I was pleased to support the Welsh Conservative debate in the Senedd Chamber, which aptly took place on St. David’s Day, centred on promoting the Welsh language and creating more opportunities for its use in society.
The data released from the 2021 census provides some bleak reading for Wales. I am utterly disappointed that the percentage of Welsh speakers is at its lowest recorded level. Staggeringly, Wales has 24,000 fewer Welsh speakers today than at the beginning of devolution in 1997. We must increase our efforts to promote and preserve Britain’s oldest language and alter the societal conception that Welsh is not used and acts as a barrier rather than a facilitator of opportunity.
Whilst I am an ardent unionist, individualism and identity are incredibly important and I passionately believe that the Welsh language is a core part of our culture and identity. It provides us with a unique selling point, with tourists admiring that our language has some of the oldest literature in Europe.
However, one of the biggest threats to the survival of the Welsh language is the migration of our youth. Worryingly, more young people feel their aspirations cannot be met within Wales and are looking to settle outside our borders. The lack of opportunities is depriving Wales of fresh talent and creating a damaging perception that Welsh is not worth learning and speaking. We must improve the financial prospects of living in Wales and incentivise young people to stay, especially our Welsh speakers.
I have long advocated for more people in Wales to be bilingual, as languages are a key part of business enterprise, facilitating access to the wider world. Not only have Welsh Labour presided over a decrease in the numbers speaking Welsh, but they have also overseen a collapse of all language learning. To be able to speak another language is a vital skill that our Welsh students are lacking.
The Welsh Conservative debate called on the Welsh Government to do three things to aid Welsh language promotion. To encourage the use of basic conversational Welsh words and bilingual greetings, push Welsh businesses, organisations, and community groups to create a positive environment where Welsh can be spoken at the workplace and, finally, help schools create more opportunities to converse in Welsh outside of school.
Yet, I argue that if we want to foster a generation of Welsh speakers through our education system, we must not forget the most significant support network around our young people and schools. Families. To achieve our collective aim of increasing the number of Welsh speakers and their confidence and ability to do so, we must ensure that adults and parents have easy access to Welsh learning programmes that are flexible to their lifestyles. Conversing in Welsh at home will undoubtedly increase people’s confidence and ability, enabling the language to be promoted across society.
ENDS
