Mailwatch(ed) Forum

Malcolm Armsteen wrote: ↑Wed May 13, 2026 10:16 am

Killer Whale wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2026 1:55 pm It used to have an Aluminum smelting plant that used excess power generated a Wylfa

Ahem...

I have a spell checker set to both Welsh and British English, and still it will autocorrect colour to color. I've given up trying to get it to co-operate.

I would think they could probably live with a (soft) nationalist government in Wales. There's a fair bit already put forward in Welsh Government plans, which if funded now, the Labour Government in Westminster could claim was something they were going to do anyway.

Not all of this stuff will happen, but some of it should. Whether anyone voting Reform cares about rail is a different question.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c80jyx2xljno

Tourist taxes are apparently in the Kings Speech. I would guess this would be devolved to the Senedd. In England it'll be regional mayors. Useful money, I suppose, but not transformative. House of Commons Library reckons £1 a night raises about £30m for Wales.

Killer Whale wrote: ↑Wed May 13, 2026 10:19 am

Malcolm Armsteen wrote: ↑Wed May 13, 2026 10:16 am

Killer Whale wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2026 1:55 pm It used to have an Aluminum smelting plant that used excess power generated a Wylfa

Ahem...

I have a spell checker set to both Welsh and British English, and still it will autocorrect colour to color. I've given up trying to get it to co-operate.

Ah knaa, ye knaa... Mine's set to Geordie.

It's the forum software I think.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Wed May 13, 2026 10:34 am Tourist taxes are apparently in the Kings Speech. I would guess this would be devolved to the Senedd. In England it'll be regional mayors. Useful money, I suppose, but not transformative. House of Commons Library reckons £1 a night raises about £30m for Wales.

We already have an overnight visitor levy and second home council tax multipliers available to local authorities.

Ah, apologies.

I suppose that at least Wales doesn't look out of kilter with England now.

I know this might seem shallow, but I quite like Rhun ap Iorwerth (crazy name, crazy guy), the new Welsh First Minister.

Seems a very decent and shrewd bloke, with a nice relaxed manner. But then, I like nearly all the Welsh people I've encountered.

just as a matter of interest, does Senedd conduct business in Welsh?

Only when I walk in to the chamber.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Wed May 13, 2026 12:52 pm Only when I walk in to the chamber.

True story: mate of mine walked into a shop in Bangor some decades ago and that genuinely happened. He played along, before turning round as he left and saying to the people in the shop "be careful who you insult in case they understand you" - in perfect Welsh.

He also speaks Welsh to beggars.

Watchman wrote: ↑Wed May 13, 2026 12:37 pm just as a matter of interest, does Senedd conduct business in Welsh?

Both languages are used, and people are able to use the language of their choice - instantaneous translation is universally available. In practical terms, of course, Welsh speakers very rarely require translation from English.

Abernathy wrote: ↑Wed May 13, 2026 12:08 pm I know this might seem shallow, but I quite like Rhun ap Iorwerth (crazy name, crazy guy), the new Welsh First Minister.

Seems a very decent and shrewd bloke, with a nice relaxed manner. But then, I like nearly all the Welsh people I've encountered.

Rhun's great strength is his pragmatism, which, after the likeable but ideological Leanne Wood and the academic, over-cerebral Adam Price, is a great sign that things will actually get done.

Edited to Add: Re. the name thing, there was a joke circulating around Reform circles that his name is actually Ron Jones but he decided to change it to ramp up his Welshness (and also because the cunts couldn't be bothered to give him the respect of pronouncing it properly).
As with many of these things on social media, this has developed into an actual conspiracy theory, where people are demanding to see his birth certificate. Fucking idiots.

Sounds like a perfectly good excuse to only use Welsh

Quick question for the Welsh speakers here: is the "ap" in his surname an equivalent to "of" in English, "de" in French etc.?

It means 'son of'. As opposed to ferch, which is 'daughter of' - but you don't see that as often.

Thanks for that

You're welcome.

Its roots are in Mab - son, the equivalent of Irish Mac. During the middle ages it morphed into ap - no Welsh word is so short that it can't be shortened further in order to fit more clecs into the time available. It was important to know your lineage since under the laws of Hywel Dda (Howell the Good) privileges bestowed on a family were good for seven generations. If you were Owain ab Osian ap Rhys ap Meredydd ap Iorwerth ab Efan ab Ifan, and Ifan had done the king a favour, you needed to know this.
The patronymic system fell out of use after the Tudors absorbed Wales and Welsh law into England and English law, but it's fossilised in such surnames as Bowen, Bevan and Pritchard.
During the cultural revival of the 'sixties, patronymic names became fashionable again, so it's quite common, at least in activist circles for people to give their children names such as (genuine examples from friends of mine) Sion ap Iestyn or Elin ferch Tomos (the female equivalent) or, indeed, for young people upon reaching cultural awareness to adopt their own patronymic (or sometimes geographical) name.
Rhun's father, the activist Edward Morus, claims that he tried to register his son as Rhun ap Iorwerth, but the registrar in the Anglicised south Wales valleys refused, so he had to use the English-style patronym Rhun Edwards on the documentation.

Killer Whale wrote: ↑Tue May 12, 2026 3:37 pm
A bit weird seeing an image where a lot of the faces (Beca Brown AS, Carrie Harper AS, Elwyn Vaughan AS, I could go on) are people who've been your friends since before they were even local councillors.

Now the responsibility starts. In a country such as ours, with a mess of an economy, divisions and inequality wherever you look, failing public services, and a limited toolkit at our disposal, this is not going to be easy.

Do you have much of a sense of policy differences with the Welsh Labour government? On transport, Welsh Labour have (rightly in my view) been pretty pro-roads, and the difference shows once you cross the border into Herefordshire or Shropshire (and Gloucestershire, though perhaps a bit less so). But I accept that a different government might want to emphasize rail a bit more. That mean pushing for the TfW plan on rail to be funded properly, and maybe a bit more rail.

What do you think?