Sarcastic Tweet Gets Similar Response Shock

[IanD]

Just seen this on the BBC. Welsh FM Carwyn Jones makes a sarcastic tweet to Arriva and then gets a similar response which he calls "unprofessional". Seems like a case of pots and kettles to me. Of course, if he used the station regularly, he'd have noticed this years ago.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-28282600

The first minister and Arriva Trains Wales (ATW) have clashed publicly on social media over the absence of Welsh language announcements at a Cardiff station.

Carwyn Jones used his AM Twitter account to question the rail company on Saturday about Queen Street station, quipping: "Has the border moved?"

He then criticised ATW's response as "shirty" and "unprofessional".

ATW said "we sincerely apologise" for an inappropriate response to the query.

The comments from the first minister came after he had been to open the Tafwyl festival at Cardiff Castle, an event to celebrate the use of the Welsh language in the capital city.

But he turned to Twitter after being at the nearby station, stating: "English only announcements at Cardiff Queen Street today. Has the border moved?"

ATW replied an hour later to the first minister: "There has been no border moving that I have been made aware of, but I apologise if the English announcements upset you."

However, the Bridgend AM was clearly unhappy with the response.

"This not an appropriate answer. Where are the Welsh language announcements?" he said.

"A simple "sorry, we'll investigate" would have done instead of a shirty response. Unprofessional."

 

[trainophile]

How many people in Wales don't understand English?

 

[Darren R]

Is there an election in the offing for the Welsh Assembly? Personally I can't see anything wrong with the reply he got. The whole non-story smacks of a politician looking for publicity.

(And, as an aside, doesn't he think there are enough long announcements as it is, without them having to be made in two languages!)

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Out of interest, what % of people in the Valleys speak Welsh, and, more importantly, only Welsh? I thought it was only the North West around Bangor and Caernarfon was the only hotbed of the Welsh language?

 

[SS4]

That was sarcastic? I had to read it three times to see what the problem was

 

[Flamingo]

Nothing wrong with that reply. I thought, from that headline, that they had tweeted "We don't do announcements in Welsh as they are pointless, no bugger understands them!", (which at least would have the benefit of honesty!)

 

[IanD]

They simply answered the question he asked.

 

[ainsworth74]

Surely a case of someone looking for a reason to be offended?

 

[Flamingo]

Surely a case of someone looking for a reason to be offended?

I'm surprised nobody painted everything from Arriva green - oh, no, wait...

 

[Qwerty133]

I'd find the response he wanted very corporate and lacking in any kind of personality and also wondering if they've actually bothered to read it or just sent a stock reply which they send everyone. ATW should have stuck up for their member of staff who sent a sensible response, answering the question asked and still managing to add personality into 140 characters. I'm sure these politicians will all be happy if they manage to outlaw personality, individualism and expression and turned everyone into robots whose only function was to do as they say without and arguments and accepting what they think is right.
PS- never heard of the man but correctly guessed he was Labour just from this, as it is a typical thing for a Labour politician to do.

 

[richw]

Out of interest, what % of people in the Valleys speak Welsh, and, more importantly, only Welsh? I thought it was only the North West around Bangor and Caernarfon was the only hotbed of the Welsh language?

On my recent "holiday" to South Wales I heard one conversation in welsh in my week there. I visited Cardiff twice, Porthcawl, Bridgend, Swansea, and Barry Island. My brother lives in Risca and assures me every time I make comment about the waste of road sign space that outside of the cities a majority speak welsh.

 

[Southernrover]

Could it possibly be that the person tweeting back did not tug his forelock in deference to someone who clearly thinks he's more important than he actually is? (As do all politicians).

 

[harz99]

That'll teach the FM to ask the question he wants answered instead of being sarcastic.

 

[user15681]

As the minister says himself, a simple "why don't you make announcements in Welsh?" would have done instead of a shirty question. Unprofessional.

 

[Flamingo]

The only place in South Wales I ever hear anybody speaking Welsh is IKEA. Seriously. There always seems to be some shoppers in there speaking Welsh, usually in the lift.

 

[bb21]

Probably a diversionary tactic considering what had happened recently. Politicians are well versed in it.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

The only place in South Wales I ever hear anybody speaking Welsh is IKEA.

Are you sure it was not Swedish...

 

[causton]

Are news outlets getting lazy by instead of taking a photograph or using a stock image of a place, just using a Google Streetview image? I would accept it if it was a smaller news outlet, but this is the BBC...

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Out of interest, what % of people in the Valleys speak Welsh, and, more importantly, only Welsh? I thought it was only the North West around Bangor and Caernarfon was the only hotbed of the Welsh language?

Where is Greenback when you need him, as he is our resident Man of the Valleys.

 

[bnm]

Street View images are free under 'fair use' permission. All that Google want is attribution.

A photographer or stock image costs money. Good on the BBC for reducing costs in this way.

 

[Llanigraham]

How many people in Wales don't understand English?

What has that got to do with it?
The use of our language is required in many areas, and ATW manage to use it elsewhere.
However I do think that Carwyn could have thought first before he tweeted that.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Out of interest, what % of people in the Valleys speak Welsh, and, more importantly, only Welsh? I thought it was only the North West around Bangor and Caernarfon was the only hotbed of the Welsh language?

How abusive!
Welsh is spoken over the whole country. In fact the Valley's have quite a high proportion of Welsh speakers.

Some of the english replies on this forum are showing their prejudice!

 

[MidnightFlyer]

How abusive!
Welsh is spoken over the whole country. In fact the Valley's have quite a high proportion of Welsh speakers.

:roll:

Thanks for clarifying, it was a genuine question. I'm sorry my lack of knowledge regarding the statistics and demographics surrounding language usage over various regions of Wales doesn't meet your expectations and therefore constitutes malicious behaviour...
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Some of the english replies on this forum are showing their prejudice!

You absolutely cannot be serious. I'm prejudiced because I made a genuine inquiry as to who and where in Wales actually speaks Welsh? Gaelic is spoken in Scotland yet probably less than 1% of those that do come from the Central Belt or south thereof.

 

[Mojo]

How abusive!

In what way was that post abusive?

 

[Llanigraham]

Because the poster implies that only a very small area is Welsh speaking whereas with just a small amount of research it would have shown that our language is spoken throughout the whole Principality, therefore insulting to all the rest of us.

Unfortunately it is stereo-typical as some people who also think that Wales is just (closed) coal mines, male voice choirs, narrow gauge railways and sheep!

It is about as silly as me saying that everyone in England speaks with a Black Country accent because that is what I hear often.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Because the poster implies that only a very small area is Welsh speaking whereas with just a small amount of research it would have shown that our language is spoken throughout the whole Principality, therefore insulting to all the rest of us.

Well, basic research tells me 73% have no skill in it, 19% can and 3/4 of them are fluent in it. Further, this map seems to back up my thought that the only 'hotbed' is in the north west (if we determine, like I would say, 50%+ to be a hotbed). To be fair there are also a sizeable proportion in and around Swansea-Carmarthen-Aberystwyth etc (or should that be Abertawe, Caerfyrddin and Aberystwyth so as not to be a nasty English suppressor? :roll but very little around the Valleys, from where the complaint was made.

The rest of your post was hyperbolic, cheap and frankly gibberish. It was, to me personally at least, completely and utterly wrong and irrelevant.

 

[Michael.Y]

How predictable, a Welsh language zealot - using a thing of cultural beauty as a vicious weapon against their fellow man. Come to the terraces of the Cardiff City Stadium on a cold night in November when I'm cheering on our national football team playing against some small Eastern European banana republic and tell ME I'm not Welsh. Look me in the eyes and tell me I've no right to wear the red shirt or sing the national anthem because I'm fairly monoglotic in the foreign tongue. It's not my fault I grew up in an area of the country where Welsh was seen as irrelevant, at a time when it was being oppressed by a Tory government.

 

[bb21]

Because the poster implies that only a very small area is Welsh speaking

Read his post again. Either you don't understand how statistics work or that you are deliberately twisting things to suit your own rant.

 

[paulravuslante]

I think it's high time station announcements in Wales were reviewed as the current system is rather cumbersome. Usually the announcements list all stopping points (naturally) and then a long list of request stops (unnecessary) in Welsh first and then repeated in English. For trains heading West or on the Heart of Wales, this results in about a 5 minute long announcement. Given that it's usually repeated a few times too, seems like overkill and often the train has left the station before the announcement has ceased!

I'm not sure why the request stops have to be highlighted in such a way in announcements as surely any conductor would know to check with his passengers where people want to alight.

The added complication at CDQ is that a train arrives every few minutes (it's the closest we have to a Metro system in Wales). All trains on each route tend to always stop at the same places so perhaps something like the Underground's approach of just saying the destination would be more fitting. In the Valleys the locals tend to ask for the train's final destination to determine if it is the right one!

 

[Gareth Marston]

I think it's high time station announcements in Wales were reviewed as the current system is rather cumbersome. Usually the announcements list all stopping points (naturally) and then a long list of request stops (unnecessary) in Welsh first and then repeated in English. For trains heading West or on the Heart of Wales, this results in about a 5 minute long announcement. Given that it's usually repeated a few times too, seems like overkill and often the train has left the station before the announcement has ceased!

I'm not sure why the request stops have to be highlighted in such a way in announcements as surely any conductor would know to check with his passengers where people want to alight.

The added complication at CDQ is that a train arrives every few minutes (it's the closest we have to a Metro system in Wales). All trains on each route tend to always stop at the same places so perhaps something like the Underground's approach of just saying the destination would be more fitting. In the Valleys the locals tend to ask for the train's final destination to determine if it is the right one!

When I was with the Rail Psssenger Council for Wales we went through the issue of Welsh language announcements at Cardiff stations and they'd just all blur into one on the island platform at a queen st and 6/7 at Central as the length it took to do everything bilingual would mean the train would be gone and the next one approaching. There's too many trains per hour it would be a complete shambles if it was all bilingual. The position taken by then Wales and Borders was endorsed by the official passenger watchdog.

 

[AM9]

On various visits to Wales in recent years, I have only heard it spoken in Snowdonia. Those instances were limited to when I/we entered shops with two or more locals speaking in English. On seeing me/us enter, they would immediately switch to something that sounded like Welsh, so that they could talk about me as an intruder, presumably confident that I/we wouldn't understand them.
The other example of a 'welcome in the hillside' was seeing slogans that I was told said something like 'go home English' written in 2ft high white paint on a fence in Bangor, - in Welsh! I found their misguided enthusiasm for an identity amusing.

I wonder how many would complain if only Welsh announcements were made at stations?