Uni lecturer fired after saying Welsh road signs are ‘dangerous’ and ‘confusing’

A lecturer from Wrexham University has been fired after he stated that bilingual road signs were “dangerous”.

Dr Nigel Hunt, an honorary lecturer made the comment in the Facebook group “Department of Petty Rage Two”.

According to Dr Hunt, the danger of these signs is that they take too long to read. This is before he discredits the Welsh Government’s plan to bring back the Welsh language, saying that despite its efforts “most people in Wales do not understand these signs”.

Sky News reported that he said the signs are “confusing” as they contain “irrelevant – and to most people – unintelligible information”.

He also called the signs “potentially dangerous as it takes longer to determine the message”.

Wrexham University has apologised for any offence caused by Dr Hunt’s comments and has assured that this is not a reflection of the “views or values of our university or its staff”. It has also cut all ties with the lecturer and is doing a full internal investigation.

We would like to apologise for the offence caused by recent remarks – and are in the process of investigating this matter internally. We are keen to stress that these comments absolutely do not reflect the views or values of our university or its staff. pic.twitter.com/bML2LVipfr

— Wrexham University (@WrexhamUni) October 10, 2023

In a statement made to Sky News, Hunt did not apologise for his comments but did say sorry for the way that they had emerged. He said: “While I accept that the University of Wrexham has a position on the Welsh language, it is critical that members of that university are free to express opinions that go against that position.

“This is academic freedom, and more fundamentally, free speech.

“We should not be restricting freedom of speech, the right to have opinions that differ from other people.”

He added that he was “disappointed” with the reaction to his comments and claimed that he was called “many names even a racist”.

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