Carwyn Jones: I’ve listened to David Rowlands’s contributions over the weeks and he shares a particular view of the world with me: he doesn’t want to see people being exploited. But there are plenty in his party who don’t care, I can promise him. They’re more than happy to see people exploited over their own people, for their world is about low regulation, low wages and who cares. That’s what...
Carwyn Jones: Welsh Government’s priorities are to provide the people of Pembrokeshire with health services that deliver the best possible outcomes for patients.
Carwyn Jones: Well, one of the things that we’re doing, of course, is ensuring that there is a campaign to attract more GPs into Wales—that will be starting next month—and to consider alternative and more sustainable ways for surgeries to work. Of course, it’s the duty of those surgeries to recruit in the first place because they are independent, but there will be support and assistance for them...
Carwyn Jones: Yes, I will, of course. It’s very prestigious to have been nominated for this award, and it shows the kind of innovative thinking that we want to see in our health service, that not just benefits the system, but, importantly, benefits patients.
Carwyn Jones: As we’ve done elsewhere in Wales, there’ll be occasions when practices are taken over by the health board, and they will improve the service quite often. Ask the people of Prestatyn—they will tell you that. On other occasions, other practices take over the running of the service, and with great success. I’m surprised that he thinks that the ‘Health Service Journal’ is something...
Carwyn Jones: We continue to provide leadership and promote collaboration between stakeholders in Wales. We have established a taskforce and an operations board to drive delivery and to overcome any barriers. We’ve also established a children’s sub-group to work proactively to consider support required for emerging schemes.
Carwyn Jones: Well, you’ll have to ask the UK Government that; it’s their responsibility when it comes to the resettlement of refugees. We’ve made our position very, very clear in terms of what we will do to help them. It’s right to say that the UK Government has recently announced three children’s resettlement schemes. I want Wales to play its part to resettle vulnerable children and refugees in...
Carwyn Jones: Well, absolutely. We need to make sure that those people who have skills that are needed by our economy and by our health service, that those skills are utilised. And, certainly, one of the issues that we will want to explore with the WLGA—and the Home Office, actually—is how we can identify those people in terms of the skills that they possess.
Carwyn Jones: Well, in November 2015, we did establish the Syrian refugee taskforce. We were well ahead of the game in terms of other Governments. We were absolutely clear that Wales would take a fair share of refugees. The same is true of children, of course. The fact that the UK Government now has three children’s resettlement schemes is a welcome step in the right direction, and we want to make sure...
Carwyn Jones: Well, first of all, if he thinks that the people leaving Syria are economic migrants, when they have seen people butchered in front of them, when they have seen people murdered, where they have seen people bombed, where they have seen children killed, and if he really thinks, in good conscience—well he can look down—if he thinks, in good conscience, that these people are in some way...
Carwyn Jones: It is the responsibility of the First Minister to take forward the issue of Brexit, not to offload it to another Minister. I will not be doing that; it’s my responsibility.
Carwyn Jones: Well, she sent me a letter last week and I’ve seen the reply to that letter—I don’t know why she hasn’t received it—because, in that letter, it suggested a date when we should meet to discuss these issues. It may be that she’s not received it yet, but it’s certainly something that I’ve given my permission to be sent to her. I do not believe that a First Minister should...
Carwyn Jones: She’s got the issue confused. What was suggested was that I wanted the Welsh Government to have a veto. No—I’ve said that all four Parliaments in the UK should be able to ratify any deal. I stand by that. I was the first to say it.
Carwyn Jones: Of course the Assembly should have an opportunity to ratify any deal that’s on the table, and rightly so, because it wouldn’t be right for the UK Government to agree issues such as farming and fisheries policy without input from the devolved Parliaments, because they have no role in farming and fisheries as far as Wales and Scotland are concerned. I think there’s practical sense in...
Carwyn Jones: Well that’s exactly, of course, what many in the UK Government believe. For me, access to the single market in terms of goods and services is a red line. That’s something that cannot be negotiated away. I have made the suggestion of a seven-year moratorium; I think that offers a possibility as far as the UK is concerned—I’m trying to be helpful as far as the UK Government is concerned...
Carwyn Jones: No. Access to the single market for goods and services is the red line; the issue of free movement of people is something that will need to be examined and discussed as part of the negotiations.
Carwyn Jones: Does anyone here know what Conservative policy is, either in the UK or Wales, in terms of Brexit? Do you know what they say about Brexit? ‘Brexit means Brexit.’ Brilliant. Brilliant. What a fantastic leap of logic. I have no idea what his position is on Europe—absolutely no idea whatsoever. What I can say to him is that all of us on this side of the Chamber know full well that access to...
Carwyn Jones: Well, two things I have to say to the leader of UKIP: firstly, it seems that his party’s policy is to treat people who are refugees from war as economic migrants. We’ve heard that from a Member of his own back benches. Secondly, I can guarantee him—[Interruption.] I can guarantee him that the party he was once a member of in the 1980s is the party that is most disliked by the electorate...
Carwyn Jones: No, I don’t agree with that at all. People will look to go to the first place they can get to as a place of safety. From my perspective, it’s important—. He is the descendant of an immigrant. All his Members are descendants of immigrants. It’s all a question of when their families came to this island. Every single one of us in this room is the descendant of an immigrant. It all...
Carwyn Jones: Well, I’m not going to take lectures from somebody who was a Thatcherite trumpet blower back in the 1980s. But I’ll agree with him on one point: there should be a European solution. But the problem is we are now not going to be part of the European solution because we won’t be in Europe. That’s the issue. We won’t have a voice in it. But he’s right: it’s hugely important this is...
