The cause is growing in popularity with young remainers, but there are dissenting views
Wales – poor, peripheral, reliably Labour voting – does not really figure in the political imaginations of Britain’s chattering class. To the extent that its politics are noticed at all, it is largely through the prism of expectations generated by developments in other parts of the UK.
Most recently, this has led to significant interest in the extent to which the Welsh might eventually come to emulate the Scottish preoccupation with independence. There is indeed ample polling evidence that somewhere between 25 and 30% of Welsh voters would now vote yes in any referendum, with the shift towards independence particularly pronounced among younger, remain-leaning voters.
Richard Wyn Jones is director of the Wales Governance Centre and dean of public affairs at Cardiff University
This article was amended on 26 April 2022 to give the figure of 25-30% of Welsh voters predicted to vote yes in a referendum, replacing 20-25% given in an earlier version, a change that was made in the editing process
