National Assembly for Wales
Video Biography – Text Version | Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas AM
In May 2007 I was elected as the AM for Dwyfor Meirionnydd, a new Constituency which covers both the Llyn Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the southern parts of Eryri the Snowdonia National Park where I have lived all my life. Working every week in such stunning coast and countryside is a huge privilege. When the third Assembly met I was re-elected as Presiding Officer, a position known often by its Welsh language title Llywydd, which means the job of a person who presides over a body of people. Though it can also mean a person steering a ship, or a ship’s captain it feels more like a rugby football referee, interpreting the rules of the political game and ensuring fair play between all sides. Not that politics is a game of course. Representing the voters who expect quality public services in education, health and social care and a safe and sustainable environment is serious business.
I also enjoy my other activities. Being President of my old University at Bangor keeps me in touch with student life and research and teaching. Living in St Asaph diocese and representing most of the area of Bangor Diocese I am also a Steward of Llandaff Cathedral. Brought up like many politicians in a Presbyterian Manse, I now feel very much at home in the bilingual Church in Wales and in dialogue with other faith communities. Living between Snowdonia and the Vale of Glamorgan, in the middle of extensive woodland, I have to be an active jogger, hill walker and RSPB supporter. I greatly admire the habits and habitat of our native birds of prey the kites, hawks and falcons and the wonderful visiting Ospreys who nest on the Traeth Mawr every summer on the Glaslyn estuary at the heart of Dwyfor Meirionnydd.
Video Biography
