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Apart from Edwina Curry brandishing the Big Brother three as "slags" on Question Time, the highlight of last night's political television was Plaid's Deputy Leader, Rhodri Glyn Thomas, squirming under pressure from Rhun ap Iorwerth over his party's alleged lack of ambition.As we've been discussing here lately, Plaid seem reluctant to spell out their attitude on independence as part of their election campaign, much to the irritation of some of their own activists, who think the recent poll showing 20% support for separation should have had the party shouting a little louder.The electorate is notoriously sceptical about a lack of political frankness - it's the reason why Labour are in freefall over Iraq, and why the Lib Dems have failed to properly recover from the messy removal of Charles...

Acrobat finished searching my document. The find item was not found.The document was Plaid's pre-manifesto, Change for the better; the find item was "independence".In fairness, the word "independent" does feature twice:"We will promote and maintain independent living for disabled people."and,"We will establish an independent National Commission on the Governance of Wales... releasing resources from bureaucracy for frontline services."Not quite the pledges die-hard Plaid supporters would've been hoping for.Yesterday, the independence debate went national, with the BBC's Newsnight hosting a more full and frank discussion on the subject than I've ever heard on mainstream TV. The 'Welsh question' was notable only by its absence. In this week of constitutional argument and self-reflection,...

According to my stats page, I've been recieving a considerable amount of visits to this blog from people Googling for 'arguments against scottish independence' (it's probably just Gordon Brown). Unfortunately, all they get is this page.Feeling a bit bad and not being able to help, I thought I'd better provide some arguments here in case someone is looking for arguments aginst Welsh independence. These arguments aren't mine by the way, but they're such important and vaild one's, I thought they are worth re-publishing.Argument 1: If Wales wasn't part of the Union, Dr Who would never have been filmed in Cardiff- Peter Hain (Secretary of State for Northen Ireland and Wales + Patron Saint of Sunbeds)Obviously this man doesn't have a vested interest in the continuation of the Union!Argument...

Ymddangosodd y llythyr canlynol gan Angus MacNeil AS yn y Telegraph wythnos diwethaf fel ymateb i ymgais diweddara y llywodraeth i ddychryn etholwyr yr Alban i beidio pleidleisio dros yr SNP (ac annibyniaeth yn y pendraw) wrth honni bod trysorlys canolog Prydain yn rhoi mwy o arain i'r Alban nag y mae'n gasglu mewn trethi. Subsidising Scots Sir – Has anybody from the world of Scottish Unionist politics thanked the taxpayers of England? This week Labour, Tories and the Lib Dems have taken great delight in telling the Scots that they are subsidised by over £11 billion. These figures are, of course, disputed by the independence movement in Scotland which can cite last week's report that independent Ireland will this year achieve a budget surplus of £3.97 billion while...

If there is, Labour can't actually think of one, instead they try and hide the fact by inventing odd scenarios. Thanks Jeff for linking to the following statements by Tony Blair taken from The Scotsman (check out the telling comments) "Two and a half million Scots have relatives in England. Hundreds of thousands work there, some, as you know, in quite important positions." Mr Blair then turned on the SNP's defence policy, deriding Nationalist claims that Scotland would be a "nuclear-free zone". "So, if England's attacked, the fall-out will stop at Carter Bar?" he asked. "The Union to me is not a constitution. It's a message to the world."Also Rhys is feeling a bit un-Christian towards the party after reading Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander's comments on the BBC website "The...