Sospan ...with respect, but for balance .... there has never been a government policy to kill off or suppress the Welsh Language .... the 'Welsh Not' was definitely a thing and operated as you describe ... but it wasn't widely used throughout Wales and was the personal initiative of some individual headmasters (usually with the agreement of parents) and reflected a genuine concern at the time that not being proficient in English in a period when Britain was a dominant global commercial and political force would severely limit the life choices and prosperity of their pupils ..... to be monoglot Welsh would mean not being able to communicate with anyone beyond the small numbers living within her borders.
Feeding into your later point ...whether one sees this as .....(A) a pragmatic and sensible desire to improve the life chances of pupils .....(B) a well meaning but culturally insensitive example of paternalism ... or (C) a dastardly assault on the very cultural heart of the Welsh People by the Establishment ..... probably correalates quite closely to whether you put your cross against Con, Lab or Plaid when an election rolls round.
This from someone who, though English by birth, spent his teenage years and secondary education in the Lleyn, was a full understander and passable speaker of Welsh (at a time when most Welsh people were not) and who's sisters married locally so has a slew of lively and lovely Welsh speaking nephews and neices .... I have an abiding affection for the Welsh Language, I'm pleased to see its resurgence and am sad that the best part of 50 years of disuse have robbed me of most of it.
K
