Thursday, October 15, 2015

Taffia's 'Welsh Must' Project is "Social Engineering"

My!  The Welsh Class - the subset of Welsh culture that sees it as their God-given right to force everyone to speak Welsh, is really out in force these past couple of weeks.

A certain Professor Sioned Davies has warned that only by putting Welsh on an equal footing with English - Welsh is currently classed as a 'second language' - can the aim of reversing the decline in Welsh speakers be realised.

Now, I'm all for debate on this, and I hope the Welsh Class, or the Welsh Elite, if you prefer, also have the confidence and decency to listen to others' views.  But I doubt that they have.

First of all, Prof. Davies is an academic and Chair of Welsh at Cardiff University.  She lists a number of published works along the theme of the Mabinogion, and how you might translate those folk stories.
So you might be forgiven for thinking she has a certain view on speaking Welsh.  Her partners on the body appointed by the Welsh Government to 'look into' all this business also seem to have what one might call a predictable view on the subject they were charged with examining.

After all, if we asked a bunch of scientists whether science should be handed more funding, you'd sort-of expect them to conclude that, yes, it does!

Somehow, Prof. Davies report has gotten the ear of the Education Minister in Cardiff, Huw whatshiname - Lewis - that's it - who, according to Cymdeithas Yr Iaith Gymraeg - now thinks every kid should be forced to speak Welsh within five years, and learn school subjects through Welsh, even in those schools who are English medium.  The Welsh Government spin machine claims Lewis's statements do not amount to this, and to say they do is "misleading."  We'll see, won't we?

This, rather unsurprisingly, has shocked many parents, mindful that English medium schools within Wales tend to be busy because numerous parents choose to have their kids educated in an useful, and not useless language.

That wholly odd organisation, Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, states in a paper report reproduced online that:

“Indeed, we are pleased that he intends to abolish Welsh as a second language and instead ensure that more and more subjects in English-medium schools are taught through Welsh,” 

That isn't a pleasure that will be shared by many parents across Wales, and it does of course plainly reveal the frankly ludicrous and regressive attitude towards the modern world that this group - and many who quietly support them - holds.

Even though the Welsh Government has its seat of power within an area of Wales where only a tiny proportion of the population speak Welsh, and even fewer speak coherent, proper Welsh, the State is beginning to turn the language screws ever tighter.  The small minority elite who bring about the pressure and mechanisms for these changes are very powerful, because they ride on a self-serving conveyor belt of public sector jobs for life.  Quickly realising that promotion depends on strongly supporting the 'Welsh Must' line, they all fall into line, bleating like so many Welsh hill sheep as they go.

If it's true that Welsh is to be force-fed to kids in school, I hope that parents remember that it is their legal duty that a "suitable and sufficient" education is given to their children.  It is, to my mind, very doubtful anyone can claim that more and more Welsh, with less and less English, is a means of satisfying that obligation.  I say it is a terrible indication that the Welsh Elite have struck back in panic at what is, to them, an unacceptable and offensive decline in speaking this useless language, and are hell-bent on changing things.

A great way to strike back would be to tell your kids to sit there, looking out the window and fail all their Welsh tests and exams.  After all, you don't have to be bothered about not having a Welsh qualification of no practical use, do you?

To all those who justify their Welshy-ism on the claim that it's to "prepare children for further education and the workplace", I say: where are all the Welsh-only speaking jobs, and point out that almost all univerisites in the UK do not need Welsh, thank you very much.

The final word really has to go to an anonymous school governor - and who can blame him for hiding -who rightly comments:

“I think there is an inherent view in the Welsh Establishment that everyone in Wales should have Welsh as their first language, and this is part of that. It’s an attempt at social engineering which I don’t think has any chance of success.”

Quite.