The Psychology of Distance

As the National Assembly embarks on its second term, one of its inaugural elected members assesses how far it can create a unified civic culture in the face of the many divisions that typify Welsh identity. The late Professor Phil Williams explores the cross currents of a fractured sensibility that challenge policy makers in the Assembly government. Most quoted, of course, is the divide between north and south. Yet he concludes that the distance between them is largely psychology, simply because their peoples so seldom meet. In respect of other divides, for instance between the poorer communities of Wales and those that are more prosperous, the physical distance is often very small. Without being fully conscious of such divisions, he feels the Assembly has no chance of addressing them.