A Government of our own

We in Cymru X have long believed that Wales should have its own Government, both in name and in nature. We campaigned on this issue and submitted a motion to National Conference calling for Plaid Cymru representatives to exclusively refer to the 'Welsh Government' and not use the misleading term 'Welsh Assembly Government'. Our motion wasn't really needed as its now standard practice to call it the Welsh Government- but we were in the right spirit of things.

Sir Emyr Jones-Parry made exactly the same point this week when he reported back from the All Wales Convention. He backed up our view that including the word 'Assembly' causes confusion and is unecessary. There is a very practical reason to call it what it is, which is the Welsh Government, even if it does not yet have the kind of powers most Governments do.

It's reassuring that an increasing number of organisations, different political parties and even the National Assembly itself are now using the term 'Welsh Government'. I opened up an email this morning from the Assembly's Petitions Committee where the civil servants referred to it as such, dropping out the word 'Assembly' from the Government part.

Look at the difference that has been made in Scotland where the 'Scottish Executive', which conjures up images of some kind of closed off club, has been replaced by the 'Scottish Government'. Some of that here please! As soon as we're officially out of recession we should rebrand our legislative arm as the Welsh Government- by the people, for the people.

Luke Nicholas
Policy Officer, Cymru X