Identity politics is not just semantics
years, that there is nothing special or unique about any of us.
We are British citizens, fortunate enough to live in a responsible and respectable country with a culture and constitution that provides scope for freedom of speech, has a wonderful health and welfare system and cares for its old and young.
In 1940, during what became known as the Battle for Britain, the shores of this small-but-important British Isles were courageously guarded and fought for by young men and women whose selfless service to their country included the whole of the British territory.
Now, in 2021, a northern part of these little islands feels it no longer needs England, Wales, and Ireland. It feels so passionate about its historic heritage that it is prepared to sell out its neighbours and guardians.
For those who lost fathers, sons, brothers and friends in the skies, on the land and in the seas as these young men paid the ultimate price to defend their country, this proposed act of independence by Scotland must be like a slap in the face.
I urge every Scottish voter to think very carefully.
National pride is worthless when the country in which I live has been annexed by a force hostile to my safety and welfare.
The promoters of this dangerous and disastrous notion will leave a legacy to their children that may be impossible to put right.
Let us not forget the lives that were given to keep Great Britain safe and complete.
To the great people of Scotland we need you, and you need us. Keep the “United” in the kingdom!
Andrew Robins Upper Boat, Pontypridd
OUR national park authorities are being pressured to re-name the most famous of our familiar place names.
Nationalists would have the world believe that place names like Snowdon, Swansea and Fishguard are recent impositions from the days of Victorian imperialism and the “Welsh Not”.
This is far from the truth.
All were in familiar use by the large minority of English-speaking Welsh people nine centuries ago.
Writing in 1188 in his famous work The Description of Wales, Gerald of Wales talks of ‘Snowdon’ and ‘Snowdonia’ and says that the high peak itself was only known as ‘Eryri’ in north Wales. So it is today.
The majority of the people in today’s Wales are fluent speakers of English rather than Welsh, a figure of 78% at the last census.
Most of the people of Britain and the rest of the world will continue to call Snowdon by its evocative and long-established familiar name.
Even in these days of global warming these mountains are always snow-capped in the winter months.
Gerald was, as I am, proud of his Welsh heritage – his mother the grandaughter of a Welsh prince. He was brought up in Wales and chose to live and work in the place of his birth.
When nationalists play at identity politics it isn’t simply a matter of semantics. If this move gets the go ahead it won’t just be an insult to our mixed heritage. The confusion generated, not to mention the cost of renaming, will hit the tourist sector, a major contributor to the economy of Wales.