So I said that giving Gaelic official language status was a bit of a waste of money. Stuart (at Scottish Independence) disagreed and his post generated some comments which have prompted me to consider my thoughts a little more. I recognise the value in the language itself, and I appreciate the wealth of written and spoken cultural heritage which would be lost to this and future generations should the language disappear.
In the same way that I don't expect markets to provide museums and art galleries, government support is valid to support Gaelic. Additionally, for those whose first language is Gaelic they have a legitimate expectation to interface with their local government to whom their taxes are payable in their language.
So, in short, it has been very interesting and I changed my mind on this. Peter Peacock the Education Minister said "I don't want to coerce people to speak Gaelic, I want to win converts to the cause of Gaelic" and I think that is a laudible thing for Parliament to be doing.
Posted by Paul in Scotland Politics at February 5, 2005 05:44 AM | 1 Comments
