Welsh Armed Forces

There have been a couple of interesting posts on this site about the role of the armed forces in an independent Wales.

The armed forces question is always a potent argument against independence, and one that needs to be addressed. It is a question that needs more than a blog post to address in full, so the following is just a thought or two on a subject that needs much more attention

The fact that Welsh people have contributed, selflessly and bravely, to armed conflict when it has arisen (for better or worse) is without doubt. Any suggestion that Wales is incapable of raising an effective armed force flies in the face of history. In every war in the past 400 years the number of Welsh combatants and casualties has been more than our "fair share" per capita of population.

When the British nationalists rubbish the idea of a Welsh Army by saying it won't be good enough they rubbish every single name that appears on a cenotaph in every Welsh village, town and city. They rubbish the contribution made by the Welsh Army in every conflict before, during and since the two world wars.

The main "army" question against independence is that an independent Welsh army would be incapable of defending Wales, independently, from invasion. This is probably true. But who is likely to invade Wales? Invasions usually come from neighbouring countries. Are England or Ireland going to invade an independent Wales?

Since the formation of the United Kingdom the UK has never, ever, fought threats to these islands independently, it has always been dependant on alliances for home defence. Presumably if an independent Wales faced the threat of invasion we could depend on friends and allies too.

The only times that UK armed forces have acted unilaterally is in defence of far-flung empirical territories. Wales doesn't have an empire, doesn't want one and will never have the need to have that unilateral ability.

The current Welsh Armed Forces, under British control, have shown how much they are capable of contributing to international efforts, as part of an European force, an UN force and (dare I say it on this site?) even a NATO force. That contribution wouldn't be less if the Welsh Army were answerable to an Independent Welsh Government, it would probably be more.

Even if it was about the same or a little bit less the Welsh contribution would have a lot more appreciation and respect than it has at present.

Montenegro - seat in EU | Wales - useless Assembly

So, Montengro is beginning discussions about joining the EU as a full nation state. What do the Labour, Tory and LibDem voters think makes Wales so exceptionally useless that it can't run its own affairs?

The only answer I can think for Labour and the Tories is that they want to keep the Nuclear phallic symbol and pretend they're part of a big country.

In the words of Mrs Davies from Burry Port, 'Wales would be a third world country like Albania, still using horse and cart if it weren't for England.'

That sums it up really. Much better we don't run our own affairs, after all, our population is only 5 times greater and our GNP only 10 times greater than that of Montenegro!