I think, given the position that we’re in, that this has been a very measured debate. The banks, at present, are depriving many communities and many individuals of important services, and it’s now not possible to be a full citizen unless you have full access to banking services. That’s what the modern world entails. If you don’t have access to a banking system, you will lose out greatly within the current economic structure.

Bearing in mind the billions of pounds—some thousand billion pounds—invested in the banks over the past decade in order to save them from a situation that they themselves have created, to see now that they are turning their backs on the communities that paid to support and maintain the viability of those banks is very disappointing indeed.So, I would support any statutory efforts in terms of ensuring that the last branch is saved, or any other efforts, as we have seen with mobile phone companies, where you require people to use other equipment, because unless you do that, you will see everyone withdrawing from rural communities, specifically, and leaving a desert behind them. So, we do need a statutory approach.

But there is something more positive in this debate too, when we’re talking about this concept of a people’s bank of Wales, which has been aired. I do think, when you consider the money flowing through Welsh banks, through the local authorities, through the health service and through the Welsh Government—money that’s being held in the main banks—well, there’s nothing stopping that being held in a separate Welsh people’s bank in order to generate revenue and capital that would be available, then, for investment and maintaining that kind of network.

It’s very disappointing, in rural areas, that full consideration isn’t being given to the fact that broadband isn’t available to all; that not everyone can use digital means. But more importantly, it shouldn’t be possible to withdraw physical services—