Friday 26 October 2007

National Interests v. Party Political Interests

It does not require to be spelled out - it should be apparent to all and sundry, that for the British political parties their own political self-interest comes before their concerns for the people of Wales and their allegiance to their country. Make no mistake, Wales is their country, and the manner in which the Welsh people have been hoodwinked into believing that they are British, or that there is such a thing as a "British nation" is appalling. We have constantly to remind ourselves that there cannot be a British nation if there already exist the nations of Scotland, Wales and Cornwall. These entities are not regions of England or regions of Britain - they are nations in their own right. Thankfully there are many in Wales who now accept this to be the case, and they refer to their country as the "Welsh nation". This has come about partly through the growth of a national consciousness over the years of the past century, and the efforts of Plaid Cymru and other nationalists led by immortals such as Saunders Lewis and Gwynfor Evans, whose bronze statue will one day stand before the gates of a Welsh Parliament House.
The British political parties, which inherently do not hold the rights and interests of the Welsh people at heart, but place the interests of their party uppermost in order to grab power and exercise it in what they consider to be for the sake of their own ideological policies, ride roughshod over the needs and opinions of the electorate and squander public money or mismanage funds in behemoth projects which often end up as white elephants. We can think of a number of examples - the Millenium Dome being one that comes to mind, along with prestige projects such as the Olympic Games - used as a cover to rehabilitate a large area of East London. There is a lack of true democracy which is not apparent to many, who have grown up with the ideal of democracy and have missed the reality, which is that there is little real democracy at the grass-roots. Policies and decisions are foisted on a reluctant people who can do little to influence events, so that before they know it the housing estate is built or the trees chopped down in the name of "progress".
As we have constantly reiterated there is only one Party of Wales. The British parties are in disarray and speak with two voices, one favouring further devolution, another adamantly opposed. The Labour Party falls into two camps, the Conservative Party also. The Lib Dems flounder without stable leadership and appear to be rudderless and indecisive. Without the means to make a difference in the quality of their lives the people of the Welsh communities can only look to their own national politicians, those who represent Wales and not Britain, to guide them towards their destiny.

17 comments:

Normal Mouth said...

I don't understand where this analysis is going.

There is no British nation - acknowledged. That does not mean people cant be and fell British.

I have a friend who was born, bred and has lived his whole life in Cardiff. He considers himself primarily to be a Cardiffian. There is no Cardiff nation, but that does not prevent him from being Cardiffian. So why should Britishness be any different?

Unknown said...

NM
I think you need to ask this question to Gordon Brown and Peter Hain.
These politicias are always referring to the British nation as though there was one.
I accept that people feel British, as they can feel Cardiffian or West Walian, but this is only a feeling. I am talking about constitutional issues and the point of the post is that the British parties are primarily self-serving as individual politicians are concerned with self-interest and self-advancement. The reason they were elected is to serve the best interests of the community and this tends to get forgotten in the desire to score points for themselves and their party.

Normal Mouth said...

I accept that people feel British, as they can feel Cardiffian or West Walian, but this is only a feeling. I am talking about constitutional issues

Constitutionally, Wales is a nation while the UK is a state.

Therefore I assume that one does not, as your blog exhorts, have to choose between Wales and the Union. One could regard Wales as one's nation and the UK as one's state. Indeed, many Welsh people do exactly that.

Unknown said...

A nation without a state is like a ship without a sail!

An example could be the Kurds.
There is no state of Kurdistan. Even territory does not exist on the map.

Anonymous said...

What really turns my stomach is that Welsh Nationalists only want independence so they can surrender their sovereignty to Brussels.

Unknown said...

No, that is not why they want independence
and Britain by joining the EU has already surrendered power to Brussels.
Nationalists believe in a "one Wales, one World" and that includes a "one Europe".

Normal Mouth said...

A nation without a state is like a ship without a sail!

Many modern ships have no sails. It's only the old fashioned or slow ones that have them nowadays.

But at least you are acknowledging that the issue is whether nations and states must be coterminous. That's progress from merely repeating "Britain isn't a nation" - as if that invalidates Britain the state.

Unknown said...

Equally, I would like your admission that Britain is not a nation.

Normal Mouth said...

See the second line of my first contribution to this thread.

Unknown said...

So if Britain is not a nation and Wales is a nation why cannot Wales be a state and not a part of a British state?

Normal Mouth said...

Who said it couldn't?

Alternatively, why should Wales not continue as part of Britain, if that is what her people want?

Unknown said...

Because Wales deserves better...

Yes, it's a question of choice :

"If you have a choice always choose the best.
If you have no choice make the best of what you have".

For the first time in history Wales has a choice.

Normal Mouth said...

Wales has had a choice for a long time.

And both choices are legitimate.

Anonymous said...

Wales has had a choice ... I must have missed that one. I'm glad the new European Treaty is going to have a get-out mechanism ... perhaps someone can tell me what the get-out mechanism is for the United Kingdom. At the moment the only country to get out had to resort to the gun in order to do so.

Normal Mouth said...

Wales has had a choice ... I must have missed that one... perhaps someone can tell me what the get-out mechanism is for the United Kingdom.

A majority of voters supporting a party advocating independence on any occasion since the introduction of the modern franchise would've got the ball rolling.

But then it took until 1999 for a party that may or may not have advocated independence (and I lose track of which version of history we are currently supposed to believe) to get above 12%.

Did I say 12%? That'd be the proportion of electors who say they want independence. That needs to be somewhat higher.

Unknown said...

It's best not to give too much credence to statistics.
I feel there is an underlying current
and change of mood today that might push this percentage higher.
I may be wrong of course.

Normal Mouth said...

If you're right, people will vote for Plaid in far higher numbers at the next elections.

A majority, or even a plurality of votes will do it. Let's see.