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Marcas Mac an Tuairneir has created a petition to give BSL, Cornish, Irish, Scots, Gaelic & Welsh UK-wide official language protections. These languages currently have some protections, but they are not yet on a wide scale.
Amendment NC107 Representation of the People Bill, which is
the bill being debated and discussed, would make it illegal for political
literature to be issued in a language other than English and Welsh. SNP
publications in Scots or Gaelic would be deemed illegal, as would any Irish
language publications by SDLP, Sinn Féin or Áontú.
Currently, the Irish language has recognition and protections
under Northern Ireland’s Identity and Language Act of 2022, which was the first
official legal recognition of the language. The Justice (Language) Act 1737, which
banned the use of any language other than English in court proceedings, was
repealed.
Expanded protections would expand language rights across the
UK, upgrade the status of languages from om a regional language to a legally recognized
national minority language, and replace a patchwork of local rules with a
single UK wide protection for speakers irrespective of where they lived. For
instance, an Irish person living in Liverpool could apply for their marriage
license in the Irish language.
There are concerns that Amendment NC107 to the
Representation of the People Bill will criminalize election leaflets in
Cornish, Irish, Gaelic, Scots and BSL. This would impact bilingual
constituencies, including Na h-Eileanan an Iar, Irish-speaking areas of NI, and
BSL users across the nation. There is a possibility that it would outlaw party
names written in these languages.
Devolved governments have put protection on these languages,
but there are concerns that issues would arise in general elections
Opponents of the bill say that multilingualism within a
country is normal. English is not the only indigenous language in the UK. While
it may be the current viewpoint that English is the natural language, the
marginalization of other languages is a forced process.
Currently, there is a petition being circulated that British
citizens or UK residents can sign. (Petition link: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/777127#main-content
.) If the petition gets 10,000 signatures, the government will respond to it.
Parliament will debate the petition if it gets 100,000 signatures. The petition
closes on February 12, 2027. People can also contact their MP and encourage
them to oppose the bill and encourage them to support UK-wide recognition of
minority national languages.