AS Wales prepared for a friendly against Ghana at the Principality Stadium this week, The National took to the streets of Cardiff to ask what people made of the country’s political earthquake last month.
Among those supporting their national team were father and son David and Cameron Gray, who both voted for Plaid Cymru, who have ended Labour’s 27-year reign in power in the Senedd.
Decked out in a bucket hat and a dragon-red football top, Cameron Gray said that he backed Welsh independence but was not confident the change was “feasible”.
He had voted for Plaid because “they've got Wales’s best interests at heart, unlike some of the other parties” and said that Labour was not “working” after a run of electoral dominance in Wales that had lasted since 1922.
The 27-year-old trainee psychologist added: “I'd like to see it, but I don't know enough about it. I don't know if we'd be able to manage on our own, truthfully, but I like Wales, I'd like us to be independent, I don't know whether it's feasible.”
With Plaid, the SNP and Sinn Fein in power across the UK, the parliamentary standing of nationalist parties has never been higher. Asked whether he believed the days of the Union were numbered, Cameron replied: “Probably for the best.”
His father, David Gray was less convinced by the prospect. “I don't think we can sustain it,” he said.
“Maybe Scotland can probably sustain it, but I don't think we can. I think we probably work better under a British government. I just don't think economically we can sustain ourselves, we haven't got the resources.”
The 55-year-old anaesthetic practitioner added: “I think Labour have had their time. They've done very little for the Welsh population, especially, up in the valleys where we live. So why not give Plaid Cymru a chance, they've got the Welsh interests at heart, haven’t they?”
First-time Tory voter Julie Ridley-Siegert told The National she had abandoned Labour at last month’s election.
“I voted Conservative, which I'd never done before actually, and my parents were staunch Labour Party voters, but I felt I couldn't vote Labour again,” she said. “I just couldn't. I feel they've let us down a lot.”
The main right-wing party in Wales today is Reform UK, who won 34 seats to the Tories’ seven.
But the 65-year-old charity worker ruled out voting for Nigel Farage’s party.
She said: “I don't like Nigel at all. He’s not somebody that I warm to at all and I certainly don't trust him.”
On Welsh independence, she said she was open-minded. Asked if she could be convinced to back it, Ridley-Siegert said: “Oh, absolutely.”
She added: “I think if it's in the best interest of the Welsh people, then I will certainly look at it, but it has to be in the best interest of the Welsh people, all Welsh people, not just the rich or whatever, but everybody in Wales.”
Former Labour member David Mordey said he had high expectations for Plaid after backing them at the ballot box.
“Well, actually I've always been a Labour supporter and actually a member of the Labour Party, but I voted Plaid this time because I felt disappointed by what Labour have done and I've left the Labour Party,” he said. “I'm waiting now excitingly to see what Plaid are able to do.”
The 65-year-old engineer said he was against Welsh independence but wanted more powers for the Senedd.
“I'm English and I've lived here since I was nine, so I'm not for Welsh independence,” he said.
“I don't think we've got the business or industry anymore to survive.”
He added: “We need tax, and many other things really, so that we can stop the poverty in Wales because obviously it's the highest poverty out of the three nations.”
Reflecting on the electoral victories of nationalist parties across the UK, Mordey said that he believed the Union’s future was in doubt.
“I think it is in doubt, but I wish it wasn't,” he said. “I think there's a comedian that once likened it to living in a house with somebody who has all the money, and obviously just shells out little bits to everyone else that lives in the house.
“So, yeah, and because of that, obviously Scotland – which I think could survive, as part of Europe, as independent – could happen one day, in which case that's going to be like a domino effect I think.”
LibDem voter David Phillips claimed that Plaid would threaten the job prospects of non-Welsh speaking “white males”.
“All the job opportunities will go because everybody will expect to be Welsh speakers and they'll be given the priority,” he said. “I've seen it in the past and it'll happen in the future.”
The 60-year-old, who owns a pet food shop, was downbeat about the prospect of five years under a Plaid government, saying: “Probably Plaid Cymru will make a total mess of it and Labour will be back in in in the next Senedd elections anyway.”
And while he was a firm “no” to Welsh independence, saying the country “haven't got the politicians, we haven't got the ability, we haven't got the income”, he did think the future of the Union was in doubt.
“It certainly is the way things are looking at the moment,” he said.
