Imagine it, the savagery of Thatcher's attack on the mining communities of Wales never happened: we might still have coal mines, steel works, and other industrial jobs.
Without Thatcher we'd have better funded public services as well, and trade unions wouldn't be as hobbled by the law as they are today. Young people from Wales wouldn't have died in the South Atlantic and Northern Ireland in Thatcher's wars. More of our communities would still have enough people in work to to avoid the flight of their young people because they cannot afford housing. The viability of the Welsh-speaking communities wouldn't be so undermined as they are today as a result. Fewer of us would bear the scars of long term unemployment and the poverty and ill health it brings. And so on.
Continuity between Thatcher and Blair
Imagine, as there was no Thatcher, there would be no New Labour government carrying on Thatcher's political legacy. The continuity between Thatcher and Blair and Brown makes a long list of ongoing damage; privatisation, the introduction of profiteering into public services ('public-private partnerships'), the Trident nuclear missile system which Thatcher introduced, free rein for the casino economy of the bankers and stock brokers in the City of London, the laws that restrict trade union rights, et cetera.
Imagine there was no Cameron/Clegg tragi-comic duo ruling us from Westminster right now, and no UK Labour party so cowed by Thatcherism that they are supine before the injustice of the Tories' cuts to the benefits that the poorest and most vulnerable rely on to survive.
One change to the political system before the Tories were elected as the Westminster government in 1979 could have prevented all of this.
How could that be possible, what one change could have made such a difference to our history, our current reality and our future prospects?
Independence
The answer is Independence: the ability to decide our own future as a people.
Wales has never, ever, since the introduction of universal suffrage, voted Tory. We didn't vote for Thatcher, we didn't vote for Major, we didn't vote for Cameron this last time. Yet during my lifetime as an adult (I first voted in a UK general election in 1979) Wales has had to suffer over 20 years of Tory rule from Westminster. Twenty wasted years of unnecessary hardship and suffering for the Welsh people. In Wales, as Leanne Wood has pointed out, we never accepted the Thatcher dogma that there is not such thing as society, we believe in community, that is what enabled us to survive the Thatcher era against such a determined assault by the Tories.
For Wales, the national question is fundamentally a question of democracy. The political centre of gravity of Wales is well to the left of that of the UK as a whole, and yet our voice is lost in the UK political system. This is partly because of Westminster's undemocratic first-past-the-post electoral system, but mainly because our voice is drowned out by the vastly greater numbers of MPs elected in England. The same situation applies in Scotland.
There is no democratic mandate for any Tory UK government to rule in either country because the people of Scotland and Wales consistently vote against them by very large margins. I am certain that it was the experience of Thatcherism being foisted on us from Westminster against our will that tipped the balance in favour of a "Yes" vote on the 1997 referendum for a Welsh Assembly.
The Assembly
The Assembly, though a huge advance compared to the previous situation where we had no Welsh political institutions at all, cannot do the job that is needed at the moment. That job is to undo the effects of over 20 years of Thatcherite destruction of Welsh society, and 13 years of the Labour establishment presiding over the ruins in their shockingly complacent and paternalistic way.
The Assembly doesn't yet have enough power in terms of law-making and crucially it cannot yet control its own budget. These limitations exist because its powers were decided as part of an internal compromise between the pro- and anti-devolution wings of the Labour party, not in relation to an open debate in Welsh society about what sort of political institutions we actually need.
Of course Plaid Cymru has pushed for greater powers at every stage, which is the right strategy without any doubt. We are living at a very exciting time in terms of the future of Wales. How Scotland votes in 2014 will transform the terrain of the debate about independence in Wales as well.
How different Wales could be if we decided our own future
Let's take a further step of the imagination. Think what a different place Wales could be if we decided our own future.
Post Script
Although Welsh Labour has been moving, slowly and reluctantly, under pressure from Plaid Cymru, to accept that the Assembly needs more powers, they remain a party deeply divided and confused about where they stand in relation to devolution and the national question as a whole.
I find it hard to understand why socialists in the Labour party (I recognise that some still exist) can't see the benefits that independence could bring: no more Tory governments wreaking havoc on our communities being the most important by far.
But also no need for Labour politicians to feel they have to look over their shoulders worrying what the voters of the stockbroker belt, or 'Middle England' (wherever the hell that is, somewhere between Tolkein's Shire and Tellytubby Land is my best guess) might think of their policies. In an independent Wales, Labour could concentrate on what voters here think instead (which as I've mentioned above, is significantly more progressive than the UK average). I realise this is a revolutionary proposition for some! And crucially, whether Welsh Labour is able to break its deeply-ingrained habit of doing whatever the London leadership tell it to do without question, is another matter again.
