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Nation•Cymru A news service by the people of Wales, for the people of Wales.

Opinion

Fools & Traitors

By Mark Mansfield
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage speaks during a press conference in Port Talbot. Photo Ben Birchall/PA Wire

Ben Wildsmith

I was delighted to learn this week that you can buy full-sized Union flags for 45p from China, as long as you order enough of them. I figure that 5000 units should be enough to make good on my pledge to burn one every time Andrew RT Davies mentions ‘our flag’ in reference to them on social media.

Should he eventually move on to another imbecilically divisive topic, they are cheap enough to use as liners for the cat’s litter tray. It’s a win-win.

As the right-wing of UK politics has been consumed by flaggery, it’s intriguing to speculate on how this is supposed to fit into upcoming elections here in Wales.

This is silly-season stuff. No real politics can be done in August as our representatives are wrenched away from subsidised bars and compelled to spend time with their families. So, it’s a perfect time for playing at culture wars and agitating the fickle masses – basically stuff you can do on your phone from a villa in Tuscany.

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Chancers

A year out from the Senedd elections, Reform UK, the remaining Tories, and a growing cast of chancers who posit even further to the right, are not thinking about Welsh voters. Forgetting that the first real electoral test they will face is here, they have gone hog wild indulging a spasm of English nationalism that has seen the Union flag used interchangeably with the flag of St George.

The latter is significantly easier to daub, particularly by artists with underdeveloped thumbs, so has found its way onto street furniture and sunburned foreheads across Ingerland.

Robert Jenrick, whose political style owes much to the bloke who invented Cillit Bang, had himself pictured tying a flag to a lamp post. Such politicians have a long association with lamp posts, to be fair, Benito Mussolini foremost amongst them

I would be surprised if any of these golf club bullshitters are aware that Cymru isn’t represented on any of the rags they have been dishonouring.

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Symbolism

With a by election upcoming in Caerphilly, however, their recent enthusiasm for symbolism that explicitly excludes Welsh voters should provide a rich source of memes for opponents. Reform UK, remember, plans to campaign in Wales without a Welsh party leader. The idea here is that Nigel Farage will seek to represent the party during the campaign, before abandoning it to whichever candidates are elected to the Senedd.

It could scarcely be clearer that the governance of Wales is of no interest to Farage at all. He will be here to raise profile and create headlines for his party. If he can’t bring himself to visit his own constituency in sunny Clacton, he’s hardly going to be concerning himself with the complexities of public transport models in north Powys.

This should be an open goal for Plaid Cymru. Labour’s messaging since Keir Starmer became leader has also veered into Last Night at the Proms excess, with union flags being employed to fill a perceived void in substantive patriotism. As that symbol is wrapped around Lucy Connelly, ‘Tommy Robinson’, hotel protests, and the amoral posturing of GB News, rejection of it will find an enthusiastic reception amongst people who are sick to the back teeth of dogwhistling manipulation and outright bigotry in our public affairs.

Cultural paucity

Our Senedd election, and its precursor in Caerphilly, are opportunities to define our political culture away from all that. Reform UK plan on capturing our politics for flags that don’t represent us, with a leader who neither lives here nor intends to participate in our governance.

Politics in England reflect the cultural paucity of a nation so hollowed-out by predatory capitalism that yelping for identity has consumed it.  People supporting the exploiters of that here should be condemned for what they are: fools and traitors.

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23 comments

HarrisR

As this piece alludes, I hope it's not forgotten that the "reborn" Starmer/McSweeny "Blue" Labour party were the pioneers of this wrap yourself in a flag insanity, with storage warehouses literally overfull of the bloody things. Even now the Toolmaker's tool is endorsing the current lamppost brain-dead activity. Steve Bell when still at the Guardian had a cartoon of a union jack rammed up Starmer's "posterior" as advised by his backers to enhance his "message". Actual that's not such a bad idea.

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smae

No they weren't, what nonsense are you on with? Arguably the Tories have always been the flag waving tribe, it's just not been hugely popular since WW2 and they've had to hide it somewhat. BNP were probably the first to bring back the the flag wrapping thing (outside of football fans)... followed up by UKIP then the Conservatives before finally Reform. Labour's too busy trying to be Tory to realize what British values are and as far as I can tell they haven't been doing any British flag waving at all, just American flag waving... see ongoing support of Israeli activities, support in bombing Iran, the PM sucking up to Trump so hard, I'm surprised his skin is still a shade of pasty off-white pink.

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Gwyn Hopkins

The Union Jack is composed of the crosses of the patron saints of England, Scotland and Ireland (all of it) but nevertheless purports to represent the UK, i.e., England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. This blatant mis-match means the flag is a fraudulent/farcical representation of the UK because Wales, a member of the UK, is not represented on it whereas the Irish Republic, that left the UK in 1922, is still on it. As such it should never be flown in Wales. Would the people of England and the UK Government fly it if England was not represented on it? No chance!   

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smae

Wales is not... technically speaking a country in its own right. At best its a principality. Wales was fully annexed in the 1600s. Scotland was 'united' under the Treaty of Union in the 1700s... technically everyone is Scottish because it was the Scottish royal line that succeeded (even if they did use English forces... such wild history). Then the Act of Union in the 1800s brought in Ireland. Wales 'devolved' in 1999, but has not yet seceded England, it's more akin to a 'state' (see USA) than it is a country in its own right, Wales is not sovereign nor does it have its own legal jurisdiction (since the 1500s). Ireland is represented on the flag because Northern Ireland still exists and is the remnants of the Kingdom of Ireland (the rest of which seceded in 1922). So the countries of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland are in fact represented. The Irish Republic (southern Ireland) is NOT represented on the union jack. The Irish Republic rejected using the St Patrick saltire as it was considered an English invention. The flag btw, was designed when there was no Welsh devolution, Wales was fully part of England at that time. The flag was first proposed in 1606 in draft form, but was adopted in the 1700s after Wales was annexed, it was then amended with the st patrick saltire in the 1800s after Ireland joined. Don't get me wrong, I'm 100% pro-Welsh Independence and will be voting Plaid come next election. It's important, however, to be accurate when making accusations of fraud.

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Ernie The Smallholder

The history of Wales is so much like the recent history of the Ukraine with its relationship with Russia. The rulers of the UK have always denied that Wales is a country separate from England with its own language, culture and politics. Yet, England continues to colonise it mainly for its resources including its offshore sites. The people must have the confidence that they will be better off as an independent country rather than continue to be exploited by the UK. Similarly, Putin's Russia is also trying to defeat the confidence of the people of Ukraine so as to take control of their country. Labour has always failed to deliver freedom for Wales to be an independent country and is now playing into the hands of the Reform UK fascists. If we allow Reform UK to succeed they will endeavour to abolish the Senedd in Cardiff and fully colonise our Welsh nation and exploit our people.

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Gwyn Hopkins

English dictionaries define principality as a territory ruled by a prince. The UK Parliament and the Senedd rule Wales so smae’s claim that it’s a principality is nonsense. Although the England/Wales Acts of Union (1536/43) caused the annexation he refers to, they were repealed by the Welsh Language Act 1993, Section 35 (Schedule 2). That Wales is a Country in its own right was officially recognized by the United Nations “International Organisation for Standardisation” in December 2011 and even Google defines Wales as “a country that is part of the UK”.

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andy w

Politics should be about leading a region / country and working together for long-term economic success. By-elections are sometimes protest votes, but main elections are often fought on lowering taxes, not on what political parties will do to grow economies. The current London media focus covers taxes, but nothing on economic growth and UK economy continues to decline. HS2 is no success story, and also initiatives such as renaming Highways England as National Highways adds no value to an organisation that only covers England and shows the lack of focus of London based Department for Transport. Personally i ignore the flag wavers, let them do what they want as they will anyway!

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Crwtyn Cemais

Shwmae / Hi Gwyn, some time ago , I did some research to try and find out why the gold cross on a black background of St.David's flag / baner Dewi Sant does not appear on the Union (Union Jack) flag that purports to represent the 4 countries of the UK. I did find out why, although it was such a long time ago that I can't remember the exact wording of the answer. That said, the rough explanation that I remember was that the Union flag only integrates the patron saint flags of the KINGDOMS of England, Scotland and Ireland. The inference being that the designers of the flag did not recognise Wales as ever having been united as a kingdom in itself. Hence the absence of Saint David's flag from the UK's Union flag. Now, either the designers of the Union flag were acting out of ignorance of a salient and relevant fact of Welsh history, or they were simply choosing to ignore it for the sake of political convenience. Those of us who are familiar with Welsh history will know that all of Wales - albeit briefly - was indeed a kingdom united under one king namely Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, who reigned over all of wales in 1055-1063. This was around the time that the Anglo-Saxon Earldoms of Mercia, Wessex and Northumberland were still fighting each other over the throne of England. I have just written to the College of Arms in London to ask them if they could clarify - from their standpoint - why the flag of Saint David has never been incorporated into the Union's flag. Whether the answer- if I even get one - will be an honest and truthful one remains to be seen...

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andy w

There are different ways to approach partys that are perceived to have more extreme views. Canadas Liberal Party openly supported Trumps election as when he was previously USA President their vote share rose and Canada's global profile was raised. So let Nigel Farage be quizzed live on TV by viewers for him to detail how Reform will grow the Welsh economy / benefit from Brexit etc.

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Felicity

Priceless! Could there be a comedy series in this? Call it "Brexit means Breakfast".

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Fenton

RT was right. Brexit means A Dog's Breakfast.

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Jeff

Brexit eh. farages huge lie and idiots still fall for him. Are these economists the ones that grace the like of far right think tanks that got brexit wrong? Minford types proven wrong? What do you think farage will accomplish? Apart from tank the country faster than liz and let loose the racist mob. Sell off the NHS, increase costs to every ordinary UK tax payer whilst giving away huge parts of the UK to the energy think tanks funding him now. Really, the level of stupid supporting farage is not amazing any more, its expected.

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Fenton

Ignoring the small print isn't a good idea. Reform have no actual plans for reform. Why doesn't this bother you?

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Jeff

Everyone knows. Sod all. Reforms owner has form. farage is Mr Breexit, the biggest home goal in history and the loons still tout him as some sort of messiah. Populist governments tank economies. farage is up to his neck in trump and the far right over there, guess how it is going/ With snatch squads, concentration camps, health care removed, economy sinking. The blokes an economic idiot and will dangle someone not white in-front of the usual suspects in the UK to get power then break everything. I dont like what Labour are doing but they are a long way from the damage reform will do.

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Paul

It seems to me that none of the Main party’s leaders care anything for wales but they see our upcoming election as an opportunity for publicity. I’m sure that there are a lot of people who are dissatisfied with labour and the conservatives. They think that Plaid are only interested in independence. My concern is that the upcoming Senedd election will be considered ‘insignificant’ and will vote Reform as a protest. (I suspect that is what happened with Brexit vote). What I have noticed is that whenever I see or hear any news that isn’t Trump related it seems to be all about Reform. I know it’s holiday time in government but where are the politicians who should be defending our democracy?

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Jeff

Oh I see, it was the others that did it. I never realised. You are down that rabid rabbit hole. When fartage gets power, how you going to fund medical aid in your retirement? Anyhoo, your hero with a picture of a lot of people a different colour to him. Nothing to do with brexit. Nosireebob. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Point_(UKIP_poster)

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Adrian

It was others who were left to implement it - and assured everyone that they knew how - it really isn't complicated Jeff.

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Lyn E

The far right are using Welsh flags too.

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Jeff

An Independent Councillor runs a facebook page for an area in Bridgend (with other moderators). I don't use facebook, I have been shown Voice of Wales on his feed wanting to get the flags up and Indy Councillor seems to think flags are a good thing. I don't know if independent councillors across Wales have some sort of coop going on but starting to look iffy.

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Jeff

How they going to do that then bud? Seriously, lay out the plan. The costs. The reality. (its been measured, it doesn't stack up past a rally cry to the village idiots). Speaking of which, where is the grifter? Run away in case the riots did kick off? Not in the US again is he? Oh....

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Adrian

I don't pretend to know the ins & outs Jeff, but at least there is a plan. Personally, I'd suggest we detain all illegal arrivals securely in dry, warm facilities. No freedom to roam the streets, no mobile phones, no money, no legal aid, just the kind of living reminiscent of a very basic military installation. They can either then wait until their asylum claims are processed, or ask to be deported. Once word gets out they'll stop coming in a matter of weeks.

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Dai Ponty

The Butchers Apron should be used same as DAILY MAIL DAILY EXPRESS DAILY TELEGRAPH AND THE BEANO BETTER KNOWN AS THE SUN TOILET PAPER

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David J

Would you like to name some of these "seasoned economists"? No, you can't, because you made them up. IMF bailout in 6 months? Don't be silly.

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I don't pretend to know the ins & outs Jeff, but at least there is a plan. Personally, I'd suggest we detain all illegal arrivals securely in dry, warm facilities. No freedom to roam the streets, no mobile phones, no money, no legal aid...

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