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TOMORROW (Sunday), Gwlad – The Welsh Independence Party – will cease all election activities for 24 hours as a mark of respect following the death of The Duke of Edinburgh.
But, the party will re-commence their campaigning first thing on Monday Morning, April 12th.
With an 8 day official mourning period announced, there’s talk of the other political parties in Wales suspending their campaigns for the entirety of this period.
However, Gwlad have decided that Wales simply can’t afford to lose 8 days of active campaigning in such a crucial election.
Especially at an election which is already severely constrained and curtailed as it is.
‘In the first place of course, we would like to extend our sincere condolences to the Queen and her family on their loss’ said Gwlad Leader, Gwyn Wigley Evans.
‘It’s only right and proper that we pay our respects by halting all of our work as a party for 24 hours.’
Mr Evans added that as someone with 22 years of voluntary counselling work with Cruse and Bereavement Care, he said the Royal Family like all other families in such circumstances needed time for themselves to process their grief.
‘But, life has to go on, Royals or not. Too much introspection is not healthy for anyone’ he said.
Gwlad’s decision to resume campaigning after 24 hours, also reflects the fact that smaller parties would be harder affected by a 8 day suspension than the bigger parties.
‘As a new party, losing that ability to communicate with the public for 8 days would have a much greater impact on us than the established parties’ said Mr Evans.
‘Why should the Welsh public be deprived of the opportunity to hear what we have to say for over a week’
The party have also taken on board the fact that the Royal Family themselves have not requested that the election process in Wales or Scotland be halted.
It remains to be seen whether the other parties will follow Gwlad’s lead on this matter.
But perhaps the party is reflecting some of the public mood, bearing in mind that the BBC was overwhelmed with complaints by viewers after their wall-to-wall coverage of Prince Phillip’s death on Friday.
Here in Wales, both Radio Cymru and S4C also came in for fierce criticism on social media for their own excessive coverage of the passing of the 99 year old.
With the media hype about the Royal death likely to ramp up again over the next week or so, perhaps many Welsh voters will appreciate receiving Gwlad’s election communications as some welcome relief from it all.