The Plaid Cymru Brecon And Radnor Experiment

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

The biggest political story in Wales today is that Plaid Cymru (with the agreement of the local party) have agreed not to put up a candidate in the forthcoming Brecon and Radnor by-election to Westmnister. The Green party have made the same decision. Both parties have done this to give as clear a run as possible to the LibDems who they've urged their supporters to vote for.

The logic is simple. The European elections in Wales showed that whilst votes for Remain/Leave EU  parties were roughly even. The Brexit party won the most seats specifically because the Remain vote was split. This is trying to make sure that does not happen again.

Labour are fielding a candidate. But let's be clear here their position on Brexit shifts daily.

The LibDems have the best chance of winning the seat from the right wing. They held it from 1997 until 2015 and have been second ever since.

The by-election was called when the previous Tory MP was convicted over a false expenses claim and was forced out by a recall petition where 19% of the voters said there should be a by-election. That very same Conservative is their candidate this time round....yes I know.

So is it the right thing for Plaid Cymru to have done? To be honest I don't know. Success would mean that the LibDems would have to do similar in other seats in South Wales for Plaid and there would be more of them which would mean that they would have a chance in increasing it's representation.

However experiments are worth doing once in confided conditions, which is exactly what Brecon and Radnor is. But if an experiment fails you don't repeat it.

So whilst I'm not sure how Plaid Cymru should proceed if the LibDems win the seat, should they fail then this experiment should not be repeated. It would alienate the Plaid membership and voters. who would feel that they are propping up tired old parties with no chance of winning. It would serve no purpose to repeat failure.

Until the next time.