Mark Reckless: I wonder if he could clarify something from his own party's manifesto, where it said if there was a Welsh Conservative Government it would deliver the M4 relief road. But, on the A55, the manifesto just said, without any qualification, 'We will upgrade the A55' in north Wales.
Mark Reckless: I'm not sure whether the First Minister has an alternative history there, but I think the closest it came in the Commons was a vote where it was defeated despite the whole Cabinet abstaining on it. I recall your Counsel General here saying he was broadly content with the withdrawal agreement, and might just perhaps like a couple of changes and a non-binding political declaration, but...
Mark Reckless: First Minister, as well as wishing you a happy new year, may I thank you, your Government and your party for what you have done to bring about Brexit? You put forward a plan for Brexit in name only, but when Theresa May offered it to you, including a customs union, you voted against it. Instead, you chose to gamble that you could engineer a second referendum by persuading the British people...
Mark Reckless: No, no. Well, perhaps the Labour side of her Government have taken advantage and wanted to put their best foot forward in front of the election. But I felt that gave a distorted image to the results across the country. And I think some of what the Conservatives say today is a fair corrective to that. I do know that the 'positive but not perfect' phrase has been picked up, to some degree, by...
Mark Reckless: Can I apologise to the mover of the motion for missing the first few minutes of her speech? I sympathise with Helen Mary Jones describing her group as being between a rock and a hard place in dealing with this motion and amendments today. We looked at the Conservative motion and, in particular, point 3 b) requiring the Government to 'apologise to pupils, parents and schools for letting...
Mark Reckless: Will the Member give way?
Mark Reckless: She mentioned there hasn't been a statistically significant improvement since 2006. She then said that the scores were below the OECD average for 2019. Would she accept that they're not statistically significantly below the average in each of the three measures for the last year?
Mark Reckless: First Minister, I've always backed Brexit, as you try to block Brexit as well as looking to rig the question for a second referendum. Has Welsh Government led the way for your party to rig the franchise? You lost your majority at the last Assembly election and you continue to lose traditional support. Rather than listening, learning and changing your policies, you've instead decided to follow...
Mark Reckless: First Minister, you and the Welsh Government have been influential as your party's policy on the EU referendum has evolved from saying you would respect it to doing the reverse. You claim the second referendum you want, because you don't like the result of the first, would be between a credible 'leave' option and 'remain'. Can you confirm that what you call a credible 'leave' option would be...
Mark Reckless: Well, they're informal discussions with relevant groups rather than negotiations, because of our peculiar interpretation of EU law. The bits that Labour have highlighted and tried to make a big thing of, none of them appear to me to be a smoking gun. I think the issue about patents is the one they've probably twisted the most. But, broadly, the UK and the US patent system are relatively...
Mark Reckless: I respect that point, and I think Plaid had been clear that they're not suggesting a broader sell-off in the way that some people perhaps on the Corbyn side have done. To address the point they make, I think the single largest expansion of the private sector into the NHS was the diagnostic and treatment centres brought in by the Blair Government. They were legislated for, in England at...
Mark Reckless: I congratulate Plaid on tabling this debate and a relatively lengthy motion. It would be a challenge to respond to every point in it, but generally, I don't know whether Plaid have put this motion because it's a cynical effort to exploit the NHS and scares of a US trade deal in advance of the election, or whether it's because of genuine, albeit misconceived, concern about how the health...
Mark Reckless: Will the Member give way?
Mark Reckless: When she says that US drug companies want to gain full market access to the NHS for drugs, what does she mean by 'full market access', and to what extent do they not have such access currently?
Mark Reckless: I congratulated you, education Minister, earlier in remarks, along with everyone involved, on the improvements that we have seen in the PISA results on this cycle. Reading your statement earlier, I was just a little concerned that you might be becoming a bit too self-congratulatory on these ones. The remarks that are positive, yes, but not perfect, for instance, I thought was a bit too much,...
Mark Reckless: Well, I think what Welsh Government has said in response to these results is broadly fair, and I think the points about the OECD comparisons are well worth noting in light of what we saw three years ago and the difference in the debate there. And I think that should be reflected in our comments. Will the First Minister, though, accept that the picture is not as rosy in the intra-UK...
Mark Reckless: Diolch, Llywydd. May I congratulate the First Minister, the education secretary, the 107 schools and the 3,165 learners who took part in the PISA tests? They are significantly better than the very poor results we saw in 2016, and I think it's appropriate to put that on the record. If it had been the other way, I would have been coruscating in my criticism. Can I, however, ask about the...
Mark Reckless: However, I think what we also need to recognise is that the overall level of bus usage in Wales is substantially less than it is in England and Scotland. The number of journeys per head of population is in the low 30s in Wales, compared to between 70 and 80 in England and Scotland. So, I'd like to ask the Minister—. He referred in a late September statement this year to the general...
Mark Reckless: One constituent of mine, Carol Gulliford from Torfaen, told the South Wales Argus that, if services that she uses are cut, she would have to rely on other people and she worries that she won't be able to 'get out and see people and...go to the shops. I won't be able to do anything for myself'. The same lady highlighted how services affect others: 'Lots of people up this way use it to go to...
Mark Reckless: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I think this is my second speech on the trot. I'm talking about bus services in Wales, and, before we declared a climate change emergency, a key public policy reason to support buses was to reduce congestion. And I first understood a key aspect of this properly when I heard from Nigel Winters, who was, at least then—he may still be—the managing director of...
