This is obviously a horrible thing to have done, but the amount of people from the Midlands who move to Pembs and Ceredigion does blow my mind.
I suppose there is a long history of English people using Wales, its resources, its nature, its land etc, without any real care for the communities or people who’ve lived there for generations, so there is a case to be maid of justified anger.
This is just a bit mental though. What words were blurred out?
Makes Wales look bad, sad.
“Anti-English” discrimination is massively overhyped in Wales imo (speaking as someone who was born and raised in England myself). It’s incredibly rare.
However, it is always a bit jarring when it actually happens. Whatever (entirely legit) concerns there are about tourists, second homes, the Welsh language etc, this kind of behaviour isn’t justified, and actually discredits the point. Especially the part about the ‘vomit inducing’ accents.
Unsurprised. I grew up in Aber. My family was on a council waiting list because both my parents are disabled. We were awarded a disabled ready house in Bow Street after 2 years of living in a private rental with a mental landlord.
A week before we move I see a banner on the house – “Keep Wales Welsh”. I go up to a guy admiring it, and asked in Welsh who put it up there. He didn’t understand me.
After I asked in English he said some “friends” broke in and ripped out all the disabled fittings, trashed the stairlift, etc so “the English family” couldn’t move in. I told him the kid is a Welsh speaker, and the mother is Irish. The step dad is indeed from Birmingham, but only because his estate in Glasgow was so rough he moved away young. Chappy asked me how I know this and I told him it was meant for my family. Jaw nearly hit the floor.
I have no real love for England or its history, but even if we were an English family, you’d mess up a disabled house over it? It’s unconscionable.
Luckily we got housed in a much nicer, less bigoted area.
…and yet the cops didn’t care when Anne Robinson wanted to erase Welsh people from existence on the Room 101 TV show.
I’m from the midlands and lived in wales for 5 years, as much as I love the place & most of the people, the xenophobia is pretty common & it’s disappointing because if it was against anyone else it would be a hate crime – it’s not scary as much as uncomfortable constantly being told to “go home back to where you came from”, although one time I did get told to go home or someone might burn my house down
The irony is that I sincerely doubt that the tourism industry in Aberystwyth would be even remotely as successful if it weren’t for the direct transport link to Birmingham. No one likes their home being overrun by any particular demographic but the local economy relies on these people.
Second homes are a seperate issue and in my experience it’s not your average person from Birmingham who buys these places- blaming it on any one city or identity is stupid, the problem is that local young people are not afforded the opportunities or really an incentive to buy property. Why have your only residence be in a place with few career opportunities past a certain threshold? You can’t expect people to be flocking to have Llangranog for example be their permanent residence, communities have already been split apart and now we need incentives for people to actually want to stay/move here permanently.
8 comments
This is obviously a horrible thing to have done, but the amount of people from the Midlands who move to Pembs and Ceredigion does blow my mind.
I suppose there is a long history of English people using Wales, its resources, its nature, its land etc, without any real care for the communities or people who’ve lived there for generations, so there is a case to be maid of justified anger.
This is just a bit mental though. What words were blurred out?
Makes Wales look bad, sad.
“Anti-English” discrimination is massively overhyped in Wales imo (speaking as someone who was born and raised in England myself). It’s incredibly rare.
However, it is always a bit jarring when it actually happens. Whatever (entirely legit) concerns there are about tourists, second homes, the Welsh language etc, this kind of behaviour isn’t justified, and actually discredits the point. Especially the part about the ‘vomit inducing’ accents.
Unsurprised. I grew up in Aber. My family was on a council waiting list because both my parents are disabled. We were awarded a disabled ready house in Bow Street after 2 years of living in a private rental with a mental landlord.
A week before we move I see a banner on the house – “Keep Wales Welsh”. I go up to a guy admiring it, and asked in Welsh who put it up there. He didn’t understand me.
After I asked in English he said some “friends” broke in and ripped out all the disabled fittings, trashed the stairlift, etc so “the English family” couldn’t move in. I told him the kid is a Welsh speaker, and the mother is Irish. The step dad is indeed from Birmingham, but only because his estate in Glasgow was so rough he moved away young. Chappy asked me how I know this and I told him it was meant for my family. Jaw nearly hit the floor.
I have no real love for England or its history, but even if we were an English family, you’d mess up a disabled house over it? It’s unconscionable.
Luckily we got housed in a much nicer, less bigoted area.
…and yet the cops didn’t care when Anne Robinson wanted to erase Welsh people from existence on the Room 101 TV show.
I’m from the midlands and lived in wales for 5 years, as much as I love the place & most of the people, the xenophobia is pretty common & it’s disappointing because if it was against anyone else it would be a hate crime – it’s not scary as much as uncomfortable constantly being told to “go home back to where you came from”, although one time I did get told to go home or someone might burn my house down
The irony is that I sincerely doubt that the tourism industry in Aberystwyth would be even remotely as successful if it weren’t for the direct transport link to Birmingham. No one likes their home being overrun by any particular demographic but the local economy relies on these people.
Second homes are a seperate issue and in my experience it’s not your average person from Birmingham who buys these places- blaming it on any one city or identity is stupid, the problem is that local young people are not afforded the opportunities or really an incentive to buy property. Why have your only residence be in a place with few career opportunities past a certain threshold? You can’t expect people to be flocking to have Llangranog for example be their permanent residence, communities have already been split apart and now we need incentives for people to actually want to stay/move here permanently.