Wales's unreported revolution: Discuss.

[Neo2012]

For the past few years a quiet but momentous revolution has been taking place. That this has passed largely unnoticed in England reflects the media's lack of interest in Wales. English progressives know more about the political transformation in Bolivia than the similar shift happening over the border. Perhaps this is just as well. The Welsh have been left to get on with it, and nobody in England cares enough to try to stop them.

It was Plaid Cymru that led the attempt to impeach Tony Blair over the invasion of Iraq. It opposed the conflict in Afghanistan from the outset. It wants to scrap Trident and cancel the aircraft carrier and Eurofighter contracts. It would break up the banks, ban short selling, tax foreign exchange transactions, raise capital gains tax, raise income tax for the rich while reducing it for the poor. It would set a maximum wage and give workers seats on corporate boards.

It seeks to renationalise the railways and curb the power of the supermarkets. It wants a living pension for everyone over 80, to raise benefits in line with average earnings and to scrap tuition fees. It would abandon ID cards, stop detaining asylum seekers and shift sentencing away from prison and towards restorative justice.

Such policies are widely held to make parties in England unelectable. But in Wales they are considered mainstream, and not just among Plaid supporters.


Wales's unreported revolution | Politics | The Guardian

[Greg Lance-Watkins]

Hi,

Outright Communism has always struck a resonance amongst some of the more politically naive in Wales - you need only consider the affinity for Paul Robeson's renunciation of his Nationality - strange for a region that has such grandiose perceptions of Nation status that they are so determined to destroy their near non existent economy.

Be minded that some 80% of the population of Wales draw all or a part of their income from the Government.

Do remember there are less than 5% of adult Welsh who have ANY meaningfull qualification in the Welsh language.

Do remember that the last serious conviction of Welsh language speakers burning homes in Wales that were owned rather than subsidised was in fact a Pole who barely spoke English let alone Welsh.

Do be minded that 27% of the people of Wales were born beyond its borders.

I understand there are moves to rename Welshpool as WelshPole!

Devolution has been catastrophic for Wales giving delusional concepts of self sufficiency whilst they have all those parasites in The Bay in control of the begging bowl.

We note Wales has been devolved to the same status as London, The West Midlands or the South West Region - with its own self important and utterly irrelevant rubber stamping office for EU diktat called an Assembly.

It was after all I who registered 'The Welsh Assembly' as a Company!

Regards,
Greg L-W.

[Citizen Smith]

Come on Wales! Good on you!

[Midas]

For the past few years a quiet but momentous revolution has been taking place.

[ ... ]

Such policies are widely held to make parties in England unelectable. But in Wales they are considered mainstream, and not just among Plaid supporters.

I've always had my doubts about a nation that adopted a leek as it's national emblem; these policies confirm those suspicions beyond a shadow of doubt!

[Kiwi 1691]

Do be minded that 27% of the people of Wales were born beyond its borders.

I fail to see how that's anything special.

[Greg Lance-Watkins]

I fail to see how that's anything special.

Hi,

as do I when you take it out of context!!!

It is one of a number of facts that show downgrading the Principality of Wales to be no more than just another EU region with the same status as London, The South East, The Eastern Region etc. now no more than rubber stamping offices for the EU is the greatest insult to Wales in several centuries.

Regards,
Greg L-W.

[Greg Lance-Watkins]

I've always had my doubts about a nation that adopted a leek as it's national emblem; these policies confirm those suspicions beyond a shadow of doubt!

Hi,

Wales is by no stretch of imagination other than amongst the delusional a 'Nation' it WAS a Principality wherein Her Majesty The Queen had certain curtailled Regalities and the additional title of Marchioness of Undy.

Wales no longer has a special status within these United Kingdoms, which it has held for Centuries but is now just a Mickey Mouse regional assembly of the EU on the same status as the South West Region or The East Midlands Region.

Regards,
Greg L-W.

[Major Sinic]

Hi,

Wales is by no stretch of imagination other than amongst the delusional a 'Nation' it WAS a Principality wherein Her Majesty The Queen had certain curtailled Regalities and the additional title of Marchioness of Undy.

Wales no longer has a special status within these United Kingdoms, which it has held for Centuries but is now just a Mickey Mouse regional assembly of the EU on the same status as the South West Region or The East Midlands Region.

Regards,
Greg L-W.

A nation is accepted by most as a community of people with largely a common history, culture, language, descent and political institutions, (even if some clown has, by his own admission, registered the Welsh Assembly as a company). Whilst the language of Wales might be verging on obsolete, it has its own history, traditions, culture and as a nation of Celtic descent it has commonality of descent. Only the delusional would deny its status as a nation.

Wales was a separate kingdom, until it was conquered by the English in 1283. Wales was divided into two (rather like the Irish nation somewhat more recently) by its conquerors, with the smaller part being a principality and the larger part continuing to be governed by the Marcher Lords. In 1536 and 1543, Henry VIII, under two of the Acts of Union, removed the independence of the Marcher Lords and formed the country into one principality.

Wales today has its own elected Assembly, and the number of Welsh speakers is increasing for the first time in sixty years.

Of particular concern is the financial burden which Wales places on England in the form of direct subsidies, amounting to £1130 per annum for each man, woman and child living in Wales.

For this reason, Wales should be encouraged toward greater independence, not least in the area of being required to stand on its own fiscal feet. In the meantime all subsidies from England should cease, and Welsh MPs, of whatever political persuasion, legally prevented from voting on English matters.

[Major Sinic]

I've always had my doubts about a nation that adopted a leek as it's national emblem; these policies confirm those suspicions beyond a shadow of doubt!

It may be utilitarian and not especially attractive in appearance but one can cook and eat the leek! The shamrock as the emblem of the Irish nation is purported to bring good luck, although that is debatable considering Irelands history since it came into the Union. Perhaps it will bring them some in the future. The thistle on the other hand, the emblem of Scotland, is an inedible weed, very prickly and no use to anyone. Now the Rose is an object of great beauty, a queen among flowers, carefully cultivated over centuries and offering a fine scent. They each are in their own way appropriate.

[AngloChimp12]

Honestly everyone, I'm currently living in Wales, although I am purely an English person and to tell you the truth, they really don't know what they're doing. I went on a school trip to the Welsh Assembly and spoke to a woman that had claimed to be a poltician, but didn't inform us on which party she was following and such, then she took our group into the debating room with the leather chairs, microphones and monitors and such, told us a topic which was how old should the legal age for voting should be in the UK and asked us to debate it as politicans do on the microphones in an "listen-and-talk" type of format, and once it was my turn; I obliterated her in the dispute, it was as if she had no idea on what she was doing, very dissapointing. But it could of just been her, I also don't agree with Plaid Cymru's intentions which clearly doesn't help my opinion on Welsh politics.