Modestly avoiding a claim to 100% infallibility, this blog solemnly asserts that that the 1300 daily blogs on this site have been at least 99% the whole truth.
S4C
New Minister Ed Vaizey boasted last night that the Tories gave the Welsh nation the Welsh language Channel S4C.
Yes, but under duress. Before history is fictionalised on Norine Dorries' blog let's recall the facts. I was there as Chair of the Broadcasting Council of Wales in 1979 when the new Tory Home Secretary Willie Whitelaw announced that there was to be no S4c. I resigned. No-one in government was impressed.
PM Thatcher was reading Irish History for the first time. She learned that support for Irish Republicanism multipied when they had martyrs who had been executed after the Easter Rising. Plaid Cymru leader Gwynfor Evans embarked on a farewell tour of Wales. He vowed that if no S4C channel was established he would starve himself to death.
Thatcher surrendered in order to deny Wales a martyr and avoid unrest. The politics of S4C run deep. Far too complex for Ed Vaizey to understand.
Who speaks for Wales?
Well not the Welsh Affairs Committee. It has a Tory Chair and half its members are Tory - one from Redditch. That's not how Wales voted in May. The vote was 9 Tory MPs, 26 Labour and 5 others. The Welsh Secretary is under attack for refusing to call a meeting of the Welsh Grand Committee. Its last meeting was chaired by a Tory. The Grand Committee's existence in at the whim of the Tory Secretary of State. It does not represent the views of the people of Wales.
What we need is an autominous body with all Welsh members as members that can call its own meetings and make its own decisions. Soon such a body will be convened. I have written to all Welsh MPs:
Welsh Parliamentary Party"
"The WPP is probably more representative of the democratically expressed views of the people of Wales than the Welsh Affairs Select Committee or the Welsh Grand Committee. It may have a significant role in expressing views on issues of national importance.
"The WPP is a unique parliamentary institution that was formed in 1888. Membership traditionally has included all MPs representing constituencies in Wales. In recent years the body was responsible for making appointments of MPs to the Courts of National Library of Wales and the National Museum.
"The WPP in 1995 successfully proposed and sponsored a change in Commons Standing Orders to enable the Welsh Grand Committee to meet in Wales and use the Welsh language."
"Traditionally the senior Welsh MP convenes meeting of the WPP. That is Ann Clwyd. I am the only remaining officer as secretary. The previous chairman and treasurer are no longer MPs."
Is it true that no teachers who speak only English can work in state schools in Wales?
Posted by: Kay Tie | October 22, 2010 at 09:26 AM
No it's not KT but is it true that no teachers who speak only Welsh can work in state schools in England?
Posted by: patrick | October 22, 2010 at 05:41 PM
I'm not making a point. I'm asking for information. You probably don't know what the English are saying about what happens in Wales, but it includes things like learning English being prohibited until 13. These things don't ring true hence my question.
Posted by: Kay Tie | October 22, 2010 at 07:18 PM
Where do you get this stuff from, KayTie ?Children in Wales who are bilingual speak better English that children who speak only one language. Most children are free to attend bilingual school or not the alternative is to learn Welsh as a second languge that all school children do now. Welsh speaking is a qualification only where it is essential for the job.
Posted by: Paul Flynn | October 22, 2010 at 09:35 PM
"Where do you get this stuff from, KayTie ?"
A teacher friend told me, and I thought "that doesn't ring true" so I asked here - where else can i find so many politically-aware Welsh people in one place that can answer my question?
Posted by: Kay Tie | October 22, 2010 at 10:27 PM
Reminds me of the questions asked by the reporter in Paul's "Ryder Cup rapture" post of the 27th(?) Sept.
Posted by: D.G. | October 23, 2010 at 05:09 PM
Or also from the first page of chapter one of Neal Stephenson's novel "Anathem"
"Do your neighbors burn one another alive?" was how Fraa Orolo began his conversation with Artisan Flec
Followed by
"Do your shamans walk around on stilts? You might call them pastors or witch doctors"
and
"When a child gets sick, do you pray? Sacrifice to a painted stick? Or blame it on an old lady?"
Posted by: HuwOS | October 23, 2010 at 07:24 PM
I have seen the financial crisis blamed on the equivalent of an old lady. So perhaps these questions are not so odd after all.
Posted by: Kay Tie | October 23, 2010 at 09:31 PM