The Death of a Myth

Glyn Davies (on his blog) is halfway to accepting 'independence' as a viable and desirable political destination for Wales, and I congratulate him for demolishing one myth, that Wales cannot support itself, but I am sadly disappointed to notice that he clings to another, along with other Welsh politicians who support the Union, and that is that Wales should be interdependent (which all countries inevitably are in the 21st century). Mr Davies's comments bring up the "separatist/isolationist myth" currently being marketed by Peter Hain as part of his so-called "summer offensive" directed against the substantial number of supporters for independence..
Gwynfor Evans foresaw a "nation among nations", trading, economically interdependent, a member of the UN and the EU, as Ireland is.today. The myth that Glyn Davies has revived cannot be sustained. There would be no frontier posts as the scaremongers like to tell us; there would be a Schengen-like agreement for uninterrupted passage between the nations, as there is between the two Irish states and the nations of continental Europe. The remaining myth is the one that Wales cannot afford to be independent, and we know that it can, as there are a large number of successful countries, such as Ireland, Iceland, Sweden and Singapore. Mr Davies knows well that Wales would not be cut off from England and the world. Therefore, he can embrace the idea of independence with a clean conscience.

However, Glyn Davies thinks that independence is "a thoroughly bad idea". He has yet to be convinced.

"What I posted was that I saw no reason why Wales would not flourish as an 'independent' nation. And that is what I do think. There are several reasons why we should oppose 'Independence', but that Wales could not survive as an independent nation is not one of them. In fact, I regard it as insulting to the Welsh nation to assert that she couldn't survive. Wales would not be the same country if it was not a part of Great Britain - but there is no reason why she should not flourish, both economically and politically. The government of this independent nation would certainly have less money to spend without the City of London tax base - and it would probably have to opt out of the international obligations that a British government accepts. I suppose that the reality would be that Wales success would depend on how well she would be governed."