Cultural relationship between the Welsh and the English

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The relationship between the Welsh and English within Great Britain is mostly characterised by tolerance, respect, and an intermixing of people and cultures. However, elements of mutual mistrust or dislike, and occasionally overt racism, also persist. Hatred or fear of the Welsh by the English or others has been termed Cymrophobia.[1]. Antipathy to the English, by the Welsh or others, is termed Anglophobia.

The relationship has developed historically from the groups' different origins, as respectively earlier inhabitants (Welsh) and Anglo-Saxon invaders (English) of Britain; the military, political, economic and cultural power exercised by the much more populous English over the Welsh for many centuries; the marked differences between the English and Welsh languages, both spoken and written; and the high degree of cultural importance given by many in Wales to signifiers of national identity such as the language, literature, history, traditions, and the national sport of rugby union.

The Anglo-Saxon invasions of Britain led to the formation of Wales between the 5th and 7th centuries. The English conquered the Welsh militarily by the 13th century, and incorporated them fully into the kingdom in the 16th century. Many elements of the Welsh economy and society since then have been shaped by demands from England, and Wales has been described as "England's first colony"[2]. However, there has also been an increasing awareness and acknowledgement of Wales' cultural separateness from England, which has latterly been reflected politically.

Because the Welsh language has different rules of grammar and syntax from English, and a widely different vocabulary, many English speakers find it difficult to learn and speak; a difficulty that for many English applies to most other languages. Letters such as w and y are vowels in Welsh, but often used as consonants in English. Welsh also makes extensive use of digraphs such as ll and dd, and consonant mutations which are rare in English.

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[edit] Recent comments

Recent examples of anti-Welsh sentiment in the media include the journalist A. A. Gill (although Scottish by birth not English) who in the Sunday Times described the Welsh as "loquacious, dissemblers, immoral liars, stunted, bigoted, dark, ugly, pugnacious little trolls."[3] The English writer A. N. Wilson stated:"The Welsh have never made any significant contribution to any branch of knowledge, culture or entertainment. They have no architecture, no gastronomic tradition, no literature worthy of the name." (Evening Standard, 1993)[4]

In 2000, a cross party group of Members of the National Assembly of Wales, representing all four political parties in the Assembly, called for an end to what they termed "persistent anti-Welsh racism" in the UK media.[5].

English television personality Anne Robinson appeared on the comedy show Room 101 in 2001 and made derisive comments about Welsh people, such as "what are they for?" and "I never did like them". The show is designed to draw extreme views from interview subjects in order to generate controversy and humour. The people she was thinking about were supposedly those who spoke Welsh around the market stall operated by her mother in Liverpool during her childhood. Her comments upset some who accused her of racism. North Wales Police spent just 96 hours investigating the issue, and concluded that no crime had been committed. She was cleared of racism by the Broadcasting Standards Commission, who stated that her comments "came close to the boundaries of acceptability"[6] [7] The North Wales Police have also investigated allegations of anti-Welsh racism made against Tony Blair and columnist Cristina Odone Again, no charges were brought.[8]

In 2001, Welsh TV presenter Beca Brown faced criticism when she said that she hated the English "as a race, as people, as a country, and for what they've done to Wales and the Welsh".[9] Anti-English comments by a local councillor were also reported.[10]

Writer Neal Ascherson commented that: "Southern views of the Scots over the last hundred years have been faintly sceptical – "chippy, lacking in humour, slow to unbend" – but on the whole affectionate. (Contrast English attitudes to Welshness, which, for reasons I am not sure of, are often genuinely hostile)."[11]

BBC presenter Jeremy Clarkson is well-known for his xenophobic comments which sometimes take an anti-Welsh direction, e.g. "It’s entirely unfair that some people are born fat or ugly or dyslexic or disabled or ginger or small or Welsh. Life, I’m afraid, is tragic."[12] Another example, in the context of Wales's 2008 Grand Slam victory: "You can never rely on the French. All they had to do was go to Cardiff last weekend with a bit of fire in their bellies and they’d have denied Wales the Six Nations Grand Slam. But no. They turned up instead with cheese in their bellies and mooched about for 80 minutes, seemingly not at all bothered that we’ve got to spend the next 12 months listening to the sheepsters droning on about their natural superiority and brilliance. Or worse. Give them a Grand Slam and the next thing you know, all our holiday cottages are on fire. There are, of course, other reasons I hoped the French would win. I’d rather live in France than Wales; I’d rather eat a snail than a daffodil; I’d certainly rather drink French fizzy wine; and I’d much rather sleep with Carole Bouquet than Charlotte Church."[13] On his BBC2 show he placed a plastic map of Wales in a microwave and burned it to audience applause.[14]

[edit] Historical background

See History of Wales

The native inhabitants of Roman Britain were regarded as Britons (Britanni), and spoke the Brythonic (Celtic) languages which evolved into Welsh (and also Cornish). By the time the Roman troops left in the early 5th century, the Britons (Brythons) had started to come under attack from Angles, Saxons and other peoples from the European mainland, who set up their own kingdoms in what became England. The native Britons established independent kingdoms such as Gwynedd, Powys, Gwent, and (under Irish influence) Dyfed in the more mountainous and remote west. The Battle of Chester in 616, won by the Angles of Northumbria, contributed to the movement of British natives into what became Wales.

Around 730, the English historian Bede described the (Welsh) Britons as "for the most part, through innate hatred, ...adverse to the English nation."[15] By that time, the Saxons had full control of Wessex and Mercia. Mercia, in particular, came into conflict with Powys, and Offa's Dyke was built around 790 to define the boundary between England and Wales and create an effective barrier against Welsh incursions. By the 11th century, Wales - with its own distinct legal system, though only intermittently unified as a political entity - had developed a national identity as Cymru, or "Land of the compatriots" (Cymry), in contrast to the Saeson or Saxons. In England, the Anglo-Saxon language had supplanted the old Brythonic languages, and the English words "Wales" and "Welsh", meaning "foreigners", came to be used to describe the unconquered area to the west.

After William of Normandy's conquest of England in 1066, responsibility for keeping the Welsh under control was in the hands of Marcher Lords in the border areas. Gwynedd and Powys initially remained independent, but slowly came to recognise the overlordship of the kings of England. The writings of Giraldus Cambrensis, setting out both positive and negative aspects of what he saw as the Welsh character, date from around this time. Llywelyn ap Gruffudd had his title of Prince of Wales accepted by the English crown in 1267. Following Edward I's invasion in 1282, the Statute of Rhuddlan legally incorporated Llywelyn's Principality of Wales with England, and Welsh longbowmen began serving with the English army. English settlers were sent to live in Wales - particularly the south and east - and many castles with English garrison towns were built. Over the next few centuries, the English dominated these garrison towns. They imposed an English legal system, and the Welsh were not allowed to hold office in the government or church. Owain Glyndŵr's rebellion in the early 15th century was the last armed rebellion of the Welsh against the English. Anti-Welsh riots were reported in Oxford and London, and Parliament imposed more repressive measures on Wales.[1]

In 1485, Henry Tudor, who was of Welsh descent, gained the English throne as King Henry VII, thanks largely to the support of the Welsh who hoped he was the Mab Darogan who would restore Britain to the Brythons. However, this led to the cementing of Wales into the English administrative and legal system under his son, Henry VIII. The Laws in Wales Acts of 1535-1542 annexed Wales to England, abolished the Welsh legal system, and banned the Welsh language from any official role or status. It also allowed members representing Wales to be elected to Parliament for the first time.[16] Gradually, use of the Welsh language - which had remained prevalent in much of rural Wales - began to revive. There were translations of the Bible into Welsh by 1600, and over the next two centuries there was a steady growth of education in the Welsh language, and the revival of traditions such as the eisteddfod. Distinct democratic and religious movements also began to develop. However, legislation in 1746 introduced the notion that, in all future laws, references to "England" would by default include Wales.

Around the same time, English and Scottish industrialists began establishing iron works and other heavy industry in the coalfield of south Wales. By attracting labour from the rural areas, this produced new urban concentrations of Welsh speakers, and helped build the culture of the south Wales valley communities. The Merthyr Rising of 1831 was a protest against exploitation by the mine owners which began a period of unrest, including the "Rebecca Riots" and the Chartist movement, and a process of radical thinking. In Parliament, Lord Melbourne declared that south Wales was "the worst and most formidable district in the kingdom."[17] The concerns of the English political establishment were shown in the 1847 Royal Commission on Welsh education, which reported that "The Welsh language is a vast drawback to Wales and a manifold barrier to the moral progress and commercial prosperity of the people. It is not easy to over-estimate its evil effects." As a result, English-only schools were set up in much of Wales, and children speaking Welsh were punished with the "Welsh Not".

Although 18th and 19th century English writers increasingly recognised the beauty and grandeur of the Welsh landscape, many contrasted this with a negative view of the Welsh people themselves. For example, The Times newspaper wrote in 1866: "Wales...is a small country, unfavourably situated for commercial purposes, with an indifferent soil, and inhabited by an unenterprising people. It is true it possesses valuable minerals but these have chiefly been developed by English energy and for the supply of English wants." At the same time, rural areas close to England became more depopulated and anglicised, as many people moved to the growing English cities in the north west and Midlands. Welsh culture was important in these areas; for example, the National Eisteddfod of Wales was held in either Liverpool or Birkenhead six times between 1884 and 1929.

Changes to the electoral system meant that, by the end of the 19th century, a Welsh presence began to be felt in British politics. In 1881, the Sunday Closing Act was the first piece of parliamentary legislation that granted Wales the status of a distinct national unit. Around the turn of the 20th century there was considerable anti-Welsh feeling in the English establishment. British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith said in 1905 "I would sooner go to hell than to Wales."[18] One of Evelyn Waugh's characters in the novel Decline and Fall (1928) was made to say: "From the earliest times the Welsh have been looked upon as an unclean people. It is thus that they have preserved their racial integrity. Their sons and daughters rarely mate with human-kind except their own blood relations..... I often think that we can trace almost all the disasters of English history to the influence of Wales"[19]

In the early 20th century, Welsh politicians such as David Lloyd George, and later Aneurin Bevan rose to UK-wide prominence. The growth of modern Welsh nationalism began, and was fuelled by protests over the flooding of Welsh valleys to provide water to English cities. The Welsh Language Acts of 1967 and 1993 gave the language equal status in Wales, and in 1997 the Welsh electorate voted to established a Welsh Assembly.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Mike Parker, Neighbours fron Hell? - English attitudes to the Welsh, 2007, ISBN 0-86243-611-7
  2. ^ BBC NEWS | Wales | North West Wales | Wales-England: Where is the love?
  3. ^ BBC News | UK | Writer reported over "ugly little trolls" Welsh jibe
  4. ^ Welsh say 'racist' Booker judge must go | Independent, The (London) | Find Articles at BNET.com
  5. ^ BBC News | WALES | 'Anti-Welsh racism' protest
  6. ^ Police spent 96 hours probing Anne's jibes | Mail Online
  7. ^ BBC News | ENTERTAINMENT | Robinson remarks 'not racist'
  8. ^ Cristina Odone: Wanted in Wales: Tony, Anne and me | Comment is free | The Observer
  9. ^ BBC News | WALES | 'Anti-English' presenter race row
  10. ^ BBC News | WALES | Plaid anti-English comments inquiry
  11. ^ Eurozine - Scotophobia - Neal Ascherson
  12. ^ Clarkson's column on Timesonline
  13. ^ Timesonline, March 2008
  14. ^ New Statesman
  15. ^ 23 - Book 5 - Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum - Bede
  16. ^ GO BRITANNIA! Wales: Union with England
  17. ^ GO BRITANNIA! Wales: The Great Rising
  18. ^ http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2DB2EHJ08aIC&pg=PA57&lpg=PA57&dq=hell+wales+asquith&source=web&ots=geCFFVnaIX&sig=QjyKaV2W03Zg1CngjH0EcJbmbgY&hl=en]
  19. ^ Evelyn Waugh Biography (1903-1966)

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