It’s time for the long overdue Welsh independence referendum. The recent shoving of the union down our throats in Wales is extremely worrying to a nation who’s whole identity, culture, language and economy was quite literally caned into submission and ruined by the same union / country over centuries of oppressive rule. Boris Johnson needs to understand that most Welsh people do not identify as British nor want the union. Wales is not even included on the abysmal Union Jack that includes England, Scotland and Northern Ireland but not Wales. Wales never opted to join the union but it was decided for us as Wales was an occupied territory. To add insult to injury they’re trying to put their disgraceful flag over 8 stories of a central Cardiff tax office. This building was named after William Morgan, perhaps the most high profile figure in the survival of the Welsh language, having translated the bible into Welsh from Greek and Hebrew. So this petition demands that the Welsh people are given the Welsh independence referendum that is long overdue.

Why do Welsh people want to break away from the union and take their future into their own hands?

Because England has led an aggressive campaign of oppression over the Welsh for centuries that ensues still today. The British empire has not benefitted Wales and lets face it, British is south eastern English. When you do a British accent you most certainly don’t speak in a Welsh, Scottish or Irish accent (and neither North, South West or other parts of England)

From far in our history Wales has suffered from English persecution, killing our only king of Wales and the last prince of Wales. It annexed Wales, without permission or the people’s support, to the English Crown’s property in the statue of Rhuddlan in the greedy, landgrabbing banditry that would ensue for centuries. It obtained it through disgracefully killing and occupying. Henry VIII banned the Welsh language in official roles in Wales, one of the first steps leading to the demise of the Welsh language and favouritism of English people in Wales. Over centuries they invaded our lands until our eastern borders shrunk and shrunk until what it is today and took the Welsh marches all for themselves. We are England’s oldest colony - their Western neighbour.

Whilst the English got richer the Welsh got poorer. To this day all the expensive farms and manor homes are still mostly bought and owned by people originating from across the border, with locals priced out of their own towns. Sometimes these purchases are second homes that are used two weeks a year, contributing nothing to local economies or society. As more moved in, towns lost their Welshness, historical Welsh house names and geography renamed from Welsh names to English names. That hasn’t changed in centuries and started with the English invasions from the better part of a millennia ago.

The union has benefitted England at the expense of the other three of the four nations (yes Boris I will call them that). Wales has great poverty as a result, many parts, by GDP, worse than parts of Eastern Europe and 4.5 times less prosperous than London. You cannot blame the Welsh government, this started long before them. This has happened from centuries of pillaging and plundering.

They taxed and tolled us to breaking point - the Rebecca riots. Charging us for travelling within our own land until our people couldn’t afford to live and had to resist.

They broke our identity furthermore by caning our children for speaking Welsh at a national level (Welsh Not) and Brad y Llyfrau Gleision (treachery of the blue books) where, in deeply religious times, Westminster brought out a report saying the Welsh language was evil (furthermore that the Welsh were ignorant, lazy and immoral). As a result of all this Welsh people rejected their identity, culture and language in a hope of avoiding persecution and in the hope of getting a job. They even changed their names to English names. Hence the demise of the historical Welsh language.

Thousands of acres of Welsh land was flooded for water for the English - for Birkenhead and the wider Wirral, Liverpool, Cheshire, sometimes Manchester, Birmingham and elsewhere in the midlands. That includes Llyn Celyn (Treweryn), Llyn Vyrnwy, Llyn Brenig, Llyn Clywedog, Elan Valley, Llyn Tegid, Alwen reservoir and possibly more. Thousands of acres of Welsh land for, initially free water to England. Some contracts set as little as 7p per year for 999 years ensuring England a crucial commodity for next to zero expense. Not a single Welsh AM / MP voted in favour at the UK Parliament for the drowning of Tryweryn, but their voices were disregarded, and England overruled. Not to mention Liverpool didn’t need the water and in fact sold it on at a profit.

From water to coal and slate. English aristocrats moved into Welsh manor houses and big positions in business and society, using local Welsh as a labour force to mine coal and other minerals. The local Welsh and British migrants bore all the risk of death and injury getting paid a pittance, whilst the ruling English took the profit. After hundreds of years of profit, the only thing they left were the waste heaps. One fell into Pantglas school, Aberfan, killing 144 children and adults. These heaps were under management of the British owned National Coal Board, and after an inquiry there was no employment termination, prosecution or fine. There are heaps still here today and they still slip, like in 2020 following storm Dennis. Prince Phillip may have visited but he didn’t stop the British government from taking £150,000 from the Aberfan disaster fund nor the Charity Commision based in London from imposing that no payments should be allowed to go to parents who had lost a child, which was then changed to only after examination to see if the parent and child were close, neither were payments allowed for anyone showing mental illness following the disaster amongst other restrictions. This demoralised an already broken community.

Still more resources - they seized an eyewatering 60,000 acres of land in Epynt for the war effort but shamefully didn’t compensate the Welsh farmers despite promising to and haven’t given any back today. The war ended the better part of a century ago and they still use it to train for the wars that they decide to start / interfere in.

Now the UK is taking Welsh profits from wind and tidal energy, a sector we lead in that exports lots to English homes. The same theme reoccurs time and time again.

As for politics, Wales has never voted conservative in is whole history yet had to put up with many conservative governments that damaged wales - Thatcher, Cameron, May, Johnson. In Parliament Wales had 40 seats and England had 533 i.e. we never had a voice when voting. Now with the redrawing of constituency boundaries they’ve changed it so Wales lose 8 seats and England gains 10 seats. Everything seems to go in England’s favour. They don’t extend furlough when Wales are in lockdown but when England is of course it’s extended. The levelling up fund is supposed to address the poverty England has created, yet no decisions for Wales will be made by Wales. More projects created to make Wales the labourer for England.

The “Prince of Wales” is English, and so is the Secretary of State for Wales Simon Hunt, a useless representative of Wales. Wales, along with the other nations, pays for the pointless English monarch and therefore millions on palace upgrades and security, expensive clothing, jewellery, vehicles, millions of acres of land and more, all of which they inherited just from being born into a particular family. Meanwhile the queen lobbies to hide her own expenses as people are eating at food banks. Any gold or silver in any four nations belongs to the crown, not to mention the millions of acres they own. That’s why the royals must sweeten us up to gain our support for the wealthy continuum of stolen goods and luxury lifestyle e.g the Aberfan disaster royal visits.

Now Boris. An absolute embarassment of a prime minister. Who says he loves fox hunting in a “semi sexual way”, that Muslim woman who wear their religious clothing look like “letterboxes” and that he’d “let the bodies pile high” before another lockdown. All equally disgusting. That’s the leader of the not-at-all United Kingdom, who was forced on all nations including Wales despite Wales not voting for him or his party in is whole history. He makes the union jack mandatory for the BBC and civil servants, whilst disallowing the Welsh flag and flag of the other nations, and bans anyone calling them “the four nations”. Then pushes “one Britain, one nation” fascist song on Briton’s (note not incorrect spelling) schoolchildren thinking he may have a better chance at brainwashing children. Spends millions on a Downing Street media room as a background to make recordings and hundreds of thousands on his personal flat expenses during a pandemic which saw people financially ruined. But the UK government aren’t shy of terrible spending decisions, HS2 anybody? The biggest waste of money over spent.

Summary

There is nothing united between us, in our not-at-all United Kingdom, call your oppressive empire what you will. We all fought in the war because we all needed each other. But that’s over now and doesn’t undo the torrent and plethora of ill treatment on either side of the war towards Welsh people that ruined our country and our people. What leader allows its people to descend into such a state? We are not one great nation, and cannot play happy families. We’re embarrassed of our neighbours historical land grabbing bloodthirsty empire. They still want to take our Senedd away, tell us we’re incapable of doing it ourselves and shove the union in our faces

So that’s why its time for Wales to have a voice. We can do much better without egotistical, narcissistic and careless leaders. We are capable, talented, competent and conscientious people. We must fight for our voice to be heard, never stop whether they try to force the union on us or don’t listen to us. No this is not “ugly welsh nationalism”, this is not hatred and racism towards English people or tarring all English people with the same brush, but rather it’s hatred of the ill treatment of Welsh people by English rule. Most Welsh people have relations over the border but first and foremost we are people and we must call out wrong when we see it.

To quote our anthem we all sing - “Dros ryddid collasant eu gwaed”  Over freedom they lost their blood. But unfortunately, we are still not free.