William Graham:  Certainly, no-one can doubt the transformation of the Welsh Conservative Party since 1997, and nobody here would doubt our commitment to devolution.

I thank the Presiding Officer and his deputy for their unfailing courtesy to all Members and for maintaining order, sometimes in the face of challenging provocation. [ Laughter. ] We should give our particular thanks to our support staff, for, without them, we would not do as well as we do now. We must also record our thanks to the Commission staff—from the cleaner to the Clerk, every one contributes to our success, and we know how well served we are. We give particular thanks to the committee staff, with whom we deal week in, week out. We know that, in Wales, committees have a particular importance: in religious life, in sporting life, and in the cultural life of our nation.

A hallmark of this third Assembly has been freedom. Perhaps that has been most clearly expressed in the recent referendum, in which the people of Wales decided freely what they wanted their future to be. We enjoy the freedom to choose, to debate, to vote and to disagree, something denied to so many people in the world.

Morituri te salutant —those who are about to die salute you. That is what the gladiators are meant to have said in the arenas of ancient Rome, but our electoral system is not quite so final. [ Laughter .] To those Members who are leaving voluntarily, I wish you godspeed and farewell, and thank you for your wonderful contributions. For those, like myself, who are determined to return,  pob lwc. Let us also remember absent friends today, and hold them and their families in our thoughts.

Yesterday, our distinguished former First Minister—I do not know why his dog is called William; I am unable to 'Tell’—quoted Tennyson’s 'The Brook’, so I will finish today, if I may, by paraphrasing some Shakespeare.

This story shall the good man teach his son from this day to the ending of the world, but we in it shall be remembered, we few, we happy few, we band of Members, and gentlemen and gentlewomen in Wales now a-bed shall think themselves accursed they were not here, that fought with us upon election day. [ Applause .]