Mark Reckless: Minister, you said that one single set of national regulations was easier for people to understand and increased compliance. How much more that would be true if it were a single national UK set of regulations, rather than one specifically for Wales intended to divide Wales from England. You exploit devolution, described by the Prime Minister as one of his predecessor’s worst mistakes, to...
Mark Reckless: Minister, you say that when the facts changed, actions had to change too, about the M4 relief road, but what's changed? The environmental value of the Gwent levels has been there for centuries and millennia. You talked a lot about climate change in your remarks now, but the 11-page decision notice on the M4 relief road didn't mention climate change, didn't mention a climate crisis. I think...
Mark Reckless: The Minister talks about steel being endlessly recyclable and the need to support your low-carbon aspirations, but doesn't that imply the use of arc furnaces, rather than the current production method with blast furnaces at Port Talbot? Isn't there an inevitable tension between decarbonising the electricity supply, including ways of preventing use of cheaper ways of producing electricity,...
Mark Reckless: Members frequently begin a contribution by thanking or congratulating the Member who has moved the motion for debate. In that vein, I will thank both Mark Isherwood as the introducer of the motion, and Darren Millar as its tabler. I would like, though, to go beyond that standard formula today to recognise the very substantial work that Darren Millar has done over many years in a number of...
Mark Reckless: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Minister, you can assert that quality, but whether universities accept that or make their own potentially different judgment, and, similarly, for employers, will be their decision. You said that what you've done is ensure national consistency, so an A in Llandudno will mean the same as an A in Cardiff, but it won't mean that an A in Llandudno means the same as an A in...
Mark Reckless: Diolch, Llywydd. Can I just clarify—I think I'm unmuted?
Mark Reckless: Thanks for bringing forward the debate today, Minister. I would have preferred if we'd been able to vote on these regulations before they came into force, as the Westminster Parliament is having the opportunity to do for England tomorrow. We are at least voting on them before the lockdown firebreak finishes, which is at least an improvement on some of the timings we've had before. I wonder...
Mark Reckless: First Minister, has the coronavirus pandemic accelerated building a Welsh state? Before it started, many in Wales had little idea of the power you had over them. Indeed, many didn't know who you were. Now you are beamed into their living room and you decide when they can leave their house. Meanwhile, a previously barely visible border between Wales and England looms ever larger. From Monday,...
Mark Reckless: The Welsh Government's obsession with making us different to England even extends to what it calls its latest lockdown. After weeks of discussion across the merits or otherwise of a circuit-breaker, the Welsh Government decides that it supports such a lockdown, but because we're Wales, we have to call it something different. So, instead of a circuit-breaker, we have a firebreak. Of course, it...
Mark Reckless: I thank Nick Ramsay for his speech and the Chair for his introduction. I'm very pleased that we had this report as a Finance Committee, and I found it very valuable taking the evidence and considering and interrogating the witnesses that we had. Like Nick Ramsay, I'd actually like to thank Alun Davies as well for pushing this idea. It's not that often I agree with Alun on matters, but I think...
Mark Reckless: Rhun ap Iorwerth there talks about squaring a particular circle, but as I understand it, the demand is that England do for high-risk areas in England as the legislation is in Wales, yet Plaid are abstaining on the legislation to put these four counties in north Wales into lockdown. They demand that the UK Government should, by force of law, vote to have those lockdowns around county areas or...
Mark Reckless: First Minister, you talk about respecting devolution and wanting a strong United Kingdom but then demand that England must do what you do in Wales, or else. Now, you have this policy of preventing anyone from crossing a council area, as you define, you have it with force of law, but the reality is that after lockdown fatigue, because of how long you kept it going before, consent for your...
Mark Reckless: First Minister, there's been no difference between how you and Adam Price are speaking about this issue. Indeed, there now seems to be little difference between your Government and Plaid Cymru. Many fear we are sleepwalking towards independence. Yesterday, you sought to lay down an ultimatum to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Today, you were across nearly every news outlet saying...
Mark Reckless: What assessment has the Welsh Government made of whether the UK Internal Market Bill has strengthened the UK’s negotiating position with the EU?
Mark Reckless: Well, Minister, you certainly know how to stir up opposition, don't you? I remember the first set of main coronavirus regulations, voting against those. I think there were just three or four of us then. Last week, there were seven or eight in opposition, and this week you have the main opposition saying that they will be voting against the substantial all-county south Wales lockdowns that...
Mark Reckless: I thank the Minister for the statement. I was encouraged when I saw the title of it, 'Update on fiscal impacts of COVID-19'. I've been pressing her for something along those lines for quite some while. I have to say that I was somewhat disappointed in the contents. I had hoped that we might be able to give estimates or updates about what the impact, for instance, would be on land transaction...
Mark Reckless: So, for those independent businesses serving commuters, 'Tough.' First Minister, when UK Government suggests it might pay for the M4 relief road, a project you promised but then said you couldn't afford, you and your colleagues react as if it's an assault on devolution, but you show little sign yourself of respecting the devolution settlement. You seek to enforce a border with England by...
Mark Reckless: First Minister, could I caution you against describing people as disgraceful just because they—in this case, Conservative Members in north Wales—take a different view on coronavirus restrictions to that you have and ask questions about it? Your Government has a stated long-term ambition for 30 per cent homeworking in Wales, even post pandemic. You say you'd achieve this by driving changes...
Mark Reckless: I thank the Minister for his statement. I share Andrew R.T.'s disappointment that he's decided to make it from his office in Cathays Park; he's gone rather further from home to get there than he would to come to the Senedd. I do, though, appreciate we're slightly less delayed doing these regulations than some of the others that we've done before. It's our intention to vote against these...
Mark Reckless: First Minister, you say you're working from your office because it's reasonably practicable to do so, but isn't the law that you must work from home if it is reasonably practicable to do so? And given it's equally possible to participate remotely and physically, would not that be the case? Yet you choose not to come to the Chamber, just as you chose last week to make announcements not in the...
