Plaid Cymru

Plaid Cymru (literally meaning, "Party of Wales") is a left-of-centre political party advocating Welsh independence and the promotion of Welsh culture. The name was used from the late 1920s until it was formally changed to Plaid Cymru – The Party of Wales in the late 1990s, partly due to new electoral requirements that a party have an English name. In Wales, the party is often known as simply Plaid or, in Welsh y Blaid.

Plaid Cymru in the Assembly era

The 1999 elections were seen as a spectacular breakthrough by the party - depriving Labour of a majority in the new body and gaining seats in places where little or no Welsh was spoken - such as in Caerphilly. The old tension in the party - between language activists concentrated in North Wales and socialists in the industrial south, seemed to be going in the southerners direction - the party describing itself as socialist "and proud of it".

Related Topics:
1999 - Caerphilly - Socialist

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But the results soon proved to be a false dawn. The Wales Labour Party reinvented itself as Welsh Labour and got a new leader in the form of Rhodri Morgan. In addition many of the new Plaid Cymru assembly members were lacklustre and the old divisions over the language repeatedly reasserted themselves.

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Wyn Jones' distancing the party from supporting Welsh independence prompted a split from the party in January 2000 when Cymru Annibynnol was formed.

Related Topics:
Welsh independence - 2000 - Cymru Annibynnol

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Some party members were critical of Dafydd Wigley's tactics of distancing Plaid from its traditional defence of the Welsh language, and blame Plaid's decline on this, particularly in the Party's heartland of north-west Wales. In the 2001 General Election, Plaid lost Wyn Jones' old seat of Ynys Môn to Albert Owen. There was further disappointment for many in Plaid with the results of the Assembly elections of May 2003. Of their 17 AMs only 12 were re-elected, although they remained the official opposition party in the National Assembly. Labour won back their traditional strongholds of the Rhondda and Islwyn, but also made shock gains in Llanelli and Conwy, seats that Plaid were expected to hold on to. Ieuan Wyn Jones resigned as both president of the party and leader of the Plaid assembly group on the 8th of May.

Related Topics:
2001 General Election - Ynys Môn - Albert Owen - Assembly elections of May 2003 - Labour - Rhondda - Islwyn - Llanelli - Conwy - Ieuan Wyn Jones

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On 15 September 2003 the well-known folk-singer and long-time activist Dafydd Iwan was elected Plaid Cymru's new President. As Iwan was not a member of the Assembly (when the President is, they are automatically also the group leader in the Assembly) there was also an election for the leader of the Assembly Members, which was won by Ieuan Wyn Jones. Elfyn Llwyd is currently the Plaid Cymru leader in the Westminster Parliament. Although the party's constitution formally designates the President as "the Registered Leader of the party", in practice the three have jointly led the party, leading to some confusion. Some leading Plaid figures have called for the party to find a single leader who is the Assembly and whom can be presented to the electorate as a clear potential First Minister of Wales. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/wales/4528351.stm

Related Topics:
15 September - 2003 - Dafydd Iwan - Elfyn Llwyd - First Minister of Wales

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Since the 2003 Assembly elections Plaid have reassessed the clairity of their policy on "the national question"; the consensus within the party now expressly favours independence within the European Union as Plaid's constitutional aim for Wales.

Related Topics:
Independence - European Union

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Political commentators believed the party performed poorly in the 2004 elections. It lost one of its Members of the European Parliament (mainly due to a reduction in the number of available seats because of the accession of ten new member states), and lost control of two councils in south Wales to Labour.

Related Topics:
2004 elections - Members of the European Parliament

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In the General Election of May 5, 2005, Plaid gained no seats and lost the Ceredigion seat to the Liberal Democrats, leaving them with their smallest parliamentary representation in a generation.

Related Topics:
General Election - May 5 - 2005 - Ceredigion - Liberal Democrats

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Plaid retains close links with the Scottish National Party, with both parties' MPs co-operating closely with one another. They work as a group within Westminster, and were both involved in joint campainging during the 2005 General Election campaign. Both parties are part of the European Free Alliance block in the European Parliament.

Related Topics:
Scottish National Party - 2005 General Election campaign - European Free Alliance - European Parliament

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