Tuesday, February 12, 2008

George Galloway shows his Respect

In a rant about the proposed new Gaelic channel by the BBC, he only managess to call the Gaelic language 'obscure' twice in the artice, which was dissapointing.
Language is a living thing or nothing at all if you ask me. And the rest of us, by a stroke of luck, are in possession of a tongue worth the weight of Ben Nevis in gold.
This is often an argument used against any money being spent on the Welsh language, that it shouldn't be supported in any way by the state and that it should be left to fight it out with other languages, which is an argument that one can understand. But then he goes on to say:
The English language is our greatest asset and the government spends far too little spreading it even wider.

The money spend [sic] on Gaels and their obscure language could be spent by the British Council teaching, for example, the people of China to speak English with infinitely more returns.

Which is a total contradiction of what he just said. A language like Gaelic shouldn't be supported financially, but the English language should. He then tries another trick favoured by the language haters, which is to use the presence of immigrants (Galloway's political career is based on this anyway).

There are more people who speak Punjabi in Scotland than have the Gaelic. Can you imagine the outcry if the government gave £50 per week per head to subsidise Lahore TV?

And more people speak Polish in Scotland than speak Gaelic but Gdansk TV could only dream of such a subsidy.

For your information Mr Galloway, the Polish government fund around 10 Polish language channels, plus one in Belarusian. TV Polonia is available worldwide, so Polish speakers in Scotland are already catered for. There are Punjabi state funded channels in both Pakistan (on PTV) and India (DD Punjabi).

I sometimes visit the Wales/Cymru section the Urban75 forum, which has it's fair share of nut jobs. Here's the latest post by (sadly) a rather noisy Respectoid:
St David's Day - COUNTER DEMO

As we know over the last few years the nationalists have stepped up their attempts to impose conformity and their bigotted ideology on our locale, they will be using St David's Day to impose the idea that Wales is a nation cosily united - rich and poor - against English oppression and waving their flags. They will be attempting to construct a 'welsh identity' that never existed and various other ideas that mystify social reality, class division and block the forming of genuine grassroots culture based on solidarity and diy principles.
Needless to say, everyone rips the piss out of him.

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10 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good thing Galloway's not in Respect anymore is it ?
The chap on urban 75 doesn't represent the views of Cardiff Respect by the way . While class and not nationalities are the real divide in society people have the right to speak and preserve their own language and to celebrate events like St.Davids' Day.

2/14/2008 1:32 pm  
Blogger Rhys Wynne said...

I beg your pardon, TheyWorkForYou.com
has Galloway down as an MP for Respect. Perhaps I'm being unfair tarting all Respect members with the same brush, but lefties (and I'm a left leaning myself) generally can't seem get it that to be Welsh does not mean 'to hate England/the English'. My and other's desire for proper devolution or even independence is based what our hearts as well as are minds say.

2/14/2008 3:25 pm  
Blogger rob said...

There's been a split in Respect and it's a long tedious saga.Much blood is being spilt all over the internet on it as you can imagine.
I'm well aware that being Welsh doesn't mean hating the English.
I'm Scottish and I don't hate the English (much ;-) ).
If people want more devolution or independence that's fine by me.I don't see why I should defend the integrity of the British state.

2/15/2008 2:11 pm  
Blogger Nwdls said...

Not only do the Polish government fund Polish language media in Gdansk, they also support media in the Kashubian language - the local indigenous minority language.

Galloway hasn't a clue what he's on about.

2/17/2008 6:12 pm  
Blogger Rhys Wynne said...

Wow, I'd never heard of that language before.

2/18/2008 9:52 am  
Blogger Bronchitkat said...

Strikes me that George Galloway is a bit of a twit. What about embracing the cultural diversity these islands have always supported? Or something like that anyhow.

Why begrudge the Gaels a right to their own language promotion?

Any views on 'Y Cyd' - cos I heard that was being seriously underfunded too.

PS - can I come & move to Wales (two of my grandparents were Welsh)? Your government seems to have far better ideas of looking after the people than Westminster does!

2/22/2008 11:36 am  
Blogger Rhys Wynne said...

Croeso'n ôl Bronkchitkat.

If that many Galloway had any ounce of credability, he's certainly lost it now.

Wales has always welcomed people young (young and old!)

I was thinking of you a few days ago, as I'm considering attending an event in Cardiff (see previous post) and on of the organisers is from Box UK - that's where you son works/worked right?

The socks on the groub blog look lovely BTW, do you knitt ot order - seriously? I'm trying to reduce the amount of clothing made from man-made-fibres and made in sweatshops, and socks are proving to be the toughest to find.

Hwyl

2/22/2008 12:26 pm  
Blogger Bronchitkat said...

Diolch yn fawr, Rhys. (Right, that, & prawn da, being the limit of my Welsh!)

Yes, I can knit socks to order. I'd need specifications like foot size, preferred sock length - in the leg, circumference around heel & ankle, preferred colour choice, and a £10 deposit.

Which sounds expensive, I know, but even single colour basic sock yarn costs around £5 for a pair, & then there's the knitting time - 30 hours? I can turn out a pair of really basic socks in about three days. If the pic you saw was of the Simply Love socks (pink stripes with lace hearts) they took the best part of a week.

So, if you're still interested . . .

2/22/2008 12:40 pm  
Blogger Rhys Wynne said...

It does sound expensive but I understand it takes time, and the sweatshop free/organic cotton factory made one's I bought cost £12 for 3pairs and 1 pair of thick pop-socks cost me £8.

I will certainly think about (probably not pink ones with lace hearts on though!)

Diolch


Oh, yes regarding Y Byd. It's a shame that it's not going ahead (especially as I'd initially paid £25 when the idea started and another £60 last summer for subscription), but I don't blame the Assembly government. There is a tendancy for Welsh language projects to expect everything to be subsidised, something I thought initially the Byd was going to stay away from.

2/22/2008 1:56 pm  
Blogger Bronchitkat said...

Oh pooh! Seem to have priced myself right out of the market then. Good thing I don't do this for a living - & the organic cotton socks producers probably need the income far more.

Still, if you'd like to look at sharonspix.jonpearse.net/photos/Knitting you'll find a selection of socks I've produced, for myself, family & friends over the past couple of years.

2/24/2008 11:20 am  

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