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Senedd petition to ‘keep the name Wales and not waste any more taxpayers money’ launched

16 Jan 2024 4 minute read
Union Jack above the Welsh flag

Stephen Price

A petition calling to “keep the name ‘Wales’ and not waste any more taxpayers money on pointless exercises” has been launched by Michael John Hampshire, who has referred to the original petition supporters as “ Yes Cymru bedwetters”.

Mr Hampshire, whose bio on X is simply “Barry, Beer, Balloons. In that order,” says: “This is to counter the petition to abolish the name ‘Wales’ and to only refer to our fine land as ‘Cymru’.

We are proud of our Welsh roots but this would be a pointless waste of taxpayers money. Cymru OR Wales-let people refer to God’s country however they want and not impose an ideology on anyone.

Let the silent majority be heard!”

“Bedwetters brigade”

Launching the petition on X, he wrote: “The ‘Yes Cymru’ bedwetters brigade would like to banish the word ‘Wales‘ to the history books.

“Let’s not. I’m quite happy with people calling our fine land ‘Wales‘ or ‘Cymru’. Let’s not impose the views of the vocal minority on us. Please sign below.”

The official Senedd petition, which this counters, was created by Arfon Jones and says: “Wales is a name imposed on Cymru and is essentially not a Welsh word at all. The world knows about Wales because of its English connection since 1282.

“Hardly anyone has heard of Cymru or realises that we have our own unique language and culture which is totally different from the other countries within the United Kingdom.”

Movement

The petition comes hot on the heels of decisions to only use one name, Bannau Brycheiniog, in place of Brecon Beacons National Park in 2023, which itself followed Snowdonia National Park Authority’s vote to use Yr Wyddfa and Eryri rather than Snowdon and Snowdonia in November 2022.

Efforts are also underway to preserve important place names such as lakes which are being lost or sidelined in favour of newer English names.

From Mumbai to Kyiv, people across the world are choosing to drop place names imposed upon them, and with the name Wales meaning ‘foreigners’, unlike the Welsh word, ‘Cymru’ which means ‘fellow countrymen’ – it’s a clear case of a name given to Wales vs a name chosen by Wales itself.

Responses

Responding to the original petition, Andrew R T Davies, AM for South Wales Central, said: “I’d prefer to see petitions highlighting where Welsh Labour Government are failing on education, failing on the economy and failing on the Health Service.

“We’ve only recently just seen that massive petition that came to the Welsh Parliament that identified people’s frustration over the blanket 20mph across the whole of Wales where nearly half a million people signed that petition.

“Let’s not try and put both languages against each other, let’s celebrate both languages and celebrate the bilingualism of Wales.”

Before its launch, Andrew Evans wrote on X: “Can we launch a petition to keep the name Wales and chuck the bilingual location signs? It’s not as if the Welsh language is worth knowing or learning.”

And sharing his sentiments, Jo Brooke said: “Please sign. 10k are currently in favour of changing to Cymru. 500k+ people signed a petition against the blanket 20mph & were ignored. Let’s see…”

However, Welsh independence campaigner Gwern Gwynfil said: “There is nothing unusual about nations deciding on their own official names. Türkiey and Czechia are recent examples of this. In no way does this force others to change the names they use but it is a clear and confident expression of identity in a modern international context.

“More broadly it reflects a wider pride and recognition of authentic cultural values, from Uluru to Bannau Brycheiniog, this is also a global phenomenon.

“This is a normal thing for nations to do. Perhaps the more relevant issue here is why are some people so viscerally against the idea? What are they afraid of?”

The petitions

The petition calling to “keep the name ‘Wales’ and not waste any more taxpayers money on pointless exercises” can be found here.

The petition calling to “abolish the name ‘Wales’ and make ‘Cymru’ the only name for our country” can be found here.


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Jeff
Jeff
8 months ago

Bedwetters. Huh.
Nations around the world are trying to reclaim their stolen and/or suppressed identities, they often run up against this. The reference “banished from history books” is rather odd because for generations Wales was suppressed as a nation, king coal ruled, Welsh was banned in schools (Welsh Not) and particular rhymes that are awful (taffy was a welshman…..quite a vile rhyme).
Me, Happy to see Cymru at the head but Wales will be associated, it will not go.

C Blackmore
C Blackmore
8 months ago

Remember, that supposed 500k against the actually-not-a-blanket-20-limit was achieved with huge use of fake votes from bot-nets.

Gareth
Gareth
8 months ago

Another Dic Sion Dafydd, who due to a lack of backbone is unable get up off his knees.

hdavies15
hdavies15
8 months ago
Reply to  Gareth

Judging by his surname, he just needs repatriating, sharpish!

oatmaster
oatmaster
8 months ago

It’s a petition to do nothing. That’s a contradiction in terms.

Rhian Davies
Rhian Davies
8 months ago

Well you can’t separate a people from their language, the language is the people. Therefore if Cymru is referred to as an insulting label given it by its insensitive neighbours – then that is not good for anyone. Languages don’t translate – that’s why they are languages! So for the English to insist on their own versions of place-names shows they have no respect for the people in Cymru, and no respect leads to abuse.

Robert
Robert
8 months ago

Absolutely ridiculous, what’s wrong with people like ‘Hampshire’?

Dafydd
Dafydd
8 months ago

“the silent majority” are neither silent nor a majority. Please go away. Your days of imperial Britain are over

Annibendod
Annibendod
8 months ago

I’m sure he’ll enjoy the attention. Box clever bois bach, box clever.

Barry Pandy
Barry Pandy
8 months ago

“Mr Hampshire, whose bio on X is simply “Barry, Beer, Balloons. In that order,””

Says everything you need to know about the mentality of the pathetic little man.

And if anyone is peeing themelves it is him and his ilk at the thought of the people of Cymru asserting themselves.

Riki
Riki
8 months ago

It really does irk people like this to wake up everyday and know the British of Cymru not only survived their abuse but are slowly recovering from it. Their aim ofcourse being to fully dispossess The Britons of this island, their identity, their very souls and pride of being from Cymru. We are here and will be long after England has become a distant memory and there is nothing they can do about it! Remember the Roman, the Norman, the Viking! We outlasted them and we’ll outlast these lot.

Maglocunos
Maglocunos
8 months ago

Sorry ‘Hampshire’.

Even the Guardian Quick Crossword (15d today January 17 2023) acknowledges the Welsh language name for the country soon to be formerly known as ‘Wales’.

Everybody’s doing it!

.

Richard Davies
Richard Davies
8 months ago

This article convinced me to sign the petition for Cymru.

(And Yr Ddraig Goch is superior to the union flag, so maybe the position of them in the accompanying photo should be swapped)

Last edited 8 months ago by Richard Davies
Poor tax payer
Poor tax payer
8 months ago

All a stupid waste of tax payers money again like the 20 mph speed limit, sort out the NHS waiting list.

Ernie The Smallholder
Ernie The Smallholder
8 months ago
Reply to  Poor tax payer

Yes, the UK regime takes most of OUR tax money.

HS2 ???

Mike Hampshire
Mike Hampshire
8 months ago

The call to banish the word Wales, a word that means so much to so many, is ridiculous.

Times change, words gain new meaning and I can say with confidence that the majority of people don’t want this. The petion to banish has had only 11,000 votes despite a bucket load of publicity. Hardly a glowing endorsement.

Cymru OR Wales.

Mole
Mole
8 months ago

With Cymru having the meaning of ‘compatriots’ compared to that of Wales ‘foreigners’ , there is no contest for me. Cymru it is. Yma O Hyd ❤️

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