By the time this column is published we will know the Senedd Election Results. My bet is that it may take a while longer to establish a new and stable Welsh Government. Some form of coalition arrangement seems inevitable. Political leaders who have closed down their options pre-election, may come to regret doing so; their job is to do what we tell them!

I am no supporter of, or apologist for Reform. But the emergence of an “anti-Reform progressive alliance” worries me. Polling suggests that over a quarter of the Welsh electorate will back Reform; we will know for certain by the time you read this.

In a democratic country, the Government may be elected with the support of one side or other, but it governs for everyone. It would be very unwise to disenfranchise a quarter or more of the population. Our politics is polarising dangerously and it’s ugly.

All politicians need to think hard about what they say and how they act.

We have had an incredibly wet winter. But after just two weeks of dry weather, the Elan Valley went up in flames, in April for heaven’s sakes. What on earth is going on?

The farmers know. For generations they have maintained the symbiosis between grazing livestock and the natural habitat. Not that many years ago, driving the old Coach Road to Rhayader, the mountains were speckled with grazing sheep and their lambs, and small herds of cattle too.

Now, the uplands have been destocked because, we are told, the animals are a significant cause of climate change. But of course they did an important job, grazing the grasses and trampling in organic matter as well as fertilising the land. This sequestered a lot of carbon into the rich peaty soil. Without them a thick thatch builds up; two weeks with no rain and it is ready to burst into flames.

I wonder how much CO2 was released? And at a time when some of our threatened upland birds like Curlew, Skylark, Lapwing and Hen Harriers will be nesting or perhaps looking after newly hatched chicks, this was a catastrophe; there’s no escape from a fire advancing faster than a man can walk.

Young Welsh farmers work the sort of hours I did as a junior surgeon in the 1980s. It’s a hard life and when everything seems stacked against you, little things can make it all worthwhile. Removing a gangrenous appendix from a really sick child, and then seeing them better, just an hour or so later was a huge buzz. For a young dairy farmer, bringing in the cows at 5 am, the site of newly fledged Skylark chicks, playing in the air and singing their hearts out, brings a similar sense of satisfaction.

Those birds are on the farm because the young farmer is looking after their environment knowing just how important it is. Meantime, the wise old farmers will tell you how to look after the uplands, preventing those devastating fires. Oh, and by the way they are both producing the food that a hungry planet needs.

If we don’t produce that food in Wales, it will of course get produced elsewhere. Somewhere like South America, chopping down Amazon rainforest to create farmland. That makes no sense!

You wouldn’t ask an accountant to take your child’s appendix out. So why do we listen to people who don’t know how to farm or look after the land? Last week, waking up to a sky full of acrid smoke, we could literally taste the consequences of their muddled thinking.

Generations of wisdom are burnt into Welsh farmers’ DNA. Most of them are really good at their job. Maybe we should let them get on with it.