DELYTH EVAN’S SPEECH AT THE LAUNCH OF THESE ISLANDS

When I was approached to join the Advisory Council of These Islands, I hesitated at first. I’m a very proud Welsh woman. I don’t really think of myself as being British other than when I need my passport. I wasn’t sure about being part of something celebrating Great Britain, when the idea of Britishness doesn’t really mean a great deal to me.

On the other hand, I have always believed that Wales is better off being part of the UK. I am very firmly of the view that arguments about independence and talk of setting up new borders, and appeals to nationalism, are completely irrelevant to the economic and social challenges we face in Britain today.

What was striking about the Scottish referendum and the Brexit debate was how hard it seemed to cut through with arguments in favour of remaining as we are. It’s hard to tell people that maintaining the current situation is in their best interest when their everyday experience is pretty grim, especially when people on the other side of the argument tap into their discontentment and promise something so much better. In both the Scottish and the Brexit campaigns we lacked the positive narratives that might have lifted the debate beyond the cold statistics and the scare-mongering. I say “might have” because I suspect that in the Brexit referendum it was already far too late. We were asking people to vote to stay in the EU when everything they had seen or heard from leading politicians and most newspapers for decades had been anti-EU. Talking about the benefits of the single market simply didn’t cut through because it came too late, and it didn’t address the things people were really concerned about around identity and Britain’s place in the world, and perceived threats to our way of life from immigration.

So perhaps one lesson from Brexit is that you can’t take the things you value in life for granted, and if you believe in something you have to make the case for it. You can’t assume that other people will see things as you do, or that truth and common sense will always prevail. If we believe that as England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland we are stronger together, we do need to make the case for it. We have to remind people of our shared history and shared values, and we have to find new arguments to explain why we are stronger together, and why each component part of the UK benefits from this relationship. Because it we don’t, we leave it open for others to make the opposite case.

The history of the different nations in these islands is not all positive of course – far from it. In Wales’s case, the relationship with England has always been tricky. Oppression, religious persecution, efforts to stamp out the Welsh language, all figure strongly in our history. It explains why in the Six Nations Rugby tournament, the match against England always has an extra edge to it, and why victory over England in any sport is always the sweetest. We have an imperfect devolution settlement and attitudes within Whitehall and Westminster to the devolved government in Cardiff can still be grudging and patronising. That needs to change.

But overall, Wales’s relationship with the rest of these islands is deep and strong and many layered. The history of Wales is also the history of Britain. The Celts were here long before the Anglo Saxons. There have been movements of people for thousands of years across our borders. Welsh and Cornish and Gaelic come from the same linguistic root. The blue stones of Stonehenge come from Pembrokeshire, although no-one has worked out how they transported them all that way. In the industrial revolution men from all over Britain flooded in to the South Wales coalfield to work in the mines, and stayed and put down roots. My mother’s family is Cornish, so is my partner. We all have different layers of identity and of belonging, and it is surely possible to celebrate our differences at the same time as recognising the many things we have in common.

So for me this forum - These Islands - is an opportunity to reach out to other parts of the United Kingdom, to share our stories and explore our common interests and values. It’s a chance to better understand our shared history and how it binds us together across our national and regional boundaries. And it’s a chance to explore and make new arguments for the many ways in which England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland together represent a force for good in the world.

With Brexit, with what’s happening in Cataluña, with questions of identity and statehood coming to the fore in other parts of Europe as well, it’s extremely timely for These Islands to begin to explore who we are as people, what we share, and what we can offer the world. So I look forward to being part of this important project and to many stimulating discussions to come.

Diolch yn fawr.