I'm all in favour of people learning Gaelic as an elective in school or on their own time in Gaelic speaking clubs, but resent very much any of my tax money going to support what is, and has been for more than three centuries a dying, minority language.

The cost of bi-lingualism in society is enormous. Not only in terms of money spent that could be better spent on other areas of education (to say nothing of the waste of government money in bi-lingual signs, forms, and indeed, court proceedings), but in the fact that bi-lingualism divides, rather than unites a common people. It becomes irrationally politicized and those who oppose dividing society along bilingual lines are demonized (as in the post above). Those who champion the holy grail of forcing the majority of the country to learn a language that was at best spoken by a minority of the population do so without regard for the wishes of the tax paying majority.

Comment has been made about the Navajo language-- I ask you, as undoubted as their contribution to the American war effort was, should Navajo be taught in all US, state funded schools? Probably not. Should the opportunity exist to learn the language? Of course, but not at the cost of short changing other, more important and more relevant aspects of state funded education.

If Mr. Charteris wants to take the almost half million pounds currently spent on teaching Gaelic and direct it to other areas of education -- perhaps by hiring more teachers to ease the problem of classroom over crowding -- and by so doing raise the educational achievements of the students in his local schools, I'm all for it.

Le mise--

MoR