Had I had the invite this is what I would have said in my "response to the result speech":
I give the Yes campaign hearty congratulations on a tremendous victory. I was, honestly shocked by the fact that the Yes victory was so decisive; I didn't expect the result to be so clear cut. The results in Flintshire, in Denbighshire, in Powys and even in Monmouthshire (where 321 voters who forgot to vote yes are kicking themselves today) bowled me over. It was beyond my wildest expectations.
I should also like to thank the quarter of a million people who voted in support of my No! It's not good enough! campaign. I knew that many thought that the referendum question was the wrong one; that it didn't offer equality with the Scottish Parliament or the Northern Ireland Assembly; but I hadn't expected as many as a quarter of a million people to agree with me in the ballot box.
I empathise with the 65% of the electorate who chose not to vote because what was being offered was so insignificant that it wasn't worth voting for. I give them my 100% assurance that the campaign starts now to ensure that the next referendum (in 2012, if not sooner) will offer them an option that is well worth going out to vote Yes for!
Are you suggesting a referendum to abolish the Assembly? Now that would be an interesting campaign, and I'm confident that people would turn out all over Wales and Monmouthshire.
ReplyDeleteSo what do you reckon Alwyn - shall we keep the Wales First facebook page going - or wrap it up? Maybe we'll need it again at some point...;-)
ReplyDeleteAnon, perhaps you should be gracious in defeat too. There is no point in going on about abolishing the Assembly, it is here to stay if you had a referendum to abolish the Assembly it would be defeated.
ReplyDeleteDraig, the reason for establishing Wales first was to raise awareness of the reasons to vote Yes at a time that the political parties were unwilling to raise them. I suspect that the parties will be shy about talking about taking the next steps for devolution, for example parity with the scope of powers that Scotland has, for a few years. Perhaps Wales First still has a role to play in raising these issues whilst the parties are reticent to do so.
Rachel Banner has every right to make a speech in the senedd. Even if it is front of the White collar crim class with it's grinning obnoxious way
ReplyDeleteAlwyn, Jim,
ReplyDeleteStting up Wales First was a huge success as it achieved a lot of momentum in its early days and sent a clear message to some of the more establishment nationalists that there was a lot of support out there. And it gave us a medium with which to challenge Rachel, Len and the other traitors.
Now the first race has been won and convincingly so - and I was particularly pleased to see that we have got rid of the East-West divide (I was concerned it would be replaced by a North-South divide but thankfully not).
I have not been very active recently due to some insane work commitments but I hope these will start to ease off now, and I can start to help spread the message.
Wales First should not be wound down, but maybe we need to think of the next step along the road to independence. I will start the ball rolling with a few specific targets:
1) Devolve policing and criminal justice
2) Establish a separate jurisdiction for Wales
3) Devolve rail infrastructure (and associated funding)
4) Ban bacon (well TW did say that was our aim....)
Penddu
Now that the referendum is rightly won,