MORNING SERIAL
THIS Britishness, whether it was a conscious identity or just an inevitable part of culture in an assimilated nation, may have undermined politicised Welshness but it did not stop Wales mattering. Despite the large-scale migration from England, for a majority of the Welsh, regardless of their gender or colour, Wales remained a central part of how they saw themselves. They might not have agreed about what that meant but through songs, goals, landscapes, and the like, its pull could be very emotional. Some bemoaned that this feeling did not go further, that people were not willing to translate it into a movement for independence
Indeed, some Welsh nationalists saw the cultural hold of London over the media, the allure English jobs held for the young, and the movement of English people into Welshspeaking communities as forms of colonialism, chipping away at Welsh identity and culture. These did have very real impacts on Welshness and the Welsh language but they were not happening because anyone was consciously trying to eradicate Wales or exert a hold on the country. This means colonialism is not the right word to describe what were outcomes of an unbalanced economy and political union.
Moreover, to say any of this was a problem was to privilege one understanding of Wales over others. In reality, the very strength of Welsh identity, and the very reason for its resilience, was how it could mean many different things all at once. Being part of Britain, or indeed Europe, did not change or undermine that.
IN 1945, Major Sir Goronwy Owen, the Liberal MP for Caernarfonshire, asked the prime minister if “in view of the fact that the Welsh nation is a distinct nation and, in proportion to its numbers, has contributed as much as the three other constituent nations to the greatness and security of the United Kingdom” that Wales could be represented on the Royal Arms of the UK.
> Wales: England’s Colony? by Martin Johnes is published by Parthian in the Modern Wales series www.parthianbooks.com
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