One of the mores of the British Empire was divide and conquer. The anti Welsh have used this with a vengeance since the advent of devolution.
In as much as my passport, my driving licence my birth / marriage and (if things don't change) my death certificate force me to have a British Identity, whether I like it or not, the existence of the National Assembly forces a Welsh identity on those who who live in Wales but abhor all things Welsh.
What is interesting is that this new Welsh Identity is not Welsh according to the British nationalist imperialists it is now Walian.
Walians come in many different shapes and forms. There are north Walians, south Walians, east Walians, Welsh speaking Walians, English Walians, British Walians, west Walians, gay Walians, straight Walians, bi Walians, Muslim Walians, Christian Walians, rich Walians, poor Walians, drunk Walians, sobber Walians any sort of Walian that you can imagine that divides one Walian from another and ensures that the multi faceted community that exists in Wales can never be considered as united in a single all encompassing national identity called WELSH.
"...the existence of the National Assembly forces a Welsh identity on those who who live in Wales but abhor all things Welsh."
ReplyDeleteYou cannot force an identity on anyone. The existence of a British state has not made me feel British, because I don't, anymore than you do.
I may be a citizen of the UK, but I feel no particular attachment to it. Similarly, the Welsh Assembly cannot and does not force an identity on anyone. It confers on Wales a hitherto disputable political existence, but that in itself won't make everyone who lives here adopt Welsh as their primary identity - and why should it? We are all now citizens of Wales, Welsh or otherwise.
Wales has become a multi-ethnic society. It doesn't matter about the accident of birth location to prove identity. We identify through our allegiance and our citizenship, just as Americans do. Therefore we are all Welsh if these conditions are met.
ReplyDeleteUtterly wrong. "North Walian" has been used as long as I can remember. You are the first person I have ever known to object to it.
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