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<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">The leader of the House of
Commons [</font><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Chris Grayling] </font>has
rejected calls from MPs to overturn a ban on speaking Welsh at
Westminster.<br>
<br>
Chris Grayling told MPs it wouldn't be "sensible" to spend
taxpayers money on translation facilities but said the government
might review the ban if a new MP couldn't speak English.<br>
<br>
He was responding to a call from his Labour shadow, Chris Bryant,
who suggested MPs could be allowed to speak Welsh during meetings
of the Welsh grand committee.<br>
<br>
Mr Bryant asked him: "I understand that the language of this House
is English but Welsh is the mother tongue of many of my
compatriots and constituents so is it not time we allowed Welsh in
the Welsh grand committee?"<br>
<br>
Mr Grayling replied: "I have given this careful thought. In my
judgement, given the fact that English is the language of this
House and given the fact it would cost taxpayers' money to make a
change at this moment in time, if somebody arrives in this House
who cannot speak English we may need to look at this issue again
but I think we have considered this issue very carefully and we
should retain the situation where English is the language of this
House."<br>
<br>
More here: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-36490376">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-36490376</a><br>
<br>
Dave<br>
<br>
--<br>
Dr. Dave Sayers, ORCID no. 0000-0003-1124-7132<br>
Senior Lecturer, Dept Humanities, Sheffield Hallam University |
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.shu.ac.uk">www.shu.ac.uk</a><br>
Honorary Research Fellow, Cardiff University & WISERD |
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.wiserd.ac.uk">www.wiserd.ac.uk</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:dave.sayers@cantab.net">dave.sayers@cantab.net</a> | <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://shu.academia.edu/DaveSayers">http://shu.academia.edu/DaveSayers</a><br>
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