Plaid Cymru is a centre-left to left-wing, Welsh nationalist political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from the United Kingdom. It campaigns on a platform of social democracy and civic nationalism. The party is a strong supporter of the European Union and is a member of the European Free Alliance (EFA). The party holds 4 of 32 Welsh seats in the UK Parliament, 12 of 60 seats in the Senedd, and 202 of 1,231 principal local authority councillors. Plaid was formed in 1925 under the name Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru and Gwynfor Evans won the first Westminster seat for the party at the 1966 Carmarthen by-election.
The secretary of state for Wales, also referred to as the Welsh secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Wales Office. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.
The 1999 National Assembly for Wales election was held on Thursday 6 May 1999 to elect 60 members to the Senedd, at the time called the National Assembly for Wales. It was the first devolved general election held in Wales after the successful 1997 Welsh devolution referendum. The election was held alongside the Scottish Parliament election and English local elections.
R. Merfyn Jones CBE is a Welsh historian and broadcaster, was vice-chancellor of Bangor University and a governor of the BBC.
Susan Linda Essex is a British politician who served in the Welsh Assembly Government as Minister for the Environment from 2000 to 2003 and Minister for Finance, Local Government and Public Services from 2003 to 2007. A member of the Labour Party, she was Leader of Cardiff City Council from 1994 until its abolition in 1996 and Assembly Member (AM) for Cardiff North from 1999 until her retirement in 2007.
Politics in Wales forms a distinctive polity in the wider politics of the United Kingdom, with Wales as one of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom (UK).
Michael James German, Baron German is a Welsh politician who was Deputy First Minister of Wales from 2000 to 2001 and 2002 to 2003 and Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats in the National Assembly from 1999 to 2008 and overhaul Welsh Party leader between 2007 and 2008. The first-ever deputy first minister of Wales, he was also Minister for Economic Development from 2000 to 2001 and Minister for Rural Affairs and Wales Abroad from 2002 to 2003. He was elected to the National Assembly for Wales in 1999 where he was Assembly Member (AM) for South Wales East until 2010 and led his party group until 2008. In 2010, he was granted a life peerage and has since served in the House of Lords as a working peer for the Liberal Democrats. Ideologically, he is on the more liberal wing of his party.
Welsh Labour, formerly known as the Labour Party in Wales, is an autonomous section of the United Kingdom Labour Party in Wales and the largest party in modern Welsh politics. Welsh Labour and its forebears have won a plurality of the Welsh vote at every UK general election since 1922, every Assembly and Senedd election since 1999, and all elections to the European Parliament in the period 1979–2004 and in 2014. Welsh Labour holds 27 of the 32 Welsh seats in the UK Parliament, 30 of the 60 seats in the Welsh Senedd and 576 of the 1,264 councillors in principal local authorities including overall control of 10 of the 22 principal local authorities.
Christine Margery Gwyther is a Welsh Labour politician, who served as Member of the Welsh Assembly for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire from 1999 to 2007, having won the seat in the first National Assembly for Wales elections in 1999. She was also the first person to hold responsibility for Agriculture in the Welsh Government, serving as Secretary for Agriculture and Rural Development from May 1999 to July 2000. She lost her seat in the 2007 Welsh Assembly Elections, to Conservative candidate Angela Burns.
The Welsh Liberal Democrats is a liberal, federalist political party in Wales, part of UK Liberal Democrats. The party is led by Jane Dodds, who has served as an MS for Mid and West Wales since May 2021. The party currently has one elected member in the Senedd and one Welsh seat in the UK House of Commons. It also has several members of the House of Lords. The party had 69 local councillors serving in principal authorities as of the 2022 local authority elections, up 10 from 2017.
Thomas Middlehurst is a British retired politician who served as Leader of Flintshire County Council from 1996 to 1999 and Assembly Secretary for Education and Training in the National Assembly for Wales from 1999 to 2000. A member of the Labour Party, he was Assembly Member (AM) for Alyn and Deeside from 1999 until his retirement in 2003.
Meredydd Evans, known colloquially as Merêd, was a collector, editor, historian and performer of folk music of Wales. A major figure in Welsh media for over half a century, Evans has been described as influencing "almost every sphere of Welsh cultural life, from folk music and philosophy to broadcasting and language politics".
Gwenllian Lansdown Davies is a former Welsh Plaid Cymru politician, a former County Councillor for Riverside, and Chief Executive of Plaid Cymru between 2007 and 2011. She is currently the Chief Executive of Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin.
Brynley Francis Roberts, known as Bryn Roberts, was a Welsh scholar and critic, who wrote significantly on the Welsh language and Celtic history. He was Professor of Welsh Language and Literature at the University of Wales, Swansea 1978–1985 and Librarian of the National Library of Wales in 1985–1994, then made editor of the Dictionary of Welsh Biography in 1987 and of Y Traethodydd in 1999. He was on the council of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion and involved in the Morfa Chapel, Aberystwyth, part of the Presbyterian Church of Wales. In 2011, he was elected as a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.
The 2007 National Assembly for Wales election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the National Assembly for Wales. It was the third general election. On the same day local elections in England and Scotland, as well as the Scottish Parliament election took place. This election was preceded by the previous Assembly election in 2003.
The Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, known in both Welsh and English simply as Coleg, was established in 2011 by the Welsh Government to work with universities in Wales to develop Welsh-language courses and resources for students; it also provides and advances Welsh medium courses, scholarship and research in Welsh universities. Although headquartered in Carmarthen, the Coleg does not have its own campus, but works through a number of branches across universities in Wales. It is a recognised charity. The aim of the branches is to support the Coleg's work and act as a point of contact for students. The Chief Executive is Dr Ioan Matthews and the chair is Andrew Green.
Dafydd Trystan Davies is a Welsh academic and politician, who was chair of Plaid Cymru from 2013 until 2019, when he was replaced by Alun Ffred Jones. Trystan is currently the Senior Academic Manager and Registrar for Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol.
Dyddgu Hywel is a Welsh rugby union player who plays fullback for the Gloucester Hartpury and the Wales women's national rugby union team. She won her first international cap against Ireland at the 2013 Women's Six Nations Championship. Outside of rugby, she is a lecturer for the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol at Cardiff Metropolitan University.
Dafydd Llywelyn is a Welsh Plaid Cymru politician. Since May 2016, he has served as the Dyfed-Powys Police and Crime Commissioner.
The 2000 Labour Party in Wales leadership election was held on 11 February 2000 after the resignation of Alun Michael as first secretary of Wales and leader of the Labour Party in Wales on 9 February 2000. Rhodri Morgan, who had unsuccessfully challenged Michael in the previous leadership election in 1999, was elected unopposed as the new leader of the party in the National Assembly for Wales and was later nominated unopposed by the assembly as the new first secretary on 15 February.
