‘One Britain One Nation’ united the UK – ‘in people laughing’ says Drakeford
The First Minister said that the ‘One Britain One Nation’ day did succeed in uniting the UK – ‘in people laughing’.
At this Covid press conference, he said that he was in favour of the United Kingdom but did not believe that the best way to make the case for it was through “flag-waving and song singing”.
“I want to case for UK made strongly,” he said. “But the way the UK Government go about it minimises real case. It relies on a flag waving approach that simply doesn’t work.
“This week’s fiasco about song singing in schools did unite people across the UK – in people laughing at the absurdity of idea.”
Earlier this week the UK Government have said that they want school children across Wales to sing a ‘We are Britain’ anthem as part of an event that will teach them about the UK’s “shared values”.
They encouraged schools across the UK to take part in a ‘One Britain One Nation’ day on June 25th which includes singing the song “We are Britain and we have one dream to unite all people in one Great Team”.
The lyrics included: “Our nation survived through many storms and many wars, We’ve opened our doors, and widened our island’s shores, We celebrate our differences with love in our hearts, United forever, never apart.”
It ends with the repeating lines “Strong Britain, Great Nation”.
The Department for Education said: “We’re encouraging schools across the UK to celebrate One Britain One Nation Day on 25 June, when children can learn about our shared values of tolerance, kindness, pride and respect.”
‘Angerdd’
The Welsh national football team later counter-acted the ‘One Britain One Nation’ push by calling on school kids to sign the Welsh national anthem today instead.
“Ahead of our UEFA EURO 2020 match against Denmark on Saturday, we would love to see the support of our fans across Cymru,” they said.
“We would like schools across the country to sing Mae Hen Wlad fy Nhadau with pride this Friday morning and send us your clips for a special compilation to be created ahead of matchday. Canwch gydag angerdd, dros Gymru.”
Schools in Gwynedd and Anglesey were later encouraged by their local authorities to take part in singing Hen Wlad fy Nhadau.
A spokesman for Gwynedd said: “As a council we send our best wishes to the Wales National Football Team ahead of their match against Denmark on Saturday.
“The council’s Head of Education has encouraged Gwynedd schools to take part in the FAW campaign on Friday. We have also shared the FAW’s message on our social media platforms and in internal staff messages.”
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Sorry Mark but there is no “strong case” for unionism. That’d why they come out with this drivel instead.
Mark Drakeford is not a lefty…. hes still bending over for a right wing imperialist UK state construction- the dead empire.
Hes an overt hypocrite.
Fuhrer Boris is just going loony reviving his English reich. Nuts the lot of them
I don’t care if he’s a “righty” or a “lefty”. I’d rather HIM than the Westminster circus. I’d also rather independence than The Hanoverian Hostage Situation that is UKBIN. But the moving finger writes ….
Not a hyprocrite. He is moving for Home Rule. This would put in place the independent systems we need without so much stress and conflict – reasonable stragety and all that. Then, with that done it would be fairly easy to move into independence. Drakeford has said he’s not staying in post for much longer.
The sort of federalism Welsh Labour is asking for basically amounts to independence anyway. It calls for Wales, Scotland and NI to be equal and voluntary members of the union.
The idea is farcical. Cut out the pretence and press for independence. The UK Government will never acquiesce to a “federal” union anyway.
Federation is not a dirty word to me. But as a Federal Europe not as a Federal UKBIN. But as has been mentioned, Cymru would already have all the structures in place that it would need, to leave UKBIN
Mr Drakeford lashes the poor nag again and again…………………..is there a doctor in the house?
I’m confused. Are you describing Westminster as “the poor nag”?
Flogging a dead horse, it means expending your energy on an activity that will produce no outcome (such as flogging a dead horse).
Yeah I get your point. No point flogging Westminster. Nothing registers with them
The union is dead, there is not, nor was there ever, a true equal Union and this government highlight it at every turn, with every step they take to enforce their will on any of the Celtic nations they spread distrust, resentment and division, they are doing more to bring about the collapse of the union of so-called equals, faster than the SNP, Senedd, Northern Ireland Assembly or the Cornish Stannary Parliament (Senedh Kernow)ever could on their own volition.
Whoever came up with this absurd idea seems to have overlooked that the majority of the “many storms and many wars” to which this puerile song refers were between the nations forming the UK trying to stay out of the UK.
Well said. The English worked out their colonial strategies on the Welsh first, then the other Celtic nations, then took them abroad to build the (English) Empire..
The article is a 3-minute read, or it takes 3 minutes to read. It’s not a “3 minutes” read.
Oops! Our head has asked us to watch Newsround so when they talked about singing Hen wlad fy nhadau we gave it a go cos we all like the footy. I didn’t realise it was a contest with a school from St John’s Bradford (whose school anthem on their website is phenomenal – well worth the £3500). I really don’t think music should be divisive. One common theme across Britain has been the marginalisation and funding cuts to music. Sadly this makes it hard for the local Welsh schools to match the musical quality of children from other countries at… Read more »
I’ve even heard it claimed that “the lickle childwen wote it all-by-themselveses”
Textural analysis suggests otherwise.