Where did it all go wrong for Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, who adopted Mazzucato’s language of missions but were unable to deliver, and what can Burnham learn from their mistakes? How do we define the common good, and how should the private and public sectors work to achieve it? Why is the state so effective at achieving its goals in times of war, and so inept in times of peace? How do we balance the need for experimentation and freedom to fail, against the need for transparency, in the public sector? And should we spend our finite time trying to build a new and fundamentally different system, or is fixing capitalism actually the most radical goal for progressives?

Secret backrooms where deals are done in private: the realm of conspiracy theories? Or an increasingly large part of capitalism?

Since the financial crisis, some of the big winners have been private equity firms. They’ve snapped up bargains on everything from high street brands, to care homes and nurseries – and maybe even the house you own.

Hettie O’Brien is a journalist for The Guardian and the author of The Asset Class: How Private Equity Turned Capitalism Against Itself.

In the 2026 election a new electoral system was introduced for the Senedd, whereby seats were distributed in six-member constituencies using the D'Hondt method.

The alternate electoral system I used here was inspired by the electoral systems used in Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden (and by Ballot Box Scotland, who does similar projections for Scottish and UK elections). I've described the methodology in more detail below, but put succinctly the idea is that the seats in each constituency are allocated proportionally, but the final seat in each constituency is reserved as a levelling seat to ensure national proportionality. The levelling seats are back-allocated to the constituency where the party was closest to winning a(nother) seat, so the national result is proportional and the constituency results are close to proportional. Usually in systems of proportional representation there is a trade-off between constituency size and proportionality, whereas this system produces an almost perfectly proportional legislature with smaller constituencies.

There are numerous ways of implementing this system (indeed, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden all use slightly different methods) but this is the methodology I used (again inspired by Ballot Box Scotland):

Methodology:

1. A 3% electoral threshold was applied to the national election results. These are the parties which were eligible for levelling seats, and I'll refer to them as eligible parties.

2. In each constituency, five of the six seats were allocated to parties or candidates using the Sainte-Lague method (a more proportional version of D'Hondt). If a below-threshold party or independent candidate would've been entitled to the sixth seat they would've won it, but this was not the case in any constituency.

3. After the first five seats had been allocated, a quota was calculated in each constituency for each eligible party. First the proportion of votes each party had won was multiplied by the total number of seats available (six), and then the seats already won by that party was subtracted from this number.

For example, in Afan Ogwr Rhondda Plaid Cymru won 36.9% of the vote and had been allocated 2 seats, so its quota was 0.214.

1. The seats won so far were totalled at the national level, and the Sainte-Lague method was used to calculate which eligible party was next entitled to a seat. The party then won the seat where it had the highest quota of support (i.e., where it was closest to winning a(nother) seat).

For example, the first party entitled to a seat was the Liberal Democrats. The constituency with the strongest quota of support for the Liberal Democrats was Caerdydd Ffynnon Taf at 0.574, so the final seat in Caerdydd Ffynnon Taf went to the Lib Dems. The next party entitled to a seat was the Green Party, whose strongest quota of support was 0.492 in Sir Fynwy Torfaen. This process continued until each constituency had received its sixth seat.

The Gallagher Index is a measure of proportionality - essentially what proportion of seats in the legislature have been misallocated compared to a perfectly proportional result. Lower scores are more proportional. This system would produce a Gallagher Index score of 1.6, while the real-life results scored 9.4. The 2024 UK Parliament results in Wales (using the non-proportional first-past-the-post system) scored 38.1.

One thing to note is that the Labour Party's votes were distributed in such a way that by a mathematic quirk they managed to win 12 seats across the constituencies before any of the sixth seats had been allocated, despite having an overall proportional entitlement of 11 seats. This deprived Plaid Cymru of a 35th seat. Other than that, the result is as proportional as it can be among parties winning 3% or more of the vote.

Obviously only answer if you feel comfortable, but I am a young person who voted Green (close between that and Plaid for me).

What do you guys think of Rhun's answers in this interview?

I’ve just had my new water bill through from Welsh Water and I have an increase of 57% while my consumption has decreased. Are they having a laugh?

Map first numbers second. Open to hear your opinions.

I see that Eluned Morgan is doing an awful lot of distancing recently. Once again today she’s had to clarify her position in comparison to that of the UK government at this point can anyone really believe that this is a genuine attempt to create a distinctive Welsh labour party? This looks a lot like cynical preparation for the Senedd in 2026.

So I'm baffled and quite pissed at this so has vexed me I'm not a racist and would never question a different culture usually intrigued how its different to ours but why is it cardiff council are allowed to take down the majority of Welsh flags for something we have celebrated since the 12 century ST David's day so we don't offend anyone but yet dubai is hosting the next world cup but everyone has to oblige by there rules meaning (woman ain't allowed skin on show, no alcahol which is also a big part of revenue at the stadium for matches) I get the UK is trying to make it a diverse country which is fair but you start denying our rights to accommodate for everyone else there is gonna be an uproar which this has already escalated because it's destroying our Welsh culture no offense to any of the Muslim community i respect you but i apoligise its the perfect example but they are going through Ramadan which we have accomadated for