Caerphilly. Farage thought it would be a coronation for ‘Welsh Dave’. When it wasn’t he cleared off
Below is an extract from a Guardian piece by the Welsh investigative journalist Will Hayward underlining the scale of Reform’s vote in Caerphilly compared to its ambitions. Even the Reform friendly media has managed to note this from Chris Mason, BBC to the Telegraph, but the implications are worth pondering.
Voters want change but not Farage’s racism. They voted for Plaid to keep ‘Welsh Dave’ out but that suggests, elsewhere, electoral possibilities for the Greens, Your Party and community independents. The times they are a changin..
Then we have Reform. I was at the count last night. Reform supporters came in like princelings heading to a collective coronation. The bookies certainly backed them. As the polls closed, a £10 bet on a Reform win would have bagged you a tidy £2.50 profit. But within an hour, it became very clear that Plaid Cymru knew it had this in the bag. Reform’s candidate Llyr Powell (who Farage calls “Welsh Dave” because he seemingly struggles with Llyr) struck a sad figure. Farage himself, who had been in Caerphilly all day seemingly to celebrate Welsh Dave’s victory, was nowhere to be seen at the count itself.
Reform threw a huge amount of resources at this byelection. Llyr Powell told me that his party was calling Wales “ground zero” and was excited to show favoured journalists reams of constituency data displayed on screens in the office that it was using to target its campaign.
Leave a Reply