IN case you’ve missed it, my colleague Hamish Morrison has been on the move from his base in London.
Our Westminster reporter has had a whirlwind trip to Belfast and Cardiff this week to have a blether with Sinn Fein and Plaid Cymru leaders: one with Northern Irish first minister Michelle O’Neill and another with Welsh deputy first minister Sioned Williams.
A vast amount was covered – the Celtic Alliance (of course), strategy, culture, language and the overall ambition for each country.
I’ve picked out two standout quotes which give us a snapshot of where each are in their path to self-determination.
From Williams on Wales: “What we’ve seen time and again now – not only from the work that’s been done by the Scottish Government around making the case and showing what benefits that could bring but we’ve also seen that people have come on a journey – that proportion of the Welsh population who are in favour or indy-curious as we call them has increased and has remained quite sticky. But there is a long way to go.”
And from O’Neill on Northern Ireland: “I want to convince young people who have a British identity that actually you’d be much better off in an inclusive and respectful Ireland than you would be in this arrangement that we have right now. I think that’s the conversations that I want us to have.”
You can read both and watch both interviews:
- Plaid Cymru says Celtic Alliance is 'golden opportunity'
- Michelle O'Neill on Irish reunification, power-sharing and language
This week in Scotland
Scotland’s ruling party enters June – the month leaders from all three governments are to meet with Keir Starmer – in an all too familiar position.
Within the first week of parliament, its first two calls were rejected by Westminster. The first on independence and the second on devolving energy to Holyrood.
It’s a waiting game until that meeting with the Prime Minister – date to be announced – but it is looking likely it will be after Swinney’s World Cup trip to the US.
Within the powers Holyrood has, this week the government announced:
- Funding to “back Scotland’s entrepreneurs” and drive innovation across sectors, as part of a wider push to present the government as "pro-enterprise".
- Applications have opened for the Best Start Grant School Age Payment – an income‑tested payment to help with the costs of starting primary school.
- Ministers highlighted an increase in the number of NHS operations, with the Health Secretary welcoming a “sustained rise in activity”, alongside confirmation that the CAMHS waiting‑time standard (90% seen within 18 weeks) has been sustained.
During the same week, attention was mostly on the party’s finances following Peter Murrell’s guilty plea for embezzling SNP funds. The case has reignited scrutiny of the party’s governance and raised uncomfortable questions about the handling of money raised for future independence campaigns, but most party members, frankly, don’t seem to mind.
I heard from dozens yesterday and here’s the write-up.
And the SNP have again used their muscle at Westminster and called for an investigation into whether Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander – who helped lead Scottish Labour’s disastrous Holyrood election campaign – has broken the ministerial code.
In Wales
It was the first FMQs for Wales’s first Plaid Cymru first minister this week.
Ap Iorwerth moved from campaigning to governing in the Senedd on Tuesday, and the focus is now on demonstrating what the party can do with the powers they already have while continuing to call for further devolution.
The clearest example came from Health Secretary Mabon ap Gwynfor (below), who unveiled a series of NHS commitments that Plaid hopes will become early symbols of success in government. These include the creation of up to ten new surgical and diagnostic hubs across Wales, the recruitment of up to 100 salaried GPs, and expanded access to out-of-hours primary care services.
The headline commitment, however, concerns the elimination of two-year waiting times within months. This is a politically significant pledge as long NHS waits became one of the defining weaknesses of the previous Welsh Labour administration and a major factor in Labour’s declining support.
Ministers repeatedly promised to eliminate waits of more than two years, first by March 2023, then March 2024, and later by the end of the Senedd term. None of those targets were achieved.
The most recent NHS figures, published shortly before the election, showed 2589 treatment pathways still waiting more than two years as of March 2026. While that remains a substantial number, it represented a dramatic fall from the previous month’s figure of 4517.
Before asking voters to support independence, Plaid is seeking to demonstrate that the pro-independence party can work with and govern Welsh institutions to solve Welsh problems.
In Northern Ireland
Of the three nationalist parties, Sinn Fein made the most substantial constitutional move during the past week.
The party have launched a six-point plan seeking to reform institutions of government in Northern Ireland, how they should function in the years ahead and aimed at “removing the ever-present threat of collapse” at Stormont.
Sinn Fein argue that Northern Ireland’s political institutions have become too vulnerable to collapse because of veto powers held by the largest nationalist and unionist parties. Since the Good Friday Agreement established power-sharing in 1998, Stormont has repeatedly ceased functioning for extended periods, effectively collapsing between 2017 and 2020 and 2022 to 2024.
“I think our unusual, and some might also say abnormal, political infrastructure are the necessary product of the peace process and therefore we are committed to being here, to working every day, to try to deliver for people despite all those challenges,” O’Neill said when unveiling the reforms.
“But we do believe that we can make changes that improve how we do government, that we can do without undermining the core principles of the Good Friday Agreement.
“So today, this is about our contribution to the ongoing debate. It’s an important piece of work and we’re presenting our considered proposals on reform, that we believe will make a difference to the political institutions.”
This matters constitutionally because it shifts the debate beyond Irish unity. For years, Sinn Fein’s constitutional focus centred on achieving a border poll.
Now the conversation increasingly concerns what political structures should exist before and after any future constitutional change.
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