9. Short Debate: Improving our democracy and political debate: Why Wales must lead the way in creating and delivering a kinder politics

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:37 pm on 19 September 2018.

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Photo of Angela Burns Angela Burns Conservative 6:37, 19 September 2018

Thank you for taking an intervention, because I think, actually, the one thing that we haven't mentioned is the role the media play, and I think it's vital that the media desist on some of the ways that they portray people, politicians, refugees, so that these good role models, these good stories, the broadening of our understanding and the acceptance of different ways of life are portrayed in a far more positive way because, to be frank, you can pick up any paper, broadsheet or tabloid, and it's always the negative thing that comes out. It's the politician who spends 32p on cat food or the person in Muslim dress walking down a street and saying something that's misinterpreted. You know, we always look for the worst, and I'm afraid to say that I think that the media have to be part of helping everyone to develop a new and kinder type of politics. One of the reasons I think it is so important is if we do not do this—leave the fabric of our society open to just the extremes of all the edges. The good people won't want to take part in it, because they'll take one look and say, 'This isn't for me', and they will go away. Once we do that, we vacate that, and one of the things we know for a fact is that nature abhors a vacuum. If we leave that vacuum, then it will be filled by people who don't have that love that you talked about, and that Adam so wisely spoke of, at the centre of it.