS stated that Wales…