Pack your bags - the Welsh are still anti-English

This week backers of a new Welsh daily, Y Byd, accused the Assembly Government of pulling the financial rug from underneath them. In doing so, the paper which had been due to be launched next month, has been killed off before it had chance to breath. Dyddiol Cyf, the company behind Y Byd, have wasted no time in pointing the finger at whom it believes was chief knife wielder - Heritage Minister and Plaid Cymru AM, Rhodri Glyn Thomas.

In a statement, Dyddiol Cyf's chairman, Ned Thomas, claimed the recent announcement on funding of the Welsh press, made it impossible for it to establish a Welsh-language daily paper. Not content with throwing a few stones, Mr Thomas went all out hurling a big fat boulder at Plaid Cymru's part in the current coalition government with Labour. When Mr Thomas said that the Ministers decision surmounted to breaking a commitment as set out in the One Wales document, he was in effect, telling Plaid they were no longer representing the needs of the Welsh speaking community.

The document, which paved the way for the Labour-Plaid coalition, clearly sets out a number of promises, one of which is to "expand the funding and support for Welsh-medium magazines and newspapers, including the establishment of a Welsh-language daily newspaper." Mr Thomas felt that the extra money announced to support a Welsh print publication was not sufficient. That money fell three times (£400,000) lower than Dyddiol Cyf had demanded.

However, given the lack of support the company had gathered from the Welsh speaking community, it could be argued that supply would have far out numbered demand for such a paper. In its original plans, Dyddiol Cyf aimed to attract 5,000 subscribers, a month before it was due to launch it had just 700. Furthermore, Y Byd's backers were not in any shape ever to be the sole recipients of such money.

The extra £200,000 a year offered already has other potential companies sniffing around. It appears that Trinity Mirror, Parent group to Media Wales who own the Western Mail, are one.

When the apparent interest by Trinity Mirror was highlighted to one of Y Byd's backers, Hywel Teifi Edwards, on BBC Radio Wales' morning news programme, Mr Edwards spat the proverbial dummy. He exclaimed that there was a huge difference between having control here in Wales compared to a Welsh daily being controlled "in the hands of a foreign body," who would, he said, "pull the plug," at the first signs of economic weakness. That body of course, being a company based in England.

For all his passion - which is to be admired, Mr Edwards' interview left a nasty taste in the mouth. The sort that brings up memories of holiday homes in Wales owned by English people being burnt. His utter distain for the possibility that a paper he so badly desires to "fulfil a democratic need in Wales," to exist in control other than that of the Welsh, bordered on racial hatred.

While Welsh speakers have every right to wish and even have a daily paper printed in their mother tongue, it shouldn't be a burden for the rest of us. As other Welsh-medium magazines have proven* there is not enough demand from the Welsh speaking public to sustain such publications and keep them afloat economically, without huge subsidies. Until that point, having a company, English based or not, that may take up the offer to pursue publishing solely in Welsh shouldn't be defecated on. A welsh daily, may like many other ventures when they are emerging from the womb, garner support as they mature. At which point, a Welsh paper controlled by the Welsh may be more than just a whim - it could become a reality.

Dyddiol Cyf say they are already considering a number of other positive ideas which could give a much-needed boost to the Welsh Press, this is to be applauded. Perhaps in future it needs to also consider more carefully the fanatical element it attracts in the mould of Mr Edwards.


* Each copy of 'Barn,' a Welsh magazine is subsidised to the tune of £9 per copy