A few weeks on from the Daily Mail book review and another newspaper column has taken a pop at Wales and the Welsh, this time Jeremy Clarkson in the Sun. I think I’ve covered the issues with Wales and the Welsh language in recent posts, and to some extent, I’ve dealt with Clarkson himself in a post earlier this year after the comments about Mexico on an episode of Top Gear. Clarkson’s entitled to his opinion even if he’s wrong and I’m not going to go over all that again, other than to say that unlike the other detractors, A. A. Gill, Anne Robinson and our new friend Roger Lewis, Clarkson does at least have a shred of wit about him. He can be entertaining, witty, engaging and where necessary bring a certain amount of gravitas; the programme about his father-in-law’s Victoria Cross was utterly riveting and poignant.
These latest comments provide an opportunity to take a look at how Wales, and particularly it’s public figures, respond to such criticism. In 2001 when Anne Robinson tried to put the Welsh in Room 101 on BBC Television after asking ‘what are they for?’ there was a criminal investigation by North Wales Police. Plaid MP Jonathan Edwards reported Roger Lewis’ Daily Mail ‘book review’ not only to police and the Press Complaints Commission but also to the Home Secretary, Theresa May. Now the former Archdruid of Wales Dr. Robyn Lewis (no relation to Roger, I assume) has responded to the Clarkson’s Sun column by saying he “despised Clarkson and his ilk.”
Now unfortunately most people’s first impressions remain their only impressions and the impression one immediately draws from these responses is one of gross over-reaction. Jeremy Clarkson would have to do some particularly evil for me to end up despising him. Like hate it’s a pretty strong word when you apply it to a person, and in using it Robyn Lewis is really showing himself to be little better that Clarkson and his ilk. Hate and despising are driven by anger and to despise Clarkson Robyn Lewis must therefore harbour a certain amount of anger. And for what? For expressing an opinion, however woefully misinformed, that differs fom his own? Isn’t that what Lewis is taking Clarkson to task for in the first place?
Other public figures in Wales have criticised Jonathan Edwards for his actions in response to Roger Lewis’ review of Bred of Heaven. And with more than a degree of sense. As Lembit Opik asserted, people do have the right to hold objectionable views, although to that I’d add the caveat: on the understanding that people will object to them. Involving the police and home secretary over newspaper article or television programme is rather heavy handed. There are other bodies, the PCC and BBC Trust for example, to deal with those specific complaints and those should go no further unless there is evidence a serious crime has been committed, as has happened in the News International phone hacking case.
It is very true that equivalents of these anti-Welsh comments and remarks would not appear if they targeted other groups of our society. You probably wouldn’t find Roger Lewis taking Jasper Rees to task quite so hard if Jasper were a third-generation Afro-Carribean trying to assimilate into Jamaican culture. Nor would Clarkson get away with calling for Irish Gaelic to be abolished in Northern Ireland, lest he find a package of a plasticine-like substance strapped to underside of whatever vehicle he intends to abuse in next week’s Top Gear.
In most instances the easiest way to fight ignorance is with education, as I’ve tried to do in previous posts on this subject. Facts are immutable and usually something of annoyance to those not in full possession of them all.
What has been interesting is gauging the public response to these comments on various newspaper websites and through social media. Welsh people were understandably annoyed by Lewis’ article but beyond that the responses varied from indifference to quite literally pitying the fool. Clarkson’s piece drew the same sort of indifference and a different sort of pity. With Lewis it was like watching the pub drunk fall off a barstool and soak the person next to him in lager. Clarkson on the other hand is an otherwise affable dog that sits in your neighbour’s garden barking all night.
It is hard to hate or even despise such creatures and getting the authorities involved could make things worse. After all, like the Levellers sang, the drunk pays the landlord’s wage, if he’s barred, the pub takings go down. And if the police come around they may put down your neighbour’s dog. I like dogs, even noisy ones.
2 comments
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5 September, 2011 at 08:33
eyeonwales
A couple of things need to be addressed here, firstly, Lembit Opik is not a Welsh personality, he was for a time a Welsh MP, but no more, and mores the point, the man is not Welsh. As for your assertion that the Welsh public are being indifferent, I wonder what on earth you are basing this on? Take some time to listen in on the radio phoneins, trawl through the comments sections on online forums and news debates on this issue, and you will find the exact opposite of indifference, you will find anger and resentment.
Your response is the very worst kind to this sort of ignorance, one of apathy, ignore it and it will go away. Far from it. The whole reason why there is so much indignation is that we in Wales have fought so long to put an end to this form of cultural racism (which it very clearly is), and after decades of struggle, here come the English media without a care in the world. Such denigration cannot be allowed to continue unchallenged. Forget facts and education – these people have access to them, and were they to care for a single moment about such things, then they would have consulted them themselves. Simply, the London media does not care about Wales, Welsh people, or their views.
Perhaps going to the PCC is fanning the flames, and encouraging more London commentators indulge in such bilge. I say fine, let them, let them show the London media for what it really is. Challenge them, and then let them fall over themselves in an attempt to get on the ‘bash Wales’ bandwagon, and let the world see just how snide and hate filled these media groups are when it comes to Wales.
Ignore it, and it wont go away, it will be allowed to fester and grow in the dark, infecting the opinions of hundreds. Challenge it and show it for what it is, and maybe we can get people to change their minds, to stand up for themselves, and say ‘hey, you cannot say that about my culture, I will not accept it!’: Much better we do that than bend over and take whatever London wants to shove at us. But, you seem to think differently on this matter.
5 September, 2011 at 19:57
gaztee
Thank you for taking the time to comment on my blog. To deal with your points in order:
I didn’t refer to Lembit Opik as being Welsh, I said he was a Welsh public figure (like Warren Gatland is a Welsh public figure), or more correctly a public figure in Wales. Being a former MP for a Welsh constituency, some would consider him to still be a public figure and the Western Mail/Wales Online seem to agree as they evidently contacted him for a quote. But that’s splitting hairs.
Nor did I say that the Welsh public were indifferent to Clarkson’s comments. I said the opinions varied from indifference to pity, hopefully implying there were other sentiments as well, including resentment, anger, etc. Perhaps I should have been more explicit.
As for challenging the views of the media, I’m afraid I’m not on board with that one. My main concern is changing the views of the English people. In the case of Roger Lewis and the Daily Mail, things were printed in his review which were blatantly wrong. He’s quite within his rights to hold those views, it is a free country after all. However, to present those views as fact is wrong and that’s what I’m out to challenge. You can engage in any argument with nothing but opinions but you will only win an argument with the facts. I’ve tried to present some of those facts in the previous two blog posts. Telling someone that they are wrong to think the thoughts they do because you hold an alternative view simply will not work. What we must do is educate the English public – and sections of the Welsh public for that matter – with the facts in the hope that they will see the bilge for what it is, and this is going to take time.
The media, and in particular the tabloids, print daily denigrations on large swathes of society. They have done for years. But running to the PCC, the police and the Home Secretary is not going to make that stop and it’s not going help Wales’ cause. Wales is bigger than that, it can fight it’s own battles, and it can start by being seen to stand on it’s own two feet.
Largely because of the right-wing print media significant numbers of people feel marginalised in the own country, be that Wales, England or the UK as a whole. Fortunately, because we live in the 20th Century and we have access to vast quantities of information via the Internet and from government directly through the Freedom of Information Act, it is easier than ever to dispel the myths perpetrated by that print media. I’ve been reasonably successful in changing the views of colleagues, friends and even family when it comes to things Welsh, and I’ve succeeded more with gentle persuasion rather than full blown arguments.
It is very easy to categorise sections of society and even whole countries, lumping everyone together as one and assuming they’re all of one mind. It’s what the likes of Gill, Robinson, Lewis and Clarkson have to Wales, and I’m afraid it’s what you appear to be trying to do to London and England. Some great things have happened for Wales in the last few decades, the most significant by way of Acts of Parliament partially as a result of English MP’s support, or at least apathy. The easiest way of defending Welsh culture is to embrace it, the easiest way to secure the future of the language is to speak it, or try to, in my case. Infections will only fester and spread if they have uninfected material to spread to, so in my mind, by marginalising these commentators you can marginalise their effect. I’m not necessarily saying that they should be ignored, rather the importance of their views be played down.
Let’s face it, few people in England care what Jeremy Clarkson thinks, let alone Wales. In the grand scheme of things is a shoddy little book review and an ageing motoring journalist’s tired stance really that much to get worked up about?
So yes, I do think differently on this matter. However I’d like to think that even you and I are not singing from the same hymn sheet, we at least in the same congregation.
May I say in closing that I’m quite chuffed you stopped by and read my blog because I was starting to think that the traffic stats were just me checking the posts had uploaded properly.