What Is Wales !

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This is part 1 of a series in which we will be investigating the ways in which Wales differs from England and the extent to which it can properly be regarded as a nation in it`s own right. We will look at the Politics, Institutions and History of Wales in turn.

The Welsh parliament or Senedd.

What Is Wales?

These are historic times for Wales. Since 1998 Wales has enjoyed its own devolved parliament. Although the "Senedd" does not have primary legislative powers ( in some ways it is similar to a state legislature here in the U.S.A ) its control over the government budget has enabled it to pass various measures which distinguish Wales politically from the rest of the UK. The most recent of these was the abolition of prescription charges on April 2nd of this year. In a move calculated to cost around 30 million pounds a year ( 60 million dollars US ) the Senedd has demonstrated that it has the power to materially and profoundly affect the quality of life of its constituents. In this case for the better! Why should Wales be moving in this direction at a time when prescription charges in the rest of the UK have gone up 20 pence ( 40 cents approx ) per item?

Someone once described the Welsh as "Italians in the rain". If by this they meant that the Welsh are a fun-loving, creative and politically radical people then the characterization was broadly accurate. Political radicalism in Wales has diverse roots, a fact which is exemplified in the Assembly Election results for 2003 which are listed below.

Party	Seats	Share of Vote
Labour	30	36.6%
Plaid Cymru	12	19.7%
Conservative	11	19.2%
Liberal Democrats	6	12.5%
Forward Wales	1	1.2%

What do these parties represent? Translated into American terms they can roughly be understood thus:-

Labour Somewhat to the left of the Democrats (US) and formerly a socialist party, Labour is the dominant party in South Wales and has been for nearly a century.

Plaid Cymru The Welsh Nationalist Party. Plaid Cymru lists the following points amongst its chief objectives:-

To promote the constitutional advancement of Wales with a view to attaining Full National Status for Wales within the European Union.

To ensure economic prosperity, social justice and the health of the natural environment, based on decentralist socialism.

Conservative The Conservative Party are roughly equivalent to our Republican Party.

Liberal Democrats The name says it all. The Liberal Democrats are the latter day heirs of the party of Lloyd George ( the only Welsh Prime Minister of Britain ). They were eclipsed by Labour as the main left of centre party in the UK in the early part of the 20th century but have enjoyed a revival in their political fortunes since the 1980`s.

Forward Wales A socialist party which also believes that:- "Wales should enjoy parity with Scotland within the current constitutional arrangements in the UK and should enjoy no fewer powers than any other of the UK nations or regions should any further devolution arrangements be enacted." Unlike Plaid Cymru, however, they do not believe in national independence for Wales.

Thus it can be seen that 80% of the Welsh electorate voted for left of centre, Liberal or avowedly Socilaist parties at the time of the last Assembly election. With a national swing to the Conservatives after 10 years of Labour rule at Westminster pollsters are predicting that they may pick up 2 or 3 seats in the "Senedd" at the next election in May 2007.

All of this is in marked contrast to the position in England which has always been the bedrock of Conservative support in the UK. Indeed it was largely the unpopularity of the Conservative policies of the Margaret Thatcher and John Major governments in Wales, that guaranteed the success of the devolution referrendum in 1997 which led to the establishment of the Welsh Assembly. There was a perception that Wales did not elect these governments, was not adequately represented by them, and wished to follow a completely different political agenda.

It is not surprising given South Wales industrial past that it should have been the cradle of the socialist movement in the UK. It is also not surprising, given their devotion to traditional Welsh culture and to the preservation of the Welsh language that Plaid Cymru should view Wales as an "oppressed nation" and call for Independence. What is surprising and refreshing is that the Welsh Assembly is at last providing a platform for these various oppositional trends, and one which exercises considerable power over the management of day to day affairs in Wales.

And so, as a consequence of the outcome of the 1997 devolution referrendum, the Welsh Labour Party is able to pursue a political agenda with a distinctly Welsh flavor. The founder of the National Health Service in Britain ( Aneurin Bevan ) was a Labour MP for Tredegar in South Wales. How he would have applauded the recent abolition of prescription charges.

Hopefully we have demonstrated that Wales differs substantially from England in political terms. But is Wales truly a nation? We will explore that issue in our next article.