Yesterday’s Royal Wedding was accompanied by reams of analysis on TV and in the newspapers by Royal and Political experts as well as historians about what the marriage meant for the monarchy and Britain in the short, medium and long term, most of it was of the cut and paste variety that gets churned out for these events adding very little to our understanding, but there was a piece from Royal Historian David Starkey in the Times that didn’t fully conform and is worth a closer look.
In his article (behind a Times pay wall sadly) he stated there was a North/South divided in yesterday’s Wedding Celebrations that was caused by the changing nature of politics on these islands, mainly since devolution and if you looked at the map of street parties its add weight to his argument, lots in the South East and fewer the further North you went and in Scotland with Glasgow being the only city in the UK not to hold any street parties to celebrate the marriage of William and Kate.
He went on to talk about this separation forming two political entities that of Scotland and England, both alien and non compatible with the other. There was no mention of Wales until he stated that Wales, particularly South Wales was firmly on South side of this divide, that of British establishment and England politics in this new political order.
Given Welsh folklore his comments will be easily dismissed, but there were very few places in Wales where the Royal wedding wasn’t celebrated, symbols of Wales were on full display yesterday from Kate Welsh gold ring to Welsh Royal harpist and daffodils on the Wedding Cake as well as the many Welsh establishment figures who were present in Westminster Abbey for the big day.
It could all simply be dismissed as a rant if we we weren't in the middle of Election Campaigns to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly where this analysis rings true in the battles for control of the two legislatures, which couldn’t be more different.
Labour in Wales is firmly back in control and unchallenged for power (if it ever really lost control) while in Scotland the SNP and Labour are in a bitter battle for control of Holyrood, which many commentators including Gerry Hassan believe will define Scotland and the UK in the near future.
David Starkey’s thesis also challenges the notion of Wales as a socialist bastion holding out against English Tory rule, a narrative that dominates so much of Welsh political debate and has informed how we Welsh see ourselves and want to be seen by others over the years.
So it’s worth asking is Wales more tuned into the British establishment and English politics than anyone including our politicians are prepared to admit to or acknowledge?
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
Balls & Miliband to take charge of Scottish Campaign as SNP pull ahead
Given the Welsh election is all sown up with at least half of Welsh voters ‘returning to the Labour fold’ on May 5th, the leadership of the Labour Party is turning its eye to Scotland where they trail the SNP by 10 – 13 points in the latest opinion polls, but even with this news most commentators still agree that Labour will end up on the opposition benches for another term as momentum is with the SNP.
According to the Spectator’s Coffeehouse blog the two Ed’s are taking control of Scottish Labour’s campaign and trying a different message that a vote for the SNP would be one that would put the economic recovery at risk (insert your own joke) instead of telling voters that Tories eat babies and are responsible for all the evil in the world, the type of drivel that works much better on Welsh voters.
It states ‘The aim is simple: use a scaremongering argument to woo the wavering Lib Dem voters who have always been seen as the key to this campaign. So far, Alex Salmond has done far better than Labour in winning them over. His "I stand up for Scotland" claim has resonated far more with those who want to protest at Westminster-inspired cuts than Labour’s message.'
And continues ‘Until now, Labour has liked to portray its campaign for the Holyrood elections as a totally Scottish affair: run in Scotland, organised in Scotland and led by Scottish politicians. Not any more. Senior staffers in Ed Miliband’s office started briefing Scottish hacks last night that Miliband is now going to take a much more "hands on" approach to the campaign. Miliband has only made one, brief appearance in the campaign so far. But he and Ed Balls are due to be in Scotland this week to push a more strident "anti-independence" message.
Gordon Brown has also only appeared on the campaign trail once so far, and that was to meet a few voters within easy reach of his home. But he is also due to take a more active part in the Scottish Labour campaign this week.
Will it work? Scottish politicians are rightly wary of involving Westminster leaders too much because they tend to run against the semi-autonomous spirit of devolution. The leader of Scottish MSPs, Iain Gray, will know he risks being ridiculed as someone who needed to be saved by his party bosses from London.
Yet Labour managers must have weighed up these risks and decided it was still worth sending for the cavalry — in the form of Balls and Miliband. And this is not without risk for Miliband. With Labour seemingly heading for defeat in Scotland, he will now be associated with a campaign that may well end in disaster.'
Who knows if it works at least there is still some life in the Scottish campaign that has been sorely missing in the Welsh campaign, but never fear it will all be over next week and the politicians in Cardiff Bay can get back to rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic once more.
According to the Spectator’s Coffeehouse blog the two Ed’s are taking control of Scottish Labour’s campaign and trying a different message that a vote for the SNP would be one that would put the economic recovery at risk (insert your own joke) instead of telling voters that Tories eat babies and are responsible for all the evil in the world, the type of drivel that works much better on Welsh voters.
It states ‘The aim is simple: use a scaremongering argument to woo the wavering Lib Dem voters who have always been seen as the key to this campaign. So far, Alex Salmond has done far better than Labour in winning them over. His "I stand up for Scotland" claim has resonated far more with those who want to protest at Westminster-inspired cuts than Labour’s message.'
And continues ‘Until now, Labour has liked to portray its campaign for the Holyrood elections as a totally Scottish affair: run in Scotland, organised in Scotland and led by Scottish politicians. Not any more. Senior staffers in Ed Miliband’s office started briefing Scottish hacks last night that Miliband is now going to take a much more "hands on" approach to the campaign. Miliband has only made one, brief appearance in the campaign so far. But he and Ed Balls are due to be in Scotland this week to push a more strident "anti-independence" message.
Gordon Brown has also only appeared on the campaign trail once so far, and that was to meet a few voters within easy reach of his home. But he is also due to take a more active part in the Scottish Labour campaign this week.
Will it work? Scottish politicians are rightly wary of involving Westminster leaders too much because they tend to run against the semi-autonomous spirit of devolution. The leader of Scottish MSPs, Iain Gray, will know he risks being ridiculed as someone who needed to be saved by his party bosses from London.
Yet Labour managers must have weighed up these risks and decided it was still worth sending for the cavalry — in the form of Balls and Miliband. And this is not without risk for Miliband. With Labour seemingly heading for defeat in Scotland, he will now be associated with a campaign that may well end in disaster.'
Who knows if it works at least there is still some life in the Scottish campaign that has been sorely missing in the Welsh campaign, but never fear it will all be over next week and the politicians in Cardiff Bay can get back to rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic once more.
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