Lee Waters on Breaking Orthodoxy to Achieve Real Change

Lee Waters did something unfashionable in modern politics: he led. As both Minister for Transport and Minister for Climate Change in Wales, he curtailed road-building, introduced a national 20mph speed limit and set in motion reforms to create an integrated, publicly owned transport network. This episode is a masterclass in the reality of political change: why transport is so often overlooked, how to challenge decades of car-first orthodoxy and why evidence-based policy isn’t enough without political courage.