Welsh Independence

Sonic67

Maybe Northern Ireland and Scotland form their own union - can you imagine the arguments!

Sonic67

Well as you asked.

Cardiff Bay: What has 30 years of development achieved?

The Thatcher Government's Urban Policy, 1979-1989: A Review on JSTOR

EarthRod

Well, some people are morons if they want to let incidents from hundreds of years ago influence their decisions now.

I'm wasn't around during either, so I don't particularly care.

I don't accept any collective guilt for the actions of hundreds of years ago. And I don't blame people today for the actions of their ancestors.

And massively overfunded compared to their tax base, and to England.

I think an England starting with a budget surplus would be in a relatively strong position.

Also history - who cares. If anyone today blames anyone alive today for the act of union they are too stupid to care what they think.

Sadly you are probably right.

We English will continue to support the Welsh despite their apparent disdain for us.

Cliff

Except then England could declare independence.

gibbsy

Good post.

There is no doubt our English forefathers were aggressive and keen on conquest and plunder. There is also no doubt they were hard working, enterprising, inventive and inspiring - and the same goes for Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

In other words, they were the same as all the other countries around the world who succeeded in pulling themselves away from mud huts and tending cattle.

You are quite right in understanding and absorbing how history has an impact on our lives today. How we live today is totally based on our past enterprise, effort and decisions.

History is one hell of a lot of baggage to carry around, but without it it's back to mud huts and tending cattle. Stuff that for a game of soldiers

Trollslayer

Except the mines were not in Cardiff. Cardiff isn't the iseue in Wales.

I'm not talking about turning land into luxury flats, but about the impact of making entire towns of people redundant overnight without a thought of how these people could become financially independent again.

If you want an understanding of real life in these parts then this documentary is worth watching..
BBC Three - Valley Cops, Series 1 (Reversions), Episode 1

Over by there

It was a Scottish king dumping Protestants on Ireland to make it less Catholic which has resulted in "the troubles" today.

The reason why Scotland united with England was down to Scotland trying to start an Empire and it being a disaster.

England isn't the bad guy. The other nations benefited from what we did. That's we the UK.

gibbsy

I would be. How many countries have you been to? I thought you didn't go out? I've never experienced 'a level of hate.'

Trollslayer

That's a good point.

In all the countries I've been to and worked in there are only two with signs of hated - not because of my Britishness (is there such a word?) but because of my foreign white skin and Western clothes.

Those places were Sana'a and Mogadishu.

Plenty of countries where suspicion and reserve were encountered, but not hatred. Maybe a touch of dislike, but hard to tell the difference between dislike of a foreigner and suspicion of a foreigner.

gibbsy

I wouldn't say I have ever experienced any hatred for being British. In fact in many places there was a quiet respect for Britain being a former world power. In countries where Britain has played a recent role militarily or politically then can be bad feelings towards us, so yes, Yemen and Somalia which used to be part British/ part Italian have had a lot of recent history. It has split into two again now.
Egypt was another country, friendly people, but we were the bad guys as it was kind of ruled by the British until Nasser and Suez reclaimed the country and nationalism became the word.

Further back in history, most of the former empire countries have moved on. Occasionally we get blamed if there is a political or tribal division that can be put down to the decisions at independence. But that usually means there were winners and losers, so is open to debate anyway.