Yes it's true that in my posts I use the history of Wales to try to illustrate what Wales could be capable of if it was self governing. My purpose in using our history to illustrate this is because it gives a true indication of the real character of the Welsh and not the long subjugated Welsh that we have at present. It is true that Wales has a long way to go and could not immediately jump from its present state to a position of independence/self government overnight; it would have to be a gradual process and would need some help from outside.

Wales is not currently governed from Wales, rather the Assembly is used to "rubber stamp" legislation coming from Westminster and is nothing but a facade to placate some of the voices for self government. It has been the policy of the English government in Westminster for centuries to accept the natural leaders who arise in Wales and bring them into line by giving out such rewards as government positions, knighthoods, peerages and these days a sinicure on some quango or company board. However wrong these individuals may be for turning their backs on Wales it is easy to see how they might be lured away by short term rewards rather than face the hard fight of trying to separate Wales from England, the rewards of which may be intangible and which they may never live to see. Thus, for generations Wales has been left effectively leaderless. The same old "divide and conquer".

In its present state of relative poverty Wales qualifies for Objective One funding from the EU. Under rule from Westminster, the country that fuelled the industrial revolution is now reduced to begging, simply because it cannot invest the profits from its resources back in itself; Westminster has always decided where and how this is spent and under English rule this will always be the situation. Remember that Westminster is numerically dominated by English MPs, they will see absolutely no benefit from investing in Wales and so have absolutely no incentive to try to build up the Welsh economy, far better for them to see England get the investment. As long as it is like this Wales can never improve or break out of its current state. So, European Union funding to help poorer nations comes with conditions, one of those conditions being that the government of the receiving country must match the EU funding pound for pound. The English government at Westminster has steadfastly refused to match the EU money and so Wales does not even receive the funding for poorer EU countries, thus locking Wales into a cycle of poverty from which it cannot escape until it escapes from England. So, rather than ask about Wales could it make it on its own? It would be more appropriate to wonder how the heck it still survives! Hence my story in my posts about how the universities in Wales were not set up by the English government but by the thousands of individual contributions of poor Welsh mine workers. Anything Wales has got it has had to do for itself, and this while having its mineral resources plundered and then sqandered in England by a hostile government which saw Wales as no more than a colony of serfs to be plundered and used. This attitude in Government is largely intact and Wales cannot move ahead until we rid ourselves of this imposition.

Then there is the fact that England has simply annexed and then colonised Wales. No matter which way you look at it this is simply wrong and just a natural injustice. I have yet to hear anyone defend the annexing of Poland by Germany or that of Hungary and Czechoslovakia by the USSR. These were quite rightly universally condemned by the rest of the world. Just because Wales was illegally annexed by England at a time when might was right it still does not justify letting the situation remain so. Many Welsh believe that Wales is part of the United Kingdom and don't truly understand that it is simply an annex of England. Neither do they realise that it is the stated aim of the Act of Union to remove and destroy Wales. The English never talk about this historical injustice. I refuse to bend my knee to any English monarch who unjustly occupies my homeland and I refuse to recognise any Englishman who calls himself the Prince of Wales. It is a stolen title. Hence my call for Welsh people to find out their history which has been hidden from them.

Why do Welsh people need to get out and learn their history? It is a fact that for centuries the history of Wales has nevr been taught in schools. Many Welsh people don't understand their true roots and instead accept of English myth that Wales was somehow just a country of nomadic savages before the English came along and civilised us and that it was never a real country. The true history of Wales reveals to the reader an advanced, fair and proud Celtic culture and instills a true sense of ones real roots in history. This information can provide the key to unlocking the self confidence that the Welsh need to see that they really can once again account for themselves in this world and be FREE. Not much to ask is it?

Owain