Trystan

@Joe___Allen ...the other half seemed quite supportive and quite interested, and were saying things like, why aren't we doing more of this in my part of England.

@Joe___Allen It was interesting to follow the response from the English/British right on X to the story about the attempt to limit Welsh social housing in a north Walian village to Welsh-speakers. Half were saying the usual stuff about how it's all about hating the English...

It's funny/stupid that most of the Welsh Right continues to be loudly hostile to the language and large parts of our history/mythology. I suspect that that'll shift in the next decade or so.

@alaafromgaza92 @SuellaBraverman @PatrickChristys @GBNEWS Your sense of entitlement is truly staggering. You openly talked about doing an MA course as a loophole in order to get a visa with the aim of settling permanently in the UK, which goes against the spirit of the rules, and seem outraged that people are against this.

The past three days have been extremely stressful and draining. The attack led by @SuellaBraverman @PatrickChristys and amplified by their followers and @GBNEWS viewers, simply because I want to bring my three children (all under five) and my husband with me during my MA journey, has been vicious. @SuellaBraverman, your own parents came to the UK as immigrants and built their lives there. If the rules you are advocating today had applied then, you might have grown up in India or Africa, not in Britain. I don’t understand why @SuellaBraverman hasn’t been asked to comment on my case on @GBNEWS . Maybe it’s because her own parents were immigrants? I acknowledge that deleting my viral tweet and deactivating my account after receiving a wave of hateful messages was a huge mistake. I will not hide. I will not stay silent. I will defend my rights that are defined and permitted under the UK visa system. Being accused of visa fraud before I have even set foot in the UK is deeply unjustifiable. My sole intention in coming to the UK is to pursue my MA.

@FJScott3 @LBC What I find ironic is that many of those who profess to love 'diversity' are often strangely parochial and rarely reflect on, or try to understand, unfamiliar cultures. They assume that everyone is basically an individualistic liberal

@flexi_time @LBC It’s concerning. I’m really not sure how many more examples they need. The idea this all works out in 20-30 years time becuase it’s apparently fine just now (in their leafy suburb a million miles from it) is an obvious fantasy.

'I think he's bananas about this stuff, frankly.' Podcaster Dominic Sandbrook takes umbrage with his co-host's 'rubbish' views on Islam.

@FJScott3 @LBC A lot of liberal-left secular people don't understand this about Islam. It "offers" a complete system for living your life in a way that other religions don't, that's why there's such a lack of assimilation.

@LBC The reason Islam is more intolerable to the secular is because Islam is not just a religion. It’s totalitarian system by design. It’s politics. It’s law, It’s culture. It dictates all things. Look at countries where Islam’s has become the dominant force…good or bad?

@DrMarianaClaire @christwine3 @NJ_Timothy Christianity has been here for almost 2000 years and has shaped British/European history. Despite propagandistic attempts to claim otherwise based on a few isolated individuals here and there in recent centuries, Islam has not been present/relevant until the era of mass migration

@christwine3 @NJ_Timothy Christianity is a Middle Eastern religion, should that not be allowed here either?

Too many are too polite to say this. But mass ritual prayer in public places is an act of domination. The adhan - which declares there is no god but allah and Muhammad is his messenger - is, when called in a public place, a declaration of domination. Perform these rituals in mosques if you wish. But they are not welcome in our public places and shared institutions. And given their explicit repudiation of Christianity they certainly do not belong in our churches and cathedrals. I am not suggesting everybody at Trafalgar Square last night is an Islamist. But the domination of public places is straight from the Islamist playbook. Trafalgar Square belongs to all of us. It is a national memorial to our independence and our salvation. Last night was not like a televised football match or a St Patrick’s Day celebration. It was an act of domination and therefore division. It shouldn’t happen again.

Fun fact: Swansea Council boasts the most proactive Trading Standards team in Britain when it comes to inspecting premises selling vaping and cigarette products. They carried out 1,062 inspections, more than double the 566 conducted by the second‑highest local authority.

@ifanmj Gwir. Unig beth yw, mae Caerffili yn Gymreiciach na'r norm ymhlith ardaloedd 'di-Gymraeg' eraill yn y de, gyda mwy o hanes o lwyddiant i'r Blaid. Ond cawn weld!

@flexi_time Hmmm dwnim. Sawl arolwg yn eu dangos yn y mix a chanlyniad Caerffili yn bwynt data 'go iawn'. Bosib iawn bydd pethau yn wahanol ar ddiwrnod yr etholiad ond mae yna dipyn o dystiolaeth i gefnogi yr awgrym eu bod nhw mewn lle cymharol gryf yn hanesyddol.

Seeing this poll a lot on my timeline - it's a subset of a larger UK wide poll with only 100 or so Welsh respondents. No doubt a Welsh YouGov poll is on its way in the next few weeks.

@Joe___Allen The dramatic demographic effects of this policy will likely be felt for generations.

@Joe___Allen The Boriswave might well have had a larger effect in Wales due to some regions having an older population, and possibly more care services/homes. Unlike previous waves of migration the Boriswave was widely dispersed across UK via the care sector.

Net international migration into Wales averaged 5k/yr for two decades but jumped to 30k/yr by 2023. Falling sharply since. 2021 onwards first period it has significantly outpaced internal migration from rest of UK. Not devolved but still important context for Senedd elections.

Labour said they would protect free speech. But the whole point of this definition is to attack our freedom to criticise, satirise and scrutinise ideas. It confuses racial and religious identities. Is a primary school free to say no hijabs? Is a secondary school able to say no ritual prayer on the premises? Is a newspaper able to report that a terrorist shouted Islamic slogans? Are we free to identify entryism in public institutions? Can we assert the relevance of racial and religious identity in the crimes of the rape gangs? How will this definition affect the law? Will the police, CPS and judiciary use it? Should Christians and Sikhs have their own definitions? This is a betrayal from Labour - a very predictable betrayal.

@MischaWilmers @Dunadan9 There are deffo soem great people from all over the world who have assimilated really well, taken a keen interest in the language, learnt it and even campaigned for it. But they had something to assimilate to. For now, Wales is still more than an economic zone with a language!

@MischaWilmers @Dunadan9 If the demographic make-up of Wales in its entirety began to mirror that of inner city Cardiff, which is going to happen if policies carry on as they are, there's no way this momentum will be sustained.

Genuine civic patriotism is the antidote to far right ethnic nationalism.

@MischaWilmers @Dunadan9 I think that's what people do try to do. But it doesn't stir the spirit like fighting to keep the language of your forefathers alive does! So ultimately, it would almost certainly fail.

@flexi_time @Dunadan9 In that situation, it may be difficult to justify on strictly civic grounds. Though not necessary to do so on ethnic grounds. Could be argued the linguistic heritage tied to particular geographical space worth preserving as an end in itself.

@MischaWilmers @Dunadan9 In some areas of Wales the percentage of speakers is as low as 8%, so this is not a hypothetical situation for us. People regularly make the point I made above, in fact, a Cardiff Labour MP recently said something similar when challenged about never doing bilingual leaflets etc

@MischaWilmers @Dunadan9 In a hypothetical scenario (ignore whether it's realistic or not), where 10% of the population speak Basque and 30% of the population speak Urdu due to recent migration, on what basis can one argue that all services should be provided in Basque as well as Spanish, but not Urdu?