What’s in a Name 1?

We don't feel particularly strongly about calling the new Assmebly building a ‘Senedd’ or not. This business of giving Welsh names to parts of the new building; ‘senedd’, ‘oriel’, ‘cwrt’ etc. could be seen by some Welsh nationalists as tokenism to give Welsh some status.

But, seeing that Welsh has suffered centuries of colonial policies in administration and education, then it’s on hardly a level playing field as English, so the ‘tokenism’ is understandable. Giving a Welsh name is a simple way of giving it status and parlance in the one building which owes its existence to the concept of Welsh nationhood - a concept which couldn’t exist without the uniqeness of the Welsh language.

If British nationalist Labour AMs such as Leighton Andrews don’t like these Welsh names for the Assembly, then his party could offer another strategy to normalise Welsh. How about something meaningful such as a New Welsh Language Act?

But then, his boss, Rhodri Morgan, called this boring, boring, boring. If that’s too radical, how about just implementing his own government’s Iaith Pawb language strategy? After all – its their baby after all! Maybe then they’d find supporters of the Welsh language would be more relaxed with English-language cultural nationalists like themselves.