Scotland's referendum a winner - whatever the result

Over the years I have spent many long and tedious hours sitting in the foyer of village halls acting as a polling agent. Some of my best friends are people I met representing opposing parties who I have spent those hours with chatting about what's on TV, books, life in general; even playing cards with to pass the hours as we wait and wait for a voter, any voter, of any hue, to turn up so we can cross them off the list. I've been in a hustings meeting before an election where there were more candidates on the stage than voters in the audience. Seeing pictures of people queuing up to register to vote; seeing pictures of meetings with standing room only, brings a tear to my eye and makes me feel jealous of Scotland.

As a Welsh nationalist I am obviously an avid supporter of the Yes side, but even if every one of the newly registered missing million votes No and every one of those who have had to stand in the back of the crowded meeting room votes No – this referendum will still be a resounding success because of the way in which it has succeeded to re-engage people with the democratic process. For that, alone, Mr Salmond should be heartily congratulated - whatever the outcome on September 18th.

the queue to register to vote is currently running out the door #Glasgow #indyref pic.twitter.com/XM0Hr3e7Us

— Stuart Crawford (@potatojunkie) September 2, 2014

Great War Nationalist Pish

There is an article on the Scotsman site which is both sick and interesting entitled Great War worst for Scots troops ‘a myth’

The sick part of the article is the way that the body count from the First World War is being used as an argument in the current referendum campaign; whatever the numbers surely both No and Yes campaigners should agree that the answer to the question How many Scots died in WW1? should be Too many and that coming to as accurate a figure as possible should be an academic exercise not a political one.

The interesting point about the article is that I have heard similar claims made about the percentage of Welsh dead in both the First and Second World Wars, and indeed in previous and subsequent wars; and I have heard these claims, as the article suggests, made in the context of Welsh nationalist “myth”; but the Welsh nationalist myth isn't part of the myth of "separation" or "independence"; but the myth that the Welsh / Scottish should be extra proud of being British because they have punched above their weight in Britain. This brings us back to the sick part of the article. For 100 years we are told that we should be extra proud of our nations' contribution to Britain; but as soon as that pride is taken out of a British context we are told, as they say in Scotland, that that proud contribution is just a load of old pish!



(Note the words in the sun!)

The Scotsman a TROLL only site!

Cyber bullying is part of the unfortunate nature of the internet. Where there is disagreement on matters sporting, religious, artistic, scientific and, yes, even political here be Trolls. It is not a phenomenon unique to the Scottish independence referendum debate but it does exist on both Yes and No sides of the indyref debate on the internet, just because some of the debate is "on the internet"; for either side to deny that unworthy comments have been made by supporters of both Yes and No is sticking ones head in the sand.

I am an unequivocal supporter of the Yes campaign, but some comments that I have read on Twitter, Facebook and newspaper response sites from YES supporters have turned my stomach, they shouldn’t have been made and should have been condemned by fellow yesers.

Likewise decent supporters of the No side should condemn the vile vitriol that is spewed by too many No supporters on line. If there is one thing that should unite those who are passionate about either side of the argument it should be that the debate should be a good clean fight.

However there is one thing that worries me about the ability to have a good clean fight and that is that a number of us, from both sides of the debate, who use to have respectable discussions on the Scotsman site now get our comments rejected with This comment was left by a user who has been blocked by our staff.

The Scotsman is actively blocking those of us who wish to debate the issues with mutual respect and only allows abusive trolls (from both sides) to comment, whilst publishing leaders condemning abusive comments as a “Cybernat” problem!

Will Brussels be kicked out of the EU?

It is interesting that when Cameron, Rajoy and Barroso make comments about the difficulty that newly independent nations might have in remaining in the EU they only concentrate on secessionist movements in Spain and the UK, they forget about the third EU member state that has secessionist issues and is, possibly, more likely to split than the UK or Spain – Belgium!

If a newly independent Catalonia and a newly independent Scotland might find continuing membership of the EU difficult, if not impossible, then the same MUST be true of a newly independent Flanders and a newly independent Wallonia! And therein lies a rather interesting problem, in that the EU could find itself in a position where its parliament and headquarters are in a country which would find it difficult, if not impossible, to remain in the EU.

Any scenario that envisages Brussels being kicked out of the EU is based on abject stupidity, of course. It would never happen, it could never happen; but remember the basis of the scenario is the exact same stupid argument as Cameron, Rajoy and Barroso are making about Scotland and Catalonia's continued membership of the EU!

Will Plaid have me back?

Yesterday I made an application to re-join Plaid Cymru. I don't know if my application will be successful or if Plaid will tell me to **** off!

I joined Plaid in 1979 after the first devolution referendum vote, I defected from the Liberal Party because, despite the Liberal party's 100 year support for Home Rule for Wales, I was the only party member in Merioneth who actually went out in that bitterly cold January and February to campaign for a Yes vote.

I gave up on Plaid in about 1995 when Dafydd Wigley made the claim that Plaid had never ever supported independence for Wales. In the intervening 18 years I have made a lot of criticisms of Plaid Cymru, I don't regret many of them. Many of my criticisms have received vocal support from within the party and from other disillusioned nationalists out with the party, but none have resulted in the creation of an alternative national movement.

The best alternatives so far have been Llais Gwynedd, Siân Caiach's People First and Plaid Glyndŵr, but all have been predicated on stealing / splitting / affecting Plaid Cymru's rather sparse share of the vote rather than widening the appeal of the national cause into areas that Plaid has failed to reach, which is pointless.

After spending 18 years waiting for a new bus at the Nationalist Bus Stop and finding that one isn't going to turn up, I feel that the time has come to get back on board the old one that, despite its faults, has been faithfully serving the route to national self determination for many years.

The Evolution of Devolution project has Failed

I canvassed in favour of a Yes vote in the 1979 Devolution Referendum. At the beginning of the campaign there was a considerable amount of enthusiasm for the proposal in Merioneth. As the campaign progressed I saw that enthusiasm wane into indifference and even into outright hostility. As the likes of Neil Kinnock, Leo Abse and Donald Anderson made their tirades against the Welsh language, Welsh culture and the dreaded monsters that lived to the north of the Beacons the opposition to devolution grew stronger. The starting message of the 1979 campaign was that Wales was being ignored by Westminster so we needed a parliament of our own. As the campaign went on fervent Nationalists were telling me that they would prefer Welsh issues to be ignored by Westminster rather than be oppressed by the likes of Kinnock etc in a Welsh parliament.


One of the arguments made by Plaid Cymru in favour of campaigning for enhanced devolution rather than ought right independence is that if devolution works well for Wales, then the people of Wales will embrace the process and demand more and more powers for Wales. Opinion Polls suggest that there is an element of truth to Plaid's theory and as time has gone by support for devolution has increased substantially, but every attempt to move the process of devolution on is stymied by the same old opponents of Welsh self determination – the Labour Party.


In the four years prior to the 2011 referendum all of the talk was about parity with Scotland which seemed to have massive support amongst the electorate. It was only in the statuary period three weeks before the vote, that honesty entered the campaign and we were told that the actual referendum would be on a cosmetic issue!


The first volume of the Silk Report suggests another referendum on another cosmetic issue that won't be held for at least another 10 years, I'm sure that the second volume will contain even further obstacles to attaining what many thought they were voting for a year and a half ago.


In the meantime the Labour Government in Cardiff is doing what the cynics of 1979 were predicting: Ruling Wales poorly in order to prove that Wales can't run its own affairs. We have had a Labour Government since the beginning of Devolution and in that time it has lowered Wales' economic performance, worsened the health of the nation, inflicted poorer education on our kids and encouraged maximum immigration of non Welsh speakers into the Welsh Language Heartlands.


Broadcasting has been administratively devolved to Wales since the 1950's. Before the creation of the Assembly we had Teledu Cymru, TWW, HTV Wales, BBC Wales, BBC Cymru, The Welsh Light Programme, Radio Wales, Radio Cymru, S4C and a number of regional broadcasters. Local broadcasting within Wales is likely to expand over the next few years. As the media has been practically devolved for so many years, one would think that the governance of broadcasting should naturally be devolved – but Labour is opposed to devolving broadcasting!


Some have laughed at the unfortunate timing of the Welsh Labour Government asking to pull an episode of a soap opera on the day that Lord Levison published his report on statutory control of the press. I don't think it's funny, unfortunate nor an accident. It is another case of the Labour Party deliberately creating a situation which proves that Wales shouldn't have broadcasting devolved, because Wales can't be trusted, even in the case of the editorial independence of Soap Operas. Labour attitude through and through.


The Evolution of Devolution project has failed, and failed miserably, it's high time that all of us who support the National Cause - Left or Right- In Plaid or anti-Plaid – Cultural, Political, Economic and every other sort of Nationalist to give up on the Devo project and go four square for independence, because at the current rate Wales will become extinct before it evolves or devolves much further.

NATO - A breath of Fresh Air!

Some might agree with Syniadau that the SNP's vote for Scotland to be part of NATO was right; others might agree with Glyn Beddau that it was wrong.

Having listened to broadcasts from other party conferences, where nothing was debated, where no policy was decided, where the party hierarchy was not held to account, I thought that the NATO debate at the SNP conference was a breath of fresh air.

A party conference where delegates were allowed to argue passionately for and against what they believe to be the best policy followed by a knife edge vote, where the arguments presented to conference made the difference to the outcome of the vote - that is what party conferences use to be for should be for!

How many other Governing parties, in the so called Democratic West, would allow such a debate and such a vote? Very few!

Agree or disagree with Conference's decision (I disagree) it was fantastic to have such an open, honest and hard hitting debate – decided by ordinary party members.

The fact that UK Party Conferences have become nothing more than staged managed rallies rather than a place to argue policy and that Scotland still has a party where debate is open and free - should, in-itself, be an argument for independence and a reason to vote YES in 2014!

Plaid – for the first time – offering hope in my lifetime

One of the reasons for my Love / Hate attitude towards Plaid Cymru is Plaid's ambivalence about the I word!

I support INDEPENDENCE for Wales unequivocally. Plaid, at times has appeared rather uncertain about independence claiming that it has "never ever" been a party aim, perhaps a long term desire, something that may happen a long time after all current party voters are dead and buried etc.

I was pleased, therefore, to see that Elfyn Llwyd, who has often been as ambivalent as others on the I issue has stated that he will see Wales independent in his lifetime.

Elfyn is a few years older than I am, so Elfyn's statement is the first time EVER that I have heard a Plaid Politician predicting that I could live in an independent Wales!

Diolch Elfyn

What is the Labour and Tory Vision for an Independent Scotland?

In trying to follow the Scottish Independence referendum debate, there is one strain of argument that confuses me. It is the argument where Unionists (usually) ask questions about the policies that an Independent Scottish Government would follow, which are sometimes answered, quite authoritively, by Nationalists.

Questions like:

What sort of currency would an independent Scotland have?

What would Scotland's defence policies be? If England went to War would Scotland Support England? How many Aeroplanes would the Scots Air Force have?

How would Scotland deal with welfare and benefits? Would taxes be higher, lower, or similar?

What sort of economic policies would an Independent Scotland follow? What would Scotland's international relations be like?

They are all fair questions, I suppose. They may be questions that an "undecided" might want an answer to. They might be questions that a truly independent commentator (if such a creature exists) might be able to guess at by looking at the historic polity of Scotland.

But are they questions for the YES side alone?

I think not.

If Scotland votes Yes the answers to these questions will not just be in the hands of the Yes voters. Those who vote No and those who don't vote will also live in an independent Scotland and their opinions will still count in an independent Scotland.

The idea that the SNP should be forced to answer these policy questions whilst the unionists snigger is bad for the possible future of Scottish politics.

If Scotland votes Yes the first elected independent parliament may not be formed by the SNP. Voters may think that, having achieved its goal, the SNP is defunct. There may be a Labour Government, possibly even a Conservative Government in the newly Independent Holyrood Parliament.

In order to get the fullest possible picture of what an independent Scotland might look like those who oppose Scottish Independence should surely tell us how they would run an independent Scotland should the referendum vote go against them!

Why Independence as a "Long Term Aim" is wrong

When Simon Thomas was an MP he suggested that Plaid should aim for an independent Wales by 2050, because I am already well into my sixth decade, voting for a party that promises independence by 2050, would be an altruistic act for me, the chances of my living until 2050 are minimal. In an article on Wales Home Adam Price suggests 2036 as the date that the party should advocate for its long term policy, when I may be a sprightly 77 years old.

Plaid Cymru has seen generations of activists shuffle off this mortal coil knowing that they would never live in an independent Wales, why should I expect better? Shouldn't I too campaign for independence as a long term aim that will benefit my children and my grandchildren after I am gone?

Possibly, but probably not!

I am a realist, I know that Independence has hovered around the 10% +3 -3 margine of error in opinion polls for the last 30 years, so there isn't a great appetite for Independence in Wales at the moment. One of the reasons for this stagnation is that nobody has made the case for independence. And therein lays the problem of kicking independence into the long grass. If we see independence as a long term issue that can be ignored for another 20 30, 50 years, Wales will never be independent!

For either Adam or Simon to be right, for independence to be achieved in 2036 or 2050 we must campaign for Independence Today. Ignoring the issue as something for the long term just puts off making the case for independence until 2036 or 2050 or 2075 or 2974 or 3465 or for eternity!

If there is a case for Welsh independence it should be made today by all who believe in the cause. Postponing the argument as something for the long term is both duplicitous and dishonest!

Why should Wales be DEPENDENT?

I am grateful to Stuart for drawing my attention to yesterday's Radio Wales Phone-in with Jason Mohammad. The first half of the programme delt with the question Should Wales become independent?

Stuart said about the programme I was struck by the fact that the debate wasn't hijacked by the usual suspects and that most people giving their views were at least open to discussing the subject. And I must say that I agree. It was a breath of fresh air to hear a programme about the issue of Welsh self determination where most of the contributors for both sides made sensible arguments.

The Scottish contributor a Dr Ray Donnelly, who was described as an expert on Scottish independence was the only contributor who took the debate into the realms of stupidity both by trying to flirt with Helen Mary on air and by making nonsensical comments such as "the Scots will have to eat porridge with whisky for breakfast if Scotland becomes independent". I may not agree with it, but the retention of the UK is a legitimate political position to hold – surely its proponents deserve better exponents of their cause than this!

The contribution that stood out for me was one that came from Catrin in Aberdare How about turning the question around, Jase, Should Wales be dependent I'm at a loss to see why anyone would say that Wales has done well out of being dependent on the UK". Quite right Catrin!

Perhaps those of us who support the national cause should stop trying to justify Independence and start asking the others why they want Wales to remain Dependent?

Sleepwalking into complacency about OUR future!

One of the opposition arguments made, not so much against the SNP, but against the people of Scotland is that they may sleepwalk into independence!

The argument is that the people of Scotland are so star struck by Alex Salmond, that they might vote YES in a referendum because of what they feel in their bellies, rather than what they know in their heads; Mr Salmond's charisma might mesmerise them into voting for independence against their better judgement!

Or, to put it in other words, the people of Scotland may support independence in a referendum because they are too stupid to know better! A good unionist vote winning strategy!!!!

At the moment the Unionist supporters seem to be banking on the fact that the vote will go their way. They might be right, they might be wrong, who knows until the votes are counted?

Supposing that Scotland votes YES and becomes independent, where does that leave Wales, where does it leave England?

The term used in the Scottish blogosphere is rUK (remainder United Kingdom), which is fair enough from a Scottish prospective – but where does it leave those of us who continue to live in the remainder?

I have heard of no plans from the Conservatives, the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats nor even Plaid and MK about what happens next IF Scotland votes for Independence.

Which raises the question Who are the Sleepwalkers?. What are the people of England, Wales, Cornwall and the north of Ireland going to do, going to be, if Scotland becomes independent?

Surely all parties need to plan for the inevitability of Scottish Independence and its ramifications for the rest of us! Sleepwalking into post Scottish Independence must not be an option!

Are Lib-Lab-Con parking their tank on Plaid's grass again?

There is rather pathetic post on Wales Home in which David Torrance tries to fry Scottish First minister Alex Salmond for a lack of commitment to proper independence for Scotland!

Indeed, over the past 15 years the SNP leader has gone out of his way to emphasis an almost Burkean continuity with the United Kingdom, preserving whichever features of the ,ancien regime he judges Scots voters, however patriotic, are reluctant to sacrifice.

From the election of Gwynfor in 1966 up to the devolution referenda of 1979, the Unionists (to use Mr Torrance's all inclusive phrase) built up an independence straw man: If Scotland or Wales were to become independent they would be like Albania or Cambodia, cut off from the rest of the world economically, socially, culturally and in every other respect.

The nationalist response was always that such a claim was complete and utter tosh; an independent Scotland or Wales would become individuals in the family of nations and would retain strong links with all the nations with whom they had bonds prior to independence, including England, and that some of those bonds would be strengthened through independence.

Nothing has changed in the nationalist camp. We were saying forty years ago that many countries had shared currencies, the Irish Punt and the US dollar being typical examples at that time. We were saying forty years ago that many countries allowed foreign forces to have bases in their territory for the sake of mutual protection (like Greenham common!) We were also saying forty years ago that after independence Scotland and Wales had the option of being part of the Commonwealth of Nations and retaining the Queen as our titular head, as many other independent countries do. Alex Salmond is singing from the same old hymn sheet as his predecessors sang from in the 60's and 70's!

What has changed is the Unionist attack. Salmond is now derided for only wanting Devo Max or Independence lite, rather than the full blooded Albanian isolationism that he and his party were wrongly accused of supporting in the 60's and 70's.

The funny thing is that Plaid has had a squeaky bum period of being frightened of mentioning the I word preferring to talk about full national identity, the evolution of devolution and such like; terms that are not dissimilar to the Scottish Unionists Devo Max and Independence Lite!

Another example of the British Parties parking their tanks on Plaid's grass?

We should we prepare for having independence thrust upon us!

The response to the SNP's outstanding victory in this month's Scottish Parliament Election from unionists within Scotland and British Nationalists outside Scotland has been interesting. The general opinion seems to be that Alex Salmond will bottle out of a referendum on independence, because he knows that it will fail to deliver a Yes vote. They base this on polling results that suggest that "only" 33% or so of Scottish voters poll as supporting independence; a rather blinkered view, in my opinion.

The last two referenda on the Scottish constitution managed a 60% and a 62% turnout. If one makes the fair assumption that those who support independence are likely to be more motivated to vote than those who are ambiguous or disinterested on the No side then the current polling already suggests that the Yes side COULD gain a simple majority of votes cast if the referendum was held today. (I'm not good at maths but I think that if 33% of the electorate vote yes in a 60% turn out it gives something like a 55% Yes 45% no vote.)

Whatever our opinion about how desirable Scottish Independence is, we should all accept that it is a possibility that Scotland might become independent within the next few years and recognise that if Scotland does become independent that it will have an effect on all of us that remain in the rest of the UK.

Northern Ireland's Unionist link to the UK is very much a link with Scotland. Where does Scottish Independence leave the NI unionists? Would they want to remain a member of the remainder UK linked to England but not to their Scottish heritage?

Polling support for English Independence is much higher than support for Scottish independence, but independence has a lower priority on the political scale in England than it has in Scotland. A campaign for Scottish independence, especially a successful campaign could raise the issue of English self determination on the English agenda.

So where does this leave Wales, where polls suggest that a miserly 10 to 15% of us support independence for our country? We could have independence thrust upon us without having made any preparations for it.

Perhaps even those dinosaurs who oppose any form of Welsh self-determination should wake up and smell the coffee and prepare for the possibility that we may have to take care of our own destiny whether we like it or not!

Wales Needs A Campaign for Independence

For elected politicians being in opposition is a nightmare, you've slogged your guts out to get hold of elected office, you've had the jubilation of victory in your own patch after campaigning for the policies that you believe can change society, only to find that a majority of those elected to the same chamber thwart your vision and your mandate every time.

For political activists the opposite is true. No government does exactly what its rank and file party members want it to do, but party members have to bite their tongues and offer support despite themselves and that is bloody frustrating. It is even more frustrating if ones party is in coalition and has to compromise on issues that are held dear to the rank and file.

Opposition is a damned site easier for party activists than being in government and incredibly easier than being in coalition government.

The way that the two dominant British Parties overcome this conundrum is by having extra parliamentary groups that support their core values, and campaign for those core values, even when they are in government, keeping the flame alight.

When Labour introduced a minimum wage, rather than a living wage, the trades union movement continued to campaign for a living wage. Whilst the ConDems are increasing the tax take, the ultra Conservative Tax Payer's Alliance continue to campaign for lower taxation.

One of the reasons that the Lib Dems took a hammering in this month's elections, in every part of the UK, is because there is no extra parliamentary Campaign for Liberalism and Democracy that fundamentalists can support and campaign for as an alternative ideal out with the party's practicalities!

Plaid Cymru's period in government was partially similar to that being endured by the Liberal Democrats. On Language issues campaigners could keep their purity by supporting Cymdeithas yr Iaith's protests about the Welsh Language Measure, Welsh Language provision in Further and Higher Education etc, but on the wider nationalist issues there was nowhere for us to express our purity whilst accepting the compromises of government.

In every election that I can remember (1970 Westminster is my earliest) Plaid has said This election isn't about independence it's about XYZ, each time it has been truthful, the problem is that Plaid has done nothing since 1970 to ensure that the next election "IS" about independence, and it will not do so unless there is a non party Campaign for Independence, that puts independence on the political agenda!

Rhydian Signs for Plaid???

Less than half way there somehow, somewhere, unfortunately.

But Someway? Someday?

Hold my hand rather than the Socialist Entrists hand and I may well take you there!

The Green Green Grass of Home

I was using Google to search for reactions to Adam Price's decision to resign from Westminster at the next election, and came across the Pink Paper's report.

The Pink Paper on line edition has a related story link, headlined Peter Tatchell calls for a Cornwall Parliament. I assume that the link is Celtic nationalism. The story is quite old now, dating from August 7th, but it's new to me, I wasn't aware of it before stumbling upon it today.

Gay campaigner and Green Party parliamentary candidate Peter Tatchell has compared the fight for LGBT rights with the little-known movement for self-rule for Cornwall.
Both the campaigns for gay rights and Cornish rights involve challenging injustice," he said ahead of Cornwall Pride tomorrow.
They are different, but they share the same commitment to extending democratic freedoms and human rights.
Mr Tatchell said he would be carrying both a rainbow flag and the Cornish national flag at the event as well as a placard reading:
"End ban on gay marriage."
Cornwall has a population of just 531,000, but has historically been recognised as one of the "Celtic nations."
Mr Tatchell, the Green Party candidate at the next election in the Oxford East constituency, said he advocated a "Scottish-style Cornish parliament (that) would bring power closer to the people and ensure a stronger focus on the needs and interests of Cornwall."

I hadn't realised that Mr Tatchell was now a leading Green. I had always thought of him as the Labour Candidate in the Bermondsy by-election in one of the most prejudicial campaigns in modern history. This safe Labour seat was lost to the Liberal Democrats and elected Simon Hughes The Only Gay from Colwyn Bay, as he was once called, after a particularly homotrepid campaign.

Mt Tatchell apparently has a moderate chance of being elected as one of the first Green Westminster MP's in next year's elections. I wish him well and I hope that he wins.

Peter Tatchell's support for Cornish self-determination is in line with the Green's attitudes towards Scottish independence. The Scottish Green party is an independent part, that gives some support to the principal of independence for Scotland

It appears that the Greens support self determination for Cornwall and Scotland, but where do they stand in relation to Welsh self determination?

Why is the Green Party in Wales an EnglandandWales organisation, rather than a separate party similar to the Scottish Party?

Why does the Green movement in Wales portray an image of "Good life" colonisation by hippies, interested in preserving everything other than the culture, values and national identity of Wales?

The latest Victory by the eco movement in Wales was to gain planning permission for a Lammas Village in Glandwr. Lammas, being the Anglo Saxon Feast of the Harvest Crop. Celebrated a full 10 weeks before the traditional Welsh Diolchgarwch am y Cynhaeaf (Harvest Thanksgiving).

Whatever the rights or wrongs of the Glandwr development, it would have taken 2 seconds of sensitivity and 5 minutes of research to call the plan Pentre Diolchgarwch rather than the Anglo Saxon's who couldn't give an F*** about Wales Village (which is what Lammas in Wales means)!

Without such sensitivity, the Green cause will never flourish in Wales

S4C and devolution. Incompatible?

I am not a devolutionist I am a nationalist. I believe that Wales should be responsible for the whole of its own governance and the whole of its own national expenditure.

The issue of S4C recently raised by both Prof Dylan Jones Evans and Lord Dafydd Elis Thomas makes the case. S4C costs a lot of money, about £90 million a year.

As Wales pays about £170 million in tv licensing fees and, probably, pays a similar amount of the advertising premiums on goods purchased, S4C is still expensive, but not as exorbitantly so as some would suggest.

In an independent Wales S4C would be affordable.

If S4C was devolved it would not be affordable, because it would take up about 10% of the Assembly budget.

Spending 10% of a national budget on a telly channel used by one in ten of the population could never be justified. The Assembly reneged on the idea of giving just £600K to a Welsh Language newspaper, for goodness sake! - It could never justify spending 10% of its budget on the telly when hospitals and school are in dire need.

There is no other institution in the world as separately Welsh as S4C. If anything should be devolved all logic says that S4C is it! But a devolved Wales can't afford S4C.

The only way that Wales can afford to have control over something as simple as its own telly is by ditching the stupidity of Plaid's policy of the "evolution of devolution" and campaigning for all out independence, which would allow broadcasting to be seen as a small part of a total national expenditure, rather than a huge part of a very limited devolved expenditure!

How many MPs does Wales need?

It will come as no surprise to regular readers of this blog that my answer to the question how many Westminster MP's does Wales need? is none, nil, zero, zilch, nix etc.

Since the 1930's Wales has always been at the bottom of the list of every economic and social indicator. The reasons for this are quite simple. When times are bad the London economy, being the powerhouse of Great Britain, needs shoring up. As Eddie George admitted in the 1980's allowing other parts of the UK to suffer in order to support the London economy is a price worth paying. When times get better the last places to benefit from recovery are places like Wales and Cornwall, but because of economic cycles when Wales starts to recover London goes into another economic downturn and Wales is smacked in the teeth again, in order to save London.

Gordon Brown promised the end of Boom and Bust, the truth is, that as part of the UK, Wales has never had a Boom and Bust problem; being part of the UK has made us suffer from a Bust and Bust again economy for the past eighty years.

Edward VIII, as Prince of Wales, memorably said Something must be done, as he observed the grinding poverty and desperate queues of the unemployed in south Wales during the 1930's. The fact is that sod all has been done to change Wales since those days, and sod all will be be done unless and until Wales has control over its own economy and it's own destiny as an independent nation!

What is Plaid Cymru For?

There use to be a time when Plaid Cymru was the party that one could expect to defend local communities. Now it is a party that closes local facilities such as schools and public conveniences and shouts down and swears at those who offer solutions that might help save services.

It use to be a party that supported the Welsh Language, but since being in government they have renegade on some promises made to support the language and failed to deliver on others. They even voted against a proposal to establish a Welsh Language Commissioner.

Plaid use to be a party that supported self government for Wales, but according to the Western Mail Speaking as a Plaid Assembly Member and a former leader of the party Dafydd Elis Thomas says that he is opposed to a referendum on further powers for the Assembly untill well after 2011. Indeed this mam who vociferously opposed the 40% threshold imposed by Labour in 1979 is now opposed to further self government unless it is clear that at least 60% of voters support further powers.

If Plaid doesn't defend local communities, doesn't deliver on the language and doesn't campaign for further self government is there any reason for the party's continuing existence?