Nation.Cymru Welsh politics and identity survey results

Fel Owain - faint gymerodd rhan?

I remember reading somewhere the number of people who took part. I can't think of the exact figure but I think it was around 100, give or take. The results don't surprise me. They reflect the biases of this site's commander and chief, and understandably, its main readership. What the results clearly don't reflect is the Welsh nation taken as a whole.

It would be more meaningful if we knew the sample size, but the results as presented give no clue; only one of the graphs has percentages along the x-axis, but if you assume that the x-axes of the other graphs are actual numbers of responses then they all come out different, and much less than 100. I was disappointed (though not altogether surprised) to see that 'Religion' came bottom of the poll. Even so, I don't think there is anyone who seriously disputes that the Welsh language survived into the 20th Century because, and only because, of the Welsh evangelical revivals of the 18th and 19th Centuries and the flowering of Welsh-language culture that took place largely within the nonconformist denominations (though not entirely - Griffith Jones Llanddowror remained an Anglican all his life, despite strong Methodist sympathies). Likewise, I don't think anything has undermined Welsh language and culture (not to mention the economy) to the same extent as the abandonment of biblical Christianity by the nonconformist denominations from about the fourth quarter of the nineteenth century onwards, replacing the gospel with socialism and faith with teetotalism as the mark of a faithful chapel member. It's interesting that in 'Wythnos yng Nghymru Fydd', Islwyn Ffowc Elis takes it for granted in his first vision of a positive future for Wales that another Revival has taken place and the churches and chapels are full. Even allowing for his personal biases (he was a Calvinistic Methodist minister in his day-job, after all), it seems to me that the dystopian outcome is more likely not just for Wales but for the whole of the Western world unless God himself intervenes again in the way he did in the 1730s.

Meanlingless without sample size, and as it’s not provided, it leads me to think that it’s not big enough to warrant this article being taken seriously.

If you read the whole article you'd know how many took part. Copied from above article - 'The survey was filled in by 956 Nation.Cymru readers, and the full results can be seen below etc etc.'

Diddorol! Ah, but yes, we readers and 'contributors' to Nation.Cymru are hardly typical. The results of the poll show what we as intellectuals of various sorts are interested in. These are the ideas that are swirling about and, i hope will shape the New Cymru. Esgob Morgan's translation of the bible was responsible for supporting our nation and our language, certainly not capel. In the 19century and especially the first half of the 20th century, our nation was supported by two pillars: Capel, and Marxist-Leninism. Capel has been shown to be the fraud it was (and whilst not a christian, thank eos-pengwern for their analysis). For us to get us out of the deep hole we are in, we now have to debunk the intelliectual bollocks that is Marxism-lenism and its weird outgrowth the welsh labor partei Marx and his merry madmen and capel massively failed us, and may yet lead us to national ruin. Disparate bunch as we are, we are all broadly agreed on main themes; but perhaps that is to be expected Ifan: perhaps more revealing would be a survey of our personal socio-economic backgrounds , and our preferred means of sorting out growing inequality. I might dislike labor party, but Corbyn has tapped into something i experience everyday.

Perhaps the biggest lesson is how different Welsh nationalist opinion is to Welsh public opinion. Support for independence and Remaining in the EU is far higher amongst the website's readership than it is amongst Welsh voters. That isn't a surprise, but explains alot. I'm struck by how much pro-Remain sentiment there is amongst those surveyed, compared to people who leave comments on Nation.Cymru articles.

I suppose surveys and quizzes are always a bit of fun and worth doing from time to time to increase engagement by readers who can't be arsed to comment or can't string two words together. Yes I did it - too many questions! The comments on the original article showed up the various flaws in this particular one. The results are usually fairly predictable. I look forward to the next one.

`Working´- class, worked from 15 to 63 yrs, in wales, england, then scandia. Gradually moved from trotsky to centre-right. Don't accept that there are typical citizens anymore, and this goes for Nat. Cym. folk. Results reflect my opinions in gen. Supported Brexit, now regret it, and would be surprised if other's opinions had not changed. Of course, not living in Wales I view things from another position. Would like to see articles from architects, engineers, artists, please. Let's Go!

"I’m struck by how much pro-Remain sentiment there is amongst those surveyed, compared to people who leave comments on Nation.Cymru articles." Goes to show you can't set too much store by the comments.