Watch: Mark Drakeford refers to himself as ‘Prime Minister of Wales’
Mark Drakeford has referred to himself as the “Prime Minister of Wales”.
He used the title during a Covid-19 press conference after he was asked if he would set a date for restrictions coming to an end.
This follows him changing his official Twitter handle from @fmwales to @PrifWeinidog back in October 2021.
Prif Weinidog – his Welsh language title – is a direct translation of Prime Minister rather than First Minister.
Back in August 2021, Nation.Cymru featured a call for the title of First Minister of Wales to be scrapped and replaced with Prime Minister of Wales.
Mark Drakeford referring to himself as Prime Minister of Wales prompted a response from BBC journalist Mark Hutchings, who suggested it may have been a “slip”.
I imagine it was a slip but I’m sure I just heard @PrifWeinidog call himself the Prime Minister of Wales.
— Mark Hutchings (@markhutchings1) January 21, 2022
The Welsh Prime Minister was asked: “Will you set a date for all Covid restrictions, including mask wearing, self-isolation, Covid passes, all that sort of thing to be lifted, given what England is now doing.”
Mark Drakeford replied: “No I won’t because I’m the Prime Minister of Wales, not a horoscope writer for a daily newspaper. And it’s simply impossible for anybody to peer into the future of coronavirus with the sort of definiteness you were suggesting.”
‘Next variant’
He added: “What I will say is of course the Welsh Government wants as quickly and as safely as can to lift the levels of protections that we all living with. But somewhere in the world today the next variant of coronavirus could be brewing.
“Two and a half months ago none of us had hears of the Omicron variant and yet in that period it has swept across our lives and is now we hope sweeping out of it again.
“When people talk about freedom days and doing things where there’s no reverse gear and so on, I think they’re just flying in the face of the facts of this global pandemic. We want to do what you said as soon as we can and as soon as it’s safe to do so.
“But am I going to offer people in Wales a set of artificial deadlines, peering into the future in a way that neither I or anybody else can know what the circumstances at the time would be? I’m not going to do that, and part of the reason why I think we have managed to sustain the confidence of the majority of people in Wales in the way the Welsh Government has acted is because we haven’t been willing to make, you know headline-grabbing promises that we have no way of knowing whether we could keep.
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DeValera was elected Priomh Aire of the First Dail in 1919, translates as First (or Chief) Minister.During his subsequent money raising campaign in the USA, the Americans always referred to him as ‘President of Ireland’. Sounds as if Mr Drakeford is moving in the correct direction!
I think Mark Drakeford should also be given an official title of ‘Welsh hero’, as he been an outstanding leader during the pandemic, who has led by action, example and thought as well as words. We owe him a massive debt of thanks.
Statue in Cardiff City Hall too please!
Actually, when David Cameron became PM in 2010 said once in an interview about the then Welsh Labour FM Carwyn Jones that he was effectively the Prime Minister of Wales.
So this news isn’t really a surprise to me if Mark Drakeford accidentally referred to himself as PM when in reality he is. Saying that, this differs greatly to deluded Andrew RT Davies who thinks he’s the leader of the Welsh Conservatives, whoever he us?
We need a title I guess that rids us of the old First Secretary ( often seen in
007 films 🎥) and its current follow on First Minister title – through to something that was reflective of where we are now and examples from the other x colonies such as Canada and Australia show us Premier ?
Johnson is PM of toy town.
Drakeford is my PM. Don’t always agree on policy, not a Labour voter. But he has a humanity and is elected to run Cymru.Tories have no mandate here.
I think he missed out a treiglad as well.
These two minor slipups apart, he has been well-intentioned and sincere from day 1 of this pandemic. The contrast between his statesmanlike vibe and the chaos and arrogance that Johnson exudes, and his commitment to this country, make me better-disposed to him than to any previous
FMPM.He also referred to “the Government of England”.
We should just use Welsh titles like the Irish do with Taoiseach and Tanaiste.
Syniad gwych! / Great idea! MD is my PM as far as I’m concerned!
Deluded sheep herder