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A passionate, entertaining, challenging and very practical workbook towards Wales' independence and readers' own independence of mind including 30 moving true stories, exercises to form your own action points and test your progress, and photocopiable information sheets to pass on. -- Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru

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9781800991866

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The question of Welsh independence has become a mainstream issue over the past five years or more. Support for independence is now comfortably in the 30%+ category, and seems to be solidifying, and growing slowly. It has been fuelled by a right-wing Conservative London government which seems to deliberately inflame passions by refusing to categorise major projects such as HS2 as an English-only project, thus denying Wales its very substantial ‘Barnett Formula consequentials’, and by a stout refusal to follow Scotland and devolve matters such as justice and control of the lucrative crown estates. The impact of Brexit and the impetus in Scotland towards another independence referendum, despite current problems in the SNP, continue to be major drivers. The publicity given to the well-attended YES Cymru rallies held in Cardiff, Merthyr, Wrexham and Swansea, at which around 30,000 attended in total, ensure effective social and mainstream media coverage. Even among committed unionists there is a growing feeling that the UK unitary state is unsustainable, and that a reformed, equitable and more federal system might be the best way to retain the union. This has been the standpoint of Mark Drakeford, the Welsh First Minister, but it would be reasonable to state that even he and some of his colleagues are bordering on being Indy curious. The whole question has spawned quite a lot of literature, including Will Hayward’s impressive and thought-provoking contribution, Independent Nation: Should Wales Leave the UK? (2022), which concludes that he could be convinced by the argument – but not quite yet! Peter Hitchens, the Daily Mail correspondent, has recently added a new dimension, arguing that England should leave the union rather than wait for others to depart. 20 Radical Steps to Welsh Independence is an interesting addition to the literature. It deals with how to engage in the well-researched process called ‘decolonisation’, a journey which the citizens of every prospective independent country have to travel from a state of being ‘passive’ spectators to taking ‘action’ in 20 identifiable behaviours, attitudes and beliefs. There is much useful practical advice on how to advance your argument for independence, and how to counter negativity and prejudice from opponents and win them over to your standpoint. Whilst there is some detail on how to counter the oft-used economic argument against independence, the last few pages, which may be photocopied and used to advance your argument, list as many as 60 countries, all smaller than Wales, which have become independent and successful over the past 40 years. The facts contained in this end section remind me of a pocket booklet produced by Plaid Cymru in the 1960s called Wales matters to you. It was also full of useful facts to advance the self-governing argument with statistics on agriculture, coal, steel and water production which all helped to cement the economic case. It was Wales’s answer to Mao Tse-tung’s Little Red Book! This is an interesting read and those who are sympathetic will find its guidance useful to advance their argument and convince others of the merit of the case. There is a particularly interesting section on how to connect with and persuade English incomers to become effective ‘decolonisers’. Both authors were born in England and moved to Wales in 1997 and have, like so many incomers, embraced the cause far more enthusiastically than many natives. -- Richard E. Huws @ www.gwales.com

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