As an Assembly Member for north Wales, of course, and as someone who lives in north-east Wales, it is important that we remember that this is about more than Port Talbot, as Members have already reminded us. There was a great deal of doom and gloom the last time I visited Shotton steelworkers last year. The cloud hanging over the entire Tata enterprise had extended even to one of the most consistently profitable and innovative plants where 700 workers produce, of course, cutting-edge materials and finished steel that is exported across the world. But, as has already been mentioned in the past in this Chamber, it is used in Wales as well extensively: the Millennium Stadium, the most iconic of our national buildings, of course, is coated with Shotton’s unique steel.

Despite producing profits for the past decade, steelworkers in Shotton have not seen a pay rise for the past five years and despite the contribution they make to the company, many of them feel that a gun is being held to workers’ heads when it comes to pensions and that feeling, understandably, is particularly acute amongst those over 50, some of whom could, as we know, lose a significant amount if the pension deal goes through. This pension deal is based on a short-term promise. As we’ve heard, and as Adam reminded us, it’s not a bankable promise. We have no guarantees that Port Talbot won’t be under threat again in five years or even less and the workers in the meantime will be leaving with a poorer pension.

Shotton had its meltdown moment in 1980, of course, when the biggest redundancy announcement in a single day in western Europe saw 6,500 steelworkers lose their job. The economic devastation that caused, of course, for Shotton, Deeside, the whole of Flintshire and beyond lasted for a generation and that mustn’t happen to Port Talbot: a community similarly built on steel and equally dependant. I am optimistic for the future of Shotton steelworks—somewhere that’s adapted and innovated since those dark days—and I’m equally hopeful that the deal we need to see and we all want to see the workforce obtain in terms of wages and deferred wage—pensions—will be the right one for a brighter future. But, of course, it won’t happen unless the Welsh and UK Governments are more tenacious in demanding that it happens.