The Last Days of Welshness
Embargo: 1am Tuesday 8 August
THE LAST DAYS OF WELSHNESS
An obsession by politicians, policy makers and civil servants with
what is good for Cardiff is damaging the rest of Wales. The result
will be a continuing decline in the communities across the rural heartland
where the Welsh language should be flourishing the most.
These are among the main messages contained in this year’s IWA
National Eisteddfod lecture Planning the Destruction of Communities
and their Language, to be delivered by Ron Jones, founder and Executive
Chairman of the Llanelli-based Tinopolis group of companies, at 12
noon on Tuesday 8 August, in Y Pagoda on the Eisteddfod field.
“Can a Wales based on a mistaken view of the importance of national
institutions based in Cardiff survive? Perhaps it can but will it
be recognisably Welsh? Can a language survive an unintended attack
on its status as a community language purely in the hope that it will
re-emerge as a vibrant language in Cardiff and the other naturally
English-speaking parts of Wales? Certainly not. Can communities facing
oblivion survive when we are unwilling to build an economic model
that allows them to find new roles in the modern world? Not unless
we radically change both our own attitudes and those prevailing in
the National Assembly and the Assembly Government.”
Ron Jones argues that Wales has always been a land of small towns
and separate communities: “Our geography and our local rivalries
and frankly our differences made it so. No philosophy for governing
Wales that does not recognise the needs and differences of Maesteg
and Llanelli and Bangor and Bargoed can succeed.”
FURTHER INFORMATION
Ron Jones: 01554 880880
or John Osmond, Director, IWA, 029 2066 6606 Mob: 07720 599457 johnosmond@iwa.org.uk
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