What would David Lloyd George think of the internet

 What would David Lloyd George think of the Internet ?

Where would I have my conversation with David Lloyd George ? Maybe at the top of Snowdon , the highest mountain in Wales . There is a café  up there  where we could escape from the mist and cold drizzle and enjoy a cup of  tea together. He would prefer something stronger I think but he would make do if we could have a plate of welshcakes as well. Much as I would have liked to speak to him in Welsh, his first language , I would  not feel confident to do so as Welsh is my second  language and there are many differences between the Welsh spoken by a North Walian like D. L .W ( I’m going to abbreviate his name from now on ) and the Welsh of South Wales where I live. So in English it would have  to  be.

There would be so many things to discuss.  I share a love of Wales and its language with him. He believed in devolution of government to Wales and would be very happy to see how the welsh language has grown despite English attempts to eradicate it.

I  don’t  know how well known D.L.G  is outside the UK  or even within the UK  for that matter. Briefly ,  he was Prime Minister of Great Britain and Ireland ( as it was at the time) from 1916 to 1922. He was the first and only welsh  P.M  coming from  a relatively poor  family  in  rural  North Wales.  He was a skilled and passionate  public speaker and was responsible for bringing radical changes to British society.

At some point in our ‘sgwrs’ , the Welsh for chat, I would try to explain the internet to him.  I couldn’t  explain the technical details but I would point out that it is a vast knowledge  store where you can find answers to most questions and that you can communicate with other people wherever they are in the world  if they have a connection to this system ,  the world wide web.

Written messages can be sent but  also  pictures and sound. The possibilities are innumerable.

‘Well, Duw , Duw,”  he exclaims.That means  Good Grief . “  so you’re  saying that when I make a speech now, for example in Llandudno, we could send it to someone in Cardiff?” 

“ Yes,” I’d tell him.” People anywhere could watch you making your speech if it was being filmed.”

 Of course film technology  is completely different  now to what it was but DLG lived until 1945 so he knew about cine  film. 

He quickly grasped that the internet would enable him to spread his political reforming  message easily to all parts of the country or the world. His  speeches could be read instantly by someone in Sydney Australia or just down in Bangor.

“ Well  That’s splendid . I can’t see anything against this idea.” 

Ah, not so fast. I would then have to advise him that everyone was able to make comments and express their views using the Internet.  There would be those who disagreed with his policies who would criticise him perhaps in very unpleasant ways using  websites and what are called social media sites. There would unfortunately  be disinformation  or lies written about him.

“Oh I was used to that with the newspapers, “ he might say. 

Yes  but this is on a far bigger scale. Politicians have to be very tough to withstand the attention they get now.

Lord George was a divisive figure in that people either loved him for his charisma  and his passion or derided him because he was not part of the traditional establishment, not educated at public school or university. He had a very colourful private life not unlike our current Prime Minister. However in the early part of the 20th century  he was able to keep his personal life out of the news headlines. Now , as I would tell him, that would be impossible . Anyone could make public the information they had about him using the Internet. 

I think DLG  would then have doubts about this new and revolutionary technology. He would concede that there is a very good side to it but also a bad. It was probably simpler for a politician  like him  to live life without the 24 hour world wide web.

Lorraine Wilson