I think the statement today from the Cabinet Secretary is a positive one and as I’ll say tomorrow during the Conservative debate, Plaid Cymru is supportive of the work that the Welsh Government is doing with veterans, provided that they are properly measured and the outcomes are transparent for us all to see. But there is a growing problem around Remembrance Day, and my questions today are going to focus on these issues and how the Welsh Government reacts to them.

We’ve all seen the furore over FIFA’s refusal to allow the home nations to wear poppy armbands for international games. None of this is helped by the fact that FIFA has shown itself to be corrupt to the core in recent times. But does the Cabinet Secretary believe that, despite the fact that this rule is in existence, the team should mark the commemorations in a different way, potentially by having a minute’s silence or, as we have done in other football matches—we’ve held up cards in support of the team—by holding up a picture of a poppy, as opposed to being potentially made a point by FIFA in relation to our efforts to reach Russia in that football tournament? I am at heart a rebel, but I think sometimes we need to obviously think about how our nation does in these circumstances, as opposed to potentially engaging in this political football that FIFA no doubt wants us to engage in.

It seems we cannot get anywhere near this date without fictitious stories of staged arguments with imaginary offended Muslims or other minorities who are claimed to stop poppy wearers in the street and demand their removal. The purpose of this is clear: the story is designed as some kind of commentary on how the country is being taken over, how British values are under threat. Anyone who lives with Muslims for neighbours knows this is not the case, but would the Cabinet Secretary agree with me that this is little more than racism that is allowed to bleed out into the public arena on the grounds that it is somehow acceptable, and that it does nothing other than ascribe stereotypes on the basis of no evidence whatsoever?

Would he also agree with me that most people will approach Remembrance Day through the prism of their own personal experiences and values? We shouldn’t tell anybody what to do in this regard. For example, many people give because they support the idea of contributing to the care of veterans by the Royal British Legion and other charities in the sector. I myself gave my salary increase to a charity in my area, in Port Talbot, Step Change, which helps provide services for veterans with mental health problems, because they recognised that, sadly, waiting times are still an issue for those with mental health problems, and that families often get forgotten when their loved ones leave the military. Many of us choose not to wear a red poppy and wear a white poppy, or no poppy at all. It shouldn’t be for anybody to judge other people if we decide to commemorate and think about our history in our own individual ways. I use, again, the football analogy. I don’t often wear the Welsh top to a football match, but that does not mean that I’m not a fervent football fan, and I’m definitely a fervent nationalist. I think that’s how we have to see these things sometimes.

And does the Cabinet Secretary agree that it is unacceptable that we now have a political climate in which those that do something as small as wear a white poppy, or none at all, can find themselves vilified on the internet and then in a media that has lost all proportion on what we are there to mark—the still breathtaking loss of life—in favour of something altogether more political? Because I think, at the end of the day, we have to understand that, while we are commemorating those who have lost their lives, we should be commemorating everybody who has lost their lives due to war, in whatever circumstance, and in whatever way they are implicated. We should also be remembering those conscientious objectors who did take the stand to not engage in war, and who have also through history been criticised. Actually we should understand why they made those decisions and how they came to make those decisions, and not let that get lost in the debate around Armistice Day and the future of how wars may be conducted in our name. Thank you.