Saturday 17 June 2017

Member of the Welsh Parliament (MWP) would be TWP.

The National Assembly for Wales is set to be renamed the Welsh Parliament after it was backed in a consultation.
Sixty-one percent of nearly 3,000 responses agreed to a change of name, with nearly three-quarters backing Welsh Parliament as the best option.
A law to change the name is expected to pass before the 2021 election.
How reflected of Welsh Opinion is  "nearly 3000" is open to question  and I wonder if we should really use it as a sort of referendum  to decide what name we should choose.
Presiding Officer Elin Jones hoped people would
 "more fully understand the powers of the assembly and the role it plays in their lives".
The assembly was given the power to rename itself under the 2017 Wales Act. Assembly members had unanimously backed the idea last July after which it was put out to public consultation.
Publishing the responses on Tuesday, Ms Jones said:
 "Our role today is as a full parliamentary body, with the power to pass laws and agree taxes, and we must continue to work hard to inspire the confidence, trust and pride in the people we serve."
Speaking to BBC Wales, Ms Jones said the Welsh Parliament name will 
"reflect directly the will of the people of Wales in giving us the mandate to have the powers to create legislation on their behalf".
"We are a parliament in all but name," 
I personally agree with  Heledd Gwyndaf, chair of Welsh language campaign group Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, said the assembly would miss "an opportunity to normalise the use of Welsh" if it it did not choose "Senedd" as the only name.

Indeed Senedd would  suggest a unique and independent legislature  rather than an inferior clone of Westminster.

Sixty percent of people responding to the consultation said they did not agree that the role of the assembly was well understood.
Just over a fifth of respondents - 22.6% - who responded to the survey said they strongly disagreed or disagreed with the assembly's name changing.
Legislation on assembly reforms - including the change of name - will be published by the Assembly Commission in 2018.
They will include rules on disqualification of assembly members and the design of the committee system.
The commission proposes that assembly members will in future be known as Welsh Parliament Members (WPMs), in keeping with the current title of Assembly Members.
The option was the second least-favoured option according to a summary of the survey conducted for the consultation - with 11.1% of respondents preferring it over other suggestions.
Member of the Welsh Parliament (MWP) was preferred by 30% while 28.4% liked Member of the Senedd.
I wonder if those responding realised MWP sounded a bit to much like TWP.
For Non-Welsh readers Twp is a Welsh word for stupid.
Maybe our friends in YES CYMRU can capaign not only for Senedd for the new name but also to call our members Aelod Senedd (AS) in the same way members of the  Dáil Éireann  are refered to as  Teachta Dála  TD or deputy.
Lets have a legislature that does not seek to replicate the name and mannerism of Westminster but that signals it is going to take Wales forward.

2 comments:

Leigh Richards said...

Most countries have 'parliaments' - we should welcome this name change. It's good to see wales taking its place alongside most other countries in the world in having its own Parliament. And while i'm personally okay with the term 'Senedd' i cant honestly say many of the people in the anglicised part of wales where i live identify with the term or grasp its meaning.

glynbeddau said...

Not true Leigh Cortes Generales-Spin,Bunderstag-Ger!any,Rikstag-Sweden ,not to mention Dai!