“You can tell the economic character of a nation by the way its infrastructure works.” Powerful words from George Monbiot on BBC Question Time explaining how Wales’s economy was built to extract wealth rather than enrich its own people, and why we need the powers to put that right. #Annibyniaeth 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 #indyWales

STEPHEN KINNOCK WANTS EVIDENCE. HERE IT IS. Commenting today on calls for further devolution, the new Secretary of State for Wales, Stephen Kinnock, said: “I think we have to be evidence-based and it’s really important to look at what are the costs and benefits of making change.” Fair enough. Here’s the evidence. Over the past 15 years, independent commissions and constitutional reviews have repeatedly examined Welsh devolution. Their conclusion has been consistent: the settlement is incomplete and Wales should have further powers. 2012–14 – Silk Commission Set up by David Cameron’s Conservative-led UK Government, it recommended tax and borrowing powers, a reserved-powers model, and the further devolution of policing, youth justice, energy and transport. The Wales Acts of 2014 and 2017 implemented some of this, including tax and borrowing powers and the reserved-powers model. But major recommendations, including policing and youth justice, were left untouched. 2019 – Commission on Justice in Wales Chaired by former Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, it concluded that separating devolved Welsh services from a non-devolved justice system was inefficient and unsustainable. It recommended devolving justice and policing. 2022 – Gordon Brown’s Commission on the UK’s Future Commissioned by Labour, it recommended further powers for Wales, including youth justice and probation. 2024 – Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales After more than two years of work, including extensive evidence gathering and public consultation, the cross-party commission unanimously concluded that the status quo was not sustainable. It recommended devolving justice and policing, rail services and infrastructure, and the Crown Estate, reforming the energy devolution settlement, strengthening the Sewel Convention, and reforming relations between the Welsh and UK governments. These are only four examples. Senedd committees and expert reports have also called for further devolution in areas including rail, broadcasting, justice, energy and the Crown Estate. So yes, let’s be evidence-based. The evidence has been gathered repeatedly, and it is overwhelming. Successive UK governments have repeatedly stopped short of implementing the most significant recommendations, and the new Welsh Secretary seems unaware of the weight of evidence supporting further devolution. Further powers would be welcome and important, but devolution will always leave Wales dependent on powers granted or withheld by Westminster. Only independence would put the full range of powers and economic levers in Wales’s own hands, giving us the freedom to shape our own future.