Diolch, Llywydd. Cefais fy addysg yn ysgol Caradog yn Aberdâr.

The twenty-seventh of July marks the fiftieth anniversary of the enactment of the Welsh Language Act of 1967. Although the Act is no longer in force, having been replaced by the Welsh Language Act of 1993 and the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure of 2011, the Act is significant for two main reasons. First of all, it repealed the provision in the Wales and Berwick Act of 1746 that the term ‘England’ should include Wales. This was a first step towards the restoration of a separate legal jurisdiction for Wales—a journey that we have yet to complete.

Secondly, and for the first time, the Act provided rights to Welsh speakers. The Act gave equal validity, as it was called, to the Welsh language—not equal status with English; rather, provision was made to give public bodies the right to use the Welsh language, as with English, but there was no duty on them to do that. Although this was a fundamental weakness of the Act, it was a means of setting down the principle of equality between the two languages of Wales. It’s important to see the Welsh Language Act in the context of revolutionary and civic changes in the 1960s, as part of the social change that gave rights to gay people, to women, through feminism, and to disadvantaged groups. Now, if it hadn’t been for this language Act and the work of language campaigners, we wouldn’t be meeting this week as a Parliament to discuss a nation of 1 million Welsh speakers.