John Osmond has been a prolific author, journalist and broadcaster for over 50 years. A political correspondent with the Western Mail during the 1970s, deputy editor at the launch of Wales on Sunday, and television producer with the HTV current affairs programme Wales This Week and the Channel 4 series The Divided Kingdom, he then, from 1996 to 2013, was Director of the Institute of Welsh Affairs. A lifelong political activist, he was chairman of the Parliament for Wales campaign in the 1990s, a Plaid Cymru parliamentary candidate in 2007, 2015 and 2016, and between 2018 and 2022 was Special Adviser to Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price.

'After future Senedd elections, when parties search for mechanisms to achieve a working majority, politicians in Cardiff Bay will be able to refer to this book to see what can be learnt from Wales's first experience of Contract Parliamentarianism. In the meantime, for those wishing to know the inside story of an historic period in Welsh politics, this is a timely and thought-provoking book that seeks to persuade but also to inform.'Gerald Holtham, Professor of Regional Economy, Cardiff Metropolitan University 'Original...fair-minded...the book will have interest to politics scholars, as well as students of Welsh history...This is part of the story of the making of Wales since 1999. It is a story we are still writing and still making.'Leighton Andrews, former Welsh Cabinet Minister and Professor of Practice in Public Service Leadership and Innovation at Cardiff University 'A fascinating glimpse of the psychology deployed to achieve what was an historic agreement in which Plaid Cymru was prepared to lose an electoral battle in order to win the war of ideas.'David Williams, former Political Editor, BBC Wales

• AcknowledgementsPreface by Professor Gerald HolthamForeword by Professor Leighton AndrewsIntroduction PART IPlaid & Labour - Contrasting Approaches 1. A Huge Step Forward2. View from the Back Row3. The Carmarthenshire Connection PART IIThe New Plaid Leader's First 100 Days - A Diary15 October 2018 to 18 March 2019PART IIIThe Agreement4. Negotiating the Agreement5. Senedd Reform6. Personalities and Politics Intervene7. Nation Building AfterwordThe Welsh Experience of Contract Parliamentarianism Appendix - The Co-operation Agreement IndexBibliography

John Osmond has been a prolific author, journalist and broadcaster for over 50 years. A political correspondent with the Western Mail during the 1970s, deputy editor at the launch of Wales on Sunday, and television producer with the HTV current affairs programme Wales This Week and the Channel 4 series The Divided Kingdom, he then, from 1996 to 2013, was Director of the Institute of Welsh Affairs. A lifelong political activist, he was chairman of the Parliament for Wales campaign in the 1990s, a Plaid Cymru parliamentary candidate in 2007, 2015 and 2016, and between 2018 and 2022 was Special Adviser to Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price.

'After future Senedd elections, when parties search for mechanisms to achieve a working majority, politicians in Cardiff Bay will be able to refer to this book to see what can be learnt from Wales's first experience of Contract Parliamentarianism. In the meantime, for those wishing to know the inside story of an historic period in Welsh politics, this is a timely and thought-provoking book that seeks to persuade but also to inform.'Gerald Holtham, Professor of Regional Economy, Cardiff Metropolitan University 'Original...fair-minded...the book will have interest to politics scholars, as well as students of Welsh history...This is part of the story of the making of Wales since 1999. It is a story we are still writing and still making.'Leighton Andrews, former Welsh Cabinet Minister and Professor of Practice in Public Service Leadership and Innovation at Cardiff University 'A fascinating glimpse of the psychology deployed to achieve what was an historic agreement in which Plaid Cymru was prepared to lose an electoral battle in order to win the war of ideas.'David Williams, former Political Editor, BBC Wales

• AcknowledgementsPreface by Professor Gerald HolthamForeword by Professor Leighton AndrewsIntroduction PART IPlaid & Labour - Contrasting Approaches 1. A Huge Step Forward2. View from the Back Row3. The Carmarthenshire Connection PART IIThe New Plaid Leader's First 100 Days - A Diary15 October 2018 to 18 March 2019PART IIIThe Agreement4. Negotiating the Agreement5. Senedd Reform6. Personalities and Politics Intervene7. Nation Building AfterwordThe Welsh Experience of Contract Parliamentarianism Appendix - The Co-operation Agreement IndexBibliography