Well, Llywydd, I was intending to begin my remarks by saying that I agree with everything that’s been said hitherto, but I’m afraid that Dai Lloyd’s lapse into European controversy just a couple of minutes ago precludes me from doing that, sadly. It’s one of the very few disagreements that we have on the committee. Bethan Jenkins began her speech earlier on, on autism, by making an encomium to Mark Isherwood for his role in running the cross-party group, and I would like to begin my speech by issuing an encomium to her for the exemplary way in which she has chaired the committee. We are indeed, as Suzy said, a happy and naturally consensual band, at least in the narrow confines of the subjects that we have discussed. There is broad agreement in the committee on the approach that we take to the issues that we discussed.

This report is very largely about public service broadcasting, and this is an important element in the debate about the educative role of both the broadcasting institutions and, indeed, the print media and their online versions. Dai referred a moment ago to the fact that very little of what we do in this place is reported, and there is very little real debate about serious issues. I don’t actually agree with what he said also about people following what’s said in the newspapers to make decisions on, for example, whether they’re pro or anti-Brexit. People generally tend to buy newspapers, I think, to reinforce their prejudices rather than to have them confronted. So, I don’t think there’s much scope for newspapers to change people’s opinions. But I do feel—and this is not a criticism that I level at Wales as opposed to any other part of the United Kingdom—that we’re really failed by our media institutions, which don’t actually have much serious political reporting at all. Unless I’m called to order by the Llywydd in this place, it’s very difficult to get reported at all, and certainly not for anything sensible that I might say. [Laughter.] Not that I’m inviting the Llywydd to do so yet again, but that seems to be the fact of the matter, that the media tend to concentrate on the trivialities rather than the important issues, so there’s no depth to reporting at all, which is a great shame.

I think, for our public service broadcasters, there is a positive duty upon them to raise the level of debate and to perform that educative function. As regards the role of the BBC, I’d just like to make what I think is a simple point, that we’re classed as part of the nations and regions of the UK, but I do think that nations ought to be treated as more important than regions, and the cultural dimension of a nation is much more important. I know that Yorkshiremen would probably disagree with this and they regard themselves as God’s own country, but, nevertheless, we have the four nations and they ought, I think, to have a disproportionate share of the resources. It shouldn’t just be based on population or anything of that kind.

Suzy referred in her speech, as indeed did Bethan, to the disparity of funding between Wales and Scotland. I don’t particularly want to deprive Scotland of anything that it has at the moment, but I do think that, as with the Barnett formula in general, Wales does have the thin end of the wedge and that does need to be addressed. I know this is happening to an extent with the latest funding decisions of the BBC, but there does still remain—and the figures have already been stated in this debate—a significant difference between what’s available to Wales and what’s available to Scotland. I also want to say, in the context of that remark, that S4C is a vital part of the strategy of increasing the number of Welsh speakers in Wales. It has an indispensable role to play and, therefore, should get the funding commensurate with the importance of that. It has suffered in recent years from staggering cuts, which amount to about 36 per cent in real terms, and I do believe that we ought to give greater priority to the needs of S4C. They’ve achieved, actually, a minor miracle on a much smaller budget in maintaining the standards of programmes and the breadth of them. There’s been a very substantial reduction in staff, from 220 to 130. Their overheads are a very lean 4 per cent of the total and I think, all told, it’s a very considerable success story and Huw and Ian Jones, in particular, have made an enormous contribution to the future of Welsh language broadcasting, not just in Wales, because they see their role as being broadcasters to Welsh speakers wherever they are in the world. And that’s a very important part of S4C, which I think ought to be underlined.

I see that the red light has come on and I haven’t got time to say the many other things that I did intend to say, but I do believe that this is, for an initial report, a very good piece of work and it’s a good foundation upon which we can build a much bigger picture in due course.