This poster can be found in the corridor leading to the cafeteria at Bronglais hospital, Aberystwyth. Or at least, it was there this afternoon. It seemed worthy of a wider audience.
My initial thought on reading this poster was, ‘What insulting bollocks, treating us as if we’re a primitive and exotic species to be discussed at a ‘fully residential course”. After thinking about it for a few hours, I’m even more pissed off with those organising this course.
The organisers are the Workers Educational Association, a Labour Party front organisation, so nothing to be surprised at there. But what does surprise me is the source of the funding.
I have complained in many posts about the Labour Party diverting EU funding to the Third Sector, but Labour sources have always denied that party connections helped gain the funding. Or, as in the case of Naz Malik and Awema, that Labour Party membership protected wrong-doers when the funding was mis-used. What’s different here is that we have an organisation that is unquestionably linked to the Labour Party receiving EU funding.
I don’t doubt that the funding was given for ‘educational’ purposes, but to improve the skills of Welsh people so that they might get better jobs . . . or just jobs. The EU certainly didn’t hand over this money to fund a course for the titilation of those who have come to Wales to take jobs from Welsh people!! Then, again, squandering the funding, and allowing Welsh jobs to be stolen, guarantees that we’ll qualify for more funding.
Though maybe we’re all missing the point. Perhaps this funding from the EU is primarily for the use of the Labour Party, its members and hangers-on. Because that’s obviously what Labour believes.
I blame US (not the ones on here but our nation). It’s a trait associated with a lack of confidence. It stems from the “victor/ vanquished” syndrome. We should be teaching our children to remove these shackles. My generation (50s born) are better than the previous generation but we haven’t really kicked on from there. In fact it seems we are now slipping back into our shells – especially when I see how this latest generation of yongsters are ashamed of their Welshness, preferring to ape the Anglo-American culture in order to be “cool” & accepted by the children of the English immigrants.
@ A Turk,
They’ve been in the area for years. They know enough about the Welsh. It’s just that they (him in particular) that as being ‘part of England’, we need to put aside the Welsh nonsense.
David.
Reading about your recent experience of an insensitive English landlord reminded me of a similar occurrence about 16 years ago, this too was in West Wales but with a slightly different outcome.
I was sat at the bar late one night when a local ladies darts team suddenly burst through the door (a very frightening sight) looking for a late tipple. The new cockney landlord served them without hesitation, it would have taken a brave man to refuse them, and everything seemed well. Twenty minutes must have passed before the landlord suddenly realised that the ladies were talking mostly in Welsh, everybody was stunned into silence when he ordered that there was to be no Welsh spoken in his pub stating it was ignorant. He then closed the bar and ordered everybody out.
A few evenings later the windows of his pub were smashed and he lost the support of the locals, not long after he moved away. I’m not advocating violence or destruction to win an argument or make a point, in his case; it was the loss of local support that was the final straw.
I suppose my point is that you don’t need to be a law breaker or a hero in order to defend your culture & community.
I do agree with El T to a degree but we don’t all lack self respect. I was in a west Wales pub two nights ago. There is a juke box in there. The landlord and his misses are English. Anyway, somebody put on Bryn Terfel’s ‘Myfanwy’. Landlord was not happy and said ‘Who put this shit on?” There were two guys at the bar who had put the songs on. One of them apologized to the Landlord. I Couldn’t believe it. But the other one is made of sterner stuff and stood up to the boss saying that he had paid for the song and it was his right to listen to it etc He was fuming. The Landlord backed down. I wanted to put on some more Welsh music but the guys with me who drink there often wouldn’t allow it. I was told afterwards that he’s quite well known for being anti-Welsh and many locals won’t drink in there. How often does this happen here? I know of a number of occasions that these kinds of things have happened in my small town over the years. Maybe too many of us are weaklings after all………..?
Seem like an ideal couple for the WEA course. I volunteer to run the pub in their absence if the locals assist Mr & Mrs Landlord to the venue and make sure that they stay for the duration.
Don’t blame me if someone nicks the jukebox.
The museumification of the Welsh continues. It seems that our only purpose is to provide a bit of ‘local colour’ for English oddballs.
In Wales we are obsessed with being “nice guys”. We have no backbone, we are like an insular weedy kid with a sense of entitlement. The English repect the Scots and Irish for being forthright and sticking up for themselves. Within a few months of living in Cardiff/England many Welsh people seem to adopt English accents, mannerisms and opinions… complete arselickers. As a nation, we lack self-respect. I love and worry for the Welsh nation but I’m not proud of it at all.
If you want to see how others view us, take a look at the thread on this forum.
http://www.politics.ie/forum/united-kingdom/209242-relative-failure-plaid-cymru.html
Wholeheartedly agree with you brawd!
From the WEA link: The Workers’ Educational Association (WEA), South Wales. Community learning in Wales since 1907
A Federation of Educational and Workers’ Organisations, Unsectarian and Non-Party in Politics
The Workers’ Educational Association South Wales is a charity registered in England and Wales (number 1071234) and a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (number 3109524)
Are you seriously suggesting that the EU should fund projects and learning courses that will discriminate against people from outside of Wales?
I noticed that, too: “Unsectarian and Non-Party in Politics”. Yet even Llew concedes that the WEA is a Labour Party organisation. Makes you wonder how the Charity Commission lets that pass.
As for “courses that will discriminate against people from outside of Wales”, I’m saying that the funding was not given for trivial and pointless exercises like this. The funding was given because Wales is poor and raising skills levels of Welsh workers is one perceived way of improving things.
Knowing something of the funding racket, this scheme has the look and feel of a, ‘Come on people, for God’s sake think of something . . . anything! . . . otherwise we’ll have to give the money back’.
I guess this is where I part ways with this blog. WEA is a great organisation. It’s a “labour front” in the same way the unions are because it comes from organised labour. I’m not sure I see a problem with that course. Anything that lifts national consciousness is to be welcomed. What we need is the labour (small “l”) organisations to be won over to nationalism.
That’s your choice entirely. But this EU funding was given to improve the skills levels of Welsh workers, or the Welsh unemployed. I doubt very much if the EU intended it to be spent on a trivialising exercise like this. And would an organisation not so closely linked to Labour have received funding for this course?
As for “national consciousness”, this would be fine if this was a course preparing immigrants for their Welsh citizenship test. It’s not. It’s just helping those who are taking Welsh jobs feel less like outsiders. We could save a lot of money – and spend EU funding in the ways it’s supposed to be spent – if we insisted on fewer jobs going to outsiders.
“100 things you may not know about Wales and the Welsh” …sounds genuinely intruging! would love to know what these 100 things are? looks like you will have to enrol jac so that you can share the said ‘100 things’ with us……