| Language, Future Generations, 2021 Election, Bad Sociology |
A Political Diary |
| Four Things That Caught the Attention , Public Commentary in Wales in 2021 , December 20, 2021 |
There is only one serious analysis of the position of the Welsh language. Simon Brooks makes the historical connection with the languages of mid-Europe. Political integration into a multi-national state, the German-dominated Habsburg territories, locked the subsidiary languages into decline. The Minister for the language wrote a 700-word article on his area of responsibility. It is a strange argument, positing that language is politically determined. Language is a social phenomenon. But not for the Welsh government. "For younger Welsh speakers, Welsh is first acquired at a Cylch Meithrin or in school." State precludes society. "Are we focused enough on Welsh language use? Is this what drives our delivery?" Over and over the state in Wales is less interested in power and rule than influencing cognition. Thus a policy objective: "I’m interested in building empathy for our language." The state is explicit that it be active past the front door. "We’re already looking at what ways we can help people use more Welsh with their children at home." Turning to reality the erosion of the language is manifest. The state of Wales stands to one side. The census will be revealing. Source: https://nation.cymru/opinion/why-all-roads-in-wales-should-lead-to-the-welsh-language-and-how- * * * * It is characteristic of the governance of Wales that the current condition of the language is passed over. Instead a declarative statement on a speculative condition thirty years hence in 2050 is the substitute. Similarly the Future Generations theme is subject for adoration. The Commissioner and team are not a part of government, but lavishly paid for by Government. It is bereft of economic professionalism and lacks the rigour of a think-tank. That goes unnoticed; in truth it is a not-bothered-much culture. Declarative nobility of intent is the yardstick. Back in 2015 Andrew RT Davies said: "We are creating commissioners for this, commissioners for that. What we want to do is see real improvement and real change here in Wales." Plaid Cymru AM Simon Thomas called the appointment "strange" and suggested it "will raise eyebrows" in the sector. "It doesn't appear that she has the qualifications or an interest in this field," he said. "She does have experience in public bodies but not within sustainable development." Friends of the Earth Cymru said: "This appointment clarifies the problem with the commissioner being accountable to the Welsh government, rather than the National Assembly for Wales. "There's a real danger that the commissioner's role will be compromised because of a desire to please the government." From: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-34709434 * * * * Rhys ab Owen, Senedd Member for South Wales Central, wrote an article "Why it’s time to give Wales’ woolly Future Generations Act some teeth." He reports that attempts to use the Act to protect various community assets- wildlife, natural reserves, schools- have failed. The legislation is slackly general, citing Rhodri Williams QC that the Act is inherently “toothless”. "The whole point of the Future Generations Act was to put citizens at the centre of decision-making processes." This is strange, as it seems to do away with the concept of representative democracy. "Acts of Parliament need to be enforceable, not only aspirational, and that rhetoric must be turned into action". He cites the former Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd that the law is “not specific and tight enough. It’s both too general and too vague in its method and aims. It does not hold politicians and public bodies to account, and it does not give the citizens of Wales legally enforceable rights." Steve George responded: "The problem with the FG Act is not just that it is woolly (it is) but that it is dishonest. It removes accountability from the Welsh Government by placing something that should be their direct responsibility at arms length. It then compounds this by appointing a Labour aparatchik [sic] (at some expense) to tell it to do things that it claims it wants to do anyway. This is just political misdirection so that discussion (like in this article) revolves around the Act/ Commissioner rather than around the actions of the government itself." https://nation.cymru/opinion/why-its-time-to-give-wales-woolly-future-generations-act-some-teeth/ * * * * An education report made its way to debate on the Senate floor. Quizzed on an particularly inane piece of content Mark Drakeford distanced himself from the scrapping of examinations. The "report" places rhetoric before policy: "a nation of eco-literate, global citizens will be essential./ Establish a national vision for Wales to become the most eco-literate and globally responsible nation in the world." The independence of pension fund trustees to act in the interest of their beneficiaries is refuted: "public sector pensions in Wales....to divest from all sources of harm, fossil fuels, pollutants, goods driving..." Culture is to be subordinated to political control: "future action, aimed at behavioural change to tackle the climate emergency and nature crisis, should take cultural interventions into account and should work in collaboration with the cultural sector to inspire positive change...the role that culture and cultural professionals have to play in the battle against climate change and the nature crisis." Policy banality: "The public services of the future need to be collaborative with multidisciplinary teams connected but not tied to organisations, bringing skills together to solve complex problems." Source: https://www.futuregenerations.wales/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Manifesto-for-the-Future-FGCW1.pdf * * * * Michael Oakeshott, a philosopher, said that to be a conservative “is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to Utopian bliss”. Edward Greening wrote 17th May: "What do typical Labour voters want from society? Social equality, gender rights, increased workplace protections, more equitable taxation, good local services, strong education and health system and an international outlook." The last phrase is meaningless. Labour voters voted in the referendum and in the last European Parliament as they did. Intolerance of fellow Welsh citizens is endemic. "Voting conservative is a betrayal of the Welsh tradition of caring and sharing" is a common kind of sentence. * * * * "We Still Live in Labour Country" by Daryl Leeworthy was published in a publicly supported journal. Leeworthy declared: "Welsh politics continue to rest on the foundation of social class." Leeworthy diverges from every other political observer. Vote choice is more determined by level of educational attainment. Wales voted broadly on linguistic capability. Front windows in the mean streets of Penarth were thick with posters for Vaughan Gething. Labour is the choice of graduates. The absence of working class' involvement is there in the constituency turn-outs in the south. winners. "The central cleavage is between those who are poorer and those who are wealthier; those who work in the public sector and those who work in the private sector." This is absurd. Wealth is a spectrum. The block of flats I know best in the south is made up of HMRC staff and wafer fabrication process control engineers. There is no "cleavage." Source: https://www.planetmagazine.org.uk/planet-extra/we-still-live-labour-country?fbclid=IwAR1bC69pu5ROwAq0pQvqgCbOLAynNq6XYtMo8wvI1toAokpIxf6x4GVHxuw * * * * This period has seen the ascent of Zoom from hardly-known to a tech brand high in recognition. One feature is an insistence from event organisers that recording, because it can be done, is done. But there is redundancy in what we say; circularity, imprecision, inconclusion are its content. A portion of the daily tsunami of words deserves preservation, but not a lot. It is a reflection that comes to mind reading a transcript of the 2021 Aneurin Bevan Memorial Lecture hosted by the Aneurin Bevan Society. It was given in Westminster on October 25th by the First Minister. It was probably an event to remember for the participants, friends gathered. To read it a few months on is revealing, first about the speaker and, by extension, the notions of political theory that pervade the governance of Wales. The relationship of state and society is made clear. It is the language of Labour in England from its period 2015-2019. Governments "build" or "create" societies. There is no recognition that societies are emergent phenomena, self-organising entities that exist in tandem with the state. Government and people are fused as one. It is essentially an aliberal position, liberal theory preferring to posit humanity as a plethora of differing groups with different purposes, politics acting as a mediating function. So, for instance, a Secretary of State may hold the shares of a railway company. This is extended to "the Welsh Labour government has returned the railways back to the people." The monist theory rests essentially on a notion of a concept of "social solidarity." This may come and go as it is determined by government. There is no concept that lives are rooted in continuity and culture, in relatives, household, street, locality, region. It refutes facts of sociology. Instead 1945 created "a new citizenship for members of the United Kingdom. That new citizenship reached into the lives of every citizen and in doing so made a real and tangible case for the Union itself." In 1979 solidarity was done away with at a stroke, "systematically undermined and eroded the sense of what it is to be British." There is no reason why a political leader should be accomplished in sociology or political theory. But the lecture is striking in its lack of interest in empirical observation. Whatever else it was the referendum of 2016 was a powerful expression of Britishness. Or rather expressions of differing views of Britishness. Thus a lack of sharp observation gives rise to a notion "only the Labour Party can save the Union." The fact that the lecturer's party in Scotland is reduced geographically to a rump of support in Clydeside does not matter in this version. But above all the lecture is notable for its retrospection. A new generation would be flummoxed by what it intends. Transport for Wales has some carriages that are an improvement on Arriva. But its wifi lacks a security certificate so that in 2021 work cannot be carried out in full while travelling. No-one who travels cares much who owned, or now owns, the company shares. But in this reading the ownership is crucial, to enter a carriage badged British Rail meant "we belonged to a collective organisation which, whatever its imperfections, told you that you had something in common with other people, in other parts of the UK. But every time a British Rail disappeared; a British Steel was sold off; or a National Coal Board destroyed, so, as it seems to me, one more tear appeared in the fabric of the United Kingdom. Another slash was made in the cloth of what it mean [sic] to be British." Thus service- the imperfections- is downgraded to politics of control. Populism here is to be rebuffed by state centralism. To action: "During the first year of this Senedd term we will bring forward a Bill to put our social partnership arrangements on a statutory basis." It is not clear what this refers to, but there are five months of this first year to run and for the legislation to emerge. https://www.welshlabour.wales/2021-aneurin-bevan-memorial-lecture/ |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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