Sounds of Babel
NZPA London The spectre of European Parliamentarians going the same way as the tribes of Babel has been raised by the “Guardian” newspaper. But the “Guardian” concluded that the Parliament’s Deputy Speaker had acted wisely on Wednesday, when, faced with one member delivering a speech in Welsh and another pleading the case for Occitanian, spoken in parts of southern France, he referred the matter to the body’s procedure committee.
“The perils for Europe are manifest and numerous,” the independent daily said. “Ireland and Belgium speak with two tongues apiece. Spain, about to be admitted, speaks Castilian, Catalan, and Basque. In Britain there are traces of Cornish, of Welsh, and of Gaelic.
“If all these languagegroups achieve their rights Strasbourg will soon become a sort of Babel-on-the-Rhine,” it said.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19790122.2.5
Bibliographic details
Press, 22 January 1979, Page 1
Word Count
131Sounds of Babel Press, 22 January 1979, Page 1
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Copyright in all Footrot Flats cartoons is owned by Diogenes Designs Ltd. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise these cartoons and make them available online as part of this digitised version of the Press. You can search, browse, and print Footrot Flats cartoons for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Diogenes Designs Ltd for any other use.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.
Log in