Fossilized Boundaries

[mabymeini]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to raise this, but last night I visited a friend who has been unwell - an atheist and communist - but someone who has a psychic gift and who is also very interested in linguistics and history. Between discussing the world economic meltdown and the possibility that the Commission for Racial Equality in Wales has been hijacked by people who pose as liberal but who would like to see the Welsh language eradicated (giving lip service to diversity as long as it is diversity through the medium of English), we discussed the medieval territorial claims of the bishopric of York. My friend contended that the northern boundary of the archbishopric of York coincided with the northern boundary of the Brythonic kingdom of Rheged, or at least that the York authorities claimed to have ecclesiastic jurisdiction over what is now part of southern Scotland. This led to a political dispute between the king of Scotland and the archbishopric, but because the king had all the "guns" as it were the church's claim was abandoned. What I'm trying to get to in a long winded way is to raise the question of what research has been done into the provenance of the territorial boundaries of the various bishoprics of Britain, as it is my contention that they would correspond with ancient political boundaries. I don't have sufficient knowledge or access to original documents to take this research further, but would like to raise the issue in case someone out there has the inclination to pursue it.

[Francis]

Nov 15, 2008 7:51:30 GMT -1 @mabymeini said:

the possibility that the Commission for Racial Equality in Wales has been hijacked by people who pose as liberal but who would like to see the Welsh language eradicated (giving lip service to diversity as long as it is diversity through the medium of English)

What leads you to think this?

[mabymeini]

The friend to whom I referred had been to a recent conference organized in conjunction with the North Wales Police. The leadership of the police in North Wales take a very positive view in their stance on promoting the Welsh language. This has resulted from the realization that a great many Welsh speakers in North Wales felt negatively toward the police because in the words of the chief constable they saw the force almost as a foreign force of occupation. Many Welsh speaking policemen in the past felt that they could not be open about their Welshness because of the attitude of former chief constables. Thankfully the current chief constable has made considerable steps to ensure that the force are not negative toward the Welsh speaking population. He realizes that policing can only happen through the consent of the population. Not only has he encouraged a much more positive attitude in the force toward the Welsh language, he has also tried to tackle the issue of linguistic intolerance toward other minorities, such as Asians and Eastern Europeans. This is very positive action and is like a blast of fresh air. The negative point to which I alluded however concerns the CRE in Wales. The CRE in Wales has a history of backing attacks on the Welsh language in the guise of defending the interest of people who are effectively anti Welsh. This is a flagrant abuse of what the CRE was set up to do. The meeting to which I refer had in it two representatives of the CRE from North Wales and by all accounts they were very negative toward the initiatives taken to promote the Welsh language. I should point out that that there is an element, and it is only an element, within the Labour Party in Wales that is very anti Welsh in the sense that they oppose anything to do with the Welsh language. I was a member of the Labour party many years ago and left it precisely because of the anti Welsh attitudes of a faction within it. I was reliably informed that the two CRE Wales delegates at the Police conference were part of this anti Welsh faction in the Labour Party. I should not have referred to this issue in my original post because what I really wanted to talk about was the boundaries of the ancient kingdoms and the bishoprics, however as someone who took part in Rock Against Racism in the 1970s and the Anti Apartheid Movement in the 1980s, it make my blood boil to think that an organization which was set up to encourage tolerance and understanding between ethnic groups is being abused by people who have an agenda of attacking the Welsh language. I know that Caer Feddwyd is not a political forum so will try to avoid any reference to such things in future.

[maglowyllt]

Arent the boundaries of the Dark Age Kingdoms already more or less known?

[Craig]

Caerfeddwyd is a political forum as politics is the science of human communal relations. Without an understanding of politics the brython tribe will eventually founder.

I was very active in politics in the 80's and saw considerable anti-welsh nationalist feeling in the Labour party. Most of it was misguided in the sense that 'nationalist' must equal 'fascist'.

The CRE has long lost the moral high ground both here and in Britain generally. It is a discredited organization that spends as much time embarrassing the minorities its seeks to protect as actually doing anything meaningful in creating integration.