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THE CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENTS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF WELSH LANGUAGE POLICY IN THE 1980s AND 1990s*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2011

ANDREW EDWARDS ,
DUNCAN TANNER  and
PATRICK CARLIN
ANDREW EDWARDS*
Affiliation:
Bangor University
DUNCAN TANNER
Affiliation:
Bangor University
PATRICK CARLIN
Affiliation:
Bangor University
*
School of History, Welsh History and Archaeology, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2DG[email protected]
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Abstract

This article focuses on the advances made to safeguard the future of the Welsh language under the Conservative governments of the 1980s and 1990s. These advancements included the establishment of a Welsh language television channel, advancements in the field of Welsh language education, the formation of a Welsh Language Board, and, finally, the implementation of a new Welsh Language Act in 1993. Challenging popular assumptions regarding the nature of Conservative governance during this period, the article examines the background and context of these developments by highlighting the limitations of ‘Thatcherite’ dogma not only in ‘second order’ areas of policy, but also in a nation where Tory roots were not deeply embedded.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , June 2011 , pp. 529 - 551
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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Footnotes

*

We are grateful to the University of Wales Publications Committee for financial support with this project and to Rodney Lowe for helpful comments.

References

1 See A. King, ‘Margaret Thatcher as a political leader’, in R. Skidelsky ed., Thatcherism (London, 1988); M. Foley, The rise of the British presidency (Manchester, 1993).

2 See R. Levitas, The ideology of the New Right (London, 1986); D. S. King, The New Right: politics, markets and citizenship (London, 1987).

3 See especially E. H. H. Green, Ideologies of Conservatism (London, 2002), and Thatcher (London, 2006). Now that the archives for the 1970s are open, attention is shifting to the 1975–9 period.

4 G. Fry, K., ‘Commentary: “A bottomless pit of political surprise?” The political “mystery” of the Thatcher era’, Twentieth-Century British History, 21, (2010), pp. 540–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 See, for example, memo of 12 Dec. 1978 from Saatchi and Saatchi, Churchill College Cambridge (CCC), Thatcher MS THCR 2/7/1/27. Dennis Kavanagh has likened Thatcher's personal impact to that of Lenin.

6 F. Beckett and D. Hencke, Marching to the fault line (London, 2009).

7 D. Stewart, The path to devolution and change: a political history of Scotland under Margaret Thatcher (London, 2009); D. Torrance, We in Scotland: Thatcherism in a cold climate (Edinburgh, 2009).

8 ‘Wets’ was a term used in this period to describe members of Thatcher's governments who were opposed to her strict monetarist policies. It was also used, more generally, as a derogatory term to describe party moderates.

9 There are two studies of the Welsh Office (WO) in this period, neither based on primary sources: D. Griffiths, Thatcherism and territorial politics: a Welsh case study (Aldershot, 1996), and R. Deacon, The governance of Wales: the Welsh Office and the policy process, 1964–1999 (Cardiff, 2002). On the weakness of ‘Welsh Conservatism’, see works by the current Conservative politician David Melding, Have we been anti-Welsh? An essay on the Conservative party and the Welsh nation (Barry, 2005), and Devolution: the battle lost and won (Barry, 2005).

10 This approach is usefully summarized in D. Judge, The parliamentary state (London, 1993).

11 See, for example, M. Thatcher, The Downing Street years (London, 1993); J. Hoskyns, Just in time: inside the Thatcher revolution (London, 2000); A. Sherman, Paradoxes of power: reflections on the Thatcher interlude (Exeter, 2005).

12 Work on this process in Britain has largely focused on the period before 1979; material on Germany is more useful. See, for example, Christoph Gusy and Heinz-Gerhrad Haupt, eds., Inklusion und Partizipation: Politische Kommunikation im historischen Wandel (Frankfurt am Main, 2005); Hans-Joachim Lauth and Ulrike Liebert, eds., Im Schatten demokratischer Legitimität: informelle Institutionen und politische Partizipation im interkulturellen Demokratienvergleich (Opladen, 1999). We are grateful to Alexander Sedlmaier of Bangor University for these references.

13 See, for example, Richardson, J., ‘Government, interest groups and policy change’, Political Studies, 48, (2000), pp. 1006–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 For Thatcher's view of civil servants, Thatcher, Downing Street years, pp. 46–7.

15 M. Cragoe, ‘“We like local patriotism”: the Conservative party and the discourse of decentralisation, 1947–1951’, English Historical Review, 122 (2007), pp. 965–85.

16 Wales circular 15, 24 Feb. 1953 reporting on the Central Advisory Council on Education (Wales) report, ‘The place of Welsh and English in the schools of Wales’, The National Archives (TNA), BD 24/178.

17 Ibid., permanent secretary of the Welsh Department, address in Dublin, 9 Dec. 1957.

18 Raglan, Lord, ‘I take my stand’, Wales, 2, (1958), pp. 15–19Google Scholar. We are grateful to Dinah Evans of Bangor University for this reference.

19 Opinion Research Centre poll, ‘Special attitudes in Scotland, Wales and the West Country’ (1966), Bodleian Library, Oxford (BLO), Conservative Party Archive, CCO 180/29/1/1.

20 Stewart, The path to devolution, p. 215.

21 Nicholas Edwards to Keith Joseph, 16 June 1975, BLO, Keith Joseph papers 33/1.

22 Nicholas Edwards, ‘Responsibility for agriculture in Wales’, 5 May 1976, BLO, Conservative Party Archive. LCC/76/109.

23 Press release, 3 Nov. 1975, National Library of Wales (NLW), Aberystwyth, Lord Crickhowell papers, 2/4.

24 Ibid., See, for example, Captain E. W. Roberts (Fishguard) to Nicholas Edwards, and P. Goodsal (Clwyd) to Nicholas Edwards, 2 Nov. and 2 Dec. 1975.

25 Policy Group on the Machinery of Government, interim report (by J. L. Barnes), 9 May 1977, CCC, Thatcher papers, 2/6/1/49.

26 Thatcher to Charles Ball, (n.d. but Feb. 1978), CCC, Thatcher papers, 2/6/1/89.

27 Thatcher to Gould, 5 Jan. 1977, CCC, Thatcher papers, 2/6/1/88.

28 Hailsham to A. Maude, 12 Dec. 1976 (unsent), CCC, Hailsham papers.

29 Marginal comments on a devolution briefing, n.d. but Nov. 1975, CCC, Thatcher papers, 2/6/90.

30 Briefing by C. Ogg on a Marplan poll of 20 Oct. 1976, CCC, Thatcher papers, 2/7/1/85; R. Ryder to A. S. Garner, 31 Mar. 1977, CCC, Thatcher papers, 2/6/1/274; for Welsh interests, briefing for Margaret Thatcher by D. Dear, 15 May 1975, CCC, Thatcher papers, 2/6/1/91.

31 The report is with K. Britto to R. Ryder, 29 June 1978, CCC, Thatcher papers, 2/6/1/89.

32 Conservative Manifesto for Wales 1979.

33 In the 1979 referenda on 1 Mar. 1979, Scottish voters approved devolution by a margin of 52 to 48 per cent. However, only 32.9 per cent of the total electorate voted in favour, 7.1 per cent short of the 40 per cent margin required for the legislation to progress. In Wales, only one fifth of voters supported the proposal.

34 In the 1997 referenda, 74.3 per cent of Scottish voters and 50.3 per cent of Welsh voters supported the government's proposals.

35 R. W. Jones, R. Scully, and D. Trystan, ‘Why the Conservatives do (even) worse in Wales?’, in L. Bennie, C. Rallings, J. Tonge, and P. Webb, eds., British parties and elections review, xii (London, 2002), p. 243.

36 See C. H. Williams, ‘Articulating the horizons of Welsh’, in C. H. Williams, ed., Language and governance (Cardiff, 2007).

37 For a partial exception, J. G. Jones, ‘The attitude of political parties towards the Welsh language’, in G. H. Jenkins and M. A. Williams, eds., Let's do our best for the ancient tongue: the Welsh language in the twentieth century (Cardiff, 2000), pp. 249–77.

38 Examples include J. Aitcheson and H. Carter, A geography of the Welsh language, 1961–1991 (Cardiff, 1994); G. Williams and D. Morris, Language planning and language use: Welsh in a global age (Cardiff, 2000), and C. Williams, H., ‘Iaith Pawb: the doctrine of plenary inclusion’, Contemporary Wales, 17, (2005), pp. 1–28Google Scholar; C. H. Williams, Called unto liberty: on language and nationalism (Clevedon, 1994), and Linguistic minorities in democratic context (Basingstoke, 2007).

39 N. Crickhowell, Westminster, Wales and water (Cardiff, 1999).

40 P. Walker, Staying power: an autobiography (London, 1991), p. 203; D. Jenkins, ‘Sleeping with the enemy: trades unions in Wales during the Thatcher years’, Welsh Political Archive lecture, National Library of Wales, 2007.

41 Lord Roberts of Conwy, Right from the start (Cardiff, 2006); Geraint, Morgan MP, ‘How Welsh are the Welsh Conservatives?’, Planet, 54 (Dec. 1985/Jan. 1986), pp. 60–5Google Scholar.

42 Griffiths, Thatcherism, p. 164.

43 Interview with Beata Brookes, Cymru 2000 archive, Bangor University, and Roberts, Right from the start, p. 237; Meyer stood against Thatcher for the leadership of the party in 1989. See his appropriately titled memoir, Stand up and be counted (London, 1990).

44 W. Griffith, ‘Devolutionist tendencies in Wales, 1885–1914’, in D. Tanner, C. Williams, W. P. Griffith, and A. Edwards, eds., Debating nationhood and governance in Britain, 1885–1939 (Manchester, 2006), pp. 89–118.

45 See M. E. Wiliam, ‘Hunaniaeth a Moderneiddio yng Nghymru, c.1950–1962: Yr ymadwaith diwylliannol rhwng “Prydeindod” a “Chymreictod”, gyda sylw penodol i ogled ddwyrain Cymru’, (Ph.D. thesis, Bangor, 2008), pp. 192–270. Forms included applications for vehicle excise duty and television licences.

46 Aitcheson and Carter, A geography, p. 50.

47 Merrimen, P. and Jones, R., ‘Symbols of justice: the Welsh Language Society's campaign for bilingual roadsigns in Wales, 1967–1980’, Journal of Historical Geography, 35, (2009), pp. 350–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar; for the Welsh Language Society, D. Phillips, Trwy Ddulliau Chwyldro…? Hanes Cymdeithas yr Iaith 1962–1992 (Llandysul, 1998).

48 R. Evans, Gwynfor Evans: portrait of a patriot (Talybont, 2008).

49 WO, Legal status of the Welsh language: report of the committee under the chairmanship of Sir David Hughes Parry, Q.C., LL. D., D. C. L., 1963–65 (HMSO, 1965).

50 The 1971 census revealed that the number of Welsh speakers had fallen by 5.1 per cent in the space of a decade (from 26.0 per cent in 1961 to 20.9 per cent).

51 See D. Foulkes, J. B. Jones, and R. A. Wilford, eds., The Welsh veto: the Wales Act 1978 and the referendum (Cardiff, 1983), pp. 125–6.

52 ‘The Welsh language: a commitment and challenge: the government's policy for the Welsh language.’ Speech by Nicholas Edwards to Gwynedd County Council Llanrwst, 15 Apr. 1980, NLW, Crickhowell papers 2–7.

53 Evans, Gwynfor Evans, p. 504 n. 30.

54 J. Biffen to W. Whitelaw, 2 Nov. 1979, NLW Crickhowell MS 2–7, WO website, FOI releases. www.walesoffice.gov.uk/2005/foi/foi-20050616.html, accessed on 7 Sept. 2010. Where documents released under FOI have since been made available on the Wales Office website we have used the web address.

55 HTV was an independent television company, formed in 1970. The company's name derived from its predecessor, Harlech Television. The company was re-named ITV West and Wales in 2006.

56 ‘Note of a meeting between the secretary of state and Lady Plowden (chairman, IBA)’, 30 July 1979, WO website, FOI releases. www.walesoffice.gov.uk/2005/foi/foi-20050616.html, accessed on 7 Sept. 2010.

57 R. H. Jones to P. J. Hosegood, 16 July 1979, TNA, BD 25/327; Nicholas Edwards to Willie Whitelaw, n.d., cited in Evans, Gwynfor Evans, p. 399.

58 ‘Note of a meeting held on 21 Jan. 1980, Welsh Language Broadcasting’, WO website, FOI releases, www.walesoffice.gov.uk/2005/06/16/establishment-of-s4c-1979–81/, accessed on 7 Sept. 2010.

59 Evans, Gwynfor Evans, p. 420.

60 For examples, Western Mail, 25 Sept. 1981, 14 June 1983. Nicholas Edwards was regularly pelted with rotten eggs. See e.g. Cambrian News, 9 Mar. 1984; Daily Post, 12 Mar. 1984; Western Mail, 3 and 30 Mar. 1984; Daily Telegraph, 3 Mar. 1984. This helped ensure that they felt like colonial rulers in an inhospitably radical land.

61 ‘Note of a meeting held on 21 Jan. 1980, Welsh language broadcasting’, and ‘Note of a meeting on Fourth Channel/Welsh Language-Broadcasting Bill’ 1 July 1980, WO website, FOI releases, www.walesoffice.gov.uk/2005/06/16/establishment-of-s4c-1979–81/, accessed on 7 Sept. 2010.

62 ‘Note of a meeting held on 29 July 1980: Welsh Language Broadcasting’, www.walesoffice.gov.uk/2005/06/16/establishment-of-s4c-1979–81/, accessed on 7 Sept. 2010.

63 WO official (name redacted), ‘Confidential memorandum for the secretary of state’, 9 Sept. 1980, www.walesoffice.gov.uk/2005/06/16/establishment-of-s4c-1979–81/, accessed on 7 Sept. 2010.

64 ‘Confidential minute’ (author's name redacted), 28 May 1980, and ‘Note of a meeting on Fourth channel/Welsh language broadcasting’, 27 June 1980, www.walesoffice.gov.uk/2005/06/16/establishment-of-s4c-1979–81/, accessed on 7 Sept. 2010.

65 ‘Deputation on Welsh language broadcasting’, 9 Sept. 1980, www.walesoffice.gov.uk/2005/06/16/establishment-of-s4c-1979–81/, accessed on 7 Sept. 2010. See also Nicholas Edwards interview, Cymru 2000 archive, Bangor University.

66 ‘Note of a meeting held on 21 January 1980, Welsh Language Broadcasting’, www.walesoffice.gov.uk/2005/06/16/establishment-of-s4c-1979–81/, accessed on 7 Sept. 2010; WO official (name redacted) to secretary of state, 9 Sept. 1980, www.walesoffice.gov.uk/2005/06/16/establishment-of-s4c-1979–81/, accessed on 7 Sept. 2010.

67 ‘Private secretary Home Office to No. 10 Downing Street’, 15 Sept. 1980, www.walesoffice.gov.uk/2005/06/16/establishment-of-s4c-1979–81/, accessed on 7 Sept. 2010.

68 J. B. Jones and R. A. Wilford, Parliament and territoriality (Cardiff, 1987), p. 42.

69 Its membership included Professor D. Jenkins, Dr G. O. Williams and Messrs Emrys Evans, David Davies and Cyril Hughes.

70 This paragraph draws on the archives of the Welsh Language Board (WLB) and especially the ‘Note on a meeting at the WO, 23 Apr. 1985, to discuss demands for new language legislation’. This material was examined at the WLB offices in Cardiff following an inquiry about access under FOI. We are grateful to the Board for allowing unfettered access to its papers, which have now been deposited in the National Library of Wales.

71 J. Walter Jones, ‘Welsh Language Study group’, 21 Nov. 1985, WLB papers.

72 WO, ‘Points made in favour of legislation’, n.d., papers released under FOI (in author's possession), EWL 1/2/8.

73 Ibid., J. Walter Jones, ‘Welsh language consultation’, 18 June 1987.

74 Ibid., Ceri Thomas, PS/secretary of state, to R. H. Jones, ‘Welsh language consultation’, 16 Oct. 1987; R. H. Jones to PS/secretary of state, 13 Oct. 1987.

75 Ibid., R. H. Jones memo to I. H. Lightman et al., 21 Nov. 1987, WLB papers.

76 Ibid., Wyn Roberts summary, ‘Current thinking on the Welsh language package’, 11 Jan. 1988, WLB papers.

77 Daily Post, 21 July 1988; ‘Minutes of the minister of state's working party on the Welsh language’, 25 Jan. 1988, papers released under FOI (in author's possession), WO EWL 1/4/1. The members were John Elfed Jones, D. Hugh Thomas, Prys Edwards, Tom Jones, Alun Daniel, Elfed Roberts, Euryn Ogwen Williams, and Wyn Roberts.

78 ‘Minister of state's working group, third meeting’, 28 Mar. 1988, WLB papers.

79 See e.g. the front page story following the formation of the WLB, Daily Post, 21 July 1988, and the two-page spread indicating the need for the group to have concrete powers, Daily Post, 2 Aug. 1988.

80 ‘Welsh issues: tabulation’, vol. 1 (Dec. 1988), NLW, un-catalogued Welsh election papers, NOP/3767. We are grateful to Michelle Walker of Bangor University for this reference.

81 G. K. Fry, The politics of the Thatcher revolution (Basingstoke, 2009), pp. 127–36.

82 Roberts, Right from the start, p. 234.

83 R. Daugherty and P. Elfed-Owen,'A national curriculum for Wales: a case study of education policy-making in the era of administrative devolution', British Journal of Educational Studies, 51, (2003), pp. 242–4.

84 Stewart, The path to devolution and change, pp. 140–56.

85 Daugherty and Elfed-Owen, ‘A national curriculum’, p. 243.

86 Roberts, Right from the start, pp. 219–23.

87 C. Baker, Aspects of bilingualism in Wales (Clevedon, 1985), pp. 55–6; P. M. Rawkins, The implementation of language policy in the schools of Wales (Glasgow, 1979), pp. 79–84, and G. E. Humphreys, Heyrn yn y tân (Caernarfon, 2000), pp. 150–3.

88 Daugherty and Elfed-Owen, ‘A national curriculum’, p. 248.

89 Y Cymro, 16 June 1988.

90 WO draft reply to Mr Dafydd Wigley's letter; ‘Draft reply for the prime minister to send to Dafydd Wigley’, n.d., 4 July 1988, WO website, FOI releases, www.walesoffice.gov.uk/welsh-language-legislation, accessed on 7 Sept. 2010.

91 ‘The Welsh language: the future’, 8 Apr. 1988, www.walesoffice.gov.uk/welsh-language-legislation, accessed on 7 Sept. 2010.

92 ‘The Welsh language: the future’, 27 Apr. 1988, www.walesoffice.gov.uk/welsh-language-legislation, accessed on 7 Sept. 2010.

93 Edwards, A. and Tanner, D., ‘Defining or dividing the nation? Opinion polls, Welsh identity and devolution, 1966–1979’, Contemporary Wales, 18, (2006), pp. 66–7Google Scholar.

94 Welsh cultural study, Gallup and HTV, Sept. 1979, NLW, Denis Balsom (Welsh opinion polls) papers 3/1. For the arson campaign, Arcade, 20 Mar. 1981, and interview with Balsom 2009 (courtesy of Michelle Walker, Bangor University).

95 Roberts, Right from the start, p. 235.

96 St David's Day poll, Feb. 1991, Balsom papers 3/1.

97 See, for example, I. Kelsall to John Walter Jones, 27 Feb. 1989, and the CBI's ‘Welsh Language Board – proposals for a Welsh Language Act by CBI Wales’, June 1990, WLB papers.

98 D. Elwyn Jones, Y rebel mwyaf? (Caernarfon, 1991), p. 248.

99 The Labour MP Alun Williams complained that Dyfed's language policies were ‘introduced with a Stalinist authoritarianism’. A. Williams to W. J. Phillips, director of education in Dyfed, 1 June 1990, CCC, Kinnock MS, box 45. However, Labour's working party on the Welsh language requested that a document detailing such views ‘should not be distributed to the media’. Minutes of the Welsh language working party, 2 Aug. 1990, NLW, Labour Party Wales Archive, File S25.

100 Information supplied in confidence.

101 K. Morgan and W. Roberts, The democratic deficit: a guide to quangoland (Cardiff, 1993), p. 56. For the Tories' publicly negative views of quangos in the 1970s, Stott, T., ‘“Snouts in the trough”: the politics of quangos’, Parliamentary Affairs, 48, (1995), pp. 323–40Google Scholar. However, in private Kenneth Baker (and others) felt that quangos were ‘manned by middle-class persons who were our supporters’, and hence were a useful tool. Machinery of Government Committee, 13 Jan. 1977, CCC, Thatcher MS 2/6/1/49.

102 Roberts, Right from the start, p. 257.

103 Winston Roddick brief, n.d., and ‘Note on the minister's meeting with the Welsh Language Board’, 5 July 1991, WLB papers.

104 Roberts, Right from the start, p. 257.

105 Hoskyns, Just in time, pp. 387–402.

106 H. Williams, Guilty men (London, 1998), p. 51.

107 Ibid.