We rightly laugh at Carwyn Jones for the spineless hypocrisy of not wanting tax-setting powers for Wales, yet at the same time expecting Wales to be offered them if Scotland or Northern Ireland manage to get them. But I laughed out loud when I heard Dafydd El say almost exactly the same thing about independence, citing Catalunya as an example:
"Wales is a legislative region of Europe. Anything the Catalans think they want, I'd like to get."
He obviously hasn't been able to keep up with what's happening in Catalunya since he's been strapped onto that horse. Time will tell, but as I read the situation Catalunya doesn't want to be a legislative region of Europe, but to be an independent nation alongside all the other independent nations in Europe, wanting equal status with them both in Europe and in the World.
These Catalans certainly want independence as a nation, and aren't afraid to use either the n-word or the i-word.
Nor are they afraid to decide for themselves what they want, rather than passively say "me too" only after other countries have done all the hard work.
5 comments:
Why did he pick Catalunya as his model? What about Scotland, or Norway, or Luxembourg? Or South Sudan? But you are right DET is as out of touch with the reality of politics in the stateless nations as he is with the members of his own party.
Yes, I saw this and it's obvious DET doesn't keep up with events in Catalonia!
I like DET and was tempted to vote for him as Plaid leader, but after seeing this flippant interview last Saturday, there's no way I'd vote for him.
Not only do I not agree with him but he's also politically naive. He wants to get rid of Plaid USP, he's tactically naive to deliberately disconnect Wales from Scotland - something Labour do for obvious reasons; and he's wrong on policies - deeper European union - is he mad?
Sorry Dafydd - I was tempted, but it's too dangerous to vote for you. You'd kill the party.
M.
Catalunya was a very unfortunate model for him to pick, and it seems to show that his political road map is stuck where it was since he retired from politics to go to the Lords.
But M is right. We have had an older generation of Plaid Cymru politicians who somehow managed to convince themselves that any mention of the word independence would do the party more harm than good, which only opened us up to the accusation that we've got a hidden agenda. They said that Wales didn't have the self confidence to move forward, but how much of it was them not having the confidence to present a better future. Hopefully our next leaders will be able to make a clean break from that way of thinking.
Dafydd El must be out of his head to if he thinks that Wales being a "legislative region of Europe" ... and indeed a Europe with greater fiscal union as he said in the same interview ... isn't going to scare even more people.
Perhaps he really does think that Wales is just a "legislative region". But I'm a nationalist and I believe in Wales first and foremost as a nation rather than a region, and second as an independent nation that should be able to govern itself ... entering into whatever international cooperation and agreements we deem to be in our best mutual interests, in the same way as other countries do.
Actually, I would wager DET is keeping up with nationalists in Catalonia- but the wrong kind! The centre-right nationalists CiU are now in power and their vision is lukewarm towards independence.
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall all across Europe regions have been turning into states, states haven't been turning into regions. There is a reason for this - states have power outside & inside the European Union.
DET's position seems to be that he'd like Wales to be part of a so called union of the regions. But other nationalist parties aren't interested - they want their countries to become states.
So in effect he believes that a small nationalist party in a small European country should stand for an over arching Europe of the regions - something that nobody else wants.
He'd rather go for the impossible than for something that is possible.
His position defies belief & logic.
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