May I say one thing about this process, because this is the first time I’ve had the privilege of responding to a short debate and, indeed, to participate in a short debate? When we were putting in place the Standing Orders of this place, many years ago, we did believe that the short debate was a very important thing, because it isn’t a debate, in essence, but an opportunity for a Member or Members to contribute on an issue that is of interest to them, which they feel should be aired publicly. And I can’t think of a better example, John, than using the short debate for the purpose that you’ve put for it this afternoon.

It’s important that we’re reminded, I think, that the landscape of Wales—and the landscape of everywhere in the world, but the landscape that we are legally responsible for in this place is what we're talking about this afternoon—the landscape of Wales is both notable and unique. The other element pertinent here is that when changes are made to landscapes for whatever reasons—and John has mentioned, and I will mention some historic events over a period of time and certain issues related to climate—but any change of that kind is often irreversible. It is incontrovertible. You cannot turn the clock back. That is the nature of creation and the nature of the world we live in.

This diversity of landscape does contribute to the quality of life, our quality of life, in a way that is immeasurable, if truth be told. As we have heard very clearly expressed by John in his introduction, there are thousands of years of the impact of the human race and people on this particular landscape. This landscape is notable in being a landscape that is very artificial, in one sense, because of human intervention, although some of that has been affected by nature and the weather, of course, and that gives it great historic significance and significance in terms of leisure, amenity and enjoyment.

It’s also important to bear in mind that the landscape is always a living landscape. It is not something that is set in stone at some point in the past; the landscape continues to develop. What’s struck me every time I walk the Gwent levels is that you have huge industrial buildings on the one hand and the scale of the Severn estuary—or Môr Hafren as we call it in Welsh—the huge scale of nature alongside the huge scale of man-made buildings. Having something as intensive in terms of its natural amenity in an industrial area is something very special to Wales and to visitors to Wales, because it does show how we can safeguard and maintain a notable, natural landscape despite seeing developments of all sorts happening on that landscape and impacting our environment.

John has talked a great deal about the historic circumstances, and these are of huge interest. I wouldn’t be the Minister representing Cadw in this place if I weren’t to mention the exciting archaeological finds that John himself referred to—the mesolithic fragments that are 8,000 years old, the Bronze Age ship that we heard about, the buildings and paths from the Iron Age, and everything that has survived from Roman and medieval times. I don’t think there is any other environment in Wales where you can read Welsh history from your surroundings just by looking around. You don't need a guidebook—you can have a guidebook, of course, or you could just take John's speech with you and my brief response as some guide for you as to what's around you—history speaks for itself in this particular environment.