The Half-Full Glass

I recently noticed a posting on the BBC Wales notice board suggesting that the Welsh Assembly should commission a separate national anthem for English speakers. After all, the writer argued, most Welsh people either don't know what the words mean or can't pronounce them properly.

Having stared at the string of carefully reasoned counter-arguments for a few minutes trying to grasp where the originator was really coming from, I replied that, yeah, I thought it was a great idea. And why not commission a version of God save the Queen for Welsh speakers while they're at it? I assumed, you see, that whoever began the string must have a mischievous streak like me.

Then I came across a guide to Cardiff on another public site, which had been helpfully provided by a local for the benefit of visitors. The author wrote well and listed the myriad of shopping opportunities that exist within the city centre, the only drawback being that at Cardiff Central railway station, "you get the Welsh language rammed down your throat". Best to avoid the train then!

You would think that anyone who has the time to write an extensive online guide for no financial reward might be able to find the time to learn some Welsh. I assume the author is someone of my parent's generation, one of those who didn't have an incentive to make the effort.

The Welsh language is what will unite us and it defines us as a nation. The Assembly might be a fireless dragon at the moment but it does represent a focal point for our national political identity. (It's kind of reassuring that it's a forum of hot air in the short-term since it would be worrying to put real power into the hands of this generation of politicians.)

In the longer-term, the Assembly ought to become the government of an independent Cymru, federated within the European Union. I might be wrong, but I get the impression that we're ready for nationhood.

I'm not advocating that we stop speaking English. We need to become fully bilingual, like so many other Europeans who use the English language for business. English is the language of money, which is appropriate since English culture has become a culture based largely on avarice.

You can't blame people for wanting a better life and security for their families. But London, nowadays, is like Dubai without the sun. People are only there for the money. The supposed English attribute of tolerance – I use the word 'supposed' because they rarely exercised tolerance towards the Welsh historically – has meant they've tolerated their culture being assimilated into the cultures of the countries we helped them conquer.

Now Eastern Europe is joining this cultural sublimation and the English middle class, with their political correctness and their holiday homes in the Brecon Beacons, are lethargically accepting their loss of identity in exchange for yet more wealth and a Polish nanny. The English working class are left feeling disenfranchised. The Welsh working class already know this feeling well.

I don't see Wales through rose tinted glasses, far from it, but, ironically, some of its difficulties are actually a bulwark against cultural sublimation, its largely rural landscape, for example.

Welsh culture is thriving and usage of the Welsh language is becoming more widespread. Hence the complaints from those who are too inert to learn it.

There is a confidence now amongst the young in Wales, a positive sense of identity and a mood of optimism that was never there before in my life.

Which leads me to wonder whether the Welsh, English speakers and Welsh speakers alike, would ever again accept an Englishman being invested as Prince of Wales. William, for instance? My mam might go for it, but would the rest of us? I'd like to suggest that if the answer is no, then we really are ready for nationhood.

CYMRAEG – ENGLISH