6 months ago
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Posted On: April 27th 2026, 07:11 pm
Five years on. The same arguments. Different evidence. Welsh Independence Now!
In 2020, three of us sat down in Butetown for an interview that ended up in The Welsh Way (Parthian Books, 2022). Shutha was 18. Nirushan was 21. I was 24. We talked about Westminster’s indifference to Wales. About local legislation having massive effects on people’s lives. About Welsh independence.
I picked the book back up this month.
Five years on:
↳ Welsh Government budget worth £1.3 billion less in real terms than 2021
↳ Tata Steel’s blast furnaces at Port Talbot both closed in 2024, around 2,500 jobs gone.
↳ The Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales concluded in January 2024 that the status quo is unsustainable and Welsh independence is one of three viable options.
↳ Yes Cymru’s polling hit 41% support for independence in March 2025. 51% if Wales could rejoin the EU.
↳ Sewel Convention overridden 11 times since 2016.
↳ The Atlantic Wharf arena broke ground in July 2025, 30 acres of Butetown, with consultation closed before the Full Business Case was signed.
↳ South Wales Police lost the Bridges case at the Court of Appeal in 2020 and have since massively expanded facial recognition deployments.
These slides go through The Welsh Way. The book’s editors (Daniel Evans, Kieron Smith, Huw Williams) called Welsh Labour “a toxic mix of incompetence, bland passivity and corporate complicity.” That was 2021. They were not wrong.
Independence is no longer a fringe argument. It’s a viable option named by the Welsh Government’s own commission. The case isn’t romantic. It’s structural. Local consequences have central causes. Until Wales holds the levers, the consequences keep arriving.
📖 The Welsh Way (Parthian Books, 2022) eds. Daniel Evans, Kieron Smith, Huw Williams
In 2020, three of us sat down in Butetown for an interview that ended up in The Welsh Way (Parthian Books, 2022). Shutha was 18. Nirushan was 21. I was 24. We talked about Westminster’s indifference to Wales. About local legislation having massive effects on people’s lives. About Welsh independence.
I picked the book back up this month.
Five years on:
↳ Welsh Government budget worth £1.3 billion less in real terms than 2021
↳ Tata Steel’s blast furnaces at Port Talbot both closed in 2024, around 2,500 jobs gone.
↳ The Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales concluded in January 2024 that the status quo is unsustainable and Welsh independence is one of three viable options.
↳ Yes Cymru’s polling hit 41% support for independence in March 2025. 51% if Wales could rejoin the EU.
↳ Sewel Convention overridden 11 times since 2016.
↳ The Atlantic Wharf arena broke ground in July 2025, 30 acres of Butetown, with consultation closed before the Full Business Case was signed.
↳ South Wales Police lost the Bridges case at the Court of Appeal in 2020 and have since massively expanded facial recognition deployments.
These slides go through The Welsh Way. The book’s editors (Daniel Evans, Kieron Smith, Huw Williams) called Welsh Labour “a toxic mix of incompetence, bland passivity and corporate complicity.” That was 2021. They were not wrong.
Independence is no longer a fringe argument. It’s a viable option named by the Welsh Government’s own commission. The case isn’t romantic. It’s structural. Local consequences have central causes. Until Wales holds the levers, the consequences keep arriving.
📖 The Welsh Way (Parthian Books, 2022) eds. Daniel Evans, Kieron Smith, Huw Williams
Comments (3)
6 months agotakedbaby
Dafydd Huw Rees is my husband ❤️ thank you for sharing his work! i'm so proud of him
6 months agowhere_the_daffodils_grow
It's a really good anthology and very relevant to today as you say.
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