Gwynfor Evans and Welsh Politics

Mike Weir Excerpts

Tuesday 5th July 2016 Westminster Hall

[Jonathan Edwards (Carmarthen East and Dinefwr) (PC)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the commemoration of the contribution of Gwynfor Evans to Welsh politics.

Diolch yn fawr iawn, Mr Stringer. It is an absolute pleasure to serve under your chairmanship and to introduce this debate in honour of the late, great Gwynfor Evans. Before I start in earnest, I thank Lord Dafydd Wigley for sharing his 2012 lecture on the life and work of Gwynfor. I am also indebted to Gwynfor’s former chief of staff, Peter Hughes Griffiths, for his invaluable input. As one of his parliamentary successors, it is an enormous honour for me to pay tribute to him in this House for his achievements and contribution.

Gwynfor was the greatest Welshman of the 20th century. I never had the privilege of meeting him, which is one of the greatest regrets of my life. I travelled to his funeral in Aberystwyth with my predecessor, Adam Price, a matter of days before the 2005 Westminster election. We do not do state funerals in Wales yet, but that day was most certainly an unofficial one. The town ground to a standstill as people travelled from all parts of our country and beyond to pay their respects.

In his lecture, Dafydd Wigley answered his own question on why Gwynfor was so important to Wales and our nation. At the funeral, he said in his tribute:

“If Gwynfor had not believed with such passion, exhibited such an unwavering commitment, such an incredible perseverance, then Wales would not be what it is today. It was he who created the aspiration within us”.

That is why Gwynfor is seen as the father of modern Wales. Without him, we would not have our own Senedd, our own Government, or a clear demand among our fellow citizens for greater autonomy. It is a fitting tribute that the latest YouGov poll last night put Welsh support for independence within the EU at 35%.

Without Gwynfor, we would not have our own dedicated Welsh language channel. Perhaps more importantly, we would not have our clear sense of Welsh nationhood—that common bond displayed so wonderfully over recent weeks at the Euro 2016 championship in France. Without him, we would not be discussing yet another Wales Bill later today. Of course, his influence goes far beyond our country. Arguably, without him Scotland would not be on the verge of independence—an inevitability hastened by the events of 23 June.

The brilliant Wales football manager Chris Coleman said after the famous 3-1 victory over Belgium in the quarter final of the Euro 2016 championship last Friday:

“Don’t be afraid to have dreams. Don’t be afraid to fail”.

He was not referring to Gwynfor when he said those words, but they sum up the impact that the great man had on the thinking of the generations of Welsh nationalists who followed him.

The stimulus for this debate was, of course, Gwynfor’s incredible victory in the Carmarthen parliamentary by-election in 1966, exactly 50 years ago. Perhaps one of the most iconic photographs in Welsh political history is the one of Gwynfor, perched on the balcony of the guildhall in Carmarthen, addressing the thousands upon thousands of people who had converged on the town that summer evening on 14 July 1966.

At the time of the by-election, Plaid Cymru was in a very bad position. We had contested 23 Welsh constituencies in the 1966 general election and lost deposits in every seat but two. There were real divisions within the national movement about the way forward following the election, and about the despair felt at the powerlessness of the people of Wales to stop the drowning of our valleys for English exploitation once Tryweryn had been opened.

The party, in a Brexit state of financial despair, was only able to fight the by-election following the generosity of that other great political leader of Carmarthenshire, D. J. Williams, who sold his family home, Penrhiw in Rhydcymerau. In a result that changed history, Gwynfor won 39% of the vote and secured a majority of 2,000. It was an earthquake that shook Welsh and UK politics to its core. It blew apart the myth that Plaid Cymru could never win a parliamentary election. It inspired generations to fight for the cause of Wales and, thankfully, secured the principle that the national movement could achieve its political objectives via constitutional means.

[Mike Weir (Angus) (SNP)]

I join in the tribute to Gwynfor, who I met once when he was campaigning for S4C. The Carmarthen by-election laid the ground for the fantastic by-election in Hamilton the following year, when Winnie Ewing won for the Scottish National party and started the rise of our party. We pay great tribute to Gwynfor and to the history of both our parties.

[Jonathan Edwards]

I am grateful for that intervention, which shows the very close links between Plaid Cymru and the SNP. I shall be referring to the Hamilton by-election shortly.

Gwynfor’s victory was no fluke. In March 1967, Vic Davies won 39.9% of the vote in the Rhondda and cut the Labour majority to just 2,000. In 1968, the polymath Professor Phil Williams won more than 40% of the vote in Caerphilly, losing by only 1,800 votes, with a swing of 29%. The Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, was in a state of panic about the national upsurge in Wales and Scotland, where the SNP’s Winnie Ewing had won the Hamilton by-election in November 1967, so he set up a royal commission. The resulting report by the Kilbrandon commission was published in 1973 and recommended legislative Parliaments for Scotland and Wales.

For Plaid Cymru, Gwynfor’s victory led to representation in this House over the past 50 years by politicians of incredible calibre. Gwynfor was followed by Dafydd Wigley and Dafydd Elis-Thomas in 1974; Ieuan Wyn Jones in 1987; Cynog Dafis and Elfyn Llwyd in 1992; Simon Thomas in a by-election in 2000; and my direct predecessor, Adam Price, and Plaid Cymru’s current parliamentary leader, my hon. Friend the Member for Arfon (Hywel Williams), in 2001. I was elected in 2010, and my talented hon. Friend the Member for Dwyfor Meirionnydd (Liz Saville Roberts) was elected in 2015. I genuinely stand on the shoulders of giants—politicians whose names will be celebrated in Welsh history for eternity. Without Gwynfor, though, it is highly unlikely that any of the aforementioned individuals would have graced this place and made their own vital contributions in developing our nation.

In this House, Gwynfor made his mark on a plethora of political subjects. His deep commitment on issues such as nuclear disarmament, industrial democracy, social co-operation and international concord allowed him to make a significant impact on Westminster politics. Men of conviction often face ridicule from their detractors. As they say, “First they ignore you, then they fight you, then they agree with you”. That was certainly the case for Gwynfor, who faced personal hostility unworthy of this House. However, much like other great political leaders across the world, from Ghandi to Mandela, at the time of his death there was a general recognition across the political spectrum that his contribution transcended partisan lines.