It's hard to see how anyone could disagree with the second part of this motion, that we need to root out racial discrimination in our society. To me, that's pretty obvious. Apart from isolated voices on the far right, few would argue that someone could be less worthy because of the colour of their skin, despite the fact that many people undoubtedly hold those views in private. But this is exactly why we must put in place systems that directly challenge structural racism and discrimination. Stopping people speaking in favour of racism is not enough. Stopping people acting on it is what is vital. That's why it's essential, in my view, for us all to be part of what this motion calls

'the global fight to root out racism and racist ideology'.

We know that the far right is on the rise, and we must, on a global scale, call out the slurs and the prejudicial comments that poison our political debate and cause harm to people. But calling this out is only useful if we go deeper and challenge the ideology of subtle racism that runs through our political discourse and society, because the far right did not emerge from nowhere. Blaming migrants, asylum seekers and health tourists for the decline in living standards has become as standard, yet these problems were caused by austerity. The ground was laid for them by the deliberate creation of a hostile environment for people from other cultures and countries. Comments like Boris Johnson's Islamophobic statement that I referred to earlier have to be rooted out, and you have to accept that. The ground was laid for them when Labour produced a campaign mug promising immigration controls at the same time that they were more than willing to vote for crippling austerity measures. Whether it's the financial crash and the greed of the bankers or the subsequent austerity that was used to punish working people, it's obvious to see that it's the political and financial class who are to blame for our current situation, not immigrants. It's no surprise that the far right can thrive under these conditions. Now, Labour may well have new leadership since that infamous mug, but I say this today because it's simply not good enough. This new supposedly left-wing version of Labour is also now promising tight border controls and an end to freedom of movement as part of implementing Brexit. How is that different to the mug? It's pandering, and it's arguably the oldest political lie in the world to say that your home-grown elite is not to blame for your living and working conditions: 'Those different people, those other people over there, are to blame.' Blaming others for our problems is morally and politically lazy, but it's repeatedly used as a strategy because it's very effective.

Racism is part of our history. Whilst our country has spent most of its history being ruled from London, we've also taken part in the British colonial empire that was responsible for countless wars and numerous genocides of non-white peoples. This global domination was often justified by the idea that others were inferior to us white people, and the hangover from that mentality still lurks in the background today. It's this heritage that makes it so easy to believe that other people around the world are somehow problematic adversaries that we must either dominate or keep out.

I'm afraid that I'm not able to draw a line under the past, because that's what got us here. But I do welcome the fact that there is at least some political will from at least some political parties here in this Senedd to work together to combat racism and to combat hate crime, and I support this joint motion on that basis.