A month has passed since the seventh Senedd was elected and, predictably, Reform UK’s assortment of clueless ignoramuses, infantile hooligans, malevolent Cymruphobes and ridiculously deluded egomaniacs are showing themselves to be completely out of their depth. In theory the Reform MSs are supposed to be the official opposition but it is already clear that this wholly inadequate bunch of 34 useless parasites will be quite incapable of contributing anything constructive, intelligent or worthwhile to Wales’ fledgling democracy.

Many of them haven’t the slightest idea how the Senedd operates or the strictly limited specific areas that are devolved to Wales, and arrogantly display zero interest in learning about either – presumably because that would endorse Wales as an entity, treat the Senedd with respect and involve the sort of effort they are only willing to devote to the beloved UK that Farage’s Brexit bankrupted. This means they keep bringing up issues reserved for the Westminster government that Wales has no control over, yet still bang on about them regardless, even when informed of the reality. So immigration, the issue Reform UK built its support on, is repeatedly raised, complete with the nasty shit-stirring, brazen disinformation and dog-whistle racism that their supreme leader Farage has made his trademark. Yes, Reform UK’s MSs are treating the Senedd as nothing more than an open-mic platform where they can spout their vile bullshit while having more or less nothing to say about Wales.

This is precisely what was expected (Farage patented a similar wrecking tactic when he was a member of the European Parliament), and its about time that the new Llywydd (Presiding Officer), Labour’s Huw Irranca-Davies, roused himself from his complacent torpor and started clamping down hard on these vandals. He has a range of powers at his disposal that could bring them to heel, up to and including outright suspension from the Senedd, yet hitherto has barely delivered more than a pathetic slap on the wrist. Those who know the contemporary Labour Party might have guessed he was a spineless appeaser in the Starmer mould, but he has no mandate to let this alien far-right minority degrade our Senedd into their delinquent playground. Pull your finger out Irranca, you wanker wimp!

The tremendous victory of Andy Burnham in the Makerfield by-election in England this week was a body-blow to Reform, especially coming hard on the heels of the Senedd by-election at Caerffili and UK by-election at Gorton & Denton, and gives hope that Starmer and his catastrophic rightwing policies will soon be in the dustbin of history and there might be at the very least a mildly centre-left government that can begin to tackle and reverse the consequences of these terrible last 14 years of Tory chaos and two years of ‘blue Labour’ misrule. Meanwhile ‘unstoppable’ Farage is looking increasingly like an eminently stoppable thin-skinned sulky diva who can’t take a setback, can’t bear being questioned and is in charge of a party of talentless, unpleasant oafs just like himself.

Assuming Starmer does the decent thing and resigns this week, Burnham could be the next UK Prime Minister by the end of the week. He will need to ditch virtually the entire Starmer cabinet, particularly people like the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves and also, to begin to correct the appalling damage done to Wales, the atrocious Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens. Stevens gave a good example of her gutter politics this week when she had the sheer stupidity to criticise the Plaid government for “failing to back the UK’s NATO membership”. In so doing she made precisely the same dumb blunder as Reform in accusing Wales of adopting policy positions that simply can’t exist since they are outside the current remit of devolution: Reform can at least plead ignorance but she is the Secretary of State for Wales! Please Andy, if you do nothing else, ditch this pernicious bitch person!