This is (inadvertently) so revealing by @DPJHodges - even if one suspects that there was some last minute rewriting after it became clear that England is nowbeing forced into a longer, harsher lockdown than Wales' because it didn't go early enough...

Three points stand out

1/ https://twitter.com/DPJHodges/status/1322804661322162177

First, generally speaking, and to the author's fairly obvious irritation, people in areas where transmission is high are clearly understanding of the decision to go for the firebreak - which is what the Welsh polling has already told us, of course.

2/

Secondly, and to the author's very obvious irritation, people living in rural areas where the health infrastructure is weak are very concerned about the potential public health impact of people coming into those areas from other places where the infection rate is much higher.

3/

Dan Hodges implies that this is because the locals are somehow unwelcoming or worse. But a better journalist would have had a look at what it might mean to a person living in Harlech, for example, if they or their relatives get infected.

4/

Where the nearest ICU beds are located?

How far does it take to get to them from somewhere like Harlech?

What the public transport situation is like if there's no car in the family?

You know, the basic questions that a serious journalist might ask...

5/

But no, it's much easier to treat the locals like curtain-twitching, banjo playing extras from 'Deliverance' than people with legitimate concerns.

6/

Which brings me to the third and final point, which is the way that this article lays bare the assumptions that have underpinned most of the media coverage of the first week of the Welsh firebreak.

7/

That is the assumption that London knows best. Not only that, but that any decision by a devolved government (bar Northern Ireland, of course, because, well, nobody gives a sh*t about there) to deviate from the London line must be motivated by nefarious or sinister goals

8/

The idea that these are governments facing real challenges, forced to make difficult and no-doubt imperfect decisions, all in a context in which they can't simply turn on the financial taps in the way the UK government can and does, is clearly too much to take.

9/

Hence the sneering tone of this article. Hence @bbclaurak's absurd question about Wales, Scotland and NI following England into its belated circuit-breaker.

A final thought about the opportunity cost of all this.

Devolution is an opportunity to learn from each other.

10/

Serious journalists might be asking the question, what might the UK government learn from the Welsh or Scottish or NI experiences of implementing second lockdowns?

(The devolved have already learned from March not to leave it too late.)

11/

But instead it seems to be so much easier to sneer and spout disingenuous nonsense about an allegedly authoritarian Welsh Government and an allegedly cowed and suspicious Welsh population.

/FIN