Diolch, Lywydd. This week marks the one hundred and seventy seventh anniversary of the Chartist uprising and march on Newport for political and democratic reform. On 4 November 1839, over 20 Chartists were shot and killed. They lie in unmarked graves at St Woolos cathedral. Their leaders, John Frost, William Jones and Zephaniah Williams, were tried at Monmouth Shire Hall, convicted of high treason and sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered, later commuted to transportation for life to the new world. Today, Newport is known as the city of democracy and every year commemorates these momentous events. Friday will see the re-enactment by local schoolchildren, including Maindee primary in my constituency. I will be at St Woolos cathedral, along with Jayne Bryant, for the commemoration, and there will be a Chartist convention and other events.

Llywydd, Chartism was the first working-class mass movement and the Newport rising the last large-scale armed rebellion against authority in Britain. Of the six points of the charter, only annual parliaments has not been enacted. The legacy of the Chartists is the mass suffrage we enjoy to this day.