Wednesday 19 December 2018

Why Plaid Cymru Needs To Prepare For A Hard Brexit


Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Everything I'm going to say next I've said before. But things seem to be a lot more heightened now with the government talking about sending in troops in the event of a no-deal long dark entrance of the soul Brexit (they speak of 3,500 which if you think about it seems remarkably low in case of shortages of food or medicines).

Let me say also this again. No nationalist wishes for a hard Brexit. For the damage it will cause to families across Wales will be substantial and it will not be clear when the pain it will cause will end.

But that needed and having been said. Plaid Cymru should politically prepare for a hard Brexit. For it will not be the party that failed to negotiate with the EU a workable deal (the Conservatives) or the party that has sat on it's hands whilst being unable to sort out a clear policy of it's own (Labour).

In the event of a hard Brexit the Welsh voter will not vote Conservative. But they should also be reminded that Welsh Labour were happy to let Theresa May's pathetic withering of a government have Welsh powers for seven years. The Finance Minister at the time? The new First minister Mark Drakeford.

Secretary of state for Wales and social slug Alun "Chucky" Cairns is warning Welsh businesses they should prepare for a hard Brexit. Of course if the Conservatives had done their job as the UK government such preparation would have been made months, if not years before March 29th next year. The sheer bare faced cheek of Chucky has plumbed new depths.

Which is why Plaid should make a position as the only alternative to the Unionist parties that would have brought Wales to this position crystal clear. They would have created the misery that hard Brexit would bring so in Wales it would be Plaid and Plaid only that could offer an alternative.

And that alternative would be independence.

For Plaid Cymru would simply say that if Hard Brexit has brought Wales to a disastrous situation then Wales would need to sort out it's problems away from the Union. Independence would not be simple solution. Mistakes will be made. But independence would bring solutions tailored  for Wales not Westminster's messy patchwork that brought the situation in the first place.

Plaid also will need to be unashamedly populist about this. But there's nothing wrong with populism if the cause is just.

So I say again nobody with a brain wants a hard Brexit. But should it happen Plaid must be ready to offer hope where the other parties offer failure.

Until the next time.

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