Proroguing of Parliament, or, to put it in a way that most of us would understand, the decision to shut down our Westminster Parliament, at such a critical point in our history is both deliberate and cynical, and it's absolutely right that our Welsh Parliament comes together today to express a view on that, for all the reasons that others have already pointed out.

Now, it might, strictly speaking, be legal to do that—we'll await the outcome of the current legal challenges—but let's be under no illusion that this has been done for one political reason alone, and that is an attempt to prevent the Westminster Parliament from scrutinising the actions of the UK Government in relation to the biggest issue of our time: our relationship with the European Union. 

I can't think of anything that is further from the Brexit mantra of taking back control than to try to silence the very body that they themselves campaigned to give absolute control to. There are of course precedents in history for this type of action by government, but none of them are good, none of them have ended well, and none of them provide us with any kind of assurance about the direction of travel. But, in this debate, I want to focus and confine my comments to two issues that I feel arise from the Prime Minister’s decision. The first issue is that of division in our society, which David Rowlands has already mentioned, and the second is the character of leadership.