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Originally Posted by Orior
Ach there's people going out of their way to get offended again.
In March 2002 David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party called Ireland a "pathetic sectarian state". Never mind the irony in that but I think he was asked if he would apologise and he flatly refused. Point is you can get away with murder in Ireland ;-)
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It's a good point. I think the nature of nationalism is different in Wales than elsewhere in the UK. The union of England and Scotland was a marriage of equals, and although England has come to dominate, Scotland still has a proud and confident political identity. When the Scots have a go at the English, they don't feel they are doing so from a sense of inferiority. When the English have a go at the Scots, there is similarly an underlying respect.
On the other hand, the Act of Union by which England effectively annexed Wales was one of the low points of centuries of military and political subjugation. There is no serious political identity in Wales (And don't anyone try to invoke Plaid Cymru, which is an utter joke), and the rich cultural identity the Welsh have is jealously (perhaps paranoidally) guarded. Welsh nationalism has a nasty side to it that Scottish nationalism does not. I and my friends have had 'tumbleweed moments' in rural Welsh pubs in which the regulars switched to speaking Welsh only after it became apparent the newcomers at the bar were English. Notwithstanding the fact that Gaelic is not so widespread in Scotland, you just don't get the same deliberate back-turning here.
That is not to say that there are no ignorant nationalists in Scotland, and I am certainly not painting all, or even most, or even many, Welsh people as ignorant, paranoid English haters. But I do not find it surprising that for the second time in recent months, a Welsh police force is investigating complaints of slurs against the Welsh people, whereas when similar things happen towards Scotland or England, everyone just gets on with life.