History of Plaid Cymru facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Plaid Cymru – The Party of Wales
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| Leader | |
| Chairman | Alun Ffred Jones |
| Chief Executive | Rhuanedd Richards |
| Honorary President | Dafydd Wigley |
| Founded | 5 August 1925 |
| Headquarters | 18 Park Grove, Cardiff, CF10 3BN Wales |
| Ideology | Welsh independence Social democracy |
| Political position | Centre-left |
| European affiliation | European Free Alliance |
| International affiliation | none |
| European Parliament group | Greens-EFA |
| Colours | Green and yellow |
| Website | |
| www.plaid.cymru | |
Plaid Cymru; Welsh pronunciation: [ˈplaɪd ˈkəmri]; often shortened to Plaid, originated in 1925 after a meeting held at that year's National Eisteddfod in Pwllheli, Caernarfonshire (now Gwynedd). Representatives from two Welsh nationalist groups founded the previous year, Byddin Ymreolwyr Cymru ("Army of Welsh Home Rulers") and Y Mudiad Cymreig ("The Welsh Movement"), agreed to meet and discuss the need for a "Welsh party". The party was founded as Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru, the National Party of Wales, and attracted members from the left, right and centre of the political spectrum, including both monarchists and republicans. Its principal aims include the promotion of the Welsh language and the political independence of the Welsh nation.
Although Saunders Lewis is regarded as the founder of Plaid Cymru, the historian John Davies argues that the ideas of the left-wing activist D. J. Davies, which were adopted by the party's president Gwynfor Evans after the Second World War, were more influential in shaping its ideology in the long term. According to the historian John Davies, D. J. Davies was an "equally significant figure" as was Lewis in the history of Welsh nationalism, but it was Lewis's "brilliance and charismatic appeal" which was firmly associated with Plaid in the 1930s.
After initial success as an educational pressure group, the events surrounding Tân yn Llŷn (Fire in Llŷn) in the 1930s led to the party adopting a pacifist political doctrine. Protests against the flooding of Capel Celyn in the 1950s further helped define its politics. These early events were followed by Evans's election to Parliament as the party's first Member of Parliament (MP) in 1966, the successful campaigning for the Welsh Language Act of 1967 and Evans going on hunger strike for a dedicated Welsh-language television channel in 1981.
Plaid Cymru is the third largest political party in Wales, with 11 of 60 seats in the Senedd. From 2007 to 2011, it was the junior partner in the One Wales coalition government, with Welsh Labour. Plaid held one of the four Welsh seats in the European Parliament, holds four of the 40 Welsh seats in the UK Parliament, and it has 203 of 1,253 principal local authority councillors. According to accounts filed with the Electoral Commission for the year 2018, the party had an income of around £690,000 and an expenditure of about £730,000.
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Foundation 1925
There had been discussions about the need for a "Welsh party" since the 19th century. With the generation or so before 1922 there "had been a marked growth in the constitutional recognition of the Welsh nation", wrote historian Dr John Davies. A Welsh national consciousness re-emerged during the 19th century; leading to the establishment of the National Eisteddfod in 1861, the University of Wales (Prifysgol Cymru) in 1893, and the National Library of Wales (Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru) in 1911, and by 1915 the Welsh Guards (Gwarchodlu Cymreig) was formed to include Wales in the UK national components of the Foot Guards. By 1924 there were people in Wales "eager to make their nationality the focus of Welsh politics".
Support for home rule for Wales and Scotland amongst most political parties was strongest in 1918 following the independence of other European countries after the First World War, and the Easter Rising in Ireland, wrote Dr Davies. However, in the UK General Elections of 1922, 1923, and 1924; "Wales as a political issue was increasingly eliminated from the [national agenda]". By August 1925 unemployment in Wales had risen to 28.5%, in contrast to the economic boom in the early 1920s. For Wales, the long depression began in 1925.
It was in this climate that the Welsh Home Rulers group and the Welsh Movement met. Both organisations sent a delegation of three to the meeting, with H. R. Jones heading the Welsh Home Rulers group and Saunders Lewis heading The Welsh Movement. They were joined by Lewis Valentine, D.J. Williams, and Ambrose Bebb, among others. The principal aim of the party was to foster a Welsh-speaking Wales. To this end it was agreed that party business be conducted in Welsh, and that members sever all links with other British parties. Lewis insisted on these principles before he would agree to the Pwllheli conference.
According to the 1911 census, out of a total population of Wales of just under 2.5 million, 43.5% spoke Welsh as a primary language. This was a decrease from the 1891 census with 54.4% speaking Welsh out of a population of 1.5 million.
In these circumstances Lewis condemned "'Welsh nationalism' as it had hitherto existed, a nationalism characterised by inter-party conferences, an obsession with Westminster and a willingness to accept a subservient position for the Welsh language", wrote Dr Davies. It may be because of these strict positions that the party failed to attract politicians of experience in its early years. However, the party's members believed its founding was an achievement in itself; "merely by existing, the party was a declaration of the distinctiveness of Wales", wrote Dr Davies.
In these early years Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru published a monthly paper called Y Ddraig Goch (the Red Dragon, the national symbol of Wales) and held an annual summer school.
H. R. Jones, the party's full-time secretary, established a few party branches, while Valentine served as party president between 1925 and 1926. In the UK General Election of 1929, Valentine stood for Caernarfon and polled 609 votes. Later they became known as 'the Gallant Six Hundred' when Dafydd Iwan immortalised them in song.
By 1932 the aims of self government and Welsh representation at the League of Nations had been added to that of preserving Welsh language and culture. However, this move, and the party's early attempts to develop an economic critique, did not lead to the broadening of its appeal beyond that of an intellectual and socially conservative Welsh-language pressure group.
The Lewis Doctrine 1926–1939
During the inter-war years, Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru was most successful as a social and educational pressure group rather than as a political party. For Saunders Lewis, party president 1926–1939, "the chief aim of the party [is] to 'take away from the Welsh their sense of inferiority... to remove from our beloved country the mark and shame of conquest.'" Lewis sought to cast Welshness into a new context, wrote Dr Davies.
Lewis wished to demonstrate how Welsh heritage was linked as one of the "founders of European civilisation". Lewis, a self-described "strong monarchist", wrote, "Civilisation is more than an abstraction. It must have a local habitation and name. Here its name is Wales." Additionally, Lewis strove for the stability and well-being of Welsh-speaking communities, decried both capitalism and socialism and promoted what he called perchentyaeth: a policy of "distributing property among the masses".
Broadcasting campaigns and 1931 Census
With the advent of broadcasting in Wales, Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru protested the lack of Welsh-language programmes in Wales and launched a campaign to withhold licence fees. Pressure was successful, and by the mid-1930s more Welsh-language programming was broadcast, with the formal establishment of a Welsh regional broadcasting channel by 1937.
According to the 1931 census, out of a population of just over 2.5 million, the percentage of Welsh speakers in Wales had dropped to 36.8%, with Ynys Môn recording the highest concentration of speakers at 87.4%, followed by Ceredigion (Cardiganshire) at 87.1%, Merionethshire (Sir Meirionnydd) at 86.1%, and Carmarthen at 82.3%. Caernarfonshire listed 79.2%. Radnorshire and Monmouthshire ranked lowest with a concentration of Welsh speakers of less than 6% of the population.
Tân yn Llŷn 1936
See also Penyberth.
Welsh nationalism was ignited in 1936 when the UK government settled on establishing a bombing school at Penyberth on the Llŷn peninsula, now in Gwynedd. The events surrounding the protest, known as Tân yn Llŷn ("Fire in Llŷn"), helped define Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru. The UK government settled on Llŷn as the site for its new bombing school after proposals for similar locations in Northumberland and Dorset were met with protests.
However, UK Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin refused to hear the case against the bombing school in Wales, despite a deputation representing half a million Welsh protesters. Protest against the bombing school was summed up by Lewis when he wrote that the UK government was intent upon turning one of the "essential homes of Welsh culture, idiom, and literature" into a place for promoting a barbaric method of warfare. Construction of the bombing school building began exactly 400 years after the first of the Laws in Wales annexing Wales into England.
On 8 September 1936 the bombing school building was set on fire and in the investigations which followed Saunders Lewis, Lewis Valentine, and D. J. Williams claimed responsibility. The trial at Caernarfon failed to agree on a verdict and the case was sent to the Old Bailey in London. The "Three" were sentenced to nine months' imprisonment in Wormwood Scrubs, and on their release they were greeted as heroes by fifteen thousand Welsh at a pavilion in Caernarfon.
Many Welsh were angered by the judge's scornful treatment of the Welsh language, by the decision to move the trial to London, and by the decision of University College, Swansea, to dismiss Lewis from his post before he had been found guilty. Scholar and historian Dafydd Glyn Jones wrote of the fire that it was "the first time in five centuries that Wales struck back at England with a measure of violence... To the Welsh people, who had long ceased to believe that they had it in them, it was a profound shock."
However, despite the acclaim the events of Tân yn Llŷn generated, by 1938 Lewis' concept of perchentyaeth was firmly rejected as not a fundamental tenet of the party. In 1939 Lewis resigned as Plaid Genedleathol Cymru president, citing that Wales was not ready to accept the leadership of a Roman Catholic. Academic and theologian J. E. Daniel, the party's former vice-president between 1931 and 1935, was elected as president of Plaid Cenedlaethol Cymru in 1939, serving until 1943.
Bards under the bed 1939–1945
During the Second World War the UK government felt it prudent to "avoid action which might foster the growth of an extreme Welsh nationalist movement". Clement Attlee, UK Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs 1942–43, voiced concern over Welsh nationalists after a deputation of Welsh Labour UK parliamentarians met with him about ignoring Welsh issues during the conflict.
Attlee characterised Welsh nationalists as "mischievous [who] tend to be against the war effort". To root-out Welsh nationalist sympathies within army units, the UK Ministry of Labour and National Service reported that Welsh-speaking men were posted to predominantly Welsh-speaking units to report on anti-war sympathies.
Additional plans were developed to counter growing Plaid Cymru influence and included "rolling out" a member of the U.K. Royal Family to "smooth things over", according to then constitutional expert Edward Iwi. In a report he gave to Home Secretary Herbert Morrison, Iwi proposed to make the then Princess Elizabeth Constable of Caernarfon Castle (a post held by David Lloyd George until his death in January 1945), and patroness of Urdd Gobaith Cymru, and for her to tour Wales as Urdd's patroness.
Appointing the princess as constable of Caernarfon Castle was rejected by the Home Secretary, as potentially creating conflict between north and south Wales, and King George VI refused to let the teenage princess tour Wales, to avoid undue pressure on her; the plan to make the princess patroness of Urdd Gobaith Cymru was dropped, it being thought unsuitable to link the princess, enlisted in the ATS, to an organisation two of whose leading members were conscientious objectors.
Bards under the bed was one term coined by UK officials referring to Welsh nationalists and nationalism during the war years.
If ignoring the largely pacifist traditions of Welsh nationalism, some articles in the Welsh-language press could be seen to give credence to Attlee's fears that Welsh nationalists would be used to spearhead an insurgency. However, this characterisation misrepresented Welsh nationalist sentiments, as "[Welsh nationalists] did far more to bring victory than hasten defeat".
Ambrose Bebb, a founding member of the party, was one of the most outspoken party members in support of the war. Bebb considered Nazi Germany's total defeat in the war as essential. Additionally, many members of Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru served in Britain's armed forces. Lewis maintained a strict neutrality in his writings through his column Cwrs y Byd in Y Faner. It was his attempt at an unbiased interpretation of the causes and events of the war.
Plaid Cymru members served in the armed forces during the war
Irrespective of the party's initial position on the war, party members were free to choose their own level of support for the war effort. Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru was officially neutral regarding involvement the Second World War, which party leaders considered a continuation of the First World War. Central to the neutrality policy was the idea that Wales, as a nation, had the right to decide independently on its attitude towards war, and the denial of any right of another nation to force Welshmen to serve in its armed forces. With this challenging and revolutionary policy Lewis hoped a significant number of Welshmen would refuse enlistment in the British Army.
Lewis, who served in the South Wales Borderers during the First World War, was not anti-military. Rather, Lewis and other party members were attempting to strengthen loyalty to the Welsh nation "over the loyalty to the British State". Lewis argued, "The only proof that the Welsh nation exists is that there are some who act as if it did exist".
However, most party members who claimed conscientious objector status did so in the context of their moral and religious beliefs, rather than based on political conviction. Of these, almost all were exempted from military service. About 24 party members made politics their sole ground for exemption, of whom twelve received prison sentences (for refusing to attend a medical examination, as an essential preliminary to call-up, after their claim of conscientious had been refused). For Lewis, those who objected proved that the assimilation of Wales was "being withstood, even under the most extreme pressures".
University of Wales by-election, 1943
Until 1950, universities elected their own representatives to the UK parliament. In 1943 Lewis contested the University of Wales parliamentary seat at a by-election, his opponent being former Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru deputy vice-president Dr William John Gruffydd. Gruffydd had voiced doubts about Lewis' ideas since 1933, and by 1943 he had joined the Liberal party. The "brilliant but wayward" Gruffydd was a favourite with Welsh-speaking intellectuals and drew 52.3 per cent of the vote, to Lewis' 22 per cent, or 1,330 votes.
The election effectively split the Welsh-speaking intelligentsia, and left Lewis embittered with politics. However, the experience proved invaluable for Plaid Cymru, as they began to refer to themselves, as "for the first time they were taken seriously as a political force". The by-election campaign led directly to "considerable growth" in the party's membership.
The Evans Legacy 1945–1981
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With Lewis retreating from direct political involvement, and with the party drawing a modest increase in membership, Dr Gwynfor Evans was elected party president in 1945. Evans, born in Barry in Glamorgan but spending most his life in Llangadog in Carmarthenshire, only learned to speak Welsh as an adult. Evans was educated at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and at St John's College, Oxford, where he founded a branch of Plaid Cymru while he was a student. As a devout Christian pacifist, Evans was unconditionally exempted from conscription during the Second World War on grounds of conscientious objection.
Building on a higher profile the party fielded more candidates in elections; and in by-elections in 1945, the party won 25 per cent of the vote in Caernarfon and 16 per cent in Neath. By 1945 Plaid Cymru was in a "better position then it had been in 1939", wrote Dr Davies.
Responding to Welsh nationalism, and despite opposition by Labour politicians such as Aneurin Bevan, Morgan Phillips and Attlee, the U.K. government felt it prudent to establish the Council of Wales in 1948, an unelected assembly of 27 with the brief of advising the UK government on matters of Welsh interest. The Council of Wales held no authority on its own, to the frustration of many of the councillors.
Following the war Plaid Cymru challenged the UK government's continued military conscription in peacetime, and protested the War Office's use of Welsh lands for training exercises: first in the Preseli Hills in 1946, then in Tregaron in 1947, and then Trawsfynydd in 1951.
Throughout the 1950s, Evans reached out to other political parties in Westminster to establish a parliament for Wales. Though failing to establish a Welsh assembly, there was movement on devolution. With Plaid Cymru expanding its influence further into the industrial south-east constituencies, the UK government gave in on small concessions towards devolution. First they established a Minister of Welsh Affairs in 1951, then a Digest of Welsh Statistics began publication in 1954, and in 1955 Cardiff (Caerdydd) was recognised as the Welsh capital city.
On Evans' initiative in response to a lack of Welsh-medium education at the college level, the University of Wales set up a committee for the creation of a Welsh-medium college in 1950. By 1955 the university announced its expansion of a Welsh-medium curriculum, and its continued expansion in relation to the demand for classes in Welsh. Additionally, Plaid Cymru was attracting members from other parties, such as one-time Plaid Cymru critic Huw T. Edwards, who resigned from the Council of Wales and left Labour in 1958 over what he described as "Whitehallism".
A Welsh constitutional monarchy
See also Welsh peers and baronets.
At a party conference in 1949, fifty members left Plaid Cymru over Evans' strict observance of a pacifist political doctrine and over the party's continued emphasis on the Welsh language, but also because the party firmly rejected adopting a republican manifesto.
The disaffected founded the Welsh Republican Movement which provided a home for radical ideas while Plaid Cymru matured as a political party, wrote historian John Davies.
Breaking up the following decade, some of its aspects were later absorbed into Plaid Cymru, such as the use of English and the engagement in English-speaking Welsh communities, echoing calls from Dr D. J. Davies. This was "key ... to the party's increasing acceptability" to voters, wrote Davies.
Leading Plaid Cymru members advocated that an independent Wales would be better served by a Welsh constitutional monarchy, one which would engender the affection and allegiance of the Welsh people and legitimise Welsh sovereignty. An hereditary constitutional monarch would, they argued, embody and personify Welsh national identity above party politics, while political parties formed governments in a parliamentary system similar to those of Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, and Spain.
Economist D. J. Davies, originally a republican, wrote an article in Y Faner in 1953, and later published in English in the 1958 book Towards Welsh Freedom, in which he advocated the elevation of a Welsh gentry family as the Royal Family of Wales. Among the criteria for consideration, argued Davies, was that the family had to have a history of contributing to Welsh life and reside in Wales.
Davies wrote in 1953 of the Rhys/Rice family of Dinefwr in Carmarthen, suggesting their elevation to a restored Welsh kingship. Author Siôn T. Jobbins suggested the election of a member of the Windsor dynasty for an independent Wales.
The flooding of Capel Celyn
See also Capel Celyn, Llyn Celyn.
In 1956, a private bill sponsored by Liverpool City Council was brought before the UK parliament to develop a water reservoir in the Tryweryn Valley, in Meirionnydd in Gwynedd. The development would include the flooding of Capel Celyn (Holly Chapel), a Welsh-speaking community of historic significance. Despite universal and bipartisan objections by Welsh politicians (thirty five out of thirty six Welsh MPs opposed the bill, and one abstained) the bill was passed in 1957.
Evans joined Dr Tudor Jones and Capel Celyn farmer David Roberts, aged 65, at the Liverpool Town Hall to protest, and had to be forcibly ejected by police.
The building of the reservoir was instrumental in an increase in support for Plaid Cymru during the late 1950s. Almost unanimous Welsh political opposition had failed to stop approval of the scheme, a fact that seemed to underline Plaid Cymru's argument that the Welsh national community was powerless. At the subsequent General Election the party's support increased from 3.1% to 5.2%.
Of perhaps greater significance, however, was the impetus the episode gave to Welsh devolution. The Council of Wales recommended the creation of a Welsh Office (Swyddfa Gymreig) and a Secretary of State for Wales early in 1957, a time when the governance of Wales on a national level was so demonstrably lacking in many people's eyes.
The flooding of Capel Celyn also sharpened debate within Plaid Cymru about the use of direct action. While the party emphasised its constitutional approach to stopping the development, it also sympathised with the actions of two party members who (of their own accord) attempted to sabotage the power supply at the site of the Tryweryn dam in 1962.
In October 1965 the Llyn Celyn reservoir opened to a sizeable Plaid Cymru organised demonstration. During the opening ceremonies, "posters reading 'Hands Off Wales' were displayed and pieces of rock were thrown at Liverpool's Lord Mayor and Chief Constable."
In 2005, the Liverpool City Council formally apologised for the flooding.
Tynged yr Iaith and the 1961 census
See also Tynged yr iaith.
In 1962 Saunders Lewis gave a radio speech entitled Tynged yr iaith (The Fate of the Language) in which he predicted the extinction of the Welsh language unless action was taken. Lewis' intent was to motivate Plaid Cymru into more direct action promoting the language; however it led to the formation of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (the "Welsh Language Society") later that year at a Plaid Cymru summer school held in Pontardawe in Glamorgan. The foundation of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg allowed Plaid Cymru to focus on electoral politics, while the Cymdeithas focused on promoting the language.
Lewis gave his radio speech responding to the 1961 census, which showed a decrease in the number of Welsh speakers from 36% in 1931 to 26%, out of a population of about 2.5 million. In the census; Merionnydd, Ynys Môn, Carmarthen, and Caernarfonshire averaged 75% concentration of Welsh speakers, with the most significant decrease in the counties of Glamorgan, Flint, and Pembroke.
Responding to the calls for Welsh devolution, in 1964 the Labour Government gave effect to these proposals establishing the unelected Welsh Office (Welsh: Swyddfa Gymreig) and a Secretary of State for Wales.
Evans' election 1966
If Plaid Cymru had been disappointed at the UK general election, 1966, then the Carmarthen by-election of 14 July 1966 was reason for celebration. The contest was significant in that it resulted in the election of Gwynfor Evans, the first ever Plaid Cymru M.P. The contest was caused by the death of Lady Megan Lloyd George, Labour (and former Liberal) MP and daughter of David, 1st Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor.
This was followed by two further by-elections in Rhondda West in 1967 and Caerphilly in 1968, in which the party achieved massive swings of 30% and 40% respectively, coming within a whisker of victory as both also won a higher proportion of the vote then it had won in Carmarthen.
The results were caused partly by an anti-Labour backlash. However, in Carmarthen particularly, Plaid Cymru also successfully depicted Labour's policies as a threat to the viability of small Welsh communities. Expectations in coal mining communities that the Wilson government would halt the long-term decline in their industry had been dashed by a significant downward revision of coal production estimates.
Welsh Language Act 1967
With Plaid Cymru's electoral successes the issue of devolution was back on the national political agenda, wrote Dr Davies. A Plaid Cymru under Evans and a Labour party influenced by Gwilym Prys Davies (Gwilym Prys Davies had published a Labour pamphlet calling for a National Assembly of Wales in 1963) and James Griffiths, the argument "in favour of a political system in Wales more answerable to the electorate" was plausible.
But by 1967 Labour retreated from endorsing home rule mainly because of the open hostility expressed by other Welsh Labour MPs to anything "which could be interpreted as a concession to nationalism", and because of opposition by the Secretary of State for Scotland, who was responding to a growth of Scottish nationalism.
By 1967 the Welsh Language Act was passed, giving some legal protection for the use of Welsh in official government business. The Act was based on the Hughes Parry report, published in 1965, which advocated equal validity for Welsh in speech and in written documents, both in the courts and in public administration in Wales. However the Act did not include all the Hughes Parry report's recommendations. Prior to the Act, only the English language could be spoken at government and court proceedings.
'79 Yes Campaign; Hunger Strike for S4C
See also 1979 Welsh devolution referendum, S4C, Hunger strike
In the 1970 General Election Plaid Cymru contested every seat in Wales for the first time and its vote share surged from 4.5% in 1966 to 11.5%. Also in that year, founding member Saunders Lewis was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Evans, however, lost Carmarthen to Labour, lost again by three votes in February 1974, but regained the seat in October 1974, by which time the party had gained a further two MPs, representing the constituencies of Caernarfon and Merionethshire. Alarmed at the decrease in the number of Welsh speakers, Evans began a campaign for the establishment of a Welsh-language television channel.
At the 1979 General Election the party's vote share declined from 10.8% to 8.1% and Carmarthen was again lost to Labour.
Plaid Cymru led the Yes Campaign in favor of devolution, though some party members were somewhat ambivalent toward home rule (as opposed to outright independence). The referendum was held on St David's Day (1 March) 1979, but the people of Wales voted against proposals to establish a Welsh Assembly.
Only 12% of the Welsh electorate voted to set up a directly elected forum which would have been based in Cardiff's Coal Exchange. The Assembly would have had the powers and budget of the Secretary of State for Wales. The plans were defeated by a majority of 4:1 (956,330 against, 243,048 for). The Wales Act contained a requirement that at least 40% of all voters backed the plan. After the referendum results many in the party questioned its direction.
Following the Yes Campaign's defeat, and believing Welsh nationalism was "in a paralysis of helplessness," the UK Conservative government Home Secretary announced in September 1979 that the government would not honour its pledge in the previous May's election campaign to establish a Welsh-language television channel, much to widespread anger and resentment in Wales, wrote Dr Davies.
In early 1980 over two thousand members of Plaid Cymru pledged to go to prison rather than pay the television licence fees, and by that spring Evans announced his intention to fast to death if a Welsh-language channel were not established. In early September 1980, Evans addressed thousands at a gathering in which "passions ran high," according to Dr Davies. The government yielded by 17 September, and the Welsh Fourth Channel (S4C) was launched on 2 November 1982.
The Wigley & Elis presidencies 1981–2000
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Caernarfon MP, Dafydd Wigley succeeded Gwynfor Evans as president in 1981, inheriting a party whose morale was at an all-time low after the defeat of the Yes Campaign. In 1981 the party adopted "community socialism," or a "decentralised socialist state," as a constitutional aim. This was in part as a consequence of Thatcherism's effect in Wales. While the party embarked on a wide-ranging review of its priorities and goals, Evans continued his successful campaign to oblige the Conservative UK government to fulfil its promise to establish S4C.
Wigley's election was seen as instrumental in deciding the future direction of Plaid Cymru. Though Wigley described his own politics as 'right-wing', at the time he represented a moderate, pragmatic social democracy policy, in sharp contrast with rival candidate Dafydd Elis Thomas' far-left socialism. Wigley's triumph was also somewhat a pyrrhic victory – he won the presidency, but Thomas would have a greater influence over the party's ideology throughout the 1980s.
In 1984 Wigley resigned from the presidency because of his children's health. In the 1984 party leadership elections Dafydd Elis-Thomas was elected president, defeating Dafydd Iwan, a move that saw the party shift to the political left. Wigley returned to the job in 1991 after the resignation of Elis-Thomas.
Ieuan Wyn Jones captured Ynys Mon from the Conservatives in 1987.
The 1991 census revealed that the decline in the number of Welsh speakers was arrested, and remained at the 1981 levels of 18.7% in a Welsh population of over 2.8 million. Gwynedd retained the highest concentration of Welsh speakers with 61%, followed by Powys, Clwyd, and Dyfed averaging in the mid-twenty percentile.
The Yes for Wales campaign
After the 1997 general election, the new Labour Government argued that an Assembly would be more democratically accountable than the Welsh Office, echoing calls for self-government since 1918.
For eleven years prior to 1997 Wales had been represented in the UK Cabinet by a Secretary of State who did not represent a Welsh constituency at Westminster. Plaid Cymru joined a bi-partisan Yes for Wales campaign, alongside the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties.
During the campaign for a Welsh Assembly, Diana, Princess of Wales was killed in a car accident in France. The campaign had been temporarily suspended and it was wondered what effect the death of the Princess of Wales would have on the election. Commentators pondered what effect the death of the princess and focus on the UK Royal Family would have on the devolution debate and turn out.
A second referendum was held on 18 September 1997 in which voters approved the creation of the National Assembly for Wales by a majority of just 6,712 votes.
The following year the Government of Wales Act was passed by UK parliament, establishing the National Assembly for Wales (Welsh: Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru).
First Welsh Assembly, 1999–2003
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In the 1999 election Plaid Cymru gained seats in traditionally Labour areas such as in the Rhondda, Islwyn and Llanelli and achieving by far their highest share of the vote in any Wales-wide election. Ieuan Wyn Jones was the campaign director during Plaid Cymru's first elections to the Welsh Assembly in 1999. While Plaid Cymru presented themselves as the natural beneficiary of devolution, others attributed their performance in large part to the travails of the Labour Party, whose nomination for Assembly First Secretary, Ron Davies, was forced to stand down. The ensuing leadership battle did much to damage Labour, and thus aid Plaid Cymru whose leader, by contrast, was the more popular and higher profile Dafydd Wigley. The UK Labour national leadership was seen to interfere in the contest and deny the popular Rhodri Morgan victory. Less than two months later, with a further slump in Labour support, Plaid Cymru came within 2.5 percentage points of gaining the largest vote share in Wales. Under the new system of elections, the party also gained two MEPs.
Lord Elis-Thomas was elected Presiding Officer of the National Assembly for Wales.
Jones' presidency; 2000–2003
In a speech at the 2000 National Eisteddfod at Llanelli, Cynog Dafis (pronounced Davis), Plaid Cymru AM for Mid and West Wales, called for a new Welsh-language movement with greater powers to lobby for the Welsh language at the Assembly, UK, and EU levels. Dafis felt the needs of the language were ignored during the first year of the Assembly, and that in order to ensure a dynamic growth of the Welsh language a properly resourced strategy was needed In his speech Dafis encouraged other Welsh-language advocacy groups to work closer together creating a more favorable climate in which using Welsh was "attractive, exciting, a source of pride and a sign of strength". Additionally, Dafis pointed towards efforts in areas such as Catalonia and the Basque country as successful examples to emulate.
Lord Elis-Thomas disagreed with Dafis assessment, however. At the Urdd Eisteddfod Lord Elis-Thomas said that there was no need for another Welsh language act, citing that there was "enough goodwill to safeguard the language's future". His controversial comments prompted Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg to join a chorus calling for his resignation as the Assembly's presiding officer.
Lord Elis-Thomas was also under fire from Welsh Labour's Alun Michael for his endorsement of Ieuan Wyn Jones as Plaid Cymru's president, however Elis-Thomas said he volunteered his preference as a matter of public interest and as a party member, not in his position as Assembly presiding officer.
Dafydd Wigley resigned late 2000, citing health problems but amid rumours of a plot against him. Ieuan Wyn Jones was elected President of Plaid Cymru with 77% of the vote over Helen Mary Jones and Jill Evans a few months later. Jones reshuffled the party leadership with Jocelyn Davies as Business Manager; Elin Jones as Chief Whip and Agriculture & Rural Development Officer; Phil Williams as Economic Development; and Helen Mary Jones as Environment, Transport and Planning, plus Equal Opportunities.
The party's move toward the political centre during this period may have been made easier by the formation of Welsh-language pressure group Cymuned (Community) and the Cymru Annibynnol (The Independent Wales party), which provided another home for "radicals".
Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party, having cooperated since the 1980s, formalised their relationship by establishing the Celtic Alliance voting block in 2001. The Celtic Alliance created the third largest oppositional voting block in the UK parliament.
Llandudno Party Conference
At the Llandudno Plaid Cymru party conference of 2002, Jones called for greater Assembly authority "[on parity] with Scotland's parliament", and "opposed any military conflict in Iraq, saying it would destabilise the Middle East". Jones also criticised health and public services policies and would end the "endless revamping of structures and administration".
