YouSaid · the spoken record

Rhun ap Iorwerth

lines on the record: 47
first: 2025-11-14
most recent: 2025-11-14
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Would have been angels back then until everybody started singing Angels in karaoke and then it became cold play and it's then whatever people put in front of me. Half a chance to sing, Nick.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Given that walking down the corridor on the way into the BBC today, somebody have reminded me of a karaoke at a political party conference in Blackpool back in the early 90s. And you know what? I remember that particular evening. And yeah, I'll get up and sing karaoke every now and then.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think had there been a ceremony to inaugurate the Prince of Wales now, that could have created divides as well. And I think it was the right thing not to elevate it in that kind of way when William became Prince of Wales. I'm a Republican as a matter of principle and always have been politically. It's not a priority for me, but that's where I instinctively lie knowing that the royal family is very important to other people.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“About a political point. It was a big year in the history of Wales 1969. Because of the Prince of Wales being made a prince, and we should remember never to forget the impact that that has on the future of a nation. But it was about it.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, no, I listen to all sorts of music. I guess we were called sort of dance funk, I think somebody it was dubbed us back in the late 80s, early 19s, where we were playing in an incredibly vibrant Welsh music scene. And many of my friends and fellow musicians went on to be professional, very well-known musicians in the super furries and catatonia and we were really proud of how they turned Welsh music into an international thing.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Trip you go on. I do take my guitar many, many places. I do like to relax with my guitar. I was drummed a bit last night. It's a release still. I'm kind of... Oh, all sorts of”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm proud of having worked for the BBC and I worry about the attack on public service broadcasting from the populist rights to follow their own agenda. There are lots of good reasons. We've talked about the Welsh language today, you know, that it's a public service broadcaster that is able to do the right thing in making sure that there's broadcasting through the medium of Welsh, which if you were to work in a coldly commercial, market-driven world would become more difficult. This is something for us to be proud of whilst everybody within the BBC, I know when I was, wants to and is eager to be accountable always.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To insidery. I think it's bizarre for reform to be questioning my relationship with the BBC when I left the BBC to go into politics. I don't have to be impartial anymore. I can be openly plied. The party's leader. And are they saying that journalism should mean that you could never go into politics, that no journalist should ever go into politics? It is a fairly well-trodden path, actually, isn't it from journalism into politics? It is incumbent on everybody with any news organisation, especially a public funded one, to show their impartiality all the time.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And you know what? One of the things that gave me greatest pride around that time is people didn't ask that. I was fiercely proud of my profession as a journalist. I'm still a member of the NUJ to this day. I consider myself in many ways a journalist first still. And people didn't ask that question. And yes, I guess we all as journalists have political beliefs and I had mine throughout. But I think I was meticulous in being impartial. And maybe I was tougher in many ways and challenging my own beliefs. And there was never a plan to go into politics, but I was testing my beliefs all the time and I came back to where I began, I guess.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I think it's a really fair question to ask and a good way of putting it. And I think anybody gauging the way it's approaching.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't believe so. We look at the opportunities and the challenges, and I bring people back time and time again to this, right? If we have problems of poverty in Wales, if we're not rich enough to be an independent country, if we are, you know, the basket case that some people would say we are, that's in the context of being within the UK. Clearly being within the UK as we are is not working. Something needs to happen. I want to persuade people to look at what the alternatives really could be. I'm convinced, but it's not going to be me imposing this on Wales. It's going to be Wales hopefully saying, you know what? Yeah, let's go for it.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But crucially, a significant number again on top of that saying yeah, I'd like this. I'm not yet convinced. So my job is to bring people with us, ask the difficult questions, prove where we can make those positions.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, absolutely. It's really interesting since I've been laying out my thoughts on independence and how we get there, I've had more opportunities than ever to talk about what independence means to me and what the opportunities are that I believe that could flow to Wales from being an independent nation. I've always believed since I was a young kid that in order to reach our potential and really flex our own muscles as a country and take our place within the world, we should be a normal country and a normality is to be independent. But I also know and have always believed this, that you need to bring people with you on that journey. We've come a heck of a long way in recent years through the growth in movements for independence. Brexit's changed people's minds as well. You're often out 25, 30% in favor of independence, but crucially.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And there were parts of Wales that suffered greatly as a result of that, and people were measuring the radioactivity for years to come. This is about looking at how we test and hold accountable the technology, the management, the operation and so on. And there are plenty of lessons that we have been learning globally in relation to how we generate electricity and the same is true for this venture that is going to be happening in my backyard.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It only happens to be my constituency, but it's only my constituency because that's where we've had a nuclear experience and nuclear skills for many years. And you know what? I was listening to somebody on the radio this morning. It was a young man, probably the same age as my son. And he was now working at Hinkley. There were 15 others from his class at school who were also with him at Hinkley, Welsh speakers who had left home and they want to come home. I think that sends a message to us about what we're trying to maximize from such a development whilst always saying, you know what, we're going to be the ones also championing the mitigation against the challenges that come from any development of that scale and nature.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The parties had a long standing position of only supporting nuclear where we have already had nuclear sites and nuclear experience and people living with nuclear and where we have nuclear skills and so on. As it happens, my constituency is one of those. My mother-in-law used to be the manageress of the canteen at Wilva Power Station. That, I think, is an example of where it kind of has slotted into society and community in my constituency for a long time.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's not a matter of saying we need more immigrants, but people move across borders, and it's really important that governments have effective ways of dealing with that and deciding who should be able to move and who should be able to stay and so on. But absolutely, we have to recognize that whether it's our university sector who needs students to come in or whether it's the care sector, at times, whilst of course training up our own young people is front and center, of course we do and have and will depend on other people coming here too. And that's been a positive for us.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Promoting a particular culture, if you mean by that, the very, very multifaceted, multicultural Welsh culture, well, yes. I mean, it's a culture that has been welcoming, that has been shaped by people moving in and sharing their cultures with us. And at the heart of that, yes, there's the traditional Welsh culture or the language, if you like. I don't believe that we should focus on the negatives of shared cultures. I think that are positives to come from that.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, they are told it is, and it's our job on the more progressive side of politics to say, listen to our arguments on what the real problems are. I remember one conversation I had during the election in Kafilli, one saying one man saying it was in Bagoit. You know what? I'm done with you all. I'm going reform. And I said, listen, just be very, very careful. And don't let somebody pitch you against your neighbor and community against community when really it's the failure of governments to get to grips with poverty, with how...”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't think it's a key issue. I absolutely accept that it has become an issue and people have been told that this is something that relates to their everyday lives. I don't believe it does, but that doesn't remove it from the political sphere as an issue. And clearly the way UK governments fail to deal with migration and border control is something that needs to be addressed. Of course, I don't believe in...”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And no party's ever had a majority in the history of devolution. Well, what I've said is that I want people to look at leadership and what leadership means. Who's in that first minister seat? Who runs that cabinet? Sets the tone for Welsh government, sets the tone for debates and negotiations with UK government, for example. But in running that government, if we can do that in the election next may, of course you then have to build relations, get support either on legislation by legislation, issue by issue to give stability and move Wales forward in that way, but under the new leadership.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Referendum voting less than Tony Blair Less than 7,000 in favour of an assembly. Fourteen years later, there was another referendum on giving that fledgling assembly full lawmaking and tax-raising powers. It was won by two to one. So devolution is okay. What we need to reflect on is whether governments have used the tools well. And I think we've come to the point now where people are saying, Labour, you've had a go that are clear issues with health education, with the economy, on poverty, give somebody else a go. And it's my job to say, Trust play camera to do that rather than take an almighty risk with a divisive right wing.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We can have a bit of a philosophical debate here about what are we talking about devolution itself being a success or the government that's been in charge during devolution being a success every signal in every poll shows that the people in Wales like having their own parliament that the support from that wafer thin yes in 1997 to now where this is part of our national furniture as a parliament is that's very very clear”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's really interesting how so many people within the labor movement were very angry at the First Minister for using that kind of language in portraying progressives, people who are meant to have shared values with them in that kind of way. There's been quite a backlash against that from the first minister. We look at Kafili election again. I can assure you that what I was hearing was not people begrudgingly coming over to Plaid Cymru. It was saying labour are done. It's taken a long time for people to realize that you can have a different government. Devolution is still relatively young still, but there is that realization that it's time for change now. It's just not normal to have one party leading government for that long. We have the best ever general election results last year before Keir Starmer's deep disappointment was unleashed on people.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Okay, studies Richard Wynne Jones, Professor Richard Wynne Jones is the expert on identity. There's lots of really interesting work going on currently on identity, not just in Wales, but in other parts of the UK too. And there has been a growth in the number of people identifying as well. That has an interesting political context, of course, because Welsh identifiers are more likely to vote plied and with the growth in Welsh identifiers, I think that's seen in the growth implied as well.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It depends how you measure it, it's under 20% if you measure it by the census, it's more than that if you measure it by the Office of National Statistics measurement. But what's key to me is not the numbers, it's the use of the Welsh language, the ease with which people can use it in their day-to-day lives. I use Welsh language every day professionally and socially. It's always been like that. I live in a part of Wales where most people would speak Welsh. So we go to the doctor and to the shop and down the pub and at all of it through the medium of Welsh in other parts of Wales it might be a slightly different experience but for me it's about creating a pride in that this is a language that belongs to every single one of us whether we speak it or not ourselves it's for all of us to treasure it.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's really important to recognize the pressure that there is on any smallish language from sort of the global ubiquity of that other language that I'm very proud of speaking, English. It does make life difficult. And the Welsh language is still hailed as a massive success internationally in being able to withstand that.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know what? I thought a lot about this over the past few months with the raising of the flags. Plight Cumber doesn't really wrap itself in the Welsh flag much. Our Welshness and our belief in our communities is deeper than that. I was looking at photographs of a Labour conference recently where there was an unfurling of a massive Welsh flag on the stage by the First Minister. It's not something that I've ever felt the need to do and I see the populist rights trying to take ownership of the flag, be it through the hoisting of them up and hanging them by cable ties on lamp posts. It's not the way I do Welshness. Yes, of course I'm hugely proud of our flag, but that's not the expression of my Welshness. It's about sort of building a society.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Doesn't like it as I say to me, I'm a Welshman. Nationalism, as I say, is a label that's placed on me from outside. But if it is a label that's to be understood by people from outside, of course, what it is is a civic progressive nationalism where everybody has a role to play in the building of a joined up and positive society, which is rather different to the growth of the populist rights and the exclusion of people and the othering of people.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We were the Welsh national party because in effect, I'm only a nationalist to people who look in from outside. To me, I'm an internationalist for whom the building block, the centre of that belief in countries working together closely is Wales. That's the nation that's at the heart of that. But we have to remember that nationalism takes many, many forms that are very, very ugly faces of nationalism that we would have nothing to do with the ethnic nationalism.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He was in the primary school in Ennis Booth, literally just down the road from Abervan. He visited Abervan on the evening of the disaster to see if they could help. Of course, they couldn't get close to it, but it left a deep scar on him. And it was again one of those injustices that were ingrained deeply in him and which were inevitably passed on to me.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and they grew up as young people at a particularly politically active and engaging time for Wales. So dads grew up near Kapel Kellen, where the valley was drowned. And he remembers being told off for bunking off school to go and join protests around the drowning of that valley. He and my mother were involved in Welsh language society protests. At the advent of that campaign which has been so successful in normalizing the use and spreading the use of the Welsh language in Wales, for example, Yeah”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He tells me, yes, there was an office in Dolge that I don't remember, and apparently I used to come home and then start piling up the leaflets rather than play sort of play shop. So it was a part of normal life.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He's very supportive of me, but we don't think of this venture as about me. It's about the story of the national movement in Wales. But Lindsay Whittle, the new Senate member for Kafilly, remembers Dad. He was a singer back in the days as well, and he remembers going to see him in a concert in Caffilly back at the time of the election and what have you. There has been a coming together of a whole host of things that led to that victory. But yeah, it was an upbringing the way politics was all around me.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Play Company was very much in the family, in particular on my father's side. I think my mother no doubt voted Ply Cameron. She was a supporter, but she wasn't particularly politically active. She did her politics and influencing Wales in lots of other different ways. But Dad was the party political one, the canvasser, the one that went out in all elections in all weathers, and he helped on a number of election campaigns, including Kaffilli in 1968. And I spoke to him after the by-election this time and said, Dad, we took 57 years, but eventually we got there. So yes, I was involved. And he was delighted. He'd been down. He's 82, but very fit and healthy 82. No, I've done him a disservice. He's 81. Sorry, Dad. He was their campaigning. He's fitting healthy and he was absolutely delighted.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, that would be our preferred option, and if the polls, as they are now, were to be replicated in May next year, I'll try to make sure that they are or bettered, then we would be looking to form a minority government. But that is in the mature context of knowing that you then have to build an element of consensus and support to provide stability for government, to make sure that there can be support for a program of government that can make a real difference to the people of Wales. And you're right, there are parallels with 2007. The SNP were trying to do something for the first time, and we've had an interesting relationship with the S&P. Playde had the first MP, then the SNP came along, Plyde had the best results actually in the first devolved elections, then SNP were first to form a government. And it was a major turning point in the history of Scotland. And I believe that this can be a major turning point. And the history of Wales, in terms of building that confidence in our ability to have a homegrown political party running things in”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because they shared nearly 20 years ago, but some of them, some of those lessons are very useful. Talking to our friends in the SNP about the experiences that they've had.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It means a whole host of different things. It's making sure, yes, that the policy house is in order, that there's a decent offer for the people of Wales, and we've talked a lot about some elements of that, but it literally is about making sure that we are ready to shape the government in a way that works to deliver our policies. It does absolutely mean those access talks with the civil service in order to prepare them for the eventuality of applied Cyprus government. It's about talking to people who have been in government, including from my own party, about the”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's not only mentally, it is practically two, and I spend a lot of my time as well as talking to eminent journalists. I spend my time trying to persuade people and build faith with people right across Wales in what we're trying to achieve. But at the same time, I'm investing a lot of my effort into preparing for government, making sure that from that first day we are ready to go.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's about growing in confidence, it's about having a plan and being really proud of who we are, where we've come from, but mostly where we can go.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't think it is a nostalgia, but it's clear to say in Scotland it's a bit easier, it's a BA nation again when you go back a couple of centuries ago when that decision was made to join the two countries, the Kingdom of England and Scotland. Of course, that Kingdom of England was England and Wales. And there's still, even though centuries have passed, a sense that that nation of ours has been unable to express itself because of that assuming of Wales into England those centuries ago. Now that might be in history, but we still live with elements of how that affects our lives today, our inability to be able to control our natural resources, to run our own policing in Wales, to run, to have the levers to run our own economy. Now you can call it shame, you can call it holding us back, you can call it stopping us from reaching our potential. But I tend to think forward and think about, right, how do we release that potential?”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I believe that very much, and I think there is an element of that, and what we have to do if we are to perform better across the boards, economically, standing up, ploughing our furrow in the world is to have more confidence in our ability to do that. And if we look at those values that came together, gelled together when the party was formed 100 years ago, it was the realization that we can never leave it to Westminster to do the right thing for Wales. We have to be willing to stand up for ourselves. It was about you're giving Wales more of a status on the world stage, not for its own sake, but so that we can make relations with other nations of our own and build a better future for our country. Those were true 100 years ago, and it's equally true now.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it's something that we're used to, and even people in Wales tend to think we're a small nation. And what I see as part of my job in politics, my mission in politics is to make us more confident and to understand that we're not a particularly small nation, that we're not a particularly disadvantaged nation, but that we're a nation that holds back and that we can stand up to that kind of patronizing attitude.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Ronnie Applewith, it is true that all sorts of versions of how it happened. It was actually somebody from, I believe, the Welsh office at the time who phoned the BBC correspondence office in Cardiff and asked for Ronnie Appleworth. And one of my colleagues said, there's no Ronnie Appleworth. Oh gosh, yes, there is. It must be him sat over there. So that's where it came from. But this patronizing attitude with my name is interesting. There's a story going around. I see it in sort of the right-wing media currently that I was born Jones, and that I've actually changed my name to Sri Napior. Well, one, I'd say, what if I had? What's the big deal? But what they'd done was they went digging for my birth certificate. And you know what? It does say Jones on there, but the only instance ever in my life that Jones has been used was when the registrar insisted that Jones had to go down on the registration and that my parents wish for me to be just in the”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I remember that day. It was one of my very first pieces for network news. I was in Aberstwith and we offered a phonetic version of my name and he said, no, I'll be fine. And he didn't quite get it right. Yeah.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Asking No, I've had all sorts of butcherings over the years, but I forgive that and it's a learning experience every time somebody has a go and doesn't quite get it right. But yeah, like the new mayor of New York, he had a few pronunciations of his name too. For me, it's R-H-U-N, APIW-E-R-T-H. There you go. And you're right, it isn't R-R-R-T.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No. It's quite an easy one to say, quite difficult to read, but you've said it enough times now and it was perfect, Nick.”
2025-11-14 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · 'I'm preparing for government': Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source