PLAID Cymru leader Ieuan Wyn Jones greeted his appointment as Deputy First Minister yesterday with a pledge to serve every Welsh citizen – regardless of their language.
That'll be a relief to the 79.2% of the population who don't speak Welsh (Census 2001).
Now what did that BBC Survey say about your Welsh Language act again?
2 comments:
Have you read what Cymdeithas has said about that doggy BBC survey?
Have you read what Cymdeithas has said about that doggy BBC survey?
"Woof, Woof"??
Sorry, I couldn’t resist it!!
Yes, I did see the Cymdeithas response.
Several further points about it and the poll:
1.The breakdown of those against the new language act ties in, almost to the last % point, with the % of English speakers in the country.
2.ICN haven’t yet printed the questions asked on their survey, so it’s hard to analyse them....however;
3.The use of the word “force”, is it not accurate? After all, the businesses won’t be given the option of choosing Welsh-language signage, they will be required by law to do it. If they were happy to supply such signage they would already have done so, they would be told to deliver something which they don’t want to do; what other word than “force” would be more appropriate here?
4.Cymdeithas indirectly raise the issue of a BBC conspiracy here, but they themselves can think of no reason why the Beeb would compromise "it's impartiality and try to do the CBI's lobbying for them by using such a prejudicial form of wording."
5.When they say this:
“We would also question if the survey was conducted in English only - which would again prejudice the results in a bilingual community”
They really are clutching at straws. If we were talking about a Welsh-speaking monolingual community, then yes, but come on, everyone speaks English in Wales, how on earth can that prejudice the results?
What the survey shows is that a majority are against this particular provision of the proposed language law. Thye can argue against the methods used to get the results, but the truth is that with this kind of margin (66% against 34%), it’s clear that a majority are against the provision and that would be the case, even if the word “forced” wasn’t used and the survey was in Welsh.
Now, Cymdeithas can sit back and wait for legislation to “force” this measure through, are they can try to persuade businesses by “force” of argument why exactly this measure makes sense. I’d say the second method, in the long run, would be the most productive and positive.
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