Monday 5 February 2007

Tell that to the Finns

A good letter by Duncan Lewis in the Western Mail today:

Tell that to the Finns

SIR – So Peter Hain is churning out the same old cliches as a substitute for reasoned argument (Wales must stay in the UK, Jan 15). Does he really believe that Welsh people have no knowledge of how other small countries are prospering in the modern world?

Does he believe that we never travel to Ireland or Norway or even to the newly independent European nations like the Baltic States?At least the Western Mail editorial comment was more balanced and rightly points out that as yet the Welsh people have not been persuaded on the case for independence.

But isn’t this just a lack of confidence rather than the way things have to be? Surely the Welsh are no less talented than the Irish, Norwegians, Latvians and countless other small counties around the world. Mr Hain says that our world-class manufacturing such as Airbus would disappear.

Try telling that to the Finns, Nokia seems to do OK. He says that our public services could not survive without that extra £1,000 a head from England, well New Zealand and Norway seem to have public services that we can only envy. And as for Mr Hain’s case that we would lose influence around the world; if that means we stop using our clout to launch illegal invasions of other counties, then great, I’ll sign up to that.

DUNCAN LEWIS
Caerwent, Monmouthshire

1 comment:

David Thomas said...

That's the annoying thing about Mr Peter Inconsistent Hain. Balkans bad. Baltics good. Nordics even better. He is actually presiding over the Balkanisation of Britain (which began with the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922)in his role in N Ireland anyway so he might as well get used to the idea! He's so negative towards Welsh aspirations that I hope he gets the Deputy Leader's job but then who on earth would Labour install as their next Governor General in Wales?!