do all Scottish, Irish and Welsh speak English?

<<The people of North Wales hate the people of South Wales because the people of South Wales rarely speak Welsh, preferring to speak English. The people of Monmouthsire, despite being a Welsh county, consider themselves as English rather than Welsh.>> Adam

I'm from Gwent. I speak Welsh and I do not hate anyone, Least of all my northern countrymen. Adam (page 1) should make sweeping generalisations about people and then pass off his narrow minded and arrogant attitude as popular concensus.

"However the Welsh, being arseholes, like to speak to English speakers in Welsh, even though they can speak English."

How does Adam know what 3 miilion people think has he asked them?

It's a little tiresome pointing this out but someonne has to it!

***It's a little tiresome pointing this out but someonne has to it!***

You are obviously new! The Scots and Welsh contributors to this Forum gave up on Adam a long time ago. "Tiresome" is an operative word, and so is "joke". The both go together as far as wee Sassenach Bolton Bloke is concerned.

Hwyl fawr i Sir Fynwy

"How does Adam know what 3 miilion people think has he asked them?

It's a little tiresome pointing this out but someonne has to it! "

I'm surprised you're speaking to me in English rather than Welsh. I'm used to the Welsh speaking to me in Welsh because they know I can't understand it.

"The Scots and Welsh contributors to this Forum gave up on Adam a long time ago."

Who cares what the Scots and Welsh think? You're all insignificant. England has got cities with more people than what the whole of Scotland and Wales have. A lot of our counties are bigger. The English just don't care about you.

As Anne Robinson once famously said: "What are the Welsh FOR?"

At long last we English are beginning to find the Welsh out.They have glided along on Englands coattails to long.I have bad anti English memories being in wales, where they do indeed talk in there native tongue when your about them, even though they know English.We can have the people who changed the world on our bank notes.and the same can be said for the Scot's,the welsh on the otherhand are left with her from Hi-De-Hi.

Brennus said>>>>>>
"The situation is even worse in Scotland where there are probably no true native speakers of Scots Gaelic left (i.e. speakers who learned the language on their mother's knee). A woman named Mary Stewart, who died in 1972, was the last known speaker of the Sutherland dialect of Scots Gaelic and even she was reportedly bilingual, having learned Gaelic at home as a child but English in school."

Brennus Brennus Brennus.....wrong wrong wrong. Except, possibly, the dialect bit.
The culture of Scots who are non-native Gaelic speakers learning the language is only in its infancy. So the vast, vast majority of Gaelic speaking Scots learned it "on their mother's knee". Thankfully the Scottish Parliament FINALLY passed a bill in 2005 enshrining Gaelic as the Official language of Scotland in equality with the English Language. They should have done that when power was first devolved to Scotland in 1999. This opens up lots of roads for Gaelic. New Schools, improved coverage in the media e.t.c. The Gaelic Revival has been born.
Your ridiculously wrong point, ironically, is true of myself however. The British State (under the guise of the "Scottish" Education System) HaHaHa!!!! educated me and my family going back 3/4 genarations in English. The last native speaker of Gaelic in my family died in the 1903. I was therefore brought up by my single mother speaking English with a handful of Gaelic phrases. I have taught myself Gaelic although I am still working on my writing.
Read up on the "Anglicisation of the Scottish Court/monarchy". Correct me if i am wrong, but I think the first British State funded school in scotland that taught all classes through Gaelic was opened in 1982! 1982!! Scots Gaelic obviously came from Goidelic AKA Old Irish and so is almost as old as Welsh.That sums up the attitude of Anglicisied people in scotland and in the UK. Read up on it > parents who were native Gaelic speakers used to discourage their children from speaking Gaelic because it was drummed into them that the only way of getting on it life was through the English language.

Yes. I realise I am very pasionate about this subject. I often question my sanity... hahaha. You have to realise that a person/ a country is defined by its language. It is the single most defining thing, in my opinion. The Cymry and the Gaidheals of Ireland feel the same do you not? Let me know, leave a message. Alba gu brath.

"dAMIAN IN dUN eIDANN = looks vaguely Gaelic! Ha! Got my caps lock locked. Damian in Dun Eidann in Lowland Scots English.

On the other hand I could even fancy Germany itself......let's just see how it all pans out from tomorrow onwards. Baden Baden looks a cool place btw."

You spelled it wrong. LOL. It Is Dùn Èideann. There was a tendency to use an acute accent on the inital E of Èideann, but several reforms in Scottish Gaelic orthography effectivly scrapped the use of the acute accent in the whole of the language. Sometimes the E of Èideann has no accent whatsoever.

Gallwn i ddim wedi gweud e'n well fy'n hunan Meic! Saes dwl!
(I couldn't have put it better myself Meic! Stupid Englishman!

to Adam-
Do you really not understand the seriousness of what your saying? What England did to the other British nations would today be accountable in the Hague. England raped, slaughtered and massacred its way to conquering what, you have said yourself, is just a meaningless peace of land, a country which has less living in it than some of your cities have. ARE YOU PROUD OF THIS FACT?
They have been guilty of trying to destroy our culture, our language and our identity. WHY? Now I would like to stress that I don't want people in England today to feel accountable or even guilty, but I would just like you, for one minute, to just think about why we fight to re-enstate our lost cultures and also to ask yourself one question, 'Am I a better Englishman than those who have lived before me?' Because if you don't, organisations such as the IRA, Meibion Glyndwr ect. will continue to emerge and take a millitant stance for these values. I'm sure we can all recall the miseries caused by this.

"Because if you don't, organisations such as the IRA"

You mean a terrorist organisation that has killed more English and Northern Irish people than Al Qaeda has?

"other British nations would today be accountable in the Hague. England raped, slaughtered and massacred its way to conquering what, you have said yourself, is just a meaningless peace of land, a country which has less living in it than some of your cities have."

England doesn't rule Scotland. What are you talking about? Scotland rules England. The MAJORITY of the members of the British cabinet are Scotsman, despite England's population being around 10 times bigger than Scotland's.

And talking about "slaughtering and conquering" a nation - it wasn't all one way traffic, you know. A Scottish army invaded and pillaged England as recently as 1745 when Bonnie Prince Charlie and his men made it as far south as Derby during the '45 Jacobite Uprising. And then there's the Scottish reivers who frequently crossed the Scottish/English border and robbed people and houses in the North of England.

The Scottish king John Balliol and his army invaded England and massacred some of our inhabitants until England's Edwad I defeated him.

And Scotland joined the Union with England voluntarily in 1707. Why? Because at the time Scotland was bankprupt whereas England was rich, so the Scots joined in a Union with England so they can live off English subsidies - which they STILL do to this day.

The sooner England gets rid of Scotland, the better. Our economy - which always outperforms Scotland's - will grow quicker and the English will become richer because our taxpayers won't have to keep giving subsidies to the Scottish subsidy junkies. Scotland will suffer, though, when it leaves the Union. Not only will it not have England's subsidies anymore but its Socialiat, Left-Wing, Marxist government - which doesn't know how to run an economy to save its life - will make its economy in an even poorer state than it is now.

Here are some replies by Daily Mail readers following an article entitles "Will the Union reach its 300th birthday?"

2007 is the 300th anniversary of the Union of Scotland with England/Wales and the article was talking about Scottish independence. Will the English care? Would Scotland be able to survice on its own without being able to suck on England's teat again?

Here's what some Daily Mail readers said about thsi article. Most are saying that England would become richer if Scotland left the Union whereas Scotland might not be able to cope -

Get rid of the subsidy-junky Scots!

I find it interesting that you do not mention that English soldiers also die in these wars. I guess their lives aren't worth as much and as such don't merit a mention. I assume that there is a certain amount of satisfaction at the number of English soldiers currently dying alongside there Celtic companions in what are essentially [[with Tony Blair and most of his cronies being Scotsmen]] SCOTTISH wars of adventure.

As for sitting back and watching England flounder after Scotland leaves the Union? The GDP per capita in Scotland is roughly US$25000. For England it's roughly US$31000 and there's a lot more of us. The South East of England alone being the 22nd largest economy in the world. At least it was last time I looked. I should see what Blair has done to that standing.

I would suggest that Scotland has more then England to lose in a dissolution of the Union. Perhaps you could revive your coal, steel and ship building industries. Good luck. As for the captains of industry, well they largely work in the City of London. I can't see them rushing home en masse. Because they are already where the money is.

Incentives that exist to move call centre business etc to Scotland to boost the economy would also be in jeapordy.

I believe we are stronger as a union but now we need to look at devolving more power to the 4 main regions. Especially in terms of tax and law. Of course if England were forced to stand alone then so be it. It would ultimately bother the English much less than the Celtic regions.

Posted by Steve, Ipswich, Suffolk on October 25, 2006 4:41 PM
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Scotland needs England to save it from loony left socialism. If Scotland ever becomes independent it will be the new East Germany.

Posted by Murray on October 25, 2006 4:12 PM
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An independent Scotland has to be the most hare brained idea to come along in quite sometime. We in the U.S. have long ago gotten over any hard feeling toward the English and the Scotts should do the same. After all, Scotland has been part of the UK longer than the U.S. has been independent. More importantly, it is a well-accepted notion that larger economies are better suited to compete in the modern world. The E.U is the outgrowth of this notion. It is idiotic for Scotland to contemplating Scottish independence while the E.U. contemplates further integration. I thought this sort of silliness had finally gone out of style when the Quebecois lost their last attempt at independence from Canada.

Posted by Doug on October 25, 2006 4:06 PM
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I love Scotland and have no problem with the Scottish people. But be realistic, if Scotland becomes independent who is going to pay benefits to their thousands of unemployed, alcoholics and drug addicts? Is the plan to exist off benefits? Or will the "independence" still require taxes paid by the South East of England to subsidise them?

Posted by Richard Clarke on October 25, 2006 1:29 PM
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As a Scot living abroad who has watched Scotland degenerate to a point where it has one of the highest government-employed percentages of the workforce in the western world, I hope it does become independent. The reality check of having to live on its own two feet will be salutary! And the English will be better off!

Posted by Colin Wilson on October 25, 2006 6:36 AM

dailymail.co.uk

Adam
No'one on this forum has defended Englands patriotism more than me,when it comes to nailing the Scot's though you are way out of order.During WW2 It was two Scotsmen that stoped us being invaded by the nazi's.Air Marshal Hughe Dowding(Commander Fighter Command)and Robert Watson Watt(Inventor Radar).A Scotsman founded the most elite fighting force in the world,the SAS.A Scot commanded the airbourne division that against all odds held on to arnham bridge for nine days more than they should have ,against a much larger armoured force.A Scot also signed the japanese surrender in tokyo bay on behalf of the British government(Admiral of the fleet Sir Bruce Fraser).So you see Adam unlike you i do my research first,and also living in Scotland aswell i know the kind of people they are,but the Welsh are noway going to convince me.They should be booted out the U.K.

Dànaidh MacIlleDhuibh:

I admit that I am a Lowland Scot and live in a city where most Continental Languages are much, much more likely to be heard than is our native Gaelic! I reckon the chances of hearing Polish (the new "in" Langauge) are a thousand times more likely than hearing our "native" Gaelic being spoken, and that's kosher. Edinburgh has been Anglicised - for want of a better word - for centuries, but still retaining the Lowland Scots dialect (Lallans) for many of us here in this part of Scotland.

I'll let you into a secret - I'm planning on making a concerted effort to learn Gaelic, hopefully to the point of fluency. If it's any consolation I know exactly how to pronounce your name. I should do, too, because I spent practically all my boyhood annual holidays on the Isle of Lewis, still a bastion of the Gaelic Language.

Adam is bashing us again. Ha! If he wasn't doing that in this Forum I'd suspect him of being an impostor. I'm the first to admit that Scotland has social problems but tell me which country doesn't. Some parts are worse than others and even this fine city has it's grotspots for druggies. They wouldn't have made that bloody film if that was not the case. But the bad always exceeds the good in a lot of media publicity, especially in the UK - here the minorities with their negative lifestyles invariably get highlighted while the vast majority - the silent majority - go unremarked upon. That's such a feature of the British media! Bad news is always good news! :-(

Adam needs to think on - many of the things he accepts as part of his everyday life were spawned in very inventive SCOTTISH brains and started life here in Scotland:

Television * Telephone * Pneumatic tyre * Tarmacadam * Thermos flask * Anaesthesia * Penciliin * Kaleidoscope * The Steam Engine * The Vacuum cleaner *

As for the Scottish Giants of Literature and the Arts the list is endless.

At school we learned all about Sir Hugh Dowding as part of our history curriculum and studyig the lives of famous Scots.

Sir Hugh Dowding was a true Scot and he saw this country through it's darkest hours during the 1940 Battle of Britain, leading an RAF which was outnumbered 4 to 1 by the German Luftwaffe in the successful attempt to prevent an invasion by the Nazis, who had already over-run most Continental countries at that time. Dowding was a very cool and dignified sort of bloke - calm and steadfast and resolute - a Scot who led Fighter Command of the RAF against the constant air atacks on Southern and Eastern England in 1940 against tremendous odds as the Nazis sought to invade Great Britain. The pressures on Dowding and the RAF were immense but at a crucial moment Mad Adolf decided to change tactics and started the 57 consecutive night's of all out bombing Blitz on London and other cities in England/Scotland/Wales and this gave Dowding and the RAF some respite - and Mad Adolf was given the big heave ho up his a**e.

At the same time Watson Watt invented the world's first radar detection units as Franny says, and just at the right time during the Battle of Britain, so the Germans were plotted and detected long before they were actually spotted in the air by people on the ground as the massed German planes headed towards the coast to release Hitler's eggs on the heads of the British people.

I am at a looss to understand the animosity directed towards Welsh people! One of my very best mates is a Welsh bloke, and he is one of the nicest people it's possible to meet. Study history and current attitudes from England and you will understand how Welsh resentments exist to this day. Go to Scotland and you will find similar....... That's the way it is. A United Kingdom is sometimes that in name only. LOL