Independence and the case for coalition

THIS letter is triggered by the front page headline of your May 3 edition (“Drakeford hints at coalition prospects”).

Taking account of its history, there is little chance of Mark Drakeford’s version of the Labour Party in Wales being completely removed from exercising the powers currently devolved to Y Senedd. They are the ones that survived the Tory Party’s United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020, launched in the wake of a Brexit whose cracks get bigger as time goes by.

If the Welsh electorate has any pride in living in Wales, it should be concerned about the moves towards Y Senedd being swept into the dustbin of history by the members of Ukip and its ilk that are already within its paid ranks, let alone the others seeking to join them on the same gravy train. Unless they are joined by the more traditional political parties these train jumpers are not likely to succeed, yet, the Welsh taxpayer will have to meet the cost of those returned to the Senedd in the meantime. As if that were not enough, the Senedd electorate is now being wooed by other parties and candidates who toe the London line: or, worse, intend to demolish from the inside, the establishment to which they seek election and which will pay their “wages” until their goal is achieved. The longer the electorate takes to return a majority to effect the Senedd’s dissolution, the more those advocating it will be rewarded if they are elected.

There are also those with the opposite aim of gaining independence for Wales, whose candidates are prepared to split the available vote for personal glory, without giving any thought to the splintering of the movement for independence that, with two caveats, I would support.

Before touching upon the caveats I would submit that it is very unlikely that Plaid would return a majority to control Y Senedd on its own.

However, to effect its policies, Labour might need Plaid’s Y Senedd support.

To move on to the first caveat, it is that, unless he puts his personal selfaggrandisment above all else, Plaid’s leader Adam Price should respect the Welsh electorate’s choice should they vote neither party into power on its own, thereby indicating such a coalition to be their choice should each party garner sufficient votes.

If that were to be the choice it would produce a cocktail mix of Drakeford sobriety and Price “hwyl”, set against a less sober Welsh Tory Party, subservient to England.

The second caveat concerns a topic that, as far as I am aware, is not featured in any party manifesto. It is the defence of the land masses that together constitute the UK. I would say that the issue is one common to everyone in every geographical part of the UK that would not be immune from the damage inflicted by any future assailant.

As a defence against such dangers I advocate the creation of a United Great Britain (UGB) as the equivalent of the system that constitutes the USA at state and federal level: with the costs being divided by reference to the population size of each of UGB’s states.

Derek Griffiths Pontcanna, Cardiff