A Tory–Plaid Cymru pact?

25 April 2007

Liam Byrne says the English must be less apathetic about the United Kingdom, and about the threat of Scottish independence that looms in next week’s elections

One party rule sums up the history of Welsh politics from 1945 onwards. Labour’s hegemony here has been both cultural and political with its tribal elders portraying any alternative as at best eccentric and at worst downright unnatural. This is the party of the Welsh establishment and its position has been bolstered by an accomplished grasp of the powers of patronage. Tory governments at Westminster have recognised that hegemony and governed through it. New Labour in the post-devolution era could by and large afford to forget Wales — a country in which it had rarely shown any interest. Meanwhile, Welsh Labour could get on with doing what it had always done best: fixing jobs, moaning about ‘Thatcherism’ and mouthing platitudes about Aneurin Bevan. Quite suddenly, though, these past certitudes are looking shaky. Labour is unlikely to gain a working majority in the Assembly elections on 3 May, and the prospect of a Conservative–Plaid Cymru alliance is emerging as a real alternative to take charge of the devolved government.

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