4 Comments

• Alexander 18th Feb '21 - 11:28am

  Our education and economy motions seem a bit vague – and in the former case, I think is lacking to be honest – I’d personally have liked to see something about the over-use of school exclusions, support for school sixth forms, more on vocational qualifications, support for getting Welsh pupils into elite universities rather than having them dominated by southern English private school kids, and also promoting modern foreign languages. Nobody else in Wales is talking about these things.

  I also hope we’re brave enough to make a strong, positive case for a federal UK, rather than ceding the debate to the Tories and the nationalists, as has happened in Scotland.

  On the Welsh Language, I hope we make the case for teaching Welsh properly in primary schools so that people will be actually be able to speak it as adults. There might then be a bit less resentment from some of the public at being told we’re a billingual nation and everything must be in Welsh, despite most people not have any use for it. We could link that to a campaign to improve foreign language learning in secondary schools and colleges, which would also demonstrate our internationalist outlook. Across UK nations, Wales should be at a great advantage when it comes to being able to speak foreign languages, yet we’re actually the worst when it comes to take up in schools and universities.

• Johnmc 18th Feb '21 - 11:50pm

  Just to be clear, the LDs have long been for a federal U.K. Its not that radical, except in the context of a failed system like the one we have in Westminster now, but it is essential a unionist position, albeit now a desperate last ditch one. And some might remember the promises of Devo-max as a desperate last ditch alternative to independence at the last IndyRef, but if you can’t it’s not surprising as it disappeared just minutes after the result was known, just as Cameron was crowing about the unelected hereditary head of state purring and developing ‘English votes for English laws’.

  The SNP is for a self determination process as a pathway to restoration of sovereignty in Scotland. You can call then ‘nationalists’ if you want to adopt Johnson rhetoric, and sadly many liberal ‘democrats’ seem to, but their position is much more nuanced. And since the Greens in both Scotland and Wales are also for independence, I’d enjoy hearing your case for dismissing them too as ‘nationalists’!

  As a lapsed liberal I might prefer to see a centre party in the liberal tradition that was both liberal and democratic but, hey, that ship has sailed and so it seems that sadly for now in both Wales and Scotland we have an ideas light, anti-democratic-leaning unionist party that lurks somewhere to the nice side of the Tories in the hope that it might pick up some odd seats here and there that the actual Tories can’t win (Scotland) or, shorn of much hope, will just slide ever deeper into pointless oblivion (Wales).

  I wish it were otherwise.

• Alexander 19th Feb '21 - 12:00pm

  They are nationalists. The only reason anybody is the nationality that they are is because of an accident of birth. In Wales in particular, it’s a petty form of identity politics based on a history that has no relevance whatsoever to the present day – there’s never been a fully united Wales. The mental gymnastics involved in arguing for the EU on the basis of being stronger together, whilst at the same time arguing for independence from the UK using the exact same arguments as the Brexiteers is staggering (that’s true the other way too).

  Independence as the solution to all of the nation’s problems is an easy thing to believe in. So, it’s unfortunate that we’ve allowed the alternative to appear to be Tory led English/British nationalism.

• Alexander 19th Feb '21 - 12:12pm

  Just to add. In terms of democracy. I don’t consider it very democratic that the close to a million Scots resident in other parts of the UK wouldn’t get a vote in any new independence referendum (and didn’t the first time around).