Rhianon Passmore: Diolch, Deputy Llywydd. It gives me great pleasure also to speak in this debate. The foundational economy, as the Bevan Foundation rightly states, is a grand name for those business activities that we use every day and see all around us. Business like the Welsh retail, care, food, health and energy industries that have been mentioned may not have the glamour of other aspects of the economy,...
Rhianon Passmore: I’m sorry, I don’t have time. I’m particularly concerned about people in work not earning enough. In preparing for this debate, I found the Joseph Rowntree report ‘UK Poverty: Causes, costs and solutions’ important and also refreshing. I wholeheartedly support the call for better pay and conditions. We can and must press for the voluntary living wage to be introduced as a high...
Rhianon Passmore: I would like to thank the Welsh Conservatives for giving me an opportunity to rise in this debate to highlight the actual work of the Welsh Labour Government. It would be equally remiss of me to start without mentioning ‘Spreadsheet Phil’ even further from today’s announcements. The Tory UK Government Chancellor last week caused absolute outrage with one of the most naked broken...
Rhianon Passmore: Though in fairness—I realise—Dave did once say, for those today who have got long memories, ‘Too many tweets make a—’. But in all seriousness and in all earnestness, the Conservatives, despite the u-turns, broke an explicit and direct manifesto promise and did directly betray 1.6 million self-employed people. In contrast, the Welsh Labour Government has delivered on its promises for...
Rhianon Passmore: Sorry, I have no time. [Continues.]—and said that the Welsh Labour Party is the true party of Wales: on their side, with them and standing up for them. Deputy Presiding Officer, I came to this Assembly from local government and in Wales, under Labour, despite scalic block grant cuts to Wales, local government revenue funding has been protected, standing at £4.114 billion—the best...
Rhianon Passmore: Will you take an intervention?
Rhianon Passmore: Will the Cabinet Secretary outline how the Welsh Government's supplementary budget will benefit the people of Islwyn?
Rhianon Passmore: Will the First Minister outline what the Welsh Government is doing to ensure that more women enter jobs relating to science, technology, engineering and maths?
Rhianon Passmore: Will the Cabinet Secretary outline what actions the Welsh Government is taking to improve initial teacher education?
Rhianon Passmore: First Minister, in Llandudno on Saturday at the Welsh Labour conference, you announced three significant measures that will make a tangible difference to passengers on public transport. Every train on the Wales and borders franchise will be equipped with free Wi-Fi by September this year, a roll-out of free Wi-Fi to train stations across Wales, starting with 50 of the busiest stations in...
Rhianon Passmore: Cabinet Secretary, may I congratulate you on your energetic and sterling efforts to ensure that Wales is promoted in television and film productions? I noted with interest the promotional showreel introduced by Hollywood A-lister Michael Sheen, which features clips from some of the latest major productions filmed in Wales and which does promote everything that the country has to offer as a...
Rhianon Passmore: First Minister, today we learn that there has been a 16 per cent increase in the number of junior doctors choosing to come to or stay in Wales to train to become GPs. Across the Welsh NHS, waiting times are going down; average response times to emergency calls are now less than five minutes; the British Heart Foundation described Wales as a world leader in cardiac rehabilitation; there’s...
Rhianon Passmore: [Continues.]—major alerts because of a shortage of beds. What message do you have for the men and women who work in the national health service and have had to endure the Tories’ attempts to denigrate the Welsh NHS over the last few years?
Rhianon Passmore: Will you take an intervention?
Rhianon Passmore: Do you believe the likely outcome for the people of the United Kingdom will be a tariff tax on goods?
Rhianon Passmore: I’m glad to rise in this important debate brought by our fellow Assembly Members. All of us here today know how dramatically our lives are changing. Indeed, nobody would bat an eye if I said I’d visited a supermarket this morning and paid for my goods at the self-service counter, and nobody would bat an eye if I said that I’d taken a train to Cardiff, my journey controlled by one...
Rhianon Passmore: Since I’ve been elected to the National Assembly for Wales, I’ve been heartened to see the increased appreciation from this place of the integral role that local government plays in Welsh public life. When I sat as a councillor for nearly three terms, it did not always seem that this Chamber understood the complexities of life on the ground in an era of huge public spending cuts inflicted...
Rhianon Passmore: Thank you very much. Just a small intervention, I think: in regard to the apparent conflict and confusion that there is on your policy around decarbonisation, can you clarify if UKIP is in favour of fracking and if that is your party policy in Wales?
Rhianon Passmore: I do rise in this debate to speak on one particular matter, but an important one that has been referenced by others. The UKIP motion states, and I quote, that ‘mature woodland should not be cut down to build solar farms’ and I for one am very pleased that this time they have discovered an environmental mandate and an eco-soul. I welcome that. But, Llywydd, it is self-evident, as UKIP...
Rhianon Passmore: Will the First Minister outline what actions the Welsh Government is taking to protect Wales's unique landscape?
