LadyEllen
Posts: 10931
Joined: 6/30/2006
From: Stourport-England
Status: offline
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To be fair, the Welsh have a fair bit to be angry about I suppose - but then who doesnt in the British Isles apart from the aristocratic descendants of the Norman invaders?
First, the Romans desert them, leaving them to the whims of the Picts who beat the crap out of them. So they get this really great idea of inviting some Saxon pirates in as mercenaries to deal with the Picts - which they do most effectively what with having the world's first pattern welded swords. But they underestimate the Saxons who think what a green and pleasant land this could be for them and they send home for reinforcements - a bit of trickery and a lot of slaughter later, the Saxons start moving out into what would become England, eventually either enslaving the locals or pushing the refugees north and west (not to mention south over the sea to Britanny in northern France) until the borders are more or less set and the Welsh - an English word that means foreigner incidentally - are concentrated in Dumfries/Galloway (southwest Scotland), northwest England (Cumbria - land of the Welsh, the Cymri), the southwest (Devon and Cornwall) and of course Wales itself.
All is pretty stable for a while despite constant border disputes (actually raids by the Welsh on English farms) - there are even alliances between the English kingdoms (7+ at some times) and the Welsh, against other English kingdoms, other parts of Wales and so on. Its about this time that the Gaels from Ireland take over Scotland and perform ethnic cleansing on the Picts by the way, just to show the fine nobility of the Celtic peoples.
Then the Normans (and their Welsh allies from Britanny) arrive and decide that the Welsh areas of Britain ought to belong to them too. Whereas the Saesneg (English) had been pretty happy to leave the Welsh to themselves, the Normans werent, and they thought the same too of the Scots and Irish. Cue the invasion and subjuguation of Wales for which the English are forever blamed (as with much else) although it was the Normans not us, that is the prime source of resentment and anger to this day.
Even so, the Welsh soon got the idea of Norman rule - though there wasnt a great deal of choice in the matter much as in England; there were a few minor rebellions that never really got anywhere like as far as they did in Scotland - this is about the time of "Braveheart" - but all in all the matter was settled. Welsh levies fought for the Norman kings in the French campaigns and with distinction, a factor that was ever present until the fall of Empire in the 20th century.
But the Norman rulers werent content either with this - as the centuries passed it occurred to them that the Welsh language (which carries the cultural identity too) was not a good thing and it was suppressed; something that continued into the middle of the 20th century in schools, where you'd be caned for speaking Welsh in class as related to me by one of our drivers many years ago.
And then came Thatcher - who (like she did everywhere else) embarked on policies that led to the destruction of the mining, steel production and other manufacturing that had been the core of the south Wales economy for a century, with the result that Wales scored amongst the worst for unemployment in the UK. This was however the spark that set the Welsh on a path to having limited self rule, their language and culture conserved and regaining a positive, defiant identity against English (Norman) rule - if only the English would wake up similarly - especially in relation to the now ridiculous position that Welsh and Scottish MPs can vote on English matters, but English MPs may not vote on Welsh or Scottish matters.
And there is the ongoing problem of the English settlers. Whilst the Welsh economy is supported to no small degree by tourism primarily from England, the last few decades have seen more and more English choosing to live in or retire to Wales, taking houses and pushing up prices to levels the locals cant afford, as well as taking over the shopping areas of many tourist destinations to the point that in many you rarely hear a Welsh accent let alone Welsh language but more often a Liverpool or Birmingham accent. Although in fairness this is the same throughout England too in rural areas that are being taken over by the wealthy.
As for the law - there are two jurisdictions in Great Britain; the law of England & Wales (nice they mention Wales) which is what has informed the law in much of the former colonies, and the law of Scotland which is more akin the civil code systems derived from Roman culture. Since Wales was conquered and annexed, it made sense I would suppose that it should use the same system. Meanwhile Scotland was united willingly (or not so willingly, they were bankrupt) with England and had a developed legal system at the time so kept it. It is now possible though to hold Court hearings and conduct proceedings in Welsh language, register your company with a Welsh version of "limited" and do most everything else in Welsh if you prefer.
E
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In a test against the leading brand, 9 out of 10 participants couldnt tell the difference. Dumbasses.
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