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Plaid Cymru (PC): The Welsh Nationalist Party

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On the other hand, Plaid Cymru (PC), the Welsh nationalist party whose purpose is independence of Wales, has been a party to reflect the rise of Welsh nationalism, like Scottish Nationalist Party in Scotland. However, Wales has seen the rise of its nationalism in a different way from the Scottish one. It is obvious that the economics was a factor, but language was another important factor for the nationalism of the Welsh people. Trend of rise of nationalism that occurred in Scotland in the late 1960s also occurred in Wales. PC won their first seat in the House of Commons in 1966, and this victory was followed by another victory in Rhondda West in 1967. At the same time, Westminster passed Welsh Language Act in 1967, which is the most significant …show more content…

In Scotland, there had been great amount of oil discovered in the North Sea, and this fully stirred up the Scots' nationalism. However, PC did not have a decisive fact like that. Therefore, it can be said that the Welsh nationalism was not raised enough to show its effect in the general election, despite their having discontent against the Union or Westminster. The nationalism had not been raised enough as well when the Welsh were asked whether they wanted devolution or not in the referendum that was done at the same time as the one in Scotland in 1979. Devolution was denied with 79.7% of "No" in the turnout of 58.8% …show more content…

The nationalism in Scotland has run high, majority of them wanted devolution in the referendum in 1997, and finally it could have been a case that they would have had independence in 2014. On the other hand, not only economics, but also the Welsh language have been important issues for Wales, in terms of nationalism. Though the rise of their nationalism was not as clear as that of the Scots, it came to a point where they obtained devolution. For the both cases of the rise of nationalism in Scotland and Wales, it has always been democratic deficit that has been the problem in the both countries. That is to say, their opinion as countries has not been fully reflected in the UK's policy, and this has been a reason for the rise of nationalism. In spite of their obtaining devolution, it still keeps being a problem in the entire UK. As long as their independences are not decided, the government is required to deal with this problem, while controlling the people's

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