Plaid Cymru And ‘Independence’

On 06.10.202608.10.2026 By JacIn Europe, European Union, Globalism, Plaid Cymru, Welsh Government, Welsh Independence, Welsh Nationalism115 Comments

A few days after Plaid Cymru’s conference in Llandudno seems a good time to examine where the party stands on independence. And related issues.

◊

INTRODUCTION

As most of you know, I have always wanted independence for Wales. Partly because I felt Wales was constantly short-changed and could do better with independence; and partly because I saw my people as a European nation and I wanted us to take what I viewed as our rightful place among the nations of Europe.

Unlike many of my contemporaries I did not identify with anti-colonial struggles in the third world. My focus tended to be on Scotland, Brittany, Ireland, Québec and the Basque Country, rather than with peoples I’d never heard of and with whom I found it hard to identify.

I felt this was entirely natural. And I still do. Most of the human race feels, acts, and reacts in the same way.

We identify first with ‘our own’, our immediate family, and then those closest to us. After that, it’s the ripples a stone makes when it’s thrown into a pond. This doesn’t rule out the Good Samaritan, but nor does it encourage ignoring our own in favour of the stranger.

And so I joined Plaid Cymru around 1965 because it was a Welsh-focused party wanting independence. I stood as a candidate a few times and did my fair share of door-knocking, and tramping wet Swansea streets with bundles of leaflets.

I left Plaid Cymru many years ago, and since then we’ve drifted further apart.

So let’s consider what Plaid Cymru offers in its vision for independence.

◊

EUROPEAN UNION

Starting with the European Union. Which is rather complicated for me because a long time ago I supported a united Europe. That was when I saw such a creation as a force for good in the world, and a mediator between the USA and the USSR.

In recent decades I have swung 180 degrees. To the point where I voted for Brexit in 2016. For even when I believed in European unity, I never wanted the authoritarian, regulation-ridden monster we see today.

My vision was Gaullist: a culturally unified Europe “from the Atlantic to the Urals” that included post-Communist Russia. Where political legitimacy resides exclusively in the sovereign nation-state – not supranational institutions where power is exercised by shadowy cabals through unelected bureaucrats.

I wanted Wales to be one of those sovereign nation-states.

Did you ever see a shiftier-looking git in your life?

The EU today is a Globalist capture and an enemy of the West. Run like the old Soviet Union, with real power in the hands of the unelected Politburo-Commission, ruled since 2019 by Ursula von der Leyen. (Whose husband did so well out of Covid vaccines.)

I recall Plaid promoting the EU, or the Common Market as it still was at the time, with ‘Europe of the Regions’. There was a parade in Machynlleth in 1988, on Glyndŵr’s Day, led by the party leader at the time, the late Dafydd Elis Thomas.

The message being pushed with Europe of the Regions was that the nation-state was outdated, and would soon wither away; replaced by historic regions and submerged nationalities under a loose, pan-European superstructure.

What happened to that idea, I wonder? For as I’ve outlined, the EU has become ever-more centralised and undemocratic. Though the war on the nation-state continues.

On a purely practical and contemporary level, the economies of the EU are tanking, thanks to the deindustrialisation imposed by net zero; and especially in Germany, the largest EU economy and main funder for the whole farrago.

In May 2027, Marine le Pen will be elected President of France. And despite the Breton origin of her name I doubt if she’ll welcome supplicants from Wales looking for hand-outs. For that’s what it’s about for many in Plaid Cymru.

Funding that was squandered when the UK was still in the EU and Wales was run by another socialist party.

◊

NATO

Some years back I checked the linkage between NATO’s eastward creep and EU membership. The message was clear: ‘Join NATO and you’ll be allowed into the EU. Then, because you’re poor, we’ll give you lots and lots of money’.

NATO is a military alliance. An attack on one is an attack on all. Which was fine, when the threat was the Soviet Union and the combined forces of the Warsaw Pact. (And it’s why NATO should have been scrapped in 1991.)

That NATO continued, and expanded towards Russia, made it clear the Globalists had turned an erstwhile political and military threat into a target for conquest and exploitation. The Russians certainly saw it.

And are alliances that desirable anyway? Remember how the First World War started. A Serb nationalist killed an Austrian Archduke in disputed territory after the Archduke’s chauffeur took a wrong turn. It should have been left to the Serbs and the Austrians to sort it out; with other countries either holding their coats or trying to separate them.

Instead, millions of men died because other, bigger countries were tied to alliances that swung into action because of that lucky shot in Sarajevo.

Who benefited from that war? Best not to go there.

Plaid Cymru’s position on the EU might lack clarity, but its position on NATO is even more cloudy and confused. Let’s just remember what party leader Rhun ap Iorwerth has said in recent months.

Towards the end of June, with Plaid in control of the Senedd, he was interviewed by Ciaran Jenkins of Channel 4, a very left wing outlet. Here’s the relevant section.

Ciaran Jenkins: We live in pretty uncertain times. Do you think an independent Wales should not be a part of Nato?

Rhun ap Iorwerth: I think an independent Wales would want to have a very close relationship with Nato that is an associate membership people have. Ireland, for example, with Nato. That would be a decision for an independent Wales.

First off, there is no such thing as “associate membership” with NATO. In 2024 Ireland joined the Individually Tailored Partnership Programme. Though after seeing Georgia, Bosnia, Moldova and Kazakhstan listed, I conclude it’s designed to annoy Russia without poking the bear too hard by granting full membership.

Though you have to wonder why Japan, South Korea and Colombia should be included in any NATO line-up. Along with other bizarre choices.

Anyway, more recently, this report from Sky News has Rhun ap Iorwerth saying “Wales would join a ‘NATO-type’ organisation“. He stumbles through the interview but suggests there’s some alternative out there to NATO.

What was he thinking? NATO Lite?

The only thing that comes to my mind is the idea that’s been floating around for many, many years of a European Army, which seems to go back to 1952 and the European Defence Community. There have been a few false starts but I can see why the idea might be re-surfacing.

Donald Trump is pissed off with Europe and most of its leaders, he’s not going to war with Russia over Ukraine, and things will stay the same if – as seems likely – he is succeeded as president by J D Vance (possibly Marco Rubio) in 2028.

And so a European military, under the command of the EU (and Ursula von der Leyen), with a more aggressive approach towards Russia, would replace or ‘complement’ NATO. But Russia isn’t threatening Western Europe. The threats are internal, as I’ll explain in a moment.

Let Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth come clean about exactly what he’s trying to say with relation to NATO. Perhaps someone could help him.

◊

UNITED NATIONS

It has long been Plaid Cymru’s policy to join the United Nations.

The Charter was signed in June 1945, and the UN came into existence in October, designed to maintain international peace and stability.

But it has now degenerated into a vehicle for third world despots and kleptocracies to dictate to the more advanced countries and demand that the latter keep paying for whatever past crimes can be dreamed up.

Recently, in Gaza, we’re seen UN representatives on the ground being Hamas terrorists under a different badge. And when UN spokespersons on human rights, women’s rights, and other issues, come from countries where such rights don’t exist, then the UN stands exposed for the money-laundering farce it’s become.

And let’s remember that it was the United Nations that gave us, in December 2018, the Global Compact on Refugees. Operated through the UNCHR. This is now used by Globalist European ‘leaders’ to justify open borders.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency works to ensure that everybody has the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge, having fled violence, persecution or war at home.

In reality, those arriving illegally in dinghies, or being secretly flown in, haven’t ‘fled’ anything. They’re here to get whatever they can take and get away with.

They’re not Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany; nor can they be compared to Basque kids taken into Welsh homes during the Spanish Civil War. Or even the East African Asians expelled from Uganda by the Muslim dictator Idi Amin in the early 1970s.

As you might guess, I have no time for the United Nations. My views on the UN are not a million miles from those of President Trump. It’s a Globalist body pushing a distinctly anti-West agenda.

The world might be a better place without the United Nations.

∼

The EU, NATO and UN have been drinking for too long from the same poisoned well. Which is why an independent Wales should avoid all three organisations.

◊

SO WHAT IS MODERN PLAID CYMRU?

In a nutshell, nothing more than an agglomeration of grievance-pedlars, with the same undergraduate obsessions we hear everywhere – climate, gender, race, etc – with the only obstacle to heaven on earth being the ‘far-right’.

Plaid wants a socialist Welsh republic. And looking at the party’s Senedd Members, all I see is a marginally more mature and better dressed Welsh Underground Network.

I’m not being flippant here. The policies, attitudes, and ambitions of the party governing Wales and a far-left fringe group are almost identical. But the Welsh Underground Network is just more honest about theirs.

Plaid is also hypocritical. On the one hand, it still defends the Welsh language and the wider identity – yet rejects ‘whiteness’ and the European civilisational norms to which they belong.

In an attempt to square this circle Plaid (and others) pretend Wales has always been multi-racial. This leads to Black History Month, which uses public funds to support race grifters and indoctrinate schoolchildren into accepting mass migration.

But thank God for the decolonised Welsh cake!

Truth is, the malaise is everywhere. Labour controlled by the Fabians has turned on the working class. The Conservatives are no longer conservative. The Greens have ditched the environment for anti-Semitism. Though the Lib Dems are the same odious and buyable little crew they always were – should we be thankful for that?

While Plaid Cymru has lost interest in the real Wales, and the best interests of Welsh people. And it can’t be hidden when Plaid is . . .

More energised about the lack of gender mutilation services than it ever was about the closure of Port Talbot steelworks.
Cosying up to foreign ‘renewables’ companies that enrich themselves from desecrating our homeland.
Siding with ‘environmentalists’ and rewilders from God knows where to destroy Welsh farming.

I could go on, but it’s so depressing. I’ll try to introduce a lighter way of looking at it.

When it comes to having an independent Wales run by Plaid Cymru – or the Welsh political establishment in general – I’m reminded of that wonderful character from Blackadder, Mr Hardwood. When it’s suggested that his daughter should marry the Prince Regent he responds thus:

I’d no more place her in the hands of an unworthy man than I’d place my John Thomas in the hands of a lunatic with a pair of scissors.

That sums up my feelings about Plaid Cymru and the ‘independence’ it’s offering.

Because there’s no point in leaving the UK only to surrender control to agencies less interested in Wales than any in London. Of course it’s argued that it’ll be different because “Wales will have its own voice” in these chambers. So what?

In Globalist organisations – like the EU, NATO, UN – small countries will be ignored or punished if they don’t toe the line.

Which means that to be heard, and favoured, an ‘independent’ Wales would have to follow the agenda: increasing censorship and surveillance, aided by a controlled media; net zero resulting in job losses and higher energy bills; unlimited immigration leading to rising crime and social dislocation.

All of which are damaging. With the real worry that the dire consequences listed are in fact the desired outcomes.

An independent Wales couldn’t isolate itself from the wider world. And I would never argue for isolation. But independence must mean real independence or it’s just a sham. And not worth having.

◊

FINAL WORD

Before you think all is lost, and reach for the whisky and the revolver, let me tell you there’s a sensible party that still cares about Wales and the Welsh people. A party that wants the best for Wales without joining organisations that don’t give a damn about us.

It just so happens that Gwlad is holding its AGM this coming Saturday in Llandrindod, starting at 10am (’til 4pm) in the golf club. You’re welcome to attend even if you’re not a member. So come along, meet people, hear what they have to say.

You’ll find decent people talking common sense. It’ll be so refreshing.

♦ end ♦

A Personal Take On The Euro Elections 2024

On 13.06.202425.06.2024 By JacIn Europe, European Union, Globalism, Russia, Wales, World Economic Forum27 Comments

It might seem odd for me to be writing about elections to the EU parliament 8 years after Wales voted to leave the EU, but I’m doing so because these results are important, and will have repercussions for us.

◊

THE BIG PICTURE

There was a swing to the right across the continent, but of course the media found it almost impossible to engage in honest reporting. There were crude references to the 1930s, or even suggestions that the swing was largely due to a low turnout.

Watching the exit polls and the early declarations on Sunday night, on the BBC, CNN, and Euronews, I was struck by the way commentators used terms like ‘centre’, ‘centre left’, ‘socialists’, even ‘green-left’, but never ‘far left’.

While on the other side there’s rarely a ‘right of centre’; that side of the spectrum begins with ‘right wing’ or ‘far right’, even ‘hard right’. (Yeah, well hard!)

There’s also the ‘populist right’, whatever that means. (Answers on a post card.)

I got the impression that some of those misinforming me would have liked to slip into Antifa black bloc and yell, ‘Nazi!’, ‘fascist!‘, and ‘transphobe!’ Displaying commendable restraint the Beeb limited itself to images like this, linking Austria with Germany (Anschluss), and showing raised arms. (Nudge, nudge.)

When it came to Gorgeous Geert Wilders, there was an early attempt (Netherlands voted on Thursday) to suggest that his Party for Freedom PVV had somehow tanked, even though projections had it increasing its representation in Brussels from 0 to 7 MEPs. (As it turned out, the PVV won 6 seats.)

Done by making the rather silly comparison with the national election last November, which the PVV won.

The talking heads were almost united in bemoaning the swing to the right, but chose to focus on the personalities, or the possible line-up in the EU parliament, rather than address the reasons for the upheaval they were witnessing.

Those reasons being unsustainable levels of immigration and the hardships being imposed by the completely unnecessary drive to net zero.

◊

THE VIEW FROM THE EAST

The picture across the continent is too big and complicated for me to look at every country. What’s more, the picture in the east, from Finland to Romania, is coloured to a greater or lesser degree by the war in Ukraine, and attitudes towards Russia.

For Finland was ruled by Russia until 1917, then Stalin invaded in 1940. Anti-Russian sentiment is widespread in the Baltic States. Poland borders Ukraine. Hungary tries to play the honest broker. Many Romanians fear Russia will push west, towards and beyond Odessa, to link with Transdnistria, where there is already a Russian military presence.

So I’m going to focus on Central and Western Europe. Where results are marginally easier to read, and then, due to the size and influence of some of the countries involved, the consequences will be felt beyond those countries’ borders.

I should also point out that in a number of countries the EU elections were held on the same day as local or national elections. Which can confuse the picture, and also influence the result of the EU poll.

I’m going to focus on France, but I’ll also zip around a few other countries; including of course, Germany. Once the economic and industrial powerhouse of the continent . . . but then came net zero.

◊

LA BELLE FRANCE

As I’ve suggested by focusing on France, the big story of the elections was that Macron got his ass kicked by Marine Le Pen’s protégé, 28-year-old Jordan Bardella.

Marine Le Pen fought hard for National Rally (NR) to shake off the worst of her father’s legacy, but no matter what did she was stuck with the name. Bardella, of mainly Italian background, but also having an Algerian great-grandfather, has no such problem.

I know what you’re wondering, and you should be ashamed of yourselves! Ach y fi! Click to open enlarged in separate tab

Also in the mix, almost unnoticed, was the Reconquête! party. It linked with a few others to fight under the La France fière banner, got 5.47% and 5 seats. Founded as recently as 2021 by Éric Zemmour, the son of Arabic-speaking Berber Jews from Algeria.

I mention this because Zemmour is usually said to be further to the right, and more hostile to Islam, than NR.

The map below shows that NR came top of the poll in every départment other than Paris. A reminder of a problem found across the West – the disproportionate influence of a metropolitan elite.

By which I mean, politicians, the media, self-styled ‘progressives’, academics, countless thousands in NGOs and similar gangs living off the public purse.

In response to his drubbing Macron has gone for broke and called a parliamentary election. His job won’t be up for grabs, but he’ll be there to undermine his party, and the liberal left more generally, by reminding French voters he’s now a lame duck president.

An example of a weak man acting tough. And it invariably ends in disaster.

Something that cost Macron and his party votes was his call for what sounded very much like war with Russia. This Spectator article from March 10 suggests Macron made his remarks about intervention in Ukraine to combat NR’s 10% lead in opinion polls ahead of the EU elections.

This cunning plan was so successful that the eventual gap was 16.2%, with NR getting 31.4%, to Macron’s Renaissance getting just 15.2%.

The plan to give Putin what for was not well received by his neighbours and allies. (‘”Follow me!“, he cried, sabre held aloft . . . then looked back and saw he was alone.’)

Incidentally, the French Communist party got just 2.36%. Now if that don’t warm the cockles of your crypto fascist heart, missus, then I don’t know what will.

Back in the days of Gladio there was a real worry, in London and Washington, that France (and Italy) might actually elect a communist government. How times change!

Macron is now urging the French to ‘say no to extremes’ in the elections at the end of the month. Rejecting his brand of banality, mediocrity, and incompetence, does not make people extremists.

Wise up, mon ami – your bateau has sailed.

◊

A ROUNDUP

Next door to France, in Belgium, there were also national and regional elections. With a turnout of 87.42% for the federal election. The big winners in the regional elections for Flanders were Eurosceptic Flemish nationalist parties, though Vlaams Belang – the ‘separatist’ party – did not perform as well as expected.

On the national stage, the same two parties topped the poll. Other, mainly francophone parties, trotted in behind them.

As in France, the big loser was the party running the national government, but unlike France, there was also a national election, which the ruling coalition lost. This resulted in prime minister Alexander De Croo handing in his notice to the king. But he’ll hang on until a new coalition is formed.

Belgian politics is ‘messy’. A small country divided by language and regional rivalries, with its capital, Brussels, also serving as the EU capital.

In Italy, there was no big surprise. Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia, heading the national government coalition, came top. And although the usual suspects call her the ‘heiress to Mussolini’ and a neo-fascist, I fear she may be little more than a political chancer with a real talent for self-promotion.

An example would be her visit to Albania just before the EU elections, to inspect the centres where would-be migrants will be held while Italy vets their claims. This Rwanda-style deal seems to be pissing off many of the comrades, so it has that in its favour.

And those whose applications fail will presumably be recruited by Albanian gangs and end up over here tending cannabis factories. Everyone’s a winner!

We can’t ignore Germany, the largest member of the bloc in terms of population and just about everything else. As in other countries we’ve looked at, the results were a disaster for the party or parties running the national government.

Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats, who head up the ruling coalition, came a poor third with just 13.9%. The big winners were the Christian Democrats (with their Bavarian ally) on 30%, and to the right of them, the AfD on 15.9%. The Greens came fourth with 11.9%.

Catching up on reports as I wrote this I came across something that indicates how the political focus has shifted to the right.

Associated Press is one of the most reliably Globalist mouthpieces. A joke as a news organisation, it can be relied on to spout the Davos-UN line on climate, ‘refugees’, etc.

Normally, AP would be horrified by advances for conservatives, but here it seems to be taking consolation from the success of the German Christian Democrats.

Scholz says he won’t be calling an election, but the decision may be out of his hands.

The BBC found similar comfort in a ‘resurgent’ centre-left in France. Mmm. I’m sure there was a Straw Clutchers party standing somewhere.

Click to open enlarged in separate tab

Next door to Germany, in Austria, it was a similar story. A big surge in support for one of those parties that puts leftists into Wolfie Smith mode.

We’ve looked at France, Germany and Italy, so the other large country in the west is Spain. There, it was a familiar tale, though with a strange twist.

I quote from the Reuters article I just linked to: ‘Alvise Perez, a far-right social media influencer running against what he describes as universal corruption, managed to obtain three seats with a campaign mostly conducted through the messaging app Telegram.’

Here’s a link that might tell you more about Señor Perez, who dedicated his victory to an 81-year-old man who’d been sent to prison for shooting a burglar.

I’d hoped to bring results from Ireland, where there were also local elections. But counting has been slow, and when I was finishing off this article yesterday evening the results for the Euro elections had still not been finalised.

I would also have liked to tell you about the local elections, but that would have meant a lot of digging. The insurgent parties and individuals I’ve mentioned here in recent times are probably included among Independents and Others in the box below

It’s worth noting that Sinn Féin was topping every poll until it became clear that it supports open borders, which hurts its working class base more than other groups.

But I can tell you that John Moran is the new mayor of Limerick.

◊

YOUNG EUROPE

In order to explain a few more things about Poland, France, the wider picture, and the standard of BBC journalism, I’m using the two clips below.

Polish premier Tusk is a Globalist and Permanent War party puppet, and therefore a favourite with the BBC.

But Auntie disapproves of his rival, the Law and Justice party, so it has to be labelled ‘right wing’. But when there’s another party, even more likely to bring on an attack of the vapours, such as the Confederation party, it must be branded ‘far-right’.

But note, the panel also reveals that this party from beyond the Pale is the most popular among 18-29- year-olds. While the other panel tells us that in France 18-24-year-olds have swung behind Le Pen’s RN.

Across Europe young people are rejecting the parties of the centre, and the greens, to move left and right, with the right gaining far more than the left.

This swing to the right among the young is significant. For we’re not dealing with the ‘gammons’ so beloved of leftists and their media, those sad caricatures nostalgic for a time when white families appeared in TV adverts.

This support from young people is rooted in events of the here and the now. And that’s why I find it so encouraging.

◊

FINAL THOUGHTS

I see these European elections as a blow for the Globalists. They also see it, and they’ve been quick to respond. The head of the UN’s refugee agency, Filippo Grandi, ‘criticised the politicisation of migration in European elections‘.

Listen, pal, you and your Globalist mates, the politicians you’ve won over, the European Commission, the media you control . . . you all politicised the issue long ago, by doing away with border controls, and by demonising those who oppose your plans.

You are in no position therefore to criticise decent people who’ve had enough of your behaviour. The fightback is underway, both in Europe and the USA.

For the day after he took office, your puppet Biden opened the southern border. Now that his handlers finally realise how unpopular a decision that has proven to be, and with a presidential election looming, they’re back-pedalling like crazy.

Let’s also remember the damage being inflicted by the climate scam. It’s destroying the Welsh countryside, making everything more expensive, while personal freedom suffers from the restrictions it demands.

Which is why, on July 4, I expect a rag-bag of candidates, some of them off the wall, one or two sought by various constabularies; with a back-of-a-fag-packet ‘manifesto’, and a leader used by leftist yobs for target practice, to do rather well.

Because that’s where we are. Think well on’t.

♦ end ♦

Jac o' the North

Tag: France

Plaid Cymru And ‘Independence’

A Personal Take On The Euro Elections 2024