Mediaboss Marketing

Vaughan Gething on Question Time

Wales Health Minister has said that the UK Governments decree that the union flag should be flown above all of their buildings was an attempt to have culture wars.

Speaking on BBC Question Time, Vaughan Gething said that it was an attempt to create a row on an issue that would have no real impact on anyones life.

Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price responded that it was an attempt to quash the Welsh independence movement, but would backfire as the union flag was representative of Wales invisibility within the union.

The panelllists, which also included Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies, former Brexit Party MEP Claire Fox and retired rugby union referee Nigel Owens were asked whether there was any danger that forcing people to fly to flag could be met with resistance.

Theres a danger you get too upset about this when we already have the Welsh flag and the union jack flying over the Welsh Government building, Vaughan Gething said.

Im proud to be Welsh and British and Im proud of my Zambian heritage as well. I think for politicians its not so much about having a row about flags but about the future of the country.

You know if we fly the flag over all local council buildings or not, well have a row about it but will it change anybodys life? I dont think it will.

Asked about First Minister Mark Drakefords comments in which he said the union was over, Vaughan Gething said that those comments werent about the flag theyre about how the UK works.

Recognising that power is held in different parts of the UK. And just having the UK Government making all the choices when people dont agree with each other isnt the right way forward.

Its about remaking the Union. Its a voluntary association of the four nations. I think were all better off in the Union together, but we need a way for the Union to work in the future, otherwise the danger is that well end up dividing the UK and well see it fall apart.

That obviously isnt what I want to see. But in Wales we need to be able to make our own decisions on a whole range of areas that are already here in the Welsh Parliament, that people are going to vote on at the start of May.

Refused

Adam Price said that flying the flag represented how Wales was treated within the UK.

This has obviously been designed really as a response to the growing support for Scottish and Welsh independence. It might have the opposite effect in Wales, because there is no more potent symbol of Wales invisibility within this Union than the Union Jack, Adam Price said.

Because were the only home nation that isnt represented on it. And therein lies a deep truth about how we are treated as a nation within this unequal United Kingdom.

Therein lies the experience of Wales. We saw it with the furlough, didnt we the firebreak. The Welsh Government asked for the furlough to be extended.

We were refused, endangering our lives. When the situation changed in England, hey presto, they extended the furlough. And the people of Wales noticed that.

This is how Wales has been treated in this United Kingdom and its there to see on the flag itself.

Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies said it should be mandated that both flags fly in Wales because we are a proud country on our own and also part of the United Kingdom.

Im proud to call myself an Unionist, but Im equally proud to be a Welshman as well a passionate Welshman, who puts 19 and a half stone on the veterans rugby field now and again, he said.

Read the original post:
UK Government's order to fly union flag 'an attempt to have culture wars' says Health Minister - Nation.Cymru