First a word about politics. Many have been duped into the notion that politics is all about political parties, governments and ruling classes. That’s true, but only to a point. Politics is about power. Primarily about how power is exercised among people.
In the broader sense, a family is a political unit – where power may be shared, or hogged. All relationships among people are governed by power relations, whether they be egalitarian or otherwise.
Politics is also about groupings, and how they interact, to co-operate or oppose each other. Hence we have gay politics, feminist politics, environmental politics, religious politics, cultural and national politics.
I want to focus on the last two types of politics as they relate to Wales in particular and the larger world in general.
Lets start with the new census figures where the Welsh language use is shrinking. Politicians (that are part of the system that is slowly but surely killing us) will bemoan these figures and postulate all sorts of new incentives to ‘reverse the trend’.
But what they won’t say is the simple truth: that we are part of a global hegemony that is slowly but surely grinding us down. They falsely believe these forces cannot not be resisted but simply accommodated while they seek their places in the “new order”.
(We all know that constant English immigration to Wales is killing us. Isn’t it time we simply stated the obvious?)
If we persist in this mindset and simply ‘go along’, small nations and cultures like Wales all over the world will be ground down and fed into the global multicultural meat grinder.
Of course we have a choice, and the choice I am championing in this rant is autochthonous politics, sink or swim.
I dream of a world where when you travel you experience different cultures rooted to their place and traditions – not where you find a MacDonald’s, KFC and Coca Cola in every corner while music industry pop music blares on.
A world where you can experience diversity. A world where you can still marvel.
As much as the ruling classes and their lackeys will deny it, we Welsh are the natives of Britain, not the English. We not simply have a right, but indeed a duty to preserve our heritage, and the land we hold, for the future of the planet if not just ourselves.
So what would autocthanous politics be like, you ask? It is a politics that first and foremost values the land. The land which gave us birth and to which is ours, and ours alone, and which our future generations will live on. It is not ours to squander or treat as an object for individual gain. It is our inheritance to treasure and pass on. We must never let it be taken over by others.
Autocthanous politics would move towards a Wales were power is shared, not concentrated. It would be a politics based on land, livelihood, and kinship – a characteristic of Celtic culture (that have been under relentless attack from the Anglo-Norman power elites for close to a thousand years).
You can buddy up to the power elites if you wish. It is the path for cowards, those who lack confidence in themselves and their kinsfolk. And if indeed, this trend continues we will be living in a culturally impoverished world.
I dream of a world were politics and power is shared. Where distinct cultures are allowed to flourish. A world where I can travel and experience diversity and wonder.
What does this mean for Wales, here and now? It means we need to get back to the basics. We need to forge a system that serves us, individually, locally, and nationally. We need to get back to our cultural roots.
I am not postulating a ‘free’ centralised Welsh state. That’s the mindset of the Anglo-Normans. Wales has never been a unified state. That’s our roots. That’s our Celtic culture, our clan sensibility. We are kinsmen, rooted to our piece of turf . My turf is Cwm Garw. Where’s yours?
Autochthonus politics is Welsh and Celtic in nature. It is a politics based on the care for the land and the people who has spent countless generations on it. It is not an anti-immigration policy, but one where immigration is controlled to the level that the land and culture can absorb.
A Wales based on that Celtic sensibility of interwoven power shared among the people is possible. A politics of land, people, and culture, world over.
A world of diversity, not uniformity. As a world traveller that is what I live for. Are you with me?
The Welsh economy is receding, hard times are here. Worse is coming, (as with the rest of the UK and the EU). We are in a recession – which means the volume and circulation of money is shrinking.
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Establishing a gold-backed Welsh pound could be easily accomplished by converting the annual block grant (the tax money the Assembly gets back each year from London) of around £15 billion into physical gold, stored in a ‘Welsh Fort Knox’. Then the Assembly simply deposits £15 billion gold-backed Welsh pounds into the Assembly’s bank account as its yearly budget.
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The Assembly could use it to pay for their services as they normally would with English pounds. Of course, sufficient amounts of paper Welsh pounds would need to meet local demand and use, like the Bank of Scotland and Clydesdale Bank pounds in Scotland.
Below is a brief summary of the speeches given by the three Plaid Cymru leadership contenders in Cardiff on 2 February.
