Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.
On Monday. As the wife was driving us to drop daughter to guides and then for us to do some bathroom shopping I overheard the Welsh government finance minister Ken Skates on the radio.
He was talking about the revelation revealed by Plaid Cymru that A Welsh government taskforce set up to deal with problems surrounding the Ford Bridgend plant since it's future was first under threat a few years back.
Now I didn't really catch the whole gist of the interview, since trust me watching paint dry is normally more interesting than listening to Mr Skates, but he did say something that made me pay attention. For he compared Plaid Cymru (or as I seemed to recall him saying "the Nationalists") with Trump and other similar populist right wing movements throughout Europe.
My first reaction was to laugh. Clearly it was both a smear on Plaid (I have written about the difference between inclusive Scottish/Welsh Nationalism and the far more cliché right wing English kind before). It was also clearly a deflection tactic to hide the Welsh Labour incompetence on this issue and like most present day subjects with "Welsh Labour" as the tagline doomed to failure. Finally it was an acknowledgement that Labour fear Plaid. For as I've said before and the European elections are showing, more Labour voters are turning towards it.
But thinking about it later I started to wonder whether, on the principle of why should the devil have the best tunes, populism is such a bad thing? Why shouldn't good causes (in this case Welsh independence) not take the attractions of populism to help promote themselves?
The rise of Plaid Cymru, the apolitical pro independence movement Yes Cymru and the growing support for this in opinion polls shows that a free Wales is on the radar. A combination of Brexit, Westminster/Cardiff Bay arrogant incompetence and the lack of infrastructure investment under the supposed "precious union" (a phrase from Secretary of State for Wales) giving it a "poor man" status is beginning to galvanise people. It's consequently the job of those who believe in Wales being free to make it's own decisions to take it further. That the "mustn't grumble" approach to being treated as lapdogs of a so called London/Cardiff Bay elite is not good enough. That Wales needs to protest. That is populism.
Populism strives to appeal to ordinary people. So let's do it. Let's ask ordinary people to think why is it that the Welsh education and health service is in crisis? Why there is a lack of infrastructure and business investment? Why is the transport system laughable when you compare it with England and Scotland? Why is Wales lacking in social housing around the Newport Monmouth area yet houses are being built/bought to accommodate English commuters across the Geraint Thomas bridge because they're cheaper?Why is Wales apparently only good enough to dump nuclear waste on, build new prisons over and to pillage it's natural resources for the benefit of England?
The answer is simple. Wales is being run by Unioinist parties in Westminster and Cardiff Bay. They do not care about what you think. They act within a Unionist mindset. Plaid Cymru will act for the benefit of ordinary people living in Wales. For they have "the vision thing". That, as I've mentioned before is independence. More and more people are waking up and smelling the excrement of the current political elite in Wales, and more and more want to fight for a better future than the disaster the Cardiff Bay/Westminster elite have apparently mapped out.
People from the old dinosaur Unionist parties will say what people want is not independence but economic prosperity. This is true. But when Wales does not experience this prosperity under the union (indeed the situation with oncoming Brexit likely to be even worse) then the Unionist model they advocate has failed Wales. The unionist parties will continue to advocate for the status quo. Only in politics is failure talked up and the alternative (independence) attacked. But that's self interest for you.
And populism over Welsh independence means that it's rooted in a combination of ideology (why not? For every political principle needs an ideology, which is essentially a political guide - otherwise it's just anarchy) and grass roots activism. People might query the consequences of independence but everyone understands what it is and what it represents. The freedom of what is currently the serf nation under the union to make it's own decisions for the benefit of the people living there.
Because of this. Welsh populism over independence will obviously have a leader, as all causes have to do, but it won't be the demagoguery type like Hitler or Trump. There will be no cult of personality.
Wealth and power would not remain in the hands of the elites with Welsh populism over independence because those Unionist elites currently in power would be thrown out. Unable to participate in the rebirth of a nation they have battled against. Of course there would be a danger of "a new elite" of which we have to be vigilant to guard against. As Emmanuel Macron in France has shown you can be popular one minute and widely unpopular the next if voters feels betrayed.
And let's be clear. As I've said before Welsh nationalism is inclusive wherever you're born. Consequently no one is blaming Mexicans or East Europeans or refugees from Syria. They are blaming the Cardiff Bay/Westminster Unionist axis elite. As that great Pro-EU placard said Blame the Etonians not the Romanians.
As I've also said before. I'm not going to be a Brexiteer and claim instant milk and honey. Yes mistakes will be made. But there is also that vision of moving away from the serf nation status under the union. That is the vision that can invigorate Wales with populism as it's teacher.
Until the next time.
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