Delyth Jewell MS: “Devolution enabled us to save lives – would independence have enabled us to save more?”

This week, Plaid Cymru held the first ever debate on independence in the Welsh Parliament.

Support for independence has risen dramatically recently, with people scarcely able to believe the incredible mess that Westminster is making of Brexit.

There’s also a strong feeling that Wales has handled the coronavirus epidemic much better than England. Devolution enabled us to save lives – would independence have enabled us to save more?

An independence referendum is not something that’s likely to happen in the immediate future, but now is the perfect time to start having that debate about our future as a nation.

Do we really want to have to suffer at the hands of governments in London that we didn’t elect, when we could have our own government in charge of our affairs? 

Would it not make more sense for us to have a government dedicated entirely to improving living standards in Wales, rather than being at best an afterthought for Westminster?

These are the sort of questions people are starting to grapple with, and many are finding it more difficult than they thought to argue in favour of the status quo.

During the debate, I said that we have a duty to take responsibility for the kind of planet we’ll be leaving for future generations.

40 billion tonnes of CO2 are released into the atmosphere every year, even though we’ve known for 40 years that this will cause irreparable changes to our climate.

Although we can’t control what other countries do, we can and should seek the powers so that Wales can lead the way in being a globally responsible nation. 

Local action is really at the heart of what politics is all about, and that can mean Wales in a global context, or Caerphilly within Wales.

But local action needs to be informed. That’s why I’ve launched a portal on my website to ask you, the people of Caerphilly County, for your priorities for the area.

So if you know what you’d like to change, if you have a great idea you think should be implemented, or if you just have a problem you’d like to get off your chest, let me know, and I’ll consider adopting your ideas for my election campaign next year.

Click here to submit your idea!

What drives me is an unshakable belief that with hard work and dedication, change for the better is possible, and that there is much more we can achieve through politics than has happened so far.

Wales can succeed, Caerphilly can thrive, but it’s not going to happen by itself: we’ve got to make it happen.