The next item is the 90-second statements—Jane Hutt. 

Llywydd, last Thursday, I attended a ceremony in Alexandra Gardens in Cathays Park to re-dedicate the Gift of Life stone in memory of all organ and tissue donors. This memorial stone was places in the park 10 years ago with the support of Kidney Wales and families whose loved ones had donated their organs and tissues. Two families were from Barry: Colin and Bet Burgess and Gaynor Taylor. Louise Burgess and Richard Taylor carried donor cards when they tragically lost their young lives. Colin Burgess wrote the epitaph on the Gift of Life stone: 'They cared for those they helped, and those they helped, remember'. Both families support the Human Transplantation (Wales) Act 2013 to give deemed consent for organ and tissue donation and they welcome the lead Wales has taken in the UK. 

Two years on since the Act, there's been continued and increased public support for the new organ donation system in Wales and it's good to see the Welsh public embracing the changes that are designed to save lives. Colin, Bet and Gaynor continue to speak up for organ donation as a precious gift so others might live and I thank them for their courage and inspiration. 

Vikki Howells.

Llywydd, Friday, 1 December marked the seventy-fifth anniversary of the publication of the Beveridge report on 'Social Insurance and Allied Services'. This had been commissioned during the second world war by a committee responsible to Arthur Greenwood, then Minister with responsibility for post-conflict reconstruction. It's task was twofold: first, it aimed to carry out a survey of existing social insurance schemes; second, it was to make recommendations for the future, and it is in this regard that the report, when published in 1942, had its most far-reaching consequences.

Drafted by liberal economist, William Beveridge, the final document proposed a range of reforms to the existing system. At its heart were proposals to slay what Beveridge termed the five 'giant evils' in society: squalor, ignorance, want, idleness and disease. Instead, government should take steps to provide citizens with adequate income, healthcare, education, housing and employment. It was largely left to the 1945 Clement Attlee Government, having won the general election on a platform that committed Labour to addressing the 'giant evils', and, of course, to the role of Aneurin Bevan, to enact politics outlining the welfare state that we still recognise in this present day. 

There have been changes in the intervening years. Nicholas Timmins, biographer of the welfare state, notes some of these would be approved by Beveridge, others would be totally unrecognisable. But it is in its basic commitment to a shared set of values and services that we can best commemorate the report today. 

On Monday, 11 December we will be commemorating Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, or Llywelyn ein Llyw Olaf, Llywelyn the Last. Llywelyn was the first, of course, to be acknowledged Prince of Wales, and through the Treaty of Montgomery in 1267 the King of England, Henry III, had to accept terms and acknowledge that he was the leader of Wales and that Wales was an independent country, to all intents and purposes. Llywelyn introduced a civil service and a taxation system to administer Wales under his leadership. But this order was not acceptable to Edward I, of course, and he forced Llywelyn to surrender land and return to his stronghold in Gwynedd, having lost ground.

In March 1282 a rebellion began as Welshmen attacked Hawarden castle in Flintshire in order to regain lost lands. But the rebellion came to an end six months later, with Llywelyn having been separated from his 7,000-strong army, and killed in Cilmeri by Stephen de Frankton, one of Edward I’s soldiers. His head was sent to the king in London and was paraded through the streets of London to be shown to the people of the city, before being left upon an iron post outside the Tower of London.

Within months, Gwynedd lost all its royal insignia and Wales lost its status for the time. I will be wearing ivy on Monday and I would suggest that you should all do so in memory and commemoration of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, and to demonstrate that the independent spirit of Llywelyn the Last Prince of Wales is still alive.