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Dai Guevara View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dai Guevara Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 January 2022 at 9:42pm
It's a pity Wales is not as far along the path as is Scotland where this is possible -

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2022/01/now-is-the-moment-to-declare-independence/
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 January 2022 at 10:39pm
Originally posted by Dai Guevara Dai Guevara wrote:

It's a pity Wales is not as far along the path as is Scotland where this is possible -

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2022/01/now-is-the-moment-to-declare-independence/

Murray raises a fair point. The SNP are very cautious. Is it the "gravy train of governance" as he claims though? I know lots of indyScotland supporters are frustrated and impatient now. Sturgeon appears to want that referendum with a cherry on top. Is it for the sake of a peaceful transition? International recognition? It isn't the only route to indy but I can see why they're so focussed on it.

Having said that wrt Wales, strange things happen sometimes don't they. Like winning the referendum in '97. Thatcher and Redwood did a lot to convince Welsh voters of the need for a degree of autonomy. I wonder how much the recent history of the UK Govt will influence the thinking of Wales' electorate now?I've certainly never known support for independence to register in the 20 to 25% region before. It was less than 5% when I first started paying attention to it.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 January 2022 at 11:24am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote GPR - Rochester Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 January 2022 at 12:27pm
Originally posted by totallybiasedscarlet totallybiasedscarlet wrote:

Are England's progressives finally understanding the problem of the Tory State?


Excellent article - thanks TBS.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 January 2022 at 1:30pm
Originally posted by GPR - Rochester GPR - Rochester wrote:

Originally posted by totallybiasedscarlet totallybiasedscarlet wrote:

Are England's progressives finally understanding the problem of the Tory State?


Excellent article - thanks TBS.

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I think in it you can find a great many of the motivating factors people such as myself have for dissolving the UK and building new arrangements. I'm also motivated to see England's progressives figure out how to finally rout the Tories and reform their nation. Surely we can't all go on like this?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dai Guevara Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 January 2022 at 2:53pm
Yes, it's a good article, but unfortunately the current Labour party under Starmer has no plans to reverse the looting of former publicly owned industries or make any serious attempt to lessen the huge and accelerating inequalities that are destroying society. As far as I can see Starmer has no plan whatsoever unless you include imploring us to "Back Britain".
See how the right wing Tory defector was welcomed with open arms by Labour right-wingers (and wearing a particularly obnoxious butcher's apron mask).
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 January 2022 at 5:01pm
Originally posted by Dai Guevara Dai Guevara wrote:

Yes, it's a good article, but unfortunately the current Labour party under Starmer has no plans to reverse the looting of former publicly owned industries or make any serious attempt to lessen the huge and accelerating inequalities that are destroying society. As far as I can see Starmer has no plan whatsoever unless you include imploring us to "Back Britain".
See how the right wing Tory defector was welcomed with open arms by Labour right-wingers (and wearing a particularly obnoxious butcher's apron mask).

I've seen commentary from the Left criticising the lack of policy from Labour. ATM their strategy appears to be, "Hey, we're cool guys and gals, we're not the Tories. Look we even like the Union Jack. Vote for us." I saw Blair praising Starmer and the supposed improvement since "the disaster of Corbyn." Ironically at least Blair & Corbyn get a reaction! I don't know, maybe Labour bigwigs are hoping Starmer is sufficiently bland not to be controversial. Dull thing is Blair could win elections and Corbyn could have nicked 2017 if the party hadn't been at war with itself. The leaked internal review is particularly damning. Labour currently have no identity. At least Welsh Labour do whatever people's opinion.

My honest opinion is if Labour embraced English identity, stood on a ticket of dissolving the UK and establshing a British Confederation of Nation States and brought forward serious policies to reform England such as to break the Tory stranglehold - they might actually find it very popular. For example, abolish the Lords, voting reform, strong regional councils and devolve power from Westminster. Reverse the privatisation of the NHS and invest to get it functional again. Bring public transport and utilities back into public ownership and get the shift to green energy going in earnest.

One reform I would do in a heartbeat ... ban private schools. I think they're utterly corrosive to society.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dai Guevara Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 January 2022 at 5:37pm
The inability of right wing labour to halt the onward class based neoliberal destruction of the UK might just be what Wales needs to move on, but we must first find a way to persuade those that form their opinions from what they read in the Sun and Daily Mail that they are being brainwashed by billionaire owners who want things to stay just as they are so that they can hold on to or increase their money and power.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 January 2022 at 6:56pm
Originally posted by Dai Guevara Dai Guevara wrote:

The inability of right wing labour to halt the onward class based neoliberal destruction of the UK might just be what Wales needs to move on, but we must first find a way to persuade those that form their opinions from what they read in the Sun and Daily Mail that they are being brainwashed by billionaire owners who want things to stay just as they are so that they can hold on to or increase their money and power.

The public sphere and media in Wales is a topic that has been spoken about ad nauseum in indy circles. It's out of that conversation that Nation.Cymru and the National Wales were born. A little improvement but still a bubble IMHO. It's a debate being revisited since Dorries' recent announcement re the BBC. Calls again to devolve broadcasting to Wales. It won't happen under the Tories but it's all grist to the mill. I dont think they understand that the more they try to force their vision of Britain through the closer it brings people to giving up on the UK. Their lack of self-awareness is, frankly, world beating.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote roy munster Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 January 2022 at 2:33pm
I see the WAG have put into law theyll basically steal any empty properties from private property owners, thats communism. What about the 100os of broken down empty council owned properties blighting the country? What a choice we have radical right wing corporate loving self serving ca0pitalists or communists who make us all poor. Any middle ground please?
ROYMOND MUNTER MBE (FOR SERVICES TO THE COMBOVER)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dai Guevara Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 January 2022 at 8:55pm
Originally posted by roy munster roy munster wrote:

I see the WAG have put into law theyll basically steal any empty properties from private property owners, thats communism. What about the 100os of broken down empty council owned properties blighting the country? What a choice we have radical right wing corporate loving self serving ca0pitalists or communists who make us all poor. Any middle ground please?


Where did you get this information from Roy?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote tigerburnie Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 January 2022 at 9:07pm
Originally posted by totallybiasedscarlet totallybiasedscarlet wrote:

Originally posted by tigerburnie tigerburnie wrote:

Originally posted by totallybiasedscarlet totallybiasedscarlet wrote:

The Tories are hell bent on remodelling Britain according to their own vision. And it's Thatcherism on steroids. A unitary anglo-state under a heavily centralised government with them at the heart of it, raking it in. 

Anybody else want out? 
Can't afford it, Scotland is bankrupt without Westminsters money sadly.

That old chestnut. Been debated to death over the years. I'm afraid it's simply untrue. Whilst it's impossible to give exact predictions for the finances of independent Welsh and Scotish States, the mere fact that Westminster controls the levers of macroeconomic and fiscal policy means that it is currently THE big factor in steering the economy. It sets our budgets by its own spending via the Barnett formula. Yet it also leaves Wales with circa 70% of the capital expenditure of the roUK. Its policies drove the deindustrialisation that significantly widened the gap between the Welsh economy and roUk. It has driven our relative fall in GVA which blights our economy and is wreaking both havoc and misery in our communities. I know that this is also the experience of northern England, so this isn't anti English. It's anti-Westminster. I see Labour as handmaidens to the Tory state. 

Here's the rub. For all that, Wales produces more GDP than Spain on a per person basis. On the same basis produces more in tax returns than New Zealand. Furthermore, Nations of fewer than 5 million produce the most GDP per person on average. How then is it possible for the UK government to so badly mismanage our economy as to put a third of our children in poverty? How has it put over a half of Welsh households in or at risk of poverty? There are plenty of analyses but the best of them is with the Welsh Centre for Governance at Cardiff University. It publishes the GERW report which reveals the £13.5Bn deficit the UK Government runs in Wales' name ... important distinction that. In that report it cites GVA as the biggest hole in Welsh tax revenues to the tune of £5.7Bn. Along with the demographic differences induced by our economic inequality it amounts to nearly £7Bn in lost revenues. It also gives the caveat that the figures and estimates used in the report are not reflective of the finances of an independent Wales.

The UK govt, wrt the Welsh economy is incompetent and blind.

Why? Because it runs Britain on a "core-periphery" economic model. Thatcher accelerated the movement towards this following Patrick Minford's lead on economic policy. Finance and services were seen as the UK's big economic advantage at the expense of other sectors that Minford believed to be weighing down the rest of the economy. Since then, and to be fair this is only a distilling of a long standing structure, London and the SE have been made into a kind of uber-core at the expense of the rest of England and Wales. The UK has one of the richest regions in Europe surrounded by some of the poorest. This was never inevitable. It is the outcome of the Tory State. 

Even at this low benchmark, we have some interesting figures to note. Spending in Wales is £32Bn - some £7Bn is spuriously accounted for having been spent "on Wales' behalf". Should Wales tax at the EU tax/GDP ratio, we'd have only a small deficit - within the margins of EU accession rules. We can also bring into this the 2.4% of GDP that's claimed on military spending on behalf of Wales. Ireland spends 0.8% by way of comparison. We also have a circa £5Bn capital contribution towards HS2 on a population share that we will not receive (Scotland is getting a consequential) as Westminster refuses to class the project as an England only venture despite every single mile of track being laid only there AND a UK Govt report that projects a net loss to the Wales economy of £150M per year because of HS2. Interestingly, Prof. Mark Barry has conducted an analysis that Westminster has underfunded Welsh rail to the tune of £3Bn over a 20 year period. He himself has gone from being a natural Unionist to a supporter of Welsh Independence. His blogs make for excellent reading.

So I do not agree that Wales runs a deficit. Westminster runs a deficit on our behalf. How can we run a deficit when we have no power to do so and no political agency over macroeconomic or fiscal policy? Westminster is the domain of the Tory establishment. They view Britain as their domain and their policies are both materially and socially terrible for the majority of people in Britain, particularly for those of us here in Wales.

I'm a member of Plaid Cymru. My party has proposed a policy of confederalism similar to that of the Nordic Union or Benelux. I believe it is the best constitutional arrangement for the Nations of Britain. The UK is broken. I believe we must rebuild the political constitution of the British Isles on the basis of Nation States for our historic Nations, that they may pursue their own economic, political and cultural development by means of democratic self determination. I also believe that we have close bonds, and should continue to have close bonds on the basis of mutual cooperation and equality. This resetting of British constitutional affairs will also allow the individual nations to pursue the relationship with the EU their respective populations mandate. It could also, IF negotiated with care and dilligence allow for the peaceful reunification of Ireland and Irish participation to some degree in what could be a "Council of the Isles" and share in our mutual cooperation.

I don't want Westminster's money. I want political power democratically exercised by a sovereign Welsh Government for the benefit, economic and otherwise, of the Welsh people. 
 Not up to speed on the Welsh position, but Scotland is bankrupt of both money and ideas(fair to say the ideas are also lacking in our neighbours too). The SNP want to swap Westminster for the almost dead EU as it's political masters, not something I can see as a move of improvement, that is not independence in anyone's description of the word. That is desperation by an outfit who know they haven't got a hope in hell of standing on their two feet. Plaid might be better, I haven't really paid close attention(I do have Welsh ancestry so I should really), but Scotland would be better getting more devolved powers and be part of a larger organisation that is not the EU, Macron is not someone I would trust to do my washing never mind run our laws and economy and defences.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RR1972 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 January 2022 at 10:05pm
Wales are skint and drakeford is hopeless but hes prob better than bojo which says it all!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote roy munster Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 January 2022 at 10:27pm
Originally posted by Dai Guevara Dai Guevara wrote:

Originally posted by roy munster roy munster wrote:

I see the WAG have put into law theyll basically steal any empty properties from private property owners, thats communism. What about the 100os of broken down empty council owned properties blighting the country? What a choice we have radical right wing corporate loving self serving ca0pitalists or communists who make us all poor. Any middle ground please?


Where did you get this information from Roy?



Landlords

For landlords this will mean:

  • A simpler system, with two types of contract: ‘Secure’ for the social rented sector and ‘Standard’ for the private rented sector.
  • Ensuring homes are fit for human habitation (FFHH). This will include, electrical safety testing and ensuring working smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors are fitted.
  • Abandoned properties can be repossesed without needing a court orde
 
in addition to texts from  rent smart wales, apparently you cant ask a bad tenant to leave for 12 months either, utter madness

ROYMOND MUNTER MBE (FOR SERVICES TO THE COMBOVER)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dai Guevara Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 January 2022 at 10:47pm
Originally posted by roy munster roy munster wrote:

Originally posted by Dai Guevara Dai Guevara wrote:

Originally posted by roy munster roy munster wrote:

I see the WAG have put into law theyll basically steal any empty properties from private property owners, thats communism. What about the 100os of broken down empty council owned properties blighting the country? What a choice we have radical right wing corporate loving self serving ca0pitalists or communists who make us all poor. Any middle ground please?


Where did you get this information from Roy?


<span style="font-size: 12px;">https://gov.wales/housing-law-changing-renting-homes</span>

<h4 style="font-size: 1.5rem; letter-spacing: -0.025rem; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 25px; -sizing: border-; padding-top: 20px; color: rgb31, 31, 31; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, "Nimbus Sans L", sans-serif;">Landlords</h4><p style="font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 0px; -sizing: border-; color: rgb31, 31, 31; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, "Nimbus Sans L", sans-serif;">For landlords this will mean:

<ul style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.5rem; -sizing: border-; color: rgb31, 31, 31; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, "Nimbus Sans L", sans-serif;"><li style="-sizing: border-;">A simpler system, with two types of contract: ‘Secure’ for the social rented sector and ‘Standard’ for the private rented sector.<li style="-sizing: border-;">Ensuring homes are fit for human habitation (FFHH). This will include, electrical safety testing and ensuring working smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors are fitted.<li style="-sizing: border-;">Abandoned properties can be repossesed without needing a court orde 
<span style="font-size: 12px;">in addition to texts from  rent smart wales, apparently you cant ask a bad tenant to leave for 12 months either, utter madness</span>

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 January 2022 at 10:49pm
Originally posted by tigerburnie tigerburnie wrote:

Originally posted by totallybiasedscarlet totallybiasedscarlet wrote:

Originally posted by tigerburnie tigerburnie wrote:

Originally posted by totallybiasedscarlet totallybiasedscarlet wrote:

The Tories are hell bent on remodelling Britain according to their own vision. And it's Thatcherism on steroids. A unitary anglo-state under a heavily centralised government with them at the heart of it, raking it in. 

Anybody else want out? 
Can't afford it, Scotland is bankrupt without Westminsters money sadly.

That old chestnut. Been debated to death over the years. I'm afraid it's simply untrue. Whilst it's impossible to give exact predictions for the finances of independent Welsh and Scotish States, the mere fact that Westminster controls the levers of macroeconomic and fiscal policy means that it is currently THE big factor in steering the economy. It sets our budgets by its own spending via the Barnett formula. Yet it also leaves Wales with circa 70% of the capital expenditure of the roUK. Its policies drove the deindustrialisation that significantly widened the gap between the Welsh economy and roUk. It has driven our relative fall in GVA which blights our economy and is wreaking both havoc and misery in our communities. I know that this is also the experience of northern England, so this isn't anti English. It's anti-Westminster. I see Labour as handmaidens to the Tory state. 

Here's the rub. For all that, Wales produces more GDP than Spain on a per person basis. On the same basis produces more in tax returns than New Zealand. Furthermore, Nations of fewer than 5 million produce the most GDP per person on average. How then is it possible for the UK government to so badly mismanage our economy as to put a third of our children in poverty? How has it put over a half of Welsh households in or at risk of poverty? There are plenty of analyses but the best of them is with the Welsh Centre for Governance at Cardiff University. It publishes the GERW report which reveals the £13.5Bn deficit the UK Government runs in Wales' name ... important distinction that. In that report it cites GVA as the biggest hole in Welsh tax revenues to the tune of £5.7Bn. Along with the demographic differences induced by our economic inequality it amounts to nearly £7Bn in lost revenues. It also gives the caveat that the figures and estimates used in the report are not reflective of the finances of an independent Wales.

The UK govt, wrt the Welsh economy is incompetent and blind.

Why? Because it runs Britain on a "core-periphery" economic model. Thatcher accelerated the movement towards this following Patrick Minford's lead on economic policy. Finance and services were seen as the UK's big economic advantage at the expense of other sectors that Minford believed to be weighing down the rest of the economy. Since then, and to be fair this is only a distilling of a long standing structure, London and the SE have been made into a kind of uber-core at the expense of the rest of England and Wales. The UK has one of the richest regions in Europe surrounded by some of the poorest. This was never inevitable. It is the outcome of the Tory State. 

Even at this low benchmark, we have some interesting figures to note. Spending in Wales is £32Bn - some £7Bn is spuriously accounted for having been spent "on Wales' behalf". Should Wales tax at the EU tax/GDP ratio, we'd have only a small deficit - within the margins of EU accession rules. We can also bring into this the 2.4% of GDP that's claimed on military spending on behalf of Wales. Ireland spends 0.8% by way of comparison. We also have a circa £5Bn capital contribution towards HS2 on a population share that we will not receive (Scotland is getting a consequential) as Westminster refuses to class the project as an England only venture despite every single mile of track being laid only there AND a UK Govt report that projects a net loss to the Wales economy of £150M per year because of HS2. Interestingly, Prof. Mark Barry has conducted an analysis that Westminster has underfunded Welsh rail to the tune of £3Bn over a 20 year period. He himself has gone from being a natural Unionist to a supporter of Welsh Independence. His blogs make for excellent reading.

So I do not agree that Wales runs a deficit. Westminster runs a deficit on our behalf. How can we run a deficit when we have no power to do so and no political agency over macroeconomic or fiscal policy? Westminster is the domain of the Tory establishment. They view Britain as their domain and their policies are both materially and socially terrible for the majority of people in Britain, particularly for those of us here in Wales.

I'm a member of Plaid Cymru. My party has proposed a policy of confederalism similar to that of the Nordic Union or Benelux. I believe it is the best constitutional arrangement for the Nations of Britain. The UK is broken. I believe we must rebuild the political constitution of the British Isles on the basis of Nation States for our historic Nations, that they may pursue their own economic, political and cultural development by means of democratic self determination. I also believe that we have close bonds, and should continue to have close bonds on the basis of mutual cooperation and equality. This resetting of British constitutional affairs will also allow the individual nations to pursue the relationship with the EU their respective populations mandate. It could also, IF negotiated with care and dilligence allow for the peaceful reunification of Ireland and Irish participation to some degree in what could be a "Council of the Isles" and share in our mutual cooperation.

I don't want Westminster's money. I want political power democratically exercised by a sovereign Welsh Government for the benefit, economic and otherwise, of the Welsh people. 
 Not up to speed on the Welsh position, but Scotland is bankrupt of both money and ideas(fair to say the ideas are also lacking in our neighbours too). The SNP want to swap Westminster for the almost dead EU as it's political masters, not something I can see as a move of improvement, that is not independence in anyone's description of the word. That is desperation by an outfit who know they haven't got a hope in hell of standing on their two feet. Plaid might be better, I haven't really paid close attention(I do have Welsh ancestry so I should really), but Scotland would be better getting more devolved powers and be part of a larger organisation that is not the EU, Macron is not someone I would trust to do my washing never mind run our laws and economy and defences.

That is, if I might say so, a partisan opinion.
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