It’s safe to say it’s been a difficult few months for the Welsh independence movement.
As said in a previous piece, at heart it boils down to a conflict between those who want independence first “and sort it out afterwards” and those who want to impose their own visions for independence beforehand (and usually without much serious thought behind it).
On the one hand, those who have a clear vision have a point: some things are non-negotiable including upholding and respecting human rights (so nobody is thrown under a bus to achieve independence), social tolerance, rejecting totalitarian and authoritarian ideologies, working to eliminate inequality and learning how to do things better from the rest of the world. But even then different people will have different ideas that will clash: freedom of speech vs social tolerance for example.
Likewise, the “independence first, sort it out afterwards” folks have a point. If we believe in parliamentary democracy and plurality, then a lot of the decisions will be made by the Senedd before and after independence. YesCymru isn’t the vehicle to deliver serious policy changes; they’re there to campaign to get the tools to make those changes. We have to say why we want them and what we can do with them, but the final decisions will be based on election results and party manifestos. Democracy is rule of the majority and it’s a basic fact of life that you won’t always get what you want and change can often be very slow (I come back to this point later).
It would be very difficult for anyone to accuse me of not being a proper nationalist and I’d argue I’ve done quite a bit for the independence movement, but the purpose of this piece is to prove that your personal views don’t invalidate the views of other people in the independence movement and you can still be on the same side.
So, what “controversial” views do I hold – some of which may genuinely annoy or anger people – that may put me in the dog house with the majority of Welsh nationalists?
It’s quite likely that 90%+ of the “insult to Wales” stories over the years at best get a glance at the headline with me thinking, “I’m not reading that, it’s clickbait” then, at worst, me reading it anyway and thinking, “I’m disappointed at myself for reading that clickbait”.
We should only be paying attention to these stories if it’s a smaller symptom of a bigger problem or it involves someone or some organisation that should’ve known better. The rest is just emotionally manipulative trash that reduces everything to caveman-like grunts of approval or anger.
As more news moves online it’s become increasingly “catastrophised” to get people’s attention and we fall for it every single time. I’m convinced the Welsh enjoy being angry about something. It doesn’t matter what. It doesn’t matter where in Wales. It doesn’t necessarily matter who says/does it (though someone English or from a different political viewpoint as yourself is preferable).
Wales is a pretty boring place (not necessarily a bad thing given the current state of the world) and being angry about something may make otherwise boring lives feel a bit more exciting. But it gets to a point where you become addicted to being angry and you start looking for something to complain about or be offended about in every situation as part of a competition to be the most angry or the most offended.
If you don’t really learn anything (or anything you didn’t already know) from a news story – and yet still feel the need to react to it – you should be asking yourselves “Who benefits from this and why are they publishing it?”
Take this hypothetical example.
Leeds United fan DaveUK2867837 (Union Flag) (St George’s Flag) with 22 followers on Twitter wants you to react to his tweet that Welsh has no vowels and sounds like Klingon. If you haven’t seen his tweet, someone else who got angry about it will certainly let you know and will want you to react as well.
If the reaction is led by someone with a blue tick or tens of thousands of followers, you may get a proper article from proper journalists to react to because it’s “a story people are talking about” and it helps meet their monthly click quotas. At this point, the MSs may get involved – Tweet if it’s moderately bad, press release if it’s really bad, Senedd question if it’s really, really bad.
The high-minded political commentator will write an op-ed entitled, “What DaveUK2867837’s tweet says about the Welsh language in modern political discourse and why Wales needs X to Y.”
The high-minded left-wing political commentator will write a piece, “What would Raymond Williams say about this?” You can then be “outraged for the right reasons” because you’re too smart to fall for clickbait.
To make sure they get their rightful share of attention, some right-wing political commentator with a name like Todd Riddle will fart out: “The English have a God-given right to say what we like about the Welsh and here’s why” for you to react to (and make money for whoever publishes it or regurgitates it).
And so on until the next outrage.
If you want a recent high-profile real-life example, take the Cardiff HMRC office union flag.
It prompted a lot of reaction on social media, op-eds and outrage – even a petition (the surest sign that you’ve pissed off the Welsh, though it’s a step down from the Welsh Government’s “strongly-worded letter”). Despite all that, the flag says a lot about the UK Government’s lack of confidence in the Union. They’ve never had to do anything like that before. I was delighted. Yet somehow this was catastrophised.
Nations that have no option but to plaster their flag everywhere to remind you where you are (and in this case, where you pay your taxes to) are often the least confident about their future or place in the world. It’s like getting a hair transplant when the shine off your head already interferes with satellites.
I want them to make it even bigger. Paint the entire building in a union flag. Tell the world that Global Britain is two inches erect and drives an Audi TT.
- Does any of that mean you’re not allowed to get angry about things that personally matter to you? No.
- Does it mean people who don’t get as easily offended or angry about things are somehow more reliable commentators? No.
- Does that mean the rough treatment Wales/the Welsh/the Welsh language often gets in the UK media should be downplayed? No.
