- Con air - 15th April 2026
- Down in the dumps! - 14th April 2026
- Two plus two equals five - 13th April 2026
During 23 years with the BBC, and in a 42 year journalistic career (when he was trained to use clear and simple language, avoiding jargon), for our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, covering major political stories was pivotal, so he looks with incredulity now at how the mainstream media has failed to scrutinise the Welsh nationalist group Plaid Cymru, or its leader Rhun ap iorwerth, with polls suggesting he is on course to be the next First Minister of Wales, heading a party in power.
The scandals beggar belief.
Most (although not all) have been reported individually on a drip-drip basis, but there has been no attempt to link them all together (a pull-together as it’s known in the trade), and analyse them in their entirety.
Given that the party in question (the Welsh nationalist group Plaid Cymru [Plaid]) is ahead in the polls and likely to be in charge soon, with its leader Rhun ap Iorwerth being appointed First Minister of Wales (FMW), I would suggest this is something of a failing.
They launch their manifesto today, with the usual array of promises to entice voters.
One poll conducted by YouGov for Cardiff University (CU) shows Plaid leading for elections to the Welsh Parliament/Senedd Cymru (WP/SC) on May 7 at 33 per cent with Reform UK second on 27.
Another survey has been seized on by the nationalist website Nation.Cymru (NC) (a cheerleader for Plaid), which proclaims approvingly: “The latest results show a slight increase in support for Plaid Cymru (up to 30% of the vote, from 29% in Beaufort’s last poll completed in February 2026), while Reform UK is unchanged on 27%, followed by Labour on 17% (down from 20%)…A projection of seats based by Cavendish Cymru on the poll findings suggests that Plaid Cymru would win 37 seats, Reform UK 30, Labour 15, the Conservatives 6, the Green Party 6 and the Liberal Democrats 2″.
Bizarrely there has been a little more scrutiny from journalists in London, than there has been from the mainstream media in Wales, with The Guardian headline stating: “What is happening in Plaid Cymru?”
There is, though, plenty to look at.
For example, one Plaid candidate called Israel a “terrorist state” on social media, but party officials said he would remain available for selection for the WP/SC elections.
Vivek Thuppil, who is on Plaid’s candidate list in Bangor Conwy Mon (BCM), said in posts on the Bluesky social media platform, that Israel should be proscribed, like a terrorist organisation.
Meanwhile Plaid also said it supports the candidacy of Elin Hywel, who is on the party’s list in Gwynedd Maldwyn (GM), yet archived messages show that she had shared a message on X/Twitter suggesting Israel did not have a right to exist.
In fact there have been any number of controversies concerning leading members of the Welsh nationalist party, and even Plaid executives have been forced to take disciplinary action against some of them.
Jon Scriven a councillor with Caerphilly County Borough Council (CCBC) was suspended in 2022 over a social media post showing him holding a gun, in a so-called ‘joke’ about English people crossing the channel.
Terry Davies was found to have breached the Code of Conduct at his authority in Carmarthenshire, and was suspended over his behaviour towards other councillors. Iwan Hughes in Gwynedd was banned from office for two years over fraud-related allegations.
Again in 2022 the Plaid Member of the Senedd (MS) Rhys ab Owen first lost the whip over his conduct and was eventually expelled from the party TWO years later!
There are also unanswered questions concerning the previous controversial leader of Plaid, Adam Price.
For months Plaid was dogged by claims of a ‘toxic culture’ in the party, and it emerged that an allegation of sexual assault had been made against a senior member of staff, so the former party MS Nerys Evans was asked to look at the scale and scope of the issues.
Her report, Prosiect Pawb (Everyone’s Project), found a culture of sexual harassment, bullying and misogyny, with victims saying they felt there was little point in reporting unacceptable behaviour by elected members because it had been tolerated for so long
There was apparently a lack of leadership, which meant the problems had become worse, and it made 82 recommendations, which were needed to “detoxify” the party.
It might seem reasonable, therefore to ask why Mr Price had not resigned even before this report was made public, when (finally) he said he felt “morally bound” to step down.
We don’t really know the reason, but his claim of it being an “abdication of responsibility” to do so earlier sounds a bit lame to me.
There has also been the apparent misdirection of money by Plaid.
This was the BBC report which NC inevitably did not promote: “Plaid Cymru has been fined £29,000 for failing to report cash it received from taxpayers’ funds worth nearly £500,000. The Electoral Commission said over a two-year period Plaid had omitted 36 separate sums from quarterly reports. Plaid had failed to declare cash from the House of Commons authorities, and some cash from the Electoral Commission”.
It’s not just the party either, because Mr ap Iorwerth himself must also bridge an enormous gap in beliefs among his supporters.
There are social conservatives, as well as tolerant liberals in Plaid.
Some believe passionately in, for instance, gay marriage, while for others this is complete anathema.
I have myself had a conversation with a Plaid activist who is firmly supportive of old-style left wing economic policies like nationalisation, but thinks male homosexuality is an abomination, and lesbianism doesn’t really exist!
Some Plaid policies (particularly on nuclear power) are confusing to say the least.
Mr ap Iorwerth said the party would support new nuclear power plants at Wylfa and Trawsfynydd, but not anywhere else in Wales, and he declared that Plaid was as “honest as you could possibly wish us to be”.
But he is the MS for Ynys Mon, and Wylfa is in his constituency with Trawsfynydd also in North Wales so he might be expected to say this.
As far as I can work out, Plaid are in favour of nuclear power in the North but not in the South, however I can’t be sure because even though I have studied politics for years (and secured a degree in it), this policy seems as clear as mud.
When Mr ap Iorwerth jumped ship to go from the Political Unit (PU) of BBC Cymru Wales (BBC CW) there were mutterings that he had long harboured nationalist sympathies, which infected his journalism. You were, of course, expected to be entirely neutral in your reporting.
There was even concern that he may have been organising his transfer to Plaid, while he was still at BBC CW.
These events, naturally, confirmed a belief in the minds of many people that there was and is a close connection between the nationalist party and the corporation in Wales.
I knew of one individual who moved from Plaid to BBC CW, then BACK AGAIN, and the person in charge of programmes there now (Rhuanedd Richards) is a former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) with the nationalist group!
I was in the PU at the time, and heard these mutterings myself.
So it can be seen there is a lot to go at with the next probable party in power in Wales, and the new FMW.
If the mainstream media won’t do it, I have to, along with The Eye…
The memories of Phil’s astonishing, decades long award-winning career in journalism (when political stories often dominated) as he was gripped by the rare neurological disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A Good Story’. Order it now.
