Retiring MS Thanks People Of North Wales For Allowing Him To Serve Them For 23 Years
Mark Isherwood MS, who was first elected to the Senedd in 2003, said “it has been an honour” to serve the people of North Wales for 23 years in his Valediction speech in the Senedd yesterday.
In Wednesday afternoon’s Plenary session, Mr Isherwood, who is retiring at the end of this Senedd term, reflected on his five Terms as a Member of the Senedd (MS).
He spoke of his “23 sometimes fun, always frantic and frequently frustrating years in this role”, and thanked the people of North Wales for allowing him to serve them throughout this period.
He also thanked “Members across the Parties who have worked with me positively on many issues” and “this Senedd for enabling my BSL (Wales) Bill to become legislation”.
Speaking in the Senedd Chamber for the final time, Mr Isherwood, who has attended approximately 1,600 Plenary sessions since first being elected, said:
“When I arrived, which sometimes feels like yesterday and sometimes a hundred years ago, I joined an Assembly which was still a single corporate body in law, but was already operating in large part as if the legal separation of power between Parliament and Government, which was to follow, had already happened.
“I established friendships across all the Parties, although almost all of that early friendship group have since moved or passed on."
He added:
“Having previously worked in the Building Society sector, where I obtained Professional Banking Qualifications, and having held several voluntary positions, including Housing Association Board Member and Chair of School Governors, I arrived here with a working knowledge and understanding of many of the issues affecting the people of Wales:
“Including what was then a threatened but avoidable housing crisis.
“Including what was then a threatened but avoidable economic crash.
“Including the worryingly high levels of persistent poverty in our communities.
“Including, from personal experience, the systemic barriers facing children with what we then called Special Educational Needs, and including serious allegations relating to certain Public Bodies.
“Woe betide any principled Whistleblower who dared tell the truth, a theme which has continued throughout my years as a Member here and remains prevalent in Labour Wales now.
“It was from 2003, not 2010, that I started highlighting these issues in the Chamber, in Committee, in Cross-Party Groups, in the media and in my contributions to external inquiries.”
He added:
“It has been a privilege to Chair the Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee during this 6th Senedd, and Legislation Committee during the 3rd Senedd term, and I thank the hardworking Clerking Teams and the Members of those Committees.
“It has been a privilege to Chair purposeful Cross-Party Groups on many, often related, social justice matters past and present, over many years, including those on Disability, on Autism, on Deaf Issues, on Neurological Conditions, on Hospices and Palliative Care, on Funerals and Bereavement, on Fuel Poverty and Energy Efficiency, on Violence against Women and Children, and on North Wales.
“And it has also been a privilege to be the Wales Species Champion for the magnificent, evocative and threatened Curlew since 2016, working with Gylfinir Cymru/ Curlew Wales to highlight the multiple and multi-species benefits that Curlew recovery would bring.
Mr Isherwood, who throughout his time as an MS, has always championed the needs of Disabled people, added:
“Behind all the legislation, strategies and plans, there remains a real need for inclusion, equity and understanding grounded in Lived Experience, so that people and their families can participate fully in their communities, thrive, experience happiness, and have a genuine voice and control over their lives.
“This will require a wholly different approach from future Welsh Governments in practice as well as in word, recognising that the people who know what is best for their communities are the people who live in them.”
Reflecting on issues which have remained prevalent throughout his time as an MS, he said:
“Around 30% of children in Wales are currently living in poverty, which Labour and Plaid Cymru have blamed on post-2010 Conservative UK Government, dodging the reality that Child Poverty in Wales reached the highest level of any UK Nation, at 32%, before the Credit Crunch in 2008, when there were Labour Governments at both end of the M4.”
Concluding, he said:
"Let me finish on a positive note, by thanking Members across the Parties who have worked with me positively on many issues, by thanking this Senedd for enabling my BSL (Wales) Bill to become legislation, and by thanking the people of North Wales for allowing me to serve them since 2003. It has been an honour to do so."
