Wednesday 11 January 2012

Are things are hotting up in the independence game? Scotland first and then Wales?

I must admit it’s been rather an interesting few days. Not only has Cameron come across as high handed in his attitude to Scotland but this morning’s newspapers have been warning him to ‘tread carefully’ except, of course the Telegraph - but what else might you expect of this paper? The damage has been done North of the border. I hope that he has found himself in a hole and is silly enough to keep digging.
I was interested to note that the plans for the new proposed high speed train link are being put forward today. It will only go as far as Birmingham. Clearly anywhere to the north of Birmingham is of little interest to this London-centric government.
Later today we are going to hear what plans Labour have for our future. All indications predict it will promise little more than belt tightening and some minor plans for wealth redistribution. Certainly nothing radical will be proposed and Wales would once more be at the bottom of the pile should we not be independent by the time Labour gets back into government in London (if ever).
On a different point which to some extent is linked with the above. Obviously Scottish oil is one of the reasons why Cameron et al want to hold on to Scotland. But there is a new technology on the horizon which could the Welsh equivalent of Scottish Oil, i.e. ‘underground coal gasification’ or under-sea to be more precise. Licences have been granted for pilot studies in 18 locations around England and Wales, one is being undertaken in Swansea Bay whilst most other sites are in the North of England.
This technology would enable our coal resources to be accessed and the energy produced would be much cheaper than any other form.....the question, of course is who should own it? Will Wales be asset stripped once more? The point I’m making here is that Wales is sitting on massive coal resources which could finance us in the initial phases of our independence. Should this technology become fully developed we would be a very rich little country. I note that the South-East of England has only one pilot, in the Thames estuary linked to the Kent coalfield. The rest are mostly linked to the coal fields of the North East.
Maybe it will dawn on our good friends in the North that they ought to start considering their future links with the asset hungry South-East of England.

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