Wales, and the Welsh language have been in the spotlight recently, with the debates on its future following each other. The Party of Wales, Plaid Cymru, has been in the centre of discussions that have on one side accused Welsh politics of 'racism' towards English immigrants, and on the other side of not doing enough for the safeguarding of Welsh language and culture. Plaid Cymru's Simon Thomas has been a Member of Parliament in London since February 2000.‘A couple of weeks ago, I can’t remember which newspaper it was, one of the tabloids decided that North Wales is the rudest place in the United Kingdom. They complained that the people in the shops or pubs started talking Welsh as soon as you came in there. But of course that didn’t have anything to do with the English people coming in there, people have always spoken Welsh there. Just to give you an idea - speaking another language is seen as rude in the United Kingdom. It’s not seen as anything positive, as building a multilingual, multicultural environment'.

This is one of the comments that Simon Thomas makes when he describes the attitudes he meets in his job. He claims that English people in general are ignorant when it comes to Wales and its culture.

'And I mean ignorant in the full sense of the word - which is basically don’t know, as well as even if they did know, they wouldn’t be interested. I asked a question of the Prime Minister last week, about Afghanistan, and as I was asking, one of the Labour backbenches shouted out ‘go back to the hills’. That’s the mind attitude that they’ve got.'

Simon Thomas, a Plaid Cymru member representing the constituency of Ceredigion, has got a tricky job. While this is the attitude of some of his colleagues in London, his party has also been accused of not doing enough to safeguard the Welsh language and culture and instead trying to get English votes. Thomas defends his party by saying that it is a growing party and that they need the support of the English in order to get more power in Cardiff.

‘Ultimately, my job is to wrestle power away from London, into Cardiff and to get more evolution in Wales, and to see strong Welsh institutions being established. One MP, two MP’s - or even forty, can’t change peoples’ attitudes. What changes attitudes is seeing political power being exercised.'

This is the long-term goal of Simon Thomas. He says, 'there’s a lot of people saying that we shouldn’t be here, that we should be in Cardiff. I think we should remember that we are actually a part of the United Kingdom, and we have a contribution to make. Obviously our longterm aim is to move the power to a European level and to Cardiff, but while it is happening at a British level, I personally want to be part of it.'

But what about a Welsh future in Europe? Will London always be the centre of power for the Welsh, or will it be sidetracked by a stronger Europe one day?

Simon Thomas doesn't see a marginalized London as impossibility. It depends on how active a role they chose to have, he says.

‘This makes it even more important for Wales to get representation in Europe. If London gets marginalized in Europe and we’re marginalized in London, we’re never going to get any recognition. There are two tracks to go down for Wales. One is to remain with the United Kingdom and hope that it becomes more of a federal state, that it develops along the lines of Spain, giving autonomy to it’s regions. The other track is to recognise that this state has never shown any sign of devolving or becoming federal, and to instead try to get Wales into the Union as a member state. This is obviously not going to happen in the near future, we’re talking 20 to 25 years, and by that stage Europe will also look different.’