Why Plaid Cymru and Welsh Labour should work together

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.

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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.’

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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.