Don Quixote

Translation of Vaughan Roderick's latest musings

One of the few Welsh words that Don Touhig is familiar with is "crachach". He uses it frequently, usually as part of an attack against the Assembly or language-promoting measures. Here he is in the House of Commons in February 2008.

"The chattering classes, the crachach, who believe that they know best for Wales, swoon at the prospect of more powers for the National Assembly. Many in the media think that more powers for Cardiff is the story of the decade--tosh, rubbish. The real people of Wales, the werin, have no time for all of this, and I stand with them."

Here he is again in July discussing the Assembly Government.

"What we have in Wales at the moment is the priorities of the crachach and not the werin"

Syr Emyr Jones Parry? Crachach! Crachach! Crachach!

Now read what Paul Flynn has to say on the language LCO.

"In each devolution referendum, there has been a cabál of West Briton MPs campaigning against moves for self-government. They will be more negative drivel this time, too. It's sad to record that the Conservative Party has bravely enacted almost all Welsh language reforms. Labour now has a chance to show our respect to the unique language of our people. Welsh has traditionally been the language of the gwerin, while English was the language of the crachach."

I wonder who that snowball* was aimed at.

*slight improvisation in the translation - but you get the gist!

Translation by Dewi Dau