I didn't think that today could pass without saying something about the pandemic of male violence against women after the events of the past two weeks. The weekend before last, 16-year-old Wenjing Lin from the Rhondda was killed as a result of male violence. We then heard that the body of Sarah Everard had been found, and it looks like she was also killed by male violence. Our thoughts go to both Wenjing's and Sarah's loved ones, and all the loved ones of people we have lost to male violence. And I also want to pay tribute to all those who are living with the after-effects of male violence. Many women are currently frightened; many women have little faith that if they do complain, it'll be taken seriously. And yes, of course it's not all men who pose a risk to us, but how are we meant to know which are the good ones, and which are the ones out to cause us harm?

We know that women are more likely to be killed by someone that they know well. We know that in work, in the street, in the pub, on public transport, women are not safe and do not feel safe. We know because behaviours from the relatively minor to the pretty serious take place in public on a regular basis and more often than not, they go unchallenged. Too many people are willing to look the other way, to not get involved, and this is what has to change. The UK Government has missed numerous opportunities to protect women and girls in this Bill, and I very much hope that it will be strengthened. It does contain good elements, and I particularly welcome the developments on the issue of strangulation. But it could have gone so much further. Plaid Cymru tabled amendments, one of which was to create a domestic abuse register. A 2016 report from Cardiff University says

'Research demonstrates that the majority of male domestic abuse perpetrators are repeat offenders, with English research producing a figure of 83% within a six-year period'.

Domestic abuse charities have also called for a register to tackle this. They've also called for there to be no discrimination against women from a migrant background when seeking and accessing services, in line with the Istanbul convention. Safety for women shouldn't be for some women, it shouldn't just be for white women, it should be for all women.

Our aim, surely, has to be to end this pandemic of male violence. No-one benefits from it. So many live in fear of it. It's grounded in misogyny that is now institutionalised, and it's that that needs tackling. The men who do this must stop. The society that enables them and the institutions that protect them have to change. Misogyny kills, and we have to kill misogyny now.