A candidate’s view: ‘The racist ones’- what one doorstep told me about this election

Sarah Rees 

It’s been a bit of a merry-go-round these past couple of weeks.

Not just politically, though keeping up with the churn of Reform candidates in Pen-y-bont Bro Morgannwg has been a job in itself, with four resignations or step-downs in under a fortnight.

It’s also in the day-to-day reality of campaigning as life goes on around it. School holidays, a trip to Wrexham for the campaign launch, and the sense that we are heading into the final stretch of Cymru’s most consequential election since the start of devolution.

There is a particular pace to this stage of a campaign. You are constantly thinking about what is next, what you have forgotten, where you need to be.

One minute you are on a doorstep, the next you are preparing for a hustings, then trying to carve out a bit of time for family in between. It is full on, but it is also the part where the passion and adrenaline take you to the finish line.

Behind the manifesto

Last week we launched Plaid Cymru’s manifesto for government.

These moments can feel quite formal from the outside, but being part of it you are very aware of the work that has gone in behind the scenes. The forensic work of our policy team and researchers, but also the campaigners and volunteers who have been pushing the same issues for years, often without much recognition.

It is their work that gives it weight, and ours to make it happen for the people across our nation.

One conversation from last week has stuck with me as I have been out listening to people on the doorstep. A volunteer I was with has been campaigning for a local economic proposal for a long time. He said, half joking, that if Welsh Labour had put as much effort into supporting it as they had into avoiding it, we might not be in the situation we are now. It was one of those comments that stays with you, because it rings true.

Plaid Cymru’s role is to listen, and most importantly to act, to turn those frustrations into something positive. That is what I believe our manifesto sets out to do.

A mood on the doorstep

That sense of things not quite working as they should comes up a lot. But so does something else.

You can feel that people are ready for change. People have weighed things up. They are asking different questions, showing a real interest in how Plaid Cymru would deliver.

Sometimes they just want to be listened to. And sometimes, the answers you get are more stark – when I asked one household which Reform policy appealed, the reply came back bluntly: “the racist ones.”

The mood has shifted, frighteningly not always in a good way. We must make sure that shift turns towards Plaid Cymru, and not towards the kind of politics that divides and diminishes.

A reminder of what is at stake

That thought was brought home again at a live recording of The Guilty Feminist in Cardiff last Sunday.

The show, part of their ‘Road to Gilead’ series, focused on the rise of the far right and what that means in practice, particularly for women’s rights and wider civil liberties. It was, of course, funny, with comedy greats Kiri Pritchard-McLean and Priya Hall, but also pretty sobering. You could feel that in the room.

Carol Vorderman spoke very plainly about Reform UK and where far right politics leads. Not just the headlines, but the reality of it.

Rolling back hard won rights, undermining protections, and pushing a politics that excludes rather than includes.

She made the point that since being elected, Nigel Farage has spent significant time in the United States, while barely visiting his own Clacton constituency. It was a reminder of how connected these movements are, and how attention is often focused elsewhere rather than on the communities they are elected to serve.

Plaid Cymru does not have the backing of wealthy overseas donors, but we do have something else. We have the determination, the energy, and a genuine commitment to the communities we are part of. That matters, especially now.

It is a strange thing, stepping out of something like that and then straight back into campaign mode. But it does bring things into focus. This election is not happening in a vacuum. People are paying attention, and the choices being made now will shape the kind of country we become.

Back to the doorstep

And then it is back to it again. More doors, more conversations, more trying to keep everything moving.

The merry-go-round is still spinning, but listening on the doorstep it feels like people are starting to decide where they want it to stop, and they are choosing leadership over chaos.