One day soon, it will be called the Prince of Wales Bridge!

Some will rejoice at this imaginative gesture announced by the Secretary of State for Wales this week. Others are venting their spleen on social media and militant Welsh republicans are loudly complaining, in the words of WalesOnline about ‘a glorious example of outdated, subservient sycophancy.’

The general cry is ‘why weren’t we consulted?’ and it is striking how naïve politicians can sometimes be, and how slow to realise how strongly people feel about a sense of identity.

Remember the opposition to the re-naming of football stadiums to acknowledge millions of pounds by a new sponsor. Or how public opinion forced the Royal Mail to drop its plans to re-name it Consignia? Or how, even earlier, British Airways abandoned an expensive re-brand and reverted to the traditional flag on the tailfin. People identify with names, whether for their Council, or, as of today, their bridges.

A few years ago, after they found the body of King Richard III in Leicester and agreed to a reburial in Leicester Cathedral, dedicated Plantagenets went to the High Court to argue that the public had a ‘legitimate expectation’ of a public consultation – with York presumably as the alternative option.

In a similar way, did the people of Wales (or Bristol …or Gloucestershire?) have a legitimate expectation of consultation on the new name for the bridge? Might a Court find their favour?

Any politician announcing something contentious like this is on a hiding to nothing as there will always be those who disapprove. Holding a consultation at least gives them a form of defence. It would have cost them little to have opened it up for debate. But it would have avoided them a lot of grief. Were they possibly over-influenced by the experience of National Environment Research Council (NERC) when it consulted on the name for its new Antarctic Survey ship? It is now known as the RSS Sir David Attenborough, but readers will fondly remember that most consultation responses favoured Boaty McBoatface!

Alternatively, they could call it the Sir Gareth Edwards Bridge.

Then at least one bank of the Severn would be happy!