The mantra was simple: ‘Yes Wales Can’, as Adam Price declared after ousting Leanne Wood in a brutal leadership contest in 2018. Wood had been unable to halt the ruthless coup launched by Y Mab Darogan, the son of prophecy, as Price was known to his followers.
Plaid Cymru has been in Labour’s shadow in Wales for close to a century. Yet Price was deemed to have the intellect, oratorical flair and media savvy to launch a nationalist turnaround to replicate the fortunes of the SNP. At times, if paraphrasing Obama was any evidence, Price indulged the intoxicating legend that surrounded him. It was bound to end in tears.
By the time Price announced he would go, the narrative had run away from him
His resignation this week, after the party-commissioned Prosiect Pawb (Everyone’s Project) report found misogyny, harassment and bullying rife across Plaid Cymru, was the final act in his Shakespearian career. Disorder descended on Plaid, while pressure grew for a more robust response to the report’s damning findings.
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