Wes Streeting MP, recently resigned from the UK Cabinet and possible candidate for the leadership of the Labour Party, should there be a vacancy, lamented that nationalism is on the rise and indeed that the devolved administrations all now were controlled by nationalists. This was an existential threat to the the fabric of the United Kingdom.

Let me be clear, nationalism can, for me, be a form of idolatry. I say that writing on the eightieth anniversary of the execution of one of my heroes, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Welsh, Scottish, and Irish nationalisms are though not that. The three Celtic nations express their nationalism in different ways. All are borne out of sense of injustice. This can be hard for those of us who are English to hear. I wrestled with it in my recent PhD, which I am still hopeful that I can combat my own laziness and find a publisher for. Nevertheless, we cannot talk of the history of the British isles without talking to some extent about colonialism. I hear the pop of another can of words opening in such a short number of words.

Nationalism is also on the rise in England, embodied partly in the progress of Reform UK. That is too rooted for many of its voters in injustice (I cannot deny that) and should be the topic of another blog post, but it does not have the inclusion of Welsh and Scottish nationalism. I have not experienced within Wales any hostility towards my Englishness. It might help that I have learnt and am learning Cymraeg and have embraced the culture. There has sometimes been some lively banter around rugby, but that has disappeared of late. Let the Reader understand.

What was Streeting getting at about an existential threat to the UK? I think he misunderstands the nationalisms of Plaid Cymru and the SNP. Both do advocate independence from the UK, but they do so on the basis that the current arrangements flow out of injustice and both parties want the nations of the British Isles to flourish and relate well together.

I suppose the words of the prophet spring to mind: let justice flow like rivers and righteousness like a never failing stream.

The reason for their arguments deserve more than a blog post and more than the campaigning rhetoric of a would be leader of the Labour Party.