The most infuriating thing isn’t that Wales is treated as a non-country – it’s that we accept it | Will Hayward

From the the Barnett formula to the humiliation of having an English ‘Prince of Wales’, you’d never catch Scotland allowing this treatment

When you come to Wales, one of your first impressions is of how delighted people here are to be Welsh. Even those who have left feel a strong pride in their Welsh identity, according to a study of the Welsh diaspora published last week. It is a source of immense pride to them that they are from Wales. It should be. It is a miracle of history that Wales and Welshness even still exists.

In the floods that devastated much of south Wales last weekend, we saw the very best of our nation. Tight communities, coming together in the face of obstacles that would shatter the morale of all but the most resilient. But after more than 16 years of calling Wales home and covering it as a journalist, I am struck by a great paradox. Though the people of Wales will go 12 rounds with anyone who scorns their country, there is deep down a seeming acceptance among many that it is Wales’s lot to be perpetually treated as less of a nation than Scotland.

Will Hayward is a Guardian columnist. He publishes a regular newsletter on Welsh politics