I was curious if that was just the Irish who got that shit or if England basically looked down on everybody
A few observations:
Used to be that taking the piss out of the Welsh as stupid sheep fuckers was pretty common on pretty much every show the BBC did. It's not as common anymore but you can still see it used anytime the BBC does something set in Wales.
When the Welsh assembly was formed there was a pretty big political pushback in England and to this day English media is still obsessed with making Wales look like a shit hole despite it being in a better state right now than much of England.
The English really don't like the bilingual signs and many news papers are still publishing op-eds about how confusing they are. Like they've been a thing for like thirty years at this point, get over it.
In my experience growing up in a former Welsh mining community, the people of Wales don't really hate the English for the jokes about sheep fucking, but rather the historical repression of Welsh culture.
Edit: forgot to mention, individual English I've met haven't had negative opinions about Wales and the Welsh, the dislike of the Welsh is mostly a right wing media thing. Some labour members I've met are even a little jealous of how capable Welsh labour is in comparison to English labour.
To add to your point about the Welsh/English labour difference for anyone whose interested https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear_Red_Water
I want to preface this with that Britain has a large non white migrant population who face far more violence than white Welsh people ever do at the hands of institutions, the police, the press and so on.
Welsh people are absolutely treated with downright mockery at the best, and hostility at worst. see the typical tropes of it is ofc calling them 'sheep shaggers' and such, but it's where this is translated into the political realm that denies Wales further autonomy, has Wales slide further into poverty, and the attempts to erase Welsh as a language and identity that this is a form of violence.
the Welsh government does a lot more for their people than most English MPs do, but that said Wales has been hit HARD by post industrialism. they were receiving huge EU subsidisation for local business, which is now gone, furthering that post industrial slide with mass unemployment and social decay. Swansea and Cardiff aren't anywhere near as bad in terms of jobs in being big towns/small cities so you have a lot of service industry jobs, but it's still not a lot.
Depends where you live, the "Welsh fuck sheep" thing is pretty widespread, usually from the same people who think everyone from the countryside is inbred
Mostly just mildly insulting ribbing I guess, same as most surrounding countries, never met any English people that actually disliked Irish, Scottish, or Welsh people (I'm sure they exist), I have met plenty that make stereotypical jokes though. I also get the idea that England and Wales have a more similar ideological split than say England and Scottland, Wales is a little more progressive than England but not much, still a fairly large conservative base.
Some seem to actually dislike French people which I've never really understood, most french people I've met have been chill and a lot more understanding of tourists not speaking their language than I bet 90% of English people are.
a lot more understanding of tourists not speaking their language than I bet 90% of English people are.
This has NOT been my experience lol France was the most annoying place I've ever been in in terms of that. Perhaps English are less understanding if you don't know English but at least a lot more people know English. The weird insistence of a lot of French people on just completely ignoring the fact that you don't speak their language despite them obviously knowing English is not something I've seen anywhere else.
I'm probably weird in that the few times I've been abroad, I actually don't like the fact that nearly everyone I interact with speaks English passably. Like, it just reminds me of US imperialism and how US culture just seems to dominate everywhere even of it makes getting around easier. Living in the imperial core can be exhausting, would be nice to be able to (pretend) to get away from it.
OK if you ever come to Greece I'll make sure to shout weird Greek you don't understand right into your face :Care-Comrade:
Politically they're pretty neglected as other posters have said. Thatcher started a bunch of de industrialisation projects that took the country away from mining and into the service sector. To be fair, Cardiff is a really nice place now thanks to those projects.
In terms of actual racism, yeah there's the whole sheep shagger thing but it's just casual ribs, usually played up thanks to sporting rivalries in rugby and stuff so no one really minds it too much. Maybe I just don't notice it because I'm half welsh and half English.
The Wales vs England rugby rival is very interesting though, because it was always a match of miners and valley folk vs privately educated upper class men. Squidge Rugby has a video on it, if you're interested. Rugby is pretty integral to knowing the first thing about welsh culture. https://youtu.be/9anb82h-DJA
Yeah, Cardiff and Swansea are pretty nice but mid wales and North Wales in particular are absolutely fucked still. Even the Senedd admit they need a plan for North Wales redevelopment because it’s full of towns of poor as fuck people with no hope for the future. I would know.
Oh yeah for sure. Even away from mid and north Wales there's fucked areas. My welsh side is from Newport and lived in Barry for a long time. Very poor places that are totally neglected.
