Oscar was always very warm. On my first day in the Senedd, I was walking with the Llywydd and we bumped into the Conservative group. Everyone shook my hand, but Oscar came right across to me and gave me a hug. He worked closely, of course, with two of my predecessors, with Steffan Lewis, who worked in his office, and with Jocelyn Davies, who was a fellow regional AM with Oscar. Last night, Jocelyn told me a few stories I'd like to share with you. 

In the 2007 count, Jocelyn and Oscar had gone up to the stage together to be announced as duly elected. The British National Party, pathetic as they are, had waited in the room for hours in order to walk out at the moment that Oscar's name was announced. Oscar smiled through it, and Jocelyn said that hugging him as the BNP crawled away felt like a little victory over prejudice and hatred.

As has already been said, Oscar was committed to his faith, and Jocelyn told me about another time that Dai Lloyd and Cynog Dafis were going to address the Newport mosque at the invitation of Oscar and Jocelyn. They all turned up on a Friday afternoon, and at that moment Oscar dropped the bombshell that only the men would be allowed into the mosque, and Jocelyn asked, 'Well, where will I be?', to which Oscar replied, 'In my heart'. As Jocelyn said last night, he even managed to take the sting out of that, and I understand that he actually persuaded the mosque to let her in as well.

Oscar wasn't with Plaid for long, but he served the people of South Wales East with dedication, always with his own ideas and with enthusiasm. In politics, as in life, it doesn't do to harbour bitterness. In 2016, at the count when Oscar was announced as being elected, this time, of course, as a Conservative Member, he still went up to Jocelyn and said, 'Thank you, boss.' 

I'll close with the traditional saying of Muslims on hearing the tidings of somebody's death, 'Verily we belong to God, and verily to Him do we return.'