Mark Reckless: Well, Minister, you certainly know how to stir up opposition, don't you? I remember the first set of main coronavirus regulations, voting against those. I think there were just three or four of us then. Last week, there were seven or eight in opposition, and this week you have the main opposition saying that they will be voting against the substantial all-county south Wales lockdowns that...
Mark Reckless: What assessment has the Welsh Government made of whether the UK Internal Market Bill has strengthened the UK’s negotiating position with the EU?
Mark Reckless: First Minister, there's been no difference between how you and Adam Price are speaking about this issue. Indeed, there now seems to be little difference between your Government and Plaid Cymru. Many fear we are sleepwalking towards independence. Yesterday, you sought to lay down an ultimatum to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Today, you were across nearly every news outlet saying...
Mark Reckless: First Minister, you talk about respecting devolution and wanting a strong United Kingdom but then demand that England must do what you do in Wales, or else. Now, you have this policy of preventing anyone from crossing a council area, as you define, you have it with force of law, but the reality is that after lockdown fatigue, because of how long you kept it going before, consent for your...
Mark Reckless: Rhun ap Iorwerth there talks about squaring a particular circle, but as I understand it, the demand is that England do for high-risk areas in England as the legislation is in Wales, yet Plaid are abstaining on the legislation to put these four counties in north Wales into lockdown. They demand that the UK Government should, by force of law, vote to have those lockdowns around county areas or...
Mark Reckless: I thank Nick Ramsay for his speech and the Chair for his introduction. I'm very pleased that we had this report as a Finance Committee, and I found it very valuable taking the evidence and considering and interrogating the witnesses that we had. Like Nick Ramsay, I'd actually like to thank Alun Davies as well for pushing this idea. It's not that often I agree with Alun on matters, but I think...
Mark Reckless: The Welsh Government's obsession with making us different to England even extends to what it calls its latest lockdown. After weeks of discussion across the merits or otherwise of a circuit-breaker, the Welsh Government decides that it supports such a lockdown, but because we're Wales, we have to call it something different. So, instead of a circuit-breaker, we have a firebreak. Of course, it...
Mark Reckless: First Minister, has the coronavirus pandemic accelerated building a Welsh state? Before it started, many in Wales had little idea of the power you had over them. Indeed, many didn't know who you were. Now you are beamed into their living room and you decide when they can leave their house. Meanwhile, a previously barely visible border between Wales and England looms ever larger. From Monday,...
Mark Reckless: Diolch, Llywydd. Can I just clarify—I think I'm unmuted?
Mark Reckless: Thanks for bringing forward the debate today, Minister. I would have preferred if we'd been able to vote on these regulations before they came into force, as the Westminster Parliament is having the opportunity to do for England tomorrow. We are at least voting on them before the lockdown firebreak finishes, which is at least an improvement on some of the timings we've had before. I wonder...
Mark Reckless: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Minister, you can assert that quality, but whether universities accept that or make their own potentially different judgment, and, similarly, for employers, will be their decision. You said that what you've done is ensure national consistency, so an A in Llandudno will mean the same as an A in Cardiff, but it won't mean that an A in Llandudno means the same as an A in...
Mark Reckless: Members frequently begin a contribution by thanking or congratulating the Member who has moved the motion for debate. In that vein, I will thank both Mark Isherwood as the introducer of the motion, and Darren Millar as its tabler. I would like, though, to go beyond that standard formula today to recognise the very substantial work that Darren Millar has done over many years in a number of...
Mark Reckless: The Minister talks about steel being endlessly recyclable and the need to support your low-carbon aspirations, but doesn't that imply the use of arc furnaces, rather than the current production method with blast furnaces at Port Talbot? Isn't there an inevitable tension between decarbonising the electricity supply, including ways of preventing use of cheaper ways of producing electricity,...
Mark Reckless: Minister, you say that when the facts changed, actions had to change too, about the M4 relief road, but what's changed? The environmental value of the Gwent levels has been there for centuries and millennia. You talked a lot about climate change in your remarks now, but the 11-page decision notice on the M4 relief road didn't mention climate change, didn't mention a climate crisis. I think...
Mark Reckless: Minister, you said that one single set of national regulations was easier for people to understand and increased compliance. How much more that would be true if it were a single national UK set of regulations, rather than one specifically for Wales intended to divide Wales from England. You exploit devolution, described by the Prime Minister as one of his predecessor’s worst mistakes, to...
Mark Reckless: Alun Davies made some sensible points about the security of the ballot, but then went into the wider reaches of conspiracy around data and dark money and elections not being under control. Unless he knows the Centre for Welsh Studies and exactly what they're doing with the data, then 'dark forces are risking our democracy'—they're not my accounts. It is frankly ludicrous for the Member to...
Mark Reckless: Will the Minister make a statement on permitted development rights in Wales in light of the COVID-19 pandemic?
Mark Reckless: 5. What additional budgetary allocations will the Minister provide to support Transport for Wales now that it has taken control of the Wales and borders rail franchise? OQ55928
Mark Reckless: What assessment has the Minister made of the extent to which students may have fallen behind during coronavirus-related lockdowns?
Mark Reckless: So, Welsh Government is now directly, or at least through its 100 per cent owned Transport for Wales, paying really quite substantial amounts to subsidise services within England, including for stations that, perhaps, a handful of passengers only are using. In addition, Transport for Wales is the station facility owner for quite large stations in England, such as Hereford, Shrewsbury and...
