National Assembly for Wales (Legislative Competence) (Amendment of Schedule 7 to the Government of Wales Act 2006) Order 2007

The Minister will be relieved to know that I do not propose to ask him further questions, but I cannot allow this opportunity to pass without paying my own personal tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Roberts of Conwy. For seven or eight of the 10 years that he was the spokesman on Welsh affairs for the Conservative Party, I fulfilled the same role for the Liberal Democrats. Throughout that whole period, we worked together very closely and very rarely disagreed. Having regard to the way in which the Conservative Party opposed a referendum for a Welsh Assembly, I was particularly impressed by the way in which the noble Lord steered his party along lines which I am sure he deeply supported in the direction of a positive and constructive attitude towards setting up a Welsh Assembly and its Government. He referred to a rainbow alliance. Unfortunately, at the moment the sun is not shining on a part of our rainbow and therefore it is not complete, but with regard to the rainbow that existed between the noble Lord and me over the years, I can say only that, at one end of it, there was certainly a pot of gold.