Richard Brun again

[Tafia]

Daily Post reports that no-one can now join N Wales police unless they pass a Welsh language test.

Also, no-one will be promoted unless they pass a more difficult Welsh language test.

Does anyone know how this gets past the discrimination laws the PC brigade are so fond of.

Police Federation took legal advice over this issue. I guess they were wondering too.

[buckshee]

Sounds like racism to me. Are persons from other EC countries prevented from joining any of our UK Police forces on any specific grounds?

Edited by buckshee on Saturday 22 July 18:01

[mybrainhurts]

I think the Home Office ought to set a lunacy test for aspiring chief constables....

Edited by mybrainhurts on Saturday 22 July 23:00

[Stubby Pete]

I wonder wah the percentage of non english speaking people is in that area.

I can almost guarantee that there will be a higher percentage of non english speaking people in other areas, no bi-lingual abilities are required there.

[autismuk]

Tafia said:

Daily Post reports that no-one can now join N Wales police unless they pass a Welsh language test.

Also, no-one will be promoted unless they pass a more difficult Welsh language test.

Does anyone know how this gets past the discrimination laws the PC brigade are so fond of.

Police Federation took legal advice over this issue. I guess they were wondering too.

I wonder if R Brunstrom can speak Welsh - AFAIK he isn't Welsh.

[jith]

Tafia said:

Daily Post reports that no-one can now join N Wales police unless they pass a Welsh language test.

Also, no-one will be promoted unless they pass a more difficult Welsh language test.

Does anyone know how this gets past the discrimination laws the PC brigade are so fond of.

Police Federation took legal advice over this issue. I guess they were wondering too.

Right, that's it!!
I'm going to apply to join......in Gaelic!!

[WildCat]

mybrainhurts said:

I think the Home Office ought to set a lunacy test for aspiring chief constables....

Edited by mybrainhurts on Saturday 22 July 23:00

I think you are right.. he would get the toppest marks

[WildCat]

autismuk said:

Tafia said:

Daily Post reports that no-one can now join N Wales police unless they pass a Welsh language test.

Also, no-one will be promoted unless they pass a more difficult Welsh language test.

Does anyone know how this gets past the discrimination laws the PC brigade are so fond of.

Police Federation took legal advice over this issue. I guess they were wondering too.

I wonder if R Brunstrom can speak Welsh - AFAIK he isn't Welsh.

He took an A Level in Welsh language. Fair enough that he did this.

But a watered down spoon fed exam in Welsh as foreign language does not mean fluency any more than an A level in German means one speaks like native speaker. It means he has a competence und I could understand if South Wales where there are more Welsh speakers than the North. I seem to recall a referendum on adopting Welsh language und speaking only Welsh in Wales. It failed because North Wales whose more urban und anglophile population outnumber the more rural South Welsh speakers voted against this. Und if the wild feline memory serve me correct - this was late 89 when cousin Marianna married a Welshman! Und we read this in the papers at the time

[puggit]

WildCat said:

autismuk said:

Tafia said:

Daily Post reports that no-one can now join N Wales police unless they pass a Welsh language test.

Also, no-one will be promoted unless they pass a more difficult Welsh language test.

Does anyone know how this gets past the discrimination laws the PC brigade are so fond of.

Police Federation took legal advice over this issue. I guess they were wondering too.

I wonder if R Brunstrom can speak Welsh - AFAIK he isn't Welsh.

He took an A Level in Welsh language. Fair enough that he did this.

But a watered down spoon fed exam in Welsh as foreign language does not mean fluency any more than an A level in German means one speaks like native speaker. It means he has a competence und I could understand if South Wales where there are more Welsh speakers than the North. I seem to recall a referendum on adopting Welsh language und speaking only Welsh in Wales. It failed because North Wales whose more urban und anglophile population outnumber the more rural South Welsh speakers voted against this. Und if the wild feline memory serve me correct - this was late 89 when cousin Marianna married a Welshman! Und we read this in the papers at the time

WildCat - I think your memory is playing tricks somewhere...

North Wales is more rural and South Wales is more urban. In South Wales there are plenty of Welsh who only speak English, in North Wales there are some individuals (particularly on the Llyn Peninsular) who don't speak English!!!

[WildCat]

puggit said:

WildCat said:

autismuk said:

Tafia said:

Daily Post reports that no-one can now join N Wales police unless they pass a Welsh language test.

Also, no-one will be promoted unless they pass a more difficult Welsh language test.

Does anyone know how this gets past the discrimination laws the PC brigade are so fond of.

Police Federation took legal advice over this issue. I guess they were wondering too.

I wonder if R Brunstrom can speak Welsh - AFAIK he isn't Welsh.

He took an A Level in Welsh language. Fair enough that he did this.

But a watered down spoon fed exam in Welsh as foreign language does not mean fluency any more than an A level in German means one speaks like native speaker. It means he has a competence und I could understand if South Wales where there are more Welsh speakers than the North. I seem to recall a referendum on adopting Welsh language und speaking only Welsh in Wales. It failed because North Wales whose more urban und anglophile population outnumber the more rural South Welsh speakers voted against this. Und if the wild feline memory serve me correct - this was late 89 when cousin Marianna married a Welshman! Und we read this in the papers at the time

WildCat - I think your memory is playing tricks somewhere...

North Wales is more rural and South Wales is more urban. In South Wales there are plenty of Welsh who only speak English, in North Wales there are some individuals (particularly on the Llyn Peninsular) who don't speak English!!!

Ach! But even so - the North voted against in this referendum years ago.. as did the borderland areas . not sure about Mid Wales.. but think Bangor to Mold were reportedly anglophile. South Wales reportedly cast more votes for Welsh as L1 in Wales.

Und Cornish Gaelic/Breton Gaelic und Welsh language (which ist really another branch of this Gaelic communication code) are "mutually intelligible" too... (All languages are a kind of communication code und grew, devoloped, died, metamorphosed from amalgamation of the ancient nomadic prehistoric tribes onwards... ) Ist all in a little book on my bookshelf about sociolingusitics which I kept from Abitur days as ist full of little gems like this

[Tafia]

Stubby Pete said:

I wonder wah the percentage of non english speaking people is in that area.

I can almost guarantee that there will be a higher percentage of non english speaking people in other areas, no bi-lingual abilities are required there.

Yes there are areas up here where the locals speak nothing but Welsh; even the dogs are commanded in Welsh, mainly Denbigh and Ruthin areas near me and also on the Lleyn Peninsular and Bangor Anglesey areas.

I am only a few miles from the English border so Welsh is quite rare here.

Edited by Tafia on Sunday 23 July 12:07

[Tafia]

autismuk said:

Tafia said:

Daily Post reports that no-one can now join N Wales police unless they pass a Welsh language test.

Also, no-one will be promoted unless they pass a more difficult Welsh language test.

Does anyone know how this gets past the discrimination laws the PC brigade are so fond of.

Police Federation took legal advice over this issue. I guess they were wondering too.

I wonder if R Brunstrom can speak Welsh - AFAIK he isn't Welsh.

Yes he took his A level exam in Welsh and is fairly fluent I am told.

[WildCat]

Tafia said:

autismuk said:

Tafia said:

Daily Post reports that no-one can now join N Wales police unless they pass a Welsh language test.

Also, no-one will be promoted unless they pass a more difficult Welsh language test.

Does anyone know how this gets past the discrimination laws the PC brigade are so fond of.

Police Federation took legal advice over this issue. I guess they were wondering too.

I wonder if R Brunstrom can speak Welsh - AFAIK he isn't Welsh.

Yes he took his A level exam in Welsh and is fairly fluent I am told.

But not everyone takes or has aptitude for a foreign language. Plenty on continent do not speak a second language well - und do not speak English as well as popular myth lead to believe.

Wales ist part of UK.. English ist official language. Welsh referendum failed to make Welsh the area's L1 official und failed to give equal status to the language alongside English too.

On this basis Brunstrom ist on dicey grounds as regards "racism und discrimination against non-Welsh speakers"

Had the referendum been successful as was case in Canada which ist officially bi-lingual und gives both English und French equal status in each area of Canadian life (which does not mean all Canadians speak both languages any more than population of officially bi-lingual Belgium speak both French und Flemish.

Certainly their police forces do not appear to force recruits to speak both languages. (Mad Doc has a cousin und cousin's daughter in Canadian Mounted Police - und neither speak French but they say the recruitment runs along the lines of

Ability to speak another language would be an advantage but not a necessity

[BigBob]

I'm a proud Welshman, always have been and always will be but .......

This whole Welsh Language debacle gets right up my nose. Every bit of paper eminating from any official body has to come with an equivalent bit of paper in Welsh.

Dread to think how much it costs, not only in financial terms but ecological terms as well - how many extra trees are felled to produce these documents that very few people read. What a waste, all due to the efforts of a vociferous minority, many of whom would like to take us back several hundrd years.

It goes further than this though, Welsh is a compulsory subject from the time a child starts school until they leave at 16. How much better that time could be spent learning a language that might be useful outside a very small part of Wales.

We're living in a global ecomomy but our political masters are intent on being inward looking and pacifying a handful of activists when they should be promoting circumstances where Welsh youngsters can enter the global work place with another skill - the ability to speak French, German, Spanish etc.

On the original point though - no, it's not race discrimination to require someone to be able to speak Welsh in the same way it's not discriminatory to stipilate a level of physical fitness. It's just another requirement that the applicant needs to fulfill to get the job same as 5 GCSE's or 2 A levels etc.



BB