Membership of UK should be voluntary
THE latest YouGov poll featured in Martin Shipton’s article (Western Mail, September 4) makes interesting reading. The poll’s disclosure that 51% of respondents who voted Labour in the 2019 general election would now vote for Welsh independence if given the opportunity is, indeed, a revelation. Even if one is ultra-sceptical and halves this figure, it demolishes the pretty widely held assumption that only Plaid Cymru supporters favour independence for Wales.
It is also gratifying to note that a significant majority of the poll’s respondents believe that the Welsh Government – not the UK Government – should have the right to call an independence referendum (with the approval of the Senedd).
Although the Northern Ireland government doesn’t actually have this power, the text of the Good Friday Agreement clearly shows that the people of Northern Ireland can effectively oblige the Secretary of State to call a “United Ireland” referendum. This would have to occur if there were clear indications (presumably from the Stormont Parliament and/or opinion polls) that the people of Northern Ireland would be likely to vote in favour of uniting with the Republic of Ireland (with no further referendum for at least seven years in the event of a “No” vote). If this arrangement applied to Scotland, it would almost certainly precipitate another independence referendum in 2021, for Scotland has an SNP government and opinion polls show that 55% of the Scottish people are now in favour of independence for Scotland.
Why should the people of Northern Ireland have the power to decide on their constitutional future whereas the people of Wales and Scotland cannot? This situation outrageous and I fully agree with your editorial comment, that “decisions over whether to allow such referendums in Scotland and Wales should surely be taken in those countries – not by a parliament (almost completely) dominated by MPs from England”.
The current position for those two countries is “union by compulsion” at the mercy of a Prime Minister (and many MPs) with a profound colonialist/imperialist mentality. This is clearly demonstrated by his enthusiastic support of the Proms singing those way out-of-date jingoistic songs Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory.
It is surely self-evident to any civilized person that membership of the Union (the UK) should be voluntary for all four member nations – Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and, indeed, England.
Gwyn Hopkins Llangennech, Llanelli