Wednesday, November 02, 2005
What is in a name?
Names featured quite a lot in Plenary yesterday. In fact apart from the case of the missing Minister and a bit of partisan politicking over the Plaid Cymru motion on Local Health Boards names and their application appeared in most of the day's highlights.
Lisa Francis started it off with the very first question to the First Minister. She wanted to know what the in-house replacement for the Wales Tourist Board will be called after it is merged:
Lisa Francis: In the First Minister’s absence, are you able to tell us the name of the new department entrusted with marketing Wales as a tourism destination after April next year? Constituents who attended a recent tourism meeting were advised that the name of the department will be the ‘Welsh Assembly Government department for tourism and leisure’. Can you confirm that this uninspiring and unedifying choice is the correct name? How do you anticipate that this new name will successfully replace the Wales Tourist Board brand and draw tourists to Wales?
Standing in for the First Minister, Jane Hutt avoided answering the question like the trooper she is:
Jane Hutt: We know that what tourists want to gain from Wales is an understanding of the country, and the Wales Tourist Board’s Big Country campaign sent out a strong message. That is why we used the board to develop a Wales brand. It is clear that, just like the work that has emerged through the Wales Tourist Board and the Welsh Development Agency, post-merger tourism and marketing activity will be robust. It will reach out in the way that the Big Country campaign has done over the past year or so.
However, by this time we were intriqued. What should the new department be called? Will it be situated next door to the Ministry for Truth? In the end the backbenches settled on the Department for Tourism, Leisure and Catering. After all, we all want our visitors to have a bit of TLC when they come to Wales.
Later on Carl Sargeant was anxious to associate himself with the Presiding Officer:
Carl Sargeant: You will recognise, as does the First Minister, the great economic developments in north Wales, including those of Airbus and Corus. The grand opening of a £13 million-worth extension to the railway link will be held on Friday.
I attended a business dinner the other evening with the Presiding Officer for the 50 fastest-growing businesses. A high proportion of those businesses has come about because of Objective 1 funding, which opposition politicians say is not working. It is a fact that Objective 1 is working for Wales.
It seems it is only when you have been name-checked by Carl Sargeant that you have arrived in Welsh politics.
It was shortly after this that the Assembly mislaid a Minister. In this case it was on an urgent question from Owen John Thomas. He wanted to question the Minister for Economic Development and Transport on the announcment by Nippon Electric Glass that it will cease trading before 30 November resulting in 400 job losses at its Cardiff headquarters. The Presiding Officer duly called him to ask the question only to find that there was nobody there to answer it:
The Presiding Officer: I apologise. In the usual manner I have allowed an urgent question and notified the Minister, but it appears that the Minister is not present to respond to the question. We will move on.
Andrew Davies turned up about ten minutes later and was suitably apologetic. That did not stop the Presiding Officer having the final word of course:
The Presiding Officer: Thank you, Minister. While I fully accept the apology that the Minister tendered to the Assembly earlier, I must say that, when an Assembly Member requests an urgent question and that question is allowed, I expect the relevant Minister to be present to answer that question.
And quite right too!
Lisa Francis started it off with the very first question to the First Minister. She wanted to know what the in-house replacement for the Wales Tourist Board will be called after it is merged:
Lisa Francis: In the First Minister’s absence, are you able to tell us the name of the new department entrusted with marketing Wales as a tourism destination after April next year? Constituents who attended a recent tourism meeting were advised that the name of the department will be the ‘Welsh Assembly Government department for tourism and leisure’. Can you confirm that this uninspiring and unedifying choice is the correct name? How do you anticipate that this new name will successfully replace the Wales Tourist Board brand and draw tourists to Wales?
Standing in for the First Minister, Jane Hutt avoided answering the question like the trooper she is:
Jane Hutt: We know that what tourists want to gain from Wales is an understanding of the country, and the Wales Tourist Board’s Big Country campaign sent out a strong message. That is why we used the board to develop a Wales brand. It is clear that, just like the work that has emerged through the Wales Tourist Board and the Welsh Development Agency, post-merger tourism and marketing activity will be robust. It will reach out in the way that the Big Country campaign has done over the past year or so.
However, by this time we were intriqued. What should the new department be called? Will it be situated next door to the Ministry for Truth? In the end the backbenches settled on the Department for Tourism, Leisure and Catering. After all, we all want our visitors to have a bit of TLC when they come to Wales.
Later on Carl Sargeant was anxious to associate himself with the Presiding Officer:
Carl Sargeant: You will recognise, as does the First Minister, the great economic developments in north Wales, including those of Airbus and Corus. The grand opening of a £13 million-worth extension to the railway link will be held on Friday.
I attended a business dinner the other evening with the Presiding Officer for the 50 fastest-growing businesses. A high proportion of those businesses has come about because of Objective 1 funding, which opposition politicians say is not working. It is a fact that Objective 1 is working for Wales.
It seems it is only when you have been name-checked by Carl Sargeant that you have arrived in Welsh politics.
It was shortly after this that the Assembly mislaid a Minister. In this case it was on an urgent question from Owen John Thomas. He wanted to question the Minister for Economic Development and Transport on the announcment by Nippon Electric Glass that it will cease trading before 30 November resulting in 400 job losses at its Cardiff headquarters. The Presiding Officer duly called him to ask the question only to find that there was nobody there to answer it:
The Presiding Officer: I apologise. In the usual manner I have allowed an urgent question and notified the Minister, but it appears that the Minister is not present to respond to the question. We will move on.
Andrew Davies turned up about ten minutes later and was suitably apologetic. That did not stop the Presiding Officer having the final word of course:
The Presiding Officer: Thank you, Minister. While I fully accept the apology that the Minister tendered to the Assembly earlier, I must say that, when an Assembly Member requests an urgent question and that question is allowed, I expect the relevant Minister to be present to answer that question.
And quite right too!
