Any excuse
Iolo Webb
On the evening of August 14, phones across Wales and England received an emergency alert message, warning of the risk of wildfires and advising residents, landowners and visitors against any activity that could cause fires.
Here in bilingual Wales, we received this message first in our only de jure official language, Welsh, and then in English four minutes later.
This inevitably and predictably brought the English supremacists out of the woodwork to complain about receiving a message in a language they can’t (and don’t want to) understand.
One of their ringleaders, Andrew RT Davies, became redder than ever in the face and demanded that the law be changed to put English first, quoting some story about English pub-goers in Bae Colwyn “scrambling to find a Welsh speaker”, when they could have just taken a screenshot on their phones and used Google Translate (or waited four minutes).
‘Reform UK Wales’ called the prioritisation of Wales’ indigenous language “dangerous” (which actually seems rather mild coming from them). Various other xenophobes exploded, including a former Liz Truss adviser, Ben Ramanauskas, who tweeted “it’s time to give up on Welsh” and went on to whine about how confusing it is to find the right train, thanks to bilingual signs.
God forbid he should travel overseas – although, ironically, his surname is Lithuanian in origin, while Lithuania itself has been subjected to cultural repression numerous times. It is incredibly hypocritical to talk about Welsh in the same way that Russian imperialists would talk about Lithuanian! (His post was so laughable that I thought I’d give him a special mention.)
No, this wasn’t the Plaid Cymru Welsh Government “giving Welsh speakers a head start”. The Emergency Alerts system is a UK Government system – these alerts were issued by the UK Government, with First Secretary of State Louise Haigh confirming that the Government had taken the decision to send them to Wales and England.
Bilingual
The alert in Welsh was sent at 18:57 in Wales only, while the alert in English was sent at 19:01 in both Wales and England. Previous test alerts sent on April 23, 2023 and September 7, 2025 have been bilingual in Welsh and English (although the weather warning on December 7, 2024 was in English only), proving that it is perfectly feasible to send them bilingually.
However, it appears that on this occasion, someone in the UK Government couldn’t be bothered to combine two short messages into one bilingual message in Wales, with ‘scroll down for English (or Welsh)’ at the top, or to note that the message in English would follow, or even provide a button for translation. (Hopefully it wasn’t done like this deliberately to cause trouble – we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.)
Either way, the fault lies with the Labour UK Government (which may explain why Welsh Labour have kept quiet for once). Get your act together – bilingualism is not rocket science. (Or better still, devolve emergency alerts to our own government.)
Wait
And even if future messages should come separately one after the other, all non-Welsh speakers need to do is … wait! I studied in Austria for a year, and the whole country received an emergency alert for thunderstorms last October, in German. I speak German, but many of my international friends don’t. Nobody panicked – they simply waited for the English version to follow.
There are many foreign visitors in Wales at present, and I’m pretty sure that tourists from Germany, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland or elsewhere wouldn’t complain about an alert in Welsh – they too would wait for the English version.
Once again, Andrew RT Davies and other no-good zealots are trying to belittle their own country’s language with baseless arguments, just to earn a pat on the head from their imperial masters.
They’ll try any excuse, won’t they?
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
Get more trusted Welsh news
Choose Nation.Cymru as a preferred source in Google News to see more of our journalism.
Diolch Iolo! Gwych!
It’s time for Andrew RT to be elected President of the Dic Sion Dafydd Society.
To be fair, there was no indication that an English version would follow. It would not be unreasonable for people to expect both messages to appear at the same time and therefore assume something had gone awry and stopped the English portion reaching their phone. And given the nature of the message, sitting patiently hoping an English version will turn up is not going to be the natural reaction – they can see it is a rare, urgent government alert and will be anxious to know what it says immediately. The emergency messaging system works on a totally different technology… Read more »
Since it’s a UK government alert it’s guaranteed to be in English as well. Besides, the Welsh message was sent out before anyone had received an alert anywhere in England. Translating with Google is also possible on most devices if you don’t want to wait, but saying that an English message will follow is going to decrease any worry significantly.
The responsibility for sending an emergency message in whatever language rests with the people that sent it. The failure here was not that it was sent in Welsh followed 3 minutes later in English, that is not the real problem.
The real problem is the inability of those responsible to have clear instructions for how emergency messages should be sent, which in this case is in the Welsh and English languages together as Wales is a bilingual speaking country.
Well said. You can’t have 75% of the Welsh population four minutes behind the rest. Very very dangerous.
Erm…the English population received the alert at the same time as non-Welsh speakers in Wales. What’s dangerous is your inability to read an article before commenting rubbish. Tria eto’r sguthan.
Their awful, but completely expected reaction has really driven home how easily some will attack cymru and then gaslight us.
I happened to be in Dyfnaint (aka Devon) at the time and only received the message in English. Just saying…
Darn gwych – an excellent piece, and it all needed saying.
And the “no-good” line made me think of “dear” RT as Dylan T’s “No-good Boyo” – and chuckle. (I’m sure that this was neither intentional nor disrespectful…..)
One classic example of ‘objecting to Welsh’ was not from a Conservative but from Labour. It was Chris Bryant MP who objected to the train announcements in Welsh at Cardiff Central for the valley lines. It was shortly after he was parachuted into Rhondda from High Wycombe. Fortunately, the new Prime Minister has now appointed him Sec of State for Northern Ireland so he will be kept away from Wales as much as possible. The only problem he has now is that every time he meets with Michelle O’Neill FM of Sinn Fein he’s greeted by “Failte go hEirinn”.
English is the de facto language of the large majority of the people of Wales. Whoever was responsible, sending out alerts that could not be understood caused anxiety to many people.
You clearly didn’t read the article did you? There’s not much pointing how silly your comment is because it won’t get into your head.
Abuse always illustrates lack of coherent argument. Of course, I read the article.
My comment makes two observations: 1) most people in Wales speak and read English; 2) receiving an alert that could not be understood caused anxiety. Both are factually true and relevant. Please explain which point you disagree with and why.
I did not comment on how the situation had arisen or on how future alerts should be managed to minimise anxiety.
The alerts had errors, but that’s not because of the language. There should have been a notice that English will follow, or put into a single alert with Welsh first. It would have caused less anxiety sure but it doesn’t justify putting English first when you can adjust the alerts from last week. Of course this was said in the article that was clearly ignored..
I didn’t argue that English should have been put first. Indeed, I suggested a few days ago that adding a message that English would follow would have helped. All governments have an obligation to avoid creating anxiety.
The English-speaking majority of the people of Wales should not be viewed as tourists in our own country, as this article does.
That last sentence is nonsense. At what point is the English speaking part of Wales viewed as tourists? None at all. I’m glad you don’t support belittling the native language of Wales but making accusations like that is just plain silly.
The article argues that English speakers in Wales should expect to behave as tourists. ‘And even if future messages should come separately one after the other, all non-Welsh speakers need to do is … wait! I studied in Austria for a year, and the whole country received an emergency alert for thunderstorms last October, in German. I speak German, but many of my international friends don’t. Nobody panicked – they simply waited for the English version to follow. There are many foreign visitors in Wales at present, and I’m pretty sure that tourists from Germany, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland or… Read more »
It seems that you’re making this conclusion up in your head. In no part does it say that English speakers should behave like tourists. It clearly argues that tourists would naturally wait for an English that would of course follow, so non-Welsh speakers of Wales could do the same. You also seem to forget that English os the de facto international language, therefore tourists abroad and monolingual Welsh people will wait for the same alert. Making a comparison with people from overseas does not make an argument for non-Welsh speakers to act like tourists.
I really don’t see how you can interpret the paragraphs I copied in any other way than proposing that non-Welsh speakers in Wales should be treated as, and should behave as, tourists. You too argue that ‘tourists abroad and monolingual Welsh people will wait’. The equivalence is explicit. The alert system is meant to be used in cases where urgent action is required or at least to prepare people for that. It is doubtful if its use last week was appropriate. In truly urgent cases, such as the rapid approach of flood or fire, minutes count, so telling people they… Read more »
You’ve completely and utterly misunderstood. I’m again pointing out that the article is making a comparison between people from abroad waiting for English alerts, and non-Welsh speakers waiting for alerts. It’s not my fault, or anyone else’s that it’s the same language that both will have to follow in this scenario. The equivalence is not explicit and you’re simply putting two different groups into one with a ridiculous accusation just because English is an international language. What did non-speakers do on Friday? They waited. Would you say the same about monolingual French speakers in Flanders receiving an alert and waiting… Read more »
Not in my head but in the articles and comments I have quoted verbatim. And you have done it again! ‘[T]he article is making a comparison between people from abroad waiting for English alerts, and non-Welsh speakers waiting for alerts.’ The equivalence is explicit.
The argument that those people of Wales who do not speak Welsh (the large majority) should not be put at risk by having to wait for an emergency alert that they can understand does not rest on English being an international language, although that provides an additional reason for sending out an English message promptly.
Let’s try that again. It’s making a COMPARISON not saying they’re the same thing. It states that tourists won’t have a problem with Welsh coming first and then receiving the English, without complaining about it, which sets a good example for Welsh people who don’t speak the language to not criticise the use of their own country’s native tongue. It does matter whether it’s the international language because both groups of people here follow the same one. If English wasn’t an official language then the article wouldn’t have mentioned it. The two groups in this situation follow the same language.… Read more »
I didn’t initiate the comparison-equivalence. It’s in the article and you have repeated it. And you’re still doing it. I haven’t told anyone to act like tourists but you’re telling the English-speaking majority in Wales to follow the example of tourists! 90% of the population of Flanders has Flemish as their primary language. In Wales, that’s roughly the proportion with English as their first language, so by the Belgian analogy the English message should come first, although I haven’t argued for that. Let’s get back to first principles. The purpose of the alert system is ‘to provide warning and advice… Read more »
I’m English and I am sorry to say that I cannot, for the life of me, see how the article argues for people who don’t speak Welsh to behave like tourists. A mere suggestion not to attack the Welsh language, much like a lot of people who don’t live in the UK would do is no suggestion for non-welsh speakers to behave as if they don’t live in their own country.
If there was no intention to suggest that non-Welsh speakers should behave like tourists then why introduce that comparison?
My target is not the Welsh language but incompetence.
Quite hypocritical of you to claim your target is incompetence when you fail to understand a point made to you about half a dozen times! The author made a comparison of how it’s possible not to criticise Welsh alerts coming first, since tourists are capable of it, so people ok Wales can be too. It’s not about behaving like a tourist is it? If that’s not clear to you then who knows what is…
I have repeatedly said that I have no objection to messages being first sent in Welsh. My objection is to the delay in sending out the English message. As the alert system is supposed to be used in life-threatening emergencies, this delay caused avoidable anxiety. In other contexts, English follows Welsh immediately. Written communication is bilingual. At a rail station, an announcement of a platform change in Welsh is straight away followed by the same announcement in English. The system does not wait several minutes until the train has left before communicating this information. So why the alert delay? Are… Read more »
And those delays will be decreased, the further they improve the alerts. In an ideal world both languages should be in one. If this is for whichever reason not possible, then an English alert should be available to see the second one would press ‘ok’ on the Welsh one, knowing it will arrive, thanks to a heads up on the top of the Welsh alert. Your objection to the delay is absolutely valid and should absolutely be taken into account by the UK government.
Thank you. I made the suggestion of a translate button a few days ago. No doubt there are other options too.
The well-being for the people of Wales will be improved by learning from experience.
Christ… reading all this makes me want to both laugh out loud and cry. How can you not see you’re just deeply in the wrong? The thickest skull award goes to…
If you are capable of a coherent comment, I will reply.
You replied anyway 😂 oh boy
Do you have anything meaningful to say?
And where did you suggest a few days ago that a message with English to follow would have helped? I also see Pete’s annoyance, as your comment sounded exactly like something said by many who detest the Welsh language
On Saturday morning, I posted ‘A simple insertion in the Welsh language alert, ENGLISH TEXT WILL FOLLOW SOON would have eased anxiety and confusion.’ in the comments section of the article ‘Emergency alert sent to mobile phones with wildfire warning after UK blazes’.
I now think a better alternative would be a TRANSLATE button alongside the Welsh text with a range of options.
I can’t see that comment anywhere
It’s definitely there. I copied the text last night and I can see it again this morning. It’s within a thread started by Tim to which you also contributed.
But I have found before now that the Comments section can sometimes behave oddly.
Wales is a multilingual nation and my preference would be for everyone to be able to opt into their language of choice for alerts, which should be as simply written and clear as possible. The purpose of alerts is to save lives.
I have no objection to the default being Welsh provided alternatives exist. In an AI age, the technology could be enhanced to allow this.
This final comment regarding opting to different languages is something I absolutely agree with. Unfortunately your original one seemed like a dig at Welsh, which will understandably attract defensive replies.