By John Stevenson BBC Wales Political Unit

Honorary president-to-be Dafydd Wigley remains a big presence

News that former president Dafydd Wigley was to succeed the late Gwynfor Evans as honorary president dominated the news earlier this week.

Then Plaid chair John Dixon castigated some of his own members for alleged plotting against the leadership.

He laid down the law after reports that some wanted another former president, Dafydd Elis-Thomas, back at the helm.

Rather than going to an area where the party did well, Plaid is in its wisdom staging the annual meeting in the very seat it should have kept

The theme of this year's conference is "For All Our Futures".

The English-language theme is actually slightly different to the one which appears in Welsh.

When translated, the Welsh theme reads "Our Future". I can almost hear the cynical amongst you whispering "What future?"

In the headlines: Dafydd Elis Thomas and his party

Plaid Cymru has, rather oddly, chosen Aberystwyth for its annual meeting.

The party lost the seat of Ceredigion which included the university seaside town at May's general election - a bitter pill to swallow.

But rather than going to an area where the party did well, Plaid is in its wisdom staging the annual meeting in the very seat it should have kept.

Imagine New Labour electing to build a statute to Tony Blair in the Blaenau Gwent town of Ebbw Vale, or Napoleon returning to Waterloo to celebrate his birthday.

The period following this year's May elections has been truly disastrous for Plaid Cymru as it lurched from one self-inflicted debacle to the next.

There was the fiasco over Pwllheli marina which raised serious questions about president Dafydd Iwan's political judgement.

Then there were the unkind comments about his own party from Lord Elis-Thomas during the National Eisteddfod.

Big stick

Then to cap it all there was the catfight with Labour following a leak by the governing party of an internal document which suggested that Plaid was contemplating a series of spectacular U-turns on a number of core policies.

Once the electorate, the membership and the media begin to question a party's credibility is when the slide begins in earnest. Remember what happened to Labour in 1983 and to the Conservatives in 1997?

Lord Elis-Thomas has criticised the party in recent years

Plaid's internal difficulties have been manna to Welsh Labour and to the Welsh Liberal Democrats, both of whom who hope to capitalise if the discord continues.

If Labour learned nothing else in the run-up to 1997, it is that credibility depends on disciplined unanimity. Tories are painfully learning the same lesson.

It can be no coincidence that Plaid chair John Dixon waves the big stick in his introduction to the 2005 conference.

"The closer we get to form the government of Wales, the more we need to become cohesive and clear in the way we work and the messages we give out"

One reason for Plaid's disappointing result in May, was that there was and remains disagreement on what its core message should be.

If, for instance, Plaid no longer stands for home rule and self-government, then what does it stand for?

On Thursday its honorary president-to-be, Dafydd Wigley, addresses a meeting on the conference fringe.

Many within the party still regard the former member for Caernarfonshire as the "prince across the water" and the content and the nuances of his message will undoubtedly be debated in the bars into the wee small hours.

As a teetotaller, I shall also be there. Mineral water in one hand and notepad in the other, I shall be listening with great interest to what he and they have to say.