FOLLOW THE MONEY?

Our nation, as one of the poorer parts of these islands (we are currently also, but not for long, one of the poorer regions of the European Union), we will have received more than £5 billion in so-called structural funds by the end of 2020. One of the consequences of BREXIT is that this source of funding will cease. Now the Conservatives have said the new Shared Prosperity Fund is intended to reduce inequalities across the four UK nations. 

One of the major flaw in this argument is that the current crop of Conservatives are unionists and centralisers - who at a fundamental level don not believe that sovereignty lies with the people, but, within that decaying gothic monstrosity on Thames, which means that the new fund could be used to draw decision making back to the gothic pile and away from the devolved governments.

That is of course, the other problem, in that can we actually believe them in relation to the new Shared Prosperity Fund. If you think about it rationally, especially considering that historically they blocked regional aid to Wales in the 1980’s and early 1990’s and considering that one of the underlying feature of the UK has always been that the failure when it comes to the centre promoting sustainable regional economic development, why would we?  

When you use public money, the old sensible adage is that you should work it extra hard, squeezing out every possible benefit. In recent years, the funding from Brussels has been used for a wide variety of diverse infrastructure projects from the Ponty Lido, Swansea University's Bay Campus, the Heads of the Valleys road, Harbour Way link road and the National Sailing Academy at Pwllheli. EU funding has been used to fund educational and training courses and other programmes via our Universities and colleges. 

When you spend public money, you should also openly audit how it’s spent and chase down any waste. I fundamentally believe that a new Plaid government should commit to carry out a fully comprehensive review of just exactly on what? And how well the money has been spent along with examining in detail how the funds were spent and what the end results were - before any future funds (if they ever arrive from Westminster) are thrown at any potential problems and projects in the future. 

ON THE RIGHT TRACK

Plaid Cymru has always maintained that our railways should be brought into public hands and the government put passengers before profit. So don’t get me wrong, this long overdue - finally bringing the ideologically driven idiocy that has reduced our railways to a poor dividend profit driven service is a good thing. 

Considering where we are this is a sensible measured first step.That said, as yet, there are unanswered questions, the devil is as always in the detail, I would prefer a not for dividend profit model rather than a government controlled railway service. It is important that our railways in the future are independent of day to day, week to week, month to month interference from the current Labour in Wales government in Cardiff, and future Senedd governments. 

Questions need to be answered in relation to the financial implications and also in relation to the nature of the subsidiary. There is obviously a balance to be established, as it is very important that our railways are democratically accountable and are democratically responsive to the needs of our nation, and as yet there are no real details. Decisions of this importance should be announced in the Senedd so that members can ask questions on behalf of the people of Wales and openly scrutinise decisions.

200 Days to change Cymru / Wales

 

200 days to Change Wales for Good

We in Plaid Cymru have a clear goal for our country: we want to stand on our own two feet, independent, free and equal with other nations across the world.

But in becoming an equal nation we have our eyes on a higher goal: of becoming ourselves a Nation of Equals.

We can do this by caring for everyone in society – from cradle to grave - building the economy and believing in our nation. Not managing problems – solving them.

During such a difficult time for us all it can be hard to look to the future. But as we face the darkness of winter, a 'fire-break' lockdown , and an alarming increase in the spread of Coronavirus, it is our responsibility to light a candle of hope.

​Wales also needs hope. Hope that things won’t just change but will change for good, for everyone, forever.

There are 200 days to go until the Senedd election. We have 200 days to offer Wales that hope. 200 days to Change Wales for Good.

Adam Price

Plaid Cymru - Virtual Conference 2020

 

6 Important Key Issues for 2021

I believe that there are six important policy areas that that should be important in the Senedd elections in May 2021.  They are Housing and Planning, Public Transport, Economic Development and Regeneration, the Devolution of control of Policing and Criminal Justice, control of our Water; and Energy. I firmly believe that these policy areas can set the agenda for our nation  for the next ten years +

We need to talk about Housing, Labour in Wales is silent on the matter and the other Unionist or anti devolution parties are silent on this issue. For the life of me, I cannot see any positives for Cymru / Wales simply being a simple adjunct to England, or Newport being a simple dormitory town for Bristol. I have never, and never will subscribe to the Severnside agenda, no matter how many times it gets rebranded and relaunched. In our south east, along the coastal belt and in and around Newport and Torfaen (not to mention around Cardiff and Caerphilly) and across Monmouthshire the last thirty years we have seen a significant if not spectacular growth in the amount of housing, a significant percentage of which of late has never quite been aimed to fulfil local housing needs. 

The other side of the coin, in relation to the pressing issue of Housing, is planning. Our Planning system is shambolic, Here in Cymru / Wales we face number of pressing problems, covid aside, many of our pressing problems are not helped by the inherent problems with our 19th planning system with its out of touch focus on unitary development plans, and the lack of decent affordable integrated public transport, which are all part of the problem we face.  Other than being an enabler to help with social and economic problems and the implementation of solutions, our Planning system is simply part of the problem. 

Another pressing problem that afflicts many of our communties, right across Cymru / Wales is that of redevelopment. Redevelopment is perceived by many people as something that is done to them, rather than by or for them. I have lived in Casnewydd / Newport for 43 or 44 years of my life - like many people  in the Port I have watched my home town / city get redeveloped to death. With the redevelopment companies moving in hoovering up the cash and departing. Newport’s 19th century Market which has served the city well, through good and bad times and two world wars, is to undergo yet another redevelopment. This redevelopment may be the final blow, as most to the remaining stallholders are in the process of moving out and the builders will soon  begin work to transform the market into a multi-million pound, multi-purpose centre.

Another key area, where the Unionist Parties are largely silent is that of Policing and Criminal Justice. At Westminster Unionist machinations (with Labour in Wales and the Conservatives working hand in glove in the voting lobbies - or Labour simply absenting themselves or abstaining) has resulted in a strange end result. Our Senedd is quite unique, it is the only devolved legislature within these islands not to have any control over its nation’s police forces. Now it’s worth noting, that control over Policing is devolved to Scotland (effectively since 1945), Northern Ireland, England, London, Manchester and even the City of London.

The issue of Water, in Cymru / Wales should still be more contentious than it is - again the Unionists are as quiet as Church Mice on this issue. On the 15th July 2020, for the first time in our history, our Senedd debated the issue of independence. While most independent observers will note that our devolution settlement is deeply flawed, by way of comparison to Scotland and Northern Ireland. It’s sometimes shocking when you actually look at the things that we don’t control - aside from Policing, and large aspects of the planning process, significant aspects transport infrastructure development and probably most surprising of all our water resources.

The final key issue is that of energy (both Policy and Development). Back in the 1960's people were actually told that by the year 2000 energy would be so cheap that it would be impossible to bill people for it. That never happened, largely as a result of the ideologically driven privatisation of the energy boards created a privatised (effective) monopoly. Once ‘market forces’ set to work we were left with the big six energy suppliers (a cartel by any other name). With weak regulation - despite some periodic and actually very effective work by Westminster parliamentary select committees - the cartel members have been able to get away with much - mostly at our expense (literally). 

CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOUSING?

For the life of me, I cannot see any positives for Cymru / Wales simply being a simple adjunct to England, or Newport being a simple dormitory town for Bristol. I have never, and never will subscribe to the Severnside agenda, no matter how many times it gets rebranded and relaunched. In our south east, along the coastal belt and in and around Newport and Torfaen (not to mention around Cardiff and Caerphilly) and across Monmouthshire the last thirty years we have seen a significant if not spectacular growth in the amount of housing, a significant percentage of which of late has never quite been aimed to fulfil local housing needs. 

The recent explosion in housing and commercial developments around our cities, small towns and villages across Cymru / Wales over the last 40 years - often with little provision for public transport or alternative ways for potential residents to get around beyond using their cars - has flagged up the rapid loss of green spaces in and around our urban and not so urban areas - and has done little to provide affordable let alone reasonably priced housing for local residents. 

Affordable housing?

As a result of this excessive overdevelopment the infrastructure along the coastal belt between Chepstow, Caldicot, Rogiet and Magor which struggles to cope with existing developments is beginning to creak and this is well before the projected expansion of housing on and around the former Llanwern site (where the proposed railway station was recently cancelled) really kicks in.

Northern Newport has been linked to the south Cwmbran - something that has brought little material benefit to the residents of either urban area but has contributed much to traffic congestion. Similarly linking Cwmbran with Sebastopol will bring scant real benefit to local residents - when the housing development is complete - just exactly how much of it will be affordable to local residents remains to be seen?

Factor in the removal of the Severn Bridge tolls resulted (as expected) in a bump in house prices as people living in and around Bristol moved to cash in on cheaper housing over here.  This development has understandably impacted on both affordable and available housing, developers will no doubt pitch their developments accordingly to cash in on perceived higher wages in the Bristol area and perceived cheaper housing over here (and no doubt our local authorities will fall over themselves to accommodate the developers wishes regardless how local people feel).

We have all seen the consequences and the impact of purchasing power, between areas of relative affluence and areas that are less affluent in various parts of Wales, particularly if those areas happen to be desirable places to retire too or move to, this problem is not confined to Wales, if affects places as diverse and distant as Cumbria, Cornwall, Friesland (in both Holland and Denmark. 

Once the tolls went house prices continued to rise and the pressure to build new houses to deal with the demand for cheaper housing from across the bridge has grown. Simply building houses in south Monmouthshire, Newport and Torfaen in an effort to cash in on the projected housing shortage in the Bristol area is not acceptable - we need a sensible longer term strategic plan with primarily focuses on local housing needs.

The, then, National Assembly (now Senedd)  should have known better and acted accordingly, the institution when established was supposed to have sustainability enshrined in its actions, but, at times you really have to wonder, especially when it comes to the impact of some of the proposed developments on our communities, whether it does or not. The Senedd still can, if it chooses too, focus on developing affordable housing within and around our communities and to prioritise local housing needs.

We need to bin the fundamentally flawed UDP process and make our local government structure fit for the 21st century rather than the 19th century and accommodate re realities of devolved government. As it should be pretty clear by now to even the most dispassionate of observers that in Wales, we lack a coherent national strategic development plan for Wales judging by the half-baked way local unitary development plans have been put together over the years.

We need to look at championing the development of new homes in small-scale housing developments in both rural and urban areas. We should focus o ‘exception sites’, where land plots, not covered by general planning permission, will be capped at an affordable price designed to benefit those in local housing need with family and work ties to the area, and whose sale will be conditional on these houses continuing in local ownership in perpetuity. We should also favour small development companies rather than the bigger firms.

What’s left of our social housing stock that remains under the control of the housing associations needs to remain intact in order to meet the demand for homes. Where practical strategic planning should favour smaller scale more integrated housing developments - thrust are an integral part of our communities rather than oversized bolt on developments that fundamentally change the nature of the communities they are dropped onto. 

Along with developing social housing stock there is a need to introduce a more rigorous system in the allocation of social housing to give priority to those in local housing need. Part of the problem is that our planning system, along with our almost nineteenth century local government setup is not designed to coexist with devolution or for that matter to deliver planning decisions with real and lasting benefits for local people and local communities. 

Our current planning system remains far too focused on railroading through large housing / commercial developments, that often bring little benefits for local people and local communities and often fail to resolve real and pressing local housing needs. 

We need a fundamental change in planning culture to encourage appropriate and sustainable smaller scale housing developments, which are based on good design and actively promote energy efficiency and good environmental standards and that puts our communities first. The current housing strategy fundamentally fails to solve the problems of local housing shortage and demonstrates the need for a genuinely balanced new all Wales housing plan. 

Locally one consequence of the demise of the tolls has been the  speeding up the on-going process by which local residents continue to be priced out of the market and their own communties. We have already seen this happen along the coastal belt of Gwent between eastern Newport and Chepstow and around Abergavenny. This has happened partially because some actual and proposed houses have been priced to maximise profits and new housing has been effectively marketed and sold in Bristol ('Get your free bridge tag for 18 months, etc').

Cymru / Wales needs to have substantially more affordable housing otherwise an entire generation will miss out on the reasonable expectation of having a decent affordable home. The supply of more affordable housing should be met through a combination of bringing empty properties back into use, and new developments of mixed housing in the social and private sectors, but only, when local needs and environmental sustainability have been taken into account.

Our country would be well served by the establishment of a National Housing Company, which could borrow against rents to build a new generation of public rental housing in Wales limited in number only by demand. Whatever Government holds power in Cardiff Bay should support Local Authorities that wish to build new Council Housing. We need to revisit and repurpose the housing associations that have proliferated across Wales since housing was transferred from local authority control to the housing associations. 

Local Authorities should be expected to agree targets for supplying affordable housing, including new social housing, with the Welsh Government, but should be given the flexibility to decide how they would achieve this based upon the needs of their area. Local Authorities will be able to develop joint long term plans with neighbouring local authorities, or work through housing associations or the National Housing Company, if they believed this was the best way to meet the needs of their areas.

We also need to look at championing the development of new homes in small-scale housing developments in both rural and urban Wales on ‘exception sites’, where land plots, not covered by general planning permission, will be capped at an affordable price designed to benefit those in local housing need with family and work ties to the area, and whose sale will be conditional on these houses continuing in local ownership in perpetuity.

This problem has been aggravated because  during the last few decades (on Conservative, Labour and Conservative- Liberal Democrat government) local democracy has been consistently undermined, as developers (and here we are not just talking about housing) simply appear to carry on appealing until they get their way or get their development retrospectively approved at a higher level. Or the process of land acquisition literally begins long before the proposal even goes to inquiry almost as if the decision has already been made (this happens at both local, national and a Westminster level). 

Local government officers will (and do) advise local councillors not to turn down developments (whatever the grounds) because the developers will simply appeal until the cows come home and that local government just does not have the finances to cope with this situation. My own father (who served as a City councillor in Newport from 1999 until 2012) observed the development of this practice while sitting on Newport city council. 

Part of the problem is that our planning system, along with our almost nineteenth century local government setup is not designed to coexist with devolution or for that matter to deliver planning decisions with real and lasting benefits for local people and local communities. There is a real need for root and branch reform and reorganisation of our planning system; the Welsh Government’s simply decided to tinker and tweak with existing out-dated legislation rather than reform it.

Our current planning system remains far too focused on railroading through large housing developments that bring little benefits for local people and local communities and often fail to resolve real and pressing local housing needs. We need a fundamental change in planning culture to encourage appropriate and sustainable smaller scale housing developments, which are based on good design and actively promote energy efficiency and good environmental standards.

Our planning system and planning processes are too slow, too bureaucratic and too unresponsive to real local needs and local opinions. The current system is based on the post-war Town and Country Planning Act from 1947 and is simply out-dated; our country needs a modern planning system that meets the needs of modern Welsh society. In line with the realities of devolution our country needs an independent Planning inspectorate for Wales as the old single planning inspectorate for England and Wales is increasingly unsustainable.

It has to be unacceptable for young people in our own communities to be in a situation where they cannot afford to buy a house in the communities in which they grew up. That's simply cannot be right. It weakens community cohesion and shatters the social fabric of our society - which has gone through so much over the years.  So much that was done to us, rather than done for us. 

What we desperately need is a sensible properly planned housing strategy, not just for our south east, or for Monmouthshire, the rest of the former county of Gwent and Cardiff, but for all of our country. When it comes to large-scale housing developments, based on previous observations, we can pretty much predict what happens next - in terms of crumbling infrastructure, more congestion, more pollution and a poor quality of life in our own communties. 

This has to change - We need a simple all Cymru / Wales Housing Policy that deals with the problems of young and not so young people being priced out of their own communties when it comes to housing . This something that affects almost every community in Cymru / Wales, whether in the SE. NE or the N + W. And is a real pressing concern. We need to reform the planning system, replacing the planning inspectorate and tackling second homes and unaffordable overdevelopment. 

One key all Cymru / Wales issue is that people feel powerless to stop any development they do not want. People feel that they can sometimes get a result by overturning a decision at local level. Only for that decision to be overturned by 'the assembly' (minister in charge). We need a policy that actually empowers local communities while encouraging new affordable accommodation, rather than removing people from the process or keeping them at arms length.  We need to rebalanced the system so that it answers the needs of the community, not the shareholders of major developers. 

If we can do this, and therein no reason why we in Cymru / Wales cannot, then, we will have a housing policy and strategy that is fit for purpose and fit for the 21st century rather than the mid 20th century. Now the above suggestions are something we are never going to get from a Labour in Wales government, it’s time to change Cymru / Wales, with a Plaid Cymru government in 2021, for unlike Labour, Plaid actually believes that Wales can.  

A WELCOME U-TURN

“This is a victory for the young people of Wales” says Plaid Cymru as Welsh Government announce MAJOR u-turn into A Level and GCSE grades debacle

 

Responding to the major u-turn from Welsh Government that all A Level and GCSE grades will be based on teacher assessments rather than on algorithms, Plaid Cymru Shadow Education Minister Sian Gwenllian MS said,

 

“This is a very welcome if not a seriously overdue announcement.

 

“Pressure from Plaid Cymru, students, teachers and parents will now mean that our young people will have the grades they should have been awarded all along. The real victory belongs to the young people of Wales who have demonstrated better leadership and decorum than their government.

 

“Whilst it is regretful that this U-turn have come last week instead of putting students through so much unnecessary uncertainty and anxiety, I offer my congratulations to the young people who have led this campaign so ably.

 

“There should be a full investigation into this debacle and the Welsh Government should apologise to students, teachers and schools for what they’ve put them through over the past few weeks.

 

“Never again should the professionalism and integrity of our teachers and the hard work of our students be called into question. For today, let us celebrate that justice has prevailed.

 

ENDS

SUPPORTING WELSH STUDENTS

Annwyl Mark,

In the words of UK Labour Leader, Keir Starmer, “across the last twenty-four hours, we have heard heart-breaking stories and the scale of the injustice caused by the fatally flawed results system has become clear. Young people right across the country, in every town and city, feel let down and betrayed.”

His views have been echoed by the interim leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey who said that the system has led to “some utterly unfair outcomes.”

Both were referencing the downgrading of results in England where 40% of A level results were lower than predicted.

In Wales, 42% of results were downgraded, leaving pupils angry that they have suffered at the hands of a flawed system.

If the criticism from your parties in England is to mean anything other than political game-playing, you and the Education Minister must now reassess your approach as a Welsh Government to ensure that no pupil is disadvantaged in what has already been an anxious year.

Pupils who were awarded lesser grades than the teacher assessments in A level and AS exams should be upgraded to the teacher assessment grades.

Further, this should be used as the mechanism for awarding GSCE results and this should be communicated to learners today for peace of mind.

In these extraordinary times, we must be ready to respond with unprecedented action in the interest of fairness and pupil welfare.

I am copying this to the Education Minister and to your UK Party leaders who have made these comments.

Yn gywir,

Adam Price AS/MS,

Sign here: http://www.partyof.wales/support_welsh_students?recruiter_id=172282 

IT'S STILL OUR WATER...

Today for the first time in our history, our Senedd will debate the issue of independence. While most independent observers will note that our devolution settlement is deeply flawed, by way of comparison to Scotland and Northern Ireland. It’s sometimes shocking when you actually look at the things that we don’t control - aside from Policing, and large aspects of the planning process, significant aspects transport infrastructure development and probably most surprising of all our water resources.

`They can do it, so why can't we?

Last week the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) issued a report that stated that parts of England would run of of water within 20 years. Pulling no punches the PAC accused Ministers and water industry regulators of failing to act. Defra was also accuse of lacking any leadership on the issue and MPs called for the problems of water leakage to be addresses with urgency and people to be encouraged not to waste water.

It's normal for nations to control their own resources

Things must begetting worse over there, as back in March 2019, the chief executive of the Environment Agency - the public body responsible for protecting the environment and wildlife in England - Sir James Bevan, told a Waterwise conference, that within 25 years England will not have enough water to meet demand. 

He stated that the impact of climate change, combined with population growth, means the country ( England ) is facing an "existential threat", "We all need to use less water and use it more efficiently and that, in around 20 to 25 years, England would reach the "jaws of death - the point at which, unless we take action to change things, we will not have enough water to supply our needs".

In October 2018, a water company, Southern Water - which serves customers in south eastern England, stated that customer demand is estimated to be double its available supply by 2020. As a result of climate change, a reduction of the amount of water allowed to be taken from natural sources, and a rise in population demand would outstrip supply. The company's plan for 2020-2025 sets out how it will overcome the deficit  by reducing leakage by 15% and encourage customers to use less water.

Now this could be both good and bad news for Wales, good news if we had control of our own natural resources and could benefit from a fair price for our water, and bad news if we do not. For amongst our rich resources is the literal stuff of life – water. Water is likely to become a valuable resource for the people of Wales in future years, and who owns, it who controls it, and who benefits is likely to remain one of the key issues, of potential dispute between Westminster and Cardiff Bay. 

While our country’s voice has been significantly strengthened since 1999, with various Wales related acts, as yet we still do not have the same degree of control of our natural resources as either Scotland or Northern Ireland. Not for nothing does the issue of water rightly still understandably raises strong emotions and stirs long memories here in Wales. 

This matters because of Boris Johnson (now Prime Minster, previously Mayor of London, an MP since May 2015, and a former foreign secretary and) has previously wittered on about the need for a network of canals being needed to carry water from the wet North to the dry South (for the ‘wet North’ read ‘Wales). Boris's revolutionary thought, not to mention his poor grasp of geography, was not an original idea.

Back in 1973, what was then the Water Resources Board, a now defunct government agency, wrote a major report that advocated building a whole raft of infrastructure to aid the movement of water, not to mention constructing freshwater storage barrages in the Ouse, Wash and Morecambe Bay, using a network of canals to move water from north to south, extending reservoirs and building new aqueducts, not to mention constructing a series of tunnels to link up river basins to aid the movement of water.

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Despite the demise of the Water Resources Board in 1974 (two years before the 1976 drought) and its replacement by regional water management bodies, which were privatised in the 1980’s this issue has never really gone away. In 2006, the Environment Agency produced a report entitled "Do we need large-scale water transfers for south-east England ?" which in a refreshingly honest answer to its own question at the time was an emphatic ‘no’.

That said, faced with a prolonged period of drought in the South East of England, DEFRA itself held a drought summit on the 20th of February of 2012. The then Con Dem Government stated that it remained committed to the remaining legislative measures set out in its Water for Life agenda , which later became the Water Industry (Financial Assistance) Act. That is as they say history, but whatever Westminster eventually decides to do in relation to water resources, we in Wales still need to have full democratic control of our own resources. 

Our resources incidentally should include those parts of our country where Severn Trent Plc runs our natural resources for a fat profit. This process can begin with repatriating control of the Crown Estates and transferring control of lands in (and off-shore) to the Welsh Government in Cardiff. For the life of me I can see no realistic reason why this feudal anachronism cannot be consigned to the dustbin of history and control of it transferred to Cymru / Wales.

We need a whole Wales strategy to develop, conserve and enhance our water supplies and our planning regulations will need to be tweaked or rewritten accordingly. We need to take a long hard look at our water resources and what we get for them and how we can develop them. I see absolutely no reason why the Welsh people cannot fully benefit from any future exploitation of our natural resources, including our water. 

Time not to make the same mistakes? Cofiwch Dryweryn

Many people would be shocked to discover that the Government of Wales Act (2006) thanks largely to Peter (formerly the pain, Lord) Hain (amongst the other usual suspects) worked hard to specifically exclude the then Assembly (now Senedd) from making any laws relating to water supply – hmm – odd that isn't it? Such duplicitous behaviour on the part of New or re-born Old Labour should not have been unexpected. 

Putting Tory and Labour spin and rhetoric aside, the bottom line is that all our water resources should belong to the Welsh people, not to Private corporations or to the UK Government. Any post BREXIT future draft Wales Bill should strengthen the powers that we in Wales have over our natural resources and associated planning processes and devolve control of those parts of the Severn Trent water franchise to Wales.

Wales has proven itself during the Coronavirus crisis by acting independently to protect our citizens from the dysfunctionality and ineptitude of the Westminster Government. Not for nothing does the latest opinion poll for Welsh independence had 25% - an increase of +4 since January.  Support for Scottish independence, support for a united Ireland is at an all-time, and support for English independence are at an all time high. We cannot bury our head in the sand, this is why we need a discussion on Wales’ future as an independent country.  

We are waking up to the idea that there is another way, another future, another choice. As Cymru / Wales comes out of this crisis, we cannot go back to the status-quo. Under-investment and unfair funding forms the crux of this unequal union of broken promises - delivered by the Tories at Westminster and defended by Labour through their support for the stagnant status-quo which has failed Wales.

Welsh independence can be a force for good. A force to reject the regressive, insular and backward-looking politics of Westminster for the politics of hope, of caring and of community that we can all have in our new independent Wales standing tall amongst the other nations of the world. It's time for change and it is only through a Plaid Cymru Government that that change, and our independence, can be won.