Mark Reckless: I thank him for that assistance. 'Co-produce' is in Dictionary.com, not 'co-productive', but 'co-produce'. It says, 'to produce (a motion picture, play, etc.) in collaboration with others.' In any event, I infer it has something to do with community involvement and co-designing and co-delivery of local services and that is a good thing, but the actual word 'co-productive' is not one I'm...
Mark Reckless: I congratulate the Member on his work, actually, over a long period of time, putting the case for seaside towns, and I congratulate the Conservatives, who are representing rather more, at least at Westminster level, than they were before. But not all seaside towns are deprived. I'm not sure whether we'll hear from David Melding—perhaps he'll be putting the case for Penarth, but I'm not sure...
Mark Reckless: First Minister, GDP declined by 0.3 per cent in November, and I know that you like to blame Brexit for any weakness in the economy. However, isn't it revealing that we've had some much stronger data since the election? For instance, the Halifax have reported that house prices rose by 4 per cent in December. Deloitte, who surveyed companies' chief financial officers between 13 December, which...
Mark Reckless: I thank the First Minister for his considered and thoughtful response. First Minister, when I first asked you about the fall in stamp duty commercial receipts following the introduction of land transaction tax, you said it was too early to draw any conclusions. We now have the definitive data in the 'Welsh taxes outlook' from the Office for Budget Responsibility, and they say that your...
Mark Reckless: Diolch, Llywydd. Minister, I wanted to enquire about the thinking behind how our pay scales for hospital doctors differ from those in England, and the impact that this has on recruitment and retention. I note that, for the first-year foundation doctors, our scales are between £1,300 and £1,500 higher per year than in England, but don't doctors look through that and see that at the end of...
Mark Reckless: I thank the Minister for his reply. If I may turn to the particular issue in light of that of pensions, I think it was when the Minister was standing in for the First Minister at a previous First Minister's questions that I asked him about what had happened in England to pay those extra costs that doctors were finding and would we be doing similar in Wales. I see that we now are doing so;...
Mark Reckless: Thank you for giving way. He said it was dropped due to the climate change emergency, but does he recall that the nine or 10-page decision notice didn't mention climate change once?
Mark Reckless: We have too rather seductive, ostensibly competing, phrases from the First Minister: we should use the cheapest funding first—sounds very sensible—and then the committee says that we should match funding sources to projects, which also seems very sensible. But, usually, in the private sector, when people talk about matching funding to projects, they match high-risk, high-return funding to...
Mark Reckless: First Minister, a key element of city deals, at least as the UK Government has promoted them over the past eight years, is to integrate transport on a regional basis. Does Cardiff council's announcement last week mean that a different approach is being taken in Wales? Not only does one council area, Cardiff, appear to get a disproportionate share of public transport investment for the Cardiff...
Mark Reckless: I'm glad to hear the Government will be looking at this in detail and responding to the consultation. However, doesn't this go to values? Average pay in Cardiff is £583 per week. In Blaenau Gwent, it is £458 per week. Why should people who earn £125 less per week pay a new tax while people who earn £125 more a week are exempted? What does that say about the values of the First Minister,...
Mark Reckless: Will the First Minister give way? Isn't that exactly what you said in 2016 after the referendum? Given your actions for the last three and a half years, why should people believe you now?
Mark Reckless: I thank the First Minister for his motion proposing that we give consent to the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill, as we should, following the decision of the people of Wales in a referendum. It's astonishing that the First Minister is voting against his own motion, in effect maintaining Welsh Government's opposition to Brexit. That argument should be over; it should've been over on...
Mark Reckless: Well, because we had these laws before we joined the European Union and the European Union was there. We had far greater protections for workers' rights in this country than most of those European countries had, which had been gained, largely, by the trade unions. Yet you now ignore that and make out that it's somehow a gift from the European Union rather than from the unions that created...
Mark Reckless: Just the EU.
Mark Reckless: Should the economy Minister not have been clearer in his letter to his party's leader of Cardiff Council that, in seeking to raise money for public transport, it is wholly unacceptable to structure a charge in such a way that it is only paid by people outside his council area, while everyone inside the area is completely exempt?
Mark Reckless: Will the Member give way?
Mark Reckless: There seems to be some objection from Labour Members to his use of the word 'indigenous'. I wonder whether, when people come to make their lives in Wales, it's right that we should welcome them as we wish or whether we should denigrate those individuals as 'visitors'.
Mark Reckless: Can I wish all Members a happy Brexit day this Friday? Not least the leader of Plaid Cymru, who I commend on the positive approach that he has taken this week. First Minister, do you support the even more positive approach being taken by the Royal Mint in Llantrisant? For two weeks, they are offering bespoke Brexit tours. I'm looking forward to taking my children to strike their very own...
Mark Reckless: Good. I think the First Minister had announced that he was going to be making a speech on Friday, but I would like to congratulate him about the meeting he has had today, because I think while the UK Government has understandably been focussed on other things, when there hasn't been a Northern Ireland Government, and when the Scottish Government is antagonistic, I think the Welsh Government...
Mark Reckless: This debate should be about more than whether it is morally right to smack a child or whether it is good parenting ever to use physical chastisement. If it were just about that, then my view is that it is not and, for my own children, I have not smacked them and I hope to bring them up without ever physically chastising them. But that is not sufficient, that view, to vote for this legislation...
