Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Well !

History is always dependent on the lens that it is viewed through, history is being created all the time and will be viewed through whatever lens is appropriate at that point in the future. Unfortunately, history cannot be undone but certainly can be used to shape the future and should be viewed as such. Great leaders have strong will power and a ruthless determination to achieve a purpose, good or bad, that is why they get to be at the top and the rest don't get there. Hopefully there are checks and balances in our modern democracies to ensure the goals of our leaders are good and not bad.

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

"I completely disagree with you on Cummins, he broke the rules According to the police although was not charged. Being in a position of power he should be setting an example And therefore should go. How many policemen will have Cummins quoted to them when they are trying to uphold the law. I wasn’t aware of Kinnock and others but the same applies to them. Do not assocIates everyone who disagrees with you as left wing remainers!!!!"

Thank you for highlighting the others - interesting.

Driving whilst not certain of being fit for the safety of his family and others on the road?
Being part of the team aiming to lead us through this difficult time and defining the rules he felt he did not need to match?
Treating the people like fools and ignoring the damage he has done to the government when it is important it has the peoples support?
Making the life of the Police force frustrating and ineffective? That thin blue line gets ever thinner when these things happen.

He is a smart man but IMHO an a@se.

Yep. Not even Hamwich can sort out this lot. I suggest we all stop and think and then talk quietly among ourselves and in a caring way to our neighbours, stop reading the tabloids and get off facebook. Go to the garage, do something needed on the Morgan, take it for a drive, hug our partner and then send our offspring a message which says I'm always here for you. And then, if you feel there is an injustice in the world, and there are many, go out and fight for it to be corrected. But, if you are a Faschist and you go to the Churchill statue and give a Nazi salute, just remember, he wasn't exactly on your side. And if you think he was a racist (he was) think of his other side, his contribution to the defeat of the greatest evil of the last century.

Thank you for highlighting the others - interesting.

Driving whilst not certain of being fit for the safety of his family and others on the road?
Being part of the team aiming to lead us through this difficult time and defining the rules he felt he did not need to match?
Treating the people like fools and ignoring the damage he has done to the government when it is important it has the peoples support?
Making the life of the Police force frustrating and ineffective? That thin blue line gets ever thinner when these things happen.

He is a smart man but IMHO an a@se.
[/quote]

Spot on, the police were placed in an untenable position by his foolish selfish acts as if they didn't have enough problems trying to enforce paper thin laws.

Well - it's nothing new it seems, this had missed my radar for sure..

Quite interestingly, Government policy at the time this was going on had shifted to one of being fairly sympathetic to the Welsh language. Something else I didn't know was that there was a high degree of migration from England into Wales at this time which also would have had an impact on the number of Welsh speakers. Wales is a beautiful country and I've always found it very friendly towards us as English people.

I doubt that there is a single person on this planet who is not racist to some degree, even if it is on small issues. To try to deny it is ridiculous. We all have stereotypes in our mind based on our personal experiences, upbringing and education. This may even come down to how we view people from the next village.

The main difference is whether or not we are prepared to suspend those prejudices when encountering people of another ethnicity or culture and deal with them simply as individuals. If we can do that we will find that some we can get along with and others not, just the same as with the people in our own tribe.

I always remember the guy in Australia who was protesting about the Vietnamese "boat people" (those fleeing Vietnam on fishing boats at the end of the war in Vietnam). You know, the usual thing, they get preferential treatment, take our jobs etc. Someone asked him "But what about Ngat, your next door neighbour? ", The response was "Oh he is ok, his kids play with our kids and we have a barbecue together every couple of weeks".

Gambalunga. An uncomfortable truth but well said.

I don't deny the truth of what you are saying Peter, but what you are describing is prejudice, not racism. Yes, we are all prejudiced in a number of ways, and yes, it is how we manage that prejudice in our dealings with others that is important.

But this is not Racism. Racism is the combination of racial prejudice and the exercise of power or privilege. Not liking the idea of immigration because some of them are criminals exhibits racial prejudice. Refusing to give them jobs, denying them equal rights, or not letting one's daughter marry one is racist.