Party Conference season is well underway, and it was great to speak to so many attending charities, campaigns, and organisations at ours. There was a real buzz in the room.

This year Plaid Cymru’s slogan is ‘New Leadership for Wales’. Slogans are so often meaningless, so what does new leadership in Cardiff Bay actually mean?

Well, after 25+ years of Labour government in Wales, Plaid Cymru is starting to do things differently (that’s the “new” bit).

First of all, we want people to understand better what the Welsh Government does, and where our money goes. So the government is trying new ways to be open and transparent about what our objectives are, and how we’re getting on delivering them.

Our First Hundred Days Plan was published before the election, and was reviewed by the government after 100 days. In the meantime, we’ve also seen the Programme for Government published which sets out our longer-term plans to fulfil our manifesto promises. To publicly track how the government is doing, they’ve set up a ‘Progress on Our Priorities’ dashboard so you can see up-to-date statistics on each commitment. All of this is available in black-and-white for everyone to read right now online.

The Government is also taking new approaches to age-old problems. Setting up surgical hubs to bring down waiting lists; expanding free childcare to ease costs and boost the economy; and cutting business rates for high street hospitality and leisure to encourage people into our towns are just a few examples already underway.

What about the “Leadership” part? Being transparent and accountable is part of that, too. But Plaid Cymru will also stand up for Wales, demanding fair funding, powers, and resources.

Time and again we have seen Westminster governments – both Tory and Labour – take us for a ride. £4.5bn (yes, billion) of Welsh funding being spent by Westminster on HS2 and the Oxford-Cambridge railways as ‘England and Wales’ projects, for example, while Scotland and Northern Ireland’s funds are protected. That’s almost triple the annual budget of our Health Board. Started by the Tories, made worse by Labour, Plaid Cymru will not let this issue go.

In his conference speech, Rhun ap Iorwerth announced that he has formally requested a New Deal for Wales from the Prime Minister; one that would sort these injustices and puts us on an equal footing with Scotland. This would be transformative for Monmouthshire and Torfaen.