Delyth Jewell: Today, this Senedd will reject legislative consent for the internal market Bill, knowing in advance that the UK Government will not honour the Sewel convention. I understand the UK Government has made a last-minute offer to consult the devolved administrations before using delegated powers. They must think we're fools if we'll believe that one, as they've already made clear they'll ignore the...
Delyth Jewell: Diolch. I'd like to thank the Minister for his statement and put on record, too, my thanks to Lord Burns and his team for their work in completing the report. M4 commuters and the communities surrounding this stretch of the M4 deserve action after years of discussion that began, of course, in the 90s. Now, we in Plaid Cymru welcome the recommendations of this report. For some time, Plaid...
Delyth Jewell: This week, the roll-out of a vaccine has started and there is hope on the horizon for many people. But we are still looking at a few challenging months ahead, and the elderly and the young will feel this particularly. Perhaps it's the elderly and younger people who been most affected by loneliness and isolation over the past few months, losing out on experiences in the company of their...
Delyth Jewell: The First Minister and his colleagues have had to make extremely difficult decisions during the pandemic, and all of us realise how serious the situation is now in Caerphilly and across the south-east. I've just listened to the exchange between you and Laura Anne Jones, First Minister. I think there is a disconnect between the severity of the situation and some public attitudes towards this,...
Delyth Jewell: This debate is about the food sector, but what I'd like to talk about first is the effect that the absence of food has on too many people in our society. Because, although the UK is the seventh richest economy in the world, too many households struggle to afford the food that they need to stay healthy, and that has an effect on not just people's physical health, their alertness and strength,...
Delyth Jewell: Our young people have faced so many strains this year, uncertainty about exams, not being able to see friends, their normal routines just disappearing, and we know, as has been said, that the pandemic will have taken an inevitable toll on their mental health. But the most recent figures on NHS spending for 2018-19 show that less than 1 per cent of NHS funding was spent on children and young...
Delyth Jewell: Will the Minister make a statement about the mental health of children and young people in South Wales East?
Delyth Jewell: Thank you, First Minister. When the project was signed off in a stage 3 scheme assessment report in 2017, the projected construction cost was £308 million, with a total project cost approximated at £428 million. Recently, the Western Mail revealed something similar to what you just said, that the cost of construction had now increased to, as they put it, £550 million, though I take the...
Delyth Jewell: 1. Will the First Minister make a statement on the projected cost of dualling the A465 between Dowlais and Hirwaun? OQ55986
Delyth Jewell: Jan Morris led an extraordinary life—an explorer who opened windows onto other worlds with her writing, a pioneer who traversed new terrain and opened doors of possibility. So many of us will be familiar with her evocative books about Venice and Trieste, but it is her magnificent work The Matter of Wales that led readers to discover the hidden treasures of our own nation, her despairs and...
Delyth Jewell: Wales was a community for Jan—a community brought together by tragedy and by hope. In an article written in 2011 to mourn the lives lost in the Gleision colliery, she said that her eyes were full of tears, as she extended her love from one end of Wales to the other—from Llanystumdwy near the Dwyfor river to unknown friends who were mourning in the Swansea valley. That mourning for Jan...
Delyth Jewell: What assessment has the Minister made of the value for money of converting the A465 from Dowlais Top to Hirwaun in light of projections that its cost has increased significantly?
Delyth Jewell: Diolch, Counsel General. The Welsh public voted in favour of devolution in 1997. After that initial mandate, we've had 12 further democratic events that have allowed the Welsh people to confirm that view—in the form of a further referendum in 2011, five Senedd elections, and six general elections. The referenda and all the elections returned clear pro-devolution majorities. Now, you'll know...
Delyth Jewell: 2. What assessment has the Counsel General made of clause 49 of the UK Internal Market Bill? OQ55917
Delyth Jewell: So much of the economic reality of the Valleys these past 40 years has been the result of the deliberate destruction of the coal and associated industries by Thatcher's Government. That betrayal was like an earthquake and it's given way to many aftershocks. Our community spirit has never dimmed, but our unemployment levels remain stubbornly high and our health outcomes carry the scars of...
Delyth Jewell: We, as a party, are supportive of a number of aspects of this legislation, particularly extending the franchise to young people at 16 and 17 years old and also those who have chosen to make their home here in Wales. That is to be welcomed and praised, and it's important, and we will be pleased to vote in favour of the legislation this afternoon. But I have to say that there's been an...
Delyth Jewell: Okay. Thank you for that, Minister. In terms of the culture change that's needed, obviously, it's not just the staff of local authorities who design and commission services who need that understanding and that compassion that you've just been alluding to. Recently, there's been—. We've seen some unfortunate comments from a local authority councillor in northern Wales that seem to imply that...
Delyth Jewell: Well, thank you for that, Minister. I would join you in paying tribute to the workers in the third sector and local authorities for all the work that they have done with this. And I'm glad that you have put the record straight. You can obviously see where we had got those figures from. But I do agree with the point that you made too that obviously one person going back to living on the...
Delyth Jewell: Diolch, Llywydd. Minister, it's been reported that a quarter of rough-sleepers who had a place to stay during the first lockdown are back to sleeping rough. Why has that happened?
Delyth Jewell: Skill always in peace—may it increase / under the patronage of peace; / Idleness is the glory of the sword / and rust is its distinction.
