by Julian Ruck
To those of a more shall I say rounded, political persuasion, I appreciate that what goes on in Wales may sometimes appear to be delightfully farcical, if not plain dotty and believe me, the vast majority of Welsh folk would probably agree with you.
A typical example of Taffy complicity in keen but intuitive “Wales forever” slippery slopes, occurred last week.
The headline hitting the Welsh press went as follows: “Tourist video voiceover Is ‘too Welsh’ for English.”
Seriously, and we’re not talking here about the Welsh language.
Apparently, the story goes, Carmarthenshire county council’s marketing and tourism department (remember, that Carmarthenshire is a hot-bed of Plaid Cymru nationalism, it swung the “Yes” vote to devolution by a margin of .6% in a miserable turnout of 35.4% back in the 1997 referendum) had commissioned a video clip to help Welsh accommodation providers pull in English customers.
A young boy was employed to do the sales pitch, there was just one problem – no-one could fight their way through his worthy Welsh accent! It was concluded by the powers that be– and after some market research in Sheffield, I’m not kidding – that the target market in England would have one hell of a job understanding what the young fellow was going on about and like I say, he wasn’t even speaking in Welsh!
It gets better.
A spokeswoman for the council said, “the voiceover was changed as the young boy had lost his two front teeth just prior to filming, which made him more difficult to understand.”
Naturally, the Welsh speaking army of home rulers (Plaid Cymru) had to stick their oars in, although at least on this occasion they didn’t try and insist on the video being in Welsh and to hell with English tourists. Their reaction to the news?
“Local accents should be treasured and they play an important part in our identities. People should learn to listen to different accents in order to help us fully celebrate our diversity”
Well now, Plaid. Different accents? In other words north Walians can’t understand south Walians and vice versa, and this is when they are speaking Welsh, never mind English!
Diversity? Since when has Wales been ‘diverse’? Just two of the 360 top-earning managers in Welsh councils are from ethnic minorities.
And how many people with ethnic backgrounds hold power in the hallowed corridors of Welsh institutions?
None and why?
The Welsh-speaking Crachach would never tolerate such enlightened inclusion.
It could only happen in Wales.
Julian Ruck is an author, columnist and Freedom of Information campaigner. He also makes contributions to both Welsh and national broadcasting and media.
Tags: Crachach, Julian Ruck, Letter from Wales, marketing, Plaid Cymru
To David Hewson, Steve Mosby and John Abell, you have created a site to persecute Julain Ruck (or at least suppoet it ).
http://jewelsfromjulian.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/oh-no-oh-stuff-of-joy/#comments
Is it possible for you to contain your Fascist bulying techniques to that site.
I don’t know the future of British politics but the reocurring dream I now have of Oswald Moseley in a Faroese jumper standing next to Duce Benito Mussolini on a podium is quite disconcerting…….
The irony Ramsey, is that a FOI request costs a £150 each, so yes they paid for by the public purse, as are the constant wastes of police time that Julian insists on.
Oh for pity’s sake Brightmore… give up the pretence. You can’t write or spell well in one voice let alone try two. Neither of us has any connection with that site except for having posted a few relevant comments when Ruck set about us earlier (and censored the comments on his own site as he does routinely).
To answer Ramsey Campbell’s worthwhile question… The cost for a provider of dealing with an FoI request is generally believed to be around £150. Ruck seems to be walking away from his claims of startling revelations about me and Steve through at least three FoI requests because they are bound to come back empty.
I’d ask how many but of course he will never answer. But on his own admission he has now cost the tax payer at least £450 in pursuit of a personal vendetta. Lord knows how many thousands he’s wasted trying to harass others with Labour Uncut’s tacit support.
I hope people will bear that in mind the next time he complains about public money being wasted.
Really dear , Mr.Hewson?
Calm don’t dear, it may never happen.I’ve heard home baking is a good therapy.
Mr Hewson
Your theory concerning syntax similairties is starting to break down Mr Hewson – you are now saying ‘Brightmore’ is Julian Ruck?
So you do admit to being connected to a site that persecutes a writer.
Do you mean Gillian Brightmore Mr Hewson and accuse her of not being able to write or spell well?
Perhaps another case of you humiliating Welsh writers Mr Hewson?
You are a bully Mr Hewson.
You now accuse Labour Uncut of harrasment, that’s rather hypocritical coming from you, who we now know condones a site that persecutes a writer.
You are a bully and an idiot Mr Hewson….
Yours sincerly
Mr Origami
What is the point of the labour uncut website, why do they allow julian ruck who cannot stand labour or anybody else who does not hold the same “principles” (whatever they may be) as him to write infantile nonsense based on his hangups? This last posting on carms county council video ( labour run by the way not Plaid run) is embarrasing. His campaigns against various people like David Hewson, who wrote a very funny piece about the failure that was the ebook festival Mr Ruck “organised” in Kidwelly- are quite sad. Has he not got any books to write rather than spend time on line? He also said he was leaving Kidwelly cos we locals didn’t appreciate him, then why is he still here? We don’t appreciate you or like you Julian because you are an utter and total idiot who embarrases yourself everytime you put pen to paper or open your mouth to mouth off on matters you know nothing of. Please shut it, all this stuff sound like the rantings of an hysterical deranged person.
Mr origami, I do not ‘suppoet’ jewels by Julian. Nor have I made it. Though I do enjoy it, brilliant site that it is, in completely taking apart the rubbish Julian calls writing.
‘Fascist’? No I’m not a fascist. Never call someone a fascist, as you’ve lost the argument. Godwin’s law. Who are you, mr origami, you Welsh hating, barely literate, troll?
To Gaynor,
Yet another balanced and evocative comment I note, and one that is to be commended for its incisive observations.
Believe it or not, I do spend time writing books thus a new novel is being published next April (The Silver Songsters) and another shortly thereafter (All Gas No Oil).
I am happy to send you a signed complimentary copy of the former if you so wish, just send your details through my website.
Best wishes,
Julian
Self published Julian
I would suggest you need to be self published in Wales, if you have any critique of it’s instituitions…….