LL-L "Language politics" 2007.05.18 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L  -  18 May 2007 - Volume 02

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language politics

Dear Lowlanders,

Below please find the latest relevant new from Scotland provided by Eurolang
(http://tinyurl.com/39588r).

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

***

Scottish Election Result
Implications for Gaelic and Scots
Dun Eideann, Monday, 14 May 2007 by Davyth Hicks

The Scottish National Party (SNP) has won the single largest number of seats
and made significant gains in traditional Labour heartland of west and
central Scotland for the first time ever.

The election held on May 3rd left the SNP as the biggest party with 47
seats, Labour 46, Conservatives 17, Liberal Democrats 16, Green 2,
Independent 1. Labour, Tory and Liberal all lost seats. Smaller parties
fared worse with the Scottish Socialists being wiped out and the Greens down
by five members.

The SNP are now set to form a minority Government with the Greens. The
Liberal Democrats have ruled out forming a government with the SNP unless
they drop their key manifesto commitment of a referendum on independence.

*Implications for languages*

While the SNP had the strongest manifesto commitments of the main parties
both on Gaelic and Scots, all the main parties were supportive of Gaelic in
manifestos and the outgoing Labour-LibDem coalition had done much for Gaelic
including the Gaelic Language Act.

Given the cross-party consensus on Gaelic, perhaps more important for the
language has been the fact that two very outspoken supporters of Gaelic (and
Scots) have been elected to the Scottish Parliament – Mike Russell and
Alasdair Allan, both SNP MSPs.  They will be sure to focus on Gaelic issues
and also to bring Scots issues to the fore.  Russell, who is learning
Gaelic, was an MSP in the first session of the Scottish Parliament. He
introduced a Gaelic Bill and pressed for a right to Gaelic medium education.


Alasdair Allan is a fluent Gaelic learner and is also a fluent speaker of
Scots. He replaces Alasdair Morrison (Labour) as MSP for the Western Isles.
Despite being a native Gaelic speaker, Morrison was unpopular among some
language activists for his perceived inaction on Gaelic issues during his
tenure as Minister for Gaelic. (Eurolang 2007)
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