We in the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party oppose this Welsh Government Bill. There are good parts to this Bill, and I don't dispute that, and some of it has been outlined by the Minister today—some of those good parts—and in many ways, she has been, despite my profound political differences with her, a very able Minister. And some of the good parts were also highlighted in the contribution by Laura Jones, which I thought was very useful in demonstrating how the Bill has, in some ways, changed, as the Minister interacted with the relevant committee. So, those are good points, but my party does have some very strong differences with the Minister and the Government over this Bill, and I think, in the interest of brevity, I need to, perhaps, quickly go over those points of difference. 

We believe that the Bill will lead to more divergence from the curriculum in England, leading to more difficulty in comparing the performances of school students in Wales with their peers in England. The continuance of the Welsh baccalaureate, which effectively compels Welsh students to study for an extra A-level, which is not widely recognised by English universities, is another area of divergence that will hinder students in Wales. At a more fundamental level, the downgrading of English teaching in the interest of immersion in Welsh is a sinister development that will surely disadvantage Welsh schoolchildren who are not from a background of speaking Welsh at home—and we know some of these children from these backgrounds do now go into Welsh-medium education. As far as the teaching of the Welsh language to English-medium pupils is concerned, our basic principle as a party is that what is required is a measure of choice, not compulsion. So, we do not go along either with the continued policy of compulsory Welsh up to the age of 16.

Now, although I know that the Minister herself actually wants Welsh students to succeed not only in Wales but also further afield—and she's certainly not intending to narrow the horizons of our young people—unfortunately, I believe this will be the long-term effect of some of these measures. We in Abolish believe that, increasingly, the effect will be to push Welsh students towards studying in universities in Wales, and not venturing further afield. In effect, this may be part of a movement towards guiding young people in Wales to stay in Wales. The narrowing of opportunity this entails surely cannot be a good thing, and so, for these reasons, we are voting against the Bill today.

I would like to thank the Minister for her efforts, regardless of our disagreements over the course of the Assembly term, and I do wish her well in whatever she decides to do next. Diolch yn fawr.