Sibboleth
Labour
'Sit on my finger, sing in my ear, O littleblood.'
Posts: 16,029
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Post by Sibboleth on Mar 26, 2019 22:21:45 GMT
And Newport is a whole lot less Welsh than Oswestry lolno |
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clyde1998
SNP
Green (E&W) member; SNP supporter
Posts: 1,765 
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Post by clyde1998 on Mar 26, 2019 22:56:38 GMT
Given the recent Wales-wide polling, it would be a surprise if Plaid aren't third at worst IMO. The Conservatives don't have much they can take from non-Labour parties, which only got a combined 8.3% in 2017. Perhaps Plaid could be the big winners here - but that could be down to what happens in regards to Brexit before the by-election. by elections can be massive shocks but it would have to be a massive turnaround for Plaid to push for second The only thing that makes me think that there's a chance of Plaid coming second (very slim, mind) is the Brexit situation and the lower turnouts that by-elections tend to have. Not usually fertile ground for Plaid, but their new leadership and the mess of the big two at Westminster may convince people. If Plaid can get their supporters out and the Conservatives lose voters over Brexit - either to another party or through not voting at all - then it's possible there could be a contest for second. |
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clyde1998
SNP
Green (E&W) member; SNP supporter
Posts: 1,765
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Post by clyde1998 on Mar 26, 2019 23:02:33 GMT
I think this will be Plaid's best performance in Newport.... but a long way off second Plaid have never saved their deposit in Newport so it’s a fairly low bar 😛 Not in a Westminster election, but they did get around 13% in both Newport seats in the 1999 Welsh Assembly election. I don't know if any Welsh Assembly history affects Westminster by-election results in Wales (thinking generally), not that it would help Plaid here if there is some overlap. |
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Post by greenhert on Mar 26, 2019 23:02:44 GMT
I think this will be Plaid's best performance in Newport.... but a long way off second Plaid have never saved their deposit in Newport so it’s a fairly low bar 😛 Actually they did once in Newport West; Anthony Salkeld polled 7.2% of the vote for Plaid Cymru in Newport West in 2001. They have never done so in Newport East, though. |
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clyde1998
SNP
Green (E&W) member; SNP supporter
Posts: 1,765
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Post by clyde1998 on Mar 26, 2019 23:05:30 GMT
The story is a racist slur And Newport is a whole lot less Welsh than Oswestry In footballing terms, maybe. "They'll be dancing on the streets of The New Saints tonight."  |
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Mar 26, 2019 23:36:50 GMT
Speaking of Wales, I note that Connah's Quay Nomads were runners-up in this year's Scottish Challenge Cup.
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Post by johnloony on Mar 26, 2019 23:56:58 GMT
Plaid have never saved their deposit in Newport so it’s a fairly low bar 😛 Some of you will probably have come across a story on social media, where a muslim woman in full facemask is on a train, talking to her child in a language that is not English. A gammon-faced man eventually loses his rag, and upbraids her for not speaking English, only to be put down by another passenger who tells him she is speaking Welsh! Collapse of stout party, and bigotry is duly defeated. This story is usually said to be set in Newport. Now, I don't know much about Newport's ethnic and religious minority communities, in terms of either size or constitution, but I do know that Newport is not really a Welsh-speaking city, nor are the towns nearby nor to any great extent the valleys of historic Monmouthshire. The story is in any case likely to be invented, but the author might have considered a better setting for their tale of social justice. The former Big Brother contestant Glyn Wise was once speaking in Welsh on a bus and was told to go back to Poland. |
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Post by Penddu on Mar 27, 2019 6:51:01 GMT
Some of you will probably have come across a story on social media, where a muslim woman in full facemask is on a train, talking to her child in a language that is not English. A gammon-faced man eventually loses his rag, and upbraids her for not speaking English, only to be put down by another passenger who tells him she is speaking Welsh! Collapse of stout party, and bigotry is duly defeated. This story is usually said to be set in Newport. Now, I don't know much about Newport's ethnic and religious minority communities, in terms of either size or constitution, but I do know that Newport is not really a Welsh-speaking city, nor are the towns nearby nor to any great extent the valleys of historic Monmouthshire. The story is in any case likely to be invented, but the author might have considered a better setting for their tale of social justice. The former Big Brother contestant Glyn Wise was once speaking in Welsh on a bus and was told to go back to Poland. To be fair he was told that by another Welsh speaker... |
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Post by Adam in Stroud on Mar 27, 2019 8:22:15 GMT
Plaid have never saved their deposit in Newport so it’s a fairly low bar 😛 Some of you will probably have come across a story on social media, where a muslim woman in full facemask is on a train, talking to her child in a language that is not English. A gammon-faced man eventually loses his rag, and upbraids her for not speaking English, only to be put down by another passenger who tells him she is speaking Welsh! Collapse of stout party, and bigotry is duly defeated. This story is usually said to be set in Newport. Now, I don't know much about Newport's ethnic and religious minority communities, in terms of either size or constitution, but I do know that Newport is not really a Welsh-speaking city, nor are the towns nearby nor to any great extent the valleys of historic Monmouthshire. The story is in any case likely to be invented, but the author might have considered a better setting for their tale of social justice. Sounds, er, anecdotal, but if you did find an adult Welsh speaker in Newport perhaps they would most likely be the parent of a child who is learning Welsh at school (as they all do up to 16) and is practising it? And if so, they could just as easily be a head-scarf wearing Muslim as anyone else, but probably not comprehensible to an English-speaker of an older generation who would not have grown up speaking Welsh at home nor learnt it at school. |
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Chris from Brum
Lib Dem
What I need is a strong drink and a peer group.
Posts: 9,732
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Post by Chris from Brum on Mar 27, 2019 8:47:10 GMT
That story gets told about bus passengers on Anglesey, Rhyl, Cwmbran, Aberystwyth, Fishguard, Denbigh, Monmouth, Swansea and all points west! Some of which would be stronger on the Welsh-speaking aspect, but probably a lot weaker on the facemasked muslim woman front. |
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Chris from Brum
Lib Dem
What I need is a strong drink and a peer group.
Posts: 9,732
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Post by Chris from Brum on Mar 27, 2019 8:48:04 GMT
Some of you will probably have come across a story on social media, where a muslim woman in full facemask is on a train, talking to her child in a language that is not English. A gammon-faced man eventually loses his rag, and upbraids her for not speaking English, only to be put down by another passenger who tells him she is speaking Welsh! Collapse of stout party, and bigotry is duly defeated. This story is usually said to be set in Newport. Now, I don't know much about Newport's ethnic and religious minority communities, in terms of either size or constitution, but I do know that Newport is not really a Welsh-speaking city, nor are the towns nearby nor to any great extent the valleys of historic Monmouthshire. The story is in any case likely to be invented, but the author might have considered a better setting for their tale of social justice. Sounds, er, anecdotal, but if you did find an adult Welsh speaker in Newport perhaps they would most likely be the parent of a child who is learning Welsh at school (as they all do up to 16) and is practising it? And if so, they could just as easily be a head-scarf wearing Muslim as anyone else, but probably not comprehensible to an English-speaker of an older generation who would not have grown up speaking Welsh at home nor learnt it at school. The child may be learning Welsh, but would the parent necessarily be able to converse in it? |
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Post by gwynthegriff on Mar 27, 2019 9:54:07 GMT
That story gets told about bus passengers on Anglesey, Rhyl, Cwmbran, Aberystwyth, Fishguard, Denbigh, Monmouth, Swansea and all points west! Some of which would be stronger on the Welsh-speaking aspect, but probably a lot weaker on the facemasked muslim woman front. If it were set in the Dolgellau area and involved a turbaned Sikh rather than a veiled muslim then I could name the Sikh involved.  But I think the story is apocryphal. |
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Post by gwynthegriff on Mar 27, 2019 9:57:12 GMT
Some of you will probably have come across a story on social media, where a muslim woman in full facemask is on a train, talking to her child in a language that is not English. A gammon-faced man eventually loses his rag, and upbraids her for not speaking English, only to be put down by another passenger who tells him she is speaking Welsh! Collapse of stout party, and bigotry is duly defeated. This story is usually said to be set in Newport. Now, I don't know much about Newport's ethnic and religious minority communities, in terms of either size or constitution, but I do know that Newport is not really a Welsh-speaking city, nor are the towns nearby nor to any great extent the valleys of historic Monmouthshire. The story is in any case likely to be invented, but the author might have considered a better setting for their tale of social justice. The former Big Brother contestant Glyn Wise was once speaking in Welsh on a bus and was told to go back to Poland. Can we start a collection? I'd contribute. |
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Tony Otim
Green
Suffering from Brexistential Despair
Posts: 11,902
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Post by Tony Otim on Mar 27, 2019 10:30:31 GMT
I saw a version of this story with a half Welsh half Spanish guy. Only this time he had actually been speaking Spanish but said he'd been speaking Welsh to shut the guy up. His antagonist was none the wiser.
And I don't buy any version of the story either.
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Post by gwynthegriff on Mar 27, 2019 10:37:03 GMT
I saw a version of this story with a half Welsh half Spanish guy. Only this time he had actually been speaking Spanish but said he'd been speaking Welsh to shut the guy up. His antagonist was none the wiser. And I don't buy any version of the story either. I bumped into somebody a few years ago (in the Brecon & Radnor constituency funnily enough) who had fluent Spanish, decent Welsh but only a smattering of English. She was - unsurprisingly - from Patagonia. |
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Post by gwynthegriff on Mar 27, 2019 11:25:49 GMT
Incidentally, I am sure that 99.999% of the people describing this# as an urban myth believe firmly in the "walked into a pub/shop and they all switched to speaking Welsh" story.
And that 99.999% of those convinced that this is true would firmly describe the "walked into a pub/shop..." story as an urban myth.
Personally I suspect both are urban myths.
# The "lady in a hijab speaking Welsh" story.
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Chris from Brum
Lib Dem
What I need is a strong drink and a peer group.
Posts: 9,732
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Post by Chris from Brum on Mar 27, 2019 11:36:00 GMT
I saw a version of this story with a half Welsh half Spanish guy. Only this time he had actually been speaking Spanish but said he'd been speaking Welsh to shut the guy up. His antagonist was none the wiser. And I don't buy any version of the story either. I bumped into somebody a few years ago (in the Brecon & Radnor constituency funnily enough) who had fluent Spanish, decent Welsh but only a smattering of English. She was - unsurprisingly - from Patagonia. Hasn't Patagonian Welsh diverged somewhat from Cymric Welsh by now, and absorbed lots of Spanish loanwords? |
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Chris from Brum
Lib Dem
What I need is a strong drink and a peer group.
Posts: 9,732
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Post by Chris from Brum on Mar 27, 2019 11:46:34 GMT
But I think the story is apocryphal. "Apocryphal" is being kind, I think. "Invented" would be my word of choice. |
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Post by gwynthegriff on Mar 27, 2019 12:05:18 GMT
I bumped into somebody a few years ago (in the Brecon & Radnor constituency funnily enough) who had fluent Spanish, decent Welsh but only a smattering of English. She was - unsurprisingly - from Patagonia. Hasn't Patagonian Welsh diverged somewhat from Cymric Welsh by now, and absorbed lots of Spanish loanwords? Possibly, but I have no trouble understanding Patagonian Welsh. And the accent is delightful! Welsh with a Spanish lilt. |
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Post by LDCaerdydd on Mar 27, 2019 12:30:11 GMT
Plaid have never saved their deposit in Newport so it’s a fairly low bar 😛 Some of you will probably have come across a story on social media, where a muslim woman in full facemask is on a train, talking to her child in a language that is not English. A gammon-faced man eventually loses his rag, and upbraids her for not speaking English, only to be put down by another passenger who tells him she is speaking Welsh! Collapse of stout party, and bigotry is duly defeated. This story is usually said to be set in Newport. Now, I don't know much about Newport's ethnic and religious minority communities, in terms of either size or constitution, but I do know that Newport is not really a Welsh-speaking city, nor are the towns nearby nor to any great extent the valleys of historic Monmouthshire. The story is in any case likely to be invented, but the author might have considered a better setting for their tale of social justice. Mike Parker, Plaid candidate in Ceredigion 2015, tells of a similar tale while canvassing an English incomer in a village in the far north of Ceredigion who complains that "they" don't speak English in his book 'The Greasy Poll' Plaid have never saved their deposit in Newport so it’s a fairly low bar 😛 Actually they did once in Newport West; Anthony Salkeld polled 7.2% of the vote for Plaid Cymru in Newport West in 2001. They have never done so in Newport East, though. Apologies missed that one. 7/7.5% is probably a realistic target for Plaid in this seat next week. |
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