Thursday, 16th July 2026 Cardiff 29° · Clear sky
NationCymru A news service by the people of Wales, for the people of Wales.

Opinion

How Bad Does It Have To Get?

By Mark Mansfield
First Minister and Labour leader in Wales, Baroness Eluned Morgan. Photo Ben Birchall/PA Wire

Ben Wildsmith

Swimming through the bilge of world politics is becoming increasingly lowering. This week, we found that the UK government managed to endanger thousands of Afghans with a breach of email protocol that would get you or I fired from our jobs. ‘Please find attached the entire list of people who claimed to help us during the Afghan campaign, c.c. The Taliban.’

Closer to home, our First Minister gave an interview saying that an independent Wales would be ‘extremely poor.’ That’s from the Gerald Ratner school of leadership – ‘How can I accept the abject financial settlement offered to Wales by my own party in Westminster? Because Wales is total crap!

The USA continued its journey from preeminent world power to reality TV show as Donald Trump horrified his voters by denying that files on Jeffrey Epstein exist. Having fanned the flames of every batshit conspiracy going, from Obama’s birth certificate to Pizzagate, he’s bottled the big one for reasons upon which we can only speculate.

[mid-content-banner]

Bloodsport

Were Trump’s voting base to turn on him, it would truly be a bloodsport to witness, as the befuddled MAGAverse realises it’s betrayal. Praise the Lord and pass the AR15, Betty-Lou-Thelma-Liz, we’ve been fooled again!

Europe and the UK is poised to pour more billions into the Ukraine war, having agreed to buy Patriot defence systems from America. No resolution is in sight, no clear path to victory apparent, we’re to take that on trust.

Most egregiously, the chilling lies that Israel continues to spew about its genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza have become so brazen that, on a governmental level, nobody seems to know how to challenge them, even if the will were there. Day after day innocents are slaughtered as they queue for food and the governments of the world accept Israeli excuses whilst wringing their hands about antisemitism. The abdication of moral leadership, even amongst Muslim states, is so obscene as to amount to collaboration.

History is not going to be kind to this generation of politicians. All over the world, from the potholes in your street to the millions dying in Ukraine and starving in Gaza, the political response to human need is too often a shrug. In a world led by the markets, politicians now fall into two categories. There are those, like Trump, Putin, and Netanyahu who exercise vast political power because they serve market or interests in resources and weaponry.

[lower-mid-content-banner]

Weaklings

On the other hand, we have supine weaklings like Starmer and Macron who can exercise next to no real power without permission from the markets. At the very bottom of this totem pole sits the Welsh Government, which now openly accepts that our nation is a charity case.

The pandemic was an opportunity to reset all of this. Everybody said so at the time. We were going to ‘build back better’ and learn the lessons we’d been afforded by taking a break from the inhuman scramble for growth that had dominated our lives prior to lockdown.

That moment has passed without enough mourning. There was never going to be a return to the ‘old normal’, massive government borrowing precluded that.

We could, however, have taken a hard look at how our societies are organised and resolved to direct their energy towards the wellbeing of people first and above the bottom line of corporations. We could have recovered ourselves.

Cruelty

The most despicable lie about how we are governed is that the cruelty of it represents human nature. It doesn’t. I’m not like that, very few of you are like that. In our own lives we don’t turn to the weakest people we know and shake them down for the few pennies we have then pretend we had no choice.

If an independent Wales were to be ‘extremely poor’, and I don’t believe it would be, then it would, I hope, reflect the values of the people here. We would organise our resources according to those values and make it work.

Surveying the results of governance by corrupt psychopaths and those to weak to challenge them, I’d trust a small, accountable administration to deliver for human beings over a status quo that is remote and beholden to rotten interests.

At some point we must ask: how bad does it have to get?

For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.

Get more trusted Welsh news

Choose Nation.Cymru as a preferred source in Google News to see more of our journalism.

Choose Nation.Cymru as a preferred source in Google News

18 comments

Amir

Blimey Ben, I think you've covered all aspects of what is wrong with Wales and the world governance in one opinion piece. I agree, Wales is not poor, net exporter of energy, extensive trade and business connections. With Zion, muslim leaders have just been silent and here in the UK, anyone speaks out, they get arrested, muted and lose their job in the BBC. It is a different world we are growing older into and it looks like life is about to get a lot harder. Brilliant opinion piece Ben, thank you.

Reply
Pete

Who has been arrested just for speaking out? Or were they - as I suspect - arrested for other reasons?

Reply
Neil Anderson

Brava, Ben! The people of Cymru can put an end to this arrant nonsense and incompetence. We must vote for STRONG independence in 2026, and thereafter... Nothing less will do. Sefyll ar wahân fel Cymru ond sefyll gyda’n gilydd fel CymryStand apart as Wales but stand together as WelshAnnibyniaeth is the answer.

Reply
David J

Annibyniaeth nawr!

Reply
Adam

Independence is normal.

Reply
Jonathan Dean

Great piece, a pleasure to read

Reply
John Young

I was actually thinking about this today, that if Wales was to become Independent it would present us with the chance to enshrine in WELSH law the way Government should work rather than how the utterly corrupt Westminster works.

Reply
Y Cymro

The contempt Welsh & UK Labour has for Wales is pernicious. An independent Wales would be poor, says our lane donkey First Minister Eluned Morgan. What total BS! I'd like to remind our FM that British Unionism has exploited Wales for generations. It they who have caused any poverty not any Welsh Nationalist. In fact. Independence would make Wales prosperous, and she knows it! If independent would cut out cloth accordingly and not live beyond our means like Little Britain. We would benefit finally from our natural resources. Could become a member state of the EU, or just follow our own path in the world. It would be our choice as a people if we were part of the EU or outside not England. As an independent country Wales would have a seat at the UN, not as we currently are, lumped in with Britain (England) who still think of itself as a world power when it's a little fish in a big pond. Wales is a political prisoner. We have never been part of any United Kingdom. We are led like a pit pony to perpetual servitude. Our views and opinions are ignored by an increasingly authoritarian Whitehall governments, who choose to maintain the Welsh Not and Act of Annexation 1535. Welsh Labour along with their English overseers UK Labour and the Conservatives merely manage poverty in Wales. And the only ones who really benefit are these cretins, not us, the longsuffering Welsh public. Eluned Morgan like most Labour Unionists are champagne socialists like to talk Wales down. Take our "Baroness" Morgan. No doubt this career politician stated many times in interviews how , " I came into politics to make a difference, ". Oh sure Eluned. To your bank balance and status as a peer in the House of Lords, more like. It's screw you, I'm alright jack. Kerching!!!! 💸 On one hand she says in that infamous interview that we are too poor to become independent, but then says we are holding an international investment summit in December. Big enough to do that aren't we Eluned. She then proceeds to say she wants to grow the economy to make us more prosperous. Your party has ruled Wales for 26 bloody years? You have nowhere to hide anymore. Your true face has been revealed. Look, Labour prefers a poor Wales. After all, poverty is their business. They have no intention of making Wales prosperous. Why on earth would they? I'll tell you why. It would result in a confident people. And what does confidence breed? Yes, aspiration leading to those independent minded. See, a prosperous Wales is not in Labour's interest. What was laughable too was when she compared Wales with the Island of Malta. Which is as big as Ynys Mon. She then told the journalist that Malta was more capable with the population of 552,747 than Wales. Funny, we are geographically the size of Belgium. Have a population 3.2 million people with an abundance of natural resources Malta could only dream of. Eluned you are a total joke. Really you are. I'm embarrassed that she's First Minister of Wales. It's a priority now. We must kick Eluned Morgan and Welsh Labour out of office next May Senedd election. It's vital we elect a Welsh Nationalist government. Only a Paid Cymru First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth can stand up to Westminster and Whitehall. Plaid power over lame Labour. And we wonder why we lack confidence as a people and nation when our so-called leader has little faith in our ability as a country and people.

Reply
David J

Well said!

Reply
Christine Jones

Really good article Ben. I think our people need to undertake some deep thinking on many of these topics. What do we want a future Cymru to look like, and how will it act, is a question that should be discussed across our nation. I thought that the seminal work of Evans and Sandry on a proposed Welsh Constitution started to give us some food for thought: 022021-Wales-constitution.pdf Perhaps the politicos and economists should take this, analyse each section, and start to envisage how Independence could operate. Unless we openly engage on these matters, and try to find pathways out of the frazzled UK State, then we are all just talking to the wall.

Reply
Nia James

Totally agree Christine. Ben's article was spot on. We definitely need our people to do some medium to long term strategic thinking and planning. The excellent proposed constitution you cite is certainly a place to start. Don't let London set the agenda again and again. Otherwise, Cymru will be whatever GB News determines it shall be.

Reply
Undecided

I think you make a valid point on a very good article. Cymru has been short changed financially; but a great deal of money has also been wasted by third division politicians. I certainly agree that it is in Welsh Labour‘s interest to keep Wales poor; but I am not convinced that independence is necessarily the answer. I get the passion for it; but the economic argument is unconvincing - and the one thing that is near certain is a unionist majority in the Senedd next year. “How bad does it have to get?”. A lot worse unfortunately.

Reply
HarrisR

The sort of speech the Leader of Plaid should be making from the rooftops, with earth shaking anger... But you know never will. Why? Because ..."more tea Vicar, we are really quite sensible you know!"

Reply
David J

Because if Plaid goes any further, they will be crucified by the right-wing press and the sort of fools who think Reform are anything other than self-serving idiots and grifters.

Reply
Undecided

Maybe; but politicians not having the courage of their convictions and saying anything/nothing to get elected is a big part of why we are in this mess.

Reply
HarrisR

So, say goodbye to "Independence" now then, because you ain't seen nothing like the right wing press onslaught to that should it appear remotely realisable! Plaid's electoral "politics" play to be all things to all people and all demographics, and as questions sharpen and public anger grows, that is NO LONGER possible. You just encourage the very "they're all the same" reaction and cynicism you fear.

Reply
Cwm Rhondda

I agree with every word, enough is enough, people being routinely murdered waiting for food in Gaza is beyond words. Ben our Senedd needs people like you.

Reply
Mimi

Re: "how bad does it have to get?" The answer is in plain sight for everyone who honestly looks at the history of 'advanced' people and the horrific state we're in now which shows the perpetual activities of an insane species --- see “The 2 Married Pink Elephants In The Historical Room” ... https://www.rolf-hefti.com/covid-19-coronavirus.html Yet... "The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduces them. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim." --- Gustave Le Bon, in 1895 "There are large numbers of scientists, doctors, and presstitutes who will sell out truth for money, such as those who describe people dropping dead on a daily basis as “rare” when it it happening all over the vaccinated world." --- Paul Craig Roberts, Ph.D., American economist & former US regime official, in 2024

Reply

Leave a reply

Replying to Undecided Cancel

Maybe; but politicians not having the courage of their convictions and saying anything/nothing to get elected is a big part of why we are in this mess.

Comments are reviewed before they appear.