A new book by John Osmond was launched at a fringe meeting of Plaid Cymru Annual Conference in Cardiff on 12 October 2024.
Sound archive of the launch meeting –
John Osmond, who was involved in negotiating the Agreement as Special Adviser to Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price, provides an insider’s account of the political background to the Agreement – including a fascinating week-by-week diary of Price’s first 100 days – how it was finalised and the compromises that were made to achieve it.
Essential reading for politicians, political journalists, students and political scientists globally, the Co-operation Agreement, termed by academics as ‘Contract Parliamentarianism’, drew on non-coalition precedents in Sweden, New Zealand and Malaysia. It resulted in significant measures being introduced across 46 policy areas such as: free school meals for all primary school pupils, expanding free childcare to all two-year-olds, action on the second homes crisis blighting rural Wales, and reforming the Senedd (the Welsh Parliament) including a 60% increase in Senedd Members – from 60 to 96 – and a fully proportional electoral system from 2026.
Brought to a premature end in May 2024 by Plaid Cymru as the result of the controversial internal election of the new Labour leader which resulted in the implosion of his short-lived government, The Politics of Co-Opposition is a fascinating and candid account of how innovative politicians co-operated on key mutually-agreed policies while maintaining their positions as government and opposition.