143-594: Opposition (30) The Senedd ( / ˈ s ɛ n ɛ ð / SEN -edh ; lit. ' parliament ' or ' senate ' ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and Senedd Cymru ( [ˈsɛnɛð ˈkəmrɨ] ) in Welsh , is the devolved , unicameral legislature of Wales . A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees to certain taxes, and scrutinises
286-553: A mixed language or a creole —a theory called the Middle English creole hypothesis . Although the great influence of these languages on the vocabulary and grammar of Modern English is widely acknowledged, most specialists in language contact do not consider English to be a true mixed language. English is classified as a Germanic language because it shares innovations with other Germanic languages including Dutch , German , and Swedish . These shared innovations show that
429-644: A 2012 official Eurobarometer poll (conducted when the UK was still a member of the EU), 38 percent of the EU respondents outside the countries where English is an official language said they could speak English well enough to have a conversation in that language. The next most commonly mentioned foreign language, French (which is the most widely known foreign language in the UK and Ireland), could be used in conversation by 12 percent of respondents. A working knowledge of English has become
572-495: A co-operation deal that will see the implementation of 46 policies that the two parties share. One of these is the expansion of the Senedd from 60 Members to between 80 and 100 Members. At its Conference on 12 March 2022, Welsh Labour unanimously approved increasing the size of the Senedd. "The expansion of the Senedd is essential because the journey of devolution is not yet complete," former First Minister Alun Michael said. "There
715-658: A distinct language from Modern English and is virtually impossible for 21st-century unstudied English-speakers to understand. Its grammar was similar to that of modern German: nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and verbs had many more inflectional endings and forms , and word order was much freer than in Modern English. Modern English has case forms in pronouns ( he , him , his ) and has a few verb inflections ( speak , speaks , speaking , spoke , spoken ), but Old English had case endings in nouns as well, and verbs had more person and number endings. Its closest relative
858-478: A five-year term of office under an additional member system , in which 40 MSs represent smaller geographical divisions known as "constituencies" and are elected by first-past-the-post voting , and 20 MSs represent five "electoral regions" using the D'Hondt method of proportional representation . Typically, the largest party in the Senedd forms the Welsh Government. A National Assembly for Wales
1001-490: A foreign language, make up the "expanding circle". The distinctions between English as a first language, as a second language, and as a foreign language are often debatable and may change in particular countries over time. For example, in the Netherlands and some other countries of Europe, knowledge of English as a second language is nearly universal, with over 80 percent of the population able to use it, and thus English
1144-684: A more permissive law-making system for the Welsh Assembly based on the use of Parliamentary Orders in Council. In so doing, the Government rejected many of the cross party Richard Commission's recommendations. This has attracted criticism from opposition parties and others. The Government of Wales Act 2006 received Royal assent on 25 July 2006. It conferred on the Assembly legislative powers similar to other devolved legislatures through
1287-520: A more standard version of English. They have many more speakers of English who acquire English as they grow up through day-to-day use and listening to broadcasting, especially if they attend schools where English is the medium of instruction. Varieties of English learned by non-native speakers born to English-speaking parents may be influenced, especially in their grammar, by the other languages spoken by those learners. Most of those varieties of English include words little used by native speakers of English in
1430-473: A national parliament. The Assembly Commission ran a public consultation on the proposal, which showed that 61% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the Assembly should change its name. In 2018, the commission announced its intention to introduce legislation to change the name of the Assembly. Later that year, the Llywydd – the Assembly's presiding officer – wrote to all Assembly Members explaining that
1573-479: A net gain of one seat in Wales. On 6 May 2016 , Welsh Labour won 29 of the 60 seats in the Assembly elections and secured a fifth term in government, in a minority coalition with the sole remaining Welsh Lib Dem member, Kirsty Williams . In 2017 cabinet was reshuffled with Dafydd Elis-Thomas joining it. Plaid Cymru also participated in an alliance with the party from 2016 to 2017. Welsh Labour supported remain at
SECTION 10
#17327757918831716-695: A number of other Anglic languages, including Scots and the extinct Fingallian dialect and Yola language of Ireland. Like Icelandic and Faroese , the development of English in the British Isles isolated it from the continental Germanic languages and influences, and it has since diverged considerably. English is not mutually intelligible with any continental Germanic language, as it differs in vocabulary , syntax , and phonology . However, some of these, such as Dutch or Frisian, do show strong affinities with English, especially with its earlier stages. Unlike Icelandic and Faroese, which were isolated,
1859-420: A peak, winning 61% of the vote and all but four of Wales's 36 parliamentary constituencies. Within three months, however, Gwynfor Evans sensationally captured Carmarthen for Plaid Cymru at a by-election and his party came close to victory at the 1967 Rhondda West and 1968 Caerphilly by-elections , achieving swings against Labour of 30 and 40 per cent respectively. The emergence of Plaid Cymru (and
2002-717: A protected enactment, and to the disproportionate market size and power of the economy under English jurisdiction. Because the Senedd will be unable to disapply the market access principles, if they attempt to introduce new or stricter regulatory standards, they will only apply to goods produced within the devolved jurisdiction. This means that these standards will have little or no practical effect other than to disadvantage their own economy, severely restricting their ability to introduce regulatory divergence, or pursue different economic or social choices to those made in Westminster. On 22 November 2021, Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru agreed
2145-660: A referendum to be held on the Assembly's ability to set a degree of income tax , though there is a proposal for the requirement for a referendum to be removed. Both the UK and Welsh governments supported the Silk Commission (Part 2) proposal to move to a " reserved powers " model of devolution (similar to that of the Scottish Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly ) where the UK government would have specific "reserved" powers and
2288-684: A requirement in a number of occupations and professions such as medicine and computing. English has become so important in scientific publishing that more than 80 percent of all scientific journal articles indexed by Chemical Abstracts in 1998 were written in English, as were 90 percent of all articles in natural science publications by 1996 and 82 percent of articles in humanities publications by 1995. International communities such as international business people may use English as an auxiliary language , with an emphasis on vocabulary suitable for their domain of interest. This has led some scholars to develop
2431-407: A rich inflectional morphology and relatively free word order to a mostly analytic pattern with little inflection and a fairly fixed subject–verb–object word order . Modern English relies more on auxiliary verbs and word order for the expression of complex tenses , aspects and moods , as well as passive constructions , interrogatives , and some negation . The earliest form of English
2574-758: A significant minority speaks English. The countries with the most native English speakers are, in descending order, the United States (at least 231 million), the United Kingdom (60 million), Canada (19 million), Australia (at least 17 million), South Africa (4.8 million), Ireland (4.2 million), and New Zealand (3.7 million). In these countries, children of native speakers learn English from their parents, and local people who speak other languages and new immigrants learn English to communicate in their neighbourhoods and workplaces. The inner-circle countries provide
2717-581: A similar announcement in England). In 2002, free bus passes were introduced in Wales, differently to England. Welsh Labour achieve 40% the Assembly election vote in 2003. In 2004, the Richard Commission suggested increasing the legislative powers of the Assembly. In 2006, the Government of Wales Act 2006 granted the Assembly new powers. The assembly formed the Welsh Assembly government, which
2860-661: A similar function to the Labour Party's National Executive Committee (NEC) in devolved responsibilities . Welsh Labour also has its own parliamentary group within the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) in the House of Commons , where it also has its own whip . Since 2016, Welsh Labour's whip in the PLP has been Jessica Morden MP. The Welsh Executive Committee contains representatives of each section of
3003-447: A verb ending ( present plural): From the 8th to the 11th centuries, Old English gradually transformed through language contact with Old Norse in some regions. The waves of Norse (Viking) colonisation of northern parts of the British Isles in the 8th and 9th centuries put Old English into intense contact with Old Norse , a North Germanic language. Norse influence was strongest in the north-eastern varieties of Old English spoken in
SECTION 20
#17327757918833146-563: Is Old Frisian , but even some centuries after the Anglo-Saxon migration, Old English retained considerable mutual intelligibility with other Germanic varieties. Even in the 9th and 10th centuries, amidst the Danelaw and other Viking invasions, there is historical evidence that Old Norse and Old English retained considerable mutual intelligibility, although probably the northern dialects of Old English were more similar to Old Norse than
3289-400: Is also the most widely learned second language in the world, with more second-language speakers than native speakers. English is either the official language or one of the official languages in 59 sovereign states (such as India , Ireland , and Canada ). In some other countries, it is the sole or dominant language for historical reasons without being explicitly defined by law (such as in
3432-466: Is also undergoing change under the influence of American English, fuelled by the strong presence of American English in the media and the prestige associated with the United States as a world power. As of 2016 , 400 million people spoke English as their first language , and 1.1 billion spoke it as a secondary language. English is the largest language by number of speakers . English
3575-610: Is also widely used in media and literature, and the number of English language books published annually in India is the third largest in the world after the US and UK. However, English is rarely spoken as a first language, numbering only around a couple hundred-thousand people, and less than 5% of the population speak fluent English in India. David Crystal claimed in 2004 that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in
3718-407: Is an official language of countries populated by few descendants of native speakers of English. It has also become by far the most important language of international communication when people who share no native language meet anywhere in the world. The Indian linguist Braj Kachru distinguished countries where English is spoken with a three circles model . In his model, Kachru based his model on
3861-538: Is called Old English or Anglo-Saxon ( c. 450–1150 ). Old English developed from a set of West Germanic dialects, often grouped as Anglo-Frisian or North Sea Germanic , and originally spoken along the coasts of Frisia , Lower Saxony and southern Jutland by Germanic peoples known to the historical record as the Angles , Saxons , and Jutes . From the 5th century, the Anglo-Saxons settled Britain as
4004-423: Is currently used to elect 40 of the 60 Members of the Senedd (MSs). Drakeford said these changes were required as "report after report" had demonstrated that the Senedd in its current form "cannot do the job in the way that people in Wales have a right to expect it to be done". Welsh Lib Dem leader Jane Dodds criticised these plans, claiming that they would disproportionately impact smaller parties. On 8 June 2022,
4147-420: Is designed to be environmentally friendly: it uses an Earth Heat Exchange system for heating; rainwater is collected from the roof and used for flushing toilets and cleaning windows, and the roof features a wind cowl which funnels natural light and air into the debating chamber below. The building houses the debating chamber and committee rooms for the Senedd. When the Senedd building opened on 1 March 2006, there
4290-400: Is more to come. And the capacity needs to be there for those backbenchers to do the job of holding to account that you rightly said, cannot be done by to smaller number of representatives." Two weeks later, Plaid members backed the expansion proposal as well. On 10 May 2022, plans to increase the number of MSs from 60 to 96 were unveiled, as well as the scrapping of first past the post , which
4433-536: Is often arbitrarily defined as beginning with the conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066, but it developed further in the period from 1150 to 1500. With the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the now-Norsified Old English language was subject to another wave of intense contact, this time with Old French , in particular Old Norman French , influencing it as a superstrate. The Norman French spoken by
Senedd - Misplaced Pages Continue
4576-424: Is routinely used to communicate with foreigners and often in higher education. In these countries, although English is not used for government business, its widespread use puts them at the boundary between the "outer circle" and "expanding circle". English is unusual among world languages in how many of its users are not native speakers but speakers of English as a second or foreign language. Many users of English in
4719-465: Is separate from the legislature. In 2007, Welsh Labour introduced free prescriptions in Wales. In the 2007 elections , Welsh Labour's share of the vote fell to 32.2 per cent, its second lowest since the UK general election of 1923 . Its seat number fell by four to 26: 11 more than the second largest party, Plaid Cymru. On 25 May Rhodri Morgan was again nominated as First Minister. On 27 June, Morgan concluded
4862-517: Is spoken by communities on every continent and on islands in all the major oceans. The countries where English is spoken can be grouped into different categories according to how English is used in each country. The "inner circle" countries with many native speakers of English share an international standard of written English and jointly influence speech norms for English around the world. English does not belong to just one country, and it does not belong solely to descendants of English settlers. English
5005-777: Is the third person pronoun group beginning with th- ( they, them, their ) which replaced the Anglo-Saxon pronouns with h- ( hie, him, hera ). Other core Norse loanwords include "give", "get", "sky", "skirt", "egg", and "cake", typically displacing a native Anglo-Saxon equivalent. Old Norse in this era retained considerable mutual intelligibility with some dialects of Old English, particularly northern ones. Englischmen þeyz hy hadde fram þe bygynnyng þre manner speche, Souþeron, Northeron, and Myddel speche in þe myddel of þe lond, ... Noþeles by comyxstion and mellyng, furst wiþ Danes, and afterward wiþ Normans, in menye þe contray longage ys asperyed, and som vseþ strange wlaffyng, chyteryng, harryng, and garryng grisbytting. Although, from
5148-448: The 2016 EU membership referendum , though most Welsh voters in that referendum ultimately chose leave. Labour won a plurality of votes and majority of seats in Wales at the 2017 and 2019 UK general elections, with the overall trend of the party's fortunes broadly mirroring its results across Britain; gaining seats and vote share in 2017 and losing both in 2019. I think it is [...] really important and fascinating that after 22 years
5291-548: The 2021 Senedd election on the New Statesman podcast, Known Unknowns In the 2021 Senedd election , Welsh Labour's share of the vote rose by about 5 per cent and the party won half the seats in the Senedd, equalling its best-ever result in 2003. A few months later the party formed an agreement with Plaid Cymru over a wide range of policy including included free-at-the-point-of-use social care , expanding services for children and restrictions on second homes. The deal
5434-485: The Augustinian canon Orrm , which highlights the blending of both Old English and Anglo-Norman elements in English for the first time. In Wycliff'e Bible of the 1380s, the verse Matthew 8:20 was written: Foxis han dennes, and briddis of heuene han nestis . Here the plural suffix -n on the verb have is still retained, but none of the case endings on the nouns are present. By the 12th century Middle English
5577-599: The Cabinet of the United Kingdom by a Secretary of State who did not represent a Welsh constituency at Westminster . A referendum was held in Wales on 18 September 1997 in which voters approved the creation of the National Assembly for Wales with a total of 559,419 votes, or 50.3% of the vote. The following year the Government of Wales Act was passed by the United Kingdom parliament , establishing
5720-546: The Danelaw area around York, which was the centre of Norse colonisation; today these features are still particularly present in Scots and Northern English . The centre of Norsified English was in the Midlands around Lindsey . After 920 CE, when Lindsey was incorporated into the Anglo-Saxon polity, English spread extensively throughout the region. An element of Norse influence that continues in all English varieties today
5863-552: The European Free Trade Association , Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) set English as their organisation's sole working language even though most members are not countries with a majority of native English speakers. While the European Union (EU) allows member states to designate any of the national languages as an official language of
Senedd - Misplaced Pages Continue
6006-536: The Germanic language branch, and as of 2021 , Ethnologue estimated that there were over 1.5 billion speakers worldwide. Old English emerged from a group of West Germanic dialects spoken by the Anglo-Saxons . Late Old English borrowed some grammar and core vocabulary from Old Norse , a North Germanic language . Then, Middle English borrowed vocabulary extensively from French dialects , which are
6149-723: The Labour Party in Wales ( Welsh : Y Blaid Lafur yng Nghymru ), is an autonomous section of the United Kingdom Labour Party in Wales and the largest party in modern Welsh politics . Welsh Labour and its forebears have won a plurality of the Welsh vote at every UK general election since 1922, every Assembly and Senedd election since 1999, and all elections to the European Parliament in
6292-688: The Liberal Party partially due to the influence of the Nonconformist religious movement on Welsh society as well as the party's association with various other radical causes including improving the welfare of the working classes. In 1893, the Independent Labour party was founded, it established branches in Wales, but did not initially gain mass appeal. In 1900, the Labour Representation Committee
6435-767: The Low Saxon and Frisian languages . English is an Indo-European language and belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . Old English originated from a Germanic tribal and linguistic continuum along the Frisian North Sea coast, whose languages gradually evolved into the Anglic languages in the British Isles , and into the Frisian languages and Low German /Low Saxon on
6578-654: The One Wales agreement with Plaid Cymru, which was approved by Labour rank and file on 6 July. On 1 December 2009, Carwyn Jones became the new leader of Welsh Labour. In March 2010, Welsh Labour twice refused to cross the PCS union picket line , leading to strong criticism for not doing so from the Welsh Conservatives and the Welsh Liberal Democrats . Carwyn Jones argued that this refusal
6721-678: The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act . In 2016, the Labour Party Conference voted to institute the office of leader of Welsh Labour, a position currently held by Eluned Morgan . Welsh Labour has autonomy in policy formulation for the areas now devolved to the Senedd and in candidate selection for it. Party objectives are set by the Welsh Executive Committee (WEC), which plays
6864-670: The Scottish National Party ) prompted the Wilson government to establish the Kilbrandon Commission , causing the Labour Party in Wales to consider once more the case for devolution – this time in its favour. Labour victory in the February 1974 general election pushed devolution onto the political agenda, culminating in a decisive vote against a Welsh Assembly in a 1979 referendum. Plaid Cymru's threat in
7007-622: The Senedd and Westminster , supports the CLPs and branches in membership matters and performs secretarial functions for the Senedd Labour Party (SLP) and the party's policy-making process. It also organises the annual conference – the sovereign decision-making body of the party in Wales – provides legal and constitutional advice and arbitrate on certain disciplinary matters. By the end of the 19th century, most of Wales' adult male population were able to vote. They predominantly supported
7150-861: The UK Internal Market Act 2020 , a primary purpose of which is to constrain the capacity of the devolved institutions to use their regulatory autonomy. Matters devolved to the Senedd include health, education, economic development, transport, the environment, agriculture, local government and some taxes. Charles III Heir Apparent William, Prince of Wales First Minister ( list ) Rt Hon Eluned Morgan MS ( L ) Deputy First Minister Huw Irranca-Davies MS ( L ) Counsel General-designate – Elisabeth Jones Chief Whip and Trefnydd – Jane Hutt MS (L) Permanent Secretary Sixth Senedd Llywydd (Presiding Officer) Elin Jones MS ( PC ) Leader of
7293-492: The United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 . This legislation aims to prevent internal trade barriers within the UK, and to restrict the exercise of legislative powers of the devolved administrations in economic areas. It has several effects on the constitutional arrangements regarding devolved legislative powers. Principal amongst these is the effect that the market access principles will have on
SECTION 50
#17327757918837436-668: The United Nations at the end of World War II , English had become pre-eminent and is now the main worldwide language of diplomacy and international relations. It is one of six official languages of the United Nations. Many other worldwide international organisations, including the International Olympic Committee , specify English as a working language or official language of the organisation. Many regional international organisations such as
7579-749: The Welsh Government . It is a bilingual institution, with both Welsh and English being the official languages of its business. From its creation in May 1999 until May 2020, the Senedd was officially known as the National Assembly for Wales ( Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru ) and was often simply called the Welsh Assembly . The Senedd comprises 60 members who are known as members of the Senedd ( Aelodau o'r Senedd ), abbreviated as "MS" (Welsh: AS ). Since 2011, members are elected for
7722-683: The Welsh Office were established in 1964 leading to the abolition of the Council for Wales. The establishment of the Welsh Office effectively created the basis for the territorial governance of Wales. The Royal Commission on the Constitution (the Kilbrandon Commission) was set up in 1969 by Harold Wilson 's Labour Government to investigate the possibility of devolution for Scotland and Wales. Its recommendations formed
7865-518: The palatalisation of consonants that were velar consonants in Proto-Germanic (see Phonological history of Old English § Palatalization ). The earliest varieties of an English language, collectively known as Old English or "Anglo-Saxon", evolved from a group of North Sea Germanic dialects brought to Britain in the 5th century. Old English dialects were later influenced by Old Norse -speaking Viking invaders and settlers , starting in
8008-564: The "outer circle" countries are countries such as the Philippines , Jamaica , India , Pakistan , Singapore , Malaysia and Nigeria with a much smaller proportion of native speakers of English but much use of English as a second language for education, government, or domestic business, and its routine use for school instruction and official interactions with the government. Those countries have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from an English-based creole to
8151-471: The 1950s, the swing against Labour in Britain was matched in Wales, where voters showed themselves just as unwilling to endorse Michael Foot 's markedly more left-wing manifesto. The Labour Party in Wales polled a mere 37.5 per cent of the popular vote, yielding 20 seats. A rampant Conservative Party, by contrast, captured 14 seats (including three of the four Cardiff constituencies) and exceeded 30 per cent of
8294-589: The 4 parties represented in the Welsh Assembly and several leading legal and political experts, to "create a lasting devolution settlement for Wales". Following the first set of recommendations by the Commission, the UK government announced in November 2013 that some borrowing powers are to be devolved to the Assembly along with control of landfill tax and stamp duty. Additionally the Wales Act 2014 provides for
8437-427: The 8th and 9th centuries. Middle English began in the late 11th century after the Norman Conquest of England, when a considerable amount of Old French vocabulary was incorporated into English over some three centuries. Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the start of the Great Vowel Shift and the Renaissance trend of borrowing further Latin and Greek words and roots, concurrent with
8580-448: The Angles. English may have a small amount of substrate influence from Common Brittonic, and a number of possible Brittonicisms in English have been proposed, but whether most of these supposed Brittonicisms are actually a direct result of Brittonic substrate influence is disputed. Old English was divided into four dialects: the Anglian dialects ( Mercian and Northumbrian ) and the Saxon dialects ( Kentish and West Saxon ). Through
8723-454: The Assembly at the time, all of whom held constituency seats. The changes to the Assembly's powers were commenced on 4 May 2007, after the election . Following a referendum on 3 March 2011 , the Welsh Assembly gained direct law making powers, without the need to consult Westminster. The Conservative-Liberal coalition government created the Commission on Devolution in Wales (also known as Silk Commission), composed of members nominated by
SECTION 60
#17327757918838866-409: The Assembly. On 1 July 1999 the powers of the Secretary of State for Wales were transferred to the Assembly and the Welsh Office ceased to exist. In July 2002, the Welsh Government established an independent commission , with Lord Richard (former leader of the House of Lords ) as chair, to review the powers and electoral arrangements of the National Assembly to ensure that it is able to operate in
9009-406: The British Empire in the 1950s and 1960s, former colonies often did not reject English but rather continued to use it as independent countries setting their own language policies. For example, the view of the English language among many Indians has gone from associating it with colonialism to associating it with economic progress, and English continues to be an official language of India. English
9152-410: The Conservatives' Welsh representation and polling 55 per cent. The stage was set for another devolution referendum , this time won by the narrowest of margins. In 1998, the leader of the Labour Party in Wales Ron Davies , resigned. In 1999, Wales voted in its first Assembly members; Plaid Cymru achieve 28% of the vote but Labour won with 38% and governed as a minority government. In February 2000,
9295-434: The Early Modern period includes the works of William Shakespeare and the translation of the Bible commissioned by King James I . Even after the vowel shift the language still sounded different from Modern English: for example, the consonant clusters /kn ɡn sw/ in knight , gnat , and sword were still pronounced. Many of the grammatical features that a modern reader of Shakespeare might find quaint or archaic represent
9438-409: The English Language , which introduced standard spellings of words and usage norms. In 1828, Noah Webster published the American Dictionary of the English language to try to establish a norm for speaking and writing American English that was independent of the British standard. Within Britain, non-standard or lower class dialect features were increasingly stigmatised, leading to the quick spread of
9581-429: The English-speaking inner circle countries outside Britain helped level dialect distinctions and produce koineised forms of English in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. The majority of immigrants to the United States without British ancestry rapidly adopted English after arrival. Now the majority of the United States population are monolingual English speakers. English has ceased to be an "English language" in
9724-437: The Labour Party in Wales polled some 58 per cent of the Welsh vote and won 28 seats . The Wilson government gave the Labour Party in Wales the chance to enact its promise (following the Conservative government's appointment of a Minister of Welsh Affairs in the mid-1950s) to create the post of Secretary of State for Wales and a Welsh Office . At the 1966 United Kingdom general election , Labour's support in Wales reached
9867-441: The Labour victory at the 1945 general election was strongly endorsed by the Welsh electorate. In 1947, an all Wales unit was formed within the Labour Party for the first time with the merger of South Wales Regional Council of Labour and the constituency parties of north and mid Wales. This change was based on the Labour Party's support for central planning in the Welsh economy and was not at that stage any kind of endorsement of
10010-497: The National Assembly for Wales related to the 20 devolved areas . These powers were further extended by the Wales Act 2014 and Wales Act 2017 , with the latter moving the Assembly to a reserved powers model of devolution like that of the Scottish Parliament. In May 2020, the Assembly was renamed to "Senedd Cymru" or "the Welsh Parliament" when section 2 of the Senedd and Elections (Wales) Act 2020 came into force. The Senedd's powers in economic matters are significantly restricted by
10153-410: The National Assembly. It enables the Assembly to legislate within its devolved fields. The Act also reforms the Assembly's electoral system. It prevents individuals from standing as candidates in both constituency and regional seats. This aspect of the act was subject to a great deal of criticism, most notably from the Electoral Commission ., although it was supported in the Richard Commission The Act
10296-680: The Opposition Andrew RT Davies MS ( C ) Shadow Cabinet ( current ) Prime Minister Rt Hon Keir Starmer MP ( L ) Secretary of State for Wales Rt Hon Jo Stevens MP (L) Principal councils ( leader list ) Corporate Joint Committees Local twinning see also: Regional terms and Regional economy United Kingdom Parliament elections European Parliament elections (1979–2020) Local elections Police and crime commissioner elections Referendums An appointed Council for Wales and Monmouthshire
10439-554: The Roman economy and administration collapsed . By the 7th century, this Germanic language of the Anglo-Saxons became dominant in Britain , replacing the languages of Roman Britain (43–409): Common Brittonic , a Celtic language , and British Latin , brought to Britain by the Roman occupation. At this time, these dialects generally resisted influence from the then-local Brittonic and Latin languages. England and English (originally Ænglaland and Ænglisc ) are both named after
10582-462: The Senedd voted 40-14 in favour of expanding the number of MSs. In 2023, the reform bill committee heard reforms included taking 32 new constituencies created that will be used in the 2024 general election and pairing them to create 16 Senedd constituencies – with each returning six members in multi-member districts . Opposition to the proposed closed list voting system was expressed by some Labour and Plaid Cymru representatives, while opposition to
10725-489: The Senedd's own website called Senedd.tv, which screens approximately 35 hours of content each week in English and Welsh . The service began 15 April 2008. Key events such as First Minister's Questions are shown live and recorded on BBC Parliament on television and on iPlayer . Also on BBC Parliament some proceedings are shown as highlights of the week on the programme The Week in Parliament. In October 2023, GB News
10868-412: The Silk Commission, proposed devolving further areas of government, including some relating to water, marine affairs (ports, harbours, conservation), energy (subsidies, petroleum extraction, construction of smaller energy-generating facilities, etc.), rail franchising and road travel. In July 2016, Assembly members unanimously agreed that the name of the Assembly should reflect its constitutional status as
11011-494: The Union, in practice English is the main working language of EU organisations. Although in most countries English is not an official language, it is currently the language most often taught as a foreign language . In the countries of the EU, English is the most widely spoken foreign language in nineteen of the twenty-five member states where it is not an official language (that is, the countries other than Ireland and Malta ). In
11154-519: The United States and United Kingdom ). It is a co-official language of the United Nations , the European Union , and many other international and regional organisations. It has also become the de facto lingua franca of diplomacy, science , technology, international trade, logistics, tourism, aviation, entertainment, and the Internet . English accounts for at least 70% of total speakers of
11297-411: The Welsh Assembly would have control of all other matters. This replaced the previous model where certain powers were "conferred" and all others were assumed to be powers of the UK national government. Since the passing of the Wales Act 2017 , the power model in Wales has been in line with that of Scotland, being a reserved matter model. The Wales Act 2017 , based on the second set of recommendations of
11440-630: The Welsh Labour Party is still going to be an essential component of the next Welsh Government. London has become a Labour heartland, Scotland is very much not a Labour heartland, seats that had reliably voted Labour up until 2010 have massively trended towards the Conservatives and yet the Welsh Labour party; the dude abides... Political reporter Stephen Bush discusses the long running success of Welsh Labour shortly before
11583-474: The ability to pass Assembly Measures concerning matters that are devolved. Requests for further legislative powers made through legislative competence requests were subject to the veto of the Secretary of State for Wales , House of Commons or House of Lords . The Act reformed the assembly to a parliamentary-type structure, establishing the Welsh Government as an entity separate from, but accountable to
11726-407: The base from which English spreads to other countries in the world. Estimates of the numbers of second language and foreign-language English speakers vary greatly from 470 million to more than 1 billion, depending on how proficiency is defined. Linguist David Crystal estimates that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1. In Kachru's three-circles model,
11869-453: The basis for the required controlled natural languages Seaspeak and Airspeak, used as international languages of seafaring and aviation. English used to have parity with French and German in scientific research, but now it dominates that field. It achieved parity with French as a language of diplomacy at the Treaty of Versailles negotiations in 1919. By the time of the foundation of
12012-456: The basis of the 1974 White paper Democracy and Devolution: proposals for Scotland and Wales , which proposed the creation of a Welsh Assembly. However, Welsh voters overwhelmingly rejected the proposals in a referendum held in 1979 . Following the 1997 general election , the new Labour Government argued that an Assembly would be more democratically accountable than the Welsh Office . For eleven years prior to 1997 Wales had been represented in
12155-400: The beginning, Englishmen had three manners of speaking, southern, northern and midlands speech in the middle of the country, ... Nevertheless, through intermingling and mixing, first with Danes and then with Normans, amongst many the country language has arisen, and some use strange stammering, chattering, snarling, and grating gnashing. John Trevisa , c. 1385 Middle English
12298-606: The best interests of the people of Wales. The Richard Commission reported in March 2004. It recommended that the National Assembly should have powers to legislate in certain areas, whilst others would remain the preserve of Westminster. It also recommended changing the electoral system to the single transferable vote (STV) which would produce greater proportionality . In response, the British government, in its Better Governance for Wales White Paper, published on 15 June 2005, proposed
12441-705: The consensus of educated English speakers around the world, without any oversight by any government or international organisation. American listeners readily understand most British broadcasting, and British listeners readily understand most American broadcasting. Most English speakers around the world can understand radio programmes, television programmes, and films from many parts of the English-speaking world. Both standard and non-standard varieties of English can include both formal or informal styles, distinguished by word choice and syntax and use both technical and non-technical registers. The settlement history of
12584-701: The continent. The Frisian languages, which together with the Anglic languages form the Anglo-Frisian languages , are the closest living relatives of English. Low German/Low Saxon is also closely related, and sometimes English, the Frisian languages, and Low German are grouped together as the North Sea Germanic languages, though this grouping remains debated. Old English evolved into Middle English , which in turn evolved into Modern English. Particular dialects of Old and Middle English also developed into
12727-497: The design is based around the concepts of openness and transparency. The timber ceiling and centre funnel, manufactured and installed by BCL Timber Projects (sub-contracted by Taylor Woodrow) is made from Canadian sourced Western Red Cedar. The Senedd houses the debating chamber known as the Siambr ( Welsh : Y Siambr ) and Committee Rooms. It was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on St David's Day , 1 March 2006. The Senedd
12870-476: The development of English was influenced by a long series of invasions of the British Isles by other peoples and languages, particularly Old Norse and French dialects . These left a profound mark of their own on the language, so that English shows some similarities in vocabulary and grammar with many languages outside its linguistic clades —but it is not mutually intelligible with any of those languages either. Some scholars have argued that English can be considered
13013-528: The distinct characteristics of Early Modern English. In the 1611 King James Version of the Bible, written in Early Modern English, Matthew 8:20 says, "The Foxes haue holes and the birds of the ayre haue nests." This exemplifies the loss of case and its effects on sentence structure (replacement with subject–verb–object word order, and the use of of instead of the non-possessive genitive), and
13156-401: The early period of Old English were written using a runic script . By the 6th century, a Latin alphabet was adopted, written with half-uncial letterforms . It included the runic letters wynn ⟨ ƿ ⟩ and thorn ⟨ þ ⟩ , and the modified Latin letters eth ⟨ ð ⟩ , and ash ⟨ æ ⟩ . Old English is essentially
13299-551: The educational reforms of King Alfred in the 9th century and the influence of the kingdom of Wessex , the West Saxon dialect became the standard written variety . The epic poem Beowulf is written in West Saxon, and the earliest English poem, Cædmon's Hymn , is written in Northumbrian. Modern English developed mainly from Mercian, but the Scots language developed from Northumbrian. A few short inscriptions from
13442-695: The elite in England eventually developed into the Anglo-Norman language . Because Norman was spoken primarily by the elites and nobles, while the lower classes continued speaking English, the main influence of Norman was the introduction of a wide range of loanwords related to politics, legislation and prestigious social domains. Middle English also greatly simplified the inflectional system, probably in order to reconcile Old Norse and Old English, which were inflectionally different but morphologically similar. The distinction between nominative and accusative cases
13585-408: The expanding circle use it to communicate with other people from the expanding circle, so that interaction with native speakers of English plays no part in their decision to use the language. Non-native varieties of English are widely used for international communication, and speakers of one such variety often encounter features of other varieties. Very often today a conversation in English anywhere in
13728-545: The first assembly leader, Alun Michael resigned following a vote of no confidence on the matter of European funding for Wales. The new leader, Rhodri Morgan , rebranded the Labour Party in Wales as Welsh Labour, and in October that year, Welsh Labour and the Liberal Democrats formed a coalition lasting three years. In April 2001 the Welsh government announced free entry for museums and galleries (8 months after
13871-721: The growing economic and cultural influence of the United States and its status as a superpower following the Second World War has, along with worldwide broadcasting in English by the BBC and other broadcasters, caused the language to spread across the planet much faster. In the 21st century, English is more widely spoken and written than any language has ever been. As Modern English developed, explicit norms for standard usage were published, and spread through official media such as public education and state-sponsored publications. In 1755, Samuel Johnson published his A Dictionary of
14014-546: The history of English was Early Modern English (1500–1700). Early Modern English was characterised by the Great Vowel Shift (1350–1700), inflectional simplification, and linguistic standardisation. The Great Vowel Shift affected the stressed long vowels of Middle English. It was a chain shift , meaning that each shift triggered a subsequent shift in the vowel system. Mid and open vowels were raised , and close vowels were broken into diphthongs . For example,
14157-407: The history of how English spread in different countries, how users acquire English, and the range of uses English has in each country. The three circles change membership over time. Countries with large communities of native speakers of English (the inner circle) include Britain, the United States, Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand, where the majority speaks English, and South Africa, where
14300-497: The idea of devolution. Labour expanded its dominance of Welsh politics in the early 1950s, extending its influence in rural and Welsh speaking areas beyond its traditional industrial heartlands. Though Labour went into opposition after 1951, the Labour Party in Wales polled over 50 per cent of the popular vote at each general election, winning seemingly impregnable majorities in the valleys of south Wales. Aneurin Bevan , for example,
14443-559: The industrial heartland fell away in the 1970s, but it and the Conservatives gained ground in Welsh-speaking and coastal Wales respectively, where Labour's roots were shallower. By the 1979 general election , the Labour Party in Wales held 22 of the 36 parliamentary seats, albeit with a 48 per cent share of the vote. This relative decline was eclipsed by a dramatic fall in Labour support at the 1983 General Election . In contrast to
14586-403: The inner-circle countries, and they may show grammatical and phonological differences from inner-circle varieties as well. The standard English of the inner-circle countries is often taken as a norm for use of English in the outer-circle countries. In the three-circles model, countries such as Poland, China, Brazil, Germany, Japan, Indonesia, Egypt, and other countries where English is taught as
14729-531: The introduction of loanwords from French ( ayre ) and word replacements ( bird originally meaning "nestling" had replaced OE fugol ). By the late 18th century, the British Empire had spread English through its colonies and geopolitical dominance. Commerce, science and technology, diplomacy, art, and formal education all contributed to English becoming the first truly global language. English also facilitated worldwide international communication. English
14872-475: The introduction of the printing press to London. This era notably culminated in the King James Bible and the works of William Shakespeare . The printing press greatly standardised English spelling, which has remained largely unchanged since then, despite a wide variety of later sound shifts in English dialects. Modern English has spread around the world since the 17th century as a consequence of
15015-489: The island of Great Britain . The namesake of the language is the Angles , one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to Britain . It is the most spoken language in the world, primarily due to the global influences of the former British Empire (succeeded by the Commonwealth of Nations ) and the United States . English is the third-most spoken native language , after Standard Chinese and Spanish ; it
15158-431: The languages have descended from a single common ancestor called Proto-Germanic . Some shared features of Germanic languages include the division of verbs into strong and weak classes, the use of modal verbs , and the sound changes affecting Proto-Indo-European consonants, known as Grimm's and Verner's laws . English is classified as an Anglo-Frisian language because Frisian and English share other features, such as
15301-558: The name change proposed in the Bill would be the monolingual name "Senedd". In 2019, the Senedd and Elections (Wales) Bill , favouring the name "Senedd", was introduced on behalf of the Assembly Commission. Following support of a subsequent amendment to the Bill which favoured a bilingual name for the institution, the Bill was passed by the Assembly on 27 November 2019 and was given Royal Assent on 15 January 2020. The Act changed
15444-501: The name of the Assembly to "Senedd Cymru" or the "Welsh Parliament". Its guidance states that the institution will be commonly known as the Senedd in both languages. The name change came into effect on 6 May 2020. Members of the renamed body are known as Members of the Senedd (MS), or Aelodau o'r Senedd (AS) in Welsh. As part of the process of leaving the European Union, the Conservative Party in power in Westminster passed
15587-409: The new Labour leader, Neil Kinnock . At the 1987 General Election the Welsh party polled 45 per cent, winning 24 seats and winning another two from the Conservatives at by-elections in 1989 and 1991. However, Conservative policy in Wales could be said to have helped to break the traditional compact between the Labour Party in Wales and the Welsh electorate. The party was ineffective when faced with
15730-585: The number of Labour councillors and MPs in Wales. Particularly after the First World War , an expanded electorate and the damage the conflict caused to the Liberals reputation contributed to a major shift in support towards Labour in industrial areas. In the 1922 general election , Labour won half the Welsh parliamentary seats. After 1922, Labour maintained consistent electoral dominance in Wales winning between 40% and 45% their at general elections for
15873-620: The overall expansion of the Senedd was expressed by some Labour representatives and the Conservatives. The debating chamber in Cardiff Bay , the Senedd ( Senate ), was designed by the Richard Rogers Partnership , and built by Taylor Woodrow , with environmental, mechanical, electrical and plumbing design by BDSP Partnership. It uses traditional Welsh materials, such as slate and Welsh oak , in its construction, and
16016-609: The party – government, MPs , MSs , MEPs , councillors , trade unions and Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs – the basic unit of organisation throughout the Labour Party). All Wales's 32 CLPs are registered as accounting units with the Electoral Commission. Welsh Labour headquarters in Cardiff organises the party's election campaigns at all levels of government Community Councils , Unitary Authorities ,
16159-604: The period 1979–2004 and in 2014. Welsh Labour holds 27 of the 32 Welsh seats in the UK Parliament , 30 of the 60 seats in the Welsh Senedd and 576 of the 1,264 councillors in principal local authorities including overall control of 10 of the 22 principal local authorities. Welsh Labour is formally part of the Labour Party, not separately registered with the Electoral Commission under the terms of
16302-414: The post-World War II era. In the 2017 general election, the decline in parliamentary elections was reversed – Labour raised its vote share to 48.9 per cent, its highest in a general election in Wales since 1997, winning 28 of the 40 Welsh seats in Westminster. However, the 2019 general election saw the party again achieve a fairly poor result by historic standards. Contrastingly, the 2021 Senedd election saw
16445-515: The practical ability of the devolved administrations to regulate economic activity. It also expressly reserves the regulation of distortive or harmful subsidies to the UK Government, and gives them spending powers in numerous policymaking areas. These powers undermine the authority of the Senedd to determine infrastructure priorities within its jurisdiction. The principles undermine devolved competences in two ways. These relate to its status as
16588-426: The prestige varieties among the middle classes. In modern English, the loss of grammatical case is almost complete (it is now only found in pronouns, such as he and him , she and her , who and whom ), and SVO word order is mostly fixed. Some changes, such as the use of do-support , have become universalised. (Earlier English did not use the word "do" as a general auxiliary as Modern English does; at first it
16731-459: The psychological trauma of restructuring and de-industrialising the Welsh economy. Meanwhile, the seemingly perpetual Conservative rule, based on its electoral power outside Wales, reignited debate within the Labour Party in Wales on devolution. Under John Smith , Labour committed itself to devolution for Wales and Scotland , a commitment that survived his early death. By 1997 , the Labour Party in Wales captured 34 of Wales's 40 seats, wiping out
16874-678: The reign of Henry V . Around 1430, the Court of Chancery in Westminster began using English in its official documents , and a new standard form of Middle English, known as Chancery Standard , developed from the dialects of London and the East Midlands . In 1476, William Caxton introduced the printing press to England and began publishing the first printed books in London, expanding the influence of this form of English. Literature from
17017-403: The rest of the interwar period. In 1931 , when the Labour party collapsed to just 52 seats the 16 seats it won in the southern Welsh valleys constituted its largest regional stronghold anywhere in Britain. After difficult years in the 1920s and '30s, following World War II there was keen desire in Wales like elsewhere in the UK to avoid a return to the conditions of the interwar era and
17160-468: The sense of belonging only to people who are ethnically English . Use of English is growing country-by-country internally and for international communication. Most people learn English for practical rather than ideological reasons. Many speakers of English in Africa have become part of an "Afro-Saxon" language community that unites Africans from different countries. As decolonisation proceeded throughout
17303-483: The source of approximately 28% of Modern English words , and from Latin , which is the source of an additional 28% . As such, though most of its total vocabulary comes from Romance languages , Modern English's grammar, phonology, and most commonly used words in everyday use keep it genealogically classified under the Germanic branch. It exists on a dialect continuum with Scots and is then most closely related to
17446-474: The southern dialects. Theoretically, as late as the 900s AD, a commoner from certain (northern) parts of England could hold a conversation with a commoner from certain parts of Scandinavia. Research continues into the details of the myriad tribes in peoples in England and Scandinavia and the mutual contacts between them. The translation of Matthew 8:20 from 1000 shows examples of case endings ( nominative plural, accusative plural, genitive singular) and
17589-455: The study of English as an auxiliary language. The trademarked Globish uses a relatively small subset of English vocabulary (about 1500 words, designed to represent the highest use in international business English) in combination with the standard English grammar. Other examples include Simple English . The increased use of the English language globally has had an effect on other languages, leading to some English words being assimilated into
17732-498: The swing in Wales were repeated across the UK, the Conservatives would have won a landslide victory of over 100 seats; in some, such as Pontypridd , Welsh Labour lost over 16 per cent of its vote. In the 2011 Welsh Assembly elections, Labour regained half the seats in the National Assembly. In the 2014 European Parliament election , Labour topped the poll in Wales with a swing of 7.9 percentage points. The 2015 general election saw Labour achieve its second lowest vote share in Wales during
17875-601: The vocabularies of other languages. This influence of English has led to concerns about language death , and to claims of linguistic imperialism , and has provoked resistance to the spread of English; however the number of speakers continues to increase because many people around the world think that English provides them with opportunities for better employment and improved lives. Welsh Labour Social democracy Socialism Communism Northern Ireland Scotland Wales Other Welsh Labour ( Welsh : Llafur Cymru ), formerly known as
18018-401: The vote for the second election in succession. The Labour Party in Wales's problems were compounded by a strong SDP–Liberal Alliance performance, gaining 23 per cent of the vote, though few seats, at what was to be the height of its success. The miners' strike of 1984–1985 appeared to offer the Labour Party in Wales an electoral opportunity, despite the invidious position in which it placed
18161-473: The word bite was originally pronounced as the word beet is today, and the second vowel in the word about was pronounced as the word boot is today. The Great Vowel Shift explains many irregularities in spelling since English retains many spellings from Middle English, and it also explains why English vowel letters have very different pronunciations from the same letters in other languages. English began to rise in prestige, relative to Norman French, during
18304-785: The world may include no native speakers of English at all, even while including speakers from several different countries. This is particularly true of the shared vocabulary of mathematics and the sciences. English is a pluricentric language , which means that no one national authority sets the standard for use of the language. Spoken English, including English used in broadcasting, generally follows national pronunciation standards that are established by custom rather than by regulation. International broadcasters are usually identifiable as coming from one country rather than another through their accents , but newsreader scripts are also composed largely in international standard written English . The norms of standard written English are maintained purely by
18447-539: The world, but the number of English speakers in India is uncertain, with most scholars concluding that the United States still has more speakers of English than India. Modern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca , is also regarded as the first world language . English is the world's most widely used language in newspaper publishing, book publishing, international telecommunications, scientific publishing, international trade, mass entertainment, and diplomacy. English is, by international treaty,
18590-438: The worldwide influence of the British Empire and the United States. Through all types of printed and electronic media in these countries, English has become the leading language of international discourse and the lingua franca in many regions and professional contexts such as science, navigation , and law. Its modern grammar is the result of a gradual change from a dependent-marking pattern typical of Indo-European with
18733-405: Was adopted in parts of North America, parts of Africa, Oceania, and many other regions. When they obtained political independence, some of the newly independent states that had multiple indigenous languages opted to continue using English as the official language to avoid the political and other difficulties inherent in promoting any one indigenous language above the others. In the 20th century
18876-464: Was banned from the Senedd's internal TV system, with a spokesperson for the presiding officer claiming the channel was "deliberately offensive, demeaning to public debate and contrary to our parliament's values". English language English is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , whose speakers, called Anglophones , originated in early medieval England on
19019-467: Was created by the Government of Wales Act 1998 , following the result of the 1997 referendum . The Assembly initially had no powers to make primary legislation . Limited law-making powers were gained through the Government of Wales Act 2006 . Its primary law-making powers were enhanced following a Yes vote in the referendum on 3 March 2011 , meaning that the UK Parliament or the Secretary of State for Wales were no longer consulted when passing acts of
19162-547: Was established in 1949 to "ensure the government is adequately informed of the impact of government activities on the general life of the people of Wales". The council had 27 members nominated by local authorities in Wales, the University of Wales , National Eisteddfod Council and the Welsh Tourist Board . A post of Minister of Welsh Affairs was created in 1951 and the post of Secretary of State for Wales and
19305-547: Was founded by socialist societies and trade unions, the organisation from which the Labour Party would evolve. Keir Hardie , the first leader of the Independent Labour Party , was elected as member for Merthyr Tydfil in 1900. When the National Union of Mineworkers affiliated to the party in 1908, their four sponsored Welsh MPs became Labour MPs. Over the next few years, there was a steady rise in
19448-518: Was fully developed, integrating both Norse and French features; it continued to be spoken until the transition to early Modern English around 1500. Middle English literature includes Geoffrey Chaucer 's The Canterbury Tales , and Thomas Malory 's Le Morte d'Arthur . In the Middle English period, the use of regional dialects in writing proliferated, and dialect traits were even used for effect by authors such as Chaucer. The next period in
19591-534: Was heavily criticised. Plaid Cymru , the Official Opposition in the National Assembly from 1999 to 2007, attacked it for not delivering a fully-fledged parliament. Many commentators have also criticised the Labour Party's allegedly partisan attempt to alter the electoral system. By preventing regional Members from standing in constituency seats the party has been accused of changing the rules to protect constituency representatives. Labour had 29 members in
19734-493: Was ingrained in Labour's thinking At the 2010 UK general election which ended Labour's long period of government across the UK, Labour also lost seats and vote share in Wales mainly to the conservatives. At the end of the One Wales agreement in 2011 , Labour gained seats in the Welsh assembly at the expense of their Non-Conservative opponents. At the 2015 UK general election , Labour saw a slight uptick in vote share and made
19877-505: Was lost except in personal pronouns, the instrumental case was dropped, and the use of the genitive case was limited to indicating possession . The inflectional system regularised many irregular inflectional forms, and gradually simplified the system of agreement, making word order less flexible. The transition from Old to Middle English can be placed during the writing of the Ormulum . The oldest Middle English texts that were written by
20020-533: Was only used in question constructions, and even then was not obligatory. Now, do-support with the verb have is becoming increasingly standardised.) The use of progressive forms in -ing , appears to be spreading to new constructions, and forms such as had been being built are becoming more common. Regularisation of irregular forms also slowly continues (e.g. dreamed instead of dreamt ), and analytical alternatives to inflectional forms are becoming more common (e.g. more polite instead of politer ). British English
20163-635: Was regular screening of live proceedings from the Siambr on S4C2 and also on internet television . Coverage of the S4C2 screenings were on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays between 9:00 am 6:00 pm when the Senedd was sitting. In addition, limited screens were shown on the BBC Two Wales programme "am.pm" , including First Minister 's Questions. These were decommissioned after S4C2 switched its scheduling to children programs and because of budget cuts. Internet television screenings are now shown on
20306-413: Was routinely returned for Ebbw Vale with 80 per cent of the vote. The pattern was similar in some 15 other seats in the region. Through its actions in local government and proposals for central government the Labour Party in Wales was perceived to be a modernising party committed to investing in infrastructure and serious about providing jobs and improving public services. In the 1964 general election ,
20449-502: Was the third time the two parties had agreed to work together in the era of devolution. In recent years, there has been some decline for Labour in Wales. The 2009 European Parliament election saw the party fail to come first in an election in Wales for the first time since 1918 (finishing second behind the Conservatives ) and in the 2010 general election Labour had its worst general election result in Wales in its history. If
#882117