AS Westminster plunges deeper and deeper into what seems to be a never-ending crisis, many people will be wondering how we got to this point. They see the Brexit crisis as an aberration to what is an otherwise robust political system, which is currently being undermined by the Machiavellian manoeuvrings of Boris Johnson and the unelected bureaucrat pulling the puppet strings, Dominic Cummings.

What we have seen over the past few weeks and months is a political system in which the executive can dissolve the legislature when it disagrees with its position, where the administration threatens to ignore laws created by elected Members of Parliament and in which the governing party purges any MP who dares vote to protect their own constituents and according to their consciences.

It is a political system where the government is allowed to spend £100 million of taxpayers’ money on advertising a policy that its own analysis proves to be disastrous, while simultaneously covering up that analysis to avoid alarming the public.

If this were to happen in another country, the British political establishment would likely be up in arms, lauding the influence of Global Britain as a beacon for the rule of law and liberal democracy.

This is no aberration, however. It is exactly how Westminster has always worked.

The mere fact that Boris Johnson’s unilateral decision to dismiss Parliament is within Westminster’s rules is a scandal in itself.

It has been so resistant to modernisation, so attached to procedures that aim to keep power as far as possible away from ordinary people, that this sort of abuse of power is entirely consistent with Westminster’s conventions.

The real scandal is that members of the British establishment have supported a corrupt system that suited their own interests despite it being blindingly obvious that it has been harmful to ordinary people for centuries.

Plaid Cymru have warned ad nauseum that the Westminster system is rotten to the core. The only difference is that now, everyone can see it. Now more than ever, the people of Wales are realising that we can do better – so much better – than this.

In July, at least 8000 people marched through the streets of Caernarfon in support of an independent Wales, double the number that had marched in the capital in May.

They all marched united in their call for a Wales free from the tired old politics of Westminster and for a positive and hopeful future for our nation. Busloads from across Wales will flock to Merthyr this weekend, adding to that rallying cry that is going from strength to strength.

They will be rightly calling for a Wales that is in stark contrast to this stale, dysfunctional Westminster system, personified by the sight of Jacob Rees-Mogg lounging arrogantly on the front bench on Tuesday night. We will be marching for a Wales in which all of us can have pride in our political institutions, which will be representative of the people and will be accountable to them.

That is what our call for independence is about – it is about a more prosperous, socially just Wales, in which the people of Wales finally get the respect that the Westminster system denies them.

Every day in Westminster, I along with my three excellent Plaid Cymru MP colleagues fight for a better future for Wales – in debate after debate we highlight the need for Wales to be able to decide its own future. But our fate as a nation will not be decided in the in the stuffy lobbies of Westminster.

It will be decided by the people of Wales – in all their diversity – young and old, of all ethnicities, from Caernarfon to Merthyr, from the hills of Eryri to the streets of Cardiff.

In decades to come, historians will write of the admirable, passionate and peaceful fight for the independence of Wales. This week will go down in history as a turning point in our journey. And you will be able to say to your children and grandchildren, “I was there from the start. We made history”.