The Curious Case Of An English Historian

Lucy Inglis…..

…..yesterday caused a Twitter stir when she decided that she might shake off some of her maudlin mid-life dissatisfaction by blaming Wales, our people and our language for the cause of her misery. Rather than sit quietly in a darkened room, contemplate her sorry lot and make change, she opted to blame 3,000,000 people hundreds of miles away for what one can only describe as the anti-climactic hole that is her life.

(For those of you who don’t know who Lucy Inglis is, she’s an author, historian, eduation specialist and a mainstream media contributor. Google her. I did and I discovered that she likes to portray herself as an open minded, tolerant, left wing kind of people person. My mind boggled!)

The crux of her feeble argument centres around the fact that as a child she visited a damp school camp and heard the staff speak Welsh. This, she concluded, was an outrage designed to exclude her. She has subsequently held a 40 plus year grudge and now has no qualms about sharing this racist bias with her 9000 Twitter followers. Really, Lucy?

None of us escaped her wrath!- even the ‘toxic’ S4C, home of Fflic A Fflac got a bashing. This, she eloquently recommended in classy sophisticated tongue, presumably along with every viewer and Welsh speaker, should “get royally fucked”.

Lucy is a historian and an educator. Lucy should know better. Alas, Lucy is also a fool.

So Lucy, let me take a moment to educate you. You see, when we speak Welsh, it isn’t because we’re rude or racist, and it isn’t designed to ostracise and demean self important you. The reason some of us speak Welsh to each other is because it is as natural as you and your friends in the shadow of St Paul’s speaking English. We speak Welsh on this side of the border because it’s our language. You speak English on your side because it’s yours.
In fact, there would be a hell of a lot more of us speaking this beautiful language had it not been for the fact that your English counterparts did and continue to do all that they could to wipe it out, something which a person with your credentials must surely know. Are you angry that this colonial mission failed?

 

We have fought hard to retain Welsh because it is us and we are it. It’s a part of our heritage and our history, something that a historian and educator should surely appreciate without rancour. I wonder why you object and can only put it down to sheer proud ignorance combined with racism. There can be no other explanation.

I’m sorry you feel excluded by us and hope you never come back here but should you ever patronise us with a revisit, it would serve you well to bear in mind that we’re not being rude when speaking Welsh within your earshot. We are actually being bloody polite by switching to English to accommodate you.

I could complain daily that I have had to stop speaking Welsh because the person I’m conversing with is an English speaking monoglot, but I don’t and neither does anybody else that I know. We don’t do that because far from being the miserable, rude nation that you describe, we actually compromise linguistically every day. We live our lives making that compromise. People like you never thank us for it. Instead, you attack us when we don’t jump over the language barrier and land on you side with unadulterated glee. We in Wales swim the metaphorical river every day to meet you on your language shore. In response, people like you refuse to even dip their toes in the water to accommodate us. Yet we, not you, are the hostile ones? Do you want to take a moment to think about that one? I think you should.

You’ll doubtless find this post rude, obnoxious, aggressive or any number of adjectives which help promote your anti-Welsh crusade but I don’t care, Lucy, because I find you rude, obnoxious and aggressive too. By this point in time, I’m tired of reading pettiness from people like you who treat me and Wales with contempt. I’m also keenly aware that were you to demonstrate such hostility against Jewish or Muslim people, you would be universally condemned for your outspoken views. Perhaps that’s why you have settled your beady little eye on Wales?

I think we receive your abuse because you think you can get away with it, and perhaps you would attack Jewish or Muslim people if you thought you could get away with that too. I don’t know. Is attacking Welsh people the go-to and the cowardly closet bigot’s natural home, maybe? Perhaps we get it because you think we are too timid to stand up for ourselves in a world where few others stand up for us?  Perhaps you have never questioned your English God given right to talk about us like shit? Or perhaps you’re a vile bully in all walks of life? I don’t know and will never find out because, thankfully and by virtue of being Welsh, I will never be good enough to be a part of your social network.

The more I think about you, the more angry I become by your response to our reaction. Why assert  “aren’t they hateful people” when we dared to defend ourselves? Do you expect us to lay down and show no resistance to being kicked? Well sorry we weren’t willing to roll over and play dead for you, Lucy, but this doesn’t make us hateful. It just makes us sick of it, of you and of the hateful bile that spills all too readily from your biased and intolerant English lips.

So thanks for reading this, Lucy, ( and I know that you have read it despite your ignoring of it)  and thanks for your time. Your vile bigotry opened an unnecessary can of worms and sadly, crying victim won’t put those worms back in that can. Perhaps educating yourself, revising your hostility and accepting us as a distinct nation of individuals will though. Saying sorry might go some way to righting things too. Stopping before you persecute people, that too will help.

So to conclude, I kindly suggest that you and all people with a similar sense of entitlement revise their colonial attitudes and accept that you do not, can not, never have been and never will be more important than what we as a small nation of proud, generous, open minded, tolerant people have been put through by your precious England. Despite everything that has been thrown at us, we are still here. Attitudes like yours only serve to make us stronger

And with that, you may now slip your superior self back under your flag. Hwyl!

 FOOTNOTE:

 

Attitudes such as Lucy’s are commonplace. If, like me, you are tired of being insulted by people who view us as second class, take a look at these websites. #independence #indycurious #indyconfident #indywales. Yes, we can!

http://www.partyof.wales

http://yes.cymru

Don’t know about you but me, I’m bored, sick and tired of being told that Wales is second class, substandard, inferior, unwilling, unable and uncooperative. If England and the English really believe this to be true, they should let us rule ourselves