Eurfyl ap Gwilym

Eurfyl ap Gwilym (born 14 November 1944) is a Welsh economist originally from Penparcau, Ceredigion, a prominent member of Plaid Cymru, and Deputy Chairman of the Principality Building Society.

He was educated at Ardwyn Grammar School and at King's College London (BSc, PhD).

Professional career

Dr ap Gwilym is a Deputy Chairman of the Principality Building Society, Wales' biggest mutual society. He is also a director of Nemo Personal Finance Ltd and Loan Link Ltd and Chairman of the Trustees of the Society's Pension Scheme. His other directorships include Director of iSOFT Group plc, NCC Group plc and Pure Wafer plc.

Political career

Dr ap Gwilym has been a member of Plaid Cymru since 1963. He is an economics expert who is a longstanding adviser to Plaid Cymru, and who has become the first candidate from the party to formally announce his candidacy for a peerage. Plaid recently dropped its opposition to sending members to the House of Lords in response to constitutional changes that give the second chamber the power to veto law-making proposals put forward by the National Assembly for Wales.

Businessman Eurfyl ap Gwilym, who costed last year’s Plaid election manifesto and is a former national chairman of the party, will be a candidate for a seat in the Lords.

For many years he has advocated a revision of the Barnett formula, which determines how much money Wales receives from the Treasury. He argues that if a new formula based on need was introduced, Wales would be entitled to hundreds of millions of pounds extra a year.

Dr ap Gwilym's public profile rose further after an interview with Jeremy Paxman on the BBC current affairs programme, Newsnight. In the interview Dr ap Gwilym challenged Paxman on a variety of economic figures, telling him to "do your homework" when those figures were not readily available. A recording of the interview received over 90,000 hits on YouTube within the first few days of release and a Facebook group set up in deference to Dr ap Gwilym received over 1,200 supporters in the same period.

References

• Profile on the Principality Building Society website
• Profile in the Western Mail 7 January 2008
• Wales on Sunday 27 January 2008: ‘Name put forward for a peerage’
• BBC News Website 26 January 2008: ‘Nominated as Plaid Cymru Peer’.
• Wales Online: Doc gives Paxman a roasting
• Paxman nailed by Plaid Cymru economist on YouTube