Mark Reckless: Against.
Mark Reckless: First Minister, yesterday, the Prime Minister announced the reopening of restaurants, pubs and entertainment venues and a switch from regulation to guidance, saying he would trust in the British people's common sense. Can you confirm that emphasis on British common sense does not apply to Wales and you intend to keep Wales lagging several weeks behind England? The leader of the opposition...
Mark Reckless: First Minister, the fact that some people may be in a minority or disagree with your approach does not mean they want to live elsewhere. Today, we vote on the supplementary budget, with vast appropriations and reallocations of funds. But, in your Government amendment to a later debate today, you suggest it's not enough and the UK Government must urgently remove fiscal restrictions that...
Mark Reckless: We will, in the Brexit group, also be abstaining on the supplementary budget and not voting against. Generally, as the Minister said, it's small-scale, technical and modest changes, and it's anything but this time. I mean, just the numbers: £2.1 billion—10 per cent of the budget added in the space of just a few months is absolutely extraordinary.
Mark Reckless: I just want to reflect on, I think, an important difference between how our budgeting is done in Wales and how it's done at the UK level, particularly in a crisis like this. It strikes me that the UK Government has looked and taken its decisions on what spending it considers necessary—sometimes UK-wide, perhaps more often for England. And then, having made that decision, it then borrows or...
Mark Reckless: Thank you very much, Dirprwy Lywydd. We're certainly getting less interventions with this approach. I don't know whether that improves the quality of debate or not. But, can I start by thanking David Rowlands for his excellent introduction to our motion? David emphasised the long-term impact on the economy of this lockdown, the non-COVID health consequentials, and the particular impact the...
Mark Reckless: He referred, also, to the non-COVID health impact and the risk that that was going to lead to further loss of life than any lives that would be saved by continuing lockdown. I think that's a very strong point, and when the Minister and others urge caution, I would respond that caution cuts both ways and, as I think some Members recognise, there's no avoidance of risk in the decisions that we...
Mark Reckless: Abstain.
Mark Reckless: In favour.
Mark Reckless: In favour.
Mark Reckless: Although Gareth tried to move it.
Mark Reckless: Yes.
Mark Reckless: In favour.
Mark Reckless: Against.
Mark Reckless: Against.
Mark Reckless: Against.
Mark Reckless: May I congratulate all the children who are back in school in Wales this week, even if it is part time, and all those who have worked so hard to get them back, not least your education Secretary, Kirsty Williams? I would have liked more children to have returned earlier, but I do not want to criticise the Welsh Government, cavil with what is happening versus what was promised, or make...
Mark Reckless: The First Minister speaks of social partnership, but an impression many parents have got over the last month or two is that, with powers split between Welsh Government, councils and schools themselves, the teaching unions may have been too dominant an aspect of that partnership. When you, First Minister, spoke about even giving consideration to schools coming back after half term, you quickly...
Mark Reckless: Will the finance Minister make a statement on her latest assessment of the amount of tax revenue that we will lose by having a longer and stricter lockdown in Wales than the UK Government has been applying in England, and could she clarify what level of transitional protection we have over revenues to the Welsh Treasury from land transaction tax and the Welsh rates of income tax, and also...
Mark Reckless: We all support the furlough, job retention scheme, at least as it has operated to date. Can I ask the finance Minister to clarify the Welsh Government's position on any potential continuance? The scheme was brought in initially for a few months to ensure people didn't lose jobs, remained in contact with their employer in that contractual relationship, so that the economy could quickly...
