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Opinion

Why Plaid Cymru and Welsh Labour should work together

03 Nov 2024 7 minute read
John Osmond

John Osmond

A robust sense of shared national identity is essential for the success of democratic government. It is fundamental to the give-and-take which makes possible the implementation of a coherent programme of national policy.

Yet, for very many, perhaps most people in Wales their national identity is a complex and sometimes ambiguous matter. To varying degrees people identify themselves as Welsh, British, Welsh and British, Welsh and European, or a combination of all three.

Others pride themselves on being citizens of Wales while originating from elsewhere.

Around 20 per cent of people in Wales were born in England, most of whom identify as English or British or both. This diversity of identity is intensified – enriched, it should be said – by the increasing presence of ethnic minority groups within Welsh communities.

In 21st Century Wales it is easier to be relaxed about these diverse identities since the presence of the Senedd and the Welsh Government has changed the whole basis of Welsh citizenship.

Unprecedented

Whatever a person’s view of their specific identity, that individual is a voter, is personally affected by the Welsh Government’s decisions, and is thus a Welsh citizen in a new and unprecedented way.

Attracting all Welsh citizens to participate fully in the life of the nation and to identify with its aspirations and interests is the key to the success of the nation and its government.

However hesitantly, the 1997 referendum set Wales on a course towards greater autonomy. At that time, speaking in the House of Commons, Labour’s MP for Swansea West Donald Anderson, a late convert to devolution, described it as a mystery tour:

‘I recall the fine story of a bus tour from Cwmrhydyceirw in my constituency. There was a sweep about where the tour would end, and it is said the driver won. The people of Wales are driving this mystery tour. They will decide the pace and direction.’

Aspirations

More than a quarter of a century later we can see more clearly where the journey is heading. A fledgling Assembly, little more than a version of local government with some parliamentary aspirations tagged on, has developed into today’s Senedd with full legislative powers in its fields of competence.

Fiscal powers are following and, as a result of the Co-operation Agreement, the Senedd will increase in size to create a fully functioning parliament.

All this has been achieved by Plaid Cymru working with Labour to various degrees and in different contexts.

The first occasion was during the One Wales coalition government which secured the 2011 referendum and legislative powers. Fifteen years later it was through the Co-operation Agreement. It suggests that, as the future unfolds, further progress will be made by Plaid and Labour working together.

The argument was set out by the late Professor Phil Williams, a leading figure in Plaid Cymru over four decades. As he put it in 2003, in a publication for the Institute of Welsh Affairs, The Psychology of Distance:

“Within the Party of Wales there is a recurring debate as to whether an essential prerequisite for self-government is that Plaid Cymru replaces the Labour Party as the mainstream, dominant party in Wales. Alternatively, is it possible for a single-minded and uncompromising Plaid Cymru to create the conditions whereby other parties deliver self-government, albeit step by step and with some reluctance. Progress over the past forty years, and especially the establishment of the National Assembly, point to the latter strategy.”

In truth, the party has always followed a dual strategy, challenging the Labour party for power, but all the time seeking to pull it in Plaid’s direction. With the Co-operation Agreement this implicit role has now become explicit. Plaid Cymru may lose an electoral battle, but it wins the war of ideas. At the Senedd election in 2021 Plaid Cymru failed to secure a breakthrough to power, but nonetheless, via the Co-operation Agreement, its policies found their way to the forefront of the Welsh Government’s Programme for Government.

Long revolution

What has been happening in Wales since 1999 is the result of a long revolution that is slowly gathering pace. The term Long Revolution was coined by Raymond Williams in his book of the same name, published in 1961. Williams argued that we were living through a long-term and far-reaching transformation of our society, in which the development of democracy had a leading role.

He described it as, ‘The rising determination… that people should govern themselves.’ And he added:

‘The human energy of the long revolution springs from the conviction that men [sic] can direct their own lives, by breaking through the pressures and restrictions of older forms of society and discovering new common institutions… The nature of the process indicates a perhaps unusual revolutionary activity: open discussion, extending relationships, the practical shaping of institutions.’

That is a fair summary of Plaid Cymru’s essential programme. As Raymond Williams said, the democratic transformation he was advocating is a multi-generational process. Williams’s use of the word process was echoed by Ron Davies when he famously described devolution in these terms rather than an ‘event’. Plaid Cymru’s long revolution began almost a hundred years ago, in 1925, when Saunders Lewis set us on the path to national freedom.

Since then, we have come a long way in building our nation. Who would have thought in 1925, in 1945, 1966, 1979, or even as late as 1997, that by 2024 we would have a democratically elected legislative Senedd, poised to take another step by extending its membership to become a fully-functioning parliament? It is the Long Revolution taking place before our eyes.

Autonomy

And that is how the significance of the Co-operation Agreement that Plaid negotiated with Labour in the six months following the May 2021 election should be viewed. It has created the outline of a road towards greater autonomy for Wales. However, it will be no ordinary journey. There is no ready-made road. As the Basque saying has it, We build the road as we travel. This is what nation-building means.

Since 1999 Plaid Cymru has shifted its understanding that constitutional advance requires the party to collaborate with other progressively minded forces in the Senedd. Of course, the need for cross-party collaboration has been the case since the onset of democratic devolution and the creation of the National Assembly, now Senedd. The parliamentary numbers, resulting from the element of proportionality in elections have made this inevitable. Labour has never had an outright majority. Arrangements have been the norm between it, Plaid and the Liberal Democrats, varying from budget deals to policy compacts and formal coalitions.

However, the Co-operation Agreement institutionalised this way of working in a newly imaginative way. It allowed parties to share responsibility for implementing a broad sweep of policy at the same time as continuing to be in a state of opposition with one another. Depending on how the parties fare in the forthcoming 2026 Senedd election it may well be that they will need to revisit the initiative. Known in academic parlance as Contract Parliamentarianism, there is every chance it could become a lasting feature of the Welsh political experience.

This is an edited extract from John Osmond’s new book The Politics of Opposition, published by the Welsh Academic Press.

The book is being launched at a Wales Governance Centre event at the Glamorgan Building, Cardiff University, Cathays Park, Cardiff, at 6pm for 6.30pm on Wednesday 6 November 2024, in which John Osmond will be in conversation with Professor Richard Wyn Jones, Director of the Wales Governance Centre. Free tickets to attend the event are available here.


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Annibendod
Annibendod
1 month ago

I’ll be absolutely honest here and state that right now is not the time to cooperate with Labour. Now is the time to apply maximum pressure on Labour. Short term goals must be devolution of the Crown estate, justice and media. Our share of large scale capital spending must come to the Senedd and the threat of an English Tory majority disbanding our Senedd must be removed by legislation. And we should be given our HS2 money in full. Time to nail Labour to the wall …

Padi Phillips
Padi Phillips
1 month ago
Reply to  Annibendod

Totally, 100% agreement! I would go further and suggest that Labour in Cymru needs to go further and break the direct links it has with the party in England so that it becomes a standalone Cymric party as opposed to a British party. The same should be the case with all the current British parties that have a presence in Cymru, though of course due to its traditional influence over Cymric politics, it it most important that Labour makes that move. Only then can we be sure that Labour will truly fight our corner, which at present they clearly are… Read more »

Linda Jones
Linda Jones
1 month ago

I would cancel my membership if Plaid went in with Labour. Labour in Wales are dictated to from Westminster, we need a party that has Wales at the heart of its politics and policy

Richard Jenkins
Richard Jenkins
1 month ago

For all the good it has done for the people of Cymru & the list of good things is long, extensive & honourable, it’s been a PR disaster for Plaid Cymru. Sadly, without an active, responsible media coverage of the plusses, the contagion of supporting a Unionist party has been endemic.
Until, we can develop a positive view of the effect Plaid has on the vagaries of Unionist Labour more concerned with pleasing it Westminster masters than us, it will always be so..

S Duggan
S Duggan
1 month ago

With a changes to the electoral system and the number of MSs at the next Senedd election Plaid may not need to work with Labour. There’s everything to fight for. How well Plaid do will ultimately depend on how well Labour in Westminster do over the next year and a half. Labour’s unpopular at the moment but 18 months is a long time in politics. In reality if Cymru is to prosper – Plaid has to gain power. Labour and the Tories only have England at heart.

Dr John Ball
Dr John Ball
1 month ago

I’ve got a lot of respect for John Osmond, but in this context he is wrong! Bluntly, the enemy to a bright future for our nation is and always has been, the “Welsh” Labour party. Adam Price – drunk on being deputy first minister refused to see this and many in Plaid Cymru still believe in the fantasy that Labour is (to quote HMJ during the coalition) our “colleagues.” The bottom line is that Labour in Wales will do anything to hang on to power here and in Westminster and that includes stamping on Plaid Cymru. When push comes to… Read more »

Ernie The Smallholder
Ernie The Smallholder
1 month ago
Reply to  Dr John Ball

I agree with you on this issue. Nick Clegg made the same mistake and set back the cause of liberalism for ten years, with the Tories taking the credit for Vince Cable’s idea for tax cuts by raising the income tax allowance threshold to £12,500. The Tories (and labour) have since frozen this threshold to 2029 despite inflation bring many low paid into taxation for the 1st time. Plaid Cymru fortunately never had a contract coalition with labour or served in a labour government and was right to withdraw from the co-operation agreement when labour had the £200,000 donation from… Read more »

Y Cymro
Y Cymro
1 month ago

Is Welsh Labour worth propping up should be the question asked. UK Labour has been in power for a few months and has Welsh Labour had any influence when it comes to devolving powers sought like our Criminal & Youth Justice system, Policing etc… constantly denied when the Tories were in power? No. I’ve heard DPM Angels Rayner mention devolution to the North of England but nothing West to Wales. Remember when Welsh Labour stating that a Labour government in London would be more favourable to Wales and devolution lol. Yeah, right. I see no difference between Labour & Tories… Read more »

Llew Gruffudd.
Llew Gruffudd.
1 month ago

The bottom line is that any cooperation with Welsh Labour, is with an avowed Unionist party. As such the central levers of government, fiscal, economic and legislative, remain with Westminster. Any agreement is tinkering around the edges of Wales social and economic improvements. Plaid call for the devolution of policing and criminal justice, together with the Crown Estates. They will superficially increase Wales status However we should be careful what we wish for under the present constitutional arrangements. If policing and criminal justice is devolved, the Welsh public will inevitably wish to see improvements on the present. If there is… Read more »

Dewi
Dewi
1 month ago

I hope we see more contributions from John Osmond on Nation.cymru. When Plaid Cymru was led by Adam Price and Labour by Mark Drakeford, both parties had pragmatic leaders who genuinely wanted the best for Wales and were willing to compromise to get there. Sadly, Plaid Cymru has tripped over its own laces, while Welsh Labour has been in a bit of a pickle, especially with the trade unions effectively choosing the party leader and making a rather dodgy decision. Given the lack of talent in the national movement across both Wales and Scotland, Plaid Cymru has been lucky to… Read more »

Lyn E
Lyn E
1 month ago

There is zero chance of Welsh independence within the lifespan of the next Senedd and very little prospect of any party winning an outright majority in 2026. Like it or not, the issues around some form of cooperation (not necessarily a formal agreement) will have to be confronted if Wales is to have a functioning government. This is not just about Plaid Cymru versus Welsh Labour. A sizeable minority in Wales is opposed not just to independence but to any form of devolved power. Reform is predicted to win upwards of a dozen seats and some Tories are now dabbling… Read more »

Ernie The Smallholder
Ernie The Smallholder
1 month ago
Reply to  Lyn E

Lyn E, If you feel strong about this then you and your friends should campaign against these people that are so negative of our nation Cymru (Wales). Why we even allow such as as the likes of Reform UK / Ukip / Abolish Wales to stand for our Senedd surprises me. Can you image if an Anti-French party wanting to abolish France stood for a seat in Paris ? Or to abolish Deutschland in Berlin ? It just would not be tolerated by in France nor Deutschland, if not also blocked by those country’s constitutions. This is the same as… Read more »

Last edited 1 month ago by Ernie The Smallholder
Lyn E
Lyn E
1 month ago

Of course I campaign against Reform. I attended several summer protests against the far right riots.

The far right is a problem in virtually all European countries. The Reform vote in Cymru was higher than in England.

Paul
Paul
1 month ago

The problem with Plaid is that they do not seem sure of their identity or politics apart from independence. It is hard to forget or forgive them for voting with tories to,try and prevent Carwyn Jones from being First Minister. More unforgivable is their recent joining with the tories to bring down the first elected black leader of government in Europe. This over his acceptance of 200K for his election campaign, conveniently overlooking the tories £ 15 million donation from a man who says Diane Abbot makes him want to shoot black women. A bit of consistency of principle and… Read more »

Geraint
Geraint
1 month ago
Reply to  Paul

Don’t forget two Labour MSs did not vote for the Labour first minister in the motion of no confidence. Later three Labour cabinet ministers and the senior Labour legal officer resigned from his cabinet.

CapM
CapM
1 month ago
Reply to  Paul

‘conveniently overlooking the tories £ 15 million donation from a man who says Diane Abbot makes him want to shoot black women. A bit of consistency of principle and a sense of what type of party they want to be would be a good start ‘. Don’t be obtuse. The members of the Senedd have no power to sanction the tory party for that donation. Plaid Cymru criticised that donation as did the Labourpartyinwales. Where Senedd members did have the power to sanction the person who accepted a donation from an inappropriate source they did so. However The vote of… Read more »

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