Sir Emyr Jones Parry

I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Sir Emyr Jones Parry was chosen to lead the convention to prepare the way for a referendum on further power to the Assembly.

I don't know anything much about him or his political leanings. They say he's Welsh-speaking, but my guess (and I could be wrong) is that after a career in London and abroad his Welsh must be a little rusty. Yes, Plaid and Labour should have had the good grace to consult the Tories and LibDems, but it still seemed a good choice and one which gave status to an important process.

But then, I'm not anti-Welsh language. Funny how Brit Nat Don Touhig called Emyr JP a member of the 'crachach' - never heard him say that about Lord Richard - but then Richard was a well-known Labour supporter, and more importantly, couldn't speak Welsh.

Funny how Crachach seems to be the only Welsh word Brit Nats know. It verges on racism to my mind. Most countries would have been glad to have a former UK ambassador fronting a debate on devolution. I dare say, were Emyr JP not a Welsh speaker, and didn't have such a Welshie name, then Touhig would have no problem. I dare say, coming from Carmarthenshire, aged 60 old, then Emyr JP didn't have much choice about being able to speak Welsh or not, it wasn't his choice; same as it's not someone's choice if they're born black or not. I suppose he could redeem himself by unlearning Welsh and giving himself an English name - a sort of linguistic Michael Jackson with the Uncle Tom cringe like so many past Labour MPs have done.

Crachach - it's just sheep dog whistling for 'Welsh-speaker', same as 'Muslim' can be used for 'Paki' isn't it?

Terrible thing eh - Welsh Assembly, in Welsh capital chooses Welsh person, who knows Welsh history and culture (in both languages) to front open debate about that referendum which would give Wales more power and which both governing Welsh parties have signed up to support. Yes, you can be too Welsh in Wales and if you don't like people who are too Welsh, then you join the Labour party... and Labour can't work out why their vote collapsed among Welsh-speakers in the May election?

Terrible thing eh? Labour MPs, all bar a few, will be totally forgotten in a few years time, can't bare to see the power slip from their hands. Wales is changing and the Brit Nats can't take it.

The Scandinavianisation of Britain

Found this on an English nationalist forum... couldn't have put it better myself:

Scandinavia, a region of five countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Finland), has seen its constituent countries form different unions with each other from the Middle Ages to 1918, until Iceland became the last independent nation. They share similar cultures and similar languages, but have remained separate sovereign nations ever since.

So for a lot of people, a possible break-up to the United Kingdom is something they fear, believing this would cause many problems and challenges. The prospect of this raises many questions. However, one only has to look towards Scandinavia to realise all these questions have already been answered:

Would the home nations be economically viable?
The Scandinavian nations top all tables on average wealth per person. Size of country has no bearing on economic success. No reason why the home nations can’t be economically successful too.

Isn’t Britain stronger together? Wouldn’t England, for example, have a lower standing in the world than Britain?
If enjoying a high standing in the world means participating in numerous foreign wars, who needs that? Does a Swede, who lives in a wealthy nation, and has not seen his country fight a war for 200 years, envy our status? I seriously doubt it. Perhaps countries like the USA, Russia and China dominate world markets, but their citizens don’t enjoy the same wealth per person as in the Scandinavian countries. And if a lower world standing also means not sending men into space or topping an Olympic medals table – then I can live with that.

Would there be passport/border controls between the home nations?
No. There are no border controls between the Nordic countries.

Many Scottish people have relatives in England and vice versa. Doesn’t this make independence difficult?
Not when there’s free movement of people between nations as per Scandinavia.

What would be the constitutional position with the monarchy?
In Scandinavia, some countries are kingdoms, some are republics. It’s up to each home nation to decide their constitutional position.

Wouldn’t there be problems if England was a member of the EU, but Scotland and Wales weren’t?
Denmark and Sweden are in the EU, but Norway isn’t, and there are no problems.

And wouldn’t it be difficult for Scotland and Wales economically, when they have a much larger economic neighbour in England?
Hasn’t affected Denmark, who share their border with Germany.

Would the break-up of Britain lead to problems with security? Especially if England has an independent Scotland on its northern border?
Why? Is there a problem with security in Scandinavia? Is England likely to do something that will prompt an invasion of a foreign army? If Scotland did, would that automatically mean this army would move onto England? Even in the dark days of WW2, when Germany invaded Norway and Denmark, this didn’t spread to Sweden.

But on a small island, there must be issues where there needs to be co-operation?
Indeed, and this is true in Scandinavia. However, these issues are dealt with by the Nordic Council, without impairing any of the nations’ sovereignty.

I don’t know if I’ve listed all of the questions regarding this issue, but I’m sure if you need an answer – look to Scandinavia.

Northumbrian - Newcastle upon Tyne

It's time we started to talk about the Scandinavianisation of Britian and not allow the Brit Nats to scare people with silly words like the 'Balkanisation of Britain'. We can create an island of mutual respect and cultural plurality... what's so extreme about that?

Welsh Signs

Just a quick posting following on from the posting below on Super Brit Nat's problem with Welsh having status in its own country .

It's also to lay to rest any difficulty people in general may have with bilingual sings, especially some rather dull drivers in the Swansea area who aren't able to read Welsh (after living in Wales all their lives! Yes, they have a God-given right to speak just English and never ever to be contaminated by Welsh).

The Assembly commissioned £53k report (yes, they could have built a children's hospital and a new school for that) to find out the effects of bilingual signage. And just to make sure it was impartial, the research was undertaken by people in that Welsh-speaking bastion - Leeds.

The conclusion, well, people really aren't as thick as some Labour Brit Nat members think they are. Just think... they'll have to find another fig-leaf to cover their views.

We're All Nationalists Now

At last an academic says what Brit Nat Watch has been saying for ages. In a new book about Plaid Cymru, Dr Richard Wyn Jones highlighted that those who are in Labour and other British parties are as much nationalists as those in Plaid Cymru. And yes, they are British nationalists too.

Gordon Brown's public outing as a British nationalist at his party's conference was almost AA in its honesty. This is a transcript of what he said at a recent meeting in Bournemouth:

'Hello, my name is Gordon and I am a British nationalist. My party has spent the last one hundred years pretending we were 'internationalists' when in reality that was just a fig-leaf to show our contempt for the Welsh language and meaningful Welsh identity. Some of us have accommodated Welsh linguistic and constitutional aspirations within our wider British nationalism, some have not.

As a new member to Brits Nats Anonymous, I would also like to admit that Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbitt were right. I apologise for being in denial of my British nationalism but I now wish I could turn the clock back and not have a Scottish Parliament an Welsh Assembly!

I couldn't help myself, I was desperate for the votes and didn't want to sound hypocritical after attacking Margaret and Norman for so long. Please accept my apologise - I would much rather have a Tory governed UK than devolved parliaments in Scotland and Wales. My anti-Tory Jingosim was just a petulant spat from my teenage years.

'I now feel the urge to say out loud at this Brit Nat Anonymous meeting "I am a British nationalist". I tried to hide it with words like 'cosmopolitan', 'urban', 'metropolitan', 'international socialist' and 'anti-nationalist'. But now that I've been forced to confront my reality by growing Welsh, Scottish and English nationalism it all seems so much clearer.

I've been a hypocrite accusing others of nationalism but too cowardly or dishonest to admit to my own problem - isn't this a common problem with people with other Brit Nat denial problems like Neil Kinnock and our friends in France, Turkey or Spain who show a similar willingness to admit to their own Nationalist attitude whilst attacking smaller nations?'

Good, the fight is out and open. It's time Plaid Cymru, SNP and ED started referring to Labour by their true description, British nationalists. Dr Richard Wyn Jones' book should be translated into English and read by every British Nationalist to help them get over their denial and attitude.

Scots and English Nats are Talking

The SNP have gone above the heads of the Brit Nats thought police and are speaking to the English Democrats. Senior SNP MP, Angus McNeil, addressed the English Democrats annual conference last weekend.

As two nationalist parties it's not expected that they'll both agree with one another on every point - that's the whole point of nationalism. What they do agree on is the mutual respect for each other's positions and a recognition of both country's right to self-government - that's nationalism too.

Isn't it time the ED dropped their mad claim over Monmouthshire and started talking to Plaid? Isn't it time they respected the position of Mebyon Kernow, and Cornwall's right to self-government? and Isn't it time Plaid started talking to the ED - if they're right wing or not? With over 300 delegates to their 5th annual conference - twice the expected number - English nationalism is finding a voice... and there's nothing the Brit Nats and Gordon Brown can do about it.

It's time Welsh, Scottish, Cornish, Irish and English Nats started talking to one another, and realise that the enemy is British Nationalism!

Super Brit Nat

The trouble with British Nationalists like Chris Bryant and Don Touhig is their obsession with language and identity. They waste valuable time discussing these issues instead of important things like schools and hospitals.

Yes, I'm still laughing at Bryant when I think about his 'train-station announcements in Welsh' flap. I mean, he's lived in Wales a few years now and is still too stupid to understand that Caerdydd is Cardiff - for f***s sake. I was in Munich once, and was on the station all of ten minutes, enough time to work out that München was, erm, Munich.

Of course Bryant isn't stupid - he's just your common garden colonial Brit Nat.

There's two points. People who live in Wales should know some bloody Welsh - or is it just English that people need to learn Chris? And secondly, if you are a tourist, well, then you're a tourist. That means your visit to a country is transient. It's a good idea for the host country to make some effort to accommodate travellers in a language they understand (English for example - which bilingual announcements do, that's two languages Chris bach) but do tourists have the right to demote the host language? I may think Hungarian is a bloody difficult language, but when in Budapest, tough luck. Tourism isn't an excuse for colonialism.

Of course Bryant bach would point out that the majority of his constituents don't speak Welsh. Fine, when trains came to Wales the majority of the people of Wales didn't speak English either but did Bryant (or the Labour movement) complain then of 'health and safety' and of the rights of Welsh-speakers? Did they hell? All announcements were in English only and the effect was that Welsh-speakers were told that Welsh was an inferior language.

Bilingual train announcements with Welsh first go a small step towards reclaiming some status for the Welsh language and yes, it forces some people for a few seconds, to learn (or just put up with if they're stupid/arrogant) a few words of Welsh. We either have a country where one part of Wales is exclusively Welsh-speaking (the old Adfer option) or the whole country becomes truly bilingual.

Labour rejected Adfer's proposals (racists, separatist - the usual cliches) but they're yet to understand the meaning of bilingualism. Bilingualism doesn't mean two languages for Welsh-speakers, one for English-speakers, it means over a period of years all, or the majority of people in Wales, will have an understanding of both languages. Bryant has a problem with this 'cos he believes in linguistic purity - his god-given right, never, ever, to have to learn a few words of a peasant sheep-shagging language like Welsh.

Brit Nats - wouldn't it be nice, just for once, they put as much passion into promoting and safeguarding Welsh (a language that is truyly under threat) as they do into promoting and safeguarding English? But then, these Brit Nat Labour people are just cultural nationalist nutters who like waving union jack flags.

True Welsh Rugby Emblem

For some reason the WRU like the servile Three Feathers with the equally colonial 'ich dein' motto. During the forthcoming Rugby World Cup shouldn't our national rugby team be wearing a motif which is Welsh and proud to be Welsh not some Brit Welsh, can I have an OBE please badge?

I quite like this idea from the Owain Glyndwr Embassy. As the WRU like the Prince of Wales so much, why not have the flag of the true Prince of Wales - Owain Glyndwr?