Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:03 pm on 13 February 2019.
Diolch, Alun. You spent quite a bit of your contribution reminiscing over your time in your 20s. That reminded me of the time in your 20s when we were both members of Aberystwyth Town Council, both in our 20s then, both on the same benches then as well.
But, of course, Aberystwyth Town Council—. When I was elected here in 1999, Aberystwyth Town Council in some areas had more powers than the body I was then elected to, the National Assembly. And here we are 20 years later with a very different body, organisation, Parliament now, making laws and raising taxes. I almost said 'taxis' there; taxes—raising taxes. And we are a Senedd, we are a Parliament—that's what we do here and therefore that's what we should call ourselves. As you said, there is a Senedd—Parliament—in Scotland and there is in Wales. So, let's now call ourselves that.
Just on some of the points that you finished with, of course, there are areas of other reform that this Bill could have looked at and that would have looked at other aspects of the work of the Laura McAllister report on extending, increasing, the number of Members that we need in this Parliament, as well as possibly changing the system of elections for that. I know that you and others in this place support that. Those issues remain with us, but they are for another day and another Bill.