Thank you, Presiding Officer. Could I begin by, obviously, passing on our deepest condolence to Julie, who joins us here today, and the rest of her family, who I believe are in the gallery, from the Conservative group and from my good self personally. I well remember the first time—and I made this comment last week— when I first met Rhodri and he was busily barricading his garden to try and stop my cattle going into his garden. I have to say, as a farmer, you normally get used to quite a few irate individuals when your cattle are doing a merry dance on their garden. Rhodri was more interested in what type of cattle they were, and the ultimate destination of where those cattle might be going. I think that well encapsulates who Rhodri Morgan was. He was a man who had a willingness to want to know, a thirst to understand, and, above all, he was a genuine, decent, upright individual. I had the real privilege to serve here in one term of this Assembly in 2007 to 2011, and, as a new Member, admittedly from another party, he always engaged, he always discussed things, and you always felt you had that sense of comradery with him. I feel deeply privileged to have been able to serve one term in this institution. The way that he conducted himself in the role of First Minister, as the First Minister has pointed out, he had huge pride in occupying that position and wanted this institution to succeed. We, as a country, owe him a great debt of gratitude for the way, as the former Presiding Officer has highlighted previously, he stabilised a ship, along with others, when this institution’s future wasn’t secured and there was a huge question mark. We are fortunate that he was there at the helm, working with others, to make sure that devolution did turn in to a permanent part of our democracy and permanent part of our country here in Wales.

I well remember the times when he would be in here as First Minister, very often not quite on his own on the Government bench, but he would start First Minister’s questions quite happily standing there with a handful of colleagues around. It was a different time in those days, in 2007, 2008, and he would give you a very detailed answer. He would give you an answer that you might disagree with, but you understood where he was coming from and where the Government came from. The other thing that struck me, as a new Member to this institution, was, in particular, the way he engaged with the proceedings of the Assembly—how we would sit in Plenary here, with papers in front of him, working through those papers, and his House of Commons background would very often come out, because, all of a sudden, you’d think he wouldn’t be listening and all of a sudden there would be that barracking from the First Minister’s chair, which as a new Member you certainly felt a little deflated about, to be honest with you. [Laughter.] But most probably—from my perspective, anyway, as a young farmer, through their debating societies—I got used to that.

I well remember, then, how he moved to the back benches, and I might be wrong, but I think he occupied the seat that Julie sits in today—perhaps Labour’s business manager could confirm that, but I think it’s roughly there. Again, he wasn’t a First Minister who just went to the back benches and sat quietly—he engaged, he had that thirst and he had that appetite for life that could be an inspiration to us all, I would suggest.

I don’t for one minute profess to have been a friend of Rhodri, in the personal nature that many of the front bench here and the Labour benches will indicate, no doubt, in their tributes, but I feel hugely privileged, and I’m sure Members of my group feel hugely privileged, that we were able to call Rhodri a political friend and a political acquaintance. The First Minister touched on the point about how he would calm people when they met him, he would put them at their ease, and he always showed an interest in people by picking up their name.

When I came home from the leader’s debate—and I am grateful to the First Minister who very kindly rang immediately after the First Minister’s debate to inform me of the tragic news, like I know he informed the other leaders—I was speaking to my wife afterwards, and she remembers a function that we attended. For most wives or husbands who are attending with their respective spouses in the political world, those types of events are very often regarded with horror, because you’re being thrown to the wolves very often. [Laughter.] Rhodri sat by Julia at this particular luncheon that we were attending, put her completely at her ease and was genuinely enthused by what she was doing, wanting to know about the things in life that she was interested in—likewise, obviously, Julia was asking him the questions back. But that was Rhodri—he could put you at your ease, he could understand what you were talking about and he could also offer you an answer and a perspective on life that encapsulated the man he was. He was just a thoroughly decent, honourable, upright individual. We are as a country extremely, extremely fortunate that we had a man of such calibre at the outset of devolution, taking the chair, steadying the ship and putting us on the journey we’re on.

As I did when I opened my remarks, I close by again reinforcing our condolences to Julie and the rest of the family. The loss must be huge, but, hopefully, with the passage of time, the grief that you feel will be put to one side with the many happy and warm memories that you will have of, indeed, a great man.