Self-styled epithet - insult to Wales

The Editor,The Western Mail,

SIR

Your lack of coverage of the Saturday’s National St David’s Day Parade in the capital is shameful. That you published false information in your Saturday edition about the location and timing of the Parade was even more reprehensible. The largest National St David’s Day Parade ever was held in partnership with Cardiff Council and the National Assembly and was attended by national dignitaries and many thousands of people from all over Wales and beyond. Some 8,000 people including pipe, brass and drum bands processed through the capital’s streets which were thronging with onlookers. The earlier military parade was miniscule by comparison. The St David’s Day Parade was officially received by officials of the Senedd and the Welsh Assembly Government in Cardiff Bay. It was, as Presiding Officer Lord Elis-Thomas said in his address, ‘a significant step in the progress of Welsh history’. Cardiff has never experienced anything like it, yet you chose to ignore it. This can only be construed as willful, discreditable negligence on your part.

An increasing number of people in this country are beginning to see through the now barely hidden agenda of your management and editorial team, doubtless prompted by your London owners, as the lamentable ABC circulation figures published last week show. Tired of being treated with intellectual contempt, Welsh readers are voting with their feet.

Three years ago you threatened, risibly, Cambria magazine and myself as then editor, with actions for criminal libel and defamation over an article by Clive Betts, which suggested that the tabloid version of your paper had dumbed-down, a graph which showed the steady decline of your circulation, and a cartoon showing an ailing mule on its last legs. The threats were, of course, swiftly rebutted by my legal team, but it is satisfying to know that we were absolutely right. You cannot fail to agree that the figure of 35,067 speaks, deafeningly, for itself.

I suggest that you remove the self-styled epithet ‘The National Newspaper of Wales’ from your masthead as it is an insult both to the Welsh nation and the newspaper publishing industry.

Henry Jones-Davies

Publisher

CAMBRIA – The National Magazine of Wales