Wednesday, January 7, 2009

The dark side of devolution

Thanks to D. Wildgoose once again for pointing me in the direction of an excellent post on the thorny perennial of "Patriotism v Nationalism". There are several different strands touched on, but "Tom Paine"'s (I’m guessing he’s not the original one) thoughts on the motivations which are presently driving Scottish and Welsh nationalism and the negative effects devolution has had on the cohesiveness of our nation are what readers to this blog will probably find most interesting. This paragraph, in particular, is one of the saddest indictments of the whole devolution experiment I've read for a while:
Yet, to others, post-devolution Wales and Scotland seem less friendly places. My own father can trace his Welsh heritage farther than many a nationalist. Since devolution (which he devoutly opposed) he has commented that for the first time in his life he feels unwelcome in Wales. He has even contemplated moving over the border. It seems ludicrous to me that people with so much in common, so much shared history and culture, should be in such a position.

Do read the rest of the post and leave your comments here.

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