Guy Aitchison (Bristol, OK): Recent rumblings from senior Welsh Conservatives seem to confirm a remarkable transformation in Tory attitudes towards devolution and the future of the UK. Anthony’s summer competition offered the surprising revelation that a quotation on Britishness and the demise of the unitary state had in fact come from Tory AM David Melding. Now former AM Glyn Davies, who will be challenging Lembit Opek at the next general election, has expressed the view that an independent Wales would “survive and flourish”. The comment was made by Davies writing in his blog in response to Labour MP Don Touhig’s claim that there was no appetite in Wales for more powers for the National Assembly. In his blog Davies goes out of his way to explain and clarify his remarks which appear in today’s Western Mail under the headline “Tory says Wales could go it alone”. Although he is firmly against independence, which would make Wales a more “insular” nation, he rejects the “insulting” idea that Wales would not be able to survive without the economic support of England. The surge in SNP support in Scotland following a highly negative Labour campaign seems to have convinced him that opposition to independence must be “based on sound argument, not on assertions that belittle the Welsh people”.
Davies’ clarifications shouldn’t obscure the extraordinary shift in attitudes that has taken place amongst Welsh Conservatives. As recently as 2005 the Welsh Tory Election Manifesto was promising to offer voters a chance to abolish the new Assembly. Could it be that a progressive Welsh patriotism has replaced the formerly implacable Tory opposition to the “break up of Britain”?
