Should the UK pay for the Scottish Language?
Discussion
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/...
Leaving aside that the title of the article is misleading, it raises the question as to who should be financing the promotion of the Gaelic language in Scotland.
The BBC spends £21 million of license-payers' money on a Gaelic station and £51 million of public money is spent each year promoting Gaelic.
Only some 92,000 people in Scotland speak Gaelic, so a disproportionately huge amount of UK public resource is devoted to them.
Now I am all for promoting lesser-used British languages, but I think those who want to learn them should pay for it themselves.
Leaving aside that the title of the article is misleading, it raises the question as to who should be financing the promotion of the Gaelic language in Scotland.
The BBC spends £21 million of license-payers' money on a Gaelic station and £51 million of public money is spent each year promoting Gaelic.
Only some 92,000 people in Scotland speak Gaelic, so a disproportionately huge amount of UK public resource is devoted to them.
Now I am all for promoting lesser-used British languages, but I think those who want to learn them should pay for it themselves.
No, and I say that as a (sort of) Gaelic speaker. I think that a language has to stand on its own feet so to speak and be able to survive without all this artificial input.
At school my parents really thought that Gaelic would hold us back and encouraged us to study French/German instead and although my 4 grandparents all spoke it as their first language they too were great advocates of speaking English and seldom spoke Gaelic to us.
It is not spoken widely in Scotland, and hardly at all outwith the Highlands and there is little support for it.
At school my parents really thought that Gaelic would hold us back and encouraged us to study French/German instead and although my 4 grandparents all spoke it as their first language they too were great advocates of speaking English and seldom spoke Gaelic to us.
It is not spoken widely in Scotland, and hardly at all outwith the Highlands and there is little support for it.
Last I checked Great Britain included Scotland and despite devolution of parliment most big decisions are made in London and the coffers are shared. If you want the Scottish to pay for it you're going to have to completely re-do the way the TV licence is paid for.
I object to paying for the s
t the BBC produces full stop to be honest. But I have no more of a problem with this issue than I do with the religious bullst I pay for or for the promotion of the Welsh language which I pay for in other taxes.
It's one country and we lean on each other for support. You start st like this where does it stop? I live in Scotland and do I object that my TV licence goes to promote the fact that Southern England is classed as the centre of the fking universe?- No, do I bks. I don't hate the English and I've better things to do with my time than get pissed off about how my rip off TV licence funds get used.
I object to paying for the s
t the BBC produces full stop to be honest. But I have no more of a problem with this issue than I do with the religious bullst I pay for or for the promotion of the Welsh language which I pay for in other taxes.It's one country and we lean on each other for support. You start s
t like this where does it stop? I live in Scotland and do I object that my TV licence goes to promote the fact that Southern England is classed as the centre of the fking universe?- No, do I bks. I don't hate the English and I've better things to do with my time than get pissed off about how my rip off TV licence funds get used.Edited by G_T on Monday 9th February 16:19
What about things like Opera and the arts? Relatively few people take advantage of these things bearing in mind the money put towards them.
Or should every penny be allocated depending on how popular a certain requirement is? i.e. We would have excellent Nightclub and Primark funding, but less popular activities will just be ignored.
This post smacks of divide and rule. What happens when funding to for example, supporting young car enthusiasts is suggested to be raised? That will be supported on here, but nationally, very few people will take advantage from it. And there will be a load of Scottish Gaelic speakers saying how that is abhorrent as their funding was not supported.
A better example maybe is if you would like BBC documentaries cut such as Horizon and Panorama as they cost a lot more per viewer, than say Strictly Come Dancing. Some things need support even if the amount of people taking advantage of this support is relatively small. Don't get caught up in some Anti-Scottish agenda with this news article!
Or should every penny be allocated depending on how popular a certain requirement is? i.e. We would have excellent Nightclub and Primark funding, but less popular activities will just be ignored.
This post smacks of divide and rule. What happens when funding to for example, supporting young car enthusiasts is suggested to be raised? That will be supported on here, but nationally, very few people will take advantage from it. And there will be a load of Scottish Gaelic speakers saying how that is abhorrent as their funding was not supported.
A better example maybe is if you would like BBC documentaries cut such as Horizon and Panorama as they cost a lot more per viewer, than say Strictly Come Dancing. Some things need support even if the amount of people taking advantage of this support is relatively small. Don't get caught up in some Anti-Scottish agenda with this news article!
cs02rm0 said:
For some reason a lot of money is going north of the border these days.
Isn't there a pledge somewhere that Brown (amongst others) has signed in which they agree to put the benefit of Scotland first?..I can't remember the name of the thing....surely wrong for a UK primeminister to do this...? I'll see if I can find it...found it "Scottish Claim of Right"..
one of the items says..
"...We, gathered as the Scottish Constitutional Convention, do hereby acknowledge the sovereign right of the Scottish people to determine the form of Government best suited to their needs, and do hereby declare and pledge that in all our actions and deliberations their interests shall be paramount..."
Edited by esselte on Monday 9th February 16:25
I'm glad Gaelic is being supported. It's mainly still spoken in the Highlands and Islands where often primary schools have more children being taught in Gaelic than English, it's become a bit trendy again.
Considering my niece lives in an area with no street lights, no pavements, few local amenities I don't see why her parents taxes shouldn't go towards something they want promoted.
Considering my niece lives in an area with no street lights, no pavements, few local amenities I don't see why her parents taxes shouldn't go towards something they want promoted.
Catz said:
I'm glad Gaelic is being supported. It's mainly still spoken in the Highlands and Islands where often primary schools have more children being taught in Gaelic than English, it's become a bit trendy again.
Considering my niece lives in an area with no street lights, no pavements, few local amenities I don't see why her parents taxes shouldn't go towards something they want promoted.
Perhaps her parents' taxes would be better spent on laying a few local pavements, streetlights and a few local amenities, rather than flushing them straight down the toilet...Considering my niece lives in an area with no street lights, no pavements, few local amenities I don't see why her parents taxes shouldn't go towards something they want promoted.
I sincerely hope this doesn't turn into another thread full of ignorant anti-unionist English having a pop at the Scottish.
People who start all this division seem to have very short memories particularly when it comes to sharing resources.
We have one of the greatest histories and diverse cultures in the world in Britain. Why on Earth you chose to try and segregate yourselves from it is beyond me. You can hold your heads up high and be proud to be British- A nation that helped give birth to the modern world. Or you can claim we should be segregated and take precedence from wars hundreds of years before your birth or football results that never mattered.
"Great Britain. Love it or LEAVE."
People who start all this division seem to have very short memories particularly when it comes to sharing resources.
We have one of the greatest histories and diverse cultures in the world in Britain. Why on Earth you chose to try and segregate yourselves from it is beyond me. You can hold your heads up high and be proud to be British- A nation that helped give birth to the modern world. Or you can claim we should be segregated and take precedence from wars hundreds of years before your birth or football results that never mattered.
"Great Britain. Love it or LEAVE."
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