Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen panders to the English = racist bullshit. Apparently saying you are Welsh or Scots is all fine and dandy – that’s your ethnic identity. But say you are English and that’s racism.
‘I don’t often use the term “England” because I think it’s racist,’ says Llewelyn-Bowen. ‘Whereas “British” can be used in the way that “To be Roman” didn’t mean coming from Rome at all.
‘I like that . . . and this is me speaking as a Welshman — an aborigine of the island. I’m very pleased to welcome you all in, obviously.’
He’s not just an idiot, he’s pretty dense, too. There is nothing remotely racist about identifying oneself as English. I was born in Kent (Man of Kent as it happens), therefore I am English. This is a simple matter of fact. To claim that this is racist is utterly absurd. You would have to be incredibly stupid or mendacious to suggest that it is.
I see that today, Littlejohn skewers the moron.
Of course, there’s no accounting for the stupidity of celebrities when they are flaunting their alleged moral superiority over the rest of us.
Indeed and Llewelyn-Bowen has always been a vapid mediocrity.
Remember that you are an Englishman, and have consequently won first prize in the lottery of life.
The nicest thing one can say about the Welsh is that they are well balanced, they have chips on both shoulders. Personally, I refuse to set foot in that poxy little carbuncle that lies to the West of England, I go on holiday to relax and unwind, not to feel despised by those who happily take your money while treating you with contempt.
Oh dear Doc, you do have a dim view of the Principality don’t you?
I’m Welsh, and unlike Mr Bowen I was born there. I had a Welsh speaking gramp who came from Pembrokeshire, north of the Landsker line (ever heard of it?) It is a fluctuating line between the Welsh speaking part of Wales and the Norman invaded South. But my Great Grandfather came from Yorkshire and another set of grandparents came from Dorset. So how Welsh am I really?
In 1800 the town with the largest population in Wales was Merthyr Tydfil, with a mere 9000 souls. Cardiff was a village of 1200. Then coal was discovered and South Wales became like the Klondike; people rushed in from all over the UK and beyond. I went to school with kids with names like Furlong, Fulgonni, Campbell, Sidolli, Murphy, as well as Welsh names like Jones and Pritchard. It was a multicultural society . We knew what the best coffee tasted like and ice cream to die for, courtesy of the Italian immigrants, and that Spaghetti didn’t necessarily come in tins with Heinz on the label like the rest of Britain. I had my hair cut by Greeks…
Mr Bowen (LLewelyn my arse! My paternal grandfather was named LLewelyn) is a complete twat who doesn’t know his arse from his elbow about his roots and the history of his imagined country. He’s about as much Welsh as Alistair Campbell or Rod Stewart is Scottish.
Wales has some nice motorcycling roads.
Fond memories of the A44 on the rare days it wasn’t raining. As for Llewellyn-Bowen, he’s no more Welsh than I am, in that he has some ancestors from the principality, but like me he’s English by birth and upbringing.
And some bloody good pubs ….
I do know a morris side from Bath way who have done the odd Welsh tour of Dorset, if that helps any…
Dead right, RAB. These blokes came to South Wales from all over; Somerset, the West Midlands, Yorkshire, the rural counties of the rest of Britain. Two generations later they were cheering on the Red Shirts at Cardiff Arms Park!
I spent three of my teenage years in mid Wales (near Machynlleth) and it still has a hold on me.
I always have an issue with this racism lark, primarily because nationality is not race. Culture isn’t race either. Most of us know what someone of a different race looks like – primarily either heavy on the melanin stakes or having facial feature that clearly identify them as being from SE Asia for example. Bitching about someone who is also from the British Isles and who is clearly caucasian cannot possibly be “waythist”
Either way, Llewelyn-Bowen is a tosser.
When I went to school in Cardiff in 1948 there was only one welsh speaker in our class. What happened.
Not only is he an idiot, but he was nothing more than a second rate, effete tosser on a second rate TV show 20 years ago whose sole talent seemed to be ruining people’s houses by painting thier kitchen tiles violet.
And given the way he even now praces around with those ridiculous cuffs I can’t imagine what would happen if he returned to Wales… they’d put him in a wicker man as a witch I suspect…
Fuckwits appear to be 2 a penny these days