Mark Reckless: The Local Government Finance Act 1988 section 66 is very complex. There have been all manner of changes to it, and I'm concerned that an assumption made by Plaid Members, and potentially also by Mike, is not correct. I don't believe that there is this carve-out for self-contained self-catering accommodation provided commercially. I think that comes from subsection (2), which is the hotels,...
Mark Reckless: Minister, you referred to regeneration activities and social housing as positive examples where local government in Wales might be borrowing money, but there are also—there's some evidence, at least, of local government borrowing in Wales motivated by the commercial property portfolio investment. One example is Monmouthshire, and we've heard in this Chamber quite frequently how tough...
Mark Reckless: Diolch, Llywydd. Finance Minister, you describe the increase in the Public Works Loan Board interest rates as a retrograde move. In doing that, were you reflecting the Treasury's press release, saying that, by increasing the margin that applies to new loans by 100 basis points, it was restoring interest rates to levels available in 2018? And would you agree with my assessment that the...
Mark Reckless: I commend you, First Minister, on this document and your interesting propositions, and also your desire to engage in a UK-wide debate rather than narrow this to the specifics of Welsh devolution. You say Plaid Cymru will never see the risks as outweighing the rewards of independence—at least they do, potentially, to 2030, which I think is the date they vaunt for their referendum. But you've...
Mark Reckless: Diolch, Llywydd. You pronounced yesterday that Spain should be suspended from the EU, so I'd like to ask the First Minister about his position. The Welsh Government has a Minister for international relations, although these are not devolved, and it’s a socialist Prime Minister in Spain who asked us to respect the independent judicial decisions of their Supreme Court. Here, we're told by...
Mark Reckless: The Minister's response seems significantly different from those I recall from her predecessors on similar subjects, but their speeches about suggestions that bigger is better in general are not ones that have led to councils, or councillors at least, wanting to merge. I just wonder, is Welsh Government not able to offer an estimate or some analysis or something to assist in what are the...
Mark Reckless: 2. Will the Minister confirm the financial savings which have been forgone as a result of the Welsh Government's decision to abandon proposals to reduce the number of councils in Wales? OAQ54494
Mark Reckless: I know the Government's not the sponsor, but you, First Minister, as an individual Member, were responsible for the representations that you made, and that was why I asked was it not the case that we have the version the Llywydd put forward because of those representations, and because of how strongly and forcefully you put forward that having 'Senedd' on a monolingual basis would command a...
Mark Reckless: Diolch, Llywydd. My grandfather was a Member of it—I think is called the Dáil. Llywydd, you worked very hard on trying to get a version of the Bill that we're debating tomorrow that has as close to a consensus as we could find, and you worked no harder, I think, than on the naming of our institution. Now, I wonder, First Minister, if you recall that there was a stage in the process where...
Mark Reckless: I would be delighted to, Suzy.
Mark Reckless: I think that is the core trend. I agree with you and broadly what the Conservatives have been pushing in that area—that in education in Wales, the results seem to have got significantly worse over that period, and that has been the substantial trend. If there is some improvement this year, I think that we should recognise that, but I think the trend is still the dominant matter. With the...
Mark Reckless: I formally move amendment 5, which Caroline Jones has put down. I congratulate Suzy Davies on opening this debate, and Siân on her speech just now. I agree with what Siân Gwenllian says about the need for more funding. I think that we have the finance Minister here and a budget coming up, and we have had a significant increase in education spending in England announced, and I do hope that...
Mark Reckless: The Minister promised us an update on that economic assessment, but what we've seen is the republication of reports that the Government has previously referred to. We have here the Government's own estimates—this is in the executive summary—that suggest that with a 'no deal' Brexit, the economy will be around 9 per cent smaller in 15 years' time than it otherwise would have been. That...
Mark Reckless: I welcome the Finance Minister to her covering First Minister's questions this week, and trust that the First Minister has been as successful promoting Wales off the pitch as the team so far has been on the pitch in Japan. The Government has set aside today's agenda to update us on its preparations should we leave the European Union without an overarching agreement, and it's right that a...
Mark Reckless: We think it should be built. We campaigned for an M4 relief road. The colour of it or the exact route is a subsidiary issue to Wales needing it to be built.
Mark Reckless: Will the Member give way?
Mark Reckless: He says that our motion refers to funding from the European Union. It doesn't; it refers to the powers the European Union took over the trans-European network, and isn't the issue. In some of those, they regulate them and they require certain standards, and then require, in this case, Wales to pay for them.
Mark Reckless: Unless I'm much mistaken, I recall the Member speaking in July about a desire for more devolution, and I don't think he'd been back to this place before I heard reports of him speaking in Newport saying that he now wanted to abolish the Assembly. Why the change over the summer recess?
Mark Reckless: I agree with what the Member says, and it's one reason why we're keen to cancel HS2, but it's also, as David T.C. Davies, the Chair of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee said on Sunday night to the Brexit Minister, because of HS2, because of that unfairness, he was wanting to push to get UK Government to pay for the M4 relief road.
Mark Reckless: And to me, the issue is that of the failure of too many remainers, including and particularly perhaps at Westminster, to accept the result of the referendum. They've spent three years plus growing increasingly confident and going further and further against what they said in the past to try and block the result of that referendum, and I think it's that refusal to implement the result and the...
