It was good to see a fair bit of coverage in last week’s Argus about St David’s Day and the campaign to secure a bank holiday for it.
Apart from a frankly ridiculous argument from one politician about what children may do with a day off, the evidence for us to have a bank holiday is compelling.
Along with England, we have the fewest bank holidays in Western Europe. Scotland and Ireland also have bank holidays to mark their respective patron saints – so why not Wales?
The reality is that the decision is out of the hands of the Welsh Government. It is the whim of some minister or mandarin in Westminster unlikely to look upon the desire to celebrate St David’s Day with a bank holiday with any degree of positivity.
This is a microcosm of Plaid Cymru’s campaign for greater self-determination. It is our fundamental belief that decisions that affect people are best made when they are taken as close to the people as possible. This belief – otherwise known as decentralism – is at the core of our being as a party.
The debate about a St David’s Day bank holiday coincided with a short debate in plenary brought by Newport West MS John Griffiths about Welsh identity in his home city. I contributed to the short debate as it brought to mind a recent conversation I had at an event with somebody about Welsh nationality.
I said to that person if you call Wales your home and you feel Welsh, then as far as I'm concerned, you're Welsh. In return, I received an e-mail entitled "A personal thank you".
It read: "I just wanted to offer a personal thank you for a conversation we had at a recent event. I mentioned that Brexit had taken away my European identity, and although I've lived all my adult life in Wales and that my family are here, having been born in London I felt one couldn't become Welsh because there was no legal mechanism for doing so.
"You kindly said that there was no concern at all about self-identifying as Welsh. Last week, while filling in paperwork for a house move, I had my first chance to declare that I am Welsh on a formal document. Thank you kindly for your encouragement."
An inclusive, welcoming Wales that leaves no one behind is the kind of country that we in Plaid Cymru are always striving to foster and build.
I am confident that we will get there.
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