The prime minister may end up doing more for Welsh independence than the nationalist hero Owain Glyndŵr
The nationalist hero who was defeated and killed in the 15th century he means? Kettle sees the recent Johnson forays as:
... a prime ministerial grand tour around the country to show his new subjects who is boss....Tours like Johnson’s only emphasise that this union is increasingly divided – and perhaps even breaking apart...in many ways the most telling trip was Johnson’s foray into Wales...Modern Wales has endured little of the existential pain of Northern Ireland. The nationalist cause has never carved through Welsh politics the way it has in Scotland. Wales has been welded to England for far longer than the other nations. And its support for devolution was often lukewarm. [And it voted for Brexit, unthinkably for the Grudinad of course, but move on]...Yet amid the more eye-catching convulsions of Brexit elsewhere, the old idea that nothing is likely to change in the relationship between Wales and England is looking lazy.
Writing about Wales, almost as much as writing about Ireland, seems to encourage English romanticism:
The land, like the language, plays a dynamic role in nationalist consciousness. Angry farmers can make a leader suddenly vulnerable. [As confirmation]
Look what they and the “gilets jaunes” did to Emmanuel Macron. [Where do we start with this absurd leap of argument?]
Then the obligatory link to Kettle's obsession:
But this volatility is not simply about Johnson’s Marmite personality. Nor is it simply about the single-mindedness of the nationalist parties to exploit every situation for the separatist cause. It is also structurally bound up with Brexit itself, whatever the terms.
There might be some perilous deviation, post-Brexit, from wise EC rules:
What if Scotland chooses to subsidise its fishing fleets while England does not? What if Welsh hill-farmers secure a differential subsidy rate for their lamb that northern English hill-farmers cannot access? “The requirement for increased agreement across a whole range of new territory increases the scope for friction,” [The whole thing assumes nationalist independence and then trade wars]
Before we get too excited though, and before his colleagues question his objectivity:
It is important not to exaggerate, of course. There are many bridges to be crossed before Wales becomes as much of a threat to the union as Northern Ireland and Scotland now are. There are radical ways of heading off the disintegration of the United Kingdom, including the federalist new Act of Union proposed by Lord Lisvane ...Outright support for independence in Wales languishes in single figures.
However, the Grun finds hope in ethnic identity and 'progressive' nationalism as ever, especially if it is cultural:
But more than one in three Welsh voters now feel some support for the idea, and the proportion of those whom nationalists dub the “indycurious” is clearly rising. Use of the Welsh language is growing and becoming more fashionable.[Unfortunately] Jeremy Corbyn refuses to engage on these identity issues.
Back to romanticism to end the piece:
the late and life-enhancing Welsh historian Gwyn Alf Williams wrote about the continuing potency of the legend of Owain Glyndŵr. ...“But since 1410 most Welsh people, at some time or another, if only in some secret corner of the mind, have been ‘out with Owain and his barefoot scrubs’. For the Welsh mind is still haunted by its lightning-flash vision of a people that was free.”
CeltNat good, EngNat bad, as ever. 'Wales' dreams of being free from Union with England -- but wants to stay in the EU?
Meanwhile, the Grun continues to maintain the prestige and seriousness of British journalism it is so concerned about:
Does a local Lidl really bring down house prices?
NB -- the answer is no because lots of nice people now shop in Lidl too.
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