Surely if there were an evidence base, it would be the Telegraph and Monmouthshire CC’s place to expound it. Their arguments are very rarely made in good faith, however. Many proponents of Welsh, including Jewell, are very familiar with the intellectual arguments in its favour, but when its opponents resort to what are, frankly, tropes, it soon gets very boring and pointless. Better to rally your base than attempt to persuade an opponent who has no interest in listening anyway. In any case, Plaid’s success has been to move the Overton window with regard to language, not to (publicly) make nuanced points about academic research. (Fwiw I’m no supporter of Plaid Cymru!)
Agree that the arguments of the Telegraph etc. are not in good faith. And as I emphasize in the piece, criticism of Welsh is not my intention; I love the language and want to promote it. Indeed, I admire most of Plaid's attempts to promote the language.
I also agree that Jewell's reaction makes good political sense. Of course, such a tweet will rally her base. But in my opinion, members of the Senedd should make better quality arguments.
I’ll wait to condemn these signs until there actually is evidence against them.
I’d be interested if you do a Regression Discontinuity Analysis on it!
Surely if there were an evidence base, it would be the Telegraph and Monmouthshire CC’s place to expound it. Their arguments are very rarely made in good faith, however. Many proponents of Welsh, including Jewell, are very familiar with the intellectual arguments in its favour, but when its opponents resort to what are, frankly, tropes, it soon gets very boring and pointless. Better to rally your base than attempt to persuade an opponent who has no interest in listening anyway. In any case, Plaid’s success has been to move the Overton window with regard to language, not to (publicly) make nuanced points about academic research. (Fwiw I’m no supporter of Plaid Cymru!)
Agree that the arguments of the Telegraph etc. are not in good faith. And as I emphasize in the piece, criticism of Welsh is not my intention; I love the language and want to promote it. Indeed, I admire most of Plaid's attempts to promote the language.
I also agree that Jewell's reaction makes good political sense. Of course, such a tweet will rally her base. But in my opinion, members of the Senedd should make better quality arguments.
Thanks for ‘preference falsification’. It sounds like ‘permission structure’ could be a help in navigating that one ☺️
Yes, I must look into this concept!
I’ll shut up about it when you mention it in a piece - haha!