Alba: political parties pressed on language issue on their websites
The general secretary (GS) of the League has written to all the main political parties in Scotland about the absence of the Scottish Gaelic language on their websites. In May 2009, the Alba Branch took part in the Scottish Government's Gaelic language plan consultation exercise and highlighted the fact that no political parties used the language on their websites. Unfortunately, almost two years on and the situation remains the same.
The edited text of the letter sent by the GS to the different political parties can be found below.
"Dear Sir/Madam
Lack of Gaelic language on Website
In the run up to the Scottish Parliament elections in May 2011, our members have been viewing the various websites of the political parties in Scotland and we have been disappointed to note that not one party has a bilingual Gaelic/English language site.
Our members have reported that contrary to the situation today many parties around a decade ago used to have bilingual sites. This represents a backward step and contradicts the position that many political parties in Scotland say they hold as supporters of the language. Our members have been further discouraged by the fact that your website does not even acknowledge the Gaelic language by using it in a partial way.
I would therefore like to draw your attention to the Plaid Cymru political party ( (voir le site) website, which is wholly in both the Welsh and English languages. I would like to suggest that this design and set up would represent a step forward for your party in the run up to the elections in 2011.
I realise that we are currently in times of economic hardship, but I would have assumed that among your membership you would have at least one Gaelic speaker who would be prepared to translate your site for little or no cost.
We look forward to seeing linguistic improvements to your website in the future.
Yours sincerely
Rhisiart Tal-e-bot
General Secretary
Celtic League
Link:
This article prepared for Celtic News by Rhisiart Tal-e-bot General Secretary Celtic League. For follow-up comment or clarification contact:
Tel: 0044 (0)1209315884 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 0044 (0)1209315884 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
M: 0044(0)7787318666
gensec@celticleague.net
J B Moffatt (Mr)
Director of Information
Celtic League
23/11/10
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