Can I welcome the statement and also welcome the ambition that the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services has outlined in this excellent statement, I have to say? I'd just like to tease out some of the details because, obviously, as the Cabinet Secretary mentions, we respect and are rightly proud of our rich, unique industrial heritage. Obviously, south Wales powered the industrial revolution after all—yes, indeed, breathtaking in its achievements and also devastating in its effects on the people here in equal measure, as we survey the graves of nine-year-old boys killed in mining accidents and disasters like Senghennydd and Aberfan.

So, I welcome that ambition but also the emphasis of the work that's been going on with the taskforce as regards, particularly, the cultural heritage and identity section. And I was just going to tease out some fundamentals, I think, as regards the importance of the south Wales Valleys in terms of Wales's cultural heritage and identity, first of all as regards the Welsh language. Many people think that the industrial revolution here in south Wales was actually the saviour of the Welsh language. As the Cabinet Secretary will be aware, the history of the grinding rural poverty of Wales meant that thousands of Welsh speakers moved to the south Wales Valleys to be coal miners from tuberculosis-ridden, poor agricultural farms, as a number of my family did in the past. And when we talk of achieving 1 million Welsh speakers here in Wales, well, just over a century ago, we did have 1 million Welsh speakers, and most of them worked in the south Wales Valleys in the middle of that industrial revolution. So, some recognition of that, I hope, is happening amongst all the work that is going on with the ministerial taskforce and this whole Valleys regional park idea.

And the second point that I want to emphasise as regards the cultural identity is, actually, the Christian legacy that involves the south Wales Valleys. We see it now in hundreds of non-conformist chapels—most of them shut; some, occasionally, thriving—and the history of powerful preachers and revivals dotted around the last 250 years. And, obviously, some of us—Mike Hedges and I and Dafydd Elis-Thomas—were together in Tabernacle, Morriston, last Friday, to celebrate this exact legacy of the coming together of heavy industry, Welsh language and Christian history—celebrated in Tabernacle, Morriston then, obviously, with a piece of work being done in another Government department.

So, my essential question, when I'm going on about both the Welsh language and the Christian heritage is: what work is happening to ensure that different governmental pursuits in different portfolios are actually complementing one another rather than driving across? Because the south Wales Valleys do have an extremely rich Christian heritage. My own great-uncle had to leave a very poor farm near Dolgellau to settle in Aberdare and became a hymn writer and a printer there. And, in fact, Ap Hefin, Henry Lloyd, is the author of the hymn 'I Bob Un Sy'n Ffyddlon', which we still sing around rugby theatres these days, not just in our chapels. Some unkind members of my family have suggested he was the only one with any talent in the Lloyd genealogy. 

But other hymn tunes come to mind, like 'Cwm Rhondda'. There's no wider encapsulation of the south Wales Valleys culture—one of the most inspirational hymn tunes ever—as is 'Calon Lân'. Both the words and the tunes come from Swansea. And that's not withstanding our rich history of male voice choirs and brass bands that came about because of that same rich industrial history of all of our south Wales Valleys. So, I would hope that, in terms of the cultural heritage and identity, full rein is being made and not just some sort of lip service to—at some point in the past some Welsh was  spoken in these Valleys and occasionally some people did go to chapel. It is actually a very rich, inspiring history that is quite often forgotten. Diolch yn fawr.