It will take more than marches to bring Welsh Independence.

Scotland has a nationalist party in government, supported by a pro Independence Green Party.

There is constant polling close to a majority by Scottish voters.

The subject of Independence is rarely off the agenda in Scotland.

Contrast this with Wales.

An anti Independence, pro Unionist Wales government.

A stagnant and ineffective opposition in the ‘  pro Independence ‘ Plaid Cymru.

The main campaigning group, Yes Cymru, with one full time employee, no office and no HQ.

A largely apathetic public.

What hope for Independence in Wales.?

In spite of this, support for Independence remains remarkably strong.

The problem remains of how to build on it.

The rallies and activity groups have taken Wales Independence as far as it can, now a new approach is needed.

About a million of the Welsh public must be persuaded that Independence is good for them.

That will give Independence the poll majority needed and bypass the dogmatic pro Union ruling Welsh Labour.

And public opinion is vital. 

It is the will of the people that will bring about Independence.

Banging on about the nasty Tories in Westminster isn't raising the polling numbers. Nor replacing it with banging on about the nasty Labour government in Westminster for there will be little improvement for Wales there.

The way to Independence lies, as it alway has, with the Welsh people.

To remove the fear of Independence. A fear placed in people's minds by generations of propaganda. Wales is too poor, a Wales currency will reduce your pensions, benefits and earnings. Tariffs will force businesses out of Wales.

Instead they must be made aware that the opposite is in fact the case, That Wales is in fact a wealthy nation with an abundance of wealth creating natural resources, Water and renewable, green energy.

Independence will give Wales the opportunity to harness those resources for the benefit of its own people.

The new CEO of Yes Cymru recognises the need to change tactics.

The organisation needs to put less emphasis on marches in the future and more on funding research into the answers to questions that the people of Wales want before committing to Independence.

I suggest that costly research will find no different answers to those posed above and that reassurance to those questions, together with better health and social care, education, housing and local services, will see that commitment

The trick is to tell the people how it can be done.

And the answer doesn't involve costly research.

The marches and rallies attract about 10000 activists. That's 10000 researchers, 10000 publicists and 10000 social media posts. 

And the information they need to persuade the public of the advantages of Independence, is all around, all in the public domain.

Energy, for example, the proceeds from which, will give the economic investment, the pensions, the public service improvements.

The Carbon Trust, Marine Energy Wales and Crown Estates, tell us that from their own investigations, further offshore wind, tidal and marine and floating turbines, will produce 14 Gigabytes of installed capacity of renewable energy. This in the short term and from Wales coastal waters.

That's more than enough to replace all the energy Wales uses from gas, oil and electricity generated by fossil fuels.

Alternatively, at today's wholesale price of electricity, it is worth £16.5 billion per year. 

That's additional money that an Independent Wales could claim and you don't need an expert analyst, a £5 calculator from W H Smith will do it.

In addition, the kind people from Cardiff University tells us that if part of that money were to be invested in skills and technology, reversing the historical shortfall, it would increase Wales tax revenues by £5.4 billions p.a, by raising Wales average earnings to UK levels.

If some of the money was invested in innovation, research and development, to the level of the UK average and thereby increasing Wales business productivity,, studies by Nat West show  that a further £1.7 billion per year  would be contributed to the Welsh economy, by reaching the UK average, itself not particularly impressive.

More ambitiously, Price Waterhouse finds that if Wales business productivity was at the level of Germany, it would add £7.2 billion per year to the Wales economy.

It's all about the ability to invest..

So there it is. Almost £20 billion per year. That's £20 billion more than at present.

And the Crown Estates estimate a further 20 Gigawatts potential from floating turbines by 2045.

And there's more.

Investment in the technologies of the future. Semiconductors, cyber security, space sciences, electric vehicles, etc, means they could all be developed in Wales, providing skilled well paid jobs and further boosting the economy..

So there you go. You have the ammunition. To those activists who can multitask, as well as waving your flags, put this message around.

And bear in mind that if these 10000 activists each persuade 10 non believers, then that's 100000 more to the cause.

Now that's a very small ask, don't you think.,  

  

ocs