Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:02 pm on 5 April 2017.
Mr Simon Thomas
Plaid Cymru
3:02,
5 April 2017
Thank you, Llywydd. Henry Richard was born in Tregaron on 3 April in 1812. He was an Independent Minister and was a prominent figure in the Welsh Liberal movement. In 1868, he was elected Member of Parliament for the Constituency of Merthyr and he served there for 20 years. The constituency, at that time, included the town of my birth, Aberdare.
Henry Richard is mainly remembered as a promoter of the cause of peace and arbitration and as secretary of the peace society for 40 years. His main success was working to ensure a declaration in the Paris treaty, which brought the Crimean war to an end, declaring for the first time internationally that arbitration was available instead of war. He was therefore called the apostle of peace.
There is now a statue in his memory on the square in Tregaron, and a new, all-age school is named after him in the area. This is his statement on the statue:
I have always been mindful of three things:—not to forget the language of my country; and the people and cause of my country; and to neglect no opportunity of defending the character and promoting the interests of my country. My hope for the abatement of the war system lies in permanent conviction of the people, rather than the policies of cabinets or the discussions of parliaments.’
We should bear this in mind in our own Senedd today.
A Member of Parliament (MP) is elected by a particular area or constituency in Britain to represent them in the House of Commons. MPs divide their time between their constituency and the Houses of Parliament in London. Once elected it is an MP's job to represent all the people in his or her constituency. An MP can ask Government Ministers questions, speak about issues in the House of Commons and consider and propose new laws.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
In a general election, each Constituency chooses an MP to represent them. MPs have a responsibility to represnt the views of the Constituency in the House of Commons. There are 650 Constituencies, and thus 650 MPs. A citizen of a Constituency is known as a Constituent
