Thank you. This proposed amendment to Standing Orders, I regret to say, can only be described as nasty, high handed and domineering, exercising arbitrary and overbearing control over others. As the Business Committee's report on this states:

'This proposal does not have the unanimous support of the Business Committee. The proposal was made by Rebecca Evans MS (the Trefnydd) and supported by Sian Gwenllian MS who, in accordance with Standing Order 11.5(ii), together carry 39 votes on the Committee. Mark Isherwood MS and Caroline Jones MS, comprising a total of 14 votes, do not support the proposal and support retaining the current Standing Order.'

On the pretext that, quote:

'The Fifth Senedd has seen unprecedented fluidity in the membership, formation and dissolution of political groups', an unholy alliance between Labour and Plaid Cymru claims that this level of fluidity is undesirable, and that the automatic creation of new political groups in what is supposed to be this people's Parliament, should be restricted to those consisting of three or more Members belonging to the same registered political party that won a seat or seats in the most recent Senedd general election, unless the Presiding Officer is satisfied that exceptional circumstances apply. Well, although this proposal would be as much to the partisan benefit of my party, as to Labour and Plaid Cymru, it is clearly targeted in an entirely unseemly and unfitting way, exhibiting the mindset of the playground bully rather than the responsible politician who recognises that the measure of a representative democracy is how it treats the minorities within.

Effective checks and balances within representative democratic systems are essential if those systems are to sustain, yet this proposal seeks to undermine this fundamental principle. As my colleagues in the Welsh Conservatives' official opposition have said to me, we should stick to the current arrangements. These already give the Llywydd some discretion and are fair to small parties. New parties can and do emerge in vibrant democracies like Wales, as has been demonstrated throughout the Senedd's existence. And, ouch, this is gerrymandering at its worst, where gerrymandering is designed to give political parties an unfair advantage and keep bad incumbents in power—a dictionary definition; I'm not alluding to anything in person. 

I therefore say to the Members opposite: before you follow your voting party whips on this matter, please therefore ask yourself whether this is really the road you want this young Parliament, this Welsh Parliament, this Senedd, to travel down. I hope not.