AMs told they won't be MWPs, as Assembly will be renamed Senedd not Parliament

It's become common ground between nearly all Assembly Members that it's time to acknowledge they are members of a parliament, a body that passes laws, raises taxes and holds ministers to account. They're already halfway there as the building in which they meet has always been called the Senedd, which is the Welsh word for parliament.

But to drive the message home, it was proposed to adopt a new bilingual name -Welsh Parliament/Senedd Cymru. However, AMs went off that idea just as soon as they realised that they risked being known as MWPs.

The decision on the name was handed back to the Presiding Officer Elin Jones. She's now decided that when she brings in the legislation to change what the Assembly is called, she'll just stick to the Welsh word Senedd. AMs will then become either Aelodau'r Senedd or Members of the Senedd.

The bill will also deal with arguably more important issues, notably lowering the voting age to 16 for Senedd elections. It was also announced today that there will be a new legal relationship with the Electoral Commission, which could pave the way for changing the voting system as well.

As it's a constitutional measure, the support of a simple majority won't be enough and at least 40 of the 60 AMs must vote for it. So it was probably best to avoid a name that would have meant asking politicians to agree to be called MWPs.