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With the electoral setbacks for devolution and Plaid Cymru in 1979 and subsequent economic vicissitudes, the whole political and economic climate in Wales entered a new phase. What pers- pective is now possible on the planning and opposition of the 1970s? First, there is the question of who controls planning, whose property the idea is, the bureaucracy or the people. The opposition planning of the late 1960s and early 1970s in Wales was, I think, a popular movement in that it touched a chord of hope and change that large numbers of Welsh people could respond to. Plaid Cymru's plan did that, as did the subsequent opposition proposals and analyses. In this, it shifted popular agendas and challenged, at least a little, bureaucratic agendas. It was part of a general turmoil that had the state on the defensive if only temporarily, and this was its unique effect. Events of the 1970s diluted this effect. In part, even Plaid Cymru may have contributed to this dilution. Plaid Cymru leaders spoke of a general drift toward devolution as "things going our way," when in fact what was happening was a growth of state apparatus in the form of the new local government capacity and new devolved agencies which in many respects were not popular. As they moved into plann- ing, planning became more regularized, negotiated, bureaucratic, and less able to generate the popular appeal which the earlier pro- test climate had allowed. It has recently been argued that there was a "regionalist consensus" emerging in the 1970s against popular interests (Rees and Lambert, 1979). If this developed, I would attrib- ute it to this bureaucratization of the terms of opposition. Finally, it is important to note that the basis of opposition that exists in one period may be different from the basis that emerges later. The Plaid Cymru plan and subsequent analyses based them- selves in a territorial set of interests. The alternative of a working class opposition was less viable at that time because it did not provide as much leverage in opposing what turned out to be rigid and weak positions guarded by the centralized state. In the present period, this may change. Most likely,a more complicated mix of territorial and class interests will be articulated, and opposition planning will reflect both class and spatial alignments. References Butt, Philip A. (1975) The Welsh Question: Nationalism in Welsh Politics 1945-70. University of Wales Press, Cardiff. Commission on the Constitution (1972) Minutes of Evidence, V. Wales, H.M.S.O., London. Edwards, A., and Thomas, W. (Eds.) (1974). Llantrisant new Town: The Case Against. Heads of the Valleys Authorities Standing Conference.