After three days sleeping it off, my hangover has faded and now I’m just about capable of writing the blog of my dreams…
The Senedd election was a truly historic triumph for Plaid Cymru. At last, for the first time since Plaid was founded in 1925 and for the first time since the Welsh devolution process began in 1999, the ‘Party of Wales’ will form the government of Wales. This means that, for the first time since the universal right to vote was introduced in the UK in 1928, Labour are not the largest party in Wales and so, after 27 consecutive years in charge, have lost their vice-like grip on the Senedd. More than all this, for the first time since the annexation of Wales by England in 1536, Wales now has some say over its own affairs and its own future. Through all the centuries of defeat, despair and disillusionment endured by generation after generation of Welsh people, many must have thought this would never happen; those of us alive today who have witnessed this tremendous breakthrough are indeed fortunate.
Plaid’s win (43 of the 96 Senedd seats) is all the more remarkable because they were up against the far-right Reform UK (who purchased 34 seats). Reform had the uncritical support of just about every newspaper, Russian troll farms, rightwing disinformation networks and hosts of know-nothing social media ‘influencers’, plus their own unregulated TV station pumping out misinformation and propaganda and not forgetting the limitless resources kindly provided by a crypto-billionaire who lives in Thailand. Plaid Cymru, on the other hand, had the support of no mainstream media outlets at all and had to make do with an entire election budget of just £250,000 – a figure that Farage’s sickening mob was spending on leaflet drops daily. Just try to imagine the result if those circumstances were reversed and Plaid had the billions to spend and the backing of a compliant mass media while Reform had to campaign on a shoestring and without any friendly publicity: Wales would be independent in no time and Reform wouldn’t have won a single seat.
Congratulations are due to new First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth, to all the Plaid candidates, to the Plaid workers, foot-soldiers and advocates spreading the message in the 16 constituencies and, most of all, to the people of Wales who had the intelligence, the values, the decency and the love of Wales to resoundingly reject the destructive, hateful fascism*1 of Reform and unite to protect Cymru with the highest turn-out yet in a Senedd election. Following last year’s Caerffili by-election, this amounts to twice in quick succession that Wales has set an inspiring example of overcoming the far-right. And, taking into account last month’s defeat of atrocious demagogue Viktor Orbán after 16 years in power in Hungary, maybe this is a sign that the frightening global rise of fascism has peaked and is on the retreat.
For Farage and his motley collection of thugs, pea-brained posh boys, white supremacists, ignoramuses, criminals, sociopaths, deeply repressed closet gays, ex-Tory detritus and 21st century Dic Siôn Dafydd’s*2, the result was a disappointment. He really believed his enormous financial advantage would buy this election, and was so peeved that he couldn’t face Wales as the results started to come in and instead chose to wallow in the safety of the English local elections instead. There it was almost impossible to avoid his malicious, crooked, gurning smirk as Reform added more than 1,400 councillors to its ranks at the expense of Labour and the Tories. The same thing had happened at Caerffili last year where he skulked back to England when it became clear Reform was going to lose. It seems manly Nigel can cope with anything – except defeat. His Party’s whole image is based on being ‘winners’ with unstoppable momentum; Wales demolished that chimera last week, as did Scotland, and even in England the Reform UK vote went down compared to 2025’s Council elections. As people in England experience the reality of Reform running their local government, that vote is only going to shrink further. Few will tolerate the sort of chaos inflicted on the London Borough of Barnet when Dan Thomas, now Reform’s leader in the Senedd, was in charge.
Reform will bring nothing except disruption, anti-Wales attitudes, low-grade claptrap, negativity, hooliganism and ugliness to our Senedd. For that dubious privilege Wales will pay their 34 MSs an £80,000 annual salary and £1.2m in funding for staff – resources that will help Reform UK build towards what really matters to them – the 2029 UK election. Let us hope that, by then, the 368,000 people in Wales who voted for them will be hanging their heads in shame, will have developed a few working brain cells and will join the 70% of Wales that overwhelmingly spurned Reform.
I will be looking at the implications for the other parties, analysing the election in more detail and examining the people who are now our Senedd Members in the weeks ahead. Suffice to say here that Plaid Cymru face a momentous task defending and strengthening Wales in the years ahead. There is much to do, but with courage, passion, determination and unwavering principles everything is possible.
Finally, two farewells. To Wales’ sixth First Minister Eluned Morgan, who far too late had to accept that Kier Starmer’s ‘blue’ Labour Party were rightwing control-freaks hostile to the very idea of Welsh devolution. And to retiring Llywydd (Presiding Officer) Elin Jones, who for ten years conducted Senedd affairs with clarity, dignity, fairness and style. She will be a hard act to follow for the fourth Llywydd, Huw Irranca-Davies, but his competence and wide and deep experience of Welsh politics should stand him in good stead.
*NOTES
1 I do not use the word ‘fascism’ lightly. These are the main widely accepted characteristics of fascism:
Authoritarian✔
Ultra-nationalist✔
Dictatorial leadership based on the cult of personality✔
Centralising autocracy✔
Glorification of militarism and violence✔
Intolerance of opposition✔
Contempt for Human Rights✔
Building support by picking on ‘enemies’ to demonise✔
Seeking control over mass media and education✔
Obsessed with crime and ‘law & order’✔
Criminalising dissent✔
Protection of corporate power ✔
Aligning with elite big business interests✔
Suppression of workers✔
Disdain for intellectuals, the arts and academic freedom✔
Rampant cronyism and corruption✔
Using democratic elections to undermine democracy✔
Racist, misogynistic and homophobic✔
Concocting a mythical ‘golden age’ that never existed✔
2 ‘Dic Siôn Dafydd’ is a term coined by radical poet and writer John Jones, aka Jac Glan-y-gors (1766-1821) to personify and mock those Welsh people who ingratiate themselves to the English and betray their country for financial and political gain.