The Royals...a Welsh perspective

A conversation sparked debate in our radio class today regarding the royals. The discussion was in short whether in fact they are an important part of British society and have a place in the news.

Coming from an anti-monarchy family, I was rather lost as to what my own opinion was of the whole institution.

Comments from classmates varied although apart from myself, an Irish student and a half -Spanish half -Welsh student, the majority were in agreement that this tradition was an important one.

They bring money to the country, tourism and are part of centuries of tradition. Somehow I still can't seem to agree with them.

From an old mining village in south Wales, I grew up in a strong Welsh culture where there is still anger over the fact that we don't have a Welsh prince, we have an English one with the title of being ours.

I never really thought about it all too much and tended not to have a strong viewpoint on this.

But what I realised today was that a number of English people have great respect for the royals and all that they bring to the country. And that's great.

For me, I realised that I didn't feel this passion and proudness of a tradition that goes back ten centuries ago.

Maybe this is because I consider myself Welsh before British.

It could be because my first language is Welsh and this is were my proudness lies.

Or maybe it's because secretly I am hoping that we will have another 'Llywelyn', a prince of our own who knows what it is to be a proud Welshman.