Is England Up for It?
As Glenrothes nears the Blue Labour language is desperate and broken. Over at CiF Ewan Crawford writes:
"Those who have watched in horror at the SNP's electoral progress over the past 18 months can barely contain their glee at the troubles faced by Ireland, Iceland and other small countries caught up in the global economic crisis. The argument is that only large countries have the muscle to protect savers and "hardworking families" when global recession hits. In cruder terms, English taxpayers are coming to the rescue of feckless Scottish bankers."
Meanwhile, a hat-tip to my Welsh friend Ordovicus for this from Red Pepper...
"The slow but steady break-up of the United Kingdom signals a new progressive nationalism in Wales as well as Scotland, argues Plaid Cymru Welsh Assembly member Leanne Wood. It could also open up new possibilities in England - but is the English left ready for them?
Politics in Wales has changed dramatically in the past decade. We won the Yes vote in the referendum to set up the Welsh Assembly in 1997 by just 6,721 votes, but now it's difficult to imagine now how devolution could be rolled back.
Tom Nairn has been arguing for more than 30 years (see Further reading, opposite) that the break-up of Britain is inevitable. He argues that devolution will gather its own, unstoppable momentum, and that the end of the United Kingdom as a unitary state will follow. The first, as yet unanswerable, question is: how long will the break up take? The second is: are the English left ready for it?
Devolution and the left
In Wales and Scotland, the left has grasped the opportunities offered by devolution. We have worked to develop a progressive civic nationalism. Our desire for social justice and equality forms an intrinsic part of our demand for further devolution. And by electing progressive civic nationalists, people in Scotland and Wales have shown that there is a growing recognition that the British union is not working for them.
So what are we doing in Wales? A year ago, Plaid Cymru entered into government for the first time in our history as part of a centre-left coalition with Labour. A key plank of that agreement was a commitment from Labour to deliver and campaign for a successful outcome in a referendum for a law-making parliament within this Assembly term. A date for this referendum has not yet been fixed but the commitment is that it should take place before 2011.
Opinion polls indicate that a majority of Welsh voters are in favour of a parliament with powers to make its own laws. If we get that Yes vote, we'll still have only a fraction of the powers currently enjoyed by the Scottish Parliament. We will be able to legislate freely on matters currently devolved, which would be an improvement on the current situation where Westminster can veto Welsh laws. But we would still have no powers over criminal justice or any real macro-economic muscle. And we would still have no means to raise our own revenue. Nevertheless it would be an important step towards a becoming an independent nation within Europe.
Wales is at the bottom of the UK's economic performance table. While Westminster continues to skew its economic policy to benefit the areas in its immediate vicinity, the periphery loses out. With a history of significant industrial production, Wales should now be rich, but the areas that produced the wealth for Britain are today among some of the most economically disadvantaged in the whole of the European Union. These are the areas that were targeted by Thatcher in her obsession to crush union power, then forgotten. And these are the areas that now face further decline from New Labour's regional pay plans and purge of those on sickness benefits. It doesn't have to be this way. An autonomous government responsible for two and a quarter million people could do a much better job of gearing macro-economic policy to meet the needs of people in the former industrial areas of Wales. It's clear that those needs have not been considered by successive Westminster governments.
In Wales, the Plaid Cymru-Labour coalition government has firmly rejected privatisation in the NHS or the organisation of such services on market models. The 'One Wales' programme of government states: 'We will guarantee public ownership, public funding and public control of this vital public service.' In both Scotland and Wales foundation hospitals, school league tables, beacon councils, selective schools and elite academies have all been rejected. In Wales, NHS prescription charges and hospital car parking charges have been abolished.
Plaid Cymru and the SNP are introducing social policies that are clearly to the left of New Labour. Both parties are opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the removal of civil liberties in the name of security (including the introduction of ID cards) and Trident. Both parties have more progressive attitudes towards criminality and substance dependants and both are pro-council housing. Of course there is always more to be done - but what we are seeing are the beginnings of an alternative politics. Our civic nationalism is anti-imperialist, anti-racist and pro-social justice.
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