David Melding: 2. Will the First Minister make a statement on teacher recruitment in South Wales Central? OAQ51417
David Melding: First Minister, I'm pleased to say that, in the South Wales Central region, there were two gold award winners and a silver award winner in the Pearson teaching awards that were announced in October. These are very prestigious awards, as you know. However, despite these outstanding examples of best practice, recent Welsh Government figures have shown that, since 2007, the number of job adverts...
David Melding: The right-to-buy policy has been extremely successful across the UK, and especially in Wales, because it responded to the aspirations of those on lower incomes to purchase their own homes. As I have consistently argued, the problems with the housing market have arisen due to a lack of housing supply, and especially in Wales—not because of the 300 or 400 homes that are now annually sold...
David Melding: Can I just advise you, if you object greatly to split infinitives, please never read Shakespeare or the King James Bible. [Assembly Members: 'Oh'.]
David Melding: I move the amendment, Deputy Presiding Officer. According to Public Health Wales, ambient air quality in the UK has, on the whole, improved steadily over recent decades, mainly as a result of a reduction in industrial emissions and better regulation and technological advances in clean vehicle fuels and more efficient engines. But it's a great tragedy, really, that against that generally...
David Melding: 7. Will the Leader of the House make a statement on the progress of accommodation assessments for Gypsies and Travellers under the Housing Act (Wales) 2014? OAQ51418
David Melding: Cabinet Secretary, we still have a problem with occupation of illegal sites, which causes great distress to neighbours around those sites, because they're not provided with the necessary facilities and infrastructure. There is still, obviously, a fairly slow identification of official sites that are appropriate to attract Gypsies and Travellers in places that they would want to settle for a...
David Melding: Cabinet Secretary, amongst the vulnerable people who are entrapped in these despicable practices are often people with learning difficulties. I think it's very important that people that have services like your roof being fixed, your drive being done, your car being washed, keep an eye on those people that do not seem to be flourishing in that practice, seem to be very marginalised, shy and...
David Melding: 3. Will the First Minister make a statement on the postponement of new energy powers under the Wales Act 2017? 86
David Melding: I'm not sure I understand that answer. These powers relate to fracking and the electricity generation stations with 350 MW or less, and they're now being delayed until October 2018 and April 2019—as far as I can work out because the Welsh Government does not consider that it has the capacity to take on those new powers at the moment. And I think that's what you've got to answer, given that...
David Melding: Llywydd, we've lost all sense of excitement about democracy. It has become the insipid background to our daily life rather than the force that actually makes our lifestyles possible. One should not become maudlin; open, democratic societies are capable of remarkable renewal, as we have seen in the last 25 years on questions of, for example, sexuality. Yet in the political and economic...
David Melding: A rough definition of a participative democracy would be one where citizens take on greater responsibility for decision making. This would not reduce the need for representative institutions, far less central Government—we are not heading back to Athens—but it would mean that public participation amounts to a lot more than periodic elections. When observing the public mood on polling day,...
David Melding: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I thank everyone for taking part and raising such thoughtful questions and really getting involved in this debate? Can I start with Jenny? You actually talked about the NHS requiring prudent healthcare and patients also being responsible enough to look after themselves as far as possible. And, do you know, I think that's a general model for what we...
David Melding: This, of course, is about a very particular issue, whether there should be a prison in a specific place. What I think a citizen's assembly could do—and at the moment it would have to be and England and Wales one, but at some point we may have penal policy devolved here—I would ask them, 'Should we have an imprisonment pattern that's nearer the European model or our current one where we...
David Melding: Can I say that we will oppose this motion, though I do recognise the strength of feeling and the passion that, in particular, is on the Plaid Cymru benches? But I do think that this whole subject requires deep discernment rather than brief debate, and we always need to be modest when we are passing judgment on another state altogether. Whilst the first two points of this motion are not...
David Melding: I have two people now. I think I did see Mick just fractionally first.
David Melding: I think, in Britain, we would say that you should have a referendum that both sides agree with and then proceed. But, of course, Britain is the only state in the world that currently believes that that's how secession should be dealt with. I agree that's how it should be dealt with, but Spain is not in a minority in holding a different view. And, truly, secession is a decision that must be...
David Melding: I think that was foolish action on the part of the Spanish state, but this is for the Spanish people and the Catalan people to resolve, as they are, I think, at the moment—. There certainly are consequences from the action that the constitutional court in Spain has taken—[Interruption.] Well, you know, I think we need a fair and open debate here, Adam, so perhaps you need to listen to the...
David Melding: Those who have held that secession is legitimate do so in a highly qualified way when, basically, there's extensive repression over a long period, and that's been reacted to by a population that expresses an overwhelming and freely expressed will that is very, very obvious to discern. I don't think those characteristics are present in Catalonia, but that's for those people to determine. The...
David Melding: 3. Will the First Minister make a statement on mental health support in the workplace in Wales? OAQ51476
