Not in your interest, or mine, Bach!

The Powers that Be have decided that it is not in the interest of the Welsh or the Scots (or the Irish or the Greens) for their leading representatives to engage in public debate on television before the coming General Election.

It is enough for the three political parties that form the majority to convince the electorate (or otherwise) that they have the moral authority to lead Britain out of recession and restore full employment, the thinking being that only the major parties will have the capability of putting their policies into practice.

The fact that they are all unionist parties - parties of the establishment and the status quo - and are mainly concerned to appeal to the middle class in England - does not escape notice in Wales, Scotland and northern Ireland which all have governments run directly, or in coalition, by nationalists whose goal is the overthrow of the union through the holding of referenda leading to self-determination.

In a real democracy all views are entitled to be expressed and heard by the public at large. If change is to happen, assuming that change is what is needed, the conduct of politics has to be fundamentally reviewed, or if not change is meaningless and no more than a political slogan. The three main parties realise that change is demanded by the public, particularly after the media revelations and the expenses scandal, and not least by the illegal invasion of Iraq. As has been pointed out by commentators in the United States there are many unsavoury dictators in power around the world but we do not have the right to invade their countries (for example: Zimbabwe and the Sudan).

We are talking about the divine right of the British establishment to set the rules, ignoring the will or wishes of the people who elect the incumbents, parliamentarians in the Commons and the Lords, the latter who are there by appointment (few hereditary Lords and Ladies remain), and not by election. Furthermore the bishops sit in the Lords, as they are the representatives of the Established Church of England. Is it not time that Britain, a mainly secular but multi-religious country, reflected the true state of affairs?

Yet the phlegmatic British public, immured by tradition and conditioned by the status quo, accept things the way they are because that is how they have always been and they are comfortable with this situation, despite the fact that it is increasingly divorced from reality. The coming election will prove to be an interesting event, for it will show whether or not people have awoken to their predicament. Seen from Europe Britain is a failing state, the sick man of Europe (as Turkey was once described) and yet the political machine grinds on regardless.

These are some of the reasons why it is in the interest of the Welsh and Scottish people (and why not the Cornish?) to go it alone, and severe the unreal connection and associations with the British state. Change will come regardless as the state of the union is such that it cannot last forever, but this election will be an indication of the changes that must come, even though the views of those who cannot join the debate are stifled and ignored.