Are we wasting money on saving The Welsh language?

Back home it seems that the issue of how much support the Welsh language gets in tax payers money has become quite controversial after an article in the Western Mail revealed that 400K is spent on translations in the Senedd (Welsh National Assembly), waste of money to be spent when most (all?) Welsh speakers can speak and understand English. Why should this obsolescent language be fobbed on us. I live in Kansas which has English as its official language (The US has no “official language and other States it has been struck down as unconstitutional). Yet here in Dodge City we have a large Spanish speaking minority, my wife is a special ed teacher in a school where the majority is Hispanic and where the many of the kids do not know English. Do they wear “Spanish not” for speaking Spanish. No there are translators in the schools. Even in the grocery store that I work at the self checkout machines are bilingual. Is this right.

The Irony of much of this there are within the Welsh American community those who are strongly opposed to this type of bilingualism, they are vehement in their believe that “English only” should be the way. the paradox is that many of these bigots are strong supporters of the Welsh language, Plaid Cymru, and yet in the US. I cannot reconcile how these people can be strong supporters of a Marxist Leanne Wood, and at the same time in the US card carrying conservative Republicans, its almost a Schizoid type attitude.

I have always been a supporter of the Welsh language and a believer in S4C and Welsh medium education. Yet when I was living in Llandaff, I would walk past the WM High school, and kids in the playground would be using English, and a cousin of mine sent his kids to this school, and yet they do not use Welsh at all, yes it would be hard in a predominately English speaking area like Cardiff.

What is the answer.

I believe that the language should survive, and should so because in the words of one of my customers “Because it is just.

Related articles

• Wales News: Should we spend £400K to translate records of every Assembly meeting? (walesonline.co.uk)
• Wales News: Paul Murphy MP warns against 'excessive' spending on Welsh language schemes (walesonline.co.uk)

Adios Jacqui Gasson (For now)

Logo of the Social and Liberal Democrats (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I don't think that anyone would think in the recent local elections, that veteran Caerau councillor Jacqui Gasson would be chucked out of office they the way she was, except apparently for herself (as she herself said at count) , she mentioned that the”unpopularity of the coalition had done her in”.

I have known her on and off since 1985 when I had joined the Welsh Liberal party and she was active in the Cardiff West SDP which consisted of a lot of Radyr labour people including Marian Drake and her husband Geoff. she lived in Caerau and was known in the community as a hard working social activist. There were a group of us in Caerau who formed the nuleus of the SDP/Liberal alliance.

Jacqui had started a Focus style leaflet (Community politics a la Tony Greaves) which she called “Contact”, which dealt with local issues and neglect by the then Labour councillors Bill Carling (Bill was local a postman and at least was visible he had been councillor for 30 years had been a Lord Mayor and chairman of the housing committee) his partner was Llandaff lawyer David Seligman who was quite invisible and was hoping to be Cardiff West’s MP succeeding George Thomas (the former Speaker of the Commons), his political career came to a crash when a strong SDP challenge by Jeffrey Thomas let the Tory Stefan Telezki in. The Contact team consisted of myself, Roger Burley, Jane Williams (Labour again) Wyn James, Pat and Keith Gemson (sic)

Her first campaign was for Cardiff City council elections in 1987 which saw the Alliance grow from 3 to 12 seats turning Cardiff into a NOP authority for the first time in its history, the Tories did a deal with Labour and made sure that they held all the committee chairs. Unfortunately we just could not crack the Labour control until Bill died the following year and Jacqui won the  seat.I was a leaflet coordinator and delivered contact at least once a month, there was a lot of canvasser. I suspect that after I left in 1990 the organization was not their and there was not so much leafleting. She was still highly regarded (not really popular she had a rather obnoxious personality) however the people trusted her especially with her campaigns for Caerau Infants and Trelai Primary schools. She also  forced an inquiry into the state of Cardiff Social services and how badly they were run.
I saw her in 2004 when she asked me to stand in Ely which I did and garnered a decent number of votes, at the time I thought it was not a good idea, and if the Liberal Democrats had not stood then I think that Russell Goodway would not be office today.

She was soundly thrashed by Peter Bradbury and Elenor Simmons in Caerau, how  will they perform. I wish them well and hope they realize that you will not be able to take the people for granted, as For Jacqui, I wish her and Tony a happy retirement.

THE REFORMED UNION: A British Federation

English: Portait of David Melding AM, Deputy Presiding officer of the National Assembly for Wales (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 David Melding is an interesting kind of guy a different kind of Conservative, however I suspect that he is in a minority of one (or possibly 10).

The Conservatives are not interested because they no longer the old Tory party who believed in localism and practiced it. According to Andrew Marr's book on Modern Britain the Thatcher government of the 1980s their local government acts removed planning from local government to central government.

The the diehard nationalist want full independence with a huge wall to the east to prevent the total Anglicization of Welsh culture.

Labour does not really believe in devolution except as a handy administrative tool.

The Liberal party espoused federalism but I doubt that its membership actually believed it.










Click on Wales » Blog Archive » THE REFORMED UNION: A British Federation

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Bethan Jenkins and I

Bethan Jenkins AM, member of the National Assembly for Wales. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Some time back I had a disagreement with Bethan Jenkins (AM for South Wales West), she had suggested on a Tweet that there should be spot check inspections of schools in Wales. I got riled up over this (I think in a mild way) and had an exchange with her over it.My wife is a teacher and had taught in south Wales and had the highest regard for teachers that she taught with. This I felt was another attempt to put the blame on the problem of Welsh schools on to the teachers, which I strongly believe is wrong.

Some time later I had gone to see her latest and noticed that I was no longer "Following her" and so I had tried to and she had blocked me!! Why block me a ordinary member of the public just because I had a disagreement with her. It seemed quite extreme.

I don't agreement with her stand on many things, but I do admire her standing up for workers, especially over pension rights.

So Bethan  don't freeze me out we all have differences, I have friends on Facebook and twitter that I have strong differences with, but in the end we can still go to the proverbial pub and have a drink.

Labour's secret agenda for Cardiff... An elected mayor?

This letter from former Lord Mayor John Smith caught my eye. He sees that the new Labour leadership led by Russell Goodway (sic) Heather Joyce may try and introduce a directly elected mayor for Cardiff. This is something that Cllr Smith has always been opposed to, in fact he would like to return to the old committee led council where a cross party consensus could be found in council decisions.

For those who might have forgotten Cllr Goodway usurped the position of Lord Mayor, he was Lord Mayor and Council Leader at the same time which violated the City's Royal Charter, something that did not bother Goodway then or now it seems. However a directly elected mayor may not be beneficial for Labour because it is a opportunity for Labour to lose Cardiff and even the opportunity for an independent to win because the people of Cardiff are well fed up with political parties, which is the real reason they don't vote.


"No support for losing the mayor


 WHAT a convoluted system the leadership of the new Labour administration has devised to run Cardiff council (“Labour slammed over mayor plan”, Echo, May 18). If there is an attempt to create an elected mayor, why not open a debate, for those concerned, to be able to present the reasons for and against, in the public arena. Even publicise the message that she, or they, are sending to the Privy Council, for the Cardiff councillors, to let them know what is being asked in their name, a question that we are told is the first step in the changing of the Lord Mayoralty. I have asked people their view and not found any support for losing the Lord Mayor, so put it to the people. Reference has been made to London, and this reminds me of the sudden internal change in leader at the Greater London Council, which resulted in years of political distrust in that area to this day. The issue around the difficulties of chairing the council meeting are a result of changing the debating rules in 2005/6. If there is a ploy to have an elected mayor then let honesty in purpose be the standard. F John Smith Lord Mayor of Cardiff 1990/91" Read More http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/letters-to-the-editor/south-wales-echo-letters/2012/05/22/why-was-there-no-concern-about-the-financial-plan-back-in-february-91466-31016345/#ixzz1vbYBdYJG

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Welsh haters of Wales Unite!

£400,000-a-year meeting translation plan for National Assembly - Wales News - News - WalesOnline

Is this wrong? Or is it fair that in Wales where 20% are either unemployed or underemployed and the money should be spent elsewhere?

Cardiff Council Results winner Pissed off Party

Its true the Labour Party in Cardiff won a gigantic landslide in the 2012 election from holding only 14 seats (13 in 2008) to winning 46 seats with lots of new councillors. The the largest share of the votes, but does winning 40% of the vote deserve 60% of the seats? Is that democracy? Under PR Plaid would have 10 seats instead of 2.

In 2004 there was a landslide then and Labour went from a council of 50 to 27, and then in 2008 from 27 to 13. Things can change, who knows perhaps another landslide in 2017.

I predicted that if the Liberals lost Cardiff Central, they would lose control of the council, was entirely due to the unpopularity of the ConDem government, or was it complacency on the Cardiff Liberals side. How hard they follow the principles of Bernard Greaves and his work on Community politics?  I think not.

And what of Russell Goodway, who was as popular in Cardiff as Venereal Disease in the early 2000s. Who ran quite an incompetent administration according the reports with one listing it as the most badly run council in Wales. Who know sits at the "Leader"'s (Heather Joyce's) left hand at the first council meeting, in charge of finance, who blamed Rhodri Morgan for losing Cardiff, taking no responsibility, "not me guv". According to Kevin Morgan's "Capital Cardiff" it was his "presidential style" that was the main reason for losing, and what no transparency.

Which is now shown in the latest row over the Lord Mayor with Labour tearing up the Constitution and removing the Lord Mayor's power to chair council (which most mayors in the UK and US do). Without consultative with the other group leaders.

Something has to change,  Labour does not have (as Ralph Cook pointed out about Liberals in 2004) have a mandate to change this.

They need to run Cardiff as a great city, not as a personal fiefdom, perhaps they can step up to the plate.


But the biggest winner the Antipathy party (believe me its not apathy its real anger with the political setup)

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The Caerau Kid in Da USA

I have decided to start blogging again to please my readership (all one of them).

I have a presidential election here in the good ol USA with Mr Obama running again, and Mr Romney his likely opponent.

Then back home in Cardiff we have just had an local election with labour taking control of cardiff Council with a rubber stamp majority what is in store for Cardiff? A Goodway type dictatorship?

We will see.

I have renamed this blog to show  where where I am from, and where I am.