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Jo Stevens accused of 'dinosaur-like attitude' towards Welsh

By Mark Mansfield
Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens. Photo Peter Byrne/PA Wire

Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens was accused of having a ‘dinosaur-like attitude’ towards the Welsh language, as the issue was raised twice during First Minister’s Questions.

Plaid Cymru MS Cefin Campbell made the comments as he criticised Ms Stevens’ decision not to use Welsh in her role as MP for Cardiff East, describing it as a sign of “an incredible lack of respect” for the language.

Mr Campbell asked First Minister Eluned Morgan what discussions she had held with the Secretary of State for Wales to “convince her of the importance of our national language in public life”.
He told the chamber that attitudes such as those he attributed to Ms Stevens were ones he believed “had long since disappeared from Wales”.

The comments follow earlier scrutiny of the Welsh Secretary’s approach to the language, which has drawn criticism from Welsh language campaigners and Plaid Cymru politicians who argue that senior public figures in Wales should actively support and use Welsh wherever possible.

Eluned Morgan emphasised the official status of the Welsh language and reaffirmed her commitment to its promotion across public life.

“Welsh is an official language in Wales and it’s good for people to be able to use the Welsh language with public bodies and with elected members,” she said.

The First Minister also highlighted recent efforts to promote Welsh on an international stage, including during a summit of the British-Irish Council.

“I’m someone who is very eager to ensure that the language is promoted at every opportunity,” she said. “That’s why, in the summit in the British-Irish Council recently, the Welsh language was a central feature.”

She said delegates from across the UK were welcomed in Welsh by the Archbishop of Wales, describing it as the first time many had heard the language spoken.

“It really made an impact on the people who were there,” she added.

Engagement

The First Minister also highlighted growing engagement with the language within Wales, noting increased participation in Welsh learning programmes.

“As you know, I always want to encourage people to use the Welsh language, and I’m pleased to see that more people than ever are learning Welsh through the National Centre for Learning Welsh,” she said.

Earlier in the session, Independent MS Rhys ab Owen referred to an exchange of emails between Jo Stevens and a constituent, reported earlier this month by BBC Cymru Fyw.

In the correspondence, constituent James Lewis questioned why Ms Stevens’ leaflets and social media output were English-only, particularly given her role as Secretary of State for Wales and the presence of Welsh-medium schools in her Cardiff East constituency. He suggested the Labour Party could assist with translation.

In her reply, Ms Stevens said she recognised the historical and cultural importance of Welsh but argued that English was the working language of the UK Parliament and spoken by almost all of her constituents. She added that there is no statutory requirement for MPs to provide bilingual communications.

Mr ab Owen rejected that response, telling the First Minister that Welsh in Cardiff was “far more than just one of a number of languages” and that arguments based on universal English-language understanding “belong in the past”. He urged Ms Morgan to encourage Ms Stevens to adopt bilingual correspondence as a New Year’s resolution, reflecting the equal status of Welsh and English in the capital.

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14 comments

Gwyn Hopkins

Jo Stevens consistently and disgracefully behaves like an English colonist towards Wales and this attitude is clearly shown in her deplorable refusal to offer the Welsh-speakers in her ward the common courtesy and respect of corresponding with them in their native toungue, if that is their wish. Only the imperial language matters to her - only English counts.

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Amir

It is fairly clear she is a rather useless Welsh secretary.

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Tanwg

This lady is an embarrassment to Cymru, her attitude towards our country is despicable. The whole point of the post of the secretary of State for Wales is to be Cymru's representative in Westminster, not Westminster's representative in Wales, pushing English colonialist policies on Cymru. Her loyalties lie with the English labour party, not Wales.

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Crwtyddol

Attitude. You can tell an awful lot from attitude. She has put herself in the same camp as Reform. Witness the recent Reform postel drop, not a word of Welsh. They are tarred by the same brush. It is considered irrelevan, spurious and unnecessary in day to day life. In a word: ignorance. A total failure to understand the thought process of modern Welsh society. It is they who are noa irrelevant.

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CF23

It says a lot that a politician in her position has such a hatred for our national language that she can't even hide it. Wales has moved on, but she clearly hasn't - dinosaur is a very apt description. Her attitude to the language belongs in the distant past, as does her job - why do we still have a "secretary of state for Wales"? We have our own government now, we need Devo Max urgently, most matters should be decided here in Wales, and Westminster should stop meddling in other countries' affairs.

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John Ellis

I doubt that it's actually hatred; rather that in the borderland part of Wales from which she hails, the language, if it's considered at all, is perceived as fringe and peripheral. With the consequence that it's not been any significant part of her formation as a politician.

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John Ellis

I watched a podcast a week or two back in which Lee Waters, Labour MS for Llanelli, described Jo Stevens as the most anti-devolution Westminster Welsh secretary since the late George Thomas. He wondered whether the reason for that was that she'd grown up in the far eastern part of Flintshire very close to the English border, where any sense of Welshness is pretty superficial, and possibly wholly minimal. I suspect that might well be the case.

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Valley Girl

If the Secretary of State for Wales cannot speak the official language of Wales, she should not hold the post—or should immediately begin learning it.

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Rhian Hewitt-Davies

Hello, I think we have a growing general problem on this island of worshipping dumbed-downess? The Cymry are an enormously clever people, as are the Irish and Scots. But in recent years - with globalisation perhaps - things have tended towards the bland, away from the vernacular. And caring for hearts and souls seems to have ceased to be important - people don't seem to put faith in others as they did? And respect for language has dropped generally - even for Imperial English in England! People have been devalued. And we seem to have turned into shoppers and watchers and listeners of media - and don't do alot? Have our values slipped? I believe when folk use their brains again - learn trades and crafts - then respect for both English and the Celtic languages will return. It seems ironic talking about Language as the subject - using it! There's one for the Philosophers! I can't say this in Cymraeg, I'm not fluent enough. But I think some of the Cymry might understand me here, reading what they call 'the dialect English'. Cymraeg is a pure language but English is a mixture of various conquerors' influence, Latin,German, Nordic and French.

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Padi Phillips

While I agree with most of what you say, to a certain extent one could say "'Twas ever thus" as Cymraeg was hardly the popular choice when I was a teenager in Cardigan County School in 1970. Many students spoke Cymraeg and were from families where the language had been spoken from the year Dot, but Cymraeg was hardly 'cool'. As for language 'purity', that is just nonsense. A language that does not absorb and adapt from other languages is dead. Cymraeg is as 'mongrel' as the 'iaith fain' you seem to devalue. The root of our word awgrymu is actually Middle English, and there will be hundreds, if not thousands of words in Cymraeg derived from other languages. Indeed, our words for things like church, plough, cheese, bridge and window (as well as many others) are Latin loan words. Far from being a weakness, a language's ability to adopt and adapt words from other languages is a sign of health and vitality, with some exceptions where, it would seem to me, laziness and sloppiness have been allowed full reign. One bugbear of mine is the is the ugly 'ffederasiwn' - what is so wrong with cynghrair? I am of the opinion that, wherever possible, words for new things should come from within the langage, if at all possible, but when it's not, then adopting and adapting from other languages is fine. Many of us use 'plîs' in place of the formal but very cumbersome 'os gwelwch yn dda', though I feel that the hideous such as dreifio or even worse cwcio are a step too far!

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Maesglas

I can’t think of a Welsh Secretary who has been less committed to Wales. What on earth is she doing in this job. She is clearly against devolving any Welsh powers and she doesn’t even seem to out there attempting to bring inward investment. She didn’t even attend the recent Investment summit held in Newport. Yet, the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves attended! That says it all.

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Greg

The failure to devolve APD, a zero cost measure with no negatives for Whitehall since UKIMA, is the dead canary in the coal mine for London Labour.

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Maesglas

But she’s not even out there helping the economy of Wales. As I said in an earlier comment, she couldn’t even be bothered to attend the Investment Summit in Newport even though the Chancellor Reeves did. And even the talk of a Small Reactor in Anglesey is just that: talk. Her heart is clearly not in this job and Wales deserves better.

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Dai

100% English colonialist. Shame on the Cardiff residents who voted for her.

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I watched a podcast a week or two back in which Lee Waters, Labour MS for Llanelli, described Jo Stevens as the most anti-devolution Westminster Welsh secretary since the late George Thomas. He wondered whether the reason for that was th...

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