Wednesday 22 October 2008

Karl Francis: official jobs for Welsh-speakers is "neo-fascist"

You don't expect Welsh-language controversy on Radio 3, but film-maker Karl Francis, in a typically dyspeptic sound essay just now, likened the requirement to speak Welsh in many public service posts as akin to forcing Australian public servants to learn an Aboriginal language.

He has no objection to the Welsh language, he says, but he opines that the first requirement for Welsh Assembly functionaries is that they should be capable of doing the job, which most of them are not.

2 comments:

Frank Little said...

Can't find the text on the web, but there is an audio link here. Warning: this may be available only until the evening of 23rd October.

Having heard a repeat on Radio Wales this morning, followed by a lively discussion between Karl Francis and Rhun ap Iorwerth, I am more convinced that this a bleat by an artist whose own view of his talents is rather higher than that of the paying public.

I would agree that Wales as a nation is largely invisible outside the British Isles. However, this is nothing to do with English-language Welsh writers being held back. It's more to do with the difference in character between Welsh and Scottish & Irish emigrants. The Welsh tend to keep their heads down and fit in to their new homes, while the others are anything but quiet about their origins.

However, there is a gentleman in Arizona who is doing his best to raise the Welsh image abroad - Carwyn Edwards publishes a regular newsletter which has a wide circulation on the Web.

Anonymous said...

Over the past few months I have done my best to encourage Welsh Nationals to emigrate to Canada, after finding out it's relativly easy to get into.

We could make Wenglish the third language after American & French.