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Opinion

A coronation awaits – but is Plaid Cymru crowning a continuity King?

31 May 2023 4 minute read
Rhun ap Iorwerth

Theo Davies-Lewis

Welsh nationalists have always lacked killer instinct. The public defenestration of Adam Price earlier this month, following a report into Plaid Cymru’s dreadful culture and governance, certainly weakened the resolve of ambitious backbenchers. As my Nation.Cymru colleague Martin Shipton wrote in the aftermath, who would want to take the poison chalice of the party’s leadership now that it is a toxic and serially unelectable brand?

Over recent weeks observers have seen the party sway from the ridiculous to rudderless. Price’s bizarre leaving speech, where he made no reference to the report’s findings, was then followed by silence from prospective leadership candidates. Only yesterday did Rhun ap Iorwerth formally declare he would be putting his name forward (after mulling it over for weeks) in the ‘contest’. There will likely be no such thing.

Delyth Jewell, perhaps the only other plausible challenger, has already declined to put her name forward.

So we will likely get a coronation, after all. And while most kingly ascents, royal and mortal, bring uncertainty, Rhun ap Iorwerth is a known entity.

He has already told Nation.Cymru that he would continue the co-operation agreement with Welsh Labour and that independence will remain a cornerstone of his political agenda. Like Price, he is a good communicator. Rhun ap Iorwerth however appears – from my experience, at least – to exude a smoother confidence and slickness than Price, who was scripted even off stage.

Telegenic

Being telegenic is sniffed at as a Blairite craze but the new Plaid Cymru leader will have to use such skills to build trust. Implementing dozens of recommendations to reform your party while communicating to members, colleagues and the public that you are a safe (and competent) pair of hands will be essential in the coming months.

Rhun ap Iorwerth’s time as a BBC political correspondent means he knows there is no hiding from what will be several invitations to continuously apologise for his party’s culture and explain how he is resolving the issue.

Yet natural successors are hard to come by, especially in smaller parties. In recent months I have been particularly impressed by Rhun ap Iorwerth’s scrutiny of how the Health Minister, Eluned Morgan, has handled the national scandal that is Betsi Cadwaladr health board – including financial discrepancies, dreadful treatment for patients and lack of accountability at a Welsh government level. In any other democracy with some self-respect, the campaign run by the Ynys Môn MS against Baroness Morgan would have resulted in resignation.

But where will such tenacity and aggression go when working in tandem with Welsh government ministers? When he ran for the leadership in 2018, Rhun ap Iorwerth said he wanted to change the ‘story’ of Plaid Cymru, from a party on the defensive to becoming a more confident operation.

Ubiquitous phrases alone will not be enough to free the party from its shackles as a bit player to the Labour party in Wales.

Expectations

The problem is that expectations on nationalist leaders in Britain are too high. The Salmond-Sturgeon axis was so effective that Humza Yousaf was bound to struggle to eclipse the giant shadows that loomed over him, amplified by extreme crisis in his first few days as First Minister. Leanne Wood, followed by Price, were in their own ways heralded as key players to unlock electoral value for the party. Yet the expectations for Rhun ap Iorwerth, after Plaid’s torrid few weeks, will be different if he is elected leader.

That may make him equally both the placeholder and continuity king. He will of course disregard such a suggestion, seeing independence as a key mission for him while in the meantime reforming Plaid Cymru and delivering policies via the co-operation agreement. And all is not doom and gloom, with the gradual support for an independent Wales subtly underpinning the slow-moving tectonics of Welsh politics.

But how will Plaid Cymru advance that cause and, finally, look more plausible as a party of government? No party leader can claim to have ever had the answer. Like his predecessors, that will be Rhun ap Iorwerth’s challenge.


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Leigh Richards
Leigh Richards
1 year ago

Er i think Theo’s got his articles mixed up. This mean spirited, barely disguised hatchet job on Plaid’s prospective new leader was meant for the ‘blue wall’ home counties readers of the spectator surely?

Dai Rob
Dai Rob
1 year ago
Reply to  Leigh Richards

I thought it was a good article. Sad thing is, Plaid are so short of talent, it probably will a coronation, not a contest. I’m not a fan of him. He will not bring me back to the party. :/

Leigh Richards
Leigh Richards
1 year ago
Reply to  Dai Rob

He’s head and shoulders above the unionist cheerleader currently leading labour’s branch office in Wales Dai..

hdavies15
hdavies15
1 year ago

Coronation ? Continuity King ? That’s the language of a person wedded to the Anglo Brit idiom when wishing to do a snide piece on another person. The writer would do well to start again, ditch the stupid royalty obsessed mode of expression and express his/her views with a touch more appreciation of the political reality rather than some palace politics fantasy.

Y Cymro
Y Cymro
1 year ago

Whether you support Plaid Cymru or not , we need a party that fights for Wales, devolution and Welsh Independence as the others never.will. All they care about is power and England. Take. Welsh Labour/UK Labour. It was our so-called First Minister Mark Drakeford who allowed possible irradiated English mud from Hinkley Point to be dumped in Wales. And even if the mud was safe, the act itself gave the impression that Wales was only fit be an English waste dumping ground. And UK Labour in 1979 effectively campaigned to dissuade the Welsh from voting for devolution that gave us… Read more »

wayne
wayne
1 year ago
Reply to  Y Cymro

Plaid Cymru is gone. An empty chalice, a begging bowl, feeding of the crumbs of Labour unionist. All talk and unable to walk.

Cymro Cymraeg
Cymro Cymraeg
1 year ago

Tbh. As a former member, cllr and parlimentary candidate I lost all patience with Plaid a long time ago. Without wanting to bore everyone here, I truly believe that Plaid are now missing a ‘trick’ to elect a Leader in the Senedd and a ‘Llywydd’ for the party. There are strong reasons for supporting such a model, however I’m not going to waste any more time.

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
1 year ago

Rhun when you get a minute could you ask the police forces of Cymru why ethnic minorities were 3 times more likely to be arrested and fined for breaking Covid rules. Diolch

PS watch your back…stabbers about…

Last edited 1 year ago by Mab Meirion
Riki
Riki
1 year ago

English king! That distinction needs to be Said.

Elfed Jones
Elfed Jones
1 year ago

A pro. nuclear politician leading a anti nuclear party is hypocrisy on a industrial scale. The cost of managing the waste would bankrupt a independent nation. Immigrant nuclear workers will not be voting for Plaid.The economic record of Plaid controlled Môn Local authority speaks volumes .

Twrch ap Trwydd
1 year ago
Reply to  Elfed Jones

What rubbish.

Ed Jones
Ed Jones
1 year ago

So Rhun, it will soon look like it was worth your while throwing Leanne under the bus some 5 years ago eh?!

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