Whitchurch Hustings Speech

Dwi'n mor falch i fod yma. Rwyn i'n mynd i siarad tipyn tua fi, a llawer tua pam dwi'n sefyll, a sut allwn ni'n ennill.

Fi / me

Ces i fy ngeni yn Ysbyty Glossop Terrace, Cardiff Royal Infirmary ar Newport Road.

Cefais fy magu ym Mhenylan, gyda fy rhieni yn Earls Court Road, ac yn y fferyllfa fy nhadcu yn Albany Road.

Es i Roath Park Primary, lle roedd fy mam Elizabeth, chwaer Owen John Thomas, yn athrawes, ac ar ôl hyn Ysgol Howardian.

I am, in the immortal words of Frank Hennessy, “Cardiff born, Cardiff bred and when I dies I’ll be Cardiff dead”. Os dydych chi ddim yn nabod fi, chi’n nabod rhywun sy’n nabod fi.

Daeth fy chwaeth gyntaf o politics Cymraeg yn 6 oed yn 1977 pan roddodd Ewythr Owen fathodynnau “Jubilee? Ych a fi” i’r holl blant. Fe wnaethom sticeri a thaflenni yn ystod y refferendwm datganoli o 79 ac roeddem wedi drysu ynghylch y canlyniad. Eisteddom â choesau croes ar lawr ei stydi yn stwffio amlenni i godi arian i sefydlu Clwb Ifor Bach.

Ar ol ysgol es i Coleg Iesu, Rhydychen (y Coleg Cymraeg), a Kings College, Llundain.

I lived in London for over 20 years, learning to code and then running projects in a maritime insurance company in the City, then owning and running web consultancies and going on to join larger consultancies running multi-million pound projects and dealing with board members of listed companies.

Deuthum adref yn 2017 pan ddatblygodd fy Mam Alzheimer's. Yn wahanol i fy mrawd, does gen i ddim plant ac fe gytunodd fy ngwraig Alys yn garedig i symud.

Roeddwn yn Ysgrifennydd Canol Caerdydd, ac Ardal Caerdydd ers 2019 tan fis diwethaf. Sefais yng Nghyncoed yn 2019, a Phlasnewydd yn 2022. We came second in Plasnewydd for the first time ever, beating former incumbents the LibDems, and recording over 3 times the vote of the Conservatives. I have served on every Cardiff Central Election Campaign Committee since 2019 and run NationBuilder – Plaid’s membership and mailing system - for the wider Cardiff area and PCC elections. I pay for the domain name that those emails come from so they’re not directed to spam. I also set up and run all the Cardiff Central and Cardiff East social media channels.

Pam / Why?

Right – enough about me – pam ydw i’n sefyll? Mae rhaid i fi ddechrau gyda quote. It comes from Simon Hart’s diary “Ungovernable”. This excerpt is from his time as Welsh Secretary under Boris Johnson.

Wednesday, 10 March 2021.

On cue I also received a moaning letter from Jeremy Miles [Attorney General of the Welsh Government] who is slowly waking up to the realities that: 1) we have left the EU; 2) we are not rejoining the EU; 3) UKG governs the whole of the UK; and 4) I really don’t care/ give a f*** what he thinks about this topic any more.

Efallai bod Jo Stevens yn sgrifennu yn debyg ar hyn o bryd. This is what we are up against.

Ar ol y etholiad hyn efallai byddwn ni mewn llywodraeth. If we cannot make a material difference to people’s lives – in the face of UK government intransigence – we may never be in government again. Mae’r Office for Budgetary Responsibility wedi dweud na fydd economi Cymru yn tyfu o gwbl cyn 2030.

We must focus on the economy above all. There will be many competing voices calling for our attention, ond mae rhaid i ni cofio – dim on gwaith bydd yn achub y wlad.

Ym 1985 roedd Cymru yn gyfoethocach y pen nag Iwerddon, ac yn llawer cyfoethocach na phob cenedl yn yr hen floc comiwnyddol. Nawr mae ein hincwm y pen yn hanner incwm Iwerddon. Taking purchasing power into account we are poorer per head than Slovenia, Estonia, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Romania.

Rydym yn mynd yn fwy a mwy llwm. I volunteer for Cardiff Foodbank and see the near constant increase in demand. Roeddwn i'n  gweithio yn y warehouse Nadolig diwethaf pryd dechreuodd  “Do they know it’s Christmas?” ar y radio. I was immediately struck that in 1984 I would not have believed that 40 years later we would be collecting tins to feed people in good jobs rather than refugees in Ethiopia.

Without capital investment this will never be turned around.

I’m also a trustee for an international water charity. I have seen that when capital poor independent nations want to invest, they can apply to the World Bank and IMF. We cannot. The Treasury will not invest, and we are stymied from finding our own funding. Like it or not as a project, if a nation in the global South had proposed the Severn Barrage, it would have been funded. We have to find a way around this – and there will be one. There always is.

Sut / How?

Pan roeddwn i’n fach roedd fy ngefnder John yn mynd i ysgol uwchradd yn Llanharri. Nid oedd ysgol gyfun Gymraeg yng Nghaerdydd. Chi – y bobl yma – sydd wedi newid e. Cofiwch hyn.

Ond rydych chi'n byw mewn etholaeth wahanol  to most voters in Caerdydd Ffynon Taf.

I went to Howardian. I was one of only 2 people who took O Level Welsh. The rest resented Welsh at a fundamental level. To them it was an imposition. They wanted to go to Cannes, not Caernarfon – what use was Welsh to them they thought.

We are still struggling with that mindset. Most of our constituents are well disposed to Welsh but have no intention of learning it. They regard us solely as the party of the Welsh language and Welsh speakers. We must change that.

I’m a very lucky man – I’m not rich, but I don’t need paid employment. I get my sense of self from giving back now. Roedd motto fy mam “If you can, be kind.” If you knew her, you’ll know she lived it.

I’ve been the unpaid Non-Executive Director and Trustee of a global water security charity since 2011. It’s called Water Witness – look it up. WaterAid put taps and toilets in, we make sure that the water is there and it’s not polluted to enable that to happen. We do it largely by teaching people how to stand up for themselves, to face down governments and companies which in many of these places treat them as disposable. We can do that here.

I also volunteer for Cardiff Foodbank – doing deliveries in my little white van, and I’m about to start acting as a signposter – someone who helps those in need by pointing them to the relevant agency and informing them of their rights. If selected I will do this for Plaid.

I will hold a surgery in every ward once a fortnight, leaflet the local community to make sure they know it’s happening and that it’s Plaid that’s doing it.

I will work as many hours as it takes to win us seats in Caerdydd Ffynon Taf.

If we can make those voters think of help when they think of Plaid we can put a massive dent in Labour, and God willing, Reform.

Rwan, cofiwch yr ysgoliond. Rydych chi wedi wneud e. Allwch chi yn wneud hwn hefyd. Ymunwch â mi.

Heb waith heb Wlad. Gyda Gwaith, Gobaith - i ni a Gymru.

Diolch yn fawr.