SUZY DAVIES AM/AC has loaned her voice to comments made by journalist and broadcaster Huw Edwards on the “anglicisation” of Welsh place and building names, following a report today (January 7) on news website nation.cymru.
Mr Edwards – one of the stalwarts of BBC News – took to social media concerned at how Welsh is, in some cases, becoming a victim of what has been termed “linguistic cleansing”.
Examples given include So Porth Trecastell became “Cable Bay”, and the deconsecrated church of Nantcwnlle, now a private residence, becoming “Dunroamin”.
With his tongue perhaps in his cheek, Mr Edwards added: “I propose replacing London with its old Welsh name ‘Caerludd’. No? Ah. I thought not.”
Mrs Davies – Shadow Minister for the Welsh Language – said: “Huw makes an amusing point, but no less powerful for its cheekiness. However, that it follows the news report yesterday that Transport for Wales (TfW) had, according to a leaked report, broken the law over its use of the Welsh language, makes for quite sad reading.
“We Welsh Conservatives supported a backbench bill to protect Welsh place names, but neither the Welsh Government no Welsh Labour supported it, and the bill was defeated by three votes.”
As nation.cymru reports, in 2017 a bill at the Senedd to protect historical place names in planning law has failed after Welsh Government minister Ken Skates said the proposals were not feasible.
All the opposition groups – Plaid Cymru, UKIP and the Conservatives – supported the proposal. However with Labour whipped to oppose, AMs voted 28 against to 25 for.
The bill would have deployed a range of measures to protect names, including establishing a system where people who want to change a historic name must seek consent to do so, and a general prohibition on changing a historical place name.
Suzy Davies continued: “Huw is a such a well-known figure – from election night coverage to commentating on the annual Festival of Remembrance, and from presenting the BBC’s flagship news programmes to commentating on royal events – that I wonder if he could use his influence on not only this issue, but perhaps also to bring more news from this devolved nation to the UK as a whole.
“Rarely does Wales – or Scotland and Northern Ireland – feature on mainstream media news across the UK.
“Even when reports are flagged up as relevant in England only, we’re not told what the position is in the other UK nations. It’s time that news from all nations in the UK is reported to the country as a whole because understanding our present is every bit as valuable as understanding our history.”
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