Submission to the independent commission on the constitutional future of Wales - International Viewpoint

The model of devolution in Britain is a complex one. Cymru/ Wales has had a separate legislative chamber since 1999 at the same time as the Scottish Parliament was reintroduced. (The question of Ireland is a seperate one we don't deal with here.) While the two new chambers were introduced at the same time and the Westminster (uk-wide) parliament had reserved matters from both, the Scottish parliament had wider powers than the Welsh assembly (called Sennedd/Parliament since 2020). This was largely in response to the fact that the movement for independence or at least greater devolution in Scotland was much stronger than in Cymru/ Wales. This situation has shifted in the last decade or so in that the movement for independence in Wales has mushroomed faster than that in Scotland so that while the Scottish movement remains stronger, the gap is much smaller than it was in 1999. There has been a difference in the political trajectories in Cymru/Wales and Scotland. since 1999 the assembly/Sennedd has been Labour led - since 2021 in co-operation with Plaid Cymru. in Scotland the voting system was crafted supposedly to exclude the possibility of the Scottish national party getting a majority and a coalition of Scottish Labour and the Scottish Liberal democrats kept them out until 2007 but since then the SNP have had a sizeable majority. While the Scottish Labour Party leadership has been resolutely hostile to independence the party in Cymru/Wales - while not in favour of independence, preferring a federal solution - is not openly hostile. Recently Mark Drakeford, Labour First Minister in Cymru, publicly supported the right of Scotland to hold a referendum on independence without permission from Westminster. And there is an organisation of supporters of independence (Labour for an Independent Wales , - L4IW) within the Labour Party in Cymru, some of whom have stood as Labour candidates. A situation not tolerated in Scottish Labour. This article was drafted by members of AntiCapitalist Resistance and agreed by its Steering Committee.

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