Jenny Rathbone: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. Brown speaks presciently about the shift to online shopping, and that's of course echoed in today's devastating news about the collapse of Arcadia and Debenhams, undoubtedly accelerated and exacerbated by the pandemic. It can't just be the poor leadership of the private equity ownership to extract maximum surplus value; it has to also be the...
Jenny Rathbone: First, I wondered if we can have a statement to clarify the international policy of the Welsh Government, as to whether it covers the deforestation of countries across the world, particularly the poorest countries, so to ensure that we are developing a sustainable agriculture in Wales that doesn't rely on importing food stuffs to feed our livestock that is grown in areas of the world where...
Jenny Rathbone: How does the Welsh Government’s international policy address global deforestation?
Jenny Rathbone: There are lots of good things in the revised version of 'Future Wales'. A picture tells a thousand words, so the maps of proposed zones for different activities are very welcome, and much easier for citizens to understand how 'Future Wales' is relevant to their vision for the well-being of future generations. So, I think there's been a considerable improvement on the first iteration. Thank...
Jenny Rathbone: Most of my constituents feel extremely strongly about the litter disfiguring our communities, and I want to pay tribute to all the volunteers who take part in regular litter picks to clear up the mess created by the thoughtless few. I was out in Llanedeyrn last week with staff from the Cyncoed campus of Cardiff Metropolitan University, and I thank them for turning out in the rain. You won't...
Jenny Rathbone: —to ensure that we're just not getting this free-for-all, which is causing this massive oversupply?
Jenny Rathbone: Yes. The uniformity of standards can't mean a free-for-all for every taxi driver in some areas and a dearth of taxi drivers in others, and there's already an over-supply in Cardiff. So, how does the Government propose to regulate the numbers of taxis operating in any given area, possibly using mobile phones—
Jenny Rathbone: First of all, I'd like to thank the Minister for reaching out to the unions to make sure that they were aware of the lockdown discretionary grant scheme, because this is something that I'd raised with the Deputy Minister with responsibility for ethnic minorities and equalities before the end of the lockdown, and, as mentioned by Helen Mary, many of these taxi drivers don't have Welsh or...
Jenny Rathbone: I'm particularly concerned about this, because, having been told that leaving the EU is about taking back control, I don't think many of us realised that that meant the UK Government clawing back both control and the money that goes with it for the centre to be able to target seats for their own political purposes. And just leaving aside the incompetence of the UK Government over test, trace...
Jenny Rathbone: Thank you, Llywydd. This Friday is Equal Pay Day. For the rest of this year, women are effectively working for nothing because of the shortfall on what they should be earning compared to men. Barbara Castle's Equal Pay Act 1970 was inspired by the strike of Ford Dagenham sewing machinists. They were fed up that their highly skilled work earned them less than men sweeping the factory floor...
Jenny Rathbone: Hello.
Jenny Rathbone: Okay, fine. I was getting mixed messages there. Thank you very much for calling me. I just want to welcome your hierarchy of priorities. Twenty-five per cent of people in this country have no access to a car, but in many of the communities I represent over half the households do not have a car, and therefore we are very grateful for the bus drivers who've kept going to enable people to get to...
Jenny Rathbone: The most recent report on the impact of COVID on the Romany and Traveller community this month, called 'Moving for Change', highlights the suffering of this community, because they are mainly low-income families that rely heavily on work in construction—both on building sites as well as on people's homes, doing roofing repairs, tarmac laying, and landscape gardening, et cetera. Of course,...
Jenny Rathbone: 4. Will the Deputy Minister make a statement on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the Gypsy and Traveller community? OQ55880
Jenny Rathbone: Obviously, it's really, really important that we're focusing on the foundational economy at this time, because we are about to enter a really, really difficult economic recession. Local procurement is absolutely key to keeping whatever money is circulating in any particular community in that community, because there's going to be a real shortage of it. So, I read with slight despair that...
Jenny Rathbone: I would like to congratulate you on a really excellent report, blessedly short as well at only 19 pages—fantastic—but really, really packed with information. This is really excellent work. I'd like to pay tribute to the public service broadcasters for keeping going throughout the pandemic, and providing the crucial information we all need to find out exactly what is happening. If we...
Jenny Rathbone: Okay, but Mandy Jones was given over three minutes and I've only got one further point.
Jenny Rathbone: Well, it was—
Jenny Rathbone: I too would like to celebrate the work of Eluned Morgan and our fantastic Wales for Africa programme. So, one of Eluned's achievements was to secure a Welsh market for co-operatives of coffee growers from Mount Elgon in the Mbale region of eastern Uganda, and I'm told that 6,000 kg of their coffee is already on sale in the Fair Do's shop in your own constituency. That was why I and many...
Jenny Rathbone: The election of Joe Biden makes it less likely the UK Government can count on the backing of Donald Trump for a go-it-alone strategy, but we saw in the past how difficult it was to negotiate with the United States with the failed transatlantic trade and investment partnership deal, which took over three years and was mainly around our concern that the United States wanted to be able to take...
