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Wales, Nationalism and the Politics of Resentment

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Nation, Class and Resentment

Part of the book series: Palgrave Politics of Identity and Citizenship Series ((CAL))

Abstract

In this chapter we examine the relation between political and popular conceptions of Wales as a national entity. The period since the establishment of a devolved Welsh government has seen support for the Labour Party in elections in Wales fall dramatically, in line with the rest of the UK. Unlike the Scottish National Party in Scotland, however, Plaid Cymru has not been able to capitalise on Labour’s decline. Rather, the post-devolution period has seen a growth in support for the two right-wing political parties, Conservatives and UKIP. Making use of qualitative and survey evidence we examine the relationships between Welsh identity, class and political attitudes. We point to the continuing significance of a dual Welsh and British identity as well as a growing minority of English–British identifiers. What makes Wales distinctive, vis-à-vis England and Scotland, is the way in which substate nationalism coexists and contends with the influence of the wider populist politics surrounding immigration and Europe.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    It is this pattern which led Hechter (1975) to conceive of Wales as the ideal research site for his thesis on internal colonialism. Whether, and up to what point in history, Wales can be described as an ‘internal colony’ has been subjected to intense debate amongst historians and sociologists (Day 2002: 58–83; Williams on postcolonial Wales).

  2. 2.

    The SDP was a centrist political party in the United Kingdom. The SDP was founded on 26 March 1981 by four senior Labour Party moderates, dubbed the ‘Gang of Four’: Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams, who issued the Limehouse Declaration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bangor University, Bangor, UK

    Robin Mann

  2. University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

    Steve Fenton

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  1. Robin Mann
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  2. Steve Fenton
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Mann, R., Fenton, S. (2017). Wales, Nationalism and the Politics of Resentment. In: Nation, Class and Resentment. Palgrave Politics of Identity and Citizenship Series. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46674-7_6

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