Examine the following pieces of information. In a general sense, what do they tell us about why nationalism in Wales is a significant issue? In a specific sense, what do they tell us about the referendum on devolution in Wales?
- Television coverage showed several hundred locals throwing beer bottles and generally reacting angrily to the referendum results from Cardiff.
- Only a little more than half of the eligible voters turned out to vote in the referendum.
- With more than one million votes cast, the “yes” campaign for a Welsh assembly won by only 6,721 votes.
- The anti-assembly lobby, comprising mostly Conservative Party supporters, pointed out that only slightly more than one in four eligible voters endorsed the assembly.
- Prime Minister Tony Blair went to Scotland when its referendum was passed by an overwhelming majority, but he didn’t make a visit to Wales to acknowledge the Welsh narrow margin of victory.
- Support for the assembly was much stronger in the rural west and north, where the nationalist party, Plaid Cymru is influential.
- At a famous pub in Cardiff, a Welsh barmaid sheepishly admitted she didn’t vote. When asked how to spell the title of the Welsh national anthem she said she couldn’t.
- Proponents of the assembly said that the referendum would permit local people to make decisions that affect their lives, with greater accountability than the Welsh office that now runs Wales’ affairs out of London.
- In Wales, the London press sells 700 000 papers a day, while local Welsh newspapers sell fewer than 150 000.
- Only 20 percent of people in Wales speak Welsh.
- Many Welsh southerners feel that a Welsh assembly dominated by Welsh nationalists could lead to their own discrimination.