We’re all aware now of the Bilingo website, with its allegations of children in Ceredigion schools being denied access to the toilet because they didn’t ask in Welsh, and parents being told not to read in English to their children at bed-time. Though, job done, these bizarre and anonymous allegations soon disappeared from the website. By ‘job done’ I mean that these allegations were taken up and relayed by two major English newspapers, the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph. (It should go without saying that our very own Wasting Mule also ran the story.)

Unfortunately, ‘Bilingo’ is no isolated example of attempts to portray Welsh people as bigots and racists. This year we have seen an increasing number of such incidents, currently rising to a crescendo. But ‘Bilingo’ took it up to a whole new level due to the media coverage it generated. So why should an obscure website dealing with the education policy of a rural Welsh council be of interest to major London newspapers? The truth is, it’s of no interest to them; so I’ll explain why I believe the Mail and the Telegraph ran these stories.

I believe this ‘story’ appeared in these newspapers because MI5, the agency responsible for the UK’s internal security, asked them to run it. It was part of the quid pro quo arrangement between MI5 and certain media outlets that run stories at the agency’s behest. In return, ‘friendly’ newspapers get scoops and other favourable treatment. So my message to people reading this is: Stop wasting your time trying to unmask or identify ‘Bilingo’ because I strongly suspect it to be a creation of MI5. An exercise in black propaganda. The website was set up purely to justify, or to serve as the ‘source’ for, the the anti-Welsh fantasies MI5 wanted printed in the ‘papers.

One reason I suspect MI5’s involvement is the timing of ‘Bilingo’s appearance, roughly a month before the release of the damning Census 2011 information on December 11th. ‘Bilingo’ targeting Ceredigion also makes perfect sense. Because it is predicted that the figures for Ceredigion will show that for the first time ever in that area only a minority of the population now speaks the indigenous language. The figures may even show that the area now has an English-born majority.

The figures for Ceredigion, when added to those from other parts of the country, will so anger / alarm / frighten / incense Welsh people – even those who would not today regard themselves as ‘nationalists’ – that there will be an outpouring of concern, followed by demands that ‘something be done’. In response, the English media, plus its outlets in Wales, will dismiss these concerns as the voice of ‘Welsh racism’ – using ‘Bilingo’, the Labour Party – Third Sector RCC ‘Report’, horrific goings-on at Cilmeri (thankfully unearthed by the Labour Party), ‘complaints’ about the Young Farmers’ Eisteddfod, the Penrhyndeudraeth gunman case (meek English tavern-keeper forced to produce gun from fear of being lynched by ‘racist’ Welsh locals) and other scrupulously interpreted (or manufactured, as the case may be) ‘evidence’.

As if we need to remind ourselves, treatment of alleged racism in Wales varies greatly. For media and politicians seem interested only in exposing what they consider to be examples of Welsh racist behaviour. Consider some other cases. In Tywyn, south Gwynedd, last year, a group broke flagpoles on the promenade to get at the Welsh flags flying from them. More recently, some bloke from Swansea, after a few drinks, sang a rugby song on a bus.

Despite there being witnesses and even though the culprits in Tywyn were all identified, the English legal system (and that includes our Welsh police forces) decided not to prosecute. The drunken Jack was of course prosecuted and convicted of a ‘hate’ crime. In one case there was a considerable amount of damage done to property, and a nation insulted; in the other case there was no damage to property, no assault or injury. Does that make sense? Well, yes, it does; but only if you have an agenda needing ‘evidence’.

‘Bilingo’ is a pre-emptive strike; or – if you still have the stomach to view it in rugby terms – it is the UK State ‘getting its retaliation in first’. For the Census figures will make it clear to many people (not just ‘Welsh nationalists’) that Wales is being deliberately and systematically colonised. To deflect criticism of that policy, and to frighten off opposition, the following message will be promoted: ‘The Welsh are a nasty, racist lot – just check the court records, newspaper reports, ‘academic’ research – so don’t waste your sympathy on them, even if they are being made into strangers in their own country‘.

My message is, when the Census figures are released, let off a little steam if it helps; but remember, this is an ongoing and multi-faceted struggle we’re involved in. We need to organise ourselves, and use the Census information to present our case . . . not to politicians of course, and certainly not to the media, but to our people. Explain what is happening, and why; win over enough of our people; convince them to oppose England’s colonisation strategy, and no power on earth can stand in our way.

Let’s get organised and, for a change, think with our heads rather than with our hearts.

UPDATE 26.11.12: Incredibly, just a few hours after I posted the above piece the Daily Mail was printing another anti-Welsh article by Roger Lewis. The drift of Lewis’ attitude towards his subject, and the self-restraint we have come to associate with his writing, were both presaged perfectly in the title of this offering – Tyranny of the Welsh Taliban.

I leave it to you to read and form your own conclusions. My only comment is this. Lewis’ work read like something hastily cobbled together from ‘ingredients’ he’d collected earlier and stored away for future use. Either that, or someone had presented him with the ‘ingedients’ and the instruction to cook something up, and quickly.

Whatever the truth, Lewis’ piece, and the behaviour of the Daily Mail, only strengthens the suspicion I express in my original post.