FOR WALES, SEE WESTERN ENGLAND…

The Conservatives in Cymru / Wales, with some honourable exceptions have never been happy with devolution, deep down they would probably like to get rid of it (along with the very idea of Cymru / Wales). Boris' mutterings about intervening to over rule the Labour in Wales Government's decision not to build the M4 relief road, last week, or the lead Financial Times article (Monday 13.07.2020) about Westminster’s plans to retain control of state aid at the expense of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, should not surprise anyone. 

Boris and his ilk, in what's probably the most narrow elitist English governments (if not one that appears to be increasingly out of touch with English thinking on the Union) anytime since the 1700’s, have serious barely concealed disdain for the concept of devolution and an unconcealed contempt for Cymru / Wales. The creation of the Union Policy Implementation Committee (chaired by Michael Gove) aims to strengthen the union and 'bind' the UK's nations, at the expense of our interests.

Poor West Britons?

I have little doubt that the Conservatives will happily work to weaken if not abolish devolution in Cymru / Wales and work to weaken and undermine it in Scotland. They have certainly played fast and loose with the political process in Northern Ireland in a desperate but ultimately successful (in the short term) attempt to stay on office - something that threatened to undermine the hard won peace process. 

Now none of this is new - when one of the more recent failed Conservative leaders started talking about reviewing devolution and strengthening the Union at a time when BREXT threatened to deliver a rollback of powers then any one who believes in democracy and devolution to the nations and regions of these islands should have been concerned. 

Despite the spin and the claims to the contrary, devolution was not Teresa May’s legacy, her legacy was political chaos and economic uncertainty, and a use of BREXIT to attempt to roll back devolution and strip away powers from Wales and Scotland and to undermine the devolved institutions and constitutional settlement within these islands. As late as the 2005 Westminster general election the Conservatives (and Teresa May) were still publicly uncommitted to devolution for Cymru / Wales. 

For a Conservative leader to talk about constitutional diversity was particularly rich. The soon to be former Prime Minister is correct in one key area, the fact that some Westminster government departments have failed to recognise the reality of devolution. The Conservative party, under Cameron, May and now Boris has reluctantly paid lip service to devolution, but, many suspect that it will actively work to weaken the powers of the devolved governments post BREXIT. 

None of this is new, back in 2015, after David Cameroon, won his first Westminster majority, and before he messily ended his premiership over BREXIT, there was, at least from this end of the M4 / A55, the perception of a faint brief whiff of what could best be described as devo rollback in the air. As the then unconstrained Conservative government settled in at Westminster, what's was in it for Cymru / Wales - potentially nothing good. 

Scotland, as far as the Westminster unionists may have been concerned may be quietly (and honestly) be perceived as a lost cause (perhaps a literal case of 'when' rather than 'if' in relation to independence). Cymru / Wales on the other hand may yet offer far more constitutional room to meddle with, to tinker with or even rollback parts of our deeply flawed constitutional settlement - something that could take us back to an 'England and Wales' polity for the first time since pre 1601.

Here in Cymru / Wales we have all seen and experienced the Westminster wobble in relation to the commitment to complete the electrification of the Great Western line to Swansea, the failure to develop the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon, and the threat to cancel promised public borrowing powers after the proposed M4 Relief road was dropped.

Our constitutional settlement, such as it is is, even to the disinterested, remains deeply flawed, second rate and simply unfair, not coming remotely close to either Scotland or Northern Ireland when it comes to powers which could be used to influence and shape economic matters. 

The Conservative Party appears happy to be appealing to the type of nationalism that saw the rise of UKIP in the past. With the Europe issue potentially off the political agenda, devolution is next. The Brexit Party (along with the Abolish The Assembly Party) has just publicly committed itself to challenging devolution and effectively destroying our young democracy. 

There are times, when you can be excused for feeling that Cymru / Wales not only has an unpredictable future but also has an unpredictable past. As a former observer of the old Soviet Union the emergence of a nominal political party actually dedicated to abolishing our embryonic parliament from the inside during the Newport West By-election) reminded me of the activities of interfront in the Baltic republics in the late 1980's and early 1990's - save without the backing of the Kremlin (Westminster). 

Here in Cymru / Wales we have two (or three) political parties that have wrapped themselves in the Union flag and openly expressed a version of political reality based on British exceptionalism and nostalgia. This problem existed long before BREXIT and has the potential to unleash a combination of a deep devo rollback and a BritWash of pretty much everything - be it sport (Team GB, etc), culture, history, economics or politics. 

Wrapped in a flag...

That this is the partial triumph of what could perhaps best be described as an aspirational nostalgia of a view of the past that never existed over reality should disturb most people. Now it would be too easy to pass off the mutterings and musings of the far right as a collection of nutters and eccentrics (they may be). They appeal to a heady combination of nostalgia for a questionable view of the past, hostility to the concept of devolution and perhaps a yet to be articulated hostility to the very existence of Cymru / Wales - politically and culturally. 

There should be something disturbing about people who live (or perhaps reside) within a nation that has been badly governed for generations by a narrow minded corrupt unresponsive political institution, in our case, on the bank of the Thames, actively campaigning to remove a new accountable democratic national parliament.  That said the right has little concern for Cymru / Wales or any other the the devolved nations within these islands beyond an arrogant expectation of taciturn obedience. 

Boris Johnson is on record stating that Westminster is an English Parliament. Our nation, is at best an afterthought and more than likely an irritation to the current Conservative Leader. What we are looking at is not so much a case of for Wales see England, more like for Wales, see Western England.