City Lit Welsh classes grow

The excellent Adult Education Centre in Covent Garden called the City Literary Institute has increased its Welsh classes again. Last year a Friday Afternoon class was formed and was very successful, answering a previously unfilled market. Next year it will institute a level 5 Welsh class based on literature and the higher registers of the language. This, plus the solid growth of the London Welsh Centre Classes and the new OU Welsh online modules marks a growing interest in England in the old language.

Welsh Saturday School 7th January 2009

Saturday 7th January 2009 five levels of class all for #25 at the London Welsh Centre in 157 Grays Inn Road (Calthorpe Arms) 9.30 - 5.00 includes coffee and biscuits. Come on the day. or book via "Theo at Anoeth"

www.anoeth.demon.co.uk/digwyddiadur.html
or via website
http://www.londonwelsh.org/

Gaelic in the UK two pictures no comment.

Shattered State of Devolution Settlement. London to take control of Welsh Affairs again.

Welsh Laws should be made in Wales. I support rights for the Welsh speakers of England but I am totally opposed to the London based Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy, deciding from his Whitehall Office how council houses in Wales should be used. This is a negation of the devolution law which created the (sovereign) Assembly of the welsh people. When the elected assembly of a Nation has decided, after lengthy debate, consultation and even consultation with the London civil service - then its decision should be final. That is called Devolution. Murphy must go if he has not grasped that. People who live in Tŷ Gwydyr should not throw spanners in the works. (Tŷ Gwydr means glass house, Tŷ Gwydyr is the name of the Welsh Office in London)

You may have heard the news that Plaid AM Jocelyn Davies is bitterly disappointed with the progress of her LCO to allow the suspension of the Right to Buy Policy in her efforts to address the critical housing needs of Wales. She has had to submit to pressure from the Labour Party in the form of Paul Murphy and the Labour MPs from Wales who were trying every which way they could to obstruct this measure. The conclusion is that Paul Murphy now has the power of veto over this measure thus setting a precedent for future LCOs to be vetoed by the Secretary of State! This makes a complete farce of the devolution process and potentially takes us back to a worse position than the days of the Welsh Office. What it means is that despite the will of the elected representatives of Wales in the Assembly, we could be in a position where a Tory or Labour Secretary State vetoes the measure out of hand. This is reminder of Tryweryn where no MP from Wales supported the scheme and the so called representative for Wales in the Cabinet voted in favour of the scheme. No other lawmaking body in the UK has to submit to this humiliation, whether it is the Scottish Parliament or a local council formulating a by-law! So much for Labour`s Devolution .... though it is hardly a surprise.

As many people as possible should respond to the All wales Convention which will recommend one way or the other whether there should be a referendum on further powers. See the forum set up by branch memmber Michael Haggett on http://syniadau.forumotion.net or go straight to the Conventions website on http://wales.gov.uk/awcsub/awchome/?lang=en

The last thing we want to see is our opponents claiming that few people reponded and that there is little call for a referendum.

Huw

OU Welsh module a great success

Nearly 400 students have joined the first year of the L196 module at the Open University. Almost half of these are in England- which when you consider the almost complete lack of official support is excellent news. With these the numbers of paid-up and enrolled students in England excedes 500 a year. There are some 12 classes in London and various others scattered around England. At University level the OU is the sole provider in England but several English based students take the "Gradd Allanol' Welsh degree modules externally each year.

Welsh is now official in the EU - but not in England

The European Council and the European Parliament have both given Welsh some degree of official status. The UK parliament in London still does not allow Welsh. It has allowed French!

Plaid MEP Jill Evans, who has campaigned for many years for official status for the Welsh language at European Union level, has welcomed today's first speech in Welsh at the EU Council of Ministers. (NOTE - see Timeline below).

Welsh Heritage Minister Alun Ffred Jones will speak Welsh at a ministerial meeting of the EU's Culture Council in Brussels on Thursday where interpretation will be provided into other languages.

Speaking ahead of the meeting the Plaid MEP said:

"I'm delighted that today the Welsh language is finally getting the same recognition as other European languages. I've been campaigning for official status for Welsh in Europe for many years. This is literally making history in Welsh.

"This is of huge symbolic importance and will raise the profile of Wales as a nation on the European stage. I congratulate Alun Ffred Jones and the One Wales Government for making it happen. I also want to thank all of the organisations and individuals in Wales who have given such strong support to this campaign.

"In spite of those who laughed at the idea, including then Prime Minister Tony Blair, and despite opposition from the other parties, we have come a long way. But this isn't the end of the story. I'm still pushing the European Parliament to adopt similar new rules for Welsh. The fact that other European bodies have done it shows that it is both possible and practical."
diwedd / ends

Am ragor o wybodaeth cysylltwch â:
For more information please contact:

David Bradley (01824-709700 / 07901-862907
Steven Cornelius (0032-228-41665 / 0032-473-560967

NOTES:

Jill Evans MEP represents the whole of Wales in the European Parliament

Timeline for Gaining Co-Official Status for the Welsh Language in Europe
November 2004: Jill becomes first person to legally speak Welsh in European Parliament following rule changes led by her parliamentary group.
March 2005: called for EU Constitution to be translated into Welsh. Jill Evans and Elfyn Llwyd meet UK government to press case for recognition of Welsh language. Announcement marks the first step in winning co-official EU status.
June 2005: Spoke in Welsh in European Parliament during debate with Tony Blair during UK EU Presidency.
June 2005: Decision by Europe's Foreign Ministers on framework for co-official status for Catalan, Galician and Basque. Citizens can correspond with EU institutions in these languages and they can be spoken with interpretation in most of the institutions. Jill called on UK government to follow this example for Welsh.
August 2005: distributed language information packs, asking people to write to Jack Straw, Foreign Secretary, calling for Welsh to be given the same rights as Catalan, Basque and Galician.
September 2005: Jill and Hywel Williams MP hold meetings in Brussels as part of Plaid Cymru's campaign to improve the status of the Welsh language in the EU.
November 2005: UK presidency signs agreement for Catalan, Basque and Galician to be given co-official status, and so can be used in official meetings and correspondence.
June 2006: Welsh Assembly's European Affairs Committee announce they are to consider a proposal for limited use of Welsh in EU institutions.
July 2006: Jill writes to Rhodri Morgan asking him to follow Spain's example and ensure the UK government covers translating costs.
November 2006: Jill makes the case for co-official status to the Assembly's European Affairs Committee, by live video link from Brussels.
January 2007: EU Commissioner for multi-lingualism appointed
June 2007: Commitment to get co-official status for Welsh is in the One Wales coalition agreement, first put forward by Jill.
June 2008: Jill launches appeal asking organisations in Wales to write to President of the European Parliament, stating their support for the right to communicate with the Parliament in Welsh.
July 2008: Welsh made a co-official language in the EU Council.
September 2008: Jill meets with President of the European Parliament to discuss making Welsh co-official in Parliament.
November 2008: Heritage Minister Alun Ffred Jones to address Council in Welsh for the first time.

British not Celtic?

An interesting website with a good list of Welsh placenames throughout England and a reliable historical bias to Britishness instead of Celticness is:
http://www.truebrits.org/aberigine2.php
The argument is fair and not anticeltic in its flavour.
'The Linguistic Celts If French is a Romance language, then Welsh is a Brittonic one.
The linguistic Celts, unlike the historical ones, are centred around the ancient languages of Britain and Ireland. Brittonic is the earliest known language from the island of Britain, and Gaelic (or Goidelic) is the earliest known language from the island of Ireland. Both of these have since split into modern languages, in much the same way that Latin split into the Romance languages of Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and so on. Brittonic gave rise to Cymraeg (Welsh), Kernuak (Cornish) and Brezhoneg (Breton), while the original Gaelic language divided into Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic. '

from http://www.truebrits.org/historicalcelts.php