Wales – poor, peripheral, reliably Labour voting – does not really figure in the political imaginations of Britain’s chattering class. To the extent that its politics are noticed at all, it is largely through the prism of expectations generated by developments in other parts of the UK.
Most recently, this has led to significant interest in the extent to which the Welsh might eventually come to emulate the Scottish preoccupation with independence. There is indeed ample polling evidence that somewhere between 25 and 30% of Welsh voters would now vote yes in any referendum, with the shift towards independence particularly pronounced among younger, remain-leaning voters.
