Welsh-speaking wizards at it again
The Welsh Language Board tirelessly promotes the use of Welsh, in many ingenious ways. Expectant mothers undergoing ultrasound scans are given neat little folders to store the pictures of their unborn babies, stating the advantages of teaching them Welsh – once they’re born, presumably.
But there are people in Wales who feel that the WLB’s use of evidence verges on the unscrupulous. The latest to contact me on the subject is a Straight Statistics reader irritated by the use of a survey carried out in November 2008 by Beaufort Research on behalf of the WLB.
The results of this survey provided lots of new evidence, such as the claim, quoted on page 28 of the WLB’s Annual Report for 2009-10, that “76 per cent of people in Wales agree that bilingual marketing materials and adverts are important”.
If we look at the survey itself, we discover that what people were actually asked was: “If an organisation wants to offer customers bilingual services, how important do you think it is that an organisation should ensure that its marketing materials and advertisements are bilingual?” That’s a leading question if ever I saw one. How can you offer bilingual services without bilingual ads and marketing materials?
A more straightforward question might have been: “How important do you think it is for a company operating in Wales to ensure that its marketing materials and advertisements are bilingual?” That might, however, have elicited less than 76 per cent support.
Most of the questions in the survey ask respondents to agree or disagree with strongly positive statements, such as “Welsh is an asset to Wales” or “Welsh is important to Welsh culture”. Unsurprisingly, they do.
My correspondent says that when this survey first appeared he lodged a complaint that it consisted of “a number of ambivalent and misleading questions which led to positive answers favouring the Welsh language”. Beaufort contacted him, he says, admitting that they themselves had put these concerns to the WLB but that the WLB had wanted to continue using a format used over a period of years.
“This is a state-funded organisation but it seems to be mostly dedicated to supplying misleading information” says my informant. The WLB’s grant-in-aid from the Welsh Assembly Government in the 2009-10 financial year was £13.6 million.
When the poll does ask a straight question, it doesn't get the answer the WLB would wish for. In answer to: "How much do you agree with - Welsh will be stronger in ten years' time that it is today?" I'm sorry to say only 41 per cent agreed, and only 13 per cent agreed strongly.
But they clearly hadn't heard about the ultrasound initiative (pictured below).
Phil Miller (not verified) wrote,
Mon, 09/08/2010 - 09:21
"Quango collects biased data and then spins it" - not the world's most arresting headline. I am a great fan of you're exposes of this kind of nonsense
however
though I am not a welsh speaker or welsh national I was concerned that you 1) reveal your source sufficiently for at least those organisations he has written to to have a good chance of identifying him and saying he is "clearly not a unalloyed devotee of the Welsh tongue." How do you logically get to that assertion from his legitimate concerns about WLB wasting his heard earned tax contributions?
Trivial points. Maybe, but they don't serve your argument and give your piece a flavour that will allow anyone in the WLB will simply use to dismiss it out of hand.
I read this blog for your ability with numbers - please leave the journalistic sarcasm to the media types you so regularly skewer.
Keep up the good work
Best wishes
tcerrig (not verified) wrote,
Tue, 10/08/2010 - 16:09
Phil's points are not, as he modestly says, trivial. The posting from Straight Stats betrays a careless, casual sort of bias which is deeply annoying to those like me who love the Welsh language but despise language fascists. The middle ground in these conflicts is difficult but essential to hold. e.g. because only 43% of people think Welsh will be stronger in ten years' time than it is today is a completely different enquiry set than the one the post is ostensibly about. People who are fervently in favour of Welsh and of bilingualism everywhere might also be pessimnists and think that, so stop yourn damned sneering! To be brief, this post is snide rather than sufficiently pointed. The WLB's survey looks lioke rubbish - don't add to the litter!
Nigel Hawkes (not verified) wrote,
Tue, 10/08/2010 - 16:10
Fair points, Mr Miller. I can't argue with either of them. So I've edited the piece (and your comment) to remove them.
Thanks for commenting.