I don’t want to tear you away from your TV screen which at this moment is giving generous coverage to the Armagh service ‘marking’ 100 years of partition. But there are other things happening in the world as well.
In Wales, for example. Like every other half-rational country, Wales is worried about the climate crisis and wants to do something about it. The Welsh First Minister, Mark Drakeford, notes that Wales has lots of wind, wave and water bouncing off its shores. This, he figures, could be useful in creating sources of renewable energy: “Geography is on our side. If you’re on the west side of the UK, you have the prevailing winds. We are surrounded on three sides by water.”
And we, Mark, are surrounded on four sides by water. Thank God.
There’s one catch: the Crown estate holds the right to the seabeds around the ‘British Isles’. Not many people know that. Scotland, somehow, has loosened the Royal grip; Wales hasn’t. Yet. When asked what he thought of maybe getting the Royals to make the seabeds around Wales Welsh (indeed, Virginia: very daft), Drakeford said:
“The crown estate is devolved in Scotland. The Scottish government do have levers they are able to use that are not directly available to us. In Scotland it’s a direct tool the government is able to deploy.”
Good man, Mark. As the Proclaimers put it, “We beg. For a piece of.Whats already!
Whats already! Whats already ours!”
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