Politics in Wales forms a distinctive polity in the wider politics of the United Kingdom, with Wales as one of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom (UK).

Constitutionally, the United Kingdom is de jure a unitary state with one sovereign parliament and government. However, under a system of devolution (or home rule) adopted in the late 1990s three of the four constituent parts of the United Kingdom, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, voted for limited self-government, subject to the ability of the UK Parliament in Westminster, nominally at will, to amend, change, broaden or abolish the national governmental systems. As such the National Assembly for Wales (Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru) is not de jure sovereign.

Executive power in the United Kingdom is vested in the Queen-in-Council, while legislative power is vested in the Queen-in-Parliament (the Crown and the Parliament of the United Kingdom at Westminster in London). The Government of Wales Act 1998 established devolution in Wales, and certain executive and legislative powers have been constitutionally delegated to the National Assembly for Wales. The scope of these powers was further widened by the Government of Wales Act 2006.

Irvine Welsh (born 27 September 1958 in Leith, Edinburgh) is a contemporary Scottish novelist, best known for his novel Trainspotting. His work is characterised by raw Scottish dialect, and brutal depiction of the realities of Edinburgh life. He has also written plays, screenplays, and directed several short films.

Irvine Welsh was born in Leith, the port area of the Scottish capital Edinburgh. His family moved to Muirhouse, in Edinburgh, when he was four, where the family stayed at local housing schemes. His mother worked as a waitress. His father was a dock worker in Leith until bad health forced him to become a carpet salesman; he died when Welsh was 25. Welsh left Ainslie Park High School when he was 16 and then completed a City and Guilds course in electrical engineering. He became an apprentice TV repairman until an electric shock persuaded him to move on to a series of other jobs. He left Edinburgh for the London punk scene in 1978, where he played guitar and sang in The Pubic Lice and Stairway 13, the latter a reference to the Ibrox disaster. A series of arrests for petty crimes and finally a suspended sentence for trashing a North London community centre inspired Welsh to correct his ways. He worked for Hackney London Borough Council in London and studied computing with the support of the Manpower Services Commission.

Stephen "Steve" Clarke (born 29 August 1963 in Saltcoats) is a former Scottish association football player and current First Team Coach of Liverpool FC. He played for St. Mirren, Chelsea and Scotland, winning three major trophies with Chelsea towards the end of his career. After retiring as a player he moved into coaching and has worked as an assistant manager for Newcastle United, enjoyed successes working alongside Jose Mourinho for Chelsea, and then alongside Gianfranco Zola at West Ham United.

Spotted whilst playing for Beith Juniors, Clarke started his professional football career with St. Mirren. Clarke was initially on a part-time contract with St. Mirren, while he completed an apprenticeship as an instrument engineer. He was transferred to Chelsea for £422,000 in February 1987. He stayed at Chelsea until 1998, making 421 appearances. He was a part of the Chelsea sides which won the 1997 FA Cup Final, 1998 Football League Cup Final and 1998 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Final. The latter game, against VfB Stuttgart in Stockholm, was Clarke's final appearance for the club. In 2005 he was voted into Chelsea's centenary XI, occupying the right-back berth.

Harri Webb (7 September 1920 – 31 December 1994) was an Anglo-Welsh poet, Welsh nationalist, journalist and librarian.

Harri Webb was born on 7 September 1920 in Swansea, at 45 Ty Coch Road on the outskirts of the city, but before he was two the family moved to Catherine Street, nearer the city centre. Growing up in a working class environment, in 1938 he won a Local Education Authority scholarship, and went to the University of Oxford to study languages, specialising in French, Spanish and Portuguese - a period of his life to which he made virtually no reference in his writings. While he was at university his studies were affected by the death of his mother; he graduated with a third class degree in 1941.

Webb immediately volunteered for the Royal Navy, with whom he served during World War II as an interpreter, including work with the Free French in the Mediterranean region, with periods in Algeria and Palestine, and action in the north Atlantic. He was demobilised in Scotland in 1946.

Following his return to Wales in 1947 his life was outwardly uneventful. For some eight years he worked in temporary jobs, including working for Keidrych Rhys in Carmarthen, and a brief period in Cheltenham.

Griffith "Griff" Rhys Jones (born 16 November 1953) is a Welsh comedian, writer, actor, television presenter and personality. Jones came to national attention in the early 1980s for his work in the BBC television comedy sketch shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones along with his comedy partner Mel Smith. With Smith, he founded television production company Talkback Productions, now part of RTL Group. He went on to develop a career as a television presenter and writer, as well as continuing with acting work.

Rhys Jones was born in Cardiff, the son of Gwyneth Margaret (née Jones) and Elwyn, a doctor. Moving with his father's work, he attended Conifers Primary School in Midhurst, West Sussex, junior school in Epping, Essex and Brentwood School, also in Essex. While the family was resident in Essex, his father had a boat in West Mersea on Mersea Island, which they would sail around the coast of Suffolk and into The Broads.