Letter to the Daily Post - Welsh Language Rights

5.12.03pm GMT Tue 19th Dec 2006

Dear Sir,

I am pleased to see the Conservatives have finally caught up with the Welsh Liberal Democrats when it comes to the Welsh language with their announcement that they would like to see statutory language rights enshrined in law in Wales.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats have already committed to enshrining the absolute equality of Welsh and English language rights throughout Wales, a point I made again at the recent cross-party sponsored Cymdeithas Yr Iaith lobby at the Assembly on the 29th November.

However, it is not enough merely to say that statutory rights and an official language status for Welsh would be a step in the right direction.

Actions speak louder than words, which is why the Welsh Liberal Democrats were the party responsible for a real strategy for the Welsh Language. Our document Iaith Pawb is now the cornerstone of the Assembly government's Welsh Language policy, a fact of which we are immensely proud.

As the party to have kick-started the Assembly's Welsh language scheme, we will be the ones to see it taken further, until equality and statutory language rights for Welsh are available to all in our country.

Eleanor Burnham

Welsh Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Welsh and Assembly Member for North Wales