Welsh Assembly

[Bobdogs]

With the news that in the midst of the worst crisis that we have ever faced, the Welsh Assembly has decided to adopt a new title.
This will no doubt incur considerable expense due to reprinting of stationary, altering sign boards, reworking websites and many other costs
However, with the 2019/20 budget for the assembly being £18.4 billion would this cost of an extra layer of government along with that of the Scottish and Northern Ireland governments be better spent on the NHS.
During the time that the Northern Ireland government was stood down due to the dispute between the two main parties, were there any noticeable disadvantages for not having their assembly?

 

[najaB]

With the news that in the midst of the worst crisis that we have ever faced, the Welsh Assembly has decided to adopt a new title.
This will no doubt incur considerable expense due to reprinting of stationary, altering sign boards, reworking websites and many other costs

Only if they don't use up the existing stocks of stationery first, and only if they replace signs before they need to be replaced. And updating websites is relatively trivial - "Find, replace, done".*

However, with the 2019/20 budget for the assembly being £18.4 billion would this cost of an extra layer of government along with that of the Scottish and Northern Ireland governments be better spent on the NHS.

£8.7 billion of that is spent on Health and Social Services (£8.3 billion on the NHS directly), and less than £270 million on running the Assembly so I'm not sure what point you're trying to make? (2020 budget breakdown).

During the time that the Northern Ireland government was stood down due to the dispute between the two main parties, were there any noticeable disadvantages for not having their assembly?

It depends on what you count as a 'noticable disavantage' - there were definitely problems with delivery of social services since funding decisions were made (or more often not made) in London rather than locally. Investment in education was pretty much frozen as well, there were several captial projects (new schools and refurbishment of existing stock) that just didn't happen.

*An obvious oversimplification, but hopefully people get the point.

 

[dosxuk]

With the news that in the midst of the worst crisis that we have ever faced, the Welsh Assembly has decided to adopt a new title.

You appear to have missed the bit where they debated this for the best part of a decade, then agreed to the name change back in November. The timing of the name change was decided before coronavirus even became a thing.

How about we refine your opening statement to "With the news that in the midst of the worst crisis that we have ever faced, the Welsh Assembly has decided to save money by continuing with plans to change their brand to the Welsh Parliament." because postponing a long planned rebrand will cause additional expense, especially requiring more of the former-brand materials to be produced.

 

[Busaholic]

During the time that the Northern Ireland government was stood down due to the dispute between the two main parties, were there any noticeable disadvantages for not having their assembly?

Disadvantages for whom exactly? If we're talking about the people of Northern Ireland, then the disadvantages may have repercussions in months and years to come that may not be readily apparent to the outsider at this stage. The Brexit 'negotiations' outcome, for a start, stored up trouble which has only had a lid put on it temporarily by the medical crisis.

 

[Domh245]

For those of you who like me, didn't know what this name change was, here's an article about it, as well as some information about the "why"

On 6 May, the Welsh Assembly is undergoing a bit of a rebrand.

More than 20 years after its foundation, its name has changed and so has the title by which its 60 elected representatives are known.

The National Assembly for Wales will be known as Senedd Cymru - Welsh Parliament, while politicians will be called Members of the Senedd.

The revamp has been three years in the making and not without debate or controversy.

The Senedd Commission, which is in charge of the day-to-day running of the institution, estimates the net cost of the name change to be £294,600 over five years.

What will Assembly Members be called now?
Since the inception of the assembly in 1999, its representatives have been known as Assembly Members, or AM for short.

But under the name change, elected politicians will now be known as Members of the Senedd, which will be abbreviated to MS.

In Welsh the abbreviation will change to AS, for Aelodau o'r Senedd, which replaces the former title AC.

Why bother changing the name?
The assembly was born after a referendum in 1997, which led to some powers transferring to Wales.

The first elections were held in 1999 and the assembly moved into its current home, the Senedd building in Cardiff Bay, in 2006.

In the beginning, it couldn't make major changes to the legislation governing Wales, but that changed with the adoption of law-making powers in 2011.

A significant development was the Wales Bill in 2017, in which the Welsh Assembly gained the power to change its name.

Muppets not wanted
The re-brand follows a public consultation to find a new name for the assembly.

About 3,000 people were surveyed, and about 75% of participants voted for the name Welsh Parliament.

However, concerns were raised over the name, as it was feared members could become subject to ridicule because the planned abbreviation - MWP for Member of the Welsh Parliament - is the first syllable of the Welsh word for muppet.

Why does it have a bilingual name?
It is a compromise.

Welsh Parliament was proposed by former assembly Tory leader Andrew RT Davies in 2012, but Presiding Officer Elin Jones, who looks after the day-to-day running of the assembly, wanted the Welsh-only name Senedd, which is also the name of the building that houses the debating chamber.

That was backed by several celebrities, including actor Michael Sheen, Catatonia singer Cerys Matthews and rugby referee Nigel Owens.

But it split the assembly, Plaid Cymru and some Labour backbenchers supported it, but it was opposed by the Conservatives, who said the new name should celebrate the Welsh and English language. The Welsh Government also backed a bilingual name.

AMs backed the bilingual name in a vote in October 2019 and voted against an amendment from Plaid Cymru AM Rhun ap Iowerth a month later for the assembly to go by Senedd Cymru only.

 

[Lucan]

This will no doubt incur considerable expense due to reprinting of stationary, altering sign boards, reworking websites and many other costs

Only if they don't use up the existing stocks of stationery first, and only if they replace signs before they need to be replaced. And updating websites is relatively trivial - "Find, replace, done".*

Fat chance of not wasting money. I worked for a company that changed its name (more than once) and also split into two, split again, and then partly rejoined two of the parts. Every time the reasons given were exactly the same : "Value for money", "Responding to the stakeholder", "Reflecting our culture" etc etc.

The waste of money and resources was staggering. We were supposed to use up the old stationery but no-one ever did (except me) - everyone went straight for the new stuff. I eventually took a load of old headed paper home for the kids to draw on - still got some. Vehicles had to be repainted, signage replaced (we had a lot of industrial out-posts). Updating websites is not likely to be a mere word change, they will need to project a new corporate image, so artwork is involved, and that is insanely expensive. And organisations generally employ consultants to maintain their websites and these consultants rip off customers' money beyond belief with any such changes - they love it!

But the worst thing was the new corporate logos. For one of our changes it leaked out that the graphic design company had charged a five figure sum for a new postage-stamp sized logo, which looked as if a 3-year old had done it. It was just squiggles, but it came with a page of arty-farty waffle about spirit, inspiration and vision. to "explain" it.

 

[najaB]

Fat chance of not wasting money. I worked for a company that changed its name (more than once) and also split into two, split again, and then partly rejoined two of the parts. Every time the reasons given were exactly the same : "Value for money", "Responding to the stakeholder", "Reflecting our culture" etc etc.

The waste of money and resources was staggering.

As a counter to your point, my last employer changed branding/internal structure a few times and while there was some waste it was, on the whole, pretty well managed. My current employer changed ownership shortly before I joined and has rebranded our main products twice. Again, tight control on the expenses involved meant that the waste was minimal - especially on things like stationery by simply not having large stocks of it in the first place!

Updating websites is not likely to be a mere word change, they will need to project a new corporate image, so artwork is involved, and that is insanely expensive. And organisations generally employ consultants to maintain their websites and these consultants rip off customers' money beyond belief with any such changes - they love it!

I did say that it was an oversimplification. But an organisation the size of the Welsh Government more than likely maintains their own web infrastructure so most of those costs are already sunk.

 

[Butts]

Having lived myself in Wales for a couple of years recently at least more people actually speak and understand Welsh than do Gaelic in Scotland.

That hasn't stopped The Scottish Government and other bodies plastering Gaelic all over various things intelligible to only about 5% of the population.

Indeed there are probably more native Polish Speakers in Scotland so why not add that on as well !!

At least it hasn't reached the stage of (In Falkirk at least) of receiving two identical Council Tax Bills in two different languages like I used to get in Casnewydd.