Scrapping Severn Tolls to bring ‘mass influx’ of commuters into Wales

We'll be outnumbered by immigrants very soon at this rate.

Exactly. I would have thought that the average insular "We want a separate nation" luddites would fear this move as they want to preserve their precious country and language, not dilute it with those awful English people.

We're all immigrants, Mr Young, it's only the length of our tenure that identifies us.

I'm not sure if it will to be honest. Many won't want to put up with the Welsh health and education system. I know of one family who work in Cardiff but live in the Forest of Dean as they don't want Welsh schooling. It will also mean that the thousands of Welsh people who've moved to the Bristol area to work can come home. It's one of the reasons why Ysgol Gymraeg y Ffin in Caldicot was opened.

More harmful English immigration into Wales. It's the issue no-one wants to talk about. It's alright to talk about limiting immigration to England and 'integrating' by learning English but as soon as you make the exact same case for Wales, you're somehow an anti-English bigot. Go figure.

Yesterday the Western Daily Press [sister newspaper to the Western Mail], based in Bristol, produced a supplement in collaboration with Great Western Railway, '100 Great Westerners' - 'Celebrating the people who make our region great'. Ostensibly this was to mark 'GWR's upgrade to the line and its rolling stock'. Mike Norton, Trinity Mirror's Editor-in-Chief for Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Dorset went on to say that the '100 great Westerners' were 'chosen by our readers' and 'all have made a significant contribution to the West Country'. He continued 'In this special supplement.....we take a look at the lives - and fascinating stories - of the people who have made the South West a region to be proud of'. While 'Your 100 Great Westerners' are listed in the centre of the supplement, less than half are featured by biographical information and photographs. The first four of these are Tom Jones, Tanni Grey-Thompson, Megan Lloyd George [the northern-most point of the GWR network is Worcester] and Bonnie Tyler. Dylan Thomas appears a little later. Others include Banksy, JK Rowling, Brunel, Agatha Christie, Michael Eavis, James Dyson, Terry Pratchett, Richard Trevithick, Diana Dors, WG Grace and Thomas Hardy. Those amongst the 100 but not specifically featured for their significant contribution to the West Country and for making the South West a region to be proud of include Gareth Edwards, Shane Williams and Hedd Wyn.

There's nothing wrong with people from one nation/culture/ethnicity etc to another. They usually enrich the area they move to and their effect are possitive. But this article talks of a 'mass influx' of people from an economically/culturally dominant nation to a much smaller neighbouring one. It is of course a wet dream for those of a Brit nationalist mind-set such as Alun Cairns and the commenter Brian ap Francis above. If causing local house prices to move out of the reach of locals is good, along with further cultural and possibly political effects, then this is to be applauded. Otherwise, it's a further nail in the coffin of Welsh identity and nationhood.

Nothing new there then. I think we have all know this for a very long time, well some of us. Purely and simple ethnic cleansing!

117 years after Hardie won Merthyr. We still don't have a conservative Welsh-centred voice who will openly fight against such things.

There is the genuine risk to the Welsh property rental market. Hinkley point is earmarked for 5.000 temporary jobs but only 500 homes have been built. It is conceivable that many will car share and take advantage of cheaper lettings in Wales either saturating the market or forcing prices up or both. There is already a shortage of cheap affordable housing this will only increase the problem.

EVERYONE AVOIDS THE BIGGER QUESTION................just smearing everyone as "nasty purist fascists"............the bigger question is....WHO IS MAKING MONEY FROM ALL THIS DEVELOPMENTS.................it certainly isn't us or the communities around us. The same people applauding a UK immigrations system.....call others fascists for discussing immigration effects on Wales..........YOU CAN NOT MAKE THIS UP.....sheer hypocrisy rife in Britain today

"Scrapping Severn Tolls" - who believes that this will happen? CBI Wales campaigned for a cut. London makes a cut, throwing a bone to its base supporters. Was there a rational basis for this cut? The trouble with the Welsh economy is not the Severn Tolls, its the East Germany proportion of the economy which is State owned or funded. Or to put it the other way round, the lack of a vigorous private sector. Now that Wales is going to "own" the bridge, watch the Welsh Government act canny. They will keep the tolls, they need the money. And they don't have so many sources of money that they can throw this one away.

Perhaps more programs like valley cops should be made to put potential incommers off. Merthyr again portrayed as a town of in-breed mutant piglets on drugs.although i dont suppose many bristolians would venture that far north of the m4 corridor, those who are brave enough would be welcomed.

Garmon and John Young make the essential points here. It never ceases to surprise how much naive rejoicing there is about any improvements in facility of communication, as if this were always a benefit. These things always have to be considered in the setting of 'Who - Whom', as Marx put it - in other words, who is subject and who(m) object, or who wields power and who suffers it. No prizes for guessing who is who in this context. The remarks quored by Alun Cairns, Secretary of State 'for' Wales and MP for Bristol North-North West give the game away.

This isnt ment to be racist. Juat observational. There has been an increase in colour diversity in cwmbran and other parts of the Vallies. I dont k ow if it is from Newport and Cardiff or Bristol. But there has been. The problem with Wales is we havent got trade coming from else where. Like a brisge connecting Wales to Island. It would be a boon for the west Wales aeea that would prosper the Welsh and the Language there due to money influx and prospects Time to start getting rid of out one way into england roads! And make a new one Also starti g the lagoons to benefit Wales. Then making Aberystwyth a Electric only city. I would bring investment

I'm really sorry to hear Claire's analysis, this site is not xenophobic, it is not anti English, the comments are just that comments, from people like me with too much time on their hands, don't make the mistake of equating the comments with the site, and before judging these comments I suggest you look at the comments section on any article regarding Welsh culture, language or politics on any British media / newspaper site, then you will see xenophobia for real. Well done on learning Welsh, but if you don't believe that there is a difference between English and Welsh culture why bother? You seem to contradict yourself by saying there is no difference yet you sound wounded by comments suggesting that you will never be accepted (which is clearly not true, some of the best Welsh people are born elsewhere). You are equally guilty of generalisation here, as the commentators you judge as xenophobic. It is good to hear your perspective though, and you may not feel it but the stats speak for themselves if it was such a terrible xenophobic place to move then 20% of the population would not have moved here.

May I add to my previous submission, written in some haste, about Alun Cairns and his Greater Severnside notions? That these notions are anathema has nothing to do with anti-English sentiment, it is simply - and obviously - the case that such a model turns turns Cardiff, and S-E Wales in general, away from any engagement with the rest of Wales. If Mr Cairns' vision were achieved it would merely complete the picture of a tripartite Wales, the north dominated by Chester/Merseyside, the middle by Birmingham and the south by Bristol. So far the principal benefit of devolution has been to cymricise Cardiff and build links - many of them personal - between our capital in the south-east and the north and west of the country. Happy clapping over easier access to, and from, SW England clearly imperils this.

The idea that Brynmawr and Abertileri are about to become Bristol suburbs is laughable, despite the beautiful green valleys they have become, however there are economic benefits for a tollfree M4. A few hundred extra residents in Chepstow might even allow the population growth needed to get a new Welsh medium school in the area.

I'm afraid I've read the response by Capitalist & Welsh Nash to my observations several times without being able to make sense of it. My fault no doubt - sorry. As for Petroc's contribution, it doesn't seem very likely that newly arrived Bristolians are going to clamour for Welsh medium education. That really goes to the heart of this discussion, doesn't it?

The Welsh language...went off a cliff face with the arrival of the railways............yet in other countries their language remained strong.........because the Welsh language was looked on as scummy.........lets be honest cyfeillion....history is horrid to the weak lol

Re: Claire: Sais ydwyf, neu dyma beth mae pobl yn dweud amdana' i: dwi'n byw yma ers lawer dydd. Dwi wedi dysgu'r iaith i ryw lefel.[ I've integrated and learnt the language, i hope] Sadly most english immigrants don't (can't?!!!) learn the language, and so they are having a horrific effect on our language. Also bringing a thatcherite 'stuff you' mentality with 'em. If all the famous Poles, Lithuanians etc that Niguel Ffiarrage raves on about insisted on speaking their languages to the detriment of indigenous english people, the englush would . . . . (i'll leave you to fill in the gap, but you all know it would be utterly brutal). But Clare, Farrage has opened up the juicy tin of worms that nobody wanted to talk about: mass immigration, loss of jobs and loss of the world's linguistic, and ethnic diversity. I am just as opposed to Russian colonisation of Kazakstan, or Ukraine, Chinese destruction of Tibet's unique identity, as i am to rampant Anglicisation of Cymru. Does that make me an intolerant racist? (you can fill in that gap). Ifan, all of Cymru going baack to at least the 4th century AD has had irish settlers, roman garrisons, (anglo)norman psychopaths, saxon settlers, Flemish refugees (sponsored by the anglonorman madmen), Viking raider/traders and settlers. Gruffydd ap Cynan, one time king of Gwynedd was half Welsh, 1/4 irish and 1/4 Viking. But until quite recently, our identity was fairly secure. Alas no longer.

If we have free movement with England, policies are going to cause behavioural effects. If commuters truly do move to Gwent and earn salaries in Bristol, half their tax will go to the Welsh Treasury, as I think it will be done on residency not workplace. Property values and GDP would go up. That's not to say rising house prices are a good thing all around. Nor is it to argue that the weakening of Welsh identity in Gwent is a good thing. It is really frustrating to me, and if you have free movement with such a massive neighbour there is little the state can do to stop that percentage of Welsh identifiers going down. But there isn't a solution aside from migration controls. If people want to articulate a case for ending free movement with England, they should do so. But I am stumped. I just can't see it being plausible or acceptable, and am keenly aware it would have stopped some of my ancestors moving here. I am not comfortable with it whatsoever. And anyway, a free movement restriction on people who actually had jobs? We're talking about commuters here presumably. So what does that leave, some kind of housing restrictions? Discuss and debate by all means. But lazy talk about English immigration has to be replaced with solutions.

Im English born and bred with English born parents...and while yes Claire has a point about some xenophobia here that isnt beneficial to anyone.....I strongly disagree with her about "English culture and Wlsh culture are the same"............they are only been made the same by forced UK policies forcing everyone to become clones..........forced to have the same TV, the same school cirriculum....the same scraping before the aristocracy and monarchy I suggest she reads about the Welsh in the days of self rule................different world...............Hywel Dda is a legend to me - some of his laws are STILL much more progressive than English law

Celtic cultures were not English culture,,,,,,,they have been brutalised and squashed to become English - but time makes many forget

Claire says "people dont think about colonialism and imperialism anymore in England" - yet people still are imperialist in views...........and colonialism is still happening across most of the poor parts of the world, by corporations and large state bullying.............England and many parts of Britain and Northern Ireland can seem a very sheltered place....getting as bad as USA for ignorance