Why Vote Plaid Cymru?
This brings us to the question of why people did vote Plaid. In our view there are two main reasons. The first was the lack of a Tory threat in Wales and the fact that voters were not deciding on the government at Westminster. Most valley voters understand, quite correctly, that the governance of the British state is a straight fight between Labour and the Conservatives. Given such a choice they will naturally tend to vote for a Labour government, whatever their misgivings about the direction of New Labour. On a Welsh level, this pressure did not exist in the same way. Plaid Cymru themselves have acknowledged this factor and according to Karl Davies, Chief Executive of the party: ‘Usually in a General Election the swing stops once the campaign gets under way. This time there was a significant swing late in the day. In many ways, it was more similar to a by- election than a general election.’ He went on to say: ‘In a national by-election, we held all the trump cards. We succeeded in bri
