Plaid Cymru (Welsh pronunciation: [ˈplaɪd ˈkəmrɨ], English: The Party of Wales; often referred to simply as Plaid) is a political party in Wales. It advocates the establishment of an independent Welsh state.^[3]

Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925 and won its first seat in 1966. Plaid Cymru by 2012 had 1 of 4 Welsh seats in the European Parliament, 3 of 40 Welsh seats in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, 11 of 60 seats in the National Assembly for Wales, and 206 of 1,264 principal local authority councillors.^[2]

Platform[link]

Plaid Cymru's goals as set out in its constitution are:

1. To promote the constitutional advancement of Wales with a view to attaining independence within the European Union;
2. To ensure economic prosperity, social justice and the health of the natural environment, based on decentralist socialism;
3. To build a national community based on equal citizenship, respect for different traditions and cultures and the equal worth of all individuals, whatever their race, nationality, gender, colour, creed, sexuality, age, ability or social background;
4. To create a bilingual society by promoting the revival of the Welsh language;
5. To promote Wales's contribution to the global community and to attain membership of the United Nations.

In September 2008, a senior Plaid Cymru assembly member spelled out her party's continuing support for an independent Wales. The Welsh Minister for Rural Affairs, Elin Jones, kicked off Plaid's annual conference by pledging to uphold the goal of making Wales a European Union member state. She told the delegates in Aberystwyth that the party would continue its commitment to independence under the coalition with Labour.^[4]

History[link]

Beginnings[link]

Plaid Cymru Founding Plaque - geograph.org.uk - 644944

While both the Labour and Liberal parties of the early 20th century had accommodated demands for Welsh home rule, no political party existed for the purpose of establishing a Welsh government. Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru (English: National Party of Wales) was formed on 5 August 1925, by Moses Gruffydd, Fred Jones and Lewis Valentine, members of Byddin Ymreolwyr Cymru (Home Rule Army of Wales; literally, Self-Rulers' Army of Wales); and H. R. Jones, Saunders Lewis and David John Williams of Y Mudiad Cymreig (The Welsh Movement).^[5] Initially, home rule for Wales was not an explicit aim of the new movement; keeping Wales Welsh-speaking took primacy, with the aim of making Welsh the only official language of Wales.^[6]

In the general election of 1929 the party contested its first parliamentary constituency, Caernarvonshire, polling 609 votes, or 1.6% of the vote for that seat. The party contested few such elections in its early years, partly due to its ambivalence towards Westminster politics. Indeed the candidate Lewis Valentine, the party’s first president, offered himself in Caernarvonshire on a platform of demonstrating Welsh people's rejection of English dominion.^[7]

1930s[link]

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 broaden its appeal beyond that of an intellectual and socially conservative Welsh language pressure group.^[8] The alleged sympathy the party's leading members (including President Saunders Lewis) towards Europe's totalitarian regimes compromised its early appeal further.^[9]

In 1936 Lewis, David John Williams and Lewis Valentine attacked and set fire to the newly constructed RAF Penyberth air base on the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd in protest at its siting in the Welsh-speaking heartland. The leaders' treatment, including the trial judge's dismissal of the use of Welsh and their subsequent imprisonment in Wormwood Scrubs, led to "The Three" becoming a cause célèbre. This heightened the profile of the party dramatically and its membership had doubled to nearly 2,000 by 1939.^[6][10]

1940s[link]

Penyberth, and Plaid Cymru’s neutral stance during the Second World War, prompted concerns within the UK Government that it might be used by Germany to insert spies or carry out other covert operations.^[11] In fact, the party adopted a neutral standpoint and urged (with only limited success) conscientious objection to war service.^[12]

In 1943 Saunders Lewis contested the University of Wales parliamentary seat at a by-election, gaining 1,330 votes, or 22%. In the 1945 general election, with party membership at around 2,500, Plaid Cymru contested 7 seats, as many as it had in the preceding 20 years, including constituencies in south Wales for the first time. At this time Gwynfor Evans was elected president.

1950s[link]

1959 election in Merioneth