11 Comments

• Simon Shaw 15th Apr '12 - 9:08am

  “Following external production of a leaflet for the Ely ward in Cardiff ….”

  What on earth does that marvellous double-speak mean?

  Would having it printed by a printing comapany count as “external production”? If so, are the Labour Party suggesting that the printing company changed the wording?

  I assume the leaflet says that it was Published and Promoted by the Labour Party agent. Is the agent saying that, in fact,he/she didn’t do that. Wouldn’t that be a criminal offence?

• jedibeeftrix 15th Apr '12 - 12:31pm

  does highlight the rank idiocy that is langauge policy for public sector jobs in wales whereby well qualified non-welsh speakers are shuttered out from jobs in favour of the lumpen tafia.

• crewegwyn 15th Apr '12 - 12:53pm

  jedibeeftrix

  er, isn’t it a good idea for public sector officials to be able to communicate with local residents in their own language?

  Just a thought.

• crewegwyn 15th Apr '12 - 12:54pm

  But to get back to the substantive, this looks like a HUGE cock-up by somebody putting a leaflet together.

• jedibeeftrix 15th Apr '12 - 1:24pm

  there are about fifteen people in wales who can speak welsh but not english.

  there are however probably a million people who can speak english but not welsh.

  so, no, the policy is rank idiocy.

• Tim13 15th Apr '12 - 2:39pm

  jedibeeftrix – you seem to neglect why such a policy is there in the first place! Before positive attempts were made 40 – 50 years ago, Welsh was dying on its feet. Many minority languages have become extinct because local majority languages have taken over!

• Jedibeeftrix 15th Apr '12 - 5:48pm

  And for this dubious benefit we hamstring the competence of government while smiling benignly on the ‘good’ we have done?

• cassie 15th Apr '12 - 10:19pm

  >which contained words from a local resident that clearly ran contrary to Welsh Labour’s policy position and core beliefs…

  Which is that it is fine for employers to discriminate against non-Welsh speakers??

  >er, isn’t it a good idea for public sector officials to be able to communicate with local residents in their own language?

  Cardiff City Council website: “Languages spoken by pupils at Cardiff schools include Punjabi, Urdu, Bengali, Somali, Arabic, Hindi, Cantonese, Farsi, Pushtu and Gujerati.”
  Around 94 languages spoken in Cardiff, according to a ‘why work here?” job site. WIth Welsh spoken by 11% of Cardiffians. Most of whom have learned it as a second language in school or night school.

  And this leaflet was in Ely. Unemployment rate double that of the city average and half the population with no qualifications. Suffering, like much of South Wales, from the loss of heavy industries which traditionally employed thousands of manual workers.
  Saving the Welsh language not top of most locals’ priority lists.

• crewegwyn 16th Apr '12 - 8:15pm

  Fifteen people in Wales who speak Welsh but not English?

  Possibly.

  But I’ve probably got fifteen people in my family who speak Welsh better than they speak English.

  So why should they be disadvantaged.

  In their own country.

• crewegwyn 16th Apr '12 - 8:57pm

  Just checked the Cardiff City Council website for evidence of this bias against non-Welsh speakers.

  Checked the first 20 jobs which came up.

  Eighteen had no language reference whatever (other than saying that applications could be made in either language)

  Two stated that a knowledge of “basic Welsh” would be an “advantage”. Both were in website work.

  Hardly “you can’t apply for most jobs … because you have to speak Welsh” !

• jedibeeftrix 16th Apr '12 - 9:09pm

  it is my ‘country’ too.