F**k You Wales

If you cannot read the signs easily you dont have a contract with the company. You shouldn't pay

Easiest and simplest would be to insist that the Welsh Government passes legislation that does a proper job of sorting out where the two languages have to be used - and that's simple: pretty much everywhere except in situation where only a very few people would be affected, i.e. where say, less than 150 people so that resources aren't wasted through say, translating a specialist technical information with a very limited audience. One of the major weaknesses of the current legislation is that it on the one hand confers equal status on the two languages and then immediately confines one of those languages to a very limited scenario whilst also conferring a right to use Welsh where the de facto situation is that right is undermined pretty much everywhere. I think and have always thought since I first read the Welsh Language Act 1993 that it's major flaw is that it's far to complicated. A simple law basically stating that under a majority of circumstances the two languages have equal status and therefore must be used side by side in every scenario, be that the public sector or the private sector. A simple law like that has the huge advantage of being very easy to understand. There would need to be exceptions, like I wrote above, where the rule was relaxed where an audience, say a technical document for limited internal distribution wouldn't be legally required to be translated, but the rule would have to remain that if it's done in English then it also needs to be done in Welsh, and vice versa. A popular campaign would be good, but I suspect there is a large number of non-Welsh speaking people who have no angst against the language who are under the impression, because they can see the bilingualism, that all is fine and dandy and Welsh can be used everywhere. They might have heard about HBSC withdrawing the Welsh language phone line, and won't think much of that, but probably don't feel empowered to do anything about it, and in any case, it's not a priority to them, as they don't speak the language. In my experience, and this is going back years, ordinary Welsh people, and often those from ochr draw Clawdd Offa can easily be recruited into supporting rights for Welsh speakers. In the mid 90s Cymdeithas yr Iaith in the South East and Cardiff area were faced with businesses being reluctant, or indeed refusing to accept cheques written in Welsh, including at one point Marks & Spencer on Queen Street in Cardiff. CYIG launched a campaign, highlighting the issue in the local media and got a lot of coverage, but at the same time started to hold street meetings outside M&S ever Saturday morning, chatting to passers by and pointing out M&S's awful attitude towards the language, and asking people if they wanted to sign our petition. It was an amazingly successful campaign, and we collected thousands of signatures. There is the support out there, but it's passive and needs to be motivated and encouraged. Given that this company has decided to be very silly in taking on someone known to be one of Cymdeithas' really awkward squad I don't think we've heard the last of this issue, and it wouldn't surprise me if things get escalated. I know with the campaign against Tandy in 1997 the company finally capitulated after finding they couldn't close at the end of the day in many branches across South Wales because some rotten sods had superglued the locks so they couldn't be locked at the end of the day's trading... (Prior to that, they'd had to endure a constant barrage of correspondence, 'fax attacks', pickets and petition signings that affected their trade - some people weren't too happy with a shop not respecting our language and so went to Curry's instead, (okay, so Curry's was just as bad, but you know, bricks in the wall) being sprayed with slogans, locks superglued shut and then the final step as outlined above). That Tandy campaign was long and hard fought, and many of the tactics would have to be significantly different 25 years on, but using a combination of 'persuasive' non-violent methods can yield results. P.S. It seems they aren't very popular with people who don't speak Welsh either... https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.oneparkingsolution.co.uk

The people of Wales are Britons, so as long as Wales is in the UK, England gets its most valuable treasure….the title of Being British! This has never been about Gold, or Coal, or even Water.

Very well said, Our part in allowing for the English to be incorrectly seen as British should not be forgotten. Cymru gets its independence when we put pressure on the UK by exposing their contempt and theft of our ancient identity. British directly coming from Briton, a Latin name for the natives. Native English people call Welsh.

Legislation over the Welsh language is a devolved power, so very much within the remit of the Welsh Government and the Senedd. It's English law because that's the only legal system we have. Similar laws under a Welsh legal system would result in the same outcome - crap laws, crap judgments. It's long been known that the laws supposedly safeguarding the Welsh language are completely inadequate, Cymdeithas yr Iaith started campaigning for a better language act before the 1993 act came into effect, due to the well known shortcomings of that piece of legislation. That those shortcomings weren't properly addressed in the Welsh Language Measure 2011 is baffling. A new, and much simpler piece of legislation is required, one that simply requires Welsh to appear where English does in Wales except for a very limited number of scenarios and situations. And then it needs to be enforced.

A better model would be that of Canada, with the proviso that in Wales any similar legislation would need to be on steroids. Indeed, the situation of Francophone Quebec within Canada is interesting to consider. I think we in Wales need to be far more proactive in creating the space where our national language can thrive without worrying too much about those who will see it as an encroachment on their linguistic right to speak English as if there was somehow an immanent threat to the existence of the English language. Beware of taking comments in the Daily Post, or WalesOnline for that matter. There is in existence a small troll army who seem to have nothing better to do than froth at the mouth about a language they claim isn't important, but yet seems to fill a huge gap in their otherwise empty lives. They're idiots and no one is really listening to them, except others of that ilk: it's an echo chamber. Meanwhile, out in the real world, many, if not most do care, but due to not speaking the language don not feel they can adequately advocate for the language. They need motivating and encouraging, and will support petitions supporting more Welsh language provision. Cymdeithas yr Iaith found that to be the case back in the 1990s when picketing M&S and collecting signatures of the passing public over the issue of M&S refusing cheques written in Welsh. The level of support was amazing, the vast majority of people signing were non-Welsh speakers. We must never forget that our national language enjoys the support of around 80% of the population, it's a figure that hasn't changed for decades. Most of that support is passive, but it can be mobilised.