From WalesOnline:
Labour has pulped 5,000 copies of a Cardiff council election leaflet because it contains a resident’s comment that they “can’t apply for most jobs in Wales because you need to speak Welsh”…
A Welsh Labour spokesman said: “Following external production of a leaflet for the Ely ward in Cardiff, the local party identified a small paragraph which contained words from a local resident that clearly ran contrary to Welsh Labour’s policy position and core beliefs…
“The leaflet in question – leaked to the South Wales Echo with the claim that it was being distributed – was stolen from a storage space in Transport House while awaiting removal for destruction.
“This theft is extremely concerning. We are currently reviewing the CCTV footage.”
* Mark Pack is Party President and is the editor of Liberal Democrat Newswire.
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11 Comments
“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?
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.
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.
But to get back to the substantive, this looks like a HUGE cock-up by somebody putting a leaflet together.
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.
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!
And for this dubious benefit we hamstring the competence of government while smiling benignly on the ‘good’ we have done?
>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.
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.
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” !
it is my ‘country’ too. 🙂