The Hell-co
It's the Legislative Competence Order that's become known as the Hell-co. I'm talking, of course, about the Welsh Language LCO. Yes, go on, prick up your ears. We're talking about transferring powers to legislate on matters concerning 'the language' to the Assembly.
Some of you have an unhappy tendency to comment on the language, no matter what the blog posting is about. The draft budget? Why should a single penny be spent supporting the Welsh language? Labour leadership campaign? Which candidate speaks Welsh, which one doesn't, why do we even mention it? Edwina Hart's terrifying shoes? Photographed in ... a Welsh language magazine. Why should it get any public subsidy?
And so it goes on.
It's a bit like a game of six degrees of separation, except most of you don't need anything like six moves to kick off a thread laying into the language, those who speak it and those who spend any public money supporting it.
This morning, let me make it easy for you.
We're about to be presented with the Welsh Language LCO mark ... oh goodness knows mark what by now. I seem to remember a pledge to publish a draft on March 1st - St David's Day last year that is. There'll be more details later but I gather that there are some key changes to the LCO as we knew it. Here they are:
The threshold for organisations receiving public money has gone up from £200k to £400k in a financial year before they fall under the scope of any future legislation on the language. It's understood there was pressure from Whitehall to push the limit up to a million. Sounds as though they met somewhere near the middle.
There will be an appeals mechansim, so that any organisation that feels it's been wrongly included in the scope of any future measures can ask to be excluded on the grounds of 'reasonableness and proportionality. Think back to the recommendation made by the Welsh Affairs Select Committee.
Shops won't fall under the scope of future legislation, neither will electricity and gas transmission companies. Bus services will, as will telecommunication companies.
Watered down versus common sense? Expect the Wales Office to claim they've brokered the deal and that common sense has won the day. The Welsh Assembly Government will try very hard to bite their collective tongue and insist this LCO still allows them to deliver their key One Wales agreement commitments: all together now - the language commissioner, linguistic rights and an official status for the Welsh language.
Either way there's confidence the LCO will be with the Privy Council be next February, which suggests the right to legislate will be translated into actual legislation before the next Assembly election. Ah yes, never forget that crucial bit of punctuation.
Next week the Welsh Grand committee meets to discuss the Welsh Affairs Select Committee's take on the old LCO. Got that? By then it looks as though the new one will already have been agreed upon.
A strange process this, in anybody's language.
UPDATE
The Assembly Government lobby briefing is always translated. Questions asked in Welsh are translated to English and the same goes for the answers given. Because I speak Welsh, I don't wear a headset which means the translations I'm about to offer you are my own.
Alun Ffred Jones, the Culture Minister took the briefing. He was asked what he'd made of the role of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee in scrutinising the language LCO. Hadn't the Secretary of State said this morning on Radio Wales said that it was the scrutiny process - and the Welsh Affairs Committee's input as well as the Assembly Committee - that had made this piece of legislation "fit for purpose?"
The Welsh Affairs Committee had had "a far more interventionist role than anticipated - I can't deny that" said Mr Jones. His choice of word was 'ymwthiol.' I've gone for 'interventionist'. 'Pushy' does the job too. But that wasn't just the case with the language LCO. It went for their role in general with regard to drawing powers from Westminster. That process he called "cumbersome", quoting the First Minister. It was incomprehensible to the public he said and therefore, seriously weakened.
No need to translate Conservative David Melding's take on the process of transferring powers: "the areas of conflict have been greater than people anticipated." Or to put it another way, "messy and a dog's breakfast".
I wonder what his colleagues in Manchester have in mind by way of an alternative?
I'm Betsan Powys, BBC Wales' political editor. I'll be blogging the inside track on 
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~11~RS~)
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"Shops won't fall under the scope of future legislation, neither will electricity and gas transmission companies."
Why on earth not? Whatever our Government decides surely the power should reside here. This means that goods packaging isn't covered. How exactly is this LCO an advance in anything?
What on earth is the difference between a telecommunication company and any other utility?
Very strange stuff.
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The Petitions Committee is meeting today and will discuss a petition to amend Section 6 of the 1993 Welsh Language Act so that members of parliament are included under the definition of public authorities and wil, have to publish publicly available correspondence bilingually. If they agree hopefully Alun Ffred can be persuaded to include the provision in the new LCO.
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If there was a modicum of common sense at Cardiff Bay, and elsewhere, the realisation that legislating a language into society is bad governance, poor law.
If the Welsh speaking grandees and lunatic activists had a genuine interest in protecting the Welsh language for future generations, the emphasis would have been placed on general education a decade or more ago, making the language a part of everyday life, making it fun.
But as with much else in politics the reality was lost in the small print, politics genuflected to the extremists, and the extremists were given a sense of importance that encouraged lawbreaking out of all proportion to the importance to the issue. It is noticeable that there is no requirement for Asian languages to be shoehorned into legislation in Birmingham, the common sense solution to multi-linguistic needs are met by the local community, if you wish to shop using Urdu you find a shop with Urdu speakers behind the counter. The children of Urdu speakers in Birmingham are forging ahead linguistically, not because of legislative pressure, but as a result of natural selection, Darwin applies to all animal behaviour.
But at Cardiff Bay it is different, Darwin doesn't apply, lunacy in action.
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SM - I almost agree with you - we should be persuading not forcing private companies to use Welsh - as very successfully done by John Lewis, Tesco, HSBC etc. I have never heard these companies complain about the (negligible) cost and they see it only as a positive marketing excercise.
But in the case of the public sector this has to be regulated or legislated or else it wont happen.
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Re 3 - Stonemason:
Yes, Darwin does apply to all. But sometimes the intelligence of human beings enables us to try to stop extinction in costly ways. Consider the pandas - millions spent on preserving them, while some experts have recently called for the natural process to be allowed to continue and let the pandas become extinct.
Are there some things that we value as a society enough to legislate for their survival, even at cost? Persuasion is not enough. We fail to persuade elephant hunters to stop killing elephants. It takes legislation.
The potential death of the language is not a natural phenomenon - as with the pandas there are many, very human, reasons encouraging its demise.
Darwin also considered nature in its natural habitat. Welsh in Wales is a language in its natural habitat. Comparing with immigrant ethnic languages, which also have needs and rights - albeit different, does not stand up to scrutiny. In order to have a precedent the underlying factors must be the same.
Should shops be included? - of course they should.
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"Some of you have an unhappy tendency to comment on the language, no matter what the blog posting is about."
Well here's a challenge then... try writing a blog entry that IS linked to currrent Welsh Politics but ISN'T linked to the Welsh Language.
"Some of you have an unhappy tendency to comment on the language, no matter what the blog posting is about. The draft budget? Why should a single penny be spent supporting the Welsh language? Labour leadership campaign? Which candidate speaks Welsh, which one doesn't, why do we even mention it? Edwina Hart's terrifying shoes? Photographed in ... a Welsh language magazine. Why should it get any public subsidy?
And so it goes on. "
All fair questions for an internet blog. Probably more substance in that selection than in most editions of First Ministers questions.
Why the problem anyway... Freedom of speech is still available in Cymru is it not?!? or did I miss something and we're now living in a Celtic China.
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Re #6
"Well here's a challenge then... try writing a blog entry that IS linked to currrent Welsh Politics but ISN'T linked to the Welsh Language."
You really do see the phantom of the Welsh language everywhere don't you.
A quick scan tells me that this is the first post about the language this month, while 7 of the 45 posts in Sepetember were to do with the language (and that was exclusively because of the salience of the debate regarding translating the Record of Proceedings).
The comments may all be about the language, but Betsan's posts most certainly are not.
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"A quick scan tells me that this is the first post about the language this month"
Even if that statement were true I'd still fall about laughing due to the fact it's only the 6th of October! :)
However, an 'even quicker' scan tells me that the yesterdays addition was largely about which of the 3 Labour candidates speak Welsh, which are learning and who is anti-Welsh.
Perhaps you shouldn't be so quick with your scans Bedlinog1 ;)
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"It's a bit like a game of six degrees of separation, except most of you don't need anything like six moves to kick off a thread laying into the language, those who speak it and those who spend any public money supporting it."
A good point, Betsan, but the point is that the Welsh people never used to be like this. People were taught and spoke Welsh in schools, and those people who came to Wales shrugged their shoulders in a 'When in Rome..' kinda way.
It is only since the politicians started trying to construct well-paid sinecures for themselves by 'niche-marketing' to their own 'communities' that the division began. It is easy to blame the participants on this blog, and we must all take responsibility for our actions, but I'm afraid that the problem started elsewhere.
Just like the vicious debates which used to take place on Mark Mardell's Euroblog, nobody really worried about Europe until they started nicking all our money and hoovering up our democratic rights and sovereignty into a bag marked 'European Federal Superstate'.
"Physician, heal thyself.."
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Re # 8
"However, an 'even quicker' scan tells me that the yesterdays addition was largely about which of the 3 Labour candidates speak Welsh, which are learning and who is anti-Welsh."
You've just proved my point.
Go back and read yesterday's post and you will see that by no stretch of the imagination was it 'largely about which of the 3 Labour candidates speak Welsh'. Rather, its was about the strenghts and weaknesses of the 3 candidates accross a range of attributes.
As I said, some whil see the menacing phantom of the Welsh language everywhere...
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LordBeddGelert @ no.10
Fair play that is the best post I've seen in a while. I was going to write something along the same lines but it wouldnt have come across as well. Probably something rambling like "It's not our fault Miss... It's the Welsh language enforcers! They started it"
Still the point remains the same... yes we must support the existing speakers of the language but The WAG fiddling in enforcement and basically trying to do anything it possibly can to create new speakers is Social engineering. It is them (with only the mandate of an appalingly low referendum turnout.. some 25% of the electorate) telling us what our culture should be and trying to change the fabric of life in Wales. That is plain wrong!
Still I understand Betan's frustration with us so let me try and make a relevant point:
Why was it a 200k threshold to begin with and why is it 400k now. Most decisions are evidence based or at least where the future of a whole nation is concerned they bloomin well should be!! Where is the evidence and research that went into these 2 figures because at the moment it embarrasingly looks like a case of just think of a number and then double it! Playground governance from the WAG again!
Also I'm looking forward with delight to the appointment of the 'Welsh Language commisioner'. What a title! Why not go the whole hog and make it 'Language Emporer' instead though. I'm envisaging a large cermony at next years Eisteddfod to appoint his/her highness. Full druidic robes of course :)
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What a shambles. More Powers? What a mess we'll be in.
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Cardiffian2008 - Maybe the answer is to make Max Boyce 'First Minister'.
He would be very good, he's very kind and amusing and we all could do with a laugh. Of course he's no good as a politician, but maybe that in itself would be an advantage.
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"Why was it a 200k threshold to begin with and why is it 400k now. "
Because with an £ 800,000,000 national debt and Quantitative Easing, 400k will soon be the 'new 200k' or at least worth the same after a few years of inflation...
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DanDydin at #5 demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of Darwin's "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life."
It is only the selfish gene, as described by Richard Dawkins, that survives the generations, interestingly it is not restricted to physical manifestations but is applied to many other characteristics.
Why did the ancient languages of Sumer become displaced, because replacement languages were for want of a better description "favoured".
You, DanDydin, cannot affect evolution except in a minimal and temporary manner, local coercion will work for a while, but it remains susceptible to any contact with more successful languages. Children and television are sounding the death-knell for Welsh, not linguistic white hunters,
When you write "Should shops be included? - of course they should.", I would ask why should a cobbler be coerced by you into doing anything, it's his or her business, his or her investment, his or her decision how to spend their life, what next?
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"I would ask why should a cobbler be coerced by you into doing anything, it's his or her business, his or her investment, his or her decision how to spend their life, what next?"
Don't disagree at all Stoney - and I can't imagine for one minute that our (your) Government would include Caerffili Cobblers within any legislation. But surely it should be up to our Government rather than London to decide?
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D.J.Williams said in his book I'll call it in it's English translation 'The Old Welsh Farmhouse'.
To me the patriotism of those broadminded 'internationalists'we have in our nation, zealouse for the rights of every nation except their own, is but superficial and meaningless rigmarole, paper patriotism to be carried on the strongest wind blowing at the time, whether from London or Moscow or any other centre of wind. The danger these people run, as someone said, is to be so wide they have no sides to contain anything.
But woe to us Welsh people if in our moral turpitude and soul rotting materialism we give anyone, whoever he may be, the right to trample on the beauty of our childhood's homeland and to destroy the values of it's past days.
If it may be said that there is a divine right to anything on earth, The right over the land of Wales belongs to the Welsh nation and not to any alien,whoever he may be.
How true.
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D.J.Williams also said
"No nation or language is killed, except by its own people"
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Dewi, if the Welsh language is to survive it does not need the rhetoric of DanDydin, or my indifference, or any other emotion for that matter. It needs you and yours, I assume you are a Welsh speaker, to engage the youngsters in a way they can respond to, they need to want Welsh to survive, this would be the selfish gene, you need the critical mass of the majority of children at school. In my view, Welsh medium education, except for those families with a strong Welsh language tradition, has been detrimental to the survival of the language, it ignored the majority. Your involvement is needed in the English medium schools where the critical mass is greatest.
My bottom line is, the survival of Welsh is not in the hands of any government, its an impotent organisation, its in the minds of the next generation, and the generations to come after. How do you teach the children to enjoy poetry in any language, because that's where the answer is, and with song, and with storytelling.
So we disagree with the philosophy .......... alf is right where he writes " ..... except by its own people".
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19
TheStonemason
Thought I would put that in to show it is not always the anti Welsh brigade are to blame.
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Sorry, I should have pointed out earlier that the national debt is north of £ 800, 000,000,000 [that's billions not millions...]
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"Your involvement is needed in the English medium schools where the critical mass is greatest.
My bottom line is, the survival of Welsh is not in the hands of any government, its an impotent organisation"
The point is that surely Governments decide what is taught in schools and the extent of that teaching? At the moment, compared to the success of Swedish medium schools in producing fluent English medium speakers our English medium schools, with honourable exceptions, are not. I'm no expert but will try and find out secrets of Scandinavian success.
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I cannot believe the nonsense spouted by the pro welsh language tribe,
Instead of worrying about the important issues in welsh life,They are obsessed with ensuring the welsh language is pushed down our throats.
Its not enough that every road sign is in welsh and english,(i cant think for the life of me why)Visitors to our city are left baffled by signs like archfachnad which apparently mean supermarket,Whoever worked that word out obviously has a good sense of humour.
I am proud to be welsh,but the welsh language is like the welsh assembly,
Its of absolutely no use to anyone other than those self obsessed welsh people who are full of their own self importance,power mad and hell bent on causing unnecessary chaos.
YOU PEOPLE SHOULD GET A LIFE,And stop trying to run everybody elses..
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When you wrote .....
The point is that surely Governments decide what is taught in schools ....
You were going to add .....
..... "is it time to say stop and listen", to government, "it's the people that make Wales, the little people, and they need listening to".
I believe .....
Grand political gestures feed nobody for very long.
Rhodri, as you are still in charge a small message, your latest lco does nothing for the majority of children who just might have surprised you, but your logic was fundamentally flawed, your friends were not friends of my children, I don't think you were a good friend of the little people.
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Re. 15 - Stonemason
But you miss the points made (and by the way - there was no rhetoric). This is not about natural selection or children choosing. It is about governments actively promoting the Welsh language as a second class language, one which is not to be used, not to be taken seriously, and has no future. Where one must request Welsh forms at the post office and feel like a skunk for doing so. This is about the governments (to continue with the metaphor) continuing to support the deforestation which endangers pandas (whilst all the time saying that the survival of pandas is important).
This is not the natural way, not a free choice for children or anyone. This, currently, is a society where even speaking Welsh is scorned upon (see some other contributors to this blog), the language is treated as an add-on and where speaking Welsh at a meeting is considered extremism.
Me? I say yes to saving the pandas and to ensuring that the local governments have their say in the decision to save, not their neighbours. Simple really - who should decide on Welsh language policy? The Welsh people should.
I would suggest that it is you who failed to understand Darwin.
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Re comment 22 and others
Governments do NOT decide what is taught in schools. James Calaghan in the Ruskin lecture of 1976 refers, but since then, with the National Curriculem, which applies in Wales as well as England although in a modified form and with the advent of ESTYN, school inspections have taken over the role of Government and that includes Local Government in what is taught in schools and how.
Education ( of Children) is too important to be at the whim of transient polititians who are here today and gone tommorrow.
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#25
Linguistically it is about natural selection, people decided because of opportunities that existed elsewhere, that their children would be educated in the English language. English won the race during the 1960's when the last monoglot Welsh speaker died, not because English is prettier but because you could earn more money speaking English, not a comfortable scenario for some, government didn't have to promote English, economics did the work for them.
I do understand natural selection, and I do understand the human has the power to affect evolution, but for how long I wonder this Welsh linguistic interlude, no-matter, we have the altruistic gene, and the English speaking Welsh would be horrified you "feel like a skunk" asking for a Welsh language form at the local post office. The gene that makes us feel warm and cosy when doing good deeds was the right button to press when you decided Welsh was for protecting, instead you (not personally perhaps) chose a "legislative cudgel", without prejudice, it was not needed, you have been talking to the wrong people.
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I still fail to see why legislating in favour of the language - compared to, say, raising taxes, sending troops to war - is regarded by some to be almost an evil act. Evolution has brought us to where we are, and has made us intelligent, thinking beings that can, and, thankfully, often do take positive steps to help achieve what we would like to see happen.
We try because we care. At least I hope we care...
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Betsan,
How long you must have waited to give your thoughts on the few who twist every coherent debate on your site, into an attack on Welsh. I bet it feels good to get that off your chest.
For what it's worth, I believe that Alun Ffred has done remarkable job in very difficult circumstances and ensuring that telecom companies were included is fantastic. On the issue of the £400k limit, I wonder if this will include unions as many receive large Govt funds for training and may now have to recognise that the Welsh language exists. This will be a shock to the system for a few of them.
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"When you wrote .....
The point is that surely Governments decide what is taught in schools ....
You were going to add "
I wasn't going to add anything.
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@ don't blame me:
The Government lay down the mechanism of deciding curriculum and monitoring schools. Estyn is a Government agency.
"Linguistically it is about natural selection, people decided because of opportunities that existed elsewhere, that their children would be educated in the English language"
Stoney - 25% of parents in Wales (in in every 4) have decided that their children will be taught through Welsh. And you know what? they speak English as well so can take advantage of those opportunities you describe. I think they call it a win-win..
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#30 ..... you disagree with the statement.....
..... "it's the people that make Wales, the little people, and they need listening to".
#31 ..... there is no win-win when so many lose, it's called discriminatory.
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32 - I don't disagree just didn't say it.
Who loses Stoney?
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32,
Who loses here?
Parents are making a positive choice about choosing Welsh medium for their children and an increasing number of the generation denied that choice are part of this increasing group. I am one of them and am learning Welsh with my eldest as he learns (although I must admit that he's quicker to pick it up than I am).
I fail to see the problem here and when I take my boy to Ysgol Meithrin in the morning, the other parents I meet are from all backgounds (including ethnic origin) and match the culturally mixed community we live in. Why can't we be excited about the rise in demand for Welsh medium education?
Where is the threat?
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I know I said I'd quit but I have to reply to Stoney:
If you put the same effort into learning a bit of welsh as you do whinging about it, you'd probably be fluent by now. A win-win and you'd be culturally enriched.
But then again, a great many people from a great many natiosn have rightfully described us welsh as a bunch of whingers...
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Re 32
..... "it's the people that make Wales, the little people, and they need listening to".
- absolutely, that's why I would never vote for the Tory party and all those privileged old-Etonians who have absolutely no idea, as they down their expensive champagne whilst planning all those cuts.
"..... there is no win-win when so many lose, it's called discriminatory."
- I'm sorry, but you'll just have to explain that one.
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FiDafydd, I think you slightly miss the point. The Tories have always contained Old Etonians who occasionally drink champagne, try to prevent Inheritance Tax removing the millions of their supporters and want to limit the spending on the public sector.
If Labour didn't want a return to that, it was up to them not to screw up the economy so royally that we will be paying the bills on the national debt for a generation. So I say to the Old Etonians "Bring it on!" - slash those public sector salaries, cut those quangos, hike those IHT limits and, dammit, drink that champagne - magnums of it, because they COULD NOT POSSIBLY DO A WORSE JOB OF RUINING THE ECONOMY OF WALES AND FLUSHING THOUSANDS OF JOBS DOWN THE TOILET THAN NEW LABOUR !!!
Bottoms up !!
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36. I have always seen you and your comments as diminutive now you even
acknowledge it.
34. How many ask for forms in welsh? I'm a welsh speaker and my friends
speak welsh but none of us ask for forms in welsh. Unfortunately it is
people like FiFi that has alienated us from the majority with his rabid
nationilism and with respect their ilk did the same in 1400 when they
'laid Wales to waste'. I certainly don't discourage you or your child from learning welsh I just say be mindful of the 'smiling face' of fanaticism.
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I am surprised you do not understand "discriminatory" FiDafydd .....
"Discriminatory behaviours take many forms, but they all involve some form of exclusion or rejection."
..... from wiki.
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"How many ask for forms in welsh? I'm a welsh speaker and my friends
speak welsh but none of us ask for forms in welsh."
As a matter of interest why not? There was some interesting research done by HSBC recently which showed that 75% of people in Caernarfon used the Welsh language option on the Cashpoint. Lower in the South if I recall correctly.
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Worth remembering this very divisive LCO is the price Labour had to pay to hold on to government.
A Plaid's manifesto commitment - rejected by 80% of those who voted, now to be forced on the people of Wales by a weak administration, solely to hold on to power.
Labour have to deliver, the Welsh Assembly Ministers have to honour a commitment to legislate.
They know this is not a bill that will improve the quality of life for us in Wales - this is purely ideaological and will only increase divisions between Welsh people.
It is likely they also realise, the average Welshman, currently ambivalent, will not appreciate what the legislation requires until is enacted.
Then the impact will damage the language, and the credibility of the Assembly. - Worse those wishing to speak Welsh may become unwelcome.
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The get out of gaol card .....
"..... a challenge mechanism gives strong reassurance to organisations that duties cannot be applied to them unreasonably or disproportionately." Thus spake Welsh Secretary Peter Hain.
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"there is no win-win when so many lose, it's called discriminatory."
That's what you said Stony. Who loses and how?
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Re 39
You may very well regard us Welsh speakers as your intellectual inferiors - as your snide comment here rather suggests - but I can assure you it's not the word 'discriminatory' that I do not understand, it is the context in which you use it.
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#43 the 75% remainder who receive substandard tuition.
#44 when in receipt of provocative statements such as yours, we are reminded "there are more important things in this world than responding to your attempts at escalation of a discussion into a conflict". Not interested in chasing your phantoms FiDafydd.
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"the 75% remainder who receive substandard tuition"
Are the standards in English medium schools lower Stony? The same amount of money per pupil is allocated. What's going on?
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Re 45
If that's your attitude, I'll try one more time: why then are you so happy with mapexx's vitriol? I won't hold my breath, however...
Dewi also clearly didn't understand your vague statement, and I would ask the same question as his no.46
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Welsh language education is abysmal, in the school my daughter attends, where have the good Welsh teachers disappeared to.
The allocation of money is not applied evenly across Wales, Caerphilly came at the bottom or near for primary and comprehensive spending per pupil.
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Re 48
Let's take another country - England, for instance - are you seriously suggesting that every single education authority there spends exactly the same amount on every pupil? And are you suggesting that all teachers in England are wonderful?
If there are poor Welsh - or indeed Physics or German or IT or Geography or English - teachers, then, that should, quite clearly be addressed.
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#49, WalesOnLine "Lottery of education spending"
dated Jul 25 2009 by Katie Norman
In the Welsh primary sector, the lowest funding allocated per pupil is £2,901, by Caerphilly council, while the highest is £3,784 by Ceredigion – a difference of £883.
In the secondary sector, the most money allocated per pupil is £4,864, by Ceredigion, and the lowest spending authority is £3,692, by Powys.
plus .....
Mr Phillips said it was important to bear in mind that spending on education in Wales was already known to be an average of nearly £500 per pupil less than in England.
Putting aside political differences you will admit something is wrong somewhere.
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Stoney is right:
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2009/06/02/school-closures-might-have-been-prevented-91466-23764610/
It would be interesting to know whether Assembly investment in Welsh Medium schools is proportionately greater than in English Medium schools. I also wonder whether Welsh Medium schools in the Welsh language heartlands are neglected in favour of South East Wales' Welsh Medium schools which of course are the main engine of the current social engineering experiment.
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A thought
About 1 in 5 of the Welsh population claim to speak Welsh.
No idea how many are sufficiently fluent to properly translate, or how many with the necessary language expertise to teach - probably a small percentage.
So;
Will there be a shortage of suitable staff to meet the new legislation.
And
Is it any surprise that in many schools Welsh language education is not as good as we may wish.
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You are right that spending varies across Wales but I still need an explanation of why you think "75% receive substandard tuition". If you are referring to Welsh Language tuition then of course a Welsh Medium school will be superior as pupils are taught in Wales all week rather than a couple of hours a week.
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#53
When you write " ..... taught in Wales all week rather than a couple of hours a week" .....
..... I refer you to the under-budget spending and the expression from the 1960's .....
..... "never mind the quality, feel the width", it seems that Welsh education is probably battered by both quality and width.
During 2008/9 I wrote about a teacher of Caerphilly who cancelled teaching for the whole class rather than deal with two disruptive boys, it happened several times, the children failed to cover several modules, so were unable to participate in those parts of an examination.
There are structural problems in Welsh Education, where is the money going, diverted to out of kilter projects being funded from the children's future possibly, How can WAG fund the learn-through-play scheme without additional funding from Westminster, robbing Peter to pay Paul ..... an extra £60 million over two years.
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I meant in Welsh not Wales of course. I still don't get your discrimanation point though Stony. Are you merely referring to Welsh language lessons or is there something else structurally different between Welsh and English medium schools?
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I cannot comment outwith the Caerphilly borough, within our area we think so, there is a FoI question being drafted, in terms of funding there appears to be a funding differential between the two mediums.
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"in terms of funding there appears to be a funding differential between the two mediums."
I'd be interested in the outcome of your FOI request. I'd be astonished if you were correct.
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It's almost becoming a witch hunt! If she drowns, she's innocent; but she's still drowned!!
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The truth is out there FiDafydd; are you criticising the quest for "truth", are you becoming "a common scold" who when convicted suffered the punishment of the "ducking stool" years ago.
.... John Gay (1685–1732), from wiki ....
I'll speed me to the pond, where the high stool
On the long plank, hangs o'er the muddy pool,
That stool the dread of ev'ry scolding queen.
There is no suggestion you are "queen"
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I have been,and always will be a labour supporter,But i like a lot of people had become very disillusioned with the present state of affairs.
BUT then i sat and listened to the nonsense spouted by the conservative leader and his shadow chancellor.
If we in wales,and for that matter the uk,fall for this utter stupidity,The UK will suffer total meltdown.
The conservatives will have you believe that the recession is totally the fault of this labour government,when in fact as we all know it is mostly due to the global economy.
It has become clear to me that the conservative leader is not in the least bit interested in solving our problems,He is only interested in telling you who is to blame for them,That as you know,Is how you win votes.
Listening to DAVID CAMERON and GEORGE OSBOURNE made me reallise what lightweight polititians they really are,If we entrust the running of this country to these people and there political colleagues,We might as well say good bye to any hope of a normal living.
The conservatives have always taken care of middle britain,And what they said at their conference led me to believe nothing has changed.
Before their conference i believed a change might have been a good thing,
But now i know who my vote is going too.
DON'T FALL FOR THE OFFER OF THE PROMISED LAND,IT COULD TURN OUT TO BE A POLITICAL TSUNAMI..
Before their conference i thought that maybe a change of
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message 56......
I have just learned that 3.1 billions, will be no longer coming in our direction from the EU, it is about to swing such funding towards our newest EU members in the eastern regions of the Union.
Couple that loss to the 500 millions already nominated to be taken from from our next budgetary receipt, and I believe there may well be a scenario of desperation down in the Bay in the very near future.
Really, I am at a loss where to begin to decide just how the Assembly/ WAG will be able to justify any of it's current level of spend next year, and into the future.
The old saying "Cutting your suit according to your cloth!" comes to mind.
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