There are now. About 28 percent of the population of Wales can now carry on a conversation in the language. It's taken a long time - my mother says that they were arguing for it back in the 1920s, and finally (after the Devolution thing) businesses and so on have had to come up with realistic programmes for implementing bi-lingualism. Also all schools have to teach Welsh up to a certain level.

In Scotland, the Scottish Parliament is dragging its feet about requiring similar programmes, and is reluctant to put money into teaching the language. With great difficulty the municipal authorities in Inverness were persuaded to have bilingual road signs, for example. The Scottish parliament building in Edinburgh makes a great display of having bilingual signs in the public/tourist areas (but inside, away from the common herd, there isn't a word of Gaelic to be seen).

In Ireland, however, the Dail has passed an Act requiring maps to have the place names in Irish Gaelic and road signs to be in Irish not English. Here in London, the Irish Centre in Hammersmith runs courses to teach Irish - subsidised by the Irish government.

There is a very large number of Scots in the London area, and several very old Scottish associations (such as Comunn na Gaidhlig Lunnainn - the Gaelic Society of London (dating from the 18th Century) - or the Coisir Lunnainn - the London Gaelic Choir (115 years old this year)) which get virtually no support (if any) from the Scottish Parliament. The City Literary Institute runs a course in teaching Scottish Gaelic, which gets no subsidy and is always teetering on the brink of collapse.

Nevertheless, there are positive signs - nearly all to do with the wearing of the kilt.

As the kilt becomes more of an All-Scottish national symbol, and as the cheaper kilts become more readily available (cheapo kilt shops are proliferating) - one can pick one up for around £50 - so more and more people are becoming interested in the wider Scottish heritage, and Gaelic is a central part of that.