Adam and Eve

There has been much speculation on who will replace Adam Price as the MP for Carmarthen and Dinefwr, most of the names bandied about have been the names of men, John Dixon, Dafydd Wigley, Llŷr Hughes Griffiths, Mabon ap Gwynfor, Peter Hughes Griffiths et all. But, as I noted in a comment to a post by Vaughan, there will be a lot of pressure on Plaid to put up a female candidate as successor to Price. Plaid prides itself as a party that believes in gender equality, but all nine of the MPs that the party has sent to London so far have been men. Llanelli, an outside bet for a Plaid victory, is the only seat in the party's top ten hopes that has a female candidate.

I doubt if Plaid will introduce an all women shortlist for the constituency, and local branches can be fiercely independent, so I wouldn't go as far as to say that a female candidate for the seat will be inevitable, but there will definitely be pressure from certain influential quarters of the party for the successor to be a woman.

But who are the likely candidates?

From a national perspective one would have to pick Gwenllian Lansdown as a potentially good MP, but she has no local connections. 12 months ago Siân Caiach might have been a name to listen out for. Two other possibilities are the AM's Bethan Jenkins and Nerys Hughes Evans, but for Plaid AM's to be seen as moving from Cardiff to Westminster might give the wrong impression, especially given the narrative of Plaid's big guns, Dafydd Wigley, DET and Cynog Dafis choosing Cardiff Bay as their natural home, and Adam himself as well as Elfyn Llwyd making similar noises.

So the question is who are the local ladies who might throw their hats into the ring?

Does any reader have any local insight?

The other question being raised since Adam's announcement is where he will stand in 2011? Given the tight timetable involved in his academic sabbatical to Harvard, the answer might be nowhere. Indeed he might be wise to see how the dust settles in Wales after a Conservative Westminster victory and hold off re-entering the electoral fray until 2015.

Correction I apologies to Nerys Evans AM for mixing her name up with that of the Rhyl superstar and brilliant actress Nerys Hughes. I'm sure that both would make exceptional MPs.