Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd, and thanks to the First Minister for bringing today's debate. I do actually agree with most of the sentiments that he just expressed.

I think that everyone in this Chamber appreciates that we are in the midst of a public health crisis and nobody wants to downplay that situation. I'm sure we all appreciate that, during this crisis, Governments of countries around the globe are struggling to deal with the pandemic and are managing the situation with varying levels of success. And, as human life is at stake, we all want the crisis to be over as soon as possible, with as little human loss as possible, although we also have to balance the long-term economic consequences as well, because they can also be life damaging or life changing.

So, can I just ask the First Minister, who, I think, made his opening remarks in a good manner, that was promising, hopefully, a good debate—can I ask him to be reasonable in his dealings with the opposition at this time? We do need to have a democratic forum in which to debate his Government's measures robustly, and we don't want to be called 'disgraceful' or anything similar just because we don't always agree with his measures. So, I thank the Government for bringing today's debate, but now that they have brought it, I hope that they can play by the rules and accept that we don't have to agree with them all of the time. I also note that when, earlier today, Caroline Jones asked the First Minister about sharing the scientific advice, he did avoid answering that part of her question. It seems to me that the First Minister wants to be all powerful and all knowing, not sharing all of the technical advice he has received, but at the same time telling everyone else that we can't question what he's doing because we don't know all the things he does.

Now, I mentioned long-term economic consequences—they do have to be borne in mind—and we in the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party do take a view that the decision to stop pubs and restaurants from serving alcohol was disproportionate and could spell the end for many businesses. So, people in Wales could be suffering the consequences of the Welsh Government's decisions long after this pandemic is over. We are already seeing effects in Wales in terms of rising unemployment, but not only has Wales already suffered the highest rise in unemployment, we are also experiencing the highest rise in infection rates. So, it seems to me that we are having the worst of all worlds here in devolved Wales: we have the toughest lockdown measures, but we also have a public health crisis that appears to be worsening. It is no surprise that the public confidence in the Welsh Government's handling of the crisis is plummeting, with a fall of around 20 percentage points.

We in Abolish have said from the outset that we need a UK-wide response to the pandemic, led by the UK Government. I stated in last week's debate that many people have told me that they believe the First Minister has used this crisis, in part, to try and accentuate the difference between what he does, and what the UK Government do, in an attempt to win more public attention and support for devolution. I think this was a foolhardy strategy, and it has come back to bite him. We are still experiencing problems precisely because of his determination to have a distinctly Welsh approach to the virus. Regardless of what he says about the alert levels, England has different areas in different tiers, which makes some sense. As I say, despite the alert levels, here in Wales, the First Minister still, it seems to me, wants to treat all of Wales as one unit, so if one part of Wales has to go into lockdown, then all of it does. This clearly makes little sense in places like Gwynedd and Ynys Môn where the infection rates are relatively low, but because they're in Wales, they have to be treated the same as every other part of Wales. Clearly, this is nothing more than politically motivated nonsense, and very little to do with public health.

So, we do oppose the Government's motion today. We do believe that the new levels of restrictions are disproportionate and overly damaging to businesses and to people's livelihoods across Wales, and we do regret that the Welsh Government keeps taking a different line from what the UK Government is doing. What we want is a united UK response with more co-operation with the UK Government. We also support Plaid's amendments 7 and 9 today. I urge Members today to support these amendments, and I hereby move the two motions tabled in my name. Diolch yn fawr iawn.