The Welsh Government has refused to distribute to every school pupil in Wales a book to commemorate the Queen's Platinum jubilee - but WalesOnline readers are divided over whether it was the right decision. The UK Government awarded a £12m contract to London-based published DK books to produce 211,000 bilingual copies of the book to be distributed to children at just under 3,000 schools and educational establishments in Wales.
However a Welsh Government source told us that after seeing the book, it was decided that it would not be appropriate to distribute it to all pupils, but to leave it to schools to decide whether they wanted it. Some Welsh Labour Cabinet members, including First Minister Mark Drakeford, are republicans. It’s thought that the book is seen to be too Anglocentric and not in tune with a devolved UK where Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own governments. UK Government Ministers are said to be “furious” at the Welsh Government’s U-turn on the plans, with a senior political source telling us they failed to understand the objections to the book. You can read more about the contents of the book and the decision by the Welsh government here.
We asked our followers on Facebook whether all pupils in Wales should get the Westminster's book about the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, and the near-1000 responses were pretty evenly split, with strong arguments from both sides. Against the Welsh Government's decision, Paul Christopher Bryant: "100% YES. It’s about time WAG [Welsh Assembly Government] stopped meddling in things like this. It should be free to everyone not just children - such an historical landmark to be celebrated and commemorated."
