Monday 30 April 2012

Is it justified to label Leanne Wood ...

... as being ".. rude and bigoted" because of her very personal and shared republican values.

I don't know, but to understand the values that Mr/Mrs/Ms Watkins has I have replicated her letter written to the editor of the Western Mail, published this morning the last day of April 2012 :
SIR – I write as a Welsh-speaking Welsh woman whose roots lie deep in the culture and history of Wales, but I think of myself not just as a Welsh person but also as a member of the United Kingdom, of which the Queen is the constitutional head.

The Welsh are a race of warm, hospitable and tolerant people and as a race we must feel ashamed that the leader of Plaid Cymru was so rude and bigoted as to refuse to attend the Service of Thanksgiving held on Thursday to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

The Plaid Cymru leader was just invited to attend a service, along with 600 other people, to pay tribute to a lady who has worked for 60 years in a job that she did not actually choose to do and which she has fulfilled in an exemplary fashion. She has won the respect, loyalty and, indeed, love of people not just in Britain but all over the world.

But suddenly, in Wales, Leanne Wood, leader of Plaid Cymru for less than 60 days, could not show respect for a lady who has served her country for 60 years.

I feel ashamed and embarrassed on behalf of all the people of Wales.

M WATKINS
Marine Parade, Penarth
... the original letter can be viewed here at walesonline.

Myself, the freedoms of speech and expression are too valuable to jeopardise because we might object to a viewpoint.

So Mr/Mrs/Ms Watkins, share your disgust, or shame, or embarrassment, with all the peoples of Wales, but lets not deny an alternative point of view.

Myself, I took the Queens shilling when I enlisted in the British Army so many years ago, and still feel an affection for our Monarch, but those "Freedoms of Speech and Expression" are far more important than the actions of a politician who is by definition a transitory beast ....


1 comment:

  1. I'm, all for freedom of speech, Leanne Wood swore allegience to the Queen, so that means she had no right to disrespect out Head of State. When she got thrown out of the Assembly in 2004, it was her own fault; she deserved it. I can't see her ever become First Minister, because if I'm right the Queen has to approve the election of the new First Minister, and I can't see her approving someone who hates her guts so much they don't recognise her as Head of State. If Leanne does get approved, then she will have to do something that she's never done before - attend the State Opening of the Assembly. If she does become First Minister she will have no choice but to attend - no ifs, no buts, no trying to wriggle out of it, no excuses

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