by Julian Ruck
The Western Mail recently reported (4.10.13) that a group of Welsh educationalists, chaired by one Professor Sioned Davies, have composed a report for the Welsh government recommending that the teaching of Welsh in English medium schools should be extended and made compulsory. Needless to say the Welsh Language Society has now jumped on the extremist bandwagon (BBC News 5.10.13) and declared open warfare on English speakers too – and there’s me saying how moderate they were on this very site a few weeks ago?!
Alinskyite trauma and direct action are apparently to be the name of the game from now on – as if it has ever been otherwise? “Welsh medium education for all and ‘fair’ funding toward the language from the Welsh government” appear to be the straplines of the latest minority push for an RS Thomas Welsh speaking Elysium, where sheep dipping and haystack procreation are the only forces for Welsh economic regeneration. No doubt it will be a year zero calendar for the Welsh too.
More children wearing Harry Potter wizard hats being bunged into corners for not asking for the lavatory in Welsh and other children being placed in a Welsh style Coventry for speaking dastardly English along the corridors of youthful learning during school hours seems to be the name of the game. Nothing new here then.
Consider the following points:
1 Professor Davies as one would expect, is a fully paid up member of the Welsh speaking Crachach, who bluster around the boutique coffee shops of Cardiff Bay searching for anyone under 25 who will listen (so much for objectivity and independence?), and an alumni of the fully taxpayer funded Welsh literati – she has written yet another couple of subsidised translations of the Mabinogion, subtitled “Overkill.”
The Cardiff university chair of Welsh (one would never have guessed), is presently researching a project entitled “Performing from the Pulpit” about “dramatic preaching in 19th and 20th century Wales.” You English readers really must wonder sometimes whether I am making all this up. I am not, I assure you.
One would have to be a devout disciple of X Factor optimism to expect anything less from the de-souling dysentery of intellectual fascism, sly social engineering and minority diktat that the good professor espouses. Naturally, where the Crachach are concerned, the shining beacons of reality are as elusive as the bones of Owen Glendower.
2 The report and rants of the Welsh Language Society are nothing more nor less than acts of manic desperation.
3 Preservation of the language is a noble and worthy cause, no reasonable individual would argue otherwise, however the evidence is irrefutable (see 2011 Census)*. Use of the language is in decline and dying. Even the WLS admits, “That the Welsh language is facing an emergency”. Welsh society is being asked to abandon the democratic principle of English speaking majority mandate in favour of a minority cat o’ nine tailed agenda that seeks to push back history and blast economic progress to smithereens – and as if reasoned dialectical debate hasn’t suffered enough from Welsh language pogroms and extremism.
4 The majority of Welsh internet youth are simply not interested in the language. Fact.
5 ‘Fair funding?’ UK taxpayers have spent billions over the last 30 years on promoting the Welsh language, all to no avail. This is not a Welsh government issue, neither is it an issue exclusive to those who live in Wales. All British taxpayers are paying for Welsh language signs, Welsh language TV and radio stations, all official documentation being bilingual, all public sector bodies adopting Welsh as the first language.
6 The whip of the statute book has achieved nothing, except hostility by the overwhelming majority of English speakers. The WLS and Professor Davies should adopt consensus and persuasion as the way to achieve their aims. Not ‘direct action’. The young, who are the future of the language, will not be coerced and bullied. They will react and if all Welsh schools are forced to go ‘Welsh’, south Walians generally will make the Rebecca Riots look like a genteel tea party.
It’s a new and extremely powerful social media world, get used to it.
7 The Welsh language in education is all very well, but what use is it to those of a more ambitious streak, those who want jobs outside a cosy public sector and those who see a world beyond the Severn bridge? Disadvantage, disadvantage, disadvantage will be the only endgame. As Vincent Kane recently pointed out on the BBC,” By 2030, the smart people will have left Wales”.
8 It is undeniable that a ‘Welsh speaking Wales’ is having a negative impact on inward investment, a diminution of a broad skills base and a recruitment crisis of outside talent eg the Welsh NHS. For young Welsh people, it’s the public sector or nothing and pity help them if they have obtained a degree from a Welsh university, wherein one can enrol on a degree course with two scraped ‘A’ Levels, a wing and a prayer – thus the exodus of Welsh students to English universities.
To conclude, the Welsh language will survive, it has done so for over a thousand years in spite of numerous threats to its existence. Families in Welsh speaking communities will continue to preserve, sing and enjoy the language for many years to come, of this I have no doubt.
But the world has changed, the young have changed. A more realistic and democratically acceptable approach to the language is required.
God knows, how much more do Welsh speakers want?
*The census figures relating to Welsh ‘speakers’ include those who understand Welsh but cannot speak it and also those who can speak it but can neither write nor read it. The figures also include those who speak ‘Wenglish’ – a hybrid mixture of Welsh and English, mainly spoken by those in the South, where most of the population in Wales live.
Pure Welsh speakers who can read and write the language compose 15% of the Welsh population. I repeat, 15% and declining.
Julian Ruck is an author, columnist and Freedom of Information campaigner. He also makes contributions to both Welsh and national broadcasting and media
Tags: education, Julian Ruck, Letter from Wales, Welsh anguage, Welsh Language Society
Is this discriminatory against anybody who is not a Welsh speaker. If I’m in Wales I will ask for an interpreter so that i can communicate. We do still live in the United Kingdom and the language is ENGLISH, not Welsh.
To Bob,
Believe me, in Wales, discrimination has become an art form.
Take a detailed look at all the ‘higher ups’ in the Welsh institutions and you will find nothing but white, Welsh speaking, middle class, Welsh educated, low grade apparatchiks.
As for devolution, take this as a tried and tested way to avoid accountability and scrutiny.
We do indeed live in a United Kindom, albeit that the Welsh establishment would have you believe that seceded Wales was civilising the world before the Mesopotamians.
Julian Ruck
Could somebody compose an alternative report for the Welsh government recommending that the teaching of English in Welsh medium schools should be extended and made compulsory.
The two reports could then be made public and our Welsh political parties could make a stance and we could vote accordingly in elections.
The Senate in Cardiff Bay is a democratic institution?
If the Senate in Cardiff Bay is not a democratic institution, then the money from the Barnett formula given to the Welsh government should be stopped immediately.
The money should not be given freely to a “devolved” dictatorship.
Aria-Irk Imago: ‘the teaching of English in Welsh medium schools’ is already ‘compulsory’. Your point?
Professor Ruck: give me a list of institutions and we’ll take things from there.
To “Fact Police Jones”…….then extend the teaching of English in Welsh mediums schools.
The kids don’t want to be taught in Cymraeg. It’s parents who think their kids can have a monopoly for public sector jobs in Wales that push them into a sub-standard English education. The kids live in the real world.
The young people in Wales are rejecting Welsh nationalism. Seems they prefer to be British.
“In research produced by the Wales Governance Centre’s UK Changing Union (UKCU): Ein Dyfodol project to be unveiled at the Eisteddfod today, support among voters aged between 18 and 35 for independence in Wales has fallen from around 20% in 1997 to 8% this year, and has dropped six points since last year alone.”
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/young-peoples-support-devolution-plummets-5682227
It’s time to devolve power to the younger generation, it is their future and I believe they will see their future as having a British identity.
The people who have taken devolution over as a nationalistic band wagon are out in the open. The younger generation want health and education and real jobs. They would do well to disassociate themselves from the ” language scroungers.”
People have a right to speak Cymraeg or even Polish for that matter.
Until the small minority convinces the majority in Wales for independence we are British, our education should reflect this fact.
There are only a small minority of devo-winners, devolution hasn’t benefited the majority…..
So that’s ten paragraphs of blather and one of not answering the question. Well done, sir!
Again I ask, very specifically, what do you mean by ‘extend the teaching of English in Welsh mediums [sic] schools?’ You need to learn to engage with actual questions: if I don’t reply to your next batch of frothage, take that as a sign that you’ve failed yet again to do so.
Interesting article by Matt Jones about Ann Jones, seems now Carwyn Jones will make it Law.
http://www.northwalespioneer.co.uk/news/127751/fire-sprinklers-to-become-compulsory-in-all-new-welsh-homes-by-2016.aspx?
This could be good for the housing market, British people can be more relaxed about house buying in North Wales.
At last Carwyn is doing something positive for the economy in Wales…
‘Nobody seriously believes Wales has a long-term successful future unless it transforms the quality of education’
Matthew Taylor, former chief adviser on political strategy to Tony Blair, said improving schools was ‘absolutely central’ if Wales is to be successful.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/nobody-seriously-believes-wales-long-term-6246250
“In the highly respected Pisa rankings in 2010, Welsh children performed less well than counterparts in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland and came 38 for reading, 40 for maths and 30 for science out of 67 countries.”
Give kids in Wales a good quality English language education and they could do just as well as the rest of Britain.
Professor Sioned Davies and the Welsh Language Society …..leave the kids alone!
Some of the best schools in Wales are Welsh medium ones and some of the worst are English medium ones – so this business of denying children an education is utter rubbish.
I live in a predominantly welsh area (Ynys Mon) – we only have one english primary school left, catering mainly for the adjacent RAF base, most of the high schools are now welsh-medium and half the sixth form colleges. Neighbouring Gwynedd is not that far behind. If the Polish kids and the asian kids and the baltic kids can cope with their mother tongue, welsh and english then I’m sure indiginous can cope with just welsh and english. My experience is that the ones who have a struggle are predominantly the ones whose parents moved here from england without realising that their kids would be taught in welsh.
Incidentally, Gaelic schools are increasing in Northern Ireland, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland.
The answer is quite simple. This is Wales and it’s citizens have a right to be educated in their mother tongue, to be able to access local government in their mother tongue. All parties are now supporting it – even bloody UKIP.
This is a country of options – if you don’t like it then leave.
And if you don’t like it then you will also support banning the advertising of local authority jobs in places like Oldham, Burnley, Bury, Rochdale etc where it is common to see adverts for teaching assistants, doctors receptionists, council front desk staff etc where it says ‘applicant must be fluent in a south asian language’.
To Taffia,
Isn’t this the problem? Anyone in Wales with any genuine talent does exactly as you suggest.
Leave.
Only a few months ago the BBC contacted me for my views on the serious brain drain from Wales.
As for your ‘mother tongue’, whose mother do you have in mind? For most people in Wales, their ‘mothers’ are English speaking as you well know and in the towns and cities you refer to, Urdu, Punjabi etc are not forced upon English speaking children.
Hardly a valid comparison, I think you will agree.
JR
To Taffia,
PS Are there any ‘best schools’ in Wales? They are all, Welsh or English medium, way behind the rest of the country in both numeracy and literacy.
Fact.
And as for higher education, one can blag a degree in Law or Biology at a Welsh university with two grade ‘E’s at ‘A’ Level. I remember a time when Welsh University Law Schools (some of the best in the country I hasten to add, Aberystwyth being one in particular) demanded two ‘B’s and an ‘A’ minimum, and this was at a time when ‘A’ Levels really were ‘A’ Levels and not the pipsqueak 9 plus examinations that they are today.
JR
Seems like there is no “choice” in Anglesey. That is a scandal!
Medium Welsh schools are being forced on you there. You should complain and demand “choice”.
“This country is based on options”….you mean if you don’t want a substandard English education then leave Wales.
Why is not possible for the English speaking majority to have a choice???
Perhaps it is time for an enclave?
“Commissioners take over troubled Anglesey (Ynys Mon) council.”
Local Government Minister Carl Sargeant yesterday took the unprecedented step of putting Wales’ most troubled council under the direct control of appointed commissioners.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/commissioners-take-over-troubled-anglesey-1846718
“The “very serious failures” included “poor behaviour by members, weak relationships between members and officers, inadequate strategic planning and low levels of public engagement”.
“Low levels of public engagement”……the population of Anglesey must have lost the will to live!
A Pathetic state of affairs in Anglesey (Ynys Mon)! How embarrassed you must feel.
A product of your “no choice” education system……….
PS God help neighboring Gwynedd!
The reason people leave Wales is exactly the same reason they leave the western side of England – because the jobs are on the eastern side. Wales is a victim of geography – there is lirterally no reason to set up manufacturing here as it is to far from the parts that give access to the mainland of Europe.
As for opportunity, my daughters were educated on poor disadvantaged Ynys Mon through the state system via Welsh medium schools. One is a renal consultant and the other in international finance based in Germany. They are both fluent in Welsh and English, and one is fluent in Spanish and the other in German. Not bad for two girls brought up iun a 2-bed terraced house to an unskilled father and a factory labourer mother.
Incidentally, their mother is English and cannot speak welsh at all and my grasp is very very basic.
So if they can do it, the only reason you can’t is because you are either lazy or thick.
And I also reproduce a comment from an earlier Letter From Wales:-
“Origami, if you were half as bright as you like to pretend you are you would know that the Commissioners have gone now from Ynys Mon and that we had a full county council election in May just gone in which Plaid ended up by far and away the largest party:-
New County Council
Independent 14*
Plaid Cymru 12
Labour 3*
Lib Dem 1
* (At the time of writing this comment there is rumour that very shortly two of the Labour councillors will resign from the party, one of which will be a massive PR blow, over the Land & Lakes proposed development. One – the more damaging one person-wise, will defect to Plaid, one will become independent. Likewise it is fairly common knowledge that two of the independents are toying with the idea of becoming UKIP and two going to Plaid.)
Likewise we had an Assembly Constituency by-election in August which Plaid won by a landslide:-
Rhun ap Iorwerth (Plaid) 12,601 (58.24%, +16.82%)
Tal Michael (Lab) 3,435 (15.88%, -10.33%)
Nathan Gill (UKIP) 3,099 (14.32%)
Neil Fairlamb (Cons) 1,843 (8.52%, -20.70%)
Kathrine Jones (Soc Lab) 348 (1.61%)
Steve Churchman (Lib Dem) 309 (1.43%, -1.73%)
Plaid maj 9,166 (42.37%)
13.58% swing Lab to Plaid
Want to know what is remarkable about both the council election and the Assembly by-election? Both were good turnouts – higher than would be expected for this sort of thing, and a large chunk of the English inhabitants of Ynys Mon have voted Plaid. The other thing to note is that Labour’s power base around the town of Holyhead is crumbling rapidly. Smart money is that Plaid will take this as a Parliamentary seat in 2015.”
So basically you are not in favour of choice…….
PS It was fortunate that your children were brought up in an English ( being the international business language ) speaking home.
I could argue that encouraging and giving the choice for children to study mathematics and science with a European language could offer them even better job opportunities…….
To Taffia,
I repeat, ‘Anyone in Wales with any genuine talent does exactly as you suggest.
Leave.’
This is apparently exactly what your very own children have done.
Quod erat demonstrandum.
JR
Mr Ruck-
“Only a few months ago the BBC contacted me for my views on the serious brain drain in Wales”
Were they enquiring why you were still there?
I speak very very basic welsh. I used it with them as much as possible (in fact by the time they were 7 or 8 they were correcting me) . They went to a welsh medium school as did all their friends and they spoke welsh most of the time by the time they were 9-10.
The reason they did well at school is because they were not allowed to do what they wanted – they did what they were told whether they wanted to or not. Discipline.
I am in favour of choice – everyone is free to leave if they want.
Your problem is that the Cymraeg issue now has full cross party support – Plaid, Labour, Lib Dem, Tory and even though they have no representatives now UKIP as well, so you feel disenfranchised. Nothing stopping you standing as an anti-Cymraeg candidate. Not scared of losing your deposit and being laughed out of a Town Hall are you?
To Oliver
The brain drain relates to young people moving out.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/brain-drain-fears-figures-suggest-4701369
If only the bright students could be assured of a job in the public sector based on merit.
The crachach have sown these jobs up for themselves and we shouldn’t be critical of Welsh culture should we.
Culture and language are important for a separate Welsh identity and for Welsh nation building.
In the “land of our fathers”, public sector jobs have been ordained for the next one thousand years……..
The poet and prophet RS Thomas sums it up quite succinctly:
“There is no present in Wales,
And no future;
There is only the past,
Brittle with relics,
Wind-bitten towers and castles
With sham ghosts;
Mouldering quarries and mines;
And an impotent people,
Sick with inbreeding,
Worrying the carcase of an old song.”
To the people of Anglesey!!!
There are still English medium schools here in South Wales, you don’t have to leave and do a shifty at night over “the border”.
You are welcome here, we even have road signs that have English first!
To Tafia
So basically, the Senate is not in favour of choice – interesting!
What is the motto for Anglesey?……”Come to Anglesey and be forced to learn Cymraeg”
I now understand why you only get retired British folk moving to North Wales.
I am glad say you are in favour of choice, so you support retired British people choosing to move to North Wales, to help your beleaguered economy there – I was beginning to get the impression Anglesey folk were a tad insular……
To Oliver,
They did indeed enquire.
Whereupon I duly explained that drink and fast women drained my brains away years ago.
JR
I think Wales is to small for an Assembly – for one reason the money could be spent better on health education and real jobs.
“Wales is a small country with small communities and the more that the argument about councils being too small is put forward, the sooner someone will suggest Wales is too small for an Assembly.”
http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/gwentnews/10775768._/?
Mr Ruck-
What a star!
Has the s**t finally hit the fan in the Cardiff Bay Senate, will Hedley McCarthy dare mention the “L” word about education in Wales!
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/leaked-letter-reveals-split-welsh-6257425
Has the dream of Carwyn Jones to become the First Senator of the Republic of Wales been dashed, will the populace of the Principality start to engage in their destiny, has Welsh politics become interesting? – let’s hope so.
‘Whereupon I duly explained that drink and fast women drained my brains away years ago.
JR’
Julian, that explains your plagiarism, lack of talent, and idiotic views!
I’m so glad that we’ve been able to sort out the Welsh language once and for all here, to the satisfaction of all concerned. Excellent work, comrades.
Turning Oliver’s question in on myself, though, why am I still here, in this bit of cyberspace? After all, I’ve realised long ago that every single comment I write is fodder for Professor Ruck’s hit count, and hence another step along the path towards him becoming The Most Important Political Commentator In The Known Universe, Who Will, I Repeat Will, Damn You, Be Responded to By The Welsh Government’s Press Office, Regardless of the Level to Which He Checks His Facts, or Indeed The Quality of His Writing.
And you know what? YOUR comments are contributing towards that too, as Siôn Simon has freely admitted. So here’s a thought for you to chew on, respondents, as your finger hovers over the Submit Comment button – this is one of those rare cases where, maybe, you should be ‘good men doing nothing’.
So I’m off, to do something far more constructive, and thankfully, anything would be more constructive than being trapped within Labour Uncut’s servers forever more. Don’t worry though, I’m not saying I’ll never return; I’m just saying that I’ll return when Julian wins the Orwell Prize. You’ll let me know when that happens, of course.
Anyway, gwynt teg ar eich ôl chi! Or in translation: yo homes, smell ya later!
Yes, the language has been sorted out.
No choice for North Wales.
South Wales resists. People of South Wales have not yet accepted totalitarianism.
Pobl o Anglesey, gwrthsefyll y ffasgwyr! Peidiwch â bod defaid!
People of Anglesey, reject fascism! Demand choice!
Cheers Jules. Enlightening, as ever (about your good self, that is, and nothing more).
The thing that annoys me most is when you click on a website, read pamplet or any other media created by the Welsh Assembly.
It’s always Welsh first and recently Welsh only!
I also completely agree with the comment about only white, Welsh speaking middle class people having jobs in the public sector. My other half works for HMRC in Wales and you would be hard pressed to spot a black person; needless to say they are all middle class graduates who speak Welsh!
The worst thing is when you say “i’m not a Welsh speaker” – you’re either treated as a pariah or simply never spoken to again!
We moved to north wales from england 4 years ago and we love it, people are lovely and the way of life is great, I sometimes think holding onto the welsh language is holding onto an identity which england has lost, I actually feel more british than I did in england which was changing out of recognition.
That aside, I think welsh schools need to do a rethink as welsh children have a passing ability at welsh spoken and written and the same for english, it is the old saying jack of all trades master of none,
From my own personal experience our children were 6yrs, 8yrs and 13yrs when we moved to wales, and the schools are heavily welsh over english and my kids felt lost at first, but as we did like it here, we sent them for an intensive welsh course for a term in a welsh school organised by the local authority and now they are great at english are now better at welsh than their born and bred welsh friends.
This I feel is a lesson to the education system of wales, if they taught either wholly welsh or wholly english in the first 5 years this would be less confusing to the children and they would master it quicker and then an intensive term of solely welsh (for example) at around age 7/8yrs, and in our experience this has actually been far more beneficial as they are far better at welsh than their welsh counterparts,.
It is just a thought that this could be a solution to the dire education in wales, my kids were a full year ahead in their schoolwork when they arrived in wales, and now my youngest who was born in wales is struggling to read, write and spell english at 7yrs of age and knows very little welsh either.
My eldest daughter who at 13yrs didnt have the opportunity for the intensive welsh course now has a passing understanding of welsh and as such is struggling to find a job now she is 18yrs, and a career in wales would be out of the question as they requre welsh speakers, which I do feel is discriminatory and also are they getting the best skilled at the actual post, for example nurses, their are good and bad nurses in every country but in wales if you cant speak welsh you would struggle to find a permanent job as a nurse, I have also known in our school that teachers who applied for a teaching post were turned down as their written welsh wasnt up to scratch (teaching infant children 3-7yrs how great does your welsh need to be) and these were applicants born and bred in wales, are we overlooking the best at the job just becuase they arent as good at welsh but they may be the best at teaching.
When I arrived in wales I was also surprised to learn that their isnt One welsh language it varies from region to region, and south wales is a different welsh language to North Wales and they both have regional variations, and also that people born and bred in wales struggle with the language and if they dont keep it up they can forget it, but I dont want to upset anyone welsh who wants to hold onto their culture and identity it is a difficult one but I feel for my daughter.
I was seven when my parents moved to wales, having lived here for 44 years. I am English proud of it. But I love this country and would live nowhere else. back in 1969 in a village in Flintshire called Trelawnyd, that I love so dear the welsh speaking amongst my age group was nil. In fact the village was officially called ”Newmarket”. when i moved there the welsh kids couldn’t wait to grow up so they could leave, most stayed I hasten to add. i on the other hand considered myself lucky and still do. the only welsh speaking secondary school was in St Asaph. Ysgol Glan Clwyd. at the bus stop as us Prestatyn high school kids went by were 3 miserable looking kids who didn’t want to be there, I know this as they were friends, also could not speak the language fluent although claim today to understand it but not speak it. My mate Iwan had a dog that could do that LOL (dod yma) meaning ”come here” for you English and 75% of you welsh so found education a real chore. How sad it was for a group of Welsh kids who were embarrassed to be Welsh and had no desire to preserve their heritage. Music, sport and dance being huge in children’s lives were and still are dominated by the English. the final straw i think when the English won the world rugby cup. Thank god cool cymry came along remember that? because it made it cool to be welsh, focussing on what you have and can achieve, because until then it was pitiful to watch. To my mind the welsh language is a beautiful sounding dialect and should have always been embraced by the welsh but at home, in the pub, local shops, church, on the street, village fates, male voice choirs which Trelawnyd has a fantastic one incidentally, all those places where it belongs anywhere but school. the very fact the Welsh language is on the decline is shameful on the Welsh and you have only yourselves to blame if I were Welsh I would be a Welsh speaker for sure. the way in which the Welsh speaking advocates the ”W.L.S.” are pushing the Welsh language in my view is wrong and extremist just like the ”sons of glyn dwr” remember those terrorists going around the place burning Welsh homes that the Welsh had sold to the English for a damned good price, hypocrites every last one of them. Attempting to blow our future king up ah i remember well. why cant the extremist just keep it in their own house instead of trying to impose it on the majority. I’m starting to rant now and i apologise for that. all’s i’m trying to say is if you are Welsh and you speak it bravo you should. But to make it mandatory when applying for jobs in Wales is just plain stupid, just like burning houses was back in the eighties, it just didn’t work!!
The only reason why the Welsh language is dying in the counties of Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Gwynedd, Anglesey and Conwy is because of English incomers who refuse to learn Welsh. In Ceredigion, until recently an entirely Welsh Speaking County, 45% of residents had been born in England and when less than 70% of people in a town/village speak Welsh, the community language switches to English. Thus the streets and playgrounds of Ceredigion are no longer Welsh Speaking, out of no fault of the natives or the language itself. A similar process is happening in Anglesey and Gwynedd, albeit not quite as fast. Due to the increased demand for houses, property prices go through the roof and local welsh speaking people can’t afford to live here, and thus move away and lose their Welsh.
This is unnecessary migration for the sake of migration. English people are moving here because they want to, and not because they have to. And most of them don’t bother learning the local language, even when they are destroying it. Where are UKIP when we need them?
When I was in Devil’s Bridge, just outside Aberystwyth, I tried to speak Welsh to the man at the counter at the entrance of the path down the gorge, and in the thickest cockney accent he goes ‘what did you call me?’. It seems that having to speak Welsh to work for a public employer doesn’t apply, on the contrary they seemed to be go out of their way not to hire locals!
One could argue that to these demographic changes were/are inevitable and that only coercive housing measures could have prevented this. Sure, a super tax on holiday homes would have helped definetly as would more social housing for locals in areas of high house prices. But the truth is, many decisions taken by government have made the situation much worse:
*Locating an RAF base on Anglesey, with most staff being incomers – Plaid knew what to do when they burned down one in LLyn in 1936
*The Beeching cuts
*Building a dam on the river Tryweryn at Liverpool Council’s insistence which flooded a Welsh speaking valley
*The ridiculous over development going on in Ceredigion approved by the council and plans in Gwynedd to approve thousands of new homes despite little local demand.
*Having large English medium secondary schools in Bangor and Aberystwyth which are popular among incomers – they don’t want their children to have to learn the language of the country they’ve moved to.
If this were any other country than Wales or Scotland, the likes of Ruck would now be busy apologising for racist comments, in order to keep their jobs.
Wales is still in a colonial situation. The need to take drastic measures in order that a country can keep its own culture surely requires no justification.