Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:49 pm on 10 May 2022.
First Minister, some might think that it was a curious choice for us to choose to announce the terms of our agreement on strengthening Welsh democracy on the same day as the state opening of that other Parliament on the banks of the Thames. I think it was serendipitous, because it allows us to draw a contrast, doesn't it, with that creaking Westminster system, with all the pomp and ceremony, with elected MPs—I used to be among them—summoned by Black Rod to the unelected House of Lords packed to the rafters with Boris Johnson's cronies. Now, beyond the detail of what we have announced today, isn't what lies at the heart of it a desire to build, here in Wales, a modern democracy, abolishing the unfair first-past-the-post system, a fully gender-balanced, working Parliament committed to making a difference in people's lives, not the gentleman's club-cum-pantomime Parliament of Westminster?