Queen to visit Senedd for fourth time to open the sixth session
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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More cringeworthy forelock tugging to the world’s most entrenched personality cult.
There’ll be a rush on grovel grease…. I hope those EU drivers will keep us supplied.
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’
Get down there and fly those Yes Cymru banners!
Syniad gwych, Cymru am byth 🏴
Wow the Unionist machine is REALLY working overtime now
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?
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?
Her son is a n***e. That is all.
Welcome to Wales your majesty 🏴
Get up off your knees, mon!