The humiliating end to Leanne Wood’s Plaid Cymru leadership

‘The morning had been golden; the noontide was bronze; and the evening lead.’

So said Churchill about the career of Lord Curzon. But these words could also summarise the leadership of Plaid Cymru by Leanne Wood – a leadership that came to an abrupt and rather humiliating end on Friday.

Most observers of politics outside Wales, and plenty of people even within Wales, only really became aware of Leanne Wood after the televised leaders’ debates during the 2015 general election. By that point, she had actually been leader of her party for more than three years. Wood was a surprise leader – even to herself. First elected to the Welsh Assembly in 2003, she was probably best known for being booted out of the chamber for referring to the Queen as ‘Mrs Windsor’. During Plaid Cymru’s four years as an Assembly coalition partner to Labour from 2007-11, Wood was never one of Plaid’s government ministers.