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Welsh Affairs

The hon. Gentleman now has the headline for his next press release. Idris Davies was often viewed as the poet of the depression, but he had some very funny things to say as well. I came across a poem about the people who have a tendency to talk Wales down:""They don't like Sunday concerts""Or women playing ball""They don't like William Parry much""Or Shakespeare at all.""And when they go to Heaven""They won't like that too well,""For the music will be sweeter""Than the music played in Hell."" I am not one of those looking for the miserabilist option. I do not say, "That is not for us, we cannot do it." That is the Welsh voice, the half-mocking self-doubt combined with the blind fervour that we deserve better, that we can do better. The second tendency is the one that we should foster, and that is the duty of every democratic representative from Wales. We should not always say no, or refuse change. Instead, we should set the abilities and the aspirations of the people of Wales free. We have a duty to make and remake our nation, and that is a duty that I commend to the Welsh Members of this House.