Politics
Welsh independence campaign group YesCymru sets 2032 referendum target
The nation’s most prominent pro-Welsh independence campaign and pressure group, YesCymru, has set an ambitious target of 2032 for Welsh secession.
This week, YesCymru set a clear and ambitious objective for the country’s growing movement. It wants the Welsh people to have a sovereign referendum on Welsh independence in 2032.
The announcement came at the National Eisteddfod, Wales’s largest cultural festival, celebrating Welsh language, music, literature and arts. YesCymru chair Rob Hughes made the bold announcement at one public meeting in Pabell y Cymdeithasau on the Eisteddfod field on Sunday, August 2.
The 2032 target sets an ambitious but not rushed deadline. It will allow for the groundwork to be set without immediate pressure felt. It gives the nation time to build momentum following the historic election of Plaid Cymru to Wales’ devolved halls of government.
The moves towards independence are not isolated but rather form a united Celtic Alliance front. Respective ruling parties across the Celtic nations are talking seriously about going beyond devolution now.
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What are the practical steps?
Before any such vote could take place, the Welsh government would have to win dramatic powers from an unsympathetic Westminster establishment. It currently holds no such right to secede from the Union.
Honeymoon-period Prime Minister Andy Burnham has already flatly refused both Scotland and Wales independence referendums. But by 2032, we could be three PMs away from Burnham. (At least, based on the average pace at which Westminster has shuffled through previous PMs in the past decade!)
We might even be facing major UK constitutional changes in the intervening years. This comes after Burnham suggested that the case for Britain to adopt a written constitution — a single overarching legal document — is growing stronger. Such a written constitution exists in real countries such as Spain, India or the US.
As it stands, the UK’s constitution is uncodified. This means that it exists across a series of disparate sources including statute law, common law, and unwritten conventions. Essentially, the critical set of rules and standards outlining how the country is governed, remains something of a mishmash.
In theory, this could mean that anti-unionist parties could be dealing with an entirely different political landscape. However, that is also true of Burnham’s highly-flaunted plans around maximum devolution across the nations. These might lessen support for independence, if perceived generally successful.
Such parties — Sinn Fein, the SNP and Plaid Cymru — now control the devolved governments across the Celtic nations. By the time of any referendum, a new constitution may work better in their favour, or worse.
In the meantime, Plaid wants greater powers over policing and justice, and rail infrastructures. It is also calling for the Crown Estate to be devolved from Westminster to Cardiff.
Hughes’ case for Welsh independence
Speaking at the Eisteddfod meeting, YesCymru chair Hughes said:
I think we’ve had enough of wandering through life without giving us and our supporters and the people of Wales something to have as a focus.
What we need to do is persuade the people of Wales that an independent Wales will provide a better future for them and for the generations to come.
The 2032 campaign will focus on growing support for independence over the next six years. YesCymru say that their work will turn that support into a clear demand for a referendum. They also plan on setting out the various political and practical steps required to achieve that ultimate, revolutionary objective.
Hughes closed the public meeting at National Eisteddfod, saying:
Let’s build a country that is fair, tolerant and welcoming, and use the skills, belief and ambition of the people of Wales to create a country that works for all of us, for our children and for the generations to come.
It’s a big, ambitious step, to be sure. Hughes has met with Welsh Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution Dafydd Trystan Davies and officials this week to discuss the campaign group’s aims. They reportedly discussed the constitutional future of Wales and the organisation’s role in building public support for independence.
Support for Welsh independence has been as high as 41% in previous polls, with support for Plaid rising year-on-year. This has been particularly buoyed by Welsh Labour’s collapse. It is also supported by general perceptions of repeated Westminster governments’ failures on delivering fairly for Wales.
With a possible goal now firmly in mind, the Welsh population could be voting Yes soon enough. It may come before Scotland can even get an answer on how to be allowed to even ask the question again.
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Featured image via Ifan Morgan Jones
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