WALES will follow Scotland to independence within a decade – that’s the prediction of the chair of YesCymru as the organisation undergoes record growth.
Sion Jobbins helped found the pro-independence campaign in 2014 as Scotland went to the ballot. It had its formal launch in Cardiff two years later and, after holding the first ever mass independence demonstrations in the country last summer, still only had 2000 members at the start of this year.
It’s now got more than 15,000 and Jobbins, who chairs the organisation, says that growth is only the start. The Aberystwyth man predicts his country could leave the Union in as little as 10 years. That exit, he says, will likely come after Scotland votes Yes.
His prediction comes as polls in both countries reveal record support for change. In Scotland, 14 consecutive polls have put Yes out in front and rate strength of feeling as high as 58%.
On Thursday, YesCymru revealed 33% of those who’d vote in a referendum there would choose to leave the UK.
The figure is equivalent to where Scotland was in 2012 when the independence referendum was called, and marks a historic high for Wales. When asked about where his country will be politically in eight years time, Jobbins told the Sunday National: “In eight years Wales will either be independent or incorporated into England.
“I’m not trying to be dramatic. Unless something huge happens – if, by some fluke, Labour win and there is a huge transfer of power from Westminster that keeps the boat float for a few years – in 10 years time I can’t see Scotland and Northern Ireland still being part of the UK.
“If Scotland and Northern Ireland leave and Wales is not independent, we will be incorporated into England because it would make no sense to Westminster to have devolution in one tiny part of the kingdom.”
READ MORE: Poll reveals Welsh independence support now 'higher than ever'
He went on: “When you had your referendum in 2014, if you’d have left then we would’ve been totally shafted, because Wales was in no way ready. We had a government in Cardiff still thinking that being good little Sunday school children would get them favours from Westminster. Plaid Cymru was always circumspect about using the word independence, but is now discussing it.
“People are becoming more political and starting to learn more about how their own country works. Independence is now seen as an option. Every day I’m getting members who’ve talked to someone they didn’t expect to be for independence and finding that they are open to it.”
Jobbins sees several factors behind the growth, the most important being the contrast between the approach to the pandemic in Westminster and the Senedd, where Labour’s Mark Drakeford is First Minister.
The Dominic Cummings row “disgusted” people, he says, but when London denied furlough support after Wales locked down for a second time, membership increased by more than 10,000 in a fortnight.
Jobbins said: “At the start of the pandemic the First Minister and the Health Minister would do their briefings with a Union Jack and a Welsh dragon in the background. Now it’s just the Welsh dragon. That’s significant.
“This is the first time the Welsh Government has really used its powers and people can see it is possible for the Senedd to run the country in its own right.
“When the Welsh Government is working in tandem with the Scottish and Northern Irish governments on a sensible position and Westminster diverges, we have a spike in membership.
“The Welsh media is very weak – there’s no great tradition of daily papers or daily editions of London newspapers. People are consuming news by and large through a London prism, so getting to 33% is quite surprising.
“It’s obvious that people are actually discussing independence – that’s huge. It was a tiny minority in Wales.”
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