Normal Mouth (Rhondda, blogger): Is the military a wedge issue in Welsh politics? The BBC certainly seemed to think so last week when they splashed details of Plaid Cymru Vice President Jill Evans' proposals for a downsized Welsh defence force under UN control, in the event of Wales becoming independent.
Evans' colleagues didn't seem to share her enthusiasm for a Welsh force shorn of most tanks, planes and ships, and Plaid's National Council's firmly rejected the proposal. This suggests the Nationalists believe that such a position will do far more harm than good electorally. But with the UK embroiled in two messy wars and the treatment of the armed services attracting increasing controversy, the Unionist parties are equally in no hurry to don the khaki. Instead, the battle lines over the Welsh military are drawn around two perennial and more generic topics.
The first is Wales's continuing affection for big employers. Welsh politicians like to talk about entrepreneurship and small business, but voters seem to prefer the security of a few large-scale industries. With 6,000 jobs promised for the new St Athan Academy, training people to fight wars is beginning to look like a very satisfactory successor to car-making or TV assembly. The fact that the jobs will be state sponsored only adds to their air of sustainability, as well as satisfying another Welsh urge to give public service. Any party questioning this investment needs a good reason to do so. A commitment to pacifism isn't enough, as others in the party recognise.
But there is more to Jill Evans' objections than pacifism, as sincerely held as that belief doubtless is. There are few more adhesive and tangible representations of Britain than its armed forces. New Labour's adventures in the desert and amongst the poppy fields may be unpopular, but they are no more so in Wales than elsewhere. Nor does anyone but a caucus of ultra-left Nationalists believe that these conflicts are English imperialist outings. In an era of increasing Welshness, our soldiers, sailors and pilots serve to remind us that there are reasons, both martial and ideological, to still be British. It is natural therefore that Plaid would wish to find reasons to question the necessity of such an institution.
Plaid's overall project depends on the glue of Britishness being gradually dissolved, so even while wiser heads have prevailed this time it is inevitable that the party will find other ways of suggesting that a British army with extensive international commitments is against the interests of Wales. In that sense, the future of our armed forces is still very much an issue that will divide Nationalists and Unionists - and make last week's clash no more than an initial border skirmish at the start of a long war.
