So just befpore Plaid's National Conference Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas has quit Plaid Cymru to become an independent AM, causing maximum bad publicity for his former party
The Dwyfor Meirionnydd AM is understood to have told his local party on Friday that he will sit as an independent AM in the Assembly.
The former Presiding Officer had previously been disciplined by Plaid leader Leanne Wood for criticising party policy.
Plaid Cymru said they would call for a by-election as soon as possible.
A party spokesman said Lord Elis-Thomas, who led Plaid from 1984 to 1991, had "misled" constituents.
A statement from the party said:
"Plaid Cymru will begin the process of selecting a new candidate in Dwyfor Meirionnydd following Dafydd Elis-Thomas's decision to leave the Plaid Cymru Assembly group.A friend of the peer said:
"Constituents, who Dafydd Elis-Thomas misled in the recent Assembly election, will expect a by-election to be held at the earliest convenience."
“He thinks Plaid should be doing more to support the Welsh Government and disagrees with the very oppositionist stance they have taken to Labour.“He also feels completely marginalised within the Plaid group at the Assembly. If Leanne had been sensible, she would have given him a proper job. He should have been properly managed, but Leanne had no idea how to do that. He’s had enough and will continue sitting in the Assembly as an Independent.”So its Leanne's fault for not pandering to Dafydd El's ego
I do deny any politician the right to follow their conscious but it seems ot for someone to be reelected only six months ago/
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ± | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plaid Cymru | Dafydd Elis-Thomas | 9,566 | 47.3 | +0.7 | |
| Conservative | Neil Fairlamb | 3,160 | 15.6 | −4.8 | |
| Labour | Ian MacIntyre | 2,443 | 12.1 | −0.6 | |
| UKIP | Frank Wykes | 2,149 | 10.6 | +10.6 | |
| Independent | Louise Hughes | 1,259 | 6.2 | +6.2 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Stephen Churchman | 916 | 4.5 | −0.3 | |
| Green | Alice Hooker-Stroud | 743 | 3.7 | +3.7 | |
| Majority | 6,406 | ||||
| Turnout | |||||
But facing criticism is not one of them and his habit of making a statement at times when it could damage Plaid Cymru's electoral chances have often been inappropriate.
Will he join Labour or sit in the "Not the Coalition Cabinet" as an Independent I do not know but if he thinks he will be able to speak his mind freely in these circumstances he would be delusional.
If it was the same Dafydd El who we in the original National Left supported so enthusiastically 30 years ago . I might be writing about the formation of a new Progressive Left Party in Wales with a future.
Alas I doubt anyone can cluster around someone who changes his tune constantly and despite his obvious intellect (or maybe because of it) his habit of shooting from the hip can be contradictory at times.
With Elin Jones now the Presiding Officer it means Plaid now have the same number of seats as the Tories,
The defection should in theory make he Labour government in the Assembly easier but one wonders how much they can rely on someone whose viewpoint changes with the weather,
11 comments:
Actually Plaid and the Tories now each have 11 seats, with Jones as Presiding Officer Plaid effectively have 10. Does that mean the Tories will now become the official opposition?
It's official then - Dafydd El has finally thrown his toys out of the pram!
No I think I am right Plaid won 12 seats in 2016.
I wonder if DET can convince his close friend Neil McEvoy to leave Plaid? After all, DET did allegedly give McEvoy £20,000 towards his failed attempt to win Cardiff West earlier this year. And McEvoy ran DET's leadership campaign in 2012.
Funny that DET feels "completely marginalised" within the Plaid group given his very close association with McEvoy. Et tu Brutevoy?
I'm going to allow this for now but ifyou are going to make such allegations then I expect them not to be anonymous in the future.
Thanks. DET and McEvoy's friendship is well known within the party. I used the word "allegedly" because of McEvoy's penchant for litigation.
When i was a very young boy i recall my late father being very excited about a story on the welsh evening news that featured 3 men with varying sized sideburns surrounded by scores of people with welsh flags outside some quaint looking building in london - i had little idea what was going on at the time but i knew it was something to do with wales and was probably a good thing. The event i'm referring to of course was october 1974 when a very young dafydd ellis thomas was one of a trio of plaid cymru mps elected in the recent general election.
A few years later when in my mid teens and developing welsh republican sympathies i was very impressed with dafydd ellis thomas when against a storm of protests from the british establishment he moved the writ that enabled the dying irish hunger striker bobby sands to contest the Fermanagh and South Tyrone by election. And unlike a few welsh labour MPs i could mention dafydd el wasnt found wanting when it came to supporting the welsh miners during the epic year long strike a few years later.
All a long time ago admittedly and both wales and dafydd el have undertaken quite a political journey since then. But i dont think there's any question that along with dafydd wigley he has been one of the few politicians wales has produced in recent times who is liked and respected by ordinary people across wales. So today is a very sad day - for both plaid cymru and dafydd el i think.
I have heard nothing but delight in my part of north Wales that Dafydd El has taken this step.
Labour remains the National Left the unchallenged Party of Wales.
It was a long time ago that Dafydd El stood as MP for the last time, but even then he was so far Left it would have been like voting for Labour and not Plaid.
Labour is on the left? A tiny bit to the left of the Tories, yes, but not overall, no.
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