We are now about 20 weeks into Plaid Cymru’s administration of the Welsh Government. We’re well beyond the first 100 days that were so important for this Government.

In May, the Welsh public gave Plaid a narrow but unambiguous mandate to govern for the next four years as we look to move on from 27 years of Labour-led carnage and to rebuild public services into something we can trust to do their job.

The real question of whether Plaid will shake off or consolidate their reputation of being Labour’s sidekicks will be answered very soon.

For now, we can judge them on their first four months.

The biggest disappointment has been on Bronglais Hospital. In March, we were told that the facility would become a “hospital of rural excellence” with services protected, and travel time kept to a minimum for patients.

By August, we were told that they won’t commit to it anymore.

Plaid Cymru need to remember that many people in Ceredigion (and perhaps beyond) will have voted for them based on this pledge, and their involvement in the campaign to protect existing services.

Lloyd Warburton
Lloyd Warburton (Lloyd Warburton)

For them to turn around now and tell us so clearly that they can’t keep that promise is nothing short of disgusting and represents a serious breach of trust in our government.

I was in Bronglais recently, and of all the words one could use to describe the state of the A&E, “excellent” wouldn’t come anywhere near featuring.

There has also been little to no progress in reducing the eye-wateringly long waiting lists that have plagued the NHS for years.

In other news, the PISA test results were again very disappointing. Of course, our scores have been declining for many years in relation to other countries, and the most recent results cover tests sat by 15-year-olds in 2025.

Labour’s legacy of educational failure is something we need to learn from very quickly. By age 15, it’s too late for teenagers to catch up on basic skills like reading within the education system.

The ‘systematic synthetic phonics’ system used elsewhere is not used consistently in Wales, with some schools opting for cue-based teaching instead, and it’s obvious that it’s not helping.

We likely won’t know the effectiveness of any interventions in this field until the 2030s, when the PISA tests of today’s primary school children are published.

It would be rude of me, however, to ignore the good news.

Business rates for small and medium sized hospitality and entertainment venues are to be permanently cut by 30% from 2027, which will be a huge help for those places, and will hopefully be the difference that keeps some of them open.

All 22 local authorities in Wales will now be offering 12.5 hours a week of free childcare to every 2-year-old from 2027, up from just three authorities before the election, representing the first step towards the very ambitious childcare plan on which Plaid were elected.

The first few months of the Plaid Cymru administration have been mixed, but on the whole rather disappointing. Now the Senedd’s back from its very long summer recess, it’s time for them to get a budget through, recommit to making Bronglais the excellent facility it should be, and get to work on fixing the broken education system.

The Welsh public still, broadly have goodwill towards Plaid according to the most recent polling, but that will evaporate if people don’t see and feel change.

With just over seven months until their first electoral test at the council elections, Wales is watching Plaid closely.

They have 43 months to convince us all that they are serious about fixing our country.

They must not let us down.