Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:36 pm on 26 February 2020.
Now, to respond to the motion, fundamentally, it’s the Government here that is underperforming and failing, not the institution. By the way, we agree with Neil McEvoy’s amendment, but we’re unable to support it, because that would delete our own amendment.
However, having said all of that, there are some successes that we could quote from this Senedd over the years. We have seen the prohibition of smoking in public places—that started in this place 19 years ago, we would still be waiting if we waited for Westminster; free prescriptions; the medical school in Swansea—we fought for a generation for that, and it’s devolution that has delivered that, it’s this Parliament that has delivered that; charging for plastic bags, years before England did so; changing the organ donation system almost five years ago now; and the minimum alcohol price.
Certain things have been achieved in this place, but we should have achieved much more in 20 years. With a Government that is underperforming, the way forward, naturally, is to vote against that party when there is a Welsh general election, that’ll happen next year, of course—a vote for a change of Government. After all, when the Westminster Government makes a mess of things and underperforms, then people talk about a general election, instead of calling for the abolition of Westminster. It’s a change of Government that is the solution, not the abolition of the whole institution up there.
And there has been plenty of talk about respecting the result of the referendum in 2016. I note that Mark Reckless paid no attention at all to the referendum held here in 2011, because I have to say, we need to respect the result of every referendum, including the 2011 referendum.