News

Badger and the censor THERE are times, readers, when

Published

11 years ago

February 26, 2015

THERE are times, readers, when Badger despairs at humankind’s ability to be cruel to each other. There are times when, with a badgerly shrug, he simply wishes he could walk away and find somewhere cool and dimly lit to lie down with an un-improving volume of light verse. Readers will know that Badger has detected a certain sourness and cynicism in public discourse over recent years. As you will also know by now, readers, Badger is bang onside with sourness and cynicism, if it has a point: but what we are now experiencing is the nihilism of halfwitty and half-witted remarks, such as “Don’t vote, it only encourages them.”

A sentiment often advanced by those who do not vote and then complain at a result they forfeited all right to complain about. Consumerism has fractured society into chunks, some of which overlap and some of which stand in glorious isolation. In a world more interconnected than ever before, there seems to be more genuine loneliness – or, perhaps, wilful isolation of the self – than at any time Badger can remember.

As we have become increasingly identifiable by third parties through our actions and our responses to stimuli (for example, shopper loyalty cards; banking information; online gaming; online advertising) and accordingly placed into groups for targeted marketing, so the glue that holds us together as families and communities has weakened. Badger sees the way people, write and behave on social media and some of the vile and offensive things that appear on it. And Badger wonders whether the term “society” has somehow passed its sell by date.

The expression of extremes seems to have become the norm, particularly from the wilder shores of the fascist right. Those who express those racist, repugnant and intolerant views claim protection derived from a freedom of speech they want to deny others. That they are able to express their views at arms’ length or from the safety of a keyboard before a glowing monitor, seems to suggest that some line has been crossed.

As we look at online avatars and profiles, we become less human, less humane and more inclined to casual cruelties. The problematic result of all of this can be summarized as follows: social networks are addicting and provide the illusion of real relationship. Over time, we begin to falsely equate genuine, humanto- human relationship with the shallow connection and gratification offered by social networks.

We increasingly define ourselves in terms of our digital presence and feel the need to “share” constantly to feel heard and less alone. It is that need to be heard which causes people to ‘shout’ online. Scarcely a report of a court story can appear online without someone, usually someone with only a nodding acquaintance with spelling and grammar, hopping out from under their bridge to offer an opinion.

Over Christmas, Badger was looking at some exchanges on The Herald’s own Facebook feed. There was a report of a case. The report set out the charges the accused faced, the course of the trial, the guilty verdict and the sentence passed by the Court. Judging from the reactions, you would have thought that newspapers and their web feeds should only carry news that relates news that trolls find agreeable – for example “Billy Goats Gruff Eaten” or “Judge praises axe murderer for being nice to his mum”. It was “wrong” what was written. The story was not “true”. It was all “unfair”. It was “sad” to send the guilty to prison. Gloves off: what was written was objectively right.

There was no lie. The facts spoke for themselves. It was not unfair. The accused had their chance to defend their actions. They could not do so. The word “guilty” means guilt was established according to the law and beyond a reasonable doubt. That is not the law as trolls wish it, but the law as it is. Badger was horrified by one person, who from the content of his remarks was lucky not to be lifted by the rozzers himself. Badger pondered before deciding that a line had been crossed. He deleted comments that were argumentative, intimidatory, and hectoring in tone.

Enough was enough: freedom of speech does not include the right to bully others by being a keyboard warrior. If the person whose long and aggressive rants was to be believed, people who had committed a crime had gone unpunished. The fact he was prepared to stand idly by and do nothing about that state of affairs, speaks volumes for the very special trollish logic he applied to his statements. Badger censored a debate. Now, readers Badger is in favour of open, friendly, non-judgemental and balanced argument.

At the same time, he knows he is personally seldom all four of the foregoing at one time – and occasionally their diametric opposite in each and every respect – but Badger makes a genuine effort to approach those terms both singly and collectively. Badger was reluctant to reach for the metaphorical blue pencil, but for better or ill he did. Make no mistake, the remarks Badger deleted were not the ‘casual cruelties’ he referred to earlier. These were not spiteful, petty remarks of the type made by insecure juveniles.

The remarks he censored were appalling, crass and menacing. In the great scheme of things, however, they were far less offensive than some of the toxic rants Badger has seen peddled as fact by bigots online; but they were far over the bounds of what a reasonable person would tolerate. They were certainly beyond what an occasionally unreasonable Badger could tolerate. What makes humans human is their interactions with each other. Every human is different and each of us has rights and obligations that come from being part of the whole. Badger wouldn’t have it any other way. Our society is more important than “comments”, “likes” and “shares” on social media. Badger fears, however, that which connects us in so many ways, makes inhumanity to others far easier than it was previously.

letter to badger

‘Humane and committed’ -do you know best this time?

DEAR BADGER, Since you started to climb out of your badger sett each week and write articles for the Pembrokeshire Herald you appeared to want to help local humans, but last week you seemed to have lost concern for yourself and your wildlife friends.

In your last article you stated that Simon Hart, MP is “humane and committed”. Simon Hart before he became our MP was the Master of the South Pembrokeshire Hunt, Director of the Campaign for Hunting and Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance which was and still is deeply “committed” to the return of hunting with dogs. So surely, Mr Badger, you have to ask the question “what is he committed to and is it humane?”.

Simon Hart MP has strongly supported the campaign to repeal the Hunting Act 2004. The Act not only made it illegal to hunt wildlife with dogs for sport, but also made it illegal for hunts to block your sett entrances whilst hunting. So that law, besides protecting you, protected young badger cubs when they were born underground. Furthermore, Mr Badger, Simon Hart MP was against vaccinating your relatives in Wales, instead of culling, so you don’t catch Bovine TB from cattle.

Culling badgers is a disaster when carried out in England and was said to be “ inefficient and inhumane” after the badgers were shot and took a considerable time to die. Surely Mr Badger you must reassess your opinion of what being “humane ” means, or one day in the future, you may be culled or get blocked in your badger sett and unable to get out, so that will be the end of your excellent articles.

Michael Sharratt

Cwm Coile

Whitland

Carmarthenshire

News

Senedd election candidates confirmed as vote.wales goes live

Published

15 hours ago

April 11, 2026

Tom Sinclair

Voters can now check who is standing in their constituency ahead of polling day on May 7

A TOTAL of 675 candidates will contest the Senedd election on May 7, with voters across Wales now able to see exactly who is standing in their area through the newly launched vote.wales website.

The nomination period for candidates closed at 4:00pm on Thursday (Apr 9), and full details of all confirmed candidates are now available online.

At this year’s election, Wales has been divided into 16 constituencies, with each one electing six Members of the Senedd under a closed-list proportional voting system. Voters will receive one ballot paper and will be able to vote either for a political party or for an individual independent candidate.

Under the new system, the number of seats won in each constituency is intended to broadly reflect each party’s share of the vote. That means, for example, that a party receiving around half the vote in a constituency would be expected to win three of the six available seats.

Political parties were allowed to put forward up to eight candidates in each constituency, while individuals were also able to stand as independents.

In total, the 675 candidates standing for election are competing for 96 seats in the next Senedd. They represent 16 political parties, along with 30 independent candidates.

Voters can use the postcode search on vote.wales to find out who is standing in their constituency. The website also allows users to check where their polling station is, what accessibility features are available there, and which constituency they belong to.

People wanting to see who is standing in other parts of Wales can do so through the site’s “Browse by constituency” section.

Vote.wales is a new website created for this year’s Senedd election and is intended to give voters clear and reliable information before polling day. It is managed by the Electoral Management Board for Wales, which is part of the Democracy and Boundary Commission Cymru.

From Thursday, April 16, candidates’ leaflets will also be published on the site, allowing voters to see not only who is standing, but what they are standing for.

The website also includes information on how to vote, who is entitled to vote, and what powers and responsibilities the Senedd has.

Shereen Williams MBE OStJ, Chief Executive of the Democracy and Boundary Commission Cymru, said: “We created vote.wales to give people all the information they need before the Senedd election on May 7.

“Now that candidates have been confirmed across Wales, people can find out exactly who they can vote for with a simple postcode search.

“We’re grateful to all the Returning Officers and election staff across Wales who are working so hard to deliver this election. It’s thanks to their hard work that people can now go to vote.wales to see who is standing in their constituency.

“If you have any questions about this election, vote.wales is the place to go. Voting confidence starts here.”

Who is standing?

In the Ceredigion Penfro constituency, voters will be choosing from candidates representing the Welsh Conservatives, Gwlad, the Heritage Party, Plaid Cymru, Plaid Werdd Cymru, Reform UK, Welsh Labour and the Welsh Liberal Democrats, along with three independents.

For the Welsh Conservatives, the candidates are Paul Windsor Davies, Samuel Deri Kurtz, Claire Victoria George, Brian Andrew Murphy, Gill Evans and Claire Malaina Jones.

Gwlad has selected Gwyn Wigley Evans, while the Heritage Party candidate is Elizabeth Davies.

Plaid Cymru has put forward Elin Jones, Kerry Ferguson, Anna Nicholl, Cris Tomos, Colin Nosworthy, Clive Davies, Owain Jones and Matt Adams.

Plaid Werdd Cymru is standing Amy Nicholass, Tomass Jereminovics, James Henry Purchase, Morgan Hope Phillips, Rosie O’Toole and Kezia Autumn Hine.

Reform UK’s candidates are Susan Claire Archibald, Paul Marr, Michael Timothy Allen, Elisa Bessie Gonzalez Randall, Peter Martin John and Bernard Holton.

Welsh Labour has selected Eluned Morgan, Marc Tierney, Joshua Phillips, Margaret Greenaway, Tansaim Hussain-Gul, Luke Davies-Jones and Peter Huw Jenkins.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats are standing Sandra Louise Jervis, Alistair Ronald Cameron, Tom Hughes, Lee Dennis Thomas John Herring, Andrew Christopher Lye and Maggie Robinson.

The independent candidates in the constituency are Aaron Carey, George Alexander Chadzy and Paul Haywood Dowson.

Voters have until April 20 to register to take part in the election. Unlike some other polls, photo ID is not required to vote at Senedd elections.

News

Billionaire donor returns to UK to keep backing Reform

Published

15 hours ago

April 11, 2026

Tom Sinclair

Ben Delo says new overseas donation cap is designed to curb support for Nigel Farage’s party

CRYPTOCURRENCY billionaire Ben Delo says he is returning to Britain so he can continue donating millions of pounds to Reform UK, after Labour unveiled plans to cap political donations from Britons living overseas.

Mr Delo, 42, who is currently based in Hong Kong, has already given £4 million to Reform this year. But under new government proposals, overseas electors would be limited to donating £100,000 a year.

The businessman has accused Sir Keir Starmer’s government of trying to tilt the political playing field in Labour’s favour by making it harder for Reform to attract major backing from wealthy British supporters living abroad.

Writing in The Telegraph, Mr Delo said he would relocate to the UK in order to continue funding Nigel Farage’s party and help it build a serious war chest before the next general election.

Mr Delo is widely known as a co-founder of the cryptocurrency trading platform BitMEX, which helped make him one of Britain’s youngest self-made billionaires.

He has also spoken publicly about having Asperger’s syndrome, saying he finds much of modern politics difficult to interpret because of what he sees as evasive and unclear language. He contrasted that with Mr Farage’s more direct style of speaking, which he said he finds easier to understand.

Mr Delo said his financial support could help Reform expand its staffing, improve campaign preparation and spend more on events, advertising and organisation ahead of the next national vote.

He also suggested the new donation cap could be aimed at limiting support from other wealthy overseas backers, including businessman Christopher Harborne, who has also donated substantial sums to Reform.

Mr Delo argued that while Labour continues to benefit from large donations linked to the trade union movement, the new rules would make it harder for rival parties to compete on equal terms.

The government says the proposed changes are part of a wider effort to tighten electoral law and reduce the risk of foreign influence in British politics.

Mr Farage welcomed Mr Delo’s decision, saying the funding would help Reform continue developing as a party that is serious about government and capable of attracting the expertise needed to prepare for power.

Mr Delo said he hoped other wealthy expatriates who want to support political causes in Britain would also consider returning to the UK.

News

St Davids Cathedral welcomes new organ to Lady Chapel

Published

16 hours ago

April 11, 2026

Tom Sinclair

Instrument by Peter Collins now in place as cathedral prepares for tuning and inaugural recital

ST DAVIDS CATHEDRAL CHOIR has announced the installation of a new organ in the Lady Chapel at St Davids Cathedral.

The instrument, a Peter Collins EOS9 organ, has been installed by Gary Owens Organ Builders.

Sharing the news, the choir said it was delighted with the addition of the “beautiful” organ and thanked the builders for their “time, professionalism and energy” in completing the work.

The cathedral says the instrument will now be left to settle for a couple of weeks before receiving its first tuning.

Further details about the dedication of the organ and its inaugural recital are expected to be announced soon.

In the meantime, the organ is open for inspection, while the Lady Chapel is once again available for worship and private prayer.