Talk:Ness Edwards

Latest comment: 4 years ago by Gwedi elwch in topic Untitled

Untitled edit

This article now starts :"The Right Honourable Onesimus Edwards (5 April 1897 – 3 May 1968), generally known as Ness Edwards, was a Welsh Labour Party politician." I do think this is not a very appropriate introduction. Compare the heading for the same person in the Welsh Dictionary of National Biography /Welsh Biography Online -"EDWARDS, NESS (1897 - 1968), trade unionist and Member of Parliament" - at [1]. Ness Edwards was never generally known as 'Onesimus'- his original given name is of very little interest - it raises a smile, and so could I suppose be consigned to a footnote. His membership of the Privy Council- to which he was appointed in 1948, as a member of the Attlee post war Labour government - was a fairly minor part of his work as a trade unionist and Labour politician, and starting the article with the words 'Right Honourable' gives this minor fact undue weight. Even Hansard refers to him throughout as 'Mr. Ness Edwards' - both before and after he was made a member of the Privy Council - see [2]. My own view is that the opening sentences of articles on Labour /trade union figures such as Ness Edwards should reflect how they were generally referred to by their contemporaries. This would avoid the risk that the Wikipedia article could appear both anachronistic and overly-concerned with formal titles. I think Welsh Biography Online has got it roughly right - as indeed has Hansard. Before I propose amendments I thought I should ask what others think. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gwedi elwch (talkcontribs) 07:52, 9 September 2019 (UTC)Reply