That about sums up ‘Welsh’ tourism and it’s getting worse by the year. Visit Wales is promoting ‘adventure’ holidays but this sector employs almost zero Welsh people – and the ‘Welsh’ Government has no plans to provide training! ‘Welsh’ tourism is about our country being used by one bunch of English people to take money off even more English people. Welsh participation in ‘Welsh’ tourism is restricted to increasingly angry locals watching from the sidelines as their homeland is used in a manner that can only be described as colonialist.

Devil’s Bridge, May 2015: Now a student in Aberystwyth (from London) and my cousin and his German Wife are visiting me at Uni. We go on the Rheidol Valley railway line to Devil’s Bridge. At the ticket kiosk for the attraction, I practice my Welsh by saying Diolch yn Fawr. In the thickest cockney accent, he says ‘What did you call me?’ My cousing cracks up for about 5 minutes and his german wife tells me about how when she was in a restaurant in Berlin and tried to speak German, the waitress turned out to be English and spoke not a word.

Blaenau Ffestiniog, Easter 2015: Visited the tourism complex that includes the bounce below, the zip wires and the tour of the mines, which I believe has been developed due to public sector funding. I, 19 at the time, despite being English, had already become intensely interested in the Welsh Language, and had read Cymuned’s report on colonisation, although my mum and the family friend (who is an incomer who lives outside Bangor) are only half aware of my interest in the language. Naturally, I was very interested to see whether the staff were local and welsh speaking or whether they were all incomers. Findings: The tour-guide who took us underground was (by his accent) a Geordie. The Catering staff did seem to be local, as did the slate processing staff at the workshop. Receptionists/Desk advisors: Unsure. The zip-wire staff all seemed to be from Birmingham.

Pray tell, what is the benefit to the Welsh of seeing tourists from ‘all over the world’ when we see so little of the money spent by those tourists? Tourism in Wales is a colonialist activity.

“How very dare you critiscise (sic) anyone regardless of nationality or geographic location of getting off their arse and having a go. How dare you belittle the visitor figures of the farm you visited, that is some bodies livelihood and probably a meagre one but one they believe in. How dare you insinuate that they are part of some corrupt English sub culture raping the grant system.”

Who the fuck are you to criticise me for commenting on things taking place in MY country? Now fuck off before you spoil my spirit of Yuletide bonhomie.

If the reporting was inaccurate then take it up with whoever did the reporting. I merely reported what had been given in the press. Personally, I believe the press reports were accurate, but you can’t admit that. Your wife’s conviction for racist behaviour is the only reason I mentioned her. Anything else is peripheral.

Welsh Dragon Tours, as a responsible tour operation, is fully aware of the current regulation of the delivery of tourism services and the culture and policies of the National Tourism Authority, and those in the regions. WDT has been operating since 2005, as you will see at our website. Any changes in legislation that enhance the overall experience for visitors to Wales and raises greater interest in the country and enthusiasm to visit, is welcomed. As all businesses in our sector should be, we are already fully aware of all the points made in your submission. However, the overall ‘log’ of defamatory, inaccurate, speculative, and potentially libelous comments posted on this site regarding Welsh Dragon Tours has an impact on those who work for us and with us, and are not appreciated to say the least. The originator of this site has referred to our response to comments posted regarding the conduct of our business as “distractions”. The response from our business has been to challenge the legitimacy of criticism of Welsh Dragon Tours as a business operation, and with restraint, has made no attempt to distract attention from any other issues. On the subject of other issues that have been raised on this forum, it would seem that comments are based on nothing more than an essentially inaccurate press report (regarding the framework of events giving rise to the proceedings) and a verbatim account of the verdict, which has served to fuel an ongoing agenda of discontent for Mr Jones and a number of subscribers, that, at least, hovers on the periphery of legality. We trust that this makes the position of WDT clear. Thank you for your attention.

In my place of work, we had a young (English) lad come in from Bangor university to do a bit of work experience with us. Nice lad and bloody good at what he did, he was due to come back to us yesterday but unfortunately something happened at home and he has had to drop this year and return. My boss had committed Emlyn (the lad) to do some work for his customers and is in a bit of a panic to find a replacement. So I was asked to place some adverts to find the replacement which I have done.

Now this is where it gets interesting. A HR person walks into my office just after this with a young local Cofi lad who works on the shop floor in our factory. He tells me that this lad works a 4 day week for us because he goes to college on day release to learn a similar skill to what we are looking for. So I show him what is needed immediately and he confirms he could do the job; he also tells me that his farther does the same job professionally and would be able to support him technically. So I’m thinking to myself this is ideal and ask the HR guy to go and tell the boss. So he does……. The response was “Stop right there, what course is he on? I think we can find a pole to do the job” Which no doubt means there’s someone’s uncle on a plane from Poland as we speak with no idea what he’s going to be doing and will have to be put on a course to learn how to do it. Sickening!

I think this would be a brilliant idea. My mother is quite old now and has dementia, we are trying to keep her at home with us but it would be handy if we could get some free daytime care when she needs it.

But you are right though, it will attract a whole range of free loaders. A nice sentiment but it’s actually quite alarming when you think of the consequences. Even rolling it out in Scotland and England while reducing the load on us would still attract all and sundry from the EU and beyond. I think the reality is that if Plaid need to gain a majority hand in the Senedd to pass this then there is no chance this will come to pass unless they pull their socks up but with policies like that being aired?

OK with me.

Private hire insurance and an MOT doesn’t mean professional tour guide. Surely, a responsible tour guide operator would welcome the suggestion of a statutory registration process and, if as you say, Welsh Dragon Tours is a responsible tour operator you would jump at the chance of public registration and scrutiny. You are no doubt aware that many of the international travel bureaus’ crave the security of purchasing tailored product from a regulated environment. Indeed, many of them only contract via a professional membership body with accredited guides. A person convicted of a racially aggravated criminal offence would not qualify. A ‘badge’ scheme with statutory remit would certainly boost the international visitor footprint to Wales, and exclude any rouges. Unfortunately, Visit Wales concentrates on domestic low-spend visitors. With this in mind, I have decided to forward my suggestion to my AM, and she has already made note your responses and comments so far on this blog. It will no doubt assist as evidence for formulating policy. I beg the indulgence of Jac to allow further comments from the Lairds as it may allow them an opportunity to express their ‘unreserved apology’ and for this ‘isolated incident’, comments which were absent in the courtroom in Caernarfon, and so far on these blog comments.