Wealth has a habit of draining to the capital
JEREMY Hunt’s extraordinary comment that £100,000 a year is not an unusual income in Surrey has more relevance to a discussion of Welsh affairs than we may think.
Currently the Tory Party, thrashing around for arguments for the forthcoming election, is working hard on the Wales/Labour versus England/Tory angle.
It may in fact be the case that Welsh performance, in some areas at least, appears to be behind those in England, but even there I’d want to stress the word “appears”. Statistics in areas like health and education can be very seriously manipulated.
That aside, we might well stop to consider how things would look if the UK had devolution on the American model, with devolved governments for the North East of England, North West, West Country and so on. I suspect we would see at once a significant gulf between the South East of England and the rest of the UK, with the South East doing far better in all those areas, health, education, housing (and of course incomes over £100,000), always associated, worldwide and historically, with wealthier areas.
What has happened in the UK’s case is that a large body of wealth has accrued over the generations and, in the way of the world, has filtered back to the capital. But we must always remember that much of that wealth was built up and based on industries like coal and steel and shipbuilding. And, in the way that history and economics work, the areas which provided the sweat to dig that coal and build those ships are left behind as the wealth accumulates in the distant capital.
Let us give credit to a Welsh government which has worked hard in an incredibly difficult situation to keep our services going, and not be drawn into the present sniping from a UK government which should really shoulder much of the blame for the present UKwide decline. Robert Nisbet Haverfordwest
Wales set to take on a tougher opponent
TUESDAY is the day, of that there is no doubt. After Thursday’s magnificent performance against Finland, can the Welsh football team produce the goods a second time at the Cardiff City Stadium?
Poland will be a far tougher opponent then Finland and in Robert Lewandowski have a predatory goal scorer par excellence. The stadium will be rocking again to Zombie Nation preparing the Red Wall to be the 12th man.
Wales have only ever beaten Poland once. I can remember games in the 1970s when Trevor Hockey bit their ankles in Cardiff and got sent off in Katowice.
Questions are being asked about the line-up – should Keiffer Moore start or should Robert Page stick with the same starting eleven? My preference would be for the pace of Brennan Johnson as pace always frightens defenders. Big decision for the coach.
The early goal from David Brooks settled the nerves on Thursday but patience will be needed on Tuesday.
Poland also performed on Thursday, scoring five without the name Lewandowski on the score sheet, so are dangerous opponents.
Germany calling? Where did that phrase come from? But I would love to be in Germany in
June to watch Wales play their part in a thrilling tournament.
Philip Taylor
Sketty, Swansea
‘Linguistic fascism’ claims ring hollow
The Welsh Government has worked hard in a difficult situation to keep our services going
IN A recent speech, Lord Moylan stated that there is “linguistic fascism” in Wales over the Welsh language and that it is “a tool for promoting nationalist sentiment”.
He also stated that the Union of the United Kingdom is a voluntary one and that it is based on affection, that we choose to stay together because of the affection that exists. Not coercion but affection.
Well, it was certainly coercion, not affection, when Henry VIII passed the Act of Union in 1536, which annexed Wales, without consent, to be part of England.
I believe that the Act also stated that it aimed to eliminate the Welsh language, which was part of the Welsh identity. And England continued on this path to obliterate the language over the centuries, including using the “Welsh Not” in schools, barring Welsh from being spoken, until in modern times Welsh language protesters forced England to give the language its legal rights in its own country, and Gwynfor Evans forced the Iron Lady Thatcher to bend and keep to her promise of a Welsh-language television channel, S4C.
So England’s attempt at language genocide reads more like the “linguistic fascism” the good Lord accused Welsh-speakers today of being guilty of, simply for exercising their right to safeguard their language and culture in their own country and aiming for one million speakers by 2050. This seems to offend England, and the affection Lord Moylan talks about is almost non-existent towards the Welsh language from the monoglot English.
There is no more nationalistic nation on Earth than the English. They’re the best at everything,
Robert Nisbet Haverfordwest
including football! But they hide this nationalism, when it suits, by calling themselves British, but woe betide the Celtic nations for any stirrings of nationalism! What hypocrites!
Lord Moylan says that language can be used as “a tool for promoting nationalist sentiment”. Well, the English should know, because they’ve being using English to promote English nationalism throughout the world forever. For example, how many millions have they spent on the BBC World Service broadcasting overseas over the decades? Compare that to the peanuts grudgingly spent on promoting the Welsh language, including the Welsh TV channel S4C, on these shores.
The “better together” of Moylan and the Union does not ring true in every aspect of life for the Celtic nations, so instead of showing hatred towards the Welsh language Lord Moylan should practise some of his much-vaunted affection if he truly believes in the Union.
Senedd politics are a race to the bottom
WHEN I looked at my regional Welsh TV news at the end of last week, where prominence was given to the new First Minister and his
Cabinet of the Wales Government, and also the Senedd Opposition, I thought of the maiden speech of the newest MP in Westminster.
He referred last week, without challenge from the Speaker, to the politics of the UK today, governing and opposing sides, as being “two cheeks of the same backside”.
To me personally, that precisely sums up Cardiff Bay’s politics. It’s time for a far bigger change.
Ioan Richard
Swansea