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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Plaid Cymru
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(Welsh for 'the party of Wales') Political party committed to achieving self-government for Wales. It was founded in 1925 by six men in Pwllheli, in Gwynedd; they met in an upstairs room of a temperance hotel during the National *Eisteddfod. Plaid Cymru first contested a parliamentary seat in the general election of 1929 but did not achieve its first victory until its president, Gwynfor Evans (b. 1912), won a by-election at Carmarthen in 1966. The election of 1992 gave the party its highest representation yet in the House of Commons, with four seats.
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By an agreement of 1986 Plaid Cymru forms a bloc at Westminster with Britain's other nationalist party, the *SNP. The surge of nationalism in Scotland and Wales was rewarded with the referendum of 1979 on *devolution, but the concept was heavily rejected in Wales. A greater success for Plaid Cymru was its campaign for a Welsh-language television channel, *S4C. While independence for Wales remains the party's main theme, its broader political stance is socialist.
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