Alun Davies: You've just said it's an appalling comment in talking about Newport. My focus in my remarks was on the people of Blaenau Gwent, who I represent.
Alun Davies: Rhun ap Iorwerth spoke about the success of the Ebbw valley line, and he's absolutely right to do so, and, of course, my friend would talk about the Maesteg line, and another friend would talk about the Vale of Glamorgan line. We do have these very real successes to celebrate, but we also need—. If these reopened lines are to remain a success in the future, we need to invest in them now for...
Alun Davies: I want to start my remarks this afternoon by welcoming very warmly the comments made by the Minister in his opening comments to this debate. I think it is a responsibility for all of us to fully support the Welsh Government in their submissions to the Williams review and ensuring that we have a settlement that is fit for purpose. And when I say a 'settlement fit for purpose', I don't mean...
Alun Davies: I'm grateful to you for your statement, Minister, and I very much welcome the focus on enabling a greater supply of social housing. I think that's absolutely essential to get to resolve many of the issues we've been debating this afternoon. But also I would like to seek your views on talking about homeless people as human beings, and not simply numbers and statistics. Has the Government...
Alun Davies: Will the First Minister make a statement on public transport in Blaenau Gwent?
Alun Davies: And that is the deal that their Government themselves are asking us to support. I will give way.
Alun Davies: Look, I'm not going to, for one moment, defend the position taken by the Labour Party in Westminster. The vote on Monday on the immigration Bill was an absolute shambles; it was a disgrace. The Labour Party should approach this on the basis of our values and our principles and not on the basis of expediency, and there's been far too much of that from our front bench in London, and I regret...
Alun Davies: Sit down. Sit down. Let me tell you—let me tell you—those votes were bought with snake oil, and they were bought with a fantasy. And let me tell you this—let me tell you this—when I listen to the closest allies and friends of this country speaking with horror at what they're seeing, I take notice and so should you. The words of Simon Coveney, the Irish Tánaiste, this morning should...
Alun Davies: Presiding Officer, we've heard from different parts of the Chamber this afternoon a whole number of reasons why we're in the mess we're in today. But not from one person—not from one person—who advocated leaving the European Union have we heard any recognition that it was the lies told in that referendum that's led directly to the undermining of our politics today and the situation we're...
Alun Davies: I'm grateful to you. The evidence was very clear that the Welsh Government proposed to the Thomas commission. It considered the jurisdiction to be a relic of past times and an impediment to the delivery of social justice in this country today. Will you now state unequivocally that you stand by that evidence—the evidence of the Counsel General, the evidence I gave as a Cabinet Secretary, the...
Alun Davies: They have launched a number of initiatives over a number of years, but they recognise that they can't deliver their policy objectives through those initiatives in Wales because we don't have a settlement that enables them to do so. They're very aware that their objectives simply can't be reached under the current settlement—they're very aware of that. So, we need, then, to design a system...
Alun Davies: Yes. I don't think I qualified my words in any way at all. Certainly the Welsh Government hasn't qualified its words at all. What the Welsh Government has said is that this has to be done as part of a process. It's not qualified its support for the devolution of the criminal justice system. We need to devolve and then unite the policy area. We need to ensure that we have a secure estate, we...
Alun Davies: I think we all share some gratitude to the Wales Governance Centre for the work they're doing in the reports and analysis that they've published, but also in publishing Welsh stats and an understanding of the secure estate, and how the prison and probation service works and serves Wales. Taken together, all of this work is describing a failing system. The system is failing, and it is our job...
Alun Davies: [Inaudible.]—you're probably just scared of an argument.
Alun Davies: Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Minister, I'd like to ask for three statements from the Government, please. I'd like to ask for a statement from the Government on urban traffic management. I attended a public meeting in my constituency in Beaufort on Friday evening, and I was astonished to hear people talking there about the dangers they face in their daily lives along the roads...
Alun Davies: You might be saying that, but I'm not sure it's an entirely convincing argument, but we'll have that debate. So, what do we do as a response? I don't think it's good enough, quite honestly, for a Labour Government simply to make faces at the Conservatives and blame austerity for all our problems. One of the issues that we have to face and one of the tests that we have to face is to take...
Alun Davies: I will take an intervention.
Alun Davies: I'm glad that you're able to join us in this debate, Darren, and as I was talking about a mature conversation, Darren demonstrates exactly what I didn't mean. [Laughter.] So, we've spent money and the Conservatives in this budget round managed something that not even the Welsh Liberal Democrats managed—I've offended Kirsty now—and that was to spend every pound twice and three times. Every...
Alun Davies: Can I say how much I'm looking forward to joining this debate? The transition and the growth the National Assembly from a body that, largely, simply administered the public sector when it was established in 1999 to a Parliament that governs our country is one that will test all of us in different ways. And the Conservatives are to be commended in starting that test this afternoon. I do not...
Alun Davies: Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Without wishing to test the Counsel General's voice at great length this afternoon—. I was reflecting, listening to the Member for Clwyd West, doing his best impression of the representative here of Westminster, speaking up in what I felt was a wholly irresponsible way about the way in which our communities, communities we all represent on all sides...
