To think that if it was France & French no one would care about a name change but because it’s Welsh…

[Letshaveablackcelebration2022]

Welsh is trending on Twitter because a lot of people don’t like the fact that the Brecon Beacons will revert to its Welsh name https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/apr/17/brecon-beacons-relaunches-with-welsh-name-bannau-brycheiniog-as-picture-of-hope-for-future

People also kicked off when Snowdon also reverted to its Welsh name Yr Wyddfa

Aibu to really not understand the issue. I am Welsh and a Welsh speaker. It makes sense to me to call place names by their Welsh names and not by their anglicised versions if you want to protect a language and culture. Which we do.

Noone would bat an eyelid if in France their decided to only use French names. We drive in France and get by without English alternatives. So what exactly is the problem with Wales doing the same?

The blue books also worth a Google.

The head of the Parks is English and didn’t consider anyone locally and talked about the change being linked to climate change like the hills are banging out fumes at the same rate as the Port Talbort steelworks. She is also talking about rewilding which won’t go down well with the farming community. The parks were always named bilingually but now apparently can only be named in Welsh. Wales is becoming a country bullied by a small minority into rewelshifying things that have called things in English for years. It is just as oppressive as when the rulers told everyone that they shouldn’t speak English. The nationalism is ridiculous, Wales wasn’t oppressed by the English but captured by the French, who built our best Castles. The French also oppressed the English and prevented the English from speaking their own language at court at least. They all married each other as the ruling classes like to do, so this English Welsh divide is pretty and dangerous to say the least.

The park boss should probably go and cause havoc elsewhere before any further damage is done.

Bilingual is fine, to suddenly say ok you can only use the Welsh name for a place known as the Brecon Beacons to lots of people is not acceptable.

I think people have got confused....nobody is trying to control what any one person calls the Brecon Beacons, or anything else. You can call it/them/anything whatever you want.

It's just that the official name has changed to the Welsh language version.

Exactly. Talk of ‘the language police’ and similar is extremely hyperbolic.

Going to ignore the white noise here but thankful for the general common sense approach and the support by many of you for the Welsh language. As a Welsh speaker with kids in WM schools in Cardiff it’s a thriving language here both educationally and socially with WM schools bursting at the seams and a need for increasing provision.Diolch!

Of course it's not neither here nor there if the SNP are corrupt or not - if they act with impunity you can't trust them and so you can't trust their case for independence either. That's the entire point.

This is exactly why the movement has lost support and why it would be a resounding no if there was another vote in the near future. We need to concentrate on more important things.

Piratypotato, thanks for your very reasonable post. I agree with all you say, I do maintain that a group of people can’t suddenly say this is now the official name for somewhere. Who gave them that right .

No one is stopping you. The only change is that the official paperwork used by the BBNPA and other government organisations will use Welsh place-names only in their work. I can practically guarantee that OS Maps will remain bilingual.

Unless you've a particular interest in planning decisions or footpath maintenance it'll barely register with you. If they had made this change without Fanfare you wouldn't have noticed. As for the logo changing, I don't know a single person who would care about the logo used by any local authority - I can't even picture the SNPA logo and I used to work at a major tourist attraction in the middle of it which leased buildings from and worked closely with the SNPA.

@ChristinaXYZ
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treachery_of_the_Blue_Books

True, but it's the name of a place! It's not a sentence with grammar that has to be understood.

If the government of Wales decided it was going to put (say) government website information in Welsh only with no English, I can see why that would be a huge issue. But the name of a place? Even non Welsh speakers in Wales should know how to pronounce Welsh place names; the spelling of Welsh is completely phonetic for a start.

I went on holiday to Wales for the first time ever a few years ago and the Welsh signage etc. everywhere was one of the nicest things. It made the whole area feel quite different to the rest of the UK.

There is no more important thing, in terms of the UK, than securing Scotlands future away from a failing and suicidal union. You might be happy paying record high energy bills despite Scotland being completely energy self sufficient, but I'm not.

You might be happy knowing no matter how many of your country's population vote one way the result will always be decided by your neighbours to the south, but I'm not.

You might be happy to have tory government after tory government inflict austerity on you and syphon public money into private pockets without recourse, but I'm not.

You might be happy to see your country's population decline and endure all the issues that come with that, but I'm not.

As for trust, can you remind me how many of the vows and pledges did the pro union parties keep once they'd won the referendum? I seem to recall, amongst many other promises, repeatedly being told the only way to guarantee remaining in the EU was to vote "no". That worked out well didn't it?

I think you'd be surprised at what the result would be if there was another referendum. Certainly, if Westminster were convinced it would be a resounding no they'd approve it before you could say "indyref2". A chance to deal a knockout blow to the SNP and distract the country from their awful record/performance and you think the tories would pass that up???

We're not going to agree, so there's not much point in discussing it further (plus I've derailed this thread enough). But I will say this in parting.

The SNP and the desire to be independent are not one and the same. I want my country to be independent from a union that will only ever look to serve Englands interests (which at a population level are not aligned with Scotland and never have been) and given the chance to pursue its own course.

I wouldn't vote for the SNP in an independent Scotland, nor has it ever been said they'd be the de facto rulers. If there was a viable alternative I'd vote for them, but the Tories will never win an election in Scotland (and I'd rather be hanged than vote tory anyway), Labour have wed themselves to the union so are just red Tories in my eyes, and Lib Dems/Greens/Alba are so small it would just be a wasted vote.

So it will be SNP for me again in 2024. If they lose the next general election, or Westminster refuse another referendum again, or they approve it and Scotland votes no again, I'll be offski faster than a tory education secretary.

I agree there is nothing more important than securing Scotland's future which is why people are leaving the SNP in droves and why it will be a no by an even bigger margin.

It won't happen though as there isn't the appetite for it there was. People have seen the disaster that is Brexit and now understand leaving the Union would destroy Scotland. We've seen it first hand. The UK is on its knees, we not going to vote to pour fuel on a fire.

Anyone still voting for them and turning a blind eye to the corruption does not have Scotland's best interests at heart. They have lost all credibility and set the cause back generations. Rejecting this corruption does not equate to being a Tory. You'd be hard pushed to find anyone that hates them more than me.

But I agree this is derailing so will leave it there.

But it is reverting to the original name? Anyway, no one has to use the Welsh name if they are so hung up about it. They won't have an English Not strung around their neck if they do.

It was bi lingual in a bi lingual country though now solely in Welsh which is unacceptable as many people in Wales have spoken English since Norman times depending on where you live. This creation of all Welsh people wanting everything in Welsh is not true. Just the loudest voices, it is unhealthy nationalism. Nationalism leads to fascism.

No one has to use the English name if as you say they are so hung up about it.

I don't see the issue. It's only the official name for it. Yiu can still call it what you like. I live in Wales, in a place with a name that is difficult to pronounce. People pronounce it slightly differently, locals shorten it to make it much easier to say. There is a mix of welsh and English speakers here.

But Welsh speaking people aren't frothing about people using the English name. We now have a poster saying that promoting and encouraging the use of the Welsh language in Wales could potentially lead to fascism. Crazy talk.

Here in Wales the Labour Party isn't working its way towards independence because it knows it would be a total disaster. Labour wants more devolved power but doesn't want to lose the £18+ billion it gets from Westminster. Without that and EU money (now gone) Wales would fall apart. That's around £5k per head of population.

I used to make a point of sitting down calmly with Welsh nationalists because I wanted to understand how they thought Wales could be a financially viable nation. There was never a rational plan.

It's like the current move to reduce the speed limit of all 30mph roads to 20mph. I live in a place that's had a 20mph limit for several years. No one sticks to it. If speed limits on 50mph roads are reduced to 40mph, delivery companies and organisations like Amazon will move out of their Welsh depots as soon as the leases on their premises come up, because won't be able to work as efficiently.

This is really all the Welsh government does. Tinker at the edges, looking for things that won't cost it too much money and making changes to give Wales its 'unique' identity. Wales, slowest traffic in the UK. Whoop-de-doo! Wales, virtue-signalling by doing away with the word Beacons with its carbon connections. Meanwhile, apparently oblivious to his carbon footprint, Mark Drakeford flew to Qatar for the World Cup and stayed in a 5*hotel paid for by a corrupt Qatari regime...

actually I don’t think that you can’t be Welsh if you don’t speak Welsh

Well it's a point of view I suppose, but if it's right that now only about 18% of Welsh speak the language I'm not sure what the other 82% would think of it

Welsh is in your bones hiraeth, not your tongue

@Puzzledandpissedoff , read what you've quoted:
I don’t think that you can’t be Welsh if you don’t speak Welsh
Not sure why anyone would object to it.

@justasking111 , your post makes no sense.

Duuuhhh, you're absolutely right, @GogLais - my mistake for misreading it!!

Bless your heart