Whenwaswalesspeech

For a small country Wales has an incredible diversity and richness. We are in Wales after all a country of immigrants - from Roman times until the present day, Wales has seen successive waves of immigration and emigration. It makes us the people we are today.

We should celebrate this diversity and take pride in all the cultures of Wales. In an increasingly global economy this diversity is a source of cultural and economic strength and broadening our definition of Welsh culture is a vital part of building a new Wales.

We need to create a sense of Welsh citizenship where anyone, whatever their background - English, Welsh, Bangladeshi or Chinese - should be able to say that he or she too is Welsh, simply by being citizens of Wales. Wales has something special to offer all of us and we all have something special to offer Wales.
This can work in Wales because of our history of co-operation, community solidarity and a commitment to social justice. These are distinctly Welsh values - and Labour values.
Think of the working people in nineteenth century Wales who raised enough money to establish the University of Wales at Aberystwyth. This was said to have been founded by "the pennies of the people and the coppers of the colliers."

When Lloyd George brought in the first old age pension in his People's Budget of 1911 he was laying the foundations of the modern welfare state.
19th and 20th century Wales saw trade unionism based on the spirit of solidarity and social justice in the slate quarries of the north and the coal-mines of the north-east and the south Wales valleys.
Above all, think of the united rejection of the rampant individualism of Thatcherism which was reflected in the solid support for the Miners' Strike in Wales in 1984. Unlike Scotland in the 1950s, the Tories have never had a majority of votes in Wales.

These are the Welsh values of community, social justice and chwarae teg - fair play: values that have been formative in the history of modern Britain, the modern welfare state and the modern Labour Party. I do not think it is any accident that three of the giants of British politics in the last century who founded the modern Welfare State were Welsh - Lloyd George, Jim Griffiths and Nye Bevan.
It is no accident that Welsh Labour, the truly radical party, has been such a progressive force in British and Welsh politics. It stands against the twin forces of conservatism represented, on the one hand, by the elitism and little-Englander attitude of the Tories, and on the other by the narrow, parochial, cultural conservatism of Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalists.
The radical policies of the Welsh Labour Party grew from the experience of the people living here in Wales. The modern NHS came from the experiences of Nye Bevan in Tredegar where he saw the need to create a health service based on need and not on the ability to pay. Likewise the experience of Jim Griffiths in the south-west Wales coalfield shaped his vision of a caring welfare state that the Labour government created after 1945. In the future, as in the past, our actions must be guided by the values of working people of Wales.

These radical, socialist values also underpin our policy priorities in the Assembly today. European Objective 1 money is being targeted at our most deprived communities in West Wales and the Valleys. Another innovative Assembly programme, ‘Communities First’ has the same aim of regenerating deprived communities throughout Wales.
Being able to identify with others in different countries and cultures has made internationalism a feature of Wales. We remember the contribution of Welsh communities in the fight against fascism in the Spanish Civil War, and the more recent contribution made in Wales in the struggle against apartheid by the Wales Anti-Apartheid Movement.
I want to see a confident and outward-looking Wales, playing its full part in the world. We need to take Wales to the world, making dynamic links with countries and regions throughout the world. This will benefit us economically and culturally. Europe in particular is looking to Wales to make a major contribution and we must seize this opportunity. The National Assembly has already given us a higher profile and a stronger voice in Europe.
It has been said that while devolution has affirmed Scotland’s identity, in Wales it has given us the opportunity to create our identity. Norman Davies makes a similar point in his recent best-selling book, ‘The Isles: a History’. Having surveyed Welsh history over two thousand years he concluded, "perhaps Wales now will have the chance to consolidate."

Consolidating Wales will mean continuing to strongly argue the case for all of Wales. It means bringing north and south Wales, east and west, Welsh speaking and non-Welsh speaking communities together.
For the first time ever in our history, in the National Assembly we now have our own democratically elected body where we can make decisions affecting our everyday lives, for the good of the whole of Wales.
It was the late Professor Gwyn Alf Williams who famously asked, “When was Wales?” My answer is that Wales is now, and with the help of the Welsh Assembly we can continue to build and create our own Wales - a modern, confident and prosperous Wales fit for the new millennium based on our own Welsh Labour values in a 21st century setting.