A few things happened, I think. First is that insidious inferiority complex the Welsh have had eight hundred odd years to be infected with; there is a general malaise about the idea of being able to run our own affairs to the point that even pushing for devo max makes you into a raving nationalist apparently. :p
Some is anti-Welsh attitudes by English transplants in Wales. The man who stood on the PC ticket in Ceredigion, where I live, used to be a journalist and found that a number of BNP supporters, back when BNP was a thing, moved to places like Gwynedd to get away from all that nasty diversity they had to deal with in other places. The fact that rural Wales is homogenous because there has never been any reason to immigrate there (people usually want to move somewhere with the possibility of a job and a decent life) is beside the point, as is the fact they do this without the slighest respect for the local language and culture. :p
And as heleninwales says, much of it is language-related. Even though the south used to speak Welsh, and the Beasleys lived in Llaneli, and there is a tradition of activism there (or used to be) it has become a divided place where non-Welsh speakers feel attacked by attempts to revive the language. So much of Plaid has always been about the language. Plus, if nationalism is your main binding feature, you will lose people. I have been a bit lukewarm on PC in the past because there is a conservative faction I am uncomfortable with--social conservatives who just also happen to want Wales to run its own affairs. Which is fair, but I think the competing factions then drive away people who have other chief concerns.
Plaid is only recenty getting a clearer message out about anti-austerity, pro-Europe, and general progressive socialist policies, but they haven't had quite enough time at it, I think. They did actually make great strides in getting votes from places they aren't traditionally a challenger for. Where I live, it was a very narrow margin indeed. We're one of the few LibDem holdouts, and I think that is because people are generally afraid of change, and our MP, while not especially useful, is a decent bloke who a lot of people know, or feel like they know.
Wales could absolutely be an independent country. Not immediately, but they could do it. As it stands at the moment, they won't. Inferiority complex again.
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Date: 2015-05-11 11:15 am (UTC)Some is anti-Welsh attitudes by English transplants in Wales. The man who stood on the PC ticket in Ceredigion, where I live, used to be a journalist and found that a number of BNP supporters, back when BNP was a thing, moved to places like Gwynedd to get away from all that nasty diversity they had to deal with in other places. The fact that rural Wales is homogenous because there has never been any reason to immigrate there (people usually want to move somewhere with the possibility of a job and a decent life) is beside the point, as is the fact they do this without the slighest respect for the local language and culture. :p
And as
Plaid is only recenty getting a clearer message out about anti-austerity, pro-Europe, and general progressive socialist policies, but they haven't had quite enough time at it, I think. They did actually make great strides in getting votes from places they aren't traditionally a challenger for. Where I live, it was a very narrow margin indeed. We're one of the few LibDem holdouts, and I think that is because people are generally afraid of change, and our MP, while not especially useful, is a decent bloke who a lot of people know, or feel like they know.
Wales could absolutely be an independent country. Not immediately, but they could do it. As it stands at the moment, they won't. Inferiority complex again.