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Shall I tell you what I think, based on evidence pulled completely out of my backside? 100% subjective now, absolutely based on nothing but what's bouncing round my own head.
I don't think The People of the Valleys™ think of Plaid as being Us. I think they think of Labour as being Us. Leanne Wood is Us, and that's good, but she's working for Them. And that was ok when They were working for her, but she's not leader now.
And in The Valleys™ if Labour tell them what's what, then that's just Us talking to ourselves and that's fine, but if Plaid tell you what's best then that's Them telling us what to do.
And it doesn't matter that there are shitloads of Plaid voters and activists and Plaid have a decades long history in The Valleys™, they're still Them, while Labour, with plenty of English people telling them what to do and parachuting candidates in from wherever, are still Us.
What is a telling difference in my family of socialists, who actually have Labour political connections in the first half of the 20th Century, is for reasons that aren't important here, the view of Labour as Us was very fundamentally shattered a long time ago.
What I think's happened this time is that not only have Plaid failed to connect as "Us" and break the ridiculous Stockholm Syndrome of Labour, but under Price I know I haven't felt like Plaid is Me, and I know a lot of people who're disillusioned too.
In the case of Me, I don't think it's that important, I'm an outlier where I'm from and you're probably not going to get far appealing to my sensibilities, I admit that. But in general I think it's true that they don't do enough to make Valleys People™ feel ownership in Plaid.
(There's also an issue of irrational paranoia, that we in The Valleys™ think we're Real Wales, but the Plaid People™ of the Bro Gymraeg think they're the Real Wales and we're not. And vice versa. Which is horseshit obviously but that's Welsh cultural anxiety for you)
Anyway, I have no evidence for this but I think Plaid need to do work and make people feel that the Valleys have as much ownership and identity in the party, if not more, than they do in Labour. Because they really, REALLY, feel that about Labour.
Which is unsurprising because we built the fucking Labour party but have fuck all to show for it.
Oh also, I think this is what the SNP has managed to do. Thanks to their own actions, as well as stuff relating to our own moment and history as well as Labour's monumental incompetence, which they have expertly taken advantage of.
If there's any hope, it's that the SNP had an even bigger hill to climb to break the Scot's natural affinity and sense of ownership of the Labour Party- there have at least been more than one Scottish Labour PM.
