Harold Wilson used to say that a week is a long time in politics. Well, it seems like a political lifetime ago, as has already been referenced, when the Queen’s Speech was delivered to Parliament on 18 May 2016. Outside of the many economic, trade and societal issues we now face, it is inevitable for Wales that attention focuses now on the Wales Bill. There is no doubt that the new Bill is to be welcomed in comparison with the previous draft Bill that was published last October. However, we are once again faced with continuing outstanding issues. Most notably, the Bill does not include the devolution of policing, and teachers’ pay also remains a strong reservation in the Bill, due to continuing discussions on the funding transfer needed to support devolution. This does need rectification. I know that the First Minister and the Welsh Government continue to press and encourage parliamentary debate and scrutiny on these matters. It should not need saying that Wales simply demands fairness and respect from the UK Government—respect and fairness that must be mutually reciprocal.

Equally, it makes little or no sense to mum and dad on Blackwood High Street or to constitutional lawyers that the devolution of powers throughout the United Kingdom appears to be so fragmented and ad hoc. The UK Government, again today, has advocated metro mayors, as has been referenced, that will see invested in the hands of just one person powers over policing. Yet, the entire National Assembly for Wales is to continue to be denied such devolution of powers, and there is no logic to this.

I was struck by the comments in the Chamber yesterday of my friend Huw Irranca-Davies, the Member for Ogmore, Chair of the constitutional and legislative committee. He stated that, despite being invited before the committee, the Secretary of State for Wales had, so far, not accepted the invitation to attend. While it is good to see the Secretary of State for Wales address us today—a right, incidentally, that the Wales Bill will remove—it is important that communication and co-operation between the UK Government and the Welsh Government is the best that it possibly can be, and based on mutual respect, as the Welsh Labour Government has always sought to proceed for the process of devolution through cross-party consensus, where this is possible.

It is difficult to comprehend and understand why the Wales Bill was rushed, especially when you consider that discussions between officials in the UK and Welsh Government had not concluded. Also, the current timetable for passage of the Bill is constricted and rushed and provides very little time for much valuable scrutiny. Rushed legislation, as I’m sure everybody in this Chamber is aware, makes for very poor law.

Today I, along with my Welsh Labour colleagues, will be supporting the Plaid Cymru amendments as a matter of principle. The powers offered to Scotland and Northern Ireland should also be offered to Wales. The First Minister has consistently argued for that position in this Chamber, and Carwyn Jones has led the way in advocating that we need to move to a more coherent and consistent approach by the UK Government, treating each part of the UK with equal respect. It is no longer workable for twenty-first century Wales to be governed on the basis of an unwritten constitution that has morphed into disparity across and through the various members of the United Kingdom, increasingly divergent to the devolution settlement.

Equally, my constituents have not sent me here to the National Assembly for Wales to endlessly be debating constitutional issues of devolution. They have sent me here—as has already been mentioned—to stand up for their hard-working families, to ensure a better future for our communities, to fight poverty and grow jobs, and get the best possible deal for them. This Queen’s Speech does not deliver that. Let’s be frank, the latest Queen’s Speech was another missed opportunity to address many of the big issues facing Wales and the wider UK. It was a ghost Queen’s Speech delivered in the shadow of the European referendum that the Prime Minister confidently predicted he would win. The editor of PoliticsHome.com, Kevin Schofield, neatly summed up the value of the Prime Minister’s predictions:

‘So basically, ever since David Cameron assured us that "Brits don’t quit", everybody has quit. Except Jeremy Corbyn.’

Today and tomorrow, and the next day, and the week after that, and the month after that, I know that this Welsh Government will not quit in its unstinting determination—that the people of Wales are given the respect and democratic process that they deserve, equal to our fellow citizens throughout our United Kingdom. Diolch, Lywydd.