It is a list of the tiny minority - 26 - who voted against the protection of endangered languages and linguistic diversity in the European parliament we find our Ukip MEPs. Details of the motion presented by the Corsican MEP François Alfonsi of the European Free Alliance can be found here: Corsican MEP battles for Europe to protect endangered languages. The full list of those who voted against can be found below:
United Kingdom
Little Englanders-Right
John Stuart AGNEW Ukip
Godfrey BLOOM Ukip
John BUFTON Ukip
Derek Roland CLARK Ukip
Nigel FARAGE Ukip
Roger HELMER Ukip
Paul NUTTALL Ukip
Mike NATTRASS Ukip
France
Centre
Marielle GALLO Union des Démocrates Indépendents
Dominique RIQUET Parti Radical
Right
Jean-Pierre AUDY Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP)
Brice HORTEFEUX UMP
Philippe JUVIN UMP
Jean ROATTA UMP
Far-right
Philippe de VILLIERS Mouvement pour la France
Bruno GOLLNISCH Front National (FN)
Far-left
Jean-Luc MÉLENCHON Front de Gauche
Netherlands
Far-right
Lucas HARTONG Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV)
Daniël van der STOEP Ex PVV now independent
Auke ZIJLSTRA PVV
So a mixture of Right and and one Far Left Politicians Including Ukip and amongst them Leader Nigel Farge and Ukip Welsh MEP John Bufton .
So its relief that Bufton will be retiring as a MEp this year.
But one doubts if those who top that Part List for next yars Euro Elections will vote any differently and follow Farage in opposing support for minority Languages.
If you need proof that Ukip are an Little England Nationalist party it' here.
4 comments:
UKIP visible in its true colours ~ anti-Welsh
I've always thought UKIP are missing a trick in not supporting the Welsh language because surely, from their perspective, it's a native 'British' language and they should therefore back it? As you say, they only care about English culture, and they've got a very warped version of even that.
To be fair, I don't think the report is all that helpful to the Welsh language. It mostly asks for a bunch of things we've had since the 1960s. Also it contains some things which will be downright unhelpful. For instance, it says "teaching in people’s mother tongue is the most effective way of learning", which can only undermine Welsh-medium immersion where the child's mother tongue is English.
Then again, the real aim of the report is presumably to help minority language speakers who live under a more antagonistic government, e.g. in France. It's legislation for a continent of 500m people so it's not surprising if it doesn't address our little corner of 3m very well.
I believe UKIP oppose on principle everything which centralises power to Europe. And in this case, I think they might have a point: Wales is probably the best place to legislate on the Welsh language. But on balance, I'd still probably vote in favour because it will help linguistic minorities less fortunate than ourselves.
UKIP may well be Little England Nationalists but this isn't the proof you're looking for.
Wales most certainly isn't the best place to legislate on the Welsh language. Labour is wedded to the idea that people should be 'persuaded' to use the language through education while rejecting any form of possitive compulsion (such as only using Welsh in certain areas) and arguing that compulsion would damage the language. Yet, in every other sphere where they want to promote equality they start from the idea that compulsion is the way to do it and pass laws with strong compulsion for not obeying them built into them.
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