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Government of Wales Bill

I would rather look at the bigger picture. There is a danger that we might end up going a bit too far and alienating the many people in Wales who do not speak the language but who have a very good attitude towards it and are prepared to support policies such as compulsory Welsh up to the age of 16 in all state schools, which is something that I have a problem with after key stage 4. I am not going to go so far as to say that I support the amendments, but I do support the Welsh language. Years ago, my great-grandmother, who came from west Wales, caused shock and horror by saying that she thought that it was important to learn Welsh in order to be able to communicate with the servants—[Laughter.] I am sure that I am going to regret sharing that. However, if we were to go to some parts of Cardiff nowadays—particularly the Pontcanna area, which is inhabited by quangocrats—we would probably find that it was the other way round, and that people would have to learn English in order to talk to the domestic servants. I shall finish by reminding people of the Welsh phrase, ““Gan bwyll mynd yn bell””, which roughly translates as ““Go a little bit more slowly and you’ll get a lot further in the long run.””