100 days
A chance we may not get twice
In just over 100 days, Wales goes to the polls.
Specifically it’s 103 days from me posting this, and yes, someone will inevitably point that out. But if Plaid Cymru cannot hold focus for three extra days without losing the plot, then we have far bigger problems than a slightly inconvenient calendar.
The point here is simple. We are in the final stretch.
If the polls are to be believed, Plaid Cymru is in a commanding position. For the first time in the parties history, leading the Welsh Government is not a distant ambition or a theoretical future. It is real. It is close enough to feel.
Right now is exactly the moment when complacency becomes most dangerous.
Putting the Work in
Elections are not won in spreadsheets or WhatsApp groups. They are not won by quote tweeting favourable graphs or convincing ourselves that momentum has a logic of its own.
Elections are won on doorsteps, in draughty community halls, in conversations that do not always end with agreement, and in the slow, unglamorous work of earning trust.
That work, in my view, is where Plaid Cymru has always been strongest.
I have knocked doors where people were excited, doors where people were angry, and much too many where people were simply tired.
Almost Hopeless
I remember one doorstep in particular, a man who told me he had stopped voting years ago. Not because he didn’t care, but because caring had started to feel like a waste of energy.
He talked about his work drying up, bills creeping higher every year, and politicians who only seemed to notice his street when cameras were nearby. He did not ask me for promises.
He said to me “would anything actually be different this time”. Tired of being promised change that never comes.
Tired of politicians who only appear when an election looms. Tired of being told that things are improving when their rent, their energy bills, or their waiting times say otherwise.
People Politics
Those conversations are rarely neat. They do not fit easily into leaflets or slogans. But they are where politics becomes real.
Plaid at its best understands this. We do not drop in every few years with grand claims and vanish again once the votes are counted.
We build relationships. We listen. We argue our case honestly and we hear people when they tell us we have missed something or got it wrong.
That matters more now than ever, with the populist right still on the rise.
A lead in the polls does not mean a lead in people’s hearts. Not yet. Trust is not something you inherit from a chart. It is something you earn, one difficult conversation at a time.
Earning Trust
That means meeting people where they are, not where we would prefer them to be. It means understanding why some are sceptical of politics altogether, and why others feel that no party has ever really been on their side.
In Wales, too many people have been promised the world and left with nothing to show for it. Honestly, they are right to be cautious.
If Plaid Cymru wants their vote, we have to prove that we are different not just in what we say, but in how we behave. We have to put in the work from day 1.
That is why the next 100 days cannot be about coasting.
100 Days Before
These days have to be about relentless, visible, grass roots campaigning. About doors knocked in the rain and the cold, god knows we have enough of it.
About volunteers giving up evenings and weekends because they believe this moment matters. About candidates who are present, approachable, and prepared to listen far more than they speak.
Make no mistake, this is not romantic work. It is hard, repetitive and often even demoralising. But it is also how you build something that lasts.
If we slow down now, if we assume the job is already done, if we start behaving like a party that expects to win rather than one that is still fighting to earn it, then we very well might deserve what follows.
But the next 100 days are not only about getting into government. They are also about what happens immediately after.
100 Days After
If Plaid Cymru leads the Welsh Government, the first 100 days of that government will matter just as much as the final 100 days of this campaign.
There will be no appetite for a traditional long honeymoon period. No extended patience while systems are reviewed and processes are mapped out.
People are struggling here and now. They will expect to see change quickly and clearly, not in five-year plans or carefully worded statements.
Those first 100 days must send an unmistakable signal that something has changed.
That means using every lever available to improve people’s lives in ways they can feel. Not just strategies and consultations, important as those can be, but action that makes daily life a little less heavy.
Action that shows a government understands the cost of living crisis as something experienced around kitchen tables, not just in economic reports.
Action that treats public services as a moral obligation, not a managerial challenge.
All on the Line
I have spoken to people who no longer expect government to fix everything. Many are not asking for miracles.
They are asking for honesty, competence, and a sense that someone is finally on their side. If Plaid Cymru fails to meet even that standard in its first 100 days, the disappointment will cut deep.
And the consequences will be disastrous.
This may be Plaid Cymru’s first ever opportunity to lead the Welsh Government, but if we fail to make meaningful change quickly, it may also be our last for a generation.
Voters will not forgive a party that speaks the language of hope and then governs like every administration they have learned to distrust.
History does not hand out many chances like this. Wales may not offer another.
So the next 100 days matter. Every doorstep matters. Every uncomfortable conversation matters. Every promise matters.
Not Just a Slogan
We fight until the very last day because nothing is guaranteed. And if we earn the right to govern, we act from day one like we understand just how rare and fragile that opportunity is.
Because if we are serious about changing Wales, then 100 days is not a slogan. It is a responsibility.
There is still time to get this right. Time to earn trust, not assume it. Time to show that politics in Wales can be rooted in respect, honesty, and hard work.
Hope on its own is never enough. But when it is backed by action, by presence, and by a refusal to take people for granted, it becomes powerful.
The next 100 days are our chance to prove that we understand that. And if we do, Wales might just give us the opportunity to prove it again in the first 100 days of government.