Party claims support could deliver up to eleven seats under new proportional system

THE GREEN PARTY says new polling suggests it could secure around thirteen percent of the vote at next year’s Senedd Cymru election, a figure the party claims could translate into as many as eleven seats under Wales’ expanded electoral system.

In a press release issued this week, the local branch of the Green Party of England and Wales said recent surveys showed the party “on target to win eleven seats” when the Senedd grows from sixty to ninety-six members in 2026.

The Herald has checked the claim. A January voting intention poll carried out by YouGov for ITV Cymru Wales and Cardiff University placed the Greens on thirteen percent across Wales.

The same poll put Plaid Cymru ahead on around thirty-seven percent, followed by Reform UK, with Labour and the Conservatives further behind.

However, political analysts stress that polls are only snapshots of opinion and not predictions of the final result. Support levels can change significantly during a campaign, and smaller parties’ seat totals depend heavily on regional performance and turnout.

Under the new fully proportional “closed list” system, voters will choose parties rather than individual constituency candidates, with seats allocated to better reflect overall vote share. This change is expected to make it easier for smaller parties to gain representation compared with the current system.

Amy Nicholass, the Greens’ lead candidate in Ceredigion Penfro, said the shift meant voters could “vote for what they truly believe in” without needing to vote tactically.

“It’s important that people understand their vote will count,” she said.

Tomass Jereminovics, second on the regional list, said the party wanted to focus on devolved issues including NHS waiting lists, access to NHS dentists and tackling poverty.

Both candidates are due to attend a People’s Assembly event in Penparcau on Friday (Feb 7).

While the poll suggests growing support, experts caution that translating thirteen percent of the vote into double-digit seats would depend on how evenly that support is spread across Wales. Final projections are unlikely to become clearer until closer to polling day.

A BOAT best known for carrying tourists on Scotland’s famous Loch Ness has been spotted alongside the docks in Milford Haven, drawing interest from locals and harbour users.

The Jacobite Queen, a traditional passenger excursion vessel built in nineteen forty-nine, was photographed tied up at Milford Dock earlier this week.

Originally launched as the Tyne Queen, the craft operated as a ferry and pleasure boat in the north east of England before later being renamed and used for sightseeing cruises on Loch Ness, where thousands of visitors boarded her for trips across the iconic Highland waters.

According to comments shared locally, the vessel is currently “on passage heading down on the south coast”, suggesting Milford Haven is a temporary stop rather than a permanent base.

The boat’s windows and lower sections appear boarded up, a common practice when older passenger vessels are laid up or travelling between seasons, helping protect interiors from weather and damage. There are no signs of incident or emergency repairs.

Her arrival has provided an unusual sight against the working backdrop of the docks, with the vintage white-and-purple hull standing out among commercial traffic.

For many, it is a small but welcome reminder of Britain’s surviving historic passenger fleet quietly passing through Pembrokeshire waters.

Cover Photo: Jacobite Queen alongside Milford docks this week (Pic: Berty Barrett).

NO single tool can accurately measure people’s diets, but new research shows that combining different methods — from wearable cameras to analysing dietary biomarkers — could be the most reliable picture of what people eat.

In a review published in ‘Nature Food’, an international team of scientists highlights long‑standing problems with traditional self‑reported dietary tools, which often rely on memory and guesswork and place a heavy time burden on participants.

These limitations make it difficult for researchers and policymakers to reliably link diet with health outcomes, and to understand how diets are changing in response to global sustainability challenges.

The review brings together emerging evidence from nutrition science, metabolomics, microbiome research, computer vision and sensor technologies.

Dr Thomas Wilson, from Aberystwyth University’s Department of Life Sciences and a co‑author on the review, said: “Accurately capturing what people eat and drink is one of the biggest challenges in nutrition research. Traditional methods rely heavily on self‑reporting, which we know is imprecise. By integrating modern tools – such as biological biomarkers and digitally assisted reporting – we can dramatically improve accuracy while reducing the burden on participants. This opens the door to much more reliable research and helps us better understand the role of diet in long‑term health.”

The paper highlights new technological advances, from wearable cameras that capture meals in real time, identifying foods and estimating portion sizes with the help of artificial intelligence, and smartphone apps that prompt users to reduce memory‑related errors.

The authors also highlight biomarkers of food intake (BFIs) as a promising advancement in dietary assessment.  BFIs detect chemicals in urine, blood or poo that correspond to specific foods or dietary patterns, offering objective insights into what people have eaten.

The authors emphasise that no single technology can solve all the challenges of dietary assessment. Instead, they propose an integrated, flexible framework that can be tailored to different research settings – from controlled dietary interventions to large‑scale population studies.

The authors argue that emerging dietary assessment tools will be essential for advancing precision nutrition, improving dietary recommendations, and supporting evidence‑based policies for human and planetary health.

Dr Wilson added: “As we confront global challenges – from rising diet‑related diseases to the need for more sustainable diets – getting a clearer picture of what people truly eat is crucial. The technologies now emerging give us a real opportunity to build the next generation of dietary assessment and, ultimately, to support healthier lives and food systems.”

The international research was led by scientists from the University of Copenhagen, in collaboration with Aberystwyth University, Medical University of Graz, the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Wageningen University & Research.