I’m really delighted to take part in this debate, and 'thank you' to the Conservatives for moving this debate today. My focus, I hope, will interest the Chamber. I’m going to start with a quote from a theatre group that organises theatre that is based on our history and our culture—very much the heritage aspect that my colleague Luke was talking about. They title themselves Contemporancient Theatre, ‘Heb Hanes, Heb Hunaniaeth’—without history, without our identity, we don’t know where we’ve come from.

Now, there’s a pertinence to that, Minister, that I’ll come to in a moment, because I met last week with playwright, actor and director Vic Mills and the poet, novelist and academic Professor Kevin Mills, who head up this theatre company. Because what they’re doing next year is they’re creating theatre in the Garw valley, in my constituency, celebrating the tercentenary of the birth of Dr Richard Price, who I’ll come to in a moment in some detail. Because if we wanted a classic icon of Wales, an icon who’s known better, actually, beyond our shores, including in places like America, where we want to build links globally and internationally, then Richard Price ticks all the boxes, and I’ll explain why in a moment. But they, along with Huw Williams, senior lecturer in philosophy at Cardiff University, are putting together not only the play that will be touring next year through schools, through community centres and so on, but will also be hopefully coming to the Senedd to talk about what they're doing and also to the UK Parliament as well.

Richard Price is a man of significance. Now, the reason I mention that is that within the national events strategy we have here, it talks about some really interesting focuses. So, the economic return on investment and international profile of events—I agree entirely; it talks about the international reach and targets of events, so we should measure them by how much they generate international profile, in turn supporting and positioning Wales as a destination to inspire future visitation; it talks about international media coverage, generated specifically by events in markets of interests; brand awareness of Wales; and events delivered in the tourism off-season and so on. Dr Richard Price, philosopher, et cetera, extraordinaire, ticks all those boxes, Minister.

So, the point I'm going to come to at the end of my brief words here today is to try and seek a meeting with you, because we're trying to do local events here next year, within the Garw valley, within the Bridgend area—supported, by the way, by Bridgend County Borough Council as well, who have put some money behind this—but we need to look at what we can do with icons like this of Wales to actually develop that international reach as well. So, there's a chapter in your strategy that deals with authenticity, events that are good for Wales, that reflect and celebrate those things that are authentically Welsh in all aspects, and it talks about ensuring that Welsh culture and language will be represented at events in Wales, helping to tell the stories of Wales to residents and visitors alike, and it talks about delivering a greater sense of Welshness for events, through, for example, landscape, coastline, history, culture and so on—celebrating Welsh icons to develop strong event propositions.

So, let me just go to this Dr Richard Price. I've mentioned him in the Chamber before, but he is so little known here in Wales. He was probably known more at his time, in fact he prominently featured in cartoons and polemics against him in The Times and other newspapers of the day because he was a thorn in the flesh of the establishment. I'm indebted to Professor Kevin Mills for an excellent piece that he's written on Dr Richard Price of Llangeinor, born on Tynton farm into a large family, made his way to London—walked to London, by legend. He was a radical free-thinker and preacher; he was a political thinker; a mathematician. He has been called Wales's most influential thinker. In his words, from this article by Professor Mills, says Dr Price,

'There is not a word in the whole compass of language which expresses so much of what is important and excellent…Nothing can be of as much consequence to us as liberty. It is the foundation of all honour, and the chief privilege and glory of our natures.'

That's why he was a thorn in the side of the establishment; that's why he was a supporter of the French revolution; that's why he's regarded as one of the founding fathers of the American revolution and the American constitution; that is why he was a leading not only political thinker, but also mathematical thinker, a significant contributor to probability theory, Bayes' theorum, which underpins the writing of insurance premiums to this day, and his reach in America is massive.

Llywydd, in closing my remarks, I simply say that Dr Richard Price is one of those icons of Wales, of Welsh culture and heritage, that it would do us well to celebrate, not just here in Wales, but to reach out to our American cousins as well, because they know him very, very well, and we need to bring them here to see his birthplace and to see the events we can put on in his name.