Nicola Sturgeon not standing for election

I do agree that these languages should not be lost in the mists of time Soutra, that would be devastating, but making it compulsory up to GCSE level, translating every official document into Welsh with the subsequent waste of paper, changing every street name into dual language at great cost etc is going too far imo.

I think it is important to understand the language of one's heritage. Not a Highlander so no history of Gaelic in my family but I am conscious of not even being able to pronounce place names in my home country.
So while I do not think Welsh , Gaelic or Irish Gaelic should be a stick to beat the "foreign English" about the head with, it would have been a great loss for the UK if these languages had disappeared altogether.

Yes, I agree! But there seems to be very little appetite for 'change' or 'modernisation' except in very gradual stages...

My other point is that it is costing £millions that could be spent in areas where it is desperately needed and where Wales is so lagging behind England in its services.

Just because Welsh is compulsory as a subject in Welsh schools doesn't mean that all pupils will be able to speak two languages when they leave school.

In areas where Welsh is not the language used at home for example, a lot of children are unenthusiastic about learning it at school. Unless the school is bilingual, Welsh lessons are just that and children can't be forced to learn if they're disinclined.

I was really just pointing out that it should be a choice; time spent learning Welsh could be spent learning another language - a European language, Russian, Mandarin etc - but there is no choice and it is a very insular ruling.

As the DA of someone who speaks three languages fluently and two others well enough to get by (and translates and edits technical books three ways) and the DM of someone who speaks two fluently and another well enough to get by (and who just missed out on the Welsh language education at school ) I heartily agree!
Latin has always seemed important to me because it is the basis of so many other languages.
Someone spoke to me in Welsh in Australia too. But I don't think it will catch on over there.

Argentina, Canada and the US, apparently.

It's the idea of knowing more than one language, and therefore being more confident of learning languages that matters, roseq. My son's partner is Danish. Not many people speak that, either. She is not recognisably Scandinavian when she speaks. However, she can pick up languages easily, as can her brother and his wife.
It's the attitude that matters.

At least the Welsh will be able to speak two languages
and much good will it do them outside of Wales (oh, Patagonia too).

Eloethan my friend's DM told me about when she was a little girl and if she spoke Welsh she had to sit in the corner with a cap on with 'D' on it.

However, things were different in those days; how many children are caned or rapped over the knuckles with a ruler as we were?

I am all for Welsh being taught as an option and many people will want to do that and for their children to learn. It is the compulsory nature of it that is disturbing and imo wasteful.

There was a notice pinned up in the hospital last time we went which was all in Welsh (no English translation). None of the nurses ( 75% Welsh) could translate it and were laughing about the ridiculousness of it. In fact, someone deciphered in the end that it said 'abuse of the hospital staff will be dealt with severely etc etc'.

GN will be 4 years old in May.

This is not a new issue. South of the border it has been eminently possible to ignore the political situation in Wales, NI and Scotland. Since the high-profile referendum debates and the fact that SNP are now appearing on a national stage, it has suddenly become a prominent factor in the GE.
There are no surprises for those of us who've known the facts all along but for those who, in a fairly complacent way, have regarded as irrelevant any non-English issue, it seems to have come as a shock that decisions are made outwith Westminster.
Isn't it interesting and exciting that so many voters are finding new and interesting areas of politics to explore?
Perhaps we'll see a UK-wide surge of citizens registering to vote and then turning up at the ballot boxes as we did in September.
A long-needed shot in the arm for democracy?

At least the Welsh will be able to speak two languages.

I didn't know how long GN had been going anno. I thought Soutra meant it had been discussed at great length on here.

Alex Salmond is standing in Gordon for Westminster and if he gets in will be an MP but will not, I think, be the leader of the SNP in Westminster. That job at present, and I hope in the future, is done by Angus Robertson, who is standing for re-election in Moray.

Nicola Sturgeon MSP is the leader of the SNP (overall, not in Westminster) and is not standing for election as there is no election until next year for the Scottish Parliament. She will have no vote in Westminster, of course.

I hope that adds a little light as there seems to be a lot of confusion

x'd posts Anno??

I realise it's veering off the point rather, but as rosequartz brought up the issue of the Welsh language being a compulsory subject in Wales, I thought I would just mention that at one time the English banned teaching of the Welsh language in schools. If children inadvertently uttered anything in Welsh in the classroom they were handed a Welsh Not plaque to shame them and were then punished at the end of the class. This naturally had an affect on the number of people who were able to speak Welsh fluently and I believe the current policies have been an attempt to redress the balance.

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Rosequartz, GN didn't exist when Scotland and Wales achieved devolution. The Scotland Act 1998; first Parliament established May 1999. Wales Act also 1998.

The Scottish Parliament dates from 1999 and the Devolution referendum was held in 1997 so both predate Gransnet by quite a few years as far as I can see.

We may not have been on GN but surely that doesn't mean we were unaware of what was going on ?

Some of us may not have been on GN when devolution was being discussed, soutra , although I was when the recent Scottish referendum was under discussion.

Wales is way behind England in educational standards and has been for years, even allowing for the compulsory Welsh language lessons. You'd think the Assembly would have got to grips with it, not having had to endure the meddlings of the likes of Michael Gove etc, but they just seem to bicker among themselves...

Technically, yes, doing two jobs he will get two salaries, unless he refuses one salary as our MP did.

Which begs the question: if he (and others) can do both jobs properly then each job is part-time therefore they cannot complain that they are underpaid.

POGS it is no privilege having an Assembly, I can assure you.

A worse Health Service, education in some areas in crisis and goodness knows how much money wasted translating everything into Welsh and compulsorily educating all children in Welsh.
(Don't let these old languages die out for goodness' sake, but don't force it on everyone.)
The cost must be enormous, money which could be spent on health, care for the elderly, education.

Hard to elaborate on what I would just consider "common knowledge" without teaching Granny to suck eggs, but if you cast your mind back to both the Devolution and Referendum debates, no end of column inches written and hot air generated.