Legislation Committee No 5
The Proposed National Assembly for Wales (Legislative Competence) (Welsh Language) Order 2009
Consultation Response
IG69(i) Robert Lloyd
Robert Lloyd
20th March 2009
Mr Mark Isherwood AM
Chairman of the Welsh Language Committee
By email: legislationoffice@wales.gsi.gov.uk
I am pleased that the committee has asked for the views of us Welsh people. I am proud to be a Welshman living in our beautiful Wales, but I am not proud that our reliance on the public purse is 66% of our Gross Domestic Product, the highest in Europe.
I blame this on the Welsh Language Act, and that our counties dominated by Plaid Cymru advertise all public vacancies, including teachers, to applicants who can conin the ancient Welsh language. Therefore they have only a 10% chance of getting applicants best qualified for the job.
Plaid Spokespeople have said these counties have the highest unemployment 1 in 5, the least capital investment, and they wonder why English is the language of Wales - we are fortunate that English is also the accepted business language of Europe.
Dr Robyn Lewis a noted enthusiast of the Welsh Language Act who puts idealistic dogma before democracy and common sense, resides in these counties and still wants their public appointments selected out of 10% of our Welsh population despite the fact that Gwynedd had almost 4000 householders summonsed for arrears in council tax - a tax in fact bloated by the wasteful demands of the 'Welsh Laanguage Act’. No other country in the World selects its public employees from 10% of its population.
I am a Welshman of the 21st century and believe in our ability to compete for the future if we can get all welsh counties and the Assembly to move into the 21st century.
An AM is elected to serve us for today and tomorrow - not yesterday. AM’s should be aware of this, and respect democracy.
All of us Welsh people speak English, you cannot get a job or a daily paper without it, I think I am being generous when I say approximately 10% can speak Welsh as Plaid cymru, the party pledged to force more Welsh language on to us, only had 7.44% of the potential vote at the last WAG elections - even the Conservatives who were still unpopular at that time had a higher percenatage of our votes. It has been reported in the Daily Post that only 5% of us watch TV channels in the Welsh language.
There is a continuing decline in the use of the Welsh Language and less students taking Welsh in their GCSE’s. Culture is fine in its place but it does not earn a living. For most of our population there is nothing more important that having education to earn a living to pay mortgages, shopping bills, fuel, council tax, water rates, electricity and gas bills and possibly a holiday. Culture is a hobby and should be at the choice of the individual as all hobbies cost money to participate in.
The "Daily Post” kindly includes a Welsh language supplement once a week. It is very noticeable that the minority of the minority who have letters published in the DP demanding more use of the Welsh language write in the English section, not the Welsh supplement. Also a newspaper depends on advertisements, and readers to survive. No commercial firm ever advertises in the Welsh supplement as they are not charities. The only adverts are public authorities - so over 90% of the cost is paid for by us English speaking Welsh taxpayers.
It has been reported that a pressure group the 'Welsh Language Society’ a vintage society with objectives to keep the past alive have presented a petition to the WAG and claim 10,000 signatures, which is less than half of one percent of our population in Wales. Our Assembly members were elected to serve all Welsh people, not a minority pressure group. We depend on industrial investment for our employment (the counties run by Plaid are now in third world status of employment). The CBI director said "he was stunned by the boards call for many more private companies to be brought within the scope of a proposed order relating to the Welsh Lanaguage” which if implented would add crippling costs to businesses, causing reluctance to invest in Wales, and existing employers to reconsider their options.
Bilingual road signs with Welsh first and English second, both in the same colours, are the biggest Health and Safety hazard in Wales (at a time when the Health and Safety Executive have even banned children from riding donkeys!). There have been many letters in the Daily Post saying that these signs constitute a traffic hazard. As a driver I fully support this. Since the Roderic Bowen committee in 1972 which was dominated by Welsh speakers recommended the bilingual signs should be mandatory, they never said that Welsh should be first, or that both languages should be in the same colour. Everyone in Wales can read English and most of the foreign drivers of which there are an increasing number, can read English. If the WAG feels the need to pander to the vociferous minority of the minority it should put English first and in a different colour on all road signs for Health and Safety reasons.
The waste of millions of £s, and the cutting down of extra forests because it is mandatory for all public services to print all stationery and advertisements in both languages is a totally avoidable cost to us tax payers. Your public services can tell you what percentage respond to form filling in Welsh. The objective could be achieved by letters and forms being in English with a stamped addressed envelope included for the recipient to send back if they want it in Welsh.
An example is the NHS. I have attended Wrexham Maelor hospital over many years, both as a patient and visiting friends, all correspondence and hospital signs are in Welsh first and English second, yet I have never heard Welsh spoken there yet.
My father’s first language was Welsh he comes from a remote village in Gwynedd, one of the last strongholds of the Welsh language - the shop, post office, school, church and now the pub have all closed. My Mother and her parents were English speaking Welsh citizens, their villages are thriving.
I have many friends and relations who speak Welsh, they are fine people, and do not suffer the idealistic dogma wanting to force the ancient language on to the population (at tax payers’ expense). They tell me that they fill the bilingual forms in at the English section because they cannot understand the academic Welsh section.
To sum up, I hope that you and your committee in the interest of a progressive Wales for today and tomorrow will accept the fact that English is the working and tax payers’ language, and the mother tongue of Wales (approximately 90% of mothers’ first language is English) we are in a democratic country. I am a member of a vintage society with enthusiastic members for keeping the past alive, at a recent rally 10,000 of our enthusiasts turned up. The Welsh language has its own enthusiastic members for keeping it alive, but that is where it belongs to culture, which is a voluntary hobby, not to be forced on us at tax payers’ expense.
