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Queen to visit Senedd for fourth time to open the sixth session

27 Aug 2021 2 minute read
Queen Elizabeth opens the Senedd in 2016. Picture by Senedd Cymru

The Queen will attend the official opening of the sixth session of the Senedd on Thursday 14 October.  

It will be the fourth time the Queen has visited the Senedd. She attended the official opening on 27 May 1999, and also opened the new Senedd building in 2006 and the fifth Senedd in 2016.

During the official opening of the Senedd, the Queen will make a speech in the Senedd’s chamber, as will the Llywydd of the Senedd, Elin Jones MS, and First Minister, Mark Drakeford MS.   

The event will include creative performances by participants from all over Wales, but, due to the ongoing coronavirus restrictions, for the first time it will involve a mixture of in-person and pre-recorded performances. 

The ceremonial Mace will be carried into the Senedd and placed in its sconce to signify the official opening of the sixth Senedd.   

“Following the May elections and a delay due to Covid restrictions, I’m excited we can confirm the official opening of the Senedd will take place on 14 October,” the Llywydd, Elin Jones, said.

The date of the official opening was delayed this year due to the coronavirus restrictions.   

‘Not appropriate’

It was revealed last month that the UK Government had originally advised against the Queen attending the opening of the Welsh Assembly if the people of Wales voted for it because it would be “wholly subordinate” to Westminster.

A Home Office official said that as the Assembly would not be able to make laws at the start it would have no direct relationship with the Monarch.

A newly published letter from a civil servant to the Welsh Office on 19 June 1997 says: “Although it is intended that The Queen or Her representative should formally open the Scottish Parliament, we do not think that the same treatment would be appropriate for the Welsh Assembly, which has no primary legislative functions.”

The letter added that the Queen’s attendance hadn’t been discussed “presumably because it was assumed that as a body wholly subordinate to the Westminster Parliament no question of direct relations with the sovereign would arise”.


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Cai Wogan Jones
Cai Wogan Jones
3 years ago

More cringeworthy forelock tugging to the world’s most entrenched personality cult.

Quornby
Quornby
3 years ago

There’ll be a rush on grovel grease…. I hope those EU drivers will keep us supplied.

Gaz
Gaz
3 years ago

It will a free for all with Welsh Labour and Welsh Conservatves in a race for the most pious display of genuflecting before ‘yer Majesty’ , on the hunt for a gong,
At least they not having a tea party and a commerative half crown to the kiddies in ‘celebration of subjugation’

Llywelyn ein Llyw Nesaf
Llywelyn ein Llyw Nesaf
3 years ago

Get down there and fly those Yes Cymru banners!

Stephen Owen
Stephen Owen
3 years ago

Syniad gwych, Cymru am byth 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Notta Bott
Notta Bott
3 years ago

Wow the Unionist machine is REALLY working overtime now

Kerry Davies
Kerry Davies
3 years ago

Good to know that we are free of monarchy now that Wales and the people of Wales have no official relationship with the crown.
Sometimes I wonder if these colonial kneejerks in support of a muscular union are having the opposite effect to that intended by Tory idiots. What does RT think of being abandoned by his party at Westminster?

defaid
defaid
3 years ago

It’s a rather misleading sentence under the sub-heading “Not appropriate”. It refers to the original opening of the Assembly back in the nineties.

Who invited her this time? Welsh Government or Welsh Office?

GW Atkinson
GW Atkinson
3 years ago

Her son is a n***e. That is all.

Tim
Tim
3 years ago

Welcome to Wales your majesty 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Cai Wogan Jones
Cai Wogan Jones
3 years ago
Reply to  Tim

Get up off your knees, mon!

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