We should grasp this opportunity - by Allan Pritchard

Today its the turn of Allan Pritchard, Shadow Deputy Leader of Caerphilly Council and Plaid Cymru Welsh Assembly Candidate for Islwyn, to explain why he supports Independence for Wales.

As I respond to your request, I look above my desk and see a portrait face of Gwynfor Evans looking down on me and on my desk is a photograph of Martin Luther King. This should indicate to the people of Wales the type of Nationalist and Internationalist that I am.

I want to live in and help build a Wales that is free and able to take its rightful part in Europe and the rest of the world. I want to see a Wales that has its own Parliament and a democratic system that is truly accountable to all of the people of Wales. A Wales that is free from the shackles and threats of bulling superpowers, who threaten and invade other countries illegally and in our name.

I want to live in a country that encompasses peace and prosperity and a country that we will be proud to pass on to our children and our children's children. A country that is founded on socialist principles where education and health are there as a right and not dependent on the thickness of the wallet.

I believe that the time is right to open the doors of opportunity to all the people of Wales, to lift our nation from the social injustices that we have faced for far to long and place ourselves on the solid foundation of nationhood in our own right. If Scotland has laid the doors of Parliament open, then it surely makes sense for Wales to grasp the same opportunity.

It is not so long ago that the establishment threatened us by saying that if we went down the road of independence, we would wind up like Ireland (Eire). They never use that as a threat any more, I wonder why?

Allan Pritchard Plaid Cymru Welsh Assembly Candidate for Islwyn