Welsh nationalism’s unreasoning hatred
IN RESPONSE to my contribution of 21/8/19, Dorian Williams, Rhidian Richard, and Gwyn Hopkins (WM 23/8/19) were quite animated when defining Welsh nationalism as compared to the English nationalism of their colonial masters.
Gwyn Hopkins describes a benign and harmless nationalism such as conducted by the Welsh and Swiss.
In stark contrast, he describes the English version as aggressive, menacing and jingoistic, that conquers, occupies and oppresses other countries. This is inbred ideology over reason and logic.
Welsh nationalists overlook inconvenient facts such as Henry Tudor’s expansionist exploits in invading England and violently removing Richard III from the throne. When the Welsh Tudor dynasty ended with the childless Elizabeth I, the crown was handed
peacefully and seamlessly to the Scottish James I, beginning the Stuart dynasty.
How can they justify separation from English colonialism to join an EU super-state dominated by the colonial powers of Germany and France along with the savage conquistadors of Spain and Portugal? Fifty-three former colonies are part of the Commonwealth of Nations, 16 of which retain the Queen as Head of State; and I write this as a life-long republican. Scotland turned down its democratic right of independence and Wales can attain it, but only a small hardcore of nationalists, filled with a misguided sense of victimhood, want it.
I believe that this unreasonable hatred of the English is a front to mask a real deep-rooted resentment against the English language, especially spoken by the “incomers”, who, after all, are not really Welsh.
The 80% of us they see as subservient to them, which of course is racist. Dorian Williams exposes this spectacularly by criticising my comparison with Nazi Aryan supremacy following his assertion that incomers are “diluting” Welshness.
Currently this 80%-plus are being increasingly deprived of employment in the public sector and, tellingly, at the centre of Welsh “democracy” in the Sennedd. This is another trait of nationalism – ethnic cleansing.
With regards to the Spanish Civil War, Rhidian, the brave idealistic Welsh miners were socialists and communists, as Plaid Cymru had declared neutrality – except for Saunders Lewis, who was proFranco. Dennis Coughlin, Cardiff