The debates here on legislative consent motions are a key part of our constitution and emerge from the practice that also exists in Scotland, through the Sewel convention, as we heard earlier, of ensuring that Westminster is able to legislate on issues where elements are devolved.

The case is different in this regard. We are giving Westminster permission to legislate on our own powers, including those issues that are impacted by the way in which this Bill has been drafted. By the way, may I say in passing that this is a ‘Bil’ in Welsh? ‘Bil’ is a totally different thing that was legislation in this place in the past. I don’t want to see ‘Mesurau’, or Measures, returning.

I am not going to say too much today because I have been discussing this issue, as you know, at both ends of the railway line for 30 years. I hope to do that again tomorrow, when we complete the third reading of this Bill in the second chamber. I don’t see the development of devolution in the same light as Members of my former party, I’m afraid. I have sought over the years to try and take all opportunities to enhance and develop devolution, however those opportunities arose, and along that route, I have made a number of friends. I am very grateful to David for his kind comments earlier. I see Kirsty there; we first met on the night of the referendum and we were out all night. As they say in other places, nothing happened because there was no time; we were too busy. But that meeting was an important meeting for me, because when we came to this Assembly we got to know each other. My relationship with Jane Hutt goes back a lot further. We have had an opportunity to collaborate in different parties, and that has brought us to a point of consensus.

And here we are today in a surprising place, where my former party and a party that I will never become a Member of are voting together against this next step on the devolution route. Whatever the reasons set out by the two parties here, they haven’t yet convinced me, and certainly, they wouldn’t convince the people of Wales. What the people of Wales want to see is politicians working together constructively in order to create change. That change is change that occurs because of the response of the legislature here in Cardiff, the legislature in Westminster, and the Governments in the two places, to what the political debate produces.

There is one further point that I think is crucial in this situation. I said in Westminster, as we were concluding the Report Stage on this Bill, that I thought that we had got to the end of a chapter in the way in which we dealt with devolved issues—namely, that we must ensure now that we don’t see Westminster conferring powers upon us, but that this Assembly should be an equal legislature within the UK. Therefore, my plea this afternoon once again is that we should be willing to play our part in jointly legislating from here on out, and the way to achieve that is through passing this Bill.