Notes on Welsh Nationalism and Happy New Year

Over Christmas I went to my brother's house for lunch. It was a family affair with a grand buffet, the normal kind of Christmas family party that I hated from my mid-teens until my 20s then started to enjoy again a few years back.

Over a sausage roll (staple Christmas fare) he asked me- "you still writing for those nationalists then?" This use of the word nationalist pricked my ears, as it is a most often used by those attacking Plaid. Nationalism does not enjoy a universal positive image in the UK. The legacy and memory of two world wars ensures that the word is viewed with a suspicion. The trick of those who would attack plaid is to try and make an unmentioned link between nationalism and fascism. But as anyone who has viewed Plaid's policies can tell you there is hardly a right wing bone in the body politic. In fact Plaid's policies, like those of Nationalist governments and parties the world over (SNP, Sinn Fein, Fianna Fail, Catalanists), veer from centrist liberalism to socialist (while never, obviously, becoming national socialist) As a party I think it is fair to say Plaid are well to the left of the current Labour party, and to the right of, for example, the SWP. The left/right divide is of course a crude and increasingly inadequate model for understanding the political spectrum.

There are of course innumerable nationalist parties out there that harbour vile right wing elements. The Northern League in Italy (Italian regionalism in general has a distinctively right wing flavour) would be a prime example of this. The Republican party of the US is another. It goes to prove that words and concepts are tricky. Meanings are not fixed. And nationalism is a schizophrenic entity. For every Bismark there is a Michael Collins.

Crudely speaking nationalism has its roots in two distinct historical tendencies. One being libertarian republicanism, which first found expression in the US and French revolutions, and the writings like those ofTom Paine. The other kind of nationalism has its roots in fascism and national socialism. The kind preferred by Franco, Musolini, and Hitler, that champions the myth of rebirth and the myth of the nation. It is laced with social conservatism and racism. However, nearly all political movements have swallowed and embraced nationalism to some extent. We are all of us nationalists really.

Unless you believe in the immediate dissolution of the EU, the UN, the removal of all national borders and all nation states by means of revolution, you yourself are a nationalist in one form or other. But I guess we don't think of it like that most the time. We rarely interrogate our identities, they seem implicit rather than fluid. Identity however is not fixed, especially not national identity.

So when asked if I am a nationalist I say yes. While not without problematics it seems no crime to me, and I am proud to state, that the Welsh people deserve sovereignty. We all of us regardless of nation deserve democratic institutions answerable the the people. Power should be disseminated to the masses. The greatest happiness for the greatness number of people is only attainable once the greatest number of people have the power to attain autonomy and mastery over their socio-political destiny. This is where socialism comes in. I am pipe dreaming and waxing lyrical of course, but there is a proud tradition of this in Wales and beyond. "I am not the only one of my kind".

Either way, word up, here is one hope for the new year.

That the sovereignty and rights of the people of Palestine are respected in equal measure as Israel's right to exist. Another pipe dream of course, but never-the-less an historical imperative.

Happy new year to you all and thanks for reading x

Glenrothes result

A few years back I had the pleasure of watching the England and Wales cricket team contest an Ashes cricket series which was eventually won by England (as they are usually called, somewhat erroneously if for convenience's sake).

At some point, maybe the third test, Australia started celebrating a drawn match. I was stunned, the win at all costs and win easily mentality of the Australians had been transformed. They had taken to celebrating results which would have once been seen as disappointing, or at least expected. Change was afoot. England (and Wales!) went on to win the Ashes.

It is this air of unmerited triumphalism that figures in today's headlines. As New Labour celebrate holding on to Glenrothes, Gordon Brown's neighbouring constituency. A new constituency created mostly from Central Fife this was, until the SNP resurgence, safe territory. Don't be fooled by the spin, the song, and the dance. If they are not to be reduced to a rump in Scotland, as the tories now are, New Labour have to hold some seats like Glenrothes. And the SNP increased their share of the vote by 3%, with a 4.6% swing form Labour to SNP. So while the SNP may be a bit disappointed at failing to get another scalp, this is no time for New Labour to bask in glory.

The headline -LABOUR CELEBRATE HOLDING SAFE SEAT- would have an all together different feel to it. One that points accurately to their current decline.