Minding your language
The very first note I have scrawled in my notebook on the Labour leadership election says "Leader for the whole of Wales". I wrote it leaning against a wall in the back of the Ogmore Labour Club where Carwyn Jones launched his bid to become the next Labour leader and First Minister of Wales - "the whole of Wales" of course.
He used the phrase again in the interview he did after the launch and at a guess, he's used it at least twice a day since then. It is his pitch: that as a Welsh speaker with a broad appeal across the party, he is the right man to take over Rhodri Morgan's job and position in the party and in the country.
What does he mean by "the whole of Wales?" From the outset I think we - and certainly his opponents in the race - took him to mean North and South but in particular the Welsh-speaking bits of the country along with the non-Welsh speaking parts. He would thrust home his appeal in those areas "West of the Loughor and the Clwyd" as Rhodri Morgan once put it, where the language is as its strongest and where Labour has been made to suffer at the polls but he wouldn't play into the hands of those who feared he was a bit too friendly with Plaid.
He'd be like Rhodri Morgan - able to speak Welsh but not about to thrust it down your throat.
So when Edwina Hart tells tonight's edition of Y Byd ar Bedwar that it's wrong to say the next First Minister should be a Welsh speaker, that she's "no less Welsh than anybody that speaks Welsh" and that she'd "also find it very useful if I could speak some other languages like Bengali or Chinese when I'm in the Swansea community" what is she doing?
Is she being crass and insensitive, intentionally alienating Welsh speakers as supporters of the language have already suggested?
Is she making a political calculation that Welsh speakers with a vote will give it to Carwyn Jones and that she needs her own USP on this issue for her own party - in other words, he'll be soft on the language, you bet I won't be? A political calculation at work.
Is she displaying enough chips on her shoulder to feed a bio-mass power station for a whole year?
Her Plaid supporters - and she has plenty - talk about her action on the ground in her constituency, promoting Welsh medium education. Take heed of what she does, not what she says ... The Presiding Officer is one. I talked to others at the weekend at a festival in Newport that, how shall I put it, tends to attract more Plaid-leaning supporters than any other party. Of those I spoke to, every single one wanted Edwina Hart to win.
So which one is it?
None of the above, say her supporters. She is simply saying it as it is and appealing, wait for it, to the whole of Wales.
In this 'whole of Wales' what she's saying is common sense - "unexceptional and unexceptionable" as a supporter put it to me this morning. A reference in your manifesto to a fear that Welsh-medium schools could turn into "the exclusive preserve of a self-appointed minority" isn't read with raised eyebrows and as unnecessarily hostile. It's read as a reasonable desire for the Welsh language to be regarded as a language for everybody.
In this 'whole of Wales' Edwina Hart gets a nod for recognising that Wales is a diverse nation. After all, says one Hart supporter, hasn't Rhodri Morgan talked about "the whole of Wales" in the past in terms of it being ethnically diverse? (He has talked about a fear that closing an English-medium school to make way for a Welsh-medium one would be ethnically-polarising) And the out-going First Minister has said himself it's not essential that his successor speaks Welsh.
Where does all of this leave Huw Lewis? It leaves him with an opportunity to show he knows how sensitive the question is ... and keeping his head down in his Open University Welsh grammar text books.
I'm Betsan Powys, BBC Wales' political editor. I'll be blogging the inside track on 
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Does it matter who separatist Plaid support in the leadership race, is it particularly important what the 4th division need ? They want Hart because they believe she is best suited to continue the coalition in a fashion to produce the Plaid goods.
Fortunately the little people of Labour rather fancy Huw; he might like to consider a minority government, it works in Scotland.
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Are we going to get a leader with the spine to point out the obvious that according to its own experts young people in Wales lag behind those of England and other UK and European countries with regard to foreign languages.
This not only puts Welsh young people at a disadvantage in the Euro jobs market it will ultimately lead to a disadvantage for the Welsh economy.
So who is going to be bold enough to point out the obvious that the 'Whole of Wales' needs less Welsh and more French or German taught in schools colleges and universities to help ensure our economic future within Europe.
I must admit since Edwina's refusal to launch an inquiry into the misspent 1 Billion in the health service I have changed my mind, and I am now looking at Huw for the little people.
I admired his stand over the A483 demanding a copy of the secret report Plaids deputy first minister refused to hand over. We had enough of that sort of behaviour from Tony Blair but then imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
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"Does it matter who separatist Plaid support in the leadership race"
No it doesn't Stoney - surprising observation from Betsan. I could however add does it matter who Unionist Tories support?.... but I wont..
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#2
"So who is going to be bold enough to point out the obvious that the 'Whole of Wales' needs less Welsh and more French or German taught in schools colleges and universities to help ensure our economic future within Europe."
I think you will find that learning a little Madarin or Cantonese will be much more usefull in the near future.
I think you will find that very few professionals and experts are fluent in forign languages and many rely on interpretors even if they can speak the language to avoid misunderstandings?
I agree that forign languages should be given as much status as english maths and science, but not at the expense of Welsh.
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2.They all speak and understand English so why change their preferred language just more media pressure to vote for Carwyn ( the bookies favourite eh Betsan).
1.It was interesting to see that the Church in Wales have called together all the funding bodies in Wales to seek funds to repair
their churches. Here commeth the reward for Tomorrows Wales thy good
and faithful servant.
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#4 said...
"I agree that foreign languages should be given as much status as English maths and science, but not at the expense of Welsh."
No wonder Wales lags behind other European countries.
#5 said....
"They all speak and understand English"
But do all the Welsh?
Because from some of the responses on this blog there is clearly a communication problem.
Re: "Here commeth the reward for Tomorrows Wales thy good
and faithful servant".
I think an unelected seat for bishops in a Welsh Parliament is what they are really after.
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2. Neocromwellian.
It's not just that welsh students don't perform well in European foreign languages. Estyn found that Welsh medium schools had fewer students taking foreign languages than English medium schools and that the performance of students in Welsh medium schools was significantly worse in terms of grades. Estyn thought that this could be because of the shortage of Welsh speaking teachers able to teach foreign languages but it rather begs the question; if learning two languages enables you to learn a third more easily how come the shortage of Welsh speaking foreign language teachers?
For me Carwyn Jones is naive if he thinks that being able to speak Welsh will enable him to make inroads in North West and West Wales. Rhodri is a Welsh speaker and far more popular across Wales than Carwyn will ever be. Didn't do labour any good in the Welsh speaking heartlands.
For me Carwyn is just Plaid born in the wrong place. He could lose South Wales votes but not gain North Wales votes.
Don't know Edwina. Huw Lewis has the right attitude for me. He might stand up to Plaid and stop the rot down South. Talk of "The whole of Wales" is such tosh. There isn't one Wales.
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#6
Ok let me be more clear obout this.
Totally agree with the point about foreign languages, we should do more to promote learning foreign languages in school and in adult education. I personally thing that learning a foreign language should be just as important as maths, science and English.
However, this should not be done at the expense of Welsh. It's "our" language, we should be proud to be able to speak it and should strive to learn it if we can't. It surely can't be a bad thing to have children learn some welsh.
There is the counter argument that learning one language makes it easier to learn a second. I know a girl who can speak 6 languages and she always says that learning the second and third etc gets progressively easier, providing they are of the same basic structure, like European languages (obviously throwing Korean or Cantonese in there would still be hard). Learning Welsh is for some kids alot more of an engaging idea than learning Spanish or German and it may push them to learn other languages, plus welsh being compulsary means even those without the inclination to study a forign language at GCSE will learn about speaking another language.
Also the fact that we are lagging behind may have more to do with the level of deprivation in Wales. We are hardly a glimmering example of educational perfection are we? There are big education problems in Wales that need to be sorted out before pushing for more emphassis of foreign languages become a priority.
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#7 SEDWOT
That is a really good point, we need more hard facts like this to get the issue of language in proportion.
My interpretation of your comments is that the advantage of speaking a foreign language in trade and job prospects in Europe and the rest of the world is going to be spearheaded by English medium schools, with the Welsh medium schools confining themselves to Wales and Patagonia!
Unless of course the Welsh are going to rely on foreigners speaking English!
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#8 Colonicus42
You make some good points, and I would not wish to critise anyone for wanting to speak their native tongue and respect peoples pride in their identity. In that context it is not a bad thing for children to learn Welsh
My concern is about a sense of balance and proportion, I am also concerned about the issue being used as a weapon for personal and political gain.
I respect you comment that the situation maybe as a result of deprivation rather than personal choice, in which case I would be the first to support positive change, and is something we should be debating.
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Getting back to the subject of the post, it highlights the poor thinking both of Edwina and Carwyn.
Carwyn is just playing on his Welshness - assuming that just because he can tick all the boxes it makes him an automatic first choice. Lazy.
Edwina has played this all wrong - the correct answer should be - speaking Welsh is an advantage in a billingual Wales, but it is not the only factor to be considered, and she fully supports the language. Stroppy
Huw has probably got this one right - He is not bilingual but he making a strong effort to learn. But tokenism???
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penddu, you describe a Plaid vision of the trio, I wonder how a Labour Party activist might have assigned labels to the candidates.
..... tokenism is so insulting to the man, particularly as linguistic skills are not the attributes needed to govern from Cardiff Bay ......... being able to discuss issues with Cheryl Gillan is more important than a fireside chat with IWJ.
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12 SM - I cant speak for Plaid - as I am sure that they would prefer the weakest candidate to win!
But you are wrong that fireside chats with IWJ are not important - if he/she can not work with Plaid, then he/she will not be First Minister for long.
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Your words are disturbing penddu, as if Plaid hold all the cards of political consequence, but things have changed these last few years, a minority government has functioned in Scotland since the last regional elections as an example to others, there is no reason why it couldn't happen at Cardiff Bay, there is an awareness that Plaid has become the poison chalice of Welsh politics, the others see little advantage in conjoined politics that encompasses separation.
Apart from the annual budget, which will always find consensus, what else is there to create a political crisis, nothing.
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oh here we go again... barely a week goes by without yet another welsh language row.
Why cant we keep this divisive issue out of Welsh politics! It will tear our country apart in the end.
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The fact remains that Labour and Plaid have signed up for the duration, its a flight of fantasy to think that Labour have the stomach for minority government. Both parties democratically overwhelmingly approved the one Wales Government - OK a larger minority in Labour than Plaid opposed it, but endorsed it was. Again we have a fantasy that the majority of Labour members opposed the deal, well they didn't.
I think that being Welsh speaking as First Minister falls into the desirable but not essential column in the job description. Edwina has proved that she is comfortable in working in a coalition, and coalitions will be the norm in Wales, if Labour want to go into the wilderness then let them pull out. But I see no sign of that, Huw Lewis for all his faults says he supports the coalition.
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Time goes by, what was approved in the past, tolerated in the present, can soon be discarded in the future, Scotland has demonstrated that minority government can and does work. The pragmatic politician is able to turn a back on the undesirable ..... at the drop of a hat.
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The majority of people in Wales are not really interested in whether any of the three speak Welsh or can even read Homer in the original Greek. The real issue is what will they do to enable so many of the fellow citizens to enjoy the fruits of economic life that they lead as assembly members. While the elite argue about arcane constitutional issues most people in Wales continue to struggle to live on some of the lowest wages in the UK. 10 years after devolution we are still bottom of the league in too many aspects of life. Perhaps on Thursday Betsan you should do a vox pop and just go to any town in Wales and ask ordinary people in the street without prompting what they think of the Jones -Parry report. It will be interesting to hear the answers.
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#18 Benedek said...
"While the elite argue about arcane constitutional issues most people in Wales continue to struggle to live on some of the lowest wages in the UK. 10 years after devolution we are still bottom of the league in too many aspects of life."
I totally agree with this point which is why I support a No vote and devo-realism and against this coalition. Nothing to do with nationality and language until it is used to conceal the failure of the government in the delivery of services to the people.
Samuel Johnson's biographer James Boswell explained that his famous quote "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel." Was not aimed at patriotism in general but false patriotism and I would add an excuse for incompetence, to behave badly and fiddle expenses.
The new First Minister needs to be very careful about the sort of message they send out on this issue.
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Benedek wrote:
"Betsan you should do a vox pop and just go to any town in Wales and ask ordinary people in the street without prompting what they think of the Jones -Parry report. It will be interesting to hear the answers"
Thats pretty much what BBC radio Wales are planning on doing tomorrow (I think it was the Rhun ap Iorath show). He just did a preview to tomorrows show now.... they cut to reporters in about 4 different towns including Newtown and haverfordwest and asked people in the street about more powers.
Every single person out of about 10 said 'no' (with most shouting it! lol!) apart from one person who said they should have more powers but not all at once... which is the equivalent of what you would get if you voted 'no' anyway in this warped Welsh democracy.
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I just got around to watching the Dragons Eye programme - Pretty much confirmed my opinions of the candidates - Carwyn is a man in a suit, but has gravitas - Edwina is feisty and straight talking but hardly FM material - Huw has his some interesting policies but is a bit immature politically.
So my personal verdict - probably Cawyn, but dont have a strong opinion either way.
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