First things first

England’s OK by us

Independent Wales Party is not an ‘anti-English’ party. On the contrary, we support those English women and men who speak out against the over-centralised, uncaring, and increasingly  bureaucratic British State. IWP looks forward to the day when the nations of the British Isles can stand shoulder to shoulder in freedom, mutual respect and co-operation.

 Who’s Welsh?

Independent Wales Party rejects the narrow definition of national identity  currently used in the UK. The term ‘Welsh’ includes, by definition, all people whose current and future home is in Wales regardless of race or ethnicity or beliefs, as well as those people who consider themselves Welsh through family ties or affinity. Under an IWP administration, Welsh citizenship will be extended to all residents of Wales who will enjoy equal status, opportunities and benefits.

Earth First

There can be no viable future if we continue to degrade our environment. The time for empty words and false promises are over. The time for action and real change is due. A society based on ecological harmony is essential if we are to pass on a quality life for our children. We must begin the work to protect the land that sustains us - not continue to destroy it.

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Introduction

Wales is a lot more than a nation with a unique culture, heritage and language. It is also a country of abundant natural wealth such as water, extensive forests, adequate arable land, an educated and hard working population with an array of modern technology at our disposal, and a bountiful supply of renewable and fossil fuel energy sources. It is a country brimming with potential.

Unfortunately, we remain stuck in a highly centralised state along with its faulty economic system of distribution absurdly inappropriate to the 21^st century. The National Assembly     has proved to be a puppet government, large enough to be a colossal waste of resources,      but too powerless to effect any meaningful change. The British State based on privilege and patronage continues to deny the people of Wales, (as well as people in the other nations), their rightful share of our inherent wealth and power. Unless fundamental changes are     made to how we govern ourselves and develop our economy, the Welsh will remain powerless while our country continues to be sucked dry.

The message in this manifesto is clear: a self-governing Wales could become the ‘Switzerland of the British Isles’ by having the power and the vision to put our house in   order. Yet while we remain controlled by London and its servants in Cardiff Bay, we can     only stand in silent defiance as our country is commodified and exploited.

We recognise that only by building an inclusive and secure society, where every member is ensured a fair share in our country’s wealth and decision making power, can peaceful,         co-operative and empowered communities emerge.

Cymru has been described as a ‘Community of communities’. Independent Wales Party is working to make that description a living reality.

With this in mind we present to you this manifesto, a positive vision of what could be when we grasp the opportunity to manage our own affairs once again.  

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Real Democracy

 Voter turnout is at an all time low in Wales and the UK. Everywhere political cynicism and apathy is growing among the public. And who can lay blame? Underlying this cynicism is the realisation that in the world of gigantic and centralised states like the UK, there is little if any opportunity for individuals and communities to have their voice heard and effect real change.  

We stand together in frustration as motorways are rolled out over the once green countryside, telecommunication masts and huge wind turbines appear on our horizon, sand disappears from our beaches and dredging continues, genetically ‘mutilated’ crops are tested here and there, low flying war jets daily scream over our heads in the west, the possibility of more nuclear power stations hovers over us like a sinister threat. The list could go on but they have a common thread. They are all being imposed without opportunity for real consultation, our consent, and indeed often against stiff local opposition.  

Our powerlessness is the price we pay for being part of an increasingly bureaucratic centralised state where real decision making power is taken far away from those who it actually impinges on. Even the powers of elected MPs is dubious as the British bureaucracy seems to have a momentum and logic of its own. The continuing trend of centralisation is best illustrated in Tony Blair’s decision to involve Britain in a war alliance with the USA without even seeking the consent of Parliament.  

On top of all of this, what do the mainstream parties have to offer? Sadly, they are all sounding very much alike these days and one has to examine the fine details to discern any difference. They all seem to share an adherence to the centralised bureaucratic states hand in hand with the very undemocratic power of banking and private capital.  

We call for a real decentralisation of power. Not simply a continuing transfer from Westminster to the Assembly but right down to the people and communities that such power effects. We must unite to confront and dispel power that is overreaching and over-centralising itself enabling the abuse of power to flourish at the price of liberty and dignity. This applies to the National Assembly as well as London and Brussels. 

Independent Wales Party campaigns for a Wales where people and communities have the information and power to both safeguard and promote their locality. We must take back the power because we never willingly gave it away.

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Economic Democracy

“The nation’s economy is our economy. The current banking system operates as a       massive drain on that public wealth as well as concentrating power and control in the       hands of a tiny, private minority.” - Richard Greaves, Prosperity, 2001

You can have power and privilege confined to a small group, or, you can have democracy. YOU CANNOT HAVE BOTH. 

In the UK, the money supply is almost exclusively created and controlled by extremely small cartel of private bankers ensuring enormous power and profits for themselves and their multinational corporate friends. The government remains in collusion to this injustice. 

Economic Democracy is based on the principle that a nation’s money supply should belong to the nation, managed by democratic and accountable structures for the common good.  

Economic Democracy lies at the heart of our policy portfolio. It is the only sure way to deliver fairness, justice, and prosperity to our nation and its future generations. 

Accordingly, we reject the current UK monetary system that, 

·    has resulted in 97% of our money supply as interest-bearing debt to private banks;

·    enslaves everybody, even the UK government, in debt that can never be fully repaid;

·    on the average adds an estimated 50% to the cost of goods and services

·    results in chronic and unnecessary shortage of money for governments,communities   and many households;

·    fosters greed, competition and crime to the detriment of co-operation and community. 

While private financial institutions control our money supply for their own power and profit, real democracy remains an illusion. We therefore call for the establishment of an Economic Democracy in Wales moving from debt slavery to economic freedom.  

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Taxation & Citizen’s Income 

We pay taxes on virtually everything we buy, sell, inherit, use, and earn. We even pay taxes for having a home. Taxes have become oppressive, crippling and demoralising, and, to a large extent, unnecessary. 

We have been told that either we must cut public services or raise taxation – there is no alternative. But there are alternatives - if we take back the control of the money supply from profit seeking private institutions. 

Taxation, public spending and ever increasing bureaucracy have become a form of job creation of dubious benefit to the nation. We are still stuck in the outdated idea that people are the main producers of value and should have little claim on our collective wealth unless landing a paying job. It ignores the host of unpaid work which is often far more important to the functioning of society than paid employment (such as raising children and caring for others). It also ignores the fact that technology and capital investments have become the prime producers of wealth. The actual human contribution to the money economy will continue to shrink as new technology such as ICT and robotics grow in use and application. 

An Independent Wales administration would progressively shift taxation away from the ‘goods’, such as employment, incomes and savings to ‘bads’ such as energy use, pollution, common resource appropriation and depletion, environmentally damaging activities.  

The shift in taxation would be accompanied by a Citizen’s Income, increasing with age, paid out to all citizens. The Citizen’s Income will replace most other benefits (from child benefits to pensions) and the cumbersome and expensive bureaucracy needed to administer them. 

The Citizen’s Income will only partly be funded through taxation. Two other sources of Citizen’s Income funding will come from a National Dividend and Citizen Equity Shares. National Dividend funds, tied to levels of debt, will be created by the Central Bank in a staged programme to restore the economy to debt-free stability and sustainable prosperity. Citizen Equity Shares will be created through interest-free loans to industry for capital investments. As the need for and income from a National Dividend decreases over the years, the Citizen’s Income would be balanced by the steady increase in proceeds from Citizen Equity Shares as a greater proportion of the nation’s working capital comes under common ownership.

·    many farming families in Wales remain tenants to absentee landlords, not owners of their farmland 

·     residences (homes and the plots they rest on) only take up an estimated 7.5% of the land.

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 Water 

Water is one of Wales’ most abundant, renewable, and valuable resources. It should belong to our nation as a whole and its benefits shared. 

We deplore the situation where private investors can make money from Welsh water while people in Wales are often paying more for their own drinking water than consumers in England. It is fairness and justice on it head. 

In the National Assembly we will call for our water resources to come under public control so they can be managed by and for the people of Wales.

We will also call on the National Assembly for Wales to reject any regulations that attempts to offer up Wales’ vital resources, like water, food and energy, to unrestricted global competition and access. We believe that essential goods and common resources should serve their local regions first, reserving surplus for profitable trade.  

We also call for the end of the arrangements that is resulting in a virtual subsidy to consumers in England. 

An Independent Wales administration would set up a Limited Liability Partnership to manage our water resources. Citizen Equity Shares in the Partnership will be divided and distributed equally to all citizens of Wales.

This will ensure all citizens a Basic Income from the sale of water and related services. It would also ensure that water consumers in Wales were not subsidising wealthy investors.

Any profit would contribute to the general welfare.

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Energy – 5 points

1.   No Nukes. IWP deplores the imposition of nuclear power stations on the soil of Wales and will call for their phasing out and removal within a reasonable timescale after independence. A binding moratorium on the construction of new nuclear power station will be put in place by a IWP administration.

2. Small scale Renewables. A valuable contribution that can be made by developing and harnessing small-scale renewable energy plants to serve their local communities. We acknowledge that large investment of public funds are needed to ensure a shift to renewable and clean energy sources and will ensure that those investment resources    are available without undue delay.

3. Energy Wise. A significant contribution to solving problems with energy consumption   can be made through enacting energy-saving measures. We will further this approach through a range of measures including an energy tax on industrial wasteful over-consumption and subsidies for locally based alternative energy-saving technologies.

4. Community Voice. IWP rejects large and centralised power plants imposed on communities for the benefit of external bodies. Accordingly, an IWP administration     would not allow large scale wind farms to be imposed without local consent. Local referendums will be required before any large scale developments can proceed. This would ensure that they would have to be visibly and environmentally acceptable as well as measures put in place to ensure local benefit.

5. Cleaning up our act. IWP deplores open cast mining as it is environmentally destructive and leaves permanent scars on the land – our common inheritance. However, preference will be given to local supplies of fossil fuels over imported supplies were feasible. This may require a limited renewal of the coal industry but only when overriding social and environmental concerns have been given due regard. Implementation of technologies designed to result in a cleaner use of coal will only be considered.

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Manufacturing 

The chronic lack of public investment in Britain due to unnecessarily restrictive UK public spending policy has resulted in industry taking on a much larger share of the debt burden to remain afloat. It has left our manufacturing sector uncompetitive and collapsing. The result is ‘downsizing’ and unemployment - previously in coal and now in steel. While we remain    locked into the British debt economy with a fiscally conservative mindset, things can only get worse for us in Wales. 

In the National Assembly we will continue to put pressure on the administration to focus its attention on securing and spending adequate public funds to invest in and rebuild the Welsh manufacturing sector. 

An Independent Wales administration would provide interest-free loans to the Welsh manufacturing sector to ensure its full regeneration. The loans will be issued in the form of Citizen Equity Shares shared out to all citizens of Wales. This will ensure a Citizen’s Income  for all citizens by securing an increasing share in the working capital of the nation.  

Local industries will also enjoy protection from foreign predatory aggression if and when it is in the best interests of the nation. 

We would encourage the revitalised Welsh manufacturing sector to use local supplies and meet local demand reserving surplus production for trade within Britain and overseas. Trade on the world markets will therefore be a bonus to be negotiated on our terms. Socially and environmentally destructive deregulation will no longer be encouraged or tolerated. 

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Agriculture & Supermarkets

 “the death of farming will not be an easy one in the green and pleasant land. How did we come to this?” – Andrew O’Hagan, author of The End of British Farming

After fresh air and clean water, a healthy and adequate food supply produced as locally as possible, is the one of the most important factors to ensure sustainability and security within nations and regions.  

An Independent Wales administration will ensure a return to healthy family farms and good wholesome locally sourced food on our tables by the following measures:

1. Eliminate the crushing bank debts facing many farmers through the provision of interest-free loans and long term rescheduling to settle mounting debt pressures.
2. Turn tenant farmers into legitimate owners of their farms by means of public acquisition of large landed estates and reselling to tenants with the aid of interest free loans.
3. Surplus land will be made available for those wishing to take up farming with supportive financing made available.

Supermarkets

 “Supermarkets are a dagger in the guts of civilization.” John Papworth, priest, 1997

IWP acknowledges the damaging influence supermarket’s virtual monopoly (88% of the market) on the food industry has on farms in Europe and Wales. Unfair practices of the supermarket monopoly includes:

·    paying farmers for food stuffs less than the cost of their production while charging many times that cost on the shelf.

·   maintaining farmers in a perpetual state of insecurity and playing one off the other to keep costs unsustainably low.

·    destruction of communities and small retailers.

·    buying practices that result in the elimination of small family farms and favour the emergence of large agribusiness with its attendant high use of chemical fertilizers and fossil fuels. 

European-wide deregulation of the food industry has resulted in a continuing large scale destruction of traditional and sustainable agricultural patterns and practices.  

An Independent Wales administration will enact measures to right this wrong including: 

·    establish an independent supermarket regulator to ensure food suppliers are paid a fair   price for their produce.

·    establish a ‘food-miles duty’ for imported foodstuffs to reduce environmental impact and protect our local suppliers.

·   implement subsidies for organic production to ensure a healthy supply of food at a reasonable cost.

·   freedom from the dependence on EU subsidies and attendant bureaucratic regulations.

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 Genetically Modified food? – just say no!

 GM foods is resulting in the privatisation and monopolisation of life forms. This will lead to excessive profits of a few select corporations virtually owning and controlling food   production throughout the planet if left unchecked.

The consequences of engineering, growing, and eating mutant forms of life is also largely unknown and could lead to devastating consequences. The spread of GM pollen from ‘test fields’ could also lead to a more widespread contamination of our basic foodstuffs and the  loss of ‘organic’ status.

The risks far outweigh any dubious gain.  

An IWP administration will place a moratorium on GM production and lobby other  governments in Britain to do likewise.

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 Health 

IWP recognises that true health can only come about by taking a fresh approach to the issue. Simply treating the effects of ill health will not remedy the situation in the short or long term. Root causes of ill health must be examined and measures to create a more healthy society enacted. Low self esteem due to increasing disparity in wages, loss of livelihood, inadequate shelter, social isolation, stress, and insecurity, have all been noted as significant factors resulting in general ill health and sickness. Our policy of Economic Democracy will directly tackle and ameliorate many of these conditions.

 Additionally, we deplore the chronic under-investment in the NHS.

An Independent Wales administration would make sufficient resources available for NHS investment in Wales ensuring assessable, no-cost, quality healthcare for all citizens. Funds  will be directed to attracting and training more doctors, nurses, and beds – not just more bureaucracy.

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 Pensions 

Lately, private and government managed pension funds have been collapsing like a house of cards. Many people who have conscientiously  saved throughout their lives will be left with little more than an inadequate state pension upon retirement. The message is stark. There is no security while pensions remained hinged on stock market investments that has become a global casino of winners and losers. 

Old-age and poverty are two factors that should never have to meet in our modern world.  

In an Independent Wales administration, no pensioner shall ever be of want of a decent income to maintain dignity and reasonable comfort in the later years. In the meantime we call on the government to at least double the current level of state pensions and tie it to the cost of living so we can all face our later years with a measure of security.

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 Education & Student Grants 

Good education is one of the most important investments a nation can make for its future welfare. We believe that public education should result in responsible and caring citizens    who can think for themselves and are equipped with the tools and confidence to follow their dreams. We believe that public education should be a co-operative and joyful experience for both pupils and staff.  

We agree with the National Union of Teachers that the education system is becoming overly bureaucratic, stressful, and destructively competitive.  

IWP recognises the need for an authentic education that offers pupils:

Accordingly, we call for a radical review of how and why we educate our children and young adults. 

IWP condemns the student loans system that results in students graduating as debt slaves while the private banks profit from long term interest payments. IWP deplores the rising        cost of further education that is resulting in an increasing number of students turning to prostitution to make ends meet. 

We demand an immediate return of Student Grants that would allow all people, regardless of background and financial status, to further their education in dignity. 

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European Union 

In the Assembly IWP will speak out against the imposition of any EU regulation where it can  be shown to have undesirable and damaging effects on the Welsh economy, culture, or   social life. The Assembly’s first and last duty must be to serve the interests of Wales regardless of external interests and pressure.

An Independent Wales administration would negotiate entry into the EU as a Member State. The right to assist our people in achieving economic and social security, as well as    measures to protect our local economy and communities from predatory multinational corporations will be negotiated in full with the EU. Any agreement reached with the EU regarding entry would be subject to approval gained by means of a nationwide referendum.