Jenny Rathbone: Llyr just stole my line. Of course, it's great timing: we are talking about this report on the eve, I think, of Time to Talk Day, because obviously you produced your report in October and then the Government responded in November. So, well done to the leader of the house that she timetabled this discussion for today. Having a baby is a messy business. One minute you're a booted, suited...
Jenny Rathbone: Just to clarify, really what I meant to say was that, because it's one in five, everybody needs to be screened. Because the prevalence is so high, we're unable to say this is just a small minority.
Jenny Rathbone: On this one hundredth anniversary of women getting a limited vote—of course, this was at a time when men also had a limited vote; it wasn't all men who had the vote either—we need to make sure that women's votes count and that women's representation in our political institutions counts as well. I wanted to raise, leader of the house, the issue of period poverty, because it is shocking to...
Jenny Rathbone: I just need to declare that I am a director and trustee of The Living Room, which has pioneered the focus on gambling as just as harmful an addiction as alcohol or tobacco or any other addiction. So, of course, I welcome this focus on it, because I have many constituents who have lost their home, lost their business as a result of their gambling addiction. We need to ensure that we are...
Jenny Rathbone: Women demanded the vote as much in the interests of men as of women. They wanted it for the good of the whole community, so said my great-aunt, Eleanor Rathbone, who was the ninth woman elected to the UK Parliament. She firmly believed that it was entirely necessary to take the whole community with her, which is why she spoke at hundreds of public meetings across north Wales, Liverpool,...
Jenny Rathbone: 1. Following the recent High Court hearing, what legal advice has the Counsel General prepared for the Welsh Government to rectify its unlawful inaction on air pollution? OAQ51706
Jenny Rathbone: I welcome the fact the Welsh Government has taken the bull by the horns and has admitted that we have illegal inaction in this regard, which is more than the UK Government has done. My understanding is that the QC acting on the Welsh Government's behalf, Jonathan Moffett, said that the Welsh Government was going to be working with ClientEarth obviously to rectify this unlawful inaction. I...
Jenny Rathbone: I absolutely agree that we need to have a substantive discussion on this very important matter in Government time. We cannot simply rely on opposition motions on this important matter. This proposal is in danger of completely gobbling up every aspect of the Welsh Government's borrowing limits, which means there's a real danger that it would be the only capital investment that we would be able...
Jenny Rathbone: Okay. Well, it's useful to clarify that. I was surprised that, at 06:30 in the morning, the traffic was backed up, but you've now told us why there was a particular problem today. But the fact is that if we have a super-duper road around Newport, what is going to happen, even by the Government's own evidence to the public inquiry, is it's actually going to increase the number of vehicles...
Jenny Rathbone: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I wanted to pay particular tribute to the chair of Cardiff and Vale University Local Health Board, Maria Battle, who I ran into on the corridors of the Heath hospital in the week before Christmas. She was clearly going around, every single day of the week, ensuring that all her staff were being properly looked after, and dealing with particular...
Jenny Rathbone: 6. How much additional funding is required to cover the costs of the M4 relief road? OAQ51757
Jenny Rathbone: The Cardiff capital region has laid out in ‘Powering the Welsh Economy’ that an integrated transport system aligned with land-use planning could be a catalyst for economic change across the region. ‘At the heart of this aspiration is the Metro vision for a modern high quality multimodal, integrated public transport network; offering rapid, frequent and reliable services; linking...
Jenny Rathbone: 2. What key message has the First Minister taken from the recent Stay Well in Wales survey? OAQ51827
Jenny Rathbone: Thank you very much for that. It's very clear from the survey that people expect action on public health issues to ensure that we improve the health of the nation. On top of that, today we learn that there's been a doubling of diabetes in the last 20 years, and we also heard from Cancer Research UK, demanding that junk food advertising to young people should be banned because of the rise and...
Jenny Rathbone: Last week, I had the opportunity to talk to a lot of university professors and lecturers who are on strike at Cardiff University, which really closed down the university for the last two days of last week. And it's unsurprising really, given that the university's superannuation scheme has been torn up and teaching staff are expecting to see the biggest pay cut they've ever had in their...
Jenny Rathbone: It's good that you now have all these plans from local authorities, but I hope we're now going to see some action at pace. As Dai Lloyd's already said, there is a huge public health benefit from this and we have to take heart from people like Professor Sir David King, the former chief scientific adviser to the UK Government, who warns that air pollution is more harmful to children in cars...
Jenny Rathbone: I agree we have a very good story to tell, but I think the fact that other countries are not quite as far advanced in their recycling as us is not a reason for us not to continue to pursue this matter, and we absolutely have to remember that it's the three Rs: reduce, reuse and recycle. I was astonished to read the other day that the bottled water industry has managed to persuade us to buy...
Jenny Rathbone: I think the thing about the plaque unveiling today, for me, was the enthusiasm with which Val Feld's granddaughters were taking part in the ceremony—that's absolutely wonderful. Anyway, just moving back to period poverty, there's no doubt in my mind that there are people who are amongst the most disadvantaged in society who are having to use socks and rags and other materials in order to...
Jenny Rathbone: Diolch, Llywydd. We lock up more people in England and Wales than any other country in western Europe. If we go on that way, we are going to catch up with the United States, which currently spends more on its equally ineffective prison system than they do on the education of their children. Ineffective, because it doesn't lead to change in people's behaviour. Even by the UK Government's own...
Jenny Rathbone: Populist as opposed to effective penal policies are not the sole preserve of the Tory party. During the last Labour Government, I worked in Holloway prison and I vividly recall the then Home Secretary cancelling a children's Christmas party simply in response to some lurid newspaper headlines that completely ignored the needs of children. We constantly had to remind ourselves that the mantra...
