Plaid Cymru

Plaid Cymru (formerly Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru - The Party of Wales, now referred to simply as Plaid) is a Welsh political party of some kind. That much, at least, is certain. It is theorised that it once had a platform, but at present it is not clear what that platform is, and nobody remembers a time when that was not true. Being unpopular appears to be the only goal it ever had, a goal that it is quite clearly striving for; while it is by all accounts succeeding in this goal, it is unclear if it will continue to succeed in anything else, or if it aims to succeed at all.
Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925, and won its first seat in 1966. Winning even one seat conflicted with their goal of being unpopular, so they were forced to change strategies. By 2012, they had succeeded in losing all the seats they had ever won, and they have not won any more since. The future of the party is currently in doubt.
==Platform==
The Party's members often stress its being totally different from the British parties. This is indeed true; while the strategy of the other parties is to make the most of their successes and seize on every opportunity to make a difference, by increasing their efforts and their power with the years, that of Plaid Cymru is to do the opposite: its reply to every success is to retreat more and more into the shadows, and every opportunity to make a difference is converted into an opportunity to do as little as possible, as is seen in the Assembly Government currently.
==Name==
The Party's name is another aspect of this strategy. When the Party was formed in 1925, its name was Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru (English: Nationalist Party of Wales). For many years, the Party was true to its core aim of being totally unpopular. With nationalism starting to gain momentum in Wales, it was decided that the Party's name was too nationalist and there would be a danger of its becoming a popular party, so the name was changed to Plaid Cymru. After the formation of the Assembly, more and more people came to see Wales as a political unit and to give more power to Wales as a country; Plaid Cymru's reaction therefore was to remove Cymru (Wales) from its name, and to use, instead, the name Plaid, which conveys more precisely what the Party stands for, namely itself.
=== Name in English ===
Originally Plaid Cymru had no official name in English. This was intended to make them less popular among the English-speakers, who at the time formed an increasing portion of the voting population, as even the miners were losing their ability to speak Welsh. But over the years, as the Welsh 'language' experienced a revival, Plaid Cymru was forced with great reluctance to change their name to "The Welsh Party" to combat the popularity resulting from having a Welsh-only name. This was such a success that they have been known as "TWP" ever since, the initials of their new name proving all too appropriate as a description of their platform.
==Future==
It is expected that "Plaid" will drop the word plaid from its name before long, and go for a more suitable name: ________. This will probably make it even harder for them to win seats, as voting for a party with a blank space for a name may prove difficult, if not impossible.
==See also==
*Wales
*Welsh language
Category:Wales
Category:Political parties
cy:Plaid Cymru
simple:Plaid Cymru