Cynog Glyndwr Dafis (born 1 April 1938) is a Welsh politician and member of Plaid Cymru who served as the Member of Parliament for Ceredigion from 1992 to 2000, originally as a joint Plaid Cymru–Green Party MP until 1997 and then only as a Plaid Cymru MP until 2000. He also served as the Member of the Welsh Assembly for Mid and West Wales from 1999 to 2003. Born Cynog Glyndwr Davies at Treboeth in Swansea, Glamorganshire, Wales, he was initially a school teacher and researcher before entering politics.
Early life and teaching career
Cynog Glyndwr Davies was born in Treboeth, Swansea, on 1 April 1938. His father was George Davies, a Presbyterian minister. He grew up in South Wales and Neath Boys' Grammar School. After his studies, Davies took to a career of teaching in secondary schools and institutions of further education. At some point, Davies changed the spelling of his surname from its English form to the Welsh form after his wife had done so to her own name; his name became Cynog Glyndwr Dafis.
Political career
Member of Parliament
Dafis joined Plaid Cymru in his youth. He left the party in 1964 but rejoined in 1979. He first contested Ceredigion and Pembroke North in 1983 and finished in fourth place, a result repeated in 1987. His victory in 1992 was a notable one as he more than doubled his vote.
Dafis was a Member of Parliament for Ceredigion from 1992 until 2000, having been supported by a coalition of local Plaid Cymru and Green Party activists, the latter of which had worked with him on a number of environmental initiatives. Between 1992 and 1997 Dafis sat in Parliament as an official Plaid Cymru and Green Party MP, having been elected on a joint ticket. He agrees with the Greens' official recognition of Caroline Lucas as the first Green MP, as he was "a kind of hybrid, so I don't really count".
Assembly Member
In 2000 he resigned as an MP to devote more time as a member of the National Assembly for Wales, to which he had been elected in 1999.
In a speech at the 2000 National Eisteddfod at Llanelli, Dafis called for a new Welsh language movement with greater powers to lobby for the Welsh language at the Assembly, UK, and EU levels. Dafis felt the needs of the language were ignored during the first year of the Assembly, and that in order to ensure a dynamic growth of the Welsh language a properly resourced strategy was needed. His controversial comments prompted Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg to join a chorus calling for his resignation as the Assembly's presiding officer. Soon after the elections in 2003, he announced his candidacy for Presidency of the party, but lost to Dafydd Iwan.
Honours
He was made an Honorary Fellow of Aberystwyth University on 15 July 2010.