Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I move amendments 3 and 4 formally. 

May I congratulate the Independent Alliance for Reform group on securing this debate? May I also thank them for pushing it forward a week from last week, which gave me the opportunity to have my short debate on constitutional developments in Wales in prime time, for which I'm grateful? I'd also like to say that we're supportive of their motion. Others may find reasons not to support it, or vote against so they can vote for their own amendments, but, notwithstanding our later amendments, we support the motion, so we will be voting for it.

I had thought that in our amendments we might add a favourable reference to motherhood and apple pie as point 5, because I think the motion, as is, is uncontroversial and I think we can all pretty much agree with its content. The introductory speech from David Rowlands, though—there were significant parts of that that I really didn't agree with. Firstly, I think the idea that it's not a real pandemic, I just don't—. I think that's wrong, and, if you look at the excess deaths for the past year, they're very significant—in the 100,000 region. And if you compare back to the past five years, as is normally done, they are really quite significant—perhaps a sixth or so higher than they usually would be. I don't know about other—. Coronavirus has clearly—. SARS had a high death rate and a higher one than this does and I accept that the death rate on this is not up to that level, but it's clearly a lot worse than the common cold, which is a coronavirus, and, in my view, at least, significantly worse than we usually see with flu. So, to that extent, I have supported restrictions where it's about flattening the curve, and I was against the failed suppression strategy, particularly when Welsh Government was keeping stuff locked down for longer, through into the summer. But, overall, I support the concept of flattening the curve to protect the NHS and keep to capacity and be able to deal with the situation. And yes, there are issues in terms of capacity and beds, but also it's very much staffing that I put the focus on, rather than the beds.

Similarly, I think, the issue with the PCR test. I think, when rates were lower, yes, the false positives on PCR were perhaps an issue worthy of an investigation, but I think when prevalence is anywhere near as high as it now is—that becomes now a much smaller issue, when many, many more people are positive. So, I can see why we might have talked about that some months back, but I just don't see it as a material issue in assessing the overall problem now.

Overall, I just think the problem with what Welsh Government has done and why we say we want a UK approach is firstly in terms of communication, because I think it's much clearer if people have a consistent approach, and I think compliance with restrictions would have been higher if that were the case. Secondly, I think there have been issues—I mentioned the failed suppression strategy through the summer, but, even more, I think, when we had the two-week firebreak in Wales and then that was lifted, with quite a lot of self-satisfaction, I think, from Welsh Government about how they'd done it so much better than in England. Yet then they lifted the internal travel restrictions and, at the time, I criticised them for having this border with England. Their key thing—enforce a border with England and everything will be okay—was actually allowing people from Merthyr in my constituency to travel to Monmouth, from high-infection to low-infection, yet blocking travel between Monmouth and Ross-on-Wye. It made no sense, and we then saw Wales have, I think, virtually the highest prevalence in the world coming out of that period. So, I think we'd have been much, much better with a UK-wide policy, a single national health service tackling COVID across the United Kingdom, with people coming together. Now we've got the vaccination on stream, there's not long to go. Get on with that vaccination in Wales. Let's lift these restrictions as soon as possible and look forward to the rest of our lives. Thank you.