As you can imagine, I do not agree with the comments made today by former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith to introduce a mandatory oath of allegiance for school pupils.
I'm deeply disturbed by proposals to force young people in our schools to swear an oath of allegiance to the monarchy. The conscious right of people in Wales to express their political and cultural identity in their own way would be violated if such proposals are ever realised.
I firmly believe that such practices have no room in a confident, forward looking Wales that is perfectly at ease with its identity. We need reassurances that our National Assembly will have the powers to block any such proposals if Gordon Brown chooses to embrace Lord Goldsmith's recommendations in full.
What we need is more investment in political citizenship across the board at a younger age, not an attempt at forcing a narrow, old fashioned and Imperial political ideology on our young people. Scotland has already rejected the plans, so too should Wales.
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Fel y medrwch ddychmygu, dydw i ddim yn cytuno gyda sylwadau yr Arglwydd Goldsmith heddiw i gyflwyno system o dyngu llw gorfodol ar bobl ifanc.
Dydw i ddim yn cytuno gyda’r fath gynllun i dyngu llw i’r Frenhiniaeth. Byddai cynllun o’r fath yn tanseilio gallu pobl Cymru i leisio eu barn gwleidyddol, a’u hunaniaeth diwylliannol.
Dydw i ddim yn credu y dylai’r fath weithred fod yn rhan o’n gwlad hyderus, blaengar, sydd yn balch o’i hunaniaeth unigryw. Mae angen i ni sicrhau yn nawr bod gan ein Cynulliad y gallu i wrthwynebu unrhyw gynlluniau y mae Gordon Brown yn ceisio gweithredu yn y maes hwn.
Beth sydd angen arnom yng Nghymru yw mwy o ymwybyddiaeth o wleidyddiaeth yn gyffredinol, ac nid ymgais negyddol i wthio barn ideolegol hen ffasiwn, Imperialaidd ar ein pobl ifanc. Mae’r Alban wedi gwrthod y cynlluniau yn barod, a dylai Cymru wneud yr un peth.
6 comments:
I nearly choked on my toast when I heard this on the news.
Firstly, I can't imagine the kids at a run down comprehensive rushing to pledge allegance to Mrs Windsor.
Secondly though, I would have rather gone to prison than pledged allegance to the queen.
This government has hit the rails big time. They are drifting badly. I'm afraid it's time for them to go, even if it does mean a Tory government at Westminster. It wouldn't be any great loss to the left, as this government isn't on the left.
BTW, congratulations to you and your colleagues who have made a principled stand against the 8% rise. I quoted on Glyn Davies' blog a friend of my father's in the Labour Party who said "There are some people in this party who don't want to change society, they just want to change places." I'm glad you're not one of them, and that you stick to your principles.
I quite agree. Comelling a pledge of loyalty to the monarchy would be a breach of human rights.
Nor should anyone be made to pledge allegiance to any country.
normal mouth- I totally agree with both of your comments.
Left Field- I thought you had vanished! The public sector are up in arms about the whole situation on the AMs pay. I've just attended a PCS meeting, and there were only Plaid members there oddly enough!
he he, I've been busy following my other interests. Although I do read the blogs fairly often.
My wife had your colleague Dai Lloyd call on her a couple of weeks back. She said "he's nice, I'd vote for him." I told her it was just as well because she had :-)
Oh it is so American. I respect the Americans for a lot of things, but I always found their pledging of allegiance to be nothing short of cringe worthy. It is just not the British way, and it would probably damage the Queen anyway. If a teenager is forced to say something positive about someone, they will usually form a negative opinion of it, just to rebel.
The only thing I fear is that this will turn into a monarchist/republican debate. As a monarchist I really hope it doesn't, because it is just a stupid idea that people from all political persuasions should reject.
Lord Goldsmith strikes again, lets not mention what happend between the 7th and 10th of March 2003, but who's to say that his idea of Citizenry was not fed to him :)
But I think this debate is taking the wrong approach. The debate shouldn't be who and what is a 'British' Citizen; but what is Briatin? Did The Annexation of 1536 and the Union of 1707 make Britain? So lets take the debateforward and not only discuss what Britishness is but what is Britain, I think this starts with the dreaded 'English Question'
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