Being a mildly Celtophobic Tory from Rickmansworth, I’m an unlikely Welsh nationalist. Aside from once sharing a Christmas dinner with Cerys Matthews, I’ve few ties to the Principality. Nonetheless, last week I found myself at the conference of Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales.

If Wales did become independent, it would be a tragic loss, born from neglect

If Wales did become independent, it would be a tragic loss, born from neglect

My interest was piqued by last October’s Caerphilly Senedd by-election. Despite the confident assertions of Reform outriders that Nigel’s boy would walk it, Plaid won handily. Naturally, the London press rushed to interview the losing candidate, ignore the victor and forget the whole affair. Which is perhaps why they were surprised yet again when the Gorton and Denton by-election showed a similar coalescence of left-wing voters around a single anti-Reform party.

Like the Greens, Plaid are competing with Reform to displace Labour in what used to be its heartland. Polls have Plaid and Reform neck-and-neck ahead of May’s Senedd election; a victory for either would be a seismic moment for Wales, ending 27 years of devolved Labour rule and a century of hegemony. But with more potential partners in government, Rhun ap Iorwerth – Plaid’s leader – looks the likely next first minister.

When I arrived in the Newport conference centre, I wasn’t sure what to expect. As Rory Sutherland suggested last issue, The Spectator has poor form on Cymru. The stereotypes of Welsh nationalists I held were unflattering: Gandalf-look-alikes muttering about Owain Glyndwr and tap water, or young women with pink hair and too many vowels blowing up caravans. What I did not foresee were several hundred cheerleaders.  

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‘Don’t worry’, a member told me, ‘We’re not that confident’. The ICC Wales had been........

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