Thank you, Llywydd. I’d like to speak to these amendments. I think that I will start the debate here today, but I won’t perhaps push it to a vote, so that we can have a debate on this change of name in the Assembly and then allow the Presiding Officer to consult widely on the situation.

First of all, I’d like to welcome the opportunity to discuss this issue and the open wording of the motion—a motion that gives us an opportunity to carefully consider the name of our democratic national institution. Each and every one of us believes that, as an institution, we should be an exemplar and an inspiration to the nation in terms of our innovative policies and legislation and in our use of our unique national language.

In 1997, we gained devolution on the basis that we would create a new kind of democracy that would reflect the values of Wales, not a forum to follow the practices of our nations without question. During the last decade and a half, you could perhaps argue that we have concentrated too much on our status as an institution rather than on ploughing our own furrow. Over a period of 17 years, we have tried to build an institution that is respected, having separated the legislature from the Executive and renamed ‘Secretaries’ as ‘Ministers’, and then reversed that decision. Politicians in Scotland decided to call the ‘Scottish Executive’ the ‘Scottish Government’ in 2007, and, in 2011, we followed suit. It’s as if our confidence stems from, and depends on emulating others. We seem to have to look over our shoulders for guidance.

Raymond Williams, in 1975, said that the true symbol of a new Wales would be, and I quote,

‘a time of new and active creation: people sure enough of themselves to discard their baggage; knowing the past is past, as shaping history, but with a new confident sense of the present and the future, where the decisive meanings and values will be made.’

So, let us plough our own furrow, let us be self-confident enough to discard our mental baggage and to take this opportunity to be unique by adopting an official, monolingual Welsh name for our Senedd.

Consider the institutions that we, as a Senedd, support and which have monolingual Welsh names, from Chwarae Teg to the Urdd, from Merched y Wawr to the Mudiad Meithrin. If we want to nurture our children as Welsh speakers, then let us nurture our democracy in the same way. Our national anthem unites us as a nation—and that’s perhaps why I am a little hoarse today—with Welsh verse, and, when the crowd sings, the nation is united. It unites people whatever their background or their first language. In discussing our anthem, we should bear in mind that moment when the Welsh football team wore T-shirts with the word ‘diolch’ on them—our national football team, on a global stage, confidently using the Welsh language. Shouldn’t we do likewise?

Before I conclude, I would like to deal with some possible counter-arguments against this suggestion. Some of you may believe that we should retain the name ‘National Assembly’, and I do have some sympathy with that argument. It’s a name that’s used across the world, from Cuba to France, but I would like the Llywydd to consider the word ‘Senedd’ because it is already used widely on the ground. There has been a misleading report in the press, claiming that ‘Senedd’ refers to the Westminster Parliament. As many of you will know, ‘Senedd’ refers to a national legislature, not only to the UK Parliament.

Finally, I know that some have argued that this building’s name is ‘Senedd’ and that we should have another name for our legislature. There is one simple answer to that, of course, and that would be to rename the Senedd ‘Senedd-dy’, if we so choose. But I don’t see that there’s any major problem in having the same name for the building and the institution. I see no particular problem there and I think it’s relatively easy for people to understand that. The word ‘Senedd’ is based in Latin, a language that unites our continent in all its diversity. As we, against the wishes of many in this Senedd, decided to turn our back on the European Union, let us take a step that would strengthen another European union, by renewing and reinforcing an ancient cultural union. Thank you.