Rhianon Passmore: It's the same old—. Are you saying social care workers don't have ambition?
Rhianon Passmore: It's the same old Tories: one rule for the rich and another rule for the working man and woman. And it is apt that the BBC have made a new adaptation of Charles Dickens for Sunday evenings, as the present Tory Government is taking the UK back to the Victorian age—and that is not me just saying this; go and talk to the International Monetary Fund. So, only, Deputy Llywydd—[Interruption.]...
Rhianon Passmore: So, the richest Prime Minister that we have ever known—[Interruption.]—I would like to finish—is paying a lower tax rate than working people, who face the highest tax burden in 70 years. How is that fair? How is that fair to the Welsh taxpayer, how is it fair to social care workers, who are paying their way?
Rhianon Passmore: It's obvious that the Conservative Party opposite have no idea what the duties and responsibilities of local government are, so thank you for extrapolating on that. So, I rise to support the amendments tabled by Lesley Griffiths. We have now endured more than a decade of Tory austerity, and it will become a teenager this May. From David Cameron through Theresa May to Boris Johnson, Liz Truss...
Rhianon Passmore: Diolch, Llywydd. I do welcome the responses of the Minister to the Chamber, so thank you for making the statement. One of the driving forces entering active politics was seeking to tackle the scourge and impacts of poverty, providing equality of opportunity for all, not based on parental wealth, in education and the arts. There's little doubt that education is one of the most profound tools...
Rhianon Passmore: Will you take an intervention?
Rhianon Passmore: In regard to the data that you've just given us about the bus numbers in England, do you feel that the emergency bus subsidy that we have placed in Wales has had a significant impact in terms of that?
Rhianon Passmore: Would you possibly take an intervention?
Rhianon Passmore: Thank you so much for that. Bearing in mind the extreme challenges that NHS services are facing across the entire United Kingdom, why was there no extra funding for the NHS in the spring budget?
Rhianon Passmore: Thank you for taking the intervention. How would you respond to this comment from myself—that are you not, by doing this today and supporting this motion, playing two sides of the fence here? On one hand, you acknowledge fully the difficulties in terms of the lack of investment in Wales, the impossibility of what is trying to be done here from your point of view, but now today you are...
Rhianon Passmore: As a named supporter of this Member debate, I want to place on record the work of Jack Sargeant in raising this very critical issue, as many have said, both in this place and beyond. And it is, as many have said today, the sick and the disabled and the elderly and the young who this issue impacts the most upon. It is a result of sheer profit over people, and it's the sick face of...
Rhianon Passmore: As a former teacher, lecturer and council cabinet member for education and consortia chair, I have immersed myself for many years in the educational challenges that face our practitioners every day, day in, day out, but never in more challenging economic and social circumstances. Teachers, as well as us, face the deepest UK inequality since records began, as our schools tackle poverty on the...
Rhianon Passmore: Minister, thank you for the statement, and I'm heartened that you state that dentistry is one of your top priorities. And even before COVID, it has had a long and chequered past since deregistration. I think we all realise that. For many of my constituents, NHS dentistry, though, still remains incomprehensible at times. I do welcome the many new initiatives in dentistry that you and Welsh...
Rhianon Passmore: Will you take an intervention?
Rhianon Passmore: Thank you so much. Would you agree, then, that, in regard to the statistics that you've just shared and which are common knowledge to everybody in this Chamber, the longer we wait for a ban, the more animals that will be harmed?
Rhianon Passmore: Do you understand that Wales and the United Kingdom is an outlier globally, and that even the United States, in 41 states, has banned greyhound racing? And do you not understand that, by banning greyhound racing, you will eliminate immediate suffering and you will also go a huge way to eliminating illegal trade from Northern Ireland?
Rhianon Passmore: Diolch. ITV Wales's political programme Sharp End last week highlighted the issue of problem gambling in Wales, and the charity GambleAware estimate that the number of Britons who have a gambling problem is a staggering 1.4 million people. The availability and accessibility of gambling has never been greater. Today, there is no longer need to visit the bookmaker's shop in town centres, and...
Rhianon Passmore: 5. What assessment has the Welsh Government made of the health challenges presented by gambling addiction in Islwyn? OQ59228
Rhianon Passmore: I also welcome the final budget brought by the Welsh Government after much scrutiny and much collaboration, and I thank the Minister, Rebecca Evans. But after a decade of austerity, Brexit and the COVID pandemic, the economy and public services have never been in a more fragile state throughout the United Kingdom. In my view, Britain is breaking. Fundamentally, the Tory UK Government has not...
Rhianon Passmore: The Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 makes it a duty for the Welsh Government—
