Mark Reckless: Diolch, Llywydd. I move the motion in the name of Caroline Jones. The first bullet point supports Wales's membership of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and its indefinite continuance. Now, I would have thought that this wasn't something that needed to be asserted. I know Plaid Cymru take a different view, of course, but I had, before my election to this place, taken...
Mark Reckless: Yes. And, clearly, we have our capital programmes and some ones where there is borrowing capacity, but there are greater hoops we must jump through than the UK Government to use those. But not quite such a dominant proportion of our income is coming from the block grant in the future and therefore that block grant only being set a year ahead isn't as defining a knock-down argument as it might...
Mark Reckless: The Finance Committee works hard to engage with stakeholders and the wider public as part of its budget scrutiny process. Nonetheless, during my intermittent membership of the Finance Committee, I have found a bit of a disconnect between the engagement that we have with stakeholders and others and the budget process. And I think it's a real challenge to engage people in a productive and...
Mark Reckless: Will the Llywydd give way?
Mark Reckless: You say that you felt a duty to push for prisoners to have the right to vote, but doesn't that actually understate it? Aren't you under a legal obligation to do so, speaking for the Commission, in the same way Jeremy Miles would for the Welsh Government? As public bodies, the law requires you to have regard to the judgments of the ECHR.
Mark Reckless: Sixty per cent.
Mark Reckless: May I congratulate Welsh Government for what it's doing with the childcare offer? I've made some quite strong comments about areas such as respecting the referendum result or building an M4 relief road, where Labour hasn't followed its manifesto, but on this you have—indeed, getting it done a year early. I congratulate you on that. I also noted that the pre-existing offer was quite a lot...
Mark Reckless: Given the First Minister accepted my correction on the number of Supreme Court judges, I accept his geographical correction with equally good grace. Could I ask him about another potential divergence between UK and Wales policy? At his conference today, there seems to be a big move to change climate change policy and have a policy of net zero by 2030—that's just 11 years away. Does the...
Mark Reckless: I tuned into the parliament channel on Sunday morning, and enjoyed listening to the First Minister's speech in Bournemouth. It's only after listening to a bit more of the Labour conference that I came to see his contribution as a highlight. Could I ask him, though—? He failed in his efforts to persuade colleagues to break their promise to respect the result of the referendum by campaigning...
Mark Reckless: The First Minister admonishes the leader of the opposition about respect for the rule of law, but I do recall, last week, what he and his Counsel General said about the then binding judgment of the High Court in our jurisdiction, and they decided they would prefer to take the ruling of the court from another jurisdiction. What I would ask Members to think about—[Interruption.]—if I may...
Mark Reckless: Rhianon Passmore is also trying to intervene, so if I could deal with the point she also made earlier, because it's as relevant—she asked one of my colleagues, 'Do the Brexit Party now accept that the problems of air quality and climate change are intricately linked?' Yes, we do. And a key way in which they have been intricately linked is the policy of Labour Governments and the European...
Mark Reckless: I have always—well, since I studied the subject, since Margaret Thatcher first put this on the agenda by speaking to the UN about what was potentially happening with climate—[Interruption.] My view, ever since I first started looking at this issue 20 or 30 years ago, has been that it is likely that human activity is increasing the climate. What I questioned is what should be done about...
Mark Reckless: This country has reduced carbon dioxide emissions by more than almost any country in the world. A 40 per cent cut in carbon dioxide emissions since 1990. We have cut back our emissions levels not to those of the 1980s but to the 1880s. Where is the recognition of that?
Mark Reckless: I was surprised to receive an e-mail from one of my children's schools earlier, saying, 'We are happy to authorise leave for any students. Please let us know if your child will be absent due to taking part in the strike.' I was particularly surprised because my child in question is two years old. But I oppose these strikes; I don't support strikes in general. I think strikes are a sense of a...
Mark Reckless: Can I ask, Minister, is there compelling evidence as yet as to whether these zones are successful in reducing air pollution?
Mark Reckless: Carole Cadwalladr has been responsible for some of the most extraordinary conspiracy theories relating to the EU referendum. She first called me up about three or so years ago about this, it was about Russia and Putin operatives brainwashing millions of people through social media to back leave. More recently, I think her line is that a conspiracy of hedge fund managers is trying to drive...
Mark Reckless: But if the OBR is not tasked, at least yet, by UK Government with doing forecasts on a UK basis, how will it be doing those Wales forecasts? Has it got a model of the Welsh economy and will be looking at Wales in isolation, or will it be doing a UK forecast despite not being tasked with that by the UK Government and then applying a variance for Wales? And will the Minister say a little more...
Mark Reckless: Minister, you spoke at some length around the block grant for next year and what we now know following the one-year spending review. The other side of your revenues that you'll be able to use to fund spending commitments in Wales are the revenues from the devolved taxes, and I wondered if you could update us around those in the supplementary budget. Notwithstanding another half year’s data,...
Mark Reckless: 1. Will the Commission make a statement on the decision to select Carole Cadwalladr as the Assembly's Hay Festival speaker at the GWLAD—Future Wales Festival? OAQ54306
Mark Reckless: I'm pleased to hear that the Government will be publishing its own estimate on the economic impact of 'no deal', because the Minister just now adopted David Rees's reference to the Bank of England estimate—£1,000 coming from a 5 per cent estimate. Yet his colleague just now, Rebecca Evans, referred to a 10 per cent estimate from the Treasury, which led to this £2,000 estimate. Yet even...
