The point is—and you’ve done it again—you’ve closed down the debate; you don’t seem to understand the need to have a debate about this. I know full well how many tourist operators there are in my area, and I will make representations on behalf of those whom I have already replied to, who get in contact with me, without question. Because, if you had one inch of restraint, I was going to move on from the merits to the pitfalls.

One of the merits of a tourism levy and the proposal that has been put forward and mentioned by the Bevan Foundation is that it is a tax for good. There are examples—and some people have mentioned them here today—from around the world where it has been used very successfully: in parts of France, Catalonia, Slovenia, Berlin, San Francisco. They are hardly tourism backwaters. In San Francisco, I understand that it’s zonal, a bit like the London underground—so with a higher percentage charge the closer you stay to the city centre—and in Berlin it’s a flat rate. These are the details. What is perhaps more pertinent to today is what the impact has proved to be, good or bad. From the international examples, we know the tax is generally reinvested in tourism, on promoting the area and providing tourism-related services. That might include, as is the case in France, using the money raised to pay for the additional cost associated with large numbers of tourists, from infrastructure projects to cleaning up the beaches. The point is that it’s a tax paid by people who live outside an area to ease the financial burden on people hosting their stay.

After seven years of Tory cuts and the pot of money here being ever smaller, it is possible that raising local taxes can help ease the burden on the local taxpayer, who will have to pay for hosting individuals within their constituent parts. But there are also pitfalls, and we must scrutinise those very carefully. We do know, and I’ve said it and I’m fully aware of it, that Mid and West Wales does thrive on its tourism industry, directly and indirectly, and it is the lifeblood of those areas. So, whatever happens, whether we do have a levy or whether we don’t, what we absolutely must do is have a debate.